Proverbs 4, the last of the summer psalms and Proverbs, we finish out our look at living a life in wisdom directed by the Proverbs. As we look to the reading of God’s word, though, if you please join with me in prayer. Father of all mercies, let us stand in awe of you this day. We ask that you’d help us by your spirit put your words into our hearts, that you would write them upon our minds, and let your word come to us in power. Help us to receive it in love with attentive, reverent, and teachable minds. And through your word, allow us to taste the flavor of eternal life, which we have through your son, our savior Jesus. Amen. Beginning in verse 20, My son, pay attention to what I say. Turn your ear towards my words. Do not let them out of your sight. Keep them within your heart, for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body. Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity. Keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead.
Fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths of your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or to the left. Keep your foot from evil. The word of the Lord. Please be safe. Parts of the body get used in speech to talk about human psychology. You’ve heard me mention this before in Hebrew, saying someone the other has a short nose or a long nose. It speaks to someone being angry or patient. We say, I have butterflies in my stomach, talking about being anxious. We also say things like, I have a gut feeling. Well, in the New Testament, in other language, of course, do the same thing. In older translations, in New Testament, you see this phrase bowels of mercy, not bowls, bowels, bowels of mercy. And it speaks of compassion. And some languages will speak about kidneys or other parts of the body. And for us today, the word heart is almost exclusively used as a metaphor for the emotions, how we feel. On Valentine’s Day, we give heart-shaped boxes of chocolate. We eat those little heart-shaped candies that taste and look like antacids.
And we send out little heart emojis and text. We click on hearts. We say things like, She played with all of her heart, or, His heart just wasn’t in it, to, I love you with all my heart. And that’s how we speak of our feelings, our motivations. But that is not how the Bible uses the word. The word heart is used some 750 times in scripture. It does not primarily speak to our emotions. Rather, it refers to our whole inner person, our mind, our will, and our emotions. The heart is the center of our deepest commitments. What moves us, what we desire for life, our core beliefs. And we need to keep that in mind because otherwise, when we see the word heart in the Bible, we automatically just insert emotions. It can include how we feel, but it’s more than that. It’s our entire inner self. And when we read in the Bible phrases like, circumcise your heart, or I will give you a new heart, we need this broader understanding. Proverbs continually calls on us to guard or to keep our hearts. We’re warned of having a or a sinful heart. We’re told to cultivate a wise and a humble heart.
And the reality is that we all know how we should live, but we don’t. Why? The heart. All these metaphors tell us of our need of spiritual renewal, a need of a regenerated heart to be born again. We need to follow Jesus and have our hearts continually transformed by his spirit. And because the Lord calls us to follow him with our whole being, we must attend to our hearts in wisdom. So to repeat what we’ve been saying, the Bible’s approach to living life rightly is living with wisdom. Wisdom is not just intellectual, as if all you have to do is take some classes or read a few books. It’s not just practical, as if all you had to do is just gain some life experience. Biblical wisdom is both. It is, one writer has said it, the skill in the art of Godly living. It’s a skill that we develop, we cultivate, we practice it. And It’s an art in the sense that we don’t just check off boxes, the right ones at the right time. It’s more intuitive. It’s a sense of knowing what is needful in a particular moment. And central to all of this, of course, is our hearts.
To attend to our hearts then, we need to both guard and to guide our hearts at this very core level. And clearly, there’s an interplay between these two ideas. But starting first with looking at guarding the heart. When you read that expression, we know, again, it’s not just speaking about not getting emotionally caught up or swept away. It’s deeper than that. My son, pay attention to what I say. Turn your ear to my words. Verse 21, Do not let them out of your sight. Keep them within your heart, your whole being. Saying, Listen up. Let these words of wisdom, maybe how we would say, be your operating system, your I-O-F. It’s what is running you. For they are life to those who find them, health to one’s whole body. These are words that are central to living well, not just to some good ideas, some life hacks. It’s the entirety of our living. He goes on, Above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it. And that word guard, it can mean to keep or to watch over. All of life’s issues flow out of our heart, our inner self, the core.
Jesus tells us in the gospel, For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. He goes on and he says, What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, covenant, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All of these evil things come from within and they defile a person. Mark Chapter 7. I’m sure you’ve seen this. Sometimes people drinking too much often can say horrible things and they blame it on alcohol. Sorry, that’s just the booze speaking. No, all the alcohol did was to lower the gate to the words that flow out of the heart. They were already present. It didn’t create them. They just spilled out when given the opportunity. That’s why the Bible repeatedly says that the Lord needs to give us a new heart from the Prophet Jeremiah or Ezequiel 36. I will give you a new heart, a new spirit spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. We need a new heart because something is so radically broken with the old one.
We need a new life, a new spirit to be born again. The reminder to us that Proverbs speaks to a believing community to where this has taken place. Because without faith in Christ, these Proverbs can just be A fortune cookie advice to people. True, certainly, but not penetrating beyond just right behavior. To pursue wisdom is to pursue Jesus. A heart reoriented towards him. Over 100 years ago, Pastor Charles Bridge, he asked the question, Can I keep? Can I guard my heart? And his answer was, Certainly not. And what he meant was that apart from God, was impossible. He went on, he said, Though it is God’s work, it’s man’s agency, man’s responsibility. Our efforts are the instrument he uses. And with the Psalmist, we say to the Lord, ‘Oh, guard my soul and deliver me. ‘ Psalm 25. Or a familiar one, Psalm 119. The Psalm says, I have soared up your word in my heart that I may not sin against you. ‘ You see how these things come together. Keeping or guarding the heart is essential to cultivating the skill of Godly living. But it must be done as insiders to God’s covenant family.
So that question then comes, as God’s people, how do we guard our hearts? Hear the words of Jesus again, Matthew 6. Do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where theees break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. We need to treasure the right things and guard against those things which move our affections to the wrong place. Anything we do to replace the Lord will ultimately never satisfy. I put this in your bulletin. It’s a great quote from Jonathan Edwards, and I would encourage you to think about this quote for your own life, to really ponder it. He says this, God is the highest good of the reasonable creature. The enjoyment of him is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. Father, Mothers and mothers, husbands, wives, children, the company of friends are but shadows. But the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beings, but God is the sun. These but streams, but God is the ocean. Why should we labor for, set our hearts on anything else but that which is our proper end and true happiness?
That’s why people still read Jonathan Edwards. And we hear such words, and we want to be like that. We’re like, yes and amen, but it’s a struggle. It’s an inner warfare. And we also know that we live in a culture where we are constantly presented with lesser goods to steal our attention. The whole goal is set to get our hearts are wanting new things to consume. And that’s why Jesus tells us to guard against coverageousness, to guard against a constant pursuit of new, better, and improved. Because where we set our treasure, our heart goes. To have a pure heart means we cannot be looking at things we ought not to. We’re not looking at pornography. We’re setting a guard on our eyes. To have a believing heart, we must guard against the constant bombardment of unbelief. To have a soft and tender heart towards those in need, it means we must guard against selfish motives and desires against helping someone, finding all the reasons why we shouldn’t do an act of generosity and kindness. Proverbs is instructing us how to live rightly before the Lord as one of his children. And we learn so that we can live.
We don’t live in order to learn. And guarding your heart is keeping the Lord’s instruction is essential for that. And we not only guard the heart, but we are also to guide our heart. Verse 24, Keep your mouth free of perversity. Keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Now, this is a negative command. Don’t talk corruptly. But it’s a guide to how we speak. We are to speak wholesomely. We are to speak with purety. Because all of God’s commands are both positive, do this, and negative, don’t do that. It’s not enough just to do half. Like, well, I didn’t do the bad thing. No, God is calling us to do that which promotes good in other people. That is a part of what guides us. Verse 25, Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you. You guide your heart by fixing your focus on the Lord. Verse 26, Give careful thought to the paths of feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Now, that doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not a matter of feeling or emotions. It comes by careful thought, by Godly consideration. We know athletes review film of themselves doing certain acts, like pitching a ball or running, and they look precisely where they did what in order to either speed the ball up, to shave time off their running.
It’s very precise. What did I do at this moment. Have you ever considered how you’ve reacted to something and allowed the Holy spirit to play that tape back? Hey, when this was said, what did I do at this moment? How did I respond to it? Why did I respond that way? Not just letting the event go and block that out, but to think through and go, that was something I would like to see different. Or maybe you see in somebody else and you’re like, what exactly did they do? Because that was amazing and wonderful how they interacted with that person in that difficult spot. You’re considering. You’re thinking about the paths of your feet, about how we are steadfast. Then he ends out this chapter, Do not turn to the right or to the left. Keep your foot from evil. Like guiding each step along a treacherous hiking path, you pay attention where your foot falls. The reason is, is we deceive ourselves quite easily. We can be out just driving around, and suddenly we accidentally end up where we shouldn’t be. No, we end up where our hearts want to be. And that can be whether for some, it might be a favorite bar, a particular person’s house, a place where we ought not to be.
If we are not intentionally guiding our steps, we will accidentally end up right in the front steps of sin’s door or web page. And then we say, Well, since I just happen to be in the neighborhood, might as well be friendly and go say hello. What are we to do then? How do we function with these hearts that are so easily turned in the wrong direction. How easy we deceive ourselves. In Disney’s Pinocchio, Jimny Cricket is often saying, Let your conscience be your guide. Certainly, there’s an element there of common grace. We are made in God’s image and likeness. People do have a moral compass, but it is profoundly broken. We need a new spirit-filled conscience that’s submitted to the word of the Lord, to the Lord’s people. We need each other. We need God’s people who will help us guard our hearts because sin feels so good. It seems so right at the time. Who hasn’t at some point said to themselves, God just wants me to be happy. No, God wants you to be holy. And as you pursue him in wholeness, you actually then gain true happiness. And we know that we can simply just go through the motions.
The answer is not get rid of the motions, but to change your heart. Habits and patterns of righteousness wear groups in our souls, in our path, so that it is easier to follow. The ruts you keep from sliding off the road, you take these over time and it develops patterns and habits of living. It’s like playing a musical instrument. At first, it’s really hard to get your fingers to go to the right strings, the right keys. It’s awkward and difficult. But over time, They just go to the right place because they get used to it. That’s what godly habits and practices do. But there’s a warning in this. Certainly as parents, we want our kids to do the right things. Do this, do this, do this, do this. Don’t do that, don’t do that, don’t do that. But the reality is we want them to pursue Jesus. We want them to pursue the Lord who is their highest and greatest good, not just conform to outward behavior. How do we do that? Part of the answer to that is they see you pursuing the Lord. They see what motivates your inner core, your heart. This isn’t just do this because I said so.
It comes from a heart that loves Jesus. And you want that for your children. Jesus is wisdom, descended to us. God draws near to us. We are utterly incapable of drawing near to him. The new covenant is the promise of a new heart. It’s not the wage of our obedience. Worldwide, we all know what we should be doing. People understand basic morality. Books are written on our ethical behavior, what ought to be done. Doing to others what we want them to do to us is a pretty basic idea that people generally agree is a good thing. But why are we so bad at it? No Jesus, no new heart. Our new heart is the Lord’s precious gift to us. Again, this is apart from Edwards. God is the highest good of the reasonable creature. The enjoyment of him is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. Why should we labor, set our hearts on anything else but that which is our proper and true happiness? To do that, we need a new heart. We need the drives to be different because we’re selfish to the core. Jesus came, as we’ve been told, not to do his will, but his Father’s will.
He came not to live for himself, but to serve those who hated him and wanted to use Jesus for their own selfish purposes. And yet we see there in the midst of that, for God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son. The motivation was moving out of love. In a sermon on first John 4, Augustine made this remarkable statement, which is so often misused. But he said this very simply, Love God and do what you will, or Love God and do what you please. There’s another way of saying that. Immediately, you can hear people, Don’t say stuff like that. It’s bad enough as it is. She’s going to make it worse. Not if you truly understand what’s being said. A person with a new heart fixed on Jesus will have a soul trained for doing good to others. It’s not a license to do whatever you want. It’s a gospel freedom to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. I don’t desire to intentionally offend the people I love. It is this love of Jesus that guards and guides our hearts. He has done what we could not.
And now, as we follow him, we set our hearts on what pleases Jesus. Do I do the right thing simply as a wage? Or am I doing this because I know it brings a smile to my father’s face? How do I know the difference? You want a diagnostic for this? When you do the right thing and you don’t get what you think you deserve, do you get mad about it? When you’re doing the right things, this is one of the things that I don’t like a lot of marriage books. Here’s the list for you, here’s the list for your spouse, and do these things, you have a great marriage. What if you do the right things and the person doesn’t respond the way that you think they ought? Get mad. I’ve done all these things, and you should be doing things better. It’s the older brother. I’m doing these things because because they’re right and it pleases Jesus. I’m not a mercenary doing my job in order to get payment. Grace is not a wage. It’s a gift. It’s a gift from the Lord to us that we do not have to live any longer in a profoundly selfish and myopic life.
It’s a freedom to be who God has created us to be, that we could love him and do as we please with the right understanding. Proverbs, it speaks to this. It gives us wise advice in guarding and guiding our heart in this context. Because we do need instructed. We do need these things set before us in a model. But as we come away from this idea. I want you to consider this very dangerous prayer. Because I know we’re all sitting here, we love the do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. Yes. We love this God should be my highest and greatest good. I should love him more than everything. He should be the sun. He should be the ocean. Yes and Amen. And there’s a part of our heart that pulls back away from that out of fear. What is he going to require of me? And I would simply encourage you to pray and ask the Lord to move your heart towards him. That indeed, he would be your highest and your greatest good. That as you go through life, that your heart would be centered and focused on the person and work of Jesus because he has given you a new heart.
And to pray and ask the Lord of glory who has made you in his image and likeness that you would be so filled with him that all else would pale in comparison. And see how the Lord responds to that prayer. See how the Lord redirects and refocuses the vision that we see in front of us. That we would trust him, take him at his word, that our hearts would want what the Lord wants for our hearts, which is him. Pray with me. Father Almighty, as we come before you, Lord, we see so many ways where we are captured by lesser goods. And Lord, we would ask not only that you would forgive us, but Father, that you would just simply set us free by the good news of Jesus, that you would set us free to love you, to love others as you have called us to. And Lord, I would ask if there are any here who do not know you, Father, I pray that you would open up blind eyes to see, that you would grant them saving faith, that you would open up their ears to hear the good news of your son.
And Father, for all of us struggling with this inner warfare, we know that we will struggle until glory. But Father, we ask that you would continue to give us the motivation, the desire, the affections forward in pursuit of you above all things. And this we pray and ask to Christ our Lord. Amen.
Discaimer: This sermon text was generated by an automated transcription service.