In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith discusses various aspects of life and society based on the teachings of Proverbs. He emphasizes the importance of diligence and taking care of one's affairs in order to prosper. He also highlights the consequences of wickedness and the importance of upholding the law. Pastor Chuck also addresses the insatiable nature of human desires and the need for spiritual fulfillment rather than seeking satisfaction in worldly pursuits.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that mold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life and make you whole Proverbs chapter 27, verse 18. And now with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck. Whoever keeps the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof. So he that waiteth on his master shall be honored. Again, this is sort of indeligence, the idea of being diligent. The one who keeps the fig tree eats the fruit thereof. One of these Mother Goose stories, I think, sort of came out of this proverb of the little hen, the red hen, who said, Who will help me pick the grain that I might bake the bread? Not I, said the fly, not me, said the flea, then I'll do it myself. Finally, who will help me eat the bread? I will, said the fly. No, I'll do it myself, said the little red hen. The idea is the one who takes care of things is the one who will partake of the fruit of it. And as in water, face answers to face, so the heart of man to man. So in looking, that is talking about the reflection. When you look in a pool of clear water, you see the reflection of your face. As in water, face answers to face. So again, heart, man meeting together. There is that heart to heart kind of a relationship, that heart to heart experience that you have as you open up to your friend. Hell and destruction are never full. I don't know how big hell is, but the Bible says it's never full. So the eyes of a man are never satisfied. There are some things that can never be satisfied. And your flesh can never be satisfied. That's one of the characteristics of the flesh. It's impossible to satisfy your fleshly desires and appetites. You may glut them for a moment, but in a few hours, you'll be hungry again. Not really satisfied. As Jesus said, drink of this water, you will thirst again. That's true of every fleshly pursuit, of every fleshly experience. They do not bring satisfaction. They bring a temporary diversion many times. But they don't bring satisfaction. As the fining pot for silver. Now the fining pot was a big old kettle that they heated the silver in to burn out the dross. And so as the fining pot for silver and as the furnace, they would heat the gold again to the melting point to burn out the dross. As the furnace for gold, so is a man to his praise. The fining pot and the furnace really showed the purity of the gold and the silver. So praise really shows what is in a man. You know there are some people that just can't take praise. They believe it. They let it go to their heads. They begin to get puffed up. They begin to think that they are really something wonderful. And they get intolerable. And so praise really proves what's in a man's heart. It really proves what you might say the metal of a man. His capacity to accept praise without it going to his head. Though you should bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle. Now they would take the mortar and the pestle and they would with the pestle grind the wheat. So though you take a fool and you know pound him with the pestle. Yet will not his foolishness depart from him. I mean you can't drive it out if the guy is just a fool. You can't do anything for him. Be diligent to know the state of your flocks. And the rest of these proverbs are tied together. They just have to do with life and with the sustaining and sustenance. Be diligent to know the state of your flocks. And look well to your herds. Now remember this is an agrarian society. These people were all involved in farming. The society had not developed to the tragic extent that it has today. People were closer to the earth, closer to the ground. So every man had his flocks. Every man had his herds. For he said riches are not forever. And doth the crown endure to every generation. The hay appears and the tender grass shows itself. The vegetables of the mountains are gathered. The lambs are for thy clothing. The goats are for the price of your field. And you will have goats milk enough for thy food. For the food of thy household. And for the maintenance of thy maidens. So be diligent in the taking care of your affairs. In order that you might lay up in store. We're told that the wicked flee when no one pursues. You know, it's terrible to have a guilty conscience. It's terrible I guess to be wicked. Because a wicked person gets paranoid. And they flee when there's no one chasing them. Everyone they see, you know, standing over there, they think, Hmm, I wonder if he's an FBI agent, you know, following me. I better get out of here. And the wicked flee when there's no one even pursuing. That consciousness of guilt and evil doesn't give any place to rest. The Bible said the wicked are like a troubled sea that's tossed to and fro. Their mind is troubled. There's no place of resting. You flee when there's no one pursuing. But the righteous, they're as bold as a lion. They just go right in. They're not worried, you know. Nothing to hide. For the transgression of a land. Many are the princes thereof. When a nation has deteriorated, the transgression of a land, it is talking about a nation that has deteriorated morally and spiritually. And as you look at the history of the nation of Israel and Judah, during the periods of spiritual moral decline, there were many princes. As we were going through the books of kings, you'll remember that we had a period in their history, as the nation had morally declined, just really almost come to the bottom, that there was one king after another. They were assassinated. And the guy would come in and reign. The guy that assassinated would start to reign. And in three months he would be assassinated. And so there were many princes. And that's the idea. When the nation has deteriorated morally, spiritually, anarchy almost takes over. There are many princes. You don't have any really long reigning kings. But a man of understanding and knowledge, the state shall be prolonged. When you have a good ruler, one who is diligent and fair, honest, then his state is prolonged. He rules over a period of time. A poor man that oppresses the poor is like a sweeping rain which leaves no food. One of the problems in life is that poor people, when they get power or money, are oftentimes more vicious and cruel than a normal person. And they become like a sweeping rain which leaves no food. They just devastate the soil. And there's a flood. There's a runoff. But there's nothing that really soaks in to nourish the ground. It just washes and wipes things away rather than bringing forth fruit. Felix, the governor that was appointed by the Roman emperor, the Roman emperor liked Felix's brother and so as a favor to his brother he appointed Felix as the governor. But Felix had been a slave. Now he is the governor. And he is corrupt. He uses his position just to enrich himself. And he lives a very profane and corrupt life. And this proverb was surely one that would apply to his reign, a poor man that oppresses the poor. They that forsake the law praise the wicked. The law of God condemns the wicked. When you forsake the law of God you begin to praise the wicked. But such as keep the law contend with them. To me it is very disturbing the way our judicial system, certain judges, are determined to break the back of the pro-life movement and are guilty of miscarriages of justice. They are doing unjust things. They are limiting the person's defense. They are denying the rights of freedom of speech. They are using contempt of court to imprison innocent people. And it's tragic. When those that forsake the law begin to praise the wicked, it's a tragic day in the history of a nation when the judicial system becomes so biased. There's a beautiful brother who is serving right now six months in the Los Angeles County Jail because he was at one of the protests at an abortion clinic and the judge threw the book at him. Later on, the judge had a man who had stolen a car and he had to spend three months in jail. He was a real criminal. There's something wrong when they that forsake the law praise the wicked. Evil men understand not judgment, but they that seek the Lord understand all things. Paul gives us something similar to this in 2 Corinthians. Paul tells us that the natural man doesn't understand the things of the spirit, neither does he know them, for they are spiritually discerned. But he which is spiritual understands all things, though he is not understood. The natural man does not understand the things of God, judgment, but they that seek the Lord, they that walk in the spirit, they do have understanding of the spiritual things. Better is the poor that walks in integrity than he that is perverse, though he is rich. So it's better to be an honest poor man than a perverse rich man. And let me say that I would rather be the poorest man on the face of the earth, not have a dime to my name, but know Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and walk in fellowship with Him, than to be the richest man on the earth, whoever he may be, and not know Jesus Christ. For he may enjoy the luxuries that his riches can buy him, for let's give him 100 years. He won't enjoy them that long. But then he's going to face eternity. Whereas I may have to beg every bite of bread, please don't give me 100 years, but then spend my eternity with Jesus Christ. So you're much better off being an upright, honest poor man than a perverse rich man. Eternity balances everything. Whosoever keeps the law is a wise son. But if you choose bad company, riotous friends, the companion of riotous men, you will bring shame to your father. He that by unjust interest and unjust gain increases his substance, you may gather a lot of wealth, but someone else is going to squander it and use it up. That person who has gotten rich by dealing with cocaine. The government, when they catch you, will confiscate everything you have. You'll lose it all. I think of Hattie Green, who in her day was the wealthiest woman in the world. She was probably also the stingiest woman in the world. She had amassed a humongous fortune. She had done it through Wall Street and through conniving, scheming, hurt a lot of people. She was so tight, at that time, the New York Times sold for a nickel. And she would buy the New York Times and read it, the financial section, then fold it up and give it to her son and send him out to Central Park in New York to resell it so she could get her nickel back. She was so tight, her daughter was so miserable, she committed suicide. And her son, when he was out selling the paper on a winter day, he slipped on ice, cut his leg, and she took him to the free hospital. But the doctor recognized her and wouldn't treat her son free. She got so mad, she took her son out of there, and gangrene set in. They had to amputate his leg. When she died, she left her fortune to her son, and within a year or so, he was broke. Threw it all away, really. He gave it away to the poor. He just didn't want anything to do with it. He saw what it did to his mother, and he didn't want anything to do with it. And so this proverb really came to pass in that instance. Who by usury, high interest rates, and unjust gain increases his substance. You may gather it, but you gather it for him who will give it to the poor or will pity the poor. He that turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination. We think of prayer as probably one of the highest forms of spiritual manifestation in our lives. And we don't realize that prayer itself can become an abomination to God. God spoke about how that their sacrifices became an abomination to Him. For God is interested in what's in your heart. Through the prophet Isaiah, God said, when you lift up your hands to me, I will not listen to you, I will not hear you because your hands are filled with blood. And so the lifting up of hands, which was the form of prayer, supplication to God. God said, I'm not going to listen, your hands are filled with blood. And when you don't regard the law of God, when you're living a sinful life, your prayer is an abomination to God. It doesn't gain you any points that when you go to sleep at night, you say, now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If all day long you've been just living in open rebellion against God and the laws of God, living a very corrupt life, that now I lay me at night doesn't handle it. It's an abomination to God. David said, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord doesn't hear me when I pray. Prayer becomes deceitful. Because people think, well, I know I'm bad, but I'm not too bad because I still pray. Well, your prayer is an abomination. And you're deceiving yourself if you think that your prayer is covering for you and all of the evil that is in your heart. So, if you turn away your ear from hearing the law, your prayer even becomes an abomination. We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study through the book of Proverbs in our next lesson as Pastor Chuck Smith continues with The Mercy of God. And we do hope you'll make plans to join us. But right now, I'd like to remind you that if you'd like to secure a copy of today's message, simply order Proverbs 27, verse 18 when visiting the wordfortoday.org. And while you're there, we encourage you to browse the many additional biblical resources by Pastor Chuck. You can also subscribe to the Word for Today podcast or sign up for our email subscription. Once again, all of this can be found at the wordfortoday.org. If you wish to call, our toll-free number is 1-800-272-WORD. And our office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time. Once again, that's 1-800-272-9673. Now, if you prefer to write, our mailing address is The Word for Today, P.O. Box 8000, Costa Mesa, California, 92628. And now, on behalf of The Word for Today, we'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry with your prayers and financial support. And be sure to join us again next time as Pastor Chuck continues his verse-by-verse study through the Bible. That's right here, on the next edition of The Word for Today. And now, once again, here's Pastor Chuck with today's closing comments. May the Lord speak to us and may our hearts be open that we might walk in His way, that we might seek His will at all times, that we might be conscious of the fact that God knows us and we are living in His presence. And may we not do things that we would be embarrassed to do with Him watching us, for indeed, the eyes of the Lord are everywhere beholding the good and the evil. So help us to be aware of that, dear Lord, that we might do that which is pleasing before Him. The Word for Today You know, for thousands of years, Israel has been the heartbeat of our world's history. From the shout of victory that brought the wall of Jericho tumbling down to the tortured cry of Jesus on the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? No other nation has ever had a history so vibrant as Israel. The Word for Today presents a series entitled Israel, a biblical study of the history, covenants, and the people of the nation of Israel. This collection of messages contains 10 biblical studies by Pastor Chuck Smith and guest speakers Brian Broderson, Dave Hunt, Chuck Missler, and David Hawking. To order your copy, call the Word for Today at 800-272-9673 or write us at PO Box 8000, Costa Mesa, California, 92628. Again, that number to call, 800-272-WORD. This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today in Costa Mesa, California.