Posted on 04/11/2022 6:33:53 PM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish” (Proverbs 12:1).
Now, it looks like this verse is kind of split down the middle, and maybe one part doesn't have a lot to do with the other; but that's not true. It says, “Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge.” The Bible says that in the latter days people should “run to and fro, and knowledge will be increased (Daniel 12:4),” and people are education crazy. There is an element of learning involved with all that, but it says, “Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge.” Did you ever wonder? For all the knowledge folks get, for all the money people spend to go get their degrees, just what are they worth? The fact is, a man can spend an awful lot of money to get a degree that gets you no job whatsoever.
Folks have a chance to come to church and learn about the Lord. Do you ever wonder why folks are not a little hungrier for that sort of thing?
“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (II Timothy 4:2).
The secret is probably in this verse. Notice that it says, “preach the word.” What is the first thing folks say to us today? They say, “Don't preach to me!” Well, preaching, by definition, is intrusive. If you study the word, “preaching,” you'll find that there is an element of thrust to it, and sometimes a little meddling; but there is an intrusive factor to preaching and witnessing. It's an adamant thing, so folks say, “Don't preach to me.”
Well, Paul says, “preach the word,” so we know we're on good ground with all the things that it does, but notice it continues and says “preach the word . . . for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.” The fact is, sometimes you have to preach to somebody whether they like it or not, “for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.” And if you don't preach, witness, or correct them, they'll never hear. It becomes truer and truer that you may well be the only Bible that any man will ever read . . . or hear.
There is a time to back off, and we should all be good ambassadors of Christ; and all those things, but you can't deny what the Bible says. it goes on to say, “for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.”
Now, why will they not endure sound doctrine? Why do they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears? Why do they seek after counselors to tell them basically what they want to hear? Why? Well in Proverbs 12:1, I think really the secret is here. It says, “Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge,” and that looks fairly mundane. It doesn't seem like there's a sharp edge on that part of it, “Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge,” if you're instructed you get knowledge. But notice the rest of it, “but he that hateth reproof is brutish,” and what the last half of that verse does is shines an awful lot of light on the first half of that verse.
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