seeking once again the help of
God I would like us to turn together to the chapter that we read together
Proverbs chapter 4 and the text you'll find in verse 26. Ponder the path of thy feet and
let all thy ways be established. Normally as you read through
the book of Proverbs. There are just those individual
Proverbs that don't really have any context or relation to those
other Proverbs that are around about them. But in the first
few chapters of Proverbs there is the reasons why Solomon decided
to write these Proverbs. And so there is some context,
there is some flowing together. And the reasons why Solomon decided
to write down these proverbs, not only was it the prompting
annunciation of the Holy Spirit that gave him the wisdom and
that gave him the desire to do so, but it was also his love
that he had for his son. and no doubt the love that he
had for all those who were under his reign and as the Holy Spirit
has seen fit to add these proverbs into the scripture. It is the
love that has been passed down from generation to generation
that we may learn from the wisdom of God, the wisdom of Solomon.
Solomon desired to pass down to his son. Proverbs of Solomon,
the son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction,
to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of
wisdom, justice and judgment and equity, to give subtlety
to the simple, and the young men knowledge and discretion.
A wise man will hear and will increase learning and a man of
understanding shall obtain to wise counsel to understand the
proverb and the interpretation the words of the wise and their
dark sayings. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge but fools despise instruction. My son, hear the
instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother
for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head and chains
about thy neck.' So he sets before us the the wisdom of God sets
before us the wisdom that had been given to him by the Spirit
of God and that we may hear and understand and learn from that
wisdom, that we may get subtlety, that we may get knowledge, that
we may get discretion. A wise man will hear and increase
in learning and that the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of knowledge and so Solomon had a concern for his son and every
father, every mother, every grandmother and every grandfather has a concern
for those people who are under their care or in their family
or in their love who do not have this wisdom or do not have this
knowledge and so they have a concern not only for the physical well-being
of their children or their grandchildren but they also have a spiritual
concern They are concerned not just about the physical, but
they are concerned about the spiritual and the physical together. In John's letter, 3rd John, in
chapter 1, he says, in verse 4, I have no greater joy than
to hear that my children walk in truth. That was his greatest
joy. that those spiritual children
that he had continued to walk in the truth that had been passed
down to him as he ministered the Word of God, as the Spirit
of God moved and many were saved. They continued in that pathway
of truth. They continued in that pathway
of wisdom and it was his greatest joy to see them continuing on
in that experience, in that wisdom that he had given. What a great
sadness it is and a great fear that parents have that they bring
children into the world and then those children they leave the
ways of righteousness, they leave the wisdom that has been passed
down to them and they go and they reject that wisdom as foolishness
and they go and walk in the ways of wickedness. So John had that desire, that
joy to see his children walking in the truth. Solomon had a desire
that his son, that his children would listen to his wisdom and
learn from the things that he had taught them. We know that
Solomon himself prayed for wisdom. Solomon as he was asked by God
what he wanted. He said that he needed wisdom
to govern the people of God and he prayed and he asked the Lord
for wisdom and the Lord gave him that wisdom that he was going
to be the wisest man that ever there was. people came to him
to hear of his wisdom and his proverbs that he said and that
knowledge that he had acquired, that wisdom that he had acquired,
he wanted to pass that on to others. In the chapter that we read from
verse 5 he says get wisdom get understanding
forget it not neither decline from the words of my mouth Solomon
said that he learnt wisdom from his father He says, I was my
father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.
He taught me also and said unto me, let thine heart retain my
words, keep my commandments and live. Get wisdom, get understanding. Forget it not, neither decline
from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not and she shall
preserve thee. Love her and she shall keep thee. Wisdom. is the ability to apply
the knowledge that we have in a wise and a relevant way, to
make sound judgment and decisions. Clever people, knowledgeable
people, intellectual people may not always be wise people. an uneducated man may be wise. And so wisdom is the ability
to lay out wisely the things that you know, to make right
choices, to make intelligent decisions and judgments based
on experience and knowledge, not rashly but precisely. You think of a bricklayer. He has his pile of bricks. But those bricks are no good
there in that pile. He must use the knowledge that
he has about building and he must begin to lay those bricks
down. And that is using wisdom. He's outlaying what he knows. to build something. And so knowledge, so wisdom is
greater than knowledge. You may be a knowledgeable person
but be a rash person and a foolish person. You may be a simple person
and yet a wise person. And Solomon in his wisdom was
concerned about the whole of his Son, body, mind and soul. Verse 23 it says, Keep thine
heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.
Put away from thee a froward mouth and perverse lips, put
far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on,
and let thine ironage look straight ahead. Ponder the path of thy
feet, and let thy ways be established. Turn not from the right hand, nor the left. Remove
thy foot from evil. And so he was concerned about
the heart of his son. The heart is, in the scripture,
is that from which the desires and motives they come from. heart and the mind. He was concerned
that his son's mind would be kept with all diligence. He would
not be taken up with the foolish things of this life but he would
give himself to wisdom and consideration for the things of life. away from him the froward mouth
or perverse and twisted mouth, not necessarily his own but also
those round about him. He was concerned for his son's
well-being, those people that he mixed with, those people that
he was acquainted with, that he would not mix with those who
drew him away from wisdom. he would be found amongst those
who built him up and established him in the truth. In chapter
1 he tells him there to keep away from sinners that entice
him. Solomon, he's trying to give
his son this wisdom that is needed. He understood that there was
a battle going on round about his son. There were those who
would try and take him away from this wisdom, to try and lead
him on paths of unrighteousness and foolishness. So he says, my son, put away the throward mouth from
thee. and the perverse lips put them far from thee. We all know
don't we that if we have a bowl of fruit and we put in one rotten
one the good ones are not going to reverse that rottenness but
they're all going to become rotten and so it is with people. It's
never or very rarely the case that a good child raised up under
the wisdom of God is able to influence a great sphere of people
to the ways of godliness. But it's often the other way
round. a young man or a young woman hanging around with ungodly
people who speak perverted and corrupt things, whose hearts
are after the things of this world, after the pleasures of
this life, will be drawn in to those pleasures, will be drawn
into those conversations, will be drawn into the perverse conversation
of the wicked. before long they are speaking
and doing exactly the same as those that are around about them
and so Solomon was truly concerned about the purity of the mind
of his son and the purity of the heart of his son. He understood
that if my son's heart is corrupted then as Jesus says out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaks And so he knew that if
my son's lips start speaking perverse things, if my daughter's
lips start speaking perverse things, there's a problem down
right there in the heart. And so Solomon, he had a concern
for the spiritual well-being and the purity of his children. And he says, watch your eyes.
You see out of the heart what is in the heart comes out of
the mouth but what the eyes see go into the heart. We say seeing is believing don't
we? And we live in a world today that is obsessed with visual
Everyone is always looking at something. In our phones there
is all manner of evil that can be accessed. On the television,
on the internet. As we walk around the shops,
we walk around just daily the things that we see. Our ancestors
would never have even dreamed they would see such hideous and
immoral things. And Solomon says, let thine eyes
look right on and thine eyelids look straight before thee. Don't
be distracted by what you can see round about you because he
knew that once you've turned away from this wisdom, the wisdom
of God, and you've started viewing the foolishness of this world,
the immorality of this world, he knew then that that's going
to go in. And that is going to corrupt. What you have seen is
very difficult to get out of your mind. Very difficult to
get out of your heart. And once you have began looking
and feasting then there will be those thoughts that continue. They come in. The scripture calls
it vain imagination. you begin to think about what
you have seen and you begin to unfold what you have seen in
your mind and it's though you are feasting upon it all again. And so Solomon understood I need
to keep my my son needs to be kept physically and spiritually. His heart needs to be kept pure.
He needs to be kept away from the foolish conversation of the
wicked. He needs to have his eyes kept
that his heart and mind would not be corrupted by the things
that he sees and then he tells him, ponder the path of your
feet. Think very carefully about where
you are going and about what course of action you are taking. Turn not to the right hand or
to the left. And so Solomon was seeking to
point his son in the right direction and every godly parent seeks
to point their children in the right direction. We cannot change
their heart but we can set them on the right course of life.
We can instil in them the knowledge of God, the wisdom of God and we have to send them off
on their way. and pray that the Lord uses what
we have taught for their good. You can take a horse to the water
but you cannot force it to drink. And we seek to teach our children
the things of God Solomon sought to teach his child
or teach us the things of God but you cannot force them to
change. God must give them a hunger. God by his spirit must give them
a heart for the things of God. A heart
for the wisdom of God. Now this wisdom here in the book
of Proverbs is personified or embodied. It speaks about the wisdom of
God being a person. In the old language, in the Hebrew
language, they had words that had male and female meanings and so in our language
it's translated as she. Wisdom that is a she. The scripture
tells us that by wisdom God founded the earth and by understanding
he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are
broken up and the clouds drop dew. And so this wisdom, the
wisdom of God created the heavens and the earth. And we know that
the Gospel of John tells us that this one who created the heavens
and the earth is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. All things
were created by him and for him. He was in the beginning. was
the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The
same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by
him and without him was not anything made. In him was life and the
life was the light of man. And so this wisdom that is spoken
of here, the wisdom of God, is seen in the embodiment of the
Lord Jesus Christ that this true wisdom that can be grasped and
obtained that is the Lord Jesus. We want to know how wise God
is. Yes we can look at his creation, we can see how powerful he is
but if we want to see the pinnacle of his wisdom we are to look
at his work of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. No human mind
could have ever brought about such a plan or thought of such
a plan and then brought about such a plan of salvation. In the work of salvation God
remains just He remains the holy, just God of the whole earth. And yet as he brings his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world to live under the law of
God, to perfectly obey the law of God and then die upon the
cross at Calvary as God punished his son for the sins of his people,
we see the wisdom of God in all of its glory. that God worked
out a way of salvation to bring those who had broken his law
again into fellowship with him. And so Christ is the wisdom of
God. And it's this wisdom of God that
puts people, men, women, boys and girls, onto the right path. The Bible tells us we all like
sheep have gone astray. We've gone everyone to our own
way. We've gone astray. The scripture
tells us in verse 11, I have taught thee
in the way of wisdom. I have led thee in right paths. When thou goest thy steps shall
not be straightened or restricted. And when thou runnest thou shalt
not stumble. So Solomon says, I have taught
thee the way of wisdom. I have led thee in right paths. In verse 14 it says, enter not
into the paths of the wicked, nor go not in the way of evil
men. The Lord Jesus tells us in the
New Testament that there is a broad road that leads to destruction
and the way of evil men. find that way. They walk on that
way. It is an easy road. It is a road
that we're all on by nature. We just continue living if we
want to continue on on that broad road that leads to destruction.
You don't have to do anything. Just continue living your own
life, living in foolishness, rejecting the wisdom of God. At the end of that road is destruction. Scripture tells us the wages
of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through
Christ Jesus and so the wisdom of God in Christ brings people
onto the right pathway those who were lost in their sin are
brought onto the narrow way that leads to life they are set on
that straight course they are put on the right path and they
are in the way of wisdom. And so Solomon says to his son,
I've shown you the wisdom of God. I've shown you the true
way and to keep yourself from evil. Now think very carefully
about which pathway you are on. ponder the path of your feet. Don't be rash but think very
carefully about which part you are on. Think deeply about which
way are you heading. Are you heading away from the
cross? Are you heading on the broad
road that leads to destruction still under the law of God or
are you heading to the cross and through the cross? Are you following the Lord Jesus
Christ? Ponder the path of your feet. Which way are you going right
now? What has made you to be on the path that you are
on? What has happened in your life
caused you to be on the trajectory that you are on at this moment
in time? Think of the prodigal son. The
prodigal son raised in a, you could say in a parable, in a
godly household. His father knew God. Yet the son says, give me all
of my living. I want to go away from you. And as I was thinking of this,
Yesterday I thought, oh no. Oh no. I really hope there's
not somebody here who's been thinking like that. You've been
brought up in a Christian home. Your mum and dad have told you
the wisdom of God. They've told you about the Lord
Jesus Christ. They've told you to keep your heart. They've told
you to keep your mouth. They've told you to keep your
eyes. They've told you to ponder the path of your feet and you're
saying in your own mind now I want to reject all of this. I want
to go out. I want to shake off the chains
of mum and dad. Grandad and grandma. I want to
go and live. I want to go and spend my money
on the way that I want to spend my money. And I'm going. Maybe you've even said that. Maybe you said, I'm going. Will
you look at what took place in the life of this boy? He said, I'm going. And he spent
all of his money. While he had money he had lots
of friends. But when his money ran out, so
his friends ran out. The rich, in Proverbs it says,
the rich have many friends. And as long as people have money
they will have friends. But they're not real friends,
they just want your money. They want what you're gonna give
them. And when you don't have anything,
they will abandon you and leave you. Just like this boy, he was abandoned
by his friends because he didn't have any money and he went and
he had to feed pigs. But while he was there, he was
brought to ponder the path of his feet. In his desperate situation,
he was brought to think about all that had happened to him
and how he had ended up in the miserable situation that he was
in. What had he done? He had rejected his upbringing.
He had rejected all that his father had taught him about God
and the ways of righteousness. And he was brought to realise, oh, It was better in my father's
house. I ran away from the good thing
and entered into the bad thing and now I'm going to go humbly
back and I'm going to ponder the path of my feet and I'm going
to walk back to my father's house and ask him if he would take
me in as a hired servant. We know the story that the young
man he goes back and his father receives him and puts the ring
on his finger, a robe on his back and shoes upon his feet
and he says, my son that was dead is now alive again. until the prodigal son was brought
to ponder the path of his feet. His rebellion had led him away
from God and brought him into a desperate situation. But he
returned, he pondered, he turned and he returned back to his father's
house and there he found his father waiting for him. And so
what is drawing us at this present moment in time? As we think of
our lives as we get up day by day what is our motive to live
each day? What is it that is driving us? Is it seeking after this wisdom?
Or is it seeking after the things of this world? What is the motive
by which we are driven by? What is it that we are looking
at? Solomon says, let thine eyes
look right on ahead. In the New Testament, it tells
us, run with patience the race set before you, looking unto
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where the believer looks.
He knows there's much to distract him, but he keeps looking to
the Lord Jesus Christ. He ponders the path of his feet
and he seeks to step orderly along that path, not acting rashly,
but acting with wisdom, with the wisdom of God. Then he says, all thy ways will
be established. The New Testament tells us that
there are those who are unstable in their ways. They are washed
to and fro with doctrine. Maybe you're unstable, maybe
I'm unstable. One minute we're with the Lord
Jesus, the next minute we're in the world. We're trying to
balance the two things together. Our heart is torn. We see the
world and we see its enjoyments, see our friends and our neighbours
seemingly enjoying themselves and then we've got the Lord Jesus
Christ. and we're trying to get the best of both worlds. We're
trying to have Jesus and we're trying to have silver and gold.
the scriptures tell us that it's impossible. You cannot serve
God and the material things of this world. You're either in
or you are out. You're either in with the Lord
Jesus Christ or you're out of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're
either walking with the Lord Jesus Christ or you're walking
in disobedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. If he has loved you and
then you are now going away from him That means that you are walking
in rebellion. It means you are backsliding. And so we are called to ponder
the path of our feet and let our ways be established. Like founded upon a rock, established,
not wishy-washy, but steadfast, unmovable, abounding in the work
of the law. established in truth, the word
of God, established in the right way, where we are heading and looking is to the Lord Jesus
Christ and to eternity. He says, turn not to the right
hand nor to the left, remove thy foot from evil. May the Lord help us then to
be kept. Young people, listen to the wisdom
of God. Older people, myself included,
listen to the wisdom of God. Keep our hearts with diligence. Keep our lips, put away the froward
mouth. Let our eyes look right on and
ponder the path of our feet. Which way are we heading today?
To the cross or are we heading through the cross to the Lord
Jesus Christ? Looking to him, pondering the
path of our feet. May we be guided and directed
by him and be established in the truth unmovable, not be wishy-washy
about the things of God. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen. This afternoon service is at
three, we have Sunday school at two, and you're welcome to
stay for lunch between services. Our next hymn is hymn number
554 from Gadsby's. Though we walk through this wilderness,
God's promise is our stay. His goodness he will make to
pass before us in the way. Hymn number 554 to the tune 196. God's promises are steady, His
kindness He will make to pass them from us in the way. ? True and divine ? ? Thou wilt
so well bestow ? ? The Lord our God ? ? We'll pray to God before
passing away ? of his grace, he surely will
display, that all is well. Let angels all exult and sing
of him. ? When He is risen, He will spread
His wings ? ? And all will make His goodness known ? ? Because
God said so ? O come, let us adore Him, O come,
let us adore Him, His joy renewed, and sin exhaled. The Lord will make His goodness
known. Dear Lord and Almighty God, we
do thank Thee for Thy Word and for the warning that it gives
to us and we pray that we may be enabled to ponder the path
of our feet and we pray that we may be established in that
right way, the right way that leads to the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask that Thou bless us and
dismiss us with Thy blessing and be with us in the interval
of worship and meet with us this afternoon, we pray, and bless
us as we meet around the Lord's table. And now may the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, fellowship
and communion of the Holy Spirit, to be with us now and forevermore.
Amen.