In this sermon, the speaker discusses the last verse of the book of Judges, which states that people did what was right in their own eyes. The speaker argues that this is the condition of many Christian churches today, where there is no prophetic vision and everyone does what they feel like. This has led to young people taking over the church and pastors having to please them in order to keep them happy. The speaker emphasizes the importance of having a clear vision of God's purpose for the church and for individual homes, as without vision, people rebel and perish.

Proverbs 29 and we want to look today at verse 18. This is one of the very important verses in the book of Proverbs. Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained. And the first part of that verse has been translated in various places as, where there is no revelation as you see in the margin, where there is no prophecy, where there is no prophet. It can mean all those things. Where there is no seer. In the Old Testament the prophets were called seers. Seers means people who you could see, who had a vision of God's will, and who saw things the way God saw. And where there is no such vision, or where there is no person who has such a vision, that is no prophet, no vision, no revelation, the people are unrestrained. And that part also has been translated in various ways. They are scattered like sheep. When Jesus was on earth he saw them as sheep scattered, because there was no vision among the leaders of God's people. Unrestrained can also mean they rebel and they perish. They rebel, they perish and they are stripped naked. Now when you think of all the meanings that there are in that verse, that we see the tremendous importance of prophetic vision in the midst of God's people. Not just head knowledge of the scriptures, but a knowledge of God, so that there is a prophetic vision of God's purposes, and of what is needed among the people of God. Now that was true in the Old Testament, in the days of Samuel. It's written in the scriptures that the word of God was rare and there was no open vision. And that's the time God raised up Samuel. And it's a great need in the church as well. Wherever in a church there is no prophetic vision, no revelation, then the people rebel. And the people are stripped naked by Satan and they are unrestrained. And you see that in so many so-called Christian churches, where there is no prophetic word, and the people just do what they like. Like it says in the book of Judges, there's a wonderful statement in the book of Judges, which is referring to the time just before Samuel's time, when there was no vision. The last verse of the book of Judges, it says, the people did, each man did what was right in his own eyes. And that's the condition of a lot of Christendom today, and of a lot of churches, where there is no prophetic vision, everybody does what they feel like. And that's why you find in a lot of so-called Christian churches today, the young people have virtually taken over the church, and the pastor is at the mercy of the young people, because he has to please them, and he has to allow them to do whatever they like in order to keep them happy. And there is no prophetic vision, there's no revelation, and the people are stripped naked, and the pastor is led by the foolishness and the folly of the young people. That is the condition of almost all Christian churches today. And that's a verse that we have to keep in mind, the importance of vision. And the same thing we can say about a house, where a father, who is the head of the house, does not have a clear vision of what God's purpose for his house is. He'll allow his wife to run the house, and when women run the house, it'll always go the way it went in the Garden of Eden, when Eve began to run her house. Paradise is lost immediately. And when a man doesn't have the vision, his children are unrestrained, and they rebel, and we can apply that verse to a home. That's the condition of a Christian home as well, because the man just doesn't know how to be the head of the house. The man just doesn't have a vision of what God's purpose is for his home. Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained. But happy is he who keeps the law. Well, and that we can say is added on to that, that if, for example, you are in a situation where there is no revelation, and no vision, and no prophet, and no prophecy, what shall you do? Maybe you're not a prophet, or having prophetic vision yourself. Well, you don't have to give up hope, you can do the second part of that verse. Just obey the word of God that you know. Keep the law, and vision will come. It begins with simple obedience to the word of God. So that's a very important verse. Verse 19. A slave or a servant will not be instructed by words alone. In the Good News Bible, it reads like this. You cannot correct a servant just by talking to him. He may understand you, but he will pay no attention. Or as the Living Bible puts it, sometimes mere words are not enough for a servant. Discipline is also needed, for the words may not be heeded. Now, it's very interesting to see here, in this verse, that the Holy Spirit is so careful in what he's written. The Spirit of God is realistic. Sometimes we can be very unrealistic. And those of us who've had experience with servants know the truth of this verse. Mere words are not enough with a servant. And that's realism. There can be a super-spirituality which imagines that we can correct everything with mere words, but here it says you cannot correct a servant just by talking to him. Something more is needed. Now, when it comes to what more is needed, the Holy Spirit stops. He doesn't tell you what more is needed. There, we have to seek God for wisdom. Yeah, I realize that mere words will not correct this servant of mine who is not doing things correctly, and that may be a servant in the home, it may be someone working under you in the factory or the office. Mere words don't solve the problem, and the Holy Spirit is realistic. He understands that mere words are not enough. Something more is needed. But what more is needed? There, the Holy Spirit expects you to seek God for wisdom and say, Lord, now according to this verse, it's true that mere talking doesn't solve the problem here. Now give me wisdom as to what should I do. And that's where we have to seek God for wisdom ourselves. And as for myself, I have discovered long ago not to judge the way another person treats his servant or treats those who are working under him. Because when I do that, I'm being a busybody in a matter in which even the Holy Spirit gives a person freedom. We all have this tendency, like Lucifer, to be like God, to decide that so-and-so must not do this and so-and-so must not do that. Have you ever felt like this? So-and-so should not bring up his children like this. So-and-so should not treat his servant like this. That is the spirit of Lucifer. You are a mini-God who determines how other people should run their lives and their homes. We have to cleanse ourselves of that spirit of Lucifer. I've come to see that being a busybody in other people's affairs is actually the spirit of Lucifer. It's being a little God to other people to decide how they should bring up their children and how they should treat their servant. Well, we've all done it, so we can't throw stones at anyone. But we can cleanse ourselves from it so that we don't do it anymore. We say, God will give him wisdom how to bring up his children. Maybe different from the way I bring up mine. God will give him wisdom how he should treat his servant. That's different from the way I bring up mine. I'll tell you something more, one step further. And if it is a servant in the home, and it is the wife who has to deal with the servant mostly, then it can be very easy for the husband also to be a busybody in a matter in which he doesn't have wisdom necessarily. And there it's not easy to refrain from being a busybody. And there we need to really see God as to what our place is if someone else in the home has the responsibility to deal with a servant. Yeah, we have to, of course we can discuss these things, but ultimately we must leave the matter to that person and God to deal with that matter. So there we see something. A servant will not be instructed by words alone. He may understand you, but he will pay no attention until you do something more. But when we come to the New Testament, we find a verse like this in Colossians chapter, sorry I Masters do the same things to them and give up threatening. Well, mere words are not enough, that is true. But when we go beyond mere words, make sure it's not threatening, because that's forbidden by the Holy Spirit. And that's the way of the world. The world says we'll get the job done by threatening. But that's not the way for God's children, because God's word says we are not to threaten those who work under us. And so when we seek God for wisdom, we can be sure that the Holy Spirit will not lead us into something contrary to what he himself has written in the word in this area. Now this is a very practical matter, because we have people working for us in our homes, or we have people working under us in our offices, and we need wisdom in how to treat them. Mere words are not enough. And of course this is also true in the way God treats his servants. We know that God doesn't treat his servants just with words. He doesn't correct them just with words. Sometimes mere words are not enough. For example, he told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach, and Jonah didn't listen, and mere words were not enough for Jonah. He had to have a storm and be swallowed by a whale and all types of things before God was able to accomplish what he wanted. And so we can be sure that we are right when we treat those under us the way God treats us. Proverbs 29 now and verse 20. Now in the book of Proverbs we have seen many types of fools. We have seen that. And this is the last chapter that Solomon is writing. The last two chapters of Proverbs are not written by Solomon. Chapter 29 is the last one. And he is coming to the end of chapter 29, and he is deciding to tell us who is the biggest fool of the lot, in his opinion, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Do you see a man who is hasty? And it says in his words, and in the margin of some Bibles it says, in his matters. And we can apply it to both. Do you see a man who is hasty in his matters, and hasty in his words? He is the worst fool of the lot. He takes the cake, as they say. He is number one. I mean, we have talked about a lot of fools, but this man is absolutely on top of the list. The person who is quick to speak. Quick to do everything. Get a letter, which works you up and irritates you. Quick to write back. Quick to decide whom to get married to. Quick to get married. Quick to do this. Quick to do that. Yeah, that's the absolute number one fool in the whole earth. A man who is hasty. Everything hasty. Somebody says something, immediately, I have to do that. I have to do something. He has no time to wait on the Lord and say, Lord, show me what shall I do here. Hasty. Hasty, hasty. That is, there is more hope for a fool than for him means, that even all the fools I have spoken of so far, some of them look like hopeless cases, but there is some hope for them compared to this man. We read in Isaiah chapter 28 and verse 16. Isaiah 28 verse 16. Behold, I am laying in a Zion a stone, the Lord God says, a tested stone, a costly cornerstone for the foundation firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be in a hurry. Will not be in a hurry, it says in the margin. He who believes will not make haste, as the King James Version says. And so we see that one who believes in the Lord will not ever be in a hurry. You see, young people particularly, when it comes to marriage, they can very easily be in a hurry because they think that if I don't act quickly, somebody else may get him or somebody else may get her. And then, of course, you can't get them to wait to seek God's will. They're afraid to wait to seek God's will because they feel that by the time I'm wasting my time here seeking God's will, somebody else may go in and get married to him or her. There's more hope for a fool than for such people who can't believe. They're not believers, they are unbelievers. They don't believe that God can keep anything for them. They don't believe that Almighty God who created the heaven and the earth can keep one single thing in the world for them. They feel they're like Jacob, if I don't grab for myself, I'll never get anything. The same thing applies in all other areas. People are grabbing for property and grabbing for all types of things. You see, if I don't grab quickly, I won't get it. That's the mark of an unbeliever. A man who has faith in God says, well, Almighty God will keep it for me, if it is for me. If I don't get it, that proves that God Almighty never intended me to have it. I mean, it's very simple. If I can just believe this much that Almighty God is capable of keeping something for me, if He meant it for me. If He didn't mean it for me, that's quite alright. Like we sing in one of the songs, evil that God blesses is good for me, and good that God does not bless is evil for me. Think of a believer who has come to that place. All the things which are evil are good for me if God blesses them. And all the things which are so-called good in the world, they're not good for me if God doesn't bless them. And when I get something from God's hand, that's the most wonderful thing in the world. God may have intended something or someone for me, but if I grab it, I miss the blessing. If I had waited, I could have got it in God's time, God's way. It's a tremendous thing to keep that in mind. In the book of Proverbs, we read in chapter 26 and verse 12, Proverbs 26 and verse 12, we read there, Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. These are the two people who are listed in the book of Proverbs as the ones who are on top of the list. The one who is in a hurry and the one who really thinks he is quite spiritual. Who's wise in his own eyes. In his own eyes, he thinks I'm quite a spiritual brother, quite a spiritual sister. I'm quite wise spiritually. Wise in his own eyes, not in the eyes of others. But in his own thinking, he has some high opinion about himself. He is absolutely the number one fool. He has got the prize jointly with this man who is hasty in his words and matters. They win the cup jointly for the biggest fools on earth. That's good for us to keep that in mind. And we see how easy it is for us to come to that position, to be among these two categories of fools who are on the top of the list. And how easy it is also for us, once we see it, to judge ourselves and cleanse ourselves from these things so that we can go down in our own thinking and cease to be in such a hurry in the words we speak, in the letters we write, in the actions we do, etc. to slow down a bit because we trust God. And that's a word particularly for young people. If you want to save yourself from a lot of folly, particularly in our words. I've quoted this verse sometimes and it's good to look at it again. Psalm 12, verse 6. It says, the words of the Lord, Psalm 12, verse 6, are pure words, as silver fried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times. Psalm 12, verse 6. That's the purity there is in God's words. And applying that to ourselves too. I'm thinking of saying something and I put it into the furnace and a little bit of the dross falls off and I say, yeah, I can say it without that other extra word there. Put it into the furnace a second time and some more dross falls off and I can cut off something else and put it into the furnace a third time and like that on till the seventh time until if I seek to cleanse myself in the way I speak. It doesn't happen overnight. We slip up, we fall, it says we all stumble. But the intention is that we become, we press on to perfection and it becomes more and more perfect even in our speech as we cleanse ourselves and we say, yeah, that wasn't very wise. It wasn't evil, but it wasn't wise to say that. And we cleanse ourselves and we purify what we have to say instead of just opening our mouth and keeping on letting people hear our opinions. Be very careful because we can grow up in the assembly and get a testimony that we are the number one fools. Yeah, there are young people growing up who have a testimony that they're the number one fools because they just open their mouth and can't shut it. They've got an opinion on everything under the sun. That's a sad thing when it happens like that. It is. Let's turn now to verse 21, Proverbs 29, verse 21 says in the Good News Bible here, if you give your servant everything he wants from childhood, in those days, um, you know, servants were slaves. That means you had the slave in your house from the time he was a little child. He was your slave because he was born to the father who was a slave and the child was a slave and the child began to work right from that time. If you give your servant everything he wants from childhood on, someday he will take over everything that you own. Or in other words, if you keep on pampering your servant, one day you'll find that he wants to be a son in the house. And that teaches us also another thing about being wise in, um, that we, that our love is not deceived. Love must be governed by wisdom in everything. And, uh, if our love is not governed by wisdom, we can end up suffering a lot of consequences of our own folly in this area. Of course, that applies to children too. If you give your child, your son, everything that he wants, he'll grow up to be a tyrant. If you go give your servant everything that he wants, one day he'll virtually take over the house and he'll be the master and you'll be servant submitting to his authority. Verse 22, a man's, uh, an angry man stirs up strife and a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression. When people speak of their hot temper, I've seen believers who sometimes speak of their hot temper as a weakness. Ah, my, my temper, it's really bad. It's like someone saying, I just go and commit adultery now and then. You know, just kill a few people every week. It's, it's really in the same category. It's amazing how so many believers also don't have light on the fact that anger is exactly the same as murder and adultery in God's eyes. No difference. And the reason they never get rid of it is because they think of it as a weakness, not as a sin. That's why as long as I think murder and adultery are sins, but this anger and this violent temper of mine, yeah, that's my temperamental weakness. I've had it from childhood. You'll have it till you die, brother, sister. It'll never go because you haven't called it sin yet. And the chances are your sins are not forgiven because you don't call it a sin. You call it a weakness. The blood of Jesus doesn't cleanse weaknesses. It doesn't. If your anger is a weakness, I'm sorry, the blood of Jesus doesn't cleanse you and you have no place in the kingdom of God because your sin's not forgiven because you won't call it a sin. No, it says a hot-tempered man abounds in sin. It's transgression, even in the Old Testament. We think that's some New Testament command. There it is in the Old Testament, a hot-tempered man abounds in sin. It's not just some small sin. He's abounding, he's overflowing with sin because of his hot temper. That's why we must never think of our hot temper as just a weakness. Call it by its right name, a filthy sin. Be ashamed of it just like you'd be ashamed if you were committing adultery every day. As ashamed, oh, you fell into adultery again. That's anger. Call it sin and I think we'll get the victory much quicker. I really believe that lots of believers don't get victory over some sins because they haven't seen the sinfulness of sin. They haven't seen some of these sins for the horrible, hideous, wretched things they are in God's eyes. So they take it lightly and it never goes from their life. That's the devil's trick. He doesn't want it to leave them. He wants them to land in his lap in hell finally and so he makes them keep on calling them weaknesses, weaknesses, weaknesses, weaknesses because the devil knows that those sins will never be forgiven as long as they keep on calling them weaknesses till finally they wake up in hell one day and discover they were not weaknesses, they were sins which would have been easily forgiven if they had called them sins but which were not forgiven because they called them weaknesses. Yeah, we must be honest and a hot tempered man abounds in transgression but praise God there's grace with God to bring even this giant of a violent temper underneath our feet. Verse 23, a man's pride will bring him low but a humble spirit will obtain honor. God gives his grace to the humble but he resists the proud. That's why a man's pride brings him low because God resists him. We can say that God's pushing one person down and he's pushing another person up and the man who wants to lift himself up and who's proud in his thoughts and who thinks highly of himself, God is constantly pushing him down and this is another reason why many believers do not make spiritual progress because God is always pushing them down and the poor chaps just can't grow because God's pushing them down. The devil's already pushing them down but God's also pushing them down because of their conceit, because of their pride, because of their high thoughts about themselves which God sees in their hearts. However humble they may appear to be on the surface but where a person is really small in his own eyes, God lifts him up with grace. He will obtain honor in God's eyes. So that New Testament thing that we read, New Testament verse that we read in James and Peter is there in Proverbs too, that it is the humble to whom God gives grace. Verse 24, let me read that in the Good News Bible where it's a little clearer, a thief's partner is his own worst enemy. He will be punished if he tells the truth in court, he's done something wrong you see, and if he tells the truth in court he'll be punished but if he doesn't tell the truth God will curse him so he's in a fix, he doesn't know what to do and the whole problem arose because he got into a business alliance with a man who was a thief. What do I mean by a thief? By that I mean a man who writes his accounts wrongly. Is that person called a thief in the world? Of course he is in God's eyes. A man who is stealing from the government tax that rightfully belongs to them. What's he? A thief. What would you call a man who stole some of your money? A thief. That's right and a man who enters into a business partnership with an unbeliever or with a believer who doesn't have any righteousness in his principles he may make money like one Pentecostal man I heard in Kerala who was asked how he maintains his accounts in these corrupt days and he said well my partner is an unbeliever and he writes the accounts so you see it solves his problem he only gets the profits. That's a deception to think that God will just judge the man's partner and let this man go saying all right you didn't actually write it. It's a deception. We not unequally yoked together with unbelievers so we see we can come into that situation difficult situation in court where we if you speak the truth you're going to be punished if you don't speak the truth God will curse you. All right supposing we've done some foolish thing like that and we do finally have to give a testimony what shall we do then? Shall we be punished by men or shall we be cursed by God? If you are left with that choice which shall we choose? We shall be punished by men. We will speak the truth and we would rather be punished by men but this verse tells us that when a man tells a lie in court even if he can escape that punishment on earth because he's not caught he does not escape God's curse on him finally. He cannot escape that punishment and when we find ourselves in such situations yes in different situations in our office or somewhere we can find ourselves in that type of in a corner where I'm in a tight spot and if I tell the truth I may lose my job but what's the alternative? If you tell a lie God will punish you and curse you which do you want? Yeah may God give us grace to say I lose my job but I don't want God's curse on my life and that's where we find a man compromises and compromise is can be like this I will tell a lie and then I will confess that God is merciful he will forgive me. Verse 25 connected to verse 24 the fear of man brings a snare but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted. The fear of man is a trap to seek honor from men. It's a trap and it catches people like an elephant can even be caught in a trap. The fear of man what will so-and-so do to me or what will so-and-so think about me? These are the two things usually what will so-and-so think about me if I say this or do this and what will so-and-so do to me if I say this or do this from childhood it is there and it's a trap that prevents me from honoring God but if I fear God there I have to ask what will God do to me if I do this or that that's more important than what this man will do to me. What will God think about me that's more important than what this man will think about me and I'm free so many birds are caught in a trap believers with wings flapping but they can't fly because they're in a trap seeking the honor of men afraid of what men will do because they do not fear God. Are you in a situation with some relationship with an unbeliever that's getting you into a compromising position? Listen to the word which Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 5 22 three words keep yourself pure keep yourself pure 1 Timothy 5 22 never mind if the other fellow is going to hell don't hold hands with him don't think that we can have a business partnership with a man here on this earth and he does unrighteous things and goes to hell and just before he goes to hell I can leave his hand no God will say you held his hand on earth you hold his hand in eternity too and where he goes you go too that's why we got to be very careful in all these alliances with unbelievers where they lead us into situations where we have to do wrong things keep yourself pure he who trusts in the Lord verse 25 will be exalted that's sure in the good news Bible it reads like this it's dangerous to be concerned it's dangerous to be concerned with what others think about you but if you trust the Lord you're safe verse 26 in the living Bible it reads like this do you want justice don't fawn on the judge that means don't butter the judge but ask the Lord for it do you want justice don't go buttering people for it go and ask the Lord he'll give it to you not by seeking the ruler's favor justice for a man comes from the Lord and if the Lord sees fit that he wants you to go through some injustice here on earth for spiritual purification you say fine it's okay but we don't have to go flattering and buttering people on earth for that the world does that but not a servant of God a son of God who has some dignity about him many many many seek the ruler's favor but justice for a man comes from the Lord verse 27 in the living Bible it reads like this the good hate the badness of the wicked they don't hate the wicked they hate the badness of the wicked just like God he hates the badness of the wicked but the wicked in turn hate the goodness of the good the wicked hate the goodness of the good people and that is the main reason why when we preach victory over sin we have such a lot of opposition to that message i've thought of this supposing you go into a church say some pentecostal church or a baptist church or something like that and you preach that if a man shouts at his wife at home he's got no business to get up and preach any message to anybody what has he got to tell people he's got no gospel no good news to tell anyone and supposing the pastor sitting there is a man who not only shouts at his wife but has been shouting at his wife by some of the other people in the congregation don't you think he'll get furious with that message but he won't say the reason i oppose it because he exposed my sin that that will look terrible he'll find some other doctrinal thing yeah this particular doctrine these people believe is all heresy that's a cover-up for the real reason which is he hates the goodness of the good he hates people preaching that you must get victory over your lust and your and your love of money and all that that's the real reason and once we understand that we can expect opposition to the message of victory right until the end of our days because he who is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked think of that he who is upright in his way is an abomination he's a perpetual nuisance to this wicked man who wants to live in sin and say grace has covered me and i'm clothed with the righteousness of christ and all that rot abusing the doctrine of god's grace and that's why you find there are few who want to be upright in the way because they don't want to face opposition when it comes to opposition a lot of these people who began as upright people end up as diplomats who want to please everybody but it is true that an upright man is an abomination to the wicked like paul says in 2nd timothy 312 all those who live godly lives in christ jesus will suffer persecution and you'll find that persecution primarily comes from other christians who don't believe in living godly lives if we don't face up to that we'll have a lot of surprises but we face up to that right at the beginning then when we are opposed by other christians we will not be surprised we say that's what the it's just a fulfillment of god's word that is the last of solomon's proverbs in this book it's very interesting to see that he ends on that note that now you have heard all these things from me and you go out and try and practice that and preach it and you'll face the opposition of all those who do not want to live in this way chapter 30 and 31 were written by two other people as we read in the first verses of those two chapters chapter 30 was written by a man called augur the son of jackie the burden or the oracle that he had on his heart which he writes down here and the man declares to ithiel to ithiel and ukal now that's possibly names but some a lot of these hebrew names have meanings and uh it could be that this need not be names but that that could be a sentence and that's why in the good news bible and in the living bible instead of those names it's been translated these hebrew words as i'm tired out oh god and ready to die i am helpless i am exhausted i'm ready to die here is a man who's writing one chapter at a time when he has come to his width end he has come to the end of himself like when the disciples had tried all night to catch fish and they caught nothing they came to an end of themselves this man had also come to that point it's very interesting to see that's the time when he got wisdom to write something for scripture when he had come to the absolute end of himself he says lord i'm exhausted that's the meaning of ithiel and ukal i'm tired out oh god i'm exhausted and then he says in verse two something more about himself i am more stupid than any man and i do not have the understanding of a man here was a a brother whose intelligence was below average quite below average he used to come among the last two or three in his class in his school days i think god picks up such people to write scripture think of that i am more stupid than any man i used to come last in my class i couldn't understand the things the other children grasped so quickly think that god picks up such a man and leaves all these clever intelligent people who can explain the doctrine on the side that's a tremendous encouragement that god could pick up such a man to write a portion of holy scripture but even if a man is intelligent he cannot understand god's word until he comes to that place because paul says in 1 corinthians 3 18 is any among you wise in this world let him become a fool so that he can become really wise when a person is clever he can understand the doctrine but he has no revelation and until he really sincerely considers himself to be absolutely stupid then he can get revelation and many people who hear that message and say yes i'm stupid don't really believe that in their heart so they still don't get revelation but here's a person who believed it he said i'm more stupid than any man i don't have the understanding of a man and he got revelation and he says i haven't learned wisdom i don't have the knowledge of the holy one like the living bible says i can't understand man i'll leave alone try and understand god i can't i don't know i'm exhausted lord i've come to the end of myself i don't know i can't understand many things i just don't know i don't have wisdom praise god that there's a revelation like that in the old testament one would think this is new testament truth a lot of things in proverbs which are new testament truth is almost like a new covenant book there back in the old testament because it's only in the new testament that that comes forth more clearly that god has no value for all our human ability and cleverness and that is why jesus chose disciples and apostles from the fishermen the people who were considered unlearned and uneducated in israel and that is today's christendom has gone completely astray 180 degrees in the opposite direction from the christianity that jesus and the apostles preached because they have gone after clever people educated people and try to give them more education in their schools and colleges give them degrees and one degree after another you can't get all those degrees unless you're really clever imagine if jesus chose apostles like that there'd be no christianity on earth today it would be corrupt it would have been corrupt right at the beginning but there we see jesus had a different understanding from all these christians today that's why he never sent his apostles to a bible school or any such thing he needed needed them to learn by revelation like jesus told peter flesh and blood has not revealed this to you your cleverness has not given you revelation peter there are many cleverer people than you in israel how come they didn't understand it if it's by cleverness my brothers and sisters we've heard this for 10 years in the church do you think we have understood it yes i'll give you my opinion i believe that most of us have not understood it we know it in theory oh yes but we lean so much on our human cleverness and we are proud of our cleverness you say how do you know well we can sense it in people's spirits there is a prize and that's where you and i have to judge ourselves severely we are not among the uneducated and below average intelligence anybody sitting here used to come last in the class maybe there is one or two but most of us never came last in our classes did we we're pretty proud of the fact some of us that we've done pretty well in our class in our school days yeah that's all right in the world but woe unto us if we think therefore we are spiritual because we can understand the doctrine or get some stupid crazy idea like that about ourselves no we have to come to the place this man came to to get revelation i am more stupid than any man i believe there are two revelations that are very important for spiritual growth one is the revelation that i am the chief of sinners 1 timothy 115 and the other is the revelation that i am more stupid than any man chapter 30 verse 2 not that we say it in false humility when we get a revelation on that fact there's spiritual progress if i have not got revelation on these two my progress will it'll be there but it'll be so retarded and so slow i'll be like you know in the world they have mentally retarded children who can't do things properly i'll be exactly the same in the kingdom of god a spiritually retarded child who can't understand things in the in the spiritual realm so important revelation on these two things and then i can have knowledge and he sits back and he thinks he said oh god who has ascended into heaven and descended way back there in the old testament there was no one this is before the days of jesus christ on earth because he ascended into heaven and descended who has gathered the wind in his fists who has wrapped the waters in his garment who has established all the ends of the earth what is his name or his son's name what is his name and what is his son's name is the only place in the old testament where there's reference to the son of god and that revelation was given to a man who said he was more stupid than any man think how it is with god he gives grace to the lowly those who humble themselves are exalted that they think of this one has to read the old testament to understand the significance of this verse what is the name of the son of god when there was no one in the old testament who ever even thought of a son of god they only knew god almighty and here was a man who was saying something which really relates to the new testament amazing yeah we know his name today is jesus the son of god it's wonderful to have been able to get a revelation like that way back in the old testament he thinks of all the wonderful things that god does verse five every word of god is tested he's a shield to those who take refuge in him verse five it's good to listen to this humble brother who's really got small thoughts about himself who's not standing up there trying to teach us something because he knows that he's more stupid than you and me he doesn't he probably when he wrote it never even thought that what he wrote would ever got get included in scripture along with proverbs along with the sayings of the wisest man that ever lived on the face of the earth along with solomon his sayings would also go in think of that he never thought of all that he just wrote down what he thought and god saw to it that this humble brother's statement should be put in the same category as solomon the wisest man that lived on the face of the earth and every most believers think that solomon wrote the whole book of proverbs and they don't know there was a humble brother right at the end who wrote one chapter and what does he say in verse five in the good news bible it reads like this god keeps every promise he makes god keeps every promise that he makes that's the meaning of every word of god is tested and proves true that means if god's made a promise he will keep it he he knew that he was more stupid than any man in all this chemistry and maths and physics and all that but when it came to the promises of god he knew that was definite he was not spiritually retarded even though he's mentally retarded perhaps every promise of god he keeps he is like a shield for all those who seek his protection think of that these are the people who are great in god's kingdom those who believe that god keeps every promise that he makes and that he's a shield to all who will seek his protection verse six do not add to his words here is this humble brother saying be careful when god has said something you better accept it just like that don't be like eve who said god said you must not eat the tree and touch the tree god never said that god said don't eat of the fruit but we read in genesis 3 that eve added something you know there are people who try to be more spiritual than jesus they try to say things that jesus never said whenever we begin to teach other people you must do it like this and we have no verse in the new testament for it then we are going into eve's mistake be more spiritual don't even eat the tree and don't even touch it what is the end result of that attitude you end up eating and doing everything else as well and that's the result of super super spirituality trying to add things to god's word that's how the pharisees became pharisees by adding things which moses never commanded and there are christians doing that today making commands for other people which are not found anywhere in the new testament of course god may lead me in a particular situation to not do certain things or do certain things but i must not make that a law for other people if it's not written in scripture even though i may for example you may feel like getting up at five o'clock in the morning yeah that's fine that's good good to get up early in the morning and read the word of god but if you make it a law for others then you become a pharisee we there are things many good things which we must never make laws for others it may be just for us i have to do that brother that's fine spirituality doesn't come with that spirituality comes only through god's word do not add to his words because god has tested his words and he has seen what is enough for man and don't think that we know more we must never act we got to be very careful here don't add to his words lest he reprove you and you'll be proved to be a liar because one day god can expose us like he exposed eve and it'll be manifest that we are just liars so we got to be careful in this area particularly i want to point out one verse in this area of prophecy you know it says here in the good news bible if you claim that god said something that he never said this is another paraphrase of verse six if you claim that god said something that he never said he will reprimand you and show that you are a liar i want to say that in relation to prophecy in the church now in pentecostal circles there is a tradition that every prophecy must begin with thus said the lord i am this this this this this this now this verse tells us be very careful in saying that make sure god has actually said it now if you're giving an exhortation to the people yeah that's all right that's you don't have to be so careful because they know that you're saying it but when you say thus said the lord i want you to do this there you are speaking god's word and you got to be really sure that god has said it in jeremiah 23 the lord said in verse 31 jeremiah 23 verse 31 behold i am against the prophets declares the lord who use their tongues and say the lord declares you see these are the people who said the lord says this and it wasn't what the lord said and there's a lot of that in pentecostal charismatic circles because they don't have the fear of god and it's possible for us to get into a pentecostal tradition in this area of prophecy thinking that the only way to prophesy is this now there are things that the lord has said which we can safely say that he gives grace to the humble the lord says i give grace to the humble it's absolutely right because it's found in scripture or that he resists the crowd there are things like that which are a revelation of god in scripture that's clear but when we go into things which are not there we are trying to give god's word for a particular time to a particular people we have to be very humble about thinking that the lord is speaking through us and there we get more and more light as we grow up to maturity i know in my younger days i've done that myself and that is how it is when we are young we like to think that god is speaking through us but i found more and more as i've grown up i've seen in jeremiah 23 that the lord is against those people who say thus declares the lord if i'm not sure that the lord has said it then it's better to say not as though god is speaking but as though i am speaking that is safer and usually it is much safer at least we don't get into the condemnation of claiming like it says in proverbs 30 verse 6 good news bible if you claim that he said something that he never said he will reprimand you and show you that you're a liar so in the area of prophecy we must avoid the pentecostal charismatic tradition verse 7 and the first part of verse 8 i ask you god to let me have two things before i die it's a very wonderful thing i've thought of it if someone had never read this verse and uh if god were to come to him and say what are the two things you want ask for two things that you want what would be immediately our reply say today god said i'll give you two things what are the two things you want well this man asked for two things and one was the first one was lord keep me from telling lies lord the first thing i ask you is keep me from telling lies keep deception and lies far from me lord help me never in my life to tell a lie and he knew that he had he needed help he knew that he couldn't do that on his own he had to pray to god keep me i can't keep myself keep me from telling a lie and keep me from what we understand in the new testament as lying which is hypocrisy hypocrisy is a form of lying to tell a lie without opening my mouth by giving a certain impression lord keep me i cannot keep myself because my flesh has got such a lust to tell lies such a lust to be a hypocrite please keep me lord number one thing i ask you for if you will please listen to my request please keep me from being a hypocrite and from giving a false impression from deceiving other people and from telling lies let me be an honest upright person about whom you can say like you said about nathaniel there is a man in whom there is no hypocrisy wonderful not a man who is perfect no no no perfection is still a long way but there is a man in whom there's no hypocrisy we should covet that testimony from jesus i've often thought of what jesus said to nathaniel and i said lord help me that here on this earth i can have such a testimony those are the people who are in 144 000 no guile in them second thing he says that's my number one request and secondly he says lord don't let me be too poor or too rich now there are lots of people who pray don't let me be poor i mean the world's full of people who are praying oh god please don't let poverty strike my family have you ever heard of a man who says lord don't let me get rich don't let riches strike my family lord don't let me win a lottery ticket or something like that and i suddenly get so much money i don't know what to do with it don't let some rich uncle of mine die and leave 10 lakhs for me i wouldn't know what to do with it please lord let them if they die let them will their wealth to somebody else rather than to me think of people praying like this this was this humble brother who was more stupid than any man who had light on telling lies who had light on the danger of wealth because he was humble god opened his blind eyes to see the danger of too much money he says if i get too much if i am full i might deny you and say who is the lord you see wealth makes us less dependent on god he'll always find that it says in james 2 5 that god has chosen the poor of the world rich in faith because when they have a need they have to turn to god they don't know when their money will run out they have to really trust god but the rich person doesn't need to depend on god like that and the wealth has a tendency whether it's wealth of education or wealth of money or wealth of personality or wealth of talents or wealth of gifts or wealth of x y or z all these forms of wealth have a tendency to make a man go away from god like wealth of self-righteousness they couldn't come to god easily like the prostitutes and the thieves there's a danger in wealth that we must beware of yeah if god has made us wealthy in intelligence and money and gifts and abilities and personalities there's nothing wrong in that but we must realize that we are in fantastic danger and really humble ourselves and live in fear and that is how it is with many of us and therefore we need to live in fear otherwise he says lord if i'm too poor i may steal and disgrace the name of my god now in the new testament paul said in philippians 4 12 he says i have learned how to be poor and to be rich that was quite a height that he came to in the new covenant and that is a height that we can also come to where i don't have to pray that old testament prayer of proverbs 30 verse 8 saying lord please give me money if i become too poor i may steal i can say lord even if i'm too poor i won't steal i know how to live without that and i don't even have to pray lord don't make me too rich because lord if you make me too rich i'll know how to give that money away to somebody who needs it i know it that's how paul knew he says i know how to handle poverty and prosperity i know how to get along with little and i know how to get along with much because when i know i have much i know i have to give it up