to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. We'll begin reading in verse 18. Let no man deceive himself. no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth
to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may
be wise. For the wisdom of this world
is foolishness with God. For it is written, he taketh
the wise in their own craftiness, And again, the Lord knoweth the
thoughts of the wise that they are vain. Now, this passage is
speaking about two different kinds of wisdom. And wisdom is
the guide of all men. There is a wisdom which is of
this world that is fleshly, that is carnal, that's of the old
sinful man. And God calls that wisdom vain. He calls it foolishness. And
then there is the wisdom which is of God. The wisdom that is
from above. That wisdom which Christ has
made unto us. That wisdom found only in the
Word of God. And that wisdom God puts in the
heart of His child. Now that's true wisdom. That's
true wisdom. And these two kinds of wisdom
are as different as night and day. Now turn over to James chapter
3. We see the contrast in these
two types of wisdom. James chapter 3 and look at verse
13. Who is a wise man and endued
with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation,
a good conduct, his works with meekness of wisdom. That always
accompanies true wisdom, meekness of wisdom. That's the spirit
of true wisdom. But, now listen to this, if ye
have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and
lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from
above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and
strife is, there is confusion in every evil work. But the wisdom
that is from above..." Now listen to the difference in this. The
wisdom that is from God, the wisdom that is from above is
first pure. It comes from holy God. It's
pure. "...then peaceable, gentle, Easy to be entreated. That means
easy to be taught. Full of mercy and good fruits. Without partiality and without
hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace of them that make peace. Do you see the difference? in these two kinds of wisdom.
And if we mistake the foolishness of this world and the vain wisdom
of our carnal flesh, if we mistake that for true wisdom, it's going
to pervert all of the very principles of the gospel. It's going to
pervert those, and we're going to greatly err if that's the
case. And so, in our text, The Apostle
Paul says we ought to forsake all self-wisdom and flee to God,
to true wisdom. Alright, I want to show you a
few things here. First of all, in our text, self-wisdom
is self-deceiving. Self-wisdom is self-deceiving.
Look at verse 18, 1 Corinthians 3, 18. Let no man deceive himself. That sounds strange, doesn't
it, that you would deceive yourself? Well, the Holy Spirit wouldn't
have put this here and gave Paul this to write to believers if
it wasn't a problem that believers have. Now we know that a spiritually
dead man born the first time has got to be born again, and
God has to save him from his self-deception. He's got to be
saved from his self-deception. But truth is, a believer has
to be saved from our self-deception too. Because we yet have that
old man of sin with us, and that old heart, that old deceitful
nature, is more deceitful than anything. Listen to the scripture. Jeremiah 17, 9 says, the heart,
and he's talking about the flesh. He's talking about that which
we got from Adam. A man that's not been born of
God, that's all he is. But the believer has this old
nature too. And he says, the heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? That's
why Paul says, let no man deceive himself. I don't want to be deceived
and I don't want you to be deceived. But he says here to us personally,
to you personally and to me personally, let no man deceive himself. So you take any situation you're
in, any situation you're in. You could be somebody that God
is just now converting from unbelief to faith for the first time.
Or it could be God's putting you through a trial. You're a
believer and God's putting you through a trial. It could be
there's a quarrel of some sort between two believers. Any situation. It could be you have some great
decision you have to make. It could be that you're torn
between showing mercy or some hard judgment towards somebody. It could be that a brother might
be being called to the ministry. He doesn't know if this is of
God or his flesh or what have you. But the context here is,
it's to preachers. It's to God's preachers. And
he says here, let no man deceive himself. Self-wisdom is self-deceiving. The Scriptures tell us, trust
in the Lord with all thine heart. With all that new heart that
God's put in the believer, trust in the Lord with all thine heart
and lean not unto thine own understanding." This wisdom in our text that
God calls foolishness, that's our own understanding. That's
our own sinful flesh. But the wisdom He says that is
true wisdom, that's the wisdom that's of God. So first thing
we see, it's self-deceiving. Self-wisdom is self-deceiving.
Now secondly, if we find ourselves leaning to our fleshly wisdom,
or at any point we're leaning to our fleshly wisdom, he says
here, true wisdom is to forsake it for the wisdom of God. Become
a fool. that you might be wise in God.
Look here at verse 18. Let no man deceive himself if
any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world. Let him
become a fool that he may be wise. That he may be wise in
God and in the Lord, in the Lord's Word. Now when God gives a sinner
divine wisdom, And I'm telling you, this could be in the very
beginning when He converts us, or any of those scenarios I gave,
or one you may be in that I didn't even talk about. But when He's
converting you and giving you wisdom from this trial and this
unbelief and this sin, back to Him, if you're a believer. Whatever
it is, when He's converting you and He gives you wisdom, God
makes His child do three things. And it's right here in this passage,
right here in this verse. The first thing He makes you
do is acknowledge your own ignorance. He says, if any man seemeth to
be wise. And that's all our wisdom is,
just seeming to be wise. You know, we'll get all puffed
up in our flesh. Well, if I know one thing, well,
probably not. It just seems wisdom. And He
makes us take our place as a fool. as a fool in our own eyes and
as a fool in the eyes of this world. He says, let him become
a fool. And God makes us submit our reason
to the teaching of divine wisdom. He says that he may be wise. Come to God, come to His Word,
come to Christ that you may be wise. Let me read something to
you out of 2 Corinthians. I've just thought of this when
we were singing that song. This is 2 Corinthians 10. This
is what God does when He gives us true wisdom. When He gives
us true wisdom. 2 Corinthians 10 verse 5. He
casts down imaginations. That word is reasonings. Our
reasoning. He casts that down. And every
high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.
And He brings into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ. That's what He does. Now, I want
to expound this verse in our text by looking at six scriptures. We've got a lot of scriptures
to turn to tonight, and that's good on a Thursday night. That
will keep us awake and keep us attentive. So, we've got six
scriptures, and in all of these scriptures, God gives a warning
through His writer. He gives a warning for us not
to be deceived, not to deceive ourselves. Alright, the first
thing is in 1 Corinthians 6. We are not to be deceived about
this. No unrighteous sinner will enter into heaven. Not one. And there is only one who makes
us fit to enter into heaven. This is what we need to understand
first. We need to get this first. There
is no unrighteous sinner that will enter heaven. And there
is only one who can make us fit to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Now look here in 1 Corinthians 6, 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived. Let no man deceive himself. Neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the
kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But
you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified. in the
name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." Now,
there's no sinner that's going to enter heaven. That's what
Revelation tells us. It says, "...there shall in no
wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever
worketh abomination, or maketh a lie." But here's who's going
to enter. They which are written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. And no sinner is going to enter
heaven. And yet, here's the problem. Every one of us sitting here,
in ourselves, are guilty sinners. You can look at that list that
we just read, and you fit in there somewhere. And so do I. So how then are we going to be
made fit to enter God's presence? His holy, holy, holy presence? Only one way. Where do we behold
God's wisdom? He said, if any man seems wise,
where do we behold God's wisdom? Do we behold it in us? Not at
all. The fact of the matter is, God's
wisdom to be a just God and a Savior would never have entered into
our heart. It never entered our mind. And
that tells me in you that if we begin here looking at how
we're saved and we see that it's not of our wisdom, that teaches
us we ought not look to our wisdom in anything else. look to God. And that's where we behold the
wisdom. We're made to behold God's wisdom when the Spirit
of God sanctifies us by cleansing us and giving us life and teaching
us and bringing us to faith in Christ. That's when we're made
to behold God's true wisdom. Because that's when we're made
to behold Christ because God makes Him wisdom to us. How so? He shows you that it's in Christ
that God can be just and the justifier. That's the wisdom
of God. The wisdom of God is that God
is just to save all of His elect because He poured out the fury
of His wrath on all of His elect. They all were paid the wages
of sin, which is death. And He did it when He poured
out His wrath on one, on the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
There's where Christ justified us. And God's the justifier because
God was in Christ reconciling His people unto Himself. He's
the just God and the justifier. And God did it in such a way.
Here's the wisdom of God. He did it in such a way that
we can't boast. Boasting's excluded by the law
of faith. There's no boasting when you're
simply believing on Christ to justify you and save you from
your sins. Now, where do we behold that
truth? Where do we get that wisdom?
Not in us. Not in us. We get it from God. We get it through the Holy Spirit
of God. We get it beholding Christ the
Son of God. We get it through God's Word.
We get it through faith. And so, He tells us, let no man
deceive himself. If any among you seemeth to be
wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise. Alright? Go to 1 Corinthians
15. I'm trying to show you these
Scriptures because I want to show you that this wisdom doesn't
come from us. This wisdom comes from God's
Word. Now turn to 1 Corinthians 15 and look at verse 33. Be not
deceived about believers being companions of unbelievers. 1
Corinthians 15, 33. Be not deceived. Let no man deceive
himself now. Evil communications, and the
word is evil companionships, corrupt good manners. I was, when I lived in Arkansas,
the church, we were about 30 to 40 minutes from the church.
and we didn't have but one other young person in the church. He
was a little younger than me and he lived about 30 to 40 minutes
on the other side of the church in Texarkana, Arkansas. And so
I really didn't have many believers to hang around with. And I can
tell you after I moved to Tennessee and I was able to be around believers
and to have dinner during the week with believers and to call
somebody up and say let's get together and go bowling or whatever
we were doing. Just to be with people of the
same fellowship and to be able to talk and talk to them. That made all the difference.
I mean it was so much and I can tell you this is so. Evil companionships
corrupt good manners. That's just so. Now a man may
seem to be wise and he may reject this Any man who seems to be
wise is a man who would read this and say, well, I don't think
that's necessarily so. Is that wisdom? God says it's
so. It's wisdom to bow to God's Word
and say, well, there it is. God said it. It's true. It's
true. Be not deceived. Evil companionship corrupt good
manners. Alright, thirdly, look at Galatians
chapter 6. Be not deceived with a self-righteous
opinion of yourself. Look here at Galatians 6 and
verse 1. Brethren, if a man, we're talking
about a believer here, a fellow believer, somebody that Christ
laid down His life for, somebody Christ poured out His blood for,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness. Considering thyself, lest thou
also be tempted, bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill
the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to
be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself." Now there's
how you deceive yourself. When I have a brother, somebody
for whom Christ died, and he's overtaken in a fault, there's
no doubt the brother's at fault. There's no doubt he's overtaken. There's just no doubt about it.
Maybe he did something to me. Maybe he did something to one
of my children. Maybe he did something to somebody
in my family. That gets close to home when
that happens. And the flesh rises up. You become puffed up in your
knowledge then. The wisdom of God says I'm to
consider myself. Why? Well, I'm to consider this. My own thoughts are worse than
my brother's thoughts. I don't care what your brother
has done. You and I should be able to look
at him and say, my own thoughts are worse. They're worse. You know, we like to quote Paul
saying, I'm the chief of sinners. Are we the chief of sinners?
Am I the chief of sinners? That's why he says, stop before
you say anything and just consider. Yeah, he's offended me. Yeah,
he's offended his brethren. Yes, he's not done what he should
have done. Have I? Consider yourself to be the chief
of sinners. And then consider this. Though
that's the case with me, what did Christ do for me? What did
He do for you? Even though I was guilty of transgression
against Him, Christ came to where I am and laid down His life for
me. And because He did, He took all
my burden away. And God forgives me for Christ's
sake. And now He says, you do the same.
You do the same. And if I don't consider myself
and know that this is true of myself, What I'll do is, I will
be lifted up in pride, I'll be lifted up in anger, I'll be lifted
up in all these different sins, that bitter envy and strife that
we just read about in James. And here's what I'll do. I'll
uncover my brother's sin, I'll accuse him, and all the while
that I'm doing that, I'm just exalting myself in self-righteousness
just bigger and bigger and bigger. But if I do that, if I do that,
and that's a wicked thing, if I do that, you know what the
Spirit of God says to me? Here's wisdom, verse 3. I'm deceiving
myself. For if a man think himself to
be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. You see
that? So after I consider that I'm
the chief of sinners, then what does God say I'm to do? Restore
such a one. You know what that means? It
means mend whatever is broken. It means strengthen him with
the gospel. It means forgive for Christ's
sake even as God has forgiven you. And it says, and do it in
the spirit of meekness. You know, the heart's motive
is the most important thing. Do it in the spirit of meekness.
It's not this, you know, Forgiving somebody. Well, I'm going to
forgive you. I ought not to forgive you. That's not forgiving somebody.
But in the spirit of meekness, forgive somebody. As a broken
and contrite sinner who's in need of grace, my own self. And
he says, and bear ye. That means put upon one's own
self. Put upon your own self one another's
burdens. and so fulfill the law of Christ. Isn't that what Christ did for
us? Christ came and took all the burdens of all His elect
and He bore those burdens. He took that weight of sin and
guilt off His people and He bore it. He bore it. And then He came
to where we are and restored us in His righteousness. He mended
that which was broken. And He did it in the spirit of
meekness. Christ made Himself the least. made himself the least. That's what we're learning, brethren,
as we go. We're not growing up to be all
puffed up in knowledge and holiness so that people can't stand to
be around us. We're learning to grow to be the least. To grow to be the least. That's
true growth in the kingdom of God. Now, will it be the wisdom
of God if I hear this and I disregard it I say, I'm not going to do
that. I'm going to keep exalting myself. I'm going to keep casting blame
on them because they're in the wrong. James said that the man
that delights in judgment will have judgment. The man that delights in mercy
will have mercy. If I do that, if I be petty and
vindictive, I'm saying I'm more wise than Christ is. Because
this is the love of Christ. This is the law of Christ. This
is the law of His house. Love and mercy is the law of
His house. So let no man deceive himself.
If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let
him become a fool that he may be wise. Alright, fourthly, look
down to page there, Galatians 6 and verse 6. Be not deceived
concerning God's knowledge of all things. Our text tells us
God knows the thoughts of the wise men, that they are vain.
Now look at this. Let him that is taught in the
word communicate, give unto him that teacheth. In what? What am I to give the preacher?
In all good things. Whatever I'm given is good that
I can use to help support the gospel and the preacher and my
brethren in all good things. And now watch this. Be not deceived.
God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be
weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint
not. As we have therefore opportunity."
Now here's the application. As we have therefore opportunity,
let us do good unto all, especially unto them who are of the household
of faith. See, God knows if we're sowing to our flesh or if we're
sowing to the Spirit. We can't fool God. God's all-knowing. He knows that. Now, for the believer
who's taken the things God's given him and using them delightfully,
cheerfully by God's grace, he has the Spirit of God in him
and he delights to use what God's given him to support the preaching
of the Gospel, to support his needy brethren, and to support
all men. that have needs. He's happy to
do that. That's good news to know that
God knows what you're sowing. Why is it good news? Because
sometimes we feel like we're going to faint. Sometimes we
think, you know, it's just, does the Lord even know this? Does He even know that I want
to serve Him? But sometimes it doesn't seem
like the Lord even acknowledges it. Well, He knows. This is what
the Scripture says. God's not unrighteous to forget
your work and labor of love which you've showed toward His name,
in that you've ministered to the saints and do minister. God
knows that. And he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. But is it wisdom
if I imagine that I can use the thing God's given me and live
for my flesh and try to fool everybody that I'm that I'm concerned
about the gospel and it going forth in the world. Is that wisdom?
To think I can fool God? It's not wisdom. God's not mocked.
He said, God's just. That's what He's saying here.
Whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. If you're just and you have somebody
working for you, if you're just, you're going to give them whatever
they've earned. That's what He's saying. God
will give you whatever you've earned. That's exactly right. For he
that soweth to his flesh, look at this, of his flesh, of the
flesh shall he reap corruption. All God has to do to the man
that soweth to his flesh is leave him alone. And the corruption
he'll reap is from his own flesh. But watch this, but he that soweth
to the Spirit, how does he do it? By the Spirit. And what does
he reap? He shall of the Spirit reap life
everlasting. That's grace. That's God giving
you the heart to do it. God giving you more light to
do it. God giving you abundant substance to do it. God making
all grace abound to you that you may abound in every good
work all the time. And then in the end, the Spirit
of God giving you everlasting life. God gave it all. We didn't
give anything. Now if I hear that and I try
to be deceitful, like who was it? Sapphira and her husband
sold some of their land and pretended like they gave it all to God,
but they didn't give it all to God. And the Lord struck them
down. Let no man deceive himself. If
anybody seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool
that he may be wise. Alright, here's the fifth thing.
James 1. James 1. Be not deceived about our religion. I don't want to be deceived about
my religion, do you? I want to Make my calling and
election sure. I want to know that it's true.
Look here, James 1.22. He says, he's been speaking about
hearing the Word. And he says, to lay apart all
filthiness and all the overflowing naughtiness and receive with
meekness the engrafted Word which is able to save your souls. But
then he says, verse 22, but be ye doers of the Word and not
hearers only, deceiving your own selves. See, the hearer only
who is not a doer, he is deceiving himself. Watch this. For if any be a hearer of the
Word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural
face in a glass, in a mirror. And for he beholdeth himself,
and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man
he was. This man looks into the gospel as a mirror, and he sees
what the gospel says of him. It says that I'm a totally helpless
sinner, unable to save myself. We're seeing it tonight, looking
into this mirror, and it's teaching us, don't look at your own wisdom
and lean to your own wisdom. Don't trust your wisdom. It's
vanity. It's foolishness before God. Trust God's wisdom. And
he hears that Christ is the only wisdom of God. And he's the only
righteousness for his people, the only sanctification, the
only redemption. And he hears it and he leaves.
He goes his way. And just as soon as he goes his
way, he starts forgetting what he heard. If he's crossed by
somebody, he judges them, he's self-righteous, he condemns them. Or if he comes to something where
he's got to make a decision, he doesn't go back to God's Word,
he just looks to his own wisdom to do what he needs to do. He
just straightway forgot that he has no strength and no wisdom.
He needs Christ for everything. He forgot it. But look here.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, that's the gospel
of Christ. It continues therein, he being
not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be
blessed in his deed. Now he gives us two examples.
Here's the forgetful hearer. Here's what he does. If any man
among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue,
but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain."
And here's the doer. Pure religion and undefiled before
God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows
in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Now understand, this man knows the gospel. He hears the gospel. He understands. He can tell you
the doctrine of total depravity and unconditional election and
limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints.
He knows the gospel. But right away he goes out and
acts like he never heard about depravity, his own. Acts like he never heard about
his need for mercy, the mercy of God. His tongue is unbridled
in self-righteous judgment of others because his heart hadn't
been broken. It's not contrite, it's not broken
by God. He needs no mercy from God and
so he doesn't give mercy. When do you become a mercy giver?
when you become a mercy beggar. When God gives you mercy and
you see everything's of mercy, that's when you delight in mercy.
And he has no desire to be separated from this sinful, defiling world
because he's just acting just like the world. Now, but that
wisdom that God gives from above, that man in his heart flees to
Christ for forgiveness. That man flees to Christ when
he leaves. He's still thinking on Christ
and still looking to Christ. And he goes home and he reads
the Word. He doesn't want to lose that
spirit that he has in him that he got when he heard the Gospel
preached. And when he comes into a trial, his tongue's bridled
because his heart's bridled. He's got a broken and contrite
heart from God. So he's not lifting himself up
and exalting himself and condemning everybody. Oh, he may do that
because he's flesh, but that Spirit of God is going to constrain
him with the love of Christ. And he says now, and he needs
mercy, so he shows mercy. And he doesn't want to be in
this world. He doesn't want to be a part of this world. He wants
to be separated out of it and be with Christ. That's his heart. That man's religion is true,
he said. So let no man deceive himself.
If you think you're being wise in your own wisdom, flee that
wisdom. Forsake it and become a fool
that you might be wise in Christ. Now let me show you this sixth
thing. 1 John 1. Let's not be deceived concerning
our sin. 1 John 1.8. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. It could
be when God's first calling you. It could be all those scenarios
I went through. It could be you being in a quarrel with somebody.
You know, and if we blame the other fellow instead of restoring
the other fellow, what we're saying is, I don't have any sin.
I haven't sinned in this. They're the only ones that did
it. And he's saying here, in all those scenarios, in every
case with a believer, if we say we have no sin, we're deceiving
ourselves. And the truth's not in us. If
the truth is in me, And that's where this wisdom is, is having
God put the truth in you, the Word of God in you, to be begotten
of the incorruptible seed. If I have truth in me, by God's
grace, He's going to make me to bow to God's Word and confess
my sins to God and seek His mercy. It could be if I'm having a quarrel
with Belinda, and we don't ever quarrel, But let's just give
a scenario. Say that happened. I would follow my faith, my God's
grace, and ask Him, Lord, forgive me of my sin. I need mercy. I need mercy constantly. I need
mercy. And this is what he says, verse
9. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So
let no man deceive himself. Now go back to our text and we're
done. I just want you to see. Don't
you see how all of those warnings apply to our text right here? They all apply. Let us not deceive
ourselves into thinking that our worldly fleshly wisdom is
better than God's wisdom. Go to this book right here and
see what God says and bow to that. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth
to be wise in this world, let him become a fool. in this world
and to this world, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this
world is foolishness with God." You see that? The wisdom of God
is foolishness to the world. If you forsake your wisdom for
God's wisdom, that's going to be foolishness to the world.
But the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. So which
one do you want to be the fool for? We can't serve both. We can't walk in our wisdom and
God's wisdom. For the wisdom of the world's
foolishness with God, it's written, He takes the wise in their own
craftedness, and the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise at their
vein. I'm going to just give you some Scripture. If you've
got a pen, you can write this down. I'm going to give you some
Scripture to read when you get home. He quotes from Job here,
and he quotes from the Psalms here. Job 5, verses 8 through
16. The first thing he says is, I
would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause.
And that's what I'm saying here in this. That's what he's saying.
Forsake your wisdom and commit your cause to God. And then Psalm
94, verses 8 through 13. And he says this, the Lord knows
the thoughts of man that they're vanity. That's what he quoted
in our text. And he ends with this, blessed
is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teaches him out of
thy law, that is, out of your word, out of your wisdom, that
thou mayest give him rest, that God may do it. Give him rest
from the days of adversity until the pit be digged for the wicked,
For the Lord will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake
His inheritance." I can tell you this, if we lean into our
wisdom, walking in our wisdom, and we're gods, in any of these
scriptures we looked at tonight or in any scenario I talked about
tonight, if we're walking in our wisdom and we're gods, He's
going to turn us and make us to be the fool, make us to see
we're a fool in ourselves, that we might be wise in Him. He's
going to chasten us because He's not going to forsake His inheritance.
I pray He'll bless that. Amen. Father, thank You for this Word. Lord, the clear, simple instruction
You give us in Scripture is often the hardest for us to bow down
to and to follow. And the main reason, Lord, is
because we want to be wise in ourself. And it's hard to confess
that it's nothing but vanity and nothing but foolishness. Lord, don't let us Don't let
us go the way of this world and be destroyed with this world.
Keep us separated by your grace. Cause Christ to be our preeminent
wisdom in our hearts. And Lord, whatever our trial
is that we're going through, whatever your people are dealing
with right now, you know it. You know it. And you're able
to comfort, you're able to strengthen, you're able to make wise, you're
able to save, you're able to convert, you're able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we could ask or think. And Lord,
we ask that you do that. Help your people. Help us to
see that there's nothing about us, there's nothing, nothing
worth breaking with our brethren over. Nothing worth hurting somebody
for whom Christ died. Make us to make our pride to
just diminish so we could bow and be a help to one another. Confess our sins to you and be
wise by your wisdom and your strength. Lord, forgive us where
we fail. Forgive us for all these faults.
We see ourselves as more of the sinner than anything else in
all of these things. We pray, Lord, that you'd continue
to forgive us for Christ's sake. And remind us of that. Remind
us of why you forgive us for Christ's sake. Teach us to do
the same for one another. We ask it, Lord, in Christ's
precious name. Amen.