Watch the Facebook video of this teaching here.
INTRODUCTION: We are all of us on a journey - the journey of life. We’ve traveled from yesterday, proceeding through today and heading for tomorrow. But this world is not our final destination.
Just as we’ve all had a date of birth, we shall all face the time of death.
“Life is a dash” one man concluded when he visited his father’s grave and was thinking about how short life really is. He noticed that between the dates of his father’s birth and his death, there was a little dash that represented the entirety of his life on Earth.
Our life is like a puff of steam that appears for an instant, and then is gone JAMES 4:14 tells us. I’ll be celebrating my 60th birthday in a couple months – yet I can clearly recall days in my childhood when I was just 6 years old! Where has the time gone??
Another man was doing his morning devotionals at his beach house and was meditating on the verse just quoted from JAMES. As he gazed out on the ocean front, he thought about the waves washing to the shore. He likened those waves to the generations of humanity. One generation emerges from infancy, climaxes to adulthood, then descends into aging dilapidation and finally sinks into oblivion only to be replaced by the next generation, and the next and the next.
From GOD’s eternal perspective, this is the lot of all the generations of man in the ocean of life.
WHAT WE CHOOSE IN THIS LIFE MATTERS – It determines which way we will go at the end of our pilgrimage, this brief voyage through this earthly domain.
Marcus Aurelias the Emperor Poet of Rome said something similar:
“What we do in this life will echo throughout eternity.”
It’s of vital importance that we follow the right way, the way of truth, that leads us to and into eternal life, as well as the eternal kingdom that our LORD invites all souls to, by receiving Him as LORD and Savior!
In this portion of Proverbs, from vs. 25 to 33 we read about “a way” and “the way of death” but also “the way of righteousness”. As well as “A way that is not good” and how the LORD decides and guides our way to bring us to the place where we must decide about Who Jesus Christ really is.
He is the focal point of every human soul, whether they realize it or not, whether they believe it or not, whether they accept or even like it or not.
The question that the LORD Jesus asked His disciples is a question that confronts us all:
Just as we’ve all had a date of birth, we shall all face the time of death.
“Life is a dash” one man concluded when he visited his father’s grave and was thinking about how short life really is. He noticed that between the dates of his father’s birth and his death, there was a little dash that represented the entirety of his life on Earth.
Our life is like a puff of steam that appears for an instant, and then is gone JAMES 4:14 tells us. I’ll be celebrating my 60th birthday in a couple months – yet I can clearly recall days in my childhood when I was just 6 years old! Where has the time gone??
Another man was doing his morning devotionals at his beach house and was meditating on the verse just quoted from JAMES. As he gazed out on the ocean front, he thought about the waves washing to the shore. He likened those waves to the generations of humanity. One generation emerges from infancy, climaxes to adulthood, then descends into aging dilapidation and finally sinks into oblivion only to be replaced by the next generation, and the next and the next.
From GOD’s eternal perspective, this is the lot of all the generations of man in the ocean of life.
WHAT WE CHOOSE IN THIS LIFE MATTERS – It determines which way we will go at the end of our pilgrimage, this brief voyage through this earthly domain.
Marcus Aurelias the Emperor Poet of Rome said something similar:
“What we do in this life will echo throughout eternity.”
It’s of vital importance that we follow the right way, the way of truth, that leads us to and into eternal life, as well as the eternal kingdom that our LORD invites all souls to, by receiving Him as LORD and Savior!
In this portion of Proverbs, from vs. 25 to 33 we read about “a way” and “the way of death” but also “the way of righteousness”. As well as “A way that is not good” and how the LORD decides and guides our way to bring us to the place where we must decide about Who Jesus Christ really is.
He is the focal point of every human soul, whether they realize it or not, whether they believe it or not, whether they accept or even like it or not.
The question that the LORD Jesus asked His disciples is a question that confronts us all:
“Who do you say that I am?”
The answer to that question is of paramount importance and will determine which way our soul will go after we leave our decaying body. We know that Peter had the right answer: “You are the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the living GOD”!
PROVERBS 16:25
There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
No one in their right mind is going to choose a way that they know is wrong, unless they’re bent on a path of self-destruction, but then, those sort aren’t in their right mind.
Most of us believe that a way that we’re going is the right way. People choose a way to go because “it seems right…it feels right.”
And note that it says: “A way” – any way of a number of ways. Take your pick, choose a way, any way! All of them, except for one is THE way of death [repeat verse 25].
This is why there are so many religions in the world – because they all “seem right” to some individuals while others see another way as being the right way.
Any and all religions however have this one thing in common:
That we must do something to earn salvation, or paradise, or nirvana, or a higher plane of existence, etc. and so on.
It seems right that we must work for such things because this is how life is in this world: If you want something, you’re going to have to earn it! Nobody gets a free lunch!
Biblical Christianity stands apart from all the religions of this world. Only the Holy Bible declares that salvation is by the grace of GOD and the finished work of Christ on the Cross. We receive eternal life by salvation through faith in the truth of the Gospel. This entails a living, breathing, spiritual relationship and personal knowledge of GOD, Who is now our heavenly Father and in the LORD Jesus Christ Whom He has sent (JN 17:3)!
However, anyone can be sincerely wrong.
To determine the right way, we can’t rely on subjective, touchy, feely intuition or experiences. We need an objective source outside of ourselves. A spiritual compass of truth that ably validates itself as a dependable, trustworthy source of truth.
This is the Holy Bible – when one honestly examines this book, it holds up under the most severe scrutiny.
Atheists and Humanists that were determined to take this Book out have failed, while others who attempted to do so, changed their minds on this crucial matter and have come to believe its claims as well as those of the Author – Jesus Christ.
Those who hate and reject Jesus Christ are those who love death (PROV 8:36)! And there is no one except Jesus that has conquered sin, hell, and death (REV 1:18; ROM 5:12; 6:23; 1 PET 2:24). There are no alternatives for salvation, no Plan B, no substitutions!
If there were, then the Father would have answered the LORD’s prayer when He asked in the Garden of Gethsemane, “If it’s possible, if there is any other way, let this cup pass from Me.” (MATT 26:39,42). That is the only prayer of Jesus that the Father couldn’t answer!
The fact of the matter is human beings are born blind, spiritually speaking (2 COR 4:4), and their hearts are deceitfully wicked above all else (JER 17:9); and the spiritual things of GOD are foolishness to them (1 COR 2:14).
It’s no wonder that we all, apart from Christ’s influence and guidance, are like sheep who have gone astray and don’t seek after GOD (IS 53:6; ROM 3:11). Apart from the LORD’s intervention, we are like lambs to the slaughter, hopelessly lost, on our way to destruction, and not able to find the way to life on our own. This very reason is why we are in need of the Good Shepherd!
The person who labors, labors for himself, For his hungry mouth drives him on.
This is true in the natural sense; it’s also true in the spiritual sense.
When our belly feels hollow, empty, or when we’re thirsty, we consume food or drink until we are contented and fulfilled. But it doesn’t last – eventually we get hungry, and thirsty again.
“Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again” the LORD Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well (JN 4).
Our hearts are also hollow – it’s been said that there is a “GOD-shaped hole” in the very center of our beings that we try to fill with – whatever. Pleasures of various kinds, a self-made mission, a code of morality, objectives like wealth, fame, power, or marriage and family. But none of them are big enough to fill that vacancy.
GOD intentionally allowed this emptiness so that we would be driven to find a way to fill this insatiable hunger and thirst (ROM 8:20).
The Holy Spirit is intent on pointing people to The Right Way, the only Way that can fulfill us – to the Cross of Christ where blood and water flowed from the LAMB of GOD!
The blood for our redemption, and the water for our life:
27 An ungodly man digs up evil, And it is on his lips like a burning fire. 28 A perverse man sows strife, And a whisperer separates the best of friends. 29 A violent man entices his neighbor and leads him in a way that is not good. 30 He winks his eye to devise perverse things; He purses his lips and brings about evil.
Without Christ in a person’s life, all we are left with is our own sin nature, and the works that such a nature produces.
Just look at your typical gay pride parade or a march for pro-abortion rights.
Recently in my home state of Arizona we had Satanists lobbying for the right of opening public hall meetings with an invocation to Satan!
It's not enough that sinful souls engage in sin for themselves and reject any thought about the true and living GOD, but they also want to entice others in leading them into ways “that [are] not good” but into wickedness!
Fascinating that the words “grow cold” in the Greek refer to “cooling by evaporation”. Water evaporates and causes heat transferal and a cooling effect. The Word of GOD is referred to as “water” (EPH 5:26; IS 55:10-11), and just as water evaporates from surfaces and causes cooling, so the evaporation of the Word of GOD from people’s lives – who no longer keep the faith but depart from it – will bring about a coldness that testifies of a deadness towards Jesus Christ. This is where the professing church at large is failing to be salt and light in this fallen world!
PROVERBS 16:31-32
31The silver-haired head is a crown of glory If it is found in the way of righteousness. 32 He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
A life lived infused with the righteousness of Christ, coupled together with years of experiencing Him walking such a person through life will bring that silver hair of glory – at least – for those who have hair. Others without, will still be intimately familiar with that way of righteousness. And along with that maturity, have the temperance, the disciplined, self-controlled life that is mightier than any warrior who could vanquish an entire city!
May we all continue in this discipleship, that is, disciplining our life to be conformed to Christ and His supreme nature in all of its admirable, worshipful attributes, so that we may be able to “rule our spirit” no matter what the circumstances! That in all ways, we may bring glory to GOD!
PROVERBS 16:33
The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the LORD.
In the life of a believer, there is no such thing as a coincidence. GOD is working, always behind the scenes to work His glory through our lives, and our blessing. Sometimes we can recognize the hand of GOD at work, and I like to refer to them as a “GODincidence”!
Someone once said, “A coincidence for the Christian happens when GOD wishes to remain anonymous”.
So, in recognition of all the blessings and burdens, the triumphs and trials, the good and the bad, may we surrender fully with implicitly trusting hearts to the LORD our Beloved LORD and Savior, and say with Job, who answered his wife when they experienced the greatest tragedies of their lives:
PROVERBS 16:25
There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
No one in their right mind is going to choose a way that they know is wrong, unless they’re bent on a path of self-destruction, but then, those sort aren’t in their right mind.
Most of us believe that a way that we’re going is the right way. People choose a way to go because “it seems right…it feels right.”
And note that it says: “A way” – any way of a number of ways. Take your pick, choose a way, any way! All of them, except for one is THE way of death [repeat verse 25].
This is why there are so many religions in the world – because they all “seem right” to some individuals while others see another way as being the right way.
Any and all religions however have this one thing in common:
That we must do something to earn salvation, or paradise, or nirvana, or a higher plane of existence, etc. and so on.
It seems right that we must work for such things because this is how life is in this world: If you want something, you’re going to have to earn it! Nobody gets a free lunch!
Biblical Christianity stands apart from all the religions of this world. Only the Holy Bible declares that salvation is by the grace of GOD and the finished work of Christ on the Cross. We receive eternal life by salvation through faith in the truth of the Gospel. This entails a living, breathing, spiritual relationship and personal knowledge of GOD, Who is now our heavenly Father and in the LORD Jesus Christ Whom He has sent (JN 17:3)!
JOHN 14:6In ACTS 16 the apostle Paul was grieved by a young girl who had the demonic gift of divination, who followed behind him and his entourage “for many days” and declared “these men are servants of the most High GOD, who proclaim A way of salvation”. In the Greek, it’s an indefinite article – not “the way” but “a way”. That’s the message that this demon possessed girl claimed the apostle was bringing to the city of Philippi. This is what this world believes – anyway is the right way just so long as you’re sincere.
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
ROMANS 1:16-17
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."
However, anyone can be sincerely wrong.
To determine the right way, we can’t rely on subjective, touchy, feely intuition or experiences. We need an objective source outside of ourselves. A spiritual compass of truth that ably validates itself as a dependable, trustworthy source of truth.
This is the Holy Bible – when one honestly examines this book, it holds up under the most severe scrutiny.
Atheists and Humanists that were determined to take this Book out have failed, while others who attempted to do so, changed their minds on this crucial matter and have come to believe its claims as well as those of the Author – Jesus Christ.
Those who hate and reject Jesus Christ are those who love death (PROV 8:36)! And there is no one except Jesus that has conquered sin, hell, and death (REV 1:18; ROM 5:12; 6:23; 1 PET 2:24). There are no alternatives for salvation, no Plan B, no substitutions!
If there were, then the Father would have answered the LORD’s prayer when He asked in the Garden of Gethsemane, “If it’s possible, if there is any other way, let this cup pass from Me.” (MATT 26:39,42). That is the only prayer of Jesus that the Father couldn’t answer!
The fact of the matter is human beings are born blind, spiritually speaking (2 COR 4:4), and their hearts are deceitfully wicked above all else (JER 17:9); and the spiritual things of GOD are foolishness to them (1 COR 2:14).
It’s no wonder that we all, apart from Christ’s influence and guidance, are like sheep who have gone astray and don’t seek after GOD (IS 53:6; ROM 3:11). Apart from the LORD’s intervention, we are like lambs to the slaughter, hopelessly lost, on our way to destruction, and not able to find the way to life on our own. This very reason is why we are in need of the Good Shepherd!
PSALM 16:11PROVERBS 16:26
You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
MATTHEW 9:36
But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.
JOHN 10:11,14-15
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep and am known by My own. 15 "As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
The person who labors, labors for himself, For his hungry mouth drives him on.
This is true in the natural sense; it’s also true in the spiritual sense.
When our belly feels hollow, empty, or when we’re thirsty, we consume food or drink until we are contented and fulfilled. But it doesn’t last – eventually we get hungry, and thirsty again.
“Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again” the LORD Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well (JN 4).
Our hearts are also hollow – it’s been said that there is a “GOD-shaped hole” in the very center of our beings that we try to fill with – whatever. Pleasures of various kinds, a self-made mission, a code of morality, objectives like wealth, fame, power, or marriage and family. But none of them are big enough to fill that vacancy.
GOD intentionally allowed this emptiness so that we would be driven to find a way to fill this insatiable hunger and thirst (ROM 8:20).
The Holy Spirit is intent on pointing people to The Right Way, the only Way that can fulfill us – to the Cross of Christ where blood and water flowed from the LAMB of GOD!
The blood for our redemption, and the water for our life:
JOHN 4:14Only through Jesus Christ can we rest from the laborious attempt to fill our spiritual void and find rest in Him.
but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.
MATTHEW 11:28-29PROVERBS 16:27-30
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (see also HEB 4:1-3).
27 An ungodly man digs up evil, And it is on his lips like a burning fire. 28 A perverse man sows strife, And a whisperer separates the best of friends. 29 A violent man entices his neighbor and leads him in a way that is not good. 30 He winks his eye to devise perverse things; He purses his lips and brings about evil.
Without Christ in a person’s life, all we are left with is our own sin nature, and the works that such a nature produces.
GALATIANS 5:19-21Such are the things that people “dig up” and digging requires intent, doesn’t it? It’s an intentional action to uncover that which is hidden. Ungodly souls intentionally showcase their evil in a celebration of rebellion.
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Note: “sorcery” is from the word pharmakeia, which refers to witchcraft, but it’s also the word from which we get pharmaceuticals from, and in this case in particular, those of the mind-altering sort: hallucinogenic especially).
MATTHEW 15:18-20a
18 "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19 "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. 20 "These are the things which defile a man…."
Just look at your typical gay pride parade or a march for pro-abortion rights.
Recently in my home state of Arizona we had Satanists lobbying for the right of opening public hall meetings with an invocation to Satan!
It's not enough that sinful souls engage in sin for themselves and reject any thought about the true and living GOD, but they also want to entice others in leading them into ways “that [are] not good” but into wickedness!
ROMANS 1:28-32And we see lawlessness – iniquity abounding in our society. The LORD Jesus said that these things would increase more and more, and such that will cause the love from many to grow cold! Iniquity that’s abounding so much that it’s causing those who should be a godly influence on society, these professing believers who claim Jesus as LORD to be influenced by society – and grow cold in their relationship with the LORD.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, [This is the human heart! This is what we are made of in our own sin nature!]! disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
Fascinating that the words “grow cold” in the Greek refer to “cooling by evaporation”. Water evaporates and causes heat transferal and a cooling effect. The Word of GOD is referred to as “water” (EPH 5:26; IS 55:10-11), and just as water evaporates from surfaces and causes cooling, so the evaporation of the Word of GOD from people’s lives – who no longer keep the faith but depart from it – will bring about a coldness that testifies of a deadness towards Jesus Christ. This is where the professing church at large is failing to be salt and light in this fallen world!
PROVERBS 16:31-32
31The silver-haired head is a crown of glory If it is found in the way of righteousness. 32 He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
A life lived infused with the righteousness of Christ, coupled together with years of experiencing Him walking such a person through life will bring that silver hair of glory – at least – for those who have hair. Others without, will still be intimately familiar with that way of righteousness. And along with that maturity, have the temperance, the disciplined, self-controlled life that is mightier than any warrior who could vanquish an entire city!
May we all continue in this discipleship, that is, disciplining our life to be conformed to Christ and His supreme nature in all of its admirable, worshipful attributes, so that we may be able to “rule our spirit” no matter what the circumstances! That in all ways, we may bring glory to GOD!
PROVERBS 16:33
The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the LORD.
In the life of a believer, there is no such thing as a coincidence. GOD is working, always behind the scenes to work His glory through our lives, and our blessing. Sometimes we can recognize the hand of GOD at work, and I like to refer to them as a “GODincidence”!
Someone once said, “A coincidence for the Christian happens when GOD wishes to remain anonymous”.
So, in recognition of all the blessings and burdens, the triumphs and trials, the good and the bad, may we surrender fully with implicitly trusting hearts to the LORD our Beloved LORD and Savior, and say with Job, who answered his wife when they experienced the greatest tragedies of their lives:
JOB 2:10bAnd may we continue to follow the LORD Who faithfully shows us the way of life, where genuine, spiritual pleasures are found forever more, as we learn more and more of the heart of our LORD Jesus! And in this grand journey of life that we are going through, having chosen the right way, let us understand with excited anticipation, that what we learn all the precious lessons of truth, all the intimacies that we gain in relationship with the LORD, all these blessings and treasures we’ve experienced, we have only scratched the surface! As blessed as that is, we will know more than this throughout eternity as we discover the ever deeper truths of the nature of Christ, in a never ending exploration of the Person of Jesus Christ!
…Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
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