Proverbs 12:2, A good man obtaineth favour of the LORD: but a man of wicked devices will he condemn. 

 During the 2008 presidential campaign our current president said:  We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.

 And if you have paid attention his promise is in motion as we see ancient landmarks being plowed under. 

 But our president clearly told the people what his vision is and the people spoke to him a second time to come and carry out his vision, and it seems that he will attempt to do that at all costs. 

 But we who believe God know that God has different ideas about things and through his Son Jesus Christ has given us a glimpse of His intentions in his word. 

For Jesus came into the world and told his disciples that he was about to fundamentally transform, not only the United States but the whole world. 

 And beginning this message he announced that the kingdom of heaven was at hand.

 And as part of this He taught his disciples what we call the Lord’s Prayer which includes these words: 

 Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

 Now the answer to this prayer will indeed fundamentally transform the earth for the kingdom of Jesus Christ will be in place and everything Jesus told his disciples about the kingdom will come about. 

 Throughout the Gospels we are given principles by which this kingdom will operate.   

In Matthew 25 Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country who left his servants with orders to increase his goods while he was away from them. 

 And in so doing he gave them the wherewithal to bring an increase. 

 All were equipped with whatever was needed to bring increase to the Master. 

 To one he gave five talents, to another two and to another, one talent. 

 The five and two talent servants doubled the master’s talents by trading and profiting from those trades. 

 In other words they put at some risk the master’s goods in order to bring him a profit. 

 But one servant was timid thinking that the master would be harsh on him for losing the one talent. 

 Now the five and two talent servants received “Well Done” praise and ruler-ship over many things for bringing the master profit.

 But the master did not favor the one talent servant in any way and instead banished him from his presence taking the one buried talent and giving it to his now ten talent servant.

 The principle is this. 

 God shows favor on those who use what they are given in order to bring profit to Him. 

 God put his first man and woman in a garden to dress it and to keep it. 

 God provided the garden, he provided all they needed to dress the garden and he expected results from his investment. 

 Do we not show this image of God in our lives if we have something to invest, desiring an increase by looking for a place where the increase will bring the most profit?

 In the case of money we do not put our money where there will be no increase or where there may be loss for it is natural to want profit.

 Jesus Christ in John 15:1 told us He was the vine, planted by His Father whom he called the husbandman. 

 Husbandmen do not plant vines for nothing for there is no value to vines that do not produce fruit. 

God is a husbandman and every act of God as a husbandman is for the purpose of gaining fruit.

 Jesus said as the vine of God I came to seek and to save sinners. 

 He could have said I came to find grapes for my father the husbandmen for I am the vine and I am looking for branches where grapes will thrive. 

 And in order for grapes to thrive God sent forth his spirit to tend to the branches that they bring forth much fruit.

Now we are well taught of what Paul wrote the Galatians in chapter 5:22,23 about the fruit of the Spirit of God. 

That fruit that was designed to come from the branches of the vine:  love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance:

 Notice the connections here. 

 First the husbandman who plants the vine, then the branches that come from the vine, and then the fruit which the husbandman is pleased to harvest for all was done in accordance with the husbandman’s direction. 

 There is no fruit apart from this process. 

 And this process is successful because of the favor of the husbandman who began the process and sees the process through to the end.

 Our proverb we are studying today speaks of the favor of God and allows us to continue our thoughts regarding God as a husbandman who cares for that which he has planted and the fruit thereof.

 For:  A good man obtaineth favour of the LORD: but a man of wicked devices will he condemn. 

 Jesus was called a good master by one who sought eternal life and Jesus challenged him by saying: Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.

Now we have learned that God as a husbandman has planted the vine of Jesus Christ, which has produced the branches upon which fruit grows and one part of that fruit is called goodness. 

 God in doing that desires that his branches also be called good and we see this in our proverb by God identifying a man as good.

 God is Good and as a husbandman He wants his good to flourish and therefore by His Spirit he endows a person with good and God will favor that person to encourage good. 

As Psalm 33:5, tells us:  He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

And God looks for a good man, a profitable man to carry forth His good and the one who carries it forth will be provisioned to carry it forth.

He therefore gives the fruit of goodness to his children that they may carry it forth for him and he outfits the person with favor that the carrying forth will be effective.

 He will not only be a good man but that goodness will flow to others as seed cast to the ground by the husbandman brings forth much seed.

 God has invested much in bringing forth good men and good woman that His goodness fill the earth. 

He has invested His only begotten Son and that Son is the firstfruit to be followed by many who are to be made in the image of Christ and that image is to reveal goodness.

Now who is this good man?  What is a good man?

In Psalm 112:5 we are told that, A good man showeth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion.

A good man is ready to help others to be successful.

He is ready to unite with others in work in order for others to profit. 

He will lend from what God has given him that other’s work will be efficient. 

His ears are open to needs that he may fill. 

When the Pastor calls for help he has a listening ear and ready hands for he is a doer of the word.

He exercises great care in managing his affairs and that of others he may be involved with.

He is prudent in the use of that which God has entrusted him, in order that God continue to show him favor. 

He knows that all that he has comes from God and that one day, as he asked the servants to whom he gave talents, God will ask him for an accounting.

Jesus was in the business of making good men for in Matthew 12:35, he said: A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things:

And Jesus is the treasure maker for that which is deposited in the heart which goes by the name of treasure, is the Word of God.

God is good to good men for God is faithful to make treasure available to them that they may bring it forth at the proper time.

God, the everlasting husbandman, plants in the heart of a good man, everlasting words which are there for harvest at the due season.    

Proverbs 15:23, A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!

Proverbs 25:11,   A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.

 God pictures words like golden apples. 

 Words that are desired to be heard.   

They fit well together for they are presented in such a way that hearing is encouraged. 

 Words are given not to uplift the good man who speaks the words but to help the one spoken to. 

 They are treasure words, words desired to be retained and acted upon.

The beauty of the silver basket sets off the fruit contained in the basket thereby causing the observer to desire and select the apple.

In other words a good man speaks words in a manner that words spoken will be accepted more readily for they are spoken properly or fitly for upon this good man God has shown favor.

He gives the good man out of the treasure of his heart words that enhance the attractiveness of truth.

Words that frame truth in a way that attracts, a way that enhances the word's ability to accomplish a purpose for truth can be presented in such a way that it repels.

But God desires that truth be presented in a fitting way, in an acceptable way and he will equip the good man to use words that are fit, words that fit the times or the seasons or the temperament or the age, words that are proper.

And in Psalm 37:23 we are told that,  The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.

So a good man is good because he has a good God.

God is good and if a man may be called good it is because he belongs to God.

But in himself, that is in his flesh, Paul tells us, dwelleth no good thing.

So what is it that causes a good man to be satisfied from himself, to delight in his way?

Whatever it is, it has been put there by God.

Whatever satisfaction, whatever delight he has springs from God.

He is satisfied to glory in the Lord for whatever he has in himself is what God put there.

He examines himself whether he be in the faith and is satisfied with what Jesus Christ has done for him.

He rests in God and looks for no other helper.

He is content with the working of God in his life.

He is confident of this very thing that he which has begun a good work in him shall continue to perform it all of his life and until the day of Jesus Christ.

He knows that his good works will not earn him standing before God but he knows that through Christ they will be accepted of God and graciously rewarded.

His satisfaction comes from scripture like Isaiah 3:10,  Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.

For the good man out of the good treasure of the heart is able to bring forth good things, good things that satisfy himself and that is the man to whom God, the husbandman will show favor.

 But on the contrary as it is given in so many of the Proverbs God tells us the fate of the man who is not good.

 For he describes him as a man of wicked devices and his fate is not salvation but condemnation.

 This is a man with a heart that devises wicked schemes, a man who engages in premeditated disobedience.

 It is a heart that God hates, a heart that God describes as an abomination in Proverbs 6:16-19, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations

 He hates the heart that thinks of new ideas, new ways in which to do wickedness, new contrivances for sin, and the removal of ancient landmarks.

God hates the heart that invents wicked plots and purposes and schemes.

A scheme is a plan with many steps. 

 It is not accidental but intentional and designed only for the benefit of the schemer. 

 It is a wicked thinking process from a heart that disregards God’s word in favor of its own self-gratifying desire. 

 This wicked thinking process that the Bible says comes from a heart that has become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

 It is the same heart of the Pharisees and Sadducees who schemed from a process of wicked thinking which resulted in our Lord hanging from the cross.