SERMON: Proverbs 8:32-36 (Men At The Gates)

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon. We pray that as we declare the Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who Christ is.

May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you last week. Something happened that has never happened to me and all my years of preaching. I Always do open my Bible Right with my coffee beside of me.

I need that in the morning. I don't know about you and I began preparing the sermon that I preached last week fully convinced that I was finished with Proverbs chapter 8. I Wrote outline prayed and came to church ready to preach Proverbs 9 1 through 6 and it was during our church Officer prayer meeting upstairs that I discovered my blunder.

I An elder Taylor the sermon that I was excited to preach and a and a worrisome look came across Dan's face. Like this is some strange Providence. And he alerted me of my blunder with five minutes left before service starts.

Which in our time that means like 1005. There's no time for me to rewrite the sermon and I wouldn't have dared try to do something extemporaneously without preparation. So I preached Proverbs 9 1 through 6 Resolving that the Lord must have meant it in some way that I did not understand.

God’s Providence in the Timing of the Sermon

And I'm not gonna lie it gnawed at me a little bit. I Couldn't understand how I could have missed that. Maybe it was because I preached 12 verses and thought that I had accomplished so much that I reached too far.

I don't know but this week when I watched Charlie Kirk gunned down a Man slain for speaking the truth in general. But actually more particularly for speaking a kind of peculiar truth about the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

I Understand I understood then what was happening at least for this sermon. I Understood at that point that it was not an accident that the Lord held my tongue on Proverbs 8. I Understand on my part it was certainly a blunder.

But from God's perspective this was the sermon that he wanted us to hear today and not last week. Because the God who governs every Adam Arranges the affairs of men and For us this week. We are to look at these things.

He saved this word for us today because we are living in a culture that is drunk on death. And that is what this passage talks about. So as you open up your Bibles with me to Proverbs chapter 8 verses 32 through 36 I want you to remember the wisdom of God for delaying this text until this week.

And I want you to listen as Lady Wisdom tells us Why the world is the way that it is and what? We are supposed to do about it. So if you will join me in Proverbs chapter 8 verses 32 through 36 as we explore these things together.

The text says this now therefore all sons listen to me. For blessed are they who keep my ways? Heed instruction and be wise and do not neglect it. Blessed is the man who listens to me watching daily at my gates waiting at my doorpost.

For he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord. But he who sins against me injures himself and all those who hate me love death. This is God's Word. Let's pray Lord. We thank you for your kindness and your goodness.

We thank you for your word that speaks to so many myriad situations and Lord I pray today. That your word would give us the direction. The hope and the courage that we all need to be Christian Lord. Would you steady us as a church?

Lord would you make the gospel go forth out of here with power and Lord would you bring this nation to its knees in repentance? It's in Christ's name. We pray. Amen. Did you notice how the passage ended in verse 36 all those who hate God love death.

I Mean, is there a better picture of where this country is or who this country is than that? Is there a better diagnosis for our culture than a people who have morphed so fully into hatred? Hatred of the purest truest and most beautiful being in all conceivable reality and in so Detesting God our culture has learned to love the acrid taste of death.

Like a dog trained to lust after the metallic taste of blood our society has devolved into base animalistic impulses that have been fueled by blind rage. Addiction to violence and the late stages of cultural necrosis.

And This disease will be terminal upon Western civilization in general and American culture in particular if repentance Revival and Reformation do not come. Because as this passage tells us to hate God.

The God of life is.

To embrace your own demise. It's to wield the very sword that kills you and to hold the very gun that pierced you. Hating God Doesn't just murder others. It slowly kills the murderer. Which is why Solomon says he who sins against me injures himself and.

That's precisely what we're seeing this week. Especially in such visceral clarity the hatred of God drove a young man to lay aside his video game controller. Where he was killing people in pixelated form for sport and to climb on the rooftop of Utah Valley University and to kill a living man in cold blood.

But in aiming his gun at Charlie Kirk He was also aiming it at himself. He pulled the trigger and he took two lives that day one of them that lives forevermore and One of them that is sinking into the mire of death.

Into the pit of his own hatred. He is falling and if he does not repent as our brother Ken asked in prayer, he will fall headlong forever. The same hatred motivated a student in the crowd to cheer and to dance when the so-called threat and by threat.

We mean a Christian man who is joyfully telling the world about Jesus. There he's dancing and celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk. But in celebrating the death of the righteous he's stabbing his own conscience and he is rejoicing in ruin as He is ruining himself in his own humanity.

This is what I call the boomerang of death. When a culture embraces the hatred of God so completely. When it devolves into an obsession with and love for the execution of death. It thinks it is destroying its enemies and yet in reality it is self-destructing itself.

This is why there were shrieking demons online this week. Screaming and laughing at the death of our brother Charlie Kirk. This is why we've killed 80 million babies in this country and ripped them out of the womb because we're a culture of death.

This is why pedophiles prowl down alleyways and we make terms up like minor attracted person to try to normalize.

It.

This is why doctors hand out puberty blockers like candy or like curriculum writers fill classrooms full of pornography. Or why gangland blood is running down the streets of Chicago or why needles are passed out in San Francisco or why men in? Minnesota are handed tampons.

This is why Hollywood glamorizes death and the media profits from death and why academia has become the modern-day Roman Colosseum where truth-tellers are fed to lions. Because all who hate God love death and in trying to kill others they are killing themselves and our culture, but this is Where I want to point you not to fear.

The Boomerang of Death in a Culture That Hates God

But hope.

Because even though we hear the death rattle of our culture We also hear the call for us to conquer it again for the Christ. Because evil cannot last forever. Just as a stomach virus will eventually burn itself out.

Evil in this world has an expiration sticker that is already starting to peel. What do I mean?

Well.

The only way that evil can continue according to this passage the only way that it can exist is by feasting on sin and by Mutilating the righteous which actually is polluting them. They are poisoning their own souls as They are doing this sin, which means that they don't have a long-term growth strategy.

The more they send the more death they have which means their movement will not ultimately win. And what's even more stunning is that when you realize that the church actually is founded on the opposite premise?

That when the world maims us we multiply. Then when they spill our blood it becomes the seed of the next Reformation. When they chop down one of our mightiest oaks an entire forest rises up in the ashes.

When they kill us, we don't stay dead for to live as Christ and to die is gain and That should give us great hope because evil cannot win. Because they harm themselves by doing evil and we multiply even when persecuted.

Which means that there's one inevitable conclusion for the history of this world and it is not defeat it is the ongoing building up an Installation of Christendom and that's not me. Just wishful thinking that's not Pollyanna optimism.

That's what Daniel says in chapter 2 that the God of heaven will set up a kingdom. That kingdom was set up when Jesus rose from the dead the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be Destroyed and it will crush and it will put an end to all of the other kingdoms.

But and it will itself endure forever so long before Rome conquered the world and long before the British Empire was so big that the Sun could not set on it and.

Long before.

1776 when the American Empire was made a thing God swore that he was going to build a kingdom that was going to outlast all of them and. That's why Rome is no longer here. That's why the Dutch Empire is no longer here.

That's why Britain has fallen into shambles. And that is why America is declining. But the kingdom of God is.

Bigger.

Than it ever has been. This is why God announces to Jesus through Psalm 110 that sit at my right hand and I will make your enemies a footstool for your feet. A Footstool for your feet means that he has crushed his enemies underneath the boot of his power.

This is why the book of Revelation announces boldly the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and he will reign forever and ever revelation 1115. That's why Paul says in 1st Corinthians 15.

He must reign Until he has put all of his enemies under his feet. That until is really important. He must reign until. Until what. Until somebody climbs on a tower and stops a movement.

No.

Until people with evil ideas say mean things.

No.

He must reign until Every enemy is under his feet. Every enemy. So, what do we have but hope that Our world will continue to trend towards Christ. Because he must reign until He's put all of his enemies under his feet.

That's why Paul goes on to say thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul's not writing ancient Hallmark cards. Paul means it that we have victory in Christ. That's why he says that we overwhelmingly conquer.

Well, Paul, you don't you don't see what's going on in Nigeria and you don't see what's going on in Somalia and North Korea. And you don't see what happened in Utah this week. Oh, yes, he does. It's the same God who went to the cross for us died for us and through that death Raised to life and brought the greatest victory that's ever come through the moment of greatest darkness because God brings resurrection power out of death.

This is why Habakkuk.

Says the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the water covers the sea. I've made this joke before there's a lot of water in the sea. So if that's the case, then the glory of the Lord is gonna blanket earth before he's finished.

Every shoreline every current godless city every demonically influenced government every university filled with hate and Despicable ideology is going to either be crushed under the boot of Jesus Christ.

Or it will bow down and worship him. There is no other option. This is why Paul could tell the Roman Church. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

So what I'm trying to tell you is do not fear. When we face dark days do not fear when we when we see evil seeming like it's Perpetrating great acts of violence or seeming like that. It's winning. It's not look at the back wall.

Do not be afraid little flock your father has chosen to give you the kingdom. If your father has given you the kingdom then what do we have to be afraid of. And again, that's why Paul said that we Overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us.

Romans 8 37. Brothers and sisters don't believe the headlines. Don't believe that history is spiraling towards defeat. I want you to believe in faith through the Word of God that promised it that history is trending towards his dominion.

It's not sliding into decline. History is swelling with the increase of his government. Psalm 9 or Isaiah 9 of the increase of his government. There shall be no end. You don't have to be a Greek scholar to know that if something increases until there's no end.

It's total and the gates of hell will not stand against it. Matthew 16 18. Listen the church on earth doesn't break. The gates of hell are what break. And that's why Proverbs 8 35 says he who finds me finds life.

Because it's a promise it's a promise that I want you to hang on to when you're tempted to discouragement or depression or despair. When you're tempted to lose hope. When you're tempted to to feel bleak and and.

That nothing right is gonna happen whether it be in society or whether it be in your marriage or whether it be in your home. Or whether it be in your job, whatever it is I want you to cling to the promise that he who finds me finds life and you have been found by God through Jesus Christ.

So you have life and.

That's a promise that a 30 -06 can't take away. Evil is bleeding out before our very eyes. The church is growing being fruitful and multiplying even though we're persecuted. Especially when we are persecuted.

And for that reason I want us to channel our anger and righteous ways. I want us to hang on to those two foundational truths that evil is losing and that Christ and his kingdom are winning. And I want you to take that instinct that you have to strike back or The alternate instinct that you have to shut down and give up.

And I want you to channel that energy that you have. Moments like this in inflection points like this in turning points like this and I want you to throw that Onto the scriptures that we're gonna look at now, which is verses 32 and 34.

The Victory of Christ Over a Culture of Death

You want to know what are we supposed to do in times like these? Step one. This is our holy war. This is our battle plan. Step one. Shut up and listen Verse 32 and 34 now therefore all sons listen to me.

Heed.

Instructions and be wise and do not neglect it for blessed are those who keep my ways blessed is the man who? listens to me. I Love that the war plan that God gives begins with listening not speaking not shouting not running not jumping not arming not Any of those things and I also want to mention here that this is directed to men in a massive way.

It says now therefore omission or Oh sons. Listen. Sons are the men of a country. You'll remember that the book of Proverbs is written to a son. But this passage is written to these sons the sons of ancient Israel who were bought in covenant status By God and by extension all of us who belong to the Israel of God.

This passage belongs to us as well. Solomon calls out the sons. He calls out the men. He calls out the young the old the men of a nation. And this is what he tells us to do in the face of horrifying evil.

You must begin by listening. Before a word is spoken before a shout is screamed before a sword is ever lifted. You must direct your mind to listen to God that's how the battle begins and we ought not be surprised by this because we are quick Christians and Most things that we believe are counter to our flesh.

I Mean the world rages as mobs Sprinting from impulse to impulse rolled by their glands instead of their God and we see that they demand more blood. More vengeance more justice more wrath. And yet the sons of the Kings are not like that.

The sons of the Kings are not barbarians. We're soldiers under discipline and under orders. Our King doesn't unleash Untrained conscripts to flail wildly in the darkness. He forges men into disciplined men he makes them into righteous men who marched to the sound of his voice alone and The very first order in the war against evil is men listen.

Listening is not passive. Listening is not weak. Listening is active resistance to your own flesh and mutiny against your fallen instincts. Listening is the act of slamming the brakes upon the unrighteous application of your rage and It is throwing open the gates of your own heart to hear and ponder the Word of God.

Listening is holding for a moment until your commander tells you to ride. Listening accepts that your authority in the situation is not supreme that you are not omniscient that you are not omnipotent.

That you don't know what's best. And that everything must be submitted to him. This is how we win. We do not win by becoming what we hate. We do not conquer evil by mirroring its madness. We don't drive out demons by getting in league with Beelzebub.

We win by obeying the voice of Almighty God. When the world is howling We're like Mary bowing. When the world demands Martharian frenzy, I think I made up that word. We win by opening up the scriptures.

Man, this is why James tells us everyone must be quick to hear slow to speak slow to anger for the anger of man does Not achieve the righteousness of God. Now when James is talking here about anger, he's not talking about the righteous application of anger.

He's not talking about being angry and sending not. He's talking about the kind of anger. Where? Men are especially prone to especially young men who in their haste will react in fury instead of faithfulness.

We need to know what listening to the Word of God means again. And that's what made Charlie Kirk so compelling, isn't it? He was a man who studied hours a day and Shared Christ everywhere. He went it was contagious and that is why they hated him.

They didn't hate him because he was a jerk. They hated him because of Jesus. What do I mean when I say that we are first in the war for the world to listen I mean that we must know God's Word. Man if you are scantily reading the Word.

Recommit yourself to reading it studying it knowing it loving it. What how in the world will you know what you're supposed to do in any given situation if you do not know what God has?

Said.

You.

Must know it so that you can obey it. How can we keep our way pure if we do not know the Word of God? How do we know our marching orders if we do not know what our commander has said? The first step in fighting evil is to listen.

Not to pick up the rifle and foment and fury or the keyboard. Not to stew in vindictive revenge, but to sit in humble submission to your God. That's why Proverbs says now therefore all sons. Listen to me heed instruction and be wise and do not neglect it be disciplined when it comes to the things of God and Before you think that what I'm saying is weakness.

It says for blessed are they who keep my ways. Blessed is the man who listens to me. I want you to notice the order that this passage gives us. Listening precedes conquering but it doesn't negate it. Conquering follows.

Obedience precedes victory because victory is coming. Before we wage holy war against a culture of death before we conquest it before we crusade it and before we give into the growing cry for civil war before we do those things shouldn't we first listen to what sayeth our God.

And Shouldn't we first declare war if war is going to be declared upon our sinful self and our sinful tendencies? And to our actions our body and our soul that is bent upon selfishness and when we do that work.

Listening to God. He doesn't hand us scraps. He hands us blessings. That's the paradox of holy war in the life of the kingdom. The world promises blessings to the to the brash to the loud to the vengeful.

The ones who rush in and blow things up, but God gives blessings to the obedient. That's why scripture said bless is the man who fears the Lord who greatly delights in his commandment psalm 112 1. That's why he says in Isaiah 66 to to this one I will look declares the Lord to him who is humble and contrite of spirit who trembles at my word Isaiah 66 2.

That's why Jesus says blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God. This is why Solomon says that the warfare begins with listening. Because if you will not listen to God you will join the ranks of those who tear down and Break and burn and you will do it from a Christless conservatism.

Trying to counterbalance the demonic left. But that's not where we end. We must listen, but that's not all we do. The second step in The war for this world is a call for the men to go back to the gates.

Verse 34 B says watching daily at my gates, which means that obedience and Listening is not the end of the fight. It's the ignition and the fuel of it. Once you've bent the ear to God. You cannot sit down in passive piety.

You have to stand up you have to move your feet. Obedience is not pietism. Once you've listened to the voice of wisdom reading learning loving and obeying the Holy Scriptures. You must now march to the city gates.

Listening to Wisdom Before Taking Action

In.

The ancient world. The city gates were the beating heart of public life. They were the courthouse the capital in the marketplace wrapped into one fell swoop. Justice was rendered at the gates. Ruth for one through two rulers sat in council at the city gates.

Proverbs 31 23. Prophets thundered their rebukes at the city gates. Amos 5 10 through 15. Commerce and contracts were struck at the city gates. Genesis 23 10 through 18. So when Solomon says blessed is the man who listens to me watching daily at the gates.

He's not describing men who are cloistered away in a private prayer closet. Refusing to stand up when culture is falling apart around us. He's not describing a Ned Flanders kind of milquetoast effeminate cowardly caricature of an evangelical Christian.

He's describing a man Standing in the public square Helmet on sort of the spirit in tow waiting for wisdom's marching orders ready to build ready to rule ready to put endless energy and enthusiasm towards the things of God and That my friends is where we are lacking as a church in America.

We go to church on Sunday and we pray and we read our Bible, but we're not at the gates. We've become escape artist. But I will tell you there is no Houdini and holiness. Being a faithful Christian is not about hunkering down or biding your time or learning how to become a better more aesthetic.

Recluse.

Being a faithful Christian is letting your Listening and obedience to God fuel you into building the kingdom of God to bring the gospel and the mission back to the world. And That is what Charlie Kirk was fueled by consumed by obsessed with.

That's what woke him up early in the morning fueled him to college campuses all over the country to share the gospel To answer any question that came to him. And that's why they hated him because he did not treat his Christianity like it was a spectator sport.

My brothers and sisters in Christ.

Obedience.

Biblically speaking is not avoiding culture. Obedience is finding out how you are uniquely gifted to win it to Christ. And. You're probably and I'm not either as prolific a talent as Charlie Kirk was.

But can't you do something? Aren't there some small ways that you could stand at the gates and hold the line of faithfulness. Far too many Christians have gone AWOL. Do you know what that word means? Absent without leave.

Our commander's not told you to run. It even says in Revelation that cowards won't even be welcome in heaven. So our commander's not told us to do that. But for decades, we've been absent without leave without orders.

Your commander has called you to the gates.

Listen.

Right after he says listen to me the very next thing he says is go to the gates. So like how good is our listening if we're not going to the gates? How good is our listening? Oh sons. Oh men. Who say that we fear the Lord but have no approach to engaging culture.

Have no approach to watching and engaging with the gates of culture. Can we really say that we're listening? If that's the case Far too many today whisper Christ in the safe places and deny him in the city square usually in silence.

Far too many for far too long have created a kind of pseudo Christianity in their mind. That's not real. Where they imagine that hiding from the world is akin to holiness. Do you know where hiding first shows up in the Bible in the garden because of sin?

Hiding is evil. Engagement. Righteous engagement is holy. Have we forgotten that we're salt and light? Have we forgotten that if we remove ourself from the world it will it will corrode. What happens when you turn the light off in a room but it becomes dark.

We are the light. That is meant to shine in a crooked and adulterous generation. So the man and the woman who aspires to biblical wisdom in this room. Must stand in the gates must engage with culture.

Must engage not like a Watchman on the wall who has his sword polished in the closet. But as those who have a plan.

To win the world.

The gates are where Christ or Christ claims the hearts of men. The gates are where wise men must stand. Now, what does that look like? That's a important question. Well, I think first and foremost it means taking responsibility.

It means Christian men We have a responsibility unto God to watch and engage with the gates of culture. We haven't we have an obligation to influence society For the things of God and to bring his scepter to the world.

It means maybe running for school boards or town councils or state legislatures. Not in order to play in the silly backbiting games of which road is going to go here or there. No, but to bring the law of God and the justice of Jesus to our towns.

Maybe it means building businesses that bring blessings to our community practicing honest weights and measures. And Using that gathered wealth to fund churches missionaries and ministries of mercy. It may mean buying a church building.

It may mean setting up a wrong or prove me wrong tent in a local college. It might be standing outside of a Planned Parenthood and saying I'm gonna pray that that these Ladies who are coming will choose life instead of death.

Or refusing maybe you're the woke nonsense that is going on in your company. Our life is not our own. We've been bought with a price and our life is hidden with Christ. Which means we must be about the things of Christ and not in hidden ways.

Not in silent ways. Jesus said if you're ashamed of me and my word I Will be ashamed of you. Maybe it means capturing the cultural gates through storytelling. Through journalism through music through art so that the moral Imagination of our people are no longer formed by sex traffickers and perverts in Hollywood.

But shaped by men and women of faith who are now bringing glory to Christ. It might mean forming the minds of the next generation building schools writing curriculum teaching your children at the dinner table so that the fear of the Lord becomes the foundation of their life.

And It might mean planting churches that preach truth or strengthening up elders to serve God's people or defending the flock from danger or launching waves of trained men into the world after the car after the Benediction has been given to go into the world and make disciples of all the nations.

It has to begin by repentance. We have to repent of our inactivity. We have to repent of our not being salt and light. We have to repent that the culture that has gone rotten has gone rotten on our watch.

And we have to repent that the kind of Christianity that we've had for 50 years in this country has produced a spectating culture an easy believism culture a cheap grace culture. A Culture where men like Charlie Kirk seem radical when in fact, he is actually not radical at all our generation.

From the youngest ones to the oldest we need to recommit ourself to the Lord on this very point. That we will be the generation that pushes back the darkness instead of accepting that it must push us.

That we will be the ones who will see the gates of hell fall down again. That we will be the ones who see our children not devoured by the left. That our marriages don't end in divorce. That our daughters don't become pregnant and have to choose at least in their own minds abortion.

That we would lead the world in righteousness again and faithfulness again and holiness again catechizing our children so that they're Unstealable. This is what it means to stand at the gates. It means not waiting passively for the world to improve while you put your hands in your pockets and whistle Dixie.

It means waking up manning up loading up walking with Christ and holiness into the world with a Deliberate intent that today and every day hereafter. I'm gonna change it inch by inch for his glory. Using the skills the gifts the resources and the time that God has given you how many seconds will we be accounted for for wasting.

I Love the poem by CT stud. I especially love the line where he says all things shall soon be passed and only what is done for Christ will last. That passage haunts me. That passage fuels me and I hope it does you too.

That's step two. Step one is that we listen fervently to God listen to his word. Listen to what he has told us to. And the next thing is we don't sit on our laurels. We actually get up and have a plan for winning this world to Christ expanding the kingdom of God sharing the gospel seeing the wicked pushed back.

Standing at the Gates and Engaging Culture

And Step three. We don't just have a call from Scripture and a call to the gates. We see that call come from Christ himself. I want you to notice what Jesus has done for you. We don't often talk about the gospel in this way, but I want you to hear it in this way.

Jesus did not sit on his hands in heaven waiting for the world to get better. Did he he didn't. Sit there and complain and gripe and say oh, well, this is just what the world does. For thousands of years he sent his prophets to try to win his people back to God.

And when they killed his prophets and when they killed his Messengers and when they put down the people that he sent he did not throw up his hands in Discouragement and hide away in the in the heavenly libraries where he could read all of the wonderful books.

That's my imagination of heaven. He stood up and he came. I Want you to think about this our Holy Father Son and Holy Spirit before time was made before Adams were forged. Created a plan where the Creator would come and be a part of his creation.

And they wrote Jesus into the womb of a virgin woman and They wrote Jesus into our life in our world so that he would come and engage the city gates. I want you to think about Jesus his life here. He didn't sit quietly away on some hilltop somewhere.

He did go away to pray at times, but the majority of his life was engaging the city gates. Look at when he's 12 years old, he's going to the leadership of the temple and challenging them. Look at the rest of his life at 30.

He engaged at Cana. He went to the temple. He was healing people publicly. He was preaching in the streets. He was teaching people the parables that that of God. He was showing them how they needed to repent and.

What did they do?

They did the same thing that they did to the prophets before him. They shot him down and murdered him.

Publicly.

But my friends, this is where the story of the gospel is so sweet. Because Jesus didn't hide from it but for the joy set before him he endured the cross. He didn't hide. He didn't cower. He didn't run.

He ran at danger. He ran toward the threat he ran at it. And here's what I want you to see. That in the moment of greatest darkness this world has ever seen Jesus brought out life. That's what it means to be a Christian is that we believe in a God who resurrects dead things.