Episode Transcript
All right, we'll be in Proverbs chapter 14, verse 11 tonight.
The title message is Failing or Flourishing.
Proverbs chapter 14, verse 11.
All right.
Look here in our first verse.
We'll wait till they get up on the screen and then I'll I'll know that if you're not there in your Bible, at least you can look up there on your screen and see it.
There we go.
Nope.
There we go.
So we're going to look here at the first two words of this verse, which are the house.
The house.
And the Hebrew word translated house here literally means to build.
We think, okay, yeah, a building, a house.
But uh because many things pertaining to the scriptures can be built.
Then this word can also refer and does refer in the Bible to many different things, all depending on how the word is used.
So for example, because you can build a house, This word can refer to the structure in which people dwell.
But you can also build a family, too.
And uh in the same way we'll say sometimes raise a family, right?
Used to have a barn raising, but uh you can build a family too.
So this word translated house here, it also can refer to a family.
But you can also build a temple to worship in too, can't you?
And because of that, then this word can refer to uh a spiritual house.
So it can refer to a religion or a place of worship.
You can also build a nation.
And because of that it can refer to a nation as well, or a people group.
Speaking of the nation of Israel, in Ezekiel chapter 12, verse 9, Ezekiel chapter 12, verse 9.
God told Ezekiel, Son of man, hath not the house of Israel?
Now that's the same word here tonight.
The house of Israel, the rebellious house, said unto thee, What doest thou?
So just notice the wording here.
This is talking about the house of the nation of Israel, which God called a rebellious house.
Now we know structures can't be rebellious, but people can.
In nations, the people collectively can be rebellious.
And so when we're looking at the words the house here in Proverbs 14, 11, It can mean the house is in the house of Israel.
It can mean the house is in the house of God where you worship.
It can mean the house is in the family that you belong to.
It can mean the house in the building that you dwell inside Because Israel rejected the Word of God as a nation, Israel was a rebellious house.
Or you could say Israel was a wicked house.
And Solomon is speaking tonight about, look back in your text, the house of the wicked.
So, which the nation of Israel was?
And because Israel rejected the Word of God, Israel was a wicked house.
Because the priests in Israel had forsaken God's word and departed from the true worship that God had given them then the temple had become a wicked house when moms and dads don't raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. but raise them according to the ways of this world.
Then their families become wicked houses.
When pastors fail to guard their church and allow wickedness to creep into their congregations, Their churches become wicked houses.
And Solomon says the house of the wicked shall be overthrown.
Shall be overthrown.
That means the family shall be overthrown.
The nation shall be overthrown.
The church shall be overthrown.
The building, the structure in the sense of everything that man built in his life. shall be overthrown.
The word overthrown here in the Hebrew it means to become desolate.
Desolate like a wasteland where there's no life there anymore.
There's no structure there anymore.
There's no organization there anymore.
There's no prosperity there anymore.
It's just completely desolate.
And listen to what Jesus told the nation of Israel That rebellious house, that wicked house, listen to what Jesus told the nation of Israel in Matthew 23, verses 37 and 38.
Jesus said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee.
How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not behold your house.
Now he's not talking about the structure they live in.
He's talking about their nation.
He's talking about their temple.
Your house is left unto you desolate or overthrown.
Jesus would have gathered the children of Israel together as hen gathers or chickens to protect them.
But Israel rejected him time and time again.
He said, you would not.
A quick pause here on the scripture.
And you can pray for this woman too.
Last week, there was a woman at work.
She works part-time.
And uh I told her, I told her and another lady, I said, God willing, 19 months, and I won't be up here anymore.
I'll be be be done And she said, what are you going to do when you retire?
Are you going to just kick back and do whatever you want to do?
I said, no, I'll go from having three jobs to two.
And uh I said, I past her, I'm a writer, I have an evangelistic ministry, and I said, I'm busy.
And uh I thought, what a wonderful time, because she's Mormon, Brother Shepherd.
She's Mormon.
And I've always wanted to talk to her.
And I thought, what a wonderful time.
So I went out and I got my Knowing I'm Saved book.
And I came back in, I said, You know, you asked what I would do with my time.
I said, here's one of the things that I do with my time.
Say, here's a book I've written.
If you would like to read it, oh yes, I'd love to read it.
And uh today she caught me.
And um and she said, uh I'm I'm almost through with the book.
She said, I've got two chapters left.
She's a pretty good reader.
It's been about a week.
And she said, I got about two chapters left.
She said, I love the book.
And she said, and I agree with you on on what you wrote.
She said, there's one thing that we disagree on, though.
I said, what's that?
And she said that Jesus is God.
Y'all believe that, you know, there's a Trinity.
And she says, and we don't.
She said, I don't.
And uh I said, I can show it to you in the Bible.
She goes, well, I'm sure you can, but that's just where we're going to disagree.
I said, no, you'll never disagree with me.
But if I show it to you in God's word, you'll have to disagree with God's word.
And you can't do that.
She said, well, if you'll write something up, I'll read it.
She'll pray for me that I'll I'll do her right on that.
But you know, this is one of the verses right here He said, how often would I have gathered your children together and you wouldn't?
This is God speaking to his people.
God speaking to his people.
I would have gathered you together.
Jesus would have gathered those children of Israel together time and time again, and they would not listen to him.
They rejected his word.
Therefore they were a wicked house.
And thus Jesus said they are now a desolate or an overthrown house.
The house of the wicked shall be overthrown, made desolate.
That means nations Are overthrown because of their wickedness.
You look at the history of the Bible.
Brother Shepherd just got through going through a lot of the history of the nations.
The rise and the fall of different nations are recorded for us in God's Word.
And they will rise sometimes presumptuously, but they'll fall in God's judgment But the nation of Israel rose in God's blessing and then fell in God's judgment.
But every wicked nation shall be overthrown.
Every family because of their wickedness and their family shall be overthrown.
Churches will be overthrown because of their wickedness.
Cities will be overthrown, made desolate because of their wickedness.
God warned Israel.
That this would happen to them if they departed from his word.
Listen to what God told Israel in Leviticus 26, verses 27 through 33.
Leviticus 26, 37 through 33.
This is before they came into the promised land.
He's letting them know how it was going to go.
Leviticus 26.
We're in Matthew 23 there.
So if we get to Leviticus 26, there we go.
It says, and if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me.
Now what happens when you walk contrary unto God?
You're wicked.
You're doing wickedly.
So he says, if you do wickedly, verse 28, then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury, that is in my anger.
And I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins, and ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughter shall ye eat.
That it literally happened in the scriptures.
And I will destroy, that's make desolate your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcasses. upon the carcasses of your idols.
And my soul shall abhor you, and I will make your cities waste.
And bring your sanctuaries unto, there's our word, desolation.
Or thou overthrow them.
And I will not smell the savior of your sweet odors.
And I will bring the land into, there's our word again, desolation.
And your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it, and I will scatter you among the heathen and will draw out a sword after you, and your land shall be desolate. and your city's waste.
That's why Jesus, when he spoke to Jerusalem in Matthew, which we read earlier, he said, your house. is left unto you desolate.
He was telling them, do you remember how I warned you before you came into the promised land that I would make your house desolate?
And now here we are, you're in the promised land, you haven't hearkened unto God's word.
They were rejecting Jesus, who was the word of God, and thus now the result was desolation. desolation of their nation.
It wasn't until 1943 when uh they uh started, was it 43 or 42?
It was in the 40s. 48, it was in the 40s, when they started to reorganize again.
And even then it took a while.
I was talking to a man the other day who went to Israel when he was young.
And he said it was a dirty place when he went.
It's cleaner now, more modern now.
But it took a while for them to uh get organized.
And even now.
They're still suffering problems, desolation.
And look at the house of God in Israel You can't.
It's not there.
It got torn down by by uh the Roman government, by Titus.
In 70 A.
D.
And it's still gone.
Desolate.
Desolate.
Jesus said there won't be one stone left upon another, and there's not.
When a house walks contrary to God, that house is wicked, and a wicked house shall be overthrown.
And one day every false religion Which is a house, a spiritual house, shall be overthrown.
Every false religion will be overthrown.
You look at the Muslims, you look how much they're growing.
They said they added 40-something mosque in the the recent past up in the metroplex.
You look at how they're just growing exponentially in our nation.
But one day, that is a wicked house.
One day that's going to be overthrown, completely overthrown by God.
One day every false religion will be overthrown.
One day every wicked person and everything that wicked person built up in their brief life on this earth. shall be overthrown.
All the inheritance they left to their children, the legacy so-called that they left by overthrown.
One day every wicked nation shall be overthrown.
There'll only be one nation standing in the end.
That'll be the kingdom of God.
Those twice-born people who've been born of God.
So the wicked house, the house of the wicked shall be overthrown.
Look back in your text now in Proverbs 14, 11.
But the tabernacle of the upright The tabernacle of the upright.
And the word tabernacle here, and this is a common thing in biblical literature, where they will say the same thing but use different words to say the same thing.
It adds variety and and uh and loosens the boredom up in the text.
So sometimes God will use uh different words, sometimes back-to-back. uh to uh to give great rich description.
And so the tabernacle of the upright, that word tabernacle is just another word for house.
Technically it means tent, but it's still a house.
And it means a tent because people live in tents.
They dwell in tents, at least back then they still do in Dallas.
We saw some living there the other day in tents.
But it but it refers because it refers to the people uh who uh who who dwell then it also refers to the context of con the conduct of the people who dwell in them.
So when you're thinking about the tabernacles of a particular person, you may see the tabernacles of so-and-so.
It's talking about the people and their conduct.
And it's just a way of God describing it.
Job, you'll get there eventually.
By the time you get there, you'll probably forget it.
Because it won't be any time this year, probably not next year either.
But in Job 22, verse 23, it says this.
If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up.
Remember that, built up.
Thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy what?
Tabernacles.
And so the homes, the domiciles, being that a condensed description of people and their behaviors.
This is just another way of saying the same thing.
The house of the wicked shall be overthrown, but the house of the upright, the tabernacle of the upright, that is, those who walk according to God's word, shall flourish.
You see that?
It shall flourish.
Or as Job, uh as Job 22, 23 says, it shall be built up.
Which is the same thing.
Being built up and flourishing are all one in the same description of what God intends to do with a house. to build it up, to establish it, or to cast it down.
And in this case, with the house of the righteous, it's going to flourish, the Bible says.
Instead of being overthrown, The house of the righteous is going to flourish, and that word flourish in the Hebrew has the idea of a tree or a vine.
And in that springtime, you'll see that little bud on that limb or that vine, and you'll see it's getting kind of green.
And next thing you know, it pops.
And there's the little greenery inside, or the little blossom inside.
And that it it it that that little bump on that limb burst open.
And so this word flourish literally means to break break open.
Just like that.
And so when you have that little bump on that limb, inside that bump, It's incredible design in purpose and um potential But unless it breaks open, the design will never come out and come to fruition.
The purpose will never be achieved.
The potential will never be known.
And so the house of the righteous is going to break open.
In every house, in every family, in every nation, and in every church, everything that can be called a house that we went over at the beginning.
In every one, there is the God-given purpose because God's not left any person out in this world that he did not create for their good and for his glory.
Not a single person.
So every house, whether a nation, a man, a family, a church, every single one is that little bump. on a vine or on a tree limb.
And it it's waiting to burst open.
But it has to be a righteous house before that house is going to break forth and bud and grow its new limbs out and put out its leaves and its bear its fruit.
It's got to be a righteous house because only God's design can see that through, can make that burst open.
Uh when when a tree limb burst out, and I love watching them When I when I look at my my trees and I watch the new growth or my vines, I'll go out and I'll look at those little bumps on the limbs.
And I'll just wait and I'll go out there one day and boom, it's and broke open and there is that little greenery in there.
And I get all excited like a little kid and I'll have had to bring my wife out and show her.
That's what I do Well, God's that way with us.
He looks over us with anticipation.
He waters us with his word.
And he's just waiting for us to yield to his word and do what he says.
And if we do what he says, his design is just going to break open in our homes.
Our marriages, our families, they're going to burst open.
Our churches will burst open.
We're a little tiny church here.
Little tiny church, like a little bitty plant, but you know what?
We've seen people come to faith in Christ We've seen God do some wonderful things.
Why?
We're nothing special.
It's God's word and God's work.
And if you just yield to him.
It's going to burst open.
Now, if you reject him, just like the nation of Israel rejected God's word, God's going to say, okay, you're going to be overthrown.
Don't we see that in the book of Daniel right now on Sunday morning?
You see that big tall tree?
But that tall tree hadn't broken forth.
It broke forth for Nebuchadnezzar.
It didn't break forth for God.
It broke forth in unrighteousness.
It didn't break forth in God's righteousness.
And because of that, what happened?
It got overthrown.
The tree came down.
Now he's going to be grazing out in the field next week or this this coming Sunday.
And so if we'll look here, God blesses his word.
And so those who walk in God's word, they're going to walk in the blessings of it.
Psalm 92, and then we'll we'll we'll we'll close here soon.
Psalm 92, 12 through 14.
The righteous shall flourish.
They're going to break forth.
The righteous.
Righteousness flourishes.
God's word will flourish in your life if you'll yield to it.
God's word has the attribute of flourishing.
God's word always flourishes.
So if you have God's word in your life, in your home, in your church, then God's word will flourish in your life, your home, and your church.
We don't flourish.
God's word flourishes in us.
As Jesus said, I'm the vine, you're the branches.
Without me you can do nothing.
It's not that we flourish, it's that Jesus flourishes through us. when we yield to him.
But Psalm ninety two, twelve through fourteen, the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon, those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age, they shall be fat and flourishing.
So what we ultimately have here are the two dispositions of the two lines of men, the godly and the ungodly.
The righteous and the unrighteous, the wheat and the tares, the wicked and the just, the ungodly ultimately are going to be overthrown.
While the godly ultimately are going to flourish.
Not only in this life, but ultimately when Jesus comes again.
Listen to this prophecy speaking of us.
Who will be living in the kingdom of God at Christ's return?
It's going to be wonderful.
We're all going to be living in God's kingdom.
Ruling and reigning with Christ.
Those of us who belong to Jesus, we're going to be in the kingdom of God.
Psalm 78, listen to this amazing prophecy.
Psalm 78, 7 through 8.
In his days, now that's talking about Jesus' days, the days of the King whose coming, in his days shall the righteous, there's our word, flourish.
Not be overthrown, not be desolate, but flourish in abundance of peace So long as the moon endureth, he shall have dominion.
There's Jesus.
He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.
But we're going to flourish in that day.
Do you know what you know what's going to happen in that day though?
As we're flourishing The wicked are going to be failing forever.
It will be eternally flourishing.
They will be eternally failing.
The wicked won't be anywhere around.
Their house is going to be left desolate They're going to be in a lake of fire, and we're going to be flourishing.
And what a wonderful day that will be when our King comes and establishes his throne on this earth.
In the meantime, God wants us to flourish in His grace today by walking in the blessing of His word.
So why fail when you can flourish?
Yield to his word in you and let it burst forth into the design that he's created you for.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
Thank you, Lord, for giving us, Father. a house that cannot fail.
How beautiful, God, that you talked about the house of the wicked But then you talked about the tabernacles of the righteous.
And Lord, we learn in your gospel.
That the church is your house.
You said ye are God's building.
And Father, we're so thankful that you have made us a house.
And you have founded this house on the foundation of Jesus Christ our Lord.
And because of that, we cannot fall.
We cannot fail.
Our house that is built on Jesus Christ and his cross can only flourish It cannot be overthrown because when our King comes, Father, we're going to flourish, as you said in the book of Psalms.
Thank you, Lord, for that incredible comfort That you've given us in Jesus wonderful name, Amen
