Proverbs 3:1-8 - Trusting the Lord
Matters of the Heart: Proverbs 4:20-23 • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Series Introduction
Summer series - “Matters of the Heart - Proverbs 4:20-23”
David Stewart’s post-it note, booklet “Tonic for the Soul” - my prayers, planning, excitement
2-week introduction, then Prov 4:20-23 as an anchor for
Grateful Heart / Contrite Heart / Surrendered Heart / Wise Heart / Joyful/Content Heart / Resilient Heart
20 My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
Proverbs is a part of the Bible called wisdom literature, along with Job and Ecclesiastes.
Poetic & personal // Instructive // “Earthy” but not “worldly” - in other words, it’s realistic, practical, and godly
Proverbs and the other Wisdom books help us work through the complicated experience of trusting God’s truth in God’s world. He created the world, He sustains it, He reigns over it. But until Jesus returns, this world is going to be a mish-mash of good and bad, right and crooked. There are times when it seems like it’s more profitable to do evil than good. Times when it seems easier to go along and get along than to stand firm on convictions. Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes deal honestly with that challenge to help us see that God’s ways are still best.
The sayings we encounter in Proverbs are always true, but they’re not promises for every single instance. For example, today in vv3-4 <<READ>>
It is always true that we should hold tight to steadfast love and faithfulness, but in some instances, specific men will not respond with favor.
Ex: Jesus perfectly trusted the Father, perfectly kept steadfast love & faithfulness. But in the sight of Pilate this did not give him favor.
Job & Ecclesiastes deal with this problem - how can we keep going when it seems like wisdom breaks down? More on that beginning in Aug
Written by King Solomon, son of David - 1 Kings 3 - given wisdom by God. Collected and composed proverbs (1 Kings 4:29-34)
1 Kings 3 - Solomon loved the LORD, went to worship Him in Gibeon.
LORD came to him in dream, said, “Ask what I shall give you.”
6 And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. 7 And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. 9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”
LORD was pleased with this request, and he granted it.
12 behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.
Wisdom literature was common in the ancient world. Books similar to Proverbs are found in almost every culture. The US even has its own version - the Farmer’s Almanac.
ILLUST: Ex: Whoever came up with, “If you can’t say nothin’ nice, don’t say nothin’ at all.” “Can’t never could.” “A penny saved is a penny earned.” “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” “Don’t eat your seed corn.”
Jonathan - Kenya - “Hurry hurry has no blessing,” “Let the mighty go,” “An old man can see far even when he’s sitting down, but a young man can’t see even if he climbs a tree.”
But in the ancient world, the wisdom of Egypt was renowned above all… until Solomon came along.
The wisdom of Scripture is unique because it is safeguarded by the Holy Spirit. No mixture of truth and error, no mixture of wise and unwise, because it is grounded in the wisdom of God.
So, we begin this series, “Matters of the Heart,” with a text that’s all about trusting God. Proverbs 3 and 4 prepare us for chapter 4:20-23 by helping us understand the nature of wisdom and the nature of the heart.
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
Sermon Introduction
The word heart shows up three times in today’s text, Proverbs 3:1-8. In the Bible, the word “heart” often refers to the whole of our inner life - not just a bodily organ, and not just where you feel things, but sort of the core of who you are.
Your plans, your hopes, your secret thoughts, your dreams, your love, the Bible uses the word heart for the place we keep those things. Like a treasure chest. A hope chest.
And in the Old Testament, when the LORD promised to redeem us through the death and resurrection of Jesus, He often framed it in terms of the heart. Solomon’s father David understood that salvation came through God giving sinners a new heart:
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
And the prophet Jeremiah first says that the heart is desperately sick in Jer 17:9, and then in chapter 31 says that in the New Covenant, the LORD would put His law within them and write it on their hearts, not in the old way where they broke the covenant, but in a new way, where He has fulfilled it. He would forgive their sin and every single member of that covenant would know Him.
When we come to Proverbs 3-4, we see Solomon encouraging his son and all his readers, including you and me, to contemplate the nature of the heart, the nature of life, and the nature of God, and answer the question, What should be at the core of who we are? What treasures should be in that internal treasure chest?
Q. What is most precious for living in God’s world?
Here in verses 1-8, notice the pattern that Solomon uses to bring this out. He gives us a negative and a positive exhortation, and then a reason. We see the pattern three times, beginning with verses 1-2.
I. Treasure God’s Teachings (vv1-2)
I. Treasure God’s Teachings (vv1-2)
<<READ 1-2>>
Throughout the book of Proverbs, Solomon points to the wisdom of the book as God’s work, not his.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
Verse 1 makes the connection really clear in the negative and positive statements. “Teaching” and “commandments” in verse 1 are the words "torah” and “mitzvot” - the same words that God uses to refer to the LAW of Moses and the commandments that make it up.
"My teaching” isn’t “my original inventions.” He’s saying, “Do not forget God’s Word that I taught you; let your heart treasure God’s commands that you learned through me.”
And just like we saw in 1 John, that word “keep” means to guard, to treasure.
The reason he gives in verse 2 is life and peace. Life and peace are God’s answers in salvation to death and strife.
In the Fall of 2019, in our Kingdom People series, Matt 5 - Jesus - the FILLING of the Law. The Torah, the Law, is the story and standard of God’s covenant with Israel. At the core of the covenant is reconciled relationships - peace with God and peace with man. The Pharisees divorced God’s Law from God Himself, and ended up missing the point completely.
Jesus told them
39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
I just want to leave that there for a moment. Life and peace.
Because verses 3-4 develop in a similar way.
II. Treasure God’s Love (vv3-4)
II. Treasure God’s Love (vv3-4)
Do you see the pattern again in verses 3-4? <<READ 3-4, pointing out negative / positive positive / reason>>
Once again, we’re getting at the very heart of God’s Covenant with Israel, and even more, to God’s heart. When the LORD declares His Name to Moses, he says
6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
This is God’s character as the promise-keeping God.
Kids, do you remember when I talked about the Jesus Storybook Bible last week? One of my favorite things in the Jesus Storybook Bible is how the author talks about God’s steadfast love. By the time you read the whole thing, you’ll never forget it.
She calls it “God’s never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love.” It’s hard to top that, so I won’t try.
Solomon says, “Don’t let steadfast love and faithfulness get away, fasten them like a precious pendant, write them on the tablet of your heart.”
Earlier I said that the heart is like a treasure chest. A hope chest. In Hebrew, the word for chest is the same word for the Ark of the Covenant. When Israel left Sinai and came into the Promised Land, the Ark of the Covenant held treasures reminding them of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness. It had Aaron’s staff, a jar full of manna from the wilderness, and the stone tablets of the covenant.
Like a little ark, treasure God’s love in here <<point to chest>>.
Once again, this is an old covenant picture of the New Covenant.
Ezekiel talks about the New Covenant in
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
When any person hears the Gospel and puts their faith in Jesus Christ, in that moment they are forgiven every sin, they are declared righteous before God on the basis of Christ’s own righteousness, their status before God is justified, beloved, adopted son or daughter, and they receive a new heart and a new Spirit - God’s own Spirit dwelling in them. They are new creatures of the new Covenant.
And seeing God’s steadfast love and faithfulness for what they are, hearing of His love and mercy, this is what inspires us to treasure them. As Romans 2:4 says, God’s kindness is what leads us to repentance.
The Psalms are given as gifts to help us treasure God’s love. We sing in order to remember His character and teachings.
10 Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other. 11 Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky.
III. Treasure God (vv5-8)
III. Treasure God (vv5-8)
Altogether, verses 1-4 are a call to treasure God. If His teachings, His commandments, His character as the God of our salvation - if these are the things in our hope chest, it must be because we have come to know Him as steadfast, and faithful, and trustworthy. This is where verses 5-8 come in.
The pattern is a little different this time. It’s more complex, but it’s still there. But the anchor for all of verses 1-8 is here in verse 5 - “Trust in the LORD with all your heart.” <<READ 5-8>> Now, think back on the reasons we’ve seen for treasuring these things in verses 1-8.
Length of days and years of life and peace - where do they come from? From the LORD.
Favor and good success - where do they come from? From His steadfast love and faithfulness.
Straight paths, healing to your flesh, refreshment to your bones - where do they come from? From the LORD.
If you pit the LORD’s wisdom up against your understanding, wherever they line up, it’s because you got it from Him. And anywhere they differ, His way is the trustworthy one.
This call to TRUST in the LORD with all your heart is an invitation to come to Him and find rest.
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Who in all of Israel kept the Law perfectly?
The refrain of the Old Testament is that they forgot the LORD. Even Solomon’s own son, Rehoboam, the man for whom he wrote this stuff down, forgot the LORD.
Fastening steadfast love and faithfulness to your neck were supposed to be more than just a nice word picture. Pharaoh put a gold chain on Joseph’s neck to say to Egypt, “This man has my favor and he rules in my name.” Belshazzar put a gold chain on Daniel’s neck for the same reason. But instead of steadfast love and faithfulness, Rehoboam put on greed and arrogance, and instead of favor and good success in the sight of God and man, the people hated him and God took the majority of the kingdom away from him.
But there is one who never forgot the Law and never broke any of God’s commandments. Who trusted the LORD with all his heart. Jesus, the Messiah.
And He did it in our place. Just how trustworthy is the LORD?
The prophet Isaiah said this about the Servant of the LORD, the Messiah:
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
There’s the promise of healing and peace, just like we see in verses 2 and 8.
Verse 2 says “length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.”
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
God knows our frame. He knows that we are but dust.
He calls us to trust Him. To treasure Him. **v7 - fear the LORD // ch. 1 - beg of wisdom
We come to know the steadfast love and faithfulness of God in Jesus Christ. He is the end of the Law for all who believe. He is the AMEN of every promise God ever made.
To treasure His teachings is to trust the One who kept them; to treasure His steadfast love and faithfulness is to trust the One who demonstrated His love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Illustration: “Treasure chest”
In John 7:37-38, Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”
There is healing to be found here.
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.