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Good morning everyone. Today we'll be reading out of Ecclesiastes chapter 10. Ecclesiastes chapter 10. The Bible reads, The dead fly has caused the ointment of the apothecary to send forth the stinking saber. So does the little folly in him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor. A wise man's heart is at his right hand, but a fool's heart at his left. Yea also, for he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith to everyone that he is a fool. If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place, for yielding pacifies great offenses. There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and an error which proceedeth from the ruler. Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low place. I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth. He that diggeth the pit shall fall into it, and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him. Whoso removeth stone shall be hurt therewith, and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby. If the iron be blunt, and he do not wet the edge, they must be put to more strength, but wisdom is profitable to direct. Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment, and a babbler is no better. The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is mischievous madness. A fool also is full of words. A man cannot tell what shall be, and what shall be after him. Who can tell him? The labor of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city. Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning. Blessed art thou, O land, when the king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season for strength, and not for drunkenness. By much slothfulness the building decayeth, and through idleness of the hands of the house drop it through. A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry, but money answereth all things. Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought, and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber. For a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for this day, for bringing us all here together in your church, Lord. Lord, please fill Brother Jones with your Holy Spirit as he preaches this morning. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Good morning. It's good to be back here again. So there in Ecclesiastes, chapter 10, look down at verse number 1. It says, dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking saber, so doth the little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor. And the last part of that verse there, which says that is in reputation for wisdom and honor, what I'm preaching about this morning is the subject of reputations. You know, we all have a reputation. You know, for example, if you think about it, as soon as you go to work, you know, those of you that work, you know, people find out you're a Christian, automatically you have a reputation that you need to uphold, right? People, what are they doing? Oh, they look at you differently, right? They have different expectations of you. You know, it doesn't really matter. You know, those of you moms out there, you know, when the neighbors see you, you know, getting ready for church in the morning, they look at you and stuff, you know, and then they see you during the week, you know, going to church, you know, thinking to themselves, okay, you know, that person's a Christian. They, you know, they have a certain expectation. Well, you know, I don't, you know, they don't seem to do all these worldly things, you know, and the problem is when we defile that, when we, you know, when we start living in the world, so, you know, it really, sorry, I'm trying not to cough. It paints our reputation. And the last part of this verse is saying here, a little folly, it says, So does a little folly him that is a reputation for wisdom and honor. So what that means is, you know, when people look at us, you know, and they have that expectation that you should be wise, that you should be, you know, a strong Christian, that you should be, you know, Christ-like, and they see us acting otherwise, you know, even if it's just a little folly, a little stupidity, a little foolishness, it taints your reputation. It taints our reputation. So that's what he's saying here. And it starts off the verse by saying dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking saber. There's a lot more information about what an apothecary is. You can just read Exodus chapter 30. You don't have time to get into it. But the point is, you know, these guys, the apothecary, they make these various appointments, right, for healing, for perfumes, or for, you know, various reasons. And when dead flies go in there, it causes it to stink. You know, it doesn't take much. It doesn't take much to cause that is what it's saying. So does a little folly, a little stupidity. You know, and Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, and he was the wisest man to ever live. So he knows a thing or two about folly, about being, you know, about living full of things. I mean, think about it. Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, he set his heart out to know and understand wickedness. I mean, he had multiple wives. And, you know, what did those wives do? He married he the women. They drove him to serve other gods. And, you know, what was the result? The result was the kingdom of Israel actually splitting up after Rehoboam took over the kingdom of Israel. You know, and so when Solomon says, you know, a little folly is going to ruin your reputation, we need to take heed and listen to that. So turn to Genesis chapter 34. And while you're turning there, spend some time talking about folly, what it is, what it isn't. So while you're turning to Genesis chapter 34, I'm going to read for you out of Acts chapter 5. We're just going to spend some time, like I said, talking about folly this morning and how that can ruin your reputation. And hopefully you can understand my speech this morning. I got very little sleep last night. So I'm having a little trouble stumbling over my words this morning, but I think we can get to it. So while you just stay there in Genesis 34, I'm going to read to you out of Acts chapter 5. So in Acts chapter 5, you've got the beginning of the chapter, you've got Ammonias and Sapphira. You've got that story. And then you have the apostles. You've got Peter and them. They're facing the council, right? The Sadducees and the high priest. They're attacking. You know, they locked up Peter, you know, and, you know, they're on trial. They're commanding him not to preach in Jesus' name. And so they get, you know, they get sprung out of prison, you know, and they're like, hey, didn't, you know, they go preaching again, right? That's the reputation that they had and, you know, never cease, never stop, always moving forward, preaching the gospel. And, you know, the high priest is like, hey, didn't we command you not to preach in the name of Jesus Christ? You know, didn't we tell you to stop that? And they're like, you know, we'd rather obey God than man. And so they're, you know, and then Peter goes on to tell them, you know, like, hey, you guys are the ones that killed the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll just read it for you here. Acts 5 29 says, then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we have to obey God rather than man. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus when he slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witness of these things. And so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him. And then verse 33 says, when they heard that they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them. And then in Acts 5 34, it says, then stood up there one and the council of Pharisee named Galilee, a doctor of the law had in reputation. See, there's that phrase again, had in reputation, like we read in Ecclesiastes chapter 10. So this guy was looked up to, right? He was wise, you know, amongst his brethren, amongst his crowd. He was wise and looked up to. And it says, who had in reputation among all the people and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space. So that that Fraser had in reputation is somebody who's held or highly esteemed among his people. And what we read in Ecclesiastes 10 is that just a little bit of folly, just a little bit of folly can ruin your reputation. So you're there in Genesis 34. So what is folly? Folly is basically is a lack of good sense. It's foolishness. It's actually doing foolishness. So if you're there in Genesis 34, look down at verse number one. So the context here, if you were to read chapter 33. So Jacob, he comes to a city called Shalom, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan. So he's in the land of Canaan. He buys a parcel of land from a guy named, or from the children of Hamor. And if you look down there at verse number one, Genesis 31, it says, He had dined on the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. And when Shechem, the son of Hamor, the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her and defiled her. And his soul clave unto Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. And he loved the damsel and spake kindly unto the damsel. And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife. Verse five, And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter. Now his sons were with his cattle in the field, and Jacob held his peace until they were come. And Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to commune with him. And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it, and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had rocked folly in Israel, in line with Jacob's daughter, which thing ought not to be done. So this is the first time in the Bible you're going to see the word folly. And if you type the word folly into your Bible app, or you just look at how many times it's in the Bible, a lot of times it's in reference to sins of the physical relationship between men and women. And what's the reason why that? I think the reason why God highlights that, why God does that, is to teach us that, you know, especially for young people, you know, you guys that are young, you're not married yet, you know, sleeping around, committing fornication is going to ruin your reputation. Not just among the church, but in the community also, right? I mean, just because it's accepted with the world and the workplace doesn't mean that they don't still judge you. They don't still look at you in that same way. They have a different expectation of you. And so, when young people go out and do this kind of stuff, you get yoked up unequally with somebody, you know, it just, it really ruins our reputation. It hurts you. And that's what the lesson here is. Now look down, I'm sorry, turn to Psalms chapter 49. While you're turning there, I'm going to read for you a couple other verses about folly. Because it says which thing ought not to be done. So this is, you know, another thing too is, you know, Jacob here, he goes and he yokes up with, he doesn't yoke up, but you know, he buys this parcel of land from Hamor, which was probably not the best thing to do. You got to be careful about doing business dealings with the world, you know, and not watching, not watching over your flock, watching over your children. So you turn to Psalms chapter 49, I'm going to read for you Deuteronomy 22 21, which says, Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones, as she died, because she hath wrought folly in Israel to play the war in her father's house. So shalt thou put evil away from among you. So again, just another example of fornication being called folly. You can find other examples of this in Judges 19, Judges 20, and actually that's the worst, because that's about sodomy, and you see this again, 2 Samuel 13. There's just a lot of examples about the word folly being connected to fornication, adultery, sins of a physical relationship in nature. So you're there in Psalm 49, look at verse number 6, Psalm chapter 49 verse 6. It says, They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches. So we're going to shift gears here. So I just wanted to highlight for you that teaching about folly being connected with fornication. This is going to provide us a different example. Look at verse 7. None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him. For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth forever, that he should still live forever and not seek corruption. For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fooled and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others. And then verse 11 says, Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue forever, and their dwelling places to all generations. They call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless, man being in honor abideth not, he is like the beasts that perish. This their way is their folly, yet their posterity. The word posterity there means future generations approve their saying, selah. So what's going on here is he's just telling us here that these people here think that their wealth or saving up all this money to pass down to future generations, pass their name down, it really means something to them. When the Bible's telling us it doesn't. And I'm not saying we shouldn't lay up store for our children and set them up for success, but if that's your only goal, if that's your only focus is just to save up money and make sure that your name gets passed down, you get a street named after you, after your last name, and then that's going to be something great, that's just going to perish with you. Sooner or later we're going to die. It's just tempura. It's vanity is what it's saying. And the Bible's saying that that is folly. That's what it says in verse 13. It says, This their way is folly. Trusting in temporal things is folly. It's foolishness. It's not wise. For example, their folly here is described as a lack of foresight regarding things that matter or last eternally. I'll go over to Proverbs chapter 14. One book over to the right, Proverbs chapter 14. I just wanted to, by way of introduction, just kind of bring up some different highlights of the word folly that's used in the Bible. Proverbs 14 verse 8 says, The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way. I think I brought this up last time here. The word prudent is somebody, somebody who's prudent is somebody who has foresight, who thinks about the future, who is very careful or cautious, who is wise, who takes steps to ensure success in the future. It says the wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way. But the folly of fools is deceit. We're going to look at that. A big problem with the act of folly or foolishness is deceit. So, so far we've seen that it's connected with, that folly is connected with fornication, adultery, things that ought not to be done, that ought not to be made among Christians. Also, it's about, you know, regarding temporal things, forsaking the eternal. And then here we see another example is that it's deceit. It's nice. The opposite of wisdom. Folly is deceit and thinking that you're not going to get caught. And look at verse 18. Look at Proverbs 14, verse 18. It says, The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. The simple meaning people that don't have wisdom, that don't have a lot of knowledge and just believe everything. And that's what we don't want to be here. We don't want to have a reputation for being simple people, people that just believe everything. We should always judge everything that we hear out of the word of God. You know, as I get up here and preach things, you have to be able to, you know, judge to see whether those things are right. I'm just human. You know, I'm going to make mistakes. Every preacher that comes up here, you know, at some point in their career and their time preaching is going to make mistakes. You know, and it's our job as Christians to know the Bible, to understand it, to have that reputation of knowledge so that we can become prudent, so that we can be looked at as people that actually have the right reputation. You know, because like I said last time I was here, you know, we ought to hold fast our profession of faith and your reputation is key to that. So a good definition of folly is a lack of good sense or normal prudence and foresight, thinking that you can't get caught. When you study this word folly on the Bible, you know, a lot of these people, they just think they're never going to get caught. But what do we always see? They always do wind up getting caught. So point number one here. I'm sorry. Let me let me let me let me read this for you. The act of foolishness is called fall. Okay. And the person doing the act is a fool. Let me read that again. The act of foolishness is called folly. The person doing the act is a fool. So a little folly can ruin your reputation. That's point number one. Point number two is we need to obtain and uphold a good reputation of wisdom and honor. Turn to this printer printed double sided and so I'm like, what's going on? Turn to second Kings chapter nine. Second Kings chapter nine. Let's take a look at the life of Jehu. The son of Nimshai. Because Jehu, I mean, we could preach a series of this came here to you. But he had a reputation. You know, he had several reputations, actually. We're going to take a look at him because that point number one is based off of Ecclesiastes 10, one which says dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savers. So does a little folly him that has a reputation for wisdom and honor. I remember when I was in the military, they always used to have this saying, which was you can go from hero to zero in about 60 seconds. You know, it never seemed to fail. It's like every month, you know, there would be somebody in leadership, whether some captain, some major, a sergeant major, you know, somebody in a high ranking position that would get a DUI. And these are people that we looked up to that we followed orders from that would preach to us about drinking and driving and all these different things. And then they would go get busted for, you know, getting a DUI. And it would ruin their reputation. It would take it would take a long time for them to get that back. In fact, it would take them oftentimes moving duty stations and just getting there and meeting the people and staying away from that to actually correct the reputation. And once your reputation is tainted like that, it takes 10 times the amount of time to get it back, to get it going right again. You know, and if you're not in the military, you ruin your reputation at work. You're stuck there. I mean, unless you're going to go get another job. But like I'm saying, you know, we just need to be careful of that. A little folly. It doesn't say a lot of folly, just a little folly can ruin a person's reputation, especially if you're looked upon as a person that is wise and honorable. So second Kings chapter nine, look down at verse number four. It says, so the young man, even the young man, the prophet went to Ramoth, Gilead. So what's going on here is the likes of the prophet sends this young prophet and he gives them a mission. He says, hey, I want you to go anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi king over Israel. And so we're going to pick up the story here. Look at verse five. It says, and when he came, behold, the captains of the host were sitting and he said, I have an errand unto thee, O captain. And Jehu said unto us of all us. And he said to thee, O captain. Look at verse six. And he rose and went into the house and he poured the oil on his head and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I have anointed thee king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel. And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants, the prophets and the blood of all the servants of the Lord at the hand of Jezebel. For the whole the whole house of Ahab shall perish. And I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel. And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. And like the house of Basha, the son of Ahijah. Verse 10, And the dogs shall eat Jezebel and the portion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her. And he opened the door and fled. Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord and once said unto him, Is all well? Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? And he said to him, You know the man and his communication. So what do we just read here? You know, Elisha sends the prophet. He goes to Jehu and he gives him the word of the Lord. Right? He says, you know, I'm here to anoint you king over Israel. You're going to destroy the house of Ahab. You're going to you're going to destroy Jezebel. And then Jehu is like, OK. And he goes back to his people. He's probably I imagine this story here. He's probably covered in oil and he goes and sits down and they're looking at him like, dude, what's going on? What happened? You know, and he's saying, look what he says here. Verse 11. They said, Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? And oftentimes, you know, we who are prophets or preachers, and even all of us, right, that go soloing, you know, you're going to be looked at oftentimes as a mad fellow, somebody who's crazy. You know, that was this guy's reputation. You know, he says, What came this mad fellow to thee? He said, Ah, you know, the man and his communication. You know, so Jehu has the perfect opportunity to beat his chest and say, Hey, look, I'm king now. He just anointed me. But he doesn't do that right off the bat. Right? He says, Ah, you know, the man and his communication. Now, that does display humility. Now look at verse 12. And they said, It is false. Tell us now. They're like, Hey, look, you're lying. You know, you got oil all over you. Tell us the truth. And he said, Thus and thus spake he to me, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel. Now look at verse 13, because this is important here. Then they hasted. Right? Then they hasted and took every man his garment and put it under him on the top of the stairs and blew with trumpets, saying, Jehu is king. Now I just want to stop right there. That says a lot about how Jehu was at this time. Right? He has the opportunity right off the bat to declare himself king. But he doesn't take it. He says, Hey, you know, you know, this guy and his communication. Like you're lying. Tell us the truth. He's like, All right, fine. You know, you anointed me king over Israel. But look what the men do. It says, Then they hasted. So they hurried. They ran. They quickly got every man his garment and they threw it on the stairs and they blew the trumpet, saying, Jehu is king. So these guys are happy. I mean, they're excited. They're like, All right, good. You know, we're going to get us a zealous king, somebody who's on fire for the Lord and is going to do a great work for God. I mean, these guys are ecstatic. So what does that tell you about Jehu's reputation? Not only was he humble, but he meant business. He was serious. He was a serious person. And that's why they hated, you know, and that's the kind of reputation that we should have in the workplace. I mean, when you get a promotion, your people should be excited about that and say, All right, here's somebody who's honest. Here's somebody who's dedicated. Here's someone who's not going to lie to me and tell me false things that I don't want to hear. And then I don't need to hear that we all know is garbage. Somebody who's just going to tell it like it is and work hard and be honest. Right. That's the kind of reputation that we want. You know, Jehu accepted his promotion with honor and with humility. You don't have to turn there and actually turn to Philippians chapter two. And while you're turning there, I'm going to read to you from Proverbs about humility. We see Jehu here being humbled. So Proverbs chapter 22 verse four says, By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches in honor and life. Right. We've talked a lot about this, you know, over the last few months about the fear of the Lord being the beginning of knowledge, being the beginning of wisdom. By humility, God loves a humble Christian, right? I mean, pride is a very dangerous thing. That is what has ruined almost every Christian that has fallen is pride. It starts out with a little bit of pride, rejecting humility, and then it just goes from there. This is by humility and the fear of the Lord are riches in honor and life. You know, when you're humble, God's going to reward that. That's what's going to promote you. That's what's going to lift you up in the sight of your people. And then, you know, and as a church, right, we should be known as being humble. Now, honestly, you know, there's times we're going to get up here and I'm going to rip up a false prophet or some, you know, false doctrine. That needs to be done. But that's a sermon for another day. Proverbs 11 verse two says, When pride cometh, then cometh shame, but with the lowly is wisdom. God is going to give the lowly wisdom and knowledge. You know, when we're puffed up and prideful, we're deceiving ourselves. God's not going to honor that. He's not going to respect that. And he's probably not going to open up the scriptures to you. Like I've said before, people that don't read the Bible on a regular basis, people that don't study it, they have no respect for it. They are puffed up with pride. And that is not the kind of reputation that we want. So you're there in Philippians chapter two, look at verse one. This is this passage deals with Christ's example of humility. It says, If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any vows and mercies fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord of one mind. Now look at verse three. It says, Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory. That word being glory, though, that reminds me of what we read already. You know, about the passages in Proverbs, about the person who just dedicates their life to saving up money, to passing their name down through generations, which the Bible says is folly, is vain. It does no good. But he says, Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. In verse four says, Look, not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. And we should have we should have this reputation as well. Right. We should be able as a church, as the body of Christ, look at each other and say, Hey, I know a brother that's got a need. You know, he needs something. I have an extra one. You know, he needs a coat. I got an extra coat. I'm going to give it to him. We should have that. We should put others before ourselves. That's what's going to bring us wisdom. That's what's going to bring you knowledge. And that's what's going to build the reputation up in this church. That's what's going to make people feel comfortable when they come here. Now look at verse four. It says, Look, not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. And then in verse five, he says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. So you say, Well, what was Jesus Christ like? How was he humble? Well, he sums that up for you in these first four verses. You know, don't be doing things just for strife, just for vainglory. We shouldn't be like that. We should have a lowliness of mind and esteem other people better than ourselves. Not comparing ourselves one to another. Not, not, you know, not that fighting each other over these little petty things, these little petty type doctrines that don't really matter. But just, you know, just respecting one another and helping each other out. You know, nobody in here is on the same level. Everybody in here has read the Bible, you know, either, you know, zero times, maybe 10 times, maybe more. You know, we all need to just respect that and basically help each other out. You know, you see a brother taken in a fall. We need to be able to have enough humility to go to that person and restore them and help them out. And that's what he's saying here. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. So you see, how can we get our reputation on par with what Christ would want? Well, this is the formula here, doing nothing for vainglory, doing nothing through just strife, having lowliness of mind, esteeming others better than ourselves, and understanding that that was the mind that was in Christ. And he says, let this mind be in you. So that's that. I just wanted to highlight that for you that that's something that we should focus on. Now look at verse six. Verse six says, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. So that's what Christ did, understanding that it wasn't robbery to be equal with God. Now, if you were to read an NIV or any of these modern Bible versions, it changes this to say something weird like Christ thought it not acceptable to be equal with God, which is obviously what the devil would do if he wrote a Bible. But nonetheless, it says in verse seven, but made himself of no reputation. Because he wasn't concerned with making himself of reputation while he was here. He did his miracles. He preached the word. You know, he did the mission. He did the will of the Father. And that's what he's saying here. He wasn't concerned about just building a name for himself, you know, and that's how we should be. We shouldn't be just so concerned about our own image, our own name, what other people think about us. But make yourself of no reputation. How do you do that? By not putting yourself before other people, right? By esteeming others better than ourselves. That's the formula. That's the key. Now look at verse eight. That Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The key to having that good reputation for wisdom and honor is going to be found in making yourself of no reputation. Not concerned with just your own temporal name, your own, you know, you know, your own, what other people think of you. Go back to Second Kings chapter nine. Second Kings chapter nine, while you're reading, while you're turning there, I'm sorry, I'm going to read for you First Peter five, six, which says, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. See, a lot of times, you know, Christians, they just get excited, you know, they want, want that reputation of being knowledgeable and being a seasoned Christian when in reality they're a babe in Christ. You know, it's easy today to go on YouTube and watch a bunch of sermons and get a bunch of doctrine and get, you know, and understand doctrine because the sermons do teach you a lot. But you know what? If you don't have this book as your foundation, you haven't read, you haven't studied, you haven't gone to church long enough and listened to preaching and really gotten that foundation built up by, by doing the works, going out and soul learning, you really are just a babe in Christ. You might know the rapture doctrine. You might know all these other things. You might know about Zionism. You know, you might know all these things that we like to talk about here. But really, you know, your reputation might seem to be OK to church members. But when we talk to you, you know, these things come out and it's just, it's just a recipe for disaster, you know. What Peter's saying here is, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. And that's the thing that we often lack. You have to forget that it takes patience. It takes time. It takes study and it takes humility. You know, we have to be humble. We have to just wait and let God exalt us, let God give us our reputation, because when we take control and we think, OK, God, I'm going to build my reputation. I'm going to do my works. I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to make sure that people think that I'm something special when I'm not. You know, it's always just going to result in shame, you know, because what did the Proverbs say? That pride results in shame. So you're there in 2 Kings Chapter 9. I want to talk a little bit more about our reputation as each member in this church. You know, each member in this church should have a reputation for being zealous. So look at 2 Kings 9, verse 15. Verse 16. And there stood a watchman on the tower in Jezreel. And he spied the company of Jehu as he came and said, I see a company. And Jerome said, Take an horseman and send to meet them and let him say, Is it peace? So there went one on horseback to meet him and said, Thus saith the king, Is it peace? And Jehu said, What has thou to do with peace? Turn thee behind me. And the watchman told saying, The messenger came to them, but he cometh not again. You know, so this watchman goes out to Jehu and does what he saw and says, Hey, is it peace? And Jehu says, What do you know about peace? Get behind me. Right? And he doesn't come back. So the other watchmen are like, Hey, these guys aren't coming back. Now look at verse 19. Verse 19. Now look at verse 20. And the watchman told saying, He came even unto them and cometh not again. And the driving is like the driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshi, for he driveth furiously. Right? So these watchmen, they don't come back. So they can't tell who it is. And finally, you know, after the second guy, he doesn't come back. Verse 20, the other watchman, right? He says, He came unto them and cometh not again. And he's looking at this guy, this chariot, you know, coming. He says, Wow, man says in the driving is like the driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshi, for he driveth furiously. So we're looking at Jehu's reputation. We already saw that he did display humility, right? He was humble. He was wise. But he also had a reputation for being furious, for being on fire, for being hardcore, for not, you know, not doing anything lackadaisical. Who's ever seen the Jehovah Witnesses walking down the street here? I'm sure everybody has. Right? What do they what do they what do you see when you see that? They're walking slowly, right? Like they're not really on fire. Like they're not really zealous, right? They're just kind of like moseying along like I'm doing my duty. You know, we shouldn't be like that. We should when we're out soul winning. You know, we need to be like Jehu. You know, people need to be like, hey, that's Verity Baptist Church of Boise because they're walking furiously. You know, they're trying to knock all these doors before the apartment manager comes out and calls the cops on them, you know, and they start taking people to jail. You know, but that but how would they know that? Right, because his reputation was serious, right? It says for you driving furiously. Now, some of you have probably a reputation for driving furiously here on these streets here in Idaho. I know I've kind of picked up that reputation from living in California the last almost two years. Just because I can tell that was you, you drive furiously. But, you know, I, you know, follow Jehu. What can I say? So the point is here, you know, is that the people of the land of Israel, they knew Jehu, they knew his reputation, that this guy meant business. He was serious. You know, in this passage, what I see here is I see influence. I see leadership, zeal, you know, in a hardcore reputation. You know, what are we going to be known for here? What is this church going to be known for? What are you going to be known for at work? Are you known for, you know, being a hard worker? You know, could your co-workers look off in the distance and see all this work getting done, all this commotion? And be like, wow, you know, and put your name there. Wow, that's, you know, brother so-and-so, you know, for you work it furiously. You know, that should be our goal. Humility, but drive, zeal, and zeal according to knowledge, by the way. So next, turn over to 2 Kings chapter 10. Go to chapter 10. 2 Kings chapter 10. We're going to talk about reputation versus reality, right? And my last job that I had, one of their biggest sayings was always perception means everything. Like you don't have to be the hardest worker. You don't have to be the smartest worker. You just have to have that perception. You just have to make people think that. That means everything. And so, you know, we were government workers and, you know, a lot of times there's just, you know, there's nothing to do, you know. I don't want to say that there's nothing to do, but there's maybe not an ongoing mission. There's not an ongoing paperwork job. There's just busy work. You know, it's really slow. And it's acceptable for us to just sometimes to just go sit down, read some manuals, study a little bit. But when that happens and we're all in the office and one of the higher managers comes in and they see us in there, you know, their perception is, oh, you guys are being lazy. You're not doing your jobs. You guys aren't working. You're just, you know, drinking coffee and eating donuts and, you know, just not being productive, right? And that's, you know, so they would be like, you know, just always have a manual out, you know, on the desk. So you could say you're studying process or, you know, and that's how they would preach it to us. You know, just just make people think that you're working or you're studying or you're doing good. But that's not really biblical at all. Right. We need to make sure that our reputation matches reality because there is a difference, especially in today's society. And it is easy to make yourself something special. Right. I mean, with social media, you can just write up all these different posts of how great of a wife you are, how great of a daughter, a son, a husband, whatever. And people are going to mostly, for the most part, buy it. Right. Because, you know, they don't really see what you're like at home, you know. And so reputation versus reality is something that is very, very important for us to understand. So 2 Kings chapter 10, look at verse 28. It says, So thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. So before before I go on, let me give you the context here. I didn't put it down here because this would have sent me off on a long rabbit trail. But basically, if you're not familiar with the story, Jehu, what he does, if you remember, one of his missions, one of his tasks was to destroy the house of Ahab, get Baal and worship out of Israel. And so what he does is he says, you know what, guys, Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu shall serve him much. That's what he says. So he has his men round up everybody that worships Baal. And he says, make sure there's none worshippers of the Lord here. And what he's going to do is he's going to have him go to all to one place and do a sacrifice to Baal. Right. And so we're going to pick up the story here after what he does. So basically, all these people, they come to worship Baal, Jehu slays every one of them, him and his men. They kill everybody. They kill all the devil worshippers. And then that's why verse 20 says, Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. And I mean, how would you like to be known for that? For getting false religion out of your town, for getting false religion out of your city? Right. That's the kind of reputation that I would like. However, we're going to see here that it's not quite the reality. So look at verse 29. 2 Kings 10 29 says, Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them to wit the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan. Look at verse 30. And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou has done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and has done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart. Thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. So God does look at that and say, OK, you know, you were zealous, Jehu, you did what I wanted. And so I am going to reward you. But look at verse 31. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart, for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin. You know, and it doesn't give the time frame, but it sounds by the language here that he always had this problem. Right. And so if you were to read about Jehu up until this point, up until he gets fatalism out of Israel, you would think, man, this guy is zealous. Right. I mean, he's known as driving furious. He was humble in the beginning when he got an anointed king. I mean, he was just going around just killing everybody. I mean, he just he had the eunuch throw Jezebel out of a window. I mean, he did all kinds of great works. Right. But the reality is that his heart wasn't 100 percent right with God. Right. His reality, who he really was, did not match his reputation. And that is what we need to understand. Self-deception. Self-deception. You know, like I said, he had this reputation for being zealous for the Lord. At one point, you know, he's recorded in the Bible as saying, come see my zeal for the Lord. But yet we read here in verse 31, but Jehu took no ye to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart. For he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin. I mean, how do you, you know, you go from from saying, come see my zeal for the Lord, to having the Holy Ghost or God write about you in the Bible that your heart wasn't perfect. You weren't in it with all your heart. And we ought to learn a lot from this. I mean, let's just sink in. Make sure that your reputation is backed by reality. We need to move that reality of our own lives and match it to our reputations that we're giving. You know, don't just work on building that reputation superficially, is what I'm trying to say. Make the reality match your reputation. And like I said, it's super easy today to fall prey to this augmented reality. I mean, I see on Facebook all the time, you know, a person looks a certain way and then you meet him in real life. And I say, whoa, whoa, man, whoa, whoa. OK. You know, it was that picture from like 40 years ago, you know, and it turns out, you know, there's all kinds of different, you know, filters and things that you can make yourself look, you know, a certain way. You know, where you meet somebody who you thought was on fire for God, a great housewife. And it's like she hates her husband. She's bad mouthing him. She's talking trash and just no good. You know, what's that say? That says that that reality is stretched way, way, way, way far apart from the reputation that they're trying to build. And the Bible says that's pride and that's foolishness and that's folly. And the Bible says a little folly is going to ruin your reputation. Go back to Psalm Chapter 36. I should have told you to keep your place there. Psalm chapter 36. Almost done. We're going to talk about the self-deception, self-deception here, about deceiving our own self. Psalm chapter 36. Psalm chapter 36. Psalm 36, verse one. You can start reading for a second time. It says the transgression of the wicked sayeth within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes. And then verse two says, for he flattered himself in his own eyes until his iniquity be found to be hateful. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He hath left off to be wise and to do good. He deviseth mischief upon his bed. He seteth himself in a way that is not good. He abhorth not evil. So if you look there in verse two, Psalm 36, to assist for he flattered himself in his own eyes. You know, we should take heed to that not having ourselves puffed up before our own. You know, we shouldn't be flattering our own self just to be seen among men, right? It says he flattered himself in his own eyes. But then notice the next part of the verse, until his iniquity be found to be hateful. You know, God is only going to put up with your false reputation for a certain amount of time. And then he's going to bring it down. He's going to expose that reality that isn't matching your reputation. Like I said in verse 36, verse four, it says he deviseth mischief upon his bed. He seteth himself in a way that is not good. He abhorth not evil. Meaning we should hate evil. We should hate the things that God hates. And in verse three, back up for a second, it says the words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. So when we're deceiving ourselves, when we're building a false reputation, we're going out and making ourselves look like we're smart and wise, but we really aren't. Everything that you say or do is iniquity and deceit, according to God. You're fooling yourself, you're deceiving yourself, and therefore are not wise. Go to Acts chapter 19, Acts chapter 19. Acts chapter 19. So we're talking about a reputation matching reality. You know, not just, you know, I understand what people say, you know, all perception is everything. And that's kind of true. You know, we have a reputation, you know, on Google as being Pastor Anderson worship. In hating the Jews. But is that reality? No, it's not reality. Because, you know, you know, if I knock on a Jew's door, guess what? I'm going to try to get them saved. You know, I'm going to try to get them saved. You know, it's these churches that won't go soul winning, that won't knock on the Jew's door. They're the ones that hate, that hate the Jews, right? Because what's the loving act? Telling somebody, hey, you're on your way to hell, or just not saying anything to them at all. I mean, that's the hateful act. So the guy, the people that write these comments and say that about this church, they're the ones that hate God. They're the ones that don't understand the Bible. They're the ones that hate the Jews, to be honest with you. You know, if you're not going to go tell somebody that, hey, if you don't get saved, you know, you're on your way to hell, that's more of a hateful act by not giving them the truth than actually, you know, preaching against Zionism. Just because we preach against Zionism doesn't mean that we hate Jews and we want them to all die and go to hell. That is not true. Anyways, go to Acts 19. Look at verse number 13. Acts 19, verse 13. This is an interesting story about reputation. It says, then came certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits. The name of the Lord Jesus saying, we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. So here you go. Here's a perfect example of a group of people, a group of Jews who think, okay, you know what? We're going to deceive ourselves here. We're going to, you know, and I'm sure they didn't set out and say that. But nonetheless, they're saying, you know, we're going to go ahead and try to make our craft of exorcism, you know, and we're going to make that look good amongst the people. And so we're just going to go out and try to cast out evil spirits like Paul and these guys do. It says, we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. Look at verse 14. And there were seven sons of one, Siva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. Verse 15. This is important. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus, I know. And Paul, I know. But who are ye? Now let that sink in. He said, this is an evil spirit. He's like, now look, Jesus, I know. I know his reputation. Paul, I know. I know his reputation. But who are ye? But who are ye? You know, and that's the question that we should all ask ourselves. You know, if you were to encounter this evil spirit, would he say, Jesus, I know. Paul, I know. But who are thou? Who are you? Look at verse 16. And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus and fear fell on them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. Look again, just proving that deceiving yourself, thinking you're something when you're not, thinking you're, you know, a wise and honorable, a seasoned Christian when you really aren't, is going to get exposed. God's going to expose that reality that doesn't match your reputation. So go to James chapter one. James chapter one. James chapter one. We're going to look at the formula here and how to how to defeat that, how to how to make sure that our reputation and reality are equal. I mean, think about Paul and his life. Think about his reputation. You know why you turn into James? We'll just talk about this for a moment. I mean, Paul had a reputation before he was Paul, right? When he was solved for murdering Christians, for being just zealous and hardcore against Christians. I mean, he mocked him up. He was there when Stephen was stoned to death and he consented unto that. And Paul never lived that down, so much so that God had to send him onto the Gentiles. Right. But what's Paul's reputation now? Being one of the probably the best Christian that ever lived. Right. So the point is, you may have a bad reputation now. You may have done some things in your past that you're not proud of, that you think you can't get over, but you can get over it. Just takes time. It takes humility. It takes focus. It takes patience. And it just takes some will. It just takes some will. It just I think the biggest hurdle is getting over this self-deception, you know, just being honest with ourselves. The Bible says that, you know, just being honest with yourself is going to save you a ton of time and it's going to set you on the right track. So James chapter one, look at verse 22. It says, But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. So what this is teaching us here is that when we just hear the word, but we don't act, we don't apply, we don't do. It says that you're deceiving your own self. And these guys in Acts chapter 19, they heard about Paul. They heard about Jesus. They heard about the miracles and the acts that they did. And they said, you know what? Let's just go ahead and go do it. But they weren't really workers. They were just here was only, you know, they just heard a message to figure out. Well, we're just going to go ahead and try to cast out evil spirits and without even being saved. And they got their clocks clean. They got destroyed. They got tore up. So look at verse 23. James 123 says, For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in the glass. For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continue with therein. He being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This man shall be blessed in his deed. So you say, what is the remedy to getting my reality to match my reputation that God wants me to have? It is doing the words that you hear. It's this verse right here. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continue therein. So I look to God's word. I hear these things preach and I decide to apply them to my life. That is what will make your reality match your reputation. Look at verse 26. If any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Meaning it is empty. It is nothing. It is worthless. And like we read at the beginning of this sermon, you know, a little folly will ruin a person's reputation. Somebody's reputation was held in reason and honor. And then, you know what else it says here? Being religious is not a bad thing. Our religion should be our reality. And that is what's going to bring your reputation in line with the Bible. Look at verse 27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this. To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. You know, you see those T-shirts and I used to have one, you know, it's not about a, what is it? It's not about a relationship or no, it's not about religion. It's about a relationship. Well, the Bible begs the difference. The Bible says here that religion is good if it's done according to God's word. Verse 26. If any man among you seem to be religious. Meaning if you have that reputation for being a Christian, for being somebody who's religious, that's a good thing. But make sure that you bridle your tongue. Make sure you're not deceiving your own heart. Otherwise, what it's saying is that it's all vain. It speaks horrible about your testimony. And it says, pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this. To visit the fathers and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. Because what happens when you get spotted by the world? It ruins your reputation. It's folly. It's foolishness. It's no good. Last place I'm going to have you turn. Revelation chapter three. Revelation chapter three. I used to think that T-shirt was great, you know? Oh, yeah, it's not about a religion. It's about a relationship. But you know what? It is about religion. And your religion should match reality or should become your reality, which should become your reputation. So Revelation chapter three, we're going to take a look at the church in Sardis. Revelation three verse one says, And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know thy works that thou hast a name that thou littest. But look at this next part. And are dead. And are dead. And that's what we've been talking about, right? What Jesus is saying here is, hey, you've got a name. You've got a reputation. You know, you've got all these things that people think about you. But really, you are dead. You're nothing. And look at verse two. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. For I have not found thy works to be perfect before God. Remember, therefore, how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent. If, therefore, thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me and wife, for they are worthy. He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. Verse six, he that hath the name of heaven here with the Spirit saith unto the churches. You know, this is Jesus' attitude towards a false reputation. You know, when we have that reputation amongst people, but it's vain, but it's false. You know, he says that thou hast a name that thou littest, but the reality is you're dead. You don't have a real religion. Your reality doesn't match your reputation. It's dangerous. You know, we don't want to be known as being fence writers, as church members, right? We don't want to be known as bleeding hearts, always siding with these heretics and feeling sorry for them and just sobbing over them and, oh, you know, I think they're still saved even though they denied that Jesus is Christ, you know. That's not, look, what that does is that just proves that we're weak when we act like that. That just lets people around us saying, oh, well, they're just unstable in their ways. And that's not the kind of reputation we want. We want that religious reputation. We do. You know, but what does the devil do? You know, he just, he preaches the same message, you know, that religion is just, you know, it's just folly and religion is stupid, that it's all about this relationship. Well, you know what? That's just not true. That's just not true at all. You know, when we ruin our reputation, it's going to take 10 times the amount of time to get it back. And think about that. Think about that. Our reputation is important. It's important to God. It's important to the community. It's important to the message that we go out and preach. I mean, think about Rahab the harlot. I mean, it's 2019 and we always refer to Rahab as the harlot. Now, I believe when we get to heaven, it won't be so, right, because obviously I believe she's saved and obviously forgiven. You know, you're not going to go up to heaven and call Rahab the harlot, but nonetheless, you know, what do we always say? Rahab the harlot or Solomon. When you hear the name Solomon, you think of wisdom. A guy who was the wisest man on earth that ever lived. And then we think of all the wives that led him astray. Right. We don't want that. We want to protect our reputation, not just as a church. Right. That's important. But as each individual person in the church, we want to be religious. We want to make our religion, our reality, which is going to create our reputation. Those three arts make the religion your reality, and that will create your reputation. And you know what? It's the only one you've got Europe. Your reputation right now is the only one that you have. So you have got to take care of it because, you know, people do forget. Right. People forget, but they don't forget. They don't forget. And that not forgetting. That's what tarnishes your reputation. Anyways, that is it. Let's pray that it was somewhat intelligent. I promise to get more sleep the next time I come up here. I don't know what this elevation is doing to us, but none of us were able to sleep last night. Anyways, as far as that worked for our Lord, thank you for this opportunity to preach. I just pray you bless the soul winning and fellowship to come and please help us to protect our reputations Lord and do things your way. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.