The Character Of A Wise Person - [Proverbs]

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Well, to those of you that are new to BBC, welcome. To those of you that have been here before, good morning and welcome to you too.
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Good to be able to gather together in the Lord's name, to be able to worship today, to be able to learn from His words so that we can more, the whole point of it is not that we can go around saying, well,
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I know more than you do, the whole idea is that Jesus Christ would be glorified in our lives as we learn of Him and desire to walk as He walked, 1
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John 2 .6. Okay, everybody's pretty, looks like we're pretty settled.
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Let's go to the Lord. Let's ask His blessings upon our time and day together. Our Father in heaven,
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You are a great God and King. Lord, our creator, our master, our sustainer.
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Lord, You are, You are Lord and Savior and You have given us and bestowed upon us
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Your great love and for that we are always amazed because we think of ourselves and we know who we were and what we were before You came and arrested us in the way and shined the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ upon us that we, that we receive the gifts of repentance and faith and we're made the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
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We thank You for Your great work in our hearts. We thank You for the great privilege that we have to serve
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You and in that to honor the Lord Jesus Christ and as the
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Apostle Paul wrote, may it be that our boast would not be in ourselves, our boast would not be in BBC, our boast would not be in our attainments but God forbid that I should boast or that I should glory save in the cross of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. May Him and He alone be our continual focus and attention, our heart's passion.
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Lord, I pray that we would learn this morning through this class how it is that we ought to live and how we ought to conduct ourselves, how we ought to behave ourselves as the people of God in the day in which we live.
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We need Your grace. We need Your strength, Lord, and we pray that by the ministry of the
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Holy Spirit this morning we may be taught of our God. In Jesus' name, amen.
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Well on the sheets, again, what I'm going to take and do this morning is look at the
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Proverbs and look at the Proverbs in a particular way. I was wondering if maybe you could answer this question for me.
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How does, or what does the world think that, outside of the church, what do they think or what would they say or how would they describe the characteristics of a wise person?
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A wise person, what do you think? What does the world say are the attributes, the characteristics of somebody who is wise?
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What do you think, Peggy? Judgmental? Okay. Well, that's a tough stretch to get to, but okay.
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Judgmental. Okay. But what
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I'm trying to do is I'm trying to find out what does the world think a wise person is? Now they would look at the believer and they would say to us, we're judgmental because of the wisdom that we've been given from God that we're not tolerant and we're not open -minded.
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But a good way to, you know, you've got to break the ice somewhere, right? Thank you.
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Dallas. If you went to Harvard, headed a community organizer, you were the editor of the
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Harvard Law Review, that would be a wise person. In the back, Brian. The world would say that a person who doesn't speak much is wise?
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I would, I mean, I could see that in some instances, but I see that a wise person in the world,
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I think they're just people who spout. You know, they just have everything and they just keep going.
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But in the measure, I mean, I could see, I mean, it does say in the Proverbs that even the fool when he holds his tongue is considered to be wise, respects there.
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Sorry, hand up here. Okay. Extensive experience in their field, corporate, financial, business, whatever that might be.
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Okay. So we're seeing degrees, experience, just titles that we're seeing,
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Steve. Okay.
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Socially progressive, elitist education. You're in the in crowd. You're the cream of the crop, so to speak, as the world would say.
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Yes, Anitra. Material wealthy.
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Okay. You must have been wise to be able to get those attainments, Daniel. Maybe atheistic or against the word.
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Yeah. Yeah. That Bible stuff is so archaic. It is out of touch with reality, they'll say.
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And it is so intolerant and, you know, it's just, it's Jesus is the way and that's it.
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You know, that's not wise. It's, there's a plethora, there's just a whole gamut of ways to God, isn't there?
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I mean, that can't be the wise way to go. One more, Mark. Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship.
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Somebody who is, who's got it together as far as just having some ideas to be able to put together for a business or a product or something in the market.
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And we think of all that title and experience and maybe their position and attainments.
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Maybe the people that are around them. And then we come to the scriptures and we see what a wise person is.
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And really, right out of the gate, a wise person is a person who fears God.
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A person who lives in, with that reality that they are in such an awe of God.
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They have a reverential disposition when it comes to the
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Lord. And that is far, far removed from the world. I mean, fear
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God? No way. I mean, the fool has said in their heart, there is no
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God or no to God, rebelling against God. I don't want to have anything to do with God.
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And yet the scriptures talk about a wise person and what better place to go to than the book of Proverbs, the purpose of this book.
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This book is a book of wisdom. It is a book that is, I read just yesterday, full of pithy statements.
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I thought that was a good description for the book of Proverbs. Pithy statements that we can look at that contrast different types of people.
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Have you ever gone through this book and I was thinking ahead of time, it would have been nice to be able to have the white board to be able to write these down.
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But give me some ideas of what kind of people are contrasted in this book. And when we look at these people's lives or we look at the way people do things, the way that they behave or approach things or make decisions, it is there for us to be able to look at it and say, this is the way not to go.
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And this is what God would desire for me as a, as a child of God, as a, as a believer, as a
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Christian, if I want to be a wise person, a person who, uh, I believe that the purpose or one of the purposes of this book is to produce the skill of godly wiz of godly living.
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Godly living is a theme here that produced the, the skill of godly living through the wisdom and through the instruction of this book.
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And when you read through the book and you have before, and we've covered some lessons, what kind of people are contrasted?
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Give me some ideas there, Steve, the full, yeah, you have the fool and the wise.
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And we're going to see that as we go through some of these, these scriptures this morning. And, uh, just to, to go there, if you'll see under the top line, the very first line that's not bolded in the lesson, it says the wise man, uh, in particular, what is the, the content of wisdom?
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And then the wise man, this is what we're going to be looking at. Um, the, the character basically we're going to look at is the character of a wise man as compared to the fool as compared to the scorner and as compared to the simple in parentheses the, and I'll, I'll give you some definitions.
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The, the fool in Proverbs is the obstinate unbeliever. The fool is the obstinate unbeliever who will not listen to the truth.
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And you'll see that all through this book. The wise person does this, but the fool does this.
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And it's, it's threaded throughout this book, the unbeliever who will not listen. But then if you take it up a notch, you have the scoffer or the score, the scorner who is the scoffer, the mocker, the one who, um, commits more serious and determined acts in their lives, uh, to show that they mock and they scorn, uh, the scriptures and scorn truth and scorn
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God. But then you have the simple and the simple in the, uh, in the book of Proverbs, the simple are those, well, go to chapter one, if you would, with me, please.
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And just, just see this, um, in the opening of the book. Proverbs one, one, the
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Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, King of Israel. I'm reading from the King James to know wisdom and instruction to perceive or to discern the words of understanding, to receive instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, or to receive instruction.
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Your yours might say in wise behavior, in righteousness and injustice, uh, to give a subtlety or to give prudence to the simple, there it is there in verse four to the, to the simple, to give a subtlety or prudence to the simple, to the young man, knowledge and discretion.
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And the word simple in there isn't the way that we would think of simple it. This is a, the person who is naive.
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This is, this is the person who is, um, young, mostly this book is written to the, to the young, but it is good for anybody of all ages, but the simple of the naive, and they are like a blank book, um, they are lacking understanding.
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And this book is directed right at them so that they can get understanding so that they will learn the way that they ought to go.
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But for any of us, of course, uh, and that's the, the particular focus of Proverbs is aims.
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It's, um, if Proverbs was an archer, personified and was pulling the bow and shooting its arrow someplace, uh, most of the time it's aiming its wisdom primarily at this group, the simple.
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And yet, uh, that has an idea of having the blank slate. And don't we all need to learn though?
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We all have areas in our lives that are, that are blank. We have a lack of understanding in areas.
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And as we read this book, and I encourage you to, to take the 31 chapters of this book and you can equate those to the calendar days of the month and read them once the, whatever the, the day of the month is today's the 21st read
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Proverbs 21 and just get in the habit of doing that and going through it. And then it just, uh, they just become your friend as you, as you're looking through.
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And it's, uh, and it's amazing how you'll start to see threads and, and trends and some of the like, uh, subjects that are in the book.
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Yes, Mike. Yeah. Mike was saying they're, they're a, um, there is, they're an easy target and you see that in the descriptions when, when he says, don't go in the way of the strange woman.
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Don't even go by her street. Don't even look in a window, you know, don't, don't, uh, get in the place where you could be pulled into, to sin.
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And, um, and, and you see that, I mean, you see that in, uh, as contrasted to somebody like, um,
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Daniel. If you read the book of Daniel, you'll see right from the very beginning that, uh, when, when
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Daniel was brought into captivity and, uh, being trained up in the kingdom, one of the things that they did was, is they allowed the, those, uh, those young people to eat of the king's meat and to partake of all that the king would provide for, for them.
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And you remember right at the very beginning of the book of Daniel, I think it might be in Daniel chapter two. I can't remember exactly one or two.
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It says that Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself by eating the king's meat.
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He was not a blank slate. He, he, he had been taught in the Hebrew way.
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He had been taught in the way of God and he had, he had convictions. He was not going to compromise.
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He was not simple. He was someone who had been instructed in the way of God and he was going to so order his life so that when the, when those temptations came or when that opposition came or when, when those, uh, um, those, uh, attacks would come, he was already ready.
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He was prepared. He was resolved. We used to sing a, a song when I was in a church in Texas, uh,
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I am resolved was the name of the song. I am resolved to follow the savior faithful and true each day.
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Heed what he says, do what he wills. He is the living way and the whole, every verse in that says,
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I am resolved. The problem with people today is, and, uh, and we can be caught in this, in this situation.
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The problem is, is that we are, we are not prepared and we are, we can't say that we're resolved because we don't know the way we're, and we should walk the way that we can be prepared is to read books like this and to read them over and over again and ask
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God to instruct us and to teach us so that we, when we are presented with a temptation, when we are presented with, with some situation at work where, where it is unethical at school, when, when someone wants to cheat or, or, uh, do something that to cut corners, we're already prepared.
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We're not going to do it. We're already resolved that we're going to be people of integrity. We're going to already resolve that, that we're going to do the right thing.
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And that kind of, uh, that kind of will lead me into this first point, but I want to, I want to just give you just a few moments to give me some, what are the contrasts you see in this book?
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Contrasting people. We had the why, the foolish and the wise. What else? Okay. Rich and poor or the people, the people too that, um, handle their finances properly and the people that are not good stewards, they do not handle their, their money properly.
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We'll have people when that respect who are very liberal and they're in the loving and compassionate and give their, and give to people in need.
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And then you'll have people that will hoard it and hold on to it and they don't want to help others. And it says that the, the liberal soul shall be made fat or will be satisfied.
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And uh, the other, the other person, I mean, comes to poverty. I saw another hand, Louis, parents and children.
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We see, we see the instruction that are there and you see the contrast. I mean, uh, in today's and in today's thinking, um,
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I talked to a gentleman at work and he said, I'm not going to beat my kid. I didn't ask him to do that.
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I mean, I talked to him about discipline, but he said, I'm not going to, I'm not going to do that. And yet the scripture says, if you don't do that, you don't love them.
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And if you do do that, you'll save their soul from hell. I mean, God, it's
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God's word. Daniel comparisons, the proud and the humble. Yes.
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All throughout there, the haughty spirit and things that the Lord hates. Yes. In the back. Yes, definitely.
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The one who's lazy and the one who is the hard worker. There's two verses in Proverbs and I'm telling you this now because I may not get down to the bottom in there of this.
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But in Proverbs 26, 12 to 16, it talks about the, it talks about the lazy or the slothful person in Proverbs.
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And it says that the, the, the lazy person is not going to go out and, and get food or work because there's a lion in the street and says, you remember that one there?
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What an excuse. That's all it is is excuses. I mean, that would be like saying, I can't go outside because the meteor is going to fall on me.
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I can't go to work. A meteor might fall out of the sky. And then the other one, the other one in that text, it says, as the door turns upon its hinge, so the slothful person turns upon their bed.
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You know, they just, you know, they just, they're just, they're just lazy, just will stay in bed. They, they won't get up.
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It says so much that they put their hand, they'll put their hand in the food, the bowl of food, but they're too weary to bring it to their mouths.
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I mean, you know, it's just a, but on the other hand, you have the diligent person who is, who is focused and, and will work hard and, and, and God will bless their efforts.
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And that's, that's the wise person. That's what we're, that's what we're talking about. I mean, I, I don't,
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I promised myself I wouldn't do this on the way, way in, but I'll make it fit in somehow. When I was a kid, there was a cartoon that I used to watch and it had, it was, the character was of the
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Royal Canadian Mountain Police. And you, you remember his name is Dudley, right? But Dudley do right.
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And you know, it's a smile and it's like, it doesn't quite fit. You know, it could be just a moralistic type of, uh,
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I don't remember all the details of it, but when I was a young believer, my, my first pastor told me, he said,
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Dave, in any circumstance, no matter what, even when it doesn't make sense, even when you can't figure it out, you can't explain it, you don't know what's going to happen next.
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He said, Dave, it's always right to do right. He told me that because God is right.
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God is righteous, right? The righteous God. And, and, and when it comes to living, we ought to honor him, not doing right to be saved, not doing right to earn salvation.
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It's by grace. It's, it's through faith. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ only that God saves us.
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God reaches down in the horrible pit and in the miry clay of sin and pulls us up out of it.
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Uh, we were dead in trespasses and sins. We weren't just floating on the, uh, you know, help, help me on the top of the, of the ocean.
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Uh, we're at the bottom of the sea dead and God needed to resurrect us and regenerate us in Christ.
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And, uh, God saves us. Uh, we don't do right to earn salvation, but because we've been saved and the mark of Christ is upon us and we're to be a different people.
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One of the things that's exhibited in our lives is right living. And that's the, on the character point a number one, uh, we are to be a righteous people.
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You will see that they're righteous, righteous in our attitude. You'll see there that is that I quote or had, uh, this, this is not mine here.
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I got this, um, from something pastor Mike had sent out. Maybe some of you saw this. This was a whole outline of the book of Proverbs.
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And I just thought it would fit nicely for a Sunday school class, uh, to look at what does it, what does it mean to, to walk in the way of wisdom?
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How is it that we can become, um, uh, people who have, uh, the focus in our lives to, for towards godly living?
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And how do we get that by the wisdom and instruction that we receive in this book? And we see in Proverbs 13 in verse five, it says a righteous man hates lying or a righteous man hates falsehood.
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But there on the other hand, the opposite of the, the righteous now a righteous person. As I, as I see it, uh, they are, uh, characterized by right living.
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They live right, righteous. This is not like righteousness, the standing that we have in Christ, but this is, this has to do with our behavior, our conduct, the way we deport ourselves.
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And we are right in our living. In the first, in the first thing it says here, the, and it contrasts them.
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A righteous person is contrasted with a what type of person in that verse, a wicked person.
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So if you're not living right, then you're wicked. You're, you're fighting against God.
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You're going in the opposite direction. You, you are, uh, you've jettisoned everything that God would have you to be as a creator, as, as, as part of his creation, him being the creator.
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And you're not living the righteous life, but the righteous man hates lying. That's like, and this has to do with our attitudes.
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I mean, we're not just going to brush off untruthfulness or, or falsehood. But, um, but when it comes, when it comes to anything in the world, as, as we're dealing with it, we're, we're going to, um, have this type of attitude that we hate lying and falsehood.
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Also in our speech, if you notice in 1217, it talks about the person, it says here in 1217, he, that speaks truth shows forth righteousness or tells what is right.
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A person who is speaking the truth speaks what's the right thing. And it says at the end of that verse, but a false witness deceit.
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So for right living to do the right thing means that we tell the truth.
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We don't stretch the truth. We don't exaggerate. We don't cover up. Uh, we don't make ourselves look better because pride begins to, to creep in when we do something like that.
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But we, when we open our mouths, we, when it comes to speech, we speak rightly. And isn't there a way, and it has to do with your attitude.
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The first point, isn't there a way that you can speak the right thing, but have the wrong attitude and have the wrong motive?
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It's right. Right. Words are like a hammer. They're like a, like a knife that can cut.
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Uh, if you, if you look back, uh, on the BBC website, several weeks ago,
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I did a Sunday school class on, um, Proverbs and on the speech on tongue of your tongue, how we, how we ought to, uh, how we say things.
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And you could look that up possibly just to help, uh, to help with the subject here, but, um, you probably have that happen to you, somebody telling you the truth, but they, you know, that they don't have the right, uh, the right heart attitude about it.
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And that is, that is so important to be able to, to care for the person enough to that when you speak the truth, you speak the truth in love, you speak the truth in love.
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Okay. The next point, uh, a person who is a wise person, uh, is righteous in not only an attitude speech, but in their lives.
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Notice in this same chapter, chapter 12, I picked this verse, verse five, the thoughts of the righteous are right, but the counsels of the wicked are deceit, not only about our words, but the thoughts of a righteous person are right.
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Everything about them with, with the life of a wise person, uh, the desire is in, in the focuses and the goal is not to be right.
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Just so that we can say, aha, I'm right. You're wrong. Or put it in somebody's face, you know, not, not, not to do that, but, um, but to do it in such a way that we don't even have to toot or blast our horn.
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We're just doing it because we know that it would please the Lord to be a right people, to just walk in a way that would please him to walk even as Jesus walk.
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First John two, six, any comments or questions on this point, as far as the righteous, uh, life or right living.
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I mean, in the world, it's the opposite, isn't it? I mean, ethics, morals gone and just do as you please.
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It's like the book of judges, everybody doing what's right in their own eyes. I mean, there is no standard.
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We've been kind of talking about this in Sunday school lately. Uh, there is no standard of right and wrong because we don't believe in the
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Bible, uh, because if we believe in the Bible, then we have to believe in the God of the Bible. And if, if what, if what he said in there is true, then we've got to change our lives.
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We don't want to change our lives. So we're going to make up what we think is right or wrong. We're going to come up with our, with our own standards.
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And it always, it always amazes me when folks will say, you know, they will take any subject and they will say, well, this is wrong and this is right.
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And yet there's no bait. There's no basis. There's no standard to go back to. Like we have the word of God as believers.
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We have the word of God to go to, to say that life is precious. Uh, and when it comes and when it comes to, um, uh, abortion, abortion is wrong.
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It is, it is murder. And we go in the scriptures. We see, we see how that life is, is, is precious to God.
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And he knows of a Psalm 139 and where we're woven in the womb before being born and God's God, God's hand is in it.
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And, and it is life. And yet the world will say, no, it's six weeks or eight weeks or two weeks, or you can go the whole, the whole term.
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And, and, and still that child can, can be done away with because it's just, uh, the child will be an inconvenience to me.
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And that's, what's right for that person. But there is a way that seems right unto a man, the proverb says, but the end thereof are the ways of death and the person will be judged by God because they have not, they have, they have made void
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God's law and they have set up their own and it's always amazing. How can they, how, how can they then, you know, be so adamant about what they think is right or wrong, if anything goes and certainly, um, if anything does go in the day in which we live.
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And that's why we as believers must stand upon the word of God. We need to be a people who know this book and know what it, what it, when it comes to different, um, the different situations that can arise and the different questions that are going to come to us, that we're a people who have studied as it says in Proverbs so that we're, we can answer the questions that come our way and be able to give a hope of the reason that is within us as, as we, um, as we go through life, any, any question or comment.
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Okay, let's go on. The person is the right. The wise person is also a loyal person.
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If you look in 16, six, and this, this is just, um, this is just kind of a blanket statement as far as, uh, the fear of the
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Lord, which I had opened up with by mercy and truth and equity is purged. And by fear of the Lord, men depart from evil or, um, one person will keep away from evil.
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Uh, I'm not quite sure why, uh, Mr. Zasko used that verse here, but how
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I took this was, is that by the fear of the Lord, keeping away from evil, we as a wise group of people will remain loyal to the
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Lord when it comes to living a right, uh, kind of ties into righteousness by living right.
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But because when I think of the fear of the Lord, I think of it as an over, um, an, an, an ever present awareness of the presence of God in my life to the point where it affects the way
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I think, the way that I act and the way that I speak. The fear of the fear of the
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Lord. I am so aware of God's presence in my great, my greatest fear as a child of God would to be a, to put a frown upon the face of my savior.
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That's, that's kind of like how I think practically of the fear of the Lord. It is an awe. It's not being afraid of God as believers.
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We ought not to be afraid of God, but to have a reverential awe of the Lord. And in that way, we would want to be a loyal to the
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Lord. We want to be loyal to our families. We want to be loyal to the church. We want to be loyal to our friends.
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The next point is for the wise person, their character, and it says wise man, but it's wise man, woman, young person, boy, girl is a humility.
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A wise person is humble. We've already looked at the subject of the fear of the
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Lord enough. I believe there. Um, so let's go to, uh, from chapter one, verse seven, let's go to chapter 28.
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I know we're bouncing all around 28, 14 happy or blessed is the man that fears always, but he that hardens his heart shall fall into mischief.
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And a person who, a person who is wise is a person who humbles themselves before some of themselves before the
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Lord. And, and in so doing fearing, always fearing the Lord, always not like the person in the second part of the verse who hardens their heart and their, their life will be full in mischief and they fall into mischief, but we will be a people who fear the
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Lord. And in that being blessed of God, because we understand that, that he is above all.
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And that we, and we know our rightful position. I remember going through a basic training in the army in the, in the mid to late, late seventies,
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I remember the guys that always used to get in trouble and they were the ones who always thought that they outran out, they outranked the drill sergeant.
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They were, they were going to call the shots. They knew exactly, they knew it. This is foolishness.
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I mean, you want me to scrub that floor with what toothbrush you want me to do a hundred pushups because my tie wasn't straight and, and they would push and they would buck authority.
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And what was happening was, is they were, they were out of place. And isn't it true with all our lives as, as believers?
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Uh, we're always under authority, aren't we? We're always under the
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Lord for sure. If as members of a church where we're, um, we're under the Lord's authority, of course he's over the, he's the head of the church and there's leadership in the church.
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And we, and we submit to the leadership and the family, there's a husband, wives and the submission that's there.
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And the children, when you go to work, there's submission there. I mean, for the most part, all of us throughout our whole lives.
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I mean, sometimes kids think this way. I know I did when I was a teenager. I just can't wait until I, until I can get out of the house and then
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I can be my own person and nobody's going to tell me what to do. And then you show up for work the first day and the boss is saying,
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Dave, do this. You know, we're always, we're always under authority, but people get in trouble when they won't humble themselves and they won't get in, get in their rightful place and, um, and, uh, and, and do what they're asked to do with a joyful heart and a willing heart.
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Did I see a hand a while ago? Okay. I thought I might, might've. All right.
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How about this one? Familiar verse, Proverbs chapter three, a person who is a wise person is a humble person and how that exhibits itself in Proverbs chapter three, this person trusts in the
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Lord and mistrusts themselves. Proverbs chapter three, verse five, trust in the
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Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding in all thy ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.
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Trust the Lord with all your heart. So the focus for the person who is humble is, is that they are a person who trusts
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God and they do not trust themselves. It says here, do not lean on your own understanding.
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Don't support yourself with self wisdom. Don't think that you have an answer to everything.
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Don't look, um, don't look to yourself because we are, I mean, this, this leaning not means, uh, in, in the wording here means don't support yourself.
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Don't undergird yourself or don't undergird yourself or don't build your life upon your own human reasoning.
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That's basically what it means. Cause if you do, uh, it is going to be just the opposite. If you, if you, if you acknowledge
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God in all your ways, he, he straight cuts your path or makes your plane, your path straight or plane.
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If you trust in yourself, it, it is a, it is chaos. Uh, it is, um, it is going in a hundred million different directions, squirrel cage type, uh, life and living, uh, and not, uh, not focused and you're not where you ought to be.
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And if you're, if you're trusting yourself, you're not trusting in the Lord. So it's self -dependence and, uh, self -trust, which is very deceitful because we can think that we're going in the right way.
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We can think that we have the answers and we think we've reasoned it out, but we haven't got a clue what God's doing in the background and, uh, and as we lean upon ourselves, um, really, what is at the base of all of that?
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It's pride. It really is. And, uh, and, uh, and we're in the middle of that.
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It's, uh, me, myself and I, and, uh, I think, um, if you look down at the point
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F and under this point, uh, a humble person recognizes the true nature of pride and you can go look at those verses, but pride means it's all about me.
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I'm the best. Um, when God made me, he threw away the mold.
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There's just nobody like me, you know, I'm it, I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread.
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Um, I'm a person who's prideful is always tooting their horn. Uh, it leads to a host of sins, um, arrogance, uh, pushiness, self -dependence, um, self -righteousness.
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And, uh, it is, I, when a person is prideful, it's very hard to talk to them.
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They are not like the next point you'll see down in, in, in four, uh, they are not a teachable person.
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I mean, you just can't get in there. I mean, I've ever, ever talked to somebody. I knew somebody that, that, uh,
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I had a close association with. Anytime you would go to that person to, to share something with them at work, it was like, oh,
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I know that. Yeah. Oh, I already knew that. You can't teach them anything. They know everything.
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Uh, and yet, uh, to the next point here, a teachable person, I mean, uh, a, a wise person is a teachable person.
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And you'll see here that they are a person who receives, uh, wisdom from other people.
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Let's go to, I think we're, we're somewhat close to their Proverbs 12 and in verse one,
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Proverbs 12, one, whoever loves instruction, loves knowledge, but he that hates reproof is stupid or brutish.
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A person, a person who does not want counsel does not want to hear a rebuke or to be told how to do something correctly in order to correct themselves.
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The Bible says, and thank the Lord. I didn't say it. That person is stupid. And seriously, we live in a world full of stupidity because people are unteachable.
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To be teachable. I believe that first of all, you must be approachable. Uh, I mean, if you've got the wall up and if you've just, you know,
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I am not, no, nobody's going to come knocking on my door and improve upon me again. I've arrived.
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I'm there. Um, you, you're, you're headed for disaster. You must be first approachable.
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You must be willing in that case, willing to listen. Uh, you must be a perpetual student when it comes to being wise, always learning, always growing, always going on to know more of what the
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Lord would have us to do. We must, and, uh, and it must be something when we hear these things, we put it to practice and, uh, we hold fast to what we've learned.
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You, you remember, um, in, in this, uh, look in chapter three, if you would, when it comes to getting knowledge and retaining knowledge, chapter three, verse one, my son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep or guard my commandments three, two for length of days and long life and peace shall they add to the verse three, let mercy and truth.
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Um, for let not mercy and truth forsake the bind them about thy neck, right them upon the table of thine heart.
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The, I, the idea here is, is that not that we are to, uh, literally do that as far as, you know, to somehow open up our chest and write these scriptures and the truth upon our heart, or to hang something about our neck so that we can look at it.
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Now, I don't, I don't think it's a bad idea to put scripture around the house or in your car or, or places where you can be reminded of it, but what it's talking about here is to be people who, who read the word of God and who internalize it, memorize it, meditate upon it, have it become part of your life so that, so that, uh, as a man thinks so easy, the word of God will become the rule, the
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Paul's prayer for one of the churches was that the word of Christ might rule in their heart.
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And that's what the, the proverb, uh, the writer of the proverb here is bringing out, we receive wisdom and we want to retain wisdom.
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Turn to chapter 25. I'm having a blow through the rest of this because I'm way behind time -wise.
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I'm going to go on to the next point. A wise person is a person who is self -controlled and not rash.
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Proverbs 25, 28. Notice what the word of God tells us.
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Proverbs 25, 28. He that has no rule or has no control over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls or like a city that is broken into your, your, um, version might say, and without walls or like a, like a city that is broken into or, um, like a city that has no walls, that's the person that has no rule over their own spirit.
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And what this is saying here is that, uh, for the wise person, we ought to exhibit the fruit of the spirit.
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One that's listed there is self -control. And the idea that we get here is if in biblical times, if, if you'll, you'll remember, um, well,
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I'll, I don't know if I can go there in the time, but, or, or in any, in any case with any city, the reason why they built the walls was not just for them to look pretty, aesthetically nice, it was for defense.
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So the enemy could not come in. And if the walls were down, the enemy could come in. And when, and that's being compared to our lives.
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If we don't have the walls of self -control in our lives, the enemy comes in and the temptations.
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When the temptations come, we fall to the enemy. And one of the things I think about is the book of Nehemiah.
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Do you remember, um, Nehemiah's heart when it came to looking at Jerusalem and the walls are down, it was a, it was a blotch for the people of Israel.
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It was, it was so dishonoring to God. It was a shame. And I believe it's a, it's a shameful life.
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If we are out of control and our walls are down and we live in such a way, uh, in not exhibiting control that we are rash people, or we are people who just fly off the handle.
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We are people who attack other people very, very quickly. There's, um, we don't, we don't, um, when we're just impulsive type people, that's, um, there's other verses.
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I think in, um, if you look in chapter 16, in chapter 16, verse 32, when it comes to anger and, uh, and, and this ability, the same kind of, uh, analogy here, 1632, he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that rules his spirit than he that takes a city.
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It's saying there that a person who, who controls themselves and their, their spirit and their anger, their emotions is better than somebody who can plow in and go take a city physically.
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And, uh, what a testimony for the people of God, if we would not be rash, uh, but instead, um, that we would be in control of ourselves.
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There's other verses here. If you look at point D, we don't have time to go there. The person is the wise person who's self -controlled and not rash.
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They're not a hasty person. They're not impulsive. And, uh, I won't ask you to turn there, but I'll, but I'll read it quickly in 19 too, it's also that the person be without knowledge is not good.
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And he that hurries with his feet will air a person who that is hasty with their feet will, will air or will sin.
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Um, and I believe that we need to be careful that, that we're not the people who are ready fire aim.
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That's the wrong, the wrong order. There's no planning there. There's no, there's no deliberation as people, as the people of God, brethren.
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One of the things that we got to do is we got to kind of, before we rush into anything is just to, to, to prayerfully consider things you remember in the old
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Testament, in the book of Joshua chapter nine, when Israel, God is going before and giving them great victory in the land and a group of people get it in their minds, we're done.
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We're toast. Uh, they're going to get us and they're wiping out all the cities. We've got to come up with a plan.
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So what they did, they were close, close enough by, they put a ragged clothes on and tattered shoes and moldy bread and wineskins that were broken, they were from Gibeon and they went to, to Joshua and they said, we'd be from a far country.
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They were, they acted, uh, um, very craftily, the Bible says, and it says that Joshua and the leaders looked at their food and looked at the situation and they did not ask counsel of the
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Lord. If you look in, in the previous chapters, they had done that. They would go to the Lord and ask prayerfully,
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Lord, what do we do? Do we go into Jericho? Do we go into AI? In this case, they did not ask counsel of the
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Lord and they believe what they said, they believe this, this, uh, concocted story and they brought them in.
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And of course they found out when they got to their, to their land, that that's where they were, they were really close. They, they had gotten tricked.
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And the point that the point that I bring out here is don't believe everything you first hear.
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Don't act impulsively when it comes to any decision. Sometimes we're out of the gate. We just want to do the very first thing that comes to our minds.
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But it, but it says that if we do that, we're going to air, we're going to falter. We're going to sin in times we should be deliberate and prayerfully consider things as that's a wise way to go, isn't it?
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I mean, who does, who does anything when it comes to big projects without planning, without thinking about it?
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You do it in a big things, you do it in little things, and it's a very wise thing to do. Okay. How can I finish?
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The wise person is forgiving in those verses. You'll see that they conceal a matter. They, they try to, they don't, they don't try to expose people's sins.
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They conceal that because of love. They, they, the idea when you try to openly show it as like the idea of a peddler who opens up his wares or you go to the flea market or garage sale and people have it all laid out.
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You don't do that to other people that you care about, but you try to deal with it and conceal and cover things over when it's proper to do so being thoughtful.
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And then lastly, of course, uh, being diligent. There is another verse in here and I don't know where it is.
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Oh, it was way up in the middle. Um, a key verse to look at under 0 .3
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E a humble person is a person who confesses their sin. Proverbs 28, 13 is a great compendium, a great verse to tie with first John one nine, a lot of times when it comes to confessing our sins, we as believers ago, it's
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God's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. If we confess them, he's faithful and just, but that verse says that he that covers his sins will not prosper, but who so confesses this first John one nine, but who so confesses.
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And then we have an attitude of repentance and forsakes them. Whoever confesses and forsakes his sin shall have compassion and mercy of the
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Lord. Okay. Any questions? I know it's, it was a rip through and I just thought I could, you could go back and study some of this, but we should not desire to be wise, continue to do so to in right living and being loyal, uh, integrity, character, teachableness, self -controlled, forgiving others, uh, confessing our sins and being diligent in all we do for the glory of the
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Lord. Daniel, right?
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The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. And he that wins souls is wise. Uh, 11
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Proverbs 1130. And you all, you get this idea. If you read the Proverbs, you'll see the, about this, these thoughts about the root of the righteous, kind of like out of their lives comes this fruit, uh, of, of, of just wisdom flowing.
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You know, there's a difference between knowledge, understanding and wisdom, right? There, there's a difference.
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And a lot of times believers will stop at knowledge. It is just get the facts. I got it in my head and I'm going to let you know that I know it, but it ought to go beyond just knowledge.
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It's knowledge. And then understanding as I can see it is you, you have a, an awareness of what that means.
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And, and, uh, in, in it, then it then becomes, it goes past just intellectual to where it grips your heart.
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And you, you, you have an understanding of what that means before God and your relationship to that truth and how it ought to be worked into your lives.
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And then when it comes to wisdom, wisdom is, goes beyond knowledge and goes beyond the understanding.
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Those are necessary. But wisdom is the skill of living a godly life as God intends you to live it.
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That's wisdom. And it's not, and please go beyond knowledge because knowledge puffs up.
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You just stop there. All you got is a bunch of facts and you can fill in the blanks. You know, where, where did who's he do this, that, what year was this?
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I mean, that's, that's just facts, but then you have an understanding and that comes through prayer that comes through meditating upon the word of God.
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It comes from the Holy Spirit teaching us. Yes. And then it becomes wisdom. You look at somebody and you say, that person is, that person is wise.
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Well, they didn't stop at knowledge. They didn't stop at reading and studying the word of God. They memorized it and they, they internalized it and they prayed over it and then they worked it into their lives.
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They applied it. Wisdom is applying the word of God in your life in such a way that you become, your life becomes godly and behavior and thought word indeed.
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And that is how God intended for us to live. Amen. All right, let's pray.
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Father, thank you again for this blessed time that we have to look in your word. Help us, oh
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Lord, to be a people who, who trust in you and mistrust ourselves.
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Lord, you would never fail us. You would never leave, lead us astray. You can do all for us that we need.
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You've provided all that we need and you are able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ever ask or think.
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And Lord, we so many times lean upon our own understanding, our own, our own human reasoning, and it's wrong.
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We pray that you would so put it upon our hearts that we would lean upon you and lean upon your word and even lean upon good, godly, spiritual, mature counsel that we can receive from others.
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And your word says that if we acknowledge you in our, in our lives, that you will, you will straight cut our paths.
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You will make our pathway straight. Oh, father, we need that. And we pray that you would work in our hearts, that we might be a wise people all to the glory and honor of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.