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Proverbs chapter number two at the beginning there in verse number one the Bible reads my son if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding yay if thou cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding if thou seekest her as silver and searches for as for hid treasures and look at verse five this is the key because this is the promise right it says then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God and this goes back to what Jesus Christ said in the New Testament when he said ask and it shall be given to you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be open unto you for everyone that asketh receiveth everyone that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be open unto him and of course the book of James tells us in James chapter one if any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and it breadeth not and it shall be given him so what the Bible is saying is that wisdom is available to absolutely anyone who wants it anyone who asks is going to receive anyone who seeks is going to find anyone who knocks the door is going to be open God is not a respecter of persons just deciding you know in the sovereignty of his will that just certain people just don't have access to wisdom no no he gives to all men liberally and it breadeth not what does that mean though does that mean everybody has wisdom no because there are conditions placed upon getting that wisdom what's what's the condition in the book of James it says did he give it to all men liberally and it breadeth not but let him ask in faith nothing wavering for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord so the Bible is not saying that every single person is going to get wisdom but what the Bible is saying is that if we play our cards right we will get wisdom because God is not up in heaven trying to withhold wisdom from us he's ready to deal out wisdom to every single person and everyone that asketh receiveth everyone that seeketh findeth to everyone who knocks the door shall be open but we have to ask the right way we have to seek the right way we have to knock on the right door and also we can't be double minded about this right because the Bible said in the book of James you know double minded man is unstable in all his ways and if we waver and we're just like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed well let me just tell you right now buddy let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord why because God's word and the wisdom that is found therein is not on a trial size or trial basis but rather to really get to the truth you have to be dedicated you have to be committed and you have to really be sincere in your quest for truth and that's why there's all these verses that are leading up to verse five there in Proverbs chapter two it starts with because all of these are conditions do you see that and then chapter five verse five is the promise but you have to meet the conditions of verses one through four in order to receive the promise of chapter five the promise of chapter good night why do I keep saying chapter I'm sure there's some great promise in chapter five but let's talk about that three weeks from now so verse five says then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God for the Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding but notice all the ifs though right verse two or verse one there's an if verse three there's an if verse four there's an if you've got to meet these conditions so what's the first verse say my son if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee so a disregard for God's word is not going to be the path to wisdom you could get on your knees and pray and beg God to give you knowledge and give you wisdom and give you understanding but then if you don't read the Bible you're not going to get it God's not going to listen to you because if you turn away your ear from hearing the law the Bible says then even your prayer is an abomination because what's God saying don't come asking me for stuff when you don't even listen to what I have to say and God's already given us his word here and we need to listen to what God has to say and then if we ask God for wisdom but we are receiving God's word we're hiding his commandments with us you know then we're going to understand the fear though then we're going to get the knowledge of God now what does it mean when he says hide my commandments with thee basically what he's saying is learn them learn them by heart hide them means put them inside of you tucked away where they are now part of you memorized or you know what they are you learn them you receive them you keep them you hold on to them you hide them in your heart and then in verse two it says so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding think about how people tell you sometimes to apply yourself do they mean when they say you need to apply yourself they're saying put some effort into this and so the search for wisdom is something that requires effort on our part first of all we need to desire it we need to first see what God says in the Bible and this is the starting point this is the foundation in our quest for knowledge and wisdom and then it says that we apply our heart to understanding verse three yay if thou cryest after knowledge and lift us up thy voice for understanding if thou seekest her as silver and searches for her as for hid treasure so you have to be serious about this you have to be dedicated you have to want it badly and if you really want to know the truth and if you go to the Bible as the foundation you will find the truth now there are all kinds of people in this world who believe all kinds of false religions and false doctrines and there are Hindus and Buddhists and Muslims and they're on their way to hell because they do not have the truth they're not they don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ they don't believe he's the son of God they don't believe he's the savior of the world they're doomed okay but then even amongst those who would claim the name of Christ you've got people that are mixed up in this big giant pagan counterfeit Christian religion called the Roman Catholic Church it's based on a lot of idolatry hocus pocus I just knocked on the door of someone today and I said if you were to die today do you know for sure that you'd go to heaven and she said well I don't know because there's a whole bunch of stuff that I need to confess to the priest first you know to get me back on track so that if I died I'd go to heaven folks that's garbage there's nothing like that in the bible there's no mention of that in the word of God there are no new testament priests cardinals bishops the bible teaches the priesthood of all believers in the new testament okay there's no monks nuns cardinals bishops archbishop I mean there are bishops but not the not these guys in a funny hat my friend a bishop in the new testament is a pastor okay what they have as a bishop is the opposite of what the bible has a bishop in the bible the bishop must be the husband of one wife in the Roman Catholic Church he must not be the husband of one wife figure that one out how does that work all of this hierarchy of the pope and the cardinals and the blue jays and all these other uh you know things that we have they're not in scripture all right and so you know it's a false religion and yet a billion people are mixed up in this false religion but isn't it amazing how many of them we went to Christ and how many of them come out of that false religion in fact when we're out soul winning Roman Catholics are some of the most receptive people because they're often just a Catholic in name only they're not really that into it they don't really necessarily even believe in it they were just brought up in it raised in it they don't really know but I'll say this there are a lot of people that are Roman Catholic or another false religion say Mormon Jehovah's Witness whatever East Orthodox whatever other false counterfeit Christianity a lot of them are in that false religion because they just don't really even care what the truth is they don't really care you know it's like oh I'm Catholic I'm Orthodox whatever they don't really care they're not getting on their knees every night begging God to show them the truth they're not getting on their knees and I'm begging God oh God please show me if the Roman Catholic Church is it right is it wrong please give me the truth they're just kind of like oh yeah we're Catholic we've always been Catholic whatever yeah I guess I'll go to confession every once in a blue moon or whatever they show up to church a couple times a year or whatever a lot of them are just not even that into it they just don't even really care they don't care what the truth is okay and there are others that are in it and they're pretty active as far as going to mass and you know going through the motions and going through the different practice and everything but they're not really interested in the truth they're just interested in following their traditions and it's like a national pride thing like we're Mexican or we're Spanish or we're Italian and this is just what we do we're Roman Catholic and and here's the thing even if they are dedicated to that religion they're not the guy who just doesn't even care and barely shows up even if they're pretty into it and going through all the processes you know yeah they have a zeal but it's not a zeal for God it's a zeal for their nationalistic tradition their heritage they're zealous about being an Italian they're zealous about being Spanish they're zealous about being Mexican but it doesn't make them zealous to actually know the God of the Bible and actually know the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior they're just they're into this is our culture this is our religion and we don't want to change and it's kind of like an us against them type of mentality you know that's not going to work because I guarantee you that if you have someone who's raised Roman Catholic raised East Orthodox raised in one of these false religions raised as a Mormon or whatever if they actually want to know the truth and they're actually sincere about it and they're actually going to the word of God and saying God show me the truth is it Roman Catholicism you know is it something else what is it I want to know the truth I promise you that person who is sincere and really seeking to understand really seeking the wisdom of God really seeing the truth that person will come out of Roman Catholicism and will get saved period and if they don't if they stay with the Roman Catholic Church you know what that proves it proves that they are not sincere about wanting to know the truth they are rejecting truth they don't actually care enough to get on the Lord's side because anybody who seeks is going to find okay there are going to be a lot of people who go to hell because they just didn't even care and they're just too busy with the things of this world and the cares of the world and the love of money and other things entering in that they just don't care and they're just going to just slowly go off that cliff and then there are others that are just so they're so prideful about their race or nationality that they're just married to that certain false religion and that could be the same for Hindus and Buddhists and Muslims too where it's just a nationalistic culture thing they're just they're just stuck on that that are going to go to hell but you know I'll tell you who's not going to go to hell somebody who actually sincerely seeks for the truth because anyone who actually sincerely seeks for the truth is going to find Jesus Christ and they're going to find that salvation is through his blood his death barrel and resurrection not through works you know another guy I told you today he just said you know it's not enough to believe in Jesus you got to be following him you got to be doing the works you know if you're not doing the works if you're not following him if you know it's not enough to just believe so you know I tried to give him some thoughts from the bible but he wasn't interested in listening so then I you know I start walking away and I go to the next door knock on the next door and then I'm I kind of got the doors out of order just because the guy was in his yard you know so then I'm walking by the guy again and he stops me again he's like hey I got I got a perfect example for you he said let me tell you something I was a big fan of Prince but I wasn't following him because Prince was a wicked person he's talking about the musician Prince he's like I was a big Prince fan but I wasn't following him he's a wicked person so he's trying to compare he's trying to say like you know you know being a Jesus fan isn't enough you know you got to be following him it's a really stupid illustration but at the end of the day here's what the bible says for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it's the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast so the bible says you're saved by faith not of works okay Prince really has nothing to do with it I don't think that Prince really was looking for followers while he was on this earth I don't I don't remember I don't you know I don't really know much about Prince you know to be honest I was not a fan or a follower of Prince but but here's the thing about Prince I don't I don't remember Prince saying hey you know if you want to be my disciple you need to deny yourself and take up the cross daily and follow the artist formerly known as Prince you know you know so you can always come up with some kind of a a logic to prove why you're right even when you're wrong everybody who's wrong comes up with some logic to prove that they're right and I mean this guy like he was real proud of that illustration like he had to stop me and be like hey I got a perfect illustration for you Prince it's kind of like whoa okay yeah case closed you know game over insert coin but honestly this this whole idea of just yeah I've got an answer of why I'm right everybody who's wrong can come up with some way to prove that they're right but at the end of the day here's what I walk away thinking that guy right there doesn't want to know the truth he doesn't care what the truth is and so he has deluded himself because for some reason he wants to believe that salvation is by works and so no matter what I say to this guy he's going to believe that salvation is by works that's what he wants to believe he received not the love of the truth that he might be saved instead he's clinging to this falsehood and then he dreams up reasons why he's right and and how you know there's there's fans of a certain musician and then there's the real followers which what you know what is that you have to be like a like a dead head or something to be you know of the grateful dead or something I mean it's just the whole thing it was absurd but to him it was like the greatest illustration ever because of the fact that he's wise in his own conceit you know in his own eyes he's wise in his own eyes somebody's coming to him with the bible telling him the truth it's by faith it's not of works you've got to trust Jesus as your savior but he's like no no no no he's got it all figured out and he was going to take me to school and and and straighten me out you know when you're out so many you run into so many people like that that are they're so wrong but they're so confident and they have so many arguments and reasons and they're just ready to just take you to task but they're wrong and all you can do is try to show them the truth and you know you just you just walk away feeling bad but it's like this guy's not sincere because if he were sincere I believe from the top of my head to the bottom of my foot that the person who is truly seeking truth will find it you got the people who don't care they're not seeking anything except just the next ice cream cone and the next good time in life okay and then you got the people who are just stuck on their false religion they're not sincere the people who really want to know the truth are going to get there and you know what that's comforting for me because I struggle sometimes just as a human being with the thought of how many people are going to hell it's it's it's a it's a really sad thing to think about how many people are going to be damned it's hard I can't even wrap my mind around what it's like to go to hell you know and and it's just it's sad to think about how many people are so wrong and their their lives are wrong and then and and but way more important than that is that they're they're heading to the wrong place eternally by not believing in Christ but you know the one thing that makes me feel a little better about that is to know that if people are truly sincerely looking for the truth they're guaranteed to find it that's what Jesus has taught and that's what the book of Proverbs is teaching as well that God gives wisdom out of his mouth comes understanding if you seek you will find the knowledge of God but you have to want it bad enough now why do we go soul winning what's the purpose of soul winning because you could say well the people who really want because I remember being told this as a child and and there's a lot of truth in it of hey the people who really want to know the truth they're going to find it they're going to get there and you hear all the stories about the guy who's in some dark deep jungle of Africa and he walks for three days and he doesn't even know why and he stumbles into the missionary and the missionary gets him saved and it was like God knew that this guy is sincere and that he wants the truth and so God led this guy to the mission hey great amen okay but here's the thing what about that huge mass of people that's actually probably the majority of people they just don't really care and they're not seeking God they don't really care they don't even really want to know the truth they're just kind of going through life that's the people where we're trying to get a hold of them and and kind of come to them show up at their door and say hey if you were to die today do you know for sure that you're going to heaven and maybe that's something that's that's not even on their mind at all they're not even thinking about that at all they're just thinking about the nasty here and now and you're basically saying to them stop for a minute and think about the fact we're all going to die someday do you know where you're going to spend eternity do you know if you're even going to heaven or hell and a lot of people aren't thinking about that and then you bring that up to them and a lot of times they'll say okay sure tell me how I can know and then you can get that person saved even though they're not necessarily the hardcore seeker of truth found here in chapter two that's the kind of person we want to pull them out of the fire you know it's not like well if you want out of the built the burning building bad enough if you want out of that burning building bad enough you're you're going to find a way to get out and you know we'll be here with the trampoline when the time comes but I don't know if that's only on cartoons or if they do that in real life but I you know I'm like we're going to be here with the trampoline when you're ready but then isn't our job as a firefighter also to actually go in there and kind of drag people out of the building whether they want to come out or not I mean what if we found some little child in a burning house and we go into the bedroom and we pick up this little child and they're screaming and kicking and no leave me alone I want my mommy you're going to be like shut up you're coming with me and you're going to drag them out of there okay so so here's the thing now obviously we don't tell people shut up you're coming with me when we go soloing we're obviously kind and polite and we can't force anyone to be saved like the firefighter could literally you know just drag somebody out or whatever obviously we can't fully drag people into the kingdom of god I wish we could man we'd do it if we could if we could force people to get saved you know but we can't right but we can proverbially speaking you know pull them in and and compel them to come in and persuade them those are the words the bible uses compel persuade right pulling them out of the fire right we can we can try our hardest to get the maybe somebody is asleep in the burning building maybe they're asleep they don't even know the building's on fire we can wake them up and say hey it's time to go now you need to get out now we're not just going to stand outside the building and be like well you know the people who really want to get out are going to find a way to get out now that's true I mean the people that are more serious about getting out are probably more likely to get out but we want to go in and get them too so yes people who are sincerely seeking for god they're guaranteed to arrive at the truth because god's not going to hide it from them god wants them to be saved as much as they want to be saved but there are a lot of people who just they don't even know that that's what they need because they just don't care and they're just distracted and they're brainwashed and thinking about it you know that's where we want to go and put this on their mind also the bible says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of god so a lot of people who don't even believe in god or they don't even believe that that jesus is necessarily even real you know by coming to them and presenting them with some scriptures that scripture can can begin to plant a seed in their heart that can then be watered and it can grow into them actually believing on the lord jesus christ as their savior so yeah there are going to be those people who are truly seeking truth and they come to us and say what must i do to be saved you know they stumble through the jungle to the missionary and they show up on his doorstep and ask him what the truth is but probably most of the time the missionary is having to go and talk to people who aren't necessarily that interested and try to explain them here you need to be interested in this you know you need to think about this and warn them so after we're saved because obviously the most important knowledge of god is just knowing who god is and and who jesus is and knowing how to be saved but even after we're already saved there's a lot more knowledge of god that we want to acquire as christians and so we want to continue to hunger and thirst for the knowledge of the truth because being saved is the is by far the most important thing but after we're saved we also want to have the right doctrine we want to go to the right church we want to believe the right things we want to be able to evangelize others we want to live our life the right way we want to have the right marriage we want to have the right behavior at our job we want to have the right behavior in our families and so there's more to learn and so we want to continue to love knowledge and wisdom and understanding and and to hunger and thirst and cry out for knowledge so even after we're saved we want to keep asking god for wisdom about how to live the christian life what is the next step and again if we're sincere we will find it because there's a thing there are a lot of people who are saved you know they're not a roman catholic they're not a mormon they're not a hindu or a buddhist there are a lot of people who are saved but they're not necessarily in that grade of a church they're not necessarily going to a church that has the right doctrine because there are a lot of saved christians that are going to these kind of non-denominational fun centers they're saved but a lot of what they're being taught in that church isn't right they're not necessarily getting teaching on how to live their life again if that person's sincere and really continuing to look for knowledge and the truth you know eventually they're going to find that hey we need to be reading the king james bible not these modern messed up bible hey you know we need to believe this and believe that and get their doctrines right and and actually you know grow more as a christian so this is a process that continues even after we get saved as we get closer to god and learn more and so the bible says in verse 6 for the lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding he layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous he's a buckler to them that walk uprightly so again he lays up sound wisdom for the righteous those who walk up rightly okay these are the ones who are going to get the deeper knowledge and wisdom and understanding of his word he keep it the paths of judgment and preserve it the way of his saints verse 9 then shalt thou understand righteousness and judgment and equity yea every good path when wisdom enter into thine heart and knowledge is pleasant under thy soul discretion shall preserve the understanding shall keep thee so knowing who god is getting saved that's the most important number one thing once we're saved we continue to learn and get closer to god because we want to be preserved we want to be kept what does that mean physically speaking on this earth you know i want to be safeguarded would be another word we could use instead of preserved and kept here you know i want to be safeguarded from all of the dangers and pitfalls that are out there in life even for a saved christian to mess up their life and he gives some examples of this he says in verse 12 to deliver thee from the way of the evil man so even once i know who god is i know the bible i know jesus i'm going to church i could still be sucked in by the way of the evil man you know some sinful influence that comes along and tries to get me off of the right path of good christian living okay and think about a christian young person who grows up in church and they get saved as a child and they learn the bible i mean look a child who grows up a faithful word baptist church by the time they turn 18 years old they're going to know the doctrines of the bible pretty well they're going to be really solid on things like salvation the trinity the deity of christ you know the king james bible the preservation of god's word they're going to have these doctrines in their mind and they're going to understand and know the message of the bible in general but here's the thing if they don't love truth if they're not seeking wisdom if they're not looking for god's way of how to live their life they can be sucked in by the evil man the way of the evil man see a lot of people you know they they know all the doctrines when it comes to end times prophecy and salvation and all of these different things about the nature of god and the nature of the word of god but part of doctrine is also how to live our lives you know any anything that the bible teaches is a doctrine you know so we could say for example you know that it's a biblical doctrine for men to dress as men and women to dress as women that's taught in the bible or hey it's a biblical doctrine to abstain from alcohol to be sober that's a bible doctrine that's something the bible teaches us right the bible teaches us not to fornicate the bible teaches us not to commit adultery these are doctrines of the bible so there are these sort of abstract doctrines about god and and the bible and salvation and those are the most important things but there's a lot of doctrine that has to do with the way we live our life right now and so it could be easy for a young person to desire the truth about going to heaven and who jesus is but not necessarily to be that interested in the truth about how to live their life you know truths about not loving money and seeking to be rich truths about dressing as women in modest apparel biblical truths about what to look for in a wife what to look for in a husband god's giving you all this great wisdom and all this great advice if you're not seeking that with all your heart you could be sucked in by the way of the evil man you know the guy who comes along and he tells you hey it's okay to drink it's okay to commit fornication and there are always going to be christians who justify these things they're going to be christians that come along and tell you it's okay to smoke weed hey weed's not mentioned in the bible he gave every green herb is a blessing man but here's the thing about that is that yeah he did give every green herb but not necessarily to light it on fire and bring the smoke into your lungs okay and there are other legitimate uses for that cannabis plant it's actually a very useful plant because you could use it for hemp you could use it for clothing you could use it for all kinds of textiles and and on a material basis also there is the ingredient in it that is not the ingredient that gets you high somebody help me out what's it called again the the the cbd oil you know you could talk about the medicinal or therapeutic qualities of the cbd oil so there could be legitimate even medicinal uses for those type of components but then it has another component called thc which is the component that is the mind-altering part that gets you high and make no mistake about it today's marijuana has been cultivated to maximize thc so the marijuana that people were smoking 100 years ago is not the same marijuana that's being smoked now the marijuana that's being smoked now is much more potent it's much stronger stuff because it's been cultivated for many many decades to make it as powerful as possible and here's the thing you know smoking marijuana is really something that should be put in the same category as drinking alcohol as far as being a mind-altering substance is taking away sobriety but i guarantee you you can find christians that will justify both they'll justify drinking alcohol they'll justify smoking pot and they'll be sort of like that prince guy where you know they've got an argument it's not necessarily a right argument but they've got an argument that they're gonna hit you with and that they're gonna use obviously the bible can't sit there and mention every stupid thing you could possibly do in life you know it's i mean imagine instead of the ten commandments it's like you know thou shalt not snort cocaine thou shalt not smoke crack thou shall not inject heroin you know thou shalt not smoke pod thou shall not abuse prescription drugs you know i mean obviously he gives you a basic paradigm of drunkenness and then you you're supposed to figure out the fact okay well if he doesn't want me abusing alcohol he also doesn't want me abusing steroids prescription drugs marijuana you know he doesn't have to sit there and break down each thing to you okay you're supposed to be able to figure it out based on what he's taught us about alcohol but again the way of the evil man he's going to come along and tell you that you know the bible doesn't condemn fornication and i've had christians try to prove to me and tell me that fornication is not wrong according to the bible and i mean that's what the jews believe i mean you know you want to go join that religion the synagogue of satan and you know what they don't believe that premarital relations are wrong i mean they're totally fine with that in the vast majority of cases you know there's always going to be somebody out there that's going to twist the word of god or just deny the teachings of the word of god or just try to get you thinking about other things and forgetting the teachings of god or ignoring the teachings of god and that evil man is going to try to get you down to the casino he's going to try to get you down to the bar down to the strip club get you smoking pot get you taking steroids get you snorting coke or whatever and you wouldn't be the first christian young person to go down this dark path and you won't be the last and it's because you didn't embrace wisdom and knowledge and understanding and hide them in your heart and make them a part of you because if you did they would preserve you they would keep you they would verse 12 deliver you from the way of the evil man from the man that speaketh forward things and watch this who leave the paths of uprightness and in order to leave the paths of uprightness you have to be in the paths of uprightness so that you can leave them and so this is an idea of even being raised in a christian home being taught well but then someone comes along and says hey let's go do this and and your parents are too strict your church is too strict you know here's another church over here where anything goes and there are plenty of churches like that that where literally anything goes so deliver you from the evil man that speaketh forward things who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness who rejoice to do evil and delight in the forwardness of the wicked whose ways are crooked and they froward in their paths now it's interesting how many times the word froward just came up it's in verse 12 it's in verse 14 it's in verse 15 and this is a little bit of an archaic word because it's a word that we don't use today at all right in 2022 unless somebody's talking bible they're not talking froward here's how i like to think about this word froward and you can kind of even see this in the context here but you've probably heard the term of going to and fro right so the froward guy is basically the guy who's always going the wrong way he's kind of a contrarian guy where you know you tell him it's up no it's he's gonna say it's down if you say left he's gonna say right he wants to go against the right teachings of his parents the church the bible whatever and he just he gets off the right path he he's not going to he's going to he's going fro he's he's froward like pointing in the fro direction okay the wrong way contrary to the right way so as the bible says here he leaves the paths of uprightness verse 13 right he's froward he resists the truth he leaves the paths of uprightness he goes and walks in the way of darkness he rejoices to do evil and delights in the frowardness of the wicked so a synonym of being froward i mean i mean in general fro being froward basically just means like you're ungodly you're wicked but maybe more specifically it has a nuance of like you know you're you're actually going against the truth you're going against what you've been taught you're going out of the right path you're arguing with someone who tries to actually tell you the truth their ways are crooked right in verse 15 and they froward in their paths so verses 12 through 15 are talking about delivering you from the way of the evil man because remember when it comes to gender the book of proverbs is directed toward young men now again you young ladies have to be smart enough to figure out the fact that hey i can learn from this book too and not just back oh proverbs is to give to the young man subtlety oh well okay let's skip straight to ecclesiastes then this is just for young men obviously it's for young women as well because obviously you have to flip these things over you know if he's sitting there and telling the young man about finding the virtuous woman in chapter number 31 then you know you you can kind of use some common sense that as a young lady you want to make sure that you find the right husband as well you know and and so like when the bible says chasing thy son while there is hope and the bible tells us we should discipline our son i've literally had some bozo tell me like well it doesn't say anything about disciplining daughters you know so you only spank your sons you don't spank your daughters but again you have to have common sense like well of course we don't drink but we can snort cocaine you know it's just like it's ridiculous right so you have to use a little common sense obviously everything in proverbs is from a male perspective and you're supposed to be smart enough to flip these things over and kind of apply them to the female experience in life so obviously god's warning about the strange woman the strange woman the strange woman obviously you as a as a girl have to flip this over and think about okay the wrong kind of guy that i could get romantically involved with as well but because we're from a man's perspective in the book of proverbs we're talking about the young man he's being warned about the two things that he could fall prey to if he's not seeking knowledge understanding wisdom if he's not laying up god's commandments in his heart then there's two things he's susceptible to versus 12 through 15 we're talking about the way of the evil man now this is not this is not some faggot that's trying to get with him it's just it's just the way of the evil man this is some dude that basically is just like a sinful buddy that's the one who's getting him to try drugs that's getting him to the first strip to the casino that takes him to the strip club for the first time that gives him the first can of beer do you understand what i'm saying the evil man has left the path of uprightness he's forward he delights in the wicked and he's trying to get you to follow in his footsteps and to not to be with him but to be like him does everybody understand so that's danger number one for the young man is the sinful male companion the buddy who's going to lead you down the wrong path okay but then in verse 16 we shift gears the other great danger for you young men is the strange woman right because it says that uh in verse 16 to deliver thee from the strange woman so he said deliver you from the way of the evil man you know he's going to try to show you his way and you're going to hang out with him you're going to start having his bad values rub off on you okay whereas now it's saying you know deliver you from the strange woman the strange woman on the other hand isn't someone who is teaching you or you're hanging out with her you know this woman is actually trying to get to you literally and actually commit fornication with you that's what the bible is saying here right so young men have these two great dangers right they've got the danger of getting around a sinful buddy that could lead them into an ungodly way of life and then they have this danger of the strange woman to seduce them physically and actually get with them physically that's what he's warning about in this passage so let's read this i gotta hurry up here but it says to deliver thee from the strange woman and you say well maybe i don't want to be delivered from the strange woman you know because she's pretty hot or whatever you're an idiot because you don't understand how evil the strange woman is and how destructive this relationship is going to be unto you and that's why he goes on to explain the danger because it's easy to just look at the strange woman and just oh you know her lips are smoother than oil and she's so beautiful don't let her take you with her eyelids the bible says you know the gorgeousness of her physical beauty is deceptive there's something evil lurking beneath that you have to watch out for if you're smart you'll know that the wisdom and knowledge and understanding that comes from god will warn you of this and you'll see her coming a mile away and you'll run screaming in the other direction you'll flee fornication whereas the fool just looks at the outward appearance and he's just like hey who wants to be delivered from the strange woman that's foolishness talking that's your fro word buddy telling you that okay now look what the bible says in verse number 16 to deliver thee from the strange woman even from the stranger which flattereth with her words now let's stop and talk about the strange woman for a minute strange in the bible does not mean weird in this case it's not saying hey stay away from weird girls although that's probably good advice stay away from the weirdos amen but strange here doesn't mean weird strange here means that they are foreign unto you meaning that this is not your wife this is not the girl that you're engaged to that you know the christian girl the one who is familiar unto you this is not the girl from church who's a godly young lady from church that you may want to date and get married no the strange woman is the woman that's basically not christian she's she's of this world or or if if she is saved she's not living the life of a christian so she's basically out there in the world which is kind of foreign to us as christians because we're here as christians you know and then the the this world is somewhat we're we're the bible i'll put it this way the bible says that we are strangers and pilgrims in this earth right so the strange woman strange in the sense that basically she's not one of us she's not familiar to us she is just this worldly woman out there the strange woman and particularly and that's that's not to say that every non-christian girl is just super wicked and evil of course not this is a particular when we talk about the strange woman we're not just talking about any woman that is foreign to us any woman outside of christianity because obviously there are nice people outside of christianity hopefully they're going to get saved later or whatever but the point is this particular strange woman is specified because look at the next word even so even means we're going to redefine what we just said right it's like when the bible in the new testament says god even the father he's saying like i'm not just talking about god in general i'm specifically talking about the father okay it's a clarification of who we're talking about so to deliver thee from the strange woman even from the stranger which flattered with her word so he's saying specifically the strange woman and the one that flatters with her words and then we're getting more details about who we're talking about which forsaketh the guide of her youth and forgetteth the covenant of her god and then it warns for her house inclineth unto death and her paths unto the dead so here are the things to watch out if you're smart here's the things you're going to watch out for in a woman flattery right flattery this means that basically just you first meet her and she's already just so into you and she's giving you all these compliments and she's so easy why because you're not the first guy that she said these things to that's why you know that girl who's just ready to just throw her arms around you the first time you meet you haven't even been introduced yet you you know and she's just already just jumping into your lap and throwing her arms around you and kissing you and always and you say that would never happen really because guess what first of all in a few chapters the bible describes that exact thing happening the bible literally describes her you know looking out her windows seeing her victim coming she runs down and just hugs him kisses him i've been waiting for you and he's kind of a random dude but she's been waiting for him and and that you know oh wow i'm special you're not special but folks who who that is older and wiser in here because you know i i fear that sometimes children and teenagers don't believe me sometimes when i talk about life because they think oh yeah you know pastor Anderson whatever so look who out there can testify that they have seen when they were in high school college age they've seen girls just hop into the laps of guys that they didn't know or just throw their arms around them kiss them just with with like no conversation just out of nowhere see all the hands okay i'm not making this up the bible talks about it and it's out there now to this the foolish young man just thinks this is great i mean you know the fish are just hopping into the boat here but let me tell you something she is evil okay she's evil she seems so friendly and so nice and so fun and she's just she's just holding your hand and you don't even know her she's just embracing you she's just rubbing up against you and you don't even know her she is doing this to everyone she's probably totally warped in her mind because normal women do not behave this way i mean honestly sometimes i see the way that young ladies behave and i think to myself like they must be some victim of abuse or something to just to just act in this way because it's so abnormal and i feel bad for them it's sad but but at the same time they're dangerous you know if i saw some dog that had rabies i'd feel bad for it too but i'd still be scared of it and want to stay away from it and i'm telling you this type of chick this type of woman is as scary as like a rabid dog or something it's dangerous to be around especially for the young man who's just he's he's not smart enough to know what's going on and he can easily be sucked in by something like this taken in or just fall prey to this and it's it's it's scary the strange woman she flatters with her words just just right out of the gate she is into you she's all over you she's she's putting her hands on you she's she's getting physical she's complimenting you and again we're gonna get you say well you're reading that into the text just a couple chapters later it's explicitly laid out the flattery is also in the sense of just the hugs and kisses that are just not warranted or or earned okay even from the stranger with flat which flattered with her words which forsaken the guide of her youth you know beware of the girl who rebels against her parents because guess what if she's rebelling against her parents what happens when you're her husband now you're the authority figure in her life if she's rebellious toward her parents now she's going to be rebellious toward you think about that if she forsakes the guide of her youth she's probably going to forsake the guide of her 20s as well she's probably going to forsake the guy to her 30s or forsake the guy to her 40s if she's not listening to dad if she's not listening to mom why would she listen to you and of course when you're all starry-eyed and and dating and and just first in love or whatever yeah of course you what she tells you that you walk on water and her parents are idiots and her dad's this and her mom's this but oh you're so wonderful okay fast forward you've been married for a couple years you're the idiot now right she was talking about how dad was an idiot now you're an idiot she's going behind doing everything behind her dad's back now she's doing everything behind your back she forsook her dad forsook her mom now she's forsaking you you see the woman who forsakes the guide of her youth right her guide her guardian and that could be a parent that could be mom and dad what other guides of her youth you know other people trying to guide her in the right way whether that's a pastor or a teacher or somebody who's actually guiding her in the right path you know she forsakes that what makes you think that she's not going to forsake you and she forgets the covenant of of her god so even if she's an israelite she could still be a strange woman because obviously the philistine women could be seen by the israelites as strange women of course because they're actually of another nationality and they're worshiping dagon or they're worshiping bale zebub or whatever okay yeah that's a strange woman but you know even an israelite could be a strange woman if she if she for if she forgets the covenant of her god so this could even be someone who's a christian or was raised christian even saved but if they forsook if they forsook the right way and are living like a heathen they could still be classified as a strange woman even if they're nominally Christian so why do we want to be delivered from the strange woman why do we want to be delivered from the stranger which flatters with their words who forsakes the guide of her youth and forgets the covenant of her god the reason we want to be delivered is because her house inclineth unto death and her paths unto the dead none that go unto her return again neither take they hold of the paths of life that thou mayest walk in the way of good men and keep the paths of the righteous for the upright shall dwell in the land the perfect shall remain in it but the wicked shall be cut off from the earth and the transgressor shall be rooted out god's saying look if you want to be blessed if you want to prosper if you want to thrive you need to get around godly people you need to get around good men not that dude who is froward and is getting you on the wrong path you want to get around good guys that are going to be good influence on you now the bottle says you know her house inclines unto death and her paths unto the dead none that go unto her return again neither take they hold of the paths of life now obviously god's using some kind of extreme language here kind of like a hyperbole like kind of an extreme example sort of like i did with the rabid dog example like just something dangerous and scary that we kind of feel bad for but like we don't want to get close to it because we could get infected it's the same type of thing well here's another good way to kind of understand versus 18 and 19 like like where it says like none that go under her return again okay think about think about this what about like let's say there's a woman that stands that's by the side of the road and says like oh i got stranded here and i just need a ride and whatever and and you're just like okay yeah you know yeah just take me over to this address you know and then you just get there and they just there's just like a bunch of dudes waiting for you there and they just rob you and beat you to death and you die i can you think can you imagine like a scenario like that right okay now you say well that's kind of a crazy example or you know but what it's basically saying is that you know you think that this is just a harmless little tryst you know and you're just gonna just you know have this one night thing with this strange woman and it's not a big deal but what you don't understand is that basically some people have gone into they've gotten into that car or gone to that address or shown up at you know and and and basically it was a trap and they're literally murdered right like hookers that basically you know would entrap you and then there's some guy waiting to just beat the living whatever out of you and take all your money and kill you or who knows what right but not only that there's also just so that's kind of like the extreme example that's that's obviously that's not happening every day or every minute right that's like an extreme example of like you go home with this chick and it's a trap she's bait and they're they're actually there to extort you kill you rob you whatever but then also if you think about this in in a more general way the bible says when lust has conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death that sin ultimately leads to death if we live a sinful lifestyle we're gonna die younger first of all okay the wicked shall not live out half their days you know let's say that you go along with the strange woman which flatters with their words this loose chick and you actually get sucked in and you actually fall for her trap and you actually commit fornication you know it's very likely that you could pick up a disease that could slowly eat away at your health over time and it's not even just the typical stds that you would think of i mean they're obviously those are those are definitely part of it but you know you look at people who engage in womanizing fornication right just going out and and and living this promiscuous life whether male or female many of them could pick up other very dangerous infections like mersa right who knows what mersa is yeah you know um something resistant staff some what's the first letter again sim excuse me methicillin resistant uh staphylococcus what's that what's the a aureus well i don't feel so bad for not knowing it because it it had a few hard words in it so but anyway you know i've known i've known people in my own personal sphere that went out and fornicated and did all this stuff and ended up with mersa and ended up with severe health problems as a result of their simple in addition to other stds that they picked up along the way you know sin was finished bringing forth death when lust have conceived it bringing forth sin sin when it's finished bringing forth death also god could just look down and see you committing this wickedness and he can bring judgment into your life he can bring the car accident he can bring other diseases and harm that could come upon you so there's a lot of ways that this could literally come true as far as you know uh the strange woman's house leading to death you know it could be that the reason she's so forward with you and throwing herself all over you and willing to meet up with you or hook up with you or whatever it is now because i know you know the world is changing and now there's all these like apps that people use to just hook up with whoever and so therefore you know sometimes it could be a trap where you literally just get murdered or robbed or beaten or drugged or who knows what that's a thing too but even if it's not that extreme literal case there could still be some slow kill of disease that you pick up or just god's judgment being brought upon your life you know there are a lot of ways that this could literally come true that you actually just die okay but either way you're not going to be blessed as a christian young person if you go the way of the strange woman or get around the forward man so if you're smart you'll continue even after finding christ and finding salvation and and knowing who god is you'll continue seeking for wisdom knowledge and understanding listening to what your parents are telling you listening to what the pastor's telling you so that you can be delivered from these pitfalls in life and and so that you don't end up getting the dui going to prison getting your rear end handed to you in a fight you know being abducted being murdered and you know yeah we're talking from a man's perspective how much more true is this for females i mean think about it if god's warning the young man about how the strange man the strange woman is just going to be such a disaster and and is just going to kill him and ruin his life how much more should the young lady be warned of the strange dude because if you think about it he has the actual power to physically overpower you you know the strange woman can seduce you and entice you and and trick you but at any moment you know at least you would have the physical strength i sure hope so to be able to get out of there at least you know except for the dude that's you know waiting to jump you at her house or whatever but that again where that i digress but the point is though you know if you're a woman you could be physically overpowered by virtually any guy virtually any woman is in danger of being overpowered by virtually any guy you know i mean that's just the reality of biology and so therefore you're in even more danger how stupid it would be getting in the car with some random dude going to the home of some random dude going in a hotel with some random dude who knows what kind of a weirdo he is i mean look at ted bundy he's all friendly and good looking and charming and ladies liked him and so he's just constantly luring women into his car and murdering them and so you say well that you know what are the chances that that's going to happen probably a lot higher if you grew up in a christian home and you knew better and you went out and did it anyway say your chances went up exponentially of being a victim but not only that but even if it's not something as extreme as ted bundy you know there's still all the same things the the disease the beings being robbed being hurt not to mention just the emotional damage you know if you don't understand why you need to stay away from the strange woman then you better stick around for the rest of this series because you're lacking in wisdom because all of us that are smart we know how bad it is to go down the wrong path and how scary these things are and so we're like begging god every day for wisdom and protect us to preserve us and you know if you're single you should be praying to god every single day god protect me from marrying a wicked person please protect me from marrying a weirdo i mean if you're smart you'd be begging god every day to protect you and to guide you and direct your paths it's a jungle out there and even if you don't end up with a literal psycho you know like tyler dokka who says that he's jesus now he's the second coming of jesus okay even if you don't and i mean he was posing as an independent baptist for a while now he claims to be the second coming of jesus and says if you don't believe on him you're gonna go to hell okay but here's the thing though even if you don't end up with a literal psycho you could still end up with somebody who makes your life a living hell you could end up with somebody who makes your life miserable or who just leaves you high and dry has a bunch of kids with you and then just leaves how would that be it'd be rough stick around and learn the book of proverbs because we want to avoid these two pitfalls in our lives let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word lord thank you for warning us and thank you that your word gives us knowledge and understanding wisdom and lord help every single one of us to be smart enough to to really cry after wisdom and beg you every day for guidance so that we don't get sucked in by all the con artists and charlatans and seductresses that are out there lord help us to be smart enough to avoid these things in jesus name we pray amen amen let's go in our hymnals now and turn to him number 197 will be dismissed and singing hymn number 197 singing i go the trusting art to jesus nor any ill forebodes let's sing it out on this verse 197 sing it out now praising the lord my fears road for jesus is for jesus go there my burden for jesus so so you know the strange woman can seduce you and entice you and and trick you but at any moment you know at least you would have the physical strength i sure hope so to be able to get out of there at least you know except for the dude that's you know waiting to jump you at her house or whatever but that again where that i digress but the point is though you know if you're a woman you could be physically overpowered by virtually any guy virtually any woman is in danger of being overpowered by virtually any guy you know i mean that's just the reality of biology and so therefore you're in even more danger how stupid it would be getting in the car with some random dude going to the home of some random dude going in a hotel with some random dude who knows what kind of a weirdo he is i mean look at ted bundy he's all friendly and good looking and charming and ladies liked him and so he's just constantly luring women into his car and murdering them and so you say well that you know what are the chances that that's gonna happen probably a lot higher if you grew up in a christian home and you knew better and you went out did it anyway say your chances went up exponentially of being a victim but not only that but even if it's not something as extreme as ted bundy you know there's still all the same things the the disease the beings being robbed being hurt not to mention just the emotional damage you know if you don't understand why you need to stay away from the strange woman then you better stick around for the rest of this series because you're lacking in wisdom because all of us that are smart we know how bad it is to go down the wrong path and how scary these things are and so we're like begging god every day for wisdom and to protect us to preserve us and you know if you're single you should be praying to god every single day god protect me from marrying a wicked person please protect me from marrying a weirdo i mean if you're smart you'd be begging god every day to protect you and to guide you and direct your paths it's a jungle out there and even if you don't end up with a literal psycho you know like tyler doka who says that he's jesus now he's the second coming of jesus okay even if you don't and i mean he was posing as an independent baptist for a while now he claims to be the second coming of jesus and says if you don't believe on him you're gonna go to hell okay but here's the thing though even if you don't end up with a literal psycho you could still end up with somebody who makes your life a living hell you could end up with somebody who makes your life miserable or who just leaves you high and dry has a bunch of kids with you and then just leaves how would that be it'd be rough stick around and learn the book of proverbs because we want to avoid these two pitfalls in our lives let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word lord thank you for warning us and thank you that your word gives us knowledge and understanding wisdom and lord help every single one of us to be smart enough to to really cry after wisdom and beg you every day for guidance so that we don't get sucked in by all the con artists and charlatans and seductresses that are out there lord help us to be smart enough to avoid these things in jesus name we pray amen