Let's take our Bibles again and
turn with me to the book of Proverbs chapter 14. Proverbs 14. This morning, I'd like to look at verses 3
to 7, just continuing in the study of this precious book. of wisdom. And I do pray this
morning that the Lord be pleased to teach us to bless and comfort. I was talking to Gabe last night, and he said he heard
Brother Henry Mahan make a statement. And he said that passage of scripture
could be viewed in a couple of different ways. He said, look
for the one that is most honoring to Christ. And he said, go with
him. I thought that was good advice. In Proverbs 14, our Lord had given a precious promise to His
people concerning how they would be taught of Him. And here's
the thing I know. Now, He who spoke, as we said
this morning, everything into existence, who holds, withholds,
upholds all things by the word of his power, him by whom all
things consist is held together. He rules. Now, he who spoke everything,
sustains everything, rules heaven and habitus of the earth. He
has chosen to speak to his people, to actually speak to his people, by preachers. If we preach what he says, the
Apostle Paul says, we preach unto you in Christ's stead, be
ye reconciled to God. I mean, this is the ministry
of preaching. Oh my! What a miracle of God's grace
that God sent a preacher. That is the
means. He said in Jeremiah 3.15, I will
give you pastors according to my heart which shall feed you
with knowledge and understanding. Now if I realize, if I'm preaching
according to His Word, blessed by His Spirit, this is God talking. So as I
stand here, I stand realizing something of the seriousness
of what's going on. This is serious business. God
would speak. Lord, I don't want to be presumptuous. I just want to be honest. This is God's Word. And Almighty God has called a
preacher. He's called me to preach. I have
one message. It is the message of the glory
of Almighty God and the redemption of His people. And as I come
this morning, according to His word and His command, He said
this, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Sayeth your God, speak
ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Listen to their heart. And I
realize, I can't speak to the heart. The Spirit of God must
bless you. And I ask you, Lord, bless this
word. Lord, what do you have to say? Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her, her warfare is accomplished. Isn't that good
news? That's just good news. Your warfare
is accomplished. By a new and living way. We looked at that last week.
I'll pick up Fort William right there. Wednesday. By a new and living way. A new
and living way. You know what that word new means?
Freshly slain. Fresh slain. Freshly slain. Here Almighty God sets forth
as His people come this morning. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
is ever new, ever fresh, ever crying, it's finished, it's finished. Those precious words that ring
through heaven, finished, finished. their warfare is accomplished. That her iniquities pardoned,
and she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her
sins. As I've said, that word double,
it means the adequate sufficiency. That's what it means. She's received
what was due, what God provided. Now the verses that we're going
to deal with this morning, this being God's Word, the Spirit
of God penned through the hand of a man. So, penned these words,
and these words from wisdom himself are for us this morning. And
what these city, having looked at, prayed,
asked, Lord, would you teach me something about this? These
words set forth the difference between a pastor that is called
of God and one that hasn't been. It amazes me how much When you
go back, you look in those latter epistles, how many warnings were
given, not only from the Lord when He was on this earth, but
also the warnings that were given by God's Spirit through the Lord's
apostles. And they penned those epistles,
warning, warning, warning. Be careful. Try your spirit. Try what you're hearing. If it's
not according to this Word, be careful, be careful, be careful.
This morning, we come. It matters what you hear. It
absolutely matters what you hear. Mark 4, verse 24, He said unto
them, Take heed what you hear. With what measure you meet, it
shall be measured to you. That is, hearkening to the light
that has been given, hearkening to it, attending to it, making
much of it, more light will be given. And unto you that hear shall
more be given. O Lord, give me ears to hear. Give me a heart to understand.
And Lord, keep that which you taught me. Bring that back to
my memory. Lord, I need to be reminded.
Cause me to muse upon these things. 1 Timothy 4, 16, Take heed unto
thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing
this thou shalt most save thyself and them that hear thee. Take
heed. Take heed. Yes, sir, it matters
what you hear. hearing a message of salvation
preached, I have this question. Am I hearing the Christ of God
being preached, or am I hearing another Jesus? Listen to what
men say. Listen to what men say. 2 Corinthians
11 for if he that cometh preaching another Jesus whom we have not
preached, or if you receive another spirit which we have not received,
or another gospel which you have not accepted, you might well
bear with him." Now, in the margin of that, that's in 2 Corinthians
11.4, Paul says you might bear with him. Actually, in the margin,
it says with me. And here's what he just said. If you hear another gospel, Another Jesus. Another message
that is more consistent with the Holy Scriptures, Paul said,
than what we've preached to you. If you hear a message that lines
up more, lines up with these Scriptures, then you've got good
reason to stand against what I preach. That's what he said. But if you don't, And you're
going to have to consider somebody's lying. How do you know the difference? That's what we're going to deal
with today. How do you know the difference? Proverbs 14.3 says,
In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride, but the lips
of the wise shall preserve them. In the mouth, in the speech of
the foolish, in the language, in the message of the foolish
unregenerated messenger is a rod of pride. Now that word rod right
there, it's only used one of the time in all of scripture.
That word right there is found two times in God's word. And the word right here, rod,
means a twig. A twig. And this word right here is found
in the other place. It's found in Isaiah 11-1. It
says, And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots. From the reign of David and Solomon,
during that period of time, there was great blessing. God Almighty
blessed during the reign of David and Solomon. But from the captivity
of Babylon to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, It's like a tree cut down. It's
just dry. Just like a stump. Just cut the tree down. Just
a stump, that's it. There's the tribal Judah right
there. What is it? Well, it's just a
stump now. It's all that's left. But the Scripture says in due
season, From that which appeared to be gone, just a stump, cut off. A twig came out of that stump,
a rod, a twig. And that's what it's talking
about when it says, and there shall come forth a rod, a twig,
out of the stem, out of the stump. lowly. There was no, there was
nothing about him, there was no comeliness about him that
we would desire, and he just, this is he, this is the one,
this is the savior of sinners, the redeemer of God's elect,
the hope of salvation, the helpless In Him is salvation alone. Now the scripture sets forth
in this passage, we're looking at, in the mouth of the foolish
is a rod, a stem of pride. They're preaching a Jesus that
gives man all the responsibility, a Jesus that wants to do something
but can't do it. Pride, one that instills pride
in men. I'm telling you, another Jesus
is one that men are saved. He wants to do something, if
you will let Him. That's the foolish, mindful of
foolishness. It's a stem. It's a root. It's a twig that does nothing
but puff men up. He died to make it possible.
If you'll give Him your heart, it's all about you, Jeff. It's
all about you. The foolish, the mouth of the
foolish preaches a Jesus like another Jesus, Paul said. The
mouth of the foolish. One that promotes pride within
man because that Jesus is helpless. He needs almighty men to do for
Him what He can't do. It's one that gives men a pat
on the back and says that you're self-righteous. Acts. It was your decision. It was your work. It was your company. That was
the reason, God. But the lips of the wise shall
preserve them. The language, the message of
the wise hearted shall guard, hedge about, set forth Christ
only. Those that are made wise unto
salvation set forth the preserver of the sheep. the root of Jesse,
he who comes forth according to promise, the keeper of all
who have given him an electing grace. Christ is the rod of Jesse,
the root out of dry ground, the Word made flesh, who alone is
life, in whom is life. The Savior, I'll say it like
this, does the Savior that you trust in, is the glory to you? Or to you
and Him together? Is it Him trying to do, or is
it grace? Grace. Grace. A lot of works, as any man should
boast. where the Lord is pleased to
bless his word, he sends forth a faithful messenger. The mouth
of the foolish is a rod of pride, a twig of pride. The lips of
the wise shall preserve them. Verse 4, where no oxen are, the
crib is clean, but much The word oxen there, here again,
when you look at the wording, find out what's the wording mean,
what's it mean? The word there, oxen, means yoking,
yoking, y-o-k-i-n-g, yoking, where there's no yoking, where
there's no yoking. The crib, the place of feeding,
is clean, that means empty. But much increase, much gain
is by the strength, the means, the mouthpiece, the instrument of,
the messenger of the ox. Hear these ox, they're yelping. Those that are yelped to Christ,
preach Christ. Where there's no yoking to Christ. There's no setting forth of Christ.
Where there's no pastor's sin of God to preach him. Bound to him, kept by him, taught
by him, led by him, sustained by him, fed by him. Where there's
no oxen, yoking. Take my yoke. Learn of me! We walk with Him. He's the Lord. He's the Master. Where no oxen are, the crib,
the place of feeding, is empty. There's nothing there. There's
nothing to hear that honors Him. Oh, there's plenty to hear that
honors men. It gives men glory, but much increase, much gain
is by the strength, by the means of the oxen. When God sends a
pastor, when God gives a pastor a heart for Christ, a heart for
His Word, a heart to study, a heart to ask, a heart to seek, a heart
to preach, where the Lord is pleased to sustain that which
God has started. He that hath begun a good work
in you will perform it to the day of salvation. I've told you
this before. It used to just absolutely amaze
me that men would ask me, you're telling me that you go to a study
every day to just study? I don't know if I could do that.
You could if God gave you heart to do it. If you wanted to do
it. You husbands, do you want to
go home every day? Do you want to go home and be
with your wife every day? Do you? Why? Do you want to go
home and be with your husband? Do you want to? Why? Because
I want to. I love her. I love him. I want
to be there. I want to. I have a desire for
that. Well, I've yoked with them, won
with them. I've got a love for my husband
and my wife. I want to spend some time with
my kids. All but for a believer. For Almighty God is pleased to
send His Word. Lord, how are you going to speak?
I'll give you pastors. According to my heart, They'll
feed you. I'll let you understand it. They'll
teach you. Why? Because I'll give my heart
to study, to ask, to seek me, and I'll bless the Word. Why
is that so? Yeah. But where there's no oxen,
no yolking, crib, place of feeding, empty, but much increase. by the strength of the ox. But
I'll tell you this, those that preach the gospel, if the Lord
blesses that message and blesses it to the hearing and comfort
of His people, I'm telling you, there's no glory in those workmen.
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name give glory,
for Thy mercy For that truth's sake, I pretty well bet most men stand
in the pulpit, and they'll study, and they'll prepare, and they'll
seek, and they'll ask, and they'll ask, and they'll ask. And they'll
stand and they'll preach, and when they step out of that pulpit,
they'll second-guess themselves. I don't know how many times I've
asked Linda, did that come out alright? Did I preach that? I thought, you know, I thought
I was the only one that ever did that. And I heard Brother
Henry ask Doris one day, honey, did that come out okay? And I
thought, I guess I'm not the only one. God's preachers are just a yoke
to Christ. They are workmen. They are workmen. It is not to be ashamed, but
rightly to find the world true. Verse 5, a faithful witness will
not lie. But a false witness will utter
lies. Men call to God, kept by God. Mouth is kept. And they, by the
grace of God, cannot, cannot be induced, can't be persuaded
to lie on God. They can't. Acts 4.20, Scripture says, For
we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. for me to be able to stand here
right now and to renounce sovereign grace, sovereign, saving, glorious
grace, and set forth Arminianism, freewillism, works religion,
self-righteous religion, oh, it would be a stench. Number
one, in my mouth, a stench in your ears, your heart. I know better than that. God's
taught me. No, I know that's not so. A faithful
witness will not lie on God. He will not lie on God. He won't. He won't. Judas is scary. It was a false
witness who claimed for a while to be a follower of Christ, but
for 30 pieces of silver, sold his Lord out. Those that walk
away, it's obvious that they were never His in grace and mercy. Those that stay are kept under
the power of God through faith. And they'll be the first to admit,
that was not of myself. I don't have anything to boast
in. We're just unprofitable servants. What does that mean? That means
we have not added one bit to His glory by preaching. We're unprofitable. We have added
nothing to Him. It's by His grace that He's kept
us. Verse 6, The scorner seeketh
wisdom, and findeth it not. But knowledge is easy unto him
that understandeth. A scorner. One that mocks. Mocks. Mocks the message of Christ. Now when I say mocks the message
of Christ, I'm talking about mocking the message of free grace.
You know, there may be some that never outwardly say it. But if they will not hear, and
will not come, and will not bow, what they're saying is, In their
heart, I'm not going to have that man to rule over me. The
Lord said, I'll judge you according to your words. That's found in
Luke 19. A parable, the Lord gave a parable.
There were some that said, we'll not have that man rule over us. And it said, the Lord told them.
He said, I'm going to judge you according to your word. I'll
not have that man rule over me. Time will tell. Eternity will
tell. A scorner seeketh wisdom and
findeth it not. A scorner hearing sovereign grace,
free grace, one that is absolutely I'm seeking where? He says, I'm
seeking Christ. He says, I'm seeking salvation. When I die, I'm assured for heaven. And when I hear people that's
never said him of the gospel, and I know, I know this is the
message, and God bless us. I know what it is. He said it
was. This message, if any man preach any of the gospel, then
that which he preached, let it be accursed. Paul says, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of God, the gospel of Christ. It's the
power of God and salvation. Therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. And I hear people say that, never
said. And they say, I know my departed
one is in a better place. I'm going to see him again. I'm
going to be there. Really? A scorner. Always seeking out
a way according to man's ability, man's honor, man's glory. But
there's one way. I am the way. I'm the truth. I'm the law. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Nothing added to him. Scripture says, A scorner seeketh
wisdom and findeth it not, but knowledge is easy, easy unto
him that understandeth the word easy. I mean, when you first read that,
you think, well, the word means swift, plain,
made bright unto him that the Lord's given understanding. It's
right. It's swift. By the Spirit of
God given a man understanding. It's swift unto him that understands. It matters what we hear. That
message that makes salvation to be complete by man's works
and man's ability is erotic pride. It's a false gospel spoken by
a false witness that's going to utter lies. But in closing,
let me ask you this, what should one do if the Lord has made a
person wise unto salvation? If Almighty God has given a man
and woman a heart for Christ, for the message of the gospel,
what do you do? In closing, here's the last verse,
verse 7. Go from the presence of a foolish
man. when thou perceivest not in him
the lips of knowledge." Pretty plain. Pretty plain. What do you do? Don't hear them.
Don't hear them. Don't hear them. One is going
to preach another Jesus, preach another gospel, preach another
way What do you do? Proverbs 9 verse
6, forsake foolishness and live, and go in the way of understanding. Lord, bless the preaching of
your gospel. Lord, bless it. Lord, bless that
which you've said. Lord, it's your word. Lord, bless
to our hearing. Blessed to our peace. Lord, save your people. Lord, call your own out of darkness. Have thine own way, Lord. Have
your way. Not unto us, not unto you. All
honor, Lord. Christ save thee. Amen.