Grace Fellowship    7/13/08    “But the LORD . . .”        Proverbs 16

Last week, we talked about good and evil, and how Proverbs 15 speaks repeatedly about the contrast between the righteous person and the wicked person.  There are four verses in that chapter that specifically state God’s personal relationship with the wicked and the upright in heart.  To sum it up, the wicked are disgusting to God while the righteous are His delight.  Therefore it is important, infinitely important, to discover how one may be found among the righteous.  The Scriptures are clear that the person who is pleasing to God is the person who trusts in His Son, the Lord Jesus, to make him righteous.

We come to chapter 16, and we see more of the same.  There is great emphasis in these verses upon the condition of the heart.  Man’s greatest disease is heart disease.  It is the heart that is naturally inclined away from God, but naturally inclined toward sin and self.  The heart is naturally wicked, not innocent, and certainly not naturally good.  It is opposed to God and to goodness and righteousness.  In order for a man to be pleasing to God, he must undergo spiritual heart surgery.  More specifically, the natural man must have a heart transplant if he ever hopes to be counted among the righteous and be pleasing to God.

As we read this chapter together, pay close attention to how many verses address the internal aspect of a man’s or woman’s life in contrast to the external.

1 The preparations of the heart belong to man, But the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.

2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, But the LORD weighs the spirits.

3 Commit your works to the LORD, And your thoughts will be established.

4 The LORD has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.

5 Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Though they join forces, none will go unpunished.

6 In mercy and truth Atonement is provided for iniquity; And by the fear of the LORD one departs from evil.

7 When a man's ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

8 Better is a little with righteousness, Than vast revenues without justice.

9 A man's heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.

10 Divination is on the lips of the king; His mouth must not transgress in judgment. 11 Honest weights and scales are the LORD'S; All the weights in the bag are His work.

12 It is an abomination for kings to commit wickedness, For a throne is established by righteousness. 13 Righteous lips are the delight of kings, And they love him who speaks what is right. 14 As messengers of death is the king's wrath, But a wise man will appease it. 15 In the light of the king's face is life, And his favor is like a cloud of the latter rain.

16 How much better to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.

17 The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; He who keeps his way preserves his soul.

18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall. 19 Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, Than to divide the spoil with the proud.

20 He who heeds the word wisely will find good, And whoever trusts in the LORD, happy is he.

21 The wise in heart will be called prudent, And sweetness of the lips increases learning.

22 Understanding is a wellspring of life to him who has it. But the correction of fools is folly.

23 The heart of the wise teaches his mouth, And adds learning to his lips.

24 Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.

25 There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

26 The person who labors, labors for himself, For his hungry mouth drives him on.

27 An ungodly man digs up evil, And it is on his lips like a burning fire. 28 A perverse man sows strife, And a whisperer separates the best of friends. 29 A violent man entices his neighbor, And leads him in a way that is not good. 30 He winks his eye to devise perverse things; He purses his lips and brings about evil.

31 The silver-haired head is a crown of glory, If it is found in the way of righteousness.

32 He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

33 The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the LORD. (Proverbs 16:1-33, NKJV).

I suppose we could say all of these verses address the heart, in one way or another.  This entire book is about the mind and the heart, how we think and how we therefore live.  I want to point out several verses that are very pointed, very precise, in regard to how we human beings operate internally, and God’s role in those operations of the heart.

Verse 1  The preparations of the heart belong to man, But the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.  I have been reading a biography on the life of Martin Luther in preparation for our symposium in the Fall at Penn State.  The Roman Catholic Church was trying to decide how to deal with Luther and his grievances against the Church.  As you know, he was summoned to the Diet of Worms to recant and repent of his writings.  As he made plans to take the journey from Wittenburg to Worms, he wrote this to a friend: “This shall be my recantation at Worms: ‘Previously I said the pope is the vicar of Christ.  Now I say the pope is the adversary of Christ and the apostle of the Devil!’” ¹

That was the preparation of his heart prior to Worms.  But the actual words he spoke when he was asked if he would recant were quite different, spoken with humility, almost inaudibly.  The answer of his tongue was quite different that the preparations of his heart: “My conscience is captive to the word of God.  I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.  Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise.  God help me.” ²

We make our plans, we prepare our hearts for various things, but God owns the words we speak.  God is sovereign over the words that come from men’s mouths.  This is particularly true of His own people.  It is God who inspired the speakers and writers of Scripture to say the exact words which they spoke and recorded for us.  That may be the most blatant example of God owning the words of men’s mouths.

When God told Moses to go to Egypt and confront Pharaoh, Moses complained that he didn’t know how to talk.  What did God say to him?  11 So the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD? 12 "Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say." (Exodus 4:11-12, NKJV).

Jesus instructed His disciples in a very similar fashion:
11 "Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. 12 "For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say." (Luke 12:11-12, NKJV).

Jess asked us to pray for her this week as she talked with a friend about the Gospel.  I’m sure she thought much about what she should say, how she would explain salvation, how she would respond to his questions.  But what actually happened, we believe, is precisely what the Lord wanted her to say in that situation.  What a comfort to know that the Lord is able to help us and actually gives us the very words we need when we need them.  I am particularly grateful for this.

Verse 2  All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, But the LORD weighs the spirits.  It would seem obvious that men do whatever they think is the right and best course of action in any given situation.  Or put differently, the things we do always seem to be right at the time.  Even habitually foolish people don’t think they are acting foolishly.  A man will naturally defend his own ways, his own actions as being right, or as Solomon says here, “pure”.  Do we ever see a person do something intentionally wrong with no justification (whether legitimate or not) for what he has done?  I think not.  Even in the event that someone does something that is obviously in error, he will attempt to justify it.  

But . . . only the LORD knows the real motivation behind a person’s actions.  The use of the word “but” shows us that at least on some occasions, there will be a conflict between a man’s personal assessment of his own actions, and God’s assessment.  We can, and do deceive ourselves.  But the LORD’s view of our actions is always accurate.  Our own weighing of our motives is faulty at least some of the time.

In John 6, we read of Jesus feeding the five thousand.  Afterwards, He makes His way across the Sea of Galilee, partially on foot and partially by boat, to Capernaum.  The next day, the crowds follow Him across by boat and when they find Jesus, they say, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”  Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” (John 6:26, NKJV).  He knew their real motivation for following Him, and it wasn’t because He was the Savior, but because He could feed them!  

In Mark 2, a paralyzed man is lowered through the roof of a house in order for Jesus to heal him.  However, Jesus says to him instead, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”  6 And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, 7 "Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" 8 But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, "Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? (Mark 2:6-8, NKJV).

God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.  Our hearts.  All men’s hearts.  The same God who made the eye and the ear and the mouth, also created the heart and perfectly understands how it works.  There is nothing hidden in the heart from His sight.  Lord, help us to weigh our own spirits to see if they are true.

Verse 3 Commit your works to the LORD, And your thoughts will be established.  God knows us infinitely better than we know ourselves.  We cannot always be certain that our thoughts and motives are pure.  But we can do as this verse tells us and commit our works to the LORD.  Then He will establish our thoughts.  Even our thoughts will be made to stand.  The New Testament tells us we are to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.  Why?  Because God knows our thoughts, and even in thinking, we can sin against the Lord.  

In thinking about how we ought to live, once we give our wills and our ways over to the Lord Jesus, He then causes our thinking to be right.  How often do we find ourselves not really knowing what to do, what decision to make, what the best course of action is?  That is when we give these things over to the LORD and He enables us to think rightly about them and about Him.  He establishes, He makes our thoughts to stand and not falter.  What a wonderful promise!  What a merciful provision!

Verse 9  A man's heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.  This is the Old Testament equivalent of James 4:13-15.  Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.  For what is your life?  It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.  Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." (James 4:13-15, NKJV).

Not too long ago, I received an email in which someone used the abbreviation “D.V.”  It is from the Latin phrase, “Deo volente” (God willing).  I like it!  I’ve used it on several occasions, and a few people have asked me what it means.  I enjoy explaining it.

This flies in the face of what most people refer to as “free will”.  Men may make their plans, but God has the final say.  This is not unlike verse 1.  God reigns over the words I say, and he rules over where I put my feet.  God rules over absolutely everything.  He governs His creation completely, he understands it perfectly, and according to verse 4, He has made it all for Himself.  All of it.  Even the wicked for the day of doom.  All that He has made is His to do with as He pleases, including the entire human race.  God directs men’s thoughts and hearts, their actions and even their inactions, He works all things according to the counsel of His will (Eph 1:11).  

And that is good.  It is good to know that a good God is in charge of what typically looks like a mess, according to the news.  The world is an evil place, but even so, that is no reflection upon God.  It is a reflection upon man.  Were it not for God’s restraining hand, it would be far worse than it is.  Were it not for the mercy of God, we would quickly be in the same condition as all those who lived in Noah’s day whose every thought was only evil continually.  

Verse 33  The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the LORD.  In Israel, the lot was a means of making decisions and determining the will of God by the Jews.  In Acts chapter 1, the disciples cast lots in order to choose a replacement for Judas.  Even Gentiles used this method to determine truth, such as the pagan sailors who cast lots to discover Jonah as the person whose God had been offended.

Generally speaking, people do not do that sort of thing today because we believe in luck rather than providence.  God has nothing to do with how the dice roll, or how the cards are dealt, or who wins the lottery.  That’s all just blind luck, just chance.  We even go so far as to say that the origins of life on this world were the result of time and chance, luck.  According to science, you’re lucky to be alive.

When Paul says in Ephesians 1:11 that God works all things according to the counsel of His will, he really means all things.  And that is the intent of this verse.  Every time Israel was moved to use the lot to determine God’s direction in a matter, its every decision was from the LORD.  There is no luck.  Don’t wish people “good luck”.  There is no such thing, either good or bad.  God’s sovereign reign extends even to the drawing of straws.  Sparrows cannot fall without His knowledge of it.  A hair cannot fall from your head without a sovereign God’s permission.  

Everything falls under God’s rule.  We should be quick to acknowledge that and bow our minds and hearts to His divine will in everything.  The story is told of the funeral of Samuel Davies, one of the presidents of Princeton College.  “. . . [J]ust as the people were about to take up the coffin, his mother, an aged widow, came to take the last look of her son.  She gazed intently upon him; the tears fell upon the face of the corpse as she bent over it; and then, retiring a single step as she still gazed upon him, she exclaimed, ‘There lies my only son, my only earthly comfort and earthly support.  But there lies the will of God, and I am satisfied.’”  ³

Are we satisfied with what God brings into our lives as His will for us?  Or would we prefer to live life according to the determination of our own infinitely wise hearts and minds which are always trustworthy and right?  Are we satisfied with the will of God?  May we, as good and faithful servants, slaves of an all-wise and merciful and gracious LORD and Master, always be found saying and living out the conviction that we desire not our own wills, but His will to be done, in everything.

==============================================================

1Sa 16:7  But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him.  For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

¹  Bainton, Roland H., Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, Meridian, 1995, p. 139.

² Ibid., p. 144.

³ Spring, Gardiner, The Mission of Sorrow: Classic Treatise on God’s Gracious Purposes in Our Afflictions, Solid Ground Christian Books, 2007, p. 21.  www.solid-ground-books.com