Proverbs 14 ESV
2 Whoever walks in uprightness fears the Lord,
but he who is devious in his ways despises him.
3 By the mouth of a fool comes a rod for his back,
but the lips of the wise will preserve them.
5 A faithful witness does not lie,
but a false witness breathes out lies.
6 A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain,
but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding.
Here we have a picture of the wise and of the unwise, of the
one who walks in uprightness and of the one who is devious in all of his ways, and
of the one who speaks truth and of the one who breathes out lies as a matter of
practice. This is a picture of good and of evil. But it is also a picture of
the saved and the unsaved. Yet, many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ
are living on the bad end of this and not on the good end.
For we have multitudes of gatherings of what is being called
“church” today where the preachers are not teaching the people to walk in
uprightness, and to walk in the fear of the Lord, and to walk in the wisdom of
God and in integrity. And they are not teaching them to NOT walk in deliberate
sin, and to NOT be liars, and to NOT be adulterers, and to NOT live in sexual
immorality and in self-indulgence. Instead, they are giving them carte blanche
to continue in deliberate and habitual and often premeditated sin.
And so we have “churches” filled to the brim with people
professing faith in Jesus Christ who are still living like the unsaved, and
sometimes worse. And they are being coddled in their sins while those who are
being sinned against are largely being ignored and/or silenced. Sexual
immorality abounds in today’s modern market-driven and flesh-driven “churches.”
But if you speak out against it, then you are accused of being hateful and
judgmental.
Proverbs 14 ESV
7 Leave the presence of a fool,
for there you do not meet words of knowledge.
8 The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way,
but the folly of fools is deceiving.
9 Fools mock at the guilt offering,
but the upright enjoy acceptance.
11 The house of the wicked will be destroyed,
but the tent of the upright will flourish.
If you are married to someone who is living foolishly, or if
you are a child of or if you are a co-worker of someone who behaves foolishly,
it is not always easy to leave the presence of a fool. Sometimes you can walk
away and sometimes you can’t. But where you are able you should walk away, at
least into another room, and refuse to put up with the foolishness. For a fool
is someone who is reckless, thoughtless, irresponsible, and self-indulgent.
Those who are living foolishly are the irreverent, the
hypocritical, the deceived, and those who deceive others. Their lives are on a “teeter-totter”
swaying back and forth from one thing or one opinion to the next, sometimes on
the right side and sometimes on the left. For they are the double-minded. They
live by their flesh, and their emotions are what rule their hearts. They are
self-driven, and their pride leads them astray.
But if we are wise in the eyes of God, we will be discerning
of our ways, and we will be led by the Spirit of God and not by our flesh. Our
Lord will be our guide, and his word will direct us in the way that we should
go, and we will follow our Lord in obedience to his ways, because we love him. And
we will be acceptable to God, and we will have salvation from sin, and we will
have the hope of eternal life with God. But the foolish will perish in their
sins.
[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11;
Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-32; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21;
Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2; Jn 6:44; 2 Pet
1:1; 1 Co 15:58; Php 2:12-13; Col 1:21-23; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13;
Heb 10:26-27; Rom 2:6-8; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Col 3:5-17; 1 Jn
1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Matt 7:21-23; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
Proverbs 14 ESV
22 Do they not go astray who devise evil?
Those who devise good meet steadfast love and faithfulness.
25 A truthful witness saves lives,
but one who breathes out lies is deceitful.
26 In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence,
and his children will have a refuge.
27 The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,
that one may turn away from the snares of death.
Sadly, we live in a Christian culture in America today where
holiness, righteousness, godliness, honesty, and faithfulness and obedience to
our Lord are being mocked and criticized and are being called self-righteous,
or hyper-religious, or legalistic. And those who are teaching such godly ways
of living are being attacked by others who call themselves “Christians,” and
they are being accused of teaching “works-based salvation.”
And it is a Christian culture where the habitual and
deliberate sinful are being protected and coddled while those being sinned
against are not being protected, generally speaking. Everything is backwards
from what it should be, pretty much. So much of it is upside down from what the
Scriptures teach, and the masses are believing the lies and they are following
the lies and they are spreading the lies so that others believe the lies, too.
And so those who are truly following the Scriptures, and who
are being led by the Holy Spirit, and who are teaching repentance, and
obedience, and holy living, and submission to Christ as Lord, are largely being
shunned and ignored and cast aside. They are the ones largely being rebuked,
not those who are deliberately and habitually doing harm to others. But one day
God will rescue us and he will take us home to heaven and our tears will be
gone.
When I Go Home
By G. M. Eldridge
“He will wipe away
every tear from their eyes…” Revelation 21:4
In the moment He appears
And the light from heaven shines,
I’ll forget ev’ry fear,
Ev’ry pain I’ll leave behind.
Then I’ll see Him as He is
And I’ll know Him as I’m known.
Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.
Ever present is the tho’t
That a moment waits for me
When unworthy as I am,
His glory I will see.
I will empty all my praise
Before my Father’s throne.
Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.
If the trial I endure,
And your presence I can’t find,
Be near me, Lord, I pray,
Bring back unto my mind
That your promises are firm
And I’m never on my own.
Ev’ry tear wiped away when I go home.
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