Sermon: Like A Good Neighbor, Wisdom Is There

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Test test good. Well, good afternoon brothers and sisters It's always an honor to be with you always an honor to have this pulpit

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It's an honor to be here in worship with you today Hopefully the title of today's message got you right in your state farm jingles

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Let's see if we can keep pastor Jeff and pastor Luke awake for a little bit longer. Shall we? We're gonna be in Proverbs chapter 3

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Proverbs chapter 3 will start our reading from verse 21.

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These are the words of the living and the true God Proverbs 3 verse 21

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My son do not lose sight of these Keep sound wisdom and discretion

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And they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck Then you will walk on your way securely

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And your foot will not stumble If you lie down you will not be afraid

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When you lie down your sleep will be sweet Do not be afraid of sudden terror or of the ruin of the wicked when it comes for the

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Lord Will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught

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Do not withhold good From those to whom it is due When it is in your power to do it

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Do not say to your neighbor go and come again Tomorrow I will give it

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When you have it with you Do not plan evil against your neighbor who dwells trustingly beside you

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Do not contend with a man for no reason when he has done you no harm

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Thus far as the reading of God's Word Joel, please join me in prayer Lord we come before you today as your people

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Longing to hear from you my prayer this week and preparing for this message Lord has been

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That this would be a word from you That your people need to hear today

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And so we come together gathered on the Lord's Day with great expectation

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With triumphant faith Knowing that in the pages of your word

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Lord God lies the instruction Edification and correction that we need to be wise sons and daughters of the

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Most High God we know that apart from your mercy and your grace

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We don't deserve to be called your people to have this Treasure in front of us

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Lord from which to draw Whose wells are exceptionally deep?

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So would you please God by your spirit as you dwell among us today open our eyes to see

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Open our ears to hear Open our hearts to understand Lord so that we may see

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Christ in these pages and In seeing him we may be transformed evermore into his likeness.

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I Pray Lord that when it comes to the preacher today You would get me out of the way you would get me out of my head

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Lord you would use me as nothing more than a tool as a vessel for your glory

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Please speak through me today and allow me to say Your word

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God allow me to proclaim your truth, and I pray that those are the words

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That stay with your people today. I pray that that word that sure and certain foundation is

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What remains with us Lord God when we leave here today? and Go back into the world.

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We thank you that as sons and daughters of new creation You are doing a work in us

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God, and we thank you father that you're not done with us We thank you that we are all works in progress, and you are teaching us in your son to be more wise

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We love you Lord we worship you and we praise you now, and it's in Christ's name we ask these things amen so far

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We've seen in this chapter. It's really quite unique in that it uses the covenant name of God Yahweh more so than anywhere else really in the book of Proverbs and There is explicit instruction that comes to us in the context of a relationship

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Which is really the focus of our text today? this focus on how

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Wisdom makes us good neighbors That having a right vertical relationship with God through Jesus Actually affects the way that we interact with our neighbors

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It affects the way our social relationships are to function

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The very instruction that the father if you will is giving to his son comes in that very context of a household

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Relationship and as we've touched on already in this chapter that is where wisdom's instruction begins is in the home amongst families fathers sons mothers daughters and Even when the situation is lacking in that regard

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God supplies those figures to instruct us in the form of his shepherds the shepherds of our soul

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So far in this chapter We've seen that wisdom really teaches us to trust in the

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Lord To not lean on our own understanding but to in all of our ways acknowledge

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God and he will make all of our paths pleasing to him That were to humble ourselves under his loving and fatherly correction

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Submitting to the way that he made the world. There's a certain rhythm in the cosmos that God has created the way in The world in such a way is so that we are to search that out

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We are to observe his word and we are to so internalize His testimonies and his statutes and his principles of living that we flow with the grain of how he has made the cosmos how he is directing the course of creation in The last message of our series we saw

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The father exhorting his son to exalt wisdom remember There's just this holding up of wisdom is this thing to be praised it has

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Inestimable value it is beyond that which material value Can meet and we're given a little bit of insight into why?

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remember in verses 18 through 22 Wisdom itself reflects the creative governing nature of Yahweh himself who?

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subdues chaos Who? establishes stability brings order gives life and makes beautiful you remember that kind of Language there the

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Lord by wisdom founded the earth. He established the heavens By his knowledge the deeps broke open the clouds dropped down the dew wisdom has this capacity to allow sons of wisdom

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To reflect the very nature of their father in building and bringing order in governing bringing order to chaos making the world's beautiful beautifying creation all essential things for healthy households communities and societies

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The youth is told that keeping his eyes fixed on acquiring wisdom is what will bring happiness make him attractive and As we saw last week

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It's what will keep him safe wisdom keeping sound

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Knowledge and discretion before our eyes that is keeping our eyes on the fear of the Lord That is what will guard our paths and the

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Lord will watch over the course of our life and direct the way of our steps and guard us

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He guards the one who walks in integrity. This is why the wise person need not be afraid of sudden calamity

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He can be the kind of person that sleeps soundly without anxiety or guilt

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Without fretting about the future because his trust his stability is rooted in Yahweh's faithfulness

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Which brings an open heart? Ready to love others and render joyfully that which

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God says belongs to them wisdom builds something

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It creates and it creates a culture of life when we're in right relationship with God Walking in faithfulness and obedience to him.

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We are transformed into better neighbors Maybe you didn't perhaps see that as a mark of godly wisdom before so far

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We've been talking about the blessings of wisdom the benefits of wisdom the rewards of godly wisdom

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How wisdom is to be praised exalted? She should just be gazed upon and looked at as this thing of value that is supposed to capture the heart of the youth but the mark

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That godly wisdom is seeping into if you will the heart is that one's

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Relationships begin to be at peace there begins to be harmony there you can't have or Measure, I should say a preacher in the pulpit by his adherence to the

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Bible reading plan or by his vertical relationship with God alone

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Pastor meditates on scripture all the time. He's man of prayer. He's a man of the word But if you want to understand if he is the man of God if he has so internalized these concepts that they've changed him

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How are his relationships? How does he act not in the pulpit? But in his prayer closet

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How does he act behind the walls of his home where no one else can see?

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His family members and the Lord himself can see don't ever judge a teacher of God's Word on the streets doing ministry

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It's somewhat easy to be faithful out there in a lot of ways the hard part is

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Looking where no one else can see How are those relationships? How do we treat those who are a family our friends?

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How do we interact with them? How do we love them? How do we speak of them? That is the test that is the mark of godly wisdom

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Social relationships This peace with God that we're given it brings peace among men and this is really the purpose of wisdom

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Not just to give us principles to obey for the sake of obeying It's not about that it's not about this rigid adherence to a strict set of principles or code

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It's about as pastor Jeff has alluded to already walking with the Lord in this relationship and we find that as we do that as We are faithful to God as we are obedient to him as we demonstrate trust in him in our lives every day

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That we are being changed into a particular kind of people And that is a people

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That is blessed by God God is making us into a particular kind of people and here's really the idea of the message today

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Wisdom shows us the way to love our neighbor like God in Christ loves us

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Wisdom shows us the way to love our neighbor like God in Christ loves us

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So in our text today in verses 27 starting there we see two principles there about how we're to not only guard against Committing sin against our neighbor, but omitting what it

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God says is due to them there's those two ways of sinning against our neighbor and The two principles here are this we are to promptly make whole our needy neighbor

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That's number one. We are to promptly make whole our needy neighbor and number two. We are to protect our innocent neighbor if you'll recall

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Jesus summarizes the law as The two greatest Commandments, what are they?

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Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself This is the summary of the law

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Biblical love is very different than the way that the world has Redefined it to be right not this sticky ooey -gooey sentimentality this

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Conjuring up of good feelings that we are to have towards our neighbor That is the way that the world defines love but biblical love has an objective content there is actually

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Content that God's Word prescribes for us I'm reminded of the

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Christmas hymn truly, he taught us to love one another his law is

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Love and his gospel is peace. That is his law is what is loving

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If you want to know what love looks like God has outlined it for us in his law

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That's what love looks like It's not that he has no law but love as if that's just some sort of nebulous concept out here undefined

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There is an objective content to the love that we are to give to our neighbors

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And this is the relationship between love and justice love If you want a definition of love love is treating our neighbor lawfully from the heart

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I believe that was Doug Wilson who gave that definition. It's a very good one. Love is treating our neighbor lawfully from the heart

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Justice is giving our neighbor what God says is their due according to his law

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See the relationship between the two Love is treating our neighbor lawfully from the heart

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Justice is giving our neighbor. What God says is their due what he says they're owed

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That is justice Which leads us to verse 27

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Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due When it is in your power to do it so here we see an admonition that People of wisdom will call them

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Christians Are to be people who pay their bills There to be people who pay their debts

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To give what is owed to pay what they owe to pay on time and To give when they can

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This is the case both in matters of justice and charity whether we're talking about paying what is owed in terms of a contractual arrangement a contract a or benevolence to the needy

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We're talking about giving our neighbor what they are owed what God says they are owed

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We're to honor our contracts and always to use the goods that we have to help those in need and good here

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It's a very earthy book. Isn't it Proverbs very earthy terminology? It has to do with physical tangible material good

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That's what good is we're to use that good those goods that we have received from God that he's placed in our hands

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To supply those in need and to make sure that we pay our debts

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To pay what is owed to our neighbor to not deny them these things to not hold it back

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When we have them not to say to our neighbor Go Come again tomorrow, and I'll give it and put them off The phrase here from those to whom it is due is translated as the owners of that good the

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Lords of that good Do not withhold good from the owners of it those to whom it belongs if we owe something a debt a

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Possession of our neighbors that we need to return We pay it back we give it back and we knit we make our needy neighbors whole

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If we say we'll do something by a certain time We do it not

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Incredibly profound, right? Very practical if we say that we're going to do something by a certain time if We've given our word if we've made agreement in the form of a contract if we've made a promise

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We should keep it We should make good on our word Christians should be people that love truth and that means fulfilling your commitment

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If you said you'd be somewhere and if you said you'd be somewhere at a certain time, you should be there

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At that time as far as it depends upon you Some of you are like well, there's a lot of room to drive a truck through that one as far as it depends on me but the principle remains

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If you say you're going to do something If you make a promise to honor if you owe something you pay it back

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If we have the means to help someone that is put in our path We help as we are able if we're indebted to a lender someone that we've borrowed money from Then we should strive to free ourselves, right?

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Paul says don't owe anyone anything except to love them Right, so we should use every legal

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Lawful available means at our disposal to avail ourselves of any kind of slavery Why?

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Because we're the bond servants of Christ. We've been bought with a price by God and so we should make

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Painstaking measures to make sure that we are only Indebted to all our neighbors love.

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Oh, and what's love? It's to give them their due according to the law See the relationship between law and love

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I know I'm hammering that point now, but there is a Fundamental distortion and perversion of the way that we view law and love in the modern evangelical context

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We couldn't see them as more far apart in some ways But God's Word will not allow us to drive some type of artificial wedge between the two concepts

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Oh, yes, there is a distinction. There is definitely something to be said for being opposites when it comes to works and grace works and grace but when it comes to love and justice

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The two concepts are intimately related with each other Love is treating your neighbor lawfully

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John's epistle defines sin as what? Lawlessness Sin is law

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Less so when we are loving our neighbor, what are we doing? We're fulfilling

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The law we're treating our neighbor in terms of what the law demands that he be recompensed that he be given because he's the owner of it

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Christians ought to be people that pay what they owe and on time you see this principle in Scripture in Deuteronomy 24 verse 14

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Deuteronomy 24 verse 14 You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy

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Whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns

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You shall give him his wages on the same day before the Sun sets For he is poor and counts on it

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Lest he cry against you to the Lord and this is this is you got to feel this Lest he cry against you to the

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Lord and you be guilty of sin If you have agreed to pay someone on a certain day and especially back in this time

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They were counting on it. You were paid at sundown because if you didn't have the money you needed you couldn't feed your family

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It was that important to be paid on time Someday, we tend to have more trouble

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Realizing in our day with all of our conveniences But if you withheld that if you kept it back from your needy neighbor who is depending upon it

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If you delayed it when you said you would give it You're incurring sin.

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You're guilty of sin. God says To withhold from the worker what he is due when he is do it is to oppress and rob him

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Your neighbor needs to eat. He's relying on it If our brother or sister does work for us

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Then we should pay them and we should pay them promptly

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We shouldn't say You're a brother in the Lord. How about the hookup? How about the homie hookup, right?

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It's we're good, right? This is just you know, you're doing doing me a solid in Jesus. I you know, we're good on the payment thing, right?

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No, you should pay your brother or sister for doing the work and because they're a

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Christian You should take every effort to make sure that they're paid on time And it wouldn't even hurt to give them above and beyond what they're owed as a measure of thankfulness to your brother or sister

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Not to just say hey do me a favor if they offer to do it as a blessing to you, that's one thing of course but if you are just arrogantly presuming on a handout from them

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You're not loving your neighbor You're not loving your neighbor if you

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Borrow something from someone You should return it as soon as you're able If you borrow something from someone you should return it as soon as you're able

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I feel like I feel like these are so Elementary in some ways, right? But think about the practical nature of the instruction here

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If you borrow someone's stuff and keep it longer than you said you agreed to keep it

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It's tantamount to stealing it If you borrow something and then say well, you know what?

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I actually you know, I actually need one of these and You know, he doesn't need it like before service

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I borrowed Isaac's iPad charger And I made sure I won't see him

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But I made sure to give it to Carmen because he will see him before me because I promised to give it up to Isaac and he's not here. So Sorry Isaac But if you borrow something from someone and you say you'll give it back at a certain time

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You give it back when you say you give it back It shouldn't take your neighbor

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Coming to ask for it You know what? They don't really need it.

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So I'll just hold on to it and maybe you know, maybe maybe they'll forget about it Maybe I got myself a brand new toy.

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Maybe I got this got myself a brand new tool. Maybe they'll just forget about it It's not loving your neighbor

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We're not to say I'll give it tomorrow Hoping the person will forget about it. Just hoping to get rid of them.

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Just putting them off, right? What is that all that does is create strife and friction between brothers and sisters doesn't it because now they're wondering

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He said he was going to give it back and you know, he said he was going to do this thing for me But he's not doing it. Should I should

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I go to him? And you know what? Why isn't he giving that back to me? That's my thing

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He said he would give it back on time and he's not giving it back you see How it creates friction between brothers and sisters verse 28

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Do not say to your neighbor go and come again tomorrow I will give it when you have it with you and literally it's when you have it at hand

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It's with you. You have it with you. You're able to give it but you're choosing not to you're choosing to withhold it

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And note here the demand to give what is required on time Don't withhold good and don't say to your neighbor come back tomorrow and I'll make you whole when you have it with you

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God's Word says we are not to delay whether it be out of apathy laziness selfishness or Capriciousness, you're just being arbitrary.

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I don't found feel like giving it back today. I'll give it back tomorrow next week manana No one should have to chase us down to get back.

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What's theirs? Keeping your neighbor in suspense about whether or not you're going to return his stuff is not loving

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You turn with me here quickly to Leviticus Leviticus isn't that we're all

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Bible reading programs go to die If you only knew the treasure Look at Leviticus 19

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Leviticus 19 is called the love chapter in the Bible. Isn't that interesting? Isn't it interesting that Jesus himself in order to summarize the entirety of the law quotes from the book of Leviticus Shall love your neighbor as you love yourself, right?

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That's the fulfillment of the law Leviticus 19 verse 17 you shall not hate your brother in your heart

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But you shall reason frankly with your neighbor lest you incur sin because of him You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself

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I am the Lord There it is Leviticus 19

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The love chapter and read this when you get a chance I'm not going to go through the whole thing today, but read it and see how many different categories of neighbor there are present

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There's a lot of practical injunctions about loving God about giving God what he's owed But listen to just some

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I'm just going to take a couple examples here about the audience

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Leviticus 19 9 When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge

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Neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest and you shall not strip your vineyard bare Neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard?

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You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. I am the Lord your God. There's a provision in God's law that says

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Don't work your fields right up to the edge and go back and meticulously and scrupulously pick up every single thing leave it for the poor

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God's law makes provision to care for the poor How about this one verse 11 you shall not steal?

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How do you love your neighbor? You don't steal from him You shall not deal falsely. You shall not lie to one another don't lie to your neighbor

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You shall not swear by my name falsely and so preferring the name of the Lord your God. I am the

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Lord 1913 you shall not oppress your neighbor or robbed him the wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning

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There's the worker we have poor we have sojourner. We have worker You shall not curse verse 14 the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind

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How are you to regard These types of people that have disabilities.

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How are you to regard your needy neighbors in that way? You're not to curse them.

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You're not to make fun of them. You're not to talk down to them You're not to belittle them because they're different than you.

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That is what your needy neighbor Who is disabled? Blind death.

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That's what they're owed from you. That's what God's law. That's the provision of love that God gives them

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Leviticus 1915 you shall do no injustice in courts. So now we're in the legal context now

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We're in process of litigation Now we're in a court of law you should not be partial to the poor or defer to the great you shouldn't work justice in favor of the good old boy and Pollute the standard of justice for him or you shouldn't do with the social justice warrior today

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Does and make the victim everything and pervert justice in terms of the who you think is the victim? There is to be one standard given in God's law for justice across the board

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Don't defer to the poor or to the great We've already read verse 17

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Jumping down here Look at verse 32 You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man.

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How are we to regard the aged? To make fun of them as archaic

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To say that their way of life is just passing away They don't understand our problems right young people tend to do this more often than not

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How are we how are God's people in love to treat the elderly according to his law

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When a stranger sojourns with you in your land verse 33, you shall not do him wrong You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you and you shall love him as yourself

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How are you to treat the foreigner among you? How are you to treat the outsider You're to love him as you love yourself because that's how

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God and Christ loved you when you were far off from him You are to show him hospitality.

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You are to welcome him as one of your own in Christ Verse 35 you shall do no wrong in judgment and measures of length or weight or quantity.

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Ah Now we come to the economic sphere How does

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God's law say that I should love my neighbor in the sphere of economics Well, I shouldn't rob him oppress him through unjust unequal weights and measures

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Right. I shouldn't try to devalue his currency by introducing a bunch of fiat money into the economy

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That means nothing that cheapens the value of his hard -earned dollar. I Shouldn't try to do that why because it's not loving my neighbor

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It's not treating him according to what God says is due to him It's not taking from someone else and giving it to this other person over here

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Who didn't earn it? It doesn't belong to them. That's not who God says it belongs to Is that an amazing

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How God's law gives us the contents in which we are to love our neighbors

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It tells us how to love it tells us who's worthy of what? It's incredible Whether it be laborers in need of pay those pleading for justice or the poor and needy requiring material help because that's what's in view here also charity benevolence

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Welfare what you might call social righteousness right not social justice too much negative connotation with that Let's talk about social righteousness.

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Let's talk about how to treat our needy neighbors according to the law of God First John 3 17

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But if anyone has the world's goods if God has blessed you if God has put something in your hand

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And he has put something in your hand He has he's given you treasure. He's given you time.

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He's given you talent. He's given you something He's put it in your hand if you have the world's good and you see your brother in need yet Close your heart against him.

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How does God's love abide in him? How do we know that the love of God abides in you

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How do we know that by the way you treat your needy neighbor? By the way, you help a brother in need

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Those in genuine need of our mercy and compassion. That's what this is. That's what mercy care is.

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That's what compassion care is those in genuine need of that Have a moral right to our time

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To our gifts into our resources we have the legal right to it. They God's Word says have the moral right to it

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We owe it to them if we are able if we can meet the need if we can fulfill if we can bless

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We ought to do it and do it on time Not say I'll give all help when it's convenient for me

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Frequently the need have you noticed how the needs come? It's usually not convenient it's usually not at the most opportune time to help is it and Yet Jesus defines our neighbor as the very one that's thrown out on our path just thrown in front of us

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If we can help we ought to Now this does not mean that another person or entity can coerce us into giving

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Right when the government says you must give or I'm going to take all your stuff All they've done is rob people of being able to give freely

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We'll say it again because there was one amen back there When the government says you must give or I'm going to take all your stuff

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What they've done all they've done is rob people from being able to give freely

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Refusing to be generous to the poor is a sin But it's not a crime

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It's a sin between you and God Maybe even between you and your family you and your pastor you and your church

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But it is not a crime So that's not what we're talking about here. We're not talking about coercion manipulation forcing you

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Neither does it mean that someone can just work their way into your home all of a sudden Help themselves out of your refrigerator and say hey,

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I have a right to this The Bible is clear that we have no obligation

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To be generous to the sluggard the leech or the pampered servant. Those are all biblical categories

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And it takes wisdom, of course to identify that it takes time But the

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Word of God says to them you shall not steal

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The Word of God says to you you shall not withhold as You are able you shall not steal but you shall not withhold

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We're not to give beyond what we have But give according to what we do have we are not to give of course at the expense of being able to feed our children at the breakfast table

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We have priorities in terms of the responsibilities the jurisdictions that God has given us priority to make sure that we are committed

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To those relationships first and foremost and to take care of those in proximity to us But listen to this

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Just principles here Deuteronomy 15 7 if among you one of your brothers should become poor in any of your towns within your land that the

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Lord your God is giving you you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand. Listen to the connection

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You shall not harden your heart or shut your hands against your poor brother

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But you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need whatever it may be

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Notice the context here there's some practical guidance about the one that you can see the one that is put in front of you the needy neighbor that you cross paths with the one that you

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See the one that you are able to help the one that you are able to watch over the one that you can see

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There is a sense of a priority in that but there is a connection here between the hardening of the heart and the tightening of the hand

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Hardening of the heart and the tightening of the hand All of us have something in our hands to give we have more than we think we do

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Whether it's to the members of our own family church family those next door or to the total stranger

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We have means a gift a skill and a time that the Lord demands of us to be generous with and We are to use these things to go above and beyond to meet the need

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Turn with me quickly here to Luke 1025 you might recognize this section

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Luke 1025 a lawyer once asked

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Jesus Who is my neighbor Jesus replied by telling the parable of the

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Good Samaritan and he explicitly defined neighbor as anyone We encounter is need of help.

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We have to understand something here Neighbor is not just like next -door neighbor the way we perceive of it in terms of our modern context

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Your neighbor can be anyone from your closest companion to a casual acquaintance to a complete stranger

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To an explicit enemy that's how broad the command is and So if you look here in chapter 10 verse 25 and behold a lawyer stood up to put him to the test saying teacher

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What shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him what's written in the law. How do you read it?

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And he answered you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul with all your strength and with All your mind and your neighbor as yourself as very astute man very keen mind to be able to get to the bottom of the law and Summarize it very well and Jesus says to him you have answered correctly

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Do this and you will live in other words. Here's the way of life Love God with every fiber of your being and make every single provision for your neighbor that you do for yourself

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And do it continually That's the way to love like God If you notice here here comes the reply verse 29, but he the lawyer desiring to justify himself

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Said to Jesus who is my neighbor? and Then Jesus replies with the parable of the good

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Samaritan in which there's a man that's traveling on a road common to thievery and robbers.

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He's beaten left for dead He's half -dead and then there's a priest and a

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Levite two religious sorts Who come across him and they don't even bother to solely themselves by helping the man that is lying in the ditch dying because of ceremonial uncleanness

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Because they don't want to dirty their hands and get close to this man who will make them

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Unceremonially unclean right ceremonially unclean They don't want to get close to him.

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They pass by on the other side and then Jesus says a

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Samaritan This group of people That people like the lawyer would have been an intense conflict with they hated

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Samaritans They saw them as half -breeds. They even referred to Jesus and John 8 they say isn't this man a

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Samaritan and demon -possessed? that was the opinion that they had of these half -breed

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Samaritans that had mingled with the nation's after the exile and were rule breakers

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Right, they weren't keeping the way of God Accurately and Jesus says here's the hero of the story the man you hate

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The man you despise he came he sees the man he gets down off of his donkey

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He uses wine and oil He administers first aid to the man right his antiseptic properties there

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He binds up his wounds and most commentators agreed that he would have had to tear his clothes his own clothes in order to clothe this man

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That's how in need he was of Medical care and then what does he do? He throws the man on his donkey while he walks he takes him to an inn

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He pays the necessary money for the continued care of this man and to put him up room and board

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And then he says to the man watching over him if there's any more expense. I'll pay you when I come back. I got it kindness

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Generosity and then Jesus says this is the most amazing part about this whole thing

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But the question that the lawyer asked who is my neighbor arrogance

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Who is my neighbor? Wanting to justify himself. Why did he ask that?

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Why did he ask who is my neighbor? To check the box to get off of the hook to limit his responsibilities to accomplish the test

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I got a good percentage of obedience on this But Jesus won't let him have it

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He completely changes the question that he asked him at the end as the answer he won't even answer him directly

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He changes the lawyers question from who is my neighbor to who was most neighborly to this man?

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Not who's my neighbor but who was a neighbor to this man who was his rap who was his friend

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Who loved him according to the law demands According to what the law demands who treated him that way because the priest and the

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Levite failed they failed They failed the test of good. Love God love neighbor. They couldn't be inconvenienced

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They missed love and thus they missed true lawfulness People like the lawyer wouldn't have believed it was permissible to just kill a

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Samaritan But they were under the impression that if they came across one in need they were under no obligation to help

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So who's the one that actually fulfilled the law because it's amazing how Jesus breaks this down He asked that question not who's my neighbor like we're not talking about the object here.

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We're talking about the subject Who was most neighborly to this man?

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Completely changes the question not here's what you need to do.

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But here's the kind of person you need to become That's the kind of person that loves like God that is ready to love like God that is at the ready this half -breed that you hate

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That's how you have to become you have to become like him. You have to love like God loves

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So, why don't we Love like that because he's the one that actually fulfilled the law and So this is the kind of person you have to be to inherit eternal life the one that trusts

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God The one that gives his neighbor his due by grace through faith working in love by grace through faith

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Working in love. What does James say faith without works is what is

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It a true faith. Is it a living faith if it doesn't have works? It's a dead faith.

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It means nothing. It's not real The reason we don't love like this often is because we're afraid

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There's a reason that a prohibition has already been given in Proverbs chapter 3 Keep your eyes on sound wisdom and discretion.

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Keep your eyes here. In other words, keep your eyes on Christ Keep your eyes on trusting the

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Lord When our eyes aren't fixed on trusting

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God we fear we fret about the future. We fear getting taken advantage of ripped off So, what do we do we clamp down?

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Ask just ask yourself What's the first thing that tends to happen to your generosity when you fret about the future your hands get tighter tight hands are a symptom of a tight heart

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Our focus tends to become myopic and just centered on taking care of me and my own but wisdom shows us

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We should always keep our word pay what we owe and give what we can and trust the

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Lord When we don't when we pull back When we go on defense when we hedge our bets

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The fabric of social trust that begins to break down Begins to melt away. We begin to become skeptical of our neighbors even of the household of faith

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We get kind of squinty eyed. We look at our neighbor like this think is there some type of ulterior motive there

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If we think others are just out to get us and we take our eyes off trusting God This is a way of devising evil against our neighbor that leads us to verse 29

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Do not plan evil against your neighbor who dwells trustingly beside you Do not contend verse 30 with a man for no reason when he has done you no harm

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We've talked about the innocent and Proverbs so far But understand this there is no place in good neighborhoods for the quarrelsome vengeful and violent man

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This passage warns us against striving being contentious and bringing accusations against one another

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It warns us against being what's called litigious Which is where we get that word litigation from right bringing charges against our neighbor culminating in Even a charge before the law right taking your neighbor to court taking your brother or sister before the law

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When there's a way to rectify the situation privately you go to your neighbor and you reason with him frankly

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Oh now we're back to that Leviticus book again, right? Don't go talk to your neighbor about your other neighbor go to your neighbor directly and reason frankly with him

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Lest you incur sin because of him not talk about him privately

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Not smite him or curse him in secret Romans 12 18 admonishes us to live at peace with all men as far as it depends on us.

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This is the opposite of that The text says listen to this the neighbor who dwells trustingly beside you what does that mean an

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Innocent man or woman who's done nothing wrong. This person is innocent. He hasn't done anything wrong

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His conscience is clean before God and therefore he has no reason to suspect your ill -treatment of him

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He has no reason. He's unaware. He has no care. He doesn't see it coming. He's blindsided by it

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You have no reason to oppose this person. They've done nothing to you and actually they think favorably of you and Yet you're planning to use that trust

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Against them and premeditate them harm That's what's being warned against here in the passage

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Betraying someone who trusts in you is the definition of unfaithfulness This is I mean, we know greatest figure in New Testament, of course

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Judas who betrayed his master He was unfaithful to his master is the definition of unfaithfulness, but that same spirit

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Attacking the innocent Warring against the innocent those who aren't striving with you You have no cause to be at odds with them and you're fighting against them that destroys relationships families churches

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There are people like this that exists. We know them we call them bullies people that hurt other people for the sake of hurting put others down for the fun of it and Honestly just argue to be contrary.

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I Defend it because I want to argue They just want to be contentious

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We know Others with contentious spirits, but do we recognize it in ourselves?

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Do we recognize it in ourselves men and women? How are you talking about one another husbands and wives?

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How are you speaking of each other? How are you speaking about your children? with your friends with the other brothers and sisters

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Are you using them as some sort of punchline their behavior or the way that they are

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Are you bad -mouthing your kids behind their back? Are you bad -mouthing your spouse behind their back

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Sometimes we don't realize what we're doing We feel you know a need isn't being met or we just need to spice life up a little bit because it feels so monotonous

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It's just day in day out at home with these kids nothing to do nothing to talk about and sometimes we just feel the need to maybe talk about a brother or sister and Maybe exaggerate the situation a little bit make ourselves look a little bit better than we were in the situation

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Maybe make our neighbor look a little bit less than what they were Kind of cut that corner try to get a leg up on them get ahead of them

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Talk about about them belittle them just because we like and crave the drama

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It's fun, right? We like and crave that that drama that striving for no cause

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Or we get defensive because we think someone slighted us and we go to someone else and exaggerate the issue make them look bad

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When we should just be going to our neighbor and reasoning with them directly We should just be going to them

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It's interesting how the Bible shows us that we can often betray our neighbors by talking about them

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Whether it be in the form of slander gossip and even flattery, right? That's what you're doing and flattery is you're talking someone up to manipulate your own ends to bring about Yourself being on top or ahead bullies thugs

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Those that put others down are outside the will of God. It's not big to make the weak feel small.

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It's just ugly right, everybody knows kids Speaking to you now, okay this

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Sermon and Proverbs is addressed to you. So here you go You remember Sid right in Toy Story who remembers

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Sid from Toy Story, right? What what did Sid love to do? he loved to just torture his sister because he loved to Destroy her toys just because just because he could just because he was stronger just because he had more muscles just because he could

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Push his way around and bully his little sister children in your home with your brother and your sister

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Are you a Sid? Do you push them around?

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Do you talk down to them? Do you belittle your brother and sister torture them without reason? Do you look for ways to strive with them when they haven't done anything wrong to you?

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children What the world would call adolescence if you will Teenagers, do you love your father and your mother you speak well of them?

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You love your sister and your brother You speak well of them It's not cool to get with your friends and Talk badly about them when they want to be included or to put them down or to shoo them away because you're so big

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And you're so mature. You don't have time for them But they bother me. Yeah, and you bother your parents.

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What do you want them to do? How do you want them to treat you They're little they're supposed to bother you

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God made them he made your father. He made your mother. He made your brother

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He made your sister, which means they don't belong to you. They belong to him and You are to love them and care for them and respect them and to treat them to uplift them

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You're not only to not devise harm against them. You're to actively. This is crazy. Look for ways to bless them

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When's the last time that you stayed up late at night devising a way to make your little sister's day

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To make your pastor's day to make your father's day Yeah, it's not Father's Day But I'm gonna write my dad a card because I love him because God gave him to me to respect and to honor

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And I'm gonna love him Don't just not devise evil devise good

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If you're striving against those close to you You don't want to allow such corruption in your heart to spread you don't listen to what

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Proverbs 6 12 says a worthless person a Wicked man goes about with crooked speech winks with his eyes

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Signals with his feet points with his finger with perverted heart devises evil continually sowing discord and And what's the end of that man according to Scripture ruin

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Calamity brothers and sisters if you have this in your heart children, if you have this in your heart if you see this

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Talk to your parents Ask them to pray for you Talk to your pastors ask them to pray for you because that corruption if it is not killed at the root it will spread

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And it will corrupt every part of you talk to someone

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Get prayer Have your parents minister to the word to you have your pastors minister the word to you

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If you're talking bad about others or trying to get others in trouble, no brother or sister ever does that right? Try to get there try to get one another in trouble nobody ever does that my kids don't do that.

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No If you're trying to do that whether they're your friends or family that's a sign that corruption is in your heart

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You don't get to say Well, they did this to me. That's why I'm doing that to them.

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You don't get to say that That's not gonna fly on Judgment Day It wouldn't fly in any of our lives if we stood before God and say well the reason

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I treated this person this way Because they did this to me. Yeah, and God's Word says to you do not return evil for evil

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But continue and trusting yourself to him who judges justly Don't retaliate

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We are called to recognize the innocent and protect them Recognize the innocent and protect them

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Because if you don't kill it Here's what happens you turn with me very quickly and we'll wrap up here first John 3 11

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First John 3 11 Now no, this is the same passage that I quoted earlier that talks about what sin is.

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Remember it. What is it? Law less Ness and then we're given an example first John 3 11

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For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another we should not be like Cain Who was of the evil one and murdered his brother and the word there literally has to do with a sacrifice an offering he sacrificed

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His own brother. He let him out. He lied to him. He deceived him and he premeditated harm against him and Why did he do it?

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Why did he murder him because his own deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous You remember when

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Cain was confronted by God in Genesis? What did God say to him? Do you remember? Where is your brother?

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Am I my brother's keeper? Sounds a lot like who is my neighbor doesn't it?

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Who is my neighbor? Am I my brother's keeper? Cain trying to justify himself in this

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We ought to see something the heart of Cain is reflected in our deepest and most base desires as fallen sons of Adam The word says if we do not love our neighbor that is treat them lawfully then we don't actually love

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God Why did Cain hate his brother because he hated God? He hated

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God and so he murdered his brother Because that is what a fallen heart.

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That's what fallen humanity does When it comes up in the face of innocence it seeks to tear it down Why?

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Because holiness reminds us that we're not Holiness reminds us that we're not why did they kill

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Jesus? He was everything that they pretended to be

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Righteous He was what they made a pretense of holy blameless and righteous and they couldn't put up with it

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They could not abide a truly innocent man Because it exposed them

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Here you have Cain Offering up his own brother as a sacrifice because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous and here's what he was really saying

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To God right God rejected his offering because it wasn't offered in the right heart. It wasn't offered in faith

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Abel was honored Abel's offering was received and you know what Cain said? You want an offering

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I'll give you a sacrifice and I'll sacrifice the one you love I'll sacrifice the one you accept

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How did Cain show he belonged to the evil one? How did he show that he was a son of the devil? By the way, he treated his neighbor

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Why did he slaughter him his brother's deeds were righteous Innocence reminds us that we're guilty

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Remember what the text says about the lawyer. He desired to justify himself

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He desired to justify Himself, that's what we do rather than receive the righteousness of God by faith for our sins we look for the closest innocent thing to sacrifice because we know we're guilty and We know that our righteousness cannot help us before a holy

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God. We know that it'll never be enough We know that we can't inherit eternal life

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But that's what Jesus calls us to he says this is eternal life. Love God love neighbor

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This is the kind of person you have to be But what's the point? You haven't done it

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You haven't loved God. You haven't loved neighbor. I haven't loved

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God or loved neighbor And you can't Unless it is done in response to the

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God who loved you first That is unless it is done by trusting

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God by grace through faith working in love Romans 5 6 listen to this for a while we were still weak at the right time

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Christ died for who? the ungodly

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For one will scarcely die for a righteous person even though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die

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But God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners while we were far off while we were far away

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While we were sinning against God while we were offering up all of these substitute

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Righteousnesses that cannot avail before a holy God while we were doing all of that Christ died for the ungodly

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Showing us that Self -giving sacrifice what love looks like the point is we failed to be good neighbors we haven't given our neighbor what he's owed and there's one who has and His name is

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Jesus Christ Jesus the wisdom of God is the obedient son who shows us the father's love

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The father who did not withhold his only son but gave him up for us all

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Jesus who laid down his life in order to give the father. What was his due? Do you know why

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Jesus came don't check out here. This is the glorious part Do you know why

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Jesus came he gave he came to give God his due? He came to give

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God justice That's what the cross was all about He came to make sure that the father had his due why because you and I have failed to give

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God his due What does God require of us a whole life?

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Completely submitted completely poured out in mind and strength and spirit to him in total worship total submission

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That's what God requires and we couldn't do it and Jesus comes and gives

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God Justice and that's by the way what we're calling people to do every time

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We preach the gospel you go out on the street. You go out and do ministry alongside your brothers and sisters What's the call of the gospel

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Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. He lived righteously died for sinners rose again from the dead He's ascended.

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He's reigning as the King of Kings the Lord of Lords. And what does he call you to do? Repent Repent and believe the good news in other words give

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God justice give God what he's due Submit and turn over your whole life to him.

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It's not enough. Nothing you ever do will be enough You need to have a complete overhaul.

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It's not Who's my neighbor? It's what kind of person do I need to be? I need to be the kind of person that loves like God and I can't do that unless I realize that there's a

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God who's Loved me first Who sacrificed himself on my behalf?

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to give the father justice Repent and believe the good news give

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God what he's owed That's what Christ did and Christ is the only one to do that.

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However Don't miss this by grace and through faith being instructed and equipped in godly wisdom brothers and sisters

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He is preparing us to do the same thing every day of our lives

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Because the law has been internalized in the hearts of the people of God so that they can actually

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Obey it They can actually fulfill it. They can actually keep it

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They can actually keep the law of God in the way that God requires they can do justice to God They can do justice to their neighbors

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They can give their neighbors what they're owed and what they're owed is what God says and that is love and that is lawfulness

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Jesus is the one who never planned evil against his neighbor never

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He was the one schemed against he was the innocent neighbor Dwelling beside those who should have been on his side and he was betrayed

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He is faithful. Even when we are unfaithful He is the one who by grace teaches us to love one another lawfully

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He shows us the way to love like God and not hold back He shows us the way of salvation

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Which is not heaven at death Merely It is giving us the power to obey as we keep our eyes fixed on him.

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Where are your eyes? Where are you looking? Are you looking at Jesus?

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Are you trusting in Jesus? Are your eyes fixed on him? Are you trusting in him by grace through faith?

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Working in love because that is what God has called each and every one of us to and that is godly wisdom

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That is how God Shows us how to love like him by giving of himself to actually show us what true law -keeping looks like And what love and its content actually is

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Amen Let's pray brothers and sisters. Oh Heavenly father.

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I'm so grateful for you Lord. You're always so faithful to me God you're always so faithful to your word to preside over it and To glorify

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Jesus you long to give your name glory and that is our hope in life and death

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God is that you will not be frustrated in that process. I Asked now that the word that went forward would land in the hearts and minds of your people and you would give us grace to obey