Good morning. I'll put this here. I'm going to try to speak as
low as I can so my voice doesn't go, because sometimes I have
problems with my voice. It doesn't last very long if
I speak loud. Let us go to the word to the
Lord in prayer first for his assistance. Father God, we come
before you this morning, Lord, by your grace, recognizing that
you're holy, holy, holy, Father. We thank you because you have
provided Christ to us, and it's because of Christ that we come
before you to thank you, Father, to give you praise, to thank
you for your mercy and your grace towards us, Father. We now pray
for this Bible study here as we look at your word and look
at Christ at the same time because he is the living word, Father.
And we come before you that you might fill us with thy Holy Spirit,
that your Holy Spirit might be our teacher for he is the author
of these scriptures, Father. And we come in great need, great
need of you. who only is our teacher, Father. We wanna learn from you. In Jesus'
name we pray, amen. Let us go to Proverbs, the book
of Proverbs. And as the pastor has suggested
to read a chapter of Proverbs every day in this month, chapter
15 is today's Proverb chapter. And we're just going to look
at a few verses in Chapter 15. There's a lot of verses in that
chapter. It would be too long to look
at each verse. But of course, foremost when
we come to Proverbs, it is a book that I believe takes us to Christ. Because the more we read it,
I don't know about you, but the more I realize that I'm not wise. that I need wisdom from God. And that's why it drives us to
Christ. It drives us to the wise one.
It drives us to Him. And so it kind of works as law
does. It shows us who we are and who
we're not and who we need from. We need from Christ. We need
to hear from Him. And as in Proverbs chapter 15, we're going to look
at a few verses. The first verse that we're going
to look at is verse 3. Verse 3 in Proverbs 15 says,
the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on evil
and the good. We find that Nothing escapes
God. God is omnipresent. He's everywhere. Everywhere at the same time.
And when it says that he's keeping watch, it doesn't mean that he
leaves heaven. and leaves heaven and comes to earth to look. No,
he sees from the place where he's at. He sees everything.
He sees every evil. He sees every good. And this
could be good news and it could be bad news, right? Because when
he sees everything means he is also a judge of everything that
takes place. And if we go to our 2 Chronicles,
we're going to see something similar to this teaching. 2 Chronicles
16, verse 9. Well, actually, I'm going to
read from 7 through 10 to read the context. 2 Chronicles 16, 7 through 10. It says, and at that time, Hanani
the seer came to Asa, the king of Judah. and said to him, because
you have relied on the king of Syria and have not relied on
the Lord, your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria
has escaped from your hand. Were the Ethiopians and the Laban
not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because
you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand. For the
eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to
show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal
to him. And this you have done foolishly. Therefore, from now on, you shall
have wars. That is, I was angry with the
seer and put him in the prison. for he was enraged at him because
of this, as I oppressed some other people at that time. So
here we see that God is everywhere, seeing everything that happens.
And here he gets punished, he gets judged because he did not
rely on the Lord. He thought that he could help
himself by doing a deal or negotiating with another king instead of
trusting God. When I said bad news, I said
that he sees every sin. But the good news is that he
sees us. He sees what happens. He's sovereign. So he's aware and also in control
of all our circumstances. There's nothing that escapes
him. When we pray to the Lord, we're not letting him know something
that he doesn't already know. When we pray to the Lord, we
seek his help. We are recognizing our needfulness
of him. We are coming to him because
he supplies our needs and he needs to supply all our needs,
especially the spiritual needs that we have. In Psalm 33, we
also see something similar to his presence in Psalm 33. Let's go to Psalm 33. We find,
starting in verse 15, the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are open to their cry. This is very important,
their cry. Why are they crying? They're
crying because they're not righteous in their own eyes. They're crying
because they need mercy. They need grace. It says, the
face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the remembrance
of them from the earth. The righteous cry out, notice
what the righteous do, they cry out to the Lord hears and the
Lord hears and delivers them from all of their troubles. The
Lord always delivers his children from all their troubles. The
Lord is near to those who have a broken heart. This is another
characteristic or another result of the Lord saving someone, the
broken heart, and saves such as to have a contrite spirit. And this he delights in because
this is his work. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit in the believer is to make him have a broken heart
make him have a contrite spirit. The believer has a broken heart
because they see their sin. By God's grace, he's able to
see some of our sin. And we know that we need grace. We know that we need mercy. And
this is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Many are the afflictions
of the righteous. but the Lord delivers him out
of all of them. This is what the Lord does. He
delivers the believer out of all of the afflictions. And the
afflictions are many. And do you think that that is
not by God's design? Of course it is. Of course it
is. Because he demonstrates that
he delivers us from those afflictions. He wants to demonstrate His love
and His grace towards us. So there are many afflictions,
and these afflictions are God-ordained for His glory and for our benefit. And the last verse in that chapter
of that psalm, the Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and
none of those who trust in Him shall become them. That's the
key, to trust in Him. So the believer, when he's brought
to this truth that the Lord sees everything, this is a comfort.
It's a comfort to the believer because the believer knows that
God is aware of all our circumstances, of all our afflictions. And in
Proverbs, going back to Proverbs 15, we're gonna see that in Proverbs
15 and verse 11 also says, hell and destruction are before the
Lord. So he's present everywhere. Hell
is his will, destruction is his justice, and they're all before
the Lord. This is not by Satan's design. This is not Satan's will. This is God's will. Hell and
destruction are before the Lord. If hell and destruction are before
the Lord, how much more are the hearts of the Son of Man? He
sees the hearts of men. He sees their condition. There
are only two types of hearts. There's the wicked heart that
we got from Adam. And this is the heart that follows
after Christ that we have gotten in the new man, his creation,
what he has provided. And those are the hearts that
he sees. It says in that verse that he
sees evil and good. And that seems to be a contrast
in Proverbs. In Proverbs 12, for instance,
I'm just going to read a few verses here, that there's always
a contrast, right? In Proverbs 12, 2, it says, the
good man obtains favor from the Lord, but the man of wicked intentions,
he will condemn. That's Proverbs 12, 2. The good
man obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of wicked intentions,
he will condemn. We see that contrast again in
verse 5 of Proverbs 12, where it says, the thoughts of the
righteous are right, but the counsel of the wicked are deceitful. We see the contrast in verse
17, same chapter. He who speaks the truth declares
righteousness, but the forewitness is deceit. He who declares the
truth, who is the truth? The Lord Jesus Christ is truth.
And he declares righteousness, and the preacher of God's word
declares where righteousness is. It is in the Lord Jesus Christ
and him alone, and him is who we seek. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the false witnesses deceit, false prophet, always deceiving, always
telling you that it's you. That it's you, you, you. You
make the decision. You do what's good. You seek
God. You have to do this. You have
to do this. And it gives credit to you. That's a deception of
Satan. So there's a contrast there between
the evil and the good. And it says, we go to the next
verse, verse 8. We see, we go back to Proverbs
15, and we jump to verse 8. Verse 8, it says, the sacrifice
of the wicked is an abomination. I'm going to talk about this
because this is what goes on every Sunday and throughout the
week as well. When people that are not in Christ
do sacrifices. They come to church, they sing,
they do whatever they want to do in church. They are doing
sacrifices. And one might think, well, sacrifice
is good, isn't it? Didn't God say in the Old Testament
to do these sacrifices? But there are an abomination
to the Lord, an abomination to the Lord, because they're done
by the wicked. They're not done in Christ. They're
not done looking to Christ. They're not done in faith. And
there are abomination. Number one, because it comes
from a deceitful, it comes from a heart that is wicked. And number two, Because we are
wicked, you tend to look at it as good, right? These sacrifices
that the wicked do, they rest on these sacrifices. They look
at them as righteousness, instead of looking to Christ. They look
at what I'm doing. And that's why, the reason why
it's an abomination to the Lord. In verse, the next verse, it
also says that, The way of the wicked is an abomination to the
Lord. So there's three things. There's the sacrifice of the
wicked, the way of the wicked, and also the thoughts of the
wicked. And the wicked, who are the wicked? Anybody who's not
in Christ. Anyone who's not looking to Christ
as his righteousness, anyone who's not looking at Christ as
his representative before God, they're wicked. Why? Because
we're all born wicked. Ever since Adam fell, everyone
has the same nature that Adam had. Our representative had sin,
he fell, and his nature traveled through all mankind. sinful nature,
a nature that's against God. And we have that nature. We were
born with that nature. And by God's grace, in the new
birth, looking to Christ, God gives us that new nature, that
nature of Christ, that nature that's united with Christ. And
only then Can we have faith? Only then can the Lord be pleased
because everything that we do, we do it in faith. We do it looking
to Christ, not looking at anything that we do in order for God to
save us or to give us credit. So the sacrifice of the wicked
is abomination. The way of the wicked is also
abomination. A way is just a course of action,
behavior, direction, the path, a pattern of life, is all an
abomination to God. It's all abomination to God if
the person is not in Christ, if he's not looking to Christ
for everything. That is how God sees the wicked. And again, we're
not thinking the wicked of somebody evil, right? Because when we
read the wicked, we tend to believe in a murderer or somebody that's
really outwardly wicked. But the wicked is simply anyone
who's not in Christ. Anyone who's not in Christ is
wicked. But then we see in verse eight, the contrast here, and
we see it also in verse nine, but the prayer of the upright
is his delight. The prayer of the upright is
his delight. We see that also in Proverbs
21, 21. Proverbs 21, 21. It says, he who follows righteousness
and mercy finds life and righteousness and honor. That was Proverbs
21, 21. So who's the upright? The upright
is he who looks to Christ. He who's trusted in Christ. He
who God has redeemed. He who has Christ's righteousness
accounted for him. Not their own righteousness,
but Christ's righteousness. It seems to be a delight to God
because our prayer to God is a result of his work. in our
lives. It's a result of His work. Your
flesh, your sinful nature does not pray. Your sinful nature,
all He does is sin. Sin, sin, sin. That's all. And
it's wicked. Our sinful nature is wicked.
But God sees the prayer as his delight because we come to him
and we rely on him. We come in for him to meet our
needs. And he, God is more, he's more,
he likes a lot more to meet our needs than to make demands of
the believer. He wants to meet our needs. And
that's why the prayer, one of the reasons why the prayer of
the upright is his delight, because we're looking to Christ when
we pray. We are not coming to God without Christ, because you
have no access to God the Father without Christ. So we come to
him looking to him. So in Proverbs 15, 29 also, it
talks about that and it says that The Lord is far from the wicked,
but he hears the prayer of the righteous. And again, he hears
the prayers of the righteous because of what Christ has done.
What the Lord Christ has done. He has given us access. He has
broken that partition between the holy and the holy place and
the most holy place. Christ has done that. On the
cross, he has done that. So he is always ready to provide
for us, ready to provide our needs. He wants to provide our
needs. He wants us to look to him for
everything, for all our provision. And he delights doing this. In
Psalm 34, it's a beautiful psalm. Let's go to Psalm 34. We find that he says, the eyes of the
Lord are on the righteous. Now, something about the righteous.
It's interesting how the wicked don't see themselves as wicked,
right? They see themselves as righteous. And the righteous
see themselves as wicked. Isn't that true? The believer,
even though God sees you as righteous and you are righteous in Christ,
we don't see ourselves as righteous, right? And that's because the
Holy Spirit reveals our sin. We see, we share our sin. But
the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. And his ears are open
to their cry. This is God now. His ears are
open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against
those who do evil. to cut off and remembrance from
them on the earth. When I read the face of the Lord
is against those to do evil, I think that the believers automatically
look at themselves, right? I do evil. But sometimes we forget
we look to Christ. Christ has taken care of our
evil. Christ has paid the penalty for
our evil. Our sins are thrown away by God
And they're thrown away in the deepest of the sea that he cannot
see them, he cannot remember them. So when God looks at us,
first of all, how God sees things, that's the way they are. And
he sees us, he does not see evil in us because of Christ. Christ took our evil. So he says,
to cut off the remembrance from them from the earth, the righteous,
what do they do? They cry out and the Lord hears. This is a promise. They cry out
and the Lord hears us and delivers them from all of the troubles.
We read that before, didn't we? From all the troubles he delivers
us. And which is our greatest trouble, by the way? Our sin. is our greatest trouble. And
he has already delivered us from our greatest, our greatest need. Our greatest trouble is our sin. And he has taken care of that
in Christ already. So from that perspective, we
have, you know, we have no trouble left, really. You know, we have
temporal troubles that I think Pastor Gray mentioned that they're
not really troubles, it's called time. time fixes it, right? With time they get fixed. So
the Lord is near to those who have a broken heart. This is
another fruit of what God's work in the believer, a broken heart
and saved such as have a contrite spirit. So here we find that
the Lord delights in this prayer because he's the one that creates
it in us. He brings us to us. He loves,
and then in verse nine says in Proverbs, back to Proverbs 15
in verse nine, we find that he loves, who did he loves? He loves, Him who follows righteousness.
And what is to follow righteousness? To follow righteousness in Matthew,
in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, we find that he talks
about this. The Lord Jesus Christ says in
Matthew 5, 6, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. If you see all the Beatitudes,
they're all a result of God's grace in the life of a believer. So we are blessed. Blessed are
those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall
be filled. How does he fill us? He fills
us with Christ. Christ fills us. Christ satisfies
us. And who creates that hunger and
thirst? God does. This is the work of
God. That's why he delights in that
hunger and that thirst. Because if it wasn't for God
working our lives, there will be no hunger and thirst. We look
around, we see our family, we see our friends, they have no
hunger for Christ, no hunger for righteousness. Why? Because
that is the default. That is how we are born. That
is what is natural in man, not to see. who seeks after righteousness
is nothing but the believer. The believer seeks after righteousness.
He seeks after Christ because he sees no righteousness in himself. He finds no righteousness. And
of course, this is also the work of God. Those are all the results
of God's grace. Now, what does God delight in? What else does God delight in
or how is he pleased with us? Well, we look in the New Testament
to Hebrews, the book of Hebrews. And we're going to find in Hebrews
11, 5 and 6. Hebrews 11, 5 and 6. It says, by faith Enoch was taken
away. So he did not see death and was
not found because God had taken him. But before he was taken,
he had this testimony that he pleased God. Immediately after
that is the explanation of this. But without faith, it is impossible
to please him. For he who comes to God must
believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently
seek him. But without faith, this faith
that God gives us is a gift of God and it's a result of his
mercy and his grace. And we look to God, God is pleased
with the faith because he provides the faith. He provides that faith,
and that faith looks away from ourselves and looks to Christ. It looks away from our works
and looks for His works. It looks away from anything from
us and looks to Christ. We see our sin, but we look to
Christ by faith. He takes away our sin. He handled
our sin in the cross of Christ. So it is impossible to please
God without faith. That's why the wickedness, that's
why he's not happy. He's not content. He is, there's
only wrath for those who do not have this faith that God gives.
The faith is totally in Christ. And he's pleased with his work. In Hebrews, 13, we go a little further, we go
to Hebrews 13 and we look at verse 20 and 21. And this is the writer of Hebrews
writing to them, this is like the farewell, this is the closing,
for may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from
the dead The great shepherd, this is our great shepherd, is
the Lord Jesus Christ of the sheep, of only the sheep, through
the blood of his everlasting covenant. This blood is of the
everlasting covenant. Why is it everlasting covenant?
Because it was from the everlasting past to the everlasting future. This covenant has been in place.
Make you complete in every good work Watch this, to do his will,
working in you. Notice, working in you. This
is God working in you. What is well-pleasing in his
sight through Jesus Christ, whom be the glory forever and ever.
So why is God pleased? God is pleased because he is
the one working in us. He is the one working through
his sight through the Lord Jesus Christ. He's pleased with himself,
with what he has done with us, because the life of believer
brings glory to Christ, and everything basically is made to bring glory
to Christ. And a believer having faith brings
glory to Christ, because that is not of our own. We were lost,
and it is his work. In Philippians 2.13, the same.
Same concept, let's go to Philippians 2.13. In Philippians 2.13, we find
the same. We find this truth. For it is God who works in you,
both to do will and to do for his good pleasure. This is God
working in us. This is not us drumming up anything,
but this is the work of God for His pleasure, for His glory,
and that's why He's pleased. And in 2 Thessalonians, in 2
Thessalonians 1, and this is the last scripture, we're
jumping on a lot, and this is gonna be a short study. and Second Thessalonians 111. Says, therefore, pray always.
Therefore, we also pray, pray always for you that our God will
count you worthy of his calling and fulfill all the good pleasure
of his goodness and the work of faith with power. that the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, in you
and him, according to the grace of our God, our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what pleases God,
his glory, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we read
Proverbs, we find that that wisdom that
Proverbs talks about is unattainable. without Christ is unattainable
without God's grace. It's just unattainable. And in
the New Testament, we find that the Lord Jesus Christ is our
wisdom, right? It's progressive revelation. We find we are blessed to have
the scriptures in the New Testament to teach us that it's all about
Christ, that if we seek Christ, we have everything. So that wisdom
It's not a type of wisdom that you're going to try to study
and try to do your best to follow it without Christ, because you
have to go to Christ. And Christ is all wisdom. He
is the one that gives wisdom. He gives wisdom by grace, but
that wisdom doesn't come outside of Christ. It doesn't come outside
the gospel, because it just is a God-given wisdom. that prophecy
is talking about. It's not a wisdom that philosophers
could get to. It's a God-given wisdom. May
the Lord bless him through his word.