Turn to Proverbs chapter 23.
Proverbs 23. Start with a little advertisement
here. Some of you may know that I maintain
a website called Grace eBooks where I put up a lot of books
and commentaries and things like that for folks who want to study
the Scriptures. And the website contains the
books for them to use in studying the scriptures. And I make an
advertisement on the front page of it that they're free. And I use Isaiah 55 in verse
one to advertise on the front page of it that they are free.
And Isaiah 55 verse one reads like this. He that hath no money,
come ye buy and eat. Ye come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. I don't know that I'd ever really
thought about that verse in a spiritual sense until last week, but in
doing some maintenance on the website, I had a moment of questioning
the meaning of it, the spiritual meaning of it, of those words,
and while reading some other verses which I thought might
be related, I ran across this verse in Proverbs chapter 23,
which I think could be used as an illustration of, could be
used as an illustration on Isaiah 55-1. It's verse 23, Proverbs
23-23. It says, buy the truth and sell
it not. Also wisdom, instruction and
understanding. Buy the truth. Well, the scripture
that I had on the website said, come buy without money. That's
not a contradiction, and that's what I want to talk to you about
today. Buy the truth, sell it not, also wisdom, instruction,
and understanding. That's my text. If I had to give
it a title, I'd title it this, The Value of Truth. King Solomon is the author of
the book of Proverbs. We all know that. And if you
will remember, it was Solomon that prayed to God for wisdom. And scripture says that God granted him his prayer requests. the desire of his heart. And
he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, the book of Proverbs, as I've
said, and the Psalm of Solomon. He wrote the words of our text,
what we just read, to his son. He wrote it to his son. And he
spoke to his son about things that were of great value and
of utmost importance in all the world. We're told elsewhere in
scripture that King Solomon's riches and his wisdom exceeded
that of all the kings of the earth. The wisest man that ever
walked except Christ. And that being the case, let's
take a closer look at this advice, this admonition that he gives
to his son here in this 23rd verse. Solomon says, buy the
truth and sell it not. The word he used that's translated
buy can also be translated get. Look at it, buy, get the truth. And the word sell, if you see
it there, can also mean to lose. Both of these terms apply to
the text. So it could be read, look at
it, get the truth and don't lose it. Get the truth and don't lose
it. As I said, Solomon had everything
his heart desired in this world. Houses, temples, gardens, groves,
wives, concubines, whatever he saw or wanted, it was his. He was the envy of the whole
world. You'll remember the Queen of
Sheba traveled thousands of miles to see and to witness the riches
and the wisdom of that man. And when he looked on it, this
23rd verse here, when he looked upon those riches and the standing
he had and all that advantage that he had, he estimated the
value of it in another place. And the value of it was nothing. It was worth nothing, absolutely
nothing. And he looked over all of it,
and he said, vanity of vanity, all is vanity. He had everything,
and everything amounted to nothing. Our Lord asked this question.
He said, what does it profit a man if he gained the whole
world and lose his soul, or would a man What would a man give in
exchange for his soul? That's what Solomon's talking
about right here. Buy the truth and sell it not. Truth's more
precious than anything. He spoke of forsaking, in this
verse, all that one has to take up his cross and follow Christ. And all these things apply to
the words that are spoken in our text. Buy the truth, you're
gonna hear that a lot today, and sell it not. Also, wisdom,
instruction, and understanding. The things Solomon named are
what every believer in this world holds precious, truth, wisdom,
instruction, and understanding. That's what that verse says.
I want you to notice the word also
in that verse. Look at it. Do you see that it's
italicized? That means that it was added
there for clarity by the translators. That's good in some cases, but
I believe the verse reads more clearly here, if you leave out
also. Look at it. Buy the truth and
sell it not. Wisdom, instruction, and understanding. That simply means that truth
is the embodiment of, understanding, wisdom, and instruction. You
get the truth, you get all three of those. All three of them. If you read it that way, it's
obvious that wisdom and instruction and understanding is wrapped
in the truth in Christ. Get Christ. Get the truth, Christ, and you
get wisdom. The Holy Scripture says, get wisdom. The Holy Scriptures
are able to make thee wise unto salvation. Wisdom, the spirit
of wisdom comes in the truth. And when you get this wisdom,
you know, all things that doesn't mean you're a genius. in worldly
things or anything, but you know everything that is important
and of utmost value in this world. You get the truth. You get wisdom. Same thing. Comes with truth.
Get the truth, get Christ, and you get instruction. Truth brings
it. If you get the truth, you get
Christ, you get instruction. What instruction? Instruction
in righteousness. That's what the word says. Get
the truth and you get understanding. That's the third one. He enlightens
the eyes of your understanding. Have you ever read that? That's scripture. That you may
know what the hope is of his calling. If you get that understanding,
if you get that truth, you get the understanding of what is
the hope of His calling. By what? What does it say by? By the truth. The Bible is the
truth. It's the truth of Christ. The
truth of Christ and its source, it's the source of all truth. A lot of people claim to believe
the Bible is true. They even claim to believe it
to be infallibly the word of God. But when you confront them
with biblical truth, they don't believe it at all. They don't. Our text says, buy the truth,
the truth, and sell it not. First John says those who do
not own their sin or their sinful acts and denies his sin, the
truth is not in him. No way, no way. The word of God
does not abide in one that has that view of it. Where do we
get or buy the truth? The truth's in Christ. The truth
is in Christ. We're told that several places
in scripture and that makes truth, this truth to be the truth. As it is in Christ. It's called
the word of truth. the gospel of your salvation, the truth. And one cannot and
does not believe until they hear this truth, this word of truth,
the gospel of their salvation. And it says that in Ephesians
1.13, the gospel is truth because it declares Christ. It declares
Christ. Christ is the truth by the truth. When Philip asked, how shall
we know the way Lord? What'd he say? Christ said, I
am the way, the truth and life. I'm the truth. I want you to see this. You read
this truth and it gives form. It gives embodiment. It forms
a view of Christ. The truth of the truth. the truth of a person. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. And all that truth is embodied
in the Lord Jesus Christ because He is truth. This truth Bible,
this Bible gives human form, if you will permit, to Him. were told to abide in the doctrine
of Christ. The doctrine of who he is, where
he came from, how he died, why he died, for whom he died,
substitution, imputation, and satisfaction for sin. If it is
the truth that sets one free, then until you know that truth,
you can't be free. In scripture, the truth is said
to make a man wise, wisdom. It's said to make a man wise
unto salvation. Solomon is saying, this is all
in this world that's worth buying or getting. But truth to the natural man
is just a matter of perspective. It's nothing objective. It's
nothing solid. To him, it's a thing to be accepted
only if it can be proven by some scientific fact. Trial and error
are some convincing evidence. Truth is a thing that's debated
with them and questioned. And some men are convinced of
free will works religion because of the way they feel about it.
Feelings got nothing to do with it. This is absolutely, they
are absolutely convinced of the truth of it. It is the truth
because it feels right. And when you confront them with
the truth, their response is, well, that's just your truth.
That's just your opinion. But God's truth is objective,
as I said. It's not up for discussion or
argument, and it's not evidenced by some sniveling emotional feeling
that we have about something. It's not. It's not subjective. And with
the people of God, sinners, saved by grace, truth is absolute,
isn't it? It's absolute. They never offer
an opinion. They won't talk back to God. They've had their mouths shut. God's elect know the truth by
believing this word, and they are sure of it because they get
that faith by a divine gift. They can't help but believe it.
They can't help it. Faith is a gift of God and therefore
boasting is excluded. If a person knows the truth,
he does, how does he know it? He knows it by revelation of
Christ. By the revelation of Christ.
Humanity, natural man, I guess you would say, has trouble with
absolutes. Just look around you today. They
detest that there's only one way. They won't have it. They won't have it. They build
themselves up as kind and generous persons because they accept all the religions
in the world and denominations, and they despise the fact that
there is the truth. They're full of hatred because
their opinions are not considered in the matter of truth. The truth
is one thing. Can I get this? The truth is
one thing and one thing only. Our father in the revelation
of Christ wipes out all the confusion. He says they're just one way.
Just one way. The unbeliever says, well, that's
too restrictive. No, that's good. That's good. Because I don't have to look
at all the other religions and figure out whether they're right
or not. I just look at one thing and that is the truth, Christ. He's the substance of all truth
and I got him. If we get God's eternal truth,
it's impossible to be confused. That's just so. You think about that. It's great
that you can't be confused about salvation. Eternal life. What a thing. People wander and
stumble over stumbling blocks and then they come up with this
new thing or that new thing. Constant confusion over and over,
but not with those who buy the truth, who get the truth, who
get Christ. Clayton, you believe the gospel. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Are you confused? By all these other ways of religion
around us? No, I think you're convinced
like me. Convinced. He that hath the Son has life. How confusing can that
be? He that hath the Son hath life.
That's not confusing. He that hath not the Son hath
not life. Simple. Absolute. That's not confusing. You have
Christ, you have life. You don't have Christ, then you
don't have life. There's just one thing to consider. Just one
thing. It's not complicated. One thing.
Truth that brings wisdom, instruction, and understanding is one thing. One person. Christ. And the things concerning Him.
And this is where you find them. Only book in the world that claims
to be written by God. Buy the truth, get it and don't
lose it. Psalm's not saying the truth
can be bought or sold with money like you could go out and earn
wages to purchase it. Our Lord says, everyone that's
thirsty, come. There's no restriction on it.
In that sense, it doesn't cost you a dime. Just come. If you're hungry, come. If you're
thirsty, come. If you're thirsty, come and buy
without money. Get it. Get the truth. Solomon's talking about how valuable
the truth is in this verse and an estimate of what it's worth,
the value of truth. And he's saying that any and
all means are to be employed to get it. Joshua chapter nine, there was
a whole bunch of guys of Gibeon that put on clothing, ragged
clothing, ragged hats, ragged shoes, and went to Joshua. Said, we're your servants. And
they were Gentiles, whom Joshua had been commanded to wipe out. But Joshua showed mercy on them
when they dressed up like that. They put, they abandoned everything
they had. Everything they were, all the
reputation, and went to Joshua. Whatever it takes. If you have
to put on a costume of rags, get it. In Proverbs chapter four
and verse five, Solomon says, get wisdom, get understanding,
and don't forget it. That ties to Proverbs 23 that
we're looking at. And in preparing this lesson,
I read that and I thought about all the words of wisdom, all
of this world's religion. Gene, I'm not convinced that
I'd be here today without it. Let's think about it just a second. I'm thankful for this world's
wisdom. I am. The only reason it's here to
benefit us. That's just true for God's people. It has literally been miraculous
for me, but you know what? The wisdom of this world that
was required for all the doctors to repair my heart and my eyes
and colon cancer, as great as that was, That wisdom is not
going to last. It's going to pass away. You know why? When God winds this thing up,
this world up, no one's going to need a heart surgery. That's the simplest illustration
I could think of. Nobody's going to need fleshly
eyes. And nobody's going to need a colon. All that wisdom is going
to pass away. But in eternity, we're going
to both hear and see the truth because it lasts forever and
will never pass away. The truth. Whatever man highly values, he'll
chase like a rabbit hound, especially when he believes it to be a matter
of life and death. You go to a doctor, you're chasing
that. That's fine. but know what it's
worth in the eternal sense. Whatever a man highly values,
he'll chase, especially Paul on his way to Jerusalem said, I
don't care. I don't care. I'm paraphrasing. I don't care if I go to Jerusalem
and get killed. That doesn't matter to me. His concern was the truth of
the gospel of God's grace. That's what's important, and
that's what Paul had on his mind. For me to live is Christ, and
to die is gain. For the love of the truth, Christ,
a person will read about him, pray, and desire to know more
about him, and he'll obsess over it. and part with all that he has
to own the truth, to get the truth. If you were required to choose
today, your life or the truth, when it came right down to it, you would say truth. That's what
we're all professing here anyway. Why? Because your life's eternal.
This world doesn't matter, this age. Today folks are not interested
in the things that get them there though, in justification and
sanctification and redemption. What are they interested in? They're interested in church
planning, planning and planting, buildings and activities and
specialties for everybody, for singles, couples, children, Marriage,
divorce, sports, and missionaries. That's all they're concerned
with. But where's the truth? It's never mentioned. Because
they have no interest in the things concerning Christ. But Solomon says, buy the truth,
buy Christ, get Christ. And don't lose it. Whatever it
costs. What will it cost? Well, it cost
Zacchaeus his reputation. Just ponder this. He was a rich
man and everyone in town was scared of him. But there came a day when he
made a fool of himself and climbed a tree to see Jesus of Nazareth,
a nobody in most of the people's esteem back then anyway. He was
looking for Christ, the truth. And it was the only way he could
see. Our text is teaching us that if a person values truth,
he'll part with everything he has to get it. And what he parts
with isn't worth, as Scott used to say, a warm bottle of spit. It'll cost you your righteousness,
that's the hard one, and it'll cost you your merit, your reformations,
your old profession of faith, your standing in society, and
everything you have done in your life. And you know what? You'll gladly,
gladly be counted a fool and a madman for Christ's sake. But having Christ, you won't
mind it though. You don't mind it. Isn't that strange? No, you've gotten the truth. You've got Christ. And if necessary, you'll die
for it. It's just the way it is. That's not a demand. That's just the way it is. Whatever
is going to keep you from it, that's what it'll cost you. The
truth, Christ alone is the water that satisfies the fountain.
that satisfies the thirst for righteousness and Christ alone
is the bread that satisfies that hunger. The cost of buying the
truth is everything you are and every temporal thing you have
taken comfort in. Now you might have money, you
might have it, but you take no comfort in it and you take no
solace in it and you take no confidence in it. Your confidence
is in Christ. recognition, you'll abandon it.
Your status, you will abandon. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified
into me. And I'm crucified to the world.
That's what Paul said. That's the meaning of buy the
truth and sell it not. The value of
this truth can't be measured. It's never to be sold, never
to be lost, not for money, not for honor among men, not for
pleasure, not even for the sake of peace in the family. Buy the truth and sell it not.
Get the truth and never lose it. Buy the truth. The way I started, I want to
end. You get the truth, you get wisdom. We're made wise unto salvation
through faith. Get the truth, you get this wisdom.
Wisdom, instruction, and understanding is contained in that truth, and
it embodies Christ. With the truth comes instruction,
instruction in righteousness, that we may be made perfect. Perfect. Go tell your relatives something
like that. I'm perfect. With the truth comes understanding.
With the truth comes understanding. The Son of God has come And hath given us, what? An understanding. That we may know him that is
true. The truth will never lose its
value. The wisdom of this world is going to pass away very soon.
But the truth of Christ is eternal. Eternal. And it ain't never gonna
pass away. Never. Oh my. That may make me a fool. In the
eyes of this world, so be it. So be it.