Proverbial Wisdom – 3:7-12

Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

Proverb 3:7-12 (KJV)

Hello dear brothers and sisters in Christ—once again I am late, and this time I have no excuse. The wonderful outdoors beckoned me and I simply did not resist. I cleaned up the flowerbeds, I put out some gorgeous fall decorations, and shame on me, I let my weekly blog be late. Reds, oranges, and browns…I love the fall colors!

So let’s jump right into this week’s lesson, which will be broken down into three sections. The first section is verses 7 and 8, the second section is verses 9 and 10, and the last section is verses 11 and 12.

Our first section contains three warnings. We should not to be wise in our own eyes, we should fear the Lord, and we should turn from all evil. If we are wise in our own eyes, we hold a conceited, inflated view of ourselves, and consequently, we may not admit or learn from our mistakes. And as we have already discovered in Part 1 of our journey through Proverbs, it is a foolish, rebellious man who refuses to learn.

Paul directs us in Romans 12:16 to, “Live in harmony with each other. Don't try to act important, but enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don't think you know it all!” (NLT). There you go…news flash…you don’t know it all.

But don’t feel bad…I don’t know it all either. All of us have a lot more to learn; therefore, we need to stay humble and teachable.

Our reverential fear of God should help keep us humble and teachable. Throughout the Bible, we are told to fear the Lord and to obey His commands. When we fear the Lord and obey His commands, we turn away from evil—we simply want no part in it. In fact, Exodus 20:20 tells us that the fear of the Lord can keep us from sinning.

Without sin, often we can increase the length of our life and the quality of our days. We decrease our daily stress because instead of worrying, we trust and lean on God. Further, we avoid sinful activities that can lead to sickness and death; such as cirrhosis of the liver, sexually transmitted diseases, and illegal drug overdoses. As a result, many times our spiritual condition can have a profound impact on our physical condition.

Our second section tells us to honor God with the first fruits of our increase. Everything that we have, our health, our jobs, our possessions, and our money, are gifts from God. It all came from His favor within our lives, and ultimately, it all belongs to Him. We are just stewards of His money; and as such, we should not squander it on our lustful desires. Why steal from God?  “The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God…” (Exodus 23:19).

When we are good stewards of God’s money in our tithes and offerings, God continues to bless us. He will meet our needs, financially, physically, and spiritually. He always deserves our first and our best of everything…not our leftovers.

“’Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you!’” (Malachi 3:10, NLT).

Our last section for this week, deals with discipline. We are passing through a classroom of life, and hopefully, we are learning and improving as we go along. Nevertheless, we make mistakes and sometimes we refuse to recognize or learn from our mistakes. Consequently, God may have to discipline us. Matthew Henry says in his Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible, “…for we may be sure that a God of unspotted purity does us no wrong and that a God of infinite goodness means us no hurt.”

Since God is without sin, everything that He does is for our own benefit. He teaches us to avoid sin and He leads us towards His righteousness. If we refuse to learn the easy way, through listening to His Spirit and learning from His Word, He will teach us the hard way…through discipline. “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” (Revelation 3:19).

In this life, you may face discipline in the form of various trials and persecutions. While you are being disciplined, humbly surrender yourself to God. Submit to His refining fire because He is working to remove all the impurities within you—He wants to shine you up so that He can see His own reflection when He looks at you. Let God shine you up so that you can reflect Him.

And have you entirely forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you, his children? He said, “My child, don't ignore it when the Lord disciplines you, and don't be discouraged when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes those he accepts as his children.”

Hebrews 12:5-6 (NLT)

Three Key Concepts:

1. Fear of the Lord can keep you from sinning.

2. Your spiritual condition can have a profound impact on your physical condition.

3. God disciplines those He loves.

Proverbial Wisdom – 1:8-9

My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

Proverbs 1:8-9 (KJV)

How many of you did your homework assignment last week? Truthfully, I had to revisit my notes to remember that I gave an assignment last week.

Last week you were supposed to learn to fear the Lord. That fear, or high reverence and awe, is the first step to gaining wisdom. Because once you learn to fear the Lord, you begin to act upon His Word, obey His Commands, and do things His Way.

Here is an interesting nugget of truth. We are going through Proverbs in order to attain more wisdom, which we learned in last week’s lesson means knowledge that we implement in our lives. Now, look at the following verse. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30, emphasis added).

If you are, in fact, in Christ Jesus and following Him, all of the wisdom found within Proverbs should become a part of you. Christ is wisdom and you have His Spirit within you; thus, all you need to do is listen to Him and obey. That is wisdom.

Those last two paragraphs were just added nuggets of truths, but now let’s get back to our journey into Proverbs.  

Proverbs1:8 tell us to hear the instructions of our fathers. “To hear,” means more than just physically hearing him talk. Rather it means that we should intelligently listen to his words with the implication that we will obey his instructions. Furthermore, when we look at the word instruction, which is muwcar, we find that it means chastisement, reproof, discipline, and warning. So we can say that we should intelligently consider and implement our father’s words and learn from his warnings and his disciplines.

Also verse 8, instructs us to not to forsake the law of our mothers. In some countries, cultures, and beliefs, the mother does not have the authority to instruct her own children. The father has complete authority over everything.

Sinful man attempts to contaminate God’s divine laws of equality. God equally values all people whether they are male or female, rich or poor, or strong or weak.  Whereas, sin suppresses and devalues anything that is physically or socially weaker: such as, females, servants, or slaves. However, this is not God’s way. And if you ask me, we should always strive to do things God’s way because He knows what He is doing.

So now, we know that we should listen attentively and compliantly to our father’s instructions and learn from all of his warnings and disciplines. Further, we should heed our mother’s laws, never forsaking or abandoning those laws. This goes right along with one of the Ten Commandments. “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Exodus 10:12).

Honor, kaba´d, means to do well by, respect, esteem highly, richly bless, and have courteous regard. Therefore, we should honor our fathers and mothers, by respecting their authority, accepting their instructions, and attentively comply with their laws. Further, we should always do well by our parents, bestowing rich blessings upon them. This means that once our parents get older and frailer, we must take care of their needs, just as they took care of us as young children.

Unfortunately, during my years as an accountant, I saw just the opposite from sinful man. Too many times, I saw adult children dishonor their parents through lies, greed, or manipulation. Just as soon as their parents suffered from any form of physical or emotional weakness, sin came swarming in.

Just as buzzards pick at a carcass, these sin-filled children pick at their parent’s property and money, either through outright stealing or persuasive manipulation. Moreover, when all of the parent’s property and money were gone, the buzzards flew off…never to be seen or heard from again. That is just the opposite of God’s divine laws, and according to Exodus 10:12, the sin-filled children’s days will be shortened.

There sure was a lot of information that could be gleaned from just one little verse, so let us go on to see what our next verse holds in store for us.

Verse 9 tells us that our parent’s instructions, laws, and disciplines are valuable. Honorable instructions and disciplines are life enhancing and improve our dignified walk through this world. Consequently, we should value those instructions like a precious ornament around our necks.

If you happened to misplace a costly, beautiful, diamond necklace, you would search everywhere for it. You might not be able to eat or sleep until you found it and it was back safely in your hand. Likewise, if you get away from your parents’ wise teachings, you should search for those teachings until they are, once again, back safely in your heart. Heeding wise instructions from wise parents will keep you from acting foolishly.

But I like the New Living Translation version of verse 9. “What you learn from them will crown you with grace and clothe you with honor.”

Well folks, that’s about all that we have time for this week, but I do want to leave you with a preview of next week. Next week, we are going to discuss verses 10 through 19. In those verses, we will learn that we should never let anyone entice us into doing evil. The pathway of evil is like a steep, slippery slope; once you start down it, it is almost impossible to stop and reverse your direction.

Sin whispers to the wicked, deep within their hearts. They have no fear of God to restrain them. In their blind conceit, they cannot see how wicked they really are. Everything they say is crooked and deceitful. They refuse to act wisely or do what is good.

Psalms 36:1-3 (NLT)

Three Key Concepts:

1. Knowing Christ Jesus gives you wisdom, “…made unto us wisdom.”

2. Honor your father and mother and value their laws.

3. Heeding your parents’ honorable instructions and disciplines is life enhancing.

Cleaning House

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ…deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

1 Corinthians 5:4-5

I did not fabricate this week’s opening verses. Although you may never hear these verses preached inside of your church, I promise you that they are in the Bible. But don’t take my word for it; instead, go get your Bible and read 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

We can no longer be content with churches that refuse to administer godly church discipline. It is time that we return to God’s design for His Holy Church. In other words, if we say that we are His Church, then we must operate as His Church.

In New Zealand, there is a city named Christchurch. This city, with a population of about 350,000 people, has been shaken to its very core. Since September 2010, it has registered around 7,500 earthquakes—if you ask me, that’s a whole bunch of shaking.

Personally, I think the name of this shaking city (Christchurch) is God’s warning to the Church. If we want to continue being Christ’s Church and continue operating in His Spirit, then we must shake things up and begin cleaning house, “…thou shalt put evil away from among you” (Deuteronomy 13:5, 17:7, 19:19, 22:21-22, 24:7).

Putting evil away from us does not refer to casting out sinners who come for help. Rather, it refers to church members who claim Christianity and yet they continue living lives of habitual sin. “…you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a Christian yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler. Don't even eat with such people” (2 Corinthians 5:11, NLT).

Far too long, the Church has refused to clean its own house, and consequently, it has become contaminated with all sorts of sins.

In fact, we even cringe at the thought of giving someone over to Satan. However, God’s Word, as spoken by Apostle Paul to the Corinthian church, tells us that there is a point where we must release a wayward soul into the hands of our enemy, Satan. But we cannot do this lightly!

In a perfect world and in a perfect Christian church, no one would have to be delivered to Satan, because everyone would judge his or herself. “But let a man examine himself…” (1 Corinthians 11:28). “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged” (1 Corinthians 11:31).

Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world; nor are there any perfect churches in this world. Thus, we encounter situations in which the saints of God are to judge their fellow man (a man who claims Christianity). We don’t judge in the spirit of hatred or malice; instead, we judge in the spirit of love…solely for the purpose of godly correction.

If a church member claims to be a Christian and yet refuses to turn from his or her sins, that member should be removed from Christian fellowship. The purpose of removing offenders from fellowship is to bring them shame, which causes them to repent of their sins. We simply want to save their souls. “…have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother” (2 Thessalonians 3:14-15).

Sin within the church body must be disciplined, because undisciplined sin can quickly contaminate the whole body. Therefore, we have to take a godly stand and stop condoning sin. Give the habitual sinner, who claims Christianity, over to Satan. “…Don't you realize that if even one person is allowed to go on sinning, soon all will be affected?” (1 Corinthians 5:6, NLT).

Christchurch, New Zealand, is being shaken. Likewise, Christ’s Church, is also being shaken. We must begin cleaning house and removing sin. Sin is a contaminating force that is like a deadly disease. If it is left untreated, it will quickly spread and destroy many (Joshua 7).

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

Ephesians 5:11

Three Key Concepts:

1.  We must discipline evil within the church walls.

2.  Undisciplined sin will spread within the church.

3.  In order to save souls, we must turn some people over to Satan.