Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Podcast: Wisdom: King Solomon and Proverbs 1

 

 
 
Wisdom from God is something we greatly need to pursue and to seek at this time in our lives as we continue to wait for the return of Jesus and as we witness those things coming upon the earth in the days ahead.  

* unusual storms at strange times of the year; 
* earthquakes; 
* Coronavirus pestilence; 
* volcanic eruptions; 
* extreme heat and forest fires; 
* governments of men working in great debt; 
* blatant and overt wickedness flaunted before our eyes on TV; 
* no shame; 
* men lying without concern; 
* moral corruption; 
* sins in church groups even to removal of doctrines of Bible from the congregation, 
* the apostate churches of the end times.

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God makes this promise to HIS people, HIS church today.

James 1:5  If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

Sometimes we simply forget to talk with God about our plans.  And we go forth in our own thinking.  It might work out and it might not when we go about it like that.  Why take the risk?  when we have the promise from God that if we ask HIM for wisdom, HE will give us wisdom?

I believe this series on Wisdom will help each of us to remember to seek wisdom from God.  And I believe these writings over the next month will cause us to have an understanding of wisdom and to keep in our minds the need we have for wisdom to become deeply rooted in each of our hearts.

We should find these writings to be very exciting, profitable and comforting as we go forward daily.

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King Solomon asked God for wisdom and God gave Solomon wisdom and Solomon was the wisest of men because it was from God!

I Kings 3

4 And the king (Solomon) went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar. 
 
5  In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God saidAsk what I shall give thee.

6 And Solomon said, THOU hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before THEE in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with THEE; and THOU hast kept for him this great kindness, that THOU hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.

And now, O LORD my God, THOU hast made THY servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.

8 And THY servant is in the midst of THY people which THOU hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.

Give therefore THY servant an understanding heart to judge THY people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this THY so great a people?

10 And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.

11 And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment;

12 Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.

13 And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.

14 And if thou wilt walk in MY ways, to keep MY statutes and MY commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days.

15 And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream. 

And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.

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The wisdom God gave to king Solomon has lasted for centuries and even today in secular TV shows, I have heard reference made to the wisdom of Solomon.

Wisdom from God is greatly to be desired, more than rubies and silver and gold.  There is nothing like wisdom that comes from God.

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The wisdom of Solomon:  

Proverbs 1

1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;

2  To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;

3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;

4 To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.

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5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

6 To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.

7  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

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To fear God and choose HIS way is safety, prosperity, and health.  True wisdom is to choose God and that which HE shows you.   

Fear of the Lord is to have great awe of that which God shows you and to know that to go any other direction is to risk extreme danger and is very foolish.

We have a sure thing when we hear a word from God and go that way!

I was born again in 1975 and began reading the Bible and seeking to do the Word.  I saw the information about king Solomon and wanted wisdom from God.  Also I saw that God promises to give us wisdom if we ask HIM.  

I wrote on each book of the Bible, "Remember to ask God for wisdom."

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No good comes from traveling with the evil seekers:

Proverbs 1:10-16    My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

11 If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

12 Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

13 We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:

14 Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:

15 My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:

16 For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

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2 Corinthians 6

14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be MY people.

17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean ; and I will receive you,

18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be MY sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

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At the time I was born again, so far as I know, none of my friends were Christians.  And I was changed so dramatically by God that I no longer wanted to be with those people I had been around.  I wanted to hear things of God.  I wanted to read Bible.  I wanted to go to Church and attend things of God with people of God.

Two Baptist women said to me, "Don't give up your worldly friends."

But I no longer had anything in common with my previous friends.

The Baptist women were thinking maybe I could lead some of my past friends to Christ.  But that is not the way I felt.  I just didn't have anything in common anymore with them.  I was very changed by God.

Ezekiel 36  God says:

23 And I will sanctify MY great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.

25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be cleanfrom all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

27 And I will put MY spirit within you, and cause you to walk in MY statutes, and ye shall keep MY judgments, and do them.

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If we reject God's counsel:

Proverbs 1

20 Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

21 She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,

22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

(God says)

23 Turn you at MY reproof: behold, I will pour out MY spirit unto you, I will make known MY words unto you.

24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out MY hand, and no man regarded;

25 But ye have set at nought all MY counsel, and would none of MY reproof:

26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;

27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

28 Then shall they call upon ME, but I will not answer; they shall seek ME early, but they shall not find ME:

29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

30 They would none of MY counsel: they despised all MY reproof.

31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

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33 But whoso hearkeneth unto ME shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

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Consider this:

Proverbs 14:12  There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

I believe we live now in the beginning of the end times warned about in the Bible.  If so, we are told by the apostle Paul to expect these to be "perilous times".

2 Timothy 3

1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

3 Without natural affection (homosexuals / lesbians / abortionists), trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fiercedespisers of those that are good,

4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

(Paul doesn't tell us to keep company with this world or disobedient church people.  Paul says to turn away from them when you see this.  And that is what I did.)

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And Jesus says, concerning the end times:

Matthew 24

1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.

2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.


πŸ’₯  Wars:  World Wars I & II ... spectacular in that they included most of the nations of men on this earth.

πŸ’₯  Pestilences:  2020  Coronavirus covers entire world as we have never seen before.  NYC was empty of people and traffic as we usually see it.  On March 11, 2020, I was shocked to hear they were cancelling the major college basketball tournament, "March Madness".  Professional basketball and professional golf and professional baseball cancelled games and tournaments and entire seasons. Most things completely shut down, never before seen. And it happened all over the earth!  It reminded me of the fall of Babylon in Revelation 18.  (It was not that event but I was seeing things that were described in the writings concerning the fall of Babylon.)

πŸ’₯  Earthquakes:  2023 Great earthquake in Turkey and Syria kills almost 50,000 people (unheard of).

How can these things not get our attention?

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And Jesus speaks of more things to come at the end.

Matthew 24:12-13  And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

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And Jesus tells us how really bad the time will become:

Matthew 24:21-22  For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.  And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

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Churches are everywhere in USA.  How could it ever get this bad?

The apostasy comes into churches.  They fall away from scripture and set up other doctrines. They feel secure because they say "Jesus is Lord", but they cast aside scripture which is "Jesus".  And they have no idea they are a part of antichrist and the apostasy of the end time.

If we really love The Word of God, we will live by the instructions of the scriptures.

A quick test:  Jesus said:  Matthew 5:32  But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

Is this what they teach and do at your church group?

* The man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery?

* The divorced woman commits adultery if she remarries?

* The man who divorces a faithful wife is the cause of her committing adultery if she remarries?

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The apostasy in today's churches is rampant.

Do they teach the following about homosexuals and lesbians at your church group?

Romans 1:26-28  For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

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"without natural affection":  (2 Timothy 3:3)  ... Is it "natural" for a woman to kill her unborn child with abortion?

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"sex outside of marriage" ... fornication ... The apostle Paul says at the time of sexual intercourse two become one flesh, even if you have sex with an "harlot" (prostitute)

I Cor. 6:15-18  Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.

16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

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And it will get much worse in the days ahead on this earth.

No wonder Jesus said:  For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.  (Mt. 24:21-22)

We must learn to operate in God's wisdom, obeying the Holy Scriptures.
 
Joshua 1:8  This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.


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