In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the consequences of lying and the importance of following God's laws. He emphasizes that no one can escape the punishment for their sins, as stated in Numbers 32:23. The preacher also highlights the benefits of seeking wisdom through God's word, as it brings peace and blessings into one's life. Additionally, he mentions the significance of honoring parents and helping the poor, as these actions are seen as lending to the Lord and will be rewarded. The sermon concludes with the reminder that kindness and honesty are qualities that make a person attractive.

Proverbs chapter 19, we were looking at verse 5 in our last study. A false witness will not go unpunished and he who tells lies will not escape. We saw that this is a law of God that what we sow we have to reap and if a person's sin does not catch up with him in this life, it will certainly catch up with him in the day of judgment. It is impossible for a person to sin and get away with it. Word of God says in Numbers 32, 23, Be sure your sin will find you out. And it is because people do not believe this, that the whole of mankind sins so much in secret, in private, because they feel that they've got away with it. They tell lies and they think they will escape, but the Word of God says that he who tells lies will not escape. A false witness will not go unpunished, even though he may on this earth. Verse 6, many will entreat the favor of a generous man and every man is a friend to him who gives gifts. And this we know is so true, that if we give gifts to people, it is easy to win their friendship, but such friendships do not last. And in the body of Christ, we are not to build friendships with gifts and money. We are to build fellowship, which is through the Holy Spirit. And there's a world of difference between fellowship that comes through the Holy Spirit and the requirement for which is laid down in 1 John 1, 7, that I must walk in the light and you must walk in the light, 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. And this is why as we saw, 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. And 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. 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 verse 5. And 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, the vast majority of poor believers also, also have no faith. They look to men for help. That is to have no faith. God intended that their poverty, it says James 2 verse 5, God has chosen the poor of the world rich in faith, and 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, and 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 the 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, and many of the apostles were poor, but they were rich in faith. And 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. 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. And that, of course, relates to the word of God, that through God's word, we get wisdom for our daily life, and 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. Verse 9. A false witness. This is more or less a repetition of verse 5, but a little more. A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who tells lies will perish. Jesus said, I am the truth. And truth is the very nature of God. And Jesus also said that the devil is the father of lies. And these two are opposite. God and Satan are on opposite sides. And truth and falsehood are on opposite sides. And 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. 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. And therefore, he ruins himself by wastage and unnecessary luxuries in life that serve no purpose. And therefore, he spoils himself. 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, and 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 when we have a lot of it wisely. Luxury is not fitting for a fool, much less for a slave to rule over princes. We can apply that to the New Testament, that 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. And 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. Verse 11, A man's discretion, that is his wisdom, makes him slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook a transgression. And that's something that we have spoken of much in the church, that 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. And 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 have to wait till, 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. And 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. And 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, all right, I forgive you, but I 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 a transgression. Love covers a multitude of faults and sins in other people. Verse 12, the king's wrath is like the roaring of a lion, but his favor is like dew on grass, and 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. And 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. And 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. Verse 13 A foolish son is destruction to his father, and the contentions of a wife are a constant dripping. That 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, dripping, dripping, dripping. It's not a downpour and then stop. It's this constant nagging, nagging, nagging, nagging, nagging, nagging, drip, drip, drip. And what is the result of a home where you have a wife who is like this drip, drip, drip, drip, 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. And one comes as a result of the other. And 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. And that means the most important person in the building of a home is the wife because it's through her submission to her husband and overcoming the spirit of rebellion that 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 and 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. Verse 14 is spoken here about this nagging wife who is like dripping constant drips and then here it speaks about a wise prudent wife. And 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. And for those of us who are young brothers who are seeking the Lord in marriage, we must remember 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 got to seek God for him and say Lord, you are my father give me that the one who will be a health meat for me. And this word understanding wife as it is here in the Living Bible or in the Good News Bible it says a sensible wife. An understanding wife is a tremendous gift in the sense that she is one who understands her husband. Understands her husband's weaknesses and strong points and seeks to be a health meat. We have seen that a husband and wife are to be like two halves of an eggshell. And 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 is a depression in one, there is a projection in the other. And an understanding wife means one who recognizes where there is a depression in my husband and to seek to fill up that lack. 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. And 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 if you want to, 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. That if you are lazy and lethargic in our attitude to study the Word of God, we'll find that spiritually we 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 about over the length of our life. And when we keep God's commandments, we are actually doing ourselves good. 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 Muller, that great man of God who lived a hundred years ago, looking after the poor orphans in England, in the name of Jesus Christ, cared for them and he spent all his savings and all his personal money and everything that he got on those orphans. And when he was about to die, he had only, as far as I remember, only one child, one daughter, and he hadn't left any savings for her. And 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. And he pays wonderful interest on their loan. So he said, if you are ever in need, any time 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. And 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. Verse 18. Discipline your son while there is hope and do not desire his death. And 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 2. Begin when they are 2. 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. You know, 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 are actually helping your children to destroy themselves when you don't discipline them. And there is a marginal rendering of this verse in the Good News Bible. So it's an alternate meaning to this verse 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 is a lot of this around the world. In western countries, it gets a lot of publicity. There is a lot of abuse of children, some terrible stories of the way parents have beat 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 never punish them. The other extreme is to be so violent as to really injure them. The Word of God says there is 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 is written in italics, which means it's not necessarily in the original. It could be a child of, and if you read it like that, you see it's connected to the previous verse, that 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. And he'll rule you. And 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 up 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. That 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. Verse 20 Here are the two requirements for wisdom that's emphasized a number of times in the Book of Proverbs. Two requirements for wisdom. Listen to counsel. That is listen to instruction. And 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. And verse 21 Many are the plans in a man's heart, for 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. To the way you changed the plans I had made for my life. The counsel of the Lord that will stand. This is the mark of a wise man. Though he has made plans and those plans don't materialize he is 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. 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. And 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 and many others. Verse 22 Kindness makes a man attractive and there we all have the opportunity to be good looking. Every one of us have the opportunity to be really good looking, attractive. Kindness There's a beautiful verse in Ecclesiastes chapter 8 and verse 1, the last part. Ecclesiastes 8 verse 1 the last part in the Living Bible it 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, hardness and 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 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. We've noticed, repeated a number of times in the scriptures in the book of Proverbs 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 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 a proof of the fact that we don't fear God enough if we fear 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 and 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 he's lazy and puts 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 means 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 verse 25 in the living bible it says, you punish a smoker and others will learn from his example 1 Timothy 5 20 it 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 verse 15 I've written these things to you so that you know how to conduct yourself in the church of God and 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 and if a person does not take that seriously then he must be rebuked publicly so that the others also may be afraid of sinning so there are certain things that we have to do in public in church which not only are for the benefit of that person whom we are correcting but also for the benefit of others who are watching that they realize that they can't play the fool with God in the church 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 are going to be wiser or whether you are 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 a tremendous wisdom that you can get when you are a child think you 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 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 and 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 went and told others about some weakness there 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 is 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 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 and 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 another possible translation of that verse 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 and the result is that when they read one side of the subject which is according to God's word they get faith and then in order to what they think to be balanced they read the other side of the subject and they get filled with unbelief and the result is they never get baptized in the Holy Spirit 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 and 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 a lot of them sow unbelief into people's heart and 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 and then they don't have faith and 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. We must stop listening to teaching that contradicts what we know is right. Verse 28 A worthless, a 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 and of course 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 and Jesus said that the world is not going to treat us his disciples any better than they treated him and we know that he was treated so unjustly right through to the end of his life and that is the treatment we can expect as well. There will be a lot of injustice on earth. And the latter part of that verse says in the Good News Bible wicked people love the taste of evil wicked people love the taste of evil and that teaches us that if we are really righteous it's not just that we avoid what is evil that we don't even want to taste it that a little bit on our tongue and immediately we reject it. We know how sensitive our tongue is to taste and we can put something on our tongue and just a wee tiny bit and say ah it's a terrible taste. And that must be our attitude towards evil that 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 it says 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 and 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 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 attitude and our thoughts and everything. Chapter 20 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 and strong drink is a brawler that means leads people into fights and 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 here with alcoholic drinks or intoxicating liquor we know that these things are harmful what shall we gain from this verse? I believe that necessity of self-control when it comes to our bodily lust even in the area of food and drink God God calls us to discipline and self control over our bodily lust 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 and 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 and the... 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. 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 and 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 sin 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 and 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 and 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 and even more blessed is the home where both are wise where there are no arguments at all. No 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 Verse 4 again another word about diligence and hard work the lazy man does not plow after the autumn means in the cold season and 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 and 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 and this teaches us about the importance of faithfulness in the time of sowing the seed and that is our present earthly life you know that our whole earthly life 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 but our entire life on earth is a sowing time and this is where we can get discouraged because we can sow and sow not get an immediate harvest and give up that's why the word of god says in Galatians 6 let us sow to the spirit it says let us not lose heart Galatians 6, 9 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 and 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, verse 8, 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 and then 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 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 counsellor's heart, within a wise man's heart but another wise man will draw it out now 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 and 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, he's got advice for that person he's got an opinion on everything and he's got something to tell his neighbours and something to tell his relatives and something to tell everyone that's a mark of a fool but a wise man he sees and he realises 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 and you have to get it out of that wise person, he doesn't just give it out easily, even when you go to him for advice he he is hesitant to give it because he may see that you have no interest in obeying it in any case like you know the people went to Jeremiah once to find out God's will and should we go to Egypt find out God's will whether we should go to Egypt and Jeremiah said alright I'll find out I'm sure you fellas won't obey me he said oh they said oh yes we'll obey you Jeremiah went out and found God's will and said God said 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 and so wise man realises that he senses who is really willing to receive God's word, another reason is that a wise man does not want to trust 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 got 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 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 is 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 and so we say 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 in for example in a giving of 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 the factory and the whole burden of the testimony ultimately is to show other people how faithful I am many people proclaim their own faithfulness not in crude words saying I'm a faithful brother in the church nobody is so stupid to lose his reputation for humility in that way, no they're all wise to preserve our reputation for humility so 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 and 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 and the world is full of such and 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 I'm a pretty faithful brother you see and 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 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 and 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 there, 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, 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 I want to show you and he will arrange circumstances