Proverbs chapter two. In the first part of the chapter, we learned last week the benefits of of seeking wisdom and knowledge and understanding. And this is really just a continue continuation of that passage about the benefits of seeking after, crying after, inclining our ear to the word of God and the wisdom of God. But specifically, as it relates to something called discretion. In verse 10, it says, when wisdom entereth into thine heart and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul.

When it it comes to this point, as you have sought after and inclined your ear unto and cried after the wisdom of God and it has entered your heart and it has become pleasant to your soul, something to be embraced that is good for us. Then, verse 11, discretion shall preserve thee and understanding shall keep thee. And we'll stop there for just a moment. We're going to read the rest of the chapter here little later in the message. Verses ten and eleven again, when wisdom enters into thy heart and knowledge is pleasant under thy soul, discretion shall preserve thee and understanding shall keep thee.

Discretion is the ability to discern what is evil and avoid it. The ability to discern what is evil and to avoid it. When wisdom becomes important to us, something to be embraced, something to guide us in our life, something to seek after. When it enters into our heart, then wisdom naturally leads to something called discretion. It gives us the ability to discern what is evil and to avoid it through shrewd planning, through godly foresight, and through clear moral convictions.

Discretion. Discretion. The ability to discern what is evil and avoid it through shrewd planning. The word that's translated discretion also can be translated as planning. Godly foresights, seeing what's coming, okay, and clear moral convictions.

And that discretion will preserve thee. It's like a hedge about you. It's a it's a protecting cover, Okay? Or a shield over you that to protect you from many of the dangers and ills and evils and wickedness of the world in which we live. And there is a lot of that, is there not?

We need discretion. Discretion comes by wisdom. You want discretion? First, you need wisdom. When you seek the wisdom of God and the knowledge of God, then God gives you discretion and understanding and helps you to protect yourself from the wickedness and ills of sin.

Ephesians five, Well, let let me read let me read a couple of more verses from Proverbs first. Jumping ahead of myself. Proverbs one four. To give subtlety to the simple and to the young man knowledge and discretion. Few verses here from Proverbs.

Proverbs three twenty one and twenty two, my son, let not them depart from thine eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion, so shall they be life unto thy soul and grace to thy neck. Proverbs five one and two. My son, attend unto my wisdom and bow thine ear unto my understanding that thou mayest regard discretion and that thy lips may keep knowledge. We read it this way as Paul puts it in Ephesians five fifteen and sixteen.

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. We live in an evil world. It is working counter to us. We, as believers and Christians, are swimming what? Upstream.

Okay? We are fighting the current of the world in which we live. If we use discretion, if we allowed wisdom of God to enter our heart and mind, if we embrace it and we use discretion, if we walk circumspectly, that is with our eyes open, with our our head on a swivel, carefully, thoughtfully, as wise and not as fools, then we will redeem the time. We will make good use of the life that God has given us. It will help to preserve us in the way.

That's what Paul has to say. Back in Proverbs, we read this, a prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. So the the prudent, the one with wisdom and discretion, unlike others who just close their eyes and close their ears and just walk headlong into the wall, the wise prudent person goes, you know, I I can't see it but I think there's a wall here. So I'm going to be careful and I'm going to be cautious and I'm going to use wisdom. I I say that from personal experience.

I've use this illustration a couple times in the past. When I was youth pastor in Georgia, they had a full size gym. However, the breakers that turned the lights on in the gym were on the opposite corner of the gym from the door that we normally entered. And if it was very dark, it was night and it was dark, and you turn those lights off from that from where those switches were, it was pitch black. You could not see a thing.

You had to go out of a door. You had to walk down about four steps, and then you had to find your way over to the other side of the gym and eventually to the door to find your way out. If you found your way over to the kitchen, there was a light switch in the kitchen. I could turn the light switch on the kitchen for a moment to see where I was and then turn it back off because well, I couldn't leave the light on in the kitchen anyway. So, but I I was careful in in my process of getting back and and that's that we live in a dark world.

Praise the Lord. Jesus is the light of the world and and we're not alone in this and we have a guide and we have the light, but be careful. Use discretion that wisdom gives. Thank the Lord for it. And don't just go headlong into trouble, and and we see the result of that all the time in our society today.

We as believers in Christ shouldn't be running headlong into trouble because we have the wisdom of God and we should use some discretion. If you wish if you wish to avoid the traps of life, temptations, and the devil, then you must see then you must use discretion. You need to purpose and plan to do so based on firmly held convictions. It doesn't happen by accident. For instance, when Kate and I were dating, we made rules to follow to keep our relationship pure.

It worked because we planned and we prayed and we stuck with our mutually shared convictions. As a result, we avoided several pitfalls that many others in the world run headlong into because they neither have such convictions. Obviously, that is the case with many. They have no such conviction. So, therefore, they run headlong into trouble or they do not perceive the consequences of their actions or they just live by the seat of their pants.

Exhilarating maybe catastrophic often. Wise and beneficial? No. Living with discretion is far better than going through life with no discretion. Sadly, we see again the result of that in the lives of many people.

Young people are told, hey, it doesn't matter you're young. You know, you don't need to have discretion when you're young. You know, just go out and do whatever's fun. If it feels good, do it. And, you know, you can kinda straighten up everything later.

Does it really work that way? The answer is no. In most cases, it doesn't work that way at all. If being in church is important to you, then plan to get a job where you can come to church and pray God opens that door. When Kate and I were dating in college, she was studying to be a nurse.

She told someone else in her life that was a nurse that that I I didn't want her working on Sundays because while I was a I was gonna be youth pastor and I'd like for her to be at church with me and this person told her, well, that just doesn't it doesn't work that way. You know, you can't be a nurse and you have to go every other week. It just won't happen that way. Well, I think you worked one Sunday. One Sunday in seven years doing nursing.

She worked because God provided a job where she could adjust her schedule. She worked a lot of Saturdays, but she she never worked Sundays. If keeping your eyes from illicit things is important to you as it was from Dave for David and Job, then plan to avoid it. Memorize scripture. Live by it.

Plan to keep it. Job thirty one one, Job wrote wrote, I made a covenant with mine eyes. How should I fix my regard upon a maid? Psalm one zero one three, David wrote, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside.

It shall not cleave to me. David further wrote, thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Make a plan. Stand firm in your convictions. Don't just live by the seat of your pants and let the the flow take you where it wants to because the flow of this world is sinful.

But if we live and use discretion, we don't have to be swept away in the current. If you want to avoid violence, don't go to places where there is violence. If you lived in New York City yesterday and you did not want to deal with violence, then don't go to the celebration downtown for the Knicks winning the NBA final because, guess what, it got violent, which was extremely predictable because every year whoever wins the whether it's Philadelphia or Los Angeles or New York or Chicago, they they burn cars, they they graffiti, they they break windows, and somebody got shot yesterday. If you want to avoid violence, then don't go where there's violence. If you want to avoid drugs and alcohol, then don't go to wild frat parties.

Sad to say how many young people don't seem to understand that. And foolishly, they go to places where inevitably they are more likely to end up hurt or injured or scarred for life. If you wanna quit smoking, quit buying what? Cigarettes. If you have cigarettes in your house, you're gonna smoke.

If you got alcohol in your house, you're gonna drink. So don't buy it. Don't have it in your house. Use some discretion. Don't go out with people that are gonna sit there and puff it in your face.

That's discretion. If you wanna keep your language right and have a plan that involves not listening to so much bad language and quit hanging out with the people who use it. Excuse me. Proverbs thirteen twenty. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

It's not bad enough that I have a cough. I have a gnat. And so you've seen me doing this. Wow. Alright.

Let me read the verse again. Proverbs thirteen twenty. He that walketh with wise men shall be, what? Wise. But a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

What is discretion? Discretion is choosing to hang out with wise people and avoid hanging out with fools. Because if we hang out with fools, we are likely to become more foolish, and we are likely to get dragged into poor decisions that hurt us. This is one of my favorite verses in all of scripture, and it shows great discretion on the part of Daniel. But Daniel, what, purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's meat nor with the wine which he drank.

Therefore, he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Daniel was polite, respectful in his approach to his request, But it started out with a conviction in his heart and a purpose. He he had a plan. Okay? He thought about it.

And he devised a plan by which he could respect and honor God and respect and honor his captors, both at the same time. And he purposed in his heart. And every one of us, whether we be 10 or whether we be 80, should continually be purposing in our heart to do the right thing and to avoid the wrong thing. Discretion. In the passage in Proverbs two, it is coupled with understanding.

Understanding is insight and reason. And when we have both discretion and understanding and insight and reason, these two put together will keep, will guard, will watch over us. The the word there in verse 11, to keep thee is an active word. It is not just a stagnant shield that is sitting there, but it's like having a personal guard that is there to help guard you. And, of course, we know that we do have the Holy Spirit, and he is a living guard to help us.

But we need to use some discretion and we need to have some understanding. And the two put together serve as a great protection and guide for those who will hear it, for those who will hear God's word and heed it. You see, my mine and Kate's plan for dating was based on at least the understanding of two things. One, human nature. The Bible says the heart is what?

Desperately wicked. Who can know it? Our our flesh desires to do those things that are counter to the desires of God. And so we need a plan. We need some limits.

We need some boundaries to help us because if we don't have boundaries, if we don't have a plan, then likely when passion takes over, it leads to things that you wish you hadn't done. Number two, not only an understanding of human nature, but number two, an understanding of God's plan. What is God's plan? God's plan is this, marriage is honorable and all. In the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge.

This is God's plan. This is important to who? It's important to the God that we say we serve. It gives us wisdom, wisdom that we need to put to use. First Thessalonians four three and four, for this is the will of God, even your sanctification that you should abstain from fornication, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel sanctification and honor, not in the lust of concupiscence even as the Gentiles which know not God.

God has made his will quite clear on the matter. If we understand our human nature and we understand the will of God for his children, then we can use discretion and make a plan based upon convictions, based upon the word of God that will help see us to God honoring beneficial results rather than the other way around. For those who lack understanding, such plans are nonsense. The pop culture that we live in scoffs at godly Christian young people who decide they want to do it God's way. Let them scoff and do it God's way because you will never regret doing it God's way.

And where do we find such understanding concerning right and wrong, wisdom and folly, human nature and life, how to make wise decisions and not foolish ones? Well, obviously, we find them where? The word of God. And that's why we need to hide it. That's why we need to hide it in our hearts.

Turn if you're Proverbs, turn back just a few pages to Psalm one nineteen. It's not very far. I don't have it up here on the screen. Psalm one nineteen nine through 11. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?

By taking heed, therefore, according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee. Oh, let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. The the key is not memorizing a bunch of scriptures so you can repeat it quickly.

The paper purpose of hiding God's word in our heart is to allow it to change our heart and our mindset and be there as a guide and a protector to give us discretion in this evil world. As born again Christians, God has given to us a helper in understanding his word, the Holy Spirit. But sometimes we still need to just slow down, take it all in, and meditate upon it, and allow it to to absorb into our mind and our heart and transform us and renew us. In Proverbs two, Solomon describes the evil to be avoided as the evil man and the strange woman. So back to Proverbs chapter two.

The devil often uses others to tempt us into evil or a path that will lead to our injury or ruin from whose trap we need to be delivered and rescued, lest we be caught like an animal in a trap. And the best time to be delivered from such is before you spring the trap. It's, yes, God, by his grace and mercy, will pull us up out of the trap, but it's always best to not get into the trap in the first place. And discretion helps us to avoid the trap, the trap of the evil man, and the trap of the strange woman. So, in verses 12 to 15, we read about the evil man.

Well, let's start in verse 11 again. Discretion shall preserve the 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 forwardness of the wicked, whose ways are crooked and they and they forward in their pass paths. The evil man who delivers from evil. It turn back over to turn over to chapter six. Let's read what it says there, something similar.

In chapter six concerning the evil man, 12 through fifteen, six twelve. A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward, that means a perverse mouth. Rebellious mouth. He winketh with his eyes. He speaketh with his feet.

He teacheth with his fingers. Frowardness is in his heart. He deviseth mischief continually. He soweth discord. Therefore, shall his calamity come suddenly?

Suddenly, shall he be broken without remedy. So what does discretion tell us or help us to do to avoid this temptation, this man, and his end. The evil man is here described as perverse, for a word, or crooked in his speech. One thing you must be on lookout is for a man who is two faced and sounds too good to be true. Because if they sound too good to be true, they're probably what?

Too good to be true. Okay? And they're lying. He has discovered something new that no one has ever heard of before. He can make you rich without ever working a day in your life.

He is so eloquent and captivating with his words. It's hard to turn away. But in the end, they do not ring true. Use somewhat discretion. The evil man is rebellious in his way of living, not holding to a moral or ethical path.

In Matthew seven, we're told, by their fruits you shall, what, know them. He cuts corners. He's always bending the the rules. The rules don't apply to him. He cheats and lies as a pattern of life and his lifestyle is most ungodly once you look a little closer.

And there are many people out there and many of them that call themselves what? Christians. Not every person who calls himself a Christian is a Christian, and even Christians sometimes can lead you astray. So watch out for the evil man. Use some discretion.

Just because they say, hey, mom, I'm a Christian, doesn't mean that everything they're doing is right and you should follow them. Just because they say, hey, I've discovered something new. It's going be you don't have to work a day in your life and you will don't listen to that. Be careful. Use some discretion.

Okay. The rules do matter. Cheating and lying will land you in a bad place. This person rejoices often in the wickedness of others. They take joy, pleasure in others that are like them according to Romans one.

They celebrate things that direct attacks on God, on God ordained marriage, the union of a man and woman, and the relationship that God blesses between them. They march in parades across the country in the month of June, and they call them pride parades. The fact that it's called a pride parade should automatically tell you it is not of God. Because pride is not a good thing. Pride is a what?

It's a bad thing. What is it? It's open rebellion against God is what it is. And we should have enough discretion to know what is right and what is wrong from God. There's no reason any Christian should not know that that's wrong.

Instead, we need to be standing up for what is right and showing others there is joy and there is fulfillment in the way that God has planned for man and woman and that they need they're the ones that need to reconsider, not us. And there are many examples of this. This wicked man loves it when the wicked get away with it and when the righteous are caught in a sin. We need to be delivered from the wicked plans of evil men who would entrap us often by the use of deceitful and eloquent speech. Oh, it sounds so good.

And so many people are led astray because they're not grounded in what? The word of God. And they're not using the reason and understanding that God has given them and making a plan discretion. I did that one time. Against my better judgment, we had a a man come to the house.

And the man, we invited him in the house, and he sat there and he talked for an hour. And he took this contraption that he brought in the house. And he did all kinds of wonderful things with this contraption. And at the end of a couple hours, I had said before I invited this person to my house that I would never buy this contraption. But by time I left, I did.

I wasn't using what? Discretion. A couple months later, I had to take this piece of junk that he sold me and throw it in a closet and go and buy another what? What kind of contraption do you think he sold me? A vacuum cleaner.

Yes. Exactly. He even convinced me to get rid of my old vacuum cleaner. He would take care of it for this new one that did these incredible things. So then I had to go out of a couple months and buy in back the same one, similar one that I had had given away.

I should have known better. You know, and that's kind of a funny, silly illustration, but how that that is a a small thing. But but Satan is is cunning. And we need to be careful because it may just be a vacuum cleaner and several $100 that you get cheated out of this time, but it may be several years of your life you get cheated out of next time. These people can be friends.

These people can be salesman. These people can be false teachers. These people can be teachers, other kinds of teachers. They can be entertainers. They can come in many forms.

But discretion, if we stick with our convictions, if we have a plan and we stick with it, it will help to protect us. And then to deliver us from the what? The strange woman. We're at verse number 16. 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 path paths unto the dead. None that go in that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life. So watch out for the wicked man. And remember, Solomon's primarily directing this toward his son. So he's concerned that his son does not get led astray by the strange woman, by the adulteress.

And this is so important to Solomon that he visits it again in chapter five. He visits it again in chapter six. He visits it again in chapter seven because it is one way the devil has destroyed many a young man. She is perverse. That is she turns aside in a way from the right and away from God.

She is smooth, a flatterer, and seductive, abandons the instruction of her father, abandons her husband, and abandons the promises of God. She may seem nice and and beautiful and kind, but watch out. Use somewhat, if you're a young man, in particular, if you're an older man, potentially as well. Use somewhat discretion. Start with, if I'm unmarried, I'm going to follow the commands of God and wait till I'm married.

And if you're married, stick with the wife of your what? Of your youth. Don't entertain wicked thoughts. Don't sit down and have lunch together if she's a person you work with. Don't be found alone.

Go home and spend time with your wife. Don't be led astray. Don't listen to Satan who whispers in your ear. You won't get caught. It's just one time.

It doesn't matter. It matters to God. It matters to your wife and it should matter to you Because you made a what? A promise, a covenant between yourself, your spouse, and your God. Again, this isn't considered a big deal in the world in which we live today.

Most divorces are now what they call no fault because the main fault that used to be was adultery. But now there's no fault because it doesn't really seem to matter in the eyes of most people. And so they go from marriage to marriage and person to person. Their kids end up in what they call beautifully a blended home as though this is evolution in a good direction. But it is not.

And it is not good for children. Proverbs chapter five verses one through five. We read this. My son, attend into my wisdom, bow thy near to my understanding that thou mayest regard anybody there? Discretion.

That thy lips may keep my knowledge for the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb. Her mouth is smoother than oil, but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two edged sword. Her feet go down to death and her steps take hold on hell. Proverbs chapter seven beginning in verse one. Solomon writes, my son, keep my words and lay up my commandments with thee.

Keep my commandments and live, and my law is the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart, say in the wisdom, thou art my sister, and call understanding thy kinswoman that they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words. For at that window of my house, I looked through my casement, beheld among the simple ones I discerned among the use a young man, avoid of understanding, passing through the street near her corner. He went the way to her house in the twilight in the evening in the black and dark night, and behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot and subtle of heart. She is loud and stubborn.

Her feet abide not in her house. Now is she without, now on the streets, and lieth weight at every corner. So she caught him and kissed him and with an impudent face said unto him, I have peace offerings with me this day. This day have I paid my vows. Therefore, came I forth to meet thee diligently to seek thy face and have found thee and she goes on and on and on.

Verse 18, come, let us take the fill of our love until the morning. Let us solace ourselves with love. For the good man, that is her husband, is not at home. He has gone on a long journey. Verse 21, with her much fair speech, she caused him to yield with the flattering of her lips, she forced him.

He goeth after her straightway as an ox goeth to the slaughter and as a fool to the correction of the stocks till a dark strike through his liver. As a bird hasteth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life. Very strong wording, very serious matter that the world laughs at. And their children suffer, and their marriages suffer, and their lives suffer because they have no what? Discretion.

Because they have not embraced and invited the wisdom of God into their heart, the word of God into their heart. They have not found understanding of the Lord, and so they just go with the flow. But it must not be diff it must be different with us. Proverbs six twenty two, thirty two and thirty three. Next passage over.

But who so committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding, he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul, a wound and dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. There are scars that you will carry the rest of your life even as a child of God. So have some discretion. Purpose in your heart that you will be true, that you will be faithful, and then avoid the places and the opportunities for that to happen. And if you use some discretion, it won't be what?

It won't be a problem. But if you lack discretion, then back to the to the verse I I read earlier, Proverbs twenty two three. A prudent man foreseeth the evil and, what, hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. Back to Proverbs chapter two, the last three verses. Praise the Lord.

Give us the positive side of this. If you have discretion, it will preserve thee. It will keep thee. Verse 20, that thou mayest walk in the way of good man and keep the paths of the righteous. For the upright shall dwell in the land and the perfect shall remain in it.

There is reward in serving who? In serving Jesus and following the principles of God's word. Trust the Lord with all your heart, lean not into your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall what? Direct your paths in the way that is right, in the way that is good.

There is reward in living a godly life, in having discretion, in walking circumspectly. In some respects, the blessings of Canaan were representative of the blessings of heaven, which we who are God's the children of God will most assuredly enjoy today and what? And forevermore. There are blessings now and there are blessings later in following Jesus and using discretion. But again, in verse 22, we end with a warning, but the wicked shall be cut off from the earth and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.

And if life does not do it alone, one day God will return, and he'll divide the sheep from the what? From the goats. And the sheep will go enter the kingdom. And the goats who had no time or interest in God, they will go into outer darkness. Praise the Lord for his word.

Praise him for his wisdom. Allow it meditate upon it. Allow it to sink in, and then use the discretion that it brings to make a plan based upon understanding and convictions based upon the word of God, and we will never regret it. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you for this reminder in your word this evening to use discretion in our lives as God's children.

Lord, we do need your guidance and we need the understanding that your word and your spirit brings. And Lord, we need your help in being people of courage and standing against the world and swimming upstream towards our savior. Lord, give us discretion. Help us to purpose in our heart as did Daniel, to not defile ourselves with the things of the world. Lord, thank you for your mercy and grace.

For we have failed you many times and yet, because you are a gracious and merciful God. You uphold us by your grace and you forgive us. But Lord, help us to use the discretion you have given us to avoid more of the traps rather than having to seek deliverance from them. In Jesus' precious name, we pray. Amen.