You've Been Forgiven... But Are You Walking in Freedom?

Uh, somebody asked me recently, why are you doing the book of Proverbs? The question I want to ask back is, why not do the book of Proverbs? Uh, actually, I don't pick the books that we study. I just want you to know that. Um, so we were in Romans and now we're in the book of Proverbs. I like going from the Old Testament, uh, to the New Testament and then back to the Old like that. I do like that. But, um, I think you pray and you seek the Lord, and he gives you the book. And I don't know, but it seems like we all need wisdom, and this is the book of wisdom. So we're talking about the way of wisdom in this section, um, that will save your life. And so, uh, we'll read it together. It's very well, you're very well acquainted with this. I'll start in chapter 10. We'll go down to the end, and today we'll finish the chap, the, uh, the entire chapter. We'll finish the closing end part of it today.

"When wisdom enters your heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you. Understanding will keep you, to deliver you from the way of evil. From the man who speaks perverse things, from those who lead the paths of the brightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perversity of the wicked, whose ways are crooked and who are devious in their paths. Verse 16. To deliver you from the immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with her words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. For her house leads down to death and her paths to the dead. None who go to her return, nor do they regain the paths of life."

And here's what will be today. So you may walk in the way of goodness and keep to the paths of righteousness. For the upright will dwell in the land, and the blameless will remain in it. But the wicked will be cut off from the earth, and the unfaithful will be uprooted from it.

Father, we pray today that you would take your holy, pure, perfect word, the Bible. That you would lift these few verses we'll be looking at in the closing of this chapter, up off the pages and have them, Lord, be embossed upon our hearts. We ask you, Father God, that your Holy Spirit would enlighten our hearts and minds to understand what it is that we're learning. And then, Lord, we know your Bible tells us that we're not to be hearers only of the word of God, but doers of the word. We have come to be discipled by the Holy Spirit today. So, Lord, we have expectancy in our heart. We're looking to you to speak to us. And Father, may we leave this place a transformed people. We thank you, Lord God, for your love, your grace, your mercy, most of all your gospel. We praise you in Jesus' name and all God's people said. Amen. You may be seated, everybody.

And it's, uh, a fact that wisdom will save your life. And, um, I want to read a few things as we get into this section, which will be the fifth, uh, section. And, um, if you have taken, and I hope you do this, do you guys scan the notes? You can have them. You. It won't bite you. It won't break your phone, but you can have all the notes because, honestly, I'm not kidding. I never cover all the notes that are that I have. And so, if you have, if you take the QR code and you scan that every week or all the time, you'll get another installment into a folder or a file that you can create. And some of you are so savvy that you put it onto your tablet or your, uh, iPad, and you can have the notes, but you also personalize them by you adding your own comments along the margins. It's very smart, and I, and I love that. I know personally I learn much more if I take notes. And so we encourage you to do that. That said, I want to go right into what is on the notes in page two. And that is, uh, the first quote.

"Unlike any other book of the Bible, please listen to this. The book of Proverbs is not what we are accustomed to when it comes to studying the Bible. We're used to a systematic order of things or a chronology to the learning. That is because most often the Bible is structured and arranged in themes or outlined by particular doctrines. But the book of Proverbs is not like that. Rather, it is designed as a personal conversation. So, moms and dads, listen up. Between a father and a son. It is to equip us with such a, in such a way that we might live a practical, godly, and holy life. With every proverb, we are given a takeaway lesson that we can practically live out so as to develop an effective, bold, and faith-filled life in the midst of a sin-filled world."

Now, to that, look at this next statement by, uh, Pastor Ray Steedman. Dr. Ray Steedman. He's now in heaven. I can't wait to meet him. This was a, he was a great expositor of the Bible.

"No other book of the Old Testament appears to be quite as difficult to outline as the book of Proverbs. Like the dictionary, it seems to change the subject with every verse. That is the problem. And yet therein is the blessing."

You could, and I don't encourage you to do this, but if you were going to play Bible roulette, you know what Bible roulette is? Some Christians do that. We shouldn't do that. But if you were to go like this and say, "Hmm, where should I read today?" Oh, I know. I'll read right here. And it says, "And Judas went out and hung himself." [laughter] Not so encouraging. I don't know if I would do that. But in the book of Proverbs, you can do that. You can go to one proverb because most often they'll, they'll make a statement and either that verse or the next verse, it will say something like this. Blessed are those who follow in the ways of God. Cursed be the man who seeks his own path. You see the contradiction one against the other. And that's the book of Proverbs. Very important.

But don't be, uh, naive about the book of Proverbs. This is still true about this great book. 2 Timothy chapter 3:16 says, "All scripture, church, that includes the book of Proverbs, is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."

And in Proverbs chapter 4, we know this. We saw this in the introduction of this book. The Bible says, Proverbs 4:23, "Keep your heart. Guard it. Watch over it." Listen, for all of us, it's true. But young people today, most, most importantly, young people, keep or guard, set a watch over your heart with all diligence. For out of it spring the issues of life. Wow. Your life is going to be lived out by the value that you have stored within your heart. If you value the things of God, you are going to live a life that honors God. If you don't, you're going to live a life that honors self. By the way, that word "issue" in the Hebrew language, a very powerful word. It means from the center to the vanishing point. I like that. And beyond. To the escapes. That's an interesting statement, the way it puts it. To the escapes. I had to look that up. I didn't know what it meant. To the escapes in old English means when you've gone as far as you can go. You've just begun to go as far as you can go. It never stops. That never stops. The furthest point, all-encompassing, and in all directions, for out of it, your heart, the issues of life will spring forth.

So we want to conduct ourselves in God's wisdom. Uh, one more verse before we dive into this, and that is Proverbs 28:1. It says there that the wicked flee when no one pursues. You know what that's called? That's called guilt, shame, and paranoia. The guilt, the guilty are always, always, uh, looking over their shoulder because they've committed some sort of evil. So the wicked flee when no one pursues them. If somebody's guilty and they see a cop car and they haven't even done anything wrong yet, they're all nervous about it because they have been doing things wrong. And then they look in the rearview mirror even though they're driving under the speed limit and they keep looking to see if the lights come on. Why? Why? Why do you feel like that? Because you're very aware of the fact that that officer is actually justified in pulling you over for things that you know about yourself, even though you may not be guilty in the moment. Are you hearing me? That's kind of deep if you think about it.

"The Bible speaks about this. The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as lions." I, or a lion. I like that. Um, we should listen in Christ Jesus. That's where our righteousness comes from, right? If you're a Christian today, you should be as bold as a lion because you know the God of the universe, and he's working in your heart. He's doing a number in your soul, and he won't stop until he sees the image of his son reflected in you. That's the power of the word of God.

And then one more before we dive into this is from, uh, the great Dr. Ha Ironside. Boy, were we honored a few weeks ago here at this church where the grandson of Dr. Ha Ironside was visiting here, and I was, I'm glad I found that out after the service because I would have been horrifically, uh, nervous and intimidated just to be in the presence of Dr. Ironside's grandson. Uh, listen to what he says.

"She is the ensnaring enemy." He's talking about the immoral woman, but he's also talking about the ways of the world. "She is the ensnaring enemy of morality and virtue, who today, as in Solomon's day, pursues her nefarious traffic in the bodies and souls of the young and unwary. Forsaking the guide of her youth, forgetting the covenant of her God, she gives herself up to impure pleasures and here's the point, soul-destroying lust."

This is a very powerful statement from where we were at last week. Remember how we talked about the immoral woman and the perverse man and the dangers that that combination provides? And we talked about how temptation can lure us in. We also learned that temptation comes from our flesh, from the world around us, and from Satan. We also learned that a trial is engineered by God himself to make us more like Christ. The two are different, and we want to remember that.

So church, I'm going to trust you to go look at all the previous notes, especially for those of you who are visiting for the first time and you would care to do that, and all that we've studied. We've studied four key components to what is now the fifth and the closing argument. And I've kind of put it this way. I think it's kind of, uh, easier to remember. We saw in our four previous studies, number one, that the way of wisdom requires this of us, that we wise up. That we need to be people that wise up and understand that there's a worldly wisdom and there's a godly wisdom. You know this. Secondly, that we need to show up to the opportunities that God provides us as active believers. Thirdly, we saw that we need to wake up to the fact and stop hiding and stop playing games about it, but to wake up to the fact that there is a good and that there is an evil, and they're at war with each other. And you have to deal with that every day of your life. Last week we looked how we need to stand up to the world that is around us as alluring and as, uh, what's the word? Enticing, where the immoral woman flatters with her mouth. We talked about that. We talked about how the perverse man, everything he sees, he could see a, he could see a bumble, a bumble, a bumblebee, a bumblebee landing on a flower, and he would think some perverse thought. Everything the perverse man sees is dirty. You ever know people like that? I've known people like that. I used to work with some people like that. For the record, not at church. [laughter] I used to work for a big global corporation, and I was a supervisor in a research lab, and we had people from all over the world working with this. But one of the things was, like your job, there's always somebody there that's always cussing and dirty jokes and all this kind of stuff. And it was no, it was no secret that I was a Christian. And the fun thing is, that was my lab. So when they wanted to test their stuff, they had to come into my domain, and it was Christian. I was told not to do that, but it was my lab. And so he came in one day, and I didn't have to say anything, and something was going on, and he starts telling a dirty joke, and I turned around and I just looked, I just looked at him, and he saw me looking at him. He goes, "Um, I'm sorry." And I said, "Don't tell me you're sorry. I didn't die on the cross for your sins." I mean, [cheering] just [applause] kind of twist it a little bit. But, um, but yes, that's, listen, we stand, we love, we hold on to the truth because God has done a work in our lives, and he's delivered us from the power of all of that. And yet the perverse man sees evil in everything. The immoral woman is always looking for the next guy, the next sexual high. And she often uses words, and we talked about, I'm not going to talk about it again. Somebody told me that they laughed too hard. It wasn't right for me to make people laugh in church, but I, I talked, I got rebuked. You should not laugh at church. But I, I told you about Potiphar's wife flirting with Joseph, and how horribly serious that was. And it did, and it was, it ended up great for Joseph, not so great for her, I'm sure in the long run. Of course, uh, God's people will always win out. But the fact of the matter is this. Watch out for things that you think are enticing and maybe even cute. The enemy has loaded a barrel, uh, against you. So, uh, be very, very careful about that.

So, uh, we're going to dive into this, and it is number five in our study, and it's verses 20 to 22. And it is this, that we walk up. Walk up. And when I say walk up, I mean this. Walk up not to the counter, but walk up to where God is calling you. Think about a roadway. All day today in our study, think about a roadway that God, his people are on, and we're heading to heaven. And God is inviting us in these closing arguments to step up out of the world and walk up onto the path of righteousness. He's speaking to his son, Solomon is, and he's saying to his son, I want you to live above the fray. I want you to live in a realm and in a level where the presence of God exists in your life as a believer. And whatever you do in life, it's always in the confines of God being your God. And that's how you and I ought to live in the most, I think, dynamic way.

And the first thing that we see in verse 20 is, and I just love this. Forgive me if we spend a lot of time on this one. And that is to, uh, walk up on the path of goodness. And I'm going to ask you to mark goodness down because we may not often think about it. But get ready to write that down. He says in verse 20, "So you may walk in the way of goodness." So Christian, listen up. Walk in the way of goodness and keep to the paths of righteousness. And the first thing we want to study and to know because watch everybody, when you approach the Bible, you say, "Okay, this is God's word. How do I do the way of goodness? And how do I get onto the paths of righteousness?" Well, you go to the word "walk." Let's find out what the word "walk" means. The word "walk" is this, *halak* in Hebrew, and it is to go, to get up onto the path. So let's climb the ladder, as it were, or let's take the stairs to a roadway. It means to journey on, to continue on walking in the way. Oo, sounds like Jesus speaking, to be on your way to a destination and not allowing a delay. This is powerful. Not allowing a delay. God is inviting you and I. The number one thing in verse 20 is, I want you to walk on the paths of goodness. And it starts with how you walk. Come up off the path or the roadway. So I want to stop in my life. You want to stop in your life. And I want to look into my life and say, "Lord, I've been a Christian for some 50 years now. And I'm asking you, I don't want to take anything for granted. I'm asking you, God, to reveal within me things that are not acceptable to you. Things that are not right with you." Or how about this? All of your life as a Christian, God has been working. Let's be honest. Come on. He peels one layer at a time. He doesn't rip things open. You know, sometimes in our emotionalism that we have, we want God to just rip everything open and get it done in one moment. And he doesn't do that. It's kind of frustrating, don't you think? I want, look, I want to be spiritually mature now. Jesus. I want to have patience now. Exactly. You got how ridiculous that is. It doesn't work that way. He is so methodical. He is so patient. He is so sometimes slow-moving. But listen, he goes deep. He goes deep. But listen, he goes deep by going deeper with each layer that he peels from your life. So when you become a, a new believer, maybe you have a foul mouth, and the first layer that goes off, he just stops it immediately. Is he takes away the power that your mouth has been held captive to. When you have these bad words that come out, he fixes that immediately. Or it could be temper, fill in the blank for you. He starts in your life somewhere. And what is he doing? He's inviting you up to that highway, that roadway, that journey, and he's saying, "Come up here." And to do that, he begins to go to work. And someone, listen, others on that journey, we're all, I, I hope, right, man? I know there's a lot of people here right now, but I'm going to assume we're all following Jesus. Maybe that's not true. Maybe today the Holy Spirit will say to you, you need to get on this road. But let me just say it this way. We're on the road. And on that road, we're looking for constant guidance and signage. And the word of God is that signage. And the word of God will show us something. And God will say, "Well, Jack, you know what? When you came to me, remember this happened immediately. And then six months later, I did this. And then four years later, I did this. And then 10 years later, I did this." I kept peeling back the layers until, listen, until God peels back the layers of your life. And there's nothing left. There's nothing left. I personally believe that that last layer is the, is the day that you and I graduate. I think that's graduation day. I really do. I believe that the day that you and I, walking with Jesus, that you and I die is the day that God, in his infinite wisdom, knows that's it. He's, he's finished his course. I peeled back every layer I wanted to peel back. I'm done with him. It's time for him to come home. You're clothed. The Bible says even now you and I are clothed in the righteousness of God. Wow. So yes, sanctification. He's peeling back the layers. He's inviting us to come up on that journey, on that road, on that path. But the first thing is we need to agree with God. We are going to walk it. We are going to walk it. We're not talkers. We are walkers. Right? Everybody, how's that old saying go? He talks the talk, but he doesn't walk the walk. Listen, we want to be both talkers and walkers where there's no hypocrisy. It's the same thing. Are we going to be perfect? Not until all the layers are peeled. So, be gentle. You know, it's kind of cute. There's a Christian sticker or shirt that says, "Be patient with me. I'm under construction." That's true for all of us. That's true for all of us. But what a tremendous, powerful word that is. The path of goodness.

Listen to this for some of you who might, uh, remember this from the book of, uh, John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress. Um, wow. Right. I don't want to get off the path, but if you've not read this book, uh, it's now in many versions, uh, modern English, but you should know this to help, uh, provoke you to read it. No other book in the history of mankind has been published annually like Pilgrim's Progress. It's published every year from 1678 to this very day. It's the second most sold book in the world to the Bible. The most published book and printed book is the Bible. Bunyan, John, Pilgrim's Progress is the second. It was written in prison. You want to know why he was in prison? Because the Church of England arrested John Bunyan because he was preaching that you must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven. And the Church of England said, "No way. If you're a member and you pay your tithe, then you go to heaven." And Bunyan said, "That's heresy." Jesus said, "You must be born again." And God gave him this dream. He had a dream. Got up and he wrote it down. And it's one of the greatest books ever written. But in this book, the, the main character is the man Christian. And Christian says, "To go back is nothing but death." Think about it. We're on the road. We're heading to heaven, folks. It's dark and foggy and stormy behind us. We're on the path. And ahead, you can see the glistening gold of the kingdom ahead. Think of this. Christian says, "To go back is nothing but death. To go forward is the fear of death." Think of this. That's reality. And life everlasting beyond it. I will yet go forward. Translation: I'm not going back. Going ahead. What if there's death? If there is death and it is out there, is it the end of me? Oh no. Everlasting life is on the other side of death. For that reason, I'm going to go forward. And I want to challenge you today. What are you living for? What is the passion of your life? What's the purpose? What is your end goal? To achieve, to acquire, to what? I pray today, and I hope it's in the hearts of all of us, that our desire is to get to the end of the road to that golden city. That city that God said, or Abraham said, I want to go to a city whose builder and maker is God. That's the passion of the believer. And what a great message we have to share that truth.

But let's look at this word goodness. This is amazing. I was so excited studying this. I called my daughter when she was teaching a class. I called my, or teaching the kids. I called her up. I said, "Look, I've been calling family members. Nobody answered the phone. They probably saw me calling. I don't want to talk to him." And she picked up the phone. I go, "You got to hear this." I told her the Hebrew word for goodness. The good, the word means the good, all that is pleasing, pleasant, agreeable, fulfilling, all that is preferred above all things. Watch this. The I AM, the eternal, all becoming one, the one that becomes what you need. All that is wrapped up in the word goodness. You say, "What? How can that possibly be?" Goodness is wrapped up in the description or points to the great I AM. Oh yeah, absolutely. Uh, first of all, mark this down. Exodus chapter 3. Then Moses said to God, remember he's at the burning bush. Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?'" Which, by the way, are you guys awake? Which, by the way, please can you put this in your vocabulary as of today? What is His name? This is this key. When people talk about gods, oh, do you believe in God? You, you ask people, "Oh, do you believe in God? Do you believe in God?" And they'll say, "Of course. Yes." Ask them, "What's His name?" Ask them, "What is the name of your God?" They said to Moses, or he's preparing, "If they ask me, what do I say?" And so, and they said to me, "What is His name? What shall I say to them?" And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." That's the answer. I AM WHO I AM. And he said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

What is this I AM? What is this God? This God of the Bible who says, "I AM WHO I AM." This is what it means. I am the one who is absolutely self-contained, eternally existing. I am outside all things that exist because I am the origin of what exists. I do not live in time. I am not physical. I'm spirit, and I am the one and only. There's no other. There's not a second I AM. I think I saw some lunatic on, I'm not going to say what Christian program, but the guy, I mean, I mean to tell you, I actually have this on tape because I thought, I thought I was going to witness somebody frying on television. This guy said, this guy said, "I'm telling you right now, Jesus said that he's the I AM." Listen, it scares me to say it. He said, "I just step back and I look up into heaven and I tell him I am too." Yeah. And with that, I step back thinking my TV was going to blow up. I rewound it and I saved that. Ladies and gentlemen, that's not only heresy. Uh, I'm trying to think of a word that's greater than that. Absolutely blasphemous, diabolical, satanic. There's only one I AM. And you're not it. And I'm not it. It is the Lord God Almighty.

And so much so in John chapter 8, verse 58, and you can read John 8 to get the whole theater of the matter. This is an absolute mind-blowing moment. So Jesus said to them, the scribes and the Pharisees and the teachers of the word of God. Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM." If somebody ever tells you that Jesus never claimed to be God, know this. They are playing upon your ignorance, or they may not know themselves. Know this. Jesus referred to himself as the great singular I AM. Jesus was saying to those leaders, the one that Moses was talking to in the burning bush on Mount Sinai is me, known as a Christophany or Theophany. One and the same. One God manifested to us. Mark chapter 10. Am I, I'm sorry I'm yelling. I'm so excited about who he is. And when he says, "Come and get on this path. Let's go. Let's walk together." It's like, "Yeah, I'm going to leave the stuff of the world behind. It's not worth it for what? Five minutes, 10 minutes, a mere lifetime of what? What are we promised? 70 years. Anything after that, the Bible says basically, good luck. No, it's not worth it. God is so good. By the way, have you noticed if you're not a Christian, you need to, you need to check this out. Have you noticed the older you get, faster time goes? Remember when you're in like ninth grade, school lasted for like three years. And then, and then you noticed when you graduated as a senior, maybe you went to college, maybe you went to career, maybe you went to the military, and all of a sudden one year went by in about six months. And then now, listen, I'm, and, um, at that age, at that age, I look, what is this? Is this July? Yes. This is July. No, no, it's not. It's still, it's still the end of January for me. You know, I'm talking about time. Are you getting older? Have you noticed time is flying? That's God saying to you, "Dude, you ain't got much time left. You better come to my son Jesus and get saved now because you, you're running out of time." [applause]

Now, as he was going out on the road, one came running. All these beautiful things. This is what every pastor wants to see happen. Somebody running into the church. They kneel down and they start asking questions. This man running knelt down before Jesus and asked him, "Good teacher, what shall I do that I might inherit eternal life?" So Jesus answered and said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is God." And right then there's a big silence. And Jesus is like, like, "Put the pieces together. This is the rich young ruler, by the way, if you don't know who this is. Come on, dude. You're smart. There's only one good, and that's God. Go ahead. You called me good. God's the only one good. You're almost there. Say it." That man went away. You know that. You know how this happened. That man went away because it's not that he didn't believe in who Jesus was. He went away because it, it says he loved his possessions. This is the point. Jesus says there's only one good, and that's God. And that meaning you saw a moment ago refers to, points to the I AM. In fact, when you and I say "good morning," the word "good" means "good morning, God's old English, God's morning to you." "Good afternoon" was "God's afternoon to you, my friend." "Good night" is "God's night be upon you, my friend." We say good, that's good. That's good bacon. That's good ice cream. That's good. We've washed it away. Only God is good.

I want to run through these little observations so that you may walk in the way of, remember, it's a path. It's a journey. God's saying, "Come up. Walk up. Take the stairs. I am the stairs. Jesus would say, 'Come up here. Get on the path. Let's go.'" That you may walk in the way of the I AM versus self-life. Self-life takes me back to the immoral woman. Self-life takes me back to the perverse man. Self-life is what I want at your expense. Self-life is hedonistic, self-absorbed, self-centered. Isn't there a magazine called Self? Or is that gone? Used to be. Anyway, what a funny thing. What a funny world we live in. Books, magazines at the store like Self, me, uh, us, people. Wouldn't it be great if there's a magazine at the church that said, like, I mean, at the store that said, um, Jesus, Lord God, in bold print, I AM. And then smaller print, You're Not. So that you may walk in the way of goodness versus evil. This is the journey. This is the course we're on. So that you, you and I may walk in the way of pleasantness versus grief. Wow. So that you may walk in the way of love versus hate. That you may walk in the way of joy versus depression. Life versus death. Light versus darkness. Safety versus fear. Wow. Victory versus defeat. Eternity versus today. The world says today, man, get it. Grab it. Get all the pleasure you can out of today. You don't know. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may die. God says, "Don't live like that." And the believer that is on that course, on that journey, on that path, is walking a path of goodness.

And about that goodness, get ready to write these down if you didn't scan the notes. Psalm 65:11. Psalm 65:11 says, "You, that is God, crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance." That is awesome. By the way, this is my favorite. When you're going to, uh, give somebody a birthday card, always put that in there. That's what I do. That's a great verse for a birthday card. It's a great verse for December 31st or January 1st, right? It's a prayer. Next verse, Exodus 34:6. "And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, 'The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.'" Next verse, Psalm 23. You know this verse. Verse 6. "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." These are the things of God. Next verse is verse, uh, Psalm 25:8. "Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He teaches sinners in the way." That's exactly what we're talking about. When God invites us up on this path to journey with him, he doesn't tell you to, uh, clean up your act and get yourself really, really presentable and then come on up. No, he's simply asking you to repent and come to him. He will restore that relationship, and now you walk with him, and all along the way, he's working in your life. It's a, it's a wonderful way to live. Technically, it's the only way to live. Next verse. Psalm 34:8. "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is what? Good. Blessed is the man who trusts in Him." Why should you trust in the Lord? Because He is good. Next verse. Psalm 145:9. "The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works." That's a great promise to hang on to. Next verse, final verse. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." God gives you good things. God gives us good things. This verse, uh, Jeff Karns, when our little, uh, one of our little Yorkies, we don't have any dogs anymore. We're, we don't have time for dogs anymore, but when we had a little bit of time for dogs, we had these little Yorkies, and they're amazing little things. But, uh, our, our Yorkie died. And I was here at church. She died that morning. I, I came to church. He, he buried her at our house. I came home that day, and there's a little cross out in the backyard. Yep. And Jeff wrote on that cross, James 1:17, "All good and perfect gifts come from the Father of." Isn't that sweet? And you think about your dog, and don't write me. Don't write me. Everybody writes me on this one. Will my dog be in heaven? Uh, the way that dogs conduct themselves, there'll probably be more dogs in heaven than people. Um, in fact, in fact, I, I'm not kidding when I tell you, I actually use that as a witnessing tool. When I see a dog, you know, you always see a dog walking somewhere and the dog, you don't even know the dog. You're walking by like you're exercising down the street, and somebody walks by with their dog, and the dog's tail's wagging. I don't know the dog. I've never given the dog anything. There's no reason why for the dog to even notice me. But, but he does. [laughter] And that's a good feeling. Look at that. It's like, "Oh my goodness, makes." And then that causes me to say, "Hey, what's your dog's name? What kind of dog is this? How old is this dog?" And the dog is just like, it's. And but I'm like all happy, too. And I don't know who this guy is, but I'll always say this, and you can borrow it. I always say, you know, wouldn't it be amazing if the world, if people were more like dogs in this world? And so many people go, "Uh, yes." Well, that's my job as a pastor is to get you like a dog. [laughter] Because the moment you come in, listen, the moment, the moment you see the face of Jesus by faith until we see him face to face, your tail wagging, you're all happy about it. Think about it. There's an action. It's beautiful. It's amazing. Why? Because God's good. He is very, very good. And he's the very source of goodness.

The second thing is in verse 21, and that is the path of security. And I don't have the time to get into this, but I'd really like to make some people upset right now who thinks that God's salvation is the kind of salvation that he takes back. Well, I'll give you salvation and but after 17 years, I'm going to take it back. Ladies and gentlemen, that's insanity. And if you've grown up in a church where that ministry has held you captive by fear, saying, "Well, you know, you stepped out of line and your salvation is in danger," you need to tell them, "Thank you so much for telling me that." And then run like the wind because that is a nut house. That's not a church. Jesus doesn't kind of save you. The Bible says he's able to save us who come to him to the uttermost. Wow.

So in verse 21 he says, "For the upright will dwell in the land and the blameless will remain in it." Now, technically for the theologians in here, you can circle that and you can mail this to Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson. That is a verse that guarantees because God is speaking through Solomon, the word of God regarding the nation of Israel. You're going to have to deal with it. It doesn't even mention Israel, but the context, Solomon's a Jew. He's in Israel. And the word of God is, you walk with me and you'll inherit the land. You'll dwell in it. That's what the word, listen, we know that word to mean or to be said as the remnant. God has his people, the Jew, who's a remnant. And look, there's even a remnant in what is, what? Watch my fingers. Air quotes, the church within the church. There's the remnant of real believers. And that matters. The word "dwell," this isn't just so great. The word "dwell" means to settle down into. I like that. Um, do you have your favorite chair? Do you have a favorite chair? Yes. Or what about your, your bed? Now, Lisa and I have a memory foam bed. Is that what that's thing? And listen, when I, if I were to lay on her side of the bed, it's like this is wrong. If I lay on my side of the bed, this is right. I could be blindfolded and I could tell you what side of the bed's mine because it has taken on the shape of my body. To dwell with the Lord is to settle down into, it's to be at home with. It's to abide. John's gospel is a great gospel challenging us to abide in Christ. Live with him. Can you imagine opening the door just like you do to your home? You open up the door and invite people in. If you desire today to say to Jesus, "I don't want churchianity. I don't want, uh, all this whatever weirdness stuff, but Lord, I'm going to ask you if you're for real. I'm going to open up the door of my heart and invite you in." Don't be surprised if he comes on in. Don't be surprised if he takes you up on that offer. It's his desire that you abide with him. So come to him to live life, to remain, and to be productive, fruitful. Last word, rested. Rested. Look, you and I, we may suffer in our physical life in this world of finding good sleep. That's not easy to do. And cheer up, you young people. Isn't it sad sleep is wasted on young people? [laughter] We have teenagers now as grandchildren, and, um, they'll sleep 14 hours, man. [laughter] And it just really, really irks me to see that. It's like, I need that. And, you know, we just skimp by. Rested. It may be true of your body that you, you need rest, but one thing is absolutely certain regarding our soul. Our soul, our spirit rest in Christ. Rest. When you lay your head down at night, do you rest? Can you rest when you lay your head down? The security of God, the good, goodness of God, and all of these things. It's amazing.

And then finally, it's this. To walk up under the path of life, life itself. Verse 22. Don't be this. Don't be this. This is the teaching by comparison in the opposite. But you should highlight that word "but." Um, it's, it's a tragic thing. It's a tragic thing if you live in verse 22. I don't live in verse 22. I used to live in verse 22. I live in verse 21. Verse 22 says, "But the wicked will be cut off." *Karat*, Hebrew word. The wicked shall be killed because they commit. The one little word means they have been cut off from the earth. One Hebrew word, *karat*, means you committed a capital offense, and the right and just punishment for this offense is death. You want, hey, this is a side note. See the, oh, well, actually, I'm talking about the word. Can you guys put the word up there? There it is. See that word? It says *karat*, but it said it's *karat*. That said, watch this. To be killed by death, to be dead, to be killed by sin. Death by sin. To be dead by sin. Sin being fatal, a self-inflicted wound. Listen, before I give you the big punchline to this, the use of this word, if you commit a sin, that's on you. You know that. If I commit a sin, it's on me. By the way, in this day and age, do not get all caught up in when somebody commits a sin and then you get in on what they're, they're go, whatever's going on in their life. Why would you, why would you embrace their sin? And I mean embrace their sin, not the way that you're thinking. If somebody has sinned and then you go online and you're gossiping about their sin, they may have committed a horrific sin. But the moment you repeat a matter, God calls that gossip. Now you're sinning. Now I'm sinning. Say, "Wait a minute. That's the definition of social media. That's the problem." Amen.

This is the exact same word that the Bible says in Daniel chapter 9 that the Messiah would come into the world and he would be cut off. The Messiah would be cut off, the Messiah of Israel, the Anointed One. Daniel chapter 9:24-27 says, "You want to know how you identify Israel's Messiah?" Yes. "Tell us how." Well, the big deal is he's going to be cut off for committing a capital offense, and for that he dies. What capital offense did Jesus commit? You have to think this through. He's sinless. So, how does this apply to him? Ah, what, why did they, why did they kill him? Why did they, listen, the whole trial, all the trials that went on that night? All of those trials were illegal. The Jews could not hold trial at night. It's against the law. And they are pressuring the Romans to go along with their nefarious plot. Doesn't the Bible say that they hired liars to testify against Jesus? What was going on? They, this God is so amazing. Did not the Bible tell us from Old to New Testament that the Messiah would die for our sins? Think of Isaiah 53. So, how's the Messiah going to die for our sins? He's going to die for our sins. But what about those who, who rejected him? Did God make them reject him? Did God, did, did God condemn [clears throat] them so that they had to reject Jesus? Or was that in their heart to do? It was in their heart to do. But God, who knows all things before they ever happen, we're studying this on Wednesday nights. He knew what they would do with the Son of God when he would show up. They plotted to kill him. And it says they plotted to kill him because of envy. And their indictment against him was this. We're not going to kill you because of your miracles. We are going to kill you because you are a man and you have declared yourself to be God. And to that, Jesus, when he was being crucified, he was silent. Why? Because there's nothing to say to that. It's true. Pilate said, "Are you a king?" And Jesus said, "Are those your own words, or did somebody put that in you?" He says, "I am the king, but my kingdom is not of..."

This world. Wow. The King who's the Messiah, who's the anointed one. You want to know who Jesus is? He's different than all of the Jesuses of all of the cults.

And by the way, they all have them. Have you noticed that about cults? They're all goofy, weird, messed up, lost, and crazy. But somehow they've got to wiggle in Jesus into their team to make it somewhat legit. So they make him a prophet or they make him some enlightened one or some sage or some guru. He is not a prophet, sage, or guru. He's the eternal God.

And listen, he's nothing less. And he's everything perfect beyond what we'll ever know. It would take us eternity to get to know him. But friends, listen. All this brings us into the place of decision. Notice that word uprooted. Very serious. The second part of that verse says the unfaithful will be uprooted. That word uprooted is this is terrifying. To be pulled up or to pulled away from life, to be seized upon by death, to be suddenly torn away from the living. The Bible says those that are wicked will be suddenly pulled away from the earth with no hope. Well, who's wicked? The Bible says all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Don't anybody in the sanctuary point at somebody else in this room and say, "I recognize that guy. He's a murderer." That murderer can turn right back at you and say, "I recognize you. You're an adulterer." I've never committed adultery in my life. Jesus said, "If you've looked at a man or a woman and had lust in your heart for them, you're guilty of adultery already." You say, "Well, that's not fair." Well, it all depends on who's doing the grading. If we notice when we do the grading, if it's our standards, we grade on a curve and the curve always starts with me and the curve always starts with you. God doesn't grade on a curve. There's one standard and it's Jesus. He's the standard. That's why God showed us his righteousness in Christ. There's no curve.

There's a straight line. And the Bible says all of us have sinned. Every single one of us. And we're all condemned. You know, the Bible says we're condemned without Jesus. You're not you're not dumb. You can figure that out. If God came into this world and took upon himself human skin to die on the cross for us, that by his sacrifice we might inherit eternal life because it's a free gift given. Then any human effort on my part is an affront to God. My attempt to be a good person to get into heaven, my morality is a curse. Because I'm suggesting, yeah, Jesus is great, but he needed my help to finish me off. So, I've been really moral ever since I started going to church. Now, I don't smoke or chew or go with girls who do. I heard that from Jay Vern McGee. Don't tell don't blame me for that. That's what Jay Vernon McGee said. And if he said it, then it's amazing. Don't judge like that. Listen, I am condemned. Do you understand? Without Jesus, I'm condemned to hell. That's what the Bible announces. I'm going to re-read you this and I'm going to ask you today, ushers, lock the doors. You have to lock the doors. I'm going to ask you today to stop goofing off and to make a decision for Jesus Christ today. Listen, you need to do that. If God listen, I I'm telling you up front for you to be aware. If God starts speaking to you, here's what you're going to feel like. You're going to feel like leaving. And you've been here for 52 minutes. Why would you leave? You're almost done. I gotta go. I just have to go. Watch out for that because in a moment, somebody's going to feel like that. It's like, uh oh. Well, you know what's happening? There's a big finger, so to speak, coming down through the ceiling, and he's poking you right on the heart, and he's saying, "I'm talking to you." Verse 22 puts us in the valley of decision. I want to give give you this this quote. In the valley of decision, you and you alone are making decisions that will matter for all time and eternity. Every day of every hour of every minute, we are defining our lives by the decisions we make. You ever think of that? We don't think of that. We're too busy to think of that. So, you're in the valley of decision right now. Matthew 25:41, listen to what Jesus says. Jesus said, "Then he will also say to those on his left hand, depart from me, you cursed into everlasting fire for the devil and for and uh his angels, prepared for the devil and his angels." Verse 46, "And these will go away." That's that word taken away, grabbed, swept away into everlasting punishment. That's what Jesus said. Without Christ, we're in trouble. John chap 6 verse 35 and 7. And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. All that the Father gives me will come to me. That's active, friend. And the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out." Valley of Decision. Ephesians chapter 2. And you speaking to the Christian, he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. It means we lived to sin. We lived to satisfy ourselves. In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, Satan, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love, wherewith he loved us, even while we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved.

And so, friends, listen. I'm going to ask you. No, I'm going to uh what am I going to do? Um I'm going to ask you to remain seated. I'm going to ask you to prepare your heart. I'm going to ask you to not move. Not to disrupt. In John in excuse me, in Matthew chapter 10:32, Jesus said, "Therefore, whoever confesses me before men, people, him, her, I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven." My goodness, talk about the valley of decision. Verse 32 is going to happen someday regarding you, regarding me. Listen, you could be here today and and be not not a believer at all. He'll answer that in another place. If you do not confess me before men, I will not confess you before my Father which is in heaven. This is serious. You're in the valley of decision right now. Can you literally say from the heart that I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord? That he died on the cross for my sins. He rose again from the dead. I come to him because he forgives my sins and I give him my life because he and he alone is worthy. Therefore, whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven. What? What's your decision? You see this? What's the choice? What are you going to do with this? These are eternal words. The words Jesus spoke recorded in the Bible. Eyewitness accounts, not a joke. Father, we come before you. And now I pray almighty God that the reality of who you are, what you are, that we in the totality of your person, we have this collision right now and we stand only to fall before you and say, "Lord, be merciful to me a sinner." We would say today, "Lord, put me on the stairway. Put me on the the ladder, the the elevator up to that path to walk and to journey from the world behind to your kingdom before." As we're in an attitude of prayer, nobody moves. Please be reverent. If today God is speaking to you and if you were to die today, you're not sure you'd go to heaven. You hope. Listen, that's you're in trouble if you're hoping. The Bible says these things have been written that you might know that you have eternal life. If you were to die today, would you go to heaven? Do you know that for sure? If with all that's going on in the world, but all of a sudden your moment comes, your heart skips a beat. Your vision begins to stroke out. You begin to see that you are in an imminent danger. If you died, would you go to heaven? The Bible says you're to know it. And that can be completely decided upon right here, right now. As heads are bowed and eyes are closed. I'm going to ask you right now to put your hand up wherever you're at today in this place. And you're saying, "Pastor Jack, I am giving my heart to Jesus. This makes total sense to me. And I sense the power of God poking upon my heart saying, I want you with me. I want you in heaven." God bless you to my right. Anyone else? God bless you. To the left on the aisle over here again. Anyone else? Hi. Uh, put your hand up high because it's hard for me to God bless you, sir. Over here, uh, on the aisle, several of you to my left in the back, you can put your hands down. If you've not yet raised your hand, how about this? You haven't liked this invitation since it started coming out. You just, you don't want to hear this. Really, I want to ask you why. Think about it. Ask yourself why. I don't need to know. Why does this bother you? You feel like you're in the hot seat. How's that possible? I'm just a mere little tiny mortal man. See, the truth of the matter is, you've heard the word of God. You may or may not recognize it, but God's word is speaking to you. And Jesus is saying, "Time's running out for you. And you can only confess me in the here and now. You you'll never be given the chance after life. There is no chance after life. The Bible says to that, no. And you know that you should make this decision today. You haven't done it yet, but you know you should. And you're fighting God right now. Isn't it amazing? You're fighting him. Yes, it's true. I heard that, so to speak. You can't wait for this to be over. Little do you know that God is speaking to you and you're uncomfortable because he wants you to be born again. You were born into this world and here you are. Will you right now allow yourself to be born again into his world? Anyone you agree with that? Put your hand up. You didn't raise your hand before, but you're doing it now. God bless you. Anyone else? Awesome. That was for you and obviously for you too and for you in the aisle. God bless you in the back. Church, all of us, let's stand together. Let's pray this prayer. Those of you who lifted your hand, we're going to pray this prayer together. Even though we're all praying it, it only works if you mean it. Are you Are you guys and and Christians, can you pray it with them? That just sounds awesome. In fact, listen, Christian, let's rededicate our lives to the Lord today. I'm big on rededicating my life to the Lord tomorrow, too. And then the day after that, and the day after that, just be dedicated to him. Are you ready? Those of you who lifted your hands, most certainly. Let's do this. Heavenly Father, Father, in Jesus name, in Jesus name, I come to you. I come to you the Christ. The Christ the son of God. The son of God. The savior of the world. Savior of the world. In his name. In his name. I ask you to forgive me. I ask you to forgive me. To wash away my guilt. Wash away my guilt. Wash away my shame. Wash away my shame. Cause me now. Cause me now. To be born again. To be born again. You are my Lord and Savior. You are my Lord and Savior. And I confess that truth. And I confess that truth that Jesus Christ is Lord. That Jesus Christ is Lord. Crucified. Crucified. Resurrected. Resurrected. My savior. My savior. In Jesus name we pray. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Praise God.