Proverbs 19 10 delight is not
seemly for a fool Much less for a servant to have rule over princes
Now two types of people are mentioned here. It's important. I think
to break these proverbs down into their different elements
and look at each word because To understand the words is to
understand the verse. Two types of people, two conditions
of being that are said to not go together well with those kinds
of people. And the word seemingly means
beautiful. It's not beautiful. It's not
appropriate. It's not desirable. for a fool to be in luxury. That's what that word, delight,
to be in luxury, to delight himself in dainties, is what it means. And there's a clear example of
this in scripture that I believe scripture always best sheds light
on other scripture. In Luke 12, 16, if you'd like
to, you can turn there, but You're familiar with the story, but
it's good to see the words to Luke 12 16 Because this I believe is a clear
exposition of our text The Lord spake a parable unto
them saying the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully
and And he thought within himself, saying, what shall I do? Because
I have no room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, this
will I do. I will pull down my barns and
build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my
goods. And I will say to my soul, soul,
thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease,
eat, drink, and be merry. That's our text. He's delighting
himself. in things, in prosperity. But God said unto him, thou fool.
He's a fool delighting in abundance, in luxury. And as our text says, it's not
pretty. It's not pretty. God said unto him, thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose
shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that
layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. So he laid up treasure for himself.
He clearly delighted in it. He said to himself, be merry,
enjoy it, have a great time. But why did God call him a fool?
Is it evil to prosper? What was ugly about this scenario
Well, the Lord sums it up for us without any ambiguity at the
end He laid up treasure for himself. He was selfish And is not rich God that's the
that's the part that's not pretty God called him a fool for that
reason alone You see that In the text For that reason alone not for
prospering He prospered many of his servants in the scriptures
very greatly This is our text. This is a fool
boasting or delighting glory in his Wealth riches abundance
luxury Here's why that's not pretty
God made this earth for his people We know all of this the fool
Having riches at all and then lowering it all of us of the
Lord. It's not that the Lord is thwarted by the fool. It's not that he made the earth
for His people and it's not working out the way he wanted it to all
things are of God Even the wicked for the day of judgment and that's
what this man is and the one in our text described and God
made this earth for his people. He planted them. That's a clear
parable that was told of our Lord. He said he planted good
seed and the adversary sowed tares in the field. And the servants
of the master said, shall we go and pull up those tares? That's
terrible. They're taking up nutrients.
They're cumbering the ground, as the way the Lord put it with
the fig tree. They don't they don't belong
there. Shall we pull them up? He said no, I'll take care of
that. I hate to Paraphrase too much, but that's pretty much
what the Lord said you'd tear up some of the some of the good
seed with The tears if you do it but in the end When all is
said and done I'll separate The tears from the wheat So God made this earth for his
people. The field is the earth and the
good seed are his people. He said, an adversary hath done
this, hath sown tares in the field. It's not seemly for a
tare, a weed, to come to the ground. That's what our texts
say. For a fool, defined by God as somebody who's not rich toward
him, But is rich for themselves It's not it's not good it's not
seemly To use up the nutrients that
God has given to supply His people with strength and with vitality
with blessing Weeds Do you hate weeds if you
have any? any gardening experience at all. The weeds are despicable. They're insidious. They always
find a way to come up no matter what you do. Sooner or later,
you just have to pull them. People say, how do I get rid
of these weeds? Well, you pull them. That's what
you do. You pull them. You kill them. They're not seemly. They make
your garden ugly. And they rob from the ground. And that's our
text. For someone to prosper who gives
no glory to God, but consumes everything upon their own lusts,
is ugly. It's not beautiful. Why did the
Lord curse the fig tree? because it didn't have any figs
on it. That's why God made fig trees, is to produce figs. If a fig tree doesn't have any
figs on it, what good is it? Why did God make man? To honor
and glorify him. If a man doesn't do that, what
good is he? What use is he? Well, I can answer that. God made man to honor and obey
him. And man will do that. There's gonna be perfect obedience
to God's law by man. It just isn't you and it isn't
me. God demands it. You'll either
suffer forever for not obeying God or you will obey God in perfect
righteousness in Christ. The man, the man. But here's what a man is good
for if he doesn't honor God. If he's rich toward himself,
if he lays up treasure for himself, if he acquires luxury in this
world and delights in that, but gives not glory to God. Here's
what he's good for. John 15, five, I am the vine,
you are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. What is that? When you plant tomatoes and you
get tomatoes, that's why you planted them, right? Was to get
tomatoes. And when you do, there's fulfillment.
There's accomplishment. There's a fulfillment of the purpose for
the labor, for the care, for the effort that was put into
it. Well, what is fruit to God? To us, we eat it, we enjoy it,
we delight in it. But what is that to God? What
does God need from us? Well, I'll tell you what he's
gonna get, and that's glory to himself. One way or the other,
he will get glory to himself. That's great. To love him, to
worship him, to obey him, to serve him. That's the fruit that
is born of the Spirit of God when we imbibe in Christ. If a man abide not in me, well,
I skipped kind of an important part there, for without me, you
can do nothing. Without me, the end of verse
five, you can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he
is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them
and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. That's what
you're good for if you don't acknowledge God, if you don't
glorify God, if you don't honor Him, if you don't bow to Him,
if you don't look to Him in all things. And this world is full
of terrors. I mean, we're terrors apart from
God's grace. By nature, we're all the children
of wrath. No fruit, because we abide not
in the vine. Cast into the fire and be burned. The second part of our verse
is not necessarily talking about a servant who becomes a leader.
That's clear from other scripture. All scripture has to be taken
in the context, the general context of all scripture. David was a
servant. He kept the sheep. He was humble. When he came to the battlefield,
they said, what are you doing here? You're just a servant.
You just keep the sheep for your father. You're not worthy to
be here. You're not trained. You're not
qualified. But he became a great leader,
a man after God's own heart, in leading the entire nation
of Israel, generally speaking, in the way of righteousness. So that's, David's a clear example
of a servant becoming a leader, and that is a beautiful thing.
That was beautiful. Our Lord himself, He came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister. And yet the Lord exalted
him to the very throne of God for his service. So it's not
talking about that. It's talking about somebody who
has no business being anything but a servant. Somebody who acquires leadership and authority
not from God. If God makes you a leader, you're
a leader. You're not a servant in that sense. But that's, you've heard the
saying, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And
that's not true. That's not a true statement. But it hints at the truth. The truth is that power doesn't
corrupt, but it will bring out the corruption that's in people
already. It brings out our corruption. Most people are not as outwardly
sinful as they could be, as they would be, because they still
have the means to be that, to do those things. Power gives
you the means. And so you're already completely
corrupt, and I am too. And power, more often than not,
will bring that out. And that's what our text is talking
about. Somebody that has no business, is not given
authority by the Lord, but gets it anyway, some other way, of
course in God's purpose, but not from God in the sense that
God has, like David did, The more power, the more corruption.
And our text says that ain't pretty either. That's ugly. When somebody's not qualified
by God, when somebody's not raised up by the Lord in the sense that he does so by his grace, by his
approval, God has made his people kings
and priests unto himself. In the spiritual sense of this, he said, I didn't call you servants.
I call you sons. And he's made us kings and priests.
That's the sense of our text. It says that we, in Revelation
5.10, that we shall reign on the earth. And I don't know what
that means to you. I don't know what that means.
We shall rain on the earth, but I know what it means to rain.
I know what the earth is and what it's gonna be when the Lord
makes a new one. I know something about that. Here's what we know for sure.
The only one that can rain and it be beautiful is one that God
raises up. And it's somebody that knows
God that loves God, that bows to God, that serves God, that
reveres God, that gets his wisdom from God. Read the Psalms. David
cried for it, didn't he? As king of Israel, he cried for
the mercy and blessing of God and wisdom from God to rule his
people. That's what Solomon asked for
when God gave him Desire of his heart, whatever it would be And
he said give me wisdom to rule your people That's beautiful
That's God Putting in that man's heart a desire to honor the Lord
That's what's in common of both of these halves of the song of
this proper It has to do with honoring the Lord. I Whatever the word servant there
means, when it ain't pretty, it's because the Lord is not
honored by it. It's not for his glory. It's
a power grab. It's somebody that's corrupt
and vile and has no business in a leadership role, has no
business having any authority whatsoever. That's what's not pretty. But
when the Lord raises somebody up like that, Lord give me wisdom
to rule your people. Gets his wisdom from God, his
understanding, his character from God. A man after God's own heart. That's beautiful. Now that's not gonna happen in
this world again. Can you even imagine having a
leader anywhere in this world that's after God's heart? Ever
again? It's just not gonna happen. We'd
be naive to even expect it. It's not gonna happen. But the
ugliness that we see when tyrants and dictators, corrupt and evil
men rule, that should never have Authority When we see that it
makes us grateful For the the wonderful truth that
the Lord Jesus Christ The scripture says the Lord God omnipotent
reigneth the one with all power reigns and the more we see That
which is not beautiful the more the Lord turns our eyes to him
who is beautiful, who reigns omnipotent. The word says it
is Christ that sitteth upon the circle of the earth. The government is on his shoulders,
Isaiah 9. The government of all governments
is on the shoulders of the king of kings himself. That's beautiful. There's nothing more beautiful
than that Seemly And so the Lord for a while There's
a lot in this world. That's not seemly But we look
to him who is And we delight in him We're a bunch of fools,
but we don't delight in luxury we delight in the Savior by his
grace and Amen, let's pray.