(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) Alright, we've got a lot of content to get into, so I'm going to try to get through some of this material real quickly because there's so much in Proverbs 25 that I really want to cover here. So let's look at verse number one, it reads, these are also Proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, copied out. Verse number two, it is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter. The heaven for height and the earth for depth and the heart of kings is unsearchable. In verse two, they're saying that God gets glory from concealing matters, from being able to hide things, from being able to cover things, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter. You want a king over you that's going to be righteous and do a diligent job of seeking out and making sure everything is going well and going right in the kingdom. The king is supposed to be the judge, right? The judge is supposed to be righteous and be able to find out any time there's a matter where people are being oppressed or people are being wronged, that the law is being dealt with properly and that's why it's an honor of kings to search out a matter and not be a respecter of persons, but to be able to search out and find the truth of a matter. And see, it's God's glory to cover a thing, but see, it's a wicked and corrupt government that covers things up, right? I mean, we're in the midst of this right now in our, we don't have a king, but I mean, the people that have been in charge seem to be wanting to make it a kingship because they keep on adding more authority onto their office of the presidency and the other checks and balances of the House and the Senate and stuff seem to be giving them that power, but I'm not going to get too political tonight. I just, you know, the wicked governments are the ones concealing things, right? They're the ones that are hiding all their corruption and everything that they're doing wrong and all their transgressions, but that's the exact opposite. Let God do the concealing of sins. Let God be willing to show mercy and forgiveness on people, and not that you can't have mercy, but an honorable king is to be able to search out a matter and do what's right and provide justice and not have a whole bunch of concealment going on in his ruling, in the ruling that's going on by a king. Look at verse number four. The Bible reads, take away the dross from the silver and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer, take away the wicked from before the king and his throne shall be established in righteousness. This goes right up, completely along with what I was just saying. You know, the dross, when you're refining silver, you're trying to, excuse me, make a pure silver, a pure metal in any form, whatever it is you're trying to get pure. The way they do that is they melt out the metal to separate the various types of metals that are part of that. If you want to get pure silver, the metal that you don't care about is called the dross. That's the junk. It's the worthless types of metal. You have iron, you have steel, whatever else that might be mixed in with the silver. You bring it to the finer, they heat it up, and it goes through the whole process of removing the dross, remove the dross, and the dross is basically just, it's junk, it's garbage. It's worthless. It's something you don't want to have intermingled with your silver, and the Bible is relating that dross with the wicked people. See, the king is supposed to be the righteous. Here in this explanation, you know, the king would be like the silver, the pure silver, the righteous judge, the righteous king, but you need to take away that wicked, just like you take away the dross from the silver, because if the silver is corrupted with all that dross, it's not going to be worth that much, right? It brings the value down. You need to have the garbage removed in order to have the purity come through. And it says here, you take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness. And what happens in any government, whether it's a kingdom, where you have a king, or any other type of government, you have counselors, you have other people involved in the running of a human government, right? Kings always had a bunch of counselors, and when you read history, it's real interesting. You can see where, you know, people are always buying for power, and you get a new king come into power, and all the counselors and the people that are up in higher positions of authority are going to test them out and push them to see what they can get done for their own agenda, and what they could get the king to do, you know, use as a power to help them. And you know, you don't want to have wicked people in those positions, because then you're going to end up with a lot of wickedness going on. Even if the king is a righteous king, you need to get rid of and wipe out all the wickedness from before the king in order for his throne to be established in righteousness, otherwise those have too much influence. And that's where we're at in this country today. We need to purge out the wickedness. Even if you had, let's say for example, you had the most righteous, godly man, I mean, someone that no Christian would have a problem with saying, yes, this is who we want to be, for the president of the United States. And there was somebody like that that was actually a viable option that you can say, I am definitely, I'm going to campaign for this person, I'm going to vote for this person, because this is a righteous person. If that's all you had going for you, it's still not going to be enough. It wouldn't do anything. Because you need to flush out all of the corrupt lobbyists and politicians and everything else that's going on in Washington. It's not just that one office. There's a lot more to it than that. And if you want our kingdom, so to speak, that office to be established in righteousness, you need to get rid of all the wickedness that's going on there. You need to get rid of all the crooked politicians that are there now. That's why everyone makes this huge deal about the presidency. The world's going to end in January of 2017 if the wrong person is elected. Both sides are like, have this mentality of just like, it's the end of the world. Because it all resides in this one person. No it doesn't. No it doesn't. There's way, way, way, way more going on than just what the office of the president is going to do. And I'm not going to get any more political than that. But I think it's interesting that it uses this illustration of the dross from the silver. In Jeremiah 6 29, you have to turn there, a similar scenario is given. It says, the bellows are burned and the lead is consumed of the fire. The founder melteth in vain, for the wicked are not plucked away. Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them. And again, this is talking about wicked people. And that's why it says in those verses, the founder melteth in vain. It's worthless. It doesn't matter how hard he's trying to purify that metal because you've got this reprobate silver just screwing it all up and corrupting what he's trying to do. So the founder is just melting in vain. It says because the wicked are not plucked away. This is the first mention of the word reprobate in the Bible. It's only mentioned a few times in the Bible. It's not used very often, but it's a very important doctrine and we're actually going to get to this a little bit more, a little bit later in the proverbs. It's going to tie in. But just remember that it says reprobate silver. It's because why are they called, this is talking about people. It's using the illustration of a founder and melting and purifying, but he's using that illustration to refer to people. Reprobate silver shall men call them, people. They're going to be called reprobate silver, why? Because the Lord hath rejected them. And this is a concept of God rejecting people, completely rejecting them. This is the wicked person. We've been reading a lot about a wicked person in the whole book of proverbs. Proverbs gives us a lot of warnings of these people who devise mischief, who stay up late, who don't get any sleep because they're planning and plotting to hurt the righteous, to do harm unto people. These are the wicked reprobate people that exist in the world. And the Bible is saying you need to get rid of that if you're going to make anything pure. You need to flush that out. They need to be out of the church. You want to have a righteous church? You need to get the reprobate silver out of the church. You want to have a righteous government? Get the reprobate silver out of the government. You want to have a righteous, if you want to purify anything you're doing, this needs to go out. And that's why when you look in the book of the kings and the chronicles, it explains when there was a righteous king in the throne, a couple of times, a few times you'll see that they drove the Sodomites out of the land. They were getting rid of the dross. They were getting rid of the reprobate silver that was rejected in order to establish a righteous kingdom. And that's what needs to be done today. But like I said, I'm going to be going into a little bit more context a little bit later. So kind of keep these thoughts in mind as we go because like I said, we've got a lot of material to cover. And it's really interesting too in Proverbs 25 how much of the teachings that we find in Proverbs 25 is found in the New Testament, very, very similar stuff, almost exact wording in many cases that we're going to be seeing tonight. So this is a pretty exciting chapter. I like this chapter a lot with doing all the study for this. Go back to Proverbs 25, look at verse number 6, the Bible reads, Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of great men. For better it is that it be said unto thee, Come up hither, than that thou shouldest be put lower in the presence of the prince, whom thine eyes have seen. Keep your finger in Proverbs, flip over to Luke chapter 14. So what's it saying? It's saying, put not forth thyself in the presence of the king. It's not saying, you know, don't take it upon yourself to go make sure that you are standing before the king. Like that you're going to go in there and make yourself seen of the king, just completely of your own, just kind of march in there and put yourself forth in the presence of the king. It says, For better it is that it be said unto thee, Come up hither, than that thou shouldest be put lower in the presence of the prince, whom thine eyes have seen. You're saying it's better for you to be called into the presence of the king than just to go in there and then have them be like, yeah, you get out of here. Right? It's better for you to bring shame upon yourself. In that instance, it's much better to have yourself be called into the presence because then that's an honorable thing when the king calls you in to see him as opposed to when you just go in there and, you know, he tells you, what are you doing here? Get out of here. I didn't call for you, you know, whatever. But look at Luke 14, this same concept Jesus is teaching, and he's showing this unto the Pharisees. Look at in verse number one of Luke 14, And it came to pass as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees. So just to get the context of what's going on here. Jesus goes into the house of a chief Pharisee at that time. He goes into his house and says to eat bread on the Sabbath day that they watched him. So he goes in to have a meal with one of the chief Pharisees, so a real high up guy, right? And of course, you know, he's going to be surrounded by other influential Pharisees right in his house. Jesus is, he has Jesus over for to eat some bread. Jump down to verse number seven, it says, And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden. Those which were bidden with him that came also to eat with him, right? These friends of this chief Pharisee. It says when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms. So Jesus is in this place, he's invited there, and he's just kind of, he's just sitting there and watching what the people are doing there, what the Pharisees are doing. This guy's Pharisee's friends, they're coming over, and they're like picking out the best spot. They're picking out the best rooms, right? It must be a great house, right? He's one of the chief Pharisees. Probably got a really, really nice place, all these rooms set up, you know, for this banquet or whatever, this meal that he's having, and these people are coming in and just claiming like I'm going to be sitting in this, you know, in this best area, instead of letting the host say, okay, you guys sit here, you sit here, you sit here. So Jesus sees what's happening here, and he decides to open up his mouth. You know, this is one of the reasons why the Pharisees wanted to have Jesus, you know, he wasn't afraid to speak his mind, he wasn't afraid to speak the truth to people who were just completely in the wrong, you know, and not humble, real proud, and Jesus calls them out. Look at what he says here in verse number eight. It says, he said, when thou art bidden of any man to a wedding. So he tries, you know, he calls it a wedding, right, instead of just saying when someone invites you over for dinner, right, he says, okay, when you're invited to a wedding. Sit not down in the highest room, lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him. And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, give this man place, and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room, that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, friend, go up higher, then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meet with thee. For whosoever exalted himself shall be abased, and he that humblest himself shall be exalted. And this was a big problem that the Pharisees had was with their pride and thinking so highly of themselves, right. They loved the chief room at the feasts. They loved wearing the long garments. They loved being called rabbi of those in the marketplace. They loved the accolades, they loved the position, they loved the prestige, and they thought so highly of themselves, they said, well, I'm going to choose the best room. And see, what's interesting here is from the perspective of Jesus, who deserves greater honor than Jesus Christ does. So he's sitting there in his place, knowing he deserves the best place in the whole room, the whole dinner. I mean, he deserves the most honor, he deserves the most respect, but you got these other guys coming in and saying, well, I deserve this room, I deserve the best place. This is for me, right. And he says, well, wait, when the host comes with the other guy that deserves more honor than you and says, you need to get up because this spot's reserved for this person, right. He says, that's shameful. You got to be like, oh, okay, you know, basically just calling out and saying, you're worse than this guy is. You know, this guy deserves more respect than you do. Get out of here. And you can completely avoid that if you're humble. If you just go and just sit in the lowest place, just in the general admission, right, the general seating area, you're not thinking yourself too highly, then you could just wait. And then when the host comes, you go, oh, wait, what are you doing here? I've got a place prepared for you. That's honorable. That's the way that you ought to be. I mean, that's the humility that we ought to have. And he points that out to the Pharisees. And like I said, of course, he deserves the most respect, the most, you know, the greatest room. He deserved all of that. And he sees these other hypocritical Pharisees going around and thinking that they deserve more. And it's interesting. He's teaching the same exact truth that we find here in the book of Proverbs. And I'm going to make that point right now. It's going to be reiterated later that you can go back to Proverbs 25. But so much of biblical truth, it's not like the Old Testament and New Testament are so just completely separate of moral teaching of what's right and what's wrong. They're not. There's a difference between the Old Testament and New Testament, of course. We have an Old Testament and New Testament. But the difference isn't in the truth. It's not in what's right and what's wrong. The difference has a lot more to do with the priesthood and the sacrifices and the laws, which is the foreshadowing of Jesus Christ to come. And the difference between the temple and the tabernacle versus the church and the New Testament, which kind of expands. But we're going to see a lot of the same truth. We see all one right there. Same exact concept being taught. Old Testament, New Testament. Which is why we don't just throw out the Old Testament. There's a lot of good stuff. The Old Testament is the majority of the Bible, by the way. It's probably about two-thirds to three-quarters of the Bible. So it's very important, a lot to be learned in the Old Testament. It's still God's Word. Proverbs 25, look at verse number 27 real quick and we'll go back to where we were. Proverbs 25, 27 says, it's not good to eat much honey, so for men to search their own glory is not glory. You're saying, honey is sweet, it's a good thing, it's something you like to have, but it's not good to overdo it. It'll make you sick. Honey is a good thing, but keep it under control. It says, so for men to search their own glory, that's not glory. When you're seeking after your own glory, when you glorify yourself, the funny thing is you have zero glory. You have no honor, no respect. When you're just trying to puff yourself up and tell everyone how great you are, you actually aren't great at all. You actually don't have any honor or respect that way. When you puff up yourself, that's nothing. The only way it means anything is if it comes from somebody else. And just a completely side point, but I've taught this before, that's one of the reasons why I believe in churches beginning other churches and pastors being sent out to start other churches, because the honor is not taken on yourself. Everyone else is putting their stamp of approval on you. The church and the pastor is saying, this man has been found worthy and we're going to lay our hands on him and send him out to do a great work. You're not just appointing yourself and taking this honor upon yourself and saying, well, I'm so great and I fit all these qualifications. I'm not lifted up with pride. I'm not a novice. I'm going to start my own church. That's why I don't believe. I mean, you look at the scripture, it gives you the qualifications. It gives you very, very clear indication of how things have been done all from the beginning of, you know, if you want to call it the church age, whatever, from the time of Jesus when he established his church and how people were sent out. And again, that involves an entire sermon in and of itself to teach the full doctrine behind that. But it goes right along with the same concept of bringing glory on yourself. You have none. You need to be chosen of other people to be, to have any credibility of being somebody worthy of honor and respect. It means nothing for me to say to you, give me honor and respect because I'm honorable and I'm a just person, I'm righteous. Who are you? Right? But it means a lot more if a whole bunch of other people say, hey, Pastor Berzin, he's a man of his word. He's honorable. He's faithful. People are going to be a lot more apt to listen to that because it's not coming from the person themselves. Every man is righteous in his own eyes. That's what the Bible says. We already went through that through the previous chapters of Proverbs. But let's go back here. Verse number 8, Proverbs 25, 8, Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbor hath put thee to shame. You're saying, don't be quick to get in a fight either. Don't be hasty in going out and thinking you're going to right every wrong or whatever and getting into fights. He says, you need to think it through to know how things are going to be played out from the beginning to end. Otherwise, your neighbor will put you to shame. Verse number 9, Debate thy cause with thy neighbor himself, and discover not a secret to another, lest he that heareth it put thee to shame, and thine infamy turn not away. Now, this verse is talking about when you've got a problem with somebody. He says, debate your cause with your neighbor himself. You have a problem with your neighbor, go to him and take care of it. Go to him and settle that issue, but don't make some big thing about it and start publicizing how your neighbor did you wrong and all this other stuff. It's saying here, discover not a secret to another, that's a private matter. Don't go posting it up on Facebook when your neighbor does you wrong. Let the whole world know. It says, lest he that heareth it put thee to shame, and thine infamy turn not away. Get it settled between the two of you and everyone doesn't even know about it. You might end up looking like the one that's the bad guy anyways when you start publicizing everything. Now, that's what this verse is teaching, but I want to make another point on this, is that the word debate, when you debate someone, it's like an argument. You've got a difference of opinion, you've got a problem maybe between the two of you, like as the case here, you're debating your cause. Debate is never brought up in a positive mention in the Bible. There's a lot of people that like to do debates, and you know what, honestly, I've found entertainment in watching debates. Watch a debate of a creation versus evolution guy and all this other stuff. It could be entertaining. It could be kind of fun to watch, but it's vain. You are not going to convince, like in these debates, who's ever seen a debate where the other guy is just, they've gotten proven wrong and they say, you know what, I admit I'm wrong. It never happens. Even though, like you as watching it, you can see who wins. You can see who had the better arguments. You can see who presented more truth or more facts or whatever. But you never see the other guy that's the expert that you're debating against going, you know what, you're right. It's not going to happen. And I think that's one of the reasons why the Bible says turn, if you would, to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, 2 Corinthians chapter 12. I'm just going to give you a couple, again, debate is only a word that's mentioned a few times in the Bible, not very much at all. So I want to make a huge issue out of this, but in Romans chapter 1, which we're going to get to a little bit later when it's talking about people who are reprobate, talking about people who have been given over to a reprobate mind, and it's describing all of the attributes. It says in verse 20, it says, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, right? All these things are really bad things, murder, fornication, wickedness, all unrighteousness. Then it says debate, deceit, McElhinney whispers. Debate's listed in that list of the Romans 1 reprobate of things that they're full of. They love to argue, they love to strive in the fight and get in debates. And then 2 Corinthians chapter 12, look at verse number 20. Verse number 20, 2 Corinthians 12, 20 reads, for I fear lest when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not. Lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strives, backbiting, whispering, swellings, tumult. And again, if you remember, the Church of Corinth had a lot of problems, and he's constantly dealing with this stuff, and you read the whole thing in context, but the word debate here is using it in negative connotations, saying I don't want there to be all these debates and envyings and wraths and strives, backbiting, whispering, swelling, tumult, all these bad things going on in church. And this is one of the reasons why, you know what, we're never going to have here in church a debate. I'm never going to host a debate here. We're not going to. I think it's vain. I think we need to avoid, you know, like the Bible says in Proverbs 14, 7, we covered this already, it says, go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. Turn if you would to Titus chapter 3. So he's saying, when you've got someone that's foolish, and that's why, you know, who's more foolish than someone just propping up godless evolution, right? The people who say in their heart, there is no God. And they want to try to convince you and debate and argue with you over what ultimately, ultimately whether or not there's a God, because that's what it comes down to the heart of it. You know, don't deceive yourself thinking that, oh, no, no, this is just a scientific thing. No, no, no, it's not. It's just a ploy to get you to believe that there's no God. It's just some type of explanation for the people who don't want to believe in God. They have to come up with something to try to make an explanation for why we're here and how everything got here. That's all it is. And it starts with a fundamental belief that there is no God. That's the starting point for the evolutionary theory. And when you're in the presence of a foolish man, when you realize they don't have lips of knowledge, it's just, don't go away from them. Don't deal with it. It's a waste of your time. Look at verse number, or Titus 3, verse number 9, the Bible says, but avoid foolish questions. Avoid them. You know, people just coming at you with foolish questions, don't answer them. Avoid them. Again, it's a total waste of your time. It says, in genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and vain. There's no profit to them. There's no profit in arguing with people and striving with them about the law and arguing with them and debating them over different things, even if it's just scriptural things. There's no profit to that. It says, a man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition, reject, knowing that he that is such is subverted and sin is being condemned of himself. I'm not going to have a debate between myself and some Jehovah's Witness leader. I'm not going to debate someone of the Mormon faith or whatever. I'm not going to go and debate these guys. I'm going to give them one and two admonitions. But if they're speaking heresy, which those cults do, then I'm going to give them a couple chances and then I'm going to reject them. I'm not going to sit here and argue with them and debate with them. It's not edifying. It's not good. The Bible says avoid it. And this is something I think that oftentimes our flesh likes to get involved in debate because you want to win. Right? You've got to be careful about this when you go out soul winning, too, because it could be especially when you get a lot more knowledge. It could be really easy to chew people up and spit them out. It really is. Most people don't have very much knowledge. They might know a few verses, a few things here and there, but when you know your Bible really well, you could totally destroy that person with your arguments. But if they're there to debate, you're not going to convince them. You give them a couple admonitions. What we do with anybody, especially with the soul winning, though, you're looking for people who are willing to learn and willing to listen, not the ones who are trying to teach you. We go out with the gospel of Jesus Christ because we know it's true. Because He saved us with the same gospel. I'm not going to listen to someone else give me a false gospel. They have no time for that. You can listen to the gospel be preached to the other person who can listen, and if they want to try to teach me, see you later. Because I'm going to find someone that will listen. And we're talking about the gospel. That's something I'm not changing on. You want to talk to me about some other doctrines that you don't, you disagree with me on? Fine. Great. And discuss and talk about the evidence of why I believe what I believe on other issues. But don't come to me with a false gospel. I've got no time for that. The fundamentals, I'm really not going to be budged on those. You have to have some type of foundation that you're going to stand on. That's unmovable. And salvation is definitely one of them. And I'm not going to waste my time debating people. So I've heard people say that, well, the purpose of the debate, though, isn't for the other person. Obviously, it's not going to change the ways. It's for everyone else that watches. Yeah, I get that, but then I go back to the Bible and I look at where debate is being used and I look at striving, and striving is about the laws and these things being vain. And I can't argue with God's Word. I really can't. I mean, even with your own wisdom of this world or man's wisdom, you say, no, there's a benefit for these people. I say, no, I don't think there is. I really don't. The benefit that I received about the whole evolution thing, after I put my faith in Christ, it came from seeing real evidence and scientific evidence kind of showing, oh, wow, this actually fits perfectly and there's no contradiction, there's no problems with that. It didn't come from just watching a debate about people arguing this stuff. It really didn't. So, I mean, look, if you watch it, do whatever you want to do. I don't see it, though, from the Bible. Listen, from what I see in the Bible is that it's worthless and that it's one of the attributes of people who are wicked and ungodly. So I would just say, in general, avoid that type of stuff. But let's go back to Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 25. The first section, there's kind of like a lot about kings and being in the presence and having humility and that type of stuff was kind of a major theme in the first section. Now we're getting into a section of there being a right time and place for all manner of speech, the way that we talk. And we've gone over in the book of Proverbs various things that we should and should not be saying and making sure we're keeping track of the words that we use. The Bible says in verse 11 here, in Proverbs 25, a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. I don't even know exactly what that means, but it sounds really good. Apples of gold in pictures of silver. Looks great, right? And I think that's true. Word fitly spoken, the right word at the right time in the right situation can be very, very beneficial, very good for the person on the receiving end of the words that you speak. The words can be very powerful and it can be used very well. Look at verse number 12, as an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold. So again, really, really pleasant things. An earring of gold, ornament of fine gold. So is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear. Two aspects there. A wise reprover, someone who has wisdom, someone who's able to teach the truth in love, someone who's able to explain and teach and reprove and not be afraid to reprove, which reproving means you're telling someone they're wrong, a wise reprover, someone that's able to tell someone why they're wrong, what they're doing that's wrong, and also upon an obedient ear. So someone who's willing to actually receive, rebuke, and be obedient. It's a very good thing. It's a very precious thing. It's a high value and high price when you've got both of those things together. Someone that loves you enough to tell you you're wrong and someone that loves God enough to receive correction and change. Look at verse number 13, as the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him, for he refreshest the soul of his masters. This is someone that you could rely on, someone who's dependable, a faithful messenger. You say you have a job for him, you need to deliver an important message. When you have someone that you can trust, it's very refreshing for the person who needs to get that message out, to be able to just rely on them, not even have a second thought, and being able to trust that to somebody else. That is a very good thing also, and it's important, I think, to be a faithful messenger, to make sure that you are of that position to be able to be relied upon and to be a blessing to someone else and not have to worry about being unfaithful. Look at verse number 14, who so boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain. And again, talk about words as someone who's lifting themselves up, being proud, boasting himself of a false gift. And the fact that it's given in context with clouds and wind without rain, if you remember our Bible memory from Jude, it talks about the false teachers, they're like the clouds that are without rain, and they're carried about of winds, they're like wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. These are wells without water, or clouds without water, excuse me. And those are the people who have a false gospel, a false gift, right? We have a gift of salvation, the free gift of eternal life. If someone has a perverted gospel, it's a false gift. And those are also the people you'll find who are the most proud. Why? Because the people who have a false gift, it's a false gift because it's not really a gift. There's strings attached, there's work attached to it. And those are the people who want to say, oh yeah, it's just by faith in Jesus, but you gotta follow him, but you gotta live right. But you gotta, you know, and it's like, wait a minute, that's not really a gift, that's a false gift. And you introduce the pride of your own works into that salvation, into that gift, which it's not a gift at all. Look at verse number 15, I want to keep going here, I need to move ahead because I've been spending a lot of time on these points already. Verse number 15, by long forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue breaketh the bone. Again, the power of words, a soft tongue breaketh the bone. When you think of breaking a bone, how are you going to do that? You physically gotta do it. Here's the saying, use a soft tongue. By long forbearing is a prince persuaded. The ruler, right? Someone you want to get into his ear. Use soft speech. Use a soft tongue. Be faithful with them and entreat them. And this is what the Bible, the wisdom that the Bible has given you, that your approach and your speech can have a huge impact on a prince, on someone in charge, on someone that you want to have influence on. The words that you use are way more important than, you know, coming in and boasting of yourself and trying to make yourself somebody that you're not. Verse number 16. Verse number 16, hast thou found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith and vomited. Let's keep going here. So those were all kind of positive references in general for your manner of speech, you know, things that you should be doing, things that are good, you know, words fitly spoken. But now we're going to see some of the improper manners of speech. Verse number 17, withdraw thy foot from thy neighbor's house, lest he be weary of thee and so hate thee. Now this isn't so much about your speech as, you know, overstaying your welcome, is what this is talking about. It's saying, withdraw thy foot from thy neighbor's house, lest he be weary of thee and so hate thee. You don't want, you know, any friend that you have, you could end up being too much for someone else. And everyone, let's keep this in mind, you know, it's great to have fellowship, it's great to spend time with one another, but there comes a point, you know, when you come over to a family's house and they got little kids and you're there and it's like 11 o'clock at night and all the kids are still up and they start acting crazy and stuff, it's time to go. All right. Let's say we're not like, thankfully, I don't, I don't think we've really had, we have definitely haven't had that problem with anyone here, but like, it happens. Okay. And I just, I know that person from experience and I've done it to other people, okay, I've been ignorant and just oblivious in my single days when I, you know, when I don't understand what it's like to have a family and stuff and I'm just there and kind of hanging out at night. But something that we ought to remember, you know, we don't want our friends to end up hating us because, oh great, here's Pastor Burrisons again, the guy never leaves, let's just get comfortable now. Don't be that person. That's what the Bible is teaching here, verse 17. Let's keep reading here, verse number 18, a man that beareth false witness against his neighbor is a maul and a sword and a sharp arrow. Again, bearing false witness, you can say, oh, I'm just speaking with my tongue. Yeah, but you're doing all kinds of damage. It's relating you to a very damaging weapon, you know, a maul or a sword, a sharp arrow, something that's, that is injurious to other people. Verse number 19, confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint and this is in contrast to the faithful man. He's like, you know, snow in the time of harvest that brings you that, you know, you're working and sweating, you know, trying to bring the harvest in and it cools out enough to even get a little bit of snow. That's really refreshing when you're working hard. And the contrast is, well, the unfaithful man, when you need someone to send a message in time of trouble, hey, you need to warn somebody and you're sending an unfaithful man that says it's like a broken tooth. Broken tooth is horrible for your pain and a foot out of joint, right? I mean, it's just a curse basically to have someone like that on you and being, you know, so don't be an unfaithful man. Don't bear false witness. Look at verse number 20, as he that taketh away a garment in cold weather and has vinegar upon nighter, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart. When someone's down and sad and depressed, it's not the time to start singing happy songs. You're like, what do you say? Oh, say, but I'm glad, I'm glad. Okay, don't do that. So, when someone's depressed and down, that's not what they want to hear. It's not going to help. It's great when you're already happy to sing joyful songs and stuff like that, but don't do that to someone of a heavy heart. You know, that's why you don't go into a funeral or a wake and start playing some real happy marching band music or something like that, right? It's somber and you need, people need to have that time and again, it's just a word fitly spoken. There's a time and a place for everything. We need to realize when is the right time for us to use our speech and what to do, when to sing, when not to sing, you know, all these things we need to make sure that we are keeping in check and that we are wise with and not being a curse to anybody else. Look at verse number 21, we're going to shift to a new topic and this is talking about enemies and I'm going to spend probably the majority of the rest of the time we have left on this topic of having enemies. Look at verse number 21, if thy enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink, for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head and the Lord shall reward thee. This is teaching on how we ought to treat our enemies and again, this matches completely with what the New Testament teaches also. He says here, again, I'm going to reiterate, if your enemy is hungry, give him bread, feed him. Why would I do that? He's my enemy. I don't want to give him any food. Feed him. Be good to him. If he be thirsty, give him water. The Bible says, for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head and the Lord shall reward thee. God is going to see that. God sees everything. God sees you. Girl, sit still. When God sees you doing what's right unto someone who doesn't deserve it, God's going to make it right. That's the way God treated us. We need to have that same type of mentality. This is your enemy. I'm going to read from Proverbs 24. These are the verses we read last week that I didn't want to get into because we're covering it tonight. Proverbs 24 verse 17 says, rejoice not when thy enemy falleth and let not thine heart be glad when he stumblest, lest the Lord see it and it displease him and he turn away his wrath from him. See, God's going to judge. When your enemy falls, he's saying, don't just take a whole bunch of pleasure in that. God's going to deal with that. God's going to deal with that person. If he sees you celebrating and throwing a big party, you know what? God might just say, okay, I was going to punish him some more, but now I'm not going to because of your actions. I was actually going to take care of this situation, but now you're getting all happy and proud and whatever. He's saying, I'd rather have you know your enemy when they're hungry, give them some food, give them some water, deal with them like that. You do that, you're heaping coals of fire on their head. And this is the way that God deals with it because basically what it is, is they have no place to be doing evil unto you if you're just being good unto them. See, God sees stuff like that. If you're doing evil to each other, God's not going to get involved with that. I mean, you're involved in your own fights, you're bringing your own mess upon your head. But if you're involved with someone in a fight and you're just doing good unto them, God looks at that and says, hey, you know, you've got no reason to be doing evil on this other person. They're just doing good to you. He's going to step in and do that judgment. Turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter five, because this matches the New Testament. And again, we're finding things in the Old Testament tonight that completely line up 100% with the New Testament. This concept of loving your enemy has improperly been taught these days that that's just a New Testament teaching. That the God of the Old Testament was this mean God that was just not tolerant of anything and really judgmental, but the New Testament, that's all different. The New Testament now is just everything's great, everyone's good, love everybody. False teaching. But that's what's being taught today, that there's this huge difference between the Old Testament and New Testament. No, the same teaching is taught and it's consistent. And we're going to look at this concept tonight of having enemies and who to love and who to hate. I'm going to teach it, I'm going to show you scriptural examples because the entire Bible needs to be reconciled. And we're going to look at some of these verses. Look at Matthew 5, 43. Jesus said, you have heard that it hath been said. Now when he says you have heard that it hath been said, does that automatically mean that it's in the Bible in the Old Testament? No. If it was written, maybe. But just that it hath been said? No. He says, that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. Now is that in the Bible? No. The Bible does not say love your neighbor and hate your enemy. It doesn't say that anywhere. It says, but I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Now does that line up with what we just saw in Proverbs? Absolutely it does. Absolutely. It's the same exact teaching that we already saw in the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament. This is not something new in God's Word. This is not some new teaching from God. It's new for them, because they have heard that it hath been said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. That's what they were operating under, the people he was talking to. But that is not from Scripture. He's saying love your enemies, be good to them, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, if they're hungry, give them food, if they're thirsty, give them water. That's what we're supposed to do. It matches up perfectly with Matthew chapter 5. Turn if you would to Romans chapter 12. This is not a new teaching. People will look at those verses though and say, see, because Jesus said that, this is some new teaching. No. It was new to them, but it's not new from Scripture. It's not something that He changed or altered from God's Word. Romans 12, look at verse 19. Romans 12, 19, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves. Don't take vengeance, right, when someone does you wrong. But rather give place unto wrath, for it is written. Now this says it is written, not it hath been said. It is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Is that in the Bible? Yes, it is. Vengeance is mine, I will recompense, or I will repay, saith the Lord. That is in the Bible. Don't avenge yourself. God is the revenger. He's the one that's going to bring justice. Verse number 20, therefore, because we know this, because we know God is the judge, because we know God is going to bring vengeance, therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink, for in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Again, this is lining up perfectly with what we're learning in Proverbs. Proverbs 24 and Proverbs 25, same teaching, right? This is the same teaching you'll find. You don't have to turn there. Turn if you would to, you'll have to stay in the New Testament. Turn if you would to James chapter 4. The same teaching, though, that we're going to find on enemies, even in Exodus. In Exodus 23, 4, the Bible reads, if thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. If you have an enemy, and you see their ox, their ass, their livestock is running away, it's getting away. So, do you see that? You go bring it back to that person. I don't care if you hate them. I don't care if they're your enemy. You go bring it back to them. That's what the Bible's teaching. Consistent. Old Testament, New Testament. You can have enemies that hate you, but maybe you don't hate them. In this world, I'm going to go over some different ways to have enemies. People hate you. They could be considered your enemy. If you have someone that you don't have any problems with this person, but they always have problems with you, you still would consider them your enemy even though you're not having any ill will towards them. They're still your enemy. And I think of Saul and David. King David had no ill will towards Saul at all. He had no problems with him. Saul had a problem with David. David referred to Saul as his enemy. Everyone else referred to Saul as his enemy. Saul referred to David as his enemy. But David didn't want anything to do with you. He's just like, look, you're God's anointed. God will take care of things, but I don't have a problem with you. And he proved it by not killing him twice when he could have. He didn't have a problem with him. Or you could have a situation where both people hate each other. You could be enemies that way. You could even be God's enemy based on your own actions. Just like Saul and God. I don't think Saul viewed God as his enemy. Saul wanted God's help. Saul still would say that he believed in the Lord. Saul was a believer. But based on his actions, he became God's enemy. In 1 Samuel 28 verse 16, the Bible says, So we're seeing the usage of this word enemy. This is important. Stay with me on my train of thought and what I'm trying to explain. These different ways that you can be enemies or have an enemy. This is important for understanding the doctrine I'm going to teach tonight. James chapter 4, look at verse number 4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. We can become an enemy of God if we decide to just love this world and love the things of this world. As a believer, you can become God's enemy in that sense. But in none of these situations are we seeing people that are hating on God and that God is their enemy to them. In all these usages, people that one person hates the other person, the other person hates the other, these aren't people that we should be hating. If you have an enemy because someone is just, for whatever reason, they don't like you, that's not someone that you should hate. If you have an enemy because someone does you wrong all the time, whatever the case may be, that's not someone that you should hate. Even if God becomes your enemy because you start loving the things of this world, that doesn't mean that God hates you. You've become his enemy because you're working against him, you're doing all these other things or being a bad testimony or whatever, but it doesn't mean that there's a hatred there. And all the verses that we've seen referring to love your enemies and doing good to them I believe apply to all the examples that I gave you about the different ways you can have enemies. The one place, turn if you want to Psalm 139 because now we're going to look at some other passages that might seem contradictory to this teaching. If you understand what types of enemies we're looking at and we're reading in context the type of people who we're talking about and the ways that you can be an enemy, I think it's pretty clear. This is something I used to struggle with years ago, but it's come very, very clear and I'm firm on this concept here. Psalm 139, look at verse number 19 because, look, the Bible does not contradict itself. It doesn't. You may have some seeming contradictions, it's because you don't understand it properly. We've seen plenty of evidence about the Bible showing of doing good unto your enemies, if they hunger, feeding, you know, bless your enemies, love your enemies. Look at Psalm 139 verse 19 and it's all about loving them, right? We've seen that clearly. So Psalm 139 verse 19, Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God, Depart from me therefore, you bloody men, For they speak against thee wickedly, And thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee, And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred, I count them mine enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart, Try me and know my thoughts, And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting. He says, I hate them with perfect hatred. Perfect hatred. He says, aren't we supposed to love our enemies? Yeah, we are. We're supposed to love our enemies. How can you hate someone with perfect hatred? Does he say, I hate their sin with perfect hatred? No. I hate them with perfect hatred. These are people who hate God, and he says that in the previous verse, verse 21, Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? These are the people who have made God their personal enemy and hate God and have become haters of God. This is the type of person that can end up being your enemy that's not included in the broad sense of love your enemies. The love your enemies applies to all of the other situations where you're going to find enemies in your life, right? People for whatever reason, I mean, there's strife, there's conflict, there's things that go wrong, people that do you wrong, whatever the case may be. Maybe you screwed up and damaged someone else's property and now they hate you and everything else and they become your enemy for all these various reasons. Don't hate those people. Love those people. Do good under those people. And when people do you wrong, do good under them. But the people that have made God their enemy and that actually hate not because they're getting into sin and the lust of this world, but because they hate God, because they're consciously just hating God and completely against Him and are a child of the devil. Those are the people that you hate with a perfect hatred. Psalm 68, verse number one, if you want to flip back to Psalm 68, we're going to look at Psalm 68 and Psalm 58. Because look, these verses have to be reconciled. You have to be able to say, well, how does this fit? How does this tie in with everything? Because it's not even just this one Psalm that talks about this concept of hating someone, especially in light of loving your enemies. Psalm 68, verse one, Baba reads, let God arise. Let his enemies be scattered. Let them also that hate him flee before him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. As wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish. At the presence of God. That's a cursing. That's a cursing on certain people. That is saying, let these people die. Let God devour them. Let God kill them. That's not very loving. That's not a very loving thing to say about some people. But who are these people? They're God's enemies that hate Him, that hate God. The people that just have hatred towards God. These are the people you're not giving food to and giving water to and loving them and everything else. Psalm 58, you want to go back 10 more chapters, Psalm 58, verse number 10. Even stronger language. The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. So that a man shall say, verily there is a reward for the righteous. Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth. You're talking about washing your feet in the blood and being happy about it, rejoicing about it. Why? Because it's talking about the wicked, the wicked that hate God. Not just wicked because we're all wicked, we're all sinners. We're talking about the extreme sense of the word wicked where it's like, they are just total haters of God. Turn if you would to Romans chapter 1. There are people that hate God and they count God as their enemy. This is that one instance where we are not to love them. That's not what the Bible was referring to when Jesus said, broadly love your enemies when we're reading in Proverbs 24 and Proverbs 25. This is taught also, I'm going to read for you from 2 Chronicles 19 if you want to take a note of this. It's actually a pretty important verse. 2 Chronicles 19 verse number 2, Bible reads, And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. God's wrath is upon Jehoshaphat because he loved the people that hate God. You say, well I thought I was supposed to love my enemies. You are. But not the people that hate God. When you start loving the people that hate God, you're going to bring God's wrath on you. And this is consistent teaching, that's why I'm showing you, I want to prove this from scripture because we're looking at it, I mean, how else are you going to reconcile these verses? How else are you going to reconcile this being a righteous thing for Jehu the son of Hanani the seer, who's acting as a prophet of God to speak unto Jehoshaphat, these words being written in scripture, saying, Should you help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? He was helping the ungodly, which was the wicked nation of Israel at that time, who had rejected God, who had rejected the Lord, who had turned to Baal worship, who had turned to idols, and were living completely wickedly, he was loving them. He was helping them. He was giving them food, he was giving them help, he was giving them strength. And that brought God's wrath on them. So that's not what I meant when I said love your enemies, because those are the people that hate God. Romans chapter 1, verse 28, we're going to start reading. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. See, now we're getting back to the reprobate concept, people who are rejected. And when you read earlier in context, in Romans 1, you see that they knew God, they glorified him not as God, but they came vain in their own imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. They knew who God was, they know salvation, they rejected it, they have nothing to do with it. So just like they didn't want to even keep those thoughts in their mind, they don't want to know anything about God. They didn't want to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient, and then it describes their attributes. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, deceit, malignity, whisperers, look at verse 30, backbiters, haters of God. They hate God. And then it goes on and on, to swifle proud, boasters, and vendors of evil, it just lists all of their wickedness, how they're implacable and unmerciful, but listed in there as the haters of God, it's important. These are the people who are reprobated that just hate God. They hate him. They have nothing to do with him. These are people that are fighting the hardest against everything right and everything good. We are not to love those people. We're not to love them. Those are the enemies, the enemies of God, they have made God their enemy, that is not included in the love your enemies. And just to prove that all of this stuff is taught in the Old Testament just as well as in the New, if you want to turn to Leviticus 19, verse number 18, see most people don't realize all of the stuff that's taught in the Old Testament, because all they do is read the New Testament, and they think that all this stuff is just new teaching. And all of Leviticus, that's just the law, right, I mean that's just this old stuff that who cares about that anymore, we're free from the law, we're under grace, so why do we even need to bother reading Leviticus anymore? A lot of reasons to read Leviticus. Look at verse 18 in chapter 19, it reads, Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, I am the Lord. Love your neighbor as thyself, that sounds familiar. That's taught in the New Testament. It's also taught in the Old Testament, it's also taught in the law of God. It's a concept that is timeless that hasn't changed at all. The teachings are the same. It's not this concept in the New Testament where, oh, God's done away with who we should love and who we should hate. It's not. It's consistent throughout the Bible. And it's funny because Leviticus 19, loving your neighbor as yourself, is smack dab in between Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20. Leviticus 18, verse 22 says, Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind, it is abomination. And Leviticus 20, 13 says, If a man also lie with mankind as he lie with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination, they shall surely be put to death, their blood shall be upon them. And the reason why I even bring those up is because people will tell you, oh, well, the New Testament says you need to love your neighbor as yourself, so we need to love the Sodomites. Well, the Old Testament says you need to love your neighbor as yourself too, but right in between those two are the verses calling sodomy, homosexuality, and abomination as worthy of death. It's a consistent teaching. It's not something that's changed in the New Testament. It's all right. It's righteous. And it's consistent throughout God's Word. Let's go back to Proverbs 25. We're going a little bit over time tonight, but I'm almost done. That was pretty much, I wanted to prove that to you and to show you. And look, you say, Pastor Burzins, I still think we need to love all of our enemies. Well then, you'll have to come and tell me how do you reconcile the other verses that we read tonight, and I've got some more for you too. I just didn't want to invest the entire time tonight to this one topic. I can show you some more verses. You know, in Ecclesiastes, the Bible says there's a time to love and a time to hate. Well, is there a time to hate? I think there is. No, I think it's few and far between. I don't think it's, you know, it's not something that should just typify our existence as Christians that we're just like super hateful. Of course not. But I mean, the reprobate is such a small percentage of the entire population anyways. And we were talking one or two percent of the people that we would call a hater of God, an enemy of someone who just can't stand God. That is a very, very small percentage. But see, people want to blow that up and make a big deal out of it, oh, I can't believe you believe that. Well, it's trying to do right with Scripture. It's trying to understand God's Word, and to me it makes perfect sense. Proverbs 25, let's finish this out. Verse number 23. The north wind driveth away rain, so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue. And I think I've already taught this in Proverbs, but it's important, I'm just going to briefly mention it again. Backbiting is a really wicked thing to do, talking about people behind their back and spreading rumors and gossiping and stuff like that. And this is the type of thing that can literally split churches. And we're not at that point yet right now at all. I mean, we're so small, it's not an issue at all. But I want everybody here to understand this concept in case, or as this church grows and we get bigger, or maybe if you even go to some other church and it's a bigger church, you know, be aware of this because it can do serious damage to the church when people are backbiting. And the way that we prevent that, the way that we stop it dead in its tracks is when someone comes to you with backbiting about somebody else, you give them an angry countenance. What does that mean? A mean look. Give them a dirty look. What makes you think, I want to be a part of your backbiting? I want nothing to do with it. Yeah, but it's true that I don't want to hear it. This doesn't involve me. You need to stop it right there. You say, yeah, but that seems kind of rude. I don't know, what are they, hey, that's a very serious sin. I don't care if it's rude. I don't care if it makes you uncomfortable and them uncomfortable. If you want this to stop and if you care about the church that you're in, you're going to put that to a stop real quick. Hopefully, you know, if you do that, you will be a wise reprover. That is an act of being a wise reprover and hopefully it will fall on an obedient ear. Oftentimes these things happen without people really thinking very much about them and the gossip starts spreading without a whole lot of, you know, ill intent necessarily. Sometimes there is ill intent, but sometimes it's just people just wanting to talk. You give them that dirty look, you know, it will stop and hopefully they'll just be humble enough and it's just going to be needed. And you know what? If they're right with God and if their heart's right, they're going to love you more for it. Amen. They really will. Verse number 24, it is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop than with a brawling woman in a white house. We've covered that before. Verse 25, as cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country and that kind of fits in with what we were talking about earlier with just the good words and how powerful it could be and how edifying and helpful it could be. Verse 26, a righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain and a corrupt spring. We already did verse 27. Verse 28, he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls. You're defenseless. You have rule over your own spirit. You're going to be easy, an easy market, an easy target. You need to be able to control yourself. We need to be able to control our spirit. Anyone who's having any type of issues controlling their spirit, controlling your actions, controlling the things that you do, my recommendation, and it's always been, and I believe this to work. I believe it works very well. Try fasting. Fasting. When I talk about fasting, withholding things from yourself and again, that's an entire sermon on itself. I'll probably do a sermon on that again real soon. But the concept of fasting is you're withholding not only food, but pleasures, all kinds of things from yourself and you are exhibiting control over your own body. There's lots of reasons to fast. Usually you're fasting and you're going into prayer of God and you're humbling yourself and all these various things, but if you need to control your spirit, you need to control your flesh, you want to control and be in charge and be temperate over yourself, try fasting. I do it from time to time just to keep myself in check. I feel like I'm getting into some sins or something. I need to stop this and I'm in charge. My flesh is not in charge. The spirit's going to be in charge. I'm going to put a stop to this right now. I'm just going to fast. I'm going to withhold that fleshly appetite for my gut to eat food and everything else because I'm in charge. I want the spirit to be in charge. I don't want my flesh deciding what I'm going to do. Just a little bit of advice for you to help you gain control of your spirit. When you're not in control, you're going to be ripe for the attacks. That's about right. Let's have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for all the wisdom that we can glean from your word. God, I pray that you would please bless this church. Bless everyone here tonight. Lord, help us to be more wise. Help us to understand good doctrine, dear Lord. We know that there are no contradictions. We know that you don't speak out of both sides of your mouth. Help our limited understanding. Help our little minds to comprehend these great truths that you have in your word, dear Lord. I pray that all the things that I teach would only be good and right in compliance with your word. Lord, I pray that you would please help us all to be diligent in the things that we hear and to study out matters for ourselves, dear Lord, that we wouldn't be deceived, that we could trust and know that what we believe is true based on your word, dear Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.