You
It is about time to get started this evening. If you would find a seat and grab a hymnal,
our first hymn is number 254, Whosoever Will.
254 will sing their starting on the first.
your heads with me. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this day, for the
opportunity to gather together. Lord, I pray that you just be with those two
salvations that we had this evening, and that you'd also just be with all the
seeds that were planted, that that would eventually germinate into a saving faith
in you. I pray that you'd be with us for the service, that you would open our ears
to the message and fill pastor with your spirit. These things we pray in Jesus'
turn your eyes upon Jesus 261 261 turn your eyes upon Jesus 261 there on the
memory passage of the week that's Galatians chapter number one verse 12
and if you memorize this whole chapter word perfectly and you're able to recite
it to an adult non-family member you will get a prize at the end
On the left hand side, if you open that up, are our service times listed Sunday morning at 10.30 a.m. Sunday evening at 4.30 p.m.
and our Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 o'clock.
And of course, we're starting a new Bible study this evening.
So really looking forward to that.
Our soul winning times below are listed there.
And all those meet here at the church building with the exception of Tuesday.
So please get in touch with Brother Eric if you'd like to make it to that time.
Below that is our nursing home ministry schedule updated there.
And below is our year to date statistics.
And if you look at the month of March, just praise the Lord for how receptive it's been.
And this is actually the most salvations that this group of people here has ever had in one month.
So that's really exciting and encouraging to see the Lord blessing our efforts out there.
And we still got many days left in this month, so we can keep going on that.
On the right side you'll see our upcoming events. April 13th is a men's preaching night,
that's the PM's service, and immediately following that we will have a potluck after.
April 19th is our Easter soul-winning marathon.
We do have a sign-up sheet back there.
Please sign up so that I know how much food to order.
Also, we did order some custom Easter invites for that.
And you could start using those now
because I ordered a ton.
So hand them out.
They're only good until April 20th after that.
We're just gonna throw them away.
So that's a little thing we got there.
Keep that in mind.
Also, the day after that, of course, is Easter April 20th.
and we're going to have barbecue catered right after the morning service.
You know when you're out soul-winning tell people that hey you want to come
to church get some free barbecue on Easter you know tell people that.
I will say I ordered a ton of food should have plenty of food
but if you would like dessert options I'm counting on you all right so if you
want to bring some desserts that's on you guys I'll provide the drinks and the
meat so looking forward to that and then in the
May 16th through the 18th is the King James Conference at Sher Foundation Baptist Church.
May 31st we're doing another soul winning marathon in Durant, Oklahoma and that's meeting up with Steadfast Baptist Church.
June 28th, that's going to be a great weekend on that Saturday. We're going to the Tinker Air Show just as a church family having some fun.
And the next day, Brother Ben Naim from Steadfast Baptist Church is preaching both services for us that day.
August 27th through the 31st is the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship and the big one for the year October 6th through the 11th
Is the Bahamas mission trip below that there's a QR code if you'd like to give to our church
Also, if you're a visitor or if we haven't had your information captured before if you wouldn't mind just scanning that QR code and
Let us get some information so we could send you guys the links to sermons and just events that are going on at our church
on the back
you know I'm gonna actually go to this first a congratulations to the Reed
family on the birth of Theodore the cutest Theodore by far in this church
Theodore Wesley Reed and he was born on March 20th at 335 p.m. weighing seven
pounds one ounces and measuring 20 inches long so congratulations to them
give it up for them
and the meal train filled up fast.
Thank you guys for being a loving church
and caring for people going through that.
But as always, if you wanna be more of a blessing to them,
that's always an option.
So you could still bring them a meal
if you get in contact with them.
I know one thing they're asking is they're asking
just that the food be left on the doorstep.
If you ever had a baby, you know, it's not fun when you just have a baby and everyone wants to, you know, come over and stay for an hour or whatever.
So just leave the food, they said, knock on the door. It's like ding dong ditching, but, you know, showing love doing it. All right.
Above that, we have our prayer list and we have Brother Samson on there. I did text him and he says that he's been seeing a lot of improvement.
So that is good, but we'll keep him on that prayer list for this week.
Brother Myles
Brother Myles is adjusting well to his living center that he's in
They're working on his speech and just the left side of his body, but he is getting better every day
So that's a good sign, but definitely just keep them in prayer and at this time. Let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer
Lord, we thank you for
This day. We thank you for our church. Thank you for how receptive it's been and for the labors that you've given us
I pray that
You just enable us to do more and greater works for you and get more and more people saved.
I just pray that you would bless the efforts of Anchor Baptist Church.
We also thank you for the new life born into the Reed family and into the Anchor Baptist Church
family. I just pray that you would bless the Reeds, that you'd bless Whitney as she recovers,
We also pray for brother Samson in Texas that you would heal him and help him not to be in so much back pain
We also pray for the houseburg family that she would bless brother Miles and his recovery
Help him to get the best treatment possible and also pray that you'd give miss Ria strength and wisdom in her decisions Lord
Also, we pray for miss Sean for her granddaughter Hadley
Just that she would be able to be homeschooled Lord and you would just bless their living situation
Also pray for brother Alex for his work situation Lord and we pray for miss Remy
I pray that she's doing well abroad that you bless her travels help her to be safe over there
And we pray that she would bless her visa process according to your will and that you'd heal her body Lord
We also pray for the members in our church that have unsaved loved ones,
that you would just help those people to have many chances to hear the gospel,
that you'd soften their hearts, and that you would just embolden the soul winners in our church
to preach the gospel just to, not just to the community Lord, but also to our loved ones,
and bless the service.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
That's going to be it for announcements.
We'll go ahead and go to our third song.
All right in your white handouts turn if you would to Psalm 15
Psalm 15 1 5 in your white handouts
Psalm 15
Song 15 there, on the first.
It is hard.
Thank you.
Then, as the offering plates are being passed, turn, if you would, to Proverbs chapter number one.
Proverbs chapter number one.
Good evening Proverbs one the Bible reads the Proverbs of Solomon the son of David
King of Israel to know wisdom and instruction to perceive the words of
understanding to receive the instruction of wisdom justice and judgment and
equity to give subtlety to the simple to the young man knowledge and
discretion a wise man will hear and will increase learning and a man of
to understand a proverb and the interpretation,
the words of the wise and their dark sayings.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
My son, hear the instruction of thy father
and forsake not the law of thy mother.
For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
If they say, come with us, let us lay weight for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause.
Let us swallow them up alive as the grave, and whole as those that go down into the pit.
We shall find our precious substance. We shall fill our houses with spoil. Casting thy lot among us, let us all have one purse.
my son walk not thou in the way with them refrain thy foot from their path for their feet run to
evil and make haste to shed blood surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird and
they lay wait for their own blood they lurk privily for their own lives so are the ways of
Wisdom cryeth out. She uttered her voice in the streets.
She cryeth in the chief place of concourse in the openings of the gates in the city.
She uttered her words saying how long, you simple ones, we love simplicity
and the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge.
Turn you at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you
I will make known my words unto you, because I have called, and you refuse, I have stretched
out my hand, and no man regarded.
But ye have said it not, all my counsel, and with none of my reproof.
I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh, when your fear
cometh as desolation, and your destruction.
cometh as a whirlwind, when the stress and anguish comeeth upon you, then shall they call upon me,
but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me."
for that they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord,
they would, none of my counsel,
they despise all my reproof,
therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way
and be filled with their own devices.
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them,
and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
But whoso harkneth unto me shall dwell safely
and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
Let's bow our heads for our prayer. Father in heaven we thank you for this day and this new bible
Amen. All right. Well, we are in the book of Proverbs. Very excited.
This is often one of people's favorite books in the Bible.
And it's one of the most popular books of the Bible.
When you get a new Testament, even the ones that we hand out out soul winning,
it has the Psalms and Proverbs in the back.
So really excited to dig into this.
Let's start in verse number one.
The Bible says the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel.
So right off the bat, we get the author.
of the book of Proverbs, there's a couple other people that write a handful of these
Proverbs. But really, the majority of the book is attributed to King Solomon,
which he lived between 970 BC and 931 BC. So when you think about it, this book is about
and that it's powerful is because this was written 3000 years ago yet millions and millions
of people read Proverbs today.
I mean, every single day people are reading the Proverbs all over the world because this is such
a powerful book. And to be honest with you, it's a little bit intimidating to preach through this
book just because it's such an epic book. And I want to do it justice. I'm praying God will help
me with that. But let's remind ourselves some things about King Solomon. If you will go to
First Kings chapter four, First Kings four, and of course, keep your place in Proverbs one.
Look at verse 29, it says in God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much and
largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.
So the Bible says that God gave Solomon wisdom.
So this is not, the proverbs are not just like the ramblings
of some guy's opinions, his own ideas, his own thoughts.
God actually gave Solomon wisdom and lots and lots of it.
Verse 30 says in Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom
of all the children of the East country
and all the wisdom of Egypt.
So the Bible's highlighting that this wasn't
like just your average scholar.
Like this guy was incredibly wise, more than all the people that were around him.
Verse 31 says, for he was wiser, in fact, than all men.
So Solomon, when he was living, he was the wisest man alive.
And it says, then Ethan, the Ezraite, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mayhole.
See, I don't know who those people are, but I know who Solomon is.
Why? Because we have the book of Proverbs today.
And it says, and his fame was in all nations round about.
And then notice this in verse 32,
and he spake 3,000 proverbs,
and his songs were 1,005.
So notice Solomon just wrote a ton of stuff.
And people sometimes will say like,
oh, the book of proverbs is just general wisdom.
I would say that of the 3,000, 4,500 things that Solomon wrote,
there's probably a lot of good general wisdom
in the things that he wrote.
But the book of Proverbs is not just general wisdom,
it is the word of God.
See, the Bible did not record for us
all of the Proverbs that Solomon wrote.
And I'm sure some of them that aren't in the Bible
were probably pretty good.
I'm sure they were full of wisdom.
I mean, he's the wisest man alive.
But maybe that stuff was general wisdom.
The thing about this though,
but the book of Proverbs is that it is the words of God.
God inspired Solomon to write these Proverbs.
So it's not just like,
well, this is someone's idea about life.
No, everything in the book of Proverbs is just fact.
You could just hang your hat
and whatever the Proverbs say,
you know that it is 100% right.
With that, go back to Proverbs one.
So like I said, Solomon's the author of Proverbs, but you also have in Proverbs 30 a guy named agor.
So he's one of the authors and then in Proverbs 31 King Lemuel, he writes some and he preaches the prophecy that his mother taught him.
But the vast majority of Proverbs is
Solomon. So I'm going to try to break these into sections when I can. Sometimes it seems like the
book of Proverbs just rapid fires different ideas at you. And sometimes you can find some
connections. So I'm going to try to do that when I can. And so number one this evening, the purpose
of the Proverbs. The purpose of the Proverbs. Verse two says, to know wisdom.
and instruction to perceive the words of understanding.
So why is it that we have the book of Proverbs?
It's to help us know wisdom and instruction
to perceive, right?
To understand the words of understanding.
The thing about the book of Proverbs
is that reading the book of Proverbs
will make you a smart person.
This is why it's often recommended to people that you read the proverb of the day, because this book right here is just absolutely packed with wisdom and knowledge and will help you get understanding.
And if you apply those things to your life, you will become a smart and wise person by reading the proverbs.
the instruction of wisdom, justice and judgment and equity.
So it's like these things,
wisdom, justice, judgment, equity,
they're constantly instructing you through the proverbs.
And you could be wise by receiving that instruction.
One of the things I wanna point out there
is it talks about equity.
Now, equity is kind of a buzzword today in our culture where it's all about, like, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
And I would say diversity is not a strength in the way that the liberals mean it today.
We need unity around the word of God, and how the liberals and just leftists use equity is not the way that the Bible uses equity.
How liberals use equity is saying that basically like,
well, okay, we're gonna have a company here.
We gotta make sure we hire 40 black people
and 40 Asian women and 40 black trans men
and 40 white, no, it's probably like 20 white guys,
let's be honest.
Like that's equity today in our culture.
But this is the definition I found of equity.
It says the quality of being fair or impartial.
Fairness, impartiality, then it gives an example sentence, and I'm not even kidding you.
This is the first example that I found.
It said, the equity of Solomon.
So it's like even dictionaries are referring to the book of proverbs when they want to know, hey, what's equity?
Well, how about Solomon? He was someone that was fair. He was someone that applied the law equally.
And that's really what equity is about. It's not necessarily making sure everyone has the exact same results and making sure that we tailor everything
so that everyone's at the exact same position. But it's really that the rules are fair and the rules are applied equally.
The rules are applied to everyone.
And I'll give you some examples of that.
Go to Romans chapter number two, Romans chapter number two.
Notice in verse 11, it says,
for there is no respect of persons with God.
See, that is an example of true equity.
See, God actually, funny enough,
as the leftists like to accuse Christians of being racist,
but God actually does not care about the color of your skin.
It doesn't mean anything to Him.
Your nationality means nothing to God.
The Bible talks about how all the nations are before Him as nothing.
He doesn't care, yet in an effort to have equity, leftists, they care exclusively about
your skin color to where they have things called affirmative action and to say, hey,
oh, we're going to have equity, right?
And so what we're going to do is we're going to force you to hire X amount of colored people
or X amount of whatever status or class, but that's literally the opposite of equity.
What equity would be is saying like here's the qualifications here's the rules
It's open to the like whoever meets these qualifications and then that standard is applied equally to everyone
That's real equity, but just choosing to hire someone because they're black is literally racism folks
Making policy decisions based on the color of someone's skin is being a
respecter of persons. It's not equitable. It's the opposite of those things. And
of course the left are a bunch of hypocrites. But look at Romans chapter
3. Turn the page. Romans chapter 3. You know God is fair. Verse 22 says even the
righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all.
And upon all qualifier, them that believe, for there is no difference.
See, what is it that determines if someone's saved?
One thing, where are you putting your trust?
If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing else matters.
That's the standard.
It's available to all.
It's applied to all equally.
Why?
Because God is not a respecter of persons.
He is equitable.
Verse 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith
in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins
that are passed through the forbearance of God.
Notice he brings up the Jews and Gentiles in verse 29.
Is he the God of the Jews only?
Is he not also of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also.
Seeing it as one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith.
So notice he's bringing up these two groups of people which today people still argue over this
and especially when the New Testament was just getting kicked off.
This is something that the apostles were constantly battling is saying like is there really a difference between a Jew or a Gentile?
The Jews thought they were special.
just because they were physically descended from Abraham.
And they're saying like, well, Abraham's our father,
so we've got the covenant and we're good to go.
But he's saying, is he the God of the Jews only?
No, of the Gentiles.
How?
Through faith, circumcision, faith.
Uncircumcision, faith.
It takes faith for both of these people to get saved.
And if someone's a Gentile and they don't have faith in Christ,
they will go to hell.
Someone's a Jew and they don't have faith in Christ,
they will go to hell.
Why?
Because God is equitable.
That is real equity.
Go back to Proverbs chapter number one.
Proverbs chapter one.
So when you learn the Proverbs,
it's gonna teach you how to judge correctly,
how to apply God's word correctly.
Verse four says that additionally,
it's to give subtlety to the simple.
to the young man, knowledge and discretion.
So it kind of talks about two target audiences
that are also going to be blessed by this book.
And it's the simple, which is just people
that are just uneducated or stupid or dumb.
Look, God doesn't hate those people.
He wants them to learn.
He wants them to grow.
And this is supposed to give them subtlety.
Now, most of the time when we use the word subtle,
It's in a negative light, but subtle can also be used in a different way.
Subtlety sometimes could mean acuteness or penetration of mind,
delicacy of discrimination, a fine drawn distinction,
refinement of reasoning. So basically just having discretion,
being able to have a little bit of nuance, right?
There's a lot of things in the Bible that are very black and white.
Other things take some subtlety, some discretion.
That comes from knowledge and wisdom and growing in the Lord.
And it says to the young man, knowledge and discretion.
And young men, we need a lot of it, okay?
Because we just tend to lack it.
So we just need to read the Proverbs every single day.
But let me give you an example of what I'm talking about.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter 22.
There's some some things in the Bible that are black and white and you can't say well
This is my interpretation and just excuse away the words of God
Then there's other things that require some
Application and some discretion. There's like the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law
What does that mean? What does the law literally say and what was the intent behind that right?
What is it behind the law behind the words of God that God wants us to do or stop doing?
or think, or stop thinking, or feel, or stop feeling, right?
What is it that God wants us to do?
Let me give you an example of that.
Deuteronomy 22, verse five.
The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man.
So let's just get into the letter of the law.
There is a type of clothing that pertains to a man
and a woman is not supposed to wear that.
Pretty simple, right?
This is the letter of the law.
Neither
Shall a man put on a woman's garment, and all God's people said,
Amen, right? That's terrible.
You're not supposed to wear women's clothing as a man.
Then it says, for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.
Okay, so what is just the black and white interpretation of this passage
is that God hates cross-dressing.
God does not want men walking around in skirts, it's an abomination.
It's disgusting, it's something that makes you just want to vomit when you see it.
It's so unnatural and gross, it's wicked.
And just as wicked as that is in the sight of God is a woman wearing that foolish pertaineth unto a man.
Which I believe is pants, okay, but here's just the letter of the law is that God hates
Cross-dressing right now. What would be the spirit of the law?
What would be kind of the motive behind that? It's that God wants men to look like men and
God wants women to look like women
So I would say that anytime a woman is trying to look masculine that is a sin
And if a man is trying to look feminine, that is a sin.
It's called being effeminate, right?
So letter of the law, cross-dressing is not allowed.
What's the spirit behind that?
Men look like men.
Women, you should look like women.
That's the application, right?
One thing that I've heard that's always helped me in studying the Bible is this idea of observation,
interpretation, application, observation.
Interpretation, what does the text mean?
Application, what should I do?
Stop doing, think, stop thinking, feel, stop feeling, right?
That's a good way to read the Bible
and when you read the Proverbs,
it's gonna give you subtlety.
It's gonna give you that ability to have discretion,
to be able to not just understand what a text says,
but what it means and how to apply it correctly.
Go back to Proverbs chapter number one.
And as you're turning there, you know, think about this, another example is that God has
given human authority real authority.
God has given the government authority.
God has given pastors authority.
God has given husbands authority.
God has given parents authority.
God has given bosses authority.
The Bible does not spell out in black and white
every single thing that a leader should do
or every single rule that they have.
They have authority.
But if an authority makes up a rule
and it's not a sin,
discretion and subtlety should teach you
that you should obey that rule.
Does the like if your parents have a rule kids it says take off your shoes when you get in the house
Does the Bible say thou shalt take off thy shoes when thou enterst into thine abode? No, right?
But it does say to honor your mother and father
It does say children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right
And so you take that and then you could apply it to other areas of your life. This is called discretion
This is called wisdom here verse number five of Proverbs one. It says a wise man will hear
and will increase learning.
Any man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel."
So in this verse, you know, you preachers out there,
if you like outlined verses,
this verse gives you three steps to becoming wise.
What are those steps?
Well, it says the first thing, a wise man will hear.
You know, to become a wise person,
you have to listen more than you speak.
You know, a fool is known by the abundance of his words.
When someone is just gibber jabbering every single day,
all day long, they can never listen to instruction.
They just want to talk, talk, talk.
That is a sign of someone that's foolish.
But what does a wise person do?
A wise person actually listens.
A wise person actually shows up to church.
listen and it's not like this modern church movement where it's like hey
let's all get in a circle kids ladies let's all go ahead and get in a circle
here and we'll just go around and just share our testimony and just you got a
word tonight you got a word tonight whatever God put on your heart you know
that's foolishness because I'm sorry to tell you that not everybody is at the
same spiritual level sorry it's just a fact
And sorry, it's just a fact that God has ordained real leadership and that God has ordained preachers
That's just the way that God has made it. He doesn't want us getting in some little circle and calling that church
No, church has a pastor
Church has real preachers and a wise person doesn't despise that a wise person actually wants to come to church
Because a wise person will hear they will listen not only that
It says they will increase learning
Right, so they're going to be constantly studying
Constantly reading things because you know how you learn things you read and there's this idea out there
That's based on a lot of truth
that some people are visual learners,
some people are auditory learners,
some people are learning by doing.
But let me just tell you the truth,
is that we all learn through all of those things, okay?
And some people wanna excuse themselves
from reading the Bible,
because they're like,
well, I kinda just learned by doing, bro.
Well, guess what?
God gave you a book.
And that means that you need to read it.
And don't listen to some psychologist, some Jewish psychologist
coming in your elementary school telling a seven-year-old,
you are permanently an auditory learner.
I remember being in elementary school and just being told that.
And it's just stupid.
You know what?
Kids just need to be told, learn to read and learn to like it.
Yeah, some people are going to be slower than others,
but you know how you become a better reader?
You do it over and over and over again.
No one has an excuse unless you have some sort of physical disability to not be a reader
just because you think like, oh, I'm not the best at it.
You're not the best at it because you told yourself that and you stopped reading.
But you know what?
If you're wise, you know what you're going to do?
You're going to increase learning.
That means that you're not going to spend every free second of your life scrolling on
social media.
watching all this brain rot reels, wasting your time not doing anything. You
know what a person that's wise does? Oh, they got some time. Why don't I learn
something? Why don't I read a proverb? Why don't I read one of the Psalms? Why
don't I just read a book about anything? Because you know what? We have a lot of
stupid people in our culture today, a lot of stupid people in the workforce, a
lot of stupid people in academia even, and it's because they're not reading
You need to read then it says what's the third thing and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise
councils. If you want to be wise, it's not an option, you must be around wise people.
If you just surround yourself with a bunch of Catholics or a bunch of Mormons or a bunch of atheists
and that's your group, that's your gang, you're not going to be a very wise person.
Because you're going to be around people that don't have the fear of God, that don't have true wisdom.
No, you have to be around wise people.
This is why even if you do just listen online, that's not enough.
God does not want you to just hear. He does want you to hear.
He does want you to increase your learning.
But you know what he also wants you to do is to be around wise counsel.
And you know, in life, you're going to go through problems.
You're going to go through situations and bouncing them off of mature Christians is going to help you in your life.
Bouncing them off of your parents that are much more mature is going to bless you.
Bouncing ideas off of your pastor is going to help you in your life,
but it's the prideful person and the foolish person who thinks,
I don't need wise counsel.
Isn't that funny? The wise person gets wise counsel.
The wise person is around wise people.
Look at verse six.
Another thing here it says is to understand a proverb and the interpretation.
the words of the wise and their dark sayings.
That's kind of what I was saying earlier is that
there's a difference between just knowing what the text says
and just being able to dissect a sentence
and see what it says on the surface,
rather than actually understanding what that means, right?
And when it comes to the unsaved,
the unsaved usually can get point one right,
like the carnal mind can understand Noah built an ark.
the carnal man can understand some of the things in the Bible from an observation perspective.
Where they start to struggle is when they interpret that and say, what does it mean?
And where they have no hope whatsoever is an application of that.
And so, reading the Proverbs will help you with all three of those things.
Number two this evening, notice the foundation of knowledge.
Verse 7 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
So notice, the person who's already wise, what do they do? They go to wise people.
Fools, they hate instruction. They hate wisdom. Go to Luke chapter number 16.
And the beginning of that verse talks about how the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
Now I've heard some people take what I would consider to be too extreme of an interpretation of this verse.
It's kind of like in Romans 1 where it talks about how reprobates are without understanding.
That's talking about a spiritual understanding.
Reprobates are not going to understand the Bible, folks.
But sometimes people say, like, oh, reprobates, like, can't do math.
They can't learn things.
They can't learn history.
That's not what it's talking about.
So where it says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
This is talking about in a spiritual sense and of spiritual things.
I'll show you that.
Luke chapter 16, verse 18 says,
commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely for the children of this
world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
When it comes to just a carnal understanding there is, you know, the saved and the unsaved are on equal playing fields.
When it comes to like, hey, you want to learn how, you know, something in science works, you want to learn how an engine works,
you want to learn how to fly an airplane, like you don't get to be like a better pilot because you're saved.
You know, you don't get to be a better engineer because you're saved.
You don't just, you're not automatically understanding more about software development because you're saved, okay?
Sometimes, even the world, when they apply themselves and they learn these things,
they could be wiser even than the children of light in some areas.
And you know, I work around some people that are unsaved.
Thank God, I work around a lot of safe people too.
But I work with some unsaved people that I'll say right now,
they know way more about the IT world than I do.
Okay, so when it's talking about you know reprobates being without understanding and stuff like that
It's talking about a spiritual level because you get these over-the-top views where it's like well
You know Jews created the atomic bomb so therefore the atomic bomb is fake and it was never created because the Bible says they're without understanding
It's like no you're without understanding like you're being an idiot right now
Okay, but the beginning the it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge
Here's where I would apply that is
Okay, I want to learn about aviation, I'm going to the best aviator, I don't care if
you saved or not.
But like, don't take your kids to some unsaved psychologist that's going to sit here and
tell you how to raise your kids or go to some marriage counselor that's not saved and give
you advice on marriage.
You know, don't go to some unsaved person to give you advice on how to run a church.
Don't go to the unsaved to give you advice on how to preach the gospel, right?
Because to have any knowledge of these things, step one, you have to fear the Lord.
And so you ought to care about where you're getting your advice when it comes to spiritual things.
Don't get advice on your marriage from the world.
Don't get advice for your kids when it comes from the world, stuff like that.
That's a bad idea, really, really bad idea.
Go back to Proverbs chapter number one.
And I'll say this, you know who else is a bad source of guidance and advice is backslidden Christians
Because even some Christians do not fear the Lord and so just because someone's saved
Does not necessarily mean that they're gonna give you good advice on child rearing
marriage. You know there's a lot of saved people out there that are complete
and utter feminists and those people do not fear the Lord and I wouldn't want to
get advice from someone like that. I want to get advice from yes someone who's
saved about spiritual matters and they fear the Lord. Not just that they're
saved but they also fear the Lord. Number three this evening notice the
parental guidance listed here in verse 8.
It says, my son, so Solomon's like impleading his child here, my son, hear the instruction
of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother.
Let's think about this verse first from the perspective of being a parent.
You should be able to say this to your children.
Here the instruction of thy father and for sake not the law of thy mother, you know us as parents
We need to actually be instructing our children
you're not just there as a parent to make sure that your son or daughter gets
enough calories for their body for the day and that you change their diapers and
that you put a roof over their head. Those are the basic necessities but you
know God didn't give you those kids just that you could give them physical
sustenance. He gave those kids to you so that you would instruct them in the way
of God.
So that you would impart unto them the fear of the Lord by teaching them the Bible, by teaching them spiritual things.
And so as parents, as a parent, I look at this and I think like, I need to be instructing my kids.
I need to be able to tell my kids, hey, hear my instruction.
And moms too, it's not just for Dad.
Kids are not supposed to forsake the law of thy mother.
You know, mothers should be giving their children
a good spiritual heritage and passing that
on to the next generation.
And quite honestly, I think moms have a huge ability
to do this because just they're with the kids so much.
With the children all the time,
you have all this opportunity to be talking about the Bible,
talking about the gospel, teaching them verses.
You know, that is something that you should be doing.
And then when you think about this from the perspective of children,
the application is listen to your mom and dad.
Listen to the instruction that your parents give you because here's what I know.
I know your parents love you so much.
And I know that your parents love you more than I love you.
And I know that your parents love you more than anyone else in this room.
No one else wants you to succeed in life and for you to be a happier Christian
and for you to thrive spiritually than your mom and your dad.
I promise you that.
And now that I'm grown, I look back on the things
that my parents did, and I'm just kind of filled
with amazement and just kind of awe of how much they loved me
and how much they sacrificed for me.
And I'm looking at some of the things that they did,
I'm like, how did you do that?
Like, I would have never done that, you know?
But I'm telling you, your parents do stuff like that
for you, they bring you to a church like this,
they care about you doing the soul winning verses.
They care about you learning how to be a soul winner.
They care about you listening in church and paying attention.
They care about your growth and you know what?
When your parents are giving you spiritual advice,
you ought to listen to them.
You ought to realize that they've lived some life that you haven't lived and trust me
I understand at your age you don't realize it yet
But your parents know things that you don't and when you look back in your mid-20s or your 30s your 40s
You're gonna say man. I should have listened to them on this point
Just trust me because I was there like less than 10 years ago. All right. I'm only 27
I was a teenager less than 10 years ago. I was there recently, but I'm telling you I could look back
at my parents and the advice that they gave me and I always know they had my best interest at heart.
And even though I didn't even grow up in church, so it's not even like my family was just like
uber spiritual, but even just the advice that they did give me was good advice. How much more
the parents in this room are giving to their children. And so kids ought to listen to what
their parents say. Verse 9 says, For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head.
chains about thy neck. What is ornaments and chains? You know, it's something that
you decorate something with to stand out and to look good. And let me tell you,
kids that listen to their parents, you look good. Kids that take their parents
advice and do what the Bible says, like their parents are telling them, I look
at those kids and I'm like, those are some good-looking kids.
I'm talking spiritually, right?
Like those kids have some grace about them.
Those kids are something to look to and be like praised.
Like these are great kids.
Meanwhile, you go soul winning and you
see a bunch of kids who are literally neglected
by their parents.
Like I saw at an apartment complex a few months ago.
a child that was in diapers.
So like toddler or baby,
you know how those apartment fences,
they're like this wide,
and like you and I couldn't walk through those.
But I saw a baby just walking through
and going out to the sidewalk by the road
and like walking back.
And it looked like Heidi's age,
maybe a tiny bit older.
And it's just like, what are those parents doing?
What chance does that kid have to become a great Christian and a great solar only if we reach that kid someday with the gospel?
But like there's all these parents out there that all you spoiled brat kids have no idea
How blessed you are to be born into a Christian family to be born into a new IFB family
Such a blessing and I tell you what you will look good and you will stand out and you will not regret
listening to what your parents say
But you know what when you disobey your parents when you mouth off to them when you get too big for your britches and think
You know better you look like a jerk
None of us are impressed when kids mouth off to their parents
None of us looks at a teenager that thinks he's too cool to hug his mom and thinks like that's a real bad dude
We're just like come here punk and hug your mom like you know what I mean
But, you know, you see a teenage boy, like, you see, like, an 18-year-old boy, 17-year-old boy that still honors and reveres his parents,
that loves his mom and dad, that goes soul-winning, that reads the Bible, and people are just like, wow.
Like this is a great kid and that's exactly what the Bible says is gonna happen that it's gonna be an ornament of grace under
Thy head and chains about Thy neck. Remember, this isn't just general wisdom folks. This is facts
This is just the word of God. It's a hundred percent true
Number four, I want you to notice warning against wicked friends, you know, we're talking about young people
This has to be one of the most important things that you realize as a young person verse 10. It says my son
If sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
You know, first you have to realize that this verse implies
that you will likely have wicked people in your sphere of life someday
that will try to entice you to do wickedly.
And, you know, you may live this like little sheltered Baptist life and praise God for that.
But I'm telling you, when you go out into the real world, or if you are in public school
right now, when you get older, you will encounter people that will entice you to sin, that will
try to get you to do wickedly.
You'll be in high school.
There'll be people that want you to do drugs, to drink alcohol, to commit fornication.
Any sin you think of, it's in the public high school today.
You know, drug dealing, that's in the public school today.
Passing around pictures of innocent victims,
that's happening in public schools today.
That kind of wickedness is all around.
And so the Bible says the response you need to have
is consent thou not.
You need to learn to have some character
and some boldness and some braveness about you
to say no and not give in to peer pressure.
not care if people shame you or people think you're weird because you won't
drink with them or people think you're no fun because you won't commit
fornication you need to be man enough kids boys when you're tempted with this
to say no to them to not consent to them and I'm telling you people may
sometimes forget that there's a lot of wickedness and sin and terrible things
that happen for young people
Like, like you think like murderer, you're probably thinking 30 to 40 year old guy, you
know?
Okay, here's some of the crimes recently that have happened in our city.
Now one of these I didn't even include because it was just posted today, we're a teenager
in the south, I'm sorry, the east part of Oklahoma City, like just east of downtown
Purposely drove their car through the fence of someone's backyard and ran over and killed another teenager.
Did anyone hear about this?
Okay, one person heard about this.
That was a teen that committed that violent murder.
Here's some other ones.
This was homicide number 14 of this year in our city.
It took place on March 21st.
The victim was 16 years old.
And the perpetrator was 18.
So these are young people.
Friday night, just prior to 10 p.m., Oklahoma City Police was called to the scene near 7th
and Missouri on reports of a person struck by a vehicle.
It appears that the victim, 16-year-old, was at a gathering when the suspect intentionally
ran this person over with her vehicle and fled the scene.
Homicide number 12.
This happened on the 9th of March.
The victim was 16 years old.
Late last night police responded to a shooting call where one person had been hit by gunfire.
The victim, I'm not going to say their name, was just found outside of the apartment in
a breezeway.
He was transported to OU where he died of his injuries.
That's the apartment that we went and sent our soul winning action team to, where this
young boy was murdered.
Homicide number 11 of 2025 on the same night, March 9th, the victim, 16 years old.
Early yesterday police responded to a shooting at an apartment complex in Northwest Oklahoma City
Actually, this was the one we sent our apartment to the other the other ones I mixed up
Northwest Oklahoma City while investigating the shooting police dispatch received a call of a shooting victim
That just arrived at the Mercy Women's Center the shooting victim not gonna say his name was pronounced dead at the center
and the arrested person for that shooting.
Oh, they don't know the person who committed that,
but another 16-year-old who died.
Homicide number six and sevens.
This is a double homicide.
The victim was 17 years old.
The person arrested was 16 years old.
How many murders in our city are happening from teenagers?
Like, this is crazy.
Last night just before 9 p.m. officers responded to integrists Southwest Medical Center regarding three gunshot victims
Those involved arrived in two separate vehicles one victim died
While investigating it it was learned several
Individuals met in the parking lot of 521 to South villa a dispute occurred which escalated to a gunfight between them from there
They fled and drove to the hospital a second person ended up dying a few days later another teenager
Homicide number three of 2025.
The person who was arrested for
this homicide was 16 years old.
The victim was 24 yesterday afternoon.
Police responded to a shooting
call at 1411 Southwest 38th Street.
The victim was the driver of a car
that had been struck or sorry
that had struck a building at that location.
This victim was transported to the area hospital where she died.
Investigators learned that she had stopped to talk with several people in the 1300 block
of Southwest 38 when she was shot.
And she was bleeding out as driving away from the scene.
Like this is just in our town.
Like all these murders happening and a huge percentage of these murders,
either the victim is a teenager or the shooter themselves are teenagers.
Now, this is kind of shocking to me because I kind of have that same idea.
You think of a murderer, you think of like a grown man, right?
But yet there's all these teenagers getting wrapped up in this.
And you got to realize parents don't be naive, first of all,
into thinking they're just kids.
No, kids are getting into a lot of trouble these days, it seems like.
And kids, don't write off your wicked friends' behaviors.
And don't think like nothing bad will happen.
No, bad stuff really happens, folks.
And kids have this idea, it'll never happen to me.
But yet it happens to people.
Yet these are real things that happen in our city.
And you know what it is?
It's kids getting around other wicked kids.
And I want to read some Bible on this before I preach some more on this.
Proverbs one, notice what it says,
let us swallow them up alive as the grave
and whole as those that go down into the pit.
These are wicked people, and you know what they're doing?
They're conspiring to kill.
So when sinners entice you,
Don't consent onto them because sometimes they're very very wicked people and you yourself may think oh, I would never do something like that
Yeah, but if you hang out with people who do you might get caught up in it
You know, I don't think all these teenagers some of them probably did
But I don't think all these teenagers or their friends or people who were there that night thought hey tonight
We're gonna murder someone
Hey tonight, we're gonna shoot two people. Hey tonight, we're gonna kill a 16 year old boy at an apartment complex
But when you're around wicked people sometimes things happen that you didn't expect and you didn't want and you didn't foresee
So it's listen. It's not enough for you to say well, I'm not gonna murder anyone. Oh, I've already decided that in my heart
Oh, I'm not gonna commit fornication. I'm not gonna drink alcohol. It doesn't matter if your friends do though
Because you may think, well, I'm not going to drink.
Yeah, but if your friends do, you could get in all these situations where accidents are
happening and people are killing themselves driving or people are hurting themselves
with guns accidentally, right?
Or you're thinking, I would never kill anyone.
Okay, but what about your wicked friends?
When they get pissed off and in a rage, what are they going to do?
And this happens to people all the time.
They think, I would never do something like that.
Next thing they know, they're in the midst of stuff happening.
And so the way that you escape wicked sins as a young person and as a teenager
is not just by saying you won't do those things.
It's by not being around bad people.
You have to understand what I'm saying right now.
It's not enough that you're a good Christian.
It's not enough that you want to be separated.
You have to not be around wicked people or you can fall into the same things
or be involved with it.
Look what it says in verse number 13.
We shall find all precious substance.
We shall fill our houses with spoil.
Oftentimes, of course, crimes are very often
motivated by money.
The love of money is the root of all evil, the Bible says.
And so you know what?
You should not be around people that love money
because people who are covetous,
they'll transgress for a piece of bread.
Right, they will do wicked things that you didn't expect so you have to realize the
Precursors to crime where it's like. Oh, okay. You know, you're a wicked person. You're talking about the love of money so much
I don't want to be your friend because you don't know how far that goes down into their heart
Here they're conspiring to murder over it and it happens all the time
Verse 14 notice what it says cast in thy lot among us. Let us all have one
Purse and you know, this verse always makes me think of communism
And you know what, it's okay to hate commies, folks.
We need to get back to hating commies in the United States.
It's a wicked ideology.
Notice it's connected with people that are murderers.
Oh, what's your proof, Pastor Oz?
Why don't you just go see the entire 20th century?
I'll just drop the mic right there.
Why don't you read a book?
Why don't you read the Gulag Archipelago or something
and learn about the hellish horrors of communism
in the Soviet Union in the 20th century
and how millions and millions and millions of people
were murdered by their own government.
Anyone that has a Marxist economic ideology,
it's not like, oh, we just disagree on economics.
No, they're wicked people.
Marxists are wicked, evil people.
Don't be around them.
Right, these are people you should avoid, right?
Oh, let's have one purse, let's be commies together.
How about you get the hell away from a little commie?
We need to have some commie hunts
like we did back in the day in America.
You know, I was taught that was such a bad thing
when I was in school as a kid.
I'm looking back, I'm like, let's bring that back.
Let's hunt those people spiritually, metaphorically.
Look at what it says in verse 15 it says my son walk not thou in the way with them
Refrain thy foot from their path. So this is what I've been saying this whole time
It's not hey my son don't commit their sins. He said that already consent thou not
But it's not just hey, don't commit their sins. Don't murder. Don't steal. Don't be covetous
Don't be a commie. No, it's don't even be around them
Don't even go in their path
Don't go hang out Friday nights driving around with your super wicked sinful friends because one thing leads to another
You think you're just having fun being all rebellious away from the house away from mom and dad next thing
You know you're booked into the county jail
as an associate to a murder
You know, you're dealing with this crap for the rest of your life,
or you actually get caught up and get involved in it.
Here you are a teenager, now you're involved with a crime that's going to stay with you for the rest of your life.
You might even be imprisoned for the rest of your life if you commit first degree murder.
That's why you got to just stay away.
Why? Verse 16, for their feet run to evil and make haste to shed blood.
Surely in vain, the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
Actually before verse 17, verse 16 is proving what I'm saying.
You know, these communists are blood thirsty.
What's their motivation? They run to evil.
They make haste to shed blood.
You know, those of us that are just normal human beings,
it's kind of hard to internalize that people like this exist.
But it's real.
Where people just want to make haste to shed blood and run to do evil.
Then it says in verse 17,
surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
You know, if there's a bird outside
and you want to catch it,
if the bird's watching you
and you're setting up the trap.
The birds are not going to go in unless it's a chicken.
Those are really stupid, OK?
But most birds, they're going to be like, OK, this is a trap.
They're watching you put the trap.
And because they're seeing you do that,
they could escape from the evil.
And this is like us, when we see the warning
signs of a wicked person, when we see the activities
of the wicked, it should be like,
you're setting a trap right before me.
I'm not going to fall for that.
I'm going to run away.
Oh, you want to drink alcohol?
Time to get some new friends.
Oh, you're offering me drugs?
Oh, you're playing around with your dad's guns doing stupid stuff, watch out, watch out for kids doing stupid stuff.
When you see that, say, oh, this is a trap. I need to run away.
Verse 18 says,
And they lay weight for their own blood.
They lurk privily for their own lives.
You know, it's poetic and tragic is that people that get caught up in these lifestyles,
you know, organized crime, being a drug dealer, life on the street, you know, what happens
is they live a really violent life and they themselves often die a really violent death.
It's like you want to know why there's so many black people being shot and killed by police today
It's not because police officers are waking up in the morning wanting to hunt black people
It's because you got all these gangs in Chicago and South Dallas and all these kids that sadly were not raised with a dad
That loved them enough to give him the word of God and to say obey my instructions
Don't forsake the law of your father or of your mother
They just neglected them and the streets raised them and the gangs raised them
and they got into the drug game and they're selling drugs.
You know what often happens?
Gang fights, dying in gang fights over nothing,
or getting shot by the police in the commission of a crime.
That's reality. That's what happens.
And it's sad. It's tragic.
I wish that these kids had some parents that loved them.
and that's for any color that you are.
White gangs, Mexican gangs, Asian gangs.
You know, we need some Christian parents to love children.
And you know what?
If these parents are gonna fail on their children,
we're at least gonna go preach them the gospel.
Like we're gonna still go to the ghetto
where all the crime is, where all the gangs are.
We'll still show up and knock on your door
and preach your kids the gospel.
But you know, sadly, these parents are so wicked.
Oftentimes they shoo us away.
and don't let us preach to their kids.
I was with Brother Cameron on Saturday.
And multiple times these young kids were there.
We were able to preach them.
And here comes Crack-Hore Mom to shoo us away.
You know, it's disgusting.
What a hateful thing.
You're such a hateful parent.
You're fine with your kids, just doing whatever you want.
They're running out in the street, they're naked,
they're around a bunch of crappy friends,
but God forbid a Baptist pastor knocks on your door
and wants to give them the gospel.
Like, that's the worst thing.
That's why these kids' lives are messed up.
That's why they're growing up in crime.
That's why they're ending in a bloody, violent death
is because of crappy parents like that.
Verse number 19.
says so are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain,
which take away the life of the owners thereof.
So notice it likens these violent people
to people that are greedy and covetous
and that are just wanting to get money at any cost.
Why?
Because they are often themselves tormented people.
Just like, you know, you live a violent life, you do all these crimes, you yourself often have those same things happen to you.
It's like people that are greedy of gain often commit a bunch of sins and they think that their life is going to be so blessed when they get money.
But what they find out is when they're rich by being wicked that their life still sucks and that it's still terrible.
I'll show you that in the Bible. Go to 1 Timothy chapter number six.
1 Timothy chapter number six. Look, money is a tool.
God blesses with you, you with it. Praise the Lord. If he doesn't praise the Lord
It's just a tool
But look what the Bible says in first Timothy chapter number six
Verse
Number nine it says but they that will be rich meaning you want to be rich
fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts
like the Bible can't really get much more graphic.
He's trying to like wake you up as to how bad it is
when people want to be rich.
Look, there's nothing wrong with being rich.
There's nothing wrong with God blessing you.
There's nothing wrong with you working an honest job,
building an honest business,
building wealth by being godly, doing things right,
but people that want to be rich
and they just have to be rich.
You know what they do?
They often sin, cut corners,
do things that aren't pleasing to the Lord
and you know what, that comes back on them.
It says that it's a snare. It's like a trap, right?
It's kind of like, hey, you know, when you set a trap on the side of a bird,
it's not really going to have an effect.
Well, people that love money and that want to be rich,
it's like you're more stupid than a bird
because like the bird will see the trap and run away.
But the Bible is telling you it's a trap and some people will still run to it.
There's probably, I hope this isn't the case,
but there's probably people in this church
that someday will get infected with the love of money
Because we live in America and I've seen it happen where people are three to thrive. They're soul winners
They're doing good and they pray for God to bless them and they build a business and they start making good money
And then they stop going to church
They stop going soul winning. It's like that person is in for a rough ride
I would rather, like if I had to choose,
obviously I don't want to be rich, I don't want to be poor,
God just give me that what's convenient for me.
I don't want to be so poor, I got to steal,
I don't want to be so rich thinking I don't need God, right?
But I would rather be on the leaner side of things
and be hungry for God, than be so full with riches
that I forget about him.
You know what I mean?
And look, you may not think that,
but I'm telling you your life will be better.
Your life is going to be better
when you're hungrier for God.
We'll go back to Proverbs chapter number one.
Proverbs one, look at verse number 20.
Notice number five this evening,
wisdom's cry.
Verse 20, it says, wisdom cryeth without.
She uttereth her voice in the streets.
Now the Bible in Proverbs uses a really beautiful
literary device called personification,
where wisdom here is kind of like a person
where it's crying out, where it's yelling out.
And really what it's supposed to be
is it's supposed to be a picture of God.
Like, it's like God crying out to you and God's word crying out to you.
And this is what God is doing.
Go to Psalm 19.
Wisdom cryeth without.
She uttereth her voice in the streets.
You know, God today is calling out for man to believe in him.
God today is calling out through his word, through the preaching of God's word, through
the creation that he is God, that he's real, that he wants people to believe in him.
He's calling out today.
The heavens declare the glory of God.
And the firmament showeth his handiwork.
You're supposed to look at something like creation.
You're supposed to look up at the sun, moon and stars
and just be in awe of the mighty power of God.
And especially now that we have, you know, telescopes and satellites taking all these amazing pictures of space,
like when you look at it, it's just incredible, like how amazing God is, how powerful He is.
You know, one thing that I like to think about is when I look at the moon, I think about how God created the moon.
And not only did God create the moon, but when Jesus Christ was on this earth, he saw the moon too.
And sometimes I just like to think about, like, I'm looking at something that my God has also looked at.
And he made that. Isn't that cool to think about?
You know, when I look at the heavens and the stars and the moon, it just gives glory to God.
And you know what that is? That's wisdom just crying to humanity.
Just like, Jesus is the Creator.
God is real. Evolution's fake folks. The Big Bang is fake and just you know how you know it proves that just look outside
That's what proves it
Go to Revelation 22 Revelation chapter 22
But you know God wisdom is constantly crying out for people to get saved
God is kind of crying out today for people to stop being a Catholic and
Stop trusting in idols and stop trusting in works
Look what it says in verse 17 and the Spirit and the Bride say,
Come, and let him that heareth say, Come, and let him that is a thirst, Come,
and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.
I mean, God is just telling the world, Come, you want it?
Whosoever will, right?
It's not Calvinism.
It's not, oh, you're predetermined.
No, it's whosoever will.
God is constantly calling today.
You know, he's calling through church today.
He's calling through you
going and knocking on someone's door.
He's calling people with YouTube videos.
That's how I got saved.
Watching a gospel presentation.
He's calling through documentaries.
He's calling through a mother
praying for her son.
He's calling through you
preaching the gospel to your brother.
Like God is just constantly calling today.
And he wants people to be saved.
Wisdom is crying.
Go back to Proverbs chapter number one.
That's why this idea of people, you know,
oh, it's not fair that people go to hell.
They never had a chance.
Wisdom is just constantly crying to everyone.
People have a chance.
They have a great chance.
I mean, God wants them to be saved.
Of course, they have a chance.
Jesus died for them.
Yeah, they have a chance.
It's a free gift.
Look at verse 21.
She cryeth.
In the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates, in the city, she uttered her words.
Notice, so it's just everywhere.
The chief place, you know, think about just like, I don't know, high places of learning
or high places of government or high places in business or stuff like that.
Like, wisdom's just crying there.
And in the gate of the city, wisdom's crying there.
And just in the city, wisdom's crying there.
Like, wisdom is just crying everywhere today.
Notice what it says in verse 22.
How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?
And the scorners delight in their scorning
and fools hate knowledge.
So wisdom, personified here, is getting pissed off at people.
And of course, really, it's God that's getting pissed off at people.
And you say, how could God have a right to be angry at someone for being foolish?
How does God have a right to be angry at scorners or fools because he's been crying this whole time?
because God's been crying out His truth through creation.
He's been crying out through the Bible, through preachers,
through a bunch of different avenues, and when people don't see it, it's because they don't want to see it.
If someone doesn't get saved, it's because they didn't want to get saved.
When someone doesn't want to listen to Bible preaching,
when someone wants to be a Methodist, when someone wants to be a Catholic,
when someone wants to be a Mormon or a Jew,
or a Muslim, it's because they wanted to reject knowledge.
Wisdom's crying out.
Wisdom's here.
They're not having an excuse.
And look what he says.
How long are you simple ones?
Will you love simplicity?
Why is someone simple?
Because they love being stupid.
That's why.
Why is it that crack whore is in the situation she's in that rejected us?
We tried to preach the gospel to her kids because we were there wisdom crying
You want to get saved you want a free gift you want your life to get better and she goes nah get out of here
She loves simplicity folks
Why is she in that situation because she loves simplicity and look?
I'm not saying God hates fools or God hates simple people, but I'm telling you that the reason that their fools is their own fault
It's not God's fault
And you know what, when someone goes to hell, that's not God's fault.
And when I knock on someone's door of my own time to preach someone the gospel,
and they don't listen, when they go to hell, that's not my fault.
That's not your fault. That's not God's fault. It's their fault.
So stop sitting here and accusing God, getting angry at God, God's so vengeful.
How could God burn people in hell?
Well, because you were an idiot and you rejected the gospel, that's why.
because it was a free gift, because Jesus paid for all your sins.
He loved you even knowing you would reject him.
So yeah, you do deserve it.
Look what he commands in verse 23.
Wisdom's commanding this,
turn you at my reproof.
Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you.
He wants to.
I will make known my words unto you.
Notice God's just wanting people to hear.
Wanting people to believe, wanting to give people truth, wanting to give people grace, wanting people to be saved.
But you know what? When you hear truth, and when any human being hears truth, you now have a responsibility with God to obey the truth.
To believe the truth. When you hear something from the Bible, when God gives you something, you know what He's saying to you?
who here preaching and just despise it.
You know what, you're a fool too.
You may not be as foolish as the atheist who's so stupid he believes that everything came from nothing
But you know what a Christian that despises God's word that doesn't listen to the preaching that doesn't read the Bible
Wisdoms calling to you, and you don't care you're foolish too
You're simple as well, and you know what you need to do you need to turn at the reproof
When you get some information from the word of God when you are given instruction by a leader in your life
You now have a responsibility to turn and notice what happens when you don't God's angry
God saying how long are you gonna be stupid?
How long are you gonna delight in your scorning? How long are you gonna hate knowledge?
Verse 24 says because I have called and you refused right God called
I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded boy. How would the Calvinist explain this chapter?
Irresistible grace
Oh, yeah, it's irresistible grace. God's just going to force you to believe.
Then why is he so angry at people not listening?
Why is he so angry at people not believing, not hearkening to the counsel?
And he's saying, you said it all at not, meaning you didn't care about it.
You didn't esteem it as something worthy of anything.
And you would none, meaning you didn't want any of my reproof.
You didn't want the correction.
I'll read for you 2 Timothy 4-2.
It says, Preach the word.
Be instant in season, out of season.
Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all lung suffering and doctrine.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers,
having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears
from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
You know, what we're seeing today is very similar to the verses I just read
and to what we're seeing in Proverbs 1, where there's so much wisdom being poured out.
We live in the age of the Internet where just any information that you possibly desire is at your fingertips.
And by the way, it's at people's fingertips in Africa and the Philippines, all over the world.
People have the Internet pretty much now, and yet people are still not wanting God's approval.
And you know what? That's their fault.
And because of that, look at verse number 26.
Verse 26 says,
That's a strong word.
That means grievous, affliction, adversity, misery.
I mean, that's extreme, folks.
You know, your average Joe, when you see someone going through misery,
our reaction is not to laugh at that.
You know?
Now, if it's a God-hating reprobate who's in misery,
okay, you know, that's a different story.
But you just see like average Joe gets in a car crash.
You know, none of us are laughing, right?
We're just like, oh man, let's help that person that sucks.
But these people are so foolish,
and God has extended so much unto them.
and God's called unto them so much, and yet they hated the truth,
they hated God's word, they didn't want to listen to it,
that it comes to the point where, okay, now you're reaping what you've sown,
because what you don't know can hurt you, and now they're
having all this calamity, and you know what God's doing? He's laughing at it.
And he says, I will mock when your fear
cometh.
When they're afraid, God's looking down at these people and laughing at them and mocking them for being so stupid.
You say those are mean words. This is Proverbs chapter 1. Like I didn't come up with this.
This isn't my idea. Like God is laughing at people's calamity. Oh, it's never right to laugh at anyone going through something hard.
God's laughing at these wicked people's calamity. He's mocking when they're afraid.
I mean, God is so powerful, see my sermon about fearing God.
Like, God, I want to fear you because when I'm afraid, I want God to be like, I got you.
You know, you're in the stronghold. I've got your back.
I don't want God to see me afraid and just be like laughing at me.
That's terrifying, right? But this is the life of a reprobate, folks.
And I'm going to tell you, I believe this is talking about reprobates.
Go to Ezekiel chapter 33 because some would scoff at these verses and they would want
to show you some verses in the Bible that seem on the surface to contradict what we're
reading in Proverbs chapter 1.
They'll show you verses like, rejoice not when your enemy falleth.
And you know what?
Both of those verses are true.
They'll show you verses like this right here in Ezekiel 33 verse 11.
I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.
Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?
Now, whenever there's an apparent contradiction in the Bible,
You probably have a misinterpretation on one of these things, okay?
Because there's no contradictions in the Bible.
You need, whenever you have two verses that seem at odds with one another,
you need to interpret it in a way to where both are true.
Because let me tell you, folks, Proverbs chapter 1 is true.
And Ezekiel 33 is true.
Amen to both of them.
I'm not hiding from one or the other, because this is what preachers do.
They just pick the one they like.
Like if someone is more on the hate side, they might just pick that one or if most Baptist preachers are way on this side
Just love only God never hates anyone. They'll stick on these eco 33 side, but I'm here to tell you that both are true
Now, what are some differences between these passages?
Well Proverbs 1, first of all, is very poetic, right?
It's wisdom personified.
Ezekiel 33, we have a direct statement from God about the wicked.
Now Proverbs 1, what have we been seeing this whole time?
God's extending wisdom wisdom's crying out to them. God's wanting them to turn. He's giving them chances
It's in the high places. It's in the gates. It's in the city. It's everywhere yet. They hated the reproof
They would none of God's counsel. They rejected God. That's what they did
They rejected God over and over again. You know what Romans one teaches is that people that reject God
Multiple times, or every many times, God decides for that person that God could in turn reject them and give them over to a reprobate mind.
And when someone is a reprobate, let me explain something to you. God hates them. God hates them.
Now, I will tell you this, this is a vast minority of the world.
Very, very few people are reprobates in the grand scheme of the world.
Most of the world would go into Ezekiel 33,
because when you're saying the wicked in that verse,
I don't think he's talking about reprobates there.
I think he's just talking about the unsaved in general.
Sometimes the unsaved could just be described as the wicked.
Reprobates are like children of the devil,
or just straight-up reprobates, or children of Satan, things like that.
But when it's saying here,
Say unto them, as I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked."
So how could these things both be true?
Okay, random unsaved, random Joe blow, dies and goes to hell.
God's not happy about that, and I'm not happy about that, right?
God wanted that person to be saved.
But God-hating reprobate.
that has rejected God over and over, whose main goal in life is to hate God and to blaspheme the Bible
and to attack churches and to attack men of God.
Those people have calamity and God laughs at them.
And you know what? I don't feel bad for those people.
See my sermon on Sunday? I don't feel bad for the Ryan Beckers of this world.
I laugh at his calamity.
I mock when his fear comes and you know what? When he dies and goes to hell, I will rejoice.
And so will God.
because he rejected God a long time ago and God rejected him.
So you see how you can interpret these to where they're both true?
Hey, praise the Lord for Proverbs 1. Praise the Lord for Ezekiel 33.
It's not an either or situation. So people, you know, well, another verse that I
have heard people bring up this point is like, rejoice not when your enemy
falleth.
Yeah, when someone does you wrong personally.
Someone cuts you off when someone, you know, defrauds you or talks bad about you.
Don't rejoice when that person falls.
But what if someone's an enemy of God?
What if someone's an enemy of the Church of God and the work of God?
Guess what?
The Bible says that we should hate the enemies of God.
So, when the enemies of God fall, God rejoices.
When the enemies of God fall, I rejoice.
This is actually a balanced view on Scripture.
This is actually taking both verses and believing both of them 100%.
Not just in this limbo where sometimes you pick and choose, like there's a very clear
delineation here.
It's okay to hate the reprobate, okay?
The regular unsaved, it's not okay to hate them.
You should love them.
Go to verse 28, lastly we'll see the punishment of fools.
What happens when people keep rejecting God?
Verse 28 says, then shall they call upon me,
but I will not answer.
They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me.
Again, this goes towards my idea
that this is talking about reprobates, folks.
They're calling upon God, but he won't answer.
The Bible says,
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be safe.
So if these people are calling upon God and God's not answering,
it's because they're a reprobate, because they're rejected.
They're seeking God, but they're unable to find Him.
Jesus said, if you seek, you'll find.
So this has to be talking about reprobates.
Go to John chapter number 12, John chapter number 12.
See, this is an example of what I'm talking about earlier with subtlety and discretion
John chapter 12, here's an example of this, verse 37,
but though he had done so many miracles before them,
that he is the Lord Jesus Christ, that them are the Jews,
yet they believed not on him, that the saying of Isaiah's,
the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake,
Lord who hath believed our report,
and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed.
Notice verse 39, this is so important,
therefore they could not believe.
Because, that his eye is set again, he hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart
that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted,
and I should heal them.
There's a big distinction between someone who's not ready to get saved yet, and they
haven't believed on the Lord Jesus Christ yet, and someone who cannot believe.
Because people will falsely accuse our teaching on reprobates and they'll say oh you guys are saying Jesus didn't die for every
Everyone sins and to that I would say he absolutely died for everyone sins
Jesus died for every reprobate since
Jesus died for every sodomite sins, but here's the thing. What does it take to have your sins forgiven?
What does it take to get saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. What is the punishment of reprobation?
It's that God makes it to where you cannot believe
That's what it is. To be a reprobate is that you cannot believe.
Theoretically, if these people could believe in Jesus, you know what happened?
They'd be saved.
Because anyone that believes in Jesus Christ, the Bible says, will be saved.
So how do you know for sure that reprobates are going to hell?
Because they cannot believe.
That's how you can know for sure.
Go back to Proverbs chapter number one.
So that's why it says they'll call upon me and I will not answer they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me
That's a punishment from God verse 29 for that. They hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the Lord notice. It's not God just
punishing people for no reason
It's not the Calvinist God, the sick and twisted, demented view of God that Calvinists have.
No, they hated God.
They hated knowledge.
They didn't choose God because it's a choice.
And so God gave them over to a reprobate mind.
But you know what?
No one today is a sodomite because God forced them to hate him.
They chose to hate him.
They chose to reject him.
and turn them over to a reprobate mind, and to make it where they cannot believe.
Verse 31,
and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
Sometimes you look at fools, you look at the wicked,
and sometimes they're even prospering in a carnal sense,
but we have to realize that sometimes God's giving them that prosperity
because he knows it'll destroy them.
And it's a vessel of destruction.
And even you can apply this to God's people.
You know, sometimes God's people are foolish
and God can't really bless you that much
because the prosperity of fools will destroy him.
You could stay there, Proverbs 10, 22 says,
the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich,
and he addeth no sorrow with it.
Lastly here, number seven, the promise for the wise.
Verse 33 says, but whoso harkeneth unto me,
shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
Man.
Two totally different paths in life that people can go down and it starts with listening to what the Proverbs say
It's like you want to hate God hate wisdom hate instruction hate reproof hate his words
Well, you know what then you're gonna call upon God in your time of need
He's not gonna answer you you're gonna call you're gonna try to seek him
And you're never gonna find him and when your calamity comes in fact
God's gonna be laughing at you and when you're in torture and agony and torment God's gonna mock you
when you're in fear.
That's one group of people.
Then it says,
Look, obeying God's commandments
and serving God is not vain.
This is not just an exercise, this is not just like, well, we're just Christians, just because this is what we do.
We just read the Bible. No, there's actually results in your life for serving and fearing God.
There's actual real tangible benefits for serving God, dwelling safely, being quiet from fear of evil, just having inner peace.
Of having God on your side. That is a real thing that you get to have, but you know what, it starts with you choosing to love the truth.
to love God's Word, to love reproof, to love instruction, to not be the fool that only wants to talk,
but actually they want to shut up every once in a while and hear.
increase learning and actually open up the book of Proverbs and read it and learn it and open up other books and attain
Underwise counsel when you make those decisions, you know, it's gonna happen. You're gonna dwell securely
You're gonna be safe. You're gonna have peace. That's what the Bible teaches through the book of Proverbs. That's what we're gonna be learning about
the next 30 weeks through this book. Let's pray Lord. We thank you for this
wonderful book and this great chapter. I thank you for your righteous judgments
and I pray that you'd help us to reach people with the gospel before it's
eternally too late for them by them either dying or just rejecting you Lord
and becoming a reprobate. I pray that we in this room would never reject your
words that we would want correction and reproof and instruction from these
All right for our last him this evening. So grab your hymnal turn to 288
Him number
288 I
Am resolved
288
I am resolved. We'll sing there starting on the first.
I am resolved no longer to lean.
It's a judge.