Proverbs - Wisdom For Troubled Times

Well, we're going to have 2 readings this morning and the first is Proverbs 11 22, just 1 proverb. And if you are in a home group in the church, chances are you've been reading this together over the past couple of weeks. And then after that, there's gonna be a reading from Luke's gospel. So you can either follow on the screen or if you've got your own bible, you can turn to Proverbs 11, and here is verse 22.

Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion. Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion. And then we've got a reading from from Luke 15, and we're gonna be reading Luke 15 verse 11 to 24. Jesus continued, there was a man who had 2 sons. The younger 1 said to his father, father give my share, give me my share of the estate, so he divided his property between them.

Not long after that, the youngest son got together all he had set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, There was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating. But no 1 gave him anything.

When he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have food to spare and here I am starving to death. I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like 1 of your hired servants. So he got up and went to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, His father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son through his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants quick, Bring the best row and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And so they began to celebrate.

Thanks, Tom. My name is Pete Woodcock, and I'm 1 of the pastors of the church, we're working our way through proverbs, and we come to this fantastic little 1 here. Been looking forward to preaching this all my life. But just before that, the monster mash, bash, we're we're gonna try and hopefully have it on online. I'm looking at 2 people.

Because Ben's gonna do a little service at the end at about 7 o'clock. And there's 2 really good videos that that we've done in in in sort of a drama thing of of the scriptures, and Ben's doing a little a little talk as well. It won't be long, but I really want you if you're not coming to to to see that as well. And it's it would might be a good opportunity to to invite friends to to that because it will be very simple, very clearly, explaining the Christian message and how Jesus is is the 1 we we need in our life. So do remember that.

Let me just pray. Father help me now, Help us all, help me speak truth clearly, but help us to hear truth with our ears, right to our hearts we pray in Jesus' name, amen. So it's proverbs 11 22. We're just looking at this 1 1 little proverb like a gold ring in a pig's snout. It's a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.

The older version is quite nice as well. The authorized it says, as a jewel of gold in a swine snout. So a fair woman, which is without discretion. If you think about fairy tales, I mean, there's loads and loads that obviously are fairy tales, but lots of things about fairy tales are that people are suddenly revealed to be something other than what you thought they were or, you know, who they were claiming to be. There's a sort of revelation Usually at the end but someone half halfway through.

So, you know, the granny in red riding hood who's got big teeth and hairy arms. Suddenly she's revealed to be the wolf. Yeah? It's that sort of thing. Or the prince discovers that Cinderella who's who's an abused servant is the beautiful 1 that that he danced with at the ball.

This is sort of revealing, isn't or the beautiful queen and she's gorgeous in Snow White is actually an ugly monster. She looks good but she's a murderous monster. Or the frog is a prince or the the beast in beauty and the beast is a prince, I I think I've never seen that 1. But he's I think he's a nice prince in the end and they fall in love and all that stuff. Well, that's the sort of thing that you've got going on in this 1 little sentence.

It's a little sentence. It's it's packed with vivid vivid imagery and really powerful imagery. Look at it again. Verse 22, like a gold ring in a pig's snout, is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion. As a jewel of gold in swine snout.

So is a fair woman, which is without discretion. I think you could sum this up. As beauty and the beast. You've got beauty here and you've got a beast. It may be different to the beauty and the beast story, but you've got beauty and the beast.

A little fairy tale here warning us about something that's absolutely vital. A fairy tale, a 1 line drama, that I hope you'll see is just magnificent and shows you the word of God is just so full of deep stuff. So let me just introduce you to the cast. First of all, the gold ring, like a gold ring or a jewel of gold. Now we're talking something here that probably went in in a nose.

The use of that word gold ring if you work your way through the bible is usually a very beautiful woman who's not just adorned but adorned by a man. It's it's a bit like a betrothal, you know, a engagement ring or a wedding ring. So it's signifying betrothal, you belong to someone, marriage. That's the sort of stuff that going on here. And of course in many cultures including our own culture here, a beautiful gold ring is part of the marriage ceremony.

We put it on a finger. Some put it in the nose as they did in those days or sometimes even in the ear. And and but it's it's signifying, you belong to someone, you're beautiful, you're adorned. So in the time of writing proper, The mention of a gold ring, it would remind us of a a beautiful woman dressed up for her her wedding day, it's gold, it's precious, it's a beautiful thing. So there's the first cast member.

Second cast member is a pig. Or a swine, like a gold ring in a peaked snout or like a jewel of gold in a swine snout. Now, this is harder for us to get if we're English. If you come from other cultures, it it may well be it may well be easier for you to get. But particularly the English or particularly the britches.

We love pigs. I love pigs. I think they're just amazing animals. I'd go out of my way to look at pig. We we we think of them as cute and fun and we we get our kids to go and look at them.

We have pepper pig, you know. So they're sort of cute. M and S sell probably the best sweet out, what's it called? Percy pig. And then you have Percy pig at his mates.

We we sort of like pigs. Now from those of you from other cultures, you might think we're weird and I think we are because we mustn't think of the pig here as a cute little animal. Swine is a better word. So if you're if you're British, think of swine. If I call you 8 swine.

You know, it it's got that sort of thing. It's meant to be a beast. It's meant to be monstrous, not cute. Swine in the bible are unclean under the law of Moses. The religious laws say stay away from the pig Yeah.

Don't touch it. Don't look at it. Don't certainly don't eat it. Pigs are the essence of uncleanness. Stay away from it like you would stay away from COVID 19.

It's a beast. That's the imagery you've got to get here. Or if I'm sorry to be cruder here, but it would be more like saying like a gold ring in a dog muck. That's the sort of feel the pig has got here. If you've got that, then then that gets you.

Is that right? Is that right? Now the snout then of the pig is in fact the dirtiest end of the pig. That might surprise you. Because the snout pushes into the muck deliberately and pushes into the filth.

Under natural conditions, an ordinary pig will spend 8 hours of its waking life with its nose in filth, in its own filth as well, rootling around for food. So that's your pig. You got your gold ring, you got your pig. Now you got your beautiful woman. Now, there's not too much to say about her.

She's beautiful. At least on the outside, she's a beautiful woman. She's pretty. She's fair. She's nice to look at.

She's gorgeous. You would see her if she enters the room and you would be attracted to her in many ways. Now, I know what's going on with women here. You're panicking and thinking, I'm gonna pretend my baby needs, my I'm gonna get out and go to the creche. Or you're gonna look at your phone or do something.

This this proverb is not just for women, so don't panic. I'm not just gonna have a go at women. K? This is for all. You just gotta remember, Proverbs was originally written as a father to a son, and so he uses the thing that's going to be attractive to the boy, particularly attractive in finding a mate or finding someone to marry.

You see what's going on? So we're talking about outward things that you're acted too. So it's not just for women, so don't panic. You can stay in. You don't have to pinch your baby and go out.

Here's the next cast member, if we can call it that. I'm just introducing you to the cast, the lack of discretion. Now the Hebrew word for discretion means good taste, good judgment, behaving correctly at the correct time, discernment, understanding what is right and wrong, proper behavior. Actually, it even carries with its sanity that you're a sane person. You're not insane.

And it carries with it an intelligence of knowing what to do, the right thing to do. So a lack of discernment is the opposite to that. It's someone who rejects good sense. Rejects wisdom, reject rejects right behavior and will behave wrong So you got it. You got the cast members to this little 1 line drama.

Like a gold ring in a pig's snout, it's a beautiful woman who shows no discretion. Beautiful women, a gold ring is out of place in a pig's snout. Yeah? And a beautiful woman is out of place if she has no discretion, no inner beauty. So there's the story.

We have beauty, gold ring, beautiful woman, and we have beast, a pig snout. No discretion. You see it? It's nice little drama. Now let's get into it.

Here's my first point. Gold ring or not, a pig is a pig. Gold ring or not, a pig is a pig. The gold ring in a pig changes nothing. It's still a pig.

You can dress up a pig and it's a pig dressed up. It doesn't change its nature. 1 grunt and you realize it's still a pig, Even if you're looking at the gold ring, a pig with jewelry is still going to roll in the mud And even if you put a gold ring in its snout, it's gonna spend 8 hours rutling through the filth. Yeah? Gold ring or not, it changes nothing.

The jury, it may be beautiful, it may be a beautiful gold ring, but it actually doesn't really make the pig more attractive. The gold ring may be beautiful but it's grossly insufficient in changing a pig's nature. It won't. It's superficial. It's still a beast.

Here's a verse from the new testament. This is Peter, a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, writing after Jesus had died, and risen again in the scriptures. And he's writing about people that pretended to be Christians And on the outside, they might have been looking like Christians but they return, they they they never had they were never changed inside. Look at this, it just just shows you. Of them, the proverbs are true, a dog returns to its vomit.

And a sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud. In other words, you can dress up at a Christian for a little while. But in the end, like the sow, you'll go back to wallowing in the mud. You can pretend to be a follower of Christ, the child of Christ. But like a dog when it vomits, it licks up its sick.

People go back to their old way of life. It's a very, very strong warning. If you're not changed inside, the outside does nothing. And it's the same with a beautiful woman. She may be beautiful on the outside, but if there's no inner beauty, it doesn't matter how beautiful she is.

She's still a pig. She still lacks discretion. No gold ring, no amount of hair products, no amount of possession, No high ranking position. No outward power can beautify someone. And nor does it compensate in the end for the ugliness of the inner person?

What is the heart like is the question? What is the inner person all about? What is the nature inside? Here's Peter again in his first letter. And he's writing about Christian women who are married to non Christian men.

And there's all kinds of arguments here, but I want you to see the main point that I'm making. Look at it, it says this. He says, your beauty should not come from outward adornment, like a gold ring, such as elaborate hairstyles and wearing of gold jewelry. Or fine clothing. Rather, it should be that your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.

For this is the way the holy women of the past, who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. You see, showing the difference between outward adornment and inward beauty that God likes. Now, of course, that principle applies to men and women and children. You know what it is when you see a little cute child and they look little, you know, they look nice and cute and you speak to them and they look sweet and they open their mouth and it's sometimes shocking, isn't it? They're little monsters or or their behavior.

They don't say thank you. They just grab. There's no discretion. There's no beauty in They're outwardly lovely but there's no respect for their elders. There's no kindness.

They're truly monsters. And sometimes you say, that child is a monster, but he or she may look beautiful. All the external beauty all the riches, all the fancy clothes, all the expensive cars, all the bling that you can get, all the outward awards, all the gold medals, all the Oscars doesn't change a pig. You can dress a person up with religion. It doesn't change a pig.

You can put them in choir robes and frilly things. It doesn't change a pig. It's what's on the inside. Do they hear God? Do they honor God?

Do they love the lord? Do they serve him? Do they fear him? Are they gathering lots of gold rings where you have an ever increasing wardrobe of bling to cover up the ugly pig inside. Don't let a gold ring fool you.

Don't be fooled or fool yourself that a gold ring will make you beautiful. I mean, let's be honest, If you really looked at a pig with a gold ring in it, would you marry it? You might say, well, I fell for that 1. Well, sorry for you. Some some people have, unfortunately, haven't they?

And actually you have. You looked at the outward, the gold ring, and realized he married a pig. And they went back to their vomit. We live in a world that is obsessed with the outward and so fooled by it. We love the famous.

We love the beautiful. We love the Hollywood scars, gold medal winning people. We put them on a pedestal. We want to be like them. We listen to them.

We spend hours looking in the mirror. And then when we walk past the reflection in a shot, if you if you see people, you know, they're walking along and they see their reflection and then suddenly going like this. It's just a hair. If we spent more time with our soul, with listening to those who were really truly beautiful, to listening to the word of God, to listening to the proverbs, to listening to women that are adorned inside to men that know Christ. Maybe we'd be more beautiful.

Maybe we'd be more attractive. Jesus said to a very very religious man, it's not your outward trappings and all your religious garb. You must be born again. We were hearing that about Luther, Martin Luther on reformation day, which is today. Martin Luther did all the outward religious stuff.

He went to Rome. He walked around Rome on his knees. He walked up the steps that Christ was supposed to have walked up, they're not, but that's what they were saying, the church which was so ugly at the day. And he walked up those I've walked up those steps and got told off and sent off them but that's another story. But he walked up them on his knees and and he did all the outward performance, but he didn't know God until he was born again and understood what Jesus Christ had done for him on the cross.

That's my first point then. A gold ring. A gold ring or no gold ring doesn't change a pig's character, you need God inside you. Here's my second point. Which is the same as the third point, by the way, but let's do the second point first.

A pig snout is no place for a gold ring. This is part 1. A pig's snout is no place for a gold ring. You don't put something beautiful and precious in a dirty place, do you? A pig's snout is not meant for a gold ring.

A swine snout, don't put a gold ring there. It's not meant for that. Can I talk to you at the moment? If you're not what you would consider a follower of Jesus. You know, you might call yourself a Christian in the sense that you love the morals and all of that, but you've never really been like Luther born again.

You're not really understood trusting Christ to take your sin. You're you're you're not the follower of Jesus in that sense. Can I can I just talk to you? This is a point for you. A pig snout is no place for a gold ring I want to say to you.

Can I ask you this, where are you? Where are you? The bible says that you're made in the image of God. That's how special you are. The bible says, really, that you are the jewel of the universe.

You were made in the image of God. In Genesis chapter 1, there's a very beautiful creation story. I don't know if you watched He's not my great it's not 1 I admire that greatly, but Brian Cox, professor Brian Cox's new new series universe. I had to turn it off in the end. He's just stealing all, he talks about in the beginning, he talks about God and all of that stuff, but he ends up with saying basically, we're only just dust.

Well, the thing about Genesis is that God took dust and made it into a duel. In Genesis 1, God is making light and dark and day, and night, and water, and land, and sky and earth and plants and trees and sun and moon and all living creatures. It's breathtakingly beautiful. But at the pinnacle of the breathtaking beauty, even makes God himself say, Wow. That's very good.

Everything else is good, but whack the pinnacle. That's very good. It's people male and female made in the image of God, the jewel on the top, the jewel made to have an intimate friendship with the living God like a gold ring, and all that I've told you that signifies, betrothal, and marriage, and humans were meant to be in friendship with God that was intimate. They were meant to walk with him and talk with him and to love him and to obey him. They were meant to go into God's world and to God's word to do God's work with God by their side It's all the imagery of betrothal and marriage and intimacy But as we saw last week, if you were here, about Adam and Eve, our parents, the representatives of the human race, They rejected the loving authority of God.

But where did it get them? Well, you pick up the story in Genesis 3. Look where it got them. Just look at this. The man and his wife, Adam and Eve, heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the cool of the day and they hid.

That is not where they were supposed to be in hiding. They were supposed to hear the sound of the Lord God walking in the cool of the day and go, my love, there you are here. Over here, let's walk together, let's talk together. We were created for that intimacy to walk in the cool of the day, and tell our our plans for the next day and what we've done today, and it's like coming home from work, where a where a husband and wife sit down for meal and they they chat over their day and and their issues and their problems and their loves and their delight. Oh, I should have heard a really great joke let me tell you and they're laughing to get split up another sausage.

Oh, no. Not sausage. That's a pig. A vegetarian sausage. And and and oh, yes.

Oh, you know, small it? What did you do? Oh, did our daughter do that? That's hilarious. Oh, that was tough.

There's intimacy and talking and but when they hear God now, they're like a gold ring and a pig's now, they hide. From the Lord God among the trees of the garden, but the Lord called to the man. Where are you? Where are you? And that's what I'm asking you.

Who are not a follower of Jesus. Where are you? Made to know God a precious jewel made in the image of God? Are you there? Are you hiding somewhere?

Like a peak snout, you shouldn't be there. Crusted and filthy perhaps dragged into modern mire Are you dragging what is made in the image of God through the atheistic philosophy that says you're only an accident, you're only star dust and nothing more. Are you dragging what you are into a philosophy that's ugly and barren and void? And Or are you a modern narcissistic person looking at your own reflection and trying to find yourself in your own reflection? You're in the wrong snout.

You're made in the image of God, male, and female. Jesus tells the story that that Tom read to us. I mean, there's a lot in the story, but it's just, you know, so it's about 2 sons really, but and they're both lost, but the first son who is lost, you you have that an amazing story that Jesus told, and there's this precious son who's given his precious inheritance by the living father. He's a son who was made. For the rich joy of being in friendship with his loving father, enjoying expanding their inheritance and their properties and working together.

He was made for that. But he rejects the father and he he leaves the father, and where does he end up? Look at it. He ends up envying pigs. He's where he shouldn't be.

So he went and hired himself out as a citizen of that country who sent him to his fields to feed pigs to the monster to the beast. He's a beautiful son, but he's with a beast. He longed. Look, he longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating. No 1 gave him anything.

He's on his hands and his knees and he's got his nose in the pig food. He's turned into a beast, and yet he was the son that's supposed to live with the father. Now the story goes on, And that son comes to his senses and he returns to the father and he's hoping that he might get a little bit of pity from his father. Pity enough to make him a servant. But look what happens when he returns.

Look at these words. The son said to the father, father I have sinned against heaven and against you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son, but the father said to his servant, quick. Look look what he says, quick. Bring the best robe, put it on him, Put a ring, it's a gold ring. Put a ring on his finger, and sandals on his feet.

And bring the fatted calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate for this son of mine was dead. He had his nose in the big food. He was where he shouldn't have been. He was over the side of death instead of the place of life.

His son of mine was dead and he's alive again. He was lost and he's found He's come back the treasure. He's a son again. So my question is, If you're not a follower of Jesus, you've never given your life to Jesus. Where are you?

Where are you? Where are you shoving your snout What are you pushing it in? What philosophy? What thinking? You're trying to get more treasure to make yourself look better Or have you ever come back and known what it is to be put on the finger of God That's my second point.

Here's my third point. A pig snout is no place for a gold ring part 2. Christian, I'm talking to now. Those of you that follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know what you are in Christ?

You're a treasure. You are a precious jewel. The father god has loved you before the foundation of the world. God, the son, came to seek and to save you from the mire and the muck of sin by shedding his blood, by giving his life by paying the price for you. God, the Holy Spirit dwells in you so that you are being made into the temple of the living God.

You've been brought back from the pig food to the celebrating house of God. When you turned and if you read the rest of Luke 15, when you turned when the boy came to his senses and came back to the father, not only was there a celebration, there is a celebration in heaven at 1 sinner. God is clapping. God is on his feet. There's a goal.

The Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ is celebrating. He saved. The sun has come back. The sun has come back. Get that ring on a finger.

He's mine. That's what's happening. That's what you are, Christian. And the holy spirit is working in you, the fruit of the spirit. Working in you love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and self control.

He's working the spirit lives in you. Christian, you are being beautified. By the spirit to be the bride, none other than the bride, betrothed to the Christ, the king of the universe. You are a ring on his finger. You are a treasured possession the Bible says.

You are a holy people belonging to God. You are a son of God in the family of God, and able to be called God, Father, dad. You do not belong in a pig snout. You don't belong there. In Ephesians, a letter that Paul writes to Christians, he says the Holy Spirit has sealed you.

And that seal word is like a gold ring. I mean, there's a lot of in it. I can't talk about it all. But it guarantees it's like like a ring saying, I'm gonna marry this woman. The God is yours and you you are God's.

God, the Holy Spirit is a seal on you, if you're a Christian. A ring of God's wonderful salvation, redempt and love. Future blessing. We're gonna get married. It's his promise.

So Christian, listen. You have the gold ring of the Holy Spirit. Are you making him look at things he doesn't wanna look at? Are you taking the holy spirit and making him look at things he doesn't want to look at? Are you putting the spirit in a snout of a beast of filth?

Are you dragging him through the mire Does he have to hear things from your lips? He does not want to hear Does he have to be involved in things? He does not want to be involved in? Is your life a pig snout pushing none other than the holy spirit through the Maya. Look at Ephesians chapter 4.

It's the end of the chapter. Look at this verse 30 here. And do not he says, grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Then he says, get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling slander along with every form of malice, be kind and compassionate to 1 another forgiving each other just as Christ forgave you. But do not grieve the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is a precious gold ring given to you. As a guarantee of heaven for you, and he's sensitive. He's a jewel. He is the 1 that guided you to Christ. He is the 1 that opened your eyes and ears to the voice of God so that you could hear Jesus calling you.

He is the 1 that wooed you by the love of God in Christ. He is always with you. He is a guarantee. He will not leave you. He is your comfort, he is your seal, he is your guarantee, so don't grieve him.

By dragging him through some ungodliness in your life. The word grief is a very strong word here. Distress, sadness, severe sorrow. You know what it's like. And you've lost a loved 1?

You're broken. Aren't you? You know, you you we know what it's like to grieve. Well, the Holy Notice this. The Holy Spirit so say he doesn't he's not angry at you.

He doesn't stomp away from you. He's just broken. It's sad. God won't leave you. He won't lose his deposit.

But are you dragging the holy spirit through the muck and mire. No wonder he's grieved. He's always enjoyed the pure, gentle, loving company of the father and the son for all eternity. And he's with you, but are you a snout a pig snout. I mean, I won't go through them all probably because they're too long, but just think of the fruit of spirit, that the spirit is trying to grow in you.

Love. You know the love of God. He's shown you the love of God. You dragging him through unloving things that you're doing to people? Or you know the joy of the lord?

Joy is the fruit of the spirit. Are you we were seeing last week? Are you a miserable grumpy old so and so? Does the holy spirit who wants to bring joy in your life have to be dragged through your miserable, grumpy, moaning self? He's grieved.

Oh, you know the peace of God. That passes all understanding. You're a divisive person dragging the holy spirit through the muck and the mire of your selfish little argument. Or the kindness or the goodness or the faithfulness. He shows you he wants to grow faithfulness in you?

Are you an unfaithful person, unreliable, unfaithful? Or self control? You're not self controlled. Soon as you can, you're watching stuff you should never be watching. It's a disgrace and the Holy Spirit is looking.

Grieved, broken. I don't wanna see this stuff. I am the Holy spirit. This is ungodly. This is unholy.

You're making me watch it because I won't leave you. But I can't help but be broken and sad. If you go on in ephesians and I was thinking of doing the whole chapter, but it would take me forever. But look at it, just go on where he's just mentioned about grieving the spirit, and he goes on in chapter 5, and he says, follow God's example therefore as dearly loved children and live a life of love. Yeah?

If you're not living a life of love, you're dragging him through unlove. Just as Christ loved us, and gave himself for us as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. But among you, there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality Don't take the Holy Spirit through sexual immorality. Or any kind of impurity. Don't what don't put your snout with the spirit in impurity or greedy, greedy person.

Because these are improper for God's holy people. Nor should you be nor should there be obscenity or foolish talk or coarse joking, which is out of place, but rather thanksgiving. You an unthankful person? Don't drag the Holy Spirit through that. How's your snout?

What do you put? What's your snout? Christian, you're made beautiful in Christ. Buy the Holy Spirit, Are you lacking discretion? Wisdom, fear of the Lord.

It's amazing little sentence, isn't it? You think? It's a little drama, isn't it? What an amazing little fairy tale that is. Like a gold ring in a pink snout, is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.

You never thought he was that powerful, did you? There's so much in it, isn't there? That's the word of God for you. 1 sentence. We've been here for 3 hours, like a gold ring in a pig's snap.

Let's encourage each other. Yeah? I mean, I don't know how we do it, but when when you see something, pigged out, don't be a snout. Gold ring, beautiful woman, no discretion. That's 1 way of doing it, isn't it?

Believe it or not, I found a song written about this verse, a hymn. By Charles Wesley. It's a hymn by Charles Wesley. Very short, but it's about this and I couldn't believe it. I doubt if it's ever been sung.

Charles Charles Wesley is the bloke who wrote that magnificent well, he wrote many hymns. But, you know, and can it be. I doubt if they sang this, and I doubt even if they did, this has not been sung for several hundred years. Yeah? Have a look at it because it just reminds us.

I'll I'll explain the poetry so you get it. He's talking about the vain beauty and the gold ring and how foolish it is to live for that. Oh, beauty, vain and virtue void. So there it is. It's a beautiful thing but there's no virtue in it.

That's that sums up the whole thing. What art thou in the sight of God? A slave to every base desire, all the ugly, sinful things, a creature, wallow in in the mire. Yeah? Then this bit's a bit odd.

Oh, gaudy pagent of a day. So Gordie is bling, pagent is showing off. It's the gold ring, sparkling jewelry. Gordie pagent of a day. Only last 1 day.

That's all it lasts. A Gordony pagent of a day, thy folly with thy face display. Set all thy charms and graces out. So look at me, look at the gold ring, and show the jewel in that I snout. Any song with the word snout in has got me.

Yeah? We're gonna sing it. We're gonna sing this. After 200 years, Yeah? We're gonna sing it to the tune all people that on earth do dwell.

When it comes to wallowin, you've got to do that in 2 things, not 3. Was it? What do you call that? 2 syllables, not 3 syllables, not wallowing. It's wallowing.

Do you want me to sing it to you? Okay. I've been practicing this. How does it go? Or Yeah.

So it goes, oh, beauty, vain, and virtue. To void, you haven't got any virtue. What art thou in the sight of God, a slave to every base desire, a creature, wallowing in the mud. Actually, if you get rid of in, that's it. Yeah, I wanna clap for that.

Yeah. Clearly, next. That's how it goes, and then there's the second verse. So so let's stand and sing to remind us of this song. That is Proverbs 11 22.

Tom is going to come and lead us in prayer. Let's let's pray yeah. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the things that you have spoken to us about through your words. We thank you you are our creator and that you made us and that you formed us and you turned the dust of the earth into the pinnacle of your creation.

We thank you that each 1 of us bears your image, reflects your glory. And as the Psalms tell us that we are the crown of your creation. We are the gold ring upon the earth. And yet, lord, we all of us have found ourselves not by accident, but by choice, wallowing in the mud of sin. And that we have not chosen to reflect your glory to live for you to seek your honor in this world and to be truly beautiful.

But we have looked to sin. We have looked to mud. We have looked in the dirt to try to find ourselves to to look for vain beauty apart from you. And Lord, even those of us here who know the Lord Jesus and have been saved and have been made beautiful in the gospel. Still, we have turned from you our God and our Savior, and gone back to the vomit, back to the mud to try to live again.

And lord, we just wanna take a moment now quietly just to confess our sin to you. The times when we have gone back to the mud. Further, we pray that you would forgive us for these things for the times when we have grieved the Holy Spirit of the Living God by dragging you back through the mud by exposing you to things that you do not want to see or hear or know about. Lord, please forgive us. Father, forgive us because even though we can be very good at pulling the wool over other people's eyes and deceiving others, we cannot deceive you.

You know where we are. And lord, we thank you that we can say sorry to you again this morning, knowing the great promises of the gospel. That Jesus Christ, though he is is the most beautiful treasure in every imaginable universe, the most precious possession that he came to the mud of the cross. And that he took our mud and took our sin and dirt upon himself that he died for us in our place. And that when we trust in you, you make us truly beautiful again.

You wash away all our sin, give us a new righteous life. And lord, we thank you for that promise. And yet we thank you that it's not just the promise of a saved soul, but of a changed nature, and that you come and live in us by your spirit and you begin to produce the fruit of self control and love and joy and holiness, and we just pray that you would do that work in us more and more. That you would change us to live as what we are, to be who we are, to be holy as you are holy, to live out the family identity and family values born again into your family. We pray again for anyone here who does not know the Lord Jesus and Lord pray that you might draw them to yourself this morning.

Thank you for showing us that what we need is not just religious makeup and religious dress up, but that we need to be born again and truly changed and help that to be the case perhaps for some even the first time this morning. Father, we'd pray for other faithful gospel works in this area. We thank you for the networks. We belong to commission and the FIEC. We remember all of our brothers and sisters who will be meeting in this country today to proclaim the riches and the beauty of Jesus Christ.

And we pray that you would grow all of these ministries both in-depth and in number. That this this land is full of people who were made in your image and are yet lost in the mud of sin. And as we once were, Lord, we know that your gospel can change us can save, and we pray that you would do that through the work of your churches in this country, that you would have mercy upon us and lead many more to the beautiful Jesus. We pray. Father, we pray for those who are suffering in our congregation.

We think of in this our brother here this morning, who's been remembering over the past few weeks, the anniversary of Marsha's death. And we thank you father for her for her life for what she was and for what she is. That she was a gold ring who found herself in the right place that she knew and she loved the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's with him now praising him. And has enjoyed if we can even put it this way, a full year praising the lord Jesus.

And we pray for ines and the family that you would comfort them with this gospel hope as they grieve. And for others, law, who are who are going through difficult situations, we pray that you would have ministered to them this morning, raised their eyes to Jesus. Help them to see that they are loved and saved and changed. And that the gospel preached so clearly to us this morning would be a balm to them and a help to them and would keep them looking to you. And so thank you again, Lord, for speaking to us.

So clearly this morning, help us we pray to put these things into practice for Jesus' sake and glory, amen.