If you would please turn with me to Proverbs chapter 10. We'll start at verse 17. We're going to read an extended portion of God's Word today. Proverbs 10 17, we'll read all the way through the end of chapter 11. This is God's Word and God has given it to us to read and meditate on and pattern our lives after.
He's given us His Word to reveal our desperate need for a Savior and to reveal that Savior who is Jesus Christ, our Lord. So let's listen this morning with the ten of ears and open hearts and minds and be transformed by the Word of God. Proverbs 10 beginning at verse 17. The tongue of the righteous is choice silver. The heart of the wicked is of little worth. The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense. The blessing of the Lord makes rich and He adds no sorrow with it. Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is a lie.
It is pleasure to a man of understanding. What the wicked dreads will come upon him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted. When the tempest passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous is established forever.
Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him. The fear of the Lord prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short. The hope of the righteous brings joy, but the expectation of the wicked will perish. The way of the Lord is a stronghold to the blameless, but destruction to evildoers.
The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not dwell in the land. The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off. The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked what is perverse. A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight.
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom. The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them. Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.
The righteousness of the blameless keeps His way strong. But the wicked falls by His own wickedness. The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the treacherous are taken captive by their lust. When the wicked dies, His hope will perish, and the expectation of wealth perishes too. The righteous is delivered from trouble, and the wicked walks into it instead. With His mouth, the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered. When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices, and when the wicked perish, there are shouts of gladness. By the blessing of the upright, a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is overthrown. Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent. Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps the thing covered.
Where there is no guidance, a people fall. But in an abundance of counselors, there is safety. Whoever puts up security for a stranger will surely suffer harm, but he who hates striking hands in pledge is secure. A gracious woman gets honor, and violent men get riches. A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself.
The wicked earns deceptive wages, but gets a sure reward. Whoever is steadfast in righteousness will live, but he who pursues evil will die. Those of crooked heart are an abomination to the Lord, but those of blameless ways are his delight. Be assured, an evil person will not go unpunished, but the offspring of the righteous will be delivered.
Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman without discretion. The desire of the righteous ends only in good, the expectation of the wicked in wrath. One gives freely, yet grows all the richer.
Another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered. The people curse him who holds back grain, but a blessing is on the head of him who sells it. Whoever diligently seeks good seeks favor, but evil comes to him who searches for it. Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf. Whoever troubles his own household will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise.
Let's pray. Lord, thank you for showing us the way, the truth, and the life. Thank you for being the way, the truth, and the life. Thank you that you give us life and you give it to us abundantly. Now may we walk according to your precepts, your commands, your law, according to the grace that's ours in Christ Jesus, in whose name I pray.
Amen. Well, today I want to structure our consideration of this text around the five mentions of Yahweh that appear in these verses. Yahweh, or the Lord in all caps as it's translated, appears five times.
It's in 1022, in 1027, 1029, 111, and 1120. These mentions of the Lord make four distinct points, and then there's a fifth sort of introductory point that's made in the opening verse. So, we're going to consider this rather lengthy text under five headings, each of which points to this truth. If you want life instead of death, you must walk the path that leads to life. If you want life instead of death, you must walk the path that leads to life. Our text gives us several characteristics of a person who is on that path, on the path that leads to life. And so as we read about these characteristics, we're able to evaluate our own lives in light of them and determine whether or not we are on the path that leads to life. Well, let's consider then the characteristics of a person who is walking on the path that leads to life. The first thing we notice is the generosity of a teachable life. The generosity of a teachable life. One who is on the path to life is teachable. He receives or heeds instruction well. Look at verse 17. Whoever heeds instruction, listens to instruction, pays attention, and is receptive to the teaching is on the path to life, but he who rejects reproof leads others astray.
Now last week we talked about how to read the parallelisms of Hebrew poetry. The first statement corresponds to the second statement in some way. And as we map the specific points of correspondence between the first and second statements, layers of meaning begin to emerge. In verse 17, the path to life, there in the first statement, corresponds to leads others astray in the second statement. This means that the teachable person is not only on the path that leads to life, he's also taking others with him. He's influencing those around him for the better. Unlike the unteachable fool whose stubbornness is leading others astray. And so we discover that a teachable person benefits not only himself but others.
Neither wisdom nor foolishness exist in a vacuum. Our moral choices affect those around us, either for good or for bad. The person who is teachable and glad for correction and instruction and rebuke is actually doing a great favor to the society around him. His teachability and the good it brings generously benefits others. Proverbs 10 goes on to describe ways in which the wise man on the path to life benefits those around him.
And those benefits largely relate to his speech and the effect of his speech. Verse 20, the tongue or the speech of the righteous is choice silver, something of value. Verse 21, the lips of the righteous feed many.
When we are wise, we are not merely wise for ourselves, our wisdom benefits those around us. Are you on the path that leads to life? One of the ways you can know the answer to that question is by examining your life to see if you are heeding the instruction of God. Are you growing in the knowledge of God's word? Are you heeding what you're learning in that word? Is it making a difference in your choices and behavior and beliefs and attitude?
Is it making a difference to those around you? The person who is on the path to life then is first a person who heeds God. And because of that teachability before the Lord, he possesses a surplus of wisdom which he uses to generously benefit those around him. Well, the next characteristic of a person who is on the path to life is that they possess the enjoyment of a blessed life. The enjoyment of a blessed life. Verses 22 through 25 describe an individual who is just enjoying life. And at the root of their enjoyment of life is the blessing of the Lord.
Look with me at verses 22 through 25 again. The blessing of the Lord makes rich and he adds no sorrow with it. Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding. What the wicked dreads will come upon him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted. When the tempest passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous is established forever.
He's enjoying life. And all of this enjoyment of life is rooted, according to verse 22, in the blessing of the Lord. Now grammatically, this blessing of the Lord could refer to the blessing that comes from God. That's probably our default way of thinking about it, something that God does to us or for us. But it could also refer to our blessing of God. To bless God in this sense means to voice our adoration of him and our gratitude to him. This is what David is doing in Psalm 103 when he says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
It's worship. Whether verse 22 refers to blessing God or being blessed by God, it results in some wonderful things. Things like riches without sorrow. Some people are wealthy beyond imagination, and yet that wealth is lost on them because they're unhappy.
Guilt or isolation or anxiety has got them so weighed down with misery that they can't even enjoy the wealth they have. The blessing of God, on the other hand, enables us to possess wealth and gladness simultaneously. God's blessing gives us the capacity to enjoy. Verse 23 describes another advantage of the blessed life. It says that wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding. Can you imagine how wonderful life would be if the things you ought to be doing were the things that brought you the greatest delight and pleasure?
What if Brussels sprouts tasted better than chocolate? What if doing your homework was more fulfilling and fun than playing video games? What if clearing your conscience and getting right with people came easier to you than covering your sin or defending your wrongdoings? The blessing of the Lord makes the right thing, the moral thing, the wise thing, the most pleasurable course of action. Being in right relationship to God enables us to acquire a taste for the good, the true, the beautiful.
The wicked, on the other hand, is constantly worrying about losing what he's pursuing or having his goals and aspirations thwarted by circumstances beyond his control. And sadly, in the end, that which he dreads, verse 24, ends up happening. But with the righteous, the man who is on the path to life, the person who blesses God and is blessed by God, he has his desires fulfilled because he has learned to desire good things. And according to verse 25, this enjoyment of the good things of life will continue forever.
The tempests of life wreck and ruin the pursuits of the wicked, but they don't touch the righteous, the blessed of God. Is your life characterized by the blessing of God? Do you tell your soul, along with David, to bless the Lord with all that is within you? Is God your frame of reference when it's time to make a decision or chart a new course or alter some habit? Is God's will the guiding factor in how you navigate relationships and vocation, in how you use your wealth, in how you make wealth? Do you consciously seek to dwell in the realm of God's favor and blessing by honoring him as Lord of all? This is how we enjoy the blessings of God.
This is how we stay on the path that leads to life. Well, the third characteristic we see in our text is the permanence of irreverent life, the permanence of irreverent life. If the blessing of the Lord makes rich, in verse 22, well, then the fear of the Lord, verse 27, prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short. In verses 27 and 28, a connection is made between revering God, or fearing God, and the longevity of God's blessing. There's an interesting paradox in verse 27.
The word for life in our ESV translations there in verse 27 is the Hebrew word for days. It could be translated, the fear of the Lord prolongs days. These days of the God-fear, then, are contrasted with the years of the wicked, and the paradox is that while days should be shorter than years, one's view of God reverses things, such that days, the days of the God-fearing are long, while the years of the one who does not fear God are short. To fear the Lord is to lengthen all the good things in your life. To spurn God and not fear Him shortens what little time you have. In this life, we all have aspirations, desires, goals, expectations, wishes, but if those aspirations are pursued in the absence of the fear of the Lord, we will quickly come to nothing. If, however, reverence and respect and worship of God is the guiding principle of everything we do, then our aspirations will be conformed to God's will, and therefore will be acceptable to God, and therefore will come about. What we desire and pursue will end in joyful fulfillment. Look at verse 28, the hope of the righteous brings joy, but the expectation of the wicked will perish.
Do you fear God? If you don't, you're not on the path that leads to life. You're on the path that leads to frustration and disappointment. You're on the path that ends in disrupted dreams and unfulfilled desires, but a life lived before the face of God in which we remain aware of His watchful eye in private and in public and in which we seek to honor what God values and love what God loves and avoid what God hates.
That kind of life is a life that will be established and secure and permanent. It's the path that leads to life. A fourth characteristic of this life-giving path is seen in verses 29 through 30, and it's the security of a submissive life, the security of a submissive life. Verse 29 says the way of the Lord is a stronghold to the blameless, but destruction to evildoers. Bruce Waltke in his commentary says that the way of the Lord, there in verse 29, refers to God's character and His governing of life, His character and His governing of life. The way of God is how He is, His nature, His being, but it's also the way He operates because God's actions are perfectly aligned with His character. Life in this world works the way it does because God who created this world is the way He is.
And so Solomon in verse 29 is saying that to those who are themselves aligned with God's character and God's governing of all things, that is those who are aligned with the ways of the Lord, to them God's governance, we could call it His providence, is a stronghold. It's a good thing. It's a safe thing.
It's a helpful, trustworthy reality. But to the person who resists that providence, the person who resents God's involvement in life because he hates God's character, to him providential involvement gets in the way. It disrupts. It interferes. Ultimately, verse 29 says, God's ways, His providences, destroy the plans and pursuits of the evildoers.
Now, that's fascinating, isn't it? The same hand of providence is on the one hand a castle wall of protection to one person, but a siege work against the castle wall to another person. And the difference has everything to do with one's relationship to the castle wall of God's providence. If you stand in right relationship to God, He is a safe strength to be trusted in. If you stand in wrong relationship to God, He is a dangerous threat and an impediment to be crushed. The reality, however, is that He will never be crushed by mere morals.
If there is any crushing to be done, it is God who does the crushing, not man. If there's any protection to be given, it is God who does the protecting, not man. And this arrangement between the Creator and the creature extends all the way into eternity in verse 30. The righteous will never be removed from this stronghold of providence, but the wicked will never dwell in the land. They will never penetrate past the barricade of God's sovereign rule and reign, His way.
God's ways are not our ways. And for the person on the path to life, that's a good thing. The path that leads to life is the path that acknowledges the absolute sovereignty of God and submits itself fully and gladly to that sovereign reign. Well, this brings us to chapter 11 where the perspective shifts a bit. The emphasis in chapter 11 is on the alternative path to the one that leads to life.
It highlights the wages of an abominable life. The Lord is mentioned twice in chapter 11 in verse 1 and then down in verse 20. And in both instances, something is identified as being an abomination to the Lord. The first abomination perhaps seems like not a very big deal to us. Verse 1 of chapter 11 says, A false balance is an abomination to the Lord.
An abomination is something that is so at odds with God's character and will that He detests it with a special hatred. A false balance refers to a way of cheating in the marketplace. In ancient places of commerce, buying and selling was regulated by scales. It is still, to some degree, we just don't see the scale anymore. The weighing happens, I guess, digitally behind the scenes. We, for example, just take it for granted that when the label on the ground beef says one pound, it's actually a pound. Or when the gas pump says we pumped a gallon, we've actually pumped a gallon.
In ancient commerce, this weighing and measuring happened in broad daylight, in plain sight. Buyers and sellers were sometimes tempted to skew purchases in their favor by falsely counterweighting the scales. In fact, Deuteronomy 25, 13 expressly forbids this practice. Deuteronomy 25, 13 says, You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small.
Why? Because a false balance is stealing. And stealing is an abomination to the Lord. It does not seem like a morally big deal to us, but it's a big deal to a holy God.
And if we ignore its offensiveness to God, we're opting for the path that leads not to life, but to death. Now, there are numerous types of false balances in life. We may not carry cheater weights in our pocket anymore, but what about a false balance when it comes to the way we view ourselves or measure ourselves?
Look at the next verse, verse 2. When pride comes, then comes disgrace. Pride is a false balance, is it not?
With regard to one's opinion of self. And God says it's an abomination. He resists the proud. Well, Solomon continues for several sentences outlining various characteristics of those who are not on life's path but are headed for destruction. For the sake of time, I want to skip down to verse 20.
Verse 20 makes one last reference to Yahweh. It says, those of crooked heart are an abomination to the Lord, but those of blameless ways are his delight. Crooked ways, such as false balances in the marketplace, are simply a reflection of crooked hearts. As goes the heart, so goes the conduct of a person. And so if a person's behavior is abominable to the Lord, it's just a reflection that their heart is abominable before the Lord. Wicked hearts lead to wicked ways, and wicked ways lead to death. Verse 21, be assured an evil person will not go unpunished. Verse 23, the expectation of the wicked ends only in wrath. Verse 24, one who withholds what he should give only suffers want. Verse 27, evil comes to him who searches for evil. Verse 31, if the righteous is repaid on earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner. So, chapter 10 showed us the habits and rewards of a person who is walking the path that leads to life.
The person heading towards life who heeds God's word and blesses the Lord with grateful praise, one who fears his creator and yields himself to the ways, the providences of God. Chapter 11 then shows us that if you would rather forfeit life and run after death, it's as simple as doing the opposite of the habits of wisdom. Don't heed God's word. Instead, excuse yourself from listening to what God has said.
In pride, make yourself the exception. Don't bless the Lord by expressing to him your gratitude and worship. Instead, ignore his blessings. Forget to give thanks to your creator. Let your soul be consumed with the worries of life. Don't fear God. View him instead as a lenient judge whose threats of judgment are just idle threats. Don't worry too much that Moses and Isaiah and Peter and James and John all fell on their faces as dead men at the sight of him.
Tell yourself they were just overreacting or they didn't understand grace. And finally, don't submit to the ways of the Lord. Don't surrender your autonomy to his providence.
Insist that your intuition, your dreams, your life goals are noble and right because they come from the sincerity of your own heart, and that makes them good. Don't heed, bless, fear, or submit to God, and you will receive the wages of the wicked. And we all know the wages of sin is death. So once again, church, we are faced with a choice, one that leads to death and misery and one that leads to life and joy.
Which path will we take? Yesterday I had the privilege of hearing the testimony of a brother in Christ who had been brought up in the church. He knew the right answers. He knew what the path that leads to life requires, but he was faced with a dilemma because he saw his friends rejecting that path and choosing the alternative, choosing chapter 11, and it seemed that they were having a lot more fun than he was. He saw the two paths set before him as a choice between faith and fun, and his heart wanted the fun that his friends were enjoying. But in time he came to see that the longer his friends were on that wide path that leads to destruction, their fun was not fun at all.
It was actually enslavement. It became apparent to my friend that the choice before him was not one of faith versus fun, but rather a choice of freedom versus enslavement, and he chose freedom. He chose the path that leads to life. Young people, you're making choices at this early stage of your life that will affect everything ahead, choices that are shaping what you find pleasure and delight in, choices that are solidifying the relationships that will influence your values and loyalties for decades, choices that are setting a trajectory that in just a few short years will be exceptionally difficult to alter.
As you navigate these enormous life decisions, it is so incredibly important that you consider more than just the immediate pleasantness and ease of your life's path, but that you think about where that path leads, where it ends up. Every time you hear an older person say, oh, how I wish I had known that truth or this consequence or that pitfall when I was your age, listen to them, young people. Benefit from the hard lessons they've learned.
Don't repeat their mistakes. Heed truth and wisdom and good counsel wherever you find it, wherever it finds you. At the other end of the spectrum, there may be some of you here today who read a collection of proverbs like the ones we've read this morning, and you're maybe filled with regret, sorrow. You're the person saying to the young people, I wish I had known that when I was your age.
Perhaps you feel like, what's the point? I've already wasted my life with too many wrong decisions. Let me just point you back to the very first verse we looked at today, chapter 10, verse 17. Whoever heeds instruction is on, present tense, the path to life. You may have wasted 70 years, 80 years, but you're here today. You have God's word before you. Heed that word.
Start right now. And God says if you do, you're on the path to life. Whatever time you have left on this earth, spend it sprinting down the path that leads to life, heeding God's voice, blessing God for his goodness, fearing God in his holiness, walking in the way of the Lord. As long as there is breath in your lungs, it is not too late to get on the path that leads to life.
And I'll just make one last comment and we'll close. One of the biggest lies of the enemy is that the path that leads to life and joy and peace is just too impossible, too difficult to even attempt. And we start telling ourselves, righteousness and wisdom and virtue are just too elusive.
My flesh is too stubborn. What's the point of even trying? Just give in to the path of least resistance.
There are many failures at being wise and making the right choices. Testify against us and deter us from pursuing the path that leads to life. Well, let me assure you, friends, that the answer to that lie lies in the gospel. It is absolutely true that left to ourselves, we cannot make any progress down the path that leads to life. Apart from Christ, you can do nothing. So you can just live there in that state of spiritual death and decay and failure and regret, that place of enslavement and ultimate hopelessness, or you can run to Christ and find rest for your souls. The same Jesus who said, apart from me you can do nothing, also said, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Apart from Christ, you can do nothing, but with Christ, all things are possible. The path that leads to life is the path that leads to Christ. So come to Him and find rest.
Look to Him and find life. Amen. Father in Heaven, thank you that in Christ you have washed away our guilt, you've pulled our feet out of the muck and mire of a path that was leading us straight to an eternal death. Thank you that you've put our feet firmly on the rock that is Christ, and that in Him we have forgiveness, we have new hearts and minds, we have the hope of everlasting life, and we have the sweet consolation that we shall never perish. Now, Lord, help us to believe that good news, and in that belief to walk faithfully and joyfully down the path that leads to life because it leads to you. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
