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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2019 6:02:04 GMT -6
“Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins” (Proverbs 10:12 KJV).
There are two places that arguments and contentions come from. Where do they come from? (1) Hatred. Hating something or somebody. That produces strife. (2) Pride. Only by pride. “Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom” (Proverbs 13:10 KJV).
Now when the Bible says only by pride, that goes to show you that pride is connected with hatred, in fact, it is easy for a proud man to hate. When somebody’s got more than he’s got, or someone does something better than he can do them tends to humble him. He doesn’t like being humbled.
Take Haman. That’s the thing that made Haman livid. Mordecai, the Jew, would not bow down to him. He had more character and more convictions than Haman did. Haman was proud, so what did he do? He developed a hatred for Mordecai to the point where he plotted to kill him. That is what causes strife—ultimately it is pride, and pride produces hatred. Hatred is just really a limb on the tree called pride. And the tree of pride has the roots of self all over the ground.
“. . . but love covereth all sins,” John 3:16 covers all sins. “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins” (I Peter 4:8 KJV).
In our own lives, we are sinful, and we do things that are wrong. I’ll tell you how to cover them up, get out there and do something right. Nobody is perfect—but charity—doing good things for the right motives, not to be saved but because we are saved, will clear the way. Even though you and I are not perfect, folks can get along with us because of the right things we do, and the good things we do. We can be glad that not all folks look at us for the bad things, though some people do. Some folks can only see the wrong in me.
“Charity shall cover the multitude of sins.” Here is an example. You don’t ever want to say anything derogatory about a man’s wife or girlfriend if he is in love with her. He doesn’t see her faults—yet. In truth, he may never. To him, she is the most perfect, most beautiful woman that God ever made. She may be a sight for sore eyes, that is, looking at her makes your eyes sore—but not to him. If that man loves that woman, you had better not tell him that she has a face that could stop a clock. What is derogatory about her is covered in his love for her. What he sees in her is what she means to him personally. Her love for him, and her sacrifices for him, only make that love stronger. No, you better not say anything to him against her.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2019 6:18:36 GMT -6
“A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight” (Proverbs 11:1 KJV).
You cannot serve God and mammon. There is just no way. Jesus tells us to put God first, and the other things will take care of themselves. Then He goes on and talks about our eating, and drinking, and taking care of the flesh and the body. God knows what you need! And then He goes on to tell about how God takes care of the lilies, and He takes care of the birds, therefore He says . . .
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Mat 6:33-34 KJV).
Now, that is not the first thing that people look to, but if you want success in your life, that is where it’s got to be. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. If you want love, if you want joy, if you want peace—the only place you will ever find it—is in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, listening to the Spirit, and yielding to the Sprit. When you yield to the flesh—you sow to the flesh—and you reap corruption. That’s all there is to it. There isn’t any sense in arguing about it, no sense in trying to change it . . . that’s just the way it is.
So, a person ought to be balanced. They ought to spend time on the spiritual nature—that’s the most important nature, that is the eternal nature. We ought not to neglect our physical nature, completely. I believe in some areas you ought to deny it. Paul speaks about denying yourself. To do so would be to deny the soul because really, the soul is the being. Sometimes it isn’t physical things that keep some people from the Lord, sometimes they just want to be left alone. You ever get like that? You just get so sick and tired of people and life. Well, deny the flesh, Live for the Lord, stay in the race—don’t quit, don’t throw in the flag— “A false balance is abomination to the LORD.”
“A just weight is His delight.” Learn to balance things. Learn to give yourself to prayer and the Bible. But there again, understand the physical needs of life. If you have a family, there are physical needs. Some men get so desirous of serving God—nothing wrong with that—but the Devil gets behind them, and since he can’t push them toward the physical side of life, he gets behind them and pushes them toward the spiritual, to an extreme position, where they deny all the needs of the flesh. And the children go without love and fellowship with their parents that they ought to have. Dad is out doing this and living for God and serving God, and the wife is neglected, the children are neglected. That isn’t right.
God gives you a family, you ought to spend time with them and fellowship with them, and pray with them, and take them places. Go on picnics. Kids have demands, don’t let them be fulfilled somewhere else. You say, “I don’t have time for that! People are dying and going to hell!” Well, okay. Don’t let your kids die and go to hell. God gave you children. Spend time with them, on their level. Don’t expect them to come up to your level. They only way to enjoy fellowship with children is to go down to their level and just enjoy me. After all, isn’t that what God does for us? Play hide-and-seek with them, get in a wrestling match with them, chase your kids all through the house.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2019 6:22:33 GMT -6
“A man shall be commended according to his wisdom: but he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised” (Proverbs 12:8).
“. . . but he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised.” that perverse heart is in connection with the counsel of the wicked back in verse five where the thoughts of the righteous are right and there the thoughts of the unrighteous are wrong. Well, it says here, “but he that is of a perverse heart.” The only place in the Bible that a perverse heart shows up, although we also see in Isaiah 19:14, talking about Egypt which is a type of the world, where it speaks of “a perverse spirit.”
“. . . but he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised,” your soul is the most valuable thing that you can possibly be in position of, and “what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul” (Mark 8:36)? But, for most of us, at one time or another, we are awful fleshly; and we get to thinking that our physical life is the next most important thing. Well, that's not true. Your heart is. And, given now that you're saved, and the devil can't get your soul; the next thing he's after is your heart and mind.
The fact of the matter is that we live in a sewer, and we have to clean up all the time. We need the cleansing Blood of Jesus Christ daily, if not hourly. Our verse is here talking about a perverse heart, “he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised.” Let’s just look how often Solomon mentions this matter.
“He that walketh in his uprightness feareth the LORD: but he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him” (Proverbs 14:2).
When you are trying to do right, you fear God; but on the other hand, it’s a rule of the road that when you start going down the wrong track you will wind up hating God, or else only admitting to hating parts of Him. The church today is filled with people who are happy enough to hear about certain things, but when it comes to certain other things, they hate that. They love to hear about blessings well enough, but when it comes to biblical standards—change the subject, please. They hate the fact that those things get brought up, and they hate that part of God.
There is a kind of Christian idolatry, where people build the kind of Jesus they want; and leave out the parts that they don't like.
There are people in this world that call themselves Christians, but they hate the part of Christ that would judge sins; such as sodomy and adultery. Yet, “whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4) is in the Bible, so it is His Word that they really hate, so they don’t want to hear that and so they leave that out. The new versions are really bad about that. They call it “immorality,” but they won't address it as fornication, but God will judge that. So, people leave that out. If you're not careful, you'll grow to hate the part of God that's going to judge your sin.
“He that hath a froward heart findeth no good: and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief” (Proverbs 17:20).
Here is another rule of the road. If you have a sharp perverse tongue, it'll get you in trouble. It will lead you to trouble. Have you ever known a smart aleck that didn't wind up in trouble? It is true that there may be some people who aren't smart alecks that get in trouble, but the Bible says, “He that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief,” like a snare.
The Lord said, “every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof on the day of judgement” (Matthew 12:36). a man is snared by the words of his mouth. Somewhere along the way he'll shoot his mouth off and God will say “Okay, I'll hold you to that.” He did Saul. Saul said, “As the Lord liveth,” you know, “whether it’s me or Jonathan, whoever it is, will be killed. Well, it was Jonathon, and he didn't kill him. But he had sworn, “as the Lord liveth,” and he paid for it.
On another occasion, David had no clue what he was saying. He was just mad at the story that a guy stole another guy’s sheep, so, in his anger he said that the guy would “surely die.” “Okay,” God said, “I'll hold you to that. It will be repaid fourfold? I’ll hold you to that.”
“Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool” (Proverbs 19:1).
Paul says in the Book of Acts, that there would be men that came in behind him speaking perverse things. So, apostasy is nothing new. It's been going on, even while the apostles were alive.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2019 8:15:59 GMT -6
“Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded” (Proverbs 13:13).
“Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed,” Proverbs 8 deals with this subject: “But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death” (Proverbs 8:36).
There is an unhappy end to all those that despise the Word of God, reject its warnings, and refuse Him that came to give them eternal life: “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power” (II Thessalonians 1:7-9).
Many of the people that are saved are saved because verses like this scare the hell out of them. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” and he is fool that scoffs at the One that can destroy them with an everlasting destruction. “And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” (Jude 1:23).
“. . . but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded,” he that submits to the Word of God and applies Christ’s sacrifice on the cross to himself is saved and shall never be destroyed.
What is a man’s responsibility toward the Word of God?
1. He is to receive it: “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21).
2. He is to take it in like seed: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (I Peter 1:23).
3. If he rejects it, it will judge him: “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48).
“Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.”
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2019 7:54:28 GMT -6
“He that walketh in his uprightness feareth the LORD: but he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him” (Proverbs 14:2 KJV).
“He that walketh in his uprightness feareth the LORD,” the reason that people walk uprightly is because of “the fear of the Lord.” Romans says that “there is no fear of God before their eyes.” And that is essentially the problem with America. They do not fear God, they do not fear judgment, they do not fear justice; they have been deceived into thinking they can beat it. They have a weird humanistic philosophy that says that they are the master of their own fate—and that simply is not true.
They are dealing with God and the Devil, not chance, or just the physical realm—they are dealing with the spiritual laws which they do not understand.
“. . . but he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him,” despises whom? Despises God. A crooked man despises God obviously because he revels in his crookedness, and God rebukes his sin. John tells us that light has come into the world but that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. They don’t like God, and they don’t like anyone telling them about God. That flat out don’t want to be bothered in their perverseness.
Noah condemned the whole world by building a boat. They were all doing wrong, and his building of the boat stood as a constant reminder to them of it and warned of coming judgment which they were not interested in hearing or heeding. Noah was separating himself from them, he was not doing what the local crowd was doing, and he was preaching judgment to them all day long, and they didn’t like that. “We are not as bad as you seem to think we are!” And that is the way this old world still looks at it.
“There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness” (Proverbs 30:12).
They are not clean, but they are vile and filthy.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2019 6:11:13 GMT -6
“The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3).
This is a good verse that you want to show to every sinner that you can get to read that. They don’t think that God sees what is going on. God sees it all. The evil and the good, God knows it all. This describes God’s omniscience.
Omniscience is one of the three main attributes of God. Omnipresence and omnipotence are the other two. God is all-knowing, all-present, and all-powerful. God knows all things, and all three of these are found in one passage in Psalm 139. This is not to say that they are not found in others, but Psalm 139 is the main one.
“O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it” (Psalms 139:1-6).
God is all-knowledge. Did you ever think about this? God has never thought about anything. Did it occur to you that nothing has never occurred to God? God’s wisdom is perfect and immediate. He doesn’t need to think a situation out, for He already knows what to do. Man is somehow trying to create that with his computers. The difference between a computer and God is that with man’s programming it has to deal with “garbage in, garbage out.”
David describes God’s omnipotence in verse 14: “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” God’s ways are marvelous, full of marvel.
Verses 7-10 speak of God’s omnipresence: “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.”
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2019 6:10:41 GMT -6
“All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits. Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established” (Proverbs 16:2-3 KJV).
There are three things of note in this passage.
1. A man must have good aspirations. Those are the preparations of the heart. To aspire to be right with God. That is getting your life and your motives straightened out.
2. Then his answers will be proper. When he has the right motives and aspirations are centered on God and righteousness, the obvious result will be that he will have the right answers and they will be from the Lord.
3. Since his heart is right, and his mouth is speaking with pure words, he will have the right actions.
“Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established,” those things there lead to a good thought-life. People often come to their pastor and say, “I have terrible thoughts.” Their problem is 1) they need to get their heart right with God and get their minds centered on the things of God, 2) then they need to train their mouth to speak of the oracles of God, and 3) then commit your works to God, 4) then the thoughts will be established.
“If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen” (I Peter 4:11).
It isn’t any psychological trick to getting our mind straightened out, the thing is we have to flush it out, wash it out, and retrain it. That’s really all there is to it. You have to get rid of all the old habits and replace them with new habits and commit your ways unto the Lord.
People want instant success. Just add one church service and I’ll be all straightened out, it’s going to take a while longer than that. How long did it take you to get into the mess you are in? I wish it were that quick, but we spent a lot of time messing it up. Now, God can forgive you just like that, but He can’t make you what He wants to make you just like that.
Some have habits that are bent and twisted and have been formed over a long time by the wrong motives and aspirations based around the things of this world—so you need to just junk all that and start all over again. At least with God we can start all over again.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2019 8:21:37 GMT -6
“A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it: whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth” (Proverbs 17:8).
There are a number of ways of looking at this. The gift of life. If you have the gift of everlasting life, that is pretty precious. It is hard to believe that some do not truly appreciate what they have and do not use it to the glory of God, but it is a fact that there are some like that. In the sense of that gift, we might think about this. Notice that it does three things:
- First, the gift of God, the gift of salvation is precious. How much is it worth? How much would you sell it for, if you could? What kind of price tag would you put on it? How much is the Blood of Jesus Christ worth? You couldn’t put a price tag on it. It is priceless: “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers” (I Peter 1:18). Jesus Christ compared it to gaining the whole world, and yet that is not worth an exchange for a single soul.
- Second, the gift is purifying. “. . . withersoever it turneth,” your salvation will turn you. It will turn you from sin unto righteousness. If you will cultivate your salvation and take a hold of it in your life, it will purify you. It will help you to turn from things that are wrong as a Christian grows in the Lord. Our thankfulness to Him and our desire to please Him will turn you from those things that displease Him to things that do please Him.
- Last, it will prosper you. It will prosper you and it will be prosperous to others. Now, this idea of prosperity has been hijacked by the “Name it and Claim it crowd.” These bunch of howling wolves have turned God into a Vegas slot machine that only pays out and never loses. John tells us what it means: “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth” (III John 2). It is one that recognizes and enjoys his spiritual blessings in Christ to the fullest measure. It is good health, and Proverbs tells us over and over how to have good health through God’s Word and sound biblical wisdom.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2019 6:31:57 GMT -6
“Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD” (Proverbs 18:22).
“House and riches are the inheritance of fathers: and a prudent wife is from the LORD” (Proverbs 19:14). Prudent is sound in judgment and in practical matters. She is cautious, discreet, sensible, and modest. Later on, Solomon will say, “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies” (Proverbs 31:10).
It is not necessary that a man be saved before God will give him a good wife. Certainly, in one perspective, God has foreknowledge and gives a man a virtuous woman knowing that they will both be saved and serve Him. This was true in my case. Neither of us were saved, we were involved in the false cult of Mormonism. God saved me first and then a couple of weeks later, God saved my wife; and we praise Him for His goodness, longsuffering, and love.
Where will a man find a good wife? Generally, you can be sure of the Lord’s blessing if you are both actively living for the Lord and in a good, Bible-believing church. It isn’t enough just to say it is good to meet each other in church because in our Laodicean age just about anything goes for a church these days. If the Bible isn’t revered and preached as our final authority, you are not in a church that God will bless. Some will disagree, and we’ll just have to wait until we get to heaven to find out that I’m right and they are all wrong.
If a woman holds the same convictions and is not susceptible to the winds of change and various opinions that are different about every other week, you stand to finding a good mate. Biblical convictions are not something that are only important one day a week for a couple of hours—they are the very roadmap of a believer’s life. Sadly, wisdom has to be clung to during this time because when a couple is dating, one might be simply on their best behavior as they really are acting a role for the purpose of snaring a mate. It is a sad thing that in America today, many will spend more time choosing their next pair of shoes then they will of picking a mate for a lifetime.
Truly, “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD.” If you find a good one, you better thank God for it!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2019 8:55:08 GMT -6
“Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth” (Proverbs 19:2 KJV).
“Also, that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good” it is better to be poor and to walk in your integrity then that the soul be without knowledge “. . . and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth,” some people are in just too much hurry . . . haste makes waste. That is an axiom of life, people that make decisions in a hurry usually make the wrong decisions.
Some have done that in moving somewhere, or in getting a job, or even in getting married. When we make a hasty decision without honestly giving it time to think over it are now suffering what they call “buyer’s regret.” It isn’t like you can just move back to where you started, considering the expense in the first place. And sadly, in America, there are too many marriages that should have been blessed and fruitful, except that they were with the wrong party—so they are sad and miserable.
Then he spoke about the soul being without knowledge. In the Old Testament, the body and the soul were considered to be the same things. The Holy Spirit used them interchangeable. And for a man to be without knowledge in the Old Testament meant that he couldn’t make a living, he couldn’t supply for his needs, and he couldn’t supply the needs of his family. That was pretty bad. A man like that is tempted to do wrong in order to make ends meet, and to be bitter and be mean.
As to us, we have a body and a soul, and our outward man has learned some things—the wisdom of this world—the Bible tells us that men “are ever learning, yet never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (II Timothy 3:7). A carnal man knows a lot, but he doesn’t know much truth. He knows a lot of facts, like baseball averages and the like, while their souls are empty. They don’t know about God, they don’t know about grace, and frankly they don’t care one way or the other. When a man’s spiritual knowledge is void of understanding and knowledge, it is not good. This is the definition of a biblical fool. Just think about how much Einstein and Hawking knew, and yet they both died and went to hell. I’d be happier being as dumb as a post and yet knowing that I was going to go to heaven when I die.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2019 8:24:42 GMT -6
“The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him” (Proverbs 20:7).
He has a godly walk. How does he walk? In his integrity. That is wholeness. A man with integrity is an individual that is physically sound, and spiritually whole. Integrity is moral soundness. The best way to put it is that it is the kind of character that is incorruptible. The Devil can tempt that character, but because his ways are so deeply ingrained, and so well planned within him, that it is an easy thing for him to say, “Nope!”
“A just man walketh in his integrity,” not his own desires. If he walked in his desires, he’ll spend the rest of his life fulfilling his own wishes and wants and not the will of God for his life.
“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Galatians 5:16-17).
That is what is wrong with American young people. The way of righteousness is vague to them, so that when they are tempted with evil, it is so easy for them to yield, and so hard for them to resist it. Television programs have filled them with so much situational ethics that they are convinced that the ends justify the means in every case. They have no guidance, they have no training in discipline like a soldier, so, they reflexively defend themselves against it.
A soldier is taught to defend himself; he is taught to recognize the enemy or a dangerous situation and react to it. The sentry will call out, “Identify yourself! Friend or foe!” Pilots are taught to identify the enemy just by the shape of the fuselage, because they rarely get close enough to it to see the hammer and sickle on it. With their training, they are prepared not to be drawn into a situation where they are vulnerable.
When a child is properly trained, he is taught to stay away from things that are wrong, and you repeat the lessons over and over and over again until they are second nature. Then, when they are faced with choices the chances are much greater that they will choose the right over the wrong. Even when they yield to temptation, they will know that they have done wrong and will have the tools to correct the problem. God will work on them, and their character will grow. Some people have no character whatsoever, so they do not have an anchor for when the storms of temptation come—and their vessel is overwhelmed.
When a man consistently walks in his own integrity, he establishes a solid example for his children, and as a result, “his children are blessed after him.”
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2019 6:10:32 GMT -6
“An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin” (Proverbs 21:4).
Here are the kind of people that bring the wrong kind of sacrifices mentioned in the previous verse: “To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.”
What was Cain’s problem? He just wouldn’t bring the right sacrifice, would he? It wasn’t a matter of sacrifice here, he certainly brought more to the altar than Abel did. Cain had brought all the fruit of the labor of his hands, he certainly worked hard to produce them. Abel hadn’t done a thing other than raise the sheep—that was God’s work. Abel brought the lazy man’s sacrifice. Cain worked hard on that crop, but God wasn’t interested in the works of a man’s hands but the content of a man’s heart.
“An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.” Just plain, everyday common work is sin: “And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it” (Exodus 20:25). This is why there is absolutely nothing that you or I can do in the flesh to please God, because we are doing it with the flesh. It is touched by corrupt hands. Michelangelo himself could not build an altar that would be pleasing to God.
“An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.” This is hard on men, because they are all so proud of their works. That’s the difference between how man looks at it, and God looks at it. It is just as 21:2 says, “Every work of man is right in his own eyes,” it is the product of pride.
“An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.” Solomon deals with that subject of the proud heart in chapter 6. It was one of the seven abominations to God. It is abominable to God because it justifies and exalts man and denies the exaltation of God. God hates that.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2019 7:22:18 GMT -6
“He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor” (Proverbs 22:9).
“He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed,” here is a person that gives. We find the same principle in these two passages in Proverbs:
“The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself” (Proverbs 11:25).
“He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again” (Proverbs 19:17).
“. . . for he giveth his bread to the poor,” certainly the opposite of this fellow: “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard” (Proverbs 21:13). The fellow that takes care of the poor, that is the man that God is going to bless.
“He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed,” that’s an absolute promise, “for he giveth his bread to the poor.” God made the poor, so when a man cares for the poor, he is taking care of the people that God wants him to take care of. He gave you the ability to take care of them. This is an equality, which is talked about in the believer’s life in Second Corinthians 8: “But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality” (verse 14).
Right now, you have a bounty, and someone else has a need. You supply their need. Why? So that when you have a need, and they have a bounty—they will supply your need, and you will have an equality.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 23, 2019 6:33:16 GMT -6
“Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom” (Proverbs 23:4).
Paul touches on this in First Timothy 6: “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (I Timothy 6:9-10).
Haman wanted to be rich and powerful, and he was willing to kill an entire race of people to get it. He was willing to lie to get what he wanted, and he was willing to cut corners. Also is it true of a man that wants to be rich. He is willing to do in his neighbor to get it.
If God makes a man rich, that is okay: “Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God” (Ecclesiastes 5:19). If God has made you rich, praise His name! Give it back to Him, use it for His glory. God will often give more money “through” you than he will ever give “to” you, if He knows He can trust you with it.
“Labour not to be rich,” we ought to labor to please God: “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:23-24). Meet the needs of others: “And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing” (I Thessalonians 4:11-12). You will be able to meet your own needs, and the needs of others.
“Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth” (Ephesians 4:28).
“Labour not to be rich,” labor to meet your needs and to meet the needs of others. That is a good reason to work.
“. . . cease from thine own wisdom,” it’s better to get God’s wisdom: Christ is our wisdom—that is the only wisdom that is really any good. That is the wisdom that is from above, James 3:14, 15. The reason that you don’t want to lean on your on wisdom is given to us by Paul: “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise” (I Corinthians 3:18). Many are easily deceived by their own wisdom. Our own hearts are deceitful, so it is not hard to be deceived by one’s own self.
We don’t need any more of the wisdom of this world, what we do know is not worth much. What we need to know is more about the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to know more about our Bible, we need to know more about God.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2019 6:18:07 GMT -6
“Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established: And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches” (Proverbs 24:3-4).
“Through wisdom is an house builded.” This is heavenly wisdom, as opposed to earthly wisdom, which is sensual, according to James. The right understanding is to depart from evil (Job 28:28). The right kind of house is built on wisdom. There are two kinds of houses, according to Matthew 7. The one is built on the rock, and the other is built on sand. The wise man builds his house on a rock through wisdom. He builds on something stable, solid, and eternal. In other words, the solid foundation of the Word of God.
“. . . by understanding it is established,” that’s the results of how you built it. You had a healthy fear of God, so you built the house right, and by understanding it is established.
“And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches,” don’t put anything in it that will destroy it, only put things in it that God will bless. Do you know why people get rid of their TV sets? They begin to realize what that thing really is. So, they begin to get rid of things that they know is harmful and replace them with things that are good for them.
“And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches,” there is nothing good about a television set. That thing is filled with murders, and fornication, and blasphemy. They portray Christians as the biggest clowns in the family and belittle fathers as blithering idiots. Homosexuals comprise about 2% of the population, but you would think they are more than 60% based on the actors. Every vile wicked sin someone can think of is acted out in that box sitting in people’s living rooms.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2019 6:08:02 GMT -6
“These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.”
Chapter 25 begins kind of a new section in Proverbs. Some want to say that these were proverbs collected by King Hezekiah’s men, much later on. It doesn’t say that, it says, “These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out” (Proverbs 25:1 KJV). It doesn’t say that this happened at a later date, it just says that they copied them out. Hezekiah, of course, was a king that came about 400 years later. What the ‘scholars’ want to suggest is this, Solomon wrote another book, a mystery gospel, and these are five chapters that were copied out of that so that there is a missing book somewhere. These scholars always want to come up with an apocryphal book, a “q” document, some missing thing that we don’t have in order to ‘imply’ that the Scriptures are not complete. That is just another way to get around what the Scriptures say as ‘final.’ They are just what 25:1 says they are, and nothing more.
Chapter 25 begins a new section, and this is kind of like throwing salt on wounds. Chapters 25 through 29 is every bit as rough as it gets. Added admonitions and rebuke for the way that people live. This is the third section. The first section chapters 1-9 contrasted wisdom and folly, the second section of chapters 10-24 were Solomon’s proverbs, and this third section are more of Solomon’s proverbs but their style and approach changes.
“These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.”
Now, you see that little phrase in there—God just stuck that in there to foul the scholars up—those that wanted to disbelieve the book. God, it seems, always has a wrench to fit somebody’s nut. If a man wants to make a mess, God will supply the material to mess them up. He’ll put things in the Bible that seemingly contradict just so that men will have fuel for their fire, and that because He delights in seeing them made fools of. Why does He do this? Well, some men refuse to believe the truth, so He makes it possible for them to believe a lie.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2019 8:43:20 GMT -6
“Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth. As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife” (Proverbs 26:20-21).
Verses 20 and 21 go together. What do you need to say about verse 20? You want to know where half the problems you have get started? People talk about one person’s problems to other people. They like to gossip. “Did you hear the latest news?” You are always going to have some problems, but most of them will just go away with everybody will just shut their mouths and stop spreading stories around.
If everybody will just shut up and pray about it, and if you have a problem with somebody, just go to them and don't tell the secret to anybody else. Go to him with the problem, and it will usually get ironed out. Some folks are just fire stokers. They are just stoking the fire in the furnace, and the hotter it gets the better they like it.
You know what they like to do? They like to stir up a lot of trouble and just back off and watch it. To them it is fun and games. It is cheap entertainment. It can cause a tremendous amount of trouble.
“Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good” (Ecclesiastes 9:18).
“As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife.” (Proverbs 26:21).
This speaks about the troublemaker. The Scribes and Pharisees, when they dealt with Jesus and Paul; what they did was they would go around behind their back and they would stir up the people against them. That was adding wood to the fire. It was hard enough to watch the things that Jesus and Paul preached that put people under conviction. If the Scribes and the Pharisees would let that thing go, the Holy Spirit would have worked salvation in those lives, but what happened was those Scribes and Pharisees went out and stirred the people against the Lord, and a lot of people that were for him.
I mean, do you realize that when Jesus Christ came into Jerusalem, they were saying “hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna! to the King” and four or five days later they are hollering, “kill Him! kill Him! kill Him!” How could that happen? The Scribes and Pharisees. They said, “Well, He did this, He said that he was going to destroy the temple in three days, and He is against the Jews, and he's a revolutionary, and so forth. They turned the people against Him and told a bunch of lies and said contentious stuff. They were troublemakers and talebearers.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 27, 2019 6:32:29 GMT -6
“As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his praise. Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him” (Proverbs 27:21-22).
“As the fining pot for silver,” or to be refined, in the sense of purified, to get the dross out of it; “and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his praise.” A wise man, that is, the good man reveals purity by how he handles praise. Praise will test you. When people praise a fool, he gets all carried away with it. But, “as the fining pot for silver,” praise can purify.
When you get praised properly and you really know what you really are, it makes you think, “I really don't deserve that. Well, there's this thing wrong with me, and that thing wrong with me. If I am going live up to this, I had better get right.” Most people wouldn't think that praise could purify us, but when your heart is right with God, you know you don't deserve it, and you know that it’s really God that deserves the praise and honor. You begin to look within yourself, and say, “Boy! If I’m going to live up to this, I’d better get my act together!”
“Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.” No matter what you do to a fool, you can't really separate him from his foolishness. Now, to “bray” a fool is to bawl him out or rebuke him. And you rebuke him “in a mortar,” that's a vessel shaped like an inverted bell made of wood or metal, and when you bray him “in a mortar among wheat with a pestle,” that’s an instrument for pounding and breaking things. In other words, if you try to break a fool with words; bawl him out—you can do that, “yet will not his foolishness depart from him.”
“Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him” (Proverbs 22:15). But for an adult, it gets harder to do the older they get, and you get the point where God can’t break a man. What happens it that guy’s heart just hardens, and hardens and hardens, like Pharaoh. And God tries to break him. He did, didn't He? He did try. When you think about the plagues of Egypt; socially, financially, industrially; the whole business. He destroyed Egypt. It didn’t break Pharaoh. God just kept pounding, and pounding, and pounding. It just made him harder.
That happens sometimes, but there again, some other times God will pound on people and they will break. Thank God for that. The younger you can get to them, God doesn’t need to pound on them that much, the better the chance are breaking them.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 28, 2019 5:59:53 GMT -6
“He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor” (Proverbs 28:8).
“He that by usury,” that's the Bible term for interest bearing loans. “He that by usury and unjust gain,” notice how he connects usury with unjust gain. I don’t know what that says for the banking system in the world, but it ain’t good. It is just unjust gain, and that's using people's money to make more money.
“He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.” How do you figure that out? Well, number one; the Bible does not condemn the free enterprise system, buying and selling, but it does condemn the banking system. If we could get rid of the banking system in America, it would straighten out the free enterprise system. That way people couldn’t borrow money to buy things that they can’t afford.
“And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase” (Leviticus 25:35-37).
“Hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? he shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him” (Ezekiel 18:13). God will recompense judgment upon him, and his money will go to someone else. It will likely go to someone that did have pity on the poor.
There is an example of this in Zechariah 14:14, “And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance” (Zechariah 14:14).
The world, under the leadership of the Antichrist is going to steal everything they can from the Jews during the Tribulation, just like the Nazi’s did under Hitler. They took all the wealth like it did under the Catholic inquisition. And what God is going to do, is at the Second Coming of Christ and Zechariah 14:14 will be fulfilled. The Jews will wind up with all that ill-gotten gain.
Just like when the Jews went to Egypt. They came out with all the abundance of the Egyptians. They had gathered it all unjustly from the Jews, and God gave it all back to them. I’m glad that there is a God in heaven, and that He makes it all right.
If there wasn’t a God in heaven, you just might as well blow your brains right out. Nothing is going to be right. Nothing is ever going to come out right, there's no right! I think if a man is not saved and knows better, he’s got to be insane.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2019 6:24:15 GMT -6
“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn” (Proverbs 29:2 KJV).
“When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice,” it’s the righteous people that rejoice. There are a lot of people in America that don't rejoice when a conservative is in the White House. They don't. They would just as soon have a socialist running the country. They are all demanding that we stop being nationalists in our country and become globalists. The world is ready for the one-world government of the Antichrist.
The problem with America is that you don't have enough righteous people; it's getting like Sodom and Gomorrah. When you really stop and think about it, even amongst Christian people it is hard to find people that really want to do right. God gives people what they deserve in the way of a monarch, or a leader, and here when the righteous are in authority; that usually is a result of the people wanting something that's fair and equitable, and something that has judgment and justice in the way of a government.
So, God usually gives that people what they want. Of course, that doesn’t always hold true. You study the history of England, you'll find that England would have a good King, a good monarch, then they’d have a Mary of Scots. People mourned under her rule. They didn't like her, but eventually God gave them some good kings, but for a time there it was rough.
“. . . but when the wicked beareth rule,” like Ahab, “the people mourn.” Also, like Belshazzar. Nebuchadnezzar was bad, but Belshazzar was worse. God cut him off and his kingdom; He never did that to his grandfather.
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