(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) Amen. All right, so, James, chapter one. So before we get started, I just wanted to say that, you know, if the driveway is open when you get here, you're more than welcome to park in there, or on the dirt there, it's fine. Just, there's rocks that are blocking the spill-resistant vacuum breaker that's popping out of the ground, so you won't run over that. If it's too warm in here, just let Jessica know, or somebody know, and we can adjust the heat. Is everybody okay? Too warm, or too cold, or anything? Okay. So, what I'm preaching about this morning is how to get wisdom. You know, the Bible has a lot to say about these three subjects, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. And so from time to time, it's necessary to visit these subjects, just because there's so much written in the Bible about it, you know, and we as Christians, we need to be wise in our lives, you know, not just with biblical things, although that is the most important as far as, you know, being a believer, but, you know, honestly, we have a lot of people today that walk around this planet that have a lot of knowledge, but they're not wise. I mean, think about it, you can go down to Boise State University and talk to a bunch of people that are going to tell you you evolved from a rock, or a monkey, or, um, take your pick. I don't know, one of these trees out here, I mean, it just depends on which guy you run into. You know, and the Bible says that knowledge puffeth up, right? Everybody's probably heard that before, right? Knowledge puffeth up. Now, does that mean we shouldn't have knowledge, or we should limit our seeking of knowledge? And the answer is no. Knowledge without application, knowledge without gaining wisdom is pride, it's prideful. So the remedy to that, the remedy to not getting puffed up, yet still increasing in knowledge is to learn how to get wisdom. So look down at James chapter one there, look at verse number five, look at verse number five. It says, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given to him. Now we're gonna come back to that verse, but we're gonna take a little bit of a commercial break here. Go, uh, go to James chapter one, I'm sorry, just look at verse one. It says, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes, which are scattered abroad. Greeting. Now, I don't know if this is just my lot in life, but I've been in so many churches, I've heard so many sermons, and even as I was preparing the sermon, I went on the internet and just kind of looked at what people would say. And it seems like the liberals and even, you know, a lot of the Zionist type churches, when they read anything in James, they'll often say, well, you gotta be careful here because this is written to the Jews. Now is that what it says there in verse one? Does it say Jews? No, it doesn't say that. It says to the 12 tribes, which are scattered abroad. Greeting. And so you may have never heard this before, or you might have the question, okay, well, how do I know that this verse applies to me? Because I have literally sat in a church before where a pastor said that if any of you lack wisdom that the Jew is the one that gets the wisdom. That's why they have all the money. I've heard that said before several times. And if you're here on Wednesday, we completely destroyed that when in our Galatians chapter three, but it's just ridiculous. And so I just want to arm you with a response with, you know, a little bit of a background here. So turn to Genesis chapter 17, and we're going to see that that is not true, that this applies to all of us. James chapter five says that if you, as a born again, Bible believing Christian asked God for wisdom, that he will give it to you. And so we're going to prove that now it doesn't say to the Jews, it says to the 12 tribes scattered abroad. And you know, a lot of times people will just interchange the word Hebrew and Jew or the, you know, just, just, just to, just because they've been brainwashed, they've been defiled in their mind. Now, while you're turning to Genesis 17, I'm just going to read this to you. First Samuel 13, 19, it says, now there was no Smith found throughout all the land of Israel for the Philistines said, lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears. So what you're going to learn is that there was a time in the Old Testament where the term Jew was not even found. So if you were to go back into Samuel's day and call somebody a Jew, they probably would not have understood what you were talking about. Or if you called somebody from the, you know, a different tribe of Jew, like maybe the tribe of Dan, for example, you know, they might've took issue with that and wanted to fight you or something, you know, because you know, they had a little bit of rivalry between the tribes now and then, but nonetheless, you're going to find the term Hebrew before you find the term Jew. And so it's just important to understand that. So I had you turn to Genesis 17 because we're going to see that a stranger born in the land would become part of the tribe wherein they dwell. And see, that's the big issue that we have today is people say that, well, you know, if you're a Jew, you can get this wisdom, you can get all these blessings. They have such an advantage and that really isn't true. They want you to believe that it's just an ethnic, a racial thing that you have no part of. You're just a dog that has to nibble on the crumbs underneath the table, you know, and no, that's not true. Even back in Abraham's day, even before that, people that weren't of Abraham, that weren't Hebrews could become part of the nation of Israel. So look down there, verse nine, Genesis 17, nine, it says, and God said to Abraham, thou shall keep my covenant, therefore thou and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which he shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee. Every man child among you shall be circumcised and you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. Verse 12 and he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you. Every man child in your generations. Now look at this next part. He that is born in the house or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. So we can see here that even somebody who was a stranger, even somebody that was bought, even somebody that was not born after Abraham's flesh could become part of the nation. Now look at verse 13, he that is born in thy house and he that is bought with thy money must needs be circumcised in my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. Now I want you to notice again the last few words of this verse in verse 13 says, and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. Now keep your place there cause we are going to come back to Genesis later, but go to Romans chapter four because Abraham was already saved before this point, I don't have time to get into that. That's going to be a topic for another day, but Abraham was already saved before he got circumcised and you need to be able to explain this to people. So turn to Romans chapter four and just look at verse 11 because remember what we just read. God said, and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. So Romans chapter four, look at verse 11. This is talking about Abraham. Actually back up to, back up to verse four, we're just going to read from verse four to 11. It won't take that long. It says, now to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace but of debt, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. So again, we talked about this on Wednesday that, uh, Paul often uses the Old Testament as an example of how faith is without works. Look at verse seven saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Right? So again, why would that be said in the Old Testament if it was a combination of faith and works? It doesn't make sense. Now look at verse eight. The man to whom the Lord will not impute sin cometh this blessedness upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also. And then he says, for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness, right? So how was Abraham saved? Was he saved by getting circumcised or by faith? Then the answer is by faith. Verse 10, how was it then reckoned when he was in circumcision or an uncircumcision? And then he goes on, look at this next part, not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. Verse 11, and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised. So he had this faith before he got circumcised that he might be the father of all them that believe. Do you think that people in Abraham's house believe the gospel? Of course they did. Were they all of Hebrew blood? Look, I've said this before. The first Hebrew was a Syrian. The first Hebrew was a Gentile. The first Hebrew was not a Hebrew at one point in his life and it's the same with the stranger. It's the same with us today. So the rest of the verse there says that he might be the father of all them that believe though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also. Now turn to second Kings chapter 15, second Kings, yeah, second Kings 16, second Kings chapter 16. And while you're turning there, I'm going to read for you Leviticus 19 34, which says, but the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you and thou shall love him as thyself for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God. Now remember, I'm preaching about wisdom today, but it's important to understand it that God's promise is to all of us, not just to the Jews. Even in the old Testament, Leviticus chapter 19, I mean, you can write this down. Verse 34 says, but the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you. Right? Now that, what does that do? That destroys Zionism right there and thou shall love him as thyself for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God. Okay. So what does that saying? That says that when James says to the 12 tribes scattered abroad, that applies to us. So you're there in second Kings 16, look at verse five. So we're going to see the first time that the word Jew appears in the Bible. Second Kings 16, look at verse five. Then resin King of Syria and Pekah son of Ramiah King of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him. So what do we see here right off the bat in this verse, you see the King of Syria and the King of Israel. That's kind of weird, right? Look at verse six. At that time, resin King of Syria recovered Elath to Syria and drave the Jews from Elath and the Syrians came to Elath and dwelt there unto this day. I just think it's funny that the first time the word Jew is used, it's used in with Israel coming against Judah. So what you have going on here is the kingdom has already been split and I've talked about this before and I have time to get into it, but you know, the story, you know, Jeroboam took the 10 tribes. He went north, that became Israel. He set up the two golden calves, one in Dan, one in Bethel. And that's a picture of the democratic and Republican party. I always like to throw that in there. You know, these two false ideologies, you know, they're both wrong. They should have all gone down to Judah and worshiped according to God's, you know, laws and his, his ways. But they didn't. And so you look at, look at the verse though. It says, and King and resin King of Syria recovered Elath to Syria and drave the Jews. So that's, so now you start to see where the Bible says that a Jew was somebody from Judah and Judah was a place where generally most of the Kings were actually seeking God and they were doing things, you know, most of the time they were doing things according to God's will. And so I just wanted you to see that. And then back in the old Testament, now we see that the term Jew applies to the people that were, you know, obviously the Israelites that time, Jeroboam's people, those were still God's people, right? That was still the nation of Israel, but they weren't Jews. There's a distinction made here and it's important for us to understand that. Now turn to Acts. Just go to, I'm sorry, go back to, go back to Romans. I should have told you to keep your place in Romans. Hope you did. Just go back to Romans, go over to Romans chapter two. So we can see that when Abraham comes on the scene in the Bible, God makes a covenant with him. And then you start to see a nation being built, right? You get to see the Hebrew people. And then after Solomon's death, when Rehoboam comes on the scene, there's a break. There's a, there's a civil war there. There's a fracture in that. And there is no longer just the nation of Israel regarding 12 tribes as we know it. Now you have the Jews, which stuck in Judea and obviously the tribe of Benjamin. And then you have the Israelites, which were, which followed Jeroboam. So they're all Hebrews, right? These Jews that we're talking about in second Kings 16, those are Hebrews too, but those, that term Jew was used to, to, to the nation of Judah, if that makes sense, the nation of Judah that served God. So you're there in Romans chapter two. I'm just going to read for you Acts chapter two, verse five, which says, cause we're going to go ahead and fast forward here, right? So we see the term Jews and, and I wish I had more time to get into this, but I don't. But Acts two, five says, and there was, and there were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. So we're kind of fast forwarding now. So you see the first time that Jew was used in second Kings to describe people that were from Judah, that followed the Kings of Judah that wanted to serve God, that didn't rebel. And then you fast forward to the new Testament, we are, we got, we got Acts and then we can see that there's, there's men of all nationalities, of all nations, devout men that were Jews. And you know, like we could go to Esther and we could take a lot of time to prove this, but hopefully this, this'll settle it for you. So look there, you're Romans two, look at verse 28, Romans two 28. So we're going to move forward again here and learn what a Jew is. Cause what is a Jew according to God says for he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men, but of God. So we can see that a Jew is somebody who is one inwardly. It's somebody who's saved, somebody who's born again. Somebody in here that is saved, you're a Jew according to God, you're of the spiritual nation of Israel, just like we saw in second Kings, those people were of God. They were following God's ways. They were, I'm not saying they were all saved. We don't know, but nonetheless, you know, it's the same thing today. It's not after race. Look, God's not a respecter of persons is what I'm trying to say. So if you being saved are a Jew and you know, James says that to the 12 tribes, which are scattered abroad, you can see how this applies to you, right? I mean, we just read in Leviticus that it says, but the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you and thou shalt love him as thyself for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. So if even in the old Testament, a stranger could become part of the 12 tribes, then why wouldn't it be the same today? And it is right because we know that we are Jews. So go back to James chapter one and look at verse five. I just wanted to get that out of the way because there's a lot of deceivers out there. There's a lot of people puffed up with knowledge on the internet. There's a lot of people puffed up with knowledge at these doors around here, you know, and one of the biggest Baptist churches in this town will, will teach that. They'll say that this, you gotta be careful when you're eating James because you can't get wisdom from it because it doesn't apply to you. You don't automatically get it because you're not of Jewish blood. And that's a lie. That's just a straight lie. It's not true. You don't have to be of Jewish blood to get wisdom. You don't have to be of Jewish blood to have lessons in James apply to you. It's just ridiculous. So look at verse five. It says, if any of you lack wisdom, let them ask of God to give it to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given to him. So what's the first step you're sitting here today? Okay, just get on with it. What do I have to do to be wise? I just want to wisdom, right? The first thing we need to learn here is if you lack wisdom. So everybody in here lacks wisdom. We all do. We can all become more and more wise, some more than others, but it says if you lack wisdom, so be honest with yourself and just do an honest assessment, say, you know what? I need wisdom in this area of my life. I need wisdom regarding the Bible. I need wisdom regarding whatever it is. You know, you're a homeschool mom, you're a busy dad, you're working, you know, you need wisdom to make it in this life because that's what's going to save your health for one, right? So you're not getting all stressed out. But nonetheless, an honest assessment with yourself, right? If any of you lack wisdom, you have to know that you lack wisdom in order to want to ask God for it. So number two is obviously going to be to ask, but you might be sitting here, okay, that's wisdom. Just get on with it. Turn to Proverbs chapter 11. I'm going to spend a lot of time in Proverbs today because the Proverbs teach us a great deal about wisdom. So a simple definition of wisdom is the right use of knowledge, right? In order to be wise, you have to have knowledge, but you have to know how to use it correctly. Wisdom is knowledge applied. For example, if you take the stuff that I just showed you and you learn that right about how, hey, even people that were strangers in the Old Testament were grafted into the tribe wherein they dwell, it's the same today in the New Testament. God's not a respecter of persons. If you are able to teach that to somebody, you have now become wise. You have become, you can see how you've used wisdom. You know, a computer is not going to give you wisdom. A smartphone is not going to give you wisdom. A tablet is not going to give you wisdom. Yeah, computers, smartphones, I mean, they have a ton of information stored on them, right? They have a ton. But you're, it's not going to make you wise. Wisdom comes from God when we ask for it and it comes from life experience. It comes from actually doing work. See there in Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 11, look at verse 30. It says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise. We have that poster right there, that placard of this verse right there. And this I thought is the perfect verse to kind of explain what wisdom is. It says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise. So who's wise? Somebody who wins souls. Well, how do you win souls? You have to use the knowledge that you've learned and you have to apply it. You have to teach it, right? Winneth means action. That is wisdom. When you use knowledge, that is wisdom. So like I said, you using what you learn in teaching it, that is wise. So look back there at James chapter one, look at verse five again. No, I'm sorry. Yeah. Proverbs, don't, don't turn back to James. Go to Proverbs chapter one. So again, if any of you lack wisdom, right? So what's the first thing we have to do? We have to be honest with ourselves. We need to, we need to know that we have a lack thereof. We have to be humble enough to admit that to ourselves. And number two, it says, let him ask of God. And it says that he gave us to all men liberally, right? God is not going to just give you a little bit of wisdom, right? When you ask God for wisdom, there's obviously, there may be things in your life you have to get right. That you have to turn around, that you have to put aside before he can give you more. But nonetheless, God wants to give you wisdom liberally. That means abundantly, right? He's just going to give you so much wisdom that you're not going to, I mean, you're going to be overwhelmed. You're going to be baffled by it. That's what, that's what it means there. When he says that giveth to all men liberally, and it says that he upbraideth not. He's not going to chastise you or scourge you or talk down to you because you've asked him for wisdom. God wants every single one of us to have wisdom in our lives. And like I said, obviously with his word, right? But also in your jobs, men, also in your, you know, moms with your, your, your homeschool, God wants you to be wise. God has a plan for us and he needs us to be wise. So you go to Proverbs chapter one, look at verse five, Proverbs one, five. So we have to be humble to get wisdom. You have to be, you have to have a certain amount of humility in order to be wise. You have to ask God. Now look at Proverbs one, look at verse five. It says a wise man will hear and will increase learning. Now stop right there. Has anybody in here ever been puffed up with pride or talk to somebody full of pride? And obviously the answer is yes. Okay. So when you're talking to somebody that is very prideful, very boastful, do they listen to what you say or does it just go right over the head and then they just tell you about how great they are and how they've one upped you and everything, right? Exactly. You see what I'm saying? You have to have humility. And so it says a wise man will hear. If you want to be wise, you need to listen to people. You need to listen. You need to be able to hear instruction. So a wise man will hear and will increase learning and a man of understanding shall attain to wise counsel. So turn to Proverbs chapter eight. So number one, right off the bat here in this verse, a wise man will hear. The Bible says in Proverbs eight 33, hear instruction and be wise and refuse it not. Look, if you want wisdom, you can't just come to the Bible being like, okay, I've listened to 80 sermons a day for the last two years. I know everything. Do you think God's going to bless that? No, because you're not listening. You're not hearing. You're not reading. You're not doing what he says. You have no humility at that point. You can't approach God's word with a prideful puffed up attitude and expect him to give you wisdom. It is not going to happen. That's why he says a wise man will hear. You have got to get yourself, get your heart in a place where you will hear instruction. If you want God to give you wisdom, hear instruction and be wise and refuse it not. All right. So did I have you turn in Proverbs eight? Yeah, I did. Okay. Look at verse 10. Number two, a wise man will increase learning. A wise man will increase learning. Look at verse 10, receive my instruction and not silver in knowledge rather than choice gold. Right? So what does that mean? It means we ought not to just seek after the riches and the pleasures of this world. I'm not saying it's wrong if you have a lot of money, but nonetheless, don't put that above knowledge. Look, you guys, if you want more money, you want, you know, you want better benefits. You know, it would be wise for you to listen to your boss. It would be wise for you to seek out the guys in your jobs and your companies that are smarter than you and be willing to admit that and learn from them. Read books. I mean, do whatever you have to do. Watch, watch videos. I mean, go to YouTube, learn your job well. And another good thing to do is to try to learn your boss's job. You know, once you have yours dialed in, I mean, don't stop learning there, but then you should be comfortable enough to learn your boss's job. Because when you do that, then you, you have displayed a level of trust there. And he can say, you know what, I'm not going to be here these days, you know, could you fill in for me? Right? That is a wise thing to do. That's how you're going to get advanced. That's how you're going to get more gold into your, your pocket there. It says a wise man will increase learning. You know, it's the same thing. We all want to raise our kids to grow up, to be very knowledgeable, to be very wise. So moms, a lot of times they get bogged down, you know, just like, I don't know where to start. You know, I've got this many kids, you know, I remember Jessica when we first started homeschooling like, man, what are we going to do? We've got Caden over here, you know, he's, he's playing with Play-Doh and throwing balls, Play-Doh against the wall and the girls are wanting to learn and don't shake your head. You know, it's true. I'm just kidding. He's good. He's, he's doing good. But nonetheless, you know, it's like we had them so close together, you know, they're only three years apart, but yet that could be a big difference. You know, it's like one kid's in this book here and Jessica's like pulling her hair out, you know? And so what did she do? She had to seek counsel. She had to read books. She had to watch seminars. She had to talk to people that had gone through that and get her priorities right so she could plan so that she could calendar her time, right? So that she could execute the homeschool program and so that the kids can move on. Because what's the world going to say? The world's going to say, oh, you should take your kids to the government day camps and go to public school and that's where you're going to get smart and that's where they're going to get wisdom. But you know what? Is that true? Is that a correct thing? No, it's not. Look, go knock on some of these doors during soloing and talk to some of these kids. They don't know anything these days. Yeah. I mean, they can tell you, you know, some stuff they just read off of an article on their smartphone. You can pull it up and be like, oh yeah, I know, I know how to explain the components of rocket fuel, you know, but they can tell you who Moses is. We're running into people around here that have never heard of Moses or Abraham. Jessica ran into somebody that the other day that didn't, wasn't sure who Jesus was and she was, she was honest about that. I mean that, that was a serious thing. That's a serious problem in this community. Nonetheless, receive instruction, receive my instruction and not silver and knowledge rather than choice gold. So the second step in gaining wisdom is to get more knowledge, right? But you don't want to get prideful with it, right? Because knowledge does puff up. So you want to use that knowledge. Look, when you learn something, you need to use it right away because what happens when you learn something new, you're probably going to stumble a few times. You're probably going to trip up, you know, you're going to make mistakes and that should keep you humble, but you need to keep on going. Okay. And then once you get it down, don't be so puffed with, Oh, I got this down. Oh, I memorized the book of James. You know, I'm good. I'm just going to sit on, I'm just going to sit down and I'm done. No, you need to keep moving forward. You need to keep gaining knowledge, right? It's the same thing at your job. Don't just stick in one position, you know? Okay. You're a manager now. That's fine. You can get that next level up, right? And the way you're going to do that is by increasing your knowledge with your profession. So number three, it says a wise man will hear, that's step one and increase learning step two and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel. So number three, a wise man will attain unto wise counsel. What does that mean? Go to Proverbs chapter 11. If you want wisdom, you need to seek out wise counsel. I have people that I can counsel with. I can call pastor Jimenez. Sometimes I have to, you know, he might be getting tired of me, but I got to give him a break. He said, wait 60 days before you call me and a couple of people quit the church. Then, then we'll talk. No, he didn't say that, but nonetheless, you know, I'm new at this, right? I need people to counsel me. I need people to help me because I'm what I haven't even been, well, actually today's one month. There's a 17. So I've been a pastor for a month come what, seven 30, seven 30 tonight, you know, I need help too. I need wise counsel. I need to learn things. We all do. See there in Proverbs 11, look at verse 14 says where no counsel is that people fall, but in the multitudes of counselors, there is safety and the multitude of counselors. There is safety. You know, sometimes it's good to have more than one counselor so that, you know, you have a system of checks and balances, you know, that's a good thing there, but it says where no counsel is that people fall and you can apply that to anything, right? If you go to work and you're working day after day and you know, you're just not willing to listen to anybody, you're not willing to put your pride aside and actually listen to the guys that are wiser than you, even though they might be younger than you, you know, and that's a big problem in the workforce today, right? You might have a guy that's like 21, 22 years old, you know, and he knows more than you do because he's been doing it his whole life or because there's just smart people on this planet and they just know, you know, you'd be wise to listen to what they say. If you can see their results, you could see their fruits. You know, it's a good thing to listen to them, you know, righteous counsel. Go to Proverbs chapter 20 and while you're turning there, I'm gonna read for you Psalms 1-1. It says, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. So if you want to be blessed in your seek for counsel, seek counsel from people that aren't ungodly, okay? Now obviously at work, you're going to have people that know more than you that are ungodly. There are people that are not saved that know more about homeschooling than you do, right? You just have to have discernment. You have to be able to look and say, okay, I see what that, what they're doing. That works. That's good. That's producing fruits. And you know, you can glean counsel. You can glean a benefit from that. But what Psalms 1-1 saying is, hey, you know, don't walk in the counsel of the ungodly because these ungodly wicked people out here, they're not going to teach you anything good. All you have to do is turn on your TV and you're going to see a wide array of ungodly counsel. That is not wise. You know, that is just going to set you up for failure. And especially as a believer, you know, you have it harder. You have it harder than just the average unsafe person. You know, you disobey God, you know, there's going to come a point in time where he might bring out that rod of correction on you and you're not going to like it. So Proverbs chapter 20, look at verse 18, it says, every purpose is established by counsel and with good advice make war. Look, it is a good thing to get advice before you go to war, before you go out and do your, you know, your daily duties, no matter where you're at in life, you know, whether you're a kid, you know, you need advice, you know, don't be making decisions without asking your parents because your parents are, you know, wise, they've lived longer than you have. They know better, you know, you going into adulthood, you know, they know a thing or two, you know, about paying bills. They know a thing or two about responsibilities and it would be wise for you to listen to them and to reap their counsel. So real quick here, just a quick recap, Proverbs 1 5 says, a wise man will hear and will increase learning and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. So number one, a wise man will hear. Number two, a wise man will increase learning. Number three, a wise man will attain unto wise counsel. So we're going to shift gears here a little bit and I want to give you three examples of what it means to be unwise, okay? We talked about how to get wisdom and we'll go over it again real quick before the end of the sermon, but sometimes I think it's helpful to see the opposite, right? The Bible talks a lot about foolish people, about unwise things, and we need to know what that looks like so that we can steer clear of that. So you're there in Proverbs 18, go to Proverbs chapter 19. Proverbs chapter 19, you know, it's a good idea to learn from the mistakes of others and you can tell that the Bible is written by God and preserved by God because it's full of mistakes by others. So the Proverbs 19, look at verse 27, it says, cease my son to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge. One more time, cease, right? Meaning stop. It says, cease my son to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge. So apparently on this earth, there is instruction that can cause you to err from words of knowledge, from good doctrine, and like I just said, turn on your TV, a perfect example of this verse. And he's saying, if you want to be wise, it would behoove you to not hear the instruction that causes people to err from knowledge. Now go to Job chapter 14, because we don't want to listen to teaching that is contrary to righteousness, right? We want to hear the instruction that's going to give us knowledge so that we can use that to become wise. So example number one is going to be called words of knowledge. I want to give you an example of some words of knowledge. I just picked three random things to go over here and the first one is vaccines. So you're there in Job chapter 14, look at verse four, right? Now if you're into vaccines, that's fine, you know, we're not going to kick you out of church. I'm not going to argue about it. I've been vaccinated probably more than everybody in this room because I was in the military for eight years. Um, but I want you to, I want you to look at this verse here because here's some words of knowledge. Job 14 for who can bring a clean thing, sorry, out of an unclean, not one, one more time. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean, not one. So according to that verse, if you believe the Bible, if you believe God's word is true, the Bible says that you cannot bring something clean out of something unclean. Does that, does that make sense? It is impossible. It is not going to happen. Now just listen to this. I went to cdc.gov and I got a list of, uh, I went to one of their pro vaccine pages and just, uh, there's a little section that says ingredients and vaccines. What do we just, what do we just read that you can't get something clean out of something unclean, right? Here's a list of ingredients that are in vaccines. Number one, preservatives, thimerosal. It says only in multi and only in multi dose vials of flu. And then it says the purpose is to prevent contamination. What is thimerosal? It's a form of mercury. Is that clean? No, it isn't. I don't have time to take you to Leviticus and read to you all the things that are clean and unclean, but I think it's pretty safe to say that putting mercury in your body is not a clean thing, right? Number two, it says adjuvants, aluminum salts, purpose to help stimulate the body's response to the antigens. So the second thing they say that are in most, this is just a general list. These, these things are in most vaccines. They say aluminum salts. You want me to melt down some aluminum cans and just serve them over there where the coffee and donuts are? Would you chug that? That's not clean. It's not, it's not clean, right? So right off the bat, the first two things are unclean. Do you think that you can get healthy? Do you think you can make your body clean by pumping that crap into your body? Not according to the Bible, not if you want to be wise. What did we read? Cease my son to hear the instruction that causes to air from the words of knowledge, right? If you were to just listen to the CDC, they would cause you to air from the words of knowledge because we read in Job who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean and the answer is not one. Here's another thing, stabilizers, sugars, gelatin to keep the vaccine potent during transportation and storage, okay? And Brother Rick told me that they put that in there because sugar feeds cancer. Where's Rick? There he is. Right? Yeah, he's going to come up here and give us a briefing at the end about the diet that he's on. Just kidding. All right, number four, residual cell culture materials, egg protein. Okay, look, I can just, if you want eggs, just crack some on the skillet back here. Look, you can go in my kitchen right after the sermon, okay, and make yourself some eggs. You don't need to go get them pumped into you through a needle. But egg protein, to grow enough of the virus or bacteria to make the vaccine. Okay, so virus, bacteria, are those things clean? Do you think you're going to get healthy by pumping that into your body? Not according to the Bible. Number five, residual inactive ingredients, formaldehyde. They put formaldehyde in there to kill viruses or inactive toxins during the manufacturing process. Number six or seven, however many of these are, says neomycin to prevent contamination by bacteria during the vaccine manufacturing process. And I've also heard that they put aborted fetal cells in these. But formaldehyde, that one there kind of jumped out at me. Here's the definition of formaldehyde, it is a colorless, strong smelling gas used in making building materials and many household products. It is used in pressed wood products, such as particle board, plywood, fiber board, glues and adhesives, permanent press fabrics, paper products, coatings, and certain insulation materials. So this is your government telling you this stuff, okay? You see why it's important to be wise, why you should get knowledge, why you should apply your knowledge? Does that sound clean? Does formaldehyde sound clean? Do you really think you're going to get healthy? What's healthier, right? Carrot or pumping formaldehyde into your body? It's sad that I have to stand up here and use these examples today to preach to you. I mean, it's just, but that's the state that we live in. This is the world that we live in today, you know, and you're not going to get this at a lot of other churches around here in this country because they're bought and paid for because they don't want to lose people because they don't have the spirit because they don't have wisdom. They don't have knowledge, but look, I don't want to see people get hurt, right? You just need to understand that you're not going to get clean. You are not going to get healthy by putting unhealthy things in your body. And by the way, it's the same thing spiritually as well, which we've talked about. So here's, here's a little bit about their website, what they said. So here's, here's some, here's some words of instruction that would cause you to err from the words of knowledge. It says today the only childhood vaccines used routinely in the United States that contain thimerosal or mercury. So they're already telling you it's unhealthy. They're already telling you that it's unclean, right? Because they're like the only childhood vaccines that are routinely used in the US that have thimerosal or mercury are flu vaccines in multi-dose vials. These vials have very tiny amounts of thimerosal as a preservative. This is necessary because each time an individual dose is drawn from a multi-dose vial with a needle and syringe, there is potential to contaminate the vial with harmful microbes or toxins. Right? So they're trying to, they're trying to give you instruction. They're trying to, they're trying to pull the wool over your eyes so that you can't hear, so that you cannot receive real words of knowledge. And then they go on to say there's no evidence that the small amounts of thimerosal and flu vaccines cause any harm except for minor reactions like redness and swelling at the injection site. Although no evidence suggests that there are safety concerns with thimerosal vaccine, I'm sorry, vaccine manufacturers have stopped using it as a precautionary measure. Flu vaccines that do not contain thimerosal are available in single-dose vials. You see what I'm talking about? Words of instruction that cause to error from the words of knowledge. So either, what we're learning here is either you're just void of knowledge, you're just simple, you just don't understand, or these people are trying to hurt us. They know better and there's another agenda which we don't have time to get into today. We will in the future. You see what I'm saying? You see why it's important to be wise? They're talking out of both sides of their mouth here. It's ridiculous. These are people that have no wisdom. These are people that have no knowledge. These are people that are very dangerous and that is why we need to be a church that is wise, that understands the difference between knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, why we need to apply that. So here's another example. Example number two, which is risk, right? High risk situations or surity. Another term for that would be co-signing. You're there in Proverbs 19. Look at verse 27, cease my son to hear the instruction that causes the air from the words of knowledge. We just talked a great deal about that. Now go back to Proverbs 17 and go over to Proverbs chapter 17. So the second example that I want to talk about is high risk or surity. So Proverbs 17, we'll talk about what that means here. Proverbs 17, look at verse 18, a man void of understanding, right? This is why I have this in the sermon, say a man void of understanding. What is the point? The point is to get you to understand. The point is to get you knowledgeable and to be able to apply that to wisdom. Look at this. A man void of understanding, strikers hands, right? Makes a deal is what that means. Takes an agreement and become a surity in the presence of his friend. So what do we see here? We see a person that is void of understanding who has made an agreement to become surity in the presence of his friend, meaning he has agreed to like co-sign alone to co-sign or to become at risk to have an, uh, to basically say, okay, I will take your obligation of debt, whatever it is, whatever responsibility it is and pay for that. Just listen to this definition of surity. Surity is the guarantee of the debts of one party by another. A surity is the organization or person that assumes the responsibility of paying the debt in case the debtor policy defaults or is unable to make the payments. The party that guarantees the debt is referred to as the surity or as the, the granter. So look, unless you're an insurance company, unless you have your own insurance business, you want to be careful about co-signing for people, people you don't know and your friends. And why is because if this person that you're co-signing for can't pay their debt, can't pay their obligation, guess what? Your relationship with that person will be destroyed. And not only that, but you might be destroyed if you can't pay for yourself or if that's going to hurt your family. I mean, that can cause all kinds of problems. I know people who have done this and have lost their marriages because dad said, you know what? I want to be pleasing to the world. I want to be pleasing to man. I want to make friends. I want people to like me. I'll go ahead and co-sign for you. I'll go ahead and become that responsibility for you. If you can, without consulting wise counsel, without ensuring that he could actually take care of that responsibility. And now that person's life is ruined because of it, right? What is the point of this sermon is to make sure that you are not a man or a woman void of understanding. You need to be smart. Go to Proverbs 11 Proverbs chapter 11 and look at verse 15. So we see, what did we just see? A man void of understanding, strike of hands and become a surity in the presence of his friend. Proverbs 11, look at verse 15. He that is surity for a stranger shall smart for it in he that hateth surity ship is sure. You got to read that one slow because you might say something else. He okay. So what do we read here? He that is surity for a stranger shall smart for it. Meaning, you know, if you want to take that risk, you will own it. You will suffer the consequences is what it's saying. You have got to be careful. But look at the last part of the verse and he that hateth surity ship is sure. So if you just make a covenant with yourself right now to say, you know what, I'm not going to get involved in that. You know, tell your friend, tell your, your stranger, tell your guy at work, tell your, your, your next door neighbor, whatever it is. Hey look, I like our relationship too much to be able to go down that road, you know, or just be honest. Like I can't pay for that. You know, that, that could ruin my family. That could ruin us. You're going to have to make your own way and then you can just keep your friend. It would be, you would be much better off because look, then you have peace. That's what the verse says. And he that hateth surety ship is sure, right? It look, it doesn't, doesn't benefit us to take a bunch of risks like this. That's what it's saying, right? We don't want to take risks. We don't want to be like, well, I just believe that God will provide it for, you know, formula. That's the, that's your border lining, tempting God at that point, you know, because you have this wisdom available to you. You're told not to do it. So if you go ahead and say, well, you know, I don't care what that says. Sure. I'll go ahead and co-sign your house for, you know, $300,000 that you can't pay for. I'm sure it's good. I'm sure I trust you. I'm sure you'll pay for it. Really? How do you know? How do you really know? You know, the person that needs a co-signer is already in trouble to begin with and you need to understand that it is a risk that is not worth taking. And Proverbs 17 says a man void of understanding strike at hands. And so we don't want to be like that. Go to Proverbs chapter six and go to Proverbs chapter six. I would rather be the person that's sure by just saying, you know what, blanket statement. No, I'm not doing it. Kayden, you can start your own business and we'll get your money that way and get your big truck that way. All right, Proverbs six, look at verse one. My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou has stricken thy hand with a stranger, thou are snared with the words of thy mouth. And look again, the point of the sermon, I want you to be wise. I want you to be knowledgeable. I want you to have understanding. You don't want to get caught in this snare, in this trap, in this web of being surety, of being at risk for assuming a loan or a debt or an obligation that you can't fulfill or that you can fulfill that will strain your family. It's not wise. Thou are taken with the words of thy mouth. Verse three, do this now my son and deliver thyself. When thou art come into the hand of thy friend, go humble thyself and make sure thy friend. Give not sleep to thine eyes nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself as a row from the hand of the hunter and as a bird from the hand of the fowler. So right now, I don't know who's got, I doubt anybody in here has got anything like this going on, but nonetheless, remember this for the future. If you do, if you ever come into this situation, make sure thy friend don't do it. Don't put yourself at risk. Don't put your family at risk. It is not worth it. It's not worth it at all. Look at verse five, it says, deliver thyself as a row from the hand of the hunter. So it compares this situation of suretyship like a person that goes hunting, right? Somebody is hunting and that's what people are doing when they do this typically, right? Strangers or people that you're not really good friends with and like I said, I don't recommend doing this at all, but they are hunting for something, right? And you are the prey and so you would be wise to deliver yourself from that situation, not even go down that road, not become a man or a woman void of understanding, right? We need to be wise. All right, so number three, almost done. Number three is about dangerous wisdom. So go to Ecclesiastes chapter one. So if you're in Proverbs, just go, go over to Ecclesiastes chapter one. Remember what we're talking about. Cease my son to hear instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge, right? Somebody comes to you saying, Hey, can you co-sign this for me? Hey, can you take over my loan payments? Hey, can you have this extra duty at work and you know, can you, can you promise that you do that? The answer is no, you know, and if they come to you begging and pleading, look, you need to cease from hearing the instruction that causeth thee to err from the words of knowledge. Okay. Ecclesiastes chapter one, we're going to talk about dangerous wisdom because there is such a thing, like I said earlier, as you know, being puffed up with too much knowledge, the wrong kind of knowledge and what is wisdom? It's the right use of knowledge, but there are people that are wise in a dangerous way and we need to understand what that means. So Ecclesiastes chapter one, look at verse 16, I communed with my own heart saying, lo, I am come to great estate and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem. Yay. My heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge and that's where it should have stopped right there. He said, yay. My heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. Let us just, let us just try to live our lives with that as the goal, but keep reading. And I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. See, it wasn't enough for Solomon. He wanted to take it as far as he could go to the point of even learning madness and folly. He said, I perceive that this is also, or this also is vexation of spirit for in much wisdom is much grief and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow. You want to start learning about madness and folly. If you want to spend a majority of your time, you want to go beyond the experience of wisdom and knowledge that he talked about in verse 16 and you want to take it to really study in depth the wicked people of this world. And I'm not saying that studying psychopaths and reprobates is bad. Obviously we give that documentary out, but there is a point where you can cross where you learn too much about people and you expose your mind to bad things, to dangerous things. That's one thing I had to stop with the conspiracy theories. I mean, I haven't stopped. You know, there's all kinds of conspiracies around us, but there does come a point where you can learn too much about people and that can become a burden that can become sorrowful to your soul. And Solomon experienced that. So why does he say that much wisdom is grief? Look at verse 15 again. He said that which is crooked, I'm sorry. Yeah. Ecclesiastes chapter one, verse 15, that which is crooked cannot be made straight. And that which is wanting cannot be numbered. You see, you just have to settle it in your heart. You just have to realize there are things in this world that aren't going anywhere. Like taxes, like the DMV, like mortgage payments. You know what I mean? There are things that are just crooked that are not going to be made straight. There are things that your jobs that, you know, they're just the way they are. They're not going to get any better. Okay. It's the same thing with anything that you guys do in life. It says that which is crooked cannot be made straight. Now there are some problems we can fix. Everybody knows that, but there are some things that are just set in this fallen world. Remember, we live in a fallen world and learning about it like chemtrails, right? You know, everybody talks about chemtrails. Just be careful, you know, getting too wrapped up in that because that's going to make you sorrowful and really that is a crooked thing that none of us can really do. I mean, we can obviously pray, but look, you've read Revelation. You know what's going to happen to this planet. You know what the end is going to bring. There are troublesome times coming, so you would be better to just apply your heart to the right kind of wisdom that Solomon had at one point in his life before he decided to take that off into the wrong direction. So go back to Genesis chapter three or go to Genesis chapter three for that matter. And sometimes it just helps to understand, you know, that which is crooked cannot be made straight. There are some things that just cannot be changed in this life and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. You know, there's always going to be the poor. You know, you want to devote your life to philanthropy or whatever that word is, like Bill Gates, which is just a hoax anyways. I was reading a little bit about him when I was studying the vaccination thing because he's a big pro vaccine guy, you know, he's all right, I've give all my, a lot of my money, half, half of my billions to philanthropy so that I can help the world. Yeah, but pumping them full from now that I'd, what is a, what is a software guy, you know, a Microsoft guy doing advocating so hard for vaccines, right? Cease my son to hear the instruction that causes the error from the words of knowledge. It'd be wise for you not to listen to that fool. So anyways, Genesis three, look at verse six, here's a, here's another example. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat. And then from that point on, you re you understand this world became fallen. We start seeing things that are crooked, that cannot be made straight. But I want you to notice it says, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, the wrong kind of wisdom. This is dangerous wisdom here in everyone in this room is now reaping the benefits of this situation of someone that decided to seek after wrong wisdom. Look at verse seven and the eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves apron. Oh, if you want the wrong kind of wisdom, your eyes will get open, but it comes with a heavy price. Look at verse eight and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden of the cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. Verse nine, and the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and hid myself. And he said, who told me that thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, the woman whom thou gave us me or who now gave us to be with me, she gave me of the tree and did eat. And obviously that's a sermon for another day, blaming others, right? That's what we do. Jump down to verse 16 for sake of time. And so the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and I conception in sorrow thou shall bring forth children and they desire shall be to thy husband and he shall roll over thee. So we're starting to see the results of dangerous wisdom, the results of going out after the wrong kind of wisdom and trying to know madness and folly. Verse 17 and Adam, he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and has eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee saying, thou shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shall eat the herb of the field. Those thorns and thistles cannot be made straight. When you go to work, you're going to have problems. When you homeschool, you're going to have problems. In this life you will have problems. You will have trouble. So seek your heart to the right kind of knowledge, to the right kind of wisdom. Verse 19 in the sweat of thy face thou shall eat bread till thou return unto the ground for out of it was thou taken for dust thou art. And unto dust shalt thou return. So we can see the result of dangerous wisdom. We're almost done. Go to James chapter three and we'll finish up. James chapter three, first Corinthians chapter three verse 19 says for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God for it is written he taketh the wise in their own craftiness. Don't worry about these so-called successful people like the Rockefellers and you know the Bill Gates and the people that want to pump people of formaldehyde and spray whatever they are in the skies, you know, they got what's coming to them, right? We're going to learn real wisdom and God is going to turn their wisdom into crafting it into their own craftiness. You know, he's going to take them in a snare, but James three, look at verse 13. Who is a wise man and a dude with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. Remember if you have wisdom that does show that you have a lack of pride and that is a good thing. Remember Moses was very wise. Moses was the meekest man at that time. Now look at verse 14, but if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. And that goes back to what we started saying, right? Be honest with yourself. Don't be puffed up with pride. Admit that you need wisdom that you don't know at all that you need to increase in learning. Verse 15, this wisdom descendeth not from above, but as earthly, sensual, devilish for where, for where envying and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work and it would be wise to remember these verses here so that you can stray from the ungodly counsel. Verse 17, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy. Remember God is not a respecter of persons. God gives you liberally and he wants to bless you with wisdom. Verse 18, and the fruit of the righteous is sown in peace of them that make peace. And so here are some attributes we got to be done, but here's some attributes to know whether or not you're listening, whether or not you're receiving good knowledge, good wisdom, good instruction. And right where we first started, James 1 5, if any of you lack wisdom, let them ask God to give it to all men liberally and uprighteth not and it shall be given him. So the first thing we talked about was to ask God, right? Be humble. Ask God. A wise man will hear and will increase learning and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel. So three things that we talked about real quick, a wise man will hear, right? A wise man will increase learning. A wise man will attain unto wise counsel. If you can just remember those three things, you'll be off in the right direction. Let's pray. Thank you Lord for this church. Thank you for these people, Lord. Thank you for the salvations that we've had this week, Lord. I pray you bless the soul winning to come, the fellowship to come Lord, and please use this church mightily in this state. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.