Open your Bibles, if you would, to Proverbs chapter 24. Proverbs chapter 24. We're going to conclude our Proverbs series on this or take a break from it. We will come back and finish it, Lord willing, in six to eight weeks time. But we're using this passage to springboard into our new series on how to handle judgment. This passage, the final section of the sayings of the wise in Proverbs 24, emphasizes over and over that the wicked are going to fall. The wicked are going to be judged. The righteous are going to be delivered. And it says that five times in a row. But in the middle, it emphasizes the attitude we need to have about that. and it can't be an attitude of glee or gloating. That's essentially the first message in this series on judgment. Don't rejoice when judgment happens. Don't look at judgment as, hey, he deserved it and I didn't, and so I'm glad that he's getting exactly what he deserved. Next week, then, we will look at the right, The origin of judgment with the fall. We'll look at judgment under a number of other headings, including the book of Lamentation. That's all to come. For now, Proverbs chapter 24, starting at verse 13. Listen to the Word of God. My son, eat honey because it is good, and the honeycomb which is sweet to your taste. So shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul. If you have found it, there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off. Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous. Do not plunder his resting place, for a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity. Do not rejoice when your enemy falls. Do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles. Lest the Lord see it and displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him. Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the wicked. For there will be no prospect for the evil man. The lamp of the wicked will be put out. My son, fear the Lord, and the king, do not associate with those given to change. For their calamity will rise suddenly, and who knows the ruin those two can bring." Thus far, the reading of God's Word. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask that You would open our hearts to understand Your Word tonight. Meet with us as we attempt to chew and swallow the wisdom contained here in the final part of the sayings of the wise. Help us to hear their words and help us to desire this wisdom. Help us to eat this honey because it is good. Make that like the knowledge of wisdom to our soul. Father, we pray that you would cause this word to bear fruit in our hearts a hundredfold. We thank you and we praise you for it in the name of your wise son, Jesus the anointed one. Amen. When you first read this passage, at least when I first read this passage, it seemed like one of the most random pieces of the book of Proverbs. Especially starting, as it does, with this command to eat honey. My son, eat honey because it's good. Well, we all know that we should eat our vegetables because they're good for us, but eat sugar because it's good? That doesn't make sense. Well, if you read more carefully, you see that our passage is actually quite intricately structured. There are five pairs of two verses each, and each pair emphasizes the same thing. Ruin for the wicked, blessing for the righteous. The theme is sounded the first time in verse 14. If you've found wisdom, you have a future. Of course, the flip side of that is if you haven't found wisdom, you don't have a future. Your hope will be cut off if you don't have wisdom. The message of our passage, though, is not primarily that the wicked will perish and the righteous will flourish. Even though it says that five times. But the Hebrews, if they wanted to make something their central point, they put it, not at the beginning like we do, nor at the end, but in the center. And so here it is, the middle pair, verses 17 and 18, have the main point here, which is, do not rejoice when your enemy falls. How do we handle judgment when we see it happening to somebody else? Don't gloat over it. Don't be glad that it's happening in a gleeful and non-reverent kind of way. Because if you do that, the Lord will be displeased. Yes, the wicked will perish. Yes, the righteous will flourish. But when you see that happening, under no circumstances should you say, He got what was coming to him. I am so happy. I've been waiting for this moment for 25 years. Not allowed to say that. Well, let's look at this in detail. We'll see that wisdom takes no joy in the fall of the wicked, at least no irreverent joy. The passage begins, as I said, verse 13, my son, eat honey because it is good. And the honeycomb is sweet to your taste. Why this emphasis on honey? We all know that honey is good. If you've ever had fresh bread right out of the oven with butter and honey slathered all over it, you know how good honey is. But the wise are telling us how good honey is because they're saying, you know what's even better than honey? Wisdom. Honey is good for the tongue. Honeycomb is sweet in the belly. But wisdom is good for your soul. Wisdom is sweeter to the soul than honey is to the mouth. And of course, we should be familiar with this because Psalm 19 and Psalm 119 both compare the word of God to honey and say that the word of God is better than honey. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Now how do you learn to do this? How do you get to the point where your soul wants the words of wisdom more than your belly craves honey? All of us have probably experienced that sugar craving at some point where you eat a meal and then you think, man, just a little piece of chocolate would be perfect right now. How do you get to the place where as you're going through your day you think just a little piece of the word of God would be perfect right now. I just need some Jesus. The answer is by tasting Him. And how do you learn how good the honey is? Not by looking at the outside of the jar. Not by reading the label. By tasting it. How do you taste the Lord? You spend time with Him. You get to know Him. You see Him in His Word. You see Him in His people. You fix your thoughts on how good He is and what he's done, but you have to experience him personally, and when you do, you will know that the no wisdom is better than eating honey. Plus, to know wisdom directly addresses our anxieties about the future. I read this astonishing quote yesterday in the Atlantic Monthly. It's a very long article on raising anxious children. But anyway, one thing it says is this, the focus on anxiety wasn't so surprising. Of course, anxiety. Anxiety is, in 2020, ubiquitous, inescapable, an ambient condition. Over the course of this century, the percentage of outpatient doctors visits in America involving a prescription for an anti-anxiety medication such as Xanax or Valium has doubled. A footnote in the article says that now 7.4% of outpatient doctor visits in America result in an antidepressant prescription. People are anxious. Why are they anxious? Well, they're anxious in part because of what this says. If you have found wisdom, there is a future. And if you haven't found wisdom, then you know that there isn't a future. You understand that your hope will be cut off. when you don't know Jesus who is the wisdom of God. We have a better hope than Xanax. We really do. If you know Jesus, if you know how to taste and enjoy him, you've got a future. And it's not just the next 60, 70, 80 years here on earth. It's a heavenly future. It's way better than anything you or I can imagine. Far better than the taste of honey. So if you find wisdom, if you know Jesus, you have a future. And your hope will endure. No matter what else happens, here in this life. Because what might happen? Well, verse 15, Don't lie in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous. Don't plunder his resting place. For a righteous man may fall seven times. What does it mean to fall seven times? Well, you fall the perfect number of times. It's a perfect fall. It's a perfect disaster. Your life is a perfect mess. And that not only can happen to the righteous, but probably will happen to the righteous. So the wise address here, a son who is not yet committed to the path of wisdom, and they say, don't do something wickedly. Don't go and stake out the house of the righteous. Why would you do this? Well, you're lurking in the bushes, watching the house, trying to figure out when a good time to rob it might be. Don't lie in wait like that against the dwelling of the righteous. Essentially, Proverbs is saying either you can steal from the righteous, or you can be invited in and legitimately share what the righteous has. You can be out in the bushes, in the cold rain, staring through the windows at the joy and laughter and light inside the home of the righteous and saying, I'm going to break in and steal that. Or you could be invited in, or you could be friends with the righteous. and enjoy what's in his house, not as an enemy, but as a friend. It's a deliberately extreme example. Most people don't start a life of crime by staking out the house of the righteous. But as we saw in chapter one where Solomon said, listen to wisdom or you'll end up joining a violent gang. So here he says, listen to wisdom, or one of these nights you'll find yourself out there in the rain, casing somebody's house, getting ready to steal from it. Home of the righteous is vulnerable. A righteous man might fall seven times. Of course, that is the truth of Good Friday. Christ crucified fell hard. He suffered the ultimate disaster as we would see it, death. and of course the wrath of God, truly the ultimate disaster. But that's not where it ends. The righteous falls seven times and rises again. But the wicked fall by calamity. In other words, the wicked fall and they stay down. Jesus fell, he was crucified, but he rose again. The defeat of the righteous is never permanent. That's the message of Easter. Jesus came out of the tomb because death couldn't hold him. The wicked attempted to plunder him, but he rose again. Well, verse 19 tells us what to do when the wicked are staking out your house, when they are robbing you blind. Don't fret because of evildoers. Don't be envious of the wicked. And this word fret doesn't mean just shaking your hand and saying, oh dear, oh dear, life is tough. It literally refers to burning up. Don't get burned up because of evildoers. Don't let yourself respond with rage to the outrages of this life. Wow, well that's tough. How do we not respond with rage when somebody is staking out our house? The answer is, look to the future. There is no future for the evil man. The lamp of the wicked will be put out. You know, I guess this person really needed to come in and take my television because he has no future after death. And he knows it. And so he's attempting to pack as much into this life as he can. We can have patience and not give in to rage because this is not the main part of our life. You know, if you're on your way to the all-you-can-eat buffet, and you just are a little hungry in the car and you look in your cracker stash and there are no crackers there, You don't have to flip out because you'll be at the buffet in five minutes. So it is with us. No matter what earthly good we lose, we need this understanding that there is no future for the evil man. And the flip side of that is that there is a future for us. In other words, don't blame the wicked. Don't be full of outrage when they indulge in all kinds of short-sighted and immature things. They don't have a future. So of course they're going to be short-sighted and immature. We do. And that means we better not be short-sighted and immature. Things like burning up with outrage over evildoers. The lamp of the wicked will be put out. Snuffed out, gone. Remember, these sayings cultivate faith. That's what chapter 22 said. That your trust may be in the Lord, I have instructed you today, even you. And this sentence telling us not to get outraged over evildoers tells us to walk by faith. Look to the future when the evildoer perishes, and your lamp burns brightly, and your future in heaven is assured." Well finally, the 30 sayings of the wise end with this final saying, My son, fear the Lord and the King. Do not associate with those given to change, for their calamity will rise suddenly, and who knows the ruin those two can bring? So this section of Proverbs, the third section, ends with the main point of the book, which is, fear God. My son, fear the Lord. Fear God, fear His King, who is the Lord Jesus. Entrust the outcome to them. Don't meddle with rebellious officials, the NIV has it. Now who are these rebellious officials? This verse is not baptizing any and every polity. It's not saying as long as an official is responding to the dictator or the king, whoever's in charge, then he's good. And if he's standing up against the king, then he's bad. No, it's talking about the Lord and his king, that is God and Jesus as the Messiah. Fear those two and don't associate with those who are in rebellion against them. How can we associate with those rebelling against God and His Anointed? We can watch them on TV and give approval to them. We can walk like them, talk like them, act like them, read their material, believe their words. Don't associate with those who are in rebellion against the Lord and His King. Instead, Remember the destiny of those people there the calamity of rebels will rise suddenly Do you have any idea how bad the ruin is that God can bring on rebels? Frankly we don't whatever descriptions of hell you might have read They weren't vivid enough No one knows the power of his anger So there it is. Four times in a row the passage tells us the wicked are going to be cut off. The wicked will fall by calamity. The wicked have no future. The wicked's lamp will be put out. The wicked will meet with the judgment of God and it will destroy them. How do you feel about that truth? The wise tell us here in the center, verse 17, the third of the five sayings, do not rejoice when your enemy falls. Do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles. Now the reason sounds a little odd. Why not? Lest the Lord see it and it displease him and he turn away his wrath from him. It almost sounds like the verse is saying, If you see something bad happen to the wicked, and you let yourself feel good about that, God will say, oh, never mind, and restore the bad guy. And you don't want the bad guy restored, and so you need to pretend that you aren't happy so that God will make sure and punish him. That's not what it's saying. It's talking instead about the attitude you have. The rabbis summed it up by saying this, lest the Lord see it, it displeases Him and He turn away His wrath from Him to you. He turn away His wrath from Him to you. That is, God will judge the wicked. Our passage says that over and over and over and over. But you know what's even worse than the wicked? The self-righteous looking at the downfall of the wicked and saying, not gonna happen to me. Good thing I'm better than the so-and-sos. Wow, look at the judgment that's falling on them. Get a load of that. Not over here, I am golden. If that is your attitude in the face of judgment, God will see it. He will be displeased and he'll say, you know what's worse than their wickedness? Your wickedness. Stop it, Christian. You know what God hates? The wickedness of the wicked. But you know what He hates even more? When His people gloat over His justice destroying the wicked. We are not allowed to gloat. We are not allowed to be gleeful when we see God judging the wicked. Where can we do this? One that obviously comes to mind is the comeuppance of politicians we despise. Oh, so-and-so lost the election. Look at that. That person deserved it so bad. I'm so glad so-and-so lost. We sometimes have this habit of gloating over the discomfiture of our political enemies. Or what about someone who's financially injured us? Sometimes there are people who hurt our family, took our money and ran, sold us a lemon of a car. And then something bad happens to them, and we put ourselves a small chuckle. Or even on the very smallest scale, your spouse is just upset one morning, and it's making you upset. Keep telling them to calm down, and they say, I am calm. You calm down. It just so happens that they burn their finger on the toaster in their haste. And you just want to laugh. Don't rejoice when your enemy falls. Don't let your heart be glad when he stumbles. I told you you were too hasty this morning. Not appropriate for the Christian. My favorite is when somebody whips by me at 95 miles an hour and then 10 miles down the road. I see that car on the side with a state trooper behind it with his lights flashing. That feeling of just pure joy. He was going too fast and look who got him. That feeling is a wrong feeling. God hates it when we look at our own righteousness and say, here I am, plugging along, doing the speed limit. And there that so-and-so is, getting the book thrown at him. Because what's behind that feeling? At the end of the day, it's pride. It's the sentiment that I am a better person than they are. deserve better God recognizes how much better I is that cop would not be behind me because I'm so noble and I drive the speed limit correct attitude to have during a judgment is always an attitude of fear that looks at the judgment and says that judgment has my name on it I've gone 95 and not been pulled over more than once. Maybe the best way to illustrate this is the two thieves on the crosses on either side of Jesus. One had this attitude of rejoicing when his enemy fell and letting his heart be glad. And he mocked and reviled Christ. He had a front row seat to the judgment of God, and let's say he correctly identified it as the judgment of God. Look, this man is getting the wrath of God Almighty poured out on him. One thief mocked and indulged in some glee at Jesus' expense. The other thief said, oh, we're being punished. Justly, he's righteous. The difference between, there is a righteous joy at the punishment of the wicked. See Psalm 58. The righteous will rejoice and bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked. How do you know, though, whether your joy over the punishment of the wicked is an unrighteous joy? Well, here's the answer. Any joy that contains self-righteous gloating is the wrong kind of joy, is the kind forbidden in this verse. The right kind, is a God-fearing recognition that you fully deserve the punishment you're seeing meted out to someone else. That is a joyful thing, but it is just as awful or awe-inspiring as it is joyful. Gloating is not an awe-filled experience. But recognizing that, ooh, that could have been me, that should have been me, The attitude that Proverbs 24, 17, and 18 here is telling us to have is to have the attitude of the disciples as they stood at the foot of the cross on Good Friday. Where you see God's wrath being poured out on Jesus. Is that a joyful thing? In one sense it is. That's where our salvation came from. But is it a terrifying and fearsome thing? Absolutely. There is no glee when you stand at the foot of the cross. There is a holy joy, but it is just as much fear as it is joy. That's what this passage is telling us to feel. The wise promise to strengthen our faith when we listen to them. They promise to give us the ability to bring reliable reports. And if we store these sayings in our hearts, we will grow in faith. The faith that says, I don't need to gloat over a fallen evildoer. I can trust that the lamp of the wicked will be put out in due time. Is your God strong enough to take vengeance? If He is, then you're free. You don't have to take it yourself. So eat honey and fear God. and you'll see the wicked fall in due time. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, give us the Christmas spirit this evening. The Christmas spirit where Your Word says, great fear came upon every soul who heard about these things. Father, help us to fear You and Your King, not associate with those in rebellion against You and Your King. Lord, don't let us be full of gloating and glee when our enemies fall. When those who are opposed to the spread of the gospel fall. When those who persecute the church fall. When those who slaughter the unborn fall. Help us, Father. to have great reverence and awe to truly fear you as we see your judgments in the earth. Father, we have a ringside seat at the most enormous judgment in many decades as we watch this COVID crisis unfold. Lord, help us not to gloat over it, not to rage impotently against the policies of our elected officials, not to wish that other and different things had been done to respond to the virus. Father, help us to possess our souls and patience to trust You, to know that, yes, the wicked have no future and the righteous do. Help us to respond rightly to judgment by learning not to rage against the politicians who did the dumb thing, whatever we think that might be, but by instead learning to fear You and to see Your hand. Lord, You bring desolations on the earth. Help us to trust You through them. Bring us safely to heaven on the other side of them. We pray these things in the name of our risen Lord, Jesus the Messiah. Amen.