THE INSECURE VERSUS THE INSURED

Proverbs 28:1have

“The wicked flee when no man pursueth: But the righteous are bold as a lion”

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INTRODUCTION:  I’m thrilled that some of you are continuing to read a chapter of Proverbs every day (as I am).  Today I opened my Bible to Proverbs 28 and asked the Lord to speak to me from this chapter.  I couldn’t get by verse one.  I thought about it, I prayed about it, and I thought about it again.  But I decided to keep the rule and slowly read the entire chapter.  BUT I couldn’t get verse one out of my mind, so I got up and got a cup of coffee and tried to think about some other verse, but that one was stuck there.  Do you know what I mean?

So, I said to myself, all right, then I will meditate on Proverbs 28:1, thinking about what I am supposed to learn, remember, or do. 

 I. THE INSECURE – Prov. 28:1a

“The wicked flee when no man pursueth” (28:1a).

When I was a teenager I was INSECURE about everything.

1) I was insecure about my job.

2) I was insecure about my schooling.

3) I was insecure about my friends.

4) I was insecure about a girl friend  

5) I was insecure about marriage in the future

6) I was insecure about my future in general

7) I was insecure about death.  My best friend died in a car accident.  He was 16 and I was 17.

II.  THE INSURED – Proverbs 28:1b

“But the righteous are bold as a lion” (28:1b).

 The righteous are bold as a lion because they have assurance from the Lord.

I almost died several times that I knew of.  My older brother told me, “Everyone almost dies every time they get on the highway.”  But twice when I was fourteen, I almost drowned in a lake. When my two friends saved me and pulled me out on dry land, I didn’t want them to turn loose of me, even on dry land. 

But when I became a Christian, I received eternal life.  I was eternally changed.  My life style was changed.  I didn’t know that II Corinthians 5:17 was in the Bible until later.  (“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.")

I felt insured!  I felt so secure in the Lord about my future and about EVERYTHING.  My first memory passage was Romans 10:9-10: “⁹That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  ¹⁰For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”. No one told me to memorize Romans 10:9-10. I just loved this Scripture.  It spoke to me day and night.

Since then, I have memorized many verses that show me that God has eternally secured me for Himself.  I am so grateful for His Gospel, for His Goodness, and for His Guidance.  Since then, I have never felt insecure.  

JUDGE RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENTS

Introduction:  As I hear all the controversies concerning Duck Dynasty, it bothers me that people mix their opinions with what they think is Biblical doctrine.  Actually, the Bible instructs us to judge: We have the commandment to judge, the caution about judging, and the consequences of judging.

I.The commandment to judge – Jn. 7:24

Jesus said, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”

II. The caution about judging – Mt. 7:1-2

Again, Jesus said, “¹Judge not, that ye be not judged. ²For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”

You can’t talk about good and evil, right and wrong, without judging.   The judgment Jesus is talking about doesn’t have to do with condemning anyone to hell.  Only God gives that kind of judgment.  Here are some Scriptures:

Leviticus 18:22–23

²²Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

²³Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.

Leviticus 20:10–21

¹⁰And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

¹¹And the man that lieth with his father’s wife hath uncovered his father’s nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

¹²And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them.

¹³If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

¹⁴And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you.

¹⁵And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast.

¹⁶And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

¹⁷And if a man shall take his sister, his father’s daughter, or his mother’s daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people: he hath uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.

¹⁸And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.

¹⁹And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister, nor of thy father’s sister: for he uncovereth his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity.

²⁰And if a man shall lie with his uncle’s wife, he hath uncovered his uncle’s nakedness: they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.

²¹And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.

Romans 1:26–27

²⁶For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

²⁷And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

                              

1 Corinthians 6:9–10

⁹Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

¹⁰Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:19–21

¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

²⁰Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

²¹Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Timothy 1:10

¹⁰For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

Revelation 21:8

⁸But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

III. The consequences of judging- Mt. 7:3-5

Jesus continued, “ ³And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? ⁴Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? ⁵Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”

I recently had a two-inch thorn that went all the way through my shoe pulled out of my foot.  That was painful!  But if I had a little thorn in my eye, I would definitely want a professional who could see and knew what he was doing to take it out.  I wouldn’t just want to leave it there.