Thank you, Father, for the promise of your presence, something that we take your word for. We don't look for a God to do tricks or to do stunts. We know that you promise to be present in the assembly of your people together. You're exalted in the praises we sing. You communicate yourself to us in your word. In fact, you meet us in your word. The Bible speaks with your voice. What scripture says, you say. And as we turn now, To hear this last portion of Proverbs chapter 10, we hear the voice of the heavenly father speaking to his sons and daughters, but also giving a warning and a call to those who are not yet his children. So father, we again pray that the spirit of God will bring your word through and power to our hearts with all of the transforming miraculous results that we need it to have in us. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Proverbs is a book of crises. I hope you have seen with me over the weeks, over the months. It's a point of T intersections where the road comes to a point where you can either turn left or you can turn right or you can crash and die. There's no other choice. And so in the final analysis, this book has shown us That there aren't many ways to live. There are really only two ways to live. There are really only two paths. There are really only two roads. I either live under the lordship of God consciously or I live under the lordship of me. And that may take many different forms, but those are the only two fundamental choices. I either fear the Lord or I don't. Now, the Book of Proverbs uses a number of terms to describe these two roads. The road of walking with God may be called the fear of the Lord. It may be called righteousness. It may be called wisdom. It may be called insight, integrity. All of those things describe that one path of walking consciously under the lordship and ultimacy of God. The other path also has many names and proverbs that might be called folly. It might be called and there are several words for that, but just English versions use the one word folly. It might be called wickedness. It might be called abuse. It might be called perversity. But these are all words for the same road, the same road of living under the lordship of me, the tyranny of ego rather than the lordship of God. I see how this last section, verses 27 through 32, does this. This is a section of two ways. Notice that line A of every verse is the way of God and line B of every verse is man's way, sin's way. Line A of every verse is positive. Line B of every verse is negative. See here, verse 27. The fear of Yahweh adds days. Verse 28. The expectation of righteous men, joy. Verse 29. A stronghold for the man of integrity is the way of Yahweh. Verse 30. The righteous man will never be toppled. Verse 31. The mouth of the righteous man produces wisdom. And verse 32. The lips of the righteous man know what is pleasing. all of those talk about walking with God, about walking the way of the fear of the Lord in terms of its stability, in terms of its speech. But line B likewise speaks of the other road, the only other road, the road not lived under conscious submission to God's Lordship. Starting again with verse 27, line B, but the years of wicked men will be shortened. Verse 28, but the hope of wicked men will perish. Verse 29, but ruin for those who work abuse. Thirty, but wicked men will not dwell in the land. Thirty one, but the tongue of perversities will be cut off. Thirty two, but the mouth of wicked men perversities. So this whole section once again lays out these two ways, these two roads, only two roads. And obviously there is an implied question to all this, isn't there? What's the implied question? Which road am I on? Which way, as the sermon is titled? Am I on the road of the fear of God or am I on the other road? Am I on the road of stability and blessedness and joy or the road of folly and ruin and destruction and despair? And under that is the implicit call, if I'm on the wrong road, do something about it? What shall I do about it? So let's begin our study of this together, these two ways. And first we're going to consider Roman numeral one. And because there's two ways, there's only two Roman numerals to this outline. The first is Righteous Road. And in this section, we focus on line A of every verse in the section. Now, I want to clarify as we go into this something we've talked about before, but when we call it righteous road, this is not the way of moralism. This is not the way of rule keeping. This is not being righteous by being a good boy, by being a good girl. And I hope to clarify that as we go on. But I just do want to say that on the on the at the outset, this is not the way of moralism, but it is the way of God. So first, in looking at that, we consider its stability, and it is, Solomon says, immortal. Verse 27, the fear of Yahweh adds days. Now there's that word, the fear of Yahweh. I got to tell you, I'm delighted that he says this in this last section, because in our first sermon on this, and probably every sermon of the 52 on these 10 chapters, I've reminded you that the theme of the entire book of Proverbs is what? The fear of Yahweh. That's the theme of the whole book. The writer says, Solomon says at the outset, that the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge. And so this is his rubric. This is his heading that encompasses all of what it means to know God. It is faith as it submits to the lordship of God. That's what this phrase means. The fear of Yahweh. If you were to give a brief definition, and it defies brief definition, I'll tell you, because I've tried for decades, but my best try is the fear of Yahweh is faith as it submits to God's lordship. It is faith as it submits to God's ultimacy. Now, how is God ultimate? How is he absolute? Well, for one thing, he's absolute in that all of his attributes he possesses in perfection. You might say, well, my wife is a very loving person. I'm sure she is. God is not a loving person. God is love. You might say my father is a very wise man and perhaps he is, but God is not a wise God. God is wisdom. You might point to this judge in history and say he was a very just judge. God is not a just judge merely. He is justice. You see, he is the perfection of every attribute that describes him. It's not as if these attributes exist in abstract and God can be measured by them. You see, it's the reverse. God is the purest essence of these and everything else is judged by him. Do you see? And so that is the second thing that shows his ultimacy. First of all, all of his attributes he possesses in perfection. And secondly, everything else is judged by him and his attributes, not the reverse. So you don't, I don't come up with an idea of what would be a good God? What would a good God do? What would a wise God do? And then judge God by that. I'll tell you what a good God would do. What God does. What a wise God would do. What God does. What would a loving God do? What would a holy God do? What would a righteous God do? What God does. What the God of the Bible does. That's what a righteous, loving, holy, wise, perfect God would do. He is the definition of those things. And then the third thing that helps us understand His ultimacy is that He has need of nothing. Nothing and no one. He is of himself. He exists of himself. He owns everything. When we bring him something, it's like a kid giving daddy a present with the money daddy gave him. Everything that we have belongs to him. It's ours only on loan. And so he is self-existent. So when we look at this God who is the definition and the essence of perfection and that he is self-existent and sovereign overall, he's all-defining, all-owning, all-controlling, we bow to him and his ultimacy. And that is the fear of Yahweh. bowing to the Lordship and the ultimacy of the God of Scripture. So we see that the fear of Yahweh adds days. So what does that mean? Notice that that's open-ended. It doesn't say it adds 47 days. It doesn't say it adds 932 days. There's no number to it. It simply says it adds days. And this is a recurrent theme in these first nine chapters. And not them alone, but we've seen it a number of times. Proverbs 3, 1 and 2. My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments. For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Our Lady Wisdom in Proverbs 9 11 says for by me your days will be multiplied and years will be added to your life. Now this is we've seen a number of times is literally true. In that, first of all, under the Mosaic Covenant, there were promises of material blessings in general. Not that there were never any exceptions to these things, but we've looked several times at Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. where the path of believing obedience is the path of blessing in the barn, in the field, in the home, you see, in every part of the life of the Israelite. And so there are consequences and there still are consequences for walking in a godly way, other things being equal. Somebody who walks and lives in the fear of Yahweh is not likely to die of liver disease contracted by constant drunkenness, do you see? He's not likely to die of a sexually transmitted disease, do you see? He's not likely to die of something, some drug abuse related problem, you see. He's not likely to be executed for a capital crime. He's not likely to be killed by his drug running boss because he's not drug running. You see, so the things that cut life short, a person walking with God doesn't go those ways. And so he's likely to live with a clear conscience and have the health of a clear conscience and a joyous soul can bring. And so other things being equal. Wisdom does add days. Now, I would never, ever, ever say to somebody, you should become a Christian because it's good for your health. I would never say that. Lots of delusions can be good for health in the short run. Come to Christ because he's true. Come to Christ because he's real. Come to Christ because he's the way, the truth, and the life. But at the same time, there are blessings to knowing the Lord. Paul says that Godliness has promised for this life and the life to come. There are blessings, and certainly under the Mosaic Covenant, but also today there are blessings to walking with God. You're scared a lot that the person who doesn't walk with God knows it's a daily day of threats and dangers and risks. Do you follow what I'm saying? So wisdom, the fear of Yahweh adds days in that sense. But again, I do want to highlight that that's open ended. How many days does it end? Does it add? And if you read the other line A's in this section, verse 28 says an expectation of joy. Verse 29 says a stronghold. Verse 30 says he'll never be toppled. Literally for eternity he won't be toppled. You see, so these are blessings that go on into eternity. Verse 30 says he'll never, eternally never be toppled. So adding days is meant to kind of direct us to the fact that he doesn't just have a hope for this life. He has a hope for eternity. He has a hope that has no expiration date. Do you see? So the fear of Yahweh adds days. He is immortal. Secondly, indomitable. Indomitable. I even said my own word wrong. Indomitable. That's what I get for picking a big word. He's indomitable, which means that he cannot ultimately be crushed. He cannot ultimately be finally just discouraged and wiped out because of the nature of his expectation, because of the grounds of that expectation, because of how we apply that. So first of all, the nature of his expectation, well, Solomon writes the expectation of righteous men, joy. He expects joy. Now, note that by virtue of the fact that it's an expectation, that's forward looking. That looks to the future. So that means he's looking to something that is not yet for himself. He's looking to the future. He's looking to the not yet. And he expects joy in his future. And so when you say that the righteous person looks forward to joy, what does that imply about his presence? His present may not be joyous because he lives in a fallen world and that hasn't changed. He lives in a broken world and that has not changed. He lives in the world that's not a friend to righteousness and it's not a friend to godliness. He's living in a world that still hates his God. And insofar as he walks with God, it still hates him. He's living in a fallen body that's not yet glorified, that is still subject to temptations to sin. It's still subject to the fruits of the fall, diseases, aging, and all of the horrible things that attend the fall. So these are still factors in his presence. The kingdom of God has not come yet. He looks forward to it, and that's his expectation. His expectation is joy. In fact, I've said that hope is long-range faith. Hope is long-range faith. And so his expectation is joy. Now we're going to be fleshing this out in a great deal more detail Wednesday night. So I hope every one of you join us there as many of you have begun to do. And we'll see What Scripture says about that and how to know that joy, how to know that happiness, how to apply these truths to our lives. So the nature is a future looking expectation, a forward looking expectation. But what about the grounds? You might very well say, well, I know a great many godless people who are optimists. I know a lot of non-Christians who are very positive. They're very optimistic. They're the happiest seeming people that I know. Now, I wouldn't argue with you about that. What I'd say is that their happiness is an illusion. That's what I'd say. It's absolutely groundless. It may be a product of good plans, of good genes, you know, of good blessing of common grace in their life. Or it may be that they're relying on luck. They're relying on various superstitions. They're in a false religion that tells them everything is going to be fine. Maybe they're in Christian science that tells them evil doesn't even exist. And that's why they're happy. Denial. Absolute denial and absolute delusion. Maybe that's what's giving them their optimism. Maybe they're depending on themselves and they're sure that they can build a good future for themselves. But I'll tell you something that is true of every last one of them. Every last one of these people who are outside of Christ but have a hopeful, happy feeling about the future. It's all guesswork. It's all presumption because they do not control one nanosecond of the future. Amen. They don't control their next breath. They have no written guarantee of one more breath, one more heartbeat, one more day on this planet. And so this hope that they have, this optimism that they have, Scripture says again and again and again, it's a delusion. because their life is a mist that is here today and gone today. Gone just as fast as that. But by contrast, what is the expectation of the righteous man? What's the basis of that expectation? It's not wish fulfillment and it's not self-confidence. It's trust in Yahweh's word. It's that he worships a God. He fears a God. who is ultimate and sovereign and who has promised him good so that he knows that the good he looks forward to is not a wistful hope. It's not a maybe proposition. It's not a gee, I hope so proposition. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when because God's future is as sure as God's past. Do you follow me? That God will bless and resurrect and glorify his children is as sure as that God created the heavens and the earth. Did he create the heavens and the earth? He has promised he will do the other. And that is as certain as the former. God's promised future is as certain as his performed past. So the grounds of his expectation is the person and promises of his God. So what about the application? How do I make use of this? As I say, we'll look at this at much greater length Wednesday nights. But the application is to the person who right now is in ill health, who right now is oppressed or persecuted or or disappointed. The person who's dealing with sadness, depression and is disheartened now needs to apply this truth to himself, which has sounded many times in the New Testament. I've given you some of the verses in Romans 8. Paul says he speaks of Christians as being fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. The suffering doesn't call the glory into doubt. It's a condition of the glorification, provided that we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him. And listen to what the man who is betrayed, slandered, beaten up and left for dead says. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. And this is no Polly, you know, ivory tower to theologian Pollyanna speaking. This is somebody who's still got the scars and the bruises, the blood and the pain. from having been betrayed. And yet he says, oh, that's that's nothing. That's nothing compared with the glory that's going to be revealed. Second Corinthians four, he says, so we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away. Our inner self is being renewed day by day. And again, to hear this man say the next words just as it's a jaw dropper, but he says for this light momentary affliction, being shipwrecked, being thrown into jail, being beaten bloody and raw, being stoned to death, light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. And here's the key. As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. promises of God. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. And Peter brings it down home in 1 Peter 1.13, where he says, preparing your minds for action, being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you with the revelation of Jesus Christ. Fully, entirely, 100%. So the stable way of the righteous man, the righteous woman, is immortal. It is indomitable. Thirdly, it is invincible. Verse 29, a stronghold for the man of integrity is the way of Yahweh. This is, as a matter of interpretation, is a little difficult. I'll try to sail you through it without bumping into too much. First of all, the way of Yahweh. See, that's the most difficult part because in Proverbs and the Old Testament can mean one of two things. The way of Yahweh, just that expression, might mean Yahweh's own way, or it might be the way he calls us to walk. You see the difference? In other words, it may be Yahweh's own modus operandi, Yahweh's own procedure, how he judges and how he behaves. Or it might be the way he calls me to walk, his revealed will, his laws, statutes, his ordinances, his revealed inscripturated will for me. It might be one or the other of those two things. Most often it's the latter. It is his revealed way, the way he calls me to walk. And I think that that's the way that we, no pun intended, I think that's the way we should take it here. The way of Yahweh, meaning the way Yahweh calls us to walk. God's revealed word, God's revealed will. A stronghold for the man of integrity is the way of Yahweh, walking the way of his commands and his law. Well, it's a stronghold for who? The man of integrity. What is that? He's the solid state man. He's the man who's of one piece. He's not a hypocrite. He's not double minded. He's not two people. He walks in Yahweh's way wherever he is. He walks in Yahweh's way in church. He walks in Yahweh's way at home after church. He walks in Yahweh's way at the workplace. He walks in Yahweh's way in the hunting blinds, in the bass boat. Wherever he is, he walks in Yahweh's way. He's one person. I've often thought, you know, around political season, you hear people who are religious politicians, and they say, but I never let my faith interfere with my politics. Well, that's interesting. So they're saying they're a hypocrite. They say, I'm a hypocrite. You should vote for me because I'm a hypocrite. I say I believe this in my heart, with all my heart, and then I go do something totally different when I'm in my office. That's a hypocrite. Now, that's not the man of integrity. The man of integrity is the same man when everybody's watching and when nobody's watching. Because God's always watching. Amen? That is the backdrop of his life. That's what makes him a man of integrity. He fears Yahweh. And where's Yahweh? Is Yahweh in church waiting for him to visit him once a week? No. Yahweh's everywhere. The eyes of Yahweh, as Proverbs says, are in every place. And so he lives before that ever-present God who he fears and before whom he walks. So the way of Yahweh is a stronghold to this man, this man of integrity. How is it a stronghold to him? That's where it gets a little hard to interpret. How is walking according to God's commands a stronghold? Well, in that he's not walking his own way. He's not making it up as he goes along. A man who's making up his morals and his values has no basis. He has no authority. He's just a little Tyro. He's a little would-be God, God wannabe. who's just making it up. But he doesn't have the cred. He doesn't have the resume. He doesn't have what it takes to be God. And yet he's trying to play that role, just making it up, making it up, making up his own ethics, making up his own eschatology, making up his own cosmogony and cosmology. In other words, he just creates the universe according to his own notions. And that's a rickety, ruined, ruinous way to live. But that's the option of the man who's not walking under the fear of God. By contrast, The man who is walking under the fear of God isn't making it up. He steers clear of adultery because God tells him to. He steers clear of drunkenness because God tells him to. He studies God's word and devotes himself and memorizes it and masters it and fills his heart with it because God tells him to. These aren't things that he's made up and they're not going to come and go. Tomorrow's poll won't turn it on its head. Doesn't matter. If 0% of the people or 100% of the people affirm or deny it, it doesn't matter. He gets it from God. And so the truth is, and as we've been Christians for a while, we kind of lose sight of this, but read the newspaper, especially read the entertainment pages. And you'll be reminded, walking with God actually steers you around a thousand lion minds. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Walking with God steers you around a thousand landmines, a thousand hidden pits, a thousand traps, a thousand craters. Walking God's way spares us a thousand sleepless, guilty, haunted nights. Because as we walk God's way, we can have the assurance of God's providence, God's protection, God's pleasure. It's an entirely different way than walking the way of our own hearts and our own imaginations. So the stable way of the righteous man is immortal. It's indomitable. It's invincible. And fourth, it's immovable. Verse 30. It is immovable. The righteous man will never be toppled, he says. The righteous man will never be toppled. He just said something like that in chapter 10, verse 25. Remember that? With the passing of the tornado, the wicked man is no more, but the righteous man has an everlasting foundation. It's hard to read this. The righteous man will never be toppled and not think of how Jesus closes the Sermon on the Mount. How does he close the Sermon on the Mount? He preaches all these things about the values, the ethics of the kingdom of God, the coming kingdom of God. And he closes by envisioning two men. Remember what I'm talking about here? The wise man, the foolish man. They both have a lot in common. They've both heard what he says. They both heard his sayings and they both responded to his sayings. Wait a minute, I haven't responded yet. I'm still making up my mind. Well, that's your response. That's your response. As long as I'm making up my mind, I'm rejecting what Jesus says. So they both respond to his statements. One builds his house on the statement, the other disregards them. And he says, they're like a guy building his house on solid rock or a guy building his house on sand. Same storm comes to both. Same wind, same rain, same floods hit both houses. There the similarity ends. Remember how this story ends? How does the guy built on sand end up? Pardon me? Without a home, Max says. Tremendous fall, tremendous ruin. How about the guy built on stone, built on a big rock? That stands. And so Solomon says, the righteous will never be toppled. That's stable. Never for eternity will he be toppled, Solomon says. Now, where is the stability? Where does it come from? Let me tell you very emphatically, it's not in the man. The stability doesn't come from him. He's as weak as anyone else. He's as helpless as anyone else. He's as mortal. He has exactly as much control over his future as the wicked man. How much control is that? Zero. He has no control over his future. So how can we say that he will never be toppled? It's not the man. It's his foundation. He, unlike the wicked man, is under the fear of God and built on the sovereign God. The everlasting God is his foundation, the person, the promises of God. That's why he's stable. That's why he will survive persecution and the judgment of God and the persecution of man. He will survive these things because he rests on the eternal sovereign God. So the God fear knows true stability because of God and his word. He is invincible, indomitable, and he is stable. He's blessed now. and he will be blessed forever. He knows blessedness now and joy now and hope now. He knows eternal life forever. He's as stable as God is because he rests on God. Now, secondly, it's speech. We've seen it's ability, now it's speech. Two things characterize the speech of the righteous road. First, it is wise. Verse 31 says, the mouth of the righteous man produces wisdom. Now, that word produces is kind of an interesting word. It gives the idea of of bearing fruit. There's kind of a there's a tree metaphor behind this proverb. You see, the mouth of the righteous man produces wisdom like a tree bears fruit. And so his heart is the source and his mouth is the conduit. What what comes out of his mouth is wisdom because of who he is. He's righteous. In other words, he fears Yahweh. He submits to God's sovereignty. So it's interesting to see here in so many places in Proverbs that righteousness and wisdom are twins. It is wise to submit to God's Lordship. Amen. It's wise to submit to God's Lordship and it's folly not to submit to God's Lordship. And so in the eyes of Scripture, if a man is righteous, he's wise. And if he's not righteous, he's not wise. Scripture would never say that somebody who does not fear God is really a wise person otherwise. It just would not say that. I would be slow to call anyone really wise who does not walk in the fear of God. I'd be very slow to do that. Let's say a man makes a really good hot dog, but he puts poison in everything else he cooks. Is he a good chef? He makes a really good hot dog, though. No, he's not a really good chef. Or say a surgeon does crackerjack appendectomies, but every other patient of his dies on the table. Is he a good doctor? Is he a skilled surgeon? No, but he does great appendectomies, but that doesn't make him a great doctor. See, if we get the most fundamental truth in the universe wrong, wisdom is not an option. And the most fundamental truth in the universe is there is a God, you're not him. And if somebody doesn't start there, wisdom is not an option. Wisdom is the last word we should apply to that person. So wisdom bears fruit out of our mouth. A righteous man speaks wisdom. The speech of a righteous man comes from divine viewpoint, comes from God's word, comes from God's wisdom, God's revealed and scripturated wisdom. So if I'm somebody who says that I, I fear God, I will show it by learning the word of God, by carrying it in my heart, wherever I go, being able to speak it in any situation that I might find myself in because God's wisdom is ultimately portable and I carry it with me and wherever I go, my mouth is ready to speak that wisdom. His speech is wise. And secondly, his speech is God pleasing. Verse 32. The lips of the righteous man know what is pleasing. Obviously when we say his lips know, that's a figure of speech, meaning he knows, he knows what is pleasing. So his lips will speak it. What is pleasing, meaning what is pleasing to God, what's good in the eyes of God, what God will approve. When he speaks about God, He speaks what pleases God. When he speaks about life and death, he says what pleases God. When he speaks about church and worship, when he speaks about marriage and family and values and what's important in life, he speaks what pleases God. His lips know what's pleasing and they speak them. This is the mark of a righteous man, the mark of a man who fears God. Now, all of this, the stability of the speech, characteristics of righteous road are in stark contrast to the other. The other option is wicked way. The other option is wicked way. Now again, what makes a man wicked isn't merely that he does bad things, that he doesn't behave himself. What makes a man wicked is that he does not fear God. He's not at peace with God. He does not walk with God. The heart does what the heart does because the man is what the man is. He doesn't fear God, so he's a wicked man. His hands do They reflect where his heart is, and his heart is not at peace with God. So first we look at the wreckage of wicked way. The wreckage of wicked way, while the way of the righteous is stable, the way of the wicked is first of all, futureless. Verse 27, but the years of wicked men will be shortened. Again, like Line A, it's open-ended. It doesn't say shorten how much, it doesn't say shorten by 20%, shorten by 80%, shorten to 3 years, 30 years, 83 years. It doesn't say any of those things, it just says they'll be shortened. And again, this is true literally. Proverbs says this a number of ways, that the way of sin and folly, other things being equal, can really shorten a life. We saw that in the first lecture in chapter one, where the son is warned against joining this gang of get-rich-quick toughs, you know, who are going to kill people and take their purses. And he warns in verse 19, such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain. It takes away the life of its possessors. So he says, you're dumber than a bird. If you go this way, a bird will avoid a snare. It'll avoid a trap. And you're walking right into one if this is the way you want to live. And again and again, when he warns about the immoral woman, the adulterous woman, the loose woman, he says her house sinks down to death. I've given you those verses. And Lady Wisdom says in 836, all who hate me love death. So death is the culture of the person who will not fear the God who is life, who gives life. Won't fear God, so death is going to be his companion. So it is true literally, and it's of course true spiritually, that his years will be shortened. Oh, he may have his 10 years of grace, or his 30 years, or his 70 or 80 years of grace, but if he dies unrepentant, that's it. It's all the grace. The rest is judgment and wrath. And his years are cut off and for good. And meanwhile, in the present, what's the quality of the years that he does have? Secondly, they're hopeless. The life he has is hopeless. But the hope of wicked men will perish. Verse 28 says hopeless, the hope, the expectation of righteous men joy, but the hope of wicked men will perish. Well, it's interesting, isn't it? Like the righteous man, he hopes for change. The righteous man is experiencing pain and experiencing the fruits of sin. And he has a hope that that's going to change one day. But the wicked man also hopes for change in his life. He hopes for more money. He hopes for more power. He hopes for more things, more sexual thrills, more sensual thrills. He hopes for more happiness, more self-fulfillment. He hopes everything's going to go his way. And he hopes that God will either rubber stamp his check or get out of the way so he can get what he wants out of life. But all those are baseless pipe dreams. All that is whistling past the graveyard. There is no basis to that kind of hope. Because all of it ends at the grave. What he has now is common grace. Common grace is a theological term that expresses a biblical truth. Common grace is what God shows to all his creatures. It's what Jesus means when he says he makes the sun rise on the righteous and the unrighteous. He sends his rain on the just and the unjust. That's God's common grace that he gives to all food and air and anything anyone enjoys in life is from the grace of God. the general love of God that he has for all his creatures. And we enjoy this for all our lives. And the thing about the wicked man is he doesn't understand that what he has in common grace, he has on loan and it's temporary. It has a sell-by date. It has a cutoff point that is getting ever closer with every tick of the clock and every beat of his heart. That cutoff date is getting closer, the time when he will lose all that. Now God is giving him this common grace as an opportunity to repent. That's the whole point of it. He's given food and health and gladness and the ability to fire two neurons and sequence in his brain so that he can put it together and see his need to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if he doesn't do that, then he's going to come to his grave and he's going to see all that gone forever. Jesus says this in Luke chapter 16. Do you remember the story of the rich man and Lazarus? The rich man has a miserable life. Lazarus has a plush, posh life. Lazarus dies and he goes and he's comforted in Abraham's bosom. What happens to the rich man? The rich man dies and he goes to torment. And just remember that Abraham says to him in Luke 16, 25, child. Oh, ouch. That was really, that hurts to say that to a Jew. Abraham says to this lost, damned Jew, child. So his being of the seed of Abraham did not save him. Child, he says. Remember that you in your lifetime received your good things. But now, You were in anguish. What's he saying? Common grace is over. You had your opportunity to repent and you ate it all up. And now that opportunity is gone. Hebrews 9.27 says it is appointed for man to die once. And after that comes judgment. So I would say to any person, if you are having your best life now, you're going to hell. If you're having your best life now, you're going to hell. No righteous man is having his best life now, amen? Amen? No godly man is having his best life now. The only people who are having their best life now are lost, doomed, damned sinners, like that rich man. And like us, if we don't turn to God in repentance, the hope of wicked men will perish. He's futureless. He's hopeless. Third, he's defenseless. The way of Yahweh is a ruin for those who work abuse. So remember, the way of Yahweh is his revealed will. And the reason why it works ruin for those who work abuse is because it judges them. God's revealed morality judges them. See, here's the thing that we forget. We aren't judged by whether we do what we really believe in our heart. That's not God's standard of judgment. We aren't judged by whether we're better than Adolf Hitler. This is always the sort of choice people make. Well, I'm better than Hitler. I'm better than Bin Laden. I'm better than Charles Manson. Well, that'd be great if that were the passing grade, but that's not the passing grade. We're not judged by that. We're not judged by taking an average of public morality. We're not judged by the latest Gallup poll. What are we judged by? Judged by the word of God. We're judged by the law of God. We're judged by the way of Yahweh. And that ruins us. Judged by that standard, we're ruined. Any one of us hoping to win our way and deserve our way into heaven by our merits, we are ruined by the law of God. Let's explore this more in the weeks to come, Lord willing, but we are ruined by the law of God if we try to earn our way into heaven. And if a man won't trust the grace of God in Christ, that's all he's got, right? If he's not trusting Jesus as his savior, then all he's got is himself as his savior. And then we're now we're on his works and are his works good enough. And the word of God is absolutely candid and blunt. And of one voice on that subject, you are ruined. The way of God will ruin you. God's law will judge and condemn you, whoever you are, if you trust in your works for salvation. So he's futureless. He's hopeless. He's defenseless. And ultimately he will find himself homeless. Verse 30 says, but the wicked man will not dwell in the land, but wicked men will not dwell in the land. The land to Solomon and his readers would, of course, have been Israel. And he's talking about a literal facet of the law of Moses, which is that individuals or the nation would be put out of the land if they walked in stubborn rebellion against God. Given you some verses from Deuteronomy that even makes it individual. Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from Yahweh our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit. One who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart. Oh, my first 20. The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man. He'll single him out, he'll blot him out, and he'll bring all the curses in the law to bear on him. That's a very powerful word. That's going to be the law of the Israelite who does not fear and walk with God. And so what does that have to do with us? Well, to Solomon and to his readers, the land, of course, was Israel. But one day, what will the land be? The whole globe, the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ. You've heard that from Hamel's Messiah. That's in the book of Revelation. The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of God. All this will be the land. And the wicked man who finds himself somehow surviving the tribulation period and looking at this land that's become the land of God will have no home in it. He will be judged and cast out. He'll have no home. He will not inherit the land. All that would be left to him. is what Christ calls the outer darkness and God's wrath and fury forever and ever. He will not. He will not dwell in the land. He will be homeless. So we've seen the unstable wreckage of Wicked Way. Finally, we look at its words. We've seen its wreckage. Now we look at its words. The speech of the godly produced wisdom and delight. What about the speech of the wicked man? First of all, his words are doomed to condemnation, verse 31. But the tongue of perversities will be cut off. The tongue of perversities will be cut off. Now, again, I mentioned to you that there's a kind of a submerged imagery of a tree in that verse. Line A says the mouth of the righteous man produces wisdom like a like a tree bearing fruit. Line B says the tongue of perversities will be cut off. Again, a tree image, a bad branch. cut off of the tree. And so will he be the tongue of perversities. In other words, the tongue that speaks perversities. As some cultures of that day literally did maim or cut off tongues that like broke agreements or violated the law in some way, obviously the picture here is judgment on that tongue. A tongue that's exercised in the speaking of perversities will be judged and silenced by God's judgment. And this is what's called the divine passive. It occurs many times. When it says, will be cut off, the implication is by whom will it be cut off? It will be cut off by God. God will judge that kind of tongue. What is a tongue of perversities? You might be thinking that's kind of an awkward phrase. That's because, like I say, I give you very literal translations. A tongue of perversities is a tongue that's characterized by speaking perversities. And what a perversity is, literally the Hebrew word is the idea of topsy-turvy, something that stood on its head. So this is the sort of person who says things that stand reality on its head, that says things that turn truth upside down, says things that are the opposite of the truth. He says things like that abortion is love and things like perversion is love and statism is love. Suicide is self-affirmation. It's an act of self-affirmation. And we don't need God to be good. We don't need God to be happy. We don't need God to have purpose. All we need to do is to follow our dreams and be true to our hearts and seek ourselves. And these are fine things, except for the one thing that they're all opposite of reality. They're all reality stood on its head. And so what this verse tells us is that it's all talk. People who talk this way with absolute assurance and confidence and absolute terms, it's just talk. It's just words and it's doomed words. The tongue that speaks that sort of things will be judged by God. Our trouble in our society is that we often think that talk is reality. I think of one recent politician who would just say that a problem had been solved and the press would report, well, the problem is solved. Well, how did that happen? Because this president said it was solved. So he said it was solved, and wow, you know, so we report problem solved. No more poverty, no more homelessness, no more whatever he talked about, because they so adored him. But that reflects our mindset. Talk is reality. We report talk as if it were real. We take opinion polls as if opinions reflected anything other than what people think. And the trouble is, all this is delusion. It's all bluff. It's all whistling past the graveyard. So we get our hour. We get our hour to strut, to talk big, and to boast, beat our chests, write our blogs, and wear our t-shirts, and put up our billboards, and file our lawsuits, and pass our laws. We get our hour to do that. And then the King of Kings shows up and it's all over. That's the end of all that. Have you ever read the book of Revelation and have the feeling of anti-climax? You know, all your life you've heard this word, Armageddon, Armageddon, Armageddon, and then you read the book of Revelation, and there's all these armies and Antichrist and the false prophet and so forth, and Jesus comes and now it's a millennial kingdom. That's it. I mean, where's the pitched battle? Where's the exchange of gunfire? You know, where's all the explosions and the strategizing and all that? There is an enemy. Jesus just comes, smashes enemies and starts his kingdom. Why? Because all that was an illusion. How long does it take to knock over a house of cards? Have you ever timed it? That's about how long it'll take to knock over Babylon. To knock over the kingdom of man once the real king shows up. It's all an illusion in the tongue that's capitalized on speaking topsy-turvy, simply be cut off. And that'll be that. Finally, it's also doomed to elimination. Verse 32. Verse one says the lips of the righteous man know what is pleasing, but the mouth of wicked men know, in other words, perversities. And that's all they know. This reminded me, I hope you won't mind my quoting a line from Ronald Reagan. who said, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn't so. It's not that they're ignorant, it's just they know so much that isn't so. And that is the, whether you agree with President Reagan or not, that is the case here. These people are absolutely certain of what they say. They're certain that they are the center of the universe. They're certain that they have the right to decide what's true and false and what's right and wrong. They have the right. They're the master of their fate. They're the captain of their soul. They don't care what's written on the scroll of accusations against them. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk until the king comes, until the judge sits, and then it's all over. They think their will is ultimate and will prevail until God turns up. It's doomed. Everything right now is topsy turvy, but God's kingdom is coming. And when it comes, The first will be last and the last will be first. And this, instead of a world that hates God, will be a world ultimately in which righteousness dwells. Kind of like it is now, except the opposite. And that's where Solomon takes us in this last section of chapter 10. So all the themes of Proverbs are brought to fruition in the New Testament. I hope you've seen this insofar as you've listened and attended through this series in Proverbs, how many times I've shown you that yes, some of the covenantal specifics are different for Solomon and his readers than they are for us today. But the grand themes and the grand teachings are just the same, except that they find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ and his salvation. The fear of God is not an Old Testament theme. It's a Bible theme. Wisdom is not an Old Testament theme. It's a Bible theme. Righteousness and all of the things that Solomon and Proverbs teach us are not Proverbs themes. They're Bible themes and their truths and realities for us today. So I bring you to a close by looking at Hebrews 12, 25 through 29, as you see in your outline. And I hope you're turning there or have turned there because you'll see a great many of these themes all brought to fruition and what the writer says. In Hebrews 12, 25, he says, see to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking, for if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven. And his voice shook the earth then. But now he is promising yet once more will I shake not only the earth but also the heaven. This expression yet once more denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken as of created things so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. So like what we just read in Proverbs 10 about the stronghold for the man of integrity and how he'll never be toppled. So verse 28, therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude or very literally let us have grace by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe. That is to say, with godly fear, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. The godly life is a life of godly fear and therefore of stability, of hope, ultimately of joy. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. The man who fears God fears him all day and everywhere. In reverence, he lives a righteous life full of joy and confidence and hope. By contrast, the godless life is a life of terror. Any moment may be one's last moment. one's last nibble at the table of common grace. No one has promise of one moment more. But one does have the promise of God's judgment at which all anti-God false hope, false ideas, and all sin will be judged. All perverse notions and hopes and words will be eliminated forever. And God's wrath will be the only reality that somebody knows for the rest of eternity. And after he suffered a million years under that wrath, he'll be no nearer the end than he was when he started. Because every rebellion against God is doomed. So the implicit call in this portrayal of the two ways is to look with a godly eye at the road you're standing on, the road you are walking right now. Which road is that? Is it the road of wickedness or is it the road of wisdom? Is it the road of the fear of God or the road of self-worship and self-rule? That is the call with the implicit call. If you see you're on the wrong road, repent while you still can. Accept God's grace. And I would say to you, accept God's grace in Jesus Christ and be saved from this wicked generation. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the great blessing that the Book of Proverbs has been to us and the timeless wisdom in it. We pray, Father, that these words will be burned on our hearts and minds. I pray for every brother and sister in Christ that I have here, that we will all be wiser and godlier and spend our lives more heartily for your glory. I pray for those who don't know you, and again, especially for those who imagine they do, but really don't. I pray, Father, that the Word of God will point them to the depth of their need and send them running for the grace that is to be found in Christ so abundantly and in Christ alone. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.