Proverbs chapter 22 tonight, we'll take a look at verse 28. Proverbs chapter 22, we'll take a look at verse 28 tonight. Short verse here, but a lot of things I think we can perhaps say maybe about this. Entitled the mess is the unmovable landmarks. the unmovable landmarks. Proverbs chapter 22, verse 28. Bible says, remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set. Let's read it one more time. Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set. I remember years ago, my dad is up here with us tonight. And I remember years ago when I was just a little boy, I remember I used to ask my dad all the time to take us to the landmarks. You remember that? When I was small, I was real little. We had about seven acres of land. But whenever you're four, five, and six years old, seven acres of woods seems like it's 100 acres. And so I'd always ask my dad, let's go see the landmarks. Let's go see the landmarks. We'd go out in the woods and we'd go to the landmarks and see all the landmarks that was out there, you know, and defining where our property is. And it was a really good time, really enjoyed going out to see those landmarks. And those landmarks, what they do is they really describe, they describe in our life really what is ours and boundaries that we need to make sure that we don't cross in our life. I think in our life, whether it's in the church, I think in the family, individuals, even as a nation, I think there ought to be landmarks that we set for ourselves so that we understand that, listen, we're not gonna go but this far, that this is a line right here that we're not gonna cross, we're only gonna come up to this point. Because if not, what happens is, if we don't set any kind of boundaries for ourself, then it becomes so easy to, it becomes so easy to, I guess, get lost out in the world, perhaps. There's so many, there's so far to go. I mean, if we don't set a boundary for ourself, where is the end to where we will go? And so we would just keep going and keep going and keep going. So it's extremely important, I think, as churches, that we set boundaries for ourselves. Okay, we're only gonna go this far. This is kind of it. As individuals, we say, all right, these are borderlines in my life. I'm not gonna go past this. I'm gonna have this. In my spiritual life, I'm not gonna go past this point. Now, just because the marker is there doesn't mean you have to go all the way to it. But I think what it does, I think, indicate in our life is that's something we definitely don't want to cross, amen? And so as we think about just the ancient landmarks that are in our life, and the Bible even says there in verse 28, remove not the ancient landmarks which thy fathers have set, we understand that there are landmarks that have been set. I think the Bible sets some some landmarks, I believe in the Christian life. This is how you need to live, don't do this and don't do this, don't go beyond this point. Because the Bible does tell us, all right, well listen, you don't need to do this because if you do, you go beyond this point, this is what's gonna happen, this is what's gonna take place. And so I just think as God's people, it's just important that we make sure that we set some boundaries. you know, for ourself. In the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 19, verse 14, the Bible says, thou shalt not remove thy neighbor's landmark, which they said of old time, in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit into land, that the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it. And the idea was, listen, we don't just have landmarks in our life and boundary lines in our life, but other folks did too. And the idea is that you don't go and uproot somebody else's stake. You don't go and take their landmarks out and move yours forward or try to take some of their land, which doesn't belong to you. And so the Bible frequently throughout the Old Testament speaks about landmarks that have been set and how, and even a couple of times, God actually brings judgment and actually brings a reprimand on the people for actually doing this very thing, for uprooting people's landmarks and encroaching on their land and setting up their own landmarks, and therefore taking that which didn't belong to them. And so we can see here in the scriptures, the Bible, I think, gives us lots of warnings. Not only did he tell the people, his people, not to remove the landmarks that they had set for them, that this is their boundaries and this is their property lines, but I think we can also see in scripture that the Bible, I think, warns us about making sure that there are areas in our life that we don't cross. And so the verse there in 28, says, remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set. I think these landmarks, as I said, are just, are areas that we need to be aware of, need to be watchful for, because what happens is, if the landmarks are removed, it brings confusion. What do you do? You walk out and you say, well, you know, I thought my landmark was here. I'm gonna give you an illustration. Let's say perhaps, listen, this world we live in today, we can say, all right, well, the church, the church is setting its landmark, all right? We're not gonna, the church itself, we're not gonna go past this point. This is who we are, we're not going past this point. Well, the world and the devil out here, they're on this other side and they're doing everything they can to try to pull this landmark out because they're not satisfied with what they have. So the world has the idea that it wants to encroach on that which the church has, or encroach on that which you have set in your life. I've set this boundary in my life. I'm not gonna go past this point. This is where the line of God's word crosses. I'm not gonna go over that. But the devil, of course, and the world, they're not satisfied with that. Their idea is to try to pull that out or to set another, or to come across. What brings confusion is this, is let's say we come out, let's say we go out to this, let's say you went outside to your house and you said, all right, I'm gonna go visit my landmark. And you go out there and you see your landmark that is right here that you knew was there, but then whenever you got there, there was another one that was there. Perhaps you knew that that one was yours, but then you see another one that's maybe right here. And you'd be kind of getting to scratch your head. You think, where did this one come from? What's this one all about? And then maybe what you begin to think is you thought, well, I don't know where this came from. Maybe I was mistaken. Maybe that's not my landmark. Maybe this was my landmark. Well, now the world and the devil has done took something away from you that you didn't even realize was even yours. What I'm trying to get is, what the point I'm trying to make is this, is that one of the ways that the world and the devil brings confusion, I think, into our lives is that, listen, there are some unmovable landmarks that are out here. And because the devil knows that he really can't remove them, the best way to battle that is to set up his own. And if he can set up his own, then he can bring confusion to us. Does that make sense? Because we'll get to this place and we'll say, well, which one's ours? What landmark is ours? whereas before it was really defined. We would say, okay, we're only coming to this point. So the devil comes in and says, well, if I can't uproot that landmark, what I'll do is, I don't have the strength to do it, we're gonna look at some unmovable ones, but if I can't uproot it and I can't move it, then I think what I'll do is I'll just set up one myself, and if I set this one up, maybe whenever they get to this point, they'll scratch their head and begin to think, well, which one is really theirs? And so it'll bring confusion into their life. I think that's part of what the devil's practice. We'll take a look at it here in just a minute. Let's take a look. Let's read the verse one more time. Proverbs chapter 22, verse 28. He says, remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set. So what are some landmarks I believe, boundaries that I believe that are there that cannot be uprooted. Well, I think one of those landmarks that is permanent, that is an unmovable landmark, is the landmark of God's Word. I think the landmark of God's Word is something that is, it is there, it is situated, it is something that is unmovable. I think the Bible tells us in itself, does not the Bible say that it is forever settled in heaven? And so we understand that God's Word, it is something that is forever settled, it is something that is unmovable. God's Word is something that brings light, it brings wisdom, it brings understanding, it brings light and truth, it brings all these sayings into the world, brings all these sayings into our life. but the devil's been doing everything he could for a very long time to try to destroy it and try to distort it in every single way. And so what happens is when a Christian comes along and they say, well, what can I do? I wanna know more about God's word. I wanna know more about God. Well, the landmark is set. We have a good King James Bible that we have sitting right here. The landmark is set. And so the devil says, well, I can't uproot it. I can't pull it out. I can't get rid of it. So what can I do? Well, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll just produce a whole bunch of other ones. I'll just produce a whole bunch of other ones. And I'll just put one over there, and I'll put one over there, and I'll put one over there, and I'll put one over there, and I'll put one over there, and I'll put one over there, and I'll put one over there, and I'll put one over there. And so the Christian comes along and says, I wanna know more about God. And then he gets along and he's like, where's the landmark at? Which one's the right way? Which one do I have? What is it that I'm supposed to read? Which one is God's word? And the devil succeeds in doing this, bringing confusion to the people. Now, there are landmarks the devil can't get rid of, and he knows it, and the Bible's one of them. I mean, he's been trying to destroy the Bible for a long time, and as we even said on Sunday, I still hold it in my hand right here. I mean, there's been people that have died, have been martyred. Many, many, many folks who have died have been martyred for the Word of God. And we hold it right here. We possess it right here in our hands. But the Bible is one of those things. It is an unmovable landmark. It is something that cannot be removed. It is something that cannot be taken away. But the devil, and the devil knows that. And so because, and since he knows he cannot remove it, the best way, or a good way, To attack the people is to set out so many landmarks that they don't know which one is actually theirs. Which one is the right one? How far do we actually go? Because what does the word of God teach us? Well, in the word of God, we have what? We have all the doctrines of the Bible. The doctrine of our faith, the doctrine of salvation, doctrine of sin. We have all the doctrines that are listed here that teach us about God, who God is, what the Christian life is all about. And so the landmark is there. I mean, it is there. It cannot be pulled up. It cannot be uprooted. I mean, it is there. And so the devil says, well, well, if these people wanna know about God, What can I do? I mean, I can't pull it up. I'm not strong enough to get rid of the word of God. So what is it that I can do? If I can't pull it up, I'll just have to set up a whole bunch of other landmarks so I can just confuse everybody. Because so that whenever they want to know more about God and they want to know more about sin, they want to know more about how to get to heaven. They want to know more about truth and they want to know more about the devil and they want to know more about homosexuality and they want to know more about abortion. They want to know more about all these things. Well, we'll just change it and distort it do what we can to really get people kind of scratching their head and thinking to themselves, well, which one is right? And so we have a lot of people today that are distorted in their views because the devil has set up a bunch of landmarks. And we've come and people are thinking to themselves, well, which one is right? But we understand that the word of God's a landmark the devil can't get rid of. but he's been in an all out battle ever since day one. From the very beginning there, even in the book of Genesis, I mean, right there from the very beginning, the devil was fighting the word of God. But we understand that the word of God is, as I said, forever settled, we understand that the word of God is here, it is pure, it is righteous, it is life, it is all of these things. But in order to keep a man in confusion, in order to keep a nation in confusion, in order to do everything he can to steer people away from truth, to steer people away from what is right, if I can't pull it up, then my only other option is to bring so much mass confusion that nobody knows what to do. So, I think we can see that's exactly what's taking place out here in our world today. He sets up all kinds of things. Sets up all kinds of counterfeit things. I'm thankful here this evening that I hold the word of God. The word of God, the precious word of God that men died for, for us to hold this in our laps. That people overseas that we hear about on missions trips that they don't even have their own, but yet we here tonight may have not just this one, but we have maybe have two, three, five, 10, 20 in our own possession. Whereas there are many that don't have any, but we can understand that this is something that is unremovable. It's a landmark that is there. It is a landmark that is set and the devil can't remove it, but he can do all he can to cause as much confusion about the truth as possible. Because if I can bring as much confusion as possible and confuse this person right here on who God is and what God's all about, the nature of God, the characteristics of God, and the doctrines of the scripture as we went over, the things that the Bible says about salvation, the things the Bible says about sin, the things the Bible says about God and about Jesus and about the Holy Spirit and the doctrine of man, all these things, if I can confuse man on this, then I'll keep him from getting to the landmark that was set prior. And so, an unmovable landmark is the word of God. What is something else that is there? Not only is, I believe, the word of God an unmovable landmark, but I also believe the church is. I believe the church is an unmovable landmark. Did you know that the church is gonna be here until the Lord Jesus is ready to take it away? The only person that's gonna take out the church is Christ and that's when the rapture takes place, amen? And so if we understand that the church, listen now, the church is not going to lose because the church is gonna be raptured out by Christ. It's not gonna be defeated. It's not gonna be defeated. God's gonna rapture it out. The church is here and it's here to stay because we are the bride of Christ. Let me ask you this, those of you sitting here married tonight. Would you, with all your power, do everything you could to keep anything from happening to your bride? Well, of course you would. Would you not die for your bride? And if you had all power over all things, and something was attacking your bride for the purpose of total destruction and annihilation, and you could prevent that, would you not prevent it? Sure you would. The church is unstoppable. I'm not saying we don't have our losses. I'm not saying we don't have our battles. But what I am saying is this, the church isn't going to be taken out until Jesus takes it out. Jesus is the one that's going to rapture out the church. Now, I'm not saying the church won't have some hard times. I'm not saying the church as a whole won't have its battles and it won't have its trials and tribulations. No, I'm not saying that at all. But what I'm trying to get us to see is that sometimes, you know, we can look out in the world and we say, man, man, that's going on over there, and this happened over there, and that's going there, and that church is folding up, and this is happening over there, man, look at the devil. And the devil seems so busy and he seems so active, and yes, he is. He is. I'm just saying. The only person that's gonna take out the church is Jesus. We are his bride. And so what does that do for us? Well, I think what that does is that gives us a sense of securement. It gives us a sense of, a renewed sense of strength and power that, you know what? The devil can't take us out. We're gonna keep pressing forward. We're gonna do everything we can for God. Yes, there are gonna be hard times, and yes, there are gonna be some trials and tribulations that happen in the church as a whole. Yes, there are gonna be some difficult things, but you know what? The only person that's gonna take out the church is Christ. He is the one that's gonna take out the church, not the devil. Matthew chapter 16, we read that all the time. I've read it a lot here lately. Talks about how we see the church charging towards the gates of hell itself. And what does the Bible say? That the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. And so that's the point that I'm trying to make here tonight is that the church is in essence just like the word of God, an unmovable landmark because the church is the bride of Christ. And the only thing that's gonna take out the bride of Christ is Jesus himself when he comes back to get it. Praise the Lord for that. You know what that does for us? It gives us a lot of security. It gives us a lot of security because we sit and we think to ourselves, yes, I understand, man, God's all powerful and God can do all things and God can watch over me. Because listen, if the devil could take out the church, he'd have done it a long time ago. Amen? The church as a whole wouldn't even be here today if he had the power to take it. So the church is an unmovable landmark and it won't go until Christ comes back. Jesus said, I'll build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The next landmark we see here tonight. The next unmovable landmark, I believe, is the cross. The cross. How many of you drove up and down the road sometimes and maybe you've seen some crosses sitting somewhere where somebody's died? We think about landmarks that can be removed, but there's three, the Bible, the church, and the cross, that'll never be removed. Because you can't take the word of God out of the bride, and the bride exists because of the cross. They're all unified and linked together. If you took out one, you'd have to, in essence, take them all. A landmark that cannot be removed is the cross. The Lord Jesus, he died there on the cross, did he not? I mean, if the devil could remove the cross, but I mean, he would, he would like to, but he can't. But the Lord Jesus, he died on that cross to bear the sins of all mankind so that every man who comes to the Lord Jesus in faith and they believe and trust in him, they can be saved, have all their sins washed away and go to heaven. But the devil knows he can't remove that. I mean, when the Lord Jesus said it's finished, that man is finished. He's not planning on coming back here and doing it over again, right? I mean, we see that in the book of Hebrews, for once by one offering, right? For by one offering. But the devil knows he can't uproot the cross, he knows he can't get rid of the Bible, and he knows he can't get rid of the church. And so what can I do if I can't remove the Bible, if I can't get, if he's not strong enough to get it out of the way, then I'll just mass produce a bunch to keep him from understanding the doctrines and the truth of God's word. If I don't, since I can't uproot the church, and I can't destroy it because the church is the bride of Christ, and the only one that's ever gonna take the bride out is the Lord Jesus himself, when he comes at the rapture and raptures his church away, if I can't get rid of the church, then I'll just, maybe plop me a whole bunch of small ones around everywhere, boom. And I'll put that preacher in there. I'll put that preacher in there. I'll put that preacher in there. And I'll put these people in there that are standing behind the pulpit that teach foul doctrines of devils. And that what the Bible says is gonna happen. The Bible says that in the last days, what's gonna happen is, is that there's gonna be teachings of doctrines of devils and people will gravitate to it with itching ears. They want to hear it. Tell me my sin isn't wrong. Tell me I'm okay. Tell me what I want to hear. The devil says, well, I can't get rid of the church. Can't get rid of the Bible. So I'll just, well. We made a whole bunch of other Bibles. We printed up a whole bunch of ones that are leading people astray. So I tell you what, we'll just set up a whole bunch of churches like that too. And I'll just put this person in that one, and this person in that one, and this person in that one. And then we'll just set up all these churches. And when people say, I want to go to church, they stand there and scratch their head. Which one do I go to? Which one's teaching the truth? Which one's teaching what's right? And they get this preacher who stands up there in the pulpit. The preacher stands up there in the pulpit, and not only are they in this church that the devil built himself, but now he's holding the Bible that the devil transcribed. Doing everything he can to, in essence, lead people astray. So, we get to the cross. The devil can't uproot the cross. Nowhere near strong enough. The devil's strong, but he's nowhere strong enough, obviously, to do these things. He cannot root the cross. I mean, it is finished. It is done. It is settled. The way has been provided. Jesus said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. It is laid out. The cross is there. It cannot be pulled up. It cannot be plugged up. It is there. The way of salvation is there, and it'll always be there. It'll always be there. The devil knew that, even from the very beginning, that the way was there. And from the very beginning, he's done everything he could to divert people from the way. I mean, what did he do with Cain? I mean, what did he do with Cain? I mean, you have Cain and Abel, I mean, right there from the very start. I mean, you have Cain and Abel, one's serving God and he's doing what he was taught, killing the lamb and the blood sacrifice and all, and then you got Cain going in his own way. living his own self, his own humanism, you know, and trying to get to God the way that he wants to get to God. Instead of offering a blood sacrifice, I'll just give him what I produce from the land myself. I'll come to God on my own terms. I'll come to God in my own way. And from that point ever since, the devil's been doing everything he could to divert people away from the blood. And Christ, when he died there on that cross, And as we say before, all those people back there, they were just looking at the cross from this perspective. All of us over here are just looking at the cross from this perspective. But it's still the cross. It's still the blood. It's still about putting your faith and trust in the Savior. And so here we see the devil knowing that he can't uproot the cross. So what can I do? Well, I've already got all these other crazy Bibles out there, so what else can I do? Well, I've already put all these churches out here, and they're all teaching out of the Bibles that I made, and I've done all of that, and I put these false teachers in here because the Bible says, and it was even happening in their day, he says, be watchful, be careful, because teachers will creep in unaware, and they'll teach all kinds of crazy, foul things. So I'll do that, since I can't really get rid of the church. What does the Bible say? The weak and tares will do what? They'll grow up together. So we get to the cross. He says, well, I can't get rid of it. So what am I going to do? Well, if this is the way, there's no way I can get rid of the way. Maybe I can just try to come up with another way. So we'll get this religion started right here, and we'll get this religion started right here, and we'll get this religion started right here, and we'll get this one started here, and this one started here, and this one started here, and this one started here, and the next thing you know, the whole world is slam-pack full of religion, of religion. And Jesus said to himself, I am the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. And the devil says, well, we'll just divert everybody's path. I can't get rid of the Bible. I can't get rid of the church. I can't get rid of the cross. So what I'll do is I'll just print different types of Bibles. I'll just make different types of churches. And I'll just make, I'll just come up with different types of ways. And I'll just say to God and each one of them say, this is the way. So now you got all these people all over the world, scattered everywhere, believe in all these different ways we can get to heaven. There are landmarks that the Bible says for us not to remove in our life. Landmarks that we have to be careful, I think, as I said, as boundaries we set up for ourselves. Because, you know, we say to ourselves, well, I'm not gonna go, but up to this point, I don't wanna cross over that. But the devil's doing everything he can when we're not looking to pull it up and gain some more ground on us. And then the next time we come back, I thought my land went to there. I guess I was wrong. We go back. Soon as we turn our back, the devil says, and then you come back and you think, I thought I was all the way over there. Next thing you know, you don't own anything. But there are landmarks in our lives that we have to set, the devil's trying to pluck up. The devil just can't get rid of. And that's the word of God. That's the church itself. And that's the cross of Christ. And those are three things the devil cannot get rid of. And I praise the Lord Jesus for that here tonight. But there's a lot of people that are being led astray because the devil knows this. The Bible says that the devil transforms himself into an angel of light. And what does he say, what does the Bible say when he says that he'll be transformed as an angel of light? Be not surprised. You have to help me out here, this is gonna be a Pastor Brian paraphrase. This is gonna be an NIV version, I'm gonna mark it up. This is gonna be an NIV, this is gonna be something terrible. I'm sorry, what was it? Somebody, if you can find it, yeah, help me up. Help me look that up. But it says something like this. that if the devil be transformed into an angel like, understand or be not deceived that his ministers can be the same way, that they can be transformed themselves, that they will be as ministers of light themselves. And so, as ministers, he's gonna plant his churches, he's gonna put his Bibles there, he's gonna put his churches there, and he's gonna put his man there, and people are gonna be wondering, how do I get to heaven? I'm thankful I know Jesus here tonight. I'm thankful that I'm saved. And that's just part of the reason why it's so important that we teach people about God, that we teach people about the Bible. It's so important that we're reaching the lost. And then after we reach them, and then after they get saved, We don't just say, okay, you're on your own. Listen, we can be guilty of that, amen? I mean, the church as a whole can be very guilty of seeing people get saved and not tell them anything else to do. Listen, we as a people, we need to make sure. We didn't make sure, honestly. As God's people, we need to make sure, listen, when people get saved, that they know what to do after that. That they need to know that they need to pray and that they needed to read their Bibles and that they need to come to church and they need to see the importance of it. And they need to understand, listen, why do we do this and why do we do this and why do we do the things we do? Because there's a world out there that's doing everything it can. A devil out there doing everything it can to lead them in the wrong direction. The devil's putting up all kinds of landmarks. And people are coming up to them thinking, what direction that we go? How far can we go? Do we go that way? Do we go this far? Or is that how far we go? I think there's a lot of clouded lines in society today. It's extremely important that we know what they are. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for this night. God, you've been so good. Very thankful, Lord, for your goodness. I pray, Lord, here tonight, You'd help us, Lord, help me, as a pastor, Lord, help my eyes to be open, help me to be understanding, help my vision, God, to be clear for myself, first and foremost. Lord, for me, God, I need to see. I need to see my own self. I need to be a man that examines my own self and not anything or anybody else, but just being aware of me. But God, I also want to make sure that, as your undershepherd of this church, God, that I'm a man that's got a, I'm a man that can see. I'm a man that's got some vision, that I'm a man that's aware. And Lord, I pray all the time for your spiritual discernment. And Lord, I pray that you'd keep me in that way. Lord, I pray that you would keep others, Lord, in our church that way as well. Lord, I pray that you would just in our personal lives, in our homes, God, help us to make sure that we got these boundaries set in our life so that we know what we're gonna do. We know what the Bible says. God help us also to be aware that the devil's doing everything he can to set all kinds of landmarks out there to confuse us. Lord, help us, Lord, here tonight, just to have some wisdom, have some wisdom about you and your word. Lord, help us, God, to be a light. Lord, we need that, a world of darkness. God, it needs good godly people that'll let their light shine to them. Lord, I pray to help us to be those people. Lord, I pray to bless us tonight, give us a good night, bring us back to our next appointed time here on Sunday. In this we pray in Jesus' name, amen.