In his sermon, 'The Companions of Wicked,' Peter Allison explores Proverbs 18, focusing on verses 3 and 4. He discusses the companions of the wicked: contempt, dishonor, and reproach, likening them to the lingering smell of cigarette smoke in a former bar. Allison uses biblical figures such as David, Nehemiah, and Daniel to illustrate how the righteous face reproach from the wicked. The sermon emphasizes how the wicked often mock the righteous, exaggerate their faults, and attempt to undermine their efforts. Despite this, Christians are encouraged to find their strength in Christ, who bears reproach for them and advocates on their behalf. Words and wisdom are highlighted as vital components of a Christian's life, with the wellspring of wisdom likened to deep waters or a flowing brook. Allison warns against the modern undermining of language's ability to convey truth, advocating for precise and truthful communication. The sermon concludes with a call for Christians to let the word of Christ dwell richly in them, allowing wisdom to flow from them like an artesian well, nourishing and edifying those around them.

Please turn in your copy of God's Word to Proverbs chapter 18. We will be looking this morning particularly at verses 3 and 4, but I would like to read the first 9 verses. Hear God's word. A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire. He rages against all wise judgment.

A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart. When the wicked comes, contempt comes also, and with this honor comes reproach. The words of a man's mouth are deep waters, the wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook. It is not good to show partiality to the wicked or to overthrow the righteous in judgment. A fool's lips enter into contention and His mouth calls for blows.

A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul. The words of a tale bearer are like tasty trifles, and they go down into the inmost body. He who is slothful in his work is a brother to him who is a great destroyer." Thus far the reading of God's Word, May He add His blessing to it. His Word which endures forever. Almighty Heavenly Father, you are the God who spoke.

You have spoken to us in your Word. We ask that you would give us ears to hear what your Spirit says to your church. We ask that you would open our understanding, that you would impart wisdom to us. We ask for faith, to believe what you have said, that it is true, and to trust in it, to rest our life upon it, and to walk in dependence upon it. Sanctify these sinful lips that they might proclaim this wisdom.

In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Well several years ago, when we had outgrown the building, the room in which we were meeting we were looking for another place to meet and there was a a place That in size would have been perfect that was available for a good price. And in many ways it was, and it was close to where we were meeting before, so not a big change. There were a lot of nice things about it, but there was one problem with it. One significant problem.

There were a number of problems, but they were all fixable. They could all be remediated. But there was one problem that would have been very difficult. And that was that this place had been used as a bar before. I thought it would be a wonderful thing to turn a bar into a church.

But there was an aroma of cigarette smoke that was throughout the place. And it was in the very paint and in the very warp and woof of this building. And to try and get that out would have been probably impossible. So that place was passed by because of mainly that one reason. And that's a lot like this Text here when it speaks about the companions of the wicked when the wicked come then comes contempt dishonor and reproach These are like the three companions that follow the wicked, like that aroma of cigarette smoke clinging to this bar.

Content, insult, and reproach. Those are the companions of wicked people. David told King Saul as he left the cave of Adullam, he said, as the proverb of the ancients says, wickedness proceeds from the wicked. And David was saying that because he was saying, wickedness is not proceeding from me. I did not raise my hand against you.

Wickedness proceeds from the wicked. Contempt, in this case it's contempt, it's insult, it's disgrace, and it's reproach. When the wicked hear the Word of God, When they hear the Word of God spoken, when they come into the assembly such as this where the Word of God is being spoken, when they are around people who are speaking of the Word of God, When they are around people whose lives testify of Christ, whose lives exemplify Christ, who are the hands and feet of Christ, then they throw reproach upon them. When they encounter the truth, they find fault with it. When they encounter righteousness, they mock it.

When they encounter hard and diligent work, when they encounter people who are laboring to restore righteousness, to bring justice to those who are oppressed, to bring the truth to those who are in darkness, When they encounter the hard and diligent labor of the righteous, they say, Get a life! Get a life! And when they encounter the righteous rejoicing, and celebrating, and feasting upon the fatness of the land and enjoying the fruits of God's blessing in their life. Then they say, what wastefulness, what dissipation. When they see gifts and feasting, They claim the funds could have been better used helping the poor.

And when they see the righteous helping the poor with charity and loaning and giving, then they accuse those who are doing that the righteous of seeking their own glory. Jesus said when John the Baptist did not come eating and drinking, Remember he was clothed with camel skins, ate locusts and mowed honey and lived in a desert? The Pharisees said he had a demon. And when Jesus came eating and drinking, and going to houses of the tax collectors, and eating with sinners, then they said he was a wine-bibber and a glutton. You remember, Nehemiah faced the same kind of reproach in Nehemiah When he was building the wall in Nehemiah 4.

When the sand ballot heard that Nehemiah was building the wall, that the ruins were actually being restored, and that people who were living in Jerusalem were beginning to make this city a place of life, a place where God was worshipped. Then they were furious and indignant And they mocked the Jews. They couldn't stop their work. They had tried that actually. They wrote letters to the king and tried to get them to stop and were partially successful.

But they mocked the Jews. They went down to those Jews that were around Nehemiah, his brothers, and they said, what are these feeble Jews doing? Those are words of mocking. Those are words of reproach. They are bringing contempt.

They are seeking to bring disgrace. Will they fortify it themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive The stones from the heaps of rubbish, stones that are burned, that's the insult, the reproach, the contempt that follows the wicked.

They sought to mock the diligent labor of Nehemiah and the Jews who were rebuilding this wall. And Tobiah the Ammonite who was standing right next to him, he had some choice words too. He said, whatever they build, if even a fox jumps on it, it will break down the wall. I mean a fox is a little tiny animal it's a size of a small dog and He's saying this Fox if even a fox jumps up on that wall that they're building it's gonna fall down And what was Nehemiah's response? It was, Hear O our God, For we are despised.

Turn their reproach upon their own heads and give them as plunder to the land of captivity. Do not cover their iniquity and do not let their sin be blotted out before you, for they have provoked you to anger before the builders." And so they went on building that wall. When the wicked comes, contempt comes. And with dishonor, with shame, comes reproach. If these wicked people and their companions contempt and insult and reproach, if they can't find a fault, well, they can invent a fault.

That's not hard to do either. Remember this happened to Daniel. Daniel was a very righteous and wise man who all his life from his youth served the Persian kings. And God blessed him in that role. God gave him wisdom.

He could reveal dreams because God revealed them to him. And when Darius became king, he set up 120 rulers under him over all his vast Persian empire. And he set over these rulers three governors, and Daniel was one. Answered directly to the king. But Daniel, this Daniel, because of the wisdom that was in him, that God had given to him, because God had greatly blessed him, because he had served the Lord, he had intermedaled with wisdom as we saw two weeks ago.

He distinguished himself in that role above all the other rulers, above all the other 120 rulers and even above his other two governors, peers. Because the Bible says an excellent spirit was in him. And the king contemplated putting the whole kingdom under Daniel, so that everybody would report to Daniel. And so these governors, those other two governors in the sat traps, they tried to find some charge against Daniel. They wanted to reproach him, But they couldn't find any fault in him.

Because he was faithful in all the duties that he did. There was no error or fault in him. And they realized if we're going to find any fault in him, we're going to have to create it. We're going to have to create the fault. And so they went to the king, and they asked the king to pass a law that everybody should worship him, pray only to him, for 30 days.

Because they knew that Daniel would not obey that kind of a law. And they were right. And they got the king to pass that law. And then they went out and watched Daniel as three times a day He prayed to the Lord God, to Jehovah. And as soon as they saw him praying to Jehovah, then they could run to the king.

They found their fault. Daniel was breaking the law. They could find no fault in him to reproach him. So they created one. And you probably know very well the rest of that story because that's where Daniel is cast into the lion's den.

And you know what happened there. See their goal, the goal of these wicked, whose companions are contempt and insult and reproach, their goal is to discourage, to dishearten, to bring shame and reproach, to break the heart of those whom they are reproaching, to make them discouraged so that they stop what they are doing. And one way that this is done, one way that the wicked reproach Christians is by exaggerating our sin. They watch for some failing in our duty, just like Daniel's peers watched for some failing in his duty and they draw up their indictment and they grossly exaggerate our sin and they they seek to bring reproach upon us. And in doing this, these wicked are but the instruments of Satan.

Because Satan himself does this. Satan is the accuser of the brethren. And his goal is to convince us that we are hypocrites, that our Christian life is a sham, that real saints are not guilty of the sins that we are committing. That real saints aren't guilty of such terrible sins. And if He can't rob us of our righteousness and rob us of our standing before Jesus Christ, that we are justified in Christ, that who shall lay any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies. If He can't rob us of our righteousness, then He seeks to bring reproach upon the Christian by nitpicking everything in their life, to rob us of our joy. He says to us, and sometimes he uses the wicked in their words, He says, you appeared noble in that act, but you were really in your heart self-serving. You looked like you were working very hard here, but you were really lazy. You could have done more.

You could have worked harder. How do we respond to this? You see, If his indictment, if the reproaches that the wicked cast upon Christians were all lies, it would be easy to see these things as a simple attack of Satan. But when these reproaches have some element of truth in them, then sometimes their reproaches can be to the soul of a Christian who is sensitive to the Holy Spirit, who wants to be led by the Spirit. They can appear as the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

And so how do we tell the difference? Well, one way is that when that accusation contradicts the prior testimony of the Holy Spirit, the prior work of the Holy Spirit in our life, testifying to us that we are His children, working in us that which is well pleasing in His sight, then we can know it's not the Holy Spirit's work. And so we can learn to distinguish then between a proud act and an act that has pride in it, between a hypocrite and a person who has hypocrisy in them. Because see, the best of saints, the best of any saint, we still have the remnants of our old nature within us. We are still tainted with sin in all that we do.

And so these indictments and these reproaches that the wicked can cast upon us can sometimes, can often have enough truth in them that they are troubling. But if you find in your heart a voice that is protesting against such sin, If you find in your nature that warfare that Paul describes in Romans 6, then it is not we who are doing it, but our old nature. And we know then that the Holy Spirit is indeed dwelling within us. Zechariah 3 gives a very vivid picture of this exact process. As Joshua, the high priest, is standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan is standing at his right hand to oppose him, to accuse him.

And the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a brand plucked from the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments And he was standing before the angel, and he answered and spoke to the Lord, who spoke to those who stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And he said to him, See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes." with rich robes." See, in a sense, Satan was standing there to accuse this saint.

And the Lord said in essence, Christ said in essence to God, the Father, will you allow the wicked to show contempt for this, your poor child, because of the infirmities of his old nature which still cling to him? He's a brand plucked out of the fire. There are still embers that are attached to his clothing. His face is smudged with soot. His hair is dirty.

His clothes are filthy as if he had just come out of a chimney, a chimney sweep. He's a brand plucked out of the fire. Of course there are still these stains and marks and smudges about Him. There are some unmortified sins in His life. There are some habits that are not fully put off, that haven't been put off, the old habits put off and replaced with new habits of the new man.

And what Christ did for Joshua, Christ does for us today. Apologizing to the Father for our failings and pleading leniency for our weaknesses. He is our advocate, John says. He is our advocate. He makes intercession for us.

He pleads for us. Needs for us. And so brothers and sisters, when the reproach of the wicked for us. Psalm 69 describes this reproach of Christ. It says, You know my reproach, my shame and my dishonor.

My adversaries are all before You. Reproach has broken my heart, And I am full of heaviness. I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink." This is speaking of Christ. He was given gall for food, vinegar to drink on the cross.

And Christ says, reproach. The reproach of my enemies has broken my heart. And So look to Christ who has borne that reproach. Be thankful when it comes to us, even as the apostles were, be thankful that you are counted worthy to bear the reproach of Christ. Be thankful that you are counted worthy to bear the reproach of Christ.

Be thankful that you are counted worthy to bear the reproach of Christ. Jesus said in fact even more, blessed are you when men revile you when men heap insults upon you and Reproach and have contempt for you because of Christ For my sake rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted They the Prophets which were before you See that is why Hebrews 11 says that Moses counted the reproach of Christ greater riches Greater wealth than all the riches of Egypt Then all the treasures that this vast kingdom had all the gold and all the silver that that was his he was the heir he was the son of Pharaoh's daughter he was a prince in Egypt but he counted the reproach of Christ a greater treasure than all that gold, than all that wealth, than all that honor that he had as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. And so persevering faith in earnest anticipation of that glory that shall be revealed in us willingly bears, willingly bears reproaches and disgraces and rejection that come with following Christ That come from our labors In Christ's kingdom as Nehemiah's labors to rebuild the wall Brought him the reproach and the scorn and the mocking of the people around Him.

So first we do look to Christ, but we should also as we look to Christ and as we bear these reproaches renew our gratitude for Christ's work of redemption, for His grace. See, when we are reminded of our past sin, when we are reminded of the sin that still dwells in us, by the reproaches, by those who reproach us, that's an occasion for us to express gratitude to the Lord and to Christ for His forgiveness of our sins, for the redemption that He has accomplished, for His wonderful grace. It should renew that gratitude And it should deepen our gratitude for what He has done for us as we remember that He bore the reproaches that were due to us. And Thirdly, we can also learn humility. If Christ who was sinless bore the reproach of the wicked, how much more should we who are sinful, who are still tainted and marred and stained by our sin, how much more should we not be willing to bear the reproach knowing that we deserve far worse?

And so it should renew our humility. The recognition that we are nothing apart from Christ. We are nothing. And all that we are, and any good that we have, Or any good that we are able to do, we do because of Him who lives in us. And because of the power of His Spirit at work in us.

And the good fruit that we bear, that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in us. That's His fruit. And we can also learn to walk more circumspectly. The reproach of the wicked can be, in a sense, a chastening of the Lord to grow us. That affliction can remind us to walk more faithfully.

David said in Psalm 119, 67, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I have kept thy word. Before I was afflicted. Someone in verse 71, it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. I know, O God, that your judgments are right and that you in faithfulness have afflicted me. Faithfulness has afflicted me.

Now in very sharp contrast to these companions of the wicked, contempt, disgrace, and reproach is the mouth of the wise that we find described in verse 4. The mouth of one who as we saw two weeks ago is intermeddled in wisdom. His words, the words of his mouth are as deep waters as this fountain, this wellspring of wisdom, a flowing brook. Wisdom a Flowing brook this proverb is Well some proverbs are antithetical where the first phrase contrasts with the second phrase and provides a contrast sometimes they are Synthetic where they build one will build upon another or or synonymous where one will restate what was said in the first case, but in this case, I think what we have here is a proverb or a distic, a couplet, where one phrase builds and completes the thought of the first phrase. That the two go together to form the complete thought.

It's not simply restating it, it's not simply providing us a contrast or an alternative, but it's rather these two go together to complete the thought. The words referred to in the first line, the words of a man's mouth, are further designated as words of wisdom in the second line. The words of a man's mouth are deep waters, the wellspring of wisdom. The words that are being described in the first part are words of wisdom, words of a wise man, which we would always generally assume, anyways, whenever we see a statement without any qualification in Proverbs. And the wellspring of wisdom.

So the words of a man's mouth are deep waters, a deep reservoir. It's a fountain, a wellspring, and they are like a flowing brook, a babbling brook. These words are important. Words are important. John opens his book, In the beginning was the Word, the Logos, and the Word was God.

And the word was with God and the word was God see in Christ is embodied all the wisdom of God and God has God has revealed himself with words God created all things by the word of His power. He spoke, let there be light, and there was light. By the power of His word, that which was not, that which didn't exist, came into existence. Something came from nothing by God's Word. He spoke the world into existence.

This is a big distinction between the living God and idols see idols can't speak they are They're dumb. They're Silent they're mute. Back up to the Prophet says What Prophet is the image that its maker should carve it? The molded image a teacher of lies that the maker of its mold should trust in it to make mute idols. They can't talk.

They don't have any words. The only thing they can say is what the words that we put into them. The only thing they can say is what we make them say. Woe to him who says to wood awake, to silent stone arise and it shall teach. Behold it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet in it there is no breath at all." See this word of God that we have was breathed out by God.

It was breathed out because God has breath. God is a God who speaks. He is a God of words. God has created language. That's how Habakkuk ends.

He says, but in contrast to these idols that can't talk, that have no words, they can't say anything except what we tell them to say. They don't know anything except what we teach them. But God, the Lord, Jehovah is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silent before him when he speaks See God reveals propositional truth through words And When God confounded the language so that the people at the Tower of Babel couldn't understand each other anymore, that resulted in the creation of completely separate civilizations, simply because God confounded their language. Where did all these nations and cultures and different cultures come from?

It came from the fact that God confused the language. So people could no longer understand the words that were spoken one to another. And their great enterprise to build a tower up into the heavens completely fell apart. And We have a record of these civilizations as they were separated and spread throughout the earth. They took with them their gifts and abilities.

We see these different distinctions in civilizations around the world and we still see the many languages that exist because God confused the words. A person's wisdom is revealed by their ability to use words, to minister, to use words for good and to bless. Of course, that's Also the way folly is revealed as well by words that don't bless, that don't edify, that aren't true or helpful. Oftentimes where there is a lot of expletives being used. It's a sign of the failure of words, the failure of the ability to express thoughts and emotions rationally.

See, God gave us language. God gave us an ability to think his thoughts after him and to accurately express propositional truth with our words. And those who wanted to attack Christ in the last century, in our day, broadly speaking, they did so. One of the many ways that the wicked always seek to overthrow Christ and His Kingdom and His reign throughout history. They always are.

And one of the ways that they sought to do that in our day is by attempting to confound the ability of language to convey propositional truth. And you know how they did that. They did it by eliminating phonics from the methods of learning of how people were taught to read. This was not an accident. It was very deliberate.

The people who did it knew exactly what they were doing. You see, those sounds, those letters, those phonograms, we put them together according to the grammar of our language to form words that are then combined together according to the syntax of the English language to communicate, to create a sentence which communicates a propositional truth which can then be put together with other sentences to convey nuances and details and more propositional truth. And by attacking phonics they replaced that process of the construction of truth and the construction of language. They replaced it by what they called the look say method Which is we don't need to worry about phonics We don't need to worry about how sounds go together to perform words and the syntax by which words are put together to perform to form propositional truth We don't have to worry about that. All you need to do is look at that word and what does it say to you?

What does it sound like to you? What does it look like? And so it's called the look, say method. And it was used in my generation and my father's, parents' generation to teach generations of people how not to read. That there was no propositional truth.

That language only meant and words only meant what they meant to you. And they might mean one thing to you and something else to someone else. It was an attempt to say there is no propositional truth. There is no reality of truth. There's only what's true for you in that moment.

There's only what you see in front of you and what comes into your mind when you see those that ink in front of you. So there is a generation of people who grew up thinking now That truth is, there is no absolute truth. That words mean whatever you want them to mean. People that can't express truth very accurately or precisely. John Dewey knew what he was doing.

And so did the people who funded him, who sent their own children to that school because they believed in his attack on Christ, knowing that they would have to retrain their children how to read at another school. That is the extent of their dedication to attacking Christ by attacking the truth of words, The ability of words to convey propositional truths. The words of a man's mouth are deep water. Words are important. Being accurate and being precise with our words is important.

They are a deep reservoir. The soul that is born of the Holy Spirit and in covenant with Christ is connected to an inexhaustible supply of wisdom. An inexhaustible supply of wisdom. Christ astounded the rulers of his day at age 12 with his wisdom. And that was simply his wisdom in his respects as human nature.

But Christ is to us the wisdom of God. That Christ, our connection and union to Christ is a source of refreshment. This is a deep reservoir. Shallow water puddles are not refreshing, but it's deep reservoirs that have refreshing water, or a flowing stream. Wisdom then flows also naturally.

Wisdom then flows also naturally. These words as they speak, as they pour forth, flow naturally like a stream. It's continually being renewed. It's not stale. It's continually being revitalized.

And where Christ is dwelling in us, where we are in vital union, in covenant fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Where His Holy Spirit is dwelling with us, then His wisdom will flow from us as well. And we cannot help but speak those things that we have seen, that we have learned. It's like an artesian well. They used to have these up in South Dakota.

They're just a well, but they're very deep. Some of them were 20, 000 feet or so. And you get down that far, they drill down that far and they tap into this reservoir, this very deep reservoir of water. And it would just, you didn't need a pump. It would just come to the surface all on its own.

And often times where these wells were, the farmers that could afford them would drill them, not being that deep, they were rather expensive. They would drill them and very often a lake would form around that well, because the water just continued to come up from beneath. And they could water all of their cattle, sometimes even water a field. But that's the way a Christian is, who is in union with Christ. That wisdom will flow out, those words will flow out of us like an artesian well.

And we will be a Revealer of God to others through our words Through words that are accurate that convey truth that are precise Jesus said in John 7 that he that believes on me as the scripture has said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. And he spoke this of the Holy Spirit which all those who believed on him would receive. Paul told the Colossians, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. These are words. The Word of Christ dwells in us richly.

It will be a deep reservoir, a wellspring of wisdom, a flowing brook that ministers to others in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, teaching and admonishing each other, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord. That's the fruit of the Word of God dwelling in us richly, the Word of Christ, The Word of Christ. May we be those deep reservoirs, those well springs of wisdom that like a brook flow from our belly to nourishing and to edifying and to blessing those around us. Almighty Father in heaven, we do long to be filled with your Spirit. We do long to be permeated, to meditate upon your word, to have it transform our thinking, renew our minds, to have it instruct our understanding, and to have that life-giving Spirit flow from us as a river of living water, bringing forth your words, your word, your wisdom, your truth.

Father may your Word dwell in us richly. May we be those who are given to it, who meditate upon it. May your Holy Spirit refresh us each day with your Word, And renew each day your mercy to us. And renew each day our love of you, our devotion to you, our adoration of who you are, the exalted creator of heaven and earth our God and our father And renew our gratitude For for so great a salvation for so great a forgiveness that you should have loved us who were such great sinners, and that you should still love us despite our sin. We ask all these things in Jesus' name, Amen.