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Alright, so Proverbs chapter 16 just for especially for those that haven't been here following with our Proverbs series what I've been doing Because we have a lot of different topics that are going over in the book of Proverbs is I kind of Got verses all over the place that deal with the same topic. So we're going to be going through Somewhat topically through this or kind of be jumping around and looking at a lot of different verses as we're going through chapter 16 here and you'll also notice that there is a lot of repetition if you have been following along with previous verses or previous chapters on Similar concepts and that's because they are important concepts for attaining and gaining wisdom You know the beginning of the book of Proverbs explains that these are the Proverbs of Solomon and it's to give subtlety to the simple It's to it's to give us wisdom to give us knowledge to give us Understanding to help us just to grow and not to be stupid not to be simple But to be smart God wants us to have wisdom and this all of these these proverbs will help you in your life To live a much better life to make the right choices and to avoid making foolish decisions So let's jump right in here with verse number one the Bible reads the preparations of the heart in man And the answer of the tongue is from the Lord now. I want to tie this in look at verse number nine also The Bible reads a man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord Directeth his steps and then in verse number 23 jump down to verse 23 the Bible reads the heart of the wise Teacheth his mouth and addeth learning to his lips So the the theme here in these three verses is talking about the heart of man and it says that the preparations in the heart of man and the answer of the tongue because you know out of the the abundance of the heart the mouth Speaketh so if your heart is right if your heart is set on the right things Then your mouth is gonna be following suit you're gonna be speaking of the right things also the Bible says that that's from the Lord When you have a right heart and the preparations you need to prepare your heart, though It's not something that's just gonna come just because you're saved right you can't just stop at salvation and just think oh well My heart's just right there are preparations involved you need to set your heart all right well says a man's heart deviseth his way You devise your own way based on your heart But the Lord directeth his steps the Lord Directs and lines up the steps that you need to be taken which is why we study the Bible so much because he gives us The instruction and he his word is a light to our foot to our to our path Of saying here's the direction that you need to take now our heart will determine if we're gonna follow that way or not our hearts Gonna say well, which way am I gonna take God's saying hey? I've lit up the path This is the way you need to go But in your heart's gonna say Am I gonna choose that way or not and we need to make sure that we are keeping our heart the Bible says the heart of the wise teaches his mouth we need to Get our hearts right first so that our heart then can teach our mouth and added learning to his lips now This is different from flip over to chapter 18 in Proverbs verse number two There's work involved in getting your heart right Proverbs 18 2 says a fool hath no delight in Understanding but that his heart may discover Itself and this is the common theme. You know you hear this out in the world the wisdom saying Oh, you just need to go out and find yourself You just need to just find whatever it is That that you want to do and that you know and just kind of let your heart discover itself the Bible calls that foolishness You can't just let your your heart dictate whatever it is that you want to do you can't trust your own heart unless you've set Your heart right and the Bible says in Jeremiah 17 9 the Bible reads the heart is deceitful above all things and Desperately wicked who can know it the natural man our natural heart the natural man has a wicked heart I mean, that's that's what you know one of the main reason why we're driven to sin. We have this fleshly heart We need to change that though once you get saved once you're born again You need to turn hey look. This is what the Bible says God's path is lit up. I'm gonna choose I'm gonna set my heart a right to follow the Lord and to do what's right instead of just letting my heart Just just kind of wander right and just discover itself That's the foolish way of thinking we need to look for God's instruction to direct our steps and once you get your heart, right? You know once you set it on the right things then your heart can lead you in the right ways then you can be More apt to be able to follow it with the with the guidance from God's Word Let's look at verse number two here now in Proverbs 16 Verse number two all the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes But the Lord way at the spirits and this kind of goes real hand in hand almost with with your heart You know not whether it's right or not, you know everyone when you do things You generally do them thinking that what you're doing is right. I mean, nobody is gonna just go out and do things well, I don't wanna say nobody but And just know yeah, this is wrong. You find a way to justify yourself, right? Even when you when people get into sin It's there's always a way for you to make it think Well, what I did was right a great example and I brought him up many times is is King Saul when He didn't obey the Word of the Lord. He didn't do what he was supposed to do He didn't kill like they were they were supposed to go out and and just and wipe everybody out kill all the animals Kill all the people, you know Just completely decimate the the the people that they're battling against and he didn't do that and they brought back the king and they brought back the best of the sheeps and of the and of the goats and of the animals and When Samuel confronted him, he's like, why didn't you keep the God's Word? Why didn't you do what you're told to do? He's like I did do what God told me to do and he had this real proud attitude and what he did in his own Eyes was right, even though it was blatantly false and just completely wrong in his own rise He thought he was doing what was right. He didn't think it was that bad He's like, oh, well, no, we're gonna we're gonna offer up these animals unto the Lord. See that's a good thing and Instead of saying well you just didn't obey God I mean you just didn't do what he said and that right there is wicked and wrong and that's why it says You know, we all think that we're doing the right thing, but God weighs the spirits God knows the truth. God knows the score and we ought not to deceive ourselves And that's one of the hardest things to do sometimes especially when you get into sin is to avoid deceiving yourself From thinking that you're do you're okay that what you're doing is right You constantly need to be going back over with a humble heart and and checking your own life to make sure am I doing what's right? Does it line up with God what if God were to judge me right now would would I be coming out? Okay or not? As opposed to just thinking about it through your own eyes look at verse number 25 Proverbs 16 verse 25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death see there's some things that people could do like oh this seems like the right thing to do and that's what a lot of people do is They follow in that regard their heart that hasn't been prepared Oh, this seems like it's the right choice in the end there of this direction. It's not wise That's why we're going through the book of Proverbs so we could gain that wisdom So that the way that seems right is the right way. It's not just something that we have a feeling about Oh, well, this seems right No It's actually we could point to Scripture and say this is the right way Because thus saith the Lord because it's found in God's Word The Bible says in verse number three here look at Proverbs 16 3 commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts Shall be established. This is a real powerful verse and this can help you out a lot in your life Especially if you have a problem in your thought life This is something that you may never know when some you know when someone else has this problem You know when you have it for yourself But you can have the best Christian outwardly, you know someone in church, it's just the best version but inwardly they've got a really really wicked bad thought life and You know if that's you today, and I'm sure we all have foolish thoughts The Bible says that even the thought of foolishness is sin We all have this problem We have to battle with you know Guys have to battle with this when there's when there's scantily clad women walking around when there's other things going on You got to make sure that you're not lusting after other women and committing adultery in your heart There's all kinds of things that we need to be able to prevent ourselves from thinking wicked thoughts But the Bible says here hey commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established So if you have this problem with a bad thought life, you need to start committing your works unto the Lord You can cleanse that mind by doing the right thing keeping yourself busy for one commit your works to the Lord say I'm gonna start doing this because here I mean the Way that most people get in a problem ever is having idle time Time where there's nothing that you have set to do when you have time to just kind of sit around and do nothing That's the worst time to have you need to make sure you are keeping yourself Busy in one way or another keeping it doing something right you say not me not another being a wicked way Right doing something that's right committing your works unto the Lord doing what's right and your thoughts will be established The Bible says in Galatians 5 when it talks about the the the fruits of the Spirit itself and you know The the the lust of the flesh versus the walking in the spirit It says in verse 16 this I say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill The lust of the flesh so the way to keep yourself from sinning is by doing what's right I mean, it sounds pretty stupid simple, but think about that If you want to make sure you're not fulfilling the lust of your flesh then do what's right? You know, it's it's a lot harder to fall into sin when you're out knocking on doors and going soul winning I mean it really is you're walking in the spirit You're going out with the Bible and you're focused on winning someone to Christ You're not going to be thinking about the ways of the world You're not gonna be thinking about any of the things that are gonna they're gonna cause you problems and cause you to get into sin When you're reading your Bible, it's a lot harder for you to be thinking about other, you know, your thoughts just to wander off I know it happens from time to time, but when you're focused on this when you're praying for other people You know when you're doing these things and these works and committing them unto the Lord and walking in the spirit You're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. It's that simple Now the problem is filling all of our time with doing the things unto God I mean that's that's where the hard part comes in because we do have to do some things We do have to go to work We do have to do some things where it's not just completely under the Lord, but if you can try to to work in any way to Commit your works unto the Lord while you're at work If you have the type of job or you could do some Bible memory while you're working not everyone can do that I mean me I'm a computer programmer. I can't just be focused on memorizing while I'm trying to write code. It just doesn't work I'm not able to Separate my brain that much to do that but some people you have a little bit more maybe of a manual labor type of job where it's not requiring as much thought or You do a lot of driving or you do something like that Hey work this into it and try not to get that downtime And now if you're working a job and you need to keep your mind focused on it anyways You're probably not going to be getting off into you into bad thoughts and bad sins anyways But it's important if you want to make sure that you get as much sin out of your life as possible Be walking in the spirit doing that which is right. It's only going to help you look at verse number four here in Proverbs 16 Well Says the Lord hath made all things for himself Yay, even the wicked for the day of evil. We need to remember this and keep this in mind It'll help keep us humble. We think about God when God made everything he made it for himself God is a God that wanted you know, he gets joy He gets satisfaction out of his creation out of what he made and he made all things for him It says even the wicked for the day of evil You know, there is a satisfaction that is going to happen when the wicked are judged God is going to have Satisfaction that because he did everything that he could to give us the opportunity and he loved us enough to say here Salvation is free. I want you to have it and I'm gonna do what I can to make sure that you can hear about it You can know about it. You can receive it. It's there. It's open Just receive it and take it but when people refuse when people don't have anything to do with it and people, you know, there's going to be a judgment for that and It's still going to be to the glory of God the Father the Bible says in Revelation 4 verse 11 thou art worthy Oh Lord to receive glory and honor and power for thou has created all things and for thy pleasure They are and were created We were created God's creation is here for God's pleasure Keep that in mind as you live your life. You're not you weren't created just for you Just to think about yourself and to live the most comfortable life that you can now and then to to experience the most You know physical pleasure that you can in this world and have it be all about you it's actually all about God and if you want God's blessing your life, you're gonna remember that and And please him the most to get the blessings upon yourself Let's look at the next verse here in Proverbs 16. There's a lot of topics There's there's not as many you know in the past. We've had some like maybe three or four main topics This one's kind of got quite a few so I'm going to try to get through these as quick as possible verse number five here Proverbs 16 the Bible reads everyone that is proud in heart is An abomination to the Lord though hand join in hand. He shall not be unpunished now Hopefully you can see too though, even though these are seemingly Separate thoughts How they kind of mix together and as we're going from one to the other, you know We just went from verse number four talking about how all things were made for God The verse number five talking about those that are proud in heart, right those that lift themselves up We're going straight from the attitude of of we need to remember and be humble because God created everything for himself Therefore when he sees the proud in heart those that lift themselves up It says that's an abomination to the Lord He hates seeing that says though hand join in hand. He shall not be unpunished God will make sure that the the proud is brought down low and Christian you make sure that you have your pride in check this is this is a battle with the flesh and Men and women are guilty of the same thing There are times when people step on your toes. There's times when people are going to say things to you. They're going to disrespect you They're going to you know, they treat you wrong and The first reaction might be your pride taken over and say how dare they do that to me Do they know who I am now? You can't talk to me like that That's your pride getting built up now you remember when when King David was was leaving when Absalom kind of took over and And he was just getting railed on and you know, his men were like you're gonna let this happen. He says yep You know, he says that might be from the Lord he's like I've just just let him do it and he had the humility to allow What was it was a barzillai I forget that the guy's name that was that was doing that it started with a beat but anyways, I think barzillai was a different guy, but uh He was railing on him and David just shimmy I'm yeah shimmy I'm think you're right So shimmy eyes over there and he's just casting all stuff and he picks up rocks He starts like throwing them at David and stuff and Obviously, he's already down He's already, you know fleeing from Absalom and in losing the kingdom and this guy's adding insult to injury Doing all this but he said you know what just just let it be You let him do it and we need to have a similar type of attitude when when people come at us and not just be You know quick to fight back quick to just lift up our be lifted up in our pride and say they're not going to Do that to me? We need to be able to take a step back and say fine and we need to be able to overcome evil with good And be able and honestly, there's a lot of people that you might actually end up being able to win over There might be a lot of unsaved people that are expecting you to fight back I mean a lot of times people know hey if I do this to that person if I disrespect them if I call them this Name they're gonna come back at me and some people actually like the fight They like the confrontation and they think that they're better than everyone else They're already lifted up in pride But when they come across someone they see a humble attitude is not what they expected at all That might throw them for a loop and be like, whoa What what is this guy talking about and then maybe be able to open up the door? You know to get them saved or preach the gospel to them We need to make sure that our pride is in check and besides God says a proud heart is abomination to him Look at verse number 18 in Proverbs 16 Proverbs 16 18 pride Goeth before destruction and in haughty spirit before a fall If you have a proud heart, it says only a matter of time and you're gonna be destroyed God's gonna bring you low God's gonna abase you and he's gonna bring you down and And make sure that you do not have a proud attitude and we were talking about this on the way in from soul winning how how torturous and tormenting hell is and you think about all the people that are unsaved and The vast majority of people end up not getting saved because of their pride Because they don't want to rely on God for something they don't want to receive the free gift so many people want to work for it themselves and earn it and Unfortunately, because they're not able to receive the kingdom of God as a little child They're not able to just put a childlike faith in Jesus Christ and just rely on him and trust him and say God I can't do this. I need you to save me. They can't do it because they say nope, that's too easy It's easy believism, so that's too easy. I got to do something for it. That's a proud heart speaking And I got to do it. I got to earn it. I got to work for it And you know what's gonna happen. They could be proud until the day that they die, but one day they're gonna be burning in hell They're gonna be burning and tortured and Tormenting and they're gonna be thinking what in the world that I do to be here I thought you know, like I was a good person I did this and they're gonna have a lot of time Burning at least a thousand years at least during that millennial reign of Christ Most people a lot more than that thinking What in the world that I do and going over everything in there in their mind of what happened? Where did they go wrong and what's gonna happen in the Bible records? Is that at Judgment Day then at the great white throne judgment when when hell? Gives up the dead that are in them and they're standing before the throne of God Every knee is gonna bow and Every tongue is gonna confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of the glory of God the Father They will be humble at that point no matter how proud they were in this life then I don't know I don't I'm not gonna serve that God that God could you know, whatever it and curse God out and say all these proud blasphemous other ungodly hard speeches Which ungodly sinners have spoken against him, right? Yeah, the memory passes Robert knows what I'm talking about He memorized you But the you know these people that that are proud in their heart they're gonna be humbled one day They're gonna be brought down low and that is the ultimate destruction now, obviously I'm preaching today to save people we don't have to worry about that destruction But God is still not just talking about that with our pride. He wants us to remain humble He wants us to be able to esteem others better than ourselves We need to be able to focus on helping other people which was the attitude that Jesus Christ had Well, he was here to be a servant and to serve other people Not to be served and that's the attitude that we need to have because the proud the proud person isn't gonna serve anybody They're gonna think they're better than that They're gonna think they're better than everybody else But the Bible says that pride goeth before destruction and in haughty spirit before a falling verse number 19 Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly Than to divide the spoil with the proud It's a lot better than you know, you could go ahead and get divide the spoil I mean, you know getting these physical goods and these riches and stuff with the proud Yeah, you could go and do that, but he says way better just to be humble to not have as much with the lowly It's way better to be with the lowly and see that's why when we go out towing we go out everywhere We talk to everybody we are not above and at least that's the way it better be That's the way it is right now. And that's way it's gonna stay there's not going to be someone to say Oh, yeah, but they they're homeless and they smell and I don't want to talk to that person and you know and whatever no We're gonna preach the gospel to every creature We're gonna go out there and it doesn't matter what they look like doesn't matter You know how well they smell or if they're living in a box on the side of the road Hey all the more reason to give them the gospel They already down and out and everything else. We're dead shirt. We're not better than them We're gonna go out and preach the gospel to them also because they need it just as much as anybody else does Look at verse number six here. We go back to Proverbs chapter six Or I mean, excuse me, Proverbs 16 verse number six Proverbs 16 verse number six the Bible reads by mercy and truth Iniquity is purged and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil Verse seven when a man's ways pleased the Lord He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him and and you think about how true this was with King David He he was he was a man that was involved a lot of fighting and wars But he was also a man whose ways pleased God and as a result of that He provided peace all the days of Solomon. He said it was because David lived a righteous life It was the result of his action because he walked in a way that was pleasing unto God one God fought all his battles for Anytime David was faced with adversity and he trusted in God God made sure it was taken care of every single time They had going all the way back to Goliath When David would have faced the Philistines the great giant Goliath He trusted in God God delivered him into his hand and in every other time after that one He was right with God God was always there to get him through and as a result of his ways pleasing the Lord God made even his enemies to be at peace with him and think about that is important for life Maybe you maybe you have a lot of enemies in your life and maybe you feel like You know, I don't know what to do about this Well, make sure that your heart is right and that your ways are pleasing to God analyze your own life and say am I pleasing God now we know that that you're never going to be like Like floating through life on a cloud with no problems ever arising Okay, there are going to be times of persecution. There are going to be times when bad things will happen to us but God is capable when you're pleasing the Lord to make even your enemies be at peace with you He can provide that peace if you're doing what's right So keep that in mind look at verse number eight here Proverbs 16 verse number eight better is a little with righteousness Than great revenues without right Keep that in mind when you're doing your business when you're dealing with people when you're you know Conducting transactions when you're selling things, whatever it is. It's easy to get caught up in the trap of greed and The thinking well if I just do this, it might be a little bit dishonest It might be I might be tricking some people here, but I can make so much more money Better is a little with righteousness with what you're doing is right when you have integrity and you say You know what? I might not make a lot of money, but at least I'm being honest I mean there's times where I remember before we we moved up here when we were we had received a vehicle as a gift because I was real old suburban like a 1970 something is a really cool car, but I just wasn't able to invest all the time into it or whatever So it was a nice gift It was nice because we could still convert it into some cash or get some money for it And we kind of did this little game where? We we traded that for this other vehicle on Craigslist, and I'm like well I think I might be able to use this a little bit more and then maybe sell this one for more money And you know kind of doing this game And it turned out that that the car that we got had some other problems, and I found out about it, so I had two choices I could Try to deceive people and try to get as much money as I thought I was going to be able to get for that vehicle right and still make a profit and still make $1,000 or whatever it is that that I thought that I was able to do with it or I could do what's right and take A lot less money and not pass that had it You know and at least give the full disclosure which obviously that's what I did But this is the type of thing that we need to be able to do we need to be able to have that integrity To not just pulling over on people to make a quick buck because ultimately in the end God's gonna make sure that it evens out When you do wrong to other people Be sure your sin will find you out You know you reap what you sow and when you sow to the wind you're gonna reap the whirlwind so whatever it is that You think you're gonna make in that short term and say well, I just won't tell about this I'm gonna be a little dishonest about this You don't want that coming back to you You know tenfold what you did to them because God is easily capable of making those things come back on you And it's completely unwise to do that You need to be content with where you're at content with what you have if you suffer a loss and allow yourself to suffer a Loss and just chalk it up and say well I've made a bad decision and made a bad choice or whatever and if someone swindles you as Was the case in my situation they you know they were dishonest with me You know what God will take care of that It's I mean that they'll they'll end up getting what's coming to them. I don't need to make it right judgment belongs under God I'm gonna rely on his righteousness and his vengeance and that's fine You know he could take care of that and you know what when he and I believe this happened I can't pinpoint to exactly what happened, but I'm sure he blessed me for doing the right thing even though I didn't get very much in that particular transaction This is what we need to remember and keep this in mind better as a little with righteousness Doing it the right way doing it God's way. It's way better to have just a little than great revenues without being right Look at verse number 10 now. We're going to go through a whole list of verses here verses 10 through 15 All these verses are basically talking about a king or a ruler of the people now You may have heard this before you may not have there's a lot of complaints about the will not complaints But arguments against the King James by your working James only Bible Church We believe that this is the preserved Word of God and one of the attacks that people will make Against the King James Bibles they'll say oh well It's flawed because King James wanted this Translation to be real friendly towards Kings because he was the king and he didn't want there's these other Bibles that were translated different And he didn't want he wanted to still have like instead of congregation. He wanted to have the word church in there which Congregation and church mean the same thing by the way a congregation is a church So but people will pick that apart and say see look he wanted to because he wanted the authority of the state church And he didn't want people thinking that a church is a kind of you know Something stupid like that Even though you could you could easily prove from this translation that a church and a congregation are the same thing You're not hiding anything from anybody, but this is one of the attacks that they'll make and they'll say yeah It's real friendly towards Kings But we're gonna look at this We're gonna look at these proverbs which are which are good proverbs and then we're gonna go back if you want to get a finger Ready in Deuteronomy 17. We're gonna look in Deuteronomy where God prescribes what he has in his law stated There's some rules for a king to follow and what a godly king would look like Now let's let's get started here though in Proverbs 16 because first of all, it's important to recognize That it was never God's plan For a nation to have a king that was not God's system of government of choice His system of government was having judges where he was the king God is the king and we listen, you know and the people would listen to God's laws and there would be people to judge when matters arise and disputes and problems and people breaking the law to handle the the judgment and the execution of the the Penalties of the law that's God's perfect. Perfect judgment the perfect law or perfect government but he knew The wickedness of man he knew that one day it was gonna happen that these people are gonna want a king They're gonna look at the nation's about them They're gonna want someone else to protect them someone else to do the work because honestly having freedom it requires individual responsibility the more freedom you have the more responsible you need to be and a lot of people get lazy and they don't want to Have to worry about taking care of themselves. They want someone else to take care of them and The the biggest fear that a lot of people had was well, what about when someone invades is what you know? We want someone to go out and fight for us I want someone to them King to just lead the way and do all the fighting for me and that's at the time You know when Samuel was basically the last judge and the people said they wanted a king Samuel warned him He says you don't want a king. Look. This is the way a king is gonna be he's gonna take he's gonna tax you he's gonna take the best of your money take the best of your fields and And you're gonna pay tribute to him and everything else You don't want a king and they said no we want a king and God said fine give it to him you know, they haven't rejected you Samuel they rejected me and that's the way that all plays out, but Just because it happened and it's not God's perfect will a perfect government He still gave some rules and some laws say okay well If you're gonna have a king then this is the way that it needs to be as as a as a some guideline For them to do that even though it's not what they should be doing look at we're going to start off here though in Proverbs 16 look at verse number 10 Bible reads a divine sentence is in the lips of the king his mouth transgresseth not in judgment and These are this is the way that a king should be by the way This isn't just the way that all kings are by default These are problems if a king is a wise thing if it's a righteous king Then this is true for that for that king a divine sentence is in the lips of the king his mouth Transgresseth not in judgment a just weight and balance are the Lord's all the weights of the bag are his work verse 12 It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness for the throne is established by righteousness God's saying here, you know the if a king wants to just be established in his kingdom Then he needs to do right he needs to do what's righteous Because if they commit wickedness God's gonna remove them from and you see that all it's played out all throughout the first second Samuel all Throughout the Kings all throughout Chronicles When someone is doing what's right? Hey, they have their their descendants going on But then when they go into wickedness God just cuts off all the house like they have the whole house of Ahab was cut off none of his descendants ended up being king then because of his wickedness and it's happened in many other situations and on the flipside King David was the righteous King right and God probably says you know what there's not gonna fail one of his seed on the throne in the kingdom and God kept that promise because he did that which was right look at verse number 13 righteous lips are the delight of kings and They love him that speaketh right the wrath of a king is as messengers of death but a wise man will pacify it in the light of the king's countenance is life and His favor is as a cloud of the latter rain Now I know we don't have a king today. We have a different system of government We have a president, but we have presidents today that seem to act like kings Now that's the whole nother story in and of itself that they're at you know that's wicked and it's wrong, but Imagine how great would be even though we don't have a king if we just had a righteous person that was in the presidency That could just speak with righteousness. I mean how much rejoicing there would be now I think Even though you know everyone's not a Christian not everyone believes the Bible if we had a Bible believe in Christian in charge The vast majority of people would just be like this is great You know the people would rejoice when there's were someone doing righteousness legitimate righteousness and not doing lip service and doing right unto the people and God would Establish that person and establish that government, which I believe he did for a long time in this country when there was some relative Righteousness and again. I know they're not perfect and people are going to be complaining about this after you know posting comments on youtubers Oh, you don't know how wicked these people are Illuminati blah blah all the stuff But they were a reflection the people in charge even if the people in charge even if every single one of them Wasn't that good? They still were a reflection of the of the people. I mean they still were quoting Bible You know decades ago in their speeches They still were talking about following the Lord and doing what you know and and and having law some laws in place That reflected that as well But look at Deuteronomy 17 because we're gonna see here What the what God has outlined in his law for a king to be and this makes sense when you start reading what a king Is supposed to be why those proverbs read the way they do? Why a divine sentence is in the lip of a king in the lips of the king? Why righteous lips are the delight of Kings if they're going to be a king the way that God outlined in Deuteronomy 17 All those problems make perfect sense. Look at verse number 14 of Deuteronomy 17 Bob reads when thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee and shalt possess it and shalt dwell therein and Shalt say I will set a king over me like as all the nations that are about me Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee Whom the Lord thy God shall choose one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother So the very first requirement saying you know what you need to choose who God's choice is That's who you're gonna put over you Now, I mean today we apply this to today like God's choice is not running In in the the main field now, he may be running somewhere. You just don't hear about him, right? I'm not saying that out there somewhere God's choice probably is out there somewhere running. I've just have never heard of him People are running right now is not God's choice. He God says you need to first consider Who my choice would be who is the best Christian? Who is the person who fears the Lord the most and is what that's who you want to be in charge to be king Look at verse 16, and he also puts in the caveat there and actually, you know again, this is applied to our form of government in a way says thou mayest not set a Stranger over thee which is not thy brother a stranger is a foreigner someone who is immigrated You can't put an immigrant as the king why because they're not going to be as loyal to that people They might it's a lot easier for them to have loyalties to their home their home country their home nation and to be making Poor choices and poor judgments based on the fact that they're not from them. They're they're a stranger which is the exact same Laws that we have today in the Constitution for someone becoming president. You can't be a foreigner and be you have to be Anit, you know born here. You have to be born in the in the States in order to or under this jurisdiction or whatever You can't be a foreigner and be a president here and that came from God's Word here. Let's look at verse numbers 16 It says but he shall not multiply horses to himself Nor cause the people to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply horses For as much as the Lord hath said unto you you shall henceforth return no more that way now multiplying horses This is talking about building up the military basically because the horses were relied upon for you know chariots and having that strength and that might you saying you don't need to Multiply the horses and what they would commonly do is they'd go back to the world Egypt was it was symbolic of the world and of the world's ways and the world's wisdom and relying on flesh and relying on the wicked people Relying on Egypt to provide you with your strength because their strength needs to come from God They can't be relying on the the wicked nations about them. They needed to keep Relying on the Lord look at verse 17 neither shall he multiply wives to himself that his heart turned not away This was written although this is all the way back in Deuteronomy. This is a law of Moses God's Word rings true all the time and he says look don't multiply wives So your heart doesn't get turned away neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold what happened with Solomon? He multiplied wives to himself what happened his heart turned away. He started serving other gods He also had greatly multiplied to himself silver and gold now God bless him But he multiplied that he was still sending ships out and and you notice when he sends the ships out and they bring gold back The the amount of gold that came back was six hundred and sixty six talents or of gold You know it's a mark of the beast. It's the same number there that came back He multiplied to himself silver and gold and his heart was turned away And and these are the restrictions guys saying look no you need to have your heart, right? You need to be able to make judgment. Don't get caught up in greed. Don't get caught up in These in heaven many women look at verse 18 And it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, and I love this well. This is the best When he said upon the throne of his kingdom that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that Which is before the priests the Levites he needs to make his own copy of the Bible of God's law The law of Moses he's a write it out by hand and have his own copy Would the God we could have a ruler or somebody in this country that that is handwritten their own Bible and say yep I mean anytime you write, and you know this is one of the techniques for memorization I use this technique sometimes when I'm trying to memorize something when you write something out You're thinking about a lot you end up memorizing a lot easier And this is what a king was required to do According to God's law say you need to write your own copy if a king is required to write his own copy guess what? He's not going to miss a word He is going to be held accountable and responsible then he can't say well I didn't know that I didn't know that was part of God's law really because you were supposed to have written your own copy of it Where's your copy? Well you wrote it down here, how could you say you didn't know that There's accountability for the king and that way he does know all of God's law He's at least had to have read it at least once when you make your own copy verse number 19 says and it shall be with him and He shall read therein all the days of his life That he may learn to fear the Lord is God to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren and that he turned not aside From the commandment to the right hand or to the left To the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom he and his children in the midst of his room Not only does he have to write his own book of the law. He's got to read it every day of his life He's you got to read there every single day and go and God say you know He God knows that a person being put into this position Which is why he didn't want a kingdom Anyways, is that they're way too susceptible to getting lifted up to getting proud to thinking that they're better than everyone else Why because they have all these servants they have everybody serving them They're in charge what they say goes that can go to your head really really fast and the thinking that you are somebody special I mean in Egypt the rulers there. They thought they were God men. I Mean and you could see how that could happen. I'm sure that didn't happen overnight It happened with one strong ruler and then people, you know looking to them and another ruler coming up and kind of getting into this position that's already been established and people giving you more and more reverence and more and more respect and and You have all this power and you're gaining and amassing this power. They start thinking of themselves as God They start lifting themselves up and God says no, you know how you combat that you read the Bible every day You read my laws you realize that I'm in charge and you're just my servant and you need to do righteously and Hey, if you're not reading your Bible every day right now You ought to start doing it because that will help you to avoid the destruction that comes from being lifted up in pride This is what God had prescribed turn if you would to Romans 13 real quick Romans 13 This is what God has prescribed for a king to be like Copying his own book of the law reading out of it every day not multiplying wives not getting all rich Not getting all this amassing some huge army and some huge military think about all the power involved in all those things Creating some huge standing army creating, you know All this wealth and generating as well than having all these other people serving you and and all the power that goes along with that It's not what God designed Romans 13 will give us an example here you say. Oh, but that was just an Old Testament Oh that was all just you know for the children of Israel and all this and that you hear the same thing Well Romans 13 provides a pretty similar Mentality for the way the government should be run even in the New Testament I mean, it's it's really not that much different obviously God didn't want us to have Kings But he still said if you're gonna have rulers I mean, this is the way that the ruler that the king ought to be and What he ought to follow and These are good guidelines, even though we don't have a king for our rulers our governors the people who are in charge ought to be Doing and that's why when nobody out in the field is doing that How can you choose who God wants to have in place? No one's doing it I mean those aren't the people that God wants You know, you could you could give me a hard time all you want for not going out and voting for for some clown in This election but I'm not going to do it because I'm not going to put cast my vote for someone who God doesn't want in Charge and I mean it's easily I could easily prove that all those people out right now. God doesn't want them in charge If they don't love the sodomites they love abortion or both And that's really really really bad, I mean that's like I'm not just just nitpicking here Hey, how much worse can you get I mean it those are like extremely bad wickedness to Know I can't even hold my nose and vote for somebody like that. It's ridiculous. Look at the bromance 13 We'll go over this real quick Romans 13 verse number one about where he's let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God The powers that be are ordained of God that doesn't say that all the governments that be are ordained of God that God You know, the the Communist China is ordained of God and all that stuff. No, it says the powers that be God is ordained certain powers. God is ordained certain authority. There is an authority that God has given unto men There is an authority that God has given to parents to the father of the household There's authority that God has given to a pastor in a church. There's authority that God has given to government and to rulers in order to govern the people in order for for there to be laws and and and judgments According to the laws done those are powers that are given by God But it doesn't mean that every single government that exists is a godly government that God has ordained For them to be like that look at verse number two He's going to explain this whosoever therefore resisteth the power Resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation verse 3 for Rulers are not a terror to good works But to the evil that is part of the power that God has ordained that the rulers are not terror to good work So if you're doing good works It's outside of the rulers power and authority then to punish you for that To make a judgment against you for doing good works It says but to the evil so when you're doing evil when you're harming other people when you're committing a crime against somebody else That's why there's a ruler to punish the person who's committing the crime He says wilt thou then not be afraid of the power do that Which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same verse 4 for he is the minister of God to thee For good the minister of God the the governor right the ruler is a minister of God now That lines up with Deuteronomy 17 You know in the way that God has ordained in the power structure that he has given the power that he has said is from him He views them as ministers of God to thee for good Now what just because there's rulers that abuse their power and usurp authority that God hasn't given them doesn't mean that that's of God There's a lot of People out there that will say that I mean it's almost disgusting how They're willing just to say well, it's all of God Oh, well, we got Obama because you know That's what God wanted as if God just is putting these wicked people in place like like it's a good thing like that's what he wants No, I mean the only reason God may have had a hand in them coming to power is just to judge us Just as a wicked judgment for the people not because it's who would who is the right person to have in office at the time? And you know you get a lot of people say oh well You just always in the new versions corrupt and pervert this passage so much and to making you think that like you can never Do anything against a government? Which is false. It's phony I mean because you apply that and say oh, so then if you were in you know Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler is doing his thing and and and you know all you know All this wickedness is going on that you just can't do anything about it. No, that's that's false You can stand up and do what's right you could overthrow government when it's you when it's not authority is not coming from God When they're not doing righteously But let's keep reading your we're almost done here in verse in chapter 13 verse number 5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath Oh wait I didn't read verse 4 look at verse 4 for he is the minister of God to thee for good But if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain for he is the minister of God a Revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil so here We're seeing that's why I bring this up real quick in the New Testament a diversification for the government having the ability to act to perform a death penalty Because it says here he is the minister of God a revenger to execute Wrath upon him that doeth evil before it says he beareth not the sword in vain You don't use the sword To do anything but to slay That's putting someone to death and people these days have is this concept of oh You know the death penalty has been done away with in the New Testament because when the woman taken adultery was brought to Jesus You know, he didn't he didn't kill her. He didn't stone him with stones, you know, he said a free soul So there is no more death penalty in the New Testament. That's false. First of all that story They were trying to catch Jesus in his words. They're trying to get him in a lose-lose situation they're trying to get him to say either don't kill her which is against the law of Moses or Kill her which is usurping the authority of the Roman government where the Roman government would then come in and say you don't have the Authority to do this and then they would take Jesus away. That's what they were trying to do read the passage. It's really clear But what did he say to her or to them he says hey Did he say don't throw stones at her says no let him as without sin and you cast the first stone It's a very wise thing to say he was able to get out of that situation without getting in trouble Anywhere is a lot of wisdom, but he did not say not to stoner That would have been something different he said hey whoever's with sin without sin among you cast the first so now there's a lot to learn from that and everything else but Here we see very clearly in Romans 13 Which is after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and not that any of it is contradictory But it's very clearly established The government's there to be a you know The rulers there to be a minister of God and to execute wrath and judgment upon the evildoer Upon the person who does wrong and the sword is not in vain that they will Execute judgment if they're being retrighteous and then that's the power that's ordained of God God is ordained for a government to execute a death penalty when it's warranted according to his laws Verse number five wherefore you must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake For for this cause pay ye tribute also For they are God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing render therefore to all their dues Tribute to whom tribute is due custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honor to whom honor Let's go back to Proverbs 16 We read all those verses about it about the king and you know You When you put it in context with Deuteronomy and with Romans 13 and in God's Establishment for that office because usually when we think of Kings you just think of someone who's wicked and just just a tyrant and everything else It's kind of the first thought so you're thinking like what in the world is the Bible talking about here? But when you get in the proper context of the Bible of where well This is the way that God established it and that's why the Kings, you know, the the sentence in the Kings mouth You know all the verses that we read there in Proverbs 16 a divine sentence is in the lips of Kings Well, yeah, if he's reading the out of the the book of the law every day of his life and his copied his own He ought to have a divine son, you know, he ought to have the wisdom. He ought to have the judgment He ought to be righteous and he ought to keep himself humble and therefore you get these these proverbs talking about the King here in Proverbs 16 but let's move on here. We're almost done Proverbs 16 verse 16 We're going to see some verses on the value of having wisdom That's how much better is it to get wisdom then gold and to get understanding rather to rather to be chosen then silver The highway of the upright is to depart from evil he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul I'm not going to go into this too much We've gone into this a lot in the past just the whole value that God puts on wisdom house way better than any riches you Could get here just being wise and making the right decisions in your life Will keep you from suffering and having a lot of just misery and sorrow when you can walk uprightly and get that wisdom It's way better than any amount of money that you can possess Look at verse number 20 Proverbs 16 20 by reads he that handle at the matter wisely shall find good and who so trustest in the Lord Happy is he this will bring you joy Verse 21 the wise and heart shall be called prudent and the sweetness of the lips increases learning Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it, but the instruction of fools is Folly jump down to verse 24 Pleasant words are as in honeycomb sweet to the soul and health to the bones. I believe we went over this a couple weeks ago, we're talking about the How speaking good words on the people can really go a long way and it's you know here It's it's health to your bones. You know, it's sweet as a honeycomb It's you can really do a lot of good for people, you know as a church we ought to be looking out for people We ought to have kind words for others and edifying and you know We don't just we don't just come here to hear the preaching. We don't just come here to sing songs we come here to edify one another and to help each other out as Christians and and and care about each other and get to know each other and And be able to help each other here as a church family Not just that, you know, the church isn't pastor versions. The church is all of us It's everybody here and we need to be able to remember that and honestly care for other people within this church and provide those pleasant words because there's a lot of people that be going through some hard times you might not even know about it and By you speaking good words to them. It's like health to their bones The verse number 26 says he that laboreth laboreth for himself for his mouth craveth it of him verse 27 here We're gonna go into some verses here about the wicked and how they're always just causing problems And these are the people that you need to be staying away from verse number 27 an ungodly man diggeth up evil Not only are they like pointing out when they when they just come across it says they're digging it up The ungodly man is going out there and just trying to dig up some dirt on somebody Right and that ought not to be you going out trying to dig up dirt on somebody Don't go out and find problems There's enough problems that we have to deal with in our life The last thing you need to be doing is going out and digging up more an ungodly man diggeth up evil and in his lips There is as a burning fire It's causing destruction causing problems verse number 28 a froward man. So it strife Not just strife with themselves, but they're going around so was fro to go out and start causing fights with everybody says and a whisperer Separateth chief friends a whisper someone who's who's gossiping someone who's spreading rumors People that watch out for the people, you know what when you find someone like that you give them a dirty Look, the Bible says that your angry countenance It's gonna it's gonna drive them away You're gonna stop that when someone comes to you trying to whisper to you and say oh, what about this person? Oh, did you hear this and you're trying to come in between you and your friend? Don't have anything to do with that person You Mark them and avoid them and just say you know what? No, you need you're not going to talk that way about these people You're not going to be a whisperer and so because that happens a lot of churches and it actually causes a lot of problems and factions and and and all kinds of This this unity within the church when this type of whispering and backbiting is going on Among the people and it needs to stop with you You need to be able to be strong enough and bold enough to say no and not just go along with it But be able to rebuke that person and say you're not going to talk this way because you're being a whisperer you're being a backbinder and Confront them about it. Look, it's uncomfortable But it's gonna help the church a lot Because you allow that to keep going and allow the the seeds to be sown and sowing discord It's gonna grow and grow and get worse and worse and someone needs to put a stop to it I'm not always gonna be aware of this Usually the pastor is the last one to find out when that type of thing is going around and I don't think we have that Problem now, but in an ounce of prevention is is is is worth, you know Pound of cure. Thank you. My mind went completely blank. You get up here and try doing this But that's why we're appreciate because we need to watch out for that It is a problem that could creep in the church Look at verse number 29 a violent man enticeth his neighbor and leadeth him into the way that is not good He that shutteth his eyes to devise froward things moving his lips he bringeth evil to pass There are wicked people out there and we need to be aware of them. We need to watch out for them I've said this before and I'll say it again, you know, most people don't Comprehend as well. It's harder to understand that there are people who are bent on doing wickedness There are people that are devising and planning to destroy and to do wickedly you say how could someone be like that? Because you're not like that But the people exist and we've been warned over and over and over again that they're out there and you need to be aware of it you need to be on guard you need to be vigilant and When you see the little things happening, you see the whisperings you see the backbiting You know, you see the the man enticing his neighbor the violent man Is gonna lead him in the way. It's not good watch out for these types of people Look at verse number 31 Proverbs 16 31 we're almost done. We got a couple verses left. The hoary head is a crown of glory If it be found in the way of righteousness A lot of people only get half of this verse because you know, we ought to respect our elders We ought to respect people who are older, you know It says the hoary head hoary means it's like white the Bible refers to hoary frost you think about frost on the ground It's real white. The hoary head here is someone who's aged someone who's got white hair by virtue of their age We live in a backward society kids are no longer respecting their elders kids are you know the people in general just have lost respect even adults aren't respecting people anymore and not having common manners and common courtesy and Integrity and and just you know living and doing what's right It's just completely out the window these days and no one seems to have respect for anyone The Bible says here the hoary head is a crown of glory If it be found in the way of righteous now, look the hoary head isn't automatic just because you've made it to an old age It's not automatically a crown of glory if you've lived a wicked life your whole life. That's not a glorious crown for you It's actually just a shame that you've done so much wickedness through your life But if it's found in the way of righteousness That is a crown of glory because it's hard to live the righteous life day in day out and to do that up until You're old and well-aged That is a crown of glory and we need to respect that the Bible says in Leviticus 19 You have to turn there Leviticus 1932 says thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man and fear thy God I am the Lord This is one of those customs you might think well, why do people do that? When an older cut it's not even happening these days, but it ought to it's in God's law We as Christians at least ought to still be following this type of thing. It's not just polite. It's not just good manners When old people walk into the room maybe you have a family gathering or something and you're and you're with your your siblings and with your family and then Grandpa walks in the room You know what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to stand up If you're sitting down having fun playing a game, you know what you do you stand up and you give that man respect that's what the Bible teaches and that's the way things used to be as commonplace and taught in public schools and It's out the window these days But it's still written in the Bible and We ought to observe and do this in honor of the face of the old man and pay respect man If people have been around, you know pay respect to the wisdom that they have even if they're not like the most Godly person and know the most Bible when you've been around for a long time You gain wisdom if it's not the easy way you gain it the hard way Okay, one way or another you're gonna get some wisdom and the older I get the more I know that that's true There's a lot of things I've learned the hard way but there's also a lot of things I've learned the easy way learning it by just getting it from God's Word and You need to be able to pay respect under the people who are older and that have the the hoary head The last two verses look at verse number 32 Proverbs 16 32 he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that ruleth his spirit Than he that taketh the city and I know I've gone over this verse before but we needed to keep control of our temper Be able to be in charge and be in control and it's better To have that control than to be really strong and real fit and able to just kick anybody's butt If you're just like real buff and real strong, but you're always just angry and stuff You might win some fights, but ultimately you're gonna be losing anyways, it's way better not to get in that fight It's way better to be humble It's way better to be able to control your mouth and be slow to anger and not just let yourself fly off the handle and get In fights with everybody every every time someone steps on your toe It says he that rule with his spirit is better than he that take at the city And then verse 33 the lot is cast in the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord Let's bow our heads have a word of prayer Dear Heavenly Father Lord We thank you so much for all these words of wisdom that we have There's a lot of subjects that we cover dear God I pray to please help us all to remember them to keep them as we leave tonight dear Lord not just to forget about the Sermon, especially as we go out and have some good fellowship together as a church over dinner dear Lord I pray that you would please just help us to be mindful of your words to apply them in our lives Were appropriate dear God, especially where we're lacking Lord help us to commit our works unto you that our thoughts may be Established dear Lord. It's in Jesus name. We pray amen