Sunday Service 8-24-20 - Proverbs 12:1-3 - Stupid Is Forever

Proverbs  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  1:06:04
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Proverbs 12 Sermon A (1-14) - Stupid Is Forever. 1 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. Intro: Are you stupid or something? Stupid is as stupid does. So, what should you do to be stupid (what does it take to be stupid)? Simple. Hate reproof (being corrected). The one who won't hear a reproof stands outside of the divine realm of sense and rationality and belongs in the animal kingdom. The word here is stupid or brutish, just a brute, a beast (not the good kind), just driven like an animal. No hope for change. Do you want to be smart? Learn, Always learn. ABC --> ABL. If you take the posture of, what can I learn from this, then everything you go through is going to benefit you, serve your sanctification/salvation (Rom 8:28 "All things...). The words here "discipline/reproof" are focused on verbal communication - instruction, exhortation, teaching, correcting, lecturing, scolding, training. Paul picks up on this in speaking of God's Words (Scripture): 2 Tim 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Love discipline? Not masochism. You don't love the pain for its own sake or some perverted pleasure derived from it, rather you do love the fruit that it produces. Heb 12:11- 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. You love the purpose of discipline, the end goal of it. Working out is a love/hate relationship, especially squats. Jas 1:2-6 - 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. James brings in doubt because if you want wisdom/knowledge and ask God for it, then He will give it to you, but it may very well be through trial/pain ... so if the trial comes and then you doubt and say, "Why are you doing this? Where are you God?", you're totally missing the point, which is the answer to your prayer/need. It's easier to trust the pain/discipline when you know that it's coming from love, from someone who loves/cares about you. This is why discipline in a loving home works but for many kids discipline in school doesn't work - because they come from homes where discipline doesn't come from love, and the teachers/administrators aren't able to be connected to their lives enough for them to know and experience love from them which "perspectivizes"/legitimizes the pain. And, so yes, we can and we must love discipline because we love knowledge - and it must come from LOVE - this gets at the passions that motivate behavior. Illus: An old high school football coach (play angry) ... not because you want the other person to lose but because you want to win; because you love the game, you love to play, you love your teammates, what you represent on the field. (Prov 1:22 How long O simpletons, will you love being simple?) If we remain ignorant, it's because we love ignorance, and if we become wise, it's because we love something better. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Mary serves as a good example for us in this. When she was reproved by the 12 year old Jesus, she treasured these things in her heart rather than resenting them. Jesus: As we've been learning as we've studied the early life of Christ in Luke - He took discipline, not because he deserved it as punishment (it's not always about punishment/consequences) but because it was an experience of humanity to be truly human. And as true human, he learned discipline through what he suffered both throughout his life and in his death. Speaking of his childhood and youth, Luke says that he grew in knowledge, stature, and in favor with God and man. But, from a deeper perspective, He also took the punishment we deserved, and we learn from Him. This is why in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col 2:3). The brute can be seen in those who would not hear Jesus but rather felt threatened by him and sought to destroy him ... Jesus says of them alluding to a repeated prophesy in Isaiah: (Matt 13:13) This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. (Mark 4:12) And he said to them, "To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that "'they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.'" The one who learns from discipline becomes the good and righteous man described in V2-3. This is faith producing works ... Faith comes by hearing (Rom 10:17), so the Holy Spirit makes this difference in us - He gives us ears to hear and eyes to see (and a new heart to be molded) so that we may learn, so that we may accept training, correction, reproof, etc, so that we may accept the Word of Christ, and then through hearing faith is produced in us and that faith may start small and then the more we hear and learn the larger our faith becomes. Conversely, the one who continues to close his ears when a word is given him becomes hardened and is given over to his stupidity, to his brutishness, to his desire for evil. This doesn't just remain in them, that would be good/bad enough, but no man is an island, no, this knowledge or stupidity spills over into good and evil in how they affect others. This is what is described in V2-3. The one who never learns and remains a brute instead forms his own realm of wisdom - evil schemes - this is the knowledge the devil offers in place of the knowledge of God. 2 A good man obtains favor from the LORD, but a man of evil devices he condemns. The learned/wise person becomes the "good" person which marks his relationship with others and with his community. He is good in that he benefits others - Paul describes this as faith working through love - Christ summarizes the whole law as love first for God and second for others ... And in his good deeds, he obtains the highest honor in the highest court - favor from the ultimate judge, and from this ultimate judge not just as his title of Lord or God but in His personal name - he meets this judge first-hand in a handshake and welcome and budding friendship. Contrastingly, the one who never learns, who remains closed in on himself like an animal is personally condemned by YHWH. There is personal responsibility and accountability before this personal God who made this man for Himself and yet this man took his life as his own and would not open himself up to a real relationship with his Creator and his fellow creatures. He made himself god and made idols out of everything to fill what he could not fill himself due to his finite being. Thus he becomes a man of evil devices which control him and suck the life out of him and lead to him taking life from others through his words, his actions, and his heart. (Jesus and Judas Iscariot) But, what he seeks he does not find because... 3 No one is established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous will never be moved. The man of evil device builds these devices to satisfy his cravings (for pleasure, for security, for peace, for power and control, for significance and meaning) those things we are all created to need and are to find in God. He must be a taker, she must coerce her way to worldly success, he must manipulate and patronize and lie, cheat, steal, hide, live the double-lifed lie of image that does not match the reality he knows when he looks into his own face in the mirror and when he finds himself too restless to find peaceful sleep at night. He has said in his heart that he is willing to disadvantage others and/or his community to advantage himself. And, because he would not hear any correction, he knows nothing else - he cannot imagine his life without this evil. And, so he builds his house on the sand and no matter how much effort is put in, it will always be swept away in a storm of judgment. He cannot escape God, though he may get away with his evils multiple times in the short term, in the long run, he will answer to the one on the throne, to YHWH Himself. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. (Heb 10:26-31) That is why, ultimately, no one is established by wickedness - because there is a God who ensures justice. It's never right to try to do right by doing wrong. This alludes to the super-power all humans are born with - the power of self-justification - to be find some justification for whatever we want or feel. Well, this is right because... it feels so right, look at the good that could come from it, in a nutshell it will get me what I want. The language is interesting making both points by negation. The wicked will NOT be established (NOT be immovable), while the righteous will NOT be moved. (NOT immovable vs NOT movable) The root of the righteous will never be moved. We will be rooted like the tree planted by streams of water (Ps 1) it yields its fruit in its season, its leaf does not wither. The wicked are like chaff that the wind drives away. This horticultural reference of a root points us to the notion that there is a source for flourishing existence from which we must draw the necessary resources. That is the difference between these two categories of wicked and righteous, good and evil - what is their source? One has a source outside himself that is as much bigger than himself as the earth is to a tree. The other sees no source or ignores it outside himself and so he must take from others to try to fill himself with the resources he needs to flourish. And, certainly from this verse, we see the consequences leading beyond this temporal life on earth to the realm of eternity, speaking in absolutes (will never be moved). The parallelism here helps us to know that the wicked will be moved, in fact they will be Removed from the presence of God and the righteous. And, we see that the righteous will be established, as a part of the eternal kingdom, the new creation that exchanges the perishable for the imperishable. Jesus' kingdom vs kingdoms of the world (Cain, Lot, Pharaoh, Nebby, Herods). V7 (The wicked are overthrown and are not, but the house of the righteous shall stand). Herod the great - sought the life of the newborn king so that his power and position wouldn't be threatened, and killed all of the male children under 2 in Bethlehem. Killed his wife, killed his sons (safer to be Herod's pig than his son), great builder, changed architecturally the region of judea. On his deathbed he ordered that a thousand beloved men would be killed the moment he died so that there would mourning when he died. Herod the Tetrarch killed John the Baptist for reproving him for stealing his brother's wife. Herod Antipas handed Jesus over to Pilate and had James the apostle killed and would've killed Peter but for miraculous intervention. Then he came out in a pompous ceremony in Acts ? and some called him a god and said "Oh the voice of a god is speaking" and he fell down dead and was consumed by worms (The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play pinochle on your snout. Did you ever see a hearse go by, did you ever think it'd be you and I. The put you in a big black sack and never think of bringing you back. The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play pinochle on your snout.) Herod Agrippa, encountered by Paul and his witness to the gospel ... entered with great pomp, heard Paul as he gave a heartfelt plea for Herod Agrippa to believe and be saved, and we hear his infamous tragic words: "In such a short time, you would persuade me to become a Christian?" "Almost thou persuades me to become a Christian." Prideful to the end ... and stupid. Not one person on the earth is a descendant of Herod today? Jesus: The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever (Rev 11:15). 4 An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones. 5 The thoughts of the righteous are just; the counsels of the wicked are deceitful. 6 The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright delivers them. 7 The wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous will stand. 8 A man is commended according to his good sense, but one of twisted mind is despised. 9 Better to be lowly and have a servant than to play the great man and lack bread. 10 Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel. 11 Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense. 12 Whoever is wicked covets the spoil of evildoers, but the root of the righteous bears fruit. 13 An evil man is ensnared by the transgression of his lips, but the righteous escapes from trouble. 14 From the fruit of his mouth a man is satisfied with good, and the work of a man's hand comes back to him.
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