Well, please turn with me this morning to Proverbs 1. We'll be looking at verses 8-19, as we consider one of the dangerous susceptibilities of the fool. Proverbs 1, verses 8-19. Hear now the word of the Lord. Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, come with us, let us lie in wait for blood. Let us ambush the innocent without reason. Like Sheol, let us swallow them alive and whole like those who go down to the pit. We shall find all precious goods. We shall fill our houses with plunder. Throw in your lot among us. We will all have one purse. My son, do not walk in the way with them. Hold back your foot from their paths, for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird. But these men lie in wait for their own blood. They set an ambush for their own lives. Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain. It takes away the life of its possessors. Let's pray. Lord, if we are to be wise, we need you to give us wisdom. Please do that for us. Grant us the grace of wisdom. and the persistence to live our lives according to the wisdom that you give. Thank you for the instruction before us this morning. Now help us, I pray, to avail ourselves of its riches fully. I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, the book of Proverbs is about wisdom. There is a sense in which we could say every verse in Proverbs is about wisdom. And if we're not careful, we could get lost in 31 chapters of repetition, as if nothing in the book is more specific than just a sort of general exhortation to be wise. So to avoid that tendency, it's gonna be important that we ask of every section or paragraph that we consider in Proverbs, what is this passage's unique contribution to the whole message of the book? In other words, what does each independent part have to say or emphasize that is distinct from the other parts. And this line of questioning will force us to think more deeply about the specific insights of each section. Today's passage, verses 8 through 19, is about being wise and not foolish, but we can be more specific than that. These verses address an aspect of foolishness that is characteristic of every human being. And that characteristic is this, fallen sinners have a bias towards foolishness. Left to ourselves, we will head down the path of foolishness and not wisdom. We're biased towards foolishness. A similar truth is true in the natural world, isn't it? Left to itself, an object in the natural world will not get better with age. It'll disintegrate. Metal will rust. Wood will rot. Food will spoil. Likewise, moral creatures who are a part of this fallen world, who are left to themselves without any outside supernatural influence, do not grow more godly with age. We get worse. We might get better at concealing our wickedness with age, but left to ourselves, sinners do not get less sinful. We have a bias towards sin, towards foolishness, towards a lack of wisdom. We do not innately love wisdom. We innately love self and foolishness. And this means that if we are to avoid the path of foolish self-destruction, we need something that's outside of us to change that bias. We need an outside source of truth and instruction and even motivation to change who we are by nature. Well, God gives us that external source of truth and instruction and motivation in various ways. And we're going to discover one of those external sources of wise instruction in our text today. Not only will we discover A source of wise instruction will also discover a wise exhortation that comes from this source, as well as a motivation to heed that exhortation. So we're looking for wisdom, and we discover in these verses wisdom's source, wisdom's exhortation, and wisdom's motivation. First, we see one of God's many sources of wisdom in verses eight and nine. Now, if you were to write a collection of wise sayings, wise proverbs, where would you begin? And what would be the first practical instruction that you would give? Interestingly, Solomon begins with this. Young people, listen to your parents. That's Solomon's starting point. He says in verse eight, Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching. Now that's very interesting. Why would he not begin with something more spiritual, like young people listen to God? Well, in a sense, he did begin with an admonition to listen to God. Back in verse 7, we considered that last week. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And while that's absolutely true, it is a very abstract and philosophical starting point, isn't it? However, experientially speaking, isn't it also true that our first encounter with the fear of the Lord, with this notion of there being an absolute truth and a moral law to which we are all accountable, is mediated through our interaction with our parents. Our first conscious interaction with an authority that sits above us is typically our interaction with a mother, with a father, The Ten Commandments, of course, begin with a command to worship God alone, because there's only one true God. And it's not until the Fifth Commandment that we're told to obey earthly authorities like parents. And yet in the normal progression of life, we are consciously confronted with the Fifth Commandment long before we're confronted with the First. The fact of the matter is, God has so ordered his world that his moral creatures learn the path of wisdom and godliness through the very concrete and visible instruction of parents. This is not, however, our natural bent, and so we have to be told, listen to your parents. Honor your father and mother. Listen to their instruction and heed it. And we might ask, why is a parent's instruction better than, say, a peer's influence, better than one's own instinct of how life works? Well, for starters, it's better because it's coming from someone who naturally and objectively and unselfishly loves you. Listen to the father's pleading in Proverbs 1, verse eight, my son. Verse 10, my son. Verse 15, my son. There's ownership, there's belonging, there's love. And so a child ought to listen to his parent's instruction because that instruction is given in love with the best interests of the child in view. The parent doesn't stand to gain anything from a child's heeding. It's not self-interest that motivates parents to love their children. The instruction of a parent is the closest thing in human-to-human relationships to an unselfish, pure love. So we ought to listen to and heed that guidance. There's also blessing to be enjoyed through heeding a parent's instruction. Look at verse 9. The instruction of a parent is compared thereto a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. Now in Solomon's cultural setting, these objects, a garland for your head, pendants for your neck, would have indicated things like success, victory, authority, achievement, honor, and so on. These were the signs of a successful life, a good life, a fulfilling life. And they were obtained through the conscientious heeding of parental instruction. So with this very first paragraph of practical instruction in wisdom, the primary and initial source of wise instruction is identified. And that source is the teaching and instruction of parents. Human authorities who have been divinely placed in a position of influence and responsibility. If a fallen sinner with a bias towards foolishness is ever going to learn wisdom, he must learn to listen to his parents. This isn't just some moralistic lesson for a children's Sunday school class. It is a foundational principle in God's created order for obtaining wisdom. If we are dismissive of this principle because maybe it sounds too naive to us or idealistic or for whatever reason, we're actually proving our bias towards foolishness. We're displaying the very vice that verse eight is warning us against. We're disregarding to our own detriment God's source of wise instruction. Now, I suspect in a group this size, there are many of you who, in God's providence, did not have God-fearing parents. Maybe you weren't raised in a Christian home, or even if it was Christian, your parents' instruction was maybe only nominally Christian. Some of you, no doubt, were raised in utterly godless homes. What are you supposed to do with a verse like Proverbs 1.8? Let me just share a couple of thoughts. First, let me acknowledge that we live in a broken world. And so there are instances when something that ought to function a certain way doesn't function the way it should. There are parents who don't love their children. There are authorities who are more foolish than the people they've been charged to lead and love and protect. In other words, there are exceptions to the rule, exceptions to the principle. We mentioned last week that one of the characteristics of these Proverbs is that they're not always absolute, they're situational. The proper application of these truths requires wisdom, discernment, good judgment. But here's what I want us to understand. God's instruction to us in his word takes into account the fallenness of his world, of this world. When he tells us to honor our father and mother, he doesn't give us this command blindly pretending that we live in a Pollyanna world where everything's just peachy and perfect. No, he gives us his commands knowing full well that we will have to obey what he commands in the context of a broken, messed up world. Peter, the Apostle Peter, addresses this reality in 1 Peter 2 and 3. He's writing to the church about their relationship to those in authority over them. It's fifth commandment instruction that's applied to various spheres of authority. And Peter begins in the sphere of government. He says in 1 Peter 2, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him as sent by Him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. If any human institution were contaminated with the effects of the fall, it would have to be the government, right? And yet scripture says to Christians to heed those in authority, not because they're always right, but because they've been put in a place of authority by God. Next, Peter applies this same principle to the servant-master relationship. He says, servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust. Why would Peter exhort us to submit to unjust authorities? Well, he tells us, for this is a gracious thing. When mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. If when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. And Peter goes on to describe how Christ submitted to injustice, though he had done no wrong. And Christ could do this because his confidence was in a higher authority whose justice was impeccable. Finally, Peter moves into the realm of the home, and marriage in particular. He says, likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives. This principle of trusting or fearing God by honoring those in authority is vividly illustrated for us in the life of Joseph. Joseph in the Old Testament, he was a man under authority. Only the authorities he was subject to were often foolish, wicked people. He dutifully honored his father Jacob by putting himself in a vulnerable situation with his brothers, a situation that led to his enslavement to a master. He honored his master and God's law concerning adultery, even when his master's wife behaved wickedly. As a result of his submission, Joseph was thrown into prison. Eventually he was raised to a position of great power and authority in Egypt, a land of incredibly wicked paganism and idolatry, and yet he submitted himself to the authorities God had placed over him, enduring years of injustice. But in the end, he was able to look back at his life and acknowledge that even though the authorities and persecutors in his life had acted wickedly and with ill intent, God meant it for good. And we have other examples of this same principle bearing itself out in the lives of godly people. Daniel and Nehemiah, Esther and the Apostle Paul, all submitted themselves to ungodly authorities because their fear of God had filled them with wisdom. God's wise instruction works, even in the context of a fallen, broken world. If you want to be wise, heed the instruction of those whom God has placed over you. The other point I wanna make before we move on is that while there are exceptions to this principle, while there are authority figures who have distorted their authority, our conflicts with authority are often not due to the authority's brokenness, but to our own brokenness. If we're honest with ourselves, we need to be cautious about viewing our particular situation as the exception to God's principles. Remember, we all have, our starting point is a bias against wisdom. If that's the case, then we need to be wary of rejecting God's ordinary sources of wisdom on the grounds that my authorities aren't doing it right. Instruction and guidance of divinely appointed authorities, like mothers and fathers, is a source of great wisdom. Well, in verses 10 through 15, we see next the exhortation that this God-given parental instruction brings. And just as verse eight is necessary because of our natural bias to reject the wise counsel of those in authority over us, verses 10 through 15 are necessary because of our natural bias to embrace the foolishness of wicked counsel. The exhortation begins in verse 10. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. The implication is that sinners like to entice others to join them in their sin, and that we like to be enticed. Sinners love company. In fact, virtuous people also love company. It's a human nature thing. We like to do things together. Even unbelievers acknowledge this. Aristotle said that humans are political animals. As such, they want others to value what they value, confirm their worldview by a consensus, and increase their joy in sharing a common endeavor. It's a human nature thing. So the parents, in verse eight, invite the son to heed their wisdom, and in verse nine, give reasons for why heeding their instruction is a good thing. Likewise, the gang of sinners, in verses 11 and 12, invite the son to listen to their plan, and then in verses 13 and 14, give reasons why their plan is a good plan, a good scheme. They're enticing him to sin. The scheme is this, verse 11. Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood. Let us ambush the innocent without reason. Like Sheol, let us swallow them alive and whole like those who go down to the pit. In other words, this gang of sinners wants to kill some unsuspecting victim for no just reason. And what is the benefit for the gang? Verse 13. We shall find all precious goods. We shall fill our houses with plunder. Well, the benefit is that they'll get to take all the wealth that belonged to their now deceased victim. Well, the plan is let's murder someone so we can steal what belongs to them. And why are they doing this? Verse 19, because they're greedy for unjust gain. So let's contrast the parent's speech to the son with the speech of this sinful gang. The parents say to their son, as your parents, we love you. So keep the fifth commandment. And in so doing, you'll keep the first commandment. In the end, your life will be successful in all the ways that really matter. You'll be happy and holy and fulfilled and righteous. The gang of sinners, on the other hand, says, listen to us, we know better. Break the sixth commandment with us, not to murder, so that we can break the eighth commandment, not to steal without getting caught. And all because deep down we're breaking the 10th commandment, not to covet what others have. The allure of the parent's instruction is true success. The allure of the sinful gang's enticement is the appearance of success. Easy money, quick wealth, no consequences, no responsibility. Well, the exhortation from the parents contains two prohibitions. Verse 10, do not consent. Verse 15, do not walk in the way with them. Not consenting is an appeal to the will. Choose not to enter into this wickedness. Do not let yourself believe that disregarding God's commands is inconsequential. Do not consent. Not walking with sinners is an appeal to one's actions, one's behavior. It's saying, do not do as they do. Do not imitate the actions of sinners. So this parental exhortation is more than just an admonition to do right. It is that, but it's more than that. It includes also an admonition to choose and to think what is right. It involves proper conduct, but also proper character. It encompasses the importance of keeping the right company, of being wise in one's social interactions with others. It demands a proper consideration of the consequences of one's actions and attitudes and thought processes. The exhortation is nothing less than a parental call to abandon not only the foolishness of this sinful gang's enticing invitation, but also to abandon the attitude, the character, the values, the priorities, and so on that would lead their son down this foolish path with these foolish friends. Young people, listen to me. The attraction of doing what your friends do for the sake of being liked by your friends is stronger than you even realize. You think you know how swayed you are by your desire for acceptance within your peer group, but you really don't know how swayed you are. You think your heart is under a tight guard from all that is sinful and murderous and wicked, but you must never trust your heart. It will lead you down the wrong path. You have a bias towards foolishness. It will lead you down the wrong path against your knowledge and eventually against your will. But you know what, church? Peer pressure is not just a teenager thing, is it? It's a human nature thing. We all want acceptance from others, even people who are not worthy of our acceptance. We all wanna be the most liked, the most successful, the one that everybody chooses, the one that everybody admires. And that desire to be liked puts us in the vulnerable position of being easily enticed by sinners to sin. We will bend over backwards to justify our compromises and to conceal our own self-deception. But in the end, it will destroy us if we stay on the path that says, I know better. I don't need to listen to the voices of wisdom in my life. Voices that are pleading, do not consent. Do not walk in the way with sinners. Now, these wise parents don't stop there. They add to their exhortation a motivation, a reason for their son to heed their instructions. We see it in verses 16 through 19. This motivation to not throw in one's lot with the wicked focuses on the end result, the final outcome of the sinful gang's scheme. And this, by the way, highlights one of the characteristics of wisdom. Wisdom looks ahead. It sees the end of the path, not just the false promises at the start of the path. It considers the ultimate outcome. So what is the end result of this band of wicked schemers? Verse 17. For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird, but these men lie in wait for their own blood. They set an ambush for their own lives. Now that's an interesting turn of events, isn't it? The plan was for them to kill an unsuspecting innocent person and take their wealth. What ends up happening is they shed their own blood. The plan backfires. Instead of resulting in the death of their victim, it results in the death of this gang of sinners. According to verse 17, even a bird is smart enough to see a trap and avoid it. But these wicked scheming sinners don't realize that their little scheme is a trap, a trap in which they are setting an ambush for themselves. What the bird knows by instinct, the son needs a father to teach him. The daughter needs a mother to show her. Verse 19 ends the section by summarizing the underlying character flaw that has gotten this gang of sinners so off track. And that character flaw is identified as greed for unjust gain. They wanted what they didn't have, and they wanted to get it without working for it. You know, this is a very typical character flaw of youth, isn't it? In fact, it's often a character flaw of grownups, too. Laziness, greed, lack of motivation to grow, to labor, to be productive. These are not noble character qualities, but they certainly don't seem earth shatteringly awful. And yet this seemingly benign character flaw is actually a malignant cancer because in the end, verse 19, it takes away the life of its possessor. As it turns out, this low-grade character flaw is the heart soil in which grow the seeds that lead to murder and theft and self-destruction. The youth cannot see it for himself, and so he's easily enticed to join the schemers. But the parent who's been there and done that a time or two, who's lived long enough to know a fool's errand when he sees it, sees through the scheme and warns the child that he loves. Will the child listen to the voice of wisdom or will he be enticed to self-destruction? Will you and I listen to the voice of wisdom or will we fall prey to the enticement of sinners? You know, there is a lot working against us when it comes to wisdom gaining the upper hand. We have to contend with our own bias against wisdom, with our love for foolishness. We have to overcome the fact that the cautious path of wisdom just sounds so ordinary, so nondescript, while the path of scheming sinners sounds so titillating and promising. We have to navigate the reality that the reward of wisdom is not obvious at the outset, and that the sting of foolishness is not obvious until it's too late. There's just so many obstacles to wisdom's path. What hope do we ever have of finding it? Well, that's the point of these verses. This passage points us in the direction we should go. And I think we can identify four specific points of application as we close that are given to us here. The first is this. We should have a healthy dose of self skepticism. Don't trust yourself. Don't follow your heart. Have a healthy dose of self skepticism. Our intuition is generally not a trustworthy barometer of wisdom. especially in our youth, and especially without the aid of outside counselors. Secondly, we should be careful to listen to the instruction and warnings of God-given authorities. We should be careful to listen to the instruction and the warning of God-given authorities. It has become so normal in our day and age to be dismissive of those in authority, but God has not nullified the fifth commandment. Honor your father and mother that it might be well with you is part of God's moral law. It's universal. It's perpetual. And while the importance of this command is perhaps most obvious when we're young and naive, God doesn't put an age qualification or an expiration date on this command. Honoring God-given authority is not a principle that we outgrow. Thirdly, We should be guarded in our relationships with people who openly dismiss God and disregard his word. It doesn't really matter how popular or powerful they are, or how fun or likable they are, or how clever and intelligent they seem. If they do not hold God in high esteem, we ought not to hold them in high esteem. It's a pathway to foolishness. And then lastly, I would say this, and this is really at the root of it all, we should fear the Lord more than we love the approval of people or the gratification of self. We should fear the Lord more than we love the approval of people or the gratification of self. Idols obscure the will of God. Idols make foolish schemes seem viable. Idols make wisdom look unattractive. If we disregard God, we will fall prey to unthinkably destructive enticements to sin. So fear God, honor authority, and do not follow fools. I wanna close by just acknowledging something that we will probably need to be reminded of frequently as we make our way through the book of Proverbs. We need to keep in mind that every moral exhortation in the book of Proverbs needs to be cast in the light of Proverbs 1, verse 7, the fear of the Lord. which we defined last time as being in right relationship with God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Everything Proverbs exhorts us to and everything it warns us against ought to be done in the context of living a life before the face of God. with an eye toward pleasing Him and delighting in Him above all else. Otherwise, this book with all of its admonitions and warnings and promises becomes nothing but legalistic moralisms. But if we receive it and believe it in the light of the fear of the Lord. If we receive it as instruction from a loving father to a needy child, then these exhortations and warnings become life-giving words, joyful words that will turn our bias towards foolishness into wisdom. Let's pray. Father, you are good and kind. You are the all-wise God. And oh, how we need wisdom. So please take the words that we've considered this morning and make us wise. Lord, I pray for the young people of this church, our covenant children, our youth. May they be spared from the foolishness of following the wicked schemes of sinners. May they honor their parents, that it might be well with them. Lord, may the parents and the grandparents and the elderly of Grace Church give wise counsel. May they live exemplary lives that the generation who is watching them and learning from them might learn wisdom and not foolishness. And Lord, in all things, may we walk in the fear of you. Never being dismissive of your word or your commands as if they're unimportant or irrelevant. Lord, preserve us from ourselves. Preserve us from the enticing allure of sin. Preserve us through the blood of your Son, Jesus Christ, in whose name I pray, amen.