Let’s take our Bibles together and turn to the Book of Proverbs. Today we finish up Collection III of Proverbs and our “Thirty Resolutions to Live By.” Today I’ll give you Resolutions 20-30. These Resolutions won’t save you from your sins. Let’s not make that mistake. We are saved by grace, saved by faith, and saved by Christ alone. But after salvation, ex post facto, these resolutions can enrich your life and enrich your relationship with Christ. That’s what we’re going for.  

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And with that mindset, write this down as the twentieth resolution. 

20) Build your house on wisdom (24:3–4)

Solomon says in verse 3. 

3 By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; 

4 by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. 

This is a nice contrast to 24:1–2 where Solomon says, “Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them, for their hearts devise violence, and their lips talk of trouble.” In other words, don’t envy evil men who devise violence, thereby destroying your own house. Instead, build up your house through wisdom and understanding.

Now, let’s think through this proverb literally and then metaphorically. A house is built with the skill of practical wisdom. Don’t read this verse as a twenty-first century person who buys a house built by someone else. Think like an ancient Israelite! Israelites built their own houses. And to do that, they needed skill. They needed understanding. They needed training. They needed wisdom. And if they did it right, then they would have a good home and a stable house for their wives and children to live in. 

And if they worked hard, then their rooms would be filled with all kinds of precious and pleasant riches. They would have clothing and furniture for their children. They’d have food to feed them. They’d have a farm with animals that were well taken care of. And they’d have an inheritance to pass on to their children. That’s the idea here. And every young man, even the young men in our day, should desire this for himself, his wife, and his children. That’s not just the American dream. That dream is as old as time.

But let’s expound upon that. Because the Hebrew word for “house” (בַּיִת [bǎ·yiṯ]) is more than just brick and mortar, stone and wood. A house is a home. And a home needs to be built by wisdom. And that means that the children are taught the principles of the torah. That means that your children are taught to fear God and love God. That means that parents care for children, and children have affection for their parents. And dad disciplines. And mom disciplines. And the children embrace that discipline. And they grow up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord (Eph 6:4).

The opposite of that is quite prevalent in modern society. Dad is absentee or abusive. He doesn’t lead. He exasperates his children. He exasperates his wife. He doesn’t care about God. If he does go to church, mom has to drag him. He works too hard, drinks too hard, eats too much, and fantasizes about being somewhere else. 

Mom is depressed, angry, and resentful. She’d rather be doing something else than raising kids. She’s secretly attracted to another man. She fantasizes about being somewhere else, anywhere else. 

Mom and dad don’t like each other. The kids pick up on that. Mom and dad spend more money than they make. They bicker constantly and they never forgive each other. The kids pick up on that too. Everyone walks on eggshells. Kids grow up angry and confused, and they can’t wait to get out of that house. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a house (a home) not built on wisdom. 

Is there grace in a situation like that where God can move and compensate for shortcomings? Yes. But let’s not use grace as an excuse to be slack and unbiblical with our lifestyles. 

And if you find yourself in a situation like what I described above, then embrace the grace of God, repent, and move forward with better patterns and habits. 

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“Build your house on wisdom.” Write this down as another resolution.

21) Leverage the power of wise counselors (24:5–6)

Solomon says in verse 5. 

5 A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might,

6 for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory. 

Forgive me for this, but let me have a “get off my lawn moment” this morning. One of my pet-peeves when I go to the gym is seeing young men preening in front of the mirror. They flex their muscles and look at themselves. And it’s like Narcissus looking at his reflection in the mirror and falling in love with himself. It drives me nuts. 

And I understand the desire for strength. I miss the strength of my youth. I used to be the meathead on my basketball team in high school who was always lifting weights. But even as a kid, I was told by the wise old men in my church, “for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Tim 4:8).  

And Solomon says here, 

5 A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might, 

Solomon insinuates here that your brain is the most important organ in your body. Your heart is the most important muscle in your body. Are you strengthening those body parts as much as you are your biceps and your quads? 

“How do I strengthen my brain and my heart, Pastor Tony?” Well, you do it two ways: 1) You do it alone. 2) And you do it in community. 

When I say “alone,” I mean that you spend time with the Lord every day, reading his word, praying, and growing in your relationship with him. That races strength and knowledge and might to your soul. Do that every day until your dead. I’m not even joking. I’ve been doing that for thirty plus years. 

 But don’t just do that. Also, you need community. You need fellowship. You need – to use Solomon’s language in verse 6 – “[a multitude] of counselors.”  

6 for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.

Leverage the power of people who are older and wiser than you. Leverage the wisdom of peers and others who might even be at a younger stage of life than you. 

Just by way of example, I need wiser, older men in my life. Every pastor does. And that’s the case with my elder board. I’m the youngest man on my elder board by far. And that’s good for me. And I learn from those men. 

But also, I’m the oldest man in my small group, by far. I’m the oldest person in the Preachers Guild. And I learn from those guys. And I learn from those young people in my small group. They have a passion for the Lord and for his Word that is infectious. And I feel like Dracula sometimes at my small group, sucking up the energy and vitality of those young people in my group.  

“Why do you do that, Pastor Tony? Why do you have both young and old in your life? Why do you bother so much with relationships? Shouldn’t a pastor spend all his time in the study?” Here’s why I have that. Because there is wisdom in a multitude of counselors. And in an “abundance of counselors there is victory.”

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Write this down as #22. Here’s another resolution.  

22) Make sure when you speak you have something worth saying (24:7) 

Solomon says in verse 7, 

 7 Wisdom is too high for a fool; in the gate he does not open his mouth. 

Now this statement is enigmatic. So let me walk you through this. This is actually pretty close to what I told you was Jordan Peterson’s sixth rule for life: “Set Your House in Perfect Order Before You Criticize the World.” I think Peterson is on to something there in terms of analyzing our modern-day world where young people have a lot to say about things they don’t understand. And they haven’t yet even mastered their own lives, and yet they think they can solve the world’s problems. 

Well Solomon is saying here that a foolhardy person is unable to grasp wisdom. It’s too high for him. And “in the gate” he doesn’t open his mouth. Now, the gate is that place where business is conducted in the ancient world. It was the marketplace of ideas. It was the place of business. It was where the elders gathered to adjudicate issues. And a fool is silent there, or at least he should be, because he’s got no wisdom to offer. He’s got nothing worth saying. 

And the takeaway from this proverb and from this resolution isn’t just “be quiet and let the adults talk.” There’s a place for that. But the applicational force of this proverb is essentially labor and learn in such a way that you will have something worth saying someday. 

Look, I hate to be morbid. But I already told you that I’m the youngest person on the elder board by far. And that means that in twenty years, we’re not going to have an elder board if we don’t raise up young men who have wisdom to offer. We have teenagers right now who will be moms and dads in ten years. That’s a terrifying thought. We have children in our children’s ministry who will be the movers and shakers in church in about thirty years. We’ve got to raise them up. We’ve got to impart wisdom to them. And they’ve got to be receptive to our wisdom. And that way, when they’ve got something to say, they’ll have something worth saying. 

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Write this down as #23. Let’s pick up the pace here…

23) Don’t be a scheming drain on society (24:8–9)

Solomon says in verse 8.

8 Whoever plans to do evil will be called a schemer. 

9 The devising of folly is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination to mankind. 

We’ve grown accustomed to the “abomination to the Lord” language in Proverbs. There are several things that are described as abominations to the Lord. But this is new here. This is “an abomination to mankind.” This is someone who is a drain on society. These are people who make our world worse off than it already is in light of the Fall. Who are they? Well, they are schemers and scoffers. They are evildoers and reprobates and malefactors in our world. They are social pariahs. 

Think Bernie Madoff. Think Sean “P-Diddy” Combs. Think Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Think Al Capone and Pablo Escabar. Think Margaret Sanger and John Dillinger and John Wayne Gacy. Think Ted Kaczynski and Timothy McVeigh. These people have been a scourge on our society. 

And it’s not just the infamous ones that we know about. For every drain on society that we know about, there are thousands of others that hide in the shadows like cockroaches in your home. For every person we have out there who participates in cybersecurity, we’ve got a new computer science criminal developing an updated version of ransomware.

This is actually a pretty low bar in life: “Don’t be a scheming drain on society.” Surely as Christians, we can do better than that. But at least, let’s not do worse than that. 

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Write this down as #24.  

24) Strength is a matter of resilience (24:10)

Solomon says in verse 10.

10 If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. 

There’s great wordplay in this verse in Hebrew. The words for “adversity” and “small” are צָרָה (ṣā·rā(h)) and צַר (ṣǎr) respectively. So verse 10 reads like this: “If you faint in the day of צָרָה, your strength is צַר.” Followers of God need to have resilience.

And you want to avoid what we might call the “glass jaw” syndrome. In the boxing world, you can have a great repertoire of punches. You can be quick as a cat in the ring. You can have an uppercut like Mike Tyson. But eventually you’re going to take a punch right to the chops. And you have to be able to absorb that. If you don’t, then you’ll never make it as a boxer. 

Mike Tyson said once, “Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth.” That’s true. You never really know what a person is made of until they get punched in the face.  

I remember being at a church planting conference once. And I was the veteran church planter, because I had planted a church like eight years before. And there was a room full of wannabe church planters. And the person leading the conference asked me, “What’s the most important characteristic of a church planter?” And I didn’t say good theology, although you need that. And I didn’t say “being a talented preacher.” Although that’s important. The characteristic I gave was, “mental toughness.” You’ve got to be able to take a punch and keep fighting. Otherwise, you’ll never make it. 

And in the Christian world, there are a lot of people that flash in the pan. It’s easy to be passionate about the Lord for fifteen minutes or fifteen months. What about after you get punched in the face? What about after a cancer diagnosis? What about after getting fired by your employer without cause? What about when your kids reject the Lord, and you agonize over the state of their soul? Who can get up and keep fighting after that? 

Real strength is a matter of resilience. Billy Graham said once, “Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as much as adversity has. Out of pain and problems have come the sweetest songs, the most poignant poems, and the most gripping stories.”

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Write this down as #25.  

25) Don’t ignore those in mortal danger (24:11–12)

Solomon says in verse 11.

11 Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. 

Is there a place for Christians to stand up and say, “Abortion is evil and Euthanasia is an abomination on our society?” You better believe there is! Should Christians take a stand against violent racism and antisemitism? Yes, we should! Should we rescue those who are the victims of human trafficking? Should we take a stand against unjust wars and unjust treatment of minorities? Yes, we should! And we have at times. 

Have we made mistakes as Christians in regard to these issues? We have, and we need to admit that. But the only thing more dangerous than a Christian behaving badly is a non-Christian behaving badly. At least we have the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit to steer us in the right direction when we make mistakes. What do non-Christians have to steer them? Darwinian theory? Eugenics? Humanism? The power of positive thinking?  

Solomon writes, 

12 If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work? 

If you claim ignorance, you better in fact be ignorant. Don’t be like the Germans who pretended they didn’t know what was happening in those concentration camps in Nazi Germany in WWII. “How do good men become part of the regime? They don’t believe in resistance.” I told you a few weeks ago, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”  

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Write this down as #26.  

26) Savor the sweetness of wisdom (24:13–14)

Solomon says in verse 13.

13 My son, eat honey, for it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste. 

14 Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off. 

This proverb isn’t really about eating honey. Although there are some positive statements in the Bible about eating honey. This proverb is about wisdom. And once again, Solomon is espousing the virtues of wisdom. Not only will wisdom guide you in life… not only will it help you through the trials and tribulations of this fallen world... Solomon says here it is also sweet to your soul. It’s satisfying to have wisdom. It’s enriching to your soul. 

Ignorance isn’t bliss. Ignorance is ignorance. And it’s sour to your soul. Wisdom is sweetness to your soul. And wisdom also provides a future for you. Look again at verse 14. 

14 Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off. 

You won’t die an early death because of youthful stupidity. That’s sweet. You won’t be cut off as a wicked person because wisdom is based on the fear of the Lord. That’s sweet. And you will even have the hope of eternal life, if you know God, and fear God… and in this NT era, put your faith in Christ, the Son of God. That’s sweet too. That’s like honey to your soul. 

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Write this down as #27. 

27) Don’t be on the wrong side of right and wrong (24:15–16)

Solomon says in verse 15.

15 Lie not in wait as a wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous; do no violence to his home; 

16 for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity. 

Verse 16 is the ancient equivalent to the modern adage, “You can’t keep a good man down.” I have a good friend in Illinois who loves Proverbs 24:16. “The righteous falls seven times and rises again.” He loves quoting that verse. And it’s a great verse to quote when good people are going through great difficulty. Because it’s encouraging. 

Righteous people have resilience. Righteous people don’t have “glass jaws.” They get up again and again. They get punched in the face with adversity. They get punched in the gut with an agonizing trial in their life and they may keel over at first. But they get up again and again and again and again!

And all that is true. But that’s not the real force of this proverb here. Solomon is not just saying, “Be righteous and get up after you’ve been pushed down.” He’s saying, “Don’t be on the wrong side of a righteous person’s anguish. Don’t be the cause of it. And don’t side with those who cause it.”  

Because if you steal from a good man, he’s going to recover. But when they steal from you, which inevitably happens if you ally yourself with thieves, you won’t recover. You have built your house upon the sand. And you won’t recover. 

I have another good friend in Illinois who is very generous and very charitable towards Christian causes. And he got entangled in one of those interminable IRS audits. And he believes that this IRS agent who was auditing him was basically antagonistic towards him because he was a Christian giving to Christian causes. And this IRS agent put him through the ringer. And eventually, a supervisor got wind of this, and reprimanded that agent. But that was after months of harassment. Shame on the IRS for that. Does that happen in our world? Yes, it does. And “the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.”

And you really got to admire people like Jack Philips in Colorado who keeps getting harassed even by government agencies because he refuses to bake cakes to celebrate sexual perversion and sexual permissiveness. That guy just keeps taking punches. And he keeps getting up repeatedly. Good for him. And shame on those people and those government entities that keep attacking him. 

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Write this down as #28.  

28) Don’t gloat over the misfortune of others (24:17–18)

Solomon says in verse 17.

17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, 

18 lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him. 

Don’t gloat over the misfortune of others. I think that’s pretty self-explanatory here. Don’t be guilty of Schadenfreude. Derek Kidner warns that “your glee may well be a more punishable sin than all the guilt of your enemy.” 

The Apostle Paul tells us similarly in the NT to be humble in our relationship to the tree and the branches. In Romans 11:18–21, he basically says to Gentiles, “Don’t get cocky towards the Jews, the natural branches, because you are a wild olive branch grafted in. And if God doesn’t spare natural branches, why would he spare you?” “So don’t become proud, but fear [God]” (Rom 11:20). And don’t gloat over the misfortune of others.

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Here’s a twenty-ninth resolution. 

29) Don’t obsess over evil (24:19–20)

Solomon says in verse 19.

19 Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, 

20 for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out. 

We’ve seen a couple statements already in Collection III about envying evildoers (23:17; 24:1–2). Solomon says that again here, but he adds this statement about “fretting.” Don’t fret over evildoers. Don’t grow anxious about them. Don’t obsess over them. 

I’ve had friends that I’ve counseled before, “Stop reading the newspaper. Stop going to Fox News or CNN every day. Stop listening to podcasts that cover the news.” Because that just sinks these people in a sea of anxiety over the state of our world. And they stop trusting in God’s sovereignty. They lose perspective. And that’s especially the case if you spend three hours a day consuming the news, and no time praying or studying the Bible. You lose your bearings when you do that. 

 And the goal in that is not to be oblivious to what’s going on in the world. The goal is not to stick our heads in the sand and ignore what’s happening in our world. The goal is finding perspective. Yes, there’s evil in our world. Yes, it’s overwhelming. Don’t obsess over it. 

Remember what Job said in Job 42:2, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” Remember what Paul said in Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” So, don’t obsess over evil in our world. Don’t envy evildoers, and don’t fret over them. 

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And finally. Here’s the thirtieth of thirty resolutions. And it’s climactic.  

30) Fear God and the king (24:21–22)

Solomon says in verse 21.

21 My son, fear the Lord 

How many times has that been emphasized in Proverbs? If I had one piece of advice for young people in our world today, besides put your faith in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, I would tell them, “Fear God!” 

The majority of the problems in our world are the result of people who don’t fear God. The majority of the problems in the churches of our world right now is Christians who somehow trust God and worship God, but they don’t fear God. That’s why you have pastors behaving badly. That’s why you have Christian leaders behaving badly. That’s why you have Christians at large behaving badly. 

But notice what Solomon adds in verse 21. This is going to be hard for us to swallow. 

21 My son, fear the Lord and the king, and do not join with those who do otherwise, 

In other words, don’t fraternize with people who rebel against God and country. “Why not, Solomon? I don’t like the king. I don’t like the leaders of my country.” Because look at verse 22.

22 for disaster will arise suddenly from them, and who knows the ruin that will come from them both? 

“Them both” is a reference to God and the king. Solomon is saying here, “if you mess with the bull, you will get the horns.” Why would you put yourself in that position? Why would you make yourself an enemy to an all-powerful God and a powerful (albeit less than all-powerful) king?

Moses told the Israelites in the book of Exodus, “You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people” (22:28). In 1 Peter 2, Peter says, “Fear God. Honor the Emperor” (2:17). He says, “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God… (2:13 –15).”

In Romans 13:1–2, Paul says, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” 

Now in Israel, the king was the anointed representative of God before the people. He wasn’t above the law. But he was called to enforce the law in Israel and punish lawbreakers. Did that happen in Israel? Yes. Did that happen perfectly? Almost never. But still there is an edict in Scripture to obey and submit to authority.

Now, we don’t have a king or a queen in America. We have a democratic republic… if we can keep it. No, we don’t have a king. But we do have governing authorities. We have the constitution. We have law. We have governmental leaders. We have authorities. And we submit to those authorities, with the caveat always, that God is the supreme authority in the world. And if there’s a conflict between those two, we must obey God rather than men. 

Young men need to hear that. Young men and women need to embrace that. Your lives will be better if you embrace that. You don’t want to go looking for a fight with God or with the government if you can avoid it. 

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And to that you might say, “But I don’t like our government right now, Pastor Tony. I don’t like our governmental leaders.” Yeah, well… get in line. 

And I long for the day when the God of the Universe and the King will be the same person ruling from the same throne. I long for the day when God’s authority will be united with governmental authority. That day hasn’t happened yet. But it will. I long for it. 

What do we do in the meantime, Tony? We put our faith in Christ. We submit to governing authorities whenever they don’t conflict with divine authority. We put our heads down. We live lives that are pleasing to the Lord, using these thirty resolutions where applicable. We represent Christ to the world. And we wait for Christ’s return. Amen? Pray with me!