Sunday School July 18, 2021

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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00:30

All righty, good morning, greetings, salutations, good to see you this morning, I can see you a little better, I got my new glasses, so everybody looks very nice this morning, still two of you, but you do look better, anyway, good to be together this morning, before we get started, let's open up with a word of prayer, Mr.

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Collier, if you would open us up, brother, amen, all right, so, just as a check, what chapter are we in, okay, okay, good, just wanted to make sure that we were all in the same chapter, and, all right, without opening your book, what is the title of the chapter, what was the title of chapter six, without opening your book, very wise, very wise, okay, yeah, I was going to see if there were young people here, I was going to ask them, but never mind, I'll get to that later, yeah, but anyway, yeah, so the title for the chapter is God's unfathomable wisdom, and I wanted to kind of walk us through a couple of things, where we've been up to this point, in a sense, and then kind of move on, but I hope we're at least beginning to see some things, and understand some things, and I wanted to kind of ask us to think through a couple of things before we get into what exactly was in that chapter, and I want to look at a bunch of scriptures this morning, and I hope that those scriptures will help us, but I want us to think about, as we go through this book, and really, again, the book is not the teaching as much as the scriptures, and as D.A.

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Carson walks through the Bible, that we begin to see that it's not just the book of unconnected strands, it's not just the book about events, and stories, and I mean, that's what the Bible is, the Bible is a book, it just happens to be God's book, but I hope we're beginning to understand, as we've been trying to draw it out over the last couple of weeks, that it is really an unfolding, if you will, it's a continual progressive revealing of what God would have us to know, and again, many people will look at it that way, they'll say, you know, the Bible's just got a bunch of stories that make no sense, well, the best way for the stories to make sense is to understand them not only in their context, but in the overall revelation of God, and again, that's when things begin to fall into place, I know we've talked about this for many different reasons, but, and we've used this example many times, but it's like a tapestry, right, and if you, you know how you do the needlepoint kind of stuff, and I know my girls used to do that, and all that good stuff, I never did it personally, but I just want you to know that, but you know how you stick the needle in there, and you pull the thread, and it's got, if you look at it from one side, it's what? It's a tapestry, right, because all it is is a bunch of strings, it's not until you turn that tapestry over that you see what it, all those strings bring to pass, and so when you think about that, and you think about the Bible, and you think about how D.A.

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Carson is taking us, and how brother Mike and I have been trying to show us that that's the way it is, and again, as long as we understand that we're, as we go through the book, and as we go through the scriptures, there's this continual revelation that God is giving us, and that again, all those stories, and all those events are connected in some way, and ultimately in that day, I say in that day, when we're with the Lord, that tapestry will be absolutely beyond our imagination, and again, a lot of it still seems like strands, so when you think about that, I hope we're beginning to see I also hope that we're beginning to recognize that the Bible is not just a book about what God did long ago, and some people think about that, right? People will say, well, you know, the Bible is, it's a, it's a book that was written, or it's a book about things that happened thousands of years ago, and it really has no relevance to us today.

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How would you answer that, by the way? So if somebody said that to you, you're talking with somebody, friend, relative, stranger, whatever it is, and you get into this conversation about the Bible, and they say that to you, what would be your answer? How would you, how would you begin to, to bring them into an understanding if they said something like that? Well, you know, the Bible is just a bunch of stories about things that happened thousands of years ago.

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That's what I thought you would say.

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Right, right, and again, I hope that we're beginning to see one of the ways to, to work with someone like that is to take this thought and carry them through and, and tell them, well, you see, you got to understand the Bible as it's revealed to us by God, and that it has a, it has a progressive understanding and unfolding, and really, if you just try to jump in somewhere along the line, unless you really understand what took place before, it's really going to be hard for you to understand what's taking place now.

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So again, the Bible is not merely a book about what God did long ago, and the Bible is not really just about the Jews, and a lot of people will say that.

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People will say things like that.

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They'll say, well, you know, the Bible is just a story about God and the Jews, and although God uses the Jews and the nation of Israel in a very, in a sense, strategic way and in a very profound way, yet, would you say that all the Bible is about is about the Jews? Would that be accurate to say something like that? Okay.

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All right.

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And again, the Jews play a prominent place, right, as we've seen, but ultimately, the working of, let me pose it as a question.

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Would you agree if I said that God used the Jews in a sense as his mouthpiece to reveal himself and his purposes? Would you say that that's, would you want to throw stones at me if I said that? I mean, you might want to throw stones at me.

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But true, God used the Jews, right, to carry out and to manifest his working, and in that sense, they were his special people, but they are not exclusively his special people, certainly as we come into, as you come along and get to, and that's where a lot of people miss it, right? If you come along to the cross, certainly the prominence of the Jews takes on a whole different reality, right? Because the church is what? Jew, Gentile, barbarian, Scythian, free, slave, encompasses all.

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So again, just to get us to think about it, and I hope we're beginning to understand it, that we can explain things not only on a pinpoint level, like if somebody asks us a specific question, but we should be able to start to get a framework of understanding, hopefully as we go through this book, that it's a total revelation of God and not merely just picking points out and working through that.

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So, and here's something I want us to, hopefully that we can begin to understand as we go through the book, and as we read the scriptures in general, that the Bible not only reveals what God does, but really who God is.

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In other words, as we work through the God who is there, and we, just think about it, we've talked about the God who made everything, that was the first chapter, and then the God who wipes out rebels, who doesn't wipe out rebels, and then the God who writes agreements, and then the God who legislates, and last week we looked at the God who reigns, we begin to understand that the Bible not only is a revelation of what God did in history, but who God is.

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And I think we miss a lot if we do not hold those two things together, that God, and the title of the chapter for today is God's unfathomable wisdom, or God is unfathomably wise, that you and I should appreciate that and praise him that he has revealed not only himself, but his purposes in the things that take place, and really that is the work of infinite wisdom, to do something like that.

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So, again, Bible is not only about what God does, but who God is.

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And those things are in union, wouldn't you agree? Because God doesn't do anything that's against his character, right? So, what God does and who God is, they work together, right, as God works his purposes out.

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And then I hope we understand, we're beginning to understand that the Bible is also a revelation by this infinitely wise God to reveal man.

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In other words, as we begin to see, as we go through these chapters, as you go through the Bible, you start to read the different things that take place, we begin to not only understand what man does, but who man is.

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And if you start to think about it in chapter one, the God who made everything and in the garden, we found out who man was in Adam, right? Because Adam rebelled against God.

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And then we move forward and you think about it and then we talked about Abraham and him as a man and how God worked with him and how Abraham, needless to say, and I'm sure you would agree with me, Abraham had issues.

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He was a godly man.

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He believed in God and accounted for righteousness sake, but Abraham was full of issues.

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And then we move on and then we came to Mount Sinai, right? And certainly there's issues there.

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So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that the Bible is this revelation of God, it's unfolding and giving us strands of thought for ourselves.

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And those strands are important because those are the things that hold the whole Bible together.

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So, we learned about who God is, what God does.

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We learned about who man is and what man does.

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And certainly, I guess the best way to say this is what the scriptures say.

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It says, man is born for trouble.

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What's the other half? Anybody know the other half of that verse? Has sparks fly upward.

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Man is born for trouble as the sparks fly upward.

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And that is absolutely true.

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And that's the other part of God's absolute wisdom.

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Let me ask a question.

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And I just thought of it.

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So, I'm not even sure I got the answer yet.

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Did God create the world? I'm trying to think how I want to word this.

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When God created the heavens and earth and God created everything and God said it was good.

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Would you agree that, as I just said to you, that man is born for trouble as the sparks fly upward.

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That the reason why the sparks fly upward is to teach us about man being born for trouble.

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Or am I just somewhere where I shouldn't be right now? In other words, what I think about a lot is this infinitely wise God set these things in order.

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And in setting them in order, it teaches us not only about him, but about ourselves.

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Because if the sparks fly downward, it wouldn't represent the same thing, would it? Man is born for trouble.

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And why do those two things relate, by the way? Man is born for trouble as the sparks fly upward.

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Anybody know? Anybody think about it? That's right.

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It's natural, right? It's the natural flow.

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And that's what I always think about.

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How God has created these things in the universe, in the heavens, and in the earth, and in the events, and everything takes place.

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And how those things are such a teaching tool.

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And yet, for most people, if you ask them about sparks flying up, and they say, yeah, dude, what do you expect? They're not gonna go down, dummy.

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Unless you use a grinder.

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Right.

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Yeah.

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Then you better have the shield and everything else.

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But you get my point.

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So the Bible, and this infinitely wise God has so ordered everything.

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And again, I say, brothers and sisters, that we really don't appreciate as much as we ought to appreciate about God, and the Bible, and his revelation, and those things that pertain to us.

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So I hope we're beginning to see that.

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So that leads me into wanting to look about what we did in chapter five, or what D.A.

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Carson took out of chapter five to present to us.

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And here's an interesting thing.

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If you read the chapter, what we've been looking at so far is, again, this progressive movement, right? We started in the garden, and it's been kind of moving us this way.

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And we made some stops along the way, and we made the stop.

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We didn't talk about Noah, but there's a stop with Noah, there's a stop with Abraham, and then we get to Sinai.

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But as you begin to look at chapter six, it almost appeared to me that D.A.

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Carson takes a break, in a sense, from talking about the unfolding of history.

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And to me, he moves into a discussion, and I think a real good discussion, about not so much history, but about the different makeup of the books of the Bible.

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Remember what he was talking about? What was his thought about the books? He wanted to speak about the books of wisdom, the poetry books, which would be what? Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.

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Certainly, the Psalms have a lot of different things in it.

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Now, that doesn't mean that there's no doctrine, there's no historical accounts.

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Certainly, there is.

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But if you think about what Carson is presenting us in this chapter, is how God, in his wisdom, has given us books to help us along the way.

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And I say that in a very reverent way, not a help book like the world would give us, where it says, if you do this, you'll get that, or things like that.

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But how God, in his wisdom, has given us things to aid us as we travel through.

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And again, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.

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And I'm going to look at some scriptures this morning in those books, but let me ask you this.

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If you're sad, how many of you would read the book of Leviticus? Besides maybe Brother Collier.

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I mean, really think about it.

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If you're sad, you're going to open up to Leviticus and start reading through the sacrificial system.

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Now, you might, but you're not really going to.

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It's not, it's not, it could very well help you.

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So, don't misunderstand me.

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The word of God is the word of God, and it's able to build itself.

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But certainly, if you're sad, you'd want to read something that would seek to what? Bring comfort.

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Right? If we're experiencing things in our life, God, in his wisdom, has given us those very books, or those very messages, or those very letters from him to help us in our experience.

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I mean, if you're sick, if you're broken, if you're hurt, I don't necessarily think that I would go read First Chronicles.

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I just don't know if I could bear up with all those genealogies.

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I can't even read them when I want to read them.

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I mean, be honest now.

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How many times do you dip into the genealogies in First Chronicles? That's what I thought.

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Right? We usually read the first four or five, and then we say, yeah, I got it.

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Unless we're digging, unless we're looking for something very specific.

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Again, God in his absolute wisdom, and as D.A.

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Carson lays out, has put together his revelation, and some of his revelation is to help us in what I would say, every experience of life.

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Because if you think about it, there is not a single experience that we have, could have, that God hasn't given us instruction about.

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So when people say the Bible is, the Bible's not really relevant, the Bible's, it's just an old book, it had maybe some meaning or something, whatever people want to, one of the reasons why they do that, friends, is because they don't know what's in it.

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They don't see the wisdom of it.

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Again, you know, people are sad, and they go ask Dr.

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Phil, and Dr.

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Phil ain't going to get it.

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Neither is Oprah.

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But God has been so, God in his wisdom has been so kind to us to give us these books.

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And I think one of the reasons is, and I thought about this verse in Psalm 103, and I was just going to mention it to you.

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It says that God knows our frame, and he remembers that we are dust.

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Isn't that great? That our God is so wise that he knows that we are changeable, movable, most of us.

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Again, I'm going to pose it as a question.

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How many of us would say we're driven more by our minds than by our affections or our emotions? How many of us would say that we are more directed in our life by our intellect versus our emotions? Anybody? You think we're more driven by our emotions? I think that it has a very, it has a very strong, if you will, magnetic pull on us.

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Now hopefully we begin to line up those things, right? Hopefully we begin to line up and bring our every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

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But at the same time, I would suggest that most of us many times respond more by emotion.

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And how many times have you done that? We say something, we do something, we don't do something.

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And then later on, when what? When the fire dies down or the emotions settle, we say, man, why did I do that? Or why didn't I do that? Or why didn't I say this? Or why didn't I fix it this way or that way? And again, if you think about it, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, they are so greatly filled with wisdom.

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And I don't just mean this kind of wisdom.

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I mean wisdom for the whole man.

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And only the God who made us could be the one who could give us true wisdom.

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And again, that's what the world's missing out on, if you think about it.

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And the world runs here, and the world runs there, and the world tries to get wisdom in every other place, and yet God gives it to us in his word in so many different ways.

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It covers every experience, if you think about it, we don't have to read that right now.

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But if you think about Ecclesiastes chapter three, there's a what? There's a time for love, there's a time for hate, there's a time for war, there's a time for peace, there's a time for this, a time for that, there's a time for everything under the sun, right? Now, is that not a gift of this infinitely wise God to explain to us that that there is times for all these different things, and that we can go to his word, because it is his word, and find wisdom for those times of war, and those times of peace, and those times of love, and those times of hate.

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It's time to gather bread, it's time to cast away stones, all the different things that so God is, is so good to us.

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All right, I wanted to ask us to look at some scriptures, because again, that's the focus this morning.

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God, in his infinite wisdom, gives us wisdom, and I would say very often we neglect the very wisdom that the only wise God gives, and we neglect it to our own hurt.

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I wanted to ask you to think about this.

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So just turn to Proverbs chapter eight a minute.

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Proverbs chapter eight.

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We could spend a lot of time on Proverbs chapter eight, but for this morning, I just want us to think about how God is so wise and gives us wisdom that is meant to help and not hurt.

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Look at it.

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Proverbs chapter eight, verse one.

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Does not wisdom cry out in understanding lift up a voice? And she takes to stand at the top of the high hill beside the way where the paths meet and she cries out by the gates at the entrance of the city at the entrance of the doors to you all men I call and my voice is to the sons of men.

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Oh, you simple ones understand prudence.

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You fools be of an understanding heart.

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Listen, for I will speak of excellent things and from the opening of my lips will come right things.

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From my mouth will speak truth and wickedness is an abomination to my lips and all the words of my mouth are with righteousness.

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Nothing crooked or perverse is in them.

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They're all plain to him who understands and right to those who find knowledge.

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Receive my instruction and not silver and knowledge rather than choice.

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Go for wisdom is better than rubies and all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her.

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And you could read this whole chapter and you could find the father, you could find the son, you could find the spirit here.

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My point is when I was going to ask the young kids, I was going to ask anybody under 18 to raise their hand.

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And if I ask that question in this class, ain't nobody gonna raise their hand.

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But I was going to ask the young kids, the younger people to think about that.

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And here's where so many people go wrong.

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We all want to counsel young people.

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I think there's this desire as we get older to want to give good counsel versus bad counsel.

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But a lot of people, all they have is bad counsel.

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But if we had to suggest to young people where to find real wisdom, why would we not go to where God has given us true wisdom, infinite wisdom? So we should direct younger people to make full opportunity to gather in true wisdom.

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Because there's a lot of junk out there, wouldn't you agree? There is stuff that people put out.

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I mean, I gotta say this and maybe it's just me.

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It amazes me that people can make so much money giving out so much garbage.

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Honestly.

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I know, it's true.

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I mean, you got people that are, we were talking the other day and I don't know how we got on at Mia Caney and she was telling me about influences.

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I had never heard that.

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Does anybody know what an influencer is? What is it, sister? It's someone that has to do with the internet.

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Right.

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That talks about it because they have a lot of following, thousands of people that follow them and they influence other people to buy a certain product or think a certain way.

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And these people are filthy rich.

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And it's amazing to me how these people have such exposure and how many people are willing to pay these people.

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Some of them don't even look like they got hair on their face.

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Honestly.

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And yet they're supposed to be, they're the influences of the younger people.

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Come on.

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Yeah.

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But I'm just saying it's so much of greater value to go where God says, I am wisdom.

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And that's what it says.

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I wisdom verse 12, I wisdom dwell with prudence and find out knowledge and discretion in the fear of the Lord is to hate evil.

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Like I said, you can read this whole chapter, but this is one of the books that God gives us, right? Not just pithy sayings or phrases or catch catch terms, but rather it's wisdom.

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And again, if you think you got all the wisdom, well, you got some big problems, right? Cause none of us have the wisdom that we really need.

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So, so there's one example of it, how God, uh, is infinitely wise.

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And, and I will say it this way.

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Maybe you would agree or not.

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God shares that wisdom with us.

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He, he, he openly displays it to us.

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And certainly wisdom is to be, uh, taken and used for God's glory.

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So think about how NDA Carson brings up the Psalms, um, and how God has given us the Psalms.

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And I will say this, I love the Psalms.

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And I guess part of it is I'm a very, um, I'm a very emotional person, um, in many different ways.

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It, my experiences really work in me, right? And I think that one of the reasons why I enjoy the Psalms, cause there isn't an experience that hasn't been given to us in Psalms.

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Every possible experience, ups, downs, ins, outs, uh, all kinds of things of, of real life experience are given to us in the Psalms and God in his wisdom has, uh, given to them, to us, to help us through those very experiences in, and in the Psalms, think about it.

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The Psalms teaches how to pray.

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Psalms teach us how to trust.

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The Psalms teach us how to wait.

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Uh, the Psalm teaches us how to deal with enemies.

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The Psalms teach us how to deal with events and actions.

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Um, one of the greatest Psalms is Psalm 73 about the prosperity of the wicked.

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I'll tell you what, there's a lot of wisdom in Psalm 73 to be had.

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And there's a lot of comfort and, and, and think about the makeup of the Psalms.

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Many of the Psalms are songs.

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Many of the songs, the Psalms are just, uh, praises to God.

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And yet they're full of experience and wisdom.

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And again, I say to you, God is so infinitely wise and, and we ought to tap in through Christ by the power of the spirit into God's wisdom.

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Ultimately, Christ is the wisdom of God.

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And we all hopefully understand that.

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So, so just think about it.

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Here's, here's something to think about.

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Um, and, and D.

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A.

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Carson brought this up in the book, by the way, go to Psalm one, just real quick.

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Probably everybody knows it by heart, eight verses.

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It's not that hard to do a memory memorization on Psalm one, but I want you to just think about this.

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It's only six verses.

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Let me, let's just read it.

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Okay.

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And again, I read new King James.

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So, um, if you don't, you should no money, kid.

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Blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of the sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord.

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And in his law, he meditates day and night.

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He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring forth its fruit in this season and whose leaf shall not wither.

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And whatever he does shall prosper.

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And the ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff, which the wind drives away.

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Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

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So here's the thing I was thinking about this as I was preparing for this morning.

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How many times I've read Psalm one and I will continue, but this point just jumped out again to me.

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And it's this, how infinitely wise God is to give us an understanding in six verses that this world has been chasing for millennium.

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Think about it because in these six verses, God in his wisdom lays out two kinds of people, the godly and the ungodly.

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God doesn't get caught up in all these groups.

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Even like when we talk about this gay pride stuff, LBGTQ, I don't even know how many more letters there are in all that word.

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But my point is think about God is infinitely wise.

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And in six verses, he explains everything about men, not every little detail.

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That's not the point.

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But in six verses, not only does God lay out, there's only two types of people, but he also says there's only two kinds of results for those two kinds of people.

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And you think about it.

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Think about how much energy, how much money, how much this, that, and the other thing has been spent down through history by men, women trying to define and give understanding and give us a, if you will, right worldview.

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And I'll say to you this, Psalm 1, if you and I can gather in what God has given us in Psalm 1, we'll have a right worldview.

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And again, there's only two types of people and there's only two results for those two types of people.

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And it's very simple in that sense to begin to understand which one of those two groups you are.

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Now, again, you could do it in Chinese, you could do it in German, you could do it, you could do it in all languages.

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You could do it across all cultures.

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You could do it in all stations of life.

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It doesn't matter.

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There's no different groups that are rich than there are for the poor.

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There's either rich people who are godly or rich people who are ungodly.

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They're either poor people who are godly or poor people who are ungodly.

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So again, it amazes me how wise God is that he is able in, in such a brief description to give us, if you will, a right worldview.

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You know, people sometimes think if you say more that means you're smarter.

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Sometimes it just makes you a bigger fool when you're done.

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Right? Sometimes being straightforward and simple and concise is wiser than, you know, it says the fool opens his mouth, he spills his heart.

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But if you think about that, it's so wonderful.

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Here's another one.

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And again, that's all I want to do this morning.

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We got just a few minutes left.

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And this is what I think Carson is trying to demonstrate.

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So again, he stopped, he paused in his, his moving forward in history, which he will continue.

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But he also wanted us to think about, well worth it, how you and I can enjoy, not only know, but enjoy God.

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And that's something I wonder if, if many people don't.

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I wonder how many of God's children know God, but don't necessarily enjoy God.

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And I believe God wants us, right? What is the chief demand? Presbyterians got this one, right? Glorify God and what? Enjoy him forever.

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Right? And I think we think that sometimes we got to wait till we get to heaven to enjoy God.

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No, I mean, his wisdom and isn't this great that I can know there's only two kinds of people, and there's only two results to those two kinds of people.

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Look at Psalm 19.

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Again, just wisdom just laid out for us in such simple terms, in such real terms.

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And again, familiar to us all, I'm pretty sure, but nevertheless, look, the heavens declared a glory of God and the firmament shows us handiwork and day on today at other speech and night on tonight, it reveals knowledge.

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And there was no speech, no language where their voice is not heard.

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And their line has gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world.

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And in them, he has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of the chamber and rejoices like a strong man to run his race.

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It's rising years from one end of heaven and it's circuit to the other end.

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And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

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And then he goes into the lower God.

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But my point is, my point is that you and I can enjoy the wisdom of God and we can look at the creation.

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We can look at all the, I don't know how much, I don't know about you, but I don't, I've watched plenty of Shark Week.

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Me and Candy were talking about, Candy said she's dreaming about sharks now.

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And I said, you know what, maybe so am I.

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So I got to back off a little bit of this.

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But, but I mean, if you think about the majesty of it all and how sharks react and they all, I guess my point is God is so infinitely wise that he took the creation to just display his majesty, display his wisdom, display his power, his strength.

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And that's where we're really going to find true wisdom.

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Again, the heavens themselves, and I'm not against people going to explore the universe, but I will tell you this, they're not going to find what they're looking for if they're not going to look for God.

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I mean, we can, you can tell me about Area 51 and all the UFOs and all the boogeymans and all this and all that.

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That's why I say that.

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The heavens declare the glory of God in the firmament and show forth his handiwork.

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Day unto day it utters speech, and night unto night it shows knowledge.

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Again, real quick, Psalm 150.

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We only got a couple seconds left.

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Psalm 150, last Psalm in the book of Psalms.

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Love this Psalm.

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Actually, on my email and any business cards I ever had, this last verse in the Psalm 150 was always on there.

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It says, praise the Lord, praise the Lord.

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Praise God in his sanctuary.

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Praise him in his mighty firmament.

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Praise him for his mighty acts.

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Praise him according to his excellent greatness.

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Praise him with the sound of the trumpet.

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Praise him with the lute and the harp.

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Praise him with the timbrel and dance.

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Praise him with stringed instruments and flutes.

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Praise him with loud cymbals.

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Praise him with the high-sounding cymbals.

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And here, here's that verse, let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

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Praise the Lord.

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Why? He's infinitely wise.

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And not only is he infinitely wise, he gives us wisdom.

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And that wisdom, of course, again, is found in Christ.

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But my point is, as I think D.A.

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Carson was trying to lay out, and I don't have time this morning to do this, but I would have taken you to Job.

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There's another book that God's given us.

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And there's a man who was righteous, and afflicted, troubled, befriended, unfriended, all kinds of things.

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And even Job was, he was all baffled, right? Until we get to, you were reading in Job 38, when God says, you know, I'm gonna ask you some questions, and you answer me.

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Where were you when I laid the foundation? I saw, I was listening to one of the shark shows yesterday, and the guy's, the guy, very, some very scientific guy, he's got PhD, D.R.

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I mean, he's got 42 letters after his name.

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And he said, well, this shark evolved 400 million years ago.

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We know that for certain.

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And I wanted to say, dude, what? Where were you when God formed the earth? And this one was 350 million years ago.

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Really? Okay.

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God in his infinite wisdom has told us he's created everything, right? And so let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

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And Job, finally remember what it says at the end of the book of Job, Job 42? What did Job say? He said, man, I heard of you with the hearing of the ear, now I see, right? And then God blesses him more than he had in the beginning.

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Or, and I got just enough time, Ecclesiastes chapter 12, real quick.

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And as you turn it, remember who wrote Ecclesiastes? Solomon.

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King Solomon.

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Good, bad King Solomon.

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Anyway, if you think about the last chapter in the book of Ecclesiastes, and remember, Solomon sought out wisdom.

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God gave him wisdom, and Solomon sought out, and Solomon did it all, didn't he? Solomon did partying, he did thinking, he tried this, he tried that, he had this, he had manservants, maidservants, wives, goods, everything.

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Ecclesiastes chapter 12.

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We'll just read it and then we'll close.

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Remember now your creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come and the years draw near, when you say I have no pleasure in them, when the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are not darkened, and the clouds do not return after the rain, in the day when the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men bow down, when the grind is ceased because they are few, and those that look through the windows grow dim, when the doors are shut in the streets and the sound of the grinding is low, when one rises up at the sounding of a bird and all the daughters of music are brought low, and when they are afraid of height, and in the terrors of the day when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper is a burden, the desires fail, man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets.

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Remember your creator before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the well, there is, then the dust will return to the earth as it were, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

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And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge, yes he pondered and sought out and set in order many proverbs, and the preacher sought to find out acceptable words, and what was written was upright words of truth, and the words of the wise are like goads, the words of scholars are like well-driven nails given by one shepherd.

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And further my son, be admonished by these, of making many books there is no end, of much study is wearisome to the flesh.

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Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.

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Fear God, keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man, for God will bring every work into judgment, including the secret things, whether it is good, whether it is evil.

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This infinitely wise God just lays it out for us, doesn't he? And how many people in that sense, because of sin and rebellion, can't see the forest for the trees, because they can't see Jesus.

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And how wonderful it is that we can not only see him, but know him, trust him, and look to him.

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So I hope this is an encouragement this morning, and then next week we'll go further on in Kostner's book.

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Let's just close now.

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Father again, thank you Lord.

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Thank you that you are the infinitely wise one, Lord.

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There's none like you, that you inhabit eternity, and you have put time and space in place, Lord, but you're not subject to time and place, and you're so wise in that you've given us, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by the Spirit of God, in regeneration, the ability to know you and to enjoy you forever.

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May we grow in wisdom, Lord.

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May we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Son of God, who so loved us that he gave himself for us.

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In Christ's name, amen.

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Yeah, I've got to get a battery for mine, and I'll leave them today.

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She can't see, she's got contacts on.