Welcome to Wisdom Today with Bill Kelley. On today's podcast we will be going over Proverb 13. I will then key in on verse 3 - He who guards his mouth preserves yes his life, But he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction. Friends, this verse says it all. We have to choose carefully the words that will come out of our mouth prior to opening our mouth. On today's podcast I will give some final thoughts as we close out our study of the minor prophet Hosea. By the end of today's lesson there are three things I ask that you consider:
1. Their drink is rebellion.
2. He has withdrawn Himself from them.
3. The spiritual man is insane.
Scripture verses referenced in today's lesson:
Hosea 4:18; 5:6; & 9:7; Proverb 18:21
Call to Action - How careful are you to think carefully about the words that will come out of your mouth - PRIOR to your opening you mouth? Very important question.
[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the Book of Proverbs.
[00:00:21] Let's open in prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today. Lord, I pray that you give everyone ears to hear and a heart to receive everything you have in store for them today. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
[00:00:37] This is Proverb 13 beginning in verse 1.
[00:00:42] A wise son heeds his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.
[00:00:50] A man shall eat well by the fruit of his mouth, but the soul of the unfaithful feeds on violence.
[00:00:58] He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.
[00:01:06] The soul of a lazy man desires and has nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.
[00:01:14] A righteous man hates lying, but a wicked man is loathsome and comes to shame.
[00:01:23] Righteousness guards him whose way is blameless, but wickedness overthrows the sinner.
[00:01:30] There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing, and one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches.
[00:01:40] The ransom of a man's life is his riches, but the poor does not hear rebuke.
[00:01:47] The light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked will be put out.
[00:01:54] By pride comes nothing but strife, but with the well-advised is wisdom.
[00:02:01] Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished, but he who gathers by labor will increase.
[00:02:09] Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.
[00:02:17] He who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.
[00:02:25] The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death.
[00:02:33] Good understanding gains favor, but the way of the unfaithful is hard.
[00:02:40] Every prudent man acts with knowledge, but a fool lays open his folly.
[00:02:47] A wicked messenger falls into trouble, but a faithful ambassador brings health.
[00:02:56] Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, but he who regards a rebuke will be honored.
[00:03:05] A desire accomplished is sweet to the soul, but it is an abomination to fools to depart from evil.
[00:03:14] He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.
[00:03:22] Evil pursues sinners, but to the righteous good shall be repaid.
[00:03:28] A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.
[00:03:39] Much food is in the fallow ground of the poor, and for lack of justice there is waste.
[00:03:47] He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly.
[00:03:55] The righteous eats to the satisfying of his soul, but the stomach of the wicked shall be in want.
[00:04:05] Friends, today I'd like to zero in on verse 3.
[00:04:10] And Proverb 13, verse 3 says this,
[00:04:14] He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.
[00:04:23] Friends, we will come back and revisit that verse prior to closing today.
[00:04:29] But what I'd like to do on today's lesson is give some final thoughts on the book of Hosea.
[00:04:37] And friends, we spent about 10 weeks in the book of Hosea.
[00:04:43] And on Monday's podcast, I went over three verses, sort of like a recap of the book of Hosea.
[00:04:52] And what I'd like to do is to revisit those verses.
[00:04:56] The first one was Hosea 4-6.
[00:05:00] And Hosea 4-6 is probably the most well known of all the verses in Hosea.
[00:05:09] That verse says,
[00:05:12] My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
[00:05:15] Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for me,
[00:05:23] because you have forgotten the law of your God.
[00:05:26] I also will forget your children.
[00:05:29] So friends, basically, here, the first part of that verse says,
[00:05:35] My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
[00:05:37] And when they're talking about that, they're talking about people who do not know God.
[00:05:44] It's as simple as that.
[00:05:46] And if you do not know God, and if you live your entire life without God ever being a factor,
[00:05:55] either you don't believe in God, or you just want to take things into your own hands,
[00:06:02] it really doesn't matter the reason, but you're going to be lost without God.
[00:06:07] If you are simply relying on your own intellect, on your own power, on your own thought life,
[00:06:16] you're eventually going to make some serious mistakes in your life.
[00:06:21] The other two verses were found in the third chapter of Hosea.
[00:06:26] Verse 1, it says,
[00:06:28] Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery.
[00:06:34] And that's basically the entire theme of the book of Hosea.
[00:06:39] And God had called this minor prophet to marry a prostitute.
[00:06:44] And I've discussed this a number of times.
[00:06:47] I'm not going to get into it again because we're ready to close this book for good.
[00:06:52] But God wanted Hosea to understand the relationship that he had with his wife
[00:07:02] basically paralleled the relationship that God has with his people Israel.
[00:07:11] And verse 2 says,
[00:07:13] So I bought her for myself for 15 shekels of silver.
[00:07:17] And at this point,
[00:07:20] Gomer, Hosea's wife, had moved out.
[00:07:23] She had actually moved in with another man.
[00:07:27] And God gave Hosea the directive,
[00:07:31] Go and buy her back.
[00:07:35] And that must have been so, so difficult for Hosea to do.
[00:07:40] But what I'm going to do is give three more verses today,
[00:07:43] give a bit of commentary on it,
[00:07:45] And then we'll close this book.
[00:07:48] The first one is found in chapter 4, verse 18.
[00:07:54] And it says,
[00:07:55] Their drink is rebellion.
[00:07:59] Now friends,
[00:08:01] I picked this verse because this is where many people are in America today.
[00:08:08] A lot of times, my purpose each day is to try to relate the lesson that I'm teaching that day
[00:08:18] into today's society, into today's times.
[00:08:24] So what I'm trying to do is I'll read a passage of scripture and I'll say,
[00:08:29] In our world today, how can we use that particular scripture and make our lives more successful?
[00:08:42] But as we are getting ready for the presidential election,
[00:08:47] that is going to happen on this coming Tuesday.
[00:08:52] But by the time you are listening to this today, the election will already have been taken place.
[00:09:00] But friends, right now, our country is a mess.
[00:09:04] And it is really divided between conservatives, generally known as Republicans,
[00:09:13] and liberals, basically known as Democrats.
[00:09:17] And, you know, it's really a mess in our world today.
[00:09:22] And something is going to happen during this presidential election.
[00:09:27] Regardless of the outcome, there are going to be some people that are going to be very, very upset over the outcome.
[00:09:37] So let's look at the next one.
[00:09:40] He has withdrawn himself from them.
[00:09:45] Now that is found in chapter five of Hosea, verse six.
[00:09:51] And here we are talking about God.
[00:09:54] And friends, the Bible tells us that if we do not follow the commandments of God,
[00:10:01] and if we do things that are evil, things that constitute sinning,
[00:10:08] then God is not going to be present.
[00:10:10] God cannot be present when there is sin taking place.
[00:10:19] And some of you may not understand that concept.
[00:10:23] But God is so pure.
[00:10:26] His thoughts, everything about him is so pure that if sin comes near him,
[00:10:36] he is immediately going to not be there.
[00:10:39] He simply cannot be around any kind of darkness.
[00:10:46] And sin is darkness.
[00:10:49] If you are in the light, and Jesus is the light, it tells us that in the Bible.
[00:10:55] Jesus is the light.
[00:10:57] And in him, there is no darkness at all.
[00:11:02] So if you have some darkness in your life,
[00:11:08] if you are sinning in any way, shape or form,
[00:11:12] do not expect God to go into that situation with you,
[00:11:17] because he simply won't.
[00:11:19] And the third one I'd like to go over today is the spiritual man is insane.
[00:11:27] Now that was found in the ninth chapter of Hosea, verse seven.
[00:11:32] And the commentary in that Bible simply said that at this point in time,
[00:11:38] the prophet that was sent to the country of Israel,
[00:11:42] and specifically we're talking about the prophet Hosea at this time,
[00:11:48] the people actually thought he was insane when he gave them the directions
[00:11:55] that God had given him to tell the Israelites.
[00:12:00] That is how bad this situation had gotten with the Israelites.
[00:12:06] They were so far away from God that they felt that the prophet that God had sent to them
[00:12:15] was actually insane.
[00:12:19] That was not a good situation.
[00:12:22] But friends, the bottom line is by the end of the book of Hosea,
[00:12:28] God's people, the Israelites have repented.
[00:12:32] They have returned to God.
[00:12:34] They have asked God to be their God again.
[00:12:40] They have chosen to give up their other gods at least for a period of time.
[00:12:49] But friends, let's go back to our verse of the day.
[00:12:53] And we are in Proverbs 13 today.
[00:12:56] And verse 3 told us this.
[00:13:02] He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.
[00:13:12] And friends, I'd like to read this one more time because this is so powerful.
[00:13:16] He who guards his mouth preserves his life.
[00:13:22] And friends, this, the bottom line for this verse is we need to be careful of the words that come out of our mouth.
[00:13:34] I have talked about this on many occasions over the years.
[00:13:40] But friends, we need to watch the words that come out of our mouth.
[00:13:47] Proverbs 18.21 tells us death and life are in the power of the tongue.
[00:13:54] We can bring forth spiritual life or we can bring forth spiritual death simply by the words that we speak.
[00:14:04] The second part of verse 3.
[00:14:07] And what that means is if you are not thoughtful and think carefully about the words that come out of your mouth, your life is going to be in peril.
[00:14:33] That means you could lose your job.
[00:14:36] That means you might lose a special relationship in your life.
[00:14:43] Maybe even your marriage.
[00:14:46] Friends, we have to watch our words at all costs.
[00:14:52] So friends, my call to action today is are you aware of how important your words truly are?
[00:15:02] I really want you to give that some serious thought today.
[00:15:08] So friends, I will never end a podcast without giving anyone an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
[00:15:17] If there is anyone listening today and that applies to you, you've never done that.
[00:15:23] And something is knocking at your heart and saying, golly, I really want to make this decision.
[00:15:31] Friends, today is your day of salvation.
[00:15:34] All you have to do is repeat this simple prayer after me.
[00:15:38] Father God, thank you for sending your son Jesus to earth.
[00:15:43] Jesus, thank you that you were willing to come to earth and die on a cross for everyone listening to this podcast today.
[00:15:54] I ask that you come into my heart.
[00:15:57] I ask that you lead me and guide me from this point forward.
[00:16:02] I make you my Lord and Savior.
[00:16:05] Friends, if you said that prayer, you are now a member of the family of God.
[00:16:13] Welcome to the family.
[00:16:15] But friends, this is only the first step.
[00:16:18] And listen carefully.
[00:16:19] I suggest you go on the internet.
[00:16:22] Look at churches in your local area.
[00:16:27] I ask that you maybe visit a couple of them.
[00:16:31] And what I'm asking is you go to a church that preaches directly out of the Bible.
[00:16:38] Literally, the pastor will open up the Bible and say, open your Bibles up.
[00:16:43] And only the Bible is taught in that church.
[00:16:48] Also, it's important that you surround yourself with like-minded individuals.
[00:16:52] And you often can do that.
[00:16:54] The best place is in a church.
[00:16:57] Join a Bible study.
[00:16:59] Try to become part of a men's or a ladies' group.
[00:17:03] But whatever you do, realize that making this decision is the most important decision that you have ever made in your life.
[00:17:14] Please take it seriously.
[00:17:16] Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you.
[00:17:20] The Lord make us say, shine upon you and be gracious to you.
[00:17:24] The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
[00:17:30] Friends, please join me again tomorrow as we further explore wisdom today.