Taking Heed to the Word

Just thinking as we were singing that second stanza you and my friend you are my brother even though you are a king I wonder how many of us could say That we know a king In and of itself and then a king who is not only our brother But our friend and that great that we serve not only a king But the king the king of kings and and although he is a king worthy of all honor and all power and all majesty Yet, he's still our friend and our brother.

It's Glorious truth, is it not? All right so for this evening as far as the Word of God if you would take your Bibles and open up to Proverbs chapter 3 and What I purpose to do in the third chapter of Proverbs is a pretty pretty Thick chapter as far as truths and so in my own mind, I broke it down into three different messages That should take us through the chapter.

The first tonight. We'll look at is verses 1 through 12. And against I want to move as as we ought to through Proverbs when needed. But I also want to stop and take time when I think it's important for us.

So For tonight we're going to read Proverbs chapter 3 verses 1 Through 12 and before we go to God's Word, let us again. Just Ask his blessing. Let's pray Our Father and our God and our King our brother and our friend.

We do come before you and we pray Lord now in Jesus name that you would Holy Spirit. Take your word and Help us Lord to to take it in help it help us Lord to Have it transform our minds and our lives that We would become less of what we used to be and more of what we ought to be.

So use your word tonight Lord is only you can come and do something that that belongs only to you. And that is to sanctify us and set us apart and to conform us more and more into the image of the Son of God Who so loved us that he gave himself for us in his name.

Amen. Okay, Proverbs chapter 3 1 through 12 and again just always as I Want to remind you I'm reading from the New King James. So if it's a little different in your translation It shouldn't be too much of a change.

Proverbs 3 verses 1 through 12. My son do not forget my law. But let your heart keep my commands For length of days and long life and peace they will add to you. Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck.

Write them on the table of your heart and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths.

Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the firstfruits of all your increase.

So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. My son do not despise the chastening of the Lord nor detest his correction for whom the Lord loves he corrects. Just as a father the son in whom he delights.

The Fatherly Tone of Proverbs and the Call to Hear God's Word

Let me begin to try to Set us in a straight path. The first thing I want to say is Is you've noticed at least to this point and you'll see as we go through the book of Proverbs that Solomon continually addresses his hearers as his sons.

He addresses those that he's writing to Inspired by the Spirit of God in a very tender in a very intimate way and it really is to us an indication of if we really understand the author who being the Spirit of God being God who who Breathe out his word that the you and I would come to God's Word.

With with that thought that God's Word to us is meant To be a helper to be a guide and it's not from an austere God who was put off somewhere. But a God who is tenderly calling out to us not only in Encouragement but in admonition in giving us his word and it's interesting and I went through in Proverbs and there's 21 specific times Just as a thought 21 times through the book of Proverbs that Solomon will do that.

He'll start a section with that thought of my son hear my words and again the exhortation being that of if you would as a parent to a child or as a Someone who is older and and wiser speaking to someone who is younger and perhaps less Wise.

And again, I thought about that and I thought about how that's a lesson to us in and of itself how In all the relationships of life we ought to be those who who are concerned with others and not just Simply wanting to to spew out things.

I mean certainly as a parent it ought to be the the desire of a parent that the instruction that they give The the wisdom that they that they try to pass on is one in which they are seeking and pleading.

For the good of the one who hears for the child who hears. And again We ought to always lay up sound wisdom for for our children and again, I don't think it matters whether your child is is is a Henry or Or you're 60 years old right and some of you have children in our 60 years old a parent is a parent is a parent right and a child is a child's a child and my dad until he passed on I Couldn't think of anything else to call him but pop and that was my name for my dad was pop and I just I so Enjoyed just call my pop on the phone and just hearing him and and he was always there and he he was always trying to encourage me and always trying to Assist me in anything so so just that thought I wanted to kind of Get that to us that as we read through God's Word not only here But everywhere that we remember that it's it's God desires our good.

And that's it. That's a great thought in of itself that God desires our good. And and and we should never get to the point where we see it any other way so with that in mind, let's just walk through some of the truths in these verses and then Try to make some application as we go so he says my son Do not forget my law.

But let your heart keep my commands for length of days and long life and Peace they will add to you and I and I want to stress that to us as we look through not only here, but throughout all the Word of God that God's Word is meant to give us life.

It's meant to it's meant to not only help but it's meant to energize us. To give us the things that we need to have not only just life, but but a peaceful life a joyful life a Content life. Isn't that what it says that godliness with contentment is what?

Great gain and and that thought in of itself should cause us to look to to God and all things that just that thought alone of of peace and I want to say it this way and and I hope you'll Take it as an exhortation if you do not have peace with God.

Perhaps it's because you don't have peace with God's law with God's Word in other words If you seek peace with God to have communion with God to have fellowship with God to to enjoy his his Communion with you that then there's there's there's something that we have to do on our side and again God's grace is free full and it descends from above but at the same time if we don't have peace Perhaps it is The cause is us.

Matter of fact, they say to you the cause is us. You know why I know that's true. It's not because that's what I think it's because of what God's Word says God says that that he will keep those in perfect.

Peace whose mind is stayed on thee because He trusts in me so when you think about that and when when Solomon lays us out and he says that We ought not to forget God's law, but we ought to bind it keep it keep his commands and and To in a sense bind it on our heart.

It's because he desires that we would find that peace and that Joyfulness again, if you remember what the Prophet Isaiah said in Contrast to that and I'm going to continue to do that as we go through Proverbs Contrast those two groups of people that I believe essentially are the theme of the book of Proverbs in that that there's the wise person who's diligent with the Word of God who's diligent with his fellowship with God who's diligent with his obedience with God and.

And that that person receives a blessing and and the greatest blessing of all could be to have peace with God and You contrast that to those who? Proverbs describes as the fool and That fool is the one who is so lazy and and so slothful and so rebellious that he ignores rejects and pays no attention to the Word of God and There's a consequence to that and the consequence is judgment whether it be Judgments that are received in this life or judgments that are yet to come and I know that's true because it says it and Isaiah says the wicked the wicked being the unbeliever the wicked are like the troubled sea and It cannot rest.

It cannot rest and all it does really is is it turns up the mire in the muck and there is no peace save my God To the wicked so there it is right out in the front of us that there is this reality of how God's law God's Word God's instruction God's pleading if you will through his word with us is meant to bring us peace and that if we don't find that peace.

Again, the issue lies within us because God meant it to bring us into a place of peace and You know, I often wonder how Paul If you remember when he was in Philippi how he were wound up in jail. Remember that and he's in the stocks remember that and him and his companions and and and they didn't have internet and and satellite TV and all those things that we think of but they were in the stocks and in a terrible place and Yet they found in their hearts to sing hymns.

What could be behind that what could be the reason but what drove them or what kept them in that the peace of God. They they would not like to trouble see but they had the peace of God and it kept them stayed on him and again folks what I'm trying to to direct that you and myself also is that if we if we really consider ourselves in in our relationship with God, I think often we find ourselves maybe not Openly saying it but I think I'm sometimes in the in the background.

We're almost blaming God for our lack of peace and contentment. It's not God. It's us. And again God's law God's Word and what Solomon is trying to stress is that's the very reason he continually lays this out that if we will follow God's Word if we will Seek him with all our heart.

I want to show you something in these verses and I Was going to give it to you as a handout, but then I held back. But I want you to look at verses 1 through 12, and here's what I want you to say. I want you to see that there's a an exhortation or a warning and Then there is either there's a blessing attached to it.

So there's an exhortation and encouragement and then there's a blessing that's attached to it. Look, I show I will show you and I think it will become clear in verse 1 and 2. Look what he says. He says My son do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commandments.

That's that's the exhortation. That's the warning. That's the that's the word spoken to us and and here's the blessing. For length of days and long life and peace they will add to you. Now look at verse 3 and 4.

Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck write them on the tablet of your heart. There's the warning there's the exhortation and look what follows right behind it and so find favor and High esteem in the sight of God and man.

And then look at verse 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart lean on on your own understanding. There's the exhortation. There's the warning and here's the result in verse 6. In all your ways acknowledge him and what he shall direct your paths.

Verse 7 and 8 again. There's a it's linked together. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. There's the warning. There's the instruction verse 8. There's the blessing for following the instruction.

It will be help to your flesh and strength to your bones. Look at verse 9 and 10. Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the firstfruits of all your increase there it is again exhortation warning instruction verse 10.

Blessing so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. Then in verse 11 and 12 my son do not despise the chastening of the Lord nor detest his correction. There's the warning.

There's the instruction look at verse 12 for whom the Lord loves he chastens just as a father. The son in whom he delights you not see it. Can we not understand that again as Solomon is pleading and laying out instruction for us?

That it really is the mind of God. To us to to take heed to his word not just read it. Reading is great. Reading is wonderful. Taking heed to the word is far better than just reading it. Because there is a a great blessing attached to it so again, I say to you as we work through the book of Proverbs and as if we continue on and get through those specific Proverbs where it talks about the fool and the wise and this and that and some of it seems Disjointed and disconnected and just sayings and riddles and enigmas.

They're not again, it'll follow the theme throughout the whole book that there are only two kinds of people the wise and the blessed versus the fool and the cursed so again Important just to think about it in our lives on it on a daily basis, so There you see those those if you will those groupings together and we'll find this again throughout the whole book of Proverbs.

You remember when we looked in in the opening chapters where there was the do not and do this and there was an attachment of a reward and a and a blessing for those who do and then there was a Judgment and in that sense of cursing for those who do not and again.

This does not undermine at all In any way the fact that that we are saved by grace. And that and not out of yourselves is a gift of God and not of works as any man should boast and that he who began a good work in us will continue it until the day of Christ but at the very same time and I think it's especially important for us who believe in the sovereignty of God in The grace of God in the in the in the reality that that it is all of God that we don't lose sight of our responsibility to to appropriate the truth of God in our own lives.

Again it will vary in each one of us as we are different, but there's still this reality of wise diligent the blessed the fool. Lazy and when I say lazy, I don't just mean Physically lazy. I mean spiritually lazy and that those who suffer for their laziness.

So again something to think about so Let's look at verse 5 a little bit because I do believe this is a verse that It's probably a memory verse for most people. How many people remember this verse from when they were very small?

Okay. Yeah, it's one of those it's. It's one of those that we teach at a very young age because We want to kind of I know what I did with my own kids. I wanted to grind it into their minds. I just didn't want them to know it.

I wanted I wanted them to be. I wanted to carve it into their into their souls as much as I could and so It's well known trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he shall Direct your paths and and the reason I want to just stop here for a moment is because I do think sometimes the the verses and the scriptures and the passages that we are most familiar with Are sometimes the ones that we neglect in in the reality of Appropriating them to ourselves.

No as we just have them in our memory. We spit them out at times. We can repeat them on a moment's notice, but but it almost seems like we we almost ignore it to our own hurt. So just let's just a couple of thoughts about it trust in the Lord with all your heart and and I thought about it for myself and I thought about this reality of Do I really trust the Lord with all my heart?

I Mean do I do I really not only believe that God is but do I trust in The God who is and do I do I really do with all my heart? I thought of this and I know it might seem a little bit Just my thought maybe but I wonder how many times there is in our own life Where we trust the Lord with the big things.

I'm Gonna go into surgery tomorrow. I'm not gonna go. I don't know I might go to surgery tomorrow. But I don't plan on going to the surgery my brother. Let's say I was going into the surgery tomorrow.

I certainly would would pray tonight for the surgery tomorrow, right? I Wonder sometimes if we Pay too much attention to the biggies in our lives. And not enough attention to the to the little things because it says trust in the Lord with all your heart in all your ways.

Acknowledge him and he will guide your paths. And again, there are so many ways you could think about. I think about how. You know, you're gonna take a long trip. And so, you know, you get in the car and you pray for traveling mercy, right?

Right should absolutely. How many of us prayed to come here tonight safely. How many of us are gonna pray when we leave to get home safely? So you can only you can only get into a car accident when you're 400 miles away.

You can't get into an accident when you. You know, anyway my transportation background. Do you know that? The majority of accidents happen within a mile of your own house. But my point is do we trust in the Lord with all heart.

Do we lean on him? In all things again. We pray for our fellowship dinner. How many of us pray every time we take a cookie out of the cookie jar now you might say well that's that's. Too simple that's that's not necessary.

My point is I believe it is. If we really gonna acknowledge God and everything then we ought to got a knowledge God and everything, right? Trust in the Lord with all your heart in all your ways with all your issues.

And it says don't lean on your own understanding. You know what that word lean means it means to support yourself. So really what what Solomon is saying what the Word of God is saying to us is don't seek to support yourself in anything.

Seek your support from God in everything again, whether they be the biggies or the little things whether they be things of great importance or things of little importance. Again You can Consider it in so many different ways and and and I just wanted to kind of ask you to think about that and are we guilty at times of not doing exactly what we can quote to trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding in all our ways acknowledge him and.

The reason for it is what he shall direct you paths. He shall direct how many of our paths some of them most of them or all. Jeremiah 9 says something and I I'm gonna ask you to turn it. It's just probably the only one I'll ask the term.

I want you to just look at this. I Hope it's well known to you. Jeremiah 9. When you see something Jeremiah 9 and I'm gonna read Verse 23 what it says thus says the Lord. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom.

Let not the mighty man glory in his might. Nor let the rich man glory in his riches. But let him who glories glory in this that he understands and knows me that I am the Lord. Exercising loving kindness judgment and righteousness in the earth for in these things.

I delight says the Lord so again, do we Think that our wisdom in certain areas is sufficient. Says that let the wise man trust in his wisdom. Do we really think our own strength is it in some? Ways all that's needed.

I I laugh because as I'm getting a little older I'm realizing there's less strength to even worry about. But let not the strong man glory in his strength why. Because it's His strength is is all from God.

Let not the wise let not the rich glory in his riches. So again, my point is brothers and sisters that we really have to learn. The trust in the Lord with all our hearts in all our ways at all times in all expectation of him.

Meeting our need in all our ways. And then verse 7, let's take a moment and look at it how he lays this out. And Let me just add this to us this reality of trust in the Lord with all our hearts. It ought to be something that we consider every day.

Let me ask you this. Before we look at verse 7, how many of us can honestly say? And that not by raising hands or by voice how many of us honestly can say that what we do when we first get up in the morning is to seek to to apply our hearts to trust the Lord for everything that will take place in that day and Then in the evening before we shut our eyes.

Thank God for his faithfulness to us for everything that happened in that day. Okay. Good. We ought to right we ought we ought to do it and we ought to do it with with consistency and we ought to do it with reality.

Right again. Not just because it's going to be a busy day although I've read that Martin Luther gauged what time he would get up in the morning and It was dependent on what he had to do that day. And so if he felt as if there were going to be great obstacles and great issues.

He rose up earlier, and I don't think he was a late sleeper anyway. But Again, the whole point being friends. That's that's really what it means to trust in the Lord with all our hearts in all our ways acknowledge him.

And to rely on him and by the way trust in faith the sisters aren't they. That's what really faith is it's it's trust in the Lord for who he is for what he will do. And and it's the settlement of our own hearts to believe that he will.

That he will do what he says he will do. All right verse 7 and again, this goes along what I just read in in Jeremiah 9 do not Be wise in your own eyes fear the Lord and depart from evil and the blessing is it will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones.

When God says to us do not. It's not an option When God says do not be wise in your own conceits in your own eyes. It's it's not an option. It's a command. It's it's something we must do not something we can do if we Have a mind to do it, but it's it's a command and it ought to be something that we pay great attention to.

When it says do not Be wise in your own eyes. Then it it gives us the understand fear the Lord and depart from evil. Fear the Lord and depart view. One commentator and I and I read through some commentators as I go through my own study.

Just as I got to make sure that I'm not going too far to the left or too far to the right because it's easy to fall into the ditch When you're on your own and you think you when you become wise in your own mind.

It's a dangerous place. So so one commentator made this statement on this verse he said woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight because such a spirit leads to the prohibited Self-dependence and is inconsistent with the fear of God.

It's it's Such a spirit that leads to self-dependence and it is inconsistent with the fear of God and in the reality is this friends self-sufficiency. Self-reliance is often The way to find ourselves in great sorrow and suffering when we begin to think more highly of ourselves Than we ought to think when we begin to think In so many different ways.

I got this one we have nothing Apart from him. So we ought not to be wise in our own eyes. But we ought to feel the Lord when God says it. He means it. Did you just just and again? Imagine if Adam had Done what God told him how different things would be now again, I'm not Trying to say that God was caught off guard.

It was in God's purposes but what I'm saying is could can you think of all the sorrow and all the pain and all the The anguish that has come out of that one sin it affected man. It affected the creatures.

It affected the creation. Because man thought he was self-sufficient Through the temptation of the serpent and he thought he'd be his own God and he thought he'd handle it himself. And he thought he would in that sense manage God and It led to what you and I? still today Are working through thorns thistles sorrow and pain and misunderstanding and all the perplexities that come out of us.

Being wise in our own eyes. You know, it's amazing to me. It's still that way in this world today. The world is so pushy as far as trying to to Present to us that the only thing that we really need is to be self-reliant.

We need to have our own independence we need to be Individual thinkers and we need to to to just feel confidence in our own life in our own situation. It's the I call the dr. Phil teaching. Just just rely on yourself.

You go ahead you rely on yourself. And in that day When you come and your knees bowed before the Lord Jesus Christ. Will that reliance? Do you any good and that's again? It's it's so much the way of the world.

It's so much in rooted. Rooted and grounded in everything that's being done in this world of of being wise in our own eyes and not fearing the Lord and. And thinking that we're gonna prosper. I remember years ago and you know, I you know, I'm a one of those Italians.

And worse than that. I'm an Italian from the north. So I'm a real Italian. But I remember my father he would play Music Italian music and then I remember I could hear Frank Sinatra sometimes and that song.

I did it my way. That is that really what we are to to fuck. I did it my way. Is it really. Yeah, I've not heard it that much but I can. Yeah, and I'm sure and I've done a number of many funerals actually in over the years and then there are people who will say well at least he He followed his own path he did what he wanted to do.

And no one was gonna stop so-and-so from pursuing this and that again, this is the way of the fool my friends and. And again, look at the result in verse 8 and here's the here's the reality of it. If we are not wise in our own eyes if we fear the Lord if we depart from evil it will it will be.

To our blessing it will be help to our flesh and strength to our bones. Hey God is good. God is so good to all of us friends and he extends to us blessing at the blessing at the blessing. And how many times we meet people in their lives and instead of seeking God's blessing.

Through through faith and trust and obedience and dependence. They seek again to do it their own way and then for their own glory and and they rely on their own strength. And they rely on their own wisdom and they rely on their own riches and they fall flat on their face.

There is to be so much in our own lives brothers and sisters that we really need to Work on again. I I know I stress it a lot but but I really believe it that You and I need to spend much time before God about ourselves.

Because I think we spend much time before God about other people. Sometimes it's good. And sometimes it's not so good. But how about ourselves? Do we really ask God to search us? See us try us and see the see us in it for what we are and help us to turn from it.

Well, we just content to just move on. Without having to make too much adjustment. When it's not one of the reasons why so many people say well I just don't want this Christianity stuff because I have to make a lot of adjustments.

Yeah, you would but those adjustments are meant To bring health to our flesh and strength to our bones. Remember when Isaiah says why do you spend money on that which will not satisfy? Why do you do it?

And then he says come and buy my bread and milk and wine come and buy it. It's free. Do you know there's some people in this world that are so wise in their own ways? And so so foolish in their own understanding that they would never accept anything for free.

They feel like they got to pay for it they got to pay a hefty price. Is that not why some people are in business to sell just to Fools who think that unless something costs an exorbitant amount it can't be worth it.

You and I really have to ask ourselves What is it that we are really after in this life anyway, are we really after just finding a smooth pathway. Is it really all about What I can experience. Or is it about glorifying God?

Trusting God through the through the good the bad. Through the ups and the downs through the trials and the tribulations. We just move on. I do want to finish this section. I want you to look at verse 9 and 10 again another Couple if you will.

But when it says honor the Lord with your possessions and With the first fruits of all your increase. There's the warning. There's the exhortation. There's the encouragement. There's the instruction in verse 10.

There's the blessing so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine and that's not giving yet as So many would try to present it. What I believe it is is Exactly what Solomon says that we Give God what is God's do?

Even as the saying goes right we give God. What's right? Not what's left? You know, I I'm not much of a jokester, but the kids much better at it than me, but I remember a joke. I Don't know if I've ever told a joke in the pulpit, but here it goes.

It was there was a Jew a Jewish rabbi and a Catholic priest and they were discussing money. And so the Catholic priest looked at the Jewish rabbi and he said well, how do you figure things out? He said well, I throw all my money up in the air.

Whatever God wants he keeps whatever hits the ground is mine. But my point is We are not to be like that. We are to give God the first fruits of all the things that we have I wanted to show you in it again and now I'm Running out of time, but I want to at least show you something and good if you're in powers go to power chapter 11 for a minute.

Powers chapter 11. I want to show you a number of verses and when we get to them I'll probably come back to power of chapter 3 and show you our chapter 3 when we get to first chapter 11 but look at this in power of chapter 11 and verse 24 think of it and Think of yourself in relation to it.

And by the way, I don't think of it just as money. Please because it says all your possessions and if everything is given to you as a gift from God Then everything you have is God's possession. Well, if it's money or Understanding or power or anything but look at verse 24 chapter 11 there is one who scatters.

Yet increases more and there is one who withholds more than it is right. But it leads to poverty. The generous soul will be made rich. He who waters will also be watered himself. The people will curse him who withholds grain but blessing will be on the head of him.

Who sells it. There's one who scatters yet increases more and there is one who Withholds more than it's right, but it tends to poverty. I'm going to give you an example of what I mean Honor the Lord with all our possessions.

We have said Scott Phillips will be here on February 9th. Wednesday, February 9th. Okay. We have taken up collections for Scott we have Prayed for Scott as we will but I want to ask you a question. How many of us? will be here when Scott comes and What I mean by that is we will support him with our money and we might even support him with our prayers.

But how many of us have built up a boundary and say we will not support him when he comes here. We will not support him face to face. Are we really honoring the Lord with all our possessions or We determine the possessions that we will use to honor God just something to think about and I guarantee you.

Some will not come on Wednesday night simply because it's Wednesday night. Because that's not what we do. I'm sorry. I don't mean to I. I Guarantee you if we serve. I told brother keep if we maybe we need to serve lobster that night.

And we'll have more people come and you know, he said to me. He said some people complain because they're allergic to seafood. So maybe we have to do surf and turf. My whole point is that if we're going to honor the Lord with all our possessions and it ought to be all our possessions.

Not just the ones that we make decisions over. It's not my time it's not my breath. It's God's breath in me. It's not my car. It's God's car. I Remember I heard a preacher one time. He had it got into an accident.

You know what? He said he got in a pulpit. He said I wrecked the Lord's car. But I guess what I'm trying to ask us to do is when we read through Proverbs or movie to any of the word that we make the application to ourselves.

That we're not just so foolish as to think that we can just either Read it in a in a cursory way or make application to other people could be good at that. But how good are we at making applications of the word?