Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law.”

Once again thanks for the emails that you send. Some are encouraging and others not so, and that is okay. The mere fact the people are reading these articles is enough for me. Plus, those that are not encouraging force me to be more deliberate in my study and in my defense of what is true. George Orwell said this, “In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” Jesus put it this way in John 3:19-20:

“And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light, because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”

As we approach the Last Days, the prevalence of lies will grow and grow as the world system prepares the masses for the Anti-Christ to appear. Remember that there will be strong deception once the Lord’s churches are taken out of the way, and then God will send strong delusions that the people should believe THE LIE. In 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 we see this dire warning:

“¹⁰ and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. ¹¹ For this reason, God will send them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie, ¹² in order that judgment will come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness.”

Notice in verse 10 that these who refused to love truth have every wicked deception directed against them. They reject the very truth that will save them; and, ultimately, they will be allowed to believe all the lies of the world system and then, in particular, THE LIE (see verse 11), whatever that lie will be about the missing billions of people that have been suddenly taken out of this world by God. This is why it is so important that the Bible tells us in Hebrews 10:25 that we need to assemble together more and more as we see the last days approaching. While we are together, we are to encourage each other; and, more importantly, we are to spend time in the truth of the Bible. Without it and its truths, we too could fall prey to the lies of the system around us.

Let me offer one lie that is coming to a head as an example, and then we will move on to the actual lesson. The world keeps telling us that men and women are the same. So, when men who identify as women want to compete in women’s sports, they completely dominate. Right now, trans-men are dominating women’s athletics, cycling, wrestling, weightlifting, and on we can go. It is clear to the real women that the men are stronger, faster and have more endurance. Let me offer an example, according to Google:

The fastest women’s mile runner is Sifan Hassan who recently set the world record with a time of 4 mins 12 seconds; however, the fastest man is Hicham El Guerrouj with a time of 3 mins 43 seconds (29 seconds faster). Just a week or so ago, a man broke the 2-hour mark on a marathon. Men are bigger, stronger, faster, often have more endurance, different muscle structure, different fat contents in the body, and on and on we can go. This is the truth; God made us that way. But the Lies of the left are going to destroy women’s sports because no one wants to admit the truth.

Sadly, too many Christians have fallen into the lies because we do not spend enough time in the truth. Christians are not called to be social justice warriors; we are called to manage the planet, but only God can save it. We have two jobs: love God wholeheartedly and then love your neighbour. This is all done so that people can see Jesus more and more and come to Him for salvation.

Now to the actual lesson for today. Over the past few weeks, we have looked at another verse in conjunction with our theme verse; that is 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

In the first two lessons, we looked at the importance of doctrine, and we mentioned things like the doctrine of Creation: God made us in His image. The doctrine of Salvation: Jesus is the only way to be saved. As we mentioned earlier, there is a doctrine that God made men and women differently, and there is no amount of social engineering that will change the genetics that God put in place. Men cannot be women, and women cannot be men. It is that simple; no matter how many surgeries they have, or hormones they take, they cannot change the DNA. This is a doctrine.

In the last lesson, we spoke about reproof and correction. Reproof is defined as “an expression of blame or disapproval.” Correction is defined as “a change that rectifies an error or an inaccuracy.” Thus, reproof is pointing out sin and wrong; correction is then doing it the right way. We gave an example of this reproof and correction from Ephesians 4:28:

“Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.”

Here Paul highlights the improper behavior: stealing, and offers a correction: go and work. The Bible is filled with these; take the time to read the book of Proverbs.

Now we will look at the final part of the verse from 2 Timothy. Before we do, let us recap the theme verse from Proverbs 29:18: People need proper revelation, the proper teaching and exposition of the word of God to help them to be restrained in evil. Simply put, the more a society hears the teachings of the word of God, the less evil the people will be. Now you can understand why there is such a push to remove the Bible from the schools, from the public in general, and to remove the Ten Commandments from view, to remove in God we trust from sight. To make the Bible out to be an obsolete book that is filled with racism and violence, a book to be avoided not embraced.

It is very hard to promote sin and evil if the majority of the people know the Bible. It is hard to promote socialism, for instance, when the Bible makes the idea of personal ownership of things like land and livestock a man’s right. It is very hard to promote paying people not to work when the Bible says a man who does not work should not eat. It is very hard to promote abortions when the Bible addresses babies in the womb as people with a purpose from God (read Jeremiah 1). We also see that true happiness comes from obeying God’s laws; yes, by living under God’s rules.

The Bible, when properly taught, provides us with foundational truths called doctrines; it provides us with an understanding of what is wrong and tells us what is right. Once these two parts are in place, we are then equipped to do “good works.” Equipped to live righteously. One cannot live righteously without proper doctrine and without Godly reproof and correction. Good works is the fruit of the two.

Now let us first deal with the Lie of the Left: They say we are all good. Man, they say, is intrinsically good and may at times make a few mistakes. The saying ‘I’m okay, you’re okay’ was coined a while ago, and neither side is true. We are not okay. A society without laws does not get better. Let me offer an example: There is a movie series called The Purge; there are several movies in the franchise, and I have watched one of them. The premise is that for one night there is no law. On this one night, you can do whatever you want without fear of the police. The movie is filled with death, pain and mayhem. This is what really happens when men cast off restraint. We unleash the evil in us. The Bible puts it this way in Romans 3:10-18:

¹⁰ As it is written:

“There is none righteous, no, not one;

¹¹ There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.

¹² They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.”

¹³ “Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit.”

“The poison of asps is under their lips.”

¹⁴ “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”

¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood;

¹⁶ Destruction and misery are in their ways;

¹⁷ And the way of peace they have not known.”

¹⁸ “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

This is the reality of who we are without Jesus. Read it slowly; let it sink in. Let the Holy Spirit open your eyes to what mankind is like without Jesus. According to these verses, we are incapable of good works. Look at verse 12: “There is none who does good, no, not one.” Neither you nor I can do anything good. You are not okay, and neither am I.

But God has a ray of hope to offer us. When we take the Word of God seriously – when we regard it as precious, when we properly study it, read it, recall it, store it in our minds, when we submit it and regard it as powerful in our lives – we are then equipped in Jesus to do good works. But they can only be done after we have submitted to proper doctrine: God is Holy; we are not. God is good; we are not. God can save us; we need to be saved. Good works can then be done once we have begun the process of allowing God to change us. This is called sanctification or transformation; this is after we have been saved and now have the Holy Spirit living in us.

1 Corinthians 6: 19-20 “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Now, we can do good works. Now we can begin to be obedient to God. The Holy Spirit in us, and we are clothed in the righteousness of God and not in our own goodness, which the Bible tells us is no goodness at all. In Jesus, clothed in His righteousness, indwelt by His Holy Spirit and armed with the Holy Word of God, we are now capable of doing good works; and the first work is the surrender of our own bodies to the Lord. Take the time to read these verses in Romans 12: 1-2:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

We will pick up with these verses next week and discover how we can do good works in Jesus, by Jesus, and for His glory.

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

 

Proverbs 29:18

“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law.”

As we began to look at this set of lessons last week, I began by showing that this verse, Proverbs 29:18, is often misused as a way to ‘cast a vision,’ speaking of the future. A pastor looking to inspire his people at the first service in the new year may ‘cast a vision’ for the year, something that he wants the church to work at or accomplish. But this verse has specifically to do with the revelation of God’s Word, as the word revelation implies. Specifically, it has to do with the teaching and preaching of God’s Word. Last week we also looked at another verse, 2 Timothy 3:16-17,

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

This is a great verse as we explored, to show us the purpose and the power of the Word of God. Today, even in churches, we have too many who question the accuracy of the Bible; they question that it is complete and ALL we need to be equipped to serve the Lord. The Bible is sufficient to equip the Lord’s people and the Lord’s churches to do the work here on earth until Jesus returns. Further, there is a serious lack of knowledge of the Word of God. The idea of studying, reading, re-reading and then reading it some more is missing.

One will never get to the end of the Bible and conclude that you have it all. Never! There is always something else that you missed. Notice I did not say something new.

As you read in the Bible, you will discover things that you simply were not mature enough either as a person or as a Christian to receive. I know countless mature pastors, serious students of the Bible, that will point to something they had recently seen for the first time in a passage that they had read countless times and preached from many times. This is what we mean when we say that the Bible is a living entity, it is alive; and as we grow, the Holy Spirit shows us more and more. We have an example of this in John 16:12-13 with Jesus and the apostles,

“I still have much to tell you, but you cannot yet bear to hear it. However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come.”

There were things that Jesus longed to tell His closest friends and servants, but they could not understand them yet. They had to wait for the Holy Spirit to indwell them, and then they would understand. Even later in life, the apostle Peter wrote this about Paul’s writings, 2 Peter 3:15-16,

“Consider also that our Lord’s patience brings salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom God gave him. He writes this way in all his letters, speaking in them about such matters. Some parts of his letters are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Peter tells us that some parts of Paul’s writings were hard to understand, not impossible. They would take study and research to understand, and maybe a bit more spiritual maturity, or maybe time. We explore Paul’s writings and are able to get more than the early NT churches got, since we have the mirror of history to enlighten us. So, what we see is that there needs to be diligent ‘revelation’ of the Word of God by pastors and preachers, by Sunday School teachers and Seminary Professors, as we are charged in 2 Timothy 2:15,

“Make every effort to present yourself approved to God, an unashamed workman who accurately handles the word of truth.”

But the recipients need to be diligent listeners as well. Show up, listen, take notes, re-read the passages, and then obey the things you learn.

Notice that the verse we are considering at the top of this lesson has 2 parts: The need for the revelation of God’s word and that people keep the Law. One can find any amount of good, well-laid-out Biblical teaching in many churches, on YouTube if you are careful, in publications like the Daily Bread and others; but if you do not keep or obey what you learn, it is of no value to you.

Last week we looked the first part of the verse in 2 Timothy 3:16, the statement that the Bible, scripture, is profitable for doctrine. These are clearly stated Biblical laws that should govern us, things like the fact that God created us (Genesis 1-2), that Jesus is the ONLY way of Salvation (John 14:1-6), that we will answer to God as the saved (2 Corinthians 5:9-10) and to the Lord (Revelation 20:11-15). We can go on, but the gist is that these are eternal principles that cannot be altered. These are the foundation for us to be restrained. The proper teaching and explanation of these doctrines help us to make good decisions, help society at large, even the lost, to make good decisions about the choices put before them/us.

The verse goes on to say in 2 Timothy that the Bible, God’s inspired Word, is also profitable for ‘reproof and correction.’ Reproof is defined as ‘an expression of blame or disapproval.’ Correction is defined as ‘a change that rectifies an error or an inaccuracy.’ Thus, reproof is pointing out sin and wrong; correction is then doing it the right way. Here is an example Ephesians 4:28,

“Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.”

This verse is speaking to those who are thieves in the church at Ephesus or maybe were thieves in the church at Ephesus. He tells them to stop stealing as a means of supplying their daily needs, and go get a job. They are to work with their hands; and through good work, they will get their needs met. In 1 Corinthians 7:9, we see this admonishment with regard to sexual relationships and marriage,

“But if they cannot control themselves, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.”

Paul tells the church there that if some of them are able to be like him and be celibate for the ministry, then they should do so. But if their sexual desires and needs are strong, they should marry. Don’t just engage in a sexual relationship outside of marriage; get married. As well we can see in Matthew 5:23-24,

“Therefore if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”

Here is another reproof and then a correction: you come to offer a gift to God; you recall that you have an issue with a brother. Out of anger, maybe harsh words were said, and you left it that way. We are told to go to the brother and make the situation with him right, and then come and worship God. Reproof and correction. In Ezra 10:2-3, we see this account,

“Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, an Elamite, said to Ezra: ‘We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the people of the land, yet in spite of this, there is hope for Israel. So now let us make a covenant before our God to send away all the foreign wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the command of our God. Let it be done according to the Law.'”

The captive families who had returned from Babylon had begun to intermarry with the pagan and Gentile women in the cities around Israel. Ezra showed the people that this was wrong; this is reproof. Then they made a covenant to ‘send away all the foreign wives.’ Here we see reproof and correction. This is a part of what happens when the revelation of God, when the word of God, the Bible is clearly and skillfully taught to the people. It provides them with doctrine, this doctrine reproves wrong living, wrong ideas, wrong opinions, wrong actions and offers a remedy, called corrections.

We live in a time when no one wants to call out evil; no one wants to call out error. People, even God’s people, may get offended, and they will call us intolerant. I read this today, and it was a sobering idea; I am not sure who wrote it or said it, but read it for yourself and see:

“Many Christians believe that the highest calling God has placed on us is to be nice. These Christians are wrong. God has not called us to be nice. Rather, he has called us to be good. Here’s the difference: Nice people never confront evil; good people do. Nice people are weak; good people are strong. Jesus wasn’t nice. He was kind, he was compassionate, he was caring; but He was unbending and unflinching when it came to standing for the truth. And it cost him His life.”

Here we see that we must be ready, with the proper and skillful understanding of the Word of God, to be able to bring reproof and offer the path of correction: stop doing that; start doing this. Today, one of my dear friends is out in front of an abortion clinic offering hope to the women, both patients and nurses. He and a team are praying, loving and offering alternatives. They have seen hundreds of babies saved from abortion and many workers stop working in the industry; they have even seen the abortion clinics be closed down.

The lies of the Left are that everyone can just do what feels good to them, and live and let live. Well, in this case, what feels right to a pregnant woman is death to the baby in her and a curse on our society as we anger a Holy God.

The lies of the Left are that there is no right or wrong; we just need to tolerate each other. But there is right and wrong; our Holy Creator put that in all of us.

The lies of the Left are that sexuality is subjective and not confined to the restraints put in the Bible. So, sex before marriage, with others while married, homosexuality – and recently here in Canada, the Supreme Court ruled that sex with an animal was not illegal. Even more disturbing is the subtle yet steady push to lower the age of consent, making sex with minors as young as 10 years old. There are even women pushing this. On May 5, 2018, a woman named Mirjam Heine gave a speech at the University of Würzburg in Germany, where she stated that societies view of paedophilia had to change. She went on to say that paedophilia was an ‘unchangeable sexual orientation.’ Later, this would be compared to homosexuality as an unchangeable sexual orientation. But these are lies. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11,

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

Notice in verse 10 that effeminate men were included and men who abused themselves with other men; these men were changed by the salvation that comes through the grace of God. Yes, we can all be changed in Jesus. Our sinful state does not have to be permanent because of what Jesus did for us on Calvary.

There is right and wrong; the Bible tells us so. There is a place for us as believers to stand rightly, on the properly and skillfully taught Word of God and say no, this or that is wrong, and then to offer Biblical correction to situations in our lives, the lives of our children, the lives of our church family, and ultimately the lives of our nations.

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca