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Proverbs 27 (select verses)
To boast is to brag, or it is to make a claim to, to declare, to pride yourself on what you have planned, or on what you believe you are going to accomplish, or on how you expect tomorrow to be in your favor and/or for your enjoyment and pleasure. But not one of us knows if we have tomorrow, or if we do, what tomorrow will bring. It may bring disaster instead of enjoyment. And it may bring upheaval and not peace and calm.
We live in a society today and in a Christian culture here in America where “open rebuke” is being frowned upon, but the “kisses of the enemy” are what are being preferred and largely accepted and adopted. For the word “love” is being twisted to teach and to do the opposite of the kind of love we Christians should possess and do for others. For this love comes from God, who is love, and this love is based in moral preference, and it prefers what God prefers, which is what is holy, honest, morally pure, and faithful.
So, if you speak the truth in love to other professers of faith in Jesus Christ, and if you refute the lies that are being spread in the name of Christ, and in the name of his gospel, then you are regarded as legalistic, unloving, negative, judgmental, and intolerant, and as someone who is to be avoided and ignored and/or rebuked. For so many people are preferring the lies, for the lies make them feel good when they are living in sinful rebellion against the Lord, for the lies tell them that God will not judge them.
Because so many people calling themselves Christians today are redefining the character of God/Christ, and of his gospel, and of his church, many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ are feeling at liberty to keep on in their deliberate, habitual, and premeditated sins against God, and against those closest to them, who they are supposed to be loving. And so we have a very large number of “Christian” men in the church who are living in sexual addiction and in adultery against their wives, and many wives, too, who are doing the same in living in adultery against their husbands.
And this adultery doesn’t have to engage physical contact with another person at all, for addiction to pornography (sexually explicit material) ranks at the top of sins which are permeating the American church, and which are destroying marriages and families. And Jesus said that to look at another with lust is to commit adultery in one’s heart. And along with this often goes self-gratification, which is also adultery, for it is not keeping the marriage bed pure, and it is not becoming one flesh with one’s spouse.
And so we need people who will speak the truth in love on these issues, and who will address these difficult subjects that most people don’t want to even acknowledge, although they know they exist. We need to be those who are calling sin what it is and who are not pacifying and coddling these sex addicts in their sin by either ignoring their blatant sin or by providing support groups for them whereby they can commiserate with others who are also living in addiction to sexual sin and in adultery against their spouses.
Where does all this sexual immorality and adultery and lying and deception come from? They come from what is stored up in the human hearts of those whose hearts are given over to the flesh and are not surrendered to God. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander. These are what defile a person. Thus, the evil person out of his evil treasure in his heart produces evil. But the good person out of the good treasure in his heart produces good.
[Lu 6:45; Matt 15:17-20]
So, what is stored up in one’s heart is going to be what comes out of one’s mouth, and it is going to be what comes out in one’s attitudes and behaviors. So this can’t be conquered in the flesh, and it can’t be conquered just via behavioral modification. For what is stored up in our hearts is going to be what comes out eventually. And also one’s behavioral practices and words and attitudes reflect what is stored up in one’s heart. So, addicts will try to cover up their sins, but they can’t hide what is really in their hearts.
And the sad reality in all of this is what is described for us here in these last few verses. Sin never satisfies. Those who are full of lust are never satisfied. They will always go back for more. And even if they are judged, even in a court of law, for what they have done, they may not learn faithfulness. They may not learn moral purity and honesty and faithfulness and obedience to God. But they may keep on in their folly, and it may be the death of them. It may be that their refusal to change will one day come back to bite them.
For the Scriptures teach, even if we are not judged in this world, that God has a day in mind when he is going to judge all of us on the basis of our works. So for those who have committed themselves to surrender of their lives to Jesus Christ, and so they are walking in obedience to the Lord, in practice, and so they are saying “No” to sin and “Yes” to God daily, they have the hope of eternal life with God. But those who make sin their practice and do not obey the Lord, they will not inherit eternal life with God.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
Seek the Lord
An Original Work / July 20, 2012
Based off Isaiah 55
“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.
Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,
And your soul will delight in richest of fare.
Give ear to Me, and you will live.
I have made an eternal covenant with you.
Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”
Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.
Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely, God pardons him.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,”
declares the Lord, our God.
“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.
It will not return to Me unfulfilled.
My word will accomplish all that I desire,
And achieve the goal I intend.
You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.
The mountains will burst into song… before you,
And all of the trees clap their hands.”
1 “Do not boast about tomorrow,
for you do not know what a day may bring.”
To boast is to brag, or it is to make a claim to, to declare, to pride yourself on what you have planned, or on what you believe you are going to accomplish, or on how you expect tomorrow to be in your favor and/or for your enjoyment and pleasure. But not one of us knows if we have tomorrow, or if we do, what tomorrow will bring. It may bring disaster instead of enjoyment. And it may bring upheaval and not peace and calm.
5 “Better is open rebuke
than hidden love.
6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend;
profuse are the kisses of an enemy.”
We live in a society today and in a Christian culture here in America where “open rebuke” is being frowned upon, but the “kisses of the enemy” are what are being preferred and largely accepted and adopted. For the word “love” is being twisted to teach and to do the opposite of the kind of love we Christians should possess and do for others. For this love comes from God, who is love, and this love is based in moral preference, and it prefers what God prefers, which is what is holy, honest, morally pure, and faithful.
So, if you speak the truth in love to other professers of faith in Jesus Christ, and if you refute the lies that are being spread in the name of Christ, and in the name of his gospel, then you are regarded as legalistic, unloving, negative, judgmental, and intolerant, and as someone who is to be avoided and ignored and/or rebuked. For so many people are preferring the lies, for the lies make them feel good when they are living in sinful rebellion against the Lord, for the lies tell them that God will not judge them.
8 “Like a bird that strays from its nest
is a man who strays from his home.”
12 “The prudent sees danger and hides himself,
but the simple go on and suffer for it.”
17 “Iron sharpens iron,
and one man sharpens another.”
Because so many people calling themselves Christians today are redefining the character of God/Christ, and of his gospel, and of his church, many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ are feeling at liberty to keep on in their deliberate, habitual, and premeditated sins against God, and against those closest to them, who they are supposed to be loving. And so we have a very large number of “Christian” men in the church who are living in sexual addiction and in adultery against their wives, and many wives, too, who are doing the same in living in adultery against their husbands.
And this adultery doesn’t have to engage physical contact with another person at all, for addiction to pornography (sexually explicit material) ranks at the top of sins which are permeating the American church, and which are destroying marriages and families. And Jesus said that to look at another with lust is to commit adultery in one’s heart. And along with this often goes self-gratification, which is also adultery, for it is not keeping the marriage bed pure, and it is not becoming one flesh with one’s spouse.
And so we need people who will speak the truth in love on these issues, and who will address these difficult subjects that most people don’t want to even acknowledge, although they know they exist. We need to be those who are calling sin what it is and who are not pacifying and coddling these sex addicts in their sin by either ignoring their blatant sin or by providing support groups for them whereby they can commiserate with others who are also living in addiction to sexual sin and in adultery against their spouses.
19 “As in water face reflects face,
so the heart of man reflects the man.
20 Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied,
and never satisfied are the eyes of man.”
22 “Crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle
along with crushed grain,
yet his folly will not depart from him.”
Where does all this sexual immorality and adultery and lying and deception come from? They come from what is stored up in the human hearts of those whose hearts are given over to the flesh and are not surrendered to God. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander. These are what defile a person. Thus, the evil person out of his evil treasure in his heart produces evil. But the good person out of the good treasure in his heart produces good.
[Lu 6:45; Matt 15:17-20]
So, what is stored up in one’s heart is going to be what comes out of one’s mouth, and it is going to be what comes out in one’s attitudes and behaviors. So this can’t be conquered in the flesh, and it can’t be conquered just via behavioral modification. For what is stored up in our hearts is going to be what comes out eventually. And also one’s behavioral practices and words and attitudes reflect what is stored up in one’s heart. So, addicts will try to cover up their sins, but they can’t hide what is really in their hearts.
And the sad reality in all of this is what is described for us here in these last few verses. Sin never satisfies. Those who are full of lust are never satisfied. They will always go back for more. And even if they are judged, even in a court of law, for what they have done, they may not learn faithfulness. They may not learn moral purity and honesty and faithfulness and obedience to God. But they may keep on in their folly, and it may be the death of them. It may be that their refusal to change will one day come back to bite them.
For the Scriptures teach, even if we are not judged in this world, that God has a day in mind when he is going to judge all of us on the basis of our works. So for those who have committed themselves to surrender of their lives to Jesus Christ, and so they are walking in obedience to the Lord, in practice, and so they are saying “No” to sin and “Yes” to God daily, they have the hope of eternal life with God. But those who make sin their practice and do not obey the Lord, they will not inherit eternal life with God.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
Seek the Lord
An Original Work / July 20, 2012
Based off Isaiah 55
“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.
Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,
And your soul will delight in richest of fare.
Give ear to Me, and you will live.
I have made an eternal covenant with you.
Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”
Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.
Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely, God pardons him.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,”
declares the Lord, our God.
“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.
It will not return to Me unfulfilled.
My word will accomplish all that I desire,
And achieve the goal I intend.
You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.
The mountains will burst into song… before you,
And all of the trees clap their hands.”
