May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
book of the Proverbs and chapter four, and we'll read the last
four verses. That's verses 23, 24, sorry,
the last five verses in this fourth chapter of the book of
the Proverbs. So verse 23, keep thy 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 eyelids look straight before
thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be
established. Turn not to the right hand, nor
to the left. Remove thy foot from evil.' So we have quite a list really
in these few verses of those things that all of us should
be concerned about. And it follows really on from
what I mentioned when we started our reading, the need for Wisdom. In this, the fifth verse, we're
told, 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 principle thing, therefore get wisdom,
and with all thy getting, get understanding. You may remember
that many years ago, Ezra and Nehemiah were called by God to
bring Israel back from that captivity that they were for those 70 years
in Babylon. And they came back to Jerusalem
and they had an assembly, congregation. They all met together and they
stood to hear the word of God read. and the Word of God preached,
and there were ten men who were numbered to stand and to try
and ensure that the people understood that which was being told them. It is very important for us today,
and in the day in which we live, to have a right understanding
of the Word of God. Now it was clearly necessary
in those days because many of them didn't understand what was
being told them. And I suppose it's the same today.
Many people come and they listen to sermons but they don't understand. Now I'm very much aware of course
that it's not just a natural understanding, it's a spiritual
understanding of which we need. But nonetheless it's important
that we do have an understanding of the Word of God. And if there
are things that we don't understand, especially young people, if there
are things that you don't understand, you should ask. You shouldn't
just say, well, I don't understand that, and just pass by and think,
well, that's not relevant, I don't understand it, it doesn't matter.
Well, it does matter. And you might say, well, why
does it matter? Because the Bible is telling
us about the things which are important. And they are important
because they concern our spiritual life. And if they concern our
spiritual life, they concern where we shall spend eternity.
And that is really the most important thing that you and I can ever
really have that spiritual understanding about where we shall spend eternity. Now, we are living on this earth.
We don't know how long. We don't know how long each of
us will live. We don't know when the Lord will return in all his
glory. We don't know. But we are told
that we need to be ready when that time shall come. And so
God has given us the Word of God to instruct us. And if we
don't understand, then pray to God that he might give you an
understanding. But ask people. Don't be embarrassed. Don't be
ashamed to ask people because hopefully the people will treat
the question as a valid question and not belittle it, belittle
you and give you an answer if they're able. So we should not
turn away from the truth of God if we just don't seem to understand
it because it is the most important thing that we have to understand. If you're at school or university
or college and you want to and you want to know something or
being taught something, you don't want it just to go over your
head, do you? You want to understand what's being told you. If you
don't, you know that you won't pass the exams and you need an
understanding. And it's more important that
you and I have a right spiritual understanding of the Word of
God as it speaks to us. And so here we're told the importance
of having wisdom to understand the truth of God's Word. And as we read down this chapter,
it speaks about this and it comes down to these last four verses. And really there are four items
in these last four verses which should concern us. The first
is reference to our heart, the second is reference to our mouth,
The third to our eyes and the fourth to our feet. Well, I'm
sure we can understand naturally what all these things mean. You
know, we all know we've got a heart and a mouth and we have eyes
and feet. And so with that understanding,
then Solomon, when he wrote this, he said, keep thy heart. That doesn't of course mean our
natural heart. Of course, we might say if we
didn't have a heart, we wouldn't live. Because there's nothing
to pump our blood round our body and therefore we wouldn't live.
So naturally, we need a heart. And naturally, we need that.
And spiritually, we need a heart to understand the truth of God. our innermost being. It's not
something that we should just discharge and think it's irrelevant. It's very relevant. And these
words are very powerful, aren't they, really? Keep thy heart
with all diligence. We are to be diligent in these
things. We're not to just say, well,
it's not very important. I don't think it is. Something
which is diligent means we treat it with enthusiasm. and fervour
and delight. It's not something which is just
to be passed by. Diligence. Diligence to keep our heart. You say, well what does that
mean? It means to keep our heart in right things. Thinking about
right things. Turning away from things which
are not good. And the Bible gives us a very
strong warning about our heart. This is what it tells us. Our
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Now the person that's very aware
of that, more than anyone else, is the devil. And he knows that
our heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. So the devil homes in. upon us to try and distract us
from the truth of God, from the importance of the things of God. He tries to turn us away from
it, so that we therefore consider the things of time are more important. Well, they are important, but
they're not more important. The things of God are the most
important things. So let us not forget then the
efforts of the evil one, the devil, who is around us all the
time, and his great concern is to trip us up, his great concern
is to deceive us, his great concern is to stop us believing in the
truth of God, stop us understanding the truth of God. That's his
aim. And he's been very successful down through the ages. Well,
may he not be successful in our lives. But may we be blessed
with a right appreciation and a right understanding to desire
that our hearts might be kept concentrating really on the things
which are good and the things which are true. You know the
Lord Jesus, when he was on the earth, as we I'm sure know, he
spoke so many wonderful truths. In those chapters that we refer
to often as the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus spoke in
the 5th chapter and in the 8th verse, and he tells us this,
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The pure in heart. Well, our
hearts aren't very pure, are they, by nature? You see, they're
very impure. They're very evil. But here the
Lord tells us, blessed are the pure in heart. So what does that
mean, we should be concerned about? If we're keeping our heart
diligently, we should be concerned that we seek after pure things. And that means honest things,
right things, good things, and not bad things. and not evil
things, and not wicked things, and not lustful things. The devil
will want you to think about all those things. That's what
he'll come and he'll bring before you in a flash. Sometimes you
may be thinking on good things and the devil will come and powerfully,
suddenly put a thought into your heart. You might think, well
why? Why has that suddenly come? because
the devil doesn't want you to think about good things, that's
why and perhaps sometimes it's things which your nature likes
to think about doesn't mean to say it's right but there we are,
it's a temptation from the devil and therefore such a word is
so relevant to us in all our lives, not only today but all
our lives to keep our heart with all diligence And in this same
Sermon on the Mount, moving on in the sixth chapter, he tells
us this very pertinent statement. He says, verse 19, lay not up
for yourselves treasures upon earth. We're all tempted to do
that, aren't we? We all want more. Where moth
and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.
There is an alternative, but lay out for yourselves treasures
in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where
thieves do not break through and steal. They can't get at
it because it's in heaven and God keeps it for us. And then he says, for where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also. If we are to keep
our heart with all diligence, We ought to keep it centred therefore
on the things of heaven, not on the things of the earth. The
things of the earth are things which will only feed us, feed
our minds in this natural time that we live. But soon we shall
be out of time into eternity. And then how important it will
be if we have been blessed with a right understanding of spiritual
things and that we do possess a treasure in heaven. You may
say, well what is that? What is a treasure in heaven?
Is it gold and diamonds and that kind of thing? Well, that's how
our natural mind understands things. And that's how we weigh
up treasure naturally. But no, it's not. Spiritual treasure
is to have heard the word of God speaking into our hearts
and showing to us what we are by nature, what we are without
God. We're captive by the devil. And what do we do? We indulge
in the things of the flesh. We spend our time on the things
of the world. We do that which is wrong. We
do that which is evil. So what have we done? We've sinned. And what have we produced? Sin. A mass of sin. Sins every day. Perhaps every moment we find
there is sin. And what a blessing it is when
the Holy Spirit shows to us that all that we have is sin. And
that won't get us to heaven. That'll get us to hell. We need
the blessing of God. And what is the blessing of God?
It's very simply this, to direct us to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a treasure in heaven. My friends, if all of us know
the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, that is eternal treasure. And it's not something that you
and I will have to leave behind when we die. Everything that
we have naturally, we've got to leave behind. We can't take
anything with us. And how tragic it will be if
we find at that stage that everything we have is only on the earth. We have no treasure in heaven. We do not know the Lord Jesus
Christ as our Saviour. Because if that is the position,
then tragic is our condition. And what would have occurred?
We won't have kept our heart diligently. We would have allowed
the devil to crowd in. We would have allowed him to
do all that which is evil, and given us the ability to do all
those wrong things. And it's very sad indeed. And
again, one further comment in Matthew. Matthew's full of good
statements, I'm sure you appreciate. And in the 15th chapter, 19th
verse, we read this, for out of the heart proceeds, what proceeds
out of our natural heart? I wonder if you sat down reading
and thought, what comes out of my heart? Well, the Bible tells
us. It's not a very pleasant picture
either. This is what we're told. Evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness,
blasphemies. All of these things proceed out
of our natural heart. And all of us have this battle,
all of this fineness occurs in our hearts. And it's a great
blessing if the Holy Spirit shows it to us. And the Lord says,
for these are the things which defile a man. These are the things
which produce sin. These are the things which are
evil. These are the things which don't do us any true good. And so, keep thy heart with all
diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." And this
really directs us to our eternal life. You see, our natural heart
is only concerned about the things in our natural life, the issues
of our natural life. But as the Lord may bless us
with spiritual understanding and spiritual desires, we will
then appreciate the issues which are before us with regard to
our eternal life, the life of our soul. You see, once we're
born in this earth, we can't rid ourselves of a soul. We have
it. It lives forever. either in hell
or in heaven. So, how important it is to have
a healthy soul. Out of it are the issues of life. Well, what a mercy it is, therefore,
if we are blessed with this understanding. You know, the Word of God is
used The Lord tells us about this when the Apostle Paul wrote
to the Hebrews, and in the Hebrews in the fourth chapter and the
twelfth verse we're told about the Word of God, what it is.
The Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and
of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart." Well, I wonder this morning, if I asked
you, do you understand that? Has the Bible, the Word of God,
been to you that which is quick and powerful? It's penetrated
into your heart. your very innermost being, and
you've fallen down as a guilty, hell-deserving sinner before
a holy God. It's the work of the Spirit. Bless God if that is so this
morning. You have the evidence then of
the work of the Spirit, and then to be lifted up and directed
to the glorious truths of the Word of God, directing us to
the Saviour, the saviour of sinners, that one who came into this world
to save us from our sins, deliver us from the wrath to come, to
free us from the condemnation of the law, and to set us on
our journey to glory. Oh, you see the relevance of
these things. That's what the Word of God is. Now, you and
I have read the Bible. Perhaps you've read it many times.
I hope you have. I hope you've read the Bible
all through. And it's a bit of a long book,
but it's worth reading all through. And when you finish reading it
all through, start again and read it again. And don't stop
reading it all through your life. Read the Word of God through
and through. But the Word of God does speak to us, encouraging
words. And if we are guilty before God,
and if we've been cut down and we come and plead for mercy,
which you will, if the Lord has touched your heart, you'll plead
for mercy. And it won't be just a mere form
of just words, because it will come from your heart. When our
heart is not kept, when our heart is not moved with the Spirit,
then these things just become theoretical. And we just perhaps
know the truth in our head, but it hasn't touched our heart.
When the Holy Spirit works, our heart is touched, and then we
desire then. to keep it from evil things.
Otherwise you'll be content to think wrong things, evil things.
You'll probably enjoy thinking wrong things and evil things.
Bless God when the Holy Spirit comes and convicts us of these
things and blesses us with discernment and a concern. The Apostle James,
in his little epistle, he tells us this, draw near to God, he
will draw near to you. So if you feel perhaps a great
need for God to come and bless you, then pray to him. You may
not find it easy, Prayer is not easy. True prayer is not easy.
You can mumble a lot of words, but my friends, true prayer between
your soul and God is never easy, because the devil is always there
trying to stop you praying. But don't stop praying. Pray
on, and pray on, and seek for his mercy, and seek for his blessing,
so that you may realise then out of your heart are the issues
of life, eternal life, not something to be passed over, something
very real, something very, very important. And so we have these
words here this morning. May God give us all spiritual
wisdom and understanding to recognize the relevance of such words. All the Word of God is relevant.
It's not irrelevant. Many things in time are irrelevant. And we spend too much time on
irrelevant things. But let us give time to important
issues. And here is this great important
concern. Keep thy heart with all diligence,
for out of it are the issues of life. And then the second
point. Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put
far from thee. Freywood mouth means speaking
wrong things, evil things. And perverse lips, speaking things
which are not right. You see, naturally we can do
that. You know, we have a tongue, and we have to be very aware,
as we're told in James, of the tongue's a little member, but
what evil it produces. What wrong things we say so easily,
so easily, put away from thee. A froward mouth and perverse
lips put far from thee. How many things you and I have
said perhaps in our life, upsetting things to other people. What
good has it done? We've said nasty things, unkind
things, wrong things about people. about situations. Well, this
gracious instruction is this. Put away from me. Get rid of
such words. Let not our mouth speak those
things which are wrong, those things which are evil. There's
many things that you and I can speak which are good. Then let's not listen to the
devil. He'll put things within our heart. And sometimes we speak
things which we don't really intend to speak. Oh yes, sometimes
things come out, and we wish they hadn't done so, but you
can't take them back. Once you've spoken, you've spoken.
And therefore, a gracious word here is put away from the froward
mouth and perverse things. The words of our mouth. Oh, you see how wrong they are. The Lord, the psalmist tells
us, Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in thy sight. It would be a good prayer, wouldn't
it, as you and I begin every day to pray that to our God,
that our words and our thoughts would be acceptable to our God,
not unacceptable. Put away from thee. a froward
mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Well, there we
have then the heart, and here we have the mouth, and then we
have eyes, eyes. Let thine eyes look right on,
and let thine eyes look straight before thee. You see, we should
be very thankful that we possess natural sight but we should use
that natural sight rightly so that we are not amongst those
who look in a wrong way but here we're told to look straight before
thee and again that really means not to be sidetracked our eyes
see something that perhaps we think well that's rather nice
that's rather good and I really like that you know we are We
are told not to covet apart from the best things. We are told
to covet earnestly the best things, which are of course the truth
of God, the word of God. But we are not to covet other
things. And naturally, you see, we do. And that's why we have
such a word like this. Let thine eyes look right on.
And let thine eyes look straight before thee. We have many illustrations
in the word of God where the eyes looked upon wrong things
and caused a big problem. I'm sure you're familiar with
the account of Lot. Lot was a man of God. He lived
in Sodom. He shouldn't have gone there
but he did. Because he thought it was a nice pleasant place
to be or it looked prosperous and he went there. It wasn't
a good place at all. It was a very evil place and
a very sinful place. But the Lord in his great love
and mercy to Lot brought him out. He had to be dragged out. The angels took him by the hand.
He was really a bit reluctant to go. But anyway, the Lord did
take him out. And the Lord told him and his
wife and the two children, don't look back. Don't look back. What does that mean? Don't use
your eyes to look back. What happened? Lot's wife looked
back. What happened to her? She became
a pillar of salt. She didn't keep her eyes looking
forward. Now you and I have to be very
careful about that in a spiritual sense. Not to look back. If the Lord has come and touched
our hearts and directed us to right things, godly things, not
to look back. the things of the world which
we perhaps have been delivered from, which we come out from. They may be very attractive to
our flesh, but my friends, they're sinful things. And I won't give
a list because the trouble is some things which are very attractive
to one person might not be to another person and vice versa.
So you know in your heart whether things are good and right and
pure and holy or whether they are sinful and only bring you
into a worse condition, although your flesh goes after it. And
so we are not to be found therefore looking back. We are not to be
found looking back, we are to be looking forward, straight
before us. It's a very sad thing if we do
find ourselves looking back. So we have Lot's wife, who didn't
look before her. And she looked, well not straight
before her. And you may think, you can go
right back to the Garden of Eden really, and you can think of
Eve, what did she do? God had told her they were not
to eat of the fruit, of the tree, of the knowledge of good and
evil. And what did she do? The devil came and told her,
it's a very nice fruit, you know, you ever look at it? And she
did. She looked at it and thought,
this is really attractive. I really like that. And so she
ignored what God had said and took the fruit and ate it. Now just think of that. That
was the cause of all the sin. in the world. She didn't keep
her eyes straight ahead. She looked upon that which the
devil directed her to look at. My friends, don't look there.
If you and I are to look straight ahead, I'll tell you where you'll
be looking. Do you know where that is? To Christ, the Lord
Jesus Christ. The one who delivers us from
our sin. No one else. And that would be
a good place to look. You'll never regret that. You
will regret looking at other things. And you remember perhaps
another case, there was Achan. You know when Israel came and they besieged the city and And
what happened was they were told not to take of anything, any
valuable thing or anything like that, and well, they all behaved
themselves apart from Akan. And what did he do? He looked
and he saw a nice wedge of gold, a nice garment, and some silver,
and he took it. His eyes had seen it. So looking
straight on, his eyes took it. He shouldn't have done. And the
result was, he and all his family were killed. The Lord destroyed
them. We have gracious words like this. Let thine eyes look right on.
Let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Looking unto Jesus,
the author and the finisher of our faith. Look unto me. And be ye saved o'er the ends
of the earth, for I am God and there's none else. That's where
you and I want to concentrate on, looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Not looking to all the vanities
of time. You know, we have a great conflict.
The devil's always there, encouraging us to look here and look there
and do this and do that. But you see, we should be concerned
only to be found looking to the Lord and be concerned about the
things of God. And so let thine eyes look right
on, let thine eyes look straight before thee. And then finally,
we're told about our feet. Ponder the path of thy feet,
and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand, nor
to the left. Remove thy foot from evil. There are many places today in
the world in which you and I can easily go. But are there places
that will benefit our souls? Or are there things which will
detract from the life of God in our souls? Now there are many
things that you and I can perhaps think, well I think I can do
that. I think I can engage in that. I think I can do that. And what it really means is you're
trying to make an excuse for yourself so you can indulge in
some worldly activity. And you and I need, therefore,
to think about it, ponder it. Don't just justify yourself and
think, well I can do that, it's okay. Think about it. Is it a
benefit to your soul? That's the test, isn't it? Test everything by that. Is it
going to benefit my soul? You'll find that's a very great
question. You'll find it's a very dividing
question. And you'll find you may have
to say, well, hmm, I don't think I can do that, actually. I really
wanted to, but in actual fact, I don't think I can. And do you
know what would be the benefit? You'll have the answer of a good
conscience. And if you don't ponder your
feet, and if you engage in something which you know is not really
right, is not really God-honouring, you won't be comfortable in it,
You won't really enjoy it. You'll try to enjoy it. You'll
try to think, I wanted this and I'm happy in it. In actual fact,
if you are being taught by the Spirit, you won't really be happy
in it. You'll find the reality is you're walking contrary to
God. You're not walking in a pleasing
path to God. You're giving way to the devil.
And he's getting the victory. And he's clapping his hands.
And he said, well, there's an easy prey there. That person
easily came and forsook the things of God, and listen to me, ponder
the path that I feed, and let all thy ways be established,
established in the things of God, not established in the things
of the world. You see, you may like to think,
well I want to do that. You may think, well, I can't
say no. I'm going to upset all my friends. They're all going
to want me to go along and do that. And I think I'm a very
strange person. I'm very odd. Well, God's people
are strange people, and they are peculiar people, and they
are odd. Don't think you can get away from that. The great
blessing is to be a child of God rather than a child of the
devil. So let us realize the total relevance
of these things, because this is godly wisdom. Let all thy ways be established
in the things of God. And you might test it this way,
is that which I'm doing establishing me in the things of God? Or is it establishing me more
in the things of the world? Now just remember, The things
of the world will vanish away. The things of God remain forever. And our souls remain forever. So may God give us that grace. Do you know you and I will only
receive that grace if we are those who God has loved. And you know we have this word,
The love of God constrains us. Constrains us to do that which
is right. Constrains us to depart from
the things which are wrong, which are of this world. What a wonderful
blessing if you and I therefore possess the love of God which
is constraining us. And ponder that, the love of
God. Because the love of God was so
great, that God so loved the world, he sent his only begotten
son into the world, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish,
but have eternal life. Well, that's what you and I should
be striving after. The blessing of eternal life.
The evidence of eternal life. And to know, therefore, the love
of Christ, which is rich and free, and which is fixed on his
own eternally. And if you are in, one might
say, a crossroads, you might say, well, I'm not sure what
to do. Commit thy way unto the Lord.
Trust also in him. Look to the Lord and seek for
guidance from the Lord. You see, he won't let you down.
He will help you. He will direct you. And what
a mercy it is when you are directed to what Christ has done to redeem
your souls. And therefore you may be in your
consciousness directing you to a right way and yet your old
nature wants the wrong way. Think upon what Christ did to
redeem your soul. Think of the cost of your salvation. And now you're willing to throw
that away just to enjoy some putrid thing in this world. Ponder the path of thy feet and
let all thy ways be astounded. Turn not to the right hand nor
to the left. There will be many temptations
there are today, perhaps more than there's ever been. Yes,
we live in an evil world. And our conscience, our old nature
says, that's all right, I can just do that. My friends, let
our tender conscience direct us into a right way, to a God-honouring
way, to a way which brings honour to our God. And just to say this,
our life, if we are a child of God, is not to please ourselves. Our life is to please our God. We are to do His will. We're
not to do our own will. We're to do His will. And what
a blessing, therefore, if we're influenced by the blessed Spirit
of God to walk in that right way, that narrow way. The blessing
is this. It leads to eternal life. And
what a mercy if God gives us grace to walk that path. You're in a battle. between your
nature and the grace and blessing of God. But my friends, what
a mercy when you prove in your hearts, in your life, the grace
of God, the free and merited favor of God has directed you
and strengthened you so that you can say, with the Apostle
Paul, these glorious words, I can do all things through Christ
that strengthens me. There's our place of hope. There's our refuge. There's our
strength. Don't look anywhere else. Look
to Jesus, firm and strong. And so here we have in these
words this morning, these four things to be pondered over, to
be considered with regard to a right understanding of spiritual
things and heavenly wisdom, that which concerns our heart, our
mouth, our eyes, and our feet. And may God direct us and bless
us indeed. Amen.