PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“A man shall be commended according to his wisdom: but he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised” (Proverbs 12:8).

“. . . but he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised.” that perverse heart is in connection with the counsel of the wicked back in verse five where the thoughts of the righteous are right and there the thoughts of the unrighteous are wrong. Well, it says here, “but he that is of a perverse heart.” The only place in the Bible that a perverse heart shows up, although we also see in Isaiah 19:14, talking about Egypt which is a type of the world, where it speaks of “a perverse spirit.”

“. . . but he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised,” your soul is the most valuable thing that you can possibly be in position of, and “what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul” (Mark 8:36)? But, for most of us, at one time or another, we are awful fleshly; and we get to thinking that our physical life is the next most important thing. Well, that's not true. Your heart is. And, given now that you're saved, and the devil can't get your soul; the next thing he's after is your heart and mind.

The fact of the matter is that we live in a sewer, and we have to clean up all the time. We need the cleansing Blood of Jesus Christ daily, if not hourly. Our verse is here talking about a perverse heart, “he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised.” Let’s just look how often Solomon mentions this matter.

“He that walketh in his uprightness feareth the LORD: but he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him” (Proverbs 14:2).

When you are trying to do right, you fear God; but on the other hand, it’s a rule of the road that when you start going down the wrong track you will wind up hating God, or else only admitting to hating parts of Him. The church today is filled with people who are happy enough to hear about certain things, but when it comes to certain other things, they hate that. They love to hear about blessings well enough, but when it comes to biblical standards—change the subject, please. They hate the fact that those things get brought up, and they hate that part of God.

There is a kind of Christian idolatry, where people build the kind of Jesus they want; and leave out the parts that they don't like.

There are people in this world that call themselves Christians, but they hate the part of Christ that would judge sins; such as sodomy and adultery. Yet, “whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4) is in the Bible, so it is His Word that they really hate, so they don’t want to hear that and so they leave that out. The new versions are really bad about that. They call it “immorality,” but they won't address it as fornication, but God will judge that. So, people leave that out. If you're not careful, you'll grow to hate the part of God that's going to judge your sin.

“He that hath a froward heart findeth no good: and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief” (Proverbs 17:20).

Here is another rule of the road. If you have a sharp perverse tongue, it'll get you in trouble. It will lead you to trouble. Have you ever known a smart aleck that didn't wind up in trouble? It is true that there may be some people who aren't smart alecks that get in trouble, but the Bible says, “He that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief,” like a snare.

The Lord said, “every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof on the day of judgement” (Matthew 12:36). a man is snared by the words of his mouth. Somewhere along the way he'll shoot his mouth off and God will say “Okay, I'll hold you to that.” He did Saul. Saul said, “As the Lord liveth,” you know, “whether it’s me or Jonathan, whoever it is, will be killed. Well, it was Jonathon, and he didn't kill him. But he had sworn, “as the Lord liveth,” and he paid for it.

On another occasion, David had no clue what he was saying. He was just mad at the story that a guy stole another guy’s sheep, so, in his anger he said that the guy would “surely die.” “Okay,” God said, “I'll hold you to that. It will be repaid fourfold? I’ll hold you to that.”

“Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool” (Proverbs 19:1).

Paul says in the Book of Acts, that there would be men that came in behind him speaking perverse things. So, apostasy is nothing new. It's been going on, even while the apostles were alive.

Let’s read a chapter of Proverbs a day and see what God might have for us. As the Lord leads, share with us what God has shown you in a special way and by His grace let us build up a devotional repository. Let’s keep our knives and forks handy for some daily bread!

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Well , as nice as it is to gain positive recognition , I enjoy far more the peace and beauty from God as we seek his grace and garner his approval from our thoughts,words and actions . I also would like to add that it seems to me that perverse thoughts and actions are not despised as heavily as they once were . Satan muddies the water’s of definition apparently so as to perpetuate chaos amongst us so that his strife and pain can flourish amongst the Godless and the strays. Just my observation . Praise to God his son Jesus Christ our saviour and of course the helper who is with us at a whim .

Saw this on Facebook just this morning.

“Gradually, the unthinkable becomes tolerable, then acceptable, then legal, then praised.”