WWUTT 1489 The Evil Bow Before the Good (Proverbs 14:16-26)

The one who hears God's word and does what it says will be rich, not with riches in this world, but eternal riches above in glory, where Christ is, 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. Coming back to our study in the book of Proverbs and picking up where we left off last week, two weeks ago.

Yeah, I took off last week because I didn't have a voice. So thank you for letting me recover my voice.

We got back to our study in 1 Corinthians, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. And now we're back to Proverbs here on Thursday.

And I think we were about halfway through chapter 14. So that puts me at verse 16 through 26.

That's what I'm going to start out reading here. And you can open up your Bible and follow along with me if you like.

Out of the Legacy Standard Bible, this is Proverbs chapter 14, starting in verse 16.

A wise man fears and turns away from evil, but a fool gets angry and feels secure.

A quick -tempered man acts in folly, and a man of evil schemes is hated.

The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.

The evil will bow down before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.

The poor is hated even by his neighbor, but those who love the rich are many.

He who despises his neighbor sins, but how blessed is he who is gracious to the poor!

Will they not wander in error who devise evil? But lovingkindness and truth will be to those who devise good.

In all painful labor there is profit, but mere words from the lips lead only to want.

The crown of the wise is their riches, but the folly of fools is folly.

A truthful witness delivers souls, but he who breathes out lies is deceitful.

In the fear of Yahweh there is strong security, and His children will have refuge.

So we see a few Proverbs in here in this section we're reading today that carry some similar themes with one another, but for the most part, it's pretty much every proverb stands on its own.

We come back to verse 16, a wise man fears and turns away from evil, but a fool gets angry and feels secure.

In other words, a wise man has the fear of God in his heart, and he'll stay away from those things that God has said are wrong.

After all, how do we know the difference between what is right and what is wrong, except that our conscience dictates it for us, and there's still some element of our conscience that bears an understanding of some things being good and some things being bad.

Now, our heart is corrupt, we're depraved by our own sinful nature because we're descended in the line of Adam.

So a man is born rebelling against God. He indeed has a sense that some things are right and some things are wrong, but he's not oriented in a correct spot because he's in rebellion against God.

So the wise man fears what God has said is wrong. He has gained his wisdom because he sought the

Lord. Remember that we go back to Proverbs 1 .7, it is the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge.

As we're talking about a wise man here, he is wise because he seeks God. So he fears and turns away from evil.

He knows that God is great, that he is just, that he is judge over all.

And so knowing that, and knowing that the eyes of God are in every place, discerning the thoughts and the intentions of man, the wise man is less likely to run toward evil.

He's hesitant, he questions, he goes, hang on, I know this is wrong. And so turns his feet the other way, he goes in the opposite direction.

What does it say about the fool? The fool gets angry and feels secure.

Like he does wickedly and doesn't feel bad about it. He's totally secure in his wickedness because he is not wise, because he has not sought the

Lord. He does not know his law and therefore does not know the difference between right and wrong.

We have a sense in our minds, even in our very nature, that some things are good and some things are bad, but our moral compass is not oriented in the right spot because by our nature, we're rebellious against God.

It's when a person hears the law of God, that God has transformed their thinking and conformed their minds to what he says is good and what he says is evil.

That is when a man is filled with the fear of God and turns away from evil, that he may do what pleases the

Lord. The fool is perfectly fine in his folly and feels no guilt about it, totally secure.

And there may be some guilt, there may be some sense in there like, I shouldn't do this, but he doesn't stop himself.

He feels secure in doing what he wants to do because he does not know the difference between right and wrong.

Verse 17, a quick tempered man acts in folly and a man of evil schemes is hated.

Now this really goes right along with what we just read. So the wise man fears and turns away from evil.

The fool gets angry and feels secure. And then we're still talking about the fool as we continue on in verse 17, a quick tempered man acts in folly.

He is a person who does not have control over his emotions.

He just reacts wildly at times to things that offend him or keep him from getting what it is that he wants.

And notice we just keep on getting worse from there. And the next part of verse 17, a man of evil schemes is hated.

So consider the digression. We go from a fool gets angry and feels secure.

A quick tempered man acts in folly and a man of evil schemes is hated.

We just go from bad to worse there. He just keeps getting worse. A man who does not correct his behavior, who does not fear

God, who does not orient his moral compass according to what God says is right and wrong in the law, in the

Bible. He becomes a man of evil schemes, devising what he wants for himself. And he is hated by other people for he himself hates others.

So verse 18, the simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.

So it's like we kind of come back from the fool. We come back from the fool back to the wise man again.

The simple inherit folly, the simple minded man who does not try to expand his knowledge and understanding according to God's word.

But the prudent, the man who considers the future, who considers his steps and his way according to what

God's word says, he is crowned with knowledge. He comes to possess the wisdom and knowledge of God.

As the apostle Paul says in Colossians 2, I believe this is verse 3. It is in Christ that are found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Verse 19, the evil will bow down before the good and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.

So here we're reading about how the good triumph. Those who seek after the good way of God will triumph over evil.

I know sometimes it doesn't feel that way. Even in our world today, it kind of feels like everything is going from bad to worse.

And we're seeing the evil get away with what they want to get away with. They're even transforming governments.

We have a new world order that's coming into effect in which evil is just going to rain on the earth. Is anybody good going to step up?

Is the direction ever going to be turned back to a time or a possession of peace and prosperity instead of the chaos that everything is devolving into?

No matter which direction our world goes, know that good will triumph. Christ is victor.

He is king and he is still sitting on his throne. So on the day of judgment, evil bows down before the good.

They're not going to reign over the good. The good reigns over all as we are fellow heirs with Christ of his kingdom.

And as he says in Revelation three, I will give you a place to sit with me on my throne to he who conquers.

So the evil bow before the good and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.

To enter the city, to enter the city of the kingdom of God, the wicked must bow down before the righteous.

And you know, in order for us to enter that kingdom, we had to do the same. You and I, we were both wicked.

We were sinful. It was our sinful nature. Once again, we were headed to destruction.

What we deserve for our, uh, our rebellion against God was judgment.

We came to the city gate and bowed before God in order to be welcomed into his kingdom of righteousness.

So we who are wicked likewise had to humble ourselves and we have been made righteous by the grace of God.

We're able to enter that city as righteous because we've been given a borrowed righteousness. It's the righteousness of Christ.

Second Corinthians five 21 for our sake, he became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

We enter the kingdom of the righteous king because he has given us his righteousness.

And so we must tell the wicked to repent of their ways and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they likewise will be cleansed of their iniquity and given a place to reign in the eternal kingdom of God.

The wicked bow at the gates of the righteous verse 20, the poor is hated even by his neighbor.

We're kind of shifting gears a little bit here. We're talking about rich and poor. Now in these next few verses, the poor is hated by his neighbor, but those who love the rich are many.

This is kind of a general wisdom, sort of a proverb in that a poor man is not generally well thought of in his own neighborhood.

Like you think of the person who is the most impoverished in your neighborhood, you probably know who that is and the rest of your neighborhood knows who that is.

I wish that he would mow his grass, you know, something like that to put a practical application on it.

So the poor is hated even by his neighbor. Those who are rich, those who love the rich are many, right?

He's got lots of friends, of course, because he's got plenty of money. Now take this and apply it to something spiritual.

Aren't we as Christians instructed to be poor in spirit? Indeed we are.

That's the description that Jesus gives of his own disciples in the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter five, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Now as we know that we are poor beggars who have nothing, we're holding out our hand to the father and he gives us all good things.

So as we are poor beggars in this world, we're going to be hated by the world. And Jesus said that to his disciples, they hate you because they hated me first.

If they loved you, you would be of them. But because you were of me, you are hated by the world was the instruction

Jesus had for his disciples. So we who are poor in spirit who are modeling ourselves after our savior

Christ, we're hated by our neighbors in this world. Those who love the rich are many.

Those who love the rich in this world, those who have lots of possessions, lots of fame, lots of recognition by worldly people, of course they're loved.

We must not compromise what we believe the precious treasures that we have been given in the word of God.

We must not compromise these things or toss them out for the world's riches for we will be destroyed when the judgment of God comes against this world, which is passing away and is coming into judgment.

Those who love the rich are many. So we might be tempted to go after the things that the world has, but we must remember those things will not last as all of this is coming into judgment.

Hold fast to Christ. Blessed are the poor in spirit who realize that in this world they really have nothing for all is coming into judgment in this world and we're holding out our hands to God and he will richly reward us with eternal treasure in heaven above.

You may not receive earthly riches in this lifetime, but you are rich in eternity in Christ verse 21.

He who despises his neighbor sins, but how blessed is he who is gracious to the poor.

So now we've gone from this descriptor of rich and poor in verse 20 to something more instructional in verse 21.

He who despises his neighbor sins. If you despise your neighbor, you don't help your neighbor.

What did Jesus say? That's the second greatest command was like the first love your neighbor is yourself.

When he was asked, what is the greatest commandment in the law? He said, you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.

The second command is like it. You will love your neighbor as yourself for on these two commandments depend all the law and the profits.

You see it in the 10 commandments. What we refer to as the first and second table of the law. The first table is the first four commandments.

They're vertical commandments, our love and obedience unto God. The next six commandments, horizontal commandments, they deal with how man interacts with man and we are to love our neighbor.

So you can summarize those first and second tables of the law would love God and love your neighbor.

All of the laws come back to that. No matter what law you're reading in Genesis to Deuteronomy, it all comes back to love

God and love your neighbor. So the man who despises his neighbor is not keeping the law.

He sins as John says in first John three, four sin is lawlessness.

So the one who despises his neighbor is breaking the law of God and sinning against God.

But then the second half of verse 21, but how blessed is he who is gracious to the poor, who is caring for the most needy among us.

The one who has absolutely nothing and cannot help themselves. This doesn't say that you have to help absolutely everybody, but there needs to be a heart of charity.

Considering especially those who are the most destitute, the one who is gracious and loving and helping to the poor is the one who is showing that he loves his neighbor, that he does keep the law of God and helps those who need it.

Galatians six, 10, as we have opportunity, let us show charity to everyone, especially those of the household of faith.

So our first obligation is to help one another in the church. But then as we have other opportunities, we help others as well.

The apostle Paul said in Romans 12 to associate with the lowly. So don't consider yourself more highly than you ought to think or Lord yourself over others, but even associate with those who could not benefit you in any way for this is to love your neighbor.

Verse 22, will they not wander in error who devise evil, but loving kindness and truth will be to those who devise good.

So the one who in his heart longs for evil and even plans in his mind for evil, he may not even carry out the schemes that he thinks of.

But if that's where his mind is oriented to do evil things, to break God's law, to go after his the passions of his flesh, then he's going to wander in error.

He may not execute the things that he wants to do, but he's still wandering in error because he just I mean, his morality is relative.

It's what he wants, what he feels like having at this particular time. But loving kindness and truth, truth being something objective, not subjective, not what

I feel like right now, but but fixing myself on something outside of myself.

Loving kindness and truth will be to those who devise good. If a person has a heart that wants good things, that which

God has said is good, you will see demonstrated in this man a fruit of loving kindness and a fruit that loves truth.

Verse 23, in all painful labor, there is profit.

But mere words from lips lead only to want. In all painful labor, there is profit, no pain, no gain, right?

In order to to to earn something, to gain something, whether that's physical strength, even you want to train your body and you want to be able to run a marathon, well, you have to continue training in your body, which is very tiring.

It wears you out. You want to lift weights to gain more strength or you want to lose weight. You want to, yeah, either lift weights or lose weight, you know, whichever way you go with that.

Either way, you've you're punishing your body in order to strengthen your body. It hurts, but you gain something from it.

And likewise, to earn a paycheck, you have to work. You have to labor. It's hard. It's hard work. Sometimes you won't always enjoy it, but there's profit from it.

Painful labor yields profit, but mere words from the lips lead only to want.

In other words, this is a person who just talks, but they don't do. They stand around and don't get any work done.

They lead only to want. They accomplish nothing and there's no profit to show from the work that they do because they haven't done any work.

And likewise, we need to apply this to the Christian life. We can talk the Christian talk, but we also have to walk the

Christian walk. And if you are not doing what you have heard according to God's word, then you deceive yourself.

James says so in James chapter one. If you hear the word of God, but you do not do what it says, then you've deceived yourself.

So we must not just be hearers of the word. We must be doers of the word.

And also verse 24, the crown of the wise is their riches, but the folly of fools is folly.

The crown of the wise is their riches. What is the fruit that you see come from a person who seeks wisdom and the wisdom of God?

That fruit is rich and it leads unto eternal life. It is a fruit that produces much in the eternal kingdom of God, even more so than what we possess here on this earth.

So the crown of the wise is their riches. What do you see being produced from that man who is wise?

There's eternal reward in that, not earthly treasure, but heavenly treasure. But the folly of fools is folly.

That's kind of redundant almost, but essentially what that's saying there is that the foolishness that fools do is only going to yield foolishness.

That's all that comes from it. It's never going to yield any fruit unto righteousness, unto eternal treasure and reward.

Verse 25, a truthful witness delivers souls, but he who breathes out lies is deceitful.

We read something like that a couple of weeks ago. That was in Proverbs 14, five, a faithful witness will not lie, but a false witness breathes out lies.

And here a truthful witness delivers souls. When you tell somebody the truth, namely

Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life, you will deliver that man's soul from death if he believes in Jesus and is so saved.

But if you breathe out lies, if you don't proclaim the truth of God's word, then you're not going to lead anybody to salvation or to eternity, rather you've just deceived them.

If a person does not hear the truth, then they've been deceived. You don't have to deliberately be speaking lies to deceive them.

The fact that you won't tell them the truth is itself deceitful. And there are many people out there, many teachers, many pastors who speak

Christianese and they sound like they're saying something godly, but they're really not.

And nothing that they say really leads a person to Christ or the truth or godliness or eternal life.

And so what they say is deceitful. They twist the word or they omit the gospel and that person never hears what they need to be forgiven their sins and have fellowship with God.

That's deceitful. You don't have to deliberately be speaking lies to deceive somebody else.

All you have to do is withhold the truth. Verse 26, in the fear of Yahweh, there is strong security and his children will have refuge.

And this comes back to the theme of Proverbs. Proverbs 1 .7, the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge.

Ignorant fools despise wisdom and discipline. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the word that we've read today and I pray that we know how to take this wisdom, these

Proverbs and apply it and live according to it. Not just hearing the word, but doing what it says.

And we know according to your word, great is our reward, rich are our possessions in heaven above where Christ is for the greatest treasure that we could ever be given is

Christ. Forgive us our sins, lead us in paths of righteousness for your namesake.