PROFITING FROM PROVERBS - 5/16/2019

KING JAMES BIBLE | 5/16/2019 | PilgrimsProgress

[Pilgrim's Progress]

“The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil” (Proverbs 16:4).

[Pilgrim's Progress]

This is one of the texts that the Calvinists just love. The Calvinist will say, “See there, God made the wicked so that could destroy them.” Well, if all we had for a Bible was Proverbs 16:4 then we would have to have to agree with the Calvinists, and we would probably all be Calvinists as well, but the problem is that there is a verse 6.

Verse 6 says, “by mercy and truth iniquity is purged, and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.”

It is by mercy and truth, not by the predestination of God, man comes to the Gospel. By mercy and truth, if a man will fall upon the mercy of God and accept the truth: “He that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God” (John 3:21).

Calvinism isn’t the problem, the problem is: “That light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved” (John 3:19-20).

The solution is that if a man wants to do right and wants the truth, God will save him, and won’t destroy him.

“. . . and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil,” a man can escape the evil. He is not predestinated to the day of evil. If he ends up in the day of evil, that is because that is what he wanted, and God made him for it.

Now, there are some men in the Bible that God hardened and made them more evil in a sense by hardening them. But why? Because they rejected the truth. They did not want the truth. And they did not want anything to do with God or His mercy. Pharaoh was one of them. It wasn’t that God made him like that, it was Pharaoh’s own will, and because he willed in his heart not to obey God, God hardened his heart even more.

God did the same thing to Ahab. Ahab didn’t want the truth. Ahab didn’t want to do right. Ahab was not interested in God’s mercy or His truth, so in First Kings 22 God sent Ahab a lying spirit in the mouth of all of his prophets to deceive him to send him into the battle which would kill him. God made him for the evil day.

Again, why did God harden these men? Because they would not submit to God when God first began to deal with them. Later in verse 9 we will see that a “man’s heart deviseth his way.”