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You You You You You Good evening, everyone. Welcome to strong tower Baptist Church, please Let us all stand and join me on a first hymn this evening. That's hymn number 218 he leadeth me O blessed thought he leadeth me O blessed thought all together on that Oh It's painful for where I would be, for by his hand he leadeth me Sometimes with scenes of deepest gloom, sometimes where even flowers bloom Why waters still o'er troubled seas, till tears this hand that leadeth me He leadeth me, he leadeth me, by his own hand he leadeth me It's faithful for where I would be, for by his hand he leadeth me Lord, I would cast thy hand in mine, Lord, evermore o'er e'en pine Condense whatever, Lord, I see, since this thy hand that leadeth me He leadeth me, he leadeth me, by his own hand he leadeth me It's faithful for where I would be, for by his hand he leadeth me And when my task of death is done, when by thy grace the victory's won His death's not way, thy will not flee, since God through Jordan leadeth me He leadeth me, he leadeth me, by his own hand he leadeth me It's faithful for where I would be, for by his hand he leadeth me Our leadership here, for the great leadership that we have, and thank you all for your word, thank you all for the salvation today, fantastic news And pray Lord that you bless the rest of the service in Jesus' name, Amen Please send your hymnals to hymn number 56 Hymn number 56, Man of Sorrows, what a name Man of Sorrows, what a name, number 56 Man of Sorrows, what a name For the Son of God who came Ruined sinners to reclaim Hallelujah was the Saviour Varying shameless, scoffing rude In my place condemned he stood Sealed my Father with his blood Hallelujah was the Saviour Guilty, violent, helpless we Spontless Lamb of God was he Full atonement, can it be? Hallelujah was the Saviour Lifted up was he to die It is finished was his cry Now in heaven exalted high Hallelujah was the Saviour When he comes our glorious King All is ransomed, hummed to bring Then anew this song we'll sing Hallelujah was the Saviour Just let the usher know that you need one while we're doing that, I'd just like to give a warm welcome to Norma Letty Although she was here, I think it was last week, I didn't get a chance to welcome her So nice to have you with us Norma Letty for today On the front there is a picture of Dover Castle there And we have our verse of the week as well On the front is 1 Corinthians 5.11 Which went with the morning message which was But now I have written unto you not to keep company The only man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer Or a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one known not to eat And we looked at disfellowship in the Christian life, you know how to apply that, how not to apply it, etc. this morning If you miss that, you'd like to look at it, it's on our YouTube channel We have on the inside of your bulletins our service times, you and our Sunday evening service Where we're going to be looking at the book of Proverbs shortly, it's Proverbs chapter 28 part 2 tonight We're going to be looking from verse 15 and as usual it'd be great if you're able to grab a pen When the ushers maybe pop round if you could, it's great to make notes Like I always remind you there's a lot of verses, a lot of different subjects in Proverbs It's not just like a one point sermon or something So hopefully everyone can get something out of it and make a note Something that maybe you can apply to your lives from those 15 Proverbs we're going to look at tonight We have our soul winning times down there and as usual it's 1.30 on a Sunday afternoon Monday evening is at 4pm Usually in Mitcham I think they're going to be doing Croydon High Street tomorrow That's going to be at 4pm, that's with Alex if you want to get involved with the Mitcham soul winning The Tuesday evening soul winning is at 6.30, that's in Basildon And talk to Dan if you'd like to get involved with that Wednesday evening is with myself, it's over here in South End, we go to the High Street That's at 4.30, let me know if you'd like to come along on a Wednesday evening And then the Thursday evening soul winning is with Huna, it's over in Tilbury at 6.30 on a Thursday evening Get in touch with him if you'd like to get involved with that Saturday marathons, we do it the end of each month, the last Saturday of the month And the extra soul winning, they get out there usually on a Sunday and sometimes in a week as well And speak to Neil if you'd like to get involved with that And up in Sheffield, Geyser is organising soul winning up there as well And we have got off the mark for Sunday, for February that is And we've got only a couple today, we hit 20 salvations this afternoon That was great, there was 20 people and that High Street was hotting up a bit today wasn't it It was just so busy as well wasn't it, which is surprising, maybe not, maybe it has something to do with payday Someone was reminding me, but it was busy, some were happy, there was a few nutters around There was a few battles starting there it seems as well, especially with Islam But you know, bring it on, but we ended up with 20 salvations, so that was great 20 for February already then, takes us up to 1.15 for the year as well, so great start to February Great work everyone, and for those, like we remind everyone, we're not going to put everyone on the High Street Just because we want to knock the doors, we want to knock our local areas And thank you everyone, it's all a team effort, the 20 is a whole team going out this afternoon And still getting many verses out to many on the doors and reaching our local community as well Not just those that make it south in High Street, so it's all part of it Yeah that's great work everyone there, and praise God for those salvations So everything else as you see there, you can add 20 to the total there They're soul winning out in Lausanne today, I think they're out in Pretoria as well I'll get some totals for next week on those ones, everything else is as you see down there Excuse me, just to remind you then, so Saturday the 22nd of February is going to be, that's the last Saturday in February So it's going to come around pretty quickly, but it's going to be a soul winning event in Dartford It'll be an afternoon event, it'll be 12.30, sort of meeting, soul winning from one I've been talking to the local information there about places to eat So he gave me a couple of options, but yeah, you'll have to wait until we get there So as usual that'll be a meal afterwards at five o'clock, sort of meal there We'll do a big afternoon of soul winning We think Dartford's going to be pretty receptive, so it's a big shopping area there as well So we'll be quite a few of those spots as well There looks to be some good receptive doors there as well So yeah, it'll be great if you're able to make that, that's our next soul winning marathon We're going to be hitting Dartford And then Saturday 23rd of March is our Mother's Day outing So we do that yearly, a sort of ladies event What we're doing hasn't yet been decided, but just to keep that Saturday free It's the week before where the next week will be a soul winning marathon So it's the week before the Saturday before Mother's Day, which I think falls on the 31st Yeah, 31 days in March So Sunday the 13th of April is our Lord's Supper service That's a once a year event, and if you'd like to partake in that I'll be preaching a bit closer to it, but what we teach is salvation and baptism Like I was mentioning today, that's the decent order of things So to partake in the Lord's Supper, we don't police it, but we do encourage you to get this right You know, get saved if you're not, and if you are saved, get baptised And then come and get involved with the Lord's Supper There are things God wants us to do, God commands us to do And nothing better than being in the will of God in life That's Sunday the 13th of April, and then Sunday the 20th is our Easter Sunday service And we'll provide some food here as well, so please if you plan to come to that And then stay around for lunch as well, we'll have some food here in the church for Easter Sunday And then we've got May the 30th, so like I said earlier, this is the final date change on this It is definitely going to be May the 30th, that's Friday the 30th, and Saturday May the 31st And that's going to be in Manchester, that's our preaching and soul winning event there We're going to be preaching up there on a Friday, soul winning on a Saturday It'll be good to get people up there, if you're able to get up there it'll be great We're trying to just generate, not only get salvation up there, but try and get a bit of momentum going up there We've got people meeting in Sheffield, it's not far from there Get others from Manchester involved and try and get a bit of work going on up in that part of the country as well So yeah, that's going to be May the 31st, please put that in your calendars And then we have our Bible Memory Challenge, it's a new one, it's as usual 6 verses 6 weeks We're on week 1, it's 1 Kings 8.56 which is Please turn your mobile phones off, put them on silent for the service, put them on airplane mode if you could Whatever you need to do please Birthday's anniversary, so again we had Lincoln yesterday, so happy birthday Lincoln for yesterday And today it's Emanuela and Francesca, so happy birthday again Francesca, happy birthday again Emanuela We hope you're having a good day, a nice birthday We won't sing again, but we do have the Satin Brewers wedding anniversary on Wednesday And then we've got also Nicole from over in Switzerland, it's her birthday on Wednesday as well And then we've got next after that is Ben Bella, etc. So please let my wife know your birthday's anniversary, if you haven't let me know if you want details for how to make online donations Ma'am, we're a family integrated church and we do want the kids and services, but please just bear in mind the rules I think everyone here, you know the rules, so on that we're going to pass back over to you Our next hymn this evening is hymn number 347, 347 I Surrender All, hymn number 347 All to Him I freely give, I will ever love and trust Him, in His presence daily near I surrender all, I surrender all, all to Thee my blessed Savior, I surrender all All to Jesus I surrender, make me Savior, Holy Thine Let me fill Thy Holy Spirit, truly know that Thou art mine I surrender all, I surrender all, all to Thee my blessed Savior, I surrender all All to Jesus I surrender, Lord, I give myself to Thee Fill me with Thy love and power, let Thy blessings fall on me I surrender all, I surrender all, all to Thee my blessed Savior, I surrender all Great singing, can I please ask Brother Bella and Brother Seth to do our offering Let us pray Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have had a reacting to heal a woman and to praise the Lord We pray that You will do our part to raise Your Spirit and that You may be paid by the Christian We also pray that You may have this offering now and that You may contribute to Your work In Jesus' name we pray, Amen We pray that You will do our part to raise Your Spirit and that You may contribute to Your work We pray that You will do our part to raise Your Spirit and that You may contribute to Your work We pray that You will do our part to raise Your Spirit and that You may contribute to Your work We pray that You will do our part to raise Your Spirit and that You may contribute to Your work We pray that You will do our part to raise Your Spirit and that You may contribute to Your work We pray that You will do our part to raise Your Spirit and that You may contribute to Your work We pray that You will do our part to raise Your Spirit and that You may contribute to Your work Please turn to Proverbs 28 Proverbs 28 the Bible reads The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof But by man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged A poor man oppresseth the poor is like a sweeping rain which leadeth no food They that forsake the law praise the wicked, but such as keep the law contend with them Evil men understand not judgment, but they that seek the Lord understand all things Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness than he that is perverse in his ways though he be rich Whoso keepeth the law is a wise son, but he that is a companion of righteous men shameth his father He that by usury and unjust gain increaseeth his substance he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law even his prayer shall be abomination Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way he shall fall himself into his own pit But the upright shall have good things in possession The rich man is wise in his own conceit, but the poor that have understanding searcheth him out When righteous men do rejoice there is great glory, but when the wicked rise a man is hidden He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Happy is the man that feareth always, but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief As a roaring lion and a ringing bear so is a wicked ruler over the poor people The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor, but he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit, let no man stay him Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved, but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread, but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough A faithful man shall abound with blessings, but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent To have respect of persons is not good, for for a piece of bread that man will transgress He that hasteth to be rich shall have an evil eye and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue Whoso robeth his father or his mother and sayeth it is no transgression, the same is the companion of a destroyer He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife, but he that puteth trust in the Lord shall be made fat He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool, but whoso walketh wisely he shall be delivered He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack, but he that hideeth his eyes shall have many a curse When the wicked rise men hide themselves, but when they perish the righteous increase Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. I pray Lord that you'll fill Pastor Taverner with your Spirit as he preaches your word and I pray Lord that we'll all be moved by your Spirit and we have understanding of the word that you have ready for us today In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Amen. Right, like I said earlier, just grab a pen if you haven't, the ushers at the back haven't if you didn't manage to get one We're in Proverbs 28 and it's part two and it's starting from verse 15 Verse 15 of Proverbs 28 says this, as a roaring lion and a ranging bear, so is a wicked ruler over the poor people I'm going to pray and then we're going to get started. Father, thank you Lord for these next 14 Proverbs we're going to look at in this chapter Lord, help me to preach them in a way that's going to be effective, that people are going to be able to apply them to their lives to be able to go away and think upon them, dwell upon them Lord, ultimately to edify your people Lord that are sitting here in this room Lord that want to hear your word preached, help me to preach accurately, boldly and full of your Spirit in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Okay, so it said, as a roaring lion and a ranging bear, so is a wicked ruler over the poor people So we've got two pretty ferocious animals here, the lion and the bear, ranging is a sort of, sort of hungrily searching if you're wondering whereas a roaring lion is on the whole showing power, okay, that's a big part of that roar, to show power Male lions, they roar it seems to establish dominance, defend their territory, to communicate though as well Apparently they roar to communicate with other members of their pride, to attract mates Male lions roar to announce their availability to potential mates, but to scare off intruders as well Lions roar to scare off other lions that threaten their territory, but ultimately to intimidate prey as well So apparently the roar can create confusion or fear, offering the lion a psychological advantage during a hunt which is why the devil is described in 1 Peter 5.8 as a roaring lion, which says Be sober, be vigilant, because you adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour So you've got the power displaying hunting lion and the hungry bear searching far and wide for prey And this is what a wicked ruler is like to the poor people it's saying here It's a predator, like a predator searching for his prey Why the poor? Why does he mention the poor people? He's not saying, oh those poor old people He's talking about those that don't have much wealth And it's because they're the easier target They're the ones without power, without influence, who just can't really do much about it They can't do much about, you know, the things which are put upon them About being, you know, basically whether it's persecuted, you want to say, or oppressed Maybe would be a more fitting word Think of this nation for example Who are the most affected by our wicked rulers? Who are the most affected out there? It's the poor, isn't it? By the situations that we've got going on right now, those vying for jobs With the, what is it, apparently 1.2 million majority unskilled immigrants that came in last year It's just, it's unsustainable And who's affected by that? It's the poor, isn't it? It's the poor that are vying for those jobs The wealthy, it doesn't really affect them too But in fact, with a lot of the time the wealthy, they end up getting wealthier from it What about those old pensioners relying on winter fuel payments? You know, I know that stuff's in the media a lot, but it's true though, isn't it? It's those people that are affected by wicked rulers Those who can't afford private healthcare on top of their national insurance contributions And the reality of it is, if you want, at least now, it seems, it's got to the point where if you want just even a What's not a horrendous sort of health service, a horrendous experience of going to the doctor or hospital You pretty much need to go private, don't you? But the poor can't afford that In fact, most people can't afford it, it seems, as well Which, by the way, is on top of what you paid for it So it's not a freebie, like people like to think Which always never ceases to amaze me when you go to the doctors and hospitals and they treat you like you're getting some sort of freebie But then you get people who are like the opposite They're like, oh, but it's so great, oh, the NHS is so lovely and wonderful And they've just been sitting there for eight hours waiting to be seen Ten hours with, you know, just sitting in a waiting room with people getting dragged in and out and stuff And vomiting everywhere Oh, they were so nice down there though Thank you, you know But it's pretty bad, isn't it? It's pretty bad They're the ones that are affected though Ultimately, those that can't afford the private healthcare on top Those renters dealing with huge rent increases Again, I mean, that's gone ridiculously high Again, those that can't afford more Those who legitimately rely on benefits Competing with the invading hordes of Muslims, it seems, who receive preference And I think that goes without saying I think most people are aware of this sort of thing The wealthy aren't the ones affected In fact, like I said, they often get cheaper labour As a result of it Those who really have wealth When you flood nations with cheap unskilled labour Well, those that are paying the labour are better off for it, aren't they? They can have their zero hour contracts and pay next to nothing for work Which you'd be getting paid a lot more for The wealthy, they're not the ones who are affected by it They aren't the ones being preyed upon They are least affected Yet, they're the most influential, aren't they? Which is why often But aren't the poor also so often targeted by the wicked rulers of false religions as well? So poor, they're usually targeted You think, why? They just prey upon them And I think because the poor, they're so often receptive to the Gospel But maybe they're often easier targets for false Gospels too Maybe they're more likely to be deceived by the false Gospel For whatever reason you want to think Maybe where the pride's lower Then they're maybe more likely to be conned by something bad as well So as much as the poor are receptive to the Gospel They can be also receptive to false Gospels With a big one that we were talking about earlier just being that Apparently we are a health, wealth, prosperity church Someone claimed today No, we're not a health, wealth, prosperity church But that's a big one, isn't it, that targets poor people? So where he said there's a roaring lion and a ranging bear So is a wicked ruler over the poor people I think the proverb's a reminder of who is mostly affected by wicked leaders So they've got to be, maybe you could say who we try to reach first They should be who we try to reach with the truth With the help, with trying to Not only get them saved, but then maybe try and change their lives for the better as well Because they're the ones that are targeted by those wicked rulers Verse 16 The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor But he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days So the prince here, it's not that he's wanting Sorry He's not wanting or trying to get understanding It means he lacks understanding, that's what it's saying He's in want of it, we might say So the prince that wanteth understanding, he's in want of it, he lacks it He doesn't have it And remember a prince, another name we might use as a principle It's a leader, he lacks understanding And he's perhaps by default then a great oppressor And just to remind you, an oppressor is one that oppresses One that imposes unjust burdens on others One that harasses others with unjust laws of unreasonable severity And this is a great oppressor They're a big time oppressor, maybe we'd say, why? Well if the knowledge of the holy is understanding Which comes from learning and doing his precepts If you remember, Job 28.28 says it like this So someone who is in want, they lack any understanding They don't try to live right, they don't depart from evil He's going to abuse any position of leadership they're given, aren't they? They're going to oppress those beneath them Bad people make bad leaders Okay, that's the reality of it Think of the oppressive government And governments throughout history, bad leaders Bad people, it's not like they're just such a nice person But they just became a really terrible leader of a nation It's usually bad people Think of the froward boss who oppresses his employees And if any of you have worked for some bad bosses It's usually because they're bad people, isn't it? They're just bad people, they're bullies a lot of the time People who just take what they can from people On the other hand, it's covetousness as well They're trying to get the every penny they can from you And usually, what is it that those in many positions of leadership are driven by in general And with that in mind, it's money, isn't it? A lot of people in leadership are driven by money The oppression usually has an end goal of more wealth That's what usually is the goal of it, that's what happens The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor But he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days So the oppressive prince isn't going to last in the long run But the person that hates covetousness will The prince that wanteth or we saw is lacking understanding If they're not departing from evil, covetousness is going to be present And that's a contrast, okay? An oppressive prince and a person that hates covetousness And shouldn't we all hate covetousness? We should hate it You should hate covetousness You should have a hatred fit Make a hatred fit if you don't have it Find a hatred fit In Exodus 18 You don't have to turn there, but in Exodus 18 Moses' father-in-law Jethro Who is the priest of Midian Told him the sorts of people to look for to help Moses in leadership It said in Exodus 18 21 Moreover, thou shalt provide So this is people that help him, like you could say maybe like Deacons of that huge, humongous megachurch in the wilderness These are people in leadership Exodus 18 21 says Moreover, thou shalt provide Out of all the people, able men Such as fear God, men of truth Hate in covetousness They hate it And that was his criteria He said you need to find able men Such as fear God, men of truth So they're honest people and they hate covetousness And place such over them to be rulers of thousands Rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, rulers of tens So someone that hates covetousness Is less likely to oppress those he leads And it seems will also Live a longer life This is a contrasted person going to live a longer life He said the prince that wanted to understand Is also a great oppressor But he that hated covetousness Shout for long his days And aside from the avoidance of so many pitfalls in life By not being covetous Because that's what covetousness does It pulls you into pitfalls, into snares Traps You're at least more likely as well I would say to honour your father and mother financially too Which is something that we're told to do Exodus 12, 2012 gives a promise at the end of it Where it says honour thy father and thy mother That thy days may be long upon the land Which the Lord thy God giveth thee So there's a little side point with that as well And one of the ways that we're told we'll live long Is by honouring our father and mother That is ultimately talking or at least One of the ways we do that is financially In their later days And someone who's covetous Is probably less likely to do that They're more likely to say it is a gift As we see in the gospels But verse 16 says the prince that wanted to understand Is also a great oppressor But he that hated covetousness Shout for long his days So the lesson is whether you're in leadership or not To be the opposite of that great oppressor Do that how? By hating covetousness Hate covetousness Verse 17 So what does it mean to do violence to the blood of any person? Well turn to Genesis chapter 9 where we see a similar term We're going to turn to Genesis 9 I'm going to read that verse again Verse 17 where we were just said A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person Shall flee to the pit Let no man stay him Well Genesis 9 in verse 5 says this Genesis 9 5 God said this Fully your blood of your lives Will I require at the hand of every beast Will I require it Sorry at the hand of every beast Will I require it And at the hand of man At the hand of every man's brother Will I require the life of man Who so shedeth man's blood By man shall his blood be shed For in the image of God May he man So the blood is synonymous with your life For me Proverbs 28 17 is talking about murder He's doing violence to the blood It's murder Shedding man's blood It's committing murder And here in Genesis 9 God is ordaining the death penalty for murder isn't he? That's what he said He said the blood of your lives will I require At the hand of every beast will I require At the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man Who so shedeth man's blood By man shall his blood be shed So he's ordaining He's ordaining basically capital punishment there And back in Proverbs 28 17 he's basically saying that there's nowhere to hide They will end up in the grave He said a man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit Let no man stay him Now pit isn't always talking about hell by the way In case you're wondering For example Jeremiah 41 9 you have to turn there Jeremiah 41 9 says Now the pit wherein Ishmael had cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had slain because of Gedaliah Was it which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel And Ishmael the son of Netheniah filled it with them that were slain So here it was just used as a communal grave So where it said in verse 17 then Proverbs 28 A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit Let no man stay him He's basically saying that murderers will get recompensed Don't try to stay, hinder, obstruct him from getting what he deserves Which is basically, if you think about it What a lot of people think about is that If you think about it If you think about it If you think about it If you think about it Basically, if you think about it What a load of bleeding heart liberals did here And elsewhere in the world When they decided that murderers shouldn't be put to death I mean, God ordained it It's God's way If someone claims to Nations claim to be based upon the word of God Their laws Their traditions and things they do Well, God ordained a death penalty for murder Didn't he? And of course They want you to think of wrong convictions As if being locked in a cage For the rest of your life is okay You know And really that's just moving the goal post Because the answer isn't change to punishment The answer is improve the judgment You know, so Well, let's just lessen all punishments Because who knows if there might be a wrong conviction one day Well, how about have judges That hate covetousness for starters That might be a good start, wouldn't it, right? But I suppose that this proverb Is really telling us not to interfere with God's judgments That's what really I think it's saying A man that doeth well into the blood of any person Shall flee to the pit Saying they should die, basically Let no man stay him Don't try to stop that And you could apply this to many things, though Where God's word prescribes one thing And people try to change it They try to interfere, claim that they're more loving than God We're just more loving than God Because we don't think you should be as harsh as that Look, no one's more loving than God God is love Like we say many times You can't love flowers without hating weeds You can't love life Without hating people that take life And Here We see that a man that doeth well into the blood of any person Shall flee to the pit Let no man stay him So the lesson is to get in line with God's ways Don't think that you Are somehow more loving than God Because you're more liberal than God In certain ways 18 Who so walketh uprightly shall be saved But he that is perverse in his ways Shall fall at once Now this is just I want to give you a reminder here That when the Bible says be saved It's not always talking about salvation from hell Okay, for example Numbers 10 9, I'm going to quote Numbers 10 9 says And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you Then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets And ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God And ye shall be saved from your enemies Is he talking about spiritual salvation there? Not at all He's talking about the physical salvation From their enemies coming to To attack them In Acts 27 20 After battling through a storm called Euroclydon Luke writing said And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared And no small tempest lay on us All hope that we should be saved Was then taken away He's talking about salvation from hell Just talking about being saved from Shipwreck from drowning in this storm in the sea So it can Obviously refer to spiritual But it can refer to physical salvation Which is what Solomon writing here In Proverbs 28 18 is talking about He said He that is perverse in his ways Shall fall at once How do we know? How do we know that's what he's talking about? I'll tell you how we know The doctrine is built upon the foundation I like this as a way of explaining it Our doctrine is built upon the foundation 1 Corinthians 3 says For other foundation can no man lay Then that is laid which is Jesus Christ That's what our foundation is We understand the Bible through the lens of the foundation And the foundation is that Salvation is through faith in Christ alone The doctrine of Christ is grace through faith That is what the doctrine of Christ That's the foundation That's Jesus Christ But other so-called foundation Any other so-called foundation That isn't faith alone in Christ alone For salvation Would result in getting verses like this wrong Would result in looking at a verse like this And thinking You must have to walk upright to go to heaven But the Bible says clearly Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ And thou shalt be saved The Bible says it's not of works Walking uprightly is a work It's a hard work sometimes for many isn't it It's a hard work for everyone To ultimately walk uprightly throughout life Is actually Let's face it to really be upright In God's eyes is impossible Without faith in Christ 1 Peter 2 says Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture Behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone Elect precious and he that believeth on him Shall not be confounded You won't be confounded if you believe On the Lord Jesus Christ So with our foundation That cornerstone Of believe on the Lord Jesus Christ And thou shalt be saved With that foundation of whosoever believeth in him Shall not perish but have everlasting life With that foundation Of faith in Christ alone We understand that verse 18 of Proverbs 28 Cannot be talking about salvation It's talking about being saved through life Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved But he that is perverse in his ways Shall fall at once There are many pitfalls, many trials, many tribulations Many challenges throughout life And we need saving from them If we were sinless We would be fine, however none of us are sinless There's no one here that's sinless But walking uprightly Is something that we can try to do though And it's walking, behaving honestly Isn't it? So of course to be ultimately upright There's none righteous, no not one But to walk uprightly After salvation To try and live right to do the right thing Is something we can try to do And something we can achieve as well To some degree And it's a daily thing that we're trying to achieve For example not trying to deceive our way Out of trouble And specifically talking about trials and tribulations People will, won't they? People are all right, I can be honest Until suddenly I've got some problems here Suddenly I've got some trouble here Suddenly I've got to challenge a test And now a little deceit here Why don't I just say something else Not using guile Not trying to manipulate your way out Of issues, problems, trouble Using deception to solve your problems And a lot of people That's the first thing to reach towards Isn't it? I've been caught out or something's happened Or I've got a problem here This looks awkward, this is uncomfortable Deception time To save ourselves from danger, tribulation Persecution No, it's walking uprightly That gets us through the problems Why? Why is it walking uprightly? Choosing not to go down the deceptive route Choosing not to just go down the open sin Why is it walking uprightly? Proverbs 2.7 Says He lieth up sound wisdom for the righteous He is a buckler To them that walk uprightly So basically a buckler Is like a huge shield that you can hide behind God is a huge Shield to them that walk uprightly So you can convince yourself that the lies Of deception will solve your problems But it's God that you really Want to solve your problems, isn't it? You want God to deal with this situation You've got a problem, you've got some awkward situation I don't know what to do in this situation Should I lie? Should I deceive a bit? Should I manipulate a bit? No, get God to deal with it You do that by just trying to deal with it uprightly Who so walketh uprightly shall be saved But he that is perverse in his ways Shall fall at once And again, clearly not talking about salvation Hell doesn't come straight away, does it? If you're perverse in your ways You're not falling at once There are a lot of people that are perverse in their ways And aren't going straight to hell Many live out long, unsaved lives Don't they? This applies really to God's people In times of trouble Where there's an opportunity to fall Being perverse in your ways It's not talking about a pervert As we would think of the word It's someone doing things contrary to God's ways It's someone that does the opposite The opposite to what God wants you to do And when you do that, you fall at once So you won't get through the trial Without doing things God's way Yeah? You're just going to fall You've got tribulation in front of you and you're like I'll do the opposite I'm going to sin my way out of this You're just going to fall Okay? Who so walketh uprightly shall be saved But he that is perverse in his ways Shall fall at once I think the proverb is an exhortation to be upright in the hard times Or you will fall Verse 19 He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread But he that followeth after vain persons Shall have poverty Excuse me, enough Now this proverb is very similar to a proverb If you remember back in chapter 12 Back in chapter 12, verse 11 It said he that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread But he that followeth vain persons Is void of understanding Okay? So here we saw He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread Rather than satisfied But he that followeth after vain persons Shall have poverty enough Rather than being void of understanding But there's some pretty similar stuff there What does it mean to till? Well, tillage is the operation, practice or art Of ploughing land for seed Keeping the ground free from weeds Which might impede the growth of crops Tillage includes manuring, ploughing, harrowing And rolling land or whatever is done To bring it to a proper state to receive the seed And the operation of ploughing, harrowing and hoeing The ground to destroy weeds And loosen the soil after it is planted And if you've never ploughed Harrowed or hoed Let me tell you that's a hard part of gardening So you can have I don't know if you ever thought I'm going to grow a vegetable garden Wait till it gets in the winter Just before spring time I'll prepare the ground for it Usually that's where it ends with a lot of people Especially if they want a big vegetable garden Because a lot of the time there's a bit of turning over Maybe a lot of turning over of ground There's a lot of digging A lot of pulling out weeds and stuff And that's hard graft, isn't it? It's hard work, it gets your back going Gets your legs going It's graft, it's labour And that's like a little vegetable patch or something Let alone on a bigger scale For food production Without mechanical aids However He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread He's saying that if you put the work in you'll have plenty That's what's going to happen If you put the work in And you can apply this to all areas of life You can just apply it to your working life in general If you put the work in you'll have plenty Proverbs 12.11 says He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread So which one is it? And really it's the same thing Plenty is just full or adequate You'll be satisfied rather than rationing Basically If you put the work in you till your land You put the graft in You put the preparation in as well You could say you will have plenty of bread You'll be satisfied with bread Does it look like it or not? And I say like it or not Because a lot of people don't like it God wants us to work He wants us to work And whether you're a breadwinner, a housewife, studying for the future God wants us to put effort in He just wants you to put effort into your life And when you do that you'll have what you need to be satisfied You'll be satisfied, you'll have what you want And you could even argue with that as well You'll just feel satisfied It's not just you'll have enough You'll just feel satisfied in life There is nothing more satisfying Really Nothing more satisfying It's a very satisfying feeling isn't it When you go to bed at night and you've put in a hard day's work It's a satisfying feeling You feel satisfied You know that you've grafted And that can be in various things I mean obviously physical graft You do especially get that feeling don't you And of course there's endorphins and things release And just feeling physically exhausted and stuff Is a good feeling in the evening You know you've put some work in Especially when you've done something productive But for those who don't have physical jobs It's hard working and achieving At the end of the day knowing you've put hard work in Is a satisfying feeling You will be satisfied And here with bread as well you'll have what you need He said He that titteth his land shall have plenty of bread But he that followeth after vain persons Shall have poverty enough So as opposed to the person that follows after vain Or empty worthless people Which if similar to how Jesus Wants us to follow after him Matthew 10 38 says God is cross and followeth after me Is not worthy of me It's following his example in his footsteps it seems Here it's following the example The ways of vain persons Are empty worthless types Who are empty of effort They're empty of work Perhaps it's those types out there With all their silly schemes to avoid honest graft You get those out there Always got like a new way to avoid graft For some it's petty crime Some it's benefit scams Other it's like easy money ideas Minimal work Maximum profit type stuff You hear about this stuff And people constantly trying to promote stuff You might see adverts for this stuff sometimes Makes £500 a day at home Doing next to nothing But people get pulled into this stuff People follow that stuff Desperately seeking the easy life And you can add to that There's a lot of women out there Just looking for rich men for that Desperately seeking the easy life They don't want to put any work in in life They want the easy life They're following after vain persons He said he that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread But he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough So instead of having enough bread You'll have poverty instead You'll have enough poverty instead Rather than enough bread you could say And I had a family member like this He's an older family relative Who is just always scamming He spent his life scamming And he did I remember many years ago He received some money Everything he had He just blew it in scams Trying to find ways to invest in things Where he could do little to nothing And then he went from that To weird Re-negotiation or something Business To again just try and take money off people That owe money to people And he was just used to Chasing after basically like rich widows And divorcees and things And where is he now? With nothing And he was just one of them people He spent his whole life trying to just avoid Honest work Well he that followeth after vain persons Shall have poverty enough And I think the lesson is simple from the proverb He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread But he that followeth after vain persons Shall have poverty enough Just accept that you have to work hard in life You have what you need And isn't that what we want ultimately in life? Having food and raiment letters there with be content Isn't that really what our goal is? You work hard, you have what you need Which leads on to the next one Verse 20 is A faithful man shall abound with blessings But he that maketh haste to be rich Shall not be innocent So first off, someone that is faithful Which is honest, loyal It can apply to God or to your duties in life Your boss, your spouse Those here you could say all of them really I would say all of them, this is just someone described as faithful Someone that is loyal, honest, upright Will be blessed in various ways He said a faithful man shall abound with blessings But he that maketh haste to be rich Shall not be innocent So someone who maketh haste to be rich The opposite Is someone seeking the quick riches Something that we've seen warned Against a few times in this book already Proverbs 20-21 said An inheritance may be gotten hastily At the beginning, but the end thereof Shall not be blessed Proverbs 13-11 says Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished But he that gathereth by labour shall increase So what's the issue? Why is it diminished? What if you What's the problem with trying to get money quickly? Wealth gotten by vanity We saw in Proverbs 13-11 Here we've seen He that maketh haste to be rich Shall not be innocent What if you use your intelligence to make some money? Isn't that a good thing? Oh, you know, I'm going to find a really clever way A way to make quick money Is that a problem? Well, a couple of things, okay Firstly, is that money that comes quickly goes quickly This is a fact of life If it comes quickly, it goes quickly Proverbs 13-11 said Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished So it's got an empty It's easily gotten, basically With very little put into it Proverbs 28-20 though, it said A faithful man shall abound with blessings But he that maketh haste to be rich Shall not be innocent And the issue here is that this person is making haste To be rich They're making a rush They're in a rush To be rich Their goal is the riches And 1 Timothy 6-9 says But they that will be rich So someone whose goal is riches Fall into temptation and asnare Which drown men in destruction and perdition It's someone whose goal is riches And here it's quick riches They're focusing on the money So straight away, you've got the covetousness issue, haven't you? And with that will often come dishonesty Forsaking other things Because it becomes a god, right? It becomes something that becomes so important in your life And then other things will go out the window With it, morality, honesty And ultimately god, in his ways Because the riches become an idol And what happens, people start just forsaking the things of god to get quick cash And you've probably seen this amongst Christians Where, you know, when you start to get a hint of covetousness They just start to forsake the things of god And money becomes more important Than just serving god, doing what god wants you to do And there are some obvious things that god wants us to do Which is why verse 22 says He that hasteth to be rich Have an evil eye And considerth not that poverty Shall come upon him Which we're going to look at in a minute So again, it's an evil eye Talking about covetousness Here we see that they just won't be innocent So whichever way you cut it You chase quick riches You won't be innocent Something will give with it And like I said, it's just going to go quickly anyway And why does it go quickly? Because when money comes quickly A lot of the time there's less respect for the money There's less care for the money When you haven't had to work to get the money When you haven't had to put in Real work to get it So it just becomes basically worth less anyway So A faithful man shall abound with blessings But he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent The lesson is to not chase riches But instead seek faithfulness In all areas of life And that would include to god then wouldn't it? Okay, verse 21 To have respect of persons is not good For for a price of bread That man will transgress So what does it mean to have respect of persons? Turn to James chapter 2 Turn to James 2 Obviously keep a finger here Which spells it out for us Deuteronomy 1.17 I've got a quote, well you'll turn to James 2 Deuteronomy 1.17 says You shall not respect persons in judgment But you shall hear the small as well as the great You shall not be afraid of the face of man For the judgment is god's And the cause it is too hard for you Bring it unto me and I will hear it He said to be fair When judging between the small and the great And this applying To power or rank Is usually about wealth The small and the great Often and most of the time will come down to The difference in wealth And in James 2 we see the same Thing being spoken about James 2 it says in verse 1 My brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ The Lord of glory with respect of persons For if they come unto you assembly They come with a gold ring in goodly apparel And they come in also a poor man in vile raiment And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay Clothing and say unto him Sit thou here in a good place and say to the poor Stand now there or sit under my footstool Are ye not then partially in yourselves And become judges of evil thoughts So basically What he's trying to say here is that Whether it's judging a matter Or just how you treat people Don't let wealth dictate it Don't let wealth dictate how you judge situations You know, judge a situation between people Or just how you treat someone Don't let wealth dictate it Now keep a finger here in James But go back to Proverbs It said in verse 21 there Proverbs 28 To have respect of persons is not good For through a piece of bread that man Will transgress So it's not good because the bias towards The wealthy person is ultimately Really, what's it really about? What you can get out of them, isn't it? Why would you have bias? Why would you be unfair in judgement? Why would you treat that wealthy person Better because it really comes down To what you think you can get from them as opposed to The poor person, isn't it? What other reason is it? Which could be as minuscule As a piece of bread may be Because what really, you know, you could really Say that, what really are you getting from most The wealthy people you come across in life? I mean, very little What really are you going to get from The rich guy that walks in here as opposed to the poor? Not much, he might give you a nicer Christmas card I don't know, what are you going to get out of him? But people will still do that, so The guy's really rich, he's walked in here Looking really sharp He pulled up in the posh car outside And sadly, automatically, people give That person, you know, just They'll treat that person a bit better But why? What are you getting out of that person? You're still Transgressing, for what? Because verse 9 in James Chapter 2 said this But if you have respect of persons He said, but if you have respect To persons, sorry You commit sin And are convinced of the law as transgressors So you're transgressing because of the Respect to persons, but for what? Well, verse 21 said To have respect to a person is not good for a piece of bread That man will transgress So I think what he's saying is don't prefer the rich Over the poor, you're transgressing for Basically some silly gain Minuscule gain If at all Verse 22 He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye And considerth not that poverty shall Come upon him And we look to, obviously, verse 20 A faithful man shall abound with blessings But he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent So with here in verse 22 saying that the person Has an evil eye, which is someone covetous? Proverbs 23, 6 You don't have to turn there, said Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye Neither desire thou his dainty meets And it was talking about covetous people Seeking gain ultimately from you They want something from you Here it's he that hasteth to be rich Hath an evil eye They have got a covetous eye And considerth not that poverty Shall come upon him So really the point is that people hasting Or rushing, moving quickly to be rich Are covetous, that's what that evil eye is And don't, it seems, They don't consider Or perhaps they don't entertain the idea Of poverty coming upon them They won't accept that it could happen But like we saw When it comes quick, it does go quick And there are a lot of people You can think about, maybe people in the public eye I don't know if you've ever noticed Some of those sportsmen and stuff You know, have kind of Got all this money and then Suddenly they're kind of, you know Bankrupt or something And not many years after you just say What on earth happened? How did that happen? More than, you know Ten lifetimes of a normal salary And you've just Blown it all in several years You know, I've talked before about It always makes me think of that lottery winner Michael Carroll And the guy just Blew it all within it It was a couple of years, wasn't it? It was quite a while ago If anyone remembers this guy He won the lottery and then I think he turned his back garden into like A dodgem sort of Racetrack It's a crazy start But he ended up in debt At the end of it all Say again? Was he on benefits as well? He ended up on benefits At the end of it all I've got a feeling that guy was probably Maybe he was covetous, maybe he wasn't But the quick money just went quickly He did haste to be rich, he got it Quickly from the lottery And you know, it's one reason Why would you even pay the lottery? I mean, aside from Aside from a few reasons What's going to happen with that? Because ultimately you're hasting to be rich, aren't you? And really it's covetous, that's Because Does God really want you to win like Millions of pounds? I'd use it for God Sure Don't worry, I'll give 10% Yeah, what are you going to do with the rest of it? Blow it. And you know what? When it comes to it And it comes to parting with it It gets a lot harder, I'm sure And what's the point in any of that, right? And it's just going to wreck your life, right? And it's covetousness And they don't consider that poverty shall come upon them And that's funny, isn't it? If people even win millions Poverty comes upon them So I think, like I said I think it's just saying beware You could say beware of those chasing quick riches You could say that they have an evil eye So beware of people that chase quick riches And if that is you Remind yourself that if it comes quick It's going to go quick Don't bother chasing quick riches Work for it Verse 23 He that rebuketh the man afterwards shall find more favour Than he that flattereth with the tongue Now, before you go out Trying to make friends rebuking people Trying to get favoured by rebuking someone So don't go off of this Listen first He's not saying to go and do some indiscriminate rebuking That's not what this proverb is saying Just that afterwards After rebuking in the long run You're going to find more favour than the flatterer That's what he's saying So don't think Oh look, I'm going to find more favour if I go out and rebuke him No, you're just going to find more favour than the flatterer It doesn't mean just go out and rebuke people And just to remind you Flattery is insincere praise with a motive Don't start Don't start turning this place into a no-compliment place Sometimes it's nice to hear nice words from people From each other And stuff like that Flattery is when it's insincere It's insincere with an agenda It has a motive It's not just being nice to people And it's something that wicked people do We see it constantly in the book of Proverbs Just reminds us that wicked people flatter It's something they do They give insincere praise With an agenda They want to lower your guard Often they're just setting you up They're spreading a net for your feet However, we like it, don't we? We like it, it feels good People like flattery It feels good to them So sadly, a lot of the time You'll be drawn into the flattery Whereas rebuke Which is being told off harshly Doesn't feel good But just because someone rebuked you Doesn't mean that they're wicked, does it? Does it? Just because someone's told you off, had a go at you Doesn't mean that they're wicked And sometimes we might actually need to rebuke Proverbs 9.8 says And of course, that's not just Some pointless rebuke That rebuke is going to be A worthwhile rebuke But if or when you do rebuke someone It may take a while for them to show you favour again So don't expect it to be automatic He said He that rebuketh the man afterwards Shall find more favour So don't expect it to be Why aren't I finding favour? I'm not flattering you Oh, you're obviously not wise Because you're not loving me Well, it might take a while It's going to have to be a genuine needed rebuke for that as well He that rebuketh the man afterwards Shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue With the flattery often sadly Getting more immediate favour, doesn't it? So the flattery is nice at the time And you might, oh, I like that one Because they keep telling me nice things, right? But what's the point? The point is that if someone really needs to be rebuked Then don't shirk it Sometimes people need rebuke, okay And look, again Don't just try and seek it But sometimes someone does need a telling off, don't they? And you know, it makes you think often You sometimes get these good time parents Who just never say anything They just want to, you know Go too far with that I just never say a bad word to my kids I just want to be the best friend the whole time And the thing is, they're not going to find favour that way In the long run, are they? So I think Basically in the long run People might actually appreciate it And if it is you that's been rebuked Maybe remember that it's better than flattery So if you have been rebuked And listen, if you've been coming here long enough You're going to have got rebuked by the word of God For behind this bulb here If you've got any rebuke then you're either sinless Or I don't know Or you've got something stuck in your ears But You might have hoped I assume a lot of people do appreciate it Because they're still here listening to it But that's what the word of God's for It's to basically improve us And it's not for that And ultimately the favour should go to the word of God Not the person, not the messenger Who's giving the rebuke Because ultimately it's God giving the rebuke And the flattery is doing what? It's just setting you up for a fool So verse 23 says He that rebuked the man after his shall find more favour than he that flattered with the tongue So I think the proverb should remind us Of the importance of occasional rebuke and the dangers Of flattery A few more to go Proverbs chapter 28 and verse 24 now Who so robbeth his father or his mother And saith it is no transgression The same is the companion Of a destroyer Now who would rob their parents? And although robbing does make you think of violent theft And it can be talked about That forcibly stealing It can also just refer to stealing as well in the Bible For example in Malachi 3.8 He says Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me But you say wherein have we robbed thee In tithes and offerings So are they like threatening God Are they like getting God in a headlock or something No it's stealing from God So first off Your parents is bad enough But there are kids And even adults That have done that And you go really? Isn't the biscuit tin? I didn't say cookie jar because we're in England I translated it for you Cookie jar for any Americans out there Isn't the biscuit tin Your parents? It is isn't it? At some age some of you Might have maybe sneaked their hand in the biscuit tin Or the loose change lying around Sadly people have done that haven't they It's like oh you know A little bit extra here That will help me get my bus there Or something else Maybe didn't ask for it You can think of a hundred different ways But here in Proverbs 28 24 It's theft But there's no acceptance of fault at all He said Who so robeth his father or his mother And saith it is no transgression The same is the companion of a destroyer So this is someone It makes you think of an older child or adult Really That's what I think of here And they're justifying it They're claiming that it's no transgression or sin They're entitled to take what they want basically Is what they're saying Now turn to Psalm 17 Turn to Psalm 17 Okay this is a bad person This is what it's talking about here They're the companion of a destroyer To be confused, a destroyer here Is not to be confused with the destroyer Which can apply to God's angel Carrying out his judgement When we see the destroyer in scripture But a or sometimes a destroyer But not talking about the destroyer Can also be those That try to destroy God's people So David said in Psalm 17, the 17th Psalm In verse 3, Psalm 17 3 He said Thou has proved mine heart Thou has visited me in the night Thou has tried me and shalt find nothing I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress Concerning the works of men By the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths Of the destroyer So he said that he's purposed to say the right thing Not to transgress and thanks to God's word He's kept him from the paths Plural of the destroyer Let's see who this destroyer is He said in verse 5 Hold up my goings in thy paths I have called upon thee For thou wilt hear me, O God Incline thy ear unto me and hear my speech Show thy marvellous loving kindness I thou that savest by thy right hand Then which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them Keep me as the apple of the eye Hide me under the shadow of thy wings From the wicked that oppress me From my deadly enemies Who compass me about So the Psalmist here, David, saying That there's wicked people that oppress him Deadly enemies that are compassing, surrounding him They are enclosed in their own fat With their mouth they speak proudly It's those pesky reprobates again, isn't it? Those sons of Belial, the wicked They're speaking proudly He called them the wicked in verse 9 They're his deadly enemies This is the man of God here talking about these deadly enemies So back with that in mind We just saw that these are talking about the paths of the destroyer People trying to destroy him Destroy the work of God Back in verse 24 of Proverbs 28 Which said, who so robbed his father and his mother And said, it is no transgression No transgression, sorry The same is the companion of a destroyer Why a companion of and not a destroyer himself? Well, although it's not to say this person isn't a destroyer Isn't one of these types of people They're at least a companion of one But perhaps the nugget we're being given here Perhaps Is of the influence of bad people, too Maybe there's a little nugget in there You've got to either be a complete narcissistic psychopath To believe that it's no transgression Robbing from your parents I mean, that is bizarre, isn't it? To think that, or maybe heavily influenced by them There is one of the two To think that it's no problem People do crazy stuff and then admit to it But to actually go and do that And claim that there's no problem at all with it You're either one of these destroyers Or you're at least heavily influenced by them Being a companion of bad people will destroy you, won't it? And we've seen that over the last couple of weeks It's been a bit of a theme Which is why David said in Psalm 101 And we saw this earlier, don't worry, don't have to turn that I always said, no wicked thing before mine eyes I hate the work of them that turn the side It shall not cleave to me How do you do that? How do you stop it cleaving to you? A froward heart shall depart from me I will not know a wicked person So where he said, who so Robeth his father is? Mother of Seth, it is no transgression The same as the companion of a destroyer The poem is a reminder of the weird sin denial influence of bad people, basically That's that in a nutshell, isn't it? This weird sin denial influence that we can get for bad people People like that trying to convince you that All these things, you know, that right is wrong And wrong is right and everything else, just keep away from them Verse 25 He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife But he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat So first off you've got the strife stirring that comes from having a proud heart And look, strife comes regularly in life There's many opportunities for it If you so wish If you want strife, you're going to get it You can find strife pretty quickly I mean, today on the high street, if anyone had wanted strife You could have got it pretty quickly But no one did But it was pretty easy, okay It's there, it's always there But Romans 12.18 says If it be possible, as much as life in you, live peaceably with all men And something that makes that less possible And it's not always possible But something that makes it less possible Something that lies in you and prevents that is a proud heart That's often what prevents you being able to live peaceably That's often what stirs up the strife that will regularly come your way either way And I can think of many occasions, okay Where the pride in me wanted to reprove To pull someone up To maybe expose the gaslighting You know, sometimes you just want to show Just go, I'm not stupid, you know Sometimes like the pride makes you want to show Just like, oh, you think I'm an idiot I can't see what you're trying to do How you're trying to treat me, for example Sometimes the pride gets in you Where you just feel like saying Who do you think you're talking to, you little punk You don't feel like that, you're just like, who do you think you're treating like that You get like that, don't you And it's not because I think I'm great Just sometimes the pride gets a bit stirred up by people, doesn't it And you get in the flesh a bit You can get a little bit carnal sometimes Especially, you know, just People just often treat you badly in life, don't they That's just life, isn't it And you'd be amazed, even if, you know, maybe you're not amazed But in this job you're going to get And when they're outside, sometimes they're inside as well And sometimes the pride gets stirred up a bit by them And sometimes I've failed, okay And the strife has been stirred And it's gone, you know, and then it's just carried on I've ended up with more strife But sometimes I've not got pride for Sometimes you manage to get this right And admittedly sometimes it takes some soothing words from my wife sometimes, you know You know, I'm starting to get a bit wound up by something And sometimes, you know, that other half compliments you a bit And help you a bit sometimes, right But remind yourself that you can let things go That Proverbs 13, 10 says, only by pride cometh contention But with the well-advised is wisdom It's often the wise sing not to stir up strife And to recognize when it's your pride That would be the problem would stir it up And that's a good thing to remember sometimes, right He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife But he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat Because trusting in the Lord includes letting go of the pride, doesn't it Trusting what he tells you to do Which is the opposite of pride, isn't it Because God doesn't tell you to be prideful Putting your trust in the Lord And being fat here is basically you're going to flourish You're going to do well, right For example, okay, for example Husbands be not bitter against your wives It's such a simple command, isn't it He that is of a proud heart, you could easily stir up some strife You know, you live with someone, you're going to, it's easy, right You're going to say the wrong thing to each other sometimes, things like that If you let yourself get prideful, it's easy to stir it up You put your trust in the Lord Because sometimes that takes some trust in the Lord It's like, just don't be bitter, don't be bitter God said be not bitter, but God said love your wives And you put your trust in that, and you know what, it works And you can have a happy marriage when you do things God's way In the same way, wives submit unto your own husbands As unto the Lord, right Again, maybe a wife who has a proud heart She's going to stir up some strife But if she puts her trust in the Lord, you think that couldn't work Big submissive, isn't that for all them old-fashioned people You know, I mean, what on earth, aren't we better than that now Well, you know what, I see a lot of just failing relationships all over the place Where there's just, where the pride, it's ultimately pride, isn't it They prefer to submit unto someone else's husband, sadly Or, for example, servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh Talking to the employer at work Again, the pride often doesn't want to, does it Especially with employment laws and everything else And it seems like it's a bit hard for them to sack you If you're on a proper contract You know, I'm not going to do this, how dare you ask me to do this Is it in my contract or something else, you know And again, it's within reason Some people are oppressors and stuff like that But even then, you did say obey in all things your master according to the flesh And when you do it God's way, you think, well, you know, I'm going to get He's going to take advantage of me, he's going to do this, he's going to do that Well, when you trust in the Lord, you'll just be made fat God will bless you, because you're doing it his way And it doesn't always seem like the right way, does it Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right And kids can get a bit prideful sometimes, can't they And not want to obey and start to want to, the rebellion can start to, you know Might have a bit of a rebellious streak or something else But are they happier for it? Never happier for it But he that puteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat They just obey in all things Oh, but that wasn't fair, but that wasn't right, but they got this situation wrong Just obey, just obey, it's pretty simple, right And you have to trust in the Lord's way, because the flesh doesn't want to The flesh doesn't want to do it And just by the way, strife is a work of the flesh according to Genesis 5.20, isn't it It's a work of the flesh And sometimes it can't be avoided, of course Any strife you get into, right, you must be in the flesh You must be, you know, not in the spirit at all Sometimes it can't be avoided, but most of the time It can be dealt with if you're not of a proud heart, most of the time And when you avoid it, you're made fat or you're blessed of God And it just comes down to pride, most of the time He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife But he that puteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat The proverb is reminded of what stirs up strife Pride and the blessing that comes from doing it God's way and trying to avoid it Verse 26 He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool But whoso walketh wisely he shall be delivered So you've got two types of people here The first one is someone that trusts in their own heart So this is someone that goes by their own thoughts and emotions Something incidentally, by the way, that is encouraged and promoted out in the world, isn't it Trust your feelings How many times have you heard that stuff Listen to your heart, just listen to your heart Make yourself happy, you know I mean, that's the world's advice, it seems, a lot of the time However, Jeremiah 17, 9 says The heart is deceitful above all things And desperately wicked, who can know it? So one of them is wrong, I don't know which one I think He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool But whoso walketh wisely he shall be delivered So the second type of person is someone walking wisely And the deliverance is being helped in danger, it's being rescued from trouble That's what he's talking about How do you walk wisely? Well, you don't trust your heart, you trust the Lord Pretty simple, wisdom comes from him Proverbs 2, 6 says For the Lord giveth wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding Where do we find what's come out of his mouth? It's all here, it's all in your King James Bible You want to walk wisely? You need him to tell you how to walk though, don't you? How are you going to walk wisely? If he's not telling you how to walk wisely, it all comes from him And that's how we're delivered in life By walking according to his word, not our hearts Trusting your hearts makes you a fool He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool But whoso walketh wisely he shall be delivered And you can apply this to so many areas of life Where so many will convince themselves That their heart, what they want to do is right And we can all do that, can't we? What we want to do, the thing that we've already made We set our heart, our minds upon Whatever we've already decided is the right thing But we don't want to be the fool that does that Proverbs 18, 2 says A fool hath no delight in understanding But that his heart may discover itself Okay, so they're basically, instead of wanting to know the right thing Instead of getting the understanding Instead he just wants his heart to discover itself He just basically wants to do what his heart already wants to do He just wants to prove that it's right And people can do that, you've got to be careful doing that with the Bible sometimes as well People like, and something I always try and remind people Who ask for advice on preaching and stuff like that I'm not trying to say I'm an expert But something that I heard as well and I think is a great way of looking at it Is let the Bible dictate what you preach Don't have an idea and then try and just find things that you can prove your idea with It has to come from the word of God So you've got to be willing to change what you are going to preach Or change something based on a passage, based on the truths that come from the word of God Not just like, let's find some verse a bit out of context that can prove something that I want to prove Because often we just want our heart to discover itself And some will even find, and maybe not even with preaching Just the odd Bible verse to back up what they've already decided And often it's out of context or it's without balance And I was talking about this the other day, I might do a sermon on it sometimes There's so much about balance in the Bible, there's so much balance There's so much where it almost looks like contradictions But it's not because there's a balance in life And so many people will take the one verse but completely ignore the contrary that gives you the balance He that trusteth in his own heart, and again it's because they want to prove what they've already decided They want to prove that their way is right They want to basically just let their heart discover itself He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool, but whoso walketh wisely he shall be delivered So pretty simple, don't trust in your heart, walk wisely if you want to get through life as unscathed as possible And how is that God's way? Verse 27 He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack, but he that hideth his eyes shall have many accursed So Proverbs 19 17 said similar to the first half of this proverb Which said he that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given will he pay him Again we've just seen that he that giveth unto the poor shall not lack We saw that God will pay it back, you're lending to the Lord God sees it as lending to him and he will recompense us Here we're told that we shall not lack, you won't be lacking, you won't come out worse off from it all Genuinely poor people here are rare Drug addicts and alcoholics are another subject for another day, but we've covered that before Poverty is increasing here though, isn't it? I think it is, probably genuine poverty is There are people that maybe aren't refusing to work That are unable Maybe that aren't on the blag that are in need And there are various ways that we can help people And aside from, you know, because it's hard to know with that, isn't it? I mean, the nature of society we live in, there is a benefit system So it's hard to really understand and know who's blagging you, who's not Who's just really genuinely in need But there are ways we can help people There are those that are maybe emotionally poor And they need support, they need emotional help Not necessarily just by giving someone money You know, there are people that maybe, you know, that's what they lack and they need help that way There are those that lack company They just need some time from you, don't they? There are people like that that are just lonely, that don't have company, that want some time And above all of that is surely giving someone the gift of eternal life, isn't it? Above all of that Giving unto the poor the gift of eternal life Coming with the gospel, preaching them the gospel Is giving more than you can ever give in any other way But many won't go to the poor to do that Despite them being more likely to receive it And I've heard this as a criticism And again, of genuine church which do seem to believe the gospel That really they don't really want to hit the poor Because the poor are receptive, but they're less likely to come into church A lot of the time They're less likely to get involved and they're less likely And a lot of the time it comes down to getting money out of them So there are people that will just kind of avoid that, they don't want that in their church They don't want to put all this effort into maybe getting not much back from them Not getting the members from them, etc But the Bible says here He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack But he that hideth his eyes shall have many accursed So if you purposely avoid, though, you hide your eyes You'll end up being cursed And there are various ways God can do that So it's probably pretty sensible to avoid that, isn't it? Avoid being cursed by God, how do we avoid it? Well, give to the poor And again, I'm not saying, again, don't go out and just find someone who's a drug addict and give them some money That's just being a bad steward However, there are ways we can give of ourselves There are ways that we can give And the main way of that is the gospel, isn't it? Because blessed are the poor in spirit Blessed are the kingdom of God because they're just so receptive, aren't they, usually? So, where he said he that giveth unto the poor shall not lack But he that hideth his eyes shall have many accursed I think the lesson is to give to others if you don't want to lack And you could think of many ways you could do that Verse 28, last one When the wicked rise, men hide themselves But when they perish, the righteous increase So we saw something similar in verse 12 Proverbs 28, 12 said When righteous men do rejoice, there is great glory But when the wicked rise, a man is hidden And I mentioned that when the wicked rise, when we looked at that proverb last week Two weeks ago, sorry When they're in authority, in numbers, gaining power People don't want to go out And I mentioned Brighton, just made me think of Brighton Just because, you know, who really wants to go out at night in Brighton, for example There are a lot of wicked people in, you know, risen in But it's not just Brighton, you can think of many places around the world Think of San Francisco, also known as San Francisco And what a vile place, people don't want to be there But I think of some parts of London as well And some parts of London when the wicked have risen in those areas You don't want to be there, do you? I remember saying a couple of weeks ago, daytime or nighttime Some of these places, horrendous But you can think of this nation on the whole as well For example, the more those wicked Muslim invaders rise Just to make it clear, it's not that I think that suddenly this is the worst religion And look, false religion is false religion But I tell you what, there is definitely, just talking to them We talked to them on Wednesday They see this as an invasion That's how these people coming from these Muslim nations coming here That's ultimately their goal They think we're all Christians They were saying, so why is it that all the churches are being taken over by mosques? Trying to just want to get a rise, want to get a debate They're coming round while I'm preaching the Gospel And trying to stop me preaching the Gospel Making signs behind me, stuff like this I mean, that's because it's a Christian now preaching the Gospel But the majority, a lot of these people coming here They see it as basically an invasion, it's a takeover And they don't even hide it They just see us all as Christians It doesn't matter whether you call yourself an atheist They just see it as a Christian and we're taking over And look, as they rise, and not just say rise I mentioned it when I preached up in Sheffield It's a funny correlation that when you look at areas Because you can look on the census map and see high amounts of Islam You'll also often see weird sodomite things around That sort of stuff So it just goes hand in hand The liberals, the perverts, the weirdos, the Muslims It's just all rising Certain areas are given over that stuff It's all just rising at once The more the gangs rise, the more this stuff rises The more people are just going to hide, aren't they? They're going to hide I mean, we were talking about it just in the high street Because there was a growing group of these guys around And the idea, they want to be intimidating We're the righteous, right? We don't have to be intimidated But that's what they want And a lot of people will hide, won't they? A lot of people won't want to be I mean, you can imagine if you were bringing up a family I think I've run out I couldn't even list half the towns But if you talked about a place like Rotherham You talked about some of these sorts of places And you were bringing up a family in those areas You'd be right to hide, wouldn't you? You wouldn't want to be around them I mean, it's horrendous This isn't just right-wing propaganda No, this is real This is real stuff and it's wicked I mean, this is a scourge going on in this nation And people want to hide from it, don't they? Understandably When the wicked rise, men hide themselves But when they perish, the righteous increase And by the way, this is purposeful stuff And for various reasons that we're seeing This isn't just accidental I just can't do anything about it We just, more and more, just bring them in I mean, it's a bad situation Again, it's not because it's got nothing to do with race I don't care If you're a white Muslim, I think exactly the same In fact, I just think you're probably even more of an idiot Because you should have had more of a chance growing up in a nation which had the Bible But it doesn't matter what, whatever you want to call it, race, whatever else It's not about that It's about that culture and that religion Because that religion follows that their prophet is a pedophile Open, they know it They accept it That's worrying, isn't it? I remember preaching this before When you name your child after a known pedophile That's not a next door neighbour I want Who wants that for next door neighbour? I mean, imagine if my next door neighbour I don't mean to make a joke of you But imagine if next door neighbour I went, oh, we just had a little baby Oh, what do you call him? Oh, Jimmy Saville, my hero You'd be like, what? You freak, what? What do you mean your hero? That guy's a monster But you know what? It impels insignificance to Mohammed I mean, honestly, right? And this isn't like, oh, this is all debatable No, it's just open It's opening out there Aisha was six years old He consummated it at nine They justify it with, oh, things were different back then Really? So how different was it? The nonce are nonce Nine years old That's horrendous And they're not the sort of people That you want coming in in droves And what a surprise, oh, what a surprise All this rape and abuse of underage girls Oh, it just can't work out I mean, there are people they're talking about To the tune of millions And do you know who all these girls are? What they consider to be basically Christian girls White, they call them white English girls And they consider Christian That's what they've targeted here It's horrific That is really going on And that's a wicked rising, isn't it? You understand people want to hide themselves You know, I understand a lot of the people who are able Who are just like, I'm moving out of here Because there are people that are just moving aboard Getting out of here Probably means the poor Spaniards Then have to put up with a load of beer-bellied Bright red English fellas walking around their beaches Having a booze up But whatever, right? But I'm joking But the reality of it is that it is bad, isn't it? It really is bad out there And I suppose that the more that people are hiding When the wicked rise The less people are getting saved Because people just end up Don't want to be around They don't Because it can It can feel intimidating Can you imagine some of the Think about some of the areas Think about some places I mean, we don't have it as close to here But you think of some places, right? Luton I think maybe Bedford's pretty bad as well There's lots of town stuff where it's pretty bad, right? Would you really want to be out there Would you really want to be out there In the high street preaching the gospel, for example? Be out there, knock it I mean, would you want to be out there at all? Let alone if you had like It doesn't even have to be a teenage daughter Sons, doesn't really matter If you had children with you So, what did you do then? You said, when the wicked rise Men hide themselves But when they perish The righteous increase This isn't a call to go on a vigilante spree, okay? I don't think that's what you're saying I don't think you're saying They need to perish, okay? Fortunately, that's not really going to do anything I'm not calling for that Just to make it clear on YouTube there Okay, this ain't We're not going to win this physically It's a spiritual battle But I think that the call is to not let it get to that point Don't hide out and have to wait Have to wait and just say Oh, one day they're going to perish Get working whilst we still can, right? Because we can make a difference still right now Because it might get to the point where I don't know It might get to the point where It gets really, really hard, right? But we're not at that point yet Yeah, we can still go out and preach the gospel We can still go out and get people saved And we're doing it And we're not Currently at this point You know, having honour killings done on us Do they call it that? I don't know No, maybe it's the old jihad, isn't it? When it's the holy one But whatever We're doing alright, okay? And I don't know Maybe there'll be a different angle next time But we need to get working, right? Do you know what I'm sick and tired of? I'm sick and tired of talking to like In different, you know, not outside of church But to like You know, people are like Oh yeah, like for example I was talking to this plumber the other day I thought Islam's taking over and everything else So okay, can I show you the gospel? I'm not interested in that So it's a spiritual And I was telling him It's a spiritual issue This is the problem The problem's spiritual It's not You're not going to win it any other way You're going to win it If we're going out and getting people saved And having God God's face shining upon this nation again By increasing the righteousness of this nation By those that are saved Going and doing what God wants us to do Then he'll heal our land, won't he? But instead people are just like Oh, I've got to go But instead people are just like Oh, yeah, you know, just terrible, isn't it? Better go back up the pub That'll solve it Whilst complaining I just can't believe This is a Christian nation Can I show you the gospel? What do I want that rubbish for? Honestly, this is the mentality out there Seriously, all them Muslims coming in here It's like, this is a Christian nation Hello, sir I've just come from strong turbot But, oh, you're not interested in that You know what I mean? That is what you see out there in this nation Sorry, I'm going over time on this rant, okay? I'll finish off, okay? So I think what he's saying here Before we end up having to hide Let's get soul winning, right? Let's get soul winning Let's get people saved When the wicked rise Men hide themselves But when they perish The righteous increase The proverb is a reminder Not to hide the gospel And on that we're going to finish in prayer Father, thank you, Lord, for letting us Father, thank you, Lord, for the book of Proverbs Thank you for all the wisdom All the many things we can learn Especially those 14 Proverbs we just looked at Please help us to apply them to our lives Lord, help us to think about them Dwell upon them as this week goes on now Lord, help us to all be wiser Help us to get home safe and sound this evening To return for the midweek service on Wednesday In Jesus' name we pray, all of this Amen Okay, please join me in our last hymn this evening Very suitable 374 Take My Life and Let It Be Hymn number 374 Take My Life and Let It Be Altogether on that first Take my life and let it be Lord, so great in law to thee Take my hands and let them move 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 Not a mite would I withhold 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 thine own It shall be thy royal throne It shall be thy royal throne Can I please ask Brother Dan to close this service with a word of prayer Father we thank you Lord for preaching of your word today We pray Lord just please help us to apply those proverbs that we've heard today Just help us Lord to trust in you Lord, trust in your word and our heart We pray Lord just please guide us and strengthen us and be with us this week Just please have a great blessing Lord on the soul winning times And we love you, we pray in Jesus name, Amen Hi there, my name is Pastor Ian Tablan of Strong Tail Baptist Church I'd just like to take a few minutes today to show you how you can 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 will cast into the lake of fire, this is the second death If the wages of sin is death and the second death is the 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 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 And in fact he made a way for you to go to heaven, in Romans 5.8 the Bible says But God commended 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 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 baptised 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 you saved through faith and that not of yourselves It is a gift of God, not of works that any man should boast 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, for 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 leave you in a short prayer now if you believe everything I've just said If you believe that you're a sinner, you believe that the wages of sin is death, that you deserve hell That Jesus Christ the son of God that you 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