Turn with me in your scriptures to the book of Proverbs. We are in chapter 10, the book of Proverbs. And if you are able, please stand and I will read in your hearing the last two verses in the section that is the first half of this chapter, roughly. That's verses 15 and 16. Let us hear with reverence this very word of Almighty God. Proverbs 10 at verse 15. The rich man's wealth is his strong city. The destruction of the poor is their poverty. The labor of the righteous leads to life. The wages of the wicked to sin. Let's ask God's blessing on this, his word and the preaching of it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, please bless us with ears to hear and with eyes to see. Give us hearts that are longing for your truth, thirsty for the water of life to quench. And we pray that we may feed on this your word for the strengthening of our souls. Give us the wisdom that comes from above, we pray. In Christ's name, amen. Now earlier in chapter 10, we saw an emphasis upon the diligence and industry in the wise son that exhibits an honor that is both a part of the natural law and the inscripturated moral law of God. Consider how those natural relationships in the natural family, bring out a natural desire that reflects the moral purposes of God. And so the revelation of God's moral law, both in nature and in scripture, gives us insight into those family relations. We are enabled to understand how those relationships should work and what should spring forth by way of wisdom to the honor and gladness of parents There's also described an ordinary material benefit that comes from that diligent labor of the son well trained by the father as he grows up and invests himself with industry and diligence. Not only does he fulfill the moral law in relation to honoring his parents, But he also fulfills his obligation to the Lord, to glorify the Lord in the path set before him and in God's ordinary providence. The Proverbs describe a material blessing that ordinarily accompanies that diligence and industry. But the Proverbs continued to press that those things are not an end in themselves, those material benefits. There is persistently in the Proverbs a prioritization of the spiritual things over the material. The Lord is pleased to bless with material means in the course of wisdom and diligence But the highest priority, as we learn in the first nine chapters, and as we see repeatedly brought to light in the Proverbs as we move forward, is the spiritual over the material. We return to those themes of industry, diligence, profitable labor. and the wealth that should accrue in God's ordinary providence, but with a priority on spiritual matters over material. We return to those in these concise two verses, verses 15 and 16. Here, as we begin, there is first an objective observation, or a set of objective observations, and then a clarifying principle is applied. In that objective observation to begin, there's mention of those who have wealth, of the rich, and commentators point out that there is a very balanced approach in the Proverbs to the matter of wealth. It's discussed all over the place, and roughly half the time it's described in the ways that the Lord benefits, the ways that he brings abundance in the course of diligence and industry. But roughly the other half of the time, the contagion of riches is described. And we need to make sure that we hear that description of wealth, of its purpose, of God's purpose in wealth, the warnings that go with that, in a way that will enable us to make a wise use of our calling. In so far as wealth is a blessing of God upon moral duties, the Proverbs set forth the good of that acquisition of wealth, but where one has become absorbed with the pursuit of riches and identifies his life with his wealth, It corrupts the soul, and the Proverbs put that forward very clearly. These things are not a blessing when pursued in that fashion. So we need to hear, with balance, those things put forward. Here, the Proverb is not leaning in one way or the other. It's making a very objective set of observations about wealth and poverty because it's setting the stage for what will be clarified and where there is a balance tipping in verse 16. So first, let's look at those objective observations in verse 15. First, the rich man's wealth is his strong city. Now we know how that can go wrong, and we'll mention that. But here, as commentators point out, The weight is not being put on that going wrong. It's rather simply a straightforward observation that wealth serves a purpose a lot like the strong city in that ancient time. We need to think about what a strong city provided. Remember, where you had the agrarian culture spread out around a strong city. That strong city was critical to the acquisition and preservation of wealth. Here in a well-established city, one who was achieving increase in his agrarian labors could bring the abundance beyond what he needed for his family, beyond what he would use in storehouses, to increases wealth through transactions, through trade at the city center. And so a strong city would be a means of increasing the wealth that was being already acquired through diligent labor. But it would also provide a place of stability for justice in the city gates, where contracts for establishing relationships in business, those things could be settled in a well-established city, in a strong city, there would be a preservation of justice. So many benefits from a strong city, but perhaps the most obvious and important one is that in that scattered agrarian culture, should there be raiders or an invading army, the strong city created a place where you could fly for safety, where the walls would protect against those invading forces, where the life would be preserved against enemies. Riches, rightly acquired, serve a similar function. And in the beautiful poetry put forward to us in the Proverbs here, that comparison is set forward as an observation, where wealth is acquired It provides for the kinds of goods that a strong city provides to those cultivating their wealth in the surrounding agrarian setting. It creates a context where the wealth can be preserved, where justice can be preserved, and where the life can be preserved. A strong city is a good metaphor. or how wealth does similar things. As a buffer is increased through the storehouse, as abundance is acquired, you know, if you had a year of drought, you had stores. Something that kept that dip from dragging you down. Your life could continue with some smooth measure because you had wealth. to sustain you through the hardship, through the onslaught of a plague, of locusts, or of some other grave hardship. If you had sufficient resources, you could make it through, just like a strong city would protect. So wealth would provide a means of protection, a means of preservation. This is simply put forward as a good observation. the diligent industry that can acquire such a buffer, a very desirable thing. It's a good observation, but the observation continues and now draws attention to poverty in the second part of verse 15. The destruction of the poor is their poverty. Now here, it's important for us to remember that poverty is being defined biblically. Think Destitution. Not what gets called poverty in our land, as I've mentioned before. We have the richest poor people that the world has ever known in these United States. That's not what's being described here. What's being described is something that brings destruction because there's absolutely no means of sustaining life. Poverty described here is a true destitution, the complete absence of all that which, by metaphor, the strong city of wealth could provide. That poverty of the poor leaves them completely vulnerable to the ordinary hazards of life. Where the strong city of wealth could preserve through those hazards, there is no protection for the poor. There's nothing for them. but destruction. This is clearly not desirable. The contrast is intended to be profound. The prevention of this situation by diligent industry is obviously desirable. The accumulation of resources is a hoped-for outcome to prevent this kind of destitution. The strong city effect is a desirable effect in this regard. That's the contrast being set before us. So the building up of material resources is the God-ordained way of stabilizing our family life materially. Further, we should be reminded that it's certainly and absolutely not to be selfishly ordered. That abundance that brings stability, the strong city effect, in the family is supposed to abound into benevolence to others, particularly to the destitute. Indeed, the Lord sets out the moral obligation upon those that he has blessed in the path of diligent industry that they have an eye towards generosity in the time of genuine need, so that those who are destitute can be rescued There's a grace involved in the blessing that ordinarily comes in the course of diligent industry, a grace that should be abundant in the heart of the one pursuing diligent industry in the path of faith, in the life of piety, of diligent labor, honoring parents and honoring the Lord. So the Lord sets this care and concern for the truly needy as a moral obligation accompanying that strong city effect, that abundance that preserves life materially. Now, the observation, as we mentioned, is setting the stage, this objective observation in verse 15, is setting the stage for the clarifying principle to follow in verse 16. Riches and the pursuit of wealth can easily consume a life. Things can go wrong. That objective observation doesn't preserve one from error. It is easy to fall into the pursuit of riches as an end in themselves. As we mentioned, at the Proverbs describing the riches of the wealthy, condemn them for their hearts that have gone off the rails in that pursuit. We are so prone to this sin that not only do half the Proverbs address it in that way, as we move into the New Testament, the overwhelming concern is with that sin, the poison of riches to the heart of the unguarded, We're reminded of our study in the book of James. Remember that James multiple times addresses the danger that accompanies wealth. He says in chapter 1, verses 9 and 10, let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation. Because as a flower of the field, he will pass away. James is saying, yeah, you know the benefits you have in wealth. Do you know the danger that you have in wealth? You need to set yourself with that spiritual paradox so that you don't take comfort in your wealth, rather While you have been comforted with wealth materially, you're looking for the ways that the Lord brings affliction to keep you humble, to recognize the poverty of soul that is blessed with heavenly riches. James is concerned with the danger that accompanies wealth. He goes on in chapter two to hit that mark again. In verse five, listen, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? He says what's desirable, the poor have already access to. And that is a dependence upon God in the pursuit of heavenly things. Now, he would not contradict the proverbs that set out the dangers of poverty, the risks of poverty. He's simply doing what we would expect, to balance the soul because of the poison that riches can become. The soul should be balanced by its heavenly calling. And so treat the ordinary acquisition of material blessings with caution, right? These are a blessing from God in the path of diligence, and we give him thanks, and we protect the soul from the poison of depending upon them, rather upon the God who blessed us with those things. That becomes the strongest emphasis in the New Testament. So we are warned, not only with half of those Proverbs, but also with the great emphasis placed upon the danger and the caution in the New Testament. The principle that the writer of Proverbs would put forward is concisely framed by Derek Kidner. He puts it this way. A man uses his possessions according to his character, as tools for good or ill. And we see that as we move into the clarifying principle in verse 16. Here, the heart disposition provides a moral assessment. Before, it was just an objective observation. Here, we're not left with the objective observation because there is never simply an empty observation, there is going to be the moral weight of the character of the soul that's in that circumstance, and that's brought to light in verse 16. The labor of the righteous leads to life. Now here, the proverb is playing off that secure city, that strong city, that life that's preserved, right? He's saying something, though, of the life of the righteous that doesn't have material life as its chief end. The life of the righteous that's experiencing that security, that abundance that preserves life, isn't after that as an end in itself. Because he's pursuing these things with diligence and industry in the path of righteousness, the life of faith. And what does he find there? Well, life that is more than this life, life that is eternal life, life that is the gift of God. Indeed, even when material blessings are not granted, the life of the righteous will be one that knows life in abundance because it is gifted with eternal life. the levels of wealth and poverty get flattened out when seen from the heavenly perspective, right? The moral principle brought in verse 16 reminds us that those ordinary blessings aren't ends in themselves. Those ordinary blessings lead to a life above this life. And we're reminded that this then is our highest concern, our ultimate concern, eternal life. Life in abundance that blesses this life with its meaning and purpose, even when there is poverty. And that's made in sharp contrast in the second part of verse 16. That labor of the righteous brings life, an ordinary blessing of life here, but eternal life from a heavenly perspective, the wages of the wicked brings sin. That's an interesting framing, as we're reminded of the moral principles that give shape to those objective observations. The meaning of that second part of verse 16 is that all the labor, all the diligent industry of the wicked is itself sin and brings about sin. It might acquire great wealth. That's sin. It can't be seen as a blessing when what it's doing is confounding the life in abundant sin. The wages of the wicked is more and more sin. And so that contrast is profound. No amount of wealth can make a man right with God or turn him to godliness. If he's pursuing wealth as an end in itself, as his idol, it is sin and it produces sin. He won't get rich enough for it finally to turn to his ultimate good. It will abound to the opposite of what the righteous got. It will abound to death. And isn't that exactly what we learn from the Apostle Paul when he zeroes in on those principles that have a moral weight in Romans 6, verse 23. The wages of sin, well, yes, it's certainly more sin, as the writer of Proverbs says, but what are the wages of that sin? Death. But the gift of God, Paul reminds us, is eternal life. Just as surely as sin produces death, so the Lord surely pours out grace that saves and transforms in his gift of salvation. And that brings us back to the root of what's necessary if we are to have that ordinary course of life where diligent industry may be blessed with those things that are the strong city, those things that smooth out the hazards of life as a blessing from God. Even where he withholds those things, the ultimate aim is an abundance of life, of heavenly life, that sweetens even the sorrows of this life. And so, we're given a framework in these concise verses to make objective observations, but with moral information. This should frame how we live, should provide us a framework that should control our thinking, our assessments. Yes, we should invest ourselves heartily in that course that honors our parents, that honors the Lord, that He blesses with an ordinary abundance that secures us against the ordinary hazards of life, always with an eye towards thanking God, blessing God, making no idol of those ordinary pursuits. But we're also given a framework to warn us away from a covetous and wrong-headed admiration of the wicked. Because are we not surrounded by them? Are we not surrounded by those who are described with the moral principle of the second half of verse 16. They're earning wages by wickedness, and so increasing a harvest of sin that leads to death. If we're informed by these verses, we will not covet their ways. We will not envy them in their pursuit of wickedness. And that's a real danger. That's set all around us by those who make no question for us to ponder whether they give thanks to God and pursue with diligence His ways. No, no, no. They make it very clear what they're up to. They are ready to sin at any turn if it will increase their wealth. We have to mention, in light of this framework, what has been set before us with great sadness in recent days and is really all too common. It just happens to have become highlighted because it's from the highest executive of our land. If even half of what's been put before us through the research of the Congress, through the reports of those who wish to break the story, if even half of what they've said is true, then what we have is a wicked, ungodly pursuit of wealth through illegal means. The use of power, not the way God distributes civil power, by which one will give an account for its moral use, but rather the use of power for the acquisition of wealth. This is soul destruction. This framework will prevent us from looking with an envious eye at the billions of dollars. Oh, think of the strong city. Well, we've had the objective observance. Yeah, there's a strong city that wealth brings. But if that's acquired in the way of wickedness, it won't preserve your life. It just brings sin upon sin that leads to death. What you want, this proverb says, is the course that leads to life and life abundant. That's the path of righteousness. Yes, the Lord may give you a competent portion of those things in this life that will smooth out the hazards of life, the strong city effect. You want that if it comes as a blessing of God from righteous pursuits for his glory, honoring him, honoring the one who taught you industry and diligence. Anything else, no matter how many billions, should be looked at as horrifying because it has the pit of hell as its end. There is a strong warning. There is strong medicine by which we may view the wealth of the wicked. When it is acquired in sin, it is a means of destruction. Don't end it. the way of the wicked, desire the course of life that leads to eternal life, because it's a life of faith. In it, God may be pleased to bless. Let us give Him thanks for those blessings. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are so prone to measure in a wrong way. We're so prone to envy the wicked because they seem to prosper. And here we have a right way to assess these things. Here we have a clarifying principle, a moral principle, by which we may rightly understand the destruction that follows upon the pursuit of wealth in the way of wickedness. And so we ask that we may be warned away from that sinful pursuit, that we may be strengthened to look at that with horror because of the death that follows from it. We don't want that. Lord, we want the life that you give. So give us, we pray, in your ordinary providence, a blessing of a competent portion of those material things that will be for us a blessed security that you provide. And when we look to your hand for it, we pray that we may be satisfied, even when those things are removed, because we have not only life here, we have eternal life. We have that abundance that you give in the life of righteousness as you work your saving work in our hearts. We long to be transformed, to think in the way that you teach us to think about these things. So forgive us where we do not, and transform us to think the way we ought. We thank you for this, the instruction of your holy word. In Christ's name, amen.