◄ Proverbs 22:18 ►
for it is pleasing when you keep them within you and they are constantly on your lips.
Sermons
Spiritual VeritiesD. Thomas, D.D.Proverbs 22:17-21
The Words of the Wise to be Taken to HeartE. Johnson Proverbs 22:17-21














Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Words Of The Wise To Be Taken To Heart
Proverbs 22:17-21
E. Johnson

I. THEY YIELD DIVINE PLEASURE (Ver. 18.) And all the pleasure of the world is not to be weighed against it. Let those who have "tasted of the good Word of God" bear their witness. The human soul is made for truth, and delights in it. There is pleasure in grasping a mathematical demonstration or a scientific law; and the successful inquirer may shout his "Eureka!" with joy over every fresh discovery. But above all, "how charming is Divine philosophy!" - that which traces the clear path of virtue, warns against vice, shows the eternal reward of the former and the doom of the latter, Received with the appetite of faith, Divine truth is food most sweet.

II. THEY LEAD US ON TO CONFIDENCE IN GOD. (Ver. 19.) And this is our true foundation. He is Jehovah, the Eternal One. He is the Constant One. His Name is the expression of mercy, of truth, and of justice. To love and to trust him is to be in living intercourse with all that is true and beautiful and good.

III. THEY ARE RICH IN MANIFOLD INSTRUCTION. (Ver. 20.) They are "princely words," i.e. of the highest and noblest dignity. Prone to sink into the commonplace, the mean, the impure, they lift us to high views of our calling, our duty, and oar destiny.

IV. THEY PRODUCE, JUSTICE OF THOUGHT AND SOUNDNESS OF SPEECH. (Ver. 21.) Thought and speech together form the garment of the soul. It is only the living sap of God's truth within us which can impart greenness and beauty, blossom and fruit, to the life. As water rises to the level from which it descended, so does all truth received into the soul go back in some form to the imparter, in thanks and in blessing. - J.

Biblical Illustrator
Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise.
Proverbs 22:17-21
Spiritual verities
D. Thomas, D.D.
I. The experimental knowledge of them is a TRANSCENDENT BLESSING. They are "excellent things" in themselves — things that reveal a spiritual universe, a glorious Redeemer, and an ever-blessed God. But the verses teach that a knowledge of them is a transcendent blessing. They teach —

1. That such a knowledge affords pleasure. It is a "pleasant thing." What said Paul? "I count all things but loss for the excellency," etc.

2. That such a knowledge enriches speech. "They shall withal be fitted in thy lips."

3. That such a knowledge inspires trust in God. "That thy trust may be in the Lord."

4. That such a knowledge establishes the faith of the soul. A man to whom these spiritual verities are an experience is not like a feather tossed by every wind of doctrine, but like a tree, so rooted and grounded in faith as to stand firm amidst the fiercest hurricanes that blow. Such a man's faith stands not in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God.

5. That such a knowledge qualifies for usefulness. "That thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee."

II. The experimental knowledge of them is ATTAINABLE. The method for attainment involves four things.

1. Communication. These spiritual verities come to the soul in the "words of the wise." "Have not," says the writer of these verses, "I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge?" Men do not reach this knowledge as they reach a knowledge of scientific truth — by their own researches and reasonings. It is brought to them in a communication — a communication from holy men who "spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

2. Attention. "Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise."

3. Application: "Apply thine heart unto my knowledge."

4. Retention. "It is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee."

(D. Thomas, D.D.)

People
Solomon
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Altogether, Delight, Established, Fitted, Heart, Keepest, Lips, Pleasant, Prepared, Ready, Withal, Within
Outline
1. A good name is more desirable than great wealth

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Proverbs 22:17-18

     5164   lips

Library
The Rich and the Poor
Chapel Royal, Whitehall, 1871. Proverbs xxii. 2. "The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them all." I have been asked to preach here this afternoon on behalf of the Parochial Mission Women's Fund. I may best describe the object for which I plead, as an attempt to civilise and Christianise the women of the lower classes in the poorer districts of London and other great towns, by means of women of their own class--women, who have gone through the same struggles as they have, …
Charles Kingsley—All Saints' Day and Other Sermons

One Lion Two Lions no Lion at All
A sermon (No. 1670) delivered on Thursday Evening, June 8th, 1882, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, by C. H. Spurgeon. "The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets."--Proverbs 22:13. "The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets."--Proverbs 26:13. This slothful man seems to cherish that one dread of his about the lions, as if it were his favorite aversion and he felt it to be too much trouble to invent another excuse. …
C.H. Spurgeon—Sermons on Proverbs

The Formation of Habits.
School Sermon. Proverbs xxii. 6. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." INTRODUCTION.--There is a district, high up in the Black Forest, where the ground is full of springs. It is a plain some nine hundred feet above the sea. Thousands upon thousands of little springs gush out of the soil; you seem to be on the rose of a vast watering-can. Now, from this great source flow a good many rivers, and they flow in very different, nay, opposite directions. …
S. Baring-Gould—The Village Pulpit, Volume II. Trinity to Advent

The Christian Business World
Scripture references: Proverbs 22:29; Romans 12:11; Psalms 24:1; 50:10-12; Haggai 2:8; Psalm 49:6,10,16,17; 62:10; Matthew 13:22; Mark 10:23,24; Job 31:24-26; Proverbs 3:9; Matthew 25:14-30; 24:45-51; 6:19-21; Luke 12:16-21. THE IDEAL IN THE BUSINESS WORLD There is often a wide difference between the methods actually employed in doing business and when they should be. Good men who are in the thick of the battle of competition and rivalry with other firms in the same line of trade, are the quickest …
Henry T. Sell—Studies in the Life of the Christian

Philip and the Emperor
Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.--Prov. xxii. 29. Kallias stayed a fortnight under the hospitable roof of Olympias, and during those days he had the pleasure of seeing how greatly his honest and genial simplicity brightened the thoughts both of his hostess and of his friend. The general outline of his own future seemed now to be approximately settled. Like Philip, he had acquired an incurable disgust for Constantinople, with …
Frederic William Farrar—Gathering Clouds: A Tale of the Days of St. Chrysostom

He Accuses Abaelard for Preferring his Own Opinions and Even Fancies to the Unanimous Consent of the Fathers, Especially Where He Declares that Christ did Not
He accuses Abaelard for preferring his own opinions and even fancies to the unanimous consent of the Fathers, especially where he declares that Christ did not become incarnate in order to save man from the power of the devil. 11. I find in a book of his sentences, and also in an exposition of his of the Epistle to the Romans, that this rash inquirer into the Divine Majesty attacks the mystery of our Redemption. He admits in the very beginning of his disputation that there has never been but one conclusion …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

The Baptismal Covenant Can be Kept Unbroken. Aim and Responsibility of Parents.
We have gone "to the Law and to the Testimony" to find out what the nature and benefits of Baptism are. We have gathered out of the Word all the principal passages bearing on this subject. We have grouped them together, and studied them side by side. We have noticed that their sense is uniform, clear, and strong. Unless we are willing to throw aside all sound principles of interpretation, we can extract from the words of inspiration only one meaning, and that is that the baptized child is, by virtue …
G. H. Gerberding—The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church

"But Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God, and his Righteousness, and all These Things Shall be Added unto You. "
Matth. vi. 33.--"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." The perfection even of the most upright creature, speaks always some imperfection in comparison of God, who is most perfect. The heavens, the sun and moon, in respect of lower things here, how glorious do they appear, and without spot! But behold, they are not clean in God's sight! How far are the angels above us who dwell in clay! They appear to be a pure mass of light and …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

We Shall not be Curious in the Ranking of the Duties in which Christian Love...
We shall not be curious in the ranking of the duties in which Christian love should exercise itself. All the commandments of the second table are but branches of it: they might be reduced all to the works of righteousness and of mercy. But truly these are interwoven through other. Though mercy uses to be restricted to the showing of compassion upon men in misery, yet there is a righteousness in that mercy, and there is mercy in the most part of the acts of righteousness, as in not judging rashly, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Proverbs
Many specimens of the so-called Wisdom Literature are preserved for us in the book of Proverbs, for its contents are by no means confined to what we call proverbs. The first nine chapters constitute a continuous discourse, almost in the manner of a sermon; and of the last two chapters, ch. xxx. is largely made up of enigmas, and xxxi. is in part a description of the good housewife. All, however, are rightly subsumed under the idea of wisdom, which to the Hebrew had always moral relations. The Hebrew …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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