TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Date: Feb. 16, 2026. Lesson 31-2026. Title: The Decision of the Wicked

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

Proverbs 21:7–8 contrasts the self-destructive nature of wickedness with the clarity of a pure life. The violence of the wicked drags them down because they refuse to act justly, while the path of the guilty is twisted and unstable. In contrast, the conduct of the pure is upright and transparent before God. In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart examine how injustice ultimately consumes those who practice it, why moral crookedness leads to collapse, and how walking in purity keeps one’s path straight and secure. Lesson 31-2026 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, good morning, everybody. Welcome to Morning Manna. This is where souls are fed. We invite you every weekday to join us for soul food breakfast as we dive down into

the Word of God and extract all of the nutrients we can find in each verse. Our home on the Internet is manna nation.com. And you can find previous lessons there at manna nation.com. Today's lesson number is 31-2026. So if you're watching on Faith TV, you can watch the rest of today's lesson at manna nation.com. look for Lesson 31-26. We're going to be studying verses 7 and 8 in Proverbs chapter 21. Only two verses today, 7 and 8, Proverbs 21. Let's pray, invite the Holy Spirit to preside over this class and teach all of us from the Word of God.

Almighty God, Father in heaven, we love you, Father, with all our heart, mind, and soul. Father, we invite your precious Holy Spirit to take charge of this Bible lesson and illuminate us with your word. Teach us and enlighten us, Father. Make us stronger, brighter witnesses for your son, Jesus Christ. And we pray in His wonderful name. Amen. Hey, Dr. Ricard, would you please read the verses 21, chapter 21, verses 7 and 8? I'm glad to, Rick. And if you've got your Bibles with you, I encourage you to open them up right now.

Let's get ready to read the Word of God together. I read from the King James Version. And so follow along here with me in Prevverbs chapter 21, verses 7 and 8. And it reads, The robbery of the wicked shall destroy them because they refuse to do judgment. The way of man is fraud and strange, but as for the pure, his work is right. This is going to require a bit of discernment and study. today to really get the real meaning of these versions, right, Rick? Yes, it will.

Always, when we're in the Old Covenant Scriptures, we read the King James and the Greek Septuagint. We read the Greek Septuagint in English, but those are the two translations, King James and the Septuagint. So let's start with verse 7, the robbery of the wicked shall destroy them because they refuse to do judgment. The Septuagint translation goes like this. Destruction shall lodge with the ungodly, for they refuse to do justly. Solomon introduces the law of spiritual physics. Violence always returns to the violent. Jesus said, you know, if you live by the sword,

you die by the sword. Okay. And that's what Solomon is saying here, if you are a person of violence, violence is going to return to you. The Hebrew word for robbery implies devastation, spoil, assault to rob somebody, to love them, to take their goods of the robbery of the wicked. Solomon speaks of the robbery of the wicked. And this can be rendered as the violence, the devastation, the plundering of the wicked. It speaks of a predatory mindset of the wicked and all the unjust forced fraud and predatory behavior by which the wicked enrich themselves and oppress others. It's a way of thinking, the robbery of the wicked. The Hebrew term conveys the use of violence for unjust gain, not merely petty theft. It includes

respectable forms of robbery, such as corrupt business practices, abuse of authority, exportation, coercive power, systematic injustice, gain achieved through force or manipulation, lawfare, using the law against innocent people, all ways of taking what is not rightly theirs. It sums it up everything. For example, a wealthy and powerful real estate developers sometimes used the government's right of eminent domain to see somebody else's land. Why? Because, well, they're committing another sin.

They're coveting land. Right. They're like if we could just get that poor person to get off that land, we could build a hotel or condominiums there, shopping center, or mall. And so we're going to use the city or county government to seize the property. That's what Solomon is including those kind of people in with the thug on the street with a gun. Or the thief that breaks through your door at night while you're sleeping and robs you.

So, Doc, the wicked, you know, this term, basically it refers to anybody that's living outside of God's order. Right. And it reflects an aspect to their character, right, that reveals a corrupt moral disposition. Not just you made a bad decision. This is a lifestyle for you. So the identity of this individual is reinforced by competing and a repeated refusal of justice in their lives. So Rick, robbery flows from character. I think you can say this from life, experience yourself, just observing people.

It's not a morally neutral behavior. Robbery just doesn't happen out of the blue. It's developed over a lifetime. what a person practices consistently reveals what they love fundamentally. And Jesus made it clear that we're going to deal with evil until he returns. As believers, we're going to deal with evil until he returns. Matthew 539 says, But I say unto you that you resist not evil,

but whosovers will smite the other right cheek, turn in the other also. Paul said we're going to encounter evil all the time. but there's a biblical response. Romans 12, 17 says, recompense to no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight of all men. So the reason why I bring those verses in is just because we live in a culture of corruption

or we might live in a society where cheating and thieving and robbery is commonplace doesn't mean that we as believers have to subscribe, to that, that we don't have to succumb to the temptation of a culture to pressure us to do evil things because we live in an evil society. I agree, Doc. And I agree with what you said, that the robbery that's spoken of in this verse is not an accidental wrongdoing. Oh, I accidentally robbed you. I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking when I put that gun in your rib. You know, it's not accidental.

The wicked do not steal occasionally. The wicked, they don't say, I don't know, something just came over me and I felt like doing something wicked today. The wicked do wicked things because they're wicked. Okay, sometimes you just have to admit that somebody that you know is wicked. And that's difficult for people

to admit that, hey, the reason they do that, the reason they do these evil things is because they are evil. It's what they are. It's who they are inside. So it's not just one act, but it's a settled way of life that seems normal to them. Yes. Robbing people seems normal to thieves. Killing people seems normal to murder. lying seems normal to liars.

They don't consider it abnormal. Because it's who they are, it's what they are. Their whole way of life is characterized by the use of force to take what belongs to others. That makes them a thief. So their lives have a settled pattern of seizing and cheating and lying and exploiting and harming others to get their own way and to take what doesn't belong to themselves. The King James says in this verse, the robbery of the wicked shall destroy them.

The Septuagint says, destruction shall lodge with the ungodly. So from the Septuagint angle, destruction shall lodge with the ungodly suggests that ruin becomes a constant guess in the sinner's life. It takes up residents with them, Doc? So the wicked

unknowingly have a house guest, the spirit of violent destruction. They got somebody living upstairs. That's right. In their house, okay? So using the Greek Septuagint, there's a vivid imagery in the Greek that portrays destruction, not as a sudden event, but as a permanent house guest. Wicked man invites violence into his home to help him get rich.

But violence moves into the spare bedroom and refuses to leave until it consumes all of the host who is the wicked person, the robber. Yeah, that's an amazing picture there, Rick, that you've invited a roommate. to live with you and to take advantage of your entire house. They're eating all the food out of the refrigerator. They're using all the dishes and leaving them in the sink. I mean, they're everything, you know. You know, St. John Christos of one of the church fathers,

had another perspective on this that you might find interesting, Rick. He warned that bringing stolen goods into your home is bringing a demon or a curse that eats away at the inheritance of your children. A pretty vivid picture there, isn't it? But the idea here is that sin carries its own penalty. So that robbery and violence that we're talking about this first, that they're using against others, becomes the means of their own ruin.

A way we would put it here in the U.S., they're going to get hanged by their own rope. So it's like a boomerang that any sin is going to return to them and bring back destruction. So the idea here is that the wicked are often destroyed by the very means they use to enrich themselves. Their violence recoils and brings ruin. So the robbery they commit is the cause of their own downfall, their own overthrow. God turns their weapons against them. And the robber of others is actually.

actually robbing himself most of all. Violence breed violence, and the wicked man is consumed by that violence. And so the idea here is that the wicked's cruelty is a chain that binds them. The violence he inflicts returns as judgment on his own head. Yeah, let's talk about this. The verse says, the robbery of the wicked shall destroy them. Wicked people often appear strong and successful for season. Their violence, whether it's physical violence or legal violence, it's still violence. But they can use it to build wealth and power and a fear-based influence. I mean, we see it with the mafia.

mafia leaders live wealthy lives we see with drug dealers the drug cartel leaders live luxuriously but these people often die violently

right the very this very violence is personified in this proverb as an executioner not the violence that they use to rob others executes the robber.

Yes. This house guest, this uninvited house guest of the robber. The robber unknowingly invites a house guest into his home, to lodge in his home. And that house guest is an executioner. Okay, so Doc, imagine you invite somebody

to live in your house, and it turns out his name is Freddie Krueger. Okay. I mean, think of Jack the Ripper. You've invited Jack the Ripper into your house, okay? This is what they're doing. The violent people, when they commit acts of violence to rob other people, they are inviting a demonic spirit into their home. And that spirit is an executioner.

And it's waiting inside their own homes. the tools that the robbers use against others will be turned back on them. And this executioner will destroy them. So the more that the person lives by violence, the more damaged, the more that they damage their conscience and their relationships and the communities. And they're setting the stage for an eventual collapse in their lives. Eventually, they destroy themselves. As I said, the very tools, the methods, the ways that they use to oppress the innocent to rob people are now used by God to oppress the wicked.

Make no mistake about it. God is turning this on them. He is the ultimate judge. He is the supreme judge of the universe. So a violent man digs a pit for others, but he falls into it himself. His own practices. his own ways becomes his his destruction. It's, Doc, it's like, you know, and we talked about this in other proverbs.

The wicked man is like a hunter who gets caught in his own snare. Right. His robbery becomes the trap that destroys him. Yes. Going back to church father, St. John Christosom, he taught that the violent man, and destroys his own soul. The harm that he does to others returns to him multiply. And another one of the church fathers said St. Basil, the great warn that the oppressor builds his house on blood. It collapses and buries him in the ruins that he created. Now let's dig in a little

bit here. Look at some of the words and where they come from. The Hebrew word here that is used for destroy in this verse is the Hebrew word gigar. It means to, it has a couple different meanings. It means either to saw, like to cut, or to drag swiftly like a net, drag fish. Okay. I like that image of the drag net, if you will. You know, you're caught in a trap, okay? Yeah, and you can't get out. And so the, wicked man is thinking that his violence is a tool to gain wealth or power. Solomon turns us around and it's actually a net that's going to drag him to his own execution. He's caught in that net. He's caught in the machinery of his own violence, his own aggression. So the proverb means that the wicked man, wicked man's own ill got gains

will eventually either saw them down like he saw a tree down or sweep them away like in a dragnet. The very thing they stole becomes the heavyweight that drowns them. William are not commenting on this particular passage of scripture here sent to violence. The wicked is a sword that turns back to pierce its owner. Doc, we often talk in this class about the divine order of the universe. Wicked people are in total opposition to the divine order. If you desire things to go

well for you and good for you in this life, you want to flow with the divine order. If you like things to go bad for you, you want to get crossways with the divine order. So God has ordered the moral universe so that unrighteousness collapses inward upon itself. sin is self-destructive evil carries within itself the seed of its own ruin yes in acts of evil there is a seed that seed will sprout and produce destruction for the person who is evil the verses shall destroy them other translations say sweep them away okay the phrase invokes a sudden overwhelming judgment like like a flood picks people up and carries them off of their feet washes away homes washes away cars having a sudden flood what happens here is that their own violent ways become the

flood. The flood that comes in and destroys them is their own violent ways. Yes. The energy that they unleash into the world comes back as a torrent that sweeps them out of their places of power, out of their places of position, out of their positions of wealth and influence. And sometimes, Doc, it sweeps them out of life itself and they die. Amen. It's overwhelming. So this is a... sowing and reaping. They sowed violence and they reap devastation. They dug a pit, but they fell into it.

They spread a net for the innocent, but they're called in it. It's the way God has set up the universe. If you think you're going to outsmart God, you are really a fool. He sows to the wind, but he reaps the world wind. The Greek phrase, destruction of the ungodly. I think, Doc, this has a, this speaks of the end times of the final day, the day of judgment, all right, that the ungodly man's entire life pattern of violence leads to his final perdition. Yes. Which is destruction on the day of judgment.

it's it's definitely sharing and that idea on the final day that there's going to be a reconciliation of the books on that day right things that you've sown you've sown to the wind and you're going to read the whirlwind so god god always balances his books okay the second verse the second segment of this verse because they refuse to do judgment that's the king james the subtoogen says for they refuse to do justly. Solomon said the wicked refuse to do justly. The Hebrew word for refuse indicates a willful, obstinate rejection. It is not that they cannot do justice.

It's that they will not do justice. Right. They're making a decision not to do justly. It is an expression of their will. They have looked at the law of God and they voted no. It's a decision. The Greek phrase refused to do justice emphasizes a settled, willful choice against righteousness.

The ungodly man's rejection of justice is a deliberate turning away from God himself. They're not just rejecting justice. They're rejecting the God of justice. the God of fairness, the God of righteousness. Again, this wicked man's refusal is not ignorance because they refuse. Salman says because they refuse. That shows that the root cause is outright rebellion against God.

The wicked man hates justice because it exposes and restrains his greed. and sin and his violence. Therefore, he hates it. These people exhibit willful, persistent rejection of righteousness, of goodness, of obedience to God. They do not merely fail to do justice. They actively refuse it. They reject it. Yes. The root of their ruin is a heart that rejects God's law. They refuse to submit to what is right. See, once again, we see this issue of submission. If you have not submitted to Christ, he is not your king. Amen. I don't care how religious you act. If you're not in submission to Christ, he is not your king. If you do not obey Christ, he is not your king. In his view, you're an outlaw.

Okay. Christ doesn't live in the United States of America. He doesn't live in Canada, Great Britain, France, Spain, Philippines, Thailand. He has his own kingdom. He has his own kingdom. And he has his own laws and his own ways. And if you do not obey his laws, you're an outlaw in his kingdom. And if he has to, he'll send angels to extradite you and bring you before. court of justice in his kingdom. So the wicked refuse judgment, and in this case, judgment means justice, because it would force them to give up the sins that they love. Amen. There's a reason why people sin. There's a reason why people sin, Rick, they like it. They like it. It isn't because the devil made them do it. All right? They do it because they like it. These people choose their sins over righteousness. They choose, ultimately they choose death over repentance. What's the consequence?

Destruction follows. So why does this destruction happen? Not because of ignorance. Not because they didn't know the way of God, but because of their stubborn refusal to obey God and to do what is right. The wicked are not confused about what is right. They reject it.

We've learned throughout the book of Prover. Amen. That God has put in every man and woman and knowing and understanding of what is right and wrong. None have an excuse on Judgment Day. This refusal is active. It's repeated. It is stubborn.

Evil persists because some people, let me rephrase this. evil persists not because some people are unsure what is right or wrong. Evil persists because righteousness is unwanted, undesired by many people. Amen. It's just that simple. They don't desire to be righteous. They desire to be sinful because they love what is wrong.

Their rejection seals their fate on Judgment Day. And Rick, I'm glad you pointed out that that refusal to do right is a decision. The refusal to do right is a decision. It's a decisive sin. And every time you make a decision, it hardens your heart and invites divine retribution. It's like calling up God saying, hit me. Okay. Every time you refuse to do right.

So refusing to do right, really, Rick, is the most dangerous posture. I would think a soul could take. It's cutting off your only path to mercy. And this refusal really is the ultimate rebellion. The man who will not do justice is declaring war on God's divine order, which we've talked about extensively, and therefore it's going to bring destruction on himself. And so the wicked man is like someone who refuses the only road to safety. He chooses going off a cliff instead of going across a bridge. And because

the wicked deliberately turn away from the justice of God, this willful choice is the very reason that violence ends up destroying them. Doc, I'm sure you'll remember years ago. He passed away just a few years ago.

There was a country music artist, a Billy Joe Shaver. and one of the most famous songwriters in Nashville. And he recorded a number of albums also. And Billy Joe lived a pretty wild, honorary life most of his years. But in his older days, he got saved and misserving the Lord. But he wrote one country song.

And the lyrics said something like this, talking about his sin. He said, the first time the devil made me do it the second time I did it all by myself. Well, I hate the time. The first time it was as well. So he blamed his sin on the devil the first time, but he took ownership of his sin on the second time.

And it was a humorous way of saying, this is the way people think about their sin. The refusal to do justice to treat people correctly, the way God desires people to be treated. It's actually It is rooted in pride because it rejects God's law and therefore it invites God's judgment The man or woman who refuses justice refuses God

at the heart of this thing They refuse God God. God is a God of justice and they invite a judgment, a destruction that they can't escape. I'd think doc, that refusing righteousness is the mark

of a reprobate. You've crossed the line. You're now actively resisting righteousness. And so the soul that will not do right becomes its own destroyer. This word

justly or judgment. King James says judgment, the subterugent says justly. Okay. Both of them refer to God's standard of equity and justice. The wicked man creates his own standard where might makes right. Yes.

You go, hey, I live by my rules, by my standards. No, we're supposed to live by God's rules and standards. But see, this is pride. This is this pride of a man or woman that says, no, I'm going to do it my way. So again, to refuse implies repeated action. They refused, repeatedly refuse. The first time that they stole from somebody, they hesitated. They knew I did something wrong.

The second time, they ignored their conscience. Third time, didn't bother them at all. they began to sear their conscience so that that light that got placed inside of them was snuffed out right they didn't want that light shining inside of them so then they get to a place where they flatly refused to consider justice at all yes that means they have hardened their hearts against the holy spirit yes and rick would people refuse to do justice society began to crumble. Therefore, God must remove the evil from the community to preserve the community. As evil and corrupt as this world is right now, this is the restrained version.

Because God is still sovereign and God is still taking out the wicked. Somebody's taken out early. Everyone's going to end up paying at some point. The idea here is, Rick is that rebellion is intentional. They refuse. They refuse. They refuse. So since a rebellion is intentional, God's destruction will be intentional as well and justifiable. They can't plead ignorance before the Great White Throne of judgment. And I know you touched on those words justly or judgment, but they're not used in legal sense here in this. We're talking about a way of life. To refuse this is to separate oneself from God. Basically, you're leaving your soul defenseless against the destruction that lodges within.

You know what, Rick, God is not locked. Injustice is never neutral. God sovereignly orders justice so that wickedness cannot ultimately prosper. He is active in the world today, taking out evil. but there is eventually going to be a day of accounting. Destruction is going to follow that persistent world refusal. This outcome is not unavoidable. It's chosen. You've chosen this path.

And the most damning aspect of hell, Rick, isn't that it exists, but that people choose it. Men are destroyed because they refuse the remedy of repentance and the practice of judgment. Rick, they've chosen hell. They've chosen it. There's no excuse. Charles Bridges had a commentary

on this particular passage. You said, it's not their ignorance. It's their obstinacy. They refuse to do judgment. They knowingly persist in the wrong. The spoil which they have seized shall drag them to the judgment seat. Alexander McLaren said,

The connection between crime and punishment is as certain as that between seed and harvest. The refusal to do right is the suicide of the soul. Doc, I'm thinking right now about a man that, oh, maybe about 15 years ago, I made a long-distance house call to lead his soul to Christ. He was listening to me on shortwave radio. Doctors was before you came to work for us. And so it's more than 12 years old, okay? And he was listening to me on shortwave radio from another country.

And the Holy Spirit told me to go visit him. And I made a trip to that country. And I've never, I don't know. think I've ever experienced anything where God had worked. I say, you know, God worked. God did so many things to woo that man's soul to repentance and salvation. And this man was so stubborn. And God was more determined that he was stubborn. I mean, God had this man's soul marked. I just like the Lord just said, you are going to get saved. That's all there is to it.

And he was saying, I am not going to submit to Christ. That's all there is to it. And I had listened to this man tell me stories of what God did. He was an atheist. And yet, he wanted to believe. Doc, I got down on my knees. He was seated on a chair in his living room. I got down on my knees in front of him and held out my hands and I said,

give me your hands, let's pray and let's go to God and let's ask God to save your soul. And he said, I don't do such a thing. You made a decision there. He made a decision. And I stood up and I said, you're a very stubborn man. I don't know if God is going to give you another chance. And the next day, I departed and flew back to Florida. But Doc, I'll give you the good report.

Many months later, he called, and he said, Rick, I'm saved. And I said, what happened? He said, Jesus appeared in front of me. Doc, the Lord loved this man so much. He appeared in front of you. Wow. And he believed. He believed. We underestimate how much Christ loves sinners. Don't write sinners off. You have to be really stubborn and evil for God to write you off as a reprobate. But you can't reach that stage. You can't reach that stage. Now sometimes, Doc, I think these people get saved after their lives have been destroyed here on Earth. They lose everything.

And then, you know, when you're laying on your back, you're looking up in sky, okay? When you've lost everything, that's when some people cry out to God. Okay. But also, some of them go to their grave and they're lost. but God is he's always merciful always reaching out to them always trying to bring them into the kingdom let's go to the next verse proverbs 21 verse 8 the way of man is froward and strange but as for the pure his work is right the Septuagin says to the froward god sends froward ways for his word are pure and right. And I'm going to throw in the modern world English Bible translation.

The way of the guilty is devious, but the conduct of the innocent is upright. We'll begin with this first one, first part. The way of man is froward and strange. That's the King James, subtuitant to the froward God sins froward ways. The King James translation differs from the Greek Septuagint. The King James translation implies that all the way, that the way of all mankind is froward and strange to God. The Septuagint says God deliberately sends froward ways to froward men and women.

Yes. Okay. So let's start with, Let's drill down into these words. The Hebrew word used for man is not the generic Adam as Adam. God called the first man Adam. Adam. The word used here for man means the man of guilt, the person of guilt, the stranger.

It refers to a human, man or woman, who is alienated from God by their sins. They're separated from God. This is not a righteous person who stumbles and commits a sin. This is a person whose ways are sinful. We've discussed this many times in Proverbs, the meaning of Fro-word. Okay. It means crooked, bent away from, twisted. Okay. It describes a moral spine that is shaped like a corkscrew rather than a straight pillar. If you can imagine, if somebody had a corkscrew spine, what would they look like?

they'd be all twisted and bent up see we're supposed to be upright we've got righteous means to be in right standing with god to be froward means to be bent away from god to be twisted crooked away from god god has a moral divine order to be forward is to be bent away from his divine order to be that you're thinking your behavior is twisted, crooked, not in alignment with God's order. The Septuagint says to the froward, God sends froward ways. If we side with the Septuagint as the accurate rendition of this verb, proverb, we can say that God gives the wicked over to their own confusion.

Yes. If a man chooses, if he deliberately, consciously chooses a twisted path, a crooked, twisted lifestyle, God allows that path to twist him into deeper darkness. God sends away to them. As we said, froward means crooked, twisted, been away. forward people are morally twisted. They're crooked. They're bent away from God's law. So God frustrates to crooked, twisted man or woman with paths that take them through life that are crooked and twisted and bent away from truth. He gives them what they desire. I know this becomes challenging, right? That God allows forward,

twisted, crooked, bent men and women to walk hard, twisted paths through life as their judgment. Because God allows righteous people to walk righteous paths. This may be difficult for some people to understand. Just say, wait a minute, are you saying God actually sins to them? A path of crookedness? Yes. Yes. That's what the scripture says. That's what it says. You persistently, repeatedly reject God, reject His ways, reject mercy, reject the Holy Spirit,

and you repeatedly deliberately choose sinful, crooked, twisted paths. God will eventually give you what you desire. Yes. Your whole life will be twisted and crooked. and you won't even have any awareness that God withdrew from you. That is frightening, absolutely frightening to me. Dr. Thinking, I mean, there was a time I was lost. I was, I got saved it when I was 24 years old.

I was lost. Doc, it frightens me to think that what if I had resisted the Holy Spirit what if I had deliberately continued to live a sinful life? At some point, would God have said, okay, Rick Wiles, I'm going to give you what you asked for. I'm going to give you a twisted, crooked life. And I wouldn't even know. That's terrifying to me. It is.

One of the questions I get asked as a pastor, sometimes as a missionary, is why does God allow evil? Why does he allow evil in the world? I want to make it clear that God is not the author of evil in any shape, form, or imagination. But God does use the evil of the wicked as preliminary judgment on them now. He allows their own wickedness to judge them now. And it's going to lead to that ultimate judgment on the final day. But I'm making it very clear here that God, it's not God's, fault, okay? This deviousness, this forwardness of sinners is a result of willful turning away from

God and its light that guides them through their life. They are willfully making choices that lead them to be estranged from God. So the King James Version says the forward man or woman is strange. okay what it means it's being uh means being uh weighted down with guilt which means their behavior in life ends up being erratic so the wicked if you will these they're strangers to that covenant of promise so man's way is strange what do we mean by that his way is strange it's foreign to the purity and the simplicity of god's commandments it's twist by sin. In reality, they're foreigners in God's universe.

They're living by Satan's rules that contradict the creator's laws. You know, it's interesting, Rick, the animals. You know, animals follow their instincts and they're true to their nature, right? The sun and the stars, you can look up and you can follow their courses. You can predict what they're going to do. thousands of years in advance, you can't.

But only fallen man follows this strange and erratic path. He rebels against the laws of his own being. Imagine if suddenly the star started behaving differently, all of a sudden. It would be contrary to the divine order. That's what the wicked does. They're living contrary to the divine order. Now, this verse described the natural.

state of followed man. Apart from grace, the human heart, it says in Jeremiah 179, is deceitable above all things and is desperately wicked. And it leads to life that is naturally strange to holiness and righteousness. That Greek phrase there from the Septuagint, perverted and strange, really underscores moral alienation. The ungodly man's way is not really crooked, but it's foreign. Foreign to divine nature. And it's basically the mark of an unregenerate life. Going back to St. John Christosum, he taught that the way of man is twisted because the soul is darkened by sin. Only grace can straighten out what sin has made crooked. St. Basil the Great warned that the perverse way is the mark of the man.

who refuses correction. He walks strangely because he has turned away from the light. So that strangeness of rebelling against God, when you really stop and think about it,

imagine if you went out one night and you're looking at the stars and everything, and the moon just started moving across the sky. Contrary to its nature of moving slowly, but all of a sudden

it started doing something weird. it would be going against the order of the universe. That is the wicked man. He's going against divine order. It's strange. It's foreign. It's weird. It's weird.

Why would you rebel against the omnipotent being of the universe? And yet they do. They make a decision to do that right. Yes. But on the other hand, the righteous do what is right. And so the second part of this, that's right.

The second part of this verse says, But as for the pure, his work is right. Septuagin says, for his works are pure and right, almost identical language. The Hebrew word for pure is often used for pure olive oil. It implies a character without mixture, free from the dregs of hypocrisy and double-minded, us, okay? So the same word is used in the Middle East for pure olive oil. This is pure. There's no dirt in it. The pure are those clean in heart and clean in conscience. Forgiving, they're forgiven. They fear God. They are sincere. They're not sinless. They are without, they have the fear.

of God and they repent. They're not sinless. They're quick to repent when they sin. Where guilt bends the whole way of the wicked, okay? Purity

straightens the work of that person. The inner cleansing shows itself in outward conduct that is right, it's straight, it's level, it's in line with God's moral order, his divine order of the universe.

Purity of heart produces purity of life. There's an inner transformation from the Holy Spirit that inevitably flows outward into righteous behavior. The pure man or pure woman's work is right because their heart is right. Grace straightens what the sinful nature has. had previously made crooked, their fallen nature. God knows we're born with a fallen nature, but he gives us grace to straighten it out. Amen. The pure and heart walk up rightly. Their works, their doings in life conform to God's divine order. They are in right standing. They are righteous.

They are in right standing with God because their desire is to over. obey God, to please God. That's the desire of their heart. Whereas the desire of the wicked man or woman is to do his own will, which is pride and rebellion. The righteous man or woman says, I submit my will. I surrender my will. I desire to do the will of my father. It all comes down to whose will are you doing? So the pure man's conduct is straightforward. There's no guile. There's no turning aside. And what you see is that purity produces integrity. So that pure man or woman there, Rick, doesn't need stealthy, crooked records, methods, do they? They can walk right out in the open. Why? Because they're under the pressure of hidden guilt.

You ever met a guilty person, how they behave, they know what they've done is wrong, and they do their best to try to hide it, but they really can't hide it. But a good person's works are right because they're done in love and in faith, and they're done for the glory of God. Rick, a pure heart produces pure works, upright works. The man, cleansed by grace, cannot walk in a correct path. The pure and heart sees God. The one who sees God lives rightly.

Correct? After you've seen the glory of God, how can you not live rightly? Proverge 20 verse 11. We studied this a few weeks ago. Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure and whether it be right. Even a child, even a child is known by his doings. Now, theologically, what all this implies and what it leads up to what it anticipates is the new covenant promise yet to come. God gives a new heart, and from that new heart flows a new way. Justification and sanctification meet in a life that is increasingly straight.

But we do not come by this naturally. Naturally, each one of us comes by evil natural. We don't have to work at it. We come by it naturally. Romans 312 says, there is none good. We talked about Jeremiah 17.9. the heart is exceedingly deceitful. Isaiah 53-6, all we like sheep have gone astray.

Who then is pure? Who can claim purity? Who can say, I am the pure man. I am the pure woman. Only the redeemed. Only the redeemed can say that. Isaiah 118 says, come now. This is the invitation by the Lord.

This Old Testament stuff here. Come now. Let us reason together, say it the Lord. though your sins be as scarlet, they should be white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. You can make a different decision. You can go a different path, but it's going to require redemption by a holy God in your life.

But he has already sent out the invitation. Come now, come now, and let us reason together, say it the Lord. Amen. King Solomon has said, as for the pure, Okay, he's referring to the man or woman whose heart has been cleansed by grace, purified through faith and repentance and the renewing work of the spirit. As for the pure, his work is right. That means his activity, his actions, his ways in life are straight and unjust and right in the eyes of the Lord,

his conduct, his actions, his labor are in alignment with the divine moral order of the universe. So the pure man or woman is the one who has been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. So that teaches us about imputed righteousness and is the one who is being sanctified by the Spirit. Sanctification is a process. the Holy Spirit is working in us from the time that we're born again to the moment we take our last breath. We're being sanctified. This person's works are right,

not because the person is perfect, but because the person does these works in faith and in love for love of God. Therefore, God declares that person's works to be perfect, even though the person is imperfect. They're pure because God sees the attitude of the heart. Yes. You know, Rick, the early church fathers often connected pure works to a concept that they called nepsis. That was the Greek word. It means watchfulness. Basically, it means that your righteous life, the pure life, acts as a prophet, acts as a watchman in whatever community that you find,

yourself in, a church community, civic community, whatever it might meet. The pure man keeps his mind straight and refuses to let his thoughts wander into crooked paths and fantasy or resentment. In other words, the pure man becomes the measuring stick, if you will, for the rest of society. That word right there is the Hebrew word Yashar. And it means either could mean pleasing, or coming back to the idea of that measuring stick, it can mean level. So the work of the pure man brings peace to his environment. It levels out, if you will, the mountains of pride and fills the valleys of despair. So the text here is applying that you can identify the nature of the man by the geometry of his life.

What don't we mean by that? if the man's life is a constant tangled nod of drama and deceit, that means the heart is strange. If the life is a straight line of integrity, the heart is pure. Now, the world may call the pure man or pure woman simple, or they might call them naive or goody two shoes, whatever, you know, whatever derogatory word for doing right comes to their mind. The reason why they do that is because, you know, the pure man doesn't play their crooked games. God calls his work right. And so that devious forward path leads right to the cliff.

The right path leads to the city of God. The pure man's work endures because it is built on the plum line, of truth, Rick. Amen. We've got some quotations from the great Bible teachers and scholars and commentators of centuries ago. I'll let you start with Albert Barnes, Presbyterian pastor in Philadelphia in the 1800s. Yes, so Albert Barnes said the way of the guilty man is devious, but the conduct of the innocent is upright. The wicked man's path is twisted, the pure man's is straight.

Alexander McLaren, a Baptist preacher in England in the 1800s, said, sin is a twist. A sinner is a man with a kink in him. He is forward, that is from word, turned away from what he ought to be. But the pure man is right. His life is a straight line. The shortest distance between two points, God and the soul. And William R. not had this to say,

The way of the guilty is crooked. He winds about to conceal his path. He's afraid to look his own conscience in the face, but the work of the pure straight, he has nothing to conceal. He walks in the light. Well, that's our lesson for today. Hope it's been a blessing to you.

We only did two verses today, but there was a lot to unpack. We are very grateful that you take time, to be with us. It means a lot to us. I know I'm speaking for Doc, but I'm telling you from my heart, your participation every day is a tremendous source of joy in my life. I work long and hard. Both Doc and I, we work long hours to prepare these lessons for you, but it is a labor of love. I do it for you. I do it for my king.

My king desires that his sons and daughters be fed. I'm just a chef in the kitchen. That's the way I look at it, Doc. And, you know, we spend a lot of time. I'm not a short-order cook. You know, I'm not frying eggs and pancakes. I'm preparing a five-course meal. I could do this a lot quicker.

we could slap out a Bible lesson and get it over with very quickly and go on with our day. But that's a short order cook. You know, here's your bacon, here's your egg. I see you tomorrow, okay. Or you can go to a nice restaurant and be served a beautiful meal that the chef spent all day preparing. That's the way I see it, because I'm doing this unto the Lord. He said, feed his people. And Matthew, he said, you know, when he returns, will he find,

will he find his servants serving the right meal at the right time? Yes. Okay. When he comes back, you know, I hope we're in the middle of a morning man of class when he comes back. that would be just great when he returns i hope i'm in a morning man of class okay doing exactly what he said to do lord you caught me i'm serving your i'm serving your word i'm serving you lord i'm giving the people jesus yes that's why we do this and i'm i'm honored that you come and uh grateful that you support us our january uh giving was down significantly okay

we need a boost. We need a boost. And so those of you who have not given for the month of January or February, I ask that you go to the Lord and ask him what he desires you to do. I know he will take care of us. I know that, okay? He will. I'm just telling you on surface level, okay, January was down compared to last January.

Okay. And, but my faith says God has a, he has people that will make up for the loss. Okay. He has people who he's going to bless in abundant ways. And I know, I know all of our needs will be taken care of. Doc, thank you. Appreciate your participation here today. Your wonderful co-labor in the kitchen. I appreciate that, Rick. For those of you who do desire to give, be obedient to the Lord, visit manna Nation.com. And on Manna Nation, you can find all the information that you need for any variety of ways that you can give and help support this ministry. We really, really, really appreciate it. Be obedient to the Lord and your giving.

So any final words before we close out today's listen, Rick? Well, Doc, yesterday I spent the entire day working on. the new man on nation platform is coming in it. The Lord just gave us some great ideas and insight, how to structure it. And yesterday was a blessed day. And you're really going to, I believe you're going to go wow when you see it.

I really do. I believe you're going to be, you're going to be blown away by the new manna nation is coming. So be patient. We're working on it. hoping to have it out by now. But sometimes it's just got to stay in the oven until the cake is done. Right. And it's still rising, Doc. Amen. So all right. Well, on that note, we appreciate you being here with us for today's morning manor. Be sure to tune in tomorrow. We'll have more from the book

of Proverbs. God bless you. We love you. God bless. See 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 manorination.com and kindly send a gift of appreciation and encouragement for our work for Christ and His kingdom, manoration.com, where souls are nourished. Bye! Please return for more soul food. We love you!