In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith emphasizes the importance of listening to and respecting our parents. He encourages his listeners to value truth, wisdom, instruction, and understanding above all else. Pastor Chuck warns against the dangers of alcohol and the negative consequences it can have on one's life. He also reminds his audience not to envy or harm the righteous, but instead to persevere and rise again when they fall. Throughout the sermon, Pastor Chuck emphasizes the need to seek God's will and live in His presence.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life And make you whole Proverbs chapter 23, verse 22 And now with today's message Here's Pastor Chuck Hearken to your Father that begat thee And don't despise your mother when she is old Buy the truth and sell it not Also wisdom and instruction and understanding That's the valuable thing in life That's what you want to really buy Gain the truth, gain wisdom, gain knowledge, gain understanding Over in Job chapter 28 We find that Job is answering his friends And he's talking about the value of wisdom Where it might be found He said, surely there is a vein for silver And a place for gold where they find it Iron is taken out of the earth And copper is molten out of the stone Or melted out of the stone He sets an end to the darkness And he searched out all perfection The stones of darkness, the shadow of death And then going on down He said But where, verse 12, shall wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding? Man knows not the price of it Neither is it found in the land of the living The depth saith, it is not in me The sea saith, it is not with me It cannot be gotten for gold Neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir Or with the precious onyx or the sapphire The gold in the crystal cannot equal it And the exchange of it shall not be for jewels or fine gold No mention shall be made of coral or of pearls For the price of wisdom is above rubies So by the truth, sell it not Also wisdom, instruction and understanding The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice And he that begetteth a wise child shall have the joy of him So the father who has a son who's walking in righteousness What a joy that is, what a blessing To have a son that walks in righteousness and is wise John, writing in his epistle, said I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk in truth And I think that most parents can say that I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk in the truth Now we have a little discourse upon wine We already read, wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging And he who is deceived thereby is not wise Now he speaks more concerning this subject of wine He said, who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions or fightings? Who has babblings? Who has wounds? And he doesn't know how Who has redness of eyes? They that tarry long at wine And they that go to seek mixed wine Look not upon the wine when it is red Or when it gives its color in the cup Or when it moves itself aright That is, after the fermentation has taken place When it begins to move of itself in the cup The fermenting process In other words, after it's been fermented, don't look upon it They called the juice wine But here's the warning about once it has been fermented And it takes on its alcoholic content For at the last it bites like a serpent And it will sting like an adder Your eyes, start drinking, will behold strange women Your heart will utter perverse things You will be like a man who tries to lie down in the middle of the sea Or as one who tries to lie on the top of a mast You'll do stupid, strange, weird things when you're drunk They have stricken me, you will say And I was not sick They've beaten me And I didn't feel it When shall I awake? And then you will just seek it yet again The tragedy of the alcoholic The man who has been captured by alcohol The problems, problems Don't be envious against the evil men Neither desire to be with them A man is known by the company he keeps For the evil men, their hearts study destruction And their lips speak of mischief It is through wisdom that a house is built And by understanding it is established Now, this is really an exhortation for you mothers It is by wisdom that your house is built It is by understanding that it becomes established And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled With all precious and pleasant riches The home, the mother, the homemaker There was a lot of pressure put upon women And I guess it hasn't ceased entirely To try to find your own identity To be a career woman And motherhood was sort of put down As something for the ignorant and the poor Something that was rather unsatisfying and unfulfilling And so many women in the 40s today Who grew up during that time When there was that sociological pressure Who opted for the career Rather than for the joys and the blessing of motherhood Are now trying to have children and have families Because they realize that there is an emptiness in success But there is tremendous fulfillment in a family With children Children are a heritage of the Lord And blessed is the man whose quiver is full And I thank God for the joy and the blessing And the fulfillment that we receive through our children And the absolute, total ecstasy from our grandchildren And it's worth having children just to get the grandchildren And I feel sorry for those women who have to work Who miss out on all of the exciting, wonderful things That little children do I feel very sorry for those that don't have that joy Of being able to give all of the constant input to a little child I find it so fulfilling, so enriching So you have a full-time career, but you have a fulfilling career When you pour your life into your child You'll have time when they get big Now, these that are having kids when they're 40 By the time, they won't be able to see grandchildren You see, they miss out on the premiums By the time they have grandkids, they'll be so old and crotchety They won't be able to enjoy them If they're still here So, have your kids while you're young The joy never ceases, never ceases Through wisdom, a house is built I mean, the most challenging career in all the world is raising kids, I'm sure And it takes wisdom, it takes understanding, it takes knowledge A wise man is strong Yea, a man of knowledge increases strength For by wise counsel you will make war And a multitude of counselors there is safety Wisdom is too high for the fool He opens not his mouth in the gate The gate was the place of judgment, the place where issues were decided But the fool, wisdom's too high for him He doesn't open his mouth there in the gate He that deviseth to do evil shall be called a mischievous person And then he tells us that the thought of foolishness is sin The scorner is an abomination to men When I was in college, too bad I didn't read these verses I think of all of the devices and foolishness that we did When we should have been studying Now if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small Jeremiah said, if you have run with a footman and you've become weary What are you going to do when you have to contend with horses? You think it's tough now, what are you going to do when it really gets tough? And if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small God doesn't promise us that we won't have adversity God doesn't promise us that we're not going to have problems They that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution Now if your strength is in and of yourself If you're always looking within yourself for that source of strength That sort of secret inner strength You're going to come to a place and a day in which you're going to fall Because you're going to find your strength isn't sufficient And it's tragic when a person learns to rely upon their own wits and their own strength Because one day you're going to be facing a situation where your wits aren't going to get you out of it And your strength won't be sufficient But if you're trusting in the Lord and in His strength Then you'll never get to the place that you can't handle it You won't have the strength to do it Because it's not your strength, you're looking to the Lord for His strength And God won't let you down If you forbear to deliver those who are drawn to death There's a scripture that said that If you have the power in you to do good and you do it not, it's sin Not to help someone when you have the capacity to help them And here he's saying much the same If you fail to help someone who is close to death Those that are ready to be slain And if you say, oh, I didn't know it When you're faced with, you know, why didn't you help? Oh, I didn't know The one who ponders the hearts, will he not consider it? God knows the truth, God knows your heart And he that keeps thy soul, does not he know it? And shall not he render to every man according to his works? Heavy duty God knows your heart God knows what's going on inside And God is going to render to every man according to his works My son, he said, eat honey because it's good And the honeycomb which is sweet to the taste Now so shall the knowledge of wisdom be to thy soul When you eat honey and it's sweet, you enjoy it Sweet to the taste, it's pleasant So should knowledge be to you And wisdom, when you have found it Then there shall be a reward And your expectations shall not be cut off Buy the truth, sell it not I think that it is important that we have a love for the truth And I have discovered that as I read the Bible And the Holy Spirit bears witness to my heart, the truth A scripture suddenly just is illuminated in my mind The Holy Spirit just brings to life And enlightens me in the understanding of the Holy Spirit It's to me sweet like honey I love it, I savor it I just sort of kick back and say, alright, that's good Just enjoy it And so Solomon is saying, truth should be to you Understanding or wisdom should be like that to you Search it out, seek it out Seek to know the Lord, seek to know the Lord's ways Seek to have understanding in His ways And as the Lord begins to work in your heart And reveal the truth to you It's something that is just so pleasant, savory Something that you can truly enjoy Lay not weight, O wicked man Against the dwelling of the righteous And spoil not his resting place And so just warning against the wicked Who would seek to destroy the righteous For a just man falls seven times But he rises again As I've said, falling really isn't so bad All of us have fallen All of us do fall That's not so bad It's lying there that's bad Not getting up So when you fall, don't just lie there, get up The just man will rise seven times So Satan though will say, hey man, give up There's no sense trying Look how you failed And he tries to discourage you, make you just lie there I'm just such a failure, I never can do it I just won't be able to live a righteous life I just can't And he'll have you lie there and wallow In that pigsty But get up, don't lie there The just man falls seven times but he rises again But the wicked, they will fall into mischief Really not rise Now don't rejoice when your enemy falls And let not your heart be glad when he stumbles This is awfully hard There's something perverse within all of us, isn't there? That when our enemy stumbles or falls Ha ha ha, I knew it, I knew it, alright And the reason why Solomon gives this advice is interesting I mean, I find it very interesting why he said this He said, lest the Lord sees it and it displeases him And he turns away his wrath from him In other words, if you want the guy to keep getting it, just Don't rejoice in it, you see Don't let it go, it's too bad But don't rejoice too much in it Lord might feel sorry for him and take the heat off I find that interesting, that's his reasoning for it Interesting Fret not thyself because of evil men Neither be envious at the wicked He no doubt heard this from his dad Because if you go back to Psalm 37 It begins with this verse And so this is something that he got from his dad He had David and now he's passing on to his son Don't fret because of evil men And yet how prone we are to fret I fret because of evil men I get so upset over evil men I get so upset over things like what went on in San Francisco I fret because of evil doers, I really do And it says not to, but I do Neither be envious at the wicked That I'm not, I know their end Poor people For there shall be no reward to the evil man That's why you shouldn't be envious of him The end of the evil man, the candle of the wicked will be put out So don't be envious of him My son, fear the Lord and the King And meddle not with those that are given to change A lot of times we can meddle with things that can get us into trouble Don't meddle with those who are vacillating Those that haven't really a strong position But are vacillating back and forth For their calamity shall rise suddenly And who knows the ruin of them both Now these things also belong to the wise It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment And he that saith to the wicked, you are righteous Him shall the people curse And the nations shall abhor them And while there, we encourage you to browse the many additional biblical resources by Pastor Chuck You can also subscribe to the Word for Today podcast Or sign up for our email subscription Once again, all this can be found at the wordfortoday.org And if you wish to call, our toll-free number is 1-800-272-WORD And our office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT Again, that's 1-800-272-9673 For those of you preferring to write, our mailing address is The Word for Today, P.O. Box 8000, Costa Mesa, California, 92628 And now, on behalf of The Word for Today We'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry With your prayers and financial support And be sure to join us again next time As Pastor Chuck continues his verse-by-verse study through the Bible That's right here, on the next edition of The Word for Today And now, once again, here's Pastor Chuck with today's closing comments May the Lord speak to us And may our hearts be open That we might walk in His way That we might seek His will at all times That we might be conscious of the fact that God knows us And we are living in His presence And may we not do things that we would be embarrassed to do With Him watching us For indeed, the eyes of the Lord are everywhere Beholding the good and the evil So help us to be aware of that, dear Lord That we might do that which is pleasing before Him I'd like to talk to you about being ready as a Christian Ready to give an answer to anyone, anywhere Who might ask you about Jesus Christ And the only way to be prepared is to know and to memorize the Scriptures For this very reason, I'm excited to present to you The long-awaited release of Pastor Chuck Smith's Through the Bible Commentary, C3000 Edition Get ready to study the Bible in a whole new way Listen to Pastor Chuck as he teaches Hebrew and Greek word origins Biblical dates and history, archaeological information, church history And, of course, practical applications to apply to your life on a day-to-day basis Get ready to be a great biblical scholar With the help of Pastor Chuck's Through the Bible Commentary To order your copy, call The Word for Today at 800-272-9673 That's 800-272-WORD Or visit us online at thewordfortoday.org This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California