Reason for Seeking True Wisdom

Introduction: The Climactic Enforcement of Wisdom's Call

0:03 I would encourage you to turn with me in your own Bibles to the second chapter of Proverbs as we continue our verse-by-verse study of this wonderful and most helpful book of instruction to the people of God and particularly to the young. The book of Proverbs, the record of Solomon's admonition to his son, either his son after the flesh or his pupil,

0:33 and in particular these first nine chapters in which the Proverbs come to us in these paragraphs treating such practical issues as what is true wisdom, how may we attain to it, and what are its effects and implications in the life of the young man to whom the admonitions are addressed. And we continue. We come tonight to the last of our studies in the second chapter, verses 21 and 22. For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.

1:13 But the wicked shall be cut off from the land, and the treacherous shall be rooted out of it. Solomon, in this chapter, as you will remember, has laid out in very clear detail first of all the pathway into true wisdom. And he tells his son what that pathway is in the first four verses of the chapter. He must attend to the words of wisdom, expose himself to the word of God.

1:46 There must be hunger and thirst and crying and seeking. And then there is the wonderful promise that that wisdom will be imparted. He's given us the essence of the substance of that wisdom. It is the fear and the knowledge of God.

2:01 It is religious wisdom. It is wisdom that has to do with the great issues of who is God and how may I know God and how may I please God. How may I be ready to meet God. That's true wisdom which answers those questions.

2:19 And then he goes on to describe who the recipients of that wisdom are in verse 7. And the purpose of it in verse 8, to preserve the way of the saints. And how that wisdom is realized. It enters into the heart, into the soul, verses 10 and 11.

2:35 And then for some weeks we've been studying the practical way that it preserves from sin, verses 12 through 19. And then last week we looked at how this wisdom will guide us into the path of good men. It will make us but a few more in the great stream of God's redeemed who walk in the light of that wisdom. And in the path of good men.

2:58 And in the path of good men. And in the power and grace of that wisdom that thou mayest walk in the way of good men and keep the paths of the righteous. Now then in the two verses before us tonight which come at the conclusion of the chapter it's as though Solomon is saying to his son something like this. Now my son, I've shown you the path into wisdom.

3:20 I've shown you the substance of true wisdom. I've shown you who the true recipients of wisdom are. I've shown you what wisdom will do. I've shown you in preserving you from the evil man and from the evil woman.

3:32 What wisdom will do in guiding you into the path of good men. But my son, there is one final and all embracing fact that I would lay before you and that is this. To follow the path of this wisdom is to dwell in the land and remain in it and to refuse to follow it is to be cut off and to find your portion with the wicked. In other words, verses 12, 20 and 21 are a climactic enforcement of everything that has preceded.

The Son's Question and the Father's Ultimate Answer

4:05 To change our approach to it, perhaps we could envision the son is saying to his father when he completed the first 20 verses, saying, now my father, you've laid before me the path to attain true wisdom and that I can see. And you've laid before me the substance of true wisdom and that I can see. And you've told me the effect that true wisdom will have upon me. Incubate.

4:28 Incubate. Incubate. Incubate. Incubate.

4:28 Keeping me from evil men and from evil women and guiding me into the path of good men. But my father, if you had but one fundamental reason to lay before me as to why I should be concerned. Now, I'm a young man, father. And there are so many things calling for my attention.

4:45 So many things vying for my devotion and my interest. My father, can you give me one fundamental reason above all others? Why I should trouble myself to cry out after wisdom? Why I should seek it as silver?

5:00 Why I should be concerned above all else with the knowledge of God and the fear of God? My father, can you give me one profound, all-embracing reason? As though the son has asked that question and the father's answer is this. Yes, my son, for the upright shall dwell in the land and the perfect shall remain in it, but the wicked shall be cut off from the land.

5:27 And the treacherous shall be rooted out of it. So, you see, as we come to treat these verses tonight, we are dealing with what I am calling the ultimate reasons for seeking true wisdom and its sanctifying influence. The ultimate, the final, the supreme reasons for seeking that wisdom of which Solomon has been speaking and its sanctifying influence. And the answer of Solomon, to the question of his son, if he asked it or more true to the text, the reason as Solomon himself enforces it, comes first of all in the form of a gracious promise, verse 21, and then in the form of a sobering prophecy or threat, in verse 22. And so we'll study the passage under the general heading the ultimate reasons for seeking true wisdom, the gracious promise, and the sobering prophecy. Now then, let's look. Let's look at them in that order.

The Gracious Promise: Dwelling in the Land

6:29 Here is this gracious promise. For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. First of all, consider the meaning of the promise. Secondly, the recipients of the promise.

6:45 And thirdly, the giver of the promise. What is the meaning of this promise? When Solomon says to his son, after all these entreaties and exhortations about seeking true wisdom, when he says, the upright shall dwell in the land and the perfect shall remain in it, what did he mean? Well, it's obvious that everything is bound up in our definition of and understanding of the word land.

7:12 Now, in the immediate context of Israel, it certainly takes in the promise of length of days in that hunk of real estate in Palestine that God had promised to his people. The promises of God to Israel as a nation were never divorced from that land that he gave to them. Now, the person who tries to so spiritualize the promises to Israel that they miss this geographical concept have butchered the word of God. Conversely, those who see nothing but temporal and earthly promises also butcher the word of God.

7:52 But God had promised, if you will do thus and thus, I will establish you in the land, I will drive out, your enemies, I will send you the early and the latter rains, I'll give you fruitful crops, there'll be no miscarrying wounds, there'll be no inability to conquer your enemies. He gave temporal promises to a people relative to their establishment in the land of Canaan. Hence, the promise certainly takes in something of that element. So that Solomon says to his son, if you walk in the way of divine wisdom, there will be, immediate and temporal blessings in terms of God's covenant promised to you as an Israelite.

8:36 However, to limit it merely to a hunk of real estate is to miss the thrust of Solomon's words to his son and to miss the whole thrust of Scripture itself. For to the mind of every true Israelite, everyone who had circumcision not only of the flesh but of the heart, the promises of God concerning an inheritance and a land never stopped with that piece of real estate in Palestine. Never. Even to Abraham, the Scripture clearly teaches, and let's look at the passage which indicates this in Hebrews chapter 11, that when God promised him an inheritance in terms of a land, Abraham did not see the fulfillment of that promise simply in a piece of real estate in Palestine. For we read in Hebrews 11 verses 8 through 10 and then 13 to 16 the following words, By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise, for he looked for the city which hath the foundations,

10:04 whose builder and maker is God. In other words, Abraham looked for the fulfillment of the promises of God to him in something that went far beyond the promise of that temporal thing, that land of Palestine. And then what was true of Abraham was true of all the faithful. Verse 13, These all died in the land of God, in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth.

10:39 For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own. And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better country, that is a heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed of them to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. And so of every true Israelite, the writer to the Hebrews says, he saw beyond the promise of fulfillment in a literal temporal geographical land and blessing of God in that situation, he saw this as typical of that eternal inheritance in which there would be that city which hath foundations, whose builder and whose maker is God. And you find this thought many places in the Old Testament, just one specimen passage, Psalm 37. Remember what we are attempting to do is to understand the meaning of the promise given by Solomon to his son at the end of chapter 2, the upright shall dwell in the land. What is that promise?

11:52 Well, let's look at Psalm 37 for a moment. And four or five times, in the 37th Psalm, you have promises about the land. Verses 3 and 4, Trust in the Lord, and do good. Dwell in the land, and feed upon his faithfulness, or verily thou shalt be fed.

12:13 Dwell in the land. Verse 9, For evildoers shall be cut off, for those that wait for the Lord, they shall inherit the land. Verses 21 and 22, The wicked borroweth and payeth not again, but the righteous dealeth graciously and giveth. For such as are blessed of him shall inherit the land, and they that are cursed of him shall be cut off.

12:40 Verse 34, Wait for the Lord, and keep his way, and he will exalt thee to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. Now it's obvious that the conditions necessary for inheriting the land, are more than external requirements. These are spiritual conditions.

13:02 Trust in the Lord, feed upon the Lord, do what is right, walk in his ways. And so the promise is something that transcends a mere temporal fulfillment, and points to that inheritance of which Peter speaks when he says, We have been born again to an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, reserved in heaven, for us an inheritance that fadeth not away. So whatever there may be in the promise of temporal security and tranquility, the dominant emphasis is on that eternal inheritance, the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. For no true saint, no man or woman in whose heart dwells the fear of God, could ever be content with an undisturbed temporal existence while there was yet sin within him and all about him. And so his longing is for the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwells righteousness perfectly in his own heart, in the hearts of all the redeemed, and in the world itself. And so the meaning of the promise that Solomon gives cannot stop short of a promise concerning the eternal, eternal inheritance, what the scripture calls the new heavens and the new earth.

The Recipients and Giver of the Promise

14:30 Now, having, I trust, established the meaning of the promise, notice in the second place the recipients of this promise. For the upright shall dwell in the land and the perfect shall remain in it. Who are the upright and who are the perfect? Well, as we saw in verse 20 in our study last week, when there are a group of people described here as good men and righteous, unless we would overturn the entire teaching of the word of God, they become good and righteous, in the words of verse 20 or in the words of verse 21, upright and perfect by nothing that they do of themselves, but by what God in grace works in them. And so he's speaking of those who have been touched by the saving, sanctifying power of the word of wisdom. Remember, the whole subject of this chapter is the benefits, the blessings, the way into divine wisdom. And so he concludes by saying, the upright shall dwell in the land, the perfect shall remain in it.

15:42 Who are the upright, who are the perfect? Those in whom the word has done its saving and is doing its sanctifying work. They have received the word into their hearts and as the scripture says, having been born again, not of corruptible, but by the incorruptible seed of the word of God. How are they sanctified?

16:04 Sanctify them by the truth, thy word is truth. And so the words upright and perfect are a description of those who are within the orbit of the saving and sanctifying power of the word of God. They are upright in the sense that they are honestly endeavoring to walk by the rule of scripture. They are perfect in the sense that they are complete in all of their parts.

16:32 They are not perfect in the sense of attaining every degree of perfection that they will know in the world to come. But we say, in a loose sense, a thing is perfect. Take a child who is born, and someone says, how's the baby? Oh, he's a perfect little child.

16:48 What you mean is, where there should be five fingers, there are five fingers. He is complete in all his parts. Where there should be two ears, there's two ears. Two eyes, we say he's a perfect little baby.

16:59 Complete in all his parts. And whenever perfection is attributed to a saint, this side of heaven, it never means perfection in the absolute sense. It means perfection in terms of completion in all its parts. And isn't that what every Christian is?

17:16 If any man be in Christ, he is what? A new creation. There is no part of his total humanity that grace, has not touched with great power. He's got a new mind.

17:28 He's got new affections. He's got new desires, new loves, new hopes, new ambitions, new goals, new attitudes. He is a perfect man in the sense, he is complete in all his parts. And God has begun that work in principle that will one day be manifested when the Lord Jesus comes again.

17:50 Everything done in regeneration is perfect in principle. And will one day be in experience. You have nothing more in principle at the end that you have the moment you're born again. That's why it's called the first fruits of God's work.

18:08 The earnest, the down payment. Same in kind. And so the objects, the recipients of this promise are those who having been recreated by the power of God and His Spirit are now walking uprightly, not perfectly, but seeking to walk in the light of the rule of Scripture. So then this promise of permanent dwelling in the land is the possession, exclusive possession of the upright and the perfect.

18:42 Those who are made thus by the word of God. May I pause for a moment and ask you, is this a description of you tonight? Are you upright? Are you one who stands before the rule of Scripture and seeks to have your life governed thereby?

19:00 Are you upright? Or are you treacherous and devious, loving the dark corners of non-exposure to the revelation of the word of God? The only ones who have any promise that they shall dwell in the land and remain in it, that they will know the inheritance of that city in which there is no sin nor darkness, in which all the work of the new creation in grace finds its fulfillment, the only ones who have any Bible grounds to believe they will be there are the upright and the perfect. Those who in principle have had every area of their lives touched by the regenerating power of God.

19:44 The essential difference between a false religionist and a true Christian is right here. The true Christian is never content to compartmentalize his religious experience. Whereas the deceived religionist wants to compartmentalize. He wants to have his religion over here as a niche in his total life structure, but he doesn't want his religion to interfere with how he makes out his income tax, with his social life, with how he drives his car, how he treats his wife, how he treats his kids, how he treats his neighbors.

20:17 He wants religion as another facet to make him just a complete man. Whereas a Christian is one who having been made a new creature in Christ longs that in every facet of life the claims and the rule of Christ be worked out in the power of the Spirit under the discipline of the word of God. Having then looked at the meaning of the promise, the recipients of the promise, just a word now about the giver of the promise. Who says these words?

20:46 For the upright shall dwell in the land and the perfect shall remain in it. Well you say Solomon said it to his son. And you're right. But someone greater than Solomon is saying it through Solomon.

20:59 For I remind you that this is part of that book called in 2 Timothy 3.16 the God breathed word of God. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is God speaking through Solomon.

21:20 For God alone as we saw this morning he alone has the keys of hell and of death and of the kingdom where there is everlasting light and life. And so he alone can say who will dwell and remain in that land. And so God himself speaking through Solomon says now my son you've asked me for one final powerful reason to overcome laziness and pride and to seek true wisdom. Here it is my son.

The Sobering Prophecy: Cut Off from the Land

21:55 There's an eternal inheritance awaiting all who do. That's the great reason that he lays before him. But having no sooner done that he then moves from this gracious promise into what I am calling this sobering prophecy or we might even call it a sobering threat. I had the word threat originally in my notes and crossed it out and put prophecy.

22:20 The more I think about it I think maybe I should have left it there. A sobering threat. A prophetic threat. Look at it.

22:28 But the wicked shall be cut off from the land and the treacherous shall be rooted out of it. And let's follow the same pattern in our opening up of this word of threat in the prophecy. First of all what is the meaning of the threat? Well you come back to the word land.

22:48 But the wicked shall be cut off from the land. The treacherous shall be rooted out of it. And everything that we said about the land under the promise can be applied here. Certainly some of this applies to that literal land.

23:03 But again it's only symbolic of that eternal inheritance. And so the threatenings that we saw in the 37th Psalm about the wicked shall be cut off from the land. And this was literally fulfilled with great suddenness and irreversibility in the land of Israel. You remember in the Old Testament what happened many times when men dared to sin in the full face of breaking their covenant relationships to God.

23:33 God cut them off suddenly. And God rooted them out of the land. Look how he dealt with Achan and his family. When stones were heaped upon Achan and his entire household and they were burned with fire.

23:47 Look how he dealt with Nadab and Abihim. The earth opened up and swallowed them up. And they went down with their families alive into Sheol. Look how God dealt with Sodom and Gomorrah.

23:59 And particularly look how God dealt with Israelites in the time when she was faithful to her directives in the law of Moses. God said if there's a blasphemer this is how you're to treat him. Take him out and stone him. If there's a murderer eye for eye, life for life, tooth for tooth.

24:17 If there's an adulterer take the adulterer or adulteress in the consorting party and stone them to death. Those who disregarded the word of wisdom were literally cut off from the land and rooted out suddenly, violently, irreversibly. But again I say those are but pictures of that more permanent and more encompassing work of God in rooting out and cutting off all of the wicked and all of the treacherous. And so you find everywhere in the scripture these sobering prophecies concerning the wicked.

25:00 You find them in the words of Jesus. Some of the most frightening concepts. Take those in the parables in the 13th chapter of Matthew. Where the concepts of rooting out and cutting off are used with great vividness.

25:17 Matthew chapter 13. I begin reading with verse 40. As therefore the tares are gathered up and burned with fire so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of Man shall send forth His angels and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that cause stumbling and them that do iniquity.

25:41 And He shall cast them into the furnace of fire and there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. Look down a few verses. Verse 49. So shall it be in the end of the world.

25:55 The angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the righteous and shall cast them into the furnace of fire. Chapter 15 and verse 13. And Jesus answered and said every plant which My heavenly Father planted not shall be rooted up. You see the concept of the violent, the suddenness, the irreversibility of this destruction.

26:20 If you take a plant and simply bend it over and allow some of its root system to remain in the soil there's always the possibility that under the proper nourishment and care of the sun and the rain and a tender husbandman it can be nursed back to life but when it's torn out from the roots and cast off so that the roots can find no moisture and no soil for nourishment there is a suddenness and irreversibility in your treatment. Treatment of that particular plant. And that's the imagery that Solomon uses here. For the wicked shall be cut off.

26:58 The wicked shall be rooted out. This is not only the uniform teaching of the apostles and the prophets but of all the writers of the Bible. Listen to the imagery used by the apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 when he speaks of the Lord being revealed from heaven in flaming fire. Vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might.

The Recipients and Giver of the Threat

27:30 Flaming fire, taking vengeance these are the concepts so I say they are sobering threatening prophetic utterances and the meaning is nothing less than sudden irreversible and final destruction. And who are the recipients of this threat? Look at the words. But the wicked shall be cut off.

27:56 And this is the word used for wicked describing the character of the ungodly used most predominantly in the Old Testament. And who are they? Well those devoid of the sanctifying grace of true wisdom. Some of them are religious some are not so religious.

28:16 Some are moral some are not so moral. Some are knowledgeable in the Bible. Some are totally ignorant. But they have this one thing in common.

28:25 They've never inclined their ear unto divine wisdom. They've never applied their heart to understanding. They've never cried after discernment lifted up their voice for understanding. They've never sought it as silver and hunted for it as for hid treasure.

28:40 They've never understood the fear of God and the knowledge of God. Wisdom has never entered their heart. They may have been religious or not so religious but this they have in common. They are devoid of the sanctifying power of the word.

28:58 They are wicked. And then because that is their basic character this is how they operate. And the treacherous as the 1901 has it the authorized version says transgressors. And the word basically means those who act under cover.

29:17 That's who the treacherous are. They don't act openly. They act under cover. John describes them.

29:25 This is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. There's no transparency. They have double standards. They live in the shades and in the darkness.

29:39 That's the proper recipient of this threat. The wicked, those devoid of the saving, sanctifying influence of the word and they are described as the treacherous. Those who act in this disposition of undercover activity. No transparency.

30:01 Not living in the light of God's countenance which is the essence of the fear of God. A man cannot be treacherous and walk in the fear of God. The mark of the fear of God is transparency in one's life. And I remind you then in the third place who gives this threat?

30:20 If it were just Solomon, the son might say, well, pappy, those are pretty strong words for an old man. But you can't carry him out. I can take you on and in three minutes make sure that you never cut me off. Would to God it was only the threat of an old man who was solicitous for his son's well-being.

30:42 But I remind you that these frightening words, this sobering prophecy comes not from Solomon in Solomon's name and in Solomon's authority, but it comes from the living God himself who has decreed that the wicked shall be cut off, the treacherous shall be rooted out, and the very veracity, the trustworthiness of the character of God is bound up in his fulfillment of this promise. And so again Solomon says in essence to his son, my son, you ask me for a reason as to why you should follow in the course I've outlined for you, why you should apply yourself to heavenly wisdom, why you should rest short of nothing else than the word of wisdom entering your heart and your soul and laying hold of you, Christ himself, the embodiment of that wisdom being precious to you. I'll tell you why, my son. If you go in any other course you will become an object of the fiery wrath and indignation of the living God. You will be violently and irreversibly cut off and rooted out so that in that day when the multitude of the redeemed shine as the stars of heaven you'll be absent having been banished to that place of eternal darkness and the pit of unending woe.

32:08 Would to God we had more fathers who talked faithfully to their sons as Solomon talked to his. Remember, Solomon was not ignorant of the covenantal privileges of an Israelite family. But he says, Son, if wisdom never enters your heart all of the privileges of this covenant relationship will only add to your damnation. You're not going to dwell in the land because your name is Finkelstein or Solomon.

32:39 You'll dwell in the land because wisdom has entered your heart. And I say to you, dear children, showered with the privileges and blessings of the covenantal life of this assembly and your family, it will all come to naught unless in your own heart of hearts Christ is enshrined as King and as Savior. And the word of wisdom enters with power. You'll not be carried to heaven on the bootstraps or on the belt loops of your pappy.

33:11 And you'll not be carried to heaven on the apron strings of your mammy. You'll be carried by the grace that has made you a new creation. You'll be carried by the grace that has made you a new creature in Christ and by that alone. Well, so much then for the promise, the gracious promise, so much for that sobering prophecy or threat.

Observation 1: The Coupling of Promise and Threat

33:35 Now, in conclusion, let me make with you three basic observations about the way Solomon concludes his exhortation to his son and I hope to derive some practical applications from the same. Will you notice in the first part of this passage that the word of wisdom comes from the word of God? Will you notice in the first place this coupling of a promise and threat? It's one of the major structural themes of Holy Scripture.

34:06 It's a major strand of biblical truth that God comes to men with promises of blessing if they obey and frightening threats of curse if they disobey. And so when we come to a text like we've looked at tonight, we see that there are many strands of biblical truth. This is no isolated emphasis of Solomon. You see it in the very first words that God utters to our parents.

34:37 He explicitly gives a threat. In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. There is implied a promise. Don't eat and ye shall live.

34:53 There is at least implied and you have the first words of God to his creatures this coupling of promise and of threatening. If you do this you'll die. Implied if you don't do you shall live. Remember in the giving of the law to those who were to ratify it with their amens.

35:28 Blessings if you obey. Cursings if you do not obey. God gave wonderful promises. He says you go into this land.

35:38 It's not a land like Egypt. You had your irrigation ditches there and you worked it with your foot pump. And so the Egyptians could go out and irrigate. But he says not the land into which I bring you.

35:57 It's a land of hills and valleys that drinketh of the water of heaven. And he says if you obey I'll open the heavens. There'll be the rain. There'll be plentiful crops.

36:14 But if you disobey God says I'll shut the heavens and make them as brass. He says there are two ways before you. Enter in at the straight gate because there's another alternative. The wide gate, wide broad road that leads to destruction.

36:38 Many go in. Narrow gate, narrow way leads unto life. He ends the sermon with the words those who hear and do they're like the cursing. Then when he commissioned his own to preach the gospel he said you must never preach the gospel without this dual strand of emphasis.

37:06 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. That's the emphasis. He that believeth on the sun shall be saved.

37:24 Why have I emphasized this? For the simple reason that one without the other is a distortion of the whole thrust of the teaching of the word of God. If Solomon had said to his son, now son, here's my final reason to seek to spiritually induce you into compliance with my directives, here's the promise of dwelling in the sake of all that that involves running the way of my precepts, had he stopped there he would not have been true to his son. So if his son, as it were, stopped his ears and said, Dad, I don't buy this. It's not my bag. Maybe yours, but not mine. He wants him to go out with these things.

38:24 Who turns away from heaven with any other consciousness than these walking wide-eyed straight into hell. Somebody has not been faithful to his soul if he's told him one without the other. And the reverse is true. Had Solomon only said to his son, look, here's my final reason, the wicked will never predict what he'll do.

38:56 With some people being drawn to the Savior, it's the terrors of the other alternative course that prevail most upon them. With others, it's the concept of the prospect of the glories of that world to come that prevail most. And so God has commissioned those who preach his word to be sure to be faithful. I've underscored it for you tonight.

Observation 2: Hope of Reward as a Legitimate Motive

39:26 In the second place, I believe we are warranted as we look at this text to draw the conclusion that being moved to obedience by the hope of reward is a legitimate motive in the word of God. And at this point I'm disturbed with some of my dear Reformed brethren who get more spiritual than God and who believe that the glory of God, the manifestation of his own glorious character, is the end of all that God does. Of him, through him, and unto him are all things to whom be glory forever and forever. Amen. And then they begin to draw their whereases and their therefores. And they go beyond the Scripture and they say any word of God is a motivation.

40:26 And they say, I am a prophet, and I am a prophet. And they say, I am a prophet, and I am a prophet. And they say, I am a prophet, and I am a prophet, and I am a prophet, and I am a prophet. And then they draw their whereases and their therefores.

41:06 And they go beyond all that God does to them. And they begin to draw their whereases and their therefores. They draw their to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, counting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Why?

41:41 For he looked unto the recompense of reward. Oh, how unspiritual. Moses was very, very, very unspiritual. As he was wrestling with this great issue, shall I consent to be the legally adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter?

42:03 And secular historians say he probably would have been heir to the throne. As he weighs all of the implications of that, and then over against them he sets this course. I go out with that people to suffer affliction and reproach. And as he's wrestling and weighing the issues, the Holy Ghost says, this is what prevailed upon him.

42:27 He looked beyond the adoring, admiring glances of all the young maidens in Pharaoh's court. He looked beyond the historical records in Pharaoh's court where his name would go down as a great general and leader in all the...

42:44 And he looked beyond that to that time when he'd stand in the presence of his God.

42:50 Would he hear, well done, or would he hear, depart from me, ye curse? He thought of all the hardships with the people, the people of God, but he saw beyond that and said, yes, but if I cast in my lot with him, I shall share the destiny of every true Israelite. And it says he had respect to the recompense of reward. The concept of reward entered powerfully into the choice that he made.

43:17 Now granted, no amount of holding out the glories of heaven or the terrors of hell will ever save a man or sanctify a saint without the Spirit of God. But Kabbalah writes, does not bypass this. And when he's effectually drawing the sinner, many times he draws in the anticipation of the rewards of choosing the path of righteousness.

43:48 That's why Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, don't enter the broad road, it leads to hell.

43:59 The punishment, Jesus put the dead center in his preaching to the men of his day. What about Revelation 2 and 3? He writes to the churches, and how does he conclude every single message? To him that overcometh, and he promises rewards.

44:17 He said, in the midst of your struggles against the peculiar sins there at Sardis, the peculiar sins at Laodicea, the peculiar sins at Pergamos and Thyatira, all my people, let me encourage you, when you feel the weight of the battle, you feel the hot breath of the enemy down your neck, and you feel as though you can't go on, remember my words, to him that overcometh, to him that overcometh, I will give to sit down with me in my throne, as I have sat down with my father's throne. To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the hidden manna. To him that overcometh, what's that but promise of reward?

44:57 I don't know how it can be interpreted to be anything else, and this is what nerves a man in the battle. Reward is coming, the reward of gracious, but reward. And so I say that to be moved to obedience by the hope of reward, is a legitimate biblical motive. And then I've already hinted the next principle that I want to underscore in closing.

Observation 3: Fear of Judgment as a Legitimate Motive

45:21 Being moved away, being moved away from a course of sin, from fear of judgment, is also a legitimate biblical motive.

45:34 Solomon, as it were, says, My son, if I have not enticed you into the way of heavenly wisdom, by the promise of dwelling in the land, oh, the terrors of the damned licking at your heels. But anyway, my son, I want you to get into the path of wisdom. And frankly, I'm not fastidious as how God brings men in. If he wants to draw them sweetly by the glories of the redeemed, or drive them while they feverishly feel the avenger of blood at their heels, just so long as they come in.

46:11 And come in on God's terms. And the fear of hell and of judgment, is a legitimate biblical motive to move men into the way of righteousness. What did John say? He said to the Pharisees, Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

46:30 God says through the prophet Ezekiel, Why will ye die? Turn ye! I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Listen to the writer of Ecclesiastes as he says to the young man, in chapter 11, words that I think are the best commentary on the text here, in Proverbs.

46:51 Ecclesiastes chapter 11,

46:55 verses 9 and 10.

47:00 Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth. Walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes. He's talking with tongue in cheek. Here you are, young man, sitting here tonight, a young woman, and your heart is reaching out after a thousand paths that are forbidden, the word of God.

47:24 Your eyes are constantly drinking in sights that excite within you sinful and wicked desires. He says, All right, young man, young woman, let your heart cheer thee in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart, in the sight of your eyes, but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart and put away evil from thy flesh, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

47:57 They're a puff of wind, and it won't be long before all of your passions and energies expended in a sinful course are spent, and you stand before God your Maker. And so he says, young man, if you want to go in that course, go in it wide-eyed, and don't say I didn't warn you. God will bring you into judgment. And oh, may I give a word of exhortation to every child, every young person here tonight.

Concluding Exhortation: Choose Wisdom or Face Judgment

48:24 As your pastor, as your preacher,

48:27 to some of you I speak as a father, as well as a pastor and a preacher. To all of you I speak, I trust, as a servant of Christ and one who's genuinely, earnestly desirous of your soul's salvation. Listen.

48:43 You turn away from the path of the wisdom of the Word of God, that wisdom of which Christ is the center, that wisdom that stops short of nothing less than the Word of God entering your soul and casting, casting you into the mold of the gospel, giving you a heart to love God, to know His Son, to honor Him and serve Him, and to run in the way of His commandments. If there's any other course that you choose, mark it well. Almighty God is committed by the honesty of His own being to cut you off and to root you out of the land and make you an eternal monument of the folly of choosing a course of sin. You mark it well. God Himself is committed to make you a monument of His truth that the wicked shall be cut off and the treacherous shall be rooted out of the land.

49:45 Oh, I plead with you. I plead with you in Christ's name. Don't dare God to make you such a monument. But rather be persuaded that the way of godliness, the way of Godliness, the way of Godliness, the way of Godliness, the way of Godliness, the way of Godliness, the way of Godliness, the way of Christ, the way of truth, the way of the fear of God is the blessed way, not only now.

50:09 For the Scripture says godliness has not only promise of the life that now is, but thank God that which is to come. And there's a sense in which it would be worth it to have nothing but one continual veil of tears from the moment we were converted if we had to live a thousand years. If at the end there was glory, there was glory, there was glory everlasting in the presence of the Savior. But wonder of wonders, there's not only that, but there's much even here and now.

50:42 Oh, I would plead with you as Solomon pleads with his son,

50:47 enter into the path of wisdom. Why? For the wicked shall be cut off and the treacherous shall be rooted out of the life. And what I say to you young people, I say to every adult, every visitor, as well as some of you who may even be in the visible membership of this church, if the word of wisdom, Christ himself, has not entered your soul and become precious to you, so that Christ in his word are the governing principles of your life, I plead with you and I entreat you tonight that you rest not until you know that Christ is yours and you are his.

51:34 So we conclude our studies of the second chapter of Proverbs, but I hope this is not the end of the story of the work of that truth in your heart and in your life, for in a very real sense, eternity, eternity alone, will show the truth that we've discussed tonight. Every one of you here is going to be proof of the promise or of the threat, and you're going to be proof of that through all eternity. Every one of us. Every single one of us.

52:08 Every one of us. Every one of us without exception.

52:12 You will either be an eternal monument to the promise that the upright shall dwell in the land and the perfect shall remain in it, and you will shine as the stars of heaven forever. Monument of God's gracious promise. A monument of his frightening prophecy. The wicked shall be cut off and the treacherous rooted out.

52:35 And there's not a one of you who's exempt. Monument to this promise. Monument of his threat. Which will you be?

52:46 Which will you be? Let us pray.