This is our 99th sermon on the book of Proverbs. Lord willing, we will finish next week and then go on to Exodus Sunday after that. The words of King Lemuel. The utterance which his mother taught him. What, my son? What, son of my womb? What, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, nor your ways to those who destroy kings. It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes intoxicating drink, lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the justice of all the afflicted. Give strong drink to him who is perishing, to wine to those who are bitter of heart. Let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery, no more. Open your mouth for the speechless in the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy. Let's pray. Father, help us to hear these words of wisdom. Pray that you would give us the grace to not live for sexual pleasure, for alcohol, but rather to listen to our mother who begot us and to use our power to protect the weak. Lord, we thank you and we praise you all the ways that you have worked in our lives. We thank You for the mothers You've given to everyone in this room. And we pray that You would help us to listen to our mothers. And that You would help us to learn the wisdom that You have for us in this book of Proverbs. Help me to speak boldly and clearly what's contained in Your Word tonight. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. We come tonight to the seventh and final section of the Book of Proverbs. We saw the first section, that was chapters 1 through 9, the prologue where Lady Wisdom cries and utters long speeches. The second section, chapters 10 through 22, the Proverbs of Solomon, that's the core of the book and what we think of as Proverbs, one-line statements regarding a variety of wisdom topics. And then after that are the 30 sayings of the wise and the further sayings of the wise, that's sections 3 and 4. Then more Proverbs of Solomon copied by Hezekiah's men, chapters 25 through 29. The sixth section then would be chapter 30, the words of Augur that we looked at the last two weeks. And the seventh and final section is this, Proverbs 31. Proverbs 31, of course, is famous for the description of the valiant woman in the second part of the chapter, but the whole chapter is one unified utterance from King Lemuel, and it's not really the words of Lemuel. This is the longest piece of scripture that's written by a woman. Now we have a double authorship. It says that it's the words of King Lemuel, but it tells us that it was the words of his mom. Moms say things to us. They have catchphrases that they repeat all the time, and all of you could probably tell me right now. Something that your mother said to you over and over and over. Well, Lemuel had something that his mom told him over and over and over. She told him the contents of this chapter. This final chapter of Proverbs highlights the femininity of wisdom, the valiant wife as the reward for the wise son, structurally speaking, here at the end of this book. But in particular, the femininity of wisdom, wisdom as a mother who warns against alcohol and perverse sexuality, And as a mother who says this is how to reign with Christ, and this is what wisdom looks like in daily life. So we'll see next week in the Proverbs 31 Woman what a wise person, what a wise life looks like. Fleshing it out. But tonight we see Mom's instructions on ladies, liquor, and leadership. I went a little bit to town on this. You can also call it girls, gin, and government, broads, booze, and bureaus, dames, drinks, and dominion, and so on. But I think ladies, liquor, and leadership is probably the best way to categorize the things that Lemuel talks about, well, that Lemuel's mom talks about in this chapter. So the first thing to see is that wise rule requires listening. to your mother. Lemuel listened to his mother. That is right here on the face of the text. He said these words, but they weren't his words. He got it from mom. It's the prophecy, the utterance, the inspired oracle that his mother taught him. She spoke the word of God to him, and he was able to repeat it back. Moms, that's your calling. Speak the word of God to your children and help them to learn it so that they can repeat it back. That's an encouragement to you, mothers, to keep on saying those things that you feel like they never hear. And to the rest of us who are not mothers, but to all of us who have mothers, It's an encouragement to listen to your mom if you care about wisdom. Dad may have the first word in this book, but mom has the last word. And that's the title, in fact, of tonight's sermon. The final word of Proverbs goes not to Solomon, the father, but to a mother, Lemuel's mother. The Bible itself gives almost the last word to a woman. The spirit and the bride say, come. Why should you listen to your mom? Well, because mothers are invested. That's how I take verse two, right? It's not that Lemuel said something his mother didn't quite catch. This Hebrew particle, ma, generally does mean what? And that's why most translations render it as, what, my son? Some guess that it means something more like, no, my son, or what are you doing, my son? What's going on, my son? But anybody who's a mother will recognize this basic attitude in dealing with a son. What? What? What? What are you doing, my son? All of us have had that conversation with our mother at some time or other. And Lemuel had it with his mom. Well, what does she say? She emphasizes her femininity, her motherhood. Not only is he her son, he's the son of her womb. I have a womb and I carried you in it and you are that son. and you're the son of my vows." Now, what is that a reference to? Well, in that era, if you really, really wanted something, you would make a vow to God. You would say, Lord, if you answer my prayer for this, then I will pay this vow to you. I'll give you a bowl, or I'll give you five loaves of bread, or whatever it is Usually, of course, when mothers really wanted a son, they would vow the son to God. Kind of a handy way, right? If you don't get your request, then you don't have to give what you vowed. But we see, for instance, in the book of 1 Samuel, Hannah vowing to God that if she gives her a son, she'll give that son to God. She vowed a vow and said, Oh, Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and no razor shall touch his head. Now, this is not a trade with God or a tit for tat. God, I'll give you something you want, and that way you'll give me something I want. Rather, the idea behind the vow is to say, God, I'm serious. I want this so much that I'm willing to give up something else to get it. Whether that's a son, or an animal sacrifice, or a period of time as a Nazirite when I can't eat anything sweet, or be with a woman, or some other vow, the idea is I'm signaling to God that I'm serious. It's the same reason that we fast today when we pray. Lord, I want this so bad that I'm giving up something I would otherwise have. So in calling him son of my womb, son of my vows, what is Lemuel's mother saying? I'm invested. Son, I care about you. I gave you shelter in my womb. I prayed to God for you. I made a vow asking him for you. That's how Badly, I wanted you. I'm invested. So we've talked before how Proverbs highlights that you should pursue wisdom because those who love you most, most want you to seek wisdom. And it ends with that same thing. Your mom wants you to be wise. The more your mom has invested in you, the more she wants you to be wise. And if your earthly mother rejected you, right, if you're sitting here saying, well, my mom didn't want me, your mother, the church wants you. And we as a church should make that clear by caring for the children in our midst, caring for the pregnant women, helping and supporting and being a church that is very positive about motherhood and children and lets the children know you're one of us. You belong here. This church is your church. Lemuel's mother tells him, I'm invested in you. Even if you don't want wisdom for yourself, want it for me. Even if you don't care what happens to you, care about how much I've invested in you. Those who love you best want you to know and walk in wisdom. or to repeat myself, your mom wants you to know and walk in wisdom. So what, in particular, I almost said in sparticular, what specifically, what in particular is it that your mom wants you to know about reigning with Christ? Well, she starts with this, stay off drugs. Stay off Alcohol, controlled substances, are not for kings. Not for kings, Olim, you will not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes intoxicating drink. All right, moms, you need to be teaching your children about drugs and alcohol and telling them that's not for you. You reign with Christ. You don't need that stuff. Now, Proverbs presents wine positively in other places, including just a couple verses further down. And Jesus himself used wine, but any excessive use, well, if you drink and forget the law and pervert the justice of all the oppressed, then you are misusing alcohol. And I see that I skipped a verse. I accidentally went over verse three. She starts not with wine, excuse me, but she starts with something that she knows even more about. Don't give your strength to women. Femininity of wisdom warns against women. Not that women are a problem, but it's the plurality here that is the problem. Give your strength to one woman. If you give your strength to multiple women, that will destroy you. And of course, we see David, lots of wives, a bunch of fools for sons. Solomon, lots of wives, only one son, and that one, a fool. Why? Because they gave their strength to women. And this doesn't just include affairs and sleeping around, but also any kind of sexual irregularity. Pornography, lingerie ads, anything that involves giving sexual strength, desire, finding satisfaction in something or someone besides one and only one woman. That destroys kings. Now if we think about the mother of a king in the ancient Near East, where would she probably live? In a harem. That would be the context in which she had spent her entire life with a bunch of women who are all locked up and just kind of waiting for the king to be interested in them or not. And from that vantage point, what did she see? Women destroy kings. The women are the ones who are locked up. The women can't leave the harem. The women, supposedly, are just there for fun, but they're the ones who destroy monarch after monarch. Son, don't do it. The first thing your mom wants you to know about reigning with Christ is that if you are given to sexual sin, you can't do it. You can't reign with Christ. that will destroy your power. So she warns him very clearly. You aren't man enough to take care of more than one woman. The man who is spending his time seeking women is not spending his time seeking holiness or righteous rule. Wisdom says flee youthful lusts. Your mom doesn't want you to seek women and give them your strength because that strength is for something else. It's for ruling righteously. And then secondly, alcohol perverts justice. If you drink, if you ever drink, even when you're not on duty so much that you can't exercise the functions of your office, then you are in sin. If you're reigning with Christ, which you are, then you're always on the clock in that calling. And you should not take something, drink something, eat something that will make you unable to exercise that ruling function. And thus, Jesus never drank to excess. And then, Lemuel's mother says something really interesting, kind of hard to understand. Alcohol is for people with sad lives. The ones who are already on Skid Row, the ones who are already lying face down in a puddle of their own vomit, or who don't have much life left. Now, it's easy to apply this in the medical context. Yeah, he's a goner. Give him the morphine drip. He'll be dead in 24 hours anyway. And I think that that's one legitimate application of what she says here. But it seems to me that we should not make it our calling to give money for alcohol and drugs to people with sad lives. Let him drink and forget his misery. Well, maybe she literally means that. In general, we should take it as, that's not who you are. Don't be the miserable person with the sad life. You're a king. You're a prince. You reign with Jesus. And it's not for you to drink wine. You have a high and noble calling. You're not the down and out bum on Skid Row. So don't act like it. If you're really a wise son, you exercise royal power and you need to live like it. Wisdom is about pleasing your father. Wisdom is about listening to your mother. Finally, Lemuel's mother says, here's the goal of your power. Your power is for the weak. Open your mouth for the dumb. in the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy. What does Lemuel's mom focus on here? The oral apparatus, the mouth. She says it twice, open your mouth, and then she says, plead the cause, something you do with your mouth, And then judge righteously. Again, something you do in your mouth, passing a verdict. How should a righteous king rule? Well, he needs to make decisions. Yeah, he needs to do, enact things in this world. But Lemuel's mother insists that the most important facet of how you use your power comes down to how you talk. And we've seen this over and over and over in Proverbs, that the primary component of discipline is verbal. The rod is secondary. As a king, using your sword to beat up people or force them to obey your commands, that's secondary. The primary way you're going to exercise rule with Christ and show dominion with him is your tongue. and the tongue has to be unleashed and active for one set of people in particular and that's the set of people who cannot possibly repay you, who won't be able to give you a political favor in exchange for a good word from you. You have to open your mouth and speak up for those Speaking for whom is politically costly. They're appointed to die. They have no voice for themselves. They are poor, which means they have nothing to give you, and needy, which means that they're going to ask a lot from you. Those are the people that a Christian prince advocates for. Now, we talked at Sunday school this morning about power relationships and how the most powerful status you can have in our society is that of victim. Linwell's mother is not talking about the supposedly marginalized. You can get a lot of glory by catering to the supposedly marginalized. She's talking about The really marginalized. The ones who truly can't say anything for themselves. The ones who are headed for death barring your intervention. The ones that nobody will thank you for speaking on behalf of. That's the ones. Right? If you can look at the situation and say, will I gain some political capital by speaking up for this? And the answer is no, that's the one to speak for. That's tough. Now we can easily psychoanalyze this and say, well, yeah, Lemuel's mother lived in a harem, had no power her whole life. She was this, the poor, the needy, the dumb, the one with no influence in the court. And so she tells her son, you're gonna be king, you need to do things differently. And everything we know about the ancient Near East tells us that that's probably true. But the example of Jesus is an even more powerful reason to do what Lemuel's mother says to do. He's the one who came down from heaven and saved those that nobody was going to thank Him for saving. He didn't come for the Pharisees. He didn't come for the well. He didn't come for the powerful. He came for the sinners, the dregs, the prostitutes, and the tax collectors. The ones that everybody hates. Those are the people that Jesus came to save. And those are the people for whom He pleads in front of His Father. And those are the people that he calls us to open our mouth for if we're going to be like the wise son. Now, who are those people? Well, certainly in our society, there's the unborn, obviously voiceless group. There's all the celebrity victims, minorities, people of color. There are lots of groups that will thank you and reward you handsomely for speaking up for them. But the homeless person who smells bad, the disabled veteran, the druggie who's on skid row, right, that miserable person who's about to die that Linuel's mother mentioned, the one that nobody likes, nobody wants to be around, the one that everybody would rather keep out of their life, that is the one you have to open your mouth for. That's the Christian ethic. Here a thousand years before Jesus came. That's what your mom wants you to know about reigning with Christ. Why does mothers do this for their babies who are poor and needy and who can't live without mom's help? Mothers are very good at this. But Lemuel's mother tells him, it shouldn't just be me as a mom advocating for my child. You need to speak up. I need to hear your voice speaking on behalf of someone who doesn't have the social position you have. This is a tough calling. Again, the whole point is that you're not speaking for anybody who can help you. and that every time you open your mouth and plead for these people, it's politically costly. Most of us learn enough politics pretty quickly to say, hmm, if I take, if I spin capital faster than I accumulate it, soon I don't have any voice. Soon I'm one of these that nobody will thank me for speaking up for. And I don't want to be that. But that's where the book of Proverbs ends. Mom has the last word and mom says, your power is for the weak. That's why God made you a king. That's why you reign with Christ. So would your worst enemy testify that you will stick up for the ones nobody likes? The ones nobody wants to hear from. For the ones who can't say anything on their own behalf. The ones without powerful non-profits representing them in Washington. It means work and pain and agony and tiredness like you wouldn't believe. Wisdom is not going to be easy. And we'll see the Proverbs 31 woman gets up early, goes to bed late, works very, very hard. That's what wisdom does. This book has contained many Proverbs talking about idleness and how wretched and evil it is. But she'll please your father who sent his son to open his mouth on behalf of all those who were voiceless. We were saved not just by his teaching, he didn't just have to talk, he had to die. A sword pierced, well a spear pierced his side, a sword metaphorically pierced Mary's heart. You reign with Christ, so do it chastely. Do it soberly, right, that's how you handle the ladies, chastely. How you handle liquor, soberly. How you handle leadership, by speaking for those who are politically toxic, those who can't speak for themselves. Let's pray. Father, your son has perfectly done this. He related chastely to all the women in his life. He related soberly to all the liquor in his life. And he spoke for the voiceless perfectly throughout his life. And he spent all his political capital and he got killed so that he could save us. Father, we ask that you would help us today to open our mouth for the dumb. To plead their cause and to judge righteously according to our places and callings. Father, this is not an easy command of wisdom. None of them are. Help us to live in the fear of God such that we care more about pleasing you and obeying you than we do about accumulating enough political capital to keep the establishment happy with us. Give us the grace to listen to our mother who begot us. Thank you for Lemuel's mother and her teaching. Thank you for your son, who listened to the teaching of his mother, who was subject to her, and who in his wisdom saved the world. We pray these things in his name. Amen.