Transcript

John Barnett speaking and welcome to this introduction to the book of Proverbs, and I'm very excited. I've wanted to get this recorded for you. And we are staying between teaching sessions down here in Florida. We're headed to soon teach at the Bible Institute, and I'm excited about that, the Book of Revelation. But, before I jump into Revelation, and it might come out in our session today because I've been working on my collection of prophetic headlines. And what's going on, right now it's March 20th and if you live in almost any part of the United States, you're aware of this weather system that came across and caused more storm warnings than any other three day period ever recorded in American meteorological history. And what we saw, from the sandstorms across the southwest, the wildfires through Oklahoma, and now that storm system went and now another one's coming. And it's just unbelievable to see it. But that's for the prophetic update.

But let me just share with you what happened at this Bible conference. Bonnie and I are invited to come to the Word of Life winter conference once a year. And they always say, pray about whatever's on your heart that the Lord wants you to share.

And so, when we got back last year from teaching in Europe and Asia, we always get back around the 1st of December. Bonnie presented me with this book. Now remember, I have over 7,000 books. So, the man with many books was so excited to get a book from my wonderful wife and I opened it up and look at it.

It was blank. Isn't that curious? Give the man with many books, a blank book. And I said, honey, thank you.

And then I looked and I said, Proverbs? Oh, I said. It's a 17:18 series. It's what I've always wanted to do, and that's the mark of a wonderful wife. She knew that I've talked to her many times about God's desire for His leaders of the children of Israel back in the monarchy times, in the Old Testament. He wanted the king to copy for himself from the manuscript, from the scrolls of the Bible that were in the tabernacle and temple. He was supposed to check those out and sit there in the tabernacle tent and copy for himself a copy of the scriptures. And so, I've talked and talked about that.

So, Bonnie researched and found. There's a company that sells these blank notebooks. And by the way, this one isn't blank anymore. See, I'm right in the middle. I'm on page 95 copying through the book of Proverbs, and I've been working on it for, let's see, 95 for 50 days. It's been wonderful, but the process of copying the scripture by hand, looking over at your Bible, then looking at the verse number and writing each word, number one, has had me write words I've never written in my whole life. I grab my pen and I think, wait a minute, I've never... I did Revelation before I did Proverbs because she bought me two and my favorite book is Revelation. But some of those words in Revelation, like the names of the demon lords and the stones of the breastplate of the High Priest that are reflected in the layers of the heavenly city. I'd never written a lot of those words ever in my life. And now in Proverbs, it's the same thing. So, the process of doing that makes you think about it.

And so, look at the slides. This is what I want to share with you. This cover slide you're looking at right there. Is what, after studying through Proverbs a hundred times and finishing writing half of it, I titled the book of Proverbs, God offers the ever brighter path for life. That would be my theme to you. As you look at what I just talked about, the storm crossing the country, as you look at the convulsions America and our world are going through with the tariff, the whole tariff war that's going on or whatever you want to call it going on, with the downsizing of the US government agencies, with what's happening in the Ukraine and with Russia and the on and off ceasefire, and Israel has restarted the Gaza war yesterday. Unbelievable things.

So back to, what does God offer? God offers to us the ever brighter path for life. That's the message of the Book of Proverbs, and that's what I'd like to go through with you today. What I want to show you is, as I was writing through the first half of Proverbs, I made this chart right here and you can see it's two columns. And basically, I started noticing the strong contrast between what the Book of Proverbs says a fool is like, that's an unsaved lost person or someone that's behaving like an unsaved lost person and what the wise, or those who have God's Spirit dwelling in them. There's such a contrast between wisdom and foolishness, the lost and the saved in the book of Proverbs. So let me take you back to the slides, and I'm going to run through these really quick.

God offers the ever brighter path for life in the Book of Proverbs. Now, first, let me read to you the path. Proverbs 4:18 says, but the path of the just is like the shining sun that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. Now look at this just. That's one of the synonyms for wisdom, wise people, saved people that have God's Spirit. And we're on a path that started the moment of our justification, our salvation, when we were born again. And that path is like the shining sun, like the sunrise. It shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. What's the perfect day? When we are with Christ and like Him, we'll see Him as He is. And so, unto is every day that we're walking toward the last day of our human existence and the first day of our likeness to Christ existence. Every day gets brighter. So that's why I call it the brighter path. Okay?

But now look at what the other slide says. And let me get you to the other slide. Proverbs 4:19. That's the next verse. The way of the wicked is like darkness. They do not know what makes them stumble. Now again, lost people. All of us were born on this way. I was born on the way of wickedness. That's like darkness and so are you. Everybody. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've gone our own way. We're all born sinners by nature and by choice and by divine decree. But look what it's like, we don't know what's making us stumble. We go through life and we can't figure out why it's so awful, it's so hard, it's so depressing, it's so hopeless, it's so empty, it's so unsatisfying. You could use so many words, until we meet the Lord. And then all of a sudden, everything makes sense.

So, let's go back to the Book of Proverbs. Every book of the Bible is about God and His desires for us. For example, Genesis is God's desire for us to understand the origin of the Earth, of the universe, of sin, salvation, of Israel, and of the nations. But look at Proverbs. Proverbs is God's desire for us to understand how to live life His way.

And look at this, on the ever brighter path. And there's that ever brighter path. It's a life of the just that shines brighter. It's headed to a perfect day. How we were born and how most of the world right now is living is in the way of wickedness and darkness, not knowing what's going on and stumbling through life. So, God offers to us what I call a flourishing life.

Now, for just a minute, I'm going to run you over to perhaps one of my favorite passages at this time in our life. I just, in January celebrated my 69th birthday, and it's such a blessing, the 40th time, that I have been able to celebrate a birthday with my wonderful wife, Bonnie. And she told me, you're not really 69, honey. You're 70, you finished number 69. That's what birthdays mark. Because when you have your first birthday, you've already gone from birth for a whole year and your first birthday means one year is behind you. So, she said you're actually got 69 years behind you and you're starting your 70th year. And I said, yeah. Wow. Thanks. I feel a lot older now. I didn't even get to be 69. I was 68. Now I'm 70. And do you know what my first thought was? Look at this slide.

I thought about the flourishing life the Word of God talks about in Psalm 92. The righteous, that's the born again, those that have the wisdom from above shall flourish like a palm tree. Where do palm trees usually grow in places of harsh conditions, either deserts or places prone to hurricanes. He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Where do those grow? Along the Mediterranean shore in stormy conditions, in the mountains on the Mediterranean there, in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of Lord shall flourish. Look, flourish. Look at this, flourishing life in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit. And here's why I thought of it on my birthday... in old age.

What's the purpose of getting older and marking each birthday as a believer? What's the purpose of it? Let me just remind you, and I tell you this all the time. If you're in our 52 Greatest Chapter study, I've probably told it to you 50 times. On our birthdays, Bonnie and I committed to find in the psalm that marks how old we are, a scripture that's a promise that we can pray for that new year in one of our lives. If I'm doing it, it's what I pray for in Bonnie's birthday for her new year, and she prays for mine. And then when the Lord blesses with children, every year on their birthday, we would open up to whatever psalm, however many years they were old. For example, every one of our children on their 16th birthday at their birthday party, I read to them from Psalm 16, verse 11. I said, God wants to show you the path of life in His presence. His fullness of joy at His right hand are endless pleasures. So, that promise is what I pray for you. Those are promises from the scripture.

Do you know what promise I claim? On my 70th birthday, I don't know if I'll ever make it to Psalm 82 right here, but I said, Lord, I want to bear fruit for you in old age, and here's my goal, I want to be fresh and flourishing. [Oh, that is the ]third time that flourish is there; to declare... so it's not a silent thing. I want to declare through my life, through my choices, through my words, through all that people sense from my life, that the Lord is upright, that He is my Rock and there's no unrighteousness. So, His character is upright, Rock, no unrighteousness, and I want my life to declare that. So, that is the flourishing life that the Lord promises.

Let's go back to the slides. God's message in Proverbs... and I'm trying to challenge you to join this study. By the way. I have an ulterior motive. I just finished teaching through the whole book of Proverbs. We're posting it on a new playlist. You can find it on YouTube. It's called PRO. If you look our YouTube channel and then go to playlist, you'll see PRO Exploring the Brighter Path or something like that, in Proverbs. I just would encourage you maybe some of you couldn't drive all the way down to a Bible conference like we just had in Florida, but you, in these incredibly challenging days that we're living through, you can get the benefit, in fact, you can join me. I'll show you in just a minute how you can get [this notebook]. Do you know how much this little notebook cost? Bonnie said it costs $4.50, normally $8. It was on sale for $4.50. You can start a journey that is unbelievable. It's so encouraging. It's so helpful. It gives you such a perfect perspective on life. It keeps us on this brighter path. That's what the Word of God wants.

Back to the slides. Here's what Proverbs is like. God's message in Proverbs, God's way of salvation, remember the just that I talked about in chapter 4 verse 18 is a way of wisdom, but man's way is the way of damnation. We're all on the broad way, leading toward destruction, and we're characterized by foolishness. Saved people are characterized by wisdom. That's the message of the Book of Proverbs.

Now, here's the book. It's called, this notebook, the 17:18 series. They have many different books of the Bible. I got Proverbs, of course, whenever I have a notebook, I always write the time period I'm using it. But here's from the inside of the book, it says... this is how the 17:18 publishers described this. They also call it a Journible, like a journal Bible. In Deuteronomy 17, Moses is leaving final instructions concerning the future of Israel, in verse 18. So, Deuteronomy 17:18, see that's where this title comes from. The king has commanded to not simply acquire a copy of the law, the entire book of Deuteronomy or other commenters took it, take it to be the Pentateuch, from the scroll publishing house (if there had been such a thing), but to hand write his own copy of the law.

3,400 years later, educators are discovering students that physically write out their notes by hand have a much greater retention rate than simply hearing or visually reading information, like on a computer screen. Now look at the tongue in cheek message from the publishers. Apparently, God knew this to be true, the kings of Israel also from such an understanding, came the conception of these books.

So just like the Sermon on the Mount, and remember this... the whole Bible is written, orchestrated by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And so, there's one guiding principle through every book. It's like the code that weaves together the unity of the whole Bible. The message is unified because there's one author, God, through His Spirit. So, what is that one author's message? Wherever you look, just like the Sermon on the Mount, which was written 1,500 years after the book of [Proverbs], or a thousand years after the book of Proverbs. Jesus talked about the narrow way versus the broad way. Salvation in Proverbs, the way of wisdom is the narrow way. And Proverbs 1:7 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And 9:10 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. That's what Proverbs 18 is talking about. And damnation is the way of foolishness and that's the broad way, as the Book of Proverbs talks about.

And let me show you Proverbs 1. Chapter 1 verse, here we go, 26 to 29. This is what God says to the foolish, to those on the path of destruction. I will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your terror comes. When terror comes like a storm, when your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come. Now look at verse 29 because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. That's what God said is ahead for those that are on the broad way. So, the fools are everyone who don't know God and the wise are everyone who does know God.

And when we talk about wisdom, we're not just talking about a subject, we're talking about the subject. The most defining reality that can be declared about those who know God is, they are wise. Now remember what Paul wrote about Christ in 1 Corinthians 1:30. It says, but of God, are you in Him? That's in Christ, who has become for us wisdom. So, the instant that I got a new heart, the instant that I was born again, the instant I was justified freely by His grace, I had the source of wisdom... the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's constantly resupplying me with wisdom from above in my life, and that's a ministry of His Spirit.

Okay, if we just charted the book of Proverbs, and that's what we'll do all the way through, all the lessons that you'll find on that playlist. God's way is a way of wisdom. Man's way is a way of foolishness. God's way is way of salvation. It's narrow. Man's way is the lost way of broad destruction. God says that we're sensitive. Lost people are hardened. We worship God. Lost people worship themselves. We flee from sin and the lost mock sin. Paul added something very interesting. We are being saved. There's that present tense to our salvation. In the past, I received a free gift of salvation, but it's not like it stopped. It's just continuing. I'm being saved now, and the lost are still perishing and it's getting worse and worse because my path as I'm being saved gets brighter and their path is getting darker.

So let's... this is what I showed you. Remember when I held up and I'll hold it up again. In my journal Bible as I was reading along and copying, I started noticing how strong the contrasts were. So, I just started a little chart here on the side of when I was in chapter 12 about the difference between the wisdom or the wise and the fools, or the way of foolishness. And the whole purpose of this quick clip... and let me see, how many minutes are we on here? The whole purpose of this and, oh, we're on 21 minutes, so I wanted to be quick, so I'll hurry.

But it was this list. This is what prompted me wanting to record this, and this is what, if I was just to say what is the best Bible study you could ever do, is do the book of Proverbs. I would say that to you for this reason, God wants us to be understanding, prudent, instructed, full of knowledge, have the fear of the Lord, to heed His correction and rebukes, to be secure and without fear, to incline our hearts toward Him, and apply and seek and search so that He can shield us, guard us, and preserve us.

Now, that's just the first few descriptors that describe the way of wisdom but listen to what the lost people are like. They despise God. They have terror and destruction ahead. They're in distress, anguish. They have hatred. They're going astray. They disdain truth. They are simple. They are greedy, they are evil. They are sinners, they are complacent. They are loud, perverse, immoral. They flatter; they forsake. Not every unsaved person is all of these things, but these are the traits that come out in varying degrees of every lost person. This is what the heart of darkness, this is what the way of darkness is like. They're cursed in the darkness. They're scornful, headed to death, headed to Hell, headed to shame. They're unstable, they mourn, they're consumed, and they're ruined. Wow. Their iniquities entrap them, and the cords of sin catch them. That's chapter 5. By the way, my list here, this list is only the first 8 chapters on this list. It gets worse. There are 23 more chapters that I'm going to enlarge this list.

But I just wanted to encourage you, if you haven't got a current plan for what you're going to study in the Word of God, in the scriptures, think about Proverbs. And if you want a real fun trip, spend $4.50 or whatever it costs nowadays, probably off sale now, probably it's up to $8, but it'll be the best $8. We were traveling through an airport and we stopped at Starbucks. And do you know how much one cup of coffee was at the airport at Starbucks? $7.56 cents. That's the same price as an eternally life transforming study.

Let me finish, the lost are sluggers. Seductresses. They face poverty and need, they are worthless. They have discord calamity. They are broken without remedy. They are not innocent. Their minds are seared. They have wounds and dishonor and vengeance. They're crooked. It's like an arrow to the liver. It's like a bird in a snare. They're headed to the chambers of death. They are wronging their own soul. They hate wisdom. They love death. They are fools and foolishness. And this is the great one, they are wanting and are unsatisfied.

Now, do you know what the saved are? The wise are, they're satisfied. They don't have insatiable desires. That's one of the marks of a lost person, insatiable desires. It doesn't matter if it's for money, or for sex, or for their looks, or for power, or for fame. It's insatiable. They can't get enough. That's what we call addiction. You just, you have a lower thrill level and increased need for more. But look what God offers. It says, His way is a crown of glory, a brighter path. Blessedness, the path of justice. They find love and favor from the Lord. They are not afraid. They're safe. They're not unsafe. They have pleasantness. They're drinking from the fountain of life. They have the tree of life. They're filled to overflowing as they depart from evil. They have life and peace and length of days, and that's just part of what we're studying.

Now let me show you that list and how I did it. I just wrote at the top, wisdom and foolishness. And then I right there, foolishness is 70 plus times in Proverbs, wisdom is 128 times. The word understanding and prudence, understanding's a big word, 58 times. Starts in chapter 1 verse 5. But do you see I'm just writing as I read and making this list and then you see all these negative ones, cursed, and scornful, and shamed, and unstable, and consumed. Their iniquities, entrapped them, the cords of sin catch them, they are sluggards. These are amazing horrible consequences to the life of foolishness. And there's a copy if you want to see it all, without any marking on it, but you see, it's only the first 8 chapters there. And basically, the whys are satisfied and the lost are wanting and unsatisfied.

That's all that I want to challenge you with today. And basically, if you go to our website or to YouTube, you can find the playlist. And my prayer is that if you're not currently studying anything else, that some of you will take the challenge. There are only 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs. If you read it without copying, it only takes a month at a chapter a day. If you read it and copy it, it'll take you quite a while. It takes me, to copy one page and one page usually has 10 verses, there are 915 verses in Proverbs, so it takes about three months to do 10 verses a day and to hand write 'em out like you see here, writing out every word. But as I'm doing that, I keep finding more and more stuff to write over here on the left side of the page, you take notes on what you're finding. So that's my challenge to you and that's my prayer.

When we come back next time, I'm going to be giving you the, it's prophetic study, as I told you at the beginning, I'm right in the middle. We're at the end of March and on the 1st of April, we're taking off to teach at the Word of Life Bible Institute. I'm going through for two weeks, the entire book of Revelation. I'm going to show you, show the students there, there are a hundred and some of them at Word of Life Florida, and 200 plus at Word of Life New York that we go to right after that. But I'm going to be showing them why there's no book of the Bible more relevant for the world in which we live. The world of the Ukraine versus Russia, of Hamas versus Israel, of the Houthis, that currently our president has launched a full scale bombardment on the Houthis. There's no book that frames what's going on in the world better than the book of Revelation, which I'll talk about in our prophetic update a little bit later, Lord willing this week. But for right now, let's pray.

Father in Heaven, I pray that the brighter path would become the heart's desire of every one of Your servants. And for those that don't feel their path as getting brighter every day, I pray they'd get the treasure of the Book of Proverbs and that they would start studying and start writing down in their journals that brighter path and living it. For Jesus' sake, we pray. Amen.

Thanks for joining me. God bless you, and I hope you jump onto The Brighter Path Study.