WWUTT 1539 Satisfied With Good Words (Proverbs 18:13-24)

Today in the Proverbs, we're gonna hear about words, the weight of our words, that can either tear somebody down or can build one another up, that can either be your curse or your blessing when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, teaching through a New Testament book on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and a Q &A on Friday. With our Old Testament study today, here's Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. Well, being Thursday, we come to our Proverbs study. We've been in chapter 18. We've got the second half of this chapter to do yet. So I'll start reading in verse 13 and we'll go to verse 24 in the Legacy Standard Bible.

Words Before Hearing and the Weight of a Broken Spirit

This is Proverbs chapter 18. He who responds with a word before he hears, it is folly and shame to him. The spirit of a man can endure his sickness, but as for a broken spirit, who can bear it? The heart of the understanding acquires knowledge and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

A man's gift makes room for him and leads him into the presence of great men. The first to plead his case seems right until another comes and examines him. The cast lot puts an end to contentions and decides between the mighty ones.

A brother offended is harder to win over than a strong city, and contentions are like the bars of a citadel. From the fruit of a man's mouth, his stomach will be satisfied. With the produce of his lips, he will be satisfied.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit. He who finds a wife, finds a good thing and obtains favor from Yahweh. The poor man speaks supplications, but the rich man answers with strong words.

A man of too many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Amen, this is the word of the Lord. We come back to verse 13 here, the first of these proverbs that we read, he who responds with a word before he hears, it is folly and shame to him.

Pretty self-explanatory, right? Do I really need to explain what this means? Let's say you were playing trivial pursuit with some friends. So another player draws a card, they're gonna ask you a question and you have to answer it.

They draw the card and you say, Abraham Lincoln, you haven't even heard the question yet. The question was, how many planets are in the solar system? And you didn't even wait to hear the question, you just threw an answer out.

Well, that would be ridiculous, right? And there are so many times that you might want to speak into an issue before you hear all the details. Have you ever done this before? You just wanna sound smarter than everybody else.

You wanna be that first person to chime in on the subject or whatever it might happen to be. Well, before you hear, before you understand what it is that you're responding to, you throw an answer out there and you make a fool of yourself.

He who responds with a word before he hears, it is folly and shame to him. Especially when we're making judgment calls on things or we're speaking into some sort of moral issue before we've even heard all the details or the elements of the thing that we're replying to.

If you speak too soon, you could make a fool out of yourself or give bad advice to someone else. It is a folly and a shame to speak into matters where you think you know, and you really don't. Verse 14, the spirit of a man can endure his sickness, but as for a broken spirit, who can bear it?

You can handle a lot of sickness. I mean, you think of people who get cancer and yet they have a willing spirit, right? They wanna fight through it. So they go through chemotherapy or whatever other drugs that they have to endure that really just beats up the body to try to defeat the cancer.

And you could go through that for weeks, months, even years. And yet, as long as that person has a spirit that's willing to fight through that cancer, well, you're gonna get through it. Yet, if a person's spirit has been broken down, you could be in the peak of health.

Your body could be completely healthy, but if your spirit has been shattered, how can you endure that? So the spirit of a man can endure his sickness. You can go through all kinds of sickness in your body, but as for a broken spirit, who can bear it?

Consider these words in Psalm 32. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away. Through my groaning all day long for day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity.

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. So there in Psalm 32, the psalmist is saying, I was feeling depressed because I had unrepentant sin that I was holding onto, but when I confessed unto the Lord, then I was lifted up in my spirits again because God forgave me.

Even when a spirit is crushed, that can affect your health also. You can have bad health and still have a strong spirit, but if your spirit is crushed, that's gonna affect you in your soul and in your body.

Hold fast to Christ, know the promises of God because there is nothing in this world that is gonna uphold you in those difficult days than the promises of Christ that we have in his word. This is verse 15 now.

The heart of the understanding acquires knowledge and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. If you're an understanding person, you seek knowledge and specifically the knowledge of God. How is it that a person with a strong spirit is able to have a strong spirit even though there are all kinds of difficulties, whether in the body or circumstances or whatever it might happen to be?

Well, it's because he has sought the knowledge of God and we find the knowledge of God in his word. When we know that by faith in Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven, he has risen again from the dead so that all who have faith in him, we likewise will rise from the dead.

The grave has no power over us. When we know that he is at the right hand of the father in heaven, that he is interceding for us on our behalf, we are heard by God because of faith in Christ. We know that he's gonna return to judge the living and the dead and he's going to bring us into a kingdom of perfection where there is no more death, no more pain, no more sorrow and he will dry every tear from our eyes.

When we know those truths and we hold fast to those promises that we have in his word, then we are upheld in difficult days, in trying circumstances. The heart of the understanding acquires knowledge that we have according to the word of God.

We seek out the knowledge of God that has been given to us in the Bible and we are upheld. Verse 16, a man's gift makes room for him and leads him into the presence of great men. You know, I actually think of Abigail's gift when I read this particular proverb, even though it says a man's gift makes room for him and Abigail was a woman, yet it was her gift to David that brought her in the presence of great men.

If you don't remember this story, it's in 1 Samuel chapter 25. Abigail was the wife of a very wealthy man named Nabal, who was also a jerk, for lack of a better word. And David and his men came into the wilderness of Paran.

This was during a time when there were feasts going on in Nabal's household and among his servants because it was the season of shearing the sheep. And David had asked that while Nabal was enjoying all of this prosperity, if he would spare some food for David and his men, if he would share some of the feast with them.

And this was a pretty big company that David had. It was 400 men. That's a lot of mouths to feed, but it also speaks to just how wealthy a man Nabal was. Well, when Nabal was presented with this, he was like, well, who is David?

Who is the son of Jesse? Why should I share what I have with people who come from who knows where? And then David's messengers came back to David with this response from Nabal. David said, strap on your sword, guys.

We're gonna go take this. We're gonna show this man who's boss. And he would have struck down Nabal and his household. But Abigail, Nabal's wife, heard about how Nabal had responded. And she got a bunch of gifts, loaded up some donkeys, went out to intercept David with these gifts, and not only presented herself humbly before David, but she also rebuked him for what it was that he was about to do, in a manner of speaking.

For if David had gone and struck down Nabal's household, then he would have blood guiltiness on himself. And Abigail is asking that David would not do this thing because Nabal is a pompous fool. And Abigail actually said that to David, but also because there would be many others who would die, and then blood guiltiness would be upon David because he had done this thing and he had responded in anger in this way.

And so David relented. He did not go strike down Nabal. He actually praised Abigail for her wisdom and for her discernment. And then later on when Nabal died, David took Abigail to be his wife. So because Abigail was wise and used discernment and discretion in the midst of this situation and brought this gift to David, she was brought into the presence of great men.

So there you go. You have a nice little narrative to go along with this particular proverb. A man's gift makes room for him and leads him into the presence of great men. Be generous with what you have.

You won't suffer loss. In fact, you will gain much. For as the Lord our God has even commanded us to do, to share what we have with others, and we will be rewarded by our Father who is in heaven. Don't share to receive praise from men, for your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

The Danger of Speaking Too Soon and the Wisdom of Casting Lots

Verse 17, the first to plead his case seems right until another comes and examines him. Well, you don't have to browse social media very long before you will see a very example of this. The first person to make some sort of a case or some sort of a cause before he hears all of the evidence, he might seem right, but then another comes and examines him and exposes his folly.

And this certainly goes with verse 13 that we had heard previously. He who responds with a word before he hears, it is a folly and a shame to him. A lot of folks ready to speak out before they get all the details, and they may sound right being the first one to speak.

A lot of folks just want to jump on it early. I want to sound like the smart one. I want to sound like I'm on top of things by responding to this issue quickly. But then somebody comes along, examines his response or his reasoning, and then he's actually shown to be the fool because he spoke too soon.

Verse 18, the cast lot puts an end to contentions and decides between the mighty ones. Can't come up with a good decision? Nobody can agree on which decision is the right one? Flip a coin, roll a dice, cast a lot.

Maybe it'll help you come up with a reasonable conclusion. Pastor Tom Buck is taking us through Jonah right now in our sermon series that we're doing on Sunday. By the way, you can listen in by going to fbclindale .com.

Just click on sermons. You can catch all of the past sermons on there. We've just done a few up to this point. But you think about when the storm had come upon the boat. This was after Jonah had decided not to go to Nineveh, but he was running away to Tarshish.

So he boards a ship. They're going across the Mediterranean Sea. A big storm comes up, and the men of the boat are trying to figure out who it is that has done wrong that has caused this storm to come against them.

So they cast lots, and the lot falls on Jonah. So they look at Jonah, and they say, okay, what have you done that has caused this mighty tempest, this wretched storm to come upon us and threatens to break apart our boat?

And then Jonah reveals to them, well, I'm running away from Yahweh. I serve the one true and living God. And the men, these pagans aboard this ship, their hearts are filled with dread, filled with fear.

So there's an example of casting a lot, and by the providence of God, it falling upon Jonah, and then finding out that he's the reason why this storm had come upon them. You also think about Acts 1, where they were trying to find a replacement.

The apostles were looking for a replacement for Judas. And so they needed somebody to fill that 12th spot. There were two men who qualified, Matthias and Justus, and they cast lots, and the lot fell on Matthias.

And so he ended up being the guy. And that was by the Lord's will, for the apostles prayed before they cast lots, show us the one whom you've chosen to fill in Judas's place. And the lot revealed that God had chosen Matthias.

So the lot puts an end to contentions and decides between the mighty ones. Verse 19, a brother offended is harder to win over than a strong city. And contentions, we have that word come up again, are like the bars of a citadel.

One who is offended, harder to win over than a strong city. Boy, if that isn't speaking into our present day, everybody's offended about something. And it seems like you don't really have an identity in this culture unless you're offended over something, and here's what I'm offended about.

And well, you're offended because somebody has wronged you. You're a victim, you're guilty. You deserve justice. And here's how you can get it, on and on it goes. And you just can't seem to reason with a person that is offended.

You can be offended about anything and everything. It doesn't even have to be a reasonable offense. That's mostly what you see on social media. People who are offended for no good reason. But boy, that offense, they'll build their entire worldview, their value system around that offense.

And they will not be satisfied until that offense is resolved. They are harder to win over than a strong city. And the contentions that exist between them and other people are like the bars of a citadel.

We've been called as Christians not to be like this. As it says in Colossians 3 .12, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.

And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. And we also read this in Philippians 2, beginning of verse 14, do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.

Among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ, we show that we are of Christ. That's who we are to be as Christians, forgiving and not holding grudges and bearing those grudges against one another.

We should not be walking around continually offended, but instead rejoicing in Christ and holding fast to his truth and his promises. Verse 20, from the fruit of a man's mouth, his stomach will be satisfied.

With the produce of his lips, he will be satisfied. We've seen over and over again in the Proverbs, how what comes from a man's mouth is a reflection of his heart, who he is to the very core of himself.

So what's coming out of the mouth is a satisfaction to the stomach. It is a reflection of who he is at his core. This isn't something physical or like part of the digestive system that's being talked about here in verse 20.

It is a reflection of the heart. Verse 21, death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit. This is not saying that whatever you speak will come to be. I've heard some use this proverb to mean exactly that.

Proverbs 18 .21 means that you speak reality into existence. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. So if you just speak it into existence, it will exist. That's not what's being said here, but rather it is with the tongue that you can either cut somebody down or bless them.

And so what does it say in Ephesians 4 .29, that we not tear one another down with our words, but that we build each other up, giving grace to those who hear. Verse 22, he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from Yahweh.

Amen to that. I know full well the promise of this particular proverb for I have been given a good wife and I know that I have received favor from Yahweh who has blessed me with such a good woman. Verse 23, the poor man speaks supplications, but the rich man speaks with strong words.

In other words, a rich man believes that he has everything and he doesn't need anything from anyone. So it doesn't matter to him how he talks to people. He'll use strong words and cut other people down.

Doesn't matter to him. Whereas the poor man who does know that he needs something from others, he will speak kind words in order to receive or have his needs met. He knows not to offend anybody. If I offend someone that I'm not gonna have my needs taken care of, but he speaks supplications.

And how are we to be as Christians? Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. We need to recognize that apart from Christ, we have nothing so that we come before him as poor beggars.

The one who thinks that he has everything is not gonna ask anything of Christ, but it is the one who knows that we have nothing apart from Christ who's gonna come to him and beg and receive everything.

For if we humble ourselves before the Lord at the proper time, he will exalt us. Verse 24, a man of too many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. And we're kind of continuing this theme here of speaking certain words.

So a man of too many friends is a guy who he just tries to flatter everybody, says nice things to everyone so that he can have the most number of people who like him back. But eventually he's gonna come to ruin because he's gonna recognize he doesn't have any genuine friends.

All of it was very shallow relationships. Nobody who really was gonna be willing to give to him anything. He's ultimately going to come to ruin, but there is a friend, a genuine friend, a friend from the heart who sticks closer than a brother.

And what a friend we have in Jesus, as the old hymn goes, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Jesus said to his own disciples that I have called you brothers.

And we likewise can refer to Christ as a brother. For as it says in Romans 8, verse 29, that he is the firstborn among many brothers. He is the first to rise from the dead. And we who are in Christ will likewise receive resurrection from the dead.

So turn from your sin to Jesus Christ. There is no greater friend that you could have, but Jesus. Heavenly father, we thank you for these words that we have read in that even what we find in wisdom passages in the Old Testament can point us to Jesus Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Dwell in our hearts and may what comes from our mouth be words that are pleasing and acceptable to you and give grace to those who hear. Forgive us our sins, lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, 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.

Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word when we understand the text.