Mark chapter 7 to begin this morning. Our main text is going to be Galatians chapter 5 verse 19, but I don't know when we'll get there. As the Lord sometimes has me to do, this is going to be a repeat of a Thursday night Bible study. What I have found, and I want you to understand my heart in this, what I have found is that I have the greatest liberty with God in those Thursday night Bible studies. much more liberty than I have behind this particular pulpit on a Sunday morning service or Sunday evening service or Wednesday night. I don't know what it is. I can't explain it other than God is in that. He wants me to preach what I preached a couple of weeks ago in that Thursday night Bible study here. Whoever is here today, this is for you. This is a message for you. The subject matter of this today is an interesting one as to why he would have it preached here today. However, take this as learning, take this as instruction. In introducing this whole thing in the scriptures that we look at to begin with, I think you'll understand why I say that. Again, I'm trying to frame my words properly. This is a message that must needs be preached. Because of past, because of present, and because of future. And because the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. It's not just that it was in Paul's day. It's not just that it was back in the 80s and 90s. It's not just that it was back in the early 2000s. It's not just that it's in 2024. The works of the flesh are manifest. The only time they are not going to be manifest in you is when your heart stops beating and you're dead. We're going to look at the secrets of the heart. We're going to look at what comes out of the heart. We're going to look at the purpose of the law in this introduction. Okay? Now we're going to get to the subject matter of what we're preaching today. But in Mark chapter 7, verse 20, before we start, Brother Mike Batt, would you please ask the Lord to bless the time of preaching? God, as we come before your Word today, we ask that your Holy Ghost work in each and every one of us. Your Word is eternal, and your mercy endureth forever. Your grace is more than a mountain's worth of understanding. God, it is as you reveal your Word to us today, Amen. Proverbs 4.23, and I'm going to quote this later, says, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Mark 7.20 says, and he said, that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile the man. The fruit of your life comes from the root in your heart. The fruit of your life comes from the root in your heart. You look at the things that vex you daily. You look at these fruits that come from the root of your carnal heart and you have to own them, that it's you. This is the purpose of preaching is to expose our hearts before you. God searches the heart, he tries the reins. I quoted that this morning already. As he searches your heart, when he finds something that does not agree with him, he is merciful at times to shed light on it. There are times though where we ignore that warning, we do not heed that warning, and he is forced forced by your hand alone to make that thing manifest in your life. God's not tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But yet Jesus said, Lord, lead us not into temptation. Why? Question, who was it that led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan. Who was it? It was the Spirit of God. He was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan forty days. Why? So that it would be made manifest that in him is no sin. Why would God lead you into temptation? To prove to you that there is. We sit in church so often. We listen to preaching so often. We sing songs of the faith so often that we can become Azusa as that ark was in his home while he grew up there. That it was just another piece of furniture. He was so familiar with the things of God, he thought not twice about reaching out and touching the glory of God. God struck him dead for that transgression. When God does make manifest something that's in your heart, that he has shown you is in your heart through preaching or through the reading of the word of God, and you've refused to believe it, when he makes that manifest on the outward parts, that is a mercy of God. He's withholding judgment. Because he could strike you dead for it. There's no reason why he wouldn't. but for his mercy. It's not it according to works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy has he saved us. Mark 7 20 through 23 very clearly state, it's not the things on the outside that defile you. That defilement comes from within. It's in your heart. Rebellion is in your heart. Fornication is in your heart. Adultery is in your heart. Covetousness is in your heart. Pride is in your heart. By the way, here again, very clearly, your King James Bible tells you that pride is evil. Those things are in our hearts. So what do we do with it once God shows it? You agree with it. Well, Theron talked about that in the opening of the songs right after we had sung the second song. He talked about confessing. What it is to confess, it's not to say, oh yes, I am guilty of that thing. That's in our modern vernacular. That's where it's gotten dumbed down to. But to confess something is to say that you agree with that and you believe it. When you confess something, confess it, thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. What are you saying? I'm guilty of the Lord Jesus? No, you're saying I believe that Jesus is Lord. That's what happens when you confess the Lord Jesus. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You agree with your adversary quickly while thou art in the way. Your carnal mind is enmity against God. He's your adversary when you're walking according to your carnal mind, according to the wickedness that's in your heart. We're gonna look at these works of the flesh. Go to Colossians chapter 3. I think I have 23 verses, different references that we're going to look at today. If it gets to the point where you can't keep up, just listen. Just listen. Colossians chapter 3 and verse 5. It says, mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. For which things the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, in the which you also walked sometime when you lived in them. The first Corinthians chapter six, verse nine. The Lord's brought us back into 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11 a lot in the last couple of weeks. Yet here we are again, only we're gonna read 9 and 10. 1 Corinthians 6, 9, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived. Now, why did he tell us to be not deceived? Because your heart is deceiving you. Your heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. Who can know it? God alone. God alone knows the hearts of men. It's God that knows your heart. God that knows every corner of your heart, everything that you've covered over, everything that you've hidden in the deep recesses of that thing, every bitterness, every pain, every hurt, everything that you have built up a case in your heart that you're okay. God sees through all of that. He calls it foolishness. He says, be not deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. Remember, out of the heart proceed these things. If these things identify you, that's a sign of somebody that shall not inherit the kingdom of God. It's a mark of them. Jeremiah chapter 22. We're gonna be in verse 21 and 22. I want you to understand, remembering what Jesus said about our heart, what comes out of our heart, and remembering what Paul admonishes us with, and showing all these things that there are times where we just will not believe God that these things are in our hearts. Even though we know they're in our lives, we refuse to believe it's our fault. We have a victim mentality. It's someone else's fault. Someone forced me into that. Someone put me in a position where I had to react that way. No, they didn't. No, they did not. There are times when we will not believe the word of God, though we say we do. There are times where our hearts will rise up in rebellion against the word of God, in absolute defiance against it, because it calls us out for what we really are. And we say, oh, that's not me. That's that one. That's that one over there. Well, I know I do that thing, but that's not me. Why do you do that thing? Because it's in your heart. It's in your heart. Verse 21, Jeremiah 22. I spake unto thee in thy prosperity, but thou saidest I will not hear. What did he tell the church at Laodicea? You've said I am rich and increased in goods and I have no need of anything. Thou does not know that thou art naked and wretched and blind and poor. You don't even know it. How could somebody not know that they are wretched and blind and poor and naked? They're deceiving themselves. They look at everything that they have and they equate that to the blessing of God. Prosperity does not equal the blessing of God. In fact, somebody who's living according to their carnal mind in prosperity, that is the worst place you can be. Because you'll say this very thing. If God has prospered you, and you are living carnally, I would tremble before the great God of heaven. Because you're saying, I will not hear. And he says, this hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedest not my voice, The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity. Surely then thou shalt be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness." In their prosperity, they couldn't see it. When God took all that prosperity away, then they were gonna see it. You know, sometimes God takes things from us so that we'll actually agree with him finally. He takes things out of our lives. He takes jobs, he takes cars, he takes family members to show us that he's been trying to show us all along that we're wicked. We refuse to believe him because surely my prosperity must be from God. Surely everything that we have as a church on this property must be from God. Are we so brazen to say that every single thing on this property has been given to us as a blessing from God? God has allowed us to have it, but I've seen contention over our stuff. Only by pride come with contention. Maybe he allowed us to have it so that we would see we have pride in our hearts. Or that we're covetous. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 8. All of these verses are culminating into something. Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 2. It says, thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness. Why? To humble thee. And to prove thee. To know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no. In the opening of verse three it says, and he humbled thee. They were humbled in that wilderness. Why does God have you in the wilderness right now? To humble you. Some of you are enjoying a victory of coming up out of Egypt. Let him that think he standeth take heed lest he fall. When God gives you instruction, follow it. Don't resist the Holy Ghost as did your fathers. So our fathers didn't resist the Holy Ghost. Our fathers grew up in the 1950s. Yep. 70 years ago, it was 1954. And you know, there's no new thing under the sun. Did you know that the works of the flesh are manifest in 1954? Did you know that in 1954 there were men that would take this Bible and say, you know what, you can't have a perfect Bible? And that word should mean this. In the time of this ignorance, and I'll call that ignorance, the time of this ignorance God winked at, but now call all men everywhere to repent. How's Christianity in America worked for the last 70 years? Do we really need to take a survey of our country today? We're proud. We're so proud. And we call it good. We tell our children, you ought to be proud of that thing. You've done well. I'm so proud of you. You did so good. Swelling and pride. calling that which is evil, good. He led them there to humble them. But look at that next phrase, and to prove thee. He had to prove it to them. He had to prove it to them that this was in their heart. This is what they were dealing with. These were the things that were making up their lives. This was the issue. But they refused to believe. And so what do we have now? We have an ensample. We look back on those people. We look back on the things that befell them. We look back when we get later on where we see this played out. We look back on those things and we see, yeah, that is not the way to go. There's a way that seemeth right unto the man, but the ends thereof lead to death. Your way, if it is not God's way, is the wrong way. How do you know what God's way is? You look at the law of God. Look at the law of God. We're doing it right now. We are looking at the law of God. The purpose of the law is to search your heart. and to make manifest to you the issues of the heart. So what's he showing you? Let's go to Romans chapter seven. Romans chapter seven. Verse seven. He says, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? You ask a lot of people today, and it is. You say, oh, we don't preach the law, brother. We're under grace. We're not under the law anymore. No, God hath concluded all under sin. You're all guilty under that law. Paul concluded that. God concluded that. Jesus concluded that. Peter concluded it. The word of God is there to show us that we are guilty under that law that men today call sin. Oh, we don't preach the law. Oh, you're a legalist if you preach the law. No, no, no, no. Don't misunderstand. I'm not telling you to keep the law. I'm telling you, you broke it. It's too late. It's already too late. Your keeping of the law is doing nothing but damning you. That law is there, as we're gonna read, as a schoolmaster to bring you unto Christ. You look at anyone, anyone, including Ruth. Study that, that's good. You look at anyone that came to Christ. We say, how did Ruth come to Christ? Isn't her name listed in the genealogy? Anybody that ever came to Christ was brought there by the law. And today we're cutting the one thing out that God gave to bring people to himself, by cutting out the law out of our preaching. Cutting out the law out of our gospel presentation. Good salvation message, fully encompassing John chapter three. Never once touching the law. Fully encompassed in those five verses in Romans. Without a bit of the law in it. All that's gonna do is bring fear. Fear of hell, fear of not being in heaven. The fearful have their part in that lake of fire. Fear God. That's who you fear. Fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. Don't fear what man can do to you. That commandment is still just as strong today. Listen, where the command is, the enabling power is. When he tells you, fear God, he'll give you the power to do it. When he tells you, don't fear what man can do unto you, but rather fear him. When he tells you that personally, thou sitting in this room, he'll enable you to do that. He'll empower you in that thing. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I. Now who is the I that is speaking here? Pop quiz, who's the I speaking in Romans chapter seven? Paul. It's Paul. Saul, the Pharisee of Pharaoh. Hebrew of Hebrews, he says. As touching the law, he was blameless in the sight of God. Except for that one commandment, thou shalt not covet. He said, I had not known sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust except the law had said thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was dead. Before the law was there, sin was alive in him, but he was dead to understanding it. There was no understanding of his covetousness as being sin. He had no idea it was there. You go down on Main Street today and you pull off anybody that's walking on the street and you begin asking them about sin. You just talk to them, maybe ask them what they did last night. Hey, what'd you guys do last night? What did your night consist of? They're gonna rattle off all sorts of stuff that they know are wrong. They have no idea it's sin. And then they're also gonna rattle off a lot of stuff that they have no idea whatsoever it's wrong. There's no knowledge. My people perish for lack of knowledge. There's no knowledge of the holy. There's no way to even understand. Listen. Go ahead and poll. Any church, go where you want today. Ask them, what does the word holy mean? What is it to be holy? How would you answer that? What is righteousness today? What does the law of God mean to you? Do you know the law of God is precious to me because it showed me me. It shined a light on me. You go over to Galatians 5, and we may get there today, I don't know. You go over to Galatians 5 in 19 through 21, you look at all those works of the flesh. You know what God proved to me? That Paul wrote down my heart. Guilty of every stinking one of those things. Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. Yup, that's me. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Guilty, guilty. Then our heart rises up and says, oh, not me. Oh, not me. Just like this Pharisee who had not known sin except the law said thou shalt not covet. We don't even know that we're covetous. I've done this example before. So for some, it might not mean anything. For others, you might've never heard this before. You don't even know you're covetous. You don't agree with me that you are covetous. You are covetous. You have covetousness in your heart about your own things. What did Jesus tell that rich young ruler to do? Sell all that he had, give it to the poor. And he went away sad because he had great possessions. Now, why did he go away sad? Because he couldn't do it. I don't believe that man knew he was covetousness until he was posed with the possibility of giving away all of his stuff and not gaining anything by it. How many in here have investments? Maybe even an item that you've invested in. Guns, cars, tools, whatever. What if you were to give everything away that you own, everything, everything, and not profit from it? What does your heart say about that? What if God, out of the mouth of three witnesses, told this church to get rid of this property entirely? Sell the building, sell the land, sell the parsonage, sell every item that is on it, including that beautiful new piano. and that we were going to be meeting in Calvin's barn tonight. How does that make us feel? Covetous. I have no such leading from God, okay? I just want you to understand that. What's the purpose of that? Shows we're covetous. We're covetous of the things that we have, which means that we're proud of the things that we have, and that is evil, and it comes from within. Got a message from God today. This is God's message for you. You've heard me say it before. I don't always have an exact message. There are things God gives me to preach. This is a message for us. Look at verse nine. For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it, by that commandment, slew me. Found occasion. It was just sitting there, waiting for the perfect occasion, waiting for the right time to kill. That command was ordained to life. Do you know why? Because the man that doeth these things shall live in them. But that sin just waited there lurking in the corner until that commandment could no longer bring life. And then it used that commandment to kill you. You know the beautiful thing is, out of that death, God gives life. God gives life. Death is always separation in your King James Bible, always. It's a separation of something. Life is always a uniting of something, okay? Study that out. You weigh that thing out. I haven't found a place where it isn't so. If you disagree with me on that, I'm okay with it. I just haven't seen it yet. Look at verse 12, wherefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. But remember, we in America today, we say the law is sin. Paul said, God forbid. Paul said the law is holy. So why do we cut it out? If we want people to be holy, why do we cut the law out? The only thing that's going to bring them to the one who can make them holy. Why do we cut it out? Why don't we study it? Why don't we read it? Why don't we know it? Why don't we understand it? Because we've been told we don't need it. It's foolishness. What scriptures did Timothy have that were able to make him wise unto salvation? What scriptures were those? Genesis to Malachi. It's what he had. He had the law. He had the prophets. He didn't have Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. He didn't have Romans. He didn't even have second Timothy. You can imagine that. What's gonna make you wise unto salvation? The death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ according to the scriptures. Again, what scriptures? The Old Testament. How well do you know your Old Testament? How well do you know the law? Or have you been told that you don't need it? That was a foolish statement, whoever told you that. Paul's telling you it's the only thing that's gonna show you Christ. What you're gonna have is you're gonna have the Jesus of the New Testament and you're never gonna know why he's the Christ of God. You look at Paul wherein he goes into a town and he preaches Christ and he preaches Christ and he preaches Christ. The Jews weren't against that. They knew about Christ. They knew about the Messiah. They knew about the anointed one that was going to come. Then he preached to them that Christ must die. And he proved to them, out of those Old Testament scriptures, out of the law, the prophets, the Psalms, he proved to them that Christ had to die. And once they were finally convinced of that, then he proved to them without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus was Christ. But where's that in our gospel today? Want a home in heaven when you die? Did you die today? Are you 100% sure that you'd die and go to heaven? Do you want to make sure? Average fundamental Baptist invitation at the end of a service. Now, if anyone here would like somebody to take the Bible and show them how they can know for sure that they have a home in heaven, come see us. We'll show you. Meanwhile, people just don't want to go to hell. They could care two wits about how they don't go to hell. They just don't want to go to hell. They're afraid of it. That fear is gonna lead them to hell. They need to fear God. The only way they're gonna fear God is if they look at the death of Jesus Christ according to the scriptures. That's where that comes from. It's where wisdom comes from. It's where understanding comes from. It's from the law of God. Verse 13, was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid, speaking of the law, but sin that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. My example of going down and talking to anybody today, you can talk to anybody in here today. Most of the, I'm not saying, I'm gonna smell out. A lot of the things that we do, we don't even realize it's sin. God knows it is. How many years have you said, oh, I'm so proud of you, not knowing it's sin? How many times have you sung, I'm proud to be in America, not knowing it's sin? Proud of my military service, not knowing it's sin? It's not me, that's the law of God. It's your wicked heart raising up against that, Why? Why does your heart raise up against the law of God? Because it shows that it is exceeding sinful. Nobody wants that. We want a savior without ever knowing what we really need saved from. You know what you need to be saved from? You. You are your own worst enemy. You are the one that is damning yourself to hell. It's you. It's you. You refuse to hear the words of God. Some of you have already toned me out. I see it on the faces. It's okay. I'm not singling anybody out. I haven't been doing this very long, but I've been doing it long enough to understand when God moves in a service, there are some that will not hear. Not that they can't hear, they will not hear. They don't want to hear. Faith cometh by hearing though, and hearing by the word of God. If you want to hear, you listen to the word of God being preached to you this morning. It's showing you something in your heart. It's showing you something in your heart. Go to Psalm 19. This is just to prove to you yet again, if you're angry at the law of God, that you're wrong. Because you don't think the law is good, though Paul just told you it was. Psalm 19, verse 7, the law of the Lord is what? I want us to all say it together. Okay? And it's kind of like, the reason I'm going to do this is because I have children. Okay? I understand. I understand. It's like, Russell, no, we'll make it, we'll really make this one hurt. Austin, tell your brother you're sorry. Tell Trevor you're sorry. Sorry. Now it's been a long time since he's been like that. Okay? Was he really sorry? No. That's one of the pitfalls of being a pastor's kid is that you are always a object of a sermon. Okay? You have children. You've seen it. You come over here and you tell your brother, sorry. Sorry. Is that one sorry? No. You say you believe the law of God is perfect. The law of the Lord is perfect. But you don't like the law. There's two reasons you don't like the law. Number one, you've been told not to. You've been instructed not to. Maybe not in so many words, But there is a bias in your heart against the law of God because of why the way and how you have been taught about it. The second reason you don't like the law of God is because it condemns you. The first one's not your fault. The second one you can't get away from. So we're gonna read that all together. Ready, begin. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. Now, we're gonna stop there. Very good, very good. Y'all were ready to sing, read the whole thing. I love it. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. What converts the soul? The law of the Lord. How does it convert the soul? It shows you your guilt. It converts you from being free and okay and alive without the law once to being converted to a lost sinner. Walking along in your life in ignorance, never knowing that God has ought against you. All of a sudden realizing, I have no hope. That man that was emailing back and forth with Brother Dale Morey. The man's incarcerated, had jailhouse religion, a lot of Bible knowledge. The majority of what Brother Dale deals with is men who have been run through the Romans' road in the prayer so many times that they don't think anything works anymore. He tries to show them their guilt before a holy God by using the law of God. Last email that I know he's had more correspondence, but when we were there that day, the last thing that man said at the end of this long email he wrote, Dale, is there any hope for me? It's where you gotta get. Is there any hope for me? How many of you were there at five? Three, sending through a Sunday school lesson and Sunday school teacher gave a quick invitation. Anybody want to ask Jesus into their heart? Oh, I did that. When were you without hope? And when did God show you that Jesus Christ is the only hope? There are some in here that can tell me exactly when. There are others that are afraid I might call on them. And I'm not singling anybody out because I don't know. This is our message today. It's for you. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The law of the Lord just said you're guilty. And I am here to tell you, God has sent you a messenger to tell you, one among a thousand, to show you your uprightness, that there is none. But that God has found a ransom. God has sent Jesus, His only begotten Son, the Christ of God, whose soul was made an offering for sin, whose blood cleanseth us from all sin. who in Him is righteousness, in Him is holiness, who was made to become sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And without Him, ye can do nothing. It's Jesus. It's all Him. Do you know historically and biblically where people called on the name of the Lord? It was a location. Do you know where they did that? It's called the mercy seat. Over that Ark of the Covenant, the shadow of those cherubims with their wings outstretched. Salvation Army, back when it cared about salvation, sang a song, Flee to the Mercy Seat. You know what you find at the mercy seat of God? Mercy. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, as he saved us. Did you call God down out of heaven off of his throne the day you got saved? Did you call on him to bring him to you? Or did you flee to the feet of Jesus Christ at that mercy seat and beg that great God of heaven, of all creation, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, did you call on him for mercy? Did you just ask him into your heart? What sayeth the scripture? You realize the law of God is a mirror. It is. Pull the mic back. I'm going to ask you to do something very unorthodox. Will you go out into the foyer and pull that mirror off the wall and come up front with it, please? The law of God's a mirror. It does not show anything but what's in the mirror. Bring that right up front. We're gonna come down here with that. Good thing. I want you to look at this thing as it pans and it's 90 degrees to you. Do you see me in that mirror at all? What do you see? Only what it's reflecting. The law of God is a mirror. It only shows what it sees. The word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. It's a mirror. It's a sword. It divides you open. It cuts you open to show you what's on the inside. Why? Because God loves you. And there's hope for even you. That was the introduction. I'm gonna read two verses. And then we're going to close. Tonight I'm going to give the message. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Ecclesiastes chapter 5, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. Ecclesiastes 5.1, we're going to read all the way down to verse 7. I know I said two verses, I meant two references. You just have to excuse me on that. Ecclesiastes 5.1, keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. For they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven, and thou upon earth. Therefore, let thy words be few. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words. When thou vowest to vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure in fools. Pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin. Neither say thou before the angel that it was an error. Wherefore should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thy hands? For in the multitude of dreams and many words, there are also diverse vanities. But fear thou God." Now go to Proverbs 4, and we're done. I want you to understand, I thank God my liberty has not abated this entire time. Do you know why I thank God for that? Because hardened hearts stifle liberty in a service. There are those that are receiving the rebuke today. I thank God for that. Chapter four in verse 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Do you know why God sent the law into the world? Paul said that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world become guilty before God. That's why. It's to shut your mouth. A froward mouth is against God, speaks the things that are against God, speaks against the law of God, and it goes contrary to God. If you were toward God, you'd be the opposite, but you are froward. Think again, to and fro. The easiest way to discern that word froward Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Verse 25, let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left. Remove thy foot from evil. And that's why Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 5.1, keep thy feet when thou goest into the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do evil. Again, that's our introduction. We'll give the message tonight.