Chapter 20. I'd like to look at one verse,
verse 15. Proverbs 20, 15. There's gold and a multitude
of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel. If we would behold the difference
between our thinking as carnal creatures of dust. This is us. This is the way we were born
in Adam. If we would notice or behold the difference between
the way we think and what God says is so. This verse of scripture
reveals right here. The standard of wealth to us. It's that which can be counted,
or hoarded, or laid up on the earth. There was a hold you place
there. I'm going to turn over to Matthew 19. There was a fellow
that came to the Lord one day, Matthew 19 verse 16, and He says, one came and said unto
him, good master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal
life? Now, the thing that I noticed
about this, this guy wasn't trying to put the Lord in a corner or
something like the Pharisees often did. They tried to trick
him. And they, you know, couldn't. But this guy was honest. He just
asked an honest question. Good master, what? Good things
shall I do, that I may have eternal life. And he said unto him, Why
callest thou me good? Now, here's what he's saying.
Now, what's the reason that you would call me good? There's none
good but one, that is God. What he's saying is, now for
you to call me good, what is your reason? There's not one
good, that's God. But, he said, if thou wilt enter
into life, keep the commandments. And he's talking about, obviously,
the ten that were given to Moses. He saith unto him, Which? The
young man asked him, he said, Which one, Lord? And Jesus said,
Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou
shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, honour thy
father, thy mother, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
The young man saith unto him, All these have I kept from my
youth up, what lack I yet? And Jesus said unto him, If thou
wilt be perfect, Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the
poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow
me." But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful,
for he had great possession. Now when the Lord was speaking
to him, and when he said, keep the commandments, now that doesn't
mean outwardly only. That means outwardly and inwardly. When he said, don't commit murder,
he said, don't you even think of having hatred for someone
else in your heart. When I say don't commit adultery,
I mean don't you ever look on a woman to lust after her. I
mean, not just outward, but inward, the attitude of the heart. And
he says, I've kept all of those. Well, the Lord in absolute wisdom
got right to the heart of it. and was going to show this young
fella, no, you've got desires that supersede your love for
God. He said, well, go sell everything
that you've got. Sell it all. Get rid of your
liquid money, sell your property, give it to the poor, and by faith,
Follow me. When he said follow me, he meant
by faith. You follow me. Never thinking
again concerning the provision of daily needs. Take no thought
what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink. And obviously,
this man's heart had confidence in his money. Gold and rubies
was his hope and his confidence. Sell everything you got. Get
rid of it all. Get out of the market. Don't
keep anything for yourself. Follow me. Trust me. And you'll
have life. Now the key was not that he could
do that. But the key is a man that cast himself upon the mercy
of God following the Lord, he will have eternal life. He does
have eternal life. That standard of walking before
God with no confidence in yourself. Confidence in yourself. Listen,
Job 31. Job 31. talking about this confidence
in self. Job 31 in verse 24. If I have made gold my hope,
or have said to the fine gold, thou art my confidence. If I
rejoice because my wealth was great, because my hand has gotten
much. If I beheld the sun when it shined,
or the moon walking in brightness, you know, My heart's been secretly
enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand. This also were an iniquity
to be punished by the judge, or I should have denied the God
that is above. If I have looked to myself, I
merit." Remember when Nebuchadnezzar was standing there babbling,
went out on the porch one night, looked out over Babylon, he said,
Babylon. Great Babylon that I built by
my power. I did all this. I constructed
all this. And while the words were in his
mouth, God took his mind. Put him out in the field for
seven years and let him graze. Hair was like eagles feathers
all matted. Who is that crazy man out there? He's eating grass. Had the mind
of an animal. And God was pleased to give his
mind back. And I tell you what, Nebuchadnezzar had a difference
of heart. He said, uh, this is God. He
rules in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth. And nobody stays his hand. Nobody has a right to him. Why
are you doing what you're doing? Love themselves. Money is not
evil. The love of it. The love of it
is the root of all evil. Now listen to this. Psalm 62,
10. If riches increase, set not your
heart upon them. If you lawfully have become wealthy,
and don't put your heart upon them. Buddy, let me tell you
something. You talk about a command that
any man that says, I can do that. It is a rare, rare, and I'm not
going to say that it's impossible, because there's nothing impossible
with God. But it is so improbable that you'll ever behold it. The
scripture sets forth that there was one man that God allowed
for a while and he fell. But Solomon, Solomon was a man
that Almighty God greatly blessed and the Lord asked him one day.
He said, what do you want me to give you? And Solomon made this, gave him
this answer. He said, I'm asking you for an
understanding heart. And it pleased the Lord that
Solomon asked for an understanding heart. And God gave him, not
only did He give him an understanding heart, He gave him wisdom. But
He gave him also money. He gave him just, never been
anybody created. that was as wealthy as Solomon. The scripture says concerning
Solomon's reign, 1 Kings 10.27, the king made silver
to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the
sycamore trees that are in the vale for abundance. God had given
him wisdom. wisdom to know that back in our
scripture right here, there's gold and multitude of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are
a precious jewel. Here Solomon is speaking not
of human knowledge, knowledge that captivates the imagination
like those that Paul saw when he was in Athens It says those
Athenians and strangers that were there, they spent their
time in nothing else but to tell or to hear some new thing. But
the lips of knowledge of which Solomon speaks is the hearing,
the believing, and the speaking of the glorious gospel of God's
grace. Now this is a precious jewel. This precious jewel is precious
because it's knowledge that comes from heaven. That Almighty God
teaches. We don't know this. We're not
born knowing this. It's knowledge that is spoken
to the heart, to the new heart, by the Spirit of God. That's
a precious jewel. And it's knowledge that motivates
the believer. to speak in honoring and glorifying
to Almighty God and not Himself. That's a precious jewel. You
know, we are so prone to think less of the Lord Jesus Christ
and His gospel. But I'm standing here speaking
what the Scripture declares is precious. This is precious. When we leave this world, Do
you know how much we're going to take of this world with us?
None of it. None of it. And I know that in my head. I
know I know that in my head. But you know the only thing that's
going to matter? Is Christ. A knowledge of Christ. That's
it. That's it. All this stuff that
just so easily draws our minds away. This is a precious jewel. That's why Paul the Apostle,
Philippians 3.10, that I may know Him. And the power of His resurrection,
the fellowship of His suffering being made conformable unto His
death. Peter said this in 1 Peter 2.7,
unto you therefore which believe. He's precious. He's precious. So this hearing, this knowledge,
this knowledge, lips of knowledge, that's a precious jewel. Precious
because it comes from Him who's precious. That's precious. Secondly,
the hearing of knowledge is a precious jewel because it's powerfully
given to a particular people. It's precious. It's precious.
It's precious because not everybody hears it. Saul of Tarsus on the road to
Damascus, and God stopped him. This is what he said, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? Who art thou, Lord? I'm Jesus,
whom you're persecuting. It's hard to kick against the
pricks. Now Paul said in his account
that he was with a bunch of people. There was a bunch of people with
him. But here's what happened. He related that incident, that
happened in Acts 9. In Acts 22, 9, here's what Paul
the Apostle said concerning that event. And they that were with
me saw indeed the light, and were afraid. But they heard not
the voice of him that spake to me. Paul said, I heard it. But they didn't hear it. So,
the lips of knowledge from the Lord Himself, speaking in these
instances in Scripture, or the Lord raising up a man to preach
the Gospel, or you that are taught, we that are taught, and speaking
that which the Spirit of God has taught us, that's a precious
jewel. That's not gold and silver, that's
going to perish. We'll lose that. You know, if
it's in the market, I mean, just, what you got, if you got anything
on the market, you say, I got it, just on paper. You may not
have it tomorrow, but I mean, it's just right there. You got
something in your pocket, you know, you're not, it's not worth
anything unless you spend it, you know? You can have a $20
gold piece right here. You say, that's worth a whole
lot more than 20 bucks. But I can tell you this, unless
you cash it in or something, it's just a round piece of metal.
That's all it is. But the lips of knowledge. That's
precious. The lips of the language of God. My sheep hear my voice. I know
them. They follow me. And being taught
of the gospel. to possess or to have heard with
hearing ears or to speak with a new mouth, the gospel, that
precious jewel. Do we have anything to glory
in because God taught us that? No, we are what we are by the
grace of God. What do we have? And how was
the Lord pleased to teach the gospel to you or to me. Here's
the way. Did you just come up with it
in your brain or something and you just, somehow I figured that
out? You know, I hear people say,
well, I can take the scriptures and I can just read them and
understand them. Try it. Just try it. How does faith Romans 10.13,
Scripture says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved, called by faith. How then shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in Him
whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a
preacher? How shall they preach except they be sent, as it is
written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the
gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things? If we
didn't need to hear a preacher, God wouldn't have sent them.
The Lord has been pleased with the foolishness of preaching. So according to the Word of God,
Almighty God is going to teach His people and cause them to
hear the precious lips of knowledge, that precious jewel through preachers. And He's going to save His people. He's going to save them through
that. Isaiah 46, 9 and 10, Remember
the former things of old, for I'm God, there's none else. I'm
God, there's none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning.
What does that mean? He meant that from the beginning,
He declared what He was going to do. That's exactly it. And
from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying,
my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Is God going to save his people?
Yes, sir. He's going to save them. The Jews heard him say that.
Over in John 6, 41, they murmured against him. And the Lord says,
murmur not among yourselves. No man can, no man has the ability
to come to me except the Father which has sent me drawing. And
listen to this, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is
written in the prophets, they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and learned of the Father cometh to me. They're all going
to come. What I'm doing right now is I'm
preaching the gospel of God's grace. I'm just telling you what
God said He's done. And here's what I know is going
to happen. Everyone that Almighty God has eternally purposed to
save, Jeff, He's going to save them. They're going to come.
They're coming. They're going to come. I'm not
trying to convince... I couldn't convince you of anything
if my life depended on it. Somebody told me, unless you
convince people, I'm going to kill you." I said, well, you
might as well go ahead and kill me then and get it over with because it ain't
going to happen unless God gives them a new heart. It's not going
to happen. God speaks and it's done. Let me ask you this. When
God created the heaven and the earth and darkness was upon the
face of the deep and God said, let there be light. Was there light? And there was
light. Likewise, listen to this, 2 Corinthians
4.6, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
back then, is what Apostle Paul is saying, has shined in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. Whenever God Almighty is pleased,
under the preaching of the gospel of God's grace, and He's going
to save somebody, this is what He says, let there be light. And you know what? There's light. And they say, you know I never
saw it like that before. No, you didn't. Not until He
told you, not unless He taught you, not unless He gave you light.
In that new creation, something is made out of nothing. but the Word of God. God Almighty
speaks, and that illuminating knowledge of the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ shines in the hearts of His people. They see
what they are by nature. They see something of who He
is, and how Christ has honored the Law of God and died under
the penalty of God's wrath, and they believe it. Thirdly, the
lips of knowledge taught to the regenerated sinner by the hearing
of the truth is precious. Because that effectual hearing
can't be produced by man's ability. You just don't have the ability
to do it. You just can't do it. Job 28, I'll read this to you.
Job 28, verse 12, it says, Where shall
wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man knoweth not the price thereof,
neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth saith
it is not in me, the sea saith it is not in me. It cannot be
gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price
thereof. But listen to this, verse 23,
God understands the weight thereof. And He knoweth the place thereof.
Where is it? It's in His Son. And when Almighty
God speaks, I love it. I love the message of Sovereign
Grace. I just, you know, because I realize I'm so ignorant. I'm just an ignorant sinner. and that God Almighty would teach
me anything. Oh, such knowledge, such knowledge
from the lips of wisdom himself. It just can't be purchased by
anything corruptible. How do I get it? I just don't
have the ability to do it. Unless God gives me faith to
believe it and gives me the light and says, you know, let there
be light. knowledge of that precious redemption,
salvation of God's elect through the blood of Christ, that which
is bought without money, without price, by faith. And lastly,
the lips of God's knowledge of His people to show mercy and
compassion is precious because such knowledge is never going
to be taken away from you. I think to myself, if what I
know concerning the gospel was dependent upon me being able
to retain it, I'm just not going to retain
it. I don't even remember exactly
what I preached last Wednesday night. If you ask me right now,
what did you preach on? Right now I want to know what
you preached on. I don't know. I'd have to go back and look
at my notes. I just don't have it. But listen
to this Romans 11 29, the gifts and calling of God are without
repentance. I know this, I do see through
a glass darkly. I do know in part, I do prophesy
in part, because I don't know everything. But the little bit
that I do know, I know this, God's not going to repent, He's
not going to change His mind concerning His promise to bestow
His gifts, gifts of His knowledge on His people. What He promises,
He's going to fulfill. What He purposes, He's going
to do. And all that which He's promised
and given is not going to depart. His words are going to be fulfilled
to the glory of God and for the eternal good of His people. Oh,
there's multitude of gold and rubies, all but the lips of knowledge. To know God, have a heart that
knows God, and have a heart that confesses with the mouth the
glory of God in Christ. In part, but you do confess it. Now that's a precious jewel.
I pray God bless these words to our heart and teach us something
of the gospel for Christ's sake. Amen.