Let's take our Bibles once again and look in the book of Proverbs. As we make our way through this book of wisdom. Christ being that wisdom. And today my text is from, is chapter 17 and verses 22 through 28. And I wanna speak with you about peaceful living. As we live in this world, we see turmoil all around us, and particularly within us. It's not just out there in the world. These hearts of ours are unsettled and troubled because of the sin within us. In fact, that's why our Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples before he went to the cross, let not your heart be troubled. is to take a stick and stir up water. And up comes all the mud and gunk, and pretty soon everything is muddy. What you have to do is pull back and let it settle. So that's a question which I know is on everybody's mind, whether they're the lords or not. It's how do you live in this world in a peaceful manner? And I'll tell you that this world is a thought of worlds. So outside of Christ, we know that none can truly be at peace. People pursue peaceful living. They try to read self-help books. They'll go to see a psychologist or psychiatrist trying to deal with everything that seems to be topsy-turvy in their life. But there is no true remedy in that that might deal with the symptoms but it can't deal with the true heart of the matter. So that's where we come to the word, because in this word, there is much to say to those that are God's children and live in this world, how it is that we can be at peace with ourselves, peace with others, and most importantly, peace with God himself. So that's what we're gonna consider and then have a word of prayer, and then I'll make some comments that I pray will be helpful to all of us. Here in Proverbs 17, beginning in verse 22, it says, a merry heart doth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drives the bones. A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment. 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. A man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. Even a fool the man of understanding. Gracious Father, as we take up your word once again, I pray that you would cause our eyes to be on none other than your blessed son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we read here, this divine wisdom that is set forth, how it is that we as your children, saved by grace, chosen out, of fallen humanity and given to your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for whom we owe the debt for what he paid for our redemption, our justification before you, that in these words we have instruction as to how then we should live in this world. As you left us to ourselves, there would be no peace. And we would be just like those about us, striving in selfish pursuits to establish themselves a place of peace in this world, but only building castles in the sand. I pray that you would teach us just how blessed we are need, you know, our thoughts, you know, those things that even living in this flesh troubles. And I pray that you might bring that balm of Gilead and apply it to our hearts by your spirit of grace and cause us to be blessed and rejoicing in who we are in your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name I pray, amen. So here, if the Lord will guide our thoughts, and I pray he does, were brought to see how it is that as God's children we can live peacefully and even peaceably in this world. When Paul wrote to the Romans over in Romans chapter 12, verse 18, he said to them, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all. Now he's not just talking about folk out there in the world. He's talking about even in the congregation. Many times you think, well, this is a place where the gospel is preached and all is going to be peace and harmony. Well, guess what? You pack a bunch of sinners in a room together and there's going to be friction. And what better way or place then to prove the grace of God? Think about why we need God's grace. It's against the backdrop of who we are as sinners. And our number one problem is looking down our nose at others and figuring out what's wrong with them and forgetting what's wrong with us. The problems of the world aren't out there. The problems of the world are in here. The world is what it is because men are who they are by sin, by nature, by depravity. All the way back there in the fall, that garden was peaceful and fruitful. Adam and Eve lived peacefully, not only with one another, but with all of God's creation. You say, well, what changed? The fall. And ever since then, God himself has determined that the effects of that fall should be carried all the way through until the end of the world. that when he is pleased to do a work of grace and draw out sinners from fallen humanity that it prove all the more that salvation is by grace. Has to be. Else there would not be any hope for any of us. And so here in this portion of scripture we have the number one foundation of what it is to live a peaceful life. And it starts with a heart. Notice here in verse 22, a merry heart doth good like a medicine. You say, well, how does one have a merry heart? Well, look at the second part of the verse, a broken spirit drive the bones. It takes the spirit of God to and to dry it up in order that the Lord Jesus Christ might be all to that sinner. That's the merry heart. When it's talking about being merry, it's not talking about just being giddy. Where does one get a merry heart? Where does one have a heart at peace that then affects Well, certainly there's nothing in us that we could look at to give us a merry heart. And I think back even of the life that I've had and growing up with relative wealth and comfortable situations, yet none of that could truly provide the kind of calmness and kind of peace that comes from the Lord himself intervening breaking this heart, crushing this heart. It's like you go to see a doctor and you've got a problem and the doctor says, we're gonna have to break that bone in order that it healed properly. And you're thinking, no, no, let it go. I don't want a broken, most people wouldn't desire a broken heart. But you notice both of these here are mentioned in this one particular verse. Here the word bones is figurative. It represents the entire being. of who we are, and it takes the drying up of those bones. Breaking of that spirit, I truly believe, is a gift of God, lest we should put any confidence in ourselves, and that's what the Lord does. In order to bring forth a joyful heart, Under the Lord, it takes the Spirit of God revealing in us who we are and causing us to see our lost estate. And the only true joy that comes from that when these hearts are turned to the Lord Jesus Christ. We see that God, by his grace, did not leave us to ourselves. Else we would still be pursuing a path whereby we would think would be producing happiness and joy, when in the end, it's the ways of death. There's a way that seems right on the man, but in the end, they're all in the ways of death. So I truly believe that we can't talk about peaceful living, living at peace in this world with ourselves or with God, until we deal with the heart. Keep the heart, for out of it are the issues of life. And that's why I don't believe that this is anything that medicine can fix, that affects the health of the body. You wouldn't think that, but we're body, soul, and spirit. God has made us to be a unit, who we are. So you can't just treat the ills of the body with a medication. Here, take this, go home, and you should be feeling better. That's what is popular today. Give me some of that mood medicine. Some turn to medicine, some turn to drinking because they can't and so they take to the bottle, which can only make things worse. It's a temporary relief, perhaps. They get feeling better. You ask an alcoholic, why is it that you keep going back to the bottle? Because I don't like the way I feel otherwise. Well, has anybody ever talked to you about that being a heart problem? That what's going on in the heart? What is it in the heart that is not settled? And I'll tell you, that the one thing I've found by experience is that the problem with the heart is that it is a heart that is in rebellion against God, whether we'll ever say so or not. That when things don't go the way we want, and I'm talking now as children of God, we have a rebellious heart. When the day does not turn out as we had planned, what's all that with a heart matter in rebellion against God? It breaks the bones. That's what it says there. But a broken spirit drives the bones. We would never find a remedy. Thank God he brings trials into our life. Thank God he lays us low. Thank God he does not leave us to go the way we would. So in his grace, he intervenes and intervenes constantly. Because we get up bucking. That's just our nature. We get up barking like dogs. We imagine things to be a certain way. And whether you ever expressed or not the thoughts that churn in your mind and heart because this doesn't seem to be settled or that doesn't seem to be according to how I think it ought to be, that's just the Lord laying his heavy hand upon us to where all that spirit is broken. And we bow again and again. This is not just a one-time thing. causes us to bow again and again, and causes us to rejoice by his spirit of grace, in that whether anything goes according to what we think, or how we have purposed yet, he receives the glory. We read that, if you wanna turn back there to Habakkuk, I almost cringe telling you to turn to Habakkuk, because if you haven't been there a while, it may be a little bit tough to find, But if you look in the prophet Habakkuk, what I do is just start at Matthew and kind of go back a few books, you'll find it here. But Habakkuk lived in a very troubling time when the Lord had purposed to raise up the Babylonians. And for a while, you see in Habakkuk chapter one, verse one, the burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. As he was weighing what the Lord was purposing, it was a burden, it was a weight upon his heart as he understood that the Lord was going to bring this evil nation against Israel. And you can see the contention in his own heart was use an evil, idolatrous nation to punish a people that he had chosen out and separated out from the world. That's what he said there in verse 12 of Habakkuk 1. Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my holy one? We shall not die, O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment, and O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. Who's gonna say that they don't need correction? Whom the Lord loves, he chastens. That word means corrects. There's not an ounce of punishment by way of God's wrath that he exercises toward any one of his children. Why? Because Christ has already paid that sin debt. But he does use our sin to chasten us. So even the thoughts that arise in his heart that we know to be rebellious, were it not for the grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ having paid the debt, that would be enough to cast us into hell. And yet he doesn't, but he does use these thoughts against us in the sense of correcting us. And that's what Habakkuk here comes to in verse 13. Thou art of pure eyes than to behold and canst not look on iniquity. Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devour the man that is more righteous than he." So these were thoughts going through Habakkuk's mind as to how God was working. But he establishes that whatever he does is just and holy. And then we find him in chapter two in verse one, standing and waiting to hear what the Lord would say. It's a good thing God sees our thoughts. It's a good thing to think, if you will, before him because he sees our thoughts anyway, but then to wait upon him that he might bring to our heart that word that would glorify him and bring peace to our own heart. There's many things that I know some of us have been praying about for years. Many of them have to do with our children and other loved ones that we care about, but let's be careful by his grace not to charge God with any kind of ill thought concerning these matters as if somehow he's not answering. Even him not answering is an answer. And therein he brings us to bow as these thoughts come up before him, but the conclusion that we see here in chapter three. It's a very short book, I believe worthy of reading, but you can see the effect as Habakkuk was brought to see that God was gonna do what he was gonna do. This is like Abraham praying for Sodom and Gomorrah. Start off with 50 and got down to 10, finally the Lord took the prayer right out of his mind and heart to where he said, shall not the judge of the earth do right? That's where the Lord brings us about. He breaks our spirit, breaks our will, but from that comes then the merry heart. Like I said, it's not a giddy heart. That's not what it's talking about here, Proverbs 17, 22, but it's talking about a heart at peace. Our Lord, when he taught his disciples to pray, how was it? Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Your name be sanctified. Now he said, thy will be done. on earth, even as it is in heaven. There's some that are afraid to pray to death, as if it's gonna change what God does anyway. But they think, ooh, I don't know if I can trust God. That's really what they're thinking. I can trust God to decide, well, guess what? He's gonna do what he's gonna do anyway. Will you trust him or not? And that's what we see here in the end of Habakkuk, in chapter three and verse 17. the fig tree shall not blossom. You think of every farmer that looks forward to the spring and that season when the fig tree would blossom. He says but if because of this war or famine or whatever the Lord brings that fig tree not blossom and neither shall fruit be in the vines. Wiping out the crops and everything. Habakkuk's realizing this. All the labor of man, the labor of the olive shall fail. And the fields shall yield no meat, no fruit. The flock shall be cut off from the fold. And there shall be no herd in the stalls. He's talking about what men in that day was their livelihood. Though the Lord should wipe it all out. Yet, he says in verse 18, I will rejoice in the Lord. And I will joy in the God of my salvation. So there we see the breaking down. And the bowing that comes with that breaking down. But look at verse 19, here's the merry heart. The Bible three, the Lord God is my strength. And he will make my feet like hinds feet. You've seen those mountain goats, how they can climb right up those cliffs, and you wonder how on earth someone up there just looks like, what are they standing on, air? And then you see them take off and jump and go on up even higher. You're saying the Lord is my strength, and when he is, he will make my feet like iron's feet. Even though what's under those feet is nothing but dead, dry rock, he will make high places, and you can see this is written to the chief singer on my stringed instruments. So this was not only a prayer, but it was a song that was to be sung. And so that is what is peaceful living. It's not when all is calm about us, but it's when even in the storm and everything seems to be topsy-turvy, in the sense that everything about self and about this will and about our way should be once again slain. That's the work of the spirit to do, the spirit of God. I've told you before about that contest I read about somewhere where they put out a word and they told artists to paint a picture of what they considered to be the best picture of peace. And so different artists, they had a certain amount of time to submit their works, and different ones came in with beautiful sunrises, some with beautiful sunsets, just beautiful trees, and everybody was trying to depict a picture piece. And when you look at it, you think, maybe the artist got this wrong. The picture's supposed to be a piece. But as you continue to look at the picture, all of a sudden, you see over here in the corner of this tree is a little bird's nest. And in the bird's nest were little baby birds. And they had their beaks open. And here was the mama bird that had just come back from getting food or whatever she was doing to feed those little baby birds. They were there in the storm while everything else was raging all around, and in that little nest was a picture of peace, rest. And that's, to me, what it is when we're in Christ. That's why the Lord said to his disciples, don't fear, don't be troubled about what's to happen tomorrow. He said, even the little baby birds that are sold in the marketplace, that really for pennies, are you not worth much more than that? So this is a blessing when the Lord is pleased to break our spirit. And again, like I said, don't think that it's gonna be a one-time thing. He continues in our lives to chasten us and to correct us. Why? Because left to ourselves, we would go the way of all flesh. But through that, I believe, comes the merry heart. When God is pleased, open our eyes to see that even in those afflictions and troubles and trials, He's at work. And He, through that, continues to draw ourselves out of ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ alone, who is peace. That's why he's called the Prince of Peace. That's why the scriptures describe that through his death, you think about what he went through. What he endured to save such wretches as we are. And yet in all of that, even him being broken because it says that it pleased the Lord to bruise him. That word bruise in Isaiah means to crush like wheat. Yet out of it, In all of it, he had but one heart toward his father, to satisfy his father. And as the writer to the Hebrews says there in Hebrews 2, behold I am the children whom thou hast given. He rejoices and sings with those that he went through this particular trial to save. does good like medicine. They try to tell you to laugh a little bit every day. They all point to simple things, you know. Make sure you get away a little bit. You can have a peace and calm and repose. That might treat the symptoms, grace, mercy, and time with me. That's all the time. That's all the time. I'll tell you, any foundation that is not in Christ, God's grace toward sinners such as we are, is gonna be just temporal at best. I know people that have said, I need to get away and go off on a little trip, but in reality, they take their problems with them. And as time goes by and they get ready to come back, troubled heart. The only way that this heart can be settled is by the grace of God and the tender mercies of God toward sinners such as we are. Now, we talked about living peacefully in this world. This world is a world that is perverted. We know that because we know the perversion of our own heart. And how many times do we get upset when we look at injustices, particularly among leaders and other things. And that's really what this portion is reminding us of. Verse 23, a wicked man taking the gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment. I don't know if you've ever been in a case where the matter was settled because this one over here happened to give a gift to the judge when here you are left condemned because you had expected that justice should be done. This is an unjust world. And that's what it's reminding us here, that wherever wicked men are in positions of authority, there's going to be perversion of justice. You sit and watch the news today and keep hoping that somehow somebody's gonna come along and straighten out Washington. Whether it's Democrat or Republican, there ain't no straightening it out. Those are men. to know God, they swear by his name and all that, but you can see the perversion and injustice that perverts the way of justice. Well, that's the way it is gonna be in this world. And you can strive all you want to, I've heard certain ones say, well, I'm gonna get into politics, I'm gonna fix this thing. And the next thing you know, they're just like the ones they went to fix. Remember the story of the widow that the Lord talked about there in the gospel according to Luke that continued to come before that unjust judge and plead her case before him and eventually the unjust judge got tired of her coming. It was the Lord that gave her the persistence. The point that Christ was making is that if even an unjust judge from time to time can rule justly in favor of one of God's elect, how much different then is our God? That even when those around us act and deal unjustly, taking, as it says here, gifts, that's a bribe, verse 23. They do it because they're wicked men. left to themselves. And someone takes out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment. See, this is what these wicked men don't know. They think that somehow, just as in the court of men, so it is in the court of God. But they're in for a surprise. God is the one just judge. And he acts always according to his justice. And if any And we know that. We know that were God to judge us based upon who we are, he'd have to condemn us forever from his presence. And yet, how is it that he can be just and justified? How is it that he can be just and save such wretches as we are? It's not by any gifts that we bring. But that matter's been settled in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore we can stand pervert justice, and they do so even in religion. People are made to believe that somehow God's waiting for them to do something in order for him to accept them before him. I'll tell you, anything we bring is gonna be nothing but wickedness. See how it's described there in verse 23? A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of God. That's what people are doing in their false religion. They are wicked men because they're trusting by their own work somehow in God's satisfaction, but wickedness is what wickedness does, and they stand condemned apart from Christ himself being that satisfaction before him. So we are to expect this in the world, and therefore peaceful living comes from resting in the work of Christ and what he has done to satisfy God's law and justice except any works of our own. Thirdly, down here in verse 24, that peaceful living comes by the wisdom of God in Christ. Not all have this wisdom. When it says there in verse 24, wisdom is before him that hath understanding. Put Christ there. Christ is before him that hath understanding. In other words, if there is any that does have understanding, to see the ways of God and understand how it is that he's just to justify, it's because that has been revealed in them. If they have that understanding, notice wisdom is before him. That wisdom was revealed even before he had understanding. But the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth. The fool doesn't see things with eyes of wisdom. So there again, we're reminded that we live in a world where People are not only fallen or rebellious, but they're blind. And so their eyes are everywhere except where they should be. How many times have you wanted to take somebody and tell them, can't you see? We're talking about religious folk that read descriptions and you wanna say, can't you see that it's all about the Lord Jesus Christ and nothing that you or me, they can't. Their eyes are always darting. It's like trying to teach somebody and get their attention, but their eyes, it says here, the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth. They're always looking beyond those things. Where wisdom has been revealed, when it says, is before him that hath understanding. It's talking about within sight and within reach. And if there's any that are caught on Christ and Christ alone. So we see that that wisdom of God in Christ is the answer to peaceful living, peaceful living. When the storm rages all around, when the storm rages within, our eyes are settled on Christ alone. Now again, it describes the world we live in, verse 25. A foolish son is grief to his father, The scriptures say that the days would come when there would be no respect for children to their parents. We're seeing that more and more. The whole family makeup is being destroyed, with families being divided, and now even redefining what a family is, where you've got men with men and women with women. No wonder there's no respect with children as they grow up. They're not being taught this word Paul told Timothy that from a child, I was known the scriptures. You can't have peace. You can't have children who know peace apart from teaching them and raising them in this word concerning God, concerning Christ, concerning their own sin and themselves. And so when it says here in verse 25, a foolish son is a grief to his father and bitterness to her that bear it. Why is that, except for children who are depraved sinners, just like everybody? In fact, you can give children the best education. And I know the Lord has exercised my heart as a father, because my children were all raised under this message, from birth all the way until now. And if you were to give them a test with questions and answers, they'd probably answer most of them correctly based on how they've been taught, but that doesn't make them God's children. And that does not make them, no matter how I guided them and directed them, to want to follow that way. So I understand here where it says, a foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bared him. There's an instance where that is God's will so much for the exercise of my heart as anybody's. To know that if they're to be saved, it's going to be by God's grace alone, exactly how he saved me. Through the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the positive side of that is if the Lord did pay their debt and his purpose is to show them grace or mercy, I may not be alive. But he is pleased to draw any one of them. That doesn't matter. I just know this is where peace comes, resting in knowing that God is doing his work and he's gonna save them rest. Knowing that God is working to punish the justice not good, verse 26, in order to strike princes for equity. It's showing up here through this, the many different ways that people will pervert the way of God, the ways of righteousness, punish the righteous. In other words, to reward evil and then to punish good. Here we are worshiping God, but now the laws come down. It's happened before in other countries where they make it an evil to worship God according to his word. That's to be expected, but there again, where is our peace? Where is our rest? It goes back to knowing that even in all this, the Lord is at work. And then in verse 27, I think we can try to correct everything and everybody by just talking, warning, speaking. There's a time to speak and there's a time to be silent. There are times, too, when he purposes that we be silent. I know there's some people that think in every situation the preacher hasn't answered. I've been in a group with some that somebody said something way off the mark, and they look to me like, okay, has he got lunch, and the Lord's causing me just to be silent. And afterwards, someone's come up to me and said, why didn't you say anything? I said, the Lord purposed my mouth to be stopped in His time. It's a time where the scriptures say to answer a fool according to his father, and you read another scripture that says not to answer a fool according to his father. That's where we need the wisdom of the Lord. But in all of this, our peace, love this, in verse 28, even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wise. Aren't we all fools by nature? But who is our peace that we hold? That's Christ. And whereby we would have maybe in certain People consider you wise, but it's not us, it's Christ our wisdom. And if we're a man of understanding, it's because we've been so taught by Christ. you