I want you to take your Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Proverbs chapter 26. Proverbs
26. I'd like to look at one verse
of scripture this morning, verse 10. We just continue going verse
by verse in this precious book. The scripture says in Proverbs
26.10, the great God that formed all things both rewardeth the
fool and rewardeth transgressors. The marginal reading, if you
have a marginal reading, I've got in my book, this is what
it says. A great man grieveth all, and
he hireth the fool. He hireth also transgressors." Now, you know, if we try to read
those two, read the verse of Scripture, and then read the
marginal reading, which, you know, have marginal readings
to sometimes help us understand a little bit better what the
scripture said. And reading those two, reading
the verse and then reading the marginal reading, that verse
seems to me to be a little hard to understand. Varied, believe me. are the interpretations
of that passage of Scripture. One writer said that this may
be, and may be, the most obscure verse, not only in Proverbs,
but in all the Word of God. The most obscure. Well, I want to just take this
verse of Scripture And I pray the Lord, I believe the Lord's
given me some light on it. And I want to take it very carefully. I won't be long. But I want us to take this passage
of Scripture and just look at the wording. And may the Spirit
of God give us some understanding. Now, we know We know the message
of this passage. We know that the message of this
passage is the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think we'd all
agree on that. It's concerning his honor. It's
concerning his praise. It's concerning his will, his
good pleasure to show mercy and compassion to his people. and his right to deal in justice
with all who refuse to bow to him and his right to show mercy
to whomsoever he will. We know that that is the message. We look for him in all the scriptures. These
proverbs are not just good recommendations for living before men and God,
just telling us how to walk and how to act. Every verse of Scripture is concerning
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we forget that, We've
missed it. Now, we've said that before,
but I want to make sure that we understand that this verse
is concerning. You know, men, and I'm going
to quote a scripture concerning the word of the Lord himself,
men may read the scriptures and they find comfort in the mere
fact that they read or quote a verse. but they miss Christ. The Lord Jesus told the Pharisees,
this is how I'm going to make good on what I just said. He
said, search the scriptures, or you do search the scriptures.
He told them, he said, I know you do. For in them you think
you have eternal life, and they are they which testify
of me. What was he saying? Many stand in pulpits, many believe
that they know the word of God and they know what it means and
they misinterpret or they're not told what it really means
and they think therefore that they have eternal life. There's
quite a few of us in this congregation this morning that came up in
false religion and I can't tell you how many scriptures that
I once thought I knew and understood and said I believed them and
interpreted them in light of me being able to do something
in order to be saved. I searched the scriptures and
in them I thought I had eternal life. But those scriptures bear
record of Christ, His glory, His work, His honor, His person,
So here we are, considering a passage of scripture. And I want us to
understand, I want the Lord to give us some understanding. I
want us to see Christ in this passage. Now here's what the
word says. It says, the great God that formed all things. If your Bible has italicized
words, and it shows you the words that were added to help give
understanding, the title God and things are italicized. That means they were added. So
here's what it actually said in that first portion. The great
that formed all. Now, I'm going to say this. Though
God and things are italicized, without those words being in
the original, it doesn't change the truth that God Almighty is
the sovereign creator of all things. I mean, I can read this
and not put those words in there. The great that formed all. And what that says is God Almighty
The great, that is the abundant in rank and quality, the captain,
the exceedingly full, the master, the mighty. That's what great
means. So I can tell you that there is, there's one, there's
one that fits that description. Isaiah, I'll just turn this,
I'll just read this to you. Isaiah 45 and verse 22. says this, it said, look unto me and be
you saved all the ends of the earth for I'm God and there's
none else. So who is great? Who is great? God Almighty is
great. So the great God, that formed
all. Now that, here again now, that's
just formed. The great that formed all. That word formed has multiple
meanings. You look it up and it means to
twist, to whirl, to dance, but in the context of this scripture,
it is The master produces everything. The master produces everything.
Strong's concordance says this, to bear, to bring forth, to make. So we know beholding exactly
what the scripture says. The great God that formed, that
produced, that made, that brought forth, that caused to be born,
all. All. Only God can form all. Only the
Lord Himself. John 1. Turn there where you've
seen this scripture. John 1, 1 to 3. Let's see what
the Word of God says. Let's read it again. John 1,
verses 1 to 3. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and
without Him was not anything made that was made. So who is
the great that forms all things? It's the Lord. And concerning
the God that made all things, that formed all things, listen,
I'll just read Hebrews 11 verse 3 to you. When the Lord made
all things, this is how He did it. Hebrews 11.3, through faith
we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. He who is God, God. So that things
which are seen were not made of things which do appear. What did God make them out of? He just spoke them, and they
were. So the great, the great God that
formed all things, the great God that formed all things, now
here's something else that He does. He rewardeth. The great God that formed all
things both rewardeth the fool and rewardeth transgressors."
Now, he rewards both. He rewards two types. Two types. He rewards, or he
pays the wages that's due. When he says rewards, that's
what he's talking about. He's talking about paying. Somebody
does something, you pay them. So he rewards this great God
that formed all things, both pays the wages to the fool. And again, this is the same word
we've dealt with before. You look up that word fool and
it comes to this topic. Here's the topic. Stupid fellow. That's what it means. Stupid
fellow. He rewards the fool, the one
that's arrogant in his heart against God. The one that will
not bow to the Son apart from his works. A lot of people say,
well, I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what they're saying
is, I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and I'm trusting in my
faith. I'm trusting in what I've done. They'll admit that there
is the Lord Jesus Christ, but they find their hope in what
they've done for Him, or reacting to Him. They said, I believe
in salvation by grace. I believe the Lord graciously
offered it to me, and I took it. And therefore I'm saved. No, that works. That works. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourself. Now if we could possibly get
around that, and that not of yourself, and if we could get
around that, we might be okay. But you can't. You can't get
around that not of yourself. It's the gift of God. It's the gift of God. I didn't
earn it. He gives it. He gives salvation. And then
He gives it and then tells us He gave it to us. And we believe
Him. We believe Him. So he rewarded
the fool. That one that is going to end
up standing before God and attempting in Matthew 7, Lord, Lord, have
we not prophesied in your name, we cast out the devil in your
name. The one that's going to stand before God and attempt
to argue his own faithfulness before the judgment seat of Christ. And it's not going to work. It's not going to fly. Listen,
I'm telling you, if you think that you've done something in
order to merit your salvation, boy, that's such a... I've heard
people say, you know, I don't believe in salvation by works.
And then they'll explain to me what they're saying. And I'm
thinking, you're telling me that you believe in salvation by works.
You're telling me you do believe that. No. Salvation is totally
by the grace of God. And believers do nothing, nothing,
nothing to merit, to attain, to keep their salvation. We're
kept by the power of God through faith. God gives us faith to
believe it. And that's it, but men will,
they'll stand before God, the fool, the fool. Book of Mark chapter nine, verse
43, 44. If I hand offend thee, cut it
off. For it's better for thee to enter
into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell, into
the fire that cannot be quenched, where their worm dieth not, and
the fire is not quenched." The Lord here is not teaching mutilation
of our bodies, but I'll tell you what he's teaching. He's
teaching the truth that if there's anything found that draws us
away from consistency and faithfulness in him, I'm talking about our
will, our free will, our hope in ourself. He said, cut it off. Get rid of it. If
there's anything that is causing inconsistency in trusting and
believing in Him totally for our salvation, get rid of it. That's the issue. So the great
God that formed all things both rewardeth the fool. Now what's
the reward of the fool going to be? Damnation. That's his
wages. That's what's going to happen.
I mean we'll all agree with that. He rewardeth the fool. He gives him what he wants. He
wants to trust in himself and the Lord is going to deal with
him on that basis. You're going to be like, you
know, Belshazzar. You know, he was drinking out
of the cups of the holy city of Jerusalem. He brought them
in there and there was that handwriting on the wall. Daniel came in,
he read it, interpreted it. You've been weighed in the balance.
And he came up short. He came up short. What's it going
to take? How good do I have to be to enter
heaven? I have to be holy. as He is holy. Be ye holy as I am holy. How am I going to do that? God's
going to have to robe me in righteousness, His righteousness. He's going
to have to put away my guilt in the blood of Christ. He's
going to have to pay my debt and robe me in righteousness
for me to be accepted in the Beloved. I cannot merit my salvation. I cannot. So the Lord's going
to reward the fool. And he's also going to reward
transgressors. Now there's one, all of a sudden
you just kind of stop for just a second and think, I want to
know what that means. Because it does not come across
immediately what he's truly saying. Generally speaking, when we see
that word, transgressors, We think of something that means
bad, evil. And most of the time, that's
what it means. I encourage you to look up these
things I'm telling you. There's three different words,
transgressors. They're all translated in the
English, transgressors. Here's one of them, here's one
of them. In Psalm 37, 37, 38, mark the perfect man and behold
the upright, for the end of that man is peace. But the transgressors
shall be destroyed together. The end of the wicked shall be
cut off. That's one word. It's Strong's
number 6586. If you want to make a note of
it, look it up. You know, transgressors, those that break away from just
authority, those that apostatized, those that quarrel, those that
offend, those that revolt or rebel. That's one word, transgressors. Here's another word translated,
transgressors. Psalm 59.5, thou therefore, O
Lord, God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the
heathen and be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah. That word, transgressors,
means to act covertly, to pillage, to deal deceitfully, treacherously,
or unfaithfully. That's another word. Same word.
It's translated transgressors. And those two words, when they're
translations, fall under that category of being bad, bad, revolters,
evil, you know. of the cases. There's quite a
few scriptures in the Old Testament where those words, transgressors,
are found. And you've got to look them up
and find out what do they mean? What does that word mean? And in all cases, transgressors
falls under one of those two categories except one. There's one place in all of the
Old Testament where transgressors has a different meaning. And
it's right here. In our passage, the word transgressors
means to cross over, to bring over or bring through, to go
beyond, or to pass beyond. That's what that word means.
It has nothing to do with rebellion. It's not what it means. It means
to pass over. The first time that that word's
used. It's used transgressors. It's translated transgressors
only here. But there are other words, same
words, same number of strongs. It's the same number, but it
has a different, it's interpreted, same word, but it's interpreted
differently. But listen to the meaning of
it. First time it's used is in Genesis 8, 1. And God remembered
Noah and every living thing and all the cattle that were with
him in the ark. And God made a wind. to pass over the earth. You look that way, it's the same
number. And the waters assuaged. In Genesis 12, 6, listen to this.
And Abram passed through the land, same word, unto the place
of Sycam, unto the plain of Morah. And the Canaanite was then in
the land. Even this word is associated with our Lord. In Exodus 12,
12, here's what it says on that night of the Passover. The Lord's
speaking, Exodus, for I will pass through the land of Egypt
this night. I will smite all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the
gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. This
word transgressors means to pass through, to pass over, to be
going over, to go through. So the word transgressors is
a word that means rather than evil or revolt, it means those
that are passing through. And let me ask you this, are
not God's people sojourners, pilgrims, those that are passing
through this world. They're in this world, but they're
not of this world. And has their sin not already
been dealt with? God's just. He's going to deal
with the fools in themselves. But how's He going to deal with
these transgressors that are just passing through, those passers-through?
Those that are traveling through this world, how is He going to
deal with theirs? He's already dealt with their
sin. He's not going to deal with it in them. He's not going to
impute their iniquity to them. When the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world, The guilt that was born by the elect, same as
all other men. We were all guilty, we were all
transgressors against God in that sense of rebellion. But
Almighty God has taken the sin of His people. and has given
it to the Lord Jesus Christ, he bore it all. He laid down
his life bearing the guilt of his elect. He said, I laid down
my life for the sheep. And He bore all that they had
done against God, all that they thought and did and acted in
evil against God. Christ bore it. He bore it for
all of them, those that had not even been born yet. I mean, none
of us were born when He went to the cross. The Father saw
this from before the foundation of the world. He saw the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. But in time, Christ
came. And so now the Lord is saying
in this verse of Scripture, the great God that formed all things,
He both rewardeth the fool and He rewardeth the transgressors. He's already rewarded them in
giving their guilt to the Lord Jesus Christ. But there's going
to be another reward that we're going to realize. It's that same
reward we looked at last Wednesday in Genesis chapter 15 and verse
1. And when the Lord came to Abram, there after the battle
of the kings and the king of Sodom had come to Abraham, going
to make him an offer that the king of Sodom thought he couldn't
refuse. He said, you give me the people. You take all the
stuff, all the spoils. Just give me the people. And
Abram said, I've raised my hand to God. I'm not going to take
anything from you. lest you say I made Abram rich. And the Lord said to Abram in
Genesis 15, 1, fear not Abram. Now listen to this reward. I
am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. The Lord rewardeth
the fool with that which is due. and he rewardeth those passing
through by grace and mercy, he rewards them with himself, for
he has given their guilt, given it to his son. Christ bore it
and put it away. He robes them now in righteousness,
and oh, the reward that they have. We're heirs of God. Join heirs with Christ. We've
been justified before God's law. What does that mean? The law's
looked and says, no evidence. No evidence. No guilt. No record
of guilt. All is fair. God's a just God
and a Savior. This world is not our home, but
rather our home is where He is. The Lord Jesus Christ said, Father,
I will. that all that you've given me,
all that you've given me, be with me where I am, that they
may behold my glory, that glory that you gave me before the world
was. I pray that the Spirit of God
give us some light and encouragement in this passage of scripture
to the Lord's glory and our good. Amen.