The Personal Choice to Embrace Wisdom
Proverbs • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewPart 2 of God's Plan for Passing on His Truth
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
There are certain choices in life that are more crucial than others. Authors have often emphasized these using a metaphor that depicts the chooser standing at a vital crossroad. The author of Proverbs is perhaps the most important example of these. In chapter 4 of his work, while he repeats concepts and admonitions that he has used before, he modifies them in such a way to show that he has shifted emphasis. He is not merely repeating for repeating’s sake. He is adding to and building upon his previous foundation. He is doing more than merely sharing truth for the user to implement, he is sharing God’s plan for passing on his truth.
In the first lecture of chapter 4, the father/teacher emphasized the perpetual call to embrace wisdom. In the second lecture, he strikes even harder by making it clear that his children must make the personal choice to embrace wisdom. Let us examine the three truths that he presents here.
I. Each Generation Must Choose to Embrace Wisdom for Itself (Prv 4:10–11)
I. Each Generation Must Choose to Embrace Wisdom for Itself (Prv 4:10–11)
A. An intellectual response—Accept as true (Prv 4:10)
A. An intellectual response—Accept as true (Prv 4:10)
Explanation: Here, the father gives the son two imperatives to “hear” and to “accept” his sayings as pointing to the wise way. The wise way leads to him having a life full of all the years and all the blessings that God wants for him. The Sage has already indicated to us the outcome of wisdom in this regard: “Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.”
Quotation: As Warren Wiersbe notes, “When you receive God’s truth into your heart, God renews your mind (Rom. 12:2) and enables you to think wisely. This helps you make right decisions and experience the guidance of God day by day. God in His loving providence directs us and prepares the path for us. Augustine said, ‘Trust the past to the mercy of God, the present to His love, and the future to His providence.’ But King David said it better long before Augustine: ‘You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore’ (Ps. 16:11).”
Illustration: A certain harbor in Italy can be reached only by sailing up a narrow channel between dangerous rocks and shoals. Over the years, many ships have been wrecked, and navigation is hazardous. To guide the ships safely into port, three lights have been mounted on three huge poles in the harbor. When the three lights are perfectly lined up and seen as one, the ship can safely proceed up the narrow channel. If the pilot sees two or three lights, he knows he’s off course and in danger.
Application: The natural man often does not accept such guidance as helpful and loving. The natural man considers such guidance as a selfish control on the part of the guider and doubts its truth. He wants to do things his own way. Thus, this first step is not as easy as you might at first think.
B. A volitional response—Follow, i.e. obey (Prv 4:11)
B. A volitional response—Follow, i.e. obey (Prv 4:11)
Explanation: As I know from personal experience, it is one thing to recognize mentally the truth of a statement or proposition. It is a completely different thing to consistently apply that truth in the pressures of everyday life.
Illustration: In my country, when I was younger, smoking was still allowed in public. Many of the health risks associated with smoking on the smoker were still known. It was the impact of second-hand smoke on others that became known and eventually did away with public smoking. Before that, I had occasion to see that many nurses and doctors smoke. Here is a great illustration of the fact that one can know intellectually that a certain behavior is harmful without actually applying that knowledge in their own life. Such a doctor might even give advice to patients to quit smoking or avoid smoking, while still being unwilling to obey their own advice. Such a doctor or nurse has not embraced wisdom.
Argumentation: According to the Sage, to possess wisdom is to “walk” in wisdom or follow the right path. Therefore, we conclude that embracing wisdom requires applying the truth of wisdom to the decisions governing our actions. This is why the father in Proverbs 4 has not only “taught…the way of wisdom,” but he has “led…in right paths.” The father both taught holy principles AND showed his child how those principles should be applied to the everyday decisions of life. That is what each generation must learn to do for themselves. That is what you must learn to do for yourself, if you would be wise.
Quotation: As Daniel and Jonathan Akin write, “the path that you progressively walk reveals whom you are embracing. Your daily life decisions reveal whether you are following Jesus or walking away from him. The fact that you cannot control your temper with your children, constantly want to argue with your coworkers, go in and out of dumb dating relationships, spout off at your parents, or cannot follow through on school work has everything to do with Jesus. It reveals that you’ve gotten off the path of wisdom and are walking down the foolish path (vv. 11–14). It reveals that you aren’t holding onto Wisdom—Jesus (v. 13).”
Quotation: Warren Wiersbe adds this wise and memorable comment on this passage: “If you are willing to do God’s will, you will have God’s guidance (John 7:17), but if you treat God’s will like a buffet lunch, choosing only what pleases you, He will never direct you. As I’ve said before, the will of God isn’t for the curious; it’s for the serious.”
II. Each Generation Benefits from Embracing Wisdom for Itself (Prv 4:12–13, 18)
II. Each Generation Benefits from Embracing Wisdom for Itself (Prv 4:12–13, 18)
A. Protection in this life (Prv 4:12, 18)
A. Protection in this life (Prv 4:12, 18)
Explanation: Carefully and faithfully following Jesus––the way, the truth, and the life––is the path that allows our stride to not be restricted or hampered. In fact, this path is described as so freeing that we will be able to run freely when necessary, without stumbling.
Application: Following this path gives one the boldness to take full strides, because the hiker is aware that the ground under him is solid, laid out by God himself for his safety and success. As the Psalmist put it, “Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip” (Ps 18:36). Our testimony requires a path like this be laid out for us and followed carefully. Otherwise, we risk violating the Apostle Paul’s admonition to the Romans, “Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way” (Rom 14:13).
Quotation: Proverbs 6:23 is an excellent commentary on this: “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.”
B. Passage into eternal life (Prv 4:13, 18)
B. Passage into eternal life (Prv 4:13, 18)
Explanation: The Sage often uses a metaphor describing life as a road. He is not using this metaphor to depict life from the cradle to the grave; instead, he is describing the journeyman’s choice of a road through life that leads to eternal death or a road that leads to eternal life. He is clearly presenting and promoting the path that leads to eternal life.
Quotation: As Longman phrases it, “though the son is presently on the path, the father feels it necessary to admonish him to maintain his diligence. Wisdom is not gained by a onetime decision, but a decision followed by a lifetime of discipline. It is a rigorous endeavor, involving study as well as self-control, especially in light of the apparent rewards from going on the easier path of the wicked. But wisdom is worth the pursuit because it leads to life.”
Application: When you are an infant, you can be carried along on this path, but overall the path is a path of relationship, and there comes an age when you must either choose to establish your own relationship with God (which leads to eternal life) or choose to neglect God’s hand to you extended in friendship and fellowship (thereby starting down the road to eternal death). This is a binary choice. You either choose life or you choose death, and while it may seem like you can be neutral, the simple fact is that if you will not choose the way of life, that is choosing the way of death.
Exhortation: Mga kapatid, I can only encourage you with all my being in the words of the Sage to follow the path of the just: “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Prv 4:18). This is in stark contrast to his description of the way of the wicked, “The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble” (Prv 4:19).
III. Each Generation Has Alternatives to Embracing Wisdom for Itself (Prv 4:14-17, 19)
III. Each Generation Has Alternatives to Embracing Wisdom for Itself (Prv 4:14-17, 19)
A. Loving self (Prv 4:16-17)
A. Loving self (Prv 4:16-17)
Quotation: Ken Collier gives a helpful summary of life choices in his famous saying, “Just two choices on the shelf, pleasing God or pleasing self.”
Explanation: The path of wisdom can be categorized as the path which obeys the greatest commandment in the law. In the words of Jesus, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Mt 22:37–38). Choosing a way which departs from loving the Lord means you are choosing a path which is motivated by your love of self. This is the popular choice. This is the direction in which the natural bent of our human nature points us and bids us walk. In fact, it is a miraculous power that allows us to overcome this default direction of foolishness (i.e. the road to death) and choose wisdom (i.e. Christ) and the road to life.
Application: The details of Eve in the Garden of Eden make this contrast abundantly clear. Notice Eve’s thought pattern: the tree is good for food, the tree’s fruit is pleasant to look at, and the tree’s fruit will make her wise. Eve has clearly put her love of God into the background, and her evaluation of her course of action is completely based on her perspective and what she wants or thinks is beneficial for her. Therefore, refusing God’s path of wisdom can only result in choosing the path of foolishness which results in eternal death.
B. Causing others to stumble (Prv 4:16,19)
B. Causing others to stumble (Prv 4:16,19)
Explanation: When we forsake the first and great commandment, there is no way for us to obey the second most important commandment: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Mt 22:39). In fact, by rejecting the Lord and his path, we are setting an example for others to follow that can only be harmful to their well-being. Even those who never reach more extreme and outwardly observable resistance to God are doing “mischief” and causing others “to fall.” They are just as surely contributing to the downfall of themselves and those around them as if they literally ate “the bread of wickedness” and drank “the wine of violence.”
Illustration: Ken Ham notes that “Many of those opposing the Christian faith accuse Christians of supposed ‘child abuse’ if they teach them about the God of creation. Secularists often claim Christians should not be allowed to teach children as they are indoctrinating them in Christianity.” This proves that, even those supposedly neutral in matters of religion, have actually chosen a religion where they are their own god, the supreme object of their own affections. They won’t rest until they cause others to stumble by agreeing with them and following in their way.
Application: Proverbs here warns us that the path we choose will associate us with a group of people, and the people that we associate with will influence us in a direction. As the Apostle Paul notes, “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Cor 15:33).
Quotation: As Tremper Longman III comments on this passage, “Any of us with skills of honest recollection can remember shameful things we did as part of a gang or group that we would not have initiated on our own. The caring teacher-parent had learned that at his own childhood table and did not miss the opportunity to expose afresh the diabolically seductive influence of malicious people.”
Conclusion:
Have you chosen to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ for yourself, or are you relying on what your family has done or what your church has done to be sufficient? Think of it this way. God has sons and daughters. God has no nieces, no nephews, and no grandchildren. As the author of Proverbs has emphasized here, you must make the personal choice to embrace wisdom. If you have already made that choice, I must ask you, “How easy or how difficult are you making it for those around you to make the same choice?”