Thistletown Baptist Church

Proverbs 26:1 (ESV) – Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool.

What a needed word for our culture today! First of all, there are such things as fools. So often today we get the impression that it is so important to affirm people that we must never come to a conclusion that a person is a fool. There are such things and we can hardly be helping them if we try to deny that that is what they are. The Proverbs have much to say about them and none of it is flattering.

Secondly, there are people (fools) for whom honour is a positive evil. It will not help them. It will hurt others and, as this Proverb says, it is simply inappropriate. Do not lavish praise on those who lack wisdom. Foolishness is culpable and what the fool needs is encouragement to get wise, not honour for acting the fool.

A world leader recently made the comment:“[Genesis 1:28] is a licence to exploit the environment. It has contributed to a feeling that the world is entirely man’s to dispose of – as income, rather than as a capital asset which needs husbanding.” Whether he received accolades for saying it, I do not know. But I know that he should not. It is inappropriate, out of season, and the encouragement of more foolishness to come out of his mouth.

Speak wisely and if you ever do anything that others think deserves praise, make sure that it is truly deserving. Live and speak with the wisdom that comes from above.

To be a fool is not inevitable. There is hope for even the fool if he will abandon the foolish thought that he is wise and be willing to learn. The ultimate foolishness is to live one’s life as if there is no God. It took the death of the Son of God to bring people out of that foolishness and it is still the cure and it is still bringing people into true wisdom.

That does not mean that believers never play the fool. There are plenty of followers of Christ who can wear the label “fool” and not be telling a lie. But if they are true believers they at least do not have the mark of the fool that says that they can live without God. It is a great fool who believes and acts according to his own learning and understanding without reference to God.

Today, make sure that it is not a description of you. Show the small part of the world that you travel in that any honour you receive has not been heaped upon a fool.

Psalm 85:6 (ESV) – Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?

Revival comes from God. We can no more revive ourselves than we can save ourselves. It is a mighty act of sovereign loving grace that brings revival to pass. What we need to do is pray for it, as the Psalmist does here. “Will YOU not revive us again…?”

“Revival” has come to have some very strange definitions by some Christians that cannot stand the scrutiny of the Scriptures. It is not a week of meetings. It is not the demonstration of miracles and healings and speaking in strange languages. It is not necessarily demonstrated by spectacular manifestations of unusual things.

The word means “to live again”. In this Psalm it is that which brings the people to find their joy in God more than anything else.

We cannot plan a revival, guarantee a revival, call something that is not a revival, revival. But we can do what God commands us to do so that He will give the needed revival. We can pray. We can repent of sin. We can fellowship in love with other believers. We can keep short accounts with God. We can persevere in holiness and not give up, knowing that in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. And perhaps God will be pleased to grant the revival that we so sorely need.

And the mark of it will be that we rejoice in Him. We will rejoice in Him together in unity with others. This is a mark of revival that we desperately need to pray for. Oh that we would rejoice in God as we ought. When we are more smitten by God than sex and money and church growth; when the conversion of people to Christ causes us to worship Him with great gratitude, then we will know that, to some degree, we have had a visitation from God that can rightly be called revival. O Lord, send it now, and in the meantime, do not allow me to be taken aside to lesser things than You.

Galatians 3:16-20

16Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. 17This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. 18For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. 19Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 20Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.

The offspring has already been identified as Christ (verse 16). The Law was in force until Christ came. Christ abolished the Law. He abolished the whole Law.

For Christians to seek to live according to the Old Testament Law is to deny that Christ has fulfilled His purpose in coming to the earth. The Law was only put in place through angels and by an intermediary – Moses. The Gospel was put in place by God Himself and mediated by God the Son. It simply cannot stand up against what the Gospel can give.

Whatever Paul means by saying that the Law came through angels, the bigger point is that Jesus is better. Why see the Law as something glorious for the redemption of sinners when it is clear that the Gospel supercedes it in every possible way? This little phrase in Galatians 3:19 is expanded upon in detail in Hebrews chapters 1-3. Paul could, in these words about angels, be giving credence to the rabbinic belief that angels brought the Law to Moses. Even if that is true, Paul says, it pales in comparison to how we got the Gospel.

The teaching of Galatians addresses the undying tendency in us to find something in us that we do that makes God treat us favourably. Not many Christians will go to the Law of Moses and seek to keep it as a means of salvation. But we can and do draw attention to our gifts, our sacrifices, our service, our length of service … . We think that all these things make us more acceptable to God. That is a denial of the Gospel.

The human heart is an idol factory and we make ourselves look very good. We are wired to show cause why God should accept us. This is what will condemn us. No matter how spectacular our system, anything that adds to faith alone is heresy. If you have an answer other than the merits of Jesus Christ to the question “Why should God allow you into heaven?” then you have abandoned the Gospel.

Proverbs 25:2 – It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.

God knows everything, but He does not tell us everything. And there are some things we are meant to never know and never will. But the fact that we do not know everything does not mean we are not to try to discover.

God has made us with inquisitive minds to search out the wonders that He has hidden in the earth and the mind and the heart. God does not hide things in order to keep them from us. He hides them so that we can discover them. What an adventure God has set mankind on! And what a mess mankind has made of it. We use the minds God gave us to invent all kinds of evil. We devise ways to kill, to make false gods, to abuse. We look at the cosmos and deny the existence of the God who put it there for marvelling at Him. The glory of kings in discovering what God has put here has been changed into the creature vaunting itself up to be God. What a tragic displacement of priorities and purpose.

And then there is the tragedy of those who use their God given skills and minds solely for entertainment and mindless amusement. They become their own little world where all that matters is the next win, song or game. Mindlessness, laziness, apathy prevent some from joining the amazing quest of discovery and observation of the glorious wonders of what God has made. The wisdom that God gives people through their books to be read and learned and enjoyed is a great gift. It is a tragedy of immense proportions when such things are ignored for the pursuit of the trivial.

There is coming a day when the human race will be saved from it propensity to run away from its Maker and we will know fully and in the best possible manner, the glory of searching out what God has put on the planet to be discovered. The sin that infects the human race prevents us from discovering things properly. But one day, those who have submitted themselves to the God who made them will embark on an adventure that will only be surpassed by God Himself. What a God! And what a work He has accomplished for us!!

Galatians 3:19a – Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions,

If the Bible is about God fulfilling His promise to Abraham then why did God give the Law at all? Why all these rules that form part of the law? The law was added because of sin. People are sinners and unless they are made aware of it they are going to perish in their sins and never come to realize the benefits of the covenant between Abraham and God.

The Law lets us know that we are sinners, we come to see, through the preaching of the Gospel, that we need Jesus Christ. This is a strong argument for the fact that in the presentation of the Gospel we must, in some fashion, but with plainness and clarity, tell people that they are lawbreakers.

Where there is no sin there is no need for a Saviour. The life and death and resurrection make no sense at all if there is not a Law that He keeps, which we have broken, which demands punishment and which God is determined to punish and yet just as determined not to punish us even though we deserve it. Give people the Good News regarding Jesus Christ. But be sure that the news is not good and will make no sense if we do not relay to them that they are Lawbreakers of a Holy God’s Law and that such behaviour deserves and will receive the wrath of God if sinners are not hidden in Christ.

Only Christ is righteous. Unless His righteousness is counted as ours we will have to stand before Gos with our own. That just isn’t sufficient.

Proverbs 20:1 -Proverbs 20:1 (ESV) Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

One can hardly refer to any verse in the whole Bible that speaks of alcoholic beverages in any sense without engendering the debate about total abstinence versus non-inebriating drinking. So let’s just say what the text says and not get embroiled in arguments. Wine mocks the drinker and liquor turns people into brawlers, therefore do not be led astray by them. Do not think that you are the exception to the rule. Wine will mock you and strong drink will make you something that you are not normally.

The fruit of the Spirit is self control and one must never be under the control of anything but the Holy Spirit of God. Be filled with Him. It is foolish to allow yourself to be controlled by a substance that brings out the worst in you and causes you to look even more stupid than you are. A drunk Christian is an oxymoron and if he is unable to stop before he gets drunk then he should never start. If he is worried that he might drink too much then he should have none at all. If he is going to be driving then he should remember that it is a fool who will say “it won’t effect me” That is the mockery of wine.

If the money is needed for groceries, the church, the family, bill paying etc. then he should not spend it on wine and beer. That is a sure sign that he is being mocked by it and led astray.

It is also appropriate here to apply the principle to other behaviours as well. Don’t be mastered by anything other than God Himself. Alcohol, food, sex, entertainment (see a good little article about entertainment addiction here), music, computer use … the list of things that can turn into addictions that enslave us is very, very long.

II Peter 2:19, speaking of people who entice us to what is wrong puts it very plainly -

They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.

It is not only wine that is a mocker. Behaviours and habits that we cannot say “no” to are our masters. The only One worthy of that title is God Himself. Addictions do not have our best interest at heart. God has nothing but our good at His heart. Be wise and do what needs to be done to be free from whatever enslaves and live in the glorious freedom of the sons of God.

Proverbs 19:1-2 (ESV) Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool. [2] Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.

The word “better” is used frequently throughout the Proverbs and we should heed what it says when it makes comparisons and calls something better than something else. It is better, not just admirable or desirable. It is better to be a poor person with integrity. This should make us pray to want to love integrity more than money.

But then we need to heed the warning of verse 2. Desire without knowledge is not good. Do not desire integrity above money without growing in knowledge of the Word, of God, of Christ, of the cost involved. This is marvelous and immensely good for us. Chase after what is good and right, but in the chasing, if you neglect to educate yourself (intellectually, spiritually) in the necessary areas associated with the good thing you are chasing after, you are not doing a good thing.

Then note the last phrase of verse 2. To make haste even in doing good will result in you getting off the track and missing what you were chasing after. So, we are left with this. Chase after integrity more than money but do it knowledgeably and without haste. Take the time to develop the right attitudes, ideas, plans for being the person of God that you are called to be. Never run ahead of God and always take the time to know what God is saying to you through the Word.

How we need to heed the counsel of these verses in our personal lives and in our culture and in our churhces today.

Thank you Lord for this wise and timely counsel to our souls and minds and hearts.

Proverbs 17:4 (ESV) An evildoer listens to wicked lips, and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue.

There is a symbiotic relationship between those who do evil and those who talk evil. Evildoers do not want to listen to sound advice. People who do what is wrong will willfully listen to advice that is also wrong.

We love to hear that we are right. We want to hear justification for doing what is wrong. If we can hear things that make the wrong we do sound right then we will. There is no end to the advice that gives credence to evil. We need to give ear to what is good and right and sound and just.

An evildoer will not long listen to the Word of God. It condemns him. Much better in his mind to listen to what makes him look good. This is our natural state. It takes a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit to get us wanting to hear the good word. We need to pray for those enslaved by their evil deeds and encouraged by the wicked lips of a world that loves to justify itself.

We also need to remember that we who believe did not come to Christ because we were more willing to hear than others. We came to believe because God did a change in us. If left to our own, we would have turned away from the Gospel and rejected it like so many others do. How we need, in light of this verse to hear the words of the Father about Jesus at His baptism. “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased – Hear Him. What a miracle responding to Christ is!

But we need to heed the warning that is part of this verse in Proverbs. Do not think that you are immune from paying attention to wicked advice. When you sin, and you do, you open yourself up to temptations to sin more, to justify yourself, to cover up. As James reminds us, when an evil desire is conceived it gives birth to sin and grows until it produces death (James 1:14-15). It needs to be dealt with immediately and decisively.

What are you listening to? What advice, what entertainment choices, what ideas do you open yourself up to that encourage you to do that which God forbids and neglect to do that which God commands? Be like the godly man of Psalm 1 who did not listen to the counsel of the wicked or stand with them or learn from them. If you do, the Proverb that heads up this article says that you are an evildoer and liar. Don’t allow such words to be a description of you. God has so much better for you.