Proverbs 2:1-22 (June 18, 2023)

Proverbs 2 and the Logic of “If-Then” Wisdom

If you have your Bibles, you can turn to Proverbs chapter 2. Proverbs chapter 2, we're going to be in verses 1 through 22, the whole chapter this morning, as we continue our summer series through the book of Proverbs.

Now life is full of if-then statements. And so if you do this, that will happen. If-then. Maybe it's a good thing that'll happen, maybe it's a bad thing that'll happen, but whatever it is, it's a consequence of the first thing, if-then.

For example, you might say to your child, if you keep your room clean all week, then we'll get ice cream on Friday. Or maybe negatively, if you yell at your sister one more time, then you'll go to bed early.

If-then. Proverbs chapter 2 is one really big if-then statement. In fact, I believe in Hebrew, the entire chapter is just one really long sentence. And it's one that is conditional. If-then. Let's begin reading through this chapter with the first four verses.

The first four verses contain the if-clause of that if-then statement. So let me read, this is the word of the living God in Proverbs chapter 2, beginning with verses 1 through 4. And it says, My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding, yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures.

This is the word of God to us this morning. This is the if part of the sentence. And the rest of the chapter kind of goes into the then clause. But what we see here in verse 1, again, we see that Solomon is addressing his son.

He's giving him instruction on how to live well in God's world. He's telling him that if he will do these things, verses 1 through 4, then he can expect these results, verses 5 through 22. And the reason that Solomon can give this type of instruction, that if you do this, this will happen, the reason he can give that type of instruction is because we live in a world ordered by God.

This is not a world that is left to random chance. Rather, God has made this world in a certain way. And things in this world operate according to how God has made it. This is not a random world. And so, if you plant tomato seeds in May and ensure they get water and sunshine, and if you will give them a cage or a trellis to grow on, then you can eat tomato sandwiches in June.

If then, right?

God has made the world where seeds grow with water and sunshine. And God has made the world where if you give a southerner fresh tomatoes, then he'll slap some Duke's mayonnaise on a couple of slices of bread and have a tomato sandwich.

If then.

If the world were random, if the world were ungoverned, then if you plant tomato seeds, maybe you get tomatoes, maybe you don't. Maybe you get tomatoes, maybe you get onions.

Who knows?

If it were random, but that's not the world we live in. That would be weird, it wouldn't make sense, and you couldn't plan for anything because a random world would be a chaotic world. But that's not the world we live in.

We live in God's world that he orders and he governs and it all works according to his logic. And the same principle that is at work in your garden is at work in your soul. The same principle that's at work in your garden is at work in your soul.

If then.

So what does Solomon tell us to do on the if side of the equation here in verses one through four? Well, he says, receive my words, treasure up my commandments, be attentive to wisdom, incline your ear to understanding, call out for insight, raise your voice for understanding, seek it like silver, search for hidden treasures.

And so what we have is four couplets of instruction, right? There's four couplets. The first one tells us to receive like a gift and treasuring that gift. The second couplet there instructs us to tune ourselves to God's wisdom, that is to be on the lookout for it and kind of zero in on it, incline our hearts towards God's wisdom.

The third couplet teaches us to call out for this wisdom, asking for insight and understanding. And then the fourth tells us to go looking for it, searching, seeking after it. And what we see is that wisdom is something that we both receive as a gift from God.

It's something God gives to us out of his generosity. And it's also something that we have to seek after. It's something that God provides to those who are diligent enough to look for it. In other words, we are never the originators of wisdom.

It is always something that comes to us from God, lest any of us should boast. But even as that is the case, wisdom is like a hidden treasure that you must work to find. And in this way, it's like gold.

God made gold, right? But he hid it in the mountains. No miner could claim to create gold. It's a gift from God. But no lazy person ever found it. It has to be mined and a lot of good work goes into extracting gold from the mountains and then refining it.

And the good news here is that if you will go looking for wisdom in all the right places, in God's word, and in God's commandments, that you will strike gold and you will get wisdom. If, then. Let's read about the first then clause in verses 5 through 8.

Wisdom, the Fear of the Lord, and God’s Protection

And God's word says,. Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright.

He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. This is God's word to us. He says if you will do these things, if you will receive God's word, if you will tune yourself to wisdom, if you will call out and seek for it, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

What did we see back in chapter 1? What is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom? It's the fear of the Lord. And so if you will do these things, you will fear the Lord and you will get wisdom. For, it says there in verse 6,.

For the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. And again, we see that God is the source of wisdom. God is the source of knowledge. God is the source of understanding. It all comes from him.

There's a parallel between wisdom and salvation that we can see here. You see, God is the one who saves, right? Salvation we see in Ephesians. Salvation is all of grace. We're saved by grace, through faith.

It's the gift of God.

Does anybody should boast?

Nobody can boast about being saved because God saves us. He's the source. He's the initiator of salvation. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Yet, at the same time, God commands all men everywhere to repent.

Acts chapter 18.

He commands us to believe.

He commands us to have faith. Salvation is of God, yet he calls us to do things. Romans chapter 9. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

You got to confess and believe. Salvation is of God, yet we're told in the New Testament to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. I've heard it said like this. We work out what God works in.

And it's the same thing with wisdom. Wisdom is from the Lord, but we are to incline our hearts to it. We are to call out for it. We are to search for it. We're to be diligent in searching out the scriptures, looking to God's word, and then looking out to God's world for lessons in the art and skill of living well in the world that God has made.

And if you will do, God will bless your efforts, and he will give you wisdom. Because what we see here, he is the storehouse of wisdom. He stores it up for the upright. He's the storehouse of wisdom and knowledge and insight.

And verse 7 says, he stores it up for the upright. The unrighteous will not get this wisdom, because they have no fear of the Lord. And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. They will be left in their folly.

And while it might seem good or right or fun or profitable for a time, in the end, folly always leads to death. But those who are upright, those who fear the Lord, they will receive wisdom, and by it, God will be their protector.

Look at it in verses 7 and 8. We see that God is their shield. He guards the paths of justice. He watches over their way. This reminds me of the end of chapter 1, where the one who has wisdom is said to dwell secure.

God and His word, they are a protection for us. Remember the very first part of this if clause back in verse 1 was, if you receive my words, my commandments. People often wrongly think that God's commandments are cumbersome and hard.

That they're just a wet blanket to ruin all our fun. Now God's commandments may sometimes be a wet blanket, but it's the kind that is used to put out a fire. For the Proverbs say, can a man carry fire next to his chest and not get burnt?

No.

God's commandments protect us from the fire of our sinful choices. God's commandments ensure the good life. They teach us how to live in a way that it cuts with the grain of reality of how God has made the world such that we can live a life of joy and peace.

And Solomon teaches his son here, and through him he teaches us that if we will receive God's commandments and treasure them, seeking after their wisdom, then God will protect us and we will dwell secure and live the good life.

Wisdom that Delivers from Evil Men and the Forbidden Woman

If then, verse 9 begins a second then clause and goes and takes us just a little bit further. Let me read verses 9 through 11. And God's word says, then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity in every good path.

For wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will guard you. Now remember the same set of if statements, if clauses are still in play.

And so if you receive and treasure his words, incline your ear to wisdom and call out for it and seek it, then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity in every good path. And we see some parallels here in verses 10 and 11 with what we saw earlier in verses 6 through 8.

You see in verse 6, we see that it's the Lord who gives wisdom. Then in verse 10, it says that wisdom will come into your heart. Where will wisdom come into your heart from? But from the Lord, the one who gives it.

In verse 8, we see that God guards and watches over. And then in verse 11, we see these exact same words, but in reverse order. Discretion watches over you and understanding guards you. Again, watches over and guards.

Seeking wisdom, we see again, leads to our protection. At least our protection guards us. And then Solomon, he goes further and he assures his son that wisdom not only protects us, but delivers us. And he describes two types of people wisdom delivers from.

Evil men and forbidden women. Evil men and forbidden women. Let's take the evil men first, reading in verses 12 through 15. And God's word says, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil.

Men whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways. The men here are described as men of perverted speech. They forsake the righteous path to walk in darkness. They rejoice in their evil. They delight in their perversity.

They're devious in their ways. This calls to mind what we saw last week in chapter 1 of those who call out, come with us and let us lie in wait for blood. It reminds us of those in chapter 1 who are greedy for unjust gain, whose feet run to evil and who are quick to shed blood.

But what did we see last week? They trapped themselves because their evil will come back upon their heads. They set an ambush for themselves. These men are devious in their ways. Verse 15 tells us, not only deceiving others, but deceiving themselves.

Now you might think, why do I need to be delivered from such men? I mean, I live in quaint little traveler's rest. And I would tell you that you should not underestimate the sinfulness of man, the sinfulness of other people in your own indwelling sin, your own sinfulness.

Now sin, it doesn't start out bloodthirsty like what we see in chapter 1, or what's alluded to here in chapter 2. But sin, wherever it starts out, it always grows. It never stays the same. It never stays stagnant.

Sin, left unchecked, always grows. And death is always where it leads. Meaning, there's real evil in the world and you need to be protected from it. God's Word contains the wisdom to teach us how to live in such a way that we can dwell secure.

But we also have that indwelling sin within us. If we don't deal with it, it will grow and it will destroy us. It's like the famous quote from John Owen, be killing sin or it will be killing you. Be killing sin or it will be killing you.

Be killing sin or you'll end up among the evil men yourself. And so how does wisdom protect us here? Well, notice again that they are described as men of perverted speech. It's by their words that they entangle others, twisting the truth.

But the wise man, the man who knows God's Word, the man who knows God's commandment, he knows how to decipher and distinguish truth from error. He knows how to see through the empty promises and the veiled threats, to see how the words of evil men are twisted through fallacies and manipulation.

And he knows how to resist all such verbal trickery. Wisdom protects us from the perverted speech of evil men. And also we see that the forbidden woman also uses words to entice and destroy. Let's read in verses 16 through 19.

So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God, for her house sinks down to death and her paths to the departed.

None who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life. The forbidden woman here, she uses smooth words. That is, she uses flattery. She uses seductive words, which is just a very specific form of flattery.

And luring a man with her words, she leads him not to the excitement and pleasure that he desires, but to death. Listen to these sobering words from verse 19. None who go to her come back.

None.

How many?

None.

So brothers, I want you to hear this plainly. You are not the exception. You are not the exception. If you go down to the forbidden woman, whether this is by pornography or a work friend or someone you met online or whatever it is, you need to know what it says here in verse 18.

Her house sinks down to death. And what it says there in verse 19, none who go to her come back. No one escapes and it will not be different for you. You're not the exception. Sexual sin is deadly. It will destroy your soul.

It will destroy your family. It will destroy your life. And it is fools who think they can play with the fire of sexual sin and not get burnt by it. So if you're looking at pornography, you're being foolish.

If you're becoming fast friends with that lady at work, texting her and commenting online when you're already married or she is, you're being foolish. And so the word to you today is stop. What we saw in chapter one, when sinners entice you, do not consent.

When your own sin nature entices you, do not consent. When her words of flattery entice you, do not consent. Do not go down that road. It goes over a cliff and you will go over it and die. None who go to her come back.

Nor do they regain the path of life. Today's Father's Day. Dads, you know what your family needs? Your holiness. And so I plead with you today that if you're flirting with this kind of foolish danger in any way,.

Even if small,.

That you'll stop and turn from it this very morning. Your kids need your holiness. Your wife needs your holiness. You need your holiness. There's good news for sexual sinners and it's this. Jesus saves.

It's what we sang about. Jesus saves. Jesus forgives. Jesus cleanses. Yes, sin leads to death. And none who go down to her, to the forbidden woman, come back alive. But Jesus knows the way out of the grave.

So turn to Jesus today. Will you follow Him into new life today? We are a nation of sexual sinners. And how should we deal with it? How we deal with any sin. We confess it specifically. Are you guilty of lust, fornication, adultery?

Confess it specifically. Ask God to forgive you through Jesus Christ. Receive the forgiveness as a gift. And walk bearing fruit in keeping with your repentance. Knowing there might be natural consequences, but you're going to walk faithfully with Jesus through those.

You may need to confess to another person, perhaps your spouse, depending on the nature of the sin. If you're tangled up in this, I want you to know there's help available for you. If you need help walking through repentance for sexual sin, come see me.

I would love to help you down that path. If you need help breaking free from using pornography, come see me. I would love to help you down that path. We saw last week that if you reject wisdom, there will come a day when it's too late.

And so I would implore you, don't wait until then when wisdom, chapter one says, mocks your calamity and laughs at your disaster. No, make today the day of your repentance. Turn from whatever sin it is that easily besets you and that weighs you down.

Now, so far we've applied this specific section to men, but women sin too. And if you look at the statistics, the use of pornography by women is staggering. We tend to think of it as a sin common to men, and it is, but there's been a sharp increase of its use by young women.

And so ladies, I would warn you of the same danger. It's poison to your souls. And I would also warn you about being the forbidden woman, the woman who uses flattery speech to get what she wants, who manipulates those around her with looks and her words.

Once they flee from this type of behavior, it only tends to death. Do not be the forbidden woman, lady folly, but instead imitate lady wisdom. So you will walk, verse 20 says, so you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.

So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. Wisdom leads you, men and women, will lead you in the path of the righteous. And that road is safe. That road is not the dark and crooked paths of evil men of perverse speech.

No, the paths of the righteous are well lit. They lead to God in whose presence there is fullness of joy. And at whose right hand there are pleasures forevermore. The last two verses. In the last two verses, we come to a fork in the road.

There's two roads.

Let me read in verses 21 and 22. For the upright will inhabit the land and those with integrity will remain in it. But the wicked will be cut off from the land and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

There are two roads. One leads to safety in the land and the other leads to being cast out. For the Israelites that were first reading the Proverbs here, this of course is referring to the promised land given to them by God.

And at various points in Israel's history, they dwelled in the land securely. And at various other points in their history, they were exiled and cast out for their unfaithfulness. But living in the land and exile from the land are earthly pointers to eternal realities.

For there are two roads and only two roads for all of us. And one leads heavenward to the eternal city of the living God, whose designer and builder is God himself. And the other road is hell bound to the place of everlasting torment, the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his demons, and for all who rebel against God loving their sin more than they love God.

You see, heaven and hell are real places. That's why when I write them out, I spell them both with a capital H like I would any other city on the map. And everyone will go to one or the other upon death and judgment.

There is no middle ground. Now we love to talk about heaven. We don't love to talk about hell. But I love you enough to tell you about hell. That the one who forsakes wisdom to embrace his sin will end up there.

If then. But if you will receive my words and treasure up my commandments, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding. Yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity and every good path. So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.

For the upright will inhabit the land and those with integrity will remain in it. If then the Lord gives wisdom and he will protect you and he will deliver you. And so the question is, do you want these then called blessings that we've seen in verses 5 through 22?

If so, then you must embrace the if-calls duties of verses 1 through 4. Treasure God's word, know it, love it, obey it. God's commandments are for your good. Tune your heart to know wisdom and call out for it in prayer.

And God tells us if any of us lack wisdom, then let him ask and God will grant it. He loves to give good gifts to his children. And so seek for wisdom, search for it, study God's word, study God's world.

Notice the patterns. Notice the calls and effects. Determine the principles.

Live by them.

Give yourself over to God that your life might be marked by holiness. That is that your life might be marked by devotion to him and to his word and to his glory. And if you do these things, then you will have wisdom and all the blessings that come with it.

Prayer for Wisdom, Holiness, and Deliverance

Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, teach us to seek out and call out for your wisdom. Lead us to find wisdom in your word, in your commandments, and let us receive it with grateful hearts and treasure it in our hearts.

Father, deliver us from evil, from the temptations that arise from without those who would do us harm. Deliver us. Deliver us from temptations that arise from within us due to our indwelling sin. Deliver us from the perverse speech of evil men.

Deliver us from the flattery and seduction of forbidden women. Make us to dwell secure in this life, devoted to you, to your word.

To your glory.

And in due course, Father, we ask that you would bring us safely home to heaven. We ask all of this in the name of your Son, Jesus.

Amen.