WWUTT 1424 Hatred Stirs Up Strife, Love Covers All Offenses (Proverbs 10:12)

Whatever is opposed to God is hatred for the things of God, and it will stir up strife.

But whatever is in the mind of Christ is the wisdom of God and the love of God 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, yes, being Thursday, we do our Old Testament study, and we've been in the book of Proverbs.

I'm picking up where I left off last week, so this is Proverbs chapter 10, starting in verse 12.

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions. On the lips of the one who has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks a heart of wisdom.

Wise men store up knowledge, but the mouth of the ignorant fool draws ruin near. The rich man's wealth is his strong city, the ruin of the poor is their poverty.

The wages of the righteous is life, the income of the wicked punishment. He is on the path of life who keeps discipline, but he who forsakes reproof makes himself wander about.

He who covers up hatred has lying lips, and he who spreads a bad report is a fool.

When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who holds back his lips has insight.

The tongue of the righteous is as choice silver, the heart of the wicked is worth little.

The lips of the righteous feed many, but ignorant fools die for lack of a heart of wisdom.

It is the blessing of Yahweh that makes rich, and he adds no pain with it.

Let's pause there for now, so that's verse 22, we're coming back here to verse 12.

Now you'll notice of a lot of these Psalms, or sorry, a lot of these Proverbs that I read here, there were particular themes, from one proverb to the next, sounded like the previous proverb, or you would have heard similar words even in the next proverb.

Verse 12 really would have gone with the section that we looked at last week. So in verses 7 through 11, what we read about was the foolish man, his wickedness is not necessarily obvious on its face.

And sometimes it even takes a while to recognize the wise of heart, but eventually over time you will see who is wise, the fruit of what it is that they do will demonstrate a heart of wisdom.

And the same goes for the person who does wickedly. You may not recognize their wicked intent, and it's not always, like in their own minds, they're not trying to be deceptive, they're not trying to deliberately be wicked.

But if we're not in active pursuit of wisdom, that itself is wicked. Goodness does not come naturally to us, because we're not naturally good people.

By our nature, we are sinful wretches. As we read in Romans chapter 3, verses 10 through 12, there is no one who does righteous, not even one person, no one does good, together we have become worthless.

And when you get to Romans 5, we understand that it is because of the sin nature of Adam, the curse that was placed upon Adam as a result of his sin against God, is now being passed on to every single one of his descendants.

And since we are descendant from Adam, we are born with Adam as our federal head, then we're all inherently wicked.

We all have a heart that desires to rebel against God. We don't want to do the right thing.

We want to do our own thing, and doing our own thing, no matter how right that might be in the eyes of the world, is still wickedness, because it is in rebellion against God.

So a person who is wicked may not deliberately, it may not be that he's trying to do evil.

He's not trying to be deceptive with other people. But over time, it's going to be observed that this is not a man of integrity.

He says one thing, but he does something else. And you can tell that this is not an honest man. He may not be trying to deliberately deceive, but he's nevertheless not a godly person because he's not in pursuit of God.

He is not a man of truth. He is not someone who is mindful of his ways, who submits himself, therefore, before the

Lord. And so such a man is going to be a fool. If he does not have the wisdom of God, his foolishness will be exposed.

We've been talking about that even with our study in 1 Corinthians 1, that the wise things of God are considered foolish by the world, but it is even the wisest things of the world.

God is going to make foolish. He is going to destroy and bring down. It is only the wisdom of God that endures to the very end.

So we consider these things in verses 6 through 11 last week, and we have that tendency to think that as long as a person's not being deliberately deceptive, then they're not really a dishonest person.

Dishonest people try to hurt other people. But a person who just, you know, he says one thing, he does something else.

Maybe he just forgot. We have that idea of a person, that wickedness apparently needs to be deliberately wicked.

We have that idea because generally, we think that people are inherently good.

I think that even some of us who have a right understanding of doctrine, that mankind is inherently evil.

We may say that and we may claim that we have that belief in our doctrine, but functionally we still operate as if people are basically good.

Right now, I don't say that to mean that, hey, you just need to be suspicious of everybody and not trust anyone and just assume that someone's lying to you when they speak to you.

That's not what I'm saying. Rather, we need to understand a lie is a lie despite the intent and also saying this to you so that you would check your own heart and your own motivations, that you would be after truth.

Do you think that your own integrity is just going to come haphazardly? You know, as long as I don't do the wrong things, then

I will be an integrative guy. I will be somebody who's trustworthy. People will think of me as being wise or an honest person.

Now, you need to be after the truth in all things. You need to put to death what is earthly in you,

Colossians 3, 5, and have a mind that seeks after Christ and seeks the things that are above where Christ is.

We need to be active in these things, not believing that this stuff is just going to come incidentally, but we're after it because we love

God. We're in pursuit of God. We want him to be our greatest desire.

And if that's what you want, if you are after God, then he will give you his wisdom. James says in James 1, 5, a verse

I've quoted much up to this point and will continue as we're going through the book of Proverbs, James 1, 5.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously to all without reproach.

And it will be given him. But you must ask without doubting, James goes on to say, because the man who doubts is a double minded man and he's tossed to and fro.

You're not asking God because it's like, well, I need to go somewhere for wisdom. So, God, let me ask you. And then

I'm going to go check these other places, too. You know, that true wisdom, you know, that truth itself comes from God.

Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. There is no other way but God's way.

So you go after wisdom from the Lord and it will be given to you.

And his wisdom is sufficient. It's not like we're lacking in anything if we have the wisdom of God. Well, I got it from God, but then

I also need to get it from all of these other places. Wisdom comes from God and then it's through the lens of scripture.

We know what God's will is according to what his word says. It's through the lens of scripture that we're able to look at all the other things in the world.

It's not that there isn't anything to learn from the world, but we look we look first through the worldview that is given to us by the word of God.

And then it is by this word that we test every other word. So we came through that in verses six through 11 last week, understanding the heart of a man and the desire for wisdom.

And we get to this one today in verse 12. Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions.

Even here, the intent may not be that a person is trying to be hateful.

They may think that they have the best intentions, but if what they are doing is not of God, if it's not of the wisdom of God, then the result here is going to be strife.

It is going to stir up strife. You can have the best intentions about something, but if it's if it is not according to the wisdom of God, then it just stirs up quarrels.

I talked about this earlier this week, reading from First Timothy, chapter six, verse three, if anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our

Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

He has an unhealthy craving for controversy, for quarrels about words which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth.

Now, I talked about like the race baiting, the race wars and arguments that are going on in the country right now.

Critical race theory, intersectionality, wokeness, social justice, all of this kind of stuff that kind of falls into that particular category.

It all tends to be a war over words. It is quarreling over words.

It is worldly philosophies that is contrary to the sound words of our

Lord Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness because it's not of God. It can't accord with godliness. It doesn't produce godliness.

So instead, it produces envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions and constant friction.

That's going to be the result of this kind of of philosophy, this kind of worldly teaching.

People may have the best intentions. They may want to see reconciliation between others.

I want to see this quarreling person be reconciled with this quarreling person. That may be their intent.

But if they're using something other than the wisdom of God to reconcile people together, that's not going to be the result.

It's actually going to cause more division and break people apart even worse. One of the things that I warned the church about earlier this week is that if your church is continuing to talk about people of color as a category over here that white people are not a part of, you have a divided church and that church will continue to be divided as long as you are segregating people out according to the color of their skin, the melanin that is in their skin.

This is not the way we were meant to understand these things. We are reconciled together by the gospel.

We understand, according to the truth of Scripture, that there is one human race. There are not races.

There is one race that is the human race, every single person that is descended from Adam.

And we are all made in the image of God. But as I quoted to you earlier from Romans 3, verse 12, we have all become worthless, meaning that we have taken that image that God called good, made in his image, man and woman.

And we took that image and instead of using it to glorify the God in whose image we were made, we glorified ourselves.

We went after our sins, the passions of our own flesh. And in so doing, we made ourselves worthless, children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

As Paul describes us before Christ, B .C. in Ephesians chapter two, this is who we are before we come to faith in Jesus Christ.

We are children of wrath following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

But in Christ, we become part of a new race. There's the the physical race, which is one human race, all descended from Adam.

But then we're split into two spiritual races. There is the race of the first Adam, and there is the race of the last

Adam, who is Christ. Because by the Holy Spirit, by being born again, being changed by the

Holy Spirit of God, we become a people of God. So there is a people that are not of God and there is a people of God.

Peter talks about this in first Peter, too, that you are a chosen race, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a people for his own possession.

This is who we become in Christ. We are transformed. We are born again into the kingdom of God.

And so now in Christ, pursuing the wisdom of Christ, it is in Christ that we are reconciled to one another.

We have the same mind and the same judgment. Going back to first Corinthians one ten again, anyone who is not of this mind, who does not have the mind of Christ, is going to continue to walk in division.

They will not be unified with anybody, they will be divided from God and from one another, hated by others and hating one another, as it says in Titus three, three.

So again, Proverbs 10, 12, hatred stirs up strife, hatred for God, hatred for the wisdom of God, loving the things of this world, which would be hating the things of God, hating one another, stirs up strife, causes division.

But love covers all transgressions, first Corinthians 13, love keeps no record of wrong.

And Paul was rebuking a church in that particular chapter. This church was not exercising the love of God.

They were still following according to their flesh. That's in first Corinthians three. He he rebukes them for still being in the flesh or still being infants in the faith.

We'll get to that as we continue in first Corinthians. And then in chapter 13 tells them what love is because they're not loving one another according to the love of God.

Rather, they're loving each other in human ways rather than in godly ways. But the love of God, if our transgressions have been forgiven by the precious blood of Christ, the love of God keeps no record of wrongs.

It's it's how we're able to say that we stand before him justified because God has blotted out our transgressions.

And we have it said 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 above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.

And I could go on and on and on. But we see here how the wisdom of God. Helps us to bear 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. At the end of the lesson that we refer to as the

Lord's Prayer in Matthew, Chapter six, Jesus says, if you forgive others, their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others, your trespasses or do not forgive others, their trespasses, neither will your heavenly father forgive you of your trespasses.

Now, that's not to say that we must be forgiving in order to be forgiven. It means that if we have been forgiven, if we have the grace of God and the forgiveness of God, then the fruit of that is we will demonstrate that with one another.

We will show that we are forgiven and therefore we forgive.

This is the wisdom of God. This is how the wisdom of Christ brings this compassion and love that we're supposed to have for each other, because God has shown this love for us.

So we must show it to the brothers, to the brotherhood, to the church, to each other. There is no division, especially, especially not skin deep division where you're talking about dividing people up into different categories because the amount of melanin in their skin.

That is divided. That's a divided body and we're not to be that way. This is eventually going to stir up envy and strife.

Hatred stirs up strife, hatred for God's wisdom and thinking the world's wisdom is the way that we can solve all of our problems.

If you're going after worldly wisdom, wisdom to solve our differences, that's hatred of God's wisdom.

And that will stir up strife. But love, the love of God covers all our transgressions.

God's love has covered our transgressions. And so when we love with God's love, we will likewise forgive each other of our transgressions.

Now that's as far as I'm going to get today. It's only one proverb, it's Proverbs 10, 12, but I'm going to stop there because that, that kind of went more with six through 11 and then we go into something else when we go from 13 on.

Because like I said, you heard in those Proverbs that there were a lot of similar words on the lips of the one who has understanding wisdom is found.

Wise men store up knowledge with the mouth of the ignorant fool draws ruin near.

You have then you start talking about wealth. Rich man's wealth is his strong city. The wages of the righteous is life.

And and so on and on it goes. So we're kind of jumping into different Proverbs now that follow a certain thematic flow.

So I want to keep those together and we'll come back to that next week. But remember this again, right? Reading it once again,

Proverbs 10, 12, hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions.

Whatever is opposed to God is going to be hatred in God's eyes.

Whatever is is godly, whatever God has said is good, is therefore going to be of the wisdom of God and love that comes from God.

And that love that we have been shown by God covers all transgressions.

He has covered our transgressions. May we be forgiving of one another. Heavenly Father, thank you for this good reminder from your word today.

And I pray that we would take it to heart and we would desire to exercise it among ourselves.

What turmoil we're seeing the world in right now. People want to hate each other.

They're looking for ways that they can hate one another. And something else that hits the news, the latest story, the latest fad that that gets on everybody's lips turns out to be another excuse to hate one another over something.

May that not be the mark of your church, but we would desire to love to show that we have a completely different mindset than the rest of the world.

We have the mind of Christ who loved us and gave himself for us as a ransom for our sins that we might be forgiven and stand before God justified, adopted as sons and daughters into your heavenly kingdom.

Thank you, Father, for the love that you have lavished upon us, that we might become the children of God.

And so we are. 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

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