I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Proverbs, chapter
25. Proverbs 25. I want to look, Lord willing, at verse
23. Got a little confession to make
to you. A few days ago, I started looking
at this passage of Scripture. And for a day, maybe a day and
a half, I read everything that I possibly could read on this
passage of scripture. And I failed for myself, I'm
sure through the weakness of my own understanding, I failed
to see or read anything that bore witness to my heart But
that was the message of this passage of scripture. Everything
I read just was cold. No life. Nothing of the glory
of Christ. Nothing of the need of a helpless
sinner. And in my heart, I truly confess,
I felt in my heart, I may have to just say, I don't know what
it means. And I'd be willing to do that. But I feel as though that the
Lord has given me some light on this passage. And this passage
that to my understanding, my ability to read, seemed so dark,
so veiled. I truly feel now that this passage
of scripture contains the whole of this Bible. The whole message,
everything we've ever heard for years and years and years and
years is contained in this verse of Scripture. Every truth set
forth in the Word of God concerning the salvation of a sinner is
in this passage of Scripture. But who is sufficient for these
things? I stand before you right now and I'm as serious as I can
be. I am so fearful of being able
to set across what I truly believe the Lord's put in my heart. But
by the grace of God, I'm going to, waiting on the Lord, trusting
the Lord and praying that the Spirit of God alone who can bless
this message, bless it to our hearts. We need it. I'm a weak,
frail vessel that is scared. I pray God bless you. Proverbs
25, 23, the north wind driveth away the rain, so doth an angry
countenance a backbiting tongue. Now this book, The book of Proverbs
is a book of wisdom. The Spirit of God moved upon
a man named Solomon to pen these words, but it's concerning God's
wisdom. The wisdom of God, the wisdom
that reveals how God can be just and justify a sinner. The scripture
declares, the north wind driveth away rain. so doth an angry countenance
a backbiting tongue." Now, to understand what is in this verse
of Scripture, we need to consider each word, every word, and ask
the Lord to give us some understanding and let Scripture interpret Scripture. It doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter what I think. It matters what God says. That's
the only thing that matters. The North Wind. You know there's
only one other time in all the scriptures that the North Wind
is spoken of. That the North Wind is referred
to. And it's Song of Solomon. Turn
over Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon 4, 16. Song of
Solomon is just, okay, we got Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song
of Solomon. Song of Solomon 4, verse 6. Here's what the scripture says,
Awake, O north wind, and come thou south. Blow upon my garden,
that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into
his garden and eat his pleasant fruits. Awake, O north wind. The north wind is the spirit
of God, the wind. The Spirit blows, John 3 says,
as the wind blows where He wills. So here we know that the north
wind is the Spirit of God, the north wind. Speaking of the convicting
mercy of Almighty God toward His people. Blow, oh north wind,
upon my garden. What we need this morning, we
need the north wind The loving, chastening, convicting, trying,
proving Spirit of God to blow upon the garden of the Lord,
His chosen, His elect, His people. I need to be taught something
of what I am. I need to be taught something
of my frailty. So the Spirit of God in Proverbs
25, 23, it says, the north wind That wind, that north wind, that
spirit, that speaks only of Christ. The Lord said that. He shall
speak. He said, I go, but I won't leave
you comfortless. I'll pray the Father. He'll send
you another comforter. He shall speak of me. He'll speak of me. And that's
the only message that the Spirit of God has. So what happens is
the north wind, the north wind, the Spirit of God in convicting
power, mercy. Do you realize the mercy of God?
That God would show us what we are. What we need. I'm born with a heart that thinks
I don't need anything. I've got this. I've got this.
I can do what I will. I can accept the Lord when I
want to. The Spirit of God has shown me something. I'm needy. I'm frail. Left to myself, dead
in trespasses and sin. So here the north wind reveals
Christ and He shows the people what they are. The north wind
driveth away rain. Now, we look at, first of all,
rain. Now, I know this. This verse of scripture is not
talking about the weather system here in the United States or
in the world or the barometric pressure and all that kind of
stuff. The rain, this word rain right here is a word that is
the same word that is used in Genesis 7-12 when the Lord says,
and the rain was upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights. Now what
that is, it's not talking just about a little drizzle. This
particular word is a word that is speaking of violent. Heavy rain. Heavy rain. And back in Genesis, rain, when
the Lord sent rain upon the earth for 40 days and 40 nights, what
was that? Judgment. Judgment. God saw that every
imagination of the thoughts of men was only evil continually. Every thought. Every thought.
Every thought. Evil. Evil. And God sent Rain. Judgment. And so here the Spirit
of God is revealing something to God's people. This is who
He's talking to. He's talking to the people, the sheep of God.
This book is from God to His people concerning the glory of
Christ. And what does the North win?
What does He do? He driveth away or reveals how
God has driven away or drives away the wrath of God. Now that word driveth away. Now if you have a margin, I've
got a margin in here, it says that word driveth is actually
bringeth forth rain. You say, well what is it? Does
it drive it away or does it bring it forth? Yes. Yes. That's the answer. It does both. What does the Spirit of God reveal?
The Spirit of God is revealing that the wrath of God is going
to be driven away for God's elect by bringing it forth upon Christ. God's going to have to do something
for Himself. You've heard Brother Scott say
this? How true. The Lord's got to do something
for Himself before He can do anything for a needy sinner. So here's the Spirit of God revealing
for the elect to go free. The north wind reveals how God
does drive away the rain. How he does take that, the wrath
of God is going to have to cast his, the wrath, I mean the debt,
the debt of his people as far as the east is from the west,
going to have to drive it away. But it's only going to be driven
away one way. God is a just God. I'm a just
God and a Savior. But in his justice he's going
to absolutely have to deal with the sins of his people in a substitute,
one that is made to be them. Not just merely to take his place. Brother Neil, that was the best
example I've ever heard in my life. We always think about a
substitute. You've got a bunch of guys out
there playing football. And the linebacker, he's done got hurt,
so let's take him out and I'll put another one in. That's just
to substitute me and I'll take your place. That's not what,
when I say He is the substitute of sinners, I'm talking about
He has actually made what they are. He becomes them. So in other words, for a just
God to deal with the sins of His people, that debt's got to
be driven away. But it's got to be brought forth
upon the substitute. He's going to have to do something
with that sin. God just can't sweep it under
the rug. But I looked also at that word,
driveth away. The north wind driveth away. rain, or reveals how God, Spirit
of God, God Himself, in that covenant of grace, the triune
God, Father, Son, Spirit, God doth drive it away. But I looked
at that word also, that drive it away, and here's the definitions
of that word. If you want to find this, I'll
tell you where I get it. It's in the Blue Letter Bible. You
look it up. So here's what that word drive it away means. pain, formed, bring forth, travail,
grieved, and wounded. Any flags going up? How did Almighty God drive away
the debt, the sin? How did He deal with it? I'll
tell you how He dealt with it. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself
must feel the pain. That's one of the words. The
pain of God's justice. He must be formed to be what
we are by nature. He has made Him sin for us. He made Him sin for us who knew
no sin. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Driveth away. Another word is
travail. Driveth away. That's another
one of the definitions of driveth away. Travail. Jehovah must see
the travail of His soul. God must see the suffering, the
travail of His soul. that he might be satisfied. Again,
we can't get away from the justice of Almighty God. Here's another word of driving
away. Grief and wounded. Christ himself must grieve. He must be wounded for our transgressions,
carry our sorrows, be stricken of God, bruised for our sins. And this truth right here, that
first part right there, the north wind driveth away rain, those
few words, that is the message of this Bible. How can God Almighty
save His people mercifully and still be just and deal with sin
only? in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Zechariah chapter 13. Zechariah 13, I'll read this
for you. Verse seven, awake, O sword,
against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, saith
the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep
shall be scattered and I will turn my hand, that is of mercy,
upon the little ones. The north wind driveth away rain. But continuing with the truth
that we've set forth of it being the Lord Jesus Christ, is that
what this verse says? Is that what it says concerning
him? Oh yeah. Look at the latter part of this
verse. So doth an angry countenance and a bite-biting tongue. As
the north wind driveth away rain, as God Himself driveth away the
rain of His wrath and justice and judgment on the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ on the behalf of His sheep, so doth An angry countenance,
same judgment, it produces something. How does it produce it? That
word, so. So, right there. You look at
that word, so. The north wind driveth away rain,
so. Now if you want a real blessing, I'll just tell you what it says.
Again, you look it up. Please, please do. Please look
up whatever I say. look up everything I say, and
if you find that I have misspoke, I will be the first one to tell
you. But listen, let me tell you what that word right there
means. The word so is actually, when you look it up, here's the
letter, here's the Greek the Greek letter. You know, when
you look these words up in your Greek and Hebrew, you know, actually
this, now Proverbs is the Old Testament. That's Hebrew. It's
written in Hebrew. But that little word right there
is actually a Greek word. This is Hebrew, but that's a
Greek word. And actually what the number of that Greek word
is, is G1. G1, you say, well, what's the
significance of that? Well, the word means alpha. The
word means alpha. That's the first. That word so
is actually alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet.
But it's also the same word in Hebrew. And the part of speech,
I know I'm trying to get technical, but I don't want to be technical.
But let me tell you what the part of speech is. You know,
it says, you know, it's a verb or it's an adverb or something.
This one right here is what's called an indeclinable noun. I didn't even know what the word
indeclinable, I'd never heard of it. I guess I could figure
it out if I thought about it. But indeclinable, that's just
not a word that I use a lot, you know, in my plethora of speech. Indeclinable. That's an indeclinable
noun. What does that mean? That means
that this word, so, which means alpha, which is the first letter,
the beginning, it is a noun that is not capable of declining. I thought, oh my. This word right
here is actually used in the Old Testament. The definition
of it is given in the Old Testament four times. And the definition
of the word so right there in the New Testament is given six
times. I'm going to give you one word
out of the Old Testament, one verse out of the Old Testament,
and one verse out of the New Testament. And I'll tell you,
here's how this word so, so, alpha. This is how it's actually
used in a passage of scripture to give the definition. Isaiah
44, 6, Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer,
the Lord of hosts, I am the first, I am the last, and beside me
there is no God. That's one of them out of the
Old Testament. Here's one out of the New Testament, Revelation
118. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith
the Lord, which is, which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. So the word so, in this passage
of scripture, in Proverbs 25, verse 23, the north wind driveth
the way rain, How? So. So. By the Lord Jesus Christ. This precious word, the alpha,
the beginning, the end, is Him. How has God put away the debt
of His people? by them walking down an aisle,
by them coming to an altar and praying through, by them making
a decision, by them repeating the sinner's prayer, by being
baptized? No. God Almighty has put away
the debt of His people in Christ. God has done something for Himself
that we couldn't possibly do. And then the latter part of this
scripture. I'm going to wrap it up. Keeping
with our context, the north wind driveth away rain, so doth Christ
doth drive away an angry countenance. An angry countenance. And that
angry countenance right there being driven away, it actually
has two different parts that both are true. It's not two sides
of one coin. It's just two truths that are
true. Drives away that angry countenance.
Well, first of all, I know this, what it has done. I know what
Christ has done in driving away. He's driven away the angry countenance
or the face of God that's been provoked by men's sin. I know that. He's put away our
debt. He's appeased God. God is not
angry with His people. He's driven away His angry countenance.
God is angry with the wicked every day. Every day He's angry
with them. But just for God's people, He's
not angry. He's not angry. He's appeased. He's appeased. Peace has been
established. So I know that the Lord Jesus
Christ has driven away the angry countenance of Almighty God who
is just. But I tell you what else He's
done. He's driven away and paid the debt of my angry countenance. That's what He's done. Ephesians
chapter 2, Ephesians 2 verse 1 to 3. What am I? What am I by nature?
What have I been delivered from the debt of? What have I been
delivered from the debt of? Yeah, that's the way I want to
say it. Ephesians 2 verses 1 to 3, and you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in time past you
walked according to the course of this world. according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in time past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others." Oh, we were all born
with an angry countenance. We're all mad at God. We're all
mad at Him. Some of you say, I wasn't mad
at God. God said we were. And let God be true. Let us be
a liar. But I'm telling you though, the
remnant of that angry countenance is still there. The presence
of sin is still there. Paul the Apostle said, oh wretched
man that I am. What I see in myself, I don't
like. I don't like. Who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? But lastly and closing, not only
has the north wind revealed how God has driven away The reign
of His justice and His judgment in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ has taken away His angry countenance, has been appeased
by the blood. When I see the blood, I'm going
to pass over you. Lord, thank You for that. And
thank You for delivering me from myself, my angry countenance,
and my backbiting tongue. The Spirit of God reveals that
God has delivered us in regenerating grace from a tongue, a speech,
that we thought was right, that we thought was secret. That's
one of the words. Backbiting means actually secret,
hidden, hidden, hidden from me. I didn't realize, Jeff, what
I was doing. That's the problem. That backbiting tongue that I
thought was right, and Almighty God has revealed to me what I
was doing. I was ignorant. I was ignorant.
I didn't. I didn't. In Luke chapter 12,
here's what the Lord said concerning that spirit, that attitude, that
backbiting tongue, that secret hidden Luke 12 verse 2 and 3. For there is nothing covered
that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known.
Therefore whatsoever you have spoken in darkness shall be heard
in the light, and that which you have spoken in the ear in
closets shall be claimed upon the housetops. There is coming
a time when Almighty God, all men are going to stand before
Him. And the books are going to be opened. And all the secrets
then are going to be known. They weren't really secrets,
God knew. But God's going to expose them all. But I'm thankful
to God that He would reveal. Take what I am, that backbiting
tongue guy. And charge that guilt to Christ.
And Christ paid for it. And then the Lord in regenerating
grace revealed it to me. It's what you are. He reveals
to his people what they are. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? You think Saul thought or knew
he was persecuting God? He'd know that. He thought, I'm
blameless before the law. I've never done anything wrong.
That's all of us, all of us. And God revealed it to him, told
him. Who art thou? I'm Jesus of Nazareth
that you're persecuting. It's hard to kick against the
pricks. You know what that means? It's
not safe. Delivered us from that backbiting
tongue. So here we see in this passage
of scripture that every man, every woman that Almighty God
has everlastingly loved. Let me tell you what the Lord
says that he's done for them. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
sin for them. He felt the pain. He felt the
grief. He felt the burden. And he put
away our guilt in his own blood. And the Spirit of God, that north
wind, comes and reveals to God's people what they are. Teaches
them what they are by nature. that their debt has been driven
away from the person of Christ, the soul himself. He has put
away God's angry countenance and given me a new heart, a new
spirit. He moved that heart of stone
and gave me a new heart, a soft heart. He told me what I was. You're just nothing but a backbiting
bigot is all you are. But I've loved you. And I put
away your guilt. Oh, that I might be found in
Him. That I might know Him. For God's glory and my eternal
good. Amen.