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Alright, Proverbs chapter number 6, the Bible reads, My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth. Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself when thou art come into the hand of thy friend. Go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend. Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself as a robe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fallow. Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise, which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideeth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that travelth, and thy want is an armed man, a naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth. He winketh with his eyes, he spinketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers. Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually, he soweth discord. Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly, suddenly shall he be broken without remedy. These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto it, a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, and heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother, bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thine neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee, when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee, and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman, lust not after her beauty in thine heart, neither let her take thee with her idols. For by means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulterers will hunt for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth into his neighbor's wife, whosoever toucheth her, shall not be innocent. Men do not despise a thief, if he seeks steel to satisfy his soul when he is hungry. But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold, he shall give all the substance of his house. But whoso committeth adultery, with a woman lacketh understanding, he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. A wound and dishonor shall he give, and his approach shall not be wiped away, for jealousy is the rage of a man. Therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance, he will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts. Father Matt, would you pray for us? Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, thank you for all the people gathered here tonight, thank you for all the people that went out soul-winnin' and go soul-winnin' throughout the week, thank you for all the souls saved, please just bless the preacher and help him speak your word in boldness, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. So we have Proverbs chapter six and we've been going through the book of Proverbs. And as we've been going through the first few chapters, it's really emphasizing the importance of wisdom. And it's telling us how to get this wisdom, how to apply this wisdom, how to get it practical. And then in chapter five it kind of takes a turn and starts making it real specific. It was real specific about the strange woman. It was real specific about, you know, having a wife, I believe, and about that relationship. And as we move into chapter six, again I think it's kind of a topical chapter really. You know, you look at all these different things, you see a lot of different subjects, but I think they all tie together, and that's going to be the premise of this sermon. But if you all turn to Genesis chapter 43, if you turn to Genesis chapter 43, we're going to take a look at these first few verses. It says, my son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou stricken thy hand with a stranger, thou art snared with the words of thy mouth. So you say, what's a surety? You know, what does a surety mean? I'll read this one verse, it says in Proverbs chapter 20 verse 16, take his garment that is surety for a stranger, and take a pledge of him for a strange woman. So in that verse it kind of gives us a parallel for the word surety being like a pledge. So something that you would pledge, or something that you may vow, or something that you may make an oath of. It's a type of a surety. And we're going to see in Genesis chapter 43 verse 9, the Bible says, I will be surety for him, and of my hand shalt thou require him. If I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. And this is Judah talking to his father and he's saying, look, I'll be surety for my brother Benjamin. So he was taking a pledge, he was taking an oath saying, look, I'm going to watch over my brother. I'm going to make sure that he's okay. I'm going to take the blame if something bad happens to him. So we're kind of getting a good idea of what this word surety means, right? If you go down one more chapter, chapter 44 there in Genesis, and verse 32, it says, For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father forever. So we see that being a surety means there's some kind of obligation. There's some kind of debt. There's something to be paid potentially, right? If y'all would turn to Numbers chapter 30. Numbers chapter 30. I feel like this theme is the whole chapter of verse 6. It's about, you know, the surety. It's about your vows. It's about your pledge. It's about your oath. In Luke chapter 12, in verse 58, you didn't have to turn there, you're turning to Numbers 30. The Bible says, When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence, that thou mayest be delivered from him, lest he hail thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison. So Jesus was giving a warning and saying, look, if you're in trouble, if you have an adversary, if you have a debt, if you have an oath that you haven't paid, go and try and settle with them as quickly as possible. You don't want to go to the wicked court system. You don't want to go to pay the fullest extent. Go quickly and pay that vow. We see in Numbers chapter 30 verse 2, the Bible says, If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth. And so we see in this verse, he gives a lot of different ways to describe the same thing. He says, if a man vow a vow. He says, he swear an oath. He says, if he bind his soul with a bond. He says, not break his word. God's giving us over and over a lot of different ways so we can understand what a vow is. You know, and I believe this word surety, this word pledge, these words are all synonyms. And they might have a little bit different connotation. Many times the word surety kind of seems to imply more of a financial burden or a financial obligation. Like a loan. You know, a lot of times they used to call it that you'd be a surety for somebody on a bank loan. That you're kind of like a guarantor. Like you're co-signing on a loan. But we see that application is applied continually. And let's keep reading here in Numbers 30. Because God really expounds in this chapter vows of a man and how important it is. It says in verse 3, if a woman also vow a vow unto the Lord, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father's house and her youth, and her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace in her, then all her vows shall stand. And every bond wherewith she hath bound her soul shall stand. But if her father didst allow her in the day that he heareth, not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she hath bound her soul, shall stand. And the Lord shall forgive her, because her father didst allow her. And if she had at all an husband when she vowed, or uttered out of her lips, wherewith she bound her soul, and her husband heard it, and held his peace of her in the day that he heard it, then all her vows shall stand, and her bonds wherewith she bound her soul shall stand. So we see that God gives us a clear teaching in the Old Testament, saying if you make a vow, God expects you to pay it. And even as a woman, God expects women to keep their vows. Now he does give us one condition. He says, look, if you made a vow, and your father said no, you're not going to do that. No, that's not going to happen. Then that vow wouldn't pertain to that woman. If she made a vow on her husband, you know, if she makes some vow and he says no, that's not going to happen, I'm not going to let you do that, then she would be released under that vow. But in every other case, when a man or a woman makes a vow unto God, when someone makes a surety, when someone makes a pledge, when someone makes an oath, God expects you to keep it. That's a very important thing throughout the whole Bible. And we see the people that would break those vows, we see the people that would break the oaths, the people that would break the pledge, that many times there's a severe punishment, there's a severe chastisement. And so if y'all turn to Judges chapter 11, and I'm going to kind of build a foundation before we really get into this text, but in Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 4, the Bible says, When thou vows to vow unto God, defer not to pay, for he hath no pleasure in fools, pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow, and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin, neither say thou before the angel that it was an error. Wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thy hands? He's saying, look, if you make vows and you don't keep them, you're a fool, you're an idiot, you're stupid. He's saying it's better to just never make any vow than to make a vow and break it. I mean, how much is just terrible when you have a friend, you're relying on a friend, they say, hey, I'm going to be there, and then you don't show up. I mean, it just makes you look like a fool. How about to your spouse? How about to your employer? How about to anybody? It's to make a vow and to not keep it. And God's making it very important that we should keep our vows. And you say, well, what if I make a vow and it's really terrible? Like, I don't really want to keep it. If I have to keep this vow, it's going to be a great suffering affliction unto my soul. It's going to be really difficult for me to keep. Well, we see that in Judges chapter 11 verse 30. It says, And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, then it shall be that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. So Jephthah makes this vow. He's in this great battle and he says, look, if you'll just deliver this host unto my hand, when I go back home, whatever comes out of my house, I'm just going to offer it unto you, Lord. That's my vow. If you would deliver me, I will offer this unto you. Now, he didn't realize that this was going to be one of the worst vows he's ever made in his entire life. But the Lord did deliver. And in verse 34 it says, And Jephthah came to Mizpah unto his house, and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances. And she was his only child. Beside her he had neither son nor daughter. And it came to pass when he saw her that he wrenched his clothes, and he said, Alas, my daughter, thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me. For I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back. We see that Jephthah took the words of his mouth very seriously. He said, Look, it doesn't matter what happened, I'm going to have to keep what I said. And look what she said. She said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to that which thou hast preceded out of thy mouth. Forasmuch as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon. And she said unto her, Father, let this thing be done for me. Let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows. And he said, Go, and he sent her away for two months. And she went with her companions and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. And it came to pass at the end of two months that she returned unto her father, who did according to his vow which he had vowed, and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year." Now this is a very sorrowful story. I mean, when I read this story, it's heartbreaking. It's really tough to read this. I mean, to sacrifice your only child. And it's the perfect example of what God did in sacrificing his son for us. And Jephthah could feel a more similar pain to the Lord than any of us could by offering his daughter. But he kept that vow. I mean, how many people want to break their vows? And it's not even close to this. I mean, I can't even think of something much worse than having to actually offer your own only child up unto the Lord, right? But we see that he took it so important that when he offered unto the Lord by his mouth, he was going to keep that. It was so important to him to keep that vow. So if you turn to Matthew chapter five, I'm going to go to one more place. And I think it's so important to kind of see a lot of different examples of people and their vows unto the Lord and what they said in keeping those vows, even in the most extreme circumstances. God makes it very clear that we should keep our vows. And in Matthew 5, verse 21, it says, Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother, Rock, shall be in danger of the counsel, but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hellfire. Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember'st that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with them, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out fenced, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. So God's saying, look, if you've made a pledge, if you made some kind of a vow, and for whatever reason you're in a betwixt between a brother, if you have some kind of a disagreement, if you have something that you've done wrong unto him, that you're supposed to first go and reconcile unto him before coming to God. He doesn't want you to come before him and be like, well I know I just, you know, completely disregarded what he did, and I screwed up his life, and I did this on vow, but God will you just forgive me? Will you just, you know, bless me? He's like, no, go to your brother and agree with him first, because I'm going to make sure that when he takes you to the officer, that you're going to be thrown into prison, and you're going to pay the uttermost farthing. So if we go back to Proverbs chapter 6, we're going to get a little bit more understanding of what these few verses are saying. It says, My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth. Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself when thou art come into the hand of thy friend. Go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend. So we see here he's saying you're snared by the words of your mouth, just like Jephthah, who said, look, I can't go back on what I said. He's snared by the words of his mouth because he made that vow unto God. And that's how seriously we should take our word. You know, back in the day, people would shake and they would be like, it's according to my word. You know, they would do a handshake based on what came out of the mouth because people had a great respect for their vows. They weren't just going to go out and just say whatever. And nowadays, you can't trust anything anybody says. People just tell you all kinds of lies. People are like, oh, I'll be there. Oh, I'll get that job done. Oh, you know, this job would cost this much money. I mean, constantly people are breaking their vows. They're not keeping to their word at all. And it says that you're snared by the words of your mouth according to God. When you say something, when you make a vow, God makes sure that you are going to pay that. And he says, do this now, my son, and deliver thyself when thou art come into the hand of thy friend. He's saying, look, if for some reason you made a vow with a friend, you know, imagine you and your buddy. You both agree like, look, I'm going to look out for you. You're going to look out for me. You know, we're going to be friends. And then you decide, I'm just going to go out and pick a fight with this guy. Well, now all of a sudden your buddy is kind of betwixt in a bad situation. Now he's kind of pleased. He's like going to look out for you. So if I go to start making a fight, if I just start a brawl with some other guy, that might cause him to get hit by a friend. So my friend's going to get punished. Or my friend's going to have to go into debt. What if I can't pay for a loan, you know, by myself? And so I have a buddy and I say, hey, would you co-sign on this loan for me? Or would you be a guarantor for a loan for me? I mean, most loans in these days have guarantors. And what if I decide, well, he's on this loan too, so I'm just going to go and do whatever I want. He can pay. The Bible's saying if you were to do something, if you have some kind of agreement with somebody, and you screw up and cause hurt under your brethren, then you're supposed to go back to him, humble yourself, and it says make sure thy friend. What does that mean? It's to make right. It's to reconcile. It's to get back to him. So if he lost money, you should make sure that he gets that money back. You know, if he lost time or health or whatever it is, that you should make sure thy friend. You should keep that vow because you made a vow between him. Just as much as he's going to help you, you're going to help him. And if for some reason you've got to do something stupid that causes your friend to have some kind of problem, to be out, then you should go back and make sure thy friend. That's what the Bible's teaching. It says in verse 4, give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler. He's saying look, if you're in this situation, don't just sit around waiting for it to fix itself. No, you better go right now, as if someone were chasing you. As if you were a deer being hunted. If you were a fowl being hunted, you need to go straight to that. Just like when you were going to offer that gift on the altar, God's saying go straight to your brother and reconcile. You shouldn't just be waiting around being like, you know, next year I'll get him. You know, maybe the next time I see him. No, you should go right now. If you have somebody that you've done wrong to, you should reconcile with them now. If you have a family member, if you have a friend, if you have a brethren that you've done wrong, that you've done a vow, you should go straight to them and make sure thy friend. Says in verse six, Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise, which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideeth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou rise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall thy poverty come as one that travelth, and thy want as an armed man. So if y'all turn to Mark chapter three, who's the hardest worker in the Bible? What I want to present is probably Jesus Christ. It says in, I'm going to read a few verses here in John. It says in John chapter five verse thirty-six, it says, But I am greater witness than that of John, for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. In John chapter fourteen, Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father. In John chapter twenty-one and verse twenty-four and twenty-five, it says, This is the disciple which testifies these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written, every one. I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. So you see that Jesus Christ was constantly saying, I'm doing all these works. His disciples said, look, if we wrote down every work that Jesus did, it would fill up books in the whole world. Because Jesus Christ was a hard worker. He wasn't given to sleep. He wasn't given, you know, it says that which having no guide, overseer, ruler, the aunt, doesn't have someone just nagging them. Just saying, hey, you need to go get to work. You need to go get some food. You need to go work hard. You need to go out and do these things. No, he just goes and does work. And we see that Jesus Christ, he had the word of God as his, you know, leading him, being his overseer. But he didn't have some man on this earth saying, hey Jesus, you need to go preach the gospel. Hey Jesus, you need to go to every town and village and preach the gospel. Hey Jesus, you need to know, he just went out and did it. He read this book, he knew this book, he was this book, and he just went out and worked hard. He said, I know I have a few years here. He knew that he had a short time for his ministry. So he took full advantage of that. He just constantly went from city to city. And we see in Mark chapter 3, it says in verse 13, it says, He goeth up into a mountain, that being Jesus Christ, and called unto him whom he would. And they came unto him, and he ordained twelve, that they should be with him. And that he might send them forth to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils. And Simon he surnamed Peter, and James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James. And he surnamed them Boazirnes, which is the sons of thunder, and Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus, and Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him. And they went into a house, and the multiple did cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on it, for they said, He is beside himself. Jesus Christ was such a hard worker. He was working himself so hard, that his friends were like, Look dude, you're out of your mind. You know, you're just going everywhere to preach the gospel. You're getting all these guys to come work with you. You're going everywhere preaching the gospel. They're constantly preaching. They're healing sicknesses. They're casting out devils. He's just doing work and work and work. They're like, Dude, slow down. What are you doing? You're out of your mind. Jesus Christ was a hard worker. And when he's looking at you, he's saying, Are you doing some works? Do you need an overseer? Do you need someone to chastise you? Do you need the whip? Are you just going to go out there and work hard? Are you going to redeem the time? Because the days are evil. If you turn to Numbers 32, it says in John chapter 4 again, it says, In the meanwhile, his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat, that ye know, not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him out to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. So you see, Jesus Christ wasn't concerned about missing meals. He was concerned about missing opportunities to preach the gospel. He was worried about missing opportunities of people that would spend eternity in hell because he wanted to do the works of God. He wanted to finish the works of God. He knew he was going to have a short time. He's like, I don't care about missing a meal. I just want to make sure I preach the word. I want to make sure everybody has a chance to hear the gospel. How many of us decide, hey, you know, I would rather preach the gospel. I would rather have an opportunity to preach the word than eat dinner. I mean, many of us, that's a sacrifice that most people wouldn't even be willing to make, right? We see Jesus Christ was willing to make that decision. He didn't have an overseer. He didn't have a ruler. He wasn't wasting time sleeping around doing nothing. And it says there in verse 11, it says, so shall thy poverty come as one that travelth, and that I want as an armed man. So I had you turn to Numbers 32. What is he saying there? He's saying these people that just lay around and sleep, they're going to have poverty come upon them like someone that would travel. You know, and traveling is very expensive. I mean, moving here was really expensive for me and my family. And anybody that knows that when you go out traveling, when you're traveling all the time, you're going to lose a lot of money. You're going to come to poverty. That's why, you know, you talk about gypsies. Those people just travel all the time. They don't have a lot of money. They weren't just super wealthy. They're dwelling in tents, dwelling on the side of the road. They kind of happen to be dependent on other people. We see that in the Bible a lot. People would travel from city to city and they're kind of dependent on someone to take them in, someone to give them food and water, someone to feed their horses. Most of the time when people are traveling, it's not because they have great wealth. Obviously there's some exceptions. Obviously rich people like to travel. But it's saying, look, if you're just going to lie around and sleep, you're going to become poor as one that travels. And he also says, and I want as an armed man. In Numbers chapter 32 and verse 29, He said, And Moses said unto them, If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you over Jordan every arm to battle before the Lord, and the land shall be subdued before you, then ye shall give them the land of the Gilead for possession. But if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan. And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying, As the Lord has said unto thy servants, so will we do. We will pass over armed before the Lord in the land of Canaan, that the possession of our inheritance on this side Jordan may be ours. So why is it that someone comes to you armed? Why is it that armies and troops would come unto you with weapons? It's because they want your goods. It's because they want to take your stuff. That's the only reason anybody does it. That's the only reason there is wars. It's covetousness. It's their wanting to take your goods. And he's saying, look, you're going to have thy want as an armed man. Meaning if you just lay around sleeping and you're just not working hard, you're going to constantly be wanting stuff. You're going to constantly be filled with covetousness like someone that's an armed man, like a hired person, like an army that's coming and saying, I want your goods. I want your gold. He's saying you're just going to be filled with all this covetousness and greediness. You're never going to be satisfied. You're just going to lay around and be like, man, wouldn't it be nice if I had a nice car? Wouldn't it be nice if I had a fancy house? Wouldn't it be nice if I could just go eat at the steakhouse for every meal? They're just going to constantly be wanting and wanting and wanting. That's what it says here when it says, and thy want as an armed man. It's someone that's going to be just unsatisfied. It says in verse 12, going back to Proverbs, it says, a naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a forward mouth. He winketh with his eyes. He speaketh with his feet. He teaches with his fingers. Forwardness is in his heart. He deviseth mischief continually. He soweth discord. Therefore, shall his calamity come suddenly. Suddenly, shall he be broken without remedy. So we get a list of this person, and this person is not like your average Joe. This person is not just the normal lost person. This is a really wicked, naughty person. They're constantly speaking with forward mouth, just constantly perverted mouth. They're constantly just saying wicked things. So you say, what does a wicked person look like? Well, first of all, they have this wickedness just spewing out of their mouth. It says that he winketh with his eyes. Now the word winketh in the Bible is usually kind of a negative word, but it's just meaning kind of like ignore, not care about. It's saying when this wicked person would see something bad, when you see somebody maybe doing something wrong, he's just going to wink with his eyes. When you think about the Good Samaritan, you know, those first three people that walked by, they just kind of winked with their eyes. They're just like, oh, I don't want to pay attention to this guy who's getting beaten up and robbed and laying in the gutter. A wicked person doesn't care about bad things. They just say, who cares? Who cares that there's abortion? Who cares that there's wickedness? Who cares that there's adultery and fornication and homosexuality and all this wicked filth in America? They say, I don't care. You know, they're just winketh with their eyes. It says he's speaking with his feet, meaning where he goes is going to tell you what kind of person this is. Is he hanging out in the clubs? Is he going to gentlemen's clubs? Is he going, you know, to all these wicked places? Is he hanging out with wicked people? Where he goes is going to tell you what this person's like. Is this person going to church three times a week? Or is this person going to the bars every night? That's going to give you a good idea of what kind of person you are by where your feet are going. He says, and he teacheth with his fingers, even just the smallest little things that he does. When I think about fingers, it's just things that you may build with your hands or things you may write, just the smallest things. Every little thing coming from this guy is wicked. All of it. It says, forwardness is in his heart. He deviseth mischief continually. He soweth discord. Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly. Suddenly shall he be broken without remedy. You know, you look at a lot of wicked people in the world today and you wonder, why are they not getting punished? Why is God not, you know, taking vengeance on these people? Well, the Bible makes it clear that these type of people, God doesn't destroy them slowly. Lots of little bad things don't happen. No, they have a sudden destruction. And we're going to turn to 1 Kings chapter 18. I think this is going to be the most fitting person for our day and age. We're going to read this and we're going to talk about the most applicable person for this, I think. But in 1 Kings chapter 18, there's a special woman in the Bible, and I think she really fits this bill. I know the Bible is talking about a man, but I think she fits this bill pretty well. It says in 1 Kings 18 verse 4, For it was so when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah took a hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water. So we see that Jezebel had a great influence to first get rid of the prophets of the Lord. She hated God's word. She hated the Bible preachers. She didn't want anybody to approve her or tell her that anything was wrong. So she just got rid of all the prophets of the Lord. If you go down to verse 19, it says, Now therefore, send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty. And the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel's table. So we see next that she not only wants to get rid of the prophets of God, that she not only just wants to have nothing to do with God, she wants to actually bring all the prophets of Baal to her table. She wants to be filled with the prophets of Baal. It says in, go one chapter over, chapter 19 verse 2, It says, Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. So Elijah had a great victory. He who convinced the whole nation, look, God is the Lord, we should serve him. And he slew all the prophets of Baal. And she says, let the gods do to me, and more also, if I don't kill you like you killed the prophets of Baal. She's saying, look, I'm going to make sure that you die. So not only did she get rid of the prophets, not only did she bring in the false prophets, now she's wanting to kill the only prophet of God left. We see in chapter 21, flip a couple more chapters over, at verse 7, this is probably the most wicked thing about Jezebel. But we already see that she's a very wicked person, that she's a naughty person, that she has a forward mouth, that she doesn't care about the bad things, she's surrounding herself with the bad things. You know, her feet are abiding at the table of these false prophets. It says in 1 Kings 21 verse 7, And Jezebel his wife, being Ahab's wife, said unto him, Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry. I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters unto the elders, and to the nobles that were in his city, dwelling with Naboth. And she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people, and set two men, sons of Belial, before him, to bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king, and then carry him out and stone him, that he may die. And the men of the city, even the elders and the nobles who were the inhabitants of it in his city, did as Jezebel had sent unto them. And as it was written in the letters which he had sent unto them, they proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people, and there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him. And the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones that he died. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, Naboth is stone and is dead. So we see here, everybody that, you know, is put to death in jail is innocent. No, I'm just kidding. Obviously there is some people that are innocent, right? But we see that Jezebel devises some wickedness in her heart. It says he devises mischief continually in Proverbs, right? Just like the man in this story, Jezebel devises super wicked plan. I mean, she's saying, and the whole reason of this story is Naboth had a vineyard, and Ahab really liked this vineyard. But according to God's word, people weren't just to sell their inheritance, they were to keep their inheritance. And he said, no, I can't sell you this inheritance. So Ahab was sad, and Jezebel comes along and says, oh, you're the king of Israel, you can have whatever you want, I'll give it to you. So she sends some letters to the people and she says, hey, tell Naboth that, you know, have this fast and say Naboth is this great guy, and then let's get two children of Satan to come and lie about him, and then cast him and kill him, so that we can take that inheritance. What a wicked person. What a wicked and evil person to kill this person, to devise this wicked plan, it came from her heart. That's why it says forwardness is in his heart. That didn't come from, you know, from God. God didn't devise that wicked plan, it came from, proceeded from her heart. And if we look in 1 Kings 21 verse 25, it says, but there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. It says in, turn to 2 Kings chapter 9, and we'll finish with Jezebel. So we see this really wicked person. She's already cut off the prophets of the Lord. You say, why didn't God intervene at that time? I mean, she just got rid of all of his prophets. Well, he didn't at that time. And then we have her setting up 450 prophets of Baal. They're eating at her table. How wicked is that to bring in all these false prophets, these wicked Satan-worshipping prophets? Why wouldn't God destroy her then? Well, they behaved in her past then too. Then she even tries to kill Elijah, the greatest man of God at that time. Then she divides this wicked plan against Naboth. I mean, her wickedness just keeps getting worse and worse and worse. I mean, she is so horrible. And we see that she caused her husband to work all kinds of wickedness because of her. In 2 Kings 9, it says in verse 22, And it came to pass when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace? So long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcraft are so many. So you see, not only did she cut off the prophets of the Lord, did she worship the prophets of Baal, did she kill Naboth? No, but she was a whore and she had witchcraft. I mean, this woman is full of all kinds of wickedness. And it says in verse 30, And when Jehu was come to Jezebel, Jezebel heard of it, and she painted her face and tired her head, and looked out a window. And as Jehu entered into the gate, she said, Had Zemite peace who slew his master? And he lifted up his face to the window and said, Who is on my side? Who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs. And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down. And some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses, and he showed her underfoot. And when he was come, he did eat and drink and said, Go and see, now this cursed woman, and bury her. For she is the king's daughter. And they went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. Wherefore they came again and told him. And he said, This is the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, The portion of Jezebel so the dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel, and the carcass of Jezebel so be as dung upon the face of the field of the portion of Jezebel, so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel. So we have here sudden destruction for Jezebel. I mean, she's just thrown out of the window, she's just splattered, she's, her blood goes everywhere, and then the dogs just eat her carcass. I mean, what a horrible way to go. I mean, you just, one day you're there and all of a sudden you're just thrown out the window, you slap, and you're dead. And all we see happens to these really wicked people. God allows them to keep getting away with all this wickedness and wickedness and wickedness, but be sure that sudden destruction will come upon them. And you say, Well, why'd you pick Jezebel? There's a lot of wicked people in the Bible, but I think about America. And you know, you kind of wonder about this presidency, right? You kind of wonder about Hillary Clinton, you kind of wonder about Donald Trump, and you say, Well, what chances do we have? It's just a terrible decision either way. And you look at Hillary Clinton, and you say, How can this horrible, wicked, lying, deceiving person just continue to get away with what she's doing? I mean, she just continues to lie, she continues to cause people to be put to death, she's a traitor to this country, she promotes all kinds of filth and wickedness, and she keeps getting worse and worse and worse. But maybe God's raising her up to bring judgment on this country. Maybe it's because of all of our whoredoms and all of our wickedness that He's allowing this woman to come into control. And it's going to be a hard time in this country. And it's going to be a time where there's going to be a great need for men of God to stand up and preach the Word of God when it's difficult. But you be sure this, that sudden destruction will come on Hillary Clinton. There's no way she's just going to get away with everything. Now it might be a while, she's going to get away with even more wickedness. We don't know. I think, you know, according to their polls, which I don't even believe the election's real, but it seems like she's ahead, and the press is acting like she probably will win the election. And you say, That sounds horrible, that sounds awful. That does. But you know, when you think about Israel and you think about Judah, some of the greatest men of God were actually in Israel, which is a far more wicked nation than Judah. Judah always, you know, kind of would get back with God, you know, they'd get right with God, then they would kind of fall back again, they didn't cry. Israel was just always wicked. I mean, they pretty much were always forsaking the Lord, worshipping the prophets of Baal. But that's where you get Elisha. That's where you get Elisha. That's where you get so many great men of God because they had this great battle. They had this great persecution. And even Elisha was in the days of Jezebel. We need Elisha in America today to stand against the wickedness of somebody like Hillary Clinton. And that's why we should understand that, you know, you keep letting all this wickedness just say, Man, where is God at? Be sure God is not mocked. Whatsoever man soweth, that shall he reap. Hillary Clinton will get what she deserves. But maybe God's raising her up so that he can raise up a great man of God. So that he can do some great, wonderful miracles and great works in this country. Maybe a great revival. Maybe a lot of souls saved. So we go back to Proverbs chapter 16. It says, I'm sorry, verse 16 of Proverbs chapter 6, These six things that the Lord hate, yea, seven, are an abomination unto. A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, and heart that divides with wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and eateth so with discord among brethren. We see that description fits Jezebel perfectly. Probably fits Hillary Clinton perfectly. It fits a lot of wicked people perfectly. And we see that the Lord hates these things. He doesn't think all the, you know, it's not that big a deal. A lot of people say this, sin is like missing the mark. No, God hates lying. No, God hates the proud looks. God hates people that are shedding innocent blood. He doesn't look at that and just say, oh, you know, it's okay. I just love, I just want to have a relationship with you. God's not mad at you. God just loves everything about everything. No, God hates in the Old Testament. And you say, oh, that's just the Old Testament. Well, why don't we turn to Revelation? We turn to Revelation chapter 2. You know, when it's getting this list, it's kind of a parallel passage to Romans chapter 3. So I'll just kind of read a little bit of that. It says, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understand it. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongue they have used deceit. The poison of ass is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things are in the law sayeth, they sayeth to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world will become guilty before God. Why does God tell us that He hates these things? So that we would know that they're wrong. So that we could become guilty. So that we could then understand that we're sinners. That we deserve to go to hell. But there are things that God hates. And even in Revelation chapter 2 and verse 6, the Bible says, But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. So Jesus is talking one of the churches and he's giving a little bit, he kind of commends them for some things and then he rebukes them for some things. Well, one of the things that Jesus Christ commends the church is for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans. You know, that's kind of an interesting thing. A lot of people say, Well, what is, what were the deeds of the Nicolaitans? Well, if you study the Bible, the Nicolaitans is only mentioned another time. It's mentioned in Genesis and mentioned there in Revelation. But it never gives us a clear definition of what that means. And I was kind of wondering, I was like, Why is God telling us that He hates the deeds of these Nicolaitans but He's not telling us what it is? But then I just, it just came to me. I was like, the reason is this. Why did, why did Jesus say this? He wants you to understand that if you're a church and you don't hate anything, then you're not right with God. You have to hate wickedness. And why did God not make you specific? Because He has the whole Old Testament to tell you what He hates. Just pick your poison. Just pick lying. Just pick, you know, adultery, fornication, false teaching, heresy, full in the blank. But make sure that God hates certain things. Even in the New Testament. Just as in the Old Testament. And He doesn't need to repeat Himself here. He didn't just say, I hate lying right here. Because He wants you to go back and read the whole book and say, Hey, what things does God hate? Why don't we go back to Proverbs chapter 6 and see what does He hate? He hates lying. He hates the proud book. He hates heads that hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that divides the wicked imaginations. Feet that be swift and run into mischief. A false witness that speaketh lies. And yet so is discord among His brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament is the same in the New Testament. He still hates things. And we need to understand that it's not a right thing to break our vows like lying. Lying is just breaking a vow. It's just telling some kind of lie. I mean, shedding innocent blood, devising wicked imaginations. We see that the wicked person doesn't keep their vows from going to work. They just sleep around. They're constantly wanting. We see that the wicked person's, you know, constantly lying, breaking vows. We see the Lord hates these things. And that's why it says in verse 20, it says, My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother. Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee. When thou sleepest, it shall keep thee. And when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. So I was thinking here first when he's talking about keeping his commandments, not forsaking the law of his mother. He constantly is repeating this over and over in the Bible. He says, bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. You know, I was thinking about this tying about my neck. You know, it's kind of hard to sometimes understand what that means. But I was thinking about this. How many people you see, they have like a lanyard that they carry with like an ID card? Or they have a lanyard with a bunch of keys? Now why do people do that? Do people do that because they think it just looks cool? I mean, are people like, man, have you seen that guy with the lanyard? Isn't that so cool? I mean, we can kind of look at that for a second. That guy's kind of geeky. That guy's kind of nerdy. But you know, that person's making that sacrifice because that card or those keys are so important to them. You know, the Bible's saying, is the Bible so important to you that you don't care what man thinks? That you're going to still bind it around your neck? You're going to tie it in your, you're going to put it in your heart? That's what we should have, a love for God's word so much. It's so important to us that we don't care if we looked a little geeky. We don't care if we looked a little peculiar. We don't care what other people would think of us. We just say we want this bound around our neck. You know, if I could have the word of God bound around my neck, I'd do it. That's what it's trying to say here. It's trying to make it so important. It says, when thou goest, it shall lead thee. When thou sleepest, it shall keep thee. When thou wakest, it shall talk with thee. It's all day. It's every day. When you get out, when you go to bed, at all day it should be with thee. For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light, and reprove some instruction on the way of life. This world's a dark world. This world we don't know where to go. And so we need the Bible to be a lamp so that we can know where to go. We can use this book and say, where do I go today? What kind of job do I get? What kind of church do I go to? What kind of spouse do I have? You need to look with this Bible, you need to know, oh, this is the way I go. Oh, this is a lamp unto my feet. This is the direction I should go. It's not some hocus pocus. It's not like, oh, I had this thought, I had this thought, and I'm going to pray about it, and fast, and wonder, and kind of... No, it's right here. Use this book to be your lamp. And, you know, most churches today make faith and make, you know, hearing God's voice this like mystical thing that you're just kind of wondering about, like, oh, I had this thought, and I know it's from the Lord, and I'm going to do it. Now, what does the Bible say? Is that your lamp? Is that your light? Says in Ephesians chapter five, if y'all would turn there. So we're talking about the lamp. We're talking about the light. And it says, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. You know, I get criticized a lot of times by my family members. They say, you're just against everything. You know, you have all these rules, and you have all these things that you're against, and you're always saying these things are wrong. Well, the Bible says that reproofs of instruction are the way of life. Of course they are. I hope that's what my life is always like. I hope I'm always against sin. I hope I'm always against the things that God hates. If you're for this Bible, you're going to be against a lot of things. But that doesn't mean that I'm against everything. I'm for the Bible. I'm for being Baptist. I'm for going to church three times a week. I'm for going out and preaching the gospel. But again, I'm against false religion. I'm against false Bible versions. I'm against all this, you know, new evangelical garbage. When you go out and you knock doors, you say, are you 100% sure you go to heaven? Oh yeah. Amen. I mean, I'd rather just say amen. I'm going to ask you a question. Do you not care? But they've gone to these churches and they're just being led as a dumb sheep under the slaughter. Because they think they're saved. They think they know the Bible. They've been going to church. But they're so confused because nobody's preaching the Bible right. They're not giving reproofs of instruction. They're not teaching what the Bible says. They're not saying, this is wrong. This is right. Most pastors are just going right down the middle saying, oh, it's all right. You know, there's nobody bad out there. Look at the good in people. You know, we need to just love people. And can you imagine those people going to hell? Oh no, they're really nice people. You know, they love people. No, what does the Bible say? Why don't we get the reproof of the Bible? In Ephesians 5, 13 it says, but all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever does make manifest is light. Wherefore he said, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that they walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. How evil are these days? How wicked are these days? We should not just lay around and sleep. Isn't that what the Proverbs chapter 6 was saying? That we should arise from the dead. That we should follow the word. He said Christ will give thee light. He'll tell us where to go, and we should walk circumspectly, meaning follow his rules, not as fools, but as wise, and redeeming the time. I mean when you walk around, I mean I feel like everybody's unsaved in this world. I mean I feel like when I go out to eat at a restaurant, most everybody's probably not a Christian. When I go out and knock on doors, most people aren't giving me the right gospel. When I go out and see all these people, they're going to go to hell for all of eternity. How much do you care? Are you redeeming the time? Do you have a lot of care for those people? Are you wanting to work hard like Christ? Are you going to give that vow to the Lord and say, hey, I am going to preach the gospel faithfully? Well let's go back and let's look at the last part of this chapter. It's going to have one last thought, and I think it's really going to tie into this vow thought that I have. You know some pieces of this Proverbs chapter 6 maybe doesn't perfectly tie in, but I think overall this chapter kind of has this theme of just doing what he said unto the Lord. It says in verse 24, to keep thee from the evil woman. So what is the reproof's instruction going to do? What are the reproof's instructions going to do? They're going to keep you from the evil woman. From the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Lest not after her beauty in thine heart, neither let her take thee with her idols. For by means of a whorist woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth into his neighbor's wife, who soever touches her, shall not be innocent. Men do not despise a thief if he is still to satisfy his soul, when he is hungry. But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold. He shall give all the substance of his house. But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding. He that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. A wound and dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. For jealousy is the rage of a man. Therefore, he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom. Neither will he rest content, though thou give us many gifts." So we see he kind of covered this one topic there in the last few verses. Quite a few verses on this topic. We kind of looked at the strange woman, and I kind of focused on the perspective of a young man, a man that wasn't married yet, and being attracted to these unbelievers. But we see in this, he's more so focusing on married men. He's focusing on the guys that do have wives, on being inflected by this strange woman, by committing adultery with her, by being taken by her beauty, by her islands. We always flip to Matthew chapter 19. We see that God takes vows seriously. And he takes the vow of marriage very seriously. In Genesis chapter 2 verse 24, the Bible says, Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall flee unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. I mean, the picture of marriage in the Bible is two becoming one. I mean, it's such a strong relationship. God has the sanctity of marriage at a high level. And that's why he said in Matthew chapter 19 verse 5, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain, shall be one flesh. So Jesus reiterates that point, that a man and woman come in together in the sanctity of marriage, that they would be one. You say, well how does this great relationship, these two people becoming one, this closeness, this great thing, how does that get separated? How do these two people come apart? Well, we see there in verse 24, it says, To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. It starts with flattery. And I would present that, you know, most men in this world, unfortunately, have to work with women. I mean, that's just the way America is, unfortunately. Most guys going to the workplace, you're surrounded with women in a lot of different situations. No matter where you go in this world, you're surrounded with a lot of women that aren't your spouse, that aren't saved. And it starts with that flattery. You should never, as a married man, tolerate flattery from a strange woman. You know, you're going on to work, and some woman comes to you and says, Oh man, you know, I just love how much you listen to me. My husband never listens to me. You know, this woman comes to you and says, Oh man, you're just so nice. I wish my husband was really nice like you are. Oh man, you look really nice today. I wish my husband would dress nice like you did. Or, you know, she's going to keep giving you private information. She's going to keep complaining about her spouse unto you and giving flattery unto you. But maybe you're even encouraging. Maybe you're going into the workplace and you're saying, Oh man, this weekend, you know, I took my wife out on this trip. You know, I bought her all these candies. I bought her all these things. And you're telling this unto some woman, she's like, Oh man, that would have been so great. I would have loved that. I wish my husband would do that for me. And you're starting to build this rapport. You're starting to build this kind of this relationship that's outside of your marriage. Well, that's thin and that's wrong and that's going to lead you down to the wrong place. So we start to see a little bit of a divide there. We see that the flattery of a strange woman unto a man, maybe he's struggling his marriage. Maybe him and his wife aren't having the best time. He's not getting that encouragement. So that flattery comes and it just feels so sweet. It just feels so good. Because men really enjoy being encouraged. They really are being told, Oh, you're so strong. Oh, you're so smart. Oh, you're such a good provider. They love being told these things. And this strange woman knows it. She knows that if she can get your ear, she's going to get you to start following her. It says, Lest not after her beauty and thine heart, neither let her take thee with her idols. What will happen is this married man, you know, after he starts hearing these words, he's going to start looking. And then he's going to start having these desires and these thoughts. That's why Jesus said if a man lusts after a woman, he committed adultery in his heart. It's the same thing here in Proverbs chapter 6. He's saying, Lest not after her beauty. It starts first by, you know, hearing these flattering words, then by really paying attention by noticing this woman, by starting to desire these things, by starting to build up things in your mind, by starting to have wicked imaginations. And in Psalms chapter 12, I'll just read this for you. It says, They speak man to every one of his neighbor. With flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. It says in Proverbs chapter 2, we've read it before, it says, To deliver thee from a strange woman, even from the stranger with flattereth with her words. The word flattery, a lot of times in the Bible, is usually doublespeak. So this woman that's flattering this man, she's not really meaning it. I mean, if they were really in a relationship, she wouldn't just be praising him and giving all these words. And you know, a lot of men get confused. They think that, oh man, my wife's not, you know, telling me all these flattering things like these women at work, or this strange woman, but that strange woman's just telling you that to get your ear at first. That's not really what she thinks. That's not really how she is. It's just a lie from Satan. And he's going to get you to believe these lies of flattery and to start looking. That's why Christ said that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after had committed adultery with her already in his heart. So you see this guy's hearing the words. He's kind of starting to look. Y'all turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus said, But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, comitteth adultery. And so you see this man, he's being caught away. It says, And the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. When this woman's got your ear, when she's got your eyes, when you're starting to think of her, she's going to get you all the way to a piece of bread where she can do whatever she wants with you. And she's going to hunt for the precious life. What is the precious life? The precious life is those that are pure. And just because you're not married, young men, don't think that you can't commit adultery. I know lots of single guys that have committed adultery, unfortunately. That they got caught away with this young woman who was married. And she was like, oh man, my husband's such a bum. He's not taking care of me. Man, I wish I'd met you earlier. You're such a nice guy. I bet you'd be such a good husband. She starts building him up. And he starts looking at her and being like, oh man, this woman, I think I should help her. I think I should follow after her. And they start taking away. And they get to a point. There's a point where men can be taken so much by a woman that she has so much power over them that she can literally do whatever she wants with them. You can get to a point where you've been so entrapped, bewitched by this woman that you're just going to commit adultery. That's why it says, for by means of a horsewoman, a man is brought to a piece of bread and the adulterers will hunt for the precious life. You say, can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? You can't just keep chasing after this woman, desiring her with her mind. Desiring with your eyes and you're not going to get burned. You're going to go into a bad direction. He said, can he go up on hot coals and his feet not be burned? So he that goes into his neighbor's wife, who so ever toucheth her, shall not be innocent. We see even just touching this other woman would be sin. And once you get to that point, it's going to be the point of no return. You always say, well how did this guy commit adultery? I don't believe that adultery happens by a married man or even a young man just walking down the street and then like, oh I committed adultery. No, it starts with that flattery. It starts with building that relationship with someone that's not your spouse. It starts by looking. It starts by lusting. It starts by having a lot of imaginations. And then it starts with the touching. And then all of a sudden you don't even know where you're at and she's got you by the hand. You're just a piece of bread in her hand, she can do whatever she wants with you. And she's going to hunt for the precious life. What's the precious life? A young man that's married to a woman and he's pure with his wife? A young man that's pure before the Lord? The adults just want to come and ruin your life and then just move on. They want to take the pure, they want to take those that are right before the Lord and just destroy their life and move on. Let me turn to 1 Corinthians 7, it says, Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman, nevertheless to avoid fornication. Let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render in his wife due benevolence, and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power over her own body, but the husband. And likewise also the husband hath not the power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and come together again. That same intent do not fear concotency. So we see that God's saying, look, you shouldn't even touch a woman or you're going to end up committing fornication. There's a strong parallel to getting that early touching. You know, I don't even think that you should be holding hands, maybe touching each other's legs or inappropriately. If you're not willing to touch your mother like you would who you're dating or who you're espoused to, then you shouldn't touch another woman like that. If you're married, you shouldn't even get close to touching another woman the way you wouldn't touch your grandmother, the way you wouldn't touch your mother, because that's a sin. And the Bible is talking about Abraham. It's talking about Abimelech. Abraham was afraid that Abimelech would kill him, and so he lied and said his wife was just his sister. And God said that he preserved Abimelech from sinning by not letting him to even touch Sarah. Because we see that it's a sin to touch another woman the way you wouldn't touch your mother or your grandmother. That's a sin. And when you get that close, when you start down that path, you're going to go all the way to the end. I mean, it's not a path that you just start on, just hop off. It's like an alcoholic just quitting one day, going cold turkey. Or it's like someone that's addicted to drugs, just giving it up. It's almost impossible. When you get to that point, when you've driven that far, you're just going to fall into that sin. No matter even what the Bible says. Don't we see that with even men of God? What about this Ken Hovind thing? I mean, you wonder if Ken Hovind just woke up one day and said, Hey, I'm going to go with this strange woman. I think it's fine to get remarried. No, we find out there's a little bit of backstory. Oh, I've already been talking with her. Oh, I've already been building this relationship with this woman. Oh, she's been flattering me with her lips. And when Pastor Anderson's already preached on this, it's pretty clear from the Bible that if you divorce your spouse, or you get married into another, or you're killing yourself into another, it's adultery. No matter how you want to justify it. But we see Ken Hovind didn't just wake up one day and decide to commit adultery. No, it started by building this relationship with this lady. And even if you go back, there's plenty of videos where he went and had all these meetings with this lady, and they're building this relationship. I think it's wrong for a married man to build a relationship with some woman that's not his spouse. Just don't do it. Just avoid it. Avoid the lips of the strange woman. And she was already a divorced woman. She probably doesn't even care about it. She'd probably just move on if something bad happened to him. I guarantee if Ken Hovind goes back into jail for whatever reason, this woman would easily move on. This woman's probably not even half as faithful as his original wife. And we see that he should have tried to be joined back into his wife. But probably because of their incontinence. Probably because they weren't having that relationship. They both felt like they were being driven in other directions. And he let the flattering lips of this strange woman entice him. But Ken Hovind's sin didn't just happen one day. No, he let this woman build this relationship. He probably started having some looks that he shouldn't have had. Some wicked thoughts. He probably may even have some touching that he shouldn't have had. And we see now that he's on this path, it doesn't matter what the Bible says. He's just going to go to it. He's been so bewitched. He's been so entangled. And I think most people, even at our church, would say, I think Ken Hovind's a brother in Christ. I think he's saved. But he's so bewitched by this strange woman. Don't think of yourself so highly that you couldn't get entangled, you couldn't get estranged, you couldn't be bewitched by this strange woman. And it's so wicked that he's going to get up and praise all this stuff. He's like, oh, I think it's God's will and his thing. He said, oh, it's not that big a deal. No one's being affected by it. I went out and looked at this video and looked at a couple of comments. And there was this comment that I saw by one guy. And he said, oh, I'm so grateful that you're marrying this Mary Toco. She's such a smart woman. I wish my wife wasn't so dumb. That's what he's doing. He's causing other people to sin by looking down on their spouse, by talking bad about their spouse. And if this guy's going to say it on YouTube, of course he's going to say it to other women. He's probably in the workplace like, oh, man, I wish my wife wasn't a bad cook. Oh, man, I wish my wife wasn't this. I wish my wife dressed nicer. I wish my wife looked better. That's so wicked and evil. We as husbands, we should be ambassadors for our spouse. We should be saying, hey, my wife's awesome. Hey, I love my spouse. Hey, I'm always thinking about my spouse. Hey, everything that's going to come out of my mouth is going to be praise for my spouse. That's what we should be like in public. That's what we should be like in other people. Because this strange woman is going to be like, oh, man, this guy loves his wife. He's always talking about his wife. Women don't like to hear about other women and how great they are. I'll just be honest with you, okay? Other women, when you're sitting there like, oh, man, my wife's just the most gorgeous. She's the best cook. She's so great. I love her. They're like, oh, yeah, I don't want to listen to that. No, women like to be told that they're special and that they are great. So you see this whole Bible, it's talking about vows. The vow of marriage is so important unto people. It's so important to make sure that the assurity of your friend, you keep that. That you're not just lazy, that you work unto the Lord. That you're not one of these wicked people. And we know that God's going to keep His vow and He's going to suddenly destroy the wicked. We see that the Lord hates lying because it's breaking a vow. It's awful. It's wicked. And just as much as He hates in the Old Testament, He hates in the New Testament. We see that we should keep the commandments of our Father. And that we should keep ourselves from the wicked woman. It says that a wound and dishonor shall I get and her poach shall not be wiped away. For jealousy is the rage of a man. Therefore, he will not spare in the day of vengeance. We see that right before this, it's talking about someone that would steal. If someone stole just to feed their kids, to feed their family, most people would look at that and be like, well, you know. I mean, we look at like Robin Hood. And most people lift him up as a, you know, this great hero and all this. He was a thief. But, you know, he was feeding the poor. And so a lot of people look at that and say, man, this guy's, you know, I mean, he's just trying to feed his family. Most people look at that and say, it's not that big a deal. But even God says if you caught that guy, he should restore sevenfold. That guy shouldn't even give all the substance of his house. But someone that would commit adultery, there's no way to placate that husband. There's nothing that could placate me if some man was found with my wife. That's going to be the rage of a man. The Bible says that wine is a mock or strong drink is raging. You know what's more raging than that? Jealousy. And, you know, don't get confused about the word jealousy and envy. A lot of people get these words mixed up. Envy is when you covet or you desire something that you don't have. Jealousy is when you desire that which you have. So like a wife, you have that. You can't be envious of your wife. You're jealous for your wife. You don't want to protect your wife. You don't want to share your wife with anybody else. But you know that car that you don't have? That house that you don't have? Jealousy wouldn't be the right word. There'd be envious. You'd use covetous. That's why God says God is jealous. Because jealous is a good thing. It's a good thing to love the things that you have, right? I mean, God wants us to take care of the things we have, to be a good steward, to enjoy the things that we have. That's why God is jealous. Don't you want God to be jealous after you? Or do you want God to be like, ah, I don't really care about that guy? Like, you know, I don't care if Satan comes and messes up his life. No, you want God to be jealous for you. You want God to protect you. Just like a husband should protect his wife. Should be jealous for his wife. And if someone came and threatened that situation, you better be sure that there's going to be rage from me, from the man. And he's not going to spare you. Even if you're going to offer him some gift. I mean, can you imagine, you know, a guy catches another guy with his wife and he's like, uh, what if I give you a hundred bucks? I mean, he's not going to care. He's going to want to tear him limb from limb. That's what the Bible's saying. So I'm going to have one last thought, okay? If we would turn to John. John chapter 13. So you say, okay, well the Bible's talking about vows. And it's so important to keep our vows. And it's so important to do what comes out of our mouth. What happens if I don't? What happens if I do break a vow? What happens if I do, you know, forsake the Lord or I do something? What we're going to see in my opinion, probably the ultimate breaking of a vow. John chapter 13, verse 36, it says, Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, whither I go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why can I not follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake. Jesus answered him, will thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, the cop shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice. So we see Peter's like, look Lord, I would die for you right now. I'm going to give my life to you. You know what all these like popular new evangelicals say you have to do to get saved. We see the only person that ever tried to lay down their life for Christ could fail. You know, that's not what salvation is. Salvation isn't laying down your life. But we see that Peter makes one of the greatest vows, you know, someone could say. Look, I would die for you. But what does he do? He denies him thrice. He utterly fails. I mean, he doesn't fail once. He doesn't fail twice. I mean, he just falls flat on his face. He just ruins it. What happens? Does Peter just die and like live in a grave and we never hear about Peter again? No, of course not. Let's return to John chapter 21. You see that Peter probably made one of the biggest mistakes of any believer in the Bible. But was he just like, just give up? No, he actually became one of the greatest men of God. It says in John chapter 21 in verse 16, He saith unto him again the second time, Simon son of Jonas, loveth thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon son of Jonas, loveth thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, loveth thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Why did Jesus Christ ask him three times if he loved him? Because he denied him three times. He was reminding him, hey, remember when you denied me? Hey, remember when you denied me? Hey, remember when you denied me? And Peter was just grieved. He was like, man, I know, I know why. And he's like, feed my sheep. If he loved me, just get back on the horse. That's why it says in Proverbs 24 verse 16, For a just man follows seven times and riseth up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief. If you break a bow unto the Lord, just get back up again. If you love the Lord, feed his sheep. Go out and preach the gospel. Go live for God. We see that the greatest men of God, they fell. They committed sin. They did wickedness. But what made them great? They got back up again. They went back after the Lord. They got back on their feet. And even if you've broken a bow unto the Lord, even if you, you know, caused your brother to stumble, even if you've done some grievous, you know, sin, well, go make sure your friend before you offer your gift unto the Lord, but then go to the Lord and ask for forgiveness, and then feed his sheep. Go out and preach the word. Get people saved if you love the Lord. Let's bow our heads and pray. Thank you, Jesus, for this chapter. Thank you for your word. I pray that every person in this room would take seriously the words that come out of our mouth, the vows that we would make, that we would not be afraid to necessarily make a vow, but that we would take it soberly, that we'd take it seriously, and that if anybody in this room has maybe faltered or fallen, that they would just get back on the horse and that they would go and feed your sheep, that if they loved you, they would just go back and serve you even harder, that they would go and serve you with more of their heart, that it would just help them grow to be a better Christian. I thank you for this church and everyone in this room. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.