(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Good evening everyone and welcome to Strong Tower Baptist Church and our Sunday evening service and as usually if you don't have a bulletin please raise your hand. And we have the photo on the front there is of that pretty impressive storm on Wednesday night here which is kind of I think it started kicking in just as I started talking about the wrath of God I think on Wednesday evening in Isaiah. But anyway we have a verse a week there which is Numbers 32 6, Numbers 32 6 our verse a week which is Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben shall your brethren go to war and shall ye sit here. And that went with the morning message that was the title shall your brethren go to war and shall ye sit here and if you haven't managed to catch that it's on our channel it will be be there now it's on our Facebook page as well. And that was that was a morning message that was a that was with our 10 30 m service we're in our Sunday evening service and we're we're going to be continuing with the book of Proverbs chapter 23 and part one. So we're going to be doing the first half of that verses 1 to 18. That's going to be shortly and then on Wednesday evening we're going to be continuing with the book of Isaiah chapter 20 already which seems to have gone quite quick for me maybe not for you guys I don't know. But we're already up to chapter 20 we're coming up to a third of the way through it already which yeah it does seem to be quick but that's a prayer night so please please send in your prayer requests for that service as well we'd love to pray for them. The so many times are down there and you're in our you've just had sorry are 130 pm Sunday afternoon so we did end up with one salvation so far. Although we've got a few a few stragglers still left behind behind enemy lines right now I hope they're going to come back with a few scalps. So yeah we might be adding to that shortly but right now we're on one for Sunday. We've that that would add to our 37 already for the month 38799 we're nearly up to the 800 mark, which is great and, and that's just out of out of the kind of you, UK type church without, without our groups abroad. We're on 26 baptism 3399 therefore south total salvation is but there are 302 right now over in Pretoria South Africa this year. They had a load in a week. And then there's also 132 over in Switzerland as well with a French speaking group there. And we're up to 168 total baptisms and our attendance totals are down there. There as of last week. We also have on our announcements and upcoming events are so winning event for next week that's over in area in southeast London was really receptive last time there it's an afternoon event. And I think we did that last night was afternoon there as well with a meal afterwards, and it's sort of meeting by 1230, and you're welcome to get there early just be great to everyone there by 1230 and then we're going to be so winning from one. And, yeah, like I said it was receptive with a lot of salvation last time hopefully we'll have the same again this time. A lot of people have confirmed if you haven't if you could just let me know. As soon as possible I'm going to give final numbers for the food tomorrow. And then we also then after that we have a men's preaching night, although I'm going, I've had to close the, the applications for that, as we already have already fill up with that. But if anyone drops out. I'll let you know and if you did want to preach at that and you, you know you've missed the boat with that just give me a message and so I'd like to preach the next men's preaching night and I'll put you first on the list for that. And then we have as well we're, we're doing a food train for the Saturn Boers. So please. Yeah, just let my wife know if you plan to get involved with that if you're able to provide a meal to help them when I've just had the new baby which is coming pretty soon. Do early November so yeah the sooner the better for that if you'd like to get involved with that. Please speak to my wife, we'd love to get some meals together for them. On Saturday, November the 30th is our next soul winning marathon for the UK cities ones that we're going to be in Colchester. So I'm hoping that's going to going to be receptive in parts hopefully as well and be good to get the gospel out and culture stuff that's going to be on Saturday, November the 30th it will be a full marathon. We've had a Bible memory challenge which has been a bit of a harder one. First Timothy chapter one verses 15 to 20. If you have done it, then please tell me off the service and I'll sort out prizes off the service. If you are able if you've been able to recite it word perfect to a non family member then let me know. Please turn your mobile phones off flexible solid for the service. If you haven't, and in birthdays we had. We had Nikki on Tuesday we had Nick on Friday. So happy birthday Nick again for Friday we got Esther coming up on Tuesday, so Esther was wasn't here today hopefully we'll get to sing to her on Wednesday. Nick, if you can make it in, then we'd love to sing to you as well. I know they come from a file so it'd be unlikely on a Wednesday but please let my wife know your birthday's anniversaries if you haven't. Let me know if you want details for the online donations and we're family integrated and everyone is pretty aware of the family integrated rule so I'm going to pass back over to the junior. Thank you. Next is hip number 351. 351 Jesus keep me near the cross. Jesus keep me near the cross. There a precious fountain Free to all our healing stream Flows from Calvary's mountain In the cross, in the cross Be my glory ever Till my ransomed soul shall find Rest beyond the river In the cross, the trembling soul Love and mercy fan me Let the bright and morning star Share his needs around me In the cross, in the cross Be my glory ever Till my ransomed soul shall find Rest beyond the river Near the cross, O Lamb of God Bring its seeds before me Help me more from day to day With its shadow forming In the cross, in the cross Be my glory ever Till my ransomed soul shall find Rest beyond the river Near the cross, I'll watch and wait Hoping, trusting ever Till I reach the coldest night Just beyond the river In the cross, in the cross Be my glory ever Till my ransomed soul shall find Rest beyond the river In the cross, in the cross Be my glory ever Till my ransomed soul shall find Rest beyond the river Near the cross, in the cross Be my glory ever Till my ransomed soul shall find Rest beyond the river Near the cross, in the cross Be my glory ever Till my ransomed soul shall find Rest beyond the river Near the cross, in the cross Be my glory ever Till my ransomed soul shall find Rest beyond the river In the cross, in the cross Be my glory ever Till my ransomed soul shall find Rest beyond the river Before we do our offering, he's just made it in time. We've got a birthday and he's come in just in time for his birthday sing-song, so Nick, happy birthday. We were like, well, if you're watching, Nick, we'll sing when you're next in while you're in. So before everyone comes away for the Bible reading, you're getting a happy birthday, Nick, so when you're ready, guys. Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday, God bless you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday, Nick, and they just made it in time for it. Alright, please turn your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 23. Start in verse 1, Proverbs chapter 23. When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee, And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties, for they are deceitful meat. Labour not to be rich, seize from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not, For riches certainly make themselves wings, They fly away as an eagle toward heaven. Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, Neither desire thou his dainty meats. For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Eat and drink, saith he to thee, but his heart is not with thee. The more so which thou hast eaten, Shout thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words. Speak not in the ears of a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of thy words. Move not the old landmark, And enter not into the fields of the fatherless. For their redeemer is mighty, He shall plead their cause with thee. Apply thine heart unto instruction, And thine ears to the words of knowledge. Withhold not correction from the child, For if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, And shalt deliver his soul from hell. My son, if thine heart be wise, My heart shall rejoice even mine, Yea, my reign shall rejoice when thy lips speak right things. Let not thine heart envy sinners, But be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long, For surely there is an end, And thine expectation shall not be cut off. Hear thou, my son, and be wise, And guide thine heart in the way. Be not among winebibbers, Among riotous eaters of flesh, For the drunkard and the glutton Shall come to poverty, And drowsiness shall clothe the man with rags. Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, And despise not thy mother when she is old. Buy the truth and sell it not, Also wisdom and instruction and understanding. The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice, And he that begetteth a wise child Shall have joy of him. Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, And she that bare thee shall rejoice. My son, give me thine heart, And let thine eyes observe my ways, For a whore is a deep ditch, And a strange woman is a narrow pit. She also lieth in weight, As for a prey, And increaseth the transgressors among men. Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry along at the wine, They that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, When it giveth his colour in the cup, When it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, And stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, And thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down In the midst of the sea, Or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, Shout thou say, And I was not sick. They have beaten me, And I felt it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for your word, God. Lord, I pray that you please feel past your tabernacle with your spirit, and help us pay close attention, God, and please bless the rest of the day. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Amen. You're in Proverbs chapter 23. We're going to be doing it in two parts, as we have done since around chapter 11, I think, of the Book of Proverbs. We're going to be doing verses 1 to 18 today. Proverbs 23, and starting from verse 1, we see this. When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee, and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties, for they are deceitful meat. I'd like to pray, and then we're going to get started. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for this chapter in the Book of Proverbs, these first sort of 18 verses here, Lord, and the truths we can get out of them, the much wisdom we can hopefully get as a church together here. From your word, Lord, help me to just preach them in a way that people will remember them, we'll be able to apply them to their lives, we'll be able to improve their lives with these proverbs, Lord. Help everyone to just have a tent of ears for me to just preach in a way that you'd want me to, Lord. Full of your spirit, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Okay, so he said, When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee, and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties, for they are deceitful meat. Now, dainties are delicacies, and I don't know, when I was young, people used to talk of things like caviar, and I think there are still some pretty expensive types of caviar. I had a little look on this briefly, and I don't know, there's ones up to all sorts with gold pots, and there's some pretty expensive food out there, right? Some other things we might think of as dainties, maybe things like lobster. I remember there used to be a thing with this stuff called foie gras, which is basically goose liver, and it was pretty, not the nicest way they used to produce this, and they used to put tubes into the geese directly into their livers, I think, while they were farming them, and it didn't sound too nice, but ultimately it created this delicacy, it created a dainty. So people like this sort of stuff, okay? I think nowadays a dainty, a delicacy, is probably just free-range meat, isn't it? Because, I don't know, that seems to be pretty expensive, pretty hard to come by nowadays. These sorts of, and he's talking about these sorts of things, dainties being sort of delicacies, things that aren't so common. The proverb is basically about being invited around to eat, and I think it's just with a wealthy person. So he said, we're now cities to eat with a ruler, so it's not necessarily talking about some sort of king, it's just someone who's a ruler there, they're the boss in one way or another, they have some wealth, they have some influence, they have some power. He said, consider diligently what is before thee, and put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite. So basically, instead of coveting this type of food and lifestyle, you'd be better off preventing yourself with a knife to your throat, rather than coveting this sort of lifestyle, these sort of dainties, this sort of food. He's basically saying, don't get sucked into seeking the high life, the posh foods, they're deceitful meat, they're a con, basically. Instead, consider it diligently. So look at the delicacy, I think, from the depths of the ocean, for example, and remind yourself that it's gone once you swallow it. It's gone. The second you've chewed it and swallowed it, that's the end of that delicacy. The finest ingredients from the farthest corners of the world give you literally less than minutes of pleasure. Minutes, if that at all, of some sort of measure of pleasure, yet people will literally chuck money at this stuff. They'll throw money at this stuff. And especially for those that can't really afford this stuff, it does just leave a bitter feeling, doesn't it? I don't know if you've ever got really expensive food, if you've ever gone for a really expensive meal out or something, I don't know about you, and I don't know what the kind of line is, but for me, you just feel bad. You feel guilty, you feel like you've just wasted a lot of money, usually, as well. You rarely come away going, that was so worth it. I'm just so pleased I spent all this money on that food, you usually just think, why did I just do that? I mean, sometimes you get like that with just a takeaway. You just think, it's just some cheap takeaway you should have just cooked at home. You know, let alone when it's sort of delicacies, expensive foods, things like that. It leaves a bitter feeling. Basically, people can spend a lot of money on food, and often it isn't worth it, okay? Proverbs 17.1 said this, Proverbs 17 and verse 1, we read, better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith than a house full of sacrifices with strife. And sacrifices were the good me, okay? Full of all this good me, you'd be better off with a small amount of something not very appetizing and no stress, and a house full of the best food but stress with it. And chasing the high life, chasing those fine foods, and everything that goes with that often just creates stress, doesn't it? Because you're chasing money, you need more money, you need more wealth, you need to work longer hours, you need more cash to get that sort of stuff, and it creates stress a lot of the time. A lot of the time it's a household where a father's absent a lot, at least. Often it's a father and a mother absent because they're chasing this lifestyle. It's deceitful meat. You're no happier. Because you think, oh, I'm going to be so pleased when I get that really good quality, that really expensive food. Are people really that much happier with it? And of course you could go too far the other way, okay? I don't want anyone to hear this go right down to whatever the equivalent is, Iceland, and get the cheapest kind of stuff I could possibly find, or I don't know, whatever there is out there. Look, you can go too far because ultimately what should we be eating? Food. So don't kind of go for the fake food. Don't go for the stuff which isn't even food. But if you're eating actual food you can go too far then the opposite way and just be throwing money at your food bill and worse and going out and eating out. And there are people that spend ridiculous money on food, okay? For example, I had a little, just a little look on this briefly while I was writing these notes. There's a restaurant apparently called Sushi Kanasaka and it's an omakezi restaurant in Mayfield's 45 Park Lane Hotel and it serves a particular type of sushi called idome style sushi. The no choice menu costs £420 a person. £420 for a menu to eat some food in London, I mean, it's just ridiculous. I don't care how rich you are, what an absolute waste of money. Think what you could do with that money. Think what someone else could benefit with that money. And there's another one I looked at called Nuser et, I don't even know how you say that, N-U-S-R-N-E-T in London. It's a wagyu strip loin and apparently it costs £680. For a meal there. £680 for a meal. Apparently the burgers start at £45. So they're like for the more expensive meal there, but even a burger's at £40. That's going to be a good burger for £45. And it's not just me, okay? At Estiatorio Milo's in Regent Street, a small Greek salad is £31.50. £31.50 for a salad? And of course the way for restaurants, okay? Your food shop bill can multiply if you're buying the most expensive cuts, the truffles from wherever, the best truffles, the finest ingredients. And is it worth it? It really isn't. It definitely isn't. The first one said, When thou sitest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee, and put a knife to thy throat, for thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties, for they are desirous of his dainties, I think the lesson from that, ultimately it goes all in one, is that if you get a taste for the good stuff, be sensible, don't get into it all, or you'll just end up wasting money and labour on it. If you get a chance, if you eat with someone with that stuff, consider it diligently and think, is it really worth getting into this sort of thing? Because people will bankrupt themselves with food. First four. Labour not to be rich. Cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not, for riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away as an eagle toward heaven. So if your end goal is riches, you've got it all wrong. That wisdom isn't from God, it's your own wisdom. That's the world's wisdom, isn't it? Just your goal in life to be rich is to be wealth, that you'll somehow be happier, you'll be healthier, you'll be able to serve God more, might be a way that a Christian might justify it. Well, if I really go for the riches, I'll be able to serve God more. Well, if I really go for the riches, I'll be able to serve God more now that I've got the best job, or now that my kids are going to get the best job possible, or at least the most well-paid job. And of course these things aren't black and white. So of course a good job should theoretically make the Christian life easier, shouldn't it? So if you are able to not have to work 60, 70 hours to provide for your family, you should be able to give some more time to the Lord. You should be able to make the church services. You should be able to make the soul winning, to read your Bible, to do all the things that God wants you doing. But a lot of the time I think people use that as an excuse, Christians will use that, because there are many working class hard grafting people in fundamentalist churches throughout the world that are serving God in spirit and truth, aren't they? There are people that have just got basic standard jobs and they're serving God a lot more than the wealthy Christian who a lot of the time gets distracted by that. Because as soon as you labour to be rich, whether or not there's a side goal of serving God too, and some people will use that, as soon as you chase the riches, you've fallen into the trap. It's a trap in life. 1 Timothy 6, 9 says, But they that will be rich, that's people that will be, not that they that are rich, yeah there might be some wealthy people, but they that will be rich, their goal is riches, they fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. So you'll end up with a load of grief with it basically. And it won't just affect you, it's going to affect you, it's going to affect your family, it's going to affect those around you too. Proverbs 15, 27 we looked at several weeks back said, He that is greedy hath gained trouble with his own house, but he that hateth gifts shall live. So basically, I think with that, you just end up like a hamster on a wheel. You know the old hamster on a wheel where they're just spinning and spinning that wheel, but they never really get anywhere. Or like the donkey with the carrot in front of them, because when you chase riches it is never enough. Because you'll never have all the riches in the world, so you'll always just chase riches, that will always be a focus, that mammon, that god of money will just become who you serve rather than god. And there's a tipping pot, it just comes eventually, you can't serve both. It will eventually be the money. And the more you have, there's a thing with it as well, the more it disappears and the more you chase it. The more money you have, the more it disappears. Because people with lots of money generally don't spend next to nothing, they just spend more. And things just lose their value the more money you have, and then the more it disappears, and then the more you chase it. You said, wilt thou set thine eyes upon that, which is not, for riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away as an eagle toward heaven. So they fly away into the sky. Money just has a habit of disappearing, doesn't it? Especially if you've ever come into a bit of money quickly, or you've ever earned a lot from something, it just goes quicker. Money has a habit of disappearing. The more you have, the more it disappears, basically. They make themselves wings, they fly as an eagle toward heaven. So why set your eyes upon something that disappears? If you think about it like that, just logically, why would I set my eyes? Why would I set my heart? Why would I chase something that's just going to disappear? And that's what happens with money, it just disappears. And if you think, well no, no, no, because I'm a real saver, I'm going to really stock it up in my bank account. Well, guess what? When you die, money's going somewhere and it's going to generally disappear. And labor not to be rich. Cease from thine own wisdom. So he's saying labor to please God, basically. Okay, labor to provide for yourself, for your family, but don't focus on being rich. So yeah, look, nothing wrong with, we want our kids to have good jobs, don't we? We want ourselves, hopefully, to have good jobs, jobs that we can provide for ourselves, provide for our families, but if our focus is on the riches, that's the wisdom of this world, isn't it? That's everywhere. I mean, that's unashamedly now. I remember several decades ago, just talking about what you earned was kind of taboo, really. Talking about, well, riches, the people that are rich was, basically it was vulgar. It was something that people didn't do. People kind of were interested, of course, but they were polite about it. They wouldn't really want to, now it's just fair game. Now people are like, well, he's got a, you know, my son earns this amount, but this person earns that. People would almost boast about this sort of stuff now, and things have changed a lot with that, and it's always, though, been a part of the world, and now it's even more so. Now it's just in your face everywhere, people just chasing money any which way to get rich, dishonestly making riches, whatever, it seems to be fair game. And why is that a problem? Well, like we saw in verse five. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not for riches? Certainly make themselves wings. They fly away as an eagle toward heaven. So the lesson is not to focus on riches because you will only end up being disappointed. You'll only end up, I've said this many times from behind this bubble, I've known rich people, I've known poor people, I've known wealthy people, I've known, you know, I've worked for and known through other people, mega wealthy people, and they're never satisfied. It's never enough. They're never, right, I've just made it now, I'm happy. That's done. They're always chasing it. Verse six. Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye? Neither desire thou his dainty meats. For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Eat and drink, saith he to thee, but his heart is not with thee. The morsel which thou hast eaten, shout thou vomit up and lose thy sweet words. So this is a warning about those that try to buy your friendship, basically. Flatterers that seem generous, but they want something in return. So they'll flatter, they'll try and buy you, but they want something in return. He said, eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye. Neither desire thou his dainty meats. So someone with an evil eye is someone that is covetous. They're focusing on gain. You don't have to turn it, but Proverbs 28, 22 says, He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considerth not that poverty shall come upon him. So they're not feeding you because they're generous, these types of people. People that are hasting to be rich, people that are covetous, people whose goal is money in life, they want something in return. They have an ulterior motive. Okay, I'm not talking about people that are just wealthy, or people that, you know, have just the kind of normal, just sort of, yeah, you know, I'd like to earn some money, love, we're talking about people that are covetous, people who have that evil eye, they're just focusing on gain. They're not feeding you, they're not paying out of their pocket for you when their goal is just money, money, money for no reason, are they? He said, For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Eat and drink, saith he, to thee, but his heart is not with thee. So he's pretending that he just wants to give you a meal, have you round for some fellowship time, say. Spend some time with you. Take you to his favourite dainty meat restaurant. It might not quite be that level that we talked about earlier, but, you know, take you somewhere nice, have you round for their favourite dainty dish. You know, this is our best dish that we cook on, my wife can do this one, this sort of thing. But the words that come out of their mouth don't match their heart. They say, Eat and drink, but they don't really like you. They're saying, Oh, we just want you to have a nice time. Oh, you know, the old mee casa, su casa, you know, just treat my house like yours. Eat, drink, enjoy, but it's not really genuine. The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up and lose thy sweet word. So I think he's saying that whatever you've been given will be sought back in one way or another. You know, and if you think about it with people that do that, for example, after all I've done. You ever had that from people? You know, after all I've done for you, after I did this for you. I remember once many years ago I did a landscaping job for a lady and she, I think, throughout the whole, we were on site there for about a week and I think she made maybe one coffee, maybe two at a push throughout the whole time. Fair enough, yeah. Then she actually came to pay me. She owed me quite a bit of money for this job and then she started trying to haggle me and I said, Look, this is a price job. This is what it is. You know, this is how much you owe. And she said, After all the teas and coffees I made. I said, Well, I didn't realise that part and parcel of you making tea and coffee for us while we were working in your back garden was actually that we had to now give you a reduction on the bill. And then I actually, but, you know, as it was, I went, You only made two and then she got really offended. But anyway, the point being that those teas and coffees, they had an ulterior motive. She was one of those, After all I've done. And people do that a lot more, don't they? After I took you out, after I did this, after I paid for that. I can't believe they treat me like this. I can't believe that now that I've done this you're not giving me this in return. There are people that keep the list, don't they? They keep that list of what they've given you, what they've done for you, what they feel that they've spent on you. And in their mind they keep the list. Well, in that time that you did spend with them, the words shared, I think he's talking about, were wasted. It was a waste of time. That fellowship time was a waste of time. You're just going to lose thy sweet words. Your own words, the words you've shared. You were being used for gain, it wasn't genuine. Now, you might say, well how do we know who has an evil eye? Well, it's covered as people. People with an inordinate desire for gain. And those people are out there. People who focus on money, people whose focus is on possessions, on stuff, on things. And here's the thing, the reality of that is that when you're around people like that, you do start to see it, don't you? You do just notice it. When you spend some time with someone and they just, everything's about the latuses and buying this and talking about money all the time and wealth and gain and all this sort of stuff, you just get a feel for it, don't you? Some people hide it for a bit but you start to get an idea that that's what they're about. And they just can't genuinely give you a meal or really anything else for that matter because they're counting the loss. So they're counting anything they do, the time, the effort, the money and everything else because it's all about earning and gaining and everything else. So therefore they're going to want something in return. So if someone's a covetous person and they're offering to do this for you, take you out, buy this for you, you better be sure there's probably an ulterior motive. That's the lesson that we're learning here. He said, eat thou not the bread of thin that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats, for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Eat and drink, saith he, to thee, but his heart is not with thee. The morsel which thou has eaten, shut thou, vomit up, and lose thy sweet word. So the lesson is to be wary of receiving from covetous people they want something in return. Look at verse nine. Speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. Now this could follow on from verses six to eight, okay, where it mentioned losing your sweet words, you'll lose thy sweet words and obviously the covetous often are the worst types of fool out there and it's not that there can be like covetous Christians, but there are people, you know, which are known as the, you know, what we know of as reprobates, as people, and one of the, you know, big characteristics of those is covetousness. Okay, so it could be that as well, but it is also I think a standalone proverb, which has been a bit of a theme in the Book of Proverbs, so we've looked at this quite a lot. There are people that it's a waste of time imparting wisdom to, aren't there? There are people that you could give them all the wisdom in the world and it's just a waste of time. The worst type of fool, the reprobate, Psalm 53, one says the fool, the fool have said in his heart, so this isn't just someone that uses atheism as an excuse, this is someone that's telling themselves this in their heart. The fool have said in his heart there is no God. Corrupt are they and have done abominable iniquity, there is none that doeth good. So when you get to the point where you're convincing, you've convinced yourself in your heart that there is no God, I mean that's reprobate mind stuff. Okay, that's like, you know, that's beyond bizarre. Yeah, people want to like jump, you know, the atheism is a handy excuse to just go like eat, drink, be merry and not have to worry or think about God, right? But there are people that tell themselves in their heart that that's what the Bible calls that type of fool and the type of fool it's talking about, corrupt, they've done abominable iniquity, there's none that doeth good, it's talking about a reprobate. And once you know that someone is a reprobate, okay, it is a waste of time. They will despise the wisdom of your words and how often do we get that when we're out soul winning? They just despise it. There are people that claim, and there are different types of reprobate, not just the kind of the hardcore, ardent atheist type, there's all types that we come across where you're showing them just the clear gift of God being eternal life and they despise it, they hate it, it disgusts them. There are people where you just see the eyes go and they're fuming, they despise you. In Matthew 7.6, the Lord Jesus Christ said, give not that which is holy unto the dogs, this is the Lord Jesus Christ, he's not talking about Phido, he said, 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. Talking about ripping you apart. So basically there are people that are just given over, we know there's symptoms, at least outward signs of reprobate mind, dogs here, he's talking about sodomites, swine here again, and often it seems to be maybe talking about the female type, he's just saying, there's no point, it's a waste of time, they hate it, they hate the word of God, they hate the things of God, you might as well just save your breath. And here we've just seen him say, speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. But you could also apply it to trying to convince the unsaved fool of spiritual truths, aside from salvation. So first off we could say, look, there are people that you just know, you're not going to door and say, this person, they're a Catholic priest, you're not going to get them saved. It's a complete waste of time. For example, we're in the high street the other day and there's two Mormon missionaries, they were some big girls weren't they as well, they were a bit scary, and they were walking around and they were just approaching people and they were pretty, they were aggressive with it as well, weren't they brother? They were really just kind of bulldozing into people and cornering them and trying to show them their Mormon nonsense. And I met one just at the beginning, I went to say hi to one to give them a fly, I saw the Latter Day Saints badge on and said, oh, you're a Mormon? I said, get out of here, you're a false prophet. And they said, you know what I said, I think I said it like this, I think I said, you're a wicked false prophet, you're damning people to hell, and they said, we're not prophets. So they didn't mind the wicked bit, they didn't mind the false bit, it was the fact that they're not prophets apparently. It's like, well, they are, they're going out and they're basically teaching a false plan of salvation. And the Bible says, let them be accursed, let them be accursed. And, you know, with that, those he says here, well, just speak not in the ears of... I didn't say to them, well, let me talk to you about salvation. They're out there preaching a false gospel, OK, because they will despise the wisdom of our words. But you could also, like I say, you could also apply it to trying to convince someone unsaved of spiritual truths. So, and I say spiritual truths, there's nothing wrong with, you know, saying, well, you know, and there are just like, there's just wisdom of life, there's teachings from the Bible, there's many teachings of the Bible that affected nations for hundreds of years, aren't there? I mean, think of some of the hygiene standards from the Bible that have just, you know, when people have gone out with the gospel to certain places and then just with the word of God, whether or not they're getting saved or not, just there's so many principles in the word of God that have improved places dramatically. Like, for example, just not, you know, human waste not being within the camp, being buried outside of the camp is something that, I mean, in Old Victorian or maybe a bit earlier than that, Britain, at least medieval, they were just dumping out the windows into the streets and hence horrendous illnesses and sicknesses and everything else, which many people have tried to take the claim for healing. But really, I think a lot of it is just hygiene practices a lot of the time, running water, running water to clean. Not just, I mean, it wasn't a long time ago that it seemed in hospitals, they would just have a communal basin of water where all the surgeons and everyone were just washing their hands. And then all these, you know, horrible sort of infections and things were going around and nasty illnesses and stuff. And whereas had they actually read the word of God, they would have seen to wash things and unclean things with running water. But things like that. Well, so the stuff like that, there's not a problem with. But when you're sort of quoting sort of spiritual truths from scripture, dissecting the word of God with someone that has no fear of God, okay, that doesn't have that fear, they don't have the beginning of wisdom. And you say, what do you mean? You say, look, there's people that have wisdom in different areas of life or, you know, they have knowledge in different areas of life, but someone that doesn't, if you're on the way to hell, then that's not a wise place to be. That's not someone that you consider wise. If you're about to spend your eternity in hell, where all you had to do was receive salvation, all you had to do was receive a gift, that's not a wise person. And speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy word. So I think you could say, look, going through those sorts of things, going through like the other things of God, for example, debating Zionism, the reprobate doctrine, all these things with someone that's unsaved is a waste of time, okay? You want to try and get them saved. They mock it, they scorn it, they ridicule it, they're not all reprobates, are they? You get people that you go out, you try and preach it, you know, you get many, not just teenagers, you get people that laugh at you, try and mock you for just having the word of God, for just having a Bible. And speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy word. I think the lesson is to be selective with who you impart, basically, scripture to, and especially, I would say, primarily talking about the worst type of fool, and like Jesus Christ said, dogs and swine. Okay, verse 10. Remove not the old landmark, and enter not into the fields of the fatherless, for their redeemer is mighty, he shall plead their cause with thee. So we saw last week how the landmark was used to separate land. So maybe it was a tree, a rock, a stream, a pile of stones. Well, if someone seemed defenseless or uninformed, okay, not really aware of where their land starts and stops, maybe, or perhaps too scared to say anything, people might take advantage of that by removing the landmark, yeah? So, you know, if you had, for example, like I talked about last week, you get people where, you know, they've paid someone to come and do their fence, and they know that their neighbours are pushovers, so they go, can you just squeeze it over that way, another six inches or another foot or something else? And you can imagine, back in Old Testament Israel, there would have been times where it's like, somebody just can't really defend themselves, they don't really have any clout, they don't have any ability to do anything, they might just remove that landmark and take some of their land, yeah? And we also saw last week how you could apply that to overstepping boundaries in various areas, okay? Take advantage of people, bullying others, just overstepping boundaries in life, and people just do that with people they can get away with it with, don't they? Like, you know, I often used to talk about the kind of the so-called, when you're young you get these people, people talk about, they're so tough, they're such a nutter, you know, they just have fights with anyone, yeah, but then suddenly the bigger guy comes along and suddenly they can control their temper better, suddenly they can control that need to fight everyone a bit better when the guy that they can't take advantage of is there. And these people are all over the place, aren't they? People that seem to be a loose cannon until they can't be a loose cannon. Well, there are people that will remove the landmark that will take advantage of people they can and they'll overstep boundaries in various ways, they'll bully people, and someone who is considered an easy target was the fatherless. Why? Well, less money for one, because it was, you know, in general the work was done by the male in the family, so there'd be less money to be able to protect themselves, to be able to fight their causes. No male protector as well, and they don't necessarily have that male protection. But what he's saying here is that there is a protector, there's a redeemer and he's mightier than all others and he shall plead their cause, or we would say he shall defend them. He shall defend people who you try to take advantage of. And that's what it is, it's another reminder, don't take advantage of people, don't bully people. Bullies everywhere, in various ways, not just the big tough bully type. Try and bully you with their money, try and bully you with their contacts, try and bully you with their intellect, try and bully you with their education, try and bully you with their numbers, try and bully you with their group of friends and not necessarily in a physical way just because there's enough of them to mock, scorn and everything else. It's just bullies everywhere, aren't there? People that like to take advantage of people, don't do that. And like I said, it can be various ways, and like I said, there's physically, there's mentally, people try and bully you mentally, try and just torment you, try and just wind you up, upset you, hurt people, people do this a lot, emotional bullies. Online bullying is quite a big thing now, isn't it? People that just stalk, harass, bully you online in various ways, they try it and these are people that try and just basically take advantage of people like here, those that would just enter into the fields of the fatherless and just forcing your will on people because you can. People do that as well, people who are just sort of domineering personalities will just force their will, force their opinion, force their ways on people because they can get away with it. Well, God will plead their cause with you. He said, remove not the old landmark and enter not in the fields of the fatherless for their redeemer is mighty. He shall plead their cause with thee. So the lesson is, don't take advantage of people or God will punish you, basically. Look at verse 12. Verse 12 is, apply thine heart unto instruction and thine ears to the words of knowledge. Now, another reminder of this, where it's such an important truth of the Christian life, okay, is that getting saved is easy, alright, that's easy, you just receive a gift, you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're saved. But after that, if you want to succeed in the things of God, it takes more than just turning up at church, doesn't it? Just turning up at church doesn't mean you're going to succeed in living the Christian life. It takes more than going to church and reading your Bible, okay, it takes more than, well, I go to church, I read my Bible, no, it takes more than going to church and reading your Bible and praying. They're all important, okay, it's not the Christian life without those things, but it's not just ticking boxes alone. And look, tick the boxes, yeah, but that's not all you're called to do. Well, I turn up at church, I read the Bible and I pray. It must be okay. No, it's about applying your heart and your ears to the instruction and knowledge. Actually, actual application for you. It's using your free will to choose God's ways. It's reading our Bibles and wanting to hear things that will improve us, that will change us. And there's a big difference there. You can read your Bible, you can be disciplined, there are people that just have discipline in life, and they can read through, read through, read through, skim read, take in the odd thing, remember a few facts and figures, and then there are people that are really thinking, God, I want you to help me, I want you to change me. I want to learn, I want to grow, I want to change, I want to be a better person, I want to be more like you want me to be. It's listening to preaching and wanting it to apply to our lives. It's not coming into the sun and going, I hope I swerve one today. Hopefully he's preaching on someone, something completely unconnected to me today, otherwise it's a bit embarrassing, a bit awkward, might actually have to, I'm going to have to keep that poker face. No, it's actually coming in and going, what have you got for me today, God? I want to change, I want to learn, I want to grow, I want the word to apply to me, I want it to affect, I want it to change me. Opening our ears, not shutting them when it feels personal to you. Because people do that, don't they? It starts to feel personal, it must be getting at me, it must just be trying to have a pop at me today. It's like, no, open the ears. If you start feeling like that, think, okay, this is for me, this is a good sermon to be in, this is why I'm here, this is a good one to listen to. For example, it's listening to an eight part series on soul winning. I mean that was, I don't know if anyone's ever done an eight part series like that on just how to preach the gospel. Maybe people have before, okay? That was a long series. There was a lot of time, a lot of scripture, a lot of effort, a lot of examples, a lot of, you know, just experience of being around different people, and hearing what works, what doesn't in this nation. It's listening to that, and then actually applying it to your soul winning. I mean, you would think that would be the sensible thing, but if you're going out soul winning still now, and you're going out and you're coming back going, it's awful, you know, I just can't get anyone to say no. And you're not doing anything in that series. That's not someone that's applying their heart to instruction and opening, there is the word of knowledge. If you haven't changed anything in your soul winning from that, and look, maybe you'd, look, if you haven't changed anything, you're like, look, I'm fine, my way works, I'm successful, I'm getting people saved, it's all going great. But if you're not, then maybe you're not applying your heart onto the instruction. Maybe your ears aren't being open to those words of knowledge. Because, I mean, that was pretty, I mean, that was a pretty in-depth series on that stuff, right? And so then there's an issue, either it's pride, it's stubbornness, or you've just got this amazing way and none of it was covered, and I'd never noticed when I've been with you, you know, and many other people here, because I talked about that series for a long time before I preached it, so that's just one example. So think about it. If you're sitting there going, yeah, he might have got me here, I literally haven't changed a thing, please go back and watch that. Because there are people here that have said, I've incorporated that, I've incorporated this, I've made a couple of changes here, wow, it's really made a difference. Okay, great, but if you haven't, what's the problem? What's the issue? It's going through proverb after proverb, and actually trying to change in those obvious areas. We've been going through, one by one, the book of wisdom, proverb after proverb after proverb, stuff surely that applies to me as much as anyone else here. I'm looking at these proverbs, thinking, man, I need to fix up on that. Yeah, I need to sharpen up on that. Yeah, I need to change on that. Yeah, I've got this wrong, and sadly there will be people that have gone through, maybe even this whole series so far, already done the swerve of the series, or, you know, all those proverbs about wisdom, where it's like they're hard preaching on something that's got nothing to do with me. Well, this stuff is so important to you, right? And it's actually listening to them and thinking, how can I change that? Let's make a note of that and think about applying this to my life this week, this month. It's reading your Bible and thinking, yeah, there's a lesson here for me today. That's what it is. Applying your heart unto instruction, your ears to the words of knowledge, is reading your Bible. When you read it, you should be reading it daily, is thinking, there's a lesson for me today. What's my lesson today out of the Bible? He said, apply your heart unto instruction. That's what it is. Applying your heart unto instruction and your ears to the words of knowledge. And you know what that takes? It takes some backbone. It takes some grit sometimes, doesn't it? It takes someone who's saying, yeah, you know, I know, yeah, I've got things to improve. I want to change. I want to listen to the word of God and I want to change my life. It takes a real love for the Lord as well. That's a legitimate love for the Lord. Because you can say all you like, like I said this morning, all these people that run around going, I just love the Lord, just so full of love. Oh, I'm just, you know, just love Jesus, love God. Well, Jesus Christ said in John 14, 15, if you love me, keep my commandments. If you love me, keep my commandments. And how many people don't even want to know what his commandments are? Oh, love Jesus. It's all love, love, love. Don't open that Bible, though. It's wanting to please him. It's wanting to be more like him. It's wanting to serve him, isn't it? Apply thine heart unto instruction and thine ears to the words and knowledge. The lesson is simple. Get a heart for the Lord and implying the instruction from his words. Apply it to your life. Try your best to do that. Yeah, we're all going to fail, right? We're all going to get it wrong sometimes. We're all going to have times where we're not doing so well, but it's what's in your heart. Do you want to improve? Do you want to do better? Do you want to apply your heart to it? Or do you just want to tick the boxes and feel good about yourself? Verse 13. Withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell. So we looked last week at the rod of correction, okay? Proverbs 22, 15, last week said, foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. And we looked at how until very recently, the cane was even a regular feature in schools across this nation. Until very recently. And no, not just the state schools, the mean old government. No, the private schools kept it after they banned it in state schools for over another decade. That was people paying for their kids to get the cane. That's how it was in this nation up until very recently. Oh, but we know so much better now. No, no, no. You know, all those people, they must be a bit thick, those lot from the past, because now kids are turning out so much better, aren't they? Now the behaviour's so much better. Now the behaviour in schools is so much better. Now they're coming out of school and they've just got... I mean, the behaviour out there is amazing now. It's not that we're just seeing literal whores walking down the street. Guys just walking down the street, drunk, fighting. It's got worse and worse and worse. Drug addicts everywhere. Oh, no, but all that old-fashioned ways of doing things, they don't know what they're talking about. And we looked at how a smacked bottom along with the reproof, OK, the correction is a safe and timeless way of training a child. It always has been, it always will be. How it's in fact kinder and much less long-term damaging than verbal lashings. Oh, I would never smack a child's bottom. I'll just berate them for hours and rip their personality to shreds, because I'm just too loving to smack their bottom. It's a lot less long-term damaging than withholding love and affection. I just... No, get away from me, child. Don't want to talk to you, don't want to see you for another day or two until I've calmed down after your behaviour. Yeah, that's really kind, isn't it, to a child? Because you know what often happens after you smack a child's bottom? A lot of the time, you're friends again straightaway after. A lot of the time they want to cuddle afterwards and you show them some love and that's what you should be doing, not bearing a grudge. If you deal with it, you give the punishment, it's time to move on and have a loving relationship with your kid. It's a lot kinder than the emotional manipulation like I talked about I think last week as well. They're like, you've really upset Mummy, you've made Mummy so upset and so sad and you've destroyed me and it's all your fault. And that stuff is commonplace. I've seen many mums and dads do this sort of stuff, right? So why do people therefore withhold that sort of correction? Why would they withhold something that people have done throughout history that the Bible even commands us to do that transcends time and culture? A big reason now is peer pressure, OK? So a big reason is that peer pressure claims that it's cruel, that you're now, you're not as loving, you're not as decent as the next person because you would smack a child's bottom. And of course there's probably a bit of propaganda to make you think that it's illegal or something else. It's not in this nation as long as it's reasonable punishment, OK? Claims that, yeah, you're obviously some sort of cruel person because you'd smack a child's bottom and maybe worried that someone's going to take you to task for it and everything else. But for the past 3,000 years that hasn't been the case. It's not been because of the modern pushing and culture. Now, he was warning people 3,000 years ago to not withhold it. So that wasn't, you know, the sort of mainstream media there kind of teaching it was wrong. Maybe there were times in different periods of history where the powers that be wanted to try and stop it. But I think there's just a natural want to avoid it, isn't there? If you love your children, right, you love your kids, you don't really want to see your kids going ow and maybe crying after a smack bottom because it's not really nice, is it? As much as we know it's good for them, as much as we know that so many of those other things are cruel to do to children and giving them a smack on a very padded place which leaves them with a sting and that's it, as much as we know that, we still don't like doing it, do we? Oh, maybe some of you do. I don't, OK? It's not an enjoyable, you know, I can't wait, you know? You're just thinking, ah. And you try and put it off sometimes, don't you? Just think, ah, if I don't, you know, maybe they'll just sort their behaviour out and usually you just think, I should have just given them a smack bottom before because now they've kind of, we can move on from this, OK? It's not always pleasant. It's never really pleasant. But that's why we're reminded that it won't kill them to get a spanking. He said, Withhold not correct you from the child for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die. Now, beat here just means to strike. So in case you're looking at that guy, is he talking about giving him like, just a beat, like beating them up or something? No, it's just, it's like saying, for if thou strikest him with the rod, if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die. Back in Proverbs 19, 18, we were told to chasten thy son while there is hope and let not thy soul spare for his crime because the natural instinct is to withhold chastening because of tears. And look, some kids will put on the tears before the smack bottom. And you're thinking like, I don't even mean to be swanky hard on the smack bottom but they know because they start to learn to manipulate with it, to try and get out of it, to not then therefore be punished. Well, in Proverbs 19, 18, we're told they're chasing thy son while there is hope. There is a time when there's hope and here in verse 14, he said, Thou shalt beat him with the rod, in Proverbs 23, and shout deliver his soul from hell. So how does a smack bottom deliver a child's soul from hell? Well, it teaches them from young that there are repercussions for actions. That's what it's teaching them. There are repercussions for actions in life. And, you know, have you noticed, I don't know if you've noticed this, I've noticed when you preach the gospel to people and, you know, and if ever you talk about chastisement and things like that, and often the ones that are like, well, I mean, you tell them that it's wrong or, you know, you chastise, you know, when you're trying to give examples of God chastising his children, a lot of those people find it hard to get saved then. Because they're not really accepting that there is repercussions for their behavior and the ultimate repercussions, the eternal repercussions is hell. It's the truth of the world. Well, you know, I don't know if I believe that. That's what the word of God says. The word of God has got everything else right. And deep down people know it. You know, people that aren't, they don't even, they claim to not be religious at all, to not even know anything about the Bible. But you know what? They know about heaven and hell. They know, they know their soul is either going to live forever or die forever. Deep down they know it. And how does a smack bottom then deliver that child's soul from hell? Because they're a lot more accepting of eternal repercussions for sin and therefore the need of a savior. They're a lot more accepting that there are repercussions in life and they're more likely to go, okay, sin, yeah, there's repercussions. Yeah, the word of God says that. I've got no reason to doubt that because I've seen repercussions in life for behavior and therefore they're more likely to accept, yeah, I need a savior. You could also say that a child will be more accepting of their own sinfulness as well if they're being pulled up chastising corrected, yeah? Because you do get those people, don't you still sometimes? Like, I don't sin. I'm not a sinner. I'm a good person. I think I'm going to heaven. What are you talking about? Well, what a load of nonsense. They think they've earned it. They think they're good. Some will literally say they're sinless. Well, a child who's being corrected in a loving way at the right time in a non-excessive way, in a way that's suitable for what they've done and sometimes getting a smack bottom and told this is why, this is what was wrong. You want to avoid that in the future. This is how you train. That's normal training. Don't do this and you're not going to get a smack bottom. Do this, you might even get some sort of blessing. I mean, that's pretty standard training, isn't it? And that's how kids have been trained throughout history and that's how the Bible teaches us to do it. Now, ultimately, it's your choice how you want to train your child, okay? But what does the word of God say? Withhold not correction from the child. For if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell. So the lessons are to correct our children from young with the primary goal than being more receptive to the gospel. Now, there's a, you know, a child has to be old enough to at least understand what it is they're doing wrong, right? Okay, so just to bear that in mind as well. But the lesson is from an age where they're able to understand with the primary goal with the future of primary goal, not an age where they're able to understand the gospel. The correction needs to start earlier. It needs to be while there is hope. It needs to be betimes. But the correction, the goal is then being more receptive when they're old enough for the gospel. Verse 15. My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. Yea, my reigns shall rejoice when thy lips speak right things. So first off, on the back of the previous proverbs about delivering the child from hell is the rejoicing in your child's salvation. Proverbs 9, 10 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. So if the fear of the Lord is the beginning, the start of wisdom, without that fear of the Lord, there is no wisdom. So if your son's heart is wise, by default that's the saved son, isn't it? If their heart is wise, they must be saved because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And if you're confident in your child's salvation, that's the time to rejoice, isn't it? When you think, yeah, I'm pretty sure that my child or my children are saved, that's the time for celebration. That's a great time to rejoice. We should be rejoicing about that, shouldn't we? Forget them getting into the top school, like some people are just, whatever it was, you know, the best university. I'm so proud of my child, I'm just so pleased because they got into a good university. They got the best job. They got the best sports achievement. And some people are like, yeah, cool. You can understand they're going to be pleased with that sort of stuff. My child's just so good looking. Oh, everyone thinks they're so good. Great. But none, that pales in comparison to having a safe child. All of that, you can have all of that and an unsafe child, what a waste, right? Because to know that your child has eternal life and they're going to spend eternity in heaven, that's something to rejoice over. Because like I said, I think I was saying earlier, a lot of worldly people will unashamedly boast about all that other stuff, won't they? Don't you find those people? I remember meeting a neighbour once and I moved into a house and within, I mean, he came over the fence, he was a nosy, nosy type, came over the fence straight away. He's like, hello, you know, what's your name? And everything else. It's like, oh, hi, yeah. Within, I don't know, within a minute, not even that. 30 seconds of conversation, he's telling me all about his kids getting into, his grandkids, getting into the grammar school. One of them's now already got into this university, how clever they are. Then he's telling me about one of the kids and how good at football they were. And I was just like, okay. Just met the guy, he was proud of that stuff. That stuff was amazing. But all of that stuff is useless if they're going to burn in hell for their sins when all they had to do was trust Christ. Well, when you're confident in your child's salvation, that is a time to rejoice, okay? A bit like to be, you know, that's what I should have said. I should have just said to the guy, oh, oh, great, great. Well, you know what? Yeah, my eldest kids are saved. See what he'd say. Probably wouldn't have gone down that well. But how can you be confident though? Okay, he said, yay, my reigns shall rejoice. In verse 16, when thy lips speak right things. So the reigns are kidneys and often used alongside the heart to talk of the inner desires and emotions. Okay, that's what they stand for there. He said that he would rejoice inside, basically, when his son's lips speak right things. Why? Because the fruit of the mouth is how we judge someone's salvation. That's all we can really judge someone's salvation by is what comes out of their mouth. Turn to Luke chapter 6, because there is a bit of confusion with this, okay? I've heard different people talk about different things with this. People, you know, in our church kind of have some different ideas. Well, you've got some people claiming that the, you know, I don't think we get this in our church. You've got people out there claiming that the fruits of the spirit is how you tell someone's salvation. Well, I knew they were saved, they had such a sweet spirit. I knew they were saved because of all the fruits and all their, you know, their love, their joy, their peace, all of that. Well, there's a problem with that. Is it, what if this person's saved, but they're not walking in the spirit? What if they just can make it look like they're quite nice, but really they're not? What if they're just quite a carnal Christian? Does that mean they're not saved? Of course it doesn't. Now, you've got others where it will be, well, how do we know if the family member's saved, who I preached the gospel to? Well, let's see if we see some chastisement. Yeah, you've heard that one before? I used to hear this one a lot. Well, you've just got to wait. Yeah, they're getting chastised in life. Well, here's a funny thing, because everything we go through is the same stuff that's accomplished in the world. Because it's by faith that we live, isn't it? If it was just that obvious, well, yeah, well, that's one, and, well, I must be saved because of this, and that one must not be, because that's not how it works. All you know really is if you're saved. All you can really know is if you're saved. And with everyone else, with other people, God doesn't give us this measuring stick, because, you know what, you might think, well, that's the chastisement of God, and maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was a trial, it was a tribulation. Maybe they're unsaved, and they just went through some stuff because of their own fault, or maybe it was just the one that was saved. Or their own fault, or maybe it was just the way life is. You know, he causes it to rain and shine, and the just and the unjust, doesn't he? And I know I've butchered that, but ultimately he does. He basically, look, people go through life. You've got to live life, okay? And that's not a way we gauge someone's salvation. Others want to judge it by whether or not they have seemingly saved converts. Okay, and you might have heard this one before. Well, they must be saved because this person claims that they got them saved. Well, here's the problem with that, is that the person that claims they got them saved might not be saved. And here's another problem with that, most people that are saved don't go out and get other people saved. And most people that go out and get people saved don't necessarily see those people they got saved soon after. So it's actually a really hard measuring stick, and also sometimes people think that person got me saved, but they also heard the gospel from someone else. So it's not a measuring stick. Luke 6 tells us that measuring stick. It says in verse 43, For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit, neither do the corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather thy grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil. For of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. Do you know that all we can ultimately go by is what comes out of someone's mouth? All we can really go by is what comes out of their mouths. Now, don't get me wrong, there are people that will claim salvation and then you just see horrendous signs of reformation in them. But ultimately, when it's just like the average person, it's just, well, what do you believe? And it's what comes out of their mouth. Sometimes it takes a while, okay? Sometimes it takes a while to see what really comes out of their mouth, but that's what it's about. That's why the fruit of the righteous is the tree of life. It's what comes out of our mouth that provides salvation because it comes from a saved person preaching the gospel. The fruit of the righteous is the tree of life, and he that win the souls is wise. And here, back in Proverbs 23, if your child is speaking those right things, it's a time to rejoice. If that fruit, what's coming out of their mouth when it comes to eternal things, is the right thing, they're not suddenly going, well, you know, as long as I keep repenting of my sins or something else like that. If the fruit of their mouth is good fruit, well, that's the time to rejoice. Said my son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice even mine. Yea, my reign shall rejoice when thy lips speak right things. Now, you could obviously add to that, that if that saved child goes on to be wise with it, that's a time to rejoice too, isn't it? So if that child goes on to be a wise saved person as well, not just a beginning of wisdom, but goes on to do great things, that's a great time to rejoice. You talk to your child, you see that wisdom in them, but ultimately, it's what's coming out of their mouth, and when it comes to salvation, that's all we can really go by, isn't it? Verse 15 says, my son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice even mine. Yea, my lips shall rejoice when thy lips speak right things. My son is on the back of the chastisement to prioritise your child's salvation, and with that, to rejoice when you're confident of that. Rejoice. It's a great thing to know, isn't it? You're going to have eternity with your children in heaven. Right, verse 17. Let not thine heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long, for surely there is an end, and thine expectation shall not be cut off. So why would your heart envy sinners? Why would you envy sinners? Because there are sometimes some temporary pleasures in sin. Just to break it to you, Hebrews 11.25 says of Moses, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Now, how long is a season? Have you ever looked at that verse and wondered, well, it could be anything from a night through to decades. Basically, a season is a period of time with an end. So there is an end. The enjoyment, the enjoying the pleasures of sin, there's only a season of that enjoyment. Because it's not that the sin necessarily ends. A lot of the time the sin doesn't end. Just the enjoyment of it ends. The pleasure of the sin ends, but the sin continues. And that's the thing with sin, okay? You can look at it from afar and it might seem attractive. A lot of sins in life seem attractive to many. Fun, maybe. Just a sinner's lifestyle. It might seem more carefree. They're less uptight. They just go and do what they want. They're just more carefree in life, right? But it always has a payoff. There's a payoff with all of it. Boozing has a payoff. It has an immediate payoff where you feel like absolute hell the next day. But it also has a long-term payoff as well. I say many times, people that think, I just drink a little bit, I just drink socially, I just drink... Yeah, and then so many of those people end up, when times are hard, when they have the tragedies, when they have the problems, they can't stop drinking. They can't stop boozing. They keep reaching for it. At the least, there's going to be long-term health problems from it. Because you're drinking poison. Because it's just diluted poison. You drink 100% alcohol, it'll kill you. It's pretty simple. Drugs have a payoff, don't they? Even the so-called most fun drugs, the most natural drugs. Oh, well, they're just natural products, aren't they? Yes, there's everything else in life. It all comes from something natural originally. It doesn't mean it's good for you. It doesn't mean that you should be using and abusing it in various ways. And it all has a payoff. And whether it's addiction, whether it's health problems, whether it's the trouble you get yourself in when you're high on some sort of drug, whether it's whatever happens to your mind in the long term or anything else, it all has a payoff. Fornication has a payoff, doesn't it? There's a big payoff for fornication. And whether it's the mental effects, the long-term mental damage, the mental scarring from fornication, whether it's the children with people that you would never have ever married and now suddenly you're trying to share a child with someone that hates you and you hate them or whatever else it is or the disease or the you name it. Just unwanted, sadly, children. So much of that comes from fornication. It has a payoff and adultery has a payoff too. You destroy marriages, destroy families, destroy children, destroy your life because of sin. And people look at it at the time and it looks attractive for a time. And even if it's none of that stuff, even if it's just all the vanity, the empty lifestyle, not serving God, it has a payoff. It does. It's unfulfilling. It's a waste of life. And sometimes when you get too much into that sort of life, it's hard to then get into a life of serving God, get into the discipline of just doing things for God, of being in church, of soul winning, of reading your Bible, all those things, because you've just got so into just that life of vanity of just wasting your life, wasting that small vapour of a life where you could have been doing so much for God, just wasting it, trying to chase whatever the latest pleasures of the world are. He said, Let not thine heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long, for surely there is an end and thine expectation shall not be cut off. First off, the physical life will end, and the unsaved are going to hell. I mean, that's a fact of life, OK? They're going to hell. Whereas your expectation, and for us that's eternal life, will not be cut off, for starters. It ain't going anywhere because it's everlasting. If you have everlasting life, it's everlasting. Nothing could change that. But as a saved person, OK, it's worth reminding yourself that your eternal life, the rewards, etc., are affected by what you do now. So how your life now, it's not that you're going to have a bad eternal life, because eternal life is glorious, and you're in heaven, and you're with the Lord Jesus Christ for eternity, but, you know, you can make it even better. You know, you can earn rewards, you can earn eternal rewards in heaven, you can look back and know that I put time and effort, I put that small amount of life that I had, that small amount of time I had into serving God and doing things for God, and getting people saved. You could be up there in heaven in how many decades to come, meeting all those people that you personally affected their salvation. Yep, the Lord Jesus Christ did the hard part. Yep, it's him that saves, but you know what? We have a part to play with that. And you could be up there and, you know, you walk, you die, you're going to heaven, and suddenly it's party time, you're high-fiving all those people, and they're like, I remember you! Or you can, you know, still go out there and still be like, wow, I'm in heaven, but you just wasted that life. You wasted that life chasing the things of this life, chasing the things of the world, chasing the vanity of life. So it's worth reminding yourself that, okay, it won't be cut off. What you're expecting, what you're looking forward to is awaiting you, and use it to motivate yourself. Like I said this morning, we need motivation sometimes, don't we? Sometimes it can be hard, we're trying to affect people's lives, we're trying to go out and preach the gospel, we're trying to do things, we're trying to, and with that, you know, you need some discipline in life, because all the different cares, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, they choke the word in, and it becometh unfruitful. And it's so easy to just get pulled out of the things of God. So we need that discipline, we need to be in church, reading our Bibles, trying to get the sin out of our lives, and that could be a good motivation for that, can't it? Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long, for surely there is an end, and thine expectations shall not be cut off. And use it to help you not envy those in the world. Because people do envy those, they look at people in the world, sometimes kids this can be a problem for, because they're looking around, they're seeing these kids just on their own, you know, with their gangs of friends doing all this stuff, they're just like, look at that life. But they're going to be affected, negatively affected by it, there will be a payoff, and remind yourself that what you're doing is affecting eternity for others, and even for yourself as well, in terms of how that eternity is going to look. So be in the fear of the Lord. And did he say, but be thou in the fear of the Lord every Sunday? No, every Sunday and Wednesday he didn't, did he? He said all the day long. It's not just about when you come to church, putting on your church face, making sure that you're looking holy, and then getting back to carnality for the rest of the week. It's all the day long. And do you know what that will do as well? If you're in the fear of the Lord all the day long, so ultimately you're focusing on God, you're thinking about how he wants you to live, doing what he wants you to do on a day-to-day basis, that will help you avoid the envy too, won't it? It will help you to avoid the envying of the sinner, because it's when you're not thinking of the Lord that that's more likely, isn't it? When the Lord isn't in your thoughts, isn't in your actions, you're not focusing on the things of God, that's when you're more likely to look at the sinful stuff and get that envy for it, and start to envy the sinner and what they do. And envy is a dangerous and a powerful emotion, that you want to avoid at all costs. Proverbs 14, 30 says, A sound heart is the life of the flesh, but envy the rottenness of the bones. Envy will rot your bones, it will ruin your life, it will destroy your health. There are people, if you've ever known them, just envious people in life that spend their lives just envying others, and they're just bitter, horrible people, and they end up pretty unhealthy, I think, probably with that, because all that stress and all that horrible, all that bitterness just ruins your life, it destroys you. Let not thine heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long, for surely there is an end and thine expectations shall not be cut off. The lesson is that if you want to avoid envy, to really commit to the things of God, remind yourself of eternal things. That's how you avoid it, and especially, obviously, avoiding envying those sinners. And on that, we're going to finish in a word. Thank you for the Book of Proverbs, thank you for the wisdom we can get from the Book of Proverbs, Lord, but help us to not just be hearers of it, but to be doers, Lord, to apply it to our lives, to want to get wiser, to want to get, you know, to just want to improve our lives, Lord, and use, you know, those Proverbs, which especially felt like they applied to us, Lord, today, to, you know, to help us to improve, help us to be wiser, help us to live better, help us to live more like you want us to, Lord, and help us to all just, you know, have your word at the centre of our week as we go on now, go our separate ways, help everyone to get home safe and sound and help people to just live a week now where they've got you at the centre of it, starting and finishing the day with your word, Lord, to be in prayer, to be, you know, just, you know, actually conscious of what they are and aren't doing, trying to get the sin out of their lives, Lord, help us to just try and get better, try and improve more, help everyone to get home, like I say, safe and sound, and to return on Wednesday or on Sunday for the next services, Jesus and Proverbs. Amen. Our last hymn is hymn number 373. 373, Take My Life and Let It Be. Last hymn today, so let's finish it off. Take my life and let it be Close to created Lord to Thee Take my hands and let them live At the impulse of Thy love At the impulse of Thy love Take my feet and let them be Swift and beautiful for Thee Take my voice and let me sing Always only for my King Always only for my King Take my silver and my gold Lord's alight, will I with light Take my moments and my days Let them flow in ceaseless praise Let them flow in ceaseless praise Take my will and make it thine It shall be no longer mine Take my heart, it is my own It shall be Thy royal throne It shall be Thy royal throne Amen. My Father, thank you so much for today. Thank you for this sermon. Thank you for the book of Proverbs. And please, as we all go in our separate way for this next week, please just bless us and allow us to have you and your Word in the forefront of our week. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Hi there, my name is Pastor Ian Tabin of Strong Tail Baptist Church. I'd just like to take a few minutes today to show you how you could be 100% sure that if you died you'd be going straight to heaven. So a lot of people teach all these strange things about how you can be good enough to go to heaven, how you've got to follow a list of commandments to get to heaven. See, they're really the other religion. There's only really two religions in the world. There's Good You Go to Heaven, Bad You Go to Hell, and all the varying versions of that. Some of them are very subtle. Oh, you've got to at least give up a certain amount of sin. You've got to at least try not to sin. And then there's a Bible which says, no, no, no, go to heaven is a free gift. And I want to show you how you receive that free gift today. A few things you've got to understand first, though, before you receive that gift, and that's number one is that you are a sinner. I'm a sinner. We're all sinners. The Bible says in Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned to come short of the glory of God. See, we're all sinners. We've all broken God's commandments in one way or another. And the Bible says because of that we come short of the glory of God. We cannot be good enough to go to heaven, which means that we're on our way somewhere else. There's only two places you go. You either go to heaven or you go to hell. And the Bible says for the wages of sin is death. We're all sinners, and what we get in return is death. And in the end, that's in a place called the second death, which is a lake of fire. The Bible says in Revelation 20, 14, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. If the wages of sin is death and the second death is a lake of fire, that's not a very good picture being painted there. In fact, in Revelation 21, 8, we see just a quick list of common sins to show that we're all on our way to the lake of fire. The Bible reads, but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, and that's you, me, and everyone else in the world, shall have their part in the lake which burneth a fine brimstone, which is the second death. However, God doesn't want you to go to hell. Hell is eternal. Hell is a very real place, but God wants you in heaven. In fact, he made a way for you to go to heaven. In Romans 5, 8, the Bible says, but God commendeth his love toward us. In that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God in the flesh, came to this world, and he didn't commit any sin. He lived a perfect life, and then at the end of his life, he was hung up on a cross. He died to pay for our sins. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for he had made him, that's Jesus Christ, to be sin for us, who knew no sin. Jesus Christ was sinless. However, he became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He swapped with us. He took that punishment for you. He died on that cross, and he then tasted death for every man. The Bible says in Acts 2, 31, he, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh should see corruption, because on the third day he rose again. He showed the holes in his hands, the holes in his side. It was a bodily, physical resurrection. He wasn't a ghost. They ate with him. They handled him, and then 40 days later, he went to heaven. Now, what does that mean? Does that mean everyone's going to heaven? Well, of course not. See, there's one thing we have to do to receive that gift, and in Acts 16, 30, someone asks the question, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? The apostle Paul and Silas answered, and they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. So what does that mean, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved? Are they saying to just believe that he exists? Are they saying to believe that there's a person called Jesus? No, they're saying to believe on, or put your faith, your trust, in that death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to have paid for all your past, present, and future sins, and you can go to heaven. That's what it means. It's to put your trust in Jesus. Like it says in the most famous verse of the world, John 3.16, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. See, the Bible teaches us time and time again that the only way you're going to heaven is by putting your faith and trust in what Jesus Christ did, not what you do. See, many people claim to be Christians and say, Oh yeah, I'm going to heaven because I believe in Jesus and I'm a good person and I got baptized and I read my Bible and I do this and I do that. Well, they're not trusting Jesus Christ, they're trusting themselves. And the Bible says if they're not trusting Jesus Christ, they're going to hell. Ephesians 3 and 9 says, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is a gift of God, not of works that any man should boast of. The Bible said it's not of yourself, it's not of your own works, it's just faith alone in Christ alone that gets you to heaven. And a lot of people find that really hard to understand. Now they look at the Bible and think, Yeah, but you've got to follow the commands, you've got to do this, you've got to do that. Yeah, look, as a child of God, when you get saved, when you become one of God's children by faith in Christ Jesus, which is what Galatians 3.26 says for you, all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, once you become that child, God's going to punish you in life, He's going to reward you in life. However, the only way you become that child, the only way that you could ever get to heaven is by what Jesus Christ did, not what you do. Once you receive that gift, that's it, it's a gift, you're saved. The Bible says, in fact, in John 10.28, And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. See, once you're saved, you've received that gift, you've become a child of God, you could never go to hell, otherwise Jesus Christ lied when He said all you had to do was believe. He lied when He said that you shall never perish. And that's the gospel, gospel means good news. The good news is that your sins have been paid for, all you've got to do is receive that gift, and in fact, in Romans 10.9, the Bible reads that, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised you from the dead, thou shalt be saved. It says in verse 13 of Romans 10, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you believe, if you want to put your faith, your trust in Jesus Christ, just ask Him. And I'd like to lead you in a short prayer. Now if you believe everything I've just said, if you believe that you are a sinner, you believe that the wages of sin is death, that you deserve hell, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that He died, was buried and rose again to pay for your sins, and that all you've got to do is put your faith and trust in Him, and once you've done that, there is no way you could lose that salvation, then please just repeat after me. Dear Jesus, I know I'm a sinner, I know I deserve hell. I believe that you died, was buried and rose again to pay for my sins. I trust in you now, and I need you. Please take me to heaven when I die. Amen. If you believe that and you've called on the name of the Lord for salvation, congratulations, you're saved. And I'll be seeing you in heaven one day. God bless you. You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You