Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Proverbs, chapter 24. Proverbs 24. I've entitled this message, A
Good Blessing. A Good Blessing. And it's found in Proverbs 24.
I like to deal with verses 24 to 26. The Lord Jesus asked Peter on the
shore of the Sea of Tiberias, lovest thou me more than these? That was right after Peter had,
the Lord had been crucified And Peter said, I go fishing. And you know, we've dealt with
that before. And it wasn't that he was just going to take a little
rest and go out and just fish that afternoon or something like
that, just give him a break or something. No. When he said,
I go fishing, he was saying, I quit. I quit. I'm going back to doing what
I did before. I'm done. And you know, they
fished all night. They didn't catch anything. And
next morning, real early, the Lord was standing on the coast
there. John saw him. And John said to
Peter, he said, it's the Lord. And when Peter saw that it was
the Lord, you know, he jumped in the water and he went. The Lord had some fish on the
coals. First thing that the Lord said,
He said, Peter, lovest thou me more than these? A lot of speculation. I think he meant more than the
boats is what he meant. Do you love me more than fishing? And Peter, after three times,
he said that each time he did, and every time that the Lord
asked him again, he asked him the first time, then two more
times, and every time the Lord said, Peter, if you love me,
you feed my sheep. You feed my lambs, you feed my
sheep. And that is the commission. to every God called preacher
of the gospel. Feed the sheep. Feed the sheep. Don't let feeding
the sheep, feed them that which they must have. They got to have
it. What do you feed them? Feed them
of Christ. He's the bread of heaven. He's
the heavenly manna. They've got to hear about Him. That's the only message that
the Spirit of God blesses. The Spirit of God is not going
to bless the preaching of morality. You don't have to straighten
up God's people, make them fly right, turn over a new leaf. You preach Christ to them. And
it's an amazing thing. Spirit of God will take care
of the rest of it. God constrains His people. They know, and so knowing that
the thing that is imperative, you make sure that you tell them,
if you're going to preach, you know we believe in the five points
of Calvinism, but I don't want to preach the bare doctrine. We believe in election. I believe
in predestination. I believe that. But I can sit
here and hammer election and predestination and not tell you
the one in whom we're elect. And I miss it. I can tell you
about the one. I preach predestination. Predestination
means to determine the end from the beginning. But to preach
the gospel is to tell you the one to whom we've been predestined
to eternally be with Him. I can tell you about particular
redemption. That just means that Christ died
in particular. But I want to tell you about
the one and who has particularly redeemed His people. The message
is concerning Him. So now, to fail to preach that,
to fail to preach the gospel, that message from God to God's
people about that which God has eternally purposed to do in Christ
and for His sake and by Him, to fail to preach that is actually
to expose myself to be a spiritual fraud. If I fail to preach the
gospel, God Almighty, He ordains His preachers. That's what He
told Jeremiah. He said, I ordained you to this
ministry. He said, before I formed you in the belly of your mama.
He said, I knew you. I ordained you to be a prophet.
He didn't just decide one day he was going to be a prophet.
God ordained Jeremiah to be a preacher. And whenever the Lord calls His
preachers, calls His people, He calls them. Everybody's got
a ministry. But whenever He calls a preacher,
He saves him first. He saves him. He teaches him. Without me, you'd do nothing.
He saves him by grace. And that preacher knows. When God first calls him out,
he said, look, unless the Lord had saved me by His grace, I'd
have been going the same way I was always going. But He saves
him, and then He calls him to the ministry, and He gifts him
to preach. He teaches him the gospel. He
gifts him to preach. He gives him a heart to keep
doing it. Believe me, I can understand
when Peter said, I quit, I quit. When Jeremiah said, this is it,
I'm done, I'm done. But he said, but his word was
in me like fire in my bones. I just couldn't quit. You know
why I'm here today? Because I want to be here. But
why do I want to be here? Because the Lord made me willing
in the day of His power. I've told you before, you used
to amaze me when the Lord was pleased to reveal Himself to
me. I could not, I couldn't for years, I couldn't understand
how can somebody go to a study and just sit there all day long
and do that over and over and over. That's it, I mean, well,
It's because you want to. You've got a heart to do it.
That's what you want to do. I mean, you do what you want
to do. But for the Lord to call a man to preach, He gives him
a willingness. But if you don't find that willingness,
if you don't find that heart for the gospel of Christ, the
gospel of God, it's because God didn't call him. If the Lord
calls him, he'll be there. And if you find someone that
does not want, they're not preaching the gospel, or they're not believing
the gospel, it comes with serious consequences. Paul said, under
the inspiration of the Spirit of God, Galatians 1, 8, But though
we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than
that which we've preached unto you, let him be accursed. What
does that mean? That God sent him to hell. That's
what it means. To not believe the gospel is
to not believe God. And if a man doesn't believe
God, a woman doesn't believe God, then they don't believe
Christ. They don't believe the truth.
If they don't have a heart for Christ, then the Spirit of God
told Paul to say, you tell them, they're going to go to hell.
You tell them that. So preaching and believing the gospel is serious. So today I want us to look at
these verses that the Spirit of God moved upon Solomon to
write down. And as I was going over them,
I said, I've dealt with this before. That's okay. I need to
deal with it obviously again. Paul said to say the same things
to you, he said to him, he said, it's not grievous. Not grievous
to me to say the same thing over and over and over and over. He
said, for you it's safe. It's safe. We need to hear it. So
let's look at this. Proverbs 24, 24. He that saith unto the wicked,
thou art righteous. Him shall the people curse. Nations shall abhor Him. Now, He that says to the wicked. Now, when it says the wicked,
exactly what are you talking about? You know there's some awfully
fine people. I dealt with for years. I was
living in Louisiana. Tennessee and here. There's some
people that I deal with and I mean they're really nice people. I mean when I say wicked, I'm
not talking about, you know, gangsters and stuff. That's not what the word means.
What does the wicked mean? It means those, well number one,
that are ungodly. What does that mean? Well, they're
without God. I mean, they're not believers.
That's what it means. When it says the wicked, it's
talking about ungodly. It also means guilty, guilty
before God. A believer is one that though
he still is the possessor, he's got sin in him. If we say we
have no sin, we make God a liar. But the scripture bears out for
a believer that there's no guilt of sin. The guilt of sin was
paid for by Christ. We still got it. It's still here
and it still grieves us. No doubt it grieves. I mean,
I hate the way I see my mind wandering and my stupid things
that I think and say. I just hate that. Oh wretched
man that I am. But thanks be unto God there
is now therefore no condemnation. to them which be in Christ Jesus.
So when I say the guilty, I admit we do possess sin. Paul said,
I see in me, that is in my flesh, in my old nature, there dwells
no good thing. I know that. But guilt before
God? No. No, there's no guilt. That which is born of God, Ben,
sinneth not. That new man, he don't sin. I've
said before, God says he's there. I've never seen him in me. But
the Lord says he's there. I believe the Lord. And that
carries all the way right there. The Lord says when I see the
blood, I don't see it on me. But if I believe God, it's there. It's there. So guilty. It means
to wrong lawfully. God's law. I don't mean I ran
a stop sign, which I have before, but this right here means the
wrong lawfully according to the law. That means I've never obeyed
the law. If I'm not a believer in myself,
I've never obeyed it either, but Christ did. and being found
in him, I did. So, he that saith unto the wicked,
those who have not trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, he that saith
unto the wicked, that justifies men in the wickedness of their
unbelief, false religion, he that saith unto the wicked, thou
art righteous. that you are clean before God. That's what we say. He that says
to the wicked that you are righteous before God, him, that man that
is declaring that, shall the people curse. Well, when it says
the people shall curse, only God can curse or condemn a man
and cast him out. That word curse right there means
to specify or declare to be. That what they say, they shall
curse, what they're going to say is, according to the scriptures,
I know that person to be so. That's what the word curse there
means. Him shall the people curse. Nations shall abhor him. Now,
to err in this point for an unrighteous, unbelieving preacher, to stand
before people who are trusting in themselves that they are righteous,
that they're doing something. They've done some work of self-righteousness
is all it is, but for a man to stand before a people as a false
preacher and tell those that are placing all their confidence
in themselves, in their works, For him to tell them that they're
righteous before God is, the scripture says, the people. I'll
tell you who the people are. They shall curse him, shall declare
him to be, or nations shall abhor him. They're saying, you're lying. You're lying to them. I can on
the authority of the Word of God. I can tell you this, anybody
that's standing in a pulpit and telling men, because you exercised
your free will, God then, because you exercised your free will
and decided to accept Jesus as your own personal Savior, if
you're trusting in that, you're trusting in your work, it's what
you're doing. If you think that you were converted because you
did that, Now, do people believe God, truly believe Him? Yes,
they do. But they believe Him because God gave them life first.
They get to cart before the horse. They say, I believe the Lord,
therefore the Lord saved me. Well, who gets the credit for
that? Well, the person doing the believing. But if I believe
because He saved me, then who gets the credit for that? Well,
the Lord does. So, He that saith unto the wicked,
Thou art righteous, shall the people curse, and nations shall
abhor him. But if it was even a natural,
I mean, if it was a judge that was going to make a decision
on a case, and he said to somebody, and everybody knew he was guilty.
They knew he was guilty. They caught him, whatever. And
that judge were to say to him, well, no charge, no charge. Whoa! That ain't right. Listen, if it was in a court
of law, it would be bad enough. But to stand before men and tell
men that are absolutely in rebellion to the Word of God, you're right
before God. That is absolutely an abhorrence
and it's idolatry toward the Lord Himself. Proverbs 17.15
says, He that justifieth What does that mean, justifieth? That
means that the law of God looks at you and says, no charge, no
charge. He that justifieth the wicked
and he that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination
to the Lord. Isaiah 5, 22, 23, woe to them
that are mighty to drink wine. The word mighty there is speaking
of they're strong in themselves, is what it's talking about. Woe
to them that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle
strong drink which justify the wicked for reward and take away
the righteousness of the righteous from him. Now is that talking
about drinking? Naturally drinking. Drink a glass
of wine, is that what it's talking about? Nope. I know this. Whenever
you start finding in the Word of God, especially talking about
drinking wine or something, you better be looking and remembering
that these scriptures are concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. What is
it actually talking about? Those that are mighty, strong
in themselves to drink wine. What wine is it talking about?
Hold your place right there. Turn to Revelation 17. Revelation
chapter 17. I'll show you the wine. that
we better be careful of. Revelation chapter 17. Let's
read verses 1 to 5. Revelation 17. And there came
one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials, and talked
with me, saying unto me, Come hither. I will show unto thee
the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters,
with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication. and
the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the
wine of her fornication. What's it talking about? It's
talking about the wine of false, lying religion. That intoxicating
wine, that intoxicating beverage that make men and women spiritually
drunk in a stupor. They don't understand. They don't
know exactly what's going on. They kind of see something, but
the reasoning is not there. That's the wine he's talking
about. That's the strong drink he's talking about. So he carried
me, verse 3, away in the spirit into the wilderness. And I saw
a woman. Here it is. who is the great
harlot we're going to look at in verse 5 right here. I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet
colored beast full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads,
seven horns. And the woman was arrayed in
purple, scarlet color. She had the colors that represent
royalty, I mean exalted. and decked with gold and precious
stones and pearls. Oh, she looks so good. She looks
so promising. She looks wealthy. Looks like
she's got everything to offer. Having a golden cup in her hand
full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication upon her forehead
was written, a name written, Mystery. Babylon the great, the
mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. So what, back in
Proverbs 24, what's he talking about when I looked at, well
Isaiah 5, I mean, what was he talking about when he's saying,
woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength
to mingle strong drink with, what wine? That wine of false
religion, that lying, intoxicating, stupefying drink of rebellion
against God, which justify the wicked for reward. They're just
making merchandise of men's souls, that's all they're doing. But
for the grace of God, they're going to die in that lying belief
and they're going to Stand before God and God will go cast them
out. And what are they doing it for? They're doing it for
reward. They're doing it for themselves, for the praise of
men. Scripture bears that out. They do it, you know, because
they're making merchandise of sinners, men's souls. They take
away the righteous from Him. That stuff you all believe. Trying
to shut everybody out. You just say God's only going
to save a few. Well, no, we're saying what God
says. We're saying what the Lord said. So this lying wine of false
religion, they tell men that they're righteous and they're
accepted of God because of their own goodness and obedience to
the law. And the Scripture says, shall
the people curse, nations shall abhor him. The people, what people? What nation? What are you talking
about? Well, take your Bibles again, turn
back to Revelation 19. Tell me what God has to say about
who he's talking about. Revelation chapter 19. Revelation 19, let's read verses
1 to 4. It says that those that are setting
forth... Well, hold your place in Revelation
19. Verse 24, He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous. Him shall the people curse, nations
shall abhor him. What people? What nations? Here it is, right here. Revelation
19, 1 to 4, after these things. I heard a great voice of much
people in heaven saying, Alleluia, salvation and glory and honor
and power unto the Lord our God. For true and righteous are His
judgments. For He hath judged the great
whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath
avenged the blood of her servants at her hand. And again, They
said, hallelujah. And her smoke, who? Great whore. Her smoke rose up forever and
ever and the four and 20 elders and the four beasts fell down
and worshiped God that sat on the throne saying, amen. Hallelujah. The Scripture says
back in Proverbs 24, 24, He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art
righteous. Him shall the people, those that
we just read about, the people, God redeemed people, they're
going to curse, they're going to declare Him, specify Him to
be cast out justly. The Scripture declares that in
that day, that day we looked at in Revelation 19, they said
hallelujah two times. They said it proclaiming unto
the Lord to the praise and the faithfulness of His justice,
glory and honor and power in the deliverance of His elect.
Hallelujah to God. Thank the Lord. Amen. Thank God
for that. And when God cast out the great
whore, which is the entirety of Unbelievers. That's who the great whore is.
That's who she is. It's a kingdom. Mystery Babylon,
the great. That's who it is. And when God,
in that day of justice and judgment, when God cast them out, those
that believed a lie, those that were left in their unbelief,
God's people are going to say, Hallelujah. You did right. You did right.
We are by the grace of God, and in absolute justice, you did
the right thing. That verse of Scripture in Proverbs
24, 24, I'm telling you, that 24th verse carries a lot of consequences. He that saith unto the wicked,
Thou art righteous, him shall the people curse. Nations shall
abhor him. Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I hated. And when God casts out the Esaus
that he hates, God's people hate them too. You say, well, I don't
know if I get what, let God be true. Let God be true and let
everybody else be a liar. We believe God. Verse 25, but
to them that rebuke him shall be delight. and a good blessing
shall come upon them." Now again, naturally speaking, if we were
just looking at a court of justice, a regular court, and that judge,
he was fair, heard all the evidence, and he made up a good, right,
honorable judgment. He did the right thing. Well,
if that's all he was speaking of, to him that rebuke shall
be a delight and a good blessing shall come upon them." That would
be good. But here, again, spiritually speaking, and that's where we
always have to go, this verse speaks of those men who stand
in pulpits and those that hear. Both. I mean, the only difference
between me and you is that I'm standing here with the responsibility
to tell you what God says and the responsibility laid upon
you to believe what God says. And by the grace of God, we all
do. But here, I mean, to sit and to have somebody stand and
rebuke, and then those that hear, be glad that they were rebuked.
It's talking about rebuking some people. Them that rebuke, him
shall be a delight. What do you mean, rebuke us?
Get on to us. That's what the word rebuke.
2 Timothy 4.2. 2 Timothy 4.2. I can read this
or if you want to turn there. 2 Timothy 4.2 says this. Paul is preaching
to Timothy. Tell him, Timothy, his son in
the Lord. He said, Timothy, when you preach,
2 Timothy 4.2, preach the word. Preach the gospel. Be instant,
in season, out of season, when it's seemingly convenient or
not convenient. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering and doctrine. Now here's what he's telling
them. Timothy, tell men and women the truth. Don't tell the wicked that they're
righteous. A preacher of the gospel is not
going to do that, Pat. He's not going to do it. You're
going to tell them. He's going to be honest with them. Tell
men the truth. And those men that do that, back
in Proverbs 24, 25, but to them that rebuke shall
be a delight That is, they'll be found to be agreeable to the
Word of God. And God's people that hear that
faithful, true, pleasant Word, they rejoice in it. It's a delight
to them. You know, somebody will say,
you know, don't tell me that I'm a sinner. Well, I'm going
to be honest with you. I'll be the first one to agree
with you. that that's what I am. Christ Jesus came to this world
to save such. Somebody said, I'm not a sinner. I said, well, you just eliminated
your possibility of having any hope in Christ because He only
came to save sinners. Paul said, I'm chief. So the
one that rebukes shall be a delight and a good blessing shall come
upon him, a good benediction. A good one. You know, if I tell
you, I hear somebody preach or somebody that believes the gospel
and I say, you know what? Bless the Lord. Oh, I'm so thankful. Well, I'm talking about a good
benediction. A good one. To Him shall be a
good. What kind of benediction? Turn over to Matthew 25 for a
second. I'm going to wrap this up. Matthew
25. Verse 31 to 34. Matthew 25. Here's a good, a good blessing. Matthew 25, 31. When the Son
of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with
Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. Now you
know what? You that believe, you know that's
going to happen. This is going to happen. This
is going to come to pass. Heaven and earth are going to
pass away, but not these words. Not these. His word is going
to stand. And before him shall be gathered
all nations, and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd
divides his sheep from the goats. He shall set the sheep on his
right hand, but the goats on his left. Now listen to this,
then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, now here's
a good blessing. I read this again this morning
and I was thinking, oh, to hear those words and be found with
his people. Come, you blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. Now you talk about a good blessing. Now, that'd be a good blessing
to hear. You think, if I never heard another
word of blessing from Him, that's enough right there. Come, you
blessed of my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared
for you before the foundation of the world. What a word. God's preachers,
God's people, are those that will boldly and without compromise,
without apology, they will tell men what they are by nature. They don't compromise on that,
I'm gonna tell you. They will tell them there's hope
only in Christ, not, I mean, as Brother Scott used to say,
you come with an empty hand. What are you gonna offer God?
I don't have anything to offer God. Let me tell you the only thing
I can do. This is all I can do. Let me
just sum it all up for you right here in closing. This, to come
to the Lord, he that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
How many times? I'm telling you, daily, daily. I don't know any other way to
come to you, but I'm just saying, I'm just saying, Lord in my heart,
Lord would you save me? I don't know any other way to
come to the Lord. This is it. Lord, I have nothing
to offer you. I've never done anything that's
worthy of your acceptance. It's impossible for me to do
that. I can't pray. perfectly, I can't think perfectly,
I can't preach perfectly. Lord, would you save this sinner?
That thief on the cross, what did he say to the Lord? Lord,
would you remember me? You think he was sincere? I believe he was. I'm sincere. Lord, have mercy on me. I am a sinner. and I need a savior. I don't,
I can't trust, I can't trust in anything I do. Romans 3 20,
therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified
in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin. What does
that mean? The law tells me what I am. The law doesn't save me
because I can't keep it. Men are not righteous before
God because they've done something That's worthy of God's acceptance. For by grace are you saved through
faith. You believe it. By grace are
you saved through faith. And that not of you, it's a gift
from God. Not of works. Why? Because we just boast in
it. That's all we do. You boast. Verse 26, and we'll
stop. Every man shall kiss his lips
that giveth a right answer. The word lips. Every man shall
kiss, if you take out the italicized words of verse 26, here's what
it says. Shall kiss lips that giveth a
right answer. The word lips right there, it
means speech, word, or language. God's people have truly, they
do have affection. for those that preach the gospel.
They do. They have affection for it. They kiss spiritually, affectionately
in their heart. They kiss the lips of those that
are preaching the gospel. But let me tell you whose lips
are kissed. Whose language, whose speech
is being thanked for. We thank you for your language. That precious word of truth from
God to His people. I'm so thankful for the gospel. There's the language. That's
the lips of the Lord. That's the truth. I'm so thankful
for the gospel of God's grace. I'm so thankful for this message
that we assemble around. It tells us of Him. Christ. And God's people, when they hear
it, they're thankful for the messenger. They're thankful for
the messenger. But I'm telling you, they're
thankful for the one of whom the messenger speaks. Let me
tell you of Him. Let me tell you of God who saves
sinners. Let me tell you. And if the Spirit
of God blesses that, faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word
of God. And if the Lord is pleased to bless that message, He gives faith, and a sinner,
he believes God. And he believes himself to be
what God says he is, a sinner saved by grace. I pray the Lord
bless these words to our heart. I pray that the Lord will bless
it to the calling out of His sheep, comforting His people,
reminding them afresh of what the Lord, for Christ's sake,
has done for such as we are.