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OK, Amen, we're in Proverbs chapter 27 now, we're coming towards the close of our Proverbs series. We've been going through it verse by verse, chapter by chapter there, and we've been generally splitting them into two, where there's just so much to go through, there's so much to preach through. It is, like we say, kind of scattergun preaching. You're going to hear a lot of subjects, you're going to hear a lot of Proverbs today. We're going to do the first 13 today, so the first 13 verses of Proverbs chapter 27. Like I always remind you, if you haven't got a pen, it would be handy to have one. There's a lot of subjects to remember here, maybe there's certain things that are going to really talk to you, which would be good to make a note of. If you don't have a pen, then one of the ushers will happily bring you one, just maybe give him a nod or look around if you need a pen. Proverbs 27 and verse 1 says this, Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. I'd like to pray and then we're going to get started. Father, thank you for your word, thank you for these Proverbs, thank you for these in chapter 27 that we're going to look at now. Please fill me with your spirit as I preach these, Lord. Help me to preach them accurately, boldly, clearly, in a way that people will be able to apply them to their lives, Lord. Help everyone to have attentive ears now at the end of what's been a long Sunday. Please fill me with your spirit as I do this. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Okay, Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. So it's not talking, you know, basically to not get confident in expectation of something that's maybe going to happen or that you're planning to do, okay? That's what we're talking about here. Not to get confident in something that you think is going to happen, maybe something you're planning to happen, something that you think is going to happen. Turn over to James chapter 4, James 4, which helps expand this with different wording. Of course we're going to be regularly coming back to Proverbs 27, so keep something in Proverbs 27, you're turning to James 4, which does explain this same truth with some different wording. We're told not to boast of tomorrow, we've just seen, where we don't really know what's going to happen tomorrow. James 4, James chapter 4 says it like this from verse 13. James 4, 13 says, go to now ye that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain. So this is someone making some future plans, okay? He's told this, whereas, verse 14, whereas ye know not what shall be on tomorrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not to him, it is sin. And verse 17 for me is the key here. It's people that put off doing good things instead making elaborate plans for the future. People that say things like, once I'm earning this, then I'll start serving God. Or once I'm living there, then I will start living for God. Then I'll start maybe turning up at church, reading my Bible, soul winning. I'll start doing the things that God wants me to do once I do this tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, whatever it is, right? And that's what it's talking about here. People that know to do good and do it not because of their plans for the future. Because first they're going to do this. They're going to boast themselves of tomorrow. It'll be tomorrow then. That's when I'm really going to start knuckling down and serving God. But here's the point. If you don't do it now, you're sinning. You know to do good. You know that God wants you reading your Bible every day. Whether you've got a New Year's plan or not, you should still be doing it today. You know that God wants you in church. He said not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as a manner of summaries, but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching. Yet how many people say, well, once I've done this, once I've moved here, once I've done this or that, and look, don't get me wrong, I appreciate there's not many good churches around in this nation. For some people it's a long old drive to get to church. But you know what? They should at least make that drive, shouldn't they? Make that drive, come down here and start getting in a habit of being in church. Yeah, you might not be able to come every week if you live a long distance. But you know what? Don't put it off. Maybe I'll move down there. Until then I'll just be like a YouTube church. One day I'll go soul winning. Maybe in a couple of years' time once I've done this and done that. No, he's saying don't do any of that. If you do that, if you know that you should be doing stuff, you don't do it, you're sinning. He's basically saying to put God at the centre of it all now. God needs to be at the centre of your life. If the Lord will, we shall live and do this or do that. Put God at the centre of your life. And do you know when you should do that? From now? If you're not doing it, do it from now. That's what God wants. Back in Proverbs 27 he said, Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. He's saying instead of boasting what you're going to do tomorrow, work on what you're going to do today. Work on what you're doing now. Work on what you're going to do from now for God, not what you're going to do in the future when you become more holy, when you've done this, when you've sorted that, when you've changed that. Live in the present. Do what you're able to do right now. And you know why? Because circumstances can suddenly change, can't they? You can go, well, I'm going to start serving God once I've done this, but then next week, suddenly you've got a bad illness. Or maybe you've got something worse. Or maybe something gets in the way. Or maybe you've lost your job. Or maybe something else. Don't put it off. You want God's blessing in life. You want to be able to serve him, well, then start serving him. You've always got a, well, once this, once this, once this. Well, who knows what's going to happen on tomorrow? And when there's an excuse today, shall I tell you what there'll be tomorrow, there'll be an excuse. And that's the reality, isn't it? When there's an excuse not to serve God, an excuse not to live for God, there'll be another excuse tomorrow for that. Get your heart right today and say, right, Lord, I'm going to start serving you today. And of course, coming up to New Year, what a great time to do that, to be able to say, right, it's on. Yeah, I'm going to serve you. 2025, I'm serving you, God. Let's get, let's get busy, right? He said, boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. So the lesson is to live in the present. Do what you can with what you're able to right now. Do what you can right now. Verse 2, let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth, a stranger, and not thine own lips. So stop telling people how great you are, basically. Which doesn't sound like it should need saying. It doesn't, does it? But sadly, it really does. It really does need saying. The amount of people lifting themselves up nowadays, telling everyone how great they are at whatever it is. X, Y, and Z. You know, whether it's their job, their hobby, their skills at this, it's everywhere. People just love boasting, love telling you about themselves. And I think nowadays it's maybe even more so, it does seem to be more of a cultural thing now, that people are just, there's no shame it seems with it. We're just lifting yourself up, glorifying yourself, lifting yourself up about how great you are at your job. I mean, people are encouraged to do that. You go to an interview nowadays, and they're telling you, so tell me why you're so great. And this is how people are, and it's meant to be okay. But it should be something we're ashamed to do, shouldn't it? It shouldn't be how we behave. But people are like that, aren't they? You get people, you just run into them, you talk about them, and then they're suddenly telling you how amazing they are at parenting. There's a lot of people like that. There are people that are constantly boasting about their parenting skills. What a weird thing to boast about, isn't it? And there are people like that all over the place. They're lifting themselves up, praising themselves. And now, sometimes it's subtle. So it's not always, I'm a great parent. Sometimes it's like, well, of course, you know, little Johnny had a real tantrum. So I sat him down, and I looked him in the eyes, and I said, now, now, little Johnny, do you think? And then it's like, and then you can see the pride. See how I solved that? And people do it, don't they? Sometimes it's subtle, sometimes it's not. What about soul winning as well? People like to boast about that sometimes. Now, don't get me wrong, sometimes you just want to come back and tell people that you had fun, you know, it was good, or you had a great salvation or something. But sometimes you know that the story is to lift up that person who's telling you. And sadly, people do that. And if you're thinking, have I done this? I'm not thinking about anyone in particular. But I've been, especially, I used to have people in the past like this, you know. Okay, and people like that. It's just, it's sadly, it's a sin of the flesh. It's a temptation that many people have. And I think online culture is a lot about self-promotion, isn't it? Okay, so there's a lot of self-promotion online, as are, like I said, a lot of careers. But God's telling us not to be like that. He said, let another man praise you, not thine own mouth, a stranger and not thine own lips. And if you don't do it, okay, and it needs doing. So let's look at it this way. If it really needs doing, you really need praising, I'm sure it will come eventually, if you don't do it. I'm sure that God will, if you need some praise and, you know, God will come along and give you that praise if you're not doing it yourself. And you know what, if it doesn't come along, you're like, well, I'm just not getting praise. I'm not getting any recognition. Well, you probably don't deserve it. It's probably because you don't need that praise, because you don't really deserve that praise. Don't do it yourself. And pushing for praise, subtle self-promotion, showing off is basically just as bad. It's the same stuff, right? So we need to pull away from trying to get validation from others. Okay, and that's what God wants. God wants us to stop trying to get our validation from other people, to stop trying to impress other people, to stop it being about other people and it to be about God. Focus on the validation that comes from God. And God isn't going to give you validation if you're praising yourself, yeah? He said, let another man praise you and not thine own mouth, the stranger and not thine own lips. The proverb is pretty simple, okay? It's a good rule, I think, to then help avoid becoming prideful, okay? You won't become prideful if you just cut, at least you will help yourself not become prideful if you just cut that self-praise out of your life. Verse 3. A stone is heavy and the sand weighty, but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both. Now these are heavy things, okay? They're dense matter, basically, aren't they? Stones aren't often hollow. Sand condenses well too, doesn't it? Okay, you lift a bag of sand or stones up and you're talking similar sort of heavy weight, okay? It's a chore, it's laborious. Which is kind of what a fool's wrath is. It weighs you down, doesn't it? It's restricting. It's tiresome. It's laborious. If you've been around these fools that are always angry at something, they're always wrathful about something unimportant. You get these people, they're just always bearing some sort of wrath for something or someone. And what happens with these people, they just love to have a scapegoat for their wrath, don't they? You get these people like that. There's always like someone, something to blame, something to justify fuming about. And sometimes you listen to this stuff and you think, why are you so angry? What is it that you're so angry about? And often the anger's probably deeper. But they find something to justify the rage, justify the anger. Where's the angry? The anger is for something else. It's something in the core a bit more. And these people aren't always easy to appease. Think of, for example, the angry atheist. And you know these people, you knock on their door and they're just fuming, livid, that someone could dare to invite them to church. I just can't believe it. I'm just trying to shove your stuff down our throats here. I'm not trying to shove anything. I just ask you if you'd like to come to church. Why are you so angry? Why are you so offended? Why are you so fuming? Because you're a fool. Because that fool's wrath is heavy, heavier than that stone and that sand. It's so heavy because it's just so foolish, basically. It's foolish anger and it's heavy because of that. And it's just hard to deal with. You deal with people like that. It's hard to appease them. You try and calmly just say, okay, well, you know, and they just don't get anywhere, do you? It's just so heavy to deal with people like that. A stone is heavy and the sand weighty, but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both. So I think it's warning us to keep away from that wrathful fool. Okay, those fools just full of wrath. Just keep away from them. It's dangerous. Their wrath is heavier than stones and sand. However, there's something worse. And it says this in verse four. Wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy? Who is able to stand before envy? So when someone is wrathful, there will often be cruelty that comes with it. So if you get full of wrath, sadly, you are more capable of doing something cruel to someone or something because you're so angry, you're so wrathful. When you're angry, it says here, there is often immoderate fury and violence, outrageous. Okay, you'll do things which aren't basically in line with the anger. The anger makes you do things that you shouldn't really do. Outrageous stuff. However, there's an emotion that is worse than both of these and it's envy. Envy is a really powerful emotion, which is a word for what many use, many use the word jealousy to describe it. So many will say, oh, you're just so jealous, but often they use it wrong. So true jealousy isn't really necessarily a bad thing. Now, of course, you can go over the top with it, right? But jealousy is for something that's yours. Okay, and God's a jealous God. God is jealous for his people, for his possession. You know, nothing wrong with being jealous. A husband being jealous for his wife is a good thing. Yeah, a wife being jealous about her husband is a good thing. Envy is when it's for something that's not yours. And really with envy, it's beyond that. Envy is really about, it's not covetousness. Covetousness is something that someone else is not yours to have. Envy is the person themselves. It's when you envy someone else, usually envy their qualities or you envy their position, you envy some sort of standing they have in life, you envy their popularity, maybe you envy their wealth or something like that, whereas covetousness is about stuff, usually, and often it's money, right? And, you know, I say this because with the jealousy thing, it's kind of pushed in our world like it's a bad thing to actually just have some jealousy over your own possessions, okay? And part of that is just what is, let's be honest, there's a lot of stealth communism being pushed in us in various areas, okay? And there's nothing wrong with being jealous over your possessions. There's something I've mentioned before from the pulpit. It's not like, what, a bad child because they won't share their brand new toy. They haven't come into church with a toy to play with for today and just let some other kid rip it out of their hands and play with it, and it's like, oh, they're not sharing. It's like, no, why should they? You know, like, it says, just let them play with it, right? That parent needs to be on it and go, hey, stop taking the other kid's stuff, stop being covetous. There's two different, it's like that child not sharing isn't necessarily a bad thing. Yeah, of course, we want to encourage our kids to share, right? But you know what's worse than not sharing and being jealous over your possessions is being covetous, and we want to prevent that in our kids. We want to keep an eye on that and watch for that and prevent our kids being covetous, and we all have to watch that, right, as parents when we're watching our kids because they can all be like that sometimes, can't they? See something if someone else doesn't want that. That's something we definitely need to stamp out. But where is envy? Envy is directed toward the person. Like I said, their perceived excellence, reputation, happiness, prosperity, superiority, whatever, and it's combined with what? A hatred for them. So with envy will come a hatred. It will come at the least a severe dislike because they're envious of something they feel they have in their life about themselves that they want. And I often say this, but it needs pointing out, okay, just to remind you again, most people don't admit to themselves that they're envious. Most people won't go, I just really envy that person. No, they go, I really hate that person because of, and they've developed a reason to hate them. But really, a lot of the time it comes down to envy. They're envious of something, envious of some quality, envious of some standing, some position, some popularity, whatever it is, but then they tell themselves they're justified to hate them instead because they envy them. Which is one of the reasons that it's so hard to stand before it. It's hard to deal with, wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy? Because what happens is it manifests as a deep hatred, which unlike the temporary wrath and the anger, which is usually temporary, it lasts for a long time. Envious people, you dealt with envious people in your life and that envy doesn't just suddenly go. And sometimes it comes in waves. And I've noticed with envious people before, sometimes you can really see it in someone. And what happens is they might chug along for a bit, then you see the envy come up. Maybe the object of their envy seems to be getting some laughs out of some people. Or maybe the object of their envy seems to be popular or seems to have achieved something. And then you see that envy and you see that hatred. I've seen it in circles, I've seen it in groups where you just see that real envy towards someone and then it lasts for a bit and then it might kind of go down for a little bit longer and then maybe a week later, a couple of weeks, whatever it is, then it comes up again. Or maybe it's a month, maybe it's a year. It doesn't just peter out. It stays there and as they see those things that they want, those sort of qualities they want to have in themselves, the envy goes up again. And here's the problem. If that's you out there, if you're the envious type, and this isn't just you're either envious or not, some people are just more envious than others. Some people it's something they have to deal with more than others. Proverbs 14.30 says, A sound heart is the life of the flesh, but envy the rottenness of the bones. Proverbs 14.30 says it's the rottenness of the bones. All that bitterness will destroy your health. It will ruin your life. And it does. A lot of these angry people, people are just walking around angry all the time, bitter all the time, always got these problem axes to grind and things like that. And so often it comes from envy. They're not happy and you know what, they're usually unhealthy with it. It usually will end up destroying their lives. So what do you do? Well, I think just not going into a full study on it today, learn to be content with what you have in life. I think that's a great way to defeat envy in your life is to have contentment for what you do have. And often when people are envious they don't understand someone else's life anyway. They're just the things they see on the surface. And you know how a good way to be content with what you have in life is to give thanks more. Just give thanks to God. Start your day, finish your day with thanks to God. Thank Him for what you've got, thank Him for the things you do have. You might start to appreciate what you do have more. Because having food and raiment let us there with be content. We should be content with the bare minimum. And if you thank God for all those things you do have, all those things you have above and beyond that, you might be less likely to be envious of what you perceive someone else has as themselves in their own life. And then here's another thing with that, another lesson from this you could say. Keep away from envious people because they're dangerous. You see that envy a bit and sometimes you just see it. It's almost like the eyes go green. There's a flash I see sometimes in eyes when you see that envy coming out of people and you see it and you want to be wary around envious people because they're dangerous people. Wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous but who is able to stand before envy? The proverb is a reminder of the power of this emotion. So avoid it and avoid those who show signs of it. Verse 5. Open rebuke is better than secret love. So it's a short little verse there. Open rebuke is better than secret love. There's something to be said for telling someone straight sometimes, isn't there? It's often more loving than the secret love, the love that there's no evidence of because it's a secret feeling basically. And of course there's a balance to this, just to make it clear. Some people claim they're being loving by regularly ripping their friends' personalities to shreds or something. Well, I should be able to tell them. It's not like they can't even take the proof. You're giving them the proof a lot. And you should get an idea of the person in front of you, shouldn't you? Especially if it's a friend or someone that you seem to love. Some people take things in a different way at different times, in a better way. You need to learn that about someone. You don't need to just rip people to shreds. However, sometimes there's something that is too important to leave, something that needs saying, isn't there? And a loving friend will sometimes have to say, look, I've been thinking about this and maybe you should do it this way or maybe have you thought about this. And of course you've got to be careful. Obviously you don't want to just pass by with strife that belongs not to you. So maybe not on strife, but there are things that sometimes need saying. And just to make it clear, this isn't to lift up myself. This is something that God does because ultimately it's God's word. Isn't this a big part of preaching? It's hearing that open rebuke sometimes, isn't it? And it's better than keeping silent. There are things that just need saying, and God says them through a preacher, doesn't he? God will say them through his word. He'll say it through your Bible reading, but he'll hone in on it, he'll tune in on it, and he'll focus in on it during that preaching when you sit there and you're like, uh-oh, this actually feels like this is being preached at me, and your face goes red and you try and give that poker face and hope that I don't catch you out. I'm not looking for that, but it is true, isn't it? That's the idea of preaching. It's better than keeping silent. However, so many preachers, sadly, are too busy with the secret love than the open rebuke. So they don't want to give the open rebuke, they just want to talk about how loving they are, but it's the secret love because they don't do anything to show that. And maybe part of that is because, sadly, you can't just blame the preacher, sadly, so many snowflakes melt at even the thought of some rebuke. Even the idea that there might be some rebuke and they're melting. The thought of someone actually saying something that might actually affect them makes people go wild. Look, you can arm men through the controversial stuff, can't you? I mean, that's easy, isn't it? Arm men through the sodomite stuff. As long as you're not a sod, it's probably pretty easy. Arm men about the Jews, arm men about the false prophets. Then it comes to something that feels personal to you, and suddenly you're melting. Suddenly that hissy fit is just coming in thick and fast, isn't it? You can feel it kind of building up in you. He says, I can't believe he said something about me. He must have known, he must be thinking about me when he wrote those notes. And look, maybe I was, and if so, arm men. But maybe I wasn't, and maybe God's thinking about you and he's saying, you need to know. Because open rebuke is better than secret love. We should be saying, arm men, I needed that. That's better than someone not saying something for fear of offending me, isn't it? That's how it should be. We should go, yeah, actually, that's better than they just worried about me and didn't say it. Open rebuke is better than secret love. I think the proverb is a reminder that we should all want to improve, so deal with it when the rebuke comes, and whether that's from behind a pulpit, whether that's in your pocket. Whether that's from a friend, whether it's a loved one who just says, look, you know, maybe you need to think about this, right? Verse 6. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. So, faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. So sometimes that friend is going to wound you, okay? Which, in the context of the proverb before, is likely to be by his mouth. Sometimes he's going to be by his mouth. Sometimes he's going to say something that hurts. You know, friends sometimes say things that hurt. Sometimes they'll say something that you can't recover from straight away. It's a wound, right? It's not something that you just suddenly just bounce back from straight away. And sometimes it won't be maybe in the best way. Maybe that friend will get it wrong. Do you know that? You know, we're talking about, well, open rebuke is better than secret love. You know, sometimes a friend will maybe say something that's not, it wasn't right. Maybe they were wrong. Do you know that? Maybe a friend wants to tell you something and they're wrong. Friends do that sometimes. Maybe they're legitimate wounds that don't really have a positive to them. Maybe a friend just offends you, upsets you, does something that's not right, because they're just another person. They're just another individual who's going to get stuff wrong, right? But they're still more faithful. They're more honest, more loyal than that enemy sneaking around pretending to like you. You know, even that friend that gets it wrong, that says it in the wrong way, that offends you, that doesn't do it the right way, well, faithful are those wounds. However, the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. And the kisses of an enemy, okay, if you've ever been betrayed by someone, I mean, and you look back maybe and you see the set-ups, it's harsh stuff when you look back. You think, yeah, those kisses, those claims of love, of caring for you, of liking you, and the whole time that person was actually an enemy, that's some hard stuff, isn't it? That's a reality of life sometimes. There's some bad people out there. Sometimes you look back, you remember the flattery, the so-called love, you see how deceitful it was. You start to realise, wow, they were my enemy for a lot longer than they're claiming they were. That person absolutely hated me. And that's some hard stuff to deal with sometimes. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. So I believe that the contrast is there because it's easy to get hurt by friends, and then what happens is you steer towards the fakes. You steer towards the enemies because you've been hurt by someone who is just a legitimate friend maybe and just is a sinful person. It's easy to get irritated by friends sometimes and then get drawn towards the deceivers, isn't it? Maybe a friend irritates you there, nor you, maybe the wounds from that friend, maybe it's annoyance, maybe it's irritation for maybe some justified reasons, and then what happens is you then steer towards the kisses, the fake love, the deceit of the enemy. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. I believe that the proverb is reminding us to appreciate the friends, even when we're dealing with wounds, and to watch out for the deceivers. Proverbs 27 and verse 7 says this, The fool's soul loathes and honeycomb, but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. So first off, when you're full up, and when I say full up I mean pudding full, because there's always room for pudding, but I'm saying when you've even gone beyond that limit, that's when you're really full. You couldn't even fit in dessert. Now I'm talking real full. When you're like that, the thought of anything else, it can be disgusting, can't it? When you're really stuffed, and I bet some of you over Christmas, you don't have to go back in your memory banks very far, maybe. Sometimes you get to that point where the thought of putting anything else in you is a disgusting thought. You would loathe and honeycomb. You hate the idea. Even of something of pure sweetness like that, honeycomb. Because usually, however full you are, something sweet you can probably fit in, can't you? Well, this is when you're really full. You couldn't even fit in the honeycomb. However, when you're really hungry, you will eat most things and they will taste sweet, if you ever notice that. Sometimes when you're really hungry, you eat things that you probably wouldn't really otherwise usually like. You just say, oh, this is lovely, this is great, this is wonderful, oh, this is so nice. And it's only because you're hungry. Because if you weren't very hungry, you probably wouldn't eat it, right? Well, this applies to many things in life. Basically, when we overdo it, it stops being sweet. When you overdo the hobby. So at the beginning, that new hobby, that thing that is new to it, you're hungry for it. And maybe you're not that new, but just maybe you're not doing too much of it and you can think of maybe some hobbies you've done or maybe you still do. And wow, that bitter thing maybe, even maybe it's tiring, maybe it's exhausting, maybe it's a sport. Maybe it's a sport that you're going to be sweating, you're going to be panting, you're going to be in pain, your body's aching, but it's all sweet, isn't it? You wake up in the morning and go, oh, I'm really aching. Oh, great, I'm walking down the stairs like this, but you're hungry for it, aren't you? You're hungry and that bitter thing is sweet. Maybe it's not just hobbies and sport. Maybe you could apply it to things like, you know, friends. For example, at the beginning, a new friend, oh, that's great fun and everything else, but maybe if you overdo it, maybe if you don't remove your foot from that friend's house, you know, maybe they start to grow weary and hate you or vice versa, right? Maybe that bitter thing isn't sweet anymore. Maybe the new diet. And sometimes when people get on a new diet, it's like, this is amazing, I'm just loving it, I'm loving cooking all this food from scratch. Oh, it's so fun, oh, don't worry, I can spend three hours cooking a meal, it's no problem. And then after time, it starts to lose its excitement, doesn't it? And then suddenly that fast food place looks a little bit more tempting, right? Well, when it's new, okay, when it's not overdone, at least there's a zeal for things, isn't there? And back in Proverbs 25, we looked at how often honey is compared to the Word of God. We looked at verses such as, and we looked at many, but just for the sake of time today, Psalm 119, 103, which says, How sweet are thy words unto my taste, Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Well, with that in mind, verse 7 here, which says, The full soul loateth and honeycomb, but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. It could also be applied to the difference between those that have no room and those that are hungry for the Word of God. And specifically here, I believe the difference between those that have been filled up with false doctrine, those that have been filled up with, maybe it's the Word of God, but it's false doctrine. The lifelong Christian, in inverted commas, who, let's be honest, those people, they loathe and honeycomb. You're trying to give them a verse of the Bible to show them that works don't save you, it's grace through faith alone, and that full soul loathes that honeycomb, doesn't it? They can't stand the thought of it. They think, well, I mean, I don't want to hear all that Bible, but I read a parable once where it sounds like you might have to work your way there. I'm going to go with that. That full soul loathes and honeycomb, as opposed to that person who's hungry for the Word, that bitter truth that their works are useless, is sweet to them. You know, those people, that hungry soul, those bitter things which are bitter to most are sweet to them, aren't they? It's like, yeah, yeah, my works could never get me to heaven, what am I thinking? What am I thinking? One sin takes me to hell. I broke that when I was five years old, and I understand the difference between good and evil. Yeah, but you know what, that is some sweet truth, because that means there is a way, and the way is faith in Christ alone. The full soul loathes and honeycomb, but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. The proverb is a reminder that some people are so full up that they just don't have room for the sweet stuff. And you know what, sometimes you've got to remember that when you're out preaching the Gospel, right? They will loathe it, but maybe there'll be a time when maybe they're hungry. Verse 8, as a bird that wandereth from a nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place. Now, if you remember in the previous chapter, we saw in Proverbs 26 2, as a bird by wandering, as a swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come. Like the bird there wasn't talking about migratory birds, okay? Excuse me, neither is it here. The swallow was the migratory bird flying, the wandering is sort of just like going around and about, you know, fluttering about type thing, okay? Rather than flying on a long distance. So the bird here, where we are in verse 8, the bird here is a small bird. Wandering is flying but perhaps with less direction, okay? It's not a good idea to go far from her nest, and it's talking about, here it's a female bird, there's a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place. And why is that a bad thing of going far from a nest? Well, she's relied on, okay? She's got mouths to feed, she's got eggs to warm, she's got babies to protect, yeah? She shouldn't be going far from that nest, that's not a good thing if she wanders off far from her nest, right? Neither is it good, he said, so is a man that wandereth from his place, and neither is it good for a man to wander from his place, and I believe that here it's his home. It's his nest if you like, okay? This is his home, this is his place. With the proverb likely, I believe, being a reminder to us men of our responsibilities in life. And sometimes men need some reminders of their responsibilities in life. Men don't let that midlife crisis kick in where you start spending hours out of the home. And men do that, okay, around the world. It's like mid-lifetime and it's like, I need a new hobby. I need to be, right, I need something new to do, I need a new career change. What I need to do is I need to go and live over here for however long. Some sadly men will leave their families, leave their wives and everything around that sort of time because whatever it is, some crisis in their midlife that makes them ditch their whole families and go after, sadly, a lot of the time, some harlot, some whore. Well, some will let their career take them around the world. Maybe they've got a new career, maybe that career gives them that option, that choice, and they're like, yeah, make them travel long distances. Maybe they'll tell themselves that they need weekends away fishing. Always puzzled me, that one. How do these men get away with this? Oh yeah, love, I'm just off fishing for the weekend. What? You off fishing? How do you even bring anything back to eat? They put it back in the water usually. What a waste of time. Because basically what they read is I need a weekend sitting with my buddies, usually sadly drinking or whatever else, and chatting and not doing much with a rod sitting in the water and now and again you get a pull on it. Okay, and men do this again. I'll tell you why part of it, I think that selfish gene kicks in. And then suddenly they start planning their own lives. Men can do this, we can all do that, we have that more than women. Women are just more pre-programmed to think about the kids more. To think about those things more than men. Men have a tendency a lot of the time to be more self-oriented in life. Well, if you have a wife to love, you have kids to bring up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And by the way, the nurture and admonition of the Lord, he's there with you the whole time, right? He's there, he's a very present, he's a very real presence, isn't he? As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place. Don't be like that stupid bird, basically, that leaves their nest. What a stupid bird to do that, right? Don't do that, don't leave your nest, don't leave your place. Don't be a stupid man, whether temporarily or not. Focus on your kids, focus on your wife, focus on your family, focus on your place. As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place. And I think that's the lesson there, is just don't be like that stupid bird. Don't be like that stupid bird that wanders from her nest. Be that man that stays where he should be, with his family, protect his family, looking after his family, providing for his family, being there for his family. As fathers, we have a responsibility to also parent our kids as well. It's fathers being told to bring them up in the nurture and ammunition of the Lord. Verse 9. Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, so does the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel. So, ointment and perfume are a lot nicer to smell than someone's BO wafting up your nose, isn't it? It rejoices the heart. And when the alternative is someone's BO, then definitely the ointment and perfume rejoice your heart, don't they? When someone goes past you and you've just breathed in at the wrong time up your nose, you go, oh no. And then you actually smell ointment and perfume. It rejoices you, cheers you up, doesn't it? And you've got to get that right, though, because certain smells, when done right, are enjoyable. And when I say when done right, you can have the opposite. Think about, for example, if you walk through the duty-free section at an airport. Okay, that ain't rejoicing your heart. You'd be lucky to get out of there in one piece. I mean, some people would be falling down dead in it. I mean, it's like chemicals coming from everywhere, isn't it, right? But I think good quality ointment and perfume should rejoice the heart. And the heart can also be rejoiced by having a sweet friend that you're able to go to for hearty counsel, which is what you're saying. So that the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel, it rejoices the heart, is what it's saying, okay? Hearty, by the way, sincere, warm, you could add strong, healthy. So there are people that you can go to for counsel, knowing that it's not begrudging. It's not to prove themselves. They're not storing it up for later. Because there are people that you can't go to counsel for because you know they're just trying to chalk it up and use it for something else. When they're not doing any of that, when it's strong, sincere, healthy counsel, it rejoices the heart, doesn't it? I don't know if you've ever had that, when you've gone to someone, you've gone for some counsel, you've gone to talk about things and you just know, yeah, that was some solid counsel, that was a good discussion and it rejoices you. Yeah, that's what I needed. I needed someone to tell me straight, I needed someone to say that I know there wasn't an ulterior motive, they weren't suddenly trying to tell me how great they are, they weren't suddenly trying to put me down, they weren't, they just, it was hearty counsel. And when you've had some sound counsel, it's pleasing, it makes you hold that person in high esteem, doesn't it, as well. So when you get that from someone, you think, yeah, that's someone that I hold in high esteem, I respect that person. Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, so does the sweetness of a man's friend by heart to counsel. If you want to rejoice your friend's heart, you want to give heart to counsel, you basically, you need to sweeten them up, or sweeten up yourself, maybe, with the word of God, because that's ultimately where the heart counsel comes from. Good counsels from the word are at least in line with the word. Okay, it will always be in line with the word of God. If it goes outside of the word of God, if it's not in line with the word of God, that's not hearty counsel. We should all want to be sweet friends, I believe, with the ability to give heart to counsel, so how do you do that? Read it more, read the Bible more, read it regularly, read it every day, read it in the morning, read it in the evening, you know what, you'll be able to give some hearty counsel, because it should, therefore, line up with the word of God. Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, so does the sweetness of a man's friend by heart to counsel. The lesson is to be that sweet friend with the hearty counsel, so read and study it more. Verse 10. Thine own friend and thy father's friend forsake not, neither go into thy brother's house in the day of thy calamity, for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off. Now the first lesson here is to not forsake your friends, and that includes your father's friends, you probably say your parents' friends. This isn't talking about associates, it's not talking about maybe even worse frenemies, you know, people that claim they're friends and they're not, they're just like associates, people that you've inherited knowing but you know they hate you really, but this is a legitimate friend. And if a friendship is some sort of equal yoking, which is what a friendship should be, it should be an equal yoking, a legitimate friend should be someone else saved. Now, just to make it clear, and obviously that includes family too, you can have friends of your family, and it's not to say to cast off anyone unsaved, I'm not saying that, but without salvation equal yoking is impossible. It's impossible. You can't have an equal friendship with someone like, you know, you can't combine light with darkness. Okay, you can't have that, you know, the Bible's very clear about that. We should be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, okay, for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness, right? And it's not that these people are worse than us or anything else, but you just will not have, with time you won't have something in common. If you're going the way of God, what usually happens is you'll be pulled away from the things of God, sadly. Again, talking about an equal friend, nothing wrong with, I'm not saying discard your old friends, you know, you might be the only chance of them hearing the Gospel and getting saved, but what you shouldn't do is have some sort of equal friendship. You shouldn't be best buddies with an unsaved person if you're saved. It's not going to work, okay? Okay, however, with that in mind, don't forsake, don't desert, don't abandon your own friend, or a friend of the family, talking about a legitimate friend here, a friend of the family, you can think about friends that maybe your parents had or whatever else. Again, I think the assumption would be people that are legitimate friends, because a lot of people forsake friends at the drop of a hat, don't they? I mean, you look back in life, you probably look back to many friends you may have had, friends you know people have had that are no longer friends anymore, a lot of people forsake friends, for various reasons. Then he said, neither go into thy brother's house in the day of thy calamity, which is a disastrous time for you, it's a time of misery, calamity. The brother here is, I believe, referring to that friend, okay? And he's saying not to go there when that disaster strikes. And I think perhaps because that's when you're going to be your worst, when you're going to put strain on that relationship. So in the same way that, sadly, you have to be told not to forsake friendships, let me tell you when a lot of friendships get forsaken, when the chips are down, when one side of that friendship is having a hard time, is in the day of their calamity, is having some problems, and that's a lot of the time when a friend will then forsake them, will then discard them. So, maybe what he's saying is that that's not the best time to go and see that old friend or family friend when you're at your worst. And you think, well why not, shouldn't I be able to go there and get cheered up? Well, I think he's saying don't forsake them, but also don't risk making them want to forsake you. And because we're sinful people, and people just can't deal with, a lot of the time, your hard times in life and other problems and things like that. He's saying it's better to have someone close than to drive someone away. I believe that the proverb is a reminder of the importance of legitimate friends to not forsake them or encourage them to forsake you. So, to keep them close and not push them away, basically. That's what I believe in verse 10. Basically, the lesson is be a wise friend, be a wise friend. Okay, verse 11. So, I believe that this statement applies in two ways, okay. Number one, okay, it's a father, which is what this is, you know, first and foremost, it's Solomon writing to Rehoboam, it's a father writing to his son. And you could expand that to a parent, to their child obviously, okay. He's saying to be wise so that he can answer the person that approaches him. And look, okay, parents out there, people want our kids to fail. Okay, especially if you're saved, if you're trying to live for God, people really want your kids to fail. They want your kids to mess up, they want them to fail. The second you chose to raise your children biblically, sadly, family, friends, colleagues all wanted them to fail. That's just reality. The second you started trying to do things God's way, they wanted your kids to fail. They wanted them to fail because it shines a light on their choices. Suddenly they see it as a competition now. Suddenly they see it as you're shining the light on their failings, on their bad choices as parents. Maybe you chose not to jab them up to the eyeballs, you know, when they were first born. And now they really want our kid to get sick. Sadly, now they really want them to get ill because you chose 30 jabs in the first year of life might not have been the most sensible thing to be doing, right? Maybe you chose to feed them properly from young because some people choose to do that. Some people are like, no, I want to feed my kids, I want to feed them healthy food, everything else. They're desperate for those kids to fail. They want to give them everything unhealthy and everything they can and put, oh, that healthy diet, look how sick they still are, hmm, you know, and everything else. Maybe you chose to entertain them properly. Maybe you chose, you know what, I want to do healthy things with my kids. I ain't just going to shove my kid on the iPad. I'm not just going to shove my kid in front of a TV all day every day and go, well, I'm sure there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, as if there could be any weirdo producers who want to brainwash my children every day. I mean, what a preposterous thing to think of, right, on the television. Maybe you chose to try and do things the right way. Maybe you chose to try and entertain them the right way. And you know what, they're desperate for you to fail. They're desperate for your kids to end up being a tearaway. They're desperate for your kids to mess up. They're desperate for your kids to be naughty. Maybe you chose to dress them properly. Maybe you thought, yeah, you know what, I want to dress my daughter like a young lady, not like some sort of whore out there. Maybe I'm going to dress my sons like a proper boy and not like some sort of little rent boy somewhere, like they all are. Maybe I'm going to try and dress my kids properly. Make my girls look like young ladies. Make my boys look like young men. And you know what, they are desperate for you to fail. They want you to fail. They want your children sleeping around as quick as they possibly could. They want you to fail with it all. Maybe you chose to homeschool them. And what will they do? They'll test your kids. They'll come round your house and start giving them exams to prove that you've messed it up, to prove that you must have gone on. They're desperate for you to fail. Maybe you chose to just avoid all that filth. You're like, I'm going to try and avoid the filth, avoid the sin, avoid booze around and all that. Believe me, they want your kids to fail. They want them drinking. They want them out doing all sorts of filth. They want them fornicating. They want them to mess up, sadly. You go, what sort of people are like that? That's just people. People that hate the fact that your choice is shining the light on their bad choices. He said, my son, be wise and make my heart glad that I may answer him that reproacheth me. And do you know what he's saying? He's saying, kids, you've had all this opportunity. You've been given all this chance. If you've been raised in biblical homes with the Bible, with parents who are trying to put time and effort into you, not just shove you off with whoever, who are actually trying to raise you, do the right thing. He's saying, make my heart glad that I may answer him that reproaches me. It's like, don't just mess it all up, because you still have a choice to make, kids. And you know who's going to get reproached most. It's not you, it's your parents. It's your parents. But there's another way that this applies. He said, my son, be wise and make my heart glad that I may answer him that reproaches me. Number two is the Father writing to his children. The Father writing to his children. With the devil being him that reproaches God via God's children. Revelation 12, 10. And when we're wise, the devil's accusations are empty. And it makes God's heart glad, doesn't it? God's heart is glad. We make his heart glad. Excuse me, when we're wise that he may answer him that reproaches him. How are we wise? Proverbs 2, 6 says, for the Lord giveth wisdom. Out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. It all comes from the Word. It comes from reading, it comes from hearing, it comes from applying it to your life. And you know what? Here's another incentive to do that. You make God happy. You make God's heart glad when you do that. And he has an answer to him that reproaches him. It's like, have you considered my servant Job? Have you considered my servant you fill in the blank? Wouldn't it be great to be able to say that? To feel like God could say that about you. Maybe not have to go through what Job went through. Have you considered him? But let's think about someone else now. Maybe we could just, just a fleeting thought, right? But he said, my son be wise, make my heart glad that I may answer him that reproaches me. We're all being told, perhaps even pleaded with too, to be wise. And I think this short verse is giving us some other reasons to be wise for those that suffer approach due to us. Okay, so kids here you can say that about your parents, but for us as adults we can say that about God. But that wisdom is also for our own good. Okay, that wisdom, being wise is for our own good as we're going to see then in the next verse, verse 12. A prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. So this is another one of those Proverbs that's repeated, okay? Proverbs 22, 3 said exactly the same thing. Proverbs chapter 22, 3 said a prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. Why is it repeated? Because it's of utmost importance. Upmost importance. Prudent is cautious, circumspect, practically wise. Careful of the consequence of enterprises, measures or actions. Cautious not to act when the end is of doubtful utility or probably impracticable. And doesn't this repeated proverb scupper some false doctrine? It scuppers the inane ramblings of Calvinism. Scuppers it. Scuppers it. The inane ramblings of Calvinism, well, why are we being told a prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished? Because you have a choice. Because you have a choice in life. It scuppers that nothing will harm you if you're saved type false doctrine out there. Well, if you're saved, God will just protect you. No, you need to be prudent as well. Be prudent. God gives you the choice in life. We all have choice in life. Now we're being encouraged to be prudent to avoid evil in life and not be simple or ignorant of it and then receive punishment, okay? Look, life is full of choices. It requires decisions to be made. And when you're prudent, which is a good thing, okay, being circumspect, being careful, cautious, sensible, careful of consequences, it's how God wants us to be. And it's what will help you avoid evil. Look, there are people, for example, okay, that you just, you can't just talk to on a level like you would others. You need to be prudent in those situations. Some people are just too fragile, aren't they? We have to deal with different people in different ways. We can't see making decisions. And the prudent man is cautious. He doesn't just walk in like a bull in a china shop and just talks to everyone and say, no, no, no, he's prudent. He's cautious. He sees what's in front of him. He's careful. Because some people are just fragile, aren't they? Some people, you know, they melt at anything. There are places where you know, for example, there are places in life where you know you'll be tempted. You foresee the evil. You're like, I know I'm going to be tempted if I go to that place, if I go to this area, if I do this. And for everyone, it's different for different reasons. For some, maybe the place is serving alcohol. And maybe, you know, look, that's going to tempt me. I shouldn't be around that. I'm going to foresee that evil and hide myself. For others, it may be it's the place with all the scantily clad women. I know maybe that's not something I can deal with. I can't be around that. Maybe it's the smell of weed everywhere for someone else. So I go to that area. I'm going to keep smelling it. And by the end of the day, I'm going to be trying to get myself some weed because that's a door I've already opened and I find it hard to shut. Maybe it's a non-sinful hobby. Maybe it's not just a clear sin, but it's a non-sinful hobby that will dominate your life again. If I start doing that again, I start getting involved with that again, I start playing that again, I know suddenly it's going to be six days a week. And it's going to come above God. There are many, many things that we should, if we're prudent, if we're cautious, if we're careful, if we're circumspect, foresee the evil and hide ourselves. But the simple pass on and the punished, it's simple, it's foolish, it's stupid to carry on with the course of action with a path with a direction that will result in trouble. And that can include a job. Can it include a job? Oh, well it's a job, it's alright. No, some jobs you've got to think, no, I'm going to get in trouble if I carry on with that job. Maybe it's a route home. Maybe it's just a route home that you always do, but you know, look, I need to foresee the evil on that route. Maybe there's temptation on that route, a problem. Maybe you've got a problem with gambling. You used to have a big problem with gambling and that route home takes you past that betting shop every single day. Go another route. Get another job if you need to. Foresee the evil and hide yourself. Don't be simple. Maybe it's a friendship. Maybe it's someone that you know is going to get you in trouble. You know that they're bringing out the worst in you. You know that if you carry on with that friendship, it's just going to end up making you sin. Foresee the evil and hide yourself. A prudent man, and last thing with that, a prudent man will learn from previous mistakes too. Okay, you don't have to tell me, Proverbs 15.31 says, The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise. You want to be wise and prudent is part of wisdom is being prudent. You need to hear the reproof of life. If you've already been burnt by something, you've already been affected by something, you've already failed at something, you've had some reproof of life, you need to hear that, don't you? And not just be simple and keep passing on and keep getting punished. A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. The lesson is to be prudent, to wisely consider causes of actions and decisions to avoid punishment. Maybe even much further down the line. Okay, last one, guys. Last one. Verse 13. Take his garment that is surety for a stranger and take a pledge of him for a strange woman. Now this is another repeated proverb, okay. Proverbs 20 and verse 16 said, Take his garment that is surety for a stranger and take a pledge of him for a strange woman. So, again repeated, again important, being surety is what we would call being a guarantor. It's vouching for someone in one way or another, okay. It's something that is regularly warned about in scripture and aside from being some sort of financial guarantor, you could apply it to many things. Okay, vouching for someone for a job in your workplace. Maybe for someone in a relationship with a friend. Maybe vouching for someone at a church. It's usually not a good thing. In the church sense, after having people vouch for over the years, you know what I mean, I thought about these people, I looked back, I thought of a few who were vouched for in one way or another by someone or something. It ended up being a nightmare, okay. Sadly, people vouch for people and often there's not a good reason to be vouching for them. We had one guy that within a few weeks of me being told what a great guy he was, was publicly slandering everyone and everything he could the second he got on our group chat. Like public slander, accusations, a lot. I mean within weeks. Within weeks of coming to our church, within a day of getting on our group chat. Look, here we're told that if someone wants to be surety for someone that they don't really know, and a lot of people like to recommend people they don't really know, to take something of value like a garment and like I explained last time, this was before Chinese sweatshops, garments were worth money. Take a pledge which is a deposit of value for a strange and usually referring to a whorish woman. I think that the point is that we want to recommend, we want to see the best. We want to give a good word for people, don't we? It's something that the flesh wants to do, you want to just be nice about people, right. So don't trust people who do that, but instead have something of value for when it sadly often inevitably fails, okay. And I think what he's saying here, he says take his garment that is surety for a stranger, take a pledge of him for a strange woman. Notice how these people are surety for a stranger, for a strange woman. Someone they don't really know. They're the over-trusting types. Those are maybe just easily fooled. People that put their trust into people they don't even know. And look, there are people out there, that doesn't mean they're bad people. I mean, some people can be the opposite and they just don't trust anyone that's suspicious of everyone. But some people can just be like, everyone's lovely. Oh, they're just such a nice person, you know, while they're like taking the money out of your back pocket or something, you know. Just what could go wrong, you know. And there are people that are over-trusting. People that are like that, you know, people that leave their kids with the agency babysitting or something, you know. It's like, well, what could go wrong? They would even get checked or something. You know, just some random person, things like that. Or worse, with just random people at church that they don't really know. You know, something we try and encourage people not to do. People that tell their closest secrets to the person they met yesterday. And people like that. It's like, we just got on so well. It's like my soulmate, I'm just going to tell them everything, you know. Invite the random Christian male to stay with them and their family. Well, they said they were saved, they might as well come and stay on the sofa, you know. It's like, yeah, but you don't know them, yeah. A lot of the time there are people that are just over-trusting. Verse 13 says, take his garment and his surety for a stranger and take a pledge of him for a strange woman. So he's saying to beware of the over-trusting types. Don't be pulled into behaving the same, okay, as well. So beware of them and don't behave in the same way. Take a garment, take a pledge, basically. Have something to fall back on. Don't be over-trusting yourself. And that was Proverbs, chapter 27, verses 1 to 13. And on that we're going to finish in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for your book of wisdom there, Lord. Thank you for all the wisdom we can get from it. Thank you for all those nuggets of wisdom we can get from those first 13 verses. Please help everyone here to just want to apply it to their lives, to want to grow, to want to be wiser, to want to go away and just apply what they've heard today to their lives. Help us all to do that, Lord. Help us to get home safe and sound this evening. And help us to return on Wednesday morning for the New Year's service, Lord, to start the year in a great way. In Jesus' name I pray all of this. Amen.