WWUTT 1469 Eat and Speak the Wisdom of God (Proverbs 13:1-12)

The Bible offers some good practical advice, how to live and do so in such a way that is even pleasing unto the Lord. But even in this practical advice, there is eternal reward when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, teaching through a New Testament book on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and a Q &A on Friday. With our Old Testament study today, here's Pastor Gabe.

Proverbs 13:1-6: Wisdom, Speech, Diligence, and Righteousness

Thank you, Becky. Well, being Thursday, we're back to our study in the book of Proverbs. If you want to open up to Proverbs 13, this chapter is 25 verses long. So if we split it between this week and the next, we're going to get through about 12 or 13 verses here.

Starting in verse one, a wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. From the fruit of his mouth, a man eats what is good, but the desire of the treacherous is for violence.

Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life. He who opens wide his lips comes to ruin. The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. The righteous hates falsehood, but the wicked bring shame and disgrace.

Righteousness guards him whose way is blameless, but sin overthrows the wicked. One pretends to be rich, yet has nothing. Another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth. The ransom of a man's life is his wealth, but a poor man hears no threat.

The light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked will be put out. By insolence comes nothing but strife, but with those who take advice is wisdom. Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. Whoever despises the word brings destruction on himself, but he who reveres the commandment will be rewarded. Always some good Proverbs in Proverbs, amen.

So we start here, this chapter, very similarly to the way that we began chapter 12. Proverbs 13, verse one says, a wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. What did we see in Proverbs 12, one?

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. So in both places, we see that reproof or rebuke is valued by those who are wise, but those who scoff will not listen to it.

The wise son will listen to his father's instruction, and that's what we've been listening to ever since we began our study in the book of Proverbs. It starts with a father advising his son. The wise son will listen to the advice of his father.

A scoffer, so you're talking here even in the context of a son, a son who scoffs at his parents will grow up a fool and will perish in his foolishness. Let's look at verses two and three together. From the fruit of his mouth, a man eats what is good, but the desire of the treacherous is for violence.

Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin. So what we're seeing in the first six verses of chapter 13 here, we see a relationship between words that are spoken and eating.

So speaking and eating, that's kind of the parallel that's going on here, as if what comes out of the mouth is also what goes in the mouth. Now, we know that's not the case. You don't eat words, you listen to words, and then you speak what you hear.

But these Proverbs are metaphorically kind of equating what comes out of the mouth with what goes in the mouth, as though what you listen to is also what you are consuming, right? We've made similar parallelisms before.

So from the fruit of his mouth, as it says in verse two, a man eats what is good. What he speaks is also what he listens to. He desires to hear good things. He speaks good things. So a man who is devoted to good words will be prosperous.

He will do well. But a man who is devoted to evil words will bring evil upon himself. Look at the second part of verses two and three. The desire of the treacherous is for violence. He who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.

A man who just won't shut up. So he's constantly speaking things that get himself into trouble. And the one who craves treachery will even bring violence upon himself. The one who desires what is good speaks what is good.

The one who desires what is evil will speak evil and then evil will come upon him ultimately in the end. Continuing on, we'll go to verse four here. The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing. Again, we have that desire of the mouth, right?

Craves something. While the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. Here the contrast is between the man who works, the diligent, and the man who is lazy, the sluggard. The soul of the sluggard craves but gets nothing.

You think about a person who is lazy, there's plenty of things that they desire but they won't work for them. Surely you've seen this, right? Or maybe you've been this way. I know there's been periods of my life when I've been that way.

Kind of just sitting around going, boy, I just wish I could have this. I wish I could have these hopes and dreams and I just expect them to fall in my lap without thinking that I need to do any hard work to achieve those things that I desire.

So the soul of the sluggard, he craves things but those things never come to him because he never does any real work to acquire them. The soul of the diligent is richly supplied. He works for what he wants and he receives and he's satisfied with what he gets because he knows that he's worked for that and therefore has received the fruit of his labor.

Verse five, the righteous hates falsehood but the wicked brings shame and disgrace. Now, speech is not explicitly stated here but nevertheless, that's what we have here at the start of verse five, the righteous hates falsehood.

So he hates hearing lies. He doesn't speak lies, he doesn't wanna listen to lies. As those who desire righteousness, which is all of us who are believers, followers in Christ, we're supposed to desire righteousness, right?

Matthew 6, 33, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. So we desire the righteousness of Christ. If that's what we desire, then we need to hate that which is not righteous. Oftentimes we think of Christians being people who are not supposed to hate anyone or anything, right?

Well, no, I mean, to desire that which is holy means that there are things that we're gonna hate that are unholy, that are blasphemous against God, that are false, that are not true, that destroy people and tear them down rather than bring them to the saving grace that is Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So as those who desire righteousness, we hate whatever is opposed to righteousness. The righteous hate falsehood. We hate lies because it doesn't lead to righteousness. And without righteousness, we cannot see God.

By faith, we have the imputed righteousness of Christ that we may dwell in the presence of God. We hate anything that is opposed to Christ so that we may not go after those evil things, but we go after that which is righteous.

Psalm 26, five says, I hate the assembly of evildoers and I will not sit with the wicked. And Psalm 34, 21 says, affliction will slay the wicked and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. So we're opposed to that, which is opposed to righteousness.

The righteous hate falsehood, but the wicked bring shame and disgrace. Literally, it's the wicked bring a stench. It smells, it's terrible. You know it's bad because it reeks. It offends your senses. You desire the purity of righteousness, that righteousness that is of Christ.

So anything that is not pure, the righteous man knows that isn't good. That isn't of Christ. He hates it and stays away from it. And the wicked brings a stench and a disgrace upon himself, ultimately judgment in the end.

Verse six, righteousness guards him whose way is blameless, but sin overthrows the wicked. Righteousness guards him. We read in Ephesians chapter six, where we read about the armor of God. It says that the breastplate is what?

It's a breastplate of righteousness. So righteousness guards us. It protects us from doing evil, from going the wrong way, from doing anything that would be opposed to God. We draw near to Christ and we put on the armor of light.

As Paul says in Romans chapter 13, put on the armor of light and make no provision for the flesh. Let's continue on to verse seven. I'm kind of jumping into another section here. Proverbs 13, seven. One pretends to be rich yet has nothing.

Another pretends to be poor yet has great wealth. So how would we pretend to be rich? Well, a person that would be really haughty, full of themselves, thinking they don't need anything from anybody else.

And most especially, they think I don't need anything from God. I have everything that I will ever need. I am rich. I'm good on my own. I am self-righteous, right? Since we're talking in the context here of righteousness, one pretends to be rich.

They're rich in good works. They're rich in righteousness. They're rich in all the stuff that I need. I need no one. I need nothing else. And the reality is that he has nothing. Whereas another pretends to be poor yet has great wealth.

What did Jesus say in the Beatitudes? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. We understand that whatever we even have in this world, you might be rich, you might be a wealthy person, but what you have is not yours, doesn't belong to you.

All things belong to God. God has blessed you to possess that. So you want to be a good steward with it. You want to handle it rightly. You want to give glory to God and not to yourself. Ultimately knowing that the stuff I possess, the things I have here on earth, don't go with me.

They will perish with the rest of the world. So it might look to people in the world like I have a whole lot, but the reality is I know that of the things I possess in this world, I have nothing. Everything is given to me in Christ.

I have everything in Christ. So a man pretends to be poor yet has great wealth. If he is in Christ Jesus, he has the kingdom of God. We go on to verse eight. The ransom of a man's life is his wealth. So we see a kind of a continuation, similar theme as with the previous proverb.

The ransom of a man's life is his wealth, but a poor man hears no threat. There are people who are rich in this life and have a greater risk of falling into temptation, falling into a snare. As Paul said to Timothy, he told him to warn people in his church, not to be haughty or set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

That's first Timothy 6, 17. Paul goes on to say they are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and be ready to share, thus storing up for themselves treasure in heaven as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that, which is truly life.

Earlier in first Timothy chapter six, Paul says to be careful about desiring to be rich. Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

And it's then in verse 10, we have that very famous passage, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

So be careful of this and do not think that you are above this. Such a temptation would never take hold of me. The ransom of a man's life is his wealth. The thing that seizes him are the things that he possesses.

The more you possess, the more your possessions own you. But a poor man has no threat. He does not fear that his possessions own him. He doesn't have anything. So when we rely fully on God and we don't depend on what we have in this world to be satisfied, then those things do not own us.

They do not possess us. They do not hold us for ransom. We are free in Christ Jesus. Verse nine, the light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked will be put out. The light of the righteous is a good thing.

It is seen by others. Jesus said, let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. This is Matthew 5, 14. You are the light of the world.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand and it gives light to the whole house. In the same way, let your light shine before others. So the light of the righteous rejoices.

They give glory to your father who is in heaven, but the lamp of the wicked will be put out. But wait, I thought that the wicked wander around in darkness like they have no light. The righteous have light, but the wicked don't have any light.

Well, the picture here is supposed to be that even wicked people know how to do nice things for others. So there might be something in an evil man that you can see you might call good. Jesus said this in the Sermon on the Mount as well.

He said, you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children. So how much more will your heavenly father give to those who ask him? When we know our heavenly father is good. So even evil people know how to do good things sometimes.

And there might be some wicked people out there you see doing wonderful, lovely charity work. And you might say of that person that they have such a good light about them. What a warm soul they are. But the thing about a wicked person whose righteousness comes from himself and does not come from God is that their good works do not lead to any sort of eternal reward.

Their works have not been carried out in God. They do them for themselves. They think of themselves as righteous. Again, going back to that thing of I don't need anybody. I can do just fine on my own.

I don't even need God because I'm rich in good works just by the stuff that I do. So there might appear to be some kind of a light about that person, but the light of the wicked will be put out. You hear all kinds of pagan beliefs out there about having an inner light or something like that, right?

And somebody who does kindness toward other people, we might say has a good light, but unless you have the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that light will not endure to eternity. It will be put out on the day that you die.

Humility, Counsel, and Wealth Gained by Steady Stewardship

Verse 10, by insolence comes nothing but strife, but with those who take advice is wisdom. Very simply, the person who's full of himself is not gonna listen to the advice of anybody else. I already know everything I need to know.

I got it right here in my La Cabesa. But the person who is wise knows that he does not know everything and he needs the help from others in order to gain knowledge and wisdom. We continue on in verse 11.

Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it. You know, one thing I think about right away when I read that is the different stories that I've heard about people who became professional athletes and their lives ended in utter bankruptcy.

I hear this story all the time. It's a very common tale among professional athletes, whether you're talking about baseball, basketball, football, professional wrestling, or theatrical wrestling, whichever way you wanna call that, going into the Olympics, whatever it might happen to be.

You get these people that will ascend into greatness and oftentimes very, very quickly. And so they gain a whole lot of money because there's great money to be made in professional sports. So they gain that wealth hastily and they don't know how to manage it.

They live according to the massive wealth that they have. Conor McGregor, who is a fighter in the UFC, MMA sort of, mixed martial arts sort of fighting. I have heard him say that he will win a purse from a fight that he was in and he will spend all that money.

He will just spend it so he's got nothing left. That way he's that much more motivated in his next fight to win. Is it really a terrible strategy? It might motivate him to win his fight, but it's not gonna help him endure to the end.

It's wealth that is gained hastily and it disappears. It will dwindle. It doesn't last. Whoever gathers little by little will increase it. Now, this doesn't mean that a person who quickly comes into wealth will immediately lose it, but a person who knows how to take it a little at a time, not getting a bunch of money and then blowing a bunch of money, but caring for it, being a good steward of that, which is given to him, he will increase it.

It won't, he won't be earning money and spending money and it just vanishes. Rather, he's earning that money, he's saving that money, and over time it increases. That savings account builds because the guy's not spending it all at once.

This is good practical advice here. What would be a spiritual application from this? Well, the instruction that we would get here, as far as a spiritual application goes, would be that we are to grow in sanctification.

Do not think that just because you had a conversion experience and you prayed a prayer and you were baptized, boom, now I've inherited the kingdom of God and I can go live my life however I want to now, because you might show yourself to have had a false conversion, that you just had a passing opinion.

Not that you truly love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, but the humble person who recognizes his low estate and his need for Christ and builds up little by little in sanctification, in the pursuit of holiness and righteousness all the rest of his life, he will increase in heavenly treasure.

Hope Deferred and the Tree of Life in Christ

Verse 12, hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. And here we have in one proverb, both a temporal and a spiritual fulfillment. Hope deferred makes the heart sick.

A person who has no hope can be quite depressed. No understanding of the future, no expectation for tomorrow, no meaning of life in the present, but one who desires the things of God, that desire will be fulfilled and leads to a tree of life, everlasting life in Christ.

What might be those things that we desire of God that will lead to everlasting fulfillment? Well, let's go back to righteousness. As Jesus said in the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter five, blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

Not just in this life, not just in the temporal, that we find satisfaction and meaning and endurance and hope in the present, when we trust in the sufficient righteousness of Christ, but we also have a hope and an expectation for tomorrow.

Let's finish with prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for these good proverbs. We see even the good news of the gospel undergirding everything that we read here. It is the foundation upon which the word of God is given to us, a foundation of Christ Jesus, all pointing to Jesus, knowing that it's in him, our sins are forgiven and we have everlasting life with God for all who will believe on his name.

Grow us in your wisdom and your righteousness as we go about our day and the rest of this week. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.

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