I ask you to open your Bibles to Proverbs 17. We're going to get back into our study of the Book of Proverbs. We've taken a break for a number of weeks to consider a few other portions of Scripture. I had selections from the Psalms. We considered the Book of Amos. And now we're back to Proverbs 17. I'm going to read the entire chapter. But we're going to consider merely the first three verses this morning. So again, I'll read the entire chapter. We're going to pay particular attention to the first three verses of Proverbs 17. Please remember that this is God's holy word that he preserved for his people and kept it pure in all ages. Proverbs 17. Better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith than a house full of sacrifices with strife. A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren. The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but the Lord trieth the hearts. A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips, and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue. Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his maker, and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished. The children's children are the crown of old men, and the glory of children are their fathers. Excellent speech becometh not a fool, much less do lying lips a prince. A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it, whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth. He that covereth a transgression seeketh love, but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends. A reproof entereth more into a wise man than a hundred stripes into a fool. An evil man seeketh only rebellion, therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him. Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man rather than a fool in his folly. Whosoever rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house. The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water, therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with. he that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it? A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born of adversity. A man void of understanding striketh hands, and becometh surety in the presence of his friend. He loveth transgression that loveth strife, and he that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction. He that hath a froward heart findeth no good, and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief. He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow, and the father of a fool hath no joy. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dryeth the bones. A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment. Wisdom is before him that hath understanding, but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth. A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bear him. Also to punish the just is not good, nor to strike princes for equity. He that hath knowledge spareth his words, and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise. And he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding." We pray that the Lord would bless the reading of his Word. As we go back and consider the first three verses, we're reminded of the pattern that Solomon uses in these Proverbs of setting One position in opposition to its counterpart. So A and not A, if you will. One thing may be the case and the opposite is also the case. And so we have that pattern played out in Proverbs chapter 17. Our goal today is to consider how we as believers should prize peace and godly simplicity above outward prosperity. We should understand that God uses trials to refine character and test hearts. That's not something that the world would have us believe. We should focus on the outside things according to the world, the outward prosperity, the old marketing ploy of he who dies with the most toys wins. And many times people think that they're judged by how they keep up with their Joneses, so to speak, their neighbors. We get into these contests without fully acknowledging that that's what we're doing or even aware that we're doing it. And we realize, sometimes too late, sometimes the Lord brings a change of heart. We realize that, wait a minute, I'm focusing on the wrong things. I need to refocus on the proper things. The things that God would have me consider as more valuable. And so our first three verses of chapter 17 are our focus today. And those are going to be our three points. The first thing that we're going to see in verse 1 is we should value peace over plenty. And sure, it's possible to have both. But we're talking about what we should esteem. So peace over plenty in verse 1. We're going to think about servants and sons in verse 2. Servants and sons. And then in verse 3, we're going to talk about God and the heart. God and the heart. We need to consider in these verses that true wisdom, which is what the purpose of the Book of Proverbs is, is to be skilled in the art of godly living. It's one of the definitions that we've talked about in the past of wisdom. to be skilled in the art of godly living. True wisdom is that peace in the fear of God is better than prosperity with strife. For God tests our hearts to purify our motives and direct our affections toward Himself. God's not going to allow us to glorify anything other than Him. And when we try to do that, there are going to be consequences. We're going to think about that together this morning. The first thing we do, let's turn our attention to Proverbs 17.1. Better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith, than a house full of sacrifices with strife." What is a dry morsel in this context? What does Solomon tell us? Well, a dry morsel, a frugal meal, some sort of poverty meal. There's all sorts of nonsensical videos where you can find on YouTube and other places where people are talking about struggle meals and What can you do with a little bit of money? How can you eat well with not a lot of money? It's well intended. That's the concept that we have in mind. Solomon is saying that it's better to have this dry morsel, to have a frugal meal. You have the idea of not some sort of elaborate spread. You know, many newlywed couples will look back after a period of years, they'll look back on some of the struggle meals that they would have had back in the day. And certainly individuals, we think a lot of times of young people just starting out, or they're leaving the home, or they're just learning to cook for that matter. It doesn't even matter if they leave the home or not. And you think of the ramen noodles. And maybe you drain off some of the broth and you add an egg, or you add some cheese, or you gussy it up with what little you have. And it's not ideal, certainly. I mean, a nutritionist might wince as you're doing some of these things. But that's the meal that you have. But it's not just the meal. It's the dry morsel and the quietness therewith, the quietness that comes with that. What kind of quietness do we have in here? It comes from the concept of peace, or security, or tranquility. You're not longing for something else. You're content with what you have because you understand that this is what the Lord has provided. Would it be great to be able to sit at a banquet with a fancy spread? Absolutely. But by God's providence, in this context, in verse 1, what we have is, look, I have the meal that's before me. It's not the greatest thing in the world. It's what I have. It's what the Lord has provided. And you know, I'm okay with that. The idea of quietness has in mind not a grumbling or complaining spirit. Not necessarily like in the auditory sense of quiet, although it would likely be that as well. Because isn't it often the case that when we're not content internally, that manifests itself externally? We're not content with what the Lord has given us. We don't just grumble on the inside. A lot of times we're grumbling on the outside. And we make ourselves miserable and we do damage to our relationships because we make other people miserable. If not just because we're hearing the complaining, we start thinking about our own insecurities, our own discontent. Hey, you know what? Yeah, he's right. This stinks. This is awful. And then we start doing the same things. That's what sin does. It's like cancer. It metastasizes. It spreads. And so what Solomon is referring to here, it would be better to eat a tiny little meal, maybe that ramen with the egg and the cheese in it, yeah. If that's all you have, there's nothing wrong with that if you understand that there's peace and stability and security in that because you recognize that the Lord has given it to you. He said, that is better than having a house full of sacrifices with strife. And this is where, a lot of times, people misconstrue what Solomon's actually saying. Well, you can't have any wealth at all, you gotta live a poor, humble life. If the Lord has ordained a period of time to not be as wealthy, you gotta be content with that, because that's what the Lord has ordained. But if the Lord gives you an abundance, He's not giving you an abundance just for funsies, He's giving it to you so that you can glorify Him with how you utilize that. See, the opposite here isn't just, it's not a question of wealth or poverty, and poverty is virtuous, wealth is evil it's not money being the root of all kinds of evil it's the love of money see that the goal here the focus in verse 1 is are we content with what the Lord has established for our lives and what Solomon is telling us and certainly Solomon I mean it sounds weird coming from him because he has the abundance but he also has the wisdom the double portion of wisdom. And what he's telling us is something to which we should pay attention. And what he's saying is, whatever we have is what the Lord wants us to have. And if we're quiet in our spirit, recognizing that, hey, the Lord has seen fit to give this to me. Yeah, I would love to have that other stuff, but I'm, you know, in the grand scheme of things, I'm not supposed to have it because God didn't give it to me. And so I'm going to be content. I'm going to be quiet in my spirit. I'm going to be satisfied with the Lord's provision. Solomon said it's better to have a little bit like that than to have all the things that you could possibly imagine. All the portions, all the different types of foods, whatever serving sizes that you want. and have conflict. See, there's peace and there's chaos. There's peace with God, and then there's the chaos that comes when our hearts are not right with God. We saw that with Peter talking to Simon. And so what Solomon is telling us is in this context, usually, these sacrificial meals had prosperity and oftentimes were mixed with this sort of over-appreciation, almost idolatry towards the abundance. And so that's where the strife comes into play. Think of the idea of not only putting on the feast, but then boasting that you're able to put on the feast, and then comparing it to other feasts. What is that, if not conflict? I'm better than them who put this feast on the last time, but mine is better, and theirs is worse because I'm better than them." That's the conflict. That's the strife. You're comparing yourself to someone else and not resting, trusting that the Lord knows what He does, and not thanking the Lord for providing whatever sort of affluence you have. Solomon said it would be better to have a little and have the peace with God than to have a lot and to have an acrimonious relationship with Him. And if we see from Psalm 711 that God is angry with the wicked every day, we see that with that abundance, if it comes at the expense of our relationship with the Lord, then what we have is wickedness. So it's not a question of poverty versus affluence. It's a question of contentment with the Lord versus discontentment with the Lord and His provision. Solomon is talking about the inner tranquility that David would refer to, knowing that our sins are forgiven and our iniquities are covered. When we have peace with God, that's first and foremost the most important thing for us. If we have good food to eat, or an abundance of it, hey, praise the Lord for that. But if we've got just enough to fit in our hands, to put in a bowl, to keep us going to the next meal, praise the Lord for that too. See, that's what we have the biggest trouble with in our society. Because our society is made up of sinners. It's not an American thing, it's a sin thing. Because we don't understand that if I have a lot or a little, I have it because God ordained it. Now, that doesn't mean we can't pray for a little bit more food. I'm not saying that, but we're still praying for that food. Because we don't have a lot, but we have the Lord. It doesn't justify us going out and taking food or stealing food. But in this context, what Solomon is saying, the tranquility with modest provision and God on our side is better than an external abundance And an internal conflict. Now that internal conflict isn't just the space between our ears. It's within our households. The sacrificial feast we talk about here represent a prosperous household involved in regular worship, but not necessarily godliness. And that's external religion. We've talked about that in different contexts. We've talked about it within the framework of attending church, but not believing anything that was said. Of looking the part, but not acting the part. This is just another way of discussing religious hypocrisy. It's just within the framework of a meal. The language that Solomon is using is to have a little bit of food, but a lot of godliness, versus a lot of food and no godliness. And it's really not a lot of godliness, because you either have godliness or you don't. It's an all or nothing thing. God either gives you that holiness or you don't have that holiness. And what Solomon is saying is we have to prioritize spiritual peace over material gain. And that is completely opposite from what the world would tell us. I can't tell you how many students stress themselves out over trying to have enough stuff on their resume, as it were, to convince a college to let them in because they've been convinced and I'm not knocking education and I'm not even knocking a college education. But if the mindset is you do all these things in school, in high school, in order to look attractive to a college, in order to get into that college, and then you have to join the right groups in order to be acceptable in this profession. Do you see how worldly that is? Do you see how externally focused that is? And when we go down that road, we are completely flipping what God would have us do with our lives. Our focus, as Solomon talks about it in verse 1, we have to prioritize spiritual peace, even if it means we don't have all the right things. To go back to my ramen meal, if we have the Lord on our side, we can be content with ramen. People say, well, oh, the processed food and the high sodium. I get it. I'm right there with you. And how would we apply that to a non-food situation? Well, let's use the school situation. We have tons of people beating themselves, wearing themselves out, activitying themselves out to put it on a resume or to put it on an application. And they don't have the Lord. Or they've lost Him along the way. Now, flip that around. You have somebody walking with the Lord. They're not ignorant of doing things, but they're doing things... You have two high school students, they're doing things because they want to glorify God. And they're not focused with getting into the quote, perfect school, or the right school, or whatever. They're content with a school close by that meets their needs, that helps them do things in their local church. They're close by to worship with God's people. But it's not, you say, it's not the most prestigious. You could do so much better. No, I want to glorify the Lord. And so I'll do with less in the material world, because I value my relationship with the Lord first and foremost. Still gonna, side by side on paper, same grade point average. Same number of activities. Identical in every way. One glorifies the Lord, one doesn't. The one that has the Lord on his side or her side is blessed in this context. But even if they weren't identical, even if they were polar opposites, one's going to the best school in the world, one's going to the... not so much. Solomon would say, That the one that's going to the one that's not so good, but has peace with God, it's better for them than the other person that could have all the things that the world could provide for them, but doesn't have the Lord. I've said this before, I've referenced it before, Ian Paisley said, it's better to have the Lord for you and the world against you than the world for you and the Lord against you. This is what Solomon is saying here. He's just putting it in a food analogy. Now, this isn't only a Christian-non-Christian conversation. Christian homes can fall into this trap. We get into the weeds as well. Even religiously active homes can be spiritually bankrupt without peace. Without peace with whom? Without peace with one another? Sure. But that peace with one another comes from, first and foremost, having peace with God. And if we're out of accord with Him, we can't be surprised when we're out of accord with one another. We have to all examine our own lives to see exactly what our priorities are. Solomon would say, you actually are doing more with less. Because if you have less materially, but you have God, you have everything you need. And this plays itself out in the Psalms and elsewhere. Psalm 37 verse 16 says, "...a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked." Read that again, Psalm 37 verse 16. "...a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked." The temptation is just to be like the world, only with Jesus. We have to be content with the possibility that that's not going to be the case, and be okay with that. But as we think about what evangelism is, as we think about what Christianity is, we can't think that you can be just like the world, you just have Jesus, so it's better. No, it's quite possible that we will have Jesus and not have anything close to what the world says is acceptable, and that needs to be okay with us. Because God's Word says it should be okay with us. It's better to be a righteous man and live in your car than to be wicked and to have a mansion." That's basically what Solomon and David are saying. It would be better to have the Lord and a tent than a compound and be a child of the devil. Because it's a matter of priority. It's a matter of what is our focus. Are we glorifying the Lord and being content with what He's provided? Or are we glorifying ourselves and striving to get something that we'll never actually fully possess and will go away? Now Jesus has strong words about that, right? We're supposed to not lay up for ourselves treasures on earth. where thieves break in and steal, and moths destroy, and it just wears out. That's not our focus. We should seek first the Kingdom of Heaven. That's what Solomon is telling us here. Solomon says just a few chapters back in Proverbs 15 and verse 16, "...better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith." Now, at least you could say, okay, well Solomon's consistent. But it's consistent with everywhere in Scripture. Not that we need to pile up verses. If God's word says it one time, that's enough. And similarly in Ecclesiastes, better is a handful with quietness than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit. That's a little bit more detailed, a little bit grittier for us to understand. Better is a handful with quietness than both hands full with travail and vexation of spirit. So I guess the question we need to think about is are we bringing vexation of spirit into our lives with how we're living and what we're prioritizing? Not to say that it's not wise to be able to foresee trouble coming and prepare for it. That might mean we have a full pantry. That's not the same thing as pursuing the worldly things and vexing our own spirits as a result of it. It's exhausting to do that, and we can never do enough. That's the problem. When our priorities are self-pleasing and self-satisfying, we can never do enough. There's always going to be more, and it's exhausting. It's exhausting physically, it's exhausting mentally, it's exhausting spiritually, because there are only 168 hours in the week. And the time we take doing this is the time we can't do doing that. And the time that we vex our spirits, like we see in Ecclesiastes, keeping both of our hands full, is the time we can't have one hand full and the quietness with God. The more we do, do, do, the less that we can interact with the Lord. In our private worship, in our family worship, our corporate worship suffers. Our practical piety suffers. That's what Solomon is telling us. These are pleas, in fact, for us to think about how we're living our lives. Charles Bridges said, Godliness with contentment is great gain. A crust with peace and godliness is a royal portion. Think about who we are in Christ. We're sons and daughters of the King. We're royalty as Christians. In a spiritual sense, we are in the royal family. So anything we have is a royal feast. It's only when we try to make it a royal feast by our standard, and not God's standards, that we find ourselves off in the weeds. It doesn't matter if our shared meal was day-old bread and room-temperature water. Our shared meal among royalty is still a royal meal. And it's made royal by God himself, not by us. The fanciness, as much as we love our shared meals, the fanciness of them is just icing on the cake because people love us and they want to do the best and they want to bring good food. Those are all blessings. But even if we were on the run and we're tossing bread to each other as we're fleeing from the authorities, that's still a royal meal because we're in Christ. And that should be okay with us. I realize that's an extreme example, but the priority is still where it needs to be. It's seeing that the peace that we have, the provision that we have, the prosperity that we have comes from our relationship with the Lord through Jesus Christ. Spurgeon said, there's more joy in the cabin with Christ than in the palace without him. Read that again. There's more joy in the cabin with Christ than in the palace without Him. Have in mind, just sitting in this expansive palace, and it's just you, and the emptiness that comes from not having a right relationship with God. Wondering if you had enough, what are you going to do to hold on to it? What's going to happen to it when you're gone? What's your legacy going to be? It's all I, I, I, and me, me, me. Matthew Henry said, "...many live in plenty, but not in peace. Better to dine on a dry crust with quietness than to feast in a house full of sacrifice where there's strife. Many live in plenty, but not in peace." What's worse is when you don't have anything and you don't have peace. That's a conversation for another time. What Solomon is saying, it's better to have a little and know that you have peace with God. Your priorities are in order, you're content with what He's provided for you. So as Solomon starts this process by helping us understand where priorities are, he then shifts. As he talks about a house that has strife, we think about the phrase in Ecclesiastes that has a vexation of spirit. We're going to talk about what wisdom in the household order might look like in verse 2, as he talks about servants and sons here. Wisdom in household order. A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren. A wise servant... Dominion or governance, this idea, the wise servant may rule, may exercise authority. May exercise authority over the son that causeth shame. Let's talk about that phrase for a moment. The son that causeth shame. Think about that wayward son in the parable of the prodigal son. It causes shame. Not only is he rebellious, he asks for his inheritance. He not only squanders it, but then he's serving in a non-Israelite context around unclean animals. And the pigs eat better than he does. Think of the shame that that would cause. So the son that causeth shame, he's a foolish, he's a disgraceful heir. The son has the biological connection to the father. The wise servant is doing the father's will, submitting to the father's will, as a master-servant relationship that we've talked about in other contests. It's that wise servant that will rule, that will exercise governance over the son that might have a legitimate claim to it, but has brought shame and disgrace to the family. And Solomon says, he shall have part in the inheritance among the brethren. So among all the family, that wise servant isn't usurping the disgraceful son, but he's certainly taking that place and exercising authority over that disgraceful son. So what Solomon is doing here is breaking up what a lot of people think are the cultural expectations of inheritance. And that it's wisdom and not status that qualifies a person for authority. Now a lot of times we see this play out when we think about the offices of the church. I've seen many a church, at least some of the congregation members will say, well we want to make this person an elder because he's a pillar in the community and he's a successful businessman. Well, how did he become successful? Just because he has status doesn't mean that necessarily he has wisdom. They'll say, oh, well, we'll make this person an elder because he hasn't been coming to church for a while. So if we give him some leadership authority, then he'll show up to church. We should run fast and far from churches that think about status like that versus godly wisdom. When we think about wisdom, skill in the art of godly living, the wise servant, He doesn't have the biological status, but he has the theological status. He's wise, he's skilled in the art of living faithfully and in a godly way. That's the sort of living that brings honor and glory to a household, but it also has as its own reward access to the inheritance. Now, this language should make a lot of sense to us. Because, think broadly in the whole of the Scriptures. We have the Israelites, and then we have Gentiles. Now yes, among the inheritance here, among the brothers, we have faithful Israelites, and then we have disgraceful Israelites. We have Israelites that causeth shame. But we also have, and you can pay attention if you look at the beginning of Matthew, that whole bloodline. You have non-Israelites, you have Gentiles grafted in. We talk about the ingrafting of the Gentile community. But in this context, in verse 2 of chapter 17, we have it played out again. The wise servant, the one who's skilled in the art of godly living, the one that believes in the one that God sent, Jew or Gentile, but in this case we're thinking about Gentile because the servant is the outsider. And we as Gentiles, we're outsiders grafted in by faith. So we're discussed in this context. That it's not status, it's not bloodline that leads to righteousness. What does Jesus say to those people that say, we have Abraham as our father? If you had Abraham as your father, you would do the works of Abraham. And what were the works of Abraham? To believe. And it was reckoned to him as righteousness. To trust. To believe. So it's not bloodline. That's what Solomon is saying in chapter 17, verse 2. that it is faithfulness being greater than bloodline that leads to sharing in the inheritance among the brethren." So they're godly Israelites walking by faith. We see this in Hebrews. We see that hall of fame of faith played out. Moses, Abraham, Rahab, others walking by faith. We, who are trusting in Christ for our salvation alone, are walking by faith and not by sight. We are the wise servants that will share in the inheritance of our brethren, the godly Israelites in the Old Testament that live by faith. The others, who don't have the Son, and therefore don't have the Father, they're the ones who are causing shame to God. So that's what Solomon is telling us. Spiritual headship and leadership is granted to those who are faithful stewards. Not just people that have a high position or a lofty reputation among folks. It's not about who you are on the outside. It is how are you interacting with the Lord who made you. And it's better to... To be a wise servant. To be that outsider that's living by faith. To be skilled in the art of living in a godly way. And how do we do that? We read the Word. We are students of God's Word. Joe Beekie tells the story about how people talk about the Puritans, and if you prick them, they'll bleed the Scriptures. We say, yeah, well they didn't have any distractions. They didn't have social media. They didn't have phones. They didn't have multiple email accounts and all the apps that you could possibly want. So they didn't have distractions. Oh, they have distractions. There's nothing new under the sun. There are all sorts of distractions. They just look differently for them as us. Because the distractions come from our minds. Because of the sin and the effects of the fall that impact our minds. We don't need some sort of external temptation to not study God's Word, but we need to be students of the Word, and not just hearers of it, but doers of it as well. We'll be skilled in the art of living in a godly way, and we'll share in the inheritance that we have with our brothers, those faithful saints of old, that lived looking forward to Christ as we look back on what He's done. John Gill said, Sometimes it is so ordered in providence that servants through wisdom and diligence are preferred before the children of their master. Can you imagine the hurt in the head of a household? I don't even want to fathom it. That servants through wisdom and diligence are preferred before the children of their masters. 1 Samuel 2 verse 30 says, "...them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." Can you imagine being lightly esteemed by God? We don't have to imagine it. In our natural state, that's how we are. But as God's Word is applied to us by His Spirit, and we see the wisdom that it contains, and who God is, and who we are, and how loving, and patient, and merciful, and kind He is to us, the only right response is to be that wise servant. We're not a part of the household. But we're esteemed like we're a part of the household. Because we're grafted into the vine, we're welcomed into the family. This is the doctrine of adoption that we discuss. We are adopted sons and daughters in God's family. And so, we're not biological, but we're theological sons and daughters. And as a result, He esteems us more than He esteems a son that causeth shame. One who does not acquiesce, that does not submit, that is rebellious. or rebellious sons and daughters got death sentences in Israel. It wasn't just a bad attitude here and there, waking up caught up in some sort of feeling. It was open, willful, and wanton, vicious, continuous, intentional rebellion. And it's supposed to sort of help us understand that how we interact with our own earthly families is how we interact with our Heavenly Father. We are rebels by nature. We need God to change us, to engraft us, if you will, to make us wise, because we're foolish. We are, all of us, sons who cause shame, and we need to be made wise." And Solomon's telling us what winds up happening as a result of that. The wise servant, who might not have been a part of things at first, the Gentiles, if you will, as they're brought into the family, they share in the inheritance. The promises that are discussed in the Old Testament, fulfilled in Christ, are our promises. They aren't just to physical Israel of the Old Testament, and they're certainly not to the nation-state of Israel that bears no resemblance to the Old Testament Israelites. As far as the theological side of things go, no connection. Unless they're in Christ. Unless those folks repent of their sin and trust in the Savior that was prefigured in the Old Testament and exposed to the world and presented to the world in the New Testament. Solomon goes on to discuss how this takes place. So we talk about the blessing of being content in the Lord, even if we have a little, because it's a focus on being God-centered and being Christ-centered. And we see the benefit that comes The servant will be treated as the son, will rule over that son that causes shame if he's skilled in the art of living in a godly way. And how does that take place? Look at verse 3. See the Lord testing the heart. The finding pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord trieth the hearts. So the finding pot and the furnace. It's that refining process that removes the dross and leaves the pure precious metal. Both of those things have in mind that refining heat that strips away the waste and separates it. And what is left? The waste is cast aside. It's useless. What is left? That which is valuable. That which is worthy. That which is precious. That thing that will endure. And so as the Lord tries our hearts, He's testing us. Not in the pop quiz kind of thing. He's trying. He's testing us to see the genuineness of our profession. He's not just paying and like looking. He's actively putting heat and pressure and things in our lives that reveal where the impurities are. We just talked about it earlier about the Lord loving who He loves, He chastens. That's what this process is. It's not because He hates us. It's because He loves us, and He wants all the waste, all the dross, all the garbage, all the filth stripped away to be cast out. That's what the mortification of sin is. As God shows it to us, and sometimes He shows it to us by us engaging in it, reveling in it, and then having it pointed out so we can see the foolishness of it. It's seeing that and laying it out, when he lays it all out, and we confess that we've acted a fool, that we've been that fool, we've caused shame, but we don't want to be that way. That's the process of stripping away the dross and the waste to leave what? To leave that precious thing that is Christ. Just as the fire separates the dross from the metal, God uses circumstances and trials and His Word all in concert to expose what lies within us. Because we can fool outsiders pretty well. Not all of them, right? We can fool outsiders. We can't fool the Lord. We can say all the right things. Judas walked with Jesus for almost three full years. So we can fool other people, but other people aren't the standard. God sees into our hearts. We're fearfully and wonderfully made, and we all know it. And He knows what's going on in our minds. And so He applies pressure and heat intensely in our lives. to strip away that stuff that doesn't need to be there, that can never exist alongside the precious metal, and have that precious metal be truly precious. He draws the attention to the waste so that we can get rid of it. All of us have to go through this process, and a lot of times it's not easy. Many times. In fact, I would go so far as to say most times. Most times it's through hardship. To be sanctified and to produce a precious, real, valuable, genuine faith. The psalmist in Psalm 66.10 said, For thou, O God, hast proved us, thou hast tried us as silver is tried. We've read from Malachi chapter 3. I'm going to flip to that really quickly. I don't have the full reference there. Malachi chapter 3, starting at verse 3. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. See, when we have righteousness mixed with unrighteousness, our offerings, our worship is not pure. And it's not done in righteousness. It's only when our hearts are pure that we offer, and especially our practice that reflects our hearts, that we can offer offerings in righteousness. It's what the Lord does in and with us. Thomas Watson said, Affliction is the furnace God uses to refine His gold. Affliction is the furnace God uses to refine His gold. So you put a bunch of gold in the furnace, you strip away the dross. You put a bunch of Christians under pressure and afflict them, and it strips away the pride, and the idolatry, and the lust, and the anger, the self-righteousness, and all those things. And what is left? Christ. The Spirit is application of the Word, the Word in print, and the blood of the Word made flesh, who came and dwelt among us. It's what God does for us. It isn't easy for us, because we don't want difficulties. We are, at our core, lazy in that way. Not lazy in general, but in the sense that we don't want to go through difficulties. We want it easy. It's not easy. Our natural state makes it harder for us. That old self and that new self are just pounding against each other. It's where the affliction comes in, where that old self doesn't want to do what the new self says, hey, this is what we do now. We're in Christ. We ignore these things. We embrace these other things that God says to embrace, and we reject those things that we once loved because God says those things are abomination. Sometimes the affliction is internal, that conflict from within. Sometimes it's from without. Sometimes it's, no, you don't get to do this thing because you're a Christian. It could be that direct, overt affliction. It could be the sideways thing where somebody really just doesn't like you because you're a Christian, but they know they can't say that, so they find other ways to be that burr in your saddle, so to speak. The affliction shows up in a whole lot of different ways and circumstances, but rest assured, It's ordained from the Lord for our good to strip away those things that would draw us away from Him, so that what we're left with is precious and pure and genuine. The trials of God are to make the heart better, not to make it known to Him. God already knows us. We're to be made more like Christ and less like Adam. We talk about that. We talk about the old self and the new self. The old self is in Adam. And in Adam's fall, we sinned all. All of us fell. And all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That's why we need the second Adam. Because we can't do any of this in our own strength. The things that we would do in our own strength are the exact same things that God calls abomination. Because they come from our own strength. We'll worship Him how we want. We'll dress how we want. We'll speak how we want. We'll think how we want. We'll work whenever we want. Or we'll not work whenever we want. We'll treat other people however we want. God says, no, my people are different. You're not to be like everyone else. I'm going to make you different. So we can't say that we need to be better, we need to be godly. We can't be godly unless God changes us. But a sign that we're going through afflictions is a sign that God is doing one of two things. He's showing us the folly of trying to do things ourselves and go our own way so that we will repent and believe the gospel. It's entirely possible. God will strip away everything that could cause man to be prideful and righteous in his own eyes in order to get his attention to cause him to repent from that sin and turn to God through Jesus Christ. He could be doing that. Or he could be doing what Solomon says in verse 3 here. He could be refining. He could be trying in order to make holy, to make righteous, to make precious and valuable and worth something. Because a little bit of waste damages the authenticity of the gold and the silver. And so the waste needs to be stripped away. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. And so he could be chastening, disciplining, testing, trying, in order for us to stop clinging to those things that make us tainted. So that we'll let them go. The pride. The arrogance that thinks that we can do things our own way. Whatever the case may be. Whatever dross it is. God will do one of those two things. He will strip everyone down in order to get them to repent, or He will strip everyone down in order for them to be sanctified and like Christ. It's the same sort of love and care and concern that God shows His people. So we're left with these three verses. Peace is better than plenty. quiet heart, quiet home with a little bit, trusting in God, walking in holiness, resting in God's provision is far better than wearing ourselves out to create a compound, a house in our own name that has no place for the Lord. Solomon says that peace is better than plenty in those circumstances. Peace with God versus earthly plenteous. Peace with God is to be preferred. The next thing he says, wisdom and faithfulness define a spiritual inheritance, not bloodline or social status. So we can't just say, well, my family went to church, so I'm fine. Or, do you know who my dad is? We hear that sometimes. Wisdom and faithfulness come with recognizing that you don't deserve God's favor, but He's offering it to you freely in Christ. And if you would just trust in that, and not yourself, you'll have the peace that he talks about in verse 1, and you will inherit and share in the inheritance of what God's family has, because you will be brought in. And the last thing, God refines the hearts of His people in the same way we refine precious metals. He tests our hearts to make our hearts pure so that we can see the process of having those impurities stripped away. We need to seek peace in our homes even if the provision is modest. We should embrace our spiritual calling and not despise humble service. A lot of times the son that causes shame is the one that says, I don't have to do that because my family is this, that, or the other thing. No. We should embrace our calling as wise servants. And this flies in the face of worldliness. We should welcome trials when they come into our lives as God's way to lovingly refine our hearts. to bring glory to Him and blessing to us. This message is counter-cultural because our culture is sick, because the hearts of the people in the culture are dead. And in the same way that we have been given new life in Christ, the world needs to be given new life in Christ, as God wills. And the way that that takes place, by God's providence, is by the Church and all of the members therein examining themselves based on God's Word, and seeking first the Kingdom of God. And after that, everything else will be added unto us. Let's stand as we call on the Lord in prayer. Father, thank you for all 66 books of this Holy Bible. Thank you for these three verses that help us to consider how we might live, how we might think about what you've ordained for our lives, how we might think about what you've provided for us, that we might not covet what is our neighbor's, how you have adopted us into your family, that you have not treated us as bastards but as legitimate children. That we are yours in Christ. And Lord, we are also considering how trials and afflictions purify us and refine us. Help us to apply these principles in our lives to bring glory to your name and good not only to us as individuals, but our families and the church, and by your leading the world full of people who desperately need your son. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen.