Proverbs 16, 21, the wise in
heart shall be called prudent, and the sweetness of the lips
increaseth learning. Now we know where this can of
wisdom comes from. There's a wisdom of heart that
only God can give. We've seen in our studies in
1 Kings recently how that God gave Solomon, who wrote this
proverb, More wisdom than any other man. He said, before you
or after you, there'll be nobody that I'll give this much wisdom
to. And what did Solomon say about
that? The Lord gave Solomon wisdom. And what did Solomon say in Proverbs
2.6? The Lord giveth wisdom. He knew what he was talking about. And that's where we get wisdom
from, people who know what they're talking about. That's how God
does it. That's exactly how he does it. That's what we're gonna see.
Christ himself is the wisdom of God. If you don't know Christ,
you don't know anything. And I'm serious about that. You
don't know anything. We say, well, you can learn secular
things and not know Christ. No, not really. You may learn
how to do it, but if you're doing it not for the glory of God,
you're not doing it right. You don't know anything. You
literally don't know anything if you don't know Christ. Christ himself is God's wisdom. If you have Christ, you are wise
in heart. You may be dumb as a rock, like
me, but you're wise in heart. You're wise, you know everything
you need to know. You really know everything there
is. Because the rest of it, what
difference does it make? Christ is the wisdom. 1 Corinthians
1.30, but of God are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made in
us wisdom. Our text says also that what
is true on the inside, in the heart, will show on the outside. People will call those who are
wise in heart, people will call them prudent. They'll see that
they are, they'll call them that. In other words, faith with works. James said, show me your faith
without your works and I'll show you my faith by my works. Not
with my works, but by my works. Faith isn't mixed with works,
but by works, faith is shown. You can say all you want to that
you believe that God is sovereign, but if you don't bow to Him,
you don't believe God is sovereign. And there's a lot of people that
say that, God's sovereign, God's sovereign, and then you don't
bow to Him and His will and everything. You don't believe it, you just
say you do. Wisdom in the heart now, Faith with works. You'll be called prudent because
the way you conduct yourself is prudent. That word is discerning,
perceptive, intelligent. Always remember, if this is true
of you, that God gave you the wisdom that you have. Then give him the glory for it. He said, let not the wise man
glory in his wisdom. Remember what true wisdom is.
Always remember what true wisdom is. And it includes all of the
stuff that you know. You don't know it or right unless
you know the savior. Though you can perform the outward Details of it, it's sin if you
don't know Christ, if you don't honor him with it. Jeremiah 9.23,
thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich
man glory in his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in
this, that he understandeth and knoweth It doesn't matter what else you
know or how much, if you don't know Christ, there's no glory. There's nothing
to be glad about or to boast in. That he understandeth and
knoweth me, that I am the Lord, which exercise loving kindness
and judgment and righteousness in the earth. For in these things
I delight, saith the Lord. He exercises loving kindness. Now, one of the ways that wisdom
of heart manifests itself is in our texts. It's in what is
said, what comes out of a person's mouth. That's the last part of
our text. If you want to learn something,
listen to somebody that knows what they're talking about. That
sounds real simple, doesn't it? But how sad it is that most people
listen to people they like, they listen to their friends or somebody
that doesn't have any idea what they're talking about. Sometimes
your friends may, they may, but if they don't, then don't get
your advice from them. You can be friends without, Listen to somebody that knows
what they're talking about. I'll never forget the first time
that I heard a preacher preach that actually knew who God is.
I'll never forget it. It was unbelievable. It was like
I had been to so many so-called church services, listening to
a man who didn't know God tell people about God. And no wonder I fell asleep half
the time and was counting the minutes, counting
the seconds before it would be over. My dad taught me the truth before
I ever heard a preacher that knew God, and I trusted my dad,
but it's not exactly the same thing as when God gives a man
a message in a worship service. That's the way God speaks to
his people. And then when that happened,
all of a sudden, I knew what our text means this morning when
it says, the sweetness of the lips. And the difference was Christ. The difference was Christ. I'd
never before heard someone preach Christ. and it made all the difference. When you get a glimpse of him,
the thing about the truth of Christ is it's so true. It's hard to express that in
it, but it's just so true. When you hear the truth of Christ,
it's so true. You just know that God has spoken. You know that this is what I've
needed to hear my whole life. when you get a glimpse of Christ
and all of the things that other so-called preachers don't preach
become so clear. And it's from seeing Him. It's
not from seeing facts and deductions and things like that. It's from
seeing Him. Of course election is true. God is God. He does as He pleases. Of course
God is sovereign. That's what God means. The only
reason we have to even use the adjective and say the sovereign
God is because most people have no idea who he is and his sovereignty. Of course, redemption is limited.
If it was universal, then everybody would be saved. And I know that
because I know him, not because I read something in a book on
limited atonement, because I know him. If he came to save somebody,
they're saved. Now that's the simplest truth
that you could possibly state, and yet people don't believe
that. But just knowing him tells us
that. And what is in the heart, sooner
or later it comes out of the mouth, whether good or bad. You listen to somebody talk long
enough, Matthew 15 18 those things which
proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart But when Christ is in the heart
the rest of that verse is and they defile the man It's what's
in your heart that defiles you not what you put in your mouth
what comes out of your mouth shows Where your defilement is
in your heart? But when Christ is in the heart,
then grace comes out. And we have both. We have an
evil nature and we have Christ in us, the hope of our glory.
And so both will come out, won't they? Colossians 4, 6, let your speech
be all way with grace, seasoned with salt that you may know how
you ought to answer Every man the way you ought to answer Every
man is with grace Let your speech be always with grace Of course we also still have
our evil nature and our words can do a lot of damage I Have
a lot of regret for things that I've said. Our prayer should always be to
God. In Psalm 141.3, David prayed, set a watch, O Lord, before my
mouth. Keep the door of my lips. Incline not my heart to any evil
thing. But our prayer is don't only,
Lord, don't only prevent me from saying hateful and hurtful and
proud and evil things, but let me be a witness of thee. Don't
just stop the evil from coming out, but may the grace come out. Let me be a witness to everybody
that'll hear of who my Savior is. Let my speech be such that
even those who hate God know that I belong to Him. I like what it says in Acts 4.13,
when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived
that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled and
they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. They
could tell just by the way they spoke and what they said that
they had been with the Savior. I pray that that would be true
of each of us. But we have evil that comes out and by God's
grace we have grace that comes out too. Simon once cursed and
swore and denied his Lord. But by God's grace, he wept bitterly
about that. And he also stood up in Acts
chapter two at the risk of his own life and said, you've crucified the
son of God, but God hath made him both Lord and Christ. Whether good or evil, what's
in the heart comes out of the mouth. May God give us wisdom
of heart. May the Lord restrain the evil
that's in our hearts. And give us a voice to glorify
Him in everything. Amen, let's pray.