Your Friends Are Your Future - Proverbs 13:20 and I Corinthians 15:33

Notes at Proverbs 13:20 - He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

"Show me your friends and I'll show you your future."  Or shortened as, "Your friends are your future."

Notes at I Corinthians 15:33 - Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.

Context: I Corinthians 15:12, "...some among you..."

Communications = HOMILIA, "same company"

Manners = ETHOS, compare "ethics"

"Be not deceived" - it is easy to deceive yourself on this issue.

Examples: Genesis 13:12-13; II Samuel 13:3; Revelation 18:4.

Cross references: Proverbs 2:20; Psalms 119:63; Malachi 3:16; Acts 2:42; Proverbs 9:6; I Kings 12:8; II Chronicles 19:2; II Corinthians 6:14-7:1; Psalms 101:1-8

First Pure Then Peaceable

James 3:17 - But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable....

"First pure, then peaceable; if only one is attainable, choose the former." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Notice it is FIRST pure, the priority. To maintain peaceable fellowship with others cannot cost your purity. First pure. When purity is at stake, peaceable is not always an option. This is the error of New Evangelicalism or a non-militant "fundamentalism." - VM

Revelation 2:2 - Ephesians Were Faithfully Pure

Revelation 2:2 - I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

NOTE: Paul gave the Ephesian church biblical boundaries, Ephesians 5:1-12. Decades later, Jesus commends them for still keeping these. See also Acts 20:28-30.

What a blessing to see a church remaining faithfully pure for decades. It can be done. Unlike the Ephesians, it can even be done without losing our first love.

VM

Notes in First Chapter of Genesis

Besides my prior post, a Margin Outline of Creation, here are some additional margin notes I have made in the first chapter of the book of Genesis.

Verse 1 - "In the beginning God..."

No attempt to try to prove God's existence; just stated as a given fact.

"God" is plural in the Hebrew.  An early hint at the Trinity without contradicting that there is only one God.

Verse 4 - "...and God divided the light from the darkness."

Separation is an integral part of the creative acts, Genesis 1:4, 1:6, 1:7, 1:14, 1:18.

Verse 16 - "And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night..."

KJV translators' note: "for the rule of the day."  "Rule" does not mean to rule over in authority, but to signify a measure (as a 12 inch "ruler" does).  This answers v. 14, "to divide the day from the night."

Verse 26 - "And God said, Let us make man in our image..."

God refers to Himself as "us" and to "our image."  Another early hint at the Trinity.

Verse 26 - "...and let them [Man] have dominion over...all the earth, and over every creeping thing...."

Cross references for mankind's dominion and stewardship over God's creation: Genesis 9:2-3; Psalm 8:4-8; Psalm 115:16; Hebrews 2:6-8; James 3:7.

Verse 27 - "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

Adam and Eve were both created on the sixth day.  Chapter two, completely detailing Adam's creation from dust and then Eve's from his side, is not a separate creation account; it is an expanded view of the sixth day.  Without Eve, God could not have pronounced everything "very good" at the end of the sixth day in Genesis 1:31, nor rested on the seventh day.

Verse 30 - "And to every beast of the earth... I have given every green herb for meat."

Before sin, there was no death in the world (Romans 5:12), including among animals (Romans 8:20-22).  So before the Fall, all animals were plant eaters.  They will be again during the Kingdom age, Isaiah 11:7.

VM

Psalm 119:57-64 - Sermon Outline

An Alliterated Sermon Outline for Psalm 119:57-64.

v. 57a - The Psalmist's PORTION - "Thou art my portion, O Lord."  Desiring God and only God.

v. 57b - The Psalmist's PROFESSION - "I have said that I would keep thy words."  Part of the same profession we made when we trusted Christ, were baptized, joined a church, rededicated, shed tears down at the old fashioned altar call, etc.  Hebrews 10:23 - "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for He is faithful that promised)."

v. 58 - The Psalmist's PETITION - "I entreated thy favour with my whole heart."  How often we ask for God's favour with nothing but our lips, and our heart is not behind our prayers.  What is God listening to when we pray, our voice or our heart?

"Be merciful unto me according to thy word."  Repeating God's promises in prayer is effective.  Many can give testimony that powerful answers to prayer have come when God's promises were claimed.

vv. 59-60 - The Psalmist's PASSION - "I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies."  Passionate Conviction.  "I thought on my ways" - Conviction a matter of seeing sin for what it is.  "...Unto thy testimonies" - Conviction a response to the word of God.

"I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments."  Passionate Repentance, in response to Passionate Conviction.  Delayed obedience is disobedience.  Repentance is a matter of the mind and heart changing.  Repentance is measured not by the action, but by the attitude that prompts the action.  Here we see a true change of attitude that makes the sinner passionate to correct his wrongdoing.  A delay is in fact a denial.  Any so-called repentance that hesitatingly, begrudgingly or grumblingly changes the action is not "repentance toward God" or "godly sorrow [that] worketh repentance."  Illustration here of examples of such.  Anything short of a truly passionate desire to change the ways before God is a vain repentance and "ye shall all likewise perish" Luke 13:3, 5.

v. 61 - The Psalmist's PERSISTENCE - "The bands [companies, gangs] of the wicked have robbed me: but I have not forgotten thy law."  Not like the seed landing in the stony places, who received the word and sprang up but by and by he was offended and withered (Matthew 13:20-21).  Despite the difficulties of the world that we all face, the psalmist continues to endure in serving the Lord.  After all, he made his PROFESSION, v. 57b.  The problems of life are not going to stand in the way of his continuing in the word of God.

v. 62 - The Psalmist's PRAISE - "At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments."  Thankful ALL THE TIME, even at MIDNIGHT.  Even in the darkest hours.  Compare Acts 16:25, where Paul and Silas locked in the dungeon at midnight are singing, praising God and praying.

v. 63 - The Psalmist's PARTNERSHIP - "I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts."  Lessons here on the importance of fellowship, on local church unity, on separation from unbelievers and the disobedient, etc.  Cross reference II Timothy 2:22 - "...with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart."  Who are you WITH?  Cross reference I Peter 4:4 - "Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot..."  Who are you NOT with?

v. 64 - The Psalmist as a PUPIL - "The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes."  Teach me, he says.  All throughout this Psalm, the man begs to be taught.  He obviously has a TEACHABLE SPIRIT.  The lack of a teachable spirit is the cause of many hurtful dissensions, contentions, wounded Christians, unrecoverable offenses, church splits, etc.  An unteachable spirit manifests itself how?  Who is prone to it?  What is the root cause?  What is the solution?

VM
7/21/2011

Philippians 2:15

Philippians 2:15 - That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

Abraham & Lot, same dilemma: Genesis 13:7-8

VM