Welcome to Wisdom Today with Bill Kelley. Today we will be going over Proverb 20. I will then key in on verse 1 - Wine is a mocker, Strong drink is a brawler, And whoever is led astray by it is not wise. Friends, if you are going to drink, may I suggest that you do so in moderation (never having enough to actually become drunk). On today's podcast we will continue our study on the Gospel according to Luke. We will begin in Chapter 7, beginning in verse 1. By the end of this lesson, there are three things that I ask that you consider:
1. A centurion asks Jesus to heal his servant.
2. This centurion demonstrates great faith.
3. Jesus marvels at the centurian's great faith.
Call to Action - Ask yourself this question - do you have the faith that Jesus is able to heal you of any disease that you have (the Bible tells us that because of the stripes that Jesus took on His back on the cross, that we have been healed).
[00:00:06] and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs.
[00:00:21] Open and prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today.
[00:00:26] Lord, I pray that you would reveal to everyone listening how much you truly love each and every one of them.
[00:00:33] In addition, I pray that everyone listening would have favor with both God and man.
[00:00:39] I ask this in Jesus name, Amen. This is Proverbs 20 beginning in verse 1.
[00:00:47] Wine is a marker. Strong drink is a brawler and whoever has let us stray by it is not wise.
[00:00:55] The wrath of a king is like the roaring of a lion, whoever provokes him to anger since against his own life.
[00:01:05] It is honorable for a man to stop striving since any fool can start a quarrel.
[00:01:13] The lazy man will not plow because of winter. He will beg during harvest and have nothing.
[00:01:21] Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.
[00:01:29] Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a faithful man?
[00:01:37] The righteous man walks in his integrity, his children are blessed after him.
[00:01:45] A king who sits on the throne of judgment scatters all evil with his eyes.
[00:01:53] Who can say I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin.
[00:02:00] Divers, whites and divers measures they are both alike and abomination to the Lord.
[00:02:08] Even a child is known by his deeds, whether what he does is pure and right.
[00:02:15] The hearing ear and the seeing eye the Lord has made them both.
[00:02:22] Do not love, sleep, less you come to poverty, open your eyes and you will be satisfied with bread.
[00:02:30] It is good for nothing, cries the buyer, but when he has gone his way then he boasts.
[00:02:39] There is gold and a multitude of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.
[00:02:47] Take the garment of one who is surety for a stranger and hold it as a pledge when it is for a seductress.
[00:02:57] Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.
[00:03:07] Plans are established by counsel, by wise counsel wage war.
[00:03:14] He who goes about as a tale bear reveal secrets.
[00:03:19] Therefore do not associate with one who flatters with his lips.
[00:03:26] Whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in deep darkness.
[00:03:34] An inheritance gained hastily at the beginning will not be blessed at the end.
[00:03:41] Do not say I will recompense evil, wait for the Lord and he will save you.
[00:03:49] Divered weights are an abomination to the Lord and dishonest scales are not good.
[00:03:57] A man's steps are of the Lord.
[00:04:00] How then can a man understand his own way?
[00:04:04] It is a snare for a man to devote rationally, something as holy and afterward to consider his bowels.
[00:04:14] A wise king sits out the wicked and brings the threshing wheel over them.
[00:04:22] The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart.
[00:04:30] Mercy and truth preserve the king, and by loving kindness he upholds his throne.
[00:04:38] The glory of young men is their strength and the splendor of old men is their gray head.
[00:04:46] Blues that hurt cleanse away evil as do stripes the inner depths of the heart.
[00:04:54] Friends today I'd like to take a closer look at verse 1 and,
[00:04:59] and, proper 20, verse 1 says this,
[00:05:03] wine is a marker strong drink is a brawler and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.
[00:05:13] Friends we will take a closer look at that verse prior to closing today,
[00:05:18] but as we begin the week I'd like to continue our study in the Gospel according to Luke.
[00:05:26] And on Thursday's podcast we completed chapter 6.
[00:05:30] So we are going to begin chapter 7 of Luke beginning in verse 1.
[00:05:38] Now when he concluded all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capurnum
[00:05:46] and a certain centurion servant who was dear to him was sick and ready to die.
[00:05:53] So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to him pleading with him to come and heal his servant.
[00:06:05] Now I'm going to pause for just a moment.
[00:06:08] For those of you who have been listening to this study,
[00:06:13] I have mentioned on a couple occasions that Jesus had great success in the town of Capurnum.
[00:06:23] Now Capurnum was on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee,
[00:06:30] but this is the town where people had been healed by Jesus.
[00:06:36] So he spent the majority of his Galilean ministry in this town,
[00:06:43] so I just want you to be aware of that.
[00:06:47] And when they came to Jesus, they begged him earnestly saying that the one for whom he should do this was deserving.
[00:06:58] For he loves our nation and has built us a synagogue.
[00:07:04] So friends, the first point I would like to bring up today is a centurion asked Jesus to heal his servant.
[00:07:14] So I like this point and I'm going to be honest with you.
[00:07:18] This is the first time that this really stuck out to me.
[00:07:23] It says that he had built them a synagogue.
[00:07:28] Well, that tells me that he was a pretty wealthy man.
[00:07:33] So I took the time to look and see exactly what a centurion was.
[00:07:40] And when you hear the words centurion, it sounds a little bit like century.
[00:07:47] And that is basically the meaning.
[00:07:50] There was a point when a centurion is basically a commander over a hundred people.
[00:07:58] But over the years, about this time it actually was 80 people.
[00:08:06] But basically a centurion was a model soldier.
[00:08:13] And he was identified and the leader of the people would talk to his upper, you know, the bosses.
[00:08:22] And go with this is an exemplary soldier.
[00:08:26] So it took a recommendation to become a centurion.
[00:08:31] But a centurion was known for his honesty and his integrity and being a good leader of man.
[00:08:41] And that's what these people are asking.
[00:08:44] The centurion didn't take the time to go to see Jesus himself.
[00:08:50] Instead, he sent people for him to ask Jesus to heal his servant.
[00:08:59] Let's go to verse 6.
[00:09:02] Then Jesus went with them.
[00:09:05] And when he was already not far from the house,
[00:09:09] The centurion sent friends to him saying to him,
[00:09:14] Lord, do not trouble yourself for I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.
[00:09:22] Now I want to pause here.
[00:09:24] One thing that I noticed just by that last comment as that this centurion was a humble servant.
[00:09:34] Let's look at verse 7.
[00:09:37] Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to you.
[00:09:44] But say the word and my servant will be healed.
[00:09:50] For I also am a man placed under authority,
[00:09:57] having soldiers under me.
[00:10:00] And I say to one, go and he goes,
[00:10:04] and to another come and he comes.
[00:10:08] And to my servant do this and he does it.
[00:10:13] So friends, the second point I would like to bring up is the centurion demonstrates great faith.
[00:10:23] And what I'd like to do is read the commentary for verse 8 in my Bible.
[00:10:29] And this explains things very clearly.
[00:10:33] Now before I read the commentary,
[00:10:35] I want to let everyone know I am reading out of the Nelson study Bible.
[00:10:42] This is verse 8 commentary.
[00:10:46] The centurion compared his authority as a commander of soldiers to Jesus' authority over life and death.
[00:10:59] So what I'd like to emphasize here is this centurion had heard that Jesus was coming.
[00:11:08] And I told you Jesus had had great success in this town.
[00:11:14] So this centurion was familiar with the work of Jesus.
[00:11:19] And that many people in that town had already been healed.
[00:11:25] And because of that, this centurion had the faith to believe that Jesus would be able to heal his servant.
[00:11:35] And I'm going to say the centurion knew that Jesus's word alone was sufficient to heal
[00:11:43] his servant.
[00:11:46] Let's go on to verse 9.
[00:11:49] When Jesus heard these things, he marbled at him and turned around and said to the crowd that followed him.
[00:12:00] I say to you,
[00:12:02] I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel.
[00:12:10] So the third point I'd like to bring up today is that Jesus marbled at the centurion's faith.
[00:12:19] And friends, if you want to know what impresses Jesus over and over again in the gospels,
[00:12:29] whenever anyone showed faith, that is when Jesus would get stirred up.
[00:12:36] He always liked when people had faith.
[00:12:42] A number of times, the Bible after someone was healed,
[00:12:46] Jesus's reply was,
[00:12:49] your faith has made you whole.
[00:12:53] Let it be according to your faith.
[00:12:57] So Jesus always wanted to see the faith that someone had.
[00:13:04] If you want to know how to move Jesus, it's by having faith.
[00:13:10] Let me read the commentary for verse 9.
[00:13:13] It says,
[00:13:14] this is not even in Israel.
[00:13:17] The centurions example of faith came from outside the nation of Israel.
[00:13:27] This is one of only two cases where Jesus was said to marvel at something.
[00:13:36] And the other occurrence is found in Mark's Gospel chapter 6.
[00:13:42] One I'm trying to say here is Jesus was not a respecter of persons.
[00:13:48] He wasn't.
[00:13:49] And in this particular case, the centurion was not a Jew.
[00:13:55] He was a Roman and thus he was a Gentile.
[00:14:02] But Jesus still responded to him because of his great faith.
[00:14:10] Let's close with verse 10.
[00:14:13] And those who were sent returning to the house found the servant well who had been sick.
[00:14:23] So just like on a number of other occasions already,
[00:14:27] in Luke, even though we're only in chapter 7,
[00:14:31] once again Jesus demonstrated his willingness to heal someone and,
[00:14:38] of course, he did it as he always did.
[00:14:43] Jesus healed everyone who came to him.
[00:14:47] And I want to make it clear to everyone listening to this podcast today is a Jesus responded to all who came to him for healing.
[00:15:01] He responded to them all.
[00:15:04] Friends before we close today, I'd like to go back to our verse of the day.
[00:15:10] And we are in proper 20 today and the first verse says this.
[00:15:16] Wine is a marker.
[00:15:19] Strong drink is a brawler.
[00:15:22] And whoever is let us stray by it is not wise.
[00:15:27] Now I would like to read the commentary in my Bible for verse 1.
[00:15:33] It says this chapter begins with a warning against the abuse of wine,
[00:15:40] or excessive drinking.
[00:15:44] A wise person takes this danger seriously.
[00:15:50] There is no wisdom in drunkenness, only brawling and confusion.
[00:15:59] Now friends, I know there may be some people listening today and they indulge in alcohol.
[00:16:07] They imbib whether they drink wine or whether they drink beer or whether they have stronger drinks.
[00:16:17] But my suggestion and again,
[00:16:22] I am not here to judge anyone for what they do.
[00:16:26] I'm also not here really to advise people what they're doing.
[00:16:30] People are going to do what they are going to do.
[00:16:35] And they are free to do whatever they want to.
[00:16:38] But my suggestion to you would be drink moderately if you are going to be drinking.
[00:16:48] If I ever go to a party, the last thing in the world I want to say is someone who is drunk and has had too much to drink.
[00:16:59] You can get within five or ten feet of these people and smell the alcohol on their breath.
[00:17:08] It is very obvious when people have had too much to drink.
[00:17:14] And when you have a lot to drink, you are not your normal self.
[00:17:22] You simply aren't.
[00:17:24] So do not drink a lot because it does affect you.
[00:17:32] And if you are a Christian, it is not a good example.
[00:17:37] Friends, my call to action today is ask yourself this question.
[00:17:44] Do you have the faith to be healed if something happens in your body?
[00:17:52] Jesus healed all who came to him and I really just want you to think and ponder over that question.
[00:18:02] If something were to happen to you, are you aware that in the Bible it says,
[00:18:12] by the stripes of Jesus and what he did on the cross, you were healed.
[00:18:22] So friends, everyone listening to this today.
[00:18:26] If you have received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you have already been healed of all of your diseases.
[00:18:38] All you have to do is grab onto it and take hold of it and believe that you are healed.
[00:18:48] Friends, I will never end upon cast without giving anyone an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
[00:18:56] If there is anyone listening today, you have never taken that step.
[00:19:00] I invite you to repeat a simple prayer after me today.
[00:19:04] Jesus, I confess that I am a sinner and the need of a Savior.
[00:19:10] I ask that you forgive me of all of my sins.
[00:19:14] I believe that you are the Son of God. You came to earth and died on a cross for me and you were buried and arose on the third day.
[00:19:25] Jesus, by doing that, I believe that all of my sins have been forgiven.
[00:19:31] I ask that you come into my heart.
[00:19:34] I ask that you lead me and guide me from this point forward in my life.
[00:19:39] I make you my Lord and Savior.
[00:19:43] Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you.
[00:19:47] The Lord make us stay shined upon you and be gracious to you.
[00:19:52] The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.
[00:19:57] Friends, tomorrow is testimony day.
[00:20:01] Please join me and the special guest as we further explore wisdom today.