We read of a place that's called heaven, it's made for the pure and the free.
These truths and God's word he hath given, how beautiful heaven must be.
How beautiful heaven must be, sweet home of the happy and free, their haven of rest for the weary.
How beautiful heaven must be, in heaven no drooping nor pining, no wishing of elsewhere to be.
God's light is forever there shining, how beautiful heaven must be.
How beautiful heaven must be, sweet home of the happy and free, their haven of rest for the weary.
How beautiful heaven must be, pure waters of life there are flowing,
and all who will drink may be free. Rare jewels of the splendor are glowing, how beautiful heaven must be.
How beautiful heaven must be, sweet home of the happy and free, their haven of rest for the weary.
How beautiful heaven must be, the angels so sweetly are singing, up there by the beautiful sea.
Sweet chords from their gold arps are ringing, how beautiful heaven must be.
How beautiful heaven must be, sweet home of the happy and free, their haven of rest for the weary.
How beautiful heaven must be.
Let's begin with a word of prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for giving us the opportunity to preach your word.
I pray that you just bless all those that are here in the building as well as those that are listening online.
I thank you for all the souls that were won out, soul winning, and we just pray that we continue to give you all the honor and glory.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Let's go to our next song, 441.
441, great is thy faithfulness.
Great is thy faithfulness, song 441, there on the first.
Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father, there is no shadow of turning with thee.
Thou changest not thy compassions, they fail not.
As thou hast been, thou forever will be.
Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness.
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed thy hand hath provided.
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest.
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above.
Join with all nature in manifold witness.
To thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness.
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
Thank you all so much for tuning in and being here.
We're going to go through our bulletin just quickly.
We have our service and soul winning times as well as a nursing home ministry, but that has been suspended.
Currently all of our soul winning times are still in effect.
If you have any salvations or anything to report throughout the week, you can just text me or email the church and I'll get those numbers updated.
On the right hand side we have the stats for March in the year.
133 salvation so far for this month.
One baptism and then for the year to date 570 with three baptisms.
So keep up the great work on the soul winning and the baptisms.
Also we have a list of several expecting ladies.
If you would please be in prayer for all of them.
Here in the Fort Worth location we have Brooke Bauman, Natalie Urbanic, Farrah Alderman, Lauren Milstead, Alisha Naeem and Stephanie Weathers.
So please be in prayer for all of them as well.
In Houston at Pure Words Baptist Church we have Sarah Gomez.
And then also in Oklahoma City we have Chloe Smith, Raquel Hill, Emily Ballard and Nikita Poorman.
So please be in prayer for all of these ladies and also even the women who have recently given birth if you would please be in prayer for them.
As far as Leviticus chapter 20 we're on a Bible memory challenge and we're on week 22nd of 27.
So still five weeks.
Great chapter of the Bible to memorize a lot of great verses and things that our nation has forgotten but God's word is forever settled in heaven.
So we need to keep memorizing His word.
Also our friend day that was scheduled for today has been postponed but we will do that again.
We're going to have it.
I was really excited to have a friend day event and so we'll probably just order new cards.
I really like the way the cards turned out.
I thought they were really nice.
I like the map on them and everything like that.
So hopefully we'll get some new invites and get a new date and we can have a big feast and fellowship.
I do still have the gifts as well that we were going to give them.
As far as the Bahamas missions trip I already mentioned this in the morning service but I'll mention it again.
We don't know just yet exactly if the Bahamas are going to allow people to come in during May.
I've heard rumors that they possibly won't.
If you go to the U.S. Embassy website they say that there's restrictions only enforced until the end of this month.
Now I would not be surprised if they continue that for part of April or maybe even all of April.
But we'll have to wait and see.
I don't know.
If there's other information out there I'll have to check it out.
But I'm not going to make a decision on the Bahamas trip until we get a little bit closer just to make sure.
The only reason I will postpone it is for one of two reasons.
Either A, they're not going to let us in.
That's a pretty obvious reason.
Or B, even if they do let people in but it's only like one airline or something and it's extremely expensive.
That's going to kind of defeat the whole purpose of trying to take a missions trip as a church.
So I'd end up just postponing that as well so that everybody can kind of participate at the best of their ability.
So hopefully that won't be postponed.
I really hope that the Lord allows us to go in at that time.
If not then we'll just go in at a later time whenever the Lord deems is the best time for us to go in.
Also in the end of April, April 25th we have a wedding in honor of Michael Scott and Savannah Obney.
Everything is supposed to be on track still for this wedding.
If there is any changes I'll let you know.
But also they are registered on Amazon.
If you'd like to get them a gift they would greatly appreciate that.
We also have the hymns for the week listed below.
And I think that's pretty much it for announcements.
But if you need anything from me please don't hesitate to email or to text me if you have my number.
Those are the best ways to communicate with me.
It's either via text or an email.
And I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible.
I think that's pretty much it for announcements.
Let's go to our next song.
187, 187.
I did think of one other thing.
I ordered some of those once saved, always saved CDs, audio CDs.
I forgot to tell our soul owners from this afternoon.
But I have them all in my car so I'm going to get them out.
But we're going to load up the soul winning material with those once saved, always saved CDs.
And my view is since we're under this weird situation with the coronavirus,
anybody that's going out soul winning during this time, offer the CD to anybody that wants it.
So I wouldn't necessarily give it on every door.
But I would just say, hey, we're giving out free preaching, once saved, always saved.
It's an audio CD.
Are you interested?
Would you like to listen to this?
Or would you want to listen to this?
And if they say yes, just give it to them.
I don't care if they're saved or not saved or interested in the gospel.
Just say, give them the invite no matter what.
But then just say, also, we're giving free sermons away, these free audio CDs.
Would you listen to it?
And if they say yes, then just give it right to them.
And so you don't have to worry if they get saved or not.
Let's just pump out as much preaching as we can.
I got 5,000 of them.
So we have a lot on stock and we can get more.
But I just figure it's a good thing to just pop into people's hands.
Hand it to them.
They're probably so bored out of their mind to listen to anything right now.
And what's better than once saved, always saved.
So we're going to load up the shelves.
If you want them, you can come by at the church and grab some throughout the week or if you're here.
Let's sing our third song, 187, Jesus Loves Me.
Are they on the first?
Jesus loves me, this I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong.
They are weak, but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me, He who died.
Heaven's gate to open wide.
He will wash away my sin.
Let His little child come in.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me, He will stay.
Close beside me all the way.
Thou hast bled and died for me.
I will henceforth live for Thee.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
The Bible tells me so.
At this time we'll turn our Bibles to Ezekiel chapter 28.
Brother Jesse is going to read for us.
Ezekiel chapter number 28.
And we'll read through the entire chapter.
In Ezekiel chapter 28 the Bible reads,
The word of the Lord came again unto me saying,
Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord God,
Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a god,
I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas.
Yet thou art a man and not God, though thou said thine heart is the heart of God.
Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel, there is no secret that they can hide from thee.
With thy wisdom, with thine understanding, thou hast gotten thee riches,
and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures.
By thy great wisdom and by thy traffic hast thou increased thy riches,
and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches.
Therefore thus saith the Lord God,
Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God, behold,
therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations,
and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom,
and they shall defile thy brightness.
They shall bring thee down to the pit,
and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas.
Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God?
But thou shalt be a man and not God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee.
Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers,
for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.
Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyres, and say unto him,
Thus saith the Lord God, thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God.
Every precious stone was thy covering.
The sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the barrel, the onyx, and the jasper,
the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold,
the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes,
was preparing thee in the day that thou wast created.
Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have said thee so.
Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God.
Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created,
till iniquity is found in thee.
By the multitude of thy merchandise,
thy fill the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned.
Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God,
and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty.
Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.
I will cast thee to the ground.
I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities.
By the iniquity of thy traffic,
therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee.
It shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth
in the sight of all them that behold thee.
All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee.
Thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.
Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
Son of man, set thy face against Zidane, and prophesy against it, and say,
Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against thee, O Zidane,
and I will be glorified in the midst of thee.
And they shall know that I am the Lord,
when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.
For I will send into her pestilence and blood into her streets,
and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side.
And they shall know that I am the Lord,
and there shall be no more a pricking briar unto the house of Israel,
nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them that despise them.
And they shall know that I am the Lord God.
Thus saith the Lord God, When I shall have gathered the house of Israel
from the people among whom they are scattered,
and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen,
then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob.
And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses and plant vineyards to the aid.
They shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments
upon all those that despise them round about them.
And they shall know that I am the Lord our God. Let's pray.
Father in heaven, we thank this day, Lord.
Thank you for all the souls of God saved this afternoon, our soul winning,
and I pray you bless, pass, study, renounce, fill them with your spirit and strength,
helping to preach the word of God boldly and faithfully,
so we can hear and be edified by the teaching of God's word.
We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen.
So I want to look back at verse number 12 where the Bible read,
Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus,
and saying to him, Thus saith the Lord God, Thou sealest up the sum,
full of wisdom and perfect and beauty.
Thou has been in Eden the garden of God, and precious stone was thy covering,
the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the barrel, the onyx, and the jasper,
the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold.
The workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee
in the day that thou wast created.
Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so.
That was upon the holy mountain of God.
Thou wast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created,
till iniquity was found in thee.
By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee
with violence, and thou hast sinned.
Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God,
and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty.
Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.
I will cast thee to the ground.
I will lay thee before kings that they may behold thee.
So we have here in this section a very interesting portion of scripture
where it's being addressed to the king of Tyre.
It says, you know, king of Tyrus, the son of man.
But we understand from the description this is not talking about the person,
the king of Tyrus.
This is a description of none other than the devil.
This is a picture of what the Satan is like,
and we learn a lot about the downfall of Satan.
And what is ultimately pictured in this passage? Pride.
Pride is the downfall of the devil.
It's really where a lot of this iniquity is coming from.
The devil wants to be like the Most High, is what the Bible teaches.
And the devil wants everyone to worship him.
And the devil is full of pride.
The devil is basically the king of pride.
He's like Leviathan.
He's that serpent that's the king of pride, over all the children of pride.
And really, everything about the devil just points to pride.
And I think from this passage we can learn about what causes someone to be prideful.
How come someone is prideful, or what does pride really look like?
And I think from this we have four different pictures of how people become prideful.
There's probably more, but at least in this passage we have at least four great ways that we can identify why do people become prideful.
How can we avoid pride? Because pride is always negative in the Bible.
You can look it up. It's plenty of times in the Bible the word pride, prideful, boasting, proud, these type of descriptors.
It's always negative.
And in fact, it's so negative in the Bible, it's always caught me a little off guard because you'll hear people say this,
why I'm proud of my kid.
But you know, I don't know if that's the best way to word that, but it's interesting.
There's really not even a substitute word.
That's just why in our modern vernacular and English language, often people will say that.
But from a biblical perspective, how God words us is he's pleased.
This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
Pride is always a negative attribute. It's always a negative emotion.
And we ought to be careful that we're not ever lifted up with pride like the devil was.
Now, if we go back to verse number 12 for a moment, we're going to start seeing why was the devil so prideful.
Verse 12 says this.
Thus saith the Lord God, thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
My first point as to why people become prideful is because of wisdom.
Now, we have to understand something.
The word wisdom can actually mean a few different things.
And there's different types of wisdom.
There's a wisdom which comes from God and there's a wisdom of this world.
There is nothing wrong with being filled with the wisdom of God.
There's nothing wrong with being wise.
But there is a wisdom, there is a particular knowledge that will cause people to become very prideful.
And that is a knowledge and a wisdom of this world, a wisdom of the flesh.
It also says in verse number 17,
Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty.
Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.
So, he has a corrupted wisdom.
He's corrupted the wisdom that he has.
And because of that wisdom, it's caused him to become very prideful.
Now, some people have a bad idea what the devil's like.
According to the Bible, the devil is very knowledgeable.
The devil is very intelligent.
He has a lot of cunning craftiness.
He's very knowledgeable about certain things in life.
Now, obviously, he's devoid of the wisdom of God, okay?
So, we don't want to give him that attribute.
But just from an intelligence perspective, he's far more intelligent than we are even.
The Bible describes him as being more intelligent than Daniel.
And Daniel was a very intelligent person.
He was able to pick up the learning of the Chaldeans.
He was able to understand all the teaching of the astrologers and all the wisdom that the Chaldeans had given unto him.
Daniel could pick up because he was that intelligent.
The devil is more intelligent than him.
The devil is extremely intelligent.
Now, obviously, he's devoid of wisdom because he's a liar.
He's the father of lives.
He's full of pride.
And without God's wisdom, you truly don't have any at all.
But we have to understand the word wisdom can be applied in a couple of different contexts.
Go, if you would, to 1 Corinthians, chapter number 8.
1 Corinthians, chapter number 8.
And we're going to look at verse 1 here.
I want to kind of build a foundation and then we're going to attack this point of bad wisdom.
But because of knowledge, because of intellect, many people will be lifted up with pride.
Look at the warning it says in 1 Corinthians, chapter 8, verse 1.
Now, as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge.
Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edify.
The Bible warns that knowledge in and of itself can cause you to be a very prideful person.
And even good knowledge.
Knowledge of things that are good.
Knowledge that you should have.
Knowledge even of the Bible.
But oftentimes when people don't have charity, it ends up puffing them up and causing them to be very prideful as a person.
Go, if you would, to Proverbs, chapter 8.
Proverbs, chapter number 8.
Now, think of the devil's ploy in the Garden of Eden.
What was it that the devil was trying to get Eve to succumb to?
Gaining knowledge.
Gaining wisdom.
To be as gods.
Knowing good and evil.
And if you know anything about the occult or the satanic agendas, they're always about what?
Being enlightened.
Having knowledge.
Having wisdom.
Because that's what the devil appeals with.
He appeals with wisdom and knowledge and logic saying, if you come and eat of my forbidden fruit, you'll be so much wiser.
You know, you don't want to be locked into the simplicity of the Bible.
Come and be elevated to a higher level.
The age of enlightenment where they were way smarter than the Bible.
Way smarter than God.
Yet, they were foolish because there is no wisdom apart from God's Word.
But knowledge and intellect causes many people to become prideful.
In fact, you often don't see very uneducated people or people that are simple-minded being very prideful.
They're usually a lot more humble as a person.
So, if you have a higher intellect or you have more knowledge than other people, you need to be careful that you don't become a very prideful person.
Very easy to become prideful.
Look what it says in Proverbs 8 verse 12.
I, Wisdom, dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.
The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogance and the evil way and the forward mouth do I hate.
So, notice Wisdom is to find out knowledge, okay, of witty inventions.
But we have to couple that with the fear of the Lord because the fear of the Lord is to hate pride.
We're never supposed to be prideful.
So, you have to balance this knowledge that you're gaining, this wisdom you're gaining with what?
With godly charity.
Without charity, without grace, without these other things, you end up becoming a very prideful, arrogant person and we don't want to become that type of a person.
Go if you would to Psalms 14.
Psalms 14, go back in your Bibles.
There's a difference between true wisdom and pride.
If I have true godly wisdom, I'm not going to go around and blow off my mouth around about it.
Oh, I'm just so much wiser than you and I know so much more Bible than you and I've studied all these things so much more than you.
That's not true wisdom, that's just pride coming out.
True wisdom is going to understand, hey, if you are lacking in knowledge in some area, why don't I help you?
Someone who's truly wise and truly has the heart of God is not going to look down upon people that have less knowledge than them.
He's going to want to impart that knowledge unto them.
Think about the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Do you think the Lord Jesus Christ had more knowledge, more information than his disciples?
Of course he did.
It was probably like you trying to explain to a two-year-old how to read or trying to explain how, I mean, he's just looking at it.
He's like, how do you not get, think about how patient the Lord Jesus Christ had to be with his disciples.
Didn't you have to explain the same things over to them again and again and again and they just wouldn't get it?
Now sometimes he would rebuke them for not getting it, sometimes he would correct them and instruct them, but he was very patient.
He was very patient with his disciples.
And if there's anybody that has to talk down to someone, it's God to us.
And if there's anybody that has superior intellect to someone he's instructing and teaching, it's God to us.
But notice he's very patient with us, he's kind with us, he tries to make things simple and plain.
And by the foolishness of preaching he uses that to help us understand the true riches and wisdom of God.
He gives us the Holy Spirit to guide us and to lead us in all truth.
The Holy Spirit's not there to be like, you're an idiot, you're stupid.
Look, the Holy Spirit's there to teach us the Bible.
God wants us to know the information.
He doesn't want to just look down from heaven and just say, you guys are stupid.
You're never going to get it, you're dumb.
No, he wants us to understand his information.
He's yearning for us to learn it.
And so he constantly is trying to tell you, hey, learn God's information.
You know, read the Bible, study the Bible, believe on my son.
You know, once you do, I'll give you the Holy Ghost and I'll teach you and go to church.
And he wants to give you pastors and teachers and all these stuff.
He's trying every way he possibly can to teach you the Bible.
Yet, the wisdom of this world pushes away from that drawing.
The wisdom of this world pushes away from God's learning.
Why?
Because a humble person wants to learn God's information.
A prideful person doesn't want any of God's information.
And it leads them down a different road.
Look at Psalms 14, verse one.
The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.
They are corrupt.
They have done abominable works.
There is none that doeth good.
The prideful person will lead down a road of not needing God.
I don't need anybody.
I'm self-sufficient.
I have all the knowledge.
I have all the wisdom.
A humble person says, I need somebody else to teach me here.
I need someone else to instruct me here.
And so they're looking towards God.
They're looking for God to teach them and train them.
But the fool, he denies that God even exists.
He doesn't even need God in his mind.
Yet, he is a fool, is what the Bible says.
Go to Romans chapter one.
Romans chapter number one.
So there is a wisdom that exists that the devil has,
but it's not a godly wisdom.
The devil does not want to give tribute on the Lord.
He wants to reject the Lord.
He wants to deny who the Lord is.
He wants everyone to worship him.
He wants to be the antichrist.
He wants to be in the place of Jesus Christ.
He wants people to worship him, okay?
And ultimately, that's a picture of atheism.
Atheism is just the same symptoms of the devil.
What does the atheist want?
He wants people to worship him.
There is no God.
There is no knowledge or wisdom above me.
Me, Richard Dawkins, I'm the highest level of intellect.
Come and learn from me.
Get my book, The God Delusion.
You know what that book says?
I'm a prideful person.
That's what that book says.
To think that this world and everything that exists in it
is just by a random chance,
and you're the most intelligent thing that's alive,
is a prideful thought.
It's a wicked thought, and it comes from the devil.
The devil thinking that he can usurp the authority
that God has established can take his throne?
What a prideful, arrogant assumption.
For him to go around and pontificate
about how much more knowledgeable
or how much more wisdom he has than God
is a prideful attribute,
and it's what we see in atheists today.
Look at Romans chapter 1, verse 22.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
and changed the glory of the uncorruptive God
into an image made like to corrupt a man
and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.
So notice, when we saw in Psalms chapter 14,
it said that you were a fool
if you declared there was no God.
But notice in Romans chapter 1, it tells us those same fools,
they're professing themselves to be wise, though.
Notice they're going around,
look how smart I am, and look how intelligent I am,
and look how wise, I'm too smart to believe in God.
You little, you know, pleons, plebeians,
I can't believe you think that there's a God.
That's for simple-minded folk.
I've gone past that.
I've gone through the Enlightenment age.
We're past the time of God.
They're professing that they're wise,
but notice they become fools.
Why? They're so prideful. They're so arrogant.
They think because they have a flawed understanding
of evolution that somehow that makes them smarter than God.
Oh, I've read the evolution textbook.
Oh, I've read the evolution textbook,
and I know that there's no God.
I understand everything about DNA.
I understand about all the molecules.
I understand how a rock turned into a human
over billions of years.
I'm so smart. Come and learn from me.
Come with me to the Natural History Museum,
and I'll show you all of my wisdom and all.
Look, the smartest person on this planet
has no idea how anything works.
They don't understand how the body works.
They don't understand how gravity works.
They don't understand anything.
They know nothing.
They know nothing about this world,
nothing about this universe, nothing about health.
When we compare the knowledge that could be known
to what humans actually know, it's nothing.
What is man?
That thou art mindful of him?
We're dust. We're nothing.
It's a prideful, arrogant attitude to believe
that you could have anywhere close
to the amount of knowledge that God truly has.
Look at verse number 21.
Because that when they knew God,
they glorified him not as God,
neither were thankful,
but became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was darkened.
Notice the prideful person.
He knows God exists,
but he wants to push him out of his mindset,
and then he has his own vain thoughts,
his vain imaginations,
thinking about how wonderful he is.
The devil looking at himself and thinking,
oh, look how smart I am.
Look how knowledgeable I am.
That caused him to be a very prideful person.
Go to 1 Corinthians, chapter number 1,
1 Corinthians, chapter number 1,
and this attribute and many people will cause them
to never get saved.
Pride is probably, if I could think of any characteristic
that the number one enemy of the gospel is pride.
I don't need God.
I don't need to know what the Bible says.
I don't need to hear.
Yet God has ordained it that when we go out
and preach the gospel,
that's how people get saved.
Yet many prideful people will not hear it.
Why?
Because they're too smart.
When you run into people that are very intelligent,
oftentimes they're the least receptive to the gospel.
Why?
Look at 1 Corinthians, chapter number 1, verse 18.
For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us which are saved is the power of God.
For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise?
Where is the scribe?
Where is the disputer of this world?
They're in hell.
That's where they are.
Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For after that in the wisdom of God,
the world by wisdom knew not God.
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe.
Notice verse 21 gives us a great phrase.
The world by wisdom knew not God.
You know what that says?
Apologetics is trash.
There is no intellect that's going to teach you about God.
You know how you learn about God?
By faith.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
I get sick and tired of these Christian so-called apologists
going around and debating with atheists
and they say,
I'm going to prove the existence of God without the Bible.
Moron.
Foolish.
The Bible clearly says the world by wisdom knew not God.
It's not by your intellect.
It's not by your mind's capacity.
You're not smarter than the atheist.
You know how you get saved?
Humble yourself and just accept the gospel
by the foolishness of preaching.
That's how you get saved.
It's not an attribute of pride.
Look, the Christian apologist is oftentimes
just as prideful as the atheist himself.
And most of these Christian apologists,
if not every single one of them, is unsaved.
When I listen to them give the gospel,
it's always a works-based salvation.
It's usually a repentance, a lordship-type salvation,
or they're Catholic,
or they just believe in some kind of a false, perverted gospel.
Why?
Because the gospel is not for the prideful.
The gospel is for the humble.
Those that are blind,
those that say,
Hey, I don't see.
I need someone to help me.
I need a savior.
I need someone that I can just believe in and trust in.
So when we go out and preach the gospel,
we should understand that we're looking for the humble.
We're looking for those that are not wise in their own eyes,
but rather they fear the Lord.
Rather, they're going to give homage to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Go if you would to Proverbs, chapter number two now.
The Bible says,
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart,
and lean not unto thine own understanding.
And all thy ways acknowledge him,
and he shall direct thy paths.
We need to put our faith and trust in God's word,
and we ought not get lifted up with our own wisdom and pride.
Some people think,
Well, I could never be a pastor or a preacher
because I'm not that smart.
Great.
You're actually a better candidate.
Because the smarter you are, the more intelligence you have,
the more you might try to lean on your own understanding
and your own wisdom,
and your preaching is going to be terrible.
The best preacher is the one
who puts all of his reliance on whatever the Bible says
and just trust what the Bible says
and allows this to be his wisdom.
Says, Well, if this says it, I know it's true.
I know it's right.
I know there's no better wisdom than this book.
Yet a lot of intelligent people,
they have their ideas that are contrary to the Bible,
and they have to try and excuse what the Bible says.
They try to get away from the doctrines of the Bible.
Well, I think that there's situations
where divorce is acceptable.
Why?
Because in their own mind and their own wisdom,
they're smarter than God.
Well, I don't think, you know,
the death penalty is probably not that good of a doctrine.
That's pretty harsh.
Or they start thinking about all kinds of vain things.
People tell me, Oh, you know, I mean, church discipline,
I don't think we should really throw people out.
Is that your wisdom, or is that what the Bible says?
The Bible tells me to throw them out.
Where are you going to put your wisdom in?
Hey, this person, they say they love Jesus.
I know they think Jesus is, you know,
brothers with the devil,
but I still think that they're saved.
Where'd you come up with that idea?
The wisdom is, I've had people, Christians tell me,
I think Mormons are saved.
They say they, I mean, Glenn Beck says that he loves Jesus.
Look, the guy's not saved.
He is a devil.
Okay.
He is not of God.
He teaches a false gospel.
You should have nothing to do with him.
How do you know that Pastor Shelley?
Are you so smart?
Are you smarter than Glenn Beck?
I don't have to be.
First of all, but I do have the mind of Christ.
So yeah, in a way,
but it's not because of my own wisdom or my own intellect or the organ that's in
my brain.
You know, the organ of my brain,
it's because of this book and because I believe it and by faith,
I'm trusting in what God said.
That ultimately makes me wiser than any person who doesn't trust in his word.
Proverbs chapter two, look at verse six.
For the Lord giveth wisdom.
Out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
The only wisdom, the only knowledge comes from God.
This is the true knowledge, the true wisdom.
The beginning of knowledge and wisdom is what?
The fear of the Lord.
And without that, there is no knowledge.
There is no wisdom.
Now we have to understand again,
there's a true godly wisdom and there's that wisdom in the world that we saw in
first Corinthians chapter number one.
Okay.
The devil from an intelligence perspective,
he's very intelligent from a knowledge perspective.
He's very knowledgeable.
He has a lot of knowledge of the good and evil.
The problem is he has no Bible knowledge.
He has no true godly wisdom and godly instruction.
Now go through into Psalms chapter number 12,
Psalms chapter number 12.
And hopefully I can explain this a little bit more in detail.
Psalms chapter number 12.
Probably if not my favorite chapter,
one of my favorite chapters of the Bible.
The Bible says in verse one, help Lord for the godly man sees it.
For the faithful fail from among the children of men.
So the Bible's warning, you know,
there's not a lot of godly people out there, unfortunately.
And it says in verse two, they, so this is the ungodly,
speak vanity, everyone with his neighbor,
with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak.
The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips,
and the tongue that speaketh proud things.
Notice it's talking about them speaking proud things.
Verse four, who have said with our tongue will we prevail.
Our lips are our own, who is Lord over us.
So notice there's a group of people, they're ungodly.
What is it that they're so proud in?
Their tongue and their words.
And where do their words come from?
Their knowledge, their understanding, their wisdom.
They think they're smarter than God.
Let me tell you how I'm going to defeat God and defeat the Bible.
That's a proud thing to say.
The Lord's going to cut off all those flattering lips
and the tongue that speaketh proud things.
You know, the ultimate blasphemy is what?
What's the abomination of desolation?
The antichrist going into the temple of God, declaring that he is God.
What a proud, boastful thing to say.
And we see here, the wicked, they do the same thing.
What do they do? Who's Lord over us?
That sounds like the same guy that says there's no God.
The atheist, the evolutionist, who needs God?
Who's Lord over me? I can do whatever I want.
I can say whatever I want.
There is nobody to hold me accountable to.
You know, these protesters, they'll blaspheme Jesus Christ
and then I'll show them in the law of God and the Ten Commandments
that the Lord will not hold him guiltless that take this name in vain.
That's an ungodly sin to take the Lord's name in vain.
And the Bible makes it clear that the Lord will hold them guilty
and they will be judged according to their words.
What a proud thing to speak anything against the Lord,
saying who's the Lord over us?
The Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's Lord over you.
Verse five, for the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy.
Now will I rise, saith the Lord. I will set him in safety.
Notice this, from him that puffeth at him.
So why are these, who's oppressing the poor and the needy?
Those that are puffed up. Who's puffed up?
The prideful person. Who is the prideful person?
The one that's speaking proud things, they're flattering with their lips.
This just makes me think of the Democrats and Republicans.
I mean, they just go, they flatter everybody with their lips, don't they?
And they speak all these proud, lofty things,
yet they're oppressing the poor and the needy at the same time.
They give all this lip service to how much they love the poor,
yet they rip them off.
They get up there and they say, hey, we're going to sign this new bill.
We've never signed this amazing bill.
It's terrific. It's so terrific.
We're going to give everybody $2,000.
But don't worry, we're going to go and debt $6 trillion.
How's that work? More oppression.
They want to sit there and just, we're so great, we're so wonderful.
I want you to say some words.
Oh, this is so great, you're so wonderful, Mr. President.
Oh, I want you to say some words.
Oh, we're so great, you're so wonderful, Mr. President.
They just keep speaking all these proud, blasphemous things,
talking about how wonderful they are that they're going to put us in more debt,
more oppression, more persecution.
And they're so puffed up, we're so great.
Nobody could have done this if it wasn't for us.
No one. No one, yeah, okay.
The devil who's influencing you.
What combats this type of pride?
What causes the prideful to be humbled again?
Verse 6, the words of the Lord are pure words.
As silver tried in the furnace of earth, purified seven times.
Thou shalt keep them, O Lord.
Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.
So what stops man from getting too lofty and too prideful?
God's word.
But when we have an absence of God's word, what happens?
Look at verse 8.
The wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted.
You know why the vilest men are exalted?
Because they're not using this book.
Whenever you use this book, the vilest men are not exalted.
They're brought down low.
But the wisdom of the devil, the wisdom of this world, what does it do?
It praises the wicked.
It praises the vilest of men.
It lifts up people like Bruce Jenner and says he's the woman of the year.
What kind of filth and nonsense and trash is that?
He's a reprobate faggot.
I hope he dies and goes to hell.
You say, where did you get that wisdom?
God's word.
That's where I got it.
And you know what?
I'm not prideful.
I'm actually humble because I believe God's opinion.
It's not my opinion.
I'm not sitting up here of my own accord.
He's so brave.
He's so wonderful.
No, he's filthy and disgusting is what he is.
He's vile.
He's reprobate is what the Bible says.
And look, what's going to cause people to be humbled?
God's word.
You know what humbles a whore?
Calling her a whore from God's word.
You know what humbles the bastard?
Being called a bastard from God's word.
You know what humbles us?
Hearing about how much of a liar we are and a thief and all of our foolish thoughts and
how our righteousness are as filthy rags in comparison to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Nothing you did was ever good in comparison to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Bible says without faith is impossible to please him anyways.
So no matter what you did that was so great and so wonderful, it's a filthy rag in God's
sight.
He doesn't look at that.
Oh, you're good job, Donald Trump.
Way to go.
I can't believe this stimulus package.
I mean, it's just going to save America from this coronavirus.
I'm going to get off too much of a rabbit trail.
I can't go down that one.
But go to Proverbs 29, Proverbs 29.
We're seeing here in Psalms chapter 12.
How wisdom can cause someone to become arrogant can cause them to be prideful.
Proverbs chapter 29 warns us of this person.
It says in verse 11.
A fool uttereth all his mind, but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.
If you open your mouth every time you think.
You're a fool.
A wise person does not say everything he thinks.
If you just feel like I have to get everything out.
And oftentimes this is exhibited in both men and women.
Women who talk a lot often are looked at as very foolish women.
Why?
Because the thought of foolishness is sin.
And the multitude of words there wanteth not sin.
That's why the Bible describes a godly woman as being very meek and very quiet.
What's the ungodly woman?
She's very loud.
Her feet abide not in her house.
She's just always blowing up her mouth.
And when women are blowing up their mouth, you know what's constantly coming out?
Gossip and rumors and envy and all kinds of different things.
And it's an ungodly attribute.
The fool is uttering all his mind.
The wise person keeps it in till afterwards.
And the prideful person cannot stop but uttering all his mind.
Why?
Because they don't have a godly wisdom.
Go to Proverbs 18, flip backwards.
They do not have a godly wisdom.
A godly person understands that it's wise to keep your mouth shut.
And in fact, the more you keep it shut, the more wise you'll actually appear.
But that's according to God's wisdom.
If you have the earthly wisdom, this is what causes you to think that you're smart by what you say.
Oh, I do TED Talks.
Oh, I get up and do all these debates.
Oh, read my book.
It's all about everything that they say that causes them to seem so wise and so understanding.
Look, bearing the Lord and keeping his commandments is what makes you wise.
Not getting up and uttering all your mind.
That's what a fool does.
A wise person keeps a lot of the information in his head in his head.
And all the foolish stuff needs to just be, you know, replaced.
You need to cast down those imaginations.
And even when you have wisdom, there's a time and a place for that wisdom.
Even Jesus Christ, who only spoke wisdom, he kept his mouth shut a lot of times.
And we as God's people need to learn.
Look what it says in Proverbs 18, verse two.
A fool hath no delight and understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.
Fools, all they want to do is just blab.
And the more they blab, did you hear what I said? That was so awesome.
That was so terrific. It was so wonderful.
It was just great.
You know, everything I say is wonderful.
That's a fool.
What does he want to do? He just wants to talk and talk and talk and blab these atheist blogs.
Atheists are the most obnoxious people.
I never meet atheists that are really quiet.
They always like to blab and talk about everything.
Let me tell you about, you know, my new invention.
I've worked with plenty of atheists and they would try to tell me about how they're going to pretty soon invent AI that has free will.
They're going to invent robots that have free will.
And I said, that's stupid.
I said a computer will only ever do what it's been programmed to do.
Nothing more.
I said the difference between God and man is God can give somebody free will and he creates life.
Man will never do that.
Man will never create life and man will never give free will.
This is the difference between man and the God of the Bible.
The Calvinists can't understand the difference, so they put God in a picture that can't create free will or life, okay?
Because everything's just already happened and it's outside of the realm of possibility.
It makes time God or something like that.
It's nonsense.
Go back, if you would, in your Bibles to 2 Peter chapter 3 or go to the board of your Bible, 2 Peter chapter 3.
What are we talking about?
We're talking about pride and pride comes through knowledge.
Pride comes through wisdom.
Now, first of all, here's two ways to look at this point, okay?
Number one is we don't want to have the wisdom of this world.
We don't have the knowledge that comes from the devil.
We want to have godly wisdom, okay?
And when you get filled with the wisdom of this world, it can cause you to become a very prideful person.
Now, hopefully, if you've been saved, you've overcome that godly wisdom and knowledge and you've been enlightened.
You have the Word of God.
You have God's knowledge, so you kind of can reject the wisdom of this world.
But even for a godly Christian, you can take the right knowledge and God's wisdom and still become a very prideful person.
And you have to be careful.
Even though there's nothing wrong with studying the Bible and reading the Bible and understanding it, if you don't have charity, you're nothing.
You have to balance the knowledge of God with charity.
And the person who does not understand this point is not wise.
If I go around and just talk down to every single person that I interact with, they will not look at me as a wise person.
Oh, you didn't know that in the Bible? I can't believe you didn't know that.
If I go soul-winding with somebody, how come you couldn't quote that verse?
How come you mispronounced this word? You're just an idiot. You're just a fool. You're stupid.
I can't believe you didn't understand this point.
I'm not even going to get up and waste my time preaching to you guys. You should just already know this.
I mean, what kind of a person would you... Oh, he's so wise.
There's some pastors, they talk down to the congregation the whole time.
Well, I mean, if you understood Greek, you could probably understand this point.
If you went to the Bible college and the seminary, this is so difficult. This is so teriology.
I can't explain that to you. You have to go to Bible college to understand that.
If you go back and study the Greek, that's arrogance and pride.
Hey, if you have so much great knowledge, why can't you bless us with it then?
Since you're so smart and you're so wise and you're so understanding.
What you have to understand here is that the King James deviates from the underlying Greek text.
What the verse really should say is, I'm an idiot.
Okay, here's the thing. If they truly believe that the King James Bible is in error,
then why don't they write their new version with that verse in it?
Because they're not that brave.
They'll get up and say how the King James Bible is false,
and they'll get up and put their own personal opinion on the verse,
yet they don't carry around a Bible with that verse.
If you really think that's God's word, wouldn't you put it in the Bible?
Why? Because they're so arrogant and so prideful.
Look, we as God's people, we need to love God's word and gain knowledge and instruction.
But you know what? You ought to look at people that don't have that and bless them with it.
Because everything you have is a gift.
Salvation was a gift. All the wisdom of the Bible is a gift.
The Holy Ghost was a gift. And everything the Holy Ghost taught you was a gift.
So you ought not get this proud and haughty attitude around other people
and look down upon them for not having as much knowledge.
You know, I can see this in a church like ours where we emphasize a lot of knowledge.
Oh, you believe in the pre-trib rapture? You're so stupid.
Oh, you don't know about the King James Bible?
You don't know about all the Greek manuscripts?
You don't know who James White is?
You don't know Pastor Anderson?
You just get all this prideful, arrogant people going around looking down upon other Christians.
Oh, you don't understand everything about Zionism? You're an idiot.
You know, look, it happens.
Oh, I can't believe that pastor's a moron. He doesn't understand something that I understand.
That doesn't make him less intelligent than you. That doesn't make him an idiot.
Look, there's a lot of godly people with a lot of knowledge
and they're actually probably more wise because they understand this point, charity.
You can have all the knowledge in the world. You can understand every verse and every line.
And if you don't have charity, the Bible says it's going to profit you nothing.
That's why the Bible warns in 2 Peter chapter 3, it doesn't really warn, but it instructs.
Look at 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 18.
But grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The hymn be glory both now and forever and ever.
We need to have both.
You don't want to have grace without knowledge, then you become the liberal crowd.
And they let anybody in. They let fags in. They let the fornicators in.
They let all kinds of false doctrine in.
Well, we wouldn't want to turn a Mormon away. We wouldn't want to turn anybody away.
God's house is for everybody.
We would never want to let this fag atheist go away.
Just grace. Grace, brother.
That's because you don't have knowledge. Now you're not even gracious.
Now you're blaspheming Jesus because you think you're more gracious than God.
But you don't want to get too intellectual and too knowledgeable that if someone walks in
and they don't understand every doctrine exactly like you, well, you can't even be here.
I can't even believe you're here.
You don't go soul winning? You're not three times a week already?
Look how you're dressed.
Have you memorized all of Romans?
Can you quote Romans 1 to me right now? Get out.
You know.
Look, what kind of a horrible attitude is that?
We need to have both knowledge and grace.
Otherwise, we become a very prideful, arrogant person.
It's an ungodly attribute and we're ultimately like the devil.
Go back to Ezekiel 28.
I took way too much time on that point, but I'm going to get through a little bit more of this.
Ezekiel 28.
Look at verse number 12 again, because we had another point here.
Ezekiel 28. Look at verse 12.
Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus and send him down.
Thus sayeth the Lord God, thou seals up the sum full of wisdom.
Notice this and perfect in beauty.
The devil is not only intelligent, he's very attractive.
Physically speaking, whatever his body shape.
I mean, the Bible describes him.
He's got the diamonds.
He's got the topaz.
He's got the Sardis.
He's got the barrel.
He's got the onyx and the Jasper and the sapphire and the emerald and carbuncle.
And gold.
And what does this world love today?
Gold and diamonds.
Diamonds are a girl's best friend.
Well, you know, that's the attributes of what the devil's described as.
And notice that that beauty causes him to be prideful.
Women take a lot of pride in their jewelry, don't they?
Why do you think they wear it?
What point is there in wearing a lot of gaudy jewelry other than to just look better?
I'm better than her.
I have a bigger diamond.
And look, I'm not against jewelry.
I don't think that jewelry in and of itself is a negative thing, per se.
But at the end of the day, you have to ask this question, what's the point of the jewelry?
Is it the point of the jewelry to show that you're married?
I mean, I don't like wearing rings, but the only reason I wear this is just to prove that I'm married to my spouse.
I think it's made out of white gold or something like that.
I don't know.
Is this a sin because I have this on here?
No.
But would it be a sin if I think, well, I'm better than you because mine's gold and yours is copper.
Mine's gold and yours is plastic.
Mine's gold and yours is a tattoo.
Well, the tattoo's a sin.
But at the end of the day, I'm not wearing this.
I'm not going to be like Flava Flav.
I'm not going to have this huge gold necklace around.
Look how wonderful I am.
I'm not going to win the Super Bowl and have the most gaudy, ugly, hideous ring.
I wouldn't want to win a Super Bowl because then I'd be plagued with this awful ring.
I wouldn't want to wear it.
It's gross.
It's disgusting.
I hate wearing rings.
I'm a man.
The only reason I wear it is just because I prove how much I love my wife.
My sacrifice to prove that I'm married to my wife and I love her.
Otherwise, I would never wear a ring.
I hate wearing jewelry.
And again, what's the point of the devil?
Oh, I'm covered in gold and silver and precious stones and diamonds and jewelry.
You know what?
That's an ungodly attribute.
Go to 1 Peter chapter number 3, 1 Peter chapter number 3.
Beware of physical beauty.
Physical beauty in and of itself is meaningless.
It has no meaning.
And you grow up and you go to the public fool system and the only thing that matters is what?
Beauty.
Physical beauty.
Who's the most popular kid in class?
The most attractive kids, aren't they?
And what's it all about?
Their clothes.
The preppy kids.
The kids that are the best looking.
They have the most money.
They have the most privilege.
They're just, you know, homecoming king and homecoming queen.
Do they ever vote for the ugly girl as being the homecoming queen?
Only if it's a prank, okay?
That's a scary movie.
Don't watch it.
But if it's in reality, what?
They love the homecoming king and the queen, don't they?
Why?
Because of their physical beauty.
It's meaningless.
It means nothing in reality.
And outside of the realm of the fake world called high school, there is no purpose to physical beauty.
It adds nothing to you.
And in fact, it's often case a stumbling block because you'll get a lot of favor and flattery from people because of your physical beauty and it's fake.
People want to be your friend and they don't like you.
Oh, you got money?
I want to be your friend.
Look at all that gold and silver that you got dangling off your hand.
Oh, I'll be your buddy.
I'll be your friend.
So you actually attract bad people based on your physical appearance or based on your money.
Beautiful women attract the worst men.
And then they wonder why everybody that's attracted to them is a horrible person.
Well, quit flaunting off your beauty to every single person and advertising yourself as a whore and maybe they'll stop treating like a whore.
Stop advertising yourself as a person that cares only about money and wealth.
And you know what?
People stop treating you like a bank.
They'll stop treating you like a Jew.
OK.
First Peter Chapter three.
Is that why you turn?
We're just going straight to the preaching.
I don't have enough time to cover all these verses.
Physical beauty will cause you to be prideful.
And in fact, if you're not beautiful physically, you should just count it a blessing.
There's no there's no there's no benefit.
There's not like, well, I got the crown because I was so beautiful.
You know, God created you beautiful.
He likes the way you look and beauties in the eye of the beholder.
I just want to be beautiful in God's sight.
And the Bible tells us in First Peter Chapter three, a woman can be beautiful in God's sight.
He says in verse number three, who's adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair or wearing of gold or putting on of apparel.
But let it be the hidden man of the heart and that which is not corruptible.
Even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
For after this manner in the old time, the holy women also who trusted in God,
who adorn themselves being in subjection to their own husbands,
even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters you are, as long as you do well and are not afraid of any amazement.
You know, God looks at a woman, decides if she's beautiful or not, how well she obeys her husband.
Not the gold, not the silver, not the clothing, not the braided hair.
You know how God looks at what this woman is gorgeous in God's sight because she obeys her husband and she calls him Lord.
Not by all the jewels, not by all the gold, not by all the silver.
Yet what do women want to do?
They want to come in dressed to the nines, looking all fashionable, looking so beautiful.
And they think that that has any kind of value.
It's vanity.
The only thing that matters in God's sight is how well you obey your husband.
You know, all that gold, silver and makeup and everything else, it's just makeup on a pig.
It's the gold jewel in the snout of a pig, of a swine.
God doesn't like it. God doesn't care.
And the most beautiful women are the most prideful, arrogant harlots.
You know, the Bible warns about this.
You know, Absalom was praised for his beauty.
Let them up with pride, he wanted to become king.
Eliab, from an outward appearance, he looked like the next king.
But God rejected him because God looked at his heart and said, you know what, I don't want Eliab.
I want somebody else. I want David.
And you know what, David did have a beautiful countenance is what the Bible says.
So I'm not saying if you're attractive physically that that's necessarily going to be a downfall.
It doesn't have to be, but it could be.
Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain.
But a woman that fear the Lord, she shall be praised, the Bible says.
Beauty is vain.
Don't let beauty come in the way of you serving God.
And don't let physical beauty have anything to do with your spiritual walk.
I can't go to steadfast that building.
It's a red 10 building.
Have you seen on the inside?
It's like a wood cabin threw up with, you know, I mean, what's going on in there?
What's going on in there? It's not beautiful.
Have you seen the tiled ceiling? I mean.
Look, if you're going to a church for the physical beauty, you're already going to fail.
And look, you'll never come to this church.
This church is not going to be, you know, the best looking church.
It's not going to have all the physical eye candy that you could possibly want.
We're not going to put women up in miniskirts on the stage dancing for Jesus, you know, rocking out and jamming for Jesus.
We're not going to have all the gold and silver.
We're not going to be like Trinity Fellowship Church, the church that I grew up in,
where they literally are giving away brand new cars outside the sanctuary and lotteries or whatever.
We're not going to have the Starbucks coffee shop.
And we're not going to have the pictures of all the celebrities that you can put your face through
and take a picture and look like Iron Man and Captain Phillips and all the nonsense that they do.
Look, that's of the devil.
That is not of God. That's earthly, sensual, devilish.
That is not of God.
You know, God does not care about the physical beauty.
He cares about the heart.
And you know what? Those that are prideful only care about physical beauty.
They only care about how attractive they are.
It's meaningless. It doesn't matter.
It has no benefit. Don't let physical beauty stop you from serving God.
And you know what? That gives me motivation to say, no matter how ugly I am, I can still be used by God.
Because you know what? You can always work on your heart.
And if we were to look at a lot of people today, all the celebrities,
their heart would be the most grotesque thing you could imagine.
It'd be disgusting and filthy and abominable.
If it even existed, they haven't destroyed it already.
Like the Grinch.
Go to back and we'll get another point.
This kind of tallies off as riches.
Wasn't that what the devil?
The devil has all the gold, the silver, the precious stone.
He's more beautiful than all the other angels.
He's got more money.
And people, why do they become prideful?
Because they have more knowledge?
Because they're more attractive?
Because they have more money.
Don't let money cause you to think you're better than other people.
It doesn't make you better.
Jesus Christ had nowhere to lay his head.
John the Baptist, he was clothed with, you know, leather and girdle.
He had camel skins.
He was out in the wilderness eating locusts and wild honey.
And he's the greatest of men born among women.
The apostle Paul, Peter, silver and gold have I none.
Peter wasn't going around like the Pope.
Peter wasn't going around with his millions of dollars and the Vatican
and all this garbage that's appealing to the flesh.
Look, who wants a disgusting stained glass temple
with a bunch of perverted naked people drawn on the ceiling?
What kind of devilish work is that?
What kind of vomit?
I always hated those pictures.
I never understood them.
I was like, why are we just drawing pornography on God's house?
That makes no sense.
But because of all the riches of the Catholic Church,
because of how beautiful it looks, because of the pipe organs.
Oh, yeah, I remember somebody with pipe organs, the devil.
All the beautiful pipe organs.
I mean, those organs can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
We will never have one.
OK, I'm not against having an organ, but we'll never have one like that
unless someone just, even if someone gives it to me,
I'd probably just sell it or something.
I don't know.
I mean, I don't see why you need that.
You know, God likes it when a little child just lifts up his voice
out of the mouths of babes and succulents.
Thou is perfected, praise.
And in fact, in the evenings, we always sing a song with my kids.
And I've never heard anybody sing as great as my kids.
You know why?
Because they sing with all their heart.
They sit there and they belt it.
You know, a bunch of adults come in here and they're just kind of like,
To God be the glory.
Earth, baby, heaven and earth.
What a sermon.
The kids are like, To God be the glory.
They're just screaming it and belting it and they're unashamed
and they love the Lord and they love singing.
That's why God said out of the mouth of babes and succulents,
thou is perfected, praise.
You know, I love going to the Jacksonville church because their kids,
they sing it.
If you go to that church, you can hear the kids singing and it's wonderful.
It's great.
And we as adults, why don't we bust it out?
Pride.
I'm afraid of what people think about me.
I don't have the most beautiful sounding voice.
Well, don't let that beauty get in the way of you serving God, don't you?
You know, God gave you the voice that you've done on purpose.
1 Corinthians 14 says there's not a voice without signification.
Every voice is important.
Well, I don't have a bunch of riches.
Well, you don't need riches to serve God.
Isn't that great?
I don't have to have a lot of money to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
If I've got this book, I'm about good to go.
What else do I need?
I don't even have the invite.
I can go knock on doors and I can preach the gospel.
We could meet in a field and serve God.
We don't need this building.
We don't need the chairs.
We don't need the church van.
Now, look, I love those luxuries, but at the end of the day, we don't need them.
Oh, if we had this building, then we could serve God more.
We're going to raise $50 million for our building.
Think about ignition trips you could go with that.
Think how many good preaching you could just give away for free.
Think about how many staff members you could hire with $50 million
that could be doing even more for the Lord, serving him in a greater capacity.
Look, we ought to be wise stewards of what God has blessed us with,
and the prosperity of the wicked caused them to be prideful.
I have so many verses. I'm not going to go to any of them.
Don't trust in uncertain riches.
Don't be like the Bill Gates and the Donald Trump and the Oprah Winfays of the day.
Who are the most prideful people on the planet?
Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey, and Bill Gates.
I can't even think of a more prideful person.
What do they all have in common, the richest people?
I've never met Jeff Bezos, but I'm willing to guess he's probably prideful.
I don't know, but riches makes people prideful like that.
You better beware of your riches.
Don't think that your riches make you right with God.
Don't let that think that you're better than anybody.
What happened in Revelation 3 with the church at Laodicea?
Oh, I'm increased with goods. I have need of nothing.
Because of their riches, it caused them to what? Be prideful.
Yet God says they had nothing.
God said that they were naked and destitute.
They had nothing. They needed to go out and do works.
Churches today, because they have a great building and tons of money in the bank,
they think they're right with God.
And God looks at them and says, you don't even have the right gospel.
Your pastor's a devil.
Most of the people in your church are unsaved.
You know, they're like Sardis.
There's only a few people that are even saved in the whole church.
Look, we need to measure our Christian walk, not by our riches,
and we ought not let riches cause us to be prideful.
Hey, I hope America just burns it all to the ground
so we can stop being so proud to be an American.
Proud to be an American. Oh, man.
Proud to be an American.
Where we're so ungodly.
Where we worship the devil and Satan with blasphemy.
I mean, I'm just making it on the fly. I don't know.
I mean, Americans are so prideful. Why?
Riches. Money.
Last point I have for you. Go, if you would, to 1 Peter, chapter five.
All right. We're going to land the plane. All right.
What was the last reason why we saw the devil being prideful
and a lot of people being prideful?
Well, we saw that people can get prideful based on their knowledge,
the wisdom, they can be on their beauty, on their riches.
Number four, on their talents.
They're more talented than other people.
You know, the Bible talked about the devil having the workmanship
of thy tabrets and of thy pipes.
It's no coincidence that the majority of music today is so satanic,
it's so wicked, and the devil was a master musician.
And because of their skill, it caused the people to be prideful.
Some of those prideful people are who?
Well, how about musicians?
Those that have great talent and ability to sing or play an instrument.
And we ought not let our talents.
Who else is a great talent and is very prideful?
I don't know. Every athlete?
Have you ever met a professional athlete
that's not one of the most prideful people on the planet?
I mean, they just, and talk about a proud look.
These six things that the Lord hate,
yea, seven are abomination unto them.
One of them is a proud look.
I mean, you watch these basketball players.
They shoot a three, and they're just like,
you know, they got the three eyes, whatever.
They're just, oh yeah, look at me.
They score a touchdown. It's the touchdown dance.
They have to do a whole dance about them walking across an imaginary line
with a pigskin.
Let me just start worshiping you now.
They think they're better than other people because of their talents,
yet here's a fact, all of your talents are from God.
You didn't do anything to get them.
It's not like in your mother's womb you're just like, I'm working out.
Yeah, I'm going to be so strong and cool and smart and awesome.
Look, your talents are all a gift from God, and you can take them like that.
There's a lot of great professional athletes
that ended up losing their career because of an injury.
Oh, they were so wonderful, and then they just died.
They were so wonderful, and then their wife beat them with a golf club
named Tiger Woods.
That kind of dethroned them, didn't it?
Probably one of the most prideful people on the planet.
Richard Sherman.
I'm so glad that San Francisco didn't win the Super Bowl
just because Richard Sherman.
He's the most prideful, arrogant football player I've ever seen,
and it's abomination.
You know, Haman, whenever Haman came into King Ahasuerus,
he's saying, you know, what should I do to the guy in whom the king delighted?
He's like, who would the king delight in more than me?
You know, I'm so wonderful, and I'm so great,
yet he didn't realize it was from Mordecai, did it?
And his pride ended up destroying him.
You know, King Benedad, he was going around bragging
about how he was already going to win the battle against the king of Israel,
and he was talking about, don't boast when you haven't even taken your harness off.
I'm paraphrasing.
But Ben Hadad was like, I've already won.
I have so many guys with me, we're more than the sand of the sea.
And he's like, don't boast before he won, buddy.
What he was boasting in his attributes.
He was boasting in the sides of his army.
You see a lot of other ungodly kings doing this.
The king of Assyria, Sennacherib.
Sennacherib, he's boasting, you know,
we're the gods of Hamath and Separvayim and all these other gods.
You know, who's the lord? How is he going to stop me?
He's like, look at my accolades.
I've already defeated this false god and this false god and this false god.
The lord's not going to stop me.
Don't trust in Hezekiah.
Don't let him cause you to trust in the lord against me.
You know, they send Rab-saurus and Rab-shakie to come unto the children of Israel
and to lie unto them and try to get them to not trust in the lord.
I call him shakie because he's trying to shake the confidence of all the children of Israel.
Okay.
But look, we ought not boast in our accolades.
There is a great person in the Bible as far as physical accolades
and this is what he said about them.
I do count them but dumb.
Paul.
Paul in the flesh had every reason to consider himself righteous according to works righteousness.
He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
He was of the tribe of Benjamin.
He was touching the law.
Blameless is what the Bible says.
If works righteousness was how we got saved, Paul is number one on the list.
But you know what?
He says I count them but dumb that I may win Christ.
There is nothing in our physical attributes and our talents that should cause us to be prideful.
The apostle Paul had to put those aside and count them but dumb and say,
you know what, the only thing that matters is Jesus Christ.
We ought to get rid of our proud looks.
It's not about us.
Anything that you have has just been a gift from God
and the truly humble person will use all of his gifts to do one thing.
Give honor to God.
Give honor to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hey, I'm an eloquent speaker.
Well then use that gift to preach about how great Jesus is.
Hey, I've got a lot of money.
Well then use that money to give more honor and glory to Jesus Christ.
Hey, I have a lot of charisma and I'm a physically attractive person.
Okay.
Well then use that to win people's hearts over the Lord Jesus Christ.
Point people to Jesus Christ.
Whatever gifts, whatever talents, whatever money, whatever wisdom that you have,
we should always be using that to point people to the glory of God
and how wonderful the Lord Jesus Christ is.
When we start pointing those things to ourselves,
I'm wonderful because of what? My money.
I'm wonderful because of my wisdom.
I'm wonderful because of my riches.
I'm wonderful because of my talents.
We start being like the devil and we start getting lifted up with pride
and being puffed up with pride.
But what is charity?
A scheming other better than yourself.
And looking at other people.
How can I use this stuff to better other people?
Realizing the Lord Jesus Christ is the purpose of why we're here
and everything that we have.
And notice what the Bible says in 1 Peter 5 verse 5.
Likewise ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.
Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility.
For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.
Humble yourselves therefore in the mighty hand of God
that he may exalt you in good time.
We need to clothe ourselves with humility today
and the truly humble person realizes the need for others.
We have a need for other people.
You know, even coming here and preaching to you guys,
you know, without the congregation, I'm a lot more humbled.
I'm like, I need a crowd. I need people to come and to preach to me.
It's hard to preach to an empty row of chairs, you know.
The chairs aren't that interested.
The chairs don't sing back very well.
They don't even give me an ugly face.
They just give me nothing. You know, it's a blank stare.
We need every part of the body, don't we?
And a humble person will realize the need on the congregation.
A humble person will realize the need of their spouse.
The humble person will ultimately realize their need for God.
Their need for God's word.
We need to get our wisdom from God.
We need to get our beauty from God.
We need to get our riches from God.
And we need to understand that our talents should be coming from God
so we're not proud and lifted up like the devil.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Father, so much for your word.
Thank you for this great chapter on the attributes that we should not have.
I pray that every good gift that you give us,
that we would not turn that and use that against you with pride,
but rather we would embrace the gifts that you've given us
and we'd be thankful for them.
And we would use them for your honor and for your glory and for your benefit.
I pray that you would just help us all be clothed with humility,
that we'd understand our need for our brethren and our sisters,
and we'd understand ultimately our need for you and our lives.
And we would just humble ourselves and be servants to you.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
We'll go to our last song for the evening.
Higher Ground, 327.
327, Higher Ground.
Are they on the first?
I'm pressing on the upward way
New heights I'm gaining every day
Still praying as I'm onward bound
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
By faith on heaven's table and
A higher plane than I have found
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground
My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay
Though some may dwell where these abound
My prayer, my aim is higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
By faith on heaven's table and
A higher plane than I have found
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground
I want to live above the world
Though Satan's arts at me are hurled
For faith has caught the joyful sound
The song of saints on higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
By faith on heaven's table and
A higher plane than I have found
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground
I want to scale the upmost high
And clutch a gleam of glory bright
But still I'll pray to heaven I've found
Lord, lead me onto higher ground
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
By faith on heaven's table and
A higher plane than I have found
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground
God bless y'all, y'all are dismissed.