Proverbs 2:10-20 (KJV)
When wisdom entereth
into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
Discretion shall
preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:
To deliver thee from the
way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;
Who leave the paths of
uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;
Who rejoice to do evil,
and delight in the frowardness of the wicked;
Whose ways are crooked,
and they froward in their paths:
To deliver thee from the
strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
Which forsaketh the
guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
For her house inclineth
unto death, and her paths unto the dead.
None that go unto her
return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
That thou mayest walk in
the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.
One of the benefits of
gaining wisdom, according to the Bible, is that we gain discretion, and that
discretion preserves us.
Let’s begin with
I. A DEFINITION OF DISCRETION
Notice the strong
connection between discretion and
· Knowledge (to know a thing)
· Understanding )to know the meaning of a thing)
· Wisdom (to know how to use that thing)
The result of possessing
wisdom, knowledge and understanding is discretion.
The word basically
means, a plan or purpose.
One of the most powerful
things any one of us can possess is purpose for your life.
Even if the purpose is not a high one:
Athletics, for example
The person who is
focused on a goal – a purpose, is safer than the person who wanders day by day.
By the way, it used to
be that you might be able to keep a kid out of drugs or gangs if you could get
them involved in sports.
When I was in high
school in the 70’s there were two very distinct classes of students:
· The jocks, those involved in sports and
· The dopers, those who did drugs
Truth is these days your
kids are as likely to find drugs in sports as anywhere.
Getting back to point -
When a person has a plan
and purpose, they are less likely to stray into dangerous waters.
From my seventh grade
year, through eleventh grade, I had a plan.
Mine was to become
accepted into the Air Force Academy and train to be a fighter pilot.
In those five years I
changed school four times.
Despite that,
with the exception of my seventh grade year, I was on the honor roll every
year, 8th through 11th grade.
Because I had a purpose.
I was wanted to go to
the Air Force Academy and become a fighter pilot.
But the last semester of
my Junior Year, I declined my appointment into the Air Force Academy and I lost my purpose.
· I had no idea what I wanted to do if I wasn’t going to be an
astronaut someday.
· My parents could not afford to pay for college so that was
out
For the first time since
seventh grade, I had lost my way.
· I started skipping classes to go hunting
· I was dropped from the honor roll
· I became rebellious against my mom and step dad
and I started getting in
trouble.
It was not until Mike Riggs invited me to go to church
with him, and God got hold of my heart there, that I had a purpose again.
The Bible says
discretion, purpose and a plan, will preserve you.
And then it gives two
very distinct things it delivers us from:
· The Evil man and
· The Strange woman
Discretions delivers
first from,
II. THE EVIL MAN
Proverbs 2:12-15 (KJV)
To deliver thee from the
way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;
Who leave the paths of
uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;
Who rejoice to do evil,
and delight in the frowardness of the wicked;
Whose ways are crooked,
and they froward in their paths:
Notice three things
about these evil men:
· They speak forward things
· They leave paths of uprightness
· They walk in ways of darkness
The word forward means
perverse but it has the idea of transforming and changing.
The evil man may start
out sounding good, but he eventually transforms his message into something
sinister and evil.
I listened to a program about the cult leader Jim Jones the
other day.
Jones started his
“People’s Temple” in 1955 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He moved it from there to
San Francisco, CA and finally to Guyana, Africa.
It was the height of the
Civil Rights Movement, which Jones capitalized on. His church was predominantly
African-Americans from the projects of Chicago and his promise was for equal rights
and eventually utopia for his followers.
· He took disenchanted and unhappy people
· He gave them a purpose
· He separated them from other influences and then
· He killed them
Here was the crazy thing
– he spoke so often about mass suicide that the people eventually stopped
thinking he really meant it until he had them in a position where they could
not get out of it.
They even practiced it
days before they did it.
The person who wanders aimlessly is an easy target for evil
men because everyone needs leadership.
If we haven’t
· Wisely submitted to godly leaders, we will
· Foolishly fall prey to evil ones.
The double deliverance
of discretion is from,
III. THE STRANGE WOMAN
Proverbs 2:16-20 (KJV)
To deliver thee from the
strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
Which forsaketh the
guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
For her house inclineth
unto death, and her paths unto the dead.
None that go unto her
return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.
That thou mayest walk in
the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.
I think there is a very
valid literal application to the strange woman but I don’t believe I need to
bring her up tonight.
· Some in this room are too young and
· Those who are not can easily get the picture without my
elaboration
I would like to remind
you that the Old Testament especially likens immoral relationships to idolatry
and the worship of false gods and belief in false doctrines.
We will in a world
filled with false doctrine and silly people fall victim to these doctrines of
devils every day.
Notice what the Bible
says about her.
A. She flatters with her words
Vs 16
I am reminded of 2
Timothy 4:3-4 (KJV)
For the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they
heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
And they shall turn away
their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
-We don’t need to hear
what we want to hear or like to hear when we come to church.
-We don’t even need to
hear what the preacher thinks we need to hear.
-We need to hear what God
says.
The strange woman is a
type of Christianity that flatters people with her words.
B. She forsakes the guide of her youth
Vs 17
I have a huge problem
with so many of the young independent Baptist pastors today for this very
reason.
They think they are
better than their teachers.
· I have had them tell me I should be grateful that they have
outgrown me
· I have read articles where they mock their teachers as
unlearned and ignorant compared to the Protestants
Really they are just
rebellious against the authorities they were brought up under.
C. She forgets the covenant of her God
Vs 17
This sounds like the
plan of salvation to me.
God promises
“For whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved.”[3]
But now these young
preachers have taken to:
· Reformation theology
· Lordship salvation and
· Friendship evangelism
They’ve forsaken the
gospel that that saved them in favor of the one the old Presbyterians taught.
I believe without
equivocation that the doctrines and practices that my Baptist preachers taught
me trace back:
· Before England
· Before the Reformation
· Before the Catholic Church
All the way back to
Jesus Christ and His Apostles.
I refuse to cheapen them
by embracing something as new as the Reformation.
Finally
D. Her house inclines to death
Vs 18-20
If we think of this is
spiritual terms, her house would be:
· A church
· A denomination
· A system of Biblical teaching
And it leans towards
death.
Those who preach and
teach a watered down version of Christianity are, in my opinion, infinitely
more dangerous than:
· Catholicism
· Jehovah’s Witnesses
· Mormons or even
· Islam
The people who buy into those things know full well what they are
getting into.
It’s not Christianity –
they don’t pretend to be.
I hurt for the person who goes to a church that once preached the
truth and has, over they years, slipped away.
· First the pastor says he is changing methods, not the
message
· Then the pastor gives alternative styles of worship
· Then the church changes its name so people could tell if it
is a Baptist church, Assembly of God Church or Presbyterian Church
· Somewhere along the line the pastor begins to soften his
message
Until one day he says
what the pastor of the Bible Church in Oak Harbor told Pastor Bohannan a few
weeks ago, “Around here, truth is a
direction, not a location.”
And when you get there,
salvation becomes anything you want it to be any way you want it to be.
And that’s no deliverance
at all.
Conclusion
Discretion, doctrinal purpose
and assurance, protects and delivers the one who possesses it from
· The evil man who will give you direction if you don’t have
it and
· The strange woman, who will seduce you from faith once
delivered to the saints.
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