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Reading Proverbs 13:13-22, where we are reminded that the wicked hate to be reproved, whereas the faithful listen to God's instruction and are blessed. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Throughout the scriptures, we see that whatever the wicked has will be taken away from them in judgment. The righteous will be given an eternal reward. And we see that even in the book of Proverbs, when we understand the text.
This is when we understand the text, studying God's Word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing, and if this is ministered to you, please let others know about our program.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. Well, being Thursday, we come back to our Old Testament study in the book of Proverbs. Chapter 13 is where we were last week, and picking up where we left off, I'll start reading in verse 13 to verse 25.
This is in the Legacy Standard Bible. The one who despises the Word will be in debt to it, but the one who fears the commandment will be rewarded. The instruction of the wise is a fountain of life, to turn aside from the snares of death.
Good insight gives grace, but the way of the treacherous is unrelenting. Every prudent man acts with knowledge, but a fool spreads out folly. A wicked messenger falls into evil, but a faithful envoy brings healing.
Poverty and disgrace come to him who neglects discipline, but he who keeps reproof will be honored. Desire realized is pleasant to the soul, but it is an abomination to fools who turn away from evil. He who walks with the wise will be wise, but the friend of fools will suffer harm.
Evil pursues sinners, but the righteous are repaid with good. A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, and the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous. Abundant food is in the fallow ground of the poor, but it is swept away by injustice.
He who holds back his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently. The righteous eats to the satisfaction of his soul, but the stomach of the wicked lacks. So we come back to verse 13 here where it is said, The one who despises the word will be in debt to it, but the one who fears the commandment will be rewarded.
The one who despises the word is in debt to it. What does that mean? Well, if he despises the word of God, he will be judged by the will of God. He did not pay any attention to it. He did not come to understand or to know how to gain wisdom, how to gain righteousness, how to please the Lord.
We understand these things according to his word. Now, of course, we cannot keep the law perfectly. We certainly cannot do that. We have transgressed the law. And as it says in James, if you've broken one part of the law, you are guilty of all of it.
But Christ did keep the law perfectly and died for our sins on the cross as an atoning sacrifice. So that whoever believes in him, our sins are paid for by the sacrifice of Christ. And we receive eternal life.
More than this, we also receive his righteousness. That we may live in such a way that is pleasing unto God. All of this we know according to his word. You know the gospel of Jesus Christ because you heard someone proclaim it to you from the word of God, the Bible.
And you believed it and so are saved. So you value the word. You treasure the word. It is by this word that you have come into salvation. It is by this word that you're coming into sanctification, being made holy in God's sight as well.
So this is what we gain from the word of God. But the one who despises this word will be in debt to it. They will be judged according to it. They will come to find that they have not kept the word and therefore have incurred a debt so great that they cannot repay it.
But the one who fears the commandment will be rewarded. That proverb goes on to say, so the one who fears what God has said, who trembles at his word, as it says in Isaiah 66 too. The one who desires to keep God's commands will be rewarded.
Jesus said to his disciples in John 14, 15, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commandment. We go on to verse 14, the next proverb here. The instruction of the wise is a fountain of life to turn aside from the snares of death.
Have we not been reading the words of the wise as we have been consulting the scriptures here? We know from James 1, 5, that if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously to all without reproach.
When we read the scriptures, we gain the wisdom of God. And if we don't understand what we are reading, ask of God and he will give you understanding. We've been talking about that as we've been going through first Corinthians chapter two.
I shared this this story recently. I can't remember if it was in a Sunday school class or if it was in the sermon that I preached on Sunday. I've done a lot of teaching lately, so it's all kind of blurring together.
Anyway, my dad, when he got saved, he went to a New Year's Eve party. Well, he thought he was going to a New Year's Eve party. It turned out to be a crusade kind of a thing. And so there was an evangelist there.
He was preaching and he talked about sin, that because of your sins, you are under the wrath of God and said that salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ alone. And he quoted all these different verses.
My dad was convicted, became a Christian that night. He went home and he grabbed the family Bible. He and his family were not Christians, but they had a Bible in the home. So he grabbed a Bible. He opened it up and he tried to find the words that he heard the evangelism preaching, but he could not find any of those verses.
And he actually began to become very concerned. He wondered if this guy had been making it all up. How can I find these verses in this big book? That's so many hundreds of thousands of words. And so he prayed to God.
He asked that God would show him the words the evangelist said. And then as he continued flipping pages, his eyes fell upon one of those verses that he heard the evangelist preach. Then he would turn a few more pages and he found another one.
And he turned a few more pages and found another one. And then he's reading the context all around it. And he's gaining the wisdom of God as he reads. He asked for it. And God answered his prayer. And so if we seek God with all our hearts, God will answer us and he will give to us knowledge according to his word, knowledge of his son and what Christ has accomplished on our behalf.
And so the instruction of the wise, therefore, becomes a fountain of life. We read in Revelation about the Lamb of God. I think this is in Revelation 7 about how the Lamb of God will shepherd us to springs of life.
We drink from this water of life and we will live forever, as Jesus also said to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. So these waters that we come to by God's word is a fountain of life to turn aside from the snares of death.
That's what we deserve because of our sin. But in the righteousness of Christ, we have life forever. Verse 15, good insight gives grace. But the way of the treacherous is unrelenting. Good insight gives grace.
In other words, you have a good sense about things, not necessarily by your own mind or following your own heart, as the world would tell you to do. But because your conscience has been informed by the word of God, you have a good general sense of what pleases the Lord, what is right and what is wrong.
Though you may not know like like every single aspect of every single situation that I'm ever going to encounter. But since your conscience has been formed and guided by God's word, then you have a good sense about which way to go.
And this gives grace to you. You do not feel condemned by every little thing, nor do you have a desire to condemn other people for every little thing. So you have grace and you give grace. But the the way of the treacherous, the one who does wicked, the one who does indeed follow his own heart, they are unrelenting.
They're not gracious to other people. And in fact, they're constantly dealing with their own guilty conscience. They do not know the difference between right and wrong. They'll they'll try to suppress that conscience with their own unrighteousness.
And that just leads to more and more evil, more and more sin. So the one who is guided by God's word, who has a conscience formed by his word, we have grace. But the one who does not follow what God's word says, they do not give grace, a guilty conscience and try to make other people feel guilty about everything as well.
Verse 16, every prudent man acts with knowledge. Remember that prudent means or prudence describes a person who gives thought to the future. So they think about what their actions mean. If I do this, this is going to be the consequence and not necessarily abstaining from evil.
Like the prudent man doesn't just abstain from evil. The prudent man also desires to do good, that there may be good consequences. So every prudent man acts with knowledge. How does he know what kind of consequences action is going to have?
Because he's been informed by God's word. His conscience has been shaped by this word goes right along with the previous proverb that we just read. But a fool spreads out folly. He does not think about the consequences of his actions.
And it's just going to lead to chaos and havoc. It affects everything around him. He makes poor decisions. It affects other people. He just spreads out folly. It's in his wake, goes before him and comes after him.
Verse 17, a wicked messenger falls into evil. But a faithful envoy brings healing. Let's consider first this messenger, a wicked messenger falls into evil. So a wicked messenger is a person who speaks a message that is false, that is wicked, it's evil.
It will direct a person to sin or fool them into believing a lie. And he himself falls into evil. So you will know the wicked by their own rotten fruit. But a faithful envoy brings healing. The wicked messenger falls into evil, brings evil.
But a faithful envoy, that's just another word for messenger, synonymous with messenger. He brings healing. The word that he brings is good for people. The wicked man brings a message that will ruin people.
But a faithful person, one who is faithful unto God, his message is encouraging. It brings healing. It gives hope. It uplifts the spirit and the soul. It directs the eyes to Christ, who is our hope and our peace, our acceptance before God.
This is the good message of a faithful friend. Verse 18, poverty and disgrace come to him who neglects discipline. But he who keeps reproof will be honored. We've seen this over and over again throughout these scriptures that the foolish man will not listen to correction.
Going back to Proverbs 12, 1, whoever loves discipline loves knowledge. But he who hates reproof is senseless. And we come back to this again. Poverty and disgrace comes to him who neglects discipline.
And not necessarily poverty and disgrace in some sort of economic sort of a way, like a practical, financial, real-world sort of sense. Although that may be the application. It could be that a person who does not listen to discipline will come to even financial ruin.
But we see people who are wicked and evil, who deal treacherously all the time, and they do just fine financially. So that's not always going to be the case. But this will always be the case when applied in a spiritual sense.
Poverty and disgrace to the one who does not want to listen to correction. Who does not want to have to be told that they are wrong, face the consequences of their actions, and make amends for the things that they have done.
Asking forgiveness, admitting wrong, and desiring to change course and go in the way of righteousness. A person who will not listen to discipline is going to come to spiritual poverty. Even in their own souls, they will be as nothing.
And they will be a disgrace before the throne of God. But he who keeps reproof will be honored. The one who is corrected and not only listens to that correction, but changes course. Asks forgiveness for sins, makes amends for wrongs that have been committed, and desires to go in a right way.
He will be honored before God, before the throne of glory. You just even consider this in real time. You've probably seen certain persons who have been caught for wrong, and they will apologize, admit their wrongdoing, and then change direction.
And they're often praised by people around them as a good model of a humble person who has acknowledged their mistakes, is willing to suffer the consequences, and listens to wise counsel. We would consider that person humble in the way that they have turned from their sin and desired to pursue righteousness.
Whereas a fool who will not listen to discipline. You might hear in their apology something like, well, this isn't who I am. It is who you are. You're the one that committed the error that came from you and nobody else.
And they may even have excuses in their apology like, well, I didn't mean to do that. Or I, you know, this was the reason why that happened. If this person had only done this and this wouldn't have taken place.
Or why are you making a big deal out of this? It might be the kind of an excuse that you hear in a person who neglects discipline, will not face the consequences for their actions. And though they may pay lip service to trying to do better, you don't actually see a change in that person's life.
They will be a disgrace in the eyes of the people around them. Verse 19, desire realized is pleasant to the soul, but it is an abomination of fools who turn away from evil. So a person who desires to do good.
And then they do that good. They have a pleasant soul. They love life. They enjoy the fruits of their labor. What it is that they have invested themselves in and the results of living in righteousness.
It is sweet to the soul when a person lives their lives in such a way that what they desire is what God desires. But then look at the next part of that proverb. It is an abomination to fools to turn away from evil.
In other words, for a fool to turn away from evil, they consider that an abomination. We should consider evil things an abomination. But the evil man thinks good things are basically an abomination. We see that in the world right now.
Right. Just finished up the month of June, which is pride month in the United States of America. One of the most sorted and and perverse months of celebration on the calendar. It is astounding. The sickness and the perversity that the American culture digresses into in the month of June.
Even businesses coloring their logos in celebration of lesbianism, genital mutilation, buggery, transvestite, crossdressing and any other quasi normal sexual perversity that we may have missed. Isn't that what LGBTQ stands for?
Our culture has so embraced this perversion that last month, both Nickelodeon and Disney kids networks and not just Nickelodeon, but Nick Jr. Exposed kids to drag queens explaining to them this LGBTQ perversity.
And the fact that I call this out and I would call this child abuse what Disney and Nickelodeon have done and anybody who would take their kid to a gay pride parade for the very fact that I've called this perversion.
I could lose my podcast. I could lose all my videos. Somebody would complain about this and it would all get wiped out. I'd lose the entire database of everything I've recorded over the last six years.
Why? Because the culture embraces this perversion and not what is right. Because they consider it an abomination to turn away from this evil that they're not only participating in, but exposing kids to and trying to raise them up in the knowledge of the evil.
Think of it as an abomination to turn from their evil. They think my calling this out is an abomination rather than the disgusting habits that they are trying to normalize and ingest on a daily basis.
Verse 20. He who walks with the wise will be wise, but the friend of fools will suffer harm. How did we even get to this place in our culture? Embracing these sick perversions as being normal. It's because we've made friends with fools.
And over time, as we have continually digressed over the decades to get to this point, bad company corrupts good character and we've just fallen into deeper and deeper moral evils. But the one who is wise will walk with those who are wise.
We will not sit in the seat of scoffers, as it says in Psalm 1, but we will walk with the wise and be planted by streams of water. We go on to verse 21 here. Evil pursues sinners, but the righteous are repaid with good.
So as we've been talking about over several of these proverbs here, that the one who does evil or the one who devotes himself to folly, the one who does treacherously, he falls into more and more evil.
Evil pursues sinners. Remember that God had warned Cain when Cain had grown jealous of his brother Abel and wanted to kill him because God showed favor to Abel's sacrifice and not Cain. God said to Cain that evil is crouching at your door and its desire is for you, but you must master it.
Evil was pursuing Cain. And that's what evil does to those who love to walk in a way that is contrary to God, who will not follow his word, who will not go after Christ. They will fall into more and more unrighteousness.
As it says also in Romans 1, evil pursues sinners, but the righteous are repaid with good. The one who desires righteousness will grow in righteousness. He will continue to be made more righteous and he will mourn and he will grieve over the state of this world and have nothing to do with it, but desire to walk in the light as he is in the light and the righteous will be repaid with good.
He will receive more and more of this desire of his heart to do righteously in the midst of a crooked and depraved generation. Verse 22, a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children and the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.
So a person who invests himself in righteousness, who grows in righteousness, he passes that on to his kids. They pass it on to their children. The good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children.
A good example for them to follow that the generations will not fall into deeper and deeper depravity, whereas the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous. Consider the parable that Jesus gave in Matthew chapter 25, the parable of the talents.
There was a man who went on a journey and he gave to his servants talents, which were a form of currency to take care of while he was gone. He gave one servant five talents. He gave another two talents and another servant had been given one talent.
The one who had five talents, he turned it into five more talents. So he was able to return to his master ten talents. The one who had been given two talents, he invested that and turned it into two more talents.
So he was able to double what his master had given to him and gave the four talents back to his master. But then the one servant who had been given a single talent, he just went and buried it. So he said, hey, master, I know that you are a hard man reaping where you did not sow, gathering where you scattered no seed.
So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. And here you have what is yours. He didn't lose the talent, but it didn't become anything else either. And the master answered him, you wicked and slothful servant.
He was lazy, didn't do anything with what the master entrusted to him. You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed. The master says, then you ought to have invested the money with the bankers.
And at my coming, I could have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given and he will have an abundance.
But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. And in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So even what had been entrusted to that wicked and lazy servant will be given as a reward to the righteous.
But the wicked will go into poverty, even eternal destruction. That is where we're going to conclude for today. So that's Proverbs 13 through 22. We'll pick up in verse 23 next week and even start to get into Proverbs chapter 14.
Thanks for being along with me. And I hope that this has been valuable for you today. That you turn away from wickedness and that you pursue righteousness according to what God has said is good in his word.
Store up these treasures in your heart and you will have great reward even unto eternal life. Heavenly Father, thank you for forgiving us our sins through the gift of your son, Jesus Christ, who died for us and rose again from the grave.
That whoever believes in him, we are forgiven our sins and we have everlasting life. Help us to also walk in the righteousness of Christ that we have been given and pass that on to others, even to our own children and to their children.
Save us from this wicked and crooked generation. Lord Jesus, come quickly. It's in your name we pray. Amen.
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