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Let me just say a couple things before we actually look at the verses. I wanted to focus.
On.
You know, one of the goals in teaching, one of the goals in preaching is to, and if you've ever done it, I'm sure you would agree, but one of the goals is to try to give a right understanding of whatever text you're looking at.
Not only to give a right understanding of what is written, but to try to give it in a complete thought. In other words, you want to make sure that you can convey in context the truth that's laid out before you, and also, again, to try to make some application and to kind of finish a thought.
It's kind of hard sometimes, and I'm sure Brother Bert and Brother Mike and some of you others might agree, that sometimes when you have a, I don't want to make it sound demeaning, but when you do a one-off, or you just do a single message, many times, I would say it's more difficult to do that than it is to go through a series, just as Brother Keith's going through 2 Corinthians, and the reason is because you really have to try to finish whatever it is you started, knowing that you're not really going to come back to it, versus when you do a study, like as we do normally going through a whole book, if you say something and then you feel like you need to go back and reinforce something or re-emphasize something, or you feel you missed something, you have that opportunity.
So again, there's different dynamics that are involved, certainly, like if you're preaching at a conference and you have a specific subject that's assigned to you, that makes things in that way, to me, easier because I know what I'm being tasked to do and I can do it, but when you just do a one-off study or a one-off message, you kind of got to confine it a little bit, otherwise, you're pretty much, you're gone.
So just something to think about, and I think that's important for us to understand. So what I want to do is, I want to look at Proverbs chapter 30, and I'm going to read verses 18, 19, and 20. So we'll read it together, and again, remember, Brother Mike Smith has the right version.
The authorized version. Sorry?
The authorized version.
The authorized, yes, to you. And Brother Collier uses New American Standard, I use the New King James. So Proverbs chapter 30, verse 18 says, there are three things that are too wonderful for.
Me. Yep.
Not yep.
Yes.
For I do not understand. The way of the eagle in the air, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a virgin. And I also read verse 20. This is the way of an adulterous woman.
She eats and wipes her mouth and says, I have done no wickedness. Now, what I want to do is try to look at these verses, as I said just a moment ago, and try to see if we can come out with a complete thought of what the author is, what's behind.
His words.
And so certainly, hopefully we can accomplish that. And I want to do it by, in a sense, doing a little bit of an exercise together. So if you just as a thought, if you read the chapter, the work, the chapter opens up the words of Augur, the son of Jekka, his utterance, this man declared to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Yukal.
Now, I have tried to understand who Augur is. And I've read many of the brothers that have looked at it. And basically, there's a lot of speculation over who he is. I do think we'd be on safe grounds to say that he lived sometime in the days of Solomon.
And as far as who he is speaking to, as he declares to Ithiel and Ithiel and Yukal, that I'm not certain who he's actually addressing. But I do think he lived in the time of Solomon. And I do think he's addressing certain people that he had some sort of relationship with.
Whether it had been his, if you will, his students or his acquaintances, I'm not really.
Sure.
And we could spend a whole lot of time on that. And that would deter us in just the few minutes that we have together from trying to understand what the author has in mind when he says these things. So, three things which are too wonderful for me.
Four, what I do not understand, the way of the eagle in the air, the way of the serpent on a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a virgin. And then if we have time, verse 20.
So if you read through this chapter, what you'll find is that Augur has some understanding of some things. And you can read that whole chapter on your own. I think it would be profitable. Like in verse five, every word of God is pure.
He is a shield to those who put their trust in him. Do not add to his words, lest he reprove you, and you be found a liar. And then what he does is he starts to speak about certain things that he's not fully understanding.
Or things that seem to take a lot more meditation and a lot more consideration. And if you'll notice as you read through the chapter, he will start to group things together. Even as we just read. Like in verse 15, the leech has two daughters, crying, give, give, and there are three things that are never satisfied.
Four things never say is enough. The grave, the barren womb, the earth is not satisfied with water, and the fire that never says it is enough. And so he, through the rest of the chapter, from verse 15 on, that's what he begins to.
Do.
And that's what we just read in verse 18. Three things which are too wonderful for me. And then if you were to continue verse 20, three things in the earth is, for three things the earth is perturbed.
And in verse 24, there are four things which are little on the earth, but they are exceedingly wise. And he describes it in verse 29, there are three things which are majestic in pace. And so he's grouping these things together.
And so what I want to do and ask us to think about, and I think would be the right way to try to understand what he's saying is to try to understand what he means by the three things that he mentions of an eagle, a serpent, a ship, and a man or a young man, basically, I think that's the meaning behind this.
It's a young man, and your translations might even have virgin, a young man with a virgin. And then in verse 20, all of a sudden he contrasts an adulterous woman, and maybe we can get to that. So that's what's really behind us.
So I think it's important for us to understand this. Would you not agree with me that everyone that has the light of life in them, and I'm not talking about eternal life, but just the light of life, would you not agree with them with me that people can, by understanding the creation, understand some things that are glorious, some things that are great, some things that are majestic, some things that are, that cause you to take a step back.
Like if you look at the mountains, if you were at the bottom of a steep mountain, I would think most people would react by some sort of awe, some sort of majesty, and it might cause them to think in their minds of other things and how big the creation is, whatever it is.
I do think there's an understanding, even in the natural man, to use as God has created things. Remember the heavens what? The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament shows forth His hand and His work, and what does it say?
Day unto day it utters speech, and night unto night it shows knowledge, and there's no place where its speech and its voice is not heard. So when you think about that, I don't care where you are, whether you live here in the United States, or you live on the other side of the world, or we live in the 21st century or the 6th century, there are those things that God has created that allows man to sometimes just see the majesty of the creation, agree?
And the design of the creation. Now, the important thing I think we need to understand is that, well let me put it to you as a question. I like questions, as long as you answer the way I think you should answer.
But let me ask you a question. Do you think that the spiritual man, and what I mean by the spiritual man is one who is possessed by the spirit of God. Do you think that there's a difference in that thought of seeing things in the creation that the spiritual man has an advantage in that the natural man wouldn't?
Absolutely.
Okay.
And what's the reason for that?
The understanding.
Okay, the understanding, the revelation of God, and remember what it says, what is one of the characteristics of the natural man, or the man apart from Christ?
He receives not the things of the spirit of God.
Right.
His mind is darkened. He's alienated from the things of God. He thinks that the things of God are what, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, foolishness to him. So man can observe certain things in the creation, and he can even be enhanced by it, but it's not the same as it is for the man who, or woman, who has the spirit of God in him.
Brother, did you have something?
The spiritual man is going to see there's things and give thanks.
Yeah, there's a response that's definitely different. Like, in other words, I always use the water because I'm just, that's where I like to be. A man can look out on the ocean and say, man, the ocean is big.
The spiritual man looks at the ocean and says, God, you're great.
Right?
Because there's that distinction, being enlightened by the spirit of God, the natural man cannot make that, if you will, that analogy. So we have a great advantage. That is why everyone needs the Lord.
I think, and again, just my thought, before we start looking at these things specifically, I think that's part of what is meant when it says we ought to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
It's not solely just the do's and the don'ts, but it's the ability to bring every thought into captivity in our souls to result in praise, adoration, worship, and service. And that everything that you and I perceive as the children of God, we should work diligently to turn it back to the glory of God.
Anybody disagree with that? If you do, please leave the class.
Having said that, what I want to do is now look at the four things. And here's how I would like to do this. So the first thing is the way of an eagle in the air. Let's try this. I say eagle in the air.
What is that? What pops into your mind about an eagle in the air?
Huh? Okay.
All right. Yeah, sorry. Anybody else?
Come on.
Their eyesight and ability to spot prey.
Yeah.
I mean, their eyesight is unreal, right? You ever see them? You notice this one bird that flies when he dives down to take his prey, he goes 120 miles an hour. Can you imagine that, getting poked by something at 120 miles an hour?
What else?
What else jumps into your mind? Here's something that I thought of. Because we're American, man.
Yeah, man.
Any other thought that pops into your mind when you see an eagle in the air?
The principles of, like, aerodynamics, a lot of that creation related to that.
How about if I was to title that, like, this way, majesty? Because, I mean, there are certain things that just so many. It's interesting how he says this, right? He says there are three things which are too wonderful for me, four which I do not understand.
And what he's really saying is these things are really baffling in my mind. Again, it's hard to capture the fullness of the thought. Anybody else have any other thoughts about an eagle in the air, by the way?
If there can be such a thing as good pride, I mean, you know, America associates itself with freedom and American eagle and, you know, the whole association that goes along with that.
I don't know if there's such a thing as a good pride, but you know what I'm saying.
Yeah, no, absolutely. I don't think we would want on our coins a picture of a sloth. That's just me. I mean, or on our dollar bills. I mean, the eagle's got majesty. The eagle's got, it just creates a different spirit than a sloth or a gorilla or something like that.
Bro?
I want a turkey.
Go ahead, bro.
Yeah, I mean, that's good.
How about if I do this?
Because, like you said, speaking from a spiritual realm, that's how you can kind of see God as he is in the air overseeing everything.
And nothing escapes his vision.
Yep, absolutely. And certainly this would fall into that, right, that it's a picture of how God in his majesty rules over everything. And God does what? God does whatever he pleases to do where? In the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
And there's none that could stay his hand and say to him, what are you doing? So there's a lot of thoughts that come into your mind. But let me ask you a question now because I want to move on to the next one.
And this is the way I want to kind of work this. He groups these things together. So as we think of these things, I think in order to understand what he's saying, we've got to try to find a common denominator.
And we'll do that in a few minutes. So what's the next thing? The next thing is the, yeah, I'll just call him Snake. I say Snake, you say?
Barium.
Say that again?
Yeah, not the other barium.
I'm going to put this in parentheses.
Kathy.
Shirley.
That's all right. Shirley said it.
That's all right.
Okay, so let's think about it. I say Snake. What else comes into your mind besides a backhoe or a gardener?
Evil.
All right.
Evil. What else?
I think the fascination of them, how they can dislocate the jaw, eat prey, I mean, how they can blend in with the rocks. I mean, there's a lot of fascination that is there.
All right. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to put Steven next to this guy. That's a different class of person right there.
They also look at their cold-bloodedness and how they can climb up on a rock to warm themselves.
Oh, okay. Let me ask you, what if I put this? Would you agree to that, that some of the thought that pops into your mind with a snake and probably because of the gardener being right, that there's deception?
Conniving. Conniving.
Subtle.
And really that's incorporated in the thought about evil.
But I know you guys have had fun with snakes, right, recently, back there in the Kelly Budd section? Anything else that jumps into your mind when I say snake?
Oh, yeah.
What about predator?
The only thing I was afraid of this morning was my spelling. My spelling stinks. But, okay, a bunch of things jump into your mind. All right. Let's do the next one. Let's do the next one here. So the next one is what?
The ship in the midst of the sea. And remember now, we're trying to understand what Augur has in mind when he groups these things together. So as we, that's why I wanted to do it this way. As we look at these things that come together, we still have to try to find, in order to, I think, justify what the text really means, we're going to have to find something that's common.
Because it would make no sense to him to group these things together and try to present a truth if there's nothing that we can link together. So, ship in the midst of the sea, what are your thoughts?
No foundation.
That is all that metal flute.
I'm not going to put that down, Dan. We'll record that you said that.
It can be steered, but it's also at the mercy of, you know, the storms.
That was one of the things that I thought, that when you see a ship in the midst of the sea, it's kind of helpless. And here's another thing. It's also kind of, it's kind of frail, if you think about it.
And we just came back from the cruise, and we were on a little baby boat, one of the carnival boats. But it's pretty big. And, you know, something that big, and yet it gets kicked around pretty good, right?
What else do you think about? Anything else you think about when you think about a ship in the midst of the sea?
It's tiny.
Sir?
That ship is tiny in the midst of the sea.
Yeah, it's...
No matter how big it is?
Yeah, absolutely. Matter of fact, they diverted us from Cozumel to the Bahamas, and they diverted all the other boats because of the hurricane. And so we docked first, and then the Mickey Mouse boat came in, and the Mickey Mouse boat made the carnival boat, because this is the smallest carnival boat that they have.
We were on a paradise. And Mickey Mouse boat dwarfed the carnival boat. And then the Royal Caribbean boat pulled in, and it dwarfed the Mickey Mouse boat, which then dwarfed our boat even more, but smallness.
Anything else?
I will say that the ship...
Okay, so I'm just going to put it this way, brother.
Fitted.
It's fitted, and certainly... Now, we might be able to find that... Well, let me ask you to think about it. Could we say that about an eagle in the air, that it's fitted for what it is? I think we can agree on that.
The snake, could we say that it's fitted for what it was intended to do? So we might have something now, at least we can consider, with the way of a ship in the air. Anything else on any of these that you thought of as we go through this?
We've only got one more to do, and then I want to try to narrow it down. Anything else? Okay. Let me just do this. I've always done this at weddings, and I just married my granddaughter. She got married three weeks ago.
And I always tell the story at a wedding. And I'm not saying it's the best, but I don't think it's the worst. Do you know where we got the name Woman from? Anybody know where we got Woman from? That name?
Well, I know it's from the Bible. That's what Adam said when he saw her.
Whoa, man.
That's exactly right, right? God put him to sleep, and he woke up, and the animals weren't getting it from him. And the first thing he saw standing in front of him was Eve, and he said, whoa, man. That's how we got the name Woman.
Maybe you think that's a little off color. I think it gives a reality to the intimacy and the beauty of marriage. Yeah, it should be. Okay, so it says the way of a man, the way of a man when a virgin.
Okay, let's think about it. I say that to you, just like we did here and here and here. What comes into your mind?
The Bible says that she was suitable for him.
Okay. Yeah, we could say fitted, although there are people in society today that say, I don't want to go down that road. It would take way too much time.
Well, looking, what he said on the first three, we could say that it could be a righteous matter, it could be a wicked matter, and it could be a fallacious matter with the three out of a given.
You know, that's a really good observation, brother, because if you look at verse 20, and again, I'm not so sure we'll get to it at this point. But if you look at verse 20 and you look at verse 18 and 19, you got to begin to wonder what is Olga really trying to drive at when he talks about these, these three things and four things that, and then he all of a sudden says, this is the way of an adulterous woman.
She eats and wipes her mouth and says, I've done no wickedness. So I do think that we could say that, to your point, brother, we could say that this could be an evil understanding or it could be a righteous understanding.
What else about a man and a woman?
King Solomon.
Could be, could be, yeah.
Would it be.
Three items listed before.
We think about a man and a woman. Would you agree to, and again, whether it be in a positive or negative aspect, this passion, I mean, you would hope this passion, right? There's no passion. I'm not going to go very good.
What else about a man and a woman? Let me ask you to think about this. Could this be either an area of deceit? Certainly that fits into the first 20 thing about an adulterous woman. She wipes her mouth and says, I've done no wickedness.
You know, it's interesting how the Proverbs talk about, and also in the book of Job. And we just went through the study of Job. There is a tremendous effect. And even in the, I know it's somewhere in the Proverbs.
I just can't remember that a woman who is indiscriminate destroys, basically destroys everything in her path. And the way of a woman, an adulterous woman, can be a very, very deceitful thing. Because guess what?
Many times the man is like, why? What does the scripture say? Almost like an ox going to the slaughter. You women, and I'm saying this in a very careful way. You women have more influence over men than you could possibly ever imagine.
Although probably some of you know very well how to, you know, I mean with Candy. If she looks at me a certain way, buddy, I better duck. Or I know exactly where she's trying to lead me with that.
Let me go back to my original, one of my first thoughts then.
So August says these things are too wonderful for me, for I don't understand. And I think he's struggling in a sense trying to understand. And then he mentions these things. So let's try again to try to find a common denominator.
Now, you brought up, Brother Maurice, that would fitted fit here?
Agree? Again.
Oh, we have it here.
Would fitted fit here? Yeah, I think so. Isn't it interesting how it says it too? If you think about what it says, it makes a specific point of saying the serpent where?
On the rock.
And hold on to that because I think that's one of the keys to help us to understand this. And we could certainly say fitted here.
Agree?
Okay. And fitted, we've kind of established that fitted means design, engineered, whatever way you want it, created for the outwork. Is there anything else? I'm going to suggest a couple of things.
Purpose.
Huh?
Was that your suggestion?
Purpose?
No.
No, Brother. So just don't say that. Let me ask you to think about this. You ever see an eagle in the air or a hawk in the air? One of the things that I think, and this is what I'm trying to say, is at least partially in the mind of Olga, is that this is traceless.
Just think about it. You see an eagle fly. Could you put together how that eagle, where he came from and where he, what path he took?
I doubt it.
Now you might be able to say he's going back to his nest, but there is an aspect of an eagle in the air that is mysteriously traceless. I mean, once it's gone, it's gone. It's not like the jets that we see in the sky, right?
Because you can see the exhaust tails, right? Or like when the satellite goes over. I saw one just last week when it went up, and that whole big thing. But there's something about an eagle in the air that once it's finished its path, it's very hard to trace where that eagle was or how he got to where he was.
Agree? Okay.
How about the snake? And this is what I'm trying to bring up. A snake on the rock. Think about it. A snake in the grass or a snake on the sand would do what? It would definitely leave a track, right? A snake on a rock?
Would you agree with me that this is traceless? Now, I'm not saying that he doesn't leave slime or whatever snakes do in their lives. I don't know. But there is an aspect in which it's hard to trace the steps of a snake.
On a rock.
Ship in the sea. How many of you have never been on the ocean? Everybody's been on the ocean. How many of you have never been in a boat on the ocean? So you've never been in the ocean.
I've been on a boat that was going around an island.
Not out in the open sea, right? How many of you have never been out in the open sea? Okay, so a couple more. One of the things about being out in the open ocean is that as you're going, you create a very visible trace, right?
But here's the interesting thing about being in a boat. Is that once that boat is gone, it becomes traceless. In other words, you give it just a few minutes and you couldn't tell where that boat came from or where it's going.
It is completely invisible. Once that water settles and the waves ripple out, it's done. So, and I know I'm inserting this. This is what I think Augur is trying to get us at least to consider. That all three of those are traceless.
Now, let's go to a man and a woman. Would you agree that in some ways this is traceless? If you disagree, that's fine. But it's not always easy to determine the way a man and a woman either come together or are united or even in an evil way, as you brought up, it could be positive or negative.
It's not so easy to tell. Sometimes it is traceless. Certainly, the ways and the subtlety of, I'm going to say, an indiscriminate woman is very subtle. That's one of the things about the snake. Wouldn't you agree?
The snake is very subtle, isn't it? I don't even know how you spell that, but I think that's kind of close. But would you agree that this could be another area where things are traceless? It's not so easy to determine how the relationship, whether a good relationship or a bad relationship, how it all came together.
I mean, you might be able to pick up on a few things. Well, I remember, like, when I left the house this morning, Candy said, do not bring me up in your Bible study.
And guess what?
I'm going to bring Candy up in my Bible study.
That'll teach her.
Your own video, brother.
I truly, Candy will tell you that I won her heart with a goldfish. I bought her a goldfish in one of those little bottles, and I put it in my car, and I drove, like, 30 miles with the goldfish, hoping that all the water wouldn't splash out and the thing would die before I ever got there.
And she told me that that was the thing that won her heart. I'm like, come on, man. Now, if I try to goldfish today, it ain't going to get it, buddy. That's long gone. But wouldn't you agree that in some extent, relationships, whether good or bad, are traceless?
You can't always tell where they came from or how they work. So I want to suggest to you, we've just got a few minutes left, that in part, what Augur is trying to say is that as he looks out on these things, the eagle, the snake, the ship, and the way of a man with a virgin, that he's taken back by the fact that you can't always figure it out.
You know how they say love is blind? How did I get into this? So there is a certain aspect, and I do agree with you, brother, that there is also this as a common denominator, that it's fitted, which means it's designed for that end.
Let me ask us to think about this. Can we make an application from all this? I think we can. And one of the things that I think of, and certainly I want to make sure that we at least can come away with, is this.
That you and I need to walk not only in a traceless way, and I could say that by how the scriptures say we ought to live a quiet and peaceful life. I'm not saying we shouldn't get involved. But that sin many times is traceless in its beginnings.
Would you agree with me with that? That many times sin enters in in a very, like this one would be certainly an example of that, right? Like a snake on a rock. Or like an eagle. How did this ever come about?
Did you ever get into a dispute with somebody? And then when that dispute is open, say, how did I get into this mess? Well, I'm going to suggest that sin is like this sometimes. It's traceless. You don't know where it started.
You don't know how. You get to that point, like how in the world did I get to this point? Well, here's what I want to say to us in an application. We ought to make sure, and the scriptures I think would support this, that we ought to walk circumspectly.
In other words, here's something to think about. And I ask you young people to think about this. Do you get up every morning and ask the Lord truly to guide your steps? Because you have, in that sense, no idea.
No different than anybody else, but you have no idea what that day is going to bring. That person who got shot at that rally yesterday, besides Trump, he had no clue that that would be the last day on earth.
So I think there is an aspect in which you and I should live our lives in the light of that truth, that there are things that are too wonderful, too much to understand, too, in that way, God who rules, and only, like people say, only God knows.
And that sin, many times, starts out, to me, sin almost starts out like, you remember when Elijah called for the drought? And the drought came, and Ahab was all ticked up about it, right? Do you remember when he went and prayed the seven times that God would bring rain?
Do you remember the first thing that he saw? He said, I see a cloud the size of a fist. Go tell the king to get home, because it's going to pour. And I think of it sometimes, that sin, many times, starts out like that, like that little bitty cloud.
And before you know it, it blossoms into a full-blown storm, just like situations in our life where it seems insignificant, or almost traceless in the beginning. How many times people have gotten a little...
I remember one time I stabbed myself with a hook, and I didn't think nothing of it. I just wanted to suck the blood and move on, right? Three weeks later, I'm at the doctor's, because my finger was like this.
It was all gooped up, man. It was disgusting. And I remember asking the doctor, I said, what is this? He said, I have no clue. Don't come any closer to me. That's what he said to me. This is my doctor, too.
He's not my doctor no more.
But could that be the understanding that Aug is trying to present to us? The common denominator is that these things can be very subtle. Certainly, I think it fits into the verse 20, that when he says, this is the way of an adulterous woman, she eats and wipes her mouth and says, I've done no wickedness.
And that could apply to a man, too, certainly, right? Because it talks about, in Scripture, it talks about the man who smiles, and his teeth, his bright smile, and his stature. Certainly, you can think about that.
You think about it, and you realize it's hip to salt. He was what? He wasn't the dog of the choices. He was what? Head and shoulders above. He was the best looking. I mean, he was the Fabio in that day.
And yet, did it turn out right? Versus who? David, the little ruddy boy who kept the sheep and stuff? Again, many of the ways in the workings of God are traceless, until we see it. So, I hope to obey, at least give us some sort of thought of how important it really is, friends, to walk the straight path, and to keep the narrow, enter into the narrow gate.
Because what does it say? Wide is the path, and wide is the gate that leads to destruction, and who finds it? Many. And again, that's why I say, we ought to be able to use the creation to teach us to bring every thought into captivity to the beings of Christ.
Okay, two minutes left. Comments? I know, what does Mike say? Comments, concerns, complaints? What does he say? Riots?
Revolutions?
Letters to the editor? Whatever. Anybody have anything to add to that?
So, the traceless part is considered a negative thing?
I think it could be either way, brother.
I think it could be, again, I didn't have evil intents when I put that goldfish in my car. My intent was to win that chick. I'm sorry. No, I wanted to win that chick with the goldfish. I wanted to use that goldfish to do it.
So, I'm saying you could make it a negative or positive, Brian.
But yeah, I think if we took each one of those, we could see it as like a step to the adulterous affair, or so we could handle it.
The eagle is great, mighty, he's sneaky.
Yeah, you know, the scriptures constantly remind us be careful of the one who. What? Winks with his eye.
Be careful of the subtlety of the ways that man works. Even in, how many of us would agree that in your job position, and I'll end it with this because we've got to get out of here. In your job position, and I remember when I was working and I was able to be in a management position, it was so political, in a sense.
When you work for other, when you work for yourself, it's cool. Because you really, you manage yourself.
There's a good aspect.
When you work for a large corporation, there's a lot of political meandering and movement, right? And I remember when I turned my computer in, I had like 4 ,000 emails that I thought was absolutely essential for me to have to cover, to do a C, which unfortunately the term is CYA.
If someone ever came to me and said something about me, I could say, uh-uh, you said it. And I remember when I was deleting all those emails, it's like, I don't need these things no more. But that's because there was a subtlety and a slowness and almost a traceless action on the part of people to maneuver power struggles and whatnot.
I hope this was helpful. I do think that particularly the Proverbs and Psalms, those poetic books and even the Psalms, they will yield us a lot of good things if we will take the time to meditate on them.
And it's not as easy, I don't think at times, as reading the Gospel, certainly it's not as easy as reading the epistles of Paul. I mean, they're parts of Paul's epistles. If you can't understand it, it's because you're dead in sin.
But when it comes to Proverbs and Psalms and Ecclesiastes and even the book of Job, you really kind of work on it. And that's why I think he says they're too wonderful. Brother Beans, would you dismiss this?
When the last death is conceived, bring us forth to sin. Sin, when it's finished, bring us forth to death.
That's right.
Do not err, my beloved brethren. Lord, our prayer is that you would keep us from evil. We pray, Lord, that our desire would be that which is righteous and holy because you are righteous and holy.
Pray that you would guard our hearts, keep them, for out of them are the issues of life. Pray that you'd be with our brother Keith as he brings forth your word this morning. Pray that you'd fill him afresh and anew with your Spirit and use him as your vessel.
In Christ's name we pray.
Amen.
