The sermon 'Kingly Character' by Peter Allison explores Proverbs 19:10-12, emphasizing the dangers of luxury and power for fools and those with a servant mentality. The sermon explains that luxury can lead to pride and downfall, drawing individuals away from God. It uses biblical examples, such as the Israelites entering Canaan, to caution against becoming prideful with wealth. Fools lack the self-restraint necessary to manage prosperity wisely, often leading to greater folly and heart hardening against spiritual needs. The sermon further discusses the importance of discretion and self-control, highlighting that true strength is shown through restraint and evaluating the cause and degree of anger. Biblical figures like Joseph and Daniel are cited as examples of wise servants who rose to power due to their self-control and wisdom. The sermon concludes by urging believers to embody the character of a king, marked by patience, forgiveness, and alignment with God's will, reflecting the attributes of Jesus Christ, the ultimate King.

Proverbs chapter 19. I would like to read this morning verses 10-12. Please give full attention to the reading of God's Word. Luxury is not fitting for a fool, much less for a servant to rule over princes. The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and his glory is to overlook a transgression.

The King's wrath is like the roaring of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass." May the Lord bless the hearing of His Word. Heavenly Father, your Word is indeed more desirable to us than gold, than great wealth, for it makes the simple wise." We ask that you would open our eyes, our understanding, our hearts, to receive with meekness your engrafted word as it is implanted in us. And I ask that you would sanctify these sinful lips and cause your word to be proclaimed from a vessel of clay in order that the glory this morning might be yours. For it is yours, belongs to you. In Jesus' name we ask, Amen.

Luxury is not fitting for a fool. How much more is it not fitting for a servant to rule over princes? To rule over princes It's giving us a statement here that luxury is Not comely. It's not Appropriate doesn't fit it doesn't comport with a fool Because the Bible says that prosperity or this luxury of fools destroys them. Proverbs 1, 32, prosperity of a fool destroys them.

Because you see prosperity can result in us being puffed up with pride. Moses warned, God warned his people in Deuteronomy as they were about to go into the land of Canaan, which was a land flowing with milk and honey, a land that in that day was probably much more green, verdant Than what we know of today as They were probably coming out of the ice age from the flood And there was a lot there was a lot more water Is It was a rich land and they were about to go in and be given direction over that land was about to be given to them. And God warned them, be careful when you get into this land, this rich land, and you're fat. You have many flocks. You've built wonderful houses.

And this is a land whose stones were iron and whose hills you could dig copper. Back in 1500, 1400 BC, Moses is telling the Israelites, where they are going was mineral rich land as well. And he says, be careful, be careful. That's when you have eaten, when you have built beautiful houses and you're living in them. When you sit back after a feast because you have great flocks and great herds.

And your heart is content because you've eaten of the fat of the flesh. Be careful, he said, not to be puffed up and to think that my hand has gotten me all of this. Don't think that, he said, because it is God who gives us the power to get wealth. This luxury is not fitting for a fool because this can puff a fool up with pride. And they think that they have received their wealth by their own hand.

And in so doing bring their downfall. Prosperity brings fools to love this world and the things in this world more than they love the one who has given them all these good things. Luxury draws our heart to it. Jesus said, don't put your treasure on earth, but put your treasure in heaven because where your treasure is, there will your heart be. Prosperity, luxury, brings fools to love this world.

It puts their heart down here, and They become ungrateful for the luxuries that they are enjoying. Prosperity also furnishes fools with greater ability to live out their folly. If you're poor you may be very foolish but you don't have the money to carry out your folly. Just look at the fools that are in our public eye in Hollywood and in the sports world. These are people who have great wealth and many of them are fools, not all of them but many of them and just look at their lives they are an example of a disaster Many of them Their wealth has been simply a means by which they can fall into greater folly, by which they can carry out their folly.

And do things that other people don't have the means to do. Do foolish things that other fools don't have the means to do. Prosperity and luxury can also harden the heart of a fool. They have success, they have riches, They have power. What need is there of Christ?

Jesus said he didn't come to this world to call or to save the wealthy, the rich. The well don't need a physician. Jesus came for those who were poor in spirit, who realized they didn't have anything, that they had great needs, that they had great sins. So prosperity hardens hearts in evil ways. Prosperity is if a fool leads to the thinking of the wise fool that Jesus talks about.

His barns weren't big enough to house all of the luxuries that he was acquiring. And so he just said, well, I'll just tear these down and build bigger barns so that I can eat and drink and be merry. And the Lord's word to him was, you fool, today your soul, tonight your soul is required of you. Prosperity of fools destroys them. That's why it's not That's why it's not fitting, it's not appropriate for a fool to have luxury.

A fool lacks self-restraint. A fool needs a rod. A fool needs a rod. Proverbs 26 says that a whip is made for a horse and a bridle for a donkey and a rod for the back of a fool. What are all those three things have in common?

Psalm 32 instructs us, Don't be like the horse and the mule and the donkey, which have no understanding and have to be led about with a bit and a bridle. But rather you, we are to be those who are directed by the eye of the Lord. The Lord can look at us and we have understanding and we follow. We don't need to have the bit and the bridle to forcibly yank our head the direction we're supposed to go. That's like the horse.

The whip, the horse is made for the whip. A whip is made for a horse, I should say. A bridle is made for a donkey. A rod is made for the back of a fool because a fool lacks self-restraint. So luxury is not fitting for a fool because he can't restrain himself in the presence of luxury.

He eats the whole box of chocolates. He drinks far too much wine and becomes drunk in revelry and drunkenness. These are sins of those who lack self-restraint. They're not able to enjoy these good things. There's nothing wrong with a box of chocolates.

There's nothing wrong with a bottle of good wine. These are given, these are gifts of the Lord for us to enjoy, to be blessed by. The fool lacks restraint. He needs to be guided externally. He is not guided, he is not governed internally by his own heart.

When he is given a powerful set of wills he can't restrain himself to safe speeds and safe maneuvers. You see, in whatever a fool has, he lacks restraint in using it, good things. And that's why it isn't fitting for a fool to have luxury. But also, fools can't restrain or defer their anger. It's the discretion of a man that makes him slow to anger.

His glory is to overlook a transgression. See it's important for there to be an interval between the inward rising of anger and its outward manifestation. The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger. Fools lack discretion, they lack discernment. In a fool, the anger rises up suddenly and instantly and has an instant expression.

There needs to be time between the rising of anger and the manifestation of that anger. That's a sign of self-control. There needs to be time because you need to evaluate the cause of the anger. Not all anger is righteous anger. And we need time to evaluate the cause of the anger rising within us.

Is God's name at stake? Is His glory at stake is his name being blasphemed. This is law being transgressed Is his law being ignored is God being mocked is he being forgotten Or is it our pride that has been stepped upon? Is it our will that is being crossed? We need time to evaluate the cause of the anger.

Proverbs 14, 17 says, He that is soon angry deals foolishly. If anger suddenly arises and has a quick manifestation, the Bible says we are dealing foolishly. He that is soon to anger deals foolishly. And A little later in verse 29, he that is hasty to anger exalts folly, but he is slow to anger, shows understanding. See, a strong, virulent, angry response is not the sign of strength, but rather the ability to control our own passions.

It is a sign of strength. Proverbs 16 says that he that can control his own passions, we've already looked at this one, is stronger than he who conquers a city. And so it takes discretion to know when to speak and when to be silent. A fool is somebody who tells everything on his mind, everything that is there, he tells it. Discretion knows when to speak and when to be silent.

Discretion can defer anger. Secondly, it takes time to evaluate the proper object of anger. When the anger rises suddenly and is immediately manifest, there isn't time to evaluate the proper object of anger. Where do you suppose the phrase came from? Don't shoot the messenger.

Why is the messenger in danger of getting shot? Because he might have be bringing a message to a fool who immediately begins angry and then vents his anger on the one who is closest to him, which happens to be the messenger. Remember, he has nothing to do with the cause of his anger. Same proper object of anger. Who is the proper object of the anger?

Next time we need to evaluate that instead of instead of erupting at the closest object, which might be the messenger. Or, as we saw a week or two ago, get angry with God. God should never be the object of our anger. God is not worthy of anger. It's a wrong object.

See, it's when we have an affront to us that our character in this regard is revealed. We're tested and how do we do? When we are sinned against, when we are affronted, do we control our anger? Do we have quick anger? Or are we slow to anger?

Are we able to defer our anger and where it is to evaluate whether it is a just anger and if it is to evaluate the proper object of that just anger. And thirdly we need time to evaluate the degree of anger, that our anger is appropriate to the cause of the anger. So that our response is not greater and disproportionate to that which is making us angry. We need to evaluate, are we so upset because this is just our, we've been inconvenienced? Or is there, or even if it is just anger, Is it any great matter that we need to be so very angry over it?

Are we angrier than we have a right to be? Are we making the issue bigger than it should be? Or in the case of Eli, not big enough that we read about. Eli should have been very angry at his sons. Not a sudden uncontrolled anger, but a slow righteous indignation at the egregious sins of his sons, lying with the women in the temple, taking the meat before it was cooked and when people rightly said, no, wait, burn the fat first, saying no, I'm going to take it by force.

Eli ought to have been furious, hot, anger. The Lord has hot anger. The Lord has hot anger when widows and orphans are taken advantage of. Lord says his anger is very hot. Eli ought to have had hot anger.

He didn't. He gave them a little talking to, but he refused to act with the necessary decisiveness. He wasn't angry enough at that great wickedness. And God rebuked him and brought a very serious sentence upon Eli because Eli refused to govern his own family. We need to evaluate the degree of anger that is appropriate, not excessive and not enough to the cause of the anger.

So there needs to be time then, there needs to be this interval between the anger arising and the expression of it. Our anger because the discretion of a man makes him slow to anger. An angry person is not a happy person. An angry person is continually in difficult situations. They are continually having difficulty with their neighbors.

Having difficulty with their neighbors, continually having difficulty, or they're not at peace with themselves either. Being angry even hinders our prayers. It shuts up heaven. It's not a disgrace. It's not a sign of weakness to pass over and affront.

It's a sign of strength. It's not a sign of great It is a sign of great weakness when somebody is not able to control their own passions and allow them to vent quickly and freely. It's discretion, discretion, discernment that can defer anger. So the text says that even as it's not fitting, luxury is not fitting for a fool. That's a statement.

We see now why. It says how much more than a, is not fitting for a servant to rule over princes. It's not fitting for a servant to rule. In the same way, it's not equating servants with fools necessarily. It's saying, this is true, how much more Is this also true over here?

Why isn't it fitting for servants to rule over princes? Well, it's analogous to why it's not fitting for, luxury is not fitting for fools, because servants need the restraint of a master. Servants are speaking of those who have a slave mentality. They need to have a master over them to keep them pointed in the right direction. Our children when they are young need a master, need a steward, need a governor to keep them pointed in the right direction.

Somebody to move them, to motivate them, somebody to tell them when to get up in the morning. Because if you didn't, they wouldn't get up. They might sleep half the day away or whatever they wanted. That's the servant or slave mentality. Slave mentality needs somebody external to them to tell them what to do when to go to bed and when to eat and when to play and if you get you go into the military that's the way they treat people they tell them when to get up when to go to bed when to eat when to sit down, when to stand up.

Servants need somebody to take custody of their money so they don't waste it. By the way, that's the idea behind Social Security. That you people, us people, we don't have enough self control to save our money for the days when we can no longer work. And if we did save some, then we don't have enough self control and restraint to keep our Grubby little hands off of that money And so we need a master to take our money from us and to keep it safe for us and then to give it back to us in apportioned allotments so that it will last our life. Because those with a servant mentality would just waste their money.

They wouldn't save it. You see, that's what Social Security is. Takes our money. The idea was they need to take our money. We need the state to take care of us from our cradle to the grave because we lack the self-restraint, the self-discipline to make the right decisions about our finances About how much we should save and how much we can spend because we need them to make decisions about our Health care and about what immunizations we should get or should not get.

You see, this is what a servant needs. They need this restraint. And so someone who can't rule themselves is not fit to rule others. You can't rule yourself. If you don't have self control to govern your own life and to live a decent and ordered life, you don't have any ability, any right, any it's not fitting for you to be trying to run other people, a family for instance.

Servants given authority will simply ruin themselves Because they become puffed up with pride. You take somebody with that mentality and you put them in a position of authority, they become puffed up with pride. Just like Hagar. When she was raised and exalted by Sarah to being a concubine of Abraham, to bringing forth a child with Abraham, Ishmael, then she despised Sarah. She became proud.

Rehoboam did the same thing. When he was exalted into the position of a king, he showed his servant mentality. He was the son of a king, but he had a slave mentality. When he became ruler, the people asked him, would you, your father taxed us a lot, would you be willing to lighten your father's tax load on us? And the wise counselors, his father's, Solomon's counselors, said you should lower the people's taxes.

That would be a wise thing to do. That would show that you are a good prince, that you are a wise ruler, and that you have the best interest of those you rule in heart. But Riabon foolishly answered roughly. He said, my little finger is thicker than my father's thigh. You think my father's burden was a lot, mine will be much greater.

He chastened you with whips, I'm going to use scorpions, the whip with bones and metal in it. That's why Proverbs says that there are three things under which the earth trembles, four that it cannot bear up. And one of those three or four things is a slave when he becomes king. That's why, the same reason that novices should not be made elders because Paul says they become puffed up with pride. They fall into the sin and snare of the devil.

Now, this is not speaking of wise servants. It's not speaking of wise servants. This is speaking of here of servants with a servant mentality. Proverbs 17 says wise servants as distinguished from servants who have a servant or slave mentality wise servants will rule over a son who causes shame. And in 1435 the King's favor is toward a wise servant So we're not talking here about a wise servant because people in the position of a servant who do not have a slave mentality but have self-control and the ability to rule over themselves don't often stay in the position of servitude.

People who are in a status of being a servant or a slave, who do not have a slave mentality, but who have the ability to rule over themselves. They have restraint, they have self-control, They don't stay in the position of a slave. They will be raised to positions of rule. Think of Joseph. Did you ever realize he ran everything wherever he went?

He ended up running everything, no matter where he went. Here he is as a young lad, 17 years of age, kidnapped, sold into slavery by his own family his own brothers Taken to Egypt and sold as a slave into Potiphar's house And So here is a young person in a land, he doesn't know their language, he doesn't know their customs. What would you expect? Would you take somebody who is young, inexperienced, doesn't know a lot, put him in a foreign land under oppression, as a slave, where they don't know the language, they don't know what to do. You don't expect somebody to do very well in that circumstance.

And yet, what do we find Joseph? He's soon running. Potiphar realizes here was a servant who did not have a servant mentality, and he put him over his whole house for all his operation. Joseph is running the entire show there. Then he gets thrown in jail unjustly because somebody lied about his character.

And what do we find there? Pretty soon he's running the whole jail. And then he gets taken from jail. And jailers aren't necessarily, prisoners in jail aren't necessarily known for being in the best looking condition. He gets put in front of Pharaoh.

What happens? He ends up running all of Egypt. Joseph did not have a slave mentality. Or think of Daniel. The same situation.

Daniel is captured as a slave, as a prisoner of war, carted off to a nation in which he may not have known and We see that very soon he rises to great authority. He's made third in command in Babylon. And under the Medes and the Persians, under Darius, he's made second in command over all this mighty nation, the greatest nation on earth at that time. Daniel is ruling it. So we're not talking here about anybody who, we're not talking about wise servants.

When it says that It's not fitting for a servant to rule. It's speaking of somebody with a slave mentality. So a fool doesn't understand Yehovah's great works or how deep are his thoughts. And it's certainly not good for somebody who doesn't have the gifts to rule as a servant, wouldn't be expected to have. It's not good if they are placed in a position of rule.

They don't have the ability, they don't have the gifts, they don't have the disposition, they don't have the ability to rule well. See the King's actions as verse 12 expresses, the King's actions are powerful and they're pervasive. They're powerful. The roaring of a lion. The King's wrath is compared to the roaring of a lion.

And his mercy is like the dew. It's pervasive. The King's authority is powerful and pervasive. It spreads everywhere. It affects, it means it affects every aspect of their kingdom.

And so those that lack restraint, their lack of discipline, their lack of restraint is going to affect everybody under their rule. Because their actions are powerful and pervasive. If a ruler is given unto lies, Proverbs 29.12 says, then all that are under his authority become wicked. And so when you have slaves, those with slave mentality ruling, you're going to see that's affecting the whole culture. This is why democracies fail.

We don't want a democracy. Anytime you hear somebody talking about us having a democracy being good, or making the world safe for democracy, or any of these other baloney, it's Not good. We don't want that. We don't want a democracy. When people with a servant mentality realize that they can vote to take as much money as they want, then they will always vote to give themselves as much money as they want.

They will always vote to give themselves more money from the government, more privileges, without ever thinking, without ever understanding who is paying for all of this. You probably heard the news, the Finnish government resigned last week. It collapsed. They have a socialist form of government. They have socialist medicine and and every other thing and Their pop and they have a dearth of children as many nations in Europe and even in the United States do.

They're not replacing their own population. So they have a lot of old people now and more coming and fewer people working to provide for it. So this thing is collapsing and the whole government resigned because of their failure to be able to implement some type of reform with their health care. Because these things don't work. This is the result of democracy.

People with a slave mentality realizing that under democracy the mob rules. And if the mob has a slave mentality, and they always will, then they will simply vote their own country out of existence, voting more and more money to themselves, never asking, never thinking who's paying for all this. Their servants, They have a servant mentality. Princes need understanding. They need wisdom.

They need restraint, self-control, the ability to defer their wrath. Now here's the important realization. Maybe you're thinking, well this is all wonderful for kings, but it really doesn't affect me too much. But the Bible says that we are a royal priesthood. We're a nation of kings.

We are to exercise rule over ourselves and where God has placed us. We are said to reign with Christ in the heavenlies. So brothers and sisters, you are kings and you are priests to God Most High. These principles are very important for you and I. Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and it is His glory.

Christ exemplifies all of these things. It is His glory to pass over a transgression. One man said that Christ's greatest miracle was his great patience in the midst of great trials. That he could be falsely accused and answer not a word. He could defer his anger.

So, does it mean he doesn't have it? It's coming, but he's slow to anger. He's deferred his anger. And so we need to ask ourselves, do we have these attributes like Christ does, in whom is hid all wisdom and knowledge? As kings, do these traits characterize us?

Or are we carrying a slave mentality into our reign? Do we have the mentality of one who is in bondage or do we have the spirit of adoption as sons and daughters? As sons and daughters. Christ by His Spirit gives us power to defer anger and to overlook an offense. Christ is the one who forgives.

He's forgiven all of our iniquities. And if we've been forgiven, then we will be a forgiving people. We will be those who can defer anger, those who can overlook a transgression, those who are able to forgive our brother even when he sins against us seventy times seven. Because this is the characteristic of a king, one who is fit to be a king. We will have self-control, the ability to rule over our own passion, the ability to live a decent and ordered life without the bit and the bridle, without the whip, without the external control because we will be led by the Spirit of God.

We will be guided by His eye. We will be guided by His law. You see, when we manifest that we are not long-suffering and forgiving, then we really deceive ourselves that God the Father has forgiven us. Because where Christ dwells in us, then we will be like Him. And we will have these characteristics of a King, of a good King.

The characteristics of our King Jesus, who is patient, who does defer his wrath, who is long-suffering. In fact, that is how He is known, how He is to be praised as one who can defer His wrath. May God give His grace to us to have His character as kings. Almighty Heavenly Father, we ask Lord for Your Holy Spirit to fill us, to lead us. We want to be controlled by you.

We want our will to be aligned with your will. That we love what you love and hate what you hate. That Even as you have forgiven us, we are able from the heart to forgive those who have been an affront to us. We ask, Lord, that we might have self-control to rule over our own thoughts and our own hands and our feet because you dwell with us. To rule over our mouths, to defer our anger.

Father, may these things characterize us more and more with each day. As more and more we mortify the sin that dwells in us, as more and more we are renewed after your image and knowledge and righteousness and holiness. This we earnestly ask of you, our Savior, knowing that you have promised, because you have promised this to us. In Jesus' name, Amen.