Jeff Durbin: The Joy Of Righteousness | Proverbs 11:1-14

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If you wanna open your Bibles to the book of Proverbs, book of Proverbs, about midway through the

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Old Testament, God's revelation of his wisdom to his people.

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The series we're in right now is Wisdom from Above. This is God instructing us, giving us principles and promises in terms of how to apply truth, the knowledge of God.

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You will probably remember that I've said numerous times during this study that we need to put to death in our lives being knowledgeable fools.

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All of us, all of us. Every Christian has to deal with knowledge puffing up.

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That's a truth from God's word. Filling our heads with theological truth, but not knowing how to live skillfully.

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I hope that this sermon series has been a blessing to you, as much of a blessing to you as it has been to me to go through and prepare, and of course, preach these sermons to myself.

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Before I bring them to you, this is God's word. With so many promises of blessing that come along, and you're gonna see that today in terms of the principle and promises surrounding the righteous and blessing and happiness and preservation and protection, and then the wicked leading to destruction.

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And so we're in Proverbs chapter 11, starting in, we'll read from verse one, even though we've already done some of these.

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11, verse one, hear now the word of the living and the true God. A false balance is an abomination to the

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Lord, but a just weight is his delight. When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.

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The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.

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Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

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The righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight, but the wicked falls by his own wickedness.

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The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the treacherous are taken captive by their lust.

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When the wicked dies, his hope will perish, and the expectation of wealth perishes too.

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The righteous is delivered from trouble, and the wicked walks into it instead. With his mouth, the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge, the righteous are delivered.

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When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices, and when the wicked perish, there are shouts of gladness.

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By the blessing of the upright, a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked, it is overthrown.

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Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.

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Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps the thing covered.

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Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in the abundance of counselors, there is safety.

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As far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together. Lord, we don't deserve this gift, the gift of your word.

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We know that around the world right now, there are people who don't have access to this treasure.

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So we pray for the believers that are suffering persecution, those who don't have this tremendous gift of your grace that we have right now, to be able to hold your word in safety, to have full access to it.

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This is a gift. This is you speaking, God. And Lord, we recognize in ourselves, outside of Christ, we're nothing.

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We're nothing. But we're called sons and daughters, we're your children. This is your word, you're our father.

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And so Lord, Father in heaven, we ask you to speak today. Lord, I'm in myself not worthy to even bring a message like this, but because of Christ, we have righteousness in your sight.

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We pray, God, that today by your spirit, you would teach us, guide us, convict us, renew our minds.

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Lord, strengthen the church that you've called together here through your wisdom and your truth.

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Speak to us. Lord, help us, Lord, not to be scoffers. Lord, help us to put to death pride in our lives.

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Show us our blind spots. Firm up these truths in us for your glory,

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God. In Jesus' name, amen. So Proverbs, wisdom from above.

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This is God telling us how to live. This is a really challenging work because I think there's one element to studying scripture where there's a lot of abstractions, right?

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Just a lot of thought life, some sort of suspended up there in midair. A lot of things that you can sort of manage in that world of thought.

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Wisdom becomes more of a challenge because wisdom meets you where you're standing. Wisdom meets you in your personal relationships, whether it's with your spouse or with your friend, with your family, your church life, the world around you, community.

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Wisdom meets you where you're at. I mean, this is the stuff of life. This is the daily moment by moment stuff.

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It's not to say that God's law and the principles and abstractions from the law of God don't connect in many, many ways, they do.

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But this is the application. This is not just the theory. This is now, okay, here's how you apply this.

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You live skillfully in this way. And the amazing thing is, is there's so much here in the book of Proverbs that might surprise you, considering the context that we live in today with much of professing

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Christianity, not very concerned with wisdom, not very concerned with the law of God. That's a defunct old thing.

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That's past, it's done away with. God's not really concerned with that anymore. But what should surprise, I think, all of us, if you read the book of Proverbs, are the promises contained in the principles in the book of wisdom.

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And so, so much already, you've seen it right here. So much about the wicked being uprooted, the wicked being destroyed, and the righteous flourishing.

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Those who are upright and righteous dwell in safety, preservation, and joy. And so there's so much here that I think should challenge us, but also give us this hopeful, righteous optimism that this is the way that God made the world.

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You're not gonna get around it. You won't get away from it. It's built into the system. It's a feature. This is how you live in God's world in a way that is safe, preserved, protected, joyful, filled with pleasure.

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It is righteousness and uprightness, and the wicked will not prosper. They will fall.

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Now on purpose today, I had Jerry, one of our deacons, come up and read

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Psalm 37. You're familiar with Psalm 37 because it was part of one of our sermons talking about the promises from God's word about the flourishing of the righteous and the wicked being uprooted.

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You might also be familiar with Psalm 37 because that famous redheaded bearded guy that sang that song recently of the rich men north of Richmond quoted from Psalm 37 before one of his concerts and very emotional for him.

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But the promises are that the wicked are destroyed. The upright are in the land. The upright are blessed.

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Now this is particularly important today. I wanna just announce this at the start of this. So much of what we've been taught out there in culture is satisfy your lusts, no consequences.

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Truth is whatever you want it to be. It's sort of just suspended in midair. It's what feels good to you.

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It's what you want to do. You should be able to pursue your lusts, your desires, what you want unrestricted, unfettered by the chains of Christianity and the word of God, and just sort of live according to your impulses.

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That's how we're taught. That's how we're trained today. And it is absolutely according to scripture that path that leads to darkness and destruction.

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But we've been indoctrinated to think that it really doesn't matter. It comes without much consequence. And if you're a

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Christian, you can just ask God for forgiveness, no big deal. It just sort of all goes away. You can live however you please.

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Now watch, did you hear it? The unbeliever today says you can live how you please. You can do what you want without consequence, satisfy your lusts, no consequences.

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There's no real truth anyway. But the problem is, is it's not just that category. It's not just the unbelievers today saying live how you want.

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There is a community of professing Christians that have so destroyed the truth of the gospel that they will also teach that you can profess faith in Jesus and live how you want ultimately without consequence because you're covered in grace.

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Both have the same central problem. They're ignoring what scripture says about how

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God made the world. In the book of Proverbs, we've seen that it is filled with the principles and the promises of the preservation and happiness of the righteous over against the destruction of the wicked.

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Now, again, this is what I wanna emphasize here because it's the thing we have to overcome. These principles and promises run contrary to what popular

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Christianity today says in the West in two ways, just two ways I want you to consider today in terms of what's popular out there today within the world of professing

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Christianity contradicts what the scriptures teach us through and through from Genesis to Revelation, but in particular, you can't make sense of what they say out there and what

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God says here over and over and over again in terms of the principles and promises in the book of Proverbs in two ways, ready?

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One is that we think today largely, popularly, we think today that it's the wicked that will prosper, right?

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I mean, that's the popular eschatology of our day. The view of the end of our day is that, no, no, actually, it's not the victory of Jesus.

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It's not regeneration and the transformation of the world. It's not the knowledge of God covering the earth like the waters cover the sea.

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It's not all nations coming up to God's mountain, God establishing justice and righteousness on the earth.

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It's not that, actually, it's defeat. The most important thing for us is that we get removed from the lands.

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We are uprooted out of the land, in a sense. We're taken away, and it is the wicked who are gonna flourish.

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The world belongs to the devil, and this world's just gonna go to hell in a handbasket. So today, you read the book of Proverbs, and you think about the popular doctrinal position out there and they collide because the book of Proverbs does not teach the prospering of the wicked.

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It teaches the prospering of the righteous over and over and over again.

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But we think that the wicked will prosper today because, ultimately, of bad eschatology. It's not because the text says that the wicked are gonna flourish.

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It's that we have traditions that collide with what the word of God says. And the second point here, second point, one, bad eschatology.

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We think the wicked flourish. They're gonna prosper. They're gonna have victory. The second thing is that many believe that personal righteousness and obedience is irrelevant under the new covenants.

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Now, I have to say, that's probably one of the worst heresies within the

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Christian communion today, professing Christian communion today, is that people will teach the sort of like, just say you believe in Jesus, have your ticket punched, and you're good to go.

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How you live is irrelevant to God because you're covered in grace. You're covered under God's grace.

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Jesus loves you. You could walk away from Christ. You could turn away from him. You could become an atheist, and you're fine as long as you've prayed that prayer.

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Your walk with Jesus, your fellowship with God, is really ultimately irrelevant because there's no real blessing promised in righteousness and obedience, and it's not really relevant anyways because Jesus died for sinners, and as long as you prayed that prayer, that magic prayer, you're good to go.

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How many times have you seen professing Christians in our culture today mock or even vilify the law of God given by God in the

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Old Testament? Professing Christians who will actually be ashamed at some of God's judgments from his law or from his wisdom.

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People are afraid to associate themselves with the God of the Old Testament today, right? We're under grace.

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Jesus is the happy God who gives us forgiveness, and that Old Testament God, he's the God of law and justice, and he's the big meanie, but thank

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God we're rescued from him, right? Now we have Jesus, and we can live however we want.

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It's popular today to teach. You've probably heard this the most. It's popular today to teach that because we're in Christ, we do away with the law.

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We actually literally in Christ make void the law of God, contrary to exactly what the apostle

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Paul says in Romans when he says the law can justify nobody. You can't get to God through your works and your obedience.

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He then goes on to say, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

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That's faith alone, and then he says this right after anticipating the argument. And he says, do we then make void the law through faith?

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And what's he say? By no means. Actually, because we're saved, because we're justified, because God saved us, now we actually establish the law.

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But the popular view today in evangelism today is the law is irrelevant.

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Obedience is irrelevant. Righteousness is irrelevant because ultimately the wicked prosper, the world belongs to the devil, he's the ruler of the world, and that law of God is irrelevant for the

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Christian because you're under grace, contrary to everything you see in the New Testament and of course the

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Old Testament. But God's wisdom up to this point, we're in Proverbs 11 now, and you'll notice that there's so much in Proverbs up to just 11 that's just this constant driving of the same point over and over and over, which makes sense, doesn't it?

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There's a lot of repetition and new ways to say the same principle, and it makes sense because the book has repeatedly told us keep your eyes on this.

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Don't lose your sight. Stay on the path. Treasure this up in your mind. Stay there in the light.

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Don't forget this. This is more valuable than gold and silver and all treasure, and then

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God keeps saying the same things over and over. He promises and describes the order of life like this.

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Go to Proverbs 1. As this amazing revelation from God opens, you'll remember in Proverbs 1, you have the opening of this first thematic thing, the path, and there are two paths described consistently.

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Now, this is throughout scripture, but it's also here with so much effort in the book of Proverbs to get the point across.

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Proverbs 1, starting at verse 10. Listen to how this starts. It says, my son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.

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If they say, come with us, let us lie and wait for blood. Let us ambush the innocent without reason.

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Like Sheol, let us swallow them alive and whole, like those who go down to the pit. We shall find all precious goods.

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We shall fill our houses with plunder. Throw your lot among us. We'll all have one purse.

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My son, do not walk in the way with them. Hold back your foot from their paths for their feet run to evil and they make haste to shed blood for in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird.

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Listen to this, though. But these men lie in wait for their own blood.

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They set an ambush for their own lives. Do you see that? It opens up.

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Fear of the Lord is the beginning of what? It's the fear of the Lord. Reverential awe, submission to God.

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That's the beginning of knowing and wisdom. That's the start of it, and it leaps right into the evil over here.

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They're out for people's blood. They're out for themselves. Stay far from them. Keep your foot off that path.

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That direction leads somewhere. And how does it end? Every time. It's the same principle.

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It's the same story. It's a description of the path and those that are on it. And then it says, keep your foot away because these people are destroying themselves.

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That's the point. I mean, that's the point God's telling you straight up. Here's a description of the person and the path.

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And then he says, very simply, he says, they're ambushing themselves. They're literally setting a war up against their own souls.

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They're destroying themselves. That's the path of the wicked. It's madness to be on that path.

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It's madness. You're in God's image. That's not how God made you. That's not how God made the world.

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It's madness, and you're living in God's world in rebellion to him, thinking there's no consequence.

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But you're destroying yourself. You are your own worst enemy. That's the point.

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And that's the path you're on, the path of the unrighteous. And then the next chapter, again, this is early on.

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In chapter 2, it describes a righteous path.

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In chapter 2, verse 11, listen to the word of God. It says, discretion will watch over you.

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Understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness.

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There it is again. There's the path. There's the way. Who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, men whose paths are crooked and whose are devious in their ways.

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So you'll be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her

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God, for her house sinks down to death and her paths to the departed.

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There it is again. The path, the way. None who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.

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So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.

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For, here it is. Here it is. The upright will inhabit the lands, and those with integrity will remain in it.

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But the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

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There's the persistent theme. What is it? You've got a path of the righteous, path of the wicked. Here's the description.

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Here's the final end. It's a promise. There's principles. And then there's a promise. This is how it's going to be for you, for both the unrighteous and the righteous.

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But notice, very important. Notice that it is the upright who are obeying

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God, walking in his wisdom, who are assured preservation, peace, protection, and happiness.

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There's the assurance. Because of their obedience, their uprightness, their living justly, their living wise.

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Now, caveat, of course, we live in a fallen world. Right, you can say living uprightly, the principle is blessing and protection and peace and joy.

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That's true, it doesn't change, but it's a fallen world. So the caveat is, they still cut

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Paul's head off. It's a fallen world. They still cut

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Paul's head off. They still killed Peter. They still murdered Jesus.

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But the principle doesn't change. These are the principles of life, but it is a fallen world, and God, through his decree, orders all things to his glory, even in the midst of sin.

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But the principle is true, regardless of particulars in a fallen world where the enemy destroys, say, the

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Son of God, kills him. But is he victorious? Is the enemy victorious over the murder of Jesus?

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No, that's according to God's predestined plan. Satan and his minions and all the people who were there in front of the cross, railing against Jesus, thought they had defeated the

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Son of God. What they only did was allow for him to save the world. Amen? Do you see?

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So it was the righteous that still prospered and the wicked who were destroyed. Do you see my point? So you have to think about those caveats.

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But this is a persistent theme. Look at it again. Proverbs chapter five. Proverbs five, verse 22.

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Proverbs 5 .22. It says this. The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.

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He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly, he's led astray.

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There it is again. The promised theme of the wicked's life is that he's ensnared, he's in darkness, he will be destroyed, he will be uprooted.

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And then Proverbs chapter 12. The contrast, again, from God, the promise, following these principles, the promise,

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Proverbs 12, verse three. It says, no one is established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous will never be moved.

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Are you getting pessimism here from Proverbs or optimism for righteousness?

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Which do you think? Is it optimism or pessimism, right? It's the blessing is righteousness. The promise is righteousness.

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The protection is in righteousness. The happiness is in righteousness. It's all optimism, and it's you will never be uprooted.

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You will never be moved. But one more, 12, seven. It says the wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous will stand.

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Optimism or pessimism, what do you think? It's optimism for the righteous, and it's the promise of destruction for the wicked.

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That's guaranteed. That's guaranteed. Now, again, I will remind us, remember this?

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The message delivered in terms of pulling all of this together from Proverbs about the promises and the principles from the

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Old Testament and the New Testament that promise victory for the

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Messiah's kingdom and for the people of God in this life, in this world. I told you about the promises, direct promises of the

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Messiah's kingdom. I just gave you one. I hope you memorize it. I say it a lot.

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And what is it? It's the knowledge of God will cover the earth like what? Let's try it again.

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The knowledge of God will cover the earth like the waters cover the sea.

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Question, how wet is the Pacific Ocean? It's a funny question to ask, right?

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Because your answer is it's all wet, right? So if God says the knowledge of God will cover the earth like the waters cover the sea, how's that knowledge gonna fill the earth?

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Like the Pacific, it's all wet. It's all knowledge of God. Those are promises. You have the promise from Genesis 49, 10, where it says that Shiloh is coming, to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

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You have the promise that Abraham's gonna have descendants like the sand of the sea, like the stars in heaven.

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That sounds like a pretty victorious kingdom to me. You have the promise of God drawing the nations up to his mountain,

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Isaiah chapter two. Isaiah nine, God promising to bring righteousness and justice to the earth, and he will never ever give up on this.

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He's not gonna grow faint or weary. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. The promises from Isaiah 11, the promises from Isaiah 42, that this servant of God is gonna come, not grow faint or weary, again, he will not quit, until he's established justice in the earth.

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There's the promise. The promise, direct promise, the promise quoted the most in the New Testament from the old, says the

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Lord said unto my Lord, what? These are the hot shots over here, right?

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Okay, they all know. No, Psalm 110, one, right? We know that, we memorize that as a church. The Lord said unto my

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Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. That's quoted by the apostle Paul. Remember this in first Corinthians 15, when he gives you the timeline of history, he says this,

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Jesus is reigning now, right now. He's reigning now on the messianic throne. He's not waiting to, he's on it, he's reigning now.

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And he says, and he must reign until all enemies are placed under his feet as a footstool for his feet. And then when that's done, the final enemy will be death.

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There are so many promises about the victory of his kingdom, the victory of the righteous, the victory of his people.

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And let's just summarize it with this. Are you ready? Everyone knows this. It's the most famous sermon in the entire world.

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No one can beat it, they never will. The meek shall inherit, what? There's the promise.

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The meek shall inherit the earth. I mean, think about this. It's what you, every

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Christian is supposed to know this, the Lord's prayer. Let's try it. Everyone knows it in like the old

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English, right? Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

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Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Stop. Christians have been praying that for over 2000 years.

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And today, even Christians who have had a very pessimistic unbiblical perspective about the world and the future in terms of the victory of the righteous, the victory of the kingdom of God, they still know that prayer and they still pray it.

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Every Christian who prays the Lord's prayer is saying what? Our father in heaven, may your name be holied everywhere.

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Holy hallowed is holied. May people revere you as holy in India, Canada, even

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Canada, China, Australia, New Zealand, all over the world, Russia, America, everywhere.

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May your name be holied everywhere and may your rule, your kingdom, your rule, your reign and rule, may it come and your will be done on earth here where we live with us as it is in heaven.

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You're asking God as you pray the Lord's prayer to ensure that his will is done in this space with us on this earth, just like it is in heaven.

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How rigorous do you think that commitment is in heaven? And that's what you pray for. So my point is, is that this is through and through the scriptures, through and through the book of Proverbs.

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My point is this, you can't believe the popular view of righteousness that we're taught out there and read the book of Proverbs and make any sense of it.

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The promises are clear. They're unavoidable. It's repeated over and over and over again.

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The principles throughout the book of Proverbs, you just read it in chapter 11.

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This is the end of the unrighteous. Here's the promised end of the wicked. And here's exactly what the righteous have.

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Here's how their uprightness will preserve them. So here's a summary though of Proverbs 11.

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Are you ready for the summary? You've heard it already. Think about where you were at, just 14 verses. It says pride, disgrace.

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It says crookedness, destroys. It says wicked, falls.

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It says the treacherous, taken captive. Wicked dies, hope goes with them.

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It says wicked walks into trouble. The righteous is delivered from it.

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So what are you getting? My summary is this, sin and stupidity don't work. That's it.

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I just gave you the Jeff Durbin paraphrase of 14 verses. Sin and stupidity don't work.

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Stop deluding yourself, all of us. We have to stop deluding ourselves and thinking there's no consequence and that I can live this way and get away with it.

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The promise is destruction, darkness, misery. You will be broken.

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You will be uprooted. That's the promise from God's word. Ignoring and rebelling against God's wisdom leads to, think about what you have just in the book of Proverbs, just in the book of Proverbs.

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People made in God's image, made to know God, made to love God, made to enjoy

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God forever. That's your purpose, to have eternal delight in this living

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God for all eternity. And people rebel against God, they go their own way. They live in God's world, being sustained by God as they sin,

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God's causing their hearts to beat and their legs and hands to work while they rebel against him.

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And it leads to something. You can't live in God's world that way without consequence, the text is clear.

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What happens when you turn away from God's wisdom? It leads to bloodthirsty gangs.

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You know, it's amazing, it's crazy. You read Proverbs and let's be honest, it's like really direct.

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Like when it talks about the bloodthirsty gangs, they're like, let's lie in wait for people. Let's ambush people. Let's all throw our stuff in the same purse.

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We'll all get like spoiled from them. We'll live this way, destroy people, hate people.

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And you look at it, you're like, goodness gracious. I mean, this is an awful scene described here.

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It's a terrible group. Like, where are these guys? Answer, it's all over the news every day.

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Bloodthirsty people, bloodthirsty people. People that literally work together to destroy other businesses.

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They literally plot together. We have one purse, let's go and raid this mall and steal from all these businesses.

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Let's assault people who try to stop us. So you read the book of Proverbs and it's actually not so far -fetched.

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It's like a daily occurrence for us today because we live in a culture and society that rebels loudly and proudly against the

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Lordship of Jesus Christ. But you turn away from his wisdom and what do you get? Bloodthirsty gangs. What do you get when you turn away from God's wisdom?

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Destroyed families through adultery. You read all the warnings here about the harlot and the adulterous woman and her trying to bat her eyes at you and trying to entice you and all those things.

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And so, okay, all right, maybe there's no consequence. Maybe you could just satisfy her lust and you can go that way. The answer is no, you'll be brought down into a pit.

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She's got a lot of bodies down there. The promise is you'll be destroyed. And what happens is you turn away from God's wisdom and then it's the destruction of the family.

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What do we have today? So many horrifically high numbers with divorce rates, children raised in single parent homes, no fathers.

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And so we destroy our families through sexual immorality and adultery and you have no families, you have no society.

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How did God start building the world? What's he do to build everything? What's he do? He creates male and female, puts them together, be fruitful, multiply, be one.

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The first thing that God creates for order in his world is the family.

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Very first thing, you destroy God's wisdom, walk away from it, live your own way. You engage with the adulterous woman, scripture says, promise destruction.

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And the consequence, real world consequences is that you have a society now with so many broken families, hurt children.

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I mean, how many of the men in prison today are from fatherless homes? Most of them.

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That's a fact. Men in prison, fatherless homes, no dads.

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It's okay, walk away from God's wisdom. You think you can get away with it? Well, the family is destroyed and that leads to further consequences down the line.

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But also, if you turn away from God's wisdom and his law, you have a collapse of the judicial process, judgment.

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Right? You live your own way, you'll destroy a church. You'll believe gossip, you'll believe slander, you'll hear one -sided stories, and you'll destroy churches by spreading lies, spreading slander, belittling your neighbor, trying to take someone's character down.

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You'll destroy the judicial process in terms of proper judgment to mediate conflict because you won't hear both sides, you won't work on eyewitnesses, you won't work on hearing the whole story before you come to a conclusion.

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And so much of that is in the book of wisdom. It destroys it on a community level because when you walk away from God's wisdom, people are destroyed out there when they are brought into court.

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You walk away from God's standards of justice and wisdom, the courts are an absolute mess, an absolute mess.

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You have people who are falsely accused and imprisoned, wrongly imprisoned for crimes that they didn't do.

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Why? Because we've abandoned God's wisdom, we've abandoned God's standards. We don't care about multiple lines of witnesses.

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We don't care about equal weights and measures. We don't care about not showing partiality.

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It's all right here in the book of Proverbs. We don't care about hearing both sides. We don't care about proper standards of evidence.

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We don't care about the whole story. We just want justice now for our team, for our people.

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Turn away from God's wisdom and it leads to the dissolution of communities, families, friendships, churches.

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You see, when you and I hear the words from God about the divisive man, the slanderer, the scoffer, the person who belittles their neighbor, when we hear that and we don't begin to hate it in ourselves, when we don't despise it in ourselves, when we don't learn to love those truths because they're connected to our love for our neighbor, when we don't put it to death, we will destroy.

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There are consequences, real consequences of dark paths and brokenness and destruction when we don't actually yield to God's truth and God's wisdom.

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I can tell you that the vast majority, the vast majority of church splits that I know about or that I've tried to help in terms of counseling when they're going through conflict at a church, the vast, vast, vast majority of church splits and the destruction of local churches has come from gossip and slander, people not judging rightly, not walking in wisdom, people destroying their neighbors.

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So my point is this, you could say it doesn't matter. You could say, you know, God's principles of wisdom and his law and his standards of righteousness, it doesn't really matter.

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I don't have to live that way. There's not necessarily gonna be consequences for me. The answer is, yeah, that's what's wrong with the world today. The world's on fire in so many places around us today because people won't obey

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God and we think we can get away with it. We think we can be in God's image, in his world with the sovereign

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God, we can live contrary to his ways and we'll get away with it. And the answer is no, there's always consequences.

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Sin always has what? Consequences, each and every time. When we turn away from God's wisdom, it also leads to financial collapse.

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Remember the sermon we gave on striking hands and pledges and engaging in business opportunities thoughtlessly, putting yourself out on the line, engaging in overwhelming debt upon yourself.

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You turn away from God's wisdom, promise destruction, promise brokenness, promise failure.

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It is the integrity of the upright, the righteousness of the people of God that will preserve their path, even financially.

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But also when you rebel against God's wisdom, it leads to a lazy and worthless life, right?

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One of my favorite messages that I've ever been able to deliver because I just loved it so much, the topic was the sermon on sluggards and ants.

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One of my favorite ones to deliver just because I'm so passionate about that. But when you turn away from God's wisdom, and what do you have?

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A culture of people who don't wanna work, they're lazy, men who don't wanna build things, men who don't wanna sacrifice, men who are not hard workers.

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And so God's wisdom counts for everything. The principles of God's law and wisdom are absolute.

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Get that, the principles of God's law and wisdom are absolute and the promises of destruction and blessing are also guaranteed.

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So as law and wisdom, absolute, the promises for the wicked and the righteous are guaranteed, absolutely assured, it will happen.

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This week, we got the opportunity to go and say goodbye to John Barros.

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Many of you guys know, he's the man that inspired our church body very early on to start going to the abortion mill.

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It was the film, Babies Are Murdered here. It was Rusty Thomas' preaching in that film that impacted us all as a church, convicted us to our core.

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But then it was the story and the testimony of John Barros, just a guy, a faithful Christian who stood outside the

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Orlando Women's Center for 20 years now, saving countless lives.

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It was his faithfulness. Oh, you mean we can go to the abortion mill? We can go preach the gospel?

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We can go love these mothers and babies and just be present and save children? It's John Barros that inspired our church for that.

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So the point is, and abortion now in many ways exists because of what God did through John Barros.

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He impacted us as a church. So he has pancreatic cancer, he's not doing well. So we wanted to go film some stuff with him for end abortion now and to say goodbye to him.

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And let me tell you this, many of you have been with us at the abortion mill. You go, many of you regularly and sacrifice so much to save lives at the abortion mill.

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I'll be honest, I don't know how many hours I've spent outside of abortion mills and interactions

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I've had with the death squirts. They're the clinic escorts. They escort the women in to kill the babies.

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We call them death squirts. I've had so many interactions with death squirts that are atheists. I've had men dressed like women attacking us.

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I've had one of the leaders of the local satanic temple there attacking us, satanists, all that stuff.

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And we have heard, haven't we, so many vile and horrible things coming out of their mouths.

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But I have never, ever seen or heard such vile wickedness coming out of people's mouths as I did this week in Orlando at the

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Orlando Women's Center. Truly, I said about half an hour after being there, I said, these people are being controlled by demons.

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I absolutely believe that. Because the things coming out of their mouth, their mouths were just absolutely stunning.

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Human beings don't say these things to each other. So they know that John's been there for 20 years.

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John's literally worn the sidewalk down. Funny thing is my son -in -law, Kyle, showed me satellite images from Google from when

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John started at Orlando Women's Center. You can see the satellite image of the concrete in front and it's just gray.

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And the satellite image today is you can see his feet worn down the sidewalk because he's been there so faithfully for so many years.

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I mean, he's literally like, you can see it from space kind of a thing. It's amazing how much faithfulness.

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But here's what happened. John got pancreatic cancer and these wicked evil people, not just women, but men as well, started playing things over the loudspeaker when

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John would come about how he's gonna die from cancer. They started playing like videos of people describing how you die from pancreatic cancer and how painful it is.

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They're blasting this over the loud speaker. As John is preaching, as John is preaching through the wall to the women that have gone inside pleading for the lives of these children, these death squirts are in front of him, laughing, saying, you're gonna die,

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John. You're dying, John. It's gonna hurt so bad. I'm so happy you're dying,

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John. It's all happening right in front of the abortion mill. It was stunning.

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But what's amazing was this, is these people are filled with demons, filled with demons.

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They are filled with so much malice and evil. And it was amazing is as you confront them as lovingly and yet as boldly as you can, you can say there is a day of judgment.

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I said that a number of times. I said, there's a day of judgment coming for you.

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You will have to answer for every single word coming out of your mouth. I said, you're gonna answer, you will.

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You will answer for the bloodshed of every single baby you've escorted into this place.

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I said, God knows their names. He knows their names. And he's gonna hold you accountable for every single child and he will name their names to you.

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You will not escape his judgment. And you know what they were doing? Laughing, scoffing, playing

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Disney songs, playing foul Cardi B songs, rejoicing.

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And we said, you're responsible for the death of every child going in there right now. And they were mocking saying, no, no, no.

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It's way more than that. It's way more than that. Laughing said, well, how many babies do you think you've killed?

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Oh, I don't even know. I couldn't even imagine. It's so many. And they were delighting in how many children they've helped to kill.

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They weren't even hiding their shame. They weren't even hiding it. They were bragging about the murder of all these children.

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So you read the book of Proverbs and you say, are there really bloodthirsty people like this in this world?

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I met him this week. I met him this week. And the call to them to repent and the promise of judgment that was coming, they only scoffed.

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They didn't think there was any judgment coming for them. They were careless. The last few moments

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I had there this week to say goodbye to John, I went to lean down to give him a hug to say goodbye to him.

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And I could feel our faces were together. I could feel his tears falling down my cheek. Now they see this scene happening and they come over while he is crying and we're saying goodbye to each other.

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And they're just mocking and laughing saying, you're gonna die, John. You're dying,

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John. So much evil. And here's my point. That evil really exists and they really think they're gonna get away with it.

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They really think that they could abate somehow the judgment of God in their lives, either presently or in the future.

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And the truth is that's exactly the promise. They will be destroyed. And even with the promise of judgment, they mock.

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But can I say something amazing? This is an intimate story. I don't think John has said publicly.

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I'm gonna share it with you because it really blessed me a lot. You think about that wicked crowd that I just described to you surrounding that abortion mill.

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You think about the tremendous evil. And John's dying. And it looks like maybe the wicked have flourished.

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Maybe the wicked are, I mean, look at, he's the hero of the story and he's dying.

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A terrible death for someone to face.

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And he's such, he's so at peace. He's an amazing man of God. You see that and you might be thinking to yourself, well, it looks like the wicked are prospering.

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He's the hero. He's the righteous. He's dying. He told me a story this week.

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Dr. R .C. Sproul was John's pastor. John goes to St.

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Andrews. R .C. Sproul used to come to Orlando Women's Center just to sit on the wall and to watch

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John preach. Much of the support that John got was because of Dr.

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R .C. Sproul's support of John and the connections that were made there. But many years ago, this wasn't popular to do.

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Going to the abortion mill, people did it for a long time, but not a lot of people. It wasn't cool yet, right?

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It wasn't fully accepted yet. So here you have John, this man who would tell you he's not spectacular.

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He's not an amazing theologian. He loves Jesus, loves

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God's word, loves these babies. He's going to this abortion mill day in and day out, but it's just John against this monstrosity.

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And so John, at one point, was, I think, a little bit in a state of questioning, like, how are we going to overcome this?

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This is a tremendous evil. How is this evil going to be overcome through my work outside this abortion mill?

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How do we get the world to start saving these babies? How do we get other Christians to get involved? And so John there, with his faithful work, wearing down the sidewalk, talks to R .C.

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Sproul, and is like, well, how is this going to change anything or affect the world? And Dr.

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Sproul said to him, he said, John, you occupy your 50 feet of sidewalk and God's going to bring the world to you.

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You occupy your 50 feet on that sidewalk and God's going to bring the world to you. What happens?

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God did just that. God did just that. I asked John if he knew

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Marcus Pittman when Marcus showed up to start filming for Babies Are Murdered here.

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He said, no, I had no idea who that guy was. Marcus just showed up, put a camera down, started filming, and John had no relationship, no connection.

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And because of that work, it started this massive movement of churches to start preaching the gospel into this and to save lives.

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It was true. The righteous is flourishing, even in this context, because God did bring the world to that 50 feet of sidewalk.

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We exist as a ministry and have done what we've done because of what God did through one man's righteous faithfulness.

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Isn't that amazing how God has had victory even in the midst of brokenness and sin?

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The scriptures are clear, consistently through and through. These principles of uprightness and the promises of God of blessing are guaranteed and absolute.

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So let's just take a scan because much of this we've already done, but also some of it is putting a cherry on top.

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It is amplifying. Look at chapter 11, verse 3. The text says, the integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.

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It is the integrity of the innocence that will preserve you, guide you.

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There is a path where there is light and there is a path where there is darkness.

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The uprightness and innocence guides. It keeps us straight on the path.

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It keeps us out of darkness. It keeps us safe and at peace, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.

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They are after their own souls. We already saw that. In verse 4, the text says, riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

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Here's the point. Your wealth cannot save you. Each and every one of us will go before our

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God naked, completely naked. You got nothing to bring with you. Riches do not profit in the day of wrath.

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You can't buy your way out of the wrath of God. We've already addressed this text, but righteousness delivers from death.

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Ultimately, what will deliver you from the wrath of God? Only one righteousness. It's the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

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That's the only thing that will deliver you from the day of wrath. Your riches will not accomplish it. Your wealth will do nothing on the day of wrath.

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There's the principle. Verse 5, the righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight, but the wicked falls by his own wickedness.

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Your obedience, my obedience, our integrity and our innocence will preserve us.

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Their sinful choices are the source of their own downfall. Again, sin and stupidity never work.

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So the point is, as believers, it is the righteousness of the blameless, it is their being just, it is their obedience, it is their yielding to the wisdom of God that keeps the way straight.

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Next verse, verse 6, the righteousness of the upright delivers them. The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the treacherous are taken captive by their lust.

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And there's the source. You wanna know where it's at? You wanna find it? You wanna put it to death?

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The text says what is throughout scripture, Jesus addresses it to, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, all these things, sexual immorality, all those things come from the heart.

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Jesus said that. But the treacherous, it says, are taken captive by their lust. This is a recurring theme.

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Go to James, the brother of the Lord. James, chapter one, makes sense, right?

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James is the genre of wisdom literature. He's talking about the same things. James says, in chapter one, verse 14, well, let's start in verse 12, actually.

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Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which

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God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he's tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

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But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

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Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.

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So staying on that path, being upright, being preserved, means that we're gonna have to deal with our own inner lusts, the life of lust within us, your lusts and desires.

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James says, this is where it comes from. It's from inside you. You're carried away because of these lusts.

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And the text says here, the treacherous are taken captive by their lusts. So what do we need?

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What do we need? We don't need someone to come and fix our behavior. We don't need to just pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.

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If we want to avoid being taken captive and delivered, we have to have new hearts.

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We have to have a new orientation. And the answer, and this is really important for those of you in the room that may not know

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Jesus, the answer to peace and safety, preservation, righteousness, joy in God, is not gonna be found in you and your abilities to accomplish it.

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So I have bad news for you. You cannot do any of this in yourself.

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You won't accomplish it. You won't want to accomplish it. The answer is you must have a reorientation of your heart.

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And the only way that comes is by a gracious act of God. So you need to understand your sin, your brokenness, your need for that savior that was on that cross, that your only hope is in him.

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The call is to repent and to believe. Now here's the delightful thing. The righteous and those who are upright are that way by grace.

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Everyone get that? You're that way by grace. I'm not encouraging you to follow the righteous path against your will.

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If you are in Christ right now with a new heart and new mind and dwelt by God's spirit, you're longing for that righteous path, aren't you?

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You desire that. You want to be upright. You long for those things. But the treacherous are driven by their own lusts, their own rebellion against God.

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So we need new hearts. We need regeneration. We need Christ. Proverbs 11, seven.

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The text says, when the wicked dies, his hope will perish and the expectation of wealth perishes too.

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There isn't a sense, some truth, to when unbelievers say, like I'm just gonna die, it's all gonna be over with.

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When they deny God's existence, they're like, I'm just gonna die and go into the ground and then it's nothing, nothing matters.

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In a sense, that's kind of true, but in a different way. Yeah, when you die, all your hope perishes.

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That's right, that's it for you. There's no coming out of it. There's no coming back from it. When you die, your hope perishes.

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Everything perishes with you. All your expectation of wealth perishes too. You have nothing, nothing.

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The wicked have nothing to look forward to, but destruction and a final end. Remember the story that's told by Jesus about the rich man and Lazarus.

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Here's a rich man who doesn't know God and Lazarus, poor man, who actually knows

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God. What was the thing that got them right with God? Wasn't the wealth. It wasn't what they had.

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It was ultimately grace. It was a relationship with God that the rich man did not have.

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His wealth meant nothing on the day of wrath. Proverbs 11, eight.

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The righteous is delivered from trouble and the wicked walks into it instead. This is an important one.

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Hey, if there's any part of this sermon that you want to say, Pastor Jeff, what's one of the main things?

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Well, here's the main point. It keeps coming up. The wicked destroy themselves. They set a trap for their own souls.

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They don't realize that they're destroying their own souls, their own well -being. They're actually their own worst enemy.

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That theme is clear, but listen. In verse eight, it says, the righteous is delivered from trouble and the wicked walks into it instead.

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Here's the point. It's clear throughout Proverbs that sin doesn't look ahead towards the consequences.

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Sin blinds us. Let's be honest. In our moments of sin and failure, our lusts overtake us.

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We're not thinking 10 feet ahead of ourselves. We're just thinking about the moment. We're just thinking about that moment of pleasure.

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We're thinking about what we want in the moment, and we're not even thinking ahead of ourselves as to the consequences of our sinful choices and our unwise choices.

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All we live for today is the moment. It's the constant dopamine hit.

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It's the constant stimulation of our pleasure. That's what we're just sold out for.

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We don't think ahead, and the point is the righteous is delivered from trouble because of how they live, because of God's love for them, and the wicked walks into it instead.

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You ask the question sometimes to people who are so self -destructive and they just can't see they're destroying themselves.

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Like when you're going to choose to do that or put that into your veins or put that into your mouth or to engage in that relationship with her or with him, do you not see?

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Do you not see that you are absolutely destroying yourself? It's like you've set a trap for your own soul.

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It's like you have no concern for your own self, and that's what it says. It says the wicked just walks into it, right?

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The righteous person doesn't want the lack of peace. They don't want the trouble. The righteous person lives in a way to avoid the trouble because they obey

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God. They obey his law. They pursue his wisdom, but the unrighteous person is blind.

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They can't see ahead, and they just dive headfirst into the trouble. That's the principle.

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That's what we're dealing with in a fallen world. Verse nine says, with his mouth, the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge, the righteous are delivered.

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Let me come back to that one, actually. I'm gonna tie that into the other verses. Let's do verse 10. When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices, and when the wicked perish, there are shouts of gladness.

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See that contrast? That contrast? We all feel that. That is a normal occurrence.

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When many of our homeschooling families, our homeschooling families, when you are teaching history and these moments of victory with Christian heroes or American history, you're reciting many times the hero of the story.

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Look what this strong man did. He stood on principle. He didn't compromise. Back in slavery, look at those

01:00:19

Christian abolitionists. Look at William Wilberforce. Look at these guys. They're the heroes, and you think about the great victories of history of the righteous, and those are now locked in as heroes in history, people who were hiding

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Jews during the Holocaust, sacrificing their own well -being and families, getting taken themselves for doing it to concentration camps.

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You go, those are the heroes in history today. We rejoice over those great moments of righteousness in history, but notice the contrast.

01:00:49

It says when the wicked perish, there are shouts of gladness.

01:00:55

When the wicked perish, there are shouts of gladness. I was thinking this week as I was praying over this and thinking through this, did you ever see the aftermath of when

01:01:07

Ted Bundy was executed? Anybody ever see those videos of when Ted Bundy was executed?

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It's interesting to me how that looked, and I thought about it as I read this text.

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If you go after the sermon, don't do it right now, but after the message today, go home and look up Ted Bundy execution aftermath or something to that, you'll find it.

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There's video clips of when the serial killer and murderer and rapist,

01:01:39

Ted Bundy was ultimately executed. The news cameras are there and the community is around, and they are shouting gladness, rejoicing over the death of this murderer.

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And it's interesting because it feels weird, right? They just killed a human being.

01:02:04

He killed human beings unjustly. He was killed justly. And there were shouts of gladness and joy at the death of Ted Bundy, because that's what we do.

01:02:18

This is God's world. And so when the wicked are ultimately perishing and being destroyed, there's shouts of gladness, but there's the contrast.

01:02:28

Righteousness will lead to people actually praising. It will go well with the righteous.

01:02:33

The city rejoices. And when the wicked perish, there are shouts of gladness.

01:02:39

Ready? Literally, literally there are shouts of gladness when the wicked perish, because that's the way that God made the world.

01:02:48

That's how he made the world. Now, verse nine, again, listen to the words here.

01:02:56

Very important, because here's where we're finalizing the message. It's gone from the principles to the promises, righteous delivered, righteous protected, righteous filled with joy, the unbelievers against their own soul, destroying themselves.

01:03:09

And now we have some practical stuff coming in here in terms of what does it look like? Well, verse nine, with the mouth, the godless man would destroy his neighbor.

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That's what he's like. So much of the book of Proverbs is about our mouths.

01:03:29

And isn't it interesting that in James, the Lord's brother's epistle, that book of wisdom is all about the tongue and the mouth and how we destroy, and we set things ablaze with our mouths.

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Brothers and sisters, if there's anything we need to get over as Christians, and in a hurry, it's we have to get our tongues under control with God.

01:03:52

You can see that God actually says, I hate these things. The person who has lying lips, the person who is divisive, that destroys their brother,

01:04:03

God says he hates it. He hates it. He speaks so much in the book of Proverbs about the mouth of the righteous and the mouth of the wicked.

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But notice what it says here, watch. It says the mouth of the godless, that's how they're described, would destroy their neighbor.

01:04:19

It's a terrifying thing to think about because you think about being a Christian who loves Jesus, God lives in you.

01:04:25

Many of us have sins that we've overcome and those are big victories in our paths because of God, sins that God's dealing with us on now.

01:04:33

And oftentimes you can have the most mature believer, the sweetest believer, the person who's just deep in God that still hasn't got control of their mouths.

01:04:44

And yet it's such a point of emphasis in God's word, the mouth of the godless would destroy their neighbor.

01:04:52

In other words, that's not what righteous people do. The godly people don't destroy one another with their mouths.

01:04:59

That's what the wicked do. The wicked are out for their neighbor's life. They're out for their soul.

01:05:06

They want to destroy them. It's the godless who destroy people with their mouths.

01:05:12

In verse 11, it says it again. It says, but the blessing of the upright city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked is overthrown.

01:05:23

There it is again, the mouth of the wicked, it is overthrown. Wicked people will destroy whole communities, whole cities.

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Civilizations collapse because of people's mouths. Verse 12, here's some more emphasis.

01:05:40

It says, whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.

01:05:48

Now, ready? I'm gonna give you something right now that every one of us probably this week, maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow are gonna face.

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I'm gonna prepare us all, me too, all of us, prepare us against this. Here's the text again.

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Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense. You don't have any sense. If you're trying to take down the dignity of a brother or sister in Christ or a person, you're trying to belittle that person, have people think low of them, you lack sense.

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You don't have the mind of God in that moment. You're not wise. You may be knowledgeable as a

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Christian, but you're a knowledgeable fool. It says, whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.

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Ready? Tonight, tomorrow, Tuesday, Wednesday, soon, each of us is gonna be in a situation where you're with a group, a circle, and somebody in that circle is going to maybe just sort of slowly suggest something belittling about another person that you know.

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Slowly belittle, just little swipes, right? What is gossip? It's a swipe, right? It's a little swipe.

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It's a little taking down of the person's dignity. It's a little suggestions against the person's character. Not strict accusations, but it's taking them down.

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It's belittling them. We're gonna be in a group setting at some point, maybe even on the phone. You'll be in a conference call. Something's gonna happen as a believer where you're gonna either be the person who lacks sense and you're gonna participate in belittling your neighbor, not loving your neighbor, or you're gonna be the person who has understanding and is wise and shuts your mouth.

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So here's the opportunity to glorify God and to walk in that path. When you find yourself very soon in that group where someone is belittling the neighbor, just go, oh, there's the one with no sense, and the person of understanding closes their mouth.

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What would stop? Now, let's get real focused here. What stops us, all of us, what stops us from keeping our mouths shut in those moments where neighbor is being destroyed and someone's being belittled?

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What stops us from keeping our mouths shut? Think about it.

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I'll let you answer that in your mind. Why wouldn't we keep our mouths shut?

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Well, the truth is is because maybe we have hate in our heart for that person. Someone's being belittled in a group, in a setting.

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They're being belittled. We join in because we hate them too. We have a secret hatred in our heart for them as well, or we'd like to take them down and destroy them as well because we're not godly.

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We're godless in those moments. We wanna take them down, or we're so prideful, we want people to respect our opinion on the belittled neighbor, so we'd like to add some stuff too because we're prideful, and we wanna be participating in this as well.

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We wanna be seen as a person who's in the know. We wanna be seen as a person with spiritual wisdom, so we participate in belittling the neighbor.

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Here's our opportunity to glorify God and walk in paths of righteousness. This week, when you find yourself in this situation where somebody is belittling their neighbor, remind them that they have no sense and then keep your mouth shut.

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How do we protect our neighbor? Think about this for a second now. Watch this. Isn't this awesome?

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Everything we're talking about is summed up in two things right now. Ready? Love God and what?

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Love your neighbor. Every single thing in this book is love God, love neighbor.

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Love God, love neighbor. Love God, love neighbor. So why would I want to put to death belittling my neighbor?

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Because the command is love God and love neighbor. And especially, one more thing, very important.

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It's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. If I belittle his child, if I have set myself into a place where I am slandering a child of God, taking down their dignity, belittling them, just consider the fact that Jesus died a death on a cross for that person.

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Do you think he's gonna allow you to continue to live a life where you belittle them and harm them? No. No.

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So scripture says, whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent. And then more, again, just more emphasis.

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Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.

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How do you face those moments where you've learned something juicy, right?

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Where you've gotten some information that you're kind of excited to get out there. What do you do in those moments?

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Do you just feast on it? Just delight in another person's demise? You've learned something about somebody, so you go about sharing it with others?

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Scripture says, whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets. That's what you want.

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You've got something juicy. You've got some secret you wanna pass on to somebody else. You slander, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.

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In other words, shut up. No need to talk about it. No need to talk about everybody's business.

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But let's be honest. Gossip feels good, doesn't it? To the flesh. Or is it just me?

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Gossip feels good to the flesh. It feels good. It feels good to talk trash about somebody in your flesh.

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When you're being super sinful, it feels good. There's pleasure. There's some sort of sick pleasure in sin.

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There always is. But there's pleasure in gossip. There's pleasure in slander. There's pleasure in revealing the secrets.

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It's all from the flesh. And if you're in Christ, you're supposed to be having a flesh that has been crucified with Christ.

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You and I are supposed to live lives where we put to death that old man. We put to death what is earthly within us.

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And scripture here is clearly, clearly indicting us again for our mouths destroying others, revealing secrets, loving to belittle our neighbor.

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Scripture says, turn from it. Turn from it. Be the trustworthy person. Learn something.

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Keep it quiet. Protect your neighbor. Protect their dignity. Don't belittle your neighbor.

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Stay silent. And then finally, where there's no guidance, a people falls, but in the abundance of counselors, there is safety.

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Again, there's the promise, righteousness, wisdom, safety, preservation, protection, path where there is light, no stumbling.

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There's the promise again. It's interesting because this principle of where there is no guidance, a people falls is another principle of the revelation of God being supreme, being the center, being the thing that will preserve you, protect you, guide you, correct you.

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Jesus said it in another way. You already know this, but I think it's important when wisdom comes to walk among us to listen to him as well.

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And in Matthew chapter seven, very familiar I'm sure to all of us, is another instance of this principle.

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Matthew 7, 24. The text says, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.

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And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sands and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it.

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That's exactly the principle you see in God's wisdom. This is wisdom walking among us. And Jesus says it's like this, you're either wise or you're a fool.

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The wise one, the wise one, is the one who bases their life upon my word.

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There's the standard. There's what preserves us. There's what protects us. And Jesus says, if you're wise, you're on the rock, you'll be beat on and nothing's gonna fall, you'll be preserved.

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And then again, as though the book of wisdom, Proverbs was walking among us, it goes to the foolish one.

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And what's it promise again for the foolish? Optimism, right?

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Victory, no, it's destruction. The fool is on sand, they're gonna be wiped out.

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So going back to the beginning of the message today, the scriptures give us the principle and promise of optimism in the righteousness of God given to us as a gift and the optimism and blessing of the righteousness of God lived out by us in this world.

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There is blessing, peace, preservation, protection for the upright and the righteous.

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And there is sinking sands and the storms of life that will wipe you away for the fools.

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Brothers and sisters, I just, I'm gonna challenge you and me at the end of this with this word, so much here.

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It's about God being glorified with his wisdom being lived in this world.

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And so much in here is not mere abstractions. We can be the kind of people who love to talk theology.

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We're really good at arguing for particulars of theology. Maybe we're excellent at quoting verses off the top of the dome.

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We're good at just strings of text to describe the triune God of scripture, justification by faith, sola scriptura.

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We can talk about all the characters of the Bible, all the stories, we know their histories. We know exactly where it's found in the

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Bible. You could be that kind of person that collapses during conflict.

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I mean, is so overwhelmed by conflict and what's going on around you that you know a lot of things, but you're a knowledgeable fool.

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You can't live in a way that's pleasing to God. You know a lot of things. You're very passionate for the truth, but you can't actually live in community without destroying your neighbor with your mouth.

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You can't actually live in community righteously without being godless. Be the wise person, don't be a knowledgeable fool.

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May God challenge us as a body, convict us of our lack of wisdom.

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And may God allow us as a body to obey these principles and experience the blessings of them through Christ.

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Let's pray. Father, I pray that you'd bless the word that went out today for your glory, for your kingdom.

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There's nothing I can do on myself to heal your people, to change your people.

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Lord, you by your spirit must do it through your words. So we ask God that you would do that. Grant to us the strength to be the kind of people that glorify you and how wise we are.

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Not wise in our own eyes, but wise according to your word. Help us,

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Lord, to live lives that look like this book. And may you get all the glory for what you do in us by making us wise children of God.