All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Proverbs, chapter 24. Proverbs,
chapter 24. I'd like to consider verses 7
to 12. In our last study, though, as
a reminder, the Spirit of God moved upon Solomon to pin these
words, verse five, a wise man, that is one made wise unto salvation. In Christ Jesus alone, he is
strong. He's strong in the strength of
the Lord himself. It says, yea, a man of knowledge
increaseth, increaseth. his strength. What does that
mean? That means that he's been made in regenerating grace, one
that exhibits or characterizes or confirms that faith in Christ
is true strength. Verse 6, for by wise counsel
thou shalt make thy war. Believer is in a spiritual battle,
within and without. And only by the divine counsel
of Almighty God Himself, who is the counselor, is the good
fight of faith wrought. Counsel, that is, which is from
the Lord. So by wise counsel thou make
thy ward, and in a multitude of counselors there is safety,
hearing, The gospel faithfully preached through God's preachers,
messengers sent by God. Proverbs 20, verse 18 says, every
purpose is established by counsel, and with good advice make war. Any battle that's fought, natural
or spiritual, we always face a foe whose desire it is to defeat
us. That's what, you know, we don't
wrestle with flesh and blood. We think we do, but we don't.
I mean, we're in a spiritual battle and it's always good advice
to have the counsel of Almighty God in the waging of this war. So good advice. For every vessel
of God's mercy is to be reminded that he's only strong in the
Lord. In himself, he's just weak, he's just frail, he's just dust. So, by the good pleasure and
wisdom and counsel of Almighty God, we're equipped, the scripture
says, with the whole armor of God that we might be able to
withstand in the evil day. So, the Lord leads us, he guides
us, we need Safety, we need strength, and He is our strength. So, let's
listen to the counsel of Almighty God. Let's listen to what God
has to say today. He says in verse 7, wisdom is
too high for a fool. That word high right there, it's
an amazing word. It means precious. Now, wisdom,
we know who wisdom is. Wisdom is not knowledge, it's
a person. It's the Lord Himself. And wisdom
that is too high, too precious for a fool, it's beyond his reach. Now man by nature thinks that
he's able, he thinks that he's capable, he thinks that he's
got the ability to To just reach God. I was watching a man on
television. I won't say his name. It doesn't
matter who it is. He's a false prophet. Well known
throughout all this world. And had a little excerpt. I mean a 30 minute ad on television. And he does what we see false
preachers do all the time. They're going to make salvation. I can give you salvation in 30
seconds. Repeat this prayer. Ask Jesus
to come into your heart. He will and He'll save you. That's all you have to do. I'm
sorry for my sins. And as I've said so many times,
where's justice? Where's satisfaction of the law?
Where's righteousness? All these things that are required.
Wisdom. The wisdom of God, Christ Himself
is too high. He's too precious for a fool. Psalm 10 verse 4 and 5 says this,
the wicked through the pride of his countenance
will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. Let me tell you what that means
when it says God is not in all his thoughts. God is not a requirement
to him. You take a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ, what does the Apostle Paul say? For me to live is Christ. I have nothing else. There is
nothing else. For me to live is Christ. So
to the wicked, because of the pride of his countenance, of
his being. He will not seek after God. God
is not in his thoughts. God's not a requirement. To him,
there is no God. He acknowledges that there is
a God. They're so disrespectful when
they speak of Him. Scripture says, continuing in
Psalm 10, 4 and 5, His ways, that is the ways of the wicked,
are always grievous. What does that mean? He never
deviates to trust in himself, to trust in his thoughts, to
trust in his reasoning. He never deviates from it. This
is the way I think it ought to be. This is the way it should
be. He says, thy judgments, the Lord's judgments, are far out
of his sight. That is, he doesn't foresee and
he doesn't regard God's justice and judgment. He doesn't regard
it. And as for all his enemies, the enemies of the wicked, who
are the enemies of the wicked? Well, Satan's his enemy, but
God's his enemy. God is separated from God. And
it says, as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. You know what he believes? It
believes that all he's got to do, he can just blow them away. I don't have to regard God. There's no God for me. And he
just thinks he can blow them away like you blow a feather
away with your breath. That's an awful picture of man's
rebellion. That's the way he is, a carnal
man. Hates God. He despises his law. He despises God's judgments. And because he's born in Adam
with that attitude, he hates God. He hates God's right as
being sovereign. He hates God's wisdom. He hates
God's wisdom in creation. He hates God's providence. He
hates God's salvation. And he hates Christ. Christ who is the wisdom of Almighty
God. One who ordained all things after
the counsel of His own will. He hates that God saves whom
He will, when He will. He hates God's right to be just
in dealing with sin. He hates God's right to reconcile
the world unto Himself only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Wisdom
is just too high for him. Wisdom is too high for the fool,
for the one without Christ. And as far as the Lord being
high, we know he's high. The scripture says in Isaiah
6, 1, the Lord moved on Isaiah to say this, in the year the
king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne
high and lifted up, and his train filled his temple. That train
filled the temple. priestly robe. He's the one. He's the great high priest, the
advocate between God and men. So wisdom is too high for a fool. That's what scripture says. A
fool doesn't have a heart for it. And then it says in the latter
part of verse 7, he openeth not his mouth in the gate. When the scripture speaks of,
in this sense right here, of the gate, it's talking about
the openness of freely declaring the gospel is what's being spoken
of. In the Old Testament, you know,
it would have men would sit in the gate. There would be judges.
There would be, decisions were made. That's where the gathering
was. You know, people would get together. Man, they might get
down by, in City Hall now. There may be a building, you
know, this is the courthouse. This is where, well, in the Old
Testament, at the gate of the people coming in and out of the
gate. And people could hear. They could hear what was being
discussed. They could hear the wisdom of
these judges. But these preachers, the illusion
here is one who freely, openly declares. The Lord told His disciples. He said, I want you to go in
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Preach
it. Preach it to everybody. Tell
all men. God commands all men to repent. What's it going to take for a
man to repent? Well, God's going to have to give him a new heart.
But because men don't repent, if God leaves them to themselves,
it doesn't eliminate the responsibility in God's command for men to repent. But here, these ones that were
sitting in the gate, the scripture says, concerning the fool, one
who It's said to be wisdom is too high for him. He openeth
not his mouth in the gate. What does that mean? Well, he
doesn't have anything to say. He doesn't know. He doesn't know
God. He doesn't know the Christ or
this Bible. The Holy Spirit hasn't taught him anything. There's
no confession out of his heart. The scripture declares, the Lord
and it says, out of the abundance of a man's heart, his mouth speaketh. And men are justified, justified
are made to be known, to be justified by the grace of God, by what
they say. By your words shall a man be justified, and by your
words shall a man be condemned. A man that doesn't have a heart
for Christ has nothing to say. Now he may be religious, It's
the most obvious thing in the world to listen to one that is
religious. They speak of God. They speak
of heaven. They speak of grace. But when
you listen to what they're saying, it's rhetoric. There's no life
to it. It's the most amazing thing in
the world. I've said this to the congregations
here. So often, a believer talks like
a believer. They have a, there's a spirit
about them, there's a, I don't know, you know what I'm talking
about. I mean, they speak consistently. They speak of themselves consistently,
and they speak of having no confidence in themselves consistently. They speak of the honor of Christ
consistently, but for a fool, he opens not his mouth in the
gate, He doesn't have anything to say because the Lord hadn't
regenerated him. He walks and talks contrary to
the way and will of God. The Lord to him is a stone of
stumbling and it's a rock of offense. And all who refuse to
bow to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, wisdom to them
is too high. And in verse 8 it says, He devises,
that is the fool. He deviseth to do evil. He that deviseth to do evil shall
be called a mischievous person. He who thinks, he who regards
and values evil. Someone say, you mean that's
really what they do? They think, they regard and value
evil. He that deviseth, that's what
it means. To do evil, one who shows cleverness in planning
and pursuing evil schemes shall be called a mischievous person. Well, what does that mean, a
mischievous person? Is that like a little mischievous
boy? This word means fraudulent. You're a fake. You're a fraud. Wisdom is too high. And all you
do, you know when the Lord looked down, back in Genesis 6, the
Lord looked down and beheld that every imagination of the thoughts
of men was what? Evil. Evil continually. And the Lord knows and He sees
and He sets forth here, the one that is not regarding, The one
that wisdom is too high, all he does is he just counsels and
devises evil. That man is a fraud. He's a fake. Let him claim what he wants.
He doesn't know God. Proverbs 12, 17 said, he that
speaketh truth showeth forth righteousness, showeth forth
true righteousness, showeth forth the righteousness of God. But
a false witness, deceit. That's what he shows forth, deceitfulness. Verse nine says, the thought
of foolishness is sin. And the scorner is an abomination
to men. The thought of foolishness, even
the thought of one that is ignorant of Christ is sin. All that a carnal man can do
or think is evil. It's sin. Before the Lord was
pleased to call any out of darkness, before any of us were called
out of darkness, there was nothing within that would cause any good
to come out. Paul says, I see in me, I see
in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing. Do you realize that
only after a person is regenerated by the grace of God is there
any thought of consistency, of honor, of love toward Christ,
of a desire to follow after him. There's nothing, nothing comes
out. thought of foolishness. And it says, and the scorner
is an abomination to men. He's one, the scorner, one that
mocks God. And you say, well, he may mock
other people, but it's because he has no respect. for other
people because he has no respect for God. The scorn, one who mocks
God, mocks God's message, is an abomination to men. The one who only thinks ill of
divine things, one that despises them in his heart, scoffs at
them openly, before others, he's haughty and proud, he's one who
has no grace imparted from above and therefore his haughtiness
is found to be carrying over toward others. He's just, he's
arrogant. I mean, man by nature thinks himself to be totally
sufficient. And he ridicules everyone and
everything by his actions in his mouth because he has no respect
of God. He thinks himself to be above. He thinks himself to be able. So, because of his pride, arrogance. Now, some more openly than others,
but the scripture says all of them, the scorner, the one that
doesn't know God. This is his attitude. Now like
I said, maybe some might be able to hide it a little bit better,
but I can tell you this, I have, and you have too, seen some that
were so arrogant, and so haughty, and so high-minded, you can't
stand them. I heard Brother Henry Mahan tell
me one time, he said, you know, we're commanded, we're commanded
to love our enemies. We're commanded to love them,
and the epitome of loving our enemies is being truthful with
them, concerning the gospel. I can tell you this, that's the
epitome. We're commanded to love our enemies, but Henry said,
I can tell you this, there's some people I just don't like.
I just don't like you. We're commanded to love them,
and I'm going to be truthful with them, but I don't like you.
That one, he just has no He has no graciousness about
him. He has no kindness about him. He's just, everybody else
is always wrong. He's always right. He's never
wrong. Never wrong. He's always right. And I'm telling
you, people don't like him at all. They just don't like him.
Oh, but then the Holy Spirit now speaks to God's people. He's set forth now in these first
few verses. This is the fool. This is the
high and mighty one in his own mind. But listen, concerning
those of whom we've just considered. Which, let's be honest, by nature
that's all of us. We got an old nature that's just
like that. Thanks be unto God that God's given us a new nature.
And that attitude right there doesn't have dominion over us.
But, now the Spirit of God is going to move on Solomon to say
something concerning. Those like that, and again, us,
who have that same attitude. The Spirit of God is going to
speak to men in way of a warning concerning being truthful with
those that oppose themselves. Listen to verse 10. If thou faint
in the day of adversity, Thy strength is small. It's narrow is what the margin
says. I mentioned a moment ago the
responsibility that especially preachers, but all believers
have concerning going into all the world and preaching the gospel. I want to be found faithful to
that. I do. I want to be found faithful to
the Lord, faithful to His gospel, faithful to God's commission. But for all of us, we all have
people that cross our paths. We all have people that we know.
And they're people that are fools, born fools. And wisdom to all
of them is too high. And they all have the same attitude.
They're all proud. They may have nothing as far
as this world is concerned, but they're still proud and arrogant.
They think themselves capable. Think themselves. And the Lord
is setting forth here the responsibility that believers have to be truthful
with others concerning their state before God, God's demand,
God's commission to tell them. You tell them. You tell them.
Tell them their plight. Be honest with them. If thou
faint in the day of adversity, now this adversity, I can tell
you what I truly feel is the most adversity that most of us have.
The fear of men. The fear of men. We just don't
want to say anything. Don't want to say anything. If you succumb,
I'm going to just write down the definition as it's written
here, if you succumb or slacken to anxiety or danger about being
truthful about God, truthful about man, truthful about salvation,
truthful about men by nature, then the strength which is only
in the Lord is narrow. What did the Lord tell his disciples
when they were out in the boat And they were fearful because
of the waves that were coming in. They cried unto the Lord. And He said, why are you so fearful? O thou of little faith. Now this
is just the way we are. We believe God, but how little
we believe God. How little we trust. He said,
if you faint, if you succumb, or slacken is what He said, concerning
being truthful. In the day of adversity, thy
strength is small. The day of adversity is all around
us. It's every day. In this world,
we're going to have tribulation, be of good cheer. The Lord said,
I've overcome the world. But the Lord who sends the trial
also will uphold us and strengthen us and sustain us in that day.
And these trials and testings and tribulations, they're necessary. to prove us. Well, number one,
I can tell you when we slacken, or if we succumb, or if we're
fearful, well, it proves what we really are. We're just needy
children of little faith. But it also proves the faithfulness
of God. He proves us by putting us in
situations, showing us what we are, and showing us who He is. whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth
and scourgeth everyone that he receiveth. Look at verse 11 and
12. If thou forbear to deliver them
that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain,
if thou sayest, behold, we knew it not, doth not he that pondereth
the heart consider it? And he that keepeth thy soul
Does not He know it? And shall not He render to every
man according to his works? I'm telling you that that's just
a continuation of what we just looked at in verse 10. We know
that the Lord is going to save all that He's everlastingly purposed
to save. I know that. He's going to save
His people from their sins. Now is that not true? That's
right. That's absolutely true. All that the Father has given
the Son shall come to the Son. And all that come to the Son,
the Lord says He will in no wise cast out. So He's going to save
His people from their sins. But we don't know who they are.
I don't know who the elect are. I don't know. I've got a good
idea on some, I don't know. I don't know a man's heart. How
many have I seen in my lifetime that I would have thought there's
no way in the world they'd ever leave? And they did. That makes
me realize that I'm still here only by the grace of God, because
had the Lord left me to myself, I'd do the same thing. So this
thing of God saving his people, is beyond question. We know that. That's a given. And this issue
of preaching the gospel to all men and being honest with them
and truthful with them is a grave issue. Grave issue. How easy
would it be for us to say, well, I know this. The Lord's going
to save His people. I know that. I understand that.
God's going to save His people. It doesn't really matter. Yes,
it does matter. God, who ordained the end, also ordained the means. And Almighty God is a God of
means, and He's going to use means. So here's what He's saying.
If you forbear to proclaim the only hope of deliverance, that's
what verse 3 says. 11 and 12, if thou forbear to
deliver them that are being drawn unto death and are ready to be
slain. How many do we know? How many
do I know? How many do you know that obviously
have no interest in the gospel? None. And what is the really
our bottom line thought? Well, I can tell you this. We'll
say, we'll say, I tell you what, if the Lord doesn't do something
for that person, they're gone. And that's true. That's absolutely
true. But I'm going to tell you this, if we forbear to deliver
them, and I know we can't deliver them, it's to preach the gospel
to them. The only means of deliverance.
If we forbear to proclaim the only hope of deliverance, if
we withhold, if we restrain or spare to tell men the truth of
the danger to leave this world without Christ, if we're silent,
when it's in our power to be truthful with them, those that
are ready to be slain, those who are in present danger, death
or destruction. If we say, look at verse 12,
if thou sayest, behold, we knew it not, what? I was ignorant. I didn't know what my responsibility
was to be truthful to men. I was ignorant of the danger,
of my power to relieve them. I was ignorant of this, you know. Does not he that pondereth the
heart? Doesn't he know it? Doesn't he
know? Somebody said, well, I just did
what it is. God knows. The bottom line is
that by nature, we justify ourselves to a frivolous excuse. And the true reason of our neglect
is either the fear or the lack of love for men. Man, I think
about myself. I mean, believe me, every one
of us, not one person sitting in this congregation or listening
to this message online, there's not one person that at one time
wasn't ignorant of Christ. What if somebody hadn't told
me? It was only by the grace of God I heard. So here we are,
the Lord that keepeth thy soul. Job 7.20 says it, and he that
keepeth thy soul, the Lord who is the preserver of men, the
one who can only keep us. Does he not know it? Does God
not know? We've been commissioned to preach
the gospel. I'm going to close by turning
over to Ezekiel 3. This is one of the most startling,
arresting, convicting passage of scripture that I could possibly
read, especially being a preacher of the gospel. Listen to this,
Ezekiel 3, verses 16 to 19. And it came to pass at the end
of seven days that the word of the Lord came unto me, this is
Ezekiel speaking, saying, son of man, I've made thee a watchman
unto the house of Israel. Therefore, hear the word at my
mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the
wicked, thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning.
Now this is exactly what Solomon is saying over in Proverbs 24. And thou givest him not warning,
nor speakest to warn the wicked of his wicked way to save his
life. The same wicked man shall die
in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked,
and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall
die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul. Now, what preacher, what believer
And the Lord Jesus Christ can read those words or hear those
words without being struck with the urgency of being truthful,
truthful with men. We're called to absolute faithfulness,
to be truthful to men, to comfort God's people with the truth of
Christ that they love and to warn men who refuse to bow of
the surety of doom. Be honest with them. I've had people tell me, I've
tried to talk to them and I've had them tell me, don't ever
speak to me again about that. And I don't. But they heard it. They heard the truth. And to
faithfully, I mean to fail, to faithfully warn men concerning
what the Lord has said is according to the scriptures, to have their
blood required at our hands, and to faithfully warn them is
to to be delivered, to deliver our souls. Now, I don't understand
the depth of that, Chuck. I don't understand the depth
of that. But I'm telling you, this is the comfort of my heart.
I am so thankful that I know what it doesn't mean. I know
what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that I can do
something pull myself out of the hand of God. I know it doesn't
mean that. Listen to Romans 8, 38, 39. Paul says, neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, or any other creature
shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. And I'm so glad for that. I am so thankful for that. I am so thankful that that scripture
is right there to where if somebody tells me, if you don't tell everybody
everything, you're going to hell even after the Lord saved you.
I know that's not right. I can rest in that. But we're
told here by the Lord that we're to be honest with men and whatever
it means Whatever it means. I know it doesn't mean to lose
my soul, I know that. But whatever it means to have
someone's blood required at my hand, I don't even know, I don't
want even know what, I don't want that done to me. I don't
want that done. So what's the safest thing that I can do? What's
the safest thing I can do? Be truthful with them. Somebody
said, well, they don't want to hear. It doesn't matter. I know
they don't want to hear. Someone told Brother Scott one
time, you tell men that, you're just going to confuse them. Scott
said, they're already confused. Tell them the truth. They're
going to get mad at you. They're going to hell. Be truthful. The Apostle Paul made mention
of doing this very thing. And I'm sure that Paul the Apostle
read Ezekiel 3. He said in Acts 28, 5 and 6,
and when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonius, Paul
was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus
was Christ. And when he said Jesus was Christ,
he said God has a Messiah. God has a people. God sent his
son into this world, the Christ, the Messiah, to save his people
from their sins. God's going to save them. God's
going to save everyone that he's elected in Christ. When he said
that, when he just wasn't saying this, demons said, well, I believe
in Jesus. He was telling them what God
said concerning the Christ. And when they opposed themselves
and blasphemed, He shook his raiment and he said unto them,
Your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean. From henceforth I
will go to the Gentiles. What does he say? I've done what
God's required me to do. I've told you the truth. There
are things found within God's Word that the Holy Spirit has
been pleased to leave in shadows. The secret things. belonging
to God, but those things that are revealed. The secret thing,
what does that mean? That things that, you know, if
you don't tell them, I'll require his blood at your hand. That's
a secret thing. I know it doesn't mean I'll lose
my salvation, but it means something. It means something that God knows.
And so, what does a believer do? I don't want to be found
unfaithful here. I want to be true. That's what
Paul said. I told you. I told you the truth. Your blood's
on your head. I'm clean. But we can rest assured
that those things that are revealed, that's what Deuteronomy 29, 29
says. Secret things belong to God.
But those things that are revealed belong to us, to our children.
So we're called to preach the gospel without compromise, without
hesitation, without apology. Proclaiming clearly the unsearchable
riches of Christ and praying that the Lord bless His word
and wait on the Lord to do what He will, when He will. And I
pray that God's pleased to bless His word for the salvation of
His elect, the glory and honor of the Lord Jesus Christ today.
Men are born opposing themselves. And God's got a people that He's
gonna save. He's commissioned us to go preach
the gospel to Him. Tell Him the truth. And being
found obedient, that's what we're going to do. And we're going
to wait on God. And we're going to believe God
and trust God. And pray that God and thank the
Lord that He's going to save His people from their sins. I
pray that this be a blessing to us and glorifying to our Lord.
Amen.