Posted on 01/26/2022 11:28:32 PM PST by Pilgrim's Progress
“Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips. A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both. Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?” (Proverbs 27:1 KJV).
“Boast not thyself of to morrow,” as the rich young fool said in Luke, “I’ll build bigger barns, I’ll do this, I’ll do that. I’ll say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many things laid up against tomorrow’” The Lord said, “This night!” There was no tomorrow in the life of a fool, only today. He only cared about now, not laying up treasures in store for tomorrow. A companion verse to this, and one that ought to be memorized is, “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (Jas 4:14 KJV).
Every soul winner ought to have this verse in their repertoire. This is a verse that you should leave with every one that is lost. It is a verse that the Holy Spirit will use mightily in his conscience. You know the ones that say, “Well, I’ll probably get saved next week, just not today.” “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth”
Here you go, “a stranger, and not thing own lips,” there's only one place honest to goodness, truthful praise can come from, and that's a stranger. It can’t really come from your family; they know you. It can't come from your friends; they might be trying to use you. But a stranger, who's never met you, never known you; if he praises you, he got good reason, because it isn’t normal for strangers to do. That is really a great text there. That's really the only place true praise could ever come from, other than God, is a stranger. That's a good one.
A fool's wrath, the wrath of a fool, like Nero. You know, it's one thing to suffer wrath from the righteous King who's doing right, but when there's no reason nor rhyme behind; it is heavy burden to bear. The wrath of a fool. Like a Prince, just doing it for fun. Nero killed the Christians just for entertainment. That’s the wrath of a fool. That's hard to bear.
It was one thing for Daniel be thrown in the Lion’s den for breaking the law. He did break the law. I mean, it was really not right, but I tell you that that's a whole lot easier to bear that just being crucified or killed just for a sick king’s pleasure. See, the wrath of a fool that has no reason nor purpose behind it, that's a heavy burden to bear.
“Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?” there's something that is worse. You have something that is worse than a stone or sand, and that's the wrath of a fool; and you got something worse than cruelty and anger, and that's envy.
Envy is what delivered your Saviour to the cross (Matthew 27:18). That was the motive of the crucifixion, and it was the reason that Paul suffered, and the early Christian suffered much in the Book of Acts (Acts 7:9). In this verse, Steven is telling about the envy of the patriarchs in delivering Joseph. It was why Joseph got sent to Egypt. It was why Jesus Christ got crucified.
In Acts 13:45 and 17:5, Paul gets into trouble two times because of envy. That’s important there. A lot of times, we just don’t look at envy in the way God looks at it. It’s a terrible, dastardly thing. It has caused Christians more trouble than just about any other motive. Do you know what the devil said? He said, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God” (Isaiah 14:13). He was envious of God. You get right down to it, that is the root of Satan’s rebellion, “I want what He’s got!” Of course, pride is in there, “I deserve it!” But it’s envy. “Who is able to stand before envy?”
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