I want to start there in verse one where the Bible reads, a wise son heareth his father's
instruction, but a scorner heareth not rebuke.
And you know as we go through the book of Proverbs we're going to see a lot of things
repeated.
We're going to see things said over and over and over and they say it in little different
ways.
And when I was reading this verse, one of the things that kind of pointed out to me
was the fact that people often times can see the same situation or they can hear the same
words or they can be in the same experience and have two completely different viewpoints
towards that situation.
You know they can look at maybe who's running for president and say oh I love that person
and another person says oh man I hate that person.
You know and the Bible's saying a wise son heareth his father's instruction, but a scorner
heareth not rebuke.
So now in this situation we have two sons, is the father being heard by both sons as
far as like literally?
I mean it says but a scorner heareth not rebuke.
Is he saying like this with the son that's a scorner is just death.
He like literally just didn't hear his father.
No that's not what the Bible's saying.
He did hear his father speak.
It just went one in one ear and out the other.
He just didn't want to hear it.
He didn't have anything to want to hear it and it's interesting that the wise son when
he hears his father speak, he says that's instruction, but the scorner, the wicked son
when he hears his father say the same thing, he's like oh man that rebuke.
Why?
Because you know the wicked son's usually doing that which is wrong.
He's in sin.
So when his father's giving him instruction, he's like man that's rebuking my lifestyle.
But the righteous son, the wise son, he's hearing that instruction is like that's good
advice.
That's something I should do.
So as a child when you're listening what your father is saying, you can choose to say hey
that's good instruction.
I should follow that.
Or you can look at it and say ah I don't like the fact that he's trying to correct me, that
he's reproving me, that he's rebuking me, and you just turn off your ears.
You're just like I don't want to hear that.
And we have a lot of examples in the Bible, I'll turn to Luke chapter seven, Luke chapter
seven there in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke.
You know the Bible has a lot of different people who didn't really hear what Jesus was
saying.
And you know there's a lot of different times where people are looking at the same situation
and they thought of it differently.
When Jesus Christ was on the cross, what did the Pharisees think about that?
They thought that was a great victory.
They were like this is great, we finally got this heretic out, he was trying to overthrow
us in the synagogues, we finally got rid of this heretic, this false teacher.
What happened to the people that were his disciples?
It was a great loss.
I mean at that time they were weeping, they were crying, they felt like they had lost
their Messiah, they weren't really sure.
Many of them didn't understand the fact that he was going to come back from the dead, that
he was going to fulfill the scripture.
So in that one circumstance, two people were looking at it with completely different perspectives.
And after the cross, after we have the New Testament, there's still two perspectives.
People look at it and say man that was the greatest thing ever, it saved my soul.
Jesus Christ died on the cross for me so I wouldn't have to go to hell.
How glorious the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But to the heathen, it's foolishness.
They look at the same event and they just don't even want to hear it.
They just turn off their ears, they just think it's just foolishness, they don't want
to hear about the cross.
But a saved person, many times they want to hear about the cross.
They love it, they love the story, they love Jesus Christ.
And in Luke chapter 7, we'll look at verse 36, it says, and one of the Pharisees desired
him that he would eat with them, and he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down to
meet.
And behold, a woman in the city which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat and
meet in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster fox of ointment, and stood at his feet behind
him weeping and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of
her head and kissed his feet, and anointed them with ointment.
Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This
man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that
touched him, for she is a sinner.
Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee, and he saith, Master
Seon, there was a certain creditor which had two debtors, the one owed five hundred
pence and the other fifty, and when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both.
Tell me, therefore, which of them will he love him most?
Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most, and he said unto
him, Thou hast rightly judged, and he turned to the woman and said unto Simon, Seest thou
this woman?
I entered in thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hast washed my
feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss
my feet.
My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.
Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much,
but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.
And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.
And they set up meat with them and began to say to themselves, Who is this that forgaveth
sins also?
And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace.
So we have a really important story here where Jesus Christ is coming to a house and a woman
who's not a good woman.
She didn't live a good life, she doesn't live a good life, everybody knows it, but she comes
weeping at his feet and she's washing his feet and kissing his feet and even wiping
with her hair.
She's just, she's so broken because it's the Lord Jesus Christ and she's just loving,
she just loves the Lord Jesus Christ, she loves the fact that he's going to save her
from her sins.
But we see the Pharisee, we see the disciples, they're saying to themselves like, what is
this woman doing?
And Jesus was looking at him and he gives them instruction.
He says, you know when I came in, you weren't like kissing my feet, you weren't coming anointing
my head with oil, you could, I mean you're just acting like some regular guy.
This woman at least has the respect to realize that I'm the Lord Jesus Christ and she's coming
to serve me.
And you know, a wise son heareth the instruction of his father, but a scorner heareth not rebuke.
Jesus Christ was giving this guy instruction.
So if he hearkened unto it, he would say, you know what, I need to start loving Christ
more.
But if he didn't, if he turned off his ears, all of his words would just become rebuke
unto him and he would just, oh I don't want to hear that, I don't want to hear how Christ
wants me to serve him and love him and do good things for him.
So you can have two different perspectives with the Bible.
You can look at the words of God and say this is the greatest instruction and how to live
my life.
Or you can say, well I don't really like that part.
And just turn off your ears and just go in one out and out the other and then become
a scorner, someone that's not, you know, going to be wise, someone that's going to have lots
of problems, somebody that nobody wants to be around.
And it's interesting that you can look at two different search situations and have two
different outcomes.
Many times Jesus Christ said they hear or they see, but I'm sorry, I'm not going to
quote it right, but he's basically saying they can see with their eyes, but they're
blinded.
How can you see but be blinded?
He's saying that physical sight, but they just couldn't understand the things of God.
And those that, you know, want to look at their father's instruction, they don't understand
that the father just wants their child to succeed.
Why does the father rebuke a son?
Why does the father give instruction to his son?
Because he loves them, because he wants them to do better.
Do you think the father's like, don't go play in the street because he doesn't want their
kids to have fun.
He's like, man, I know you'd have so much fun in the street.
It'd be so great.
No, he's giving that instruction so they wouldn't get hurt because he loves them.
The same thing is with every command in the Bible.
If we get that understanding, if we get that perspective that every single commandment
of God is for your betterment, is for you to live the most success in your life, it'll
change your life.
Even the small things.
Obviously, when you first get saved, there's a lot of big sins in the Bible.
You're like, man, I need to get over that.
But then as you continue to grow and get more mature, you're going to see God doesn't want
you to just change your physical, you know, appearance before men.
He wants to change your thought life.
He wants you to pray in secret unto him.
He wants to do your alms, you know, in private.
He wants you to do fasting in private.
Those are not things that a babe in Christ can do.
That's not something that a babe in Christ is just going to have success at.
So as you grow and mature, you need to see the harder things of God and realize, hey,
that's for me.
That's what I need to be seeking for.
I need to go to the next level.
I need to hear the instruction of my Father and not just turn off my ears.
Say, you know what, I don't really like that part, so I'm just going to turn off my ears
to it.
No, we need to hearken into all the instruction of the Father.
Look at verse two, it says, a man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth, but the soul
of transgressors shall eat violence.
So we see over and over in the Bible, it just constantly says that the good, that those
that sow good are going to reap good.
And those that sow into wickedness, they're going to eat of their own wickedness.
I thought of Matthew chapter seven, turn to Matthew chapter seven.
Should just be a few chapters back from Luke if you're still there.
We see a man's going to eat good by the fruit of his mouth.
So it's talking about eating and it's talking about what's coming out of your mouth.
And it's interesting that the transgressors shall eat violence.
I mean, what comes out of your mouth is so important and we need to be careful about
what comes out of our mouth.
Let's look at Matthew chapter seven verse four.
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye and behold
a beam is in thine own eye.
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then thou shalt see clearly
to cast the mote out of thy brother's eye.
Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast he pearls before swine, lest
they trample them under your feet and turn again and rend you.
You know, the interesting thing that I saw here is that a man shall eat good by the fruit
of his mouth.
I don't think that Christians should go around and everything that comes out of their mouth
is just talking about wicked reprobates, you know, talking about all the wicked evil people.
You just go around and you can't just stop talking about, man, I just hate the sodomites
and man, I just hate pedophiles and man, I just hate adulterers and man, I just hate
murderers because the Bible says a man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth.
Is that what you really want to eat?
Because the Bible says if you're just casting your pearls before swine, they're going to
turn around and rend you.
And the Bible says, but the soul of transgressors shall eat violence.
Even a Christian can eat violence.
If you just go around just rebuking people and just spewing everything that's negative
from the Bible, someone's going to turn around and rend you.
You're going to suffer, you know, violence by the hand of your mouth.
I think that a Christian should be going out and spreading the good fruit.
What is that?
The gospel?
That the Lord Jesus Christ saved your life?
The Bible says that we should meet unto every man, that we should speak that which is right.
I mean, I think the first time you meet anybody, no matter what, it should just be good coming
out of your mouth.
The Bible says to reject a heretic after the second admonition.
So that means the first two times you weren't rebuking him, meaning I don't think it's right
to just walk up to somebody and rebuke them.
You should be kind to that person, you should preach him the gospel, you should speak the
truth and love.
But of course if you were to speak with a heretic, which can happen, then you should
rebuke them.
Of course, when you're preaching from the pulpit, you're going to preach all of God's
word and sometimes it's going to have harsh rebuke.
But you want to eat good fruit.
So why don't you sow good fruit?
Christians should be a light under this world.
They shouldn't just go around and get their pet doctrine that they just learn and think
so cool and just spread all that filth all the time.
I don't even want to hear about it, really.
The little bit that the Bible talks about it, that's about as much as I want to hear
about it.
We talk about the fact that Sodomites are in the Bible a few times, but it's not that
many times.
And if you look at the New Testament, it doesn't even have the word.
So why don't we just focus on the things that the Bible puts the most focus on?
That should be what comes out of your mouth.
What's the thing that the Bible talks about most in the Bible?
Praising the Lord, right?
Praising him for he's good, his mercies endure forever.
Lifting up the Lord Jesus Christ, that's what should be coming out of our mouth.
And you're going to suffer, you're going to have good things happen to you if you're praising
God.
You've got to realize that every word that comes out of your mouth, God hears.
So do you really want all the things that come out of your mouth to be negative?
Or do you want a lot of them to be just praise unto him?
That's what should be coming out of our mouth.
And why are the souls of the transgressors going to eat violence?
Because nothing good comes out of their mouth.
It's always evil.
It's always wicked.
Look at verse three, it says, he that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life.
But he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.
So again, just the same thing.
If you want to have a good life, if you want to be preserved, you need to keep your tongue
tame, as James would say.
You need to not just spew everything that would come to your mind.
You need to not just open wide your lips.
Why?
Because you're going to come under destruction.
Even a Christian can come under destruction when he just opens his mouth and just lets
whatever come out that he just thought of.
We need to be, you know, wise and be careful with the words that we choose to come out
of our mouth, no matter who we're talking to, because it can affect so many people.
Even if you're just talking to somebody in church, you need to make sure that the words
that come out of your mouth are wise, that they're right, that you're not just opening
your lips and just saying whatever comes to your heart's desire, because the heart is
desperately wicked.
Who can know it, right?
Says in, let's turn to Psalms chapter 38, Psalms chapter 38.
In Proverbs chapter 10, I'll read for you, it says, in the multitude of words there wanted
not sin, but he that refraineth his lips is wise.
Do you want to be someone who's wise?
Refrain your lips.
That means this.
If you never realize that you're stopping yourself from speaking, you're not wise.
So if you say, man, I don't remember a time when I wanted to say something and I just
held my tongue, it's because you're not wise.
A wise man will often hold his tongue, will often refuse from saying something.
And you know, I struggle with this sometimes.
As a kid, I always wanted to talk.
I wanted to just share everything that was on my heart.
I just wanted to be the person that was constantly talking.
You know, as I started to mature and get a little bit older and sometimes I would stop
myself from saying it, I would play it back in my head and I'd be like, man, I'm so glad
I didn't say that.
You'd think about, man, that was a good thing to not say.
I'm really glad I held my tongue in that moment.
And that will happen.
But if you're always uttering what comes to your mouth, you're not wise, according to
the Bible.
Look at Psalms 38 verse 11.
My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore, and my kinsmen stand afar off.
They also that seek after my life lay snares for me.
And they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things and imagine deceits all the day long.
But I, as a deaf man, heard not, and I was a dumb man that opened not his mouth.
Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.
For in thee, O Lord, do I hope, thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.
For I said, hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me when my foot slippeth.
They magnify themselves against me.
For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me.
So when David was this great man, this great man, the king of Israel, we see that his enemies
are just, they're just waiting.
They just want to hear him say something wrong.
They just want to hear him say something perverted.
They just want to catch him in that one lie.
So that when his foot slippeth, as the Bible says, they can magnify themselves against
me.
And you know, there's so many people that hate faith-board Baptist church, that hate
Pastor Anderson, that hate Roger Jimenez, that hate the pastors of this world, and they're
just waiting.
They just can't wait for that foot to slip, and they're just going to pounce all over
it.
Just think if one of those men actually slipped into a grievous sin.
I mean, the news would be all over it.
They would just hound him.
Just think of how many people's faith would be destroyed because of a great man of God
that falls.
It's so important.
If you want to be a great leader, if you want to be a great man of God, get your mouth under
control.
Why?
Because you need to think about the words that come out of your mouth because you can
be trapped by them, because your foot could slip.
And I was thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ when he stood before Herod.
What did he do?
He never opened his mouth.
And the interesting thing about Herod is we know that earlier, John the Baptist had rebuked
Herod for the sin that was in his life.
And what did Herod want to do?
He wanted to kill him, but he feared the people, so he didn't.
Now when Jesus Christ was standing before Herod, if Jesus had opened his mouth to rebuke
him, you'd think Herod would have been like, well, I don't want to kill him.
No, of course, he would want to kill Jesus Christ, but would he have feared the people
in that situation?
I mean, were the people wanting Jesus Christ to live?
No.
And if Jesus Christ had been killed by the hand of Herod by maybe being taken out in
stone or beheaded like John the Baptist, would he have been the savior of the world?
No.
That's why the Lord Jesus Christ stood as a deaf man, and this is a reference to the
Lord Jesus Christ.
He opened not his mouth to preserve his life in that situation.
He preserved his life so that he could fulfill the scriptures, so that he could, you know,
go on and die for the sins of the world.
And the Bible says, you know, don't cast your pearls before swine, let him that is unjust
be unjust still.
Jesus Christ already knew that John the Baptist rebuked him, and he didn't want to hear it.
He'd already turned off his ears to rebuke.
So what was the point of Jesus Christ going on and just railing on him more?
There wasn't a point.
And we as Christians need to understand that, look, we should preach the whole Bible.
We should stand firm on the truth.
But if you're going to talk to the unsaved, give them the gospel.
And if they're not going to hear the Bible, don't just sit there and rail on their sin.
It's not going to preserve your life.
And it's not the wise thing to do.
Let's look at verse four.
It says, the soul of the slugger desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of the diligent
shall be made fat.
So if you want something, you got to do something.
If you just lay around, what happens?
Just think, is there ever been a day in your life where you're just lazy, where you just
kind of just sat around, didn't really do much?
Maybe, you know, you just looked on your phone or listen to something or watch something,
you're just kind of lazy.
What tends to happen when you're really lazy?
You just start thinking, you start thinking, man, it'd be cool if I lived in this really
big house or man, it wouldn't be so cool if I had this really cool car, or wouldn't it
be cool if I could travel across the world, or wouldn't it be cool if I could have this,
have that?
I mean, when you just start lazy, you have all this time to think.
And many times, you'll be caught up in the desires of this world, you'll be caught up
in the riches of this world, you'll be caught up in the things you don't have because you're
not busy, because you're not doing and working hard.
And the guy that's just this sluggered, this just lazy person who just lays around all
day, man, he desires all kinds of stuff.
I mean, if you were to go to his house and be like, hey, what do you want?
Where do I start?
You know, I want to win the lottery, and I want a big mansion, and I want to buy a Ferrari,
and I want to travel the world.
I mean, he's got all kinds of desires.
But you know, the man that works really hard, that works really hard for his money and understands
the importance of doing a good job and working hard, he many times doesn't have, you know,
room in his heart for all these vain desires.
He's just like, you know what, I understand how much money it is for him to buy a hundred
thousand dollar car.
I mean, that's a lot of work.
He's like, I really don't even desire that, because I wouldn't want to waste my good earned
hard money on something so foolish and vain.
But you know, when you just lay around and you're just lazy, you're gonna have all kinds
of desires.
But guess what?
You have nothing.
You're not going to get anything laying around.
He says, but the soul of the diligent man or the diligent shall be made fat.
When you do work hard, when you're a diligent man, you're going to have all the things that
your heart desires.
God's going to bless you.
And you might not have that super fancy mansion or that Ferrari, but you realize the vanity
of it all.
And you're going to have the things that are going to make your soul fat.
You're going to have the things that you desire.
You're going to have, you know, a good house, a good car, a good job.
The man that goes out and works hard has the things that he needs.
He can provide for his family.
Says in verse five, a righteous man hateth lying, but a wicked man is loathsome and cometh
to shame.
A righteous man hates lying.
As Christians, we should hate all lying.
We should always hate anything that has to do with lying.
We should never involve ourselves with anything to do with lying.
But a wicked man, you know, the interesting thing about this, he's even loathsome.
And the word loathsome there is meaning like, you know, not desirable or, or people don't
really want to be around him or they just don't look at him in good, a good light.
The interesting thing is even this world hates lying.
I mean, when you look at the politicians, what's like the number one thing that they
try to attack their opponent with?
Oh, he's just a big liar.
Oh, she's just a big liar.
Even this world recognizes the fact that lying is wicked, that lying is evil.
And how much more as a Christian, as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, should you hate
lying?
Should you not do that which is wrong and go out and be a liar just like the rest of
them?
Because you're going to be loath even more than the wicked guy.
As being a Christian, they're going to think you're a hypocrite and you're going to be
loathsome.
And the Bible says you'll come to shame.
Anytime you lie, you will always come to shame.
It will never be a good thing for you.
Look at verse 6, it says, the righteous keepeth him that is upright in the way, but wickedness
overthroweth the sinner.
No one likes wicked people.
The Bible says righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way, but wickedness overthroweth
the sinner.
You're going to be caught up in your sin and nobody wants to be around that.
Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 7, Ecclesiastes chapter 7.
The Bible makes it very clear that the righteous are going to be held up by God, are going
to be preserved by God.
God's going to be a shield unto them.
But the wicked, he's just going to overthrow them.
He's going to destroy them.
They're going to come to destruction and poverty and shame.
Everything wicked.
And it might take a while, it might not happen immediately, but when you get that in your
heart, it helps you realize, I want to be righteous because I want those things.
People don't think that.
They think, oh man, if I live a wicked life and I lie and I cheat and I steal, I can get
all the way to the top.
But God's going to overthrow the sinner.
Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 29, the Bible says, lo, this only have I found, that God
hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions.
So the Bible says that righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way, but wickedness
overthroweth the sinner.
You know, the interesting thing about righteousness and upright is God made you to be upright.
But how are you going to stay upright?
By being righteous, by doing what the Bible says.
Everybody starts out being made to want to be upright.
But the only way you're going to stay on that course or go towards that way is by being
righteous.
What is righteous?
Doing the right thing.
How do you do the right thing?
By hearkening unto his instruction.
But wickedness will overthrow the sinner.
Why does the person that's upright get overthrown?
Because they get caught up in sin because they don't desire to do the right thing.
Look at verse 7, it says, there is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing.
There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.
So back in Proverbs chapter 13 verse 7, it's talking about someone who's rich yet has nothing.
Or that makes himself poor, but hath great riches.
So turn to Revelation chapter 3, Revelation chapter 3.
So I think this is another great example, like we saw in the beginning, where you can
look at a situation and one person can think one thought.
But from another perspective, you can see how it's completely the opposite.
The Bible's talking man that has great riches, yet has nothing.
How is that possible?
Look in Revelation chapter 3 verse 16, it says, so then because thou art lukewarm and
neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth because thou sayest, I am rich
and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched
and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white
raiment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and
anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see.
So in this passage, we see a guy or a church or a group of people, they're like, I'm so
rich.
Jesus Christ looks at them, he says, no, you're poor, you're blind, you're naked.
So it's the same guy and he has physical riches, but he's poor.
Why?
Because he doesn't have riches towards God, because he's not doing anything for God.
I've been in a church where they didn't have any soul in it, but this was a fancy building.
This was an independent, fundamental, King James only Baptist church.
It was a beautiful building.
They had 500 plus people coming to the church, they had all kinds of Sunday school programs,
they had all kinds of kids programs, they had a huge choir, they had people playing
instruments and I remember the pastor got up and he's like, oh man, we're so blessed.
We got so many riches, we're doing so great.
And somebody stood up and they were like, what about Revelation chapter three when they
say they're rich and they have all these goods, but God says they're poor, blind and naked.
And he was on something because they didn't have any riches towards God because they weren't
going out and preaching the gospel because they weren't getting anybody saved.
They had an altar call every single service and guess who walked down?
No one.
No one ever walked down.
In God's eyes, that church is poor, blind and naked.
And you know, the Bible says in Revelation before that, when it's talking about the church
at Ephesus, it says because they lost their first love, he was going to remove their candlestick
from them.
He was going to remove the light, the gospel.
When you don't preach the gospel, you're going to lose the gospel and you're going to be
poor, blind and naked.
How are you going to be blind?
Because they took away the light because you're not preaching the gospel because you're not
going out and getting people saved.
And the Christian who has lots of money, lots of friends and seems to live in a fancy house
and have a good job, but doesn't ever do anything for God is poor, blind and naked.
If you want to have riches towards God, you got to serve God, you got to do what he said.
There is that making themself rich, it hath nothing.
If you're living as a Christian just like, you know what, I just want to work for that
401k.
I just want to work for the retirement.
I can't wait to just go to the country club and, you know, travel and do all those things.
You're going to have nothing.
You're going to go to heaven and the Bible says you're going to suffer loss because all
your works are just going to be burned up in the fire.
Look what he said there in verse 18 of Revelation.
He said, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire.
God wants you to get gold, but he wants you to get that heavenly gold that comes from
going out and getting somebody saved by going out preaching the gospel and getting that
righteousness that comes from winning somebody to Christ.
It's tried by fire, it's going to stand.
That soul is going to stand and he's going to be in heaven with you and you're not great
riches in heaven.
But you're not going to get that by chasing the riches of this world.
That's why it says there's a make of himself poor.
It has great riches.
The man that decides to just give up all the vain things of this life.
There's, you know, think about John the Baptist.
Did he have any riches?
No, but I bet he had a lot of riches in heaven.
That's somebody that made himself poor but decided to have great riches in heaven because
he desired that which was in heaven.
Go back to Proverbs chapter 13, Proverbs chapter 13, we'll look there at verse 8.
The ransom of a man's life was riches, but the poor hereth not rebuked.
The interesting thing I thought about this verse, basically saying if you got nothing,
you got nothing to lose.
When you're poor, when you don't have anything, I mean, you can just go out and you can just
preach the gospel.
You can just do whatever you want and even if you're not saved, I mean the poor hereth
not rebuked.
I mean, you ever walked up to some guy that's just a homeless guy, I mean, you're like,
you know, you're not doing those just right.
It's like, who cares?
Like, he's not going to be instructed by anything you say, but you know the rich man, he's tied
to his riches.
If you have anything to say that has to do with his riches, I mean, he's just trapped
by that.
That's his ransom.
You know, a lot of times you think about in movies, they would have a rich man and they
would kidnap one of his kids and they would have a ransom because they wanted to get all
of his money.
And sometimes you see the rich man has an internal struggle.
He's like, do I want my kid or do I want to give him 50 million dollars?
And it's just a sad reality that riches can take the heart of a man to where even if it
was your child, you'd be like, oh, I don't know.
I mean, take all my money.
I just want my children.
And obviously, you know, many of the points of those are the fact that you can't just
trust a terrorist and you can't just give them money.
But if it was a real situation where they had to choose, like, press a button for 50
million dollars with their child, there's a lot of wicked people that would choose that
money.
Why?
Because it's the ransom of his life.
I mean, that's all he's living for.
He's just living for paper, for just junk, for just garbage, things that are going to
be destroyed in this world.
It's just vanity.
It says in verse 9, going back to Proverbs chapter 13, it says, the light of the righteous
rejoices but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.
Now, as I was going through Proverbs chapter 13, I felt like this verse really encapsulated
the entire chapter the best.
The light of the righteous rejoices.
When you have the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, you can have true joy in your life.
And as we go through Proverbs, you're going to see the same things over and over.
You're going to see, you know, hearken unto the instruction, speak that which is right.
You know, the good are going to be preserved.
And I think you can look at it from a lot of different perspectives.
One perspective is the fact that you can rejoice because you have the light of righteousness.
Turn to Matthew chapter 5, Matthew chapter 5.
What is your driving force in life?
What is the thing that makes you want to wake up every day?
What is the thing that just turns you on and gets you excited?
Let's look at Matthew chapter 5, verse 14, ye are the light of the world.
A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid, neither do men light a candle and put it under
a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father
which is in heaven.
Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets.
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall know
wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
So we see Jesus Christ, he's saying unto disciples, ye are the light of this world.
But we saw in the rest of that verse, it said the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.
So what is your driving force?
You know, what is the thing that you're shining forth to other men?
Jesus wants you to shine your good, your good works, but what is it that all the heathens
shine before men?
What is it that the heathen get all excited about?
Going to like football games, going to the basketball game, going to concerts, going
you know, to all these sporting events, and when their team scores a touchdown, they're
like, yeah!
Woo!
We scored a touchdown!
Yeah!
I mean they get up and they scream and they yell, and I mean there's hundreds of thousands
of them and they're screaming and they're yelling, but the Bible says the light of the
righteous rejoiceth.
We should be the ones rejoicing, we should be the ones that have something to yell about,
praise the Lord for his salvation, for his goodness, his mercy endureth forever.
Think about going to heaven, I mean men get up and scream and dance about a guy who scored
a touchdown, and we can't get excited, we can't rejoice about the Lord Jesus Christ
conquering death and hell and giving us eternal life, making us the sons of God, sealing us
with the Holy Spirit, giving us everything we could ever desire, giving us this entire
word.
Jesus Christ is with you day and night, if you just read his book, we can't get excited
about God.
Shine your light before men that they can see your good works, we should be lights unto
the world.
You know, and unfortunately, a lot of people get excited about coming to faith toward baptism
because they learn about a lot of false doctrine, but then they're just this like false doctrine
light.
They just want to go around and preach against sodomy and filth and wickedness.
God wants you to rejoice about the good things.
I think we should be understanding of the Bible, we should understand all the doctrines,
we should preach against wickedness, but God says he wants you to shine forth your good
works.
Amen.
Is it a good work to believe that a reprobate is going to hell?
That's not a good work.
Go out and preach the gospel, go out and preach the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ can change
your life.
He can do everything for you, he's done everything for you.
We should shine our lights so bright that people are just looking, man, look at faith
toward Baptist Church.
Everybody that goes to that church is so excited, they're rejoicing for the Lord.
They're lifting up their voice.
When they sing the hymns, they sing it with heart.
They sing it with rejoicing.
When they go out and they preach the gospel, they're excited.
They love the Lord.
Come see my zeal for the Lord is what the Bible says.
We should be excited.
We should be able to be more excited than those people that go to the sporting events,
that go to the concerts and scream and yell.
We should get excited about soul winning.
When someone comes in here and says, I got somebody saved, we should be like, amen, hallelujah.
When someone comes to church, when someone's memorizing the Bible, when someone reaches
a good sermon, that's when we should be rejoicing, that's when we should get excited.
What's your driving force?
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13, rejoice not in iniquity, but rejoice in the truth.
We should be rejoicing in the Bible.
How many people didn't have the whole Bible?
Why don't you just rejoice about the fact that you can get all of God's word today,
that you can read all of it.
How exciting.
How exciting to live in a time where you can go out and you can preach the gospel to your
hearts full.
I mean, is there anything stopping you from preaching the gospel at any hour of the day?
I mean, go out and preach the gospel to whoever you want.
Why don't you rejoice in the truth?
Says in 2 Corinthians 1, as he has acknowledged us in part that we are your rejoicing, even
as you're ours as the day of the Lord Jesus.
Who's your rejoicing when someone gets into church?
When you just get so excited, you get somebody saved and they get in church and they change
their life and they become a soul winner.
That's exciting.
That's what I want to live for.
You know, I want to start a church one day and I want to have people come to my church
that want to learn the Bible, that want to be faithful soul winners.
The greatest thing for me would to have a Timothy, to have somebody that could train
the Lord, that I could train to go soul winning, that I could train to learn to read the Bible,
to be a pastor.
That's what I would desire.
I don't want to go start a church and just have a bunch of lukewarm people in my church.
I want people that want to rejoice in the Lord.
Turn if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
The Bible says in Philippians 4, rejoice in the Lord always.
And again I say, rejoice.
The Bible says rejoice so many times in the Bible and we ought to rejoice that God is
our Lord, that God is our Savior, that God has saved us, that God has given us everything
that we could desire.
In James chapter 4 verse 15 the Bible says, For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will,
we shall live, and do this or that.
But now ye rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil.
For to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
All that rejoicing in the football game is evil.
All that rejoicing in the concert is evil.
All that rejoicing in vain things and men is evil, according to the Bible.
The only thing we should be rejoicing in is the Lord Jesus Christ.
But even God's people sometimes neglect rejoicing in the Lord.
So there's just nobody rejoicing in God.
And he's looking at all this rejoicing in the earth.
There's so many people that are so excited about all the vain things in this world and
God's like so evil.
I mean I gave you life, I gave you this earth, I gave you the Bible and nobody wants to rejoice
in me.
I mean just think of how that hurts God's heart when he has nobody that wants to rejoice
in him.
But then when he sees a group of people that are rejoicing in him, he's just going to want
to shower his blessings on them, he's just going to want to protect them, he's going
to want to preserve them, just as the Father wants to preserve his child.
Look at verse three verse seven, So that neither is he that planteth anything, neither is he
that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.
Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own
reward according to his labor.
For we are labors together with God, he are God's husbandry, he are God's building.
When we get to heaven, we're going to be rejoicing, we're going to be rejoicing with all the people
that planted and we watered, or the people that we planted and they watered, and we're
in heaven, and we've got people that got saved, and we've got gold that's been tried
by the fire, that's the thing to rejoice for, and we should rejoice in this earth.
Why don't you think about the things that you should be rejoicing for, the things that
you can be, because all such rejoicing of men is evil, according to James chapter four.
You know you'd say, what do you think about all these sporting events and all these things?
Evil.
Go to Proverbs chapter thirteen, back to Proverbs chapter thirteen.
So I think in the context of Proverbs thirteen, you can make the application of rejoicing
to all these.
You can kind of take it in that line.
We look in verse ten, it says, only by pride cometh contention, but with the well advised
is wisdom.
Now this is kind of a more famous verse, you know, you could probably apply it to a lot
of different situations, but I was thinking about marriage.
You know, and it could even apply to just relationships, but only by pride cometh contention,
but with the well advised is wisdom.
So turn to Proverbs chapter twenty-five, Proverbs chapter twenty-five, we're going to look at
one verse there.
In verse twenty-four, the Bible says, it is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop
than with a brawling woman and in a wide house.
So we see the only way you're going to have a contention is by pride.
And we see someone who is contentious is pride, prideful.
The Bible is saying here that a brawling woman, you know, it's just terrible to live
with this person.
Now this could be applied to men or women, but it's applied to women in this context.
And it's saying that this brawling woman is contentious.
So why is it that she's, you know, having contentions, because she's filled with pride.
You know why there's contentions in marriage, pride.
You know why there's contentions in relationships, pride, and the Bible says they're not well
advised.
Turn to James chapter four, you say, what does it mean not to be well advised?
Well, when you get all the Bible, when you understand all the commandments of God, when
you get your heart right, you're not going to be lifted up with pride.
The Bible says, great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them.
When you get your heart right on the Lord Jesus Christ, when you realize all the sins
in your life, when you realize the ways that you can affect, you know, better yourself,
you're not lifted up with as much pride.
And you realize the whole point of a marriage is to serve the other one is to serve the
other person.
So if you're always wanting to serve the other person, you realize all of your faults, you're
not going to have much pride, you're not going to be much more humble.
And when you're humble, there's not going to be any fights.
If you see a relationship where there's just this constant contention, there's this constant
fighting because there's pride there.
And how does the pride get there?
Because they're not well advised.
The person who's not well advised is not reading this book.
They're not following the words of God, because therefore they get lifted up with pride.
They think about themselves in a selfish way, they think, oh, I'm so great, I'm so wonderful,
why isn't my spouse just doing what I say?
Why isn't my spouse just harping on to me?
Why isn't my spouse doing great things for me, me, me?
And they get lifted up with pride.
And then there's that contention.
But when the person's just focused on the other person, when the person's just focused
on what the Bible says about what a marriage should be like and being a servant, you're
going to have much less contention.
Now, I'm not so foolish to say that in a marriage you're not going to have any contention.
I mean, that's just silly.
Any two people that are married together and live together, you're going to butt heads
at times.
But if you want to really reduce your contentions, if you really want to have a great marriage,
if you don't want to have brawlings and contention, read this book.
Be well advised.
Get the Bible in your heart so you won't be lifted up with pride.
In James chapter four and verse one, the Bible says, from whence come wars and fightings
among you?
Come they not hence even of your lusts that warn your members?
Ye lust and have not.
Ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain.
Ye fight in war, yet ye have not because ye ask not.
Ye ask not and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Ye adulterous and adulterouses.
Know ye not the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
Whosoever there will be a friend of the world is an enmity of God.
Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to
envy?
But he that giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth
grace unto the humble.
So it's interesting, he starts out by saying, why is there fightings among you?
Do they not come from your lusts?
And then he finishes it by saying God resisted the proud and giveth grace to the humble.
If you're fighting with somebody, if you have contention with somebody, there's pride there.
So if you don't want to have the fightings, if you don't want to have the contentions,
you need to get rid of the pride.
How do you get rid of the pride?
By reading this book.
By getting a humbling view of yourself.
God says over and over, you know, forgive your brethren.
Forgive those because I forgave you.
And none of us can ever forgive somebody as much as Jesus forgave us.
So why don't you just get rid of all the pride in your heart?
You know, there's a lot of times when I fought with my wife and I was thinking, you know
what, all the things that I'm mad at my spouse for are just foolish.
They're just silly.
They're so meaningless.
And the only reason I'm hanging on to it is because I'm just living up with pride.
Because I just don't want to let it go.
I just don't want to forgive her.
I don't want to just be a servant under her.
And that could happen to any relationship.
When you're just harping on to foolish, silly things, you're going to have, you know, you're
lived up with that pride, you're going to have contentions.
But with the well advised, when you get more of this Bible on your heart, when you have
a bigger perspective of this world and what's going to happen, you just want to get past
it.
You want to be more humble.
Let's go to verse 11.
It says, Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished, but he that gathered by labor
shall increase.
So over and over we get the same things.
Easy come, easy go.
If you just get wealth by vanity, it's just going to go away.
But if you gather slowly over time, it's going to increase.
Look at verse 12.
Hope deferred, makeeth the heart sick, but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.
That's another pretty famous verse.
Hope deferred, makeeth the heart sick.
You know, the interesting thing I think about this verse is if you're ever going to promise
somebody something, you know, many businesses I work for, it's true the day is long.
Under promise and over deliver.
If you ever tell somebody, hey, I'll have it to you in two days and two weeks later
come by, that person is going to be really angry with you.
That person is going to be like, man, you told me it was going to be two days.
What's going on?
What's happening?
But you tell somebody, hey, you know what?
It might take me a couple of weeks and then you show up two days later, they're going
to be excited.
They're going to be like, whoa, that was awesome.
And you know, in any parts of your relationship, maybe your marriage, maybe your friendship,
maybe the church, maybe anybody, make sure to under promise and over deliver.
It says, hope deferred, makeeth the heart sick.
When you understand the fact that when somebody's excited about something, when somebody's expecting
something and it gets delayed, it can hurt.
You know, I was thinking about an example that I'm really glad I didn't have to go through
is brother Garrett.
Brother Garrett had planned to go to South Africa, I'm sorry, Botswana and to get married
and it got delayed.
I bet that just made his heart sick.
I bet it make it really sick when you're so excited about your marriage, you're so excited
to get married, you're right there, it's just a couple of days away and then it's just delayed.
It's just going to make your heart so sick.
It's just going to make it, you know, it's just a rottenness and it says, but when the
desire cometh, it is a tree of life.
Hope is such a great thing.
You know, when that hope comes and you can get so excited, it's just a tree of life.
And when you can get back on the right track, you can just get back and just be so excited
it's just a tree of life.
We should make sure to be cognizant of the fact that hope deferred, makeeth the heart
sick.
It's just an awful feeling when you have a great expectation and it's delayed.
When you have a great expectation and it changes.
When you have a great expectation and you're let down.
That's why I try to really make sure that if I ever promise to do anything for somebody,
I think really hard before that promise changes, really hard before I'm going to be delayed
on that promise.
And if you want to have success in your job, never promise your boss something that you
can't deliver.
It's going to make his heart sick.
He's going to be like, man, I really thought this guy was a great employee, but every time
he tells me he's going to do something, never happens on time.
It's just going to make his heart sick.
Be cognizant of the fact that when you just don't deliver, you're going to make people
upset.
You're going to hurt their heart.
Now obviously your boss probably doesn't just have great love, it's hard for you or whatever,
but he's going to be upset.
Look at verse 13 in Proverbs chapter 13, Whosoever, whoso dicifeth the word shall be destroyed.
He that feared the commandment shall be rewarded.
The law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death.
Good understanding giveth favor, but the way of transgressors is hard.
Turn to Job chapter 28, Job chapter 28, the Bible says that faith cometh by hearing and
hearing by the word of God, but whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed.
Ultimately, if you reject the word of God, you'll go to hell because only by the word
can you get saved.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God, and he that despiseth the word
shall be destroyed.
And he that feared the commandment shall be rewarded.
We should hearken unto the words.
It can't say it over and over and over again enough, we need to hearken unto the words
of God.
The law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death.
You want to avoid bad situations, get in this book.
Good understanding giveth favor.
We talked about favor of the Lord a couple of chapters ago.
You want to have favor of the Lord, have good understanding of this book and do what he
said.
In Job chapter 28, verse 28, it says, And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the
Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.
You say, Oh, I have great understanding.
Well, are you still just chasing after sin?
You're just chasing after that was evil.
You don't have any understanding.
Understanding is when you take the knowledge that you have and you apply it to your life.
You say, you know what?
I know what the Bible says.
That's knowledge.
But understanding is when you actually do it, when you actually depart from the evil,
when you fully make full circle and you say, Hey, God wants me to not lie.
I should not lie.
And then when you don't lie, that's understanding.
How much do you know?
Think about it this way.
If you had a young child and you told them, Hey, don't touch the stove.
It's hot.
And they run over there and they just stick their hand on the stove and they burn it like
ah!
Did they understand what he said?
You're like, No, you didn't have any understanding.
I told you not to touch it because it was hot.
But if you understand you will, Oh, I'm not going to, I'm not going to do that.
And not doing it is the understanding.
When you, when you have understanding, it's because you're following God's commandments.
The person that never goes out soul winning doesn't understand soul winning.
That's why somebody that doesn't go soul winning should never critique anybody that doesn't
go soul winning.
Or, sorry, I probably said that backwards.
Somebody that doesn't go soul winning should never critique somebody that does go soul
winning.
You have no understanding of soul winning.
None.
You can't understand something if you didn't do it.
This can apply to any part of your life.
I don't think, you know, I kind of struggled with this, but a lot of people say, don't
give me parenting instruction when you don't have kids.
And I always be like, Oh, I know what it's like to have kids.
I think it's true.
Don't give parenting advice if you don't have kids.
Don't give marriage advice if you haven't been married.
Don't tell a plumber how to do plumbing if you never did plumbing because you have no
understanding if you're not doing it.
Don't give anybody instruction in the Bible if you're not doing it because you have no
understanding.
That's why the Bible is talking about removing the beam out of your own eye so you can remove
the remote out of your brothers.
If you have this in your life, if you can't even succeed yourself, you don't understand
how to do it.
Don't tell me how to do it.
Show me how to do it.
That's understanding.
Fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death.
Proverbs chapter 16 verse six, by mercy and truth iniquity is purged and by the fear of
the Lord and depart from evil.
Why do people depart from evil?
Because of the fear of the Lord.
Because of the Bible.
Look at verse 16, Proverbs chapter 13, every prudent man deals with knowledge, but a fool
layeth open his folly.
Don't expose all of your circumstances.
Don't expose everything that you have that you know, let him that is unjust be unjust
still.
Look at verse 17, a wicked messenger falleth into mischief, but a faithful ambassador's
health.
Verse 18, poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction, but he that regardeth
for proof shall be honored.
Bad things will happen to you when you refuse the instruction of God.
Look at verse 19, the desire accomplished is sweet to the soul, but his abomination
to fools to depart from evil.
Turn to first Peter chapter four.
I said there at the end of that verse, but it is an abomination to fools to depart from
evil.
You know, the wicked people, they don't want to give up sin.
They don't want to give up fornication.
They don't want to give up drinking.
They don't want to give up all the reveling.
They think it's an abomination.
You're talking to people that are unsaved and you say, you know, I go to church three
times a week.
I'm not going to, you know, lie with other people.
I'm not going to lie and steal and chill or kill.
I'm not going to do all the evil of this world.
They're like, that sounds awful.
I want to do all those things.
I want to listen to all the ungodly music.
I want to, you know, just commit all this fornication and adultery and do all these
things.
They're like, you're just silly.
Why would you want to give that up?
Look at chapter four, verse one, for as much as then as Christ has suffered for us in the
flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, for he has suffered and the flesh hath
ceased from sin.
That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men
but to the will of God.
For in the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles
when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable
idolatries wherein they think it's strange that you run not with them to the same excess
of riot, speaking evil of you.
When you do that, which is right, when you go to church three times a week, when you
go out soul winning, when you give up all the sin in your life, they're going to speak
evil of you.
They're going to say bad things about you.
They're going to say, oh, this guy doesn't like to have fun.
Oh, this guy's so judgmental because he doesn't want to do all the same things I'm doing.
We need to understand that we need to have fear of the Lord and not fear of man.
Go back to Proverbs chapter 13 verse 20.
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
Evil pursueth sinners, but to the righteous good shall be repaid.
If you want to have, you know, good things in this life, walk with wise men, but a companion
of fools shall be destroyed.
I don't want to be around these wicked people that are going to constantly be, you know,
speaking evil of me because I don't want to do all their wicked sin.
So I should walk with wise people.
Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, I'll just read it for you, it says in verse 30, and
why stand ye in jeopardy every hour?
I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus the Lord.
I die daily.
If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts and Ephesus, what advantage is it that
me?
If the dead rise not, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
Be not deceived.
Evil communications corrupt good manners.
Awake to righteousness and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God.
I speak this to your shame.
The Bible's saying, look, you can't be deceived by the fact that if you surround yourself
with wicked people, you're not going to be affected.
Even the most righteous person is going to be affected by evil communications.
So await the righteousness and sin not.
Do that which is right and rejoice in the Lord.
He speaks it to your shame when nobody has the knowledge of God.
Go back to Proverbs chapter 13, through there, verse 22, a good man leaveth an inheritance
to his children's children, and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.
So just as much as we shouldn't chase riches of this world, that we shouldn't desire to
be rich, it's still a wise thing to leave an inheritance to your children, even to your
children's children.
And you know, there was a man that was given a great inheritance from his father, that
was Solomon.
Solomon was laid up a great inheritance from David.
David had prepared many goods for Solomon so that he could build the house of the Lord.
He stored all kinds of lumber and gold and silver.
I mean, he did a lot of preparation to give his son an inheritance.
Turn to Proverbs chapter 20, Proverbs chapter 20.
Ecclesiastes 7 says, wisdom is good with an inheritance, and by it there's profit to them
that see the son.
So I think that it's a good thing to leave your children some kind of financial inheritance.
You know, to give them, you know, not leave them with some debt or leave them with some
kind of burden, but leaving them with some type of inheritance, maybe a house or maybe
some goods.
You know, nothing, something modest.
You know, you should have your house paid off and not have some debt to lay on the burden
of your children.
But is inheritance always restricted to financial things?
No, it could be also that you give them a good inheritance of righteousness.
You give them a good inheritance of wisdom.
What if David had given Solomon all the riches that he did, but no wisdom?
It would have been destroyed.
That's why in Proverbs chapter 20 verse 21 it says, an inheritance may be gotten hastily
at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed.
There's a lot of people, you know, when I worked when I, when I first jobs, I saw a
lot of businesses and there was a lot of businesses where the dad worked really hard and he built
up a great business, but he never let his son work hard.
He never taught his son wisdom and then the son came in and just destroyed the business
and just ruined all the inheritance.
It's more important that you teach your children to have wisdom.
So whatever kind of financial inheritance or whatever goods you can get them, they can
be wise with, they can use for good.
It's more important to give them the wisdom of the Lord, to give them that kind of inheritance,
to give them the inheritance that they can have wisdom.
But of course I do believe that it's not, uh, it is right to still give them some kind
of financial blessings or some kind of, you know, prosperity that you can pass on.
Not that he desires to be rich or lay out treasures on this earth, but if you give them
some kind of inheritance, if you see a lot of godly men did, they gave good inheritances
to their children.
We see that the children of Israel are supposed to pass on the lands and the goods of the,
of their fathers unto the children, to every generation and the generations are supposed
to have goods.
I mean, it's good to pass on something to your children.
That's a blessing.
I hope that, you know, I can give my children some kind of blessing.
But more important than money, I want them to be wise.
I want them to have that kind of inheritance.
Because if I give them money or not, if they have wisdom, then they can, they can get money.
They can, they can be wise, they can get a job, they can provide for their family.
Says in Proverbs 13 going back, verse 23, much food is in the tillage of the poor, but
there's that destroyed for want of judgment.
You know, the interesting thing about this verse is there's a lot of people in America
that you would say go hungry.
You know, there's a lot of programs at schools that do like this snack pack for kids where
they give kids like pop tarts or they give them all kinds of stuff to take home because
they don't get three meals a day because they don't get food every, on the, on the table.
And children should be, you know, blessed by their parents.
They should understand, I love my parents because they give me food every meal.
There's a lot of kids that don't get meals every day.
But is it the fact that we don't have enough food in America that people are going hungry?
It says that there's much food in the tillage of the poor, meaning the poor go out and they
work really hard and there's all these goods produced.
There's so much riches in this world, but it says there's destroyed for want of judgment.
Why is it that all these people are going without?
It's because of wicked government.
It's because there's no judgment.
Because in Psalms chapter 72, he shall judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor
with judgment.
Psalms 72 verse four, he shall judge the poor of the people.
He shall save the children of the needy and shall break in pieces the oppressor.
Why is it that there's poor people?
Because of the oppressor.
Why is it that the poor don't have food?
Because the oppressor is not getting judged.
If the wicked people in our government were judged, we wouldn't have all this communist
garbage happening in this country and the poor could have food.
Because there's much, there's much food in the tillage of the poor.
The poor can go out and make a lot of food.
But guess what?
They're held without because there's no judgment.
The wicked people are allowed to oppress people, they're allowed to exact all kinds of debt
and usury and all kinds of wicked sins on the poor so that they're without.
So they don't have any goods.
They can have all kinds of wicked laws.
They can pump all kinds of filth on the TV and on the radio and tell all kinds of lies.
So people are just constantly consumed with alcohol and all kinds of wicked fornication
and adultery and all this sin has a toll on people and people don't have any food.
They want that judgment because with judgment would come righteousness into our country
and it would give food unto the poor.
But you see the reason that people don't have food, there's so much money in this world
that every person can get fed.
All the people in Africa that are starving can be fed.
All the people in all these countries eat.
But when you look at a country that doesn't have much food, that has a lot of poor, do
you think that's a righteous government?
A government with a lot of judgment?
No.
With a righteous government, when there is judgment, when wicked doers are punished,
when there's not just all these handouts and all this government, you know, spending, you're
going to have much food for every person.
Go back to verse 24, it says, he that spareth his rod hated his son, but he that loveth
him chaseth the times.
I think of Proverbs chapter 23, Proverbs chapter 23, you can flip there, it's like a couple
chapters over.
It says in verse 13, withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with
the rod, he shall not die.
Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell.
My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine, yea, my reign shall
rejoice when thy lips speak right things.
Now I was kind of talking about how you could take the word rejoice and you could apply
it to all these verses.
A lot of times you would read this, it says like, he that spareth the rod hated his son,
but he that loveth him chaseth the times, you say, how does that have to do with rejoicing?
How does that have to do with rejoicing with the Lord?
But look at verse 15 there in Proverbs chapter 23, we're seeing, my son, if thine heart be
wise, my heart shall rejoice.
Now why is it that a father should chasten his son?
Because he wants him to do that which is right, because he wants him to be wise, and when
your son's wise, when he's doing that which is right, you're rejoicing, you're rejoicing
in him.
God wants to be able to rejoice in you, and he wants you to be able to rejoice back in
him, so he's going to chasten and discourage you when you sin.
If this is a father which chasten and discourage his child, they're going to love him back
for it.
They're going to be wise.
They're going to be able to have that grace rejoicing.
He says his heart's going to rejoice when he sees his son doing that which is right.
Why does a father spank his child?
Why does he beat him with the rod?
So that he'll be wise.
So that he can have rejoicing in his son.
So that he can see his son live a great life.
Let's go to the last verse, verse 25, it says, the righteous eateth of the satisfying of
his soul, but the belly of the wicked shall want.
So the righteous is going to eat to the satisfying of his soul, but the belly of the wicked shall
want.
You want your soul to be satisfied?
Be righteous.
Do that which is right.
You know, praise the Lord, rejoice to the Lord.
You know, I think every single chapter or every single verse in here can be related
to rejoicing.
You know, we can't focus on every verse entirely, but I got a lot of verses I want to just read
to you before we finish.
The word rejoicing is found in the Bible so many times, and I'll have you turn to one
of them.
Turn to John chapter 5.
John chapter 5.
We'll close there.
It says in Psalms 21, 1, the king shall join thy strength, O Lord, and in thy salvation
how greatly shall he rejoice.
You want to have a satisfying soul?
Rejoice in the salvation of the Lord.
You want your soul to be filled?
Rejoice in the salvation.
The Old Testament talks a lot about salvation, too, and rejoicing because of it.
Psalms chapter 32, 11, be glad in the Lord, and rejoice ye righteous, and shout for joy,
all ye that are upright in heart.
You know when you're upright in your heart, when you're doing that which is right, you
can just shout for joy.
You can praise the Lord.
When you're living in sin, oftentimes it's harder for you to rejoice in the Lord.
Psalms 33, verse 21, for our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy
name.
This is the Old Testament.
I mean, he's just making salvation so clear, and you can just rejoice in him because you
trusted in his name.
Psalms 35, and my soul shall be joyful in the Lord, it shall rejoice in his salvation.
We haven't even gotten to the New Testament.
New Testament, Matthew chapter 2, when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding
great joy.
When the wise men saw the star that was going to lead them to the Lord Jesus Christ, they
rejoiced greatly.
They were like, it's the Lord.
We can go find him.
We should rejoice greatly that we can find the Lord.
Said in Matthew 5, rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven,
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
When you're persecuted in the Lord, you can rejoice.
You can rejoice because of his salvation.
You can rejoice when you're doing that which is right.
You can rejoice when you're being persecuted.
Luke chapter 1 says, and thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his
birth.
I love Christmas when you can celebrate the fact that you can rejoice in the birth of
our Savior.
I'm not going to celebrate some fat man that gives presents.
I'm going to celebrate the Lord Jesus Christ that died for my sins.
I'm going to rejoice in him, in his birth.
I love singing the Christmas hymns.
You know, I don't want to hear about Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer.
I want to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ and his birth.
And I don't care whether or not it was December 25th or not.
In Luke 1 it also says, and Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit
hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
Mary rejoiced in her Savior.
Acts chapter 8, and when they were coming out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord called
away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing.
The eunuch was rejoicing, and God said, Amen.
Romans 5, but whom we have access by faith in this grace, when we stand and rejoice in
the hope of the glory of God.
Romans chapter 12, be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love, in honor
of referring one another, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord,
rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer.
So we look at John chapter 5, the last place we'll look.
It says, he sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth, but I received not testimony
from man, but these things I say that ye might be saved.
He was a burning and shining light, and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his
light, but I have greater witness than that of John.
For the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bare
witness of me that the Father hath sent me.
Why were they rejoicing?
They were rejoicing in the light of John the Baptist.
They were seeing his good works.
They were able to see that he was a shining light for the Lord Jesus Christ, and they
were rejoicing in it.
We can see a man of God that wants to be a shining light in this world, and we should
be rejoicing in him.
You know what?
I rejoice in Pastor Anderson.
I rejoice in Brother Roger Jimenez.
I rejoice in Pastor Burgens.
I rejoice in Brother Richard Miller.
I rejoice in Brother Manley Perry, and Brother Donnie Romero, and any man that wants to shine
the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's who he should be rejoicing in.
Not some football player, not some basketball player.
All they're rejoicing is evil.
We should be rejoicing in the men of God that want to serve the Lord.
Just as Paul said, you know, come follow me as I follow Christ.
We should be looking to those men, and we should be rejoicing in their light.
They looked at John the Baptist, and they were so excited.
They were like, look at this man.
He's coming to prepare the way of the Lord.
We should be excited for the men of God.
We should be excited to get behind men of God that want to preach the gospel.
We should rally behind the men of God, and we should just rejoice.
Rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Rejoice when we're getting people saved, and rejoice to be in a good church that loves
the Lord.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you Jesus for this great church.
Thank you for your son that died on the cross and gave us all salvation.
We can't rejoice enough for your unspeakable gift, and for your love, and for the hope
that we have that one day we'll be in heaven and be the sons of God.
I just thank you for everyone in this room.
I pray that we would just be able to be focused on being a shining light.
That we'd be able to rejoice, and be able to shine our light forth that men can see
our good works, and they can rejoice with us in our good works that lift up the Lord
Jesus Christ.
In your name we pray, amen.