Good evening. Let's open up tonight's
service in a softback hymnal number 38. Number 38, The Debt
of Love. Could you please stand? Number
38. ? Come every sinner saved by grace
? You who by faith God's Son embraced ? Tell all who hear
your voice below ? The debt of love to Christ you owe Dear Lord,
I lift my praise to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. He left his father's throne above
and came to earth on wings of love. For us he lived the perfect
man and so fulfilled the law's demand. Dear Lord, I lift my
praise to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. Jesus endured His Father's hour
and died at the appointed hour. He endured, no tongue can tell,
to save our souls from death and hell. Dear Lord, I lift my
praise to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. From death's dark grave our King
arose, and triumphed over all our foes. Up through the skies
the victor rose, and raised on high our Savior God. Dear Lord, I lift my praise to
Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. From heaven Christ will quickly
come and bring His ransomed people home. We shall see his lovely
face and chant the praises of his grace. Dear Lord, I lift
my praise to thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to thee. Maybe soon. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm, Proverbs, I'm sorry, Proverbs. Our text for the message
tonight will be Psalm 90, but we want to read from Proverbs
chapter 9. The theme tonight is Christ. But in the scriptures, the Lord
Jesus Christ is personified by wisdom. And, um, I was going
to say the theme tonight is wisdom, but, um, God has made him to
be our wisdom. And in the book of Proverbs in
particular, wisdom is spoken of as the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's look at verse 1 of Proverbs
chapter 9. Wisdom hath builded her house. She hath hewn out her seven pillars. Seven is a number of perfection
and this is the house of God that the Lord Jesus Christ said
he would build and now here he's being referred to as wisdom,
building his house with perfect completion, perfect strength. She hath killed her beast. She
hath mingled her wine. She hath also furnished her table. Oh, aren't you thankful that
the Lord slays the beast of unbelief in the hearts of his children,
that he mingles his blood for the covering of our sin. And that he's furnished his table
with bread and wine, everything necessary for his children. She hath set forth her maidens.
She hath cried upon the highest places of the city. And the maidens
of wisdom here are the heralds of the gospel. All of God's people,
at one time or another, in one way or another, are the daughters
of Jerusalem, they're referred to, the heralds of the gospel. Whoso is simple, now here's the
problem. Here's why most folks don't want
to come to wisdom, because wisdom is for the simple. It's for the
sinful, men in their pride, don't think they need wisdom, who so
is simple, let him turn in hither. As for him that wanteth understanding,
she saith to him, come, come, eat of my bread and drink of
the wine which I have mingled. Forsake the foolish and live
and go in the way of understanding. All men are either wise or they're
foolish. God refers to his people as being
wise and he gives them a heart for wisdom for Christ. Jennifer
Dunbar is sitting as we speak at her father's side and I understand
from Bert that Jerry probably Maybe a matter of hours. So we'll
be going over to visit with Jerry. Pray with him. The Lord allows
tonight after the service. So I want to pray for Jennifer
and thank the Lord for Jerry. He's made a he'd made a good
confession. I'm very, very hopeful, very
encouraged with him. I guess you all have heard that
Tim James had a heart attack and Bob Coffey had a stroke.
And I don't know what the latest is with either one of them. We visited Digna yesterday and
I was really quite surprised how much she had declined just
in what we saw her maybe 10 days ago, less than two weeks ago.
So she's very, very frail. And she said to tell you that
she loves you. She appreciated the pictures that we took her.
And she's looking forward to going home. Judd Jensen in Sarasota had melanoma
removed yesterday from the top of his head. And they will have
the pathology report back on that tomorrow. So I pray for
Judd and Tia. All right, let's let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father. We come before thy throne of
grace thanking you. That it is just that a throne
of grace that we have an advocate who has satisfied the demands
of thy holy law. Lord, if we had to approach you
on the basis of your law, we would have No hope, no grounds. But what great hope we have in
knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ, as our wisdom, has built this
house. He has spoken truth. He has satisfied
your justice. And Lord, we come before you
in his name. Pleading his righteousness and
his blood. And thanking you, Lord, of eternal
life that you give to us in him. We pray this hour for Jerry and
we ask Lord that your sweet Holy Spirit would comfort his heart
as you as you take him from this world. Pray for Jennifer and
for the family Lord and ask that you would give wisdom and comfort
and hope and Lord that you would use this for your glory and for
the salvation of your people. We thank you for our dear sister
Digna and we ask Lord for you to give her strength and comfort
in these last days of her life and Lord that you would speak
peace to her heart and continue to encourage her in Christ. Pray for Judd and ask Lord that
you would give him a good hope. We thank you for the testimony
that he has expressed and Lord we ask for your hand of strength
and healing for him. Pray for Bob and for Tim and Lord we know
that You work all things together for good for them that love you.
Thank you for these two men and for the faithful preaching of
the gospel that they've done and asked Lord that you would
put your hand of strength and and healing recovery on them.
We pray it in Christ's name. Amen. Would you turn to number 176,
on your blue hardback, number 176, Break Thou the Bread of
Life. If you could please stand. 176. Break thou the bread of life,
dear Lord, to me, as thou didst break the loaf beside the sea. Throughout. Throughout the sacred
page, I seek thee, Lord. My spirit pants for thee, O living
Word. Bless thou the truth, dear Lord,
to me, to me, as thou didst bless the bread by Galilee. Then shall all bondage cease,
all fetters fall, and I shall find my peace, my all in all. Thou art the bread of life, O
Lord, to me. ? Thy holy word the truth that
saveth me ? Give me to eat and live with thee above ? Teach
me to love thy truth for thou art loved O send thy Spirit, Lord, now
unto me, that he may touch my eyes and make me see. Show me the truth concealed within
thy word. And in thy book revealed, I see
the Lord. Please be seated. Will you turn with me? in your
Bibles to Psalm 90. I know we dealt with this Psalm
Sunday and I told you that it's become my
favorite Psalm and still is. We skipped over kind of briefly
a couple of verses that I want to go back to tonight and try
to Try to deal with a little bit
more in depth. Psalm 90 verses 11 and 12, who knoweth the power
of thine anger, even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days
that we might apply our hearts to wisdom. That's the goal. That's what
we're here doing right now. Applying our hearts. To wisdom. Looking in God's Word
in hopes that the Spirit of God, as we just sang, will reveal
to our hearts the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scripture
says of the fool there is no fear of God before their eyes. I've titled this message fear
and wisdom. Those two things go together.
The scripture says the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. It's the beginning of wisdom.
And in Proverbs chapter four, the scripture says that wisdom
is the principle thing. It is the most important thing. The fear of God is to believe
God. It's to trust God. It's to look
in faith to the glorious person and the accomplished work of
the Lord Jesus Christ and rest all the hope of our salvation
in him. To fear God is not to add to
or take away from Christ. is to trust him alone. To fear God is to beg God for
his mercy. Knowing, knowing that he is sovereign
and as the sovereign God has the right, he has the sovereign
right to have mercy upon whom he will have mercy and whom he
will. We don't come before God if we
fear God. We don't come before God on the
basis of anything that we've done. We don't claim any righteousness
before God. We're completely dependent upon
His mercy and His work for the hope of our salvation. That's
what fearing God is. A man who comes before God based
on something he's done or based on a decision that he's made,
or a prayer that he's prayed, has no fear of God. He has no
fear of God. We fear God, knowing that we
can't make any contribution to our salvation. We are dependent
upon him. And a proper fear of God delivers
the soul of a sinner from the fear of death and wrath. Look
at verse 11 again. Who knoweth the power of thine
anger? Who can comprehend the full fury of God's wrath? The Lord Jesus Christ can. He
can. He experienced it. And who can
comprehend the eternal judgment and wrath of a holy God? separated
from God in hell. No one can comprehend that. Even according to thy fear, so
is thy wrath. Oh, we stand before God, not
with a slavish fear or cringing. A slavish cringing fear is the
kind of fear That seeks to earn favor with God by its own righteousness. That's not, that's not fear.
Well, you, you see that the idea here is that the wrath and the
fury of God is beyond our ability to appease. And so we're in need
of, we're in need of another. We, we, we have such fear of
God that we would not dare approach him based on any righteousness
of our own. We're completely dependent upon
the only one who understands the full fury of God's wrath.
That's what fearing God is. It's believing God. It's trusting
Christ. And that kind of fear sets the soul of a sinner free
from death and wrath. It sets one free from all condemnation. We saw Sunday what the Lord told
us in Romans chapter 8, you have not received the spirit of bondage
again unto fear. But you have received the spirit. And if you look at that verse,
the first word spirit is a small S and the second word spirit
is a large S because the first word spirit is talking about
our spirit. You have not yet, you have not
received the spirit of bondage unto fear, but you have received
the spirit, capital S, the Holy Spirit of adoption whereby we
cry, Abba, Father. How do we know we fear? We come
before him. in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ calling on him as our father. Turn with me over to
Proverbs. We're going to be looking at
a few verses in Proverbs. Look at Proverbs chapter 8. What is it to fear God? Fear
and wisdom, they go together as we're going to see over and
over again in these verses. Look at verse 13 of Proverbs
chapter 8. The fear of the Lord is to hate
evil, pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way. Now, the evil way
is that way that seems right unto man. It's the way of works. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come to the
Father except by me. with those who fear God, they
hate a works gospel because it robs them of the hope of their
salvation. If the gospel, if the works gospel
that's being declared by the world, if the free will gospel
is true, then I'm not saved. God's people, those who fear
God, hate the evil way, the way of man, the way of works and
the way of free will. But notice in the first part
of this verse, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and
arrogancy. We are turned off by evil, pride
and arrogancy when we see it in the world and when we see
it in other men, but where do we hate it the most? Where do
we hate it the most? Those who fear God hate evil,
they hate pride, and they hate arrogancy most when they see
it in their own hearts and in their own life. Oh, Lord, this
evil, these evil thoughts, these evil intentions, these evil desires,
this pride and arrogance whereby I, you know, promote myself before
men. It's so contrary to everything
that I believe. Lord, I hate it. Rid me of it.
Deliver me. That's how we know that we fear
God, because the fear of God exposes our sin, doesn't it? It exposes our sin. The fear
of the Lord is to hate evil, pride, and arrogancy and the
evil way and the forward mouth. Those who would speak against
Christ and against his gospel. Those who fear God hate it. They hate it. Oh, that the Lord would give
us. A spirit of fear. Proper fear. Fear of God. The fear of God is the beginning
of wisdom. The fear of God is the principle thing. The wisdom
is the principle thing and it's fear that drives us to Christ. Turn with me to Proverbs chapter
four. Proverbs chapter four. And we're
looking at these two verses. Lord teach us to number our days
that we might apply our hearts unto wisdom. Teach us to know
how frail we are, how brief life is, how dependent we are on you,
that we might apply our hearts to wisdom. I heard a man say
one time, he said, if I knew for certain that I was going
to die tomorrow, he said, I'd go plant a garden and I would
do what I planned on doing anyway. No, you wouldn't. No, you wouldn't. You would do what I've seen every
dying believer do. You would be applying every ounce
of your strength and every ounce of your attention to wisdom,
to know Christ, to be comforted in him and to be sure of your
salvation. That's what you'd be doing. Proverbs chapter four, look at verse five, get wisdom,
get it, pursue it. Seek the Lord with all your hearts,
get understanding, forget it. Not this wisdom is not just a,
it's not just a knowledge. It's not just an understanding.
It's Christ. Neither decline from the words
of my mouth. All the words that God speak
are spoken to call us to Christ. All of them. Forsake her not and she shall
preserve thee. Love her and she shall keep thee
for wisdom is the principal thing. It's the most important thing.
The most important thing. Oh, Martha, Martha. You're encumbered
about with many things, and we are, aren't we? We're a lot more
like Martha than we are like Mary most of the time. But Mary
hath chosen that one thing needful, that principal thing, that most
important thing. She's sitting at my feet hearing
me speak. And when God speaks, he speaks
of himself. Wisdom is the principle thing,
verse seven. Therefore get wisdom and with
all thy getting, get understanding. You see, when you get Christ,
when you get Christ, you see things the way they really are. You understand that you have
no righteousness, that everything about you is sinful before God.
You understand that God is absolutely sovereign and holds your life
and your soul in his hand, and you're dependent upon him for
everything. You understand that the Lord
Jesus Christ satisfied, and he alone satisfied, all the demands
of God's holy law. He's the only one that suffered
God's justice and pleased the Father. You have some understanding
as to the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ being the only thing that
will cover your sins before the sight of God. When you get wisdom,
you get some understanding. These are things that the world
doesn't understand. I'm not saying we fully comprehend any of these
things. We don't. But we understand something of
it, don't we? You compare what we believe and
what we understand to what the fool believes and what they understand. God's given us some understanding.
Along with wisdom comes understanding. Exalt her. And don't be troubled
by the fact that the feminine pronoun is being used here to
describe wisdom. This is Christ. He's just using
this to describe himself. And he's saying, Exalt her, lift
her up. Put her put her above all things
and she shall promote thee. She shall bring thee to honor
when thou dost embrace her. Embrace Christ. Come unto me. Abide in me and my word shall
abide in you. She shall give to thine head
an ornament of grace, a crown of glory shall she deliver to
thee. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ does, he gives to his people grace and glory. Grace here and glory forever. What hope, what hope. Now if there's any questions
about, Lord teach us to number our days
that we may apply our hearts. Now some of us applied Our intellect
to wisdom tried to try to dissect the word of God. Oh, we profaned
God's word by making it nothing more than a theological study
and debate. But now the Lord says, apply
your heart. Seek me with all of your heart.
Apply your heart to wisdom. And if there's any question about
what wisdom is, turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians
1. If the Lord teaches us to number
our days, we'll be more like that dying
man. who only has hours or days left
to live, who's seeking the Lord with all of his heart. And we'll
be more detached from this world, won't we? Look at 1 Corinthians
1 at verse 18. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. Now all throughout the word of
God, the fool and the wise man is compared and contrasted. The
preaching of the cross is foolishness, but unto us that are saved, the
preaching of the cross is the power of God. Paul said in another
place, it's the power of God unto salvation. I'm not ashamed
of it. I was, um, talking to somebody today and I said, just,
just listen, listen to the gospel being preached because that's
the means by which God gives faith and saves his people. To
us which are saved, it is the power of God, for it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Oh, so many wise and prudent
men in this world that think they got it all figured out.
And God gives you wisdom. He gives you Christ. And with
Christ, he gives you some understanding. You see the foolishness of the
world, particularly of the religious world. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? We're not intimidated by the
wisdom of man. The wisdom of this world is foolishness
to God's people. Why? Because he's given us some
understanding when he gave us Christ. For after that in the
wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. What is the world
trying to discover through their pursuit of wisdom? They're trying
to discover God. I mean, look at the scientists
now. They're looking for the God particle.
They're looking for the creation of the universe, the origin of
the universe. They're looking for meaning.
What are they looking for? They're looking for God. And
God says the world, by wisdom, knew not God. They can exercise
all the wisdom of man and all the intellect of man and they'll
not discover the truth. Why? Because the wisdom of God
is Christ and Christ is hid in the mystery of the gospel. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, verse 21, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For
the Jews require a sign. That's the religious. The religious
want some proof. They want some evidence. Show
us a sign. And the Greeks, the Greeks, they
seek after wisdom, after knowledge. But. And that's worldly wisdom
is what he's talking about there. You know, you study philosophy
in college today, you're gonna be studying those Greek philosophers
that lived in the third century BC. They're the founding fathers
of philosophy and they're still, you know, Aristotle and Plato
and all those guys, they're the ones that, you know, and God
raised them up before Christ came. to show that through the
wisdom of man, God could not be discovered. All their philosophical
theories and debates never discovered God. But we preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. This message of the gospel to
the religious is a stumbling block. It's the stone that the
builders rejected. It didn't fit into their building.
Christ is that headstone. He's that cornerstone and he
doesn't fit in to manmade religion. And so the builders rejected
that stone and he's thrown it out in the yard and the stone
has become a stumbling stone to them. To the Greeks, it's
foolishness. It's not intellectual enough.
It's not complicated enough. Listen, if something's complicated,
it's not true. Just mark it down. If it's convoluted
and complicated in terms of religion or philosophy or something in
terms of trying to just, now there's complicated things when
it comes to technology. I understand that. That's not
what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the complication of thinking. about truth, and men love complicating
it, don't they? The truth is so simple. Let the
simple come, the simple-minded. Oh, the world wants to complicate
everything. They want to debate and dissect
and make everything so convoluted and complicated. But we preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block unto the Greeks,
foolishness, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. That's the
verse I wanted to get to. Christ, who is the power of God,
and Christ, who is the wisdom of God. Lord, teach us to number our
days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom, that we might see
Christ, the simplicity that is in the Lord Jesus Christ, the
promises of God that are all yea and amen in Christ, the successful
work of redemption that's accomplished only in the Lord Jesus Christ,
the fullness of the Godhead who came bodily in the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is all we need. He's all
we need. He's the wisdom of God and he's
the power of God. Look at verse 25, because the
foolishness of God is wiser than men. What men call foolish in
terms of the simplicity of the gospel and the accomplished work
of Christ. God says, that's my wisdom. That's my wisdom. The foolishness
of God is wiser than men. And the weakness of God is stronger
than men. The Lord Jesus Christ. Became weak. That we might be
made strong. He became poor that we might
be made rich. He offered himself up in the
weakness of God. The weakness of God is stronger
than the strength of man. Lord, teach us to number our
days. Show us. Lord, how. How truly brief this
life is that we might apply our hearts to seeking after Christ. For you see your calling brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many notable are called. I'm thankful that the word that
the God said, not many, he didn't say not any. He said, not many,
not that I'm wise or noble, But this does not cut out a person
who has great intellect or great education or great nobility or
great wealth or great power in the world. What's God saying? Very few of those kind of people
are called. Why? Because they're trusting
in their wealth. They're trusting in their intellect.
They're trusting in their influence. They don't need God. It's easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for
a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. That's why God said,
not many of you were that way. But God hath chosen the foodless
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and the base things of the world and the things which
are despised hath God chosen. There we are. There we are. Yay, the things which are not.
And let me say this, if the Lord's pleased to save someone who's
noble, someone of great influence and power, if the Lord's pleased
to save one of great intellect and great education, they're
going to still fit this category. They're going to be made not
before God. The things which are not. to
bring to naught the things that are. All the, whatever glory,
whatever accomplishments, whatever privileges they have in this
world are going to be counted as dumb that they might win Christ. That no flesh should glory in
his presence, but of him, and that first him is the father,
of God the father, are you in Christ Jesus? God, the father
has to put us in Christ. We can't put ourselves in Christ. Who of God. The Lord Jesus Christ
of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. All our wisdom. All our righteousness,
all our sanctification, all of our redemption is found in him. Found in him. And James chapter one makes it
clear. If any man lack wisdom, I was
talking to someone yesterday and they'd been sharing the gospel
with a family member, a loved one and their family member said,
well, I've been asking the Lord to show me and to save me, but
he hadn't. And, and we both, we're both
believers talking about the person that he's sharing with. And,
and he said, she's still holding on to some righteousness because
if she was sincerely asking the Lord to save her, the Lord would
have saved her. Lori, no one's ever come to the Lord asking
to save him without the Lord saving them. Unless the person's
holding on to some righteousness of their own. God has made the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, James chapter one. If any man lack wisdom, if any man needs Christ, let
him ask it of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth
it not. God's not holding back. He's a lot more willing to give
us Christ than we are to ask for it. We're too bound up with
the things of this world to be concerned about the eternal. But here's the Lord saying, ask
me. I'll give you liberally. I'm
not going to upbraid it. I'm not going to hold it back.
But let him ask in faith. There's the catch. You see, a
lot of people say, well, Lord, I'd like for you to show me Christ
so I can look at him and evaluate whether I want him or not. That's that's the kind you come
to God like that. No. God's not going to put himself
on trial for you. Lord, I need Christ. Whatever
that means. I need Christ. Let him ask in faith, not wavering. not wavering like the waves of
the sea tossed to and fro. But let not that man think that
he will receive anything of the Lord, for a double-minded man
is unstable in all of his ways." Now I know you're like me. You
feel like you're double-minded all the time, don't you? Because
you've got two natures. You've got the old man and the new man.
And we are, in a lot of ways, double-minded, aren't we? But
that's not what James is talking about. James is talking about
You have a grace works mentality. You're coming before the throne
of grace with works. And if you have any degree of
works or any degree of righteousness, you're not coming to the throne
of grace. You're calling it grace, but you're mixing grace and works.
If it is of grace, it can no longer be of works. Otherwise,
grace is not grace. That's what it means to be double-minded.
Lord, I need to be saved by your grace. Or you're going to have
to elect me in grace. You've got to redeem me in grace.
You've got to regenerate me in grace. You've got to sanctify
me by grace. You're going to have to glorify
me by grace. I'm completely dependent. That's
what the fear of God is. You have your Bibles open to
Proverbs. Look at Proverbs. Chapter eight, let's go back
just a couple of verses from where we were. Verse 11, for wisdom is better
than rubies and all the things that may be desired are not to
be compared to it. Oh, he's the pearl of great price,
isn't he? He's worth everything. If God
gives us faith, then that's where we are. We're laying everything
on the line. Lord, I don't have anything. I can't do anything. I don't
know anything. I need Christ. And he says, nothing
can be, all the riches of this world cannot be compared to him. I, wisdom. Look at verse, this
isn't really any question about whether or not wisdom is just
some sort of intellectual thing or this is Christ. I wisdom dwell
with prudence and find out knowledge of witty inventions. The fear
of the Lord is to hate evil pride and arrogancy and the evil way
in the forward mouth to I hate. Counsel is mine and sound wisdom. I am understanding. I have strength
by me King's reign and Prince's decree justice. Not every King has wisdom. But
the Lord's saying, by me, kings reign. The heart of the king
is in the hand of the Lord. He directs it like the water
course with us wherever he wills. And the heart of judges and the
heart of your boss and the heart of your neighbor and everybody
else is in the hand of the Lord. By me, princes rule and nobles,
even all the judges of the earth. I love them that love me and
those that seek me early shall find me. That's the word of God. You seek
me, you find me. Riches and honor are with me.
Yay, durable riches. Oh, how, what's the opposite
of durable? How temporal, how indurable the
riches of this world are. You feel like you got a hole
in your pocket most of the time, don't you? You know, things come
in, they go right out. And I think the Lord keeps his
children there most of the time anyway. You know, Lord David
prayed, Lord, don't make me rich that I lose my need of you and
don't make me so poor that I'm tempted to steal. And that's
where God's people are, hand to mouth most of the time. But
there are durable riches and righteousness laid up for us
in heaven. My fruit is better than gold,
yea, than fine gold, my revenue than choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness
in the midst of the paths of judgment that I may cause those
that love me to inherit substance and I will fill their treasures. Apply your hearts to wisdom. Let's go back with me to our
text. I want you to see a couple things. There's two verbs in these verses
that I want you to know a little something about. In verse 12,
the word to teach and the word apply. are both in the causative
sense. In other words, the psalmist
is saying, Lord, cause me to learn and cause me to come. That's the real meaning there. The word teach is the word yada. I think You know, it may have
been Seinfeld that popularized the phrase yada, yada, yada.
It's a Hebrew word, and he's a Jew. The Hebrew word means
to know, to know. And the attitude that most people
in the world have is yada, yada, yada. I know, I know, I know.
You know, that's a, what's the believer say? You see, they don't
know anything. They honor Him with their lips,
but their hearts, they don't know. They don't know that they
can say, well, I'm a sinner, but they don't know they're a
sinner until the Lord makes you to be a sinner. They can say
Jesus is Lord, but they don't know He's Lord until He makes
Himself known. Lord, cause me to be taught of
God. Cause me to know. I don't want
to be one of those who heard of you with the hearing
of the ear, but they didn't really hear. They have ears, but they
do not hear. Isaiah chapter six, eyes they
have, but they do not see. Lord, I don't want to be like
that. I don't want to deceive myself in thinking that I know
something that I don't really know. You're going to have to
cause me to be taught. And you're going to have to cause
me to apply. You're going to have to open the door and you're
going to have to make me to come in. Lord, I can't do it. I thought that's, you see, this
is the fear of God, isn't it? Lord, I fear you so much that
I know that I don't have the ability to learn and I don't
have the ability to come. You're going to have to teach
me to number my days and you're going to have to cause me to
apply my heart unto wisdom. Oh, fear the Lord, ye his saints,
for there is no want unto them that fear him. They that seek
the Lord shall not want any good thing. That's God's promise. That's his promise. Oh, how many
things we seek. That's Psalm 38 verse 9 that
I just read. Let's close with Proverbs chapter
2. Proverbs chapter 2. Look at verse 1. My son, God's speaking to his children
in me. Don't you love that picture here?
the Lord sitting his beloved children down on his knee and
saying to them, son, if that will receive my words.
and hide my commandments with thee, so that thou incline thine
ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding. Yea,
if thou cryest after knowledge and lifted up thy voice for understanding,
if thou seeketh her as silver and searcheth for her as for
hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God. See how fear and wisdom go together.
There's no, there's no knowing Christ without a God given fear
of God. The fear of God that causes us
to worship him. The fear of God that causes us
to believe him. The fear of God that causes us
to cry out to him. For the Lord giveth wisdom. Any
man lack wisdom, let him ask it of God, who giveth to all
men liberally, the Lord gives wisdom. We can't figure it out. God's got to give it to us. Out
of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. Someone said, well, you know,
if God wanted me to do something, he would, he would, he would tell
me, well, he's already spoken. He's spoken. This is the, this
is the word of God. He layeth up sound wisdom for
the righteous. He is the buckler to them that
walk uprightly. He keepeth the path of judgment
and preserveth the way of the saints. He makes wisdom, the
Lord Jesus Christ, whom God has made to be our wisdom, make sure
that we are constantly reminded by the preaching of the gospel
that judgment was satisfied but once. Righteousness was established
but once. Wisdom's doing that for us. Then, verse 9, shalt thou understand
righteousness and judgment and equity and yea, every good path. Judgment. was satisfied once. When God poured out the fury
of His wrath on the Lord Jesus, who can understand the fury of
God's wrath? We just read that in Psalm 90,
didn't we? Who can understand the wrath
of God? Wisdom teaches us that judgment
was satisfied. Righteousness was established. Equity. Equity. We are inequitous, aren't we? Everything about us is inequity.
But equity was established. The balance, the scales were
balanced once and for all by the sacrifice of Christ and every
good path. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is that good path. When does that happen? Verse
10. when wisdom entereth into thine heart and knowledge is
pleasant unto thy soul. Oh Lord Jesus, enter into my
heart. Be the principal thing to me.
Give me understanding, give me discretion, give me wisdom, give
me knowledge. You and I are lied to every day.
This whole world's one big lie. Doesn't matter whether you, whatever,
whatever you do. It's just, we lie to ourselves. Lord, show me the truth. I want to, I want to be free. Our heavenly father. Thank you for the revelation
that you've made of your dear son in your word as our wisdom. And Lord, we pray that you would. That you would cause us. To know. Teach us to know. The number of our days. And cause
us to apply. Our hearts. After wisdom. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. Number 12, let's stand together. Upon my great and sovereign God,
I cast my soul and breath. My Father's hand controls the
world, and what he does is best. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. In raging storms and
fiery trials, He keeps me from all harm. He walks with me and
holds me in His everlasting arm. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power ? Come by to make thee blessed ? My God with skill infallible
? And great designs of grace ? With power and love that never
fail ? Shall order all my ways So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blest. My life's most minute
circumstance is ordered by my God. Who promised that in all
things He will ever do me good? So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth
and power come by to make thee blessed. Amen. Hi. Hi.