I love the Word of God. It's a tremendous, tremendous tool that God has given us in the Christian life to be what He wants us to be and to do what He wants us to do. It should be our road map for life. There's people oftentimes that say, I don't know what God wants me to do. And then when I mention bringing up the Bible and I say, you know, have you tried searching Scripture? That looks like a foreign thing to them The fact is that we shouldn't do anything until we search scripture first That's where we ought to be in proverbs is the book of wisdom And i'm going to try to help you with a few things this morning Something that god has helped me with in this passage of scripture I would invite you to stand with me as we read the word of god. We're going to read several verses all the way down through verse number 16 So I will have you just bear with me as we read through this passage and I want you to see some things as we get in here and Try to talk to you about what the Bible teaches in this passage of scripture Proverbs chapter number 24 starting in verse number 1 the Bible says be not thou envious against evil men Neither be neither desire to be with them for their heart study at destruction and their lips talk of mischief through wisdom as a house building and by understanding it is established. And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. A wise man is strong. I want you to see that in verse five. If you're in the habit of underlining in your Bible, I want you to underline that phrase there. A wise man is strong. Yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength. So wisdom brings strength. Knowledge, applied wisdom, brings more strength. It increases your strength. See what it's saying? For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war, and in a multitude of counselors there is safety. Wisdom is too high for a fool. He openeth not his mouth in the gate. He that deviseth to do evil shall be called a mischievous person. The thought of foolishness is sin, and the scorner is an abomination to men. If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain, if thou sayest, behold, we knew it not, doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? And he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? Shall not he render to every man according to his works? My son, eat thou honey, because it is good, and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste. So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul. When thou hast found it, thou shalt have reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off. Lay not weight, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous. Spoil not his resting place. For a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again. but the wicked shall fall into mischief. Verse five there says a wise man is strong, yet a man of knowledge increases the strength. Verse six, by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war and in a multitude of counselors their safety. I wanna talk to you this morning out of verse five and verse 16, all those that says that for a just man fall seven times and rise up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief. I'm gonna preach a message to you this morning entitled, Why We Can Rise Up Again. Why we, as believers, why we can rise up again. And I'm gonna set a stage for you in this passage of scripture and we'll build upon that and apply it to our Christian life. And I wanna share some things with you this morning. I believe it'll be a help and encouragement to you if you'll just listen to the Holy Spirit. Lord, we love you. Thank you so much for the opportunity we have to be in your house this morning. Lord, I ask you please to hide me behind the cross, fill me with your spirit. Lord, I stand where the arm of the flesh will fail me. I need your help and I need your touch this morning. Lord, if there's any in our midst that do not know you as their personal Lord and Savior, I pray they'll trust you today. But Lord, as I preach mainly to the believers this morning about how we can rise up and we can overcome, Lord, I pray that you'll help us to follow the truths of your word and to understand that it's nothing to do with us, but it's all to do with you. And Lord, we sure thank you and praise you for all your many blessings in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated. Thank you for standing. In this passage, we see a word, a just man, which simply means a righteous man, a person who's doing right. The fact of the matter is that a just man is just a man. But the fact is he's made some decisions that have helped him to gain strength because he used wisdom and knowledge in his life to get strength. We have to have both wisdom and knowledge. about a few things this morning. I was gonna be preaching this morning out of a different text, but I'm gonna be preaching that tonight. Pastor Cox, when he preached here at our Soul Winning Conference, gave a recipe for winning souls. Tonight, I'm gonna be preaching on a recipe for spiritual success. And we'll talk about that tonight. But this morning, I wanna preach to you on why we can rise up again. I fear that in our nation today, we have so many people that have used, and Brother Doug mentioned Liberty this morning in Sunday School, the liberty that we're given as believers as a license to live however they want to live and do whatever they want to do and that God's okay with that just because he gave us liberty to do it. The fact of the matter is liberty is not a license to sin again but rather the the admonition or the ability to do what is right. to do the right thing. God wants us to do the right thing. And here in this passage of scripture it's talking about how we as believers in our wisdom we ought not to be envious of evil men. We ought not to envy the world and love not the world and the things that the world has to offer. We ought not to envy that neither desire to be with them. You see what it says? Neither desire to be with them. We shouldn't be desiring to be fellowshipping with the evil men, but rather with godly people, for their hearts study of destruction and their lips talk of mischief. Through wisdom is a house built, and by understanding it is established. You know, God has given us a church that has been established to get people to know who he is and draw closer to him. It said in verse 4, and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all thy precious and pleasant riches. What he's saying is there's a reward for applying the wisdom that you gain from scripture. It's one thing to gain wisdom. It's another thing to apply that wisdom that you have. It's one thing to know to do right. It's another thing to do those right things. The Bible says for him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. So if we know what is right, we have the wisdom of what is right, but yet we live contrary to what is right, the Bible says that is sin. And we ought not to do those things. And you say, well, preacher, we're sinners. Yes, we are. We're sinners saved by the grace of God. Praise the Lord for that. The blood, when it was applied to our life, when we accepted Jesus Christ by faith and Him alone, plus nothing, minus nothing, we didn't just add Jesus to what we wanted. It was accepting Him and nothing else. And we've been saved. Yes, we have been set free from bondage of hell. And yes, we still have a sin nature. And yes, we still have a flesh nature. But the problem is, I believe we've allowed this ability and these double natures to give us a license. Well, you know what? I'm still flesh, so I'm just going to screw up all the time. The fact of the matter is, God doesn't want us to screw up all the time. He wants us to get victory over these things in our life. And I'm gonna preach to you this morning on why we can rise up again. If we look at these verses in scripture, I don't believe that verse 16 is talking about a just person falling into sin. Rising up out of the sin and going on for God though. That is an application that you can apply to that verse If you study the context in the context of scripture is to take the whole counsel of what it's talking about Look at verse it's talking verse 5 says a wise man is strong a man of knowledge increases in strength verse 10 if thou faint in the day of adversity Thy strength is what? Small. So that means that wisdom, the knowledge, what you're applying is small. If you're falling in the day of adversity when that time comes, it's because you're not applying the knowledge or the wisdom. You're not applying that to your life. Look what verse 15 says. He says, lay not weight, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous. Spoil not his resting place for a just man. And the word just man means a righteous man. He wouldn't be called a righteous man if he was living wickedly. for a just man falleth seven times and rises up again it said but the wicked shall fall into mischief now that little conjunction that word but changes the whole context of a verse just as the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life so you have death and that little word but changes death and says you can have life this is saying a righteous person is falling into something brother miller but the wicked are falling into mischief. So I begin to ask myself the question, what is it that this righteous man, that the just person, is falling into? And I daresay it applies to every one of us, and it's this. Look at verse 10. If ye faint in the day of what? Adversity, thy strength is small. It says, lay not weight, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous. Spoil not his resting place. All throughout here is talking about how the The world and the wicked are trying to get those that have the wisdom of God to not apply the wisdom of God. They don't want our strength to be powerful and strong. They want us to be weak in those days of adversity, in those days of oppression. And guess what? Every one of us that claim the name of the Lord Jesus Christ are going to come to a time in our life where the adversity and the oppression of Satan is going to so overtower us. That's why we have to apply wisdom and knowledge to our life. See, God does not intend for that opposition and that adversity to make us fall into sin. He wants us to have the strength to rise up through that sin, to rise up through it and not yield to the temptation. See, temptation is not sin. I think all the time we think, well, we're dead. If you say, if you faith in the day of adversity, if you yield to the temptation when that oppression comes, you're starting to stumble. Because what you're doing is you're relying on yourself, not the principles of the word of God to help you in your life. See, there's some reasons that I believe that as a child of God, and I'm going to talk about some of these things, and it really just encourages me that when you study the Bible for context, God tries to help us. Listen, I do understand we're flesh. There may be times in our life that we're going to stumble. The fact of the matter is, we shouldn't be stumbling into those same things we've always been stumbling with. If we've been saved for 20 years, we shouldn't still be falling under the pressure of that same stuff and falling into the wakiness that we've been in. God wants us to be victorious. He wants us to have victory, and we sing that song, Victory in Jesus, but it's not just victory from hell. God will give you victory over sin to live a holy and a righteous life for Him. He wants you to do that. But there's some reasons that I wanna share with you this morning. Why can we rise up again? How can we get up through the adversity? How can we go through the, what is the reason that we can rise up when Satan comes after us? Remember our example in scripture is Jesus. All throughout scripture, he was tempted just like we are. But I'm gonna share some things with you and try to bring back to your mind what happened to you the day you got saved. But there's some things I want to share this morning. Why can we rise up again? Firstly, because there was a sacrificial father. There was a sacrificial father. John chapter 3. Take your Bibles there. One of the most familiar verses in all of the Bible. But I'm going to share it with you anyway and I want you to see it. John chapter 3. Verse 16, 17, and 18, the Bible says, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Here's what is condemned us is that we chose, Adam chose sin. He chose disobedience to God. He chose darkness rather than light. And by one man's sin, the Bible says, sinner of the world, and death by sin, so that death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. And because of that sin, all the way back in the garden of Eden, there was a sacrificial farm. I want you to think about this. God created everything. God the Father, God the Son, what does it say again? God the Son had fellowship with His Father, loved His Father, cherished and loved His Father. about the fellowship they had as well. You know, I used to go up, my dad and I used to go up. I enjoyed the fellowship. I enjoyed that time when I got to go up. and how to build things. He would show me how to do that. Thanks to God for the time that we spend together. Now, I am a son myself, and I enjoy the time that Carter and I get to spend together, even if it's worthy, even if it isn't. We get to spend that time together. He wants me to do that. He enjoys it. I woke up now. He woke up on a dead break. He wants to come with me. He enjoys the fellowship. He enjoys being with me. There's so much more. Jesus and God enjoy being together. If someone buys you a gift, they had to sacrifice their money or their time for something they had done. But I want you to think about the fellowship that they enjoyed. And listen, I love people in this church, but I could not give my son for you. You say, Preacher, that's not Godly. Then I need to repent. But guess what? I love my son. And if, Brother Shane, if you were given that task where you had to choose, you might choose one of them. I don't know. But I only have one. gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. There was a time when man sinned against the Holy God, and because of man's sin, death was pronounced, judgment was pronounced, and we were separate from the Father. But God, in His great love, gave of His only begotten Son, so that you and I could have life everlasting. What would we do without God? Well, we either accept this gift that God has given, or we reject this gift that God has given. But the fact is, until you receive that gift, you're always under bondage from Satan. Always. Until you've trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, guess what? You're still bound by the cords of sin. And once you accept the gift of this sacrificial father, and we'll get to this in just a minute, this God who created everything has now been put in a position where he has to judge sin because a holy God has to judge sin. And because of his man's sin, God, who is holy, who is righteous, now pronounced judgment. Man is destined for hell. because of the same reason that the angels were destined for hell. What was that? A rejection of God. That was the whole thing. It wasn't just pride. Pride caused Lucifer to reject God's authority. And what happens in our life, pride makes us refuse God's authority. But God, in His great love wherewith He loved us, gave of His only begotten Son, and because of a sacrificial Father, we are able to rise up through it. Romans 5a, but God commended His love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God, His love for you and for me took so much that all the wickedness of sinners, all the unrighteousness and filth of this world was placed upon His only begotten Son so that we could one day rise up out of the muck and the mire of this world. And David, the psalmist, right, he picked me up out of a horrible pit, out of a miry clay, he set my feet upon a rock, and he established my going. If you're here today and you're saved, I want you to remember the sacrifice that God made Which are God's but not only because of the sacrificial father, but I want you to understand there was a second part It was a Savior's forgiveness the Savior's forgiveness. First John 1.9, he said, if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all, not some, all unrighteousness. Don't tell me that you're too far gone for Christ to save you. His forgiveness doesn't have limitations. Anyone who's willing to come to him and ask him to be the Savior, guess what? His forgiveness applies. But if you're a child of God who has stumbled into the adversity, His forgiveness still extends to you. He said, if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Daniel 9.9, to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against Him. Ephesians 1.7, in whom we have redemption. through his blood, the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches of his grace. Colossians 1.14, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin. Psalm 86 in verse 5, for thou, O Lord, are good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. Listen, Jesus is so forgiving that if this room was full of your sin, piled to the top, maybe the ocean contained all of it, guess what? His forgiveness can wipe all of that away. All of it away. But we walk around as if we still have bondage from Satan when the fact is we do not have to be possessed because He can. He can't possess us if we're saved, but He can oppress us. The thing is though, God has given us wisdom through the Word of God to help us to understand that because of a sacrificial Father and because of a Savior's forgiveness that we are able to, through the blood of Jesus Christ and the righteousness of Jesus that has been applied to our account from the day that we got saved, we are able to obtain victory over the devil. So why do we let him defeat us so much? I'll tell you why. It's because our strength is small. Because we don't apply the wisdom in our life. There's people, Brother Shane, that will come to me for counseling. I'll tell them something. This time I don't want you to do it. See, you just want them to know what the Bible says. Do you know this? Yeah, I understand. But apply it to yourself. And without applying it, you're not increasing in strength. And if we want our strength to increase, we're going to have to, the Bible says in the Bible, it says to work out your own salvation. You know what? That doesn't mean that you have to work for salvation. That means the salvation in which you have, you need to gain the wisdom and knowledge of God to strengthen your walk with Him. That's what you have to do. We all have to strengthen our walk with Him. And guess what? If we don't work out, we get We have to be active so that's why you see a lot of these kids today that have no idea they seem like they're so unhealthy What happened to building forts outside? What happened to going out and throwing mud bowls at each other? What happened to having fun and playing? You know what that is? It's exercising. It's keeping yourself active and strong. See, in God's work, but here's what happens. We get saved and we just say, okay. And we're not active for the Lord. And that's why we fall under the oppression. That's why we fall under the adversity. And that's why we stumble and fall. But the Bible doesn't intend that. In this book of wisdom that we've been given, he says a just man falls seven times. We fall under the adversity. We fall under the oppression. The wicked are laying wait to devour us in our resting place where we're supposed to be. But he says we can rise up through it. The wicked are the ones that fall into mischief. But listen, a Savior's forgiveness. Jesus is so forgiving. Listen, if you've never experienced the forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ because of your sin and you've never asked Him to save you, guess what? He wants you to be saved. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But if you are saved in this room today, understand that forgiveness is not a license for you to live life the way you want to live it, but it's rather an avenue of strength for your life to help you to overcome Satan when he comes after you. That's what it is. It is not just salvation. of the lord jesus christ the ability to use the strength of the lord jesus christ to fight against satan that's why he says put on the whole armor of king saul no put on the whole armor of the u.s military no put on the whole armor of god why that you may be able to stand in the evil day and having done all to stand they said that you may be able to stand in the evil The fact is God gives us the ability to stay. But I think oftentimes, Brother Shane, we blame our flesh nature on our lack of work for God. You say, what are you talking about, preacher? Well, we're just sinners. We're bound to fall. Listen, don't doom yourself so much. That's why church members fall into sin. You know why? It's because they quit following the leading of the Lord. We've been singing songs all day today, where he leads, I'll follow. Where he leads, I'll follow. Follow all the way. Yes, follow all the way. But most of us need to sing this, where he leads, I'll follow. I'll follow a partner. That needs to be how we sing in our churches. We follow a partner. because there's certain lines that we have drawn in our Christian life and we say, God, I don't wanna pass that line. But see, because of a sacrificial father and because of a Savior's forgiveness, we have the ability to get victory over sin in our life. We don't have to be burdened down with sin. We can be set free from that bondage because the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. So why do we live in what he saved us out of? See, we have the ability to rise up through it. Here's a third thing. Not only because of a sacrificial father, not only because of a savior's forgiveness, but in the book of Matthew, he's writing to, Jesus is talking to Peter. And he says, upon this rock, I'll build my church. And the gates of hell shall what? Prevail against it all the time? no, shall not prevail against him. Why? Not only because of the sacrificial father who gave him his only begotten son, not only of a savior's forgiveness who hanging on the cross when he connected one hand to God and one hand to me, and he said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, and he bridged the gap between sin and sanctification, and he made a way for us to get back to God, not only because of his blood that was shed on the cross, but because of the foundation on which we stand. It's a sure foundation. We can rise up through the adversity because of a sure foundation. We don't have to walk in sinking sand. If we go back to our text verses and you begin to read it, it talks about those that allow the wicked to get them, guess what? Their strength is, and we fall into that wickedness, it's we're sinking into that, why? Because we don't have the strength to stand. But when you stand on the rock of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're able to rise up through it. 1 Samuel chapter 2 verse 2 said, There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like our God. 2 Samuel 22 verse 2, There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock Like our God 2nd Samuel 22 47 the Lord liveth and blessed be my rock and exalted be and Exalted be the the God of the rock of my salvation Psalm 18 in verse 2 the Lord is my rock and my fortress my deliverer my God my strength in whom I will trust you understand I'm talking about the Lord. Why don't we get excited about that? The rock on which we stand, the reason that we're falling under so much adversity, so much oppression, the reason Sunday school classes aren't growing, the reason that people decide they just want to stay at home, that they're going to go to church just one time a week, that they're doing God a favor because of this. I'll tell you why. It's because we've allowed the world to dictate the way we think rather than standing on the rock of the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 28 verse 1, Under thee will I cry, O Lord, my rock. Be not silent to me, lest if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. Psalm 31 verse 3, For thou art my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for thy namesake, lead me and guide me. Psalm 40 verse 2, He brought me up also out of a horrible pit. out of a miry clay, set my feet upon a rock, and established my going. I'm so glad for 2002, when I trusted Jesus Christ as my savior, and he took me up out of the muck and the mire of this world, and he set my feet upon a rock, and he established my going. He put a new song in my mouth, even praising to my God, and he allowed me to have the opportunity from that day on to not always have to fall under the bondage of Satan, but to get victory in my life. You can have victory in your life. Quit using the excuse that I just can't do it. Because with Him, you can. The whole principle that we've given to you so far has everything to do with God and Jesus. You're not strong enough by yourself to overcome the wicked. But with Jesus, you're strong enough. Matthew 7, verse 25, and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock. Matthew 16, 18, and I say also unto thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I'll build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Our homes can rise up, our families can rise up, our churches can rise up, our country can rise up. Why? Because we're founded upon a rock, the rock of Jesus Christ. Why can Satan never destroy the work of God completely if it's founded upon a rock? It's not founded upon you, and it's not founded upon me, and the world doesn't care about Thank you for watching. You have the ability to go over the top. All the way. All the way. because of a sacrificial father, because of a savior's forgiveness, because of a sure foundation, but this one really excites me, because of a sealed faith. I'm sealed until the day of redemption. I don't have to experience hell for one moment. Ephesians 4.30, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed until the day of redemption. John 10.28, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall perish one day, No, and they shall never perish. That word never is difficult to understand. It has a big meaning and I'm going to explain it to you. Never. That's what it means. Not going to happen. That's what that word means. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. Romans 5 21, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might the grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. See what it said? It said that righteousness reigns in us if we follow the Lord. Titus 3, 7, them being justified by his grace. We should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. I'm so glad that I don't have temporary salvation. I'm glad that I have permanent salvation. I'm so glad that I can rise up through the adversity of Satan, that the oppression of the wicked one, guess what? You serve God at all and he's coming after you. The reason Satan doesn't come after most of you is because you're too big to be your own enemy. You know why? Because that person you looked in the mirror, that's who you live for. Satan says, I haven't bothered with him. He's doing a good job on his own. But I'll tell you what, when you start getting into the wisdom of God. And Brother Doug, you don't just read it. I'll just tell you the whole book. I'll just tell you the whole book. I'll just tell you the whole book. I'll just tell you the whole book. I'll just tell you the whole book. I'll just tell you the whole book. I'll just tell you the whole book. I'll just tell you the whole book. I'll just tell you the whole book. I'll just tell you the whole book. I'll just tell you the whole book. I'll just tell you the whole book. I'll just tell you the whole book. I'll just tell you the whole book. I'll just tell you the whole book. I'll just tell you the whole book. I'll just tell you the whole book. I'll just Here's why we do it. I'm going to put on a whole lot of goggles so you can see. I'm going to shut up. Thank you. and the sure foundation, but the sealed faith. All about Him, because we're sealed into the day of redemption, we're able to rise up through the adversity and the oppression of the devil. Where am I gonna spend eternity because of that sealed faith? I'm going to heaven. 1 John 5, 13, these things have been written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, because ye have believed on the name of the Son of God. But not only does salvation secure where our destination is, which is heaven, but it also gives us power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. And because we're a child of God, we have the righteousness of God applied to our life. And we can live in that righteousness if we'll take wisdom and apply that wisdom The Bible said in a multitude of counselors, there is safety. Wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom is strength. Knowledge increases strength. So it's one thing to know, but it's a struggle to know. Listen, I know how it is. I know how it is. Applied increaseth strength. But if ye faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. Listen, I can show you somebody who's not walking with God on a daily basis. You say, how? Look at what is dragging them down. is their strength is small because Satan's coming after them. But the Bible gives us who can be our strength. How can we stand? Let Jesus control your life. Let him control your life. With heads bowed, eyes closed,