Walking in the Way of Insight

​13th Sunday after Pentecost – B (Proper 15)                                                 LSB #’s 904, 850, 688
Text – Proverbs 9:6
 
Leave your simple ways & live; & walk in the way of insight. 
 
WALKING IN THE WAY OF INSIGHT
 
 
Computer viruses, worms & malware  are part of your lives,  whether you ever touch a computer or not.  For one, you’re hearing about them in the sermon.   It makes a fair introduction for today’s theme; “Walking in the Way of Insight.”   What seems like a harmless piece of mail that your computer received, can render useless   all the information within. 
Because of the insidious nature of viruses,  computer operators  need to be cautious.  There are people out there actively trying to tamper with or destroy your files.   If you aren’t careful  you can end up  very sorry.     But that’s no different  than our lives as Christians.  There are forces in this world  trying to tamper with or destroy  your soul. 
If we aren’t careful,  spiritually speaking,  we can also end up very sorry,  & in that case it will be for eternity.   The antagonist in our lives is similar to a computer virus.   Satan’s temptations  are subtle & attractive,  yet very damaging.  He’s invisible,   powerful,  & his sole purpose   is to damage or destroy any personal relationship with the true God.  
Computer hackers create viruses for the fun & the intrigue of it.   Satan sneaks into our lives for the lust of it.  There’s no fun or intrigue involved.  He longs to devour each & everyone of you  for eternity.   He desires to absorb you into his very essence.  Lucifer wants you for his slave  & he will enjoy  every moment  of watching your life go to hell.   
The devil takes pleasure  in misery & bitterness.   He enjoys the hatred & the anger boiling up within.   He revels in our feelings of uselessness & inferiority;   yet   he comes into our lives as a friend.    He comes as someone bringing hope  & tantalizing possibility.   On the Internet, in social media,  on the TV news, & from lips of human beings, messages come from Wisdom,  & messages come from Folly.  It helps if a person can distinguish between the two, then make an accurate decision as to which one to follow.   The wrong choice can have a disastrous impact,  not only on your smart phone or computer,  but on your soul.  A few verses after the OT reading, the book of Proverbs portrays Folly as someone calling out loudly:
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!  …Stolen water is sweet, & bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”  (9:16-17 ESV)   But the simple one does not know  that the guests of Folly  are in the depths of hell.   Proverbs calls to us: “Leave your simple ways...”  (9:6 ESV) 
Our Creator calls us to resist the devil & flee from him  because on our own  we cannot succeed in fighting him.  Only with Christ, & through what He did in our place,  can we resist the devil & defeat him.  Jesus calls us to put on the full armor of God, so that we can be more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 
God’s Spirit longs to help us screen those messages from Wisdom & Folly.  Only with the help of our Creator can we choose Wisdom & reject Folly.    The Lord created & sustains the church on earth for those very reasons, for the purpose of teaching us, strengthening us & guiding us.  It’s through the church that Jesus has promised  to work. 
Adult Bible class, Sunday School & the confirmation program are  meant to educate you & help you choose life  rather than death.   God’s call to wisdom is the call  between life & death.  The wise person avoids destruction,  in this life & the next,  by making good choices in the light of devotion & commitment  to God  alone. 
People who try to make a go of it apart from the church  are the simple & the foolish ones who succumb to the siren call of Folly.  Satan is the master of disguising death  in order to make it appealing.  When drifting away from God, eventually a person’s sinful nature reasserts control  & chooses to die.    “Leave your simple ways, & live.  Walk in the way of insight.”  (Proverbs 9:6 ESV)   Those are God’s Word to us.  He gives them as a gift to those whom He loves,  not as a restriction on our right to choose.   The book of Proverbs was written with specific readers in mind,  namely, the children of God “those who are in the world,  but not  of  the world.” 
Walking in the way of insight  is equated with wisdom,  & Biblical wisdom points away from itself  to the only true God.   Public education has instilled a concept of wisdom that is unrelated to the Maker of heaven & earth.  It’s been forced to define wisdom  in secular terms. 
As a result,  in worldly ways of thinking,  to be wise  means to have professional knowledge,  a high degree of education  or financial success.    Biblical wisdom, however, is based upon one simple, overarching concept: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning  of wisdom.”  (Proverbs 9:10 ESV)    You cannot walk in the way of insight  if you do not fear the Lord. 
Now,  that fear  is not the same as terror.  Slave like fear is afraid that God will come, but child like fear  is afraid that He will leave.   A child like fear of the Lord refers to joyous,  loving,  willing reverence of the Lord that grows out of the news of salvation.  It is a fruit  of faith in what Christ did in your place,  & it’s worked by the Holy Spirit  without our help. 
A child-like fear of the Lord is a spontaneous attitude of a heart that has experienced the full & complete forgiveness of every sin,  fault  & weakness.   It’s found only in those who are converted, the regenerated children of God who obey His words in faith & love.  That fear  is the beginning of wisdom,  & knowledge of the Holy One  is insight.  (Proverbs 9:10 ESV) 
Likewise, the book of Job tells us, “Behold, the fear of the Lord,  that is wisdom;  & to turn away from evil  is understanding.”  (Job 28:28 ESV)   Wisdom in the Biblical sense is an openness to God’s Law & instruction, a willingness to be mortal,  & to allow God  to be wise.  It’s the willingness not to ask, “Why?” but to trust God  & follow the path in which He leads. 
The way of the Lord  is the righteous & blessed path.  The person walking in the way
of insight makes all the important choices of life  in light  of what Holy Scripture teaches.  That makes for choices that are far more integrated with God’s will  than we could ever make on our own.  St. Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus: “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”  (5:17 ESV)   
Jesus summarized it clearly: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart & with all your soul & with all your strength & with all your mind, & your neighbor as yourself.”  (Luke 10:27 ESV)   That  is God’s will.  It is easily understood.    Living up to it – that’s another matter.   None of us can,  because our sinful nature rejects God’s will  at every turn. 
Our sinful nature rebels against obedience to the Word of God.  It does not want Jesus to be Lord.   As a result,  walking in the way of insight has to involve more than God’s instruction.  Understanding the will of the Lord includes more than knowledge  of what is right  & what is wrong.   The will of the Lord includes  the death of His Son to pay for our rebellion. 
The horrific price that Jesus paid on the cross erases the entire debt of everything that anyone  has ever done wrong.   God’s will  is that you would understand & respond  in joy.  No one can stop sinning, because sin is what sinners do,  & all of us are sinners.   Yet, “…though [our] sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow...”  (Isaiah 1:18 ESV) 
God knows that we’ll continue to sin, & because of Jesus Christ, He promises that, in His sight,  He will make us clean again.   He’ll cast away our sins,  & God’s true children appreciate that release from the burden of guilt.  That appreciation is the response of faith,  & it does not stop there.  Now the battle is joined  between our sinful  & our saintly natures.  The war is on!  
Are you walking in the way of insight,  or the way of folly?    Will you live,  or will you die?   Once you’ve been made a child of God, you still have a choice in the matter.  You have the ability to walk away from God & to ignore Him.   Satan  & his angels are waiting for you   with open arms.  Christ has given you knowledge of your salvation.  Do you apply that knowledge to the choices you make?   Or,  do you still live in a slave like fear of a God  who will someday return?    If you are, look at the cross.  Look at the cross & see there the price  that your heavenly Father was willing to pay.  That price reconciled you   to Himself. 
A God that does not spare His own Son  will never reject you.  You don’t have to look out for number one, because someone much more powerful & all knowing is watching out for you.  Jesus stated that He is the Way, the Truth & the Life.  Therefore, walking in the way of insight  is nothing more complicated than walking  in Christ. 
Living your life in Christ,  trusting in Him,  following Him,   will allow your heavenly Father to protect you from any spiritual viruses  & from any harm to your soul.   He wants the opportunity to bless you,  but He will not cram it down your throat.  
Jesus promises, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.”  (John 6:51ab ESV)   That eternal life began for you already at your baptism  & it continues even now,  this very day.  Amen. 
 
 
Lo, the hosts of evil round us  scorn the Christ,  assail His ways!   From the fears that long have bound us  free our hearts to faith & praise.  Grant us wisdom,  grant us courage  for the living of these days,  for the living of these days.      Cure Your children’s warring madness;   bend our pride to Your control;  shame our wanton, selfish gladness,  rich in things & poor in soul.  Grant us wisdom, grant us courage  lest we miss Your kingdom’s goal,  lest we miss Your kingdom’s goal.  Amen.  LSB 850:2-3.