In his sermon, Peter Allison delves into the biblical proverb that states 'A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold' from Proverbs 22:1. He explains the literary beauty of the Hebrew text, including the use of assonance, and emphasizes the importance of character over material wealth. A good name is equated with a godly character and reputation, which is more valuable than riches because it brings trust, deep relationships, and eternal significance. Allison warns against seeking favor from those who oppose God and highlights the pitfalls of pursuing wealth as a primary goal. He underscores the importance of discernment in maintaining a good character, allowing individuals to foresee evil and avoid it. Additionally, he connects humility and the fear of the Lord to receiving true, honorable riches, as exemplified by Solomon's life. Ultimately, the sermon encourages believers to choose a good name, grounded in God's favor, above worldly wealth.

Please turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 22. As we continue to work our way through Proverbs, we are coming to the end of this second section of the collection of the Proverbs. Proverbs 22, beginning at verse 1. A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold. The rich and poor have this in common, the Lord is maker of them all.

A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse, and he who guards His soul will be far from them. May this word give you life and comfort you in affliction. Almighty Heavenly Father, pray that you would sanctify these sinful lips.

They may proclaim what is true, what is beautiful, what is holy. I ask, Lord, that you would open our hearts this morning, for the things of the Spirit are only discerned by those who have opened eyes spiritually. So we ask, Lord, for that discernment. We ask that Your Holy Spirit would work through Your Word this morning and accomplish the purpose for which it has been sent. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Well, we don't have a chiasm this morning, but we will next week. This morning we have these five verses dealing with character and the importance of character, the importance of a godly character. But one of The disadvantages of reading the Bible in English is that we miss a lot of the literary devices that Solomon uses in communicating and teaching these truths to us. And this first verse, a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold is yet another example of some of the literary beauty in the book of Proverbs in the Hebrew. So the words in this verse are the verb of choosing that comes first And then the name, the word for a name and the word for loving favor, that in our English open these two lines, a name and loving favor, and those are actually two words in Hebrew, loving favor.

It's the word for grace and the word for what's good, so good grace, or loving favor as it's translated. Those two things are on the outside and great wealth and there that's what there is a word for great and wealth and gold and silver are sort of on the inside of this of this little couplet this little little mini-chaism But what we miss is that the word for name, which is Shem, and the word for favor, have an assonance in Hebrew. Now, assonance, if you're not an English major, you might have to look this word up. But it's the repetition of vowel sounds with different consonants. So it's a little different than rhyming.

It's a little different than consonants, and it's a little different than alliteration. But it's very similar. It adds an attractive beauty to language. An example of assonance in English might be, rise high in the sky. You see, the words don't really rhyme, but there is a sound, a vowel sound that is carried through that, and it does convey a sense of beauty.

Edgar Allan Poe was a master at assonance. And if you want to see some great examples of that, just read his poem, The Raven. I don't recommend the poem for its theology, but as far as literary devices, he was a master of these literary devices. And so you have a sentence in there that talks about a silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain. And there's assonance in that.

And that whole poem is that way. And the Bible teaches us these literary devices. I was looking at this online and Webster's Dictionary said that the first known use of assonance was in 1727. I thought, no, this is something that God's Word has taught us long before that. Solomon was using these literary devices 3, 000 years before the so-called first use of it.

You see, all wisdom and knowledge, even the wisdom in how to convey beauty in language, because remember language is something that God has created. And how to speak beautifully, the literary devices, these are all taught in the Scriptures. And Solomon gives them to us throughout this whole book of Proverbs. In fact, that is something that is characteristic of the wisdom literature. Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.

These are literary works and there is great beauty in the way they were written and there is great structure. Many of the Psalms are acrostics. They begin the first letter of each verse with the same letter of the alphabet. Or they begin a section of eight verses with the same letter of the alphabet. And there's many other literary devices that are throughout these writings in the Hebrew.

I point that out to you simply to highlight that the Bible is the truth and that all wisdom, truth and that all wisdom, anything that we might learn in any field is taught to us in its foundation in the Scriptures. And so with that introduction let us look then at what is in a name. Says a good name is to be chosen rather. It's better than a good name is better than great riches. Well, What is a name?

Well, it's what everybody calls us isn't it? We all know everyone knows what a name is, but in this context it's referring more to our reputation We use the word name that way and it's a little more abstract. We talk about somebody has a good name. We don't mean that George sounds nice, but we rather are referring to their reputation. I mean, Sometimes when we say that somebody has a beautiful name, we're referring to the way the letters of their names sound.

But in this case, we're referring to the reputation, to one's character. Our name, in that sense, indicates who we follow. We are called Christians because we follow Christ. A name can indicate authority. To speak in someone's name is to speak with the authority of that person.

How many times have your children said, well, mommy says to do this. I know we used to do that when I was growing up. To bring the authority of our father and mother into what we were saying. A name represents us. To put your name on someone is to bring them under your authority.

It's to bring them under your protection. It's to commit yourself to them and to make them a co-owner or at least an heir of your possessions. To put your name on someone makes them a co-owner or an heir of your possessions. The Lord has put His name upon us. The Bible says that we are coheirs with Jesus Christ.

We have been crucified with Him, buried with Him, raised with Him, and we are seated in the heavenlies with Him, reigning with Him, because the Lord has put His name upon us. Praise the Lord. And so These are some of the things that a name represents. When Jacob was near in his old age down in Egypt, Jacob took Joseph's children, Ephraim and Manasseh, and made them his own. And he put his name upon them.

He said, may my name be put upon them, and may they be named with their brothers. And so that's why the tribes include Ephraim and Manasseh. The twelve tribes have Ephraim and Manasseh in them, and not Joseph, typically when they are listed. Because Jacob took those sons of Joseph and made them his and put his name upon them, just like, as he says in Genesis 48, just like Reuben and Simeon were his sons. So they became then the names of the tribes.

The priests in number seven were told to put God's name upon the people and God would bless them Because his name was on them. And that's why at the end of every time of corporate worship we Put God's name upon us the minister does The names of the Israelites were written in stone on the priest's breastplate so that every time when he went in before the Lord, the breastplate of judgment, he would bear their names, the names of God's people continually before Him. A name is very significant. But a good name, what is good, is Not referring to being well liked by people. Not necessarily.

A good name is not necessarily having everyone speak well of us. You see, not even Christ was well liked by all people. The tyrants, the self-righteous, the proud, they hated Christ. They put Him to death. Jesus told His disciples that the world would hate them because it hated Christ and it hated the light.

And so trying to keep a good name with God haters has brought many people into ruin. Trying to maintain a good name and a good reputation with those who hate God, those who are at enmity against Him, has brought many Christians to ruin. Solomon's heart, the one who wrote this, was turned away because he tried to maintain a good name with his wives, the wives that had turned away from the Lord and apostatized. He tried to please them instead of continuing to please the Lord. The desire to maintain academic respectability, somebody who has invested their whole life to maintain advanced degrees.

It's very dependent upon the, to get the degree is very dependent upon having a good name in your little academic community and among the people, the immediate people around you. If you don't have a good name, among them, they won't give you an advanced degree. It's just that simple. There was one person who was a physicist at the University of Colorado studying astrophysics. And before he had his PhD, he would write articles under an assumed name for various technical articles for various journals.

Because he recognized that if he didn't maintain some credibility with his peers, he wouldn't get his degree. There are many, many people who have not received advanced degrees, not because they didn't have the academic ability, not because their work was not worthy of the degree, but because They didn't have a good name. They didn't believe the right things by their peers. And that continues even after this degree is received. The need to maintain academic respectability has led to all manner of poor choices and compromises with the Word of God.

This desire to maintain a good name has ruined many politicians who have put pleasing the people over doing justice and being pleasing to God. Remember we saw last week, it is a joy for the just king, or for the just to do justice. That would include the king. It is a joy for the just to do justice. And that may mean that a number of people are offended.

That may mean that. It meant that for the apostles, it meant that for Jesus Christ, the academically respectable people were offended at what they did. So we're not talking about a good name by everybody. Good in this sense has to be defined by God. Good has to be defined by God.

What is well pleasing in His sight? That's what it's talking about here when it says a good name is better more desirable than Great wealth and I should mention to you little ones that you are never too young to have a good name. You are never too young to have a good reputation, to be well pleasing in the sight of God. Remember Samuel at three years of age was serving the Lord in the temple. Three years of age, he left his mother and father and went to live in the temple and served the Lord.

And the Lord was pleased with him. He had a good name. And the Lord spoke through Samuel as a prophet, even as a young child. Two chapters ago in Proverbs 20, it reminded us that even a child is known by his deeds. Even a child, even you little ones, even you two year olds and three year olds that are listening, you are known by your deeds, whether they be good or bad, whether what you do is pure and right in the sight of God or it is not.

Even a child then can have a good name or a bad name, a good reputation or a bad one. Now this good name, this being, this Having God's favor is more desirable than great wealth. We read in many of the kings that God described them as good kings. They had a good name with the Lord. Why is this?

Why is a good name more desirable than great wealth? Good name brings desirable company and business. Good people want to associate with those of a good reputation in their work. They seek out people with a good name when they need work done, when you want to have your roof replaced. You want to find somebody who has a good name in that business.

You don't want somebody who has a bad reputation. And so we spend some time looking for people that have a good name and doing some due diligence to check on people's name and reputation. Anybody who is in business knows that a good reputation is more profitable than an immediate sale. That's why good business people will be willing to lose a little money on a particular job in order to retain their good name. Skilled people, those who have a good name, stand before kings.

They are not unknown. So a good name brings desirable company. It is people that have a good name seek out other people with a good name to be together with them. And Likewise, the converse of that is that a good name stops undesirable company and undesirable business. Evil people don't want to associate with people that have a good name for fear they would be exposed.

Somebody who has nefarious plans doesn't go to a good businessman and ask them for their help, because they will be exposed. They seek out evil, people with a bad name, and take their bad plans and their bad desires and their bad business to them. We call that maybe the underworld. So a good name and a good reputation can stop undesirable company and business. People who are unwilling to be around us because they don't like the things that we do, they will avoid us.

Or they will change their behavior when they are around us. How many times have people realized that you are a Christian, that you follow Christ, that you have His name on you, and they will modify their language, and they will maybe stop swearing, or if they do they will ask your apology for it. A good name, thirdly, enables deep relationships. A good name means that people have trust, and trust is foundational to a relationship. You see, without trust, it's impossible to even have a meaningful relationship.

Money can't buy a relationship. The wealthiest people in the world cannot buy a true relationship. Money can buy attendance, it can buy synchophants, It can buy attention, but it can't buy trust, and it can't buy affection. These are the foundations of true relationships. Money can't buy them.

The attendance, the syncophons, the attention all disappear when the money goes away. But people who have trust and affection, who have A relationship that is built on trust and affection, they don't disappear when the money disappears. They are by our side. A good name enables a deep relationship. You can't have a relationship with somebody that you don't trust.

You don't trust somebody who doesn't have a good name and a good reputation. And that's one big reason why a good name is far better and far more to be desired than great wealth and riches. A good name brings favor. People appreciate kindness, they appreciate integrity, they appreciate good character, and they reciprocate that. That's something that wealth can't buy.

It can't buy that reciprocity of people's favor, of people's kindness. A good name is eternal. A good name is eternal. Riches are uncertain. They take wings and fly away, the Bible says.

And everyone leaves their money when they die. But a good name endures. Remember the woman who anointed Jesus' head with that alabaster of very costly fragrance, essential oil. And the disciples were upset, or At least Judas was upset at what she had done, because he said she had wasted all this money. You remember what Jesus said?

He said that what she did would be remembered as a memorial to her wherever the gospel is preached. So we know about this woman. Her good name endures to this very day, two thousand years later. A good name means a good character, and a good character bears good fruit. And so a good name is not just eternal and enduring in its memory, But any good name brings an eternal reward.

God eternally rewards the good works that we do here on earth as done to Him. There is no promise about great wealth like that. Now we know that there is nothing good of ourselves, and so this good fruit that comes out of a good character is itself the work of the Holy Spirit. But the Bible is very clear that God rewards. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

In Matthew 25, where we see the sheep and the goats in the last day of judgment. They both have done things. But the ones who had the good name were those who showed kindness, those who clothed the naked, those who fed the hungry, those who provided for the needs of people. Jesus said in that, you have done this to the least of these people, you have done it to me. Enter into the joy of your eternal rest." Reward is based upon our works.

Not because our works merit them, but because God in His grace has promised to reward a good name. And so a good name that is to be desired, it's far better, It's far better than great wealth and riches and gold and silver. But by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. And so one of those rewards that the Lord brings is riches and honor. There are two paths to riches.

One is desiring to be wealthy and clawing after it. Making that the goal of your life. People get wealthy that way. But it's not a desirable wealth. The other way that God's Word teaches is by humility and the fear of God.

Those desiring to be rich, those taking that first way, they fall into, the Bible says, many foolish and harmful desires, which drown them in destruction and perdition. The desire to get wealth is itself a snare. You know what a snare is? That's like a lasso, but it's usually made of wire, and it's set in the ground where you can't see it. And when somebody walks over it, an animal walks over it, it catches their leg and holds them.

It could be a wire, it could be a trap. That's a snare. It's a way to catch birds when they're walking on the ground. They walk into that loop and it pulls tight and it holds them. Bible says that the desire to be wealthy is a snare to man.

Causes us to fall into many temptations, into many foolish and harmful desires. And we drown in destruction and perdition. It's caused many to stray from the faith and pierce themselves through with many sorrows. But humility and the fear of God. This is what Jesus said when He said, seek first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness and then all these things will be added to you.

What is the fear of God? It is a carefulness not to do unrighteousness. It is a carefulness To pay attention to what God has said, to do it, to be concerned about His Word. It is a good sort of fear. We have a fear, a desire not to offend the Lord, not to grieve His Holy Spirit, but we have a desire to honor Him, to please Him.

The fear of the Lord. Solomon is the example, the classic example of this. Remember at the beginning of his life, Solomon was humble. He became the king in a rather tumultuous moment, as his brother was trying to take the kingdom, he became the king and he realized that he was young and inexperienced, and he didn't have the wisdom necessary to judge this great nation. He didn't come in saying, I know how to do this better than my father did.

I know I grew up and know all his mistakes and I can do a lot better. He didn't come in with that attitude like his son, Rehoboam, did. Solomon came in with humility. When the Lord asked him for what he wanted, Solomon asked, Lord, I need discernment. I need wisdom to be able to rule this great people in a wise and discerning way.

And so the Lord gave him what he asked for. But the Lord also said, because you haven't asked for riches, I'll give that to you as well. And God brought not only great wisdom to Solomon, but also great wealth to Solomon. Bible says that he had, tells us how much gold he had coming into Jerusalem. And that's just the gold.

He says that stones, or silver was common as stones. But Solomon had, according to the Bible, 50, 000 pounds of gold coming into his kingdom, his treasury every year. 50, 000 pounds of gold every year. That's nearly a billion dollars. Just wait a few more weeks and it might be a billion dollars in our money today.

A billion dollars in income every year. That's impressive, even today. There are many billionaires today whose net worth is a billion dollars. Solomon had a billion dollars income every year coming in. His wealth was who knows.

Solomon is the epitome of this verse. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. Solomon was sought out. He had a good name among all the nations of the earth, and people would come to Him to hear His wisdom. Because if He is speaking in these kinds of Proverbs, we know there was a literary beauty to the things that He was saying, in addition to their truth.

And it overwhelmed people. He was held in high esteem. And there is nobody that significantly even invaded or challenged his supremacy. God gave rest to the land for the most part throughout his whole 40 years of rule. God gave him a long and prosperous and very stable kingdom.

You see, God is not impressed with great wealth. The rich and the poor have this in common. Jehovah is maker of them all. God is not impressed with great wealth and neither should we be impressed with it. The rich and poor both come into this world in the same way, naked, penniless, helpless.

And we all die the same way, rich or poor, we all die the same way. We take nothing with us. Our bodies are eaten by worms and returned to the dust from which they came. That is true of the rich and the poor. The rich and the poor have the same right to justice.

They are both subject to the same law. Wealth by itself does not necessarily imply a good name. Although we have that tendency to think highly or to think with favor upon those who have great wealth. But James reminds us that it's just the opposite. James says, do not the rich oppress you?

And so he reminds us that the rich are under the same condemnation all their men are under, and in need of a Savior just as much as anyone else. And he reminds us then not to show favoritism, not to show partiality to the wealthy. He talks about people that are wealthy that come into your assembly, and you see though they have great wealth they can do a lot right and there's an immediate favoritism a partiality we show grace to them and we we Defer to them and we give them we want to give them the seat of honor we want them to feel welcome and so they'll come back. But we don't treat the poor the same way. James says, no, no.

That's not the way we ought to look at people. God doesn't look that way at people. He's not impressed with someone's wealth. It's actually very hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Because the rich will tend to think that they have no need of anything from anyone.

Jesus said it's harder for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. And I think we can just take that at face value. It's impossible. That was the reaction of the disciples. Then who can be saved?

It's impossible. A camel can't go through the eye of a needle. That may be a gate and all these sort of things. But what it says is a camel can't go through the eye of a needle. It can't.

It's impossible. Jesus said it's easier for that to happen than for the rich to be saved. In other words, it's humanly impossible. And we see very few very wealthy people have anything to do with Christ. Not only though is God not impressed with the rich, God makes the rich rich and the poor poor.

This is His work, His providence for His wise and inscrutable purposes. God makes these people what they are. And so we need to see people in the same way, as souls. People made by God, people who are like all men, under His wrath and condemnation, in need of a Savior, and in need of the riches of God's grace. Now another aspect of character that's brought out, that Solomon brings out in this discussion of a good name, of a good character, is that a good character is distinguished or characterized by prudence or discernment.

A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. He's speaking here of discernment. Good character has discernment. Discernment is a work of the Holy Spirit that enables someone to see what is not readily visible. The sermon is what enables someone to see around the corner, behind the curtain.

To see what isn't visible, readily visible. And so the sermon, One thing it does is it enables us to see the future implications of actions. The future implications of actions enables us to see these things. Cultural practices, family practices, that a good name, somebody who has a good name, a good character has discernment to see where these things are heading and can distinguish between practices that are heading in the wrong direction and practices that are heading in a better direction. Sometimes the difference when you are first starting out is almost imperceptible.

Two people could be on a different course But and just differ by a couple degrees right you're just on a little different course in the Navy We talked about you know The course you were on was a big deal. If you are running a ship, you always know what course you are on. What are you steering? If you are going east, that was called 090, 90 degrees. If you are going north, that was 000.

That is the course you were on. You could be off by just a degree you could be on two different courses by just a degree and and it doesn't seem to Be any different, But if you go a hundred miles, the difference is more apparent. If you go a thousand miles on just a course that's a degree off, then you're very, very far apart. And so discernment allows, is the ability to see where something is going, to see the future implications of our actions. The sons of Issachar were said to be able to discern the times.

They were able to see the implications of the actions of the day. Robert Dabney was a pastor and a chaplain in the Civil War, who wrote a lot of edifying things. One of the things that he was able to discern was that government schooling would remove the Bible from schools. In his day, government schools were just coming into existence. Government schools meaning where they taxed people to pay for the school.

Communities have always had schools, they've banded together, but It was a voluntary basis of parents coming together, communities coming together, voluntarily setting up a school. In Dabney's day, that was changed to government schooling, where the government supported the school by taxes, forcibly taking people's money. And Dabney had the discernment to see that that would result in the removal of the Bible, and he saw that a hundred years before it happened, formally. Of course, it happened informally long before that. You know, I have some books in my office that are textbooks for the Dallas public schools, that are Bible textbooks for the Dallas public schools.

They are from the 40s. They were teaching the Bible in the Dallas government school, but they weren't teaching it as the Word of God, as the wisdom of God. They were teaching it as fables and myths and these sorts of things. So even though the Bible was in the schools, Dabney was right. They didn't have the word of God like they did in his day.

And it was only a short time after that in 1963 that the Bible was formally removed from the schools. They had the discernment to see that coming just from the very formation of government schools. There are many things like this that we, decisions that we make, especially as parents, about which direction we are going to take. And We need discernment to be able to see the future implications of those decisions. This was one area where my father seemed to be especially gifted.

I remember being in eighth grade and he decided we were going to a Christian school at that time, and he had the discernment to see that my playing in sports programs after school was not going to be a helpful direction for me and for the family. And I was very upset with that. I didn't say that very much, but I was upset with that decision. I didn't think it was, I didn't like it. And It's one of the few decisions that I ever remember not liking in our home, but I remember that one.

And yet, I have to say he had the discernment to see what I couldn't see as an eighth grade, ninth grade child. And time has proven him right. And he recognized the destructive direction that that activity would have on our family and upon me in taking me out of the home and taking me out of the discipleship that was happening in home, and the work that was being done at home. Because I wouldn't be at home to do the work, to learn how to milk goats and raise food and grow crops and build things and do constructive things with my hands. I wouldn't be doing that." And he saw that, this is a very minor course correction, you know, there were a lot of other Christians and other ministers that couldn't understand his reasoning.

But I think he was right, he had discernment. And that's a part of a good character. A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself. The simple pass on, oblivious to the outcome of their actions, and they are punished. They are punished.

There is no reward for simply suffering. It's suffering for the sake of the gospel that Jesus said, blessed are you when people persecute you for Christ's sake. But just suffering for our own ignorance, there's no reward or blessing attached to that. Rather discerning people can avoid those evils. Discernment allows us to distinguish between what's minor and what's a major difference.

Where do we need to cover something and go forward and where do we need to confront something? It allows us to discern what is a false teacher and what is not a false teacher. We have a problem today with false teachers, and I suppose every age has. People follow them, they seem like they are good teachers. They seem like they are teaching the truth, and yet they end up leading all their followers astray.

And there's a lot of bad fruit that follows when false teaching. Discernment allows us, by the grace of God, to discern good teachers from false teachers and to avoid the false teachers. Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse, and he who guards his soul will be far from them. He who guards his soul will be far from them. That's a part of this discernment, this prudence, this foresight.

The thorns and snares in the way that perverse is someone who is crooked, Somebody who isn't going in a straight path. And it's He who guards His soul. A soul is referring to our whole body, our whole being, body and spirit together. There's a guarding of our body from physical snares, and there is a guarding of our spirit from spiritual snares. Thorns and snares are the way of the perverse.

He who guards his soul will be far from them. So A good name is to be chosen rather than great wealth. We as God's people have the Lord's name put upon us. And the Lord knows our name. He's known us from before the foundation of the world, those who are His.

Those who are His. May God enable us to persevere in prudence, to persevere in choosing a good name rather than great riches and wealth. The Lord knows those who are His and He will hold us in the palm of His hand. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word, for its instruction.

We ask that we might have discernment from it. Even as David acknowledged that your Word made him wiser than his teachers. So Father, may Your Word make us wiser than our teachers and give to us discernment. Father, may Your name also rest upon us, that when you come in your kingdom, you might remember us. You might bring us to the reward and the home that you are even now preparing for us.

Well, Father, we ask for Your grace, we ask for Your Holy Spirit for the power to do these things for we are unable in our own strength, unable in our own power to do any of this. So Father, we ask your Holy Spirit to dwell with us, to teach us, through Jesus Christ. Amen.