Posted on 06/13/2021 10:47:05 PM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous hath hope in his death” (Proverbs 14:32).
“The wicked is driven away in his wickedness,” Adam was driven out of the garden because of his sin. This is that Old Testament truth where if a man did right, he lived in his righteousness, and if he did wrong, he lived in his wickedness. He reaped physically because of it.
“. . . but the righteous hath hope in his death,” the contrast here is the rich man and Lazarus, in Luke 16. The wicked is driven away, he wasn’t allowed in the abode of the saints. The angels, on the other hand, came and got Lazarus and carried him directly to Abraham’s bosom, the place that in the Old Testament is called Paradise. Lazarus had hope in his death, the rich man was driven away and cast into a place where he could not even find a drop of water to quench his thirst.
We tend to read Luke 16 and then go on to Luke 17 and treat this as a story, but that rich man is still in that place, and he is still seeking for even a drop of water. His judgment is never ending, and Lazarus is still comforted in Paradise.
“. . . but the righteous hath hope in his death,” Titus says that we have the “hope of eternal life”: “Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour” (Titus 1:1-3).
Paul tells us that if Jesus Christ did not arise from the dead, “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (I Corinthians 15:17-19). Ours is not an empty hope! Our hope is not only in this life.
Cam Thompson wrote:
It is certain that I would now be in Hell if I had not had by me a copy of the word of God. As it is impossible to find hope in the word for those who have gone into the fire’s eternal, so it is impossible to find hope in the word for those who have never heard.
Men are born lost in a world that is lost, of a race that is poisoned to its core with sin. Who can misunderstand the meaning of this verse: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36)
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The book of Proverbs should be mandatory reading in public schools. In fact the Bible was part of the educational curriculum back in the Colonial era. Today’s godless pukes in the educational systems are closer to what fools are as described in Proverbs vs the wise.
Bump.
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