Let's take our Bibles once again
and turn with me to Proverbs chapter 14. Proverbs 14. I'd like to look at one verse this
morning, verse 11. Proverbs 14.11, the Scriptures. from the tabernacle of the upright
shall flourish. Our passage begins this morning talking about that which men
think is stable. I want you to notice that there
are two different words here that's spoken of concerning dwelling
places. One of them is a house, the other
is a tabernacle. The word house there is a word
that appears to be stable, firm, well built. That's the word house
there. A house of wicked. But this is what the Word of
God declares. That which man by nature thinks is so stable. Now this thing right here, now
this has got a good foundation. It's got a good plan to it. Well constructed. I personally oversaw this. made sure that every nook and
cranny reinforced. Everything about the house of
what the wicked thinks is stable. The scripture sets forth it's
going to be overthrown. Now to understand just what the
house of the wicked is, we must refer to the words of our Lord
in Matthew 7, 26, 27, and everyone that heareth these sayings of
mine, everyone that hears the glorious
gospel of God's grace, everyone that hears the message of sovereign,
saving, electing, particular redeeming absolute quickening,
effectual quickening, and absolute preserving according to God's
purpose, God's Word, God's will. Every one that heareth these
sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a
foolish man which built his house, his palace, on the sand. And the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and
it fell, and grave was the fall of it." Now, obviously in the Day of
Judgment, all things are going to be revealed. All things are
going to be made known. At the end of that day, every
man is going to know his eternal destiny. That's when all things
are going to be brought out. Therefore, let us hear, let us
ask, let's be honest. Lord, make me honest. Lord, make
me to be honest. Honest by your teaching. Honest by your spirit. Honest
about who you are. I'm honest about who I am. Lord,
help me. Teach me. Reveal Your Word to
my heart and cause me to know You. Boy, if a person's got a
heart that asks that, God's grace, God's mercy has been shown them.
Lord, let me not look. I know based on Your Word Lord,
I know that there's a seemingly stable house. What he's talking
about is a man's salvation, his hope. I know, Lord, based on
your Word that I've just read, that there's going to be many
that's going to build what they think is stable. And it's going to be built on
what you said, Lord. It's nothing more than like sand.
It's just... And the storms of your wrath,
and your justice, and everything's going to be tried according to
your Word. This is it. I'm telling you,
we're going to be tried and judged by the Word of God. Lord, you
said, That there's going to be a great fall. Lord have mercy
on me. Lord teach me. Open my eyes. If a man or woman has a heart
to ask that, I'm telling you, God's opened their eyes. Now
let's notice something. In Matthew 7, He that heareth
my word, and doeth it not to do. There means to commit
to, to be busy with, to carry on, or to act upon. That's what, he that heareth
my words doesn't commit to it, isn't busy with it, isn't carried
on with it, doesn't act on it. And I know this. I know based
on God's Word. Man by nature, I know that man
by nature can't do things. But I do know this, I do know
that Almighty God is going to make His people willing in the
day of His power. Now one of two things is going to happen
when a man hears the Word of God. And I'm talking about that
Word that absolutely Gives God all honor, glory, and praise,
and man none of it. None of it. None of it. One of two things that's going
to happen. Either he'll believe it or he won't. That's pretty simple. Either
he'll believe it or he won't believe it. If he doesn't believe
it, it's his fault. If he believes it, it was to
God's honor. God's glory. God's grace. God
gave my heart to Him. If Almighty God leaves a man
alone and lets him do what he wants to do. I've told you this before. I've
heard men say everybody needs a fair chance. Let me tell you
something. If you want to talk about fair
chances, go back to the garden. Man blew it. Man blew it. that Almighty God is merciful
and doesn't leave men to themselves is by His grace. Mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ said in
John 14 6, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man cometh
unto the Father Well, I came by way of making
a profession of faith. No, that's not the way. I came
by way of taking the Lord's table. That's not the way. I came by
being baptized. That's not the way. Effects and
obedience to coming to Him, being baptized,
That's a confession of our faith. That's not salvation. Coming
to Him by grace through faith. I am the way. I'm telling you,
you put your hand on it. You put your hand upon what you
think is going to be helping. And I'm telling you, it's polluting. Uzzah put his hand, the ark of
the Lord was on that cart like it was going to fall. And Uzzah
went out and put his hand on that thing to stabilize it, steady
it. And God killed him. Why? Because he put his hand on God's
property. He put his hand, that ark was
a picture of Christ. And you try to reach out and
help him. God helps those that help themselves,
that's belonging. God helps those that can't help
themselves. There is no other way, no other
truth, no other life. Christ and Christ alone. Faith in Him and a sinner be
found accepted. before Almighty God in absolute
holiness. You think about this now. Whatever
a man puts his trust in, it best be perfect. It best be done absolutely with
no deviation to it. Man thinks that he can But everything about it better
be unable to be scrutinized by God's eyes and God's law. It better be able to stand God's
holiness. And when the wrath of God falls
upon whatever you trusted in, as God's wrath fell upon His
precious Son when He was made sin, except it be able to withstand
God's absolute justice. It's going to burn up. There
is no other way. Pray Him and don't put your hand
on it. Get your hand off it. Only a believer says, Lord, by
your grace, I don't want to touch it. My flesh wants to. My flesh
wants to. My flesh wants to be exalted. But Lord, you taught me. God
help me. The Spirit of God has convinced
the needy sinner of their need of Christ. If they've been taught
to count all of their former false hopes to be done, they
will hear the Word of the Lord by the grace of God and they'll
do it. That is, they'll commit to it. They'll trust it. They'll
cling to it. They'll commit and be busy with
it and be carried on. with what he has to say. They
won't be trying to establish themselves a righteousness. They'll
know. Lord, all of my righteousnesses are filthy rags. Lord, you alone
are my hope. Romans 4, 5 says, But to him
that worketh not. Well, you know, it just seems
like we'd be able to read that and believe it, doesn't it? Only by God's grace. engaged in, but believeth on
him that justifieth the ungodly." Here's faith. Faith that is from
above. Faith that is the gift of God.
Faith that is the grace of God by which a man believes God.
This is the only way that I can believe God. There's nothing
in me, Pat, by nature, that will believe God. the capacity to believe God. I just don't have it. I don't
have the ability to believe God. How can I believe it? He must give me faith. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted. for righteousness. And when it
says his faith is counted for righteousness, do not think that
it's saying that your faith is what God counts. It's the object
of your faith. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth, he that justifieth the ungodly,
the object of his faith, Christ is counted for righteousness.
And you know that there's no other righteousness that God's
going to accept except the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
Him. It's His finished work. It's
His completion. It's His faithfulness. The Lord's
beautiful earth to receive all honor, glory, and praise. upright shall flourish. The tent,
the tabernacle. The tabernacle that was in the
wilderness was just a tent. It had some wood, it was covered
in gold, it had some skins, it had some linens. It was just
temporary. It moved. When God moved, it
moved. When the pillar moved, it moved.
When the fire moved, it moved. It just stayed. Well, they were
here, here. Well, now they're here, there.
Now here's where they are. Oh, the revelation that's given
here by the Spirit of God. This is not our home. This is
not our home. The wicked thinks that he's building
something and it's going to stay here. That's what the house is. It stays in this place. This
is not our home. We're just sojourners here. We're
just traveling through. We're strangers and pilgrims
in this world. We're in it, but we're not of
it. That's what the Scripture says. I know that I see through
a glass darkly, but I see enough to know that this is not my final
place. There are new creatures living
in a temporary tabernacle. This is the tabernacle in which
I was born. Tabernacle. And this flesh right
here is going to have to be put off. I know that. I know that
this temporary right here is going to have to be put away. I know that. The guilt of it
has already been put away. The presence of the sin that
is with it now is going to be put away eventually. But I know
this, while we are in this tabernacle, according to the revelation of
God's Spirit, I know this, that while we are in this tent, this
tabernacle, this temporary dwelling place, Almighty God has created
in us a new man. And God resides in it. Know ye
not that ye are the temple of the living God? And here we are
in this world. And I know that while we're in
this world we're struggling. But we realize that while we're
in this world God's keeping us. Just like in the Old Testament
the presence of God was there. Here we are in this place, and
we know that we did not build our permanent house like those
that build it upon the sand. Almighty God put us where we
are by the grace of God. Psalm 92, 13, 15 says these that
He planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts
of our God. They shall still bring forth
fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing
to show that the Lord is upright. He is my rock and there is no
unrighteousness in Him. The heart of a regenerated saint,
he knows that he himself had no part in the establishment
or the maintenance of his salvation. The tabernacle of the upright
shall flourish. Why? Because our tabernacle is
established in Christ. Temporary now, but not always. Not always. Not always. Soon, very soon, owing totally
to the grace of Almighty God and the purpose of Him, whose
words shall not fail. I know that right now, this tabernacle
appears weak. I know that men may look and
hear what we're saying, just like she was talking about a
little while ago. I don't understand the world may say, I don't know
why you people talk about being so weak and frail and everything.
We're happy. We're happy. I'll tell you this, God's people
are happy in the Lord. While they're happy in the Lord,
they see the frailty of this flesh, and they struggle with
it. They're disturbed by what they
see in themselves. They're disturbed by the cumbersome
things that they see that wars against their new man, their
new mind. If the Lord has taught you concerning
your salvation, if the Lord has shown you that you're helpless
outside of Him, That without Him, you can absolutely do nothing. My question is this, do you trust
the Lord Jesus Christ to be the only way? Do you, while in this
tabernacle, do you look for a city that has foundations? Now, somehow
I do. Let's talk about what God built.
Let's talk about what God established. Let's talk about that city that
has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. That's what
I want to talk about. That's my final home. That's
my rest. That's my peace. 1 John 2.17
says, The world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he
that doeth the will of God. And what is the will of God?
This is the will of God that you believe on Him that God sent. That's God's will. He that doeth
the will of God abideth forever. The house of the wicked shall
be overthrown. Oh, but the tabernacle of the
upright is going to flourish. Yes, I do see myself as weak.
I know I am. I don't have anything in myself,
from myself, established by myself. I don't have anything to trust
in. I realize that I am what I am by the grace of God. And
I know that it is fleeting. I know that. But in that day,
these things that this world looks at, that appears to them
to be so stable, so solid, so firm, I know this,
it's going to be overthrown. Only that which Almighty God
has established is going to stand. May the Lord bless our hearts
with these words in Christ's name.