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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2020 23:54:39 GMT -6
“Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbour” (Proverbs 19:4).
“The rich man's wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty” (Proverbs 10:15).
If a man has wealth, people will try to proselyte him quicker than they will a poor man. Why? Rich people pay the bills. It is better to have 100 people all giving $10.00 out of their poverty, than one rich man writing a $1,000 check and thinking that he can run the church because of his money. Many churches have been split to pieces because of a few that wanted things to run their way rather than the Lord’s. And they had the financial clout that if they were to leave, the church would suffer. Some churches put more faith in tithers than in the God that established the work; and some churches quickly become other than what they were originally called to be. Likely it was that that attracted the rich man to join in the first place.
What this verse deals with is real segregation and it is expounded upon by James: “For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?” (James 2:2-4).
Segregation in the Bible is not racial. Segregation has to do with rich and poor. Separation has to do with true and false, as with doctrinal truth. Having respect to rich people while disrespecting the poor is true biblical segregation. The poor are really the people that Jesus came to preach to (Luke 4:18).
If you run around with faithful Christian people, you are going to find out that the majority of them are poor. They are not going to have a whole lot of what this world has, or what this world considers important. They just don’t get into all those new cars and new boats. They are simple and content with such things as they have. Most Christians are more interested in supporting their church, and sending their kids to a Christian school, and doing what they can to further the missionary program of overseas evangelism. Worldly people just spend a whole lot of money on things that are foolish.
Most wealthy people are interested in wealth, not in God. They are not interested in winning people to Christ. Most of the most common complaints I heard during the bus ministry days was, “Why are we busing in all these poor kids. They are smelly and don’t contribute anything toward the cost of the busses. Those kinds of words used to turn my stomach and I lost a lot of respect towards some that I had formally looked up to.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2020 7:17:51 GMT -6
“Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread” (Proverbs 20:13).
If a man does nothing, eventually he is going to run out of harvest provisions, and he is going to run out of money. A man that sleeps away his life will come to poverty. There are a lot of impoverished Christians also, for they would rather sleep than study the Word of God. Just as a man needs physical food to sustain his physical health, a Christian needs a steady supply of the bread and water of the Word to sustain their spiritual life.
“Open thine eyes,” in other words, “Get up!” and “thou shalt be satisfied with bread.”
When a man gets saved, something more than just “salvation” occurs: “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:18). One of the big errors in the world today is that people need a priest to guide them. The Bible teaches the “priesthood of the believer.” We have the same right, in fact a greater privilege than the unsaved religious man, to communicate with God and understand the Scriptures. The idea that no man should attempt to interpret the Bible is one of the chief lies from the pits of hell.
“Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away” (II Corinthians 3:16). That is, when the heart turns to God, the Bible becomes an open Book. God then gives a man a knowledge of the Gospel, and the Holy Spirit continues to expand that man’s knowledge as he studies the Bible.
Why doesn’t a lost man believe the Gospel? Because it is hid from him: “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (II Corinthians 4:3-4). He sees it, he hears it, but it doesn’t penetrate—because his heart is all messed up. He loves his sleep, his spiritual slumber, and only cares about physical things to the satisfying of his flesh. As a result, he does not see the reality of eternity, does not see the reality of sin, and the reality of hell. But if he will turn to the Lord, God will reveal all these things unto him, and the truth is no longer hid—as the bondage to Satan is broken to pieces.
Now, we are talking about spiritual sleep here for the most part. There is nothing wrong with enjoying physical sleep—in moderation, of course. There is nothing better to a worn-out saint of God that has spent his waking hours busy in the Lord to curl up and get his physical batteries charged during a good eight hours of deep sleep.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2020 6:22:05 GMT -6
“To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice” (Proverbs 21:3).
Here is an axiom of life, it is better to do this than to do that. Now, sacrifices in the Old Testament were animals, and animals were very expensive. Back in those days, oxen and cattle were very highly prized and to have enough of them to bring them to the altar of sacrifice meant that the man was wealthy. The poor were allowed to substitute pigeons and birds, because they did not have the price of a sheep or a goat or an ox.
You take a man that had plenty of animals, or a house full of sacrifices, who could take any animal at any time to the temple. God was not interested in that. Some people that had a lot of animals figured that they could just live as wickedly as they wished, because they could cover the deed with their animals. God is not interested in a man’s sacrifice; He is interested in him doing right. He would rather have you do right and bring a pigeon, than to flaunt sin and bring hundreds of oxen.
A lot of people think they can get away with things because they put a lot of money in the coffers of churches and religious organizations. It is nothing but conscience money, and God detests it. A lot of people figure they can stay home from churches and just send a few checks into some television evangelist, and that will satisfy the Lord. That kind of sacrifice to them justifies their ways, for “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts” (21:2). God isn’t interested in that. God is interested in them doing justice and judgment—doing right.
King Saul tried to get out of doing right: “And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22). Samuel told him that he had done wrong and God was not pleased because God would rather have his obedience than worship. Saul did wrong in order to have sacrifices, so Samuel said: “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king” (1 Samuel 15:23).
David, from his own bitter experience, tells us what the sacrifices of the Lord are: “O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalms 51:15-17).
It doesn’t matter what you have to sacrifice, if your heart is yielded to God, God accepts it. The same holds true about our salvation, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling; naked, come to thee for dress; helpless, look to thee for grace.”
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Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2020 6:56:49 GMT -6
“A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished. By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life. Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward: he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them” (Proverbs 22:3-5).
“A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself,” that is a cautious man fearful of judgment and reaping, and careful about the future. He refuses to involve himself in something that is evil, because he already knows what the end result will be for him. He isn’t going to sow the wrong crop.
“. . . but the simple pass on, and are punished,” this is the crowd that Proverbs begins with back in chapter 1: “How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?” (Proverbs 1:22). Some folks are just simpletons. They are fools and just won’t believe the truth, and the laugh at the judgment. “Ha! Ha! It won’t come! There is no God to judge!” And then they die and go to hell.
“. . . but the simple pass on, and are punished,” it just goes to show us that there are a lot of simple folks in this world, because the way is broad and wide that leads to destruction according to Matthew 7:13-14.
“By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life.”
Sometimes in this life, all the time in the next life. If a man follows God, and has faith in God, the Bible tells us that our trials are priceless: “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (I Peter 1:7). If a man is humble, and trusts God, and believes God, and trusts in God for his needs—and he fears God—that is great riches and honor, and of course it is going to be everlasting life for the man that humbles himself, fears the wrath of God, and turns to Christ for pardon.
“Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward: he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them.”
“Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward,” what this simply means is that trouble is coming. If a man’s ways are crooked or perverse, he’s headed for trouble, he’s seeking death, he is just looking for a bad end— “thorns and snares.”
God puts those “thorns and snares” there. Over here is old Ahab. He has just killed Naboth for his vineyard. He is just about to go over there and possess it and take ownership of it. He is about to go relish over it and revel in his gain. And here comes along the prophet. All of a sudden, the sweet taste of victory is turned bitter. He is staring into “thorns and snares.” That prophet looked straight into his face and rebuked him for his sin and told him of his impending death.
“. . . he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them,” in other words, if you keep your soul right, stay in the Word of God, you’ll stay out of a lot of trouble. That is just good, plain advice.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2020 7:00:10 GMT -6
“Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old” (Proverbs 23:20-22).
The previous verse tells us to be guided in the right way. Here in this verse is a way that no Christian should be. These winebibbers are the wrong guides. A winebibber is one that has an unquenchable taste for liquor. Also avoid gluttons, “riotous eaters of flesh,” for both the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty. Just carried away with their fleshly appetites. Some folks eat to live, other live to eat.
Do not cultivate an obsessive love for food, it just leads to real problems in your life. Cultivate friends who will feed you in the way of righteousness—with spiritual food. Stay away from the wicked. It is a principle of separation.
There are some Christians who think that they are so strong and so spiritual that they can play around with people like that and not be affected by them. They are absolutely out of their gourd. “. . . a companion of fools shall be destroyed” (Proverbs 13:20). You just can’t do it. You can’t go into a mineshaft and not get dirty. People are foolish who think, “Well, I can take care of myself.” You can’t!
“For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty,” and if you are there on the day he does, you’ll go right down with him.
“. . . and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags,” notice how drunkenness and gluttony leads to laziness. Overeating and drunkenness leads to laziness, and laziness leads to poverty. Poverty leads to the welfare office. America is the great enabler when it comes to codling ne’er-do-wells. Instead of poverty, people on welfare are rich compared to the working man that pays his taxes and bills. Our government pays women to have illegitimate children. It is a national disgrace and shame.
“Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.”
Don’t be a proud know-it-all, they have a lot more experience than you do. They’ve been down the road a few more times than you have. Pride will keep a young man from listening to his elders. It got Rehoboam in a mess. He wouldn’t listen to the older, wiser men in the king’s realm but chose instead to listen to the young men of his own age—and they steered him horribly wrong so much so that he lost the greater part of his kingdom.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2020 6:54:44 GMT -6
“I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man” (Proverbs 24:30-34).
Now, an observation.
“I went by the field of the slothful (a lazy man), and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding [an ignorant man, he is up in verse 27 building a house rather than taking care of the vineyard].”
And what was the result? “it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.”
There is two things there. The guy that is void of understanding does not understand the law of reaping and sowing, nor does he understand the idea of getting his priorities straight. And notice that he is ruined within. “The nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down,” there is no protection from without.
“Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man” (Proverbs 24:32-34).
“Then I saw, and considered it well,” this is what he learned from it. He got instruction from his observation.
You can learn wisdom by others’ mistakes. Observation and analysis are great teachers, and Solomon was a master at both: "And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith” (Ecclesiastes 1:13).
"Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done. Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness” (Ecclesiastes 2:11-13).
It is your duty to learn from the mistakes of others and to teach your children to do so as well.
Of course, you can also learn wisdom by observing the good choices and actions of wise men. It is a helpful habit to watch and identify the character or conduct that makes a man either foolish or wise. It reinforces the rules of wisdom.
Verses 32-34 match Proverbs 6:6-11.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2020 6:53:00 GMT -6
“If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee” (Proverbs 25:21-22).
Verse 21 and 22 go together. Now, this once and forever defines and tells you exactly what Romans 12:20 is stating.
There is a controversy over what Paul meant in Romans chapter 12, and after reading this passage, there's no doubt in anybody's mind. Paul says in Romans 12:20-21, ““Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” Verse 20 is basically the same thing as is given here in 25:21-22, “for thou shot heap coals of fire upon his head and the Lord shall reward thee.” He will reward your enemy with what he deserves, and you, for not taking vengeance, because Paul says in Romans 12, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves.”
Give that enemy what he needs. Give him a coat in cold time, weep with him if he is weeping. When tragedy happens to our enemy, our natural response is to laugh. He said, that’s just the wrong thing to do at that time, and he said if you'll do the right thing, if you weep with that man, instead of singing songs of mirth, and rejoicing at it; he said that God will reward you and He'll take care of that other fella too. That settles it once for all what Paul was talking about in Romans chapter 12, because the context here, they got some crazy kind of interpretation, I can't even tell you what it is, they want to say that it's not really bringing vengeance on your enemy when you heap coals of fire upon his head; it is supposedly that you are really just helping him out. Well, you are helping him out in the sense that you are accommodating him and doing right by him. But by doing right by him when he does wrong by you—God will knock the tar out of him.
That’s just common sense, that's just what the passage says and they're trying to twist it around to say that wasn't what Paul was talking about. Well, Paul was talking about not bringing vengeance on our enemies and letting God do it and bringing more vengeance on them by you doing right!
“Let burning coals fall upon them: let them be cast into the fire; into deep pits, that they rise not up again” (Psalms 140:10). This was an imprecatory prayer of David against his enemies—God! Just kill them! Old Testament saints prayed a lot like that.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2020 7:37:31 GMT -6
“Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him” (Proverbs 26:12).
“Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit?” he thinks he’s somebody, “there is more hope of a fool than of him.” That's true. A fool is hard to deal with. He’s hard to straighten out, but a guy that is even harder to straighten out as a self-righteous, proud individual. “There is more hope of a fool than of him.”
The devil is the proudest one going; there's no hope in him.
“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).
“For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself” (Galatians 6:3).
The only way that you will ever really be wise is to realize you're not very smart. You need to get it from God.
“He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears” (Proverbs 26:17).
“He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife,” there's a guy walking by, and got two other people, or a crowd of people going at it; arguing. He passes by, “meddling with strife belonging not to him.” see the strife doesn’t have anything to do with him, “is like one that taketh a dog by the ears,” he is looking for trouble.
“As a mad man who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, So is the man that deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, Am not I in sport?” (Proverbs 26:18-19).
Verses 18 and 19 go together. “As a madman,” here we pick up the troublemakers and talebearers. We’ve looked at the fools and the sluggards, now we pick up the troublemakers and the talebearers.
Now, the reference here is to the practical jokers and that guy that just goes overboard with it. He's a mad man that tricks his neighbor on a regular basis. One can go too far with it. It can even get dangerous. He thinks he can always just laugh it off with a “the jokes on me! Oh, it’s just in fun. I’m just having a little sport.” I mean, you know one joke after another, and pretty soon they are trying to outdo one another. There have been cases where practical jokes went too far, some people just get carried away with them, and someone is killed. Some people just get carried away and they are like a mad man.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2020 7:32:05 GMT -6
“Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips” (Proverbs 27:1 KJV).
“Boast not thyself of to morrow,” as the rich young fool said in Luke, “I’ll build bigger barns, I’ll do this, I’ll do that. I’ll say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many things laid up against tomorrow’” The Lord said, “This night!” There was no tomorrow in the life of a fool, only today. He only cared about now, not laying up treasures in store for tomorrow. A companion verse to this, and one that ought to be memorized is, “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (Jas 4:14 KJV).
Every soul winner ought to have this verse in their repertoire. This is a verse that you should leave with every one that is lost. It is a verse that the Holy Spirit will use mightily in his conscience. You know the ones that say, “Well, I’ll probably get saved next week, just not today.” “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth”
“Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.”
Here you go, “a stranger, and not thing own lips,” there's only one place honest to goodness, truthful praise can come from, and that's a stranger. It can’t really come from your family; they know you. It can't come from your friends; they might be trying to use you. But a stranger, who's never met you, never known you; if he praises you, he got good reason, because it isn’t normal for strangers to do. That is really a great text there. That's really the only place true praise could ever come from, other than God, is a stranger. That's a good one.
You will never have today back. Who should you love in case there is no tomorrow? Who should you forgive? Who should you thank? Who should you comfort? Above all, what can, or should you give God today in confession, praise, or conduct to honor Him?
You will never have today back. Guard your thoughts, words, and deeds, lest they cost you painful consequences tomorrow or guilt and grief for eternity. A successful life is a string of godly days put together. Make sure today is the brightest day in that chain.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2020 6:39:02 GMT -6
“A poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food . . . Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich . . . The rich man is wise in his own conceit; but the poor that hath understanding searcheth him out” (Proverbs 28:3, 6, 11).
“A sweeping rain,” a gully washer, a deluge devastates with no regard to others. The basis of a poor man oppressing another man is greed. That’s the problem in America. They have the blacks marching for the blacks, but I tell you what, the black folks will oppress their own people just as quick as anything to make personal profit. What it really gets down to is this. They're not really concerned about the improvement of black folk; they're just trying to get what they want right now and get it right now. I want when I want I. I want my rights!
“A poor man that oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food.” I'll tell you what. That statement reflects communism and Catholicism. They are supposedly religions and governments of the poor, and yet they stripped the poor. Within those systems, the poor strip the poor.
“Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.”
“Better is the poor,” this is one of those axioms of life. Back in 19:1 is a whole string of them. Here's another one, “Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways though he be rich.” The perfect example of this is the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19. In the end, Lazarus was better off.
“The rich man is wise in his own conceit; but the poor that hath understanding searcheth him out.”
Verse 11 is like verse 6, “The rich man is wise in his own conceit,” he thinks he's rich because of his brains. We already found out in Ecclesiastes, that God makes a man rich. God gives him riches, “but the poor that hath understanding searcheth him out.” What a great passage. Do you know what the poor man says? and you and I we've said this; I know I’ve said it. “After seeing what a rich man's gotta do to get that money, and what he's going to do to keep it, and what it causes a man to do sometimes,” I've looked at that thing and I said, “Thank God I'm poor!” I've searched that thing out I said I don't want any more than I’ve got, and it's more than I can handle now. I've seen what richest can do to a man, and I just as soon not be led into temptation.
See, “the poor that hath understanding searcheth him out,” he searches that rich man out and he don't want it. I would just as soon be poor and happy. I mean like a hog in mud. I’d rather be there then to be uptown with the in crowd. As a young man, I saw some of that in crowd business, and all the glitter and all the sham and the wow and the falsehood that went along with it. I don't want it; I just don't want that. I don’t want that kind of jet setting crowd. It’s just like the prodigal son. As long as you got money to buy jet fuel, you're in the jet set. You run out of fuel (cash), and you are off the jet.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2020 7:16:48 GMT -6
“The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame . . . Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul” (Proverbs 29:15, 17).
Verses 15 and 17 deal with child rearing, and rearing is a good word. In 15, “The rod and reproof give wisdom,” a guy thinks all he had to do was to send his kid to school that's where he’ll get wisdom. Yea, but it’ll be a worldly wisdom that you will need to correct. You'll get a whole lot more of the right kind of wisdom on the end of a hickory stick.
“The rod and reproof,” the rod gets their attention. I mean, it's amazing how rebellion is quelled after the rod has been administered. The Bible says that “it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness.” “Yes, daddy. Anything you say,” and then reproof. After you've driven the folly out of them, “foolishness is bound up in the heart of child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from them.” After you've driven the folly out of their heart and head, then you can talk to him.
Some people say, “Well, I don’t believe in spanking my child. I'll just talk to him.” You just go right ahead and have yourself a time. Just go ahead and try, try, try to reason with that little sinner. You're out of your mind. You're not going to reason with that kid. The only reason he will do what you want is just to get you off his back. He'll do you like a lot of people do when it comes to conversions. They will say yes and pray any prayer you want if you’ll just back off. It doesn’t do a thing for them. Kids aren’t dumb.
“. . . but a child left himself bringeth his mother to shame,” the mother spends more time with him so obviously she's going to bear the greater reproach. The mother generally has a greater love for the child than the man does, so it's going to be more shameful, almost seeming like a betrayal. A man is so proud, if the child goes bad, he will blame it on circumstances, or the wife, or he will blame it on something else. He won't blame himself. Usually the woman winds up bearing the shame and the reproach when a child goes bad.
Verse 17, “Correct thy son, and he shall give the rest,” that’s the way to have peace in raising children, you just have to spend time correcting them, “yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul,” not only physical delights and peace, but spiritual a reward. What would happen to us if God’s Holy Spirit never reproved us?
“And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8).
We would go to hell. If we did not get reproved, we would die and go to hell. If a child does not get reproved, he will destroy himself.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2020 8:48:13 GMT -6
“Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him” (Proverbs 30:5).
“. . . and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?” Why, here it is in verse 5, “The Word of God.” John 1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God” (verses 1-2).
“Every word of God is pure: HE . . .,” Look! He, referring to the Word of God . . . “HE! You see? This Bible is more alive than you ever thought. It has a personality. It is said to be a “HE!” In fact, so much so, that in Hebrews chapter 4 says:
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:12-13).
Especially note, “. . . neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight.” Whose sight? The Word of God’s sight. The Bible can see you over there ignoring it. The Bible says that all things are upheld by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3).
“Every Word of God is pure,” now that will match Psalm 12:6-7, “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”
“Every word of God is pure,” so, you know what impure men will do? They will be trying to change it, just as Jeremiah prophesied against the false prophets, that they would do this very thing.
“Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour” (Jeremiah 23:30).
Every translation on the market is guilty of that, stealing the words of God from his neighbor. Someone will say, “But, these Bible translators are doing good!” No, they are a bunch of thieves. Jeremiah says that they are a bunch of thieves. You really have to come to this conclusion: either all the new Bibles are the word of God and the King James Bible added a bunch of words, or the King James Bible is the word of God and all that revisionist crowd took away from the word of God. And that ain’t hard to figure out.
Not only do they take away words, but they take away basic doctrines, and you know God isn't involved with that. Not only that, they take away the names of God out of the New Testament and you know that the Holy Spirit would never do that. The Holy Spirit would never take His own name out of Bible 200 times, and every new Bible on the market takes out names of deity in the New Testament to the tune of 200 places.
My Bible says that when the Holy Spirit comes, He will glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, not bring Him down by taking his name out of the Book.
And then the warning in verse 6: “Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.”
“. . . lest he reprove thee,” now, that’s what they don't like. These guys that write these new Bibles don't like to be reproved, “lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.”
So, the new translations are produced by liars and thieves. The Bible tells us that Hell is going to be a place for thieves and liars.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 31, 2020 7:13:29 GMT -6
“What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? and what, the son of my vows?” (Proverbs 31:2 KJV).
He has either done something that she was surprised by, “What my son?,” or something that he would talk about or think about. And she says, “What the son of my vows?” Over in First Samuel chapter one is another woman making vows to get a son.
Hannah is a woman that had no children, and she bore a reproach. It’s built into a woman to have children. A woman can never be fulfilled as a woman until she has children, and even if she can't have them; adopt them. She needs to raise a kid. She just needs to have kids around. That's just the woman's nature and she bears an approach until she can raise children.
Hannah was bearing that reproach, and “she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head” (1 Samuel 1:10-11).”
Hannah vowed to make Samuel a Nazarite and dedicate him to the priesthood, and she kept her vow.
So, were vows made concerning this man, king Lemuel. His mother said, “What the son of my vows?” It's possible that she too did not have a child and she made a vow like Hannah that if God would give a child that she too would return that child to the Lord. And so, when she did have a child, she taught King Lemuel the truth, and she taught him some very wise things, and some very good things.
By the way, Samuel is not the only one that had a good mother in the Scriptures. You will find that Timothy had a good mother, as well as grandmother. When Paul wrote to Timothy he said some things about it in Second Timothy chapter3 1 and 3. Paul said, “When I called rememberance the unfeigned faith that is in thee,” talking to Timothy, “which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also” (verse 5).
Woman today seem to want to fulfill biblical roles that God never designed for them, such as being pastors of churches. Well, that is not nor will it ever be the greatest use of their God-given talents. Those are for the home. Those are for raising children to both love the Lord and to love His word. If you want to read of a woman that went far beyond her calling, read most any biography of Suzanne Wesley. She raised a godly heritage for the Lord. She believed that she was called to raise godly children. History tells us of her single success.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2020 7:21:53 GMT -6
“My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause” (Proverbs 1:10-11 KJV).
They want to lurk about in the dark, what it is they want us to lay in wait for is blood. When a person is guilty of murder in the Bible, it says that blood shall be shed for blood. God told Noah in Genesis 9 that if a man sheds another’s blood, that by man that man’s blood shall be shed. When Cain slew Abel, he was guilty of the blood of Abel. His blood was upon his hand.
“. . . let us lay wait for blood,” now the Bible is going to teach you something here in the next 8-10 verses that nobody in America knows anything about, especially about advertising. Now, you wouldn’t think that, but we are about to see the subtilty and the tragedy of radio, newspapers, magazines, television advertising, and even catalogs.
“Come with us, let us lay wait for blood,” we automatically think of a bunch of hoodlums waiting in the dark waiting to jump on some guy and steal his wallet. In a sense, that could be it, but there are more kinds of devilment in the world than just that kind. But there are folks that have ways to con you and trick you out of your money. Do you know that your salary is? It is your livelihood. It’s how you make your living. Well, if someone can trick you out of your money, what have they done to your ability to live? It is guilty of blood. If someone unjustly, or improperly, or wrongly take your living or your livelihood from you to where you can’t make a living, they could be guilty of your blood.
All that advertisement is determined to do is to get you to buy something that you don’t need. You haven’t figured that out yet? Advertising is a market to sell products. Does anyone need to tell you when it is time to eat food? We could get along fine without advertising. You could still get everything you “need” without advertising. They just exist to get you to buy the things you “want.” And often it is under false pretenses. How many of their “gotta-have-it” products actually do what they claim they do? They tell you that you just gotta have something and if you don’t have, such-and-such will happen! You won’t be the envy of the neighborhood!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2020 6:24:54 GMT -6
“To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things . . . To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words . . . That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous" (Proverbs 2:12, 16, 20).
If your Bible has paragraph marks, you’ll see one at verse 10, where it says, “When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee," and then, if you read carefully, there's three basic points below that. One is verse 12, “to deliver thee from the way of the evil man,” the second point is verse 16, “to deliver thee from the strange woman,” and then in verse 20, “that thou mayest walk in the way of good men.”
Now, the evil man speaks “froward things.” Froward has the meaning of “willfully contrary,” or just plain contentious talk. It is somebody being contrary just to be contrary, somebody saying ungodly things just to stir up trouble. Atheists are like that. Another word for this crowd would be “scorners.” They just like to cause you grief. They like to say things that irk you when you say something faithful about the Lord. We see a lot of people like that today. The news media is like that. Sometimes you find a Christian like that. He just likes to argue. He is froward. If you say the sky is blue he's going to say, “No, it's Azure,” It's a sad thing, an argumentative type of spirit. It is just somebody that is just trying to be contrary.
Verse 12, “To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things,” or the willful contrarian. Frowardness shows up three times in this chapter: once in verse 12, once in verse 14, and once in verse 15. Oddly, the strange woman is not said to be froward, but the evil man is said to be froward.
Verse 14, “Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked,” you see some of the celebrations going on nowadays for sports championships. In the home cites of the team, they're going to demolish things and burn stuff. It's gotten now where even when a high school team wins a championship, they have to call out the full contingent of the local Police Department. These kids are going to turn cars over and smash windows and stuff. Well, those are people who rejoice to do evil, and Proverbs says that there is an entire generation of people like that.
Verse 15, “whose ways are crooked.” They're not straight. They don't talk straight nowadays The word even applies, as far as it goes, to the homosexual thing. They label non-sodomites as “straight,” but they never say that they are crooked, so they come up with “gay.”
Do you remember the street that Ananias lived on? It was call “Straight.” We need to be straight. We need to be straight as far as straight speech, or plain speech, is concerned. We need to be straight as far as honesty is concerned. Anyway, it says down in verse 15, “Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths.” They walk in the way of forwardness. Three times it says an evil man is froward. Froward is not the same as forward.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2020 6:55:00 GMT -6
“Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her” (Proverbs 3:17-18 KJV).
“Her ways are ways of pleasantness,” she produces pleasant things.
“She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her,” she’ll show you how to get saved. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” when you really begin to seek God’s wisdom, God will show you how to be saved, if you are lost; and how to grow, if you are saved.
“The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew” (Proverbs 3:19-20 KJV).
There is the trio; knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. That was the first thing to be seen in Proverbs chapter 1, “The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding” (vss 1:1-2). They are not just different words for the same things. Knowledge is the accumulation of facts. Wisdom is what you do with it, and understanding is how you take the facts and what you do with them in relation to God.
There are a lot of men that use wisdom for personal profit because of what they know, and there are a lot of people in this world that know an awful lot but don’t get anywhere. They don’t use it to their own benefit or anybody else’s benefit. But when a person has understanding, they take what they know, and they apply in a way that’s in a right relationship with God. When they go to work, they are working to supply the needs of their family, and supply the needs of their church, and to try to reach lost people. They are not only working for personal profit, but their working has some relationship to God and His purposes.
“She is a tree of life,” There is a tree of life. You found it. Success and happiness are its fruit, and you can have it forever. Men search vainly for fulfillment and prosperity, but both are offered to you today. Are you really living? These words are to you from God and the wisest king ever.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2020 7:16:57 GMT -6
“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding” (Proverbs 4:7 KJV).
“Wisdom is the principal thing,” that is the chief thing, the head thing, that’s the most powerful thing. “Wisdom is the principal thing,” it is a priority. “Therefore, get wisdom.” We need wisdom, not pleasure. America has been sold a bill of goods that they need to get pleasure, get more gusto, double your pleasure—double your fun. And that is what they are after—the Devil’s trick to destroy people.
The most important thing to get in life is wisdom.
“. . . and with all thy getting get understanding,” learn to apply knowledge to God. Job says that “to depart from evil is understanding.” Take what you learn and use it in relation to God. Solomon says, “with all getting get,” notice that expression. Do you know what people are all the time doing? They are all the time getting stuff. They are getting a house, they are getting a car, they are getting stuff, getting in trouble. With all your getting, he says, as you go through life, don’t miss the best thing in life—get wisdom.
Now, let me show you about a man that had everything a man could have, and he is the one that said this:
“I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine [he went out and got him some wine], yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men [he heard people get drunk, he wanted to see if there was any good in it], which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life [He said people get drunk all the days of their life and wanted to know if there was any good in it, so he went out and bought him a bottle—he sat down and drank it—and he took notes. He said, “Hmm, I’m losing my faculties—I don’t feel the same—he took notes, that was an analytical, empirical study].
“I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits: I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees: I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me: I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers [he didn’t have a TV or a radio, he had a live band], and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour.
“Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done. Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness” (Ecclesiastes 2:3-13 KJV).
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2020 7:28:11 GMT -6
“Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well” (Proverbs 5:15 KJV).
The rest of the verses to the end of the chapter are obviously teaching us to just be content with what you have. The plain, down-to-earth, bottom line of these verse is be content with what you got.
“Drink waters out of thine own cistern,” doesn’t the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence? Some folks have just got it better than me! One of the really bad things about TV is that it gives you the false picture of life that everybody is doing better than us. If we have a house and an automobile, we are doing vastly better than 95% of the rest of the world. That’s what you need to understand. What you need to do is to see about a four-hour documentary on what life is like in India, Pakistan, Thailand and places like those. I guarantee you that those will make you appreciate what the Lord has given you in America.
“Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well,”
Discipline yourselves to realize that nobody has it any better than you—and if they do, they must deserve it. Or God is damning them with it. Just because a man has more than us doesn’t mean that he has it better than us. God will damn folks with prosperity if that is what they want, if that is all they want out of life. Do you realize this? Look at it this way. All the hell that you as a Christian will ever see is right here. And this is a close to heaven as an unsaved man will ever get. Let him have his do, let him have his fling through this world.
It is like the wife that was daily put upon by her drunken, no good husband that would make her get up at all hours of the night to fix dinner for his drunken companions. Another woman asked her why she put up with it. She said, “I love my husband, but I know he is going to hell if he does not get saved. When he is in hell, I want him to at least have the joy of remembering that someone truly loved him—and maybe hell won’t be so bad for him.”
Don’t be envious of sinners. They are going to spend an eternity in hell, this is the best that they are ever going to get.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2020 7:30:11 GMT -6
“To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids. For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life” (Proverbs 6:24-26 KJV).
Here is what verses 21-24 will do for you: Keep the commandments, they will lead you, guide you, and speak to you to guard you from the evil woman. In verse 24, we want to watch out for her lips, and in verse 25 lust not after her beauty, and stay away from her eyelids, or look. She will trap the fool with her lips, her looks, and her look.
Do you know what gets most men with that look? “For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life” (Proverbs 6:26 KJV).
What is it about a woman’s look that attracts a man? “My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death” (Job 16:16 KJV). Ladies need to watch out for that eye-makeup. There is something about that that attracts the look of a man. The Bible calls it the “shadow of death.” It is “eye shadow,” isn’t it?
Look out for her lips, for her looks, and for her look, “for by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.”
Honestly, when a woman is wearing a lot of makeup, more than she needs, men are likely to think of her as a whore.
To be brought to a piece of bread speaks of poverty. This adulteress (verse 29 shows that she is married) is looking like a hunter for the precious life. Maybe the man thinks it is love (it’s really nothing more than lust), but this woman is obviously only seeking a conquest. She isn’t looking for cash, she is looking for precious life.
One problem in America is that women have been exposed to whores so much on their Televisions that they often take upon themselves their characteristics without even giving it much thought, so they dress like, talk like, walk like, and act like the character they identify with on their favorite TV program.
The Bible says that a drunkard and a glutton will be brought to poverty, but not only them, but also the man that fools around with the wrong kind of a woman. If you were to talk to the men living in rescue missions and asked them how they got there, many would say liquor, and many will say, a woman.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2020 7:49:53 GMT -6
“And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart. (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house . . ." (Proverbs 7:10-11).
Of those two things, the subtilty of heart is the most dangerous thing, but those two things do go together. Now, she's subtle of heart, and “the serpent [devil] was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made” (Genesis 3:1), and “Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah David’s brother; and Jonadab was a very subtil man” (2 Samuel 13:3), and “I fear, lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3).
Now, she was “subtil of heart,” first of all, it's a thought process.
She knows what she's doing. She's dressing like she's dressing and making herself up like she is and she's saying what she's saying and touching like she touches and blinks like she blinks for a reason; because she is “subtil of heart.” Now, some of it becomes automatic; but you need to crucify that part of flesh, ladies and gentlemen.
It says, “Behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.” There is twelve times that somebody is said to be “subtle” in the Bible, and only one time is it viewed in a positive light, and that's back in Proverbs 1:4, “to give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.”
What that shows is that there is a subtilty that is a mark of the devil. the devil still use subtilty throughout history as the verses above show, and yet here is a young man that subtle, innocent, simple, which is another word it and so a lot of these characteristics have a kind of a dual edge to them. There are two sides to it sometimes, but more often than not in the scripture it's a mark of the devil and a mark of the flesh.
Verse 11 now puts this in parenthesis: “She is loud.” There’s lots of applications for this woman. First of all, she is just a wicked woman. It's odd, isn't it, that when you get to first Timothy and first Peter what it emphasizes in a Christian woman is a quietness of spirit. She is “of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price” (1 Peter 3:4).
A loudmouth woman is a disgrace. All you need to do sometimes is to go to a family reunion where you have some folks that live over on the other side of the cross. You know, drinkers and so forth, and you go over there for a fish boil and the ladies are in the kitchen; and they are pretty much three sheets to the wind, so to speak. And they are cackling out the open window like a bunch of witches. Loud. Well, folks, one of the marks of a Christian woman that is filled with the spirit and is taking the Bible to heart is that she's quiet. She’s of a meek and quiet spirit. It’s something that comes from the Holy Spirit.
This woman in Proverbs 7 is not meek and quiet: she's loud. She's loud, and she's stubborn. Did you know that “stubborn” shows up five times in the Bible? Being stubborn will get you killed.
“She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house.”
There are times that ladies need a job, and I understand how things go, but you also understand at the same time the scriptures do say about her need to be a keeper at home and those sorts of things. Especially when the children are very young. It does not say that a man should be allergic to a vacuum cleaner, all right? And it's not stated that a guy doesn't need to know what to do with some dish soap; but at the same time there is a disturbing reversal of roles in America.
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