We're in Proverbs chapter four.
If you would like to turn their Proverbs chapter four. I have so enjoyed going through
Proverbs and feel like the Lord has revealed his face time and
time again. And sometimes it's three verses. Sometimes it's
four or five verses that we go through. It's not, we're going
to go one verse. Just one verse is all that we're going to read.
Now it's possible in this verse that Solomon is talking about
his mother Bathsheba and his father David, but what is more
probable is since the scriptures in the volume of the book it's
written of Christ, we know that more than likely we're just,
we might as well just say we know that it's talking about
our Lord and Savior. It's a spiritual book. Was Solomon
talking about his parents? Certainly, but it was prophetic
about the Lord, prophetic. This one verse has three characteristics
in it of our Lord, three characteristics, and it's simple. It's so simple. But if we pass
over this, the simplicity, if we pass over it without Christ
being our mediator tonight, we'll miss it. We'll miss the truth.
So I hope this hour is that the Lord would mediate. He would
show us, reveal his face. He would show his face and cause
us, cause himself to be seen. Let's read this, Proverbs four,
verse three. For I was my father's son. tender
and only beloved in the sight of my mother. I was my father's
son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He is the son of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
son of God. He's tender towards his people. He's tender in obedience unto
his father, and he's only beloved by his mother. Now, is he talking
about Mary there? No. In the book of Galatians,
he tells us that Jerusalem is your mother. It's the church.
The church is what refers to as the mother. That's who loves
him is the church. Only the church loves the Lord
Jesus Christ. Nobody else loves the Lord Jesus Christ but his
people. But his people. We're gonna look at all three
of these in order. And first, I'll tell us a verse. The first
thing is he is the only begotten son of God. And we're going to
use, I have a simple message, simple verses. I pray the Lord
will feed us. He's the only begotten son of
God. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. God so loved. that he gave his
only begotten son to save a bunch of wretches like you and I. The
reason men do not believe, he said, whosoever believeth on
him shall not perish but have everlasting life. The reason
men do not believe It's the same from the beginning when Lucifer
said, I will ascend above the heavens, I will become like the
Most High. It's the same in the garden whenever Eve took the
fruit that was forbidden for her to take because she wanted
to be a god. It's that I will not have this man to reign over
me. They don't see that Jesus Christ
is God. He said, I and my father are
one. I and my father are one. People do not see Jesus Christ
as God. They do see him as God's son
in word. But to enter into that, that
means he had every characteristic of God. He had his blood, he
had his perfection, he had his holiness while he was on this
earth. And men won't believe that. One of the primary reasons
for that is because he offered nothing to the flesh while he
was here. The Jews wanted the Lord to come whenever Christ,
the Messiah was supposed to come, the Jews wanted him to come in
power. and establish a earthly kingdom like David had. They
expected him to come in and conquer all their enemies and give them
all their land and have all the things that they wanted back.
They had a king that was gonna take care of them. The Lord didn't
come for a physical kingdom, did he? He said, my kingdom's
not of this world. And that's why they despised
him. That's why they despised him. You remember, the wicked heart. You remember
even the temptations of Satan that he gave to the Lord he tempted
him. And it's not really a temptation
because the Lord couldn't have sinned it wasn't possible. But he tells
him, if you be the Son of God. That's what he said to him. He
knew who he was. He had seen him in glory before
in Heaven where it all started. He knew who he was. If you be
who you say you are. If you be Jesus Christ command
these stones that they be made bread. Lord said, no, man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. Took him up on a place and said, if
you be the son of God, and see, that's the issue, isn't it, with
men and women? They don't believe that he's
the son of God. They don't believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the issue. It's a bowing
to him. You have to bow to him completely.
All of his isness, you have to bow to it. We can't do that by
nature, can we? Not even a little bit. Satan
tempted him again, said, cast yourself off of here. Doesn't
the Lord say he gives angels to watch over you, keep you?
Doesn't he give angels charge over you? The Lord said, thou
shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. It's written. Then he takes
him up on a pinnacle and shows him all this land and he says,
if you be who you say you are, if you are the son of God, Bow
down and worship me, and I'll give you everything that you
see. He already owned it. You think about how silly of
a temptation that was. You offered me something I already
owned. But he said, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and
him only shalt thou worship. And he left him. It's the issue,
though. It's the issue from the beginning.
If you are who you say you are, prove yourself to me. That's
what men think when they want to have experience or something
that they can hold on to. But when we see Christ we bow
to His isness. We bow to His Lordship. We bow
to everything about Him. We bow to Him as the Son of God.
We bow to Him as the Word of God. We bow to Him as the Creator
of all things. He's the one that created everything.
The scripture says, in the beginning was the word, the word was with
God, and the word was God. All things were made by him,
and without him not anything made that was made. The word
of God, he made all things. Men don't want this man to reign
over them. He's too powerful, he's too sovereign,
he's too holy. They would rather have a, I don't
know if I told this story, or not, but place my wife was working,
somebody came in and he said, you look bored, look bored. And he says, I want you to have
this. And he got this little figurine out. It's supposed to be a supposed
to be a Jesus is what it's supposed to be. Handed him, handed it
to her and said, here, you can, you need to talk to this Jesus
and it'll talk back to you. And you need to confess to this
Jesus and it'll hear you when you confess. It's my pocket Jesus. He says, I like to keep him in
my pocket. That is the truth of all religion, all false religion. They, they may not not do that,
but that's exactly what they're doing. Not even realizing that's
what they're doing. They do not want the true son of God. He's
holy. He's just, he's higher than the
heavens. They do not want him. Satan wanted to be higher than
God's son, didn't he? And that's the issue. Men want
to be higher. If we do something to add to
or take away from the finished work of Christ, add to or take
away from the blood of Christ, what we're saying is, is the
Lord needed our help. That Jesus Christ did not successfully
redeem unless I do something to make it effectual. I fixed
it. Well, that makes me, that makes me God. That's exactly
what that does. And that's what men try to do.
Everybody wants to be higher than God, but nobody's higher
than Christ. Nobody's higher than the Lord. The Lord said,
all power, the Lord said, all power is given to me in heaven
and in earth. He has all power, not most. I love that. I like the wording
there, all power, every bit of it. There's none left for you
and I, because he has all of it. That's the whole point, isn't
it? This is why God said, this is my beloved son. In whom I'm
well pleased, hear ye him, hear ye him. So am I saying that you
and I cannot please God? Absolutely, that's exactly what
I'm saying. They that are in the flesh cannot please God,
but he did. The Son of God pleased God. The Son of God pleased the Father. Isaiah 42, one says, behold my
spirit, I'm sorry, behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine
elect. In whom my soul delighteth, I
have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles." He said, this is why he said,
he that honored the son honored the father. When he said, I and
my father are one, he that honored, then it's. People want a God,
but they don't want to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. Aren't
you glad that He gives us everything required? He doesn't say, okay,
believe. He doesn't say bow and just leaves
you to it. He causes us to, He enables us to, He makes us to
do it. And when we find that out, I told somebody that recently,
and they said, well, you're just saying I'm a puppet then. I hope
I'm the Lord's puppet. That doesn't offend me in the
least bit. That means I'm His. I'm His, He owns me. He that honoreth the Son honoreth
the Father, and he that does not honoreth the Son honoreth
the Father, and does not honoreth the Father. The Father delights
in his Son. Turn with me to John chapter
10. Hold your place here. Let's look at a few verses here,
John chapter 10 verse 14 through 18. I, and this is the Lord Jesus
Christ speaking, I am the good shepherd and I know, known my
sheep. I am the good shepherd and know
my sheep and am known of mine. As the father knoweth me, even
so know I the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And
other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I
must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be
one fold and one shepherd. Therefore doth my father love
me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down myself. I have power
to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This commandment
have I received of my father." This is why he had to come to
the earth as the son of God in order to redeem you and I. He
was the only one qualified to do so. This is why he had to
be born in order to redeem his sheep. This is what he's telling
us here. He has all power. You and I couldn't
please God in any way, but he did. He has all power. He has
the ability. He has the pedigree. You and
I, we have their own pedigree. We have our father, Adam, his
blood. It's tainted. Lord won't accept it. But when
the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made
of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under
a law, that we might receive the adoptions of sons. We've
received the adoptions of, okay, the son, because of his death,
we've received the adoption of sons. The Lord made us heirs
of God and joined heirs with Jesus Christ because of the finished
work of Christ. Because you're sons, God has
sent forth his spirit, the spirit of his son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father, Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but
a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Jesus Christ. This is what the Son of God accomplished
for his people, an heir of God. If you're an heir to somebody
that owns everything, that means, and you know how a wheel works,
whenever somebody has to die in order for that wheel to be
enacted, it has to. Wheels don't get carried out
until the person dies. The Lord Jesus Christ did die. And now
that will and testament is in full effect, isn't it? It's in
full effect. And he's the one that's gonna
see to it because he's resurrected. This is what he accomplished
by his death. We've been accepted in the beloved. We've been accepted
in the Lord Jesus Christ. When the father sees his people,
he sees the blood of his son. He sees the face of his son.
He smells his son, everything about it. The Lord sees Christ
when he sees us because we are in him. We've been made accepted. That's the only way we could
have been made accepted is to be put in Christ. He had to do the whole
work, didn't he? He births us into his family
by his death and substitutionary work. He births his people by
his spirit. It says live. Can we wrap our minds around
Really being a child of God, that's thrown around loosely.
But I mean, think about that for a second. The Lord says,
you're my children. The God that creates the universe,
he told us, you know how to give good things unto your children.
How much more shall your heavenly father give unto you? What's
he gonna withhold from us if he sees his son and when he looks
at us? He's got all good in store for us. Our good, his glory.
That's exactly what it is, isn't it? Believing on the Son of God is
the gift of faith, all by grace. It's life eternal. Turn with
me to 1 John chapter five. 1 John chapter five, look at verse
11. This is the record that God hath given
to us eternal life. And this life is in His Son. That life is not in what we do.
That life is not in what we don't do. That life is found in one
place, the Lord Jesus Christ. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto
you that you believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may
know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the
name of the Son of God. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
is eternal life. It's eternal life because he
is the life. Failing to believe him is eternal
damnation. It's the opposite of eternal
life. But salvation, and this is where so many get it wrong,
salvation is not accomplished when we believe. We believe because
salvation was accomplished at the cross of Calvary. We don't
believe in order for salvation to be accomplished. We believe
because salvation was accomplished. And that's something that men
don't preach. They skirt around it somehow.
But that's the essence of the gospel. Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners, of whom I'm chief. He came to save
his people from their sin, and he did. Salvation was accomplished at
Calvary. Therefore, every single person Christ Jesus died for,
they'll come to the knowledge of the truth. When the fullness
of time came, Christ came. When the fullness of time comes,
you'll believe if you're his. Isn't that glorious? He's gonna
let you know that Christ Jesus is the Lord. What is the command
from the Lord? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Believe, believing is not something
that we choose to do. Did you know that believing has
to come through and by faith, faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. Faith is a gift of grace. The
Lord gives faith to his people and enables us to believe. Otherwise
we would never believe. We don't believe in ourself.
We believe on the sun. We don't look to our life. We
look to his life. We don't offer sacrifice. We
look to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what
This is because he says he that hath the son hath life. He that
hath the son hath life. Now go back with me to our text,
Proverbs 4. Verse three again, for I was
my father's son, tender, and only beloved in the sight of
my mother. He is described as tender, the tender son of God. He was the only one, only a tender
son could have redeemed his people. There's no competition between
God. They're a unit. They're unified. They're one
together in thought and action. There's no separating and he
was tender unto his father and obedience unto death, even the
death of the cross. He was tender whenever they mocked
him and spat upon him. He was tender whenever they persecuted
him, afflicted him, whenever they lied on him, all the things
that they did when he was on the trial, he was still tender,
tender, focused on the Lord's work, focused on salvation. This
is who he's talking about here. The son of God is tender. Mankind always looks to physical
strength, don't they, or physical beauty, or how much financial
wealth you have. That's what men look to. This
is why Christ had no beauty that they desired. He didn't have
physical strength. He didn't have physical beauty, and he
didn't have a bunch of money. And so they didn't respect him.
They didn't desire him. He was tender. He tenderly honored
his father. He didn't get caught up in the
glitz and glam. He didn't get distracted by all the the vanity
that consumes our minds every day. You know what I'm talking
about, the things that we think about, the vanity, that's all
that it is. Pretty soon, the greatest victory that we've ever
had or the greatest triumph will be realized that it did not matter.
What mattered is that we were in Christ. We were in Christ.
When we go, when we lay our head on a pillow and we take our last
breath and we stand before the King of glory, there's only one
thing that matters when our eyes open. I want to see him seated
as he is and be conformed to his image. We're not going to
think about this earth anymore. Wouldn't be heaven, would it?
We're not going to worry about the stresses that we had here.
Shoulda, coulda, wouldas. We don't have any of that. The
Lord Jesus Christ never had that. He always was looking to his
father. He always was obeying his father. Perfect obedience. And there was nothing in him
that anybody would deem as desirable just by looking at him. I am
reminded that the believers desired him, didn't they? They came to
him. The ones that he gave faith to do so came to him. And that's
what you and I do. We come to him, but everybody else, he wasn't
desirable. Go with me to Isaiah 53, where
we read earlier. Who hath believed our report?
And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? And that's exactly
what I was saying just then. The ones that's been given faith
believe, and the ones that don't have faith, they don't ever believe.
whom I believe to report the ones with the Lord's arms been
revealed to him, for he shall grow up before him as a tender
plant and as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness. And when we see him, there's
no beauty in him that we, there's no beauty that we should desire
him. He's despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief. and we hid as it were our faces
from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.
Yet we did esteem him, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid
upon him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened
not his mouth. Like a faithful sheep going to
the shepherd. He is the good shepherd also
at the same time, but you can see him going, being accused
of all falseness, going up, knowing he's about to die, but oh, he
was so tender even in that moment, insomuch that he said, Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do. That's tender,
isn't it? That's humility. That's something
that we should desire because we don't have that naturally.
That's a gift by grace. That's a gift by grace. He tenderly
endured the full fury of God's justice. He tenderly did it. Never complained, never murmured,
never questioned God. Never took his eyes off of the
Father. He was doing everything he was
meant to do, everything purposed. He did it perfectly. Tenderly
laid down his life for you and I, his people, and said, Father,
into thy hands I commit my spirit. He tenderly trusts the Father
to resurrect him, to resurrect him. Incomplete submission. Look
at verse eight. He was taken from prison and
from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he
was cut out of the land of the living, For the transgression
of my people was he stricken. He made his grave with the wicked
and with the rich at his death because he had done no violence.
Neither was any deceit in his mouth. You ever noticed the because
there seems he was, he made his grave with the wicked and with
the rich in his death because he had done no violence. Neither
was any deceit in his mouth. You and I didn't qualify to do
that, did we? We couldn't have done that, but he did it because
he had no deceit, because he spoke the truth. He's the one
that could die in order to redeem us. And that's exactly what he
says in the next verse. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong
his days, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand,
he shall see the travail of his soul, shall be satisfied. By
his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he
shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoiled with
the strong, because he hath poured out his soul into death, and
he was numbered with the transgressions, and he bear the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressions. It pleased the
Lord to bruise his son, to bring many sons to glory, to bring
his elect to glory. Do you know why it pleased the
Lord to bruise him? Because he was tender. He was
tender unto the Father. He was tender, he was doing what
he did out of love. That's what he was acting upon,
was love. Love towards the Father, and the Father love towards his
people. He humbled himself, even unto
death, the death of the cross. We've never known humility like
that. As a matter of fact, if I, me and my wife, we're like
all married couples, we never fight. You know, if we ever had
a single fight, we fight sometimes. And when we fuss and feud, It's
never her fault. It's always my fault. At least
I think if I say that it works out a little better. But the
point I'm making is I try to give humility. I try to show
her humility. But I have expectations when
I show her that humility. If I'm humble, you need to be
humble. You get what I'm saying? If you're prideful and I'm humble,
I'm going to get prideful again. So it's got to be I'm being humble,
I'm being tender, I'm being patient, I'm being kind, I deserve, fill
in the blank. Patience, tender, kindness in
return. What did the Lord Jesus Christ get in return for being
tender and humble? He got the full wrath of God
poured out upon him. He bore our sin in his own body. He accomplished salvation and
he died. He literally died. so that you
and I could be redeemed. Now he didn't show humility and
then look at us and say, well, you need to be more humble. He
was doing it unto his father. He wasn't tender and then looks
at us and says, well, you need to do this and you need to do
that. No, he did everything required for the salvation of the Lord's
people. Then he gives us his spirit and that spirit's tender,
isn't it? Tender towards the things of
God and us flesh hates it, but the spirit's tender towards the
thing of God. Let's go back to our text, Proverbs
chapter four. Verse three, for I was my father's
son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. Only
beloved in the sight of my mother. The Lord said, Matthew chapter
12, verse 49, he stretched forth his hand toward the disciples
and said, behold, my mother and my brethren, for whosoever shall
do the will of my father, which is in heaven, the same as my
brother and sister and mother. He's referring to his church.
He's referring to his church, only the Lord's people esteem
the Lord and love. Only the Lord's people have the
ability to love. We love God because he first
loved us. He don't love everybody, but
he loves his people and therefore we love him. We love God because
he first loved us. Only the church loves the Lord.
You love God's son, don't you? I know there's some people here
that do. We love the Lord the way he is seated on the throne.
We love him being God. We love him as the son. We love
his tenderness and we love because we're part of the church. We
love him. We love him. He's beloved to us. The world
hates him because it hates truth. It hates truth. Nobody wants
truth. Everybody wants to believe what they want to believe. They
want to feel good about what they believe, and they don't want
to be convinced otherwise. But here's the truth of the gospel. The Lord Jesus successfully redeemed
his people. That's the truth. He didn't try.
Here's the truth of the gospel. He's seated on the throne, and
every single person he died for will be redeemed in time, or
has been redeemed and will be called in time. They'll be informed
eventually. The Lord will say, live, live. He's beloved in our sight, isn't
he? I said this on Sunday, I believe it was, but the high priest,
Simeon, saw the Lord. They'd been bringing babies there
for circumcision purposes for a long time, but the Lord said,
you're not gonna die until you see the Christ, the Messiah.
They don't say anything about Mary walking up and saying, this
is him, or Joseph walking up and saying, this is the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is God's son. As soon as Simeon saw that baby,
he said, now I can depart in peace. Mine eyes have seen thy
salvation, Lord. Is that not true? You see the
Lord's face? He's beloved in our sight. We
see him. We see him through the eyes of
faith right now. We look through a glass darkly.
But we say with Simeon, we say, Lord, I can depart in peace now. I've seen your salvation. You
are salvation. And one of these days will stand
before him. In mercy and in grace. And he's going to. Have us declare
the same thing the Queen of Sheba declared with the millions that's
there. Number no man can number. We're
all going to say it. The half. Has not been told me. The half
has not been told me. Mine eyes have seen the king. When faith ends in sight, we'll
joyfully cry, a half's not been told to me. He's beloved by his
people. Scripture says, fairer than 10,000
to my soul. His church worships him. All
glory and honor and praise goes to him and his church. Thank God for the father's son.
Thank God that he's tender, saving his people, honoring the father.
And thank God that he's made himself beloved unto us. He's gave you the ability to
love him. Everybody can't do that because
he loves us. I'm thankful for his salvation,
for his elected dead dog sinners. Let's read this one more time.
For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight
of my mother. Is he your savior? Is he beloved in your sight?
Do you love him? If so, it's because he's given
you the ability to. Let's pray. Father, cause us to believe and
love you more. In Christ's name, amen. In closing,
let's turn