Proverbs - Wisdom For Troubled Times

We're gonna read now God's holy word. We're going through the book of Proverbs, and we're gonna have a look at Proverbs 23. So if you have a bible, turn to Proverbs 23. It will come up as a reading as well, but it's way better for you to have your own bibles.

This is a lazy way of doing it. So there we go. Feel rebuked. We have read that wonderful proverb before, and I forget where it is where it says, you know, the bloke with gray hair is full of absolute wisdom and should be listened to should be listened to explicitly. Something like that.

I don't know. There's a sort of fairly bad rendering of it. Anyway, we're gonna go from verse 15. We're in the middle of of 30 sayings. I'm not gonna read out the sayings number.

I'm just gonna read the verses. So, it's Proverbs 23 15, let me pray. Lord, this is your word and it's so practical and they're like little proverbs, and they're like little parables that show us something of what we're like and how we need wisdom. How we need the Lord Jesus. So help us now as we read, not to just see these as any old thing that could be written on a calendar but the very precious word of the living God.

Humble us that we may hear in Jesus' name we pray, amen. So, Proverbs 23 and verse 15. My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad indeed. My inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right. Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord.

There is surely a future hope for you and your hope will not be cut off. Listen my son and be wise, and set your heart on the right path. Do not join those who drink too much wine, or gorge themselves on meat. For drunkards and gluttons become poor and drowsy, drowsiness clothes, them in rags. Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

By the truth, do not sell it. Wisdom instruction and insight as well. The father of a righteous child has great joy. A man who fathers a wife's son rejoices in him, may your father and mother rejoice? May she who gave you birth be joyful?

My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes delight in my ways. For an adulterous woman, it is a deep pit, and a wayward wife is a narrow well. Like a bandit, she lies in weight and multipart applies, the unfaithfulness among men. Who has whoa? Who has sorrow?

Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine.

Who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. Do not gaze at wine when it is red. When it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. In the end, it bites like a snake. And poisons like a viper.

Your eyes will see strange sights in your minds will imagine confusing things you'll be like 1 sleeping on the high seas, lying on the top of the rigging. They hit me, you will say. But I'm not hurt. They beat me, but I don't feel it. When will I wake up?

So that I may find another drink. Thanks, Pete. Good morning. My name's Tom Sweetman. I'm 1 of the pastor's to the church and great to have you, great to have visitors amongst us and anyone who's still joining us online, welcome to you.

If you can make sure that you can see Proverbs 23 with that hard copy of the bible if you've got it. If you've got your phone this week, that's fine but next week, you've heard the commands Bring a hard copy. Good to have you here. Brian Chapel, who's an American writer used to be a pastor. He said about this book of proverbs.

That wherever you open it on whatever page you turn to, it breathes with the spirit of adoption. It breathes with the spirit of adoption. What he's saying is that this book of Proverbs has a great reality to celebrate for the people of God. It has a great invitation to offer to the world. There is like an umbrella promise which stretches over the whole book and that is the reality and the invitation to know God as our heavenly father.

On almost every page of this book, you find the phrase. My son, listen to the teaching of your father. My son, listen to the words of your mother, listen to the teachings that they give you, embrace them wear them as a crown upon your head. And so the setting for the book of proverbs, the reality in which we find ourselves in is the family home. That's where all of this is taking place.

And that's worth saying, because some of us will come to a book like this and we'll have a reading like that and we'll instantly think, okay, I'm in the bible. I know what I'm dealing with here. Here's the list of duties that I've got to obey. And sins that I've got to avoid in order to please a God who I don't really like and he doesn't like me and it's going to be impossible to please him anyway. Now, some of us, some of you here, will be working on the basis that that is what God is like.

It's kind of our default approach to him. But can I say this morning that that is a satanic caricature of who God actually is? That is nothing like who he is. When we read these family words here in the book of Proverbs, this is not God dangling before us a sunship that is gonna be forever out of reach that we're gonna have to run for and run for and work for and work for and never achieve This is God testifying to a sun ship that has already been given to those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it's all about.

And so what we have here in Proverbs is a seed form of that wonderful gospel promise that all those, no matter what they've done, who will turn from their sins and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, who came into this world, wait for that to pass. Died the death we should have died, lived the life we should have lived, and rose again to glory, all who trust him as their only lord and savior will be adopted into the family of God and will come into the reality of this book, knowing God as our heavenly father. And because God is such a good father, what we have here is a portrait into his heart. God is a father who both warns his children about things that are gonna harm them and celebrates with them the things that are gonna be good for them. He warns them away from slavish parts which will wreck them and he points them towards healthy parts which are gonna save them.

That's what this book is all about. It flows from his fatherly concerned for his children. And that's exactly what we see here in Proverbs chapter 3. We see the father warning his children about certain things which are going to enslave them, and see him recommending a whole new way of life which is going to free them. And so what we're going to do this morning is look at both of those things in Proverbs 23, we're going to set them alongside each other and then think about the application.

So first, we're going to look at the enslaving power of Folly, which is shorthand for foolishness, the enslaving power of folly, then we're gonna see the liberating power of the father, and then we're gonna have an example which shows how these things work together. Okay? Inslaving power of folly, liberating power of the father and then example. Come with me then, under this first heading to verse 29. Have a look at verse 29 with me.

Who has Woe who has sorrow, who has strife, who has complaints, who has needless bruises, who has bloodshot eyes. Now that is quite an introduction, isn't it? 6 questions stacked up 1 after the other, describing a person whose life is a mess. Right? What it is.

This is a person who's been ruined and wrecked by something. Who has woe? If you know anything about the old testament, that is a powerful prophetic word, a word used by the prophets to explain a people under judgment. So if Woe was used about a nation or an individual, what it says was these people have been stripped of the blessings of God. They are under judgment who has whoa?

Well, this person is under the judgment of God. Who has strife? In other words, their life is just 1 of constant friction. They're butting up against other people all the time. When they wake up, when they live, when they go to work, when they come home, their life is marked by friction, in their relationships.

Who has needless bruises. It says, who has complaints, who has bloodshot eyes. This person is is has made shipwreck of their lives. They're in a bad way. Now who is that?

Who is this person the father is talking about? Well, they're both a tragedy and in some ways a comedy, aren't they? Then if you read that, there's a kind of ironic comedy. About the sadness of their life, but really it's it's tragic. Who is it?

Well, have a look at verse 30. Who is like this? Those who linger over wine, who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. Now, that word linger is also translated in the Old Testament as stay up late. So in Isaiah chapter 5, when the prophet is talking about the sins of Judah, He says that they are those who rise early in the morning to chase after wine and stay up late until they are in blamed with it.

The words stay up late is that word for linger. And so what we find here is not a person who enjoys in moderation the occasional drink as part of a blessing in God's good creation, what we find here is someone who is enslaved by the thing. From the moment that they wake up in the morning, they are thinking about how they're going to get what they need for the next night of drinking. They might be at work on their first coffee break, and they're flat, when am I going to get to the off licence so I can get what I need for tonight's drink. Is it too late to go online and add to my Tesco order?

To add some wine that will be delivered tonight. Their whole lives are taken up with when am I going to be able to get my drink? And when they've got it, they stay up late with it until it has done its job. Until it's inflamed them. Their whole lives are constructed around acquiring and consuming alcohol.

That's who this person is. They're a slave. They've been enslaved by it. And it's strange because you might wonder what this is all about. What is the attraction for them?

I mean, if their lives are as described in verse 29, Why do they keep going to it in verse 30? If that's what they've become, what's the attraction? Well, have a look at what he says in verse 31, the father. He says, do not gaze at wine when it is red when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. See the words that just make it so attractive.

It's red. He says, it's got this deep and attractive color. It sparkles. When it's in the cup, how a glass of wine does do that, when it's under the light of the lounge or the kitchen, it kind of reflects the light and sparkles its way out of the cup, doesn't it? It goes down smoothly.

It kind of that mean that word can mean it moves around. It goes back and forth. So you know what it's like when you pour that first glass of wine, don't you? And you see the arc of the liquid coming out of the end into the glass. And it swirls around as it hits the bottom.

And people who love wine even do exactly that, don't they? They hold it up to the light to see it sparkle and pretend they know what they're doing, and swish it around, and then smell it, and talk about tannins, and what they can see, and how thick it is, and what's the consistency, and was that blackberry, or was that elderflower, and they talk a good talk because there's something just attractive about how it looks in the cup, isn't there? It's sparkles, it's red, it's lovely, And in that moment, this person is thinking, I don't care what needless bruises I've got in the morning. It's all worth it in this moment. I'm gonna wake up with a cracking hangover, and I might make a wreck of my life, but it is look at it so worth it in this in this moment.

There's something attractive about it. But verse 32. Look what the father says. In the end, it bites like a snake. And it poisons like a viper, bites like a snake and poisons like a viper.

Now what is that about? Well, what the father is setting before us there is the contrast between how it started and how it's going. Between how it begins and between and and how it ends. Between what is promised at first taste and what is delivered the next day. And although alcohol is the presenting issue in this parable, that is a broader description of what sin is like.

Right? Between what it promises and what it actually delivers. Have a look with me and it should come up on the screen hopefully at Genesis Genesis chapter 3, And this is the moment where the serpent approaches Adam and Eve. They've had a command from God and what Satan gonna do, he's gonna say, no, God's wrong. You will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman.

For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who with her and he ate it too. You see how it works. Satan comes to Adam and Eve with a promise Right?

Because sin and temptation contain a promise. You will be like God. There is wisdom that he's holding back from you that you can have. You take from that tree, you're gonna feel free, you're gonna go to places that you've never been before, it's gonna be exciting, you're gonna become something. It comes with its promises.

And that's what sin is like, isn't it? You see, if sin literally promised nothing, no 1 would do it, would they? No 1 would ever do it if it didn't come with some kind of promise, but it always does. That's why temptation works. It promises excitement and not boredom.

It promises relief and not stress. It promises escapism and not reality. It promises that you will be someone other than what you are. It promises that you can escape the boredom of your life. It always works like that.

You know, nobody wakes up 1 day and decides they're just gonna have an affair. With somebody who's not their husband or wife. They don't just wake up and decide to do it. There's this process of being promised something. This is the marriage that God really would have wanted me to have.

This is the sort of partner that he'd really like me to be This is the 1 who's going to excite me, give my life, I can start again. I can just close that chapter and begin a new 1. Isn't that God would want for me? It always comes with a promise, but the father says what it delivers is something quite different. And look, if you're a Christian here, who of us, through bitter experience, doesn't know that contrast.

Between what sin promises and what sin actually delivers. We all know that, don't we? And so the father is saying here, my son I love you, my daughter, I love you. I get it. I know how it works.

I'm the 1 who inspired this text because I understand how it works. But my son, if you're gonna live wisely, you have to think about the big picture here, not just about the night's drinking, but about the morning's hang ever. You have to think about it all if you're gonna live wisely. That's what he says to his children. And then before it gets better, we see that it gets worse.

Have a look at some of these consequences in verse 29 again. Who has woe who has sorrow, who has strife, who has complaints, who has needless bruises, who has bloodshot, eyes. Now, it's amazing because this book, depending on how you date it, is probably 2 and a half thousand years old. And yet, when it comes to describing a hangover, well, it's utterly relevant, isn't it? I mean, utterly, totally relevant in its description of what a hangover is actually like.

And the reason when we read it that it's in some ways quite humorous to us is because in our culture or at least within the subculture of drinking too much, these things have actually become badges of honor, of a good night out, haven't they? You know, if you wake up with some of these in verse 29, who has needless bruises, if you wake up on your mates out the next day, and you've got no idea where that bruise came from. Well, that's a sign that you had a great night, isn't it? That's a sign that you didn't hold back. You really went for it.

You know, if you go on a night out, waking up with bloodshot eyes is is part of it because you need to show that you went for it. There's something humorous about that. But the father is saying, no, this person has made a wreck of their lives. The word needless can also be translated without cause. There's a bruise here that didn't need to be had.

There's a fight that you got involved with which could have been avoided. There's an argument which would have been cut could have been calmed down. Worst of all, there's a death that could have been a premature death. What's he saying? He's saying my children, this type of folly can bring on a needless suffering.

A suffering that you didn't have to go through that you didn't have to experience. But you were enslaved and so it came. Verse 33, it's just stacking up here. Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind will imagine confusing things. There was a phrase when I was at school coming to the end of my teenage years, into my early twenties as well and you may have heard it.

It's called beer goggles. Alright? Just who's heard of that phrase? Just nod if you've heard of the phrase. Dear goggles.

Yeah, basically, from what from what I can tell, it's a phrase which both explains and justifies anything that you did under the influence of alcohol. That you wouldn't otherwise have done. Okay? So for instance, let's say you've gone out on a night out and you share a kiss with somebody who outside of a bar context, you wouldn't have dreamed of kissing. Well, your explanation and just that could be beer goggles.

Yeah? It made me see things that I thought weren't there. Suddenly, something was attractive to me, which in normal days would be repulsive to I went for something, which if I was thinking clearly, I would never would have done. Why did you do that? Beer goggles?

Now what's the point of that? Well, the father is saying there is a way in which drink and folly alters our sense of reality. It alters our way of viewing the world. There are things which seem attractive to us which if we were thinking of God's way wouldn't be. There are things that we think would be good for us to do which if we were thinking God's way, we would know they were harmful for us to do.

In other words, our sense of what is real and right for us to do becomes distorted. Because we're not influenced by the father's vision, we're influenced by the world's vision. Our sense of reality begins to change. What else does he say? Verse 34, another consequence.

You will be like 1 sleeping on the high seas lying on top of the rigging Now you think about that. I mean, here is a sailor, if he falls asleep and gets drunk in the bottom of the boat during a storm. Well, he's gonna be rocking around and feel sick. If he's drunk and falls asleep at the top of the rigging at the highest point, the arc of movement is the largest it could possibly be, isn't it? If he was in the bottom, he's only moving a bit.

But if he's at the top, he's going right round. It's nauseating, isn't it? In the end, living outside of God's plan for us. It makes us sick, really. Other consequences.

Verse 35, have a look at this 1. This is 1 of the saddest I think. They hit me you will say. But I'm not hurt. They beat me but I don't feel it.

They beat me but I don't feel it. This is the only time that we hear his voice in this little parable, and what we're seeing is that he's lost all sense of feeling. But his senses have become completely numb to what's happening around him. When I was younger, I used to work in in kitchens and I used to work with this this chef, this older chef, he was a Polish guy. He was he was a hard individual.

He was, you know, thick set, bold, kind guy, but when when he was working hard, he was a kind of a grumpy bloke to be around. And for him, oven gloves were a thing of the past. I mean, he'd been cooking for so long and he had handled so much hot stuff that his hands were just callous, they had become his oven gloves. And the rest of us were just amazed at the steaming hot things that he could handle with apparently no pain coming to him at all. Now did he start like that on day 1 in the kitchen?

Well, no, like everybody else he would have had tender hands, I never developed for sort hands. I just don't think I'm that way. I'm not built that way, I don't think. But but over the years as he slowly continued to handle these hot things, when he developed calluses all over his hands. And in the same way, the father is saying in this parable that if we keep running away from the father's love, If we keep suppressing our conscience, that precious gift that he has given us.

If we keep rejecting his right ways and choosing wrong ways, there is a sense where we numb our own senses that we can begin as scary as it is to sin our own consciences away. That we forget what is good and right and evil and wrong for us to do. See how he phrases it. It's so sad, isn't it? You will say, they hit me but I am not hurt.

He's lost all sense of feeling. And then right at the end, what's his solution? When will I wake up? So I can find another drink. Russell brand, who's a bit of a marmite comedian.

Sense to you either love him or you hate him. He wrote a book on addiction about 5 years ago about his own addictions and getting freedom promedictions. And whether you like him or not, it's a fascinating book and he really knows what he's talking about. I mean, I think from I think he's been addicted to just about everything that there is to be addicted to and he writes this book in order to help people in similar situations. And in the book, he talks about the 5 steps in the cycle of addiction.

He outlines these 5 steps in the cycle of addiction, which are common across all addicts no matter what their particular addiction is. And I just thought I would show you it because it maps so exactly onto what we see at the end of Proverbs 23. He says it begins with pain. It's a sense of which people feel pain in their lives, who has sorrow, who has whoa, who has strife, who has complaints. There's using an addictive agent like alcohol food sex, work to soothe and distract.

Look how it sparkles in the cup. Look how smoothly it goes down. Look what it promises and the relief it brings. 3 temporary anesthesia or distraction. It's a sense in which it does lift you out of your pain a bit, doesn't it?

When you're on that night out, you do feel distracted. You feel asleep. Your pains no longer hurt you. In the way that they normally do consequences, bites like a viper. They beat me.

Who did? They hurt me, didn't feel it. Shame and guilt leading to pain or low self esteem and then return to stage 2. And that's the cycle of addiction. And this is what we see here at the end of Proverbs 23.

And it is, I think, the saddest thing about it. That here is a man or a woman whose life has been wrecked by sin, and they are so confused that they think sin is the solution to their sin. 1 form of rebellion has wrecked their lives and they think the answer to that will be continued rebellion. Sin the problem, sin the solution. It's the saddest thing about it.

When will I wake up so that I can have another drink? How does this apply? How can we apply some of these principles under this point? Well, it might be that you're here and you wouldn't call yourself a Christian and you're just looking into Christian things. Maybe you've grown up with it in the past, but you feel skeptical about it now, and you may be reading all of this think, this just in no way describes me.

I'm not an addict to any substance. I don't have the sort thing that either these proverbs are talking about or Russell brand is describing. That's just not my life. And if we think about addiction only in substance form, then I would agree with you. You may actually live a life that is very moderated, enjoying everything in its proper place, sober minded, and not addicted to anything in particular.

But what we're trying to see here is that this is about more than just a classical addiction. And it's interesting because Russell brand in his book, he himself recognizes that the thing which leads people to become addicts is so much is so much deeper. Here's how he puts it. I mean, he's not a Christian writer, but just so perceptive. He says the instinct that drives addiction is universal.

It is an attempt to solve the problem of disconnection, alienation, and tepid despair because the problem is ultimately being human in an environment that is curiously ill equipped to deal with the challenges that entails. We are all on the addiction scale. Really interesting, isn't it? He's saying human beings, no matter how different we are, we share a problem. We have this sense of disconnection.

We feel alienated. We feel despair sometimes that something big is missing in our lives, and we can't quite work out what it is. And then when you add to that that we live in a world which is curiously ill equipped to deal with it, well then we're all on the addiction scale. What he's saying is we feel this sense despair. We look to the material world to try and plug the gap.

It doesn't work. It's fascinating, isn't it? We've all got this, but we're in a world that doesn't seem to be able to solve the problem. And that's how he says people end up as addicts because they keep looking, they get hooked on something, and go further down into the darkness. And so this is about much more than just substance addiction.

It's what characterizes the human heart. You see, when you're young and I do still put myself in that category, but when you're younger even than me, it's harder to feel this because everything good and satisfying is still to come. Isn't it? You know, you may not have it now, but the career is coming and when it does come, it's gonna be great. You may not have it now, but when the man or woman of your dreams comes along, he or she is gonna be the real deal.

They're gonna be wonderful. You may not have children yet, but when you do, well, that's gonna be a great family. You may not have had the chance to go traveling yet, when you do, it's gonna fulfill your every restless dream going and seeing the world. And yet slowly, as you get older, and you begin to check these things off, you realize that they don't deal with that nagging sense of alienation which we all have. They just don't.

You acquire them and they just don't. You find the man or woman of your dreams and you realize, oh, crumbs. I've brought my sinful heart into that marriage again. And it hasn't quite worked. You get the job which you worked so hard for and then you think, oh, wait.

This isn't as great as I thought it was. Maybe I'll get another 1 and that will work. You move house to a different area because you think freedom is just up the m 25, but but then you move there and it doesn't happen. You go traveling and as wonderful as Thailand is, you find out that you weren't created for it, that it's not the bit of the puzzle that's missing that will just fill you and complete you because you take your own sinful heart there and guess what? It's full of other sinners.

But what he's saying is that there is this deeper need that we all have. And therefore, in order to escape this cycle we need a bigger power. And Russell Brand is amazing because in that book, he actually acknowledges that that's what people If we're gonna break out of cycles like this, we need a stronger, purer power in order to release us. So if you're not a Christian, I hope you can see that. That this is about more than just substance addiction.

And if you are a Christian, it might be that we've read this this morning and truth be told feel like you're in this cycle at the moment. And no matter what you do, you can't escape from it. Maybe you're in the stage where the wine is sparkling a cup and you look at it and you just think, I can't beat this temptation. It looks so good to me. I'm enslaved but I can't break out.

It might be that you're right at the bottom of the cycle and you think I'm sick of being here. I feel like I'm sitting my conscience away I feel like sin is just the attractive way out for me at the moment. And even though I do really think I know Christ, this is where I am. Or the father has the most wonderful news for us here. We are to hear the warning, but we are also to know that there is great hope.

And there is a power which can release us from these types of slavery. And that's the second point. So firstly, only 2 points. Firstly, means slaving power of folly, and secondly, the liberating power of the father, the liberating freeing power. Of the father.

Come with me to verse 15 to 18 at the top of our reading. Do not let your heart envy sinners but always be zealous for the fear of the lord. There is surely a future hope for you and your hope will not be cut off. Verse 26, my son give me your heart and let your eyes delight in my way. Now, just compare these visions with me.

1 cycle at the end of the chapter is a cycle of despair. It's a cycle of feeling pain and brokenness trying to medicate with things in this world, feeling the consequences and returning to number 2 again. It is a cycle of brokenness and despair. Here we have a cycle of ever increasing joy. Where the father looks upon his child and he's glad in all that his child is, and the child looks at the word and character of the father and he's glad in all that the father is.

And there is this ever increasing cycle of happiness and gladness as they look at 1 another. Compare the cycle at the end of Proverbs 23, which is just so confusing, isn't it? Here is a person who doesn't know what's right for them to do They no longer know what they were created for. They're just confused about everything, but here is a vision that is sober minded and clear headed. Knows exactly what he was created for, knows exactly what he's about, is clear, and it's sober to know and love the father.

1 cycle at the end of Proverbs 23 is totally hopeless. The only hope for the man at the end of Proverbs 23 is has he got another fiber in his wallet with which he can buy the next drink. His hope terminates there. But this hope is an ever increasing joy of knowing God. It is 1, have a look at verse 15 or 18, Ralla.

Rather. There is surely a future hope for you and your hope will never be cut off. You see the contrast between these 2 particular visions. And so the question for us is how do we break out of the 1 and come into the joy of the other. How do we move from 1 cycle of despair to the cycle of joy?

And it's in those words my son. My son. It's in the reality behind those words of knowing God. As our heavenly father and looking to and loving and trusting him. And it's so important to underline because it might be that you read about this cycle of joy and you just think that does not describe my life at the moment.

If you knew what I would what I had done this week, and if you knew what I am likely to do, Maybe not tonight, but maybe the nights after that, you would not say so confidently that I belong to the father and he belongs to me. If you knew the state of my conscience at the moment, you wouldn't talk like this about who I am. But this is the glory of the gospel. Which these Proverbs are pointing to, that Jesus Christ, who is the ever living son of God, came into this world and he obeyed verse 26 perfectly. Look at verse 26, it's a summary of his life.

My son, give me your heart and let your eyes delight in my ways. Who is that? But the Lord Jesus Christ, who came into this world and gave his heart to the father, who delighted in the father's ways and words at every step of his life who had the sparkling cup of wine before him and who said no to every temptation where we had failed and instead chose righteousness. And yet on the cross, he goes into the cycle at the end of Proverbs 23. He goes into the darkness and the confusion and the pain of sin and he takes that all upon himself, not for the things that he had done wrong, but for the things we had done wrong, so that if we, any of us here, will throw ourselves on the mercy of Jesus Christ he will look upon us and say my son, and he will bring us forgiven into the family of God forever.

That is the reality that this Proverbs are talking about knowing God through Christ as father. It is the power to break the cycle. J I Packer, a theologian, said this in his book, knowing God. He said, we are not fit for a place in God's family. We need to know that.

The idea of his loving and exalting us sinners, as he loves and has exalted the Lord Jesus, sounds so ludicrous and wild, yet that and nothing less than that. Is what our adoption means. It feels wild to us, doesn't it? That the Lord Jesus would look upon us, sinners though we are, knowing all that we've done. And yet, if we're in Christ, he loves us and he exalts us as he does his own son.

It feels ludicrous, like it shouldn't be true. Like we shouldn't be allowed to say that about ourselves, and yet the doctrine of adoption says this and nothing less is what Christ accomplished for us, and it's what our adoption is all about. And therefore, if you are in Christ, that means that your heart is wise verse 15. Because you know and love the savior. It means that you do speak what is right because you confess the name of Christ, and that is the right thing to say.

And what it means is that when the father looks upon you and me, he really genuinely delights in us and loves us and is thrilled by us as he is his own son. Feels ludicrous and wild to say that, doesn't it? But that's only because we have a deficient understanding of the gospel. The gospel is nothing less than that, that you, if you are a Christian in Christ this morning, the father looks upon you, He sees your wise heart, he sees your right speaking, and he's thrilled at all that you are, and he loves you. This is the crowning glory of the gospel, isn't it?

I mean, it's good to be right with God the judge, but to be loved and cared for by God father is just the great gem of the gospel and it is that relationship which breaks the power of sin And it is a power. It is a power. If you are tempted this morning, you're looking at the glass of wine What you need is not inspiration from this sermon. You don't need to come away and feel inspired to do better. You need verse 26.

To know that you can become a child of God and give your heart to him. If you're not a Christian and you're wondering what this is all about, you need to know that belonging to Jesus is to be in the family of God. That's the great reality here. Nothing less than that. Let me finish with 1 last illustration, and it's an illustration that you'll probably know.

If you're familiar with the teachings of Jesus. Just turn with me if you've got a copy of the Bible to Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15, and we're gonna have just a brief think about this amazing parable. It will come up on the screen so you could follow it there. Oh, I thought I'd put it up.

Maybe not. So you have to turn out. Okay? Loop chapter 15. And let's see an example of how these 2 powers work together.

This is verse 11. Jesus continued, there was a man who had 2 sons. The younger 1 said to his father, Father give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them. Not long after that.

The younger son got together all he had set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. Now it's how to know how much this younger son was actually given in real terms, what that amounted to. I did try to find out in real money, in today's money, what he actually would have got there but it's hard to find out clearly though, it was enough to fund a lifestyle, wasn't it? So it wasn't just spending it all on 1 big blow out, 1 evening. It was able to fund a certain type of life for a period of time.

And no doubt when he was in that distant land, He was like the man at the end of Proverbs. He was in that cycle, feeling pain. Of course, he was feeling pain because he disconnected from the father. And yet, how was he trying to medicate, wild living? Going out spending his money on the wine that sparkle, on the prostitutes that would satisfy by friends who can have a like minded time with him.

He was in this cycle and then waking up the next morning in despair and rinsing and repeating the next night. Undoubtedly, he was in a cycle like that. And yet, he wakes up and he comes to his senses. Confused though he was, he comes to his senses. Verse 14, after he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country and he began to be in need.

So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no 1 gave him anything. When he came to his senses, He said, how many of my father's hired servants have food to spare? And here I am starving to death, I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son, make me like 1 of your hired servant. So here at the bottom of the barrel in the pig pen, he ends up confused.

He comes to his senses. But not quite. Because you notice what's in his mind there. He wants to now trade 1 form of slavery for another. He wants to go home and instead of saying, yes, father, he wants to say, yes, boss.

He wants to go home and become a hired worker to work like a slave or a servant. And so all he's going to do there is move from 1 type of slavery to her next. He might be going from the prostitute to the pharmacy, and both of them are slavery's. Religion is powerful to deal with sin. It can make us feel like we're really cleaning our lives up, but in the end both are slavery because they ask our real need and they confuse us about what the solution is.

He wants to go home and say, yes, boss, not, yes, dad. But look what the father wants to do. Verse 23. Verse 20 to 23. So he got up and went to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him.

He ran to his son through his arms around him and kissed him The father said the son said to him, father, I've sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son, but the father said to his servants, he's not going to make his son 1 of them, father said to his servants, quick, bring the best robe, put it on him, put a ring on his finger, and sandals on his feet. Get that fat and calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrateful. This son of mine, was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found, and so they began to celebrate. What is the only power that can break us out of the cycle of sin, it's the power that the father introduces, which is 1 of mercy and kindness and 1 of adoption. My son, all is forgiven. Don't even mention it. Come home, we need to celebrate together.

And so therefore, whoever we are, we need to know that this is the power that can break us out of the enslaving nature of sin, It is the liberating power of knowing God's father. If you're not a Christian and you've seen something of yourself in this sermon today, please don't hear me saying, go home and clean your life up, tighten your boots, tighten your belt, work harder, and you can moralize your life. That is That is an evil, anti gospel. The gospel is that you can confess your sins and that Jesus Christ is ready to forgive you and bring you into the family God. You see many of us when we think about God, we assume his natural posture towards us is 1 of pointed fingers.

But this tells us that his natural posture is 1 of open arms, that we can come to him, that he's gonna forgive us. And if you're a Christian and you feel yourself in this cycle, know that God your father wants to call you out with the great news of the gospel, and he's ready to receive you. And to bring you into that hopeful cycle this morning. Let's bow our heads and let's pray. It may be that you're here and you do love the name of the Lord Jesus, but you feel yourself completely stuck.

Just take a moment to remember who you are in the gospel, to refresh yourself. With the fatherhood of God and to pray for his help. It might be that you're here and you're not a Christian, but you've thought for the first time. Do you know, I want I want something of what that book is describing. I want my sins dealt with and if it's possible to know God as a great heavenly dad, then I want that.

And you can talk to him yourself.