December 6, 2024 -- Proverbs 24:3-7, 15-16 -- Fallen Christians who rise again and again through Jesus

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By wisdom a house is built,
    and by understanding it is established;
4 by knowledge the rooms are filled
    with all precious and pleasant riches.
5 A wise man is full of strength,
    and a man of knowledge enhances his might,
6 for by wise guidance you can wage your war,
    and in abundance of counselors there is victory.
7 Wisdom is too high for a fool;
    in the gate he does not open his mouth.
Lie not in wait as a wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous;
    do no violence to his home;
16 for the righteous falls seven times and rises again,
    but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.
Proverbs 24:3-7, 15-16 ESV
 
For those who are keeping track, the current step is 6, where the Overcomer states: “I am ready to let God take away all my hurts, character weaknesses, and wrongdoings” (Overcomers Workbook, page 106). Prior to this step, those who overcome the world in Jesus are those who have confessed they are helpless, powerless against their sins. They commit their lives to God and trust Him to guide them. Now, that is wisdom.
 
Look at the first part of the Bible reading today. Wisdom—that is the work of Jesus and His forgiveness and healing applied deep into the heart of the believer by the power of the Holy Spirit—builds a beautiful home. Those who are in Jesus Christ are by His salvation are clearing their lives of all the filth and sins and wreckage their addictions and sins and consequences of wrongdoings have brought down on their heads. It is hard work. In fact, it is waging war against your past. The result is the believer’s home—his heart, mind, and body are a temple—for the Holy Spirit Who lives in them.
 
Notice just a few verses later it is recorded the righteous stumble. Believer, you who triumph in Jesus Christ, know that you will still struggle against sin and at times you will fall before its power. In fact, you’ll be cowed by it, wrecked by it. Tortured by it. There are so many times believers isolate themselves and are a target for temptation. Other times believers are angry and as Ephesians teaches, their anger gives a foothold to the devil. Some believers are Christian bullies. You meet Christians who are resentful. What’s the point of rehearsing all of this?
 
When you are saved in Jesus Christ you know, like a very ill patient with a gifted, patient doctor, how many times you despairingly have to turn yourself in to Him for His care, knowing you have neglected (again, and again, and again) His prescription for your healing. He has come to save you to the uttermost. When one of His patients falls into sin, He does not give up, He applies His healing. In fact, Hebrews teaches Jesus is the High Priest Who prays for His people, and by His priestly work He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him since He always lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25).
 
Ah, churches and pew sitters, wake up. You are saints who sin. You are people who are held safe in Jesus Christ, and you will, as Paul so eloquently states it, be people who know what is right but do the wrong anyways. Read Romans 7:15 and following. Paul bluntly states I do what I do not want! Churches are supposed to be houses of healing. Churches are supposed to be places where broken-hearted people who know their own sins find refuge and healing. The fact that a saint who has fallen goes back to chapel or to church or to fellowship with other Christians is precisely the sign such men and women are housed in wisdom (remember, wisdom working in us builds a house of strength and glory in Jesus). Let your church, your fellowship group, your home be a place of healing, where saints who have sinned are restored in the love of God.
 
The Bible never pulls its punches. David sinned against Bathsheba. And late in life he finds a beautiful virgin and sleeps with her (doesn’t marry her, doesn’t make her a concubine). David, a man after God’s own heart is a sinner, who, when confronted with his sin, repents. Paul, the much-loved author of 13 New Testament books was a murderer. After he was captured by Jesus and changed, he still had anger issues—he and his dear companion Barnabas had such a sharp disagreement they separated from each other in their missionary work.
 
The reason this chapter of Proverbs is so hopeful, and life-affirming is that believers, those called righteous in Jesus Christ, are those who after they fall into sin arise. They confess their sin. They are received in a community of faith that brings them to Jesus Christ, the Captain of Salvation for healing. Jesus by His Spirit puts steel in the spine of His soldiers so that they will go off in their company of saints to continue the battle. He is praying. He will save you to the uttermost.
 
 
Father in heaven, by Your Spirit help our churches, families, and local fellowship groups of believers recapture the sense that these are hospitals for wounded, sin-infested soldiers who continually need the healing, forgiving balm of Jesus applied to their lives. Jesus, thank You for Your prayers, Your tenderness, Your work by which believers are saved to the uttermost. Father in heaven, help us, as believers, to lift one another from places of brokenness and weakness and rise once again in the victory that is won through Jesus Christ. Amen.
 
https://youtu.be/evXmTDHPyTQ?si=cTXzmSc0zXnXdM9Y Joy to the World!
nb: this carol is so appropriate for today because stanza 3 says “no more let sin and sorrow grow”; it acknowledges believers in Christ still need, oh urgently and desperately, need His healing, saving work.
 

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