Episode Transcript
If you take God's precious word and turn the book of Proverbs, chapter 14, please.
Proverbs chapter 14.
God willing, we'll be expounding verse 19 tonight.
So we're going verse by verse through this wonderful book.
The title of the message tonight is When Bad Men Bow.
When bad men bow Proverbs 14, 19.
And I see we're up on the screen now for those who look forward to that.
So we'll look here in the first three words, which says, the evil bow. the evil bow.
Now the evil here is not talking about evil in the sense of generality.
It's just not talking about evil is talking about evil people.
The evil people bow and the that's the people there is understood.
But they prostrate themselves, they lower themselves in humility and in submission.
And when we think about evil people, we don't think about them prostrating themselves in uh uh um submission, do we?
We think about them rebelling, we think about the uh uh purple and blue-haired people out protesting and causing trouble and all that, but we we don't think about them bowing.
So one would think that they they uh you know, would uh there would be something wrong here, that that the evil do not bow.
Or if they do bow then they'd bow before their evil leaders.
But Solomon says that the evil bow, look back in your text, before the good.
Before the good.
And I don't have people, evil people bowing before me right now.
Is that what Solomon's talking about?
So at first glance, this statement here that we're reading might take us back a bit, because we sure don't see evil bowing before the good today.
But rest assured, they will bow.
They will bow.
Literally, they will bow before the taube.
That word good, Hebrew, we've studied that word taube before. uh to give you uh r some recollection of when we've studied it.
Uh in the creation there in Genesis, every time God made something, he saw that it was taube.
He saw that it was good.
And so Tob here, or this good, they bow before the Tob.
That is referring us back to what we first learned about it, which was God's perfect order that He established in creation.
His creative order.
And so they bow before the Tobe.
And that's very important for us to understand.
The reason is that in the beginning God made everything good, and the gospel ensures us that God will restore this world back. to the good and perfect design that he created.
I'd hate to think I was talking to someone about this the other day.
They were talking about futuristic events in the Bible.
And people get very confused about future events.
And one of the things they get confused about is where we go, you know, what happens to us.
Because in a very simplistic way.
When we think about what we do after we die, we think about us going to live in heaven.
That's not the plan.
That's not the plan.
If all it was was for us to die and then us to go to heaven, do you realize we'd miss out?
We'd never realize how God intended this world to be run in the first place.
All we would ever have of earth were the the years or days or months or however long we were allowed to live here on this earth, all we would have is that experience of living in a broken world.
A good design, a taube design that God made and that sin broke because of man.
And all we would have is this experience of living in a broken world and then dying and going to heaven and thus living in a perfect heaven.
It's not going to be like that.
God's going to unbreak this world.
He says, I'm going to make a new heaven and a new what?
Earth.
Now he's not going to make it new for no reason.
He's going to make it new because it's going to match you and me.
What are we going to be?
The Bible says if any man be in Christ, he's what kind of creature?
He's a new creature.
And right now, only the inside of us is new, but one day that outside is going to get caught up at the when Jesus comes again Our bodies are going to be transformed.
We're going to be made like unto his glorious body.
We're going to be made new.
Then the world's going to be made new.
The heaven's going to be made new.
And you're going to have new people living in a new earth under a new heaven.
And we're going to actually be able to experience living in a world the way God intended for it to be run.
A perfect world with perfect people and a perfect King, Jesus.
And I'm looking forward to that.
Now for that to happen, The evil is going to have to bow before the good.
It's got to happen.
The toe.
Because there in the Garden of Eden, you had the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or Tob and Evil.
And Adam chose to know both.
By the time we get a little further in Genesis, the world only knew evil continually.
The thoughts of their heart was only evil continually.
And at some point in time, that evil in the heart of man is going to have to bow to the good.
And the good is going to have to overcome the evil in Christ.
The evil's going to be put away.
And then we're going to be made new.
We're going to live in a new heaven, a new earth, and it's all going to be Good.
Romans chapter 14, verse 11.
Romans chapter 14, verse 11. promises us that the good shall not bow before the evil, for it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me.
We're not bowing before the evil.
The evil is going to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He says, for it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me. and every tongue shall confess to God.
So this this proverb tonight assures us that good will overcome evil through Jesus Christ.
There's not enough Antifa members, communists, Muslim terrorists.
There's not enough false churches.
Not enough. uh counterfeit pastors, not enough blue-haired protesters to overcome God's redemptive plan for this world.
And it sets my heart at ease when I read the news and I see the videos of what all's going on in this world.
And it looks like the world's just falling apart.
Well, in a way it is.
But that's not the end.
One day the evil will bow before the good.
And since we in Christ are righteous, then they're going to bow to us as well.
For we being in Christ, what are we?
We're seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Now there's a glimpse of this that's given to us in the story of Joseph.
All this is very important, by the way, uh, in Genesis chapter 37.
Now, before we start reading in Genesis chapter 37, let me remind you uh further back in that, and that's in uh Genesis uh uh when uh Cain and Abel were were brothers.
If you'll remember God reasoning with Cain when God did not accept Cain's offering.
Uh God God asked Cain, Do you do well to be angry?
You know, or or or or you know, w what what's this downcast look on your face, Cain?
What's this all about?
And uh he says, if you do well Won't you be accepted?
And uh he says, and if you don't do well, then sin lies at the door.
But then he says something else.
He said, unto thee shall be his desire, and you shall rule over him.
Very interesting.
Now a lot of people think he's talking about sin, and that's not what he's talking about.
He's not about talking about Cain ruling over sin.
He's talking about Cain ruling over his brother, Abel.
And so in the hierarchy of the firstborn, Cain should have ruled over Abel.
There should have been this authoritative hierarchy.
But because of Cain's rebellion, there was not.
But authority, when God first made man, he immediately established authority.
Man was made good.
He was made taub.
And then he said, let them have dominion.
And now suddenly, Tob. is ruling.
You have a good God who made a good world and now you have good authority until Satan comes in and messes all of that up.
And instead of ruling under the good spirit of God's leadership, God's word written in man's heart, now man is living by his own imagination of whatever he decides is good and evil.
But this authority, this righteous authority, was important to God, giving it first to Adam.
And uh now try to pass down to his son, and his son rejects it because he won't submit to God's authority.
He won't come God's way by faith in Jesus Christ.
And so he offers the wrong sacrifice to God.
Now when we get to Genesis 37, we move a little further ahead.
You'll see this authority again coming back up in Joseph's dreams.
Genesis 37, 6 through 10, the Bible says, and he said unto them, Hear I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed.
For behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright, and behold, your sheaves stood round about and made obeisance To my sheaf.
Do you know what that means?
It was bowing.
It was bowing to my sheaf.
Your sheaves were bowing to mine.
Then his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us?
You see that authority there?
Or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us?
And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words.
And he dreamed yet another dream and told it his brethren and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more, and behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obese to me.
And he told it to his father and to his brethren.
And his father rebuked him and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed?
Shall I and thy mother And thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee, to the earth?
The evil shall bow before the good.
Now, why all this bowing in Joseph's dream?
Why did God the Holy Spirit Spend this many verses talking about this bowing, this obeisance being done to Joseph by all of his brethren It's because ultimately the evil is going to have to bow before the good.
It has to.
The gospel doesn't just wash sins away.
If that's what it did, we'd have no hope in the new world.
God's perfect order, his righteous authority has to be reestablished.
The gospel does it all.
And so here's Joseph.
Joseph's a picture of Jesus, and his brethren are bowing to him.
This authority is being reinstated.
And it's a picture of all the world, every knee bowing and confessing to Jesus Christ, because once everything bows to the Lord Jesus And all the evil bows to the good, finally, finally, we have a righteous order of authority re-established in this world.
When Satan came to tempt Adam and Eve, he was simply trying to duplicate on earth The chaos that he had created in heaven.
In heaven, he disrupted that righteous authority.
He comes down to earth.
God had handed that righteous authority down to Adam.
We have kingdom authority established in the Garden of Eden.
Satan comes in, now he's going to try to duplicate what he did in heaven here on earth, disrupt that righteous authority.
That authority has been broken ever since.
It's been challenged ever since.
And so when we have Joseph come on the scene, he says, I saw y'all bowing to me.
And then Joseph eventually gets betrayed by his brethren.
A picture of Jesus coming to his own, his own receive him not.
He's then falsely accused, and he's punished for something he's not guilty of.
He's then put down in the dungeon as Jesus was put down in the grave.
He is then raised to be at the right hand of the king, second in command.
And the next thing you know, his brethren come and his brethren bow.
And the next thing you know, because you know why they had to come?
They had to come because they needed bread to live.
There was dearth in all the land.
And remember, Jesus said, I'm the bread of life.
The Bible says we hear there's bread in Egypt.
Go buy bread.
And man needs bread to live, and only Joseph had bread to give.
And man needs bread to live, and only Jesus has bread to give.
He's the bread of life.
And man must go to him.
And so what we see here is the world coming for that bread and bowing the knee to Jesus.
That's what that's a picture of.
Like Christ, they ultimately bowed before the good And the evil shall bow before the good one day.
Look back in your text.
And the wicked.
Now this word wicked here is talking about the same people.
The evil and the wicked.
Same people.
But this word just adds a different perspective to the people.
You see, evil has the idea of the destruction.
That comes by sin.
The evil are destructive people.
When Adam sinned, he destroyed the human race That's evil.
But in order to destroy the human race, he had to depart from God's word.
And that's the concept of wicked.
Wicked means crooked.
And so when you turn out of God's way, you're departing out of God's way.
What what we've been learning about here in Proverbs, you have the way, right?
You have God's way and those that turn out of that way.
The wicked depart out of that way, and by departing out of that way, what happens?
Now you have evil That's the damage that comes as a result of us like sheep going astray and turning every man to his own way.
And so evil has the idea of the destruction that comes by sin, and wickedness has the idea of the departure from God's word that results in that evil.
The wicked, those who depart from God's word to follow their own devising, shall bow, the Bible says, where?
At the gates.
Very important at the gates.
If you study the Old Testament and New Testament, then you'll understand that the gates are the center of authority for a city.
They're indicative of that city's power.
Now I work at a courthouse And uh and across the street from me is the county courthouse.
I work at the federal courthouse.
But I look out of my office today and I'm watching them build a big, beautiful new uh county courthouse.
And that's the in our culture, that's our symbol of authority, the courthouse, the White House, something like that.
But that's where judgment is made, is at those courthouses.
But here the gates in the Bible are indicative of the place of judgment, the place of authority.
And since Jesus is our entrance into God's kingdom, right, then what is he?
He's our gates.
He's our entrance into God's kingdom, but he he is the gates, if you would.
He is that that seat of authority because Jesus is the king, the man whom God has appointed to adjudge all men and to rule in his kingdom.
So the wicked bow at the gates in the book of Proverbs And in Philippians chapter 2, verse 10, the Bible says, at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow.
Right?
And so you're bowing at the gates in Proverbs.
Jesus is our gates because he is the the the the place of our authority.
He is also our entrance into the kingdom.
And so every knee bows.
To the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those gates are important.
When you look in the Old Testament, And God is giving his covenant to Abraham.
He tells Abraham that his seed shall possess The gates of his enemies.
What is that?
That's the wicked bowing before the good.
And so that's God helping us recognize in the Old Testament that there are these two opposing kingdoms, the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light.
The kingdom of Antichrist, the kingdom of God's dear son.
And both of them have gates And so as they continue to oppose each other all the way from the Garden of Eden all the way to the book of the Revelation.
This constant opposition, this constant fighting, this constant slaying of believers and persecuting the saints and and then revival in the church and then the church overcoming some through the preaching of the gospel.
And it's back and forth, back and forth, till finally you get to the book of the Revelation.
And finally the king comes and fights the battle.
And his gates conquer the gates of Abraham's enemies.
And us being the children of Abraham our enemies.
And that's why Jesus, having promised Abraham in the Old Testament that his seed would possess the gates of his enemies, was able to promise us that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church, because we are Abraham's seed.
The gates of hell will not prevail against the church because we are going to possess the gates of our enemies.
It says here the wicked will bow at the gates.
Praise God, and we know.
Whose gates those are God spoke to Abraham, Genesis 22, 16 through 17.
Here's the text.
And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing and hast not withheld thy son.
Thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed, as the stars of heaven, and as the sandwich is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.
Now who's Abraham's seed?
The Bible says if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.
Which promise?
This one right here and every other one that God gave Abraham.
In other words, the kingdom that God would raise through Abraham's seed will overcome the kingdoms that come against it.
We will not bow at their gates.
But they will bow at ours.
For Solomon said the wicked will bow at the gates.
Look back in your text.
Which gates?
The gates of the righteous.
Our gates.
He's not talking about the gate of your house.
When I pull up to my house, I punch a little button, my gate opens up, and I drive in.
They're not going to bow at those gates.
There's no power in those gates.
But we have the gates of the righteous that the wicked are going to bow to, and we didn't set these gates up.
God did They were set up in eternity past, the everlasting gospel covenant.
And they are the gates of the righteous because only the righteous enter these gates.
Because they give us entrance into God's kingdom.
Listen to how the prophet Isaiah described the kingdom of God when Christ. uh uh uh comes in the in that day.
Listen.
Isaiah 26, 1 through 2.
In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah.
We have a strong city.
Now, why is that important?
Because a city, an Old Testament city, has gates.
And it says, we have a strong city.
Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
Man, if you want a strong city.
If you want a place you can live safely forever.
If you want a city that has a king who can protect you.
Then you better have salvation appointed for walls and bulwarks.
City of Athens doesn't have that.
City of Maybank doesn't have that.
City of Mesquite doesn't have that.
But one day we're going to enter into a city.
Actually, we live in that city now, so to speak, spiritually.
But one day we're actually going to dwell in that city.
And it's going to have gates on it.
And it's going to have walls all around it.
But these aren't walls made out of bricks and stone.
No, they're not made out of gold, and they're not made out of pearls, they're not made out of any of that either.
All that's metaphor.
Just like salvation here.
Salvation is going to be the walls of this city.
It's going to be the bulwarks of the city.
And so when you have walls like this, All the way around.
What are those walls for when you have a gated city in the Old Testament?
What were those walls for?
Sir?
Security.
Security.
They were to make sure that everybody inside that city is safe.
Safe.
That the people who don't belong in the city can't get in.
And the people who do belong in the city can't be stolen out.
And so God is telling us here in the Old Testament.
That there's going to be a city for his people to live in.
And to protect them, he's going to put up walls and bulwarks that are made out of salvation.
Now a the uh a bulwark is a wall.
A wall it may not be a bulwark though.
Now you got a wall over here, but that's not a bulwark A bulwark is a fortified wall.
A bulwark is a wall of defense.
And so God has built around our city walls to defense and those walls are not built out of stone they're built out of doctrine They're built out of covenants that God made with Jesus in eternity past when he says, I've sworn and I will not repent, you are a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
They are built out of every promise of every sacrifice offered in the Old Testament.
They are built out of the intercession of Jesus Christ.
They're built out of his blood.
They're built out of the fact that God said in the book of Hebrews, I have sworn by myself.
When he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself.
That is what our walls are made out of.
And as those walls come around They join at these gates.
And those gates Swing and give access to the entrance and the safety within those walls.
And those gates are the cross of Jesus Christ.
That's what they are.
Jesus Is the door?
Jesus is the King of the city.
Jesus is the wall and the bulwarks Jesus is the foundation of the city.
And Jesus' people are the citizens that go inside.
And we all go inside those gates.
Now here we are at these gates.
In one day our city, the city that is built on the salvation of Jesus Christ, those wicked.
The devil, his demons, and all that followed him, they're going to be put in the lake of fire.
They will challenge our city no more.
They're going to finally tap out.
Unfortunately, they won't be converted, but they'll bow.
And they'll confess.
And our walls will stand strong.
And our gates won't be bent in.
And Jesus will lose none of us.
He says, Isaiah 26, 1 through 2, in that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah.
We have a strong city.
Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
Listen to this verse 2.
Open ye the gates.
Open them.
Why?
That the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in Now, folks, that gets me excited.
There is a command for those strong impregnable impregnable gates to open.
And that command is to open So the righteous nation can enter into it.
And that's the only, the only Entity that these gates are commanded to open for is the righteous nation.
Now, that righteous nation Is the nation that does one thing.
What does it say that righteous nation does?
It keeps the truth.
It keeps the truth Do you know who that righteous nation is?
It's the Church of Jesus Christ.
Do you know what the truth is that we keep?
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man comes into the Father or enters into those gates but by me.
The truth is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We are that righteous nation.
Write down in your notes or your margin, 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9.
1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9.
Speaking to the church, speaking to those who keep the truth of Jesus Christ, the Bible says in 1 Peter 2, 9, but ye are a chosen generation.
A royal priesthood.
Watch this now.
Say it with me.
And holy what?
Nation.
We're a holy nation And we've been chosen.
And so here in the New Testament, Peter describes for us who God is talking about through Isaiah in the Old Testament.
Open up the gates that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter.
And then in the book of 1 Peter, Peter tells us who that righteous nation is.
He says, it's you.
You're the holy nation.
A peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
That Greek word translated nation is ethnos or ethnos.
And that's where we get our word ethnicity from.
And the ethnicity that enters the gates of God's kingdom is that which is born of God by faith in Christ.
It's Abraham's seed.
We're not righteous by any merit of our own, but only by the righteousness of Jesus.
I like how the Holy Spirit, speaking through Solomon, called these gates the gates of the righteous.
Because they belong to the righteous.
We are forever citizens of God's holy nation that dwells within the gates.
Notice again in Isaiah 26.
1.
In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah.
We have a strong city.
Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
I thank God that one day the evil, every bit of evil, Every bit of evil from the past, the present, and the future will bow at the gates of the righteous.
They'll bow and they'll confess Jesus Christ as Lord.
They'll confess the gospel was God's remedy for mankind.
They'll confess their own wrong and forsaking it.
God won't be blamed for anybody going to hell And God willing.
When that day comes, hopefully every one of us will be in that city.
I know I can tell you one thing.
If you keep the truth, you'll be there.
If you keep the truth of the gospel, that gospel will keep you.
Because he said that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter therein.
That's all we have time for tonight.
I'm grateful for the study of God's Word.
I'm grateful for how Proverbs and every other book in the Old Testament flow seamlessly into the New Testament, which flows right into Jesus Christ.
And when we embrace Jesus, we embrace the head of all doctrine, all truth, and all grace and all of God's word.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
Thank you, Father.
That you have appointed a city for us.
You have appointed salvation for our walls and bulwarks.
You have appointed gates.
You have promised us that our gates shall possess the gates of our enemies.
You have commanded, Father, that the gates swing open for the righteous nation.
You have identified for us, Lord, who that nation is.
And you've given us the assurance, dear Lord God, that once, Father, we step inside the covenant of your grace. of your salvation that you've provided for us in Jesus Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection, that once we step inside the gates that open, Lord, just as Noah and his family step in the ark, Father, we're forever safe inside.
We thank you so much, and I pray, Father, that you'll bless everyone on the way home.
And give them a good rest of the work week until we meet again Lord's Day in Jesus' name.
Amen
