Proverbs 16, 23, the heart of
the wise teacheth his mouth and addeth learning to his lips. First, before the lips can be
taught, it's the heart that teaches the lips, so the heart must be
taught first. And that's how the Lord teaches
us. He teaches us not just intellectual
things, but things, the truths of Christ that are laid hold
of with the heart, with all of the being, with all of the soul. And then the heart, when the
heart knows the Lord Jesus Christ, then the lips are taught. I believe
I've known people that just came to know the Lord whose heart
had been taught, whose lips had not fully been taught yet. Have
you ever witnessed that? And I've been, we've all been
there. We don't really know, we're learning a new language,
pretty much, the language of grace. And the Lord's gracious to teach
us that language. but you must know Christ in your
heart to be able to teach him to your lips, and then you can
teach him with your lips. Everybody's a teacher. If you
have children, if you have friends, if you have a wife or husband
that doesn't know the Lord, and we teach each other, even we
who know the Lord. We learn, the Lord uses us to
teach each other, to encourage one another in the Lord and to
remind each other. that he's on the throne, and
that he is altogether lovely. And this is the goal, is to teach
him with the lips, to know him in your heart, and to ultimately
be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. It's to his glory. He's commissioned us to do that,
and he's enabled us to do that, May we all be witnesses of him
teachers of his grace By action first of all Though listen to
mark 721 for from within out of the heart of men Proceed evil
thoughts adulteries fornications murders thefts covetousness wickedness
deceit lasciviousness and evil blasphemy pride foolishness all
these evil things come from within and defile the man. That's who
we are by nature. The children of wrath even. So
as our Lord said in another place where we'll read, a good tree
produces good fruit, and an evil tree produces evil fruit. And
as we know from the scripture, by nature, there are no good
trees. God has to plant good trees. Listen to Matthew 7 15 beware
of false prophets beware of anybody that that Speaks and that's what
we're talking about they speak Presumably for God they presume
to speak for God, but they lie. They don't tell the truth beware
of them Which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly
they are ravening wolves You shall know them by their fruits.
I Do men gather grapes of thorns? You're not ever gonna find anything
worth eating on a thorn bush, on a thistle or whatever. Weed or figs of thistles. Even so, every good tree bringeth
forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt
tree bring forth good fruit. And notice in our text that it's
a matter of wisdom. It's those who are wise whose
hearts teach their lips the wisdom of God. The heart of the wise. Well, you might say, well, I
can't help it if I'm not born wise. You know, some people are
born wise, some people are stupid, like me. Not so. Not so. There are people unquestionably
that are born sharp and some dull, to one degree or another.
But even a dull man can be wise, by God's grace. Proverbs 2.1, my son, if thou
wilt receive my words, think about this, we're talking about
wisdom, not intellect, not IQ, not that man can measure the
intelligence of another man. It just sort of is evident, isn't
it? In experience and things. If thou will receive my words,
my son, and hide my commandments with thee so that thou incline
thine ear unto wisdom. It doesn't say stir up wisdom.
It doesn't say get wise, get smart. Listen to it. Hear it. That pertains directly
to our text. The lips, the ear, Listen to it, incline thine ear
unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding. Don't
just show up and agree with everything intellectually. I'm glad you
agree with the truth, but apply thine heart. Come hungry. Come
desperate for a word from God, because whether we feel desperate
or not, we are. We need God to speak to us. Yea, if thou cryest after knowledge
and liftest up thy voice for understanding, oh God, give me
an understanding heart. If thou seekest her as silver,
like you do the things of this world, look for wisdom. You know,
we tend to major on the minors and minor on the majors, don't
we? We seek after and thrive after and give all of our time
to silver and things of this world. And then when it comes
to the things of God, if we've got something else to do, then
we go do that. Thou seekest for her as silver,
and searchest for her as for hid treasures. Then shalt thou
understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.
For the Lord giveth wisdom. That's where it comes from. The
Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth, cometh knowledge and understanding
out of his mouth, not mine. But if I'm saying what God said,
then it's coming out of my mouth by his grace or yours, if you're
speaking truly, faithfully for God. And that's our text. Listen to James 1.5. I wanted
to read this in conjunction with that other text. Isn't it beautiful
how scripture sheds light on scripture? So he's saying, get
wisdom, get understanding, apply your heart, ask God for it, because
he's the one that gives it. James 1.5, if any of you lack
wisdom, let him ask of God. That just makes sense, doesn't
it? If you need something, go to somebody that has it. Ask
for some of it Boy, but how rare that is for
a sinner to just fall down before God and say God God help me Give
me what I need It takes grace If any of you lack wisdom let
him ask of God that giveth to all liberally I and upbraideth not he won't reproach
you for being stupid like people will and it shall be given him that's
just plain sinners don't go to hell because they're not smart
enough to figure out the doctrines of the bible they go to hell
because they hate God And always remember that wisdom
is a person. Christ, the power of God, and
the wisdom of God. It's not knowing stuff. It's
knowing Him. There's a big difference, and
it's the difference between life and death. A lot of people know
stuff and don't know Him. To know Christ is to be wise.
The Lord gives that. They are all taught of God. Only
God can teach Christ to your heart, hence the word ask. In
that verse we just read, the disciples knew where they got
their faith, and so they went to the source and said, Lord,
increase our faith. That's how it is with wisdom. I can't imagine a better exposition
of our verse of scripture than 1 Corinthians chapter 2. I want
us to turn there please and read all of it together. The whole
chapter. We'll just close with it. 1 Corinthians chapter 2.
You tell me if this is not the perfect, literally perfect exposition
of our text. First Corinthians chapter two,
verse one. And I brethren, when I came to
you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. Here's the lips now. I declared
to you God's word, God's truth. For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified." What's
the testimony of God? Christ and what he did for sinners. And I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling, And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of power. It's obvious when one of God's
preachers, because he chooses the worst, doesn't he? He chose
Saul of Tarsus, probably his biggest enemy on the earth at
that time. So if that man's gonna get up
and preach, it's gonna be clear that that's a demonstration of
God's spirit and power. that your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. How be it,
we do speak wisdom. We speak wisdom. What we're saying
is the truth. It's the truth of God. It's the
wisdom of God in a mystery. We speak wisdom among them that
are perfect, the people of God, those who are, it's mature, it's
those who have known. What do God's people that know
God need to know? They need to know God. Paul,
as a long time, pretty long time believer, said, oh, that I may
know him. I believe it was Simon Peter
that said, I'm gonna teach you that know the truth so that you
might know the truth. 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 unto our glory. There's never
been but one gospel. There's never been but one way
sinners are saved. by grace through faith in Christ,
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 hath 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. You see that now? All three aspects
of our text right there. God revealed to my heart the
gospel, the truth of Christ. And now my lips are taught the
wisdom of God in a mystery and so my lips are teaching that
wisdom. What is that wisdom? Jesus Christ
and him crucified. his person, his work. That's
just plain, isn't it? That's our text. There's no better exposition
of our text than that. God hath revealed them unto us
by his spirit, for the spirit searcheth all things, verse 10,
yea, the deep things of God, verse 11, for what man knoweth
the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him.
Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God
you got to have yet be born of the Spirit To enter in To the kingdom of God To see
it and enter in now. We have received not the Spirit
of the world, but the Spirit which is of God That we might
know And And that's heart knowledge, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. God giveth wisdom. That's what we read in Proverbs.
Which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom
teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual
things with spiritual. But the natural man is never
going to get it. No man can come to me except
the father which has sent me draw him. We know from the scripture
how the father draws sinners to his son by just revealing
him. To know him is to come to him
and to love him, to see him. Like water in the desert, you're
coming, you see him, you're coming, you're drinking. For the things of God are foolishness
to the natural man, neither can he know them because
they're spiritually discerned. Not only do you have no interest
in the gospel, you can't have until you're born again of the
spirit. But he that is spiritual discerneth
all things. Yet he himself is judged or discerned
of no man. It doesn't make a lick of sense
to an unbeliever. You've got to experience this
grace. You've got to have the wisdom of Christ by his grace. For who hath known the mind of
the Lord that he may instruct him? But we do have the mind of Christ.
If we didn't, we could never believe on him. We could never
worship him. We could never love him. We could
never know him. The spiritual man discerneth
all things with the heart. And therefore the lips, the lips
are taught, and then the lips teach. And what they teach is Christ.
Amen, let's pray.