In 'Some Things are Forever,' Peter Allison examines Proverbs 27:22, emphasizing the enduring nature of folly in contrast to the transient nature of riches. He argues that foolishness is inherent and cannot be eradicated by human means alone, highlighting the essential role of the Holy Spirit in transformation. The sermon underscores the importance of diligence in understanding and managing one's resources, drawing parallels between spiritual and financial stewardship. Allison critiques societal reliance on government programs like Social Security, advocating for personal responsibility and foresight in financial planning. He further elaborates on the sacredness of everyday work, framing business as a spiritual calling integral to living out one's faith. The sermon also emphasizes the nurturing of family, urging diligence in attending to the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of loved ones. Ultimately, it calls for wisdom, humility, and reliance on divine guidance in all aspects of life.

Proverbs 27, verses 22, To the end of the chapter. Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle, along with crushed grain, yet his foolishness will not depart from him. Be diligent to know the state of your flocks and attend to your herds, for riches are not forever. Nor does a crown indoor to all generations, when hay is removed and the tender grass shows itself and the herbs of the mountains are gathered in. The lambs will provide your clothing, and the goats the price of a field.

For you shall have enough goat's milk for your food, for the food of your household, and the nourishment of your maidservants." May Jehovah bring his judgments of old to mind and comfort us in them. Heavenly Father, We ask that we may learn from your word this morning. May it be profitable to us. May you show to us Christ in these words. May Lord this time as we look at this passage, May you sanctify us through it.

May you show to us those areas that we need to grow. And I pray that you would sanctify my sinful lips, that they may drive away what is chaff. That what we hear today might be edifying and truthful. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Well last week I had prepared a chiasm on verses 1 to 22, which we, remember we looked at those verses last week, or last couple weeks on friendship. But I didn't pass it out because I wasn't satisfied with how either verse 22 or the first verse fit into that. And so rather than pass out something that I wasn't confident in, I held it. Well, on rereading this ending, I realized why. It doesn't fit in that first section.

It ties in much better with this second section. The folly of a fool is forever. You can't separate it from him. Though you grind him with a mortal and a pestle, You can't get the folly out of the fool. It's forever, unlike riches in the next verse, which are not forever.

There's a contrast there. Some things you can't separate no matter how hard you try, no matter how much effort you go to. Other things is just the opposite. They take effort and attention and care to preserve. I think that is the significance or the connection between these two verses.

Some things are forever and they don't take any effort to maintain. In fact, there's no amount of effort can undo them. On the other hand, other things aren't forever, and they take effort and diligence and care to maintain. This is one of those passages that is very, we might say secular, it's very mundane. It deals with some very ordinary and routine things.

There are passages of scripture that are central, that are, you might think of them as high points. They deal with these cardinal doctrines, these cardinal doctrines, these great and precious promises. And those passages are beautiful and powerful, and They are worthy of a lot of time and meditation. But there are, but in order to have a peak, there also has to be things that aren't the peak. If the whole earth is as high as Mount Everest, then nothing's a mountain.

And those passages are what they are because there are other passages that are ordinary and routine. And this is one of those ordinary and routine passages, But we shouldn't think therefore that just because it's ordinary and routine that therefore it's less worthy of our attention. This is a part of the Word of God, and even though it deals with some very mundane and ordinary things, it is part of the Word of God, and therefore it is profitable for us so that we are thoroughly equipped and thoroughly furnished to every good work, where what we don't know does hurt us. And so we'll look here in this in two sections, two parts basically. That which is forever, the folly of a fool is forever and that which isn't forever, that which riches, which are not forever.

And the instruction then that this passage would have for us regarding our flocks and our herds. So the folly of a fool though is forever. You can't get it out. I love that image there. If Those of you that have a mortar and a pestle and have ground things up in it, you know exactly what this is talking about.

You can break something down as fine as you want, but you cannot change something that is a part of the DNA of that material. You can't get that out. And that's what the Bible says about folly. It's a common fallacy in our culture today that more education will cure the folly of fools. And that people's problem is that they are basically not educated enough.

They're just uneducated. A disobedient child, we're told. They just need to be told one more time. They need one more explanation. People voting for the wrong candidate, they're just low information voters.

A little more education, and they could vote correctly. Pregnancy out of wedlock, whatever the age they might be. Sometimes it's children, teenagers, they just need a little more education about pregnancy and how babies are conceived. And that will prevent this from happening. Actually they seem to have that figured out quite well.

They didn't need any of your education. Or children taking hallucinogenic drugs. They just need more education about drugs. And the great irony is that these education programs that they have designed, these people have designed aimed at children like dare or just say no or the sex talk they actually end up producing more of the very behavior they were supposed to prevent because they expose and open up people's minds to these things that they may not have even been thinking about. Or another misconception is that people just need a better environment.

But a better environment won't cure the folly of a fool. More experience won't cure the folly of a fool. Tribulation and hard times won't cure the folly of a fool. Tribulation and hard times won't cure the folly of a fool. I had A CEO years ago who was fond of saying in the context of hiring that stupid is forever.

You could teach a person etiquette. You could teach them how to talk and give a presentation, but you couldn't make them smart. And that was a pretty wise observation. He was saying you need to hire people that have abilities. They may not have all the things that go around that and make a nice presentation.

But you can fix all that. They can learn that. But you can't make somebody have ability that they don't have. Don't marry a fool, expecting they will grow out of it. Now few if any would admit to marrying a fool on the day of the wedding.

But a few years later in divorce court, it's quite a different story. They all want divorces because they believe they've married a fool. You see, someone who is not captive to the Word of God, Someone whose chief purpose in life is not glorifying God and enjoying Him forever is not going to change after they get married. They're not going to grow into that. That's not what they already are.

You have no expectation that they will become that kind of a person. It's very easy to deceive yourself, especially very easy for men to promise all kinds of things young men to promise all kinds of things it's very easy for young ladies to be to not see clearly Or to think that things will get better or things will change, but they don't. Don't marry a fool expecting they will grow out of it. Marry well. Marry well.

And It takes a godly character to be able to recognize a godly character. Another fool is not going to recognize a godly character. In fact, they may pass right by it and never realize what they were looking at or maybe even be turned off by it. Takes a godly character. If you want to know, be able to recognize a godly man and a godly young woman, then the way to do that is is to be godly yourself, to do those things that you want your future spouse to do.

Now, this says that a fool is, you can't separate his foolishness from him. Other passages in the Bible say that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him. How should we understand this? We know of course that these two passages are not contradictory, but how do we understand them? Here's one passage that says you can't get the foolishness out of a fool, And another passage that says, well, you do get the foolishness out of the fool.

You just have to, it just takes a rod. Well, I think the way to understand these two passages, These are obviously not contradictory. No part of the Word of God ever contradicts the Word of God. When we understand that word in its proper context, and that is that only the Holy Spirit can take the folly out of the fool. Only the Holy Spirit.

It's the only thing that can ever change the folly of a fool. And he works through means. He works through the preaching of the Scriptures. He works through parents teaching their children the scriptures and training their children to walk in them. And in order for that training to be effective, the Bible teaches it must be accompanied by the wise and loving use of the rod.

But when parents forget that the rod is useless without the work of the Holy Spirit, and they begin to apply the rod and the rod and the rod and the rod, and they don't get the results they want, so they use more of the rod, then they get two results. They either say, oh, well, the rod doesn't work, so the Bible's, this is not true, it didn't work in that case. Or they just say, well, I guess I'm not applying the rod enough and they keep applying it more and more. Both of course are tragically wrong. What's missing is the work of the Holy Spirit.

The work of the Holy Spirit. The God's Word teaches, in the case of children, in driving foolishness from them, teaches the rod is necessary. And that we hate our child if we spare a rod. But we have to remember that without the work of the Holy Spirit it's useless. And so part of properly bringing the rod is to pray for the work of the Holy Spirit in that situation.

So that's why if there is the use of the rod without the use of prayer, it won't drive the folly out of the fool. It won't. It will just make an angry fool. The Holy Spirit calls things into existence that did not exist before. God gives life to the dead and calls those things that do not exist as though they did.

And so God alone can take this foolishness out of our children or out of any fool. And if we are not praying for that work of the Holy Spirit to bless our teaching, to bless our words, to bless our instruction, to bless our example, and to bring life to our children as we bring the Word of God to them, and to bring change to them as we bring the rod where that's needed, then all of those things will be useless. They won't work. Because by themselves, those things cannot get the foolishness out of the fool. And our children are fools.

They are born in sin. Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle, no natural means, no natural means are adequate to remove the foolishness from a fool or the folly from our children. There are no natural remedies that can do that. Now, there are a lot of people today that are questioning the scriptures on this matter of the foolishness in children. There are a lot of theories that people put out there, different ways of doing things.

In some senses, there is some wisdom in those things. But the Word of God is true, and the word of God never changes, never goes out of style, it's never outdated and it's never wrong. And so when people are in flat out contradiction to the word of God or try to raise children without the rod, it will fail. It will fail. All right, riches are not forever.

They can take wings and fly away, so we need to be diligent about our business. We need to remember that our business is a holy calling, a holy calling. Whatever that business is, it's a holy calling. The Bible regards it as a holy calling. It's part of our spiritual service.

The work that we do, Monday through Saturday, is a part of our spiritual service to the Lord. The New Testament parallel to this passage is in Romans 12-11 where we're told not to be slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. The things that we do on the Lord's Day, gathering for worship or reading the Bible, these are not more spiritual activities than the business that we do, whether that's that we do, whether that's installing hot water heaters or programming computers. That business is a holy calling. We sometimes think of business and finance as less spiritual matters than the doctrines of grace or of character.

Yes, We need to be honest in our business. The fact that we're a Christian means that we go about our business in an upright way. We don't lie, cheat, and steal people from people. But it's much more than that. That very work that we do, we do it to the Lord.

It's a holy calling. It's how we serve the Lord. In fact, it's the culmination of the Gospel. Paul put it this way to Titus, for the grace of God that brings salvation. Now what is the ministry that Paul received?

He summed everything up by saying the ministry that he had received was to testify to the grace of God in the gospel. That was his calling as an apostle. And here's how he sums up, what is the grace of God that brings salvation? This appeared to all men. Well, this is the result, this is the culmination, the focus teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age.

In this age, age right now. And not just live one day a week in this age, but seven days a week we're living in this age. Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Now, how do we look for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Now, how do we look for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus?

Do we stand on a hill in white robes? No, of course not. But Some people have said that. We do that by our living in this present age, in the business, carrying out the business that we've been called to carry out. Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works.

Zealous for good works. Now good works aren't just When you memorize a passage of scripture. Good works aren't just when you take time and pray. Good works are when you build a house, hammer a nail. Good works are when you write a computer program that works.

Because you've done it in a way, not in a way that glorifies the Lord, you've done it for a purpose that glorifies the Lord. You've done it depending upon the Lord for the wisdom to do it and so on. So that but those very acts themselves are the good works for which we have been saved. You know, every business, and I have yet to find an exception, there may be one out there, but I haven't come across it. Every business exists to satisfy the, to provide for food, for shelter, for clothing, for the physical well-being, the medical well-being, and the emotional well-being of people, of families.

That's why under the word economy in the Rebser's original dictionary, it talked about home management because business is under the purview of the home. But all of these things that we do in business ultimately lead to the provisions of those basic needs for families. And so I give you this lengthy introduction here to this section so that when we come to the, when we look in a minute at this section in just a little bit of detail, little bit of detail. It won't be with the idea that well this is kind of an appendage to our Christian life. This is sort of a secondary importance but rather we'll see that it is how we conduct our very business That is the purpose for which we have been saved.

It's the grace of God that brings salvation that teaches us to live in this age and God has saved us so that we would be a people zealous for good works. So that when we go about the science, the work that Adam was given was naming the animals. That was his spiritual calling. And that work has grown today. We have a lot of different fields and things that have grown from that.

But whatever those works are, that is our spiritual calling. And so the grace of God leads us to be able to do these works in a way that pleases the Lord. And this is what we're to do. Riches are not forever. Therefore, be diligent to know the state of your flocks and be diligent to attend to your flocks.

Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, and be diligent to attend to your flock. These are two separate but very closely related exhortations. The first is to know, to keep up with the state of the flock. The second is to do something with what you know. Be diligent to know the state of your flock.

Some things are easily known, but other matters require some attention, some preparation, and some diligent to assess the condition of one's flocks. It's not just, it's not obvious from casual observation. It's not obvious as it would be said to the casual observer. So that it may take some diligence to know the state of our flocks. But having been diligent to know the state of our flock, attending to our flock means acting on that information to maintain and to improve the well-being of the flock.

Now, most of us don't have flocks. We don't depend on goats for our milk or lambs for our wool, but these principles do apply to the businesses that we have. And so knowing the state of one's flock might mean, in most of our cases, it would mean having a budget. Knowing where money is going. And it means then planning regarding provision of future needs.

Not only knowing where the money that we have right now is going and ensuring that it's wisely spent, but also thinking and anticipating what are the things that we will be needing 5, 10, 15, 20 years down the road and providing and preparing for to be able to provide for those needs. It means that every dollar that in our language today, every dollar that comes into our purse has a job assigned to it. It has a place where we are going to put it to good use, whether that's tomorrow, whether that's in 20 years. It typically means providing for the years that we won't be able to work. Saving 10% of our income over 40 years, let's say a 5% rate of return should provide a sufficient income for us to live out our life.

Now our 20th century has seen that concept destroyed. And it's a wicked thing. One of the things that has destroyed it is inflation. So that if somebody were to save 10% of their income over 40 years and get a reasonable return on that savings. Inflation has destroyed the purchasing ability of that money such that that savings is sometimes no longer able to provide an adequate income for the rest of one's life and to provide for those in need and to cover the expenses that may happen from that.

And that is wicked. And it didn't happen by accident. It happened by design. The people that did this knew what they were doing to us. It is a grievous sin.

Of course we're the ones that allowed it to happen. We're the ones that voted in their ideas and their plans. Of course without the without a central bank and without some kind of fiat money, this kind of inflation wouldn't be possible. It took a Federal Reserve in place and it took allowing them to issue Federal Reserve notes. If you look at your pieces of paper, that's what they are, that they issue, their Federal Reserve note.

It took allowing that to happen in order for them to then create this situation of inflation. John Maynard Keynes, who was the brain trust behind a lot of these ideas said that inflation was a tax that not one man in a million could diagnose. And so it's a tax that is able to be exacted from people without their understanding who or what is getting that tax. And so this has been a huge, this is a huge impediment to people trying to live in a responsible way and prepare and provide for themselves in their retirement. The other problem is that the government has stepped in and said give us your money and we'll take care of your flocks.

We'll be diligent to look to the state of your flocks and we'll be diligent to attend to them and we believe them. That's called Social Security. Social Security. The government said we'll tend to the state of your flocks, we'll provide your Social Security, you just give us your money. And then you don't have to worry about it.

You don't have to be diligent because we will be diligent for you. Well, we didn't accept the state saying give us your children and we'll raise them. Neither should we accept that when the state says give us your money and we'll take care of it for you. They're not going to do any better job with our money than they did with our children. Our children, they taught how to fornicate, how to murder, how to covet, how to rebel against authority.

What do you suppose they're going to do with your money? Nothing good. Nothing good. Social Security was the government's plan to have us give them our money so that they could then look after our flocks and provide for us in our old age. And most of America fell for it.

I think people are starting to wake up now and they're realizing that the government can't really do what they promised to do and they and people that are just starting out to pay into Social Security now or recognizing there's probably not going to be anything there for them. But they're stuck with the tax and they can't get out of it because the folly of government programs, there's no end. Another problem with Social Security is that It really takes a responsibility from the family and gives it to the state. What happens when there are poor? What happens when our parents are poor and unable to or need help?

Social Security has said, we'll take care of that. You don't need to be concerned about them. And people who said, well, we don't really want to take care of our children aren't any more responsible at the other end of life when it's time for them to take care of their parents. It's interesting how that comes back, doesn't it? The parents that say we're too busy to take care of our children, we'd like to slip them off to school so we can do what we want to do.

When those children grow up, then they aren't interested in caring for their parents. They have other more important things to do. But this basic message here is that what ought to be is that when the hay is removed and the tender grass shows itself and the herbs of the mountains are gathered in, when you have been diligent your life over the working time of your life in the holy calling that God has given to you, that then the lambs will provide your clothing, the goats the price of the field, and you shall have goats milk enough for food and for the food of your household and the nourishment of your maidservants. That if you have been diligent in caring for your flocks, that they then will provide for your household. And so I think one of our challenges as Christians today living in this present age is to understand how we can begin to be more faithful in these areas of finance and not depend upon the government to be our provision even as we don't wanna depend on the government to teach our children.

Now there was years ago, a couple decades ago in the 80s and 90s, it was a big thing for parents to think about actually teaching their own children. That was a daunting thought because for years, they just sent them off to the government school so they could have a free day. But parents found out, families found out that they could teach their children. And that there was actually a lot of wisdom in that because the ones that really got into doing it found that They learned a lot of things that they hadn't understood before. The fact that through the process of teaching their own children, they learned a lot of things.

And there's a reason that God has us teach our children. It's how we learn. It's how he teaches us. And so as we think about our finances, we need to think the same way. Yes, it may be daunting for us to think about providing for our own income, our own care in our old age.

But that's what God's word, that's the expectation of God's word. And I think as we begin to do that, we'll begin to see great blessing in that. As we begin to plan now, remember this is being diligent now. It takes foresight, it takes preparation to be able to provide for future needs. And something we need to start thinking about now.

Especially if you're just starting out your life or your marriage and you're putting your home together. Be thinking about how do we build finances over the years to be able to provide for not only ourselves but also the Bible says a good man leaves an inheritance to their children so it's not just getting enough money to last to the day you die and a few extra dollars to bury you, but rather having enough that there's something to pass on to children. And that can happen, doesn't have to happen when you die, it can happen before that as well. But when we begin to start thinking about this, instead of just blindly giving our money over to the government and expecting them to look after our flocks and herds, the Lord will begin to bless our plans and our labors as we follow him in obedience. Now there's other applications of this as well, that we are to know the state of our flocks and our herds, husbands, how is your wife spiritually as well as emotionally, physically, do you know?

Do you think about that? Do you, are you diligent to know the state of your flock in that regard? Do you attend to your flock in that regard? Fathers, how are your children spiritually, emotionally, physically? Do you know the kinds of conversations they are having with their friends.

Do you know their dreams? What would inspire them? What spiritual weaknesses they have? What spiritual fruits they are deficient in? Our children need nurture.

They need nurture. Education is not just putting them in front of a screen. Education is not just putting them in front of a book. It's not just giving them a cookbook and a kitchen and telling them to get to work. Our children need our attention.

Be diligent. Be diligent to know the state of your flock and be diligent to attend to them. They need to be able to, children need to be able to work with us. They need to be able to work alongside of us. They need to be able to work with us and to know our nurture through our attention to them.

And just like flocks that are starved for attention, don't do what you can always tell flocks that are starved for attention. The coats don't shine. They're dull. The fur is mangy. They don't look good.

But animals, flocks that are well cared for, where somebody is walking among them, looking at them, or somebody that knows each one in that flock and cares for them and they know the things that that animal needs. Those animals look good. They look good. And they are healthy. I saw a, reminds me, I saw a little news clip where these people had gone, this investigative reporter had gone to a bunch of different farms.

In this case they were chicken farms. Well they went to one farm. I'll tell you about that in a minute. But they took 12 different, or is it 12 different cases, dozens of eggs, Yes, it's 12 dozens of eggs from different organic egg farms. So they went to the big box organic brands.

And I think this was done in Canada or the UK. It wasn't in the United States. So they took all these 12 different brands of organic eggs from the big box organic stores that said organic eggs. And they kind of show little pictures of what that meant. It meant they had slightly bigger cages and weren't quite as packed together and they got organic food.

It was still highly mechanized farming. And then there were ones that were free-range organic eggs and those, they had little doors where the chickens could go outside in a grass area, and that was free range. But some cases, they didn't really have that much outside to go to. And then they went and spent, where most of the video was showing was this one family farm, a husband and wife, and they looked to be a little bit older, who had this organic chicken farm. And this lady knew the chickens.

And the reporter asked her, are your chickens happier? Because, you know, and she said, yes, my chickens are happier. But you could look at the, you know, there was space there. You could look at this herd of, this flock of chickens, and they were, they looked good. Now, here's the thing.

They sent these 12 dozen of eggs to a lab. They were going to test, they were saying, are there any differences in the nutrients in these eggs? Guess what? For the vast majority of mechanized farms, there was no difference between them and the regular eggs. But for the one kind of farm where they actually were nurturing the flock, there were big differences in the nutrients of the eggs.

What's the difference there? It wasn't the labeling, it wasn't the organic food, it wasn't the all that. It was somebody that was attending to their flock, to the well-being of their flock. Yes, it produced a difference in the nutrients in the eggs. Our children need our nurture.

They need our time. They need our affection. They need our care. It's not just that they learn X, Y, and Z, but it's that we are teaching them, we are spending time with them in teaching them X, Y, and Z. That's what makes a difference.

Be diligent to attend to the needs of your flock. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are the Great Shepherd and that you are attentive to our every need and our every cry. We thank you that you know us. You know us better than we know ourselves. You attend to all of our needs you provide, Lord, you are abundantly gracious in your provision for us.

You know when we need encouragement. You know when we need comfort. You know when we need rebuke. You know when we need humble. And we thank you that you are the wise Master Shepherd, ever attendant on the needs of your flock of your people Father we do we do love you we do thank you for the example of Christ As our is our Shepherd as our prophet priest and King And we asked Lord, that you would give us great wisdom, that you would take away our foolishness and our stubbornness and our pride, And that you would teach us the wisdom of Christ.

In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.