The Covenant Family (and Church) Must Seek Wisdom

Proverbs 4:1-9

Today, we witnessed the baptism of 2 adults and 4 children. And among those who made confession of faith, several were raised as children in the Lord. And they confess faith in him. Now, last week, we saw the need to train our children in God’s wisdom - especially in areas of wealth. But God’s wisdom encompasses more than just that. It has to do with all life under the gospel. Do you know how to live as a saved person? You need wisdom! And Jesus taught wisdom. Repent and believe the gospel. He taught how saved person forgives - 70x7 times. He also taught inner purity - lust and anger are as much sin as adultery and murder. He stressed inner righteousness - not respectability. If you’re truly saved, your purity will exceed the respectability of the Pharisees. And he demonstrated wisdom. He loved and served God. He gave his life at the cross. Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it abideth alone; but if it dies, it bears forth much fruit.

Do we teach our children this wisdom? To trust Christ and grow in godliness? Sadly, Christians can emphasize the moral part alone - we want well-behaved and successful children. But without the gospel, there’s no true godliness; only hypocrisy. And that’s not wisdom! Many Christians teach duty but not delight. We desire respectable children, instead of children made righteous by Christ. And what about us? If Christ has saved and sanctified us, are we living wisely? Are we growing in grace, and expecting the same of others? Do we connect the gospel with a godly life of self-denial? At this baptism and Confession of Faith service, what’s our outlook for ourselves and our children? There are 2 propositions from this passage. Firstly, a godly heritage must be cultivated and continued. Secondly, what our fathers covenanted to communicate.

Firstly, a godly heritage must be cultivated and continued. We see in verses 1-4, 4 main instructions. Now whether they’re 2 sets of instructions or 1 set of instructions repeated in 2 ways - I’ll leave you to argue over. But I’ll label it as a four-fold command to children - current and future. Verse 1 says, “Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.” We see children commanded to hear and pay attention to gain understanding. Then verse 4 - “He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.” Solomon’s own father taught him to retain the words and keep the commandments to live. From these 2 verses, we see a four-fold command - hear, attend, retain, and keep. The first is “hear.” Now, we know that “hear” is more than just hear. When parents give instructions, they punctuate them with “did you hear what I said?” Hear, therefore, means to understand. Which is why the second word is “pay attention” - “attend to know understanding.” We hear and pay attention to understand. Then verse 4 reveals what Solomon’s father had commanded him - “Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.” Meaning, when you hear and pay attention, your heart will hold firmly to that wisdom. And when you keep them, you’ll gain understanding and live.

To be clear - what are these words, commandments, and instructions of fathers? It’s the wisdom of God to live as a believer. Now, we often misapply it as cultural and moral instructions. And Christian parents have used such verses to fuel their own child rearing - “Finish your food! Children are starving in Afghanistan! You must be grateful for food! Eat and live” or “Study hard! Get a good job next time! God’s not glorified with poor results! Study and live!” or “Be polite! I know you don’t like them, but just say ‘hello auntie and thank you uncle! Show respect and live!’” or “You must save your money for a rainy day! Save and live!” Now, if given like this, what do we end up with? We may get fat, money-minded, hypocritical, and selfish children! That’s because we give the wrong motivation! Instructions must be good doctrine, verse 2. Not just any moral instruction but true wisdom from God - which is pure, peaceable, gentle, intreat-able, merciful and good, without partiality and hypocrisy. Consider true wisdom; real good doctrine - “Be grateful for your food - we can pray for and give to children in Afghanistan. They starve because their regime dishonors God.” “Study hard! Honor God and trust him for your results; he’ll bless you by providing for your needs.” “Learn to genuinely honor your elders, ask the Lord to change your heart towards them.” “Save your money so you can give to God’s kingdom - our lives consist not in the things we own. Look to God and live!” That’s true wisdom; that’s the gospel.

But do we ourselves believe it? Are we gospel oriented? A saved person delights to obey God’s word. That’s why it isn’t only hear, pay attention, and retain; it’s also keep. The wisdom of God is to be obeyed. Jesus told his disciples - “he who hath ears, let him hear.” God told Jesus’ disciples - “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him!” And Jesus told them - “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like.” He’s like a man who builds his house on the rock - it stands when floods come. If we hear, believe, and live out the gospel, we’ll be truly blessed. Members of this congregation - you’ve declared your loyalty to the articles of the Christian faith - the gospel. The Confessions of Faith with the baptisms remind you of your own washing from sin. They remind you of your vows to reject the devil and the lusts of the world. Are you hearers and doers? How are you living wisely the gospel? If you don’t live it out, do you actually believe it? James 1:22 -“…be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” The four-fold command is to hear, pay attention, hold firmly, and keep the gospel.

This, then, must be the fruitful heritage of the fathers. These commands were given by Solomon to children. Verse 1 - “Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father…” Now, in Proverbs, each call to gain the son’s attention is marked out by this phrase - hear my son - like in verse 10, “hear, O my son!” But verse 1 is unique because it’s addressed to sons, plural and not “son” - singular - as in other places. This means that Solomon is not addressing his own son alone, but all his children and all children in the nation. He says it’s the instruction of a father - not their father. And he’s also addressing all future children. How do we know that? In verses 3-4, he said he received instruction from his own father, and was passing it down. What he taught these children, was what he’d received. The language here is in line with Deuteronomy 6. There, Moses told Israel to impart God’s commandments, statutes, and judgments to the children and children’s children. Moses called God the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of Abraham, Abraham’s child, and Abraham’s child’s child. Solomon spoke of a godly heritage to be cultivated and continued from fathers to children and grandchildren - to pass on gospel wisdom. This is the goal of the church.

So therefore, it’s wrong to say that this message is only for the parents of the baptized children today, and wrong to say it’s just for parents of young children, teens, or youth. It’s directed to us all! Moses’ command was to the entire nation. And it’s not only our children that need to hear this, we need to hear it too. We’re the children of Abraham, Romans 4:16. How do we teach others to live wisely in the gospel, if we aren’t living it out? And so this becomes less specific to just parents of covenant children; it’s extended to us as a church. These children are children of the church. They’re not pagan children. They’re not only the children of other parents. They’re children of the Israel of God. These children must be prayed for and instructed. All of us must live and instruct it. In Titus 2:1-10, Paul called Titus to instruct older women to instruct younger women; and to instruct older and younger men to be godly examples. Why? Titus 2:11-14 - “[Because] the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Therefore, your example, teaching, and godly lives matter. But the way some of you talk and conduct yourselves, would you want the young people of the church learning from you? Would they see Christ in you? Would they see you loving God’s commandments, statutes, and judgments? Would they see you hearing, paying attention, retaining, and keeping the wisdom of God? Would they see gospel perspectives in your lives? Would they see you loving and living the gospel? Caring more for the kingdom of God than your own comforts? Giving to the kingdom of God? Striving after godliness? Serve others? Or by our teaching and example, would they see fat, money-minded, hypocritical, and selfish people who love not the kingdom but their own comforts in this world?

Dearly beloved, reading verses 3-4 we notice a wonderful family scene and example for us - “For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.” Meaning, I too was once young and my parents felt toward me, what I feel toward you - their affection was deep. They loved me like I was their only child. And that’s why they imparted the gospel - “He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.” That’s the kind of church that we must cultivate - a church where we love the gospel, love to hear it preached, love to see people love it - love to see people grow humbler, godlier, bolder to live it. A church that desires our children to be saved - children who desire Jesus and his kingdom. Children not after respectability, but repentance. And they’d see it in our own repentance. We’d speak openly and unashamedly of how the Lord has worked in our lives. Like Paul - we’d boast about our infirmities and because the Lord has forgiven us. What kind of godly heritage are members cultivating and imparting here? What part do you all play in an intergenerational church? Youth, do you stick only to your KSYF? Seniors, only in SCF? Ladies, only your WGT? And men, only in your chat groups and exercise groups? What kind of fruitful heritage are we imparting?

Secondly, what our fathers covenanted to communicate. They were to communicate life and blessings of the gospel. Here we see the words of Solomon’s father. Verse 4 - “He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.” Again, what the grandfather wanted, the father wanted. What the grandfather taught, the father taught. And what was it? Learn my commandments and live. The desire of Solomon and his father David was for the children to live. And the source of life was the wisdom of God. Learn and live. And we see this expressed in different ways in the Bible. When the children of Israel rebelled and were bitten by serpents, Moses built a bronze serpent so they’d be saved. All they had to do was to look at that serpent and they’d live. Look and live. And this wisdom was not from Moses but from God. He said in Numbers 21:8 - “And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.” Similarly, God told his people in Isaiah 45:22 - “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God and there is none else.” To whom should we look to be saved? Jesus. When Nicodemus asked how a man could be saved, Jesus said in John 3:14-15 - “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” Learn and live. How? Look to Jesus, believe the gospel, and live.

Dear parents, are your children tenderly loved as if they’re your only child? What do you chiefly wish for them if it’s not eternal life? Good grades? Geniuses die without Christ all the time. You want them to be rich? Yes, the rich fool was not rich toward God. Or do you want them godly and loving God? You see, we teach eat and live; work and live; save and live. We must teach look and live. The way we live is by learning the gospel; understanding it. Being pointed to it daily. Learn that God offers a way to live; learn it right the first time. And the father points to himself - see how I live. The older man says - this is how I live. I live for Christ. He wanted to capture the son’s heart - not just to direct his behavior. As these covenant to be our members, and we receive them as such, do we not have an obligation to show them how to live the gospel? How many of you will dare to say - this is how I live? Learn.

But eternal life is not the only consequence of looking to Christ. When we get him, we’ll be blessed. There’ll be protection. Verses 5-6 tell us to get wisdom and understanding, not to forget or forsake - she shall preserve us, keep us. There are two commands - one positive - get wisdom, and one negative - forsake her not. But both have the same blessing - protection. When we believe the gospel, when we live it, when we’re wise to know that this world is not our home, we’ll be protected from evil. Can we say - look at me, I’ve lived as a stranger and pilgrim in this life! As the Lord Jesus lived to save a people, he rejected temptation. Not just protection from evil, but verses 7-9 - another blessing; exaltation. If wisdom is the principal thing; get it. She’ll promote you, bring you honor, and crown your head with grace and glory. What are your desires in life? They’ll never be fulfilled in the same way they can be in heaven. Heaven is the prospect of all who find such wisdom. You want riches? Heaven. You want companionship? Heaven. You want to travel? Heaven. You want good food? Heaven. You want accomplishments? Heaven. This crown described here is described in the New Testament. There’s the crown of righteousness for those who long for Christ’s coming; the crown of life for those who love him; and there, there’ll be a crown of glory that will never fade away. Will we as a covenant family and church seek after this wisdom?

Verse 7 commands - “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” It’s the most important thing. The phrase “get wisdom” means to buy even though it may cost you all you have. You must get this wisdom. You see, what it takes is not brains or opportunity, but decision. Do you want it? Come and get it. As Jesus told the rich young ruler - go sell all that you have. As Jesus said - you must deny yourself, take up the cross, and follow me. But what profits a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul? Can I offer 2 applications to us? This instruction is given to all. Are we living the gospel? What wisdom are we seeking today? What example are we setting today. We don’t just receive new members, we are reminded of our own vows to live for Christ. And our desire for our children must be this wisdom. That they’d grow up to live for Christ. What’s your involvement there? We have received these children as members of the body. And you and they are members of one another. Are they tender and only beloved in your sight?

1. A Godly Heritage Must Be Cultivated and Continued

A. The four-fold command to future children

B. The fruitful heritage from past fathers

2. Our Fathers Covenanted to Communicate the Gospel

A. Learn it and live

B. Get it and be blessed