It's a blessed thought to consider
that we're one in Christ. You know, if I drop something
on my foot or stub my big toe, I don't get mad at it, you know,
and try to cut it off. Try to help it. Thanks, Neil. Appreciate that, brother. Turn
with me to Proverbs 4. Proverbs chapter 4. I'd like to look at the first
four verses of this. Once we get it in our mind, what
is actually going on? in a passage of Scripture. And
we began to perceive something of the beauty. As often the case,
you know, you read this book of Proverbs and you think about
and remember what our Lord said when He told His disciples. He
said, they asked Him, you know, why do you preach in parables?
And He said, it's given to you. to know the mystery of the kingdom
of God, and to them it is not given." Isn't it amazing how
many times we find in the Scriptures the Lord speaks of distinguishing
mercy, distinguishing grace, you know, personal. In this passage of Scripture, and I know that as we said before,
Solomon penned these words. Solomon penned them. But remember,
Solomon was not the source of these words. All Scripture is
given by inspiration of God. These are God's words. So for
us to understand what is actually going on in these four verses,
Proverbs 4, verses 1 to 4, what is actually happening here, and
just this is kind of a way I can understand it for me. The Lord
Jesus Christ speaking personally to each of His sheep. The Lord
said, My sheep hear My voice. Now, if you want to know how
it is that you hear the voice of the Savior, we're about to listen. He speaks
through His Word. He speaks, you know, Now, when
he was on this earth as a man, he walked and they heard him
speak. He spoke as a man. They heard him. And there are
instances in the Scripture where men did hear the voice of God
Himself. They spoke. They heard out of
heaven. Saul of Tarsus heard the Lord Jesus cry, Jesus of
Nazareth. He stopped Him. But let me ask
you this. You that have been made honest, have you ever verbally just heard the voice of God actually,
where you actually heard the voice of God in your ear, this
ear? I don't think so. But the Lord
said, My sheep hear My voice. Now how do they hear? as He speaks through His Word,
and it's personal to them. It's not just a book. It's just got a lot of stuff
in it that I just really don't understand and just biblical-sounding
things, but this is the Word of God. Now, understand that
this is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to His people. And He's
telling them something, and it's an intimate It's a secret. He's telling them something.
It's a secret thing. Listen as he teaches. That truly
is going to be for our comfort and our good and our edification. Verse 1, now here he is. Here
he is speaking. Hear ye, children, the instruction
of a father, and attend to know Understanding, for I give you
good doctrine, forsake you not my law. For I was my father's
son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He
taught me also and said unto me, let thine heart retain my
words. Keep my commandments and live."
Now here he is. Here's the master speaking here. Here. Hear with the ear of faith
that has been given you. The hearing ear, the seeing eye,
it's of the Lord. Hear with intelligence. Hear with a new heart that longs
for obedience. Hear because you can hear. Some hear. Some here this morning. I know you do. David said in Psalm 28, 1, Be
not silent to me, lest if thou be silent to me, I become like
them that go down into the pit. Here, you children, you that
have been everlastingly loved and chosen, in Christ, in electing
grace. Here, children, sons by adoption,
sons by regeneration, hear the instruction of a father. John 6.45 says, And they shall
all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world, lived for us, died for us, that
we might have life, have it, he said, more abundantly. Hear,
ye children, the instruction of a father. What does the father have to
say? What is the instruction of the Father." Here it is. It's the gospel. It's the gospel
of God's free grace. It is the declaration of what
God Almighty has purposed to do. As I've said before, the
gospel is not an offer. I'm not offering you anything.
Paul says, we declare unto you. The Gospel. The Gospel is a declaration
of what God Almighty has done. If Almighty God chose to show
mercy to you, and chose before the foundation
of the world, Ephesians 1, chose you in Christ, that means
He considered, looked upon, Put you in the Lord Jesus and look
to Him as the surety. You know what a surety is? A
cosigner. The one who is responsible. He chose to show mercy to you
by considering the Lord Jesus to answer for all that He would
ever require of you. If God purposed to show mercy
and compassion to you, that's what He said. He told Moses that.
I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. It's not of Him that willeth.
That's what the Scripture says, or runneth. But of God that shows
mercy. Men say, well, it's really left
up to man and his free will. No, it isn't. Who said that? God didn't. Scripture says it's
not of him that willeth or him that runneth. Men say, well,
it's left up to men to choose whether. Show me that. I've got time. Show me the Scripture that says
God's trying to do anything. The gospel is the declaration
of what God has eternally purposed to do. And if God has been pleased
to show mercy to you, you will come to Christ. He will give
you a new heart and you will come willingly. Thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. Before He gave me a new
heart, I didn't want to come. I was doing just fine, I thought.
I had no desire whatsoever. There's nothing in me. Hear,
ye children, the instruction of the Father. Hear the gospel. Hear that instruction, that chastisement,
that reproof, that admonishment, the gospel that's good for you. It's good gospel. It's the guard of our
heart. Psalm 119.11, Thy word have I
hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee. His Word, it rejuvenates, strengthens
us in time of distress. Psalm 119.25, My soul cleaveth
unto the dust, quicken thou me according to thy word. How many
times, you that believe, have you found yourself in dire straits
And the Word of God comes back. And you hear it afresh. And you
think, Lord, thank You for that. Oh, as David said, if you were
silent to me, I'd be like them that go down to the pit. My soul. 119 Psalm 81. My soul fainteth for Thy salvation
by hope in Thy Word. My soul. consumed for His salvation. What does that mean? David said,
that's what I think about. That's what I think about. That's
what I want to think about. You know, this world just wearies
the soul of its people. You think about going day in,
day out. You think, what end does this
world really have? You know, get a good job. Sock
away some money. Retire one of these days. Maybe
go down and live the good life, you know, down in the villages
down in Florida or something like that. The good life. Yeah, but you know what? I'm
going to die. And then what? Here. you children the instruction
of a father, and attend to no understanding." Pay attention. That's what he's saying. Give
heed. Hearken. Hearken to recognize
wisdom. I'm standing here preaching this
morning, and I'm thinking to myself, I want to hear this.
You see, these are not my words. None of this originated with
me. John the Baptist said, I'm just
a voice. Who am I? I'm dust. I'm a frail creature. I need
to hear this. Pay attention. It does me no
good if I stand here and preach what I'm preaching and I don't
hear it with understanding. It doesn't do me a bit of good. Lord, prick up my ears. The Lord is saying here, don't
disregard the gospel of free grace. Listen, everyone that sits here
this morning, pay attention. Hearken. Attend to know. That is with surety. I want to
believe this. I desperately want to believe
this. He that believes is going to
be saved. That's what he said. He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not
is going to be damned. I want to know. I want to know
what this is. Attend to know understanding. Attend to know Christ. Understand. Perceive. And here's
the reason that we need to attend to know. understanding. Verse 2, here is the reason,
for I give you good doctrine. Psalm 84.11 says, The Lord God
is a sun and a shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. No good thing, the thing is in
italics in that scripture, no good will He withhold from them
that walk uprightly. No good. He is not going to withhold
Anything good, the Lord may withhold riches from His people. He may withhold earthly honors
from them. He may even withhold health from
them. But He will not withhold any
good from them that walk in Him, in newness of life. All that fell in Adam had already
been looked upon and chosen in Christ Before they ever fell
in Adam, the Lord had already known them. He is not going to
withhold any good from you. Not you that He has everlastingly
loved. The elect who had no righteousness to stand before God in themselves,
they were ordained to be robed in the righteousness of Christ.
God eternally purposed to robe them. All His redeemed. They shall
be covered. And He is not going to withhold
any good from those that He has eternally loved. I give you good
doctrine. No good thing will I withhold. I give you the best. I give you
the best instruction, I am telling you, based upon what I know concerning
these Scriptures. I'm telling you and I'm telling
myself, I said, I need to hear this too. I'm telling you the
best thing that you'll ever hear in this world. You can go get
all the degrees you want to. You can go to whatever universities
you want to. You can do anything you want
to do. But I'm telling you, I'm giving you the most profitable
instruction you'll ever hear. I'm telling you what God Almighty
does according to His will and purpose for His people. I give you good doctrine. That's
what the Lord says to His people. In that day in which I take my
last breath, what difference will it make? If I've got every
degree that this world can afford, what difference does it make? This is the best doctrine that
you'll ever hear. The best truth. When I say doctrine,
that's what it means. Truth. Forsake not my law. Don't leave the doctrine of the
Gospel. You know, that thought of leaving or forsaking the Gospel
is a shuddering thought to a believer. A thought that just strikes fear
in his heart. Leave the Gospel. Leave Christ. Leave the truth of Him? Leave
the truth of God's sovereign grace? No, no, no, no, no. I'll offer this over here. Now, you'll have to forsake,
you know, forsake the hearing of the gospel of grace. No. You
can have it. Oh, yeah, but you don't realize
what I'm offering you. Oh, yes, I do. No. John 6, 67, then said, Jesus,
unto the twelve, will you also go away? And Simon Peter answered,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Could you leave hearing the message
that declares God Almighty to be God, sovereign God, and go
and eat of the dregs that offers or sets forth man to be really
in control? Can you do that? No. I know that the Scripture sets
forth that some will hear for a while. There may be a stony
ground or a thorny ground here, but only those kept by the power
of God, sealed by the Spirit of God and preserved in Christ,
will forsake ye not my law. If He doesn't keep us, we're
not going to be kept. Verse 3, he says, here's the
Lord now. This is the Lord speaking. For
I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight
of my mother. Oh, the beauty of Him who speaks
as the Mediator. Here's the everlasting Son of
Glory speaking to His people and talking to us. The Word Himself
who has existed eternally with the Father and the Spirit. The
I Am. This is who is talking. He said, I was my Father's Son. Here we see Him in His humiliation. Tender. Isaiah 53, 2 says, For He shall
grow up before Him as a tender plant. And as a root out of dry
ground, I looked up that tender plant.
I thought about that this morning. He shall grow up before Him as
a tender plant. In Proverbs 4, he says, For I
was my father's son, tender. I thought, what does that mean?
Tender. Do you know what the word tender
plant means? A sucker. A sucker. You ever grow tomatoes? You ever grow a tomato? You know what I'm thinking? I'm
thinking, in my opinion, my dad when he was growing up, we'd
go through there and you know what we'd do with the suckers? Pinch them off. Why? Because
in my opinion, it wasn't worth anything. He shall grow up before Him as
a tender plant. The Scripture says, as a root
out of dry ground, He hath no form or comeliness. When we shall
see Him, there's no beauty that we should desire Him. But that's
not the way the Father saw Him. In my opinion, Left to myself. Tender in my
opinion. I see him. Unregenerated. He grew up as a tender plant. No form, no comeliness, no beauty
that we should desire him, but he grew up excelled and ascended
before His Father and before His people. Do you know who He
is? He is the Lord of glory. He grew
up as. Not that He was worthless. I'm not saying that at all. You
know I'm not saying that. That's how the world perceived
Him. A tender plant. A sucker. You think, Lord, how you humbled yourself. Gave Himself to the smiters and
to the spinners. And in that day when they brought
Him before Pilate and they took Him and hit Him, you know, who
hit you? Prophesy! Hey, you want a crown? I've got a crown for you. They
made him a crown of thorns and stuck it on his head. They saw
no beauty in him. There was no comeliness. Nothing, nothing that we should
desire in him. And that's the way men today
see him. Now let's just be honest. Those that have no heart for
Christ You want to know how you see Him? You're just nothing
more than something to just be plucked off. I don't want you
taking any of the strength of my tomato plant away. I'll just
pinch you off. I was my father's son. Tender. Tender plant. But though he was
despised of men, he said, I was my father's son. This is the only begotten of
the Father. This is the one in whom the Father is well pleased.
And let me tell you something. Everyone that leaves this world
with an attitude that he's nothing more than just one to be shunned,
done away with, unimportant will stand before Him. And in that
day, this one that men think nothing of right now, this one
that men can just shun and just say, you know what? I have no
need of you, will hear Him say, depart from Me, you workers of
iniquity. I never knew you. only beloved in the sight of
my mother." Who is that? You know who that is. That's
His church. If you want to see that, Matthew
12, just turn over. If you want to know who the mother
of Christ is, His mother, you say, well, I thought that was
Mary. Matthew 12, verse 46, While he yet talked to the people,
behold, his mother and his brethren stood by without desiring to
speak with him. Then said one unto him, Behold,
thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with
thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is
my mother and who are my brethren? He stretched forth his hand toward
his disciples and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren. For
whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven,
the same is my brother. my sister, our ancestor, and
mother. Who is in Proverbs 4, verse 3,
only beloved in the sight of my mother? Who is that? It is such who is in union with
Him, bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh. You that believe,
He is the only beloved in your sight. To whom shall you go? Then lastly, verse 4, He taught
me also and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words,
keep my commandments to live. Oh, what kindness do we see in
the Lord Jesus Christ as He relates His association with His Father
and with all that He represents, His people, His body, Here is
the blessed Savior, one who humbled Himself and grew up, as we said
a while ago, a tender plant, one that the world looks on and
thought useless. But there is the Lord of glory
humbling Himself, walking, giving, Being for His people what they
could never be for themselves. Obedient. When I think about the humiliation,
how the world thought disrespectfully of Him, and how I've still got
that old nature in me that does the same thing. And you do too.
I mean, let's don't get too high and mighty this morning. Thinking,
oh, I tell you, I used to think like that. You still do. Oh,
I used to think disrespectfully of him. You still do. There's
still an old nature in you that is in your flesh. Who else? No
good thing. I mean, let's don't pat ourselves
on the back too much. Here we are this morning by the
grace of God that God Almighty would call us out of darkness
and give us a new heart. There's an old nature in me that
still thinks disrespectfully of Him. But there's a nature
that doesn't. And I know, thanks be unto God,
that He didn't leave me to myself to continue thinking as I once
did. I am what I am by the grace of
God. He taught me also, the Lord said,
Here is the blessed Savior made like unto His brethren that He
might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining
to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. He
speaks of Himself being taught of His Father. He taught me also. He taught me also. John 8.28 says, Then said Jesus
unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall
ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself, but as
My Father has taught Me." As My Father has instructed Me.
That's what the Word says. I speak these things. Not that
He needed instruction. Here is God Himself. in human flesh, but He showed
that His doctrine was not of man, but it was divine. John 12, 49, I have not spoken
of Myself with the Father which hath sent Me. He gave Me commandment,
what I should say and what I should speak. When we stop and realize
that He came into this world truly as our representative The
Scripture said concerning him, he increased in wisdom and stature. He grew. He grew. He got older. Here he was made in the likeness
of sinful flesh, yet without sin. And all of the frailties
of our flesh he possessed, yet without sin. He increased in wisdom, not in
His divinity, but in His humanity. This is what it means. It became
more obvious. It became more obvious of His
purity and His obedience and subjection to His Father in His
walk. It became more obvious. He never
did anything but that which pleased His Father. But it became more
obvious. He grew in wisdom. He grew in
wisdom in the sight of His people. It became more obvious. I mean,
these things, when we speak of Him and speak of His humility
and His meekness, He bowed before His Father. He walked. His people's representative. No beauty. Nobody looked at him.
There was nothing about him, he said, that people would desire. He wasn't some superstar like,
you know, decathlon. No. We know who that is. That's Mary
and Joseph's boy. No. That's the Son of the Living
God. He appears to men to have no
worth in Him. He appears to men to have nothing
but something to be plucked off. That's God. That's our representative. That's
our Savior. Who do men say that I am? What think ye of Christ? Here is the Son of Man, the Son
of God, obeying God's law, God's commandment, earning the righteousness.
And the Father said unto Him, He taught me also and said unto
me, Let thine heart retain my words. Do you realize that this
is all of my hope right here? This is all my hope right here,
that He retain God's Word. Can you say you've ever retained
it by yourself? Be careful. Be careful. He alone, He alone, His heart retained
God's words. He kept fast. He kept them. He guarded them and protected
them and attend to them. He guarded them. Let thine heart
retain My words, keep My commandments, My law, My precept, My ordinance,
and live." That is, revive. When he rose three days after
dying, do you know why God raised him from the dead? God was pleased. He died and I died. He revived. He lived. I lived. When He came out, I came out.
If I died with Him, then I rose with Him. This is all of my hope. Whenever He came out of that
grave, all that came out of the grave with Him were proven, shown
to be justified before God Almighty. And His resurrection assures
the resurrection of everyone for whom He died. just as surely
as he came out of that ground, his people are coming out too.
In that day, when the trump of God shall sound, all of the bodies of God's elect
are coming out. You say, well, I didn't think
there was anything left to them. They're coming out. Sown in corruption,
they'll be raised in incorruption. Sown in weakness, they're going
to come out in power. You say, well, I don't understand
that. Well, I don't either. But they're coming out. And they're
coming out. United with that soul right now
that is for the departed saints with Christ in the bosom of Abraham. Absent from this body, present
with the Lord. And one day they're going to be reunited. What tender words there are found
to be from the Master to His people. I pray that you've heard
His voice this morning. I pray I have for His honor and
for my good. Amen.