Better is the poor that walketh
in his integrity than he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool. Now, as we've mentioned so many
times before, a lot of these proverbs sound a lot alike. They're
very similar in the rhythm of the words, if you will, the way
that that ideas and truths are set in opposition to one another,
in contrast and in likeness of one another. And then when it
speaks of the righteous and the wicked, the wise and the fool,
we've seen in all of them that it's talking about people The
only two kinds of people there are in the world, sinners who
by the grace of God have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, that
Christ has been revealed in their hearts and they're called wise
because Christ is their wisdom. They're called rich because Christ
is their treasure. They're called righteous because
Christ is their righteousness. And then there's the poor in
spirit that are rich in every other way. How can it be better
to be poor than to be rich? Well, it depends
on what you mean by poor and rich, doesn't it? To be poor in spirit, but rich
in grace, rich in the blessing. and favor of God is better, better. But the two different types of
people are defined in all of these different ways. And it's
interesting, this verse, every verse is unique in the Proverbs
and in the scripture. Every verse is different and
every verse says the same thing, just in a different way. As we've
observed many times before, the Bible doesn't say a whole lot
of things. It says the same thing a whole lot of times in a whole
lot of ways. And that's what this is here.
And this is an interesting juxtaposition of words to consider in this
verse. The word rich is not used here
in this verse in contrast with the word poor. Like we often
see in the Proverbs, it doesn't say rich, but it's assumed that
whatever the financial status of the fool is, whatever it is,
it's better to be poor. It's better to be poor. So while
we don't have that exact word, rich to contrast, it's clearly
assumed, and it doesn't matter. It doesn't specify, it doesn't
make any difference what your status in this world is if you're
a fool before God. And the scriptures define that
pretty clearly, what a fool is. Lord willing, we'll see that
in a minute. But it doesn't make any, nothing else matters. If
you have Christ, you have everything. And if you have Christ, or if
you do not have Christ, you have nothing. It's not that you have everything
but Christ. It's all or nothing. You think about that. If you
know Christ, you know everything. Isn't that what Paul said? He
didn't shy away from that. He didn't have to qualify that,
did he? He said, we know all things. Having the mind of Christ,
everything worth knowing, we know it because Christ is our
wisdom. We don't have to come up with
it. We don't have to think real hard and come up with the right.
We just look to Him. And if you don't know Christ,
you don't know anything. Now you think about that with
me. What do you know? What do you know rightly? What
do you truly understand? You think about that. You might
be an expert in farming. And I use that because the scripture
does. The plowing of the wicked is sin. How could there be anything
more wholesome than plowing a plot of land? That's good, honest
work. Not if you don't know Christ,
it's not. It's selfish. It's a usurping of the glory and deity
of Christ. Because you think, look at my,
what did that man say? He said, I'm gonna have to build
some bigger barns. I've got too much stuff. I'm
gonna have to build some bigger, what did the Lord call him? Our text. You're a fool. Because you're real good at it. You're schooled in the science
of growing crops and building buildings, but you don't know
anything because you don't know Christ. In doing it, you're doing it
foolishly. You're doing it selfishly. If you don't know Christ, you
don't know anything. in the truest sense of the word
knowledge. But how interesting here now,
the paired opposites in this particular proverb are these
two phrases, walketh in his integrity and perverse in his lips. What do your lips have to do
with your walk? Well, pretty evident in this
verse and in all of scripture. But first, let's look at what
goes together in this verse. Perverse in lips and a fool. Those two things go together.
When somebody's a fool, you're gonna know about it. If you have
any discernment from the Lord at all, you're gonna know it.
They're gonna display it. They're gonna give the sacrifice
of fools. which comes from the lips. And if he's on social media,
you'll know it even better. The word lips includes social
media. That's the reality of our world
today is social media. But it's the same thing. The
word lips here represents the conveyance of what's in your
mind and heart. The expression of what Otherwise,
it's not expressed. It's in here, it's in here. But
when you say it, I know what's going on in there when it comes
out here. And so, if you reveal your heart,
that's what this is talking about. There are different ways to do
that. The reason poverty is used here the way that it is is because
Poverty is what most people fear the most. What lost people fear
the most. I believe that lost people would
rather be dead than to be poor. And we have to understand what
we mean by poor. We don't really have any experience
of that. I don't know, I don't care really
what you think Financial status you don't know what it means
to be poor and I don't either Not by experience and I'm told
that you have to experience something To know what it means physically
poor Now by the grace of God, we know what it is to be poor
in spirit Because he's taken us there He put us there but to be poor. Poverty for us
is when we have to wait till we get paid to go to Starbucks
again. No more Starbucks this week until
payday. That's poverty to us. Almost no one in this country,
just about nobody in this country knows what it means to be poor
because the ones that are considered poor in this country are probably that way because
they're mentally ill. It doesn't necessarily mean that
they physically are unable to work, but they're mentally ill
and they are incapable of coping with society. I'm just about
that close to being incapable of coping with this society. And many of those who beg have
an angle of some kind. They have a scam. They have some
kind of a system, and they're playing that and probably doing
pretty decent with that. Most people that don't work in
this country, for one thing, are doing pretty well because
of people that do work in this country. My point is, poverty
is a foreign concept to us. But we need to understand something
about what physical poverty really is to, I believe, enter into
the spiritual message of this. Poverty is a horrible, horrible
thing. There's no virtue in it whatsoever. It's degrading, it's demoralizing,
it's unhealthy, it's miserable, it's terrifying. Still better according to God
than 99.999% of humanity. Walking around rich, but not
toward God. They're rich whether they know
it or not, but they hate God. A man who walks in integrity
by any true understanding of that word whatsoever is born
again from above by the Holy Spirit of God. If he has any
true integrity, it came from God. And he's a new creation
in Christ Jesus, given faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
owns Christ as his righteousness. Considering themselves to be
wise, I believe Romans 1, they became fools. But a man who knows
he's a fool is wise. Given faith in Christ made a
new creation in him. That's a man who walks rightly.
He follows in the steps. The Son of God and whatever your
state or status in this life. It is better Better better to
know the Lord and follow in his steps Than to be in any other
condition in this world and not know him Now what is a fool on the other
hand what is a fool how does the scripture divine a fool The fool hath said in his heart God Have you ever considered the
word the in that scripture Everybody's heard that scripture before the
fool hath said in his heart. Oh God didn't say a fool The
fool This is the definition of what it is to be a fool And it
doesn't say there is no God I I call nonsense on those who
say they're true atheists, that they don't believe there's a
God. You can't hate somebody that don't exist. I'm calling them on it. Doesn't say there is no God the
fool hath said in his heart. There's no God the fool hath
said in his heart No God for me if you were going to add some
words to that to clarify it like they did they put there is no
God to clarify Had these no God for me no interest
in God no desire for God and There is none that did seek after
him. There is none that's good or
did seek after God. No God, that's the definition
of a fool in scripture, the fool. And this is the next part of
that. The fool hath said in his heart,
no God, they are corrupt. That's what our scripture is
talking about. Our text is talking about when
it says, fool, they are corrupt and have done abominable works.
There is none that doeth good. And notice this, the fool hath
said, he says it in his heart, but from the heart proceed evil
thoughts and corrupt communication. It's not what goes in the mouth,
it's what comes out that defiles the man. And so they express it with their
lips, and in every other way they're able to express it. That's the fool. And so the wise, the man who
walks in his integrity, Where's he at on that? Instead of no
God, it's just God. God. I need God. I want God. I love God. What was Paul's desire after
he knew the Lord Jesus? He said, here's my desire. I
want to know him. It's just the opposite, isn't
it? The opposite of no God for me, no God, not interested, no
need, no desire. For the man that walketh in integrity
and is not perverse in his lips, by the grace of God, his speech
is seasoned with grace. Not with the wisdom of men, not
with vernacular of this world with grace Let your speech always
be seasoned with salt The grace of God But the godlessness of our society
is seen in so many ways, but none more important And what
is said? That's our text Godlessness and Godliness Is
most important it's better to not have anything else and to
have Christ could job teach you that Good old job teach us that the
Lord teach us that by the example of Job Literally he lost everything
but Christ. He lost every imaginable, anything and everything that
might be called valuable in this life. And you might say, well,
money's not that important, but family, that's everything, lost
that too. All he had left was this, I know
that my Redeemer liveth. All he had was the grace of God
and knowledge of God and his son by that grace, through the faith that the Lord
had given him. May that grace be to us our greatest
treasure. And may we count all else. What can you count it but done? When you have Christ. May the Lord bless us in that.