THE LIFESTYLE OF THE WISE
Proverbs 4:1-9, 24-27; Proverbs 5:1-23; Proverbs 6:20-35;
6:6-11; Proverbs 10: 4-5; Proverbs 22:13; 24:30-34; 30:25
This morning I would first like to say well done to all those who took
part in the bible Project and especially to those who completed it. The purpose
of studying the Word of God is so that we can do what it says and receive the
attendant blessing. If you follow the principles laid down in the book of
proverbs, you will grow wiser as a person.
Our message this morning is titled the
Lifestyle of the Wise and there are three important things we will be
discussing. The first deals with giving heed to wise counsel, the second deals
with a subject that we hardly preach about in the Church – SEX and its use! The
final point will be on how to apply our lives to necessary industry. Most of
our references will be from the book of proverbs but we will also explore other
scripture passages to support our subject matter.
GIVE HEED TO WISE COUNSEL
(i)
Wisdom Is The
Principal Thing (Proverbs 4:7; 2:1-12; 3:1-7)
(ii)
The Heart Is
The Storehouse Of Wisdom (1Cor.3:16-17)
(iii)
Wise Counsel
Is To Be Treasured In The Heart
(iv)
Therefore
Keep Thy Heart With All Diligence (Proverbs 4:20-27; Mark 7:21-23)
There was one poster that read, “Wise men still seek Jesus”. This
statement is correct. It uses the search made by the wise men from the east
when the saw the star that led tem the the place where Christ the King, Jesus
was born. Because of their wisdom they quickly found out that King Herod had no
knowledge of the birth of Christ and was indeed opposed to it. God warned them
by His angel not to return to Herod. They found Christ, worshipped Him, and
went away through another route. In a similar way we must apply our hearts to
wisdom.
For the believer wisdom begins by seeking God; by recognising that all
have sinned and are required to give account of our wrong doings to God unless
we repent. For the believer true wisdom begins by accepting Christ as your Lord
and Saviour; by repenting of your sins, forsaking them and asking for
forgiveness. Your heart is them made white and ready to receive divine wisdom
(1Cor.3:16-17). If you haven’t done this, do it now. Repent. Ask God to forgive
and wash your sins away by the blood of Jesus.
We are told in chapter 4:7 that wisdom is to be our principal pursuit.
The wisest thing for anyone living in this century to do is heed the command of
Christ to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33).
The Sermon on the Mount, found in Mathew 5-7 is wise pursuit of citizens of
Christ’s Kingdom. Any professing Christian living outside the principles laid
down in that teaching, is actually living outside the Kingdom of God.
Now wisdom is to be stored in the heart. How do we do this? We need to
give full attention and full regard to the commandments of God. The
commandments of God tell us things that are right and positive for us to do.
They also tell us things that are wrong and negative that we should not engage
in.
Examples of positive commandments: (1) Honour your father and your
mother; (2) Love your enemies; (3) Pray for those who do not love you.
Examples of negative commandments: (1) thou shalt not steal, (2) Thou
shalt not kill; (3) Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Wise people will honour their fathers and their mothers.
Wise people will love their enemies.
Wise people will pray for those who do not love them.
Wise people will not steal
Wise people will not kill
Wise people will not commit adultery or fornication.
Those who fear the Lord will observe these commandments as commanded by
God. If you fear God you will honour your father and mother. Failure to do this
brings consequences (Prov.30:17; Mat.15:4; Exo. 21:17). We already know that
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. When you fear the Lord you
will keep His words (John 14:21-24). Those who love the Lord have His Holy
Spirit in them. And they will fear Him
and keep these His wise commandments.
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him. The fear of the Lord
is to hate evil. If you fear the Lord you will hate evil. The fear of the lord
will prolong our days. The fear of the Lord is the fountain of life. It keeps
us away from the snares of death. So the fear of the Lord leads to life.
A very important counsel of wisdom is this: “keep your heart with
all diligence (Proverbs 4:20-27; Mark.7:21-23).
External religion is meaningless, unless a change has taken place in
your heart. That change can only come as you submit your entire life to Jesus.
(i)
Why God
created The Different Sexes (Male and Female) (Gen.2:26-28)
(ii)
Right and Wrong Use Of Sex (Gal.5:19)
(iii)
The Joy Of Faithfulness In Marriage (Proverbs 5:15-23)
(iv)
The Dangers of Adultery
Now I will come to something that most of the Church is usually silent
about. It is never thought or preached as a sermon except to tell people to
abstain from it till marriage. That topic is sex. It is not usually mentioned
openly in most Christian homes. It is not usually thought in the Church. Yet
every Christian is expected to learn about it. Those entering married life are
expected to learn about it perhaps by trial and error.
Most of the things our young people learn about sex are from outside
the home and outside the Church. The only understanding they have about it comes
what they see on TV or on the internet, or what they read in books, or what
teachers teach them. Our children are taught sex education from primary school,
and in secondary school. Yet parents do nothing. The church does almost
nothing. All these avenues are not designed to give godly instructions. In fact
a lot of them are designed to entice children to do wrong. And because children
still lack wisdom, they will accept most of the things they learn.
We may think that if we do not mention it then the children will
somehow not learn about it until they have grown up. But we are mistaken and
are missing the opportunity to instruct them both from Scripture , experience
and wisdom.
Let me clarify some issues here especially for the benefit of our young
people.
(1) There is nothing
wrong with sex. It was provided by God and since everything God created was
very good and sex is part of His creation, then sex is good also. Just as human
beings were created for a purpose so sex was created for a purpose. As
Christians we need to discover God’s original purpose for sex and use it for that
purpose.
(2) Sex is a means of
procreation or reproduction; it is also a means of pleasure and companionship.
All these are confined to the union male and female which is called marriage.
(3) As a means of
fulfilling God’s divine purpose, sex should normally lead to pregnancy. But
godless man is always devising means to circumvent (bypass) God’s purpose. They
devise several means to avoid the responsibility of pregnancy. And when
pregnancy occurs they commit another sin by aborting (killing) unborn children!
(4) Sex is both intimate
and emotional affair. You do not get intimate and emotional with every Tom,
Dick and Harry you meet in the street or in school or college or at work.
(5) As young person of
ages 12 – 18 your body is developing, your sexual organs are developing. All
kinds of pressure may come to you both from within you and from outside of you,
from friends and colleagues. All these will be pushing you to break God’s
commandment to keep sex for marriage. Do not yield to this temptation because
it is sin if you do. The consequences can be quite severe. Remember Joseph in
Egypt. He was sorely tempted with sex but he refused to sin against God. He
fled from Potiphar's wife (Gen.39:7-12). Joseph is a great example to all of
how to fight against sexual temptation – flee, leave your garment and run!
(6) God’s word instructs
us to keep sex for its proper use – Marriage (1Cor.7:1-2; Gal.5:19). Adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness all refer to ungodly and unlawful
sexual actions.
For those who are married, the Bible is not shy in telling us people
what to do. In chapter 5 of proverbs Solomon uses euphemism or coded word to
describe the joy of sexual relationship between husband and wife. It tells us
that sex should be kept and enjoyed within the confines of marriage (Proverbs 5:15-23).
Adultery is a perversion of the marriage joys. It leads to guilt, pain
and anguish and wounds that are difficult to heal. It is a sin against God and
against the marriage partner (Proverbs 6:20-35). May the Lord preserve us from sin.
APPLY LIFE TO NECESSARY INDUSTRY
Prov.6:6-11; 24:30-34; 30:25
Dr John McArthur used the following acrostics
to teach the wisdom of the ants from proverbs 6:6-11.
i.
A – Attitude of Initiative (Ants do not need a
commander to tell them to get started)
ii.
N – Nature of Integrity (Ants Work
faithfully/need no outside accountability to keep them doing right)
iii.
T – Thirst for Industry
(Ants work hard
and will replace their anthill when ruined)
iv.
S – Source of Insight (Ants Store Provision
For Summer)
The wisdom we receive from this passage is to apply ourselves to
diligence or productiveness. Someone has said that the services of a thorough
man are always in demand. But the Lazy man has nothing to offer. Write the word
SLUGGARD vertically on your paper
S – Slow, sleepy
L – Lazy, lagging
behind, comes to lack (Proverbs 20:4)
U – Unwise – thinks sleep
is better than labour
G – Greedy, desires
but cannot have (Proverbs 13:4)!
G – Gullible, naïve
and easy to fool
A – Afraid of work and
labour (Proverbs 22:13).
R – Ruins
himself/herself – ends up in abject poverty (Proverbs 24:30-34)
D – Deceived by
himself/others (Proverbs 26:16)
Read also proverbs 12:27; 15:19; 19:24; 22:13
Sleep destroys productivity. Sleep leads to poverty and want. Idleness
is a short road to financial and other forms of misery. Sluggards are
spiritually worthless to God’s Kingdom (Matthew 5:13). Sluggards are good for
nothing! You cannot trust a sluggard with anything. They are full of excuses
why they cannot do this or that
How shall overcome this? The Bible said we should go to the ants and
learn wisdom. What can we learn from them? I charge all of you who are young
and still studying not yet knowing what your future holds to go to the ants and
learn wisdom.
(1) You are in the spring
of your life. These are your productive years. You must sow in the spring!
Study hard. Reduce your sleep. Obviously a certain amount of sleep is necessary
for your health. But sleeping away your time will lead you to failure and
poverty and misery! Work hard. Work hard and work harder still and it will pay
you so much dividend. If I had to live my life over again as a teenager I will
work ten times harder than I worked! Those of you in secondary schools work
harder than your fellow students and you will never miss a merit award!
(2) The summer of your
life is when you begin to reap the reward of your hard labour. Like some of our
brethren in this Church, you can receive up to three or four different
scholarship awards, while those who wasted their time sleeping and playing with
phone and spending their time on facebook will get none! Do you think it is
unfair for one person to receive three scholarships when many are begging for
one? Think again (Mt.25:24-30).
(3) The Autumn of your
life is a time when you can enjoy the fruit of your labour
(4) In the winter of your
life, when you have grown older, you can then feel happy and secure and may
have other working for you!
Wisdom is the principal thing and God has given us words of wisdom.
Many of the things we have learned today can only be practised and enjoyed if
our hearts have been changed through faith in Christ, if we have been born again.
A lot of these will not be easy if you are not saved. Get saved today and you
will be able avoid sexual immorality, and adultery; you will be able to
maintain your personal purity and the communal purity of the Church.
Riches and wealth will be yours in this present life. Eternal life will
await after.
Feel free to comment on this article
God bless.
No comments:
Post a Comment