Let's open our Bibles again to
Proverbs chapter 6. Let's read the first few verses. My son, thou be surety for thy
friend. If thou hast stricken thy hand
with a stranger, thou art snared with the words of thy mouth.
Thou art taken with the words of thy mouth. Do this now, my
son, and deliver thyself when thou art come into the hand of
thy friend. Go humble thyself and make sure thy friend." What
he means is if your friend is not paying the bill that you
stood a surety for, you go make sure him, you encourage him to
pay the bill that he's committed himself to so you don't have
to, so you're delivered from that debt. That's what he means
there. Make sure thy friend. Give not sleep to thine eyes,
nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself as a roe from
the hand of the hunter. and as a bird from the hand of
the fowler. Now the title of the message
this evening is Advice for Children. Now I have, Janet and I, have
two children. Not just me, it's her and me.
We have two children that are graduating this May. Holly's
graduating from college. Savannah's graduating from high
school. And I've been thinking a long time about this moment. It's gone quickly, but I've been
thinking about it a long time, about advice that I'll give them
as they start these new chapters in their lives. I hope it's words
of wisdom, something that will tell them how to handle these
new responsibilities that they have and how to live in this
world. Because, you know, this world's
not all there is, but now you've got to live in it. You ought
to know how to do it right. And in a word, my advice to them. will be Christ. Christ is the
answer to everything that we do, no matter what stage of life
that we're in. If you're just graduating from
high school or if you're retired, Christ is the answer to everything
we do in every stage of life. Spiritually, most importantly,
Christ is every answer. It's so obvious when you read
scripture, Christ is everything. God requires of men. So my advice
is look to Him. Look, He's everything God requires. You depend wholly and entirely
upon the Lord Jesus Christ for righteousness, for cleansing
from your sin, for sanctification, for wisdom, for acceptance with
God, for forgiveness of your sin. You look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's every answer. And in a worldly
sense, Christ is still every answer. He's the answer to everything
that we do in this world. As you get ready to go out and
get a job, Christ is the answer to how to work that job. When
you get married, Christ is the answer for how to be married.
As you conduct yourself out in the community, Christ is the
answer for how to do that. Now, I'm not going to stand up
here tonight and give you the advice I have for my children.
But my intention and my hope is that the Lord will give us
advice for the children of God. This is advice for the children
of God. And in the Word, that advice
is Christ. It's like I said. Now, I'll tell
you why this passage initially caught my eye. It's because of
what I do at work. There at work, I take care of
the financial stuff. Anything that's involved with
the finances, that's what I do. It's not real exciting, but that's
what I do. And when somebody doesn't pay their bill, that's
the part that gets exciting. It falls to me to collect it,
you know, to keep them up to date. And I want to tell you
something. People that do not pay their
bill are the bane of my existence. I just, oh my, I can't tell you. I'm just, today, I literally
spent six hours on the phone with two different people that
owe us a lot of money scheming ways that I let them charge more. Six hours! They're the bane of
my existence. My advice to children is pay
your bills and pay them on time. When you tell someone you'll
do it, you'll do something, do it. Take care of your name and
your reputation. You got one. Now take care of
it. Be known, out in the community in general, be known as a person
of integrity. The text says here, you've stricken
hands with a stranger. You shook hands with the banker.
Tell him he's a stranger. I'll be sure to keep him my friend.
When you shake hands on something, that ought to be more binding
to you than a 25-page legal contract. It should. You let your word
be your oath. And never look for a way to wriggle
out of your word by some technicality. Say, well, you know, I didn't
say that exactly. Don't do that. In every situation,
just do the right thing. Now, you know what the right
thing is. You know, people know what the right thing is. Now,
do it. I don't care what it costs you,
do it. And here, Solomon, he's not exactly talking about paying
our bills. He's talking about being surety for a friend, being
a cosigner in a loan for a friend. Now scripture doesn't say don't
ever co-sign a loan. What scripture says is be careful
when you co-sign a loan. You stand a surety for a friend.
The apostle Paul stood a surety for Onesimus, didn't he? He said,
if he owes you anything, you put it on my account. I'll pay
it. I've written it with my own hand. He stood a surety. So it
doesn't say never do it. It says just be careful when
you do it. You know, when Jen and I were first married, her
grandpa Conley and my dad, both signed, co-signed loans for us,
you know, as we were establishing our credit and so forth. And
we didn't care what we had to scrimp on, what else had to not
get paid or get, you know, those loans were going to get paid
on time because we were so thankful, you know, these men helped us
and we weren't going to leave them hanging. And the warning
here is don't cosign for a loan. Don't be a surety for someone
if you can't pay every penny of what you're being a cosigner
for. Look over in a few pages at Proverbs 22. If you can't
pay it, don't just trust them and be a cosigner for it. That's
what he's saying. In Proverbs 22, verse 26. Be
not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties
for debts. if thou hast nothing to pay.
It doesn't say don't ever stand as a surety, but don't stand
as a surety if you have nothing to pay. Why should he take away
thy bed from under thee? If your friend can't pay and
you can't pay, he'll come into your house and take everything
you've got and sell it to pay for what you took on as your
debt. And that's good advice for our
children about any bills that you have. You know, over the
course, you're going to have bills. Now you're going to have
to borrow money to buy a car and a house and, you know, utility
bills and so forth. Don't live beyond your means. Don't do that. Do without, rather
than charge something that you can't pay for. And I know that
isn't the way of this world, but that's sound advice. That
is advice from God's word. Just only agree to do what you
can pay for with the means that God's given you. And you know,
this very situation, here's why scripture warns us about this
very situation came up at work. We have a very, very good customer
and some friend of his was going to open up a new store and he
needed to fill that store with merchandise. He wanted to buy
it from us. Well, that's good. Well, except this fella, he didn't
have good credit, so we couldn't do that. So this good customer
of ours said, he said, I'll co-sign for it. If he doesn't pay it,
I will. And I tried to talk him out of it, but he insisted on
doing it because that's the only way this fella could open up
a store. Well, you know what happened. The bill didn't get
paid. And he did exactly what this
text says. He went and made sure his friend,
he pushed him, he begged him, he cajoled him, he did everything
he could do to get that man to pay his bill. And it came down
about the last thousand or fifteen hundred dollars and he paid it
himself. And he's still collecting it, I reckon, I don't know. But
he did just what the scripture says to do. If you find yourself
in that situation, that's what you got to do. That's why scripture
warns us. And this man told me, I will
never do that again. He said, if I ever come to you
and want to do that again, take the pen out of my hand. That's
what he said. Well, here's the advice and instruction for the
children of God. Now, that's good advice for children
and all of us, but here's the advice for the children of God.
You consider our Lord Jesus Christ. This is exactly what he has done
for his people. He stood a surety. Now, he could
pay it. And so he stood as surety. In
eternity past, Christ struck hands with the Father in the
covenant of grace, and he stood as surety for his people, knowing
full well they're going to be spiritually bankrupt. Knowing
full well they will never pay the debt that they rack up. You
know, when Grandpa Conley and my dad co-signed the loans for
us, they were pretty sure, at least I think they were, they
were pretty sure we'd pay it. Christ stood at surety knowing
they'll never pay it. They won't be able to pay for
the first sin. So in a sense, he was snared
with the words of his mouth. He was snared by his promise
to his father to pay the sin debt of his elect. And Christ
our Savior did the only thing that he could do. He humbled
himself, like the text says. He humbled himself to become
a man. He humbled himself and gave himself. into the hands
of his father to take out justice for the sins of his people upon
him. He humbled himself and gave himself into the hands of wicked
men to do with him as they would so he could pay the sin debt
of his people in full. Now you consider him, you consider
what it cost him. Every slap of his precious face
You know, they blindfolded him and they smote him and they said,
Prophet, who smote you? Every time they smote his face,
it was a stroke of justice against our sin. He was enduring this
for his elect. Every time they pulled pieces
of his face out as they plucked out his beard, it was a stroke
of justice because he was suffering this for his people's sin. Every
moment he spent stripped naked, his humiliation in front of those
crowded, jeering soldiers and people was a moment spent enduring
the shame of our sin. Every stroke of that cat of nine
tails that ripped the flesh off of his back was a stroke of justice
against the sin of God's people. Every time that hammer fell,
pounding those nails into his hands and his feet, It was like
the gavel of God's justice falling, saying, guilty, guilty of the
sins of your people. Every moment spent in those great
three hours of darkness was a moment spent suffering hell for the
sins of his people. Our substitute suffered unimaginable
agony. We don't understand how he suffered.
in those hours of darkness when he is separated from his father,
suffering hell for his people, as his father poured out the
exact penalty of justice against the sins that were charged to
him. That happened to our Savior paying the debt Frank Peck could
not pay. I could not pay. That's what
it took to pay my sin debt. That's what it took to stand
as my surety. That's how wretched and vile
we are. And I'm telling you, our Savior
was serious about getting this debt paid. This wasn't something
he thought he could put off, you know, and I'll pay it later.
When the moment was at hand, he didn't give sleep to his eyes
until this debt was paid. He spent time in earnest prayer
with his Father, didn't he? He said, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, he humbled himself. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou will. Oh, and the disciples slept.
They couldn't even watch for an hour. Our Savior didn't give
sleep to his eyes until this debt was paid. He was serious
about being a surety for his people. And now, in Christ, we
are delivered from that debt of sin and shame. And our Lord
is too. God raised Him from the dead
because it was not possible that He could behold Him of the power
of death. Because the sin that was charged
to Him is gone. Brethren, that sin is gone. In God's eyes, there is no record
that that sin ever existed. It's gone. Now, pay your bills. See, how
can you not? Christ is the answer to everything
we do. How can you not? both to the
bank, to the utility company, and to God. Look over in Ecclesiastes
chapter 5. Ecclesiastes 5 verse 4. When thou vows to vow unto God,
defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure in fools. that which
thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldst
not vow than that thou shouldst vow and not pay. Pay your vow. Well, what have we vowed, you
know, to God? Well, we've vowed to follow Him, haven't we? Haven't
we vowed to serve Him, to serve His people? Offer sacrifices
of praise and thanksgiving and live unto Him who washed you
and cleansed you and put your sin dead away. Because you remember,
you're not your own. You bought with the price. And
you know, every one of us here in this room, every son of Adam
has ever lived, has a sin debt that we can't pay. Now, what
should we do? If we have a debt that we can't
pay, what should we do? Well, you go humble yourself
before God. You humble yourself before Him
and you beg Him for mercy for Christ's sake. You earnestly
pray for forgiveness of sins. And don't sleep to the matter
settled. Just don't sleep to the matter settled. You beg God
for mercy. And, you know, sometimes the
Lord may be pleased to move quickly. Sometimes it takes a long time,
seems like, for him to move. But now don't get discouraged.
Don't think, I'm just too sinful. It's just it's too late for me.
No, Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. And I'm
telling you the truth. Sinners are much more offensive
to God. than somebody that won't pay
their debt to high value wholesale is to me. Yet that's the people
that Christ came to save. So you fall on your face and
beg Him for mercy. And this is the amazing grace
of our God. You know, if I had defaulted
on one of those loans that Grandpa Conley or my dad co-signed for,
I would have been ashamed to show my face. I would have done
everything I could to avoid seeing them. I'd have been so ashamed.
And in reality, even though the bank had marked that loan paid,
you know, if I defaulted on it and one of them paid it, you
know, the bank says the debt's paid. But in reality, I would
have still been in debt, wouldn't I? I still would have been in
debt to one of those men who paid that debt for me. Well,
you know, in Christ, even though we're sinners, we know we're
sinners and we're ashamed of our sin, we hate our sin, it's
awful. But we don't avoid seeking the face of Christ, do we? Exactly
the opposite. We beg Him for His presence.
We beg Him for a glimpse of His face. We seek His presence. Well, why? Why the difference?
Because in Christ, there is true forgiveness of sin. In Christ,
the debt's paid. And we are not in debt anymore. We're not in debt to the law.
And we're not in debt to Christ. Well, now we are. We owe him
a debt of gratitude, don't we? But we don't owe him a debt like
we have to pay him back for what his blood bought, do we? We're
not paying him back for the sins he paid for. We're paying him
a debt of gratitude and love and thanksgiving. So here's the
advice for children. If you find yourself in a situation
where you've got a bill, you've got a debt, whether it's yours
or you cosigned for somebody and they didn't pay it now, it's
yours, if you have a debt, Here's what you do. You work hard to
pay that debt back. Look at verse six. Go to the
ant, thou sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise.
This is how low flesh is. In order for us to be wise, we've
got to go watch an ant. One of the most insignificant
creatures on this earth. The flesh can be wise by going
to that ant and watching her. You just go to her and consider
her ways, and be wise, which having no guide, or overseer,
or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth
her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard?
when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a
little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall
thy poverty come as one that travaileth, and thy want as an
armed man. And here's advice for children.
When you get a job, I don't care what job it is, you be a good
worker. You work hard. And use the ant
as an example. That ant works hard all the time. I don't know who the boss ant
is, the queen ant or whatever. Whether the boss is around or
the boss is not around, that ant's working. I mean, just tirelessly
going at it. That's the way we ought to work.
Doesn't matter if the boss is around or he's not around. Work.
And if you want to know how to accumulate enough money in your
bank account to pay your bills, consider the ant, thou sluggard. There's no secret. It's just
hard work. That's all there is to it. In
my business, we have a lot of customers who are immigrants. who come to this country, the
man comes to this country completely alone with absolutely nothing
to his name. He left his family back there
in his home country because he can't afford for them all to
come now. He comes by himself. And he finds some of his countrymen
and he might work for them for a little bit and eventually they'll
get together and help him buy a convenience store. And I've
seen this many times. That man will work that store
18 hours a day, seven days a week. He sleeps in the back of the
store just so he can keep his expenses down. He doesn't hire
anybody. He works that thing by himself. And it's shocking
how quickly he can send for his family. And you'd be amazed how
soon it is he's buying a half million dollar house in Lexington.
How in this world? I mean, just scrimping and saying,
that's how it's done. And that's the way for us to
pay our bills. If you're not willing to work
to pay for things that you need, you're going to end up in poverty.
And it's only right. Scripture says, if man won't
work, don't lay me. Now, that's advice for children.
Now, here's advice for the children of God. Consider the ant. That ant works hard. She's carrying
grains of food bigger than she is. And she works hard all summer
long. She doesn't take a summer vacation.
She never takes a day off working all summer and all harvest for
this purpose. Saving for the winter. Saving
for the future. Now consider the ant. Today is
the day of grace. God has given us an abundant
harvest in His Word. Every person in this room knows
several places you can go within an easy drive of here. Several
times a week, you can find God's servants giving out handfuls
of purpose. Consider the ain't and don't
sleep. Don't sleep spiritually. Seek
Christ while he may be found and store up Christ for the future,
for eternity. I'm telling you the truth, this
life will be over before you know it. It's just a vapor. Last
Saturday, my brother-in-law Rick and I were talking to Jonathan
about being a father. And one thing we both told him
is, when that child is born, you will be shocked how fast
he's graduating from high school. You'll be shocked. It goes so
fast. When I turned 30, my dad told
me the next 20 years is going to pass a whole lot faster than
the last 10 did. I'm 16 years into that journey.
He's right. So fast. Now you consider the
ant. You store up Christ for the future
because this life is just a vapor. You lay hold upon him now and
the day that he can be found. You consider the ant and you
consider our Lord Jesus Christ, how tirelessly he worked. to pay our sin debt. You talk
about a fellow working himself into the ground. He worked so
tirelessly, even as a child. He said, I must be about my father's
business. He had work ethic. But if you
can find somebody with that kind of work ethic in an interview,
you hire him. I must be about my father's business. He never
took a day off. I must needs go through Samaria. I must abide in Zacchaeus' house
today. I must go to Jerusalem. be taken by the chief priests
and suffer and die." Peter said, no, don't do that. Don't go.
He set his face like a flint toward Jerusalem. For this purpose,
the debt of his people had to be paid. He's the only one that
can do it. And he went to pay it. Oh, he
worked so tirelessly. You consider him. Now let's look
over at verse 20. My son, keep thy father's commandments. and forsake not the law of thy
mother, bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them
about thy neck." It is a blessed child. We've got some children
here. They're blessed children whose
parents are believers who can tell that child when it's time
to go out into the world, don't forsake my gospel. Don't forsake
the gospel that you've been taught. These children are so blessed. They'll never know how blessed
they are to have been taught the scriptures, to be taught
these Bible stories their whole lives. So that when it comes
time for them to start venturing out into the world, their parents
can tell them, don't you forget what you've been taught in those
Sunday school classes, from the pulpit and at home. Don't you
forget what you've been taught. That's a blessed child. And whoever
we are, Don't forsake the commandment, the Word of our Heavenly Father. It's life. Solomon says it's
so important you bind His commandments, you bind His Word on your heart. Not just your head, but on your
heart, the place of affection. Don't just give lip service to
God's Word. Pray that God would give you
a love for His Word and a love for Christ. Because I promise
you this, if God puts his word in your heart, you will not forsake
him. You take God's word in your heart
when you go off to school. Take his word in your heart.
When you go off to work, take his word in your heart. When
you're driving down the road, take his word in your heart.
Everywhere you go, take his word in your heart. And tie it about
your neck, he says. Tie it about your neck like a
necklace. It's an ornament. Believe me, it makes us look
better. And when Solomon talks about tying it about your neck,
he's not talking about a long hanging necklace. He's talking
about one that comes right here, right at the throat. Right there
where it can guard everything that comes in and goes out. That'll
make us more attractive, too. Just tie his word around your
throat so that it'll guard everything that comes in and goes out. In
verse 22, he says, And when thou goest, it shall lead thee. When
thou sleepest, it shall keep thee. When thou wakest, it shall
talk with thee." Now, God's Word, who is Christ,
if His Word is in our hearts, it will lead you wherever you
go. And it will lead you in a good and right way. And it's never
outdated. Never. God's Word could guide
Solomon all those thousands of years ago, and it looks to us
like the world's changed a lot from the time of Solomon to today,
doesn't it? God's Word can lead you and me just as well as it
did Solomon. God's Word is just as applicable
to you and me here in 2011 as it was to Solomon whatever year
it was he lived. It never is outdated. So take
it with you. This Word will always lead you
to Christ, who is eternal life. And it will lead you in this
world right too. Look back a page here at Proverbs
3. I read this at the opening of the scripture. Verse 3, let not mercy and truth
forsake thee. Bind them about thy neck. Write
them upon the table of thine heart. So shalt thou find favor
and good understanding in the sight of God and man. See, this Word will lead you
into all spiritual truth and it'll show you how to live in
this world, too. It really will. If you want to know how to live
in this world, you follow the Word of God. It will lead you
through this life the same way the Cloudy Pillar led the children
of Israel through the wilderness. Now, they were in that wilderness
for 40 years. Where did the Cloudy Pillar lead them? The Promised
Land. That's the way this Word will
lead us, too. When you go to sleep, the Word of God will keep
you. And a lot of the writers say
this is talking about death. You know, when you lay down in
death. Now, you didn't die. You were asleep. Your body died.
It went back to the dust. But you know, you didn't die.
You're going to awake. And what are you going to hear?
Christ the Word. Well done, my good and faithful
servant. Enter into the rest that I've
prepared for you. He'll speak to you. This Word
will talk with thee. This is a living book that talks
to people who are awake, who have spiritual life. It talks
to them. This book will talk to you and
tell you who Christ is. Does anyone here want to know
the Lord Jesus Christ? Does anyone anywhere want to
know the Lord Jesus Christ? Then get in this book. This is
the only place he's revealed. If you're going to know Christ
and saving faith, you're going to know him from this book. This
is the only place he's revealed, not in nature, not in creation,
not in providence. In this book, you get in this
book, he'll talk to you and show you the Lord Jesus Christ. This
book will talk to you and tell you who you are. And, you know,
I said, you know, I got advice for children, you know, sometimes
parents You know, we love our children. We might kind of gloss
over some things, you know, to them. We don't want to point
out their weaknesses and at that time we don't even see them because
we love them so much. This book will tell you the truth
about who you are. It will tell you you're a sinful,
vile wretch who deserves God's wrath and will keep you dependent
on Christ because it tells you the truth. This book will comfort
you at the same time that it tells you the truth about who
you are. This book will comfort you. It'll comfort you with Christ. Nothing about you. It'll comfort
you with everything about him. And it'll keep this world in
perspective. I'm not saying it'll keep this
world from hurting you. It's still going to hurt, but
it'll keep it in perspective. It really will. This book will
show you the way that you should go and how to conduct yourself
as you go. This book will talk to you all
the time. In whatever situation you find
yourself in, this book will talk to you. It has something to say
about whatever situation that you're in. And my advice is read
it. Commit it to memory. That's why
it's so good these children have memory verses. You commit this
word to memory. Because if you get a little older,
you can't remember it as well as you can, you know, when you're
little. Commit it to memory. And sometime when you need it,
You'll be surprised. A verse will come to your mind.
You think, where'd that come from? What's that? I'll tell
you what it is. It's God's Word talking to you, giving you the
exact message that you need at that moment. Because it's God's
Word. Only God's Word can do that. Now, verse 23, Solomon
says for the commandment, God's Word is a lamp and the law is
light and reproofs of instruction are the way of light. You know,
we live in a dark, sinful world, don't we? Well, light comes in
mighty handy. This Word will let you walk through
this dark world without stumbling. It's so much more comfortable
to walk in the light when you see where you're going. Every
morning, my alarm goes off at 5 o'clock. And I get up, and
I'm feeling in the bedroom, you know, going out, trying to find
the door and get out. It's so much easier when I come
home and it's light. I walk through, no problem, you
know. When you have light. And this book gives us spiritual
light that reveals Christ, who is the light of the world. Look
back at Psalm 19. Psalm 19, verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect,
converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are
right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes." That's what this word does. It's
Christ who enables you to see, gives you light to see. Now verse
24, and I'm going to wind this up. He says, "...to keep thee
from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange
lust not after her beauty in thine heart, neither let her
take thee with her eyelids. For by means of a whorish woman
a man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulterous will
hunt for the precious life." Now the evil woman Solomon's
talking about here, certainly that applies to fleshly situations,
but predominantly she's a picture of the world, the evil woman.
And if we're honest, the world is sweet to all of us. To this
flesh, to that old man, this world is sweet. It's appealing
to us. That's just the way it is. And
it's even more sweet to a young person that hasn't had the world
disappoint them very many times just yet. And we're warned not
to chase after the world. Because the world is like this
woman. She seems beautiful. She promises you a whole lot
of great things. But if you get an up-close look
at her, she's not all that pretty. She pretends to offer joy and
what she really gives you is sorrow. She promises you riches
and what she does is wait until you're not looking and steals
from you and leaves you in poverty. And that's true materially and
spiritually. And we're warned, don't think.
that you can hang around the things of this world. You know,
I'll go to the service on Sunday and Wednesday, but now, you know,
you hang around the things of this world, you love them, you
handle them, you hug up close to them. Don't think you can
do that and then set them down and leave unaffected. It will
suck you in and pull you away from Christ. It will. We've seen
it happen so many times. Look at verse 27. That's exactly
what Solomon says. Can a man take fire in his bosom
and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals and
his feet not be burned? So he that goeth in to his neighbor's
wife, whosoever toucheth her, shall not be innocent." You leave
those things alone. Leave the things of this world
alone. Use them for, you know, purposes that God gives you,
but don't let them use you. Don't let them get a hold of
you. Now look back one page here. It's Proverbs 3 again. Here's
the sum. In two verses, this is the sum.
of advice to both our children and to the children of God. Trust
in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not into thine own understanding. In all thy ways, everywhere you
go, everything you do, acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy
paths." Advice for children. All right, the Lord bless you.