Posted on 04/24/2022 12:34:05 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“The thought of foolishness is sin: and the scorner is an abomination to men. If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small” (Proverbs 24:9-10).
God sees the thought, and men see the scorn. You see, God can see the thoughts of men, but men see the result—the scorn, the contempt, or the thought of foolishness. The thoughts of the wicked are, “I don’t know if there is a God or not. I don’t know if God interferes with the lives of men, and I don’t know if I want to even be bothered with Him.” That is the foolish thinking of the wicked.
“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision” (Psalms 2:1-4).
The foolish heathen get counsel from other foolish heathen. It is fools telling fools what to do. If you have a problem with the Lord, you had better not ask advice from somebody that is against the Lord—you had better ask it of people that are for Him. The heathen imagine that they can “break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords.” The Lord will laugh at them in the day of judgment.
“The thought of foolishness is sin: and the scorner is an abomination to men.” This is what God sees. And notice that you do not have to actually kill anybody for it to be sin. The mere thought of it is enough. You don’t have to murder anybody, you don’t have to steal anything, and you don’t have to commit adultery. “The thought of foolishness is sin.”
Next time you encounter someone that tells you, “I’m not so bad.” Just ask him, “Did you ever have a foolish thought?” Ask him, “Do you suppose you have had one foolish though per day?” Figure that he has had 1 foolish thought a day for 10 years to make it easy. That is 365 foolish thoughts a year, or 3,650 foolish thoughts in 10 years. Would he want to face God on the basis of 3,650 sins? In reality it is much, much more. Over 20 or 30 years we are talking about tens of thousands of foolish thoughts, and each on of them is sin, and “the wages of sin is death.” That is a death penalty for each individual sin. It is absolutely mind boggling.
“. . . and the scorner is an abomination to men,” nobody likes to be around a scorner.
Most haven’t prepared for it, but it is surely coming. In Ephesians, Paul said, “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (Ephesians 6:13). In other words, get ready for trouble. Trouble is coming.
Strength is not tested in prosperity. When, then, is strength tested? In adversity.
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