Thank you. Good morning. Let's open up this
morning's service, the Blue Hymnal number one, number one. Oh, worship
the King. And if you could please stand,
number one. O worship the King, all glorious
above, and gratefully sing his power and his love. Our shield and defender, the
Ancient of Days, pavilion in splendor and girded with praise. O tell of his might, O sing of
his grace, Whose robe is the light, whose canopy's face, His
chariots of breath, the deep thunderclouds form, And dark
is its path on the wings of the storm. Thy bountiful care, what
tongue can recite? It breathes in the air. It shines in the light, it streams
on the hills, it descends to the plain, and sweetly distills
in the dew and the rain. Frail children of dust, and feeble
as frail, in thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail. Thy mercies, how tender, how
firm to the end, our maker, defender, redeemer, You may be seated. Thank you, Bert. Good morning. Let's open our Bibles together
to Proverbs chapter 22. Proverbs 22. Today is the 22nd
of July and many of us have been trying to read a proverb a day
and What a blessing it's been to have the Lord show us the
glorious truth of the gospel from these proverbs. And I pray
he'll be pleased to do that again this morning. Let's ask his blessings
on our time together. Bow with me for prayer, please. our merciful and glorious and
gracious Heavenly Father. We confess to you, Lord, our
complete and total dependence upon you to come and visit with
us, to rend the heavens and come down, to send your Holy Spirit
in power. Lord, we fear being left to ourselves
We know that we have no ability to see or to hear, for the seeing
eye and the hearing ear are both from thee. Lord, how we ask now
that you would enable us to see thy glorious son, to rest the
hope of our salvation in his person and in his finished work. We thank you, Lord, for the hope
of knowing that the sins of thy people have been put away. The
law has been satisfied. Lord, that you would affirm to
our hearts that that was done for each of us. We ask it in Christ's name and
for his sake. Amen. The proverbs can be and will be understood
on the surface by unbelievers. What successful business person
doesn't understand the necessity of having a good name in business?
What successful company doesn't understand the importance of
having integrity? in order for them to be successful
and uh... oftentimes we speak of of our
unfaithfulness to god and yet what believer what child of god
does not desire to have a good name among men a name that is
that is reliable A faithful man, who can find
him? A person who's committed to their own hurt in order to
keep their promises. That is our desire. We're not to compromise our integrity
in the name of profit. We're not to sacrifice our reputation
for the sake of gain among men. And scriptures are clear. Look
at verse 1 of Proverbs chapter 22, a good name is rather to
be chosen than great riches and loving favor rather than silver
and gold. Of all men, believers ought to
be people of integrity. They ought to be people who keep
their promises even when it's to their own demise. promise
to sell something to someone at a certain price and then someone
else offers you a better price, what do you do? What do you do? You keep your word. You keep
your word. Turn with me to Psalm 15. Psalm
15. Speaking of the child of God
who walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks the
truth in his heart, verse four, in whose eyes a vile person is
condemned, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth
to his own hurt and changeth not. Now that's a truth that
ought to apply to every child of God. Make a promise, we keep
our promises. But oh, what a gospel truth it
is, isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ swore a
covenant to his father, to his own hurt. And he kept his word,
he changed not. He that putteth not out his money
for usury nor taketh reward against the innocent, he that doeth these
things shall never be moved. Look at Proverbs chapter 19. Verse 1, better is the poor that
walketh in his integrity than he that perverse in his lips
and is a fool. It's better to be a person of
integrity than one who speaks lies from his lips. Now, all those things being true,
There's a gospel truth here, isn't it, in verse 1 of Proverbs
chapter 20, a good name, a good name. When that rich young ruler
said, good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
What did the Lord say? Why callest thou me good? There's none good but God. And
when Moses was on Mount Sinai and wanted to see God's glory,
what did the Lord say? He said, I'm going to hide you
in the cleft of a rock, for no man can see my face and live,
and I'm going to cause my goodness to pass before you. And you're
going to see that I'll have mercy upon whom I'll have mercy. That's
my goodness. That's my goodness. My son is
my goodness. This is my beloved son. In him
I'm well pleased. And we go to Jeremiah chapter
23. Turn with me there. Jeremiah
23. We often quote from this passage, but
I want you to look at it this morning with me if you will. Verse 5, Behold the days come
saith the Lord that I will raise unto David a righteous branch. You know who that is. The branch
that grows from the stem of Jesse, that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
A king shall reign and prosper. he's going to be prosperous.
He's going to accomplish that for which he came to do and shall
execute judgment and justice in the earth and in his days
Judah shall be saved. In his days Judah shall be saved. When was Judah saved? When was
Judah saved? When the Lord Jesus Christ became
their surety and sealed the promises of the covenant by the sacrifice
of his own self on Calvary's cross when he said, it is finished,
all Judah. He took back with him the names
of those for whom he lived and died and he's been interceding
on behalf of this church ever since. Judah was saved when Christ
made himself the sacrifice for their sins. And they shall dwell
it safely. Oh, there's no safer place There's
no safer place. You can't go up on Mount Sinai
like Moses did apart from being put, hid in the cleft of a rock. There's no safer place than to
be in Christ. And this is His name whereby He shall be called
Jehovah Sidkenia. We sing that hymn here. The Lord
is our righteousness. All our righteousness before
God is in Him. That's His name. That's His name. Now turn with me to Jeremiah
chapter 33. We just read, and he shall be
called the Lord our righteousness. Now this prophecy is repeated
in Jeremiah chapter 33 and verse 15. And in those days and that
time, while I caused the branch of righteousness to grow up unto
David and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.
And in those days shall Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall
dwell safely. And this is the name wherewith
she shall be called. Jehovah said, can you? Now that's
a good name. That's a good name. The Lord
in the first prophecy refers to Christ being called the Lord
Our Righteousness and in the second he refers to his church,
the Bride of Christ. We've been given his name. I'm not real big on a woman keeping
her maiden name after she's married. It's a denial of the gospel. It really is. The marriage union
is a picture of Christ and his church. It is. And that's the
great mystery in Ephesians chapter 5, isn't it? And she takes her
husband's name as a testimony of what happens when Christ is
married to his bride. She takes his name. What a good
name it is. There's no name like that name,
is there? the Lord our righteousness. Go back with me to our text,
Proverbs chapter 22. Oh, for our name to be changed from
Jacob, the supplanter, the deceiver, to Israel, the prince. For our
name to be changed from sinner to saint. Oh, what a hope, what
a hope. Ecclesiastes Chapter 7, will
you turn with me there? Verse 1, a good name is better
than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of
one's birth. Now that's backwards, isn't it?
We grieve at funerals, don't we, and rejoice at the birth
of a child, as we ought, as we ought. But in our hearts, we
know that when we see a child born into this world, they've
got many days of sorrow ahead of them. And in our hearts, we
know that when a child of God takes their last breath, all
the days of their sorrow are over. The day of death is better
than the day of birth, isn't it? It is better to go to the house
of mourning than to go to the house of fasting, of feasting,
for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to
his heart. Oh, Lord, lay it to our hearts to have a good name. Go back with me to our text.
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving
favor. What does it profit a man if
he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? What would
a man give in exchange for his soul? I'll tell you what he'll
give. He'll give a few dollars. That's
what he'll give. He'll pursue the wealth and the
comforts and the pleasures of this world and deny his need
for a good name. You and I don't have a good name
before God outside of Christ. No, that name was, that name
was marred. That name, our reputation was
destroyed when our father Adam rebelled against God in the garden
and we've added to it in our lives haven't we? Oh Lord, enable
us to look to Christ for that good name and to seek loving
favor. That word's grace, that we might
find grace in the eyes of the Lord. Loving favor is greater
than all the silver and gold of this world. Look at verse
two. The rich and the poor meet together. I had a friend one time, he said,
I've never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul. The rich and the poor meet together.
You brought nothing into this world and it is certain that
you shall bring nothing out of it. All the gold and wealth that
they buried with King Tut, the grave diggers found it, didn't
they? He didn't take it with him. He didn't take it with him.
The rich and the poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them
all. There's no difference. Men make
a difference in this world based on their status and based on
their material wealth and great differences are made in this
world, aren't they? But not before God. Not before God. Turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter
6. This is a good admonition for us. 1 Timothy chapter 6. You remember what the Lord said?
Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth does not
corrupt and rust does not decay. Look at verse 6 of 1 Timothy
chapter 6. This is an admonition for believers
to take to heart. But godliness with contentment
is great gain. Here is the mystery of godliness
that God was manifested in the flesh. If we have Christ, if
we have Christ, we have everything. Oh, that God would enable us
to be content with him. For we brought nothing into this
world and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. And
having food and rain, let us be there with content. Oh, we
are bombarded on every side. with a world that says you're
not going to be happy unless you have this, aren't we? That's the message of the world.
Child of God, don't be deceived. God calls the riches of this
world the deceitfulness of riches. What is a deceit? What is a lie? A lie is something that promises
something it can't deliver. The world says if you If you
pursue this, you'll be happy. And the world's not happy. The
more they get, the more they want, isn't it? Get all you can,
can all you get, and sit on the can and just wait until, you
know, but there's never enough. The can never gets filled up,
does it? Always a little bit more, a little bit more. That's
the deceitfulness of riches. But they that will be rich, they
that pursue wealth as their as their source of happiness fall
into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful
lusts, which draw men into destruction and perdition. For the love of
money is the root of all evil, nothing wrong with money, but
the love of it, the pursuit of it, the desire for it, as our
source of happiness, not being content with Christ, but needing
something else in order to have happiness, which while some coveted after,
they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through
with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee
these things. Flee these things and follow
after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Follow after those things. There's
the proverb, the rich and the fool, they meet together. The
Lord makes no distinction in the day of judgment. based on
the things that men make distinctions on in this world. Look at verse
3 in our text. A prudent man foreseeeth the
evil. Now the Proverbs contrast the
wise from the fool. The wise is the believer who
hears the word of God and heeds it. The fool is the one who denies
the promises of God and goes his own way. The prudent man
He foresees the evil that's coming. There's evil coming to this world.
There's judgment coming to this world. And the prudent man knows
it. There's a terrible day of the
Lord where God's going to rain fire from heaven and consume
this world. And the prudent man, he foresees the evil and he hides
himself. Oh, there's only one place that
fire's not going to burn. Only one place. We're going to
look at the Daniel chapter 3 in the second hour. Daniel, remember
in the fiery furnace? And that fourth man that walked
with him was as unto the Son of God. Oh, it was the Son of
God, Nebuchadnezzar. And he consumed all the heat
of the fire. Hide thyself in Christ. There's
judgment coming. But the simple The simple, they
just pass on. They just go on in this life
as if this life is everything. And in the end, they're punished
by humility and the fear of the Lord, our riches and honor and
life. A child of God is humble before
God. We grieve over the pride that
we see in our lives when we relate to other men, don't we? We're
all so full of ourselves. And we hate the pride that we
have. Might God make us more humble
in our relationships with other men? But no child of God is proud
when he stands in the presence of God. No child of God is proud. when he stands in the presence
of God. You can't come before the throne of grace and seek
help in your time of need without a spirit of humility, can you?
And so the Lord says humility and the fear of the Lord. There's
something lacking in our day. The fear of the Lord. Men don't fear God. There's no
fear of God in their hearts. The Lord has left men to themselves, hasn't
he? By humility and fear of the Lord
are riches and honor and life. All the riches of God are in
Christ in the heavenlies right now, the riches of grace, the
riches of forgiveness, the riches of salvation, the riches of peace,
the riches of mercy, the riches of power, the things that are
truly rich in the sight of God. You see, God's standard of riches
is different than the world's, isn't it? Once the Lord's admonishing
his children, don't be deceived by the things of this world.
What men call riches are not riches. And they're sacrificing
the only hope of having a good name before God in order to achieve
more of this world. Thorns and snares are in the
way of the forward. All they're going to suffer is
thorns and snares. He that doth keep his soul shall
be far from them. You see, the natural man's really
not concerned about his soul. He doesn't think about his soul.
All he thinks about is the pleasures of his flesh. All he thinks about
is the things of this world and things of this life. The child
of God is reminded by the Spirit of God that he has an immortal
soul that he needs to be more concerned about than his physical
comforts. And the wise man, the prudent
man keeps his soul. He keeps his soul. By God's grace,
he keeps his soul. Verse six. I want to spend a
little time here for the sake of our young parents. We've had several babies born
into our fellowship lately. And the philosophies of this
world are so contrary to the things of God. And the means
by which the world would have you to forsake the things of
God is to intimidate you in thinking, well, if you don't accept our
philosophy, then you've got it wrong. Oh, might God give us
grace to to train our children. Now the gospel application of
this is clearly seen in Hebrews chapter 12 when the Lord raises
his children and the point here is that believers ought to seek
to raise their children the same way the Lord raises his. My God, give us the grace. Raising
children is not an easy thing. But I want to tell you something,
young parents, if you'll make the necessary commitment for
the first five years of your child's life. From then on, it'll
be easy. It'll be a lot easier. Five years. That's all it takes. What do
you do in those five years? You teach your children three
things. Train a child in the way that he should go, and in
the end, he will not depart from it. The most important thing
to do in raising a child is to have them under the sound of
the gospel every opportunity that they can have from an infant,
have them under the sound of the gospel. Children that are
raised here, I mean they never have a question. Wednesday night
we go to church, Sunday morning we go to church, that's what
we do. And they don't fight their parents
about whether or not to go to services. That's the only hope
they have for eternal life is to hear the gospel. Faith comes
by hearing and hearing comes by the word of God. God's chosen
the foolishness of preaching. This is where God meets with
his people. Are our children going to be saved? This is where
it's going to happen. And a prudent parent understands the necessity
of having their children under the sound of the gospel. Now
that having been said, there's three things that have to be
taught to children. Respect authority, respect authority,
take responsibility for your sin and be considerate towards others.
That's it. Respecting authority begins with
respecting the parent, doesn't it? If a child doesn't learn
to respect their parent, they'll not learn to respect the civil
authorities and they'll never learn to respect God. If they're
able to make excuses as children do for their sins and they're
not faced to accept responsibility for their sins or for their mistakes,
children are going to do a lot of things that they'll never
learn. They'll never learn the importance
of accepting responsibility before God. And if they're allowed to
think that the whole world revolves around them and they don't have
to be empathetic or sympathetic or considerate towards other
people, well, you know what kind of person that's going to grow
up to be. Those are three things. And those are three things that
the Spirit of God teaches us. When the Father disciplines us,
what does He do? He causes the child of God to
come and to bow in submission to His authority. You can't come
into the presence of God without bowing. You can't come into the
presence of God without pleading his mercy and confessing your
sin, taking responsibility. How do you do that? That's the
spirit of God. That's the discipline work of the spirit of God. And
then what does the spirit of God do when he causes us to bow
in submission to his authority and causes us to see that the
sins which we are fully responsible for. Fully responsible. You can't stand in the presence
of God and blame your sin on somebody else. You have to take
full responsibility for it, don't you? That's the work of God's
grace. And now what's he do? He turns
your attention towards your brethren. Causes you to esteem others more
highly than yourself. Causes you to do that which is good for your brethren. You remember Isaiah chapter,
Psalm 51, when David prayed, Lord, cleanse me of my sin. And
he pleaded out God's mercy for his sin. And then at the end
of that Psalm, he said, then, then I will teach transgressors
thy ways. And then he says, oh Lord, be
merciful to Jerusalem. You see, his attention turned
to the people of God after... those are the three things that
God does for his children. He teaches them to submit to
his authority. He teaches them to accept full
responsibility for their sin. And he teaches them to show consideration
towards others. And those are the three things
that we're to do in raising up our children because children
are going to learn those. They're not born with those things. You just, you know, people say,
well, is this child born evil or is he born good? Just leave
a child to himself and don't teach him those three things
and see what he grows up to be. See what he grows up to be. Oh,
you've seen enough of it up in our culture, don't you? That's
why I wanted to spend some time on this because our culture says,
you know, just let, don't frustrate little Johnny. Let him grow up
and be what he wants to be. You know, don't, we were talking
this morning, don't even tell him what gender he is. Let him
choose for himself what gender he wants to be. That's the world we live in. Train, God says, raise up a child
in the way train up a child in the way he should go and when
he is old he will not depart from it look at uh... say well you know we now before
I say this I've met men who use these verses of scripture to
justify their their wrath against their children.
And before we look at these verses I want to say Ephesians chapter,
well let's just turn to Ephesians chapter 6 first because this
sets it in context. Ephesians chapter 6. And what I want to say is never
ever discipline your children out of anger. Now, I know we,
our children can bring out the worst in us, can't they, sometimes,
and we do it. But, oh, Lord, spare us. Spare. God never disciplines
his children out of anger. Never. Children, obey your parents in
the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and thy mother,
which is the first commandment with promise. that it may be
well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth.
Oh my God, give all of us the grace to honor our parents, to
be respectful towards them, regardless of how old we are. And ye fathers,
provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord. What causes a child to
be wrathful? when they see discipline exercised
against them out of wrath. Now, that having been said, let's
go back to Proverbs. Let's go back to Proverbs and
look at chapter 13 at verse... Well, look at the chapter we're
in, chapter 22 at verse 15. At verse 15. Foolishness is bound up in the
heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it
far from him. Like I said, this is, you do
this in the first five years of a child's life and it won't
have to do much of it after that. Teaching them to respect authority.
teaching them to accept responsibility for their sins, teaching them
to be considerate towards other men. Look at chapter 13 in Proverbs. This is what God says about child
rearing. Chapter 13, look at verse 24. He that spares his rod hates
his child, his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him often. Often. The times they, oh, how
often a child needs that chastening. Hebrews chapter 12 says, what
son is there which God chasteneth not? For if they're not chastened
by God, then they are bastards. That's what the scripture said.
They're illegitimate. You don't go discipline your
neighbor's children, do you? No. Neither does God. Oh, but how often, how often
he corrects his children. Look at Proverbs chapter 23 at
verse 13. Withhold not correction from
the child. For if thou beatest him with
a rod, he shall not die. Shall not die. Oh God, give us
the grace. To love our children. To discipline
them properly. In the spirit of love and grace,
but consistently that they have the foolishness of childhood
driven from them, and that they learn those three most important
lessons, respect authority, accept responsibility, and be considerate
towards others. Isn't that what the Lord's teaching
you? Isn't that what he's teaching you? All right. Children need boundaries, don't
they? I remember, they probably don't have this illustration
in child psychology anymore, but I remember taking child psychology
in college and at the time there was a study done about some children
that were playing in a playground that was surrounded by a fence.
And the children were just having a grand old time in that playground.
They were hanging on the fence and playing in every square inch
of that playground. The children showed up the next
day and they had taken down the fence. What do you think the children
did? They huddled in the middle of the playground, fearful that
there were no boundaries to protect them. That's true. Children need boundaries,
don't they? It gives them safety. Train up a child in the way in
which he should go. And when he is old, he will not
depart from it. All right. I hope that's helpful.
There's so much here. That's God's instructions for
his people. All right, let's take a break. th th