(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

and doing it, in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Man, Proverbs chapter number nine, the Bible reads in verse number one, wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars, she hath killed her beasts, she hath mingled her wine, she hath also furnished her table, she hath sent forth her maidens, she crieth upon the highest places of the city, whoso is simple, let him turn in hither, as for him that wanteth understanding, she sayeth to him, come, eat of my bread, drink of the wine which I have mingled. Now, we talked about this last week, but obviously everything in the word of God is ultimately pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we saw in chapter number eight, that there was all this talk about wisdom, existing before the foundation of the world and being with God and being eternal and from everlasting and having no beginning and so forth. And we talked about how that was a foreshadowing of the Lord Jesus Christ as well. And so you can make a lot of tie ins between wisdom and Jesus. And of course, the fact that wisdom is represented as a woman is absolutely no issue because of the fact that symbols of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament are never gonna be exactly like Jesus, or they'd be Jesus, right? So you'll have a symbol of a lamb going to the slaughter as Jesus. And it will also say that as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened the thought of his mouth. So Jesus could be compared to a female sheep in the book of Isaiah chapter 53. Or for example, Jesus is also symbolized by goats that are being sacrificed in the Old Testament. But then elsewhere, the sheep and the goats has to do with safe versus unsafe. No symbol is ever gonna be perfect. That's the whole point of having things that are figurative, they're not gonna line up exactly, but they do still illustrate important spiritual truths. And so when we look at this at the beginning of chapter nine here, it's kind of hard not to think about the gospel and the New Testament and the Lord Jesus Christ, because Jesus told some parables that are almost just like this, about how the wedding feast is made for the son, and the beasts are killed and the wine is there and the guests are invited. And if you remember that famous parable, where the guests, they make excuses why they can't come. And one of them says, you know, oh, I just bought some oxen and I need to try them out or I've married a wife and so I cannot come and all these different excuses. So you can see the parallel here that just as wisdom has builded the house and killed the animals, mingled the wine, furnished the table and basically just says, come. And when you read this, it's clear that it's free, right? Like this is not something where she is selling food or selling drink, but rather she's just inviting the simple one to come and eat at my table. And of course the Lord Jesus Christ is inviting everyone to come to that marriage supper of the lamb, to come and eat at his table. And when it comes to salvation, everything has already been done for salvation, right? The meal has been prepared, it's been cooked, it's been paid for, all you have to do is show up. You just show up and that's it. And if you remember in the New Testament, the people that were invited to that feast, the servants were told to invite good and bad. So it's not only good people that can be saved, it's bad people that can be saved too, because in the sight of God, we've all come short anyway. And none of us is actually good enough to go to heaven on our own merits. But Jesus Christ has this invitation out there that says, whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Come and dine, come and eat at my table, come and take of the bread of life, come drink the water of life. Salvation's free, it's done, it's prepared, it's waiting. You've got to show up though, and be saved. And so we can think about Jesus and salvation in the New Testament being a little bit foreshadowed here, wisdom representing Christ, because Christ is the word of God. And of course, wisdom and the word of God kind of go hand in hand in the book of Proverbs as well. Again, not literal, but symbolic, okay? And so in this case, though, kind of just looking at what's right in front of us here, literally, is that wisdom has builded her house, hewn out seven pillars, she had killed her beast, she had mingled her wine, she had also furnished her table. And I believe that the idea here is that we don't need to invent a new way of life from scratch, reinvent the wheel, and somehow figure out what no human before us figured out how to live our lives. No, in reality, the word of God is already here with a plan for our life, with a blueprint for what marriage is supposed to look like, a blueprint for what child rearing is supposed to look like, a blueprint for what our work and our job life is supposed to look like. It's already been figured out, God has the answers, we need to show up and get the answers. We don't need to go on some quest around the globe, try and figure out what the answers are, or go way deep into our own psyche and do transcendental meditation to try to find the answer within. It's not within, it's not out there across the sea that you'd have to go take some long journey to get it. No, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which we preach. And not only is the word of God sufficient to get us saved, but the word of God is also there to impart the wisdom that we need for the rest of our lives. And the great thing is that someone has already figured this out and it's all right here. You know what I mean? It's like wisdom has builded her house, wisdom has carved out the seven pillars, wisdom has furnished the table, killed the beast, mingled the wine. You need to just show up and chow down on the wisdom of God's word. It's free, it's available. And the Bible says, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, they give it to all men liberally and it breadeth not and it shall be given him. So this invitation is still available to us today. And so the Bible says in verse three, she had sent forth her maidens. She cryeth upon the high places of the city, whoso is simple, let him turn in hither. Whosoever will may come, right? Whoever lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. They give it to all men liberally and it breadeth not and it shall be given him. As for him that wanteth understanding, hey, you're eligible. So it's okay if you're not smart because God can make you smart because he makes wise the simple, okay? You say, I don't know anything about the Bible. I don't know about the things of God. Religion's not really my thing. Hey, you know what? It's never too late though to start seeking wisdom and learning from the Lord. And if you're simple, if you don't know the Bible, no problem, show up and learn. That's why everybody's here to learn, okay? And everybody's at different levels of learning, but that's okay. And so this invitation is put forth, but notice also as she sent forth her maidens, this also represents the fact that God sent forth the prophets into the world preaching the word of God. And we are sent out also to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to every creature in this world as well. And she says in verse five, come eat of my bread and drink of the wine which I have mingled, forsake the foolish and live. And again, eat of my bread and drink of my wine. You know, this could also represent the body and blood of Jesus Christ, of course, because Jesus Christ said that if you eat his flesh and drink his blood, you'll have eternal life. Again, the Roman Catholics get confused and take this literally. They probably also think born again means that they have to enter into their mother's womb to be born again, like Nicodemus. They probably also are like the woman at the well, like, hey, give me that water so I can drink and never be thirsty again because I'm tired of drawing water at this well every day. Nicodemus didn't get it. The woman at the well didn't get it. Then in John chapter six, he said, you have to eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood. And they're like, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? It's not literal, my friend. It's spiritual, it's figurative, okay? And the idea here is that Jesus Christ's body is broken for us, okay? Jesus Christ's blood was shed for us and we are saved through the broken body and the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have a way into the holiest of all through the veil that is to say his flesh, his broken body, his shed blood is our salvation. And it's not a literal bread and wine that we consume. And it's not a literal human flesh that we eat or human blood that we drink, but rather it's the word of God. Because Jesus said, I'm the manna that came down from heaven, I'm the bread of life. And the Bible says that he fed them with manna so that they would know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. And then in John chapter six, when they said, how can we eat this man's flesh, right? How can he give us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink? Jesus said, it's the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I say unto you, they are spirit and they are life. It's the word of God that quickens us, that saves us, that gives us life, not an actual physical meal. But every day when I read the word of God, that's like a spiritual meal of eating the manna of God's word, the bread of life, the daily bread. You know, when we say give us this day our daily bread, yeah, we also wanna be physically fed, but we also want to be fed spiritually every day with the daily bread from the word of God, okay? And so, you know, sometimes I wanna say to these Roman Catholics who take everything so literally, I wanna say to them like, oh, okay, so you must never eat anymore, because you had that wafer and Jesus said that you'll never hunger now, so you must just never need to eat again. And since you went down and the priest, you know, let you drink some of the wine with him, I guess you're just never thirsty anymore. You just only, just the only time you eat and drink is just at mass. Well, it's not literal. Yeah, no kidding. But you know what? I ate of the bread of life when I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and I've never been hungry again, meaning I've never needed to get saved again. You know, when I drank of that water of life, I was never thirsty again, meaning I don't have to get saved again, right? I took one drink from that water of life and it sprang up in me a well of everlasting life, and I don't need to take another drink from the cup of salvation, because I'm already saved. That's what the Bible is saying. And so again, the eat of my bread and drink of the wine, which I have mingled, is basically something that could also picture, foreshadow the Lord Jesus Christ and his coming and giving of his body as a sacrifice and shedding his blood on the cross. And then it says, forsake the foolish and live. You know what that's saying? Forsake Hinduism, forsake Buddhism, forsake Roman Catholicism, forsake paganism, forsake idolatry, forsake these bogus, fake, foolish, wrong religions and live by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, right? Repent from false religion and put your faith and trust in the finished work of Christ for salvation. Forsake the foolish and live and go in the way of understanding. Again, that's a symbolic meaning, but also you could just look at it as, hey, quit being an idiot and read the Bible and do what it says and live a wise life, for those of us that are already saved, right? Just don't be foolish. Do the things that the Bible tells you to do so you can be wise. So the first six verses are this appeal to wisdom and saying, look, wisdom's available, show up, get the knowledge, get the understanding, get the wisdom, it's all free, don't be a fool, be wise. I know you're simple, but don't stay simple, get wisdom. Okay, but then we get to verse number seven, we start getting into some of the statements here about people who show up and get wisdom versus people who don't. It says, he that reproveth a scorner get it to himself shame. And he that rebuketh a wicked man get it himself a blot. Reprove not a scorner lest he hate thee, rebuke a wise man and he will love thee. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser. Teach a just man and he will increase in learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding for by me that thy days shall be multiplied and the years of thy life shall be increased. If thou be wise, thou shall be wise for thyself, but if thou scornest, thou alone shall bear it. Now, this is very interesting to me how right after saying that if you rebuke a fool or reprove a scorner, he's gonna hate you. But if you rebuke a wise man, he'll love you, right? Right after saying that and saying, give instruction to a wise man, he'll be wiser and all these things. Okay, think about this. In Matthew chapter number seven, we have the famous verses on judge not that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged and with what measure you made, it shall be measured you again. Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considers not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, behold a beam is in thine own eye. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye then shall thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. The next verse is, give not that which is holy under the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you. Now, what do these two passages have to do with one another? Well, if you think about it, the Bible is saying that you don't wanna judge hypocritically, you wanna make sure that you have yourself in line before you try to straighten other people out. We don't wanna preach something that we don't practice ourselves. So the Bible's not saying don't ever judge, it's just telling you not to judge hypocritically. First cast out the beam out of thine own eye then shall thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. The Bible's not saying leave the mote in your brother's eye, leave it there. No, it's first cast out the beam out of thine own eye then shall thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. So let's say the brother Daniel, he's got a splinter in his eye and I wanna help him out and get the splinter out of his eye. Now he wants the splinter out of his eye too. He's not gonna be like, no, no, no, man, I'm cool. If I can get it out, he wants me to get it out. But then it's interesting how the next verse is give not that which is holy under the dogs neither cast ye your pearls before swine, okay? So if I'm gonna correct someone, I wanna make sure that that person that I'm correcting is worthy of being corrected. Because if they're gonna be a dog or a swine, then it's like, I'm not even gonna bother because the Bible says what? You're looking down at your Bible there in Proverbs chapter nine, reprove not a scorner. So if Daniel's a scorner, I'm not even gonna try to take the splinter out of his eye because he's not worth it. I'm not gonna cast my pearls before swine. I'm not gonna give that which is holy under the dogs. But if he actually is gonna be smart about it, then of course I wanna help him out. And sometimes correcting people is how you can help them. But you have to use discretion because some people don't wanna be corrected. And correcting people who don't wanna be corrected, everybody gets hurt, right? So the Bible said, you know, don't cast your pearls before swine. Don't give that which is holy under the dogs. And the context is judging and correcting and helping people get the mote out of their eye. And here it says, reprove not a scorner, verse eight. Or let's back up to verse seven. He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame. So is this something that we want? Do we want to receive shame? No, so we don't reprove a scorner. And he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. So should I go around reproving wicked people? Should I go around reproving scornful people? Scornful people are those who make a mock at what's right. They make mock at the things of God. Should I go around reproving them? No, no, reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee. He's just gonna hate you. You're gonna get a blot, you're gonna get shame. You're not gonna accomplish anything. He's gonna turn around and rend you. Don't give that which is holy under the dogs. Don't cast your pearls before swine. But yet today, we live in a day where everybody's so much smarter than the Bible. And it's just, hey, preach to everybody. Just preach to everybody. Now we should go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature. You know, as far as just proclaiming Christ to the entire world, amen. I am for proclaiming Jesus Christ to this entire world. But is that what we're talking about here? Is this the gospel that we're talking about? No, we're talking about reproof. We're talking about correcting people, telling them that they're wrong, rebuking them. Isn't that different than sharing the gospel? Two different things, right? Sharing the gospel is like explaining to people Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection and how we get to heaven and things like that. That's the good news of the gospel. This is actually correcting people and telling them that they're wrong about something or that they're wrong about some sin that they need to get out of their life or whatever. And so if you rebuke a wise man, he'll love thee. But if you reprove a scorner, he'll hate you. So what are some examples of people that we should not be reproving, not be rebuking, not be wasting our time with? How about these bozos? They go to like a gay pride parade and start rebuking the sodomites in the gay pride parade. I mean, is that what God's telling us to do in the word of God here? Because if anybody's a dog, the Bible literally calls sodomites, it literally calls homos dogs. Like it uses the word dogs about sodomites in the book of Deuteronomy. And so the Bible says, give not that which is holy unto the dogs. Don't cast your pearls before swine. They're gonna turn a rend you. Don't reprove a scorn. These people are mocking and hating God. And then they go out there with the bullhorn, the street preachers, and they go out there and they're rebuking sodomites and rebuking homos. What are they accomplishing? Nothing. You know what I say to sodomites when I run into them in public? Nothing. You say, oh man, Pastor Anderson, he must just go around just rebuking every sodomite in Arizona. He's rebuked every sodomite in Tempe to their face. All day every day and twice on Sunday. But hold on a second. No, I don't do that because why would I do that? Why would I reprove a scorner? Why would I reprove a wicked man? Why would I cast my pearls before swine? Why would I give that which is holy unto the dogs? They're not even worthy of the wisdom that I have to impart unto them. Why would I explain anything to them? That's why it's like these reporters are like, what advice do you have for homos? I have nothing to say to them. Literally nothing to say to them. You know, I don't go around rebuking them and correcting them because I don't care about them. Okay, and I'm following the Bible, which literally says not to rebuke these people. But again, you have these street preachers and then they go outside a bar and they just yell at drunk people. Telling them how wicked they are, rebuking them for being drunk, rebuking them for their sins or whatever. And here's the thing. That's not what God has called us to do. God has called us to go out and preach the gospel to every creature and witness the lost. But again, that's done one-on-one, kindly, meekly, gently. That's not bullhorning and yelling and reproving and rebuking. That's kindly showing up and actually talking to somebody and actually giving them the gospel and explaining them the plan of salvation. Not this kind of just chest pounding, like, you know. And that's what this is. It's like, you know, I've literally had these guys criticize me like, Pastor Anderson doesn't have the guts to go to the gay pride parade and, you know, he hides behind the computer screen and he doesn't have the guts to face these people. You know what? Guilty. You're right. I don't. You're right. I don't. I don't because my stomach isn't strong enough to go. You're right. I don't have the guts because I don't have the intestinal fortitude because, you know, I'm going to get too nauseous. If I see what happens at that parade, I'll puke. Who thinks they might puke too? See, we got some weak stomachs here at Faithful World. We're a church full of people with GI issues. And it's like, you know, because every time I see, every time I see these homos, I want to throw up. So I don't have the stomach for it. But you know what? Why would I want, like, like I just have to show how tough I, like, what's the matter? You chicken? You know, like, like I'm too scared to go down there. It's like, ooh. I'm too scared to go down there. I bet Lot was scared when they're all surrounding his house too. Why would I want to go down and look at that filthy, disgusting display? I'm not interested. I don't want to see that, okay? And here's the thing about that is that God never told us to go to those kinds of places and do that kind of street preaching. You know what the Bible said about Jesus? His voice shall not be heard in the streets. What does that mean? I think it means that his voice wasn't heard in the streets. He shall not stride nor cry, neither shall his voice be heard in the streets. It means he didn't go out in the street and start yelling. Now Jesus is preaching to people who gathered to listen to him. He stood on a mountain and preached to a crowd that came to hear him. He stood on a boat and preached to a crowd that came to hear him. He stood in the temple and preached to a crowd that came to hear him. And he raised his voice in a congregation of people that are there to hear him. He's lifting up his voice and preaching loud so he can be heard. But you know what? You can just go stand on a street corner and just yell at people as they walked by that aren't even listening. And that's what this street preaching is. I've literally seen street preachers standing by the side of the road and they're preaching to cars that are going by and the people can't even hear because they're in their car. Like they're preaching to a car, it's like zoom. You know, and it's just, it's not, it's not profitable, it's not effective, it's not expedient, it's not biblical, and it ends up just making Christianity look bad. And you know, brother Nick, last time I accidentally said, I gave the wrong person credit for this, but brother Nick had pointed out to me, it's like that story in the book of Acts where that woman is following them around. She's demon possessed and she's following Paul around saying like, she's like yelling, these men, you know, are showing you the truth or pointing you to the most high. I don't remember what she said. Somebody remember? So you got a real good memory. These are the prophets of the most high God that's showing to you the way of salvation or something. And she's yelling that annoying and Paul gets real mad and rebukes her and casts out the demon and whatever. And that's kind of what these street preachers remind me of. Because everything she's yelling is right. These are prophets of the most high God, they are showing you the way of salvation, but do we really need you yelling that, walking up and down the street, yelling that to no one in particular? And to me, why do you think Paul got mad at that girl? Because it's probably embarrassing. Like he's trying to do serious ministry and then he's got this woman just screaming like a lunatic behind him. And so to me, when I see these street preachers out there with the turn or burn and out there screaming and yelling and bullhorning, I feel like it's embarrassment to Christianity, it's embarrassment to Christ. And it's nothing that God ever told us to do. And you know what, it's super ineffective because they go out there and yell for hours, how many salvations do they get? We go out and knock doors for a few hours, how many salvations do we get? Because we're actually taking time to kindly gently talk to people and dialogue with them and not just yelling at people who aren't interested. You know, I knock on the door and I try to figure out if they're interested, if they're not interested, I move on. Why do I move on if they're not interested? Because I wanna preach to the person who is interested, okay? And when it comes to rebuking or reproving, well, now the person has to be really interested because I'm not gonna waste time trying to straighten out people who don't wanna be straightened out. I mean, can you imagine, what if I just, every time I saw a bum by the side of the road, what if I just stopped and just decided like, I'm gonna go reprove this person. I'm gonna go tell this person what they're doing wrong in life. First of all, they're not interested in hearing what I have to say. I'm gonna waste my time, I'm gonna make them mad, I'm gonna make a fool of myself, I'm gonna make a fool out of everybody involved. Just constantly, just every time I see a drunk person, just confront them. Every sodomite confront, no, that's not what I do because the Bible says not to reprove this corner. The Bible says not to reprove a wicked man. What is God saying here? He's saying here that we live in this world, this world is full of sinful people, you can't fix everything in this world. It's a waste of time trying to fix this wicked world. It was super wicked before you were ever born. It's gonna be super wicked after you're dead and gone and you're not gonna change that. Our mission, what God has called us to do is to get individuals saved, to get as many people saved as we can, to get individuals saved and then take the people who want to learn and teach them all things that Christ commanded us. The people who are actually interested, the people who wanna, not like forcing people who don't wanna hear it to listen to Christ's commandments. No, it's about preaching to people that are interested. He that hath an ear, let him hear. But some people just don't have ears to hear. You know what, just move on. Just don't worry too much about it because God has not put on us the responsibility of getting every single person saved and getting every single person right with God and cleaning up Tempe and cleaning up Phoenix and cleaning up Arizona. You're gonna be a really frustrated person if you think that that's what your job is to fix everything in this world. God wants us to live our life the right way, to let our light shine, to be an example of the believers and then to witness to the lost, gently, meekly, kindly, share the gospel with them, preach the gospel to every creature who's willing to listen, right? And then, do I reprove people? Yeah, I do. But you know the people that I reprove, they wanna be reproved. The people that I reprove, like I get up three times a week and preach and when I preach, I do what? I reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. Who wants me to keep reproving in my sermons? Yeah, see, so here's a room full of people that wanna be reproved, that wanna be rebuked, that wanna be exhorted. Hey, that's who I wanna reprove because what does the Bible say? It says in verse eight, rebuke a wise man and he will love thee. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser, teach a just man and he will increase in learning. That's what we're doing at church three times a week, my friend. And even outside of church, there are people that I will take aside and say, hey, let me correct you on this. Let me, you know, help you fix this in your life or let me change this for you, you know, and basically those people are thankful because they wanna learn, they want to be corrected. And I've used this illustration before, but you know, let's say I went to a boxing gym and the trainer, you know, just every time I asked the trainer how I'm doing, he just says, man, you are doing awesome. You are killing it, man. Keep up the good work. You know, and it's just, I'm just there. I'm training for hours. I'm going day after day, week after week. And I'm like, is there anything I need to change? Hey, nope, you're looking great. Keep on hitting that bag. Keep on going, keep on shadowboxing. Looking good, man. Mr. Anderson, you are doing great today. You think I'm gonna keep going back to that gym? Because what's the point? What's the point of going to the gym to just be told I'm doing everything perfect? First of all, it's a lie. Because I guarantee you, I'd be making all kinds of mistakes. But yet, if he's telling me, it's all fine. But think about all the people that go to a church that's like that. They go to a church that's just like, doing great, looking good. You know, when in reality, if I go to a boxing gym, I want him to be constantly correcting me. And the more times he tells me I'm wrong, the better. Because that's what I'm paying for. You know, I wanna know what I'm doing wrong so I can fix it. I don't want him to just lie to me and tell me everything's fine. Well, you know, your real friends are gonna tell you the truth and they're not just gonna lie to you and tell you that it's fine. You know, your real friends, when they see you going down a dark path, maybe they see you start to smoke a little pot or they see you start to dabble in alcohol, you know what they're gonna do? They're gonna correct you. And hopefully you're smart enough to accept that reproof, accept that rebuke, accept that correction, right? When they say to you, hey man, do not go down this road, do not smoke pot, this is not right, God wants us to be sober. You know, that's what your real friends are gonna tell you. They're not just gonna be just like, oh, whatever, whatever gets you through the day, man. You know, it's not as bad as what you could be snorting or injecting or whatever. So reproof is something that we give to people as a gift. Right? You know, we're trying to help people. We love them. We're trying to get the mote out of their eye. We're trying to teach them how they can live a better life and serve the Lord more effectively because we love them, because we love the Lord. And so we don't give that gift to wicked people haters of God, those who mock the Lord. It's not worth it, you know? And look, in my life and in your life, don't we interact with people that are non-Christians? So you go to your job, and I guarantee you, everybody at your job isn't a Christian. Or if you're in school, not everybody at school is a Christian. Or even just whatever clubs or co-ops or organizations you're a part of in the city and the community here. You know, you interact with people that are not saved all the time. And you know what? You shouldn't feel like you have to just correct every sin that you see all day, every day, and you're just fixing everything. Okay, because a lot of people aren't interested in you correcting them. They don't wanna hear you rebuking their sins. And you say, well, I'm taking a stand for what's right. But you know what? The Bible is telling you to just leave the scorners alone, leave the wicked people alone. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. He that is filthy, let him be filthy still. That's a Bible verse. That's Revelation 22, 11, okay? I'm not making that up. That's what the Bible says. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. He that is filthy, let him be filthy still. He that is righteous, let him be righteous still. He that is holy, let him be holy still. You know, it's not our job to force people to do things God's way. All we can do is live our life the right way, let the light shine, be the example. And then, first of all, get as many people saved as we can by just sharing the gospel, attempting to share the gospel with every creature, attempting to preach the gospel to every creature. And then, you know, our brothers and sisters in Christ, or people that are asking us for advice, or people who we perceive are smart enough to listen to us. And we can perceive, you know, this person is a wise person. So they're gonna take what I have to say seriously. You know, that's the kind of people that we give this gift of reproof or rebuke, and we would actually care enough to tell them that they're wrong. So I hope that that makes sense and clears things up a little bit, because these verses are important, you know? And they're important for us to know who to spend time reproving, but they're also important for us to not be that idiot who doesn't wanna be reproved. Because we should be open to people correcting us and telling us wrong. And look, people tell me I'm wrong constantly. Now, it's not always legitimate. But when somebody tells me that I'm wrong, you know, I first ask myself, am I wrong? You know, and I listen to what they're saying, and I check it with the Word of God. And sometimes I need to make a correction. Other times, I walk away and say, nope, I was right. You know, the Bible says I'm right. But I'm not gonna get mad that they're telling me I'm wrong. You know, I literally, I talked to one of my pastor friends this afternoon. And he called me up, and he was telling me something. And I was like, no, you're wrong. No, I don't agree with that. No, no, no, right? But then he hit me with all this evidence. And after I'd heard everything that he had to say, and I looked, while I was on the phone with him, I looked up what he was telling me. And I looked up the evidence, and I told him, I said, you know what? Based on what you've shown me right now, like, you're right. And I'm gonna switch to what you're saying right now. Because actually, now that you've shown me this, I agree with you now. You know, it's not just like, well, you know, I've been in the ministry longer, you know. How dare you challenge me? You don't know anything. You know what I mean? It's a stupid attitude, right? He literally showed me evidence this afternoon to where I came over to his side on something, because he was right. You know, once he, it was just, I wasn't aware of those verses. I wasn't aware of those facts. So once I saw that, I was like, okay. And there are lots of times when, you know, people come at me and challenge me on something, and they're right. And then there are lots of other times when they challenge me, and they're wrong. But you know what, I never mind being challenged. You know, let's say they're just utterly, totally wrong. Then that just means I'm gonna eat three bowls of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. And that's not a bad thing, you know, when I make the rebuttal video. But if they come at me and they're right, that's even better, because then I can learn something. Okay. And so, you know, we should be open to correction. Should be open to check, hey, maybe I'm the one who's wrong. Maybe I'm not right here, you know? And not just always just assume that we're always right about everything. Okay, so give instruction to a wise man. He'll be yet wiser. Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. Verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. For by me, thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself. But if thou scornest, thou alone shall bear it. I feel like that last verse kind of ties in with what we just talked about. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself. But if thou scornest, thou alone shall bear it. You know, at the end of the day, if all the people around you are doing all these sinful things and living their life like fools, at the end of the day, it doesn't really ruin your life. It's ruining their life. At the end of the day, you can still succeed if you're wise. So if I'm wise and there's a bunch of fools around me who don't want to listen to correction, then you know what? No sweat. Then I'm not gonna reprove them. I'm not gonna rebuke them. I'm not gonna cast my pearls before swine. I'm just gonna just, you know what? Just live my life and be happy and wise, and I'm gonna be blessed. And you know what? Let's say somebody leaves our church and just decides that everything I'm preaching is false and that I'm an idiot and that this church is bad and whatever, and they go out and do everything the opposite, you know what? Fine. Guess who gets hurt at the end of the day? Not me. Does that hurt me at all? No, they're shooting themselves in the foot. They're cutting off their nose to spite their face. And here I am, I'm gonna be here at Faithful Word, still loving the Lord, still serving God, still following the Bible. If somebody goes out, if some young person, some teenager, some young person just decides like, oh, I'm gonna go live my life the way I wanna live it. I'm gonna show them. You're gonna show us what an idiot you can be, how you can screw up your life and how you can be a failure and then you can watch us keep succeeding. We'll keep on winning and you're gonna be out there being a loser, okay? Because hey, you know how I know I'm gonna be winning? Because we're more than conquerors through Christ who loved us. And so if I follow the Bible, I know I'm winning. 100%. And I know that if you get backslidden and stop following the Bible and you go out of here and you decide that you're gonna go out of here and you're gonna drink and you're gonna smoke pot and you're gonna take drugs and you're gonna get tattoos and you're gonna be all worldly and sinful and you're gonna fornicate and you're gonna get high and you're gonna party, you know what? You are gonna go through so much pain and I'm gonna be back here just getting blessed by God. And all your teenage buddies who do what's right and stay with the Lord, they're gonna be getting blessed by God, they're gonna be getting married, they're gonna be having kids, they're gonna be living a clean life, they're gonna be winning souls to Christ, they're gonna be racking up rewards in heaven, they're gonna be filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory and you're gonna be out there puking in some dirty toilet somewhere dealing with venereal disease and you alone shall bear it. If I'm wise, I'm gonna be wise for myself and if you scorn, you alone shall bear it. That's what the Bible says. Because at the end of the day, every man shall bear his own burden. That's what Galatians chapter six says, every man shall bear his own burden. At the end of the day, it's not like at the judgment seat of Christ, it's gonna be like, well, you know, when your appointment's called, it's like, well, wait a minute, well, hold up, my parents aren't here yet. You know, I was supposed, I need to be here with them. I need to be here with Pastor Anderson, you know. I was hoping we could do it as a church, you know, like maybe we could just all get rewarded as a church or something, you know, like kind of faithful word, like, okay, would faithful word please come forward? No, no, no, it's gonna be you. You know, you're the one, you're gonna get rewarded according to the works you've done and if your life's all wood, hay and stubble, that's no skin on my back, that's your problem, okay? At the end of the day, when you are foolish, you end up hurting yourself. You hurt the people around you but you hurt yourself more than anyone and those who are wise, those who follow the Lord, nobody can really hurt them at the end of the day because God can protect them, they're gonna be blessed, everything's gonna be fine for them. So then at the end of chapter nine verse 12, I gotta hurry up here for sake of time but he kind of changes gears. You know, he's saying, look, man, it's your loss, the food's here, the wine's here, wisdom has built our house, show up and get some smarts, listen to the word of God, follow the Bible, if you don't, man, it's on you and if you don't listen, well, that just means that you were unworthy of the teachings, you know, and if you wanna listen, then you're worthy, you're simple, no problem, you lack understanding, no problem, just show up and learn something and at the end of the day, it's just you and God and we'll see how you do. But then verse 13, he kind of changes gears and says, a foolish woman is clamorous. Now, what does clamorous mean? Clamorous means loud, making a lot of noise, noisy would be our modern word for clamorous so really, what they're saying is a foolish woman is noisy. What is clamor? It's like a bunch of racket but it's not really saying anything, it'd be like if I just banged a bunch of pots and pans around and made a clamor or a racket, it's a lot of yelling. You know, the foolish woman's clamor, she makes a lot of noise, the Bible said in chapter seven, she's loud and stubborn, she's clamorous, she's simple and knoweth nothing. And again, of course, the book of Proverbs tends to exaggerate, it kind of speaks in extremes so, you know, obviously, it's using hyperbole when it says she knows nothing. That's just a way of saying she's a total idiot, okay? Obviously, she knows something but, you know, she might as well know nothing because she's so stupid. So the foolish woman is clamorous, she's simple and knoweth nothing. Isn't it interesting how some of us people know nothing, they make so much noise, you know, the fool is known by multitude of words. And this is again, why I don't just go around just telling everyone what I think about everything all day, every day. Because the fool is known by multitude of words. You'll find me giving the gospel to people who wanna hear the gospel, you'll find me reproving people who wanna be reproved, you'll find me teaching people who wanna be taught but you won't find me just walking up and down the streets of Phoenix, Arizona, forcing everyone to listen to me, okay? I don't like to hear myself talk, okay? I'm only gonna talk to somebody if there's a purpose, if I feel like it's worth it. Otherwise, I'd rather just save my throat, save my breath, save my energy. But a foolish woman, I mean, she's just blah, blah, blah. She's simple and knoweth nothing but that doesn't stop her from being clamorous. She sit at the door of her house on a seat in the high places of the city to call passengers who go right on their way, who so is simple, let him turn and hither and ask for him that wanteth understanding, she say it to him. Now notice that verse four and verse 16 are the same. Do you see that? Look at verse four, now look at verse 16. What's the difference? Spot the difference, this is like a highlights magazine. Can somebody spot the difference? Yeah, but there is no difference. They're identical, this is a trick question. There is no difference, they're the same, they're identical. So basically, the foolish woman and wisdom are both saying the exact same thing, right? So again, the idea here is that the young man is at a crossroads in his life. Who's he gonna listen to, right? Is he gonna listen to foolishness or is he gonna listen to wisdom? Is he gonna listen to the wisdom of his parents or is he gonna listen to the foolishness of the youth that are going astray, the juvenile delinquents that wanna give him advice, right? There are a lot of other people out here in this world that wanna give you advice and you know what? Some of them have podcasts and radio shows and things and especially today in the, what do they call it? The manosphere, somebody help me out. All right, in the manosphere, you've got these male role models for you and they're gonna be giving you their MGTOW philosophy, they're gonna be giving you all kinds of philosophies that are contrary to the word of God. And you know, guys like Joe Rogan, who else are, who else? Jordan Peterson, I don't know who that is, but okay. Who else? Andrew Tate. But you've got these guys out there and they're so successful and they know how to live life and they're gonna tell you how to live your life. But here's my question, do they believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead? Do they confess that Jesus Christ, the son of God? Do they wake up every morning and read a King James Bible? Then why are you letting them tell you how to live your life? Because you know what? I suspect that if you spend one hour a week living listening to me or two hours a week listening to me, or if you come to all three services, maybe you spend three hours a week listening to me, right? And then you spend 20 hours a week listening to Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro and Joe Rogan and all these kind of guys, I have a feeling that you're gonna be infected with some really worldly philosophies. I would make sure that you're spending a lot of time reading the Bible, maybe listening to other preachers, even besides me, if you wanna round out your spiritual diet here, there are a lot of other great preachers that you could be listening to, other independent fundamental Baptist preachers that are solid, that you could listen to, you could listen to the Bible, you could let, and look, I'm not saying that all that you're gonna listen to ever is just the Bible and preaching, because obviously sometimes everybody might wanna listen to something a little lighter or whatever, but you know what? You don't need to be listening to these wicked, evil people telling you how to live your life in the manosphere, okay? Like that is not what you should be listening to, period. I wouldn't listen to that crap for five minutes, okay? Because that stuff is garbage. Like it's just, Joe Rogan has nothing to say to me. He just doesn't. I don't want him to tell me how to live my life. I don't want any of those people to tell me how to live my life. Now look, again, I'm sure that there are other things that you could listen to that are good, clean, educational programs to listen to, interesting things that you could listen to that are not telling you to live your life in a way that is contrary to the Word of God, or that are not teaching you to hate women. Because a lot of these guys in the manosphere, they're teaching you to hate women. Well, listen, you little faggot. Men aren't supposed to hate women. And you know, some people, it's like, they get so negative toward women, it's like, dude. You know, you're being a fag. Like if you just, you just only like dudes or something? You know, I'm glad that you haven't been given over to file affections, but why is it though that you just like, you just can't stand being around women and you just can't stand women's personalities? Oh, women's personalities are so irritating. What kind of a faggoty thing to say is that anyway? You know what I'm saying? Like, oh, I just can't believe how my wife does this. My wife does that. Oh, but all women are like that. No, blah, blah, blah. It's like, well, you know what? I'm glad I married a woman. I'm glad that my wife doesn't act like me. I'm glad that my wife doesn't think like me, right? Because I didn't want to be married to a dude. If my wife acted and thought like me and I'm just so negative about everything that women do, then you know, I just want to be with dudes? No, I want to be with my wife who's a woman. So it's like, I can't understand when men, they get so negative and hateful toward women and then they think that's manly or something. It's actually kind of queer sounding. I mean, does anybody know what I'm saying? It's like, oh, women are so irritated. Oh, I just can't stand women. It's like, well, that's funny because when I was a young man, I wanted to be around as many women as possible. So what's wrong with you, buddy? You know, it's funny when I was a teenager, I gravitated toward females, okay? I wasn't sitting there and saying, oh, that's so irritating. Now, I said that when I was in elementary school. You're supposed to say that when you're in elementary school because girls have cooties. But you know, when you become a teenager and a young adult man, you're supposed to start liking women. That's part of being a normal red blooded American male. And so what is this manosphere garbage? It's like the queer-osphere because even if they're not physically into being a queer, they're like an emotional queer. They're like a psychological queer. Like they only want to be around women who think like men or something. What is that? But you know, you're filling your mind with junk when you listen to these guys, when you listen to this MGTOW, Andrew Tate stuff, and I don't know who else is out there, but when you're listening, you're filling your mind with all this anti-woman junk, you're filling your mind with all this anti-Bible junk. You know, you need to spend some more time over at Wisdom's house, eating of the beast that she killed and drinking of the wine that Wisdom has mingled, spend some more time reading your Bible, spend some more time talking to Christian friends, listen to a Christian podcast, listen to Bible preaching, listen to some kind of a Christian philosophy, for crying out loud. And you know what? Even if it's not something that's just exactly like our movement or independent fundamental Baptist, you know, listen to something that at least lifts up Christ and doesn't tear down our faith or tear down the female gender. Don't spend time at the foolish woman's house, spend time at Wisdom's house. And when you're just filling your mind with junk all the time, and you're not filling your mind with the word of God and preaching and good philosophies, well then, you know, you wonder why then you start maybe you know, doubting your faith, or you start making weird decisions or drifting away from church, or you know, you're not soul winning, you know, maybe part of it is because you're too heavily under these wrong influences in your life. And so you need to, when you're a young man, you're at that crossroads, you're simple, make sure that you go to the right source for learning and in Wisdom and that you're spending more time and I understand we're in this world, you know, we're gonna be exposed to things, but wanna make sure that we're spending plenty of time listening to what God's people have to say and the word of God and not fill in our minds with a worldly philosophy, some life coach that's gonna tell us, you know, and it's kind of shocking to me sometimes to even hear that any Christian would ever listen to some of these people because they're so bad. Promoting drugs, promoting fornication, and it's just like, wow, you know, really, this is who you're listening to? Well, he's got some good things to say. Well, you know, we could go dig in the garbage can and find some food in there that would be edible. I could probably go out to that garbage can right out there behind that fast food place, what is it, Arby's, Wendy's, what is it? I could go in that Wendy's dumpster and I could find something edible in there. But you think I'm going to? I wouldn't even go inside the Wendy's and eat what's edible, let alone what's in the dumpster, okay? I'm gonna go home where my wife has slaughtered the beasts and mingled the wine for me and I will eat at home that which is nutritious, okay? I'm not gonna eat out of the world's garbage can. And again, I'm not saying that it's wrong to ever listen to anything secular, but there's a difference between secular and satanic. There's a difference between secular and ungodly, anti-Bible, anti-woman, that's different than just secular. You know, I might listen to some historical program or educational program that's secular. I might listen to a news program that's secular, but I'm not gonna listen to some pornographer, some pimp like Andrew Tate tell me how to live my life. Not for five seconds. He is scum and I don't wanna hear what he has to say and Joe Rogan is trash and I don't wanna hear what he has to say. And so you got these two invitations coming at you, make sure that you respond to the right one and spend time at the feet of wisdom learning. And when you're a teenager and when you're a young man, you know, you're in your formative years, make sure you get under the right influences. And I'm glad you're here tonight, at least listening to a little bit of what I have to say and hopefully maybe some of this will stick with you. And next time somebody is just talking trash about women and how bad women are, maybe you'll kind of remember this and be like, well, that's kind of a queer thing to say. And you won't just join in with that and get sucked into that. But you know what? If you're listening to 10 times as much from these wicked people, as you're listening to God's people, well, who do you think is gonna win in your heart? You know, you're gonna get messed up. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we thank you for all of the wisdom that it contains. First of all, thank you for the free gift of salvation, Lord. But for those of us that are already saved, Lord, thank you for giving us wisdom and help everyone who's here to be aware of getting advice from wicked people. Help us, Lord, not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly, but to delight in your law and meditate in your law day and night. And Lord God, I just pray that the young people of our church would make the right decision and seek the truth and shun the lies of this world. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.