[0:00] turn to Proverbs chapter number 6, verses 16 through 19. This is a summary of the book of Proverbs, which is a real challenge. As we know, there's so much truth being taught, but we're going to come to the end of Proverbs because in a couple of weeks, we'll start the book of limitations, leaving off Proverbs 30 and 31 for other days, which we will certainly get to.
[0:21] Oh, good thinking. Use your own Bible. All right. Proverbs chapter number 6, verses 16 through 19. It's kind of looking at many different ways to divide Proverbs, many challenging ways to provide the divide Proverbs and different topics. But in this portion of Scripture, we kind of see like the negative when a photo is being developed because it says these are things that God hates. And the rest of Proverbs shows us these are things that God would encourage. And so the topics that are given here, the categories, I think you'll find all throughout the book. I know you will, and I'm going to show that to you tonight as we kind of get to a summary of the book of Proverbs.
[0:58] If you'll, Bryce had a birthday yesterday. He sure did. And all right, he turned 12. And just a decade or so before he was born, Miss Wendy was born on the same day. And we thank God for her.
[1:11] She's been just a wonderful blessing to our church. And we are so thankful for him. All right, we are. All right. So Brother Bubble Bear Bryce, would you please read for us Proverbs chapter number 6, verse 19 through 20. What did I say there? 16 through 19. All right. I got this, Grant. Stay away. Okay, I got it. Proverbs 6, 16 through 19.
[1:37] He's 16 that the Lord hate. Yea, seven are an abomination unto him, a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, and heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift into running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that showeth discord among brethren. Thank you, sir. Great job. All right, we're going to look at the passage tonight. And Proverbs accomplishes something, unlike other books, which is that it compiles numerous short instructions for living an effective life on earth. We are not left without instruction.
[2:17] Some of you had the blessing of having a godly father spend time with you and to maybe sit on the back of a tailgate and just give you life's wisdom and tell you this is the way you should go, this is foolish, and this is wise. Others didn't. But if you did or you didn't, the ultimate father that we have is God from His Word, and He's given us instruction. We cannot say that we do not know how to walk in this world that we're given in, but there's so much clear instruction from God's Word.
[2:46] And the main focus, the main emphasis that we're told if we're going to gain this wisdom, we are going to have to be people that fear the Lord. The beginning of any knowledge is to fear the Lord, having a proper understanding. And in that fear of the Lord, we know that this is God's Word, that the wisdom coming from it isn't like anything you're going to find in any other type of literature, new or old, but this wisdom is coming from God. It's a big portion of the Old Testament, which is called wisdom literature. The priest would give the law, the prophet would give the word from the Lord, and a wise man or the ancients would give wise counsel. Let me read two verses for you. Jeremiah 18, 18. It says, Then said they come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words. But we're getting counsel from somebody.
[3:49] We're getting advice. We're getting biblical or godly wisdom. Then Ezekiel, it says in 726, Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumor shall be upon rumor. Then shalt thou seek a vision of the prophet, but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients. We all want some type of hidden wisdom, or I should say all of the world would like to have some type of hidden wisdom.
[4:14] We want some kind of life hack. We're trying to find something that's going to make this world make a little more sense. I saw an article not long ago. There's this man. He was almost like a skeleton.
[4:25] The title says, they found the world's oldest man, 120 years old, in a cave in Thailand. And I thought, that's ridiculous, but I'm going to need to read all 2,000 words to make sure.
[4:36] All right? And so I just began reading it, and it told the story of how he was in a cave. And it said when they found him, he had been writing these proverbs on pieces of paper, and he had this one in his hand. And the note says, you can't believe everything you read on the internet. And I'm thinking, no! I want my time back. I fell for it. But the way it kind of, that clickbait, the way it kind of pulled me in was some secret hidden wisdom, knowing something that maybe somebody else didn't know. That day, I was wanting to learn that there was somebody lived to be 120, and you didn't know about it, and I could share. But that's what we're looking for.
[5:14] People are looking for this type of hidden wisdom, and we should be so thankful for every scripture we have. You've heard testimonies. I've shared testimony of the first time that I saw John and Romans on the mission field, and how somebody had it marked up, and they treated it as if it was gold. They treated it as if it was the words of life, right? They knew that it mattered.
[5:38] You have multiple Bibles at your home, and there's no shame in that. It's wonderful. We're just blessed in that we're doing that. But in having many copies of it, we often don't take the verses that we should, knowing that this is God's Word for us. So Solomon came to the throne with great promise, and privilege, and opportunity, and God granted his request for understanding. This is wisdom from God that Solomon is sharing with us. I remind you in 1 Kings chapter 3, verse number 9, it says, Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge this, that thou so great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life, neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment. Which is such a good example for us? And all you're asking and all you're seeking, ask for wisdom, right? And you'd say,
[6:42] I don't get that opportunity. I haven't been in that place where I can just ask for anything. And if you could, what would you want to get? And the answer is more than something against your enemies, or more than wealth, or more than long life. The thing that every one of us ought to be seeking in our life is, we need wisdom. We want to know God better. So he answered that question correctly.
[7:02] Behold, I've done according to thy words. Lo, I've given thee a wise and understanding heart, so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.
[7:17] And so that man that God gave this wisdom to, through inspiration, is going to write the majority of these proverbs to us. And we're reminded this wasn't just some ancient man in a cave that lived to be 120 who had a lot of life experience, right? That would be something. As the older you get, that you'd have this life experience to share. That would be beneficial. No, that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about a man that had received wisdom from God, and that communicated it through proverb for us. Proverb called a man to live as the creator intended him to live when he was made. Psalm 90, 12 will say, teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts onto wisdom. Here is some wisdom for us to apply our hearts to. Some major things. Man's relationship to God, his trust, his humility, his fear of God, his righteousness, his sin, obedience, facing reward, facing testing, facing blessings, facing death. All these are covered in proverbs. His relationship to himself speaks about our character and our wisdom and our foolishness. Our speech and self-control is kindness, wealth, pride, anger, laziness. And in regard to other people, our love for others, our friendship and our enemies, truthfulness, gossip as a father and as a mother and as a child, and educating our children and disciplining our children. There's so many themes that run through the book of Proverbs, and I just want to encourage you, we ought to cherish it. No matter what stage of life you're in, you're not going to outgrow this book. There's things that you need this, and God has it, and you don't seek it. Too many times when I'm faced with a problem that the Word of God is not the first place that I go, that I go to somebody else. And if I go to somebody else and they're able to offer me any help, where are they going to offer me any help? They're just going to offer me from the Bible. So I should just skip the middleman, right? I should just get to the Bible. And then when I do ask for my friends for advice,
[9:13] I ought to frame it and say, hey, I'm seeking wisdom from God's Word concerning this matter, in my life. Could you direct me? Could you give me the address to where this will be found? Can you tell me the chapter? What sections of the Bible should I be reading? What should I be studying on?
[9:28] That there's, it knows us. The Bible knows the problems that we would have, and it covers all the meaningful areas. And there's an overwoven and overlapping themes, which is wisdom and folly together. The way of wisdom and the way of folly. So now I'm going to get back to our passage, which Bryce read so wonderfully. It's in verses 16 through 19 of chapter number six. And we look at this kind of as a reverse. My father-in-law, he's beginning a series in the book of Proverbs, and he started in this portion. And he says, if we're going to start in the Proverbs, we ought to know what God hates.
[10:08] That's an important thing to know about our God. We want to know what he loves, but we also want to know what he hates. And these passages, it states it very clearly. These are something God hates, but then corresponding with it, you'll find some 15 or 20 verses that will say it in a positive manner as well in the book of Proverbs. Let me show what I'm speaking of here. Verse number 17, it says, a proud look, a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood. A proud look is the first one on this list of things that God hates. And we have strong and clear wisdom on this. And so we need, we should not be wise in our own eyes. So how do we avoid of having a proud look? In the book, in Proverbs 3, 5 through 7, you want to say this with me here? I bet you know this one, don't you?
[10:54] You do, Miss Yvonne. I saw you smile first. We know this proverb. Let's say it together. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lead not unto thine own understanding, in all thy ways. Acknowledge him, and he shall direct the paths. Be not wise in thy own eyes.
[11:09] Fear the Lord and depart from evil. I don't think verse 7 made the song, did it? All right? First two are a song. But trust in the Lord and not into your own heart. He'll direct your paths. And not being wise in your own eyes, that's the opposite of a proud look. People that are wise in their own lives, that's prideful. And we're told not to be. Proverbs 8, 13 says, The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogancy, and all the evil way, and the froward mouth do I hate. It's another way to say it is arrogance. And then 11, 2, 13, 10, 16, 5, so many more verses. We're going to talk about what a proud look is and what we should have as believers. Proud look is the way of a fool. It's the way of folly. A humble spirit, humility, is the way that God would have us to live our lives. Proverbs 16, 18 through 19.
[12:01] Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoon with the proud. Proud makes fools of those who live by it. So we need eyes of humility that will give us the right view of God.
[12:18] And the list of things God hates, this is the first one. God values humility because He knows that pride, what it does to us because He knows humility puts us in touch with Him and others. We're able to grow. We're able to relate to Him and others as we should. What God means by humility is seen by the way that Christ serves His Father and His disciples. So we look and we say, we don't want to have a proud look. What kind of look should we have? We look, we search Proverbs, and we find the opposite. Then we look at the life of Christ and say, that's what humility should look like. Eyes of humility give us the right view towards others. God is looking, He's watching the way that we relate to one another. We're inclined to have an exaggerated sense of our own opinions and interest and a diminished awareness of the needs of others.
[13:04] And because of the tendency towards pride, we need the cross, we need the Spirit, we need His example. James 4, 6. But He giveth more grace wherewith He saith, God resisteth the proud, but give us grace unto the humble. With each one of these, I'm going to end in a chapter in James. And I put this down here. The truth is being repeated by the same author. Something that Brother John has helped remind me in his recent study is that this book has one author, and it's seen all throughout it. He used Solomon at one time. He's going to use James at another time. But the truth is, it's immortal. It's always there. And that's how these Proverbs are going to be summed up in the book of James, is that He resists the proud and gives grace unto the humble. You're fighting against yourself when we're prideful.
[13:51] We're fighting against what God wants to do in our lives. So one of the major themes of Proverbs is the not to have a proud look, to have eyes of humility. Next one here, a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood. By lies of flattering, young people are persuaded to be physically intimate before marriage. By countless denials, people that are addicted will keep help at arm's length away from them. By deception, people are betrayed, lives are lost, countless people are led to believe something that is a lie. And so we should have a commitment with our mouth. Proverbs 8, 7, for my mouth shall speak truth, and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
[14:33] People who slander are foolish, Proverbs 10, 18. He that hideth hatred with lying lips, he that uttereth a slander is a fool. And he even goes on to say, it's better for us to be poor, Proverbs 19, 1, than lying and rich. Better is the poor that walks within integrity than he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool. Would you rather become rich if it costs you your integrity and you had to speak lies, or would you rather stay in the lot that God's given you? If you're ever put in that position, I hope you'll say, I'll choose wisdom. I'll choose the life that God has for me. God hears all that comes from our tongue. God is not apathetic towards our small lives, or when we deny the truth to cover our sin. God stands behind those who are willing to tell the truth, even to their own temporary loss. God's attitude towards truth is clearly seen in Christ, who chose to trust his Father to the death rather than to ever speak a word of deception.
[15:29] And so we must be aware of the power of our tongue. We're inclined to lie because of the embarrassment of sin that is within us. When we lie, we're choosing to trust our own ability to protect ourselves rather than God's ability to forgive and bless. Because of our lies, we desperately needed Christ's payment for sin, just as we also need a spirit to fill us with grace and truth. This is how the author says it in James 3, 6. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members, that is, defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire of hell. The tongue is powerful, and that we need to be very much aware of this. And our tongue, we ought to make, as it said in our first verse here, that we should make a commitment with our tongue, that it will not, for my mouth shall speak, Proverbs 8, 7, and for my mouth shall speak truth. Every one of you, you're familiar with the covenant that Job made with his eyes, right? I have made a covenant with my eyes that I will not be, but what he would not behold looked upon. I made him. We should also make a covenant with our mouth. Proverbs says this many different ways, but it goes as intensely says in Proverbs 6 to say,
[16:39] God hates lying. A proper view of God will give us a proper view of our work. Verse 17. Looks like we're only going to get a few of these tonight. A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood. Lastly of the list tonight we'll look at is hands of honest work. So we should be people that have humbleness in our eyes. We should be people that are truthful in our speech, and we should be people that do work honestly with our hands. Hands that shed innocent blood are hands that are full of rebellion towards God. They are hands that have shoved aside the wisdom of God, which tells us that we, to be made satisfied with God's blessings, we have to take something from this world. We can't work in a humble and an honest manner. And the book of Proverbs is full of warnings against shortcuts that lead to disaster. One of the great struggles anybody that I've ever worked with that dealt with an addiction, a drug addiction, is that work is so hard for them because deception pays off better, right? Brother Jeff, there's jobs that you can do that are deceptive that will pay more in a day than we could ever get paid in a month, right? But it's going to cost you integrity, it's going to cost you your relationship, your fellowship with the Lord, and all those things. And so many people, when they get to this place in life, when they say, I want to do right, but I don't want to go about it in an honest fashion, that is an area that they have to fight of obedience. Will I trust God?
[18:09] Is it better to work and rest at the end of the day knowing you did right? Proverbs tells us that it is, that a deceptive were hands that shed innocent blood, hands of rebellion, or something that he would hate. Solomon called for hands that work hard at our marriage and at child-rearing business and friendship. God makes it clear that we have not been born into this world to go through life eating food that has been earned and prepared for others. We're in this Ecclesiastes with young people and that Solomon, he even wants to work a little bit. After a while, he just realized this is no way to live, that I am made to labor. I should do work. It feels it's the right thing to do.
[18:48] What are we told in Proverbs? Go to the ant you slugger and remember his ways. The hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful will fall tribute. He will always be in bondage to other people. He that is slothful in his work is the brother to him that is a great waster. It's just one and the same. Surveys show that only 16% of people who work in the workplace interviewed say that they're doing their best job that they could. I'm grateful that all 16% are here today, all right? And you probably know the other people, but we work as unto the Lord, right? That's what you're doing. You're working as unto the Lord. It doesn't matter to that. It doesn't matter that your company, it doesn't matter your management, it doesn't matter those things. None of those justify you not doing your work to your very best because God says that our hands ought to work in an honest fashion.
[19:37] Same author, different book, Ecclesiastes 5.18, Behold, that which I have seen is good and comely for one to eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor that he taketh unto the Son all the days which God giveth him, for it is his portion. Good all his labor he has taken. The proper view of God should give us a proper view of work. God values honest work not only because it reflects the way he works in the world, but because it reflects the way he wants to work in and through us. God rewards those who choose to work hard for relatively little while others make themselves rich with profits of fraud and deception. God's hatred for fraud and cheating should be feared by every businessman and every worker. God's greatest work is seen in the work of Christ did to give us the reward of honest salvation, simple obedience to what the Father asked for. And so what do our actions say about our trust in God's Word concerning work? Our tendency is to do honest work. Is our tendency to do honest work when others are watching, or is it only, are we able to do it when they're not watching as unto the Lord? Because of the fall of mankind into our sin, we become self-centered, wanting that easy life, working without, gaining without having the work. So our highest calling is to do our work with the perspective that we are working for God and not man. Three things, there's things that God says that he hates, but we're one to live life from Proverbs and things that he loves.
[21:05] So let's make a commitment tonight. Eyes of humility, looking, not having a proud look, being honest about it. As I said this morning from Luke 17, a lot of our pride can be stacked up because we think we've done a lot of Christian things and now we get to cash in on those when we want. We haven't done one stitch more than what should be that's reasonable of us. We should be humble people. We ought to be honest people in the small areas of life. It's not a big deal, right?
[21:30] Maybe, well, that was a small thing that I said. That was a small misleading. Well, maybe in the conversation it seems small, but in the eyes of the Lord, it looks like distrust. It looks like disobedience. It looks like choosing your own way. It looks like, oh, you have this now? Okay. Why don't you try this on your own? And so we ought to be careful with that. And then lastly, let's not use hands towards rebellion. Let's make sure that every day and every hour of our day is given an honest work. Let that be a testimony in your life. Let's pray together and then we'll be dismissed for the night. Heavenly Father, thank you for Proverbs. We thank you for the wisdom that is given to us as we see it. Lord, may we treasure each one of them, each truth that is given to us. And Lord, I pray you would help in my heart and the hearts of all of us in the room today that we would love and suresties, that we would consider them of great wealth to us, that this book would be highly esteemed above any of the books of this world, Lord, and that we would look to it on a daily basis, asking if we're living in the way of wisdom or living in the way of folly. Now, Father, I pray that you'll help us as we will move on to another book, that this book will continue in the life of every one of our believers. In Jesus' name I pray.