Thank you, Dan. And again, I want to thank the pastor and the session for entrusting the sacred lectern to me for this weekend. And I want to thank you all for your fellowship in the things of God. He had been an encouragement to me, his sincerity, your love for the things of God, your willingness to explore and dig together. It's been a good spiritual experience. You should have in hand the outline for today's message, the sixth message. So I say I'm not good on titles, smart money or wise wealth might be more sanctimonious for a Sunday morning. Most of the scriptures, like the prophets, lift this up into the heavenly core and worship, which is very fitting for a Sunday morning. Wisdom, the book of Proverbs, isn't that way? It doesn't lift this up into the heavenly core, quite the opposite. God comes down to join us and mingle with us in humility in the marketplace. In chapter 1 and verse 20, we have this personification of Solomon's teachings, as wisdom comes down and joins us in the rough and tumble of life. We're tragically, she is rejected. And in this she is a forerunner of our God who also came down to the rough and tumble of life and was rejected, dispermed. When 20 wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises a voice in the public squares. At the head of the noisy street she cries out in the gateway of the city she makes her speech. Along with your gullible love, your gullible ways, how wrong were mockers to write a mockery in fool's hate knowledge. You would respond it to my rebuke. I would have put out my heart to you and made by thoughts known to you. But since she rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand, since she would know it all my advice would not accept my rebuke. I in turn will laugh when your disaster comes and mock when calamity overtakes you. Serious words. The book comes to the marketplace with very serious words. It instructs us. It's interesting to me how God becomes incarnate. When he came to Moses at the burning bush, it always amazes me down there with dirty animals, don't hang from their tails, down on the ground, sweaty, smelly, bleeding. There's God. It comes to us and all the mess of this world. You can join us. But it's surface to tell the story of a student at the University of Kentucky who took the soft lit and was assigned a paper on some theme from Shakespeare's Atelo. When we got the paper back, the professor had graded it in A. And under it had written, please see me. So at the appointed time, the student appeared at the professor's office and the professor invited them in and had him seated and the professor turned his back and lit up his pipe and made pleasantries and so forth. Eventually got around to the paper. He said, Tell him, do you belong to such a such a fraternity? The student said, yes, I do. The professor said, now tell me, do they still have that file of old exams and term papers? The student called and said, yes sir, we do have that file. The student professor said, now tell me the truth. Did you copy that paper out of the file? The student latched and knew the professor was on to him and said, yes sir, I did. Well the professor said, when I was a student here, I was a member of that fraternity, and I wrote that paper. When the student got over his shock, he said, but sir, how come you gave me an A? The professor said, well my professor gave me a C plus, but I always thought it was worth an A. The story has little to do really with the sermon, but it does a little straight that we're in the rough and tumble of life with an unethical society. The Christians have to compete. Christian students have to compete against students who are willing to plagiarize them. Christian sales, people have to compete against people who are willing to falsify and business contractors have to compete against those who are willing to take shortcuts and cover it over with a veneer. We live in the hurly barely of this world. We're in it, we're inclined to say, when you're in Rome, do us the Romans, or fight fire with fire. Just finished reading Rockefellers' point of biography by Chernau, fascinating book, and it seemed to me Rockefellers' philosophy was not to do what to others, as you would have them do want to you, but do to others what you think they would do to you, but do it first, and we're in danger of adopting a wrong philosophy as Christians. So the book of Proverbs is to give us a comprehensive view toward money where we live. How do we think about it? I'd like to divide the message into several parts. First of all, as you have any outline, the danger of money. Secondly, the limitations of wealth. Thirdly, the value of money. And finally, the book has a lot to say about how to have enduring wealth. First of all, the danger of money. The main dangers of money is it tends to become our God. Let me define that. By God, I mean that which gives you significance and that which gives you security. The defining God is that to which your heart claims. I would define it to whoever or whatever gives you significance and gives you security. The world refuses to bow its need to the creator, the broadened benefactor. It seeks to find its security and significance. As Calvin puts it, in manufactured gods, we make gods that are no gods. And many people find the security and the significance in money. Not all, but most. Young people tend to find their security and their significance in sex appeal. I notice when I go into the church not here, but all the places where I go and young people that see me, I feel like I'm posting all the ideas to see around me. I know I have no sex appeal. Some people find there's security and significance in their power controlling other people. And others find it in their money. That's where they find the security and the significance. If you like me and you have no money, you have no sex appeal, you have no power. You just might try to find the security and significance in your education or even in your ability to preach or in your ability to teach. You can take a good thing and prostitute it and make it a bad thing. They can become my god. In other words, I can find my security and my significance or whatever gift God may give me. I've given me every place God. But most people find the security and the significance in money. You see that for example in Psalm 49, if you wish to turn with me there, that is a wisdom Psalm. I pick it up deliberately. You'll find this in Proverbs as well. But here's wisdom literature. It has all the earmarks of wisdom literature. A Psalm that's down in the marketplace. Addressing all peoples where this or you people listen or who live in the world and you'll hear the word of God differently depending on your economic status. We all hear a sausage differently. We all come from a different horizon. Both low and high, rich and poor alike. The low will be comforted by the message. The high will be warned. The rich will be sobered and the poor will be consoled all by the same message. In Psalm, it says, my mouth will speak words of wisdom. The utterance from my heart will give understanding. I will turn my ear to a proverb. With the harp, I will expound my riddle and it describes an unethical age where people seek the security of significance in their money as he says in verse 5. Why should I fear when evil days come when we can deceive us around me? No. Those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches. There you have it. Trust in the money. Many people find their life and security in their portfolios, in their investments, in their stocks, in their bonds, in their property. That's their life. That's what they're depending upon. And that's what they talk about. Just listen to the news media. I know that with my family, you can't be around some members of my family very long until you're talking about the stock market. You can tell a lot about people by what they talk about. See, as Lewis makes that point, would it people talk about their authors? Physicians talk about their composers. Let's stand, talk about their quarterbacks in their centers and their pictures. If I do, I enjoy it. Which people talk about money? You can tell a lot where you are in a lot, but what you're talking about are when I first joined the faculty at what this meant. They had the stock market crash in the 87th. And I was invited to a faculty dinner. And I was impressed. The whole evening, no one mentioned the stock market. I said, these are my kind of people. That's different. Showed where the value was. Showed where the heart was. The Psalmist goes on, that this is out of folly, to make your significance here. He'll say, and he repeats to be framed twice in the center of the line. He begins by saying that their doom is certain and it's true of all. We're all destined to death. He says in verse 7, no man can redeem the life of another man or give to God a ransom for him. The ransom of his life is too costly. No payment is every enough. It can never save you with the son of coin of gold and one pocket the moon, the coin of silver and another. Where the planet's rubies and precious stones and emeralds and sapphires on your fingers was the Milky Way pearls around your neck. That they have death. It's worthless. It can never save you. It's never enough. No ransom for our life is costly. The ransom for our life is costly. No payment is every enough that he should live forever and not CDK. Or can see that wise men die, foolish and senseless alike, perishable, leave their wealth to others. The tombs will remain their houses forever, their dwelling friend with generations, though they have named lands after themselves. You might just above write your name on water. But man, humanity, despite his riches, does not endure. He's like the peace that perish. That's to be framed. In time for the allegory of a man who had a visitation from the angel and the angel said, I'll give you anything you want. It was a rich man. He says, yes, I know what I want. I want the newspaper. One year from today. It was given it. It looked over the stock market page and he knew his stocks. What a filling he was going to make. As I clasped across the page, there's an obituary column with this picture in it and he lost all interest in the stock market page. What the Psalmist saying is that our picture isn't a milestone obituary column and you see the emptiness the whole thing. That's all the Psalmists had to say that wouldn't be much of a Psalm. He says, this is the fate of those who retouched in themselves, which would teach their children, believe in yourself and have them believe in God. The followers who approved their sayings like sheep, they are destined for the grave and death will feed on them, but the upright will rule over them in the morning. The form will decay in the grave far from their princely mashes. But whereas no man can redeem another man from death, verse 15, but God will redeem my soul from the grave. He will surely take me to himself. There's a God worth worship, but God was power over death itself and through Christ it saved us for all eternity. The danger of money I say is that it has a tendency to make itself a false God. We depend upon it. We should understand that in the book of Proverbs, a rich man is not merely a person who has wealth. A rich person is a person who makes that wealth his security and that in which he takes comfort and significance and finds meaning in life.
Take a look, for example, at Proverbs chapter 18, verses 10 and 11. You have to read the Proverbs I say together. Proverbs chapter 18, verses 10 and 11. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous man runs in it and is set on high. The Godly finds the security in God, in the triune God will reveal himself and scripture that points us to the Christ. That's the God of whom we trust in which we find our security and it's his rock alone. It gives us significance. I leave no more. God loves me, for the Bible tells me so. The name of the Lord is a strong tower, a righteous person runs in it and is set on high as the Hebrew. Totally protected. No one can touch you when you're in God. But a rich person is his strong city and like a high city wall in his imagination. You see here, a rich person finds his security in his wealth. The wealth of a rich person is his strong city that's going to defend him and ward off death. It may make it live another three years or something, but not forever. It's like a high city wall in his imagination. The Proverbs chapter 28 and verse 11, I would change the end. I'd be slightly here. I don't think we fully comprehended it. 28, 11, the NESB has the better of this translation. A rich man is wise. Not maybe. There's no maybe in the Hebrew. It means is. A rich man is wise in his own eyes, but a poor man who has discernment sees through him. A rich man has so defined, cannot enter the kingdom of God any more than a camel can go through the eye of a needle. If that's your attitude toward life, your aim is to find your security in making money and saving and saving and saving so you have a wonderful in your retirement. That's going to be your security. You cannot enter into the kingdom of God. We have a wrong faith and a wrong significance. Now that's the definition of a rich man in this book and the truth is you cannot have too much without making it your security, at least most can't. Proverbs chapter 30 verses 7 and 9, we have the words of Agra. He's one of my favorite authors in scripture. And he has mantils of epistemologies as you can't know anything unless God gives it to you. But then he goes on from that. Proverbs chapter 30 and verse 7 through 9 and he responds. He's an old man. He's a humble man. And here's his prayer as I understand it at the end of his life. Two things I ask if you are wrong do not refuse me before I die. I want to know this before I die. One, keep falsehood and guys far from me that I may be totally truthful. I'm not there yet. I don't know about you but I'm not there yet. Keep lies and falsehood far from me and now not the other. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Don't give me the sweet states. Don't give me the lottery. I couldn't handle it. Give me neither poverty nor riches. But give me only my daily bread. Otherwise I may have too much and to show you and say who is the Lord? I don't need God. I have everything I need. And that's a big part of the problem with America's today. We have too much. We're too comfortable. We're too affluent and we have no real sense of our need of God so we are desperately poor. Nixon said something quite profound in 1970. He said this. He said in the 1930s, America was poor but spiritually rich. Today we are materially rich but spiritually poor and he spoke between it. I've noticed it with native peoples from other groups when they come into this country. Often they come in poor and they are spiritually rich and after the United States for a while they become materially rich and they lose interest in the church. I was in Czechoslovakia this summer. I was with one of the directors of one of the Bible distribution centers there in Prague. I said, let's be wonderful to have freedom today. He said, we are worse off today than under the Communists. He said, we have fewer people in church now than back then. Back then we were afflicted and we needed God. Today we've adopted the values of the West and we'd rather make money and go to church on Sunday morning. Well I can add that RTS has been running. Maybe it's seen in the Christianity today and elsewhere. It shows wrappers of banknotes of fides and tens and fifties and so forth. Thousands of dollars. And then it says at the top, it's put the American dollar. It's put more Christians at state than near home. And then it writes, throughout history countless Christians have fallen victim to the power of money. So if you've been struggling to find a balance between finance and faith, remember this. Real security is not a matter of what's in your pockets. But who's in your heart? That's a good ed. There's no supposed to brag about its faculty. It's the truth. I don't like it. The danger of money. It can rob you of eternal life and give you comfort for the moment and security for the moment and dish out death. One righteous man says Jesus. Secondly, the limitations of money. We talked about this on one of the evenings. I think I'm Friday night briefly, an answer to a question. But the point is that money can provide your material needs but cannot meet your spiritual needs. Wisdom does both. I take the point here from Proverbs chapter 3 verses 13 and 18. And in this section the sage has tried to show the value of wisdom to humanity. And Proverbs chapter 3 verses 13 through 18. We did one through 12 the other night. Blessed is the man who finds wisdom. This is the same word that Jesus used in the famous Beatitudes. Though this blessed, this is not as well known. Blessed is the man who finds wisdom. The man who gains understanding for this wisdom is more profitable than silver. Not despising silver is just better than silver. It's more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies. Nothing you desire can compare to her. Wrong life is in her right hand. In her left are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways in all her paths of peace. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her. Those who lay hold of her will be blessed. But this would have a little meaning if gold and silver didn't have value. They have value. As I said in answer to that question, gold and silver money can put food on your table. But it can't give you fellowship around that table. Gold and silver can give you a house. But it can't give you a home. And gold and silver can give a woman jewelry on her fingers and fur on her back. But it can't give her the love she really wants. And that's the problem. Wisdom will give you a house and a home. It will give you food and fellowship. It will give you wealth and love. It's far better. In America today we have ever bigger houses but more fragmented homes. More food but less fellowship. This is silly. It's senseless. It's a better way. It's God's way. And Christ incarnate this wisdom. Third, I want to talk about. I talked about the danger of money. You're not going to hear what I have to say from the book on the financial network. You're not going to read it in money magazine. You're not going to read it in the Wall Street Journal. Nobody tells you the truth. They make retirement look red. Well, it's not so grand sometimes. Tell you when you open 50 or over the hill, but they don't tell you it's an accelerating slope.
And it has great limitations. And it's damaging our society by not hearing the truth. The value of money. I've talked that negatively, but the book is very clear. Money has its values. Real values. That was three. One, it's to avoid spiritual losses. I'm saying spiritual losses. Associated with poverty. So you see too much money and you can lose a relationship with God by trusting it. To riddle money and you can lose an association with God too. They may be tempted to cheat and to steal and your conscience will be against you. And that will rob you of peace and a relationship with God. Here, Agra, he's very clear. Don't give me too much, but I can't stand too little either. Otherwise, I will disown you all. I may become poor and still and so dishonor the name of my God. I will be tempted to cheat. My income tax. I'll be tempted to try and insurance for fraud. I'll try to abuse the welfare system and all the other ways that we steal and we cheat. And our conscience would destroy us. Poverty is dangerous too. Jesus taught us to pray. Give us this day our daily bread, so I said in front of school, not a daily cake. But we do need our bread or we are in danger of stealing and losing our relationship with God through a condemning conscience. Secondly, not only a loss of relationship with God, but poverty and also lead to a loss of relationship with other people. Roberts chapter 14 and verse 20 states the truth. No one wants to be around poor people. They're uncomfortable. They're constantly begging and asking for us. We're uncomfortable with poor people and it's probably clear. Even by his neighbor, the poor person is hated, but the friends of the rich person are many. No, that's the truth. We don't like to hear it, but it's true. We don't seek out the company of poor people. Now, unless we think that that justifies it, the next proverb protects it. I guess, a wrong interpretation. Notice the next proverb. I'm saying you have to read the proverb together to get the whole truth. The one who despises his neighbor is a sinner, but as the one who shows favor to the poor, bless it as he. Yes, we must reach out with poverty to the poor, but if you're poor, you understand you're losing a relationship with people. Both are true. And poverty is not a desiderotum for us. We can lead us to cheating, stealing, lying, and also lead to a loss of relationship. 197, all the brothers of a poor person don't want to be with him. How much more is closed friends become distanced from him? And finally, for far as the loss of spiritual relationship, loss of relationship with God, loss of relationship with your neighbor, it also leads to a loss of power. You don't have much influence when you're poor. People don't listen. Proverbs chapter 18, verse 23, the poor person speaks pleadingly, and the rich person answers rudely. Neither one speaks well. And you're constantly in a beggarly position if you're poor. Again, 22 and verse 7, a rich person rules over poor people, and the borrower is a slave to lenders. You're constantly in a slave condition. If you're in a debit position on your credit card, you lost your freedom. And you're hounded by those who want your money to be to exact justice. It's not good. So, which has its spiritual values for us, and not only that, but money enables us to enjoy life more abundantly, and the Proverbs is clear about these things. We don't usually talk this practically, but the book of Proverbs is in the marketplace. It enables you to enjoy a more abundant life. Proverbs chapter 12, at verse 9, Spanish Proverbs, better to be one who was held as worthless, and has a slave, would be better. The word is not, and our problem is we are all confused about slavery. When the Bible talks about slavery, it's talking about indentured slavery. It's talking about slavery due to bankruptcy, defaulting financially, in which you lose your freedom. Slavery due to what happened in the American experience, not just in the south, but in the north as well. Slavery, that's due to kidnapped, and that's a capital offense. That a failure to pay your debts would lead to slavery in the ancient Near East, and I think that's more moral than a bankruptcy was. We can walk away from your debts. That was not allowed. You had to pay your debts. You didn't pay your credit cards. You ended up the slave. You had to pay it off with justice. Now, they rich had to treat you kindly after six years, but that's what the Old Testament thought. Now, if you only had one slave, you were considered not a wealthy person. You see, look at that. Better to be one who is held as worthless, and has one slave at any rate, and to be one who exalts himself and lacks bread. There's vibrate and wealth and poverty. You should be noted that the possession of slaves, or at least of one slave, was in the ancient Near East, ancient Israel, by no means a sign of superior wealth, or power. Israel's flight slaves were not necessarily purchased in a purely commercial transaction, but this might be so. A slave was frequently a defaulting debtor. We have lots of slaves today, or a poor person who had no alternative, but to a slave himself. According to Proverbs 12-9, it's commonly interpreted that the possession of just one slave and no more may be a sign of a modest way of life. We all have slaves, as we result above money. We have dishwashers. We have clothes, priors. We have computers. All of these are slaves, and they take money. The students don't understand sometimes. It takes leisure to get an education. Without money, you can't go to school and get an education. Without money, you cannot do the things for the church that you'd like to do. It takes money. We're able to participate because we have slaves that do the work for us, and that's good and proper. We live better lives for our money. That's the truth. That is the value of money. And we should use it that way. And thirdly, this is so stunning, but I think it's true. Money not only has the value of protecting our relationships with God, and with one another, and our power and society, enables us to live like more fully, but it also enables us to be righteous, to help other people. Remember how I defined righteousness? It's God's rule establishing the right order in his kingdom. Here's one Australian scholar. He defines it as to bring about right and harmony for all, for individuals related to the community, and to the physical and spiritual realms. It finds its basis in God's rule. Here's the professor Vanderbilt. He refers to action directed toward the right order of the community, and accordingly, it's well-being. Another scholar translates it as community loyalty. Without money, you can't help the poor. With money, you're in a position to do acts of helping other people, but it takes money to help other people. And that's a real value of wealth, and the way Christians should use it, is to help other people. The Lord models this. Proverbs 3 verses 19 and 20, not only is it a value to humanity, but notice how it happens in 19 and 20. By wisdom, the Lord laid the earth's foundations. By understanding, he set the heavens in place. By his knowledge, the deeds were divided and the clouds were dropped through. We're not talking here, Romans 1. We're not talking about the infinite wisdom and exclusibility and power of God here. We're talking about wisdom as to finding this book. Wisdom as I've been defining, helping other people, kindness, helping people in need. I talked about that last night. That's what wisdom is. And what he's talking about, you look at the creation and you see God's largest. It's full of goodness and righteousness and kindness. An apple tree doesn't produce one apple to reproduce itself. An apple tree produces thousands of apples. They tell me that the bear in the summer eats 80 pounds of apples a day or 80 pounds of food a day. That's a lot of food just for the bear. And we're all eating. Why? Because there's a lot just to the creation. Weak doesn't produce one grain. It produces hundreds of grain. There's a prolettes of tea about God. Seed just reproduces itself. There's millions of seeds everywhere. That's got just that's generosity. And when I look at it, he talks about water. The kindness of God and water here. Dripping, doing so forth. I know I used to be fascinated by the fact I said to myself, why is it that water coming at such height doesn't just strip off oil the foliage. One of the nice things teaching at region is that I entered disciplinary and so I have all kind of professors in my class. I had a physics professor. So, man, that was my moment. I said, tell me about that. How come that rain falling down when it comes out of my garden holds it just I got to be careful with it. It will destroy my foliage. Why doesn't rain do that? Why doesn't gravity pull it down faster and faster and just destroy the crops? He said, well, look it up. Sure enough, there was a doctor's dissertation done on that at the University of Chicago that he found. And what this fella had designed the way of photographing a rain drop and what happens to the rain drop, it's not a circular, it's a spheroid, it's all center and it's spinning as it comes down as it comes down and picks up speed, it divides and divides and divides until it falls as a gentle rain. I thought to myself, what does that have to do with survival of the fittest? Probably a partner. Take the ozone layer, three millimeters thick, it protects us from the rays of the sun. Everywhere I look, I see kindness and beneficence and Rajesh from my creator, he exemplifies what righteousness is the way I should be going through life, helping people with an open hand with a Rajesh of righteousness. That's what the book is teaching. There's a kindness about all this. Isn't that what Paul taught us in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 28? Why do you work? Are you retirement? You're not going to fall. He has been stealing, must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands. Why? That he may have something to share with those in need. That's why he worked. So he has something to help other people. That's righteousness. Remember the first time I heard that was in the chapel in Dallas from the past of the school. He preached on this. After he preached, it was not a terrible conviction. I said, oh, Lord, I'm so hard to part. That never ended. My head to work to help other people. That was a new idea. I repented that. I didn't even thought about it. He caught and put me immediately to the test. I got a call that afternoon from a wife in alumnus. He got two educated. Somehow another he rationalized. There was education. He could divorce his wife with four children. He concluded he was never married with four kids. Anyway, left her abandoned her and so forth. She arrived. She was out on the highway at a gas station. She asked me to meet her. I didn't know that. Well, I don't know why she called me, but she did. Now I went out there and she explained the situation that she had left California with the four children trusting God and got to the gas station and they had absolutely no money. Could I help? Well, I said, yeah, I still have your tank. Good with that. Do we go to the next gas station? That's not going to get you anywhere. I said, can I take it to dinner? Well, they had no food. They said, well, what about breakfast? Where's this all going? Before it was all finished, I ended up having a dinner and I set her up in the house. I knew her character. I wouldn't do this for everybody. She's no leech. They have two daughters. Give this. That's no end to that. This was a good woman who had real need. Now, frankly, I had questions about her life of faith. It's not the way I lived my life, but God told it to do this and she did it. And I thought to myself, you know, I'm not sure that's the right, that's presumption faith. I don't know. But one thing I do know, God spoke to me that morning in chapel and here she was that afternoon. I could put that together in my head at any rate. And so I looked back on that one experience. I think that's one of the most blessed experiences of my life. I was able to help indeed. And she's firmly established. It's just that one critical moment. Money enabled me to do righteousness. Money enabled you to do righteousness. Well, that leads me then. How then do we have wealth that's used wisely? Well, first of all, it's through honoring God. Proverbs chapter three and verses nine and ten. We had that last night. Honor the Lord. Show your dependence upon him from your wealth, from the first fruits of all your produce and your granaries will be filled with plenty. With new wine, your vets will overflow. We talked about that, but God will stand behind this order. He will entrust us well to those who use it well. Secondly, through generosity as you use it. Proverbs chapter 11 verses 23 through 28 who honoring God or piety through generosity and giving. Let me just read a section from Proverbs chapter 11 verses 23 through 28. The desire of the righteous is only good, but the hope of the wicked is rot. There is one who scatters, and this is not the word for scattering seed. This is the word for scattering dust. There's a way of going through life where you don't go through it tight-fistedly. You go through it the way God does with an open hand scattering seed. There is one who is scattering just scattering the way it is. There's one who scatters and is increased still more, but one who withholds from what is right comes only to lack. A life bestowing blessing will be fattened. He will drench his others, will himself be drenched. As for the one who withholds grain, people will curse him, but blessing comes to the head of the one who sells it. Proverbs has revolutionized my life. I used to pride myself on what good boggles I could drive. I don't do that anymore. I'm concerned about the merchants that make sure he's making a decent wage. It's not to find how good much I can save. It's to help people. It just changes your whole attitude. Your attitude toward driving, your attitude in buying changes radically when you understand this. You are here to do good, not to get, and you're given to give. That's revolutionary. It's an attachment. That's God in the marketplace. Third, it's through productive work as we saw verses 10, chapter 10, verses 2 through 5, and I commented on that the other night, but take a look at it again. Proverbs chapter 10, verses 2 through 5. Treasures got in by self-serving. Verse 2, they've gotten treasures, but treasures got in by wickedness, self-serving. I have no value, but righteousness delivers from death. That is not only delivers others from death, delivers you from death. That's the richness of the proverb. Why is this? That's the ethics. Here's the theology. The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry. He stands behind this, though they may temporarily hungry, as they said the other night. But he thwarts, ultimately thwarts the craving of the wicked. But you don't stop there. Now we come to practical theology. How is it that God provides for us, lazy hands, and here's an oxy moron? How, and lazy hands can't make anything, except the poor person. That's the oxy moron. Lazy hand makes a man poor. That's the one thing they can produce. But diligent hands bring wealth, and you must stop there. As I said, you have to work at the right time. You've got this craft in summer. As a wise son, you sleep during the harvest, is a disgraceful son. It's through productive work, not by winning modaries and quick money. Fourth, it's through contentment, not indulgence. The one who loves pleasure is destitute. The one who loves wine and oil will not become rich. That was one thing I learned. I didn't learn it. I father tried to teach me. My father tried to teach me to be frugal. I think he made it. It was too frugal. I mean, the dad eating out was going to Kentucky Fried Chicken for my father. He had to pay a tip. It was too expensive. I'm not there. I don't agree with that. But his style was McDonald's and eating out was Kentucky Fried Chicken. His philosophy, though, I couldn't remember that. That's philosophy was the best way to double your money, hold it over in your pocket, through contentment, not indulgence,
gift, through patience. Wealth, gotten by unsound means, Proverbs 13 and verse 11. Wealth, gotten by unsound means will do window. But the one who gathers by hand will increase his wealth. All of this builds character and patience. Sixth, through providing for an income before building a home. And that's in the stake we often make in marriage. We want to have a house before our sources of income are in place. But you must have the car before the horse and not the horse before the car. Proverbs 24 and verse 27 establish out of doors your work and prepare it in the fields for yourself. After doing that, then build your household. Proverbs 27 and verse 24. Be sure you know the condition of your flaws. You have careful attention to your herds, your sources of income. The riches do not endure forever and a crown is not secure for all generations. You must invest in your sources of income. The mate I have to invest in a library. It's my life. I have to buy books. If I'm to continue in my profession, you must invest appropriately. Well, these are the things the Book of Proverbs teaches. This builds character. The Book of Proverbs is not as clear on, though it's there. We all have failed. We all have had false gods. We all occasionally slip off and we're unfaithful. And we do find security and significance elsewhere. Proverbs 28, 13, who confesses his sins and renounces them will obtain mercy. It's the wise person who confesses and pleads the blood of Christ. He alone made satisfaction for it so that God is adjusted. It's the person who trusts in Christ who finds the resurrection power that this book demands. He provides us with our righteousness. He provides us with his resurrection power. He administers his Holy Spirit that inspired these words and works in us to his praise and to his glory. It directs us to our Lord and to our Savior. It was so funny. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you for your word and its salutary effects, its wholesomeness, its sweet, its honestness, its true, its blessed. Give us the grace to be humbled before it. A Christ's name.