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you you you you you you you All right, well good evening everyone welcome back to Mountain Baptist Church Take your song books and turn to song 109 All right Song 109 in your song books will sing Savior like a shepherd lead us if you would stand We'll sing song 109 Oh Save your like a shepherd lead us, but we need thy tender care And I pleasant pastures feed us Or are use thy folds prepare Blessed Jesus blessed Jesus Thou has bought us thine we are Blessed Jesus blessed Jesus Thou has bought us thine we are We are thine to friend us be the guardian of our way Keep thy flock from sin, defend us Seek us when we go astray blessed Jesus blessed Jesus Hear oh hear us when we pray blessed Jesus blessed Jesus Hear oh hear us when we pray Thou has promised to receive us poor and sinful though we be Thou has mercy to relieve us grace to cleanse and power to free blessed Jesus blessed Jesus early let us turn to thee blessed Jesus blessed Jesus early let us turn to thee early let us seek thy favor early let us do thy will blessed Lord and only Savior with thy love our brosoms fill blessed Jesus blessed Jesus thou has loved us love us still blessed Jesus blessed Jesus thou has loved us love us still And let's pray Heavenly Father, Lord, again, we just want to thank you, God, just for our church, thank you for your word, thank you for salvation, and Lord, just that you saved our souls freely and that it's forever. Thank you, Lord, for the sermon this morning and also for the souls that were saved this afternoon and throughout last week. I pray, Lord, now that everything that's done would be to your honor and glory. We love you, for it's in Jesus' name we ask all, but amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. We are glad. Amen. Well, welcome back to Mount Baptist Church on this Sunday afternoon. Let's get the soul-winning numbers for the week here first. What did we have? Did we have any salvations during the week? One on Tuesday? Did any others during the week? And then what was today? What did everybody have today? So one, so two there, so three, four, okay. Five. Any others today? Rob had one, five, so six, so seven total for the week. Oh yeah. Grab that 29 right? So 36 actually. 36 total because of the soul winning marathon. Alright, good work with the soul winning. And then as far as announcements here, everything's pretty much the same as this morning. Wednesday evening we'll be continuing our study through 2 Samuel. And then on the regional soul winning times, I know that the Monday one I think is going to be kind of postponed for maybe the next couple of weeks. So just be on the church group for that. But Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday there be on lookout on locations, times, all that stuff. So prayer meetings are on here at upcoming events at the end of the month here. We do have the Moorefield soul winning marathon on August 30th. Well I think that's the 24th now. So that 24th instead of 31st. And then Cannonsburg PA soul winning marathon September 21st, the day before our anniversary service there. So chapter memory for the month, at least until we'll get a new chapter next week for the month of August. But for this week, Psalm 126, try to get that memorized. And then Romans 11, 6 is our memory verse for the week. And we've got the birthdays and anniversaries. And looks like everything went well with the McCloy twins. But be in prayer obviously for them, but also for Crystal through all of that. I think she's, from what I saw or read, she's kind of in a lot of pain right now. But praise the Lord for answering prayers there, but obviously continue to pray for them at this time. And then obviously on the pregnancy list there as well, I pray for Rachel Hiles there. So I think that's about what I have for announcements. We're going to be continuing our overview series, if you will, of overviews of the books of the Bible. So we're going to be in Proverbs tonight. And so I think Brother David is going to be reading Proverbs chapter 1 for us after we do another song. The offering box is in the back there if you want to give Tyler an offering. Brother David is going to come sing more songs. And then Brother David will come up and read Proverbs chapter 1 for us. All right, take your song books and turn to song 296. Song 296 in your song books, sing follow on, song 296. Down in the valley with my Savior would I go Where the flowers are blooming and the sweet waters flow Everywhere He leads me I would follow, follow on Walking in His footsteps till the crown be won Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus Anywhere, everywhere I would follow on Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus Everywhere He leads me I would follow on Down in the valley with my Savior I would go Where the storms are sweeping and the dark waters flow With His hand to lead me I will never, never fear Danger cannot fright me if my Lord is near Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus Anywhere, everywhere I would follow on Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus Everywhere He leads me I will follow on Down in the valley or upon the mountain steep Close beside my Savior would my soul ever keep He will lead me safely in the path that He has trod Up to where they're gathered on the hills of God Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus Anywhere, everywhere I will follow on Follow, follow, I would follow Jesus Everywhere He leads me I would follow on All right, take your Bibles and turn to Proverbs chapter number one. Proverbs chapter number one in your Bibles. We'll have Brother David read that for us. Proverbs chapter one, if you found your place, amen. And the Bible reads, The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment and equity, to give subtlety to the simple, to the young man, knowledge and discretion, a wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels, to understand the Proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother, for they shall be an ornament of grace into thy head and change about thy neck. My son, as soon as enticed thee, consent thou not. If they say, Come with us, let us lay weight for blood, let us lay privily for the innocent without cause, let us swallow them up alive as the grave, and whole as those that go down to the pit. We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil, cast in thy lot among us, let us all have one purse. My son, walk not thou on the way with them, refrain thy foot from their path, for their feet run to evil and make haste to said blood, surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird, and they lay weight for their own blood, and they lay privily for their own lives, so are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain, which take away the life of the owners thereof. Wisdom cryeth without, see art with her voice in the streets, see cryeth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates, in the city see art with her words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will you love simplicity, and the scourners delight in their scourning, and fools hate knowledge. Turn ye at merry proof, behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, and I will make known my words unto you, because I have called, and ye refused, I had stressed out my hand, and no man regarded. But ye have said it not, all my counsel, and with none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you, then so they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would none of my counsel, they despised all my reproof. Therefore, so they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices, for the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But who shall hearkeneth unto me, shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil. Let's pray. Dear Lord, I thank you for this opportunity to come back to your house. Pray that you feel past with your spirit, and help us all to learn something. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. So here's our chapter one, and the first thing about Proverbs is, one thing to note about it, is that there's 31 Proverbs, or 31 chapters, and this is a great book to just kind of have a proverb of the day. So, you know, basically, obviously there's going to be months where you're going to have less than 31 days, but in general, I mean, you're going to have, you know, even if you're in February, you could go through that and maybe just double up some proverbs here when you're doing that. But if you're ever just like, what do I need to read today? A lot of times I'll just be like, what day is it? And I'll just read a proverb, and just read that day, that proverb for the day kind of thing. Obviously that should be your only reading, and the only reading you ever do is just the proverb of the day, but it is something that is just kind of a nice little bit, kind of injection of wisdom, because this book is really just wise, saying the truth, and I don't want to just, you know, the idea of what a proverb is, and this is just from, like, just a dictionary, dictionary.com, or like, if you were just to Google this on your search engine, this is what it says a proverb is. A short, pithy saying in general use, stating a general truth or piece of advice. And that's pretty much, you know, basically it's just something that's a short phrase, statement, to basically generally speak about a topic. And so that's pretty much what Proverbs is down, you know, as far as just general truths that you can use in life, whether at church or whether, you know, just out in the workforce. So you think about the idea of just, you know, a soft answer turneth away wrath. It's a really short phrase, but it's something that can be used in so many different areas. You could use that in your marriage, you could use that at the workforce, or wherever you're at, to where it's just wisdom in a short little phrase. So that's what's really nice about Proverbs, is that you can read it, but you don't have to basically have, you're not, like, jumping into, like, the middle of Ezekiel, and you're like, all right, where am I, what's the timeline, all that stuff. You just basically jump in, and you can just, from one chapter, get a whole bunch of wisdom and a bunch of information. And so that's kind of what's, that's really nice about reading the book of Proverbs. And Proverbs 1 here, just to read the first part of it, because the very beginning of Proverbs does kind of set you up for what we're getting into with the book of Proverbs. And most of Proverbs is Proverbs that were written by Solomon. Okay, so not all of them, actually we'll see that Proverbs 30 and 31 were written by two other people. And so, but most of them are Proverbs that were written by Solomon. And verse 1 here, it says, Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity, to give subtly to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. To understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. And so this book is just packed full of wisdom and knowledge and understanding. And one way that I understand the difference between those is that basically knowledge is knowing a subject, knowing something about, like hey, I know that when I turn that light switch on, the light turns on. It's like, okay, so that's knowledge. You understand that that's what turns the light switch on, turns the light on and off. Understanding is basically knowing why it does that, right? That the power goes through the line, it comes from the power plant, you had to burn coal to get that power and all that stuff, and you're understanding why it does that. And wisdom is more so applying what you understand and it's more of the when and how. When do I turn on that light? When do I shut off that light? And that's kind of a very simplistic way of looking at it, but the idea of I know that to be true, but understanding why that's true. Why is that the case? But then applying it in the fact of, okay, maybe another example would be, the Bible says there's a time to speak and there's a time to keep silence. Well, knowing that is one thing, right? Knowing that that's the case, that there's a time to speak and there's a time to keep silence, understanding why would be really getting into the fact of why should I keep silence and why should I speak, right? But then the wisdom is knowing when and how to do that, right? And so anyway, that being said is that getting in the Proverbs, this is something that none of us are ever going to arrive at, okay? Because there's so many different circumstances and you're always going to be wondering, when do I apply this? Even if you just memorized all the Proverbs and knew all the Proverbs, the big thing is discerning when to use certain portions at a certain time. And that just takes, that takes experience and that experience is going to lead to discernment, right? And the Bible even talks about that those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil, right? It's like when the word of God, you know, obviously you have the sincere milk of the word but then you also have the strong meat of the word and you can eat all that strong meat but if you're not using it, you're not discerning when to use it, how to use it and all of that. So that being said is that it's one thing to know the Proverbs, another thing to know how to use the Proverbs and that's really where, you know, just buckle in for the rest of your life figuring that out, okay? So, that being said is that Proverbs is bottomless when it comes to wisdom in my opinion. Now if you want to know what book in the New Testament is kind of like Proverbs, I would say James. The book of James is like a mini Proverbs and so there's a lot in James that is just just kind of calling back the Proverbs and that type of stuff. So, but go to 1 Kings chapter 4 because I just want you to see where the Bible actually states that Solomon wrote a bunch of Proverbs and we know that Solomon was the wisest man upon the earth at that time. It's stating that here and that there wasn't going to be a king wiser than him. Obviously that excludes Jesus, right? Because Jesus even says there's a greater than Solomon here, right? So obviously Jesus exceeds every, you know, whether it's David, whether it's Solomon, it doesn't matter, right? But humanly speaking and taking the Son of God out of the equation, Solomon was the wisest king to sit upon the throne and obviously he asks for wisdom and God gave him that and above that riches and wealth and all that. So, but 1 Kings chapter 4 and verse 30, it says in Solomon's wisdom excelled, the wisdom of all the children of the east country and all the wisdom of Egypt for he was wiser than all men, than Ethan, Ezra, and Heman, and Karkol, and Darda, the sons of Mahal and his fame was in all nations roundabout and he spake three thousand Proverbs and his songs were a thousand and five. So his songs were a thousand and five, now we have one of those, Song of Solomon, Song of Songs, right? Which is Solomon's. So we have one of them, but he had a lot of other songs. And obviously he also wrote the book of Ecclesiastes and so, which obviously we'll get to that, Lord willing, next week. But in Proverbs, some of these Proverbs, you'll see David mentioning these things in the Psalms and stuff like that. So, and obviously he mentions that too that in throughout the Proverbs, he'll mention that he, you know, obviously was the son of David and it taught him a lot of this stuff, right? So a lot of this is coming from David as well. And obviously ultimately it's coming from God. And Proverbs is obviously the word of God. It's under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. So that is true as well. Proverbs one obviously kind of sets you up for the fact of here's what Proverbs are about, here's what the purpose is. It's really so that you have discretion, so you have wisdom, knowledge, all of that. And in the second portion of chapter one, we see wisdom being personified. Now, what does that mean to be personified? Well, wisdom's not a person, right? Wisdom is basically a quality or an attribute of a person, right? You can think of it like an adjective to a person, like that's a wise man, right? You know, it's basically an adjective, a descriptor of somebody. And so, in Proverbs what you'll see is that wisdom is spoken of as a woman, okay? And you'll see this in that priest's sermon dealing with the basically the parallel between wisdom and the virtuous woman. And what you'll see throughout the book of Proverbs is you'll see how the virtuous woman is like under wisdom and obviously the strange woman is like under foolishness. And it even uses the same language as far as a virtuous woman is far above rubies, right? Who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies? But then it talks about wisdom and how wisdom's price is far above rubies. And then it talks about cleaving unto the wife of your youth and all that, but then it also says cleaving unto wisdom, right? So, wisdom is, you know, in Proverbs is likened to basically how a man would marry a wife and the fact that that's how much you should be cleaving to wisdom and it's basically being personified in that manner, okay? So, when you see Proverbs 1 here in verse 20, for example, it says, Wisdom crieth without, she uttereth her voice in the streets. She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gate, in the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate in college? Actually, wisdom's not an actual person, but obviously this would apply to the Lord saying this because one of the seven spirits that's resting upon the Lord, in Isaiah 11, we're talking about the seven spirits of God dealing with in Revelation, is one of those is the spirit of wisdom. And there's other spirits as well as far as his attributes or, I guess, adjectives you would put on the Lord. So obviously, when you're looking at wisdom speaking, though it is a woman because it's talking about the attribute, it's personifying the attribute, obviously God is wise, God is, obviously his wisdom is above all wisdom, and obviously the wisdom that's being spoken here is godly wisdom that's in the scripture, okay? So, that's something that you kind of notice when you're going through the book of Proverbs, is that kind of personification of wisdom. And so, it's just a way, it's kind of like a poetic, and again, this is a poetic book, right? So you think of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, those are all poetic books. So it's written in a poetic manner, and you'll see that throughout Proverbs where there's different ways in which Proverbs are written. Everything from basically straight up paragraph form to basically two Proverbs that go together, like a two-verse Proverb, to just one-verse Proverbs, to where it doesn't really matter, there's no real context to it. You could be in a Proverb, like chapter 16 or something like that, and you read a Proverb, and the verse before the verse after is not really going to help you because there's just a list of different Proverbs. But in another Proverbs, the whole chapter is talking about the same thing, and you need all the other verses for context, okay? So that's different ways that it's written there. And I'm not going to be getting into all the details with this, this is an overview, and I'm not going to go through every Proverb and be like, let me talk about every Proverb, because this will take me forever. Especially the chapters where it's individual Proverbs talking about different subjects, okay? But some chapters, especially the beginning chapters, they do have a theme to them, and these beginning chapters are more so dealing with wisdom and dealing with the wife of your youth compared to a strange woman, and that's where the beginning of Proverbs is really dealing with that, after you get after chapter one here. But chapter two is dealing with the value of wisdom. So if you think about it, chapter one is really calling you to, hey, this is the point of Proverbs, is so that you'll get wisdom, that you'll have discretion, and that you're not going to go after these wicked people and all that stuff. Chapter two is really showing you the value of having wisdom. That's what it says in verse four of chapter two. It says, if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find knowledge of God. Chapter three, dealing with it as well, as far as not leaning on your own fleshly wisdom, because there's wisdom that's of the world, right? And then there's wisdom which is of God. And obviously, the wisdom of God in 2 Corinthians, it talks about how the foolishness of God is wiser than men, right? So basically, God's wisdom is far above. Basically, the wisest man upon the earth is almost being equated with the foolishness of God, if that makes sense. And obviously, God's not foolish in any account, but that's basically kind of the comparison as far as that goes. So, in Proverbs chapter three, very famous verses here. And so, Proverbs three and verse five says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord, and depart from evil. And really, the book of Proverbs is hitting on this throughout, and the fact that we need to lean on God's understanding, His wisdom, and not our own. I mean, Proverbs 14, 12, Proverbs 16, I think 24, 25, I think it's... I always forget that reference. It says, there's a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. And that's something that's being repeated over and over again, and the idea that what we might think is right, and again, this is general, right? So, a proverb is kind of like a general truth, meaning this is that there are times where you think something, and it actually is right, okay? But at the same time, the fleshly mind, the carnal mind, is on the side of, like, that's not right, okay? And so, we always need to be leaning on what's the truth, and this is our foundation. It all comes down to the fact that what is absolute truth? What is absolute right and wrong? And the Bible is our final authority on what is right and wrong. So, if I'm going to say that that's absolutely true, it better be in the Bible, okay? And obviously, we're talking about philosophy, we're talking about things dealing with spirituality, all those things like that, right? I'm not saying that you do a differential equation in calculus, and, you know, it's not in the Bible, it's like, that's not true, you know? I'm not saying that. But, obviously, when it comes to all faith and practice, when it comes to what we believe, and things that we can't see and all that, then that's where we need to lean on what God has said. Proverbs chapter 4 is, again, these are all dealing with wisdom, right? The value of wisdom in chapter 2. Chapter 3 is don't lean on your own wisdom or your knowledge or understanding, but lean on God's. Chapter 4 is really a father to a son, basically a father addressing a son, and it says in verse 1 there, it says, Hear ye, children, the instruction of a father, and attend to no understanding, for I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. Now, the reason that, though it is Solomon speaking to his son, essentially, in a lot of these Proverbs, we know that this is, we can take that as God speaking to us as his children, because in chapter 3, for example, it says, The Lord loveth him, he chasteneth, right? It talks about despise not to chasten the Lord, and in the New Testament it says that, basically, you've heard this and you've forgotten the exhortation, as a father speaketh to a son, and then it goes on to basically take that same thing and apply it to the fact that the Lord is the one that's speaking that to you. So it's written in the manner that, like I said, wisdom's personified, but you can take that as the Lord is stating this, right? Or it's speaking as Solomon to his son, but obviously you can take it as God the father saying that to you, his child. So that's what I want to get across there. Chapter 5 is really dealing with taking heed to the strange woman, and obviously this is definitely dealing with married couples, right? When it comes to this, as far as staying away from adultery, but this would also apply if you're not married and staying away from fornication. Go to Proverbs 5 verse 3, it says, For the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil, but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. And this chapter also deals with, really it gives you the warning of the strange woman, and it gives you the warning of that, but it really gives you the remedy, honestly, because in chapter 5 it basically just says to basically be ravished with the love of the wife of your youth, right? It's basically like, here's how you deal with a strange woman, is that you have that taken care of with your wife, right? And I mean that gets into why people get married in general, right? And the fact that to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife. And if that's how you avoid fornication, and to do benevolence and everything that goes along with avoiding fornication, then that's how you stay out of adultery, okay? And that's really the key right there, is that if you're embracing, and it basically even says, why would you embrace the bosom of a stranger? I mean if that's happening at home, then what would be the point? There's no need to search outside of that. And obviously we were just dealing with, we were going through 2 Samuel and David, and obviously he had problems with marriage and his multiple wives, and which I believe led into him committing adultery with Bathsheba. That's not an accident, and that shows you that there's problems at home with that. Chapter 6, this is a passage where we see things that God hates. And here's a good example of poetry, right? This is written not in prose, but in poetry, because you'll see these certain phrases that are written that are kind of a poetic way of saying it, for example. Go to Proverbs 6 and verse 16. And I'm just kind of picking out certain things, again this is just an overview, not concise to go through all of the book of Proverbs in one sermon. But in chapter 6 here in verse 16 it says, These six things that the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination. And this is something that is a poetic way of saying, it's not saying he hates six, but not the seventh. It's just a poetic way of saying he hates these seven things, and they are an abomination. Because if something is an abomination, it means you detest it. So it would be hard to say that the last one he detests, but doesn't hate. So it's just a poetic way of saying it. It says for three things, yea, for four. And even Amos will do this in the Minor Prophets, where it says, for three transgressions and for four. It's like, well, for four, right? But it's just a poetic way of saying, because wouldn't it be true that he hates six things? Isn't it true that it's for three transgressions, yea, for four? And so that being said, don't get caught up in this and be like, well, he hates the six, but not the seventh. It's just poetry in the way that that's written. So it says these six things that the Lord hates, yea, seven, are an abomination unto him. A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. Notice how lying is in there twice. So when it comes to lying, and it's interesting, too, because a lot of times when we go out soul winning, obviously one of the big sins that we point out is the fact that, have you ever told a lie before, right? In a lot of cases, lying is obviously not as drastic as like committing murder. But lying can still get you the death penalty if you're perjuring yourself. If you're bearing false witness in a murder trial, then according to the Bible, if you are found to be bearing false witness, you get the punishment they would have gotten. But all I have to say is that lying, in God's eyes, He hates it. It's an abomination to Him. So, yea, I mean, that's one we bring up because obviously everybody's guilty of it. But also, I don't think we necessarily understand the severity of how much God detests lying. So even though, yea, I don't think it's as extreme as like murdering somebody, it's still something that God hates, something that God detests, right? And chapter 6, you know, I'll call that 6A, right? 6B, it really gets back into chapter 6B, if you will, the next portion of the chapter and into chapter 7, you're really dealing with the adulterous woman. So chapter 5 was kind of leading, obviously leading into that. Chapter 6, you kind of have this little break where it's talking about things that God hates and all of that and basically how there's going to be destruction and that without remedy and all that for certain people. And in chapter, the end of chapter 6 there, going into chapter 7, you really get into the adulterous woman. And notice what it says in verse 26 here. So Proverbs 6 and verse 26. For by means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread and the adulterous will hunt for the precious life. And what it really comes out to is that the whorish woman that you have to pay and all these things will basically take all of your money and you'll give it to someone else, you're going to ruin your life and in the end, you're going to have a wound and dishonor that will never be taken away when it comes to adultery. And Proverbs is just hitting that over and over again, like don't be like the fool, don't be the person that's like basically going to the slaughter and notice what it says in Proverbs 7 verse 26. So they're hunting for that precious life and this woman that's out there in the streets and she's decked herself and she's basically saying like I've been looking for you all my life. I've been searching for you. Except for the last night she was searching for someone else. And so verse 26 here says For she hath cast down many wounded, yea, many strong men have been slain by her. And what you have to understand is that there's nothing new under the sun. This has been going on for a long, long time. And it's one thing for someone that's simple to that, meaning like they're ignorant of that type of thing that goes on. It's another thing if you know, right? And so when you read the Proverbs, it's just a constant reminder, like stay away from that stuff, stay away from this, stay away from that. And really marriage, these first chapters dealing with Proverbs 5, 6, 7, these are great chapters to really just know well when it comes to marriage. Whether you're newly married or whether you've been married for 10 years or whether you've been married for decades, right? Is that this is something, this isn't something that, well, I got this down when I first got married. It's like, no, I need to continually think about this. I need to continually be applying this to my marriage. Chapter 8 and 9, again we get back into wisdom being personified. And just to kind of show you that in the first verses of these chapters, Proverbs chapter 8 and verse 1, it says, Doth not wisdom cry and understanding put forth her voice? Note Proverbs 9, 1, Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars. Again, I forget what the name of the sermon was that I did, but basically the correlations of wisdom and the virtuous woman, the wife, is crazy. Meaning like it's just everywhere in the book of Proverbs. And you really see it in Proverbs 8 and 9. And you compare this to the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31. This is something that, you know, as a young man, grab on the wisdom and then find that wife that fits that mold as well. Okay? Because, again, wisdom is, the price of wisdom is far above rubies, but also the price of a virtuous woman is far above rubies. You know, finding somebody that is trying to be wise herself and wanting to build up her house and be that type of wife, that is something that's precious in the world today. Chapter 10 through 22, okay, at least the beginning of chapter 22, you're like, man, you're really skipping over a lot here. Well, here's the thing, there's a lot of different, there's a lot, these chapters, if you go to chapter 10 there, what you'll notice, okay, so at this point, basically you're just reading it paragraph form, right? You're just reading it like you're reading a chapter in the Bible, right? But when you get to chapter 10, what you see is that basically it starts going into one verse Proverbs. And notice what it says, it says, The Proverbs of Solomon, a wise son, maketh a glad father, but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. Treasures of wickedness profit nothing but righteousness, delivereth from death. The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous, the famished, but He casts away the substance of the wicked. He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand. Now, some of these are definitely, they're their own proverb and their own right, some of them you can see how it's kind of lumped together, meaning that it's sometimes dealing with the same subject, but sometimes it just kind of hits another subject. And so what you're dealing with is kind of a one-verse proverb that's going through here. Now, there are exceptions to this when you're in these chapters, so don't take that and run and be like, Pastor Robinson, you're wrong. There is a place where there's two verses that go together, right? I'll give you an example of that, just before you start rebuking me on that. I don't think anybody would do that. But Proverbs 17, remember I said from Proverbs 10 to 22, you really have this kind of brunt of all these different proverbs, right? And really just kind of one-verse proverbs. And the nice thing about that, again, is that you can kind of have this one-verse proverb that you can really just memorize, know it, and apply it. And there's a lot to be said about basically having a truth just kind of abridged into a small saying. And that's really the nice thing about a lot of these proverbs here, to where if you want to tell somebody a truth about the Bible, you don't have to go on this dissertation and be like, let me read half a chapter for you. You can just give them one sentence, right? But to give you one, just so you know that in here, obviously there's got to be cases where there's going to be verses that maybe go together. And the end of chapter 17 is where I would point you to. It says in verse 27, 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. So obviously you'll see there that, you know, yeah, there'll be occasions where they'll be clumped in together, and they'll basically have verses that go together and all that, okay? So that happens as well. But really, when you're going through these chapters, you'll just see, here's a proverb, here's a proverb, here's a proverb, going down the line. Then in chapter 22, we see that it does that, and then you get down to verse 17, and we see that we're being, going back into basically paragraph form, going into the idea of kind of a call, if you will, to words of wisdom, okay? So in Proverbs 22, verse 17, it says, Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge, for it is a pleasant thing, if thou keep them within thee, they shall withal be fitted in thy lips, that thy trust may be in the Lord, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee, have not I written to thee excellent things, and counsels, and knowledge, that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth, and that thou mightest answer the words of truth of them that send unto thee, rob not the poor, because he is poor, neither oppress the afflicted in the gate, for the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoil them, make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man thou shalt not go, lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul, be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts, if thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee? Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set, seeest thou a man diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men. Now did you notice something there, that obviously it kind of broke from, okay, these one verse proverbs, then it gets into this kind of call to wisdom, but notice what you have there, two verse proverbs, right? And this is where you get into that poetry, where you're getting into the fact of, two verses, a single thought, two other verses, a single thought, and going down the line, okay? And Proverbs 23, we get into that as well, where it's not like a one verse proverb, but there's multiple proverbs, or statements that are being made, but it is clumped into multiple verses, okay? So I'll just show you a portion of this in Proverbs 23, dealing with drinking alcohol, and so you have like Proverbs 20, verse 1, where it says wine is a mocker, and strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise, right? So you can have like that one powerful verse there, but then you can also have these sentences, or multiple verses that are saying the same thing, but giving more information, right? And so Proverbs 23, verse 29 says, who hath woe, who hath sorrow, who hath contentions, who hath babbling, who hath wounds without cause, who hath redness of eyes, they that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine, look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. And it goes on from there, going all the way down to the end of the chapter there, dealing with what it does to you, okay? You know, it biteth like a serpent, it's thinking of like an adder, and going down the line, right? So, you get into that with Proverbs chapter 23. Proverbs chapter 24, a lot of two-verse Proverbs, so just to give you an idea of that, Proverbs 24, verse 1, it says, be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them, for their heart studyeth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief. Then verse 23, through wisdom is in house builded, and by understanding is it established, and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. So, you see these kind of two-verse Proverbs going down the line in chapter 24. Chapter 25 through 29 is a lot of more one- and two-verse Proverbs, and just it kind of sets you up. So, there's a clear delineation when you go to chapter 10 on to chapter 25 on, and notice what it says here in chapter 25 and verse 1, it says, these are also Proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out. So, you kind of see that, hey, there's kind of this line here where it says, okay, we got some more Proverbs, right? And it also kind of shows you that these Proverbs weren't necessarily prominent, necessarily in before Hezekiah, and meaning like these were copied out, and it seems like they were more in use when it comes to that. And what you'll find with the books of the Old Testament is that a lot of the books of the Old Testament, though they're in an order, a certain order, that's not necessarily when they were written. For example, 1 and 2 Chronicles was written way later than 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and there's a big gap between those as far as when they were written and put in there. Now, you wouldn't really notice that because it's the word of God, right? And there's no errors. So, and it's all, though it's written by different authors, humanly speaking, everything is, it just feels the same, right? It's cohesive, there's no like, man, where'd this book come from? Now, as soon as you start reading the Apocrypha, you know, which is obviously not the Bible, then you're going to be like, where'd this book come from? Because you can just know that this is not the same. And you say, well, it depends on the translators. Read the translation of the King James translators of the Apocrypha, it's the same translators. So, you kind of have to put who translated out the window at that point, and read that and you'll know that it doesn't fit. So, but that being said is that there's a clear difference here as far as what's going on there. And, you know, again, I don't want to go into all the different verses here as far as what's going on, but you kind of see that there, that hey, here's also some proverbs, whereas chapter 10, on to this point, were kind of like the main proverbs I think everybody was seeing and everything, and then this is kind of additional ones that they copied out in the time of Hezekiah, King of Judah. One that I kind of want to point out, because there are obviously proverbs, even though maybe the proverbs are just one sentence proverbs, there's a theme. And if there's a chapter that has a theme, it's Proverbs 26. And Proverbs 26 has a theme of foolishness. And you'll just see full mentioned over and over and over and over again. And obviously you have the verse four there, but just kind of read the beginning here. It says, as snow and summer and as rain and harvest, so honor is not seemly for a fool. As the bird by a wandering, as the swallow by a flying, so the curse causeless shall not come. A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back. Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly. Full, full, full. I mean this is like the theme of the chapter. Now, these two verses, verse three and four, is a great example of learning discernment, right? Cause here you have a statement that says, answer a fool according to his folly, and then you have another one that says, answer not a fool according to his folly. I've heard people say this is a contradiction in the Bible. Though they're literally back to back verses, like that was a pretty stark contradiction that you said it right after each other, right? But really what this comes down to is that there's a time to speak, and there's a time to keep silence. There's a time to answer a fool according to his folly, and there's a time to not answer a fool according to his folly. And let me just give you an example of when you would do that and when you wouldn't, okay? How about you're at the door, and someone is a heretic after the first and second admonition, right? You're at the door, you try to give them the gospel, and you give them a verse, and they're just like, they just blow it off, and they just don't even regard it, right? Don't even regard it, right? You give them another verse, they just blow it off, they don't even regard it. You're like, see you, have a nice day. No reason to fight with that person or deal with that. Now another situation is you have a multitude of people around, and someone is spewing out false doctrine. Now you answer that fool according to his folly because of those that are around hearing it, okay? And this really gets into smitest corner, and the simple will beware, okay? And the idea of what's the purpose of answering this fool, okay? And what you have to understand is that the fool that's wise in his own conceit, I mean, good luck winning that person, right? But in the end, think about this, what if you were answering somebody, but there was someone there that wanted to hear it, right? Let's say there's two people there, and the one person is like soaking it up, right? They're soaking it up, they want to hear, but this other person is being belligerent, then at that point, you put that person into the ground when it comes to what they believe, and you show them, hey, this is what the Bible says, you're going to hell, but hey, if you believe this, you're going to heaven, this is what you're dealing with here, right? Does that make sense? Like there is a case and discernment that needs to be made there as far as how to deal with that. There's been cases where I've, though the person is not necessarily belligerent, they're not necessarily like angry at me or anything like that, but they're just kind of there to combat with you, but there's someone else there that's listening. I think about this when I've given the gospel to Muslims, for example, right? And they're super nice, right? And you're just kind of like, I feel like I'm spinning my wheels with this person, but then they invite you in and their children are listening to what you're saying. Do you see a reason why you would go forward with that conversation because of the bystanders that might be hearing the word of God because of what's going on there? And that's just an example of things that are stated in the Bible, but knowing when to pull the trigger on it, knowing when and how. And again, I'm not saying I'm like one that's just like I know all the time, you know? I'm constantly asking the Lord to give me the sermon of how to deal with the situation. Should I rebuke that or should I have mercy on that, right? This can go with churches, this can go with your family, this can go with your children, this can go with everything. And the fact that I want to do right, but when do I lay down the law and when do I have mercy? Raising children, this is a case that you're dealing with all the time. You're just like, when do I have to lay down the law and when do I say, hey, I'm going to show mercy on you in this case and allow that to be the case there? Okay, so that's a case there that you deal with. Now Proverbs 26 also has, and I thought I wrote it down, a proverb that's brought up in the New Testament. Oh, I'm in Proverbs 27, that's why I can't see it. Bear with me, I know it's... How am I missing, there it is, okay. Proverbs 26, 11, staring right at it. Proverbs 26, 11 says, as a dog returned to his vomit, so a foal returned to his folly, this is brought up in the New Testament in 2 Peter and even at the true proverb, right? The dog is turned to his vomit and the sow that is washed to her wallowing in the mire. And so these proverbs are obviously authoritative, these are true sayings that are obviously being referenced in the New Testament and all of that. So just to kind of give you that aspect there too, that Proverbs is quoted in the New Testament. Not as much as Psalms, Isaiah and Psalms are duking it out as far as which one is quoted more in the New Testament. Now, going on to chapter 30, so really from Proverbs 1 to 29 is all the Proverbs of Solomon. And chapter 30 we see at the end there kind of like an appendices if you will, like an appendix of the Proverbs is you have the words of Agor and the words of Lemuel, King Lemuel. And I don't personally believe that King Lemuel is Solomon, but I'm not going to fight you on that, like I'm not here to be super dogmatic on it. I just think that this is a different person than Solomon. But in Proverbs 30 and verse 1 here it says, The words of Agor the son of Jacob, even the prophecy the man spake unto Ithiol, even unto Ithiol and Yukol. Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. I neither learned wisdom nor have the knowledge of the holy. And obviously I think he's probably being modest, but at the same time this is scripture that he's stating this. And the fact that what I believe he's stating here is that this wisdom isn't coming from him. He's not claiming this, what he's about to write, he's not claiming this to be coming from him. And the next thing that's stated here makes me think of what Jesus said to Peter when he says, Thou art the Christ, the Son, and the living God. And it says, Flesh and blood hath not revealed the Son to thee, but my Father which is in heaven. So the idea of how is he getting this information, how does he have this knowledge and wisdom, that came from God. The same thing with Solomon. Solomon can say the same exact thing. That that wisdom that Solomon had was obviously given to him by God. And James talks about this, that he that lack of wisdom let him ask of God to give it to all men liberally, and a brain is not. And so, you want wisdom? Ask for it. But Proverbs chapter 30 and verse 4, a very profound statement and actually something that is, when you think about Old Testament passages talking about the Trinity or the Son of God, you definitely have passages in the Old Testament, but this one hits hard. And this one hits hard because what a lot of people want to say is that Jesus wasn't always the Son of God. And they'll say, well he became the Son of God at Bethlehem's major, or something like that, right? But this kind of puts that to bed. Because Proverbs 30 is way before Bethlehem's major, isn't it? Proverbs 30, it says in verse 4, it says, Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in his fists? Who hath bound the waters in a garment? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell? Notice the present tense there, right? Because some would say with Psalm 2, where it says, Kiss the son lest he be angry, and bless it all they that put their trust in him. They'll say, well, you know, but that whole psalm is prophetic, dealing with how Jesus is going to rise from the dead, and all these different things, right? And they can try to talk away that, even though that's ridiculous, okay? But here, you can't really talk that away. It says, what is his name, and what is his son's name? Meaning that the son of God, obviously Jesus, and obviously we know from Daniel chapter 3, that the son of God was in the burning fiery furnace, right? So, he was the son of God in Daniel's day, he's the son of God in Agar's day when he's writing this, he's the son of God from the beginning, from eternity past, okay? It's always been the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. These three are one. And, it's not taking that away when it says, for their three to bear record, and having the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, these three are one, because the Word was made flesh, the Word is what created everything. So, obviously, the Son is the Word. So, but this chapter has some interesting stuff in it, as far as just different things, you know, the lion is strongest among beasts, talked about the greyhound being like the quickest, and it's just some interesting stuff, that's just kind of interesting information, that's in Proverbs chapter 30, and so, definitely a great chapter to know there. In Proverbs 31, the last chapter of Proverbs, is the words of King Lemuel, but specifically, the words that he was taught by his mother. Okay, so that's what's really interesting about this, is that this is actually coming from the perspective of a mother. Proverbs, in general, is more like a father to a son, this is really, you get into the mother to the son. And so, it's kind of interesting to get that different perspective, as far as that's concerned. Proverbs 31 verse 1, it says, the words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. So, he's writing them down, obviously, but it's what his mother taught him, because it says, what my son, and what the son of my womb, and what the son of my vows, give not thy strength on the women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings. It is not for kings of Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink, lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. And if you really think about this, okay, Proverbs 31 is kind of like a culmination of everything that you've learned in Proverbs up to that point. Think about it, I mean, you're talking about a virtuous woman, it says don't give your strength on the women, and I'm not saying don't give your strength on any woman, because obviously get married to the virtuous woman, right? But don't give your strength on to some strange woman or some adulterer, right? But also, you know, how many verses are in there about not drinking wine and not, you know, getting drunk and all these different things, and what does she bring up? That. And also talking about having judgment and discernment to judge rightly and judge the right of the poor and the land and all this. What do you see? Pretty much all, a lot of the stuff about Proverbs is being culminated into Lemuel's mother saying, hey, here's what you need to do. And so if you think about it, Proverbs 31 is kind of like the application. It's like, here's all the information, here's all the different keys to how you deal with these situations, here's the application. And you say, well, I'm not a king. Yes, you are. The Bible says that God has made kings and priests to our God, that Jesus, through his blood, we are kings and priests. This is a royal priesthood of the believer. So when it comes to this, hey, that passage applies to you. It's not for kings. It's not for queens to drink wine and strong drink. But also, you know, basically, the idea of, hey, you want to have a virtuous, man, you want to have a virtuous woman, but you know, there's also a passage in Proverbs that you can find. So that converse, or that inverse, I guess, or however you want to look at that, of the woman looking for the man, you want to find the faithful man. And, you know, that's also hard to find. So Proverbs, listen, young men, you want to find that virtuous woman, well, you need the book of Proverbs to help lead you to that. The same thing, ladies, if you want to find a faithful man, then you need to see, from Proverbs, you can assess whether the boy you're talking to, or the man you're talking to, is a wise person or not. Okay? So you can just assess that, just based off of, are they a person that's angry all the time, right? They're just an angry person? Because the Bible says in Proverbs constantly to stay away from and flee from an angry man, right? And getting down the line as far as, do they have discernment? Do they have a soft answer? Are they the ones that will escalate a situation, or are they ones that will, you know, basically take it down a notch with a soft answer that turneth away wrath? You know, there's certain things that you can pick out, and here's the thing, ladies, I'm not saying that you have to have, like, a Proverbs, like, holistic man that's just, like, got this down pat. But there's certain things you're going to pick up on, that you're going to be like, that person's really full, that person doesn't stop talking, you know? Like, when the Bible talks about, like, let your words be few, and all of that, because out of the multitude of words, you know, that's how you know, like, well, in the end, think about this, the Bible talks about how God chose the fullestness of preaching. You say, why is it fullest? Because the more I speak, the more apt I am to saying something stupid, okay? This is why most of my sermons are just verses, okay? Because I lean on, what I'm saying is just what the Bible's saying. So here's how I try not to mess up. I've tried to speak very little of things that are not just completely stated in the Bible. Obviously, my job as a pastor is to give the sense, is to give the understanding, right? I'm not just reading off the Bible and be like, there it is, guys. Obviously, I gotta give you the interpretation and all of that, but in the end, the scripture is kind of like my backbone to where I'm like, all right, I'm not saying something stupid, okay? And so this is something that, you know, women, you should be looking for this in guys, and guys, you should be looking for this in women, and I'll say this, guys, your job is to lead the woman into this as well, okay? Men are the spiritual leaders, it's gonna be a lot harder for a woman, just know this, ladies, it's a lot harder for you to lead a guy that's foolish into being wise, okay? But I'll say this, I don't think anybody wants to be the guy that's living on the corner of the housetop, okay? Or that loud and stubborn woman, okay? So if that's who you're running into and someone that's just loud and stubborn and obnoxious, then, you know, you better just stay away from that person, right? Or the woman that's without discretion, which is like a jewel of gold and a swine snout, you know? There's just things like that, that Proverbs is giving you these warnings, like, okay, I want to stay away from that person, or whatever, so. But the book of Proverbs, again, I recommend reading Proverb today, not as your only reading, but basically as kind of a rule of thumb, like, get your Proverb in for the day, you know? And listen, if you read Proverbs every month, I can't tell you how much that little type of wisdom is going to help you in your life, to where you're going to remember certain things and be like, okay, how do I deal with this? Well, Proverbs says this, so let me try this, well, Proverbs says this, so let me try that out, let me try this out, and I can't count to you how many times I have implemented what Proverbs says and how it's just paid off, you know, four or five fold, when that takes place. And so, you know, the book of Proverbs is great, and Ecclesiastes is going to be interesting too, because Ecclesiastes is kind of coming in from a different perspective. It is very much like Proverbs, but it's kind of coming in from just a different way of looking at things, more of kind of like a negative way of looking at things, where this is more positive, like here's how you do it, right? Here's the offense, right? Whereas this is like, this is everything that's bad, this is why this sucks, this is why this is like horrible, and ultimately, here's how you get away from that, right? And so, it's kind of a negative view, or kind of coming at it from, where instead of looking at it from the wisdom aspect, coming at it from the foolish aspect, and this is why this is really bad, okay? So, Lord willing, next week we'll get into Ecclesiastes, but let's end it with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for today, thank you for your word. Pray that you be with us throughout the rest of this week, pray that you be with us as we go home, give us safe travels, be with those that aren't feeling well, and the babies, and be with brother Chris, and all the children there, just pray that you'd be with them, have your hands of mercy and grace be upon them, and Lord just love you, pray also in Jesus Christ's name, amen. Brother Dave's gonna come, sing one more song, and then we'll be dismissed. All right, your songbook's then turned to song 397. Song 397 in your songbooks, we'll sing a little as much when God is in it, if you would stand, we'll sing song 397. In the harvest field now ripen, there's a word for all to do, hearth the voice of God is calling to the harvest calling you, little is much when God is in it, labor not for wealth or fame, there's a crown and you can win it, if you'll go in Jesus' name, does the place you're called to labor seem so small and little known, it is prayed if God is in it, and he'll not forget his own, little is much when God is in it, labor not for wealth or fame, there's a crown and you can win it, if you'll go in Jesus' name, are you laid aside from service, body worn from toil and care, you can still be in the battle, in the sacred place of prayer, little is much when God is in it, labor not for wealth or fame, there's a crown and you can win it, if you'll go in Jesus' name, there's a crown and you can win it,