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Amen. Before we get into Ecclesiastes chapter 8, I'm going to back up into chapter 7. I didn't get to finish chapter 7 last week, and there were some important things at the end of chapter 7 that I wanted to make sure that I cover. So let's just back up and start there. So backing up to Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 20, the Bible reads, For there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. And of course, this is a great verse because it goes right hand in hand with what the New Testament teaches in verses like Romans 3.10, Romans 3.23 about how every single person is a sinner. It's impossible for us to get to a point where we are sinlessly perfect because even after we're saved and we're dwelled by the Holy Spirit and we're a new creature in Christ, the old man is still there. The flesh is still present. And so every single day we've got to deny self and take up the cross. And we're not always going to be walking in the Spirit. Sometimes we're going to be in the flesh. And so there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. There's nobody on this earth who never sins. It just doesn't exist. The only person like that was the Lord Jesus Christ because he was God in the flesh. And that's the only reason why he was sinless is because he was divine. And no human being other than Jesus Christ could say that. It says in the next verse, also, take no heed unto all words that are spoken, lest thou hear thy servant curse thee, for oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise has cursed others. And this is such an important truth that we need to understand is that sometimes it's going to get back to you that someone said something bad about you, that someone cursed you or talked bad about you. And a lot of times the best way to handle that is just to let it go and ignore it and often remind ourselves, like the Bible says here, that, you know what, a lot of times we've said things that we didn't really mean. We've said things that we regret. We've blown off our mouth about the boss at work or said something derogatory about the boss. And a lot of times it wasn't necessarily because we really felt that way. But maybe we were just having a bad day or we were frustrated. And sometimes you just blurt out stupid things and then later you regret having said them. And so we need to understand that no one is perfect. Everybody's a sinner. There's not a just man upon the earth to do as good as sin is not. And sometimes people are going to say stupid things. They're going to say insulting things to you. Your spouse might say something insulting to you. Family might say something insulting. And you can't just let that become this bitterness inside you where six months later you're still thinking about that thing that someone said about you. You know, people are going to say hurtful and even downright hateful things to you and about you. And it doesn't necessarily mean that they hate you. It doesn't necessarily even mean that they don't love you. It's just that people are sinful. We get in the flesh. We lose our temper. We say something stupid. And I guarantee you that every single one of us could think of things that we've said that we regret saying. And so that's what you've got to remember. When somebody says something about you or something gets back to you. And look, as a pastor, obviously I am a target for a lot of criticism. So people will sometimes report to me, well, you know, so-and-so said this derogatory thing about you. And, you know, a lot of times I just chalk it up as just, you know what, it is what it is. I've said derogatory things about others and that's just the way life is. So what the Bible says here is take not heed unto all things that are spoken. You know, don't just grab hold of every single thing that someone says and just hang on to that. But it's often helpful and gracious and honorable to just forget that you heard certain things and just kind of let things go. That's part of being patient and long suffering and meek is not reacting to every insult that's thrown at you. Sometimes it's good to just ignore it, let it go, forget about it, especially if someone apologizes. I mean, if someone apologizes, it should be forgiven and forgotten. But even if they don't apologize, and especially when you overhear something that maybe you weren't supposed to hear, you know, that's kind of the situation that comes to mind here because, you know, you hear your servant curse you. He probably didn't intend for you to hear that. You know, he probably thought that you weren't around and, you know, he blew off his mouth or whatever. So anyway, that's some really practical good advice from the Bible there, not to just obsess over everything that anyone says. Verse 23, all this have I proved by wisdom. I said, I will be wise, but it was far from me. And isn't it interesting that the wisest man feels inadequate in his wisdom. You'll find that the smartest people are humble about their level of knowledge and the people who think that they really know a lot turn out to be complete idiots. So he says, you know, wisdom's far from him. Of course, we know he's one of the wisest men who ever lived. That which is far off and exceeding deep, who can find it out? I applied my heart to know and to search and to seek out wisdom and the reason of things and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness. And I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets and her hands as bands. Who's so pleased with God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be taken by her. Now I want to make sure that we properly understand verse 26 here. This is not talking about women in general. This isn't just saying all women are a nightmare. They're a trap. They're out to get you. If you please God, you'll just escape them. Because obviously the Bible tells us a prudent wife is from the Lord and the Bible says who so find it the wife find it the good thing and obtain a favor from the Lord. It's not good for the man to be alone. I will make and help meet for him and for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. And the Bible talks over and over again about the blessings of marriage and how it's good to be married and who so find it the wife find it the good thing. So we don't want to take this passage and twist it into being some kind of a MGTOW type of a passage or a misogynistic hateful toward women thing. That's not what the Bible is getting at. It's talking about the woman whose heart is snares and it's talking about a certain type of woman that is like that. The woman whose heart is snares, that's more bitter than death. Okay. And there are some women out there that truly are a trap. They are just bad news. Stay away from them. They're a nightmare. They're going to ruin your life. That is very true. But we don't want to make this derogatory about women in general. The Bible is not derogatory toward women in general. It's just referring to one type of woman. And it says who so pleaseth God shall escape from her but the sinner shall be taken by her. This shows that one of these wicked treacherous women could be a punishment from God. So let's say you young man decide that you're going to go out and see what the worldly life is all about and you're going to go out there and you're going to party and you're going to go out there and meet all these worldly chicks and you're going to start drinking and smoking and taking drugs or maybe just partying or whatever and you get away from church, you get away from the things of God. You know, if God looks down and sees you doing that wickedness, especially when you're a saved Christian, especially when you've grown up in church and heard all the preaching and you know what's right and you go out and choose to live that foolish life anyway, God could punish you by saddling you with one of these rotten women that is going to destroy you as a punishment from God. So here's the thing, you know, when you're in the will of God, the Bible says the prudent wife is from the Lord, right? The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. You know, God guides you and directs you and he can help you find a wife that's going to do you good and not evil all the days of your life. But let me tell you something, there's a woman out there that could do you evil like you can't even imagine, that can torture you and destroy your life and make your life misery. I mean, the Bible talks about it being better to dwell in the corner of the housetop than with a contentious woman in a wide house. So you could have all the money in the world, but having some nightmare of a wife, you know, I was sitting on the airplane and some middle-aged woman was sitting next to me on the airplane and she was reading People magazine. You know, she was real into People magazine. And of all magazines, that's got to be the most brain dead reading you could possibly be doing. I mean, you know, read the Bible, you know, read nonfiction, read classical literature, you know, read anything, read any novel, read any comic book. People magazine has got to be the bottom rung. Who agrees with me on that? It's trash. I mean, talk about trash. And this woman is just enthralled by People magazine. And I look over and I'm like, what is she reading about? And it was Kanye West talking about how Kim Kardashian is the most nightmare wife. Worst wife ever, is torture, being married to her, living hell, nightmare. And I'm looking at this middle-aged woman and I'm just thinking like, why would that interest you at all? Like what does that have to do with anything? But then I got to thinking to myself, I wonder how many dudes out there wish they were Kanye West. You think anybody out there wishes, oh man, I wish I were famous and rich and have this beautiful babe wife or whatever. But then Kanye, he's there and he's saying, I'm married to this woman and this is a nightmare. Now I don't know if People magazine is an accurate source of information, but hey, this fits my sermon, so I'm just going to go with it. This fits my narrative, so let's do it. The point is, just because a woman is beautiful doesn't mean that she's going to make you happy because I don't care how beautiful she is, if she's one of the monsters that's being described here, she's going to destroy you, ruin your life, make you miserable. You're going to wish that you could dwell in the corner of the house top. You'd rather dwell in the wilderness. The Bible says you'd rather be Robinson Crusoe than to dwell with the contentious woman, with the brawling woman in the White House. And I'm sure Kanye West has got a White House. I don't know what kind of a house he has, but I'm assuming that the adjective wide is going to work to describe it. I don't know. You know, maybe somebody has seen that episode of Cribs or whatever. I don't know. I have no idea where he lives or what. I think he lives in Montana or something. He lives in big sky country, even the sky is wide there. I'm sure he's got a White House. But I guarantee you that being married to a wicked woman, the woman who's not the virtuous woman, is going to make your life miserable. I don't care what she looks like, okay? That's why if you're smart, you'll seek out the godly woman. You'll seek out a virtuous woman and realize that favor is deceitful and beauty is vain. But a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. There is a woman out there that will torture you and make you miserable. And you say, Pastor, that's a strong word, torture. The Bible says the contentions of a wife are continual dropping. That is the Chinese water torture. That's what's being referred to. I'm not kidding. You think I'm joking. I'm not. The continual dropping is like when they lay somebody down and drip water on their forehead and it's literally torture. Now it might not seem like torture, but that's because none of us have ever had it done unto us. You know, waterboarding doesn't sound that bad until you do it. And then you find out how bad it is. And so, yes, women can be the worst thing that ever happened to you or they could be the best thing that ever happened to you. You say, well, what do I do to protect myself from this? Well, what does the Bible say? Who so pleaseth God shall escape from her? I mean, that's a great reason to please God, young men. Right now, if I were 18, 19, 20, 21, this alone would be a great reason to make sure I'm pleasing God, make sure I'm reading my Bible, going to church, praying, because I want God to look down and if he sees me getting involved with one of these rotten women that he would protect me from that and that he would get me out of that snare. But the Bible says, but the sinner shall be taken by her. So God is going to allow a sinful young man to get mixed up with a girl like this as a special punishment. So this is a punishment from God, being hooked up with a rotten woman that will torture you and ruin you and mess up your life. He says in verse 27, behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one to find out the account, which yet my soul seeketh. But I find not one man among a thousand have I found, but a woman among all those have I not found. Now again, he's talking about, you know, the difficulty of finding the right woman. And obviously he's exaggerating a little bit, but when he says one among a thousand have I not found, this guy knows cause he checked a thousand of them because we know King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Now here's the thing about that. Solomon did not find the virtuous woman because he's not going about it the right way. And here's the moral of the story here. If one's not enough, a thousand isn't going to be enough. You'd rather have the one good one than a thousand that are no good. So polygamy is not the answer. Okay. You need to please God, serve the Lord and trust the Lord to provide you and to guide you unto the right kind of wife because a prudent wife is from the Lord and he will protect you and keep you from the strange woman. And in Proverbs over and over again, he says, look, I'm giving you this advice. I'm giving you these commandments to keep you from the strange woman. The woman that's going to steer you. So this, this verse in Ecclesiastes is just one verse. Over in Proverbs, we have whole chapters dealing with this. Okay. This is just a little bit of it. But then when we get into verse 29, it says this lo this only have I found that God had made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions. And again, we want to make sure that we don't get an incorrect interpretation of verse 29 and turn it into like a woman hating type verse because it isn't, and I'm going to prove to you that it isn't okay. In verse 29, it says God had made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions. So there's two possible ways that one could read this. One way that someone could read this is that God made mankind upright and they mankind have sought out many inventions. And then another way to read this would be God has made man upright, but they meaning women have sought out many inventions. Now I'm here to tell you tonight that 100% for a fact that they there is referring to mankind in general. Okay. So it's not saying God made the male gender upright, but then the female gender has sought out all these wicked inventions. Okay. And there's, there's no doubt about this. Okay. So let me point out a few things about the verse. First of all, that wouldn't jive with what the rest of the Bible teaches. That would be kind of a weird teaching. Okay. Like that man isn't sinful. It's just woman that corrupts. And obviously we know that yes, Eve ate the, the, the, the, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And then she gave it to Adam and he ate. I get all that. Okay. But what we have to understand is that when the Bible is specifically referring to males, it doesn't use the term man. Okay. So we want to, we want to understand like the way the Bible uses lingo. Okay. So we, when we want to talk about, you know, everybody in the whole world, we would say mankind. Wouldn't we? Like if we said the word mankind, we'd be referring to everybody and we'd be referring to all genders. Am I right? That is not the way the Bible uses the term mankind. When the Bible uses the word mankind, it's talking about males specifically. So it's actually the opposite of the way we use the language in 2021 because if we said man, you know, we might be referring to all of mankind or we might just be referring to just males or we could just be referring to people in general. And when we use the word mankind, we would for sure be referring to people in general. But in the Bible, it's actually the other way around in a sense, because when the Bible talks about man, it's talking about all of mankind. And when the Bible says mankind, it's talking about males. Let me think of a very obscure verse that you've probably never heard of. It's a little verse called Leviticus 2013, tucked away in your Bible there. And it says, if a man lie also with mankind as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. You know, I mean, I know most of you probably never even heard that verse before, but anyway, you know, Leviticus 2013, it says that if a man lies with mankind. So you see how mankind there is referring to what? Specifically the male gender. Okay. Which is the opposite of how we would use that word today. So we want to interpret words in the Bible the way they're used in the Bible. So if God were specifically referring to men versus women, he could have said something about how God has made mankind upright or God made men upright. You know, God made men upright, but they have, but that's not what it says. It says God has made man upright, which is referring to all of people in general, but they, again, all people in general have sought out many inventions. Does everybody understand what I'm saying there? Also by the way, one of the reasons I know for a fact that I'm right about this is that in Hebrew, the, the pronoun they here is not a female pronoun. It's a male pronoun. So therefore it cannot, and it just in case somebody's like, Oh, I don't know. I want to be a MGTOW and I think pastor Anderson's wrong about this because women are just the worst saying and whatever, you know, well it's your interpretation is literally impossible if you're reading a Hebrew Bible because the pronouns have gender. So there you go. So put that in your Pope and smack it. But basically, you know, the, the, these MGTOW, you know, what is a MGTOW? Let me just kind of park on this for a minute. Men going their own way is what that stands for. And this is like a movement online. And anytime I say anything in my sermons against MGTOWs, I'll get the comments on YouTube, which shows that some of these people are listening to my sermons because I'll get these comments anytime. They're like, you don't understand us. But basically it's this, it's this movement of whining men complaining men who basically just every woman in America is wicked. All women are bad. They're all whores. They're all so rotten. They're all gold diggers. You know, just, just all this stupid like woman hating rhetoric. Who knows what I'm talking about? Who's been exposed to this stuff before? Yeah. You know, and, and they're called men going their own way because you know, they're not going to acquiesce to marriage or anything because they say marriage is a trap and, and it, you know, it's just women getting into you to get your money and they're just going to treat you like garbage and they're going to cheat on you and they're not going to obey and they're not going to, you know, it's just basically a bunch of men whining and complaining because they had bad experiences with women and now they've just given up on womankind. And it's, it's garbage. Don't let yourself get caught up in these kind of foolish movements and these, these bitter movements. You know, the Bible says marriage is good. Marriage is honorable and all and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. And the Bible talks about there is the prudent wife, the virtuous woman and, and obviously there are lots of godly women out there. Sometimes they'll say like, well, you know, there's godly women out there, but you have to import them from other parts of the world. You know, you have to import them from Asia or Africa or something, but you know, you can't find them here. Well, yes you can. There are godly women here, but a lot of people are just looking in the wrong places. You know, they, a lot of, a lot of these guys, they basically want to marry some girl who just looks like some knockout or something. You know, they just, some Barbie doll is what they're trying to look for. And then they also want to be the virtuous woman at the same time. You know, well, here's the thing. You know, the Bible in the passage about the virtuous woman tells you favors deceitful beauty is vain, but a woman that fear at the Lord, she shall be praised. So here's what the Bible is telling you. You know, you may not want to make looks your number one criteria if you're looking for a godly woman. Now I do believe that you should marry a woman that you're attracted to. You shouldn't marry someone that you're just not attracted to at all because that's a recipe for a bad marriage. Okay. But don't have this attitude where you're basing everything on looks and you know, by the way, I think everybody in America should probably broaden their mind a little bit on what beauty is and not just have this narrow view of beauty of what Hollywood or Madison Avenue tells us is beautiful. Just thinking that, you know, I mean, I've talked to young men before that, oh, you know, they're struggling to find a wife or whatever. I've asked them, you know, what percentage of women your age do you think are beautiful? 10%. 5%. It's like, you're an idiot. That should be like 80 or 90%. Amen. I mean, what kind of an attitude is it? You know, you're looking at God's creation. You know, these are human beings made in the image of God and you're just ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly, beautiful, ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly, beautiful, ugly, ugly. I mean, you have problems. I mean, is anybody with me? I mean, you're warped. I mean, do you think 90% of the people in this room are ugly? I mean, I'm looking around at this room and I'm seeing a lot of great-looking guys and gals here. What a good-looking bunch tonight. I mean, now I'm like Joel Osteen or something. I'm a real positive preacher. You guys are looking so good out there today. Isn't God good? You look good today. Hey, you look good. Yeah, you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But in all seriousness though, you know, the Bible says that we're fearfully and wonderfully made. And so God has created us and, you know, God doesn't look down at us as a bunch of ugly people except for a few Hollywood celebrities that just look perfect or whatever, whatever that even means. So you know, broaden your mind a little bit. You know, and by the way, have you ever known people who at first when you met them were outwardly beautiful but as you got to know their rotten personality, they just looked worse and worse to you even though they're objectively nice-looking people? Or have you known people that maybe when you first met them struck you as maybe a little bit homely but yet as you got to know them, their inner beauty came out? You know? And here's the thing. You know, people who you like because you like their personality, they look better to you than people that you don't like, okay? And so you need to understand that it's not Hollywood that's going to determine, you know, what is handsome or what is pretty or what looks good. You know, the way I look at it is God has created us the way we are and usually you can find the beauty in people. If you actually look to them with love in your heart, you can actually find the beauty and see the beauty that's there. And whether they don't have to be the dude with the six-pack abs or whatever or even the woman with the six-pack abs because she's like dangerously low on body fat or whatever. You know what I mean? It's like literally, you see advertisers with women with six-pack abs. I mean that's like dangerously low body fat for a woman, seriously. I mean women are not supposed to even be that skinny because, you know, women are supposed to have, you know, because, you know, you think about like anything under 5% on a man is danger zone and anything under 12% on a woman is dangerous because women are just built different than men. But it's like you've got this standard. You know, yeah, dudes that are thin have that six-pack abs but now that standard is being put on women? It's absurd. That is an absurd standard. I mean that's just so over the top. But that's what's out there, isn't it? That's what all the movies and TV shows and ads are showing people and then we get brainwashed by the media where we just look at people that just look normal and we just think like, oh, they're so overweight or oh, you know, you're so out of shape because they don't look like some dude that literally, that's like his whole job is just to like go to the gym and he's got some personal trainer and personal chef like feeding him the exact right meals, you know what I mean? And then, so then, yeah, that's why he looks that way and that's why she looks that way because she's got some personal chef, you know, giving her her little pre-made portion or whatever. You know, people in the real world, they, sometimes you just got to eat what's handy, you know, and sometimes it's a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. And that personal trainer is never going to give you that, ever, okay? It's not worth it. So the point is, you know, broaden your mind a little bit about what beauty is and, you know, see God's children as beautiful and don't just go around just thinking everybody's ugly. That's a weird, arrogant, prideful attitude just thinking that everybody's so ugly all the time. You know, why, you know, and a lot of times, you know, I'm always shocked by the way people are, like, thinking that this person's ugly and it's just like, what in the world? Like, we like that person. That's our friend, you know? Like, what are you talking about? Because we, you know, we see beyond just a physical outward appearance. We see the inward qualities of people as Christians. And so that's how we need to think, okay? I have a feeling that Solomon, with all his 700 wives and 300 concubines, I think this was based a lot on looks. Okay? Because I don't even think he even had time to even get to know a lot of these women. Okay? So I wonder why he's not satisfied with the soul that he's finding, okay? Because he's basing everything on the outward appearance. So don't give up on women in general and don't give up on American women. And look, if you want to marry a woman from far away, that's okay too. Hey, you know, diversify the gene pool. You know, go for it. You know? And I can't really be one to talk because, you know, I imported my wife from Germany, you know? So, you know, I'm just a German import kind of a guy, you know? No, I've never driven a German import vehicle. But I've, you know, I've got the German import wife. So the, you know, that's okay. But you know what? It's really just slanderous to just act like American women are all bad. You know, and look, it's not just some tiny amount of American women that are decent people. There are millions of women in America that are nice, decent people. So don't just act like everybody's trash. That's just you being prideful and arrogant. I think you MGTOWs are trash. And I know you're listening to my sermon right now because of your stupid comments. You're trash, MGTOWs. Get right with God. All right. So back to our regularly scheduled broadcast. In verse 29, let's actually apply this verse the right way. This only have I found, and again, like I said, the pronoun in Hebrew, it's literally impossible to get the MGTOW version of this verse, okay? So lo, this only have I found that God has made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions. What are we talking about here? Well, go back if you went to Jeremiah chapter 19. Or I, forward, I should say. To Jeremiah chapter 19, to the right in your Bible there, just a few pages, you'll find it. Jeremiah chapter 19, verse five. Here's the thing. You know, God is not the author of man's sinful actions. You know, the Bible talks about in Romans chapter one, the vile things that reprobates do, right? You know, and it says God gave them over to vile affections, but you know what the Bible is careful to tell us in Romans chapter one is that he gave them up to vile affections through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. So notice where the source of this filth coming from, it's not coming from God. It's from the lusts of their own hearts. Now God gave them over to that, but they're the ones who invented that, dreamed those things up, delved into that, and came up with that. Man has free will. And so God did not dream up the sinful actions that men engage in, he just gave them free will and they sought out these evil inventions. What's an invention? I mean, it's something that you come up with. Humans have come up with disgusting, horrible things and God is not the author of that. God is not the author of confusion. And by the way, a lot of sinful things in the Old Testament, what does God say about them? It's confusion. And God's not the author of confusion. Now look what I mean in Jeremiah chapter 19 verse 5, it says they built also the high places of Baal to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not nor spake it, but here's the key, neither came it into my mind. Now you have a lot of Calvinists out there that will say that everything that happens is decreed by God. Every single thing that happens is decreed by the Lord. I mean, think about the perverted things that happen in this world. Think about horrible, violent, sinful things that happen. Did God decree that or dream that up or produce that? No, he did not. Because here we have people doing something very wicked and God says, that didn't even come into my mind. Now why would God say that if he's the author of all of these evil things? He's saying it because man, God made man upright and they have sought out many inventions. Okay, go if you would to Jeremiah 32 verse 35 and we'll see the same thing in Jeremiah 32, 35. Jeremiah 32, 35 says, and they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech, which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind that they should do this abomination to cause Judah to sin. So when we have people being given over to a reprobate mind in Romans chapter 1 and being given up unto vile affections, it's through the lusts of their own heart they do things that didn't even enter into God's mind. So what is he saying there when he says it didn't enter my mind? He's saying, I did not dream this up. I did not come up with this. I am not the source of this. They came up with it. Now to me, the Calvinist is downgrading God's creative ability because they believe that God can only create basically a robot in essence, because God can only create people where he's already thought through everything that they're going to do, and in fact he decreed all of it and planned all of it, and it's just like he's a puppet master up in heaven just kind of just controlling this whole orchestra of this world. That is false. God is beyond a human creator because, you know, if we created a computer or an artificial intelligence or a robot or a machine, it can only do what we program it to do. It can't do anything else beyond that. God is beyond that where he can actually create something that has its own desires, wills, imagination, and can actually create new things. God is the king of kings and lord of lords, and you know what else he is? He's the creator of creators. He creates creators, whereas we can only create something that just does what we do and doesn't come up with anything new or desire anything of its own. So God has created man with free will, and the Calvinists are wrong when they teach that all of the wicked, evil, perverted things going on in this world are the will of God. They are not the will of God. Let me explain something to you about the will of God. The will of God isn't just everything that happens because the Bible says God's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. So if it's God's will that nobody perish, let me ask this, do people perish? So did God's will happen? No. God's will is what God wants to happen. And then the Calvinists would retort and say like, oh, so God just doesn't have the power and he's just at our mercy and blah, blah, blah. Folks, God has chosen to give us free will. Yeah, God, if he wanted to, could just snap his fingers and make everybody do what he wants them to do, but that's not the way he operates. It's like Jesus, when he's on his way to the cross said, hey, I could just pray to my father right now and have six legions of, you know, or 12 legions of angels, right? Like the song, he could have called 10,000 angels. You know, there's actually 12 legions that he could have called. But here, but he said, but how then should the scripture be fulfilled? You know, God has a plan. God has a way that he operates and it's not for the Calvinist or anyone else to scrutinize how God operates or pick it apart or insult God. Oh, you're weak because you don't make everybody do what you, it's like, well, no, God gives people free will. Oh, so you mean God can only save people if they let him? Yeah, yeah, that's right. Because if people don't want to be saved, Jesus isn't going to save them. If someone does not want to be saved, they will not be saved. In order to be saved, you have to want to be saved. You know, and Jesus said, you will not come to me that you might have life. Will means you don't want to. And he said, whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. You have to want to. Now, is the gift of salvation free? Yes. But you know what? There's one thing that you have to bring to the table, and that's the desire to be saved. You know, that's why often when we go out, so I always pray, Lord, help us to find that person that wants to get saved. Help us to find a person who wants to hear the gospel. Because if someone doesn't want it, they're not going to be saved. Period. And then, oh, God is sovereign. No, you're wrong. First of all, I read a King James, so I don't even have the word sovereign in my Bible. I have the word almighty. So I like that word better. Almighty. Because you know what almighty means? He's got all the power. He's omnipotent, all powerful, all might. But here's the thing. Let's say you have an earthly king in this world, and he has all the power. Have there been absolute rulers in this world? Yeah, there have been absolute kings, absolute monarchs, absolute rulers. But does that mean the people in their kingdom don't have free will? No. They do what they want. He still has absolute power, because he has the power to punish. He has the power to make rules, and if people don't follow the rules, they're... Look, God's up in heaven with all the power. He makes the rules. He's got the punishments. And look, if wicked people do wicked stuff, it's not like they're getting away with it, because they're going to get punished. But do they have the ability to do wicked things? Yes. Does that mean, well, that's because God decreed for them to do that wicked stuff? Then what kind of a God would that be, that is decreeing all this perverted stuff and decreeing all this horrible stuff? It's really a perverse doctrine. What kind of a... If you stop and think about the horrific things that are out there, and then you're going to hold God as the one who decreed those things, it's like God's up in heaven, dreaming up all this filth. God is righteous. God is holy. God is light. And in him is no darkness at all. So what happens when God delivers someone over to the reprobate mind, is that, basically, it's like if you're driving your car, let's say, and this is before my time, but ancient vehicles and another dispensation, they would have a governor on them, where they couldn't perform. Who knows more about cars? Who knows a lot about cars? So a governor is a device that's basically keeping the car from going beyond a certain speed, so that you can't really push the car to its actual limits. So here's the thing. Human beings have this governor on us as human beings, where certain things just gross us out. And here's the thing. If we try to harm ourself, it's like our brain rebels against that. If I tried to just fall flat on my face right now, I wouldn't be able to. I'd reflexively put out my hands. If I tried to eat something disgusting, my body would just start vomiting it out. And my brain has this governor, where certain things are just super gross. Now, animals would do gross things. And we would look at what an animal's doing, and he's like, oh, gross, it's eating its own vomit, or whatever, it's doing these gross things. We have this governor as human beings that stops us from doing certain things, from crossing a certain line. You know, now we're sinners. We have a sin nature. Don't worry, I'm not preaching on chapter 8 tonight. If you're getting nervous, like, oh, man, this is going to be a long night. We haven't even got to verse 1 yet. Don't get nervous, OK? Relax. But here's the thing. You know, we've got this governor on us, and what happens is, and it's what separates us in many ways, it's one of the many things that separates us from the animals. Stuff that animals would do, and it's funny, you know, when you rebuke the sodomites, like, well, look at these animals. It's like, yeah, they're animals, though. There's a lot of weird stuff that animals do. But even animals aren't as wicked as these sodomites. But the point is, what the reprobate mind is, is it's God giving them over to a reprobate mind to do those things that are not convenient. Those things that do not come naturally. Basically God is removing the governor, and then he gives them over. Now they're just, like, can do anything. They're just like a beast now. And he removes the governor. He gives them over to vile affections, and then that's where the lusts of their own heart take over, and through the lusts of their own heart, they invent or dream up all of these things. Now, this just popped into my mind. I wasn't planning this, but, you know, I'm 99 percent sure in Romans chapter one, but I might be. You know, I think I'm mixing it up with the other list of of sins where it's the inventors of. No, it's right there. Yeah, I thought so. You know, in Romans chapter one, when he talks about the reprobates, one of the attributes in verse 30 is inventors of evil things. Right. So specifically, he says about the sodomites, you know, he says they're backbiters, haters of God, despite both proud, boasters, inventors of evil things. So are they inventing stuff or what? Yeah, they're coming up with stuff. God made men upright, but they have sought out many inventions. God created this world and all the animals. They created human beings, and he looked on everything he made, behold, it was very good. He gave man free will, man aid of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And now man has the ability to make the choices between sin and righteousness. He's no longer in a state of innocence. And you know, now he dreams up evil things. But even sinful man has a limit to his evil, right? There's a limit where human beings, even even wicked people, even ungodly people, it's like they'll draw the line somewhere like, okay, that's too wicked. That's too evil. That's too bad. But then the reprobate, that governor gets removed and then there's just no limit. So when you see people doing horrific, unimaginable things, you can tell the governor's been removed. You know, they've been given over to the reprobate mind, but it doesn't mean that God's making them do those things or that God's giving them those desires. They provide those things. God just removed part of their humanity by removing that governor, giving them over to the reprobate mind. Now they're capable of pushing the normal sinful invention to whole new levels beyond the boundary of what a normal human being would do. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? So the proper interpretation of Ecclesiastes 729 is not a male versus female thing. It's a thing about how God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions. It's a verse about the free will of man that leads him into all these sinful things because he dreams them up. And that's why God could look at a very wicked practice of infanticide and say, this never entered my mind that people would burn their children in the fire to Molech. I didn't command that. I didn't speak that. This didn't even come into my mind, such an abomination. I didn't even dream this up. They dreamed this up. They are inventors of evil things. So we need to make sure that we get that straight and that we don't attribute horrible, wicked things in this world to God. Most people have understood this in Christianity, that when people say like, oh, what about all the horrible things that are going on in the world, the standard answer from Christians is typically that's the result of the sin of man. That's not God that did that. Well, what about this horrible thing? Why is God doing that or why does God allow that? It's like, well, God has given free will and that's what man has done. Man is doing these things, not God. So we should never hold God responsible for the horrible things that happen in this world. It's humans that are doing that. Atrocities carried out by the Catholic church. Oh, they did that in the name of Jesus or whatever. Yeah, but God didn't command that. That didn't enter into God's mind, these tortures that they did and all the things that they did and yet people will take those atrocities committed by the Roman Catholic church throughout history and try to pin those on Jesus or pin those on the New Testament, pin those on Christianity, pin those on a fundamental Baptist in 2021. Oh, look what Christians did. We're like, those are pagans. We don't even look at Roman Catholics as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ because they are pagans. They are false brethren. They're false religion. That's not Christianity. I mean, we love them and want them to get saved, but they're not our brothers and sisters in Christ because they're not saved. They're trusting in their works for salvation and they're bowing down to idols and doing all kinds of pagan things. I mean, that's not biblical Christianity and it's not salvation because salvation is by faith in Jesus, not of works, lest any man should boast. And so they're boasting in their own works. So there's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Everybody is a sinner. Yes, there are rotten women out there. It's true. And maybe there are more and more of them in 2021 America just because of the way our culture is going, but that also means there are a lot more rotten dudes out there as well. I mean, it's just, it's not a male versus female thing. It's just our society is going downhill. And so is it hard to find a godly wife? Yes, but don't just throw in the towel and become a big towel and say like, oh, it's impossible. It's difficult, but it's not impossible. And here's how it'll become a lot easier for you. Stop only looking for women of a supermodel type appearance and start actually getting a more godly set of eyeballs to where you actually see God's creation as beautiful and you actually see your fellow humans as being creations of God, not just looking at them like seeing how they measure up to whatever the actress. And by the way, right now that actress is making some guy's life a living hell right now. You know, you dudes are salivating over some actress or some model. She's torturing someone right now, literally. She's literally torturing. She's literally married to a guy right now that's just like, why, why, why am I, why me, Lord? Why, why did you do this to me? Her husband's crying himself to sleep tonight and you're like, oh, what a babe, oh, she's so beautiful. He's just like, I'm telling you, broaden your mind. It's not a problem with females, it's a problem with humans. God made all of mankind upright. All of mankind has sought out many inventions. Women are not the problem. Humans are the problem, both men and women. And so we need to understand that, yeah, there's a rotten woman out there. It's hard to find a good one. Well, we wouldn't want you to do anything hard now, would we? But not only that, how about this? You say, but what do I do? It's such a gamble. Well, what does the Bible say? The Bible says if you please God, you'll escape from the rotten woman. So if you're, if you're nervous about getting married to one of these rotten women that's going to take you to the cleaners or whatever, then you know what? Why don't you work on pleasing God? And that's your ticket to escaping the strange woman. But if you go out and live a sinful life, you know what you're basically saying? All right, God, send me the strange woman to screw up my life so I can learn everything the hard way. That's the choice. And obviously I'm preaching mainly to the young men with that, but I could flip this thing over and address the young ladies as well and tell the young ladies, hey, you know, you need to make sure that the guys that you're interested in are godly young men and that you're not just looking for the guy that looks like whatever the actor and the actor that you're salivating over is probably a sodomite. He's not even into women. So how, how do you like that? You know, or the, especially those guys in the boy band. You think those guys in the boy band are cute? They think each other are cute. Okay. They're not, they're not looking at you. They're a bunch of reprobates. So the point is, you know, beauty, beauty comes from within. You know, the wise person will look at people and think about their character and all of that goes into how they look at people. And they don't just look at people as a piece of meat, but they actually look at character and godliness and, and their heart. They look at the charity and the love and the righteousness, right? And so the, the godly wife is out there. The godly husband is out there. You've got to work on pleasing God and you've got to work on also your perspective. And again, I, you know, I'm not saying, hey, marry someone that you, that you think looks terrible because that, that could be a recipe for a bad marriage, but you know what? You need to broaden your mind a little bit. Okay. So at least be wise about these things. And I'm, I'm giving you this advice because of the fact that, you know, we're living in an ungodly time, but even thousands of years ago, this was the advice that Solomon's giving in Proverbs 31 or not, not Solomon, but the author of Proverbs 31 is giving and other scriptures in Proverbs written by Solomon and Ecclesiastes, you know, there's nothing new under the sun. It's not like this is a new phenomenon. These rotten women of 2021, they were around back then too. But there were also the Sarah's and the Rebecca's and the, and the Rachel's and the, and the Ruth's and everybody, there were the, the right women as well. It's very, it's never word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. And we thank you for the wisdom that we can find in Ecclesiastes and Proverbs, Lord, help us to apply these things to our life and Lord so often young people, they think they know everything and they, they, they think they've got it all figured out, Lord. I pray that, that young people would meditate on your word and that they would meditate on Proverbs and, and Lord, I pray that every young man and every young lady in this church would read the book of Proverbs on their own without somebody telling them to read it. Lord, I pray that they would just, that they would just dig into that book and just get the wisdom and apply it and read Proverbs and read Ecclesiastes and, and, and make the right decisions at this crucial time in their young lives. Lord, I pray that you would just guide and direct the young people of our church to find a godly spouse and Lord help us never to get bitter against an entire gender or an entire race of people or get bitter against people who've talked bad about us or whatever, Lord, help us to be forgiving people and to find the best in people and not to get cynical or bitter, bitter, Lord, but, but help us to go through life loving people and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.