[0:00] Bibles to the first Psalm, and then we're going to read from the 119th Psalm. The Blessed Man, Psalm 1.
[0:14] Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
[0:29] He's like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither, whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked.
[0:42] They are like the chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
[1:01] And then from Psalm 119, we're reading the section beginning at verse 97. Psalm 119, beginning at verse 97.
[1:16] Oh, how I love your law. I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me.
[1:30] I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.
[1:41] I have kept my feet from every evil path, so that I might obey your word. I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me.
[1:53] How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. I gain understanding from your precepts. Therefore, I hate every wrong path.
[2:08] Well, this is that sure word of God, and Peter says you will do well to pay attention to it as to a light shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
[2:22] Let's hear the word preached. Well, when do we start teaching our children wisdom?
[2:35] Judy Withrow teaches the two- and three-year-olds. She sits her two- and three-year-olds down and begins teaching them to be wise. How does she do it?
[2:48] Not by reading the Proverbs. If a man curses his father or mother, his lamp will be snuffed out into pitch darkness.
[3:00] The next proverb, an inheritance quickly gained in the beginning will not be blessed at the end. I don't see the hearts here, Jane and Winston, but can you imagine Judy Withrow saying that to them?
[3:19] An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning will not be blessed at the end, Jane and Winston. You need to take that to heart. If she was saying that, of course, I think I would need to find a new two- and three-year-old teacher.
[3:33] So how does she do it? Well, she does it this way. She says, let's say the Ten Commandments together. Number one, you shall have no other gods besides me.
[3:47] Number two, you shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything. And she goes on and she teaches them. What is she doing?
[3:59] She's teaching them wrong, right, righteousness, wickedness. It's wicked to murder. It is wicked to commit adultery, to steal, to lie, to covet.
[4:16] It's righteous to do the opposite. Now, I know I'm blowing your minds with this kind of thought, but what she is doing is teaching them wisdom.
[4:30] You can't read Proverbs chapter 10 and 11 and 12 without seeing that the righteous are wise and the foolish are wicked.
[4:41] That's where we're at. We're at Proverbs chapter 10 today. We're looking at verses 22 through 32, the righteous and the wicked, the ways of each of them. How does the Bible define the righteous and the wicked?
[4:55] Well, there's probably a couple of different ways that the Bible does that, but the most essential, probably the most basic way is it's about what you do. 1 John chapter 3, very simple passage.
[5:11] The Apostle John is teaching the people there. 1 John 3, 7 and 8 tells us this. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. It's obvious that we can be led astray on such a simple thing that he would need to say this.
[5:27] He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
[5:37] It's about what you do. Righteous, wicked, righteousness and wickedness. Proverbs has its feet planted firmly on the law of God.
[5:50] It's not somehow detached. It's not extra. It's not something different. It's firmly planted on doing what God commands. And the Lord said to Israel, if you do these things, it will show people how wise and understanding you are.
[6:08] Deuteronomy 4, 6, observe these laws carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations who will hear about all these decrees and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.
[6:22] So you want to be wise. I think that is probably one of the most common prayer requests that we hear on Wednesday night.
[6:32] Lord, I need wisdom. Please give these people wisdom. How does God do that? Well, we read Psalm 119.
[6:43] Oh, how I love your law. I meditate on it all day long. Your commands. Not your Proverbs. Although that's true. But he says, your commands.
[6:55] Make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. I gain understanding from your precepts.
[7:07] Therefore, I hate every wrong path. The Ten Commandments are not just to be learned by two and three year olds. They're not just food for babies. If you meditate on them, and you do them, then you'll be wise.
[7:22] They'll make you wise. Think about them. And in the hands of Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, what begins to happen is he begins to teach you on the inside.
[7:37] In the New Covenant, God promises that they'll all be taught by God. The Holy Spirit will teach you on the inside. A name for the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament is he's the spirit of wisdom and counsel and understanding.
[7:54] The spirit of wisdom, counsel, and understanding is the one who writes that law on our hearts and changes our hearts so that now we want to obey it and so that we actually do it.
[8:04] Now, remember I said all the way back at the beginning of this section or on this series on Proverbs, Proverbs is about changing us.
[8:17] It's making us into something that we're not. It's making us wise, competent, capable, ready to rule in the kingdom of God, making us wise down deep in our hearts.
[8:29] And that's what the psalmist is saying in Psalm 119. That's what's happened to him. He's been taught by the Lord. He's not wise.
[8:41] How did he get that wisdom? Meditating on the word of God. Proverbs is about changing us, making us into something deep inside. And so do you want to be wise?
[8:53] Well, don't miss this vital connection that is right here on the surface, right at the beginning of Proverbs chapter 10 and 11. Don't just ask for wisdom.
[9:09] Meditate on God's law. Think about your situation. Think about the issue that you need wisdom about. And then meditate upon the law of God.
[9:23] That's how God makes you wise. That's one of the central ways he makes you wise. He helps you make those connections between what he says, what he expects and requires.
[9:34] And now, how does that line up with my situation and my circumstances? What do I need to obey? That's a central key thing of this is the beginning of wisdom.
[9:46] And so he helps you to put two and two together. The spirit who writes that law in our hearts becomes for us the spirit of counsel and understanding. We grow in wisdom.
[9:57] So here's God's law. Here's my situation. Now, how do they go together? This is how you become wise. So that might change the way that you look at the commands of God.
[10:12] They're not purely just to say, do this and don't do that. God's teaching you to be wise. What was Jesus doing on the Sermon on the Mount?
[10:25] Well, he was explaining what true righteousness is. The scribes and the Pharisees thought righteousness is what you do on the outside. And he was saying, no, no, you have to have a righteousness that exceeds, that goes farther, that goes deeper than what the scribes and the Pharisees have.
[10:42] They have this external righteousness. You need and you need something down in your heart. It's not on the surface where men see. You see that repeatedly. Jesus says, your ultimate concern doesn't need to be what other men are seeing and thinking about you.
[10:58] Rather, again and again and again, and he says, the father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Now, that attitude that I have a father who sees me and he even sees what I do in secret and he's checking and moving or motivate, looking at the motivations of my heart.
[11:18] The father who sees what is done in secret when no man can see, he'll reward me. That attitude is what the fear of the Lord looks like.
[11:29] That's the fear of the Lord. That's the fear of the Lord. That's wisdom. It's a deep respect for who God is. This deep trust that he rewards, that he does me good.
[11:44] It's a deep respect and faith in the goodness of God. That's the fear of the Lord. And that's why Jesus says at the end, the one who listens to this word and does it, that means a wise man who builds his house upon the rock.
[12:04] So the Sermon on the Mount is our Solomon teaching us. And so meditate on God's law. Meditate upon the Sermon on the Mount. It's one of those passages that I think you should aim to really know, read frequently, and memorize if you can, get it into you.
[12:24] And as you do, you should be praying, Lord Jesus, you are my Solomon. Make me wise. Make me wise as I think about this sermon.
[12:35] This should also change and help you to this connection between God's law, righteous living, and should help you as you read the second half of a lot of Paul's epistles.
[12:49] Paul's epistles break down generally into two halves. There's the indicative side where the first half is usually Paul talking a lot about what is true, what you need to think about.
[13:04] And the second half, a lot of it is this is what you need to do. So what is Paul thinking here? What's Paul doing? He's saying this is how you live righteously.
[13:17] And in doing that, he's showing you how to be wise. He is showing you this is what the wise life looks like. So don't just pray for wisdom.
[13:27] Pray for it. Certainly, James 1.5 says do that. But as you do that, look at the law of God. Look at the requirements. Look at what Paul is saying.
[13:38] Look at what Jesus is saying. So there it is. You want to live wisely. Judy is teaching the heights of wisdom right there with her two and three-year-olds. And some of them are already becoming and already are wiser than many, many adults.
[13:57] Because if wisdom is seeing the fabric of reality of God's world and then living in line with it, then some of these young kids are starting to get it.
[14:10] They're starting to see there's a God. And I need to live in line and harmony with that. So this connection, and we're going to get to the Proverbs itself in a minute.
[14:24] But this was just so fruitful for my own thinking and helpful for me. And I hope it is to you, too. This connection between God's law and wisdom, it also uncovers.
[14:44] It's a good x-ray. It's a good way of measuring something. How wise am I? Am I growing in wisdom?
[14:55] The first question that you should be asking, then, is how deeply do I fear the Lord as the lawgiver?
[15:06] How deeply do I respect him as the lawgiver? How much do you trust that his laws are for your good? Not that he has the right to tell you what to do.
[15:21] But more than that, that what he tells you to do is actually really for your good. Wisdom is trusting that this law is showing me the best, the happiest, the most blessed, the most peaceful way to live.
[15:34] The Lord is good. And so the law he gives is good. And I believe that. And I embrace that. And I live that out. And Proverbs would say, that's wisdom.
[15:46] That's living wisely. It's not just about being clever and cunning and having discretion and and knowing the best way that it is all of those things.
[15:57] But before it's all of those things, it's about I fear the Lord and I'm going to do what he says. So do you see your sin not just as wrong, but as profoundly foolish?
[16:12] That that's a good way of thinking about it, too. I think you begin to see something of that at the cross. Remember, there was these these two thieves on the cross. They both began cursing Jesus and making fun of him.
[16:27] But the one of them changed his mind. The Lord changed his mind somewhere along the way. The humble dying thief at Jesus side says to these this other one.
[16:38] Don't you fear God? That's wisdom right there. Don't you fear God? We're suffering for what we we've done. He's done nothing.
[16:50] I hear something of. Are you being that stupid? Are you being that foolish?
[17:02] We're here. We are about ready to die. We're ready to meet God. And and you're going on like that. You're talking like that. You're thinking like that.
[17:14] What's wrong with you? So see that humble dying thief had come to a senses. He was seen with wisdom's eyes for the first time.
[17:26] I've got I'm going to see God. I've got to appear before him. And here I am. I've I'm on this cross because I deserve it.
[17:39] And it was out of that new sense of reality and the foolishness of everything that I had done before. And no fear of the Lord that he turns to Jesus and he says, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
[17:55] So do you think you're wise? Well, are you doing what that? Are you doing with that? What that dying thief did? Are you embracing Jesus as your your savior?
[18:07] Or are you still clinging to your own self justifications? When you think about. Why am I a right person?
[18:18] Why am I a good person? Why? Why should God accept me into heaven? Why? Why should God accept my person? Are you still holding on and looking at this is what I do? I've I've this is this is how I've done in my life.
[18:32] Why? Um. You truly only begin to fear the Lord is the lawgiver when you accept and embrace the savior. Who is dying for your law breaking.
[18:48] Until then you're just messing around. Until then you're not taking that law seriously. You're not taking the lawgiver seriously. If the lawgiver is giving you a savior to save you from your law breaking.
[19:01] Then you're. If you're not receiving him. If you're not accepting him. Then you're not taking the law seriously. You're not taking the lawgiver seriously. Until then you have this small view of what the Lord requires.
[19:16] You're like the scribes and Pharisees saying well my outside of my life is pretty good. No complaints there. Really to obey from the heart is optional for me.
[19:26] To make. Jesus the one who is your only hope for your for your law breaking to make him wait.
[19:40] To keep him away. That's just the height of folly. Do you fear God? That thief would say. You're going to die.
[19:52] Just as surely. As that thief on the cross. Was going to die. If Jesus doesn't come back. But either way. You're going to meet. Your creator. You're going to meet your judge.
[20:04] A few short years. Maybe not. Even a few short years. And you'll see him face. You'll face him. And then what? So wisdom.
[20:15] Begins. With coming to Christ. It's the only. That's where this begins. It's the. It's only when you begin to take God seriously as the lawgiver. It's only then that you start to take righteousness seriously.
[20:29] And wickedness seriously. Until then you're just playing around with God. And you're playing around with your own soul. And so quit playing around. Righteousness is wisdom.
[20:40] Wickedness is folly. That's the point again and again in Proverbs chapter 10. And in Proverbs chapter 10. He's encouraging you.
[20:51] To pursue the way. Of righteousness. He's going to give you. Lots of reasons. Why. You should choose obedience.
[21:05] Life of obedience. Life of righteousness. Now this whole section. 22 to the end. I've entitled words. Ways and worthlessness. And we've already looked at the words.
[21:16] Of men. We've already looked at the worthlessness. Of the sluggard. And now. We're talking about ways. We read Psalm 1.
[21:27] It talked about the way of the righteous. And the way of the wicked. That's what we have here. It's these two different ways. And Proverbs is laying them before you. And saying. Choose. But I don't think it's just saying.
[21:39] Either way is fine. It's not saying that at all. It's saying. Choose the way of righteousness. Why? Because it's the path of. Blessing.
[21:49] Is the first thing. It's the path of blessing. Look at verse 22. So we're in Proverbs chapter 10. Verse 22. The blessing of the Lord brings wealth. And he has no trouble to it.
[22:02] This is the. One of the blessings. Of living a righteous life. Is your wealth. You can see it as a gift from God. And. And that gift. He doesn't give you any trouble.
[22:13] Added with it. Well. To have wealth. Is. Is. Desirable. That's. That's the assumption. That's what the. What Proverbs assumes. That people want.
[22:24] Wealth. But. It's not all wealth. That is a real blessing. There is. Getting. Wealth. And it turning into a curse. Remember.
[22:34] God said to Israel. You know. They were complaining about all this food. And stuff. And it says. He. He gave them what they wanted. But at the same time. They didn't have God's blessing in it.
[22:45] Their souls withered. He was angry at them. Wealth without trouble. Is a blessing of righteousness. So. No fretting about how you got it.
[23:01] No. Concern about if you lose it. You know. Wealth does have this nasty habit. Of taking up wings. And flying away. And if it does.
[23:11] If you're righteous. Well then you still have the Lord. As your treasure. Psalm 16. You still. Have him. As your inheritance. And that's a blessing. To have no guilt. In how you got it.
[23:23] No guilt. In how you got it. You know. Just to put this. In very concrete terms. We're filing our taxes.
[23:36] This year. And. There was this really tricky. Tax question. That came up. And. We're trying to answer it. And it wasn't one of those.
[23:46] That you know. Like the number. Just goes up a few bucks. Or it doesn't have any effect. You answer it one way. And. Steph and I's. Refund would have gone like.
[23:57] Thousands of dollars up. You answer it a different way. And it. It stays the same. And it was one of these. Tricky questions. And it's one of those. Like. Does it apply?
[24:08] Does it not apply? What? You know. And really. The way Steph and I. Ended up deciding. It was not. What was basically this.
[24:19] We didn't want to have. Dirty money. We didn't want a dirty. Shed in our yard. Yeah. We might get this refund. We might get this money. From the government. And you know.
[24:30] A shed is on our. Things of things. That we want to buy. Well. We could go buy it. And then what? Every time we looked at it. It would just remind us of.
[24:41] Was that right? Maybe. Maybe not. That's wealth. With trouble. That's wealth. With question marks.
[24:52] That's wealth. With doubt. Wealth. With maybe this nagging. Sense of guilt. And you know what? That's not God's way. That he gives wealth. It doesn't include.
[25:05] Trouble. And guilt. And shame. Listen to Matthew Henry. It's a blessing. To have it. And to have a heart. To take the comfort of it. And what he's saying there.
[25:16] Is it's a blessing. To have it. It's a blessing also. To be able to be comforted. With it. To do good with it. To serve God with joyfulness. And gladness. And the use of it.
[25:27] That's wealth. With blessing. No guilt. No fear. No shame. No. It might suddenly get lost. But you get to enjoy the wealth. That God gave it. Gave it to you.
[25:38] But you get his smile too. Wealth with his smile. Wealth with his friendship. Money with his. With his. friendship and fellowship and comfort. That's the blessing of living the righteous wise life.
[25:51] You don't have to pick money or God if you're living wisely and doing righteously. Now, obviously, we all have to make that choice at one time or another, but I hope you see what I'm saying.
[26:05] It's the blessing of living the righteous life. Now, what else? Why else should you choose the way of righteousness? It's the way of hopes fulfilled, hopes fulfilled, not disappointment.
[26:19] The way of wickedness is the life of disappointment, of thinking that the good thing that you're is about to come to fruition and then you're just disappointed. Look at verse 24. What the wicked dreads will overtake him. What the righteous desires desire will be granted. So the wicked, what do you get if you choose the way of wickedness? Well, this is what you get that you have fear.
[26:46] You have the work of be terrors. One translation, put it as nightmares. The wicked have those they put on a bold front, but there are things that they don't places.
[27:00] They don't go. Things they don't think about. They're filled with fear. They're always holding it at bay, hoping against hope that whatever they fear won't come true. But in the dark places, they don't like to go in their mind. There are fears and nightmares lurking. That's what it is to be, to live the wicked life. You're always afraid that your nightmares are going to wake up and find you. But the righteous, the Lord grants them their desires.
[27:39] The righteous have righteous desires. And so no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. So living with fear, always ready to wake up, always ready to stalk you and find you out.
[27:53] Your worst fears coming to life or your dreams, your best dreams coming to life. That's the way of the wickedness, the wicked and the way of the righteous.
[28:04] You see it again in verse 28. The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing. Again, hopes fulfilled or just disappointment.
[28:16] The wicked and the righteous, they both have things that they're hoping for. They both have prospects, but the prospect of the righteous is joy. Why is it joy? Well, it's joyful just to think about it happening as you think about it, as you look forward to it. But I don't think that's what it's talking about. I think it's what it's saying here is, and you see it in the second half is, it actually comes about. The wicked have hopes. They're looking forward to it. They get some joy of thinking about it coming true, but then it doesn't come true. But the hopes of the righteous do come true.
[28:54] Their prospects find fruition. I love Psalm 126. When the Lord brought back the captives, we were like men brought back captives to Zion. We were like men who dreamed. They're just beside themselves because all that they'd been hoping for and longing for is for 70 long years. Finally, it came about, and there they are in Zion where they wanted to be. The exile is over. The righteous pinch themselves because at long last, their hopes have been realized. That's what God's doing. So do you want to pinch yourself on the other side of death when you wake up on Canaan's side and you say, wow, everything I hope for has come true. I wasn't disappointed. I'll fear the Lord and keep his commands. You want your hopes to come to nothing? That happens too. Pilgrim's progress.
[30:06] There's a character named Ignorance. They meet him and they walk with him for a while. He didn't cross the river death like everyone else. He went and found a ferryman to bring him over.
[30:17] The ferryman's name was Vain Hope, false hope. And so his false hope carried him to the other side. And then on the other side, things started to go wrong, but he still trudged up that mountain.
[30:32] When Christian and hopeful went on the other side, angels were there to greet them and to carry them into the presence of the king. The trumpets were blaring. It was a joyful sound. His ignorance had to walk up this hill all by himself with no one to meet him on the other side.
[30:48] And yet he carried on. He comes to the door and the question is put to him. Who are you? Where do you come from? Where is your parchment? Where's the proof of your salvation?
[31:00] And he's doing this. Fumbling through his coat. And he doesn't have it.
[31:17] And they picked him up. They carried him through the air. They opened up a little door and a hole in the side of the hill and they shoved him down straight to hell.
[31:30] The hopes of the wicked come to nothing. They hope for heaven. They hope for an entrance into glory. And it comes to nothing.
[31:43] Worse than nothing. And you know what? In some ways they should have seen it coming. Because even in this life, the wicked begin to experience disappointment.
[31:57] The things that they thought would satisfy them leaves them feeling emptier than an empty sack. The things that they thought would fill them, they don't.
[32:13] And their fears begin to come upon them now and then later. The one who wanted money gets money and it doesn't make them happy. The one who wanted a husband or a wife, they don't make that person happy.
[32:28] The wife, the mother, the father, whoever wanted a child, that doesn't satisfy them at their deepest places. And they go from one thing to the other.
[32:38] One hobby, one job, one thing to the other. And they never are satisfied. So, if you want to walk in the way of wickedness, then you should see what is ahead.
[32:52] On the road that you are going to take, you are going to experience disappointment and fear. Disappointment and fear and more disappointment. And then you'll come to the end.
[33:04] And then it will be a great disappointment. And all your nightmares will come true. And, you know, it will happen all too soon. The fear of the Lord, this is verse 27.
[33:23] The fear of the Lord adds length to life. But the years of the wicked are cut short. The wicked always run out of time before they run out of the desire to live.
[33:37] They always run out of time. Their years are cut short. They aren't ready to die. But the fear of the Lord living like that, you have all the years that are good for you.
[33:48] And all the years that you have are blessed years. Goodness and mercy follow you all the days of your life. And then you go into your eternal home.
[33:59] Then eternal life. The fear of the Lord adds length to life. That's not just, I mean, I thought about talking about just all things being equal. That's true. Wickedness is hard on your body.
[34:13] Righteousness is much better for you physically. And that's just physically true. But really, Proverbs is looking forward and has on its mind ultimately on, there is eternal life.
[34:27] And the years of the righteous, they're not cut off. And so here's our Father saying, now here's the way. Here's the way to live.
[34:38] Walk in this way. Hopes met. Desires fulfilled. Life. And so do you want to be cut off? You want to be not ready when it comes time to die?
[34:50] Well, here's the way of the wicked. You're welcome to it. You're welcome to it. Don't go that way. And then there's the end. The ways of the righteous and the way of the wicked, they come to an end.
[35:08] Men and women, they walk beside each other for this whole life. But it all comes to an end. So where do you want to go?
[35:21] How do you want this to end? You know, only a great fool would get in their car and get on the road to Alaska, expecting palm trees and sunny beaches when they got there.
[35:35] But how men fool themselves. How they fool themselves. They drive on the road that leads to polar bears and the snow storms and ice.
[35:49] And they expect to find sunshine and beaches. The way of the wicked is hard. We've seen that. That that is a good verse for this place.
[35:59] The way of the wicked is hard. It's just hard going. But the end is harder. Verse 25. When the storm is swept by, the wicked are gone.
[36:14] But the righteous stand firm forever. What do you want? You want to be like chaff that just is blown away? Or do you want to be secure? Verse 29. The way of the Lord is a refuge for the righteous.
[36:26] But it is the ruin of those who do evil. The way of the Lord is not talking about the way that we take. It's actually talking about, and I'm pretty sure of this, that it's actually talking about the way the Lord takes.
[36:37] The way he governs and rules his world. His providence. His kingdom. It's talking about that. The Lord wields all of his power for the good of the righteous.
[36:50] He protects them. But the way the Lord takes. The what he does. His kingdom. It's the ruin of those who do evil. The Lord ends up trotting them down as he walks.
[37:04] His kingdom overthrows them. The next verse. The righteous will never be uprooted, but the wicked will not remain in the land. Doesn't that remind you of Psalm 1?
[37:15] I think Psalm 1 is like the closest that you can come to. A chunk of Proverbs being put in the book of Psalms. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, but his delight is in the law of the Lord.
[37:28] He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season. Not so the wicked. That's not what they are like. That's not what they are like in this life, and that's not how their end is.
[37:40] They're like chaff that the wind blows away. This place remembers that no more wisdom, looks ahead, and sees how this ends. Fools think that you just don't reap.
[37:54] You won't reap what you sow. Apparently some of the Galatians were starting to think that because Paul had to write, God will not be mocked.
[38:08] You will reap what you sow. The one who sows to please the flesh will reap destruction. The one who sows to please the spirit will reap eternal life.
[38:21] So look at these Proverbs. Do you want joy in this life? Contentment? Stability? A steady life of hopes fulfilled, then eternal life?
[38:33] Well, here's the way of God. It's called the way of obedience, it's the way of righteousness, careful, consistent, obedience, and the fear of the Lord. The law of God is a lamp to your feet.
[38:48] It's a light for your path. And so with the law, God is shining down the way and saying, now look, this is the way to live. Here it is. Live this way.
[38:59] And then there's the way of fear and regret and disappointment and guilt and at the end, complete ruin.
[39:16] And the law, the Lord shines a light on that path too. Says don't go down this way. Look at it. Don't go down this way. Thank God for his law.
[39:30] Thank God for the word of God. Thank God for the grace that he gives us in the law. Thank God that he's put that law in the hands of our Savior and now our Savior is our Lord and he gives us the Holy Spirit to keep that law.
[39:46] And so this law, it condemns us and scares us to Jesus when we need to be, when we need to feel conviction and when we need to run to Jesus. That's what the law of God does for forgiveness.
[39:58] And then it turns around and says, here's the way of life. Now walk in it. So then what should you and I do? You know, we should do what the psalmist said.
[40:09] We should meditate on it. And parents, you should teach your children these things. These are basics, but they're essential. They're important. And just because they've been taught, it doesn't mean that you don't, that you just stop teaching them.
[40:25] You go on teaching them. And Christians, we should meditate on this law. And I thought, like, how? What's a good way that we can do that? I'm sure there's lots of ways.
[40:36] I just wanted to give you a real practical possibility. So if you're to meditate on the law of God, and as you meditate, that would give you wisdom and understanding.
[40:46] How can, how then, what's a practical way that you can meditate on God's word? And I just want to give you a possibility, and maybe this is not, like, the exact right time for you and where you're at in your devotions, or maybe this is not something you can add at this time, but if it, then put it into your holster, put it in your backpack, save it for later, come back to it, or go right to it.
[41:10] Just a possibility. You can go online. It's available to everyone. And just look up the Westminster Larger Catechism. The Westminster, we're all very familiar, I think, with the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
[41:25] Look up the Westminster Larger Catechism. You can, it's online, it's free. And there's a whole section on the Ten Commandments. And meditate and think about that section of the Ten Commandments.
[41:39] It starts at question 99, and it's full of longer answers. About what the law requires and what the law forbids. Very full.
[41:51] Very thought-provoking. And that would be a way of meditating and thinking about the Ten Commandments. Here's some of our older, older brothers who've done a lot of the meditating and thinking for us, and now they're going to say, here, think about this.
[42:07] And so that's what that is. And the more you think about it, and the more you do it, the more you'll grow in wisdom. So that's what I want to do this week, and maybe you can try it for yourself.
[42:22] The Westminster Larger Catechism. And I hope that could be of some help to you. If not, well, I hope you find some way of meditating on the law of the Lord.
[42:40] In that, He'll make us wise in our hearts, in our heads, in our lives. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love that You tell us the right way to go.
[43:03] We love that You tell us the good way to go. That You've not hidden what is good for us.
[43:15] You've not left it up to us to somehow figure out and to sort out. That would be really beyond us. We are children. We're easily confused.
[43:26] We have sin in our hearts. We have inclinations towards what is evil even now as believers. And so we do thank You for the clarity of Your Word, for the clarity of Your law.
[43:44] Thank You for that promise that in keeping it, there is a great reward. And Proverbs is showing us that great reward.
[43:55] So please help us to take the path of righteousness. Help us to take You seriously. To grow in our fear of You as the lawgiver. And to grow in our faith in Jesus as the one who saves us from our lawbreaking.
[44:16] Lord, thank You for these basic things. Help us to grow strong in them. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.