The Book of Proverbs

The Ambassador Group

10. Proverbs: Behind the Mask

Welcome to Words of the Wise, an introduction to the Book of Proverbs by Dr.

Ducan, edited for audio by the Ambassador Group.

Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the King, and do not stand in the place of the Great.

Proverbs 25, verse 6, New King James Version.

Behind the dazzling serpent, who utters sweet words, and who seems so concerned with Eve's happiness, hides the enemy who plots her death.

As Genesis 3, 1-6 says, Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make 1 wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat." Disguised as an angel of light, Satan prepares the most dangerous traps for humankind.

Second Corinthians 11.14 says, And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Even more dangerous and deceitful is self-pretension.

When we claim to be what we are not, we end up cheating others and even ourselves.

1 of the most common is through language.

Some of the proverbs in this exploration will deal with words, lying words, flattering words, pretty words that use nice sounds and wonderful sentiments to cover ugly thoughts and intentions.

Let's be careful not only about what we say to others, but about how we interpret what others say to us.

Perhaps this explorations message could be summed up with Jesus's words to his disciples as he was sending them on their first mission.

Behold, I send You The Mystery of God Life is full of mysteries.

Physicist David Deutsch wrote that, "...everyday events are stupendously complex when expressed in terms of fundamental physics.

If you fill a kettle with water and switch it on, all the supercomputers on Earth working for the age of the universe could not solve the equations that predict what all those water molecules will do, even if we could somehow determine their initial state and that of all the outside influences on them, which is itself an intractable task.

Here is the information for that paragraph.

The book is entitled The beginning of infinity, explanations that transform the world.

The publisher is the Penguin Group, Kindle edition.

If we are confounded about something as mundane as water molecules, how could we even begin to expect to understand the mysteries of God?

Let's listen to Proverbs 25 verses 2 and 3.

What point is the author making, and how would you apply it to a broader situation?

It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.

The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable.

What makes the glory of God different from the glory of kings is his mysterious nature, and by implication our human incapacity to fully understand him.

The Hebrew root, ster, which means to conceal, to hide, from which comes our word mystery, is often used in the Hebrew scriptures to characterize what makes God the only true God.

Thus saith the Lord, the labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and of the Sabeans, men of stature, which shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine.

They shall come after thee, in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto thee.

They shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely God is in thee, and there is none else.

Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour." There are things about God that we simply cannot understand.

On the other hand, what makes the glory of kings is their willingness to be scrutinized.

Transparency and accountability should be the first quality of leadership, as described in detail in Deuteronomy 17, Verses 14-20, which say, When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me.

Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose.

1 from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee.

Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.

But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses.

For as much as the Lord hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.

Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away.

Neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

And when it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law, in a book out of that which is before the priests, the Levites.

And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them, that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he Turn not aside from the commandment, to the right or to the left, to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel." In these verses, a fitness for leadership comes as a result of first submitting to God's design for leadership, obeying and doing His laws.

It is the king's duty to search out a matter, that is, to give an explanation for events and for what he is doing.

Life is so full of unanswered questions, isn't it?

In a split second, seemingly random events can mean the difference between life and death.

Some people go from 1 tragedy to another, while others do fine.

All the events in life remind us to live by faith?

What things are happening right now in your life that you have to accept by faith, trusting in God?

The Fool as Wise Though not a recent fabrication, especially in the Western world, the idea has taken hold in recent years that argues for the relative nature of truth.

That is, what is true for 1 person or 1 culture might not be true for another.

While on 1 level, this is always correct, for example, some places drive on the right side of the road, while others on the left side of the road, on another, it's a dangerous error, especially in the moral realm.

Certain things are right and others are wrong, regardless of where we live or our personal preferences.

In the end, we must always submit our views to the Word of God and the truths found there.

God's Word must be our ultimate source for knowing right and wrong, good and evil.

Here is a question for you to answer based upon 5 texts in the Bible.

First, here's the question that we will be answering.

This will be our primary text, Proverbs 26 verses 11 and 12.

As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.

Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit?

There is more hope of a fool than of him.

Judges 21 verse 25 says, In those days there was no king in Israel.

Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God.

It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

First Corinthians 2, verses 6 and 7 says, Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught.

But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory.

For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly, to you word.

As we have heard, this idea of doing what is right in one's own eyes is nothing new.

As we have already seen, none of us understands everything.

In fact, we don't fully understand anything.

We all have areas where we need to grow and learn, so let's always be open to the fact that we don't have all the answers.

In the case of fools, as seen in this proverb, the reason to be concerned is that the influence of their folly will go beyond themselves.

They are now more convinced than ever of their wisdom.

They may even be so convincing that others will think they are wise, will honor them, and consult them for advice, which can lead to big problems, as Proverbs 26, verse 8 points out.

"'As he that bindeth a stone in a sling, so is he that giveth honor to a fool.' Folly will spread, but labeled as wisdom, it can be that much more damaging.

What is even worse, fools are so foolish that they are not aware of their folly.

On a personal, reflective, and introspective note, How often are you tempted to compromise on what you know are core values, core truths?

What happens, however, when certain core values collide?

How do you know which values are more important than the other values?

The Sluggard The Sluggard Proverbs 26, verse 15 in the New International version says, the sluggard buries his hand in the dish.

It's Your Money! Isn't It?

G. Edward Reid

Omega Productions

12- The Final Accounting

Welcome to It's Your Money, a practical guide for managing the financial resources God has provided.

Your host is Christian attorney and financial counselor, G.

We are focusing today on number 10 in our lesson, and that is the Judgment Bar of God.

We're looking at the biblical principles of money management.

Now I'm just going to tell you that 1 of the chapters you may wish to read in this regard is Matthew 25.

And actually there's a chapter written all in red in my Bible.

The story of the 10 virgins, the story of the parables, the talents, the parable of the talents, and then the last 1 is the judgment of the Gentiles.

The last 1 we sometimes call the parable of the sheep and the goats, but they really give a picture of how people spent their money.

We know we must give an account, but let's look just quickly at the middle parable starting with verse 14.

For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling in a far country who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them.

And he gave 1 5 talents, to another 2 and to another 1, to each according to his own ability, and immediately he went on his journey." There's a lot we could learn here, but remember that most everybody would like to have more money or they would like to be rich, but remember God has given it to us according to our ability to manage.

Sometimes people get money and they don't know how to manage it, and they get into worse shape than they were before.

So We must understand how important this is.

And also, he delivered his goods to them.

We're not talking about giving them spiritual gifts like discernment or ability to sing or preach or whatever.

God has blessed us with assets, and this is important to know.

Well, it doesn't take a great deal of insight to recognize that God has blessed each 1 of us and that we're his servants.

Then he who had received the 5 talents went and traded with them and made other talents or he improved them.

Likewise he had received 2, gained also others.

And he who'd received only 1 went and dug in the ground and hid his Lord's money.

Verse 19, After a long time, the Lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

In other words, this was the day of reckoning.

So he would receive 5 talents, came and brought other 5 talents, saying, Lord, you delivered to me 5 talents.

And his Lord said to him, well done thou good and faithful servant.

I'm gonna make you rule over many things.

And the 1 had done 2, remember He also gained 2 more.

Well done But the 1 who had hit only who had only 1 had hit it and he's the 1 who said I was afraid and I went And hid your talent.

But remember he was lazy and didn't use it properly and he did not get that good commendation as you may remember.

So there's a fascinating thing in this life and we have the opportunity, according to God, using Matthew 7, 24-27, that we're building on the sand or on the rock.

And I'm going to go there just quickly in my Bible, and would encourage you to do so.

This is part of Jesus' famous sermon on the mountainside, and it's 3 chapters, chapters 5, 6, and 7, but we're just going to look at Matthew 7, 24 to 27.

Therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock." Now verse 26 says, everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell and great was its fall.

Now I frequently ask people, what really is the difference between these 2 men?

The wise man heard the words and did them.

The foolish man heard the words but didn't do them.

So We've gone through 11 sessions so far, and this is our final 1, the capstone.

And the big question is, you now have a better insight into God's word.

There are Many interesting situations in life, but it becomes more complex when we see all the things that are happening about us.

In fact, Luke, the 21st chapter, has a real interesting passage, and I'll share it with you, it's verse 25, Luke 21-25, and it says, "...and there will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars and on the earth distress of nations with perplexity." By the way, that's the only time the word perplexity is used in the whole Bible, and the word is, there's no way out, they're struggling in vain, and the sea and the waves roaring.

In other words, this is a condition that people have.

But those stories of Matthew 25 are kind of interesting.

There's 3 stories, and they all talk about management in a sense.

And we're talking about the first 1, the parable of the 10 virgins, we're talking about our needs then, things that we need to do to prepare for eternity.

How much are we spending on spiritual growth of our family?

We're all eager to get a new TV or a new CD player, a new DVD or whatever, but have we spent time for good Christian books or have we taken our children on a mission trip?

Those kind of things to instill the importance of being involved with God's cause.

There are other factors that you can look at here because there was actually buying and selling involved.

We cannot do this for another person, but it says those that were ready went in with him.

The others had gone to buy something that they should have spent money on before, apparently.

And when they came back, the answer was, when they said, Lord, open to us, he said, assuredly I say to you, I don't know you.

The middle parable that we've just looked at talks about the talents, and that is our responsibility to the cause of God.

Now I hope you're getting a picture here.

The third 1 is the story of the sheep and the goats, and that's helping others.

Now throughout this series I've talked about 3 ways to spend money—our needs, the needs of others, and the needs of God's cause—and they're all right here in Matthew 25 in a way that you can see them.

Now, this parable, or these parables, that is the 1 of the talents and the sheep and the goats, were given for last-day Christians.

And we're told in volume 1 of the testimonies, a real interesting passage here, it's page 197, and that is this parable, important lesson, was given to the disciples for the benefit of Christians living in the last days.

The parable applies to the temporal means which God has entrusted to his people.

God requires those who have possessions here to put them into the cause to spread the truth.

Now we're not really saying that if God gives me $100, 000 that I need to have $200, 000 when he comes back.

We have to understand, have we used it for the advancement of God's cause?

So in Volume 2 of the Testimony, 660, we're told, every soul saved is a talent gained.

6 Testimonies, actually, 448, talks about revenue to him in souls saved.

So we're talking about multiplication of talents.

Now it's kind of a sad thing that sometimes as Christians we can look back on our life and see that we've sent most of our money on ourselves, and sometimes people can look back and really not say anybody that they've brought into God's cause or they've been some benefit to at all.

So we want to really look at the benefit of our lives in the multiplication of talents.

We talk also about giving it all back to him.

Matthew 25, when he returns, remember that everyone gives it all back to him.

This is really interesting because we talked in the last session about estate planning.

If God is the owner of everything when we're done with it, what should we do?

In this case all 3 gave it back to him and then he returned it to them, the principle and the interest, which is quite fascinating.

11- Investing for Your Future

This session is number 11 and we're dealing with investments and I've titled it worry-free investments.

Actually there's only 1 kind of investment that's worry-free and that's the kind that we've stored up in heaven but we will try to help you in that regard and also with the earthly investments that we all must make so that we have emergency funds and also as we retire to have something to supplement the Social Security and so on that we've talked about earlier.

So let's go right to our Bibles, and we're going to look first, and this is for those of you that have your workbook.

It'll be on page 34, and we're talking about things to do and things not to do from a biblical perspective.

Now, it's kind of interesting that the Bible says, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal.

In other words, earthly investments are not safe.

As a matter of fact, there needs to be some investment here so we want to look for the safest places.

But if we knew a safe place, then it'd be difficult.

You would make a lot of money if you knew a place that was very, very safe.

A friend of mine who was a principal of a school, as his mother was advanced in years, in the last couple of years of her life, she came and lived with him.

And she had made her will and she had him listed as the executor of the estate.

But he, when she passed away, he called me and he said, Ed, you know, I'm a principal, I'm not an attorney, I don't understand this.

Is there any way you could probate this estate for me?

And I said, oh sure, we can go to the probate office and I can get letters of administration if you sign over that responsibility.

And I can take her will and you can share with me what her assets were and I can you know make arrangements to pay off her debts and distribute the property according to her will.

1 of the accounts that she had was a senior account with Merrill Lynch.

Now I'm mentioning the name here not because I don't like that company, but just because it was a prominent company It could have happened with anyone likely But she had a senior account with Merrill Lynch and the extra the headquarters were in Boulder, Colorado Of where she had gotten hers and she had been dealing by mail back and forth with that organization She didn't have a lot of money there, but she had about $10, 000, I think, is what her last statement.

When the son gave me, who was my age, gave me her papers, I noticed that she had an account with this company.

But The last statement I had was maybe 6 months old.

Which by the way means that we should be more organized in our stuff.

But anyway, he gave me this senior account from Merrill Lynch.

So I wrote to them on my office stationery as an attorney and I also enclosed a copy of her death certificate in my letters of administration and then in the letter I stated that I wanted them to close her account and send me a check, a cashier's check for the balance so that I could probate her estate, take care of her debts and distribute the assets and so on.

And actually I have a little bit of humor in my life.

It's not easy to come out in recordings, but I will just tell you that I added on the letter, knowing that you're bullish on America.

Her account is probably a lot bigger than this now, but it was $10, 000 something when I had this last statement, and I sent the letter off to them.

I always send these kinds of letters, registered mail, so in a few days I got a little green postcard back stating they had picked it up and they had someone's signature on it from the office in Boulder.

But I waited for a week and then another week and a third week and nothing happened.

So I decided to phone them and I introduced myself and said I'm calling on behalf of a certain person and this is her account number and the switchboard operator said well a certain person is handling that, let me switch you over there.

So when the gentleman got on the phone I said, hi I'm Ed Reed, I'm probating the estate of a certain lady, gave her name and her account number and said, oh I have that file right on my desk.

I've been meaning to talk to you but he said, we well her accounts down a little bit he said.

She unfortunately made some poor investment decisions.

She hasn't made any investments for years.

And well, on behalf of her, I'm telling you that, that her account is kind of down.

Anyway, I said, well, you'll just need to close the account and send me a cashier's check for the balance.

When I got it, the check was for about $7, 400.

That's not nearly as bad as many people today are losing money in the stock market, but Nonetheless, it would have been quite a blow to her to realize that a quarter of her investments were gone.

Now, this lady would have actually been better off with her money buried in the backyard, unless her neighbors had a big dog that liked to dig.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

10. Proverbs: Behind the Mask

27m

12- The Final Accounting

28m

11- Investing for Your Future

28m

10- Estate Planning

28m

9- Planning for Retirement

28m

8- A Home of Your Own

28m

7- Train Up a Child

28m

6- Budgeting Suggestions

28m

5- Dealing With Debt

28m

4- Why Tithing Was Established

28m

3- In Everything You Do Put God First

28m

2- For Now and Eternity

28m

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