Transcript: Verse by Verse Study – Proverbs Chapter 19:5 to Chapter 20:6 – Zac Poonen

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Both of us must walk in the light in our private life, and then we’ll have wonderful fellowship, whether we give gifts or no gifts.

But a unity between brothers, which is merely on the basis of gifts, is not only not glorifying to God; it is a hindrance to the building of the body of Christ. We have to be careful that we do not build friendships and destroy the body of Christ through gifts. This is why, as we have seen many times in the early church, they never gave gifts directly, but through the leadership of the church, so that there would not be any unnatural bond between believers. That was wisdom on the part of those Christians, and no doubt they were instructed by the apostles.

Every man is a friend to him who gives gifts, and we are not to be deceived by such friendships that we accumulate for ourselves through giving gifts to others. In the church, we desire to build fellowship, which requires the cross in between us.

The Poor Man and True Faith (Verse 7)

“All the brothers of a poor man hate him because he’s got no gifts to give, because he has no money. How much more do his friends go far from him? He pursues them with words, but they are gone.”

We read in the Word of God that God has chosen the poor of the world rich in faith (James 2:5). Yet, as we look around, we find so many poor people who are not rich in faith at all. Many of them don’t have any faith at all. That shows that they have not used their poverty to increase their faith.

The vast majority of poor people we see in India, among unbelievers, have, of course, got no faith at all. They only depend on men for their support. The tragedy is that the vast majority of poor believers also have no faith. They look to men for help. That is to have no faith.

God intended that their poverty, as it says in James 2:5, is to be rich in faith. One would expect that the people who are richest in faith are those who are really poor financially. Why is it not like that? Because they have not used their poverty to turn to God. Instead, the devil has deceived them to make their poverty a means to lean on men. Other foolish believers have encouraged them to lean on them, and therefore, these have never developed in faith.

God has chosen the poor to be rich in faith. Even though worldly people may push him off, if he can use his circumstances to trust in the living God, he can become spiritually rich.

That is what we read in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, it was a curse to be poor, but not in the New Testament. Jesus was poor. Paul was poor. Many of the apostles were poor, but they were rich in faith. There is a tremendous example for those whose financial circumstances are difficult to follow — the example of these great men of God that we read of in the New Testament.

Wisdom Is Doing Yourself a Favor (Verse 8)

Verse 8: I want to read this in the Good News Bible. It says, “Do yourself a favor and learn all you can. Then remember what you learn, and you will prosper.” This relates to the Word of God. Through God’s Word, we get wisdom for our daily life. When we get wisdom, we are actually doing ourselves a favor. Because when we have the wisdom of God through His Word, it helps our whole life to be more peaceful and brings more of God’s blessing and happiness into our life. So he who gets wisdom is actually loving his own soul, and he who keeps understanding will find good.

The Fate of the Liar (Verse 9)

Verse 9: “A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who tells lies will perish.” This is more or less a repetition of verse 5, but a little more. Jesus said, “I am the truth,” and truth is the very nature of God. Jesus also said that the devil is the father of lies. These two are opposite. God and Satan are on opposite sides, and truth and falsehood are on opposite sides. Therefore, he who tells lies will perish.

We know that the vast majority of people in the world don’t believe that, but this is true. It’s not only, as it says in verse 5, that he will not escape, but beyond that, that he will perish.

It’s amazing how much the New Testament has to say also on being truthful and on not telling lies, not deceiving people with falsehood.

Luxury, Foolishness, and the Slave to Sin (Verse 10)

Verse 10: “Luxury is not fitting for fools, much less for a slave to rule over princes.” What that means is luxury and a lot of money can ruin a person who doesn’t know how to handle it. A fool, a spiritual fool, is a person who does not know how to handle the money that God has given him. Therefore, he ruins himself by wastage and unnecessary luxuries in life that serve no purpose.

We need to bear this in mind, particularly in relation to children. It’s very easy to spoil children by giving them things which are not necessary for them to have. Maybe we can afford it. Maybe we have the money for it. Therefore, we can afford to give our children something other people can’t afford to give their children. But we can ruin them if we are not wise. It requires wisdom to be able to handle money wisely when we have a lot of it.

Luxury is not fitting for a fool, much less for a slave to rule over princes. We can apply that to the New Testament. If one is a slave to sin in his own life, he cannot have authority over others. No one can be an elder brother if he has not been freed from the slavery of sin. This is something that we need to remember as fathers and mothers too, in relation to our children.

We all like to rule over our children, but I have to ask myself, have I learned to rule over sin in my own flesh? Have I been freed from that slavery? That qualifies me to be a good father and mother, ruling over my children. It’s not fitting, otherwise, for a slave to try and rule over others — a slave to sin, that is.

The Glory of Overlooking a Transgression (Verse 11)

Verse 11: “A man’s discretion” — that is his wisdom — “makes him slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook a transgression.” This is something that we have spoken of much in the church. God gives us grace to overcome anger so that that which comes so quickly to normal human beings, by the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God, we can overcome.

Slow to anger means there is a time when we are to be angry righteously, but not that we have lost control of ourselves. It says, “Be angry and do not sin.” Like I heard someone say — I think it was a father to a child — “I want to beat you, but I can’t do that yet because I’m still angry. I have to wait till I overcome my anger, and then I’ll punish you.” That’s wisdom. To punish a child in anger proves that the father himself is a fool.

No, we are to wait till we say, “I can’t beat you yet because I’m still angry. Let me overcome that, and then, of course, you deserve a punishment, and I’ll give that to you, but I have to overcome my anger first.”

That’s wisdom — that’s to be slow to anger, and yet to do what is right. Then it says here, “It is his glory to overlook a transgression.” It’s a tremendous verse — that the glory of a human being is to overlook the sin that another person commits against you. Someone insults you; your glory is to overlook that insult and love him. If I can’t do that, I’ve lost something of the glory of God in my life.

It’s my glory to overlook — not just to say, “Alright, I forgive you,” but then sort of keep it in my mind and constantly remember it. No, but to overlook it, just say forget it, that’s fine. That shows that I’ve really acquired wisdom. It’s the glory of a man of wisdom to overlook the transgression. Love covers a multitude of faults and sins in other people.

The King’s Wrath and God’s Favor (Verse 12)

Verse 12: “The king’s wrath is like the roaring of a lion, but his favor is like dew on grass.” We can apply that to God. God’s anger, when it is turned against those who live in sin and rebellion against Him, is like the roaring of a lion. People don’t understand that. The roaring of a lion is an absolutely terrifying thing. I’ve heard it sometimes in a zoo, and you still get terrified, even though the lion’s behind the bars. You can imagine how much more it will be if there are no bars. That’s the picture the Word of God uses to show God’s anger against sin, against rebellion against Him.

But God’s favor — this is the contrast — God’s favor is like that dew that falls on the grass early in the morning that keeps it fresh and green. Our attitude should be to say, “Lord, I want Your favor, like dew upon the grass on my life every morning. I don’t want to face Your wrath at any time.”

The Foolish Son and the Nagging Wife (Verse 13)

Verse 13: “A foolish son is destruction to his father, and the contentions of a wife are a constant dripping.” This means that a wife who is constantly nagging her husband is like a leak in the roof in the rainy season that’s dripping, dripping, dripping. It’s not a downpour and then stop; it’s this constant nagging, nagging, nagging.

What is the result of a home where you have a wife who is like this — drip, drip, drip, morning till night? The result is a foolish son, a rebellious son. Because the wife brings the spirit of rebellion through her attitude to her husband into the home, and it’s like these contagious diseases. The children catch it quickly, that spirit, and then there’s rebellion in the children.

So these two things are connected: the foolish son and the nagging wife. One comes as a result of the other. That’s why the Word of God says, as we’ve considered earlier in another chapter in Proverbs, that it is a wise woman who builds her house. The most important person in the building of a home is the wife. Through her submission to her husband and overcoming the spirit of rebellion, she’s able to pass on that same spirit to her children, so that the children also learn to live in submission to the parents. Then God’s blessing can be upon them, and they do not grow up to be foolish.

So we see here, a foolish son is destruction to his father, and the contentions of a wife are a constant dripping.

Only God Can Give an Understanding Wife (Verse 14)

Verse 14 is spoken here about this nagging wife, who is like a constant drip. Then here it speaks about a wise, prudent wife. This verse says in the Living Bible, “A father can give his sons homes and riches, but only the Lord can give them understanding wives.” A father cannot give his sons understanding wives. Only God can give that. The most that a father can give to his sons is houses, lands, riches. But to get a wife who is understanding and wise and prudent, a man has to seek for that from God.

That’s a tremendous thing for young sisters to take as a challenge — to be one of those wise, understanding sisters whom God can pick out from all the millions in this country and give to God-fearing brothers. For those of us who are young brothers seeking the Lord in marriage, we must remember that no one, no elder brother, no man can give you a good wife. Only God.

We can say not only fathers, but even elder brothers in the church cannot give you an understanding wife. Only the Lord, it says, can give you a wise wife. That’s why you’ve got to seek God for Him and say, “Lord, You are my Father. Give me the one who will be a helpmeet for me.”

Understanding, Diligence, and the Fear of God

This word, “understanding wife,” as it is here in the Living Bible, or in the Good News Bible, says “a sensible wife.” An understanding wife is a tremendous gift in the sense that she’s one who understands her husband — understands her husband’s weaknesses and strong points and seeks to be a helpmeet. We have seen that a husband and wife are to be like two halves of an eggshell. When you break an eggshell, there are uneven projections in each of them. But when you put them together, there are no gaps.

That’s how it must be, where there’s a depression in one, there’s a projection in the other. An understanding wife means one who recognizes where there is a depression in my husband and seeks to fill up that gap. Of course, vice versa too. But that’s a tremendous type of wife to be towards your husband.

Verse 15: “Laziness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle man will suffer hunger.” This is just one of the many other exhortations that are found in the Book of Proverbs about diligence. The emphasis that comes again and again on diligence proves that God places great value on hard work. There is no place for laziness in God’s kingdom, in any area. God never commits a ministry to the lazy, but to those who have a sense of responsibility to use their time profitably in diligence.

He says, “If you be lazy,” it says in the Good News Bible, “sleep on, but you will go hungry.” We can apply that also in our attitude to the study of God’s Word. If you are lazy and lethargic in your attitude to study the Word of God, you’ll find that spiritually you remain hungry and poverty-stricken.

Verse 16: I want to read this in the Good News Bible. “Keep God’s laws and you will live longer. If you ignore them, you will die.” That proves that God’s laws are for our good. The more people disobey God’s laws, they actually shorten their own life. “Honor your father and mother, that it may go well with you and that you may live long on the earth,” which teaches that God is in control even over the length of our life. When we keep God’s commandments, we are actually doing ourselves good.

Lending to the Lord — The Blessing of Helping the Poor

Verse 17: Reading in the Living Bible, “When you help the poor, you are actually lending your money to the Lord. And the Lord will pay you wonderful interest on your loan.” That’s a word which reminds me of the story of George Müller, that great man of God who lived a hundred years ago, looking after the poor orphans in England in the name of Jesus Christ. He cared for them and spent all his savings and all his personal money and everything that he got on those orphans.

When he was about to die, he had only, as far as I remember, one child, one daughter, and he hadn’t left any savings for her. If I remember the story right, he told his daughter on his deathbed, “Well, I don’t have any money to leave you because I gave everything that I had to help these poor orphans. But on the basis of this verse in Proverbs 19:17, it says that those who help the poor are actually lending their money to the Lord. He pays wonderful interest on their loan.”

So he said, “If you’re ever in need, anytime in your life, just go to God and say, ‘Lord, my father gave You some money on loan when he was alive. Could You give me some of that, the interest on some of that?'” I’m sure she never lacked in her life. That is the Word of God, of course. We need a lot of wisdom in this area, as we have often spoken about it in this matter of helping the poor. Otherwise, we can do it in a foolish way. But if we seek God for wisdom and do it in a wise way, there is the blessing of the Lord on it.

Disciplining Children While There Is Hope

Verse 18: “Discipline your son while there is hope and do not desire his death.” The Good News Bible says, “Discipline your children while they are young enough to learn.” While there is hope means while they are young enough to learn. It’s no use waking up when your son is 20 years old and then saying, “Oh, I need to discipline my children.” No, we need to start disciplining our children when they are two. Begin when they are two. While there is hope, so that as they grow up, they don’t grow up to be a nuisance to society, but to be a credit.

So discipline your children while they are young enough to learn. If you don’t do it, you are helping your children to destroy themselves. There are a lot of parents who think that their love for their children is seen in sparing them and not being too hard on them. But actually, the Word of God says that you’re helping your children to destroy themselves when you don’t discipline them.

There is a marginal rendering of this verse in the Good News Bible, which reads like this: “Discipline your children, but don’t beat them so hard that you kill them.” You see, there are two extremes on this. We know there are some unconverted parents, unconverted fathers who, in a fit of anger, can beat their children so hard. There’s a lot of this around the world. In Western countries, it gets a lot of publicity. There’s a lot of abuse of children, some terrible stories of the way parents have beaten their children so badly.

There are two extremes on this. One extreme is to just let them do anything they like and never correct them or punish them. The other extreme is to be so violent as to really injure them. The Word of God says there’s a middle way between these two extremes, that the godly wise man walks without going to either extreme.

Verse 19: This is connected to verse 18 because you notice that the words “a man of” are written in italics, which means it’s not necessarily in the original. It could be “a child of great anger must bear the penalty.” If you spare him, you’ll have to punish him some other time. In other words, if your child has got tantrums of anger, don’t spare him. Because if you spare him now, he’ll do it again. He’ll rule you.

It’s very important that fathers and mothers do not allow their children to have tantrums of anger. They recognize that they’ll be severely punished if they throw a tantrum like that. If you spare them, they’ll give you trouble again. You’ll have to punish them another time. You might as well do it the first time.

Of course, the verse applies to adults too. It’s foolish to help an angry man. Like it says in the Good News Bible, “If someone has a hot temper, let him take the consequences.” If you get him out of trouble once, you’ll have to do it again. It’s good that he faces the consequences once, so that he realizes the result of losing his temper.

Two Requirements for Wisdom

Verse 20: Here are the two requirements for wisdom that are emphasized a number of times in the Book of Proverbs. Listen to counsel — that is, listen to instruction. The other is, accept discipline — that is, accept God’s discipline in the circumstances of life. “That you may be wise the rest of your days.” We can be wise for all of our life if we do these two things. One, if we are willing to receive the instruction of God’s Word day by day. And second, if we are willing to accept God’s discipline in the circumstances of life where He humbles me and brings me down in various situations.

Verse 21: “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but the counsel of the Lord that will stand.” That means that we can make many plans, but God can so arrange circumstances and situations unexpectedly that our plans don’t materialize, that our plans don’t work out as we expected. What should we do in such times? That is the time to humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand and say, “Lord, I do not rebel. I bow in submission to Your alteration of my plans.”

The counsel of the Lord that will stand — this is the mark of a wise man. Though he’s made plans and those plans don’t materialize, he’s quite happy when the counsel of the Lord is fulfilled in his life, even though it may have gone completely against what he had planned for himself.

Kindness Makes a Man Attractive

Verse 22: Let me read this in the Living Bible. “Kindness makes a man attractive, and it is better to be poor than to be dishonest.” What is it that makes a man attractive? The film world has deceived humanity into thinking that attractiveness is a matter of good looks. So we have men and women all over the world thinking that it’s good features and a good color of skin that makes them attractive. That is one of the greatest deceptions of the devil. We know that there are many good-looking people who are very evil in their hearts.

Kindness makes a man attractive. There we all have the opportunity to be good-looking. Every one of us has the opportunity to be really attractive — kindness. There’s a beautiful verse in Ecclesiastes 8:1, the last part. Ecclesiastes 8:1, the last part in the Living Bible says, “Wisdom lights up a man’s face, softening its hardness.” Basically, all of us have a hardness in our flesh. That’s why it’s easier for us to be strict and harsh than it is for us to be kind. We need the power of the Holy Spirit, grace from God to overcome this harshness, this hardness. When we become wise, it says here, it softens the hardness in us. Kindness makes a man attractive.

The second part of that verse says that it is better to be poor than to be dishonest. That is, it is better to be a poor man than a liar. It means it’s possible for a person to make money by telling lies, but it’s not worth it. That character, which comes through truthfulness, as a result of which one doesn’t make as much money as one could have made if one had told lies — the Word of God says it’s better to be poor and honest than rich and dishonest. That’s been noticed and repeated a number of times in the Scriptures, in the Book of Proverbs.

The Fear of God Eliminates All Other Fears

Verse 23: The Living Bible reads like this: “Reverence for God gives life, happiness, and protection from harm.” Like we read in Isaiah 8:13, if you fear God, you need fear nothing else. When we fear something on this earth, or we fear some person, that shows that we don’t fear God. When we fear human beings, it’s because we don’t fear God. When we fear sickness, or we fear the devil, or we fear danger, or we fear death, or we fear anything, it’s proof of the fact that we don’t fear God enough.

If we feared God sufficiently, it would eliminate all other fears from our life completely. If we fear God, it will give us life, happiness, and protection from harm. Those are the things the world is really seeking, but they’re seeking it in the wrong place. They seek for it through money and pleasure; the Word of God says you get it through the fear of God, through reverence for God.

Verse 24: “The sluggard buries his hand in the dish.” This is speaking sarcastically. The lazy man is one who puts his hand into the plate, and he’s so lazy that he won’t even lift that food and put it into his mouth. Of course, not literally like that — you’ll never find a man like that — but he’s using sarcasm and exaggeration to show how people can have such a lazy attitude.

Even though it may not apply to a plate of rice — I mean, you don’t find a person so lazy that he puts his hand into a plate of rice and then won’t put it into his mouth — but you do find that when it comes to the study of God’s Word, which is another type of food for our souls, that a person can take the Word of God, put his hand into it — meaning he reads it — but he doesn’t have the patience to meditate on that and receive something for his spirit. He’s too lazy for that. He wants to go off and do something else.

His whole attitude to God’s Word is exactly as it’s described here. He puts his hand into it; he’s too lazy to try and get something out of it to feed himself. He wants to go to the meeting and always be fed by somebody else. That’s good; we need the meetings. We need help from one another. But we also need to learn to put our hand into the dish and bring something out of it to feed ourselves also, in addition to all the meetings we go to.

Public Rebuke and the Holiness of the Church

Verse 25 in the Living Bible says, “You punish a mocker, and others will learn from his example.” 1 Timothy 5:20 says, “Those who keep on sinning, rebuke them publicly so that others also may fear.” There is a place for rebuking one who continues in sin publicly, even in the church, so that others will fear. Turn to 1 Timothy 5 for a moment.

You see, Paul was telling Timothy in 1 Timothy 3:15, “I’ve written these things to you so that you know how to conduct yourself in the church of God.” One of the things Paul tells Timothy as to how he should conduct himself in the church of God is 1 Timothy 5:20: “Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all.”

There is a place for rebuking a person privately — that’s the first step. But if a person doesn’t take that seriously, the church is a place where God’s holiness must always be maintained. If a person does not take that seriously, then he must be rebuked publicly so that others also may be afraid of sinning. There are certain things that we have to do in public in church which are not only for the benefit of that person whom we are correcting but also for the benefit of others who are watching, so they realize that they can’t play the fool with God in the church.

Receiving Correction and Growing in Wisdom

On the other hand, we read in verse 25 of Proverbs 19: “If you rebuke a wise man, he will be still wiser.” You know, when somebody rebukes you or corrects you, the way you receive it determines whether you’re going to be wiser or whether you’re going to remain a fool. A wise person receives a word of correction, receives a rebuke, and the result is he becomes still wiser.

That’s tremendous wisdom that you can get when you’re a child. Think of your children who are here. When your father or mother corrects you and you receive it, you can be wiser. Maybe a husband correcting a wife. If you can receive it, you’ll be wiser. If you get offended, you can remain in your folly.

Honoring Our Parents

Verse 26: The Good News Bible says, “Only a shameful, disgraceful person will ill-treat his father or turn his mother away from his home.” That is a shameful thing—to ill-treat our parents or to turn them away from our home. It says only a shameful, disgraceful person will ever do that. May it never be said of any of us that we fall under that category of being shameful and disgraceful—that we ill-treated our parents.

One way of ill-treating our parents is by exposing their nakedness to others. That’s what Ham did when he exposed the nakedness of his father Noah. He went and told others about some weakness that was in his father. Maybe you see a weakness in your father or mother. Keep it to yourself. Pray for them. But never go around speaking about that to others.

That’s the reason why some people don’t get God’s blessing on their life, because they speak so badly. Maybe they have light, maybe they have wisdom, maybe they have understanding. But then they see their aged parents who don’t have the wisdom that they have, and they speak about them in a bad way. I believe there’s something of God’s blessing that you lose when you ill-treat your father or mother in that way or do something that turns them away from your home.

Accepting God’s Discipline

Verse 27: “Cease listening, my son, to discipline, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.” In other words, when God disciplines us and punishes us through the circumstances of life, the purpose is that we might understand the words of knowledge. That’s what this verse says. If you don’t accept the disciplines of life, you cannot understand the Word of God.

We can’t understand God’s Word merely with our brain studying it. We also have to allow God, through the Holy Spirit, to discipline us in the daily circumstances of life so that God’s Word becomes living to us. If I don’t accept God’s discipline, it says I will stray from the words of knowledge.

The Living Bible paraphrases it like this: “Stop listening to teaching that contradicts what you know is right.” Some of these Hebrew verses are capable of more than one interpretation and translation. Another translation possible to this verse is, “Stop listening to teaching that contradicts what you know is right.”

For example, when you are seeking for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, there are people who may say, “Well, I’d like to read both sides of the subject.” The result is that when they read one side of the subject, which is according to God’s Word, they get faith. Then, in order to what they think to be balanced, they read the other side of the subject, and they get filled with unbelief. The result is they never get baptized in the Holy Spirit.

No, we are to stop listening to teaching which we know contradicts what we know is right. Particularly when we are young believers. Most of us can’t handle both sides of the subject till we are past a certain degree of maturity. In our earlier part of our life, it’s good to listen to that which stirs up faith.

For example, people who go here and there listening to all types of preachers—many of them sow unbelief into people’s hearts. The result is, for example, they hear about victory over sin one day, and they hear something else or read something else that tells them such a life is not possible. Then they don’t have faith. It takes a long, long time for them to ever come to victory over sin because they have listened to teaching or read books which have sowed unbelief in their heart.

We must always throw away those books that sow unbelief in our heart. We must not listen to preachers who put unbelief in our heart in God’s Word. But stop listening to teaching that contradicts what we know is right.

Justice, Evil, and the Certainty of Judgment

Verse 28: “A worthless, rascally witness makes a mockery of justice, and the mouth of the wicked spreads iniquity.” Here it says, in the Good News Bible, “There is no justice where a witness is determined to hurt someone.” The sad thing is that here in the world, very often that is how it is in the courts of law—that there is no justice. Jesus said that the world is not going to treat us, His disciples, any better than they treated Him. We know that He was treated so unjustly right through to the end of His life. That is the treatment we can expect as well. There will be a lot of injustice on earth.

The latter part of that verse says in the Good News Bible, “Wicked people love the taste of evil.” That teaches us that if we are really righteous, it’s not just that we avoid what is evil; we don’t even want to taste it. That little bit on our tongue, and immediately we reject it. We know how sensitive our tongue is to taste. We can put something on our tongue, just a wee tiny bit, and say, “Ah, that’s a terrible taste.” That must be our attitude towards evil—that is exactly the opposite of the wicked—that I don’t even want to have a little bit of that, not even a taste of it, in my life.

Verse 29: “Judgments are prepared for scoffers and blows for the back of fools.” The Word of God says in Hebrews 9:27 that it’s appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment. Here it speaks about the certainty of judgment. Judgment has been prepared. When the Book of Proverbs speaks about a scoffer, it’s speaking about a man who is rebelling against the truth of God’s Word. Judgment is certain. It’s appointed unto men once to die, and after death the judgment, at which we will have to give an account to God of every single thing that we have done in our body, every word we have spoken, and our attitudes and our thoughts and everything.

Proverbs Chapter 20 — Self-Control and Diligence

Verse 1: Here it speaks about alcoholic drinks. “Wine is a mocker.” In other words, wine deceives you, deceives people who get drunk with it. “Strong drink is a brawler.” It leads people into fights. “Whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise.” We know that people go in for alcoholic drinks and wine mainly because they want to satisfy their bodily longings, even though it makes them disobey God’s Word. We know that sin came into the world through Eve going in for food and saw that it was something that would appeal to her body. Jesus was tempted through food.

Now, those of us here may not have any problem with alcoholic drinks or intoxicating liquor. We know that these things are harmful. What shall we gain from this verse? I believe that the necessity of self-control when it comes to our bodily lusts, even in the area of food and drink. God calls us to discipline and self-control over our bodily lusts, even in the matter of eating and drinking.

Verse 2: Again, a verse that tells us about God’s wrath being like the growling of a lion. He who provokes God, who is the King of the earth, the universe, to anger will forfeit his own life. We’ve considered that before about the terribleness. I believe that the vast majority of people, even many Christians, don’t have an understanding of the terribleness of God’s wrath against sin. It’s like the roaring of a lion, it says.

Avoiding Arguments

Verse 3 reads like this in the Good News Bible: “Any fool can start arguments. The honorable thing is to stay out of them.” What does that teach us? That teaches us that a person who starts an argument is a fool. A person who continues an argument with another person who started it is equally a fool. The honorable thing is to avoid arguments altogether. That’s a word we really need to take seriously.

Even when we are proclaiming the gospel to others, we are not to get caught up into an argument about the truth of the gospel. We are to proclaim the truth but never argue. Because nobody gets convinced about the truth through argument. It’s not by human cleverness that we can lead people to God’s truth. People can understand God’s truth only by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. If they have a sense of need in their life, if they are sincere and if they are humble, then the Spirit of God can reveal to them Christ having died for their sins and about the new and living way and all these things. But it’s not by human argument, not by human cleverness in argument.

Therefore, we are to only proclaim the truth, even when it comes to preaching the gospel. That applies to all other areas in life. For example, a husband and wife—the one who starts the argument is a fool. Whoever it is, whether a husband or a wife. If the other person continues it, then we can say both are fools. Blessed is the home where at least one of the two is wise. Even more blessed is the home where both are wise, where there are no arguments at all.

Any fool can start an argument. Any idiot in the whole world can start an argument. That’s the easiest thing in the world. The wise thing is to stay out of it and to keep away from all strife. That’s an honor for a man.

Sowing Seeds of Faithfulness

Verse 4: Again, another word about diligence and hard work. The lazy man does not plow after the autumn, meaning in the cold season. Therefore, he has to beg during harvest, and he’s got nothing. For example, at the time when he had to sow the seed, he said, “Oh, it’s too cold today. I can’t go and sow seed today. It’s too cold.” He finds some excuse like that not to sow seed, and the result is when harvest comes and other people who worked hard during the sowing time have got a harvest, his own fields have produced no crops because he was too lazy to sow during sowing time. Then he becomes a beggar.

This teaches us about the importance of faithfulness in the time of sowing the seed. Our entire life on earth is a sowing time. We don’t have a spiritual harvest time here on the earth, really. The harvest time is after we leave the world and get into eternity. Our whole earthly life is a sowing time. This is where we can get discouraged because we can sow and sow and not get an immediate harvest and give up. That’s why the Word of God says in Galatians 6, “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary.”

When people are evil to us, that’s the time to sow a good seed in return. When somebody curses us, that’s the time to sow a good seed by blessing them. When somebody hates us, that’s the time to sow a good seed by doing good to them. We say, “When shall we get a harvest then?” Maybe never in our earthly lifetime, but we’ll get it in eternity. That is definite. It’s impossible for a person to sow and not get a harvest. It says here if you sow to the spirit, you’ll reap eternal life.

So let’s not become weary in this earthly life of sowing—sowing a kind word, sowing a good action, sowing good in return for the evil that someone has done to us. We are not to just sit back and say, “Alright, I forgive him.” When somebody has done evil to us, if I have forgiven him, that’s good. But I haven’t sowed a seed yet. I have to do good to that person who has done evil to me. Then I sow a seed.

That’s why Jesus said, “Do good to them that hate you.” He didn’t say, “Forgive those who curse you.” He said, “Bless those who curse you.” Sow a seed. In the time of harvest, we will not be poor. At the judgment seat of Christ, when Jesus comes back, we shall be rich because we have used our life in sowing seed for the glory of God and goodness.

The Wisdom of a Counselor

Verse 5: “A plan in the heart of a man is like deep water, but a man of understanding draws it out”—or as the Living Bible says, “Good advice lies deep within a counselor’s heart.” Within a wise man’s heart. Another wise man will draw it out.

I believe the meaning of that verse is that a really wise man may have a lot of good advice deep down in his heart, but it’s like a deep well. You know the difference between a well and a spring. From a well, you have to draw the water out. A spring is just flowing out all the time.

Here it says good advice is deep down in a man’s heart, in a wise man’s heart. In other words, a wise man does not go around giving advice to everybody he meets. That’s a foolish man. He’s always gushing out. He’s got advice for this person, advice for that person, an opinion on everything. That’s a mark of a fool. But a wise man sees and realizes that people are doing a lot of foolish things, but he still doesn’t come forth with it till he sees that they have a sense of need for that. You have to get it out of that wise person. He doesn’t just give it out easily.

Verse 6: Proclaiming Our Own Faithfulness

Even when you go to him for advice, he is hesitant to give it because he may see that you have no interest in obeying it in any case. You know, the people went to Jeremiah once to find out God’s will. “Should we go to Egypt?” They said, “Find out God’s will whether we should go to Egypt.” Jeremiah said, “Alright, I’ll find out. I’m sure you fellows won’t obey me.” They said, “Oh yes, we’ll obey you.” Jeremiah went out and found God’s will, and God said — “Thus says the Lord, you shall not go to Egypt.” They said, “No, you haven’t heard God correctly.”

See, that’s how it is with a lot of people. They don’t really want to do what God says. A wise man realizes that. He senses who is really willing to receive God’s word. Another reason is that a wise man does not want to thrust his advice and opinion on other people. That’s a foolish man who always wants to control other people with his advice. A wise man has it deep down in his heart, and if another person really values it, he’ll come and pull it out. That’s the meaning of this verse.

Verse 6 says, “Many a man proclaims his own loyalty or faithfulness, but who can find a trustworthy man?” In other words, everyone talks about how faithful he himself is, but just try to find someone who’s really faithful. Now, how many of us go around saying to others, “I’m quite faithful, you know”? I don’t think any of us do it. But it says here many men proclaim their own faithfulness. It doesn’t come out in those words. It can come out in very subtle ways.

It can come out, for example, in giving a testimony in the meeting. I give a testimony in a meeting about a particular situation I faced in my home, or in the office, or a factory. The whole burden of the testimony ultimately is to show other people how faithful I am. Many people proclaim their own faithfulness — not in a crude way saying, “I’m a faithful brother in the church.” Nobody is so stupid as to lose his reputation for humility in that way. No, they’re all wise to preserve their reputation for humility.

We know clever ways to proclaim our own faithfulness in subtle ways. Sometimes it’s just with one sentence that I’m trying to add to some exposition of the Word of God. I think that everybody is thinking I’m explaining the Word of God, but actually I put in a little illustration or a little sentence just to show how faithful I am. The world is full of such.

Do You Really Know Your True Spiritual Condition?

Quite apart from that, I think most of us are proclaiming our own faithfulness to ourselves, even if we don’t proclaim it to other people — in the sense that most believers think that they are pretty good believers. I think that’s true. “I’m a pretty good believer.”

You see, the proof of that, as we have often said, is when I hear that somebody said something which is not too good about me, and then I realize what a high opinion I have of myself. Yeah, it’s alright. We believe in Romans 7:24, which says, “Oh, wretched man that I am,” but I don’t really believe it deep down in my heart — because when somebody did say I was a bit wretched, I got a bit worked up about it. I got a little upset, at least for a couple of days or a couple of hours perhaps, or maybe for a little while anyway, when somebody said I was wretched.

Most men proclaim their own faithfulness, but a really trustworthy man — who can find it? That is a man of God. That is a woman of God. A person who is really longing — and I believe a trustworthy man is one who is all the time longing to see himself as God sees him.

I want to ask you, dear brothers and sisters, do you have a great longing to know your true spiritual condition as God sees you? Not what brother X, Y, or Z thinks about you — that you can throw in the garbage. Even what the elder brothers think about you, you can just throw that into the bottom of the garbage bin. That’s worth nothing.

I believe we must have a fantastic longing. I know I’ve cried out to God with all my heart many a time and said, “Lord, I don’t want to deceive myself. I want to know what You think about me. Really. Tell me the truth. I really want to know what You think about my spirituality, and if You think I’m just a rotten deceiver, tell me so. I want to know it. I don’t want to deceive myself.” Ask God to show you, and He will arrange circumstances.

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