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Sermon
The Way of Wisdom

Six Things, No, Seven...No, One

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May 14, 2023
Proverbs 6:1-19
Sam Crabtree
Pastor for Care

Wisdom & Discernment

Pride & Humility

Money & Generosity

Transcript

0:09Did you see something of yourself in there? Did you see something of Jesus in there? By the time we're done looking at these 19 verses, I want us to see something of us and something of Jesus with the desire and the prayer that our affection for him will experience an uptick. Now, I'm not the only one who has struggled to come up with a single sentence. That's one of the goals of preaching. Put your sermon in a single sentence. I've struggled to come up with a single sentence that neatly summarizes all 19 verses of this text. And perhaps it's a struggle because it's not written as a single treatise or a single cogent argument or a OneNote song. Rather, it's a collection of individual teachings, perhaps like a directory or a grocery list.

1:06While a grocery list might include back to back on the list cereal and orange juice. They're not meant to be combined. How many of you would put orange juice on your cereal? Okay, a few. All right. At the same breakfast, you might have cereal and orange juice, but you probably wouldn't pour them together. They're one meal, but not one dish. And so I think it is with these 19 verses, or consider the address directory on your phone. It's not one story. It's not one argument, rather it's a collection of beneficial information. And what do all those unrelated pieces of information have in common? Well, they all pertain to you. They do have something in common. After all, if a martian found your phone and looked at all that data and tried to understand what it was all about, he he'd, he'd wonder.

2:09But anyone who knows you would have a better understanding of all the content. It's about you. Similarly, all the individual teachings in Proverbs, even if at first they don't seem to be connected to each other, are all connected to wisdom and wisdom source. And just as these proverbs are pointers to wisdom, they are also at the same moment pointers to folly. If you flip the coin over, heads or tails, take your pick wisdom or folly. And the coin itself belongs to Jesus. In whom are all the treasures, all the coins of wisdom. And furthermore, all these proverbs are not just wise sayings to put on a wall or put on a coffee mug. These proverbs are to be applied. As you know, it's our deeds that tell the world what we really believe.

3:10The proverbs are about living and living reveals what we really believe to be true. God calls us not only to talk about the truth, but to live the truth. And Jesus is the clearest revelation of God and God's truth, speaking and living in perfect harmony, perfect consistency with reality. Now since this chapter, these 19 verses that you heard, Daniel Reed seem to be a collection of wise teachings instead of one cogent argument, I'm gonna exercise a little bit of liberty by taking the collection in reverse order. So jump down to verse 16 through 19. There in verse 16, we see that God abominate and what is abomination, it means to detest something with extreme dislike.

4:07The God of love and mercy also abominate. He he hates, he detests with extreme dislike. And we should too. We should hate what God hates. And he gives us a list of things to hate right there in 16 through 19. The six things, no seven are all one. They're all one thing. Namely the folly of prideful wickedness. God hates that. And it shows up in a variety of ways. This wickedness, this prideful arrogance. These verses give us a summary of previous warnings in the previous verses. The hotty eyes there, what is it? Verse 17, the hotty eyes are also in verse 13, winks with the eye. The lying tongue goes back to verse 12, goes about with crooked speech, hands that shed innocent blood hands.

5:20Go back to verse 13. He points with his finger, we'll come back to that in a moment. Heart that devises wicked plans recapitulates. Verse 14, perverted heart that devises evil. Okay, I'm just gonna pause here not in my notes, but, um, you don't have to raise your hand here, but how many of you, when you were really ticked off at somebody, you started to think of ways you could get 'em? Have you ever thought that way? Are you in this verse? I am. Feet that make haste to run to evil refers to verse 13 signals with his feet. The false witness refers to verse 12, A worthless person with crooked speech strife or sowing discord among brothers refers to verse 14, continually sewing discord. Now, if you are a Christian here this morning and you sow discord among the brothers, you will still make it to heaven.

6:32But by sowing discord among the brothers, you might get there sooner than you expected. So the lineup in 16 through 19 is really a restatement of the list in 12 through 14 with a sort of a punchline in verse 15, which tells us some of the outcome of such foolish prideful wickedness, namely sudden calamity without remedy. So are any of these six things? No, seven, no one. Are they you? Let's move to move to another item in the proverbs directory, verse six through 11 in six, we are to observe the ant. Now what do we observe in the ant? My answer is diligent preparation. The ant is getting ready for something winter that's coming.

7:27He labors wisely to avert future calamity, calamity without remedy. Because if he runs out of food in the winter, winter is not gonna be merciful. He'll be destroyed for lack of preparation. So the point is, practice diligent preparation. While there is time, spoiler alert, a reckoning is coming for all of us. So get ready. Is the diligent aunt you or are you more like the slacker? In contrast to the active ant, the slacker makes excuses for not making preparations. Later in the proverbs, chapter 26, verse 16 says, the slugger is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly, I got my reasons why I'm doing what I'm doing and not getting prepared.

8:32Or in verse 13 of chapter 26, the slugger says there's a lion in the road. There's a lion in the streets. That's his excuse for not getting out there and getting busy. I don't wanna take the garbage out. There's a lion in the alley. I'm not gonna do the dishes. There's a lion in the sink. Unlike the oppressed who are impoverished because someone is oppressing them. The lazy person brings poverty on himself. And therefore, I think is not to be an object of pity or charity for his poverty is designed by God to motivate him to become more diligent, more industrious.

9:16If the ant wants to eat, it gets busy. The slugger's, typical excuses are things like, well, I I I'm waiting to get motivated. I I don't feel like it yet or I, I'm just no good at this. This is for somebody else to do. Or it's just somebody else's job. It's not my job. Others don't have to put it in the same effort that's being expected of me. So what are excuses? They're plausible, but untrue reasons for conduct. They're nice sounding disguises. They're masquerades a coverup camouflage to hide our hardcore carnel aversion to accountability. We don't want anybody telling us what to do or telling us that we're wrong. Wrong excuses can take the form of blaming, seeking to shift blame. You're, you're no doubt aware of when God came to Adam in the garden.

10:23Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. And we've been blaming ever since. Does that describe you? We make excuses by trying to prop up we're doing with, with justifications or minimizing the harm that's being done or denying that there's anything wrong with our behavior or ducking. Accountability. The peanuts character, Lucy, you might remember she played outfield on the baseball team and she would not catch fly balls coming out there. And she blamed the wind and she blamed the sun and she blamed the moon and she blamed stars and she blamed toxic substances in her glove. Excuses. Blaming the making of excuses reveals narcissistic.

11:18That's a big word. Prideful. Self-centered attitudes that seek to evade responsibility Quit when the going gets tough, when promises encounter unanticipated difficulties. Now in verse 13, we saw finger pointing that can be blaming. Don't blame me, it's that guy. And finger pointing is helpful. Only when the finger points at the true explanation and the true explanation of the slugger's lack of preparation is himself and his foolish prideful attitude. We excuse ourselves because we're not single-minded.

12:07Our capacity to say no to excuses determines our capacity to say yes to greater things. So just one comment about the sleep in verse four, do sleep except when you should be preparing. There's a little note here that sleep can be part of preparing. So when getting some rest is part of preparing sleep, that's good. But when it's get in the way of getting in the way of preparing, wake up the slugger says, whe whe poor me. You're interrupting my sleep. Heep. He says, I need my rest. Doesn't the Bible say good things come to those who wait?

12:58Poor baby. He's such a victim. Have you noticed how persons with a victim mentality become addicted to victims? Victimization becomes an identity for them. Lance Morrow calls them cry babies. Jesse Birnbaum adds cry. Babyhood is all blame and no pain for gain. Not willing to make gain if it's gonna involve pain. George Sweeting says, people generally do what they want to do. Excuses satisfy only the people who make them.

13:42Again, the ant prepares. Abraham Lincoln said, if you give me six hours to chop down a tree, I'll spend the first four sharpening my ax. Preparing. You've probably heard of Benjamin Franklin's homemade proverb By failing to prepare you prepare to fail. You've heard it. The slugger or the slacker or the lazy person doesn't believe it. He doesn't see a connection between his lack of preparation and the failure that's coming. He doesn't believe it. So these proverbs aren't merely about smarts, they're also about believing something. It's about faith. Trusting the author.

14:36So dear believer, who's in the room right now, or hearing my voice online perhaps don't fail at this very juncture, The only preparation that will prepare you for the coming day of reckoning is to welcome Jesus as your great advocate. So welcome him. Now Max Brooks haunts us with this. He says, if you believe you can accomplish everything by cramming at the 11th hour, well by all means don't lift a finger now. But you may think twice about beginning to build your arc once it has already started raining.

15:23When it comes to preparing for the future, the day of reckoning that's coming. The second most important tool we have is the present. You might be wondering what's the most important tool? What's the grace of God? The enablement that God gives. But this moment is the second most important tool that you have to get ready for the future. So ask God to give diligence soon. Wisdom sings the old spiritual, not my brother, not my sister, but it's me. Oh Lord. Standing in in the need of prayer and diligence. Now verse nine asks the slugger how long he will remain inactive. Do you see it there? How long will you lie there O slugger.

16:12When will you arise from your sleep? So I ask us, I ask you, how long before you tackle that homework assignment or that application? How long before you repair that broken thing? How long before you sort through that closet and dispose of unused stuff? How long before you ask that man for his daughter's hand in marriage? How long before you write that letter maybe to a graduate in this season? How long before you label those photos, make that donation to support a ministry or initiate that reconciliation or answer that email that's been sitting there? Or how long before you trust Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sins and the fulfillment of all God's promises to you, including eternal life?

17:11Do you see yourself anywhere in there? That list. Now just to remind us, why be like the ant and prepare verse 11? Because there is such a thing as too late Calamity comes without remedy. The poverty that comes upon you may be financial, may be money, but it may also be something else. It could be an impoverished relationship because you didn't initiate reconciliation. Could be poor grades because you delayed in tackling the assignments. Could be bankrupt morals because you stalled at repenting and your heart became hardened. Could be forfeiting heaven altogether. Hebrews four, seven says today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Second Corinthians six, two. Behold, now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.

18:21Be an aunt, get busy act. Now let's look at the last item in this proverbs directory of wisdom starting at verse one. Wisdom warns us about making oneself responsible for the debts of another. The risk of cosigning is a theme throughout the Proverbs act actually throughout the Bible. In fact, you, you wouldn't have to be a Christian and even know the Bible to look around in life and see the dangers of co-signing. Now my colleagues advised that perhaps we should explain co-signing to our younger attenders who may not know what co-signing is. So I've got three volunteers that are gonna join me up here. Ezer, Silas, and Joanna, where are you? Come on up here. Where are you? Yes, here comes one. Here comes one, here comes the third one. Alright, line up right here. Right behind me. Yes sir.

19:16Thanks for volunteering. Glad you're here. All right, lovely. Now I have three placards. I think you can read them. What does this one say? A very good. Just hold that right in front of your chest there. And this one says B and C. Oh, you're good. All right. So there we are. Now I'm trying to explain co-signing to those who may wonder what co-signing, co-sign what, what is this about? Giving pledge and so on. So A has some money.

19:52B wants some ice cream but has no money. So B goes to A and says, could I have some money for ice cream? And A likes B and understands the desire for ice cream. And says, I'm thinking maybe I will give B the money that he needs for the ice cream. But he says, I'm not sure B can pay me back my money cause I'd like to maybe buy some ice cream myself sometime. And so A says to B, how can you promise me that you'll pay it back? So B goes to C and says, if for some reason I b can't pay it back, would you pay it back to A and C out of friendship? For B says, okay, and what hap what can happen? The risk is then B eats the ice cream.

20:57And a says, can I have my money back now? And B says, I don't have the money. Well give me the ice cream. No can do now it's up to sea. Who doesn't get any money or ice cream? Thank you. You can be seated. Proverbs 1115 says, whoever puts up security, that's cosigning, that's letter C. Whoever puts up security for a stranger will surely suffer harm. Now, um, may, it may all get paid back. I mean, we do mortgages all the time and we, we have to put up collateral and, and, uh, cosign lots of things. Th these texts are not saying that it's a sin per se. It's risky per se. And even if it seems to turn out in the end and all the money gets paid back, what happens is that letters C, when they've loaned their money over here, they don't get to be investing that money, putting that money to work.

22:05That's at least the amount of suffering that they will undergo, the loss that they will experience. Their money's tied up buying ice cream for somebody else. Proverb, Proverbs 17, one who lacks sense gives a pledge and puts up security in the presence of his neighbor. I'm going somewhere with this. I'm not making a blanket condemnation of mortgages. This church has a mortgage and I voted in favor of it, but hang on, fasten your seat belts here. We got a big problem coming up. Texts like this, don't say it's a sin, but they say, be careful getting out of cosigning, which is what today's text is urging us to do, requires humility. And therefore verse three says, plead urgently, which can be interpreted as assault incessantly.

23:05Letter C should go to letter B and grab him by the lapels and say, please let me out of this deal. That's the language in this verse three. And where it says, humble yourself, that can be interpreted weary yourself. Stay at this. Do the work of getting out of this deal. Now what does it look like when something is urgent? And we need to be careful about relaxing too easily that things will turn out okay when we cosign banks can fail. Have we not seen that in the last weeks? Perfectly legitimate banks with lots of mortgages?

23:57What does it look like when something is urgent? Well, when something is urgent, we drop what we're doing to give attention to the more important thing. I call it the principle of preemption. And I thank God that my dad frustrated the beji out of me by teaching me this principle in ways that irked me. For example, we had seven children in our home. It's toward evening and maybe on our old black and white tv we're watching a whodunit, we're watching a mystery and it's getting to the end of the program and they're just about to solve it. And dad comes in and click time for family devotions. Oh, Dad, couldn't you have waited five more minutes and he could have, he's teaching me something about the principle of preemption. Namely, the more important interrupts, the lesser important.

24:57And it's not just that the more important should interrupt, the lesser important, whatever you consider more important is interrupting what you consider lesser important. So I failed for a number of years and was late to discover that when I come home from work, I'm sending a message to my family. When I withdraw from them and say, leave me alone, I need to just chill. I'm gonna watch a little news or something. I'm saying that's more important than that. But when I am driving home and I ask the Lord, Lord, if I have to drive around the block a few more times until you give me the enabling grace to go in there and be a blessing to my family, then that's what I'll do.

25:52Because blessing them is more important than my withdrawing into my man cave or whatever. Early in our marriage, I failed. Vicky would be trying to talk to me and I'd say, you know, could it wait till halftime? What am I saying is more important? A game that I don't even remember who was playing or what the sport was or what the score was or who won and not my wife. If I wanna say my wife is more important with my behavior, then I interrupt this to listen to her. That's the principle of preemption. Again, these proverbs are not merely wise, wise sayings. They're pictures of wise living. So here's the big problem then this text is saying cosigning and taking responsibility for somebody's debt. Man, that is, that's not wise. Get out of it if you can get out of it.

27:02So here's the problem. If, if cosigning is risky and we should be reluctant to do it and we should avoid the risk and avoiding that risk is wise, Then how come? That's exactly what Jesus does. Is he a fool? Is he not wise? He takes on all of our debt before God. The Old Testament texts, and this is Old Testament, are from and by and for Jesus and they're about Jesus even without mentioning him by name. So how is a text like this, which is about debt and cosigning and temporal loans and collateralizing loans. Loans. How is it about Jesus if taking on the debt of someone else can lead to poverty and slavery, which is what our text says.

28:09And if it is therefore foolish to take on such debt, we should not foolishly take on the debts of others. How can it be good and wise for Jesus to do it? Here's how. First He has the resources to pay off all the debts of all the debtors who come to him. In contrast, I foolishly take on debts to my own detriment because I can't pay everybody else's debts. Their debts would impoverish me or enslave me. Jesus is not enslaved. Colossians two 13 And you who were dead in your trespasses, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses. Now listen, verse 14 by here's, here's how he made us alive by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

29:15This he set aside nailing it to the cross person A has a piece of paper that says, person C has got to pay me. And Jesus snatches that piece of paper and nails it to the cross. It says, I got it covered. His very purpose in coming is to make payment to be a ransom. Listen to Mark 10 45 for even the son of man came not to be, not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Maybe we should explain what ransom is. I wonder if I could get my three volunteers up here again. Can you, can you come up here again? If I'd have thought this through, I would've either kept you up here or got three different volunteers or, or something's. Joanna in the house. Here she comes. Alright. Okay.

30:16So now these are not person A, B, and C anymore. Okay, Thank you for coming. So here we have, this guy has taken this guy captive. So get on your knees right here if you would please. Thank you. Good job. Good job. All right. And this guy has no way of getting free. No way of getting free. But somebody could pay this guy to let him go. And so this person here has a bag of, what is that? Ransom. Ransom. So here you go. You give that to the person on the end, and that lets the person in the middle go free. You can go, you're free. All three of you can go. Now this is what Jesus came to be according to that verse.

31:13He's the payment. Now those of you who are alert might be asking, well, who does he make that payment to? The cost of his life is a, is a cost he's willing to pay. I mean, in contrast, the proverb says, if you have nothing to pay, you'll lose your bed. You'll be impoverished by this. Jesus is not impoverished. He can make the payment. But to whom? Second Corinthians eight, nine, for you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich. The old adage goes, Jesus paid a debt he did not owe because I owed a debt.

32:03I could not pay what he's doing on the cross. One of the things he's doing is debt paying. What's he doing up hanging up there? He's debt paying. To whom we can glean an answer from one Timothy chapter two, five and six, for there's one God, God, and one mediator between God and man man's in bondage. The mediator in between is Jesus. To whom does he make the payment? God. God requires a payment of death to from sinners who sin. That's the payment. And Jesus says, I will pay you. I'll satisfy that requirement. Jesus makes to God the required payment for sin.

32:59One final thought. My hope here, if God's spirit would be faithful to this text now for our benefit, you'll see, I hope I'm praying an uptick in your affection for Jesus as I read this text, the ransom he paid for us is incalculably large And it should provoke us to love him immensely that he pays it. Luke 7 41, A certain money lender had two debtors, one owed 500 and the other owed 50. And when they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them will love him more?

33:50Can you feel the debt that you owed God and that Jesus volunteered to pay it, to be it, to be the payment at great personal cost? So in Proverbs six, do you see him in this text? Do you love him? Father in heaven, how we bless you for sending Jesus to take on our debt that we owed you, making payment, satisfying the requirements totally for our debts we could not pay. Releasing us from the bondage from which we could not release ourselves.

34:52I ask that as we ruminate on these realities in the days ahead, our affection for Jesus would deepen and sweeten as we recall, that Jesus paid it all.

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Sermon Text

Proverbs 6:1-19

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