Proverbs 19:22 - 20:5

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. It's so good to see you this morning. This is where every day we get together, we have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together.
And this year, 2021, you and I will make it through all the wisdom literature, Lord willing. Well, today we are at Proverbs chapter 19. We'll round out Proverbs chapter 19, and we'll get into Proverbs chapter 20. Why don't we go ahead and have some coffee?
We'll pray and get into God's Word. Let's pray. Oh, Father, we thank you so much for the blessing it is to be your children, to sit at your feet, to read your word. Lord, we pray that as we read it, you would bless us and care for us. Teach us in Jesus's name. Amen. Here we go. Proverbs chapter 19, verses 22 through chapter 20, verse five. Let's go ahead and jump on the computer.
What is desired in a man is kindness, and a poor man is better than a liar. What is desired of you? Be kind. Show goodness to other people. Especially, I run in what's called the reformed world. I love reformed theology, the sovereignty of God and the riches of His grace, and how that shapes all of the theology, but sometimes reformed people can be jerks. Sometimes, let's face it, Christians can be non-pleasant. What's desired of you? Be kind. Love your neighbor as yourself.
And it's better for you to be poor and to be truthful than to be rich and not to tell the truth. Verse 23, the fear of the Lord leads to life and he who has it will abide in satisfaction. he will not be visited with evil. Fear of the Lord leads to life, life everlasting when we revere the Lord, when we love the Lord, when we seek after the Lord with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, it leads to life. And no destruction shall come upon us. In this life there might be, but in the life to come there won't be. But generally speaking, remember the Proverbs are principles, not promises, and the principle here is you're not going to see evil come upon you. You might see trials and afflictions, and James tells us that we shouldn't be surprised when those things happen to us, but at the same time, generally speaking, God rewards in this life with a sense of joy and happiness to those who will follow his ways because they fear him.
Verse 24, A lazy man buries his hand in the bowl and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again. I really like some of the other translations here. The lazy man is fine, but some of the other translations of verse 34 say the sluggard. The sluggard will bring his hand to the bowl, but he's too lazy to bring it to his mouth. The sluggard is the one who makes himself some dinner or some breakfast and then sits back in his chair. Just too lazy. You made your food, at least you gotta eat it, man, come on. The slugger's too lazy to even eat their food that they've made. 25, strike a scoffer and the simple will become wary.
Rebuke one who has understanding and he will discern knowledge. When the righteous, or here, the person of understanding is rebuked, They get more knowledge. Interestingly, this is one of the things that God's Word does, 1 Timothy chapter three, or 2 Timothy chapter three, verses 16 and 17. All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for doctrine, rebuke, correction, and training in righteousness. God's Word rebukes us. God in his providence corrects us. He turns us, and as we do that, we gain understanding. Not so with the simpleton. What does it say here? A strike of scoffer and the simple will become wary. You can give a fool a thousand blows, but they'll never be the wiser for it.
Verse 26, he who mistreats his father and chases away his mother is a son who causes shame and brings reproach. The fifth commandment is true. Honor your father and your mother so that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. Children, obey your parents and the Lord for this is right." This is the first commandment with a promise. If we don't follow this, we are a shame and a reproach. If you don't take care of your mom and dad, the scriptures here say just that. You're a shame and a reproach. Jesus even rebuked the Pharisees for this in Matthew chapter 15. 27.
Cease listening to instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge. If you want to stick your fingers in your ear, I don't want to hear it, I don't want to hear it, and you want to go play the fool and hang out with your friends and do all sorts of silly, stupid stuff, guess what? You're going to stray away from the words of knowledge. I can't tell you how many people I counsel who I bring them to God's Word and bring them to God's Word. I open up God's Word with them. they just rather go their own way and it leads to a path that is difficult and hard.
Verse 28, a disreputable witness scorns justice and the mouth of the wicked devours iniquity. A disreputable witness scorns justice. The person who bears false testimony is one who hates righteousness and spits in the face of God. They scorn what is right. And the mouth of the wicked devours iniquity. This idea of like salivating and just waiting, just desiring to do evil and wrong. It's not a pretty picture. It's not meant to be.
Verse 29, judgments are prepared for scoffers and beatings for the backs of fools. We live in a day and age where corporal punishment by our civil magistrate, by our government, physical discipline is looked down upon, it's considered cruel and unusual punishment. But during this time and age, the king's talking to his son, the prince here, and he's saying, boy, that's what a beating's for. Sometimes, sometimes you need to make a point of things. Verse 20, wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise. Be ye sober-minded. Getting drunk on wine and beer and alcohol, whatever you want to do.
And this is not fundi, right? This isn't saying that alcohol is wrong or sinful or something like that. No, God doesn't command sin and he told the Levites to drink wine. So he's not, God is not the author of sin and he can't command people to sin and he commands people to drink wine so thus drinking wine isn't sin.
But if you're getting drunk, if you're consuming it to the point that you're losing your senses, no longer just marrying your heart and having medicinal value for your stomach and your body, but you're just doing it to become a fighter and a brawler, no boy, no buddy.
We do all things in moderation. The wrath of a king is like the roaring of a lion. Whoever provokes him to anger sins against his own life. Be careful." I can't, oh man, I can't believe it. Some people talk to me about how they're gonna go talk to the judge about this and that, and they're gonna tell off the cops about this and that. I think, skin's on your own, or there's no skin off my back, right? That's on your own head, dude. If you wanna talk to a cop like that, see what happens.
Nobody's allowed to just come to a king and say whatever they want. No. The wrath of a king is like a roaring lion. Whoever provokes him to anger sins against his own life. Authority is real. So a magistrate bears the sword for a reason. Be careful. Show respect. Show honor. Verse three. It is honorable for a man to stop striving since any fool can start a quarrel." We're almost right back to where we were yesterday, aren't we? It is honorable for a man to stop striving. You know what's better than getting into a fight? Stopping one. Any fool can start a fight. A wise man knows how to stop it.
Verse four, the lazy man will not plow because of winter. He will beg during harvest and have nothing. The lazy man is the one who is not going to do his schoolwork in the middle of the semester because there's too much fun to be had, but he's going to get C's and D's in his classes if he doesn't fail them. The lazy one is the one who is going to put off all their work until Friday at noontime and then complain because they have too much work to do Friday evening and say that their boss is a slave driver. What is this saying, right? It's saying the lazy man will not plow because it's winter. There's always a reason. There's always an excuse.
But at the end of the day, the poverty is the sluggard's own fault. There's a type of poverty that comes upon people and it's not their fault. It's God's providence. They've been doing fine in their life by all intents and purposes, but yet the Lord's given them a difficulty in their lives and they're poor for that reason. That's not what this is talking about. This is the person who's just lazy. And because of their laziness, they're poor.
In verse five, counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. A good counselor is able to ask questions, able to kind of poke over here and prod over there and bring things up from the deep and get all sides of a story so they can fully comprehend what's going on. That's wisdom.
Well, why don't we go ahead and pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. God, we pray that we would follow after you and love you. God, I pray that you would make us wise, make us quick to be humble, quick to make peace. For you have shown us by the Prince of Peace what humility and love looks like. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you. May you have a great day today, and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.