"Wisdom's Principles" Proverbs 10 Sunday Evening Worship Service

Proverbs chapter 10.

Proverbs 10 · chapter mention

I'm gonna read the whole chapter, and it may feel like these are disconnected Proverbs, but you may know the meme of the guy with all of the connections and the string from one thing to another all over his wall.

That that's me this week with Proverbs 10.

Like I see how it all fits together.

And I wanna I wanna bring you there with me tonight.

So I'm gonna read it and you're gonna think this is just an avalanche of stuff, and I'm gonna say, no, it's a tsunami.

And that makes all the difference.

Proverbs 10, verse 1.

Proverbs 10:1

The Proverbs of Solomon A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.

Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death.

Yahweh doesn't let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked.

A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.

He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.

Blessings are in the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.

The wise of heart will receive commandments, but a babbling fool will come to ruin.

Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his way crooked will be found out.

Whoever winks the eye causes trouble, and a babbling fool will come to ruin.

The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.

On the lips of him who has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks sense.

The wise lay up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool brings ruin near.

A rich man's wealth is his strong city, and the poverty of the poor is their ruin.

The wage of the righteous leads to life, and the gain of the wicked to sin.

Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life, but he rejects reproof leads others astray.

The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever utters slander is a fool.

When words are many, transgression is not lacking.

Amen.

But whoever restrains his lips is prudent.

The tongue of the righteous is choice silver.

The heart of the wicked is of little value, little worth.

The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense.

The blessing of Yahweh makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.

Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding.

What the wicked dreads will happen to him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.

When the tempest passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous is established forever, like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so the sluggard is to those who send him.

The fear of Yahweh prolongs life, but the years of the wicked are going to be short.

The hope of the righteous brings joy, but the expectation of the wicked will perish.

The way of Yahweh is a stronghold to the blameless, but destruction to evildoers.

The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not dwell in the land.

The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off.

The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked what is perverse.

This is the word of God.

And it begins in verse one with the Proverbs of Solomon.

This is where the book of Proverbs begins, so to speak.

Chapters one through nine was introduction.

Chapters one through nine was the fireside chat.

Remember the dad to the teenage son saying, Don't grow up to be a fool.

Don't be like that.

And the dad painted out wisdom with Lady as a contrast with Lady Folly.

Remember, Lady Folly was sexually immoral, and she was trying to ensnare the foolish person.

And so the dad was trying to bring it home to the kid.

You know, for the first nine chapters, the the wisdom versus folly was painted as this contrast between the sexually immoral person and wisdom personified as Lady Wisdom in chapter eight.

You're warned about affairs and adultery.

So you'd be forgiven at the end of Proverbs 1 through 9 if you're like, is all of wisdom just about sexual ethics?

And there's a sense in which when you're talking to the teenage son trying to get him into engage at wisdom here, that is a pretty effective entry point right there.

Is you know, the sexual immorality dominates this world.

It's going to dominate your mind.

Don't fall into the trap of the adulterous, sexually promiscuous woman.

It'll wreck your life.

That is a good entry point.

And the fact that Lady Wisdom is personified as a woman gives you a contrast with the Lady of Folly and all of that.

So the first nine chapters are very much this powerful contrast between hell that awaits the sexually immoral and blessings of God that await those who are wise.

Nevertheless, those first nine chapters, the contrast is presented as almost these two really fictional women.

It's these these two people that are out there, and one both are calling for you, follow one, not the other.

You're gonna have to make a choice.

And that's again a very powerful introduction to the book of Proverbs.

But chapters 10, all the way through 28 or so, they're very much these proverbs that are coming at you one after another that cover a wide array of life.

And chapter 10, the beginning of these, this is where these proverbs start, it's an important chapter because it makes that contrast between lady folly and lady wisdom.

It makes the contrast very personal.

So you're leaving the fictional women aside here for a second, and you're going down to this basic question of what kind of life are you going to lead?

Like what does the life of the wise person actually look like?

We're gone now from the dad saying, I'm looking through my lattice and I see the lady of folly out there trying to lay a trap for the teenage boy who's so naive, wandering this way and that.

We're setting that image aside, and now we're to the very concrete of this is what your life is going to actually look like.

Hyperbole aside, and there's idioms and there's word pictures and metaphors and similes and all that in Proverbs, yes.

But hyperbole aside, we're now taught just like the basics of what is a wise life gonna look like compared to the foolish life.

Now, Proverbs is gonna sort itself out into themes.

I don't think we're gonna keep doing chapter at a time as we go through these, but I wanted to do chapter 10, all as one unit, because the theme of chapter 10 is just this really powerful and practical contrast between wisdom and folly.

It gives you the just this extreme gulf between the two.

The two kind of lives are described so practically and so personally, but so distinctly.

The most common word in this chapter is the word righteous.

Thirteen times Solomon gives a description of the righteous person.

The second most common word in the chapter is the word wicked.

Twelve times you get a picture of the wicked person.

And there are so many synonyms for both of those.

The wicked person is often called a fool, or he's called a sluggard, or a perverse person.

He's the one in poverty, he's babbling, he's winking, he's the sluggard, he's sleeping, he's got the slack hand.

There's so many different synonyms for him.

Ditto with the righteous.

The righteous person is called the wise person.

He's the one with integrity, he's wise of heart, he's the rich man.

His lips are restrained, he's a blessing, he has the fear of Yahweh.

That's in there three times.

So there's all these synonyms.

And it's supposed to give you a practical, concrete contrast between the two lives that are out there.

And it is hard for the teenager to project forward into what kind of person he's gonna be, because the teenager is the, you know, the poem.

I'm the captain of my ship, the master of my destiny.

The teenager thinks that he will become the kind of person that he wants to become.

He or she will be happy and mature.

And of course, the teenager doesn't set out to be uh to lead a life of folly and to be a curse to those around them.

They would want to lead their life of blessing and to be a blessing to those around them.

They want to be mature and wise and all that.

And that's why Proverbs 10 is so effective at telling the person you want to be wise, okay, this is the actual what it looks like when it's put into practice right here.

It gets real here.

The contrast between the two camps becomes home, it becomes personal, it becomes family, it becomes your life, your kind of speech, your joy, your money.

That's what's going on in this chapter.

But it starts, because this is a Bible chapter in verse 2, it starts with a contrast about eternal life.

I mean, as we get into chapter 10 here, it's so much on this world.

Chapter 10 is so much about this world.

Are you gonna be a blessing to those around you in this world or a curse to those around you in this world?

Are you gonna have confidence about your own personal disposition?

So much, all of chapter 10 is about the practicality of this world.

It'd be very easy to think this is moralistic teaching.

This is just how to be a better person, this belongs in the self-help section of the bookstore.

It'd be very easy to think that.

And so that's why verse 2 is so important, because verse 2 starts you off by reminding you this is in fact still the Bible.

This isn't time management skills for losers or anything like that.

This is the Bible.

And so what's actually at stake here is not, are you gonna figure out how to feed your family?

Although that is at stake, that's that's true, but that's not the heart of the issue.

The heart of the issue is are you gonna go to hell when you die?

And verse 2 hits on that.

Treasures gained by wickedness do not prosper.

They don't help the person, they don't profit the person.

So think that through it for a second.

Especially in light of Psalm 73 that we read earlier.

Think that through.

Treasures of the wealthy person.

The implication is that the person has the treasure, he's wicked and he's got the treasure, his barns are full, his cars are fast, his bank account is stacked, he's got the stuff, but it doesn't actually profit him.

Well, in what world doesn't it profit him?

It seems like the fast car profits him on the beltway.

It seems like the big bank account is in fact the definition of profiting him.

But it doesn't profit him at judgment, it doesn't profit him at death, which leads to the second part of verse 2.

I mean, all these things are paired here, the second part of verse 2, but righteousness delivers from death.

Now, righteousness doesn't actually deliver from your physical death.

The righteous do die.

Solomon's aware of this.

David died.

David was righteous.

Solomons this.

Solomon is not saying the righteousness per righteous person doesn't die.

He's saying quite literally, like just read it straightforward at the surface of the text.

Righteousness delivers from the midst of death.

The righteous person dies, their soul goes to the grave, and righteousness delivers them from the judgments associated with or attendant with death.

Everybody dies and they stand before God for judgment.

And at the moment of your death and your judgment, your riches and your cars and your wealth and all of the things that are just described in verse 2 as treasures do not help you at the judgment seat of God.

They they don't, it's not a currency God takes.

I remember going to Australia the first time, and I brought my American Express credit card with me because it has no foreign transaction fee.

Trying to save 3%.

And nobody in Australia takes American Express.

And you know, I was snarky about that at like the first ice cream store.

I tried to use it at.

And the lady reminded me, it's in the name of the card.

I can get really act surprised.

When the rich person stands before God for judgment, he can it it's so easy to have all this confidence from your life.

You were successful in this life, you have the cars, you have the cash, you have success in this life.

So it's so easy to not think about judgment and think, I've been able to navigate this life somewhat well.

Certainly I'll be able to navigate the next life well, but it's not you don't have the credit card that God takes.

You don't have the currency He takes.

It doesn't nothing's activated there.

It's of no good to you.

It does not profit.

The righteous person, meanwhile, is delivered from death.

They're still gonna die, but they're delivered out of that.

Verse 3 carries on the theme: Yahweh doesn't let the righteous go hungry.

He doesn't let him go hungry.

In an ultimate sense, he doesn't let him go hungry.

This is the Sermon on the Mount, isn't it?

Matthew 5, verse 6.

Matthew 5:6

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

It's all about hungering for the right thing.

It's all about hungering ultimately for righteousness.

Do you want the righteousness of God?

Is that what you desire in life more than anything else?

If that is what you desire and you recognize you don't have it, you know you mourn over your lack of it.

You blessed are those who are bankrupt, they recognize they don't have the spiritual currency God requires.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted, they're distressed over their lack of righteousness.

And they hunger and thirst, they look to God for righteousness that's outside of themselves, that they can't earn, they can't buy.

It's given to them as a gift.

And when they hunger and thirst for righteousness, God feeds them and they will be satisfied.

And by the end of the Beatitudes that are reigning with God.

I mean, that language is drawn here from verse 3.

The righteous don't go hungry.

Meanwhile, God will ultimately thwart the cravings of the wicked.

What do wicked people crave?

Well, in the context here, they crave wealth and they crave power, they crave treasures, and God will ultimately thwart that.

And sometimes he thwarts them by feeding them their power and feeding them their treasure.

They want to live for the health and the wealth, then fine, you'll be healthy and you'll be wealthy, and it won't actually satisfy in the heart.

I mean, that's how God thwarts it.

He thwarts it by feeding it.

Sometimes he thwarts it, count of Monte Cristo style, by stripping it away.

So sometimes he thwarts it by having it removed from them, and so all the things they desire and long for are taken from them, and that exposes the emptiness.

But sometimes he thwarts it by feeding them what they desire.

He operates both ways.

But ultimately they'll be thwarted, meanwhile, the righteous won't go hungry.

So this reminds you that Proverbs 10 is in the Bible, and we're talking about eternity in standing before God for judgment, a righteousness that comes from God through faith, and all of that.

However, most of Proverbs isn't about that.

You'll have verses like that sprinkled to the rest of Proverbs just to remind you that we are still in the Bible and the heaven and hell are real, and God's a judge, and you're a sinner, and Jesus is a savior, like all that's in there.

But we're moving through that now.

Not everything is the entrance gate.

Not everything in the Bible is Christianity 101.

Some of it is Christianity 102 and 201 and 202, and that's where Proverbs is going.

And so here it's laying out for you this really extreme contrast between the righteous and the wicked.

As I went through this chapter, I outlined the different categories here.

You don't need to write all this down.

You're going to see variations of this list three or four more times tonight.

So don't feel compelled like you need to write it all down.

And none of you are writing it down.

You're taking pictures on your phone.

Okay.

So here's the thing that righteousness, you're rewarded with.

You're rewarded with a glad family in verse one.

A wise son makes a glad father.

You're rewarded with a glad family in verse five.

You gather in the summer, and that you're a prudent son.

Like your family sees you coming home at the end of an August day with everything planted and the field's growing, and they're like, oh man, we're so stoked to have that kid as our son because he's doing work for the family.

In verse 7, the memory of a righteous person is a blessing.

It's a blessing to their family.

The righteous person has a long life in verse 2.

We mentioned that he's delivered from death.

But in verse 11, we're back to this world.

His life is a fountain of life.

It says verse 11.

The righteous man is a fountain of life, like it's a life-giving attitude.

Verses 16 and 17, the same thing.

The wage of the righteous leads to life.

Verse 17 the one who heeds instruction is on the path of life.

So there's this idea of a long life.

Verse 25 and verse 27 say the same thing again.

The righteous is established forever.

Verse 27.

The fear of Yahweh prolongs life.

So notice all these positive words associated with life.

You have a full and abundant life with a happy family.

You have a life of confidence in verse 3.

The confidence is seen again in verse 9.

Whoever has integrity walks securely.

I mean, these are good words, aren't they?

You want to know what the wise life looks like?

You have confidence with your life.

You're not doubting everything.

You're not, you know, to use the language of Ephesians 4.

You're not the immature person who is thrown this way and that and tossed about in Ephesians 4.

You're tossed about, but every wave of doctrine, every new teaching knocks you this way and that way.

That's immature.

You don't want to be that person.

The contrast with that person is the mature person, the full-grown man in 1 Corinthians 13, who's strong and bold and everything is knit together.

Or it's the image here.

In verse 9, he walks securely.

Verse 15, he's in a strong city.

That exudes confidence.

Verse 29.

He's a stronghold.

Verse 30, he's never going to be moved.

He has a life of abundance in verse 4.

The diligent makes rich.

And this isn't so much like a spiritual promise as if you work hard, God's going to supernaturally bless you.

It's just the wise person knows when to plant the seeds and when to water the plants and when to harvest them, and he's going to have money.

Because he works and he saves and he doesn't spend his money on foolish things, so he's going to have, he's going to be rich, it says in verse 4.

That's just the reward of wisdom.

In verse 21.

Verse 22: the blessing of Yahweh makes him rich.

And the heart of all this is his teachable in verse 8.

The wise heart will receive commandments.

His heart is open to instruction.

So he's always learning new things.

He's always changing what he's doing to grow in a positive way, not in a way that erodes his confidence.

He's not getting tossed this way and that way by every shifting sand of doctrine, but he is open to being instructed by the Word of God all the time.

That's the center of this passage.

His lips, verse 12, cover offenses.

Love covers all offenses.

We'll come back to that verse a few more times.

But love covers offenses.

That's quoted in the New Testament.

But here is just saying the wise person uses lips to guard people.

He doesn't try to expose every wrong in the house.

He'd be a miserable person to live with, though his lips cover offenses.

But the main thing that categorizes the wise person, the reward of wisdom here, is that he's wise.

I mean, that's the main thing.

It's circular logic, but it's airtight logic.

I'll tell you that.

The lips of him in verse 13 who has understanding, wisdom is found there.

Verse 14, the wise are laying up knowledge, they're storing it away.

Verse 19, he restrains his lips, is prudent.

Like he's he's keeping his speech to himself.

That's showing his prudence.

Verse 31, even.

The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom.

So he squirrels it away by closing his lips, and when he opens his lips, it comes out.

But most of all, this is my favorite description of the wise guy here.

He's happy.

The wise person's happy.

He just generally likes life.

Wisdom, verse 23, is a pleasure to the man of understanding.

Verse 24, the desire of the righteous will be granted.

He wants something and he gets it.

Verse 28, the righteous, the hope of the righteous brings him joy.

And verse 32, the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable.

Remember, wisdom is the ability to function in God's fallen world with dignity, honor, shrewdness, and all that, prosperity.

So he's happy.

He's figured out the way the world works.

He doesn't know all the nooks and crannies of the world, but generally speaking, he's figured out how the way the world works, and it's that didn't make him a skeptic.

That didn't make him a crotchety old man or a grumpy grandpa or anything.

He figured out the way the world works and he d has joy.

He's like, Yay! Life.

How can he look at the future and smile at it?

You're gonna see that phrase again, too, by the way, in Proverbs 31.

Proverbs 31, woman smiles at the future.

They're made for each other, this guy and that girl.

They are.

They just like life together.

They're looking to the future.

It's gonna snow tomorrow.

Kids got bittens.

We're set.

Like they like life.

They're happy.

What a contrast with the fruit of folly.

The fruit of folly is such a different kind of person.

This person brings sorrow to their family.

Verse 1, the foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.

The wise person, everybody was happy when he was around.

Not the foolish person, they have tears.

The foolish person doesn't have profit.

You know their riches don't profit in verse 2.

In verse 4, the slack hand causes poverty.

That's kind of in Hebrew, it's funny, the slack hand makes poverty.

It's a contradiction or a paradox.

A slack hand is a slack, the Hebrew expression for slack hand means it's a lame hand.

It can't make anything.

So the lame hand crafts poverty.

The only thing the lame hand can make is emptiness, poverty.

Verse 20 the heart of the wicked has little value.

See all the contrast in that?

All of his ways are thwarted.

God thwarts it in verse 3.

In verse 8, a babbling fool will come to ruin.

You know, the heart of the wise person was producing life, the babbling fool, and it is kind of a water pun.

It's a similar pun in English, like a babbling brook, and it's anomalopoetic, a babbling fool.

It's the same kind of pun in Hebrew that the, you know, the righteous guy has a fountain of life, but the fool is just like his mouth babbles and it eventually Peter's out.

The water runs dry.

Everything he does is thwarted.

Verse 30 reiterates that the wicked will not dwell in the land.

This guy, the wise person, conceals offenses to help his family and live, you know, peacefully.

But this guy, he conceals violence.

That's in verse 6.

The mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

That's not the right kind of concealing.

You know, the wise person knows how to conceal little things in his family and cover up offenses, but this person is covering up actual violence.

The irony is he's going to be discovered.

Verse 11, the mouth of the wicked conceals violence again.

It said twice about him.

Verse 6 and verse 11, the same exact expression.

And the irony is that it will be exposed.

In verses 9 and 13, he gets exposed.

The way he makes, when he makes his way crooked in verse 9, he gets found out.

A rod is for the back of him who lacks sense.

He's going to be exposed as a fool, even though he tries to cover it up.

Well, the wise person is marked by happiness and joy and wisdom.

This person is marked by strife, sin, slander.

Verse 12, hatred stirs up strife.

Verse 16, the gain of the wicked is sin.

That's all they're growing in.

Sin.

Verse 18.

The one who conceals hatred has lying lips.

In verse 19, he's speaking so much, transgression is everywhere.

Verse 23, doing wrong is like a joke to the fool.

Something just comes naturally all the time, he's doing it.

It's so different than the wise person.

This leads, of course, to ruin and dread.

In verse 8, he just wrecks his life.

He's going to come to ruin, verse 8 says.

In verse 10, same thing, he comes to ruin.

Verse 14 and 15, the mouth of the fool brings ruin near.

Poverty of the poor is their ruin in verse 15.

The wheels come off the thing.

Verse 21 and 24, fools die for lack of sense.

And that's exactly what happens to him.

Because he's so foolish.

He can't take his eyes off of it.

He runs right into it.

Verse 29 says something similar.

Destruction comes to the evildoer.

Whereas the wise person brought wisdom and prosperity to people, his own life was a strong city, it said in verse 15.

For the wise person, he was a fountain of life.

In other words, he, you know, there's this community water pool.

In the ancient Uriah, you got the water pool, everybody's getting water from the same well.

The wise person guards the well, and everybody can drink from his life.

Not the foolish person.

The foolish person poisons the well, he spits in the well.

He leads people astray, verse 17 says.

He rejects reproof, leads others astray, because he won't be taught, because he won't be corrected.

He ends up getting others to go astray with him.

So as the wise person multiplies wisdom, the fool here multiplies sin and is leading others astray with him.

Verse 32, the mouth of the wicked is what is perverse.

How the chapter ends.

And then ultimately, we talked about this earlier, the fool ends up perishing.

Verses 25 say that, verse 27, verse 28, you can look at that one.

The expectation of the wicked will perish, all their hope will die with them.

Verse 31, the perverse tongue will be cut off.

Eventually it all runs its course.

So when you look at this altogether, you get this kind of contrast.

This is everything that was on the last two slides.

They're not paired.

This is kind of the order you find them in the chapter.

But as you just look at the list, like it's supposed to be an overwhelming.

This is why I meant a tsunami.

It's supposed to be an overwhelming tsunami of just this massive contrast between the righteous and the wicked.

I want to try to pull these together and categorize them a little bit more specifically because it's hard to walk away with like, oh, here, there's 16 differences between the wiz, the wise and the fool.

So I'll just give you four.

Four differences between the wise person and the fool.

First is family.

First is family.

And this is the same things around the list before.

Like I said, you're just getting the same content again.

But the family.

Did you notice here when you bring this whole list together?

The wise person, his family likes him.

And this, I just want to drive this home.

Remember, it's interesting that's where Solomon starts because the context of Proverbs is the dad talking to his kid.

And so he's just trying to warn his kid, like, listen, I want a good relationship with you in 15 years.

I want to like you.

I don't want your mom to cry when you come home from college, okay?

In a bad way, cry.

She'll probably cry in a good way.

We're not talking about that.

I want him to be excited when you when you show up.

Yeah, there was a family here this morning whose uh son came home from liberty and he took the train last night and surprised his parents on the way out the door to church this morning, and they sat towards the front in church and they had big smiles on their face, and it's like that's that's that's the blessing that's available to you.

Like you're the kid that shows up and you you crash your family on the way to church, and they're excited to see you, and it's just a joy to all come together, and what a joy that is.

I mean, that's yours.

That's what the dad is telling the kid.

That's yours.

You can have that.

But only if you choose wisdom.

And meanwhile, you have the other kind of kid who just brings sorrow, verse one says.

Just sorrow to the mom.

Why does it bring sorrow to the mom?

Now there's bad, there's bad reasons.

It brings sorrow to mom because sometimes mom have unreal expectations and they're living their life vicariously through their kids and putting all their things under their kids, and so they they cry because their kids aren't living up to their unrealistic expectations.

A very common thing in our American culture.

It's a very common source of strife between parents and kids as parents have these unrealistic expectations in their kids.

Why can't you be perfect like I'm perfect and your mom is perfect, and my grandma's perfect, and you're failing rah.

There's that.

That's not what's at stake here in verse one, though.

It's not that kind of sorrow.

This is the kind of sorrow like, listen, we're trying to have a happy life together as a family, and you keep inserting heartbreak into it.

You keep inserting foolishness into it, you keep inserting things that are going to tear apart.

It's interesting, this is where Solomon starts because so much of Proverbs is we we take it in our individualistic Western way, we take it as personal.

How are you going to speak?

How are you gonna view money?

How are you gonna view work?

How are you gonna view your friends?

It's you, you, you, you, you.

We're so individualistic.

And Solomon starts here by saying, you may make your decisions privately, but it is not private.

Nothing in Proverbs is private.

Your life affects everybody around you, and no more, no more better example than your family.

So the wise person fits in and gets along well with his family.

And the fool burns it all down.

That's part of covering offenses, by the way.

The wise person covers offenses.

You're not highlighting everything in the home, you're covering it up.

But the fool doesn't understand that.

The fool doesn't understand.

The fool covers up violence, the fool covers up abuse, the fool covers up things that harm people.

The wise person covers up offenses against each other, but the fool covers up violence.

And that, of course, ends up destroying the family and the home.

So the first contrast is in the world of the family.

Second contrast is the world of just life.

A long and a happy life versus a fruitless and perishing life.

You see those two paired together in verse 27.

That's the clearest place to see them.

The fear of Yahweh prolongs life.

But the wicked person, man, their life is so short.

Their life is so short.

You see it in verse 10.

Whoever winks the eye causes trouble, and a babbling fool comes to ruin.

Like he's going to end up, it's gonna cost him his own life.

What a contrast with the heart of the righteous person, verse 11.

Start verse 11, just a fountain of life.

Hatred, verse 12, stirs up strife.

Love, as I mentioned, covers all kinds of offenses.

There's just this attitude towards life, long and happy and abundant, and you're working hard and you're getting paid for your work because you're working hard, that gives you a contentedness in life.

The contrast is the fool has a fruitless life.

Like his wheels just spin.

He's never getting anywhere.

His wheels just spin.

Ultimately, that attitude takes him all the way to his death.

Third contrast is the attitude, just their general disposition.

Confidence.

Remember, we said that the wise person has a confident life.

They walk with their head up and their feet are secure.

They laugh at the future.

Like they're just happy to be here.

And everything the fool does is thwarted.

He turns this way and that way, and he gets frustrated at life because of that.

The wise person has abundance.

Not an abundance of health and wealth.

That's not what we're talking about.

He just has an abundance of life and happiness and joy.

Meanwhile, the things the fool does, give him no profit at all.

You see that, of course, in verse 30.

The righteous will never be moved.

And the wicked, he won't even dwell in the land tomorrow.

And the last point of contrast here is the heart.

And ultimately, the heart of the wise person is teachable.

It was only in there one time.

But it's verse 8, the wise heart receives commandments.

He's teachable.

The word of God is doing its work in his heart.

Whereas the contrast, of course, is that of the heart that is stirring up strife because of his hatred, stirring up sin, stirring up slander.

You know, Jesus says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, right?

That's a very common verse.

We you know that verse.

Why is that true?

Why is it true?

Like, why does the the mouth such a good place to see what a person is like?

Because that's really how you're on display here.

Wisdom is not seen in the person that goes to the gym for an hour a day.

It's not seen in the person with the good body and the ripped biceps or whatnot.

Like, that's not how you see wisdom.

If that's what it was, then you could judge it from the outside.

You can't, though.

You can deduce secondary effects.

Like you can see how somebody fits in with their family and the relationships around them and their general disposition towards life.

That's a good window into this.

So you can tell if somebody generally happy a mark of wisdom, is somebody generally angry a mark of folly here.

But you have to get to know the person for a while.

And so it's here's you can just listen to them.

Like that's what's on display.

And as they talk, are they saying wise things or are they slandering?

Stirring up strife.

That's the fool.

That's the fool.

And that's why the heart is such a good window into the soul.

When you take all these together, it gives you a pretty clear practical contrast.

And Solomon's point here is this is what kind of person you can be.

He's laying it out to the teenager here.

You can make the choice to be the wise person.

You really can.

It takes work, it takes effort, it takes learning proverbs and applying them.

It takes studying the word of God, it takes confessing sin, hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

Like there's antecedent prerequisites here, things you have to do to receive wisdom.

It doesn't just fall from heaven to you.

But it's not impossible.

You're not going to have to say, who, where's wisdom?

Who can go to the bottom of the ocean and get it?

Who can fly up to the moon and grab it?

I don't know where wisdom is.

No, it's very near you.

It's in your mouth, it's in your heart, it's on your tongue, it's in the word in your lap.

Like it's so close to you.

You can find it.

It's there for you.

And this carries all the way throughout your whole life, all the way to your death.

Verse 7 the memory of a righteous man is a blessing.

Do you want to be remembered after you die?

Is that your goal in life?

To lead the kind of life where people remember you when you die?

It's a silly goal.

People won't remember you.

Maybe your kids will remember you.

Maybe your grandkids will remember you.

Maybe your great-grandkids might remember you and spell some of your name correctly.

I mean, people remember George Washington, but for how much longer?

Reading my family with my family through Exodus just jarred me at the beginning of Exodus when a generation rose in Egypt who didn't know who Joseph was, and you're like, what are you kidding me?

At the end of Genesis, Joseph made Egypt the wealthiest nation in the world.

He did incredible things, and it wasn't that he did them secretly and he was a Jew, so people hid them up.

No, he did them openly, and Pharaoh celebrated him.

Like it wasn't a disgrace that he was Jewish.

Like they leaned into it and loved it, and he was so celebrated.

Everybody loved him because he made them so rich.

And how long did it last?

400 years.

Yeah, how long did it last?

And the new people come up and they're like, Johu?

Maybe they forget Joseph and they'll forget George Washington and they'll forget you.

So when it says in verse 7, the memory of a righteous person is a blessing.

That just means in their awake.

You know, your family that comes after you.

You're an actor on a stage for such a short period of time, and then you exit stage right.

What do you leave where you were in the stage?

Good relationships with those around you, or do you burn the whole thing down?

The righteous person is remembered with fondness.

I say, oh, do you remember that guy?

Do you remember that lady?

Oh man, she was sweet.

Oh man, he had integrity.

He was a blessing to be around.

That's really all you can ask for in terms of being remembered.

That doesn't give your life significance.

You're not living in order to be remembered.

It's just a little marker that the wise person is remembered well.

Because if you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you'll be with the Lord forever.

People won't have to remember you again when they see you in the next life.

They'll encounter you there.

And if you're a wise person, they'll smile when they see you.

And enjoy worshiping the Lord with you forever.

God, we're grateful for this contrast that you've given us.

We want to be the kind of person that walks in wisdom.

By your grace, Lord, help us delight in wisdom as we live for you and your glory.

We give you thanks for this chapter in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.

For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to TMS.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.