All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn to the book of Proverbs chapter 23. Proverbs 23. Going through this blessed book,
verse by verse, praying that the Lord be pleased to teach
us all concerning the wisdom of Almighty God. Proverbs 23, let's read verses
9 to 11. Speak not in the ears of a fool,
for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. Remove not the
old landmark, enter not into the fields of the fatherless,
for their redeemer is mighty. He shall plead their cause with
thee. Now the Lord, mercifully and
graciously, through the preaching of the Gospel, teaches His people
that Gospel. He teaches the Gospel by preaching
the Gospel. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the Word of God. But that Gospel that is preached
is a Gospel that's set forth in the Scriptures that's hidden.
by the Father. And the Lord Jesus Christ prayed
unto His Father and said, Father, I thank You that You've hidden
these things from the wise and prudent, those who are wise and
prudent in themselves, in their own minds. And You've revealed
them unto babes. So the Gospel that's faithfully
preached by men that are called of God That gospel that is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. That
gospel that is said to be a treasure in earthen vessels. That gospel
that declares Jehovah's eternal will and purpose to have mercy
and compassion on whomsoever He will. This is the gospel that
we proclaim. And when we preach the book of
Proverbs, parables, we've said many times that there's a natural
meaning. It's a meaning that can be comprehended
by man naturally. But if the glory of God in the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ, if the glory of God is not beheld,
if Christ is not honored, if we don't see how Christ is exalted
and how man who is abased is saved by the grace of God. If
we don't see that, if we don't see how the Lord protects His
own, and hedges His own, and keeps His own, and saves them,
then we don't see the message. We see words, but we don't see
the gospel. And if we don't see the gospel,
we don't see the power of God unto salvation. But this gospel,
which we've been commanded to go into all the world and preach,
is one But according to our Scriptures today, that's to be guarded,
watched over, according to the wise and sovereign Word of the
Lord. And today, the Spirit of God sets forth some divine instruction
for our good and God's glory. And here's what we're going to
learn first in our passage of Scripture concerning the Gospel
that the Lord told His disciples, his apostles. Now you go into
all the world and you preach the gospel. To who? To every creature. God's got
an elect, but we don't know who they are. Charles Spurgeon said,
you put a big E on somebody's forehead and he said, I'll just
preach to them. But he said, until I know who they are. And
he said, I won't while I'm in this world. He said, I'm going
to preach to everybody. I'm going to tell all men. The
Lord commands all men to repent. So here's what we know. There
is a time to keep silence and there's a time to speak. That's
what Ecclesiastes 3.7 says. Let's look now at verse 9 here.
Speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom
of thy words. Now obviously we're warned here
against doing something with the gospel that is disrespectful. Something that brings reproach
upon it. Scripture forbids us to speak
in the ears of a fool. Though we've been commissioned
to preach the gospel to all men? That's right. So what is the
Spirit of God teaching us concerning this restriction upon the preaching
of the gospel. Well, the first thing we have
to understand is what is meant by a fool. A fool. Psalm 14.1 says, the fool has
said in his heart. He doesn't say this outwardly.
He says it in his heart. There's no God. Then the Spirit
of God reveals concerning that fool. It says that in his heart.
They're corrupt. They've done abominable works.
There's none that do it good. So all men truly are born with
a nature that is foolish nature. Fool. And we were all held captive
in the lies of false religion or even if we were raised under
the sound of the gospel as many here are today. Before the Lord
was pleased to call us out of darkness, though you sat and
heard the truth, I personally came up under a false religion,
false gospel, different ones, different denominations. But
even if you sat under the sound of the gospel until the Lord
was pleased to take out that stony heart and give you a new
heart and teach you the gospel and make you willing in the day
of God's power. Even then, even though you sat under the truth,
you didn't hear it until God opened your eyes and brought
you out of the darkness, bondage of unbelief, that the mighty
hand of God's mercy and compassion rescued you from the stronghold
of Satan, the book of Titus, Titus chapter 3 and verse 3. This is what the Scripture says
concerning all of us. Titus 3, 3. For we ourselves... This is Paul the Apostle speaking.
Raised up, sat at the feet of Gamaliel. Mama and Daddy were
both Hebrews. They always had him in the synagogue.
Always hearing the Word, hearing the law read. Raised up! Raised up! But listen to what
he says, putting himself in that group, for we ourselves also
were sometime foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lust
and pleasures, living in malice, envy, hateful, and hating one
another. I've heard people say concerning
being a Christian, they said I've always been a Christian.
I heard Brother Henry Mahan said one time, he said just a little
bit too long. We hadn't always been Christians.
Until a sinner is converted, we all can be said to be foolish,
foolish. Those who are right in our own
eyes, those who won't hearken unto the counsel, that is wise. But a fool in our passage, I
know before the Lord called us out of darkness, but this passage
is talking about something other than what we all are by nature. A fool in our passage is something
that's different. And the word fool, speak not
in the ears of a fool. What is it? It's an arrogant
one. Arrogant. What does it mean?
We're instructed to speak not. That is, don't try to arrange,
rehearse, or make humble promises. to those who refuse to hear the
Gospel. They're arrogant against the
truth. They're arrogant against the
Word of God because they're arrogant against God, against God's Christ. We're commanded to preach the
Word. You tell men that which the Spirit
of God has set forth in the Scriptures and then you trust the Lord to
bless that Word to the calling out of His sheep. But if someone
refuses. And I've had this happen to me.
Maybe you have too. If someone refuses to hear, they
don't want it. Don't tell me that anymore. Don't preach to me about that
anymore. Leave me alone. What do you do? Leave them alone. Leave him alone. Why? The scripture
says because he will despise, he'll be disrespectful to the
wisdom of thy words. Listen to Isaiah. Let me read
this to you. Isaiah 32 6. For the vile person,
the senseless fool will speak villainy, villainy. He'll speak folly. in his heart,
his heart will work iniquity to practice hypocrisy. That is, a vile person, he's
going to speak folly in his heart and he's going to work iniquity
to practice hypocrisy, that is to accomplish godlessness. That's what this vile, senseless
fool that will not hear, that refuses to hear, that tells you
don't tell him anymore. What he's doing is he's working
to accomplish godlessness and to utter error against the Lord. He's doing that, he wants to
speak error. against Jehovah to declare or
promise perversion or confusion concerning God. This fool, he
wants men to be confused concerning who God is. This man practices villainy. He wants to make empty the soul
of the hungry. And He will cause the drink of
the thirsty to fail. He's desiring this. This is what
He wants. He wants to accomplish godlessness
and promise confusion concerning the Lord. And His desire is to
leave those that truly are hungry and thirsty after Christ, He
wants to leave them empty. The scripture speaks often concerning
the hatred that this world has for God's people. And we sometimes
hear that word right there and we think, well, I don't really
think that people have really been real hateful to me. I don't
see where that... But here's the only problem.
We don't know what's in man. We don't know what he's thinking.
And God's revealed it. And the Lord says this is how
they're thinking. Their desire is to be confusing, concerning
God and leave you empty. That's what they want. I was
wondering if there was a scripture maybe that I could use and I
found this. Turn to Acts 13 verse 44 to 46. Here's a good scriptural example
of when someone is opposing And they will not hear. They refuse
to hear what you're saying. What do we do? Acts 13, 44, 46. It says, In the next Sabbath
day came almost the whole city together to hear the Word of
God. Now here's the whole city. They're coming to hear the Gospel
preached. But when the Jews saw the multitudes,
They were filled with envy. What were they envious of? They
were envious of that respect that was being given to those
men that were going to be preaching the gospel. They were filled
with envy, thinking to themselves, I want what they're giving them. I want those men that are going
to be preaching the gospel, I want them to be confusing to these
people. I want these people to be empty.
They were envious. When the Jews saw the multitudes,
they were filled with envy and spake against those things which
were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. See what I'm
saying? They were wanting to cause confusion. Contradicting what Paul was saying.
He was preaching the gospel. And they were trying to contradict
him and blaspheming God. Look at verse 46, Then Paul and
Barnabas waxed bold, and they said, It was necessary that the
word of God should first have been spoken to you, but seeing
you put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy, of everlasting
life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. And they left. They left. Scripture says you go into a
place, into a city, and that place won't hear the gospel.
It says you just brush the dust off your shoes. You'll be a witness
in that day against them. You leave. A fool is one who
cannot enter will not and cannot enter into the meaning of words
of wisdom and has no appetite for them. Unless God Almighty
opens a man's heart and gives him life, he won't hear. He'll resist it, resent it, but
we don't compromise. We don't compromise or water
down the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. We preach the Lord We
preach Him crucified and declare the sovereignty of God who shall
surely save His people from their sins. And we know that any feeble
tactics of man's invention concerning the Gospel is nothing more than
trying to improve upon that which is holy. So this is what we know. There's a time to be silent and
there's a time to speak. The Lord warns us. He said back
in Proverbs 23 verse 9, of a fool, He will despise the wisdom of
thy words. And then, secondly, the Scripture sets forth concerning
our attitude toward God's Word and God's might to watch over
His people. He says, Remove not the old landmark,
enter not into the fields of the fatherless, for their Redeemer
is mighty, and He shall plead their cause with them. Now this
is a warning. This is a warning against men.
concerning God's people, God's Word, God's sovereignty. Remove
not the old landmark. Don't move, don't try to eliminate
that bound that has been set forth, that boundary that's been
set forth by God Almighty in His Word. God's Word is It's
magnified above His name. He says, remove not the old landmark
and enter not into the fields of the fatherless. Don't enter in to attack them
or to come against them. Why? Because their Redeemer,
who is the Lord Himself, is mighty and He's going to plead their
cause with thee. God's going to deal with those
that go against God's people. We considered that landmark not
long ago Proverbs 22, 28, Remove not the ancient landmark which
thy fathers have set. Almighty God has given the land
of promise to His people. He gave them Canaan. He gave
them Canaan. And He assigned to each of the
families in Canaan their inheritance. This is a picture that we're
heirs of God. God has given us an inheritance. He's given us Himself. He's given
us His Son. And we're heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ according to God's good pleasure. And to attempt
to remove or tamper with that which God has set forth. In the preaching of the Gospel,
we proclaim God has the right to do what He will with His own.
God has the right to take a people unto Himself and to give them
an inheritance. What right would any sinner have
concerning having an inheritance with God? I can enter into a
child having an inheritance from their parent. They were born
into that family and a parent leaves them what they have. I can enter that, but to enter
into the depth, I hear it and I believe it with all of my heart,
but to enter in, Heirs of God. Heirs of God. The Lord told Abraham, He said,
I am thy shield. I am your inheritance. Can you
imagine having God for an inheritance? And to be a joint heir with Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ who came into this world and obeyed God. And God Almighty who according
to His obedience has given Him everything, all things. And we have what He has being
found in Him. The Lord says don't, don't. Don't
you remove the old landmark. Don't you try to, when we're
preaching, I try to be so careful. When I look at these scriptures
and I pray and I look up the words I pray God give me the
sense and the understanding of what He's saying. I know where
I'm going. I know I'm going to Christ. I
know that. But I want to set it forth. I want to set it forth
plainly. I want people to understand what I'm saying. But I want to
be careful. Be careful. Don't you try to
remove. Don't you try to change. Don't
you try to alter anything that God has set down. enter in, don't
you try to attack or come against that which God has said concerning
His people. That property is the Lord's. And we set forth Christ, Him
crucified, and His people in Him. God's people are marked
out people. These are the ones that the Lord
gave Himself for, came into this world, loved them, saved them,
called them, keeps them. And He's done so. Their salvation
according to God's Word has been eternal. 2 Timothy 1.9, who has
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. These scriptures
that become more and more precious. The older we get, the more the
Lord is pleased to teach us. And the Scriptures declare that
that landmark of God's sovereignty, His message concerning His Son
and God's good pleasure to magnify His Son by giving Him all power
as the obedient servant over all flesh that He should give
eternal life to as many as the Father has given Him. God said,
don't you move that boundary. Don't you move that. Paul said,
I'm not ashamed. I am not ashamed of gospel. I know how some men will try
to... I had a man tell me years ago, he said, I've been pastoring
a church, and he said, I feel as though, he said, I believe
in God's sovereignty. Well, the way he said it, I knew
he didn't. He said, I believe it. But he said, I figure that
it'll probably take me ten years before I can kind of ease these
people into it. Well, here's what he said to
me. He said that he has the ability. It's going to take him a while
to teach the people. He's going to kind of just give them a little
bit here, a little bit there, a little bit of food. Let me
tell you something. When we preach the gospel, we
tell the truth as it is in this book. And we don't water it down
and we don't move that boundary. We set forth the truth. So we're forbidden. We're forbidden. We're forbidden to speak in the
ears of a fool because he'll despise the words of our wisdom. And we're forbidden to move that
landmark. or to attack. And that's what
we're doing. You try to remove the landmark
concerning God's people, that's an attack on them. It's against
the Lord, it's against His people. You help them, you comfort them,
you teach them. Paul says, woe is me if I preach
not the gospel. Preach the truth and preach it
straightforwardly. And keeping with that same thought,
Solomon warned that latter part of that 11th verse. It says at
10th verse, enter not into the fields of the fatherless. The
Lord had forbid in the law. Now here was the letter of the
law. But we need to see the spirit
of it. But here was the letter of the law. They were actually
in Canaan. They were in a land. They were
in a country. Exodus 22, 21, 23, Thou shalt not afflict any
widow or fatherless child If thou afflict them in any wise,
they cry unto me, I will surely hear their cry. My wrath shall
wax hot, and I will kill you with a sword, and your wives
shall be widows, and your children fatherless." But what's the spirit
of that? Well, the widows and fatherless
are examples. They're examples, pictures, and
types of every believer who sees himself as being without strength
in himself. Listen to this scripture, Lamentations
5, 1-3. Remember, O Lord, what has come
upon us. Consider and behold our reproach.
Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. We're orphans and fatherless. Our mothers are as widows. God's
people, again, weak and helpless in themselves. What was a little
helpless? You take a child and you just
you know, mom and dad. Gone. And they're orphans. And
here's a little child. And he's helpless. He's an orphan. He can't work. What can he contribute? He's there left to the mercy
of whoever would happened to be kind to him. This is what
the writer of Lamentations, Jeremiah the prophet, said. He said, we're
orphans. We're fathers. Our mothers are widows. Oh, but
to those, the Lord had said, don't you enter. Don't you attack. Don't you attack the fields of
the fatherless. The Scripture says the Lord is my Helper. The
Lord is my Helper. I'm not going to fear what man
can do to me. These are a class that are set upon in scripture. These helpless ones, these children
that are safer in their poverty under the protection of the Lord
than the proud, haughty, in their so-called strength, in their
self-righteousness. This is one that's kept. These are the little sheep that
the Lord is going to Proverbs 15.25 says the Lord will destroy
the house of the proud, but He'll establish, He'll make to stand
the border, the landmark of the widow. Truly, we are those who
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we don't believe in ourselves.
You ask any believer, you see yourself as being able? No. I'm just weak. I'm helpless. I don't even know
what to pray. I don't know what to think. Unless
Almighty God saves me, I have no hope whatsoever. I'm just
a widow and a fatherless one. Those who have no strength for
their daily sustenance. But surely speaking, in closing,
I understand that there might be a natural orphan or a widow
that may have some temporary inheritance. But then what? What if the economy
has taken it all? What if it's stolen? Oh, but
for those everlastingly loved in Christ. Those who are hedged
about by the sovereign will and power of Almighty God. Those
that are truly poor in spirit. They are the blessed. And here's
what the Scripture says concerning those. Every believer is one
of these. And as they grow in grace, they're
taught this. You enter not into the fields
of the fatherless, colon, for. Because. Their Redeemer. I will sing of My Redeemer. The
One who bought me. One who paid the price. One who
met the demand of the debt. For their Redeemer is mighty. How mighty? All mighty. All authority. All power. And He shall plead their cause
with thee. What does that mean? He's going
to defend their cause. That's what it means. He will
defend them who have been wronged for His sake. Now I'll tell you
this, many have gone through this world and they've suffered
great affliction. Some even unto death. They've
been martyred. But I can tell you one thing,
according to the Word of God, God never left them. The Lord
never forsook them. And God said, I will always plead. I'll always defend their cause. He said, when you've done it
unto the least of one of these, my brethren, he said, you did
that to me. So as we look this morning in
closing, let's remember those who truly are poor in spirit. God is our defense, and I pray
that as we're taught this afresh, that it'd be a comfort to us,
that the Lord Himself might be exalted in our hearts, that the
Spirit of God might settle us for God's glory in our good.