Let's take our Bibles again and
turn with me to the book of Proverbs, chapter 12. Proverbs 12. I was thinking about that passage that
Brother Mike just read, that last verse especially. It was
all through. Thou also has wrought all our
works in us." In the margin there it says, for us, in us. You know, I know that if we just look at
this, that's time, that's service. preaching of the gospel is the
power of God and salvation. It's the comfort of God's sheep. And the Lord told us through the prophet,
I read this a few weeks ago again, open your mouth wide and I'll
fill it. I pray and I expect You know why? He said my word
is going to go forth and it's not going to return unto me void.
It's going to accomplish the purpose for which it was sent. Based on his word, on the assurance
of his word, God to call His sheep out. And
with anxious anticipation, I looked and behold it. I believe that
God's going to do something. Now you may walk out of this
service today and say, it didn't look like to me it was any different.
Well, I can tell you this, His Word didn't return void. It accomplished
the purpose for which it was sent. I look forward to hearing what
he has to say in his scripture. I'm just a messenger. I'm just
a messenger. It's his word. Proverbs chapter
12. I'd like to look at the first
couple of verses. I've entitled it, Those Who Love
the Knowledge of Christ. That's what I've entitled it. Proverbs 12 on whoso loveth instruction,
loveth knowledge. But he that hateth reproof is
brutish. A good man obtaineth favor of
the Lord, but a man of wicked devices will he condemn. It is the nature of man as he
is born in Adam. of Almighty God. That's just
in a man's nature. He thinks he knows God. He thinks
he's able to perceive. He thinks he's able to understand. But according to the Scriptures,
Romans 1, 22, 23, professing themselves to be wise, they became
fools, or they were proven to be. That's what it means. They
became proven to be fools. and changed the glory of the
uncorruptible God into an image in their mind, made like the corruptible
man to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things, professing themselves to be wise.
It was proven that they were fools because changed the glory
of the uncorruptible God into an image made like the corruptible
man. The Lord said, you thought that
I was one like yourself, but my ways are not your ways. You
know, I'll tell you, let me tell you exactly what I believe the
apostles meant. Men, in their minds, make God
to be somebody corruptible. Trying to do something. Frustrated. Frustrated. That's what they do. Frustrated
God. The Lord Jesus, they say, died
on the cross to make salvation But because all men are not saved, well then that is going to insinuate
that he was frustrated. He tried to do something that
he didn't do. He made it available, but the
reason that men were not saved is because they were frustrated. No? He's not the incorruptible
God. I'll tell you who He is. He's
Almighty God. And He does as He will, when
He will, how He will, with whom He will. He's God. Man is born alienated from the
life of God through the ignorance that's in them because of the
blindness of their heart. Listen to what a man says, listen
to what a woman says concerning who Christ is. And I'll tell
you, a believer is listening to exactly what someone says
concerning Christ. Is He sovereign? Is He truly
God? Is He the Lord, high and lifted
up? Or is He trying to do something? For there to be any understanding,
any understanding of the God of grace, man is going to have
to be given a new nature. He's going to have to be taught
something of his ignorance. That's right here where the writer
to the prophet, Solomon, under the inspiration of God's
Spirit, if you remember this, Solomon was the penman. What it's going to take is that
somebody's going to have to be taught, they're going to have
to be instructed on what they are by nature. That's Bussow-Lovett
instruction, Lovett knowledge. When the Spirit of God comes
to a man in power, The Scripture says the first
thing that happens is he is reproved. He is taught of sin. He shall
reprove the world of sin and shows God's people what they
are by nature. By nature, I'm ignorant, I'm
blind, dead. Before the Spirit of God convicts
a man and instructs him as to what he is by nature. Man thinks
himself wise. I know all this stuff. I've heard
it before. It's amazing to me. And I watch
the consistency in God's people right here. And I understand
it because it does the same thing to me. How many times have we
heard the gospel of God's grace? redeeming, saving, electing,
predestinating, keeping, sustaining, teaching, grace, grace, sovereign
grace. And God's people hear it and
it's like, I think that's the first time I
ever truly, I think, I don't think I've ever heard it before
I say it. Amazing. You know why? It's life. It's life. I've said before, when it comes
to just reading books, I just don't read that much. I'm talking
about now scriptures, commentaries, yes. I'm talking about just books
for pleasure. I never was one. I don't know
why. I just, I mean, I take a novel
and look, some, I know a lot of you here just love to read.
I just, you know, love to read. But especially if I ever read
it one time, enough's enough. I mean, the Iliad and the Odyssey. To have to go back, I don't fancy
you're a teacher, you might do that. I mean, it would just be,
you know Poirot, it's drudgery. It's a labor. I don't want to
read that again. But the Scriptures are not that
way. They're life. You go back and you read Ephesians
again, and Colossians again, and Romans again. You go through
those Scriptures. We went through the book of Revelation.
Turned right around and went through it again. And you think,
it's life. Instruction. Being taught. of my ignorance and my need,
being taught that I'm not wise in myself. I may be wise under
salvation, but I'm not wise. I'm a different love to admit how ignorant they
are. They love it. They agree with
it. We're ignorant people. I agree with you. Growing in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord, God's people progress. They grow. They continue on. They're not stagnant people.
Whosoever loveth instruction, True knowledge. The revelation,
the knowledge of Christ. Oh, the glorious revelation of
Him to the new heart is love by the sinner who is born of
God. Tell me about Him. Let's talk about Him. I don't
want to talk about anything else. I want to talk about Christ.
I want to talk about God's Lamb. I want to talk about God's Son.
I want to talk about God's Word. I want to talk about God's purpose
in Him. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? He said unto him, Who art thou,
Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. And he trembled, and the son
said, Lord, what wilt thou? have me to do? What would you
have me to do? I want to talk about it. So the first life of instruction,
correction, is found in regenerating grace, but we never, never stop
being instructed. That's why we're here. The Lord
has been And it's not foolish preaching. It's life. But can you imagine? Now listen, here's the way it
is. You know that Almighty God chose
the people. You know that He chose them in
Christ. You know that Christ came into this world, lived for
them, and they in Him, mysteriously. His body always been in Him.
His people always been in Him. He walked on this earth. And
there He was, His disciples, they looked at Him, people looked
at Him, saw Him, and mysteriously, gloriously, they were always
in Him, always considered in Him. What He did, they did. When He died, they died. When
He was buried, they were buried. When He was raised, they were
raised. When He ascended, they ascended. You say, how can that
be? God said it is. And while all of this glorious
truth is set forth, here we are, frail creatures of dust, sitting
and listening to a frail creature of dust that is just struggling,
trying to be consistent with God's Word, trying to be consistent
with God's Scripture, and trying to be honoring And every word
that comes out of my mouth, I weigh it. I weigh it in light of these
scriptures. I don't want to say anything
disrespectful. I don't want to say anything
that should have been said. I don't want to say anything
that shouldn't have been said. And I'm asking, here I am, a
sinner, saved by the grace of God, speaking the words of God,
And Almighty God is pleased to use means to teach His people, and they love to hear Him. Whoso
loveth instruction loves knowledge, true knowledge, knowledge of
Christ. Whoso loveth that instruction,
and when I'm saying instruction now, I'm talking about being
taught of the Lord what we are, even while we're sitting here
right now. I'm still being taught right now. Marvin, you need to
be taught. Marvin, you don't know. You know
in part. You preach in part. You understand
in part. You're frail. You're a creature. But there's life within. The
life of Christ is there. That which is born of God liveth
in me, Christ in you, the hope of glory. And hear the Lord that
has everlastingly loved His people, teaching them, teaching them
what they are and who He is. For whom the Lord loveth, He
chasteneth. I said before, we always think
of that word chastening, and it is so. There may be physical
things that I go through. I may get sick. I may die. I may be poor. I may lose everything. But I'm
telling you that the chastening that is the most keenly sensitive
to a believer is inside. Oh wretched man, Paul said that
I am. Paul knew something of what he
was. So that instruction right there, the chastening, the word scourges
every son whom he received it. Let me ask you that belief. Do
you not struggle? Do you not struggle with them? Do you not find yourselves a
second yourself? Does it bother you what you are
by nature? Consistently with this scripture,
the scripture sets forth that God's people are like that. They
just struggle. What is that? It's the instruction
of the Lord. Instructed that I'm just a pilgrim. Not my home. This is not where God's people
are going to be. Every once in a while, as I've
said, maybe just for a moment, it just seems to, maybe just
a moment, I think about, truly, one day, I'll be with Him. And
then I think to myself, my flesh says, really, do you really,
really believe that? And that new man said, I do believe
that. I do believe that. Do you really? Struggle. No chastisement for
the present seems joyous, but it's grievous. Nevertheless,
afterward it yieldeth a peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them
that are exercised thereby. It hurts. It hurts to see myself
the way I really am. It hurts. It hurts for me to
see how inconsistent I am in my heart. That hurts. But I know
it's so. I know it's so. David said, Psalm
119, verse 71, it's good for me that I've been afflicted that
I might learn of thy statutes. Conflicted inwardly, conflicted
outwardly, teaching me what I need to be taught. I'm not good in myself. Man by nature says there's a
little good in every man. No. No, the Spirit of God taught
me what I've experienced. But just
not a little good in me. Not until Almighty God creates
within me a new heart, a new man. And a believer knows that
the Lord Jesus, He's the Master, the Creator, the Governor of
all things. David said, Psalm 119, 73, Thy
hands have made me and fashioned me. Give me understanding that
I might learn Your commandments. Give me some understanding. I
don't know these things. I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments
are right, that Thou in faithfulness has afflicted me. Let, I pray Thee, Thy merciful
kindness be for my comfort according to Thy Word and to Thy servant. And this is really manifested,
well it starts as a children, you know. A parent tries to discipline
a child, and the child says, you hate me. You hate me. No. I tell you, the parent that
hates the child are the ones that won't discipline you. Scripture
said that, I can say that, Scripture says that. You hate me. You hate me. God loves his people. And he's going to chase them.
he's going to instruct them. Those that love instruction,
they love knowledge, but he that hated reproof is brutish. That one that is without sensitivity,
brutish. The one left of self in ignorance,
the one that hates God's word, the one that paid through to
be told what He is. A man that hates to be told what
He is. I had an uncle one time that said
unto the gospel just a few times. I think I told you this. I told
you. He said unto the gospel just a few times, quit. You know
why he quit? He said he told me I was a sinner. And he went to his grave with
that attitude. Went to a place where they would
pat him on the back. Tell him how good he was. How
faithful he was. How consistent he was. Made him
a deacon. He showed me his Bible just the
last time I ever saw him alive. Showed me his Bible. He that hateth reproof is brutish. The one that loves instruction,
and he's going to have to be made so. I'm telling you by nature,
a man's not that way. No man likes to be told what
he is really. Nobody wants you to be honest
with them. Nobody wants you to be honest with them. Don't be honest with me. Have I gained a little weight?
Don't you be honest with me. Lie to me. Tell me how good I
look. Tell me how smart I am. Tell
me how wise I am. Tell me how much of a benefit
I am to you. Don't you lie to me. He that
loveth instruction, who so loveth instruction loveth knowledge.
But he that hateth reproof is brutish. A good man, verse 2,
obtaineth favour of the Lord. But a man of wicked devices will
he condemn. A good man obtaineth favour of
the Lord. The key to the understanding
of that verse right there is in the word obtaineth. It means
to bring forth or to succeed. A good man obtaineth favour I know that the scripture says
that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. But
let me just bring it right back down to brass tacks. There's
not but one good, and that's God. There has not been but one
good man in himself. And knowing him, a good man obtains
favor of the Lord. A good man brings forth or succeeds
the favor of the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ brings
forth or succeeds in pleasing the Father, and succeeded in
what the Father has purchased. The Father gave the Son a people
that He had everlastingly loved, and the Lord Jesus Christ, the
good man, obtained the faith He accomplished that which the
Father had eternally purposed. And he did it on his own merit,
by his own work, by his own will, the only one that ever did it.
The only one that ever succeeded and brought forth, obtained,
a good man obtaineth favor of the Lord. Our favor of Almighty
God is being in Him. Nowhere else, nowhere else, outside
of him, separation, death. Listen to this, Proverbs 8, verse
35. Whoso findeth me, findeth life,
and shall obtain the favor of the Lord. A good man obtains
it. You find me, he said, you'll
obtain it. It's Christ alone that the Father said. the Mount of Transfiguration,
this is my beloved Son, and whom I will please. Hear Him. His obedience, His life, His
death. Psalm 1-3, in that first psalm
is concerning the Lord Jesus. Go back and read Psalm 1-3 again,
and look at it totally in light of Christ. I'll read verse 3.
And He shall be like a tree, Now this is talking about Christ.
He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth
forth his fruit in his season, and his leaf, those grafted into
him, his leaf shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall
prosper. Christ. A good man obtained in
favor of the Lord. He's the tree of life. His people
are in Him in covenant mercy, chosen before the foundation
of the world, branches grafted into the vine. He's the good
man that has obtained the favor of the Lord. Salvation is all
of grace, but a man of wicked devices will he condemn. Man of wicked devices. That man
whose evil thoughts, evil actions, looks to himself. Looks to himself and thinks of
himself that he has obtained the favor of God. A good man obtained the favor
of the Lord. man of wicked devices, God is going to condemn. Salvation
must be all of grace, or it is not salvation at all. Salvation
is of the God tells you about it. He reveals to you that He saved
you without your help. There is a response. I understand
that. That's what James was talking
about. Faith without works. There is a response. But your
response didn't have anything to do with your salvation. Salvations
of the Lord. And here's how you're going to
know about it. There's only one way that you ever understand
what God has done, and it's through the preaching of the gospel.
That's how God has been pleased to reveal the honor of His Son
in the salvation of God's will. Isn't that a marvelous thing?
Paul said, I'm not ashamed of that. And by the grace of God,
we're not either. May the Lord add His blessing
upon the preaching of His gospel for the honor of His Son and
the good of His people.