Proverbs 16, 24, pleasant words
are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones. I love the simplicity, the clear and plain and beautiful
illustrations of the scriptures. Our Savior teaches us in such
a way that the unfathomable, unsearchable riches of our Savior are just so, so beautifully plain. And as with most of these Proverbs,
there's truth here regarding everyday earthly things. A simple
compliment, pleasant words. You compliment somebody on how
they look or a word of praise for something that they've done. Or just somebody saying, I love
you can do wonders. It can entirely change your attitude. And attitude is a lot. Attitude is big. It can brighten your mood, it
can take away bad thoughts, bad feelings. And I believe without a doubt
that there are actual health benefits to surrounding yourself
with people who do this. And this is important
though. When I say surround yourself
with people that speak pleasant words to you, I'm not talking
about people who just say what they think you want to hear.
And it'll be obvious eventually. There are a lot of people like
that, for whatever motive. They just like to say what people
want to hear and their compliments are empty. Religion is notorious
for insincere pleasantries. I was in it for years, so I know
what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about that now. I'm talking about surrounding
yourself with people who say what they say to you because
they sincerely love you. That's who will speak pleasant
words to you. Sincere, pleasant words. Somebody that loves you. And somebody that loves you is
just naturally gonna do that. They're just automatically gonna
say pleasant things to you. The older I get, the less use
I have for people who do not love me. I don't want them around
me. I don't blame them for not loving
me. But neither do I want to have anything to do with them.
I just don't. There's not enough time for that. So this is good advice, pleasant
words. Say them and do your best to exclusively
hear them. But this is not the real message
of our text. Not the real message, not the
true spiritual message of the text. Our text is talking about
the pleasant words. Listen to Psalm 19 7. The law
of the Lord is perfect. If you would turn there with
me, I want you to see this Psalm 19. There's something about seeing
the words and. Letting it sink in. Psalm 19
7 The law of the Lord is perfect
the only perfect thing in this world Besides himself his spirit
Is his gospel I Can't preach it perfectly, but I preach a
perfect gospel Converting the soul. The testimony
of the Lord is sure, it's reliable. Making wise the simple. I remember saying in a message
recently, even a dull person can be wise. That's what that
is. The simple are wise, Believing the gospel by God's
grace the statutes of the Lord are right Rejoicing the heart It's not talking about the moral
law the moral law Doesn't really rejoice the heart when you realize
how you measure up to it, but the gospel does and The gospel
does. The statutes of the Lord are
right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold, yea, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the
honeycomb. That's our beautiful text. And
notice in our text, it says sweet to the soul. Sweet to the soul. So we have a simple, beautiful
illustration here. Everybody in here has probably
tasted honey at one time or another. Or something sweet. It represents
just something so sweet. Sweet and healthy. We've tasted sweet things before
and it's so satisfying that you have
to taste it in moderation. You can overdo it with sweet
things. But this is what the gospel is
to the soul. It's satisfying. Another thing
that's happened to me as I got older now, that whenever I eat
a meal, I almost have to have something sweet after I eat. Is that anybody else that's getting
a little bit of gray hair? I mean, I've always enjoyed dessert,
but now it's like it's such a deep craving. And it can be just a
few bites of something, but boy. Almost a necessity it satisfies And the gospel is everything
that is sweet to the soul Because the gospel is Christ
he's the bread of life the water of life the meat and drink indeed
for sinners What is sweet According to the scriptures and
what does Christ have to do with it? Well turn with me to a few
scriptures that refer to that which is sweet Ecclesiastes 5 Verse 12 Ecclesiastes 5 12 The sleep of a laboring man is
sweet, whether he eat little or much, but the abundance of
the rich will not suffer him to sleep. What an interesting
verse of scripture, but the sleep of a laboring man. If you've
worked hard all day, you've worked a lot of hours, you've put in
a lot of effort, Worked maybe out in the heat and you're just
exhausted. You put everything you've got
into what you've done that day. And it is a sweet feeling to
lay down. It's a sweet feeling. Well, what
does that have to do with Christ? Well, he said, come unto me,
all you that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek
and lowly in heart and you shall find rest. And here's right from
our text, under your soul. That's sweet. A man that has
labored And the thing about laboring and being heavy laden under the
burden of the law, there's nothing virtuous about that. And there's
nothing profitable about it. That's how it's different from
the just the physical labor of a job in this world. And so how
sweet it is to lay that burden down at the feet of Christ and
trust him and what he did. and find rest under your soul. Listen to Matthew 11, 28. You're familiar with this. Well,
we just read Matthew 28. What I meant to say is Proverbs
13, 19. Let's go back to that because it's near our text anyway.
Proverbs 13, 19, if you'd look at that with me. What is sweet? According to scripture. Proverbs
13 19 look at this this remarkable verse of scripture So much said
in so few words the desire accomplished is sweet to the soul But it is
abomination to fools to depart from evil the desire accomplished
Three words think about what that means though the desire
accomplished Something that you plan to accomplish that you want
to accomplish. It's a desire of your heart to
see it done. Whatever it takes. It may take
a lot of time. It may take money. It may take
a lot of effort. Whatever it takes, you want that
to be done, whatever it is. And when it's done, that's sweet,
the scripture says. That's what the gospel is. Those
three words are the gospel. The desire accomplished. What does a sinner desire? What
is the desire of a sinner? Well, let me illustrate it by
asking you this question. What is the desire of a leper? You remember old Naaman in second
Kings chapter five, Naaman the leper? He was a mighty man. He was strong and mighty and
looked up to and a great, it says he was a great man. And
I suspect, well, there's just no doubt about it, he had a lot
of responsibilities. He had a lot of things on his
plate. He had a lot of business to take
care of until the day he became a leper. And then everything,
there was nothing on his plate. that day and from there on, as
long as he was a leper, he had one desire, the desire of a sinner. The desire of a leper is to be
clean, to be healed. When you're that sick, nothing
else matters. So the desire of a sinner is
to be made clean. It's accomplished for us by Christ. The desire accomplished is sweet. Isn't it sweet? Oh my, there's
nothing as sweet as salvation. Perfected. Salvation that's finished. Salvation that's not waiting
on me to decide something. Salvation that doesn't depend
on anything I've ever done or not done. The free, eternal covenant
of grace in Christ Jesus. Unconditional, as far as the
sinner is concerned. That desire, the desire, has
been accomplished for sinners, and it's sweet to the soul. It's
really the only thing that is. Christ accomplished the salvation
of his people, and to them, nothing is sweeter than to hear about
it, to hear about him, to hear about him doing that for us. Hearing the gospel is like hearing
somebody say, I love you. I love to hear those that I love
say that they love me. And here's kind of the thing.
I mean, I kind of knew that already, but it sure was good to hear
it again. That's the gospel. You know these things. That's
what Simon Peter said. I'm just reminding you of what
you already know, but isn't it good to hear it? You see, only
it's God saying, I love you in the gospel. If you believe on
him, God's love's in Christ now. But in Christ, isn't it good
to hear it? How pleasant to be reminded of God's love, which
is in Christ Jesus, our Lord, sovereign love. There is no other
kind. Love that actually does what
is necessary for those loved. Eternal love Love at all times scripture says
a friend loveth at all times How pleasant it is to hear in
the gospel of our Savior That no man can pluck us out of his
hand that we're secure. We're safe in him and That's
so sweet. Because we are his sheep and
he has laid down his life for us, we shall never perish. That's pleasant. That's rest
to the soul. That's sweet to the soul. How
pleasant it is to know that all things, everything, what we call
the good stuff and what we call the bad stuff, work together
for our good, to the good of those that love God to them who
are the called according to his purpose. Boy, that's pleasant. I don't ever get tired of hearing
that, because I believe the Lord shows us a little more every
time we consider that, a little more of the truth of it. How that everything, and you
know, When you experience as a believer so many things throughout
life that you thought was terrible at the time, it's just, this
is just disaster. How can things be so messed up?
You know, which way is up? I don't even know. But then now you can look back
on that and say, that was the Lord. That was the Lord. And now things are better because
of that. Even though I thought it was
a horrible disaster at the time. The more that happens, the more
maybe we're able to say that and know that in the moment.
And not just have to look back on it later. Maybe I'm going
through something catastrophic right now, something heartbreaking
right now. Can I see right now that it's
the Lord? Can I see that he brought the
storm? And he calms it when he's pleased. He may let us panic
for a while. The disciples did. We perish. But maybe the more experienced,
the older we get, maybe we'll grow in grace enough to know
even in the moment, even in the storm, that he's the one that
brought it and he did it for our good. We know these pleasant things
because of the pleasant words of the gospel of Christ. And
remember this part of our text, it's good for you. It's good
for you to hear it, isn't it? It's not only enjoyable, like
eating something sweet, it's good for you. I don't think it's
healthy to always be eating stuff you don't like, do you? There
may be some physiological excuse for it. And believe me, I eat
way too much stuff that's not good for me and that's not good
either. I'm not saying that. I honestly don't think it's healthy
to eat stuff you don't enjoy every time and just scratch that
thing off my list of things I enjoy. Eating is not on that list anymore
because I want to live to be 200 and die of nothing. That's not good. Every once in
a while, you gotta taste something sweet. I believe that's good for you. But the gospel is not only what
we love to hear, it's good for the soul. It's the best thing
you can do for yourself. And of course, it's the Lord
doing it. He gives us the desire. It's him that worketh in us to
do and to will and to do of his good pleasure. But this is health
to the spiritual bones of a sinner. A healthy body is one that's
energetic. If I don't have any energy at
all, something's wrong. A healthy soul is one that's
zealous for the glory of God. A healthy body is one without
pain. And the good news of the blessed
Redeemer takes away the sting of death. A healthy body is one with a
good appetite. And blessed is the healthy soul
that hungers and thirsts after Christ's righteousness. And like
I want to surround myself in this life with people who care
about me and say naturally, they sincerely say things that are
pleasant to my ears. I very much also want to surround
myself with the people of God who care for my soul. And their
speech is seasoned with God's grace. I want to be that person I want to be with that person.
May God make it