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Reading Proverbs 16:1-18 where we are reminded that the fear of Yahweh is to our great gain, but pride leads to destruction. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Have you heard the expression pride goes before a fall? Yeah, that comes from the book of Proverbs. A person who goes their own way, who says that their way is better than God's way, they are prideful and will go to destruction when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible teaching podcast that we may be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. We're back in the book of Proverbs today, Proverbs chapter 16. I'm gonna read 18 Proverbs here. So we'll go through 18 verses and just see how far we get as far as our exposition goes.
So this is Proverbs chapter 16 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from Yahweh. All the ways of a man are pure in his own sight, but Yahweh weighs the motives.
Commit your works to Yahweh and your plans will be established. Yahweh has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil. Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to Yahweh.
Assuredly, he will not be unpunished. By loving kindness and truth, iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of Yahweh, one turns away from evil. When a man's ways are pleasing to Yahweh, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Better is a little with righteousness than great produce with injustice. The heart of man plans his way, but Yahweh directs his steps. A divine decision is in the lips of the king. His mouth should not err in judgment.
A balance and scales belong to Yahweh. All the weights of the bag are his work. It is an abomination for kings to commit wickedness, for in righteousness, a throne is established. Righteous lips are the delight of kings, and he who speaks uprightly is loved.
The wrath of a king is like messengers of death, but a wise man will atone for it. In the light of a king's face is life, and his favor is like a cloud with the spring rain. How much better it is to acquire wisdom than fine gold, and to acquire understanding is to be chosen above silver.
The highway of the upright is to turn away from evil. He who guards his way keeps his soul. Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling. How much did you hear the name Yahweh in our passage today?
Comes up quite a bit, right? And of course, I'm reading from the Legacy Standard Bible, so all those occasions where in the common translation or most popular translations, that word L-O-R-D appears, in all caps, that's the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew, translated Yahweh in English, well, in most translations, translated Lord once again, but as we have the name Yahweh, the Legacy Standard Bible has chosen to use that name, the covenant name of the Lord.
So it's wonderful to hear it as we go through the scriptures here together. We begin with the Lord's name in verse one. The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from Yahweh.
So we have a certain way that we want to go, but God answers with his word. His word is the right way to go. Whatever God says, that is how we should direct our steps. And that one proverb here, which also becomes an instruction and a command, is something that sets the tone for these 18 verses that we read here in our devotion.
So we go on to verse two, all the ways of a man are pure in his own sight, but Yahweh weighs the motives. We've talked about the last couple of days, well, all week long, as we've been doing our first Corinthian study on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we've talked about being sexually pure.
Well, a person who does not have Christ, he believes that everything that he does is pure. The sexual immorality that exists in this world, they think what they're doing is right. A person on their Facebook profile, or Twitter, or Instagram, or whatever it is, they will put icons and flags and stuff like that that demonstrates what they think is sexually pure.
Like we see that all the time on social media, but what has God said is pure. People without God, they think everything that they do is pure. My way is the right way, right? Wrong. It's God's way that is right.
A man thinks that he is pure. He believes that he is right in his own eyes, but Yahweh weighs the motives. He knows the exact condition of a person's heart. As it says in Psalm 139, God knows a word before it is even on our tongue.
He knows our hearts. He knows our ways and our own intentions. We can lie to ourselves. We might think that our ways are right and pure, but it is only God's way that is right. So we must orient everything that we say and do all our intentions according to what God says in his word.
We see this weight, weighing in terms of God's standard of right and wrong. Comes up several times in these Proverbs here. So we read in verse three, commit your works to Yahweh, and your plans will be established.
If you commit your works to yourself, if you commit them according to the ways of the world, if you commit them according to the passions of your flesh, what will happen to your ways? Well, that is a way to destruction and you will come into judgment.
But if you commit your works to Yahweh, if you do what is pleasing in the sight of God, then your plans will be established. And ultimately that plan will be for God's glory and for his kingdom. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter six, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all the things that you need will be added to you as well.
Make your greatest desire, God's kingdom and the righteousness of God. And we have the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ. God will establish your plans and may that plan ultimately be for Christ.
Verse four, Yahweh has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. That's a verse I jumped ahead and read last week when we were still in chapter 15. I went ahead and read chapter 16, verse four, that we see the sovereignty of God in all things.
Why does God allow evil to continue in the world the way that he does? Well, he is ultimately accomplishing something even through the evil that happens in the world. God has made everything for a particular purpose, including the wicked for the day of trouble.
God will be glorified in his destruction of the wicked. You read in the book of Revelation how forever we will be praising the name of God because he has judged his enemies. That's a difficult thing for us to understand on this side of heaven.
Like how can we rejoice because God has destroyed friends and family members that we had in this life because they continued in wickedness instead of put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? We may not understand how that picture is going to look here on this side of heaven, but we will when we get to glory.
Very, very difficult things for us to consider now. Of course, they're difficult because we live a finite existence now. We don't see the infinite picture, but we will when we get to glory. And then as it says in 1 John 3 .1 or 3 .2, we will see him as he is because we will be made to be like him.
We will see the plan perfectly when we join God together in glory. So God makes everything for a purpose. He has made even the wicked and appointed the wicked for a reason, for a purpose that his good purposes would be accomplished.
God's good purposes, not the wicked's. Verse five, everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to Yahweh. Assuredly, he will not be unpunished. James and Peter both say, humble yourselves before the Lord, and at the right time, he will exalt you.
Verse six, by loving kindness and truth, iniquity is atoned for. And by the fear of Yahweh, one turns away from evil in loving kindness and in truth. You just consider the only atonement that we need, and that is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.
It's by his death on the cross that he is atoned for sins. Whoever believes in him, our sins have been forgiven, and we have everlasting life with God. So this atonement that was given to us on the cross, this propitiation, blood that was spilled to satisfy the wrath of God, how was this sacrifice offered?
That Jesus gave on the cross for us on our behalf. It was done in loving kindness, and it was done in truth. Jesus said in John 14, six, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father but by me.
10 chapters earlier, before the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus said that the worshipers God is seeking will worship him in spirit and in truth. So it's in loving kindness and it's in truth that Christ gave himself as a living sacrifice.
So it is in loving kindness and in truth that we are to follow Christ and worship him. By the fear of Yahweh, one turns away from evil. If we have that reverent fear of God, we fear the judgment of God that comes upon wickedness and unrighteousness, so we'll turn away from that evil and do good, walking in the righteousness of Christ.
Verse seven, when a man's ways are pleasing to Yahweh, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Now, maybe you are an upright and righteous person desiring to live according to the righteousness of Christ, and yet you have enemies.
Jesus promised we would. In this world, you will have trouble. The apostle Paul to Timothy, those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Jesus said, you will be persecuted and you're blessed when you're persecuted for my name.
So if our ways are pleasing to Yahweh, then why is it that we're not at peace with our enemies? Well, the understanding of this would be that our enemies cannot take us away from God. Romans chapter eight, where it says, if God is for us, then what can man do to us?
And we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. And there is nothing that will separate us from the love of God, not even the sword, not even death can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
So in this way, we have peace that has been made with our enemies. We have victory in Christ. Jesus has victory over his enemies. So our enemies cannot separate us from the eternal life that we have promised, the fellowship that we have with God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
So even with our enemies, peace has been made. Even more than this, who was our enemy before we came to Christ? Our enemy was God. We were enemies of God because we had rebelled against God and had gone our own way.
We were at enmity with God and God was gonna destroy us, but Christ died for us. So when a man's ways are pleasing to Yahweh and that man is Jesus Christ, then he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
And by faith in Christ, we're no longer an enemy of God. We're a friend of God and we have eternal life with God. Fellowship with God even right now, my friends, and fellowship with him forever. Better is a little righteousness than, sorry, I read verse eight again.
Better is a little with righteousness than great produce with injustice. So it's better that you have a little and live in righteousness than to have a lot and to live an unjust life. Or better that you have a little that was acquired in a righteous way, in a way that was pleasing unto the Lord, than that you have a lot that was acquired unrighteously, unjustly, and you stand in condemnation before God.
None of the stuff that you have or whatever it is that you've acquired in this life will save you, nor will it go with you. So do not cling to the things of this world, cling to Christ and you've been given everything, including the righteousness of God.
Verse nine, the heart of man plans his way, but Yahweh directs his steps. Very similar to what we read in verse four. Yahweh has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil.
And so here we have that the heart of man plans his way, but Yahweh directs his steps. Everything that we do has been directed by God. So hear the word of the Lord as it has been read to you on this podcast.
Repent of sin and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Your ways will be directed according to the word of God and not by your own desires. Verse 10, a divine decision is in the lips of the king. His mouth should not err in judgment.
In Daniel chapter two, verse two, it says that God sets up kings and tears down kings. So decisions that are made by kings are decisions that have come from God through that king. There is nothing that happens that God has not ordained.
As it says in Leviticus, or sorry, not Leviticus, Lamentations chapter three, is it not from the mouth of the most high that both good and bad come? Job said, shall we accept only good from God and not evil?
May the name of the Lord be praised. And in all these things, he did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. That's in chapters one and two. Every decision that comes from a king, and that affects a whole lot of people, a governor, a president, a chancellor, whatever, a person that is in high position, he makes a decision.
That is a divine decision. It was a decree from God through this king that this event would happen. Even the evil that is being perpetrated right now in Afghanistan, the judgment that will eventually come upon the United States of America.
All of this has happened by the mouth of a king, by the mouth of a president, or some other kind of ruler. So where it says his mouth should not err in judgment, it doesn't mean that every judgment that a king makes is right.
What it does mean is he'll still be held accountable for his own actions. Every decree that comes from some sort of ruler is a divine decision. But that doesn't mean that God is guilty of having done any kind of evil.
If a king or a judge or a ruler does evil, he's gonna have to account for his own evil. His mouth should not err in judgment, for he will come under judgment for whatever he has said. Verse 11, a just balance and scales belong to Yahweh.
All the weights of his bag are his work. Something is just because God has said that it is just. Not because a king said it is just, not because a nation's laws say that they are just. God is the standard of right and wrong, what is just and what is unjust.
A just balance and scales belong to Yahweh. So if a culture, if a society is handling and practicing justice in a right way, then the justice that they're practicing is the justice of God. All the weights of the bag are his work.
We call something just or unjust because God has established it as just or has condemned it as unjust, not because we as a culture, as a people have decided as such. What is just and what is unjust is defined by God.
Verse 12, it is an abomination for kings to commit wickedness, for in righteousness, a throne is established. And here we have this continued theme we've seen in this several Proverbs regarding decisions that have been made by kings or regarding justice.
If a king commits wickedness, that is an abomination. It's in righteousness that a throne is established. And if you take this to the highest level and you talk about the throne of Christ, his is the greatest righteous throne.
And as we read in the book of Revelation, we are longing for a kingdom in which righteousness dwells forever. That's also in 2 Peter 3. We await the appearing of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and the coming of his kingdom in which righteousness dwells.
The greatest throne is established in righteousness. So may all the thrones of earth be in submission to the righteousness of God. We go on to verse 13. Righteous lips are the delight of kings and he who speaks uprightly is loved.
The best thing for a people is one who speaks in a right way according to the righteousness of God. That's the best for the people, but it's also glorifying and honoring of God. He who speaks uprightly is loved.
He is loved by God first and foremost. And when we see a land that walks in righteousness, the people are at peace as well. We go on to verse 14. The wrath of a king is like messengers of death, but a wise man will atone for it.
And once again, what is our greatest atonement? Our greatest atonement is Christ. He has atoned for our sins. And so we have his eternal righteousness. And whatever evil a king can perpetuate here on this earth ultimately will not last.
Christ will bring in his perfect and eternal kingdom in the end. Verse 15, in the light of a king's face is life and his favor is like a cloud with the spring rain. Interesting contrast is with false teachers as talked about in Jude and in 2 Peter 2.
They're described as waterless clouds. They promise something, but they're ultimately not able to fulfill or give the thing that they promised. But here we have the reference to a righteous king in the light of a king's face is life and his favor is like a cloud with the spring rain.
So he promises the people something and he delivers it. It's like a cloud that does give rain. The greatest king, the king of kings is Christ. And in him is life as it says in John 1, everlasting life and from him flow everlasting living waters.
Verse 16, how much better it is to acquire wisdom than fine gold and to acquire understanding is to be chosen above silver. The wisdom of God as we've seen over and over again, talked about here in the Proverbs is even better than all the treasures that we can possess here on this earth.
Verse 17, the highway of the upright is to turn away from evil. The highway, the best road, that which is above every other path. The highway of the upright is to turn away from evil. He who guards his way keeps his soul.
You don't swerve to the left or to the right. You don't go off the high path. You continue on the way that is marked by God according to his word. And then finally, this word goes right along with what we just read in verse 17.
Here's verse 18. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before stumbling. You've heard the statement, pride goes before a fall. Here's that statement exactly. Pride goes before destruction.
Those who will come into destruction, the wrath of God in the end are those who went their own way. They established their own steps. They thought their way was better than God's way. They will come into destruction.
For as we read once again, back in verse one, Proverbs 16, one, the plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from Yahweh. The right way has been given to us by God. It's been given to us in his word, the Bible.
Read this and don't just be hearers of the word, do what they say. Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us your word, for loving us in this way that we might have the Testament of God given to us in the Bible.
Establish our ways according to this in Jesus' name. Amen.
This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.
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