All right, let's look back at
Ecclesiastes chapter 10. As I read through that passage,
I'm sure that there's much there to bewilder us all. As you look
at some of the proverbial expressions that Solomon uses for a specific
purpose. And the specific purpose is stated
out in the title of this message. And when I tell you the title,
You're probably going to look back and say, well, that's pretty
obvious. It's a statement of the obvious.
And the title is this. Wisdom is better than folly. Wisdom is better than folly. Now, as I said, that sounds like
a statement of the obvious. We know that. We know that by
nature. Even lost people, unregenerate,
unenlightened people know. They'll tell you, sure, wisdom.
is better than folly. But the problem is, and here's
where we see that it is not really a statement of the obvious. The
reality is, is that by nature we don't really understand and
know what real wisdom is and real folly is. We don't understand
those things. And you know, even believers,
even when we're brought to see the glory of God's wisdom in
His Word, in Christ, We'll talk about that just a little bit
more in a minute. When we see that, we have a hard
time seeing how all that plays out in our lives under the sun
here on earth. Because there are many times
we don't really see the wisdom in what God is doing providentially,
readily. You wonder why God's doing this.
Why is He allowing this to happen? Because that just doesn't seem
like the way that I want it to happen or the way that I would
do it. But you see, wisdom has to go all the way up to the glory
of God and it has to come down from God. And that's why I read
that passage in Proverbs chapter 15 when it talks about how those
who are wise, they look upward. They look unto God, not to their
own reasonings, not even to their friends for wisdom. And that's
not to say that our friends cannot at times give us wise words,
a word spoken in season, as he says, a word of wisdom. But even then, we have to weigh
and measure that by God's Word. Now, Solomon has talked a lot
about wisdom. You know, that was the thing
that Solomon prayed for when God said, I'll give you anything
you want. You know, as far as an earthly
kingdom goes, as far as an earthly reign as king goes, you ask for
it and you've got it. And Solomon asked for wisdom.
And so we commonly know Solomon and describe him and call him
as the wisest man that ever lived. And in a lot of ways, in a lot
of ways he was. But if you read Solomon's biography
in the scriptures, what the Lord has deemed fit to let us in on,
you'll find that even the wisest man in the whole world could
at times act very foolishly. And therefore, we understand
that even Solomon in all his wisdom was totally, totally dependent
upon the ultimate wisdom of God for all things. Now, it's true
as we've seen in all of Scripture that the ultimate wisdom that
God gives unto his people is Christ himself. He is our wisdom. And that's not an overstatement. It's not even an oversimplification.
Because as I said, I mean, we know Christ is our wisdom and
we see the wisdom of God in Christ, but many times we can't figure
it all out in all of its particulars as it goes forth in God's providence
here on this earth. But we know ultimately that it's
all in Christ, it's all in His hands. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians
chapter 1 and verse 34, He of God, Christ of God, is made unto
us wisdom. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. And I like that. And what I believe
that really means is this, that all the wisdom that God requires
of us, we find in full and perfection in Christ. He is the very embodiment
of the wisdom of God. We can see the wisdom of God
in His person. Who Christ is. What think ye
of Christ? He asked that question. And the
wisest men of their day in the eyes of people, in the eyes of
the populace, the most moral, religious, dedicated men of their
day, whom if you wanted to find out wisdom from the scriptures,
you'd go to these fellas called the Pharisees. That's what they
would do back then. They could not answer That question,
what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? They made an
attempt. They said, well, he's the son of David. You can read
that in the scriptures. Go back to the Old Testament.
He's prophesied to be the offspring of David, the branch of Jesse,
David's father, the offspring of the tribe of Judah. And so
Christ come back, and you remember this is in Matthew chapter 22
at the end of that chapter, after they were trying to trip him
up with their wisdom. They were trying to use that,
see that's the natural man, trying to use his own wisdom, which
is really folly, to trap the very embodiment of wisdom with
their folly, thinking themselves to be wise. And so he turns on
them and he says, well now, didn't David call him Lord, L-O-R-D,
capital L-O-R-D, which means Jehovah? Didn't David call him
Jehovah? Now who is Jehovah? Jehovah is
God, the all-wise, the almighty, the omnipotent, the savior of
his people. So then how could he be both
David's offspring and David's God? How is that possible? They
didn't know. Instead, nobody asked him any
more questions after that. At least they were wise enough
to shut up. And really what it was, they
just didn't want to be shown up for the fools that they were
anymore. But there's the wisdom of God
in the constitution, as the old writers used to say, of Christ's
person. He's God and man in one person. When Solomon talks about
the king down here in the last of this chapter 10, curse not
the king in verse 20, we can certainly see the wisdom of not
rebelling against a just earthly king. No problem there. But how about the king of kings?
How about the lord of lords? How about the only potentate? That's the only one who has any
real power. That's what that means. When he's called a potentate,
that's why now listen to me, there is no man, I don't care
what group he belongs to, that is a potentate. He alone is the
potentate. That means He's the only one
who has any real ultimate power. And so, we can certainly see
the wisdom in not cursing Him. And you know how people curse
the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings? I'll tell you exactly
how. By unbelief. That's all you've got to do.
Just like I said Sunday, the only thing you have to do to
be damned eternally, really, ultimately, is nothing. Just
do nothing. You don't have to stand out there
on Mount Everest and shake your fist at God. Just do nothing.
And that's bad enough, isn't it? You know, doing nothing in
unbelief denies and dishonors and casts shame and reproach
upon every attribute of God's character revealed in His wisdom
in Christ. Here's the wisdom of God. And
we can certainly see the wisdom of God in the work of Christ. The redeeming work of Christ.
You think about that great work which He accomplished on Calvary.
Making an end of sin. That's what we need. If He didn't
make an end of sin as Daniel prophesied, then sin would make
an end of us. And that'd be death. That's what
James said, sin when it's finished brings forth what? Death. The
soul that sinneth must die. But he died. Christ died. Took
our death upon himself. Took our sins upon himself. He
bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He was made a curse
for us. What wisdom. I'll tell you, it's
just mind-boggling to me. Listen, and this is something
I'll never get over. I hope I never get over it. But
even as an unbeliever, searching for the wisdom of philosophy
and theology and religion, when I was confronted for the first
time, and it was from this pulpit right here, on this issue of
how God could be just and justify the ungodly, it hit me. The way I tell people this, I
don't believe, I know I wasn't converted then. because I walked
away in disbelief. But I believe that's when the
Lord took the proverbial two before and hit this proverbial
mule in the head and got my attention. Because I knew this, I wanted
to hear more about that. I had studied other religions,
studied other philosophies, studied other theologies, read books,
Nothing even came close to even the question, how could God be
just and justify the ungodly? Let alone finding out the answer. Boy, what wisdom! There's the
wisdom of God in the person and work of Christ. His blood to
atone for all my sins. Not just to appease the gods,
as the heathen would say, but to satisfy His justice as a sin-bearer. as a lamb, a slain, and His righteousness
charged to us to make sinners really righteous in the sight
of God. I'm going to be preaching on
that some more in our messages on salvation. And really, it's
really kind of floored me that there's so many people who have
a kind of a confusion or misunderstanding about that truth. You see, God doesn't pretend
anything about you or about me. He doesn't pretend anything.
See, the wisdom of God in making a sinner righteous is not God
pretending or seeing us or viewing us as righteous, but we're really
not. No, no. God views us and sees
us and declares us righteous because in His sight, we really
are. He made us so. He made us so. And that's His wisdom. And then
you see some passages of Scripture. Now this is what Ecclesiastes
10 is about. It's a direct contrast. See,
Solomon, he's talked about wisdom. He's talked about folly. Now
you see in this chapter, it's a direct contrast. Here's wisdom,
here's folly. Here's wisdom, here's folly.
You can see it in everyday life. You can see it in the life of
the king. And we've seen in the Bible other places where wisdom
and foolishness, wisdom and folly is just a direct contrast. I
think about the closing of the Sermon on the Mount where Christ
said, the wise man builds his house on the rock. And that rock
is Christ. And when the winds come and the
rains come and beat against the house, that house stands firm.
Why? Because it's such a great house?
No. Because it's built on the rock. Christ Jesus. He's our
refuge. He's our safety. He's our hiding
place. And the foolish man, there's
the folly, the foolish man builds his house on the sand. And so
when the winds come and the rains come, it beats against the house
and the house is destroyed. Why? Because it's built upon
the sand. Without the right foundation,
it doesn't matter how big or how beautiful or how well your
house is built, it will not stand unless it's built upon the rock.
And that rock is Christ. And then I think about another
parable where he contrasted. wisdom and folly. The parable
of the ten virgins, the five wise virgins and the five foolish
virgins. And you remember the five wise
virgins, they trimmed, they all had lamps, which is a symbol
of a profession of faith. And the five foolish virgins,
they didn't keep oil in their lamps. And when the bridegroom
came and knocked on the door, they were left out. The five
wise virgins, they trimmed their lamps and they had oil in their
lamps. And what he's teaching us there is wisdom will not settle
for a mere profession. That it will seek from God that
broken and contrite heart. that heart of faith that rests
in Christ. There's the contrast. We could
go on and on, but here in Ecclesiastes 10, this is what he deals with.
Let's look at some of the verses here. He starts off with a rather
unappealing comparison, it seems. Dead flies. Dead flies. What an analogy. Doesn't sound
too poetic, does it? Dead flies. This is a poem about
dead flies. Nobody wants to read about that,
but there's a wise reality here that every person ought to understand. Here's what he says, dead flies
cause the ointment, some say the perfume, of the apothecary
to send forth a stinking savor, a stinking smell. So doth a little
folly, Him that is in reputation, a man of honor, for wisdom and
honor. Here folly is compared to a dead
fly. A little of which as much hurts
a wise man's reputation and honor as that does the most precious
ointment. That's all it takes. Just dead
flies, little old small insignificant insects that you may notice them
every now and then. This reminds me of the same truth
of wisdom that the Lord taught when He spoke these words, when
He spoke these words through His apostles, when He said, a
little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. You know, leaven in the
Scripture is a type of sin and that's what these dead flies
are a type of here because they rot and they stink, they decay. That which is not eternal, not
beautiful, does not send up a sweet-smelling savor unto God. And what he's
saying here, this is the leaven of sin, the dead flies of sin,
the dead flies of false doctrine, the dead flies of foolishness.
We could certainly make an application to these things in this life
if a man or a woman was to go into business. Sometimes they can do everything
that's right but make one bad decision and the whole company
falls down. Isn't that right? You could see
it in health matters. You could do everything right
for a long time and then maybe one bad decision, there it goes. The whole thing gone up in smoke.
You can take a little match Just a little match and find the biggest
building in the world and burn it down with a little match.
You can see that, can't you? But my friend, nowhere can you
see it any greater than in the salvation and in the damnation
of sinners. Dead flies will make the whole
ointment stink. You may have a profession of
religion. You may have a profession of the truth. and it may smell
good to everybody around you. But once man's works and efforts
are introduced into the mix, even a little bit, that's what
Paul wrote in the book of Galatians. That's why he told them to stand
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free and
don't be entangled again with the yoke of bondage in any way,
shape, form or fashion. He wrote this in Romans chapter
11. Listen to this. Romans 11 and verse 5. He talked about a remnant according
to the election of grace. That's God's chosen people according
to grace, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And he says it's not a conditional choosing. It's not a conditional
election. It's not that God looked down
through a telescope of time and chose this one because God foresaw
the goodness or the good acts or the good will of this person.
but it's an election of grace. And then he says this, he says,
and if by grace, then it is no more of works. You can't put
the dead flies of man's works into the sweet perfume of God's
grace. Because he says if it's of grace,
then it's no more of works, and otherwise grace is no more grace. You've destroyed it all. I've
heard people say, Well, that preacher mixes grace and works.
Oh no, he doesn't. You can't do that. The Bible
says it. Look here in verse 6. But if
it be of works, then it's no more of grace, otherwise work
is no more work. If it's works, it's works. If
it's grace, it's grace. And the twain shall not meet,
just like east and west. For by grace are you saved. Through
faith and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. So what he's teaching here is
this. Now, you know, we go through our lives and we'll make some
wise decisions and we'll make some foolish decisions. But what
he's talking about is that folly which brings a man of reputation
here. That's what he's talking about.
A man who has a reputation of honor that'll bring him down. And my friend, there's nothing
that'll do that more than false, self-righteous, works-oriented
religion. Let me show you an example of
it. Matthew chapter 7. This is quoted or referred to
this on that parable of the wise man and the house built
on the rock. Listen to what he says in verse
21. And I want you to think about something as I'm reading this. Think about how these fellas
that he's describing here appeared towards the men of their lifetime. Now think about that. And he
says in verse 21, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now he's talking about
people who say, Lord, Lord. But he that doeth the will of
my Father which is in heaven. Now, what is it to do the will
of the Father which is in heaven? Well, you have to keep this in
its context. And he's already told you. And
the first thing you have to go back to is what he said here
when he says, enter ye in at the straight gate. S-T-R-A-I-T. In other words, you don't come
to God but through Christ. That's what that means. Enter
ye in at the straight gate. Where is the straight gate? Who
is the straight gate? Christ is. I'm the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And it's a straight and narrow
way because it's too narrow for me as a sinner to bring anything
with me that I would suppose would recommend me unto God. So if I bring the dead flies
of my own works or my own experience or my own visions or my own pedigree,
it spoils the whole thing. You say it's a narrow way. Yes
it is. That means it's only one way. And it's only big enough
for a sinner seeking mercy through Christ. Now it's big enough to
accommodate every one of them. Every sinner who's seeking mercy
in Christ. So that's what it is. Enter in straight gate. And he says in verse 22 now,
look here, Matthew 7, he says, Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not preached in thy name? That's what prophesy
means there. Prophesied in thy name. And in
thy name hath cast out devils. And in thy name done many wonderful
works. Now you think about how they
appeared in their generation. men of honor, men of reputation. And it says in verse 23, and
then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from
me, ye that work iniquity. What was wrong with what they
were doing? There were some dead flies in
there. Now I've heard people say, well, you know, I tell you
about these fellas in Matthew 7 there, they weren't sincere
enough. Well, first of all, it doesn't say that. Secondly, the
context doesn't even allude to that. And thirdly, you don't
know that. You're just conjecturing there.
And the reason you might say that is because you think you
are sincere enough. Well, I hope you are. I hope
I am. But I do know this, that my sincerity,
my best sincerity, and your best sincerity will not get you into
heaven. You know that? There's only one
way into heaven. There's only one thing that'll
get you into heaven, and that's the straight gate. That's the
rock upon which the wise man built his house, Christ, and
him crucified and risen again. So don't you, listen, be as sincere
in the love and joy of Christ as you can be, but don't you
sit around and worry about if you're sincere enough. Don't do that, because I'm going
to tell you something. The best sincerity you can muster
up on your best day will not make you righteous before God.
And if you think it will, you've just put a dead fly in the ointment. That's folly. You understand
what I'm saying there? That's folly. Look back at Ecclesiastes
10. Look at verse 2, he says, a wise
man's heart is at his right hand, but a fool's heart at his left.
Now, the right hand there is representative of a right walk. Walking in a right way. And the
left hand here is indicative or symbolic of a wrong walk. Walking in a wrong way. And he's
saying here, the contrast is this. He says, a wise man and
a fool differ in the situation of their heart. Listen to it
again, verse 2. A wise man's heart is at his
right hand, but a fool's heart at his left hand. And what he's
talking about is this. Wise thinking and wise motives
lead to right living. Foolish thinking and foolish
motives from the heart lead to wrong living. So in other words,
the outward walk is determined by the inner state of the heart. Now that's wisdom because you
know as well as I do that religion, false religion, Even with all
of its profession and all of its outer beauty, even religion
can clean the outside of the cup. Christ said that to the
Pharisees. You've cleaned the outside of the cup, but the inside
is filthy. It's full of poison. And you
can make it smell good to men, to the natural man, because it
appeals to the natural flesh. But just like this dead flies
in the ointment, dead flies in the perfume, they say that's
what it is. There's no right motive. And so what he's talking
about here is the heart that is cleansed. The heart that is
purified. Now how is the heart cleansed
and purified? Look over at Hebrews chapter
10. Now we could go to so many scriptures on this, couldn't
we? On the heart. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. Salvation is a heart matter. But look at Hebrews. chapter
10. And look down, now all of this
that he's going to say, we're going to start in verse 19 of
Hebrews 10. And I want you to notice something.
All of this that he says in Hebrews 10 about a sinner approaching
God, that's what he's talking about, communing with God, coming
boldly into the presence of a holy God, is based on one thing and
one thing alone. And that is the redemptive work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood and righteousness.
He says it up here. He says back up in verse 10,
he says, by the which will we are sanctified, set apart through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once. That's what that
literally means. And it is for all his people,
all his sheep. And then he says in verse 14,
he says, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. You see, that's how it's done.
That's the ground of salvation there, the finished work of Christ
on the cross, His blood and righteousness. And it's so effective and so
complete and so powerful and so perfect that he says in verse
17, listen to this, he says, "...and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more." Now what that means literally is
this, God will never bring them up again and hold them against
us. He will not charge us with our sins. I heard a fellow say
the other day on tape, he said, now if God doesn't charge me
with my sins, that means I didn't do them. No, that's not what
that means. We did the sin. We committed
the sin. But God doesn't charge us with
our sins. He doesn't impute them to us.
He charged them to Christ. He's got to do something with
them. He imputed them to Christ, you see. And he says, that's
how complete and how full and how perfect and how powerful
the blood of Christ is. That's how His righteousness.
God says, I will remember them no more. And then He says in verse 18,
now where remission or forgiveness or pardon of these sins is, there's
no more offering for sin. It's useless to offer anything
else where the work's already done. But now people do. Most people today, I'll tell
you, multitudes will die in condemnation for whom Christ died because
they didn't offer up something, they didn't give something, they
didn't do this, they didn't do that. No, where forgiveness of
sins is complete and full and perfect based on the blood and
righteousness of Christ, there is no more offering. And if I
try to bring another offering, that's a denial of Christ. That's
folly. There's the dead flies in the
ointment again. But look here, he says in verse 19, having therefore,
that is based upon all that Christ accomplished on Calvary, brethren,
boldness, that's confidence and liberty to enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus. That's how, there's the ground.
By a new and living way, which he, that is Christ, hath consecrated. Christ is the one who paved the
way. He's the one who made the way. He's the one who newly made
it for us through the veil, that is to say His flesh, that's His
body, my body which is broken for you, my blood which was shed
for you, and having a high priest over the house of God. Now listen
to verse 22, this is about the heart. He says, let us draw near
with a true heart. Now what is a true heart? A true
heart is an honest heart. And what's an honest heart? It's
a heart convinced of sin. Convinced of my depravity, my
sinfulness, God be merciful to me, the sinner. That's a true
heart. Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, hold iniquities against me, or against any of
us, who among us would stand? This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. Man at his best is altogether
vanity. That's a true heart. That's a
sincere heart. That's an honest heart. But it doesn't stop there. Look more about this true heart.
In full assurance of faith. What is the full assurance of
faith? Well, that means today I had a good day and I believed
enough. No. The full assurance of faith is
the full assurance that a believer has by looking to Christ. and
seeing our fullness and our completeness in Him. Seeing the full forgiveness
of all my sins past, present, and future by His blood. Seeing
my complete justification before God by His righteousness. Seeing
my certainty and entitlement to enter Heaven's glory because
of what He accomplished in His obedience unto death and that
He'll keep me and bring me where I need to be by grace. So, having our hearts sprinkled,
that sprinkling in the scripture, what does that immediately make
you think of when you think of sprinkling? The blood, doesn't
it? What did David pray in Psalm
51 there? He said, purge me with hyssop.
You remember what the hyssop was? That was the brush made
of hyssop that they used to put the blood on the door in the
Passover, to sprinkle the blood. And that's what he's talking
about. Sprinkled. Having my heart sprinkled from an evil conscience. From a guilty conscience. How's
the guilt removed? By the blood of Christ. Who became
guilty. Really guilty. For me. Who was condemned. Really condemned. For me. Who was made sin. Really made sin. For me. who became a curse. He was made
a curse. Really made a curse for me. Sprinkled from an evil
conscience. An evil conscience is an unbelieving
conscience. It's a conscience that doesn't
look to Christ alone for completeness, for salvation, for righteousness.
It's an unbelieving heart. It's a legal conscience. But what moves all the legal
accusations and constraints? The grace of God in Christ. And
then he says, our bodies washed with pure water. Our whole person's
cleansed by the work of Christ, the merits of His work. Look
back at Ecclesiastes 10. Well, that was a, what would we call that, an understatement
or an overstatement to say I wasn't going to get through this whole
chapter. some kind of a state. Let me read one more and then
I'll quit. Look at verse 3. Now here's the contrast carried
on. He says, Yea, also, when he that is a fool walketh by
the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith to every one that
he is a fool. Now what that means is when the fool walks by his
way, whatever wisdom he has, it fails him and his walk is
proof and evidence to everybody. It speaks to everybody that he's
a fool. So the folly of the latter lies
not only in his heart, but it betrays itself throughout his
whole walk, his whole conversation. You see, the state and condition
of our hearts shows up in our whole walk. Now, there's some
of that that we know by nature. I mean, you can, for example,
you can tell a person who is a fool with his money. You know,
we have that saying, a fool and his money, what, soon part ways
or something like that? Things like that. We can tell
when people are foolish in their health or foolish in other ways,
foolish with their families. We can know that. But I want
to show you this, and this will be our closing passage here. Look at Romans chapter 7. And these are the areas that
we have to be convinced by God that wisdom is better than folly.
Now look at verse 4 of Romans chapter 7. In the Scripture, there are basically,
before God, there are two ways of walking. Alright? And those two ways are described
with different terms. There's walking by faith, that's
wisdom, and there's walking in unbelief, that's folly. There's
walking in grace, wisdom, and walking in works, works aimed
at salvation, that's folly. And we could go on and on. But
look here, he says in verse 4, Wherefore, my brethren, you also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. Now what
that means is that the law has no matter of judgment against
you. The law cannot condemn you because
of your sins. Why? Because of the body of Christ.
That's the death of Christ. Christ took that condemnation
under the law. He satisfied the law. So you're
dead to the law. The law has no matter against
you if you're in Christ. All right? And so he says, now
the reason that all that happened, that's the ground of salvation,
is that you should be married to another, that you should be
united to Christ in a spiritual, eternal, unbreakable marriage
bond, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should
do what? Now here's the believer's walk.
Bring forth fruit unto God. He lives his life, she lives
her life as a sinner saved by the grace of God as a branch
bringing forth fruit from the life of the vine who is Christ.
And we're fruit bearers. We don't produce fruit, we bear
it. That's the fruit of the Spirit. That's the fruit of faith. That's
the fruit of repentance. That's the fruit of love. The
fruit of obedience. We could go on and on about it.
The fruit of gratitude. The fruit of humility. All of
those things. Having the Word of God and the
Spirit of God within us, guided by His Word, we bring forth fruit
unto God. Now look at verse 5. He says,
For when we were in the flesh... Now that's an unbeliever. That's an unregenerate person.
In the flesh. Even a believer has to struggle
with the flesh. We have to war with the flesh.
But we're not in the flesh. We're not motivated and dominated
by the flesh, you see. And he says, when we were in
the flesh, when we were unregenerate, the motions or the passions of
sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring
forth fruit unto death. Now that's the walk of folly,
bringing forth fruit unto death. And it shows itself up in one
of two ways. These passions of sin, he says, which were by the
law. Now you all have heard the analogy here, the illustration
about if you take a child And you take that child and you put
him in a room, and you've got some toys over in one corner,
and some toys over in another corner, and some toys over in
the other corner, and some toys over in the other corner, and
you say, now, three of these corners, you can play all you
want with those toys. But now this fourth corner over
here, you can't touch that. You lay down the law, and you
all know what's going to happen, don't you? You know what's going
to happen. I tell you, we've got, I think
Aidan, has three or four TV remotes. And they don't have batteries
in them, and they don't work, and they're not to any TV. And he can have them. I don't care. He can play with
them. But you know the one remote he wants? My remote. I don't even want Debbie to have
it. But that's the one he wants. Well, that's human nature. What
I'm saying is it will show up. The passions of sin in some people's
lives will show up in what we might call abject rebellion against
everything that's right and more. And we know people like that
who are just open thieves and murderers and just every kind
of degradation you can think of because of their rebelliousness. And that certainly is. We don't
have any problem saying, well that's fruit unto death there.
But now there's another way it shows up, and I want you to think
about it this way. When you read these scriptures
here, verse 5, Think about Saul of Tarsus. You remember him?
What was he doing in his walk of folly, bringing forth fruit
unto death? He was religious. He was trying to establish a
righteousness of his own. He was trying to worship God.
He was trying to work his way under the law to keep every precept
in order to make himself righteous. And that's another way this shows
up sometimes. People get religion. And you
know what? They're still bringing forth
fruit unto death. It's still a passion of sin which
is by the law because they have a perverted view of the law.
They think they can be made righteous by their works of the law. It's
still fruit in the dead. But now look at verse 6. But
now we're delivered from the law. Now here's wisdom. that
being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness
of spirit." What's that newness of spirit? That's grace, that's
gratitude, that's love. Not in the oldness of the letter.
You see, where's your heart? That's what Solomon is saying
when he contrasts these things, wisdom and folly. Is your heart
fixed on Christ? is your heart established with
the grace of God. Because that's the wise walk.
That's the right way. Walking in the way of grace and
gratitude and love. All right.