Book of Proverbs
Living God’s Way
Lesson 10
Part 1
The Bible says we should be agreeing when other people pray. That’s why at the end you say, amen,
because it means you agree was what they prayed. And so, the Lord looks on that, He actually is
looking at what my motivation is and what your motivation is, and He listens to it and combines it.
So, let’s pray. Father, we bow before You. We open our hearts. We say, we need You. We want You to
focus our hearts. We want to surrender to Your control in our lives. We want You to lead us and
provide what we need today to serve You. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.
It’s time to finish Proverbs. Proverbs is this course is the one course that maybe should be a part
of your life until you get to Heaven because this is about every single day. How you talk, how you
relate to other people, every time you reach in your pocket and spend money, everything in life is
connected to Proverbs. It’s one of the few books that actually tells you how God wants you to treat
your neighbor, treat your relatives, your wife, your husband, everything. So, it’s so practical,
but it ties it all to God’s way.
We’re going to look at God’s way for our words. Proverbs teaches us about our relationships with our
Number one, Parents
Number two, Children
Number three,Friends.
Perfect. And it also teaches
that God has a will for my Character
and my Relationships
And today my, Words
and the words one is pretty heavy. Jesus, we’re going to see in a minute, says that we’re going to explain
to Him every word we spoke.
The normal human being talks. Oh, I read this once. It’s like we in one day, all of our talking here and there,
makes like a significant amount of a normal book. Have you ever thought it takes a couple hours to read a book?
Do you know how much time we talk every day? A lot. And so, it’s, we think, so many words have gone out,
they’re done. No. Our words never go away. The Lord keeps track of all of them. Isn’t that interesting?
That’s why Proverbs says that we should let our words, actually Ecclesiastes said, 5:2, “let your words be
few.” How many chapters are in Proverbs? 31 Oh, there was less remembrance of that.
Where, which chapter says, “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom?” Yes.
Proverbs 9.
And where is that amazing verse that if you are still looking for verses to memorize, you should memorize?
It says, but the wisdom that is from God is first pure, then peaceable, then gentle, then easily entreated.
Where is that? James 3.
Proverbs is a book of what? Poetry. Yes,
God’s will for my character includes, there are many things, but one of them is choosing good. And the
three of the major themes of Proverbs are to fear God,
to Trust God,
and to, Obey God.
Very good.
Now, God’s way is a way of wisdom. God’s way defines who is saved, who’s on the narrow way.
As Paul puts it, who has the mind of Christ. As Paul puts it, who is spiritually
alive. As Proverbs says, we’re sensitive to God, we worship God.
One of the evidences of salvation is we go away from sin.
Now, you know what the Bible says? Men love darkness rather than light. That’s from the book of John, chapter 1,
and Jesus said, I came into the world and I’m the light of the world. But people love darkness. Why? We want to
hide our sin, our rebellion and everything else.
Do you notice what this says? Christians want to go toward the light. They want to see. Have you ever been in the
sunlight and a shaft of light touches you and you look down you can see all the little bit of lint and white stuff
and crumbs or whatever That is a picture of what we want. We, if we see light coming from the Word of God, we want
to get in the light and say, Lord, what part of me needs to be cleaned off? We hate sin. We flee sin. We, we love
the light, and the more that happens, the more we’re being saved from sin. Our whole life is more and more reducing
the frequency of sin in our life and increasing the frequency of responding to God. And so, it’s, our love for the
Lord is low when we first get saved, and we start loving Him more, and our sin is high and that starts down. And
you’ll come to a point where you hate sin more and more, and love the Lord more and more, and that’s called
spiritual maturity.
Okay, this whole process is in Proverbs 4:18.
“But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
I just, let’s read it cause it’s my one of my most favorite parts of the whole book of Proverbs.
It says in verse 18, “the two roads of life, the path of the just,”. Justification, sanctification, redemption, are
all connected. Actually, I’ll throw in regeneration right there because that’s where it starts. Regeneration is
when we come alive in Christ. Justification, in fact, this is how I described verse 18, “The path of the just.”
When I was a youth teacher, the boys in my class a lot of times weren’t paying attention, and so, I had to
do illustrations for them. I said, this is you. My Bible is a graveyard, and that’s how you started out in life,
dead to God. And I said, God reached down and redeemed you. So, I said, you know what redemption is? I’ll show you.
This is redemption, God grabbing you. But redemption is only God grabbed you and said, I’m buying that.
It’s like you going to the store, to 7-Eleven, and you’re grabbing your Coke or your chips, and you grab them and
you’re holding them. That’s redemption. Justification is this. Here’s God. He’s up here. Here’s me. I’m down here.
This is justification. God raised me. What He says is, you are not a lost, pagan, hopeless sinner. You are now
justified. You are justified. You are a saint. Redemption is God purchasing us out of the slave market of sin.
Justification is God raising us up and seating us with Christ, but watch, this is all of life. This is the brighter
path, fleeing sin, all of that. The rest of life, God has justified me, redeemed me, but watch what He does, it’s
like working out in the health club. He’s pulling me closer to Him. This is God. This is me. And I go and I resist,
and He pulls me. I go, so that is sanctification. And sanctification is progressive. And so, there is a decreasing
frequency of sin and an increasing frequency of me responding to God. That’s what sanctification is. So, my going
toward God, I want God, and I hate sin more and more. So, you and I, when we follow the path. That God has laid out.
He’s regenerated us, redeemed us, actually the regeneration.
He gives us a new heart. He buys us out of the slave market of sin. He makes us righteous in Christ. But this is
the lifelong process. This is what being saved is right there. It’s God pulling me closer and closer and here’s
what it looks like.
“The path of the just,” verse 18, “is like the shining sun.”
“But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
We love the light We want to get closer to the light. Jesus is the light and look at the end of verse 18,
“that shines ever brighter until the perfect day.” Sanctification has three parts. There is our
progressive sanctification, that’s what I’m talking about right here. There is our, actually the bottom line here
is glorification, and positional, the three. The positional is that Jesus justified me and made me a saint. The
progressive is this: that I am seeking and responding more and more to God and hating sin more and more. But
someday, we aren’t going to be saved anymore, we’re going to be glorified. And what that means is that in Heaven,
there’s no more struggle with sin.
God, as Paul put it this way in 1 Thessalonians 5:23,
“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul said to the Thessalonians, “And the very God of peace
sanctify you completely. And I pray, God, your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless to the coming
of Christ.” That’s the goal, but on the way the path gets brighter.
Now, look at the contrast. Look at Proverbs 4:19.
“The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.”
The way of the wicked, see, man’s way, the foolish way, is like darkness. They’re cockroaches, and they run from
the light, and they hate the light. See how practical Proverbs is? It’s just the whole Christian life.
They like darkness. And they don’t know what makes them stumble. That’s what God is showing us in Proverbs.
We’re here in the last lesson, number 10, and we’re talking about our words and how to use the power of our spoken
words. And what we learn about that is, our words can bring life to people.
Do you know what? Do you know how powerful your words can be? Do you think I think that saying Here is a Tract.
“You better watch out you’re going to wake up in Hell, you should read this tract…” I never think anything is
going to happen. I think people will wad it up and throw it out. Have you ever been resisted when you share the
Gospel? That’s what I expected alot of the time. BUT God says, speak life into people, share My Word, share the Gospel,
and it won’t be, you won’t comprehend all that God can do.
Okay, now Jesus explains His view of our spoken words. The whole book of Proverbs is filled with examples, but Jesus
puts them together. Let me go over these verses with you. This is what Jesus said in
Matthew 12:34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaketh.
“Brood of vipers,”
He’s not real gracious when He is rebuking someone. These were religious leaders.
“How can you, being evil, speak good things?” And now Jesus is telling us something. And several of you have asked
me questions about dating and marriage and everything. You want to know one tip? Look at this. “Out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaks.” You want to really get to know someone? For a while, watch and listen to them when
they’re talking to other people. What do they talk about? When people aren’t guarding themselves, you will find what
is in their heart by what comes out of their mouth. They can’t hide it. And so, if you get someone relaxed in a
group setting, at a party, at a meal or whatever, Listen to them. Instead of getting involved, just listen for a
while, how they talk.
Jesus said, you’re going to find out what fills their heart, because whatever fills your heart comes out your mouth.
Very interesting. That’s an eternal principle. Verse 35, “A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings
forth good things. An evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, brings forth evil things. But I say to you
that for every idle word, men may speak, they will give account of it.” Whoa, that’s a high standard.
What is the Lord saying? I want you to understand that. Look at Proverbs 18, words have the power of life and death.
1Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.
2A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.
3When the wicked cometh, then cometh also contempt, and with ignominy reproach.
4The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook.
5It is not good to accept the person of the wicked, to overthrow the righteous in judgment.
6A fool’s lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes.
7A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.
Did you know there’s only one thing you can take with you to Heaven? People you lead to Christ. You can send your
money ahead, but there’s only one thing you can take out of this world with you, people you lead to Christ. Have
you ever thought about that? Have you ever led someone to Christ? Are you asking the Lord to let you lead people
to Christ? Do you carry around Gospel tracts with you? Do you pray the Lord gives you divine appointments?
The last Lesson of the Book of Proverbs is next.
“Only one life to live and soon is past
Only what’s done for Christ will last!”
Hoping to make the time I have left count for the glory of God.
Book of Proverbs Living God’s Way Lesson 10 Part 1