DEC 31 2023 | Proverbs: Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World S2E1 | Wise Reprover

Sea Change Church · DEC 31 2023 | Proverbs – S2 Ep 1: Wise Reprover
Proverbs 1:1-9
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

How great Thou art Amen. You may be seated. The book of Proverbs Chapter 1 Verses 1 through 9 The Proverbs of Solomon Son of David King of Israel For attaining wisdom And discipline For understanding words Of insight For acquiring a disciplined And prudent life Doing what is right And just and fair For giving prudence To the simple Knowledge and discretion To the young Let the wise listen And add to their learning And let the discerning Get guidance For understanding Proverbs and parables The sayings and riddles Of the wise The fear of the Lord Is the beginning of knowledge But fools despise wisdom And discipline Listen my son To your father's instruction And do not forsake Your mother's teaching They will be a garland To grace your head And a chain To adorn your neck This is the word of the Lord I have a laing Thank you.

Amen. Ask the Lord's blessing on this time. Heavenly Father, we ask that that spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel, of might, of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord that would be with us today, that you'd address our needs through the presentation of what you have written in your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. The title of this message is, as you see at the top of your notes there, the book of Proverbs as God's wise reprover.

So really, reproof is kind of a key theme in this sermon. And I'm thinking it would be understandable if you had a little concern about that. You think, boy, this is the cusp of the new year. I just need something that will inspire me to go hope, to propel me into the new year with hope and expectancy. And you're going to talk about reproof. I don't need anything about reproof.

I'm married. After all, I get it all the time. But we have to learn this is a key element in the book of Proverbs because, as we just saw projected there, we need to have the discipline of the Lord. We have to hear his reproof, even his rebuke at times, in order to escape the things that are enchaining us to the flesh and to the world. And so learning the virtue or the blessing of reproof is something that's very, very important.

I just wanted to give a little illustration of that in terms of it's very important that we learn how to give reproof and how to receive reproof. And there's a story from World War II. Winston Churchill was prime minister of England at that time. Everybody knows Churchill, but very few people know the name of his key military advisor, a man named Alan Brooke.

Alan Brooke and Churchill were all together all the time through the days of the war from beginning to end. And as I say, Churchill was the great statesman, and Brooke was his advisor with regard to military matters. And he knew that he was in the presence of one of the great men of all history there. But Churchill had to rely on Brooke for advice with regard to his military endeavors and the strategies and the moves of the military and so forth there.

Two problems existed there with the relationship, however. One was lifestyle or habits of life. Churchill liked to get up late in the morning after working all night, and he'd have a breakfast of eggs followed by two whiskeys and sodas. And then he would go a little bit later and have a lunch, and that would be always, all his meals were with some champagne and brandy at the end and so on there, and always with the omnipresent cigars as well.

Brooke was a prompt man. He liked to be there promptly at 9 o'clock in the morning and get off work at 8 a.m. and go home and have a nice meal with his family. So there was a difference in schedule there. That was one thing. He said that he had to participate with Churchill and all these meals as well. Churchill said that his stomach was his clock, and every four hours he needed to eat.

And Brooks, so he had to participate with that, including the champagne and the brandy and everything. He said it was a little tough on his constitution. On top of that, Brooks, or Churchill, was a great statesman. He could inspire the British people to keep fighting. Even when things seemed lost, he welded together the alliance of the great powers against Germany and so forth.

But he was not necessarily the best in terms of military strategy. Brook was very expert in that and had to constantly confront Churchill with regard to some of his plans as not being feasible. He'd say, that's going to cost too much. It's going to lose too many men. We don't have the resources for it. And Churchill again and again and again had to give way to Brook's superior advice of that.

Well, as you can imagine, this caused some tension at various times. In fact, Brook's been called not Churchill's right-hand man, but Churchill's right-hand critic. At one point, Churchill finally got so frustrated, he said to somebody, he said, I've got to get rid of Brook. He hates me. I know he just absolutely detests me. We just can't work together anymore.

Someone reported this comment to Brook, and here's Brook's very telling response. Hate him. I love him. But the time or the date that I tell him he's right when I know he's wrong, that's the day to get rid of me. See, Brook stood firm in what he knew was right. And Churchill, again and again, had to respect that and back down. And respect that someone knew something that he didn't.

And by the way, that didn't result in Brook leaving or anything. They stayed together, as I say, all through the war. But that's the point. That's the point of the sermon here in one point. We need to learn to give reproof. Because the Lord works through us. Works through his church, one with another in our interactions. We need to learn to give reproof and have the humility and the courage to receive reproof.

And that's an essential message of Proverbs that you just were reading up there on the screen there. It says, listen, my son, to your father's instruction. Do not forsake. Your mother is teaching. There will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck. We have to learn to receive the instruction. And the very word instruction in Hebrew, the root of that word is the word to chasten or to punish.

Everything that we're doing in getting to the word of God is to understand that God is trying to correct us. To correct means to set straight what was once crooked. The title of the message here is the book of Proverbs is God's wise reprover. That's from Proverbs 25, which in the King James says something like, As an ornament of gold, so is a wise reprover to an obedient ear.

The key scripture for this message as well is in Proverbs 6.23. 6.23 says, It is the reproofs of instruction that are the way of life. The reproofs of instruction are the way of life. Not just instruction, but the reproofs of instruction. When it comes in, it's going to be asking us to change things. The key word there you might say is repentance.

So let's look at the book of Proverbs a little bit here just in general. As I say, the beginning of the chapter there read that we are to know. These are the Proverbs of Solomon. To know wisdom, to receive instruction, to bestow prudence upon God's people. The book of Proverbs is really a great book to get into on a daily basis. And I think most of you are aware of this.

There's 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs. It's good advice to read one chapter a day based on the day of the month. So today you'd read Proverbs 31, learning about the virtuous woman and so on there. But not just to read it and say, well, I've done my duty for today, but to really get into it and pray what you're reading. Read it and say, this is something for me.

And to ask and petition God to bring into your life help in changing things or to strengthen something that's there. Whatever it might be. Whatever it says. He who walks with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Lord, send me wise people to surround me. Keep back those who would weaken my faith. The virtuous woman.

Help me to be that virtuous wife that's described if we read it today and so on there. Thirdly there, I want to make it clear that the book of Proverbs is often considered by people to be a sort of a success manual. If I, it says here, if I take the first fruits of my increase and then my barns will be full. Okay, there's one. That's the first check off for success.

And then do this with my social interactions and with my family and so forth. If I just go through all of this, do it right, look what will happen. I'll be happy and successful. And so we do it for ourselves. And people actually advise. Read the, you want to be successful, read the book of Proverbs. The problem with that, and that's good, you will be blessed.

You tithe, you offer, you love your family as it says there and so on. If you do all the right things, you will be blessed. But the problem with that is that we can therefore come to the place where we think we're a success. Eventually we'll say something like, I'm rich and in need of nothing. Or we'll come to church and say, I thank you, Lord, that I'm not like all these other people that don't read Proverbs.

We have to be ready at any time for the Lord to come to us, no matter how successful you've been. And say, you know, you lack one thing. Go sell everything you have, give to the poor, and come follow me. So it's not a success manual. It's not the seven habits of highly successful Hebrews or anything like that. Okay, okay, okay. Now one thing, Pastor Adam, a couple weeks ago, was into Isaiah chapter 11.

And he was talking about that in the terms of that message. I want to talk about Isaiah 11 again in terms of Proverbs 1. All the key terms in Proverbs 1 that you just saw projected of here are found in Isaiah chapter 11. Jesus, as you see in your notes there, is the embodiment of the book of Proverbs. He is, as Paul says, he became our wisdom.

He is the wisdom of God. Proverbs tells you to seek wisdom, well, seek Jesus. And seek to emulate him and imitate him. So he, and I say here, the difference between wisdom and the spirit of wisdom. That's what we're seeking. If you go to verse 23 of Proverbs 1, it reads that wisdom is talking. He says, wisdom says, well, let me read it just from the NIV here.

I want to make sure I got the wording right. Verse 23 of Proverbs 1 says, if you had responded to my rebuke, wisdom talking, I would have poured out my heart to you and made my thoughts known to you. And the word thoughts there is really the word spirit, ruach. Okay? So he says, if you will listen to my rebuke, other translation, listen to my reproof, listen to my rebuke to you.

Don't go your own way. Go in the way of God. If you'll listen, then I'll pour out my spirit upon you. In Isaiah 11, what we have here is the same thing. The spirit of the Lord came upon Jesus and gave him and made him wisdom. It says, and again, sort of an apology here. We're in the NIV. A lot of times I memorize the King James. So if I mix them up, please forgive me.

But it says, there shall be a rod that comes forth from the stem of Jesse and a root from his, root shall grow from his, excuse me, a branch shall grow from his roots. And the spirit of the Lord will come upon him, will rest upon him. That was emphasized. Remember, the spirit of the Lord will rest upon him. And he shall have, be filled with the spirit of wisdom and understanding.

The spirit of counsel and might. Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. And shall make him a quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. And he shall judge righteous judgment. He shall, he shall not judge after the sight of the eyes. He shall not judge after the hearing of the ears. But he shall judge righteous judgment. And he shall decide with, he shall decide with righteousness for the poor.

And King James says, reprove with equity for the, for the meek. And with the rod of his mouth, he shall slay the wicked. And with the breath of his mouth, he shall destroy the sinners. Something like that. And then four verses, four verses in this passage gives the complete history of Jesus from his birth all the way to his second coming. He's born.

He's the, he's a rod from the stem of Jesse. He grows up. He's anointed with the spirit of God, the spirit of wisdom and understanding and so forth. He is, he becomes, he says King James, quick understanding or he delights in the fear of the Lord. And he judges righteous judgment for the poor and the meek and so forth. And then when the work of the church is completed, he sends out the spirit on us.

He's, when the work of the church is completed, it says he will smite the wicked with the, with the rod of his mouth and slay the wicked as well. Okay. So at his second coming. Everything is in that. And that's what we want to do is seek the spirit of the Lord to come upon us in the same, in the same degree as much as possible there. I want you to get the, the correlations between the Isaiah 11 passage and the Proverbs 1 here.

The spirit of the Lord shall come upon Jesus, shall be filled with the spirit of wisdom and understanding. Pastor Adam spoke about that. He said that wisdom was the knowing what to do and understanding was, was knowing what? How to do it. Right? Remember that? That, by the way, is verified in chapter 26, verse 3 of, 24, verse 3 of Proverbs. The exact same thing.

And then it says the spirit of counsel and might leading to the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. There's a progression here. Once you get the wisdom of God, then you learn, then you get the understanding of how to apply that wisdom. And that leads you to an anointing in God so that you can give counsel. Other translations say wise counsel, the spirit of wise counsel.

Someone comes to you with a need. Well, the spirit of the Lord is anointing you. You have the wisdom to give counsel in time of need. But occasionally there's something that comes up like someone's sick or he has cancer or something like that. Counseling isn't going to cure him, but the power of God can. So it's the spirit of counsel. And then you say, Lord, I need power for this.

I need a miracle here. I need to pray for someone to have them healed. And so you have the spirit of power upon you. Right? And so, and then God moves. And he, and a miracle takes place. And you're rejoicing. And that person's rejoicing. You're rejoicing. You've seen the power of God acting. And that leads to further knowledge of God. You see, you experience knowledge in the Hebrew.

Yada is the word. Knowledge in God in the Hebrew means to experience, to have knowledge through experience. And so you come to a deeper knowledge of God. Knowledge is so important because, what did Paul say? Oh, that I might know him in the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, conformity to death. Oh, that I might know him.

He just wants to know God. That was his whole goal. Oh, that I might know the Lord. And that leads to the spirit of the fear of God. Because once you experience God's power, you've given wise counsel. People have been helped. People have been healed. You've seen. You've experienced that power. You just, you come to a sense of awe and reverence that says, I'm only scratching the surface.

I don't know God as I shall. And so you're in reverence and awe and, yes, even fear of God. I don't want to do anything that would offend here. The next line in that Isaiah passage says this. The King James says, and shall make him, the spirit shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of God. The NIV says, and he shall delight in the fear of God.

This is a notoriously difficult line in Scripture, this first part of verse 3. Other translations, very variety. Rotherhams even says that he shall breathe in the fear of the Lord. And the reason is not that it's unknown words or anything. The Hebrew is very simple to translate. What it says is, he shall smell in the fear of the Lord. So translators say, well, what does that mean?

Okay. He shall smell in the fear of the Lord. But I think it makes perfect sense to translate it exactly as it says there. You heard it here first. Okay. The, look at the verse. He shall not judge after the sight of the eyes. He shall not judge after the hearing of the ears. But he shall smell in the fear of the Lord. Instead, he'll use the sense of smell to make his judgments.

What does that mean? It's interesting, Pastor Adam, on the Christmas Eve service, at least the second one, he said this. He was talking about a man who made a resolution to change. And he was taking his determined action. He said, and this is the exact quote Pastor Adam said. He said, the man had hope. I could smell it. Okay. Now, what we're trying to say there is, what is an odor?

An odor is an invisible, inaudible substance in the atmosphere that you can discern only through the nose. And it gives an impression. Putridity, sweetness, perfume, whatever it might be. And it gives you an impression. And not only that, but they say that the olfactory nerves, there's more of them than there are of sight or hearing. And the olfactory nerves are right at the base of the brain.

They go, and the minute or a second the smell goes in, it goes right to the brain. And it goes deep into the memory cells of the brain as well. Smelling is basically just discerning the spirit or the nature of the thing that you're in. You see? So it's like what Paul says. Paul talks in 1 Corinthians 12 about the gift of the discerning of spirits.

Jesus could discern exactly what he was doing. As Pastor Adam could smell the hope, Jesus could smell the piety. He could smell the hypocrisy. He could smell the murderous intent. He could smell the sweetness of spirit. He could smell the mercy in the people around him. He discerned all things. And that's how he judged. And he did it in the fear of God because he was so sensitive to the greatness, to the will of his, doing the will of his father.

He didn't want to do anything that would violate the will of his father. So he was discerning through that sensitivity of spirit. And he was able, therefore, to tell exactly what was going on and what he needed to do at that moment. So as I say, I think of Jesus when the little children came to him. Remember, the little children came to Jesus at one point, and the disciples tried to keep them away.

And Jesus was offended, and he told them, no, let the little children come to me. Why? Because he could smell the childlike spirit there, the excitement, the sense of discovery, the love, the carefreeness, the innocency of the children there. And he wanted them, and he smelled the kingdom of God there. And he said to his disciples, unless you become like little children, you're not going to inherit the kingdom.

You're not going to enter the kingdom of God. So that's what Jesus was saying to us as well, that we need to learn to smell in the kingdom of God, smell in the fear of God, in order to understand what he's trying to do with us. Lastly, you see in your notes there, see the same spirit that rests upon Jesus comes as fire upon us. It's interesting that as the dove came upon Jesus, and we say it, Isaiah 11 says, the spirit shall rest upon him as the dove came upon Jesus.

So also, do we want the dove to come upon us? But the dove comes in the form of fire, right? Why did a dove come upon Jesus, but fire comes upon us when the Holy Spirit anoints us? The reason that fire comes upon us is that what does fire do? It consumes. And there's a lot of our flesh nature that needs to be consumed. There was none of the flesh nature in Jesus.

Therefore, the dove came upon him. So the two underappreciated themes in Proverbs I said here is reproach and the word equity, if you're into notes there. Again, the Hebrew word for instruction I said means chastening. So we need to be willing to be chastened, to be reproved, to change when it comes to us. And so we can pray that, Lord, chasten me or instruct me or guide me in the path that I should go.

And do it gently, but do it, okay? What are the stated purposes of the word of God in 2 Timothy 3.16 and Hebrews 4.12? I think I've talked to Pastor Adam some time ago about having a set of scriptures that would be good for those who are in the discipleship programs to learn. This will certainly be one of them. 2 Timothy 3.16. Probably most of them know.

All scripture is inspired by God. And it's profitable for teaching. Oh, yeah, teaching, period. Let's leave it there. I just want to be taught. I just love to go through and hear about the end times and everything. But it doesn't stop there. It's not a period after the teaching. What are the other three things that are after teaching? All scripture is inspired by God and it's profitable for what?

Teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. Even the word training is the word paideia, an old Greek word meaning to do whatever it takes to get that student to learn his lessons. So, it's, again, learning to understand that what we need is to be corrected, made to walk in a straight line with the Lord. Hebrews 4.12, everybody knows as well, the word of God is sharper and is active and quick and sharper than any two-edged sword.

The word should be translated scalpel and goes into this and divides between soul and spirit, joints and marrows, and does what? Discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. So, that's what we're reading the scripture for. Again, not as a success manual, but as a holiness manual. David versus Solomon. What is David? I think about this all the time.

Here's David. He commits sin with Bathsheba. And he's in a palace with, it's not deserted. There's probably hundreds of people there, including his wives. Nobody says anything to him. Finally, Nathan, at risk of his life, goes to him and corrects him. But I think later on in life, what he was wondering is, why didn't somebody stop me? Couldn't somebody have said something?

Now, David, a lot of good came out of that sin. Psalm 32. Psalm 51. Even Psalm 101. Psalm 101. It says, I will sing of mercy and loving kindness and judgment. Oh, Lord, will I sing? Because he understood that judgment was necessary. In Psalm 141. What does David sing? This is Psalm 141, verse, I think, four or five. He said, he was so regretful. I think, why didn't something stop me?

And Psalm 141 says, let the righteous smite me. It shall be a kindness. Such oil my head does not deserve. Why didn't somebody stop me? Well, like Brooks and Churchill. He didn't have an Alan Brooks next to him. He didn't have some advisor say, I don't think that's right. You're going to commit an alter. You know, whatever. He didn't. Amaziah, you see Amaziah there versus the prophet.

Amaziah was a king. He didn't learn his lesson. The prophet came to Amaziah. Amaziah had started raising up idols and so forth. The prophet said, you got to stop that. The king said, shut up. Get out of my sight. The prophet left with one word. I see that the Lord has determined to destroy you. So we have to learn, as I say, that this is a very important element of our life as Christians.

Equity was the second word there. I had equity. I'm not going to take the time because of time. But equity is a Hebrew word which means balance. And that's why I show an image of a balance there. Basically, the lesson here is, like I say here, be sure your sin will find you out. You can never get away with sin. Wages of sin is what? Death. Okay? And you must accept, as we saw in the baptism there.

Do you accept that Jesus Christ died for your sin, took all your sins upon yourself, and therefore you're free? Yes. Yes. If a person does not repent, is not born again, does not have his sins blotted out, he gets atoned for. But guess what atones for his sins? His soul. What if you gain the whole world? And what does it profit you if what? You lose your soul.

Okay? So we have to learn equity. We learn that equity is a very frequent word or is a word in Proverbs you'll find again and again as well. I think the NIV translates it fairness or something. Which I think is a little weak. Equity means balance. God will always balance out. And so we have to understand that. And I said here, just because of time, the weight of sin can reach a tipping point even for the whole world.

And Isaiah 2420 says that the weight of sin upon the world is so heavy that it causes the whole world to fall. Are we in that place? It caused the whole world and Noah's day to fall. And where are we right now unless we reach out with the gospel and bring multitudes and pray for a revival that this country can be saved in the whole world. So it's repentance.

Now, again, I was wondering, you're probably saying, oh, it's a downer message. Reproof. Why do I learn about reproof? You know. I'm going to enter into 2024 with hope and expectancy. But that's the point. If we will hear the voice of the reproof of the Lord, that's what he will bless us. He'll bring, as I say there, he'll bring multiplication into your life as he promised to Abraham.

He will bring the river that gets expansive like Ezekiel's river there. Yeah. Jesus said, I came that they might have life and abundance. Right. That's what if we get into the straight place and he really blesses us. And there's three scriptures in the book of Proverbs that have the phrase merry heart. All right. I'm going to close with this. Hopefully this should allow you to go into 2024 a little more hopefully.

Okay. Three merry heart scriptures. The first one says, a merry heart glans the countenance. So you're not going to go along. Now you're going to go along with a smile on your face. Okay. You're walking the ways. Then a merry heart doeth good like medicine for healing soul and body. And my very favorite one, the man who has a merry heart has a continual feast.

Let's stand for a blessing. You would? Please remember that if you are interested in making a relationship with the Lord, being forgiven of your sins, washed clean, and walking in white and purity, then the love of God, please, there's a next steps table in the vestibule back there. Please take advantage of that. Also, we have members of the prayer team that will be up here to pray for you.

Please come up with your needs as well. I'm going to end with the blessing of Numbers chapter 6, the Aaronic blessing, with a little explanation. Numbers 6 says this. It says this. If you'll say these words, you will put my blessing upon Israel. So it's always a good blessing to have. The Lord bless you and keep you. That means guard you, protect you, keep you from harm.

The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. That means he's going to guide you and lead you into paths of righteousness. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace or shalom. Shalom means total well-being in every area of your life. Amen.