Chapter 18 and verse 4, the words
of a man's mouth are as deep waters and the wellspring of
wisdom as a flowing brook. Now the Lord has told us, what
mentions here, the words of a man's mouth. Our Lord has taught us
something about that. Let's look together please at
Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15 and verse
16 Jesus said are you also yet without
understanding that Do not ye yet understand that
whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly and
is cast out into the drought? But those things which proceed
out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the
man. The Jews in their religion at
that time thought that eating certain things would defile you.
And that's what our Lord's talking about. You can't defile yourself
with something you put in your mouth. It's what comes out that
is your problem. Because it came from your heart. And we all have sinful, wretched,
defiled hearts by nature. That's just the truth. And so
he says, it's not that. Don't you understand that yet?
He had taught them so clearly. Don't you know that yet? And
then his disciples came to him, verse, where was I at here? Verse 19, for out of the heart
proceed evil thoughts, murders, adultery. You remember now, you
say, well, I'm not a murderer. The Lord said, if you hate somebody
without a cause, you've killed them. It's spiritual sin. Adulteries, forications, thefts,
false witnesses, blasphemies, these are the things which defile
a man, but to eat with unwashing hands defileth not a man. Eating certain things or to eat
with your hands not washed, that can't defile you. Defilement
is you. It's not something outside of you,
it's you. That's what our Lord taught him,
and so that applies to our text. We have this reference regarding
our text too, Isaiah 57 20. Let's look at it. Isaiah 57 and
verse 20. It speaks of deep water in our
text in Proverbs there. Look at Isaiah 57 20. But the wicked are like the troubled
sea, deep water, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire
and dirt. The wicked are like the deep
water of the ocean. But though you look at the ocean
and you don't know what's underneath, except that what gets cast up. mire and dirt. That's the wicked sinner before
God. We cast up out of our mouth,
mire. Talk about that word a little
bit, Lord willing, in a minute. When a person speaks, you're
getting a glimpse of what's in their heart. Like deep waters,
there are things hidden there. But sometimes you get a look
at them. A flash of a barracuda, we saw where we were fishing
this past week. You'd be looking and you know
the ocean, you look and 99% of the time it's just glittering
reflections and wave after wave, routine action. But then this barracuda would
flash by. Wow, did you see that? Sometimes
they'd swim by slow and we'd get to look at them. Or maybe
a jellyfish floats up and floats by. Then you get an idea. This is the type of thing that's
down there underneath where I can't see. Maybe some garbage comes
up. We know what is in. the wicked
hearts of men by nature, mire and dirt. When you see something
in the ocean that comes up and you're able to get a glimpse
of what's all underneath, it makes you wonder what all is
down there, doesn't it? What a vast ocean it is and what
a multitude of things are there that I can't see. Mire means
mud. but it's from a root word which
means to be fouled, F-O-U-L-E-D, to be fouled. That's the hearts
of every man and woman now. Religion can say what they want
to about good people and bad people, but this book, you can't
read this book and get anything else from it.
David said, in sin did my mother conceive me. That doesn't mean
the conception of a child is sin. That means when you're born,
you're sinful in the sight of God because of what happened
in the garden, Adam. In Adam, the scripture says,
all died. All have sinned and come short. of the glory of God. So this
is a reference to sin, mire, and dirt, all that our hearts
contain. By nature, there's a vast world
of sin that is for the most part hidden to others and even to
ourselves. But when a man speaks, it is
as when the vast hidden world of the deep sea casts up some
example of what's hidden down there. Even when the words of a man
are carefully crafted to misrepresent The true spring from which it
flows It just makes that which is produced from that spring
that much more foul But look at this verse as a whole
our text as a whole two things are vitally connected here and The words, the waters. Words and water. There is foul,
poisonous water, as the waters, the bitter waters of Merah, when
they first approached them in Exodus chapter 15, 23, they couldn't
drink it, it was poisonous. And the people cried, saying,
what shall we drink? If the water's bad, what are
you gonna drink? There's nothing else to drink.
And do you remember the next part? Oh, what a beautiful picture
of the gospel this is. Exodus 15, 24, and the people
murmured against Moses, saying, what shall we drink? They're
sojourning, and they came upon water every once in a while.
They had to have it. They would fill up their vessels
and they would, but this water was bitter. It was poisonous.
What shall we drink? They murmured against Moses.
You're the one that led us out here. How are we going to live? And Moses cried unto the Lord
and the Lord showed him a tree. Isn't that the most amazing,
beautiful gospel picture? The Lord showed him a tree. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
upon a tree, but blessed are those for whom our Savior hung
there. He showed him a tree, which when
he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. My God, he showed him a tree. He showed him a tree. Look and
live. Look to the serpent lifted up. to Christ, he said, if I be lifted
up, I'll draw unto myself. He showed him a tree. And in
our text, we see the difference that God makes. How is it, look
at the last part of the verse. It's like a wellspring, the heart,
what comes out of the heart of the wise. That word wisdom is
the difference between bitter and sweet. Wisdom. Christ, the
power of God. And Christ, the wisdom of God,
Paul wrote. Water is the epitome of the fulfillment
of need. And spiritually, one thing is
needful. The Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Now the words of a believer The grace-seasoned speech of a witness
of the Lord Jesus Christ is a wellspring of life, simply because we have
and proclaim his word. This is the way which God has
ordained for every need of man to be met. The words. of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
can't drink the bitter waters of this world and live. You must
have Christ more than you must have physical water. Water is
used to illustrate our desperate and continual and vital need
of Christ. And the way that that need is
met by God in this world is by the words of a man's mouth, right
from our text. That is the wisdom of the heart
of Christ. And the wisdom that is bred in
the hearts of his people. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2.6,
how be it we speak wisdom. God chose fools. That's what
he said in the context of that. God chose fools. How be it what
we say is wisdom. the wisdom among them that are
perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes
of this world that come to naught, but we speak the wisdom of God
in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before
the world under our glory, which none of the princes of this world
knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified
the Lord of glory. But as it is written, I have
not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things, deep water. the deep things of
God, how we speak wisdom. That's how he reveals the depths,
the deep wisdom of God, by the words of a man's mouth. Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth
from the mouth of God. Simon said to the Savior, to
whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And God has ordained that by
the mouth of sinners saved by his grace, that the word of life
be spoken. Paul said, we're the saver of
life and of death. Always the sweet savor of Christ
unto God when we preach his gospel We are the savor of life and
death because we speak for him who decides who lives and who
dies And who is himself the life He
that hath the Son hath life and Christ is the wellspring of eternal
life and sinners drink from that wellspring when a man ordained
of God, an ambassador of Jesus Christ, opens his mouth and preaches
Christ and his life-giving blood. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. We know where wisdom
comes from now. How'd that wisdom get down there?
So that the wellspring of life comes forth. How did it get there?
Proverbs 2.6, it's not from a theological seminary you get wisdom. It's
not from being born smart. Proverbs 2.6, the Lord giveth
wisdom out of his mouth, proceedeth knowledge and understanding. That's where it comes from. If
any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and
upbraideth not the gospel. Every word that has proceeded
from the mouth of God has been concerning his son. So-called preachers preach on
all different kinds of subjects. How to battle Satan. and how
to live a, whatever they call it, an abundant life and all
this kind of stuff. Everything that comes from the
mouth of God concerns his son. Paul said, we preach Christ crucified. That's how it's a wellspring
of life. Christ is life. He that hath the son hath life. Well, don't you preach on sin,
Chris? Don't you preach on sin and preach against sin? You're
not gonna see sin except at Calvary, where the son of God bore the
sins of his elect. It's not preaching against smoking
and drinking and cussing. Sin is the total depravity of
our hearts. We who crucified the prince of
life, our sin is seen in that. and that it took the very blood
of God to wash them away. That's Christ crucified. Yes,
we preach about sin. We preach that Christ bore the
sins of his people in his own body on the tree. And because
he did, we live. Our text mentions a wellspring.
A wellspring is Good for two or three things, but they're
real important things. Real important ones. Of course, you drink there. You
come to the well spring to drink. They couldn't turn on the water
faucet back then. They'd find a spring, a well
spring, and they would drink and it's life or death. It's
life or excruciating, horrible, painful death. Christ is that
water of life of which if a man drink thereof, he'll never thirst
again. You can wash yourself there at
the wellspring and we need washing, don't we? We are defiled inside
and out. Turn with me to Ephesians 5.25. Ephesians 5.25 Husbands, love your wives even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word. There's the wellspring right
there. He gave himself for it that he might cleanse. that he
might cleanse with the washing of water by the word, the word,
the word, the words of a man's mouth, that he might present
it to himself a glorious church. How important is this wellspring
for cleansing? That he might present it to himself
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or anything like
that, but that it should be holy. and without blemish. Yeah, you
can wash yourself there. Those who stand before God without
blemish and without spot have washed. They've washed in his precious
sin-cleansing blood. And then you might just come
to a wellspring to refresh yourself. You might just take a dipper
of cold, clean water and ladle it over your head when it's hot. It gets hot in this world, doesn't
it? It gets hot and we get weary. Is that not where we are right
now? Refreshing ourselves at the wellspring of the love and
grace of God in Christ. We come to the wellspring, and
is he not to you a sweet refreshment to your very soul? To be reminded
of his love, to be reminded that he never leaves nor forsakes,
to be reminded of the depth and riches of his wisdom and knowledge,
how unsearchable are his judgments. and his ways past finding out
deep, deep water. But he gives us beautiful glimpses
of his glory as the word goes forth. How does he do that? How does he give us glimpses of him who is altogether lovely?
Words, words. Job said, I have esteemed the
words of his mouth more than my necessary food. May God make that true of us.
Let's pray together.