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Proverbs chapter 14 and part 2 now. We looked at the first half last week and I'm going to remind you every time guys, so when it comes to these Proverbs sermons there's so many topics, so many things that will apply to you. Please use a pen. The ushers have got pens, they're just starting to walk down now, so if you need a pen, please take one, please make notes on this sermon. There's 18 topics that we're going to be hitting now and you're not going to remember them otherwise. Something might really speak to you, something's going to hopefully affect you out of those Proverbs, maybe more than one thing, right, that you can maybe really think about, apply to your life this week, think about, make a note of. So please do that. This is real scattergun preaching and you're going to forget half of those shots otherwise. Okay, we looked last week, right, and we got up to verse 17 and obviously I'm not going to try and recap 17 Proverbs. Basically Jack just did that by reading them all. So hopefully you've kind of had to think about some of those and maybe some things that you thought about last week. We're going to continue, we're going to look from verse 18 now where Proverbs 14 and verse 18 reads, The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. I'm going to pray and then we're going to get going through the second half of Proverbs 14. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for this great book of the Bible. Thank you for the wisdom we can gain from it, Lord. Help me to preach these Proverbs accurately and clearly and boldly and in a way that people will remember, Lord, in a way that they'll be able to apply it to their lives. Your people here, Lord, that are here to hear your preaching, Lord, hear your word preached accurately and just clearly, Lord, and help me to do that. Fill me with your spirit, please, and help everyone to have a tent of ears. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. OK, so it said the simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. So what you get for being simple is folly, whereas prudence results in knowledge. Now, simple is not clever. OK, it's unwise, it's stupid. So if you're one of those people and there are people out there that just say things like, well, I'm just happy not knowing much, you know, I just live a simple life. I don't really care, you know, about, you know, the knowledge of this. I don't care about that. Well, you know, the thing with that is the result is folly. The result of being simple is just folly, foolishness, the action of doing silly, foolish things. That's what folly is. So if you don't try and gain knowledge, the result is that you're just going to do stupid things. And first off, is there anything more foolish than rejecting the free gift of eternity in heaven? I mean, that's just foolish, isn't it? Foolish to reject the gospel, foolish to reject the saviour and to try and trust yourself, trust your own works, trust your own religion, trust your own sort of list of rules. That's just complete stupidity, isn't it? That's foolish. But after salvation, there are so many that then just waste their lives, don't they? So many waste their lives, whether they're saved or not. And when I say waste their lives, there's just so much they could have done. And the folly was what? Of not learning and growing. Because that's basically the result of it is just foolishness. You're just going to end up, if you don't learn and grow from the word of God, well, you're just going to live a simple life of folly. And that's a bad place to be because it's all here, isn't it? It's all here. You have the choice. The reality is everyone here has the choice to be simple or not. You go, well, I wasn't blessed with intelligence. Well, I'm, you know, I was a little bit kind of, you know, not really the cleverest guy at school or whatever it was, you know, just, you know, not so bright. It doesn't matter. You have the choice because you can either learn and grow or you can reject it or you could just carry on being simple. But the result is folly because it is it is all here. It's all here. Everything you need really is here. OK. And here's the thing. It's not just here. It's here. It's here in this church. It's getting preached from the pulpit. The word of God is getting preached. So you have the choice. You have the choice to either learn and grow. Listen to the word of God. Come and listen to preaching. Read your Bibles, study your Bibles, memorize your Bibles, do the things of God and learn and grow. Or you can just be simple. But the result of the simple life is that you're going to just do foolish things, make foolish choices, do foolish things. Remember, prudent means cautious. It means wise in actions, intelligent. OK. And again, you have the choice to be prudent or simple. That's your choice because this book will make you more cautious, help you to be cautious in life in the right way. It'll help you to be wise in your actions. It will help you to be intelligent about important things because you know what? I don't care. I don't care what sort of mathematical equations people can do. I don't care, you know, any of that stuff. If they if they're still going to hell, they are ultimately foolish. It doesn't matter. And if they're saved and they can do all of that stuff, but they just can't listen to simplest structure from the word of God. They can't just shape their life by what God wants them to do. They're foolish. They're idiots. They're simple and it's folly because it's all here. You have the choice, right? And when you're prudent, when you're careful not to be simple, the result is knowledge. And knowledge is good, isn't it? Yeah, that's what we want, knowledge in life. But knowledge is a result of our efforts. So that's what it comes down to. Whatever happened when you were young, whatever you learned and didn't learn, whatever you did, you know, whether it was schooling, whether it was homeschooling, whatever it is. None of that matters. Ultimately, when it comes to the word of God, you need to just keep reading the word of God, keep learning that knowledge, keep coming to church, keep getting preached that knowledge. Verse 18 says a simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. And the lesson is don't be simple, put effort in, be careful to gain knowledge and it's available for all of us. Verse 19 says the evil bow before the good and the wicked at the gates of the righteous. Now, I believe that this proverb, because you can read that quickly, just say, oh, yeah, they're going to bow before us. But is that always the case? No, I actually believe that this proverb is likely a warning to us. It's a reminder that our enemies will put on a show of humbling themselves. That's what it's talking about. The evil bow before the good. They do, right? And the wicked at the gates, at the gates of the righteous. It's to disarm us. It's to enter into our lives. It's to be allowed into our gates. And they'll do that. They'll do that in various ways, right, that the evil will bow before you and the wicked will do that at the gates of the righteous. Now, turn to Psalm 10, which warns us of this humbling of themselves, this crouching down, OK, that these people do. It says of the wicked in verse seven of Psalm 10. Psalm 10 and verse seven talks of these wicked people. It says, his mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud. They're full of deceit. Don't, you know, don't never be surprised when you just hear lie after lie coming from these people. Under his tongue is mischief and vanity. He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages, in the secret places. After the murder of the innocent, his eyes are privily set against the poor. He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den. He lieth in wait to catch the poor. He doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his net. He croucheth and humbleth himself. Notice that he croucheth and humbleth himself that the poor may fall by his strong ones. So as much as we can look out for the rod of pride, like we talked about last week, for the heady high mindedness, the better types of these people will often show mock humility. They'll humble themselves, they'll bow before us, they'll act as if they're just very humble. And the place they do that most is at the gates of the righteous. And that's kind of the entering in place of where the righteous are when they're coming to our place. For example, to our churches, to our events, to our homes. So they'll come to your home and humble themselves and act like they're just this great family member that just, you know, oh, yeah, of course, whatever you say, you're the boss of your home. But really, they're just there to cause trouble. Really, they're there to try and poison your kids, poison your wives, poison your family. There's so many ways that this works. And, you know, once they're amongst their own, it's then back to normal. And it's funny when you see that as well. You see these people put on the humble show in the crouching, you know, acting and tiptoeing around and everything else. And then suddenly when they're with their own people, it's like back to just full brazen. Just the pride just oozes out of them and everything else. The fake humility's gone. And you go, well, this is a bit hard because I thought we just looked for the pride and everything else. Well, that's why we need the wisdom that comes from God's word, right? Because we're warned about this sort of stuff. It's not always so simple. You know, verse 19 says, the evil bow before the good and the wicked at the gates of the righteous. The lesson is, the lesson here is not to be conned. OK, to still be on guard because that lovely, friendly, humble old family member or friend can still be a predator. They'll still be a predator just because they're lovely. They seem so humble and seem so, oh, yeah, I respect everything you say and do. Doesn't mean they're not a predator. That crouching, humble, potential spouse can still turn out to be a complete psychopath. You know, you're like, oh, well, they seem so nice. You know, they seem so humble and so, oh, she seems like she's going to be a submissive wife. He seems like he's just going to be this lovely, God-fearing husband. Well, you still need to be wise with this stuff, right? Don't be surprised when that lovely, stooping, tiptoeing around brother or sister in Christ turns out to be a devil. You know, just deal with it. You know, I just can't work it out because, you know, they just seem so like this when they walked around. But it's like suddenly when they're amongst their own, it's full on pride and everything else. You know, back to the old person again. Verse 19 says evil bow before the good and the wicked at the gates of the righteous. Just bear that in mind. Verse 20 says the poor is hated even of his own neighbour, but the rich have many friends. So this is a bit of a universal truth, isn't it, in life? Some probably likeable, poor people are pretty unpopular when compared to the rich, aren't they? I mean, they have some probably likeable, nice, pretty genuine, honest, poor people who don't have anywhere near the amount of friends that some pretty nasty, horrible, rich person does. They're rich people who are just so disloyal, aren't they? They bully, they just do horrible stuff, you can't trust them as far as you can throw them, but they've just got loads of friends, full of friends. I mean, you probably look back and think of people in your life who were pretty horrible people, but they just seem to have loads of friends. Popularity isn't a gauge of how nice a person you are, just to bear that in mind, because that's got a big thing in the world right now, isn't it? And that's a big thing on social media platforms, isn't it? It's people just trying to like, get popularity. Popularity proves that I'm a nice person, but popularity somehow gives me some sort of credibility. Popularity is vetting me and showing that I'm a good guy, I'm a funny guy, whether it's a preacher, whether it's like a person on, you know, just a friend on social media. It doesn't mean that at all. You know, that's not a gauge of how of how honest and what a good person they are. Now, why is it that these rich people have all these friends? Because so many relationships in life are based on selfishness, aren't they? The reality of it is, it's based on what someone can receive in return. And it's not just material things either. So a lot of people, they'll make friends with people for status quo, for respect from others, for being friends with so-and-so. You know, they want to be friends with someone, so then other people know they're friends with that person, they get an extra respect for that. There's a lot of kind of political friendships and people just trying to, you know, make friends with people for reasons other than just because they like the person. And when it comes to the genuinely poor, which by the way we don't really have in this nation, it's easier to find an excuse to hate them, isn't it? So it's easy to just find an excuse to hate them so as not to feel obliged to help. So it's easier to just hate on people that otherwise you might have to do something for. To justify not helping them, it's easier just to hate on them. And people do that a lot, don't they? When there's people that need stuff in life, they'll automatically go, oh well, after they did this or the way they are like that, they'll probably blah, blah, blah, and they quickly justify a reason not to help people. And this is a problem the world over where, you know, the poor do get looked down upon and treated like collateral damage in many areas of life, don't they? And wicked people do that, don't they? Treat them like pawns. And, you know, in many ways, the poor are often mistreated. If you think about just, you know, for example, just looking back at the amount of places where there's just like conscription into the army, and a lot of the time they're targeting the poor, a lot of rich people can get out of it in different ways, and it's pretty wicked really, isn't it? To then just send them off to usually bogus wars and things like that, and there's many other ways it works. This is a problem. The poor is hated even of his own name, but the rich have many friends. And with wealth does come friends and power, doesn't it? Verse 20 where it says that, the lesson is make sure that you're not befriending people for the wrong reason, and hating on people just because they can't profit you in life, because that's what happens a lot, isn't it? People just find a reason to dislike or hate on someone because they can't get anything from them. Especially when it comes to the next verse, verse 21 says, He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth, but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he? So just to make it clear, okay, this is talking about regular people, not haters of God, who the Holy Spirit inspired David said in Psalm, for example, 139 that he hates, okay? You don't have to end in Psalm 31, 6, he said, I have hated them that regard lying vanities, but I trust in the Lord. In Psalm 26, 5, David said, I have hated the congregation of evildoers and will not sit with the wicked. So, no, you're sinning if you don't despise the enemies of God, okay? Just to make that clear, sometimes you need to compare scripture with scripture, okay? Not just take a verse, go, right, we just got to love everyone, doesn't matter who they are. And that's obviously what the liberal types and the people that try and attack people that believe the word of God do. If you're not despising the children of the devil, you're in sin, okay? 2 Chronicles 19, 2, that of Genesis, And Jadah the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. You're loving the ungodly, helping them that hate the Lord, wrath is upon you. But again, you've got to be sure that they're people that hate the Lord, you've got to be sure that they're children of the devil, you can't just cast everyone off as a reprobate and then justify hating on them. But now that's cleared up, okay? We shouldn't be just despising regular people, okay? Just regular normal people, and most people are regular normal people, there are a lot of reprobates about, but the majority of people aren't, okay? That's sinful. If you're just despising people just for being regular people, it's sinful. It says in verse 21, He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth, but he that hath mercy on the poor happiest he. And in the context of the previous verse, often it is because there's nothing to gain from them. That's what happens a lot. People just hate on people because they can't get anything from them. But what is the best way that we could show love to our neighbour? What's the best way we can have mercy on the poor? Soul winning, isn't it? That's the best way you can have mercy on the poor, is by actually giving them something worthwhile, and that's salvation. Going out and preaching them the gospel. Because, look, you can give away as many tins of soup as you like. We could turn this whole church into a soup kitchen and invite everyone in and just give away stuff, give out free dinners. We could go around giving drug addicts blankets and other stuff and food and more money for drugs, you know, and more food so they don't have to spend any of those pennies on food and they can spend even more money on drugs. But if you ain't preaching them the gospel, you ain't doing nothing. What a waste of time. Because this is such a short life and it's the eternity that matters. If you're withholding the gospel, and look, we shouldn't withhold the gospel, should we? And just to make it clear, just in case anyone wondered there, or maybe we could do both, but giving free things to drug addicts which is what most people consider as the poor in this nation because they're sleeping rough and stuff like that isn't helping anyone, okay? You ain't helping anyone if you're going around and just giving a load of money to someone who's got a bad drug addiction. Because I've known some of these people. Many years ago, we had an old family friend who went really off the rails and he was kind of pretty candid about his life and used to tell me a lot of stuff. And he would say to me that this week, this week, he doesn't have to save any money towards any tins of beans or anything because he's found this great place, some so-called church place where they give out free lunches and dinners. So you go there and get your food and then he's got even more money to spend on crack cocaine. That's the reality of how these guys live. And these churches are like, people are throwing money in, going, yeah, great, giving drug addicts free food, getting free dinners, and they're just like, great, even less money I have to put aside for anything to survive even more money for crack. Is that helping anyone? Helping no-one, what a ridiculous thing to do, right? And if those people really could not feed themselves, they'd have to actually start spending some money on food. It gets to that point, doesn't it? And if those people didn't just have everything thrown into their hands, they're going to have to start at some point, usually probably a little bit quicker, before they're down the route of where it's just they're a complete deranged, dribbling drug addict, of thinking, actually, I need to be a bit more sensible here because I ain't going to get fed. And if a man does not work, neither should he eat, right? And he might have to start thinking about working and earning some money. But anyway, OK, that's just foolishness. And sadly, that's a big thing in this nation right now, isn't it? That's kind of a big show of being, oh, we're so charitable, we're so kind because we give money to drug addicts and we give stuff to drug addicts. OK, but these people aren't poor. They're just people that choose to spend their money. They choose to spend their free money on crack, cocaine and heroin. Usually in this nation, that's kind of the big ones for that. They're not poor. They're just spending all their money on drugs. But in an opposite way, there are churches that will only go and do outreach, which is normally what it is, in rich areas. So on the other end of the scale, you'll get churches that go, oh, no, well, we'll go and do outreach, but they'll pick and choose a place that they're hoping they can get church members from that will then help with the finance of the church. That's wicked as well. Because really, what's the best thing you can do? How can you have mercy on people, whether it's the rich or the poor, is by preaching the gospel. And you know what, when you do that, you're happy. He said, but he that hath mercy on the poor, happiest he. When we do things for others, when we have mercy on people, when we just give to people, it does make you happy, doesn't it? You think you're going to be so happy when you get stuff, but you're not really. The real happiness comes when you're doing things for others. So the lesson here, he that despises his neighbour sinneth, but he that hath mercy on the poor, happiest he is to love our neighbour. And the best way that we can do that is by offering them the gospel. I do say offering, just to make it clear, offer people the gospel. Please don't force people to hear the gospel. And whether you know them or not, it's just a waste of time. And that's not what we're called to do. We're called to offer people the gospel. We're called to preach the gospel. They need to want to hear the gospel. And we're happy when we do that, aren't we? Verse 22. Do they not err that devise evil, but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good. So of course, there are the extreme ends of this. The wicked people that are just constantly plotting and planning bad stuff. They're devising evil. And this is another thing that, you know, we just keep seeing this in the Book of Proverbs, this sort of stuff. It's hard to get your head around until you've been around these people for any length of time. It just really is. You just find it really difficult to get your head around people that literally just devise evil. They're plotting and planning evil all the time. There are people out there that just devise evil, bad stuff. And it's not just the people in positions of power. It's not just the bogeyman. It's not just the Rothschilds or anyone else that does it. And everyone else is just these lovely people, okay? These people are everywhere, okay? There are those that just try to find ways of hurting you. That's just life. And I say everyone here. There'll be people that literally just devise evil against you in your life, that just want to affect you, want to attack you in one way or another, whether it's subtly or not. There are those that just want to hurt the cause of Christ. Anything they can do to sabotage God's work. And it's a weird thing to think about, isn't it? It's not what you're kind of expecting when you first get saved. Start learning about the Bible, because that's not the sort of stuff taught in liberal and false Christianity, is it? But the end will only be worse for them, okay? Don't forget that. Do they not err that devise evil? Because what's going to happen to those worst types of people? It's going to be the hottest flames of hell. And I say that because I think we think that the lowest depths of hell will have the serial killers, will have the perverts, will have the genocidal maniacs. And don't get me wrong, there are some wicked people in the world, aren't there? Okay, there are some wicked people. But do you know what the reality is? That the various types of false prophets, actively trying to destroy people's eternities in one way or another, they're burning hotter than any of them. Because what they do has effects on multiple and multiple people's eternities. These people are wicked as anything. And again, you can't... Because in your mind you're like, oh, they just believe something different. No, no, they're liars and they're damning people to hell. For eternity. And some guy that goes and, God forbid, goes and some nutter that goes and kills ten people, that's got nothing, nothing on the false prophet that's damning people by the droves to hell. Right? These people are the ones who'll be in the lowest depths of hell. And whether they're infiltrator false prophets, whether they're standing behind pulpits, whether they're, you know, whether they're atheist so-called false prophets, or all these different flavours, they're the ones that will be down there, burning hot and too right. However, it's also a good reminder to the saved to spend their time focusing on good things. He said, do they not err that devise evil? Mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good. Evil isn't just wickedness, okay? It can be... It can just be bad things. It can be hurt or harm, yeah? So if I spent my days plotting how to get back, how to get even at God's enemies, even God's enemies rather than my own enemies, I think I'm in error still. Because really, I should just leave it to God. And God does deal with it. Let him recompense. Vengeance is mine, I will repay you, saith the Lord, yeah? Let him deal with it. Instead, we should be focusing on devising good. And this is some good advice I got not long ago, okay? Some good advice I got about this was basically just do good. Like, focus on what you're doing and just forget about the growing list you'll end up creating, a growing amount of people that just hate you and want to bring you down. Just focus on devising good. Focus on what you're doing in the church. Don't focus on them. Because the temptation is to tear down every slanderer, isn't it? That's the temptation. And it's a strong temptation sometimes, just to smash them from behind the pulpit, put out just like, you know, little short clip videos, just, you know, name a shame and destroy them. Take the battle to our growing list of enemies of this church and go, okay, well look, they're trying to tear down our church, trying to tear down, you know, everything we're doing here. Let's take it to them. And there is sometimes a time for that, okay? So I'm not saying that's wrong. Paul named an ashamed Hymenaeus, Alexander and Philetus, didn't he? The apostle John named a shame Diotrephes, he named a shame Jezebel. Okay, so there is a time sometimes for that. But we do that in our own time. And there's a right time for that. We don't have to answer every ridiculous accusation. You don't have to because as soon as you do, you're kind of giving just, at least you're giving them some form of platform, you don't even need to do that. Now sometimes they need to get smashed. But you don't have to answer every one. You don't have to answer every obvious bit of slander. Because sometimes, you know, with these people, they just dig their own holes. They just expose themselves to everyone. Because so much of it is just obvious slander. And it's like, great, carry on, carry on, because nothing I could say could bury you more than your own words. You don't let your own words do it. Rather we focus on devising good, getting the gospel out further, setting up more groups, planting more churches, doing missions trips, just doing more and more and more for God. And that's how we're, you know, mercy and truth, we'll get for that to them that devise good. He said, do they not err that devise evil, but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good. We want the mercy and good that God gives to those that are focusing on the good stuff, that are plotting and planning good works. So let's carry on plotting and planning good works, let's devise good, rather than focusing on, even if it's what we consider to be just retribution. Verse 23 says, in all labour there is profit, but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. Now penury is extreme poverty, okay? So if you put effort into anything, there is profit though. It's saying in all labour there is profit, there's benefit. Even if it fails, so even if you've done a venture and you put some work in it fails, you at least learn from your mistakes, don't you? So if you've tried to set up a business or you've tried to put some work into something, you've taken on a job that didn't work out, you still learn from it. I'll tell you what, when I was younger, I learned at least semi-decent landscaping just from doing a lot of bad jobs, from just being rubbish at it. I didn't really get taught, I just kind of self-taught and just got a load of stuff wrong and eventually I learned how not to get it wrong in the future. In all labour there is profit, even like the worst jobs there ever did. But even if you didn't learn a thing, so even if you didn't, you've at least profited by being busy and having less time to potentially sin. I've talked about that a bit quite a lot recently. Curses are ground for thy sake, is what God said to Adam, because we need to work, we need to keep grafting. And even just the fact, even if you didn't get anything out of it, you didn't learn anything, you didn't even get paid, someone just mugged you off and you ended up doing like a, however much just free work and you didn't learn a thing from it, all you learnt was how to do it badly. You didn't even learn how to do it the right way. At least you've been busy. At least you've got something, at least you've been busy and it was less time for you to get, have foolish thoughts, do sinful things, get involved with sin. Because labour, work in all areas, okay, in all areas of life is just good. It's good. In all labour there is profit. One of the biggest cons out there is that you'll be happier doing little to nothing. It's a dangling carrot and it's nonsense. The early retirement, you're not going to be happier. Do you know what happens with a lot of people after early retirement? They die. It happens a lot. People, when they stop doing anything, they die. It's, do you know the ones who keep going, who generally survive early retirement a lot of the time, is those that just keep busy, keep finding stuff to do and keep trying to do stuff. But it's not just that. You know, the con that somehow, you know, well, no, no, it'll be good if you could just have all this leisure time and everything else. It's the same because it just gets boring. It just gets boring. You just need what you're made to work and you're satisfied when you are working. And by the way, that's both men and women, you know. We just need to find stuff to do. I know people out of work, okay. I know people with little to do and I'm not talking about, oh, well, they're poor and, you know, so they're just gutted because they can't spend anything. I know rich people with little to do and they're not happy. They never have, they're not just so content going, life is just a dream, just doing nothing. They're just not content. They're not happy. They're not satisfied. They don't feel content. So in all labour, you feel content, you feel productive, you're kept from sin, you learn. And if it's active, you get fitter, stronger. If it's mentally taxing, you get mentally fitter and stronger. And that's important, by the way, as well. They say, you know, one of the gods, for example, against Alzheimer's is daily mental arithmetic, things like this. There's lots of ways that we have to try and keep active, right, mentally and physically. If it's spiritual labour, then you get spiritually stronger. It's always good, right? You get everything you do that's spiritual, that's for the Lord, helps you to strengthen your faith, helps you to get stronger. And also you earn eternal rewards with that as well. In all labour, there is profit, right? But if you're all talking no action, he said, but the talk of the lips tend to turn to penury. If you're one of those that just talks a good game, there are people out there like that, right? Or maybe you don't get anything done because you're too busy gassing. Well, the result is extreme poverty. He said penury, that's extreme poverty. Talking through the job, it doesn't actually get anything done. And you can apply this to our spiritual lives as well. So you can think of people in the workplace, those types of people, that all they do is just chat. You know, some people are good at looking busy, but they just chat. They don't actually do anything, yeah? And that can be quite clever where people do that. But in our spiritual lives, there are churches that are just constantly talking, aren't there? Yeah, a lot of churches out there. They're meeting, they're telling each other how to be spiritual, they counsel, they seem to encourage, you know, they're telling him you can do it, champ, and they're patting each other on the back, and they're talking a lot. Saying a lot of stuff, a lot of worldly speeches, but no one is actually doing any real work. The talk of the lips, all of that just talking, isn't actually doing anything. Because no one's going out and getting anyone saved. And that talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. Just poverty. And you can look at that spiritually because it's just a lot of spiritually impoverished people. Oh, they talk about Jesus between themselves, but no one is going out and doing the first works. And the first works is ultimately what profits, isn't it? That's what gets people saying. In all labour there is profit, but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. What's the lesson? Let's not forget that we're here to work. You're just here to work. Now, don't get me wrong, you can enjoy church, there's some great benefits from church, and we should enjoy coming to church. We're not like, oh, I've got to get ready for another Sunday of graft. Okay, got to get geared up for this. It's going to be another hard slog at the office of church. And Wednesday night, I better gear up to go and do some hard spiritual work. But we also, look, there's some great, look, we should enjoy church, there's some great benefits to church, we have a great time together, there's great fellowship, all those things. It's nice serving God, it's nice worshipping God. But still we need to remember that what we're really called for is to serve the Lord. We're called to serve the Lord. Let's not forget that. Verse 24, The crown of the wise is their riches, but the foolishness of fools is folly. So I believe that you're saying that the honour of being wise is that person's riches. A crown here representing honour, dignity, distinction, splendor, with that being the result of being wise. Okay, so that's our riches, that result of being wise. For example, Proverbs 4-9 says of wisdom, She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. Talking about the woman wisdom. And it's that grace, that glory that comes from wisdom, which is our riches. Proverbs 8-19 says of wisdom, My fruit is better than gold. Yea, then find gold in my revenue than choice silver. That's our riches, wisdom. That's why Proverbs 4-7 says Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding, because it's so important. Wisdom is true riches, that's what we want to be crowned with, don't we? We want to be crowned with wisdom, that's what helps us ultimately through life, as opposed to the fools who just spout folly, which is a lack of understanding, a lack of intelligence. Like we said, and it's doing worse, right? It's the active stuff that these people do. So as opposed to that crown, that honour of wisdom, the fool is crowned with folly, and that just becomes more apparent with time, doesn't it? So the more you get to know people, and see, I'm not talking about necessarily in the church environment, just in general, out and about and stuff, the more you just start to see that foolishness of fools, that folly, and you just start to see it more and more in people. And we had someone, I think it was today or yesterday, I think it was yesterday, who knocks on the door, and the guy was just so proud that he doesn't believe. I could debate with you all day about science, because I believe in science. It was so tempting to just tear them apart, you know? But we didn't, you know? We were just like, okay, well, is there anything we can say to change your mind? No. But the truth is, in his mind, he thought, I just sound so intellectual here, and so clever, that I could smash you, but I don't really want to upset you, and show you how what you believe is wrong. Whereas myself and my soul-winning partner, we're just thinking, what a fool. How foolish is that guy, you know? But we didn't have to say that to him, he was like, okay, you know, I moved on. The crown of the wise is a riches, but foolishness is fools is folly. The lesson is to focus on obtaining wisdom. Just another reminder, obtain wisdom, gain wisdom, that's what we're trying to get from, especially the Book of Proverbs, but it's in the whole Word of God, isn't it? Okay, verse 25. A true witness deliver of souls, but a deceitful witness speaketh lies. So a witness is attesting to something. They're attesting to something they've witnessed, yeah? So when we go out and preach the Gospel, we're attesting to salvation from God's Word, aren't we? Okay, that's what we're doing. We're a witness of the salvation that comes from the Word of God. So what is a work salvationist attesting to? It's lies. Attesting to lies. It's lies. They're speaking lies. There is no work salvation. There is no salvation. I don't have any salvation. It's lies. It's a weird thing where people go, I know I'm saved, I know, you know, I'm born again. Yeah, these people don't know. I'm born again. And you're like, oh okay, so blah blah blah, and eventually it gets to the point where, yeah, well, as long as I keep asking for forgiveness every time, and as long as I don't do any bad sins, it's like, so how do you know you're going to heaven, you liar? It's a lie. You don't know you're going to heaven because it's based on you continuing to do X1Z in the future. It's lies. The truth delivers souls, though. A true witness deliver of souls. Jesus said in John 14 6, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. So you're delivering souls when you go out and preach that true witness, aren't you? So the true witness delivereth souls. You're delivering them. And by the way, doesn't that indicate us having a part to play there? You have a part to play in salvation. We're not Calvinists in this church, just to make it very clear here. And I say that because this stuff, just the poison of Calvinism will just come through from different backgrounds and people get a little bit sidetracked by this stuff. God does the saving type stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. God did the hard part. You still got to go out and get them saved. A true witness delivereth souls. You're delivering souls when you're giving that true witness. Okay, you have a big part to play in that. If I and other people in here and we all just decided, we ain't doing it now. We're not going out today. I can't be bothered today. Those people ain't getting saved. They're not getting saved. Oh, well, they would have got saved anyway. Well, God of God will deal with it. No, no, no. We make a choice to go out and preach the gospel or not. And that's what it comes down to at the end of the day, that people ain't getting saved without someone going out and preaching the gospel. Because faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. A true witness delivereth souls, but a deceitful witness speaketh lies. So anyone witnessing anything else when it comes to salvation is speaking lies. It's not just a different opinion. There can only be one truth. There's only one truth in life. In anything, there can only be one truth. They're not just a little bit, oh, fine, what a shame. They just believe something. If they're going and preaching that, they're preaching lies. It's lies. They're a deceitful witness and these people are everywhere. 1 John 4, 1 says, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but trial the spirits where they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Many false prophets. They're everywhere. They're all over the place. They're all gone out into the world. Okay, they're everywhere and we just have to understand that that's what we're dealing with. That's what we're fighting against. Verse 25 says, A true witness delivereth souls, but a deceitful witness speaketh lies. What's the lesson? Get out there and deliver these souls from those lies. That's what we're doing, aren't we? When we're going out, I mean, today we're down the road and people are literally walking down the road. Out of a false church that's at the end of the road and, amen, they walk into some people actually preaching the truth and they get saved. And that's what we're doing. We're delivering souls from these people. And at the end going, have you ever wondered why your church didn't tell you any of that? It ain't a church. And trying to do it in a gentle way. But that's the reality of it, isn't it? Verse 26, In the fear of the Lord, his strong confidence in his children shall have a place of refuge. Now, it's a funny, almost ironic truth that the unbeliever doesn't understand here. And that's the boldness, the assurance, the confidence that comes from fearing God. Because in their mind, you must be like this quivering wreck thinking, oh, is God going to punish me again? Oh, I'm so scared of God. But you actually get bolder from it. You get strong confidence from fearing God. And it sounds a bit ironic, doesn't it? It doesn't make sense, maybe, to the carnal mind. And no, we're not just talking about respecting God. If anyone's been at one of those churches, they're like, oh, and it says fear God. It actually means to just show him some respect because they're trying to like change him into like the liberal hippie Jesus, you know? But no, we really are to respect God, yeah, but to fear him as well. Okay, and first off, obviously that's required for salvation. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But after that, when you have a healthy fear of the Lord, you're going to then be doing the obvious things, aren't you? If you genuinely have a healthy fear of God, you would clearly, surely, you would read your Bible because he tells you to read your Bible. You would surely turn up at church because he tells you to go to church. If you had a healthy fear of the Lord, you would be trying to get out and soul win because he tells us to preach the gospel to every creature. If you had a healthy fear of the Lord, you would be doing all those other things, those box tickers, which are just obvious normal things that a Christian is told to do if you really fear the Lord. Is that me with a goal? Yeah, I fear the Lord, yeah, I fear the Lord. But then they still just make their own rules. But you don't make your own rules. God makes the rules, okay? And if you fear him, you're going to follow his rules, not your own version of the rules. And they're pretty clear because they're in our King James Bibles. And when you're doing those things, you can then have strong confidence because he's your refuge. So when you're ticking those boxes, no, you're not sinless, okay? You'll never be sinless until you no longer have the sinful flesh. You're not going to be sinless in this life, in this body. But when you're ticking the boxes, when you're doing the things he tells you to do, you can have strong confidence. You can have strong confidence in him. In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence and his children shall have a place of refuge because he is your refuge. You could call on him in trouble when you're like, look, I'm not in presumptuous sin, I'm going to church, I'm doing the things that got him, I'm reading my Bible, I'm soul winning, I'm praying, I'm doing all these things. You could call on him and know that he'll come through. No, he might not come through in your timing. He might not come through when you think he should come through, but you know that whatever happens, it will work for good. And you can have that confidence, can't you? Go, look, I know things are going to work out because I know I'm not in some wicked sin. I know that I'm just doing the things that God wants me to do. I'm trying to live for God. I'm trying to get things right. I have confidence he's going to come through for me. And you know what happens? He comes through for you. He does. He's your place of refuge. You know that things will work out eventually because all things work together for good to them that love God, then they're called according to his purpose. And look, if you're doing the things of God, you're fearing God, you're living for God, you can be confident, you can have that strong confidence. And it comes from fearing him. So we have confidence because we're scared. We have a healthy fear of God and you're bold because of that. We're his children and he is our refuge, our protection and safety. Psalm 46 says, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. That was Psalm 46. A very present help in trouble. He's there for you. He's there. You just got to have a bit of fear. Have some fear of God and you can have that strong confidence. His children should have a place of refuge. What's the lesson? Well, if you want peace and confidence, fear the Lord. Follow his commandments. Simple. Yeah. Follow him. Do him. Do what he says to do. Try your best. If you're failing, call out to him and say, help me to live for you. Help me to just follow your comments. Just say to him, thy will be done, not mine. Thy will. And when you're saying that, when you do it, yeah, you're going to sin. Yeah, you're going to mess up. Yeah, you're going to do things wrong sometimes. Yeah, you're going to do some instinctive sin. Yeah, you're going to say the wrong thing sometimes, do the wrong thing. But when you're just saying, look, God, I just want you to help. I want to live for you. There's a difference in your life then, isn't there? And you can have that strong confidence. Verse 27 says, the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death. So although obviously this applies personally to us, fearing the Lord is obviously required for salvation and also to get through the trials of life. Yeah, OK, it's a fountain of life. It's fearing the Lord, which results in us being that fountain of life, though, isn't it? So like I was just talking about, if we weren't fearing and following the Lord, we wouldn't be so winning. You know, you wouldn't be so winning, honestly, not in the long term. Yeah, you might, you know, at the beginning go, oh, this is great. I want to show over to the people. And then once those rejections kick in, that they usually come pretty quickly, once those people are, you know, those people in your private life are mocking you and scorning you and everything else, the reality of it is you usually get a bit of a sour taste in your mouth and it's not so fun getting mocked, scorned and told that salvation is a load of nonsense and surely you've got to be good or whatever else. But it's the fear of the Lord that results in you being that fountain of life, because you know that he commands you to go soul winning. He tells you, he commands you to go out and preach the gospel. If we weren't fearing and following the Lord, we wouldn't be doing it in the long run, because it's us as soul winning believers that are the fountain of life. We give out the living water of God's word. That's what you're doing. You're going out and you're giving out that living water. You're giving the fountain of life to people. You are that fountain of love. You're giving that out to people by preaching in the gospel, by preaching the word of God. And that results in people departing or leaving the various snares of eternal death. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. And I think that's really ultimately applying to those around you to depart from the snares of death. And there are a lot of snares of eternal death, aren't there? The obvious one, the big one is work salvation, wrapped up in various different ways. That's a snare and there's different ways. It's there to snare people, isn't it? Whether it's just a little bit of work here, a massive amount of work there, there's all those different snares. But there's other snares. Hell doesn't exist. That's a snare, isn't it, of the devil. That's to make people not really worry about salvation, because, oh, well, if I don't get saved, it's just a bit of, you know, lights out. Or it's just, you know, it's separation from God. Well, not the end of the world, because I've been trying to separate from him for my whole life. I mean, how's that even a threat for people? Most of them, they want nothing to do with God. But then you'll be separated for eternity. And they're like, thanks, now I can carry on with my sin and not have to worry about it. I have to assess myself. Now think about myself. That's not, the punishment is eternal hellfire. No such thing as God is another snare of death, isn't it? Because if you can convince people enough or you convince yourself that there's no such thing as God, well, you don't have to worry about the rest of it. And a lot of it is because people just want to then back to indulging and not feeling bad, not feeling guilty about whatever they're doing. The fear of the Lord, though, is a fountain of light to depart from the snares of death. They're all snares that are pulling people into eternal hellfire. And the lesson is that you fearing the Lord affects more than just your life. So we've looked at fearing the Lord and ultimately how it affects your life, but it doesn't just affect your life. You fearing the Lord affects countless people's eternities. Even if you got one person saved your whole life, but they went on and got someone else saved, and they went on and got, again, you've affected so many people's eternities. Your fearing of the Lord is not just about you, it's about what you do for other people as well, because it helps them depart from the snares of death. Verse 28, In the multitude of people is the king's honour, but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince. So I believe this is saying that when it comes to a kingdom, the more people results in that ruler being honoured. So in the multitude of people is the king's honour, but in the want of people, that sort of lack of want or lack of people is the destruction of the prince. That results in a leader's destruction, a prince being a principle, okay? Then it's not saying, oh, it's the king and then his son. It's just talking about a leader. So, for example, in Solomon's heyday, the children of Israel in Judah were described as being as the sand by the sea in multitude, okay? And that was a great period of history for Israel in his heyday in the early years of Solomon's reign. And they were described in 1 Kings 4 21, it says what a success it was, it says Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river and to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. They brought presents and served Solomon all the days of his life. Otherwise, they would have left or revolted or something, okay? And had that happened, he would have been destroyed, wouldn't he? As a king, because he wouldn't have had anyone to serve him to do anything for that to work. Now, the thing is that we're not just looking at this going, okay, well, that kind of works for kingdoms and stuff like that. You could apply this to many areas of leadership, I believe. So, for example, in a sports team, okay? In the multitude of people, so in people wanting to be part of it, wanting to get involved and everything else, there's honour for that rule of that leader. But if the whole football team just walk out, well, there's a destruction of that leader, right? In the workplace, as well, it's the same thing. You can't get anyone to work for you and maybe you need to assess what sort of boss you are, right? In the home, if the people in your home, if everyone just wants to move out when they turn whatever age, legal age, to move out, well, again, you know, there's no honour in that, is there? In the church, as well, if there was just me and my family here and one or two other people, it would be hard to maintain this church, wouldn't it? And that means that it's a very legitimate attack by the enemy, though, as well. So, something you've got to understand there is that trying to pull people out to destroy a church is a legitimate attack. Destroy early days, just pull them out. Get them out because the honour's gone. It's like, oh, well, there's just no one left. It must be because of that leader. It must be because of that. And, of course, as leaders, though, we have to be careful in any area not to focus on numbers because then you let things slide. In a church, you don't preach as hard, do you? If you're worried about, oh, I just want to make sure I have more and more people, how many have we got today? Oh, okay, I'd better preach a bit softer on this. I'd better not deal with that problem in case that person walks out. I'd better try and please them. Well, that's not how we should behave. But the reality is that this is just a universal truth, okay? So the fake church fans will judge the validity of a place based on its numbers, won't they? So, when people look in here, and that's why one part of being in church is encouraging each other, encouraging others, even encouraging new believers and people that come in, because if this place had two people in it, a lot of people just wouldn't come. They wouldn't be part of it because they see the fake church go, well, that must be the right place because it's just full of people because in a multitude of people is a king's honour. And again, I'm not equating a pastor or anything to a king, it just applies to all sorts of leadership, okay? And you could apply it as well to the effect on the gospel of us getting slack and not having a multitude of people as well. So if there's not a multitude of us going out and preaching the gospel, and there's not a multitude of people getting saved and doing things for God, well, in the multitude of people is a king's honour, but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince. And maybe people just will look at that and see that and see hardly anyone really preaching the right way and just think, well, it can't be true, it can't be right. They don't even want to listen to it because it's such a minority. And that's kind of how it seems to have got, right? But that's why we need a multitude of people doing it, we need a multitude of people going out and preaching the gospel, we need a multitude of people in church. And a multitude of people is a king's honour, but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince. And we can apply that to all leadership, it's a good reminder for all of us the truth is in there. Verse 29, He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. Now, we looked at this topic last week in verse 17 where it said, He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly, and a man of wicked device is hated. So having a quick temper is obviously foolish. But here in verse 29, it's expanded a bit more to being hasty of spirit, which would include more than anger. It's being quick with all of our emotions. For example, quick or easily upset, quick or easily demoralized. Really, it's being hasty with our thoughts or the state of our mind. And if you're so easily affected or swayed, that you, you know, if you are like that, then you're exalting or lifting up folly, okay? You're basically just more and more folly that you're basically promoting. The beginning of the verse was about being slow to wrath, okay? It didn't say never have wrath, did it? It just said slow to wrath. Because there are reasons to be angry sometimes, aren't there? Okay, sometimes we are angry and ultimately, who's our example? God, and in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh was sometimes angry. And sometimes he had wrath, right? And it's not that all anger is sin, but it should be after time to consider. It shouldn't just be hasty. It shouldn't just be flying off the handle. It shouldn't be all day every day. And especially considering that anger clouds your judgment, we looked at that last week as well, and how, you know, you can become that man of wicked devices because you've got angry. Being slow to wrath would help you to have great understanding, wouldn't it? Because you don't have clouded judgment by constantly being angry. So we need to deal with that. We need to make sure we're not just constantly angry. We're not just hasty of spirit. We should be slow to wrath. We want that great understanding. He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. What's the answer then? Well, like I hopefully explained at the end of last week, you know, keep your mouth shut is one way. You know, just learn to keep your mouth shut. Button your mouth. You don't always have to say everything straight away. Keep your mouth shut. Deal with any bitterness. So sometimes you've just got to deal with stuff. Sometimes if something winds you up, has upset you or angered you, somebody's just need to deal with that. Now, if you can turn the other cheek and you can move on, great. But sometimes people say they can, but they can't. They're just dwelling on it. They're thinking about it. They're fuming, you know. Sometimes you need to deal with whatever that is. You need to get more into the things of God to help control your spirit as well. And the more you do for God, the more likely you are going to be able to control your spirit. Verse 30. A sound heart is the life of the flesh, but envy the rottenness of the bone. So this is another verse linking our emotional state with our physical health. We looked at that already. A sound heart would be a heart that's not easily beaten. Like a sound argument, for example. Okay, so it's a sound argument. It's just not easily torn apart. It's a sound or solid emotional state. So not all over the place. Not happy one minute to press the next. Then furious the next minute. You know, it's having a sound, solid, you know, a steady emotional sort of... It's a seed for our emotions as a heart. So steady emotions. So it's no good for you. It's no good for you if you like that. There are physical consequences to all of that stress. Okay, there are. Stress kills you. I know I've talked about this recently. It kills you early. It will destroy your life. And one of the worst emotional states you can be in is envy. Okay, envy is rottenness to your bones, it says here. It's such a bad place to be. Proverbs 27, 4 says, wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy? Because it's so powerful. It's such a problem. It's such a powerful emotion, very hard to deal with an envious person. So if you've had people in your life who are envious for one reason or another, and that's not to say that you're great because people are envious, because it's just a weird emotion. People envy things they just don't understand, they don't know anything about. They just, you can become an object of envy. It's really hard to deal with, because it's so powerful and it drives them to do all sorts of weird, bizarre stuff. It's like, what on earth, you know? How on earth are you doing this now? How on earth are you behaving like that now? When you see that green-eyed envy, point being, it's time to take note as well, okay? In terms of if we look at Proverbs 27, 4, where it's saying who's able to stand before. You need to take note. You need to think, okay, this could be a dangerous person in my life, because they're just so full of envy. They just want everything that's mine. They just want my life. They want my stuff. They want my things. They want me. It's like, what's wrong with you? You know, you've got no idea either. And honestly, it can get bad. It can get really bad when people are like that. Romans 1 talks about the reprobates being full of envy. Now, although the reprobates are full of envy, there are normal people that can get a bit envious sometimes as well, okay? So it's not that that means it's only, like with all those things in Romans 1, everyone is capable of those sins, barring obviously, you know, the kind of sick perversion stuff, but all of that stuff that gives a list of being filled with. The difference is these people are just filled with it, okay? But we don't want to be envious, right? And it's, like I said, it's something that believers deal with. So you have to assess your emotions and make sure that you're not envious. So, and you have to do that with an honest heart, don't you? Because it's easy just to hate on people, because really you're envious of them. It's easy to get annoyed with someone, to pick on something else in their life, because really you're just envious. And you need to be honest with yourself and assess yourself and say, is it envy? Is that my problem here? Am I actually being envious? And do you know what? Not even, just not, don't even think about it for their sake for now, just based on this, for your own health. For your own health, don't be, because it will just eat you up. You're not going to solve it. Whatever you get, I've had people like this in my life, and they'll take from you and take from you and want this and want everything you have and try and get everything and grab and borrow and have this. And they're never happy. They're never content. It's never enough. Whatever they get, whatever they take, they'll never be enough, because it just drives them mad. You need to get your emotions in check if you like that, and especially obviously the envy. It says, A sound heart is the life of the flesh, but envy the rottenness of the bones. Verse 31, He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker, but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor. Now, a similar proverb is found in chapter 17, where it says in verse 5 of chapter 17, Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker, and again it's Maker with a capital M there, and he that is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished. So victimising the poor in various ways is having contempt for God, because he made all of us, didn't he? God made every single one of us. He made the rich and the poor, and you know these people that always have these like groups of people they want to victimise. It doesn't have to be the poor. You get like the racist types, or you get the nationalistic types. You get the people that just always have this group that they just hate on. Ultimately, they just have contempt for God, because God made all of us. God made us the way we are, didn't he? He made the rich and the poor, and oppressing which is loading unreasonable burdens, exerting unfair power over them, is basically disregarding God, isn't it? Disregarding the Maker, the Creator of us all, and using them for a purpose that he didn't make them. He didn't make the poor for you to use, yeah, for example. And there are a lot of bad people out there that just oppress the poor. Think about, and just one that's swung to mind, think about the gambling industry. I mean, it's just purely really to target the poor. That's what it's all about. If you go to a poor neighbourhood in a poor area, full of gambling shops, full of adverts, full of different lottery adverts, it's all just to oppress the poor, because what's the reality? If you gamble a hundred times, you're going to lose much more than 50% of the time. It's just a way of losing money. And who do they target? People who are more desperate for money. It's just oppression. That's what it is. The gambling industry is wicked as anything, right? And that's just one of many that oppresses the poor. And there are many, many ways. But those that honour God, that give him the fear, the respect that he is due, will therefore have mercy on the poor. So if you honour the Lord, you will have mercy on the poor. And the ultimate way we can do that is what? By bringing the Gospel to them. If you're honouring God, you're going to bring the Gospel to the poor. And like I said before, because there are a lot of people that won't even go into poor neighbourhoods to preach the Gospel, because it's all about what they can receive back. And they're thinking about all church members in the future and everything else. Now, we don't want to just cast off everyone else that's not poor. So that's why I like the fact that we just preach for everyone surrounding this church. But when we choose to go out, we go out places from receptive places, we go to the poor because they're more receptive as well. And if we didn't, if we were like, oh no, forget them because they're poor, we don't want to deal with them. Well, for me, we're not honouring our Maker, we're reproaching our Maker then. Okay. He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker, but he that honoureth him have mercy on the poor. What's the lesson? Don't oppress people who are weaker than you. Show honour to God by having mercy on them. Verse 32. The wicked is driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous have hope in his death. So there's two types of people. The wicked who get driven away, which I believe is likely to talk about the lake of fire, being driven away to eternal damnation. The righteous are saved, who has a hope and expectation. And Titus 1-2 talks about being in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. So the wicked is driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous have hope in his death. It's a hope, but it's based upon a sure thing. So just don't see the word of hope and just, well, I hope I get saved. No, the hope is based upon something that we can rest ourselves on. That's a rock, that's a word, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. The promise of God. He promised us before the world began. And that is an amazing thing to be able to navigate life with, isn't it? Don't you think? What an amazing thing to be able to go through life with that assurity that you're going to end up in heaven. That you have eternal life. The hope of eternal life. Knowing that heaven awaits does make life a whole lot easier, doesn't it? It really does. Because if you didn't and you just thought, well, this is kind of it, and maybe even if you just thought, it's probably hell that awaits, I mean, what a grim existence it really would be. But knowing that we have heaven awaiting is just amazing, isn't it? That's something you need to remind yourself of a lot. Verse 32 said the wicked is driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous have hope in his death. The response is to remind yourself of your salvation. Remember the joy of your salvation. Yeah, remind yourself of the joy of salvation. Verse 33, we're nearly done. Wisdom resteth in the heart of him that hath understanding, but that which is in the midst of fools is made known. So remember that Proverbs 9 10 said, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. So wisdom rests in the heart of someone that has a knowledge of the holy. Okay, that's where wisdom is, is in people that have a knowledge of the holy. And I believe the point here is that it's not always apparent to outsiders. It rests in the heart. It's always obvious to people that someone's wise. And let's be honest, most outsiders, I mean, they're, you know, they would consider us fools, wouldn't they? Okay, they don't understand the wisdom that comes from the knowledge of the holy. They often believe that we're foolish. However, the fools love to declare their so-called wisdom though, don't they? Their latest understanding. And they do, don't they? I mean, it's amazing. I remember, I think it was Adam preached a sermon a while back on I believe the experts. I remember the sermon. And just talking about the amount of times that their new theories have just debunked. They just keep debunking and debunking and debunking. It's like there's a theory and then 10 years down the line it's debunked. But they're so proud of the theory at the time, aren't they? Like, look, we've got the latest, greatest, you know, this is how everything started. This is how the world began. This is how this happened. This is how that happened. And it just gets debunked and debunked and debunked. But that which is in the midst of fools is made known. They still make it known every time. I mean, you'd think that, you know, eventually it'd be like, you know, I better keep my mouth shut this time, because every other scientific theory seems to have got debunked. Oh no, we've just come out with a new one. And everyone's like, wow, this is amazing. And what happened in 10 or 20 years? They get debunked and debunked and disproven and disproven. This just seems to be how it goes, doesn't it? But they love to declare their wisdom, their latest understanding. And because the fool loves to declare his folly. Proverbs 13 16 says, every prudent man dealeth with knowledge, but a fool lieth open his folly. They love it. They love to just show everyone, tell everyone. And it's not just in the realm, obviously, of kind of atheistic nonsense and weird, you know, half fish, half men stuff and things exploding into nothing and all that sort of, you know, silly stuff. It's not just in that. You know, you just see this amongst all sorts of people. They just love telling you their knowledge when a lot of the time you listen, you think that's actually folly. You know, people just love making it known. Whereas we're not, we're, well, we should though also be prudent sometimes about who we share our wisdom with. So it said wisdom resteth in the heart of him that have understanding because we don't have to just be constantly showing everyone and trying to prove to everyone the wisdom we have received from God's word. And don't get me wrong, we want to show people salvation. But sometimes we've got to be careful with some of the other stuff, don't we? And sometimes we want to. We want to tell them all about this and tell them all about that. But you don't have to turn to Matthew 7 says, give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you. Sometimes you do just have to keep it in your heart, don't you? Sometimes there are people that you know as a dog and that's talking about sodomite. And you know that they're a swine talking about sodomite. And really sometimes when it's people like that, there's a lot of wisdom you don't need to impart to those that are a waste of your time. Complete waste of your time, there's no point. Go and find someone that actually can get saved. Wisdom resteth in the heart of him that hath understanding. We don't have to just bear it to all everything because most of them will just trample it under feet, or at least a lot will trample it under feet and turn again and rend you. So wisdom rests in the heart of him that has understanding. But that which is in the midst of fools is made known. And remember that the next time the latest fool is declaring their so-called wisdom. A lot of fools like to declare their wisdom and we sometimes get conned by that. I've talked about this before. Just a lot of people, when they're just so confident with their foolishness, you kind of just get sucked in, don't you? You get those experts in all areas who just tell you things like it's fact. And they're like, no, you can't do this because of this. This is a fact of this. And you just kind of think, oh right, they seem really sure. And you get blagged by that a bit, can't you? And the trick is just to remember that that which is in the midst of fools is made known. They just love to speak everything. It doesn't mean that it's true, it's often folly. True wisdom isn't bandied around like folly is, I think is a lesson for that. All right, last couple of problems. Verse 34. Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is an approach to any people. And there are two ways that this works, okay? Firstly, having saved people in the nation exalts a nation. It lifts it up in God's eyes. So when God looks down and sees saved people in the nation, it can even prevent that nation receiving the punishment it deserves. And the great example of that in the Bible to see that is Sodom and Gomorrah. Absolutely wicked place, vile place, full of just vile reprobates, sodomites, young and old, rich and poor throughout the city. But in Genesis 18, 32, you know, if you remember that famous conversation where Abraham is just saying to God, he's like, look, please don't basically whoop it. And he said, oh, let not the Lord be angry and I will speak yet but this once peradventure. He's going, maybe, just say, ten shall be found. They're talking about righteous people. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake. So he was willing to not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities for ten righteous people, just ten righteous. And that for me was talking about saved people. And think the blessing that a place also then receives for more and more righteous people. So if God's willing to withhold that chastisement on a city just full of sodomites, if there were ten saved people there, think had there been a hundred, had there been a thousand saved people in that city, the blessings that place would have got as well. However, there's another kind of truth to this, I believe. If we got a load of people here saved, we're getting a lot of people saved in this area and surrounding towns, surrounding cities even. And we get a lot of people saved in at least this part of the country or even across the UK. But we were all living in wicked sin. So God's people weren't doing anything for God. We got them all saved and we're all just living in wickedness. We got it. And with that, the sovereignty is going to stop as well, isn't it? But regardless, you know, because sin will do that, won't it? Pull you out of the things of God. But so we were. Is God just going to give us a buy? Is he going to go, oh no, you know it's all right, because it's saved? Enough righteous people down in South End, so we'll leave South End, we'll just like, you know, the Muslim hordes can just kind of infest the rest of the nation. We'll give South End a buy because there are some saved people there, but they're not actually doing, in fact, they're doing the opposite. They're a shame unto the name of Christ. I don't think so. Sin is a reproach to any people, that's what it says. Sin is a reproach to any people, that includes God's people. And we see that example regularly in the Old Testament with God punishing his own people too. Okay, so yeah, sometimes it just sounds like God comes upon a nation of unbelievers, but he also comes with God's people. And when God's people are in sin, and they're in idolatry, and all these different types of sins, God will whoop his own people. And we need to remember that. So just getting people saved isn't enough, it works twofold. Christ's righteousness imputed unto us exalts the nation, but so does then living righteously after that. And I think that we need to, you know, we need to remember that as well. It's not just, look, we want to do our utmost, we can't force people to encourage them to get right, start living for God. We want to still preach the whole council. We're not just here to just kind of preach the gospel, encourage people to go out and preach the gospel, and just kind of do a little soft sermon. No, we're trying to get sin out of our lives, we're trying to get people right with God, we want to get people in and get them right with God, because sin is a reproach to any people, and we don't want the chastisement of God for it. Righteous exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. What's the answer? We'll get people saved, but also make sure we teach people how to live right too, yeah? In verse 35, last one is, The king's favour is toward a wise servant, but his wrath is against him that causeth shame. So, kind of a similar subject. When we're wise as God's servants, we're applying these words to our lives, we receive favour, yeah? But if we're servants that cause shame, basically it's chastisement time. The king's favour is toward a wise servant, but his wrath is against him that causes shame. Because think about what a bad testimony a believer can be. You can be a really bad testimony, can't you? You can be telling everyone, your family and friends you're saved, whether you've got them saved or not, whether you try to preach the gospel or not, yeah, I'll go to this church to do all this, and then you can just sink into some debauchery, some wicked sin, just, you know, you could just be a scumbag in various areas, and you're just a bad testimony. You could do a lot of damage like that as well, because they're looking for anything, really, to try and reject with, right? The king's favour is toward a wise servant, but his wrath is against him that causes shame. It's bad enough the fakes go. We already have to deal with the fakes. 2 Peter 2 says of these infiltrating false prophets, And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. Pernicious is destructive, okay? They're destructive, they're ways. The holier than thou stuff, the hypocrisy, the bizarre uneven standards, all that just wicked stuff that the wicked will do and pretend they're one of us, by way of whom the evil of truth should be evil spoken of. And look, we already have to deal with them, yeah? We already have to deal with them, let alone that God's servants cause shame to the name of Christ as well. That God's servants do that. He hates that, right? His wrath is against him that causes shame. And there are many ways that we could do that, and the big one is backsliding. So just a reminder as well, when you backslide, it's not just you. It's not just you, it's not just your family. It's not just those around you. Ultimately, when you're backsliding, you're going to get a whooping because you're causing shame on the name of Christ. And you can really do a lot of damage to the cause of Christ by that, and we need to be even more careful to make sure that it will never be said about any of us, yeah? We're going to be in the things of God, we're going to serve God for life, yeah? Verse 35, the king's favour is toward a wise servant. We want his favour as well, we can get his favour in life, yeah? I want God's favour in life, I hope everyone else does too, but his wrath is against him that causes shame. The answer is seek his favour, not his wrath. Seek his favour, not his wrath. That was Proverbs chapter 40, verse 18 to 35. And on that, we're going to finish the word of prayer. Well, thank you for your word. Thank you for all those many just little pearls of wisdom in your word there, Lord, that hopefully we can grow from, we can learn from, we can apply to our lives. Help everyone here to apply what you want them to apply, Lord, from that. That's going to really help them going forward this week and into, you know, not just this week but in their lives, Lord, and help everyone to just, not just forget those proverbs, but to think about them. Lord, and help us to all just think about you and your word this week, and not just be Sunday, you know, Sunday morning, Sunday evening Christians, but Lord, help us to apply the word of God to our whole lives, to keep you in the centre of it for this week ahead. Help us to return on Wednesday as well, Lord, for the midweek Bible study, and in Jesus' name, pray with us, amen.