Amen. We're in part two now of Proverbs 15, and we did verses 1 to 17 last week.
We're going to carry on from verse 18, but like I keep saying, please use pens, please note down any proverbs which, you know, you want to note down as there's going to be a lot of, obviously, a lot of subjects I'm going to cover all in the space for now, so it's going to be hard to remember it all.
So please note down anything that you feel really talks to you tonight.
And like I said last week as well, good ideas maybe to memorize some of those proverbs that really make a difference to you as they're pretty easy to memorize a lot of these problems, pretty short verses.
We're going to start in Proverbs chapter 15, it's verse 18 then for tonight, which starts with this.
A wrathful man stirreth up strife, but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife.
I'd like to pray before we continue. Father, thank you for your word, thank you for all the Book of Proverbs.
Lord, thank you for everything that we can learn from it. Please help me to just preach these proverbs, this second half of this chapter tonight, just clearly here and in a way that people will remember those proverbs that really speak to them tonight.
Help everyone to have attentive ears. Lord, please fill them with your spirit. Let me do all these things in Jesus Christ's holy name. Amen.
Okay, so a wrathful man stirreth up strife, but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife.
So a sensible approach to life is to limit strife where possible, isn't it? That's what we want in life, where possible.
There are times when there needs to be some strife, but a lot of the time, a lot of our day-to-day life, we want to be limiting strife.
And if you're full of wrath, then instead of limiting it, you'll be either encouraging it or just straight causing it, okay?
So if wrath, just anger, that's what it is, extreme anger, a lot of the times it just causes trouble.
At the least it's very hard to diffuse trouble when you're full of wrath.
Verse 1 in this chapter said this, a soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.
And it's hard to give a soft answer if you're wrathful, isn't it?
If you're very angry, full of anger, it's hard to then give a soft answer when it's needed.
So it's not a good thing being wrathful.
Verse 18 said a wrathful man stirreth up strife, but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife.
And we want to appease strife where possible because there are people out there that are just looking for trouble, aren't there?
There are people that just want trouble, they want anger, they want rouse, they want contention, they want strife, but it's foolish.
Proverbs 14 and verse 29, where we were a couple of weeks back now, said,
He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.
Okay, so they're just lifting up folly, they're showing their folly, it's folly, it's foolish.
How do you solve it? Well, you need to get some understanding, okay?
If you're someone that's hasty of spirit, if you're someone that's wrathful, if you're someone that's fast at anger, get some understanding.
People fast at anger lack understanding, okay?
We need understanding to be able to do this, we just saw he that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, okay?
In Proverbs 14 and verse 29.
So, how do you get the understanding? Well, Proverbs 9 and 10 says,
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
Okay, that's how we get the understanding. It's a knowledge of God by both hearing and doing the words of God.
So, here's the thing. If you're just full of wrath, if you're very easily provoked, you're constantly angry, you're full of wrath,
you're kind of saying, well, you don't have much knowledge of the holy.
And the more knowledge of the holy you have, the more understanding you get, and you're not just going to fly off the handle at everything.
A wrathful man stirreth up strife, but he that is slow to anger appease of strife.
The lesson is, avoid unneeded strife. Slow down your anger by growing in faith.
The more you grow in faith, the more you understand the word of God, the more knowledge of the holy,
the more you have an understanding of God, ultimately, the less wrath you're going to have at the same time.
Verse 19 says, The way of the slothful man is as in hedge of thorns, but the way of the righteous is made plain.
Right, now this is saying that the slothful or lazy, we would say, person's root in life is painful.
Okay, it's just got permanent obstacles. That's what it's saying.
The biggest obstacle to so much is their laziness. That's the issue.
With lazy people, what limits so much of their life, the obstacles that they come up against, is their own laziness.
And it's a painful obstacle because anything they want to do is hindered by their slothfulness.
It's painful for them to do most, to do much in life because of laziness.
How many people don't achieve in various ways due to laziness?
In all aspects of life, they just don't achieve, they don't do what they wanted to do,
they don't get what they wanted to get because of laziness, because of slothfulness.
How many underachievers are there due to laziness in their youth and onwards?
A lot, right? There's a lot of people that could have done a lot, but they were lazy,
they were slothful for whatever reason, and they just don't achieve.
They don't achieve what they wanted to in many areas of life.
How many miss out on all sorts of opportunities because of laziness
because they just can't be bothered to get on, to do anything, to go and get them, right?
How many marriages, for example, as well, break down because of people being too lazy to just work at their marriage?
Because marriage takes work, doesn't it? Marriage needs some effort put in.
From both sides, it's not just a kind of, it's not just this everlasting dream from the day you get married,
you need to put work in, you need to put graft in.
And do you know what, a lot of the time when marriages fail, it's because of laziness.
Because people are slothful about it, they can't be bothered to work at it, it's easier just to give up, it's easier to quit.
Slothfulness results in a life of painful obstacles in all areas, doesn't it?
That's why he's talking about it being a hedge of thorns.
And notice how it's contrasted with the righteous man.
He said, the way of the slothful man is a hedge of thorns, but the way of the righteous is made plain
because part of living righteously is doing, isn't it?
It's doing stuff, it's working, it's putting effort in, in all areas.
Proverbs 10 to 16 says, the labour of the righteous tendeth to life, the fruit of the wicked to sin.
And ultimately talking about salvations and soul winning tending to life.
But it's labour, living righteously is labour.
If you're not labouring in life, in any area, if you're lazy, you're not really living righteously.
Life is labour, and if you want to live a righteous life, you need to labour, you need to work hard, you need to do so.
You need to provide for your own.
If any provide not for his own, especially if they have his own house, he's worse than an infidel.
You need to work, you need to graft, not just in secular work, you need to work for God, don't you?
Part of living righteously is serving God.
It's not living righteously because you're like, oh well, I just have a lovely party lifestyle,
but at least I'm saying that's not righteous, is it?
Righteous people are serving God, are doing things for God, are going out and grafting for God,
pulling people out of the fire and everything else that goes with that.
Life is labour. If you're righteous, you're labouring, and when you live righteously, your way is plain.
It's obvious, isn't it? It's just obvious.
A lot of the time, if you're trying to live for God, you're doing things right, you're in the things of God,
you're serving God, just your choices are pretty obvious in life.
The choice of whether to do this or do that, a lot of the time it's kind of solved straight away.
It's like, well, will I be able to still go out and preach the gospel?
Will I still be able to get to church when the church doors are open?
Will I be able to do this? Will I be able to do that?
Whatever it is, will I be able to read my Bible in the morning if I take on this or I do this or I make this choice?
It just solves so much, doesn't it?
Can I raise my kids in a biblical way if I make that choice, if I move there, if I do this, if I do that?
Just so many choices, just cut down the middle by living righteously, aren't they?
So many. So many people are like, God's God's will for my life.
Well, there's some obvious parts of God's will for your life.
Get in church, be in church when the doors are open, soul win, read your Bible, pray to God, get sin out of your life.
There's some obvious choices, aren't they?
And so many people don't do that stuff and they go, I just don't know what God wants me to do.
Well, I tell you what, do what he wants you to do and the rest of it becomes a lot more obvious, doesn't it?
Life, look, when you live righteously, it does become plain.
It centres as well around putting effort in, in all areas to serve God.
So when you're trying to live right, when you're trying to live for God, you just learn it, just life's effort.
You're just going to put effort in, you're going to put work in.
So what do I do with this situation?
Maybe kids are playing up here, what do I do?
Do you know what the answer is?
Put some effort in, graft, labour, put the groundwork in.
Lay the foundations in every area.
It's all about labouring, working hard to do things right.
And contrary to popular belief, this is the interesting bit,
it's so much more enjoyable and fulfilling than lounging around and being slothful.
It's just a lie of life, lounging around, doing nothing.
Oh, the perfect dream, you know, Paradise Island getaway, I'll be so happy.
No, you won't.
You'll be bored.
You'll be bored and unfulfilled within a short amount of time.
If you're saved and you're actually trying to live for God, that ain't going to make you happy.
It really doesn't.
And look, many times you kind of think, oh, you know what, I'm really looking forward to this day off or something like that.
And sometimes we need to rest, we need some time off sometimes.
A lot of the time you just feel like you need to do stuff, don't you?
Because that's what we should be doing, we should be putting labour in.
The lazy, lazy life is just a lie, it's not enjoyable, it's not fulfilling.
The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns, but the way of the righteous is made plain.
So the lesson is, don't take the lazy options, it's actually a harder path.
Verse 20, a wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish man despiseth his mother.
So first true theory is how glad it makes a father to see his son wise, okay?
And first off there's salvation, that's an obvious point.
That's a huge relief when you can be confident that your child is saved.
For those of you that have got children old enough to need salvation in the first place,
it's a huge relief when you're like, yeah, I'm pretty sure that my child has put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's a great thing to know.
But salvation is only the beginning of wisdom, isn't it?
We want children that will grow up to serve the Lord, don't we?
Okay, that's what we want.
Yeah, we want our kids saved, that's first things first, but we want them to grow up to serve the Lord.
To be sole winners for life, don't we?
Because not only does it make a difference to everyone else,
but ultimately that's the only way they're really going to be fulfilled in life,
is if they're serving God and serving God to the maximum.
He that winneth souls is wise, okay?
That's what we're talking about, we want a wise son, a wise child.
And to last the course, to have kept the faith, they need all the areas of wisdom that come from living God's Word.
So to be able to do it for life, you need to be wise, don't you?
You need to be able to put away the sin, you need to see the dangers, you need to see the problem people,
you need to be able to make the right choices, you need to do all of that,
and that comes from the wisdom of God's Word,
and that makes a glad father to see their children becoming wise.
But it's not just about the father, okay?
You can teach them the Bible, you can get them out sole winning,
yeah, we could all do that with our kids, but if they grow up to despise their mums, they're foolish.
If they grow up to hate their mums, they're foolish.
Why would they despise their mothers?
Sometimes it's because the mums do the lion's share of the raising.
The usual family, that's what's going to happen.
The mum does the lion's share, the mum does a lot of the harder stuff,
the mum, a lot of the time, sometimes it's because of, well in a way,
it's the less familiar, the more distant pedestal, isn't it, of the dad.
Because sometimes they're seeing the whites of their mum's eyes every day,
and they're seeing a lot more of her faults and all of that sort of stuff,
because they're living it day to day, and then kind of, dad swoops in in the evening,
dad swoops in on the weekend, and they kind of get raised up here a lot of the time,
there's a lot of people that here are worship fathers.
But probably it's because, beyond all of that,
I think it's because the father hasn't led by example in loving his wife.
I think that's a big problem in many households.
The father hasn't led by example, hasn't loved his wife as we've clearly commanded her in the word of God,
to love our wives, to be not bitter against them,
and then kids go up to have the resentment that they're also getting off their father,
that they're also seeing there.
So the point for me is that you can have the best parenting plans,
but can destroy it all by not loving your wife that does the majority of the parenting.
So you can have all the great schemes, the best curriculums, the best ways of doing this,
the soul-winning, the best church, and everything else.
But if you're not showing that love to your wife, a lot of the time, how do we learn most?
By example, don't we?
And kids grow up to just hate their mums,
because maybe they sense resentment from their father towards them.
Now that's not an excuse for the mother despisers, okay?
Potential mother despisers out there, so don't blame it on your dads.
Because it's foolish. Why is it foolish?
Because if you dishonour them, you're going to live a shorter life for starters, aren't you?
So you dishonour your mums, kids.
You hate your mums, you despise your mums.
Well, Exodus 20-12 says,
Honour thy father and thy mother, not just your father, honour thy father and thy mother,
that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
You want long days, honour your mother as well.
And even as an adult, here's another thing that's foolish about it, if you don't.
The love of a mother is a great thing. It really is.
And I'm sure there are people here that don't have mums alive anymore and you miss that, right?
You kind of think, yeah, I really do miss that, I miss that love of a mother.
Because there's something different about the love of a mother, isn't there?
And you don't want to ruin that when you're young,
you don't want to despise your mother and push her away when you're young.
If you despise them, what a bitter, stressful life and you're missing out.
You end up with this bitter, stressful life, you miss out on them.
You say, well, how do I stop despising them?
You know, X, Y and Z happen, maybe an adult's saying that,
you know, my childhood, you don't know what my mum did and everything else.
You just love them. It's pretty simple. Just love your mums.
Oh, how do I do that? You just love them.
Love is a choice you make. It's not a mushy feeling.
Love is just something you choose to do or you don't.
Oh, what do you mean?
Give them time, ring them, call them, give them stuff, do nice things for them.
It's Mother's Day. A nice first for Mother's Day, right?
You're going, we missed out on this in the morning.
He's banging about Jews and feminists.
Well, here's a Mother's Day message. Just love your mums.
Kids, love your mums. Adults, love your mums.
And we do that by just giving, giving our time, giving ourselves to them.
That's what love ultimately is, isn't it? That's true charity.
And when we do that, it says,
A wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish man despises his mother.
You're being wise. You're being a wise son, a wise daughter as well.
And you'll make your father and your mother glad, right?
The lesson is here to raise your kids to love and respect both parents
and to appreciate your mother.
That's what the lesson is. Appreciate your mums.
It's Mother's Day. It's a good day to think about that.
Verse 21.
Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom, but a man of understanding walketh uprightly.
Think how much joy the world gets from all sorts of folly.
The joy that you see people get from just some nice foolish things,
from pickling their livers.
Not just pickling their livers.
Pickling their livers in some foul-smelling den of iniquity somewhere.
You know, we always drive past this one on the corner here
and they're always standing outside like this, like stumbling around.
You just look at it and you think, wow.
People are like, I can't wait to get down there.
I can't wait to get into that.
And it's not just that it's like they're pickling their livers.
I mean, they're pretty dangerous places, really.
Those sorts of pubs and stuff.
There's someone ready to kind of attack you at any minute.
It's horrendous, isn't it?
But it's joy to them because they don't have any wisdom.
It's like, this is great fun.
Down the pub, you know, just spending a fortune on just filth, on poison.
How much joy the world gets from the folly of all sorts of pursuits, right?
All sorts of things.
You can think about, you can think of a hundred different things
which are folly, really, you know, when you look at them.
But here's the problem.
Most of that stuff which they get the joy from,
it loses its joy with just a little wisdom.
So once you get just that little bit of wisdom from the Word of God,
all of that stuff that you thought was fun maybe before,
that you thought you could get some joy from, it goes.
Now, there might be the pleasures of sin for a season,
but that joy that you used to feel is just lost, isn't it?
If you've ever been back to your old sins,
if you've ever had backslidden moments
or maybe after you got saved, you're growing in the Word of God,
you're still trying to live that old life,
it's not the same, is it?
It's like completely different.
It's like, wow, this used to be fun.
This isn't fun anymore.
Like, the joy goes, it's all gone.
That little bit of wisdom, that beginning of wisdom,
it doesn't mean that you automatically walk uprightly.
So don't get confused with this.
It doesn't mean that.
But a man of understanding,
remember, that's the knowledge of the holy, yeah?
The knowledge of the holy, that's understanding.
Someone who's doing those things,
they walk uprightly, it says.
So being in limbo in the middle isn't a good place to be, basically.
So you've got two options.
You've kind of got the one that's destitute of wisdom
and they're just getting joy out of all this folly.
Then you've got the man of understanding walking uprightly
and then, sadly, you have a lot of people somewhere in the middle
who are saved, they've got a bit of wisdom,
they're kind of reading their Bible, they're kind of one foot in, one foot out,
but none of that stuff is joyful anymore.
It's all just, it's just a waste of your life.
If you're saved, you have the Holy Spirit,
you're reading the Word of God, you've got some wisdom from it,
it's not the same, is it?
It's not the same.
But then you're not walking uprightly,
so you're just somewhere in the middle.
And you don't want to be somewhere in the middle.
What happens is the joy of the folly seems to have gone,
but you still end up getting pulled into it.
So then, suddenly, you're just doing stuff and involved in stuff
that you're not getting any joy from anyway.
It's a waste of your life.
So what's the answer to walk uprightly?
And you do that by learning about God,
by learning His Word, by living how He wants you to live.
That's how we do it, that's how we walk uprightly.
Verse 21 says,
Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom,
but a man of understanding walketh uprightly.
The lesson is to not crave that empty joy.
It won't be the same,
but instead strive to be upright where true joy is found.
Psalm 32, 11 says,
Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice ye righteous,
and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.
You can shout for joy.
You start living right, you start cleaning up your life,
you're doing the things God wants you to do,
yeah, you're not sinless,
but you're trying to get sin out of your life.
You're not just like,
yeah, I'm just going to carry on doing this, doing that.
You're trying to live right.
You've got your heart right with God.
That can be a joyful thing, can't it?
When you get that right, when you have those days,
when you have those weeks,
and you're feeling like I'm doing this right,
that's a joyful thing.
It's a joyful thing to be serving the Lord.
He said,
Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice ye righteous,
and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.
Verse 22,
Without counsel, purposes are disappointed,
but in the multitude of counselors, they are established.
So, if there's a lack of counsel, advice, guidance, discussion,
plans often fail, don't they?
The result isn't always what you wanted.
Counseling here, he's saying a multitude of counselors.
More than one is even better, isn't it?
It's good if you can get some good counsel,
and obviously it depends on the situation,
the purposes that you're trying to achieve.
You don't need a multitude of counselors
to advise you on what to cook for dinner.
Shouldn't do.
You don't need a multitude of counselors
to advise you on what to wear in the morning
to go to work or something like that.
But sometimes there are hard decisions, aren't there?
Like I said earlier,
when we're living right,
a lot of our way becomes a lot plainer,
but there can be hard decisions.
For example, in the ministry,
there can be some hard decisions to make.
There can be hard decisions.
It's not just in the ministry in all areas of your life.
There can be hard decisions as the head of a family.
There can be hard decisions in many areas
when you're dealing with a problem,
dealing with situations,
but when we do that,
when there are those hard decisions,
when there are complex things,
it helps to at the least discuss them, doesn't it?
And when I say discuss them,
I don't know if you guys find this.
I like verbalizing ideas.
Sometimes I just like to verbalize an idea to someone,
and it just helps me to work it out in my head
before they've even given me maybe the counsel
that I felt like I needed,
just verbalizing the plan and the idea
or the kind of goal or whatever.
You start to just,
when you have to present an idea,
you start to think about it more, don't you?
And that can be a help just that first part of it, right?
And for me, it helps me see potential holes in it
because I'm already thinking about
how that looks to someone else while I'm presenting it,
but I also like running ideas by people,
and I do do this a bit.
People that know me well might know that,
but I don't like just relying on one person for counsel,
so that's not a good idea for you.
Just this one person,
I just ask for counsel and everything.
But another way of looking at it
that I talked about several chapters ago
is that the Word of God is the best counselor.
Yeah, the Word of God is the best counselor.
I don't need a multitude of counselors
to tell me, for example,
whether or not I should commit an obvious sin,
okay, that should be pretty clear,
or to teach me a biblical doctrine,
but in Psalm 119, verse 24,
the psalmist said,
plural also are my delight and my counselors,
and we've just seen without counsel purposes
are disappointed,
but in a multitude of counselors,
they're established
because there are certain teachings,
certain truths that have a multitude of counselors
or testimonies in the Bible, aren't there?
There are things where you could just go
to plenty and plenty of places
to just make that very clear,
salvation being grace through faith.
There's a multitude of testimonies,
a multitude of counselors in the Word of God,
Jesus Christ being the Son of God,
clear as day throughout the Bible as you read it,
especially as a saved person,
you just see it time and time and time again.
Sodomites being an abomination.
You don't know,
well, I don't know,
it's only that Leviticus 20,
it's all over the Bible.
Like, he put the sodomites out of the land,
the good king.
Then they're encompassed about
by certain sons of Belial.
You know, it's just constant, isn't it?
Constant, constant, constant.
But there are verse and other beliefs
that aren't so clear,
but it's the ones where there's
a multitude of testimonies
that you can just hang your hat on, aren't there?
And they're like,
there are strong,
our faith is strongest in the things
where there's a multitude of counselors
from the Word of God.
Like I said,
the psalmist said that
thy testimonies also are my delight
and my counselors.
So where we see without counsel,
purposes are disappointed,
but in a multitude of counselors,
they're established.
You apply it to the Word of God
that our ultimate purpose is our goals
and everything else.
If it's based on verse after verse after verse,
if our beliefs are the things we stand on
have a multitude of counselors,
you can be more sure of that
because there are verses that
the context maybe isn't always obvious.
There are things that aren't so clear
in the Word of God,
but without counsel,
without any counsel at all,
purposes are disappointed,
but in a multitude of counselors,
they're established.
So the lesson is to seek counsel where needed
and don't just hang off one opinion
and that applies to the Word of God as well.
You want to be sure in what you're
making your decisions based upon.
Verse 23,
A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth,
and a word spoken in due season,
how good is it?
So I believe that this proverb is reminding us
that what comes out of our mouths affects us
as much as others.
It said,
A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth,
and a word spoken in due season,
how good is it?
So for example,
when you say stupid things,
when you say something foolish,
when you put your foot in it,
you have the opposite to joy, don't you?
You notice that.
So what you say can really affect your joy,
can't it?
What you say can really affect your mood.
And you might say something nasty to someone.
You might say something like,
Oh man, that came across pretty bad.
That came across not how I intended that.
You go away and think,
Oh, that didn't sound right.
That can stop you having joy, right?
When you say things that maybe came across
as being purposely nasty,
it's not a nice feeling, is it?
You think,
Oh, that's not a good thing.
But on the flip side,
and that's what the point of this verse is,
when you say something that helps,
that's come across in the right way,
when you've lifted someone at the right time,
it can be a joyous thing, can't it?
What I said there really helped that person.
That's a nice thing to feel, isn't it?
What I said at that point and what I did there,
I think that that really made a difference to that person.
And that's a nice feeling.
It's a nicer feeling
when someone else necessarily does it to you, right?
It's nice to feel like you've maybe helped someone.
And is there anything more joyful
than getting someone saved?
There really isn't.
You know, this needs reminding.
And I'll tell you what needs reminding,
because it can get a bit old hat.
If you're out every week, twice a week,
some people three times a week,
you're doing marathons every month,
you're just getting more and more people saved,
you could kind of lose that thrill a little bit,
that excitement,
that high-five moment when you get someone saved,
because it starts to become a bit more normal.
And it can be like that for a church as well,
where we're just coming back
with salvation, salvation, salvations.
And like I talked about last week,
you've got the attack of the people
that just want to be like,
well, where's all the saved people?
It's like, yeah, dummy, they got saved.
You didn't say they became a disciple.
Yeah, so you've got that.
And then you've got that kind of poison coming in.
People just any which way they can
to try and limit poison soul-willing.
And then you've got yourself
where you're kind of getting used to it more and more,
and you lose that joy.
But what an amazing thing it is.
How amazing to get someone,
how amazing to know that today, this afternoon,
two more people are going to heaven
and aren't going to hell.
It's amazing. It's brilliant.
It's great.
We should have joy by the answer of our mouth,
by what comes out of our mouth,
about that word spoken in Jew's season.
How good is it?
What an amazing thing to be given
and an amazing responsibility to be given.
You could go out and affect someone's eternity.
Think about that.
You went out this afternoon
and you could affect someone's eternity.
You can talk to that person
at just the right time in Jew's season, can't you?
Because sometimes that happens, isn't it?
And that's a lot of the time, by the way.
That's what I'm praying for a lot of the time.
That's what we're looking for.
To get to that person,
you're praying just for the right timing
to knock at that right person at the right time
who's ready to hear the gospel.
That's what we're looking for, aren't we?
That word spoken in Jew's season,
how good is it?
But it also applies to other areas.
And that's one of my prayers, for example, with preaching.
That should be our goal when we're preaching.
We're preaching and our prayer is
that someone really needs to hear that message.
So even if you preach to a room of 60 people
and maybe 58, 59 of them were like,
you know, didn't really enjoy that,
could have done something better with the hour.
If one person came away and that word spoken was really good,
they really needed that, really changed your life,
that's a success, isn't it?
That's a successful sermon.
Whether people were patting you on the back afterwards
or going, I really enjoyed that, it don't really matter.
What about if it changed someone's life?
And that's ultimately what our goal is, isn't it?
That's one of the goals of preaching,
one of the big goals of preaching.
A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth,
and a word spoken in due season, how good is it?
The lesson is to use our mouths for good
and you'll get joy from that too.
You'll get the joy from knowing that you've had,
that there's been some benefits and positives
to what's come out of your mouth.
Verse 24, the way of life is above to the wise
that he may depart from hell beneath.
And this is basically just talk about the choice in life, okay?
It's above heaven or it's beneath hell.
They're your choices.
It's as simple as that.
There's nothing else.
There's no purgatory, there's no separation from God,
no soul sleep.
You either wake up in heaven or you wake up in hell.
That's what happens.
And if you're wise, you'll choose salvation.
You'll choose the way.
And Jesus Christ said in John 14, 6,
I am the way, the truth and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
If your way isn't above, if you haven't trusted Christ,
be wise and get saved.
It's as simple as that.
Proverbs 3.35 says,
The wise shall inherit glory,
but shame shall be the promotion of fools.
Get wise, get saved.
And when I say get wise,
study the Bible and everything else.
Just be wise enough to get saved.
That's the beginning of wisdom.
Just get saved.
That beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.
It's wise to get saved.
And that's what we're seeing here.
The way of life is above to the wise
that he may depart from hell beneath.
And it's just a reminder of where you're going.
It's just a reminder of where you're going if you're saved
and where you're not going.
Verse 25,
The Lord will destroy the house of the proud,
but he will establish the border of the widow.
Right.
Who are the proud?
Just to remind you,
this is another name for the wicked.
This is another name for reprobates,
which is why pride is a very,
very biblical name for all of that queerness.
Okay.
So all of that queer parade stuff,
all of that, all of that stuff.
Pride is a great name for it, really,
because the Bible calls them the proud.
They're the proud because they're full of pride,
because the only way they can even survive another day in life
being that disgusting, that abominable,
is by oozing pride.
I mean, it's amazing.
I always like this kind of thought,
this description of them by our old pastor.
He used to say that a lot of queers look like
they've just smelt freshly baked cookies.
And the reason is because they always have their nose in the air,
you know, like them flamboyant queer types.
They're like...
They're just like...
Like the old cartoon where the old, like,
the smell, like, the smoky smell is going into their nose
and they're just following it.
That is it.
But how do I get onto that again?
Oh, yeah.
But it's also this pride with their noses up in the air, isn't it?
I remember when we were at the airport a while back,
we were just spotting them all,
because airports are just like a den of them, aren't they?
They're everywhere.
Sort of much everywhere in airports.
And you can probably imagine the reasons why.
And it's just that nose in the air
and you just spot them at my lot, because it's just...
Like this as they walk around.
Well, anyway, point being that where does that come from?
Really, it's surprising.
Can you imagine being that disgusting
and walking around with your nose up in the air?
They should really be walking around, you know,
whilst getting things thrown at them, you know.
But it's just like...
They strut around and that's the pride.
And that's what comes from having a reprobate mind.
But that's the proud.
And the proud, but it's not just sodomites.
Like I said, it's just reprobates in their various forms.
And it applies to all these enemies of God.
For example, Psalm 119 in verse 85 says,
The proud have digged pits for me.
This is a psalmist here in Psalm 119 saying,
The proud have digged pits for me which are not after thy law.
So it's just all the enemies of God.
They just, you know, this is obviously the psalmist here.
They're digging pits for him.
They're just setting traps and everything else.
So it's just these God haters.
Now, why are they called the proud?
Like I said, because they're always so full of pride.
Imagine being some disgusting reprobate
and then convincing yourself that your works will get you into heaven.
Can you imagine that?
Imagine being that disgusting
and somehow you've convinced yourself
that you're working your way to heaven.
It's completely crazy.
The only way is by having this ridiculous amount of pride.
This pride that comes from having a reprobate mind.
Hence them being called the proud.
And God hates them.
They don't last in the long run.
Everything gets destroyed.
All the stuff that they obsess over,
it says the Lord will destroy the house of the proud.
It all gets destroyed in the end,
but he will establish the border of the widow.
So even the border or outer boundary of the widow is established.
It's fixed.
It's protected in a way you could say.
And you go, what's this about a widow?
Well, a widow has always been traditionally someone in most need.
So throughout history, especially before benefit systems and things like that,
throughout history a widow would be in a lot of need
because she doesn't have that earner, that worker,
to be able to provide for her.
She's already left her father's home a lot of the time.
So will that father or mother even be alive still at that point?
They're widowed.
They don't have someone to provide for them necessarily.
But rather than respecting the wealthy,
God looks after those in need, doesn't he?
So away from all the health, wealth, prosperity preaching,
all these sorts of clowns that act as if God just loves this person so much,
that's why he's giving them money.
No, the money's a snare.
The money's a trap.
In fact, God loves those in need.
And when it comes to those like the widows and others,
Psalm 146 says,
the Lord preserveth the strangers,
he relieveth the fatherless and widow,
but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.
So where it says the Lord will destroy the house of the proud,
but he will establish the border of the widow,
the reminder is that God doesn't have respect of persons,
so neither should we.
He doesn't have respect of persons.
He doesn't look at someone and go,
well, they're wealthy, I'll look after them.
No, it's the opposite.
Verse 26,
the thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord,
but the words of the pure are pleasant words.
So another name for them, same people again,
like we say throughout the book of Proverbs,
the wicked they're referred to as now.
And remember that God sees it all, okay?
It said the thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord,
the thoughts, sorry, of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord,
but the words are pure pleasant words.
And verse 11, if you remember,
said hell and destruction are before the Lord.
How much more than the hearts of the children of men?
So they might be able to con us for a time,
but he sees their wicked thoughts.
Don't forget that.
God sees it all.
He knows who's wicked, who's not.
He sees those wicked thoughts.
The pure is likely talking about those that are both saved and serving God, okay?
Proverbs 21, 8, for example,
says the way of man is forward and strange,
but as for the pure, his work is right.
Okay, so I don't think that's just talking about someone saved,
I think that's someone saved and doing the things of God.
Another name would be the righteous, the upright, et cetera.
So it's someone also trying to live right.
And when they're living right, the words are pleasant words, okay?
If you're living right, your words are pleasant words,
and is there anything more pleasant than the words of God?
And if you're living right, you're serving God,
and you're doing the things for God,
well, a lot of the time your words are going to be the words of God, aren't they?
In various ways.
It's not that you're just quoting scripture all the day long,
but a lot of the time you're going to be soul winning,
you're going to be doing other things.
You're going to have the words of God in your mouth as well.
Verse 26 said,
the thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord,
but the words of the pure are pleasant words.
The lesson is that these wicked people are vile, okay?
And our goal should be to be relaying the words of God.
That's the lesson from that verse.
Verse 27,
he that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house,
but he that hateth gifts shall live.
So greedy of gain is someone covetous.
They're greedy.
They just want more and more, okay?
And there's a lot of people like that around.
And rather than it being a good thing for their family, it's the opposite.
The covetous guy, for example,
often works longer hours than he needs to.
Often he takes on a second, third, fourth job,
whatever, sideways of hustling and everything else,
but it just takes time away from maybe his wife,
away from his family, away from his children.
The covetous woman often needs her husband working longer hours
to provide for her covetousness,
for her spending, for her want, for her desires and all these things
that she didn't really need,
and the time could have been spent with him not having to work longer hours,
work more and everything else,
and spend the time with his children or doing the things that God's serving God.
So they trouble their own house.
The money on the new car could have been spent on something worthwhile.
Let's be honest.
Now, don't get me wrong.
There are some people that maybe have the spare money
and look, if they want to get a nice car, get a nice car, OK?
But a lot of people, I don't know,
I've been surrounded when I've grown up
by people that have bought cars they can't afford
and people that have got into all sorts of debt
and all sorts of finance, loan deals and everything else
for things they can't afford,
or somehow borrowed a load of money to get the best second-hand car they could get.
It's just like, what are you doing?
What a waste of money, right?
And they just trouble their own house.
I remember a lad I knew and I used to coach him
and he was quite young and he had a really expensive new car
on some sort of finance deal that he couldn't get out of
and he just regretted it every week.
He was telling me, I just need to get rid of this car.
I can barely afford it.
It's just ruining my life, you know?
And this is what people do, don't they?
But the other thing here, it says,
he that is greedy again troubles his own house,
but he that hateth gifts shall live.
The thing with these types of people is that they're also easier to be bought, OK?
Verse 27, it said, but he that hateth gifts shall live.
So there's a couple of ways of looking at this, OK?
First off, this is a way that bad people manipulate us,
through gifts, through flattery, OK?
They try to buy you, OK?
That's what happens a lot of the time.
They want to buy you in one way or another.
They want to somehow curry your favour,
get you to just basically eat out of their hand by getting your gifts.
Now, this isn't that anyone that ever has bought you a gift must be wicked,
but there are people that, for example,
you could just see them trying to manipulate with that sort of stuff.
And if you think about it, it's so effective, isn't it?
That person showering you with gifts is immediately elevated in your mind, aren't they?
Straight away.
Someone's just getting you stuff, buying you stuff, giving you stuff.
Straight away, you just don't want them to be bad.
You just straight away will put them up here.
It's so simple, yet it's so effective, isn't it?
We have to be aware and be wise to that sort of thing.
And if you hate that sort of thing, you'll survive much longer.
How many have had their lives ruined by people that have enticed them first
in all areas of life?
Life ruined by someone that's showered them with gifts,
by enticing them in one way or another,
by bribing them in one way or another,
and then their lives ruined by them.
He said that he that hateth gifts shall live.
But also, you could say in an eternal way, OK,
the devil often lures us through the promise of riches,
through the gifts of false religion.
So much false religion people are pulled into with that promise of somehow
they're going to get spiritually on this plane up here,
through some of the kind of New Age mysticism and stuff like that.
Or they're going to get this, they're going to receive that,
or the wealth of the prosperity gospel, all this sort of stuff.
Well, if you hate gifts, you'll live.
And you could add that eternally.
He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house,
but he that hateth gifts shall live.
Don't be greedy, don't be easily bought,
or you'll ruin you and your family.
OK, and that's it, that's the lesson there.
Verse 28.
The heart of the righteous studieth to answer,
but the mouth of the wicked pourth out evil things.
So if you're saved and living righteously,
if you're trying to put away sin,
you're reading your Bible, you're in church,
you're praying, you're soul winning,
then there's a problem that, sorry,
when there's a problem you need to solve,
when there's a question maybe that needs answering,
you should be studying the word for the answer.
OK, so it says the heart of the righteous studieth to answer,
but the mouth of the wicked pourth out evil things.
Now, it's not to say that you can't ask for counsel,
OK, for advice, but godly counsel will be biblical, won't it?
OK, so if you're looking for counsel,
it should be biblical counsel.
So, for example, I try my best to back up the advice
that I give with scripture.
I try my best to.
And if I can't, I'm going to say to someone,
I'm not sure this is what I think,
but if I've got scripture,
I'm going to be pretty sure with my answer.
And often I'll say, well, if you look at this,
you know, if someone's asking me
or I'm doing some sort of counsel,
whether it's, you know, pre-marriage counsel,
whatever it is, then often I'm going to say,
well, this is why, because this verse says this,
because this scripture says that,
because this is the example we see in the Bible.
It should be biblical.
Pastor so-and-so said to do something
so it must be right isn't the way.
That's not how we should live.
And sadly, so many do.
So many people you hear, you know,
they'll be like, well, you know,
I saw someone where Pastor so-and-so said this.
It's like, yeah, cool.
And I'm sure Pastor so-and-so,
and usually they're talking about a great pastor.
But what's the basis for that?
Where's the Bible verses?
Because that's what we want to be able to judge it by, right?
And it's especially important when you bear in mind
that the wicked will give purposely bad advice.
Because it says the mouth of the wicked
poureth out evil things.
So wicked people give bad advice.
And that's just the truth of life.
You will be poorly advised in various ways
throughout your life by wicked people.
Some of those wicked people will stand behind a pulpit
and pretend to be saved.
But it's not just there.
Just people, people in churches will just give bad advice.
Will just tell you to do things,
try and guide you into bad ways,
guide you into false ways.
That's just, that's part of the battle.
People in your family, life, extended fact,
people just do that.
The mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things.
So whether it's a false prophet behind a pulpit,
a media influencer of some degree,
false brethren of some version,
and some are really clever, okay?
They'll take a verse out of context.
They'll misuse a verse.
It's not all just like,
oh, they're just going to give you
just clearly unbiblical advice.
They'll take the Bible like the devil
we constantly see that example.
For example, Jesus Christ's temptation in the wilderness
is the devil taking Bible verses or principles
and then slightly changing them.
Okay, and that's how these people do it.
But verse 22, what we saw earlier said,
without counsel, purposes are disappointed,
but in the multitude of counselors they're established.
You want that biblical counselor to be sure and clear.
How do you know that then?
By reading and studying.
That's how you do it.
That's how you study to answer.
The heart of the righteous studieth to answer.
You need to keep reading to be able to know where to study
so the Holy Spirit can bring it to your remembrance.
It always just all comes back to reading the word of God more.
You know, I can think of times,
and I'm sure many people have before,
I can think of times where I've listened to preaching.
For example, and I don't think about necessarily false prophets,
but I have.
I've sat under false prophets before in poor churches.
I've listened to preaching and thought,
hold on, that doesn't work because of this verse
that the Holy Spirit's brought to my remembrance.
No, actually, I don't agree with that.
That's not necessarily because they're bad.
I've been under people that aren't bad.
I've listened to preaching of good preachers
who have probably more Bible knowledge than me,
but a verse has popped in my head and gone,
no, I don't agree with that.
That's not the end of the world,
unless it's damnable heresy, right?
But I'm not talking about that.
But how does that come?
That comes from reading and reading and reading
and studying so the Holy Spirit can do that.
And bring those things to your remembrance.
The heart of the righteous studieth to answer,
but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things.
The lesson is to study to show thyself approved unto God.
Why?
Because the enemy will try all angles.
All angles.
Comes from all different angles.
Verse 29.
The Lord is far from the wicked,
but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.
So here's the thing,
however much that priest mentions the Lord
or that vicar seems so mild-mannered
or that false pastor claims to know about church history,
they always seem to go on about church history, don't they?
Church fathers.
They're the easy things to read about and everything else.
The Lord is far from them.
And just remember that.
The Lord is far from these people.
However holy they might appear.
However, you know, I was talking about it just earlier,
about like false religions.
It doesn't matter.
Doesn't matter, you know,
how they might mimic the Bible in this way or be close.
That way, the Lord is far from the wicked.
So whether it's a rabbi, an imam,
you know, a Pentecostal pastor or whatever else,
they're wicked false prophets.
The Lord is far from them.
The Lord is far away from these people.
The Lord is far from the wicked.
If they don't believe the gospel, he's far.
If they teach a false gospel, he's even farther.
Okay?
If you're not saved, well, you ain't got the Lord.
But if you're preaching, you're teaching a lie,
a false gospel, a false way, he's far from you.
He's far because you're done.
He's unreachable.
You never get there.
You've been given over.
You're teaching lies.
And here's the thing to remember with this as well,
you know, and it will be something
that we'll get in the future now and again.
It doesn't matter how much the false brethren
claims to love Pastor Anderson,
claims to love Pastor Jimenez,
claims to love whoever it is.
The Lord is far from them.
If they're wicked, if they're given over,
if they're that sort of person, the Lord's far from them.
The Lord is far from the wicked,
but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.
Remember last week in this chapter in verse eight,
said the sacrifices of the wicked
is an abomination to the Lord,
but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
That's twice that we're being reminded
how God, in this chapter alone,
how God wants us to hear our prayers.
He wants to hear you pray.
So get praying.
He wants the prayers.
He doesn't just kind of think,
oh, well, they're all right, you know,
they can have a little prayer here
and I'm going to deal with it anyway.
No, he wants to hear you pray.
He wants to answer your prayers.
He wants you to get in line, get right with him,
for him to answer that,
and especially if you're living right.
Verse eight said that it's his delight
that the prayer of the upright is his delight.
He loves it.
He loves your prayers.
And the point is to pray.
The point is to pray and get your heart right with God
and pray even more.
Like pray, pray, pray, get upright, get right, pray more.
James 5 16 says,
confess your faults one to another
and pray one for another that you may be healed.
The effectual fervor and prayer of a righteous man
availeth much.
No, we don't serve a Calvinist God.
Okay?
That's a false God.
It's a lie.
It doesn't all just happen according to his will,
regardless of what happens.
No.
He wants you to pray for things.
He wants you to affect.
He wants you to make a difference in your life,
but through praying.
He loves it when you pray.
He wants you to pray.
Verse 29,
the Lord is far from the wicked
but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.
The lesson is to also keep far from the wicked and pray.
Verse 30,
the light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart
and a good rapport maketh the bones fat.
So this is talking about how what we see with our eyes
can make us happy
and also what we hear can improve our health.
Okay?
It's the effects on our emotions and health
from what we choose to see and hear.
And I say choose,
because firstly you have a choice as to most of what you put before your eyes.
The majority of what we put before our eyes we have a choice about.
David said in Psalm 101 in verse 3,
I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes.
Okay?
So he made that choice.
He said,
I'm not going to put anything wicked in front of my eyes.
I won't put anything there.
Now, someone might put something wicked in front of your eyes,
but you can already affect so much of what you see
by what you choose to put in front of your eyes.
Instead of watching filth and gore and smut
and all the stuff that people personally put before their eyes
on a day-to-day basis,
you could be around God's people, couldn't you?
You could be around the things of God, family, good food.
They say you taste it with your eyes first, by the way.
You know?
It's an old chef saying,
especially like those nouveau cuisine types,
they don't put enough on your plate,
but they make it look nice.
You know?
They say you taste it with your eyes first.
It will make it look really nice, you know?
Well, the light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart.
And it's just talking about what we see, okay?
It rejoices our heart.
Then it said, and a good report maketh the bones fat.
So a good report is good things said of something or someone.
So, for example, Paul said of Ananias in Acts 22, 12,
And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law,
having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there.
Okay?
So he was well spoken of.
But then in Philippians 4, 8, it says,
it gives that list where it says,
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just,
whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report,
if there be any virtue and if there be any praise,
think of these things.
So it could be about things or people, basically.
Okay?
Where we said, and a good report maketh the bones fat.
It could be about a person.
It could be about something.
The light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart,
and a good report maketh the bones fat.
I believe he's telling us that
hearing good things is good for us, basically.
Hearing kind words, hearing happy things,
hearing good news, hearing positivity in one way or another,
hearing hymns, psalms, spiritual songs,
all of that stuff is good for us.
Hearing a good report is good for you
because some people just want to dwell on negativity.
You've been around people like that.
They're just so negative.
They just want to dwell on all the bad stuff,
all the negativity.
Everything's a problem.
Everything's trouble.
Everything is something that they want to moan about.
Well, try dwelling on positive things like your salvation.
How about that?
Dwell on that.
If you're saved, dwell on salvation.
What a great thing that is.
What a thing to be positive about.
How about dwell on the fact you're able to serve God?
You're able to serve God.
You're able to come to a church and serve God.
You're able to go out someone.
You're able to be sent out someone.
You're able to get to church.
You're able to listen to the King James Bible preach
from behind a pulpit.
What an amazing thing.
Amen.
I mean, because a lot of us have been around the block a bit
trying to find, firstly, a church region
which even has the King James Bible,
then secondly, a church which has the King James Bible
that doesn't believe in some false Calvinist God,
then thirdly, a church which has the King James Bible
where they actually preach the King James Bible
and don't just talk about the love of God or something
every week and that's it.
And look, I'm not saying I'm the best preacher around,
but what I am saying is I'm preaching the whole council
of God from behind this pulpit.
And I don't know churches that are doing that.
But here's the thing.
Yet so many people in a church like this
and in all areas of life will just find out
stuff to moan and complain about.
Oh, well, you know, yeah, all well and good
because we get used to it and then it's like,
I can't believe that they didn't take us here for dinner
after that salty marathon or something else.
It's just like, what on earth, you know?
But there are people like that.
But a good report maketh the bones fat.
So we could focus on the good things.
We could focus on just having food arraignment
where we should be content.
We could focus on all those things.
And you might find you have better health
to be positive about, too,
because that's what it's saying, really.
The light of the eyes rejoice the heart
and a good report maketh the bones fat.
So when you are happy,
whether it's you giving a good report
or whether you just talking nice things to other people,
you're going to affect yours and their health as well.
Because it does make a big difference.
You're just around bitter people, nasty people.
You're just around just negativity all the time.
It makes you unwell.
It's bad for you.
But a good report maketh the bones fat.
The lesson is to focus on the good things
in life, basically.
Be positive.
Be a glass half full person.
Don't be a glass half empty person.
Focus on the good things.
Focus on the positive things in your life
and you'll be happier.
You'll be healthier for that.
You'll have a rejoiced heart.
Verse 31.
The year that heareth the reproof of life
abideth among the wise.
So basically it's wise people that hear reproof.
The year that heareth the reproof of life
abideth among the wise.
And here, this isn't just putting up with it.
It's listening to it and you could add acting to it.
And you could add acting upon it.
Listening is to take it in, is to receive it.
And it's not just the reproof from God's word.
Perhaps the reproof of life is the reproof that we get from experience as well.
The year that heareth the reproof of life.
Because there's a lot of reproof we just get in life, isn't there?
That's often how we learn from just getting things wrong in the first place.
You make a mistake in this area.
The wise thing to do is to hear that reproof.
Is to not just find a way to absolve yourself of any blame.
Oh, well it was someone else's fault, it was that fault, it was this, it was that.
Because people do that, don't they?
And then they make the same mistake again, and again, and again, and again.
Instead of just hearing that reproof of life.
If you're wise, you'll hear that reproof.
Not make the same mistakes time and time again.
Because a lot of people do that.
A lot of people are just like, wow, have you done that again?
You know, you're into the fifth marriage.
And she left you.
It's happened four times before.
Or you're into, you know, it's just in every area, right?
There's so many people that just won't.
But the reproof of life, it's like, learn for your mistakes.
Learn for your mistakes.
Be wise, learn for reproof.
As opposed to the next verse, where it says,
He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul.
But he that heareth reproof getteth understanding.
So refusing instruction is like hating yourself, basically.
Because instruction benefits us, doesn't it?
Why? Because no one has it all saved.
You know, no one's got it all sorted.
You haven't solved life, okay?
You have to get instruction.
You have to hear reproof.
And let me tell you two places where you're going to get the most worthwhile instruction.
God's word and God's house.
That's where you're going to get the most worthwhile instruction in life.
You go, well, no, actually, my work does a course and I learnt a lot on that course, yeah?
Yeah, great, whatever, get another job then.
None of that.
This is where the real instruction comes from.
It's from the word of God and it being preached in the house of God.
You say, well, the word of God is all I need.
There are people out there like that, who we don't need church.
I just, you know, church is where we are at home.
We just read the Bible and, you know, and talk about what we think it means to us
between us and our kind of strange neighbour that seems to be saved or something else
and it's house, church and all that sort of stuff.
Yeah, but there's a difference when that word of God is shouted at you
from a Holy Spirit-filled man of God, isn't there?
There's a big difference to the reproof you get when you're sitting in a church
and it's being shouted from behind the pulpit.
It's being applied to your life.
There's a big difference between that and glossing over it in your Bible reading.
Because that's what we do a lot of the time.
When it's a verse and when it's something that really talks to you,
a lot of the time that's when people speed up the reading a little bit.
That's when it's just kind of, yeah, okay, move on.
Because, look, don't get me wrong, read the word of God.
Read it, read it, read it, keep reading, keep reading, keep reading.
But there is a difference when that one verse that you need slapped around your face
is expanded, it's focused on, it's applied and you go, is he going to move on yet?
You know, this is really, this is really getting me.
You get it sometimes open hand, you know, you've been stabbed.
And then it's a back hand, it's just, oh, man.
And then it's like E hundred thousand hand stab, like that.
And sometimes it's like that in preaching, isn't it?
You're just like, man, like, this is tough.
When I walk in at night, some of the women might have felt that today,
or maybe they didn't, I don't know, you know.
So they might have been like, okay.
But you know what, like, that makes, that's a lot different.
And don't get me wrong, read your Bibles, read your Bibles, read your Bibles.
But it is different than you've just read that verse and carried on through the Bible.
Preaching is for, that's why God ordains it for us.
It's what improves you, it's what helps you.
It's what helps you to stay on course, to continue in the faith your whole life
and to not give up on the things of God and just end up some backslid and bum somewhere.
Yeah, you're saved, but you could have done so much more in your life.
That's what the preaching's for, isn't it?
That's why he said to Timothy, in 2 Timothy 4.2,
to preach the Word, be innocent in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke,
exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine, because it's what we need.
We all need it. We all need it.
Yet so many around the world refuse it, don't they?
There are so many Christians around the world, so many believers around the world,
who refuse to even hear preaching from the Word of God.
If they don't go somewhere to just get their ears tickled, they just don't go anywhere at all.
And what happens? They just stop serving God.
It says, he that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul,
but he that heareth reprove getteth understanding.
That's how we get the understanding.
That's how we get that knowledge of the holy is through the reproof that comes from the Word of God.
And we all want understanding, okay?
It's part of that knowledge, the reproof that he gives his children.
That's understanding God as well.
Part of understanding God is understanding reproof.
It's like with kids, part of understanding your parents is understanding what makes them tick,
understanding what makes them need to tell them off.
A child knows their parents are like, I know not to do that,
because when I do that, I'm going to get at least a tongue lashing.
I might even get a whooping through it.
And it's the same with God, isn't it?
How do you really know God if you're not getting reproved by him?
You don't. You don't really know, I've got a relationship with Jesus.
Do you have a relationship with Jesus, though?
I had a question like this on a Bible way to heaven recently.
But do you have to have a relationship with Jesus to get saved?
No, you need to put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to get saved.
Yeah, but so you do need a relationship with Jesus.
It's like semantics, isn't it? Trying to like see if I could catch him out or something else, you know.
It's just like, yeah, but the relationship really is understanding what they do and don't want.
That's the relationship with someone, isn't it?
You have a relationship with your husbands and wives,
and part of that relationship is understanding what they do like or what they don't like.
That's having a relationship, isn't it?
Okay, they don't like it when I call them my pet piranha fish.
Now I know, you know, I've changed the nickname.
You know, it's part of that.
But it's the same with God.
Getting to know God, having a real relationship with God.
Not going, oh yeah, I've got a relationship with Jesus because I just talk about, you know, loving things all the time.
No, a real relationship with God is getting reproved by him.
It's knowing the things that he doesn't like you're doing.
And where do we get that in its entirety, really, is in the house of God.
It's in the house of God.
Verse 32, where we were, said,
He that refuseth instruction despises his own soul,
but he that heareth reprove getteth understanding.
And we're told in Proverbs 4.7, wisdom is a principal thing, therefore get wisdom.
And with all thy getting, get understanding.
With all thy getting to get it.
That's putting a maximum effort into getting that understanding.
That tells you that God's children should be reading their Bibles and be in church as much as they possibly can.
That's what that tells me.
You should be reading it and you should be in the house of God.
And the lesson, really, as well, is don't hate yourself.
Don't refuse it. Hear it and get understanding.
Verse 33, last one.
The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom and before honor is humility.
So if you want to get wise, you need to fear the Lord.
Okay, that's pretty obvious.
The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom.
It's fearing God that instructs us to get wise.
So to follow His commandments, to learn of Him.
Because you're not going to do it if you don't fear Him.
That's the reality. You need to fear Him.
Yeah, I was talking about this earlier.
It's not about the fear of heaven and hell.
It's the fear of the chastisement of God.
I fear the chastisement of God.
I don't want God to chastise me in life.
He's a scary God.
It's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God.
Okay, I don't want to get worked by Him.
I don't want to be getting punished by Him.
The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom.
But it requires a humility though, doesn't it?
To accept that you're not special.
To accept that you need to fear God.
To accept that you're not just, oh, you're just going to get a bye.
You know, and you'll just walk through life, you know, doing what you want.
And there's going to be no, you know, nothing will go wrong in your life.
No.
There needs to be humility.
Before honor is humility.
So when you fear Him, you get wise and eventually you will get honor whether in this life or the life to come.
But before that honor, to get that honor, you need to be humble.
There needs to be some humility.
You need to accept and appreciate that, yeah, I need to fear God.
Accept and appreciate, yeah, I'm going to get a whooping as well because I'm not special.
Then you can get the honor that comes with it.
The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom and before honor is humility.
The lesson is fear the Lord, humble yourself to get wise and eventually you will get the honor.
Eventually, whether now in this life or more likely in the life to come.
Okay, so that was Proverbs chapter 15.
And like I said, I understand there's slightly different sermons and there's a lot of different subjects there.
We are going to take a break after the next couple of sermons.
But hopefully you still learned a lot from that and on that we're going to finish in a word of prayer.
Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for the book of Proverbs.
Thank you for the lessons that we've been receiving from it.
Help us to apply those to our lives, Lord, not just to be hearers but to be doers of the word as well.
Help us to act upon the wisdom that you want us to gain, you want us to learn from, Lord.
Help us to just put that into our lives.
Going forward from this day onwards, Lord, help us to get home safe and sound,
to get soul winning in the week and to return on Sunday for the...
Sorry, and to return on Wednesday for the mid-week service.
In Jesus' name, promise. Amen.