DIGGING UP DIRT

Proverbs 16:27-29 (KJV)

An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire.

A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.

A violent man enticeth his neighbour, and leadeth him into the way that is not good.

Probably the most important thing any Christian can be is a unifier.

Whether we are speaking about:

·   In his work environment

·   In his community

·   In his home and especially

·   In his church

To be the sort of person who:

·   Builds unity,

·   Encourages cooperation

·   Strengthens relationships and

·   Enlists others

is to be the sort of person highly esteemed in the New Testament Church.

Jesus called them peacemakers.

The title for tonight’s message is “Diggin’ Up Dirt.”

There are some people who work at building relationships. There are others who take more pleasure in pulling them apart.

I. AN UNGODLY MAN

Proverbs 16:27 (KJV)

An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire.

A. Who he is

Proverbs 16:27 (KJV)

An ungodly man…

Strong’s Concordance defines ungodly as

·   Without Profit

·   Worthless and, the one I want to focus on tonight

Destruction or destructive (as in construction)

·   He is the opposite of the builder.

·   He is the demolisher.

The most worthless activity a person can be involved in is tearing down what God is building.

Notice

B. How he operates

Proverbs 16:27 (KJV)

An ungodly man diggeth up evil…

He digs up evil.

Every good construction job involves some digging. But this guy isn’t digging in the right places.

I always get interested whenever I hear about some construction job that gets shut down because it discovers something underground.

·   It might be a historical artifact

·   It might be an American Indian burial ground or

·   It might be some evidence of a crime

Suddenly the authorities are called it, the construction is halted and companies go out of business waiting on some way to resolve the thing that got dug up.

The thing about this ungodly man is, he went looking for evil.

·   He unburies what is buried

·   He uncovers what was hidden

·   He exposes what should have been left unseen

There is a difference between digging a hole for a foundation and digging a pit for the foundation to fall into.

Truthfully there are things that need to be uncovered and hidden that need to be revealed.

The ungodly man will uncover,

·   What should have been kept quiet

·   To those who can only make things worse

·   For the sake of causing damage

1 Peter 4:8 (KJV)

And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

Notice then,

C. What he does

Proverbs 16:27 (KJV)

… and in his lips there is as a burning fire.

He does his destruction with his words.

James 3:5-6 (KJV)

Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

If there has ever been a subject I pray for, it is that Christians learn to tame their tongues.

So much damage is done with our words!

The second character in our message tonight is

II. A FROWARD MAN

Proverbs 16:28 (KJV)

A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.

A. Who he is

Proverbs 16:28 (KJV)

A froward man …

The word forward means perverse but it has its roots in a word meaning to turn over.

Like a gardener would turn over a spade of dirt to sow a seed.

It also has to do with:

·   Turning yourself around or transforming and

·   Turning on someone

B. How he operates

Proverbs 16:28 (KJV)

A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer…

Notice that both the ungodly man and the forward man

·   Dig in the dirt and

·   Work with the mouth - in this case he is a whisperer

This is the person who is friendly to your face but whispers terrible things about you behind your back.

As soon as you turn to walk away

·   He turns from being your friend

·   He turns over some piece of dirt so he can sow some sort of strife

You may not ever know the forward man is not your true friend. He or she may be so good at transforming themselves that you would think they are your best friend.

I can tell you a little bit of a trick to tell whether someone is a friend or not.

Sometimes they will whisper things about someone lese to you (in confidence). You think this piece of information they give you reveals their trust in you.

The truth is, if they will tell you some piece of dirt about someone else, they will tell that same someone else the dirt they have on you.

Notice

C. What he does

Proverbs 16:28 (KJV)

… separateth chief friends.

He is a fake friend who tries to ruin real friendships.

I want to tell you the best way to

·   Not be fooled by the forward person and

·   Not be tricked into ruining real friendships

Don’t let anyone, for any reason; tell you negative things about anyone else.

Stop them in their tracks. Don’t let them finish their sentence.

If you won’t listen to their gossip:

·   A seed of strife can’t be sown and

·   A true friendship can’t be separated and

·   A forward man cannot turn on someone else in front of you

It’s not an easy thing to stop them for at least three reasons:

·   It seems rude to stop someone or walk away from them when they are speaking

·   We all want to have friends and their sharing gossip seems like they are being a friend and besides

·   The sin nature in us likes that gossip for ourselves

But the Bible is clear and our own experience has proven it to be true.

Gossip hurts good friendships far more than it maintains poor ones.

Finally there is,

III. A VIOLENT MAN

Proverbs 16:29 (KJV)

A violent man enticeth his neighbour, and leadeth him into the way that is not good.

A. Who he is

Proverbs 16:29 (KJV)

A violent man …

The word violent means, “to do wrong, physically or ethically.”

To hurt someone’s character, business, family, finances or possessions is just as wrong as to hurt their person.

·   To lie about someone is just as wrong as

·   To attack someone

·   To bully someone is as wrong as

·   To beat up someone

·   To destroy a person’s livelihood is as wrong as

·   To take away their life

We tend to think of violence as something terrible, being shot to death or being beaten by a thug.

But violence is much more than that.

Several years ago a missionary friend of mine was the victim of a crime.

Someone broke into his house while he and his family slept.

Whoever it was stole several valuable things from them but he did not hurt any of them – none of them even woke up. They discovered the open window and missing things the next morning.

The exact words my friend used to describe this incident.

“We felt so violated.”

Doing wrong, any kind of wrong is to violate another.

B. How he operates

Proverbs 16:29 (KJV)

A violent man enticeth his neighbour, …

Proverbs 1:10 (KJV)

My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

This word entice means to deceive, to persuade by deception.

Sinners always want to get others to do what they do.

Notice that

They go first to their neighbor – someone that might be close to them

The person most likely to trick you into sin is someone you already think you are friends with.

·   It might be someone who lives on your street

·   It might be someone you go to school with

·   It might be someone you see almost every day

If someone you have never met walked up to you and tried to talk you into doing something you have always thought was wrong, you would probably not give them a chance to talk to you.

But

·   If it is someone you already know

·   If it is someone you already like

·   If it is someone you want to like you

You might pay attention.

They try to persuade you

In other words, they don’t just talk to you once.

You might tell them “No” that first time, but they keep asking you, speaking to you, trying to get you to go with them.

One of the hardest things I have to do is convince people that they can’t hang around those who want them to do wrong.

They will not quit trying to get you to do wrong with them until you either give in or get away from them.

They lie to you

Whatever good thing they tell you will happen if you go with them is all a lie.

There is sometimes pleasure in sin for a season, but it is always a short season.

And the consequences are never worth the pleasure.

C. What he does

Proverbs 16:29 (KJV)

… and leadeth him into the way that is not good.

It seems obvious to me that if the violent man leads you he will lead you in a way that is not good.

I want to focus on the fact that he leads you.

He has robbed you of your liberty.

You are being lead rather than choosing your own path.

You have become a slave, a servant of another.

The Bible says

2 Timothy 2:24-26 (KJV)

And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,

In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;

And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

Can you see the difference between being instructed by the meek and being led by the deceiver?

The Bible says the devil can take those that oppose themselves “captive … at his own will.”

That’s what that person who talks you into doing no good with him has done – he has taken you captive.

You are doing what he wants you to do,

·   Not what you know is right.

·   Not what you want to do

Conclusion

I want to be the kind of person who builds things for God, don’t you?

·   I want to work at unity in the church

·   I want to strive to bring peace where there could be strife

·   I want to help people do good rather than to lead them into no good

I want to be godly, not ungodly.

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[1] Matthew 5:9 (KJV)

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

FOR YOUR OWN GOOD

Proverbs 16:25-26 (KJV)

There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him.

Doesn’t it seem to you that human nature almost instinctively wants to do the opposite of what God’s teaches us to do?

God told Adam that he was to earn his meal by the sweat of his face.

He was going to have to work if he wanted to eat.

It seems like people have been trying to get around that command for almost always.

The first church in Jerusalem, in an attempt to help its poor and elderly members, sold their possessions and put the money in a common treasury to be dispensed by the Apostles.

It almost immediately created a problem when someone decided their widows weren’t being taken care of as well as some other widows were.

The church could have been derailed if the Apostles had been forced to focus on dispensing money instead of prayer and ministry of the Word.

When the pilgrims came to America, their first attempt to govern themselves was a communal system.

They created:

·   A common home and

·   A common garden

The idea was that everyone would work together and they would all share in the produce.

The problem was that some thought others were not working hard enough and someone got to thinking that, if we are all sharing equally, there was no reason to work harder than the guy doing the least amount of work.

Many of them died and they all almost starved to death.

Next year they instituted a system where each family was responsible to produce their own food.

When they were only going to get to eat what they had themselves produced, they produced an abundance for everyone.

They figured it out – it worked better when everyone was working for themselves.

Inspired by the American Revolution and the War for Independence, France entered into their own series of wars aimed at overthrowing the monarchal system of government for a democratic one.

The American War for Independence lasted seven years

The French had at least three Revolutions beginning in 1789 and did not arrive at a settled government until about1870.

There are a lot of reasons for the differences in outcomes of the American Revolution and the French Revolutions and I cannot pretend to understand much about any of them.

*I do know that America had a unique advantage over France in that there was so much land and natural resources for its population to work with here.

And we had leaders who were Christian in thought, while France had people like the socialist, Karl Marx influencing the thinking of its people.

The French were toying with Communism before the United States had even fought our Civil War.

I do not believe that everything that has happened in the United States has been good and

I do not believe that everything that is happening in the United States right now is going to turn out for good

But I am certain that two things have led to the prosperity and greatness of the United States of America over these two hundred and forty one years.

*I. A FAITH IN GOD

The founders of our country were very different men. In many respects they viewed each of their colonies as separate and independent countries. They viewed people from those different colonies as different from themselves as we would the citizens of Mexico or of Canada.

They all had different ideas concerning faith

They were:

·   Episcopalians,

·   Presbyterians and

·   Congregationalists

(None of the leaders were Baptists but eventually many of them would come under the influence of Baptist thinking.)

Some of them were practicing Christians. Some of them were not.

*But they all shared in common

·   A faith in God and

·   A belief that God was found in the Bible

*Almost to a man they believed that the Republican form of government that they created could only work for a Christian people.

They believed the leaders should be professing Christians

They were not very sympathetic of those who expressed anti-Christian sentiments.

Thomas Payne, writer of Common Sense, one of the most popular things every written in the Colonies in its day was, for all practical purposes, shunned in America after he wrote the ungodly Age of Reason.[1]

When Payne died, no one would bury him. His body was eventually taken to England where the last time it was ever seen it was in someone’s barn. It was later lost.

I am not saying that was right – only that the founders of our country and those who lived in America in that day, had a common faith in the God of the Bible.

The other key to American prosperity is

*II. A CAPITALIST ECONOMIC SYSTEM

Proverbs 16:26 (KJV)

He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him.

It is also sometimes called the Judeo-Christian ethic.

2 Thessalonians 3:10 (KJV)

For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

Karl Marx and socialist thinking says,

“From each according to his ability to each according to his needs.”[2]

Christianity, the Word of God and capitalism says

Proverbs 16:26 (KJV)

He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him.

*The principle is this simple, reward a man for his efforts and his efforts will be a reward for everyone.

Give a guy the freedom to build a business, give him the incentive of success for his work, and he will build a business that will employ countless numbers.

Give a guy the freedom to experiment and try new things, let him dream of selling his inventions for profit, and he will create things like vehicles, telephones, electric lighting, and smart phones.

*Conclusion

The Bible teaches capitalism as the most productive economic system.

Proverbs 16:26 (KJV)

He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him.

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[1] I understand that even the enlightened Thomas Jefferson discouraged him from publishing it.

[2] Just as the first English settlement almost killed itself with socialist thinking, America is going to kill itself because we have so embraced the heart of this philosophy.