Peter Allison's sermon, 'The Ultimate Folly,' explores the themes of integrity, knowledge, and the folly of hasty actions as presented in Proverbs 19. He contrasts two lifestyles: one characterized by integrity and poverty, and another by deceit and wealth, emphasizing that true value lies in moral uprightness rather than material wealth. Integrity is defined as moral completeness, akin to having no breaches in one's conscience. The sermon further distinguishes between being quick and acting hastily, advocating for deliberate actions grounded in knowledge. The discussion extends to the ultimate folly of blaming God for personal misfortunes, using biblical examples like Adam and Job. Allison addresses the justice and mercy of God, highlighting Christ's sacrificial role in atoning for sin and the importance of understanding suffering as a means of sanctification. The sermon concludes with a call to embrace trials joyfully, trusting in God's sovereign plan and His redemptive love.

Proverbs chapter 19. I'd like to read the first three verses. Better is the poor, who walks in his integrity, than one who is perverse in his lips and is a fool. Also it is not good for a soul to be without knowledge and he sins who hastens with his feet. The foolishness of a man twists his way and his heart frets against the Lord." May God add His blessing to the reading and hearing of His Word.

Almighty Heavenly Father, do ask now that You would sanctify these sinful lips sanctify these sinful lips and this vessel of clay that the glory may be yours this morning. For You are the way, the truth, and the life. We ask that you would open that way to us as you have revealed it in your scriptures. Through Jesus Christ we pray, Amen. If you ask people what they want, or maybe some more altruistic folks what they want for their children, many will probably tell you that they want a good lifestyle for their children.

They want their children to have a good job, to have sufficient money, so that they can live a good life. A good life. The ultimate folly to these people are the choices that would throw away the chance for a good life as they see it. The choices that would preclude and prevent their children from enjoying a life of goodness, sufficiency. A life of goodness, sufficiency.

So maybe having an education is seen as very important, a foundation for that good life. Now these aren't bad things, all in all. Education is a good thing. Knowledge is very good. Wealth in itself is also a blessing from the Lord.

And we should want to make the most of all of the gifts that God has given to us, all of the opportunities that God has given to us, the talents that He has given to us. We should be good stewards of those opportunities and make the most of them. But this passage gives us a principle or truth in thinking about the good life and our lifestyle. What is a good lifestyle? What is a good life?

And this text says that a good life, a good lifestyle is defined by what we say, not by the amount of money we earn or can spend. It's defined by our speech, our conduct, not the size of the house that we live in or the newness of our cars. The first and second part of this first verse set apart a contrast between two different lifestyles, two different lives, paths of life. But better is the poor who walks in his integrity, then one who is perverse in his lips and is a fool. It's a contrast, a comparison that has a slight twist to it.

It's not quite what we would expect the comparison to be. It has a poor person and somebody who walks in his integrity then you would sort of expect somebody who is perverse and is rich, has wealth. But that's not the comparison that's here. It's the poor, which is a disadvantage. It's a slight disadvantage.

There's no advantage in being poor. So there's a disadvantage there. And somebody who walks in his integrity, there is an advantage. And that is contrasted to somebody who is perverse or crooked in their speech. Somebody who is crooked in their speech, somebody who is cunning or a bit devious, and being a fool, to decided disadvantages.

So you have being poor and walking in integrity, being crooked in your speech and a fool. Of course that is worse than someone who is morally upright and has only a situational or might say circumstantial disadvantage. Poverty is a circumstantial disadvantage. It's not a character flaw, usually. Sometimes it could be the result of one, but not in and of itself.

There's nothing wrong in and of itself with simply being poor. Proverbs 28.6 is a little closer to what we would expect. That Proverbs 28.6 says, �Better is the poor that walks in his integrity than he that is perverse in his ways, though he is rich.� That's the first phrase in that Proverb, 28.6, is identical. And the second one is really what we would expect. But if we look a little bit closer at this, what integrity is, I think we can see what this contrast is being, is this morning.

Integrity is doing according to what we know to be right. It's doing according to what we know to be right. That's to have integrity, to do what we know to be right. It's literally an entire unimpaired state of something. If a component has integrity, that means it doesn't have any flaws or defects in it.

It's complete, it's entire, it's not missing something. It's not missing something crucial that will cause it to fail. If your roof has integrity, then it doesn't leak water. It's complete. And when we speak of the mind, the integrity of the mind, we are then speaking of moral completeness, moral soundness.

To have integrity is not to have a breach in your mind where you do something that you know is wrong, doing something that conflicts with our conscience. To have integrity is to not do things that conflict with our conscience and to have this break in our mind. So that's what it is to walk in integrity. It's something that comprehends, that includes all of our character, all of our moral character. And it especially relates to our interactions and dealings with other people.

To have integrity is to not have any breaks in our conscience, in our dealings with other people, to do what we know to be right. Genesis 20 gives a very interesting nuance though to walking in integrity. Remember this is where Abraham had gone over to Abimelech, and he had gone down to the south and he had said to Sarah that she was Abraham's sister, which she was, it was half truth. She was his half sister. And as a result of that, the king Abimelech took Sarah.

And then God came to Abimelech in a dream and said, Abimelech, you're a dead man. You're a dead man. And Abimelech said, wow, what have I done? And God said, you've taken another man's wife. And he said, well, but he told me she was his sister.

And he said, in the integrity of my heart I have done this. Same word. In the integrity of my heart I had done this. What he was doing was not a break in his conscience. According to what he understood, what he was doing was right.

Even though it actually wasn't right, but he didn't know that. And God acknowledges that he did this in the integrity of his heart. God said, yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. I know that you didn't know that and that you had no idea that what you were doing wasn't right, that you were taking another man's wife. I realized that.

And so that's why I didn't let you touch her, God says. I prevented you from touching another man's wife. So now just restore that wife and he will pray for you and I will heal you. So there is integrity. This man was walking in his integrity and God recognized, God accepted that he was walking in the integrity of his heart, even though he was doing something that wasn't right.

I mean, you could, do you ever say something that turned out to be completely wrong, but you believed that it was right at the time you said it? You believed it was true. That's walking in integrity. And so the comparison here is then between, between somebody who is poor and, and if they're wrong they're innocently wrong. They're innocently wrong.

They're like a bimalak. They're walking according to the integrity of their heart. Even if what they are doing isn't right they don't have an awareness of that and they think, they believe that what they are doing is right. So that's the contrast then. The poor who is walking in his integrity, if he's wrong it's innocently wrong, and that is better than crooked speech.

That's knowingly being somewhat devious and a fool. But in light of this exact same proverb being replicated in chapter 28 verse 6, and in light of the contrast, remember we can often read, often what's in the first part can be implied into the second contrast and what's in the second contrast can be implied back into the first. And sometimes it doesn't always repeat every element. And so I think We can also, in light of this, we can see that this fool is, this crooked or perverse person, is somebody who probably has money as well. And so the contrast then is, it's better to be poor, but to walk in integrity, even if you're innocently wrong or being wrong even innocently wrong then to be somebody who is wealthy but you've gotten it by crooked speech.

There's the contrast this morning. To contrast of lifestyle, to contrast of two ways of living. What is a better life? What's better? It's better to be poor.

And to walk in your integrity than it is to have crooked speech, or to have wealth through crooked speech, through slick talking. In other words, some people might want to achieve a good lifestyle and riches through slick talking. But the Word of God says it's better to walk in your integrity and be poor. To have no impairment to your conscience and what you're doing It's better to be poor and to have a clear conscience Than it is to be wealthy But not have a clear conscience To be rich through slick talking or crooked talking is to be a fool. It's to be a lunatic.

I originally had called this the lifestyle of the lunatic. But a lunatic is somebody who has an impaired mind, who does crazy things, dangerous things, without regard to what is proper or decent or safe. And so the one who is crooked in his lips is a fool. The second folly is living in haste. It is not good for a soul to be without knowledge also.

So this proverb is being connected. There's a second folly of life here, of lifestyle that's being added to the one that was given in the first verse, the second folly. It's not good to be without knowledge and He who hastens with his feet sins. Now, it's not saying that if you are quick and fast, if you hustle, that you're sinning. There is a difference between being quick or fast, being a fast worker, a hard worker.

There's a difference between that kind of quick and fast and being hasty and acting in haste. In the sense it's being used here. These are not the same, so I want to be very clear, we are not talking about people who work fast here, that somehow they are sinning. That's not the case at all, it's probably the opposite. If you are working slowly and indolently, you are probably closer to being sinful than the person who is working quickly.

In the sense that haste is being used here, being hasty is starting before you are ready. Being hasty is starting before you are ready. Being hasty is starting before you are ready to start. It's doing something without the necessary care and thought. That's what it's talking about.

Being quick and fast is simply accomplishing something expeditiously or starting something in a short amount of time. That's good. If you're ready to start, start. And the faster you can start, the better. But being hasty is to start before you are ready to start.

To start before you have put the necessary thought and deliberation and consideration into what you are doing. Before you have thought through the consequences. Remember the wise builder takes into account the cost of the building that he's constructing. So that he doesn't start it and then get halfway through it and not have money. So he doesn't start this project until he is ready to start.

That's the sense of acting hasty here this morning and to act without knowledge. There needs to be time spent to gather the requisite knowledge for any task that we are about to do. If it's a short little task, it may not take a lot of time to gather the knowledge. We may have it off the top of our head and we can quickly act without acting before we are ready. But if it's a large task, if it's a momentous decision that has far-reaching implications and consequences, if it's a decision that or something that we aren't familiar about, Why then Solomon is saying we need to take more time to be deliberate, to gather the necessary information before making a decision.

Joshua in chapter 9 acted in haste to the detriment of Israel when the Gibeonites came to him. The Gibeonites had seen what Joshua and the Israelites and God had done to Ai and to Jericho. And they were like, wow, these are a mighty city. And they didn't stand a chance. The walls fell down flat.

We don't stand a chance. And so we better go figure out a way to save ourselves. And they came, you remember they came to Joshua pretending to have come from a very far away country. They came with worn out shoes and moldy bread, stale bread and clothes that were falling off. And they said, everything was new, you know, this bread was hot when we left our place and our shoes were new and our clothes and all.

And it's so far away that the trip has been so long. But we came because we heard about all your great God and we want to be at peace with you. Joshua was probably a little flattered at that. Joshua made peace with them and the leaders as well. Swore a covenant to be at peace with them.

Only after that did they find that they weren't from a far away country at all, but they were the next up on the campaign list. The Bible says that Joshua did not ask counsel of the Lord. He acted hastily there. He acted before he was ready. He acted before he had the necessary information to make a wise decision.

He acted on incorrect information because he acted hastily. He didn't seek counsel of the Lord. He didn't, as we would say, pray to the Lord first or seek wisdom of other people, as we heard this morning, a good example of doing exactly that and not making It saved a hasty decision. But it's not wrong to be fast. And so I would point out 1 Samuel 17 where David is fighting Goliath.

Goliath has mocked the army of the living God, and David is rightly upset that God has been mocked. And he says, are we just going to allow this pagan to mock God with no consequence? David said, What shall be done for the man who kills this person and takes away the reproach from Israel? For this is an uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God. And It says that David then, you know the story, right, and he ended up going down and going into battle himself as a lad, as a young man who wasn't yet in the army.

The reason we know that is because he was home taking care of the flocks and all his brothers were with the army fighting the Philistines. We know that Israelite men went into the army at age 20 they became able to go. So David is before 20 he might be as young as 17 and the Philistine arose, Goliath arose and went out to meet David and it says that David hurried, He made haste. When he saw that Philistine come out, David made haste. He went and took five stones and the rest.

But David hurried. He made haste. He wasn't acting. It's not what that verse is talking about here, David's action, and acting quickly, acting with haste. It is the same word but a different sense so I'm not talking this morning.

We're not talking about acting quickly We're talking about acting before we have the knowledge before we are ready to act. Folly of haste gives perpetuity to ignorance. It makes it last. Folly of haste. A soul that acts in haste acts without knowledge.

It is not good for a soul, the Bible says here, to be without knowledge. Those who are without knowledge don't know how to please God. A soul without knowledge walks in darkness. A soul without knowledge doesn't know anything of the spiritual disciplines. A soul without knowledge doesn't know where to turn for counsel.

It doesn't know where the truth is found. It doesn't know how to live to the glory of God. It doesn't know how to live to the glory of God. It doesn't know how to live in a way that pleases the Lord. In 2 Kings, after The king of Assyria had conquered All the all the northern tribes and he took all the them carted them all away them all away as it was typical of a country that was conquered.

You took all the people away and you put them in a foreign land where they didn't know anybody, didn't know anything, didn't have anything. They were essentially reduced to slavery. And then you would bring other people from other countries that you had conquered over to the first land and put them there. And so you just discombobulated everybody, stirred it up and you broke up then the ability of the people to resist and to fight. You broke up their will, you broke up their resources, you broke up their familiarity with the home turf and so on.

So it's a very common practice and in the king of Assyria had done this with the northern tribes. And he put people in there from Babylon and all sorts of other places, and these people didn't know, they had no knowledge of the ways of the Lord. And lions were killing them. God sent lions in among them because these people were living in the land of Israel, but they didn't know any better. They didn't know how to worship the true and living God.

They were worshiping idols. And so these people came to the king of Assyria and they said, well the nations that you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria don't know the rituals of the God of this land and therefore he sent lions among us and they are killing us because we don't know, we don't have knowledge. And so the king of Assyria said, well, he gave directions that some priests should be, some Levites should be sent back to the land of Israel to teach these Samaritans how to follow the ways of the Lord. And so they did. They went back and they taught them.

And then the lions stopped. Those who are without knowledge don't know how to please the Lord, don't know how to walk in His ways, don't know how to walk in ways that are pleasing to Him, and don't know that they're not walking in ways that please the Lord. Those who lack knowledge, there's no support in trouble. They don't know what to do in times of affliction other than just keep a stiff upper lip. They don't know that God chastens those that He loves.

They don't know how to glory in tribulation, knowing the fruit that the good shepherd brings through the trials that he sends. The psalmist said in Psalm 31, I said in my haste I am cut off from before your eyes to the Lord. Nevertheless, the psalmist says, You heard the voice of my supplications when I cried to you." The psalmist in his haste said, I was cut off from the Lord. He spoke too soon. Without knowledge, the Lord was using a tribulation to sanctify him.

And so those who are without knowledge when they come into difficult times, there are three things that can happen. They can despise the chastening. They can just pretend it doesn't exist, look down upon it, despise it. They can faint under it. You just give up and say I can't do it this anymore I and just faint fall down or they can become hardened in it, become calloused, angry, bitter against God.

Those who don't have knowledge, don't know about the armor of God, how to be protected from the fiery darts of the evil one. They're ignorant of the schemes of Satan and thus easy prey to him. They don't know how to mortify sin, they don't know how to engage in spiritual warfare, how to resist Satan, how to overcome the world. Hosea speaks of God's people as saying They perish for lack of knowledge. That's why it's not good for a soul to be without knowledge.

That's not just talking about a non-material entity, but the Bible uses the word soul to describe us. God breathed into Adam the breath of life and he became a living soul, a body and a spirit joined together. So it's not good for a soul to be without knowledge. We perish for lack of knowledge. To be without knowledge is to be ignorant of God's remedy for sin.

To be ignorant of God's remedy for sin means someone without knowledge can't come to Christ. So he's going to devise his own schemes, his own ways of seeking to appease in the qualms of his conscience. He's going to devise his own remedies for sin. Without knowledge, we as People are no different than animals. We are like beasts.

The while he lived he blessed his soul and men will praise you when you do well to yourself. He will go to the generation of his fathers, they will never see his light. Man that is in honor and doesn't understand, even if he has honor and doesn't understand, is like the beast, beast that perish." Psalm 49, men even with honor who lack understanding, are just like beasts that die." There are several other Proverbs that speak to this that we'll get to, Lord willing, in the future. But Proverbs 21.5 says, the thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness, but of everyone that is hasty only to want. Haste.

You've heard the haste makes waste. Well, that's right here in the Bible. Everyone that is hasty tends to want, to lack, through waste. Proverbs 28 20, a faithful man will abound with blessings, but he that makes haste to be rich shall not be innocent. There's the sense of verse 1, the one who is perverse in his lips.

He who makes haste to be rich shall not be innocent. Proverbs 29.20, See a man that is hasty in his words, there is more hope of a fool than of him. Hasty in words means to be speaking without thought, without the proper thought, without knowing about what we are about to speak, or knowing whereof we are about to speak. Hasty with our words, speaking before we thought through what we are going to say. We are to be those who are just the opposite.

We are to be those who are quick to hear, and slow to speak, and slow to anger. It's not good for a soul to be without knowledge, and he sins who hastens with his feet. But The ultimate folly, the ultimate folly, these are bad follies, but the ultimate folly is to blame God. The foolishness of a man twists his way and his heart frets against the Lord. The foolishness of a man twists his way.

A man makes a mistake. He does something and gets into trouble. And then in his folly frets against God. His heart rages against God. Blame shifting.

Excusing our failures by thinking that they are caused by someone else's failures. But the ultimate folly is to think that our failures, or the things that happen to us, are to blame God for them. Say that they are His fault, that we can't do what we wanted to do. That's what Adam did, if you remember. When God came to him in the Garden of Eden, God said to him, Adam, where are you?

Adam, where are you? Adam was hiding. He was ashamed of what he had done. And God asked him, who told you that you were naked? Who told you?

Have you eaten of the tree that I commanded you not to eat? Adam didn't say, yes, I sinned. Adam said, well, the woman that you gave me, she's the one that gave it to me. He tried to blame God. The woman that you gave me didn't just blame his wife, but he wanted to blame God Himself being responsible for what he had done.

That's the ultimate folly. To rage against God. To become angry with God, like Job's wife wanted Job to do. God has brought all this tragedy upon you. Job has taken away all your wealth and Job was a very wealthy man.

Thousands of Animals. That's a lot of wealth. We don't think of wealth in terms of animals, but just think, try to feed, try to buy food for 5, 000 goats. Try to buy food for 2, 000 camel and 10, 000 sheep. Just try to buy food for one day for that many animals, or provide for their care.

Job was a very wealthy man to have all this, and great gold in abundance, and a great family. He's a very wealthy man, and God took every bit of it. And then God took his health. He took his children. Every one of his children died.

I know of only one other person who lost all of their children. There was a Christian Japanese woman bombing on Hiroshima. All three sons were killed. That's a tremendous loss in many people. Even if just losing one child would be angry with God, bitter, hardened against what God has done to them.

But that's the ultimate folly. How should we, in the wake of great tragedy, how should we understand it? People ask, where was God? Whenever there's great loss, great unspeakable tragedy, people inevitably, even I think people that should know better ask, well where was God? Why didn't He prevent it?

Why did He allow All these children like at that church in Texas a while ago, are people to be killed. Why do these unspeakable tragedies happen? They ask to good people, to people that seem to be good. Well, The Bible gives us the knowledge to understand how to view these situations. The first knowledge that the Bible gives us is that all people have sinned.

We have all sinned. There is none righteous, no not one. So the first thing that we need to know is that bad things don't happen to good people. There are no good people. When Jesus was called good, Jesus said, why do you call me good?

There is none good but God. Bad things don't happen to good people. Bad things only happen to bad people. We are all bad people. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

There is none who understands. There is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are all unprofitable. There is none that does good, no, not one.

So bad things don't happen to good people. Secondly, the Scriptures tell us that the wages of sin is death. Those wages must be paid. There is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood. There is no forgiveness without death.

God is just. God is just. So the wages of sin is death. We all deserve to die. And so if somebody dies, we can't say that God was unjust in taking that life.

Because we all deserve to die. The scriptures also tell us though that God is good, that He's merciful and that He's abounding in love. Given that all have sinned and given that the wages of sin is death, the real wonder is that any of us is alive. Do you wonder about that? Do you marvel at that goodness of God that you are alive this morning?

Because you have sinned and you deserve to die, but you're not. And the only reason you're not is because God is abounding in loving kindness. The fact that some people live to be 80 or 90 or 100 before they die and others only live to be 6 months or not even born yet and they die, God takes them. God is not unjust in that. That unborn baby that died was a sinner.

Deserve to die just like all of us. If it's pure justice that you want, no one would be alive. But praise God for His grace and His mercy that he is patient, that he is slow to anger. Just like he told Moses, the Lord Jehovah passed before Moses when Moses asked to see his glory and proclaimed Jehovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression of sin, but who will By no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children, and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. Now God is just.

He doesn't clear the guilty, but He does forgive iniquity. How is He just? Because the Scriptures also teach us. From the Scriptures we learn the knowledge that On the cross Christ was afflicted by the Father and God poured out His wrath on Christ for our sin. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten by God.

Christ was stricken by the Father on the cross He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities that chastisement of our peace Was upon him and with his stripes We are healed All we like sheep have gone astray and have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, he didn't open his mouth. It pleased the Lord to bruise him it pleased the Lord to do it This wasn't something that God merely allowed to happen. This was something that God ordained to happen This was something that God brought to pass in the pleasure of His own will.

It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He hath put Him to grief. When you shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand." Yes, God was pleased to bruise Christ. Scripture tells us, we get the knowledge, fourthly or fifthly, that God ordained the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. You see, if we're going to rightly understand the love of God, how when he declared to Moses, I am abounding in loving kindness and tender mercy.

If we need to rightly understand the love of God, then we need to understand that the crucifixion, Christ's work on the cross, was not an accident, that God never intended or hoped wouldn't happen. Neither was it just something that God permitted to happen, as if it was being driven by someone else and God just said, well, I'm not going to stop it. No, it was ordained by God. Scripture tells us that God decreed the death of his son because he loved the world so much That whosoever believes on Him should not perish. His love supplies what his justice demands.

At the same time we have to remember that God's ordaining of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ does nothing to relieve the responsibility of those who did it. It does nothing to relieve our guilt of our responsibility. Both are true. The fact that God ordained it doesn't diminish the guilt of the wicked people that God used as instruments of his wrath. Both are true.

And when Paul asks the rhetorical question, well then how can you find fault if God has ordained it? How can you find fault? Paul's answer is, what if God wants to demonstrate His mercy and does something? Peter said, You men of Israel, hear the words, Jesus of Nazareth, A man approved by God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you. Him, this person, was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." This is the counsel of God who determines all things according to His will, who works all things after the counsel of His will.

This is how the disciples prayed about things, that when they happened, when persecution arose against them, Peter in his prayer said, For in this city they were gathered against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, Both Herod and Pontius Pilate. They were gathered together against the servant whom you anointed. So the great wonder then, The great wonder is not why terrible tragedies happen to wicked people. Wicked people deserve terrible tragedies. The great wonder is that all This humiliation, this physical abuse, this emotional anguish, this excruciating pain and death that Christ endured was what we deserved.

He was bearing God's wrath in our place. The cross, His blood was poured out as a vicarious, a living sacrifice substitute for our blood. At the cross, we see the justice of God demanding a blood sacrifice for the remission of sins. We see the love of God providing that sacrifice with with His spotless Lamb of God. We see God pouring out His wrath on His sinless Son, His wrath for our sin.

So the only person that has a right to complain about God's justice in taking a life is His Son Jesus Christ. But Christ went willingly to the cross. Christ volunteered. He willingly poured out His life. He did it of His own initiative.

He said, no man takes my life. No one takes my life. I lay my life down, that I may take it again. No man takes my life. I lay it down and I take it back myself." Scripture tells us also, gives us the knowledge that God only chastens those whom He loves.

So one might say, well, if Christ has borne all this wrath of God, then why is there suffering left for us? Scripture gives us that knowledge as well. It tells us that we still have sin dwelling in us. That we aren't yet complete, we're not perfect. That's the will of God for us, our sanctification, that we might be complete, but we're not there yet.

Trials and tribulations are the means, or they're one means by which the Holy Spirit works patience and works fruit in us so that we become more and more conformed to Christ's image. And that's why James tells us that we should count it a joy when we fall into various trials, knowing that they are for our good, that they will bring good to us out of them. They are a sign that God loves us. Sometimes they are given as a displeasure of his sin that we have done, but it is a displeasure that in that displeasure he still loves us. He is seeking to restore us, to recover us, and he will.

And He will. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked of Him. For whom the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges every son whom He receives. He disciplines us for our good that we may share in His holiness. And it's painful, yes, but afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to all those who have been trained by it.

Now, this still can raise a difficult question to how we understand the sovereignty of God in these afflictions and our responsibility? How do we put these things together? Well, we have to first remember we live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, and God and the Scriptures teach both of them, so we need to simply believe the Word of God, to believe that both are true, and that they are not in any way contradictory or conflicting principles. Victory or conflicting principles. In fact, we have very similar or say an analogous thing going on.

Now that we have computers, they make computers that can beat humans in chess. The computers can beat the very best humans in chess. These computers are, in one sense, they are making decisions. They are deciding where to move a chess piece. No person could do what they are doing.

You put a person in their place and they wouldn't be able to do it. So it's not like somebody is standing there behind them telling them what to do, they are figuring out what to do and doing it in such a way that they are beating other humans. And yet, so they are in a sense making decisions about something very complicated and yet they are doing nothing but what they've been programmed to do. They're just following a script that they've been, so you can say they're doing nothing but what they've been programmed to do. And Now that's a human analogy.

That's what we can do. How much greater is God than our engineers? Far greater. And so it's certainly not impossible for Him to do that, for Him to have people who can freely make choices, who can follow, who can choose according to their will, and have liberty of their will. And we do.

And yet at the same time do nothing except what God has ordained for us to do. Prayer changes things. Not because it changes what God has decreed to do from before the foundation of the world, but it changes things from what would have happened if we hadn't prayed. It results in a different outcome, because the prayers of the saints are ordained by God just like everything else. God has ordained the prayers of His people to be the means by which He accomplishes His purposes.

So in decreeing events, He decrees both the event itself and the means to which that will bring that event. Great tragedies can lead us to ask like Habakkuk did. God said he was going to bring this judgment on the line of visual And he would use Nebuchadnezzar in his back. He said, Lord, how can you use this guy? Yes, I know we're wicked, but he's way worse.

How can you use him to judge us? How is that? How can that be? And God's answer to him was that the just shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith in God.

No one receives one whit more of punishment than what they deserve and often far less in this life. The real tragedy, the ultimate folly, is those who die outside of Christ because their trials are a foretaste of God's wrath. Their death then represents the end of His patience, the end of His forbearance, the end of the day of grace. But even in this, God is still just and God is still loving. Abraham expressed his faith in the justice and the mercy and the grace of God as God was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain and he said, shall not the judge, shall not the judge of all the earth do right.

See death is a solemn reminder of the reality of our sin and the reality of God's wrath upon it. When God takes the life even of an unborn innocent baby, it is a reminder that no one is innocent in His sight. No one is innocent in His sight. The ultimate folly is to rage against God, against God's justice. We're a nation that has mocked God's law and that has scorned His kindness.

We've banned the mention of his name from our schools, except unless it's in vain. We've banned his remembrance from the public square. We've used his gifts to persecute his bride and kill his children. It's really the height of arrogance, the height of folly, the ultimate folly to ask where God is or why He's forsaken us. What right do we have to be insulted or to be surprised when God replies in righteous fury and destroys Even our children in his indignation.

That is the the ultimate folly Heavenly Father we thank you for the knowledge of your Word, for the plan of redemption. We thank you for revealing to us in your Word Christ, our Savior, for revealing His sacrifice, for revealing the way of salvation. We thank You for bringing that word to us. We thank You for Your Holy Spirit that opens our eyes that we may see and behold you as you are revealed in your scriptures, that we may know you in the power of your love and the power of your redemption. Father, we ask that you would forever guard us from ever fretting against you, or against your purposes, or against what you bring to pass in our life.

For Lord, we know that you do love us and that you are yet but sanctifying us. So Lord we pray that you will give us knowledge and wisdom to thank you, to count our trials a joy, to pray for those who persecute us, to bless and not to curse. Lord, we can only do this by the supernatural work of your Holy Spirit in us. And this we ask for through Jesus Christ. Amen.