Well, what a privilege we have today to be able to open God's word and meditate on it and benefit from its rich, life-giving truth. This morning we come to a collection of Proverbs that contain the highest Concentration of references to the Lord in the entire book of Proverbs. Each verse of our text today, with the exception of one, makes reference to the Lord, to Yahweh. Our text today then is all about God.
So, what is it about God that we are supposed to notice?
Well, let's find out. We're in Proverbs 15. We'll begin at verse 33, and then we'll continue reading through the first nine verses of chapter 16.
So, Proverbs 15:33. through sixteen nine. The fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom, and humility comes before honor. The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes.
But the Lord weighs the Spirit. Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. The Lord has made everything for its purpose. even the wicked for the day of trouble. Everyone who is arrogant in heart.
is an abomination to the Lord. Be assured he will not go unpunished. By steadfast love and faithfulness, iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord, one turns away from evil. When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues within justice.
The heart of man plans his way But the Lord establishes His steps. Let's pray. Lord, we think so highly of ourselves. and not nearly highly enough of you. Would you change our perspective today, we pray?
Would you enable us to? See you as you are. To see ourselves as we are. And in seeing this, help us to properly. Fear you that it might go well with us, that we might experience.
The honor and the joy and the eternal peace that belongs to the children of God. Holy Spirit, illuminate our minds to understand and our souls to receive. Your word today, I pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. We all want honorable lives.
It's part of being an image-bearer of God. God is an honorable God. A morally upright God who is worthy of the respect that comes with honor. And we want our lives to be honorable, to matter, to count. to be worthy of the space we occupy.
Well, our text begins with a statement that describes how honor is achieved. The last verse of Proverbs 15 says, The fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom, and humility comes before honor. In this opening verse, we find all the components that lead to an honorable life. There's the fear of the Lord, there's wisdom, there's humility, and finally, there's honor. The way to get to honor is first to develop the inward disposition of fearing God.
This inward disposition of fear in God then produces. the inward character of humility. As we see God for who He is, we begin to see ourselves for who we are. Fearing God produces humility.
Well, fearing God and the humility that that fear produces in our hearts teaches us how to be wise. It instructs us in wisdom. And living wisely is the very path that leads ultimately to honor. Verse 15 is pointing us to the pathway that leads to honor, and it goes like this: Fear God, and so learn humility. Learn humility, and so live wisely.
Live wisely and so receive honor. at the headwaters of an honorable life. is the fear of the Lord. What then does it mean to fear God? The opening verses of Proverbs 16 describe the actions and the attitudes of a person who understands the fear of the Lord.
And it really comes down to. having a grateful submission to the sovereignty of God. Having a grateful submission to the sovereignty of God.
Now, sovereignty refers to supreme rule, absolute authority. And the sovereignty of God is a very polarizing reality, isn't it? It forces a response. Because while it cannot be comprehended, it also cannot be ignored. It can be loved or despised, but it cannot be ignored.
To love God's sovereign rule over all things is to fear the Lord. To despise that sovereign rule is to not fear God and consequently to not learn humility and not gain wisdom and ultimately forfeit the honorable life that God's image bearers are created for. Despising the sovereignty of God is Like being shipwrecked in the middle of the ocean and clinging to whatever wreckage you can grab a hold of. You can be angry at the ocean for its ability to swallow you up forever. But at the same time, it is that ocean that's keeping you afloat.
Let's say you're eventually washed ashore on some remote island. You can be angry that the ocean has isolated you on a deserted island. But at the same time, it is that same ocean that washed you safely to shore. God's sovereignty can destroy a sinner and do so with perfect justice. But that same sovereignty can also save a sinner.
with perfect mercy. To reject the sovereign justice of God against your sin is also to reject the only hope you have of salvation from your sin. To resent the sovereign providence of God over your life is to resent the very source of wisdom itself. and burn the bridge to a life of honor. and joy and peace.
But whether you embrace or resent the sovereignty of God over your life does not change the fact that God is still sovereign. You might hate gravity. That doesn't change the fact that if you jump off a building, you will hit the ground. God's sovereignty is absolute and does not depend on our acknowledgement. of that sovereignty.
Rather, our honour. And prosperity, our joy and peace depend on our acknowledgement of the simple fact that all things are through him and for him, from him and to him, to him alone. Be the glory. And so if the fear of the Lord is of such critical importance, to our well-being in this life and to our Eternal happiness in the next life. What does a life lived in the fear of the Lord look like?
How ought we to rightly acknowledge God's sovereignty? What does it look like to have a grateful submission to the sovereignty of God?
Well, let's consider this question for a few moments this morning. Verses 1 through 3 of Proverbs 16, highlight first. The sovereignty of God over the circumstances of life. In the first three verses of chapter 16, God's supreme and absolute authority over all things is declared. Verse 1 asserts that God's sovereignty overrides our plans.
Verse 1: The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. We wake up in the morning expecting our day to go a certain way. I'm going to have this for breakfast, and I'm going to accomplish these things, and I'll meet with this person and do this thing and that thing before going to bed at such and such a time. We make plans, we have expectations, we may even set things in order to ensure that our day goes as planned. And all of this planning and goal setting and putting things in order perhaps gives us the impression that we are in control of what happens.
Now, to be sure, there is a relationship. between what we set out to do and what actually gets done. And what we intend to happen often does happen. The point of the proverb is not that we have no influence over what happens in our lives and that planning ahead is somehow futile. The point is that, regardless of our intentions and plans, there is something.
Or rather, someone who sits above our wills and intentions and plans. One whose will can override our will. One whose plans will come to pass. no matter what we think or want or do. We make plans.
We declare our intentions. But the carrying out of those intentions is God's order of business. Man is just the rudder. God is the pilot of the boat.
So, what then are the implications of this reality? If God is sovereign over our plans, how should we view our planning?
Well, we should acknowledge. That without God's concurrence, our plans will come to nothing. And if we want God to concur with our plans, we need to make sure our plans concur with His will. If God commands or prohibits something in His Word, we should conform our plans, our pursuits, our intentions to those commands and prohibitions. Our best plans will be those plans that meticulously take into consideration God's will as it is revealed in His Word.
But not everything is revealed in God's word, is it? God has left some things unrevealed. There are Secret decrees of God that are hidden in the mind of God. And this means that though we ought to make every effort to conform our plans and pursuits to what can be known of God's will, there will be times. when his will is unknown to us.
And we must hold loosely to what we think Or want What we think is best. We ought to temper our attachment to our own plans when those plans touch on the hidden decrees of God. God is under no obligation to conform His will to ours. We are under every obligation to wait on him. to reveal his will in his time this is what it means to walk in the fear of the Lord.
Now as we live our lives and Experience sometimes the concurring hand of Providence, other times the interrupting hand of Providence. We're often prone to think that our plans are right, that our perceptions are wise, that our motives are good. Verse 2 reminds us, however, that our evaluation of ourselves is not always accurate. God's evaluation, on the other hand, is always accurate. And this is again part of the sovereign rule of God over all things.
His judgment is right, even when it contradicts our estimation of ourselves. God's divine judgment overrules ourself. Judgment. Look with me at verse 2. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes.
But the Lord weighs the Spirit. You see, church, we are in no position to tell God, you got it wrong. or you misunderstood my motives, or my plans are better than your decrees. That would be like the worm telling the chemist, you don't understand the chemistry of the soil. or like the rose bush telling the botanist, hey, you can't prune there.
God knows all and sees all. And it is he who sets the standard by which the categories of pure and impure. are measured. Regardless of what we think of ourselves or our motives or our plans, it is God's judgment that matters. It is God's judgment that is right.
The person who fears the Lord then is one who is willingly skeptical of his own judgment and one who acknowledges that God's judgments are true. and good and just.
Now let me ask you. If God's plans will always be carried out. And if God's Judgment, his evaluation of our motives and actions is always right. then how should we go about living our lives? We should live our lives with a constant recognition that our success.
Utterly depends on God's favor. Our success depends on God's Favor. If we set out in pursuit of things that are at cross purposes to the will of God, we will fail. It's guaranteed. If we insist on the purity of our own motives and actions, when they directly oppose God's definition of what is right and true and good, we are pursuing futility and our pursuits will come to nothing.
Our only hope then of success in life is to live with an eye toward pleasing God. That is to live in the fear of the Lord. Verse three says. Commit your work to the Lord. and your plans will be established.
Commit your work to the Lord. That word commit in verse 3 is the Hebrew word for rolling something onto something else. There's a very concrete use of the term in Genesis 29. Jacob's future wife Rachel. Is waiting at a well to water her sheep when she meets her future husband Jacob for the first time.
Scripture describes the well where Rachel met Jacob. It says the stone on the well's mouth was large. And when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well. And there's that word commit to roll the stone from its place on top of the well to a place next to the well. It was to commit this incredibly heavy stone from being here to now being there.
When we commit our work, our plans to the Lord, we're rolling the responsibility of those plans over to the Lord. We're entrusting to Him the execution, the carrying out of what we think is best, in whatever way he sees fit. We're saying Lord, this stone is too heavy. The plans and intentions of my heart are too fickle and uncertain, and I am too finite to rely on myself. I'm too untrustworthy to trust my own motives.
I need someone wiser and stronger and purer to handle the uncertainties of life. I'm now rolling over all the control of my life and my plans to the Lord, and I'm leaving it there for Him to direct as He sees fit. And in doing this, we're really just acknowledging what is already the case. We aren't putting God in charge. We're acknowledging to ourselves that He already is.
in charge. This is so much more than merely seeking God's approval of our plans. It's turning over complete control of our plans to God, knowing that everything God will do with those plans will be good and right and just and best. I think the practical effect of this committing our work to God is. That it alleviates the anxiety that comes when our plans are subverted.
when our plans derail. We have the confidence that when things don't go our way, there is a much. Wiser and more trustworthy sovereignty at work in our lives. To fear the Lord then is to acknowledge his sovereign rule over the circumstances of my life. And to trust that how he uses that sovereignty is always right and always best.
Fearing God. It is grateful submission to the sovereignty of God.
Well, our text goes on to describe God's sovereignty as encompassing not simply the circumstances of our life in a general sort of way, but encompassing. even the salvation of our souls. This is the focus of verses 4 through 8: the sovereignty of God over the salvation of souls. And this section begins in verse 4 with the assertion that not even the wicked can escape God's sovereign control. God's providence extends even to the rebel.
Look with me at verse 4. The Lord has made everything for its purpose. Even the wicked. For the day of trouble.
Now, the first three verses of Proverbs 16 have established the fact that God is sovereign over all things, and since that is the case, the only hope we have of success in life is by committing ourselves unreservedly to God's irresistible sovereign rule.
Well, supposing that we have come to embrace God's sovereign rule and have committed our way to the Lord, it's quite possible that a different anxiety comes rushing in. Namely, the worry that those who have not submitted themselves to the providence of God could disrupt and ruin the plans and lives of those who have submitted themselves to that providence. And this is where verse 4 comes into play. Verse 4 makes it plain that There are no loose ends in God's providence. Even those who reject the fear of the Lord and deny God's supreme reign will not.
And in fact, cannot escape subordination to their Creator. God's providential control encompasses even those. Who unrighteously try to deny God's providence and suppress the knowledge of His rule and reign over them?
Now this reality ought to terrify the wicked. But by the same token, it is a great comfort to the one who has committed himself to the providence of God. In fact, this means that all things are put to use by God for the good of his children. All things. It's an Old Testament version of Romans 8.28, isn't it?
All things, even the wicked rebel. work together for the good of those. who are called according to his purpose. This doesn't make God morally responsible for the evil of the wicked. It simply means that The wicked are not able to subvert his rule over all his creatures and over all of history.
Uh uh uh A perfect example of this very thing is found in the story of Joseph's betrayal at the hands of his brothers as they sold him into slavery. After years of suffering, injustice, and cruelty, Joseph finally encounters his brothers once again, and we expect him to pronounce judgment against them like they deserve. But instead, he gives the most amazing confession. A confession that can only come from the lips of someone who has truly committed his works to the Lord. Joseph says to his brothers, what you intended for evil, God intended For good.
There are no loose ends. in God's providence. God's sovereignty is not derailed. by the sinfulness of wicked people. And in fact, he will not only use the wicked for his purposes.
He will also render a just judgment against them. God will punish. Sin, verse five. Everyone who is arrogant in heart. is an abomination to the Lord.
Be assured he will not go unpunished. The opposite of submitting oneself to the sovereign reign of God is to be arrogant. before him, a word that literally means high of heart. Arrogant people see themselves as sovereign. But as it turns out, God's sovereignty reigns.
even over the arrogance of the arrogant. They will not go unpunished. And you know, as we begin to contemplate. The extent of God's sovereignty and the extent of man's wickedness, even our own wickedness and arrogance, it starts to get overwhelmingly uncomfortable, doesn't it? God's rule is absolute.
Our sin is undeniable.
So where does this leave us?
Well, it leaves us in an awful place of guilt and vulnerability before an all-powerful God. And God would be just to leave us there. But friends, he doesn't. God offers a way of escape from sin. In his sovereignty, God extends the hope of salvation to sinners who deserve death.
Look at verse 6. By steadfast love and faithfulness. Iniquity is atoned for. and by the fear of the Lord one turns away from evil. The term steadfast love There in verse 6 is a covenant word, and it puts this whole discussion of God's sovereignty over sinners in the context of the covenant of grace.
in the context of the gospel. Though we are naturally bent against the idea of a God who rules over us and makes moral demands of us, we are yet accountable to this God. And so we are helplessly exposed to the threat of his burning holiness. And yet there's a way of escape. What is that way?
It is the way of steadfast love. and faithfulness, God's steadfast love. and faithfulness. You see, God is not only all-powerful and sovereign, He is also good. He is full of mercy.
He delights in forgiving sin. And he does so by verse 6, atoning. for iniquity paying for sin. God is so holy that He cannot simply ignore sin or pretend that we haven't sinned. No, He must administer the punishment for sin if He is to remain just and holy.
Scripture tells us that God did, in fact, administer the punishment of sin when He poured out His wrath. against sin upon his own son the Lord Jesus Christ. And now everyone who believes or trusts in Jesus Christ to rescue them from the punishment they deserve will avoid that punishment and will instead enjoy everlasting life. This is the gospel. That all who hide behind the moral righteousness of Christ will be rescued from the consequences of their own sin and will be treated as if they are as righteous as Jesus Himself.
Beloved, this is the great alternative to man's natural tendency to simply dismiss or even despise the sovereign rule of God over their lives. Instead of denying, in some pathetic attempt at self-preservation, that God is actually God. We can acknowledge fully that we are utterly and entirely at His mercy. And when we do that, we discover that His mercy is far deeper and greater than we could have ever imagined. God's mercy doesn't ignore our sin, it forgives.
Our sin. through the death. of Jesus Christ. And having our sins forgiven, we have peace with God. The same sovereignty.
that was once our greatest threat now becomes our defense, our shield, our strong tower. God defends the righteous. Verse 7 puts it this way. When a man's ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies. to be at peace with him.
You see, if divine sovereignty has ceased being a threat. then human opposition is certainly no threat at all. If God by his Son has declared you to be pleasing in his sight, you don't have to fear the judgment of God. And if you don't have to fear the judgment of God, then you certainly don't have to fear man's opposition. As Paul put it in Romans 8: if God is for us, who can be against us?
God defends the righteous. Forgiveness of sin not only removes the threat of our enemies, it also frees us to enjoy the promises of providence in ways that we previously could not enjoy. Things seem to not be going well with us, we can rest assured that the God who spared not His own Son is still ruling and reigning. And so, everything we experience-the gains, the losses, the good, the bad, the days of prosperity, the days of uncertainty-all of it is ultimately for our good and is leading to honor, and joy, and peace, and life everlasting. God's eternal favor.
is better than temporal blessing. Verse 8. Better is a little. With righteousness then great revenues within justice. There may be intervening times when the blessing of the righteous or the punishment of the wicked is delayed.
During those times It may seem as if the Lord is absent or missing. And interestingly, verse 8 is the only verse in our text that omits the name of the Lord. But he's there. Do you know that verse 8 has an almost verbatim parallel in Proverbs 15, 16 that does include the name of the Lord? It says, better is a little.
with the fear of the Lord. then great treasure and trouble with it. The Lord may seem absent in difficult times, but He is there even. When he's silent. ruling and reigning still.
Well, this brings us full circle. Verse 9 echoes verse 1. It says, The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. Verse nine makes people either exceptionally angry. that God would dare to act like God.
Or else it brings exceptional comfort to know that God will always act like God. And the difference. is that the one despises God while the other fears God. God is sovereign. whether we acknowledge it or not.
But our response to that sovereignty is the difference between joy and sorrow. Between security and fear. Between honor and shame. And yes, between heaven and hell. The fear of the Lord.
is instruction and wisdom. and humility comes before honor. It all starts with fearing God rightly. And it ends with honor and everlasting life. Let's pray.
Father, you are worthy of all reverence and fear. You are worthy. of all fealty and submission. For you are holy. and all-powerful.
And you are full of steadfast love and faithfulness. And so, by your love for us and through the blood of your Son Jesus Christ. And in the power of your Holy Spirit in us, teach us. to fear you and to flee evil all the days of our lives. and bring us at last Mm-hmm.
I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Mm-hmm.
