I'm gonna ask you to take your
Bibles and turn with me to Proverbs 18. Proverbs chapter 18. I'd like to deal with the first
four verses. Proverbs 18. Through desire a man, having
separated himself, seeketh and intermedleth with all wisdom. A fool hath no delight in understanding,
but that his heart may discover itself. When the wicked cometh,
then cometh also contempt, and with ignominy reproach. The words of a man's mouth are
as deep waters and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook." Before Adam disobeyed God. The only voice the scripture
records that Adam ever heard was God's. Look with me, Genesis
1, 26. First time that I can find it
recorded that God spoke to a man. Genesis 1, 26 to 30, and God
said, speaking to himself, he who is the triune God, let
us We make man in our image after our likeness and let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air,
over the cattle, over all the earth, over every creeping thing
that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His own
image and the image of God created Him. Male and female created
He them. And God blessed them, and God
said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the
earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the
sea, over the fowl of the air, over every living thing that
moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have
given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face
of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of
a tree yielding seed. To you it shall be for meat.
and to every beast of the earth, to every fowl of the air, to
everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life,
I have given every green herb for meat, and it was so." First
time God ever spoke to a man. And then the Lord spoke to him
again in chapter 2, verse 16. The Lord God commanded the man,
saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not
eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. Second time God ever spoke to
a man. First time God told him. of the
dominion that God had given him over the earth and how that he
could take of every tree. God said you can eat of the fruit,
the berries, the seed. Then God said, but there's one
tree that you're not allowed to eat. Don't eat of the tree
of this particular the fruit of this particular tree, because
in the day that you eat of that tree, you're going to die. Well,
in that perfect environment, in the Garden, Garden of Eden,
another voice entered in. A being named Lucifer, that is,
Son of the Morning, slithered in to God's domain. Not without God's permission.
Almighty God worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will. God knew just exactly what was going on. And he allowed
Lucifer to come into the garden. And he allowed Lucifer to speak
to Eve. And he allowed man to do just
exactly what man wanted to do. Man was going to exercise his
free will. And that voice that Adam and
Eve heard, Eve spoke to Lucifer himself, And that serpent, Lucifer,
he beguiled Eve. Now there was something that
Lucifer was recorded to have thought. I want you to hold your
place there in Proverbs, but turn with me to Isaiah 14. The
scripture reveals that time before this took place,
Isaiah 14 verses 12 to 14. This is, see, Lucifer was created
being in heaven, in God's domain. And the scripture sets forth,
there was war in heaven. Lucifer, a third of the angels,
was cast out of heaven. And here's the scriptural reference.
to why he was cast out of heaven. Isaiah 14, 12 to 14 scripture
says, how art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the
morning? How art thou cut down to the
ground which didst weaken the nations? Now listen to this,
for thou hast said, now listen to where he said it, thou hast
said in thine heart, I will. I will ascend into heaven. I
will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also
upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I
will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like
the Most High. Do you want to know where the
lie of man having a free will came from? Right here. Men that stand in pulpits and
tell people that they have a free will, they're verbalizing the very
mind of Satan. They're liars. They are liars. And it does not matter how much
they set forth, how much they love people. They do not. They
have one purpose. To make merchandise of their
souls. Now I'm telling you the truth according to these scriptures.
I will. But let me tell you something
I saw in what Satan thought. He said in verse 13, he said
in his heart, I'll ascend into heaven, I'll exalt my throne
above the stars of God, I will sit also among the mount of the
congregation in the sides of the north. Does that bring a
bell with you or anything, that phrase right there, the sides
of the north? Why don't you turn over to Psalm
48 too? Psalm 48 too. Now this is speaking
here, Psalm 48. Verse 2, this is talking
about, well let me just read it to you and then I'll try to
make a comment. Let's just read 48, 1 and 2.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of
our God, in the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for situation,
the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion on the sides of the
north, the city of the great king. Now you've heard that.
You know there's a little song you know we'd sing, you know,
great is the Lord. I tried to look up what that
meant. He's talking about great is the
Lord and the city of God, the sides of the north. There was
a mountain called Mount Zion. An actual physical place called
Mount Zion. It was a huge, big mountain. Accessible, it said, only one
way from the north. The only way you could get up
the mountain. The rest of it you couldn't get, just not accessible. And
to get by, to get to that mountain, you had to go through Jerusalem.
And Jerusalem was the defense. That mountain, Mount Zion, is
a picture of the church. And the defense of that church
is our great city of peace himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. To get
to Mount Zion, you have to go through him. To destroy her,
the church, Mount Zion, you have to get through the Lord Jesus
Christ, our defense, our great conqueror. Now, back in Isaiah,
I need to hurry here. This is Isaiah 14. This is Isaiah 14. I want you to listen
to what Lucifer said. I'll read this. Let me tell you
what he's saying, then I'll read it to you. He was saying, I am
the security of all men. I'm the security. I give people
a free choice. I give them a free will. I am
the security of mankind. That's what he's saying. Listen
to this. I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I sit as God. And Almighty God kicked him out
of heaven. My friend, it is a fearful thing
to think that my will is above God's will. God Almighty is God. And in response to Lucifer's
thought The scripture says, verse 15, Isaiah 14, yet thou shalt
be brought down to hell, the sides of the pit. You think you'll
sit on the sides of the north. You think your throne will be
exalted above God's. And every man, every woman that
dies with this thought, thinking that their will is above God's
will, Almighty God is going to cast you out of his presence.
depart from me, you workers of iniquity." Satan rebelled in
his mind and the very thoughts, the scripture says, of the wicked
are an abomination to the Lord. Man by nature excuses himself
and says, I've never done that. I've never verbally set up myself
above God. My friend, we by nature do this
and we don't even think about it. We by nature as being born in
Adam cannot not sin. We cannot. The scripture bears
that out. God looked and saw that the thoughts
of every man was only evil continually. We need an advocate. We need
a substitute. We need one that'll answer for
us. And listening to Satan's voice,
mankind died spiritually. And his desire to hear God died. His love for God died. And now man is born with a desire
that does one thing, I want to be boss. I want to be boss. That's why
we must be born again. You've got to have a new heart.
This old heart right here, it does not change. That which is
flesh is flesh. That which is spirit is spirit.
We must be born from above. We must have a heart made willing
in the day of God's power. Here, let me prove this to you,
Psalm 2. Psalm 2, verses 1 and 2. Here's
what the scripture says concerning fallen man's nature. He wants to do one thing. He
wants to be separated from God. Now this is what man wants to
do. Psalm, chapter 2, verses 1 to 4. Why do the heathen rage? and the people imagine a vain
thing, the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers
take counsel together against the Lord, against His anointed,
saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords
from us. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Man is born desiring to be separated
from God. I have by nature, I have no desire
to give myself to Him, to bow to Him, to be His servant. I don't want that. No man does.
We're all born in rebellion and that old nature stays with us
until we die. Paul said in Romans 7.21, I find
then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with
me. It's just there, it just wars,
it just thrives against that new man. Back in Proverbs 18, Scripture
sets forth this truth. is born spiritually dead. But there is a desire in every
person born in Adam that looks for wisdom. It looks for wisdom,
but not the wisdom of God. No, no. Man that is born dead
in sin looks for wisdom on how is man reconciled to God based
on man's terms. That's what you just read, Neil.
They set themselves and make them a God, take some gold, take
a tree, carve it up, set it up on a table, Worship it. Look at it. And in their mind,
they're looking for wisdom on that God right there. It's going
to be my reconciliation. That's my passageway into heaven. And what the gospel does is the
gospel sets forth, let me read this to you. The gospel sets
forth the foolishness of man in his thinking. In 1 Corinthians
1.20, this is what the scripture says, where's the wise? Where's
the scribe? Where's the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Doesn't
the gospel just expose the foolishness of this world's wisdom? You listen
to man-centered, man-honoring, false, self-righteous religion
preaching, trying to appeal to somebody's dead heart, trying
to appeal to a corpse to do something and begging them and singing
songs and verses and verses and verses trying to get a dead man
to do something. The gospel exposes that. The
gospel tells man what he is. Tells a man that he's ruined
in the fall. Tell him he's ruined. But man's
born thinking that he's wise. That he can find a way. Listen to this. Proverbs 18.1,
through desire, a man having separated himself, seeketh and
intermedleth with all wisdom. Now let me tell you what he said.
Through desire, through a longing greed. A longing greed to be
separated from God. That's what we just read in Psalm
2. through a longing greed to be
separated from God, a man having separated himself, having parted
from God by his own desire. I will not have that man rule
over me. I'm not... I can find my way. Through desire,
a man having separated himself seeketh and intermedleth That
word intermedleth right there means he's obstinate. He's intermedleth
with all wisdom. Now that word wisdom right there,
that's speaking of the wisdom of God. That word wisdom has
to do with meaning the ability to substantiate, to support what
God says is so. Here's what I mean, that verse
I just read. who longingly separates himself
from the Lord. He seeks his own desire and he
breaks out, that's what intermedleth means, he breaks out obstinately,
meddles with another's business. Man by nature, through a longing,
dead desire toward God, The one that separated himself from God,
intermedleth. He breaks out obstinately against
the Lord, who is the Lord of all wisdom. Man's a rebel. Can I just say it like that?
Man is a rebel. Wisdom himself, according to
Proverbs 8, wisdom speaketh. What did wisdom say? I am the
way. I'm the truth, I'm the life.
No man comes to the Father but by me. When we pray, what do
we say? Our Father, in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, accepted only in His name, accepted through
His blood, Father, for Christ's sake, hear our prayers. We don't
approach God any other way but through the Lord Jesus Christ.
God's substitute. God's priest. Here's the priest. You don't approach the Father
without the priest. So this unregenerate nature of ours that we're born
with, it intermedleth with all wisdom, whole wisdom, complete
wisdom. It intermedleth. It's obstinate
against God himself. And it says in that intermeddling,
I have the will, the ability to know what's best for me and
I can come to God by my works. Man's obstinate. Verse 2 says,
A fool has no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover
itself. A fool has no inclination to
true wisdom. The reason being, He's dead.
He's dead. He wants to know about himself
because he is his own God. He does not want to know the
holy and just and righteous God. He really has no inclination
to truly know how man is reconciled to God. He doesn't want to know
that. If man by nature wanted to know that, you couldn't fill
this room. You couldn't have enough spaces
to put them. If man by nature truly wanted
to know, how can I be just with God? The reason that man does not
want to know is because his heart is of his father, the devil. His will, my will. The fool hath
no delight in understanding, true understanding. Here's what
he has delight in, but that his heart may discover itself. That word discover, it means
to be openly shown and revealed and made manifest. Here's what
he wants. A fool has no delight in understanding
of God, but that his heart may show itself. I want, this is by nature, this
is what I want. I want you to see how good I
am. I can prove that. I can prove
it. Matthew 6, Matthew chapter 6. Matthew 6 verses 1 and 2, and
then we'll just read verse 5. Matthew 6, 1 and 2, our Lord
is speaking. And our Lord says, Matthew 6,
1 and 2, take heed, be careful, that ye do not your alms, your
righteousness before men, listen to this, to be seen of them.
Now there's some things Believers do. They just do. They do out of a regenerated
heart. They do out of love to Christ. They do for the love of the brethren,
for the comfort of God's sheep. They do it. And I'm telling you,
there's an old nature. And don't tell me that a believer
doesn't struggle with this right here. There's an old man in me
that just does want to be seen a man. And I'll just openly confess,
Lord forgive me for that attitude. Because I'm telling you, I'm
telling you, write this down. You've never met anybody that's
got a worse attitude than I do. I just, I try to hide it from
you. I try to protect you from me. But I'm telling you, I got a
bad attitude. And I want to be seen because
of that old man that I admit, as Paul says, old wretched man
that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? But this by nature is what I
want. You'll answer for yourself. Take
heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them,
otherwise you have no reward for your father. of your Father
which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine
alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites
do in the synagogues and the streets, that they may have glory
of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. Look at verse 5. But when thou
prayest, Thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are. They love
to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets
that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. We had a meeting, the men's meeting
here a few weeks ago. We dealt with this passage right
here. Do you know the struggle of public prayer? Public prayer. You're reading and at the end
of the service you know my pattern. You know I'm going to call on
you. And that's a hard thing. Because here you are, you desire
to pray unto the Lord. You desire to speak to God. And
you know everybody's listening. And you want to sound good. You
don't want to say anything disrespectful. That's hard. And you struggle. But there's a new man in you
that strives against that, but not the hypocrite. The hypocrite
has one desire. He wants in his heart, back in
Proverbs 18, 2, that his heart may be shown. All the while he's
verbalizing his prayer or giving his alms or something, he wants
people to think he's somebody. that he knows more than anybody
else. That he's got a corner on God. That's the most foolish thing
that a man thinks, and we're all just like that. And we strive
against it. But that's the heart of an old
man. A fool has no delight in understanding. A believer does. A believer does. Paul said, that I may know Him.
Oh, that I may be found in Him. Lord, as that publican, Lord
have mercy on me. Lord, don't leave me to myself. David said, take not thy Holy
Spirit from me. That's the heart of a believer.
But the fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his
heart, this is the only delight he's got, that his heart may
be shown before men that I'm somebody. And the scripture sets
forth. He has his reward. Verse 3, Proverbs
18, When the wicked cometh, then cometh also contempt, and with
ignominy reproach. It's hard to tell, I'll say this,
either, either, or, as far as the scripture is concerned. Either
when the wicked comes into the presence of God's people, it
says when the wicked cometh, He's actually coming before God
because God sees him. He's not coming before God in
respect. I'm not saying that, but the
Lord knows. The Lord knows. But either when
he comes before the presence or in the presence of God's people
in public worship or where it's set forth, whatever it's talking
about, it says, when the wicked cometh, then cometh contempt. They're scorned. Until God gives
a man a heart for the gospel, he has no respect for this truth. He's got contempt. It's like
those Athenians in Acts chapter 17 when Paul was there. They
called him, asked him to come preach because he was a setter
forth of these strange things that they had heard. And this
was their attitude toward him. What will this babbler say? What will this loose-minded... Where do you come up with this
stuff? They have contempt when the wicked cometh, then cometh
also contempt. And with Ignominy. There's a big word. I had to look that one up. Ignominy. Disgraceful or dishonorable
conduct. Whenever the wicked cometh, they've
got contempt for God's word. They've got scorn for God's Word,
disrespect for God's Word. And we stand to preach the Gospel. One standing here is just a voice. Do you know what the issue is?
The Word. The Word. Paul said, some of
you say, I'm Paul, I'm of Apollos. He said, who's Paul and Apollos? He said, we're just ambassadors,
we're just a voice. God's word, the respect is toward
God's word. Whenever the wicked cometh and
has no respect for the word, then there's contempt. Contempt
for God's word and contempt for God's messenger. And with that ignominy, with
that disgraceful and dishonorable conduct, reproach, reproach, rebuke, shame. What do I mean? I mean that those
that have disrespect for God's word, God's going to deal with
them. God will deal with them. Whatsoever
a man's souls he's going to reap, and a man or woman that dies
with that attitude, the Lord will cast them out. There will
be reproach. 1 Samuel 2.30 says, For them
that honor me, I will honor. They that despise me, The scripture
says, shall be lightly esteemed. And so I looked up those two
words to find out what's lightly esteemed. I'm doing like this
because in my notes I've got a little error in here. I've
got two little errors drawn to each word. It just means the
same word. Shall be lightly esteemed. It means their curse shall be
brought to light. Them that honor me, I'll honor.
Them that despise me, despise my word, their curse is going
to be brought to light. We're going to stand before God
one day. God's word is not precious to the wicked. And then the scripture sets forth
in verse 4, the words of a man's mouth are as deep waters and
the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook. Now these words here, again,
as I read in the book of Proverbs, you remember the disciples asked
the Lord, why do you preach in parables, Proverbs? Because he
said it's given unto you to know the mystery of the kingdom of
God. Unto them it's not given. So when it says the words of
a man's mouth are as deep waters, it's either speaking of the words
of our Lord as it's preached through the gospel, or it means
the words that come from the mouth of the Lord himself. And
it's the same thing. This gospel is God's word. This
is God's message. This is God's truth. Therefore,
whenever we set forth the hearing of these words, the words of
a man's mouth are as deep waters. as a flood spring, a fountain
flowing. Therefore, let's go to the very
heart of Him who is the man himself, the man Christ Jesus. The words
of a man's mouth are as deep waters. He said them, we repeat
them. Preaching the gospel is just
repeating what God has said. I don't have anything new to
say. For that, we're thankful. We say what God says. And the
truth that we set forth is God's truth. Going straight to Him,
who is the God-man mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, His words,
are as deep, hear that word deep is, exceedingly profound. Man, I tell you, you know when
you define these words, I mean, they just, they mean something.
The words of his mouth are exceedingly profound flood springs, fountains
of life. He alone reaches the very heart
of a man's need. He's the source of all life. Here's the one that those Jews
said, this man spoke as no other man spoke. His doctrine, they
said, Mark 1, 22. They were astonished at his doctrine
for he taught them as one having authority, not as the scribes.
Boy, don't you love to hear about the one that's got authority.
I love to hear about the gospel of God's sovereign grace. Truth. Deep waters. Listen to this. Last verse. Romans 11, 33. Oh, the depth. of the riches both of the wisdom
and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments
and his ways past finding out. Through desire, a man having
separated himself, seeketh and intermedleth with all wisdom.
A fool hath no delight in understanding but that his heart may discover
itself. When the wicked cometh, then
cometh also contempt, and with ignominy, reproach. The words
of a man's mouth are as deep waters, and as the wellspring
of wisdom, as a flowing brook. Lord bless these words to our
heart for Christ's sake.