The Way Of Wisdom Is Speaking To You – Part 2

0:00 Proverbs. By the grace of God, we'll finish off Proverbs chapter 1 today, verses 20 to 33. And we're looking at this little mini-series within chapter 1, and that is the way of wisdom is speaking to you. Wisdom is personified in the Bible. Very interesting. Wisdom is obviously an attribute of God. In fact, so much so, the Bible says that there's the wisdom of God, and there's the wisdom of this world. One is heavenly and divine. The other one is selfish and sensual. And that is man's energy and man's labor to do evil. The Bible views that as earthly wisdom. Wow. Perfecting evil is worldly wisdom. True wisdom, the one that works, is from God.

0:58 It is a divine characteristic. And so as we do this together, the notes, you can scan the QR code and get all of the notes and all of the references into your device. I won't cover all the verses, but they'll be there for you if you do that. And we'll read it together, though we're very familiar. I'll start in verse 20. If you pick it up in verse 21, Proverbs chapter 1, verse 20. Wisdom calls aloud outside. She raises her voice in the open squares. She cries out in the chief concourses at the openings of the gates in the city. She speaks her words. How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Turn it, my review. Surely I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you.

1:52 Verse 24. Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded. Because you disdained all my counsel and would have none of my rebuke. I also will laugh at your calamity. This is terrifying. This is God speaking. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your terror comes. When your terror comes like a storm and your destruction comes like a whirlwind. When distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they need knowledge. and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own way and be filled to the full with their own fancies.

2:50 For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. But whoever listens to me will dwell safely and will be secure without fear. of evil. May God bless this word to our hearts and all God's people said, amen. You may be seated. Strong words, my goodness. What do we do with strong words in the Bible? Yeah, good word. We take heed. We eat them up. We deal with them the way that God wants us to deal with strong words. You're going to see, in my opinion, a lot of parallels between being a parent and God speaking to us. Both are authorities. Both are lovers of their children. And both have something to say.

3:44 And Solomon is a great example of this. He's writing this to his son. And we learned that in the introduction. But we're looking at wisdom speaking to us. And there's some things we've learned in our study, our last time together, and that is wisdom is speaking. And we saw from verses 20 to 22, two very key points. And they were these key points. That is, wisdom is speaking wherever you go. And of course, that shouldn't surprise us. In verses 20 to 21, wisdom is speaking wherever we go. God is speaking to us. Listen to this. God is speaking to us. And what I'm just going to say for this setting, general revelation. General revelation is the word of God as revealed in the Bible. Jesus made it clear the Holy Spirit will speak all that I have spoken unto you. He will remind you of them and he will tell you about things to come.

4:42 God's word. Now, there's times when you and I are seeking God to speak very specifically. Do I take that job or do I marry that individual or do I, and on and on it goes. Specific pursuits of God. And God will answer the believer. We all know this. Clearly, he speaks to us out of his word. But then there is that general information where God puts it in the human heart. According to God's Bible, every human heart has been embossed, stamped with some degree of the knowledge of God or the revelation of God. Romans chapter 1 tells us this, that all those whom God has created, that they know of his eternal Godhead and power, so much so that they are without excuse. That's a strong word.

5:37 You say, what about the guy running around in the Amazon jungle? You know what God would say to you about that? Forget about the guy running around in the Amazon jungle. God would say, I'm talking to you. See, many times people will witness to us. I mean, not us. We're Christians. I assume you are. But there are people who you'll witness to, and you start talking to them, and the Spirit of God begins to really get a hold of their heart, and then they'll try to pivot by saying, well, why don't you go tell the guy that's new in the Amazon jungle?

6:09 Well, all of a sudden, this person cares about the guy that's in the Amazon jungle. the gospel is to you. But don't worry, God's got it covered. God says again in Romans chapter 1, I'm speaking to that person that is in a remote part of the world. God is speaking to them. And he's put that awareness on the human heart. Again, he says, so that we are without excuse. And two things came out in our first point. Wherever you go, God is speaking. And we learned this, that wisdom is never silent. What good would wisdom be if it is silent?

6:47 Wisdom is never silent. Wisdom will speak up. God will speak to us, and so we are to speak wisdom. We're to speak wisdom to a situation. We are to speak God's revealed word to whatever dynamic is going on in our lives. And then we also learn this in verse 21, that wisdom is never wrong. Of course not. Wisdom is an attribute of God. So when we wait upon God to get his wisdom, we don't have to make mistakes. And now that sounds almost like a confession of some sort of positivism. But I have to say this. If we wait upon God and get his wisdom, we don't have to make mistakes. Our problem is we make mistakes because we don't wait. Even when we think we've waited, the reason why we think we've waited is because we've become tired of waiting. and we've convinced ourselves, I'm not going to wait anymore. And we act ahead of God.

7:48 The greatest thing, and you've read it a thousand times in your Bible, is wait, I say, wait, the Bible says, on the Lord. And we are to wait upon him because wisdom is never wrong and we can be led by wisdom. The second thing we saw is that wisdom is speaking to us no matter how you and I feel. And I really like that. Verse 22. God does not make decisions, nor are we to make decisions on how we feel. It's the exact opposite of the world. Christian, you're not of this world anymore. We, can I put it this way? We march to a different drum, right? It's different. We are led by the Spirit of God, the Bible says. Now, these are going to be some hard challenges today. You're going to be glad when I'm done. When God leads his children, he doesn't lead us in emotionalism. God is, listen, God gave you and I emotions. They have their place, but they are not a guidance system. But the world who does not know God turns right around and says, follow your heart.

8:54 What is the world saying when the world says, follow your heart? Follow how you feel. the heart is the seat of emotions. So when the world says, just follow your heart, those of us who are Christians cringe at that because we learn from the Bible that our hearts are desperately wicked and we cannot know them. That's what the Bible says. So if you thought you were gonna come to a warm and fuzzy service this morning, well, we're glad you're here. Just know this, you are desperately wicked and your heart is the source of all of that. And you say, I can't believe you just said that. Yeah, it's okay. Calm down. Because when somebody takes a group picture, who's the first one you look for?

9:37 Because it's all about you. It's all about me. Somebody takes the picture and I look to see, are my eyes open? First thing, is my mouth open? Right? That's just the way that we're wired. It comes with the fallen nature of who we are. Because of that, we need the wisdom of God. And so no matter how we feel, there's two things we learned about that. We need to listen to the reason of God, because God is reasonable.

10:05 And we also learned that we need to listen to knowledge. The knowledge of God. I wish we could talk more on the knowledge of God. We won't do that. We don't have the time. But don't confuse knowledge, the knowledge of God that God gives, and this realm of... explosion of information. Don't confuse knowledge with information. And we have AI and we've got all these devices and we've got all this stuff. And listen, if we're delusional, we'll begin to think, I am so smart. I'm so smart. How are you so smart? I know everything. How is it? Right here, this device. Oh, you mean you know how to go get the information of everything. But even if you acquired the information of everything, you would not have knowledge. knowledge is the acquisition of information, and it's worthless without wisdom.

11:09 Do you remember when I opened up in the introduction? I'll say it again. You could have the greatest brain surgeon in the world who just graduates from Johns Hopkins University or Boston Med, doesn't matter where, and they're a bonafide degree brain surgeon, and they're so excited, and they have a party, and they give him cards and little gifts and all that stuff and they're all giving him a hug. Our son, our son, the brain surgeon. And then I would come up and ruin the whole party by saying, how many brains have your son operated on? And they would say, oh, no, he hasn't operated any brains yet, but he just got his degree. He's a brain surgeon. Not in my book, he's not. Are you see where I'm going with that? He's got knowledge, but we don't know anything about his wisdom. Can he use it? to use knowledge rightly as wisdom. And so that brings us to our study today, verses 23 to 24, but we'll go all the way to verse 33. We'll finish it today with three and four, but three is this.

12:12 Wisdom is speaking to you and I, and so that's why you and I need to obey God at all costs. Can I hear an amen? Obey God at all costs. You say, why would I do that? Because God loves you, and he knows. He knows who I am, who you are and he knows what's up around the bend. He knows what's down the road. He knows all things and he's God. And listen, as believers, we claim that he's our God. But let me ask you, is he in the lead? Is he out ahead of us leading us?

12:46 See, listen, if we have knowledge without wisdom, we're running ahead and then we're asking God to bless it. wrong move, folks. That will destroy your life. If you do what you feel, and if you do what the crowd is telling you to do, and you do not listen to what God is saying, you're going to get way out ahead, and you're going to ink the page with your signature, and you just sign the deal, and then finally you have thoughts, or you start listening to maybe what's called buyer's remorse. I don't know what it is, but you start thinking it through.

13:23 And then you come to the conclusion, wow, I think I heard that still small voice all along the way, but I was so excited and getting a big red shiny one that once I signed, I turned around, and then there's that familiar voice. And that familiar voice might say, I was trying to tell you not to sign that. That's a scary place to be. I mean, you're kind of on your own. What you want to do is say, God, speak to me. God, lead me. God, guide me. And when God speaks, then you move. But don't let anybody pressure you in life. Young people today graduating. Don't let anybody pressure you. God created you for a certain thing. And you'll know it, by the way. You'll have a passion for it. Rather than, well, my grandpa was one of these. My dad was one of these. All my brothers are one of these.

14:15 I guess I got to be one of these. No, not necessarily. Get your marching orders from God. It's very important, but know this, to obey God is a tremendous liberty. Can you write that down? To obey God is to be liberated. Look at verse 23. It says, turn at my rebuke. Surely I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you. This is one of the great verses of the Bible. Please mark this down. What a great promise this is. God says, you obey me, and you'll be liberated. Listen, it's the exact opposite of what we feel. Now look, remember I talked about parenting and God? When parents raise a kid up, one of the things, mom and dad, listen, especially if you have little ones, when you're raising up little ones, you've got to discipline them to understand, or what's the word? You've got to shape them into embracing rebuke. Rebuke's a good thing. When God rebukes us, he is announcing to us that you're going the wrong way. You need to do this. You're doing the wrong thing. You need to do the other.

15:32 Okay? Very, very important. So when he says, turn at my rebuke, the beauty is this. Parents, you love your kids, but you don't want to see them kill themselves. So what do you do? You keep them away from the pool until you're able to waterproof them. Right? When you see your kid crawling across the carpet and they've got a fork headed towards the outlet, you don't say, hey, honey, watch and see how this goes. You leap. You insert yourself like God into the moment and you rescue them. Do you not? Please say yes. You rescue them.

16:14 Because certain destruction is on its way. And then you turn to little Junior or little Miss America and you say, don't ever do that again. No, no, no, no, no. We don't do that. And when you tell your little kid the first time, no, no, no. What happens? The lip. The lip is all puffed up. And then the tear starts coming. And mom now, mom is like, oh, no, oh, no. But she's getting emotionally into it. I understand that. Dad's like, what's wrong with you? Because, you know, he's kind of cold around the edges. But a family works that way. Oh, he's crying. He's crying because we said no. What if we wouldn't have said no? His hair would have looked like Bozo the Clown. He would have blown himself up with the wall socket. but we teach children, and God teaches us to receive a rebuke. You know, a rebuke will save your life. A rebuke is not like, don't tell me that. I'm going to do whatever I want to do.

17:19 You'll get killed that way, but we live in a culture today. Parents are supposed to parent, and God is God, and God teaches us authority through our parents, and if they don't learn it from our parents, they're going to learn it from the police officer. And if they don't learn it from the police officer, they're going to learn it from the judge. And if they don't learn it from the judge, they're going to learn it from the warden at the prison. If they don't learn it from there, they're never going to learn it. And so God clearly is teaching us here, turn at my rebuke. and so God is speaking to us. Maybe God is speaking to you. Why don't you be liberated? And you might say, I am liberated. I can do anything I want. Yeah, and how's that going for you?

18:10 But God will liberate you because God blesses obedience. There's no other way to put it, folks. And some of you, listen, don't be like this. I can't believe I'm hearing this. I just hate the word obey anyway. I can't stand it. Let's go. I understand the feeling, but you need to bring that feeling under control because those feelings will lead you astray. Because when God says, obey me, he wants you to live more than you want to live. He wants you to experience life on a level you can't even imagine. But see, we don't trust him.

18:45 We don't think so. When we hear the word obey, we push back. Happy is the man or woman, the boy or girl who realizes when God says obey, let's get in line to do that. Because there's great liberty. it's interesting, Dr. James Dobson forever ago did a study. I remember hearing about it. I've never forgotten it, so you'll have to look it up on your own. But Dr. Dobson did a study when he was at, I think it was at USC when he was there. But they were doing psychological examinations or observations on children. And they released a bunch of, I think it was like six-year-olds into a field, into a big football field, and all the kids were very insecure. They huddled together because it was too big of a space, and the kids stayed close. Listen, they stayed close because there's, so to speak, psychologically safety in numbers. They stayed close, and then they took the kids off the field into a room. They fed them lunch or whatever, and then they put a fence out there, and they divided up that football field in half with a fence. They released the kids again, and the kids were still close together, but some kids wandered a little bit out more from the center. Are you with me? And then they reduced it even more. The point is this. Once the kids sensed that they had guardrails, the fence, that's when the kids began to play and go to the perimeter of the fence because they felt, watch, the obedience of security. God wants you to know security. He's the one that puts not only a parameter in your mind and in your heart, but in your very life. God will say, you can live this way and you can live this way, up there and back that way. And when God decrees it, it's joy. It's liberty.

20:52 Listen, without God, you will force the issue. You'll try to, so to speak, expand your fence, and you'll wind up getting involved in all kinds of things that will destroy your life. All the while, you're looking for liberty, and you wind up experiencing the opposite. He says, turn at my rebuke, surely. And this goes for all of us, not just surely. If you're here today, surely. Surely I will pour out my spirit on you, and I will make my words known to you. What a great blessing. Listen, I believe the Christian's true pursuit, one of many, but the passionate pursuit of the Christian is, Lord, pour out your Holy Spirit upon me. That's what happened at the day of Pentecost. That's what happened when you call your people to do service and to pursue their calling. God, pour your spirit upon me.

21:47 God, use me. Use me in such a way, right? Don't we all pray this? God, use me in such a way that there's no way that I can get any credit for it. It has to be you, God. Blow my mind, God. I think God loves that. so number one thing is to turn look at the meaning of the word turn liberty is going to start with this turn back to return again to the right path in other words get on the right path that you were once on to another the command when the call goes out parental call, military call think of that many times parents and leadership and military leadership, very often the same.

22:36 You see these recruits pull up down there in San Diego at the Marine Corps. They don't know anything. They just, oh, this is going to be cool. I'm going to get free education. Yeah, you are. And Frank Turek, we were with Frank a week ago, and Frank was in the Navy. We were talking about things. Coronado, there's a little bit of overlap with my life and Frank's life. And he said, you know what Navy stands for, right? And I said, I'm not sure. I don't really care. And no, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. And he says, never again volunteer yourself.

23:15 Isn't that funny? I thought it was funny. But the thing is, these guys, you know, these kids show up. And before they step off the bus, there's a drill instructor standing right there. to lovingly eat them alive. But it really is a love affair. That drill instructor, that kid thinks, man, I can't wait. I'm going to just join the Marines, man. I can't wait to get away from my parents.

23:43 Oh, you're going to have a mom and a dad and a grandma and a grandpa and all your aunts and uncles. you're going to have all of it in one person. That's the drill instructor. And before you step off the bus, he's screaming at you. He's calling you a bunch of girls. He's making fun of you. He's making you do push-ups on the spot, wax your shoes. And what are they doing? Are they being rude? Not at all. What are they doing? They're separating the boy from the man, and they're cutting loose of the past to make the guy into a responsible warrior.

24:31 And it's an amazing thing. It's a transformation. That's regarding military. Parents, young people, listen up. Your parents tell you stuff, and it's like, why did they tell me that? It makes no sense. It doesn't make any sense to you because you're dumb. You've never lived this long before. Look at you. You're 16. Tomorrow you're going to be a little older and a little wiser. Until then. Listen to them. They love you. Because you know young people think, I can't believe it. They're ruining my life. That's emotion speaking. Having no understanding of what it means to turn from their rebuke. When mom and dad say, no, we're not going to be doing that. We're going to be doing the other. It's because they love you. Trust God. And by the way, parents need to trust God also. With the kids.

25:27 Right before service, David, one of our youth assistants, his baby this weekend took his first steps. He's on film and a proud dad. Of course, you want to see my baby taking his first steps. So we're watching this morning before service. And he's like this. and then I always, my, I always have to ruin it, I said, what is amazing, what's amazing about that, you're smiling about that, but there's something down deep inside that you realize, wow, this kid just took their first step, and I said, from this time forward, it's only going to increase, but every time, he's going to have to determine, I got to take this step, it doesn't matter if it's college, if it's corporate, if it's the next thing in sports, but this is his first step. And it's the first step where you begin now to let him go. Nobody wants to hear that. It's like, Pastor Jack, thanks for nothing. It really hurt. But think about it. When you take your first step and you take your first step with God, and what is God saying? Here you go. You've got a life to live. Follow me. Listen to me. And I'm going to guide you. He wants you to be liberated. He wants you to be free. And that comes with obedience to God. Obedience to God is a great liberating power.

26:50 Real quick, I do weddings. We all do weddings. And it's always great doing a wedding because there's people that have to be there, that don't want to be there, but they're related. And so when it comes time, when you come to the vows, it's, I look like I'm looking at the couple, but I already know who they are. That's fine. I'm looking beyond them. I'm having a great time looking at the crowd. So if I want to look at her, I'm not looking at her. I'm looking past her and I'm looking at you guys over there. And I say things like this. In a moment, I'm going to address your husband-to-be. So listen carefully. Mike, God has placed you here before her. And the Bible says that you are to love her like Christ loves the church. and I'm looking out right past him and everyone in the crowd's going, oh, and all the women are going.

27:47 That's so sweet. That is so sweet. Yes, that's great. It doesn't matter if they're Christians or not. You can see them. Oh, that's so good. He's going to love her like Jesus loves the church. And then I say to her, Susie, the Bible then tells you to submit to him as unto Christ. And they go. What? What is going on here? What is this place? But you know, the answer is this. If he is loving her like Jesus loved the church, listen, she will happily submit. And here's how you know it's working good. He will never have to say, hey, you know, I love you, don't you? He'll never have to say it. And you'll never have to say, you need to submit. And she will never have to say, do you love me? Why should I submit to you? They'd never come up. The words would never come up. You want to know why? It's a relationship. And God is saying, do you know that you love? Do you know that I love you? You know that I died on the cross for you? You know that I have a plan for your life, don't you? Yes? Then obey me, and you're going to do great. Makes perfect sense to obey him.

29:04 Why kick? Jesus told Paul the apostle, why do you kick against the goads? That's when he was Saul of Tarsus. He was getting converted at that moment. The goads are the wooden two-by-four that goes behind the ankles of an ox, and it's got nails that stick out. And if the ox backs up, the nails go right into its legs, so the ox won't back up. And God told Paul, why do you have to be like that? See, God doesn't want us like that. He wants you to be liberated and free. and that's a powerful truth. Jesus, listen, Matthew chapter 7, strong words by Jesus, but we must have them. Jesus says, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves, false believers.

29:58 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes? The answer is no. Or how about figs from thistles? Nope. Even so, every good tree, or every tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. Verse 18, and 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. Wow, before I keep reading, there are people, listen, we need to wake up as believers and stop being so gullible. When somebody says, I'm a Christian, you don't know that.

30:43 Why are we so quick to give somebody the title of Christian when we've known them for five minutes? We don't know them. They say, I'm a Christian. Hey, you hear that? He's a Christian. How do you know? You don't know. Have you inspected their fruit? You got to check out the fruit. That takes time.

31:08 We need to be patient. Look, if somebody says, hey, I'm a Satanist, it's like, all right, I know what to get out of this guy. Nothing. Right? No surprises. If somebody says he's a Christian, now it's like, oh, boy. Now we've got to watch and see if it's true. I appreciate that.

31:29 Let's see if there's fruit. Verse 21, here we go. 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. Do you know what the will of the Father is in heaven? To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Do you know what that means? That when you're saved, he transforms you by the Holy Spirit from the inside out. God does this thing. Right now in my backyard, we have this big, beautiful nest, and it's got bluebirds. I'm not talking blue jays. I'm talking bluebirds. You know there's a difference. Beautiful bluebirds, and they've got their babies, and there's a bunch of babies. and when that mama shows up or then when that daddy shows up those those mouths they the mouths are wide open and they're even now sticking their face out of the hole looking for food I could walk by there and give them a donut I think they would take it Thank you.

32:28 But I've noticed methodically, the mom and the dad bird bring consistently whatever they're feeding them. It's the same thing. And apparently, right, it's the right thing. They don't bring a donut. They know better than that.

32:48 They give them what is right. Because in bird world, they love their little baby bluebirds, getting them ready to fly. God loves us. He feeds us his word, preparing us as we grow up. We may not fly in the realm that we may be thinking, but we will, so to speak, fly to this world to go after a lost soul, to maybe bring a wayward son or daughter back. God uses us, But understand this. Jesus makes it very clear. A Christian, you should be able to figure out who they are in a crowd. You know that? That's convicting. That's why it's so quiet in here right now. But what if God gave the judgment of who we are to the world that you and I live in? What if God said to my neighbors who don't know Christ, is Jack a Christian or not?

33:49 What would they say? That matters, everyone. That matters. there was a little uncomfortable moment last week Lisa and I were at a restaurant we were being served and this person said oh I go to the church and then somebody walks by a server and says oh this is my table this is my pastor and this person goes what? this is your pastor? you go to church and I just went yeah what about those Dodgers you just kind of you know what I'm saying we we want to watch out for that.

34:47 When you're liberated, in obedience to God there's great freedom in all of that but listen we also learn in verse 24 that to disobey God there's bondage and I don't need to belabor this but there's bondage and disobedience somebody will say I don't know man Christianity's been so hard it's been so difficult I can listen I don't know I don't need I don't need to know the details but probably you haven't been cooperating with his voice. You haven't been cooperating with what he's been saying. You've been more bent on doing your own thing, and God calls that disobedience. Look at Ephesians chapter two. Are you guys still surviving here right now? Ephesians chapter two, verse one says, and you he made alive. Wow. Who were dead in trespasses and sins. That's me. That's many of us. in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.

35:45 That's a term for Satan. The spirit who 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 were by nature children of wrath just as the others. Listen, we were all in the same genre, the same course until God interrupted us and got a hold of us. And God is saying to us today, I want you to press on to the finish line to the church in the 21st century this year. Press on to the finish line. Don't give up. Don't quit. But listen, obey me because I love you. Obey me because I'm going to lead you in the right direction. Disobedience is painful. The Bible tells us he who is often rebuked will harden his heart and will be taken away, that without remedy. That is the person that you constantly have got to say, don't do that, don't do that, don't do that, until this is what happens, folks. When a person's heart's not changing and you keep telling them, don't do that, don't do that. Do you know what happens? They can't even hear you anymore.

36:52 They shut you out. They can't hear. And when they are often rebuked while hardening their heart, The Bible warns that they can be taken away without remedy. It means there's no hope for them after a while. Can you imagine such a thing? Listen, I'm going to say something that you're probably not hearing in any church.

37:13 According to the Bible, the Bible says in the last days, there are going to be those who God gives up. He gives up on their own devices. He turns them over to their own passions. No one wants to hear this, but it's in the Bible. He uses the word reprobate. A reprobate has crossed the line. Here's what's crazy. Here's what's terrifying. God says a person who will not turn eventually will be given over and they become reprobate. Here's the thing. The warning is more and more in the last days, meaning right now in our world, in our communities, there are reprobates. They don't want anything to do with God. God has washed his hands of them and they are, as you saw a moment ago, children of wrath, children of disobedience. This is not a happy word, but it's true. How do they get that way?

38:08 By not receiving a rebuke, by not receiving correction. And it's a tragic thing to think that God will wipe an individual off of his hands. And again, you may never heard that before because it's not often mentioned and yet it should probably be mentioned more than ever now when we live in an age when people are killing for sport. or deciding to commit suicide. Like, was it the guy yesterday at the White House? Was it yesterday?

38:45 Goes and gets a gun and starts shooting at the White House. It was suicide by Secret Service as he was proclaiming he was Jesus Christ. what's happened?

39:07 We need to be very careful, loving all the fruit of the Spirit, yes, all the time, but shouldn't we be more urgent about reaching the lost, knowing that every lost person you and I know, they're not Christians, every day they say no to Jesus is one day closer to the door closing on their opportunity. And then, fourth and finally, it's this, and that is that we've been warned. Look at verse 25. We've been warned, and he says, because you disdained all my counsel and would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh. This is tough. I will laugh at your calamity, and I will mock when your terror comes. So the first thing we know is stop right now, friend. If God is speaking to you, and you say, I don't, and here's how you know if God's speaking to you. I don't like what I'm hearing. so listen, I'm up here in front of a lot of people, and the temptation is in my head to say something funny, to lighten it up, to make it go down easier, so we can have a little kumbaya moment, because I am, I'm also a human, and yet in my heart, into my mind, God is saying to me, give them every word I have spoken to you, do not change one word, speak the truth, and it's not comfortable. But some great of yesteryear said, God has called us to afflict the comfortable and to comfort the afflicted.

40:44 And sometimes that's the job of the Holy Spirit, if not always. So we would want to stop now if we're resisting what God is saying to us, and we want to run away from destruction. God doesn't want any of us destroyed. No parent wants their child destroyed. We also learn this about it in Psalm chapter 2, verse 1. This is a remarkable verse when God says, I'm going to laugh at your calamity. This is tough. I bet it's tough for God to say. You'll have nothing to do with me. You've forced me to wash my hands clean of you. And when your day of disaster comes, I'm going to laugh at you. You guys, you have to understand God is holy. This is not sarcasm. This is God's purity. This is God's holiness. And he says, I'm going to have to laugh in the day of calamity. Psalm 2 reminds me of that.

41:37 Listen to this. Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, that's Yah, Yahweh, and against his anointed. Hmm. Anointed is another word for Messiah. Interesting. Saying, let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. Let's cut God off from our world, our culture. No more talk about God. You bring up God again in the United Kingdom, you'll be arrested. The pastor's jailed. We all watched that on the news last week. Giving the gospel. and the nations of the world say, we don't want any of that.

42:28 Verse four, he who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure. Strong words. But listen, if you're open, God is speaking to your heart, and he's saying, listen to this. You've always done things your way. Even your parents would tell you, why do you do this? Stop doing that. Can't you see? you will either say, Wow, I've heard this before. This guy's a stranger standing up there. He doesn't know me. How can he be saying these things? It's like he knows. I don't know anything, but I know him who knows everything. And he knows you. I find it remarkable that in our day and age, we're starting to hear more children, I say children, more teens tell us, I wish somebody would have told me no in my life.

43:34 Wow. I wish somebody would have given me guidance in my life. Wow. we also learn this verses 27 to 28 is that we need to turn now and ask God for mercy he says when your terror comes like a storm notice it's a warning it hasn't happened yet he's warning when your terror comes like a storm and your destruction comes like a whirlwind when distress and anguish come upon you then listen then they will call on me and I will not answer them. This is one of the saddest verses. Would you not agree in the entire Bible? We are delighted to always know that if I call upon God, he'll hear me.

44:26 You know, that's in human nature. I'm not making this up. Think of the most godless person you know in your family or you know in your acquaintances. They're the most godless. Notice when something happens that's really, really terrifying or whatever's going on. They'll say something like, oh God.

44:46 You ever seen that happen before? People who don't even believe in God. People who don't even want anything to do with God. And then they find out that they got cancer or there was an accident or there's a fire or there's an earthquake. It doesn't matter what it is. And then, oh God, help us. Help us, God. Why did they go there? How come they didn't say, oh, Charles Darwin, help us. We need monkeys. We need monkeys to help us.

45:13 They go to God. they know better we need to cry out for God's mercy but the beauty listen there's beauty in this he's telling them both his son and he's warning those this is your end unless unless you turn to me and verses 31 to 33 he says therefore remember Proverbs teaches by opposition or by opposing argument. Verse 31 says, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way and be filled to the fool with their own fancies.

45:57 Verse 32, for the turning away of the simple will slay them and the complacency of fools will destroy them. Man, complacency. Look at the meaning of this word. We're almost done. I've tortured you long enough. to turn quiet. Complacency means in Hebrew to turn suddenly quiet, to settle down in ease, to fold the hands in prosperity, tranquility, and apathy,

46:31 to care less and less each day, to slip down into death. In other words, I am in I'm in the setting that I'm in don't bother me I don't want to hear it I'm folding my hands don't say a word I don't want to hear that if you bring that up again I'm not I'm not inviting you back to our party next year look you guys can come but leave your God at home Thank you. We can talk about any topic in this class except Christianity. Welcome to college. to just settle down in your ease and a very, very insidious thing takes over.

47:31 It's called complacency. when you don't use your muscle, what happens to it? I can tell you what happens to mine. Nothing. It just falls apart. It's not even there. When I call upon it to pick up that in and out double-double, that's heavy. I mean, that's heavy. I can barely get it to my mouth unless I work out the muscle.

47:56 If you don't use a muscle, it goes, atrophy is the term. if you don't exercise your heart in obedience to God it goes atrophy it becomes apathetic how do we know if we're apathetic I don't care that's exactly it we don't care I don't care oh let somebody else do that have you noticed that apathy oh complacency oh that's a crime look at that let somebody else deal with it look now that I'm older I get to beat up on older people I have an axe to grind with older people not all of them but older people a lot of them yeah oh yeah well you see what's going on this is wrong this is wrong that's wrong and older people that are complacent go like this oh it's terrible yeah I used to I used to care about that stuff I'm older now nothing ever changes just gets worse I'm just going to stay right here I got to tell you right now I confess that drives me insane I want to grab them by the throat as a Christian and say don't you know anybody else in life that's younger than you oh yeah yeah I got kids I got grandkids don't you care what kind of world they grow up in Oh, let it be their struggle.

49:24 It's like a movie. Just deflect. apathy complacency thank God the verse the chapter ends with a wonderful verse verse 33 but whoever listens to me will dwell safely and will be secure without fear of evil. Okay, listen, no more fear. It's forbidden.

49:55 Don't raise your hand, but are you a Christian? Yes. Do you fear? Yes. Okay, we'll pick one. what fear I like what Charles Spurgeon says fear is having faith in the devil Charles Spurgeon say it again fear is having faith in the devil Charles Spurgeon it's awesome you can't have faith in Jesus Christ can't have faith in God and have fear at the same time it's not possible God will not allow it how about you raising up your kid can you imagine raising up your kid dad he's going to protect you from everything I'll take care of you I love you and then you turn right around, and you learn somehow to communicate to your kid all of your fears or all of the issues of life.

51:03 Did you know it's election season? You can tell a three-year-old, it's an election year, and they're like, don't know what that is, but I think I guess I should worry about it. The mortgage is coming. I know you're only three, but you live here. We need to share the load. You're going to freak them out. You don't tell a kid that.

51:27 We're so messed up because, listen, because we fear, we turn around and we tell everybody to fear. I'm afraid. All of you have to be afraid because I don't want to be afraid by myself. So you all have to be afraid. And if you say, I'm not going to be afraid. Oh, you're going to have every woke detector on your doorstep. Fear is killing people. Fear. What good comes out of fear? Think of it. Well, it depends on who you ask, I guess, nowadays. Some people would say a whole lot of money.

52:12 Yeah, while they play you. perfect love cast out all fear God's love for you is perfect we're not to fear it's easy for you to say it's not easy for me to say I'm supposed to come up here and lift you up. I don't tell you all my problems. But you know the problems you have? I have. She goes, what are they?

52:45 Ask yourself. We're all going through this together. And the enemy is absolutely bent. See, if he can get you and I to start to worry. Worry is a manifestation of fear. When we fear, then comes worry.

53:06 So if he can get us to go down that path, then he diminishes the power of God's word in our life. Then we begin to doubt God's power because God didn't come through for us, you see. Where was he? in the fire, in the storm, in the quake, in the cancer. Where was he? I can't explain everything. I don't understand why I watch incredible Christians that I need to be like die of cancer. I've had my conversations with God. Lord, I know you know all things. Your Bible says so. I believe that. I mean, God and I had a walk when Charlie Kirk died. I had to take a walk with God. I took God on the walk. I said, we're going on the walk.

54:02 He's so good. Where are we going? I'm going to talk to you. God, I know you take ashes and you bring beauty out of them. And I know everything you do is going to be great in the end. I just can't see it right now. So you've got to help me.

54:22 And he always says this, don't worry. I got it. I know what I'm doing. right now today some of you can receive that and some of you are saying i'm sure listen to this guy if i don't worry about it i'll have nothing else to do Some of you are accustomed to worrying. Some of you, you feel like somehow you've diluted your mind into thinking that when you worry, you are somehow in control. That is satanic deception. When we're worrying, it's the evidence that we are out of control. that's why we turn to him and the Bible says cast all your care upon him for he cares for you here you go Jesus there's another one let's all stand I'm going to leave that in a picture form for you that's 1 Peter 5 verse 7 1 Peter 5 7 we'll just do this. So who's a good catch up front? Anybody a good catch up front? Blue shirt.

55:45 All right, here's the deal. In this pulpit stood a wonderful saint of God, Dr. Guy Duffield. He's a long time now been in heaven. Remarkable family, a revolutionary war family.

56:05 Duffield. His great-great-grandfather was a minister during the Revolutionary period. And he said that he learned, because he was prone to worry, he would take whatever was concerning him. Now, he didn't use a bottle. He used a pillow. And he wrote on the pillow, mortgage for cancer or whatever. Watch this. And he said he would take it. And he said that from this pulpit. And he said he would take that pillow and he said, Lord, you told me to cast all my care upon you because you care for me. And so, Lord, catch. He said, it's yours now. And he said he would have to sometimes 5, 10, 20 times a day pick up that pillow and throw it. But guess what?

57:00 He said every time he threw it, he started to practice a habit that was biblically true. Until one day he stopped throwing things at God and rested in the fact that, Lord, you love me. And even if the mountains were to fall on my head, this is your will. God, thy will be done. It's beautiful. Father God, we praise you, Lord. we ask you, Jesus, that you would so mature us that we would be anxious for nothing. We are forbidden to be anxious.

57:39 Lord, may we trust you because you're trustworthy. You don't become trustworthy when we trust you. We trust you because you are trustworthy. And Lord, thank you that if we call out to you, you'll listen. If we lift out our hands, you'll grab us. Thank you, Father. May we lift this week in power. Lord, may your Holy Spirit fall upon all of us and lead us by your great power. May people who know us see evidence that we've been with Jesus. And Lord, for those of you here right now that do not know you, you know what to do.

58:21 Lord, bring them into the kingdom of God. Don't let them rest day or night. until they surrender to your great love. In Jesus' name we pray and all God's people said,