TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Date: Feb. 11, 2026 - Lesson 28-2026. Title: God's Sovereignty Over Kings

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

Proverbs 21:1–3 reveals God’s sovereign rule over authority, morality, and worship. Even the heart of a king is like channels of water in the Lord’s hand—directed wherever He wills. While human ways may seem right in their own eyes, the Lord weighs the heart with perfect judgment. True devotion is not found merely in sacrifice or religious activity, but in righteousness and justice, which delight God more than offerings. In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart explore how God governs leaders, examines motives, and calls His people to live lives of obedient integrity rather than hollow ritual. Lesson 28-2026 Teachers: Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart You can partner with us by visiting MannaNation.com, calling 1-888-519-4935, or by mail at PO Box 399 Vero Beach, FL 32961. MEGA FIRE reveals the ancient recurring cycles of war and economic collapse that have shaped history for 600 years. These patterns predict America is now entering its most dangerous period since World War II. Get your copy today! www.megafire.world Get high-quality emergency preparedness food today from American Reserves! www.AmericanReserves.com It’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. Now available in eBook and audio formats! Order Final Day from Amazon today! www.Amazon.com/Final-Day Apple users, you can download the audio version on Apple Books! www.books.apple.com/final-day Purchase the 4-part DVD set or start streaming Sacrificing Liberty today. www.Sacrificingliberty.com

Welcome to Morning Manor. Welcome to Morning Manor. Your teachers, Rackwiles and Dr. Burkla. Get your Bible and notebook and get ready to here before. Well, hello, everybody. Welcome to Morning Manor. This is the place where your soul is spent. That's what we do here.

We serve soul food. And we gather here for breakfast. and the Holy Spirit is serving up a nice, delicious meal of spiritual food. And so my co-chev, Dr. Raymond Burkhard and I, we've had long hours to have this meal ready for you. And so let's jump into it and start eating. Of course, we've got to invite the Holy Spirit and let him lead this class. Let's pray. Almighty God, Father in heaven, Father, we praise you, worship you.

we humbly request the presence of the Holy Spirit to lead this Bible study and teach all of us your wonderful word in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Our home on the internet is manna nation.com and you can find this lesson and previous lessons at manonation.com. The lesson number for today is 28-26. So if you're watching on Faith TV and we run out of time at the bottom of the hour, go to manna nation.com sometime during the day, and you can watch the rest of the lesson. Okay? So we are starting a new chapter today. Proverbs chapter 21. We're going to be looking at verses 1 through 3, and I would like Dr. Burkhart to read the Word of God. Amen. I always have privilege to read the word. I am reading from Proverbs chapter 21,

the first three verses today. And I encourage you to have your Bibles here and read along with me, you would. I like to read out loud, of course, and I encourage you to do that too, if you can, if you're in a position to do so. Let's read together, shall we? Verse 1, chapter 21 of Proverbs, The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever he will. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord pondereth the hearts. Verse 3, to do justice and judgment, it's more acceptable, to the Lord, then sacrifice. God bless the reading on his word today, Reg. Amen. So if you're new, the way we do this is that we take each verse, we break it into two or three parts, we drill down in

each segment and get all the nutrients that we can find, then we put it together and get the big picture of that verse. The other thing is that when we're in the Old Testament, we also read the Greek translation of the Hebrew text. And my personal preference is in the Old Testament is to use the Septuagint. Anytime in the new covenant, use the King James. When we're studying the old covenant, we use both King James and Septuagint. So let's look at the first verse. This is Proverbs. Chapter 21, verse 1. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. the rivers of water, he turn it, he turneth it, whithersoever he will. Now, the Greek Septuagint differs from the King James translation.

The Septuagin says, as a rush of water, so is to King's heart in God's hand. He turns it whithersoever he may desire to point out. Again, let's look at the difference here in this first segment, King James, the king heart is in the hand of the Lord. The Septuagint as a rush of water, so is the king's heart in God's hand. The Septuagint adds this beginning phrase as a rush of water. So both translations mean the same thing, but the Septuagint begins by comparing the king's heart to a rush of water. It is not rushing water. It is a rush of water. There's a way difference.

The image of a rush of water stresses not only the channeling of water, but also its energy and momentum. However, even this powerful current is still in God's hand to influence. To better understand this problem, we must draw on the concept of irrigation in agriculture. is powerful, but it is also directable. As a farmer cuts channels in the field and directs water through his land, so God channels the king's decisions in history. God's providence can guide even strong political leaders and strong political currents in forces towards ends that the kings did not

initially planned, but God desired. So this phrase rush of water, it captures the apparent force of royal will and decree and its deeper submissiveness

to God's unseen hand. The Septuilion translation presents the king's heart as a dynamic current rather than a fixed object. It underscores the mobility of political intention and policy under the unseen governance

of God. So understanding the proverb requires spiritually seeing the blending of God's divine will and human free will. We said this many times in Morning Man, I, predestimation and free will are not contradictory. Amen. There is this harmonious blend, both God's divine will and the free will of humans. We'll get back to this rush of water.

A rush of water is really a violent onset of water. It's why it's rushing. The phrase rush implies force, impulse, momentum. If you've ever seen a dam break, you know what a rush of water looks like. If you've ever seen a fireman open up a fire hydrant, you've seen a rush of water. It comes out with force. So this phrase is used to describe the charge of an army or a person's sudden. passion at a rush, a violent rush of water.

To the common citizen, the king's will often feels like a tidal wave. It's overwhelming. It's unstoppable. It's unchangeable. It's dangerous. That's because a king's passion can destroy cities or save them. So Solomon is in this first verse in chapter 21. King Solomon is acknowledging the ruler's terrifying power.

He should know he was a king for 40 years. A king's power is not a stagnant pond of water. It is a rushing force of political authority, a personal ego, and a royal decrees to accomplish whatever the king is demanding be done. Right. And as you mentioned here, Rick, while the king's heart is a Russian flood to subjects, to God is merely a thing to be held. I mean, from the perspective of the citizen of that kingdom, they look at the king and his power, but to God, it's nothing. So while earthly rulers have the power of compulsion, God has the power of persuasion and providence. The rush of human power is

nothing, nothing compared to the ocean of divine wisdom. And so the idea here in this verse is that the rush is actually in God's hands. Imagine a wardfall trying to be contained in a teacup. The imagery highlights that infinite disparity between human might, the teacup, and divine capacity. It's just overwhelming. So if you, you mentioned that, you know, when Solomon wrote this, that was an agricultural society. So if you think of an irrigation canal, this analogy helps you see that God can turn a heart by directing the course of intention and circumstance without annihilating what we call human agency, human free will.

God rules through means, not only by interruption. and because God governs rulers. Rulers remain answerable. Providence is not an excuse for tyranny, but a warning that no ruler could finally outrun divine judgment. So if you have a leader who's a tyrant, you can't say that that's authorized by God. He'll be held accountable for that.

So the verse also helps us understand the cycles and tides of history. Rick and I, we talk about cycles quite a bit. This gives you a great explanation here. Large outcomes could include wars, edicts, reforms in government, persecutions, relief from persecutions. They're not random. They occur in a world where God can restrain, redirect, or expose the intention of the powerful. And he sets many of these things in cycles.

And so it's a fast, fascinating verse here because it reveals so much about what's happening to the world around us and how we can rest in the promise that God has everything under control. Yes. Even when the world seems out of control. Yes. You rest in knowing that political leaders are only doing what God is allowing them to do. It doesn't mean it's his will, but he's allowing them to do it, but his will will will will will will will will will will be done.

done with or without their assistance. The second part of this verse, Proverbs 21, verse 1, the second part of the King James says, He turneth it whithersoever he will. The Septuagin says he turns it whithersoever he may desire to point out, almost identical meaning. So the bottom line here is that even the most people's Powerful earthly rulers are subject to God's will and guidance.

Talk right now on the earth. You know, the most powerful people politically, President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, of course there are other leaders that have a great influence. What this is, even though these men have great power, and they've got strong egos, God is still able to turn them. And whether they know it or not, they're going to do His will.

Right. They're going to do His will. Yes. So the hand of God is seen as his active providence, not his mere permission. He directs and bends royal decisions towards his purpose. purposes. And I like this word bends. Because it's not that political leaders precisely do the will of God. If they were doing the will of God, we wouldn't have all these wars. We wouldn't have a corruption that we're having. But he can bend their decisions, make them lean towards his will,

and he'll bring his purposes together through other people, other means, but he'll bend the political leader to go in a certain direction because it's going to fit the Lord's great plan. Right. So as a gardener or farmer directs the flow of water, God directs the impulses of a king without violence, bending the ruler's will towards God's divine purpose. So this is an important reason why Christians are expected to pray for their leaders, Rick. God can turn leaders' hearts like a flowing stream. 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 1 and 2 says,

I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving a thanks be made for all men. But then he gets specific here, for kings, for all those that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty. What's the purpose of our prayers

that God's will would be administered, and through that king and those in authority for the purpose of us being able to share the gospel, Rick. Yes. So there's a connection with the divine ordering of authority mentioned by the Apostle Paul in Romans 13, where he said there is no authority except from God. So are there biblical examples where we see God using a king to accomplish his will? Well, we'll give an example here.

One is Caesar's decree that all be counted in a census for taxation. His decree required Mary and Joseph to travel to Bethlehem. The birth of Jesus Christ, the Christ child of Bethlehem, fulfilled the ancient prophecy spoken by Micah, which says, But you, O Bethlehem, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for be one who will be rule over Israel, whose origins are from old from ancient times. But in order for Mary and Joseph to be in Bethlehem,

they had to be, if you will, compelled by a governor of authority to go to their hometown for a census. God used Caesar for that purpose. That's a picture of how God can use even wicked rulers to accomplish as well. Yes. So centuries earlier, the prophet, has said that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.

God, at the time, when Mary was pregnant with the Christchial, God had to move Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. What did he do? He had the king issue, he had Caesar issue a, a taxation decree, which required a census. was the census or the taxation the main thing? No. It was a method, a means that God used to get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. Right. It could have been something else.

It didn't matter, Doc. Right. It didn't matter. I mean, Caesar could have said, if you're from whatever hometown you are, go to it there and you'll get a block of free government chief. It didn't matter. It just didn't matter that there's a census or taxation.

God used a decree of a political ruler to get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. This is the heart of this verse that we want you to understand. So the king's passions are described as a rush of water because his decrees and actions are this rushing force of his ego and authority. However, Doc, you said something and I didn't think about it. You said this may apply to God's, God being the russ of water. Right. All right.

That's a different way of looking at it. Another biblical example of God using an evil king's decree for God's divine purposes is Herod's slaughter of male toddlers in Bethlehem. Right. Hundreds of years earlier, Prophet Hosea prophesied, when Israel was a youth I loved him and out of Egypt I called my son. Yes. Well, in order to get your son to be called out of Egypt, he had to go to Egypt. So Matthew chapter 2, verses 14 and 15, directly applies Josea's verse to Mary and Jesus' flight

to Egypt to escape death, fulfilling the Old Testament passage by calling the new Israel out of Egypt. Who is the new Israel? Jesus Christ. I'm sorry if that offends you. I'm just telling you what it says. Jesus is Israel.

Forget this stuff that's replacement theology. So Jesus is the new Israel. Yes. And when you are in Christ, you are a citizen of the new Israel. Okay, that's another lesson.

Here's what Matthew 2, verse 14, 15 says. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, out of Egypt, I have called my son. Josea's words originally referred to Israel's exodus from Egyptian bondage, the Hebrew people, not a political state, Israel has always been God's people. And at that time, it was the Hebrew people that were called out of Egypt. The gospel of Matthew, I should say the

gospel according to St. Matthew, reinterprets this in a messianic sense, seeing Jesus as the faithful son of God, who was called out of Egypt, fulfilling the prophecy in a new way. and paralleling his life with ancient Israel's history. That's right. But in the New Covenant Times, Jesus and Israel are synonymous. Okay? That's right. Old wicked Herod, he had no awareness.

He had no interest in fulfilling biblical prophecies. I mean, Herod didn't get up one day. He said, wow. you know if I could fulfill a biblical prophecy my name would be in the Bible and people would talk about me the rest of forever that thought never occurred to him yet God used that evil tyrant for his divine purpose we have some very evil people in power right now on the earth

we have some very ungodly people in political power on the earth and yet God is using them for his divine purpose. And what is that divine purpose? He's bringing people to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Yes. He's preparing the world for the arrival of his son. So let these guys go ahead and do what they're evil. Let them start their wars.

Let them build their empires. It's all going to burn when Jesus Christ comes back. Amen. All of it. Another example. Cyrus. God used Cyrus to send Israel home and rebuild the temples. God used Nebuchadnezzar, turned him from pride to humility and then to confession.

Yes. All these are examples of God using kings for his own purpose. When wicked or unpredictable leaders are in power, the people panic. But we have to rest in the knowledge and the peace that God is in control. There are things that have happened in the world in the past four or five years, some horrible things that I had a very difficult time coping with it. Talking about wars, the killing of children. And I had to come to the place of saying,

God is in control. He is aware of what is happening and he is moving world events to the ultimate day when his son will come back. Yes. You know, Doc, I love children. And when I see innocent children being slaughtered,

it grieves me beyond anything I can say in words. Yes. But I had to come to a place where the Lord showed me, Rick, those children are with me. Yes, they lost their lives on earth. They're with me now. They're not dead. They're here with me.

Yes. And so once I realized that, I was able to get some peace about some of the things going on in the world. And just saying, okay, there's little children. They weren't destroyed. They're alive. They're more alive now than they were alive. were, before they were slaughtered on earth. They're with their maker.

They're with their Heavenly Father. So this is really a relaxing agent or political anxiety. It reminds us that the man on the throne in whatever country they rule is subject to God. God on His throne. Amen. And because God's sovereignty reaches into the hearts of rulers, his people, you and I, we can live without panic and we can pray with confidence, and we can trust that every decree will, in the end, serve God's wise and gracious will.

Right. And that's why, Rick, I mentioned it before. but it's why we need to really pray for national and world leaders today. We need to pray that they participate in God's divine plan and not resist it. You know, we have class members in dozens of countries around the world. Some of these leaders are great leaders, some of them not so great, let's say. However, God will even use the resistance of the evil ones for his glory, such as we saw with Pharaoh,

you know, the deliverance of the Hebrew children, and says, who hardened his heart against the Hebrews. And so the king's heart refers not only to his emotions, but also to that inner seat of decision-making, his will, his intention, his policy, his resolve, especially in matters that affect nations and peoples.

And that phrase, in the hand of the Lord, it signifies that God has, ownership. He has control. He has active direction. He's not some, you know, sitting back somewhere and just let things just kind of flow. No, it's not distant permission. It's not passive allowance. God is still in control. So the king's inner life is not outside of God's reach or a rule because his heart is in the hand of the Lord. And by the way, God is not really watching kings. He has access to and sway over their hearts, too. So you're not just watching them. He could sway their hearts. Charles Bridges said that the Lord's sovereignty is neither noisy nor violent. He is calm,

steady, and irresistible. And to his glory, God influences those who govern. He doesn't use coercion, but he'll redirect an outcome. He'll restrain evil. He'll open up paths for justice, while still holding rulers accountable for what they love and choose. And so to sum us up, God's sovereignty here operates without violating anyone's moral responsibility. Rulers act freely, yet their freedom unfolds within God's governing will. So just keep that in mind as we're thinking about this, because you might have some questions in your own heart. Well, how does that work with free will? There's no, you know, no contradiction here at all.

John Gill had this to say, he turneth it whatsoever he will to do good to his people or to punish them for their sins. And the Old Testament is replete with these examples, Rick. Yes. Adam Clark said, God so governs the hearts of kings as the engineer does the waters, leading them in channels of his own. all making.

Yes. And William R. Knot said, the current of a monarch's will is as completely under the control of the omnipotent God as the water in the garden channels is under the gardener. And one of my favorite preachers,

Alexander McLaren, said the water flows for the digger of the channel direction. The will is free. But God knows how to touch the springs of it. Amen. Doc, I was thinking about a dream that I had maybe three or four years ago.

Could have been five years ago. I think you'll remember because I talked about it openly. And a lot of people got angry at me for what I said about this dream. It was not about a political leader, but it was about a very powerful world leader, a billionaire. I'll just tell you, it was George Soros. and I used to say very critical things about George Soros

because of his political leanings and activities but I had this dream and I was seated with him at a small table in an Italian restaurant, very small Italian restaurant. I mean, it were only seems to me in the dream there might have been only maybe 10 tables in the restaurant

and I was seated with George Soros having an Italian dinner and we were having a conversation very friendly conversation about world affairs and we were both holding our own respecting one another

but expressing our views and when the meal was over he walked down the street with me on the sidewalk. I'm walking side by side with George Soros in this dream. And I don't recall in the dream how the subject of the Bible came up. But I said to George Soros, I looked at him and I said something to him about the Holy Bible.

And he looked at me with a smile and said, Rick, maybe I've read more Bible verses than you've ever imagined. And that was the end of the dream. And so I told people about this dream. And Doc, some people became angry at me. I remember that. Do you remember that? Oh, yeah. It was angry that I said, I'm not going to criticize him anymore.

I'm going to pray for him. God showed me another side of this man's soul. And even though I don't agree with his views and his activities, the Lord showed me, I believe the dream was telling me that God is working in this man's life. I mean, how old is he now? He's in the 90s? I think so. Right?

Let's pray that he doesn't leave this world lost. Pray that he meets Jesus Christ in this life and is born again and is baptized. But I believe the Lord was showing me, don't be condemning this man. Pray for him. I'm working in his life. I'm bringing this up because we're talking about God influencing powerful people. Yes, yes. And we don't know what God is doing.

I remember, Doc, the late Hugo Chavez, former president of Venezuela, who was a political socialist. And he, I read this in a newspaper, Doc, a magazine or a newspaper, I read this article. where Hugo Chavez was talking about his friendship with Fidel Castro in Cuba. It was a communist revolutionary. And this is what struck me in this article. Hugo Chavez said, whenever I'm with Fidel, the conversation always drifts to Jesus. Interesting, isn't it?

I've never forgotten that line. I say, wait a minute. are you telling me that when communist fidel castro meet socialist hugo shavez at some point in their conversation they talk about jesus christ in a good and loving way see we don't know what god is doing in the hearts and minds of people yes sir herraphat was another one who talked about jesus okay see there are okay let me let me let me take

you something. Doc and I were in the World Economic Forum in 2018, invited by President Trump. We received an invitation from the White House to go to the World Economic Forum in Davos with the White House. And two weeks before that invitation, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, I'm asking you to pray for King Abdullah of Jordan and his family. Holy Lord, yes, I will, but why? Just pray for them. Pray for him to have wisdom. Pray for him to be protected.

Pray for my will to be done? Yes, sir. Father, I'll pray. So for two weeks I started praying for King Abdullah. Then the White House invitation came. Right. Out of the blue. I mean, just came out of the blue.

And Doc filled out the White House forms to get us through the process. I went to the World Economic Forum website to see who was going to be there. And one of the main speakers was King Abdullah. That's right. Several weeks later, Doc and I are inside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and there stands King of Dola. I didn't get to talk to her, but I was like, God, what are you doing? what are you doing?

I mean, in a matter of weeks, you've gone from telling me to pray for a king, and now I'm in a room full of kings and presidents and prime ministers and billionaires. And so Doc and I heard, we heard with our own ears, King of Dua say something. He said this to world leaders.

He said, I love Jesus Christ and His mother. Mary. I heard it. I'm sitting right there. God is my witness. We heard it. We heard an Arab king who is the direct descendant of Muhammad, Prophet Muhammad. And out of his mouth, he said, I love Jesus Christ and his mother Mary. And I knew this is why, this is the reason God brought me here to hear those words. he's got a king sitting on a throne, a descendant of Prophet Muhammad, and this king is saying,

I love Jesus Christ. That started an adventure with our connections to Jordan that we're still living in the glory to this day. Yes. If four years later, I was invited by the king to a royal dinner in Amman. And I went, I didn't get the meeting. I saw him.

he was seated a couple tables away from me. You just don't walk over to a king's table and say, hey, how you doing, Kingy? It doesn't work that way. Okay, but I was invited. I received a royal invitation to a dinner sponsored by the king. I'm telling you this is because God desires us to pray and intercede for these men and women. We've got to stop criticizing them and condemning them, even when they're doing things that we believe is wrong. We need to pray that they will bend and move like water

to go in the direction of God's will. Amen. One of the early church fathers, Doc, and I don't remember, I want to say Tortualian. I'm not sure if it was him. I need to, when this was lessons over, I'll look it up and verify it. This was years ago, I was reading the church fathers. And he said, we, meaning the church, this was in the first couple centuries of the church, he said, we have stopped many wars with our prayers. Think about a doc, a bishop, a bishop saying, we, the church, have stopped many wars with our prayers. Today, you got churches praying for war. What are we doing? What are we doing? The early church prayed to stop the wars.

Today, churches are praying to start wars. Okay. The message here is that prayer changes the way of king rules. Yes. God will intervene and move that king or president or prime minister, whoever he is, move him to go in the direction of God desires. Okay. And the other thing that this tells me, Rick, is that no matter

what the turmoil is in the world around us, whatever the headline is on your favorite TV network or whatever it is, God's still in control. Yes. He's still in control. Don't be fooled by the situation and circumstances. Don't think, where's God in all this?

He's in the middle of it. He is in the middle because he's going to bring about his glory. How many people in heaven do you think are biting their nails? How many in heaven are using tranquilizers because their nerves are shot? Nobody. Why? Because the king emanates, radiates perfect peace and serenity because he's in total control.

The closer you get to your father in heaven, the more peaceful you will be. And the craziness of this world will not trouble you. It doesn't make the craziness go away, but it won't trouble you. Right. Okay. Jesus said, do not be anxious. Let not your hearts be anxious. I used to be anxious about world tears.

I'm not anxious about it anymore. You know why? I've been attending morning manna classes too long. Teaching the word changes the teacher. Proverbs 21, verse 2. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord pondereth the hearts. Septuagin says every man seems to himself righteous.

but the Lord directs the hearts. So this is a companion verse to the one that we just read. The first verse talked about kings and rulers and leaders. Now we're getting down to Nidigran. We're talking about you and me now. Yeah, talking about everybody. So he's continuing this theme.

He's revealing God's quiet direction in the decisions. Okay. In verse one, he says, God directs the decisions of kings. In verse two, he expands it to all, humans. Everybody's in this now. The King James says every way of a man is right in his own eyes. The Septuagin says every man seems to himself righteous. Same means the same. The King James emphasizes all the ways of people. The Septuagint emphasizes the ways of individuals. Yes.

King James focuses on the corporate community. of humans, Septuagin is saying, just you, you think your way is right. So let's start with the premise that Solomon includes all people, great and small, rich and poor, famous and obscure. He said, every person thinks his or her ways are good and righteous. Do you know anybody, Doc, who thinks he's wrong? The rare... Have you ever done?

It says, I'm wrong about everything. No, everybody thinks that they're right. That's why there's so many arguments. Everybody thinks they're right and doesn't want to listen to anybody else's viewpoint. Every way of a man, every path, every decision, the lifestyle, the motives, the full scope of human behavior and reasoning is right. It seems straight, upright, justifiable. The person genuinely believes his or her choices are correct. Where?

In his own eyes. That's their self-perspective, their self-judgment. In this case, their heart is judge, jury, and defense attorney all in one. Yes. They have a little court trial. the purpose of this trial is to decide whether my thoughts and my ways are right. And presiding over the court is me. And in the jury is me.

And the defense attorney is me and the prosecuting attorney is me. Let the court trial begin. It's all me. That's the way people think. And so guess what do they decide? My ways are right. Doc, I wouldn't know that my ways were not right if I didn't submit to the Word of God. Yes.

If you avoid the Word of God, do you have nothing to compare your ways with? Yes. Because every man is right. Your views, I got mine. Okay. That's the attitude. You got your views, I got mine. Well, you know what?

You got your views. I've got my views. And God has the last word. See, few people are willing to submit to God's final word about what is right and what is wrong. So, Doc, it's universal. It's everywhere. It's not just in one community. It's all over the world.

This is the way people think. Yes. So, well, and like you said, this is universal. Every person saved or unsaved views their own action as reasonable. fair, even righteous from their internal viewpoint. We're talking about the internal. You ever hear, well, I'm not an axe murderer. I'm not as bad as that guy over there, right?

That's what this verse is really talking about here. We're righteous in our own eyes. But we're comparing with each other. We don't compare ourselves to a holy God. So this phrase is revealing the deceitfulness of our hearts. You know, we're masters at self-justification. we'll rationalize any kind of sin at all. We'll rationalize pride, laziness, selfishness, you name it.

So, and this is the modicum of this day and age is how something feels. Well, feeling right about your path isn't proof that you are right, okay? Just feeling right isn't enough. Self-approval is the easiest deception. God alone is the true judge and when a man becomes his own standard he dethrones God he's putting himself in the position of God

so if you can picture a man walking constantly on a path that he drew himself it looks straight to him but God sees the crookedness in the path so as disciples of Christ how do we respond to this? We must never trust our own eyes alone

we must constantly bring our ways before the Lord for his verdict. Amen. Solomon is noting a universal human flaw. We are all biased in our own favor. This is not just arrogance, it's moral blindness. The inability to perceive oneself accurately apart from divine revelation have you ever had a time in your life a moment when the Holy Spirit

sovereignly reveals to you something that's wrong in you? Yes. And you're like, all of a sudden you're like... I didn't know, I wasn't aware. Well, why weren't you aware? Because in your own eyes, you're right. And then one day, the Holy Spirit says, well, hey, if you want to

the truth about it, you're not right. And I'm going to show you my scriptures. I'm going to show you the truth. And you come under conviction. And now this is the opportunity. Do you close your ears and your eyes to what the Lord is showing you and telling you? Or do you submit and repent and change? But we think we're right. And God allows us to go on a certain time,

thinking that we're right, but there'll be a day that he corrects us. Now, it can be softly or, you know, as we said in a previous lesson, God forbid that you require bruises. The bruises come because we won't listen to the Holy Spirit. We keep shutting his voice out. So it doesn't matter who they are. criminals, tyrants, saints, everybody has the same treat.

They rarely believe they are the villain in the story. Even the thief has a reason why the theft was justified. If you've ever visited a prison, and I have, I haven't been in one for a while, I used to do some prison ministry, and Doc, I'll tell you what I remember, every inmate wanted me to know that he was innocent. Everyone. Every single one of them. Yes.

Wanted me to help him get out because they were innocent. Although, well, this is amazing. There's a thousand men in here and all them are innocent. What a travesty. So we tend to be our own defense attorneys, explaining, excusing, reframing what we do so that it appears right to us. Yes.

We wanted to appear right to us. So what is this definition of right? It means the Hebrew word means straight, level, pleasing. How do we make things right? How do humans to it? Not the way God desires us to do, but what's the human? What are the human methods to make things right?

You know, to put some pain on it and say, hey, that's right. Cover it up, okay. We rename sins. That's number one. We call greed, ambition. We call gossip sharing prayer request. We call lust, appreciating beauty.

We rename unforgiveness. We call it tough love. I'd forgive them, but they need to feel some pain. They need to repent. They need to repent. By changing the label, we make the way seem right to us. A second way, we make things seem right is by comparison. Well, I'm not as bad as him.

Right. I'm not as bad as that woman. So we lower the standard. And by lowering the standard to another person's standard of behavior and thinking, we feel morally superior. Then a third way is good intentions. Good intentions are another way we make things seem right. We judge ourselves by our intentions, which we think is always good.

But we judge others by their actions. That's right. See, Doc, I judge me by my intentions, but I judge you by your actions. I had a good art about it, but what you did. I'm always right and you're always wrong. But that's how people think. You're exactly right. And that phrase, every way of a man,

it just refers to the total pattern of a person's life, right? Decisions, habits, moral judgment, self-justifications. We're not talking about isolated actions here. He says, every way of a man. So Solomon here is telling us that there's a universal human tendency for self-approval. Fallen humanity instinctively interprets its own conduct as reasonable, justified, and defensible. So three Bible examples that we have here that we can look at real quick. All right.

Star of King Saul is back in 1st Samuel chapter 15. He disobeyed God by keeping the spoils of war. Yet he greeted Samuel saying, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. He truly believed his own line. The instruction was to totally annihilate everything in the attack, but he kept back spoils. Another example, in the Gospels, he had Jesus dealing with the Pharisees. They devour widows' houses, but felt righteous because they tithed the little mint things out of their garden and the kuman out of their garden, but they tithed that, but they'll rob widow's houses.

And then in Revelation chapter 3, verse 17, Jesus speaks to the Laidaecese saying, They said, I am rich and have nothing, unaware that they were wretched, miserable, poor, blind. And so this verse in Proverbs here refutes the modern idea of just moral relativism. It's one of the tragic teachings that pervasive through many educational systems in the world. So sincerity is not a test of truth. You can be sincerely wrong. So sincerity isn't enough.

So if you can, picture a traveler who's absolutely convinced that his road is straight. But his map, the signs, and maybe some wise people along the way keep warning him otherwise. His confidence does not change the destination. And so if the compass is broken, an internal guide in our hearts, the ship will craft regardless of how sincere the captain was, right?

That's what's going to happen, Doc. And yet you can watch people just driving the wrong direction, and you can't tell them. Because they are convinced that their way is right. The second part of this verse says, But the Lord pondereth the hearts. The Septuagin says, but the Lord directs the hearts. But the Lord.

This is, Solomon introduces the decisive contrast. Human self-evaluation is overturned by divine examination. Amen. But the Lord. You think you're right, but the Lord. I think I'm right, but the Lord. The Lord has the last word. The Lord decides who is right and who is wrong.

The King James says God ponderes the heart of the people. It means to weigh the heart for deliberate assessment, not just a superficial observation, but to palm to the heart means to look, to seriously consider what's going on in the heart. God's observation penetrates beneath actions to look for motives, desires, intentions, affections. The moral core of the person, their heart, the seat of their inner being.

It's where you live. It's where you live in your body. That's the heart. That's where you live. Right. That thing that's you, not your body, not your mind, it's you. That's the heart. So God evaluates what drives your behavior.

Again, there are times when our outward behavior is wrong. It's sinful. And yet God is very merciful to us because he looks. looks in the heart to see what is driving you, what is making you this way. How are you acting out pain and trauma from past experiences in your life? He's very loving and tender. So he looks at the motives. His assessment is perfect.

It's perfect and it's objected. It's uninfluenced by natural appearance. or self-deception. The divine weighing exposes the insufficiency of our external morality that has no internal righteousness. Yes.

So he weighs it. He's not impressed by how convincing our self-justification appears. He's the true evaluator of a moral way. in substance. God sees the hidden pride and the hidden faithfulness. So ultimately, this proverb calls on Christian believers to submit their hearts to God's searching gaze rather than trusting their own moral perception. And Doc, we've had a lesson on that God has placed a light in us. Right. Okay. He actually gives every human a light.

He puts a light inside you and says, this is for you to look around yourself. But if you don't do it, I'll come with my light. That's right. See, we have the option to use the light that he gives us. But if we keep telling ourselves, our way is right, our way is right, that light will get dimmer and dimmer and dimmer and dimmer, and then God will show up with his light. That's right.

And that's when things change in your life. Amen. Well, let's consider this great contrast, this shift here in this verse. But the Lord, but introduces really the only opinion that matters, right? That's the only one that counts. Man's view is superficial. You know, we look, we see God's view penetrates the heart. Man looks at the things that you do, looks at the performance.

God looks at the motive inside. So that word pondereth there is the, word, a token. It literally means to weigh, to measure, or to level, like on a scale. So God does not count our deeds. He weighs them. One act of genuine love may weigh more than a thousand acts of religious ritual. And even though humans see ways and pronounce them right, God goes deeper and weighs the heart behind that particular way. He assesses the quality, the truth, the integrity, not just the externals on that.

What this means is that this calibration belongs to God alone. He alone has perfect knowledge. He alone is a perfect standard, and he alone is perfectly impersonal to weigh hearts without any error whatsoever. He's going to bring out the truth. Doug, let's talk about what are the things that God does weigh?

All right? I'll give you one example. capital motives. Okay. He weighs the motives over heart. Why did you do that? What motivated you to go there? Why did you help the poor?

Was it for genuine love, or did your CPA tell you you needed a text right off? Right. What was the motive? Helping the poor was a good thing, but why did you do it? Yes. So God weighs that out. And so we're looking at sincerity there. Are you praying, when we're talking about praying,

are you praying to be heard by God or to be seen by meaning? Yes. God weighs, he looks at opportunity. He weighs what we did against what we could have done with the resources we had. Yes. You know, Jeremiah 1710 says, I the Lord. This is, I the Lord, search the heart. I try the reins.

In other words, he is the ultimate judge, the ultimate authority. Hebrews, Hebrews 4, verse 12. The word is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. What it means is there are no secrets in the courtroom of heaven. All the wise are exposed. Let me ask you this. you know, we can point to the wicked and say, well, sure, they're going to be judged by God.

But how does this apply to believers today, Rick? I would say three things we've got to consider. Humility, the fear of God, and our comfort. Humility, because we can't fully trust our own assessment. of 1 Corinthians 4.1, 4 Paul said, I know nothing by myself. Amen. Because we can't trust our own assessment. We have to constantly ask God to search us, which is Psalm 139, search my heart.

Second thing would be the fear of God. We're being audited daily. Yes. That is a, you should have a, that should be a soul-working thought. that God is auditing you like a CPA audits books. Your life is being audited daily. What's driving you? What's motivating you? Why do you say those things? Why do you do those things?

There's a record being kept. Do you fear God? Do you genuinely fear God? And the third one I would say is comfort. for the misunderstood believer, you know, this is actually good news. Right. Because others may, people may misjudge your actions, but God sees your heart. And so if you're misunderstood by others, let's get over it.

If your heart is right, your motives are right, God sees it. That's the only thing that matters. that is the only thing that matters. Just make sure your motives are right that what you're doing is correct. And then let God do the correction. Yes. That's right.

Alexander McLaren had this to say on this verse. He said he weighs the spirits. It's the idea is that of a goldsmith or a druggist. God is the wayer. He puts our insides into the scales. That's interesting. he takes what's in us and he puts it into his scales in any ways what we really are

G. Campbell Morgan said the final verdict is never with the man himself the standard of the sanctuary is the only true standard. William R. not said the master of the market weighs the heart. Talking about God, he's the master of the market. A pound of formal services, is lighter than a feather. A grain of heart love is weightier than the world. Charles Spurgeon said,

we are great strangers to ourselves. We carry a flatterer in our own bosoms, but there is one who sees us as we are. All right, the next one. This is the last verse for today, verse three, Proverbs. Chapter 21, verse three, To do justice and judgment is more acceptable

to the Lord than says. sacrifice. The Septuagin says to do justly and to speak truth are more pleasing to God than the blood of sacrifices. Yes. So let's begin with the first two words, to do, to do justice and judgment, to do justly and speak truth, to do. The emphasis is not on your intentions or your words, but on concrete actions expressed in your daily life as you interact with others. We start each day planning to do justly and speak truth. But have we done it when the day is over? I jokingly have said this.

You know, you've been around me enough, you know where I'm joking. I'll say, you know, I started this morning just filled with Jesus. and then by noon he'd evaporated. Or sometimes I'll say, I started today just desiring to be like Jesus. But by 3 o'clock, people were preventing me from being like Jesus. You know, now I'm saying it jokingly, but what am I saying? We start today with the best intentions.

Today I'm going to be kind and love. loving, I'm going to be Christ-like. You get to two or three o'clock in the afternoon. You've been dealing with problems and problem people and all kinds of stuff and you're not very Christ-like, are you? All right?

So what Solomon says here, to do, to do justice and judgment, to do justly and speak truth, that's more pleasing that all of your religious sacrifices. Can you just get through a 24-hour day, do what's right?

Jesus said that, you know, don't worry about tomorrow. There's plenty of evil for today. You've got a lot. You've got to get through just a day. See, we are to train our mind. So many of us, we're always thinking about tomorrow, our plans. We've got plans for tomorrow, and tomorrow's tomorrow, and the tomorrow after tomorrow's tomorrow.

We've got plans. But the only time we're alive is today now. Amen. And we're telling ourselves, well, tomorrow, I'll deal with problems better than I dealt with them today. No, you've got to do it today. To do.

To do justly and speak truth. The proverb does not say to think justly and consider truth. It says to do justly and speak truth. what have you done today and what have you said today? Amen. Was it just and was it true? So, Doc, justice and judgment,

they encompass both personal righteousness and social equity. Yes. Which is the right conduct before God and the right treatment of other people. So Solomon is He's presenting justice As active obedience Righteousness must be practiced

Not just affirmed And justice, what does it mean? It includes honesty, fairness, compassion, integrity in your decision-making So there's a pairing of justice and judgment that reflects God's character and he loves both.

And he loves to see both present in our daily living. And that pleases him more than all the religious stuff that you do. Right. So throughout the Bible, Rick, scripture consistently portrays ethical obedience as the evidence of genuine faith. It's not a substitute for it. To do justice, what does that mean? means to actively practice righteousness in our lives, fairness, equality,

living in right relationships with God and people. And we also have that word judgment there, implied in judgment as justice, right decisions, defending the oppressed, punishing evil, applying God's order in our daily lives. And so this is an active obedience that we're talking about. It's not just believing the right things, but doing the right things too. justice and judgment must be lived out.

It can't be theory, Rick. It has to be actually, it has to have shoes on and walking down the road. Amen. Second part of this verse says, is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. What is more acceptable to do justice and speak truth? It's more acceptable to the Lord than religious sacrifices. So throughout history, religious people have tried to substitute rituals for righteousness.

Sacrifices were given to God to handle their sin, not to excuse it. A sacrifice offered with a repentant heart is beautiful to the Lord. Praise God. A sacrifice offered instead of a repentant life is an abomination to the Lord. He's not impressed. Think of a Samuel's rebuke to King Saul. You mentioned Saul earlier. Samuel said, hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in

obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. Yeah, and the reason why he said that is that Saul, you know, he kept part of the spoils back and when Samuel showed up you said look at look at all the cattle and oxen that we have that we can offer a sacrifice to God and so that's why Samuel said what he did it's God doesn't care about the sacrifice he cared that you were obedient Saul yes how many times do we partially obey God yes and we think he's impressed well look what I did You asked me to do this.

I did it. But the Lord says, but you didn't do all that I said. You did part of it. And then we're surprised that the Lord's not impressed. Right. Well, look at all the religious things I did. It's okay.

I'm not impressed. I'm only concerned about your obedience. So this theme runs throughout the Holy Bible. prophets repeatedly condemn people who bring offerings while oppressing the poor, practicing injustice, not fulfilling their vows, putting on a religious pretense, and then thinking that God is pleased with them. It's all through the Bible. I'll give you an example.

I'll give you three examples. Isaiah 1, verses 11 through 17. I can't read the whole thing. God tells Israel he is full of their sacrifices and he hates their feast days because their hands are full of blood. What would God say to the people in the state of Israel right now as he looks at Gaza? Your hands are full of blood. Is that upset people? That's what he told them.

I don't care about your religious feast days. Your hands are full of blood. You've been killing people. Amos, chapter 4. verse 21 through 24. God said, I hate, I despise your feast days, but let judgment run down as waters. God said, I hate, I despise your religious feast days.

Osage 6, verse 6, for I desired mercy, not sacrifice. Yes. All through the Bible, God desires mercy. Jesus mentioned it many times. He desires mercy and kindness. But do our actions and our words, do we do mercy each day? Are we merciful to people? Or are we mean and judgmental and sarcastic and rude and uncaring and indifferent?

I think that's one of the worst things, Doc, to be indifferent. Yeah, you're hurting, but it doesn't affect me. I got things to do. you know, God desires to see that we're merciful. So whenever we attend church services and we worship and we pray and we sing hymns and we participate in the Lord's Supper and we give financial offerings and we teach Sunday school and yet at the same time we harbor bitterness and unforgiveness in our hearts towards others. our worship is noise and clatter in the ears of the Lord. So that phrase, Rick, it's just kind of weighing on me here.

It's more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. Than sacrifice. You know, you can put in the whole sacrificial system of the Old Testament here if you wanted to. Burn offerings, sin offering, peace offerings. God is saying, you know what? Yes, I told you to do these things. and they're the center of Israel's worship,

but they were to point toward mercy and Greece. That's the issue. So this isn't a rejection of sacrifice, but it's a rebuke of sacrifice without justice here. So the phrase is teaching that external religion without the internal righteousness is totally worthless. God looks for the life, not just the liturgy. Okay, so religious activity without justice is just an empty shell.

God rejects offerings from unjust hands. And if you can picture a man laying down his sacrifice to be put on the altar, but he's still oppressing the poor, the altar is full, but his heart is completely empty. An image. Solomon said to do justice in judgment. to do justly and speak truth, is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

Is more acceptable. It means God considers it of greater value and more pleasing to Him. To whom? To the Lord. Your acts of justice are done unto Him. And this is God's own evaluation. He determines what is more valuable. and his priorities are clear.

He weighs the heart, not the offering. He's weighing your heart, not the offering that you're making. That's why the widow who gave the two mites, Jesus said, hey, look at this. She gave everything. Get these rich Pharisees over here, they're throwing their donation into the offering plate there to temple, and then the widow comes up

and she gives her two mites, her two little coins, all the money she had. And Jesus says she gave more than all these other guys. Right. Why? The heart. He weighed her heart. And he weighed their heart too.

Right. And their heart came up empty. And her heart came up full of love for God and mercy and devotion. So worship, divorce from righteousness becomes offensive to God, rather than, pleasing them. Amen. So ultimately, to do justly and speak truth is more acceptable to the Lord. And it is fulfillment in Christ.

It is fulfilled, I should say, it's fulfilled in Christ because he offered himself as the perfect sacrifice and lived a perfect just life and made himself acceptable to God. Yes. And that ends up making us acceptable to God, too. Alexander McLaren said, the tendency of all religions is to gravitate towards the ceremonial is easier to kill a bull than to kill a lust. Oh, that one is powerful, isn't it?

Yeah. We might say today, 21st century, it's easier to make an online donation than to repent. G. Gamble Morgan said, God does not ask for the patronage of our gifts. He asked for the obedience of our lives. Yes. And we are not, to pay a fine is easy. To reform the life is hard.

May it would rather offer a costly sacrifice than do a simple act of justice. Or not always just put it so plainly. Yes. With great simplicity. All these men, Morgan, Arnaud, McLearn, Spurgeon, They just blew away all the religious, you know, talk and hyperbole. And they just brought it down to here's in a nutshell. This is what God desires.

Okay, that's our lesson for today. Thank you for being with us. Encourage you to tell people about Morning Manna. You can send them to manana nation.com or our YouTube channel, which is Rick Wiles today. And you can also tell them about direct TV. A 30-minute version is on direct TV at 8 a.m. in the U.S. and SkyTV in Great Britain and Europe and DSTV in Africa.

So you got friends in those places. Tell them about morning matter, but let them know that, hey, you can get the whole lesson at manor nation.com. We love you. Thank you so much. Praying for you every day, that you have a blessed and wonderful day. namely a pray that I pray that God's face shine upon you

that he is gracious under you that he brings you into his full presence and that your days are just blessed because your needs you're met your bills are paid

your body is healed your mind is at peace your relationships are met I just pray for God's blessing to be all over you. Amen. Because without you,

Doc and I couldn't do this. Yes, so grateful to you, to allow us to do what we've dreams of being. That's teachers of the word. That's right. See, your giving is this act of obedience. Now, you say, well, what if I don't give?

Are you guys going, are you saying you can't do this if I don't give? No, God will find somebody else to give. God will find somebody to do what you were supposed to do, but wouldn't do. Right. And they'll get the blessing instead of you. And they get the blessing. So do you desire your blessing? He'd be going to somebody else? No. He's chosen. He's linked you to this ministry. And if you're not a regular giver,

I'm telling you, there's another level of blessing coming on you when you start giving to this ministry. You're being blessed right now by just watching the lessons. But when you move into being a financial supporter, you go to another level of spiritual support. Because now you're actually participating with God in spreading his word. And you're becoming a funder where he can move funds through you like a pipeline. What we're supposed to be a pipeline. Let him move the money and resources through us to his destination. Praise God.

And make yourself that pipeline and watch what happens. Okay, we've got to go. See you tomorrow. God bless you. Love you. Thank you for watching Morning Manor. We hope your soul has been nourished today. We welcome and appreciate your prayers and financial support for our international Bible teaching ministry. Visit Manor Nation.com and kindly send a gift of appreciation and encouragement for our work for Christ and His kingdom. Manor Nation.com where souls are nourished.

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