Proverbs 6:20-35 (June 2, 2024)

Wisdom Is Rooted in God’s Word

In your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 6. Proverbs chapter 6. We're going to pick up right where we left off at the end of or the middle of last August. So it's been a little while since we've been in Proverbs.

We're gonna pick up in verse 20. Proverbs chapter 6 verse 20. As a reminder what we're doing during the summer is doing summer Proverbs. And so what we did last year is we started in chapter 1 and we made it through about two-thirds of chapter 6.

There verse 19 is where we ended and so we're gonna pick up at verse 20. And the reason we are returning to Proverbs again this year, this summer, is because we need wisdom to live in God's world and the theme of Proverbs is the cultivation of wisdom.

Wisdom, if you remember from last summer, we said the wisdom is the art and skill of living well in God's world. Wisdom is the art and skill of living well in God's world. It's the ability to make right judgments.

It is the skill of knowing what to do and when to do it. In short we we can say that wisdom is maturity. And maturity is one of the central themes of the Bible. I had a friend who recently said it like this.

He said of the Bible it's the story of a loving and holy God who creates a people in his own image and he takes them from infancy to adulthood to inherit all that he has created in his son, with his son.

And so that's why the Bible, that's why you have about 1 ,500 pages in your Bible and not two or three pages. Because it's the story of God taking humanity from infancy to adulthood, from immaturity to maturity.

That's why there's all the weird things that there that there are in the Bible. While we have an old covenant and then a new covenant, while we have thousands of years of history behind us, much of it recorded in the Bible and much of it not.

And some would say we maybe have thousands of years of history ahead of us. Suppose God is taking us from immaturity to maturity. He is cultivating wisdom in humanity and he is cultivating wisdom in individual people.

God is raising mankind to maturity and this is replicated in the lives of individuals as he raises each of us in our individualized lives, that he raises us each up to maturity. And wisdom is the key to maturity and so we must cultivate it and grow in it.

That's what the book of Proverbs is about. It's about growing in wisdom. Much of it is the teaching of a father to his son, of a king to his son, raising them up to be able to rule well in God's world.

Giving them the proper instruction to grow in wisdom and stature before God and man. And so with that reminder about our study through Proverbs, let's pick back up where we left off and let's read beginning in verse 20 of chapter 6.

I'm going to read verses 20 through 23 to get us started. God's Word says this, My son, keep your father's command and do not forsake the law of your mother. Bind them continually upon your heart. Tie them around your neck.

When you roam, they will lead you. When you sleep, they will keep you. When you awake, they will speak with you. For the commandment is a lamp and the law a light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life.

Obedience, Heart Training, and Daily Wisdom

I mean this is God's Word to us. What we see here is that maturity and wisdom are rooted in God's Word. They're rooted in obedience to God's commands. And so the father here, he teaches his son to keep his father's commandments and not forsake the law of his mother.

Now one question that we might have when we're reading this is, he's just referring to the rules of the house, to the rules of mom and dad, or does it refer, is he referring to God's commands? And I think the latter is in view.

I think he's talking about the commands of God and here's why. One, just the way he speaks about these commands, about being law and light, it seems to indicate he's talking about God's commandments, God's law.

And then if we're to presume godly parents here, their commands would then be the commands of God. But then we remember that these are the Proverbs of Solomon teaching his son, Solomon the king of Israel, who was responsible for the nation, who was to keep God's laws as God's people.

And so I think we can be confident here that what he's talking about when not forsaking the law of your mother, keeping your father's commands, he's talking about keeping the Word of God, talking about keeping God's commands here.

And so I want to remind us here, just a moment, that insisting on obedience to God's Word is not, assuming you would say these days, it's not, that's not legalism. To insist on obedience is not legalism.

Rather, the Bible speaks of obedience to God's commands, is love. Because Jesus says, he who keeps my commandments, he it is who loves me. If we want to know if we love Jesus or not, we need to look at God's commands and then look at our lives.

And if they don't match up, then we need to adjust. Because we're not loving the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. No, obeying God's Word is how we demonstrate our love for God. Further, we can see that keeping God's commands is at the root of all wisdom.

For it would be folly to disobey God, the God who made the world, the God who designed the world, how everything is supposed to work together. God who is designed and made us, how to live well in his world, it would be folly to disobey that.

In the same way that it would be folly to, you know, to disregard the operating instructions for something that you bought, right? You get the user manual and you say, no, no, no, I'm going to do this instead of that, and then it breaks.

You wonder why? Well, it wasn't designed for that. We're designed to live a certain way in God's world, and that requires wisdom. And so it's wisdom to obey God and how he's told us to live. Verse 21 then says, to bind these commands on your heart.

You see, it doesn't, it won't do to just know the commands, right? Just having an intellectual knowledge of what God says, a knowledge of God's Word, that's not enough. We must bind them on our hearts.

We must hide them in our hearts that we may not sin against God. Because, see, what's in the heart comes out in your hands. What's in your heart comes out in your life. From the heart, the mouth speaks, Jesus says.

We do what's in our hearts to do. This points to the necessity of new birth, of God giving us new hearts in order to please him, and it points to the fact that we must guard our hearts and we must train our hearts with God's Word.

And so how do we do that? Well, it says to tie them around your neck. Take the commands of God and tie them around your neck. That is, we must identify with God's commands and incorporate them into our lives.

We must have them constantly before us so that we know them, so that we internalize them, so that they're in our hearts that we may not sin against God, and that's what, so that what is in our hearts then will come out in our lives.

So there's three easy applications here. By way of reminder, things you've heard me talk about before, things others have talked about many times before, but three easy applications. One is daily Bible reading.

Are you regularly taking in God's Word? Reading the Bible regularly, daily, is a primary way that you can tie the commands of God, the Word of God, around your neck. Another way would be catechisms, the old question-and-answer method of teaching God's Word.

It still bears fruit today for those who will implement it. And the third way is scripture memory. Just think of the phrase that we use to talk about something that we memorized. What do we say? We say, you know it by heart.

Because when you memorize something, it doesn't just stay in your mind, it comes down into your heart. And so memorizing scripture puts it in our hearts so that we what? May not sin against God. So that we what?

Do what is in our hearts to do. And we want to do righteousness. We want to do justice. We want to love. We want to do all those things that God has commanded us to do. So we need it in our hearts to memorize scripture.

Scripture for Every Part of Life

Verse 22 then says, when you roam, they will lead you. When you sleep, they will keep you. When you awake, they will speak with you. One of the things I like to say about our teaching ministry here at First Baptist is this, that we are committed to teaching all of the Bible for all of life.

All of the Bible for all of life. That is, every bit of the Bible is written for our instruction. The history, the poetry, the songs, the letters, the genealogies, all of it. It's all written for our instruction.

And the Bible, all of it, is applicable to all of our lives. There's not one piece or parcel of our lives that are not, that the Bible doesn't speak to. That aren't under the authority of the Bible. And so whether we're sleeping or waking or roaming or whatever it is that we're doing, we need the scriptures.

We need the Bible to guide us. The Bible either speaks directly or indirectly to everything. And it's only in letting scripture be the driver for every aspect of our lives, recognizing that no part of our life is exempt or outside of the jurisdiction of God's Word, recognizing that that's how we grow in wisdom.

It's by taking God's Word and applying it to our lives so that we develop the art and skill of living well in God's world. And so the Bible is not only good for what we might recognize as the religious part of our lives, but it's profitable for every part of our lives.

Wisdom is bringing God's Word to bear on education and politics and business and art and family life and sports and how you dress and how you talk and how you eat and fitness and work and gardening and music and entertainment.

And whether you put the shopping buggy back at Walmart into the corral, you do put the shopping cart back, right? It's applicable to everything. We bring scripture to bear on every part of life and that is wisdom.

For, verse 23, for the commandment is a lamp and the law a light. Proofs of instruction are the way of life. The reason we bring the Bible to bear on everything is because God commands it. It's a bright spotlight.

It's the blazing sun so that we can walk in the light and not stumble. We live in a dark world marred by sin and sinners and God's Word brings the light so that we can see clearly, so that we can steer clear of danger.

We can walk in God's ways. God's Word is a lamp. It is a blazing light, a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our paths. And so bringing God's Word, often bringing God's Word to bear on any situation is going to result in reproof.

It's going to result in correction, which, if we're honest, we don't always like very much, do we? We don't always like to be corrected, but what does verse 23 say? What does the Bible say? What does God say?

He says, reproofs of instruction are the way of life. In other words, we need correction. We need reproof. We need to be course corrected from time to time and God's Word does that. And so we need to cultivate a desire for light.

Wisdom is knowing that we need the light of God's Word and we need the correction of God's Word. It's the way of life. It's how we live in God's world well. A desire for the bright glory of God's Word and God's ways is made known to us in God's commandments.

And so a mature and wise man accepts, heeds, and indeed loves correction. He wants to live according to God's commands and he doesn't chafe if someone points out to him that he is not. A weak and immature man scoffs at correction, for he is content to live in his folly.

He's just fine with his folly. That's an immature and weak man. But a mature man loves, wants, desires correction because he loves and wants and desires to walk according to God's ways and according to God's Word.

He wants to be wise. He wants to be mature. And so that means taking some correction from time to time. And so let me ask you, how well do you take correction? The answer to that is part of your answer to the question of how wise are you?

How well do you take correction? What we've seen here in the first four verses that we've looked at in this passage is basically a general principle and that is keep God's Word. It's a basic principle.

It's a foundational principle. It's a principle you've heard many times from this pulpit. That's what we see in verses 23 -23. Keep God's Word. The rest of the chapter then is an application of those four verses.

It's an application of that general principle of keeping God's Word. And what we see here is that the writer of Proverbs then applies this principle of keeping God's Word to the area or the realm of sexuality.

Sexual Sin, Seduction, and the Fire of Lust

Solomon writes that reproof of instruction is the way of life in verse 23 and then he completely continues that sentence in verse 24 to for the purpose of to keep you from the evil woman from the flattering tongue of the seductress.

And so a few points can be made here. First is that the instruction that precedes this verse is all about keeping God's commands in His Word. And see God in His Word he tells us what men and women are and he tells us what men and women are for.

And His Word instructs us on what godliness looks like for men and His Word instructs us on what godliness looks like for women. And some of the characteristics are going to be the same for both men and women and then some things, some virtue and piety is gendered.

So for example men are to be strong and courageous, scriptures say. And therefore it would be especially sinful for men to be cowardly. And women are commended in the Bible for being quiet and gentle.

And so it would be a sin for a woman to be brash and bossy. And so keeping the Bible's instructions for men and women in mind help us steer away from perversions that we come across in life. Think about it, it's like the best way to combat counterfeit money.

If you're trying, if you work in a job where you receive counterfeit money, the best thing to do isn't to be an expert on the counterfeits, right? Because the counterfeits keep changing. The best thing you can do is be an expert on what real money is.

Because when you're an expert on what the real thing is, you can spot the fake. You can spot the counterfeit bill because you know the real thing. It's the same thing with people. If you know what a godly woman is, if you're acquainted with the real thing from the scriptures, you'll be able to spot a fake and to keep from the evil woman.

Verse 24 talks about it. If you know what a godly man is, you'll be able to spot a fake and keep from him. That's the first thing we can say here. Second thing is what we see is a father writing to his son.

And so it makes sense then that he's warning against an evil seductive woman. But we could also imagine a father, we could easily imagine a father speaking with his daughter and warning against, warning her against predatory men.

And so again, if a young woman knows what is honorable in a man, she'll be able to spot what is, spot the dishonorable man. Who'd flatter with his tongue. Who have evil intentions in his heart. Third thing, it's not fashionable to say so, but the Bible is clear here that there are women who prey upon men sexually.

Now the fashionable thing to do is to lay all of the blame at the eyeballs and actions of men. And I will not excuse the eyeballs and actions of men and deny a man's responsibility for his own lust and his own sin.

But we don't deny a woman's agency either. And so what we see here in verse 6 is we see an unpopular fact, but it's that not only do men sin, but women sin too. And so men need to be warned of these women who don't let their guard, so that they don't let their guard down and fall prey to them.

And women need to be warned so that they don't sin in these very ways that are often encouraged by our culture. Now this is going to come up again in chapter 7, so I'm not going to spend too much time here.

But what we see, partly here in chapter 6, more so in chapter 7, is that a woman is inresponsible for how she dresses and what that communicates. Now, in our church, I'm thankful, we don't really have a modesty problem that I've noticed here at our church.

Maybe that's due to age and station of life of many of our members, but we really don't have a modesty problem. But the reason I bring this up is because all of you grandmothers in here probably have, you know, you have granddaughters.

And many of us in here, we have relationships outside. And I would encourage you, older ladies, tightest two women, I would encourage you that if you have younger women, ladies in your life, who are dressing like the verse 24 seductress, I would encourage you to be grandma scolding.

I would encourage you to remember that it's okay and it's godly even to tell her, put some clothes on. And older men, it would be okay and good to tell younger dads, hey, don't let your daughter dress like that.

We need older women to be using their influence to enforce godly social norms for dress. And we need older men enforcing godly social norms for families. And the reason I say that it's okay to do that is because what verse 23 says, reproofs of instruction are the way of life.

Because we will not discipline, because we will not reprove, because we will not correct what happens in that vacuum. Sin grows. Sin always grows. We'll talk about that in just a little bit. But we want to keep men away from evil women.

We want to keep young women from becoming those evil women. We want to keep young godly women away from evil men and keep young men from becoming those evil men. And so we need the reproof and the correction of God's word and that's going to be from God's people.

So not only is the question how do you accept correction, how do you give it? And are you willing to? This too is part of wisdom. Continuing on verse 25, it says, do not lust after her beauty in your heart, nor let her allure you with her eyelids.

1 John, John talks about the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. We'll talk about the pride of life in just a few minutes but we see the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes here in verse 25.

The instruction for men here is clear, do not lust after her beauty in your heart. You see it's not just enough to avoid physically sitting, you may not sin in your heart either. Jesus said that to lust after a woman in your heart is adultery.

That is, that sin in the heart is the same as sin manifesting physically, it's just not yet progressed to an advanced degree. Sin in the heart is the same as sin acted upon but not yet advanced to a certain degree.

But here's the thing, we just said a moment ago, sin always grows, right? It's the same sin, it's just sin that has grown. So if you allow that sin to remain in your heart, it will eventually come out of your body.

If you don't kill lust early, it grows and it leads to a destructive path. We see it in James 1 .15, when desire is conceived it gives birth to sin and sin when it's full grown brings forth death. Sexual sin is particularly dangerous because it leads to all sorts of troubles.

We see it in verse 26, it reduces a man to a crust of bread and he is subject to an adulteress preying upon him. And yet many, blinded by the pride of life, they think they can play with the fire of sexual sin and temptation and not get burned.

Wisdom knows differently. Let's read verses 27 -28. Can a man take fire to his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be seared? Well of course the answer to that question is no.

You cannot carry logs on fire against your chest and not get burned, you just can't. Nor can you carry lust in your heart, lust in your chest and not get destroyed by it. Too many people are prideful when it comes to their own passions.

Too many people are prideful when it comes to their own temptations, when it comes to their own desires and lusts. They think they can keep it under control, they think they can keep it under wraps. They have a very low view of sin and a very high view of themselves.

But the truth is, sin is incredibly powerful and their flesh is incredibly weak. They are high on their own supply of self-confidence and as such they are full of self-deception. They lack understanding.

You see these people, they believe that they are the exception to the rule. Here's the thing, there are no exceptions to the rule.

There are none.

None of us are exempt. None of us are fire approved. None of us can carry fire in our chest and not get burnt. Those who are living this way are not living in the real world, at least in their minds. For they think it's possible to carry fire in the chest and not get burnt.

But what does the Bible say? Well, verse 29 says, So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife, whoever touches her shall not be innocent. Verse 32, Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding.

He who does so destroys his own soul. Verse 33, Wounds and dishonor he will get and his reproach will not be wiped away. You see these verses, they make clear that there are repercussions for sexual sin.

These verses make clear that there is fire that burns when you carry it in your chest. We live in God's world. We don't get to pretend that we live in some other world. A world that we made according to our own rules and our own design.

No, we live in God's world according to God's rules and God's design. And in God's world the chickens always come home to roost. And so hear me clearly. If you're here today and you're using pornography.

Or you're carrying on a work friendship with someone of the opposite sex. Or you have what they call a work wife. Or you're married but you've got a friendship going where you keep a running text conversation with another woman.

Or another man, someone of the opposite sex. Or you're single and you're dating someone who is clearly not a godly man or a godly woman. Or if by your dress you're advertising what you're not selling.

Or you've started what you know to be an inappropriate relationship. Or what godly people whom you trust are telling you is an inappropriate relationship even if you don't see that. Or you're a student and you're putting yourself in a compromising situation.

I want you to know, hear me clearly. You are playing with fire and fire always burns.

Always burns.

You are not the exception. Because there are no exceptions. If you continue on this path you will get burned.

You will get wounds.

You will get dishonor. You will destroy your own soul. That's what the Bible says. And you will likely give wounds and dishonor to others who love you. Because here's the thing about our sin. Our sin never only affects us.

If I sin it never only stays with me. If you sin it only never stays with you. That's not the way God made the world. You see, God made us to live in relationship with others. We live in covenant relationships with others.

Particularly I'm thinking of families and churches. Therefore, the sin of one affects those who you are in relationship with. It affects your family and it affects your church. Go read the story of Achan in the Old Testament.

He sinned individually. But all of Israel lost the battle against Ai and 36 men were killed. But Achan was the one who sinned. It affected others. Your sin will hurt those you love. And so we need to hear this warning.

Repentance, Mercy, and the Call to the Lord’s Supper

Now as we wrap up, make just two pastoral notes. First is this. I'm not preaching this sermon because I know of any sexual sin in our congregation. This is just the next passage. We stop at verse 19 last August.

We pick up with verse 20. I turn the page. I preach the text. But I know enough about people. And I know enough about common experience of humanity to know that this type of temptation is nearly always present in any group of people.

It's always present in a church. That's why what was written thousands of years ago is so applicable today. Because it's a perennial temptation for people. And so if that's you today, and nobody knows it but you, God in His kind providence put you here this morning to hear this message.

And His kindness, Romans chapter 3 tells us, is meant to lead you to repentance. People get good at hiding stuff for a long time. But eventually it comes out. So it's better to get it out in repentance.

Verse 23, we see the commandment is a lamp. So I'd encourage you to turn from any sin and walk in the bright light of God's word and God's commands. Second, notice this. In a group this size, there's no doubt all sorts of sexual sin in our collective past.

And that's you.

I want to encourage you to remember the mercy of Christ. As Spurgeon said, your sin may be as high as the mountains, but the mercy of Christ is as Noah's flood. 20 cubits upwards and homeward it flows.

And so if you've repented and turned from that sin, I know it can gnaw at your conscience. And it can bother you and keep you up at night. Trust the mercy of Christ. Trust the blood of Jesus and be at peace.

Because in Christ you are forgiven. And if you're still holding on to that sin, you haven't quite turned, you haven't quite stopped, you haven't quite confessed it, let today be the day. Trust the mercy of Christ.

Trust the blood of Jesus that it cleanses you from all of your sin. Confess, repent, and believe Christ today. There is no sin too great that Jesus cannot and will not forgive it. And so you can be free today.

And lastly, I'd say if you're convicted in this area, and you'd like to talk to me about it, I want you to know I'm available after the service. You can come by the office, I'll meet you, I'll come to you.

We can walk through this together. There's hope and there's help for you in God's word. We're going to take the Lord's Supper here in just a few moments. I would encourage you, don't partake of the Supper in an unworthy manner.

And so confess your sins today. Don't take in an unworthy manner. Be repentant, and then drink deeply. And feast on Christ. Let's pray. Our Father, I pray that we would be a people who confess our sin, and we confess our sexual sin.

May we trust in the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from all sin. May we know that we are not the exception, and that all those who carry fire in the chest will get burned. So let us walk in wisdom. Let us forsake all sin and turn from it.

Let us walk in the light of your word, holding fast to your commandments. And if anyone here needs to turn from specific sins, Lord, I pray that you would give them the grace and strength and help to do so.

And if anyone in here needs assurance that their specific past sins are forgiven, Lord, I pray that you would give them assurance and peace by your Spirit. And Father, I pray that you would raise us all up to maturity and wisdom.

And you do it for your glory. And we ask all of this in the name of Jesus.

Amen.