YP Address—B. Anstey
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
172.
#172O Teach us More of Thy blessed ways, Thou Holy Lamb of God 172.
Oh, my blessed way.
I was only.
A while ago.
I like to speak this afternoon on the from the book of Proverbs.
In fact, I'd like to give you an outline of the book.
So let's turn to the book of Proverbs.
You know, the book of Proverbs has often been called the young man's book, and I think that's probably taken from the fourth verse of the first chapter where it says there.
To the young man, knowledge and discretion. But I think that all of us need the wisdom that's found in this book, not just the young men.
And I believe there is much wisdom that is given to us here that can be.
Helpful in our lives that we don't make a mess of them. And so I want to speak from this book. I want to give an outline of the whole 31 Chapters.
The first thing you'll notice.
As you look at the book as a whole, that there are 6 divisions in the book and those divisions are marked by a little phrase that's put in by the spirit of God inspired that would mark one section from the other and we'll point them out as we go along.
Let's begin at the first verse. I'll read the 1St 7 verses.
The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction.
To perceive the words of understanding, to receive instruction of wisdom, justice, or that could breed righteousness, practical righteousness, and judgment and equity, And to give subtlety that could also read prudence to the simple and to the young man, knowledge and discretion.
A wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels to understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
One thing you'll notice as you open this book and read through it. And I know most of us, if not all of us, have read it many times. My my desire here this afternoon is to enhance that so as you read it, you'll be able to.
Now Solomon, as we know, was the wisest man in all the world.
And he wrote many, many proverbs, we're told, we are told in the Book of the Kings. But from the Ecclesiastes we learned something about how he gained that wisdom. Now all the wisdom that he got was from the Lord we know, but he gained it through three mediums, or three means. In the first two chapters of Ecclesiastes, we find that he gets it through experimentation. That's when he takes up with this thing and that, and he tries it for himself to find out whether there's anything in it of value.
And he finds out that the things of this world are pretty empty. But then in the end of the second chapter through the 3rd chapter, and I believe some of the 4th chapter, that he uses another method of gaining his wisdom. And that is through observation. That's where he says, and I saw among men, I saw this and I saw that and he as he observes ways of men and so on, he gained wisdom and he records that as well. And then a third way you'll find, I think it's in the 4th chapter and then 8th and 9th chapters of Ecclesiastes.
00:05:19
You'll find that Solomon uses yet another means to gain his wisdom, and that is meditation.
That's where he says, and I considered and I saw this and I considered this and I considered that. And so these three things were used by Solomon to gain his wisdom and God taught him these things. So you have experimentation, observation and meditation and he's recorded them for us in these proverbs. The spirit of God has inspired them in this book. And I want to look at some of them with the help of.
Pointing out.
Some of the divisions in the book that may help us to understand what God is teaching us now. The first 7 verses of this book are an introduction, and I read the introduction to you we'll find in the opening verse.
It says the proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. Well, that's not a proverb. The first verse is not a proverb.
It's a title, and we'll find some such titles as we go along, dividing the book into these various divisions.
But verses 2 Through 4 really give to us the purpose of the book. And the purpose of the book is that we might have what he lists there, and he brings out 10 great things that we are going to acquire if we read and apply the wisdom that's found in the book. Let's look at them to know wisdom. Well. Wisdom is knowledge used rightly.
And instruction.
Well, that's knowledge acquired through chastening and discipline. It's a little different.
Then it goes on and says to perceive the words of understanding. That's knowledge acquired through consideration.
Then it goes on in verse three it says, and to receive the instruction of wisdom, that's knowledge acquired.
Through observing the unhappy circumstances that others may go through.
You learn from others mistakes.
You can be helped. That's called the instruction of wisdom.
And then the next word, it says justice could be translated. Righteousness that brings out the thought of right conduct and behavior. Judgment would bring out the thought of discernment. Equity would be the understanding of principles of conduct. And then it says to give subtlety or prudence to the simple and the idea there is the ability to detect craftiness in others. There's going to be people that you're going to meet in life, if you haven't already.
That are devious and crafty and God wants you to have prudence to be able to discern that.
I would just pause here for a minute and point out what it says in verse four, Prudence to the simple. When he's Speaking of simple here, he's not talking about those who lack mental powers, but rather the idea of those who are inexperienced in life, which all young people are, and so they may be easily deceived by some kind of.
Person or principal or tactic? So prudence for the simple and then to the young man knowledge.
That would be useful. Information and discretion is thoughtful planning. I understand. And so you have 10 things here that we are promised that we are going to gain if we take up with the reading and the applying of the principles in this book. And there's nothing that we would desire more for you young people, that you would gain these things so that your life would be lived for the glory of God and for the glory and honor of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you wouldn't make a mess of your life.
And you wouldn't spoil your life, as so many have done.
Now in verses five and six and seven, we have two things that are mentioned here that are required on our part if these things are going to be made good to us. And that first of all is willingness to learn. That's verses 5 and 6A willingness.
A wise man will hear and will increase learning, and this is what we hope is present with each person here this afternoon. A real desire to learn something from God's word, to learn from this book of Proverbs.
There are so many that take a careless.
00:10:02
Approach to Christianity and to the things of God, and it's no wonder that they put their foot in some of the pitfalls that there are in life.
And make a mess, but the serious Christian will apply these things in their life.
And they'll get the blessing of it. And they'll prove the practical benefits of it too, as we'll notice.
As we press through the chapters. But then there's another thing that's required, and that is what's found in verse 7, and that is reverential fear for the Lord.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. This is the key to the whole book, the key to understanding anyone of the proverbs that we have here.
Is that there must be a fear of the Lord present with us to take it as what it is, indeed His words speaking to you. Very often we're too flippant and too casual about these things, not realizing that when we open this book each and every time that we have to understand that there is a Divine person, the Lord Himself is speaking to us.
And we need to pay attention.
And be sober and to fear what he tells us, because he is the ultimate divine teacher in all human wisdom.
Now that's the introduction From verse 8 on through to the end of the ninth chapter. We have the First Division of the book, and what we have in this First Division is 12 lessons of wisdom in a household, the setting that's before us in these these nine chapters.
Is really 12 father and mother to son discourses you'll find over and again a father and a mother are counseling their son about the very lessons that he needs to learn in life. And these are lessons that are good for us who are young, that need to start out in life and as I say, to be preserved from the dangers that are in the path. But we can also take this as parents, as what we need to be found teaching.
Our families. And for this I feel very insufficient. But with the grace of God, he will help us. And so it has a double application, not just for the young man, for the young people, but also for those of us who are parents that have that responsibility of imparting this kind of wisdom and instruction. Now, as I said, there are these 12 lessons. They're marked for us by the words my son. Notice what it says in verse 8, my son.
And we'll come across twelve of those as you press through these chapters. In fact, actually if there's someone that was going to check it, there's a couple of others that I'll point them out as we go along that really says my son, but it's part of us, the one section and really is not looked at as a separate lesson in itself. If you take a more critical translation like Mr. Darby, you have an M-IN front of it or some other expression showing that it is linking on with the passage I just mentioned that for any of you who might be counting, but at any rate.
You'll find here that there is these important lessons that are imparted by the father and the mother to the son. Let's look through some of them very briefly. As we pass along through the chapters, verses 8:00 and 9:00, My son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake, not the law of thy mother. Now, the word law there is not the law like the Mosaic law. It should be translated teaching. You have another translation like Mr. Darby's. You'll find his teaching. It's the instruction or the teaching that a mother would have.
For they shall be as an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.
And so here we have the first great lesson that needs to be learned, and that is regard for the parents wisdom and counsel. What we have here is parental advice.
In all of these 12 But here the most important perhaps of all of them, is to have confidence in the mother and the father, that they are imparting wisdom. And so the application here, of course, is a godly home. It is supposes that the mother and the father know the Lord, and they have walked in wisdom themselves to some degree, and they are attempting to pass this along to the to the sun. It's in the family.
And so that's the probably the.
Most important lesson of all 12 of them and that is that there would be regard for the authority and wisdom that the parents have. Now I know that most of you young people probably think that your parents wisdom is way outdated.
I suspect that I am not talking to a few of you that have that idea because we grew up in the 50s or the 60s or the 70s or whatever, that we don't have a clue what's going on in the world today. But I want you to know, dear young person, your parents are not that far out of it. Are you so naive to think that your mother and father don't know the ways of this world and what they've seen and heard? Because they have shielded you from some of the things that they've known and seen?
00:15:32
In life that they don't know anything about it. Could you be that naive?
Now I've turned the tables, haven't I? We started off by thinking your parents were naive and didn't know what was going on. But could you be that naive to think that because your father and mother don't talk about all of the corruptions and the things that they've observed and seen as they've passed through their life?
No, your parents aren't as.
Off as you may think and I think you need to realize.
That your parents have something that can be a help to you, you need to hear.
The wisdom of not only the father, but the mother. Look what it says in verse 9. For they shall be an ornament of grace to thy head and chains about thy neck. Now what's he talking about here? Well, that's a poetic way of speaking out. There is going to be honor and moral beauty to everyone who will heed these things and apply them in their Christian lives. That's the first lesson. Now, verse 10, we have a next lesson. My son, if Sinner is enticed, thee consent thou not.
This goes on right through to the end of the second chapter. Now, verse 15 says my son, I realize, but this is one of those ones. There's only two of them, I think that really has an M dash with it. And if you look at the context, you'll see very clearly that it's connected with the subject that is in discussion before and after that verse. And so this second lesson is very important and that is the danger of bad companions, he says. My son, if sinners entice the.
Consent thou not. This is another great lesson that needs to be learned. The danger, the powerful influence that companions have and every godly parent would seek to impress upon their child, their young ones in their home, the dangers of bad companions and the influence that there is. You're going to get it. When you go to school, you'll get it. When you go to work, you'll get it everywhere.
How important it is that we learn to do what the parents are teaching this son here.
Consent thou not. In other words, just say no. You need to learn how to say no. Many of us want to please.
It's natural to want to please because you want to be accepted and the danger is is to want to please at the point of compromise. And so how important it is that we learn to say no. And he describes in the verses that follow the typical street corner gang. I'm talking about the gang that hangs around the 711, you know, with the skateboard and the hat that's on crooked and all the rest of it.
These kids generally.
Are no good at all and they need to keep away from them, is what he is pointing out here. So the importance of separation is the subject of the second lesson. And you know, separation is not so much something that is to be taught in the household as it is to be shown.
I know what I'm talking about when I say this because so very often we we will tell the children what is that We need to be separate about this or that, but the parents need to show it in our lives. For this I feel again the.
Our weakness and failure as parents. But you know, we can make a mess out of our lives very soon. In life you don't have to.
Be an older person and there are various ways in which you can learn the lessons of life.
Someone put it like this. You can learn it by making mistakes.
You can learn it by looking at other people's mistakes and learn from them. Or better that better than that, you can learn from the word of God, which is what we want you to do, which is the only right way before God. Someone put it this way, happy is the man that learns from his mistakes, but happier still is the man that learns from somebody else's mistakes. But happier yet indeed happiest of all is he who learns from the word of God.
And that's why we have the book of Proverbs and other scriptures that give us moral lessons.
And so isn't that important the need for separation in the life? Let's go on to chapter 2. Here we have another one, my son, If thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee, so shalt thou incline thine ear to wisdom and imply thou heart to understanding. Yeah, If thou cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding, thou seekest through us silver and searchest for her As for hid treasures.
00:20:26
Then thou shalt understand the fear of the Lord, find knowledge of God, and so on. What's before us in this chapter?
Is the importance of reading and praying the importance of establishing the reading and prayer in our lives?
That's what you get there in the first couple of verses, It's reading, it's receiving God's words and inclining your ear to them. Then verses three and four, it's crying after them and lifting up our voice for there's prayer. A little further down we'll get the actual practice of it in the walk down in verse 7:00 and 8:00.
And so here we have another very important lesson that should be established in our young lives, and that is to have a time of reading and prayer from the word of God every day. You know, if you've grown up in a Christian household, a godly Christian household, your parents have Bible readings with you. The reason why they do that is because they know that the habits are not yet formed, and they can impart wisdom and acknowledge.
And instruction to you, But you know your parents are really desiring that there will come a point in your life.
Where you will begin to read and pray on your own and get standing, so to speak, on your own feet. And this is what I want to encourage. And I believe that's the thought of this lesson here.
And that is that you would have established in your life a quiet time every day.
Where you get along with the Lord and you open the Bible and you read it and you pray and you ask the Lord for guidance and help in your life and then seek to practice what you've read. And as we learn this, we are getting ahead in our lives. There's going to be some stability that's going to come because there's a time coming when you're not going to have your parents Bible readings in their home. There's going to be a time sometime in your life that you're going to.
Leave the householders will get as the chapters unfold and if these things are the habit of your life.
You're going to be profiting from the blessing of God's Word and the wisdom they're in now. He shows here some of the benefits. In the latter half of the chapter he says that to deliver thee verse 12 from the evil man.
And then verse 16 To deliver thee from the strange woman. 2 Great evils are before us now in the end of this chapter that will be preserved from if we abide in the truth that we have learned.
The evil man and the strange woman Now these could represent.
Well, they are first of all, of course, evil persons, and evil men and evil women.
But they also could represent 2 Characters of evil. The evil man might represent evil in a in a secular way, just in the world.
But then the strange woman might be religious evil. These are two characters of evil that stream through this world system, the secular evil and a religious evil. And we have to be preserved from both. And the principles that we're going to get are going to be from the word of God. If we're going to be preserved, we're going to have to get them from the word of God, I'm trying to say.
The evil man and the strange woman.
We'll get more about the strange woman as the chapters unfold. Chapter three we have a 4th lesson, my son. Forget not my law or teaching, but let thine heart keep my commandments for length of days, and long life and peace shall be shall they add to thee.
Verse five. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean on unto thine own understanding and all thy ways. Acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. I won't read anymore, but this stretches on from chapter 3, verse one, to chapter to verse 10.
I believe the lesson here is the importance of trusting and honoring the Lord in our life. These lessons build, I believe. And here we have the importance of trusting and honoring the Lord in our life. You get the honoring in verses 9 and 10.
You know, as we grow in our Christian lives as young people, we need to learn to trust the Lord.
In the various circumstances, when you go to school, when you go to work, Oregon, whatever the need to commit our way to the Lord and to trust Him and see how He will work things out for us and will preserve us as well in the pathway.
00:25:17
Now another lesson in verse 11. It stretches down to verse 20. My son despised not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father the Son in whom he delighteth. So here we have another kind of a lesson.
This one here is more the idea of submitting.
To the disciplines of the Lord in our life. And we all are going to have disciplines from the Lord.
That he allows and chastenings and he's saying here that if we despise it not.
We are going to profit greatly from it. And the blessings that flow, all of it are from verses 13 on to 19. You know, we're told in Hebrews chapter 12. I believe it is that there are different ways in which we can react to the chastening of the Lord. In fact, this very verse that I read to you is quoted over there in Hebrews 12 and it tells us there that we can either despise it or we can faint under it, or we can be exercised thereby three ways in which we can treat or handle.
The chastening of the Lord, you know, to despise something is to disregard it. Don't let it to heart. Whatever happens, just shake it off. Don't worry about it. There's nothing.
Oh, the Lord wants you to feel things. He wants you to lay things to heart because everything that he brings to pass in your life has a calculated purpose for it, because he loves you and he wants you to hear His voice in these things and get a blessing by submitting to it. And so the parents are teaching the Son here not to despise the the chastening of the Lord. As I say, the Apostle Paul, I believe we believe it was the Apostle Paul wrote Hebrews, he adds, also fainting under it.
You see, fainting under it is the idea of getting discouraged by it and saying why is it always me that these things happen to and?
And getting under the whole situation and giving up, that was the subject that he had there before him in Hebrews 12, that he feeble knees and the hands hanging down and getting discouraged in the pathway. No, that's not the way to treat the chastening of the Lord. Then he goes on a little further in Hebrews 12 and says those that be exercised thereby, that would yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. That's how it goes and that's the only right way in which we are to.
Take these disciplines and chastenings that the Lord allows in our lives. You know, the ones that don't apply them and don't hear the voice of the Lord are going to miss something greatly. And so we want to.
Submit and learn from the disciplines of the Lord. Verse 21 now goes on. Now through to the 4th chapter in verse nine, my son, let them not depart from thine eyes and sound wisdom and discretion. Here we have another appeal to to lay hold of wisdom that God would give the practical wisdom. But the subject here seems to be more along the thought of building relationships in our lives.
You ever see some young people that are?
Are quite popular. They seem to have friends. They don't seem to be short of it. People like them. And then you see other young people that really struggle with that and they they're not that well liked. There's reasons for that, you know. And I believe that the lessons that are taught here bring that out. Just look at verse 27. Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. See, here's the idea of.
Being open and free with our praise of another person.
And to be free to.
Encourage another person.
And praise them when it's due to them.
You see a person that is always speaking well of other people. They will be liked, say not to thy neighbor, go and come again tomorrow. I will give it, and when thou hast it by thee. Here's another thought here, and that is, we need to not be tight or stingy with our money.
Be be generous.
Hear about young people. If someone was telling me this recently, they went down to Starbucks and there was one young fully. He bought something for everybody. Wasn't that nice? Be well liked. These are very, very practical things. But you know, some of us take some time to learn them. It says here devise not evil against thy neighbor, seeing that he dwelleth securely by thee. What he's talking about here is to be careful that we don't end up in strife and arguments.
00:30:13
You know, there are some people that are characterized by wanting to have a good argument.
A certain name comes up. Oh so and so. He loves a good argument. Could that be the description of yourself or myself? Well, I'll tell you something. If that is the case, I don't think you're going to be that well liked.
Generally speaking, that's not what builds good relationships and friendships.
And so on. You could just go on down through the chapter.
And so I think what the parents are teaching here is more the idea of how to build relationships and friendships in life.
And how important that is that it is done according to divine wisdom. Now chapter 4, verse 10. Hear, O my son, receive my sayings. In the years of thy life shall be many. I have taught thee in the way of wisdom. I have led thee in right paths. Now verse 12, I'd like to read from the original language, the Hebrew. It reads more like this. And when thou goest, I will.
Open up the way before thee.
And when thou runest, thou shalt not stumble.
And then he goes on to speak about the path of the wicked verse 14 and the path of the just in verse 18.
What's before us in this lesson is divine guidance and learning to get guidance from the Lord in the paths of life. He speaks about the right path and the wrong path, and how that the Lord would delight to guide us in that path.
Then going on to Chapter 4, verse 20, my son here, we haven't yet. Another lesson, I think it's #8.
Attend to my words, incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes.
Keep them in the midst of thine heart, for they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thine heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. And here I believe the lesson is the importance of guarding the heart. How important that is that the lesson is learned in the household.
That we learned to guard our hearts affection because it is such that when the heart's affections get LED away with something, it is not long that we ourselves are going to be LED into that pathway. We need to learn to guard the heart. You hear people saying sometimes, oh, I just love doing that. I just love that it could be some sport or some recreation. Be careful.
You know you let your heart go after things to the point where you love it.
It could turn into something that could climb into your heart and draw you away.
It may not be something sinful in itself, but still can be used to draw our hearts away, and it will start us on a course that could spoil our lives. How many young people have got drawn away by something like that, Something innocent on the surface, but because they were wrapped up in it emotionally that they were drawn away. I'm not saying you shouldn't enjoy things God wants you to enjoy, things. We learn from the New Testament that he would have us to enjoy freely the things that are given to us of God.
But be careful what we love with a passion. May it be Christ, may it be His Word, may it be the Lord's people.
Now chapter five, we have yet another lesson, my son. And it goes on. And here I believe the thought is the secret of a happy marriage. And I see here now that the young person is getting older, where the parents can start to speak to them about these kinds of relationships and the importance of getting a Good Wife. The chapters divided into two parts.
You have two women. The first half of the chapter we have the wrong woman. The latter half of the chapter we have the right woman, the wife of thy youth, verse 18.
And in the middle of the two sections we have this verse 14. I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
And I think that shows us that we can find the wrong person even amongst the Lord's people in the congregation and assembly. Don't think that just because the girl is a meeting girl, a boy is a meeting boy, so to speak, as we say that everything's all right. No, that may not be the case at all. There are higher qualifications for finding a suitable helpmate than just someone that is in and amongst the God's people. You'll find a whole range of persons with regard to devotion or the lack thereof amongst God's people.
00:35:04
And so he and the parents who are encouraging young ones to be able to discern.
The character of an individual. And then to find the wife of his youth, and to stick with her put good wisdom. That is now. Chapter six. We have a 10th lesson, my son, If thou be surety for a friend, and if thou stricken thy hand with a stranger, and thou snagged with the words of thy mouth, and thou art taken with the words of thy mouth, this do Now, my son, There's no one of those, my sons, But it's connected with the section. You can see that and deliver thyself, when thou art come to the hand of thy friend. Go, and humble thyself.
And make sure thy friend give not sleep to the eyelids nor slumber to thine eyelids.
To thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eye lives.
And so on. I think what we have here and the 15 verses or so in the 6th chapter is the lessons on how to avoid financial ruin.
As I said, these are very practical lessons for life and the parents bring up at least three different things, scenarios as you might call them, of how financial ruin takes place in lives of persons. The first one that I've read there brings out the idea of financial entanglement through debt, either of your own or in being entangled by being a guarantor for somebody else's death. And the lesson there is if you get yourself into some sort of a contractual agreement.
Is to get out of it as fast as you can.
And then it goes on in verses 6 through 11. And there is another thing that is taught more in a positive sense by pointing to the little creature of the Ant. And here we have the idea of being industrious and saving with a plan. This is going to help us to avoid financial ruin. The answer it says she provides her meat in the summer, she gathers her food in the harvest, and she's wise. You know, young people, the tendency is, and I know what I'm talking about, is to spend what you earn.
But that's not very wise.
Even the aunt knows better than that. We find here that the Ant has a plan. It's planning ahead and sees that there's a time coming in the winter and realizes that it's important that there should be a gathering or a saving. Now, I'm not saying you have to save every last penny that you earn, but you do need to understand that those who spend everything they have, they may have all the toys, so to speak.
They lack nothing, The latest shirts and whatever else that comes down the Pike, and there's plenty of them. But if they have that, they may end up with nothing to show for it at the end of the path, when the decisions of life come, when you're going to need help. As we were saying in the 5th chapter, we find there the getting the right help mate, the companion in life. When marriage comes, there is responsibilities, there is needs, as we all know, and if we haven't had any kind of forethought in our life.
We're going to have nothing and it's going to be more difficult.
In those circumstances, so a little wisdom here to avoid financial ruin is to learn how to save.
Your money and to use it wisely. And the best place to use it is on the Lord and His people.
And then in verses 12, on through 15 or so we have this naughty person or a man of Belial, or some translator of Swindler, I believe. And the idea here is the the crook, a person that is is crooked. In business, you need to learn to identify their character and avoid dealing with those kind of people or you're going to come to financial ruin. Some of us can speak from experience on this and it needs you need wisdom to identify those kinds of persons.
Moving right along, because we want to take an outline of the whole book here, Chapter 6, verse 20, my son. Here we have yet 11Th verse and the context here goes on through to the end of the chapter is the lessons of the reality of the government of God. And again, moral evil is brought in here as a backdrop to show how that the government of God can work in a person's life and the context is thy neighbor's wife and adultery.
And how that the government of God can work in our lives. Look what it says in verse 2728.
Can a person can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes be not burned? Can one go upon hot coals and his feet be not burned?
00:40:01
So is he that goes through his neighbor's wife, and whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent. And so on.
Verse 33 A wound in dishonor shall he get in his reproach, shall not be wiped away. These are solemn lessons that need to be taught in the household, and the healthy fear of God and his government should be insisted upon and taken very seriously. So I hope you young people are listening to what we're saying here. There is the reality of the government of God in your life.
Now in chapter seven we have the last one. My son, keep my words and lay up my commandments with thee.
Pass on to verse 6, for at the window of my house I looked through the casement, or the lattice could be translated and beheld among the simple ones. I discern among the youths a young man void of understanding, and he goes on to describe a young man that is taken by seduction of the harlot. Here it's in this chapter and taken and left for a piece of bread.
How solemn. I think the lesson here, of course, is the seduction, the dangers of the seductions of immorality. But I read verse 5 to show you that the position that the young man is in is still behind the lattice. He's still within the protection of the household, and he's looking out through the lattice. And he is being taught by the parents of the dangers of the world and these wicked ways that we read of here. And it shows us that we do not need to go out into the world.
To learn these lessons, we can learn them by listening to our parents if they're godly.
And the reading the word of God and learning the lessons.
Now in chapter 8 we learned something else. Doth not wisdom cry understanding? Put forth her voice. She standeth at the top of the high places, and by the way of the places of the paths, and that could be translated by the crossroads. She crieth at the gates at the entry of the city, and at the coming in at the doors. Now here we see something different. The young man has been under the instruction of the parents, and now we find that wisdom is going out into the streets.
And it's because young man is seeing now, leaving his parents home, he's going out into the world. And if we find here that wisdom follows him because he has done what his parents have said and has bound wisdom about his neck. And we find that wisdom guides him at the crossroads, the places of decision in life. And he has guided a right because he has heeded the wisdom of his parents.
In the latter half of the chapter we see something else, and that is that Wisdom is personified. And we find that behind Wisdom is the Lord Himself. He's the one who is Wisdom personified. And so from verse 22 to the end of the chapter we see it's the Lord is the one who's going with him, helping him in the decisions of life so that he would not make a mess of his life. Chapter 9 then opens up with Wisdom, helping him to build a house, and so here we have the idea of him going out and building his own house now.
And so we find wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars, and so on. The idea of seven pillars would bring before us the thought of a stable household. Someone said, what marks a stable household? These are not mine. Number one, that the parents both know the Lord as their savior, that the parents, secondly, acknowledge the Lordship of Christ in their life. Thirdly, that God's order of headship is acknowledged, that is, they understand the roles of husband and wife.
Fourthly, we have there is the reading and the prayer and the word of God. There is mutual respect and love.
There is also communication and forbearance. There are seven things that someone passed on years ago to us.
That would mark the household that has stability and then again we have the warning of the dangers of the clamorous and foolish woman at the end of the chapter.
And so we have one complete cycle here. We have a household, a godly household. We see that young children, their son in particularly, is focused upon, and he is instructed in the various lessons of life. Then we find him going out and he builds his own household, and he's about to start his own family. And so how beautiful this is, that these nine chapters stand together as a nice little package of wisdom that is necessary for life. That's why we style it, The 12 lessons of wisdom in a household.
Now let's read chapter 10, verse one. The proverbs of Solomon. The wise son maketh the glad father, but a foolish son has heaviness to his mother. Treasures of witness or prophet, nothing but righteousness delivereth from death. The Lord will not suffer. The soul of the righteous defamers, but he casteth away the substance of the wicked. I'm not going to read any more what we come to here Now just by a glance at it you can see that the style and the problems have changed completely.
00:45:21
What we've been looking at is a series of verses that communicate a lesson.
But now we come to something completely different. We're reading now in this these chapters that go on from Chapter 10.
One verse Maxims, one verse Maxims. And what marks this subject? This new division. In the book, second division is the 1St 4 words, the proverbs of Solomon. That's not a proverb, that's a title. That's what the spirit of God has put in there to mark a new division. And as I say, these are one verse Maxims that are now before us. Quite a change. And more than that, these maxims have a a positive and a negative, a contrasting.
Way to a way in which they're presented. There is, you know, the what a wise man does.
A wise man does this, but a foolish man will do that. You know, a righteous man will do this, but a wicked man will do that. A rich man will do this, but a poor man will do that. You can see that there are contrasts in these one verse Maxims. You might call them a dichotomy.
Most Bible teachers call them contradictory. Parallelism. That's a big word, big mouthful. Isn't it contradictory?
Or rather contrasting, I'm trying to say parallelism. That is, there's two-part streets, little maxim.
And they contrast each other.
And it's full of wisdom for us.
I don't have time to go into it any further here, but by and large, of all these various contrasts that we see, we'll find that the by and large, the one that's most focused on is the wise and the foolish. And it's very interesting as you read the book of Proverbs that there are three kinds of fools that you'll come across in the book. They're all translated fool in our English Bible, so we lose something in the translation. But in the Hebrew language there are three kinds. I'll just point them out real care quickly to you. First of all, there is one. It is the Casio.
And that's a fool that is self confident. It's one that disregards the wisdom and counsel of other people, shakes it off and also propounds his own ideas and opinions and views. And it's found throughout the the chapters many, many times.
Let me have another one. It's the evil, and here's one that.
Well, I think the Strong's puts it. He's he's stupid in the sense of he never seems to learn the lesson. He he just seems to hit his head on the same rock over and over again, makes the same mistakes over and over again. We all know what we're talking about and I would ask you not to attach any names to these as we speak of them because sometimes that comes up and say, I know a person like that because we need to lay our hand on our own heart, don't we? And to realize that we could be and have often been.
He kind of fool that we're talking about here. Then the third one is Nabal and Nabal is the IS 1 who's a vile man and I think Darby translates it that way for us. He's one who's in pious, he's corrupt and it's used only a few times in the book. Here you have these three kinds of fools and it's very interesting to distinguish them in your Bible. That's what I've done and to know what you're reading as you read through these contrasting parallelism.
Now turn on to the 16th chapter.
Chapter 16, Verse one. The preparations or purposes of the heart in man.
And the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are clean in his eyes, own eyes.
But the Lord with the spirits, commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. The Lord hath made all things for himself. Yeah, even the wicked for the day of evil. Now just at a glance you should be able to notice that from this chapter on we find a difference. There's a change in these one verse Maxims notice there's no contrast anymore.
Look what it says there in that first verse, the preparations of the hardened man, and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. It doesn't contrast like the chapters 10 through 15 do.
Chapters 10 through 15 we have these contrasting parallelisms. From Chapter 16 onward, we have these ones which we could call complementing parallelism. That is, the second part of the verse complements the first part.
00:50:01
And that goes on all the way through these chapters. So there's a difference here. And there are lessons that were taught in wisdom through these complimenting parallelisms and that continues on through to the.
22nd Chapter and verse 16.
Now let's read chapter 22 and verse 17.
Here we mark, We come to a new division in the book. This is the third division. Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise. Apply thine heart unto my knowledge. For it is a pleasant thing. If thou keep them within thee, they shall be, shall with all be fitted to thy lips, that thy trust may be in the Lord. I have made known to thee this day. Even to thee have I not written unto thee excellent things, and counsels and knowledge, that I may make thee know the certainty of the words of truth.
That thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee. And so beginning from verse 17 again a marked change takes place in the book and proceeds for a few chapters. Here we have something different again the words of the wise. We learn something here from this verse 17 on through to the end of the 24th chapter we have a collection of wise sayings are the words of the wise. In fact, what we have is what is called the 30 sayings of the wise. Never heard of that before.
When you read down in verse 20, the proper translation of it, I understand, is have not I written unto thee 30 sayings of counsels and knowledge not excellent things? It should read 30 sayings. What he's going to give us now is 30 wise sayings of wise men. This is very instructive because what we're learning here now is that Solomon was not only a very wise man, but he was a student of wisdom. And what he did was he collected and compiled wisdom that he gathered from otherwise men. And so in this section of our book of Proverbs, we don't have Solomon's proverbs, We have ones that he collected from otherwise men.
And he lays them out here for us. The opening verses that I read though are an introduction. Verses 17 to 21 is an introduction to the 30 wise sayings, the 30 sayings of the wise.
And he tells us how we're going to profit from it. I just don't have time to go into that. I was intending to, but we will. Not now. Anyway, the first one begins in verse 22. As I say, there's a marked change. They're not one verse maxims anymore. There are two verses, or three or four. Some of them even go up as much as 6 verses. These words of the sayings of the wise are mostly warnings. You'll notice that they have the knot with them.
So the first one is in verses 22 and 23. It says Rob, not the poor.
The idea here is that we're not to take advantage of other people. And then the second one is make no or should be make not friendship with an evil angry man and so on. The next one is be not verse 26 to verse 28 remove, not chapter 23, verse three. The 1St 3 verses of chapter 23 go together to form the 6th wise saying, I'm just hopping along here to save time, be not desirous. Next verse four labor not eat thou not. As you go through. You can see these are warnings, they're negative and these are wise sayings that have been put together by the spirit of God collected by collected by Solomon himself.
As a student of wisdom.
And they pass right along. Now let's turn over to Chapter 24 as we.
Come now to the end of them, verse 15 of chapter 24.
Lay not.
Verse 17.
Rejoice, not, verse 19. Fret not. Verse 21, metal not. And so they're all two verse maxims as we come to the close. And verse 21 and verse 22 is the 30th and final of this group of 30 wise sayings of the wisdom of the of the wise.
Now let's look at verse 23 of chapter 24.
These things also belong to the wise. Again, that's not a proverb. That's been inserted there as a little phrase to mark another division. The fact that it says also here is showing us that it belongs to.
The subject of the sayings of the Wise Men. But it's an appendix. And so from verse 23 on to the end of the chapter we have an appendix. And there are four more wise things included to complete this section of the sayings of the Wise.
00:55:03
Now let's turn to chapter 25. We come to the 4th division of the book. These are also proverbs of Solomon. Again, that's not a proverb. This is a a a mark in the.
In the in this book that would separate what we have now before us. And here we have from chapters 25 to chapters 29, a collection of proverbs that Solomon wrote that were copied out 250 years after he lived and wrote them by Hezekiah's men. And they more or less grouped these ones into certain moral lessons. We don't have time to go into them. But I'll just say that he what he's teaching in these proverbs and you'll notice he's a return to the.
The one verse maxims that are contrasting, as we call them, contrasting parallelisms. There's a return to that now and you'll find that this proceeds for three chapters, 2526 and 27. And the subject that's before us is interpersonal relationships. That is how to interact with other people. This is good and important. And so the 1St 7 verses show us how we're to interact with kings. It's all about kings. You say, well, how am I ever going to interact with a king? When was the last time I ran into a king?
Well, a king in Scripture often brings before us the thought of one who's in authority.
And maybe your boss and maybe those who are in a place in government and police officers or whatever, or even authority in the in the assembly. And so there is a way to behave in the presence of one who sits in authority. That's the point. Next, verses 8 through 20 how to interact with your neighbor. Now verse verses 21 to 28, how to interact with enemies or how not to interact with them. I suppose we could say you want to avoid enemies, but in chapter 26.
1St 12 verses are all to do with food.
How to interact or deal with fools?
Then in chapter 26, verse 13 to 16, how to interact or at least to deal with a sluggard?
His luggage different from a slothful man. I don't just have time to explain that difference, but sluggard is 1, generally speaking, in fact, always as a rule, as one who won't get started in work, whereas A slothful man is one who won't finish what he starts. Only problem is, you're only going to be able to pick that up if you pick up Darby's translation, because he changes the sluggard to the swath and the sloth is the sluggard. It's going on a little further. We have how we're to handle meddlers in verses 17 to 19.
And then lastly, at the close of the 26th chapter, from 20 to 25, how to deal with tail bears and then relationships toward ourselves in 27 and toward others who don't like us and toward our friends. Lastly, you'll come down to the end of the 27th chapter as to how we're to deal with our responsibilities, and it looks at agricultural farming and so on. The last five or six verses, chapter 28, he goes back to complementing.
Parallelism. Notice what it says. The wicked flee when no man pursues.
But the righteous are as bold as a lamb that should renamed, I think there and so on. You'll find here that these ones here are are contrast. You know, I, I I meant these were contrasting ones. He goes back to the **** all the way along.
Our time is to close, so I'll just give you the 30th chapter, which is again.
A prophecy of a man named Ager and he had two students, we were told, if a ill and you Cal and this man learned some tremendous pieces of wisdom. I just don't have time to outline that chapter for you. And then we have in the 31St chapter the wisdom of the Queen Mother.
King Lemuel. We don't know exactly who he was. Some say that it was perhaps in the name of endearment that Solomon that Solomon's mother had given for him, but we don't have any conclusive proof of that, so I'm not going to go any further with that. But the lessons that she had for him are in that division.
And so we've gone from the 4th division. The 5th division is Chapter 30. The 6th and final division of the book is Chapter 31.
Standard clothes.
I hope that.
We haven't just avalanched you with a lot of information.
But the lessons that are found in this book, I trust, and the outlines that we've given will help you when you read this book in your own private meditations and gain the wisdom therefrom. Father, we thank thee for this book. We ask thee to bless it to the hearts of old and young alike. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.