Transcription
Listen, we're not here to do church. We're here to be together to grow in the grace and knowledge of God. And uh, that doesn't mean we've punched, you know, we're going to come in for 60 minutes and then take off. No, we want this to be eternally true in our lives, the word of God.
So uh, uh, Proverbs chapter 1, we'll read it together. Uh, I'll start verse 20. If you pick it up in verse 21, Solomon says, "Wisdom calls aloud outside. She raises her voice in the open squares.
How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? The scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. I will..."
"...because I have called and you refused. I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded.
I also will laugh at your calamity and I will mock when your terror comes. Then they will call on me but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently but they will not find me.
Wow. They would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. Therefore,
for the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them."
And all God's people said,
"Amen."
Amen. You may be seated. Wow. Strong words, powerful words. We've looked at the opening of this in our part one of this miniseries within the book of the proverbs and we're looking at wisdom is speaking to you. That's one of the great things that the Bible tells us about is that God personifies wisdom as though it's someone speaking to us. And uh, you're going to get that throughout the entire book of Proverbs. But we saw these things regarding our first argument in verse 20 to 21, that is that wisdom is speaking to you and I. And uh, wherever you go, uh, God is speaking and we saw two things regarding that: wisdom is never silent. This is remarkable, but you know it's true. Um, wisdom is never silent. Wisdom is always speaking. The problem is, are we listening? And uh, I know this sounds corny, but I, I always think about it this way. When I say God, in this case, of course, wisdom, the wisdom of God is speaking. I remember, uh, was it Treasure Island? I remember the cartoon. I don't remember the name of it. Is that where Jimmy Jiminy Cricket is on the shoulder of Pinocchio? Do I have that right?
You don't know? I don't know either. Well, there's a, there's a devil tempting Pinocchio. And then I think there's Jiminy Cricket on one side and Jiminy Cricket is acting like the conscience and the, and the devil is trying to allure Pinocchio away and there's a battle going on and one is saying wisdom and one is saying temptation and and allurement and you're going to yield one way or the other. And by the way, that's true in life. Wisdom is always speaking. Uh, the, the strange thing about wisdom is that if we don't listen to it, it gets more faint. It gets more quiet until you can scarcely hear it anymore. And that is a very bad sign that when we begin to push God off and we never want to be like that. So wherever we go, God is speaking because God is everywhere. And wisdom is never silent. We learned that in verse 20. And we also learned this, that wisdom is never wrong. Verse 21. The wisdom of God is never wrong. And that led to us looking at verse 22, which regarding the wisdom of God, it doesn't matter how you and I feel about something. This is a, this is a very foreign thing in our culture today. Doesn't matter how you feel about something being true or false. God's wisdom will show you, will tell you what's real, what is true, and we're to obey him. And that truth, we looked at it closely, is so powerful that God says in Romans chapter 1 that he even speaks to those in whom he's created all around the world internally that this is right or this is wrong. There is that God consciousness that even the atheist struggles with and that is they know that inside they have a morality and they've got to fight against it. They have to resist it. And so we saw this that verses 22 up at the front end and at the back end, we learned that we're, we ought to listen to reason rather than our feelings. And that sounds almost heretical in our day and age. Let, let your heart guide you. The Bible says your heart's desperately wicked and you better not listen to it. But that's, that's all you hear on TV. Oh, let your heart guide you. What is your heart telling you? Now, if you actually lived out honestly, if you actually, if somebody were to ask you now regarding the situation, what's your heart telling you? If you actually told them, they would probably be terrified. Because our heart, the Bible makes it clear, is the seat of our emotions. And our emotions are whimsical. But if you follow your emotions, you will not be following wisdom. And it could be very, very unreasonable. Now, to listen to wisdom is reason. I feel this, I feel the other about the situation. But the right thing to do is this thing. You hear what I'm saying? And by the way, that is the foundation for somebody who's got integrity. The whole crowd is saying go left. But I hear God speaking. And the right thing to do, I know my feelings will be much better off if I go left. But the, but the right thing to do is to follow God in this direction. And we need a culture of believers where we're willing to stand up against the tide of evil no matter what is thrown at us because we're standing upon the reason of God. And it also led to this, that we'll listen to knowledge. It's kind of fun in the Bible, especially the Old King James. The word knowledge in the Bible is also translated in 1 Timothy chapter 6 as science. The word science. Isn't that great? Knowledge. Science. There's no contradiction in that. If you believe in God and if you have a Bible, uh, I, I've said this before. I'll say it, I hope many more times before, uh, I, I go to heaven. And that is God has written us two Bibles. One is right here in my hand and the other one is creation. It's the same. That's why Romans says you can be down in the jungles of somewhere in the world never having a Bible and yet inside God has written upon you his witness so that we are without excuse.
Creation speaks about the existence of God. And so in that case, I say affectionately, you may not even have a Bible, but you look up and you see the changing of the seasons and you, you see the sun set and the moon rise and there's that natural supernatural thought within you. There must be a God. Amen.
And of course, scientists like Michael Beehe and others have uh mastered this argument regarding the finetuning, you know, the finetuning of the universe. Uh, the universe screams for the existence of a design creator. Did you know that everything that is meaningful and has purpose, logic, and reason is preempted by something. And that something is actually someone. And that is a concept design where there is a design that or concept that happens in the mind long before it's ever played out in in tangible creation. And God's the same. He's the one that originates that. He thinks a thought. He speaks the word. And in the beginning, God created.
He's awesome. And so, as we get ready to dive into this, I, I appreciate you marking this down. It's Colossians chapter 4 verse 5. The Bible there says, "Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside." That is the non-believers, redeeming the time. I love that verse. Walk in wisdom. Walk in wisdom toward those who are not Christians. Those who don't have faith. That's those, that's the word outside. Why would we do that? Because by doing so, we're redeeming the time. We're buying back time by our conduct of walking in wisdom. And um, the church today, not this church. You guys are amazing. Other churches need wisdom.
Amen.
I thought you'd laugh at that. That's a nice way. I just insulted you and you didn't even know it. No, we all need God's wisdom. None of us have arrived.
So that we walk in wisdom and we'll, we'll be a good witness to the unbelieving world. So we dive into this. Wisdom is speaking to you. And this is the way of wisdom. And the third argument is at verses 23 to 24. And that is obey God at all costs. Can you write that down? Obey God at all cost. Look at verse 23. We, we'll read it again. Verse 23 and 24. God says, "Turn at my rebuke. Surely I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you because I have called you and you refused. I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded." Right there, verses uh, 23 and 24. Uh, you're reminded of our introduction. The book of Proverbs speaks in um, opposites. Verse 23 is the positive. Verse 24 is the negative. And this is what we learn from it as we dive into this. When he says, "Turn at my rebuke. Surely I will pour out my spirit on you." I will. Notice he says, "I will pour out my spirit." He says, "I will make my words known to you." This is, this is all of our prayer. Oh God, right? Is it not? Lord, pour out your Holy Spirit upon me today to live for you today.
And of course, Lord, make your word and your will known to me. That's the heartbeat of the believer. And so, I'm going to put this quote up. I got a couple of them that uh, might, uh, do you some good. When we talk about, uh, obey God at all cost, I want you to know that I'm saying it, uh, from the heart and from, I pray the heart of the Lord. I'm not putting my hands on my hips or my finger in the air or I'm not shaking my fist. Obey God at all cost. You will never hear the God of the Bible say to you, "You better obey me." God gives you the opportunity to obey him. You decide on what you're going to do. A lot of people can't handle this because it's very personal. It takes faith to live a life like this. When God says, "Turn to my rebuke." As an example, turn takes faith to obey him.
Listen, if somebody came up and said, "If you don't obey the rules, we are going to beat you up." That's not obedience. That's coercion. The moment you coerce someone, you've, you've blown it. So to obey is not expensive. I would, I would argue to disobey is very expensive. It's been made possible. It's not expensive. God's made it possible to us. To obey is not costly. It's been purchased for us. Obedience is our yieldedness to the will of God. And that comes from the faithful work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. God says, "I'm going to pour out my Holy Spirit upon you and you'll be able to walk in wisdom and you'll be able to obey him." Now, watch this. The word obey causes people, most people if they don't understand, to get kind of, what's is it, bristly the right word? Like a porcupine. They get, you can't hug them. They're all weirded it out about peace and obey. It, it kind of goes like this. Doing a wedding happens every time. Doing a wedding. And as the two of you stand here, do you vow today? Do you vow today to love your wife as Christ loved the church? And all the, everyone in the congregation's going, "Oh, and even even women who are not Christians, they're here. They're in the wedding service and they're just going, "Oh, that's the best." And then I turn to the wife and I say, "And are you willing to submit to him?" And I, I didn't even get the, I didn't even finish the sentence and everything. Did he say the word submit? He said, "What was that?" It was going so well. And then he said the word submit. When biblical submission in marriage is working right, no one in the marriage has to mention the word submit. When love in a marriage is working the way God intended it to be, no one has to mention the word love.
It is beautiful. Why? Because if he loves her like Christ loved the church, what did, how do we know Jesus Christ loved the church?
He died for the church.
So all you men sign up to be married. You're the first one to the chopping block. You're the first sacrifice technically. And all the women, all the women said,
"Yes." And when a woman has a man in her life who's willing to give his life up for her, she doesn't even say, "You know what? I, I've decided to submit to him." She doesn't even say it. She loves it.
Because she knows that he loves her.
It's beautiful. It's always best to get God's definition and examples on these great things of our faith. The Bible tells us in Philippians chapter 2:3, "For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure." So, with what you're about to hear, know this. Some of this stuff is going to sound impossible because it is, but the Holy Spirit of God will work this in our lives. To back that up, Ezekiel chapter 36:27, God speaks to the Jewish people about the born again experience that would come in Christ. In Ezekiel 36:27, he says, "I will put my spirit within you. I will cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them." Friends, listen. You cannot keep his statutes and you cannot walk in his judgments. It's impossible, but by the spirit of God. Can I hear an amen?
It's the Holy Spirit that does Christianity through you.
Here's another uh quote to maybe bring some understanding. Thus, the results are true f true salvation creates an active genuine productive faith that is transformative to the whole of your being.
Why? Because you're changed by the spirit of God from the inside out. It's not a New Year's resolution. It's not a new five-step program. It's not a new thing. Everybody's got a new thing. Just when you think, "Okay, wait. What am I supposed to do?" You're only supposed to eat protein.
Only protein. And then some guy comes along and says, "Uh, you, you got to eat more carbs." Well, wait a minute. And then somebody said, and, and it's become a religion to people.
And then there's that one doctor whose name shall not be mentioned. It turns out everything's wrong. You can't eat anything unless you buy it from him. Do you think apple? Do you think apples are good? Think again. Have you seen this guy? A lot of people think almonds are good for you. A lot of people are mistaken. And here's why. Buy my product. In other words, God didn't know what he was doing when he made this stuff. But I've marketed that which will save you. Oh, come on. You know what it means? It means that you can go out and eat anything just in moderation for crying out loud.
God gave somebody the brilliant genius wisdom to make chocolate.
People say, "But it'll kill a dog."
We're not dogs. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, "Now may, watch this. Look who does the work. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.
And may your whole spirit, soul, and body, that's us, a trichotomy, be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you, that's God, is faithful who also will do it. God does the work. We yield to him. Obedience becomes a joy.
Becomes a great, great joy to obey God and live. So mark it down. Obedience to God is liberty. To obey is liberty in the most wonderful way. So when he says in verse 23, turn, that Hebrew word turn is a very powerful word. To turn at my rebuke, look what the word means. The word is to turn back, to return again to the right path. He says turn at my rebuke. Go back to the right path. Listen, all of us need to hear this to answer the command. When the call goes out, think of it, a parental call, a military call. By the way, a parental call and a military call, I don't see much of a difference from.
I'm sorry. I don't mean to make that cold. But listen, young recruits and privates, they don't know what to do. And so maybe their drill instructor comes in and barks at them the commands. And they learn how to obey. There's a lot going on. They learn how to obey. They learn how to receive authority. And they get all of this stuff and just when they think they're, they're going to be killed by this drill instructor, they find out that he actually loves them.
And that everything has been pouring into them is to keep them alive in the day of battle.
Now, a lot of people today, they said, "Don't yell at me like that." Somebody told me not too long ago that recruits in our day and age because they haven't been parented. Watch the connection. They haven't been parented, but they sign up for the military and then they show up and you know they're yelling at you right when before you even step off the bus. You're getting chewed out. You're being called, you know, a young lady and all this stuff. And all these guys are stepping off and the guy's yelling, "Come on down, girls." And the, and the young, the guy, what did you? He said that to me. That hurts my feelings. You've got feelings. We need to get that out of you. And it's this total tear down. It's built by design. It's brilliant. Tear them down. Get all the world out of them and then build them up. You know what that's called? Parenting. So
listen, mom and dad may not have khakis on, but they have authority given to them by God.
And Solomon is talking to his son and he's saying, "Listen up. Turn at my rebuke." And God, of course, is speaking, "Turn at my rebuke." Very powerful. And that word rebuke. Here we go. Rebuke, the argument, reproof, to respond in obedience to reason why. Somebody might say the why. Implying that love should be the reason why. Why should I listen to you? You're just my parent. Why should I listen to you? You're just my fill in the blank. My God. Why should I listen to you? You're just the police officer.
Can you imagine? Why should I listen to you? You're just the judge.
Are you hearing this? You said that would never happen. It happens all the time. Because people have been brought up never hearing a rebuke. What is a rebuke? Son, listen. You're not going to be doing this. And I want you to turn at this. Meaning, don't do it again. I want you to come back to dead center because you've deviated off course. You did this thing and it will destroy you. Because I love you, I am now calling you, commanding you, ordering you to do this cuz I want you to live a beautiful, productive, long life.
Sound familiar? Now, there are no perfect parents, but there's a very close union between God's authority shown through parental authority and the more we parent our children, I think the greater our culture will be. I think the greatest thing, what does America need? America needs America. America needs moms and dads. That's what America needs.
That's what America needs. Moms and dads because there's liberty in that. If you're an obedient kid, you've got huge freedoms. Think of it. If you're disobedient, you lose your cell phone.
If you're disobedient, you lose privileges.
If you're disobedient, no allowance for you. Think about it. And why are we struggling with that as adults when I want to do this, I want to do this, and you keep tampering with it. And God says, "Don't do it. I don't want you to do that. Turn at my rebuke." And you, you pause for a moment. And you think about it. Don't think about it. Obey. Ask God to cause your response to his rebuke to be second nature.
Because the moment we start to think about it, we start entertaining the temptation. And the Bible tells us that when we entertain temptation and we begin to cause it now to become sin. Temptation is not a sin, but if you keep hugging it and holding on to it, it winds up getting in, as the Bible says, into your bosom, your heart, and it becomes sin. And the Bible tells us in the book of James, it leads to death. Obey God and live. And so, you and I think about God, but you and I as parents, we're teaching our children technically to obey God when we tell them you should obey the authority. It's amazing. In 1 Samuel, oh my goodness, this is tough because uh, King Saul almost obeyed God. You know King Saul?
He almost obeyed God. That put shivers up my back. God told King Saul, "When you go into the camp of the Amalachites, destroy them all. Everything. You got to destroy it all." He, God said, "Destroy it all." Even the animals. You say, "Well, that's mean." No, it's not. You don't know what the Amalachites did to animals.
Do I need to elaborate?
What they, what the humans had, the animals had. And what the animals had, the humans had. They were diseased beyond imagination. When you read in your Bible, and it's not so often, but it pops up when God says, "I want you to go into that area. I want you to kill everything that is alive and then burn it all." Those of you who have had science, if you're a doctor, if you are a biologist or a chemist, you know that term. It's autoclave. It's so diseased that the only way to protect anyone ever passing through that area is for all of it to be consumed and sterilized by fire. Friends, before they cut you open, you, I don't know if you know this or not, but that, that those tools that they're using to pry open your chest before they put in a new heart or before they do this or that. Did you know those things have been, they better have been put through a very, very hot sterilization oven type system so that when they peel it out of the package and put it against you, there's no contaminants. And you appreciate that.
So God told Saul go after them, destroy them, and burn everything. Even, even the sheep and the donkeys, the poor things, they all got to go. God was not being mean. He was being thorough. And Saul didn't obey. He kept the king alive and he kept the animals alive. And then he thought, "Oh, I, I didn't obey God totally, but I'll bring it back and make it a worship opportunity." Did you know that's what he did? And Samuel heard what's going on here. Oh, look what I did. He said, ' God told you to kill everything and you bring the, you bring the Amalachite king back and the, their animals. I don't know about you, but I, I could see Samuel putting on a mask at that moment. That would be a reason, Fouchy, to put on a mask if you had stuff left over from an Amalachite camp because you don't know what's floating in the air. And Saul basically said, "I almost obeyed God, but the part I didn't, I want to give that to God." Think about this. I know God told me not to do that, but I'm going to take it and I'm gonna, I'm gonna give it to God. I'm put a bow on it. And if you put a bow on it, then it's all good. No, you might try to soothe your conscience, but God is saying, "You didn't listen to me. God wants you and I to live. Live freely and obedience is the way that that happens and have liberty. Samuel didn't do it. I'm, I'm sorry, Saul didn't do it and he rebelled against God and it led to his destruction. In 1st Samuel 15:22, the Bible says, "So Samuel said, 'Has the Lord, uh, has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. And to heed, that is to listen to God, than the fat of rams.'" In other words, a sacrifice. I did wrong. I knew it. Did it anyway. I know that it was wrong, but I'm going to go to church and make it right. Ladies and gentlemen, that's the spirit of Saul. You almost obeyed. God doesn't, He doesn't play games with this. He's not grading on a curve. This is serious stuff. In Matthew 7:15, Jesus perfectly describes this. Are you guys sitting down? This is going to hurt. Jesus says, "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. They look just like us, but they're not. You will know them by their fruits. How do they live? How do they talk? What comes out of their life? Don't listen to them. Watch them." That's important. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes? Uh, no. Uh, figs from thistles? No. Even so, every good tree bears good fruit. But a bad tree bears bad fruit. Verse 18. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them. Here it is. Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Well, he says he's a Christian. Means nothing. Well, they got a cross on their car. Their cars got a better chance of going to heaven than they do. Listen, we're suckers for this. Why is that? What's with that with us? Oh, they're a believer. He's a believer. She's a believer. How do we know that? You do not know. You do not know unless you live with them or spend a lot of time with them or figure it out over time. But what I, I don't know what it is as, as the American believer, we are so quick to label people Christians. Oh, he's a Christian. Why? Because he said God.
Exactly. Go back and ask him, "Which God are you talking about?"
Wow. I know this hurts, but listen. We need to know this. God says, "I'll pour out my spirit upon you. Obey me and I'll pour out my spirit." You want to be blessed in life? Follow God. He'll pour out his spirit upon your life. That word pour, naba in Hebrew, very beautiful. To bubble, to spring forth like a water spring, to gush forth, to abundantly erupt. I like that. I, for we were somewhere recently and there was, uh, they were drilling. I mean, I was, we were reading the story about a place that we were at. It was in Hollywood area someplace in the hills and they were drilling for oil. They struck something more they didn't think so at the time. They, they were drilling for oil. They wanted to find oil, but in Southern California, there's something that's actually more, I think it's more per gallon than oil. They were drilling and they struck water. They struck water. You know what water is, you guys? They struck water and all the guys, the, the guys drilling water went, "Oh, no." Well, that water discovery turned out to create an oasis, which turned out to create a resort, which turned out to create a global iconic location. And that water, which is still more per gallon than a gallon of gas, causes people though to fly to that location from all over the world from a little thing of water. Jesus says, "The Holy Spirit in you will be like living water."
Aren't you glad he didn't say the Holy Spirit in you will be like living oil? You can't drink oil.
But you can drink water. Water gives life. They went to Mars looking for oil. They went to Mars looking for water. Jesus said, "I am the water of life, the living water."
God says, "I will pour out my spirit upon you." Yeah. Like gushing water, he'll come upon you. Beautiful truth. In John chapter 7:37, what I'm referring to is this. And on the last day, this is epic. On the last day, that great day of the feast, so everything's starting to wind down and this is the last day. Jesus is in Jerusalem at this time. Jesus stood and cried out. This is amazing. Just when you think all the celebrations are over and it's all winding down, it's the last day of the feast. Everybody has seen everybody, everything they possibly can. Jesus, by the way, the priest would have taken the water from the temple and poured it out on the steps and it would have cascaded down on the steps until the steps technically really absorbed the water. That rock is so porous. Jesus is there and most scholars believe that the priest would have poured out the water and Jesus is standing there. Everybody watches the water that symbolizes the life that God gives and it's consumed by the poorest rock of the steps. And Jesus is standing there and what does he say? "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow, gush, burst forth rivers of living water." And they saw that apparently there's no more water. What water was at the temple has now been poured out. The priest poured it out. It's all gone. Jesus waits to that moment and says, "You thirsty?" Logic would say, "Uh, yeah, but the guy just poured it out." Jesus is saying without saying it, Jesus is saying, "I'm not talking about this kind of water. I'm talking about the water I give you. The Holy Spirit poured out in you will gush out of you as it were torrent of living water." By the way, that is not for some Christians. That's for all Christians right now today. You ought to get a little bit, what's the word? Um, violence, not the right word. Um,
huh?
What?
Aggressive.
Aggressive. That's a good word. Resolute.
Determined. If you name the name of Jesus today, you should say, I'm saying it in my heart and my head. Lord, you said that you'd give us this water. And I am not going to be satisfied and I'm not going to be quiet until you give me this water because you promised and I'm thirsty and you promised to give it. So Lord, let it rip.
Amen.
Drill down deep and let it come out.
The Holy Spirit. And then the next thing is this in verse 24. To disobey brings us into bondage, into bondage. We all know this. You disobey. You disobey the laws that are out there today. Well, there was a day when you would disobey laws and you would actually get arrested or cited. You know, now you can commit a crime as long as it's under $951. They're not even going to investigate it. That's what happens when you have lunatics with authority.
That's the kind of decision-making the godless make. Why? Because that's what they do.
You hear what I'm saying?
It's kind of funny. People will say, "Oh my goodness, look at this individual. Look at that individual." And even in the realm of politics, people will hold someone to a standard. Hey, that guy's sleeping with a spy and his name is still on the ballot for governor. He got caught sleeping with a Chinese spy. Nobody had a problem with that. You want to know why? Because he never said he wouldn't sleep with a Chinese spy. Did you know that's the argument? He never said he wouldn't. What kind of thinking is this? Unbelievable. No wonder why we live in a day age good is evil, evil is good, black is white, white is black.
We need wisdom, folks. And it's not going to come from the world. You and I have it. We need to let it out like water coming out of a hole.
It's amazing. And so he goes on verse 24, he says, "Because watch this. I've called out to you." Now, here's the negative. I've called to you. God is saying, "I am calling, but you're refusing. I've stretched out my hand, but you won't take it." The word is that to not regard it is not. It's to not take his hand. In fact, check this out. These words are powerful. The Hebrew word for called. I've called to you. To make known. This is God speaking. God says, "I've made it known to you." The word also means to make famous. I've put this in you. You know it. Not hidden or aloof. Totally available. God is saying, "I've been speaking to you and reaching out to you. I've been calling out to you." And then this next word, this is amazing. Refused. Wow. This hurts to absolutely refuse that people would absolutely refuse God altogether when God calls out to them to push away the hand to shove off the help or aid. In my mind, I'm sorry, but in my mind, the picture that I see in my head, have you ever seen a kid? I, I remember being this kid at way too old of an age apparently for me to remember. I remember being hungry and my mom was so sweet and so loving and so accommodating and she grew up with nothing. So she wanted to take care of us and so I'm hungry. What do you want? Like the kitchen's open like it's Denny's, you know?
Well, she would, you would you like French toast? No.
Do you want, you know what, scrambled eggs? No.
Do you know where I'm going with this? Yeah.
She can go down the entire menu.
And my answer is no, I don't want that.
Now, if you're, if you're really hungry,
you would eat the menu before you would order. But when you're a spoiled brat and you've got that little finicky thing in you, have you ever seen a little kid that mom's catering to the little kid and the little kid even pushes it away? That's the word. God is calling. God is reaching. And that self-human spirit won't listen. And when God gets close enough to touch you, you push his hand away. He's building up to something here. Your life's going to end in destruction. And you're going to wonder why. So pay attention. Your life's going to end in destruction because he's called out to you. And you won't listen. And then he reached out to you with good things and you slapped his hand away. And then you ask, "Why is my life this way? God did not do it." Again, 1st Samuel chapter 15 verse 23. "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.
Wow. And stubbornness as the iniquity of idolatry. Why? Because you have rejected the word of the Lord. He also has rejected you from being king." Wow. Psalm 32:9. "Do not be like the horse or like the mule which have no understanding which must be harnessed with bit and bridal else they will not come near you." God says don't be like a horse. Don't be like a donkey, always pulling, resisting, fighting. God says don't be like that. Listen, how would you describe your walk with Jesus? Is it always a struggle? Are you always fighting him on everything? You know, there's some people that just get in a fight about it. They just have to argue about everything. They get to argue with an aunt. They got a fight with somebody. Why? God is saying, "Why do that? Why be like that?" Listen, when you love, listen, do you don't answer, but if you believe somebody loves you and they say broccoli, it may not taste good, but it's good for you. You need it. You eat it. There's a reason why it's rough and green like that. And then this other thing's called a carrot. And it's good for you. So, you're going to eat it. I don't like the way it tastes. We're not talking about taste. Now, you eat all this stuff and it'll give you something that tastes better. In the meantime, you're going to eat these things. Somebody will tell you that because they love you. God tells you the exact same thing. No, you can't have him. He's not one of my kids. Oh, God. Truly, you've created her for me. I can tell from this far away. And God says, "Nope." Oh, come on. And you're going to decide. Does God love you or do you love yourself? That's what it comes down to. He loves you. Listen to him. He loves you. Follow him. You don't need to get hurt. You don't need to crash. Follow him. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 2:1 and 3, "And you he made alive." That's us, the believer who were dead in trespasses and sins. Do you know that we were spiritually dead before Christ woke us up? In which you once walked according to the course of this world. We all did that. According to the prince of the power of the air. That's scary. We didn't know that. We were just living for ourselves. Little did we know that there was one who we were living for, but he kept himself hidden, never to reveal himself. That was Satan. He just kept saying, "You just keep doing what you're doing. Live it up. Eat, drink, and be married. For tomorrow, you know, you, you die." He who dies with the most toys wins. And you only live life. You,
YOLO.
You only live once. Grab all the gusto you can. That's what Satan says. We didn't know that. We're blinded. The Spirit whom now works in the sons of disobedience, 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 we were by nature children of wrath just as others. Wow. God is speaking to us. And then look at this final point is uh, the fourth point is here, verses 25 to 33, and that is you've been warned. God is speaking to us that we've been warned. And it's this way. God is saying in verse 25, "Stop now and turn away from destruction. You're going down a path. Stop. Turn away from it." He says in, and this part will go quickly because it's, it's a flow. It's technically one big flow until the last verse. "Because you disdain all my counsel and would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity, and I will mock when your terror comes." Isn't that sad? Wow. You looked at my instruction, you disdained it. You, you were disgusted by my love. And you'd have, you wouldn't do anything of it. In Proverbs 14:12 and 14, the Bible says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Verse 14, "The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, but a good man will be satisfied from above."
Wow.
This is so good for our kids. I know. We don't need this, but our kids really need this stuff, right? But he says, "I'm going to laugh for your calamity." Can you imagine the God? God is love. You wouldn't even know what love is without God. God is love.
But there comes a time when God says, "I'm done with them." Nobody knows when that happens. No, no, no one knows. God says, "I'm done. I've washed my hands of them. They are now what the Bible says, reprobate." This is a scary thought because according to the Bible, there are those walking around right now in our world, in our community, in every community that God says, "I have turned them over to their own destruction. They are reprobates. They're lost. They can't be found. They gave up on that opportunity and I have turned from them. And they're in this world and you look around at the world that's happening in in our day and you wonder how many people have finally God. We're in a day, we're in an age when so many people have said no to God so much that you're seeing now the fruit of man's disobedience where people are killing, innocent people are killing to kill.
You see animals doing this just to steal, to take, to covet. What's happened? People stopped listening to God's rebuke. They stopped listening to him and they pushed away his outstretched arm. And they're going in the way of Cain. They're going in the way of Saul. And it's destruction. In verse 27 to 30, turn now and ask God for mercy. "When your terror comes like a storm," he says, "and your destruction comes like a whirlwind. When distress and anguish come upon you," can you believe this? This is tragic. Listen to this. "Then they will call on me and I will not answer." You know what? You know where you find that in the New Testament? Anybody know? It's in the New Testament. It's in the last book of the Bible, book of Revelation. God is reaching out to the unbelieving world during the tribulation period right at the end. And they, in, they get angry at God. They shake their fist at God. And listen, they wind up crying out to the mountains and to the rocks to fall on them and to kill them. So that they don't have to deal with God. Suicide, the fallen man, the fallen woman without God. You've got, if that's you today, you've got a brief window to respond. Every day you say no to that gentle voice of his. And every day, every day, maybe something happens in your life and you swap his hand off of what he's trying to do by leading you. There comes a day when he won't speak anymore. And there comes a day when he will not reach anymore. And when he, listen everybody, this is true for the entire world. The day that God pulls his protective umbrella away from a person or a family or a community or a nation, it's over. You know why China is not destroyed right now? Because there's Christians in China.
You know why America's not been destroyed by now? Because there's Christians in America. That ought to make the headlines. Pastor says America's only hope is the Christian.
Yeah.
And it's not us. It's the spirit of God in us. And it's the word of God that's before us.
That's the hope for America.
That's the hope for Canada, South America, nations. God invented them. Always like saying that. God says, "I set the borders of nations."
Wow. And then he says in verse uh, 28 at the end, "They will seek me diligently, but I will not, they will not find me." Verse 29, "Here's the because they hate a knowledge. I don't want to know about God. And they did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would have none of my counsel and they despised my every rebuke." It's a brokenheartedness. Verses 31 to 33. That's when your time comes. "Therefore, they will eat the fruit of their own way and be filled to the fool with their own fancies." I'll comment on this in a second. Verse 32, "For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them." See that word fancies, delicacies. It means, um, in our modern tongue it would mean our, um, our, you know, when some, you know, you can eat food and then you can become a, um,
yeah, but it's not a glutton. It's a, it's, it's another word for gourmet. It has to be.
But yeah, okay, foodie. I'm, I'm missing the word, but it means this. It's not that you have a car. It's that you have to have this. You, you won't be happy until you unless you have this fancy car. I don't want a car. If I can't have that car, I don't want a car. Who talks like this? People who live for fancy. Um, I'm not going to eat that. I'm not going to eat a hot dog. That's for poor people. I have to have. You hear what I'm saying? If it's all and on and on it goes about everything. Oh my goodness. I can't believe that's in my city. They just put in a secondhand thrift shop. What is this community coming to?
You know that kind of attitude?
It's got to be bling.
You want to know why people are like this? Because they're without God. Well, how's that? Because they're trying to convince you that they're worth something when they know they're not.
They create a false environment.
I saw things in these last few days. I was in LA and I literally pulled up my phone to take a picture of what I was seeing. And then I thought, I can't do this because I don't, I don't want to ever be reminded of this. But in the midst of life, there's a person while world, while, while life is happening, there's a person and she's going like this with the hair. Oh, it was unbelievable. The little kid was there. It was amazing they didn't wander off onto the street. And she's going like this. I'm not, I'm not saying this to be funny. I'm telling you the truth. She's going like this. She's moving the angle of the camera. She's going like this. Her husband's standing there waiting for real.
And then just, no, for real. She's working on her lips and puffing them up. Okay. And then when she was done, they start walking and she's, and she's doing this. Okay. Look, I don't know who she is. I don't know what she is, but I, but this I know. I could have robbed the bank in front of her. I could have put the Grand Canyon in front of her. She wouldn't have known.
She was fixated on fancy, on the look of the moment. This is a manifestation of our culture and our age.
Right now. And God says, he's been reaching out to her and he's been calling out to her. Whoever she is, she can't hear. Watch out because it ends in death. Jesus said, "If you love your life, you're going to lose it."
It's, notice he didn't say, "If you love your life, I'm going to kill you."
He didn't say that. If he said, if you love your life, it's going to ruin you. He said, if you love your life, you're going to lose your life. Why? Because if your life is your life, you live it for you. But Jesus said, if you give your life to me, if you give up your life, you'll find life.
You, you want to be, listen, you want to be someone, be a child of the living God. Listen, you think you want to have fancy stuff in this world? That's a joke. It's all going to burn.
Put your, listen, follow Jesus and read about heaven. It's going to be amazing. We're going to walk. You know, you think, "Oh, look. I got a gold-plated car. We're going to have gold-plated streets." What are you living for? Who are you living for? It's time for us, according to Solomon, according to God, we should take inventory. Thank God. Verse 33 says what it says. "But whoever listens to me will dwell safely and will be secure without fear of evil."
Going to ask you to stand. Church family. Fear. Fear ought not to be a factor in the life of the Christian.
Fear in the Christian life is a relatively new event throughout all of church history. Fear. When we came to Christ for the last 2,000 years, fear was the first thing out the door. And now we live in an age where we claim to know God, but we must not know who he is because if we are gripped by fear, if fear controls us, then how can we know him? We only know one or the other. He will not share. And so many people are bound up in fear. Friend, the only fear I think you should at this moment be concerned about is the fear of death, which should cause you to run to the fear of God, which now removes the fear of death.
And there can be a war. The economy could plummet. There can be a virus. It won't matter because to fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
And to walk with him is to say goodbye to the things of the of this world. They no longer own us. We've been liberated and set free.
We need to remember this. Father God in heaven, we pray that you would cause your Holy Spirit to fall upon every single one of us as your children. And Lord, that you would manifest that truth by a great work that all fear and anxiety would be gone from us because it is a satanic ploy. It has no authority in our lives. Greater is he that's within us than he that is in the world. And you have told us that your truth and your love and your grace and your mercy has cast all that out. May we leave this building today determined not to tolerate fear in our lives anymore. And if anyone does not yet know you, that today they would say, "Yes, Jesus, I want my life changed to the glory of God because Christ died for me on the cross. He rose again from the dead. I accept him as Lord and Savior. Lord, create in me a new life. I'm going to follow you now the days of my life. Oh God in heaven, we surrender to you with joy by your grace. We are happy to obey in Jesus name." And all God's people said,
Amen. God bless you.