All to mind the words of Psalm 119, turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways. Father, we pray for the aid of the Spirit of God in turning our eyes, our thoughts, our minds from the trivial matters of this world and to you. Turn our attention to you, to attend to your word, to take your word to heart. and the expectation that as we look into your word, you will speak to us. You have something we need to hear. You'll disclose about yourself and about ourselves. You'll show us your way. You'll show us what it means to live with you. We pray for that to happen, Father, by the hand of the Spirit of God in this hour, at this moment, as we meet before you under the ministry of your word. In Jesus' name, Amen. We're studying Proverbs four, 20 through 27. I've translated those for you. This is the third and final of three sections in Proverbs chapter four. The whole chapter is about life lived with God. It's about the kind of life that the God fearing wise man or woman enjoys in God's presence. Three sections, one chapter, one theme life before God. This is the climactic section, this third section. The first section, verses one through nine, laid the rich foundation for this wise life. And then verses 10 through 19 showed us the way that the person walks, the path he treads as he walks in God's wisdom and lives this life before God. And now we come to a climax in verses 20 through 27, where the focus shifts to the kind of person who walks that path. to us. And Solomon does this in a very ingenious way, as he's shown many times, great creativity, great artistry in the way he communicates God's wisdom. The way he does it here is he breaks us down to our parts and gives us, as it were, the anatomy of a wise life. You notice in this section, eight body parts, at least eight body parts, eight body parts. expressly mentioned. I've bolded them for you in my translation of the Hebrew text. So let's take a look at the 8, starting with verse 20. My son, to my words pay attention, to my sayings turn your ear. There's the first. Verse 21. Do not allow them to depart from your eyes. There's the second. Keep them in the midst of your heart. There's the third. Because they are life to those who find them, and to all the flesh, the fourth of each, healing. Above all you keep watch of, guard your heart. That's the second time for the word heart. For from it flow the streams of life. Verse 24, remove from yourself a twisted mouth. There's the fifth. And devious lips. There's the sixth. Put far away from you. Your eyes. This is the second mention of eyes. Your eyes, let them look in front. And your eyelids. That's number seven. Let them aim straight before you. Examine the road your foot takes, that's the eighth, and let all your ways be established. Do not turn right or left. Remove your foot from evil. Eight expressly mentioned. There may be a ninth and tenth hinted at in verse 27. Because normally right and left means right hand and left hand, but he doesn't expressly say hand. But there may be two more. So at least eight, as many as ten, one at least in each verse of this section. Every verse, eight parts, eight verses. And as so often, Solomon crafts this in an artistic way. This third section itself divides into three sections, as I'll show you. The sermon is structured after the three sections of this section. Verses 20-22 focuses on the receivers, the organs that receive God's Word. Verse 23, we're going to skip for a second. Verses 24-27 focus on the actors. 20-22 are the receivers. 24-27 are the actors, the action parts, where we carry out the Word of God. Charting my course, charting the course for my foot. Eyes as they focus on the goal. Why did I skip verse 23? Well, you'll just have to stay with me and I'll explain when we get there. So first, let's look at the organs of reception, verses 20 through 22. And there we see four commands. And once again, very artistically, four commands in this first section. And then Solomon escalates in the third section with five commands when we get to verses 24 through 27. So verses 20 through 22 gives us four commands as to what to do with these organs of reception. And the first is, as to your attention, he says, my son, to my words, pay attention. Now, right up front in Hebrew, he puts the word to my words, to my words. What am I to pay attention to? The objects right there. To my words, Solomon says. Now, look, Scripture absolutely does say that we should practice what we preach. But Scripture also absolutely does say that we should preach. that we should preach because God uses words, doesn't he? God used words to create the universe. God used words to make himself known to Adam and to Eve. God used words to define and direct and charge Adam and Eve. God used words to make the first promise of Christ the Redeemer in Genesis chapter three. God uses words when he calls us to know Christ in the gospel. The gospel is expressed in words. So God uses words to save people. God uses words to pronounce people righteous. It's when Abram heard the word of God and believed his word that righteousness was counted to him. God tells parents to use words to teach their children. God tells Christians to proclaim the gospel in words. God tells pastors to feed and guard their flocks with words. Words are important. Solomon fronts that. He says, to my words, pay attention, not to my interpretive dance, but to my words. Secondly, the verb, he says, pay attention. There's an untranslatable nuance in the way that he expresses this command. He adds the sound ah to the end of the of the verb. And the nuance there is that he doesn't just command, give attention, but he says, I'm asking you to give attention. I'm in earnest about this. Do this for me. Do this for me. Give attention to my words. Stir yourself up. Fix your attention on what I say to you. Do that for me. And so we see and we learn from just this section, just this first line that Solomon takes the trouble to communicate in an artful, creative, memorable, attention grabbing way. And we see that his son is urged to trouble himself to pay attention to what Solomon gives him, to pay close attention to, as we've seen, understand it, to learn it, to memorize it, to act on it, to retain it. So each has his part and each part is his part. Solomon has his responsibility to teach. The son has his responsibility to pay not just attention, but close attention to what Solomon says. So that's as to attention. Secondly, as to your hearing, line B, he says to my sayings, turn your ear. Now once again, my sayings are fronted, they're put up front, right before our eyes. But the emphasis here is not as much on the sayings as on the ear, because the son has to give effort. He says to my sayings, turn your ear, it's a striking phrase. He doesn't merely say give ear, there's a way to do that in Hebrew, but instead he says turn your ear, as if he's to take his hands and manually cup them around his ears to make sure he's paying attention. That's the picture we're supposed to get. One commenter says it's like extending your antenna to make sure that you get good reception. But the literal sense I think is striking enough. Turn your ear, he says, to my sayings. Make sure that you are catching what I'm saying to you. Doesn't that speak to us? That's a very vivid picture he gives. Solomon, when he wrote this, couldn't have imagined the many, many ways you and I are made passive receptors today. We don't have to turn our ears. We pop ourselves down in front of the TV and it entertains us. We put buds in our ears and the music sings to us and moves our feelings. We pop ourselves down into a bucket seat in a theater and the movie entertains us. We're made passive. We're made potatoes. We're made just receptors that don't have to turn our ears. And many churches have remodeled what they do to meet this demand, to not call on people to pay attention, to not call on people to focus or concentrate or expect of themselves to be students and to learn. And so they cater to the craving for passive entertainment, and they bring the entertainment. And unintentionally, in doing so, they degrade the role of God's Word, and they degrade the dignity of man. They degrade what God calls his children to be, which is to be diligent, applied students of his word, not limp, passive, floating jellyfish, but to turn our ears to hear what he says to us. It's God's intention that we own our responsibility to turn our ears to what he says to us. So let's be practical about this. What this would mean in the literal sense of a son and a father, is that as a son's being spoken to by his father, he's got to fight whatever feelings he has of disrespect. He's got to fight the temptation to just tune his father out, except for the uh-huh lines, you know. But meanwhile, think about what he's going to do afterwards and not really listen or learn, or to fight down self-pitying thoughts. instead to turn his ears to attend to what his father is saying to him, or take it to a Bible student sitting down with the Word of God. It means that we take the time, we carve out the time. We don't wait for the time to present itself to us and sit us down in a chair and turn on the lamp and brew the coffee and open the Bible. We carve out the time. We turn our ears to make sure that we attend. And while we're doing it, we make sure that we're actually attending. I know you've had the feeling I have, I'm sure you have, that you've read a chapter and you've said to yourself, OK, what did I just read? I pointed my eyes at every word in that chapter, but I got nothing in my head. So what do you do when that happens? You just shrug and go on to the next chapter or go on to the next part of your day? What would the turn my ears thing be to do? Wouldn't it be, if need be, to read the chapter aloud? or read it as many times as it takes, or read a portion and then lift our eyes and repeat what we just read. I mean, that's the sort of effort that is involved in turning our ears to God's words to make sure we catch it. or of a churchgoer. In this church, I've made it possible for you to know what passage we're going to read. So we have a way of turning our ears by reading in advance, by getting ourselves prepared and pre-prayered for the messages. During the message, you have ways to take notes and make notes and engage the text. Turn your ears to what you're learning. There's a very active call here in what God says to us through Solomon speaking to his son. As to our ears, we're to turn our ears. Thirdly, as to your seeing, verse 21, line A, do not allow them to depart from your eyes. There's a word picture here. There's a suggestion that the sayings and the words naturally sprout legs and move. That they naturally sprout legs and scarcify themselves. if we don't keep our eyes on them. You see, do not allow them to depart from your eyes. If we neglect them, if we don't keep our eyes on them, they won't just stay there ready for us. The Bible doesn't memorize itself for us, does it? Would that it would, but it doesn't do it. The Bible doesn't review itself for us. This is something we must do to keep our eyes on it. If we neglect it, if we neglect what even God Himself has taught us through His Word, It'll sprout wings, it'll sprout legs, it'll be gone. Do not allow them, he says, to depart from your eyes. That's something he calls me to do. We can all identify with this. I think of karate training I had that advanced to a certain advanced belt. But if you ask me to do one of those katas today, I hurt my knee and eventually forgot most of the most of the moves that I learned. But what about you and your high school Spanish or your high school algebra or geometry? Do you use those things? Where are they today? They're gone. And that's what it takes to retain the word of God. We've got to not let what God teaches us from his word, not let it depart from our eyes. So obviously, if I already know that neglecting means forgetting, then I need to figure out what it takes for me not to neglect. And that may differ slightly for each of us, but mostly it'll mean the same things. Mostly it'll mean that we make sure that we get it in the first place and that we review it and that we chew it over and repeat it and use it. These are the things we do to keep a thing current in our hearts and current in our minds and not let it escape from our sight. Number four is to your thinking. And in this fourth command is the climax of the four commands. This is where it's leading. This is where it's pointing. Notice what he says. He says, keep them in the midst of your heart. Well, this word keep is a big word in Proverbs, and it's going to be repeated in another form in verse 23. But he says, keep them in the midst of your heart. That's a rather picturesque way of expressing it. In the midst of your heart, he says. Now, remember, the heart is where everything happens. The heart is the center of our personality. It's where I become me. Your heart, my heart is where we form our convictions, our beliefs, where we make choices, where we cherish what we cherish. The heart is where everything happens. And so he says to take these words and take these sayings and keep them, retain them in the midst of your heart. So what this does is it pictures the heart as a receptacle. Remember what Jesus says in Luke 1, 2, 3, 4, Luke 12, 34, 1, 2, 3, 4 would be a way to remember it. Luke 1234, Jesus says, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The heart is where we treasure what we treasure. And this says to keep God's words, God's saying in the midst of our heart, where we do our treasuring. So it envisions the heart as if it were a safe, as if it were a strong box. as if it were a treasure chest. And we take God's words and God's sayings and we put them in that treasure chest and close the lid, not to put it out of sight, but to make sure it doesn't go anywhere. To make sure that we keep it. And the heart is the treasure chest. Actually, you have a scriptural picture right before your own eyes, if you think of the Ark of the Covenant. Now, ark is just a word for box. What was put in that box among other things? Ten commandments. Ten commandments were put in the ark of the covenant. And so Solomon says here to take God's words and put them in the ark of our heart, put them in the box of our heart so they're always there, always at hand, always ready. So it calls on us, it demands that we don't just give lip service to God's Word and say, oh yes, that Bible is such an important thing. I've got it up on my bookshelf and I never touch it so that I can make sure that it stays pure and pristine. Never touch it. No, not lip service. We're not talking about lip service. We're not talking about just giving outer nods while inwardly thinking that we know so much better than what's in the Bible. Yes, it's the Word of God, but really my ideas about marriage and life and money are much better than what's in the Bible. None of that would fit this. What it means is that I take God's Word and I put them on the throne of my being. I take God's words and I put them at the center of where I do my treasuring and my cherishing and my deciding and my thinking. I put God's word there because my intent and my need is to let God's word determine how I think and what I think. how I cherish, how I feel, how I make decisions, what is of value to me. I need God's Word to assist and guide me in that. And for it to do that, it needs to be on the throne of my heart. And my heart is the throne of my life. So that's where God's Word needs to be. And I tell you as I've told you before, there is no shortcut to that. There's no instant path to that. Unfortunately, we can't just shake an envelope into a cup of water, put in the microwave, push a few buttons and get it all out in 30 seconds. There's no way to do that. It takes effort, it takes focus, it takes prayer, and it takes persistence. That's what it takes to put God's words in the midst of my heart. So let's put this all together right now. I'm always eager to make sure that God's word, that we see how it speaks to us now and not think of it as something theoretical and out there somewhere where we're never in contact with it. What happens here at this church every Sunday? The Word of God is preached. Every Sunday, without exception, the Word of God is preached. Now, I have a part in that, and you have a part in that. My part is to pray, to study, to dig into God's Word diligently. My part is to put all of the tools of my craft to making sure that I understand the Word as well as God enables me. that I pray for him to open my heart and my eyes to it, and that I apply it to myself. And it's also my part to see how I can best communicate it to you in a way that's of use to you, in a way that glorifies God and builds you up and edifies you up. And to do the best job that I can to put it accessibly and memorably and passionately and to bring it here and to let it out as passionately and warmly as I can under God's blessing. That's my part. That's my job. Your part. is to make sure you get enough sleep Saturday night. Now, I know today doesn't count. I understand that. But normally when it's not a shift of time to make sure you get enough sleep, to make sure you get up early enough and leave home early enough and pray, prepare yourself, do whatever it takes to get in your place, pay attention, get, keep, do not lose what you hear. Now, I need to ask myself regularly, and I do. Am I doing my part? I need to pray. I need to examine myself. I need to ask myself constantly, am I doing my part? It's no different for you. You need to ask yourself regularly, am I doing my part? This takes both of us in this enterprise of Christian growth and the Christian life together, because though we certainly should pray for each other, I yearn for you to pray for me and I pray for you. Well, you can't do my part for me. And I can't do your part for you. These are the parts God gives to each of us. And spiritual growth depends on whether we, in a God-fearing manner, throw ourselves into the part he calls us to. So he gives four commands. And is it worth it? That's a lot of trouble. That takes a lot of work. That takes a lot of concentration. So is it worth it? Well, as usual, the Bible faces this very frankly and gives us one reason in verse 22, and it's a sufficient reason. Why should I do all this? Verse 22 says, because, well, that tells me here's my reason. Here's my explanation. Because they are life to those who find them and to all the flesh of each healing. So what does reception of these words mean? What does it mean if I attend to and turn my ears to and treasure and keep these words and don't let them out of my sight? What would that mean? Well, he says it means life. Now, you know that he can't be saying, well, this is how you earn eternal life, because who is he talking to? It's talking to my son. We're already addressed as children. This is not the way to earn becoming a son of God. This is something addressed to sons of God. And it can't simply mean existence, long or short. No, he's talking about this is how you live the life. This is how I live the life God wants us to live. This is how we live a life that has God at its center, that has the blessing of God, that has the smile of God, a life that glorifies God, a life that is rich with fruit for God, a life lived in the reverent fear of God, a life full of holiness and righteousness, a life of joy and peace and hope. and of love, and a life bursting with fruit to God's glory. This is how to have that life. Attending to the words of God, learning them, listening, keeping them, doing them. That's how to have that life. They are life, that kind of life, to those who find them. That's life worthy of the name. That's the only life the Bible bothers to talk about. The rest, it doesn't call life. It calls it being dead while you live. It's existence. It's not life. Those who ignore God's word. In fact, the very fact that this stresses what it means to receive God's word and what the benefit is of receiving God's word is, It kind of calls to our mind the question, so if that's the benefit of receiving, then what is the consequence of rejecting God's Word? What would rejection mean? Well, if we give it a moment's notice, we think that if finding God's Word means hope, joy, peace, ultimate glory, well, then ignoring God's Word, walking away from God's Word, not applying myself to God's Word must mean death. It must mean despair, gloom, dread, guilt, and the assurance of God's final wrath and judgment forever. This life isn't a game. It's serious. God's serious about it. So. This first set of four commands leads us to verse twenty three. And here's what I'm going to explain to you. I'm going to call this a Janus. That's what goes in the first blank. J-A-N-U-S. Or in the second blank, you can put the word hinge. Same idea. A Janus or a hinge. Now Janus, some of you may remember, is a mythical character that had two faces, one facing this way, one facing that way, kind of like a hinge that turns this way and that way. So if you don't like the word Janus, I got a little picture there for you. If you don't like the word Janus, then use the word hinge, because that's the function of verse 23. Verse 23 is a hinge. It's a Janus verse in that line A looks at the commands that came before And line B looks ahead to what's going to come after. Line A of verse 23 looks at verses 20-22. And line B looks at verses 24-27. Let me show you how as we look at the message together. Proverbs 4.23 as I translate it says, Above all you keep watch of, guard your heart. That's line A. For from it flow the streams of life. That's line B. So line A, One command looking back. He says, above all you keep watch of, guard your heart. Now, the image here in this line is that Solomon knows we all keep watch over many things. We keep watch over our loved ones. We keep watch over our own health, over our dignity, over our well-being, over our possessions. We watch these things. We protect these things. We give a lot of thought to taking care of these things. And so what he does is Solomon says, you think about all the care that you pour into all these items of concern. and put even more care and even more effort into guarding your heart. More than you guard your car, more than you guard your home, more than you guard your portfolio, or even your little babies, or your kitties, or your doggies, or whatever is precious to you. More than you put into the care of all those things, he says, guard your heart. Now, how do we do that? That's what verses 20 through 22 just told us. You see, this looks backward at those things. That's what the previous section was about. The culmination of those four commands is to guard our hearts. So the way I guard my heart, is I take the Father's words and sayings and I keep them safe in my heart. It used both those same words, keep and heart, just as he uses now in verse 23. More than you keep anything else, guard your heart. He repeats those two thoughts. So, Solomon says, the way that you and I will guard our heart is by taking in the Word of God and filling our hearts with His Word. by putting His Word in the midst of our heart, by filling our heart with God's Word. Because, just very simply put, a heart filled with God's Word is a guarded heart. That's how to have a guarded heart. Have a mind, have a mindset, have a worldview full of God's Word. So, let's translate then what he's saying. He is saying, More than you and I give effort into protecting all the things that we guard and protect and watch over, put even more effort into filling your heart with God's Word. Give even more effort to learn the words of God than you do in protecting your house, your job, your health, and your loved ones. Now, why is it such a big deal to do that, then? Why is it such a big deal to guard my heart? That's what line B expresses, and it looks forward to verses 24 through 27. Line B says, for from it flow the streams of life. That is, from the heart flow the streams of life. Let's first talk about the image. Now, every metaphor, every figure of speech, every image of the Bible depends on a literal picture. If we're to understand a metaphor, we've got to understand the literal picture. So he says, guard your heart because the streams of life flow from it. So to Solomon's mind, if you'd ask Solomon, well, where is the life of the flesh, Solomon? What would he have answered? Leviticus 1711, the life of the flesh is in the blood. And what is it that sends the blood out into all the parts of my body? It's the heart. So you see, the streams of life flow from the heart, on a literal scale. It's my heart, it's that muscle in my chest, pulsing, pulsing, pulsing, that sends out the life of my flesh to every part of my body. Well, that's the literal image. What's the metaphor? What's the connection? Well, Solomon is saying, as my Lifeblood flows from my physical heart, so my lifestyle flows from my spiritual heart. The way I live flows from the way I think. The way I live flows from what I believe, from my convictions, from what fills the center of my being, which is my heart. See, life does not live from the outside in. Much as we might want to make that excuse, we don't live the way we live because of things done to us. We live the way we live because of what comes out of us. It's what's inside of us that determines the kind of people we are, not what's done to us. And so what fills my heart determines the kind of person I'm going to be. What fills my heart determines the kind of life I'm going to live, what I choose and reject, what I say and what I do. So I should use all my organs of reception, my ears, my eyes, to take in as much of God's word as I can so as to guard my heart by filling it with God's word. And then the way I live will reflect God's word and God's mind and God's heart. Then when my heart is filled with the word of God, I'll live in the fear of God. I'll live wisely. I'll live real life as God calls it. So guard over your heart more than you watch anything. by taking in the word of God, because from it flow the springs of life, the way you live, the way you treat people, the way you talk, the way you make choices. We could spend a whole series just on this verse. This verse has so many implications. I'm just going to tease out two. First, I want to tease out the implications of Proverbs 423 for parents. And I remember when this struck me a couple of decades ago. Wish it had struck me even earlier. But it was partly thanks to a book called Shepherding a Child's Heart, which I don't think has all the answers, but it has some very helpful emphases in it. So think in terms of parents and children. Parents, you know this, we're cast as the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and the Department of Justice, all in two people. We're all those things towards our children. And so often, we're called on to be cop, judge, jury, and school board. We're all those things towards our children. And so sometimes, you know, we're Officer Bob, and sometimes we're Judge Judy, and sometimes we're Miss Manners. teaching our children how to live, how to treat people, how to behave. And so in those roles, often, what is it that's stressed? What do we stress in those roles? We stress their actions. We stress the things that they do. We say, don't talk that way to your mother. We say, speak respectfully to your father. We say, don't beat up your brother. We say, don't pull the cat's tail. We say, do your chores. We say, do your homework. We say, sit still in church. We say, don't tell lies. We say, say your prayers. We say, read your Bible. Now, am I going to say we shouldn't say all those things? No, I'm not. We're the ones who are tasked with saying those things. We're the one whose job it is to teach those things. But here is the risk. The risk is that if that's all they hear from us. And if they seem to get from us that if they do all those things, they'll make them good little Christian boys and girls, then all we're going to do is raise up fine, well-behaved, good manners little Pharisees who will spend eternity in hell under the wrath of God with all the other fine, well-mannered, well-behaved little Pharisees. Because all we'll have done is modify their behavior. Because behavior self is law, because behave yourself doesn't save, because behave yourself leaves the heart unconverted. Do you see that? Behave yourself is law. Law is not gospel. Gospel saves, law condemns. So we need to be sure that we're doing while we're doing everything else we have to do. is we need to make sure we're speaking to the child's heart. Yes, we lay down the law of God. And yes, when the child, when, you know, junior little princess violates that law, sure enough, we write out a ticket and we cite the violation. But here we do. We go further and we say, You know what Jesus said to the Pharisees of his day in Matthew 1, 2, 3, 4? Matthew 12, 34. He said, You brood of vipers, how can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So little Susie, do you know why you just told a lie? Because that was what was in your heart. Little Johnny, do you know why you just beat up your brother? Because you hated him in your heart. Because our hearts are sinful. And God looks on our hearts. And we do what we do because we are who we are. Little Johnny, Little Susie, do you know what Jesus said about our hearts in Matthew 15? We take him there. We say, Jesus says, but what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart. And this defiles the person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are the things that defile the person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the person. And so we say, little Johnny, little Susie, the reason you and I sin is because we're sinners, because our hearts are sinful hearts, because our hearts are dead towards God. And little Johnny, little Susie, Jesus came to die for our sins, and Jesus came to give us new hearts. And what you and I need is we need to be born again. We need to go to God, and you need to go to God, and you need to plead for him to give you life. Plead to him to give you a new heart, a heart that loves him, a heart that repentantly believes in him. See, our goal with our children is not merely the taming of manners. Our goal with our children is the transformation of hearts. Amen. Because it's out of their heart that their life flows, we want to be sure always to be addressing their heart with the law and with the gospel of God. And so likewise with ourselves, any preacher, any book, any sermon, any series that mainly preaches methods for better, godlier living, is preaching law and damnation, if that's all that it does. What we all need is we need a new heart and we need God's continued work on our hearts. As Romans 12 says, we need the transformation of our minds. And that's an ongoing process in the Christian life. And so we need to do what God calls us to do is fill our hearts with the Holy Spirit's word, with the word of God. We need to fill our hearts. And so, you know, It's easy enough to tell if we're doing it. Just spot tests. I mean, for instance, if you if you get to the end of this day and you can't tell what you heard in Sunday school and you can't tell what you heard in the sermon, you didn't touch the Bible. That's because that's where your heart is. What you did today flowed out of your heart. What I'm going to do today, what I've done so far today flows out of my heart. So you look at what's come out. Trace it back to the heart. That's where the heart is. That's where the heart's priorities and loves are. And if we look at that and we don't see what we ought to be saying, it's not just a matter of modifying our behavior. It's a matter of taking our heart to God and saying, I need you to burn your love into my heart. I need you to fill me with love for you. I need you to fill me with a deep, repentant faith in you. I need to treasure you like I should. I don't treasure you like I should. Please grant me to treasure you in my heart and hit your knees and hit the word. See, that's why when you see someone who lives like Jesus has nothing to do with his life. I mean, he dates at some point he was converted, but there's no difference between before that point and after that point. Nothing's changed. You know why nothing's changed? Because nothing's changed. Because nothing's changed. Because the way we live flows out of our heart. And if he lives the same way after conversion as he did before conversion, because he's got the same heart that he did before conversion. Nothing's changed because nothing's changed. When Christ comes into a life, he changes it. Amen? When he comes into a life, he changes it. So we focus on the hearts. Paul did. He praised in Ephesians 3 that Christ would make his home in the Ephesians' hearts through faith, that they might explore the love of God. We should cry out like the psalm that called us to worship today, Psalm 86. Verse 11, unite my heart to fear your name. My heart wants to go in so many different directions, God. Unite my heart to fear your name. And prayerfully study, prayerfully fill our hearts with God's Word, because how we live is determined by what fills our hearts. That's the hinge verse. Now finally, in the organs of action, we have five commands. Verses 24-27. I was able to come up with five T's twisting it too much. So, first of all, how to talk. Verse 24. Remove from yourself a twisted mouth and devious lips put far away from you. Our heart's default setting is deception. That's what's most natural to us. That's the way we're born. Romans 1.25 says about all mankind, they exchange the truth about God for a lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. That's all of us. We trade the truth for a lie. That's our natural default setting. Romans 3 verses 13 and 14 says, The throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Well, that's the way our mouths are, because that's the way our hearts are. And if we aren't given new hearts, if we don't fill our hearts with God's word, then remember again, Matthew 1, 2, 3, 4, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The heart's got to be transformed and it's got to be filled with God's word. So, of course, this works both ways. If we find that we talk a lot of deception and a lot of untruth, that that's our natural way of talking. If that's what our mouth does, it's because that's where our heart is. And that's what the problem is. When our hearts are transformed and filled with God's word, we will stop talking untruth and deception and we will start talking God's truth and God's wisdom. They're not just words. They're indicators of the heart. Secondly, how to target verse twenty five, how to target. Now, he'd use the eyes in the first section as organs of receiving. But now he uses the eyes and the eyelids as organs of targeting. And he says eyelids maybe to give the picture of squinting. You're looking at something so hard, so intently, that you're squinting to get a good look at it. This is the picture of targeting. He says, your eyes, let them look in front and your eyelids, let them aim straight before you. See, if we have properly guarded our hearts, then His words are going to be on our heart. And His love is going to be our priority. Didn't we just read that a few minutes ago? Deuteronomy 6. We read it, I think, twice, didn't we? We read it in the responsive reading and in the Scripture reading. So, God must want us all to really hear this. Deuteronomy 6, 4 and following. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your what? Heart. With all your heart. and with all your soul and with all your mind. And these words that I command you today shall be on your..." What? "...heart." Love Him with my heart. Put His words on my heart. That will make the love for God the focus of my life. That will train my eyes and my eyelids straight ahead on that target, on the target of God. That will be my focus. Loving Him, knowing Him, glorifying Him will be what my life is about. Thirdly, how to tread, verse 26, how to tread, T-R-E-A-D, how to tread. He says, examine the road your foot takes and let all your ways be established. Well, my road and my ways, that's the way I live. That's the decisions I make. That's how I live my life. Do I take this job? Do I pursue this relationship? What do I do with my money, my time, my energy, my abilities? Where does the church rank? Where does my local church rank in the list of my priorities in my life and my decisions? Well, every decision I make has to be made in the light of God's Word. I examine that road that I'm going to take by God's Word. I don't take major steps unless I know what God's Word says. And so, for instance, I approach the matter of food. I know I've used this illustration before, but they say repetition is the soul of teaching. Does the Bible tell me what brand of beans to buy? You're not sure? No. Does it tell me what cut of beans to buy? No. Then God doesn't care about that. I can choose whatever kind I want. Does the Bible tell me whether I should get a job, make money, and buy the beans, or whether I should steal the beans? Does the Bible answer that question? Yes. Then that's something God does care about. Now, if I don't look in the Bible, I don't know. I don't know whether God cares about what brand of beans until I read the Bible, and I don't know whether God cares whether I steal them or not until I read the Bible. And so I got to read the Bible, and that's how I tread the path. That's how I know what path to tread. Letter D, how to turn, verse 27, how to turn, T-U-R-N, how to turn. He says, do not turn right or left. Remove your foot from evil. Now, before you decide that that's your life verse, if you're a political moderate, this has nothing to do with politics. We need to avoid anachronism. Solomon would have had no concept of how we use the words right or left. Let me explain to you why Solomon says don't turn right or left. You know, and we've seen this before. Solomon conceives of God's road as a straight road. The word of God lays out a straight path. I don't lie, I don't steal, I don't commit murder, I don't commit adultery. I love him with all my heart. That's a straight road. And so do you see that being the case? Left or right? They're both off the road. Nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with conservative or liberal theology. Well, I could make an application there, but let's just stick with what he's saying. He is saying, stick on the road straight. Any deviation is a deviation. And that makes us a deviant. It makes us a twisted person, a perverse person. All these things that we've read in the book of Proverbs that he says, don't do. Don't deviate. Don't twist. Don't be perverted. Well, those are all turning left or turning right and getting off of God's road. To God's perspective is, you know, we may hear people say, oh, a little sin never hurt anybody. Well, a little sin sends people to hell. To God's perspective, there is no such thing as a little sin. And God says, don't turn left or right. And the only way to be sure we do that is to fill our hearts with his word. Now, to be very clear, I want to make sure that you all understand me when I talk about making sure we stand up. I'm not talking about listening for some little mythical whispery voice that only some of us get. I'm talking about heeding to the word of God that all of us were given. The one inerrant, unchanging, settled in the heavens word that God gave for every one of his children to lead our lives by. Don't turn left and don't turn right from that, God says. So in conclusion, to wrap this all together. As a Christian, we can look at this whole section. We can make direct application to us. You don't even hardly need to adjust for any New Covenant, Old Covenant discontinuity there. It applies to us as Christians very well. Every Christian can take this to heart. It's addressed to my son. So it's addressed to somebody who's already converted. Jesus confirms everything that Solomon says here. Solomon says the heart is the center. Jesus says the heart is the center. Solomon says we need to fill our hearts with God's Word. Jesus says if you're my disciple, you'll continue in my words. And Jesus says that I will abide in you as my words abide in you. Jesus says the same things we see here. And this points us to the need for a transformed heart. And Jesus says if we're not born again, we won't see the Kingdom of God. So everything that we see here transfers perfectly well for a Christian. But, as so often is the case, the New Testament actually takes all this and ratchets it up. Oh my, I didn't think that would be so hard to say. It ratchets it up a step. To make that point, I just want to read you some scriptures in closing with very little comments. But see how directly this applies to what we read and what we just read, the anatomy of the wise life, where every part of our body is made to be pressed into the service of the knowledge of God and living for God. First, 1 Corinthians 6, verses 19 and 20. 1 Corinthians 6, verses 19 and 20. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. What you do with your eyes, what you do with your ears, what you do with your mouth, what you do with your hands and feet, and above all, what you do with your heart. In Romans chapter 6, we read it earlier from the English Standard Version. I'll read it from the Holman Christian Standard Version. Paul writes, Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires. And do not offer any parts of it, any parts of your body, to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. And then verse 16, don't you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one whom you obey, either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? Thank God that though, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were transferred to. And having been liberated from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. I'm using a human analogy, Paul writes, because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to moral impurity and a greater and greater lawlessness. So now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. That it is. That's the anatomy of the wise life. That's the anatomy of godliness. The Lord Jesus died to purchase every bit of us and make every bit of us belong to God so that we might live for God with every bit of us. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word and how clearly and powerfully it's spoken to every one of us. And Father, particularly ringing in my ears now is that word above all you keep watch of guard your heart for from it flow the springs of life. Father, first of all, we would that our hearts be long fully to Jesus Christ, that he settle down in our hearts through faith, that he be on the throne of our hearts. And we, as his servants, he is our Lord and master. There is no safer place to be than at the feet of Jesus. So we would that Jesus be Lord over our hearts and that he exercise his lordship over our hearts by our taking in the word of God, learning what the word of God says to us about you and us and about your will for us. and about how we can serve and honor and glorify you. Father, we pray that that go on greatly to your glory. And now, as we're about to have an opportunity of fellowship together, in our fellowship meal, we pray that you'll bless us, that you will make it a time of encouragement and of greater knowledge and love of each other, and help us to build one another up in our most holy faith. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.