We'll spend a little bit of time in the text this morning. Dear, gracious Heavenly Father, we come before you, we thank you so very much for everything you've given us, everything you've blessed us with. We have so much, and Father, it is very easy for us to be discouraged, very easy for us to look around and look at all of the stuff going on, but it's all down That's all down below us. We are seated in the heavenlies with Christ. We are complete in him. All that we have is found in him. And may we stay focused on your son, Jesus. And may that be the thing that we think about. May that be the thing we glory in. And we just ask that as we spend time in this text this morning, we may think of our savior, that we may think about how this text applies to our life and how we can then go into the community and live Christ-like with those who are around us. We thank you and love you, in your son's name, amen. So, I imagine, if we just read the title, Following God's Word, and there was a poll taken, I imagine that there would be so many different views of what does it mean to follow God's word. There'd be so many different things. I mean, we would probably have the spectrum ranging from someone who's like a Sherlock Holmes type analysist going through God's word and knowing all the little minute things and what does it follow and you gotta go through the Old Testament and this and that and that to someone that says, well, I pray before I eat. That's what it means to follow Jesus. I just pray. I give money to the church. I show up when I can on Sunday. That's the extent of following God's word. I imagine if we asked the same question in a community, what does it mean to follow God's word, we would get more answers, right? There'd be lots of people with wide range views of what does it mean to follow. I imagine if we then asked people, why should we follow? There'd be another wide range of questions from, well, God says it, so there you go. I need no other reason other than God told me to, to a wide range of things. And let me be honest, I think it is really important to remember that this is God's word that we're dealing with. That's it, this is what God says. I don't know what's more important in your life than the communication of God to you in book form, what could possibly be going on in your life that would be far more important than to know what's said here. That needs to be said. But God is gracious, and God like a loving father, Doesn't say, follow me because this is what I've said. Just follow me. He gives plenty of reasons. He gives plenty of good reasons. This is why you should. He gives plenty of bad reasons of why, this is what happens when you don't follow. And that's where we find ourselves in the middle of Proverbs chapter 29. We are seeing the reasons of why we should walk in wisdom. Why we should follow God's wisdom. Why it's important to stay biblical. Not necessarily all of the things that are involved in being biblical, we could probably spend a lot of time talking about that, of importance of Bible study, importance of correct interpretation, the importance of good theology, of kind of knowing what the Bible says generally. A good walk with the Lord, lots of prayer. That ability to apply the text, not only in a principle sense, but specifically to my life in those situations. That's all really important in how we think biblically. But here, today, what I want to do is just get you started to say, we need to be more biblical. This is not a time to be less biblical. We don't help anyone when we become less biblical. I want us to follow God's word and what is said here, and I want to encourage you to follow the book. And so that's what we're going to talk about. So I'm going to give you the reasons of why we should follow. These are the good reasons why we should follow. Now, we already saw a couple last week as we went through the first six verses. Those are good reasons. Today we're gonna see two more reasons of why you need to follow. There's nothing more important than these reasons right now. So the first is this. Following God's word leads to more practical wisdom. So in verse seven, that's what we're gonna see. Following God's word leads to more practical wisdom. God is the possessor of wisdom and he gives us wisdom. There is no such thing as, well, we spent too much time in one text and it's not relevant. What are you talking about? God wrote this. He wrote this. The sovereign creator wrote this. Do you not think that there's not principles for our life right now that don't apply to us right now? Of course there is. This is from the sovereign creator. And when we study it and when we learn it, guess what happens? It leads to more practical wisdom. Then from verses 8 through 11, guess where it leads? Self-control. That's where it leads. It leads to self-control. And we're going to talk about the dangers of avoiding God's word and not walking by the power of the Spirit and not seeking to be like Christ, and that leads to all kinds of problems. But when you're walking by the spirit, there's this control. So, let's go to Proverbs chapter 29. Let's start in verse seven, and let's first look at how God's word leads to practical wisdom. Notice what it says. It says, a righteous man knows the rights of the poor. A wicked man does not understand such knowledge. Well, that is just an interesting proverb all by itself, isn't it? It speaks of this ability that a righteous person has, this knowledge that this person has, that a person does not have, right? And notice the arena of this knowledge. The arena of this knowledge is the rights of the poor. Kind of a difficult phrase to kind of translate and parse, but I think the ESV kind of has it right in the idea that it's the righteous man understands the plight He understands the humanity. He understands the right way to apply the principles to the person's life. And here the word poor isn't, though it could mean American poor, the idea of poverty in this sense is not having enough to survive, okay? That's really what poverty is, right? You don't have enough. You don't have enough food to survive. You don't have enough shelter. You don't have enough clothes, right? That's poverty. We in the United States are so incredibly blessed, even right now. God has blessed us, not because of how good Americans have been, but because he is so incredibly gracious And we are recipients of that graciousness. But notice here, it says the righteous person knows the rights of the poor. We would say, well, how is it that the righteous man knows such things? When I was younger, I used to have this idea that if I just was righteous, all these things would just pop into my head, like there's like a download, right? Like if I just memorize a verse a day, there's gonna be this instant download of all of this stuff, the book of Proverbs promises, and I'm just gonna like stumble into being wise, right? Is that what happens? No, there's no download. You know where this righteousness comes, we believe, in the New Testament, righteousness comes on the basis of Christ, who died on the cross for our sins. When we placed our faith in him, the person and work of Jesus were then imputed with the righteousness of Christ. I am given the righteousness of Christ, and because of that, I can then live righteously. So here, when I say a righteous man, this is one who is living righteously based upon the power of the Holy Spirit for us in the New Testament. And when you're living righteously, guess what that involves? That involves being able to read God's word, properly understand God's word, properly put things in perspective, right? That's what we talked about this morning in Sunday school. But then part of that then means properly applying God's word and the principles to the specific situation. That's what righteousness is, is that ability to do the right thing at the right time. So when you think about all that that entails with the righteous man, and then when it says he knows the rights, this is because the righteous man has spent a lot of time in God's word and in God's wisdom and has learned these great theological principles. One, every single human being is made in the image of God. The problem that's going on in the world is sin. The solution is God himself for that sin. So then when we start thinking then theologically about the needs of the poor, we then automatically go, Yeah, sometimes the poor people need sandwiches, and sometimes they need money, but I guarantee you this, the thing that they need the most of is the gospel. They need more Jesus, right? They need more Bible. That's the thing they need, and that's the more difficult thing. Anybody can make a sandwich. An atheist can make a sandwich. But it's only the righteous who have this perspective from God's word, right? And so here, it's this one who's able to kind of put it all together. And then when he, not only can he apply things correctly to his own life, but because he knows the principles, and then he looks at the problem and the plight of the poor person, well, guess what? He's able to know those principles and apply those principles to their life. As I was thinking about this, man, to talk about a passage that flies in the face of conventional wisdom, conventional wisdom would say no, really to know the problem and the plight and the solution for the poor person is to go talk to poor people. And they know what they need for themselves. Now there might be some aspect to we probably should care about people and talk to people. But God knows what they need more than they know what they need, right? And spending time in God's word is far more beneficial and applying that correctly is far more beneficial. And then when you spend time in God's word and you have these principles, then when you talk to them in the midst of these plights, then you can give biblical answers with biblical solutions, right? You're not just helping them out of a bind, but you're showing them to the Savior. And so here it speaks of one who genuinely cares, right? Because I know God and because I love God, that deepens my love for my neighbor. And as I have a love for my neighbor, this comes from that theological perspective. And so therefore, when I talk to them and deal with them, it's coming with this full force and time and study. That's what I think Solomon means here. So then it would make logical sense, the antithesis, which is a wicked man does not understand such knowledge. Why? Because he doesn't spend time in God's word. Does this mean that the wicked person doesn't have good idea from time to time on a solution that might be helpful? Well, of course not, that's not what Solomon's saying. But what he's saying is, because they're not in God's word and they're not focusing on the truth of God's word and the theology and all of these principles and applying this, when it comes then to dealing with other people, they don't know how to apply these things to themselves, let alone to someone else. So you see, following God's word and spending time in God's word, studying and knowing, this leads us to practical wisdom, right? Now, Paul says something very similar. Go with me to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter four. By the way, every preacher I know, This is like our passage. So if you ever wanna get me a gift, and you're like, what Bible passage would Caleb like stamped on that gift? 2 Timothy chapter four, verse two. But if we go back up to chapter three, Paul is dealing with something very interesting with young Timothy. So Timothy's a pastor in a city that's very much like our culture, the culture that's around us, very much like the city of Ephesus. And here's this young pastor in the situation, and he's dealing with a church, and there's a lot of things happening inside of the church, there's a lot of things happening, and so what is Paul, what's the advice to Timothy, so notice in 3.10, he says, you, however, follow my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfast, my persecution and suffering that happened to me in Antioch and at Iconium and Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet for them all the Lord has rescued me. So here Paul is saying to this young pastor, follow my example. I've given you an example. Don't follow the others because guess what? There's gonna come a time when there's gonna be false teachers that are gonna want people to go the other way. So he says, stay focused. And he says in verse 12, and remember this, indeed, all who desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you've learned and have firmly believed, knowing whom you've learned it from. So continue in the things you learned. Well, what did Timothy learn? Christ, the gospel, the word, right? Things about ministry. And then he says, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings. And notice. which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. This book makes us wise, right? That's what it is. So continuing the things I taught you, and the implication is because the things I taught you come from God's word, they point people back to God's word, and this is why it needs to go back to God's word, because this book gives wisdom, and specific type of wisdom. make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, meaning the more time I spend in God's word, the more wisdom I get, and guess what that wisdom will lead me to do? Step out in faith and in obedience, right? I mean, that's the implication, right? So I'll go on back to the book. That's what the book does. And then he says, All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. That's what this book does. So when I think about this practical wisdom that comes from sticking with God's word and spending time in God's word and learning Christ through God's word, guess what it does? It teaches me, it rebukes me, it corrects me, and it trains me. And then notice what he says. training in righteousness that the man of God may be, notice this, complete, mature, that's what he means, mature, and equipped for every good work. So you'll be able to do the good works, right? And so then I just gotta do it because this is, This is literally the thing that is stamped on the front of my Bible, so every time I'm in the vicinity of two chapters, we're going to this text. This is the epicenter, right? So notice what he says. He says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Jesus Christ, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word. Why? Because it's hard for sermon planning and prep? No, that has nothing to do with it. It has everything to do with what God's word does, what it leads us to, where it points us to, right? How it helps us, it trains us, it rebukes us. That's what it does. So then he says, preach the word, and he says, be ready in season and out of season. And then I've always found this interesting, reprove, rebuke, and exhort. I'm quick to point out that the reproof and the rebuke and the exhortation must come from the text itself because that's what the text does in verse 16. It reproves and it corrects and it teaches and it quips. So the pastor's not necessarily taking what God's word has to say and then wagging his finger trying to create something. He's just saying this is what it says and when the text rebukes, he rebukes. When it exhorts, he exhorts. and then teach with all patience. And so, when I think of this text, and I think what Paul says here about the importance of God's word, that's the same thing Solomon is saying, right? He's saying it in different words, coming at it from a different angle. So back in Proverbs 29, yeah, the wicked don't understand this knowledge, because they don't have the wisdom, because they're not in God's book. They don't spend time with God's word. And it makes sense that if you spend time in God's word, living righteous lives based upon the power of the Holy Spirit, guess where it's going to lead you? To more and more practical biblical wisdom. That's where it's going to lead you. Now, it doesn't happen overnight. It takes a long time to develop this. Now, there's something else that happens when we stick with God's word and the reason why it's really important. So remember, we need to be biblical, we need to spend time in God's word, understand it correctly, apply it correctly, But this leads somewhere. There's a really good reason. In this sermon, this is the second reason. We've already heard several others in the past sermon, and we just heard one about how it leads to practical wisdom, but here's the other one. This leads to self-control. Spend time in God's word, guess where it leads? Self-control. It's amazing. It's amazing how this is like, Solomon's big thing, self-control. You know what's so amazing about it? Number one, all of us suffer with self-control issues, right? I mean, that's the issue. You want to know our issue, that's it. We have no concept of self-control, right? There are 13 different flavors of Doritos. I must try them all twice. No concept of self-control, right? There's a new one? I don't even like Doritos and marshmallow. I'll try it. That's how we act, right? We lack self-control. It's interesting that that's one of the fruit of the spirit that Paul mentions in Galatians, self-control. The fruit of the spirit is self-control. It's interesting that Solomon spent so much time on this issue of self-control. We suffer with it, right? Myself included, we all suffer with self-control. How do we get self-control? You ready? Spending time in the book, yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit, properly applying. It's not rocket surgery, right? So notice what he says in verse eight. Scoffers set a city aflame. Yup. Does anybody disagree with that? Wicked, evil people who mock, they set things aflame, right? How many times have we seen that on the news? Oh, the city's on fire. Oh, that city's on fire. Oh, that city's on fire. In fact, we even have a phrase, right? I've seen it on several T-shirts. Several of my friends have said it. They said, wasn't during COVID a dumpster fire? right, which apparently is the worst kind of fire. Yep, that's what they do, right? They, scoffers who don't spend time in God's word, they are yielding to the flesh. Guess what they do? They're willing to blow the whole thing up, the whole city. Do they live in the city? I don't think they really care. They're willing to destroy the whole thing, bring the whole thing down. They're gonna burn the whole city down. Now, obviously this is a metaphor, though it probably could be taken very literally, right? Because we've seen it. But it is also true that if you've ever met a scoffer, they'll blow up anything. They'll set fire to anything. Any opportunity a scoffer has to set flames to something, something that someone has built and spent time and took care into, they don't care. They care about themselves. Burn it. I don't get my way? Burn it. You don't like what I say? I'll burn what you own. Lacks of self-control, right? This is like the epitome of no self-control. And then notice how he contrasts it. But the wise man turns away wrath. You see that? You see the connection then of self-control? You see the contrast between lack of self-control and being peaceable, right? Wanting to be at peace with all people? de-escalating a situation, right? This is what God's word does. This is what it does, it teaches us, it teaches us. Man, there are some things in this world it's not worth having a big fight over, and trust me, as much as it's gonna depend on me, I wanna be at peace with all people, why? Because that affects how people see God, right? That's what it does. I always wanna make sure that I'm, as much as it depends on me to be at peace with all people, I wanna deescalate. I don't wanna yell, I don't wanna have yelling matches, I don't wanna have fights, I don't want things to be blown up, I don't want things to be set on fire, and I don't wanna use my word like a flamethrower. I wanna be that guy that, let's calm it down, and wisdom says, let's calm it down. What does Jesus say in the Beatitudes? Blessed are the peacemakers. You ready? One of the other fruit of the Spirit is what? Love, joy, peace. That's what a wise person does. Seeks, let's not burn it. Put the torches down. Put the torches down. Let's not burn it. Let's talk about it, right? Let us come to a solution. Now, notice what happens in verse nine. This is really interesting. It says, If, so it gives a scenario, this might happen. If a wise man has an argument with a fool. Now this word argument is kind of difficult for us to kind of put into the English because it has the idea of like a legal argument. So in my thinking, verse eight is connected to verse nine. So this is talking about peace talks, right? Somebody else burning a city down, right? Dealing with somebody who has a flame flower for a mouth, okay? In dealing with that. One of the recourses that the wise man does is he takes this person to court with a legal argument, right? And then notice what it says. It says, the fool only rages and laughs and there's no quiet. And you say, what is Solomon saying? Is he saying that there's never a time where a wise person should take a fool to court? Is he saying don't do it? You know what he's saying? Notice how he describes the fool. I think he's addressing the self-control of the wise man, because he wants to do things properly, orderly. He wants to have a good solution. And then he's contrasting that with the complete lack of self-control, because notice, the fool, instead of sitting there listening, trying to come to a solution, what's he doing? He's only angry. He's full of wrath. So he's spitting out flames like a flamethrower, and he's shooting lightning out of his fingertips, right? And then he laughs. Why is he laughing? Do you think it's funny? Maybe. Does he enjoy it? Maybe. You know what I think it is? He has no comeback. And you know what he does? He just laughs it off. Have you ever talked to somebody where you gave them pure, good, biblical reasons, and their only response was, ha, that's what I think the laugh is. But then there's then this, there's no quiet. Man, this is one of those texts where if you have a different translation than the ESV, you might see a different wording here, because some translate this to mean that the wise man will actually have the last laugh. The ESV, and a lot of the Hebrew scholars kind of lean towards this way, that the sense is there will be no end of it. Once you start, The fool is so given to lack of self-control, he's so angry, so controlled by his impulses, what will he do? He'll be angry, he'll be mad, he'll shoot lightning, he'll laugh, and he'll never, ever, ever let it die. You take him to court once, he's taking you to court three times. It just doesn't die, it's not gonna quit, he's always gonna be there. Once again, speaking to the lack of self-control of this person. Where does sometimes this end? You ready? Verse 10, I think verse 10 is connected. Bloodthirsty. That's an interesting word, isn't it? Have you ever stopped to think about that word, bloodthirsty? The desire to drink someone else's blood? Like you can't, be settled unless you drink the blood of another person. There's like this lust for blood and for death. These people hate one who is blameless. Now who are the blameless innocents here? Go back up to verse nine. Scoffer's willing to set the whole city on fire. Why? We don't know, he's a scoffer. He doesn't need a good reason. What does the wise man try to do? Tries to stop it. Tries to stop it, tries to stop it. Uses all these different means and methods to try to stop it. Tries to talk to him, tries to be rational, tries to deescalate. And what happens? The scoffer then turns into a murderer. He's willing to murder. Now, this could literally happen. It has happened. But remember Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount? And I know we don't like to think of this statement, but remember when he says, when you look at somebody with hate, it's as if you've committed murder, but you've committed it in your heart? Guess what a scoffer's really good at? Being angry and hating from their heart, and it's like murder. That's what, that's when we let the flesh run wild, it leads to this. This is what it leads to, hate, hate, hate, I want you gone, I want you dead. When we walk by the spirit, notice the opposite that happens. Notice what happens, verse 11. The fool gives full vent to his spirit. This guy, there's nothing that's slowing down this fire. You get the sense of a guy who's building a fire and he's like, let's cut down the tree and put the tree in the fire because it's gonna make a bigger fire. Oh, by the way, there's another tree. Let's cut down that tree. Let's cut down the whole forest for a fire. Why stop the fire? There's nothing that dampens him. There's nothing that restrains him. And then notice, but a wise man, the one who spends time in God's word, the one who properly interprets, properly applies, yields the power of the spirit, seeks to be like Christ, what does he do? Notice, but a wise man quietly holds it back. He's able to control himself. This is where biblical wisdom leads. This is what wisdom looks like. This is what biblical wisdom looks like, being able to have self-control, not being given to your emotions, not being given to the flesh, but being able by the power of the Spirit to say yes to what is right and to no to what is wrong. So my desire in giving this sermon as I'm looking at this text is to encourage you to live for Jesus, to live biblically. This is far better. I've talked to several people, several people who lost their way, acted unbiblically, unwise, acted fleshly, and they did things in their life they can't take back. They burn things, they can't unburn. No matter how many times they try to rebuild the city, there was still something that happened in the past. I encourage them that in God's wisdom, there's always forgiveness and grace, amen for that, right? Because if there wasn't, uh-oh for every single person in this room. I have to believe that God is gracious and that he forgives, because he says he is. I have to believe him. And when I confess my sins, I have to believe that he's forgiven me of those sins, right? Doesn't mean that there's always necessarily the alleviation of shame. But there's no guilt. It's forgiven. And I need to believe that. And I need to, right now, walk for the Lord. And what happens when you sin again? Well, you do the whole thing again. It's kind of built in. You're going to sin a lot. But here, isn't this far better, to walk before something happens, to determine now to walk biblically? Before you're in a situation where you don't know what to do, right now, start building. Right now, spending time in God's Word. Right now, walking by the power of the Spirit. Because a day will come, and it may happen this afternoon, where you'll be forced to make a stand biblically. It's better to work through it now than in the moment because that is a whole problem and can of worms. And so my encouragement is follow now. Determine in your heart right now to follow. Remember as a kid, my parents on my 10th birthday, bought me my first adult Bible. Before all I had was those picture Bibles, right? Which I still like. But it was the first time I got a Bible that was an adult Bible, right? No pictures, no notes, just the text, right? The big numbers for the chapters, little numbers for the verses. My parents wrote in that Bible. I don't have that Bible, by the way. I lost it. I know, that's really sad. But I remember what they wrote in the first page in the cover. And they wrote this. It was taken from our pastor at the time and from godly men in the church. And they said, this book will keep you from sin. But sin will keep you from this book, right? This book keeps you from sin, but sin will keep you from this book. I've always remembered that. Now, granted, I understand that there's mountains and mountains and mountains of theological truth in that, that you have to understand, right? It's not just having a Bible in your hand makes you immune to the flesh. I understand there has to be the power of the Spirit in yielding. But I will say this. You want to diminish greatly your desire for the Word of God and following the Word of God? Let the flesh win. Just let it win. That'll diminish your desire really quick. You want to strengthen your resolve and love for God's Word? Walk by the power of the Spirit. I know this sounds really rudimentary, right? Like, yeah, that's what we learned in Sunday school. Yeah, sometimes those Sunday school truths are the right truths. And so my encouragement to you is spend time in the book, walk by the power of the Spirit, and may God give us both the will and the ability to do what we've heard today. Let's go ahead and let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your book. We thank you so much for the Word. We thank you for Jesus. We thank you for the Spirit. We ask, Father, that you would continually help us stay obedient, continually help us walk in a manner that's worthy of the calling. We're so sorry how many times we fail, and we're gonna fail again, as you know. We are so very thankful that you are gracious and kind and that you forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Help us believe that truth and help us live in light of that truth, that we are forgiven in Christ. And when we ask for forgiveness, we are forgiven. Help us live biblically, help us think biblically, help us spend the time and work to understand this book correctly. We thank you so very much for everyone who's here. I thank you so very much for them and for their willingness to sit here. And I pray, Father, that you would work in their lives, as I know you do. And I pray that we would all be more like your son, Jesus Christ. It's in his name that we say, amen.