WWUTT 1584 As a Man Thinketh So Is He (Proverbs 23:1-8)

There's a verse in Proverbs chapter 23 that the Word Faith heretics love to twist and what they end up doing is promising you less than what God promises you when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Proverbs 23:1-8 and the Warning Against Prosperity Schemes

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Proverbs. We are in chapter 23 today and we're not going to get very far. There's a few verses here at the beginning, verses 1 through 8, which I think teaches us a very valuable lesson and I can easily spend one program on just these eight verses.

So that's as far as we'll get. But let me read to you here out of the Legacy Standard Bible, Proverbs chapter 23, verses 1 through 8. When you sit down to dine with a ruler, understand well what is before you.

So you should put a knife to your throat if you're a man of appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for it is bread of falsehood. Do not weary yourself to gain wealth. Because of your understanding, cease.

Do you make your eyes fly up to see it? But it is not there, because it certainly makes itself wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens. Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, and do not desire his delicacies.

For as he calculates in his soul, so he is. Eat and drink, he says to you, but his heart is not with you. You will vomit up the morsel you have eaten, and you will corrupt your pleasant words. We come back to the beginning of this chapter here.

Verses 1 through 8 is really one continuous thought. And there's a verse in here, in this section, it's a very popular verse among Word Faith heretics, and they will take it out of context. In fact, they'll rip it way out of context and twist it to mean something that it really does not mean.

And I'll show you which verse it is here when we get to it. So Proverbs 23 verse 1, when you sit down to dine with a ruler, understand well what is before you. Now this ruler doesn't necessarily have to be a king or a governor, some sort of political power.

It could be a person who's just very, very wealthy. But they have a lot of people under them. They have a lot of land. They control a lot. So this person is being referred to here in Proverbs 23 as a kind of a lord or a ruler.

So when you sit down to dine with this person of power, understand well what is before you. So you should put a knife to your throat if you're a man of appetite. Do not desire his delicacies. For it is bread of falsehood.

The picture we're being painted here is that this person of power will use what he has to entice you. It's almost like he's got the advantage right from the very start. He knows he's wealthy. He knows everybody wants to be him.

And so when you come to his table, you're going to be willing to do whatever it is that he asks of you if it means that he might share a little bit of his wealth and his power with you. But that's not what he means to do.

Instead, he's going to exploit your desire for his stuff to part you from your money or what it is that you have. You know, saying something like, hey, if you just give me a little bit of this or you invest yourself in this, look at all that I've got, right?

If you partner with me, if you do what I tell you to do, then you can end up with just as much as I have. This is the old ancient prosperity theology exchange pyramid scheme, almost right. It's like I'm not even promising you anything in return.

There's no exchange of goods for these services. You're just going to give me money with the promise of being able to make this money back and you might not ever actually get anything back. OK, perfect.

Pyramid schemes, sort of a scam. So the word faith heretics, they do the same thing. It's give me money. And by the giving of this money, I will give you a promise that God will do all of this for you.

You're sowing a seed when you give me money. That's why they'll call it seed money. So sow this seed and then God will give you back a harvest. It will multiply multiply plentifully because you sowed this little bit.

God will give you more. You see what it is that the word faith heretic guys have. They're very, very wealthy. They fly on private planes. They have their huge mansions. They get big book deals and all this other kind of thing.

So hey, yeah, whatever they tell me to do, that's what they did to get rich. Right. So if I do that, then I'm going to get rich as well, which is why the advice here in Proverbs 23 is do not desire his delicacies.

You're now vulnerable. You're now easily manipulated because you see what it is that he or she has, and you're going to be willing to do whatever you need to do in order to make back in order to even get a little bit of the piece of that pie that that person is eating from.

Verse four goes on. Do not weary yourself to gain wealth because of your understanding cease. Do you make your eyes fly up to see it, but it is not there because it certainly makes itself wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.

So you're going to reach out for this stuff. You're going to think that you can grasp it and make it your own, and it is quickly going to escape from you like trying to stalk a bird. Right. I'm going to capture this bird with my bare hands.

Nope. It quickly flies away from you right up into the heavens. Hence why verse four says, do not weary yourself to gain wealth because of your understanding. Think about what we've read through Proverbs all the way up to this point, all the way up to chapter 23.

We've constantly been given advice to not seek after your own ways. Remember the proverb that says there's a way that seems right to a man, but in the end is the way of death. Back in Proverbs chapter three, lean not on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.

So it's seeking the Lord, doing what is pleasing to him, not going to the left or to the right, not being led astray by the passions of your flesh, not being enticed by the trappings of this world. But we are content with God and a desire to know him, possessing his knowledge, growing in an understanding of these things.

So it's because of your understanding that has been given by the father in Proverbs who is guiding his son. I've given you understanding. So don't wear yourself with wealth, but with the pursuit of wealth, don't go after it because of your understanding, cease.

You have something greater than any material wealth that you can possess, the wisdom and the knowledge of God. So don't go after wealth. Now, that doesn't mean that it's wrong to be wealthy or even to make wise investments.

We've seen Proverbs that tells us to invest money wisely or even to climb the corporate ladder. I hope that you do succeed at the job that you do and you continue to get promoted and you you as you ascend to the heights of whatever career or job it is that you invest yourself in.

All of those things are perfectly OK. And the Bible, in fact, encourages us toward those things to work hard and do all things to the praise of his glorious grace. Doesn't mean if you don't make it big that you have somehow done something wrong.

That's not what that means, but just that you apply yourself to work hard and work heartily for the Lord and not for man. That's the instruction we have in Colossians chapter three. But our desire should not be for wealth as if that is our heart's pursuit.

Remember that what Paul said to Timothy in first Timothy six, 10, is that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, the love of money. You can be poor and have a love of money. And then that leads to all kinds of evil, all kinds of compromise, all kinds of willing to go after get rich quick schemes and find out that you lose everything on trying to invest in stuff that doesn't give you any return.

That's kind of the warning that's being given here in Proverbs chapter twenty three. So don't weary yourself to gain wealth. You can work for it. You can labor for it. Be wise in how you invest in it.

But don't let your heart be for that. Jesus said in Matthew chapter six that we need to have hearts that are stored up in heaven above, like our greatest desire is that which is heavenly, not that which is earthly.

For where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. Do you treasure that which is heavenly or are you going after that which is transient here on this earth and ultimately will pass away? If that's where your heart is, then you'll perish with everything else on earth that will be destroyed with the fires of judgment that will come upon creation.

Going on now to verse six, do not eat the bread of a selfish man and do not desire his delicacies. OK, so we're talking again about we're going back to the ruler here, the guy who puts something before you, who is meaning to entice you.

He sees your hungry eyes. And so he's going to use that appetite to his advantage, taking from you to benefit himself. This is a selfish man. Right. So do not eat the bread of a selfish man because that that bread is just going to use it to keep you asking for more.

Do not desire his delicacies. For as he calculates in his soul, so he is eat and drink, he says to you. But his heart is not with you. You will vomit up the morsel you have eaten and you will corrupt your pleasant words.

So if your heart is after the stuff that he has, if you want to be like that man, then you will be corrupted. And we've seen over and over in Proverbs this connection between the mouth and the heart, whatever it is that you say, you're reflecting, you're revealing what it is that is in your heart.

So if you desire what he has, you corrupt your pleasant words because your heart is corrupted. You will vomit up the morsel that you have eaten because you'll recognize his hypocrisy, his scheming, and it will be sickening to you.

You will be ashamed of yourself. How did I let myself get conned by that guy? That's the way that you'll feel. Still probably trying to convince yourself that, hey, if I do it better next time and maybe if I do this harder, then I'll come up with a return on my investment.

You know, I'll be able to make back something of his that I was trying to gain in the first place. And then you'll continue to go after that over and over again until you have nothing left of the knowledge and wisdom that you've been given through this teaching of the word of God and your pleasant words, which were once a reflection of your heart.

That was a heart that you had for Christ. Those pleasant words are gone because they've been corrupted from a heart that desires something other than God. Now I mentioned to you here that there's something in this particular section, a verse that's often taken out of context, twisted and abused by word faith heretics, which by the way, this whole section could be describing the word faith heretic.

Those people that preaching the prosperity gospel do this and you'll get wealthy, right? The reason why you don't have a lot is because you just don't believe hard enough. If you'll believe harder, if you will speak reality into existence, then these things will be for you.

These are false teachers that are promising stuff like this. And Chapter 23, Proverbs 23, one through eight is a great descriptor of these people. It's verse seven that they will take out of context and twist.

It's the verse that says, for as he calculates in his soul, so is he in the English standard version. I'm reading from the legacy standard Bible in the English standard Bible. It says, for he is like one who is inwardly calculating.

And you might be thinking to yourself, I don't really hear that verse used. You say it's a verse that's used really often, but I can't remember ever hearing that particular verse. Well, it's because the way that they quote it is not out of the legacy standard Bible or the NASB or the ESV.

They're quoting it out of the King James. And here's what we have in the King James Bible in Proverbs 23, seven for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Ooh, that sounds a little more familiar, right?

As he thinketh in his heart, so is he. How have you heard that verse used? You've heard word faith heretics take that verse out of context, twist it and apply it in this way. If you think it in your heart, you'll be it.

The reason why you're not that person is because you don't think it. So just change your thinking and you'll become that. So if you want to be a wealthy person, start thinking like a rich person. By the way, there was a book that was written by, um, oh, who's the guy, the pastor of Hillsong church in Australia forgot his name now, Brian Houston.

That's what it is. Yeah. So Brian Houston, pastor of Hillsong church in Australia, he wrote a book. I think the title of it was, you need more money. And the principles that he goes through in that book is that you need to live like a wealthy person.

And if you do that, you'll become a wealthy person. So you need to wear nice suits or nice dresses. You need to drive in nice cars. You need to go to expensive restaurants. And if you will live in this way, it's kind of like you'll, you'll put yourself in a position to be spending a lot of money.

So you'll give yourself the mindset, well, I need to be making a lot of money in order to cover these expenses. So it's, it's like this gimmick that he puts before you to, uh, to get rich, to put yourself in a mindset, to, to be a rich person.

If I think like a rich person, then I actually will be a rich person. Joyce Meyer also has a book that she did base this entire book on the concept of that, which a man thinks so is he. And it's called power thoughts, big seller for Joyce Meyer.

If you just think these thoughts, then you will actually have it. If you don't think it, this is one of the statements she makes in the book. If you don't think it, then God can't give it to you. So you're really the person that is keeping God from blessing you.

God is incapable of blessing you. If you don't think in the right way, that's, that's the teaching of Joyce Meyer. And she's a heretic. She's speaking complete and utter nonsense with this book. So was Brian Houston with his, but this is that passage that those word faith heretics twist and take out of context.

They read it from the King James that says, as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. How again, is it translated in the legacy standard Bible as he calculates in his soul? So he is, and it's not that the King James is wrong in its translation.

It's just, you can see the context a little bit better when you, when you read it in the ESV or the LSB. It's harder to hide the context when you look at one of these other translations rather than in the King James, those word faith heretics twist this passage because they're trying to hide what the context really is.

And that context, if you would open up your Bible and look at it actually warns you to stay away from these crackpots and don't listen to what it is that they have to say, because they are twisters of the word.

As it says in second Peter three 16, they twist the word to their own destruction, ignorant and unstable. That's who they are. Do not desire what they promise you desire. What can only be attained through faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus has given us the forgiveness of sins by his shed blood on the cross. He justifies us even by his own resurrection. And we've been promised everlasting life for all those who believe in him. He takes off our old stinking sinful rags and he clothes us in his righteousness.

So we may stand before God as blameless and holy. And he makes us fellow heirs of his eternal kingdom. All the stuff that the sun gets, we get also we become fellow heirs with Christ. Is that not greater, more awesome, more eternal than the stuff that the word faith heretics are promising you?

Yeah, they try their little pyramid schemes, which will never deliver anything to you. As I've often said, and you've probably heard others say this as well. The only person that gets rich from prosperity theology is the prosperity preacher.

It's because he cons you with these words and gets your money out of you. He's real wealthy and leaves you clamoring for whatever it is that he or she has. And you'll continue to invest those dollars, those quarters, dimes, nickels, pennies, hoping that you'll get some kind of return on that and never actually see it.

And what I mean to warn you about in this, too, is that if that if that becomes your heart's desire, you're going to perish with it. Your desire will be for the stuff of this world rather than for the kingdom of God.

What do you think you'll receive? You'll receive the same fate that will befall everything on this on this planet. The judgment of God that is coming against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of all of this that is around us that's eventually going to be burned up with fire.

If that's where your desire is, then you get burned up with it. Hence why we need to have a desire for things that are above where Christ is, as Paul says in Colossians chapter three, seek the things that are above where Christ is hidden with Christ in God.

For when Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Jesus saying in Matthew chapter six, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all the things that you need here on Earth will be added to you as well.

Very, very important lesson that we get here from Proverbs chapter 23, that we not desire the things of this world and we not allow ourselves to be enticed by those who will try to ensnare us. They see the appetite in our eyes, but they mean to take from us, not to give to us.

The only one who is giving abundantly is Jesus Christ, our savior. Anything that you can gain from this world is never going to last, which is why what they have to offer you is so much less than what Christ has to give.

The word faith heretics are not offering you the kingdom of God. They're offering you the kingdom of this fallen world that's coming to destruction. We have the kingdom of the eternal God that is given to us by faith in Christ.

So may your heart be there first and foremost and all the things that you need here on Earth. God will provide for you. He loves his children. He provides for every one of us. The greatest thing that he has given us is his son, which we remember this time of year.

And as we wrap up this lesson for today, we've got our Christmas Eve episode coming up tomorrow. I wish you a Merry Christmas. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the lesson that we've gleaned from Proverbs chapter 23 here.

And I pray that we would apply this. We would continue to think about this, that we would be wise. We would not be easily ensnared by the devil schemes, by the world schemes, by those people that mean to take from us.

We have a God in heaven who gives to us. You have given your son for us, who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the grave. Whoever believes in him will not perish with the judgment that is coming upon this world.

But we have everlasting life. May we rejoice in this truth and share it with others, even this holiday season and beyond. It's in the name of Jesus that 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.

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