FBC Morning Light – October 19, 2022

Well, a good Wednesday morning to you. Here we are in the middle of the week already. Hope your week's going well. Well, today

I want to look at the two verses in Proverbs 28 that are in our Bible reading plan.

And by the way, we're winding that plan down. We're getting close to the end of that two -year plan, coming to the end of our readings in the

Old Testament, and now we're into the Minor Prophets, and getting into the final books of the

New Testament, and wrapping up Proverbs as well. Well, in verses 12 and 13, two different ideas, but one is a statement of reality.

The other is a statement of promise slash warning. Let's look at verse 12 first of all, and see if you don't resonate with what the writer says.

Verse 12 says, When the righteous triumph, there is great glory. But when the wicked arise, men hide themselves.

What's this talking about? Think of political leadership, right?

When the righteous triumph, when good people win elections and come into office, there's a sort of a sigh of relief, because we know that those good leaders will act on the basis of principle, they'll make decisions for the welfare of their people, and your fear of potential oppression, and burdensome regulations, and taxation, and all the rest of that kind of stuff, it's minimized.

As well as, there won't be the promotion of evil behavior, and the promotion of laws that allow for unethical or wicked sinful stuff, like abortion, for example, and other modern moral issues.

When the righteous triumph, there's a sigh of relief, there's a breath of fresh air, there's a feeling of gladness among the righteous.

But the last part of the verse says, When the wicked arise, men hide themselves.

When wicked leaders come into power, positions of power and authority, leaders like Gavin Newsom out in California, who's putting up billboards all across the country blaspheming the words of Christ, blaspheming

Christ by misapplying his words, and applying them to the issue of abortion, and encouraging women all over the country, come to California to kill your babies.

Come to California, we'll welcome your murderous behavior toward your babies.

A leader like that, like Gavin Newsom, is an evil man, and being in a position of power like he is, the righteous are going to hide themselves.

They're going to have a sense of foreboding. What next would a man like this bring down the pike?

What kind of legislation would he encourage?

What kind of behavior would he not only tolerate, but promote?

What kind of righteous behavior would he want to squash and quell? We're seeing this lived out in the 21st century

United States of America. We have very few good leaders that have come into positions of power, and we haven't had much to rejoice about.

On the other hand, there are a lot of evil people who are promoting all kinds of evil stuff.

The righteous in the land have a sense of foreboding about all of that, because we know where this will lead somewhere down the road.

Well, I think of the next verse, verse 13 says,

He who covers his sins will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

The first verse is a statement of reality in the culture. The second verse is a combination of a warning and a promise.

The warning is, look, don't cover your sin, don't be engaging in sinful behavior, try to cover it up and carry on clandestinely in sin.

Instead, confess it, deal with it, because that covering up, trying to hide the sin and coddle it and all the rest of that stuff isn't going to help you, you're not going to prosper in this.

Instead, you're going to suffer tremendously for it. What's the answer?

What's the antidote? Confessing and forsaking. Confess that sin, forsake that sin, and you'll find mercy.

This is the promise of God. You'll find mercy. I don't know what's going on in your life right now, but if there is any kind of sin that you are harboring and you're thinking you're getting away with it, don't go there.

Don't let yourself think that way. Instead, let the Holy Spirit use this verse of Scripture to convict you of the need to confess that sin before the

Lord, to forsake it, turn from it, and God will be merciful to the sinner who appeals to him for mercy.

So may these two verses maybe be a blessing to us as we face here very shortly some elections in our land.

Let's pray that by God's grace, righteous people triumph and that evil people will be removed from office.

And then let's be careful about our walk with the Lord and make sure we're not harboring secret private sins.

Let's confess them and get rid of them. Our Father and our God, thank you for the challenge of these couple of verses today.

I pray that we would be encouraged to pray, and I pray that we would be encouraged to guard our steps and be quick to confess and forsake sin.

We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. Have a good rest of your Wednesday, hope the