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well-well-well book by book here we are

for our the last in our series of

studies on the book of Proverbs join us

open your Bible if you will if you go on

with you and we'll do this as a joint

effort I'm rich abused joined here by

Paul black him again and also by

wonderful and much appreciated special

visitor Jorge Vova of operation

mobilization the founder of that or how

many years ago was that George well way

back in 1957 three of us went to Mexico

yeah we're very very proud to have been

with you in this study now listen we're

gonna come to the last one number ten

and we're looking at Christ and his

bright I think would be cool left as we

come to chapter 30 and 31 of Proverbs

the last study here we are friends now

where did I read from chapter 31 from

verse Ostara verse 10 listen a wife of

noble character who can find she is

worth far more than rubies her husband

has full confidence in her and lacks

nothing of value and he goes on and on

and on ending with verse 31

give her the reward she has earned and

this whole works

bring a praise at the city gate that's a

great praise section at the end of that

perfect woman well it has to be Christ

and his bride that were thinking about

actually some I'd ask whether we're

looking at chapter thirty first of all

in our study the sayings of ager

son of Jacob and Oracle some might ask

whether these are simply a whole mass of

popular saying from believing why or

maybe unbelieving wise men of the

ancient world are you in agreement poor

blacken but well I'm not totally

convinced by that I mean who are they we

don't really know exactly who they say

Igor is and these people I mean they

could be Hezekiah as men because if you

remember in the previous study they were

mentioned as editors and things so it

could be those we don't know for sure

what we do know is these these sayings

of ager our deep understanding of the

Lord

you'll see his covenant name the Lord is

used throughout the this wisdom and then

when you read those first verses there

it sounds like something from the book

of Job like when the Lord comes to

German says you know who who has

gathered at the this the clouds and who

has done this who has established all

the ends of the earth but I particularly

like agar because he goes what is his

name who's the name of God and look in

verse 4 what is his name and the name of

his son he wants to know who God is and

gods son tell me if you know I love that

and then he goes on in verse 5 every

word of God is flawless he is a shield

to those who take refuge in him and that

reminds us again of Psalm 2 where it's

the son we must kiss the son and take

refuge in him so what I feel is so

important is when we read this we

mustn't think oh we're now into some

just some sort of secular wisdom this is

taking us deep deep into the Covenant

life of the Lord God it's the Lord

throughout and we take refuge in him and

we do that as we put on his wisdom we

put off the old humanity put on the new

humanity and live out the wisdom of this

Lord God so here actually in the pure

Word of God all the way through I think

it's very important to take the

inerrancy of scripture it's inspired

this all the way through the Bible and

here in Proverbs 2 very important when

we're reading this were reading the

flawless Word of God

well now verses there are a number of

verses that sound a bit like riddles

here

I think George when they sound like for

example verse 18 we have a list of

images such as an eagle in the sky a

snake on the rock ship on the stormy sea

how do we understand these images well I

like to take verses out of context and

misuse them so when it talks about a

ship I try to recruit people for our

ship ministry but I better not do that

this morning but I wanted to say that I

studied the Bible

so much over the last 58 years I started

to write my own I don't know if I told

you that I don't know how to get them in

the Bible though I don't know how to

apply but one of my proverbs and I think

God wants to give us little thoughts and

sayings that might be original if they

don't get them lined with Scripture then

they're no good but mine is where two or

three of the Lord's people are gathered

together sooner or later there's a mess

and in many ways proverbs is a bit of a

messy books it seems to jump off in

different directions and some of these

interesting verses that you've just read

and that's where the Lord gave me this

word messy ology it's not in the

dictionary so and then it might sound

based on my proverb and it's it's this

concept that God in His awesomeness

works in messy situations and people

criticize the Old Testament a lot whole

books about it they fail to understand

the way God is this is a very human book

and the humanist comes out but it's

God's book and as we seek Him he uses

his book my life to to guide us and

we're trying to encourage I think about

half the people in churches today I've

never read the whole Bible through once

when you can even get it on your phone

so I hope people who are with us during

this study will encourage other people

to read the Bible and they will read

through the whole Bible themselves so I

just thank God even as I look back out

of a lot of messy situations even in

missions in the church God is still

working it doesn't excuse any sin or

wrong on our part we're still committed

to holiness but it's to see the mercy

and grace of God especially for the

believer because of the blood of Christ

I like that very much

then he owes on the ego be the snake on

the rock oh yeah well I kind of think

it's like like George is saying the

complexity of life and like an eagle in

the sky floating on the air and the

snake on the rock of the ship at high

seas you can't know really where any of

those were gonna go they're not really

in control of themselves and so is the

way of a man with a maiden a man if he's

allowing his passions to control him

he's like a ship on the high seas

he doesn't know how things are gonna

turn out he's out the controlling of the

words and it's about life and it's about

the messiness of life but it's a warning

too to say if you allow your passions to

student steer you you may as well be

extorted a ship in a storm yes I mean

you talk about animals of course and

animals in nature they diversity 24 233

they teach us something about wisdom it

seems you know example the locusts where

I've seen locusts in Kenya when I was a

little boy growing up by the Trillian

coming across the country the whole sky

we've blotted out if you're in a car

that you'd have to stop because they

brought out the windscreen look how can

that work out as well though how do

animals teach us something about wisdom

well one of the things I've most enjoyed

with the book of Proverbs is the way

that constantly we're being directed to

look not just at sort of ideas in our

heads but the world all around us the

way you know creation mountains the

Stars the Sun the Moon each other life

everything Christ the wisdom of God the

craftsman of all creation his wisdom is

written into everything and were to

learn lessons it's there for us to learn

and he he Jesus does that in the Gospels

where he say look at that seed it dies

and then gives birth to great

fruitfulness that is about death and

resurrection Jesus does that in his

parables he's teaching us to look at the

world around us and think about the

lessons being taught to us I always like

spiders because they're sort of

preachers of new creation I can't

explain hola and that seeds or even ants

here that have little strength so

they're like humble little creatures and

yet they make great provision they have

hope that they prepare for the future or

there's all the lessons of animals that

are kind of proud and arrogant like the

lion or the cockerel or the goat and

there seem all very proud and full of

themselves as is a man surrounded by all

his friends

well that's true isn't it someone who's

got all these strong friends around and

can be very arrogant what's he like when

he's on his own though he's not so proud

then so all these are ways of looking at

the world with eyes that are trying to

understand and wisdom taking time to

reflect on the world and learn the

lessons that God the whole creation

declares the glory of God let's take

time to look at it and listen to it and

soak it up I love hearing both of you

speak to these verses it's wonderful hey

let's take a look at the last chapter

now their last chapter especially to

start with us suppose we should save

verses 1 to 9 these are the sayings of

another contributor actually two

Proverbs King Lemuel now we haven't got

time to talk about it but Paul say

something about him in the in the study

guide and together let's make sure that

that study guide if you thought he

printed well just took another billion

or something but please do let's learn

about him a bit more different ways of

dealing with poverty it says in a

drowning Solars in beer verse 6 but a

better way of wisdom is instance in

verse 8 to 9 when we raise to speak up

and defend those who can't speak for

themselves for some reason this is

linked to wine and women in verses 1 to

5 why is that George well again what I

just said before it in some ways it

seems a bit messy jumping from one thing

to exactly that they are often tied

together and I think the church today is

not concerned enough about alcoholism

because we want to avoid legalism and we

don't want to condemn people for having

their glass of wine or their beer we

become more silent you know also this

whole area of the unborn why is the

church so silent all over the world I'm

given this book why pro-life by randy

Alcorn I'd love to send it to anyone and

I think we're too silent about alcohol

alcoholism is huge here in Britain all

of Europe and binge drinking and when I

walk through the streets of Leeds and

other cities at night and just see so

many drunk falling on the pavement

praise God for these street preachers

going out and picking some exact people

I wonder so again the book of Proverbs

deals straight with real issues that are

just as relevant today as when he penned

these words over 2,000 years ago

yeah I love that and as we come on

actually we're coming to another took

the contrast as you come to this noble

woman the wife of noble character here's

the contrast in the epilogue I suppose

we'd say looking at this woman from

verse 10 with which we began our study

today briefly look again at the full

confidence that her husband has in her

as worth far more than rubies bring him

good not harm all the days of her life

why does proverbs end with this perfect

woman is this really a sort of all poor

doing it's a checkbook checked list sort

of for men when they're looking for a

wife or is there more to it than that

I know sometimes guys I've heard say oh

the woman I marry it's all at the

proverbs 31 she's got to be all these

things and I'm like wow that's quite a

heavy checklist I don't know whether

that I mean there is wisdom there to say

this is there's some wisdom for because

a lot there's been a lot in Proverbs

about wisdom about marriage and Families

and don't quarrel with each other I

don't nag each other don't be too you

know shouting cheering greetings at 4:00

a.m. and all that so that so there's a

lot of wisdom for good marriages in this

book but I think and and true there is

something about what a good wife should

be here but it's much much more than

that you know that when we think it

began with this father teaching his son

how to be a wise King filled with the

spirit and the whole book ends with a

perfect bride who has a city a city you

know surrounded by this city well we

can't help but think that's how the

Bible ends exactly Val ends with the

perfect bride in the city so it makes us

think this is actually to do with the

church so on another level entirely

there's a deeper truth to me this is the

character of the church all the way

through the book of Proverbs we've been

trained how to be the church loving one

another looking after the poor and needy

showing the wisdom of God with balance

and handling money properly with balance

and working hard and suddenly at the end

here is this woman who lives out all the

wisdom that's been in the book of

problems she handles

properly she cares for the poor and

needy she's there a husband relies on

air she isn't quarreling with her

husband she's supporting the husband

everything in the book of Proverbs he's

gathered up in her she's the church

filled with the spirit look at this 20

and 21 she opens her arms to the poor

and extends a hand to the needy or

verses 25 and 26 there she's clothed

with strength and dignity she can laugh

at the days to come she speaks with

wisdom and faithful instruction is on

her tongue so as we read this I always

think let's pray that our local church

fellowships are like this embodiments of

the wisdom of God filled with the spirit

glory to Christ our husbands were

looking forward to him we love him more

than anything else in the whole world

and we won't give our adulterer there

won't be adultery in our hearts giving

our hearts to anyone else he's got our

hearts and his heart for the whole world

and for others will shine through us I

love it I love it why is the book of

Proverbs so vital for every local church

in the world I mean Billy Graham who

helped has helped many of us so often he

once said that he likes to read a

chapter of Proverbs every day for his

own elevation and help why is this

necessary and how does this book lift up

Jesus and show his us really more

closely how to follow him well I think

because it just touches Hunt's such a

wide range of practical areas that can

help us increase in wisdom I'm reading a

book now bite and devour and I've read a

lot of similar books of the lack of

wisdom even among Christian leaders and

we we need more wisdom this isn't the

whole answer but it's another vital step

and of course we again have affirm that

without radical grace without what we

read in the New Testament this is all

impossible I think of this thing about

women so many women today even in our

churches they are not like this they

were already beaten down they've been

through three divorces they've been on

drugs been on alcohol what is the hope

for them that's why the book of Proverbs

isn't like the total answer so praise

God without Jesus without forgiveness

and happened to me in that day in the

building rain meeting through the

prayers of an

lady you put my name and her Holy Ghost

hitless proverbs would just condemn me

it would just condemn me and I probably

stop reading it but through Jesus it all

becomes alive and a daily reality Oh

George when I think of some of the women

that I grew up among on the mission

field they carried the whole show again

and again and again and of course we

today yes we are to be now like the

Bride of Christ himself heading towards

the city gates

George Paul and I would like to thank

you very much for joining in a Bible for

Evelyn unworthy servant that's for sure

actually what we'll do we have a prayer

right now for you and about what we've

been reading let's have a prayer now

dear Lord our loving Heavenly Father we

thank you for that closure of the book

of Proverbs which reminds us as we think

about a beautiful woman like Ruby's if

your words in Malachi chapter 3 verse 17

they shall be mine says the Lord when I

make up my jewels we think of those

jewels as us to make up the Bride of

Christ made of like a Jew rare people

valuable people beautiful people

permanent people for we cannot break a

jewel easily dear lord help us to follow

in the way of the book of Proverbs

blessed is your servant George thank you

for his study time with us blessed Drina

his wife bless and keep and strengthened

and energized his PA Vera lord thank you

for this ministry of operation

mobilization and for those who are in

charge of its operation today

strengthen this worldwide work and

strengthen this your servant George as

he continues on his worldwide ministry

for you and the kingdom now all these

things we pray for your holy name sake

amen

oh I'm in thank you very much

another time it'll be another book and

your join us then

but you praise God

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