Gilliland, David: Acquired Spiritual Immune System-01 ~ Proverbs 7

I come to the conclusion that either the words young people or else the words, the word mainly, have been interpreted with very glad latitude. So we are glad to see you all, and trust the Lord will help us. I'd like to read from the book of Proverbs and chapter seven. The book of Proverbs and chapter seven. I'm sure most of you are tired and, uh, the only problem is I want to speak about ten scriptures. So I thought I'd better warn you now, so that uh, your immune system would be prepared for what is about to come. First of all, Proverbs chapter seven, and we read at verse six. m For at the window of my house I looked through my casement and beheld among the simple one. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding, passing through the street near her corner. And he went away to her house in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night. And behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot and subtle of heart. She is loud and stubborn, her feet abide not in her house. Now she is without, now in the streets and lieth in wait at every corner. Look at the end of verse twenty three, just a little expression, and knoweth not that it is for his life. Now, I want to read from chapter ten. a shorter extract from chapter ten and verse thirteen. In the lips of him that hath understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding. Now, chapter twelve of the same book, Proverbs chapter twelve. He that tilleth his land, verse eleven, chapter twelve, verse eleven. He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread, but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding. Chapter 17. Verse 18 of this seventeenth chapter. A man void of understanding striketh hands and becometh surety in the presence of his friend. And finally, for now, chapter twenty four. I went by the field of the slothful. I'm reading verse 30. I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding, and lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettle had, nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw and considered it well. I looked upon it and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man. Now, we'll not read any more from, from the scriptures just presently. Now, as you know, the subject that has been announced for the meeting tonight is acquired spiritual immune deficiency. I think whoever thought up that title must be very strange, but here I am, the brethren have announced it, so we'll have to go ahead and try and speak upon it now. I have to make a confession, and I have to give a clarification. You might be tempted to think from the title that I have some, uh, detailed professional medical knowledge. That is not the case. My ignorance of intricate medical things could scarcely be exaggerated. I do know if you have a headache that there are tablets you can take to alleviate it, and one or two other similar things, but I am not proficient at all in the greater world of medicine. So that the remarks that I'm making on the medical line, uh, I'll not be making them with any degree of authority. I'll only be making them from the standpoint of illustration for the spiritual analogy that I have in mind. But we are all aware, made aware over recent years with the spread of the AIDS epidemic and the talk of immune deficiency syndrome and so on, that in our constitution, we have internally an immune system. That immune system supplies the body with natural defenses. Because we live in a world where we are surrounded by literally millions of germs and bacteria. They are floating through the air. They surround us on every side. We cannot help but breathe them in. We do it even invisibly. Did the body not have this healthy immune system, we would find our physical frames vulnerable to so many invasions that we would quickly collapse into ill health. Indeed, I'm told, again, this is not a medical statement of any great authority, but I'm told that the AIDS virus is not in itself fatal, but it attacks the immune system, and having broken down the immune system, then the patient and the victim is just open to anything because his whole constitution becomes defenseless. Hence, it is very important that the immune system of an individual is well supplied with all the requirements that it needs, so that it in turn can provide the body with those antibodies that can take on the invaders that inevitably come on every side and every day. Of course, in the spiritual world, and I want quickly to move to that, we are also living in a world where we are surrounded by spiritual germs of many kinds. There are very, very harmful viruses that are floating around on every side, and if as Christians we are going to be able to survive, it is absolutely essential that our spiritual internal immune system is well supplied with the necessary nutrients so that those germs will not inflict the damage which they otherwise would do. There have been many believers. They were enjoying the things of the Lord just as much as any of us here in these happy days. They became careless about internal matters, and sooner than they ever suspected, they fell foul of some of these invading germs. Now, we are all vulnerable, we are all susceptible. God has given to us, as I hope to point out shortly, he has given to us a provision whereby our internal immune system can be strengthened so that we are able to face those external foes. Now, you get the point. I'm trying to get this valid. It's no use, it's no use us wishing that we lived in a better world. That's wishful thinking. The world will not be better. It's no use dreaming that someday we might live in a perfect Canada. We can face the facts that the world around us is evil and becoming more evil. We will not improve the external, but God expects us to look after the internal. And I submit that if we look after the internal, using the means which God has graciously given to us, then a strong spiritual immune system internally will mean that the external, be it ever so evil, will be unable to do any harm. Now you let it go down here, and you will quickly find yourself defenseless. Some of the folks that have this in the physical realm, this immune system collapse, they are put into a sterile environment. They are put into a bubble. They are very, very carefully protected and cocooned. And of course, that's the very thing that we can't do. In the spiritual world, we cannot retire to a monastery. We cannot retire into a bubble. You folks have to go into the office and sit down at a desk beside companions that have no sympathy with spiritual things. Some of you are students in university campuses. We have to live in the world. We have to brush shoulders with all kinds of evil. And since we cannot go into a carefully constructed bubble, we have to live in the real world. It is absolutely vital that we keep the immune system spiritually well supplied. Now, there are a number of areas where temptations are particularly rife, and we need to look at those areas that are identified in the five passages that I have read from the book of Proverbs. Now, if you follow the reading fairly carefully, as I think many of you did, you might have noticed that in these five readings, there is the recurrence of a little expression, void of understanding. Now, that's the deficiency. Void of understanding. And in each one of these five proverbs, we have a description given to us of what happens to a person who is deficient in understanding. Now that word void, I, I have to take both these words for a minute because this is my key expression. This is the deficit in spiritual immunity. The Bible calls this void of understanding. The word void is very, very simply the Hebrew word that, uh, the cognate word that is translated Psalm twenty three: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Cognate word translated Psalm number eight: He was made a little lower. Sometimes it's translated lack, so that this is a person void of, he lacks understanding, deficient. He's low. The level of understanding has dropped low. He is wanting something internally, and as this person that we are going to think about, with this internal deficit, as he moves about in the big world, he falls foul of some of the viruses that are floating around there. We'll look at them just shortly. Now, the word understanding. You'll have to bear with me just for a minute on one or two of these slight tactical things, because I want what I say to be very, very firmly Bible-based. I'm a firm believer that all ministry has to be Bible-based if it's going to carry any weight and if it's going to reach any distance. Now, the word understanding in these five passages is just simply the Hebrew word heart. So that we are going to the very core. Now here are people in these, they are void, they're deficient in heart. There's a defect at the executive center of their being. Now, the Hebrews, this is important, so just give me your ear doubly for this for a couple of minutes. The Hebrews use the word heart in a very, very wide-ranging way. We sometimes, in fact, we usually talk about a person, uh, we're talking about his feelings, or we say that he's very tender-hearted, he's she's very soft-hearted, uh, we mean a person with sensitive feelings. Now, the interesting thing is that when you come to the Bible, the Bible hardly ever uses the word heart. It does, but not often does it use the word heart to refer to the emotion. Generally speaking, out of the hundreds of times, in the Old Testament especially, that the word heart is used, it falls into one of three senses. First of all, the heart is seen to be the faculty of thinking, not feeling, thinking. I'm talking now about the old time. You know that verse very well, as a man thinketh in his mind. No. As a man thinketh in his heart. God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of their mind was only evil. No. God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of the heart. So the heart in the Old Testament is the organ of thinking, calculation, rationalization, consideration. So when we read about a man who is wide in heart, there's something wrong with his thinking. His calculations are not right. His internal ticker is not in time. Then, you remember there's another use of the word heart that is quite common in the Old Testament, but I just pick out perhaps the best known one along this line. It says that Daniel purposed in his will. You see, with us, the will is the organ of purpose. Daniel purposed in his will that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat. The Bible says Daniel purposed in his heart, so that Daniel had a deep-seated conviction, and in his will, the heart is not only the organ of calculation, but the heart is the organ of conviction. So when we read in Proverbs about a person who is deficient in heart, they're not right in their calculations, and they're not right in their conviction. I speak to you younger folks very much tonight, and I would say this, early in your Christian life, you hammer out on the anvil of prayer and Bible study and exercise before God, in your own private exercise, you hammer out convictions, because you will need to have convictions formed before you step into the office or before you go to the university, and those convictions will need to be solid, because if they're flexible and fluid and plastic, well, that will have great difficulties later on. We see that in a minute. Now, the third use of conscience is the third. I've let it out, haven't I? Calculation, conviction. You remember when David cut off the tail of Saul's robe? It says his heart smote him. You know, the Bible talks about God searching your kidneys, and talks about your bowels, and talks about your gallbladder and all that kind of stuff. You know, in the ancient sacrifices, God had them weigh in the liver. The liver, actually, that's why, that's why the liver, the liver is called in the Hebrew language kabeh. Kabeh is the word for heavy, because the liver is the heaviest organ. The liver is the weightiest organ in the Bible. That's why God searches the reins and the liver. And I better not get away into Hebrew psychology, or we will be here all night. But when David cut off, it says his heart smote him. When he counted the children of Israel, he suddenly realized that he had done wrong. The Bible says his heart smote, that was conscience. Now, all that together. Once we read in the book of Proverbs, somebody internally deficient, their calculations not right, their convictions deficient, their conscience in some way damaged, their internal immunity system has gotten low, they are void of heart, they are low in heart, they are deficient in heart, there's something down. And then when they step out and to cope with the various demands of the great big world, they find that the imbalance and the, the defenses are gone. Now, let us come more particularly to these things so that we get some practical help. Chapter seven of the Book of Proverbs, Solomon, in a very, very vivid portion, he tells us that he looked out through the casement of his window. Verse number six and verse number seven of chapter seven, that he said, as I looked through my window, he said, I beheld a young man. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding, passing through the street near her corner, and he went away to her house. Now let us get this picture. This is a young man, it's a city scene. And this young man, just as, as, uh, as the light begins to fade, it talks here about twilight, I'll speak about it in, he leaves his house. Solomon sees him going down the street, and he turns a corner. Solomon watches. He's not very streetwise. He's not widely experienced. Solomon says he's going near the house. He's going to pay a visit to an area of the city that's very dangerous. And he said that street that he's on is leading to the house of a very, very evil woman. And he said it's a bad time of the night. It's in the twilight. And then he speaks about the darkness, and then he speaks about the black night. You know, the young fella, when he got down that street, he is loitered about for a while. And what began as twilight has become darkness, it has become the black night, and he finds himself in an area of the city that we would call a red light district, and suddenly there he is alone. Solomon says he's void of heart. Oh, he says, if that young man in his naivety, he said, if he only had in his spiritual constitution, if he had the conscience, and if he had the conviction, and if he had the calculation, he said he would never let his footsteps take him down that street. He said what he doesn't know is that in that house there lurks a woman. Suddenly the door of the house opens, and there steps out this lady in the darkness of the night. And this young man that has paid a visit to her area, he finds himself trapped. She's clothed like an harlot. So the time is not good, the place is not good, and the company is not good, and there's a young man, and his footsteps have taken him, his feet are working. He's wild of heart. He doesn't know. He hasn't made the right calculations. This area is far, far too dangerous. Many have been the victims on that street before he ever went. His conscience is not clear. Ah well, I better just move on, but I want to say this. You young men tonight, where do you visit? What corners do you turn? I wonder, are there any of the young Christians here tonight, and you physically go into territory of Toronto or some other city where a Christian never should be seen? You think you can handle it? You think you can manage? You're going. Why did this young fellow go? Did he go because he wanted to fall into sin and blast his testimony? I presume he just went out of curiosity. See what goes on. You know, there are certain evils. There's a thing in the human heart, and if we allow our spiritual defenses and immunity to go down, there can rise within our baser appetites a demand to investigate evil. And many a person has fallen through what started out as curiosity. Where do you boys visit? If I, if I got to your computer tonight... I know little about computers. They say they produce sermons with great rapidity. They say those online sermons you can preach six times every day if you get one of those computers that pump them out. If I ever get one, well, I'll take the whole conference myself. The honor brown and luck to need it. But I know very little about computers, but if I could get favorites, is that what they call it, favorites? If I could click upon the button history, places visited. Wonder if any of you young men, just when you're on your own, this young man was on his own. In the twilight, in the dark, in the black night, in some room where you are unsupervised, are you covertly clicking buttons, visiting sites? And the only thing you could say is void of understanding. You do not calculate, you do not calculate the danger of that peregrine. I beg with you in God's name. I don't know what you do. Go off computer, go off internet, get a black thing. Whatever you do, I tell you, you be absolutely ruthless. And when that avenue opens that says sign on or enter, with a heart filled with understanding and your spiritual immunity fed by a sense of the holiness of God and the sanctity of Christian living, that you will say that's an avenue along which I cannot travel. A young man void of understanding. Isn't it too bad that he let his understanding drop and he find- found himself in such, such dreadful territory. I'll not say anything more about it. You know, there are women. There are women that talks about her dress. You know, the women of the world, and I speak to you young sisters very sensitively. You see, dress has a message. Dress has a message. One of my friends called Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney. He said away back in the early days of, uh, of the Beatles, he said, we will change the style, and he said, by our dress we will send a message of anti-authoritarianism across the country. Dress has a message. This lady stepped out through her door onto the street where this young man was traveling alone with a proper attire to seduce. It said he was void of heart, but it says she was subtle of heart. Bad combination. You know, young sisters, can I say, I don't want of it starting to slush and make big rules about people's dress. I never heard that really coming to much good. But some of you young sisters, you know, you know. When you're wearing something that is calculated to be prevalent to the opposite gender. You know when you're presenting yourself in such a way as appeals to what is best. And may God help us just to have understanding and needs and heart. It takes conviction. That's why I say there's conscience, and there's calculation, and there's conviction. And if we don't have that, when we walk into this great big world, we will find ourselves succumbing to these temptations. Now, very quickly, I'll only mention a word or two in this next one. Chapter ten was the next verse that we read. Chapter ten and verse number thirteen, It says, in the lips of him that hath understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him that is void of heart or void of understanding. If our first passage dealt with the young man and his footsteps, this one deals with the young man and his fluency, his speech. It tells us that the mouth of the wise is full like a well of blight, and so on, so forth. But it says a rod is for the back of him. I think the, the implication of this text is that a wise person will know how to control his tongue, but a foolish person who is empty of heart and doesn't have that internal immunity, he'll do so much talking that he'll end up getting a beating for it. A rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding. Now, it's great to be able to talk, isn't it? It's great to be able to communicate. This business of coherent, cognitive, intelligent communication, it's something that distinguishes the human race. The marvel of intelligent communication is really wonderful. The, the power and the potential and the miracle of words. But all I say is this, you know, what is such, has such potential for good, it is also such potential for evil. Now it takes, it takes great control of heart to be able to control this. Very often, what comes out here is just manifesting what's in here. You remember the Lord Jesus said, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth, the mouth speaketh. Sometimes when we lose our temper, you see, and an Irish man can really talk about this. When we lose our temper and something just comes out quickly and you say, oh, you say, I just, I didn't mean it, I didn't mean it, I was just too quick, and I just lost my temper a bit, and I didn't, it was just out before I knew. Listen, that's the very peace that lets, lets everybody know what's really inside. It's the unguarded word. It's the peace that comes out unsolicited that gives a manifestation of what's here. May God help us. I'll say no more. Younger brethren, younger sisters, do have good conversation together, but can I just give a little bit of advice? Always keep your conversation wholesome. Never, never, never lower your conversation into anything that is smutty or salacious, because I want to tell you this. When people start to joke about sin... You know what the next stage is? Talk lightly about sin, and the next stage is practicing. So may God help us in our language. The Greeks, the ancient Greeks, had a little proverb, not just as good as Solomon's, and there's so much in this book about language, I don't want to develop it just now. But they had a proverb, and they said, it's better to keep silent and be suspected of being a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. So, well, maybe I should remove doubt and soon stop. Now we'll go on to chapter twelve again, very quickly on this one. Chapter twelve and verse eleven. Here's another de- deficit, internal deficit. Verse eleven of chapter twelve: He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread, but he that followeth vain persons is wide apart. Now, this is not the man and his footsteps. This is not the man and the fluency of his tongue. This is the man and his friend. His friend. He that followeth vain person is void of heart. It's great to have good friends. You know, there has been a social, there is a social dimension to this conference. The spiritual dimension is evidently the most important, or the more important, but there is a social dimension, and I have seen many of the younger folks mingling and mixing and happily talking together and all that kind of thing. That is very good, and I'm not condemning. You cultivate good friendship, but can I just say quickly, remember that not all Christian company is good. He that followeth thee in person. You remember the group that followed Absalom in their simplicity, and there they were going. Absalom was the leader of the pack. He was good looking, he was charming, he was charismatic, he had his great head of hair, he could flatter people, he could win people, and he led them all out just as the leader of a band. No, no, it's a pity. I tell you, I tell you, all you younger folks, if you find yourself part of a group that is always producing vanity. He that followeth vain persons, always producing vanity. My advice to you is just you quietly make yourself scarce. Don't be falling out. Don't be making enemies. But always be very, very choosy about your friends. I remember when I was working at, uh, they told us a thing. It was a lecture was given by a businessman in New York, nothing to do with Christianity, but he told a luncheon in New York. He said, gentlemen, he said the kind of person that each one of us will be five years from tonight will be largely determined by two things. He said, number one, the books that you read, and number two, the company you keep. And I think that he was making it very, very astute. Watch your footsteps. Watch your tongue. Watch your friends. Now we move on quickly over to chapter seventeen, and, uh, we'll say a little bit about this. This is only the fourth one. I have ten of these to get through here. Where... No, I'll, I'll bundle the last five together in a very small package. Chapter seventeen, verse eighteen this time. A man void of understanding striketh hands and becometh surety in the presence of his friend. Now here's another man, and he's not. His conscience and his calculations and his convictions, his internal immunity is down, and he gets carried away. What exactly does this proverb mean? Well, there is a debate. There is a debate about the meaning, but I'll not go into the possibilities. I'll tell you what I think. This is a man, and there's a financial deal being done, and he wants to appear the big fellow. And in the presence of his friends, in order to impress his friends and to make the big grandee, he strikes hands and he takes on a financial commitment that's away beyond his means. He strikeeth hands in the presence of his friends. It's a publicity stunt. He's trying to make a name for himself in the world of finance, and he goes away beyond the boundary. Now, the Bible says, I tell you, that's a man that's void of heart. Can I say, just quickly again, younger folks here, it's a great big world of colorful advertisement. It's a world of must buy. It's a world where there's compelled consumerism. You know, buying in our world has become a religion. Can I say you be very careful that you don't... just to make a show, just to make a name for yourself. Just to keep in a circle of friends. You know, you don't need to. You don't need to, if you can't afford it, and if you cannot reasonably commit yourself to it, you don't need to have two automobiles just to keep up with your friends, and you don't need to have a villa with twelve bedrooms and two swimming pools. Don't be go- I know, I know, I know that folks can get involved in commitments and they didn't anticipate it. That's not here. Things can go wrong. It's talking about someone foolishly and in a braggadocio way, just stepping away out to be a big per- be very, very careful about your finances because it betokens a person that's not right in here. Spiritual immunity when they find themselves invaded by the virus of communism, and they are of covetousness, and they get into all kinds of problems. I just noticed the other day, just listen to this. It's one of the men in the big, who was a great, a great name in the big retailing world back in the nineteen fifties. In the nineteen fifties, where do you hear this? In the nineteen fifties, he said, our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and the use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, discarded at an ever increasing rate. That wasn't in eighteen fifty. You see people all around the world pushing in plastic shards into little holes in the wall, and they bow down, they bow down, and they do obeisance on them. And they just worship, they just worship this new goddess of consumerism. Do you know how much Americans, how much Americans paid in credit card interest in two thousand and two? Sixty five billion dollars in interest. Of course, that's only Americans would see the picture. The Irish are no better, and it all indicates a world that has gone astray because people are deficient. Deficient. Oh, said the Apostle Paul, godliness with contentment is great key. I tell you, a smaller house and to be able to kneel on the floor and most of the things paid for, or at least the commitments all met, and be able to pray to God with a clean sky and read the book with a clear conscience. It's worth more than any credit card can supply. They tell me that in this continent, every household, the average household, has eleven credit cards. Most of you have more than that. But eleven, and it's all made very, and you can strike hands, and you can buy and be the big fellow. But always judge it very carefully and calculate it, and ask yourself with good conduct. Chapter twenty four. Chapter twenty four. We'll forget about the other five, will that do? His footsteps, his fluency, his friends, his finances. Oh, watch those four areas, because if you're going to survive, you need the immunity well supplied. Now his fruitfulness. Chapter number, verse thirty of chapter twenty four. he said, I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the man empty of heart, deficient in heart. It was all grown over with thorns. Nettles had covered the face thereof. The stone wall was broken down. I considered it well, a little slumber, a little sleep, and so on, so shall thy poverty come. Well. Here's a man. He had a great heritage. There was a time when this garden, this cultivated field, and this vineyard was doing well. It was maybe something handed down from the previous generation. If this man had looked after it, it would have been a very, very fruitful place. You know, you have got a garden. So have I. It's the garden of our own life. You know what happened this vineyard? There was no work. You have listened to the ministry of these past days, and there's one thing you've been convinced about, all of you younger folk, that spirituality just doesn't, it doesn't just happen. It's work. This man lost it. He didn't have the sense, he didn't have the sense to know that this vineyard has great potential if I work on it. And he just lazed about and folded his arms and got on and enjoyed leisure time. No work. Then the next thing, no walls. No boundaries. You know, you have to put boundaries in your life. If you're going to preserve your fruitfulness, one of the things that a wise person always does, who has conviction and calculation, and he builds walls. He'll say, now that's so much, so much time in the swimming pool, but no more. So much time on the net, but no more. So much time on holidays a year, but no more. There are other, there are boundaries that I have to make in my life. You know, a life without work and a life without wall. There was no weeding. You know, we got a look at it, thorns were there, nettles were there, all the things that if this man had been working, he would have pulled them out and thrown them over the wall. You know, a life that's going to be a fruitful life, the life of a person who has sense in here, internal immunity, that the weeds pull down. As I quit, I want to ask all of us tonight, are there any nettles in your life that you need to pull out? Is there any work you need to do? Why you say I'll take a chance? You see, that shows that you haven't got the sense. No work, no walls, no weeding. And the next thing was no wine. Because in this vineyard covered with thorns and nettles, there was no, there were no grapes. The vine was crushed, no wine, and the man just left with nothing. You know, I want to tell you this. A careless life, a careless life is never a happy life. If you want the wine of joy, there'll have to be exercise and activity. May God help us. As I stopped, what was it, what were the other five? Was I only teasing? No. No, no, I'm not a teaser. You say, but where am I going to get us? Oh, you've told us now, you've told us about the importance of having it right in here because of what's out. You've told us if we don't have it right in here, we can make mistakes in our footsteps, in our fluency, with our friends and our finances, and with our fruitfulness. But how do we get it right in here? How do we strengthen our immune system? Now, I'll not do it. I promise not to do it, but you'll do it, and I'll see all of you tomorrow afternoon, and if you haven't it done, I don't know what'll happen. Psalm 119. Five times in that Psalm, we have read five scriptures here of a man void of understanding. five times in that Psalm, the psalmist prays this prayer. He says, give me understanding. He says, Lord, for this big light, he said, I can't survive unless you give me under, and he gets into the presence of God with the book of God, and he says, give me understanding. You know, the understanding that we need to build up our internal spiritual immunity, it can only be acquired in the sanctuary, and it can only be acquired in the scriptures. Young brethren and sisters, not everybody can be a big Bible. You don't want to get top heavy. But I plead with you, you try and carve out a wee place in your life, a little place in your life to pray and to read the scriptures. Because through those channels, two channels of sanctuary and scripture experience, there will be funneled into your life the necessary flow of spiritual understanding that will strengthen your internal immunity system. And whether you go to university, whether you work in the bank, whether you're in the world of finance, whether you're a parent with a little family, whatever it may be, and the viruses are a million and one, you will be able to survive. Because what people don't have naturally, you will have found from God and his word. Give me, no, don't be worried about others, give me wisdom. And I'll conclude with another verse in Proverbs. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. You know, the word holy in that verse is plural. The knowledge of the holies. And I don't know what that means, but you can make up your own mind. May God grant, I trust that all you folks, it's a difficult life, it's a dangerous world. Understanding is needed, especially in the areas that I have mentioned. Thank God, understanding is available. May we go the means that God, the channels and the path that God has appointed whereby we may obtain it, because spiritual survival is possible. It can be done. May God help us to do it for his glory. Acquire spiritual immunity deficiency. I trust the Lord will bless this word with all you've heard, and thanks for your mighty patience. I think I'm void of heart. If it had any sense, I would have stopped sooner, but you folks have endured to the end, and the Bible says you shall be saved. May we bow briefly in prayer. Do I give thanks for refreshments, or are there refreshments? That's great. Our Father, we bow in the Lord Jesus' precious name. We thank thee that we can reflect upon hours that have profitably been spent in the fellowship of thy people and in taking a look at Holy Scripture. We thank thee for every meeting in which thy voice was heard. We thank thee for every prayer answered. We pray, Lord, that thou will bless just now particularly the gospel that has recently been spoken. We pray the message will be ringing in the heart of some still, so that sinners might penitently be brought to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Bless our meditations just now. We look upon those who fill these seats. We thank thee for the potential of these lives, and we ask, Lord, that this potential will be channeled into grooves that will be for thy glory and for the blessing of many. So now we commit ourselves to thee. We thank thee for refreshments provided. Take us into thine hand. Grant that we will also have spiritual refreshment, and before the Lord's day comes, that we might be in a good condition to remember the Lord Jesus in thy will. We ask for these mercies as we separate again with abundant thanks in the worthy name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.