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In the United States, the Internal
Revenue Service has what's called a conscience fund which receives anonymous
contributions from people who have cheated the government out of money in the
past and who want to make up for it to clear their consciences, but don't want
to risk criminal prosecution. The conscience fund received a check for $500
from a man who included the following note: "I have not been able to sleep
ever since I cheated you out of some money, so here's a check for $500. If I
still can't sleep, I'll send you the rest."
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This person, who was going
completely the wrong direction, decided to start heading in the right
direction, but fell short.
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Wisdom doesn't belong to people who
are only willing to go part or halfway. No, wisdom belongs to people who are
willing to go all the way.
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When I fear God, I won't go
halfway with Him; I'll go all the way.
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Solomon taught his son that a wise person sets
the course of life by consistently choosing what is good, right, and true.
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Living rightly means choosing to
live by God's standards rather than our standards.
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Chapters 10 to 15 are loaded with
Proverbs about this, but let's look at a few ways Proverbs demonstrates this
ideal.
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#1. Proverbs 10:6-7. These verses emphasize
God's blessing upon the righteous over
the dishonorable name of the wicked.
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Proverbs 10:6-7, "Blessings are on the head of the righteous,
but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence. The memory of the righteous is a
blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot."
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In these two Proverbs, Solomon
presents and restates the covenant God gave Israel through Moses, laying before
the people a choice between a blessing and a curse.
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The picture of blessing is like a
crown on a person's head that is easily seen by all, and their memory is like
an inheritance of blessing passed down to the next generation.
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The blessing of God is never just
for the self; God gives a blessing with the intention that it be shared.
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The picture of wickedness is that of
words that are merely a thin veil over violent intentions and like a person
without honor, the name of the wicked will rot as offensive and as unclean as a
decomposing corpse, disgusting and repulsive.
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God's blessing is upon the
righteous, whereas the name of the wicked is without honor.
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#2. Proverbs 11:18-20. These verses
stress that the wicked live for the
moment, but the righteous look to the long haul.
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Proverbs 11:18-20, "The wicked earns deceptive wages, but the one
who sows righteousness gets a sure reward. Whoever is steadfast in
righteousness will live, but he who pursues evil will die. Those of crooked
heart are an abomination to the Lord,
but those of blameless ways are his delight."
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The wicked, says Solomon, earn
deceptive wages. What are these wages? Nothing but hot air. Why hot air?
Because you can't take earthly wealth with you when you die.
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What is the reward for those who sow
(i.e., plant) what's good, right, and true?
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Life, Solomon says, their reward is
life, and that this reward is sure points to the promise of eternal life, which
is fulfilled today in the Lord Jesus Christ who died and was raised so that all
might be able to choose life in him.
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We also see here that God has a
strong opinion about the crooked versus the blameless.
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The crooked are an abomination, God
finds their attitudes and actions disgusting or revolting.
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Those whose ways are blameless,
however, are his delight; he delights in those who choose what's good, right,
and true.
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And God will delight in you and me
as we choose to build our lives upon the one who is the way, the truth, and the
life, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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The wicked live for the moment, but
the righteous look to the long haul.
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#3. Proverbs 12:2-3. These verses
emphasize that God is the link between
faith, morality, and security.
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Proverbs 12:2-3, "A good man obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of evil devices he
condemns. No one is established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous
will never be moved."
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God is the link between faith,
morality and security.
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"A good man" refers to the
one whose attitudes and actions are worthy of approval, who is morally upright
and beneficial to others, whereas an evil person tries to keep control over his
or her life at all times.
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The wicked are only concerned about
their own devices, but God's grace is upon those who realize that their life is
rooted and established in someone greater than themselves, which is God, who
alone is good.
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Ultimately, goodness finds its
source in God. He is the root of the righteous.
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If I want security, then I must
trust God, and if I'm going to trust God for my security, then I need to live
by his standards.
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Proverbs tells us that the good, the
upright, the righteous have life and are established and rooted so that they
can't be uprooted and it also tells us that they are a blessing.
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However, elsewhere in the Bible the
psalmist tells us in Psalm 14 and again in 53, "there is no one who does
good, not even one."
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Unless I am rooted and established
in the Lord, my goodness can never measure up to God's standards.
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I can never be good enough, but the
Lord Jesus has changed all that.
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When we place our faith and trust in
him, our debt of sin he paid with his blood and God the Father accepts his
goodness in our place.
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The goodness of the Lord Jesus now
belongs to us. We have direct access to his goodness to change our lives so
that we can be truly good.
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The Lord Jesus went all the way to
the cross, died, was buried, and rose again on the third day according to the
Scriptures.
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He didn't go halfway; he went all
the way.
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When I fear God, I won't go
halfway with him; I'll go all the way.
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Many years ago, Arnold Prater shared
the following story.
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"A man I knew who stood behind
the second chair in the barbershop was a friend of mine, but this fellow in the
second chair, a man about 65 years of age, was about the vilest, most vulgar,
profane, wicked-talking man I had ever known.
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"He must've had some kind of
fixation on preachers, because it seemed to me that every time I came in the
shop, he doubled his output.
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"One day when I went in, he was
gone. I asked my barber friend where he was, and he said, 'Oh, he's been
desperately ill. For a while, they despaired of his life.'
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"Perhaps six weeks later, I was
entering the post office when I heard my name, and I turned and saw the profane
man. He was seated in the car so that he could see the people walking in and
out of post office.
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"He was a mere shadow of a man,
and his face was the color of death itself. He crooked a long bony finger at
me, and I walked over to where he was.
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"He said in a voice so weak I
had to lean over to hear it, 'Preacher, I want to tell you something. I was in
a coma down at the hospital. And I could hear the doctor tell my wife, I don't
think he can last another hour.'
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"Then his voice trembled and it
was a moment before he could continue. Then he said, 'Preacher, I ain't never
prayed in my entire life… But I prayed then. I said, Oh God, if there is a God,
I need you now. And when I said that… I don't know how to put it into words…
But he was there. He came.'
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"Then tears welled up in his
reddened eyes, and then he said, 'Just think, Preacher, I kicked him in the
face every day of my life for 60 years, and the first time I called his name,
he came."
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When
I fear God, I won't go halfway with Him; I'll go all the way.
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