Episode Transcript
All right, if you take God's precious word and turn to the book of Proverbs, please Proverbs chapter 12 Verse 10 Proverbs chapter 12 verse 10 Title the message tonight is the beast and the brotherhood Good to see everyone online tonight as well God willing we'll be expounding verse 10 tonight and in our text Solomon addresses the matter of compassion Most of us know what it's like to have a problem that you can't get help with and how frustrating it is when no one seems to care and Then how nice it is to finally find someone who cares about your situation and is willing to help The ability to care The ability to put yourself in another person's shoes and love them through that problem is a marvelous gift And that gift is exercised by if you look in your text now a righteous man a righteous man and The term righteous is used in the Bible in different ways and it's good for us to understand What this word means?
in our text tonight Because a lot of people get so caught up in salvific doctrine the idea of salvation and some people I believe are caught up in the doctrine of salvation So much that it's unhealthy Because the Bible tells us we're to grow in grace So you definitely want to be grounded in the doctrine of salvation But we don't want to go around thinking about being saved all the time but there's there's more things to grow into from there and There's a tendency I believe for someone especially like that to think that the word righteous means that it's someone who has been made righteous through faith in Christ and That's not always the definition We attend to assume that the only way a person can be righteous per se is By having the righteousness of Christ imputed to their account and that is the salvific definition of a righteous man, no doubt But not every passage in the Bible is talking about salvation Not every scripture is a foreshadowing of the gospel message.
We love seeing the foreshadowings of the gospel They're exciting and they teach us such rich truths, but if we force That interpretation of the gospel upon every passage in the Bible Then we are doing God's people and God's Word a great injustice the Hebrew word translated righteous here simply means to be right and this may come as a shock to some of you, but a right a Righteous person in the sense of being saved can be wrong sometimes They can be unrighteous sometimes you ever had a Christian do you wrong?
Sure you have and an a lost person an Unbeliever in fact can actually be a righteous person sometimes in the practical sense and so we have to understand that an unbeliever can think and act right in certain matters And if they're right in those matters then in those matters, they're righteous Now we all know that King Saul was not a man after God's heart but King David was And I want you to listen to what King Saul told the King David to be in 1st Samuel 24 verse 17 This is after David spared his life And he said to David thou art more righteous than I For thou hast rewarded me good.
Whereas I have rewarded the evil Saul was righteous But David was more righteous than Saul If being righteous was simply having Christ righteousness and pewted to your account then it would be Impossible for one man to be more righteous than the other Because if all we consider being righteous was Jesus righteousness imputed to a person then everyone would be equally and perfectly righteous all the time and In the eyes of God thank the Lord that we are justified by our faith in him But there is not just imputed righteousness.
There is also practical righteousness David was a righteous man, but he was unrighteous man when he sinned and in his notorious or infamous actions So a righteous man in our text tonight is someone who does watch right?
Especially or specifically tonight when it comes to regarding a life other than his own The Bible says a righteous man look back in your text regardeth the life in the word regard here means to consider to be or to be considerate of that life and The word life here is the same word that's translated soul in Genesis 2 verse 7 When the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man Became a living soul So a righteous man is a man who regards or is considerate of the soul He considers the life of a soul other than himself and that means it is a righteous thing It is in God's purpose and design That we be considerate of the well-being of other people God didn't create us to be self-centered.
He created us to be people who are Considerate of others Unfortunately a lot of people today they they're very inconsiderate they think only of themselves but a righteous man cares about the life that God made and That life includes the life look back in your text of his beast of his beast The Bible don't make a mistake here the Bible wasn't written for animals The Bible was written for people Remember what the Apostle Paul said the New Testament?
That God care about oxen or did he write these things for our sakes?
It's the same principle to be applied here.
God's not writing a proverb Primarily to teach us how to take care of animals, but how to take care of people who have animals The mentioning of a man's beast was not written to exclude a righteous man Righteous man's regard for human life, but to encourage a righteous man's regard for human life You see if a righteous man regards the life of his beast Then how much more?
Should he regard the life of his fellow man?
That's the purpose here in this proverb When God mentions the righteous man's kindness toward animals It's to show us his kindness God's kindness to his creation but in showing us God's kindness to the basis of Creatures it's to assure us of God's kindness towards us Matthew chapter 6 verse 26 Matthew 6 verse 26 Jesus said behold the fowls of the air in other words think about the birds For they sow not Neither do they reap they don't get out and plow fields and work and plan crops He says nor gather into barns yet Your heavenly Father feedeth them Now Jesus isn't speaking this because he cares about birds But because he cares about people and once again the same principles being applied here from the book of Proverbs If God cares about beasts Then how much more does he care about people if he takes care of those small?
matters how much more will he take care of the greater matters if he takes care of the the basis of Creatures the lowliest of creatures that which is least valuable than how much more does God care and love and take care of That which is higher and more costly in God's sight so he goes on to say About the birds the they they neither reap nor gather into their barns He says yet your heavenly Father feedeth them are ye not much better than that and they Matthew 12 10 through 12 and Behold there was a man which had his hand withered and they asked him saying is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days That they might accuse him and he that is Jesus said unto them What man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep you see how Jesus is going to the lowliest of creatures Not because he he's an animal rights activist But he's using the small to prove the great he says What he said what man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep And if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and lift it out?
How much then is a man better than a sheep?
Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days So here is the lawful interpretation of this text first It is right For us to consider the welfare of the animals that belong to us It's right for God to take care of the birds.
It's right for men to take care of sheep it's right for God to Take care of the lowliest of creatures even the lily right how he clothes the lily that toils not Nor spins it's right for us to take care of those things that are below us and here the welfare Of the animals that belong to us.
We should never neglect or be cruel to animals.
I believe Balaam's abuse of his ass in numbers 22 27 through 31 shows us God's attitude towards how we should treat other creatures And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord She fell under she fell down under Balaam and Balaam's anger was kindled and he smoked the ass with a staff and The Lord opened the mouth of the ass and she said unto Balaam boy.
I wish I could have seen this What have I done unto thee that thou smite thou has smitten me these three times and?
Balaam said unto the ass because I has mocked me I would there were a sword in my hand for now would I kill thee and The ass said unto Balaam am not I thine ass?
Upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day was I ever want to do so unto thee he said nay then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam and he saw the angel the Lord standing in the way and His sword drawn in his hand and he bowed down his head and fell flat on his face.
I Believe this shows us that God does not believe we should be unjust toward animals Even if they're our own we should treat them fairly the animal was lodging a complaint And the animal was right and The animal could not lodge that complaint without God putting the thoughts and the words in the animals mouth So the animals words were God's endorsement of what the animal said That said the Lord is very clear in Scripture That man is to be valued as we just read in the previous verses and to be cared for much more than animals Because God has given us that value having created man in his own image So with that we have to understand as we're looking at the right interpretation of this passage We should care for our animals.
Yes We should care for people much more and What we have to understand is animals are not people God put a very clear difference here.
Are you not worth much more Than the sheep Then these birds or whatever four-footed two-legged Creature whatever other than a human being you want to put there?
we're far more in value the Lord says So Animals aren't people they should be cared for But they should also be kept in their place and never elevated to the level of a person To do so is a mockery of God's design If you have pets, they're not your children If your children have pets their pets are not your grandchildren They're not they're not grand dogs.
They're not That's a mockery of God's design.
You can love them.
That's okay You can care for them.
That's that's good.
God gave us those animals and we're grateful for them But an animal is not your family member It is your beast Care for it, but don't humanize it.
Here's a kingdom truth for you tonight The moment you raise an animal to the level of a person you Lower a person to the level of an animal repeat that again The moment you raise an animal to the level of a person you lower a person to the level of an animal a Righteous man regards the life of his beast look back in your text now, but the tender mercies And That is in contrast to the righteous Regarding or being considerate of the life of another soul even that of an animal The Bible now speaks about the compassion here described as tender mercies look back in your text of the wicked The tender mercies that belong to the wicked Now here's the deal Wicked people don't regard the life of other people They regard their own life However wicked people sometimes have tender mercies toward other people the only problem with the tender mercies of the wicked is The tender mercies of the wicked look in your text are cruel They're cruel and this is one of those I believe this is one of those passages in Scripture that once this sticks in your head You're gonna go through life You're gonna watch somebody do something and then the Lord's gonna bring this scripture up.
You're gonna think the tender mercies of the wicked is cruel and It's just going to come right back and say what an application to make there with this scripture God so knows what he's talking about But they're cruel.
So the Bible is showing us a sharp contrast here between the righteous and the wicked The righteous are considerate They're so considerate not toward just the life of people but they're even considerate down to the life of the lower Forms of the soul of the animal they are Even considered toward their beasts the wicked however are cruel Even in their tender mercies, do you see how that works the righteous are considerate?
even Toward their beasts the wicked are cruel even in their tender mercies okay, so as Consideration goes from one end of the spectrum to the other So cruelty goes for the wicked from one end of the spectrum to the other Here's a good example for you a real-life historical example Think back to the story of Joseph and his envious brothers in the book of Genesis chapter 37 They threw Joseph in a pit To let him die But then some Arabs came along on their way to Egypt they were salesmen and The Bible says and Judas said unto his brethren What prophet is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?
come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and Let not our hand be upon them for he is our brother in our flesh and his brethren were content Boy, I tell you wasn't that sweet of them I?
Tell you what man with brothers like that you don't need enemies Does that not have the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel all over it hey, we shouldn't kill Joseph He's our little brother Could you imagine the germany girls getting together and you got sweet little Timothy and his cute little germany dimples?
and They've thrown them down the pit, and they say you know what?
Timothy's our little brother.
He's our own flesh and blood we shouldn't kill him.
We'll just sell him as a slave make a few bucks That's really what's happening here.
It's really Sad almost unbelievable when you read these stories, but unfortunately it's true, and we see things like this happening today as well how pathetic but in their minds They fancied themselves that their actions were merciful while he's our brother.
Let's don't let's don't slay him but the truth was What they did to him was cruel So how did this happen in their minds?
That somehow they imagine themselves to be merciful at that time by not killing Joseph But by selling him as a slave instead How did that work in their minds and how do we avoid that in our own minds?
Well, they imagine that there they were merciful Because of what they didn't do to their brother But they were cruel and what they did do to their brother here's a kingdom truth for you tonight Mercy is not shown by not doing what you shouldn't But by doing what you should repeat it again Mercy is not shown by not doing what you shouldn't But by doing what you should what should they have done with Joseph Welcome brother pull yourself up next to the fire.
Have you had anything to eat?
How's dad doing?
Let me give you a hug send father a farewell tell him we're telling we're doing okay But instead they thought they were merciful by not doing what they shouldn't do Rather than doing what they should have done Matthew chapter 7 verse 12 Jesus said in what we sometimes call the golden rule Jesus said therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you and this is the measure of kindness and mercy What you would that men should do to you Do ye even so to them for this is the law and the prophets notice that Jesus didn't talk about what?
We shouldn't do He didn't say therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should not do to you then don't do to them Mercy is a positive action You think about God's mercy with us?
God not only spared us hell he gave us heaven God had mercy by coming and doing for us what we couldn't do He think think of the the Samaritan the good Samaritan you got that man laying down there, and he's been robbed Let's say you walk by and you say well, man.
There's a thief they they missed a couple of bucks I can see them in his pocket there Well that man may need those two dollars.
I'll be merciful.
I'll let them keep them and I'll walk on my way Be warmed and filled and you move on you think well, I was merciful I didn't take his last two bucks But that's not what mercy is is that what you would want someone to do to you No Would you want them to take your two dollars?
No, so they didn't do What you didn't want them to do?
But they failed to do what they should have done and what you would have wanted them to do which is what the good Samaritan did picks them up Takes them to get some help pays his bill checks on them and Takes care of them So therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the law and the prophets Mercy is not shown by not doing what you shouldn't but by doing what you should and that's what Joseph's brothers failed to do And we close with this if the compassion you show Isn't the compassion you desire Then it's not compassion at all If the compassion you show Isn't the compassion you desire?
For yourself, then it's not compassion at all father We thank you so much for your precious word and these practical practical truths Lord God you so shine light on the day to day in our lives You pull up the incidents father that we face that come in in such Varied ways Lord and in in these Proverbs Lord you left it so wide open for application Because the many things that we faced your Lord God are are so vast and so different from day to day But Lord, thank you for giving us these truths So we can apply them when it comes down to it Help us father to not have the tender mercies of the wicked but to truly regard the life of others even to the lowliest of creatures and So much more to those made in your image in Jesus name we pray amen
