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All right, Proverbs 17, let's jump right in. I've got a lot of material tonight in this chapter here. Quite a few topics come up, so let's get into this. Proverbs chapter 17, verse number one, the Bible reads, Better is a dry morsel in quietness therewith than in house full of sacrifices with strife. Now, most of the topics we're going to be talking about tonight, we've already gone over in general, getting this far into the book of Proverbs, but some of these things are just so simple and we need to keep them in the forefront of our minds to not let so much in this lifetime consume us and take over and get distracted with things that aren't really important. And we have so many of these great little bits of wisdom to really drive home the point. What we're saying here is better is a dry morsel. A morsel is just like a crumb, not necessarily a crumb, but a real small portion of food. A morsel is just a real small piece of food and dry, think about just like a stale piece of bread or something. That would be a dry morsel. It's better just to have a dry morsel in quietness therewith, the Bible says, than in house full of sacrifices with strife. And what's strife? Fighting. And having a lot of contention and fighting and just no peace and no quiet in your home. The value of having that peace and quiet, it's so much more valuable than even having all the best food. I mean, you often think like, oh man, how nice would it be to have filet mignon anytime I wanted and I just have it sitting in the fridge or I have it in the freezer and I could have jumbo shrimp and I could have whatever, lobster or crab or just all these great foods and you think it's easy to kind of get off on this little rabbit trail thought of just thinking like, oh man, how great it must be to have all this food at my fingertips. Most people in this room, maybe not everybody, but most people here, you probably don't have that type of access to just all the most luxurious food. It's not that, more people than not are kind of pinching pennies and struggling a little bit. The good news is that, hey, God's blessed us tremendously so we're not like, when we think of struggling here in America with really the wealth that we have, we are rich compared to history of people really struggling and really scraping to get by. So first of all, I'd never forget that. But that's not really what it is. This is still talking more about the value of things. Don't be so worried about the financial things. Don't be so worried about the food. Be more worried about your relationships and how things are going at home. It's way better to have just a house that's full of love and people that care about each other and to have that quietness and have peace with one another than to have everything in the world and just be fighting and angry and having all kinds of things going wrong in your household. It's way, way, way, way, way better to have nothing but just say, you know what, we have each other and have that type of a mindset. Now what's interesting about this, especially for the people that don't have much already, if you don't have much now but you're always thinking about what you don't have, you won't have peace because you're going to be worried about not having the stuff that you have. So you're not going to have the quietness. You're not going to have peace. It's always going to be bothering you. And now you're going to have the worst of both worlds because it's better to have a dry morsel just to have like a little bit of stuff but have the peace there, have quietness to have everything going well. But when you're focused on all the things that you don't have, it causes more stress, it causes more tension, it causes more strife thinking about those other things and fighting over money and that type of thing. You won't have either. If you're already in the one situation, right, at least enjoy it, at least say, hey, you know what, I don't have much but I'm just going to be satisfied with where I'm at and be real content and enjoy the people that I'm with, enjoy my family, enjoy serving God, enjoy all the things and recognize what God has done for me. And that is the most important thing is to be able to have that recognition to say, I may not have all this fancy stuff but look at what I do have. Look around and don't just let it become old hat. Don't just let it become, oh yeah, well, whatever, yeah, I got this car, yeah, I got that car, yeah, you know, hey, praise the Lord that you have a car. Praise the Lord you have the things that you have. And have that right type of mindset, it will drastically improve the joy that you have in life in general. When you're not so worried about what you don't have and thankful for what you do, it will revolutionize your life if that's a problem for you, if you're kind of worried about. And you know, the Bible, ultimately, when you're worried about things that you don't have that you can't attain, that's covetousness. You know, we're sold that bill of goods in our American society today as if it's just normal. I mean, you are being bombarded with marketing and all the things that you need to have, man, you need this and you know, everybody's got this and you need to have yours. I mean, I think the first thing that comes to my mind is the phones, right, I mean, like, everybody's got the smartphone. And those things are like 600 bucks, man, it's like, what are you talking about? You're like, I don't need one, you know, but because people feel they need it and everyone else has one, you know, whatever. And you know, I know I've got one of mine and it cost 600 bucks, I got mine for a dollar, but that's a whole nother story. But it's just, it's that type of an attitude where you just think, you know, you get this, oh, I need to have this, oh, but this does this and this has all these features, oh, I need to have that. How can you ever live? You know, people these days, it's like, you don't know how you can live without your cell phone and the internet and everything else, it's like, that's all really new. I mean, it wasn't even that long ago, people didn't have telephones at all, like, what did you do? You didn't have TV, you didn't have video games, you didn't have all these things that people spend so much of their time on these days. And what did people do? I don't know, they've read the Bible, they did something righteous with their life, but I don't even know how it got off on that, let's go to verse number two. Be content with the things that you have. You don't need to have this covetous attitude, that's where I was going with that, the covetousness. Verse number two, Proverbs 17, a wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren. Now, this is extremely true even today, but slightly different in our culture, you know. Normally when there was a servant, someone who owed a debt and needed to pay it off and had to become a servant, people who were poor oftentimes would become a servant to someone who had a lot of wealth and had a great house and you could do work for that person. And what this is talking about is, you know, the son of the man who is wealthy, who has a lot of things, you know, the master of a servant, his own children will be the ones inheriting his substance, right? But what this is teaching us is that a wise servant, maybe you're in the position of a servant, maybe you're not in a rich family, maybe you're not expecting a lot of inheritance on your own and you just have to go and work for someone else. It says a wise servant shall rule over a son that causeth shame. So you need to be working your best because, you know what, maybe the master's son is someone who is dishonorable, someone who just causes him shame, and he's saying you might very well end up having a part of the inheritance as if you're one born to that person. You put forth that work and you just are dedicated and you are serving to your utmost as if unto the Lord. Like the Bible says in Colossians 3 and Ephesians chapter 6 that we ought to have that type of a mindset when we do our job, especially when you're working for someone else, hey, whether you like the guy or not, your boss, work for him as unto the Lord. This is giving us a little bit of wisdom here saying, you know what, a wise servant, someone who's just going to do what they're told and do what's right and bring honor unto their boss, they could very well end up being, it says they shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren. They'll be treated like a son even if they're not. So it's a good encouragement there in the Proverbs here. Look at verse number three, the fining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord trieth the hearts. Now we're going to spend quite a bit of time on a lot of these Proverbs really digging into the words because you have to understand the meaning and what's going into these. There's a lot of older language and it's not that the language is hard to understand, but a lot of people don't have knowledge of these things. The fining pot is for refining. When you're refining a metal, you're refining gold, you're refining silver, what you're doing is you're removing the impurities. You're trying to make it as pure as possible. So what they do is they would heat up the silver, they'd heat up the gold, and the heating it up when it starts to melt, then you could separate the dross, you could separate the impurities, the other metals, the other materials that have become part of that. You can separate those to make it more pure. And the Bible here is relating as there's a fining pot for the silver, the fining pot is a little furnace or the furnace for the gold, whether the real hot furnace of fire in order to melt it. It says, but the Lord trieth the hearts. So it's relating these two subjects of removing, you know, refining metal with God trying your hearts. Now, going through the fire and using the furnace, it's intense, right? I mean, there's an intense heat going on there. It's an agitated state that's being brought up with the gold and with the silver of them being melted. Well, when God tries our hearts, the trials come during, you know, that's when we go through the difficult times. God can bring us through times of difficulty to gauge our heart, the purity of our heart to see where are we going to stand. So when we look at this, this isn't necessarily an encouraging verse, but it's one that we need to recognize and understand the importance of to make sure that our hearts are right with God so that when we do go through the trials that our hearts can come forth like pure silver, like pure gold. Look at, turn if you would to 2 Chronicles chapter 32, because I'm going to bring up a few examples of this specifically where God does try people's hearts and we're going to see the example of Hezekiah, one of the kings of Israel in 2 Chronicles chapter 32. King Hezekiah was known as a good righteous king, he was a man that pretty much followed the Lord, you know, he did good things in his day and there was a time when he was sick and his sickness, he said, you know, was going to be unto death, but he prayed unto God, he humbled himself, it was like, God, you know, like, please just give me more time. We remember all the stuff I did for you and God heard his prayer and he's like, okay, I'm going to add 15 more years unto you. So he added more years unto his life when he humbled himself like that. And because he was a good, so you know, God hearkened unto him, he listened unto him. But then after that, the Babylonians came and they were asking about all the treasures and stuff and he showed them everything and he was kind of lifted up then after he got healed and didn't really give the credit unto God and he showed everything to them and God was like, well, they're all going to come now and you're going to lose all that stuff that you were so proud of, that you showed everything unto them. But that's kind of the overview story of Hezekiah real simply, 2 Chronicles 32, look at verse number 30, this is the recap or synopsis of Hezekiah, it says, this same Hezekiah also stopped the upper water course of Gihon and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David and Hezekiah prospered in all his works, howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his heart. So here we see an example of God trying a man, because he wants to know what's in your heart and it says here that God left him, right? So God's guidance, God's leading, he says, you know what, I've been guiding you for a long time, you should have a lot of knowledge, now I want to see what's really in your heart and God stood back and he says, okay, Hezekiah, what do you got for me? And we ought to make sure that our hearts are prepared, that we can know, that we can be ready so that when the trial comes, and it could come in various forms, in this case it came with the ambassadors of Babylon, well what are you going to do, are you going to take the credit, are you going to glory in all this stuff, are you going to glory in his kingdom, are you going to give credit to God? And see, Hezekiah didn't really pass this trial, he did a lot of great things for God, he's a saved man, he was a good overall man of God, but when this trial came, God stepped back for a minute and tried him, and he says, okay, well, a judgment ended up coming as a result of him failing that trial. Turn if you would to Daniel chapter 11, Daniel chapter 11, one of the reasons why I want to make a little bit more of a point on this one verse in Proverbs that we started on here, with the Lord trying the hearts, is because in the end times, which I believe we are in the end times, I have no idea how much longer we have to go, maybe a decade, I don't know, whatever, but we can see things ramping up, we see so many things happening around us that just feels like the end is right around the corner, that we're almost to this point to where the tribulation's going to start, the persecution's really going to come down hard on Christians, and we need to make sure that our hearts are ready, that we're founded, that we're solid, because there are going to be coming trials during that time. During the tribulation time, there's going to be a lot of trials for believers in Jesus Christ. Look at Daniel 11, verse number 31, this is referring to that time before Christ comes back. Verse number 31 of Daniel 11 reads, in arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. So this is talking about the Antichrist, the desolation of abomination being set up in the temple, proclaiming himself to be God. And as we know from other scriptures, this is kind of going to really ramp up and set up that extreme tribulation that is going to be coming towards Christianity, is when the Antichrist says, you know, I'm God, and he stands in that temple, and then he's going to be, let's get rid of these infidels, right? I'm the true God. And in the real Christians, the believers are going to be like, no you're not, and there's no way I'm ever going to bow down to you, and he's going to say, we're going to wipe them out. I mean, that's what's going to happen, that is what's coming. So that's where we're at here in verse number 31, look at verse number 32, it says, and such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries, but the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits, and they that understand among the people shall instruct many, yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by spoil many days. Now when they shall fall, they shall be hoping with a little help, but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. And some of them of understanding shall fall, look at this, to try them, and to purge and to make them white, even to the time of the end, yet it is yet for a time appointed. So we see a lot of things that are going to be going on here, there's going to be a lot of exploits, there's going to be people teaching, there's going to be people preaching, there's going to be all kinds of things going on, but they will fall, people are going to be killed during this time, and it's not because they're less of a Christian or anything, this is just what's going to be happening, and this is what's being prophesied. You say while they're doing this, while they're instructing many, they will, and we will, and if we are the people that are alive during this time, we will be instructing many. We will be not shutting up at all, but actually preaching even louder, and instructing many, it says yet they shall fall by the sword, by the flame, by captivity, by spoil, all these different things are going to be happening, you're going to be arrested, you're going to be killed, you're going to be, you know, whatever, whatever the case may be is going to be going on. But it's interesting there in 35, it says some of them of understanding, we're of understanding, shall fall to try them, and to purge, and to make them white even at the time of the end, because it is yet for a time appointed. Turn if you will to 1 Peter chapter 4, 1 Peter chapter 4. We need to be aware of the trial, and the trial is serious, that's why in Proverbs it likened it to the burning of the gold, and the silver, and the furnace, like it's not a fun, it's not going to be a fun time when you go through trials. It's stressful, it's going to be, you know, a lot of unpleasantness going on in trials. Job was tried. His trial was not fun at all. He lost everything, he lost his health, but it was a trial, and it says when he was tried he came forth, you know, he kept his integrity, he remained loyal and faithful to the Lord. Now he wasn't perfect, he had his own mistakes, and he had to be taught some things by God, but he never just blamed God for what he was in, you know, he never charged God foolishly with his lips, the Bible says. So he was tried and came out well, and God ended up blessing him in the end as a result. 1 Peter chapter 4, look at verse number 12, the Bible reads, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. God doesn't want us ignorant of the fact that trials are going to come, he's like, don't just think it's, wow, wow, why is this happening to me, you know, a lot of people, a lot of Christians are living their lives thinking that they're untouchable, nothing bad could ever happen to them, and if it's exactly right, it's wrong, you know, and they're going to be the ones going, what is going on, why am I being persecuted, as if it's some strange thing happening. No, when these trials come, don't be surprised at it, he said, I'm giving you this warning in advance, don't just be thinking, wow, this is some strange thing, what in the world's going on? Of course the persecution's going to come, you think, oh, that would never happen in America in this Christian nation, yes it is, it's already happening, beginning, just the little bit starting, but don't be so, you know, negligent in your thinking that, you know, and secure, that we're just secure and safe here in America, that could change really fast, really fast, and don't just have a false sense of security that, oh, no persecution's ever going to come my way, because if you do, then you're going to be thinking, what is this strange thing that's happening? We know that there's spiritual wickedness in high places, we know that Satan has a plan, and we know that God has a plan too, but the things that have been prophesied are going to come to pass, and that, you know, hey, and when these things happen too, let's have the right attitude about it. Now, most people are going to think you're crazy if you're rejoicing through the trials, but isn't that what the Bible just said to do, he says, hey, when this stuff happens to you, he says, rejoice, rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings. Think about how much Jesus Christ suffered when he was being whipped and beaten and nailed to the cross and everything else. That's not a fun thing that you're looking forward to, but he says, you know what, if you find yourself in that situation, rejoice. That's actually a good thing, because you are counted worthy to suffer shame for the cause of Christ when you remain steadfast, when you don't deny him, when you don't bow down to the image of Baal, when you bring that honor and glory under the name of Jesus Christ and you remain steadfast, he says, you know, have exceeding joy. That's what the apostles did when they were whipped and beaten for the cause of Christ. When they left, he says, they leaped for joy. They counted it glory. They counted it a great thing that they were kind of worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus Christ. And that is the attitude that we need to have. We need to get ourselves thinking about it and spend some time just thinking about it like, man, what's going to happen? What am I going to do if someone puts a gun to my head and tells me to renounce God or whatever? Whatever these situations are, and they do happen, not that frequently, but they happen in I think in Columbine and in these other school shootings where they literally have gone in and put a gun to people that they knew were Christian and told them, I won't kill you if you deny Jesus or whatever. Those are defining moments. We need to be able to understand where you may not ever have a gun face to your head, but who knows? Who knows what the situation might be that you're in? Whatever the case may be, whatever the trial is in your life, it could come in many forms. Be ready for it. Have your heart ready to withstand the trial in that day. And you know what? When it happens, try to remember in the midst of it, you could take this comfort. You know what? I should really be glad about this. It will help you to get through it instead of just kind of having a woe is me. What's going on? What's happening to me? Because having a negative attitude, you're going to be down and down and more likely just to give up as opposed to, hey, I'm being persecuted for the cause of Christ. When you go through something like that, you just think about your rewards. Think about the things of eternal value. How great is this going to be? Let's go back to Proverbs 17. Proverbs 17, verse number 4. And whenever we turn, we've got a few other places to turn tonight, just keep a bookmark or something obviously back in Proverbs 17, we're going to be turning back to there for the whole evening. Proverbs 17, verse 4, a wicked doer giveth heed to false lips and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue. So here we have like two types of people, the wicked doer and the liar. It's basically saying that they're listening to each other. The wicked doer gives heed to the false lips, to the liar, and the liar gives ear to the naughty tongue. So the guy that's speaking evil things and doing wicked things, they're friends. They hang out together. They could even be one and the same, but the wicked have no problem listening to liars and liars listening to evil speakers, they're part of the same crowd. And I'm sure they feed off of each other too. The liar tells the wicked doer to go do something wicked and he's lying about it and he'll just go off and do it because he likes to do wicked anyways. But this is the whole group, and we've seen a lot of different attributes of the wicked doers, the wicked people in this world to avoid and to stay away from and have nothing to do with them because nothing good will ever come out of that. Look at verse number seven, the Bible reads, excellent speech becometh not a fool, much less do lying lips a prince. So just as out of place as it is to hear a fool speaking excellently, it's just orating and having some nice speech, coming out of the mouth of a fool. It's just as much out of place for a prince to lie. And we went over that last week with the kings and the princes bearing rule and all those attributes of how a prince ought to be, how a ruler or governor ought to be, is that it should be completely out of place for a ruler to be telling a lie, for lying lips on a prince. And that just shows you how backwards we are today. Now it's just commonplace and expected. Of course politicians lie. Of course the people who run this, I mean, it's a joke and everybody knows it and it's a joke but it's not funny because they are all liars. Because it's just true that the people that we have in charge today, you just expect them and you know that they're lying to you and we all just put up with it. When the standard that God puts on there says, you know, that should be so out of place for someone to have so little integrity that they're just expected for them to lie, it's ridiculous. And that's why we look at these people, the excellent speech, right? We have these politicians that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and whatever, these guys, they go around and they make their speeches but they're fools. And I'll tell you what, excellent speeches do not become them. Not at all. Because they're not excellent and they're fools. Much less lying lips of prince. Look at verse number five, Proverbs 17 verse five, who so mocketh the poor reproachth his Maker and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished. And this is a real strong statement here, who so mocketh the poor reproachth his Maker. God has a special place in his heart for the poor, for the needy, for those that are in need of anything, you know, the halt, the maim, the blind, people who don't have a leg up, people who don't have power, people who are down and out. God loves those people a lot. And when you mock them, and watch yourself so you don't be mocking the poor and mocking the homeless and just mocking these people and thinking that you're so much better than them, have this proud attitude because they don't have anything, you say, well, what are they going to do? Nothing. But what's God going to do when you go around with that type of an attitude? And it says here that if you mock the poor, you reproach your Maker. You're speaking evil basically of God. It's like you're mocking God when you're mocking the poor, when you're mocking the people that are in need. So remember that. Remember that. Now there's some people that become poor because of their own sin and wickedness and the things that they do, but not everyone is like that. And you ought to be careful of mocking people like that and take this verse to heart. Look at verse number six. Children's children are the crown of old men, and the glory of children are their fathers. Now, it truly is an accomplishment and an honor to be a grandparent. We were just talking to, what was that gentleman's name? We were talking about someone named Rusty? Rusty. Yeah. I mean, he got it. He had seven children. And he said, I've traveled all over the place. I've done all these different things. And he says, the joy that you get from those little children is there's nothing like it in the world. And it's true. I mean, it's absolutely true. Children are inherited to the Lord. They're a true blessing. Happy is the man that is quiverful of them. And we were speaking to a man, he's an older man, and he has grandchildren himself. And I'm sure that he would completely agree with this verse. And it's the truth. Children's children are the crown of old men. It's a great honor to have that. And it also says the glory of children are their fathers. So children ought to be able to look up to their dads and be proud of their dads and provide glory. The father ought to be able to provide glory for their children to where they can look up to their dad and really have a good example. But what if your father is one that provides no glory? What if you're in that situation? Well, you have to remember that we all have spiritual fathers also. And don't let yourself get down if you are in one of those situations where your dad is just total deadbeat and not in the picture and just nothing to do with you and everything like that. Because if you're saved, you also have spiritual fathers. Turn, if you would, to John chapter 8. And there's definitely more to be... obviously there's the first application of the physical. The physical father. The physical grandparent. These are good things and it really is good to promote your family and things like that. But there's more to being called a father than just being a physical father. Than just being... trying to find the right words. Just by providing your genetics, just by providing the means for a child to be born. There's a difference between raising your child and being there for them as opposed to just physically being involved in it happening. And we see in John chapter 8 that even if you do have someone who is your physical parent, that's your physical father, we need to be children of our fathers. And the physical doesn't always represent who your father is. We're going to see that. I know you're kind of like, what are you talking about? Look at John chapter 8 verse 37. We're going to see here Jesus talking to the Pharisees. He says, I know that ye are Abraham's seed. You're children of Abraham. I know that. Right? That's what he's establishing with the Pharisees. But ye seek to kill me because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my father and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. Turn there because apparently this didn't print out perfectly here. Verse 39, they answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, if ye were Abraham's children ye would do the works of Abraham. So being a child of a father is more than just being the physical descendant. He's saying, look, if you really are a child of your father, you would be doing the works that your dad did. You'd be following him and doing those things. And when the Bible uses references to a father, like obviously in this case, Abraham wasn't their literal father as in the one generation of they are the son and he's the father. It spans many generations. So you see many people being referred to as David, his father, and it's just because he was their progenitor. He was the ancestor that goes back in their lineage. And in order to be a child of that person, you need to follow that person. And so maybe your physical immediate father wasn't someone to be looking after and getting glory to and everything else, but you can still have a father, maybe a relative beyond him or maybe a spiritual father, someone that led you to Christ to be able to look to and say, yeah, I'm going to be doing the works of this man, doing the works of this father or your, you know, your father in heaven, right? That's what Jesus Christ did. He did the works of his father. They are trying to say that he was of the devil. He's like, no, you're of the devil and you do the works thereof. I think I have a few verses here more I wanted to read here because he goes on, he says in verse 40, but now you seek to kill me a man that hath told you the truth, which I've heard of God. Jesus did not Abraham ye do the deeds of your father, then said they to him, we'd be not born of fornication. We have one father, even God, Jesus said unto them, if God were your father, you would love me for I proceeded forth and came from God. Neither came I of my, of myself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Even because he cannot hear my word, ye are of your father, the devil and the lusts of your father. You will do. Remember from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. Turn, if you would, back to Proverbs chapter 17. So we want to, you know, bring honor. Fathers should be deserving of glory. You should be someone like that. And if you're a father, you need to be living up to that status where your children ought to be able to look up to you. You ought to be the glory of your children, physically. But not only that, as you go out and win people to Christ, you're a spiritual father in that sense also. You should also be living a life, you should also be someone that they could look up to and you could provide glory and honor that way. And as children, children are always looking for somebody to be modeled after. They're looking for someone to lead them and to guide them. And you, physically speaking, dad, you're in that position for them to be looking up to. And make sure that you are filling that role to provide that glory. Let's go back to Proverbs 17, verse 21 reads, he that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow, and the father of a fool hath no joy. Look at verse number 25, a foolish son is a grief to his father and bitterness to her that bear him. Nobody wants to be raising a foolish child. But train up a child in a way that you should go and when he's old, he's not going to depart from it, the Bible says. So we need to be, ultimately, it's going to come back on you. When you don't spend the time investing in your children, when you don't spend the time teaching and training them, it will come back to bite you later on. You need to invest the time, they are that important, because if you don't, they're going to end up causing you shame. They're going to have being a grief to you, and then you'll be like that master that's like well now I'm going to have to treat this servant as my son because my son is just ashamed, and that's a shame. Look at verse number 8 of Proverbs 17, Proverbs 17 verse 8, the Bible reads, a gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it whithersoever it turneth it prospereth. Don't take your gifts for granted, see here's how about a gift is like a precious stone in the eyes of him that really values it. Receiving something for free, receiving a free gift, don't take those gifts for granted. When you value it, you'll use it and it'll prosper. When you really value the gift, God's given us all gifts. We have gifts given to us of God, and first thing I do is recognize, hey thank you God for giving me this gift, whatever that gift may be, whether it's in your mind or whether you got some other talents, you're able to play music, whatever the gift may be, don't take it for granted, value it, and when you value that gift and it's like a precious stone in your eyes, whithersoever it turneth it'll prosper, and you'll be doing good with that gift. Look at verse number 9, he that covereth a transgression seeketh love, but he that repeateth the matter separated the very friends. Now I think I probably went over this earlier, I remember this verse unless it was one that was almost exactly the same, but it's still a very important topic, I'm going to cover it real briefly here. When you see or hear someone do something wrong, you don't always have to make sure everyone knows about it. You don't need to go running your mouth about it and just letting everybody know, hey so and so did this, I just saw that person, you know, let it go. If it doesn't involve you, if it's not like some major grievous sin, like you saw brother so-and-so kill somebody, you know, like, I mean, okay, yeah, tell somebody about that, right, that's not what we're talking about here, but we all screw up. We all make mistakes. There's things that I'm sure you don't want to just have spread about and have everybody know about your life, and it says if you cover a transgression you seeketh love, but he that repeateth the matter, you're just talking about it, saying it over and over again, telling other people about it, you separate very friends. There's plenty of situations where someone screws up in sins and you might know about it, but telling others about that sin could cause that person to lose friends. Maybe they screwed up in the past and maybe people are just kind of like at this line of just like, you know, if he does one more thing, then that's it, I'm not even going to talk to him anymore or whatever, and then you see, you know, and he's really sorry, he did something, and you know about it, but like, you know what, I'm going to go and tell these people now and just split up the friendship and not have that love and just overlook that and cover that transgression. There's a time to speak up about things that are done, but there's also a time to keep quiet about it. There's time to just let things go. Proverbs 17, look at verse 14, the Bible reads, the beginning of strife is as one letteth out water, therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with. Now what it means at the beginning of strife, so the beginning of a fight, right, when things are just getting heated, it's like when one lets out water. Think about when water overflows, when water is let out, it goes everywhere, and it goes everywhere really fast. I mean water that's just kind of let out overflow, I remember, you know, we left the water on in our swimming pool, and when it just left on it just starts overflowing, man, that goes over the edge and it just starts going and going and going and making a big old mess, and that's the way, you know, at the beginning of a fight, it could go, it could start getting wild real fast, and you need to leave off that contention before it be meddled with, you know, start meddling around in other people's problems and other people's fights, leave it alone. Just deal with the things that you have to deal with, don't go getting involved in everybody else's business and everyone else's fights, because it's just going to end up making a big mess. You're not going to, don't think you're going to be solving everyone else's problems, worry about your own. Look at verse number 19, Proverbs 17, 19, he loveth transgression that loveth strife. Basically he loves to sin. If you like fights, if you like getting in fights and being a part of fights, he says you love transgression, you love sinning, and he that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction. He that hath, verse 20, he that hath a froward heart findeth no good, and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief. Let's go back to verse number 10, man oh man, I'm going to try to get through, there's so much, there's so much content in this chapter, verse number 10, a reproof entereth more into a wise man than in hundred stripes into a fool, and I know we've gone over this concept before so I'm not going to spend too much time on that, look at verse number 16, wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it. He's saying why, why is the fool bringing a price in his hand to get wisdom, like why is he going through the motions of that if your heart's not in it. Why would you want to invest anything, any amount of money or any amount of time in something when you don't have your heart in it, because you're just going to lose it. If your heart's not in it, you're going to end up losing it, you're not going to see it all the way through, and especially something like wisdom, it's not something that just comes overnight. In order to attain wisdom, your heart needs to be in it, the physical cost is meaningless if your heart's not in it, because there is a physical cost, the reason about gaining wisdom is it's going to take time, you're going to have to invest time reading, invest time studying and learning, and it's like the person that is willing to invest all kinds of time in a debate just to argue, just to fight, people are willing to, we'll set up this time and we'll debate and we'll fight, and it's all about the fight, and they'll invest so much into it, but they're not really interested in wisdom, they're not really interested in the truth. Now I love true debates and true arguments, where it's not just a fight, where it's not just striving, where it's actually people who can present ideas and present thoughts and be able to supply evidence, but if both people are actually interested in the truth, one person could be swayed, one person might be able to be proven to be wrong and change their mind about something. That is the ultimate goal of having a legitimate debate or argument, and those are great. When you could have someone who has that honesty, but you're only going to find that though when their heart is in it. Their heart is in the truth, their heart is in the wisdom. They want to have the wisdom, and see, I have no problems arguing with people over doctrine, but still maintaining why I just want to know what's right. Again, that goes back to the name of our church, Word of Truth. We are a group of people here, and the reason that name was chosen is because we're interested in the truth. That is a very high goal and objective for us in this church is just to know what is right. What does God say? It doesn't matter. We should have no investment of ourselves, of our own pride, of, oh well, but if that's true then I've been wrong for all these years. I don't care. Now it's not like I want to be wrong, but what's more important to me is what's right. Just following the truth. It's sad. There was a family that came years back to Faithful Word while I was attending there, and they had been taught the pre-Trib rapture their whole lives, and they had taught their children that, and their children were relatively young. They were like 10 to 12-ish kind of range. They had like three children, and the dad was persuaded that the pre-Trib rapture was false and that it was after the tribune and all this other stuff. Now look, first of all, it's not like it's the biggest doctrine in the world either. We're not talking heresy here. We're talking about end times. We're talking about eschatology. But anyways, this guy ended up not, he stopped going to church. Even though he liked the church, even though he agreed with the teaching, because he didn't, he said, I don't want to cause confusion with my children. I've already taught them this way. It's like, are you going to continue teaching a lie? Is that more important to you than just saying, I was wrong? This is actually the way it is, and now I'm going to teach you right? And see, that's someone whose heart wasn't in it. They were more worried about some weird problem of causing confusion with their children than, I want to know what's right, and I want to teach what's right. And we ought to have our hearts in it, because if your heart's not in it though, I mean, it doesn't matter how much time you invest, you're just going to waste that. You're going to end up being a waste of time. You're going to, you know, the price that you bring, it says wherefore, why is the price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom? Why is it even bother, if you're a fool, why do you even bother going to do anything to get wisdom, seeing you have no heart to it, if you don't really care, if you don't really want to do it? Do you think about the people who make their failed attempts at beating an addiction? They don't really want to stop. It's those half-hearted tries. I know all about it. I used to smoke and drink and all this other stuff, and if you don't really want to stop doing something, you won't do it. And any attempts that you make, you know, you want to stop smoking, well, I'll try buying the gum, and I'll try buying the patches, and I'll do all this other stuff. You're wasting your money and your time if your heart's not in it. If you haven't really decided, you know what, I'm done with this. Now I know people still struggle with that, but my point is, if your heart is just kind of halfway there, don't waste your time, don't waste your money. That's just being foolish in that scenario. Okay, Proverbs 17, next verse here, verse number 11, an evil man seeketh only rebellion, therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him. You're going to end up reaping what you saw, look at verse number 12, let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man rather than a fool in his folly. Again, a bear robbed of her whelps, her whelps are her young. That's what it means when it says whelps there, it's her cubs. And you probably heard the phrase, you know, acting like a mama bear. There's a reason for that. Bears are extremely protective over their cubs, over their young ones, and they end up killing people. People sometimes will go on hikes and not even realize that there's like a cub around and a mama bear. But it doesn't matter to the mama bear, it's not like, oh, okay, you didn't mean to be over here. The mama bear will go after them thinking that they're a predator going after their children and literally be acting like the mama bear and destroy people because of it. And he's saying, you know what, it's better to let a bear, you know, a bear robbed of her whelps, someone came and stole those cubs so that this is furious bear, right? That's the imagery being used here. This is the language being used. It's better to have that type of a mama bear robbed of her whelps to meet you than a fool in his folly. The fool just being a fool and acting foolishly. It's better to find that angry bear than to just be off in foolishness. Strong statement. Look at verse number 13. Who so rewardeth evil for good? Evil shall not depart from his house. Now this is a curse for those who attack people doing good. There's a lot of that going on these days too. And another reason why we need to be careful with the words and accusations that you make, there's a lot of railing accusations, especially online these days on the internet. People are just falsely accusing left and right and slandering and saying all kinds of manner evil against people, against men of God, against people who do good. People see something they don't like or they hear something they don't like on the internet. They don't know anything about the person and what they actually do and the actual good works that they're doing. And they'll just throw out all kinds of things out of their mouth. And it says, who so rewardeth evil for good? Evil shall not depart from his house. And we see examples of this now. This verse specifically is talking about someone rewarding evil for good. So when someone does them good, they do bad unto them. We saw this happen with King Saul and David. Turn if you would to Psalm 109. King Saul and David, when Saul kept on pursuing after David to kill him. David didn't do anything. He never did anything. Saul was just bent on killing him and destroying him. And twice David had the opportunity to kill Saul. And he could have done it rightfully. He had the opportunity. He was there when he was in the cave and Saul entered in and David was in there. Could have killed him right there. And he cut off the little piece of his garment just to show, like to prove, you were here, I was right next to you and you didn't even know it and I could have killed you. And just before when Saul was sleeping and he had all of his army and his men surrounding him and David crept in there, took the cruise of water by the spear and took off and then called to him. It's like he had two opportunities to do it. Didn't kill Saul. And I'm going to read for you from 1 Samuel 24 17 where Saul then is humbling himself after you know in one of these situations. He says, and he said to David, thou art more righteous than I for thou hast rewarded me good whereas I have rewarded thee evil. Saul kept on trying to commit evil against David who was only doing good and only saying I can't lift up my hand to the Lord's anointed. I can't do you. And David was only showing good to Saul and Saul was only showing evil but guess what happened to Saul? Evil was rewarded unto him. That curse came unto him. Who's so rewarded with evil for good? Evil shall not depart from his house. And evil did not depart from Saul's house. Evil came not just to Saul but to his household. That proverb rings true. Look at Psalm 109. Psalm 109. This is prophetic about Jesus Christ but not just Jesus Christ but about Judas Iscariot also. And this is really interesting too. When people make this claim that you know well show me where Jesus ever you know cursed somebody. Show me where Jesus ever did that or this and said things like that. When Jesus physically came to this earth he came to seek and to save that which is lost. He had a specific mission to accomplish when he came here. He was not going around to condemn people and to do that. He was here to save people. Now he is coming back and he's going to bring judgment with him and it's totally going to be a time of condemnation, yes. But see the purpose of him doing that was specific. But here we're going to see some more insight though into Jesus' mind in Psalm 109 when he was crucified. This is what it's talking about so keep this in mind. There's a lot of cursing that goes on for Judas. Psalm 109. Look at verse number three. They compassed me about also with words of hatred. Let's just start reading in verse number one. Let's start from the beginning. Hold not thy peace O God of my praise for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me. They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They compassed me about also with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause. So here he's saying he's being fought against without a cause. He was doing good but he was recompensed evil. Verse number four. For my love they are my adversaries. They're my enemies. For my love. See I love them and they're my enemies. But I give myself unto prayer and they have rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my love. So what was the proverb again? Who shall rewardeth evil for good? Evil shall not depart from his house. That's what we saw in Proverbs. Now we're seeing here an example of people rewarding evil for good explicitly. Let's keep reading here. Verse number six. Set thou a wicked man over him and let Satan stand at his right hand. Here's coming the curse now. I love them and they're doing me evil and everything else. You're going to see what I'm talking about real quickly. Verse number seven. When he shall be judged let him be condemned and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few and let another take his office. Does that sound familiar to anyone who's read the book of Acts? Let another take his office. Do you remember when they were fulfilling this very scripture? When they elected another apostle to take the office of Judas Iscariot? When Matthias was chosen to be the other of the twelve? This one verse is used there. So we know based on that reference that this is talking about Judas Iscariot. Let's keep reading here. Verse number nine. Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds and beg. Let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. This is talking about his house. Not just Judas, but his house is evil not departing from because he brought evil for good. And it goes on and on. You can read the rest of that chapter and you can see all those curses. But what's interesting is here, this is in the spirit of Christ because he was the one that did good. He's the one that had this happen to him and he's the one bringing the curses then upon those people. That's the curse coming from Jesus Christ himself and it was prophesied here. Now let's go back to Proverbs 17. I want you to see one more reference here that's tied in exactly with this same verse here. Who so rewardeth evil for good? Evil shall not depart from his house. That's a strong curse. We saw the strong curse in Psalm 109. Look at verse number 15 of Proverbs 17. He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. God hates it. It's an abomination. It's extremely strong hatred from God when someone justifies the wicked. And what does it mean to justify? You're saying what they're doing is right. It's good. There's nothing wrong with that. You're making them just. You say, what they did is fine. But they're wicked. And when God says, that's an abomination when you call the wicked just. When you justify their actions, when you justify what they're doing, things that God hates. When you justify the wicked and not only that, when you condemn the just. The person who's right. The one who's preaching the Word of God and you condemn that person. This is happening a lot today. People who are standing on God's Word and saying, hey, thus saith the Lord. And you see it most prominently these days with the sodomites, with the homosexuality. So many so-called Christians out there are going to say, oh, what's wrong with that? Oh, who cares what they do behind closed doors? Oh, let them just do it. Who are they hurting anyways? You're justifying the wicked. When God says they ought to be put to death and you're saying, oh, it's not that big of a deal. Oh, who cares? Oh, let's just love them anyways. You're justifying the wicked. Don't make excuses. Don't justify what they're doing and that sin because that's an abomination unto God. And then when you're going to the preacher who calls it out and saying they're the one that's wicked, saying that they're the ones that ought to be condemned because they're preaching God's Word, that's also an abomination. And that happens all the time today. Turn if you would to Isaiah chapter five. Isaiah chapter five. Isaiah chapter five, we're going to start reading in verse number 20. This starts off with this word woe. Woe is extreme sorrow. When you say woe unto someone, that means like watch out. I'm sorry for you, woe, because it is a really, really bad situation that you're in to bring extreme sorrow. Woe. Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil. That put darkness for light and light for darkness. That put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink which justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from Him. Same exact situation. Woe unto those people. Woe unto them that would do that. And here we see them justifying the wicked for reward. Just for money. For filthy lucrece because they're greedy because they don't have any integrity. They don't care about saying that this is wrong. They say, well, you pay me enough and I'll make it right. You pay me enough. You lobby enough for me. The politicians say, you lobby enough. You give me enough money. You donate enough to my campaign. I have no problems writing a law that's saying that, you know, you can murder babies. I have no problem writing a law that says, yeah, we could have sodomite marriages. I have no problem writing these laws saying that all this stuff is acceptable. And they're justifying the wicked. Woe, woe unto them. Woe. And they take away the righteousness of the righteous from Him. You can't go preaching God's word. Oh, that's hate speech. Oh, you can't talk that way about these people and start making laws against them. We see it happening. But it shouldn't be a surprise. It's been happening for a very long time. And it's getting worse and it's only going to get worse. But that's all the more reason why those that know the truth can't be silent. You can't just sit back on the sidelines. There's a spiritual war going on. We need to get involved. And you know what? As much as I believe we're in the end times, I can't say that for a fact that I know when the day is going to be. So we need to stem the tide. We need to do our job as Christians and to say, you know what? We're going to shine the glorious light of the Gospel in this dark world and I'm not going to let these people just keep pushing and pushing and making this country more and more wicked and more and more perverted and more and more disgusting. Why? Because I love my children. I love your children. And I want to have some kind of future for them. And I'm not going to be quiet about it. And we're going to push back. It's this weak, sissified Christianity that's just like sodomites themselves that become real effeminate and just let people push them around and oh, well, you know, if I say that then they might leave or someone might get upset. Yeah. God's Word divides. You don't worry about people getting upset. You just preach the Word. It's not for you to decide how people are going to react to it. That was the message that God gave unto Jeremiah. He gave it unto Ezekiel. He gave it unto Isaiah. He gave these men His words and He says, don't worry about what their faces look like. Don't worry about what they might say to you. Don't worry about whether you think they're going to receive it or not. You just do what I tell you to do. You just preach My Word. That's your job. That's our job. We just stand up and say, Thus saith the Lord. This is what God's Word says. If you're going to get mad about it, get mad about it. It doesn't matter if you get mad at me because you're really mad at God. I don't care if people get offended at this type of preaching. I don't care if people get offended because you know what? It needs to be said because nobody's been saying it and now look where we're at. It's the same mindset of this voting for the lesser of two evils and you just continue to vote for evil and you expect things to get good. We're going to keep watering down church and making it more like the world until you can't even tell the difference between the church and some rock concert out in the world. And then you wonder why the kids are going off into fornication and doing all kinds of sin because you're not making any difference between that which is holy and that which is unholy. You're not making any difference and we need to stand up and say, You know what? If it hurts your feelings, get over it. Grow up. Get a heart for what's right and what's true and love God's Word. Take it or leave it. Hey, you came into a Baptist church tonight. If you didn't know you're coming into a Baptist church, you didn't see the big sign out front. We believe in God's Word and that is what we preach and that is what we stand on. We're never going to back down from that. Let's go back to Proverbs 17. I'm almost done here. I'm going to wrap it up here real quick. Proverbs 17, verse number 17, a friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity. Now this gives you great truth on having a friend, for one, just the importance of having friends because a friend loveth at all times. Having someone there for you in your time of need and a brother is born for adversity, but I think even more importantly for you being a friend. Remember that. Remember that. A friend loveth at all times. Are you a friend to somebody? When one of your friends is going through a hard time, what are you doing for them? Are you being a friend to them? Don't just have friends to be on the receiving end of being a friend. It doesn't work that way. A friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity. Let's keep reading here. Look at verse number 18. A man void of understanding strike at hands and become a surety in the presence of his friend. We went over that, the whole surety-ship thing. I'm not going to go over it again tonight. Verse number 22, a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dryeth the bones. And again, I kind of went over that earlier too. Verse 23, a wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment. We just went over this, I think it was last week or two weeks ago, talking about receiving bribes and gifts. Verse number 24, wisdom is before him that hath understanding, but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth. And I'm not going to get into, you know, basically what it is saying, okay, wisdom is right in front of the face of him that has understanding. It's right there. It's right in front of him. You know, when you have understanding, wisdom is right there. But the fool is always looking far off and can never see wisdom. And I was just going to, I'll make the comment real brief, but one of the things that came to mind is that the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth. And nowadays you have a lot of fools out there online and, you know, hopefully you haven't even heard about this, but there's people who are promoting this concept that the earth is flat. I'm not, you're right to laugh, but people are believing this and they're putting out all these YouTube videos and stuff and trying to convince people, oh, you haven't seen this. And you know, for a second, you know, like there's, the one thing I appreciate is people who are able to challenge anything that they've been told and just not accept things blindly and just accept them because you've been told that, you know, it's good to be able to, to challenge things, but it's so easily provable with real science, with, with real things. And the Bible doesn't teach that the earth is flat. And this verse is kind of prompted them. It says, but the eyes of the fool are in the ends, you know, they're, they're worried about the ends of the earth because they have this, this big square or this, this circle on a square or however they try to make it to try to match up with scripture somehow. Cause I think that it's, that it's found in scripture, it's ridiculous. But I'm not going to go, I'm not going to go into that cause no one in this church has that problem. And it was, it's just, it's something that's been popping up online lately. It's like, there's so much online now, like just because like a couple of things are true that are conspiracies, you know, there's, there are real conspiracies out there. There are things that, that were lied about in the media. There's things that our government lies to us about. It's been going on for a long time, but now it's to the point to where people are just like every single thing that ever happens is a conspiracy. Like nothing is true. Nothing is real. Nothing actually happens. You know, anything that's bad that you've been lied to, this is a truth. Those people didn't really die here or there or there or there or anywhere. None of these shootings are real. Everything's just bogus and fake and it's ridiculous. It's the same type of people are, you know, the earth is flat, you know, there's whatever all this other nonsense. Everything is right in front of the place that is before him that hath understanding. It's right there. You don't have to make some, some big elaborate conspiracy out of something that's just blatant and true. But let's, let's finish up the chapter here, verses 27, 28. He that hath knowledge, spareth his words and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. Even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wise and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding. What is this saying? Watch your mouths. You don't have to just ramble and speak and just go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on about things. If you have knowledge, you'll spare your words. It says a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit because your spirit's able to control what's coming out of your mouth. And the Bible said, here, look, even if you're not wise, if you're not very smart, if you don't have a lot of intelligence, just by not saying much, you're going to be thought of as wise. People are going to think, wow, you must be smarter, you know, you know, pretty smart because they're not hearing the foolish, you know, the more you speak, the more you're giving people a chance to just witness your foolishness. And look, I'm not calling anyone in here a fool, but this is wisdom and this is truth given that's just, you know, there's definitely people who feel the need to just go on and on and on and on and talk about things. And you know, when you have knowledge, you spare your words, you're going to know when the appropriate time is to speak about things and not just blabber about everything under the sun. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for all the great wisdom that we find in Proverbs. We touch on so many different topics, God. I pray that you would please help this information not to be lost in just the vastness of the diverseness of the subjects, but that we could take in all of these various points and establish them in our minds and in our hearts, dear God. Help us to have our hearts stirred up to be completely invested in gaining wisdom and gaining knowledge and serving you, dear Lord, that we're not just half-hearted in our efforts, but that we can truly just accomplish our goals, dear Lord, and not just have wasted efforts. We pray for your guidance. We pray for your wisdom and instruction, dear Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.