Ah, Proverbs 30 and 5. Silas said, I teach more than I preach. And that's good, as long as somebody learns. So this church called this little pastor, new pastor. And they looked at him as a candidate and checked him out. Every time he preached, he'd preach 30 minutes. Well, that's what they wanted. So he came that Sunday morning, preached 30 minutes. They had voted him last week. Sunday night, he preached 45 minutes. Then Wednesday night, he preached 60 minutes. Deacons in the pulpit committee got a little worried. Where's this going? So after Wednesday night service, they met with him and said, Pastor, we know you're brand new here and we got a concern. Sunday morning, you preach 30 minutes. Sunday night, you preach 45. Then Wednesday night, you preach 60. He said, oh, I apologize. He said, my dentures broke. Sunday night, I used my wife's dentures. That means he took her teeth and put them in his mouth. And I got a strange look over here. Courtney, it's OK. And he said, oh, Wednesday night, I used my mother-in-law's teeth. He said, mine will be ready by Sunday, and I'll preach 30 minutes. It's okay to laugh. Mary Hart doeth good like a medicine. Something about laughing. Some of y'all like me, you need to look in the mirror and laugh every once in a while. Cause it'll make you feel better. Proverbs 30 and five. Let's stand if you're able to stand. Stretch those knees a little bit. Proverbs 30 and five. Just the first few words. Every word of God is pure. Let me say it again. Every word of God is pure. I wanna preach on a strange topic tonight. We'll preach on the number 17 and the number 19. 17 and 19. Let's bow our heads for prayer. Father, help us to understand your word. Father, we love your word. We know in reading this passage that every word of yours is pure. Thank you for that. draw us close to you, Father. Thank you for this church, their witness, their testimony in this area. I pray you use it, Lord, beyond their bounds. Lord, save the lost, heal the sick. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. You may have a seat. And if you're sitting near a family member, then you can turn to them and say, I love you. If you're sitting near Non-family member, just say I like you. I wrote down some things, I compiled things, preachers say things and I compiled them. Your best ideas and faith will come when you're in the presence of God. Your faith and ideas. Spend more time with God than on your critics. Don't waste time giving that crowd, amen, part of your words and voice. Don't allow your problems to be larger than your God. Got a problem? He is bigger than your problems. All men fall, the great ones get back in the battle. You know, what was it? Thomas, he didn't show up for the first Sunday night service. And boy, you talk about people getting on to him. They called him names and everything. Doubting Thomas. I don't think that's even in the Bible, is it? I don't think that name is in there. But boy, we called him that. And he just missed one Sunday night service. And I don't know why. But we shouldn't be critical of other people. Never complain about what you permit. Quit complaining about it if you're allowing it to happen. Do something about it. That cat that's tearing up the curtains in the living room, either feed it or throw it out. Quit complaining about how it's tearing your curtains up. Don't complain about what you permit. Your giving is evidence that you've conquered your selfishness. When you get a giving heart, you've conquered that selfishness in your life. I like this one. I made this one up myself. Silence may be misinterpreted, but it cannot be misquoted. Sometimes best just keep your mouth shut and walk away. You can't be misquoted. You may be misinterpreted, yeah. Can't be misquoted. Your enemies define who you are. David would still have been a shepherd boy if he hadn't faced Goliath. And the Goliath, his enemy, defined who he was. He became a giant killer. became a hero. So don't run from your enemies, keep praying and fight them. Fear is the pain before the fight. Sometimes we fear things that are not even gonna happen. And it causes enough pain, we don't even get in the fight. And you're never more like Christ than when you pray for others. because he prayed for others. I think you become more like Jesus when you pray for him. Every word of God is pure. That means every single word in our King James Bible is put there for a reason, for a purpose, every place, every name, and every number. God just doesn't write a book and say, oh, I need to fill it on out a little bit more so the printers will have room. He doesn't do that. God puts exactly in the word of God exactly what he wanted us to have. And every word of God is pure. I found in studying the Bible that names of people sure do mean a lot. When I was writing this book, The Divine Design of Digits, a book on numerology, and I go from 0 to 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100. I give the symbolism 120, 200, 300. I did the number 343 for my own sake. 400, 500, 600, and then that strange number 666. But names mean a lot. You have to look up what a name means in the Bible to do a serious study sometimes. And I said, well, I already know what 666 is. That's the Antichrist. But then when I started reading my Bible, I found out that the number 666 is associated with Solomon two times. And I said, wait a minute. Solomon's not an Antichrist. How'd that get in there? And I spoke to the Lord in prayer and the Lord said, you need to read your Bible. And that's probably true. So I did a search again, I searched again, did what I could to find out and lo and behold, I found a fourth time that number 666, pastor was in the Bible. It was in the book of Ezra. Ezra was taking a census of everybody going back to the promised land and there was a man in chapter two I believe verse 13 or 17, somewhere in there. He had 666 sons, that'll be sons, grandsons, great-great, family members, all males, going back in the promised land. Whoa, there's a fourth time it's there. Antichrist is gonna use it. Solomon, it's used with Solomon. And now, here's this man Adonicam. So when I looked up his name in my Strong's Concordas and found out what his name, you ever seen that cartoon where the light bulb comes on? Boing. Came on. His name meant controller. Controller. Oh, I see now. Solomon was a controller for good. The Antichrist is going to be a controller for evil. And that 666 really means controller. And that's really what our government is, is it not? It controls our lives. Speed limit out here is 65. They're putting it on the post, telling you how fast, don't drive up to that. And so our government controls us. And our government can be good, like Solomon, or it can be bad, like the Antichrist is going to be. Every word of God is pure. Now, how did I determine, what's the definition and term of the symbolism of a number in the Bible? Well, you find out all the passages with that number. And then you look at all of them together and you say, what's the idea associated with that one number, number 17? And once you get all those scriptures together and sink it down to one idea, then you have the symbolism for that number. So I want you to go over to Genesis chapter 7. Genesis chapter 7. I won't be long tonight, but that's a relative term. I'll just warn you. Genesis 7-11. Here we find the number 17. In the 600 year of Noah's life in the second month, the 17th day of the month, same day where all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were open. I can't quite get it loose right now to lower it. I think it's strangling me. So he went on the boat. That's when the windows of heaven opened up and the fountains, water came down on the 17th day of the month. Now, go over to Genesis, just a few pages over. Genesis chapter 8, verse 4. Genesis 8 and 4. And the ark rested in the seventh month on the, what day? 17th day of the month on the mountains, capital S, of Ararat. So you have, he went on the boat on the 17th day of the month and the ship rested, settled down on Mount Ararat on the 17th day of the month. So we got two scriptures there. Now look over in Genesis chapter 37 verse number 2. Genesis 37 verse 2. These are the generations of Jacob, Joseph being 17 years old. Joseph was 17 years old when he started his trial, when he left his father's house with food and to check on his brothers. What did they do? They sold him. They were going to kill him to start with. Reuben stopped him. And then they sold him, going on a spice trade, going into Egypt. Then he went into prison, went into Potiphar's house, worked there. He was operating Potiphar's checkbook, running the whole thing, ordering food, getting everything. I mean, it was marvelous. And then he got accused of a crime, and he'd get into prison. But he was 17 years old when that happened. His journey started when he was 17. Then there's the Passover. The Passover is always the 14th day of the month. And the first Passover happened on the 14th day of the month, but three days later, 14 plus three would make what? Right, Silas, 17. 17. On the 17th day they crossed the Red Sea and started rejoicing and thanking God that he had delivered them and stopped their enemies. There's one. Ezra was the 17th high priest from Aaron. That one took some counting to find that one out. Acts chapter 2 verse 8, you have Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost and there are 17 groups of people that hear God's word in their own language. Then you have in Romans chapter 8 verse 35 through verse 39, there's 17 things listed that cannot separate you or I from the love of God. So when I looked at all that Got on the boat, the boat settled down, he's still alive. I saw Joseph starting his trip and what a tremendous journey that was. Becoming second in power to the strongest nation in the world at that time. Then the Passover and then three days later crossing the Red Sea and victory, victory. I think 17 represents victory. There is a victory that we can have. And 17 in the Bible to me represents victory. That we can have the V. All right, what was it, Churchill? V. I think it was Churchill, wasn't it, Churchill? World War II. Victory. We have V day, they're celebrating V day. They're in Europe, I understand, or in England. So 17 comes out and look in all the scriptures, you find a man and his family getting victory over death. You find that Joseph in every step of his life, when he starts at 17, he's got victory, victory over death in the pit, victory in going to Potiphar's house, victory in the prison, victory in serving a victory over the famine that came. And so you have, starting with 17, Acts chapter 2 verse 8, you got 17 groups of people who heard the word of God in their own language. These were Galileans who were not linguistics experts. And then Paul tells us in Romans chapter 8, We have the victory in Christ because there's nothing that can separate us from the love of God. Can't do it. We got the victory. Now, let's look at the number 19. Joshua chapter 19. I'm going slow because I detected one or two of you are listening slow. Joshua chapter 19, verse number 38. And this one, this one is only found two times in the Bible. It's not like 17. And it says, and Aaron, Migdael, Horam, Beth, Anath, and Beth Shemesh, 19 cities with their villages. And verse 35, the fenced cities are, and so he lists them all, and then he says, 19 cities with their villages. So there's 19 cities that have a wall around it. Then the other time is over in the book of Samuel. And they didn't have space for one Samuel, they made two Samuels. So it's second Samuel. Two Samuel in chapter number two and verse number 30. They fought a battle and Joab returned from falling Abner when he had gathered all the people together. There lacked of David's servants, 19 men and Asahel. That's 2 Samuel, chapter 2, verse 39. So you've got 19 cities that's got walls around them. Then you got a battle over here, and it tells in here they killed 360 men. Yep, verse 31. They had a battle, David's army did, and only 19 men died, but 360 of the enemy died. Now, that's a pretty good army. Take an army that 19 men could kill 360. That's pretty got odds right there. But then, What's the idea associated with 19 fence cities and 19 men dying? Well, I had a complication on that number. It was early one morning. I was praying about that because I preached all these on a Wednesday night at our church there in Chattanooga. I said, Lord, I don't know what this means. I'm not too good, Lord. In your school, I hadn't got my kindergarten degree yet. I'm working on it. I just don't know, Lord. And here's what the Lord said. He impressed me and said, well, where is Naphtali's inheritance? Because we got these fenced cities In verse 39, this is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Naphtali according to their families and the cities and their villages. Verse 39. And the Lord said, well, where is Naphtali? I know where Judah's tribe is down Jerusalem and Benjamin's tribe is right next to it. But I didn't know where Naphtali's tribe was. Where was their lot and their inheritance? I said, I don't know, Lord, but I'll get up. It's about 4.30 in the morning. I get up and go to my study and start searching for Naphtali's inheritance. Where is Naphtali's inheritance? Is it on the seacoast? Is it down south? Where is it? So I got to looking. And I had to do some digging. And you know what? When I saw where Naphtali's inheritance was, Pastor, I went, wow. That's where Jesus lived, Capernaum. That's where he did most of his miracles. He healed more people in the inheritance of Naphtali than he did any other inheritance. He performed only two miracles down in Jerusalem, I believe. Wow, I said to myself, the wisest man who ever walked on the earth lived and worked in Naphtali's inheritance. And the Holy Spirit said, that's it. Wisdom. 19 symbolizes wisdom. And here's why. Over here, these fenced cities, Wise people put a wall around their city. A wise man puts a wall around his mind. A wise man puts a wall around his eyes. Job said, I made a covenant in my heart not to look upon a maiden. A wise man puts a wall about his family. Praise for them. That's what a wise man does. And this is defensive wisdom. You need to be defensive in your wisdom, fighting the enemy. Build a wall before the enemy comes. Get that wall up around your family before the devil comes to attack your family. Have the wall ready. When he comes, you can fight him on top. And then over here, This is offensive wisdom. Because 19 men knew how to fight in a wise way. Now listen, you don't have to fight everything that comes along. Some things are not even worth fighting. But some things are worth fighting. And you need to be wise in what you fight. So that's offensive wisdom. Let me go and do a little math with you now. So 17 symbolizes victory. 19 symbolizes wisdom. Is that W Mary? That's water. That's three. How do I do wisdom? Show me. What? Put it in that head. Two fingers or three? One finger. Put it in that head, wisdom. Sign language, you learn a little sign language. I need wisdom. You women can use that on your husband. When he does something stupid, you can go. You kids can use it on your mom and daddy. When they do something crazy, go. You need some wisdom. So victory, 17 is victory, 19 is wisdom. Here's the thing, they're both prime numbers. Prime number. Now that's a number that can be divided only by one and itself. And there's a concept in mathematics called twin primes. Twin primes. Two prime numbers that are, you know, a couple of digits apart from each other. 17, 19. Twin primes. And Amos 3, 3 says, how can two walk together except they be agreed? Now here's how they walk. Victory, wisdom. Victory, wisdom. Victory, wisdom. Victory, wisdom. I'm making fun, but have you seen somebody who had one leg amputated? That's a pitiful sight. Got one leg and they got a crutch. They only got one. How can two walk together except to be agreed? Twin primes walk together. Now here's the application to all that. You just thought I was going to talk about math, didn't you? Here's your application. If you get the victory, the victory at work, the victory at home, the victory at church, the victory anywhere, you need wisdom to keep the victory. I'll give you a few examples. All right, Noah. Did Noah have a problem after they landed? Somebody nod their head, yeah. I just need a nod, that's all. He had a problem. He got in the tent. Now in those days the men had their tent and the women had their tent. He was in his tent and he knew what grape juice would do when it fermented. He wasn't stupid, he was an intelligent man. Anybody can build a boat that size, gotta be very intelligent. He knew what he'd do. He got in there, and he got drunk. He got hot and took off all his clothes. And there he is in the tent. And Ham, innocent Ham, comes in and sees, and he goes out, and he He goes in and takes probably his scarf or his robe and covers his daddy and then he goes to tell, because he knew whose scarf that was or whose robe that was. And he goes and tells his brothers, can you go in and cover daddy? And the other two, Sham and Japheth, got a blanket and backed up until they found daddy and saw his feet and they put the blanket over and covered him over. Now did he have the victory? Did he have the victory over the flood? Yes. But did he use wisdom to keep that victory? I'm sure there was repentance and I'm sure there was hard times. What about King David? Did David have the victory? Did he unite all the tribes together and have one great kingdom of God? The answer is yes. At the peak of his victory, something bad happened. He didn't have wisdom, Pastor. He didn't have wisdom. So David lost the victory. Here's the thing. If you go along in life and you get a victory, and if you don't pray right then for wisdom, How can I maintain this victory? And you're liable to lose the victory because you didn't have the wisdom. Now there is a person in the Bible who had both. And he is our great prophet Daniel. You know what Daniel did? Daniel had the victory. He's serving God. Nebuchadnezzar comes in. He captures Daniel. Ahasuerus, Jezreel, those other three Hebrew children, and carried them off. And Daniel, before the trial came, he purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the food, the meat of the Gentile. So what he did, he had the victory. And then the man over him came in, and he liked Daniel and his three friends. And he said, now y'all got to eat all this. And they said, no. He said, listen, if you don't eat it, they're going to kill me. Then Daniel, with wisdom, Daniel said, listen, could you give us 10 days? Let us eat pinto beans, cornbread, collard greens. And then 10 days, judge us and see who looks the best. And sure enough, 10 days went by and Daniel and his friends are looking as good or better than the others who ate the defiled meat. So see, when you're faced with a problem, get the victory to start with and then use wisdom to maintain that victory. Somebody say amen. Look at James 1 and 5. I'm almost finished, don't say amen. James 1.5, what does it say? If any of you lack wisdom, throw up your hands, turn away, and go out in the, that's not what it says, no. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given you. That is a promise from the word of God, and every word of God is pure, that God says, if you'll ask for wisdom, I'll give it to you. Now, you mamas raising babies, oh, you're gonna need some wisdom. Those kids can be trying. They will try you. And you've got to have wisdom how to deal. And then they grow up to be teenagers. If they've got grandparents, when they get to that age, just turn them over to the grandparents. I mean, you're going to need wisdom. You're gonna need wisdom to raise a family. You're gonna need wisdom to raise boys, raise girls. They're a blessing and it's a victory, and how do I get it? I get it by asking God, and it says that he give it to all men liberally. In other words, he's got a whole bucket full. He's got a whole bucket full. Well, I don't need but a thimble, Lord. Here, take the whole bucket. He'll give you liberally. and he won't get mad at you, don't upgrade you. What are you asking for wisdom for? No, he won't get on to you. I tell you, we ought to pray for wisdom every day. Lord, help give me wisdom to operate today. And this is a promise from God. Chapter one, verse five of the book of James. If you lack wisdom, ask of God and it shall be given him. So the application is, if you have victory, then you need to pray for wisdom. And this will go to a man who is working at a job and the boss comes to him and says, I want you to be foreman. Well, you got some problems now. Because now the guys you used to work with, you're going to be over them. And you know who works hard and who don't work hard. And you're going to have to have a lot of wisdom. I know one pastor's wife in Chattanooga has got a position at one of the hospitals. And boy, she seems to be doing pretty good. But it's taken a lot of wisdom to determine which lady does what floor and does what service. And she seems to be pretty good at it. I got some books in the truck if you're interested in that divine design of vigi. Let me give you one illustration to help you. It's almost 8 o'clock somewhere out in the Atlantic Ocean. I was teaching math over in Carroll County, Carrollton City School Systems. It's like, this time of year, it was like May, and they're going to be leaving in about two or three weeks. And so it's the last class. It's Friday. It's the last class. And I see this boy get up and go to the pencil sharpener. I don't think nothing of it. I'm at my desk doing work. And then a little bit later, I saw him go to the trash can. He's getting up a pretty good bit. I didn't say anything. I nonchalantly looked. And he got up again and went to the pencil sharpener. Then I saw some brown stuff come out of his mouth. Because we had these big, large, 12-foot windows. And they'd push out the bottom. Top would come in. It would circulate the air. We didn't have air conditioning in those days. Not in our part, anyway. thought, I have a problem. He is a good student. I'm in charge of discipline at this school. Anybody who gets in trouble has to come see me first. And I'll tell you a question I ask them. They come see me because they've disrupted class or done something wrong. And back then, chewing tobacco was, I mean, we'd almost Put him in the electric chair for that. I said, almost. I mean, it was a top-rated offense, bringing red men to school and chewing it and spitting it. And he's a good student. He's making A's and B's. He's doing good. Three weeks to go in the year. If I take him to the office, The principal is probably going to expel him the rest of the year. I don't know, he may fail. Well, this is weighing heavy on me, but he's breaking the rules. So I bowed my little head, what little brains I had left, and I said, Lord, I need wisdom what to do. And the Lord said, be the best teacher in this school. Sharpen their pencils and carry their paper to the trash can. He started to get up after I prayed that prayer. And I said, no, no, no, sit down. You've got the best teacher in the whole school. Let me have your paper. Take it to the trash can. Uh-huh. He started to get up and my pencil broke. Oh, sit down. You've got the best teacher in the whole school. Let me have your pencil. I'll sharpen it for you. It's getting hot. It's getting hot. That red man's got to go somewhere. And so I had my clock on the wall timed to the second when the bell would ring. And all the kids in school knew my clock was timed right to the second. And so it's one minute before we're going to be dismissed. 3.15. So it's 3.14, and I stand up, I go to the front of the class, and I say, well, our principal's made an announcement now on Fridays, people are rushing out of the rooms too fast, we're gonna go by rows. And you're not gonna run. No running. Not my rule of the principal, but I agree with it. He's in the third row, and there's five rows. So I go to number four row. OK, y'all can go first. Go slow now. All right. Fifth row, come on. Have a good weekend. Go slow. I go to the first row. Second row. Finally, I come to his row. And he's on the back seat. OK, third row, go slow. They go slow. He is. Oh, I was hoping he didn't do it in my room. I said, all right, go on out. And they went out. When he got to the hallway, he went out the doors, which was right there in my room, hit the bushes to the right. And I looked out near the pencil sharpener. I heard the awfulest noise that could ever come out of a human body. I mean, I think he threw up yesterday's supper, too. Oh, it was bad. But you know what? Come Monday morning, he came in my class. He was a good student. He did his job. And he graduated and got out. But I don't think he had any more red men for a long time, do you? Now, I could have messed up that boy's life. But I didn't want to. And I needed wisdom, wisdom what to do. We're faced with all kinds of situations in our life. At your job, you may have a supervisor who wants you to do something that's dishonest. How are you going to go around that? You're going to have to have wisdom to tell them what to do is right. Wisdom. So, victory, wisdom, victory, wisdom, victory. If you keep wisdom, you can have the victory. Father, we thank you, Lord, for what you've showed us in the Bible. Lord, there are many things in there so deep we don't understand, but Lord, we understand, Father, you've asked us to ask for wisdom. And Lord, I do lack wisdom. Lord, give me wisdom to help do what I should do as an evangelist, as a preacher, helping churches and pastors. Give us wisdom, Lord. Give us wisdom to bring our families up in the admonition of the Lord. Give us wisdom, Father, for the pastors I know to pastor a good church. Lord, give us wisdom for the leaders of the church to follow the pastoring and Lord, just work instead of fight against. I pray, Father, give us wisdom. Lord, give us wisdom to do your will. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Stand with us, please. Miss Teresa, you want to play something?