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

you you All right everyone good afternoon Going to start our service for the evening this evening. You can turn your hammers to number 442 You Once again as ham number four hundred and forty two Once again is ham number four hundred forty two we gather together On the first we gather together Together to ask the Lord's blessing he hastens and chastens his will to make known the Wicked old press he sees them from distress see praises to his name He forgives not his own Beside us to guide us, our God, with us, join me, ordain me, maintaining his kingdom, diva. So from the beginning, through the fight, we were winning. Thou, Lord, was at our side, the glory be thine. We all knew thee, stole thee, thou leader in battle, and prayed that thou still our defender will be. Let thy congregation escape tribulation, thy name be ever praised, O Lord, make us free. Amen. Let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for another opportunity to gather this evening. Father, as the church come together, Lord, to hear your word and to sing unto you, Lord God, and to hear the scriptures open and explain this afternoon, Father. We pray, Lord, that you would bless the singing. Bless all that is going on here this evening, and let it all be done to the glory and praise of your name. In your son Jesus' name, we ask and pray. Amen. You can turn in your hymnals to number 301. Once again, that's hymn number 301. Hymn number 301, Sweet Hour of Prayer. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, that calls me from the world of care. And biz me at my father's throne, make all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief. And oft escape the tempter's stare by thy return. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, thy wings shall my petitions bear to him whose truth and faithfulness engage the waiting soul to bless. And since he bids me seek his face, believe his word and trust his grace. I'll cast on him my every care and wait for thee. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, may I thy consolations share. Till from mountain goes lofty high, I view my home and take my flight. This robe of flesh I'll drop and rise to seize the everlasting prize and shall while passing through the air, farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer. But it's better to happen now, see this was, I wanted to take the time because this is like on the job training since I'm not going to be here next week for the camping trip when we run on Wednesday night. So I just want to make sure that the guys are able to handle these curve balls that every once in a while come our way and like the computer's not responding, the video's not coming through, and what's going on? What are we going to do? That's what it feels like a little bit. Let's ask these guys. We've got everything working. It's good. So I apologize. We're a few minutes late, but it's all good. I don't think, I actually don't think I'm going to preach for super long tonight anyway, so we'll give you some of that time back. We've got our service times listed there on the first page. Service times Sunday morning at 1030, Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. Wednesday night at 7 is our Bible study. We're going to be in chapter 5 of Isaiah this week. Isaiah's an awesome book. I build up every, if you haven't noticed by now, every Wednesday it's like, man, this is a great book. But you know what? They all are great. The word of God is awesome, so try to make it out here for that if you can. Isaiah chapter 5, soul-winning opportunities listed there, salvation and baptism for month of April. Let's go ahead and count up the salvations. Let's start by counting for today. If you had anybody saved today, slip up your hand real quick and we'll get those counted. After ours. Okay. You've been waiting, so you make the best use of that time. Amen. All right, so there's two more. We had one, and I know you guys had one, and you had one. Bought a single, yes sir, and two. Amen. Amen. All right, good, good, good, good. So that seemed to be a pretty good location for today. We got a lot of people saved. Now let's count up any soul-winning outside of today. Anyone do any soul-winning? One for yesterday. Great. Awesome. Anybody else for the week? All right. Very good. We'll keep up the good work out there, knock on those doors. You're going to start getting warmer and warmer I think from here. So I was already asked today if I'm going to be ready for the community. Look, hey, I've been here. This is going on three years. All right. I'm adjusted. Not going to be the same as it was when I first showed up. Sweating buckets. I remember my jeans were drenched. Like jeans. I wear jeans, and my jeans were soaked with sweat, because my body was not used to humidity. A lot better, a lot more used to it now, so. I'm ready for the summer. Bring it on. Bring it on. We've got the offering tools listed down there at the bottom of the page. Prayer requests. Please continue to pray for everyone on our list. Also, the scabies, right, with Ni's aunt. I didn't add that to the list here. She already has the cancer, but please pray for them for that as well. The scabies is not fun at all to have that, so pray that that will pass and the critters will be taken care of. And then we added Micah's mom, Carrie, to the list. She was diagnosed with breast cancer, so thankfully they found it very, very early through a checkup, so it was not very far advanced or anything like that. But of course it's still serious, so please be in prayer for that, that everything will go well, that they'll be able to find everything and deal with it and just pray for God's healing there, as well as for Mrs. Mosteller's father, Michael Brannon, who has already been diagnosed with irreversible glaucoma, but he has been having more further issues with his eyes, and he's feeling a lot of pressure behind his eyeball that's causing him headaches, and they think there's some kind of blockage, like a blood vessel blockage or something back there, so he's going to see another specialist to get more information, so pray that God will take care of him and the issues that he has, and he'll be able to figure out and hopefully come to a good resolution with the problems that he's facing there. If you have anyone that you'd like to add to our prayer list, of course you can always, you know, a lot of people have my phone number, you just text me or whatever. We have the prayer request cards, I think. Do we have the prayer request cards? Are we out of those? If we have prayer request cards, you can fill them out from the foyer and drop them in the offering plate, hand it to me personally, or if we don't have them, just write it on a piece of paper, index card, whatever, just make sure that I get that, and always just be sure to let me know what's public and what's not. You know, sometimes people will share more information with me than they necessarily want to have broadcast, so just make sure that that's specified, because if you don't tell me, I'm just going to assume that it's okay to share. Obviously, within reason, if it's something, you know, that seems very private, then I'll ask, but make sure that, you know, I don't want to unintentionally reveal more information than you want to have about a personal situation that you want prayers for, so just please let me know about that. On the back of the prayer request, this is the tentative schedule for the, I say tentative, I mean, this is the schedule for the preaching, for the camping trip. It's going to be awesome. Hopefully you can make it out there with us. We still do have, I think, one or two sites that are available. I've had a couple people contact me, so I'm glad that we're going to be able to get, I think, most of these reserved. Hopefully we can get in a couple stragglers near the end and just have a full capacity event. I was waiting and waiting and waiting to announce that I might have waited too long, because it's going to be hard for people to come up with the time. Oh, Brother Mark, have you heard on those other guys that we were talking about? Do you know for sure? Because I reserved a spot for Brad. He can't come. He can't come, for sure. Okay. Man, for sure. Brad, this is one event you don't want to miss. I was just taking a photo this afternoon. Okay, yeah, yeah. We'd love to get as many people out to this as possible. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be a great event here. On the next page, April Challenge. One hour dedicated to prayer, Bible reading, memorization. Bible is fun. It's nice. It's a good chance to get to know all these guys. And it's a relatively, it's a pretty small crowd too, because there's not going to be that many people there. There's a camping trip. It's not like some huge event at some big conference hall or something like that where everybody wants to talk to these people and give you a chance to have a little bit more intimate conversations and time to be able to hang out. So, should be a lot of fun. Looking forward to that. It's going to be a blast. Baby shower for Mrs. Johnson, Sunday, May 16th. Soul winning marathon, May 29th, which is Memorial Day weekend. So, if you're not doing anything, please mark that time on Saturday. I don't know the time yet. Mark that day. We plan on going the whole day. So, it's a full day event like all of our other soul winning marathons. We're going to meet up in the morning. We'll have some breakfast somewhere. We'll hit the roads, hit the streets. Go out soul winning until lunch. Get lunch provided. Go out soul winning again after lunch. And depending on when everyone needs to drive back home or whatever, obviously do whatever you can do. If you can only make it for the morning session, great. If you can make it for the afternoon, great. But we'll plan on going all day until dinner. We'll provide dinner for you and then go our separate ways. So, that is the plan for that event. And then the Bible memory passage, John chapter 8 verses 31 through 43. And we just preach on this verse 36 essentially this morning. The sun, therefore, shall make you free. You shall be free indeed as part of the passage from this morning sermon. If you missed that, you check that out. And on the back is the upcoming birthdays and anniversaries. And I think that is it for the announcements. I made announcements this morning. Well, the baby room got new seats in there, a lot of seating in there. So, make use of that. The only problem with the new seating is that this door coming out to the auditorium is blocked. So, don't expect to be able to use this door if you need to access that room. Just go through one of the other two entrances on either side. We also installed a new sound bar on there, which doesn't work very well. And I'm aware of that. If you were in there today and you're going, it's not really loud in there. I can't hear still that great. I'm returning that one. Already have another one on order. It's supposed to be delivered tomorrow. So, we'll have that one up. A lot more power to the next one. Thought it would be sufficient. I was wrong. So, we will have that fixed so you can have those doors closed when the kids are being real loud. And hopefully still be able to hear when the kids are being loud in that little room. So, that's a plan. That's it for the announcements. So, did you have something? So, technical problems are ongoing. Sound is good. Sound is good. All right. Apparently, I'm talking loud enough because I'm not using the lapel mic right now. So, that's all right. I mean, as long as you can hear, you don't really need to see that much anyways. I don't think you really want to see my ugly mug. Anyhow, I'm not doing any visual aids today. So, we should be good for the preaching as long as the sound is good. I'll check that out in a minute. Brother Peter, come on up and lead us in our next song. If you're watching online, I apologize. You may have a disruption in service as we try to fix this technical problem. If you guys can open up your hidden notes to song number 297. Song 297, Close to Thee. Song 297. On the first. Thou my everlasting portion, more than friend or life to me. All along my pilgrim journey, Savior, let me walk with Thee. Close to Thee, close to Thee, close to Thee, close to Thee. All along my pilgrim journey, Savior, let me walk with Thee. Not for ease or worldly pleasures, nor for fame my prayer shall be. Gladly will I toil and suffer, only let me walk with Thee. Close to Thee, close to Thee, close to Thee, close to Thee. Gladly will I toil and suffer, only let me walk with Thee. Lead me through the veil of shadows, bear me where life's folk will see. Then the gate of life eternal, may I enter, Lord, with Thee. Close to Thee, close to Thee, close to Thee, close to Thee. Then the gate of life eternal, may I enter, Lord, with Thee. Amen. Great singing. All right, this time we're going to collect our Sunday afternoon offering. My brother Lindsay, if he can do that. Hey, pastor. While the offering play is being passed around, if you can open up your Bibles to the book of 2 Timothy, chapter 4. That's 2 Timothy, chapter 4. And as we do customer here at Stronghold Baptist Church, we're going to read the entire chapter. I'm going to ask brother Carter if he can please read that for us. Once again, that's 2 Timothy, chapter 4. I'll charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heed to themselves teachers having itching ears. They shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me, for demons have forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica, crescents to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me, take Mark and bring him with me, for he is profitable to me for the ministry. And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus. The cloak that I left at Troas, with carpets, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil, the Lord reward him according to his works. Of whom be thou where also, for he hath greatly withstood our words. At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear, and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus, Abodak, Corinth, but Trophimus have I left at my lead am sick. Do thy diligence to come before winter. Eubel is greeted thee, and Putins, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with thee. Amen. That's the word of prayer. Brother Mark, would you mind praying for us? Heavenly Father, please, this evening, and most increasingly, let us have a year to hear your word for the Lord and be after this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Check for the handheld recorder for a little backup audio. It's never just one thing that fails. It's always, like, multiple things. All right, 2 Timothy, chapter 4. Part of the passage that I want to focus in on for this evening's sermon is the very beginning of the passage of the first four verses. We're going to reread these first four verses. The Bible reads in verse number 1, I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead that is appearing in his kingdom, preach the word, be instant in season out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. So in this passage, the Apostle Paul is preaching. This is the wrong one, but that's all right. If you don't see it, no big deal. The Apostle Paul is instructing Timothy. Timothy is a young preacher. He's instructing him on what he needs to be doing in his job because he is an elder. He's a pastor of a church, and he's giving him this epistle and kind of instructing him in many areas. And he's telling him, you know what? You need to preach the word. Pre-preach the Bible. You need to preach the word of God and be instant in season out of season. You need to be ready at all times to be able to preach the Bible. And you know what? Whether it's popular or not. And this is very important for us to know today. You know, when you're going to church, you want to go to church with a preacher that's able to preach the word of God and preach things that are popular or not popular. And it doesn't matter, you know, what the world thinks about it because we need to hear all the counsel of God. We don't need to only hear certain parts of the Bible and things that aren't going to get us in trouble and things that only, you know, YouTube's not going to censor. And those are the only things that we can focus on. We're only going to focus on the love and the joy, and that's it. We're not going to talk about the judgment and everything else. Look, you need to be able to preach on all of it. We need to hear all of it. We all need it. Why? Because the time is going to come, that says in verse 3, that people aren't going to endure sound doctrine. I love that word endure. They can't put up with it. They can't handle hearing it. He said he knows there's going to be this snowflake generation that's going to come up and say, Oh, stop! I can't hear that doctrine. Don't say that anymore. You're so intolerant. You're so insensitive. The time's going to come when they're not going to endure sound. Sound meaning like, hey, this is just good doctrine. This is sound. This is right. But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves, teachers, having itching ears. There's that generation being warned about here that's coming where the people, they still want to go to church. They still want to be spiritual. They still want to pretend like they're serving God. But they want to have someone who's just going to tell them what they want to hear. They have itching ears. Like, oh, yeah, just, oh, yeah, right there. Tell me this. Oh, yeah, that sounds great. Oh, everyone's going to heaven. Yeah, that's good. Oh, it doesn't matter if you're Muslim or anything. We can all just be, have one God and go to heaven. Yeah, that's great. Itching ears. They just want to have someone, and you know what? They're going to heap to themselves these teachers. They're not interested in the truth. They're not interested in hearing exactly what the word of God says. They just say, oh, wait, you're going to teach us that? Yeah, I don't want anything to do with you. Wait, let's just get these other teachers here. Yeah, here's a guy we could pay, and he'll just tell us what we want to hear. Well, hopefully that's not the reason why you're here this evening. Okay, you're not just here to have a yes, man, to just say whatever. What is it in the crowd that you want to hear? Oh, okay, well, I'll just tell you what you want to hear. Sorry, not the way it works. And, in fact, what I'm preaching on this evening is handling reproof. Reproof is when you're told that you're wrong, when you're proven that you're wrong about something. Because what the apostle Paul was instructing Timothy to do there in verse number two, he said, preach the word, right? Be incidences, not whether they're popular or not. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. So, from Timothy's position, what he needs to be able to do is not worry about what's popular, what's not popular. And he needs to be able to preach the word of God that is going to reprove people by telling them that they're wrong. Rebuke people, strongly telling people that they're wrong. And exhort people, which is going to edify and comfort and build up the hearers. And it says, with all long suffering. So, there's going to be problems in churches. Everybody has problems, right? So, the preacher needs to be able to get up and preach with long suffering. Now, we're going to preach rebukes. We're going to preach reproofs. But allow for the hearers to take it in, apply it, and move forward. And allow for some long suffering and mercy through the preaching. And then it says, with all long suffering and doctrine, right? You don't just make up your own opinion and just preach your own commandments of men. But it has to come as good, sound doctrine from the word of God. And the thing is, when it comes to reproofs, for everybody, nobody likes being told that they're wrong about anything. The natural man does not want to accept that they're wrong. Your flesh does not like to be told that you're wrong. Everybody is like that. But here's the thing, the Bible's commanding, well, that's still what needs to happen. And, you know, hopefully one of the reasons why you're here is so that you can see the areas in your life from the word of God where you are wrong so you can correct it. So, you can fix it. But you're not going to be able to fix the problems that you need to fix unless you can show up to church to hear the preaching, or even have yourself ready when you do your own Bible reading and your heart is prepared and ready to be able to accept reproof. If you come into church with a proud, haughty attitude, thinking that you are just God's gift to everybody, and you are super Christian, and, well, everyone else is God's, I can tell you what everyone else's flaws are, but good luck trying to find mine, yeah, you have that type of an attitude, you're not going to be reproofed. I mean, you run into the know-it-alls occasionally when you're out trying to preach the gospel. People who aren't even saved, yet they're going to tell you how they know everything, and they study so much, and they know all the stuff about the Bible. Look, it's hard correcting people like that. Now, we still do it, we still tell them, hey, you're wrong, but it's hard to do when they're not. And we're going to go through, mostly in the book of Proverbs, because the Bible deals with this subject about being reproofed a lot. And, look, I know I've preached on this before in this church, but it's important to be reminded of how important being reproofed is, right, so that we can continue to have a humble attitude and a humble spirit and remember why we're here, remember to be able to allow that the Word of God is going to be able to make the changes necessary in our lives as we're hearing from the Word of God. And when you're being corrected, when you're being reproofed, to not just have knee-jerk responses and knee-jerk reactions that says, oh, no, no, no, I just need to explain this to you, you don't understand, and it's like, well, look, sometimes we're being reproofed, the person does understand. And maybe you need to take some introspection and take a look and see. Now, here's the thing, when people get reproofed, when someone's going to reprove someone, they may not always be correct, right? I mean, if someone thinks that you're wrong about something and they want to correct you, they themselves may not be correct. So we always need to judge. And even if they're the pastor, right, the pastor could be wrong, but we're supposed to be judging everything out of the Word of God. So if I'm doing my job right, I'm going to have sound doctrine, straight from the Bible, that you'll be able to judge for yourself and say, yep, that is what the Bible says. Yes, this is good doctrine, this is good judgment, and you can apply that and say, yep, what the pastor said is true, and then be able to apply it appropriately. But your heart needs to be ready to hear that, right? If you're quick to just jump on the defense, you need to take a step back and look and say, well, wait a minute, am I in error? Am I wrong here before I'm just quick to just defend everything that I think or do or whatever, especially when a reproof is coming? Now, another important note is just to remember that if you're being reproved, if I ever preach a sermon that you think is reproving you, whether I'm aware of any situation or not doesn't matter. First of all, realize that if that happens, if I am aware, it's because I care about you and I want to show what's right from the Bible. Because I don't want to just look the other way and ignore problems if I think there's a problem somewhere, I want to try to correct it. But oftentimes I don't even know about things that are going on, even though it may seem like I do. And the reason for that is because the Holy Spirit works in this church and I spend time in prayer asking for guidance on what I should be preaching all the time. And I fully, wholeheartedly believe that God helps me to prepare sermons that is needful for you, because I'm always asking for that, because I always want God to lead me. That what I'm preaching isn't just for me to stand up here and fill time, but that it's actually going to be beneficial and help the people that are here listening. And that whatever the subject may be, I'm just thinking, whatever, however I get to what I'm going to preach on, I'll call it randomly, but it's not random. But the way that I come up with sermon topics very often has nothing to do with any individual. Like tonight's sermon, for example, has nothing to do with me thinking about some person going, hey, I need to reprove this person. Right? And most of the time, that's the way it is. I'm reading my scripture, I'm kind of thinking, hey, what should I be looking for? And I'm just kind of going over the Bible for this sermon. I just got it from Proverbs. And we're going to spend a lot of time in Proverbs, but I was just kind of looking like, what should I be preaching on? There you go. This is a good topic. It's something that everyone needs to hear. And you know what? If it's going to help out someone here, hopefully there's someone here that's thinking, you know, as I get into this, especially you're going to be thinking, you know what? I had a problem with that and now it's going to be fixed. But I don't know. But the point being, so kind of straight off a little bit, you know, I may be wrong if I'm if I'm reproving you. You know, you can't just assume like, oh, pass the burden, that's something out for me. No. First of all, if I do know about anything that I think needs to be corrected, it's because I care about you, because I love you. And I want to show you from the Bible sound doctrine that's going to offer up that correction. And because just as Timothy was informed twice, hey, reprove and rebuke, that's part of my job. But beyond that, you know, don't just focus on the individual, right, where the source of the reproof is coming from. We all ought to, myself included, be able to accept reproof based on the content of what the reproof is. Not necessarily who is offering the reproof. To be able to take a step back and think about it and say, well, wait a minute, let me actually take another look at that and see, and not be so quick to just, well, I feel like I'm being attacked, I need to go on the defense. And because that is human nature just to go on the defense right away. You feel like you're being attacked, you'd be like, you put up the guard and you're going to say, nope, I didn't have to do anything wrong. We need to be able to overcome that to the ability of being able to just analyze, well, wait a minute, maybe I'm being wrong here. And you're sitting in a pew, instead of thinking about why everyone else needs to hear this sermon, right? Oh, man, too bad this person wasn't, too bad brother so-and-so wasn't here for this one, huh? How about you are here and apply it to what you need because you're not perfect. And that's the attitude that we need to have every time we're in church and every time you pick up the word of God and hear from the Lord and read His word, that's the attitude you need to have. I need to learn, I need to grow, what can I take away from the word of God that's going to help me be better in God's eyes? And thank God for reproofs. Thank God for reproofs because if you didn't have a reproof, you'd probably just keep on going along thinking that you're doing everything right and everything's great. I look at reproofs this way, you know, I am always very, very thankful when I show up somewhere if I have something out of order, right? Like, let's say I brush my teeth in the morning before I go to work and I didn't look in the mirror and I've got like a gob of toothpaste or something on my beard, right? Just some spot and I'm going in and I'm saying hi to people at work and everything. You know what the first person that says, hey, Dave, guess what, you know, you've got something right here. I'm thankful for that because I don't want to keep on going around. Now, obviously, it's kind of a silly example, but when it comes to things that we may not be doing right in God's eyes, it's the same thing. I don't want to just pretend. I don't want someone that's just going to say peace, peace when there is no peace, right? I don't want someone just to tell me, oh, hey, you're great. God loves you. Everything's just fine. And you're like in some big sin and you don't even realize it. And you haven't really thought about it. They're like, man, I didn't even apply it that way. So the application is very important. You know, people say, oh, yeah, we shouldn't steal everything else. But, you know, reproofs come in sometimes when the preacher's in standing there and saying, you know what? You're being paid by the hour to do a job and you've got work to do and you're sitting around and chatting and milking the clock. You're stealing. And sometimes people need to hear that and think about it and go, wow, you know, I didn't ever really think about it that way. But you're right. When I'm being paid to do a job, I ought to be doing that job. And if I'm just doing other stuff and just off on my own free time or not on my free time, but on paid time, I'm doing my own personal stuff and everything else. You're stealing. We need to hear these types of reproofs. Another example of reproof in the Bible. You have to turn, if you would, to Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians chapter five is, you know, from John the Baptist. John the Baptist reproved Herod. And this is the thing about about reproofs. It doesn't matter what your status is. It doesn't matter how long you've been coming to our church. It doesn't matter if you hold some public office. It doesn't matter if you hold a position within the church. OK, a reproof is a reproof. What's right is right. What's wrong is wrong. And if something needs to be said, then it needs to be said. John the Baptist had no homes calling out King Herod. The Bible says in Luke chapter three, verse 19, But Herod the teatronic, being reproved by him, him being John the Baptist, for Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, added yet this above all, that he should shut up John in prison. So from here, we know John the Baptist is preaching and reproving Herod, saying, look, it's not lawful for you to take your brother's wife. It's abomination. You're not supposed to be taking your brother's wife. You know, they got divorced or whatever. And now you're going to go and take her to be your wife. That's wicked. Now, it may be lawful in the Roman government, but not in the eyes of God. And he needs to be rebuked for that. That's wickedness. And he's and he's not afraid to call it out. And I guarantee you that's not popular in Roman times to be calling out this this, you know, governor or whatever of the land for for for his sins. But you know what? It's important. Here's someone in power that's doing these things. And you know what? When people in high positions do things like that, it just lets the people think. Must not be that bad. I guess it's OK if he could do it, then I can do it. Right. That's the way people think. So you need a John the Baptist saying, no, that's wicked. He's wicked. Don't look at what his ways are. Don't do after him. That's not OK. Here's what the Bible says about that abomination. And that's a New Testament example of a reproof. Nobody likes to be reproved. The Bible says in John Chapter three, verse number 20, for everyone that do with evil hated the light. Neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. You know, people do an evil, people do a wickedness. You know what? You don't want that light shining on you. You want to hide in the darkness with your sin and not be discovered. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. You see, people who are living uprightly and walking right, you're not afraid of the light. It's great. Shine a light on me. Go ahead. Because you've got nothing to hide. But then when people are doing what you don't want that, and that's why, you know, that's one of the reasons why Jesus was put to death. Because he was the light. He is the light. He came to be a light to this world. But when you got a lot of wicked people that don't want their wicked deeds exposed, a bunch of phonies, hypocrites, Pharisees. They don't like that. They don't like him shining that light of the truth because it exposes them for what they really are. He starts getting a following. Oh, hold on a second now. He's starting to get too much power and influence. You know, we got a good thing going here and we got these people under control. We like our position and we like being able to hold our education and hold everything else over them. Oh, you people, you're ignorant. You don't understand anything. And then Jesus come along and just spreading the truth to the common man, to everybody saying, no, this is what God said. This is real simple. You just believe that. And they didn't like that. They didn't like that influence. They didn't like him teaching those things. They didn't like him teaching the grace of God. They killed him for it. We ought not to be like that. We ought not to have the stiff neck and the hard heart when it comes to being reproved. We ought to be able to to accept that Ephesians Chapter five, verse number seven, the Bible reads, Be not ye therefore partakers with them, talking about people doing a bunch of a bunch of wicked things, much simple things for you were sometimes darkness. But now are you light in the Lord? Walk as children of light for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. So there's another call to reproving. You know, this the sin, the unfruitful works of darkness, you're saying instead of joining up and yoking up and just and just being buddy buddy with all the unfruitful works of darkness, reprove it. Say, no, that's wrong. We're not going to pretend like everything's OK. Biblical Christianity should be saying, hey, look, this is wicked. This is wrong. We're not yoking up with that. We're not just being tolerant and accepting of all this stuff that needs to be reproved. That's wicked. That's wrong. And, you know, the world doesn't change that much. You know, the whole marriage thing, Herod taking his brother's wife could just as easily be in today's world. You know what? You ought not to be getting divorced and remarried. That's wicked. That's wrong. But how often are you hearing that across churches in America today? That no, there isn't grounds for divorce. No, you can't just get divorced for every cause, as the Pharisees wanted to do when they asked Jesus, well, can a man get a divorce for every reason, for every cause? No. Well, I mean, if that's the case, then no one should even be getting married. It's craziness. But Jesus himself said that, you know, if the person's put away and then they go and be married to someone else, that they're committing adultery. You're causing that person to commit adultery. If a man puts away his wife, she goes and gets married to someone else. You've caused her to go commit adultery, because in God's eyes, that union is until death do you part. People don't want to hear that. And when you read the scripture and when you teach on that, it convicts people. Because many people have been divorced in their life, many, many and increasingly more. The odds continue to go up and up that as we get more people sitting in a chairs in this auditorium, that someone's going to have been divorced. And on top of that divorce and remarried. And it's not going to sit well because they're going to hear what I did was wrong. What I did was wrong. You have to come to terms with that and understand that's what the Bible says. Whether you like it or not, it may sting, but you know what? Sometimes the truth hurts and you just need to accept it. Confess for sake to the Lord. Say, God, I didn't know. Because many people today, many Christians today don't even know that divorce and remarriage is wrong. Because it's not being taught. Because it's offensive. Well, it was offensive in John the Baptist's day, but he still preached it. It cost him his head. It was needed then, it's needed now. We need to identify the unproofful works of darkness and not embrace it, reprove it. And offer the proof. Reprove means reproving with the word of God why it's wrong. It's not just a list of rules. That's why we don't have a list of rules in this church. Now, many people in this church have their own rules that line up with many other people in this church. There's a lot of similarities where people make up rules in their lives and I bring up different things that I think are good ideas for rules. For yourself to have, for your own church attendance, for all these other things. For how you dress, how you appear, all these different things that you may have. But there aren't rules for the church. I mean, obviously you have to be dressed. You really want to get down to it. Yes, there may be on some level some type of rule. But we don't have this whole list of rules and they make you sign off and you're going to agree to all these rules and stuff. Because I don't want rules just for the sake of having rules. I want to prove from scripture why things are either sinful or not sinful. And that's what we're going to go off of. And it's up to you to decide if you're going to follow that, if you believe that or not, if you're going to follow that or not. But that's on you. But we're going to reprove, like I'm going to reprove as we come into summer, people who want to wear almost nothing and go out in public and pretend it's fine, we're swimming. Someone dug a hole and put water in it, so now me wearing underwear in public, there's no problem with that. Because it's a bathing suit, it's not underwear. It's ridiculous. You're naked. And you know what? I'm not going to do that in this sermon, but I'll prove it from scripture. And you understand that's wrong when you're showing that flesh, that's wrong. It's a shame. It needs to be reproved. The pastor's not going to throw a pool party and just have everybody just, hey, just bring your bikinis, come on over. No, no. Verse 12, for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret, but all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. So light comes from the word of God, light comes from Jesus. We're going to use that light to reprove and to make manifest the things of darkness, right? Now, how you respond to reproof, I've already mentioned before, it's critical. You don't want to be like King Saul. You want to be like King David. King Saul was reproved by Samuel multiple times, but primarily when he had offered up that sacrifice that he was not allowed to do. King Saul was a Benjamite. He was for the tribe of Benjamin. He had no authority to be offering up any sacrifices. Now, he was the king of Israel. He had a lot of authority, but he had no authority to offer up sacrifices unto the Lord. That was not his job, no matter how much power he had as king, not his job. He had to wait for Samuel, who was a Levite, to be able to do that job, but he took it on himself. But then what happened when Samuel shows up, he's like, hey, glad you're here. Saul's just thinking, everything's great. There's no problem here. Samuel's going, what's going on? Why'd you offer up the sacrifice? And then on top of that, when he went and destroyed people who were supposed to be utterly destroyed, well, he didn't quite do the utter destruction. He kept the best of the flock and of these animals to offer it to the Lord, and he kept the king alive but killed all the other people. And he's like, yeah, I did exactly what I was told to do. No, you were told to wipe them out. That is not what God said to do. You did something different. But he has this attitude and this stiff neck going like, well, no, of course I did. I obeyed God. And he starts arguing with Samuel when he's reproving him. And even when he's already been reproved and told he's wrong, he's still just like, well, still honor me. Come back and follow me while I worship the Lord so all the people can see that you're still with me. And that's all he cared about, really, was appearing right in front of the people and had a hard time even accepting that he did anything wrong because he kept justifying himself, saying, no, no, but you don't understand. I mean, I did this, but the people made me do this. That's why it's, look, stop making excuses, Saul. Don't be a Saul when it comes to hearing reproof. David, on the other hand, David did some really wicked things. But you know what? When David was confronted on his major sin, he didn't try to make excuses. He didn't try to say, well, yeah, but I mean, she shouldn't have been out there bathing where I could see. I mean, it's her fault. That shouldn't have happened. No, David, it's your fault. And you know what? He owned up to it, acknowledged it, confessed it, forsook it, repented, and grieved over his own sin. And that's why he found forgiveness in God's eyes. That's why he found mercy, because he had that attitude. We need to come into church or read your Bible, hear from the Word of God, and be ready to make the change. Be ready to have your heart smitten so you can say, wow, I'm going to grieve, but I'm going to grieve under repentance. Paul says that godly sorrow worketh repentance, not to be repented of. That godly sorrow you ought to feel when you realize, hey, I've been wrong. And instead of just lifting your head up high, going, well, I did wrong. I'm just going to keep doing it anyways, because I want to admit that I'm wrong. Admit you're wrong and move on. We're going to see how important this is. We're going to go through the book of Proverbs. Oh, great, now I don't have my time. Go to Proverbs chapter 1. You all are in trouble, because when I'm preaching, I'm trying to look at the clock and do math. Forget about it. Is that clock moving? It is moving. Say 5 o'clock. 5 o'clock? All right. I'm starting to want it like this. We've got a little bit of time. We're going to go through a lot of Proverbs, because Proverbs covers reproof quite a bit on how our attitudes ought to be and we're going to get a lot of wisdom from Proverbs when it comes to being able to take reproof and take it the way that God would have us to take it. We're going to start off with Proverbs 1. And I had these in a different order before, but I think it's just going to be easier to go through the chapters consecutively. So we're just going to keep on moving forward at these various references to reproving, and some are going to be kind of out of order as far as talking about similar things, but that's okay. It's easier to have you all follow through this way. And ultimately, let's start off here in Proverbs 1. So Proverbs 1, verse 23, the Bible reads, Turn you at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you. I will make known my words unto you. So you're saying turn, right? Repent. Change. When I reprove you, turn at my reproof. I'll pour out my spirit unto you. I'll make known my words unto you. Just have that humble heart that's ready to change and ready to receive, ready to hear. But then he says this now. Because these people didn't have that heart. Who's being addressed here in Proverbs chapter 1? Verse 24 says, Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded, but ye have set at naught all my counsel and would none of my reproof. So he's saying, look, turn at my reproof and I'll pour my spirit unto you. But because you didn't, because I'm calling and no one's answering, you refused. Like, nope. Don't want to hear it. Nope. I'm good. I've stretched out my hand. No one's regarding it. God's saying, I'm trying to help. I'm trying to call out to you. No one's regarding. I'm trying to give you good counsel. I'm trying to give you good advice. I'm trying to tell you what to do. You said it at naught means it's like it's nothing to you. Oh, I know the Bible says that. I don't care. Just some book written by some old sheep herders who didn't even have plumbing. Where have you heard that before? It's mocking the word of God. The word of God, as if it's man's word. He says, and would none of my reproof. You don't have anything to do with being told you were wrong. So people who have that attitude, people who can't take the reproof, people who can't accept that and want to just mock and want to just ignore and have nothing to do with it, here's how God deals with them. Look at verse number 27 or verse 26. I also will laugh at your calamity. Why? Because God knows He's right. He's trying to give them advice. He's trying to tell them what to do. They don't want to listen, and when you refuse God's counsel and when you refuse God's correction, you're going to end up falling. You're going to have calamity. You're going to have a lot of problems in your life because you're ignoring the word of God and thinking that you know better than God. So, of course calamity is going to come, and God says, I'm going to laugh. I'm going to laugh. Yes, this is the God of the Bible. I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind. So when you start to experience the destruction of a tornado, personally, in your life, when distress and anguish cometh upon you, He says, then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer. Talk about seeking God while I may be found. Okay, a great truth, another great truth from the Bible that is gone by the wayside. People just think you can do whatever you want, whenever you want, and it's never too late, baloney. God's talking about a time here when people are brought really low and destruction's coming like a whirlwind, but you know what? They already rejected the Lord. And now He's saying, you know what? Then they're going to call on Me, and I'm not going to answer. But God's always going to answer. No, He's not. Look at Proverbs 1. They shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me, for that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of My counsel. They despised all My reproof. They hated it. They didn't want to hear that they were wrong. So guess what? Now when it finally comes and catches up with them, you made your bed, now lay in it. We don't want to push God. While God is merciful and long-suffering, He has a breaking point. And this is evidenced in many other places in Scripture as well, not just here. And we're going to actually end up closing on a verse that's along the similar lines of saying, look, while you have opportunity, while you're hearing the reproof, don't harden your heart. Now obviously there's some people who harden their heart against the gospel that get to a point where they're beyond salvation, but we also don't want to, as believers, harden our heart against being reproved against other things, other areas in our life where we're in sin or something else, because you know what? That's going to end up destroying us. Now obviously we're not going to lose our salvation and go to hell, but don't get to the point where God just has to bring you super low or maybe just you're done. You're not listening to me. You're being too stubborn and rebellious. Flip over to chapter 6, Proverbs 6. This is how we ought to view correction, how we ought to view reproofs. Verse number 23, Proverbs 6 23, Bob reads, For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. That's how we need to view the law of God, by the way. It's a light. It's a lamp. It's a good thing. It's going to illuminate. It's going to provide you direction. We look to the law of the Lord to give us the right way to go, to help us to make those right decisions, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. Man, be glad to hear those reproofs, because that's the way of life. We need to be told where we're wrong from God so that we can get right and get on that right path. Proverbs chapter 9, verse number 7. Proverbs 9, verse 7, the Bible reads, He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame, and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. So this is talking about people who are trying to reprove or rebuke someone who's wicked and someone that's a scorner. It doesn't work for them, because wicked people and scorners, they don't receive the rebukes. So it's basically saying, you know, and think about it on the inverse of this. If you are not able to take rebuke and reproofs, are you a scorner? Because that's how the scorner acts. Are you wicked? Because that's how the wicked act. He that reproveth a scorner get it to himself shame. You get yourself shame because they're a fool. They're not going to want to take your rebuke at all, or your reproof. Verse 8 says, reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee. So you don't need to be telling, you know, scornful people, these wicked people, you don't even need to worry about, like, rebuking them personally because they're just going to hate you. It's not even going to do you any good. It's not going to work at all. It says, rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. And see, if you're wise, you're going to love the person who brings that reproof, that's going to bring that rebuke, because a fool's not going to want to hear it. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser. A wise person's going to be able to just always be able to learn. You never, the person who thinks that they're just beyond learning anything is not wise at all. Because how are they ever going to increase, how are they ever going to continue to learn? Nobody has made it. No one has arrived. I don't care who you are. And honestly, the people that I've learned the most from have all had a very humble spirit when it comes to their own knowledge, as they ought to. Because that's a true sign of wisdom in and of itself, when people could recognize, yeah, I don't have, I mean, there's so much I don't know. Even though they know a lot, there's still so much they don't know and are able to recognize that because they have wisdom. You know the people who don't have wisdom? Again, all these holding examples, we hear it all the time, right? Oh, I already read the Bible. You have no idea how to be saved, you just got done telling me, well, you got to live a good life, you got to go to church. And then you say, well, can I show you from the Bible? Oh, I already read the Bible. Not wise at all. Oh, I already read it. I already read it once, you know, when I was 10, I had to read the Bible. You know, it's like, it's foolishness. And it's this arrogance and haughtiness thinking that, I mean, even if they did, which they probably didn't, even if they did read the Bible cover to cover one time, how much do you not know by reading just one time cover to cover? I mean, think back to the first time, if you have read the Bible cover cover, think back to the first time you read it and how much you were able to pick up of the Bible in that first time after you were saved, compared to what you now may know, but then how much do you still not know when you read the Bible? Look, I'll admit, there's still a bunch of things that I don't know when I read in the Bible, I'm going, I don't know exactly what that means. And I've read the Bible I don't even know how many times at this point. It doesn't matter. I don't want to throw out a number because it doesn't matter because there's always more to learn. And whoever is wise is going to realize, I still have a long way to go. So long that I'm not going to achieve that in my lifetime here on earth. It's not going to happen. So we should be open to reproofs all the time and allow for yourself to not just always understand everything perfectly and be wrong about some things. The Bible says in verse 9, 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 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 shalt bear it. You get to choose. Are you going to be wise or are you going to be a scorner? When you hear the reproof. When you hear the rebuke. Proverbs chapter 12, verse number 1, the Bible reads, Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge, but he that hateth reproof is brutish. And that word brutish, you ever hear someone being called, oh, you're a big brute? A brute just means you're stupid. That's what it means. But in modern English, you're stupid. You're a brute. If you hate reproof, remember I just said at the beginning of the sermon, the natural man, naturally no one wants to be told that they're wrong. Because, yeah, your flesh, your sinful flesh, doesn't want to be told it's wrong. But if you're in the spirit, you should be able to handle being told you're wrong and not hate it and be able to accept it. And one, if the other person is wrong, is reproving you, like that they're just in error, reproving you, you shouldn't have to feel the need to justify yourself to that person. You ought to be able to just let it go and understand and say, you know what? That person still cares about me. They love me. And move on. And just forgive maybe their error, but you shouldn't have to feel compelled to have to just justify yourself, because if you feel compelled that you have to justify yourself, you're probably wrong. You're probably wrong. If you just have to say, no, no, I need to, you're probably wrong. You probably needed that reproof and you don't even realize it. Be able to recognize it. And you know what? Whether the person's right or wrong, analyze it, receive it, and accept the instruction as needed. Proverbs 13, chapter 13, verse number 18, the Bible reads, poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction, but he that regardeth reproof shall be honored. If you can't be instructed, if you can't be corrected, the Bible says you're going to come to poverty and shame. And I've seen this play out, I don't know how many times, just on the job, like at work. There's always that person that you just cannot tell them that they're wrong in what they're doing, because they know better than everybody. People like that don't advance. They don't. I mean, if you can't tell someone that what they've done was wrong, how are they ever going to learn and grow? And they may think that they're the top expert in everything, but look, they're not. They're not going to be. Nobody is. There may be a lot of smart people out there, I'm telling you what, but the truly smart people, the wise people, they're going to be humble. Because they're going to, I've spoken with many people, just worldly wisdom stuff. People who are into, you know, part of the business that I work for, there's research and development, and a lot goes into the product and the research and stuff. And the people I've talked to that had a lot of smarts, right, scientific smarts, you can tell when they have the humble attitude when they realize, you know, I thought I had everything figured out, and then I learned this and just realized how much I don't, I have no idea. Like, I thought I understood all of this stuff, and then something else was discovered and I saw this and was just like, wow, everything I thought I knew, not necessarily wrong, but it's just on a whole other level going, this is insane. And people who have a lot of wisdom and knowledge should be able to recognize and understand that. And those are the only people who are going to be able to grow, to even grow past the point wherever you are in your knowledge and understanding. But if you can't accept that correction, you're never going to get better. It doesn't matter what it is. Proverbs chapter 15, Turn to chapter 15, the Bible reads in verse number 5, a fool despises his father's instruction, but he that regardeth reproof is prudent. And kids, you know, listen up. When your parents correct you, you may not like it at all. And it's harder, you know, a lot of times for the kids to understand that. But listen to your parents. When they tell you you're wrong, kids, don't be just so quick to defend yourself and tell them why you're not wrong. If you really want to be wise and learn and grow, accept what your parents say. Don't talk back. Don't argue. Receive what they're telling you so that you can be wise because your parents have been around a lot longer than you have and have gained a lot more wisdom than where you are in your life. So just accept that. And I know it's hard to even maybe comprehend everything I'm saying right now, kids, but just be obedient and listen to your parents and don't justify yourself. Just accept that. And you know what? If your parents were wrong about something, you're going to show wisdom by keeping your mouth shut because that's going to keep you from being corrected by your parents physically. It's still a wise thing to keep your mouth shut. Say, yes, sir, yes, ma'am. But the fool despises that instruction. Don't be a fool. Don't be a foolish child. Jump down to verse number 10. The Bible reads, Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way, and he that hateth reproof shall die. And we're talking about being reproved. This is real strong language here in the book of Proverbs. He that hateth reproof shall die. I mean, if you just cannot be corrected and you just hate it, oh, I don't want to hear any of that, that's just going to lead you to destruction. That's the end of having that attitude. Hell and destruction, verse 11, are before the Lord. How much more than the hearts of the children of men? A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him, neither will he go unto the wise. A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge, but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness. When you have understanding, you're going to seek out more knowledge. Come to church ready. Hey, tell me where I'm wrong. I want to learn more. I want to grow more. Tell me. Let me know. Let me see it. Instruct me. That's the wise person. The fool's going to go, oh, man, did you hear what Pastor Burton said today? I can't believe that. Did you hear that? He thinks what I'm doing is sin? Don't be a scorner. Jump down to verse number 31. The Bible reads, the ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise. He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul. But he that hearth reproof getteth understanding. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom and before honor is humility. Before honor is humility. And that's key to all of this, the reproof, is being humble, being humble, being humble. If you're a humble person and someone corrects you, then you won't feel the need to have to just write up and, oh, no, you know. Because if you're humble, if you're lowly, you're going to think, well, maybe I was wrong. But I want to correct that. And you're going to get over yourself. Oh, well, I could never do something like that. I could never. That's pride. That is pride. Humble attitudes can say, okay, yeah, maybe I was wrong. I'll look at that. And you don't just have to justify everything because, well, that's going to make me look bad if I was wrong about this. Really make you look bad? Why does that matter? Pastors of all people need to be able to do this and not allow that. Preachers, don't start going down this path of going, well, I can't admit that I was wrong here because then no one's going to trust me. Now, obviously, a teacher or a preacher shouldn't just be wrong all the time about what you're teaching. But at the same time, you need to be able to just admit and say, you know what? I was wrong about that. And have the humility to be able to admit like, yeah, you know what? I thought this way. It wasn't right. And I was wrong. And not worry about, well, what are people going to think about you? Because if you're preaching the Word of God, it's not about you. It's not about me. It's not about, oh, man, Pastor Burns is going to get all this fame. Look, I'm never going to get any fame. But I'm not after that. I don't care. It doesn't matter. I don't want to be the front and center guy that everybody knows. I don't care about that. I care about the Word of God getting into people's hearts and that there's lives changed and people serving the Lord because of what God's Word says, not because of what I say. Proverbs 17, verse number 10, the Bible reads, a reproof entereth more into a wise man than in hundred stripes into a fool. A hundred stripes, stripes are whippings or beatings that bring forth blood. So imagine a foolish person, someone committing some foolish crime, just lacking wisdom, lacking understanding. They go off and as a result, they get beaten a hundred times. You would think after a hundred whippings, they would have the sense to change their ways and say, okay, I'm not going to do this again because those hundred lashes, I don't want that again. That's the concept being taught here is that the fool that receives a hundred lashes, whatever type of repentance they could come to after that, it says a reproof entereth more into a wise man because the fools, the reason why they're fools is because even though they get those hundred stripes, they're still just going to go off and do the same thing again. I mean, you see it happening now with people that commit these stupid crimes and then you just keep repeating that same behavior and their life is being ruined because they're going to prison and they're dealing with all this stuff and they just keep going back to doing these stupid things. They're a fool. They're never going to learn. I mean, it's just like how many times you have to understand you can't behave like this. You can't do this. And the fool keeps doing that, but you know what? A reproof, if you're wise, that's going to be way easier for you to receive that reproof than those hundred stripes going into that fool. That's the comparison there. It enters more into the wise man. The wise man just hears that without having to have the stripes. I mean, that's a lot, a hundred stripes. Flip over to chapter 25. We're almost done. There's only a couple more places that I want to look at regarding reproof. Proverbs 25, verse 11 says a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold and pictures of silver. Verse number 12, as an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear. A wise reprover is someone who has wisdom and someone who has understanding, so the reproof that they're giving is right. They're using good sound doctrine. They're using the word of God, and they're reproving an obedient ear, someone who is receptive and open to being reproved, and the Bible compares that as an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold, like this beautification. That's a really beautiful thing. That's a great sight to behold, having somebody who has a wise reprover and an obedient ear. Wow, those two go together perfectly. When someone can be reproved and the reprover is wise, great, because everything's going to turn out better. And you could jump down to verse number 15. The Bible says the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. Kids need to be reproved, and the rod is not enough. The rod is not enough. The rod is important. The rod is part of this formula. Children need to rod, but they also need reproof. Reproof is the telling them that they're wrong and why they're wrong. It's the instruction and the correction. You've seen that word instruction quite a bit as we go through Proverbs with the reproving, because you're reproving someone with instruction, with the right way, because they're doing something wrong, so you're telling them the right way. And with rearing children, you're using the rod to drive home that reproof of the correction of, no, this is the right way. Because if you only spank the kids when they're doing something wrong, but you never tell them, well, what's the right way? Well, oftentimes, there's many wrong ways and only one right way, so they keep on doing, well, that wasn't right, so now I'm going to do this. Well, that's not right, so you're going to keep on getting beaten. You need to teach them. Spend the time, one, to give them the discipline they need, but spend the time, two, to give them the reproof. Explain it to them and have the patience, the long suffering, to be able to tell them more than once, because they're children, because foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. But the rod of correction driveth it far from them. So you have the long suffering of knowing, hey, I'm going to have to deal with this probably more than once and twice and three times, but because you love them and because you don't want to leave them to himself, because when you do, as the Bible says here, a child left himself bringing his mother to shame. They're going to bring a shame upon you, because they're going to end up doing something shameful, and that's going to reflect on you because you didn't raise your kids right. And then the last verse, verse number one of chapter 29. We're going to close on this, and this goes back to how I opened up the sermon. The Bible reads, he that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy. You find yourself being often reproved. You're hearing the correction over and over and over again, but you harden your neck. Nope, not going to turn, not going to move. I'm going to keep this proud attitude. I'm going to keep doing this. I don't care what you tell me. It's not wrong. I can do what I want to do. That stubborn, rebellious, stiff neck attitude, you'll be often reproved. You know what the Bible says? Suddenly, that destruction is just going to come out of nowhere. You're suddenly going to be destroyed and that without remedy. Without remedy means there's no cure, there's no fix for that. You've pushed it too far. You've been reproved. You've been told you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, and you don't want to hear it, then you know what? All that's left is just sudden destruction, and there's no fix for that. Just done. Handling reproof, being able to deal with it, get over yourself, get over your pride, accept it, be gracious, be looking for it, and be ready to receive it, and even if the other person's wrong, have the humility to just let it go and say, well, what can I learn from this? Always, always be ready to learn because the alternative is not good. You have that hard heart, you have that hard, stiff neck. You've got destruction with no cure, no fix for that anymore. You can push things too far. Just always remember that, keep ourselves humble, keep ourselves lowly, keep ourselves always seeking wisdom from God's word, regardless of who's delivering the message. It doesn't have to come from me, it could come from anybody, but it should ultimately be coming from God, right? The messenger, what I'm saying is, the messenger doesn't matter, but it's from God's word. You better pay respect under that. That's why I always have a word of prayer. Dear Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for all the wisdom that you've provided to us in this life. God, there's so many things that you've instructed us in that are actually very simple in the sense that it's not complicated, it's not hard to understand. Sometimes it's harder for us to change our behaviors and to gain control over our sinful flesh, dear Lord. I pray that you please help us ever increasingly be able to strengthen our spirit, to walk in our spirit more, that we don't fulfill the loss of our flesh, and that we would be able to receive reproof and correction. God, I pray that you would please help me to be a wise reprover, as well as being an obedient ear. And I pray that you would please just help all of us to not allow our pride to blind us to the correction that we all need in various areas of our life, dear Lord. Instruct us, teach us. We long for greater understanding and wisdom, Lord, when we know that you will provide that to us liberally. And we love you, so in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, we're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed for the evening. Brother Peter, are you leading us in this last song? All right, perfect. Thank you. All right, church, if you can open up your hymnals. Song number 316. Hymn number 316, I have decided to follow Jesus. Song 316. On the first, I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back. Do not go with me. Still, I will follow. No, not go with me. Still, I will follow. Do not go with me. Still, I will follow. No turning back, no turning back, the world behind me, the cross before me. The world behind me, the cross before me, the world behind me, the cross before me. No turning back, no turning back.