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Good evening everyone, welcome to Strong Tower Baptist Church.
I kindly ask you to stand and join me on our first hymn this evening,
number 213, hymn number 213, Savior like a like a shepherd lead us, and we're going to be doing that
a cappella, so please let's raise up the voice, and uh
pastures feed us, for our use thy faults prepare. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou has bought us
thine we are. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou has bought us thine we are. We are thine, do thou befriend us, be the guardian of our way.
Keep thy flock from sin, defend us, seek us when we go astray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, hear oh hear us when we pray.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, hear oh hear us when we pray. Thou has promised to receive us, poor and sinful though we be.
Thou has mercy to relieve us, grace to cleanse and part to free. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, early let us turn to thee.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, early let us turn to thee. Early let us seek thy favor, early let us do thy will.
Blessed Lord and only Savior, with thy love our bosoms fill. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou has loved us, love us still.
Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou has loved us, love us still.
King number 337, the solid rock. King number 337, the solid rock. All together, on the first with me.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest spring, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand, all of the ground is sinking sand, all of the ground is sinking sand.
When darkness seems to hide his face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale my anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ the solid rock I stand, all of the ground is sinking sand, all of the ground is sinking sand.
His oath is covenant, his blood support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay.
On Christ the solid rock I stand, all of the ground is sinking sand, all of the ground is sinking sand.
When he shall come with trumpet sound, though may I then in him be found, dressed in his righteousness alone,
Foughtless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all of the ground is sinking sand, all of the ground is sinking sand.
All right, good evening everyone and welcome to Strong Tower Baptist Church and our Sunday evening service.
If you don't have a bulletin please raise your hand and one of the ushers will happily bring you a bulletin.
And while we're doing that I'd just like to give a warm welcome to Richard, first time visitor with us today, great to have you with us Richard.
If you get a chance after the service please get to know Richard a little bit and everyone's welcome to stay around for not just teas and coffees,
we've also got a couple of baptisms after the service as well so we'll be doing them shortly after the service is finished.
And just to say, you know, welcome again to Lisa and Paul, still here, they were first time visitors this morning, they're kind of second time visitors now but great to have you guys still with us.
Have a look down on the front of your bulletin where we have our verse of the week, it's Luke 8.35.
Luke 8.35 which is, then they went out to see what was done and came to Jesus and found the man out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.
And that went with the morning message and we looked at that verse and a few others in detail and the title being sitting at the feet of Jesus and hopefully you know people got a bit out of that and it's on our channel if you missed it.
But that was this morning's message, we're in our Sunday evening service, it's down on the inside of your bulletins in our service times there where we're going to be continuing with the book of Proverbs.
So we've been studying through the book of Proverbs now for, well many weeks now we've been splitting them into half ever since around chapter 11 or 12.
We're up to chapter 22, we're on part one, it's going to be verses 1 to 14 out of those 29 verses, we're going to be going through those shortly.
That's our Sunday evening sermon is going to be the book of Proverbs and then on Wednesday evening we're continuing with the book of Isaiah so we're going through the book of Isaiah, and we're up to chapter, I think it's going to be chapter seven, chapter 18.
And that's going to be this Wednesday evening we're going to be praying for the prayer requests that come in so please send those in we pray for those in the Wednesday evening service as well.
That's at 7pm. And then our so many times are down there and I think everyone's pretty much aware where they are with Sunday's always local area and that you know it can be hit and miss but it's something that we just want to keep hitting on local area and keep knocking those doors and remember with that just to be if you could try and just remember to be clear on the maps clear cross out those houses that you've done remember what doors the last door you not to etc.
I was just makes it difficult to then follow on afters with those maps. And then we did end up with two celebrations this afternoon.
It's a great work everyone and praise God for those that's a couple more people that have got saved and the other times and Mondays in Mitcham down in southwest London Tuesdays in Basildon Wednesdays local to here.
Thursday is over in Tilbury Saturday with our next month is going to be at the end of this month as usual last Saturday of the month is our marathon.
They're still getting an exit although Neil's with us today and I think Steve is a bit unwell isn't he we were just talking about that but they'll be back so winning sure enough so if you're down that part of the country and you'd like to get involved with so winning that either speak to myself or if you know Neil speak to Neil about that.
There's a bit of soul winning going on up in Sheffield as well. And again if you want details of that please get in touch with me up up around that area. We we've like I said we've got two celebrations are up to ten for October already which is a great start to the month we finished September with a hundred four people saved.
Which was a great number that's a really great result. I'd have to check but that's one of our biggest months anyway definitely definitely more recently when the video game number people kind of left.
So we've we've we've yeah we to get a hundred for salvation is great. What a great great to be you know a great number to get that's and that doesn't count also our soul winning groups over in South Africa and Switzerland as well.
So there's I just feel like that we're just getting more and more the salvation is just upping the whole time we've been getting a lot of baptisms recently as well it's been it's been great watching you know just God bless the work that we're doing so I just keep it up guys and you know I couldn't be done without just all the faithful soul winners everyone is just getting out getting getting involved regularly getting getting so winning so please just just keep it up and you know it's been it's been great so far.
We're up to ten already for this month for the year it's therefore seven seven one and the baptisms we've got a couple more after the service on twenty four so far total salvation is down there since we started as a church plant back in January twenty twenty one.
And the South Africa Salvations I'm not sure if they're out today they had a few yesterday that's over in Pretoria our soul winning group over there the Swiss are out today as well or at least well when I say the Swiss I think most of them are French in Switzerland but the Swiss group there they're up to one hundred and thirty one they're out today as well soul winning today as well.
The the baptisms attendance types et cetera down as well we have a men's beginners preaching night so that's Friday October the eleventh so that's this Friday coming up at the end of this week and it's going to be a set from seven p.m. in the church the preacher will start at seven thirty six anyone who hasn't you know if you don't like one men's preaching out something you're welcome to it as well but for those aren't regular preachers haven't done much preaching.
Then we you know and if you've never preached specially before as well it's just for those beginners to preach in a common and preach behind a pulpit here the ten minute little sermons it's you keep the video yourself it's a men's night will be a time of fellowship as well I mean what better fellowship than hearing some King James Bible preaching right and that's what we're going to be hearing on Friday October the eleventh so if you'd like to preach to that men there and you haven't let me know please let me know I'd love to take your names down and put you on the list for that.
And we'll have some food and fellowship afterwards as well so that's this Friday coming I'll be in the church here from seven p.m. and then Friday October the eighteenth in the morning ten a.m. is going to be the next home school trip for the home school kids here and it's going to be indoor rock climbing and I think it's from six up so the younger kids can come along but they won't be able to climb.
We might be able to maybe squeeze in a five year old here and there if possible but please speak to my wife about that she'll help you out and you can let her know whether you plan to come to that.
That's Friday morning at ten o'clock on the eighteenth and then Saturday October the twenty sixth is our next soul winning event it's going to be an afternoon of soul winning over in Erith in southeast London that's somewhere that we've we've had great success with previously we're going to be there from twelve o'clock meeting by twelve thirty please and then we're going to be soul winning from one o'clock.
It's going to be a long afternoon of soul winning from one till five it's going to be then followed by some food afterwards so if you'd like to come to that please let me know and I will put something close to the time with that but just bear that in mind it's on Saturday October the twenty sixth and then the Bible memory challenge it's six versus six weeks if you can memorize all six versus you receive a prize.
We're on week five which is first timothy one nineteen holding faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck so that's week five week six will be next week and then after that will be the testing the testing week and if you can get them all right like say you get a prize just let me know please turn your mobile phones off put them on silent or airplane mode for the service that'd be much appreciated and we have.
We have some birthdays and there was there was a there is an error on there in fact so roderick's birthday was actually on the first of October so happy birthday roderick for the first if you're watching and that was a so she's on the same day as Ida there was an error in somewhere between being given the birthdays and take him down but happy birthday roderick for the first but other than that.
Chloe was on the third so happy birthday again chloe for the third David was on the fourth and then we have a few more coming up Nikki's next we got nick and then we got Esther to finish the month but if your birthday's in October it's not too late to get on the bulletin please let me know and if you have a wedding anniversary as well that you haven't told us about.
And obviously a wedding that you're currently in the wedding that you haven't told us about okay or marriage haven't told us about if you have a wedding anniversary that we're not aware of them please let us know would love to put it on a bulletin please let us know if you want details for online donations and we're family integrated in here so it's a family integrated church that means that the kids are welcome in the services we would like the kids in the services however some children just the still need a bit more training to be able to be in the service without causing a distraction so please use a mother and father baby rooms if needed.
The mother baby room being this one here in the father baby room behind it another mother baby room is upstairs if needed as well but we do ask that there's no men please in the mother baby rooms no ladies in the father baby rooms and please just remember no children unattended in the building at all times and on that we're going to pass back over.
Thank you.
Our next theme is him number four hundred ninety six shall we gather the river.
Join me all together on the first.
The beautiful the beautiful.
The river.
That flows by the throne.
On the second.
Margin of the river.
Washing up its silver spray.
We will walk and worship ever.
All the happy golden day.
Yes we'll gather at the river.
The beautiful the beautiful river.
The river.
Gather with the saints at the river.
That flows by the throne of God.
There we reach the shining river.
Lay we everybody down.
Grace our spirits will deliver.
And provide a robe and crown.
Yes we'll gather at the river.
The beautiful the beautiful river.
Gather with the saints at the river.
That flows by the throne of God.
Soon we'll reach the shining river.
Soon our pilgrimage will cease.
Soon our happy hearts will quiver.
With the melody of peace.
Yes we'll gather at the river.
The beautiful the beautiful river.
Gather with the saints at the river.
That flows by the throne of God.
Amen.
Thank you.
That's the book of Proverbs chapter 22.
So the Bible reads Proverbs chapter 22 starting in verse 1.
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favour rather than silver and gold.
The rich and poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them all.
A brilliant man foreseeeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.
By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honour and life.
Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward, he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them.
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity, and the rod of his anger shall fail.
He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed, for he giveth of his bread to the poor.
Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out, yea, strife and reproach shall cease.
He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend.
The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge, and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor.
The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.
The mouth of strange women is a deep pit, he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein.
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich shall surely come to want.
Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge.
For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee, they shall be whittled, be fitted in thy lips.
Thy trust may be in the Lord, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee.
Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge, that I may make thee know the certainty of the words of truth,
that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?
Rob not the poor, because he is poor, neither oppress the afflicted in the gate.
For the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoil them.
Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man thou shalt not go.
Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.
Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are suities for debts?
If thou was nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?
Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set.
Seest thou a man diligent in his business?
He shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father we thank you Lord so much for the book of Proverbs and the book of Wisdom.
We pray Lord please feel pastor of your spirit, please help us to be attentive Lord in this evening service,
and help us to learn and apply what we learn to our lives, and we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen, so we're up to Proverbs chapter 22 now, and as is always the way, I'm going to remind you please,
if you don't have a pen, the ushers are just walking down now, they've got pens, please grab one.
There's a section on the back of your bulletin, there's a notes section, obviously in your Bibles or whatever you want to do.
Please make notes on this, and I'll just keep reminding you why, because there's so many we're going through.
This isn't a one-point sermon where you can't come away going,
you couldn't come away without wondering what the point is in a one-point sermon.
This is a fourteen-point sermon, and in some of those Proverbs there's more than one point as well.
There's a lot of messages here, a lot of little short messages,
but there might be some that you really need to hear, that you really need to remember,
not just for maybe the week going ahead, but the month beyond that, maybe for life.
There's so much wisdom in this book, isn't there? There's so much wisdom in the book of Proverbs,
and many of us will have read it many times, but sitting there and actually going through it slowly,
and breaking down those Proverbs really opens them up.
It has done for me studying through this, I hope it has for others as well,
so really think about what you can apply to your life out of this, guys,
because God's given us this book ultimately for us to be wise, especially when it comes to the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs 22 and verse 1 starts like this,
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches,
and loving favour rather than silver and gold.
I'm going to pray and then we're going to get going.
Father, thank you for the book of Proverbs, thank you for this chapter today that we're going to look through, Lord,
and these great Proverbs in here, these great pearls of wisdom and great things that we can apply to our lives.
Please help me to preach them clearly, accurately and boldly, Lord, full of your Spirit,
help everyone to have attentive ears and to really listen to what your Word is saying.
In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.
What is a good name? It's to have a good reputation.
It's to have a good reputation. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 2.
1 Peter 2, there is a problem, okay, where the more you live for God, the more that people will speak badly of you, though.
So there is that to remember as well, okay.
Your turn to 1 Peter 2, Matthew 5.11 says,
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.
So the key point is that it's for the Lord saying, not because you're an idiot seeking trouble,
not because you're trying to get that attention, you're trying to get that persecution,
it's because ultimately you're living for God.
Okay, 1 Peter 2 and verse 11 says, 1 Peter 2.11 says,
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims.
Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,
having your conversation honest among the Gentiles,
that whereas they speak against you as evildoers,
they may by your good works which they shall behold glorify God in a day of visitation.
So we're to have our conversation or our behaviour honest among the unsaved.
Okay, that's what it's talking about.
Should be honest, our behaviour should be honest.
We should have a good name amongst those who are unsaved.
Even though they're going to speak evil against us,
yeah, they're going to find things to try and speak evil against,
but your behaviour, your conversation, it's still honest and ultimately they're going to see that.
And regardless of what they say, regardless of the accuser of the brethren,
do people recognise that honesty in us which is that good name?
That's what we should be striving for.
We won't be able to say, yeah, no, but that isn't honest, that's an upright person.
Whatever I might try and say about their faith, whatever I might try and say about their,
you know, the fact that they want to live, you know, for God and do these things,
I'll try and find fault in it, are they seeing that good name?
Back in Proverbs 22.1, it is though in the context of money, it's in the context of riches.
He said a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches
and love and favour rather than silver and gold
because dishonesty can result in wealth sometimes, can't it?
There are some very dishonest wealthy people out there,
who regularly sneak and con their way to wealth in the world
and, you know, often when you see very wealthy businessmen,
I remember talking to a brother about this before,
in various areas, sadly you often just suspect dishonesty, don't you?
So when there are people out there,
and I'm not just saying somebody who's just worked their life in a company and ended up succeeding,
I'm talking about people that have trading, wheeling, dealing, you know, buying businesses,
all that sort of stuff, a lot of the time you just think if you made it you were probably fairly dishonest,
okay, now it's not always the case but sadly there is that that goes with it.
Dishonesty though, what it does do as well, it might make you money,
people can get richer by being dishonest,
it results in a lack of loving favour from others though,
okay, the love is often fake, when people know you're dishonest,
when people know that you don't have a good name,
you're known for being dishonest, you're known for being deceitful,
the favour is false a lot of the time,
the favour is to maybe gain money or to gain,
you know, they want you to like them maybe but really they don't really want what's best for you,
they don't really like you and all the money in the world isn't worth being untrusted, is it?
Being unloved, unfavoured, there are a lot of miserable rich people out there, do you know that?
A lot of miserable rich people, there are some mega rich people that are miserable
and a lot of the time it's because they don't have that loving favour,
they don't have that good name and the result is not having that loving favour,
they don't have really real quality relationships because they're dishonest, they don't have a good name.
So a good name is rather to be chosen of great riches, a loving favour rather than silver and gold,
the lesson is to strive for integrity rather than wealth,
that's what we should strive for, integrity, honesty, uprightness in life.
Verse 2, the rich and poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them all.
So it's the Lord that's the maker, he made everything and that includes all people by the way,
I had an atheist earlier on the door, a very old atheist on the door who was just telling me he's just too logical,
he's so logical and I was just talking about this with someone earlier,
it's bizarre really when you really break it down and you're just saying that everything just created itself,
it's the complete opposite, it's so illogical but he's not accepting that there's a maker
and really when you get to sort of this guy was probably into his 60s plus and you're adamant that there's no such thing as a God,
that's where you really ever win someone from isn't it?
But the Lord did make everything, he made all people, he made the rich and the poor,
how do the rich and poor meet together? Well firstly we're all living on this earth together aren't we?
As rich as you like you still kind of generally have to rub shoulders with people,
in fact it's not very mentally healthy to live a hermit lifestyle is it,
you're going to end up probably a bit mentally unwell from that
and if we're doing as we're supposed to be doing, that's worshipping the God that made us,
well we all meet together to do that don't we?
When we walk into Strong Tower Baptist Church we all meet together don't we?
Rich and poor, whatever areas of life you're from, wherever you're from,
and whether you got dropped off in a limo, I don't know if anyone did today,
I wasn't watching, or you walked miles to get here from a hostel somewhere,
no one is better off than anyone else, when you come in here we're all equal,
you know we're not looking at someone going oh they look like they've got a bit of money,
come here, come here, roll out the red carpet, give them the best seat,
I don't know what is it, is there a best seat in here, I don't know,
some might like the spit zone, some like the no one can see your zone,
some like the side on zone, you know but I don't know,
maybe there is a best seat but it doesn't matter,
whether you're rich or poor we're all equal in here right?
And all that rich flash to cash stuff shouldn't,
and I don't think it does impress most people in here does it?
Whether someone comes in and they've got the shiniest most expensive suit,
dress, jewellery or something else,
or someone comes in here with the second hand very cheap outfit from wherever,
no one really cares, we're not impressed by that stuff,
you pull up and your car is huge and expensive,
or you walk here from the train station or not,
or you walked here because you can't afford the train,
no one cares, no one's looking at you,
if only that was a rich person, we're not impressed,
no one gets impressed by that stuff, we all meet together here.
But on the flip side to that, neither does all that pious poverty,
you get people that go the other way, especially in religion,
you get people that want to try and constantly overemphasise how poor they are,
how they don't have anything, how such a struggle it is
like they're somehow above people because of that,
or somehow well they're just really religious because they're really poor,
no that doesn't impress us either,
it should make no difference,
because the thing is that we don't just meet together here,
but we'll all be meeting together in heaven,
that's really what it comes down to,
we're going to be meeting here,
if you're saved and you want to come and worship God,
hopefully you'll be coming to a place like this,
but aside from that, well we're going to be meeting together in heaven,
and you know what, you're not taking to heaven your bank account,
no one here is taking to heaven,
so whether it's in the minus or the plus,
you're not taking it to heaven,
but many will be meeting together somewhere else as well sadly,
and that's in hell,
where their riches won't get them a cooler spot,
you can have the billions in your bank account,
you ain't buying that cool spot in hell,
so if you die unsaved,
you die and you haven't put your faith and trust in Christ,
the rich and the poor will be meeting together,
but they'll be meeting together in hell,
where their worm dieth not,
and that's not a place to be,
so the rich and the poor meet together,
and God is the maker of them all,
I think the proverb is to remind us
that we're all just part of God's creation
and not to get self-important,
and obviously judgmental about these things as well,
you could add.
Verse 3,
A prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hideth himself,
but the simple pass on and are punished.
Now remember that prudent is cautious, circumspect,
practically wise,
careful of the consequence of enterprises,
measures or actions,
cautious not to act when the end is of doubtful utility
or probably impracticable,
so it's good to be cautious basically,
to be careful of consequences,
to take measured responses,
that's a good thing,
the I don't care about the consequences
sort of impulsive type responses and actions isn't good,
I know like some people think
that this is some sort of enviable thing,
it's not,
well they're just so brave,
they just throw caution to the wind,
it's foolish,
it's good to be prudent,
it's good to be careful,
that doesn't mean you have to be fearful,
but it's good to be careful,
sensible, think things through,
and that's what the simple are okay,
they're foolish,
the simple are those that aren't wise
and they end up getting in trouble,
he said a prudent man foreseeeth the evil
and hideth himself,
but the simple pass on and are punished,
and you could apply this to so much in life okay,
so much of the trouble that people get themselves in
could have been avoided with a bit of prudence,
with a bit of caution,
a bit of careful thought and wise consideration
could have avoided a lot,
for example there are certain jobs
that it would be prudent to avoid wouldn't it,
if you think it through,
should I really do this job,
should I really do that job,
one obvious one being around drunk people,
the prudent man foreseeeth that evil,
doesn't he,
whether you think you'll ever be tempted
or whether or not you just,
you think actually drunk people
are a complete just liability,
I don't know what's going to come next,
you don't know if they're going to be
crying on your shoulder or trying to kill you,
you don't know if they're going to be trying to abuse you
or trying to accost you to be your best friend,
I mean they're so hard to gauge
what they're going to be doing,
what they're not going to be doing,
that's a foolish thing to do isn't it,
a prudent man would just avoid jobs around those people,
avoid where possible those sorts of jobs
being around whorish women,
the prudent man is going to foresee that evil,
you might, oh well it's a lie,
it doesn't matter if I just,
if at work I just keep end up in an area
with this bit of a slutty woman,
a prudent man just foreseeeth that evil,
I don't want to be around those sorts of women,
let's keep away from them,
a prudent man foreseeeth that,
a prudent man will maybe avoid being around the covetous,
because that's something that can easily,
you can easily get caught up in,
where people are just all talking about
their money and their cash and their job
and their cars and their this and their that
and people can easily start to get sucked into that,
a prudent man would just say,
I don't want to spend my time with those sorts of people,
they'll foresee that evil,
foresee what could come from that,
but the simple pass on and the punished,
the simple just continue,
the simple people, the fool,
and don't be a fool, yeah,
don't be a fool, you've got the word of God,
you've got preaching, you've got the Bible,
you can study, you can read it,
you can learn it every day,
if you're saved you can understand it,
and how many people just want to be fools in life,
they want to be foolish and pass on and they're punished,
don't be a fool,
I believe the prudent might see being a problem,
you know, for example,
and again, you know, it's not that,
you should never do these sorts of things,
but some people might think,
yeah, if I started getting into,
look, I'll tell you,
if I started getting into computer games,
which I haven't played for many, many years,
look, I know if I got myself like a,
whatever, I don't even know,
what's a cool thing now,
do they still have Xboxes,
have they got better ones,
Xbox 20 or something, I don't know, yeah,
I've missed more and more and more time
and more and more and more hours
and these sermons will get shorter and shorter
until they turn into a five minute sermon air
with me ranting without any Bible
because I didn't have time to,
because that stuff is so easily addictive,
you know, it can easily just waste your life,
waste your time, you know,
so the prudent man, it's not just sin,
it's certain things that you just know,
yeah, that wouldn't be a good thing for me, right,
you know, there are sports that could take over your life,
aren't there, you know,
and there are people that might be like,
I'm going to be in the Premier League again,
I know that next thing you know
I'm going to be staring at every single game,
I'm going to be watching every result,
I know in the transfer window when it's meant to be a break
I'm just going to be reloading the page
to see who might be buying someone,
even though they're going to tell me
at the beginning of the season anyway,
I know that that could just take over my life,
I'm going to be looking at fixtures,
looking at leagues, what a waste of my time,
you know, and the prudent man foresees that evil
but the simple pass on and they're then punished,
the stuff you watch on your devices,
what you go onto on your handheld device,
the prudent man will say, look,
actually I know that if I start looking through that
that's going to be a problem for me,
and I'm not just talking about the obvious stuff,
and there is the obvious stuff,
the prudent man says, yeah, if I have a TikTok account
and when I've seen most of what's on a TikTok
I'm just going to be staring at at least semi-naked women all day
because that's all that seems to be a lot of what goes on now,
I'm going to be prudent and just avoid that,
but it's not just that stuff,
it'd be lots of other just addictive types of stuff
if I start watching this, the next thing you know
I'm watching the next one, the next one, the next one,
of whatever it is, there's so much that
the prudent man should foresee the evil of,
and you should get to know yourself
and know what sort of things might be
a stumbling block for me,
and you need to not pass on like the simple.
The prudent man foresees the evil
and hides it for himself,
but the simple pass on and they're punished,
and of course it can apply to so much more in life, okay,
we need to be prudent and foresee the evil,
not be simple and just avoid that,
not be simple and just ignore the warnings,
the red flags, even the nagging feelings,
and there are things where you just get
that nagging feeling and you think,
I don't know if this would be a good idea,
take heed to that, right,
the prudent man foresees it,
a prudent man foresees the evil
and hides it for himself,
but the simple pass on and they're punished,
so the lesson is to be prudent,
to wisely consider course of action decisions,
et cetera, to avoid punishment further down the line.
Verse four, by humility and the fear
of the Lord of riches and honour
in life and I believe that ultimately
this is talking about salvation, this verse,
it's not that there's some sort of works
of humility required for salvation
because some people could go far with this,
however at the time of salvation
there does need to be a point of humility
in someone's life, okay,
you have to accept your need for salvation
to start with, there has to be a level of it,
now it's not that, oh, I'm just so humble,
that's why I got saved, no,
but there was a point in your life
where you had to have at least a level of humility
because when someone gets saved
you have to accept you need for a saviour,
you have to accept you need a saviour
that their works aren't enough,
that they're a sinner on the way to hell,
now that might be as simple as,
it wasn't that there was necessarily
a humble time in my life,
just when someone showed me it clear
in the word of God I accepted it, right,
that could be that for someone out there,
but it might be that, you know,
you wouldn't have accepted that
unless there'd been a low time,
there'd been a hard time,
or it might be that whatever happened,
for a couple of reasons,
but there is some humility involved,
okay, with salvation,
at least at the point of putting your faith in Christ,
you need to accept you need a saviour.
However, there are though,
there are, now, and by the way,
just quickly with that,
it doesn't mean that they're always so humble,
so just because someone's put their faith in Christ
at a point in their life
doesn't mean that they're automatically
now a humble person,
they were humble enough at the time
they put their faith in Christ to get saved,
that's the least of humility, right,
but some people aren't,
and then on the other hand
there are humble people around,
even people that are humble about
their chance of salvation,
so you know when you get people
that are just saying,
you maybe try and present them the gospel
and they just say,
yeah, I'm probably on my way to hell,
yeah, I'm a sinner, I'm on the way to hell,
but it doesn't mean that they fear the Lord,
because then you say,
oh, okay, well, can I show you how to go to heaven?
We want to hear how easy it is to get saved,
and what's the issue there?
It's not the fear of the Lord,
they might have the humility,
they might accept, yeah, I'm a sinner,
but they're not fearing the Lord,
they're not fearing hell,
they don't fear him enough,
they either discount it
or they downplay it in their mind,
and it's obviously aided by the effeminate
Jesus brainwash out there as well,
that helps because in their mind
it's like, well, can it really be that bad?
Yeah, I know I'm a sinner,
isn't he just this floaty guy in a dress?
And that helps obviously aid them
and give them an excuse,
give them a reason not to fear the Lord.
But both humility and the fear of the Lord
is a great recipe for getting someone saved, isn't it?
So when you do come across someone,
and let's be honest,
when you knock on a door
or you meet someone in the street
and you say to them,
oh, okay, well, do you know for sure
you're going to heaven?
And they say something like,
and they even say to you,
no, I think I might be on the way to hell,
and they look like they're concerned by that,
and you go, do you want to go to heaven?
They go, oh, yeah.
Usually at that point you're thinking,
this is a winner.
Usually, no, it's not always,
but usually it is, isn't it?
Because that's a great recipe.
They're humble, they accept they're on the way to hell,
and they're fearing hell,
they've got a fear of the Lord.
And by humility and the fear of the Lord
are riches and honour and life.
There are no riches like those eternal riches in heaven,
are there?
There's no honour like becoming a child of God,
and there's no life like eternal life.
That's what it's about, I believe that proverb.
That's true riches, honour and life,
and it comes from faith in Christ,
but that requires at least a time of humility
and a fear of God.
We looked earlier at 1 Peter 2, 12,
we don't have to turn there,
but it says, having your conversation on this
among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak
against this evil doers,
they may by your good works which they shall behold
but by your good works which they shall behold.
It's a time of life, it's a time of tribulation.
It's a time when you're getting it,
when it's hard, when it's rough,
and that's usually a time of humility.
By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches
and honour and life.
The proverb I think reminds us not only
of the true riches, honour and life to come,
okay, it's a good reminder, isn't it?
Forget all that worldly stuff, it's to come, right?
But also of those ingredients that we're looking for
when preaching the gospel.
Because when people are saying,
look, that's time to pause.
They get in a bit of a rush and they say,
oh no, I think I'm going to hell,
and I don't want to go, you know,
that's time to just go, uh-uh, let's pause everything,
let's get this person saved, okay?
Verse five.
Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward.
He that doth keep his soul shall be far from them.
So remember that froward is unyielding,
ungovernable, disobedient, okay?
And whether it's the eternally froward
or those that are just, you know,
being those that are in permanent opposition to God,
or just those that are generally disobedient
to God's word, the result is thorns and snares.
Okay, so if you're just disobedient to God,
you're disobedient to his word,
you're going to end up with thorns
and snares in your life.
Thorns being unpleasant, uncomfortable,
painful, and snares being traps, okay?
Things which entangle us and can even destroy us.
So life in disobedience to God is full of pain and hardship.
It's full of ways to stumble, to be entrapped,
because it's easy to look at the world, okay,
to think that the Christian life is some sort of hardship.
It can be.
For many Christians, they see kind of what's laid out
and they see, you know, they're thinking,
you know, coming to church three times a week
is some sort of sacrifice.
And people think like that, don't they?
They think like three to five.
I mean, what on earth?
I mean, this is extreme.
I don't know, I'd have to really think.
It'd take me a few years to get to that, right?
Like, it's like a real big sacrifice, right?
Turning up at a church.
Spending a few hours soul-winning each week
is just so hard.
There are people that, you know,
and I know I'm kind of, you know,
kind of mocking it a little bit,
but spending a few hours of my, you know,
however many hours there are in a week,
168 or whatever it is, isn't it?
I don't know, something like that.
However many hours it is,
there's a lot of hours in a week
and a couple of hours soul-winning,
a few hours soul-winning, I mean, what on earth?
That reading your Bible for less than an hour a day
is just such a chore.
How do I cope?
I mean, how do you, you know,
30 minutes for some 15 even,
get through it once a year.
I just don't know how I do it.
You know, it's just,
I don't know if I could do this each day.
What on earth?
That giving 10% of your income back to God
is just such a hardship.
Look, the New Testament,
nothing's changed there, okay?
People have done it from before the law
and they continue to do it,
but some people are just like,
oh no, I don't know about that.
I mean, this sounds pretty extreme, right?
That having a prayer life is such a pressure.
So many people believe that, don't they?
They're just like, oh, I don't know,
somehow it's gonna be a problem.
It's a hardship.
That forsaking those common sins
is maybe just so boring,
people think, don't they?
Oh, I just can't do what everyone else does.
You know, God doesn't want me to do,
God doesn't want me to have fun and stuff like that.
You might hear a Christian saying,
but let me tell you what the alternative is.
It's thorns and snares.
I'll tell you what the rest of the world
are doing with their time and money.
Let me tell you what they're doing with their time.
Their hours, several hours in a week.
Let me tell you what the world's doing with that.
Booze.
That's the majority of the world.
The majority, at least this nation,
are doing with those hours is booze.
Pubs, clubs, getting drunk, getting smashed.
That's what they're spending that money on.
If it's not just the booze, it's the drugs.
That's what a lot of this nation,
a lot of this town is doing,
and we're doing last night,
we're probably doing on Saturday
and probably still doing today.
It's booze and drugs, it's money, it's time.
It's this nation wrecking their lives,
wrecking people's lives,
just ruining future relationships to come from it
and worshipping devils.
Worshipping devils in various false religions
and false ways.
That's what the majority of the world is doing.
They're the thorns and snares out there
when you don't just say,
well, you know, I could just keep my soul.
I could just do what God wants me to do.
I could just try and do those little things,
but alternatively, yeah,
we could just go and do what the world does.
And what comes with all of that stuff?
Addiction, woe, broken relationships, wreck lives.
They're the thorns and snares out there, aren't they?
Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward.
That's supposed to just rejecting
what God wants him to do.
He that doth keep his soul shall be far from them.
How do you keep your soul?
Yourself, your being.
How do you protect yourself from those thorns and snares?
You don't have to turn to Psalm 119, verse 105.
It says, thy word is a lamp unto my feet
and a light unto my path.
The thorns and snares are out there.
They're everywhere.
It's a word of God which shows you
how to avoid them, doesn't it?
You need a lamp, yeah?
You need a light to avoid thorns and snares
and it's all here in your King James Bible.
It's all there.
Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward.
He that doth keep his soul shall be far from them.
The lesson is to not be froward.
Like I said, that's disobedient to God ultimately,
but instead follow his ways to keep yourself safe and sound.
Verse six.
Train up a child in the way he should go
and when he is old he will not depart from it.
So believe it or not, okay, children need training.
The child-led parenting movement
is mostly, on the most part, nonsense.
Okay, it's an easy option nonsense.
It's been getting pushed for a while.
I don't know if people are aware
of this sort of stuff out there.
You know, it's kind of like the child
will automatically just know best
and this kind of continues.
People try and follow this stuff
because it's easy to just go,
oh, well, we'll just let them push it
because it's training takes time.
It starts from early.
So they don't just magically feed right,
if some of your mums will have noticed.
They don't magically sleep right.
They don't magically eat right.
They don't magically behave right
as they get older.
They don't magically talk right.
It all needs training, a whole lot.
It just needs training.
Children need training.
It continues up to adulthood
and really beyond, really, doesn't it, okay,
where we often still need training as adults.
Pretty much everyone of us here
is a part of life.
But especially with a child
because they haven't even got
to that point of adulthood
where they need, obviously,
even more training, right.
The easy option is to just leave them to it
and pretend that they will somehow
just automatically, for example,
just sleep when you want them to.
And, you know, there is that kind
of pushing out there where it's just like,
well, you just let them work it out
for themselves.
But the sad truth is they don't usually
just put these different colours
and these different foods in front of them.
They're just going to choose what's right.
No, I'll tell you what's going to happen.
When you give them the sugar
and when you give them the MSG
and when you give them the different
flavour-enhanced foods and you give them
the high fructose corn soup
and all those things that make the brain go,
ooh, they're just going to keep looking
for the food that does that.
And if you leave it to a child,
they'll be malnourished within
much less than a year.
If you leave it to a child,
it'll help to get a variety of foods
for their taste buds to be trained
to get used to different things as well.
It all needs training.
Some think that they will just
automatically behave well
without taking things,
without hurting other kids,
without being mean, without lying.
No, it all needs training.
You need to train them
because the truth of it is
is that kids automatically,
they'll do stuff that,
they'll get put in prison for.
I mean, you get kids who just walk up
and just take a smaller kid's toy
and go, just walk it off.
You do that now.
It's theft. It's stealing.
Sometimes it's borderline armed robbery.
They might go with something else
and whack them first and then take it.
Kids do that.
It's like, I can't believe it.
My kids are so evil.
No, they're just a kid.
They're a kid and they need training up
and in so many other ways as well, right?
Behaving like that.
Imagine when they really go.
I don't know if you've got a kid.
You've got the odd kid that can really go, okay?
And when they kick off,
you're thinking, wow, we need to train this out of you
because when you become an adult,
you carry on like that,
you're going to kill someone
because you're rage-filled, you're violent,
you're uncontrollable.
They need training, okay?
That child-led stuff is just such nonsense, all right?
Look at what we have running around.
We have a load of big kids running around, don't we?
A lot of big old babies running around
that need locking up.
They need training, okay?
But there are people that think
that they will just learn to talk themselves.
Oh, they'll just learn manners one day.
It always strikes me as weird
when you see someone's, you know,
and I'm not talking about anyone here, okay?
I am honestly thinking about people outside of this church.
Hopefully you'll never watch and see them.
But when you see them and you offer them something,
would you like a drink?
And the parent's right there,
or they'd just be like, hm, no.
And you're just like,
when's the training coming in?
When's the manners training coming in?
It's not coming.
It's not coming?
It's not coming.
Do I train your kids?
Like, what on earth?
No, they need training.
Kids need training, okay?
And of course it continues with many things,
with learning when to be quiet, when not to, okay?
You know, learning to talk properly,
and it continues with many things,
including the things of God as well, doesn't it?
And they need training with Bible reading.
They need training, okay?
It doesn't have to be like,
obviously don't ever use the Bible as a punishment, okay?
The Bible ain't a punishment, all right?
If it's like, all right, you little,
get in there, you're gonna read out, you know,
10 chapters of the Bible, what's that gonna do?
It's gonna make them start hating God, isn't it?
Hating the word of God.
But they need training, they need encouragement
with Bible reading, with prayer time,
with sins, they need training.
How do we train?
With a combination, so there's a few things.
So look, kids, you could go too far with this.
You think, I need to just punish my child
for every single thing they do.
Well, what are you gonna be punishing them
all day, every day?
Because foolishness spanned the heart of a child.
But what a correction shall drive it from them.
But certain things they'll just learn.
Certain things you can tell a child,
and they get it, it might take a few times
to start to understand it.
They didn't need a whooping.
But they also, I believe, need reward as well.
And because that's ultimately,
we respond to that, don't we?
And I think, and I don't wanna compare us
and children to animals,
because there is a big difference,
but if you ever train an animal,
in general there's punishment and reward, isn't there?
And it's a pretty easy concept to get with time.
And reward can be as simple as praise.
Punishment can be as simple as reproof.
You know, some kids, especially when they're young,
they get it pretty early.
They don't want mommy or daddy to get it.
They don't want to be annoyed or to be angry
or to tell them off.
They don't like the firm words.
And again, don't emotionally manipulate, obviously, as well.
I mean, we used to have a family member
that used to do this.
You've made me upset.
No, no, what'd she do?
She'd go, you've made them upset.
So like, they've just done something horrendous
in your house.
It's like, you've just made Ian upset now.
Look.
And he's like, do I have to pretend to cry now
or get angry or something?
It sounds like an emotional blackmail thing.
Now, mommy's very sad now.
It's like, look, just tell them off and deal with it.
Obviously, you don't want to go too far with that.
But it depends on the achievement, obviously,
and the offense.
So the reward could just be praise,
but the reward could be, look,
sometimes kids do some pretty great stuff, don't they?
Sometimes you see some really kind behaviour.
You see some really good behaviour.
That's, I think, good to reward to try
but want to do that more, to do good things.
But in the same way, sometimes they do some pretty bad stuff.
Sometimes it can be pretty bad,
and we're going to see next week, verse 15 says
that foolishness has banned the heart of a child
but a rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
That is a part of training.
The part of training is sometimes physical chastisement.
And of course, with that, though,
teaching is required as well.
So if you're just punishing your kid
and they don't know why they're getting punished
and what it's for, then what was the point?
So they need to be told, need to be explained
because there's no time when they've calmed down
and they're not having a tantrum and everything else.
But it's not the only part, obviously.
So without the nurture, without the care,
without the attention, the training can still fail.
And if there's anything to put a lot of thought
and effort into, it's got to be the training
of your children, isn't it?
To put time, put thought, put effort
because it's got to be getting it right.
It's got to be worth getting it right
with the heritage of the Lord.
Remember that children are in heritage of the Lord
and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
So we need to make sure that we're putting time,
we're putting effort, we're putting thought into it
because when you get it right, when they're old,
they will not depart from it.
And isn't that the ultimate goal?
That's the ultimate goal of our training
with our children.
So it's not that academic success isn't important.
Obviously it helps to get a good job.
It helps if you've got a good job
to be able to serve God to the fullest, doesn't it?
If you're not having to do two jobs
to make ends meet, for example.
It helps to then educate your children as well.
And look, if you're educated yourself,
if you get some academic ability and training
and you learn stuff, then mums are more able
if they're going to homeschool, for example,
to be able to educate their children.
We're educating them anyway,
whether they're homeschooled or they're at school.
But the way that you should go
is ultimately the spiritual way, isn't it?
It's not saying, all right, well train them up
in the riches of life.
You can have the best education, the best job
but if you're a lousy Christian,
you're spiritually ill-disciplined,
that's not the way you should go, is it?
And that's what ultimately
we're trying to train our children towards.
And with different kids,
there's going to be so many different problems,
different hurdles, different issues
to get to with that.
And we're going to have our own challenges
with each of our kids with that,
but we're trying to train up kids
to live the Christian life
and to then train their kids up to do the same.
And that's ultimately our goal, isn't it?
That's what we're looking towards.
And that's why God's saying,
train up a child in the way you should go
and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
The key lesson here is to put effort
into the training to get the end result, okay?
Is to put the effort in.
Put that time and effort into training your children
and then you've got more chance
to get that end result.
Verse 7, the rich ruleth over the poor
and the borrower is servant to the lender.
Now this is a fact of life, okay,
that the rich are the ones in charge in life.
This isn't saying that so and so
with a bigger house and healthier bank account
rules the guy renting a bedsit with no savings, okay?
For example, in the church.
It's not like, well, that rich person,
they're more in charge of that poorer person in the church.
It's that the rich people are the ones
in charge across the world, ultimately, okay?
There are some particularly rich people
and everyone else is poor in comparison.
You know, there has to be a mega, mega,
rich in the world, right?
And they kind of do rule over everyone else.
They are the true rulers.
We're talking about the rich people
and they kind of do rule over everyone else.
They are the true rulers.
Whether openly or not, turn to Matthew chapter 20,
Matthew 20, where we see this truth
laid out clearly by the Lord.
So in Matthew chapter 20 and verse 25,
we're going to look at Matthew 20, 25,
Jesus said it like this.
He said, it says, but Jesus called them
unto him and said, you know that the princes
of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them
and they that are great exercise authority
on them.
So he said that the princes, the principles,
the leads of the Gentiles, the people being,
that's what the Gentiles are ultimately,
exercise dominion or power and control.
So there are leaders and in different nations
with different sorts of governments,
it might be, it might, for example,
be a prime minister that people are saying,
well, that's a prince, that's a principle,
that's a leader in this nation
as far as many people are concerned.
Others, it might be a president.
Others, it might be some sort of royalty.
It might be a sheikh, it might be a king,
whatever it is.
But it says that they that are great,
and we might say mighty,
or we might say rich and powerful,
he said, you know that the princes
of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them
and they that are great exercise authority
upon them.
And I believe that he's saying
that those rich and powerful exercise authority
upon those princes, upon those principles.
So basically the rich are in charge
behind the scenes.
And some of it is open and obvious.
They're there.
I mean, party sponsors, donors, supporters.
I mean, they're clearly just wealthy people,
businesses, companies, who clearly have a say
in political parties because they donate money to it,
because they give money, because they back,
because they finance.
But then there's a sheer power wielded
by those billionaires around the world
that most have never heard of.
And it seems that the most powerful
around the world have usually been
the money men, the lenders.
That's really what it comes down to.
The borrower is servant to the lender.
Currently the UK government's national debt
apparently stands at 2.7 trillion pounds.
2.7 trillion, okay?
With apparently 39% of that owed
to the Bank of England.
So 39% of the UK's national debt
is owed to the Bank of England
and then another 43% to the private sector.
So these are just like private pension funds,
all these sorts of things that the UK government
owes its money to.
This isn't unique of just the UK government.
The bankers, okay, those who lend are those in charge.
This is around the world.
But this also works on a lesser scale as well.
So aside from that just being the way the world runs,
and when you understand it,
it just helps you to understand a lot more.
And of course, if it just gets to the point
where it's just too ridiculous and everything else
and too set up in their favour,
then the people get, eventually there'll be revolts,
there'll be problems.
But it's somewhere at a kind of balance
and it's just obvious, it's just clear when you see that.
The people that lend the money,
the big banking dynasties,
the big banks, everyone else,
ultimately they are to some degree pulling strings
because they're the ones with the power
because as the Bible says,
unless you don't believe the Bible,
which says the borrower is a servant to the lender.
Who's the lender?
Ultimately when you look across the globe,
if you look globally, it's big banking corporations
and even if you really narrow it down
it starts to get a bit smaller.
It also works on a lesser scale
where getting in debt puts you under that lender
to some degree.
So it gives them some sort of rule over you
where you go, well, whatever it is,
the loan that I got out,
they don't ring me up and tell me what to do.
But you are going to be paying back some sort of interest
and they are telling you when you need to pay that interest
and how much you need to pay.
And if you think about it, that's really pretty much
how nations ruled other nations throughout the Bible.
It was basically they took control of them
and then they told them that they've got to bring,
sometimes it's called a gift or a tribute or something else,
maybe every year to that nation
and really the borrower is servant to the lender.
They're paying their money and with debt
it's for the privilege of borrowing that money
from them in the first place.
So if you want to avoid that, don't borrow.
Don't borrow.
It's a good lesson in life where possible, isn't it?
The rich rule over the poor and the borrower
and the proverb is a reminder for me
of where the power really lies
and a warning about getting in debt.
I'm going to have to speed up
because we've still got a few to go right.
Verse 8, he that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity
and the rod of his anger shall fail.
So he said he that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity
and the rod of his anger shall fail.
Now I believe that this proverb is a little bit cryptic.
I'm going to try and unravel it for you a bit here.
So sowing iniquity is planting or working iniquity, isn't it?
It's work.
You're working iniquity when you're sowing iniquity
and ultimately you're sowing,
a worker of iniquity is sowing iniquity in others.
Workers of iniquity is another name
for false prophets in the Bible, okay?
I'm going to be quick as I prove this to you
in case, you know, no one's heard this sort of thing before.
Psalm 5, 5. We don't have to turn to these.
I'm just going to go through them quickly from the Psalm.
Psalm 5, 5. These are just some of many.
The foolish shall not stand in thy sight.
Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
God hates workers of iniquity.
Psalm 14, 4.
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge,
who eat up my people as they eat bread
and call not upon the Lord.
So they eat up God's people,
but they don't call upon the Lord.
Psalm 28, 3.
Draw me not away with the wicked
and with the workers of iniquity
which speak peace to their neighbours,
but mischief is in their hearts.
They have mischief in their hearts.
They're double-mouthed.
They speak out of both sides of their mouth.
They're speaking peace to their neighbours,
but they've got mischief in their hearts.
Psalm 64, 2. Hide me from the secret counsel
of the wicked, from the insurrection
of the workers of iniquity.
So if anyone was wondering,
hopefully you're not anymore,
a worker of iniquity is another name
for false prophets, an enemy of God.
It's a reprobate. Verse 8 says,
He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity
and the rod of his anger shall fell.
So these workers of iniquity,
these sowers of iniquity, these false prophets
will reap nothing of worth in the long run,
and they can sow their false seeds,
plant their false doctrine, suggest false ways,
cause division, and the end result
for them is nothing.
They don't achieve anything from it.
They failed. They will never achieve anything.
Verse 8 says, He that soweth iniquity
shall reap vanity and the rod of his anger shall fell.
So the rod of his anger is
his carrying out of his anger.
We see an example in Isaiah
about the rod of God's anger.
It's him actually carrying out his anger.
And what is the subject of most of these people's anger?
These reprobates, these false prophets,
these works of iniquity?
It's the true God. It's the gospel.
The King James Bible, the soul-winning church,
the leadership, the faithful servants.
It's all those things of God ultimately, isn't it?
That's what they hate.
That's what the rod of their anger is.
Basically, they hate us.
Or at least that's where the rod of their anger
is directed and it will fail.
They hate us. Jude calls them
raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame.
Paul said that they're filled with maliciousness.
Envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity,
whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful.
But the attacking with all of that anger,
a lot of that is anger-based stuff.
The attacking with that will fail.
They've already lost.
God will protect us in this life
and they have eternal hell awaiting.
So he that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity
and the rod of his anger shall fail.
I think the problem is to remind us that
however successful the enemy might seem at times,
sometimes it seems like they're getting some success,
they will always fail.
There's nothing to come from it in the long run.
Verse 9.
He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed
for he giveth of his bread to the poor.
So this is someone who's not only generous.
They're not only generous.
It's not that they're just bountiful themselves.
They have a bountiful eye.
They look for opportunities to be generous
to give to those in need.
So they're looking for that.
They have a bountiful eye.
They're looking for ways to be generous.
Like mentioned before, this isn't just referring to money.
Or it's someone who just gives out money
to whoever asks for it.
No, it could be other things.
It could be resources.
It could be time.
It could be effort.
It could be care.
It could be attention.
And when you are someone that is genuinely,
not for show, not for ulterior motives,
but looking for opportunities to just be generous,
God will bless you because you're giving to the poor,
you're giving to those in need.
So if you're just a generous person,
God will bless you for that.
There are people in this nation,
but there are people with little by comparison to others.
There are people with not much.
There are those that maybe find it hard to get by each month.
That is a reality.
There are those that scrape by
and there are those that have more in life, aren't there?
It's good to be generous with what you have.
Generous with, say, you can be generous with food,
can't you, with people?
This isn't just talking about,
I'd better go and find some homeless drug addict
and give them some cash to go and spend on drugs.
That's what the world wants you to think,
that that's the only way of showing generosity
and it's the opposite,
but you're not helping anyone with that.
But you can be generous to just people in general, can't you?
You can offer someone.
You could just be the sort of person
that says to someone,
do you fancy going out for a bite to eat
and just paying for it?
If you've got spare money,
you've got the ability,
it doesn't have to be like,
right, okay, 50-50, let's work out the bill and something.
Maybe it's something that you just know,
probably can't afford that.
Maybe it's a lift without asking for the petrol money.
I don't know if people still do that nowadays.
When I was young, there were people like that,
the rich kid who got the first car
and he's asking everyone to chip in petrol money
and his dad's filling up the car each week or something.
There are people like that,
but that's not generous, is it?
There are people that just begrudge doing things,
but you don't have to be like that.
The point is, just have a bountiful eye
because God will bless you ultimately for it.
Just help without expecting things in return.
And that's ultimate generosity,
is when you're not then listing it
and make your mental list and think you're right.
Well, I did all of this, where's this in return?
Just help people.
Just have a bountiful eye, God will bless you for it.
He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed,
for he giveth of his bread to the poor.
So it's good to be generous
and it results in blessings from God.
Verse 10, cast out the scorner
and contentions shall go out,
yea, strife and reproach shall cease.
The scorners are those that scoff,
and particularly when it comes to the things of God,
the judgments, God's people.
And you get a lot of them out in the world, okay?
But sadly you also get them in churches too.
We used to have some right scorners here.
They scoffed at everything.
Every rule, every decision, every sermon,
every cake baked.
They just scoffed at everything.
Everything was something to scorn,
something to scoff at.
They would scoff at every event put on,
find fault, find things to complain about,
how they would do it better,
how even their spanners are better.
It was just ridiculous, okay?
They were just scoffing,
I kid you not, okay?
Scoffing, scawning,
just constantly a problem with everything.
But with their scawning comes so much contention
because it is horrible being around people like that,
isn't it?
So you try your best to just be nice,
to just be loving,
to just turn the other cheek,
to just be like, oh, okay, never mind.
Oh, okay, hate everything we've done.
Oh, never mind, you know.
Oh, you just, you could have done it better.
And then eventually you just start
to see a lot of contention and people,
it just starts to push them to the limits,
it pushes them to the edge.
And then everything is so negative
with people like that.
So they cause strife,
they cause reproach upon everyone else as well.
Because it's just an embarrassment, isn't it?
People like that are an embarrassment,
they're a shame unto the name of Christ
when they're claiming to represent Christ.
But these people are everywhere,
so they're not just in, you know,
they don't just come into churches,
they're in the workplace.
They're in families,
you might get the extended family scoffer-scorner.
A bit harder when they're like,
you know, you get that sometimes,
the elderly scoffer-scorner,
you kind of have to give them a bit of grace, don't you?
When they're just sitting there scoffing
and scorning at everyone and everything.
And you get the online world, don't you?
In the online world there are a lot of scorners.
Sadly, the online world is just given
just a platform for scoffing and scorning
from hiding behind a keyboard
all over the place, right?
And they're just giving and scorning
everyone and everything.
Man, these people, hard work, right?
The answer is to get away from them where possible.
And you can get away from them in the online world,
you just don't have to look at their rubbish
and read their junk and listen to their stuff.
You can cast them out of your lives
and with them will go so much contention and problems.
Because they do just cause problems,
they cause contention, they cause stress.
Cast out the scorner, get them out of your life
one way or another, you know,
you can remove yourself from these types of people
and the pressure shall go out,
yea, strife and reproach shall cease.
The proverb warns us to keep away from people like this.
Verse 11.
He that loveth pureness of heart
for the grace of his lips, the king,
shall be his friend.
Now this is in contrast to the scorner.
Someone that loves pureness of heart,
they love goodness, they love righteousness,
they love uprightness.
They're a lover of good men, of good people
that strives to be pure of heart.
That is something that we should
all be trying to be like, shouldn't we?
Someone that loves pureness of heart,
both in our hearts and others.
So we should love it in ourselves,
we should try and achieve that,
but also we should love it in other people.
Not someone that's constantly trying
to push the boundaries, constantly tempting God,
not finding ways to justify sin,
to excuse our behaviour.
He that loveth pureness of heart
for the grace of his lips,
the king, shall be his friend.
So with that pureness of heart is grace in his lips,
which is goodwill, it's kindness, it's favour.
Luke 6.45, you don't have to turn this,
because the evil man out of the evil treasury
of his heart bringeth forth that which is good.
And an evil man out of the evil treasury
of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil.
For of the abundance of the heart
his mouth speaketh, and with that pureness of heart,
and then therefore that resulting grace,
because out of the abundance of the heart
the mouth speaketh, that resulting grace
of his lips, shall that person please
those in authority over them.
So if you have, if you strive for that pure heart,
if you're loving that pureness of heart,
then it should show eventually out of your lips.
So some will say my boss just doesn't like me.
Well try working on having a pure heart then.
Instead of blaming it all on your boss
maybe work on having a pure heart.
And I'm not saying it's always the case,
sometimes you might just get a bad boss,
sometimes you can have a froward boss.
But you know what, even a froward boss,
if you're dishonest, if you're hard working,
if you're diligent, if you have a pure heart,
if you're just trying to be a good person
and it'll come out of your lips as well,
eventually you're probably going to sway
most people in life.
Even bad people, eventually they prefer
to employ someone of those qualities
and someone without.
Some will say, some women will say
I just don't get on with my husband or vice versa.
Well try just working on a pure heart maybe.
Work on a pure heart.
You work on your heart, you work on yourself.
That's all you can really do anyway
rather than trying to work on the other person.
Work on yourself and you know what,
maybe that leader in your life,
maybe your husband might end up being your friend.
Some kids might be like oh my parents,
it's always anger, they're always unhappy
with me, they always seem to be disappointed.
Well maybe you need to work on a pure heart
for that leader in your life to be your friend.
Most people that are in charge, okay,
they do just like having honest, upright,
kind, loving people to deal with.
I'm sure most husbands want that in a wife
and I'm sure most wives want that in a husband.
I'm sure most bosses want that in their staff.
Most parents want that in their kids.
Most people just want to be dealing
with people with pureness of heart.
He said, he that loveth pureness of heart,
for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend.
Now you could also apply it to the King of Kings,
couldn't you?
Where if you want to be closer with Jesus,
because it's not that we're just all automatically
at this point, right, okay,
this isn't like a kind of communist utopia,
where everyone is just treated exactly the same way.
No, if you want to be like the apostle John,
was he the disciple that he loved?
There is clearly a close relationship
with the apostle John.
You want to be like Mary, Martha and Lazarus,
who he loved, who there was a close relationship,
get a pure heart.
Get some grace in your lips.
You want to get close to the God,
you want to get close to the Lord,
you want to have a close relationship to him,
then we should try loving pureness of heart
and having grace in our lips.
He that loveth pureness of heart,
for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend.
The proverb reminds us that the best way
to do well in life is to get right in our hearts.
The eyes, and when I say communist utopia,
by the way, that's sarcastic, all right,
the eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge
and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor.
So where does true knowledge come from?
Well, Proverbs 2, 6 says,
for the Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth
cometh knowledge and understanding.
So how do we know what's come out of his mouth
and what hasn't?
Well, what's in our Bibles, right?
It's all in our King James Bibles.
Now, some will go, but we don't have the originals.
But we don't have the originals.
We can't know what he said.
You're right.
We can't know what he said unless he preserved his knowledge.
Unless he preserved that knowledge.
And he promised to preserve that knowledge.
Praise God.
You can turn there if you want.
Many of you know these verses.
Psalm 12, verses 6 and 7 says,
the words of the Lord are pure words,
as silver tried in a furnace of earth,
purified seven times.
Thou shalt keep them, O Lord.
Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.
Praise God that he preserves his word.
Because if we had to preserve it,
well, it would have failed already a long time ago.
And those original manuscripts are still preserved to this day
by the same example that we see in Scripture
by being copied word for word.
By copying, by copying we see that example in the Bible
and that's what's happened since.
And it's those same manuscripts that we use
for this perfect translation,
which has gone out to the English-speaking world
for over 400 years now.
But what if the better manuscripts were lost
and luckily dug up 1,500 years or so later?
It's more than that.
Well, then God didn't preserve his word forever
and he didn't preserve it like he promised to
and he's a liar.
Then those perfect words were hidden for over 1,500 years,
which is a bit strange when he said,
Man shall not live by bread alone
but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God.
However, verse 12 here says,
that the eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge
and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor.
The only reason that we still have the knowledge
out of his mouth is because it's his watching eyes
that have preserved it.
It's because God's had his eye on it,
it's him that's preserved it
and with those words he overthrows the words
of the transgressor.
These preserved words in your King James Bible,
they overthrow the words of Muhammad.
They overthrow the words of Buddha.
They overthrow the words of Westcott and Horne
and they overthrow the words of the people
who he brought with their junk manuscripts.
It's all overthrown by the word of God.
He overthroweth the words of the transgressor
and these preserved words overthrow the words
of the various works of salvationists,
false prophets out there.
They're overthrown by the preserved words of God.
They're not overthrown by the NIV
and not necessarily depending on which verse you look at.
You could support their work of salvation
in probably pretty much all of those false Bibles.
But not the words of God. When you look at it in context and you see exactly what those
passages are talking about, when it comes to the word of God, he overthrows the words
of those transgressors.
The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge and he overthrows the words of the transgressor.
The proverb is a reminder that it's God that preserves his words so we can trust them to
expose the false words out there. We can trust the preserved words of God because it's God
that preserved them.
The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.
Now there's a very similar proverb in chapter 26 where it says in Proverbs 26, 13, the slothful
man saith, There is a lion in the way. A lion is in the streets.
So remember that a slothful person is someone that's lazy. And the truth here, and the reason
why we see it twice as well, is that this is a truth that you'll see. This is a very
common truth in life, is that you will have noticed this around lazy people, is that they
find excuses to do nothing. They find excuses to stay in their homes, anything other than
saying, I'm just lazy. Or something similar, I'm a sloth. I'm a sluggard. Think about it,
how often does someone say that to you? How often does someone just say to you, I'm lazy,
that's why I'm not coming. I'm lazy, that's why I'm not there. I'm lazy, that's why I
didn't do it. They never say it. Yet you know they're lazy, but they've always got an excuse.
Oh I'm lazy, that's why I'm not working. I'm not doing chores today because I'm lazy. I'm not
exercising today because I'm lazy. I'm bone idle. I'm not coming to church. I'm not coming
soul-winning because I'm lazy. I'm not reading my Bible because I'm lazy. Have you ever heard
anyone say that? Now and again you might hear someone go, I was feeling a bit, I'll be honest,
I was feeling a bit lazy. But it's rare. And that's usually after the event. Not before that.
Just to let you know, a message, I won't be there today, I'm lazy. They don't do it. What they do
do is they come out with a long list of excuses, okay. I can't come because. And the excuses are
as long as you like, okay. Now there are various excuses, various illnesses, problem pets, problem
children, sleep trouble, car trouble, bus and train trouble, etc. I mean you could probably
give me a hundred more, okay. And often they will convince themselves of the excuse, okay. So this
this person here is saying there's a line with that, I'll be staying in the streets, okay. They
will even convince themselves when it's ridiculous. When the excuse is so ridiculous, people just
convince themselves of their lies. And I think that with severe laziness, probably often comes
irrational fear of being out. So there is that as well. Their minds start convincing themselves
of dangers of going out. Because of the ingrained laziness, because they're not going out, then they
start to get anxious about being out. So there is that. Goes hand in hand as well. But there's also,
I believe, a spiritual side to this too. So where our adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walks
about seeking whom he may devour, the slothful Christian will probably even use the fear of the
enemy as an excuse not to serve. He will convince himself that it's futile to do the things of God,
to preach the gospel, maybe to do whatever it is that, you know, he's trying to make an excuse for
not doing. That we just can't succeed. You know, it's the devil's world, I don't even want to go
out amongst them type thing. Well have you seen how bad it is out there, it surrenders, it's basically
there's a line without. I'm gonna be staying in the streets, so I'm just gonna stay in my house
do nothing. Is it even worth it? Could you even get them saved? Did they really get saved? Et cetera,
et cetera, et cetera. You know what it is? It's someone basically saying there's a line without.
I should be staying in the streets. The lesson up for me is to assess yourself, assess your motives,
and that could be a hard thing for many people. Look, of course you've got the extreme, but we can all
have moments of laziness. It's a fleshly thing, it's a fleshly, you know, temptation of many. So we need
to assess ourselves, assess our motives, assess our fears, and really be honest with ourselves.
What really is it about? And fight that fleshly desire to be a sloth, which sadly many, many do.
You know, many will suffer with more than others, that desire for that. Verse 14, last one.
The mouth of strange women is a deep pit. He that is aboard of the Lord shall fall therein.
Now, strange women is another name for harlots, okay? And although it can be the literal straight
transaction type of harlot, okay, you know what I'm talking about. For example, Jephthah the Gileadite
is described in Judges 11.1 as a son of a harlot. And then the next verse says, And Gilead's wife
bare him sons, and his wife's sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah and said unto him, Thou
shalt not inherit in our father's house, for thou art the son of a strange woman. So it's used
interchangeably there, he's the son of a harlot, they're saying you're the son of a strange woman.
But it can also apply generally to just loose women. Women that use their bodies, their
sexuality as a form of merchandise, okay? For example, the strange woman that sleeps her way
to the top. She might not be doing straight transactions, but she's using herself, she's using
her body, she's using those things to get somewhere she believes in life. The strange woman that looks
for rich men to marry. And there are strange women out there that are on to like however many
marriages. They're strange women, they're looking for to use that for wealth, for money, and there
are strange women everywhere, okay? Proverbs 7 12 says, Now is she without, talking about the strange
woman, now in the streets and lieth and wait in every corner. They're everywhere, they're at every
corner, she lies in wait at every corner. And if looks are anything to go by, it seems that nowadays
in this nation they're on the corners and on the straights. I don't know, if you go by the looks,
it seems like there are people that look like harlots everywhere. But it's not just about how
they look, it's also how they talk. Verse 14 said, The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit,
he that is aboard of the Lord shall fall therein. And this is something that's repeated time and
again in the book of Proverbs, okay? Proverbs 2 16 says that the words of God are to deliver
thee from the strange woman even from the stranger which flattereth with her words. Proverbs 5 3 says,
For the lips of a strange woman droppers and honeycomb in her mouth is smoother than oil.
Proverbs 6 24 says that the instruction is to keep thee from the evil woman from the flattery of the
tongue of a strange woman. And Proverbs 7 5 says that they may keep thee from the strange woman
from the stranger which flattereth with her words. She flatters with that smooth mouth,
she'll make you feel special, she'll make you feel desired, respected, loved even.
But it's all a trap. The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit, and when you fall in deep pits it's
hard to get back out. It's not just a pit, it's a deep pit, okay? It's even harder to get back out of.
When you fall for a strange woman it can destroy your life, okay? And you see people all over the
world, all over the place, whose lives have been destroyed by strange women. They'll take your money,
they'll take your children, they'll take your joy, they ruin lives along the way, they destroy lives,
strange women destroy lives. How do you fall in that pit?
The mouth of a strange woman, or the mouth of strange women, sorry, is a deep pit. He that is
abored of the Lord shall fall therein. Now by being abored or detested by God it's saying here,
so of course that would include God's enemies, okay? So they're obviously more likely to fall
into that pit. Obviously, you know, people in sin and talking outside of God's people just, you know,
the even people that aren't necessarily, you know, the worst types of people just are sinning or
whose God's wrath is upon them. They're more likely to fall in that, but turn to Psalm 106
because that's interesting. When I look back to the false prophets I've known over the years
and come in contact with, how many of them were with strange women? How many were with strange
women? You know, how you would only describe the strange women that were just full of that flattery
and that whorishness and everything else, but God can abhor even, at least for a time,
his own people when they push him enough. So Psalm 106 says of the children of Israel,
so this is God's people here, of which many, you know, at least however many you want there
would have been saved people amongst those people as well, amongst that physical nation.
It said in verse 34, they did not destroy the nations concerning whom the Lord commanded them,
but this is verse 35 now in Psalm 106, but were mingled among the heathen and learned their works
and they served their idols which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and
their daughters unto devils and shed innocent blood even the blood of their sons and of their
daughters whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan and the land was polluted with blood.
Thus were they defiled with their own works, went a-whoring with their own inventions. Therefore was
the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people in so much that he abhorred his own inheritance.
So here it was yoking up with the unbelievers, it was serving their idols, it was sacrificing
their children and aside from abortion, so here obviously, you know, that would be the obvious
application nowadays is what they call abortion, what we would call baby murder.
How many believers sacrifice their children just to the world so they can earn more money,
have more time off, serve their idols? Or just sacrifice their spiritual life or sacrifice
them being trained up in the way they should go and give them because they want instead,
they want to get all that, you know, have all that time off, have all that extra money they can earn,
etc. The result of all these things is God's hatred and when you're on that side of God you're
more likely to fall into the trap of a whorish woman. It said the mouth of a strange woman back
in Proverbs 22 is a deep pit. He that is a board of the Lord shall fall therein. So when you're
yoking up with the world, the strange women are everywhere aren't they? So if you're yoking up
like we just saw that example of the children of Israel, you're just yoking up with the unbelievers
with the unsaved world there who you're hanging around with, that's who you're spending all your
time with and again it's not that you have to cut them off so you can go too far with this,
but if that's who you're yoking up with, you're having an equal relationship with them, you're
going to be around all those strange women then. You're going to be hanging around the strange
women, you're going to be spending time with the strange women. If there's one way sadly for so
many men to fall for a woman, it's just by length of time spent with them. That's why there's so
many workplace, what they like to call affairs, which is just filthy adultery. It's not some
pretty little affair, okay? That's why there's so much stuff. It's when they spend time, it's
spending too much time together and if you're spending too much time with the outside world,
you're yoking up with them, you're going to have, there's those problems obviously.
When you're worshipping money, your body, your car, the strange women are everywhere with that
stuff. They're everywhere. When you and your wife live separate lives in your workplaces,
maybe you just say hi and bye in the morning, the strange women become that bit more of an option
to many men because they barely see their wife, because they're living their separate lives of
their careers and they're not having the family time, they're not together, they're not having
that time together and the strange women start to become a bit more of an attractive option.
The mouth of strange women is a deep pit though. Their mouths, they're flattery, all that stuff
and even with that, you know, there comes a lot of other stuff, a lot of deception and other things
as well. He that is aboard of the Lord shall fall therein. The lesson is if you want to avoid the
trap, get right with God, get right with God. And on that we're going to finish in prayer.
Father, thank you for that first part of Proverbs 22, Lord, that's verse 14. Proverbs,
there's so many truths there, so many things that we can take heed from, we can be warned about,
we can get wise from, Lord, help us to be wise, help us to all be just a wise church that really,
just live off your word, Lord, not all the different teachings and
unbiblical teachings out there. Help us to just pay attention to your word, to live by that word,
Lord, to try and be sitting at your feet like we saw this morning, Lord, and sitting at your
feet and listening and learning from you. Help us to have a great week now, help everyone to
just go on their ways in a safe way, Lord, to get home safe and sound and to be able to get back
for the midweek service, if possible, for those that are close enough and for those that aren't,
Lord, to maybe try and make it Sunday or as soon as they possibly can get back in the house of
God, as we know that's where you want your people, Lord. Help us all, Lord, to have a great week.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Let us all join together on the last hymn this evening, hymn number 164,
Grace Greater Than Our Sin. Hymn number 164, Grace Greater Than Our Sin.
There where the blood of the lamb was spilled, grace, grace, God's grace,
grace that will pardon and cleanse within, grace, grace, God's grace,
grace that is greater than all our sins. Dark is the stain that we cannot hide,
what can avail to wash it away? Look, there is flow in a crimson tide,
whiter that snow you may be today. Grace, grace, God's grace,
grace that will pardon and cleanse within, grace, grace, God's grace,
grace that is greater than all our sin. Let's raise it up all together on the last.
Marvellous, infinite, matchless grace, freely bestowed on all who believe,
all who are longing to see his face. Will you this moment, his grace, receive
grace, grace, God's grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within,
grace, grace, God's grace, grace that is greater than all our sins.
Heavenly Father, thank you for your word and thank you for the Book of Proverbs.
I pray, Lord, that we'll take on board everything that we've learnt today and just keep us safe as we
go out of business and bring us back safe and sound on Wednesday. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Hi there, my name is Pastor Ian Tablan of Strong Tail Baptist Church. I'd just like to take a few
minutes today to show you how you can be 100% sure that if you died you'd be going straight
to heaven. So a lot of people teach all these strange things about how you can be good enough
to go to heaven, how you've got to follow a list of commandments to get to heaven. See,
they're really the other religion, there's only really two religions in the world, there's good
you go to heaven, bad you go to hell and all the varying versions of that, some of them are very
subtle, oh you've got to at least give up a certain amount of sin, you've got to at least try not to
sin and then there's a Bible which says no, no, no, go to heaven is a free gift and I want to show you
how you receive that free gift today. A few things you've got to understand first though before you
receive that gift and that's number one is that you are a sinner, I'm a sinner, we're all sinners.
The Bible says in Romans 3 23, for all have sinned to come short of the glory of God. See, we're all
sinners, we've all broken God's commandments in one way or another and the Bible says because of
that we come short of the glory of God, we cannot be good enough to go to heaven which means that
we're on our way somewhere else, there's only two places you go, you either go to heaven
or you go to hell and the Bible says for the wages of sin is death, we're all sinners and what we get
in return is death and in the end that's in a place called the second death which is a lake of fire.
The Bible says in Revelation 20 14, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire,
this is the second death. If the wages of sin is death and the second death is the lake of fire,
that's not a very good picture being painted there, in fact in Revelation 21 8 we see just a
quick list of common sins to show that we're all on our way to the lake of fire. The Bible reads,
but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers
and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars and that's you, me and everyone else in the world
shall have their part in the lake which burneth the fine brimstone which is the second death.
However, God doesn't want you to go to hell, hell is eternal, hell is a very real place but God
wants you in heaven and in fact he made a way for you to go to heaven in Romans 5 8 the Bible says,
but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
So Jesus Christ the son of God, God in the flesh came to this world and he didn't commit any sin,
he lived a perfect life and then at the end of his life he was hung up on a cross,
he died to pay for our sins. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5 21, for he have made him,
that's Jesus Christ, to be sin for us who knew no sin. Jesus Christ was sinless, however he became
sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He swapped with us, he took that
punishment for you, he died on that cross and he then tasted death for every man. The Bible says
in Acts 2 31 he's seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left
in hell, neither his flesh should see corruption because on the third day rose again, he showed the
holes his hands, the holes his side, it was a bodily physical resurrection, he wasn't a ghost,
they ate with him, they handled him and then 40 days later he went to heaven. Now what does that
mean? Does that mean everyone's going to heaven? Well of course not, see there's one thing we have
to do to receive that gift and in Acts 16 30 someone asks the question, Sirs what must I do
to be saved? The Apostle Paul and Silas answered and they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved and thy house. So what does that mean, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved? Are they saying to just believe that he exists? Are they saying to believe
that there's a person called Jesus? No, they're saying to believe on or put your faith, your trust
in that death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ to have paid for all your past,
present and future sins and you can go to heaven. That's what it means, it's to put your trust in
Jesus. Like it says in the most famous verse of the world, John 3 16, for God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have ever
lasted life. See the Bible teaches us time and time again that the only way you're going to heaven is
by putting your faith and trust in what Jesus Christ did, not what you do. See many people
claim to be Christians and say oh yeah I'm going to heaven because I believe in Jesus and I'm a
good person and I got baptized and I read my Bible and I do this and I do that. Well they're not
trusting Jesus Christ, they trust themselves and the Bible says if they're not trusting Jesus
Christ they're going to hell. Ephesians 3 and 9 says for by grace are you saved through faith
and that not of yourselves it is a gift of God, not of works as any man should boast. The Bible
said it's not of yourself, it's not of your own works, it's just faith alone in Christ alone that
gets you to heaven and a lot of people find that really hard to understand. Now they look at the
Bible and think yeah but you've got to follow the commands, you've got to do this, you've got to do
that. Yeah look as a child of God when you get saved, when you become one of one of God's children
by faith in Christ Jesus, which is what Galatians 3 26 says for you all the children of God by faith
in Christ Jesus, once you become that child God's going to punish you in life, he's going to reward
you in life. However the only way you become that child, the only way that you could ever get to
heaven is by what Jesus Christ did, not what you do. Once you receive that gift, that's it, it's a
gift, you're saved. The Bible says in fact in John 10 28 and I give unto them eternal life and they
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father which gave them me
is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. See once you're saved
you've received that gift, you've become a child of God, you could never go to hell otherwise Jesus
Christ lied when he said all you had to do was believe. He lied when he said that you shall never
perish and that's the gospel, gospel means good news. The good news is that your sins have been
paid for, all you've got to do is receive that gift and in fact in Romans 10 9 the Bible reads that if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God is raised
from dead, thou shalt be saved. It says in verse 13 of Romans 10 for whosoever shall call upon name
Lord shall be saved. If you believe if you want to put your faith your trust in Jesus Christ just
ask him and I'd like to lead you in a short prayer now if you believe everything I've just said if
you believe that you're a sinner you believe that you that the wages of sin is death that you deserve
hell that Jesus Christ the son of God that he died was buried and rose again to pay for your sins
and that all you've got to do is put your faith and trust in him and once you've done that
there is no way you could lose that salvation then please please just repeat after me did Jesus
I know I'm a sinner I know I deserve hell I believe that you died was buried and rose again
to pay for my sins I trust in you now and I need you please take me to heaven when I die. Amen.
If you believe that and you've called the name of the Lord for salvation
congratulations you're saved and I'll be seeing you in heaven one day. God bless you.
you