Welcome to Wisdom Today with Bill Kelley. Today we will be going over Proverb 25. I will then key in on verse 11 - A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold In settings of silver. Friends, it is better to say nothing that to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. I often ask God for discernment - meaning that He bring people into my path that I can be an encouragement to, and be a good witness of the Gospel and share the love of God. On today's podcast I will introduce you to Luke, the writer of the Gospel with his name. Luke was a Gentile, meaning he is the only author of the entire Bible that was not Jewish. Luke, most people believed, died a martyr's death at the age of 84 years of age. What I find interesting is that no one knows the certainty of the year of his birth, or the year of his death. One thing I find admirable about Luke is the thoroughness of his gospel. He did not write the gospel until 30 years had passed since the crucifixion of Jesus. I will begin this study by reading the first four verses of Chapter #1. Luke wrote this book to the Gentiles, but specifically to a man named Theophilus. Luke, obviously, was ministering him - but he wanted to be sure that this man understood that everything he would be writing was a true account of what actually took place. Three things that I would ask that you consider are:
1. Luke's gospel is a good place to start the reading of the Bible.
2. Zacharias & Elizabeth are a lot like Abraham and Sarai.
3. Zacharias was punished for not believing the word spoken to him by the angel Gabriel
Call to action: Are you mindful of the words that come out of your mouth? Are you inclined to speak a "fit word"?
[00:00:00] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast
[00:00:12] we will be exploring the book of Proverbs.
[00:00:21] Open in prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today.
[00:00:27] I pray that you open everyone's heart to receive everything you have in store for them
[00:00:32] in Jesus' name. Amen. This is Proverbs 25, beginning in verse 1.
[00:00:39] These also are Proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah, King of Judah,
[00:00:45] copied. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter but the glory of kings is to search out a matter
[00:00:54] as the heavens for height and the earth for depth. So the heart of kings is unsearchable.
[00:01:02] Take away the dross from silver and it will go to the silver smith for jewelry. Take away the wicked
[00:01:10] from before the king and his throne will be established in righteousness. Do not exalt yourself
[00:01:18] in the presence of the king and do not stand in the place of the great. For it is better that he
[00:01:25] say to you, come up here then that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince whom your
[00:01:33] eyes have seen. Do not go hastily to court for what will you do in the end when your neighbor has
[00:01:42] put you to shame. Debate your case with your neighbor and do not disclose the secret to another.
[00:01:51] Lest he who hears it expose your shame and your reputation be ruined. A word fitly spoken is like
[00:02:01] apples of gold in settings of silver. Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold
[00:02:10] is a wise rebukeur to an obedient ear. Like the cold of snow in time of harvest is a faithful messenger
[00:02:20] to those who send him for he refreshes the soul of his masters. Whoever falsely boasts of giving
[00:02:29] is like clouds and wind without rain by long forbearance a ruler is persuaded and a gentle
[00:02:38] tongue breaks a bone. Have you found honey eat only as much as you need. Lest you be filled with it
[00:02:47] and vomit seldom set foot in your neighbor's house lest he become weary of you and hate you.
[00:02:56] A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a club, a sword and a sharp arrow.
[00:03:06] Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint
[00:03:15] like one who takes away a garment in cold weather and like vinegar on soda is one who sings songs to a
[00:03:25] heavy heart. If your enemy is hungry give him bread to eat and if he is thirsty give him water
[00:03:34] to drink for so you will heap colds of fire on his head and the lord will reward you. The north
[00:03:44] wind brings forth rain and a back biting tongue and angry countenance. It is better to dwell in a
[00:03:53] corner of a house top than in a house shared with a contentious woman. As cold water to a weary soul
[00:04:03] so is good news from afar country. A righteous man who falters before the wicked is like a murky spring
[00:04:13] and a polluted well. It is not good to eat much honey so to seek one's glory is not glory
[00:04:23] whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls.
[00:04:32] Friends today I'd like to take a closer look at verse 11 and proverb 25 verse 11 says this
[00:04:42] a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. A friend will come back
[00:04:51] and take a closer look at that verse prior to closing today but what I'd like to do today is begin
[00:04:58] a new study on the gospel of Luke. And before we get into this I'd like to go over exactly who
[00:05:08] Luke was. The first thing I'd like everyone to know is that Luke never met Jesus. He had nothing
[00:05:17] at all to do with him and obviously he was around when Jesus was around. I looked up and it appears
[00:05:28] that Luke died at the age of 84. Now they seem pretty certain that Luke died an old man when
[00:05:37] he was martyred but they don't know exactly when he was born or the year he died and I kind of
[00:05:45] find that interesting that there is like a 10 or 15 year period where they said he could have
[00:05:51] been born and there's a 10 or 15 year period when he could have died but they are sure that he was
[00:05:58] 84 years old. So first of all I find that a little bit interesting but I think it's interesting the fact
[00:06:06] that he had never met Jesus and yet he was fascinated enough by all of the stories that he had done
[00:06:15] but one of the things that I really would like to get across is the fact that Luke was a Gentile.
[00:06:23] He was a Greek thus making him the only author of the entire Bible that was not Jewish
[00:06:33] and I find that fascinating for one first of all that we have someone that was not Jewish
[00:06:40] but he was someone just like you and just like me unless you happen to be Jewish. So we are Gentiles
[00:06:49] and Gentiles are people who were not Jewish so you know I find that interesting and I've always
[00:06:59] been fascinated by the gospel of Luke. Now Luke was a physician and as a physician I kind of
[00:07:08] view it this way he wrote the gospel because he wanted to give people a prescription of how
[00:07:16] to live their life that's what doctors do doctors want to get people healthy and so Luke was concerned
[00:07:26] about those people who would be reading his gospel and he wanted them to lead a healthy life.
[00:07:34] So what I'd like to do today is begin the first chapter of Luke and go over the first four verses.
[00:07:45] Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been
[00:07:53] fulfilled among us just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of
[00:08:02] the word delivered them to us. It seemed good to me also having had perfect understanding of all
[00:08:13] things from the very first to write to you an orderly account most excellent theophilus
[00:08:22] that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.
[00:08:30] So friends the first point I would like to make is that Luke's gospel is a good place to begin.
[00:08:39] Now some of you may not have listened or tuned in to my podcast last week but what I said is that I
[00:08:49] suggested to people that if you're not familiar with reading the Bible and didn't know quite where
[00:08:55] to start you may want to start in the book of Proverbs and read a proverb every day and that's
[00:09:01] what this podcast is about. I read the proverb of the day every day and then also to begin reading
[00:09:09] the book of Psalms but then I suggested that you go to Luke's gospel so let's break down these first
[00:09:17] four verses. First of all this is a dedication to a man named theophilus and it is presumed that
[00:09:28] theophilus was someone that Luke had taken under his realm and he was trying to witness to this
[00:09:38] man theophilus so he is telling him that what I am about to tell you is the truth and you can
[00:09:49] believe it and I like what it says in verse three. It says to write to you an orderly account
[00:10:00] most excellent theophilus that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were
[00:10:08] instructed. So Luke is telling us that he is certainly not the first person to talk about the
[00:10:17] exploits of Jesus. He isn't the first one and when I sit there and think about when the gospel
[00:10:25] of Luke was written and that's another thing we are not absolutely sure of what I found out it
[00:10:34] is presumed that it was written either between 65 near the late 60s or as late as 70 or 71.
[00:10:46] But one thing that Luke mentions in his gospel is the total destruction of Jerusalem. So it had
[00:10:55] to be around the year 70 but let's take this in context. Jesus was crucified somewhere between 35
[00:11:09] and 40 so over the past 30 years Luke has been talking to people. He has been writing notes about
[00:11:19] everything that he's heard about Jesus and he actually became very close counterparts with
[00:11:28] the Apostle Paul and we hear that later on in the book of Acts which we will not be getting into
[00:11:37] in this study but a lot of times Luke actually went on trips with the Apostle Paul and ministered
[00:11:48] and witnessed with him. So they became very close friends but Luke is a very accurate portrayal
[00:11:57] of what happened during the life of Jesus. And over the next six months or so and I'm presuming it
[00:12:06] will probably take about six months maybe seven months to get through this entire book and friends
[00:12:13] I'm not in a hurry to get through this book. This is such a phenomenal book and there's so much
[00:12:19] information that needs to be passed on but I'm excited about this study. It's just like anything else
[00:12:26] when you start a new course of study it's like going to college and taking a new course and whenever
[00:12:34] you do that you're excited because you're going to learn new material and I invite anyone listening
[00:12:41] today to stay tuned for this study because if you tune in on a regular basis I assure you
[00:12:50] you will learn a lot of things that you did not know before. Let's go on to verse 5.
[00:12:58] There was in the days of Herod the king of Judea a certain priest named Zacharias of the division
[00:13:07] of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth and they were both
[00:13:16] righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord
[00:13:23] blameless but they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and they were both well advanced in years.
[00:13:36] Friends the second point I'd like to bring up is Zacharias and Elizabeth are a lot like Abraham
[00:13:45] and Sarai they were both elderly they both had no children they were both called by God
[00:13:55] and they both had a miraculous child rearing at an old age. Let's go on so it was that while he
[00:14:08] was serving as priest before God in the order of his division according to the custom of the priesthood
[00:14:17] his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord and the whole multitude
[00:14:24] of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense then an angel of the Lord appeared to him
[00:14:34] standing on the right side of the altar of incense and when Zacharias saw him he was troubled
[00:14:42] and fear fell upon him but the angel said to him do not be afraid Zacharias for your prayer is heard
[00:14:54] and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name John and you will have joy
[00:15:04] and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great in the sight of the Lord
[00:15:12] and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink he will also be filled with a holy spirit
[00:15:21] even from his mother's womb and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God
[00:15:30] he will also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers
[00:15:38] to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the
[00:15:47] Lord and Zacharias said to the angel how shall I know this for I am an old man and my wife is well
[00:15:58] advanced in years and the angel answered and said to him I am Gabriel who stands in the presence
[00:16:07] of God and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings but behold you will be mute
[00:16:17] and not able to speak until the day these things take place because you did not believe my words
[00:16:26] which will be fulfilled in their own time so friends the third point I would like to bring up
[00:16:37] is Zacharias was punished for not believing God and at this point I am going to go back to our
[00:16:49] verse of the day in Proverbs 25 and we will pick up here on Wednesday's podcast
[00:16:58] the friends in Proverbs 25 verse 11 it says a word fitly spoken is like apples a gold in settings
[00:17:11] of silver and friends I want to spend a moment with you right now because this is such an important
[00:17:21] verse and there's a lot of verses in the Bible you can simply go over them and just gloss over
[00:17:28] them and not pay much attention to them but this one is so powerful a word fitly spoken is like
[00:17:37] apples of gold in settings of silver now friends in Proverbs 18 verse 21 it says that death and life
[00:17:48] are in the power of the tongue and those that love it shall eat the fruit thereof friends there is
[00:17:56] so much power in the words that come out of our mouth it is better to say nothing
[00:18:05] than to say the wrong thing to people who at that point in time may be hurting this is telling us
[00:18:15] a word fitly spoken now fitly spoken is important because one of the things I personally do is ask God
[00:18:27] for discernment friends there are some people that are not interested in what the word of God say
[00:18:34] they're not interested but if you pray for discernment God will bring the right people to you
[00:18:44] he will bring people across your path that you can minister to that you can witness to
[00:18:52] that you can share the love of God with and that is what this verse is saying if you have an opportunity
[00:19:02] God will give you just the right words to speak into the heart of someone that can change
[00:19:11] either their day or their entire life friends my call to action to you is very simple
[00:19:20] are you careful with the words that come out of your mouth are you likely to give a word fitly spoken
[00:19:34] friends it's so important that you come to grips with how important our words are the suggested
[00:19:43] scripture reading today would be to reread our proverb of the day proverb 25 and if you get a chance
[00:19:50] read the entire first chapter of Luke friends I will never end a podcast without giving anyone
[00:19:59] an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior if there is anyone listening today
[00:20:06] and you've never taken that step I invite you to say a simple prayer after me today Jesus
[00:20:13] I acknowledge that I am a sinner and in need of a Savior I ask that you come into my heart
[00:20:22] I ask that you lead me and guide me from this point forward I make you my Lord and Savior
[00:20:30] friends if any of you repeated that prayer do me a favor go on my web page wisdom today
[00:20:37] bk.com if you would click on the contact tab give me your name give me your information
[00:20:46] let me know you said that prayer and I'd like to get back with you now may the Lord bless you
[00:20:54] and keep you the Lord make us say shine upon you and be gracious to you the Lord lift up his countenance
[00:21:02] upon you and give you peace friends tomorrow is testimony day please join me in a special guest
[00:21:12] as we further explore wisdom today