Proverbs 1:13 (Mini Sermon)
Submitted by Pastor Chad Wagner on Thursday, January 31, 2019.
13. Pro 1:13 - "We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:" A. Here we find the true motivation of these brutal men: money. i. Their inspiration for conspiring to lurk secretly and lay wait for the blood of the innocent was the insidious sin of covetousness. ii. They were so "greedy of gain" that they were willing to "[take] away the life of the owners thereof" to get it (Pro 1:19). iii. Evil men will stop at nothing to fulfill their lusts. iv. The eyes of man are never satisfied (Pro 27:20). v. As Matthew Henry so eloquently wrote commenting on Lev 11:43-47, "Nature is content with little, grace with less, but lust with nothing." B. The love of money is the root of all evil (1Ti 6:10). i. Wicked men should consider their ways and ask themselves if filling their houses with spoil is worth losing their own souls (Mar 8:36). ii. Life does not consist of the abundance of possessions (Luk 12:15). iii. The most important things in life are not things. iv. It's better to make a difference than a fortune. v. We cannot serve God and money, and if a man tries, he will end up hating one or the other (Mat 6:24). vi. Walking straddled over a fence is sure to end in pain. C. The desire to be rich will ruin a man (1Ti 6:9; Pro 28:22). i. If a man wants to fill his house with precious substance, he should seek to do so by living righteously and faithfully and working hard (Pro 3:33; Pro 28:20). ii. He should not do so by plundering his neighbor, whether on the street corner or at the ballot box (Exo 20:15). D. Even if these thugs were successful in pillaging the innocent and robbing them of their substance, it would be short lived (Pro 10:3; Pro 13:22). i. They may succeed in spoiling their innocent victims, but the LORD will "spoil the soul of those that spoiled them" (Pro 22:22-23). ii. You reap what you sow (Gal 6:7), and "they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same" (Job 4:8).
