Proverbs 20, 30 says, the blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil. So do stripes, the inward parts of the belly. This is a hard truth because most of us hate the idea of pain and of physical punishments. But some people just seem to need to suffer extreme consequences before they will listen and repent. I had a friend with a kid who never learned anything the easy way. This man would lecture and demonstrate and do all the things a parent should do, but his little son just had to experience things for himself. He was told to stay away from the grill during an outdoor cookout. Did he? No. And they ended up at the urgent care doctoring a bad burn on his hand. He was told to stay away from his dad's knives. Did he? No. They ended up in the emergency room getting stitches after he cut himself. Thankfully, he never messed with his dad's guns because they were kept locked safely away, except for the one his dad carried on his person at all times. The good thing was that he only did each of those things once. The consequence of his injuries, along with the stripes on his rear end after he was whipped with his daddy's belt, that all seemed to do the job and he would never go back and do the same thing again. And he seemed to be growing up to be a good, young man, decent young man the last time I was around him. For most, that's enough. And that's the point of our proverb. The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil, so do stripes the inward parts of the belly. And that's what Paul taught in Hebrews 12, 11, saying, now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. An old-time Bible Methodist preacher and associate of John Wesley named Joseph Sutcliffe said this, quote, this proverb instructs us that a wound in the body corresponds with grief of mind. The wound must be washed, the heart must be searched. Grief is then the medicine of grief, end quote. But what makes this a hard truth is that many people try to interrupt that process. Once I watched a preacher dealing with an unsaved young lady, and that young lady wept. And the preacher just kept laying it on her, quoting scripture, explaining her sinful condition. And right about then, some crazy woman stepped in, took the young lady by the arm and said, that's enough. Come with me, young lady. Well, that old preacher grabbed that woman by the arm. He rebuked her and sent her out of the room. She left. He finished talking to the young lady. She continued weeping and then repented and believed the gospel and was saved. That old preacher knew that young lady needed to face her sin and see the blueness of her wound. She needed to face her sin and deal with the inward parts of the belly deep within her soul. And he wasn't gonna stop that process. He wasn't gonna allow anyone else to do the same. But there are too many like that crazy woman who step in and stop the process. As a matter of fact, I think that describes most of our churches these days. That's why they don't preach against sin. They don't preach the old hellfire and brimstone as it's called. So that may explain the wicked condition of our present generation. And it may explain the reason so few seem to be coming to faith in Christ here in the Western world, here in America in these last days. Paul said, this witness is true, wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. That's Titus 1.13. We're not just to be mean, and I'm not advocating those guys that go out on the street just yell at people and call them whores and that kind of thing. But I am saying that we should preach the truth. We should preach it plainly. We should preach that sin is sinful. We should preach that hell is real and is full of good, decent people who refuse to repent. And hell is a place of fire. Hell is a place that you don't want to go. We should preach God's word and let it do its work.