Posted on 07/09/2022 12:50:54 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding. He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot” (Proverbs 9:6-7).
After you realize what you are, in need of repentance toward God. God say, “Come,” and you came and ate. That is invitation and salvation. Then God says, “Forsake the foolish, and live.” This is separation, “and go in the way of understanding.” That right there is the narrow way of Matthew 7:13. What is going to happen to you if you decide to go the Bible way is that people are going to say that you are “narrow-minded.” They are going to say that you think that you are right and everybody else is wrong. Well, if we didn’t, we would think just like everybody else.
Yes, we absolutely believe that we are right. It’s not because we thought it up, it is what the Word of God says—and we believe what the Bible says. I’ve got convictions, and I believe that I am right and everybody else that doesn’t hold to those convictions are wrong. Seriously! Do you know how stupid it is for men to say that all have a little bit about everything, and we can all know a little of the truth. That’s ridiculous! The Bible says that the majority are lost and are on their way to hell. Jesus said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14 KJV). To say different is to call Jesus Christ a liar.
Man, if we don’t believe that we are right, then what exactly are we believing? The Bible is not someone’s mere opinion, it is the Word of God! People are so wishy-washy that they don’t know what they believe.
“Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding,” biblical separation.
“He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame.”
This is some Old Testament good advice. In the OT, if a man was a scorner, always looking down on things, always ridiculing holy things, good godly things, the OT advice was “He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame,” in other words, just leave them alone. You just don’t waste time, or breath, on this type of individual.
Here is a fine Old Testament example:
“So he came to the king. And the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, Go, and prosper: for the LORD shall deliver it into the hand of the king” (1 Kings 22:15 KJV).
Here we have Ahab, which is a scorner of godly truth, asks a prophet of God what he should do. Do you know what the prophet tells him? The prophet tells him exactly what he wants to hear—he doesn’t reprove him. But then later the king says, “You didn’t tell me the truth. Tell me the truth.” Then the prophet tells him the truth, and the king gets mad at him and throws him in the jail. Soon after, Ahab is dead.
The thing about it is, the Old Testament prophet wouldn’t fool with a man that was a scorner unless God told him to. He would only if God told him to go to that man and point out to him his sin.
Now, for you and I, it is a little bit different. Jesus Christ reproved them, and He was crucified for doing it. Paul reproved them and he was jailed for doing it. And you and I are to do it, and we will suffer persecution for doing it. All lost people look down on what we believe and what we thing—but we still have to tell them. We are not living in the Old Testament. We are living in the New Testament, and Jesus Christ has called us to “preach the word.” Therefore, “he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot.”
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We struggle with this daily with very damaged children. One just can’t walk away from children in our charge. It seems like they are waiting to turn 18 so they can go “do as they wilt.” It’s a daily battle.
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