Let's take our Bibles once again
and turn to the book of Proverbs 17. Proverbs 17. I'd like to look at verses 12
to 14, but as We looked at last time, the scripture
reveals in verse 11, an evil man seeketh only rebellion. You know, the scripture is ever
mindful in the setting forth and the telling men of what they
are. Man by nature is restless. He's a rebel against God that
truly desires and searches out bitterness, disobedience, and
provocation against God. That's man by nature. Man by nature just cannot settle
down. His natural inclination is to
resist God. And the source of that rebellion
is the devil himself, who is, as our Lord told some Pharisees,
He said, you are of your father. the devil. He's as a roaring
lion going about seeking whom he may devour. He just doesn't settle down. A heart of rebellion is what
drives the unregenerate. He wants to disobey. Rebellion is all that's in his
heart. The scripture says that the heart
of the unregenerate, his heart is deceitful above all things. It's desperately wicked. Who
can know it? Therefore, the latter part of
verse 11 says, A cruel messenger shall be sent against him. And that cruel messenger, by
God. Look at 1 Kings 22. 1 Kings 22, verses 19 to 23. And he said, Hear thou therefore
the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his
throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right
hand, on his left, And the Lord said, who shall persuade Ahab
that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead? Now here is a
question that the Lord asked. Who is going to persuade him
to rebel against me? And one said on this manner,
another said on that manner, and there came forth a spirit
and stood before the Lord. and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? Now you listen, this is God speaking.
And he said, I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit
in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade
him and prevail also. Go forth and do so. Therefore, behold, the Lord hath
put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and
the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee." Do you realize who we are dealing
with here? We are dealing with God. And you men will say, well, I
just don't believe that God would. I'm going to tell you something.
Almighty God does what He wills to do. Look at Job 12.16. Job 12.16. Job chapter 12 and verse 16,
hear the Word of the Lord. With Him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver
are His. My friend, if we stand accepted in the Beloved. I'm telling you, it is by the
grace of God that God Almighty would not leave us to ourselves. We're not dealing with a little
impotent, fickle, old man that's sitting up somewhere trying to
see if somebody will help him out. I'm telling you, the God
that we serve is God Almighty. And as we've said, quoted many
times here, He does as He will. In the army of heaven, among
the inhabitants of the earth, and nobody stays His hand. Don't you ever think That little,
impotent, fickle man has the ability to thwart God's purpose. If God is pleased to leave a
man to himself, He will do so in absolute justice. And if He is pleased to show
mercy and have compassion, It is according to His good will
and purpose. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 9 to
11, the Scripture says, I was going to say men left to
themselves, here's the reward. 2 Thessalonians 2, 9-11, Even
him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power
and signs and lying wonders, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish, because they received not the love of
the truth, that they might be saved for this cause. God shall send them strong delusion
that they should believe a lie. When you hear someone say, the
Lord is trying and working toward trying to save His people, and
Satan is trying to get them lost and keep them, and there's a
big battle going on. Let me tell you something. There
ain't no battle going on. I'm telling you who's in control.
God Almighty's in control. This is the God that we serve,
that we bow to. And man, left to himself, will
rebel against God. And a rebel against God is going
to receive exactly what he wants. God in justice will cease to
that. No man found in his sin on the
day of judgment shall lay the fault of his rebellion against
God. Remember this, and listen, every
man, every woman that perishes goes to hell because they want
to. They want to go. I want to die in my sins. Listen to the Word of the Lord. Now listen, listen. Whosoever
shall call from the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever, man, woman, Jew, Gentile,
it doesn't matter, king, pauper, If a man calls on the name of
the Lord, it's because God drew him by grace and mercy and power,
gave him a heart willing in the day of his power to come to Christ. No man has the ability. The Lord said that. No man can
come except it were given unto him by my Father. But then I ask you this question.
Why will you perish? Why? The rebel is an ungrateful being. Go back to Proverbs 17. Verse
13. Rewardeth evil for good. That's what Proverbs 17. Verse
13. Whoso rewardeth evil for good,
evil shall not depart from his house. Come to Christ. Cast yourself
upon God. Somebody said, well, I thought
you said I couldn't. Unless, let me ask you this,
do you want to? Do you want to? Then do it. Do it. Man by nature turns his back
and continually rewards with evil. God Almighty's kindness. God Almighty saves sinners. Sinners. Man, woman finds themselves to
be a sinner. I was talking to Brother Tom
Harding yesterday. Brother Tom's mom died a week
ago. And he was coming back from Utah. And driving through Wyoming,
he called me yesterday. He said, I just preached my mom's
funeral. And all of Tom's relatives are
Mormon. And I asked him to preach the
funeral. And he said there was about 400 people at that funeral. And he said, I was very surprised
that they asked me to preach at the funeral. And he said,
I was grateful. And he said, after the funeral,
he said, I was going out to my car. And he said, one of my cousins,
a woman started approaching him. She said, I need to talk to you.
And he said, I thought, oh boy, here we go. Here he comes. She walked up to him. And she
said, I'm lost. I'm lost. And Tom says, that's
the best thing I could have ever heard you say. He says, because
the Lord Jesus Christ came to save the lost. If Almighty God reveals to someone,
I'm lost. I need a Savior. I need one that's apart from
me. I need one to do something for
me that I can't do for myself. Christ Jesus came into this world
to save sinners. We fell in Adam. God Almighty
gave a commandment, eat of all the fruit except one. Eat that
one, you'll die. He did. He died in rebellion. He died
spiritually. And now Romans 3.23 says, All
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is not
one just man, not one just man upon the earth that doeth good
and sinneth not. There is not one. And because of man's evil, judgment
is surely going to be administered. We're going to all stand before
God. In that great day, that great
white throne judgment, we must all appear. The books
are going to be opened. And the book. Boy, I love that
part. And the book. And men are going to be judged
out of the books. According to their deeds, what
everyone has found written in the book, he's going to live. All that were found not written
in the book, cast into the lake of fire. Oh, but thanks be unto
God for that book that our names will be written
in heaven. Can you think about that, Mike?
that God would write our names in heaven. Man's rebellion is something
that grows. Verse 14 of Proverbs 17 says,
The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water. It's just like turning a faucet
on. Little old hole in the dam just
keep getting worse and worse and worse. Strife has always
been there, but it just grows in intensity and arrogance. And
here's the reason. Because sentence against an evil
work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons
of man is fully set in them to do evil. You know what man by nature will
do? You let somebody do something and they don't get
sentenced for it right now. You know what they're going to
do? They're going to say, I got away with that. And I'm really stronger than
you are. And I'm more cunning than you are. And you're not
going to do anything anyway. So therefore, I'm going to do
it again. Man by nature is not appreciative.
He's not appreciative of mercy by nature. He takes a new heart
to be appreciative of mercy. That strife, it starts with what
seems to be a passing, just almost passing feeling, and it grows.
Therefore, the latter part of verse 14, leave off contention
before it be meddled with. Psalm 37.8 says, Cease from anger. Forsake wrath. Threaten not thyself
in any wise to do evil. Ephesians 4.26, Be ye angry and
sin not. Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath. What's he saying? Lord, grant
grace to nip that strife in the bud. Don't let it grow into open
contention. Oh, may God be pleased to have
mercy on us. Lord, that You might give me
the heart to hear Your Word, bow before You, Proverbs 11.27
says, He that diligently seeketh good procureth favor. Lord, You must give me a heart
for that. I know that. Keep me. John 6.65, Therefore said unto
you, No man can come to me except it were given unto him of my
Father. But if God Almighty gives a heart to come, that man and
that woman are going to come. They're going to come as a beggar.
They're going to come willingly in the day of His power. They're
going to seek after Him and call upon Him for mercy. Verse 12, in closing, says, Let
a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man rather than a fool in his
folly. A bear, obviously, is a fierce
creature. And her rage, obviously, is not
truly known until she feels, especially her cubs, threatened, harmed. But according to this
scripture, It would be eternally better for a fool to meet a mama
bear and meet her in the rage of her
cubs herself being harmed or taken than to meet God in that
man's folly. It would be better to meet a
bear and get mauled. It would be over. It would be
over quick. It wouldn't be very long. It would be done. But to meet God in our foolishness,
in our folly, in our silliness and rebellion, that's an eternal
punishment. Hosea 13, listen to this, verses
5 to 8. I did know thee in the wilderness,
in the land of great drought. According to their pasture, so
were they filled. They were filled, and their heart
was exalted. Therefore have they forgotten
me. Therefore will I be unto them as a lion. as a leopard
by the way will I observe them. I will meet them as a bear that
is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the cold in their heart. And there will I devour them
like a lion. The wild beast shall tear them."
But my friend, this is eternal. To meet God
in our folly It would be better to die instantaneously, mauled,
than to meet Him in rebellion. Isaiah 55, 6 and 7, Seek ye the
Lord. Lord, give us ears to hear this
truth. Seek ye the Lord while He may be found. Call ye upon
Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him. To our God he will abundantly
pardon." You know the amazing thing? Is that if God's pleased
to make that verse factual, you'll hear it. You'll hear it. You'll
hear it. I pray that God have mercy upon
us. I pray that the Lord bless to
our understanding, give us a heart after Him, a will after Him.
I pray God have mercy on this assembly. I thank Him that He's
allowed us, as I've said so many times, that He's allowed us to
be here these many years. We have no promise of tomorrow.
This may be the last time we ever meet together just like
this. We may never meet again just exactly like this. And if we don't, we look unto
him who is our life and our hope and our peace. For Christ's sake.