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Alright, please open your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 2. Proverbs chapter 2, the Bible reads, My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee, so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thy heart to understanding. Yea, if thou cryest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding, thou seekest her as silver, and searches for her as for hid treasures. Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous. He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. Keepeth the paths of judgment, and perceiveth the ways of his saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity. Yea, every good path. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul, discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee, to deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the way that speaketh froward things, to leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice to do evil and delight in the frowardness of the wicked, whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths, to deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger, which flattereth with her words, which forsaketh to guide her youth, and forget it the covenant of her God. And her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead. None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of their paths of life, that thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous. For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it, but the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it. Alright, let's bow our heads and pray. Dear Lord, I just want to please ask you to fill us all with your boldness, and please annoy Jonathan with your spirit as he preaches your word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Alright, we have the book of Proverbs chapter 2 here, and we're doing a Bible study, and we're going through the book of Proverbs. And you know, I think the book of Proverbs is a really special book. It has a lot of doctrine in it. And one of the interesting things I was thinking about in Proverbs chapter 2, I didn't have this in my notes, but as he was just reading it, it really feels like it's a perfect outline of the Bible. You kind of start out there with a lot of good stuff, and then quickly it kind of turns into a lot of negative stuff, right? And the negative stuff's a little bit more, and at the very end there's a good message right there at the end, okay? And I think that's just a perfect example of what the Bible's like. There's a lot of good, but unfortunately there's a lot of bad too. And when we looked at Proverbs chapter 1, you know, there was some good stuff in there, but there was a lot of really negative stuff. A lot of stuff that, you know, a lot of Baptist churches wouldn't want to preach, because it's not popular. And so we look here in Proverbs chapter 2, we got in Proverbs chapter 1 in verse 7 and it said, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. And that's just such a way to cap off the first chapter, and we see it's such an important thing to get the wisdom of God from this book. But when we get into chapter 2, we see a lot of themes repeated through the book of Proverbs. He's going to constantly talk about gaining wisdom. He's going to constantly talk about the importance of getting wisdom. And you say, well, what's going to be different? Well, he's going to give us a little more practical advice in chapter 2 of how to get that wisdom, how to apply it to your life, how do you know, really grow into that wisdom. We saw in chapter 1 why it was so important to have that wisdom, because those that don't, they're foolish, and they're going to, you know, destroy their lives with ways of this world. And so we look here in chapter 2, verse 1, it says, My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and I want to pause right there, it says receive my words. The first step to getting wisdom is to receive Jesus Christ, right? I mean, the first step in a Christian's life is to get saved. And the only way you're going to get saved is by receiving his words. The Bible says in John chapter 1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We see that there's no distinction between Jesus Christ and this book. And when you understand that, when you really get that in your heart, when you realize from Genesis to Revelation, that is Jesus, it's going to change the way you read this book. It's going to change the way you approach this book. It's going to change the fact that, hey, I don't need to just read the red letters, I need to read all of it. I need to read Genesis to Revelation. And when you receive Jesus Christ, what are you receiving? You're receiving his words, right? When someone goes out and they preach the gospel, what are they preaching? They're preaching Jesus Christ because they're preaching his words. And that's what they actually receive and get saved with. But that's just the first step. If you want to have any wisdom in this world, you can't get there unless you've received some of his words. You can't get there unless you get saved. And that's why it's so important. That's why we go out and knock on doors and try to get people saved. And that's why the street preaching is so stupid. It's so foolish. You're not going to get somebody to receive his words by just condemning them, by yelling at them, by screaming at them, trying to get them to change their life. First they've got to get saved. First they've got to receive Jesus Christ. First they've got to get their words before they're going to get any wisdom, the rest of this book. We see in John chapter 1 it says, you know, the memory verse that we have, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, our hands have handled, the word of life. When John was describing Jesus Christ, he called him the word of life. I mean, isn't it magnificent that from Genesis to Revelation these words somehow became a man and they died for your sins? That's what the Bible is saying. Jesus Christ is the word of God. And when you understand that, I mean it's kind of hard to comprehend, right? But the Bible says that the word became flesh. That's what the Bible really teaches. And we have to understand this. The Bible says faith cometh by hearing and by hearing the words of God. The only way someone's going to get saved is by receiving Jesus Christ, right? How do they do that? By receiving his words. And so that's just the first step. But it's so important that we understand that the only way someone's going to get any wisdom is by getting saved. You know, you can go to the college, you can study all kinds of books, but you have no knowledge until you get the fear of the Lord, until you receive his words, until you get saved. And what's that fear? Well, the fear of death and health. You know, fearing him that can destroy both body and soul. That's the beginning of knowledge. But we see in the second part of this verse it says, and hide my commandments with thee. So the second part, after you receive his words, after you've been saved is to get his commandments and to get those written in your heart. And I really want to focus on this part because I think if you understand the commandments, if you understand what God's saying about the commandments, you're going to understand the rest of this chapter. You're going to understand why it's so important that God keeps emphasizing his commandments. So if God would turn to Matthew chapter 5, and I'm just going to read a litany of verses that talk about the commandments. We see in Psalms 119 it says, Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. I am a stranger in the earth. Hide not thy commandments from me. You see, David didn't want the commandments to be hidden from him. He wanted to know what they were. It was so important for him to know, what did God tell me? What is God wanting me to do? What are the instructions of God to do for me? He didn't want God to hide them from him. It says in Psalms 112, Praise ye the Lord, blesseth the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. You know, the commandments are going to help you in your life. The commandments are going to give you instruction. The commandments are going to give you wisdom. And if you understand that, you're going to desire them. You're going to be like, Man, these are great. I really want the commandments of God because they're helping me in my life. They're helping me succeed. They're helping me prosper. They're helping me feel like I'm connecting with God. Because you're not going to connect with God if you're not pleasing him. You're not going to have fellowship with God when you're in disobedience. You're only going to have fellowship with him when you're following his word. The only way to get that is from the commandments. It says in Psalms 119, then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments. You see the Bible says that you need to respect all the commandments, not just some of them, not just the ones you like, not just the ones that the government upholds, not the ones that man decides are right, but all of the commandments. And you know there's some commandments in there that are tough for people in this culture. There's a lot of commandments that go against the grain in the culture, right? But the Bible says if we want to, you know, not be ashamed, we need to have respect unto all the commandments. It says, Thou has rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments. We see that the unsaved, they don't follow the commandments of God. It says, Thou through thy commandments has made me wiser than mine enemies, for they are ever with me. The commandments will make you wiser than every unsaved person. We see this over and over, just the commandments and the commandments. He says, depart from me, evil doers, for I will keep the commandments of my God. We see that a man of God decides, you know what, I'm going to keep the commandments of God even if nobody else does. That's so important to David. Says in Ecclesiastes, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Isn't that just kind of summarized when we're looking at this? Fear God and keep his commandments. It's the whole duty of man. That's what we're supposed to do in this life. You say, what am I supposed to do? Why am I here? To fear God and to keep his commandments, right? So I had you turn in Matthew chapter 5, we see Jesus speaking, verse 17, it says, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill, for verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. You know, one day I aspire to be a pastor. You know, right now I'm preaching, and when I look at this verse, I have a decision to make. Do I want to please man? Or do I want to please God? And if I want to please God, I have to preach every commandment, even the least ones. The ones that aren't popular, the ones that people might scoff at, the ones that people might get upset about, if I want to be called great in the kingdom of heaven, right? If I want God to respect unto me, I have to go to all of these commandments. But we see that all of the independent fundamental Baptists even, all obviously the fund center Baptists, all of the non-combinational churches, they don't teach the least commandments. They hardly even teach what's in the New Testament, let alone all the commandments of God in the Old Testament, right? If you flip over to Matthew 22, Jesus tells us what commandments we're supposed to keep. Because the question becomes, you know, what commandments are there that we should keep? What should we do, right? Because the Bible's covered with commandments. There's hundreds and hundreds of commandments through the Bible. And it says there in verse 37, Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind, this is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself on these two commandments, and all the law and the prophets. What did Jesus say right there? He said every single commandment in this book is either loving God or loving your neighbor. Every single commandment from Genesis to Revelation falls into that category. He's saying, look, the first category is loving God and underneath like unto that is loving man. Under that every single law of God fits in that category. Why should you not steal? Because you want to love your fellow man. Why should you not kill? Because you want to love your fellow man. Why should you honor the Sabbath in the Old Testament? Because you love God. Every single commandment was pointing to God or pointing to man, which ultimately loving man is loving God, right? In John chapter 14 Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. In Proverbs chapter 4 the Bible says, for I give you good doctrine, forsaking not my law. But people say, yeah, but Jesus said keep my commandments. He's talking about just what he said. You know, kind of like a red letter Christian, these people that think just the red letters matter or just if Jesus said it. You know, it says in the Old Testament we shouldn't get tattoos. You know, in the Old Testament it says that all kinds of sins that, you know, aren't mentioned in the New Testament again explicitly, right? And they said only if Jesus said it, but it says in John chapter 7, I'll have you turn there. I want to show you one other thing. John chapter 7 is Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, John chapter 7. We're going to crush this red letter doctrine right now. It says in verse 15, and the Jews marveled, saying, how knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them and said, my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true. And no unrighteousness is in him, did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keep the law. Why go ye about to kill me? Jesus is saying, look, I'm not teaching a new doctrine. I'm not speaking of myself, I'm just preaching what God had. I'm just telling you what the law said, but y'all don't keep the law. That's why there's so much confusion. When Jesus was correcting the Pharisees, when he's correcting the Sadducees, he wasn't teaching something new. He was just teaching what the Old Testament said, because they didn't observe that. And you know, there's a lot of confusion there. You say, well, isn't there some things in the Old Testament that we don't do? I mean, maybe some of the animal sacrifices, or some of the feast days, and there's a lot of confusion, I think, over this doctrine, because it's just never taught. Well, it's a Bible study, so we're going to take it a little bit deeper, okay? We're going to take a moment, because I think that it's so important, if you turn to Hebrews chapter 8, we're going to see that there is a distinction in some of the things that God said. So he made it very abundantly clear that we should keep his commandments, right? I mean, he just says it over and over, keep my commandments. You know, the whole duty of man is to fear God and to keep my commandments. So we should keep his commandments, obviously, right? The Bible's saying that over and over. But we see in Hebrews chapter 8 verse 13, it's the last verse there, it says, Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. So we see that the Bible's saying the old covenant, the covenant that God made with the Israelites, he made a special covenant with them, that is old. That's wax and old, that's decay, that's gone away, that no longer applies. So what parts of that don't apply? What parts of that changed? It says in Hebrews 9 verse 1, it says, Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. So we see it says in the first covenant, they had ordinances of divine service. And I think the big confusion comes over the word ordinance and commandments. We see that the Bible makes a distinction between the word ordinance and commandments. And if we look just a few verses down in verse 9, it says, Which was a figure for the time then present, in which we were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks and divers' washings and cardinal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation. So we see that word ordinance is there again. And Jesus makes a very important point here, he's saying, look, the things that were symbolizing Jesus Christ's coming, the things that were pointing to Jesus Christ's coming, these were divine ordinances of service. They were things that the Levites had to do to picture what Jesus Christ was going to come to fulfill, right? But were those things to every single person? Were those ordinances given to just man in general? Or was it to the Levitical priesthood? Was it given to specific people? And you know, we don't have time to look at every single ordinance. And that's not the point. The point is that God gave certain ordinances for people throughout the whole history. And we see Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, they're given instruction not to eat the tree of knowledge of good and evil, right? Well, do we have a tree of knowledge of good and evil today? Was that instruction to every man? Well, in a carnal sense, no. But the Bible says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, for proof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, right? I believe every single commandment has a spiritual purpose to our life. You say, well, what was the purpose of saying not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? We're not supposed to eat of the wisdom of this world. You know, the Bible likens when you receive words, when you receive understandings like eating. And we're not supposed to eat up this world. We're not supposed to eat up TV. We're not supposed to eat up all the garbage on the music, the filth, the magazines, everything. We're supposed to seek the wisdom of God. We're supposed to eat from the tree of life. We see that every commandment of God has a spiritual purpose for our life, even if it had a carnal purpose for those people. We see the Levitical priesthood, it said that they were supposed to kill, you know, a spotless lamb. Now, was that for just them or for everybody? Obviously, it was for just them and it symbolized that Christ having no sin was a spotless lamb and that everything pointed to Christ. If you turn to Colossians chapter 2, we're going to see that. The first time the word ordinance is mentioned in the Bible is in Exodus chapter 12. It says, and this shall be unto you from a memorial and you shall keep it a feast unto the Lord throughout your generations. You should keep it a feast by an ordinance forever. So God's instructing the children of Israel that they're going to keep the Passover, that they're going to keep a feast unto the Lord. It's just divine service. But even today in the New Testament, we have ordinances, right? Don't we have specific commandments for the rules for a bishop and what kind of qualifications he should have? Now, did that apply to the Old Testament Levites? No. They had their own instructions. They could only be a Levite. They had to be between the ages of 30 and 50. There was a lot of different rules. They had to be undefiled. They could, there were certain, a lot of restrictions on their lifestyle. Just the same way the pastor has certain qualifications today. We see that the service of God, God gives services to man and to how to worship him throughout from the beginning to the end. Now those things change, right? But the commandments of God never change. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal. And people like to confuse those two things, confuse the ordinances with the commandments of God. And we see in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 13 it says, and you being dead in sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath be quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. So we see basically the exact same list we had in Hebrews. He's saying all those pieces of the divine ordinance of service, the ordinances of divine service, were a picture of Jesus Christ, or a shadow of things to come in the millennium. But they're not things that we have to observe because they're nailed to his cross. And you know a lot of people, the Judaizers of this day, they want to bring you back under these ordinances. Not the commandments of God, they don't like the commandments of God. You know they still believe in abortion, they still believe in sodomy, they still believe in all kinds of wicked stuff, if you want to know what Jerusalem believes. But they want to bring you back under these ordinances. They want to bring you into the feast days, they want to bring you into a restrictive diet, they want to restrict certain meats and drinks, and cardinal ordinances like circumcision. But in order to understand what God's telling us, we have to understand there were certain ordinances of the Old Testament that have changed in the New Testament. And the only way you're going to understand that is not by me getting up here rambling, saying all this stuff, it's only by you reading it. If you read the Bible cover to cover and you let the Holy Spirit teach you the word of God, I promise you'll see the clear difference between the ordinances of God in the Old Testament and his clear commandments. Now unfortunately because it does take a little bit of effort, people just want to throw out all the Old Testament. They want to say, I don't want to try hard, I don't want to, you know, work at it, I don't want to let God reveal unto me his word, but we're supposed to study the law, and we're going to behold wondrous things out of his law when we study his words. And you say, well you're trying to bring us back under the law, you're trying to bring us, you know, back under the subjection of bondage. The Bible says that we're supposed to keep every commandment. That's not to be saved, that's in order to please God. And we see that doctrine doesn't even make sense to say that you're bringing them under the law by saying observe all the commandments, by trying to bring them under the Moses law. Because in Genesis chapter 26 and verse 4, this is talking about Abraham, says, and I will make thy seed to multiply as, he's talking to Isaac actually, and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. The Bible makes it clear that Abraham kept the commandments of God. Well how did he do that when the law wasn't given, right? Because every commandment from the beginning of Genesis to Revelation is something we're supposed to observe. It's something that we're supposed to look at and decide, hey, does this have a carnal meaning to me? Probably not in some cases, but does it have a spiritual meaning? You know there's a lot of things, it wasn't in my notes, but let's go back there. The Bible said that the great commandment, let's go to Leviticus chapter 19. It says, a great commandment was to love the Lord our God, right? And the second was to love thy neighbor as thyself. Well the only way you're going to understand that is by going back and reading what it says. How to love your neighbor as yourself. In Leviticus 19, I was reading this in my Bible this week, we're going to start there in verse 13. It says, thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him. The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. Now how many employers give you your wages every night? But the Bible's saying if you love your neighbor, if you're really kind of him, you wouldn't withhold your wages from him, that you'd give your wages immediately. And we see the bankers, if the bankers were holding money, they would be charging interest every single day, right? The Bible makes it clear that loving your neighbor is not withholding wages. Let's keep going. It says, thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God, I am the Lord. We see that we shouldn't be mean to those that are less fortunate than us, that those that maybe have a disability, that we shouldn't just mock them, we shouldn't put a stumbling block in their way. It says in verse 15, ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty, but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor. The Bible's saying, look, when there's a conflict between two people, you shouldn't just immediately side with the poor person. And if there's a conflict, you shouldn't immediately side with the rich person. We should have no respect of persons. The Bible says that God is not a respecter of persons. We should evaluate the situation and have righteous judgment, as Jesus would say. But how are you going to know what to do there? Because some people in America, they kind of tend to believe, oh, the rich people, they can afford it, let's just, you know, let's just give the poor guy some money. Let's just give him a handout, right? But that's not loving your neighbor as yourself, according to the Bible. We see in verse 16, it says, thou shalt not go up and down to the tailbearer among thy people, neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor, I am the Lord. We shouldn't just go out gossiping about everybody. If you know something about somebody, just keep it to yourself, is what the Bible's teaching. We shouldn't go out and just tell everybody's dirty laundry. We shouldn't be going up and down the street. And it says stand against the blood of thy neighbor. The Bible teaches that if your neighbor was guilty of something, of capital punishment, that you're not supposed to stand against that. You're supposed to allow that punishment to be taking place. That's loving your neighbor as yourself. It says in verse 17, thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart, thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him. Wow, that's not something you hear in most churches today, right? It says you should rebuke your neighbor. That's not like, hey, you're wrong. That's not saying, hey, you're doing something wrong. That's like, you're in sin. Rebuke is a strong, harsh judgment. But if you see somebody that's destroying their life with maybe drunkenness, with alcohol, they're going to hell, you need to rebuke them, you shouldn't suffer sin upon them. That would be loving your neighbor as yourself. You know, most churches and churches wouldn't think that they're like, oh, we shouldn't be judgmental. No, if you're not judgmental, it's because you don't love your neighbor. It's because you actually hate them. The Bible says in verse 18, thou shalt not avenge nor bear any judge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord. So we see that verse is quoted so many times, right? But how many people follow up with these first few verses and get a context of what it means to actually love your neighbor? Now were these, you know, ordinances of divine service? Were these just specific commands to the Levites on how, a foreshadowing of Christ? No, clearly these are the commandments of God, and we need to go back and read all of them if we want to understand how to love God. Because he said, upon these hang all the law and all the prophets, right? We should go back and we should read all these. This is going to help us understand how to love our neighbor, how to love God. Now it took a long time to kind of explain that, and you know, I didn't go through every single ordinance, I didn't go through every single commandment, there's a lot there. The Bible says that I should even teach the least commandments, and you know the least commandments in my opinion would be the things that are mentioned the least. I mean, I think that makes the most sense, right? So maybe a commandment is only mentioned once explicitly, and then maybe has just some further guidance through the Bible. The Bible says that a woman should not wear that which pertaineth to a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment. All that do so are an abomination. The Bible teaches that men should dress like men, and women should dress like women. And I'm going to teach even the least of the commandments. I think that's just the least command, one of the least commandments. But it's so important. If you were going to work, wouldn't they give you like a handbook and it tell you how you should dress? Now do you think your boss would say that's the most important part of your job? I mean if you're in sales, is the most important part of your job, you know, following their dress code? Or is it like getting sales, bringing in customers, bringing in revenue? Obviously the same thing is with price. The most important thing is getting people saved. The most important thing is you know preaching the gospel, is coming to church keeping all of his commandments. But you know the person that's not willing to just even dress right, they're not going to go out soul winning. They're not going to go out and preach the gospel. How in the world are they going to love their neighbor when they despitefully use them? When they curse them? How are you going to do the big things of God if you can't even do the little things? That's what the Bible makes it very clear. If we go back to Proverbs chapter 2, I think that's going to help us when we look here the importance of hiding the commandments with me. Because the only way you're going to understand how to do anything is by going back to the law and seeing what did God say? We see there in verse 2 it says, So thou incline thy ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart unto understanding. Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver, and searches for his hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. So I think there's three steps here in order of getting that wisdom. The first step is to receive his words. The first step is getting saved. The second step would be getting the commandments in your heart. Would be memorizing the commandments, would be reading this book. But then thirdly, it would be asking God. You know, you say, I didn't quite follow everything you were saying about all the ordinances. I didn't quite understand everything you were saying about all the commandments. You know what? I'm not going to give you all that wisdom. Why don't you ask God? God will give you that wisdom. We see in James chapter 1, if y'all want to flip there, we're going to see how you can get that wisdom. You say, I don't understand it. You know, I'm having trouble. You've got to have to read it cover to cover first. But he said to ask for it. And in James chapter 1 verse 5, the Bible 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 him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that waveth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. So we see, if you want that wisdom, if you want to know the commandments of God, ask for it. You know, there's been a lot of times where I maybe read a chapter of the Bible and I didn't understand it. Maybe I was having a hard time, you know, figuring out how that fit with my doctrine. But I would just ask God. I'd say, God, please, when I read this book, will you just show me? And I started memorizing that chapter. And then later, all of a sudden, it's like God, when I was reading it, revealed it to me. I was reading it and it just clicked. And that's what this Holy Spirit will do. He'll bring into remembrance all things. When you're reading this Bible sometimes, do you ever just read a verse and just another verse just comes and pops in your mind and just clicks? It's like comparing that spiritual with spiritual. That's what God will do. You say, I mean, I don't, I'm not really understanding this. Sometimes they'll be reading Old Testament law and be like, why in the world did they kill the spotless lamb? It's like, oh, that was, that was the signified, the sinless perfection of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice he made for us. Those are the kind of things that you can get when you're reading Old Testament law and it'll help apply them to your life. It says in verse six, going back to Proverbs, it says, for the Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous. He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. Now many times in the Old Testament does it say, thus saith the Lord. You know, such a powerful phrase. You only find that in the Old Testament. So these red letter Christians, they're missing out on a lot of things that came right out of the mouth of God, right? If you go to Exodus chapter four, we're going to see somebody got a lot of words out of the mouth of God, but he didn't want to have anything to do with them. He wanted to reject the words of God. He didn't have the fear of God in his life. He didn't receive any of his words and he was not saved. The Bible says in Exodus chapter four and verse 22, this is talking about Pharaoh and this is God instructing Moses and he says, and now stop saying to Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. And I say unto thee, let my son go that he may serve me. And if thou would refuse to let him go, behold, I will say thy son, even thy firstborn. You see that God's giving a commandment unto Pharaoh, but what does he do? He rejects it. He doesn't want to receive his words. He doesn't want the wisdom that's coming out of God's mouth. Now does it turn out good for Pharaoh? Well, we're going to see. If you look over one chapter, Exodus chapter five verse one, we see, and after Moses near went in and told Pharaoh, thus saith the Lord, God of Israel, let my people go that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. How many Christians today are hearing the voice of God and saying, I'm not going to obey his voice. I'm not going to listen to his voice. You preach him a commandment, you preach him some of the words of God and they say, no. Well, we're going to see what happens when Pharaoh rejects the word of God. It says in Exodus chapter fourteen, if you flip over a couple more chapters, this is after God's rescued the, Pharaoh's actually let the children of Israel go for a moment, but he's chasing them. It says in verse four, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart that he shall follow after them. And I will be honored upon Pharaoh and upon all his hosts that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so. And it was told the king of Egypt that they fled and the heart of Pharaoh was his servants was turned against the people. And they said, why have we done this? That we have let Israel go from serving us. And he made ready his chariot and took his people with him. So you see that Pharaoh, even after getting his first born son slain by the Lord, his heart still hardened. He wants to reject God's word. He's going to come after these children of Israel. We see in verse ten, skip down a little bit, it says, and when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold, the Egyptians marched after them and they were sore afraid. And the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. We look down in verse fourteen, it says, and the Lord shall fight for you. He shall hold your peace. And then we skip down again to verse nineteen, it says, and the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them. And the pillar of the cloud went before their face and stood behind them. And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. And it was a cloud and darkness to them. But it gave light by night to these, so that the one came not near the other all the night. So we see all these wonderful miracles God did in the land of Egypt. We see that God's leading them by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. We see the Egyptians are still chasing these people. I mean, they have no fear of God. And even then, God comes and puts a complete darkness to where they can't even see the children of Israel. They're just like wandering. I mean, what kind of people are going to still heart, just going to keep following God? Keep rejecting the word of God. We see that in the book of Proverbs chapter 1, we had those people, right? They rejected the word of God. They were so wicked and evil, and they were implacable, as Romans 1 says. But it said in verse 7, it said that he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. God will protect you. And he said, what is a buckler? Well, I've kind of looked it up. It's like a shield that someone would hold on the hand of their sword. And it's just a tiny shield. And it kind of just sat there and protect them, their sword hand, from the enemy. And sometimes they'd even use it to kind of give a jab to their enemy. We see that God's going to be a buckler unto you if you're walking uprightly. When the enemy comes to attack you, it might not be a pillar of darkness that literally comes between you, but God's going to, he's going to be your buckler. He's going to shield you. He's going to shield your hand, especially if you've got a sword in it, if you've got the Bible in it, if you're keeping his commandments, if you're going out preaching the word of God, he's going to be a buckler unto you. He's going to protect that. You know, if you're not going out using your sword, you know, you probably don't got your buckler in your hand either. God's not going to be there protecting you always. And so we see it's so important to keep that sword in your hand and we see it keep there in Exodus chapter 14, it says in verse 24, and it came to pass that in the morning watch the Lord looked into the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud and troubled the host of the Egyptians and took off their chariot wheels that they drove them heavily. So the Egyptians said, let us flee from the face of Israel for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians. And the Lord said unto them, Moses, stretch out thy hand over the sea that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea and the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared and the Egyptians fled against it and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea and the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. There remained not so much as one of them. God destroyed all the Egyptians, those that would chase after God's people, those that would go to attack him, he destroyed them. And we saw that in chapter one, that he's going to destroy them. But do you ever have that confidence, do you have that confidence that God's going to be a buckler unto you? You say, well, we're supposed to be persecuted, and the Bible does teach that. And even the children of Israel were persecuted at first. When they first came unto Pharaoh, what did Pharaoh do? He made their burdens harder. You know, he afflicted them. They had to go through a lot of persecution there in the little bit. But then when they were freed and the Egyptians came to destroy them, God came and saved them. God was a buckler unto them. And we need to have that confidence that God, if we're going through persecution, he's going to get us through. He's going to be that buckler unto us. So if we go back to Proverbs chapter two, it says in verse seven, he layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous. He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment and preserveth the way of his saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness and judgment and equity, yea, every good path. We see that he preserved the children of Israel, right? He's going to preserve his saints and you're going to understand righteousness and judgment and equity and the good paths when you follow his commandments, when you're walking in his ways. It says in verse ten, when wisdom enterth in thy heart and knowledge is pleasant in thy soul, discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee. The Bible teaches that when you fill yourself with the wisdom of God, there's going to be certain situations that you're going to be able to know, I shouldn't be in that situation. I should withdraw myself from that situation. But if you're not reading all the commandments of God, if you didn't read there in Leviticus 19, a lot of the ways to love your neighbor, you're not going to have that discretion and you're going to fall by the wayside, you're going to fall into the wisdom of this world because the wisdom of God just doesn't just come to you. You have to read this book and it's going to preserve you, that discretion. The Bible says to abstain from all appearance of evil. The modern version has changed that verse, they didn't get rid of that, but we shouldn't even, if something just looks bad, we should abstain from that, we should abstain from all appearance of evil. And that discretion is going to help preserve you in your life in many ways. It says in what way? In verse 12, to deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh forward things, who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice to do evil and delight in the forwardness of the wicked, whose ways are crooked and they forward in their paths. So we see there's a lot of wicked people and the word forward, it's not a word that we usually use in our modern vernacular and it's a word that's kind of interesting in the Bible. I kind of looked it up in the dictionary, it says a person that's difficult to deal with, someone who's contrary, you know, I was thinking of some synonyms in the Bible like stiff-necked, contrary, stubborn, maybe like a wife, no I'm just kidding, but you know, I mean we're getting a picture, who are some people that were really forward in the Bible? The Israelites? I mean, weren't they really contrary to God? Weren't they really, you know, having a hard time dealing with God? They kept complaining. Wasn't Pharaoh? I mean, Pharaoh just rejected everything God said. I mean, God's just trying to give him chance after chance after chance. I mean, he's seeing a pillar of fire, he's seeing, you know, darkness, he had all the blades of locusts and he's still rejecting them. How about Balaam? You know, the Bible has the story of Balaam, who God keeps, you know, trying to get him to stop cursing his people and Balaam's riding on the donkey and the donkey sees this angel standing in the way and he keeps smiting his donkey because his donkey won't go forward. We say that he's just relentless. He's so stiff-necked. But in Deuteronomy 32, it also gives another definition of forward, it's talking about the children of Israel, and says, and he said, I will hide my face from them. I will see what their ends shall be, for they are a very forward generation, children in whom is no faith. We see that the reason why people are so contrary, we see why the people are so, you know, disobedient is because of lack of faith. And you know, wasn't that the problem with the children of Israel? Didn't the people have no faith in God and that's why they kept, you know, complaining against him? They're like, why'd you bring us out in this desert to kill us? And we should not have anything to do with this forward man. And discretion will help you see the signs of this forward man, will help you see the wickedness of man and say, I'm going to withdraw myself. I'm going to withdraw myself from somebody, you know, who would withhold wages from someone. I'm going to withdraw myself from someone who's saying, we shouldn't judge anybody. I'm going to let sin be suffered on him. Why? Because they're forward. Because they're contrary. But you're not going to get that unless you read the whole Bible. We see another person that it delivers us from. It says, to deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger who is flat earth with her words, which forsaketh the guide of her youth and forget it the covenant of her God. For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead. None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold to the paths of life. And if y'all turn to Genesis, I think there's a good illustration of someone in Genesis chapter 39, a good illustration of this strange woman. And in Genesis 39, it's kind of the, the middle part of Joseph. You see, Joseph was a young man and a lot of bad things already happened to him, but he was the servant unto Potiphar. And he became like the second in charge of Potiphar's house. He was, he was running the house basically. And we see in verse 7, the Bible says, and it came to pass over these things, that his master's wife, being Potiphar's wife, cast her eyes upon Joseph. And she said, lie with me. But he refused and said unto his master's wife, behold, my master woteth not what is with me in the house. And he hath committed all that he hath to my hand. There is none greater in this house than I, neither hath he kept back anything from me, but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Why did Joseph know that this was wrong? Because he knew the commandments of God. Because he knew that it was wrong to commit adultery. How are you going to know the commandments of God? By reading them. This is, this is helping Joseph withdraw himself from this situation. Now we see that he falters. We see that, you know, he doesn't use discretion in the idea of if this woman's coming to you and she's saying lie with me, should you ever put yourself in a situation where you're alone with that person? I mean, if you were at work or you're around some person of the opposite gender and they just point blank and say, hey, lie with me. Should you ever put yourself in a situation alone with that person? Should you ever just keep putting yourself in that situation? No, discretion by understanding the words of God, by being reminded of adultery, by reminding all the sin and wickedness of that, you're going to withdraw yourself from that situation. But we see that Joseph ended up going into the house alone and the woman took his garment and he ran and he didn't even do anything wrong, but she lied about him and he went sin into prison. Now obviously God used that for good, but I believe even, even if Joseph had withdrew himself from that situation perfectly, God would have still raised him up to be the second ruler over Egypt. He just had to go through a harder path. Why? Because we need the discretion of the commandments to keep ourselves from those wicked situations. You know, and if you're around the person of the opposite gender at work and they start, you know, telling you things like, you know, start really flattering you, they start trying to build you up, maybe they start complaining about their spouse, maybe they start telling you some intimate thing about their life, you should withdraw yourself from that situation. You should withdraw yourself, you should use discretion to get away from that situation. The Bible says in Proverbs 6 verse 29, he that goeth into his neighbor's wife, whose server toucheth her, shall not be innocent. The Bible makes it clear that sin often escalates, that sin doesn't usually just start out with adultery, it first starts with what? With maybe a look, then it builds with thoughts, then it becomes a touch, maybe just, you know, a little bit closer of a hug, that's when it gets into adultery. Most men that commit adultery don't just wake up one day and decide they want to commit adultery. No, it starts with the innocent looks, with the innocent banter, you should withdraw yourself from that strange woman. The Bible says in Genesis 20 verse 6, it says, and God said in a dream, yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart, for I also withheld thee from sinning against me, therefore suffered I be not to touch her. The Bible's talking about, I don't know, I believe it's Abraham, it could be Isaac. Isaac or Abraham, they went, they did the same sin, father like son. They went and they told Abimelech that their wife was just their sister, and so Abimelech was going to take unto him their sister as his wife. But God said, look, I didn't even let you touch this woman, because that would have been a sin. You know, as a man, I don't think it's right to touch another woman. Now I'm not saying like, you know, maybe a handshake or something occasionally, or if you're trying to save them, you know, in an extreme situation, but there's a lot of touching that's very inappropriate between a man and a woman that are not married, or, you know, a man or woman that's not your spouse. We should just keep ourselves from that situation. We should use the discretion of God, but how many churches teach that it's wrong to have certain touching, that you shouldn't even touch the other gender? That's going to help preserve you, that's going to give you the discretion to pull yourself away from that adultery, pull yourself away from that wicked sin. The Bible says in Leviticus 20, 10, and the man that committed adultery with another man's wife, even he that committed adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulterer shall surely be put to death. Adultery is a big sin, and God put the death penalty on it. And if we had a righteous government, he'd put the death penalty on adultery. You know, there's not a lot of things that I can think of that would be worse than adultery. If I had to think of the thought of my wife having relations with another man, that's the worst thing I can think of. That's awful. That's like ripping my heart in shreds. And when you read the Bible, it's going to help remind you of how wicked a sin that is so you can avoid that situation. Nothing is worth ruining your marriage. Nothing is worth, you know, dividing your wife's heart. But you know, a lot of people don't get to that situation just like this. Starts off with the touching. Starts off with the banter. And we should withdraw ourselves from those situations. We'll finish this chapter, it says, none that goeth under return again, neither take they hold to the paths of life. You see, God put the death penalty on adultery. And that's what it'll end up being. When you go into this adulterous, wicked lifestyle, it's going to be death. It says that thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous, for the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it. If you turn to Revelation chapter 22, this is where we'll finish. In Psalms 101, I read a little bit of that last week, but it has the last verse that says, I will destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all the wicked doers from the city of the Lord. We see that God is not going to suffer wickedness into the city of God. We see that God is not going to let transgressors come into the city of God. And if we look there in Revelation chapter 22 and verse 14, the Bible says, Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and adulterers, or idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. So you see, even just by telling one lie, that person wouldn't be granted into the city of God. So how would anybody get in? By the blood of Jesus Christ, by believing in Jesus Christ, by His righteousness be imputing unto Him. But we see that it's so important to do His commandments. Why? Because in the new heaven, we're going to be doing His commandments, right? So we should have those written in our heart, we should be trying to do those now, that we have the right to the tree of life. And we look a little bit further down in verse, back of one chapter, chapter 21 verse 22. It says, And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it. For the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it. And the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And there shall no wise enter into anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. So you see, it's so important to do the commandments of God. Why? Because anybody that makes even one lie is not going to be in God's heaven, right? But those that are written in the book of Lamb's life. That's why it's so important to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved. We see that the book of Proverbs chapter 2 starts out with what? Salvation. Then following the commandments. Then using that discretion to live your life in a good way. To preserve you from all the wickedness in this life. And at the end, what's going to happen? The righteous are going to dwell with God, and the wicked are going to be removed from the city of God. Whosoever maketh a lie. Such a great point to emphasize when you're going out soul-willing. Saying, look, you don't have to be this horrible person to go to hell. Whosoever maketh a lie. God's not going to dwell with any wickedness. God's not going to dwell with any transgression. All of it has to go away from Him. That's why Jesus Christ had to die on the cross for us, so we could get His righteousness. Because He's not going to have any of the wicked dwell with Him. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Thank you God for this chapter. I pray that we would just seek your words, receive your words, get your commandments written on our heart. And that if any of us lacked wisdom, that we would ask for it. And that we would understand that your commandments are giving us a way to preserve our life. For the discretion to avoid the bad situations. And we're so thankful that we get to live in the city of God, not by our own righteousness, but by your righteousness. And that we would serve you because we love you. That's why He said, if you love me, keep my commandments. I pray that we have a zeal of God to keep your commandments, to go out and preach the gospel. To get those people saved, to understand the importance of hell and death. I pray that this new church, that you would just bless it, that we would be able to bring new people in and get them saved and teach them the fear of God. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.