TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Date: Feb. 19, 2026. Lesson 34-2026. Title: The Cry That Goes Unheard

Episode Date: February 19, 2026

Proverbs 21:12–13 reveals both divine awareness and moral consequence. The righteous God observes the house of the wicked and brings ruin upon those who persist in evil. At the same time, the one who closes his ear to the cry of the poor will one day call out and receive no answer. In today’s Morning Manna, Rick Wiles and Doc Burkhart explore how God watches over justice, why compassion reflects His character, and how indifference to suffering invites serious spiritual consequences. Lesson 34-2026 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, Rekwiles and Dr. Burkla. Get your Bible and notebook and get ready to here before. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Morning Manah. We are delighted that you're here today to spend this time studying the Word of God with us. If you're watching on Faith TV, we'll run out of time.

while we're on Faith TV. But you can watch the rest of the Bible lesson at our website, manna nation.com. Today's lesson number is 34-26, 34-20206. Go to manna nation.com and look for today's lesson. Usually our lessons go about 60 minutes, sometimes, maybe 90 minutes. We try not to go too much over 60 minutes. but we're only on faith TV for half an hour. So you'll have to go over to manonation.com to complete the lesson.

Okay, so let's pray. And then Dr. Burkhard is going to read the scriptures for today. We'll begin our lesson. Father God, our Father in heaven. Father, we love you and praise you. And your sons and daughters from many nations are gathered right now at manonation.com in this live Bible study at 8 a.m. Eastern Time. and people all over the world are gathered together to be taught.

So we invite the Holy Spirit to take charge of this class and educate us, illuminate us, and bring us into knowledge of your kingdom. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Amen. Good morning. Welcome to morning, man. We're so privileged to have you join us today as we study the Word of God together. Today we're studying Proverbs chapter 21, verse 12 and 13,

versus 12 and 13. So while you're turning there, a reminder, our lesson number today is 34-26. That's 34-2026. So whether you're watching us on television or if you want to come back and see this episode again and let's longer format, you can do that as well,

go to mananation.com. That's m-a-n-n-a-nation.com. And just look for lesson number 34. 28, 26. Proverbs chapter 21, verses 12 and 13 today. Let's read together, shall we? The righteous man widely considered the house the wicked, but God overthroth the wicked for their wickedness.

Whoso stopeth his ears and the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard. Two great verses here, and we're going to glean a lot of great information from this lesson today, right? So if this is your first time with us, our method of teaching is to take each verse and break it into two or three segments, learn all that we can in each segment,

then put it together for a comprehensive understanding. So we're going to begin with the first segment of Proverbs 12, the righteous man wisely considereth the house of the wicked. Now, the Hebrew language allows, for two legitimate interpretations of the identity of the righteous man. You could say the righteous man is a godly person who studies the downfall of the wicked. Other people and some very esteemed Bible scholars, renowned, respected Bible scholars, say that the righteous Bible scholars say that the righteous

Man is actually the righteous one that is referring directly to God as the one who examines the wicked household. So some Bible translations and some Bible scholars prefer the phrase righteous one to righteous man. As I said, they believe that the righteous one refers directly to God and that he's observing the house of the wicked. However, the King James, the authorized King James version, and Doc the Anglican Church, they were wise in marketing. They said authorized.

They put authorized. That means everything else out there, it means everything else out there not authorized, okay? So the authorized King James Version, and a lot of scholars such as Matthew Henry, they view this as meaning a godly person, a godly man or woman who is observing the worthly prosperity of a wicked household.

So it says that they wisely considereth. The Hebrew word will considereth means to look with insight, to ponder, to understand the end of a thing. I mean, you know, when we put our hand on our chin and look at something, we're pondering. That's the image that you get here, that the wise, the godly man or woman is looking at the prosperity of the wicket and thinking, where is this all going to end? It's not going to have a happy ending. So the righteous man or woman does not envy the wicket because he or she wisely considers their future. There's a connection to

Psalm 73. I was envious until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then I understood their end. Now, to the natural eye, the house of the wicked looks strong. I mean, they live in mansions. They drive luxury automobiles.

Often they have private jets and airplanes. They dine in the greatest and most expensive restaurants. everything about their life is large and luxurious compared to the house of the righteous. So the righteous man looks at the house of the wicket, their wealth, their family, their stability, their image, their influence, all this is in the house. It's not talking about the building that they live in, the house of the wicket. It describes everything about them. their business, their income, their investments, their friends, their legacy. They look at the house of the wicket, and they're not fooled by the facade because the

righteous man or woman sees the cracks in the foundation. Baptist John Gill lived hundreds of years ago. He noted that the righteous man or woman considers that the prosperity of the wicked is a snare, that their happiness is temporary, but their judgment is inevitable. The Septuagin says, a righteous man understands the hearts of the ungodly, okay? They understand. They discern, they ponder, and they understand the hearts of the ungodly. So, Doc, let's talk about this phrase wisely considerth.

Right. Rick, and that phrase wisely considerous means that he's looking carefully, thoughtfully. It's not, he's not fooled by appearances. He weighs the end of the wicked, not just their present prosperity. And you mentioned the House of the Wicked here that's not just limited to a physical structure. It includes everything, the whole estate, if you will, family, dwelling, possessions, reputation, the apparent security of their life and line, I would say their influence,

their influence, the worthy influence the world that they walk in. So the righteous man, and he observes that even when the wicked seem to flourish, where the appearances that they're flourishing, there's actually instability and, of course, judgment that's hanging over the house. So that prosperity is fragile,

and extremely short-lived. So the righteous person does not envy the wicked. Instead, he reads their house as a parable of what comes out of living without the fear of God. So for the righteous person, their wickedness becomes a life lesson. And this considering is a marker of wisdom. You know, the wise person is thinking this through, that's observing it, that's pulling out applicable information. He interprets the providence of God.

The wise person learns from how God deals with the wicked rather than stumbling over it. Okay. So for the believer, this should settle your hearts. God is still in charge. He's aware of the wickedness of the wicked. Okay? Learn from it.

Watch it. Don't emulate it, of course. But you could still learn from it. If you can't be an example, be a lesson, right? So he sees, for example, how sin in the head of a household spreads to the whole house. It corrupts children. It corrupts the relationship and the marriage. It corrupts staff.

It corrupts the atmosphere of the whole. And I would say that the same can apply to nations as well. So he also sees, the righteous person also sees that God is patient, but he's certainly not indifferent, right? The house of the wicked is under inspection from above and not ignored. In other words, there's an all-seeing eye that's watching. That phrase, wise consideration is like an ex-raying vision of faith. It sees the sword of Damocles hanging over the dinner table,

What's the sword of Damocles? In the ancient story written by Cicero, Damocles is allowed to sit in the ruler's palace at a lavish banquet, but there's a big giant sword suspended above his head, and that sword is held by a single horse there. And the lesson is to show the privilege and authority. You can't separate them from vulnerable to anxiety.

In other words, you're hanging, that where we get that phrase hanging by thread, that's where that comes from. And that's where the wicked stand before God in this verse. Okay, Doc, I knew about the sword, but I did not know that the phrase hanging by thread came from that story. Yes. So it's a sword hanging by a horsehair. Yes.

Okay, so that implies that any. moment, the sword can fall. That's right. And it's just held by a whisper, a paper, a single horse hair. Most of people don't know what a horse hair is. If you've been raised in any kind of farm environment, you've encountered that, horses can have extremely long hair. And they're actually pretty strong, but they're not impervious to be broken.

And so the lesson is that you've got sword hanging in the bottom of your head. It's not scripture, but it's still a great lesson. Yes. Well, let's go over these key points to gain greater clarity about this proverb. Let's talk about who is the righteous man. If we accept the viewpoint that the righteous man is a human and not God, then the righteous man is a man or woman whose life is aligned with God's righteousness, one who fears the Lord, walks in integrity, lives by faith.

What does it mean that they wisely consider? Wisely consider means to observe with understanding, discernment, and insight. It's not just mere curiosity, but it's thoughtful reflection with moral, purpose. The godly person observes the pattern and the eventual ruin of the wicked. Again, it implies thoughtful reflection, not envy or imitation. The righteous don't observe the wicked and their prosperity to be envious of their prosperity. The righteous observe them to learn a lesson that says you're going to have an unhappy ending

and I don't want to I don't want to copy your behavior I'm going to watch you because you're coming to an unhappy end so this contemplation by the righteous man or woman is not curiosity

not like man I've got to peek in the windows and watch these people it's a means of grace that strengthens the righteous man or woman's own commitment to righteousness. So righteous people learn caution by watching how sin destroys families. Yes. That's what they get out of this.

Right. Don't do that. All right. If you watch this person and you see that their life eventually is destroyed, then you learn those are the things I should not do. So what about the house of the wicked? It refers to the household, the family, the possessions, the life structure, the business. They said earlier everything of this wicked person is encompassed in this phrase,

the house of the wicked. It's his or her outward prosperity, their family lives, their business, their investments, their influence, their political power, everything, the house of the wicked. What do we, we talk about monarchies, and we'll say the house, like in Saudi Arabia, the house of Saud. Right. Okay. Well, the house of sod means the entire monarchy, the whole family.

Yes. Their power, their wealth, everything. So the righteous man or woman is looking past this outward prosperity of the wicked. and they see the emptiness in the wicket, and even more they see the coming judgment that is going to strike them. Yes. Even in Western culture, we have the idea of houses like the royal family in Britain. It used to be the House of Tudor with Elizabeth I,

and after that it went to the House of Windsor. That's the current ruling house right now, the House of Windsor. And so we used to have that our Western culture, too. So, well, let's find out what some of the church fathers said about this particular proverb. St. John Christosthen taught that the righteous man looks at the wicked man's house with wisdom. We've been teaching here today. He sees the temporary nature of the prosperity there and the certainty of their judgment. He also linked this proverb with spiritual maturity.

He taught that spiritual maturity includes discerning the instability of the wicked their success and understanding the inner hearts of the ungodly. In other words, they can be a lesson for us. St. Basil the Great Warren that the righteous man considers the end of the wicked. He learns to fear of God

and avoid the path that leads to destruction. If you know someone is on a hot trail to hell, you know to avoid that trail. Matthew Henry teaches that the righteous man looks upon the wicked man's house with a wise and sober eye, and he sees through the appearance of prosperity to the certain ruin that awaits. John Gill explained that the righteous man prudently considers the wicked man's household. He observes their ways their end and the coming judgment that awaits them. And then Adam Clark, Wreck, noted that the righteous man

contemplates the wicked man's house with understanding. He sees the tempering nature of their wealth, but the certainty of their destruction. Yes. Charles Bridges stressed that the righteous man is not dazzled by the wicked man's outward success. He considers their house wisely and learns to fear God. Pastor Albert Barnes observed that the righteous man looks at the wicked man's house with discernment.

He sees the fragility of their prosperity and the certainty of divine judgment. Charles Spurgeon preached that the righteous man studies the wicked man's house as a warning and sees the storm coming and takes refuge in God. Alexander McLaren emphasized that the righteous man's house. man's wisdom is seen in his contemplation. He considers the end of the wicked and chooses the path of righteousness. G. Campbell Morgan noted that the righteous man looks at the wicked man's house with clear eyes. He sees the emptiness behind the appearance in the judgment that is sure. And William are not of Scotland likened the righteous man to a wise observer. He watches the wicked man's

house and learns the lesson that sin ends in ruin. Now, we'll look at the second segment of this proverb, but God overthroweth the wicked for their wickedness. But God. But God. So it's two words. I think they're the most powerful two words in the Bible, though. But God.

Anytime God shows up on the scene, all things are possible. He gets the final word. But God introduces the decisive contrast. While the righteous man wisely observes, God actively judges. What does God do? He overthrews the wicked. So the righteous man or woman is observing

what the Lord, at the appropriate time, judges. He overthrews the wicked. The Hebrew word for overthrow means to ruin, to bring to destruction, a complete and final judgment. So who is overthrown? The same wicked person whose house was observed by the righteous one, the one whose life is marked by evil, oppression, rejection of righteousness. So the righteous man or woman is observing the wicked house, but it is good. God who brings judgment on the wicked house. Why are they overthrown?

It's very simple. Solomon gives you the answer for their wickedness. You don't have to search any farther. They're brought down for their wickedness. So this shows that the overthrow is not arbitrary. That God didn't just stand up from his throne and say, who am I going to destroy today? Oh, I'll just pick this person.

No, he doesn't act that way. The destruction of the wicked is a just retribution for their persistent sin and refusal to repent. In other words, they brought it on themselves. And so God just gave them what they were begging for. That's right. So it is just, is absolutely just. Now, when we talk about the first segment of this verse, you mentioned Greg that there were two schools of thought about who the individual is there, whether it was a righteous man or the righteous

one. To me, it doesn't make a bit of difference here. Either way, they are being observed and judge, and the wise, the righteous should be observing these things anyway. But the second segment makes it very clear, who does the overthrowing? It's God. It's Almighty God who topples and brings down the wicked. The Hebrew word Salafin is the word for overthrow. And one meaning of that word, Rick, is to wrench, you know, like to grab a twist, a violent twist or a hole. And it really, it implies a decisive, often sudden reversal. What seemed firm now was turned upside down. Now why does he do this. Why does God bring this about? He does it for their wickedness, as you talked about earlier. And once again, this isn't some arbitrary decision God said, I'm just going to do this today.

But it's judgment. Their own evil brings down God's judicious response. And this judgment is going to come in two phases. It comes in this life to a limited degree, but there's going to be an ultimate judgment on the final day for their wickedness. The balance sheets, Rick, will eventually all be balanced. Absolutely. Doc, I had a thought while you were speaking. Okay, so the proverb clearly shows us, the righteous man or woman is observing the ways of the wicked, learning lessons from it.

And it's clearly obvious, it's God who destroys the wicked, brings them down. but that also teaches us it is not the job of the righteous to bring judgment on the wicked that's God's job right for you to try to bring down the wicked is for you to

move out of your lane and try to get over into the lane that belongs entirely to God he does judging he does the ruining He brings the destruction. It reminds me of the parable, the wheat and tears. And Jesus gives the parable that, you know, a farmer sowed wheat.

But while he was, while good men slept, the good men, the enemy came and sowed tears. Yes. The good men are the righteous men and women, and they were sleeping. and the enemy came and sewed tears. And so the good men and women in the parables say to the master, do you want us to pull up the tears? And the master said, no, let them grow side by side with the wheat. Yes.

And now you understand that parable a lot better now. Right. With this verse. Who does the plucking of the teeth? tears on Judgment Day. See, the angels, the reaper angels come with Jesus Christ and they pluck up the tears. Because we don't know exactly who is a tear. We can get it wrong.

Yes. We could pull somebody up that's not a tear and accuse them of being a tear and treat them like a tear. There's a tear as a weed. It's a look-like weed. And we can wrongly judge someone and do damage. to their lives and find out later they weren't a tear. But the reaper angels on Judgment Day, they know exactly who are the tears. Right. And so Jesus teaches in that parable, just let them grow up side by side. Doc, when I finally came to understand that parable, it took so much

pressure and tension off of me. Like, what do we do with all these wicked people? I mean, really, it's just let them go. All right? They're going to be dealt with. There's a plucking day coming. Okay? And that's what this is teaching. You observe the wicked, learn the lessons, and learn this.

They're going to be plucked up one day. And you, you described wrenching, okay, that is a violent twisting and turning and pulling. And you wrench something, man, you grab it and pull it out.

So how does this wrenching happen? it can happen in various ways. There could be financial ruin, bankruptcy. There could be legal judgments. There could be a collapse inside the family, moral rot in the family. There could be scandals, public exposures, like I said, economic collapse. And of course, the worst of all is judgment day. So the proverb is reassuring the righteous that no wicked house is,

truly secure. Right. None. I spent years, you know, with another podcast, 26 years, explaining to people

about the houses of the wicked. And there are a lot of Christians who are, you know, spending an enormous amount of time trying to investigate and know everything they can about the wicked.

At the end of the day, what good is it? What do you do with it? They're still going to be wicked tomorrow. You got it. They don't care that you know that they're wicked. They don't care. Okay. You have to come to the place where you let the Lord deal with them

and just know, okay, your day's coming. I'm going to watch, I'm going to live a righteous life, and I'm going to watch you. And I know for certain there's a plucking day coming for you. You're going to get rinsed right out of the earth. We're seeing it right now. We're seeing exposure of great corruption in the world.

That's God's wrenching, dog. I believe God is wrenching people right now. There are certain people that, you know, I'm talking about powerful, wealthy people who, if you go back to, to the COVID pandemic days. They had enormous power and influence, and they were trying to bring wicked things upon the earth.

And those people have been riched, and they no longer have the power that they had just six years ago. And so we see it taking place right now in the world. So this also warns the wicked. the very thing that built their house, which was wickedness, is the reason God will eventually pull it down. And as pastors and teachers,

part of our job description is to point out the tears, but not to pull them up. It seems like there's a bunch of people out there nowadays. They have the ministry of tear pulling out there. And what's going to happen to you end up, We can observe it on a day-to-day basis just on social media. You end up taking good people down too when you try to take down her wicked. Observe the wicked.

That's what the wise people do. Observe the wicked. Don't participate in their deeds, of course. And I would certainly say point them out. That's a terror. You know, avoid the tears. So God in destroying them, destroying these tears, He's not doing it arbitrarily here.

He destroys them because they're wicked, because those are evil. The punishment justly fits the crime. So the wicked man's house here is built on lies. God brings it down because he is just and holy. Any house that's built on wickedness, those lives, the lies of fraud, the lies of oppression, the lies of pride, I hate to tell you, they've got built-in self-destruct mechanisms in them. They're going to blow up one day.

And Rick, you forwarded a verse to me. That is, I had never seen this verse, I've probably ran it a hundred times, but never connected here. And so back at chapter 2, verses 9 through 11. And before I quoted here, imagine your house being cold. your house called into a court of law. And your house took the stand

and your house was testifying against the owner. Well, that's how bad evil gets. Habakkuk 2, 9 through 11 says, woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house. For the stone shall cry out of the wall. So when we talk about this phrase, everything that the wicked does is influenced by his wickedness. And even the wickedness cries out from the walls of that house of influence.

So this phrase here, it can also mean that God hurls them into ruin or overthrows them into evil. So this term implies a sudden reversal. One moment, the house is standing. Maybe it's prosperous. Maybe it's achieved a pinnacle of power. But the next, it's a heap of rubble. Great example on scripture, Solomon Gamora. So King Solomon is teaching us to trust, trust, trust,

the moral arc of the universe. The old-timers would put it this way. There's going to be a payday someday. Will we see wicked regimes or corrupt businesses? thriving, take heart, wisely consider that God is merely waiting for his cup of iniquity to fill before he tips the table over. Dr. this verse in Habakkuk, for the stone shall cry out of the wall. And you said, what if your house was called as a witness in a trial?

Think about how many times you've heard over your lifetime somebody say, boy, if these walls could talk. What do they mean by that? That if the walls had voices, the walls would have a lot of things to say, the things that the walls heard in Saul. Habakkuk is implying, they're going to be called as witnesses.

The stone of your house, the wall of your house, the bricks of your house, the wood of your house, the wood of your house is going to testify of what took place inside your house. Doc, can you imagine on Judgment Day God calling, I call these bricks to the witness stand? What bricks? What did you hear, oh, brick?

Oh, yeah. I heard many things, Lord. I heard many things. Well, listen, in the Old Testament, God called the mountains. to be witnesses against Israel. That's right. That's right.

He said, what did you? He brought him on to witness, Dan, and said, what were they doing on the mountains? Well, they were practicing idolatry. And so God called the mountains as witnesses against Israel. Let's review the four main points of this proverb so far. Number one, God is the active judge. the overthrow of the wicked is not accidental. It's not just something that happens at random.

It is God's directing a work of justice. Number two, judgment is caused by wickedness. The wicked are overthrown for their wickedness. Their own sin is the reason for their ruin. And their destruction is certain because their wickedness is great. and they are unrepentant of their wickedness. Number three, the wicked prosperity on this earth is temporary. Their house may appear big and prosperous and secure,

but God brings into destruction in his time. And number four, judgment is righteous and it's certain. God's overthrow of the wicked is an act of perfect judgment, justice. God's overthrow is an act of perfect justice. The wicked reap what they have sown. Now, let's go to verse 13. Whoso stop with his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself but shall not be heard.

The Septuagin says, He that stops his ears from hearing the poor himself also shall cry, and there shall be none to hear him. We'll begin with the first part of the scripture. Who so stop with his ears at the core. cry of the poor. Solomon introduces vivid imagery. Stoppeth his ears. Okay, so this is not passive deafness. It's active refusal to listen. It implies that the cry is loud enough to be heard. Actually, too loud, because this person doesn't want to hear it. Right. And so this man or woman

deliberately tunes it out. He or she turns up the volume. You know, in today's world, we turn up the music, we turn up the television, crank up the audio on the laptop, do something. Bring in more noise to drown it out. They got to do something to drown out the sound.

So the cry, the cry is a shriek. This isn't just a, oh, this is a shriek. It's a groan of anguish. It is a call for help. It is somebody in deep distress. It's not a plight request. Oh, could you help me? No, it's the sound of intense suffering.

And this person closes his ears. So it's the cry of the poor. It's just talking about the weak, the low. the helpless, the impoverished, the widows, the orphans, the debtors who have no legal protection. It's those who are being attacked by powerful, wicked people and don't have the means to defend themselves. It applies to anyone whose life is broken and lacks the resources to fix it, whether it's financially, emotionally, spiritually. It could be somebody. their family is falling apart.

There is a cry. There's a cry. Help me. I don't know what to do. So, Doc, to stop your ears, before you can stop your ears to hearing the cry of a poor person, you have to first harden your heart. Hardening the heart comes first.

And it's the ultimate act of selfishness. You're trying to protect your heart. own comfort by ignoring another person's pain. Methodist, theologian Adam Clark, said hundreds of years ago that the man who stops his ears is monstrously cruel. Compared him to a monster, he has the power to help, but he refuses to even acknowledge the need. St. Basil the Great taught that the bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry the coat in your closet belongs to the naked

and to keep it is theft those are pretty challenging words there from Basil those old boys were they didn't mess around did they dog you know it's one thing to hear the cries but to do this to stop your ears

that that's a deliberate act there it's not accident deathness. It's a deliberate, willful act of refusal. You are actively shutting out there crying for hell. There's a Hebrew word here for shut, and that word is a tom. It means to shut, like the closing of the shutters on your house, right? So imagine a person who doesn't want to be disturbed. I do this off. I'll put ear plugs in. If I'm wanting to block out all the noise and everything in the house and focus on reading or whatever it might be,

I do that on purpose, but I don't do it to block the cry of the poor. Imagine people walking around with fingers in their ears to block out the poor as they cry out around them. And once again, you know, the cry of the poor here is not just, you know, a complaint or, anything like that. We're talking about urgent appeal. The voice of those who are genuinely in need, genuinely oppressed, genuinely in distress. And this could include economic poverty, but also those that have been wrong, those that are powerless, those that are afflicted. Wherever weepeness cries for help, this problem applies. A couple of verses here, I have I think relate to this from the New Testament.

Now, give us some bearing on this in the life of the believer. James 213 said, for judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment. First John 317, if anyone with earthly possession sees his brother at need, but withholds his compassion from them, how can the love of God abide in him?

And then, of course, in the sermon on the mountain, Jesus talked about the merciful, blessed or the merciful for what? They shall obtain mercy. We as believers have to be compassionate in the world around us. Understand that they're genuine, poor, genuine oppressed, genuine people that are weak, that have no one to defend them. we as believers need to step in that gap. We may not have to pull up the tears,

but we can sure help some of the stalks of grain that need our help. Doug, I often will take a verse where Jesus made a promise and then do the reverse. Like you flip it around. So Matthew 5, 7, Blessed are the merciful, for they will be. shown mercy. So what's the flip side? Unhappy, unblessed are the unmerciful, for they will not be shown mercy. Every promise he makes has a flip side. I think people just think, oh, it's the other side is

neutral. Okay, he makes a promise and, okay, here's the good payoff. You know, they see it as a payoff. Oh, here's a payoff. Here's a good payoff. They never think about that the flip side is very negative. think it's neutral. No, there's an opposite. Doc, years ago, many, many years ago, my son, Jeremy is a filmmaker. And I think the very first film he made was called Sing a Little Louder. And it was, you can find this online, sing a little louder. And it was a true story in Germany in World War II. And there was a little country church in Germany that was situated along the railroad tracks.

And one day, a Nazi train stopped on the tracks behind the church. And the train was full of Jews being taken to a concentration camp. And the Jews were crying, crying for someone. to release them from the train. And the Christians in the church obviously disturbed by the cries. They weren't laughing. They were disturbed by a dog. The cries were haunting.

They were troublesome. They would give you nightmares. But the pastor said to the choir master in the choir. Sing a little louder. Okay? In other words, lift your voices so that we cannot hear the cries. That's what this means. The cry of the poor is the desperate, audible plea of the afflicted, the oppressed, the needy. It's the sound of real human suffering. The poor, the poor, are not just people who are financially destitute. They represent anyone in genuine need in crisis.

Again, the widows, the orphans, the oppressed laborer, anyone crying out for justice or help. I'm going to just be honest with you, folks. Many evangelical Christians shut their ears from hearing the desperate pleas of Palestinian children for food and water and shelter and medical care when Israel destroyed Gaza. The evangelical Christians said, we don't hear it. We just don't hear it. They still don't hear it, Doc, today.

To this day, they still don't hear it. I'll just let the Holy Spirit deal with people because this verse says, if you shut your eyes, shut your ears to the cry of the poor, God will shut his ears to your cries. And I'm saying this to evangelical Christians who refuse to hear the cry of the Palestinian children. God is going to shut his ears to your cries.

Stopping your ears is a sin of omission done with active malice. It is not ignorance. It is hardened indifference. It is deliberate. refusal to hear the pleas for mercy from people begging for help. Yes. So, you know, this verse is talking about that the sin is not primarily a lack of resources. But what it really is is a lack of compassion, a lack of indifference, rather having indifference

and hardness of the heart sent in. And just you've made up your mind. you're going to be unwilling to be bothered. Isn't that the case? So the heart behind those stopped-up ears says, hey, not my problem, forgetting that we ourselves live every moment on the mercy of God. This verse is certain that the person in question could do something.

They could speak, that could advocate, they could give, they could comfort, they could pray, if nothing else. but they choose the convenience of distance instead. And it really goes to exposing religious hypocrisy. You know, somebody may be enthusiastic in worship, zealance in worship, and yet death to the poor. God here declares that such deafness is morally intolerable to him. St. John Christosven, frequently preach.

on this verse. He was known for feeding thousands of orphans taking care of hundreds of widows in the city where he was, even to the point of criticism by the ruling authorities. But he argued that

the poor are the porters of the kingdom. Porter, now what's a for? That's an old English word. Porter is someone who, if you remember back when people rode on trains and buses, you had a porter. What did the porter do? He handled the luggage.

He carried the bags for the riders on the train or all the buses and everything. So now, of course, St. John Christosum didn't have buses and trains, but the idea is the same. Really, the poor, are servants, in a sense

for us. Because they carry our wealth into heaven, for us. And to ignore them is to slam the door on our own salvation. So when you say, when he said that they carry our wealth, he wasn't referring to money, gold and silver. What was he referring to? He was referring to our good works, the things that we do for the poor, the oppressed, the wheat out there. That's, you know, author Randy Alcoran had a great saying here a few years back, if you would call Randy Alcorn was sued into virtually almost non-existence by the abortion industry. The rest of his life, he has to pay abortionist money,

right? But I heard him speak one time, and he said, you know what, even though I have to do this, I know that every time I do it, I'm laying up lumber in heaven for my mansion. Because I stood up for the weak, in this case, the unborn. And for him, it was a small price to pay. And that's a radical attitude to have. And it's rare. It really is rare. Those kind of hurts.

I think St. John Chrysostom understood. it. The impact he had just on feeding little children and taking care of widows, even as great a preacher as he was, the preaching would have meant nothing without that compassion to the core of the week. I got to tell you that when I read that quote, that the poor are the porters of the kingdom. They carry your wealth into heaven. it really it hit me hard I'd never ever thought about it that way that the poor that we give to literally are carrying our luggage for us

taking taking things our luggage ahead of us and Doc I believe that they're going ahead of us okay imagine your your good works are arriving in heaven before you do you get there you get there

and your luggage has already arrived. Yes. Your luggage has already arrived. It's already there. Don't you like it when you're on a trip like that, that your luggage gets delivered right to your hotel room? You'll have a haul it in the cab on the ride home from the airport. It's there when you arrive.

That's a great feeling. It's going to be there when we arrive in eternity, our good works that we've done. And God looks specifically at the poor, the wheat, the oppressed, and we all need to really, really hassle where are we doing enough in this particular area of our lives? Like I had when you were describing who the porters are, I had a flashback of a memory. I was on a small commercial airliner, maybe about 20 passengers, and we were island hopping. it was an island hopper or it was a flying bus and you know we're landing on island after island

this is in the pacific and when when we would touch down and we're talking some very basic airports okay um i remember looking out the window of a plane and i'm looking down and out of the tropical foliage out of the trees and bushes come about four five or six smiling children with wagons and wheelbarrows. And they're smiling. Doc, they were the luggage porters. They came to greet the passengers to carry their luggage, but they were poor. They were poor.

They were there just to get a few, whatever amount of money that passengers would give to them. But that was the image I saw. There's the poor children carrying the luggage. with a smile on their face. All right, let's look at what the church fathers said about this, Proverbs 2113. Matthew Henry taught that he who shuts his ears to the poor cries, or excuse me, Matthew Henry taught that he who shuts his ears to the poor's cry

shows a heart void of compassion. God will treat him as he treats others. John Gill explained that the man who refuses to hear the poor's cry hardens his own heart. He shuts out mercy and therefore will find none when he cries. Adam Clark connected to verse to covenant law, Deuteronomy 15, where refusal to assist the needy was treated as sin against God. Charles Bridges stressed that the cry of the poor is the test of the heart. To ignore it is to reject God's own compassion.

towards the needy. And Albert Barnes observed that the refusal to hear the poor is a deliberate sin. It closes the heart to mercy and opens it to judgment. Going back to St. John Christ's done, he taught that whoever closes his ears to the poor closes his heart to God. Mercy shows the needy is mercy that's shown to Christ. St. Bavis is a great warn that the man who ignores the cry of the poor will himself cry without answer. How tragic. God hears to cry of the oppressed and judges the oppressor. Keep that in mind. Charles Spurgeon preached the man who stops his ears at the poorest cry is shutting God out of his own life. When he cries, heaven will be silent.

Alexander Claren emphasized that compassion is the mark of godliness. To refuse to cry of the horror is to refuse the image of God and man. William are not like him as a hard-hearted being to one who plucks his ears against the storm warning. He invites the very destruction he ignores. So one quote came across, and I had to read it three or four times, Greg, because every time I read it, it was piercing my heart. And it comes from G. Kim, Morgan.

he said that the poorest cry is God's voice speaking through suffering. To stop the ears is to reject God himself. God speaks through the poor and the oppressed. And that really hit me like a wall over it. I mean, it really did. That's powerful. So we now come to the second part of this verse. What happens to the person who closes his ears, refuses to hear the cry of the poor?

He also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard. So the second part of this proverb establishes the principle of moral reciprocity. The one who refuses to hear will himself experience divine silence. that's something you don't ever want to experience what shall not be heard it's a solemn consequence God turns a deaf ear to the one who turns a deaf ear to the poor

imagine you're crying out for help and God says I don't hear it I say well no God would never do something like that that wouldn't be Christ-like No, that's God's like. He's telling you what he does. You block your ears from hearing the cry of the poor.

God blocks his ears from hearing your cries. It's just that simple. And if you don't like it, argue with God about it. Yes, yes. Because that's what he said he does. God will deal with the merciless man or woman as he dealt with others. He who refuse mercy will find none when he, He needs it. Again, this is not an arbitrary act of cruelty. It's perfect justice. God measures out

to us the same measure we use. Matthew chapter 7 verse 2, Jesus said, for with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you. in Luke 6, verse 38, Jesus said give and it shall be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be given to you. For with the same measure, you measure, it will be measured back to you. So that scripture is used to teach the principle of giving, of generous giving, and you can expect generous prosperity from the Lord. but again if you flip it around look at the backside of it for with the same measure you measure

it will be measured back to you so if if you give to god nothing in a let's say we're talking financial offerings if you give him nothing he gives back to you nothing if you give the poor person no mercy. God sends back to you no mercy. For with the same measure you measure, it will be measured back to you. So there's a boomerang effect, if you will,

on everything that you do. Every gift you give, every word you speak, every thought that you have. And so this probably reveals that boomerang effect of our thoughts and actions. Solomon here, presents a terrifying spiritual law, the spiritual law of reciprocity.

And it is as real back in the garden till today. The way you treat the helpless is exactly how God is going to treat you in your helplessness. If you sow deafness to mercy, guess what's going to happen. you're going to reap deafness to your own prayers. Your prayers aren't going to go anywhere. Your cries aren't going to go anywhere. And so the text here assumes that everyone, even the rich and powerful will eventually cry themselves.

Everyone's going to cry. One way or another, you either cry in your sin now or cry on Judgment Day. Disaster, disease, and death, they level the playing field. The man who felt he needed no one will one day be screaming for help. So if you recall Luke chapter 16,

the story of the rich man of Lazarus, the rich man stopped his ears to Lazarus at his gate. Think about this. When the rich man ended up in hell, he cried out for a drop of water but Abraham and applied there also God could not hear it as the roles were perfectly reversed in this

you know we talk about the phrase there shall not be heard this is you know really when you get down to it Rick this is one of the most tragic and terrifying statements in the word of God but shall not be heard God, I'm telling you right now, my father loves to answer prayer. He loves it. He's waiting for it.

He's waiting for us to pray and talk to him. He loves to answer prayer. But then we read here, he promises not to answer a specific man. Psalm 6618 says, If I regard antiquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. pretty plain there, pretty black and white. And James 2.13 says, for he shall have judgment without mercy,

talking about the Lord that has showed no mercy. So those that showed no mercy, God will show no mercy. You know, we can't help it, but our relationship with God, with our Father God, is inextricably linked to our relationship with people, be their parents, family,

co-workers, children. We are linked to people. We're people, people, right? And so you cannot have an open line to heaven while you have a closed eye to earth, closed ear to earth, rather. The father,

the church fathers teach that we have no right to ask for mercy if we're not dispensers of mercy. And so you talk, talk about flipping the script, Rick? Well, this is that flipping the script, or it's a negative version of the golden rule. If you do not do unto others, as you would have them do it to you, God will ensure that it is done unto you as you did it unto them. So that, I don't know, we ought to give that a different name,

but it's the ungolden rule, if you will. Yes, and doctors also, I was just thinking about it, There's also Matthew 25. Jesus is giving a long answer, starts in the beginning of Matthew 24. The disciples ask him, when shall these things be? At the destruction of the temple, you return, the end of the world. And he gives this big long answer. It takes all of chapter 24 and chapter 25.

And in chapter 25, he says, when the son of man returns, he will ask everybody these questions. when I was naked, did you feed, did you clothe me? When I was hungry, did you feed me? When I was in prison, did you visit me? See, that's, Doc, that's God speaking through the poor and the oppressed. And Jesus is saying, when I come back, I'm asking everybody this question. Well, you don't hear sermons on this one either.

You'll hear sermons on Matthew 24 and 25 about the end time in the last days, but not about living in the last days here. No, nobody wants to talk about the questions he's going to ask. The word mercy appears 54 times in the New Covenant Scriptures. Jesus said, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. So by implication, the reverse, the flipside is, the unmerciful will not obtain it. The same principle appears in James, chapter 2, verse 13.

James said, for judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Boy, that's a sentence. That's something you should write on your wall. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Always, always in God's courtroom. Mercy wins over judgment. For those who are merciful.

Okay. So God may justly withhold mercy from those who refuse mercy. He applies the same measure that they have applied to others. Doc is like the parable that Jesus told about the man that was forgiven his sins. Or forgiven his debt. I remember the debtor called him in and said, hey, you owe me this much money? And he fell down and pleaded and begged and guys. says, okay, okay, I'll forgive you.

And then the guy that was forgiven goes out, finds a guy that owns him a fraction of what he was forgiven and beats him up to put him in jail. And then it gets back to the first guy who had forgiven the other guy of all this daddy owed. He goes, what's up with this? I showed you mercy. What's the end of that parable?

How did you work out for that guy? Okay. That was one of those, cast him into outer darkness endings. Okay? So, it is God himself

who enforces his divine order of the universe. He set the rules. And if you don't like his rules, take it up with him. That's right. It's his universe.

He set the rules. Either go with the flow or go against the flow. If you go with the flow, If you go with the flow, life's going to be good for you. You'll have opposition. You'll have trouble because the enemy of the church will be attacking you, but you'll be flowing right with God.

Albert Barnes, he observed this principle. He said it reflects divine moral symmetry. The neglector of distress will discover the terror of unanswered prayer. The terror, Doc, it would be terrorized. Yes. by realizing God is refusing to hear their prayers. Adam Clark wrote that such a person will cry to God in vain. For habitual cruelty renders petitions hollow and insincere.

Yes. And Basil the Great taught that the poor become advocates before God. Their neglected cries ascend as testimony against the merciless. Yes. so for the hard-hearted person with a count of soul God himself will see to it that a day is coming a day is coming when they must cry out for mercy

and they will be ignored you know in this in Charles Dickon's story of Christmas tick Carol you have the character Ebenezer's Cruge and Ebenezer is described as tight-fisted a hand at the grindstone, hard and sheriffs,

when solitary is an oyster. You know, that's the kind of callousness of heart that we're talking about. So when we talk about once in the poor, and we've come back to this several times, their plight may not be financial, but as with the poor, they get ignored. Instead, their crisis might be something else, it might be an incurable disease,

it might be a mental breakdown. It might be the loss of a loved one. It could be any variety of things. Someone that is in a weakened state where compassion should rule the day. But for the wicked, in this life, they're going to endure unanswered prayers. And that becomes the righteous counterpart

to their own earlier indifference to the pleas of the poor. So this. is not denying God's readiness to forgive the truly repentant, the penitent, but warning that that continued hard, loveless religion is going to find silence in the day of crisis. The worst scenario is going to be on that final day. They cry to Christ to be allowed at least in his kingdom, but he's going to say, what? I never knew you. I never knew you. So for believers, this is truly a sober call.

If we long to be heard in our need, we have to cultivate a heart that hears others and theirs. Now, let's wrap up today's lesson. We'll look at quotations from some of the church fathers of centuries ago. I'll let you start with G. Campbell Morgan. Now, G. Campbell Morgan had this. He said, the measure of our mercy, is the measure of the mercy we may expect.

This is the severity of love. Man, boy, that'd be a great sermon title, the severity of love. Alexander McLaurin said the law of retaliation is the law of God's government. He who is deaf to the cry of his brother will find the ear of God deaf to his own cry. William R. not said,

the man who self-fully keeps his own, cuts the communication between himself and God. He locks the door of mercy against himself. And Charles Spurgeon said, He that shows no mercy, shall find heaven's gate shut when he knocks. Yes. I have another that Spurgeon quote here.

It says that, he who will not be merciful to his fellow being, shall find God just to him. Is a solemn thing to pray, forgive us our debt, as we forgive our dinners if we are unversible. So in the kingdom of God, the core are not assigned some sort of subordinate role, but are actually given a place of honor and privilege. There are tools in the hands of God to deliver his voice.

What can we learn from Scripture about the poor? Just real quick here, they're heirs of the kingdom. James 25 says, has not God chosen the poor? of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which you promise to those who love you know this is perhaps the most direct statement the poor are chosen as heirs of the kingdom think about that the second thing is their recipients of the gospel lute chapter 4 verse 18 jesus declared his mission was to preach the gospel to who the poor uh echoing uh Isaiah 61, verse 1.

The poor are the primary audience of the good news. Another passage out of Luke, Luke chapter 6, verse 20. The poor are called blessed. That's right. Blessed. Blessed are you poor. For yours is the kingdom of God. For the poor.

So Jesus assigns then present ownership of the kingdom, not some sort of job within it. and here's a verse and this is in the nativity story on Luke chapter 1 verses 51 and 52 says he has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away the poor received the reversal of the earthly condition and in both Matthew 1930 and Mark 1031, many who are first will be last in the last first.

So the consistent biblical theme here is that the poor are not assigned a job at the servile sense, but are granted the kingdom as an inheritance. Their role, if anything, is that of honored recipients and heirs, a dramatic conversion of world hierarchies. And the reason why we can say that is because God mask himself with the poor. He speaks to the poor. He arrives in your life as the poor and gives you the opportunity to exhibit compassion and love that you've received from the father itself.

The top is, there's last verses that you read. describing the state, the position of the poor in the kingdom. They are the heirs of the kingdom. Yes. And so now it takes on even greater significance to ignore the cries of the heirs of the kingdom. Right. And really it implies we must become poor.

Poor in spirit. Poor in spirit. All right. We covered a lot of ground and just great. New verses. Only two verses. We covered a lot of ground, a lot to think about. Please tell your friends and family,

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