PROVERBS 16 BETTER DEPART FROM EVIL2016 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Proverbs 16 Better Depart From Evil

Well, this morning we're in Proverbs chapter 16 as we continue to journey our way through the book of Proverbs as we're working our way through the Bible in three years. And last week we looked at a couple of different chapters and a couple of different pieces from different chapters. Uh,

This week we're going to stick to Proverbs chapter 16, but jump around a little bit within the chapter and highlight a few different verses and some of the wisdom that God has for us here in this chapter. Now, as I was preparing this week and thinking about the different aspects of Proverbs chapter 16, I was remembering something that happened back when I was at Bible College at Murrieta, the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Murrieta.

You guys might remember, I don't think it's set up the same way it was anymore, but if you've been there maybe 20 years ago or 15 years ago, you might remember the entrance to the Bible college, there's a big fountain in the middle.

And when you turn in, you go around the fountain, and there's a guard shack. And you have to stop at the guard shack, report in, let them know what you're there for and what you're doing. And then they let you in, and you can go about the campus. And then when you exit, you go on the other side of the guard shack. And what they had was they had those spikes,

going across the exit so that if you, you know, went out the exit, you were good, but you couldn't go in the exit. Otherwise, there was big signs warning you severe tire damage. And you might remember that, or of course, you've seen that in other places as well.

Well, I was reflecting on that because when I was there at the Bible College, I had a good friend who worked in the kitchen with me. That was our M199. It's the work that you have to do when you're attending the Bible College. And so we were in the kitchen doing the dishes. That was our job. And so we were in the very back, and there's this huge dishwasher, like as wide as this room, that we're working on and running dishes through and working together every day on. And one day I noticed he comes in,

Really discouraged. I mean, it's just, normally he's a real chipper guy. He was really bubbly, you know, happy, and, you know, great things happening in his life. But he comes in one day, and it's just like, you know, he's carrying bricks on his shoulders and weights, and he's just, you know, hunched over, discouraged, frustrated, bent over, you know,

just really down on life. And so I began to talk to him and say, hey, what's going on, man? I mean, you know, definitely something's going on. I could see that right as soon as you walk in. And he begins to tell me what happened that day. And that morning, his wife was driving out of the Bible college and

And she ended up driving over the spikes and blowing out all four tires at once. Can you imagine that? I mean, one flat tire is one thing, and it's a pain, right? You have to get off. You have to put on the spare tire. But

Chances are you don't have four spare tires in your trunk, right? I mean, that's a hefty thing to have to deal with all at once. You know, how do you move the car and get the tires? And oh man, it was a big hassle. But what happened and why it happened was as she was leaving the Bible college, she just went over the spikes and

And then there was a tractor that was there at the entrance that was doing some work and moving around. And she began to be concerned because it was kind of headed in her direction. And so out of concern for the tractor ahead of her, she put it in reverse and backed up over the tire spikes and popped all four tires. And so obviously she didn't do it intentionally. She wasn't trying to give this guy a real bad day and like, hey, I'll show him, pop all four tires at once.

What she thought was the best course of action at the time, based on the circumstances and the things that were coming at her, she thought this is the best thing to do. And so she went over the tire spikes and popped all the tires. And I think that is really appropriate to consider as we look at the book of Proverbs, because like there was the signs, warnings, severe tire damage all around those spikes, in a similar way, we have for us in the scriptures, God's warning signs, right?

And they're warning us about the ways not to go, the things not to do, because otherwise there will be severe tire damage. And so you'll understand the background as I move on to begin talking about the message this morning. And that is, the title is Better Depart From Evil. Here's the warning sign. Here's, you know, severe tire damage. You better depart from evil.

Because the reality is, when you are engaging in evil, when you're engaging in things that God has forbidden, or when God has declared this is not the way to go...

Even if it seems right at the time, even if you have a tractor barreling towards you and you think, well, this, it's the only choice I have. I have to go this way. It's not the right way. And it's going to result in severe tire damage. There's going to be destruction if we continue in the ways that are not of God. And so as we look at Proverbs chapter 16 this morning, we're going to be looking at and highlighting some of the warning signs that God has placed for us.

so that we can recognize the danger and take heed to the signs and not go in that direction. In verse 6 here of Proverbs chapter 16, it tells us, We'll come back to this verse also at the end of the message, but notice here that it's by the fear of the Lord one departs from evil.

that as we look at these things and the warning signs about the evil that is and that we need to avoid, it's related to our fear of the Lord.

You might remember we saw in Proverbs 9, verse 10, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And so as we talk about wisdom here in the book of Proverbs, we're talking about fearing God, which is also departing from evil. The core thing, the first steps of wisdom is a turning from sin. And for the rest of our lives as believers in Jesus, we are going to be

making decisions that are either wise or foolish. We're going to be turning from sin or continuing in sin. And we got to make the choice. We got to recognize what the Lord has said and turn from sin, to depart from evil. In verse 17, it says, the highway of the upright is to depart from evil. He who keeps his way preserves his soul. The highway of the upright is to depart from evil.

I don't know where you're at and what you're going through and what kind of things you're involved with in your life, but this morning, I believe God wants to encourage us. He wants to remind us, depart from evil. If there's anything in your life that's not right, that's out of sync, don't put up with it and think, well, it's okay, it's just a little thing. Don't put up with it and think, well, one day we'll get to it. Don't put up with it and think that you've got time to deal with it.

No, the Lord is putting up these warning signs so that we know we need to depart from evil. The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. That's the way that we're to continue, to continue to turn from sin. And he says, he who keeps his way preserves his own soul. This is for your sake. This isn't just for God's sake, but this is for your sake, for your benefit, the best thing for you.

Even though it might seem like with all the pressures that you're facing and the things that are coming at you that you have to go that direction that God's forbidden. Understand, no, it's for your benefit to turn from that and to get on the highway of the upright, to depart from evil and to do what God has called you to do.

And so that's the idea as we look at Proverbs chapter 16 this morning. It's better to depart from evil. It's better for you. And God's given you these warning signs for you to read, for you to recognize what's going on so that you don't go in the direction that will cause severe tire damage.

Well, let's begin by looking at verse 2, and here's point number 1 in verse 2, and that is that God's ways are better than your ways. As we begin to consider wisdom from God, understand God's ways are better than your ways. Verse 2 says, all the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits. The ways of a man are pure in his own eyes.

Not the psalmist, Solomon here, the author of Proverbs, he is saying, he's declaring that in our own eyes, in our opinion, we can think that our ways are pure, but that the real test comes when the Lord weighs the spirits, when he weighs the heart, when he weighs what's happening within.

That is that there can be a case, and I would suggest there is frequently the case, that we think we are right on, that we have everything in line, that we're doing what's right, that we have the best intentions, the best motivations, that we are pure in our estimation, but that's not the reality. We can be fooled, we can be tricked, we can be deceived even by our own hearts.

The reality is that you and I have limited information when it comes to our actions, our decisions, and our directions. And the sooner we recognize that, the better. And that's why we need these signs. Because we don't have all the information that we need to have. Some of the things that you do, well, you know that they are wrong and you do them anyways. I mean, that's just how we are. We make dumb decisions and we do things that we know are wrong.

But what might be surprising many times is that some of the things that we do because we're convinced that it's the right thing to do, it still might not be done with the right heart. You're convinced that it's the right thing. You're convinced that your heart, that your motivations, and that what you're doing is good, but it's the Lord who weighs the heart. And he has the final say on what's actually pure and what's actually good.

There's times in our lives where even questionable actions that we do, we know it's questionable, but we have convinced ourselves we have really good reason to do these questionable things. And so it's okay for us to do these things because of the great reasons we have. For example, there's a tractor coming towards me. And so I got to reverse where it says, don't go this way. You know, I have to go that direction. And we convince ourselves that,

That it's okay for us to disregard what God has said because of these circumstances, because of these things that are pressuring us. But the reality is, it's still not the right thing, and our ways are still not pure. John Corson talks about this. He says,

The issue is, what does the Lord think? The real question that we need to consider is not what I think about it, not what other people think about it, not what other people think my motivations are or what I think my motivations are, but what does the Lord think about what I do and how I do it and why I do it? Because even when I am convinced my motives are pure, I can come to find out that my heart is wrong. I'm sure that you've experienced that.

I know I've experienced that. There are those times where you're convinced. You're doing what you're doing because you think it's the right thing to do. And you think it's good things in your heart that's causing you and prompting you to do those things. And then suddenly God like pulls back the curtain. He opens the curtain and all of a sudden it's like this dawning realization. What I thought I was doing for a good reason actually turns out my heart was not pure.

Where I was declaring, I'm doing this because I love you, Lord. God says, no, let me show you. You're doing that because you love yourself. God, I'm doing this because I think it's what you want. And God says, no, no, you're doing that because it's what you want, not because it's what I want. And there are those times. And it happens in our lives. The way that I am, the way that I am going, the things that I am doing, I'm convinced it's pure. It's the right thing.

But the thing I need to be most concerned about is not my estimation of my actions and motivations, but what does the Lord think? What does God say about where I'm at and what I'm doing? Because if I just rely on my own opinions, well, I might find myself later in a wrong place, in a bad position, flat tires, because I didn't evaluate what the Lord said. God's ways are better than my ways. They're better than your ways. You know, there's a saying,

It goes around from time to time. We judge ourselves by our intentions, and we judge others by their actions. So that when we fall short, when we don't do, you know, fulfill the commitment that we made or whatever, we don't judge ourselves too harshly because, well, we had good intentions. I meant to do it. I, you know, I made that promise, and I wanted to do it, and so we judge ourselves by our intentions. But someone else breaks the promise, and we don't

give them the same kind of grace, we judge them by their actions. Well, it doesn't matter, you know, what you intended, you know, that you didn't do what you said you were going to do. And we can be, you know, more harsh and critical sometimes towards others than we are towards ourselves. And there's a lot of truth to that saying and some interesting things you could consider about it. But even then, judging ourselves by our intentions, there's a problem with that because we don't know our intentions many times.

The Lord tells us in Jeremiah that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? So that even when you are convinced your ways are pure and what you're doing is right and you have good intentions, your heart can deceive you and you can be tricked. You can be fooled by your own heart because we're clueless about our own hearts. And so we need to have the Lord's insight into our actions, into our motivations, so

Because it's the Lord who searches the heart and he really knows what's right. His ways are better than our ways. Not just because he knows our hearts, but it will jump now to verse 25 here in Proverbs 16. We can also see that God's ways are better than our ways because he can see the end results. Verse 25 says, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. So there's some things to us.

that seem right. We're convinced we're right, but God weighs the hearts and he evaluates, he determines whether or not it's really right, whether our heart's right in it, whether our intentions and motivations are right. There's some things in our lives that seem right to us. The actions that we take, the decisions that we make, we think it's the best decision to make. But sometimes those decisions that we make that we're convinced of being good decisions are

are actually decisions that take us in the way of death, that take us down a road of destruction. And so God's ways are better than our ways because he can see the end results. We can't see around the corner, down 10 miles, then a left turn. We can't see the whole path. We can't see all the implications of the decisions that we make and the things that we do. But God can see those things.

He does know what's best. He sees the end results. And that's why he tells us to do what he tells us to do. And that's why he tells us to not do what he tells us to not do. Because he knows what the end of those things are. And we can get on the 91 freeway and think this is, you know, the best way to get there. This is the best trip. And God says, you don't know that's the road to destruction. That's why I call the 91 the road to destruction. I'm just kidding.

You can have pure motives and still go down a path that leads to destruction. It's the idea that I'm sure you've heard. You can be sincere and yet be sincerely wrong. And so even when your heart's pure, even when you have good motivations, we still are operating based on limited information. But God has all the information. And so we can rest and know that his ways are better than our ways.

Look with me at verse 20 here in chapter 16. It says, he who heeds the word wisely will find good and whoever trusts in the Lord, happy is he. He who heeds the word wisely will find good. Here's the contrast. Our ways possibly lead to death. We don't know. But God's ways recorded for us in his word, they lead to good. Good.

He who heeds the word wisely will find good. The end result is good. That's why God tells us to do the things he tells us to do because he knows the end result is good. It says, and whoever trusts in the Lord, happy is he. Many times the way that we think is the way to be happy is the way that leads to death. And we think the things that will keep us from being happy is the things that God tells us to do. But what we'll find is if we do what God calls us to do,

if we follow his word and take heed to what he says, the result is what God says it's going to be. It's going to be good. It's going to be happiness. There's going to be joy. There's going to be abundant life as we walk with God according to his word. And that's why we need the word of God. It reveals his ways to us and it reveals our ways to us as well.

Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 tells us that the word of the Lord is like a sharp two-edged sword. And it divides between joints and marrow. It discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. And the word of God is able to lay us open in a way that our hearts are revealed. Where we don't know our hearts and we don't know the intentions and motivations, God will use his word to reveal those things so that we can then turn and submit ourselves.

to his ways rather than our ways. And so here in verse two, we see God's ways are better than your ways. He posts the warning sign. The way that you view yourself and your actions is not always accurate. And if you keep going down that path, it leads to destruction. We need to humble ourselves and listen to what God has to say.

Well, moving on to the next point, we're going to jump around topic to topic a bit. In verse 8, we have point number 2, and that is integrity is better than wealth. Integrity is better than wealth. Verse 8 says this, better is a little with righteousness than vast revenues without justice. Better is a little with righteousness than vast revenues without justice.

I like that phrase, vast revenues. Doesn't that sound nice? I wish I had vast revenues. It sounds nice. It gives pictures of, you know, just, you know, the, man, I forget his name, Scrooge. You know, the whole vault, you know, full of monies, diving in it, swimming in it. Vast revenues. Wouldn't it be nice to have vast revenues? But the value of those revenues, the value of that vault filled with money is,

God says, it's actually less valuable than your integrity. Now, we don't always have the proper esteem on things. We don't always view things appropriately. Many times we would value the wealth rather than the integrity. But God says, no, you need to understand. Integrity is far better. The cost of doing wrong outweighs the benefit.

Many years ago, I worked in the mortgage industry doing second mortgage loans and things like that. I worked for Pastor Tom Hallman, who's now in Virginia, but he used to be here. He was a branch manager at a mortgage lender out in Riverside. So I worked for him. I was an underwriter. And we had a variety of different loan officers who worked as well. And many times, I would take verses like this from Proverbs and

and post them on the walls just as like a little reminder to the loan officers. And if you're not familiar with the mortgage industry, there's a lot of little things that you can do in the mortgage industry to kind of tweak things to your advantage, take advantage of situations and customers. And I'm sure nobody here ever does that or has ever done that.

But I felt that they needed this reminder. And so I would challenge them many times. Hey, it's better to have less income, but to do what's right. It's better to have less with righteousness than to get more and do what's wrong. Man, we really need to have this heart towards life. It's better to have a little with righteousness. Are you willing to live with a little? Are you willing to live with not that much?

How important is it to you to have more? And if it's really important for you to have more, what are you willing to do in order to get more? Now, please understand, God commends diligence. He says it's a good thing. If you can be smart and do good deals, if you can work hard and make good decisions and get more and earn more, then everything

God blesses that. God commends that. He values that. You can see that all through Proverbs as well. That's a good thing. That's a commendable thing as far as God is concerned. But getting more at the expense of doing what's right, well, that's what God condemns. So he commends diligence. He condemns schemes and scams and cheats and corner cutting. And we all have opportunities and situations where we,

You know, if we just bend it a little bit, you know, if we just push a little bit, if we just cross the line a little bit, and there are those opportunities for us to get more. But better is a little with righteousness. Again, God's not opposed to you having more, but how you get it is very important to God. It really does matter. It's appropriate for you to get more when you earn it.

When you work hard, when you make good decisions, when you obey him. But to disregard those things in order to get more, well, that's an issue. Notice verse 11 here in Proverbs 16. It says, honest weights and scales are the Lord's. All the weights in the bag are his work. This is a common theme throughout the book of Proverbs. He talks a lot about weights and scales. It's really addressing their business practices in those days. The way that they would conduct business was,

was by weighing out what they were exchanging with one another. And so they would have the scale, you know, if you could picture like the balance scale and you'd have a bucket on one side, a bucket on the other side, and you measure it out and you see, okay, is it the same value? And so they would put a bunch of corn on one side and then put some either silver or gold or maybe some other produce that they were trading on the other side and weigh it out and say, okay, that makes sense.

And so what they would do is they would be in the marketplace. If you were selling and you were a schemer, you would have a set of weights that looked like a normal set of weights, but it was a little bit adjusted. So here's a five pound weight, looks like, but it's actually four and a half pounds. So that when I sell you...

five pounds of goods, you're actually only getting four and a half pounds. So I'm saving a little bit. I'm not, I'm making more money, you know, per pound than I would if I sold you the full five pounds. But then if I'm buying, I don't want to use that same weight because I don't want to get less, you know, for my money. And so now I'm switching out my weight. So I got another weight that's five and a half pounds, but it says it's five pounds.

then I, I just picture, it's funny in my head, you know, I picture kind of like the Aladdin marketplace, you know what I mean? And like, you know, schemers and like, you know, like trying to find, and then putting the wrong weight on the scale, like, oh man, I messed up, you know, but, but being clever and scheming and all right, you know, you know, being slick and, and putting your weight on the scale and, you know, trying to get that little advantage. God condemns that kind of thing.

that that's not to be done. Dishonest weights are an abomination to God. They would weigh out the silver, the gold, or whatever the goods were, and God says, you need to be right. You need to be fair. It's okay for you to get more, but you need to do so by earning it and not by scheming and stealing. There's an old illustration. I don't know if it's actually true, if it ever actually happened, but it paints the picture for us. There was a farmer and a baker. They were

And they would do business together regularly, and they'd been doing business together for many years. The farmer produced butter with his farm. The baker, of course, produced bread. And so what they would do is they would exchange bread for butter. And they would, you know, once a week get together, make the exchange, and they would have bread and butter, what they needed for the week. Well, one day, the baker...

took the farmer to court. He files a lawsuit. He takes him before the judge and says, judge, the farmer has been ripping me off. He's been selling me a pound of butter, but it's been getting less and less over the years. And so I've been buying a pound of butter, but I haven't been getting a full pound and it's gotten worse. Now, at first I put up with it. I mean, you know, we're good friends. It goes back a long ways, you know, for him to get a little bit more. I was okay with that, but it just seems like it's getting worse and worse. And so

That's why we're here today, because this guy is stealing from me, selling a pound of butter, but giving me less than a pound. So the farmer's called up, asked to defend himself and testify, and the farmer says, "Your Honor, I must admit it might be true that my pound of butter is less than a pound." He said, "I don't really know. I don't really have weights. I use the pound of bread I get from the baker to weigh out the pound of butter that I give to the baker."

In other words, the baker was reducing his pound and getting that in return. And so many times that can be the case. It's just like a little bit. It's just that little nudge, that little thing, those things that we do that we think we can get a little bit of an advantage. We can get just a little bit more. But a little with righteousness is better than vast revenues without justice. It's better than that little more than you could get.

The cost of doing wrong outweighs the benefit. It really speaks to the idea of contentment. Now, Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 6, verse 6, that godliness with contentment is great gain. Being content with the little, the word little, by the way, it is a little bit subjective. So what you consider little might not be what others consider little. But being content with what you call a little is

and godliness, he says that's great gain. There's great value there. But if you're not content with the little at the expense of your godliness, well, he goes on in 1 Timothy 6, verse 10 to say this, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Notice the warning sign that's posted here. Watch out.

Don't drive over the spikes. Severe tire damage. You will ruin your life if you don't learn to be content as well as godly. If you love money, that becomes a root of all kinds of evil. So much so that many, he says, have strayed from the faith in their greediness.

That people, because of their desire to get more, because of their desire to have more, and their compromising of their values and their integrity to get more, well, again, God sees the end result of that. There's a straying from the faith, a turning away from the things of God. Those decisions might seem minor to you at the moment, but they have long-lasting consequences. And the end result is they've pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Now, if I gave you the choice, hey, do you want to have great gain or many sorrows? You know, we all choose great gain. But often that's not the choice that we see in front of us. We think, well, I can have this. I can get a little bit more. Not realizing that it will cost us in the end many sorrows. Now, again, there's...

commending from God. You need to work hard. You need to be diligent. You need to be a wise steward. You need to do well. The issue is not getting more or having more or earning more, but the issue is compromising your integrity, your godliness in order to accomplish that. And if you do that, the end result will be many sorrows and some stray from the faith as a result of that. Watch out. Pay attention to the warning signs. Don't go that way.

Don't destroy your tires by pursuing wealth, by pursuing more at the cost of righteousness. Well, moving on to the third point, we're going to jump now to verse 18 and 19. And here we see that humility is better than pride. Humility is better than pride. Verse 18 says, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud. Famous verse here. I'm sure you've heard it quoted many times in your life. Pride goes before destruction. Many times it's quoted, pride goes before a fall. Same thing. Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. This is another theme throughout the book of Proverbs. God repeatedly declares...

That he hates pride. That's very clear in Proverbs, but also the rest of the scriptures. This is a very serious issue to God. And it's important for us to understand this because it's something that we all deal with. Now, there's some things in your life that you struggle with that maybe others around you don't have that same kind of struggle and that same kind of issue in their life, but not so with pride. Pride is something that affects every one of us, every human being.

It's really the beginning of all sin, starting with Satan as he was proud and lifted up in himself. It continues on to us that we're going to have to deal with pride. It's going to be an issue in our life until we enter into eternity.

And we need to recognize what God says about pride, recognize what it is so that we can turn from it and not experience the damage that it brings. Pride goes before destruction. Now you can look at that in a couple of ways. First of all, you could just look at kind of the natural course of life. Pride goes before destruction just pretty naturally. That is destruction.

Many times when we are proud and we're arrogant and we're not listening and we're not learning and we're not paying attention, well, that's when we make mistakes and that's when we mess up. That's when things happen because we weren't, you know, we were overconfident and not paying attention. And so, you know, in a lot of ways, you know, this kind of resolves itself just in the natural course of what happens when we are proud.

But then there's also the dealing with proud or the destruction of the proud that comes by supernatural judgment. Either way, pride goes before destruction. And God will make sure that that's the case. In Isaiah 2, verse 12, this is just a sampling of many such verses here.

It says, That's God's promise. As we enter into eternity, as we stand before the Lord,

everything high and lifted up will be brought low. In the previous verse, it says, the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. This is why pride is such a big issue and so important for all of us because God promises the proud will be brought low. Pride goes before destruction. God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the meek, to the humble. Now again, there's two ways you could consider the destruction, the natural course of things.

I was listening to an account of a pastor who was sharing about how he was really impressed with the message that he was delivering. He's on stage, he's teaching the message, concludes the message, and thinks to himself, man, that was really great. Really good job. Man, that's awesome. And as he concludes the message, he says,

He invites the people up for prayer as we often do. And as he's just congratulating himself on this awesome message he just delivered, he trips and falls off of the stage in front of everybody. And the Lord brought this scripture to mind. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Hey, just remember, when you're proud, you're setting yourself up for a fall. You're setting yourself up for destruction, for humiliation. You're setting yourself up because God will not stand

for pride in our lives. He won't stand for it. Everything high and exalted will be brought down. You might remember in the book of Daniel, we have the account of Nebuchadnezzar. And there in Daniel chapter four, we read the account that Nebuchadnezzar was really proud of his empire. He ruled the Babylonian empire. He built the city of Babylon, which was incredibly impressive. And God sent messengers to him and said, hey,

You need to watch out for your pride. You need to pay attention because your heart's lifted up and I'm not going to stand for that. And it seems like things went well for a little bit, but then one day he's looking out over the city of Babylon and tells us in Daniel chapter 4 verse 30, he thinks to himself, is this not great Babylon that I've built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?

Look how awesome I am. Look what I've accomplished. Look what I've built. And it tells us that God sends him from that statement into seven years of insanity. And for seven years, he's convinced he's an animal. He's out in the field eating grass with the herds. Until at the end, it says he came to his senses and he looked up and he realized God reigns over all. God reigns on high. The Lord supernaturally brought destruction to him.

so that he would recognize humility is better than pride. God rules over all. In verse 19 here of Proverbs 16, it says, better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud. And so here we have the opposite of pride, and that is humility. It's the opposite of pride. It's the solution to pride, humility. Now you might be able to get

Some temporary benefit. Here he says, you can divide the spoil with the proud, but it's temporary benefit for a long-term destruction. Instead, it's better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly. And so what does that mean? And how do we do that? How do we have a humble spirit? Well, many times we kind of get a distorted perspective and understanding of humility.

And sometimes people begin to think that, well, I got to be humble. So I need to think, you know, badly of myself. I need to tell everybody how terrible I am and how ugly I am and how stupid I am. And that's humility. But that's really not humility. Humility, I would describe it this way, is an accurate view of yourself. Humility is an accurate view of yourself based on what God says.

that your value is based on what God says your value is. It's not about you beating yourself up or telling yourself how terrible you are or telling others how terrible you are. It's really about acknowledging and accepting who God says you are and what God says you are and the value that God says that you have. I don't know about you, but when I think of

pride, a lot of times I have this picture in my head. It's kind of like a caricature of like a young teenage boy or maybe like an early 20s guy, you know, just arrogant and just know-it-all. You know, I was that guy, you know, so I can picture, you know, what I look like in the mirror, you know, those days. It's like, you know, I knew everything. I had all the answers, you know, and I have that picture in my mind, but

But that's not the only expression of pride. And that's not the only kind of people who deal with pride. We all deal with pride. And some people might think, well, I don't think I deal with pride. You know, I have a real low self-esteem. You know, many times, low self-esteem is also an issue of pride, even though that seems contradictory in our minds. But that's the reality because pride is about self. Think about it this way. Pride is self-esteem, whether high or low,

Humility is God esteem. It really comes down to how you look at life. And so here I have a quick diagram. So if I have me in the middle,

And God is based on my understanding of him. God is based on what I think about him and my interpretation of him. And truth is based upon what I can understand and what I think and my perspective and my decisions. And family and work and friends, everything revolves around me. Everything's based on me. Everything's based on what I think, what I feel, how I feel, what I want. And if that's the case, well, that's called pride. I'm the center.

Everything revolves around me, what I think, what I feel. Now this can happen with high esteem. God must be really amazed with me because look at how awesome I am. But it can also be with low esteem that my life is based on God must be really disappointed with me because look how terrible I am.

And it can go either direction in all aspects, in truth, in family, in work, in friends. Everything can be impacted, whether it's high esteem or low esteem, but it's still me at the center. I'm still the focus. I'm still, you know, the one in the middle. And that's pride, whether high or low. But a better way to look at things, the right way, humility is really more like this. You put God in the middle. And what he says, well, that's valued most highly, right?

Even above what I think about myself. What he says is truth, that's the truth. Whether I understand it, whether I agree with it, that's the truth.

What he says about my family, well, that's what is the truth about my family. What he says about the way I'm to relate to my family, well, that's the truth about the way I'm to relate to my family. And the proportion of balance of life is, well, that's according to what he says and how much I work and how much I spend time with friends and what I do here and what I do there, what I think about this, what I feel about this. It's all dictated upon what does God say? What does God want? His ways are better than my ways.

That's the realization. That's the recognition. Humility is better than pride. To put God at the center of your life, to put God at the center of your decisions, to put God at the center of everything is humility. To put him first and let him dictate who you are, what you are, where you go, what's best, what's valuable. Let God be the one who declares those things. Don't base your life on you. Base your life upon God.

In verse 5 here in Proverbs 16, it says, Everyone proud of heart is an abomination to the Lord. Though they join forces, none will go unpunished. Everyone proud of heart is an abomination. Picture I have in my mind of the young 20-year-old arrogant dude, that's an abomination to the Lord. But the sweet old aunt, you know, who is proud, she's an abomination as well. It impacts all of us. We all have a tendency to,

to go back to putting us at the center of everything. And everybody revolves around us. And all of our ideas and all of our directions and everything is about what we think, what we want, how we feel. That's pride. God says, that's an abomination. Take yourself out of the center of your life and put the Lord there. Value him above all else. His word above all else. Again, the warning sign here is pride will destroy you.

It's not for God's sake that he says you must do this. It's for your sake. Heed the warning signs. There's spikes at the end of that path. You're gonna blow out your tires. You're gonna bring destruction. That's what pride brings. Read the signs. Understand what the Lord says and respond. Don't go that way. Even if there's great pressure coming towards you and you think it's the best way or the only way, follow what God says and let his word override everything else.

Well, for the final point, we're going to jump to verse 32. And here we see in verse 32 that self-control is better than anger. Verse 32 says, he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. The one who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. Here, God gives us a warning about anger. And if you're slow to anger...

If you have self-control, if you have patience, God says, that is way better. Better than being mighty, better than being successful. He says, even better than he who can take a city. Now there have been guys in the Old Testament, we see a couple of guys in Joshua chapter 15, when Caleb is conquering his territory in the promised land, he tells his guys, hey, whoever attacks this city and takes it, I'll give him my daughter as wife.

And so it tells us that Othniel takes on that challenge and says, all right, and he leads the charge. He goes and he conquers the city. He gets to marry Caleb's daughter. He conquered a city. Now, I would imagine, I'm kind of expecting in my head, you know, there's other guys with him, but he conquers the city. I mean, that's mighty. That's impressive. In 1 Chronicles chapter 11, when David wants to conquer Jerusalem and the Jebusites are still there, he turns around to his guys and he says, all right, whoever is the first to take on the city,

You're going to be captain of the army. And Joab says, all right. He takes the challenge. He goes and he attacks. He conquers the city of Jerusalem, which was a hard city to conquer. Impressive. There are people who, man, they can accomplish much. They can conquer much. They can overcome great things.

In today's terms, we might think of, you know, the best athlete in whatever sport you're a fan of. You know, it's like, wow, they conquer great things. Or maybe in your workplace, it's the top salesperson or someone who's excellent at whatever job. Impressive conquering in the workplace. As impressive as that might be, as impressive as your history might be, to have self-control is better than all those other things. Patience is better than productivity.

Patience is better than promotion. Even for a warrior, patience is better than anger, God says. Self-control, it's better, but it's also harder. Matthew Henry, the commentator says, to overcome our own passions requires more steady management than obtaining victory over an enemy. Self-control is better. That doesn't make it easier, but it's better. It's worth it.

And so he says it requires steady management. That's an ongoing taking yourself to the Lord to deal with your issues of anger. Recognizing that if I just let myself go, if I don't deal with and learn how to have self-control, specifically in this issue of anger, I'm going to be running over some tire spikes. I'm going to have a big blowout. It's going to result in destruction. It's not going to be good. God puts up the warning sign.

Self-control is better than anger. Don't drive over those spikes. Don't head in that direction. Even when that tractor is coming towards you and you're convinced, the only thing I can do, the only choice I have is to be angry and to explode and to blow up over this. Don't take that course. You don't have to go that direction. Go to the Lord, the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control.

Self-control. Be filled with the Spirit. Turn to the Lord and the things of the Lord. It's better than your ways. It's better than what you can do. And so here we see it's better to depart from evil because God's ways are better than your ways. Integrity is better than wealth. Humility is better than pride. And self-control is better than anger.

These are just a sampling of some of the warning signs that God gives us here in Proverbs 16 and in his word. Maybe there's other things that are already on your heart that you know God's been putting up some signs and warning you, flashing the red lights and saying, hey, that's not a good path. That's not a good decision. We all fall short in these things and many others. And we need to recognize that our ways are destructive.

We need to read the signs that God sets up and turn from that. But how do we do that? How do we stop doing these things? If we recognize, if I see, well, I see issues with my integrity because I'm trying to get more. If I see issues with my humility or my self-control or something else, how do I really address that? What do I really need to do? And for that, I would take you back to verse 6 here in Proverbs 16. Proverbs 16.

Notice what it says. In mercy and truth, atonement is provided for iniquity. And by the fear of the Lord, one departs from evil. Here God addresses where we fall short, where we disregard the signs. First of all, he says, you can have forgiveness. Atonement is provided in mercy and truth. So even when you've already blown it, you've already gone over the spikes, you've already had the issues, you've already gone that direction.

forgiveness is available. But also, he shows us how to turn and not continue down that path and cause more destruction. He says, by the fear of the Lord, one departs from evil. By the fear of the Lord. The way that we depart from evil is by fearing God. It's the beginning of wisdom. As we talked about at the beginning of Proverbs a couple weeks ago, that doesn't mean a fear of the Lord that causes us to run from God, but it's a fear of the Lord that causes us to run to God and

And receive the atonement that he has provided. And so here's the short Jerry Simmons version. To turn from evil, to depart from evil, you pursue God. That's what it means to fear the Lord. It's not so much that you have to really focus and consume yourself with trying to have self-control. But it's that you focus and consume yourself with pursuing God. And as you pursue God, he works out the issues with self-control.

By the fear of the Lord, by honoring the Lord, by esteeming the Lord highly, by putting the Lord at the center, you depart from evil. By making God the most important priority of your life, that's how you depart from evil. And it's also how you receive forgiveness. Notice he says, in mercy and truth, atonement is provided. You can be right with God. It comes through mercy and truth. Now, mercy and truth is kind of an odd combination when you think about it. Mercy...

It's the idea of not getting judgment I deserve. But if I've done wrong in any of these areas or any others, my normal tendency would be to hide those things. Because if they are uncovered, if the truth is known, then I will receive the judgment I deserve. But here's what God says. If you come to me and try to hide that stuff, you're going to get the judgment. But if you come to me and confess that stuff,

If you come to me in truth, not trying to pretend like you're not that way, not trying to pretend that you don't wrestle with those things, not trying to pretend that you don't go that direction. If you come to me in truth, then you find mercy. John tells us that the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. There's the meeting up of these two things, forgiveness, mercy, grace, and truth.

So that John tells us in 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It's in that confession, in that openness, in that bringing these things out before the Lord that God brings the mercy and the grace that we desperately need. God has chosen to bring atonement with confession. And this morning, as we finish up the service, we're gonna take some time to partake of communion together.

And it's really appropriate for us to do that at the close of the service and to consider here verse six, atonement is provided in mercy and truth. And by the fear of the Lord, one departs from evil. There's an opportunity here for you. If you need forgiveness, which yes, we do. We can come to the cross. We can come to Jesus Christ in mercy and truth.

confessing our sin, acknowledging our sinfulness before God. And the Lord gave us these reminders in the communion elements, the bread, which represents his body, which was broken, and the cup, which represents his blood that was shed so that we could remember that he died upon the cross in our place so that by faith in him, we could be forgiven of all of our sin, washed away from the guilt, even though we did things wrong that we knew were wrong.

And in those occasions where we did things wrong because we thought we were right, whatever the case may be, we can be forgiven as we receive what Christ has done for us upon the cross. That's how atonement is provided. And as we focus on the Lord and make him the center, he's the one who causes us to depart from evil. And so it's really appropriate for us to partake of communion together this morning, to receive the forgiveness that we need and to continue down a path that ends in good.

The worship team's going to come up and lead us in a closing song. And as they lead us in this song, the bread and the cup are going to be passed out. And I would encourage you to, between you and the Lord, partake at any time during the song. As you have the bread and the cup, you do business with God.

You receive the forgiveness that he offers, but come to him with confession. Come to him with the truth. Don't try to pretend that you're something you're not or that you don't deal with issues that you deal with. But no, acknowledge and come to God with how you really feel, where you're really at, and receive the forgiveness that he offers through the blood that he shed for you. But also as you partake of communion, look to make God the center of your life. Look to make Jesus the passion and pursuit of your life.

Because it's in that that you'll be able to depart from evil. Let's worship the Lord and you can partake of communion at any time.