Sunday, August 3, 2025 AM

Prayer for Worship, Truth, and a Clear View of Christ

Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the day that you have made. We thank you for gathering us here today to worship you, to rejoice in your truth, to love one another, to encourage one another, to exhort each other, to hold fast to the confession of our faith, to look forward to the victorious return of your Son, Jesus Christ, to exercise the grace and giftings that you have bestowed to us by your Holy Spirit.

What a precious gift this is that we may gather to worship you, to hear a word from you. We ask that you would show great grace to us this morning, that you would give us a clear view of your Son in this word.

That we would look like him in this world. We ask for these mercies in the name of Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well pleased.

Amen.

Proverbs 1:8-19 and the Two Ways Before the Son

I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs chapter 1, we'll be reading verses 10 through 19. You might as well read verses 8 through 19 as we think about this first set of instructions that Solomon gives to his son.

We're still very much in the introduction of Proverbs and exploring the opening themes that are going to carry us through the rest of our time in this book. So Proverbs chapter 1, and we will read verses 8 through 19 in a moment.

Proverbs is made up of, obviously, wisdom sayings of instructions that are sometimes connected in extended instruction that we have an example of here in our passage. And sometimes they are a collection of these sayings that will address a variety of themes regarding who we are made in the image of God.

The image of God is blessed unto glory. We are to skillfully master our relationships, our resources, and our responsibilities in righteousness to the glory of God. We see this is the theme of wisdom.

This plays out throughout the contents of Proverbs. And in this passage, verses 8 through 19, we have a contrast. We have faithful parents who are contrasted with scheming sinners. The parents are instructing their son while the sinful peers are enticing their son.

The parents call for the righteous preservation of something precious while the punks conspire to violently steal someone else's valuables. The treasure offered by the parents is unto honor and life, and the wealth proposed by the gang is shameful and destructive.

Two ways are clearly laid out before the reader. They are contrasted for our consideration and application. And we are to do due diligence in our looking for Christ to set them within their covenantal context and their creational significance.

And we will do our very best doing just that this morning. So I invite you to stand with me as we read God's holy word, Proverbs chapter 1, beginning in verse 8. This is the word of the Lord. My son, hear the instruction of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother, for they will be a graceful ornament on your head and chains about your neck.

My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood. Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause. Let us swallow them alive like Sheol and whole like those who go down to the pit.

We shall find all kinds of precious possessions. We shall fill our houses with spoil. Cast in your lot among us. Let us all have one purse. My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your foot from their path, for their feet run to evil and they make haste to shed blood.

Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird, but they lie in wait for their own blood. They lurk secretly for their own lives. So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. We noted that our sinful proclivities in Adam, we desire to gain what we should not from those we ought not in ways that will not profit.

This is the opening series of instructions that Solomon gives to his son. This purpose of the book of Proverbs has been set forth in the first seven verses. The premier proverb out of the whole collection is given to us in verse seven.

A standard form of proverbial instruction is given to us in verses eight and nine. And verse 10 is no slouch either. As the entire setting of Proverbs is a father giving instruction to a son, or those in a fatherly role instructing those who are in desperate need of such education, or even a mother instructing his son about the kind of woman a royal man like himself should seek, we find parental instruction repeated throughout Proverbs.

We see in verse 10 a repetition of this compelling reaching for a child. Verse 8, my son, here, verse 10, my son, if sinners entice you, verse 15, my son, do not walk in their way. Again and again, the son is reached for by the father and compelled on the strength of that relationship for the reason of that relationship to turn away from folly, to turn away from sin.

Some of you have heard of Augustine, also pronounced Augustine, depending on how fancy you are. Augustine was a pastor in Africa in the late 300s and early 400s. He lived a very wicked youth, which he wrote about in his book called Confessions.

And his reminiscing upon his early days gave great reflection on the sinful state of man. One particularly famous story pertains to a pear tree. He writes, there was a pear tree close to our own vineyard, heavenly laden with fruit, which was not tempting either for its color or for its flavor.

It was like the pear tree in my backyard. Late one night, having prolonged our games in the streets until then as our bad habit was, a group of young scoundrels and I among them went to shake and rob this tree.

We carried off a huge load of pears, not to eat ourselves, but to dump out to the hogs after barely tasting some of them ourselves. Doing this pleased us all the more because it was forbidden. Such was my heart, O God, such was my heart, which thou didst pity even in that bottomless pit.

It was foul, and I loved it. I loved my own undoing. I loved my error, not that for which I erred, but the error itself. Isn't that the same folly of Satan's temptation in the Garden of Eden? It is the folly of sin, that same sinful passion for self-rule, the same folly of rebellion, the same desire to satisfy cravings and desires in wicked ways.

That resides in our hearts. The Bible tells us so. We know it from experience, but more importantly, the Bible tells us so. And we need Christ in all of His wisdom to deliver us. If we think about this passage here in Proverbs, this passage is about what is true treasure.

It's pushing us to consider treasure in the context of hearing and relationships, forcing us to ask questions. Who are you with? Who are you listening to? What do you truly value? Given the folly of greed that is laid out so well and so vividly by the Father, we are to avoid the folly of greed.

That's the main application. We are to avoid the folly of greed in three ways. First of all, by retaining true treasure. That's the main argument of the Father to the Son. Hold on to your mother's teaching.

Do not let go of your father's instruction. Retain the true treasure. This is what brings you victory. This is what brings you honor. And secondly, simply refuse the ensnaring enrichment. And the third way to avoid the folly of greed is to reject deadly desires.

Rather than greed, our heart should be filled with devotion. This is the trade-off. This is what the Father is saying to His Son. If you would be devoted to the instructions of your father and mother, then this would have no enticement for you.

You would not be compelled to move away from the honor and the victory that we have prepared you for, that we have given to you in potential through our instruction and our teaching. You would not be so compelled to go after the enticements of these fools if you would hold fast to true treasure.

Retaining true treasure. Well, what is this true treasure? But wisdom, the wisdom that good parents give to their children, a wisdom that has its culmination. All of knowledge and wisdom is treasured up in Christ.

We find that in devotion to Christ, we are delivered from temptation. Here at the beginning of Proverbs' wisdom, we are told about our relationship to God. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Obviously, we are to fear God. We are to think of God first and think of God most. Our supreme devotion to God, but then what about our relationships with each other? How are parents to relate to children and children to relate to parents?

Furthermore, what are we to do with the possessions that other people have? And how are we to think about our own possessions? Do you hear the triad of relationships that deal with the image of God, that we are to love God supremely, love others rightly, steward the creation faithfully?

These essential relationships of the image of God are being dealt with here at the very beginning of Proverbs. It's all about wisdom. It's all about us mastering, skillfully mastering that interaction of our relationships and our responsibilities and our resources.

So what are we to do? Well, parents are to instruct their children, children are to listen to their parents. And in all cases, this wisdom is presuming that God's wisdom is the best wisdom, and so we are to listen to Him.

Let's consider this command, this exhortation from the Father to the Son in verse 10. My Son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. He doesn't leave it at that. He gives examples of the things that they might say to His Son.

He gives examples. He goes into detail. He says in verse 11, if they say this, perhaps they're going to say this. This is an example. If they say, come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood. Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause.

Let us swallow them whole, alive like Sheol, and whole like those who go down to the pit. We shall find all kinds of precious possessions. We shall fill our houses with spoil, cast in your lot among us.

Let us all have one purse. The Father gives the warning, and then He details the possible enticements that His Son might hear. The Father does not hide the vile realities from His Son. To protect Him, the Father forewarns His Son regarding the evils that are going to make a play for the soul of His Son.

But notice He's begun with His warm appeals in verses 8 and 9. He is already motivating His Son on the strength of His relationship with Him to listen and retain and hold fast to what He says before He gives the warning.

But the warning is there. My Son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. Just don't consent. Don't give in. Don't listen to them. Now, this is a far better approach than many other approaches. It's better than the DARE program, right?

Just say no.

Some B-list celebrity saying, be cool, say no.

Why?

Why is this better? Because it's a Father appealing to His Son. The Father is warning and educating His Son. He's saying, you are to not give in in the very least while you hold fast to what I've already given to you, what your mother has given to you.

While you hold fast to that, do not consent to these enticements. And as each one comes up, remember who you are. As each one comes up, remember what we've said to you. Don't let go of us to take hold of them.

The appeal, of course, is relational. We've already mentioned three times, verse 8, verse 10, verse 15, Solomon is saying, my Son, my Son, my Son. What is he doing? He is ever reminding his child of his child's identity as part of the instruction.

How are we to think of that? This identity is not constructed, it is revealed. Notice the Son is learning what it means to be the child of His Father over time in repeated and developing fashion. You are my Son.

You are my Son. You are my Son. Over and over again, Solomon is saying that. In remembering and in rejoicing in his sonship, the son hears his father's instructions and does not forsake his mother's teaching.

It is when the son eagerly receives and owns and deploys that identity that the son will find himself crowned with victory and decked with honor, just like verse 9 says. He must not forget his father's love.

He must not forget his father's wisdom any more than he would forget his own sonship. What happens if a young man lives in this world without a sense of sonship? He has a conscience with no direction, a compass with no map, no X on the map, no direction.

To go.

So what use is the compass? What's the point of the conscience? Something may fill the gap. Nothing may fill the gap, but folly will soon follow. A young man with no map, when he adopts one offered to him, will be led by those who reject moral topography altogether.

But Solomon reaches for his son's heart every time he reaches for his head. My son, my son, my son.

Why?

Because Solomon knows he's in a battle for his son's heart. He attracts his son with wisdom while sinners tempt his son with folly. The temptation is not going to be avoided. It's going to happen, but it doesn't have to be accepted.

And so Solomon plays upon the strength of his relationship, father to son. The father is playing with a stacked deck, and he likes that stacked deck, and he uses that, and he appeals to his son, and he compels his son.

He knows that recovering his son, should he lose him, would be an uphill battle. So he says, after the appeal, my son, there's this awareness. If sinners entice you, if sinners entice you. This word entice is built upon the root word for simple or naive, meaning the sinners are going to compel his son on a level where they're assuming he is naive and gullible.

They're going to make that play. This word for entice has the word picture of openness and spaciousness. We have the expression in our nomenclature, I'm open to ideas. I'm open to ideas. What does that mean?

That means I'm ready to listen, I'm ready to agree with your proposals. But what happens if there's too much of that? I'm open to anything. I'm open to everything. Now that's a problem, isn't it? Too much space in the head, right?

Empty-headedness is a bad thing. We don't say that that is virtuous. We don't say that is good, but that is the idea of being simple and gullible. You believe the first story told to you. I'm open to anything.

I'm open to everything. And when we say that someone is a few tacos short of a fiesta platter, we mean by that there are important things that should be there that aren't there. There's space there that shouldn't be, and something else is going to fill that, and that's not good.

Solomon alerts his son to the fact that these sinners are going to view his son as simple and naive and compel him accordingly. Now what does Solomon see his son as? He sees his son with the potential of strength and honor.

He's like, hold fast to my teaching. Hold fast to your mother's instructions. And he's calling him into that victory and honor. But they don't see his son that way. They're fishing with lures meant for dumb fish.

They're coming at him as if he's low-hanging fruit. And Solomon lays that out in the description following in verses 11 through 14. But notice how Solomon gives an admonishment to his son. He says, do not consent.

Do not consent. And quite simply he's saying don't agree with them. Don't desire their approval. Don't accept their premises. Don't yield to their influence. Don't be willing to go along with them. A term for consent has the idea of, you've heard this word before, Abba.

You say, well, I don't know Abba, father. Yeah, because the Hebrew word for father is Av. So Ava, the intensified form of my dear father. Or even we would say daddy as a term of great affection. But the very term consent doesn't have the exact same spelling, but it sounds very much the same.

Why are these words related? Because consent is to be given to the father. The term for consent is similar to the word for father.

Why?

The father is the one to whom consent should be given. He's the leader. He's the teacher. He's the head. The admonition reminds the reader, the son cannot stay with the instruction of his father if he consents to the enticement of sinners.

Will sinners be his father now? Will they be the one to whom he gives the proper consent reserved only for his father? The son's father knows his son is in need of instruction. He knows he's in need of teaching.

And so he gives him wisdom that leads to victory and valor. The sinners, they look at the naivety of this young man, and they see an opportunity to entice him with folly that leads to defeat and destruction.

Now, Solomon is building a very stark dichotomy. This is about as clear as you can get with an either-or. There is no opportunity here for a ceasefire. There is no treaty that's going to be made between these two sides.

Just the concept of an either-or, this strong, is offensive to our paganized culture. Just the idea that we're dealing with absolutes. Just the idea that we're dealing with a genuine either-or can be very hard to warm up to.

And it is true that there are false dichotomies and they are used for ill, but that doesn't mean that there are no dichotomies at all. This is genuinely an either-or by every consideration. The son here is set in opposition to the sinners.

The father's instructions is set in opposition to the sinner's enticements. The son must be on the side of the father, lest all manner of disaster happen to the son. But what if the son were to lay down an ultimatum?

What if he were to say something along the lines of, well, if you're really for me, you're saying that you want me to be for you, but if you were really for me, then you would be for the choice of my companions.

You would be for my life direction. What if the experts in parenting were to entice the father into thinking, well, forcing my son to choose between my affirmation and my son's affiliations? Well, that would be oppression.

That would be me bringing a level of emotional abuse into this power dynamic. The father, who would say to the son and affirm to the son, well, whatever it is that you are really into and that you're for, then I'm for that too because I love you.

The father who would affirm his son in that way, the father who would just abstain and say, well, you know, it's your life. I have no opinion on it. Biblically, dearly beloved, that's hatred. That's hatred.

The Bible calls that hatred. Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated. Now, what does that mean? Was God up on his throne patting Jacob on his head?

Oh, what a good little boy.

And he's sneering at Esau. Man, I hate that guy. It's not a cartoon strip. What does it mean that Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated? You know, he didn't leave Jacob alone. He was the hound of heaven on the heels of Jacob.

He did not leave that man alone. He was a trickster. He was a supplanter. He was underhanded. He was always trying to, you know, trick someone. But God hounded him. He hounded him so much that he snuck up on Jacob in the dark and wrestled him.

And he pulled a dirty move in the wrestling fight and made Jacob limp for the rest of his life.

God hounded Jacob.

He did not leave him alone. He would not let Jacob relate to the divine in any old way that he wanted. He said, no, you belong to me. Get rid of those idols. Bury those idols. Get rid of them. We're doing something different now.

What about Esau?

Oh, Esau, the father of the great nation of Edom. You can read all about the glory and the grandeur, the significance of Esau in Genesis 36. And you know who is not mentioned in Genesis 36? Not one time.

God.

You know the expression of God's hatred to Esau? You know what he said to Esau? He says, you do you, buddy. You do you, buddy. That is hatred. But love is, I'm not leaving you alone. I'm laboring for you.

I'm coming after you. I'm going to talk to you. I'm not going to let you think what you want to think, feel what you want to feel, do what you want to do. You're too important. I love you. I'm not going to let you just do whatever.

And that is the role of a parent loving their children, and that's how God treats those whom he loves.

Praise God.

Hebrews 12 tells us that, right? Those whom he loves, he chastens as his very own children.

Praise God.

Covenant Faithfulness, Child Training, and Israel’s Rebellion

Now, as we think about this appeal to his son, this instruction of a father to his son, why is it so important that Solomon's son hear him? And why is it important that Solomon, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is writing these things out as we read about from the last chapter of Ecclesiastes that the teacher, Koheleth, Solomon himself, that he wrote down many proverbs, and it was for the sake of those around him.

He was teaching them using wise words, reminding them there's one shepherd. What's the point of this? Why is he writing about how important it is for his son to listen to his father and his mother? It's important covenantally for Israel.

This is important because of the creational significance of parents and children, yes, but most immediately, what would happen in the life of Israel if the children would not listen to their parents when their parents gave them wise instructions given the Lord?

What would happen?

This was designed to protect them from idolatrous enticements. Remember the big problem in Isaiah, Isaiah 1, verse 2, Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

They're my children. They have rebelled against me. A little bit later on, he says, They don't even remember who I am. The ox knows its master, but my children don't even know who I am anymore. That's how deep the rebellion went.

What happened? What happened was that parents stopped instructing their children, Know the Lord, know the Lord, fear the Lord, fear the Lord. That broke down, that went away, and all of a sudden, the children of God didn't know who their father was.

The rebellion was so thorough. But there was always the danger of this. It wasn't just Isaiah's day. Moses told the second generation out of Egypt this in Deuteronomy 1, verse 31. He said, In the wilderness, where you saw how the Lord your God carried you as a man carries his son in all the way that you went until you came to this place.

You may not remember this, but all throughout those decades, all throughout the wilderness, God carried you like a man carries his own son. And each generation was to remind the next who the Lord was.

Well, what were they to remind each other of? Moses said this in Deuteronomy 4, 7 -8. He says, For what great nation is there that God is so near to it as the Lord our God is to us? For whatever reason we may call upon him.

And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? Who else has he treated this well? Who else has he drawn this near?

Who else has he shown this much love to? He's saying, Remember. Remember. Remember the love of your Father. Remember the wisdom that he's given you. Do not forsake your Father's teaching. Do not forsake your Father's word.

In Israel's case, they were to recognize a relationship built on grace, adoption out of mercy. Can you imagine being specially loved and cared for only to abandon your parents for a life of folly and violence?

How did God look upon his own people? He saw them as an unwanted child. He saw them as a baby left in the field to die just after birth. Reminding Israel of their slave days in Egypt and Pharaoh's attempted slaughter of their infants, Ezekiel 16 verse 6 says, And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, Live.

Yes, I said to you in your blood, Live. Oh, the mercy and compassion and grace of God looking upon this people. And they, in their rebellion, ignored their father's instruction. They abandoned their mother's teaching as children in their own homes.

They would do this to their own father, their own mother. And when they did that, they moved away from the wisdom of God, the fear of the Lord. They consented to the enticements of sinners. And when that began to happen in the homes of the people of Israel, the nation itself moved away and abandoned their covenant Lord who had loved them like a father, who had made them his own child.

That's what's at stake. Yes, yes, the good of the individual child is at stake. Yes, the heart of the parents is at stake in this relationship. Yes, the creational family dynamic is at stake and it's being dealt with here in Proverbs.

But remember what was going on in the life of Israel. As the son of David, Solomon says to his son, don't abandon wisdom. What would happen if wisdom was abandoned? What if the fear of the Lord was abandoned?

What would happen to the nation? Then the curses and judgment would fall. We know how painful it is for parents to watch their children give the kind of adherence and consent they should give to their parents, but give it to others who are wicked and sinful.

What does the Heavenly Father do when that happens amongst his own children? Even in Israel's idolatry, even when they had greatly consented to sinners and looked to every Baal and every Molech as a father figure to follow, God never relented in His covenant faithfulness.

And even bringing the covenantal judgments was Him saying, I'm keeping My word, I said I would do this, I'm doing it. In Isaiah 46 verses 3 -4, He says, Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel who have been upheld by Me from birth, who have been carried from the womb even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you.

I have made and I will bear, even I will carry and deliver you. How will He do that? How will He do that when they have forgotten who their Father is? The chapter of Isaiah 46 concludes, verse 12, Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted who are far from righteousness, I bring My righteousness near.

Jesus said it this way, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It shall not be far off, My salvation shall not linger, and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel, My glory. When we think about the scope of the story of Israel and their situation as, we recall, the son of God, to Pharaoh, let go my firstborn son.

As we think about the situation of Israel and forgetting their Father, their covenant Lord, we think about the decay throughout the nation of Israel as the parental instruction was abandoned for folly, enticements, and idolatry.

We find the solution in that one son who never failed. We find that though there was an unfaithful servant and an unfaithful son, this one, Israel, finds all their significance satisfied in the coming faithful servant and son, Christ, whose sonship forever secures the fatherhood of God for all those who are indwelt by the Spirit, the new covenant.

So, we read the proverb covenantally remembering what was at stake. And I'm belaboring the point because this will be helpful to us as we go through the rest of Proverbs. We won't have to go so deep. But it's to remember that these proverbs were given within the covenantal context of the life of Israel.

But also, they're based upon creational principles because the covenantal model of father and son is, of course, built on the creational reality. It's fundamentally right and proper for a father to instruct and admonish his son, to give direction and deter him from sinners and their disaster.

How can parents love their children rightly unless they lead them to love God supremely, love others rightly, and steward the creation faithfully? Parents should make use of every good blessing, and parents should absolutely leverage all of their influence in their children's lives as they raise them toward this end, the glory of God, to play with a stacked deck.

Yes, please do. There was a young couple that my wife and I met. We were very young, just in seminary. They informed us that they planned on not influencing their children at all, one way or another, regarding Christianity.

They recognized that parents just have this undue influence, and they just exert too much significance in a child's life, and this can overwhelm the child, and the child will begin to have all manner of feelings and desires towards God that would not be independent of the parents, and therefore they were just going to keep that completely open.

I wondered, as I reflect on that, if they felt the same way about their own relationship to their children. The father sits the 18-month-old in the bounty seat and says, Look, I know we're biologically connected, but I'm not going to do anything to sway you one way or another about our relationship.

I'm just going to leave it up to you.

If you show a little affection to me, I'll try to reciprocate, but I'm not going to influence you in any way about how we're going to get along. I'll let you make up your own mind. What's the concern?

Parents have an undue influence. They have too much power in this dynamic. I'm just going to back off. You're there for that reason. That's how God designed it. Tell your children there is a God. Tell them that they're made in His image, that He is their Creator, that His Son is fully man and fully God.

One of them, truly human, He is the brother of highest standing. He is our crucified Master. He is our risen King. Tell them that we owe God our worship and His Son our allegiance. Tell them that His Son, Jesus Christ, reigns today and makes all things new by His Spirit, by whose power we are to live in the resurrection of Christ.

Reach for your children and compel them to obey your authority, to welcome your rebukes, and to follow your wisdom.

Why?

Because you want them to fear God. You want them to repent from sin, and you want them to follow Christ. And you want to model that kind of approach to God in your own life. Because one day, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh, and they're their own family.

And that's good. That's good. The miracle of salvation is indeed God's business. The elect indeed are His accounting.

But what is that to you?

God told you to pursue your children. Compel them.

Win them.

Teach them.

Direct them. I want us to conclude by reflecting a little more on how important it is that a son remember his identity and follow his father's admonition when sinners entice him. When the father says to the son, if sinners entice you, this is not the if that is purely hypothetical, because it certainly will happen.

Sinners will entice our children. We are enticed by sinners. It happens. It's uncertain to how it will happen,.

But it happens.

When it does happen, the son is to remember who he is and what his father said. Adam and Eve forgot who they were. What was the temptation? Eat of this fruit and you'll become wise. You'll become like God if you eat this fruit.

Weren't they already made in the image of God? I think they forgot who they were in the temptation. They ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil rather than hearing their Creator's instruction.

They abandoned the word of their Creator for another word, for the enticements of the serpent. This is an issue that runs deep in all those born of Adam. But remember who you are and remember what your father has said.

Do not consent. Do not consent. And this remembering who we are and this admonition, do not consent, runs the entire gamut. It is thoroughly applied to everything in verses 11 -15. The son is to remember that he is his father's son, and when the sinners entice him, his best reply begins this way, Who are you to say that to my father's child?