A tough man has to win and lose. He had to come up after being knocked down, he has to have taken a few beatings, and know what it means to win the hard way.”
                    –Louis L’Amour  (Showdown at Yellow Butte)

       “They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.”
                     –John 15:21 (NIV)
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               “God blesses those who are persecuted because they live for God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.  God blesses you when you are mocked and persecuted and lied about because you are my followers.  Be happy about it!  Be very glad!  For a great reward awaits you in heaven.  And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted, too.”  
–Matthew 5:10-12 (NLT)

     I ended last week’s study with this quotation by Thomas Watson, “Put a cross in your creed.”  It’s easy to talk, but when the rubber hits the road what will you have?  The cross is not an easy thing to pick up and there must be serious consideration when doing so.  But, why me Lord?  
     There are various reasons for suffering and persecution.  One of them is that it proves loyalty.  What does the Christian life cost you?  A young Christian girl in Nigeria refused to marry a Muslim man–she had her hands cut off.  We are so fortunate in America, despite the issues that media brings to us, that we often forget the persecution in other countries.  However, we are beginning to see it happen, even in so-called sophisticated nations.  How loyal are you?  Maybe not in death, but in life.  Do you wander and stray?  Do you compromise?  Has the subtle persecution gotten to you?  Thomas Watson declares that “Persecution is the touchstone of sincerity.”  If persecution does come to you do not run and hide but stand firm in your faith, and say, “Now God be thanked who has matched us with this hour.” (Rupert Brooke)
     You want to be close to God, have a relationship with Him?  Then don’t be surprised if persecution comes your way for the prophets before you were also persecuted.  You can now travel the road of prophets and saints that have gone before you.  What a road, what a testimony they left.  What will yours be?  A third reason for suffering is to share in a great occasion.  William Barclay states, “To suffer for the right is to gain a share in a great succession.”  Paul walked this road, as did Peter and the other disciples.  Augustine, Polycarp, Luther, Tyndale, Bunyan, and so, so many others.  The road is well trod, and there are plenty of signs of those great saints, both known and unknown, that have been left along the way so that we can bolster our courage and take heart.  If there is a crucial moment in your life, know this, there will be a great occasion following.  Also be aware that you are making things easier for those who are to follow.  “To suffer for the right is to gain a share in a great succession.” (Barclay)
     Today is the day of salvation.  Today is the day to prepare.  Tomorrow might bring great suffering, prepare now.  No, don’t live in fear of tomorrow.  Don’t be a prepper in the sense that you can do anything about it, but do prepare.  Study the Beatitudes, they will help you greatly in this.  Get your spirit in tune with that of the Holy Spirit.  As Thomas Watson tells us, “A wise pilot in a clam, will prepare for a storm.”
     (To let you know our study in the Beatitudes will have to take a detour as I’m going on vacation.  I will try to get some note out while away and we’ll get back to our study when I return home.  I don’t want to take my books and research with me on my trip.)

Every day, you’re making choices. Every one of them either helps you or hurts you. Every friend you make, every word you speak, every dollar you spend…it’s all leading you further out one trail or another. You gotta stop staring at your nose and start watching the horizon.”

Take keer of yourself, kid. Watch your cinches!”
                    –Eugene Manlove Rhodes  (The Trusty Knaves)

       “Do not deceive yourselves.  If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a ‘fool’ so that he may become wise.”
                    –1 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)
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               “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight!”  –Isaiah 5:21 (NKJV)
               “Woe to those who are wise in their own opinion and clever in their own sight.”  –(HCSB)

     This is the fifth “woe,” a pronouncement against what we would call “secular humanism” (postmodernism can be added to it).  “Humanism is belief in humanity,” simply stated by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.  Man can do all things.  He can go to the moon, he can do magnificent surgeries, he can split an atom (hmm, can he put it back together?)  “It is interested solely in men and women without God.  It banishes God because it believes that human beings are sufficient in and of themselves.” (Lloyd-Jones)  My hasn’t he done a great work?  Pestilence, famine, war, creation in crisis, water shortage, and on we could go.  I like the CEV on this, very blunt, but to the point.  “You think you are clever and smart!”
     Shakespeare gives one of the best definitions and viewpoints of man:  “What a piece of work is a man, now noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable.  In action how like an Angel.  In apprehension how like a god, the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals.” (Hamlet)  Yes, man was created a marvelous being, a little lower than the angels, with dignity and in the image of God.  But he threw it away, right from the start he was deceived into thinking he could be like God.  Instead of walking and trusting God he turned to self:  the cosmic humanist to the occult, the secular humanist to science.  Lloyd-Jones says this of the humanist belief, “By delving into the mysteries of the universe and its constitution you discover the scientific truth about life, and from that you proceed to work out your whole scheme of living.”  Woe!
     Man’s greatest gift is that of the mind.  The problem is that people’s minds have gone wrong, “they do not know how to use them properly” (Lloyd-Jones).  Look at your social media or the news and you can quickly see where the mind of man without God has taken him.  As Paul wrote, “Professing to be wise, they became fools…” (Romans 1:22, NKJV)  To misuse this wonderful gift of the mind is one of the most blatant sins of man; it is a blasphemous action against God.
     Given this wonderful gift, they took it and became fools.  Mark 8:36 asks a pertinent question to all, but especially the humanist.  “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world [of knowledge and of wealth], and lose his own soul?”  Perhaps, this is the time to ask, what is your view of yourself?  Are you in need of a Savior or are you wise in your own eyes?  In the movie, “Shenandoah” we see a very humanistic prayer by the father, Charlie Anderson (played by Jimmy Stewart).  “Lord, we cleared this land.  We plowed it, sowed it, and harvested it.  We cooked the harvest.  It wouldn’t be here and we wouldn’t be eatin’ it if we hadn’t done it all ourselves.  We worked dog-boned hard for every crumb and morsel.  But we thank You just the same anyway, Lord, for this food we’re about to eat.  Amen.”  Me, I, we, or we’ll give a token “thanks” to God.  Self-confidence, self-righteousness, pride, doing what they deem right in their own eyes, self-sufficient–this is nothing but rebellion.  “Who needs God?” they flaunt.  Woe!  Paul writes, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (Romans 8:7, NKJV)
     Man in all his greatest inventions, construction, building magnificent monoliths of steel will weep because it cannot stand before Almighty God.  John writes, “Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry:  ‘Woe!  Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power!  In one hour your doom has come!’  In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!  With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again.” (Revelation 18:10,16,21, NIV)  Only what God has made will last.  Who can stand before the Almighty?  Certainly not man–woe to those who think they can.

Anger and outward elation and cursing all gushed from the same fountain of weakness.”
                    –John Deacon  (Justice Returns)

       “Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.”
                    –Psalm 141:3 (NIV)
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               “The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, But the perverse tongue will be cut out. The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, But the mouth of the wicked what is perverse.”  –Proverbs 10:31-32 (NKJV)

     Much of Proverbs deals with wisdom.  There is much foolishness, evil, and mockery in the world in which we live, therefore wisdom is needed as never before.  However, there is more to wisdom than just the sayings.  Bob Beasley points out, “It’s not just what we say that shows forth wisdom, it’s how we say it, when we say it, where we say it, and to whom we say it.”  The Scripture reminds us that “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.” (James 1:26, NIV)  I often cringe when I’m out in public at the terrible language that flows from the mouths of people, and even on social media, the verbiage is garbage.  Luke speaks directly to this issue, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” (6:45, ESV)  That which fills his heart will come forth from his mouth.
     The righteous man speaks properly and truthfully, his opposite, the perverted person speaks profanity, foolishness, and blasphemy.  The righteous will praise God in all he does, including what he says, the perverted will be “cut off” (or have his tongue “cut out”)  The perverted heart is warped and full of deception.  It is at war against the kingdom of God and the righteous and will do what it can to stop or mock it, whether it is a corrupt lifestyle, confusion and chaos, or false ideologies including that of twisting Scripture.  The perverted tongue can cause the righteous to “feel dirty” and in need of a spiritual bath.  We live in the world, and it dirties up (note the laver in the tabernacle), thus we need to be cleansed and being with the community of believers helps to do that.
     Righteousness, as is perversion, is an attitude, a lifestyle.  Both know what is acceptable–one purposely speaks what is evil, the other what is good.  Know this, the perverse will be cut down, “There shall, at last, be the silence of shame and confusion” (Edward Plumptre)  The righteous knows what words are acceptable to God; they know how to approach Him and how to represent Him.  The Ephesians must have had a problem with their mouth, for Paul sends them two direct messages,  “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” (4:29, ESV)  The NKJV translates it this way, as “is good for necessary edification.”  He then pens again in 5:4, “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.” (ESV)  Paul reminds the church at Colossae, that they must “put away…slander and obscene talk from their mouth.” (3:8, ESV)  
     One time I was with a group of boys going on a campout.  One of the kids had a loose mouth and the man in charge took out one of those little bars of soap found in motels and stuck it in his mouth with the wrapping on, not wanting to alarm the kids too badly, and left it there.  The leader forgot and the boy sat there with the bar in his mouth until the paper began to dissolve and suds began to appear.  Needless to say, he watched his words (I wonder if he watched his heart?)  Perhaps, no, we need some “spiritual soap” placed in the mouths of so many in today’s world for they cannot speak without some kind of filth spewing forth.
     A good tree will bear good fruit.  Are you watching your words, your attitude, your actions?  Are they pleasing to your Lord and Savior?  Michael Jermin said, “The righteous man speaketh that which pleaseth God and pleaseth man, and he speaks it in a pleasing manner.”