-Transcript-
00:35 Amen. Glory to God. Good to be here-.
00:39 Welcome to the Cafe today. I hope you’re having a wonderful day, a wonderful week. I know that life can be difficult and hard and in this program, this radio program, we try to tackle topics that the Lord lays on this preacher’s heart that can help you, Amen, and help you deeply and thoroughly.
00:59 How many times does a good preacher say, listen up, this can change your life? Hey, the Bible really will change your life. Today we’re talking about something life-changing. We’re talking about getting the scorner out, getting the scorner out of your life.
01:14 We’re talking about a simple bit of wisdom that we can pray over, that we can think about, that we can take action on, about casting the scorner out and surrounding ourselves with people that provide Godly wisdom.
01:29 We’re in the book of Proverbs 22 :10- 12. “Cast out the scorner and contention shall go out., strife and reproach shall cease. That he that loveth pureness of heart for the grace of his lips, the king shall be his friend. The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor.”
01:53 So what’s happening in this little passage of scripture is so powerful. What is a scorner? You may be wondering what a scorner is. A scorner is a person who expresses contempt or disdain for someone or something.
02:09 Synonyms would be a sneerer, a disagreeable person, an unpleasant person, a person who is not pleasant or agreeable. Well, we all probably know a I asked the congregation if they knew those kind of people when I preached this recently and they all seemed to look at me in agreement, I guess. Maybe not wanting to say out loud who it is, but we’ve all known these people.
02:35 I’ve had them in my life. I’ve had them in my family. Sadly, I’ve seen them in the church house.
02:42 I always think, too, in school. I was a work in progress as a pretty much all my years in school. And I went to preschool and I went to elementary school and middle school.
02:56 Still work in progress. I went to college. Work in progress.
03:00 Somehow they let me into graduate school. Work in progress. And these teachers that I had, you know, you’d have a one good one or two or three good ones and you’d have one or two scorners.
03:10 Disagreeable, unpleasant, expressing contempt or disdain. And I won’t get into the details, but I mean this in a Christian context, okay? A Christian context, a scorner here is Proverbs 22:10-12 is writing this is talking about someone that is causing strife and reproach. And what we see here is that that would cease if they are gone, right? And we also see here that if you love pureness of heart, if you are godly and you’re meek and you’re humble, and you’re exhibiting godly traits, even the king will want to be your friend or will be your friend.
03:55 Amen. You’ll have friends in very high places because of your demeanor and your attitude, your love, your unwillingness to be scornful. Imagine a saved person.
04:07 And imagine two people looking upon that saved person. The first is a scorner that hates him and his godly wisdom because he’s saved and he’s got God living within him through the Holy Spirit. And the second person that loves the pureness of that saved person’s heart.
04:25 They love him and his godly wisdom. Who does that saved person want to be around? Who will be more fruitful and helpful? Why would that saved person put up with the scorner? And I want to clarify here because I try to think about this in the context of someone that is just being evil and rotten and disagreeable for the sake of being disagreeable. I think God spends much time in His Word rebuking or chastening the Christian, correcting the Christian.
04:57 And if you have someone in your life that provides godly wisdom, that provides that correction, what we all need that holds us accountable, I don’t believe they would fit the definition of a scorner. So we’re not saying just, you know, or I’m not saying here today, I don’t believe God’s saying, get yourself around a bunch of yes people that will just love you unconditionally and let you do whatever you want. We want godly influences that hold us accountable.
05:17 And at the same time, we also want to make sure that we’re not surrounding ourselves with the scorner, with the person that is causing contention and strife and reproach, the person that’s always down on everything, especially the things of God. I think that the reason why this scripture points out to cast out the scorner is because we are now, even though Proverbs is Old Testament, we are now New Testament Christians living in the age of grace. We’ve been saved by the blood of Jesus.
05:53 Jesus fulfilled the law. Amen. When you accept Christ as Savior, this is for the saved person here today, when you accept Christ as Savior, you’re no longer under the law.
06:02 Where the Spirit is, there is liberty. We don’t need to be under the thumb of scornful man who also may be trying to keep us under some kind of law. 2 Corinthians 3:17.
06:16 Here’s a New Testament verse for you. Now the Lord is that Spirit, capital S, and where the Spirit, capital S, of the Lord is, there is liberty. Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
06:30 So we know we have the Holy Spirit living within us, and we know that we’re no longer under the law. And so think of the scorner that is trying to point a finger at you, trying to say, Ope, look at that. You’re not perfect.
06:46 How can you call yourself godly? Or, O, look at this. How could God allow this to happen? You see, the scorner is trying to cast doubt on God, trying to create some kind of tension, problem, maybe even confusion. Does that sound familiar? Do we know who the author of confusion is? That’s the devil.
07:10 Amen. Will the devil use an unknowing soul to achieve one of his goals? Absolutely he will. And he’ll especially use that lost person that’s got a little chip on their shoulder.
07:15 O, how the devil can use that person to cause strife and contention and reproach? And what we understand here as Christians, as New Testament Christians, which I believe Solomon had this wisdom in his heart when he wrote this, is we’re not under the law. Okay, we’re not, we are in the age of grace. We’ve been saved by grace.
07:32 So why is someone trying to put us under the law? Why is someone trying to put some kind of morality upon us, or a level of a behavior upon us, or whatever they’re doing? Again, some people may cause strife and contention just because they enjoy doing it. It has nothing to do with making you better, or helping you, or anything. And the Bible says, cast this person out, get rid of this person.
07:55 And interestingly enough, it then transfers right to, He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of His lips, the King shall be His friend. So those that love pureness of heart, those that love what is pure and lovely, I always think on Philippians 4:8, you know, when we’re commanded to think on these things, what’s true, and honest, and just, and pure, and lovely, good report, any virtue, any praise, that’s Philippians 4: 8, that’s what we are to think upon. Well, how can we think upon those things with the scorner in our life? We need to get the scorner out.
08:27 We need to say, no, that’s not required of us, that is no need for us to be around this person causing this problem. We need to realize where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, Amen. We need to have peace in our life as God intended us to have.
08:43 Think of John 14:27,” peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart betroubled, neither let it be afraid.” How beautiful is that? John 14: 27, when I was preparing for this message, I read that over three or four times and just kind of exhaled and said, ah, that is great.
09:08 Peace I leave with you. This is Christ speaking to the believer, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth. You see how the world gives peace? It’s a rotten peace, it’s a temporal peace, it’s a peace that the Bible says there’s pleasure in sin for a season, it’s one that that’s devoured by the wages of sin, which is death.
09:27 We don’t have that kind of peace. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. What is the scorner trying to do? The scorner is trying to trouble you and make you afraid, make you feel like you’re not good enough, make you feel like you can’t overcome some kind of situation.
09:38 And again, this scorner could actually be in the church house. This scorner could be there. Yeah, I think of Judas Iscariot approaching Jesus saying, well couldn’t we have given this money to the poor instead of for the ointment that was being put on his feet, Amen, because it was so expensive.
10:06 Scorning. He was, he was quote-unquote in the church house, he was part of the disciples even though the Lord knew what he would do. You see it in modern-day churches.
10:11 I don’t have to get into it, Amen. We have a very small church and so we don’t have people openly scorning. They may be quietly scorning, but not openly scorning.
10:19 It’s, I guess it’s small for that, but I’ve been in churches I would consider big, which you may still consider small, but fifty, a hundred people, and you’ll have a few people in there that are scorning, that are causing division, that are causing strife, and that is not what God calls us to do. God wants to rid us of unnecessary and unfruitful burdens, and again a lot of it I think goes back to this idea of putting people back under the law. You know, our, the Bible says God loves a cheerful giver, and people think of that as giving materially, which is true, right? But I think the other idea here is God wants someone to cheerfully give of their time, and cheerfully give to time in the ministry, to time with Him, to cheerfully do it.
11:11 Well, how can you cheerfully do that if you’re constantly trying to live under a burden, under a yoke that you can never fulfill? That’s what happened in the Old Testament. You know, in my Bible study, I’m reading in Leviticus the very details of the law and the sacrifices and the wave offering of this part of the the beast, and the and the burning of this, and it had to be this shoulder, and this breast, and and this part, and you have to take the skin and move it outside of the camp, and burn it outside of the camp, and all of these rules. I mean, sometimes I barely can figure out where I’m going, and where I need to be.
11:43 I can’t imagine trying to fulfill all of these laws, and I realized that God was doing this, number one, to show that an offering needs to be given when there’s sin. That’s number one, and number two, that man can’t keep the law, and God fulfills this by offering His only begotten Jesus Christ on our behalf, and then we no longer are under the law. When we accept Christ as Savior, Christ has fulfilled the law, and if we were under the law, then every time we would break the law, Christ would have to go back to the cross, but He only went one time for all time, for all humanity, for all that would accept Him as Savior, that free gift, and it’s available to all, but many will not accept that free gift.
12:21 Many will never come to the to the terms of the idea that they’re a sinner, and they need a Savior, and maybe some of those people, lost people, will be scorning, okay, will be acting inappropriate, and maybe some saved people will get this kind of spirit in their heart, and I urged our church the other day, I said, look, you know, if you have this spirit coming upon you, I said, I don’t know why the Lord had convicted me to preach this, but maybe you have a spirit of scorning, a spirit of just being disagreeable, just to be disagreeable. You need to take a deep look. It doesn’t mean you’re losing your salvation, once saved, always saved, but what is causing that? And again, whatever is fueling that, maybe the Lord is saying, hey, we need to look at this.
13:00 We need to pray to God and seek Him. We need to repent before God. You know, I repent every single day.
13:04 Nobody is above repentance. Every day, oh, I should say, I try to repent every single day, okay? No one’s above repentance, and I ask God to forgive me of my sins, point them out, show me, Lord, where I’ve fallen short, and and that is one way to prevent that kind of scorning attitude, Amen? God wants us to have peace in our life. God wants us to live a life that is fruitful for Him, that is abundant in the ministry, that is focused on the important things, and God is more than willing, I believe, to show us where these scornful people and scornful things are in our lives, where they may be in our churches, where they may be in work.
13:44 Help us to understand it. Yes, we are to be long suffering with the lost. We are to be long suffering with the lost, but we are also not to be self-destructive and to put ourselves in compromising situations.
13:56 We love the Lord here today. We try to live for him and take his Word at heart, cast out the scorner, get rid of the strife and contention, live peaceably with God, and serve Him with all your heart, and you’ll have a joy and peace that you never thought you could have. Thank you for listening.
14:11 Take care, God bless, and Amen.