Proverbs 12 (July 21, 2024)

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FBC Travelers Rest sermon from July 21, 2024 by Pastor Rhett Burns

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We can turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 12. Proverbs chapter 12.
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We're continuing our series through the book of Proverbs this summer. And again, kind of like last week,
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I'm not going to go in numerical order of the verses. I want to start with verse 3 and let that frame our time together this morning.
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And then we'll go in with some selective verses at a time. But let me begin by reading
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Proverbs 12 verse 3. God's Word says this, a man is not established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous cannot be moved.
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A man is not established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous cannot be moved. I remember a couple years ago, there was a really bad storm one night, lying in bed, asleep when about midnight,
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Shana and I both woke up to a large bang, kind of shook the house. A tree had fallen on our roof right above our bedroom.
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Now the house was surrounded by trees, but this one, thankfully, was the only one that fell that night.
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The reason that it fell was it was dead. Its roots were dead and rotting.
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The roots of the living trees all around the house held firm in the storm. Have you ever looked out during a bad windstorm to see the trees blowing in the wind?
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It's really amazing when you think about it, how they will bend but not break if the roots are strong.
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Trees have deep roots, roots that go deep and wide into the ground. These roots hold the tree upright, even as the tree towers towards the heavens and sprawls its branches wide.
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Verse 3 teaches us that that man is not established by wickedness, that the wicked man does not hold firm in the day of adversity, in the storms of life.
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No, he is toppled, he's moved. Like the tree on my roof that night, he falls.
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His roots are dead and rotting, corrupted by sin and subject to decay.
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But Proverbs 12 3 tells us the root of the righteous cannot be moved.
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A hurricane couldn't take him down. The roots of the righteous are sunk down deep and wide into the
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Word of God and it holds. The roots of the righteous are sunk down deep and wide into God himself and he cannot be moved.
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Now we live in a day and time when we need more men and women who cannot be moved.
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See, dark clouds have moved overhead, the winds of culture are blowing hard, evil is raining down, the the loudest voices for wickedness clap like thunder.
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Times are as unstable as the power grid during the hurricane and in such times the root of the righteous cannot be moved and we need more men and women who cannot be moved.
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Charles Bridges commenting on verse 3 says this, a little bit long quote but I want to read it in its entirety.
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He says, firm and unshaken is the condition of the righteous. Their leaves may wither in the blast, their branches may tremble in the fury of the tempest, but their root, the true principle of life, shall not be moved.
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They are scarcely saved, not without many tossings, but they are surely saved.
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Beyond the powers of hell to destroy, does not thy faith,
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Christian, sometimes faint in the wearisome assaults of thy implacable enemy?
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Rejoice in the assurance that it cannot fail. Thou art rooted and grounded in a sure foundation.
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Let the Lord who is thy strength be thy song. He only is my rock and my salvation.
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I shall not be greatly moved, I shall not be moved at all. And how bright is this prospect for the church.
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It shall not be moved. Triumphant is her confidence in the day of conflict.
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The gates of hell shall not prevail. No weapon that is formed against her shall prosper.
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From Proverbs 12, I want to talk to you this morning on the subject of how to not be moved.
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How to not be moved. How to stand like a tall oak tree. How to remain steadfast like a rock, like a fortress.
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How to not be tossed about by the winds. Now some of this is foundational, some of this will be practical.
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All of this though will be about righteous living so that in the day of trouble, in the day of adversity, you will not be moved.
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And I want to begin by focusing on the heart, that deep down place where your roots are.
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If the heart be righteous then so shall the branches. For what is in your heart,
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Jesus says, comes out of your mouth. What is in your heart comes out of your hands and out of your life.
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Read with me verse 2. A good man obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of wicked intentions he will condemn.
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A good man. You can't be a good man, you can't have a good man without a good heart.
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If the tree is bad, so is the fruit, right? Goodness, Galatians 5 teaches us, is a fruit of the
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Spirit. And so the good man is filled with the Spirit of God. His life has been transformed by the grace of God.
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He's been reborn, he's been made new, he's been given a new heart. And where once sin reigned in his heart, now righteousness springs forth and flourishes.
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The good man with a good heart obtains favor from the Lord. Grace to stand and not be moved in the day of trouble.
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But God will condemn, verse 2 tells us, the man of wicked intentions.
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Where do one's intentions reside? In the heart. And so I'd ask you, how's your heart?
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Is it devoted to the Lord? Have you been reborn, remade, renewed, regenerated?
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Have you been made alive with Christ? Let's continue on reading verse 5.
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The thoughts of the righteous are right, but the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.
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Again, where do thoughts then arise from? They arise from the heart. And so in these two verses, verses 2 and 5, we see
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God address both the thoughts and intentions of man. Now many people would say it's not the thoughts or intentions, it's not our thoughts or intentions or desires that are sinful, but only our actions, the things we do.
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That is, the important thing is that our behavior, what we do and only what we do.
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But if you remember Genesis 6, before the flood, in that situation, what does
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God say about mankind that he is about to judge with the floods? Genesis 6, verse 5 says, every intent of the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually.
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Thoughts, intentions, heart. The heart is the soil where the fruit of our actions and our behavior grows.
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There is not a disconnect between our hearts and what we do. They are connected. And so yes, it is a bad thing to do something wrong, but it is the same sin to want to do the thing that was wrong.
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To think about it, to desire it, to intend to do it, even long before you actually do it.
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And this is why Paul instructs us to take every thought captive for Christ. To think on the things that are honorable and pure and excellent,
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Philippians 4. Because we first fight the battle against sin in the thoughts and intentions of our hearts.
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And so you want to stand and not be moved, you must take control of your thoughts and win the battle against sin there in your heart.
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The thoughts of the righteous are right. Continuing on, verse 7.
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The wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous will stand.
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Again, we see the promise that the righteous shall not be moved. The house of the righteous is built on the rock who is
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Jesus Christ and he shall stand when the wind, the waves come against it. The house of the wicked though is the house that's built on sand and it will be overthrown.
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So build your house on Christ the solid rock. Verse 8.
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A man will be commended according to his wisdom, but he who is of a perverse heart will be despised.
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The man with a perverse heart, a twisted heart, a heart that is that is not set aright by God, he will be despised.
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But a man will be commended according to his wisdom, wisdom that dwells in the heart of the righteous.
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Don't you think back to a few stories in the Old Testament. Think for just a moment on Joseph. He found himself sold into slavery.
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He was falsely accused and thrown into prison. I would say those are some storms in his life, some days of adversity in his life.
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Yet he arose to second command to Pharaoh in Egypt, governing all of Egypt.
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How? Well his heart was right before God. He grew in wisdom and he was commended for it as verse 8 says.
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And he was not moved. Or take Daniel. He was exiled into Babylon. He was fed to the lions.
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His heart was right before God. He would not eat the king's meat. He would not obey the order not to pray to the one true and living
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God. And he was exalted for his wisdom. Moving on, verse 12.
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The wicked covet the catch of evil men, but the root of the righteous yields fruits.
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Envy and covetousness rule the hearts of evil men. They want what others have and will do whatever it takes to have it.
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And if they cannot have it, they will do whatever it takes for the other person not to have it. That is the fruit of envy and covetousness.
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Elsewhere in Proverbs says envy is like rottenness in the bones. It destroys. But the root of the righteous, it actually yields fruit.
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It doesn't destroy, but it builds. And in context here, the fruit is of a contented heart.
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One with a contented heart lives with open hands. And if God places something in those hands, he's thankful for it.
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If God takes something out of those open hands, he is thankful for it. For he obeys the
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Apostles command in 1st Thessalonians 5 18 that give thanks in all circumstances.
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For he has learned as Philippians 4 teaches us, he's learned whatever state he is in to be content. How to lack and how to abound.
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Everywhere and in all things he has learned to both be full and be hungry.
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Both to abound and to suffer need. For he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him.
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The contented heart cannot be moved by the manipulations of envy and covetousness.
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It cannot be driven to rash purchases or conniving schemes in order to one -up somebody else.
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He is content with what God has put in his open hands. And he's not destroyed by what
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God has taken from his open hands. He lives content before the
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Lord. Verse 28, in the way of righteousness is life and in the path and in its pathway there is no death.
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Life and death are before us. Blessing and cursing, standing and falling, in which you shall inherit or which shall befall you.
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It all depends on your heart. Are you righteous?
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Now I said this last week and I'll say it again today and Lord willing I'll be saying the same thing for the next 50 years.
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There is no righteousness apart from Jesus Christ. We are all sinners. We are all traitors and coveters and liars and we have no righteousness of our own.
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But we do have a Savior, a dear Savior, a sweet Savior who died for us.
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Who gives his perfect spotless righteousness from his perfect spotless obedience during his earthly life.
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He gives that to us as a free gift to all who will believe and trusted him turning from their sins to him.
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And that righteousness changes us. We are declared holy and then we become holy as our
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Lord is holy. This is the way of life and this life is everlasting and we shall not be moved from it.
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What we've seen in these first selection of verses is the foundation of standing in the day of adversity.
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It's the foundation of not being moved but being steadfast, being established.
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And that foundation is a righteous heart. What I want to do now is move on to the rest of the chapter.
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I want us to look at the fruit of a righteous heart that comes to the forefront in decisions that we make in very practical matters.
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Now a righteous heart is something that God does. God is the one who saves.
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God is the one who gives us a new heart. The righteousness that we have is the fruit of Jesus's obedience, not our own obedience.
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It's what Christ did. It's not our own righteousness and our new heart is not of our own doing.
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It's God's work and so praise be to God. God also made us to have real, genuine agency in our lives and like in the parable of the talents we are expected to do something with what he gives us.
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We're told elsewhere in the New Testament to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. God is the one who gave us a salvation.
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God is the one who gave us the new heart. Yet we are to work it out. As I've heard before we work out what
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God works in. God works in salvation then we work it out. So what I want us to do as we work our way through the rest of Proverbs 12, clustering some verses together that give us practical instruction for decisions that we will make.
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And if we make the right decisions, the righteous ones, the righteous decisions, we can stand in the day of adversity.
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We can be established and not be moved. So the first decision is the decision to listen to instruction and correction.
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See that in verse 1. Let me read it. Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.
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We've seen a variation of this same proverb all throughout. Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge.
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To be teachable, to be coachable, to love instruction. But it says he who hates correction is stupid.
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Now here's a good life lesson for you. Don't be stupid. Pretty profound, right? Like if you want to set a goal for yourself for the rest of the year, not being stupid is a pretty good goal.
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Because the stupid fall and fail. They do not stand in the day of trouble.
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But God, God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth says himself right here in Proverbs 12 that refusing to hear correction is stupid.
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But the one who loves instruction loves knowledge. And so I ask you, do you love instruction?
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Not just, not just tolerate it or begrudgingly listen to it. Do you love it?
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The wise love instruction and correction because becoming right, actually being right, is more important to them than being right in the first place.
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Becoming right is more important than having been right. The one who is teachable learns and the one who learns stands and he's not moved.
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Second decision, whom to marry. So verse 4,
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Solomon's given his son marriage advice. Now the question of whom to marry, many of us in here have already made that decision, some of you a long time ago.
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But I want to frame it this way for those of us in here who have not made that decision yet of whom to marry and the rest of us who have can make the necessary adjustments.
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Adjustments for what kind of spouse am I going to be? What kind of husband? What kind of wife? And what kind of marriage advice you will give?
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But I want to, I want to frame it as that decision of whom to marry because it's an important one. Let me read verse 4.
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An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who causes shame is like rottenness in his bones.
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You see, whom you decide to marry, whom one decides to marry, will have massive implications for the rest of one's life.
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In many ways, not in every way, but in many ways, a person will stand or fall based upon that decision of whom to marry.
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It's a massive one. Solomon's talking to his son here, so the context is a young man finding a young woman to marry.
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He says that an excellent wife is the crown of her husband. She is the most prominent and glorious adornment for him.
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Think of crowns, they are bejeweled. They are made of precious metals. It's a symbol of royalty, highly prized, highly valuable.
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This is what an excellent wife is described as. The excellent wife, by her gentle and quiet spirit, by her industriousness, by her beauty, by her glorifying touch, by her loyalty, is like a precious and valuable crown upon the head of her husband.
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But a woman who causes shame by her persistence in sin, by acting contrary to her feminine nature, by her disloyalty, the
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Bible says she's rottenness in the bones. She weakens the man and causes decay in all that he loves and holds dear.
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She makes life miserable for him. And so, in just a second, I want to reason to the corollary about a young woman finding a young man.
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But first, I want to address something there. There's been a lot of, I would say, poor teaching, misinformation on the subject of marriages that fail, causes of divorce.
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I just want to take just a second to mention a reality as a warning for those that are not yet married.
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So Aaron Wren is a consultant and social researcher commentator. He notes that majority of divorces in America, something like 70 percent, are initiated by women and usually not for reasons that a church would find, a church would recognize as a valid reason, like adultery or abandonment or abuse.
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In other words, these are just purely elective divorces. And you add on that the legal system that is stacked against men who are victims of these unjustified divorces, they can ruin someone financially.
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Now, accounting for all the caveats about the faults of husbands in some particular marriages, don't deny that at all,
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I just want to note two things here. One is that the rise of feminism in our country has created conditions that are set against husbands in these situations, where it makes a woman divorcing a man for no good reason and harming him easier than ever.
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That's the first thing I want to note. The second thing I want to note really is an encouragement to young men in here. Find a woman who exhibits godly character.
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Marry her, especially as that character relates to the Bible's teaching on what it means to be a godly woman.
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Because if you don't take note of these things, what you're doing, you're setting yourself up for a storm.
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You can withstand that storm, many do, but why create one just because she wanted to marry the pretty girl with low character?
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Of course, as I mentioned before, there are corollaries for a young woman finding a young man to marry.
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So a young lady, she could marry the bad boy just because he's handsome and has the skill that will potentially make him a lot of money.
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But if he's not a man of godly character, especially in how it relates to the Bible's teaching on what it means to be a godly man, then he is not worthy of you, young lady, as his crown.
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He will be a storm in your life. And so the instruction then is to marry well. Looking at verse 4, you want to find the excellent wife and you want to find the excellent husband, as God defines those things.
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Third decision, and it's often related to this question, is listen to wise counsel.
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Let me read verses 5, excuse me, 5, 15, and 26. The thoughts of the righteous are right, but the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.
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Verse 15, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise.
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Verse 26, the righteous should choose his friends carefully for the way of the wicked leads them astray.
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I say these things are related because often when you're considering marriage to the wrong person, you will have friends and family who warn against it.
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And these type of decisions, you should listen to that kind of counsel. So I remember being in high school and I was dating a girl
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I probably shouldn't have been. And to be fair, I didn't have the highest character then either, but my mom did not like me dating this young lady.
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And so I was going to pick her up for dinner one night, and as I was putting my socks and shoes on, I kind of mentioned that I was thinking of breaking things off.
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And so my mom said that she'd give me five dollars if I actually did it. A family friend who was there for dinner with my parents, he chimed in and said that if I was back by seven o 'clock, he'd chip in five dollars too.
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So I ended up, high school parking lot over at Blue Ridge, having this conversation.
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About 645, I am scrambling trying to figure out how to end this thing. And I did get home a few minutes after seven, but they threw in, they counted it, and they threw in an extra few bucks.
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I made $20 that night. Now, I'm not saying that that was the best way to go about things.
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That was a virtuous scenario there. But I am incredibly thankful that I listened to the counsel of my mother.
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And I'll note that there were no such disincentives whenever I got ready to marry Shannon. She was all on board with that.
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But the point is, to listen to the counsel of others. There's much wisdom in it.
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Other people often see things more clearly than we see because we're too close to the situation. And the wise listen to the counsel of others.
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And when they do, they stand in the day of adversity. And often, they avoid some days of adversity.
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Fourth decision is the decision to be humble. Let me read verses 9 and 10. Better is the one who is slighted but has a servant, than he who honors himself but lacks bread.
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A righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
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The sense here, verse 9, is that it's better to have what you have and not make a show of it, even if it means you are slighted or looked down by those who have more, than it is to pretend that you have more in order to make a show of it, when you don't even have basic needs like bread.
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And so a modern application of this would be the cliche, keeping up with the Joneses. To keep up appearances, people will take out all sorts of debt, put themselves in bad financial position, to the point where their bread, their basic needs, are threatened.
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And the root of this is pride. It's pride, as is the one who mistreats his animal, verse 10.
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Mistaking a human's higher rank in the created order to be an excuse for treating animals harshly.
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And so the Proverbs, they teach that a surefire way to fall, that is to not stand but to be moved, and drastically so, is to be prideful.
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Pride goeth before a fall. God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.
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And so in every facet of your life, choose humility and flee pride.
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Read Philippians chapter 2 and think of your Savior, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
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And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
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Be humble like your Savior is humble, and stand in the day of adversity.
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Fifth decision is to work diligently. Let me read verses 11, 24, and 27.
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He who tills his land will be satisfied with bread, but he who follows frivolity is devoid of understanding.
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Verse 24, the hand of the diligent will rule, but the lazy man will be put to forced labor.
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Verse 27, the lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting, but diligence is man's precious possession.
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What we see here is that the diligent, those who put their hand to the plow, will be filled with bread.
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He will not lack what he needs. The diligent will rule. Having ruled himself, he will have some sort of self -determination.
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The diligent will enjoy the fruits of his labor, but the lazy man will be put to shame, put to forced labor, and will fall in the day of trouble, because he did not work in the day of peace.
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Be diligent. Sixth decision is the decision to speak wisely, to watch your words and use them well, to speak wisely.
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Let me read a selection of verses beginning in verse 13. The wicked is ensnared by the transgression of his lips, but the righteous will come through trouble.
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A man will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth, and the recompense of a man's hands will be rendered to him.
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A fool's wrath, verse 16, is known at once, but a prudent man covers shame.
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Verse 18, there is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health.
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23, a prudent man conceals knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaims foolishness.
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Lastly, verse 25, anxiety in the heart of a man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad.
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You see, the importance of our words and how we speak. Bridges comments, many have felt the lashes upon their backs for want of a bridle upon their tongues.
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Taming your tongue sinks the roots of your life deep and wide down into wisdom.
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I want to take two of these verses and comment briefly on them. First is verse 18. I actually memorized this verse in the
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ESV translation. I love the ESV's rendering of this verse. It says, there is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
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I memorized that verse after I was convicted of sin. We were living in Turkey at the time and convicted that my rash words against a missionary teammate were sin.
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And I realized that the words that I had said to this person, it was the verbal equivalent of taking out a sword and cutting them, which
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I would never do physically, but I have with my words. And it says, the tongue of the wise brings healing, not cuts.
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This verse makes me think about Lucy in the Chronicles of Narnia, if you've ever read that. Lying the witch in the wardrobe, she has this little magic cordial.
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Just a drop of it will heal the wound of a sword. Wise words can do that.
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They can bring healing. Speak in such a way to heal, not harm. To build up, not tear down.
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See something similar in verse 25, speaks to this as well. But a good word makes the heart glad.
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A good word makes the heart glad. You have the ability by your words to make the hearts of others sing, soar, and be glad.
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Let me ask you, whom can you encourage today, tomorrow? To whom can you build up rather than tear down with your words?
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Maybe your kids, maybe your spouse, maybe a co -worker, maybe a fellow church member. Speak wise words and make their hearts glad.
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Speak wise words and bring healing. And then lastly, the seventh decision is the decision to tell the truth.
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Verse 17, he who speaks truth declares righteousness, but a false witness, deceit.
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19, the truthful lip shall be established forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.
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Verse 20, deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but counselors of peace have joy.
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Verse 22, lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are his delight.
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The truthful lips shall be established forever.
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Verse 19 says, you will not be moved if you tell the truth, for the truth is eternal.
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And verse 22 says, the truth delights the Lord. Hugh Latimer and his fellow
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English preacher Nicholas Ridley, they were tied to the stake to be burned as martyrs under the reign of Bloody Mary.
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Their crime, preaching the truth. Latimer, he preached his final truthful sermon that day as they were tied to the stake and lit the flame.
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He looked at Ridley, he said, be of good comfort, Master Ridley. Play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as I trust shall never be put out.
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And Charles Bridges commenting on this said, the lip also of the faithful minister of God is established forever.
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For whatever he binds and looses on earth shall be bound and loosed in heaven. The truth is eternal.
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The truth is eternal. The truth shall not be moved. Stand in the truth and speak the truth and you shall not be moved.
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A man is not established by wickedness, verse three, but the root of the righteous cannot be moved.
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And so in all of these practical decisions that we face in our lives, choose the righteous path by God's grace and stand.
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Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we ask for the grace to stand.
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And so toward that end, Father, I pray that we would be humble. I pray that we would speak wise words that bring healing, not rash words that cut.
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Father, I pray that we would tell the truth and cling to the truth.
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Father, I pray that our hearts will be right before you and that we would tend the garden of our hearts and pluck out the weeds of sin that would choke out righteousness and produce ungodly fruit in our lives, but rather that we attend it well with your word by your spirit and then the fruit of our lips and the fruit of our hands will be righteous living before you, knowing that no matter what comes, the righteous shall not be moved.
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We know this is all by your grace. It is all from your, a generous gift from you.