WWUTT 1444 The Steadfast in Righteousness Will Live (Proverbs 11:14-21)

The Blessing of Keeping God’s Word by Faith

God has said that the one who keeps his word will be blessed. We will have the approval of God and we're able to hear his word and keep it when we have the righteousness of Christ by faith, 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, on Thursday, we do our Old Testament study, and we've been in the book of Proverbs. If you want to open up to chapter 11, we'll pick up where we left off in verse 14. Now, I kind of teased out verse 14 last week, but I just realized that I had a different proverb in mind.

I'll explain myself here in just a moment. Let's start by reading Proverbs 11, verses 14 through 21. Where there is no guidance, the people fall, but in abundance of counselors there is salvation. If one becomes a guarantor for a stranger, he will surely suffer, but he who hates striking hands in pledge is secure.

A gracious woman holds fast to glory, but ruthless men hold fast to riches. The man of lovingkindness deals bountifully with his soul, but the cruel man brings trouble on his flesh. The wicked earns deceptive wages, but he who sows righteousness gets a true reward.

He who is steadfast in righteousness will attain to life, and he who pursues evil will bring about his own death. Those with crooked heart are an abomination to Yahweh, but those of a blameless way are his delight.

Assuredly, the evil man will not go unpunished, but the seed of the righteous will escape. So, back to verse 14. Where there is no guidance, the people fall, but in abundance of counselors there is salvation.

I thought I was going to be teaching on a different proverb today. I had confused Proverbs 11 -14 with Proverbs 29 -18. Here's how it reads in the Legacy Standard Bible. Where there is no vision, the people are out of control, but how blessed is he who keeps the law.

Now, when I saw Proverbs 11 -14 in the LSB, I thought it was the favorite proverb among name-it-and-claim-it folks, the word-faith heretics, who will read, and this is out of the King James, Proverbs 29 -18, where there is no vision, the people perish.

You probably hear that all the time, right? In the LSB, it was where there is no vision. The people are out of control. So, I heard this a lot, especially in the charismatic circles that I was in from about age 18 to 28.

For a good 10 years, I was attending nothing but charismatic churches, and I had this friend who used to play football. He actually was a linebacker for the Colts at one point, and he was starting a football camp in my area in Kansas.

He was doing a football camp, and so I interviewed him for that. I was on a Christian radio station at the time. I did an interview with him because we were kind of plugging the football camp, and he was talking about the vision that he had for this camp and where he wanted it to go, and I remember him quoting Proverbs 29 -18.

Again, the verse that I thought was Proverbs 11 -14. Very, very close. We'll compare them here in just a moment. But he quoted that verse in the interview, only he didn't quote the whole thing. He said, where there is no vision, the people perish, and then went on talking about his camp, and it was kind of funny.

I'd heard that a lot in charismatic circles, but it was kind of funny. When he said it, it was different for me that time because I was listening to that, and I was going, where there is no vision, the people perish.

I don't think God was talking about football camps. So I pulled out my Bible, and I looked that up. I think it was the NIV. I don't think I looked at it in the King James, but realizing that there was more to it, more to the verse than that.

Again, here it is in the King James in full. Where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. And I'm looking at this, and I'm going, that has nothing to do with football camp.

That has everything to do with obeying the word of God, and the one who obeys God's word is blessed. In Proverbs 11, 14, we read, where there is no guidance, the people fall, but in abundance of counselors, there is salvation.

So there you could also try to break that verse up to say something that it doesn't really mean. It could be that maybe one of the reasons why I confused these two verses, when Becky and I were talking about John C. Maxwell recently, this was one of those verses he took out of context, and he just focused on the first half, where there is no guidance, the people fall.

So he's encouraging in the leadership books that he does, he's encouraging guys to rely on many counselors. In an abundance of counselors, there is salvation. Well, that's significantly better than you make good business decisions when you have an abundance of counselors.

It means when you've got good people around you, you've got good accountability, you're not going to do anything too stupid that's going to go to your own destruction. That's what that means. So we have the statement in Proverbs 29, 18.

As often as that gets taken out of context by name-it-and-claim-it preachers, the statement there, the proverb there is that if you keep the law, you are blessed. You are approved by God because you have heard his instruction and you follow it.

Jesus said in John 14, 15, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commandments. And it says in 1 John 1, whoever does not obey the commands of God is a liar. And the truth is not in him. So this has nothing to do with vision casting as we hear talked about in the church very commonly, very frequently.

You need to have a vision for your church or the people will perish. Okay, well, fine. My vision for the church is that the word of God would be preached and people would obey what it says. I had a woman come up to me one time.

It was right after I became senior pastor. The previous pastor had resigned, gone to plant a church in another place. I took over the preaching and teaching at that church, and I had a woman come up to me and say to me, you need to have a vision for this church.

And I said to her, well, my vision for the church is to preach the word of God and help the people, help shepherd the people of God to obey the voice of the shepherd. That's my vision for this church.

And she was really disappointed with that answer. She said, no, we need to have like what's your five-year plan? What's your 10-year plan? I said, well, by the grace of God, I'm still going to be preaching the word of God in 10 years.

And, again, not satisfied with that answer. We don't see vision casting in the Bible. You need to expand your campus. You need to have X number of baptisms in a year. You need to do this, that, or the other.

There needs to be significant growth in number or capital or something like that. That is not how God grows the church. He grows the church in maturity. If he is going to grow the church in number, that's by the work of God.

We would be obedient to go out preaching the word of God, sharing the gospel with the lost, but the conversion of souls is by the work of God in their hearts. We've been talking about that this week going through 1 Corinthians 2.

And we need to be responsible to handle the word in a right way. We need to be obedient to God to go out and desire to disciple the nations. But the conversion of souls is a work that God does. So if conversion doesn't happen, it doesn't mean that the church is doing something unfaithful.

Listen to what is preached. What are they proclaiming in that congregation? Look at how they love one another. Are they practicing church discipline? Are they handling the ordinances in the right way?

Baptism in the Lord's Supper? What is it that the church is doing that is producing fruit? Not are they growing their numbers? Is the building getting larger? That's not the vision that we're talking about here.

The vision is to know the word of God and to follow it. And here in Proverbs 11, 14, it's about accountability. Where there is no guidance, the people fall. Where you don't have people making sure that you are listening to the word of God and following it.

We cannot do the Christian walk by ourselves. We are meant to do this as the church. Because that word church means a called out assembly. Ecclesia. We are an assembly of people. We sanctify one another.

We grow in love when we love each other. So it is by this guidance, the word of God over a people of God. It is by this guidance that we are upheld. Where there is no guidance, the people fall. In an abundance of counselors.

With fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord. Holding us to the word of God. There is salvation. You can read that as sanctification. We will endure to the end. I was very sad to see yet another story of another deconversion.

This just came out yesterday. Kevin Max, one of the members of the 90s Christian rock band DC Talk. Probably the most iconic Christian rock band there has ever been in contemporary Christian music. Just yesterday it came about that Kevin Max announced that he is now an exvangelical.

That means he is not a Christian anymore. He has renounced his faith and he no longer follows Christ. Now, some of us knew this was coming. I have seen Kevin Max kind of going in this direction for a number of years.

If you kind of keep up with Christian music news and stuff like that. Which I have done. I was involved in it a lot when I was in Christian radio. And old habits die hard. So I still read quite a bit of Christian news here and there.

I noticed some things that he said online. And things he said in interviews and stuff like that. And you just kind of saw it coming. But nevertheless, this happens because of a breakdown in his faithfulness to the word of God.

And his faithfulness to the people of God. There has not been a conviction in his heart to know the word and keep it. And there has not been a conviction to be with God's people who are likewise under the authority of the preaching and teaching of God's word.

When we go away from those things, people will fall. But where there is an abundance of counselors who are guiding us in God's word, there is salvation. We are upheld. There is endurance and perseverance in that word.

There is holding on and remaining steadfast to the very end, sanctified, presented complete in Christ on that day of glory. With Paul saying to the Philippians in Philippians 1 .6, I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ.

When we see somebody who deconverts like this, it demonstrates that they never really were converted. They never really were a true convert and a follower of Christ. 1 John 2 .19, they went out from us so that it might become plain that they were not of us.

If they were of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out from us so that it might be seen that they are not of us. And Jesus illustrated this also in his parable of the sower in Matthew chapter 13.

There are some who are going to demonstrate some kind of a growth. And we're going to see that and think, oh, there's a genuine Christian, but they have no root in themselves, Jesus said. And the plant withers away and dies.

We can't be rooted in ourselves. We have to be rooted in the Holy Spirit. Again, only a work of God. So that's Proverbs 11 .14, where there is no guidance. The people fall, but in an abundance of counselors, there is salvation.

I did a what video on Proverbs 29 .18. So you can go look up, without vision, the people perish. That's on YouTube, and you can see my explanation of that verse there. It was one of the earliest what videos I did.

Wise Counsel, Debt, and the Folly of Binding Yourself

Verse 15, if one becomes a guarantor for a stranger, he will surely suffer. But he who hates striking hands in pledge is secure. Now, just like Proverbs 11 .14 sounds a lot like Proverbs 29 .18. So this verse, verse 15, sounds a lot like a proverb that we've read previously.

So going back to Proverbs 6 .1, it says there, my son, if you have become a guarantor for your neighbor, have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger, right? That sounds just like what we read in Proverbs 11.

If you have been snared with the words of your mouth, have been caught with the words of your mouth, do this then, my son, and deliver yourself. Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, go humble yourself and badger your neighbor.

Give no sleep to your eyes nor slumber to your eyelids. Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter's hand and like a bird from the hand of the fowler. So this is advice from a father to his son to ask debt forgiveness from his neighbor, essentially.

And that's so he might be free. First of all, he won't be slave to the lender anymore, but he would also be free to give to those who truly need it. Otherwise, he's got to pay back his lender, and then he doesn't have money to help those who need help.

Right. So if we enslave ourselves to numerous people that we borrow from, that's less. That's actually less money that we have to give to those who are in need. It's a foolish thing to do with your money, to be enslaved to multiple lenders.

And so this is another sort of a proverb that goes along with that. I think when I read this from Proverbs 6, I said it was confusing to me because I'm just not economically minded in the handling of money.

So I had to read from somebody's commentary to get help on that. But anyway, coming back to verse 15, if one becomes a guarantor for a stranger, he will surely suffer. But he who hates striking hands in pledge is secure.

Striking hands in pledge may not necessarily mean hands hitting in violence. It's shaking hands. It's we're going to do something to secure a commitment to a lending agreement. That's kind of more what's happening there.

But if you hate to do that, if you think in your mind, I'm not going to enslave myself to somebody else or obligate myself to have to pay back somebody else, then you'll find more security in not having to owe another than if you borrow money from another.

There's certainly a very practical application in that. But I think something spiritual to it as well, for we are supposed to give of what we earn to God. That's less you can give to God if you're having to pay back your lender.

Graciousness, Lovingkindness, and Reward

We come now to verse 16. A gracious woman holds fast to glory, but ruthless men hold fast to riches. Now, surely there are ruthless women and there are gracious men. So why the distinction here between the gracious woman and the ruthless man?

Well, it was it was not common for women to receive high honor for doing something. That was typically honor is given to a man because he's the head of his household. He's the guy who's in charge of stuff.

That's what men were after in a culture, in a society. They wanted the recognition, the honor, the admiration of the people that were around them. But a gracious woman will get more honor. A gracious woman gets more honor than a ruthless man will.

A ruthless man may try to force people to honor him. He's not going to get honor. But a woman who shows grace will be held in higher regard than the ruthless man, holding fast to riches, who's just out to advance and progress himself.

Make sense? So may we all be after grace and being gracious to one another. And God will exalt us. The one who is ruthless and after riches, the Lord will cast out. Verse 17, the man of loving kindness deals bountifully with his soul.

But the cruel man brings trouble on his own flesh. You can kind of see the relationship here between the previous proverb and this one. The man of loving kindness deals bountifully with his soul. So loving kindness is showing charity and kindness to others.

And it is a benefit to himself in this way. He will be honored by God. We will receive much from our Father who is in heaven. When we give what we have for the benefit of others, great will be your reward in heaven.

Jesus talks about that in Matthew 6. We don't do it to benefit ourselves, but there is reward from it. The Lord has promised it to us. The cruel man, however, that guy who keeps things to himself, doesn't help those who are in need and then those who are in need suffer because the man who has much doesn't give.

The cruel man brings trouble on his own flesh. He thinks he's preserving himself. He is heaping judgment on his own head. Verse 18, the wicked earns deceptive wages, but he who sows righteousness gets a true reward.

The wicked man earns deceptive wages. He deceived in order to get what it is that he has. But the one who sows righteousness, his reward is true. It's not been acquired dishonestly, but through honest ways.

We've talked about this earlier in Proverbs, that the one who receives through honest means has a clear conscience, but the one who gains through wicked means has a guilty conscience. He suffers in his own mind and heart, though he may not even understand why he experiences the depression and the cognitive dissonance that's going on in his brain.

It's the blessing of God that we can live without guilt, and we know we are forgiven our sins in Christ Jesus by faith in Christ. Romans 8, 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Verse 19, he who is steadfast in righteousness will attain to life, and he who pursues evil will bring about his own death. Jesus in Matthew 6, 33, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things, the things that you need on earth will be added to you as well.

So it's when we have the righteousness of God, we are given that righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ, his righteousness imputed to us, and don't we know that we will attain to life? Not just blessing in this life, the approval of God, but even eternal life in the life that is to come.

He who pursues evil, though, will bring about his own death, his own destruction. Verse 20, those with a crooked heart are an abomination to Yahweh. There's that beautiful name again. But those of a blameless way are his delight.

Once again, doing what we do to the praise and glory of our Father who is in heaven, we want to please our God because we know that he loves us and he's given so much for us. God has given his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Jesus giving his own life for us. So out of love for God who has given so much to us, we give our lives unto him. Those whose way is blameless, and our way is blameless when we hear the word of God and we obey it, right?

Just as we talked about at the beginning of the lesson today. We are the delight of God, but the ones of crooked heart are an abomination to Yahweh. And as it says in Psalm 5, 6, he will destroy the bloodthirsty and evil men.

Verse 21, assuredly the evil man will not go unpunished, but the seed of the righteous will escape. The fruit of our labors, we will escape from the judgment of God and we will enter into his presence in glory.

Hearing from our master on that day that we walked through heaven's gates. Well done, good and faithful servant. Now great is your reward. That's the seed, that's the fruit of the righteousness of Christ given to us by faith.

Heavenly Father, thank you for these good Proverbs. And may the practical application of these Proverbs apply to our lives. And we live them out, desiring to follow the instructions of our God and live in the righteousness that you have called us to in Christ Jesus.

Help us also to deal mercifully and graciously with one another. And may we not walk around with guilt or shame upon us, but we know that in Christ our sins are forgiven. And we have eternal reward in heaven with you.

It's in Jesus' name 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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