Ancient Wisdom for Modern Man

I want to speak to you about ancient wisdom for modern man. If we're going to find ancient wisdom, we find it in the book of Proverbs. So turn to Proverbs, if you will, and chapter number 22.

Proverbs chapter 22. Now I know some are listening by translation, so I'll try to speak slowly and hopefully you'll be able to gather in all that I'm saying. Just one verse to read for you, Proverbs 22 and verse number 3. Actually, this verse is repeated twice in the book of Proverbs, we're just reading one of the occasions.

Proverbs 22 and verse number 3. A prudent or a wise man foresees the evil and hides himself, but the simple, that is the idea, a person who doesn't think, a thoughtless person, passes on and are punished. A prudent man, a wise man, foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. Now we know God will bless the reading of his word to all here today.

February 2nd, that's today, but go back with me 138 years. February 2nd, 1887. Some money hungry person in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, decided to begin a tradition called the Groundhog Day.

I'm not sure how it began, but that's the day it began. With a groundhog coming out of the ground looking for its shadow. And of course now it's a media event.

Everyone gathers around to look at Punxsutawney Phil and see what he'll do. Among other things, it tells us something about man's insatiable desire to know the future. Now here it's just a future of a few months.

When is spring coming? Will it be a long winter or a short winter? And so Punxsutawney Phil is used as a means of forecasting the future. Everyone wants to know the future. This verse reminds us of a future.

We've been reminded of that already. Of judgment. Of the reality of the fact that we are morally responsible creatures who have to face God.

And it could be said of every one of us, as God said once years ago to a mighty king, the God in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy ways thou hast not glorified. Every one of us has come far short of God's standard for humanity. We have not glorified God by it unless we are saved.

So reminded here then that we need the wisdom that looks to the future. Now every one of us here does some planning. Some of you are planning for college.

Some of you are planning your careers. Some of you are planning on how you're going to make enough money to pay for car insurance or make enough money to be able to begin buying a home or whatever it is that is in the future for you. We all think about the future and plan for the future.

And it's only wisdom to think about the future. Whether it's education, whether it's marriage, whether it's finances, whether it's living arrangements, whatever it may be, wisdom always looks to the future. We want to think about the future then if we can for a few moments.

Of course, Solomon is giving us wisdom for our welfare. You'll have an idea how old I am when I tell you I went to elementary school in the 1950s. And we had this insane activity that is hard to imagine.

Just as you have fire drills and other drills at school, we had bomb drills. It was the days of the Cold War when Russia and the U.S. were at odds with each other and there was always a threat of a nuclear bomb, a nuclear attack. So during a bomb drill, we were told to just hide under our desks, to look for security.

There we were hiding under our desks and you look back and you say, what good would that have done if they had dropped an atomic bomb on us? There we are cowering under our desks as though we found a place of shelter from the danger. Folly. There's a great danger that you can foresee danger, you can foresee evil, you can foresee the future and its problems, but what you do is folly.

Solomon is reminding us here the need for wisdom when you think about the future. Foreseeing the future, the prudent man, the wise man foresees the evil and takes the necessary steps. So I want to talk to you then about not just considering the future.

I want to talk about choosing the shelter. What shelter should I choose? How will I know I'm going to be safe when we stand before God in judgment? You see, we've been reminded already. First of all, what we lack, what we lack.

We are all deficient when it comes to standing before God. You know what God requires of us? That we love the Lord our God with all our hearts, all our minds, all our soul, all our strength and our neighbor as ourselves, our neighbors as ourselves. So you know what that means? That means if I hear the fire engines and I see them going towards my home and I'm driving home and I see it's my neighbor's house on fire, not mine, I breathe a sigh of relief.

Really? Is that loving your neighbor as yourself? We all fall short. We are deficient, we lack everything God requires of a human being. Not just what we lack, but then our liabilities, what we do.

Not just what we don't do, but what we do do. We've been reminded of that already. Other things we do that are so contrary to what God wants.

We lie, we steal, we cheat, we... all those things. So God gives us breath and individuals use it to curse God. God gives us life and people use it to just satisfy themselves.

So we lack and we're liable for all of our sins and we have to face... God has made us moral, responsible people. One of the great privileges God has given to all of humanity is to make us responsible. We have a will.

God has given us free choice. We can do what we want with our wills and we have chosen to use it just to satisfy ourselves. I want this, I am going to do... And so we are reminded here of the great danger we face because of our sin.

That's really the issue. Now, people do not like to hear about sin. It sounds like an archaic, you know, 17th century word that people use to describe what life was like back then where you couldn't do this and you couldn't do that.

We live in an enlightened age. Everything is okay, right? Not according to God. Everything is not okay according to God.

God still requires sin. We're reminded of that already here. The prudent man foresees evil and hides himself.

So let me talk then to you for a few moments about finding the right hiding place. You will not find shelter in church attendance. Now, I hardly need to say that here, but you won't.

Not a matter of going to church, belonging to a church, being devout. Sadly, sadly, for centuries people have tried to take refuge in church, in religion. That won't do.

But also, you won't find refuge in a verse. Oh, I have a verse. Here's my verse.

My verse is 1 Peter 1 and 18. My verse is John 3, 16. You won't find shelter in a verse.

God doesn't tell you to find shelter in a verse in the Bible. You won't find shelter in a profession. Oh, I'm saved.

That's all. And I took care of that. That's fine.

I'm going on with my life now. That won't do it either. None of those things are what God is looking for.

And you can't take shelter in your belief. Well, I believe, so isn't that enough? No. God is not looking for you to find shelter in a verse, in faith, in any of those things.

God is looking for you to find shelter in Christ. Let me tell you what it says in Isaiah 32. A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, a cover from this tempest, rivulets of water in a dry land, the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

God has made a man a shelter. Do you have Christ tonight, today? If you don't have Christ, then you really have nothing. Do you have the Lord Jesus as a Savior? Not just an experience, not just the fact that you can say, well, I believe, isn't that enough? No.

It's not enough. You need Christ. You need a Savior.

You need someone who can be a shelter for you in the time of storm. He has been provided by God a shelter, a hiding place. Even David, the great king, the great warrior king.

You know what David said? Thou art my hiding place. Thou art my hiding place. A person, a man was a hiding place for him from the storm of divine judgment.

That is what God is providing, a person who paid the price. Now, when we speak about you finding a hiding place in Christ, please understand, there was no hiding place for Christ. He was exposed totally to the judgment of God for my sin.

That's what it means. That's what salvation is all about, that I need a hiding place, and the only hiding place I can find is the person who had no hiding place. He willingly went to a cross.

Time and again this morning we were reminded in our meeting together that for this cause came I unto this hour. The Lord Jesus came into the world for the great purpose of going to a cross. The only man who was born to die, literally, and he willingly gave himself at Calvary.

He was exposed to the judgment of God. He found no place of hiding. In Psalm 69, he could speak there of the fact that the waters came into his soul.

He sank in deep mire where there was no standing. Come into the deep waters where the floods overflow me. Isaiah chapter 50, this speaks about the perfect servant, tells us, I hid not, I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

He gave his back willingly to smiters. He willingly went into Calvary. He willingly endured God's judgment.

God knew that I needed a hiding place. A place to be sheltered from what I deserve. My sins being judged by God, the eternal judgment.

But there was one who went to the cross and endured what I should have endured. Beyond what I should have endured, he endured that he might be my hiding place. He gave himself freely for me that I might have a hiding place.

But you notice something about this verse. We read, we read there the prudent man. Now, forgive a grammar lesson for just a moment.

The prudent man is in the singular meaning one person. The simple, now you have to understand it's in the original language, simple is in the plural. So one man versus the majority.

One man standing out versus what everyone else is doing. You know what that tells me? Tells me if you're going to be a wise man, if you're going to be a prudent man, you're going to have to stand out. You're going to have to stand out from all the majority.

The Lord Jesus Christ himself said strive to enter in because many, many are going to try but they're going to go the wrong way. He says few, few really find it. Few really find the right way.

Few really find the door into salvation. You have to strive. It's not going to come, it's not just going to come because you go to church.

Not just going to come because you go to Sunday school. Not going to just happen because you've memorized verses. Not going to happen because your parents are saved.

Not going to happen because you happen to have a good Sunday school teacher. It's not going to happen. You've got to strive.

It's going to take effort on your part. You have to become serious with God about your soul. God was serious when he sent his son.

God expects you to be serious now about the matter of salvation. God gave everything that you could be saved. It's not going to just happen casually to you one day because suddenly you wake up and think, Strive to enter in because few will find the door.

Are you going to be among the few or among the many? The simple, the unthinking, the people who don't really consider the future. They're going to pass on. They're just going to pass on in life and soon it's over.

We sang that hymn, life at best is very brief. And I can tell you by experience it is very brief. Like a few short moments of time and life is gone.

Reminded here then, the simple pass on and are punished. The rapidity with which life passes by us. In youth you tend to think of the future in terms of, I'll get this settled eventually.

This verse is reminding us that you are going to have to make a definite effort yourself if you're going to get this matter of your sins forgiven. Your sins blotted out. Lovely, the words our brother Andrew read for us about sin being blotted out.

Thinking of some of the expressions that are used in the Bible relative to how God deals with our sins. They're blotted out. They're cast into the sea.

They're cast behind his back. They are forgiven. All these different expressions that suggest God is done.

Their sins and iniquities I will remember no more forever. Though God is saying, when you trust my son, when you come find shelter in him, your sins are blotted out. Your sins are buried in the deepest sea.

That's the Mariana Trench, right? In the Pacific. What is it? Seven miles deep. The deepest part of the sea.

You never get anything out of there. The idea, the deepest trench. They're cast behind his back.

He can't see them. All these different expressions. What a wonderful thing it is then to have your sins forgiven.

Have your sins blotted out. Find shelter in Christ. The one who found no shelter from the judgment of God at Calvary.

He endured it all. Because we're reminded here then of the awful consequences of missing this salvation. Here is an avoidable tragedy to pass on and be punished.

It doesn't have to happen. It's avoidable. God has made it available to you today, this salvation.

It is absolutely avoidable for every human being. The Bible tells us that God desires not... God desires all men everywhere to be saved and come to the knowledge... God is desiring you to be saved. God hasn't made it difficult.

God hasn't made it a maze that like a rat has to find his way. No. This way of salvation is available, plain, simple.

In fact, it is so simple, He has given His Son. And instead of having to do something, instead of having to run through hoops or create some special experience, just find shelter in Christ. Shelter in Christ.

He's the one that endured the judgment of God. He's the one that suffered what I should have suffered. He's provided salvation.

God has made it absolutely avoidable for you to miss salvation. It's an avoidable tragedy. But again, it's an immeasurable tragedy.

If we were to spend all of our time here just trying to describe the awfulness of what eternity without Christ would be like, we couldn't begin... we couldn't begin to find vocabulary or expressions because none of us could ever fathom what it must be like for a soul to leave this life for an endless eternity alone with self. Now be honest. Would you like to live alone with yourself for the rest of your life? Just alone with yourself.

Just this life. With all of your desires. You know, we all want people to like us.

Well, there's nobody to like us. If we're all alone, there's nobody to like us and feed my ego. If I'm all alone, there's no one to get the better of.

There's no one to control and manipulate. If I'm all alone... Just think of life alone for a few short years. Now multiply that by the infinity of eternity.

What it must be like to live... to be alone with no way of expressing your... of satisfying your desires. No way of fulfilling your lusts. No way of expressing your pride.

Alone for eternity. What a terrible, immeasurable tragedy it is. So it's unavoidable.

It's an avoidable tragedy. Immeasurable tragedy. But it's an eternal tragedy as well.

An eternal tragedy. To be cut adrift on a long, dark, lonely eternity without Christ, without God, without anyone. That's the tragedy that people face.

Jumping ahead to... In the book of Revelation, chapter 6. Men that did not hide themselves in Christ. You know what it says they're going to do? They're going to cry to the rocks and hills to hide them from the face of Him that sits upon the throne. Men looking for a place to hide from the very judgment of God.

But that judgment has been borne by another. At Calvary. The Lord Jesus endured the judgment of God against my sin.

And I can shelter in Him. A man shall be His hiding place from the wind. The Lord Jesus Christ is God's hiding place.

Back in... Well, let me go back a minute. I know they don't teach history anymore in school, but there was once a war in this country called the War of Independence. 1776 to 1782, where we fought the British for our independence.

Of course, there were spies on both sides of the colonists, the Americans and the British. All had spies. One of the foremost spies for the British was a man named Major John Andre.

A man of high regard. In fact, even George Washington spoke very highly of him. He's a gentleman and a true patriot to the British.

Major John Andre was caught spying behind U.S. lines. And he was captured. Sentenced to death.

And he was put to death on October 2, 1780. It is said that two days before his execution, he was reached and saved. We don't have any other details of that other than in his pocket at the time of his death was found a poem.

A poem written by a man by the name of Jehoiada Brewer. It goes like this, much longer. I'm just going to quote a few of its verses.

Hail sovereign love which first began the scheme to rescue fallen man. Hail matchless free eternal grace which gave my soul a hiding place. Against the God who built the sky I fought with arms uplifted high.

Despised the mention of his grace. Too proud to seek a hiding place. And thus the eternal counsels ran.

Almighty love arrest that man. I felt the arrows of distress and found I had no hiding place. On him almighty vengeance fell.

Enough to sink a world to hell. He bought for a sinful race. And thus became my hiding place.

The prudent man, the wise man foresees evil. Foresees danger. Foresees the great future of eternal judgment.

The prudent man foresees the evil. And hides himself. The foolish, the simple, the unthinking pass on and are punished.

Your choice. You can be wise, prudent, today. Look for refuge not in a verse, not in experience, not in your faith.

But in a person. God said, he that believes on the sun has everlasting life.