We're going to be doing part one. We're going to be going up to verse fourteen today.
So it's going to be verse fourteen. Remember to grab a pen if you haven't already so you can make a note of any which will especially apply to you right now.
Obviously there's a lot of proverbs here, a lot of subjects so hopefully you can make some notes to remember some of these.
We're going to start with Proverbs nineteen and verse one obviously which is
Then he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool.
I'm going to pray before we get going. Father, thank you for this great chapter in the book of Proverbs Lord
There are many proverbs here that can give us so much wisdom and help us with our lives Lord.
Help me to just preach these clearly, accurately and boldly. I want to have a tent for this Lord.
So this first proverb, better is the poor that walketh in his integrity than he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool.
This first proverb flies in the face of modern thinking doesn't it?
Just to make it clear, the poor in the Bible isn't talking about those with cars or even travel passes or whatever else.
Some people think I'm just so poor because I'm not as rich as so and so.
When it's talking about the poor, it's not talking about those like that.
It's not talking about those with their designer labels out there that are like we're just so poor even though they're kind of running around with advertising whatever the cool label is on the front of their clothes.
Warm homes with mod cons, people with warm homes, with all these things, they're not the poor.
Easy convenience, food, you know, just so poor I just have to keep buying all these ready-made meals and stuff.
That ain't the poor. I don't care who you're comparing with, it's not poor.
The poor is usually describing those with very little.
When the Bible talks about the poor, it's something that we don't really have much of in this nation.
Drug addicts that choose to spend all their free money on drugs, alcohol, etc. aren't the poor.
They've chosen to spend their money on those things rather than food and logic.
Most of these people are on benefits anyway.
They're receiving money, they just choose to spend it on other things.
Some even rent out their flats and things like that or sometimes they get evicted because of their choices.
But this is a bit different.
Being legitimately poor is what it's talking about here.
These are people that are destitute, people that have very, very little.
Being legitimately poor but walking in your integrity is better than those that don't.
The those that are perverse in their lips.
There's no caveat.
It doesn't say unless they're really rich.
It doesn't say better is the poor that walks in his integrity than he that is perverse in his lips unless he's really wealthy.
It's because integrity is better than riches.
And what is integrity? Let's have a look at integrity.
In this context it's the entire unimpaired state of anything, particularly of the mind.
It's moral soundness or purity, incorruptness, uprightness, honesty.
Integrity comprehends a whole moral character but has a special reference to uprightness in mutual dealings, transfers of property and agencies for others.
So it's being upright, honest.
Not trying to calm people.
Not trying to get what you can for people.
Not using deceit and guile.
It's just having some integrity.
Just what you say is what you mean.
You're not just trying to constantly calm people.
You're not finding a little sneaky way of getting what you can.
And sometimes it's not just about getting things for people.
Some people are just deceitful.
Some people are constantly plotting and planning.
They think you can't see through it.
It always winds me up, this sort of stuff.
People think they're so clever while they're trying to plot a way of manipulating you here.
It's like that's not someone with integrity.
Integrity is just being straight down a line.
Being straight as an arrow.
Just being honest.
Just saying what you mean.
You know, it's not that you have to tell everyone every truth about them.
That's not what we're talking about.
It's just being honest.
Not being dishonest.
Not being sneaky.
Not trying to calm people in one way or another.
It's better to be honest and poor than dishonest and rich, you could say.
And this is really the opposite of our culture and what our culture teaches.
Turn to Job chapter 27.
People justify all sorts of dishonesty to get wealth nowadays.
Like it's okay.
I'll just say what I can to get this.
Lying to get a good job.
How many people think that's okay?
Oh, just lie on your CV.
Just dock to your CV.
Just say something a bit different.
Just lie in the interview.
Just pretend this.
That's not someone with integrity.
That's not honesty.
Oh, well it's okay because I'm trying to get a good job.
No, it's not.
You're just conning someone.
You're conning people for money, for wealth.
Lying for insurance claims.
I mean, you get these people to actually ring you up to try and encourage you to lie about a claim that they don't even know whether you had or didn't.
You know?
It's like you get these like anyone ever had these kind of just random cold calls.
Hi there.
We just wanted to help you with that accident.
Yeah, what accident?
Oh, did you not have some sort of accident?
Someone crashed into you.
You crashed into someone.
You might have seen a crash.
Something happened because we'd love to help you to get some money.
And it's just…
But a lot of people bite at that, don't they?
They think, yeah, I could get a bit of free money.
That's okay, isn't it?
Blagging and conning wealth in various ways.
Ripping people off when you sell something.
Trying to get the…
You know, trying to basically get an unfair deal when you buy something.
Whatever way you can.
Trying to plead poverty.
Plead this, plead that to try and get what you can.
However, it is better to be like Job.
He said here in Job 27-3.
He said in Job 27-3,
All the while my breath is in me and the Spirit of God is in my nostrils.
My lips shall not speak wickedness nor my tongue utter deceit.
God forbid that I should justify you.
Till I die, I will not remove mine integrity from me.
My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go.
My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
And Job at this point in time was poor, by the way.
Everything had gone.
At this point in time, he was a poor guy,
and he said, but I still hold on to my integrity.
So it was better to have that integrity of Job,
and eventually he was blessed for that,
even in a material way, really, after that.
But however, regardless of that,
he was better off where he was there
than a rich person who doesn't have that.
Than someone who's perverse in their lips.
Because the opposite is foolish.
It said in verse 1, back in Proverbs 19,
Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity
than he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool.
So I think that he's saying that those that are perverse in their lips,
or maybe contrary, wrong with what they say,
in the context is honesty, integrity, are fools.
So they might get riches. They might get popularity.
They might get gain in one way or another,
but they're selling out to riches, and that is foolish.
So selling out your honesty, your integrity to riches,
is a foolish thing to do.
Proverbs 28, 6 says it this way,
Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness
than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.
So really, this is just another way of looking at it.
It's just adding that this person is a fool.
Here we see that they're just rich fools.
It's a snare.
Riches are a snare. They're a trap.
And what do riches usually do in life?
Lead away from the things of God, usually.
They just become a snare.
They become something that people just chase and chase and chase,
like a hamster wheel where you're just chasing more and more and more,
and it leads people away from the things of God.
Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity
than he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool.
And the lesson for me is to be content with having integrity
and see those without it as what they are, really.
It's not to envy, not to envy the sinner, envy the wealthy,
envy those people, because ultimately what you really should be looking for in life is integrity.
Verse 2 says,
Also that the soul be without knowledge it is not good,
and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth.
So, soul often refers to the person in the Bible, to the individual,
not just talking about our eternal souls.
It's just the person, the individual.
It's not good to be without knowledge.
That's not a good thing.
Some people kind of almost want to, you know,
I just don't know anything about anything.
That's not a good thing.
That's not something to boast about, okay?
And although there's all sorts of knowledge out there,
you have knowledge in all sorts of things.
You have knowledge in the most random things and things.
You can have knowledge in sort of, you know,
just things to show off when you're around people
to come out with some random knowledge about this or that.
And look, there's some things are good, some are bad.
It's good to have knowledge of things, maybe, you know, in your workplace.
Be a diligent worker.
Have some knowledge in what you're trying to, you know, achieve in life.
But here it's referring to true knowledge
and where is true knowledge found?
Well, Proverbs 2, 6 says,
For the Lord giveth wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
So it's the word of God, isn't it?
It's all here.
It's all in our King James Bibles.
But there are a lot of souls out there.
There are a lot of believing souls out there that are without knowledge.
So just because you're saved,
just because you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
doesn't mean you automatically have knowledge, okay?
That's two separate things, okay?
You want to continue in his word, okay?
You want to continue in his word to get that knowledge.
You need to learn, you need to read, you need to understand the word of God.
Because many believers don't read it, do they?
They don't read it, they don't study it, they don't hear it preached.
In fact, the vast majority of people that are saved, I would say,
don't read the Bible, don't study the Bible,
let alone study the Bible, they don't even read it,
and they don't really hear it preached.
They might hear some preaching,
and a lot of the time it's not the Bible being preached, sadly.
Okay, and they're few and far between.
He said here in verse 2 that it's not good.
It's not good to be without knowledge.
And you really do see the difference between those with knowledge and those without.
Really.
And you do, you just start to see that with time,
you start to, look, I'm not talking about babes in Christ and stuff,
that is just the way it is.
But you start to see it.
Those that have knowledge, those that clearly do read the word,
that clearly do try and live by the word as well,
those that do listen to the word preached,
that are regularly listening to preaching, you can just tell.
With time, you just start to see it.
There are people that have the knowledge that comes from the word of God,
and there are those that don't.
Even though some even try and blag that they do, they just don't.
Okay?
It's not good.
It's not good to be like that.
What's the difference?
People's lives are different.
You know, people suffer,
and I'm not talking about like the sufferer, persecution, tribulation,
stuff like that.
They just suffer for that lack of knowledge in different ways.
Okay, and it is sadly, you know,
there's only one place you're going to get that true knowledge,
is the word of God.
What does it mean to haste with his feet, though?
He said also that the soul be without knowledge,
it is not good.
And he that hasteth with his feet sinned it.
Now it's to move quickly,
and for me it gives the impression of someone impulsive.
Okay, this is really, I believe, what it's talking about.
Someone impulsive, someone who's just quick to do things,
you know, based on impulse,
based on, you know, kind of a quick flash of anger,
a quick flash of emotion,
someone that does things on the spur of the moment.
They react quickly.
They don't think things through.
Okay, because we should think things through.
We should, where possible, not just react impulsively.
Because a big teaching in the Bible, okay,
a product of that knowledge should be patience.
It's a big teaching in the Bible, isn't it?
Okay, patience is something that is a goal
and should be a result of getting the knowledge from the word of God.
In 2 Peter 1,
Peter tells us that it's something that comes after knowledge.
If you want to turn there, you can.
In 2 Peter 1, we see that after knowledge comes patience.
2 Peter 1, verse 5 says, 2 Peter 1, 5,
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue,
and to virtue knowledge.
So the faith, obviously, that comes first.
Then from that is virtue,
and that's basically trying to be honest, trying to do the right thing.
We add knowledge to that as well.
So if you're trying to be honest, do the right thing,
you're ideally going to be trying to learn
and get that knowledge from the word of God.
And to knowledge, temperance,
temperance is self-control, self-discipline.
And to temperance, patience,
and to patience, godliness.
So it comes after knowledge,
after self-control, and it comes before godliness.
So, look, you could, you know, claim to be as godly as you want.
You know, find your little ways to, like, feel like you're really godly,
you're really holy and everything else.
But if you don't have patience, you're clearly lacking something.
You're not going to have that godliness,
because they go hand in hand. You've got to learn to get that.
And it comes from the knowledge of the word of God,
from learning the word of God, from reading the word of God,
from living the word of God.
Someone who hasteth with his feet,
who rushes into things who's impulsive, will sin.
They're just going to sin. That's the way it is.
They might tell themselves, well, that's just the way I am.
I'm just an impatient person. That's not good.
Okay? Therefore, they need to get more knowledge.
They need to learn, they need to grow more in the word of God.
Because often in life, look, decisions need considering.
You just rush into things, you just impulsively react,
and just do things on the spur of the moment.
Well, you're just going to be in sin.
He said, he that hasteth with his feet, sinneth.
And considered in light of the knowledge of God's mouth,
and with 1189 chapters in here, okay?
That's a lot of chapters, isn't it?
There's a lot of words in this, there's a lot of knowledge in here.
It can sometimes take a while to be sure of a decision, can't it?
If you're going to make a decision in light of God's word,
you're going to do it according to the word of God,
try and make sure you're doing things right.
Well, therefore, it can take a while.
It needs some patience sometimes.
Some patience to pray to God, to read the word, to listen,
to try and make those decisions, not be rash with it.
He said also that the soul be without knowledge it is not good,
and he that hasteth with his feet, sinneth.
The lesson is to get knowledge,
and with that patience that should come from that,
to not be rash.
To not be rash, it's not a good thing.
It's not good to just fly off the handle,
to make sudden decisions.
Where possible, we want to take our time,
we want to be patient,
and that comes from the knowledge of the word of God.
Verse 3,
The foolishness of man perverteth his way,
and his heart freteth against the Lord.
So notice how it's of man rather than a man.
I think the wording is, you know, you could read from that,
that it's mankind in general that is foolish enough
to think that it can work its way to heaven.
The foolishness of man in general perverteth his way,
and his heart freteth against the Lord.
It's the foolishness of man that results in making gods of his own imagination, isn't it?
It's the foolishness of man that results in him thinking
somehow he could be good enough to please God enough to go to heaven.
I always like, once you really understand this,
isn't it just so ridiculous when you meet all these people
that think that they're somehow good enough to earn their way up into heaven?
It's madness, it's bizarre, it's foolishness.
Okay, the foolishness of man perverteth his way,
and his heart freteth against the Lord.
It's the foolishness of man that makes him just go,
Well, I think, I think that God kind of lets most people into heaven,
apart from the people I really don't like,
and I think that God kind of, it's probably not really a proper hell,
I think it's like, that's just foolishness.
Oh, I'll just make my own god. It's foolishness.
The foolishness of man perverteth his way.
The foolishness of man that lives for,
another thing they do is they live for the immediate carnal pleasures
and want to pretend that God doesn't exist.
It's foolishness.
So they go, well, if I kind of acknowledge God,
I might have to assess my life a little bit,
forget all that, let's just pretend God doesn't exist.
It's just foolishness.
The foolishness of man perverteth his way.
Now, yes, there's a devil, okay?
Yes, there are children of the devil everywhere, false prophets of all types.
But man chooses them.
Man chooses them.
Mankind chooses that perverted way.
Man is foolish enough to reject the god of the Bible,
to reject the word of God.
And that's, look, that's just foolishness as well.
It's foolishness to choose any of the myriad of false books
of fake holy books out there.
It's foolishness.
It's foolishness to reject the preservation of God's word.
It's foolishness to say, yeah, well, God inspired the word of God,
but it's all just gone.
Who knows? Well, we don't have any originals.
Let's just pick and choose a version.
I'll go with a bit of that.
Oh, this one's a bit older apparently.
These are older manuscripts.
Let's go with that one.
That's foolishness.
It's foolishness to reject the preservation of God's word
and the result of him perverting his way,
that perverting his way of man,
going in a way that is contrary to God results in his heart fretting,
which is literally to rub away with friction.
That's what fretting is, okay?
We might use the word maybe to be agitated.
Would be another word we might use, yeah?
The more someone perverts their way,
the more agitated they are by the true God.
The more they pervert the way,
the more they get agitated by the God of the Bible,
by salvation, by the word of God,
the more agitated we see them, aren't we?
By grace through faith.
Someone who's perverted their way,
you're just saying, I mean, you should theoretically,
I mean, this should be the best news ever.
You're going on someone's door just going,
I'm going to show you how easy it is to go to heaven.
There's only one thing you've got to do.
Jesus Christ did it all for you.
How agitated do these people get?
Some of them, they're fuming, livid, incensed
that you could dare to show them the true way
because their heart fretteth against the Lord.
Also, by the preserved word.
How many people are livid?
I mean, they hate the King James Bible.
You notice that?
I don't think there's many,
I mean, these people probably think the message is okay.
And whatever other contemporary nonsense there is out there,
but it's the King James Bible that they hate, don't they?
Because the more man perverted his way,
the foolishness of that man perverted his way
and his heart fretteth against the Lord.
He's agitated by the word of God.
He's agitated by God.
He's agitated by God's judgment of sin.
You get people that claim to be Christians,
that claim to be believers,
they've perverted their way one way or another,
and how agitated are they by God just saying,
this is sin, this type of thing is sin.
Sodomy is a sin, this is a sin.
They hate it, right?
And they get agitated and they fret.
They fret against the Lord.
They fret or are agitated by God
because of their own foolishness.
It's because of their own choosing another way.
But I think you can even apply this to the same believer,
who wants to do things his or her way,
and then they're agitated by the biblical way.
So there are those like that,
the foolishness of them, they pervert their way.
They want to do it their own way.
They don't want to do the way that God's word says,
the way that it's clearly preached maybe from behind a bulb,
what they've clearly seen in their Bible reading.
They don't want to do that.
So they pervert their way,
they find a way to excuse whatever they want to do,
but their heart is fretting against the Lord
and they get angry and they get agitated by the word of God.
The foolishness of man perverted his way
and his heart fretted against the Lord.
So the lesson is to do things God's way
and you won't then feel opposed to him.
Because often you can just feel opposed to him,
can't you life when you choose to pervert your way?
Do things God's way.
Verse 4,
Wealth maketh many friends,
but the poor is separated from his neighbour.
Now we looked at a very similar proverb in chapter 14,
if you want to flick there,
chapter 14 and verse 20 we saw this,
The poor is hated even of his own neighbour,
chapter 14, 20,
but the rich have many friends.
So the poor is hated even of his own neighbour,
but the rich have many friends,
and we saw wealth maketh many friends
but the poor is separated from his neighbour.
So this is a pretty universal truth.
All of these rich and often famous people
seem to be very popular, don't they?
They have lots of friends.
Sometimes they're the most scummiest people in the world, right?
And often you know a lot of their private life
because maybe they're in the public eye for one reason or another
and they're pretty nasty people, dishonest people, pretty scummy people
and they're very popular.
And they're friends with a lot of other rich and famous people
and they generally have a lot of friends.
Verse 4 here shows what it is that makes a friend, so it's the wealth.
Verse 4 where we are in Proverbs 19 says,
Wealth maketh many friends.
And why is that?
Well, people with lots of wealth end up with a lot of hangers on.
And it's a sad truth of life.
You know, if you've got money, if you've got wealth,
people just try and get stuff from you.
I've known wealthy people in time and it's hard for them
because they try and trust people for a while.
I mean, some of you know I go up to this job
sometimes up in London and they're very wealthy clients
and a couple of people have come up with me
and helped me with a couple of jobs up there over the years.
And you know, over the years of knowing these people,
the amount of people that have come and gone
that they seem to have trusted, that have claimed
they're here to help them with this or to do this job,
and then they just start trying to rip them off.
Because people see people that have money,
the lies light up, they just see money.
How can I get what I can?
And it must be a hard thing sometimes for people that have wealth
is to actually really trust people.
Because sadly, a lot of people are just trying to get something out of you, aren't they?
And in some of these people's defense, okay,
you probably can't blame them for seeking other wealthy people
and they're hoping are less likely to rip them off.
There's sometimes wealthy people look for other wealthy people to befriend
because they're generally just trying to find someone
that's not just trying to rip them off.
But here's another truth, is that a lot of the time
wealthy people try and rip off other wealthy people.
So I've known people like that, where it's like
they thought they were alright, they wanted to help them
manage their finances or do this or that
and they're just trying to get what they can from them
and trying to rip them off, trying to find a way to get even richer.
Because like I said, it's a snare, it's a trap,
people just want more and more and more.
So this isn't always the case, but this happens a lot.
So that wealth though is what results in many friends.
The problem is that they're rarely genuine friendships.
They're just rarely genuine.
They're people trying to get what they can,
or at the least they're just trying to consolidate
with someone that they're hoping is not trying to rip them off.
Now the poor though is separated from his neighbour.
So basically there's less to gain from the poor
and they just end up having less friends.
The poorest people in the world generally have very few friends.
That's just the way it is.
Because sadly, so many people, and that would include of course,
as it is in the world, as it is in God's house,
people are often looking for what they can get from people to some degree.
And the result is that rich people, that wealth maketh many friends,
but the poor are separated from his neighbour.
So I suppose that the lesson is that friendships aren't always genuine.
So don't chase popularity.
Don't be conned by the popularity.
Don't just think, I just need as many friends as I can get.
Because often, sadly, the fact of life is that there are very few probably real true friends in life.
And yeah, don't try and just chase that.
Wealth maketh many friends, but the poor are separated from his neighbour.
Verse 5.
A false witness shall not be unpunished, but he that speaketh lies shall not escape.
Now this is very similar to verse 9 that we're going to look at shortly as well.
Verse 9 says a false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish.
So it's obviously very similar.
This one's talking about escaping.
Verse 9 is talking about perishing.
I think in verse 5 it says that he shall not escape.
And I suppose, to differentiate here, we can focus on the earthly punishment here.
Let's focus on the earthly punishment in this verse being that they will not escape,
as opposed to the eternal punishment in verse 9.
Because God's law for his nation, okay, don't forget that,
and when this was written, that was during that time,
God's law for his nation had a way of dealing with false witnesses, didn't it?
Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 19.
You turn to Deuteronomy chapter 19.
We saw that a false witness shall not be unpunished,
and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.
So someone who stands up and bears false witness about someone
is usually a pretty wicked person.
This is someone being called a false witness.
So not someone who once bared some false witness,
or now and again has told a lie.
This is someone who's just called a false witness.
And those people are usually the worst types of people.
They're just described as a false witness.
Now, caveats here.
There are people that are maybe forced and threatened into it,
or something like that, okay, that can happen.
But to knowingly bear false witness about someone else
is a pretty messed up thing to do, isn't it?
To just knowingly just stand up and tell a complete lie about someone
as a witness to something, and just lie about that situation,
lie about that event, lie about whatever it is.
I mean, that takes a pretty deranged person to be able to do that,
and brazenly do that, okay?
And in a church, it obviously comes under rain and gets you kicked out.
Verse 15 of Deuteronomy 19 says this.
Deuteronomy 19, 15 says,
One witness shall not rise up against the man for any iniquity or for any sin,
in any sin that he sinneth.
At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses,
shall the matter be established.
If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong,
then both the men between whom the controversy is
shall stand before the law, before the priests and the judges which shall be in those days.
And the judges shall make diligent inquisition and behold.
If the witness be a false witness and have testified falsely against his brother,
then shall ye do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his brother.
So shall thou put the evil away from among you,
and those which remain shall hear and fear,
and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.
And thine eye shall not pity, but life shall go for life,
eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
So something which happens nowadays, okay, maybe, and just, okay,
I know the, you know, it's probably, you know, not the most tasteful thing to talk about,
but you'll hear these, especially in sort of in news, in the public eye,
maybe like there's a false, false rape accusation or assault accusation.
Well, guess what God's punishment would be for that, if it was false,
if it was a lie, if it was false witness.
It'd be death penalty, because it was a death penalty for rapists.
So if you're falsely accusing someone of that, death penalty.
Death penalty.
And, I mean, that should deter it, shouldn't it?
Whereas, it's a bit different nowadays, isn't it?
Nowadays, I think it's just kind of, you might, if you're really unlucky,
get a contempt of court charge.
And that's about it.
There are people making false accusations all over the place.
Newspapers print false accusations all the time.
They're used to it, there's less of newspapers now,
at least online papers will do the same.
And what even happens? Nothing.
All they have to claim is it's the source.
Well, you're showing, you're basically, you're promoting that false accusation.
You're a false accuser.
And you should get what that person would get as a punishment.
You accuse someone of stealing from you.
It's false.
You pay several fold, whatever it is that you're accusing them of.
Depending on the sort of theft, etc.
You have to pay back several fold.
And that would quickly deter this sort of thing, wouldn't it?
If you get the punishment that you're accusing someone else of,
well, like I said, as opposed to some minor contempt of court charge, if at all.
Because that kind of is how the world deals with it.
How our court system does, at least.
And here's the point with this.
You can't stop people being wicked.
You can't stop people just being wicked people.
But the punishment should deter them from committing that crime.
So there are some people that are just wicked.
They will happily bear false witness.
There are people, and this is what you've got to understand.
Just because people are able to do the most vile, wicked things,
what the Bible would call a reprobate, what the world might call a psychopath,
it doesn't mean that they will do it because of the urge of self-preservation.
So the people that end up getting caught doing wicked things are people that have kind of failed.
And a lot of the time, what should happen,
and that's why a nation should have strong laws and suitable punishments,
is that it prevents people doing the stuff that their wicked heart wants to do
because they want to preserve themselves.
Now the problem is that we have a nation where so much wickedness is barely punished at all,
and that would include bearing false witness.
Because that is a wicked thing, and people all over this nation do that, all over the place.
It should be punished by whatever it is that would be warranted as a punishment for the person you're accusing of.
So a false witness should not be unpunished, and he that speaks of life should not escape.
The lesson is that it's a serious sin.
A crime under God's law, and I suppose in God's house we could say it will be dealt with.
I would say maybe, you know, if we apply this to now,
because we don't have a godly government with God's laws,
but we are in the house of God, and a false witness is punished,
and they won't escape, and we've seen that obviously dealt with before in our church,
and we'll probably see it in the future as well, sadly.
Okay, verse 6.
Many will entreat the favour of the prince, and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts.
Now this truth about gift-giving has come up quite a few times already, have you noticed?
We've still got another 12 chapters of Proverbs to go with this one,
and we've seen that gift-giving come up time and time and time again already.
Now Proverbs 17, 8 said it like this.
A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth.
And here it's about people, you know, and how many seek the favour or high regard of the leader in many areas.
Many will entreat the favour of the prince, and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts.
So there are different areas, okay, for those who entreat the favour of the prince or principal, the leader,
the boss at work, the leader in a social setting even, okay,
it doesn't even have to be someone who's got an official title of leadership,
the manager of the sports team, the leadership in a region, in a nation,
obviously you could apply church to it as well.
And how do they achieve it? Well, gifts, bribery.
And this is just a world truth, okay, it's that fact of life again.
Gifts create friends.
Gifts create, you know, people want to be a friend of someone that gives gifts.
And look, it's just the way it is.
Now, especially, look, with this, okay,
if you're in a leadership position in life, you have to be impartial regardless of the gifts.
So whether it's in your workplace, whether you're a boss in the workplace,
or, you know, whatever it is, whatever the setting it is,
and obviously, you know, in a church setting, in different positions of leadership,
you just have to be impartial.
And it's something that we have to be reminded of because we're so easily manipulated by gifts.
And like I've said before, okay, it's not that all gifts are bad.
So, again, you don't have to go, right, someone gave me a gift, they must be wicked,
they must be trying to con me.
But if the motivation is to entreat your favour, it's manipulative.
It's guile, it's manipulative, if they're trying to entreat the favour,
and he said many will entreat the favour of the prince.
So whatever leadership position in life, many will try to entreat that favour,
and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts,
and sadly, we're so easily swayed by that, we have to be aware of that,
and be aware, and like I spoke about this morning, this is how government works, you know.
Really, they're entreating the favour of those that are meant to have some sort of control,
and that person will then be a friend to that person that's giving gifts,
or what we might call the benefactor.
So, for me, it's a warning to those in all sorts of leadership to be aware,
and to stay impartial regardless, okay.
Verse 7,
All the brethren of the poor do hate him.
How much more do his friends go far from him?
He pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him.
So that same truth about the poor being unpopular, his brethren hate him.
Okay, that's a pretty sad thing to say, isn't it,
and whether that's by family, blood family, or whether it's even, you know, amongst believers as well,
you know, and again, we're talking about the destitute here, those are very poor.
So, it's saying if his brethren hate him, even more so do his friends' distance.
So if even the brethren hate him, then the friends are going to distance as well.
He pursues them with words, so I suppose he at least tries to stay in communication,
but they're wanting, they're absent, they're just not interested.
And as we saw earlier, okay, with that wealth-maker of many friends, it's because he's poor.
So what's the answer? What's the answer to that?
So this is just a reminder of this truth.
Is it to pursue wealth so as to be popular?
Okay, no.
Okay, of course our goal isn't poverty either, just to make that clear.
You're not more holy if you're very poor.
If we're diligent and not slothful in general, we should be able to avoid true poverty.
We want to be neither rich nor poor.
However, for the unsaved, okay, there is a benefit,
where Matthew 5.3 said,
blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
They're not much more receptive to the gospel, aren't they?
So it's not, ah, it's just terrible.
The poor are much more receptive.
It's not that the rich can't be saved, but the poor are so much more receptive to the gospel.
And I think it's a reminder that there are few true friends in life.
It's just that reminder again that even brethren will end up hating the poor, sadly,
and will distance from him.
So when you have genuine friends, appreciate them is what I would say for that.
All the brethren of the poor do hate him.
How much more do his friends die far from him?
He pursueth them with words yet they are wanting to him.
The lesson is, I think, to not be a respecter of persons and to appreciate genuine friends.
Verse 8,
He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul.
He that keepeth understanding shall find good.
Now, Ephesians 5.29, you don't have to turn there, says,
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh,
but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the law of the church.
We've just seen,
He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul.
He that keepeth understanding shall find good.
So we should look.
It's just the truth of life.
You're going to love your own soul.
You're going to love yourself.
And I don't mean in a narcissistic way,
just saying that you're going to look after yourself,
you're going to care for yourself,
you're going to give to yourself what's needed.
He said,
No man ever yet hates his own flesh.
And one way to show that you love yourself,
to nourish and cherish yourself,
is by getting wisdom.
So if you love yourself like you should,
if you want to care for yourself,
you want the best for yourself,
well, get some wisdom.
Proverbs 4.7 says,
Wisdom is the principal thing,
therefore get wisdom with all thy getting,
get understanding.
We just saw,
He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul.
He that keepeth understanding shall find good.
How many people blame God?
Blame someone, okay,
for their bad decisions,
their poor choice in life.
That's like just sadly just the way it is.
So many are looking for escape,
looking for someone to blame,
like we talked about this morning.
Just people love a scapegoat.
And people love to blame someone,
blame something,
blame whoever it is.
Yet if they really wanted to help themselves,
to show love to themselves,
they should have just got some wisdom.
And they can continue to try and get some wisdom.
Because it's all here,
the wisdom's here.
He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul.
He that keepeth understanding shall find good.
Get the wisdom.
But don't just get it,
keep the understanding, okay?
And you don't have to turn it,
but Proverbs 9.10 said,
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
What sort of holy things
do we need a knowledge of for understanding?
Again, you don't have to turn this.
Psalm 111 verse 10 says,
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
A good understanding have all they that do his commandments.
You want a good understanding?
You want that knowledge of the holy,
which is understanding,
do his commandments.
It says his praise endureth forever.
Get wise and get following God's commandments.
That's our goal, isn't it?
That's what we want to do in life.
That's how you get wise.
That's how you love your own soul.
Job 28, 28 says,
And unto the man he said,
Behold, the fear of the Lord had his wisdom,
and to depart from evil is understanding.
They all go hand in hand, don't they?
That knowledge of the holy,
doing his commandments,
departing from evil.
If you want to love yourself,
get the sin out of your life
by hearing and doing.
Get the sin out of your life
by learning what is sin,
how to get it out of your life,
by reading, by listening,
by hearing and preaching,
and apply it to your life.
Don't just hear it.
Do it.
Do what God wants you to do.
Try and get right with God.
And that's how you're really
helping yourself ultimately in life.
That's how you're showing love to yourself,
because then you will find the good in life.
He said, He that getteth wisdom,
loveth his own soul.
And he that keepeth understanding
shall find good.
And it is good.
If you're living right,
you're trying to live for God,
it is good.
The lesson is to be both a hearer
and a doer of the word
if you want what's best for yourself.
It's your choice.
No one else to blame.
You can blame this, blame that,
blame past, blame whoever,
blame someone,
but ultimately it's down to you.
Get the wisdom,
do what God wants you to do,
you'll find good.
Or reject it.
You're not a robot.
God gives you the choice.
Verse 9.
A false witness shall not be unpunished,
and he that speaketh lies shall perish.
Now in verse 5,
we looked at the physical ramifications,
for standing up as a false witness.
Yet there are spiritual ramifications too.
Now of course,
one lie is enough for you to perish
in hell forever.
Revelation 21 says that all lies
shall have their partner in the lake
which is burned from the farm by himself,
which is the second death.
However, I believe here that he's alluding
to the types of people that are false witnesses,
that are known as false witnesses,
that just brazenly speak lies.
And these people are out there.
Now just to make it clear,
a safe person can and will lie,
can even be a false witness against someone.
That can and does happen.
However, the types of people
that are described as false witnesses,
this is different,
as he that speaketh lies,
that's what they're known as,
that's what they're described as,
are often children of the devil.
Turn to Proverbs 6,
whilst I read Psalm 27-12.
You turn to Proverbs 6,
Psalm 27-12, David said,
Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies,
for false witnesses have risen up against me,
and such as breathe out cruelty.
Talking of the enemies of God.
In Psalm 35,
David is speaking all about these haters,
okay, for pretty much the whole psalm.
And he says in verse 11,
false witnesses did rise up,
they laid to my charge things that I knew not,
before talking them,
gnashing upon him with their teeth.
Okay, these are the people he's talking about here,
they're the enemies of God,
they're the types of people that he's saying,
smash them God, deal with them, etc.
And in Proverbs 6,
we saw how this sort of thing
is in the makeup of the division causing false weathering.
Proverbs 6 and verse 16 said,
These six things does the Lord hate,
yea, seven were abomination done to him,
a proud look,
a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
and heart that deviseth wicked imaginations,
feet that be swift in running to mischief,
a false witness that speaketh lies,
and he that soweth discord among brethren.
Because to stand up
and just outright bear false witness,
like it says here,
false witness that speaketh lies,
about someone is pretty wicked, isn't it?
And that is a wicked thing to do,
which is why, back where we were,
it said in Proverbs 19 and verse 9,
a false witness shall not be unpunished,
and he that speaketh lies shall perish.
And I think really it's just reminding us
where these types of people are going.
It's just reminding us what these types of people are,
and they will perish, they shall perish.
That's the types of people that, sadly,
we have to deal with.
And if you're serving God,
you're doing the things of God,
you're winning souls for Christ,
you're trying to live a Godly life,
you don't have to be a pastor,
you don't have to be in the ministry,
you're in the ministry
because you're part of the ministry of reconciliation,
you're going to have this stuff come up.
It's just going to happen.
You're going to have people sowing discord,
trying to bear false witness about you,
that's just what we have to deal with in life,
and it's a reminder of what to look out for
and where these people, sadly,
these people that describe like that are headed.
Verse 10.
Delight is not seemly for a fool,
much less for a servant to have rule over princes.
So first off, okay, when you see a fool,
someone devoid of wisdom, with delight,
it's not seemly, is it?
It doesn't fit, basically.
Foolish people, people with no wisdom,
and often, like we've seen a few times,
a fool is sometimes talking about these worst types of people.
And I think back to bad people that I've known,
and I've talked about it before with my wife,
when they're suddenly cackling away
and they seem so delighted,
there's just something that doesn't fit.
I mean, we've had it before,
we had some bad people that eventually got kicked out of the church,
and we just heard them cackling in the car park,
not knowing that we could hear them outside the first church building.
And they're just cackling away,
there's this pure evil in their laugh,
and you're just like, it just doesn't fit.
You're not thinking, oh, how nice of having a good old laugh,
it just doesn't fit.
Delight is not seemly for a fool.
There's something up here,
there's something evil about their delight.
And often you're thinking, I wonder who they're laughing at, really,
as they just walked out of church
and said something horrible to someone,
or done something to someone.
For example, let's put it another way,
when you see some overjoyed sodomite, for example,
you know they just seem so happy.
There's something amiss, isn't there?
Whether you know they are or not,
maybe you find out after you just see someone seems happy,
but there's a darkness, isn't there?
There's something behind the eyes,
it's just something not fitting,
it's not seemly, that delight in them.
Seeing evil, foolish people delighted.
Well, in the same way, it's not fitting,
it's not suitable for a servant to have rule over the true leaders.
And I suppose that you could apply this to those that are maybe unsuited
or maybe unqualified to being in charge in various places,
you could apply that.
But if you turn to Romans 6,
I think that this is especially true when it comes to those that are servants to sin.
I think that's probably how we could apply this.
Romans chapter 6 you're turning to,
we just read,
Delight is not seemly for a fool,
much less, so much less seemly or fitting
is for a servant to have rule over princes.
Well, Romans 6 says in verse 15,
What then? Shall we sin?
Because we are not under the law, but under grace, God forbid.
Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey?
His servants yield to whom ye obey, whether of sin, unto death, or of obedience, unto righteousness.
So he's saying, don't be a servant of sin,
and of course we can all serve sin to a degree,
but the worst types are the false prophets talked about in 2 Peter 2.19,
which says of them, while they promise them liberty,
they themselves are the servants of corruption,
of whom a man is overcome of the same as he brought into bondage.
So, perhaps for me, back in Proverbs 19 verse 10,
where it says, Delight is not seemly for a fool,
much less for a servant to have rule over princes.
It's completely unsuitable for bad people
who are servants to sin, to corruption,
to have rule over those who are kings and priests.
And who are kings and priests?
Us, believers.
And I think the lesson is to be careful
about who we put in positions of authority, in our lives especially.
And let's be honest, again,
where are the multitude of those believers that you got saved
probably been today, this morning maybe especially,
in a false church, with a false prophet,
having basically that rule, at least in the so-called house of God,
over those princes, over people that are kings and priests,
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, it's very unfitting, it's unseemly,
God doesn't want that, but sadly people choose that, don't they?
Okay, verse 11.
The discretion of a man deferreth his anger,
and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.
So, something where the opposite view seems to be in the world, okay,
where we're encouraged to think that it's weak not to react angrily.
A lot of people seriously have been brainwashed by this, okay.
It's said here, the discretion of a man deferreth his anger,
and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.
Now, people think that it's weak, okay, that forgiveness,
that letting a transgression go is cowardice or something.
That's how people behave, don't they?
You don't let them get away with that.
You've got to say it how it is, you've got to tell them exactly, you know,
what you're feeling at that time.
But that's not what God wants you to do, okay.
It's the opposite.
Having discretion, remember, discretion is prudence, knowledge and prudence.
Discernment, which enables a person to judge critically of what is correct and proper.
United with caution, nice to sermon and judgment, directed by circumspection,
and primarily regarding one's own conduct.
So deferreth, that discretion, like we've just seen,
that description of it defers, it delays your anger.
It stops you reacting impulsively, it helps you to think things through.
It's a good thing, yeah.
We've just seen that when you're hasted with your feet, you're sinned.
And when you're more able to pass over a transgression,
which is a glory, a good thing to be able to do,
that's what happens when you have that, okay.
Proverbs 14, 29 said,
He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding.
You know, you have great understanding if you're slow to wrath.
But he that is hasty of spirit, exalteth folly.
It's folly.
You don't have to pull up every transgression, did you know that?
Every time someone does something you don't like, you don't have to pull them up.
You can let things go.
You can turn the other cheek, you can just store it if you need to,
and you think, okay, maybe I just need to be aware of that person,
maybe be wary of this situation, maybe not put myself in that situation again.
But you don't have to always just deal with it.
You can use discretion with things.
And something that I think this is probably a good reminder for,
for spouses, for married couples.
You know, the discretion of a man, and you can add a woman here as well,
defereth his anger, or her anger, and it is their glory to pass over a transgression.
You don't have to pull up your spouse for everything they ever do that offends you,
that annoys you, that upsets you.
It's your glory to pass over that.
Now, you don't want to store it up where then you just can't stand it.
You know, some things do need dealing with.
But often I think you can just, if you can pass over it and just put it away,
often you're better off for that.
Because so often we just feel like we've got to deal with everything,
you said something I didn't like, you did something I didn't like,
you looked in a way I didn't like, whatever it is.
And often, you know, it's actually your glory, it's an honour to you to pass over that.
But you need that discretion to be able to defer that anger.
So being able to control your emotions obviously is important, okay?
How do you get that discretion to enable that then?
So how do you get, if you're thinking, oh yeah, okay, this sounds good,
I'd like to be, have more discretion to,
and I think people just think discretion is like whispering or something and not saying anything.
No, discretion is all of that.
It's prudence, knowledge, discernment, okay, caution, nice discernment, judgement, circumspection.
Okay, so how do you get that?
Well, Proverbs 1.4 says that these proverbs that we've been going through for the last 19 chapters
are to give subtlety to the simple, to the young man, knowledge and discretion.
So these proverbs give you discretion, they help you to have discretion,
to have that caution, to learn, to be able to be a bit more circumspect.
And look, no offence to all of you young men out there, okay?
But often, you know, as young men, and I don't think I count anymore,
but I know you just need some discretion, okay?
You need that, you need to be able to do that.
He said to give subtlety to the simple, to the young man, knowledge and discretion.
Why the young man?
Because a lot of the time young men are in more need of that discretion.
We're often a lot more rash.
I know if I look back several years, and I know I was more rash,
I know I was jumping the gun more, I know I was more impulsive,
I know I was doing things like that, but you can get that discretion from the Word of God.
Proverbs 5.1 says, my son, attend unto my wisdom and bow thine ear to my understanding.
And then he says afterwards to regard that discretion.
So he's saying, look, it's not just that you need to attend unto it,
just read the book of Proverbs, job done.
No, bow thine ear to my understanding.
I actually want to hear it, I want to learn it,
I want to get that discretion and learn and grow and not just be impulsive,
flying off the handle, just constantly, never deferring your anger, always reacting on it.
It's your glory to pass over transgression.
It's actually a great thing to be able to do.
The discretion of a man to firth is anger and it is his glory to pass over transgression.
The lesson is to learn to be less impulsive.
To consider your actions more by becoming more discreet,
and you get that by learning, by growing, by reading the Word of God.
And especially, we could say, the book of Proverbs,
which is one of its goals, one of its products, is more discretion.
Okay, verse 12.
The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion, but his favour is as a dew upon the grass.
So two sides to a king.
His wrath is something to fear, but his favour is something to see.
And although this, I suppose, is a blueprint for a good king,
with true government providing justice and judgment,
the king's wrath, at least, and that would count whoever's passing judgment beneath him
and giving out the justice, that should be something to fear.
This obviously applies to the king of kings, doesn't it?
The lord himself, the lion of the tribe of Judah.
The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion, but his favour is as dew upon the grass.
So his wrath is something to fear.
Now, you don't have to turn there.
Revelation 6, 16, talking of the wrath to come,
that the people hide in the rocks and said to the mountain,
the rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne
and from the wrath of the lamb.
Yeah, the lord Jesus Christ is someone to fear.
The lord Jesus Christ, when he comes in his wrath,
is going to be resulting in people hiding in the rocks, just terrified.
That's the lord, that's the Jesus of the Bible.
Now, however, that Jesus of the Bible,
as well as someone to be feared as the roaring of a lion should be feared,
his favour is as the dew upon the grass as well.
He's also a loving god.
Which I remember explaining before about dew was a huge blessing in a place with very little rainfall.
In a place where you can go months with no rainfall, dew is a massive blessing.
That's how things are watered, that's how you ultimately can even gather moisture
and gather water as well from dew.
How do we get that favour?
Well, Proverbs 12.2 says,
A good man obtaineth favour of the Lord, but a man of wicked devices will he condemn.
It's by living right.
That's how you get the favour of God, by being a good man.
And it's not just talking about salvation,
it's talking about trying to live for God, by trying to do good.
And if you do that, if you try and live right, you try and live how God wants you to,
you can get favour from the Lord.
The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion, but his favour is as the dew upon the grass.
The lesson is to fear God and to seek his favour.
Fear God, and with that, seek his favour.
Verse 13, last couple.
A foolish son is a calamity of his father, and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping.
So, okay, a couple of things here.
Having a foolish son is a calamity, it's a disaster, it's a cause of misery.
And we talked before that ultimately here this is an unsafe son and could even be the worst type.
Someone who's rejected God to the point of ultimate rejection, to the point of reprobation.
This is a disaster, and it should be a disaster, shouldn't it?
This is something where, like I talked about a couple of weeks back, that would destroy your life.
It's therefore so important to do our best to avoid it.
And we saw that chasing a child from young, for example,
helping them to see the difference between good and evil,
to understand there's repercussions for sin,
and then therefore obviously preaching the word of God to them, etc.
is a good way of trying to avoid that.
Raising them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
So they have both, they have the nurture and admonition,
so they don't end up growing up to resent God,
maybe fake a salvation or not, depending on what, you know,
we want to do our best or our utmost to end up without a foolish child.
And with that being a good example to our kids, okay,
and that's another way that we can try not to end up with a foolish child,
leading our whole families properly, doing as we spoke about this morning, trying to do all those things.
So if your son ends up being a fool, it's a disaster, right?
Okay, that would be a disaster, that would be a terrible thing, right?
And we want to do our best to avoid that.
But then a contentious wife, I think, you know, sort of in a,
maybe not contrast, but in a different way, is more of a constant trial.
A continual dropping is when it just keeps raining, that's what it's talking about.
4
Okay, so that's what this continual dropping is.
It's in a very rainy day, it's just constant rain.
And if you're outside, okay, that gets pretty draining.
For those of you that have ever done outside jobs or been just stuck outside,
it's just continual rain.
Rain shower isn't so bad, it kind of rains, you dry out, maybe you can shelter from it.
When you're just outside in continual rain all day,
that's just a constant pain, isn't it?
Constant annoyance, it's a constant draining,
and it's being compared to a contentious woman.
So those contentions are continual dropping.
And I suppose it's also because they don't just disappear.
So it's continual dropping.
It's not like, well, she's got it off her chest.
You know, with women that's not always the case, okay?
Those contentions can be ongoing.
She might have got it off her chest, but she might kind of continue to get it off her chest.
And those contentions can be a problem, okay?
And what's the answer therefore, what's the answer to that?
Well, both of these are to be avoided, I think is what we're seeing here.
You want to avoid these as much as possible.
How do you avoid, though, the contentions of a wife?
We've seen how you can hopefully try your best to avoid having that foolish son, that foolish child.
How do you avoid the contentions of a wife?
Well, 1 Peter 3.7 says,
So obviously giving our wives the respect, the honour that God commands us to do,
but dwelling with them according to knowledge.
A lot of the time you kind of know what's going to make your wife contentious, don't you?
You will regret, I mean, you learn as years go by, you'll learn more and more.
That's why early marriage can be hard, because you're still getting to know each other, really.
You're learning each other and learning what does or doesn't work, what makes each other tick.
Well, as you're in marriage, you should be learning and then dwelling with them according to that knowledge.
You should be dwelling with them, and also you could add to that,
according to the knowledge of the word of God as well.
Dwell with them according to that, dwell with them how God wants you to dwell.
And when you have that knowledge of your wife,
you should therefore be able to avoid a lot of contentions where possible,
because it is just a continual dropping.
Now, it's not just a one-way street, so wives, I hope you're not out there going,
you know, yeah, I want to be like a constant rain.
Don't be described as constant rain, that's not a good thing.
So obviously you should be trying to avoid that, so I'm not trying to lock eyes with anyone,
I kind of look around and suddenly I'm looking at these wives and they're thinking,
are you talking about me? I'm talking about the whole lot of you.
The cap fits, there you go, right, but no one in particular,
but what I am saying is that you don't want to be like that,
but however, as men, I think here the lesson where he says
a foolish son is a calamity of his father,
and the contentions of a wife are continual dropping,
I think the lesson is for us to do our best to avoid both of these things in life.
There's an old saying in life, and it's a good one, happy wife, happy life.
Yeah, don't get too carried away with it,
oh, she needs to listen, I'm going to lay down the law,
and she'll do as she's told her, she's wicked, she's not submissive,
you got it wrong.
Okay, yeah, she should be submissive, she should obey her husband,
but you know what, you need to dwell with her according to the law,
you should give honour to your wife.
Husbands love your wives, right,
and the more you do that, the less likely you're going to have a contentious wife.
But it leads on to verse 14,
which is, houses of riches are the inheritance of fathers,
and a prudent wife is from the Lord.
So as opposed to houses of riches, which some will inherit from their earthly fathers,
a prudent wife, and remember, prudent is cautious, circumspect, practically wise,
careful of consequences, she's from the Lord.
Now, I think you could apply this in two ways, okay.
We've seen houses of riches are the inheritance of fathers, and a prudent wife is from the Lord.
If you're a single guy looking for a wife, okay,
and there might be some single guys out there looking for a wife, okay,
if you're in God's will, okay, so you're living right, you're doing the right thing,
there's nothing wrong with praying for that prudent wife.
Maybe someone who's, you know, already got some prudence or the ability to be a prudent wife, okay.
Nothing wrong with that.
If you end up, and with that in mind, if you end up having children, okay,
and obviously, you know, that's probably a goal for many,
you definitely want a wife that's cautious and wise, okay.
Because you might be like, well, what's the difference, you know,
if she's pretty, if she does, she's told, she bakes good cookies,
what's the problem, right?
So that's probably like top boxes on a lot of men's lists, right.
But you know what, someone who's cautious, someone that's sensible,
someone that's wise, someone that's practically wise, okay.
When you have children and you care about your kids, okay,
that's something that you want, don't you.
A wife that's wise, that's wise about problems and issues and things like that.
That's something that should be our goal.
But I believe that ultimately, okay, the reason that the prudent wife is from the Lord
is because prudence comes from the Lord, it's from his word.
That's why a prudent wife is from the Lord.
Proverbs 16, 21 says,
the wise in heart shall be called prudent and the sweetness of the lips increase of learning.
Where does wisdom come from? It's all here.
The wisdom's here.
The wise in heart shall be called prudent.
That prudent wife is from the Lord because it comes from the word.
It comes from the word of God.
Whether you're already married or not, you can have a prudent wife, basically.
If you're a lady, whether you're married or not, you can be a prudent wife.
By learning from the word of God.
By getting the wisdom from the word of God that creates that prudence.
And if you're a man and you want a prudent wife, you need to lead her into the things of God.
So it's no good going, I just don't have a prudent wife, that's it.
Look, if she's saved, you can lead her into the things of God, can't you,
by being that leader that we talked of this morning.
And there are different ways to do that and there are different kinds of,
and again, dwelling with them according to knowledge.
Learning how and what pace and what way and what's the best way to basically get that response
of the prudence that comes from the word of God.
But that's where it all comes from.
That's why a prudent wife is from the Lord because the prudence comes from the Lord.
She's not just born with it.
The lesson is to seek that prudent wife and if you've got a wife,
to encourage that prudence that comes from leading in the things of God.
And how do we do that ultimately, men? By leading by example, don't we?
If you're sitting at home with your feet up, with a bag of crisps on your stomach,
playing video games all day, it's no good going,
get on with your Bible reading, love!
Come in, come in, over, over! I'm in the base!
What are you reading in your Bible?
There's men out there like that, I'm sure.
You want a prudent wife, you need to lead by example.
On that, let's finish in a word of prayer.
Father, thank you for your word, Lord.
Thank you for the Book of Proverbs.
Thank you for all those many pearls of wisdom we can get from it.
I pray that I've explained those and applied them in the right ways there, Lord,
and helped everyone to just search the scriptures,
to really understand your word for what your word is saying, Lord,
and to then apply it to their lives, help those Proverbs there,
to edify people to make improvements to all of our lives, Lord,
help us all to improve, help us all to be better Christians,
Lord, to be better husbands, better wives, better children of you, Lord,
just better people in whatever areas, Lord, help us to just grow in your word
and especially in wisdom that comes from this Proverbs series we've been going through.
Help us to all get home safe and sound this evening, Lord, and to return,
ideally for the midweek service on Wednesday,
and if not on Sunday, for another day in your house.
In Jesus' name I pray all of this. Amen.