In his sermon, 'Solving World Hunger - Who Me?', Peter Allison explores the passage Proverbs 22:6-16, focusing on the concept of a free and prosperous society. The sermon examines the chiasm structure within the passage, revealing a mirrored text that emphasizes the importance of well-trained families as foundational to prosperity. Allison highlights the dangers of debt, noting that a nation of debtors cannot truly be free, as debt creates servitude. He contrasts this with biblical teachings on lending, emphasizing the importance of not charging interest to those in need and the responsibility of Christians to care for the poor. The sermon underscores that true freedom involves the ability to obey God's laws, not the pursuit of personal gratification. Furthermore, Allison stresses the necessity of church and family discipline in fostering a society that values purity of heart, generosity, and righteousness. He concludes by reminding the congregation that God is a friend to those who love purity and have grace, supporting a life of obedience and service to God.

Please turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 22. I'd like to read verses 6 through 16 as I reconsider this passage one more time. Proverbs 22, beginning at verse 6. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. The rich rules over the poor, and the barber is servant to the lender.

He who sows iniquity will reap sorrow, and the rod of his anger will fail. He who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the poor. Cast out the scoffer and contention will leave, yet strife and reproach will cease. He who loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips, the King will be his friend. The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge, but he overthrows the words of the faithless.

The lazy man says, there is a lion outside, I will be slain in the streets. The mouth of an immoral woman is a deep pit, and he who is abhorred by the Lord will fall there. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, the rod of correction will drive it far from him. He who oppresses the poor to increase his riches and he who gives to the rich will surely come to poverty." May we not delay to keep all of His commandments. Almighty Heavenly Father, we look now to your word, for it is in it, it is truth, it is wisdom, your wisdom.

We ask that you would sanctify us by it. Open our ears to hear and sanctify these sinful lips to proclaim what is true and what is right through Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, we've spent so long and looking in such great depth the passage is relating to training children, that we may have forgotten the context in which this passage occurs. And that is this chiasm, actually two chiasms, two interlocking chiasms that both point to a very similar message, a very similar theme.

And you remember the chiasm is just a literary device that is a mirrored text where the beginning and the end are saying the same thing and it's symmetrical all the way to the middle, which is the theme of the passage. 6 through 16 has this structure to it and the elements of that, this chiasm, are all around the elements, the aspects of a free and a prosperous culture. And so we saw then first that a prosperous culture is built, is founded upon these trained families. So that's in verses 6 and 15. And this morning we'd like to look at the rest of this passage, the rest of these pillars of a free and a prosperous society.

We see next that such a society has minimal debt. Thirdly, that such a society flees fornication and oppression. Fourthly, that such a society labors diligently and gives to those who are in need. And fifthly that such a society has church discipline. And then the heart of this message is that Jehovah is a friend of those who love purity of heart and have grace in their lips but he overthrows the words of the faithless.

And There are these two chiasms that are interlocking and it makes for a little bit of difficulty in exactly how to put them together. But in the outline in your bulletin I have listed one and then listed the other and tried to relate how these two chiasms are interlocking and also covering very similar themes, but slightly different emphasis and a slightly different key verse, but both centered around verses 11b and 12 and 13. And so the next section, if you will, in this passage concerns that the free and prosperous society has minimal debt. The rich rules over the poor and the borrower is a servant to the lender. In verse 16, it is he who oppresses the poor to increase his riches, and he who gives to the rich will surely come to poverty.

Well it's pretty easy to see that if debt makes one a servant, and that's what it says, the rich wills over the poor, The borrower is a servant to the lender. So if debt makes one a servant, it's pretty easy to see that a nation of debtors can't be the land of the free. A nation of debtors is a land of servants. And in our nation today, according to the numbers I saw, over 86% of families who are shall we say in that beginning range of 30s and early 40s, 86% of these families are in debt. And they're in debt to a level That's more than their annual income in many cases.

Meaning if they took every penny that they could make in a year, they still couldn't pay off their debts and they wouldn't have anything to live on. Now as you go older, as you get to the other end of the working spectrum, up into the late 50s and early 60s, only about three quarters of our families in this nation apparently are in debt. And the median debt has dropped. But the fact remains There's still far over half of the families in this country are in debt. Which means we are a nation not of the free.

We can't say we are the land of the free. We are not the land of the free, we are the land of the servant. That's according to the Bible. We really have no right to sing or to proclaim that we are the land of the free. Because we're not.

We used to be that way, didn't used to be this level of debt. This is really something I grew up with. Thinking was normal part of life, that you needed to buy a house, you got a loan. How else do you buy a house? Who would have enough money to buy a house without a loan?

But I came to see later on, many years later, that that's not a very good way, a very wise or prudent way to live. It's not the way the free live, it's the way the servants live. Just prior to when I was born, just prior to let's say World War, right around that era of World War II, you didn't have this level of debt, even in this country. Just didn't exist, that wasn't considered an acceptable way to live. And that was a new to me when I began to realize this.

It wasn't something that happened overnight, it was a gradual perception. You know, It's not very enjoyable to find out that what you think is normal isn't. And that you're used to talking about living in the land of the free, and to realize that you're not really in the land of the free anymore. And that all of the judgments that God speaks about in his covenant in Deuteronomy 28 were coming upon our land. You see debt trades your freedom for immediate gratification.

That is a way to trade your freedom for immediate gratification. You want something now. You want a house to a certain standard. Instead of waiting for it, we want it now, so we buy it on debt. To live without debt requires planning, financial planning for the future.

It's a biblical thing. It's a biblical, a very biblical idea to plan for the future. To look ahead and see what the needs are and anticipate. The Bible says that's the way the ant lives. The ant stores up in the summer for the needs in the winter.

And to live that free requires us to do the same thing, to lay up now for our future needs. So that when the need for a new automobile comes, or the need to replace a roof, or the need for a house, we are ready for that because we've been preparing all along for those expenses. We have to be setting aside funds today or we will be financially unprepared tomorrow and end up needing to go into debt. Sometimes, despite our best plans, in the providence of God, things happen and we find that we aren't prepared to meet the need that is before us. That is not a sin, but in the scriptures it is regarded as a misfortune.

That is why we are not to charge interest to brothers when we loan to them. Because it would be wrong to take advantage of their misfortune. And until I saw that, the laws in the Old Testament regarding charging of interest were difficult to handle. Because they seemed to forbid all interest. The King James used the word usury.

And so sometimes people would say, you hear people say, well that's excessive, exorbitant interest. But actually usury is just any interest, any increase. We want to charge interest. How could that be? Jesus talked about loaning money and making a profit from it.

So how do these things fit together if we want to charge interest? Well, it all fits when you take a biblical view of debt. And you see debt makes one a servant. Debt puts you in bondage, in servitude. And that is generally a misfortune when that happens.

And we're not to take advantage of that. And that's what verse 16 is speaking about. He who oppresses the poor to increase his riches, and he who gives to the rich will surely come to poverty. He who oppresses the poor through increases riches. He is charging interest to the poor, to the people who have suffered a misfortune and need to borrow money for a house, Or need to borrow money for a car or some other means because you need a car to be able to work.

So it's a need. You need a home for shelter. These are basic necessities that we need to have. And so he who oppresses the poor increases riches. When you loan without interest you don't increase your riches, do you?

If they repay you, you simply get back what you had before. You only get an increase to your riches if you charge interest and if you charge today more interest than the rate at which your money is losing its value. We talk about the inflation rate. So he who oppresses the poor to increase his riches is somebody who is charging interest to the poor, to those who have experienced misfortune and need to borrow. In the section in Exodus 22, dealing with the oppression of widows and orphans, oppression of those who don't have somebody to care for them.

An orphan has no father, a widow has no husband, These are the ones who provide and care. God's wrath is especially hot against those who oppress these people. Right in the context, right in this very passage, Exodus 22, 25, if you lend money to any of my people that is poor by you, you shall not be to him as a usurer. You shall not be someone who charges interest, neither shall you lay upon him usury or interest. In Leviticus 25, and if you remember, Leviticus 25 is the chapter that deals with the year of Jubilee.

This is the chapter that speaks of proclaiming liberty to those who are in bondage. In fact, do you know what verse is on the Liberty Bell, the bell that was rung in Philadelphia to celebrate the liberty of our nation in the late 18th century. Do you know what verse is on that bell? It's from this chapter, Leviticus 25 verse 10, proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. This is the chapter that's dealing with this liberty.

Leviticus 25 verse 35 talks about this very topic. If any of your brethren becomes poor and falls into poverty among you. So there is a tragedy that has happened, there is a misfortune in the providence of God that has occurred in this life. Maybe it is illness, maybe it is weather related, maybe it is whatever. But if one of your brethren becomes poor, falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him like a stranger and a sojourner, that he may live with you.

Take no usury or interest. That's increase. Literally, take no interest or increase. Usury is interest. Take no interest or, that word for interest there is increase.

Take no interest or increase from him, but fear your God that your brother may live with you. You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at profit. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God." It goes on, if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor and sells himself to you, You shall not compel him to serve as a slave, as a hired servant and a sojourner. He shall be with you and shall serve you until the year of Jubilee, that every seventh seven. Then he shall depart from you, he and his children with him, and return to his own family, and he shall return to the possession of his fathers, for they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt.

They shall not be sold as slaves. You shall not rule over them with rigor, with severity, but you shall fear your God." This is the context which scriptures speak about, charging interest to those who have fallen on misfortune. Deuteronomy 23 repeats this same message. Do not, you shall not charge interest to your brother. Interest on money or food or anything that is let at interest.

To a foreigner you can charge interest, but to your brother you shall not charge interest. That the Lord your God may bless you in all to which you set your hand in the land which you are entering to possess." In Nehemiah, The culture had to deal with this very same issue, the exact same issue. Nehemiah chapter 5. Nehemiah was the governor. And let's just look at this passage, this chapter.

There was a great outcry of the people and their wives against their Jewish brothers. For there were those who said, we our sons and daughters are many, therefore let us get grain that we may eat and live. And there were also some who said, we have mortgaged our lands, we have borrowed against our lands and our vineyards and our houses that we might buy grain because of the famine. So there's the tragedy, there's the misfortune, there was a famine in the land. People couldn't eat, so they're mortgaging everything they have in order to be able to eat.

There were those who said, we have borrowed money for the king's tax on our land and vineyards. Another form of oppression, property taxes. Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brother and our children as their children and indeed we are forcing our sons and our daughters to become slaves, and some of our daughters have been brought into slavery. It is not in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and our vineyards." And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. And after serious thought, this was not a momentary flash of anger.

This was after serious thought, not a spur of the moment thing. After thinking about this and contemplating it, Nehemiah says, I rebuked the nobles and elders and said to them, each of you is exacting usury, each of you is charging interest from his brother. And so I called a great assembly against them. And I said to them, According to our ability, we have redeemed our Jewish brothers who were sold to the nations. Now indeed, will you even sell your brethren, or should they be sold to us?" What was the answer?

Silence. Silence. They could not answer him. There was nothing to say. Nehemiah said, what are you doing?

This isn't good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of our nations or enemies? I also with my brethren and my servants am lending them money and grain. I am lending these things, but not at interest. Please let us stop this interest.

Restore not to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, their houses, So also a hundredth of the money and the grain and the new wine that you have charged them And they said we will restore it And we will require nothing from them. We will do as you say. And I called the priests and took an oath from them that they would do according to this promise. Then I shook out the fold of my garment and said, so may God shake out each man from his house and from his property, who does not perform this promise, even thus may he be shaken out and emptied." And what was the answer to the people, the assembly? All the assembly said, Amen.

And they praised the Lord, Jehovah, and the people did according to this promise. This is what was the problem there. They were charging interest, and God says they shouldn't. We're the same way today. We're a nation of debtors.

We celebrate that we no longer tolerate slavery in this land, but we are a nation of servants, of slaves to those who have loaned to us. Psalm 15 describes a godly man, a righteous man, and along with speaking the truth and not backbiting or taking a reproach against our friends is this statement, He who does not put out his money at interest, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be moved. Proverbs 28 says, He that by interest in unjust gain increases his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor. Ezekiel also has another lengthy passage about the charging of interest to those in need.

He puts it in the same category, discusses it right alongside of murder and adultery and robbery. Free and prosperous society cares for the poor. Today we talk about, many people talk about tyranny, whether it's mandatory vaccines or loss of our citizens, God-given rights, being forced to view homosexual fornication as good and normal and so on. You could list could go on and on, trying to sell the produce from your farm and getting arrested for it. We could talk about a lot of things.

But we have to remember this passage here. If we are in debt, then we are in bondage to those to whom we are in debt. And in our country, all of our money belongs, all of our money was issued as debt by the Federal Reserve. Any money that's in circulation in our country came about as debt. Christ has come to set us free from bondage to sin and to people.

To sin and to people. In Luke, when he first went into that synagogue. What is the passage that he read? It was this passage that we read. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, those who are in bondage, those who are servants, slaves. Christ said He came to proclaim liberty to them. And recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, those who are suffering oppression, unjust burdens, unjust demands, tyrannical rule. Christ said he came to set these people free. He's come to set us free.

And we think of ourselves as a rich and prosperous nation. But we're not. We're a nation of debtors and servants. And Jesus said he didn't come to heal those who are well. He came for the sick.

Those who are acknowledged, Those who are poor in spirit, those who acknowledge they need to be healed. They need to be set free. Those are the ones where Jesus has come to set free. We have to remember when Jesus speaks about setting the captives free, he was quoting Isaiah and Isaiah was quoting this passage in Leviticus 25, proclaiming freedom to the captives. We have to remember though that freedom does not mean the unfettered ability to serve ourselves, to do our own will.

But freedom, freedom is the ability to obey and to keep the law of God. Freedom is not the ability to serve ourselves. Freedom is the ability to obey God. That's what freedom is. Tyranny is the inability to obey God, to be prevented.

So a tyrannical rule is that which prevents us, hinders us from obeying God's word and walking in his precepts. Freedom is the ability to obey God, to walk in His precepts. So Paul says that we are debtors. Christ has come to set us free and therefore we are debtors, Not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, but we are rather debtors to God. And He exhorts us then in that context to oppress the flesh, to put to death the flesh daily more and more by the power of the spirit of regeneration.

We are debtors to God because we have received so many benefits from Him. Daily He loads us with benefits. Daily He provides for all of our needs. We owe Him everything that we are, everything that we have, everything that we can do. Being delivered from so great a death by so great a ransom as the precious blood of Jesus Christ, we are deeply indebted to our deliverer.

So Paul told the Corinthians, For you are bought at a price. You've been redeemed at a price. You've been purchased set free from bondage to sin and to people. Therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are God's. So a free and a prosperous culture is one that has minimal debt.

But a free and a prosperous culture also flees fornication and oppression. He who sows iniquity will reap sorrow or reap trouble, and the rod of his anger will fail. The mouth of an immoral woman, that's a strange woman. Strange woman, that word literally is strange. What does it mean?

Well we know of a stranger as somebody who is not known to us. An alien is somebody who isn't a fellow citizen of the same country that we are. They're a citizen of another country. So a strange woman is somebody who is not a part of that covenant of marriage. A foreigner to that covenant.

So the mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit and he was a poured by the Lord will fall there We've spoken At great length about fornication in our study of Proverbs Solomon Devotes most of chapter 5 6 and 7 to that topic But he brings it in here because sin, righteousness, exalts a nation, but Sin brings reproach to any people. It's a reproach to any people, even the wicked unbelievers. Sin is a reproach to them. The common attitude today is that a ruler's private life doesn't matter. It's irrelevant to their qualification for rule.

I've heard that many times and I'm sure you have too. What does it matter what they do in private? What does it matter whether they're faithful to their wife or their youth? The Bible says otherwise. The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit.

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach. It does matter. It does matter. A free and a prosperous nation is one that flees fornication and flees oppression. God overthrows the wicked but delivers the oppressed.

So the hope to the oppressed here is that the rod of anger will fail. That means the ability of the oppressor to impose his anger on others will come to an end. To an end. This oppression is a sign of God's judgment and repentance brings God's restoration and God's blessing. In Deuteronomy 28, remember these were the two chapters, 27 and 28, that the Lord instructed Moses to have the Israelites repeat back and forth to each other, to remind them of the promises of blessing and the promises of the sanctions of disobedience.

Now it shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations on earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. The Lord, in verse 7, will cause your enemies, who rise against you, to be defeated before your face. They will come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail." That means to be the tail is to be the oppressed.

You shall be only above and not beneath, if you heed the commandments of Jehovah your God, which I am commanding you today and are careful to observe to do them." Now a free and a prosperous culture also labors diligently to give to those who are in need. This is another separate aspect dealt with in verses 9 and 13. He who has a generous eye will be blessed, and a bountiful eye will be blessed. For he gives of his bread to the poor, and he who oppresses the poor to increase his riches and gives to the rich will surely come to poverty." One of the marks of a blessed society is that they care for the poor and those in need. That requires diligent labor.

It requires us not to consume everything upon ourselves. It requires us to have planned and set aside for our future needs, planned for our present needs, and also to have something then to give to those who are in need. In Leviticus 19, God instructed his people that when they reap the harvest of their land, when they gather in their harvest at the end of the year, or today in business When you make a sale, that's reaping the harvest. You've done the work, you've made the product, now you're selling it. You're reaping the harvest of your labor.

When you reap the harvest of your labor, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am Jehovah your God." This is repeated two times in the Viticus, Two different places. This is a provision for the poor.

This is saying, do not cut your corners so close that there is nothing left over for those who are in need, but rather don't reap every part of your harvest. Leave a little bit. This requires work on the part of those who are poor. They had to go out and gather it. It wasn't gathered for them.

The provision was made for them to work. The provision was made for them to go out and gather food for themselves. Food that they hadn't planted, yes. Food that they hadn't funded, if you will, watered or cared for. But they did have to go out and gather it.

This is what Ruth was doing, you remember, when she went out into the field of Boaz. She was gleaning. She was following the harvesters and they were not to reap every corner. They were to leave what wasn't feasible to gather. When you go through and pick a crop, like you pick a crop of apples, all the apples don't ripen all at the same time.

And when you come through and pick the majority of them, there's going to be some that are left that weren't quite ripe. Leave those for the gleaners. That's the principle. Principle applies to all the different contexts in which we reap a harvest from our labor. So there is here, right in the middle of this provision, there is the requirement that the poor are willing to labor.

They're not poor because they're lazy. If they're lazy and unwilling to work, then that food that's left in the field will be left for somebody else who is willing to work for it. Now God's means of caring for the poor is the portait. And that is taught in Deuteronomy chapter 14. At the end, So it's talking in verse 22 about tithing.

There's three different tithes actually that are taught in the Bible. One is the tithe that went to the priests and the Levites for the preaching of the gospel. That's the tithe we are probably most familiar with. There was also a rejoicing tithe which was kept by the people and used for rejoicing, used for the feasts and the celebrations. But then there was a third tithe, it was a every third year tithe, so it was only one third of a regular tithe.

So three and a third percent. A tithe is ten percent. So the tithe that went to the priest in the Levites was ten percent. The tithe for rejoicing is ten percent. This tithe says it's the end of every third year.

So it's one third. Other tithes were done every year. Truly you shall tithe all your increase that your field produces year by year. That's a yearly tithe, 10%. This poor tithe in verse 28 is a third of that.

At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates." This is something that the people kept themselves. They stored it and they administered it. And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you and the stranger." It's the same word that was used to describe the woman, strange woman. And the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates may come and eat and be satisfied. That the Lord Jehovah, your God, may bless you in all the work of your hands which you do." That was how the Lord has provided for the poor, the poor type.

Those who are widows, orphans, strangers, or otherwise needing food can come and be provided for. It's something that was stored up. It could have been administered together. There's no reason why people couldn't band together with poor ties to help different causes. One of the reasons that we live under the bondage that we live today, the tyranny of taxation, is because we have not used God's means for the caring of the poor.

And the poor then have not been cared for properly, and It has fallen to the civil government to do that, and they are most inept at doing that. One of the biggest expenditures driving up taxes of the civil government is trying to care for the poor. It's all the social welfare is the single biggest expenditure of taxes. Whether it's providing medical care, providing education, providing food, providing housing, goes on and on. This is the single, or providing for retirement funds for people that haven't saved their own.

This is the biggest source of expenditures. We have to blame ourselves. If we have not used God's means to provide for the poor and have abandoned the poor, then we can only expect that God will provide for the poor And he will use the civil magistrate to do it. And that won't be well with us. The civil magistrate is doing it because we have it.

Now lazy people don't like to work. And they are quick to invent reasons why they can't work. And there's no end of the excuses that they are willing to invent. In this verse here, this Verse 13, in this chiasm, is an example. The lazy man says, there is a lion outside, I will be slain in the streets.

Now we can smile at that, but we probably can recognize that. We've heard that probably from our children at one time or another as they make up excuses why they can't do the work that you've asked them to do. But this is ultimately the voice of unbelief too, that God can't preserve us in the work that He's called us to do. Psalm 91 gives us this promise, because you have made the Lord who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place. No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling, For he shall give his angels charge over you, lest you dash to keep you in all your ways.

In your hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against the stone. You shall tread upon the lion." The lazy man is saying, there is a lion in the streets, I will be eaten, I can't go out and do whatever it is that I need to do. But God's Word says, you shall tread on the lion and the cobra. You shall trample underfoot. You shall tread on the lion and the cobra, the lion and the serpent you shall trample under foot.

Because He has set His love upon me, therefore I will deliver Him. I will set Him on high, because He has known my name. He shall call upon me and I will answer Him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.

This long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. That's the promise of scripture. The spies that went into the land of Canaan said, we can't do this. We're just little peons. We're like grasshoppers to the giants.

Those were words of unbelief. Now lastly, a prosperous culture needs discipline, needs specifically church discipline, and it needs strong family discipline. Cast out the scoffer and contention will leave, yes strife and reproach will cease. Casting out, that's an exercise of church discipline. To cast out of the assembly those who are not part of Christ's body.

Scoffers are not part of Christ's body. We are not to stand or sit or walk in the way of scoffers. When those are cast out, contention leaves. Strife and reproach ceases. There is a place after proper warning, after proper instruction, after proper counseling, after time for repentance, when there is none, there is a place to cast out the scoffer, to cast out the fornicator, to cast out the one who is backbiting, who is causing contention.

And when they are cast out, contention and strife leave and cease. The civil magistrate is not suited to deal with all kinds of iniquity. The civil magistrate's discipline is punitive, it's punishment, it's not restorative. The civil magistrate is not prepared, is not equipped to deal with these kinds of things. And when they do try to deal with them because nobody else is, they are either wholly ineffective because they are too soft and no one pays them any attention or they're too hard and tyrannical.

We are divided today over the police and their treatment of people. It's often very oppressive. But on the other side, they are often dealing with scoffers. Doesn't make either side right, but it points out that the complexity of the problems that we fall into when we ignore and don't walk in the ways that the Lord has given us. These matters are handled by church discipline, just like the training of children is handled by families.

When the state tries to do it, they do a horrible job. Most of the children that the state is trying to raise have suffered all manner of abuse, sexual abuse and other abuse. It's endemic. They can't do it. Families, God ordained families to do it.

The state can't handle these kinds of sin, this scoffing. They're not equipped to do that. That is a matter for the church. But when these two things fail, when these two forms of government fail, the state will try to pick it up and they don't do a very good job at it. The failure of church discipline leaves only the discipline of the civil government.

A free and a prosperous society needs strong family and church discipline. That just sounds so foreign to us because we live in such a wicked nation. But the idea is that everybody, everybody, the goal, the ideal is that everybody in the culture is a part of a family and of a church. In some countries in the world, the land is geographically divided to each church. And when people move into an area, They are moving into the shepherding of that church.

Now those churches may not be faithful in that, but that structure was there because it spoke to a day when the church was an important and relevant part of the culture. And that church government was handling these types of matters and not the state. Jehovah is the friend of those who love purity of heart and have grace on their lips, but he overthrows the words of the faithless, the words of the faithless. He loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips. The King is his friend.

Purity of heart is the opposite of hypocrisy. It's a person who is transparent, not trying to manipulate the situation to get their agenda. The eyes of the Lord mean that the Lord is watching and preserving. Have you ever asked somebody to watch your luggage or to watch something? Maybe you're something of value because you need to do something and you can't take it with you.

What are you asking? You're asking for their eyes to be on it. You're asking not that they just look at it, but that there is some protection provided for it. That they will sound an alarm if somebody tries to harm your things. And that's the way that's being used here.

The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge. Deuteronomy speaks of a land for which the Lord your God cares. The eyes of Jehovah your God are always on it from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year the eyes of the Lord he's Protecting he's preserving For the eyes of the Lord Run to and fro throughout the earth to show himself strong on behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein have you done foolishly, therefore from henceforth you shall have wars. The eyes of the Lord are on the land to show himself strong to those who have a perfect heart.

Psalm 34 David says, the eyes of the Jehovah are on the righteous and his ears are open to their cry. And Peter quotes this in his epistle, chapter 3, in his call for the Saints to have one mind and to have compassion for each other She's the eyes of the Lord. They're on they're on us. They're watching to preserve us In this case God's watchfulness will preserve the truth God will preserve the truth, but will overthrow the words of the faithless, whose words are not true. Now an example of the words of the faithless is given here.

This is the interlocking chiasm. So In the second chiasm, this verse is tied with the key element, the key theme. And so it says, the eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge, but he overthrows the words of the faithless. The lazy man says there is a lion outside. I'll be slain in the streets.

That's an example of the words of the faithless. If I go out to work I will be slain. And we might not say that today, but we have very similar faithless words in our culture. Same sort of stupidity, excuses. We can't burn coal to power our economy because the polar ice caps will melt.

And we'll be cooked in an overheated greenhouse or frozen in the ice or our climate is going to run amok and drown everybody. Seas will rise and overrun the land. You hear all these faithless words. They sound like there's a lion in the street. I can't go out there.

I'm going to be eaten. The ice caps are going to melt. The climate's going to change and we're all going to be destroyed. No, No. Those are the words of the faithless.

Yes, we do need to be good stewards of the earth and wanton killing when we don't need to eat or aren't protecting our food supply, that's not right. We're wasting God's gifts And that's wrong, but burning wood doesn't give off any more carbon dioxide than if it decayed on its own It's going to give off the exact same carbon dioxide There are several centuries of coal in our grounds, in our minds, that is available for us to use. It's cheap, it's readily available. But God has promised that summer and winter, in His Word, in the covenant that He made with Noah, this wasn't just an afterthought, but this is one of the major covenants of the Scriptures, The covenant that God made with Noah, which is reinforced every time you see the rainbow, because that was the sign of this covenant that God made with Noah in Genesis chapter 8. God made with Noah and God made with all of creation.

This is the word of truth that God will preserve. While the earth remains, sea time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease. So you never have to worry that it's going to get so hot here and there will be no more cold. You never have to worry that it will get so cold and there won't be any heat. You never have to worry that summer and winter are going to stop.

You never have to worry that there will be no harvest or no time to plant. And those that do are like the lazy person crying, there's a lion in the streets, I can't go out and work. It's ludicrous. It's something to laugh at. The people that are scared about this just don't know the Word of God.

And with that promise, God gave the rainbow. So every time you see the rainbow, that's God's promise that he will never destroy the earth by a flood. He will never cause seed time in harvest, summer and winter, hot and cold, to cease on this earth. The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge. He who loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips, the King will be his friend.

Who is that King? That King is Jehovah, Jehovah God. And he is the friend, he is our friend, he is your friend. Do you know him as a friend? Do you know him as a friend?

Do you know him as a friend? In the midst of adversity, in the midst of difficulty, in the midst of trials, Do you know him as a friend? He is, he is our friend. He who loves purity of heart and his grace on his lips, this is what Christ does in his work of regeneration. He sets the captives free.

He does fill our mouth with His grace, with His Word. He does purify our heart. And Jehovah is our friend. I hope that you know Him, know Him as your friend, that you think of Him as your friend. He is, He is.

He will preserve you when you're going out and you're coming in. Let's pray. Almighty Heavenly Father, indeed what a friend we have in Jesus Christ. All of our griefs and troubles and sorrows He bears. You have called us to cast on you all of our burdens for you care for us and you will never permit the righteous to be moved.

But the words of the faithless you surely overthrow. Father, please strengthen our faith upon you, that we may cling to you not with our own strength, but May we cling to you by faith, by Christ, in His strength. May we walk in His victory. May we walk as those who are not under condemnation, but those who are your servants. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.