Verse by verse teaching - Proverbs 12:26 "A Curve in the Road"

We'll be in Proverbs chapter 12 tonight, verse 26. Proverbs chapter 12, verse 26. As Brother Shepherd was praying, Scripture came to my mind. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. Profitable for doctrine. Profitable for reproof. It's profitable for the believers. All Scripture. And I'm glad to be in another Scripture tonight here in the book of Proverbs. Each verse is just waiting to be mined with truth for the believers. And tonight's verse says, "The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor." The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor. I have to pause just a moment here. In case you ever run into this, I don't want to forget to tell you. You see how that word "neighbor" is spelled? Is it spelled any different than what we would normally spell ours? How is it spelled different? I can't think of a name. No, I'm not going to do that. Abigail. How's it spelled different, Abigail? It's got an extra "U". It's got an extra "U". It's got a "U" in it. Thanks to Noah Webster. Huh? Thanks to Noah Webster, it doesn't spell it that way anymore. Yeah. Well, it has a "U" in it. That's the English or the British, however you want to put it. That's their version back in the day. But that's not the American spelling. So we don't put the extra "U" in there. And in fact, there's some letters in the good old King James, like the Psalms, that had an "F" in there. And I saw some man trying to correct Adrian Rogers yesterday, trying to correct Adrian Rogers because they had a quote from Adrian Rogers and he had the word "Savior" without the extra "U" in there. And this self-righteous sounding arrogant man on one of our dear friends and brothers in Christ who we met through the Know I'm Saved website, Chad. Chad shared the post from Adrian Rogers and the man, all proud, got on there and said, "Adrian Rogers needs to learn how to spell the word Savior." And he put a "U" in there. So I wrote in there, I said, "You're kidding, you're joking, right?" And "I don't joke about the Lord!" "Oh, he got all over me." And so I explained to him, "Well, Savior has an extra U because it's not, you know, it wasn't translated in America. It's not American version of spelling." I said, "Same with neighbor in the King James." And he said, "The reason it has to have the U in it is because it's seven letters. Seven is the perfect number. And so, if you take the "you" out, he accused me of denying the deity of Jesus Christ by spelling it without the "you". I thought, "You self-righteous hypocrite!" That's what I was thinking. I didn't call him that, but I got pretty close. And he sent me a YouTube video on why I spelled it with a "you", you know. And so, he said, "In every place, the Greek has it as with the U, in every place." And I thought, "Oh my goodness, Greek doesn't even have the letter U in it." But anyway, it doesn't even have our alphabet, you know, it has a totally different alphabet. But, you know, I saw that and you can't teach people like that. You can't teach people like that. They're not really teachable. But if you ever run into that, because there is that belief that teaches and goes off on these crazy things like this, and then they want to pick fights and put down men of God, Instead of being able to learn the truth that Brother Rogers said, they've got to then attack Brother Rogers because of one letter "U" missing from the word "Savior". And so, just be aware of that. Both spellings are correct. Both words are the same. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor. And this translation of the sentence is not altogether wrong, but it fails, I believe, to communicate the intended truth, this wonderful truth that's in this verse. In fact, I have yet to find a translation that seems to do the verse justice. And I believe a lot of times that it's because translators aren't necessarily gifted teachers. They're more linguists, you know, they're more trained in languages, but not necessarily in teaching the Scriptures. And I've had experience listening to people talk about the difference between the Bible teacher and the Bible translator. Thank God we need both of them, and I thank God for both of them. But I remember one particular instance where the Bible translator was trying to use the word "pig" or the equivalent in that language, instead of "lamb," the pig of God that takes away the sin of the world and have a pig being slain on Passover because the people in that tribe did not know what a sheep was. They'd never seen a sheep. And so then the Bible teacher was saying, "No, you can't do that because a pig is an unclean animal and it'll mess their whole concept of the gospel up if you do that." And so in this case here, we're going to see tonight why we have to really interpret God's word in light of its context and in light of the actual words that are in the verses. The translations of this verse are all over the map. And if you look at this verse here, let's just read the verse together first. I mean the whole verse, "The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor, but the way of the wicked seduces them." Now this verse is made up of what we call two clauses, okay? Two clauses. A clause is the part of a sentence that is just under a sentence. If you were to compare it to a sentence, the sentence would be a full, complete thought, a full sentence. And then you've got a paragraph, which is even bigger, and then you've got chapters, and you've got a book. But a clause in rank is just under a sentence, and so a clause can have a full thought even though it's not a complete sentence. So if you'll look here, someone tell me what the first clause is. There's two clauses joined by conjunction, the word "but." That'll help you out. What's the first clause? The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor. I mean, that's a full thought, isn't it? It's a complete thought. And then the second clause is, "The way of the wicked seduces them." And it's joined together with a conjunction. It's like a coupler, if you know mechanics, or it's a coupler. And so that's what a conjunction is. And so it joins those two thoughts, and by those two thoughts makes a complete sentence. Because the writer here is not just trying to say the righteous is more excellent than his neighbor. Neither is the writer just trying to simply say the way of the wicked seduces them. But he's trying to put the two clauses together to form a more complex thought, a more complex expression of an idea. And so, in this verse, the second clause is not challenged. Everyone agrees with what the second clause says, because it's very clear. The first clause of the sentence is what's all over the map, and people are like, "Ah, what does it mean?" And it doesn't have to be that way. Let me give you an example here. Here's one translation of the first clause. "The righteous is a guide to his neighbor." Here's another translation of the same clause. The righteous is guided by his friend. It's the opposite. In one translation, he's guiding his neighbor. In the next translation, he's being guided. Here's another translation. Good people are careful about choosing their friends. Here's another translation. A just arbitrator shall be his own friend. Can you see how those thoughts are all over the map? You know what an arbitrator is, right? It's where someone tries to go and help, like in mediation, they arbitrate between parties, try to negotiate. And so, but then you add to that the King James translation which says, "The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor." You've got all kinds of different ideas floating around on what this first clause means. And with so many translations saying so many different things, how do you know which one's true? And if we check to see, and when you're studying the Scriptures, if you check to see how words are used elsewhere in the Bible, that is one of the best ways to start at interpreting a particular scripture. There is a word here. What does this word mean? And how is this word used elsewhere in scripture? You know where I always start? Probably the same place Brother Shepherd starts, the very first time it's used. That's where I always start. And then, once we understand how the word's used and what the word actually means, then here's what you do. When you have a two-part sentence, a sentence with two conjunctions, and I'm sorry, with two clauses and a conjunction, and in the Proverbs you have many that are like this. We'll say, "This, but this," and they contrast each other. See, the word "but" means I'm contrasting this with this. This is different than this in the same kind of way. And so, when it's that kind of sentence, if you will learn what the second clause means, and the second clause is clear, then you can use that second clause and kind of work it backwards to interpret the first clause. Does that make sense? If someone were to try to say, "Brother Shepherd crossed the street carefully, but Miss Anne did not look both ways before she crossed." So, if we didn't know what Brother Shepherd did, but we knew what she did, and we knew it's contrasting what she did to what he did, we could work it backwards and say, "We know she didn't look both ways before she crossed, but he crossed carefully." Make sense? And so if you take the time and you study the Scriptures this way, they will actually explain themselves. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to start with the understanding of the words here. So if If we'll look here with this word, this key word, "excellent." The key word is "excellent" here. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor. This is the only time in the Bible that this Hebrew word is translated as "excellent." only time. The Hebrew word actually means to search. To search. Why they translated it as excellent, I don't know. It's not what it means. It's true, the righteous is more excellent than his neighbor. This particular righteous person is talking about anyway, but that's not what the Scripture is saying here. But it means to And almost every time this word is used in the Bible, it is translated as some form of the word "search." Searching, spying, whatever. But it's always some type of search. And the first time this word is used in the Bible is when God was leading the children of Israel through the wilderness toward the Promised Land. And in Numbers chapter 10 verse 33, it says, "And they departed from the mount of the Lord three days' journey, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them." You see that? Went before them. Not behind them, not alongside them, but the Ark of the Covenant of God went before the people in the three days journey. Why? Look back in your text, or up in the text here on the screen, to search out a resting place for them. to search out a resting place for them. The Hebrew word translated excellent in Proverbs 12 is translated as to search out here in Numbers 10. And the story in Numbers 10.33 makes it clear that the word means to search out, right? To search out, because that's what God was doing in the story. He went before them to search out a resting place for them. So God went before them because they had never traveled to the promised land before. God said, "You've never been this way before." It's what God told them. They didn't know the best way to go. They didn't know the dangers that lied ahead of them. So God went before them, God traveled ahead of them to search out a suitable place for the people to make camp and rest. Years ago, back in Sister Anne's time and Miss Nelda's time, our forefathers traveled across the country and whether it was in a wagon, you know wagon train full of people, y'all remember those days, don't you? Yeah. A cattle drive, you ever been on a cattle drive, Ms. Ann? I figured you had. Or a group of soldiers like a cavalry, you know, a battalion or something traveling. It was customary back then to have a scout go before them. What would that scout do? The scout would search out the land ahead of time to look for potential enemies, to to look for potential obstructions in travel and to look for food and water resources along the way. Then the scout could come back and the scout could lead them to the place where the scout had prepared for them to go. By searching out the land beforehand, the scout could go back and report they have a safe place of rest. Here's the kingdom truth for you tonight. Remember the righteous is more excellent than his neighbor. Here's the kingdom truth. The righteous search the land before they settle it. The righteous search the land before they settle it. Can you see now how the righteous is more excellent than his neighbor? The righteous is more excellent than the other fellow, than the unrighteous fellow, because they search out the land before they settle it." I couldn't help but think of poor old Lot. Man, what a mistake he made when it came to settling there in Sodom. But the righteous searched the land before they settled it. God searched out the land to find a resting place for them. And listen now, since God is the author of the Bible, remember God's the one that commanded them to leave Egypt and to go to the promised land. God's the one who commanded them, "You follow me, we're going here, follow me, now we're going here." God's the one that said, "Alright, here we go, break down the camp and get ready to travel." God is the one that said, "All right, we're going to stop right here, and we're going to settle down, and now you can put the tabernacle back up, and you can all get back in your camping sites according to your tribes." God is the one who leads us, and the one who leads us and commands us is the one who searches out the land before us. Every command of God in the Bible has a resting place for us at the end. You never have to worry about following God into unforeseen circumstances. Now, they may be unforeseen for us. That's going to happen all the time. But they will never be unforeseen to God. When Israel followed God to the Red Sea, they didn't follow God into Pharaoh's trap. They follow God into the victory that He had prepared for them. The righteous search out the way they take before they settle. Do you know how the righteous search out the land before they settle it? The righteous search out the way they take by taking the way God has already searched out for them. How did Israel follow God? They took the route that God had already searched out for them. And at the end of every route they took, there was a resting place at the end prepared for them." So every single command in God's Word is a pre-searched out path of travel with a resting place at the end for everyone who obeys it. That is rich truth here in God's Word. God didn't have to search out that land. God created that land. God knows the beginning from the ending, but God searched out that land in the Bible. God let us watch Him. Go ahead of them to search out that land so that we could learn a truth, so that we could know that when we We follow God's Word. We are not walking blindly into the future, but we are following the One who has already gone before us to prepare for us a place of rest. If you can't see what's up ahead of you when you're following God's Word, it's okay. We know through the Scripture, we can see through the Scripture. We may not be able to describe what it looks like, but we know there's a place of rest of the road. The same Hebrew word is used in Numbers 13 to describe the 12 spies who spied out the land of Canaan. Same word, spy, search, it's all the same thing. They spied out the land of Canaan. Numbers 13 verse 2, God told Moses, "Send thou men that they may search," same word here as the word excellent in Proverbs, "that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel. Of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, every one a ruler among them." So when they spied or when they searched land, do you know what they did? Remember the story? They go over there, they spout the land, and while they're over there they find what grapes and different samples of the fruit of that land that God said what the land was like. And then when they show up, they actually find out that it is the way God described. And they cut down some of the clusters and different things, they load it up, and after they search the land out, they come back and they Yep, it's everything God said it was. Numbers chapter 13 verses 26 and 27. Numbers 13 verses 26 and 27. And they went and came to Moses and to Aaron and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh, and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. And they told them and said, "We came into a land where thou sinnest." Sinnest us, right? And they said, "And surely it floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it." It's just like God said. God sent them to spy it out. So by following God's Word, listen carefully, by following God's Word, they were able to see the fruit of the land before they fought the enemy of the land. You see this? The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor. Can I reinterpret that or re-translate that for you? The righteous searches out more than his neighbor. The righteous searches out more than his neighbor. By following the Word of God and searching out the land, those spies were able to see the fruit of the land before they fought the enemy of the land. Is there an encouragement? Some of the people didn't believe. And they said, "Oh, the people are too big for us." But you know what motivated those faithful spies? They're like, "Man, look at this fruit. Y'all still want to stay out here chewing on manna? Let's go over there and get it now." And so by seeing the reward that lied ahead of them, and searching out to the end, and seeing the resting place ahead of time, Those faithful spies were then motivated and encouraged knowing what they would receive in return for their obedience of going into that land. Searching out the scriptures allows us to see the fruit of the land before we have to fight the enemy of the land. Listen, we have a lot of enemies to fight in this wicked world. Do you know what the book of the Revelation is? The book of the Revelation when God wipes away all tears, the book of the Revelation when God's prophets come down and the world comes against God's prophets and they slay God's prophets and leave them dead in the streets and they go, "Yes! We've won! We finally stamped out Christianity! We have finally had this global government! We finally have control out of all these radical Christians. And the next thing you know, God raises those prophets up from the dead right in front of them. And then we watch Jesus come back and conquer. And we see that He reigns forever and forever. Do you know what God's doing when we read that? He's letting us go cross over into the place of rest and take a peek and see it and spy out all the fruit of it before we have to go fight that enemy so that when we face the enemy instead of fearing the enemy before us, we can rejoice and look forward and be encouraged of the fruit and the reward ahead of us. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor. The righteous searches out the land when his neighbor does not. God has given us the book of the Revelation and 65 other books of the Bible, full of exceeding great and precious promises, so we can see the fruit of our reward ahead of time. So we can face our battles in confidence, knowing that we have a resting place prepared for us that's filled with the milk and honey of the grace of God and the victory of Jesus Christ. That's what the Word of God does for us. Look back in your text now, but there's the conjunction. Here's the second clause, "But the way of the wicked seduceth them." The way of the wicked seduceth them. We travel away in God's Word that's already been searched out, already has a resting place prepared for us at the end of it. Already done. The route the wicked travels, it seduces them. It draws them like a harlot. You know, when we read about the harlot or the strange woman calling that young man off the street as he's walking past her house, that's what the way of the wicked does. That way seduces them. It draws them away from the path that God has foreordained. It draws them away from the place of rest. It advertises that there's going to be some greater and better life for them in this world if they don't follow God's Word. And by taking their own way, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to His own way. And by going their own way, what happens is they get seduced. They become suckers instead of victors in Jesus Christ. The way they take has not been searched out. They're like Esau. They live for the moment. They don't consider eternity. And they throw caution to the wind. They don't search out the consequences of the choices they make. The future consequences that lies ahead of them, The way they take has no resting place prepared for them, but it does have a lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And thus, their proud and rebellious departure from God seduces them from their place of rest to the exact opposite, a place where the Bible says there is no rest day nor night. And I believe by understanding and contrasting that in the Old Testament with the New Testament, you can see the difference. That God leads His people to a place of rest, and the devil leads his people to where there never is rest. Thank you, Lord, so much for your precious Word. Thank you, Father God, that the righteous is more excellent than his neighbor. the righteous Father searches it out and He takes, Father, the excellent road that you've laid for us, a place that you have already gone before us. Even Jesus Christ, who is called the forerunner, the forerunner, He has already entered into the veil and there, Father God, inside the veil is His blood. And where His blood is, is where His rest is. Thank you, Father, for going before us. Thank you for facing the enemy. Thank you for winning the battle. And thank you, Father, for leading us the way through Jesus Christ, your Son. In his precious name we pray, Amen.