Proverbs chapter 3. And the title of the message this morning is
Four Marks of a Child of Wisdom. Four Marks of a Child of Wisdom. And Proverbs chapter 3, beginning
in verse 1, We see this, the scripture says, my son, forget
not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments. My son,
my son. The book of Proverbs is called
the book of wisdom. The book of wisdom, not just
because it came from Solomon, who was given great wisdom, who
next to the Lord Jesus Christ was the wisest man that ever
lived. This book is not given the title of Wisdom because of
him, but rather it is given because of Wisdom itself. This book is
written about another person who is called Wisdom. Wisdom. Throughout the book, we see that
wisdom himself is the person speaking. Go back to chapter
1 and look and see this. In verse 20, notice this. Wisdom crieth without. She uttereth her voice in the
streets. She crieth in the chief place
of concourse, in the opening of the gates, in the city she
uttereth her words. In chapter 8 and verse 1, we
read, doth not wisdom cry, and understanding put forth her voice. In verse 12, we see this, I wisdom
dwell with prudence and find out knowledge of witty inventions. You see, the wisdom of Proverbs
is truly a person. person. It is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Wisdom is Christ. We read this in 1 Corinthians
1 24, for Christ is both the power and the wisdom of God. The wisdom of God. Therefore,
in our text, surely wisdom is speaking to us, and wisdom says,
my son, My son. See how tenderly the Lord Jesus
Christ speaks to His children. My son. My son. He speaks tenderly and lovingly
as a Father full of compassion, and He says to His darling ones,
My son, and I want to ask you this morning, Before we go any
further, before I expel these marks of a child of wisdom, first
we must know this, are you a child of God? Are you a child of wisdom? Is this word of Christ speaking
to you? Are you a darling son to whom
this book speaks, my son? Now we know this, that all the
sons of God are not sons by natural generation. The sons of wisdom
are not such by natural generation. False teachers lie about this
and they say all men are the children of God. That is not
so. That is not so. You may be a creation of God,
all men are truly His creatures. All men are truly created by
God, but not all men are His sons. Not all men are His sons. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ
in speaking to the Pharisees. He said to them, you are of your
father, the devil. These men that Christ spoke to,
He said they were not the children of God. He said, I know you're
children of Abraham, but you're not children of God. You're of
your father, the devil. So then only those who are chosen
of God are truly His sons, not by natural generation, but by
adoption. Adoption. If you go to Ephesians,
clearly this is seen in Ephesians 1. We see that the Apostle says
in verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. According, here's all the spiritual
blessings, according as He hath chosen us in Him. before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him,
listen, in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. The elect of God are those that
are chosen of the Father from before the foundation of the
world, and in love the Father predestinated their adoption. He predestinated their adoption
by Jesus Christ. God's predestination. What is
that? What is predestination? We read
it so often in scripture. Predestination is God's sovereign
purpose and determination of all things. Of all things from
eternity. All things are known of God. Isn't that right? God's omniscient.
He knows all things. But why is it that God knows
all things? Because God determined all things. God determined all things. All
His works are known from before the foundation of the world.
And as God decreed, all that He decrees will come to pass. Now this is comforting for those
who are His by adoption. If you're His son, then this
is a comforting message to you. That God hath chosen you to be
His son. and nothing shall deter His sovereign
predetermined will. If you go to Isaiah chapter 14.
Isaiah chapter 14 and verse 24. The Scripture says,
The Lord of hosts hath sworn saying, Surely as I have thought,
so shall it come to pass, and as I have purposed, so shall
it stand. Look in verse 26. This is the
purpose that I purposed upon the whole earth, and this is
the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations, for the
Lord of hosts hath purposed it, and who shall disannul it? And His hand has stretched it
out, and who shall turn it back? You see, the sovereign purpose
of God in predestination is that His grace and salvation should
be given to His sons. To those that He has chosen to
be His sons by adoption. So then, All the sons of God
were by nature not sons of God, but sons of wrath. By nature
we were born sons of wrath, even as others. So then from their natural birth,
the elect are all like all other men by birth. By nature we are
like all other men, sinners. We are all sons of Adam's race.
The elect are by nature rebels and haters of God. Vile in all
their works, in all their righteousnesses, are as filthy rags. In other
words, there was no cause, there was no cause for God to choose
them in themselves. There was no cause for God to
choose His people based on what they had done. But God in sovereign
love chose some of this worthless race, and therefore, according
to His grace, the Father gave them to His Son. Gave them to
Christ. All the elect, all the ones that
He should adopt, that He purposed to adopt as His sons, He gave
them to His only Son by nature, which is Christ. The natural
Son of God is Christ, that He should be responsible for their
salvation. Jesus, the only begotten Son,
the only Son of God by nature, you see, all of the salvation
and the adoption of the sons of God rested on Him. He became their surety. What does surety mean? It means
a guarantee. He guaranteed to the Father that
all of His sons, all of His elected sons would be saved. That they
would be made holy and blameless before Him. This is what the
Son of God undertook. Jesus was made the servant of
God in the covenant of grace. And yet He came, according to
this same covenant, He came in the flesh. Jesus, the Son of
God, became one of us. And being found in the nature
of a man, He humbled Himself. This means that the Son of God
subjected Himself, willingly subjected Himself to be a man
and to humble Himself under the law of God. to submit Himself completely
and absolutely to the will of God. He subjected His will to
the Father's will. He subjected even His words and
His thoughts and His deeds in everything to the will of the
Father. You remember when He was hungry
for 40 days, the enemy said, If thou be the Son of God, make
this stone bread. Could he have easily done that?
Yes. But in order for his people to be saved, he must subject
himself to the will of God. And in doing so, he obtained
the righteousness of God for the sons, for the adopted sons,
the elect. The Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the wisdom of God, obtained righteousness, and by His own love He laid down
His life for the elect. He laid down His life, and He
was made sin for His children. As God imputed their sins to
him, he by his one offering for sin forever satisfied the justice
of God for the sins of his children. And because of his great victory,
what's the evidence of the success of Christ? It is the resurrection. It is the resurrection from the
grave. He obtained victory and God justified
him. God showed that he is fully accepted. His sacrifice was accepted. And
now God has seated him at the right hand, having all power
over all flesh. For what purpose? That he should
send his Holy Spirit to gather his sons. He said, I will gather them.
Remember this same God who said, I purposed it, who shall disannul
it? No one. He said, I will gather
them from the north and from the south. I'll say to the east
and the west, keep not back my sons. Gather them from afar and
bring them in. God will gather his sons by his
Holy Spirit because this is the will of the Father. in the eternal
election that the sons be given to Christ, who shall be their
wisdom, their righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Therefore, the Holy Spirit shall
come to every elect son that is redeemed, and He will give
them spiritual life. He will give every son spiritual
life. True faith in the Son of God
now. I ask you again. Are you a son
of God? Are you one of these elect? Because
I'll tell you this only the elect will be saved Only the elect
are redeemed and I'll tell you only the elect are called and
only the elect will believe Are you one of these? Are you a son
of God? Well, I'm going to give you four
marks. And let this book of wisdom be
our guide as to the marks of a true child of wisdom. Look
in verse 5. The first mark of a true son
of God is dependence upon Christ. Dependence upon Christ. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart and lean not to thine own understanding. All of the elect,
as I said before, are born dead in sins and can by no means give
themselves life. Jesus makes this very clear.
In John 6, 44, listen, no man can come unto me. Now those words are not words
of higher learning or education. Every one of those words are
very simple. No man can. It doesn't say no man may, it
says no man can. This is speaking about ability.
No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
draw him. Coming to Christ is nothing less
than believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what coming to
Christ means. It means to depend completely
and absolutely on Jesus Christ as all your hope to stand before
God. And there were some who come
to Christ, for this is the will and purpose
of God. I'm thankful for that. I'm glad
that some are going to come. Because I tell you, if God not
purposed that some come, how many would come? None. If God
had not willed and purposed that some be His sons, that some should
come, then I tell you, none would come. But because God has purposed
and willed it so, some will come. And listen, all who do come,
Jesus said this, I will in no wise cast out. I will in no wise cast out. All who come to Christ in faith,
He will not cast you out even because He died for you. If you come to Christ, that is
an evidence of His redemption for you. Even because He died for them
according to the will of the Father. But this coming to Christ
is in no wise a work or determination of the will or works of man,
but it is completely the work of God. No man can come to me
except the Father draw him. The drawing of the Father is
the work of the new birth of by the Holy Spirit. As it is
written, they shall all be taught of God. Therefore, every man
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh to me. Have you heard of your depravity? Have you heard? Have you heard of your miserable
condition? Have you heard you are a miserable
sinner whose religion and works are empty? Have you learned that
there is none righteous, no, not one? There's none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after God. They
are altogether become unprofitable. Listen to me, there's none that
doeth good, not even you. Have you heard that? Then in your low condition, if
you've heard that, hear the great message of the Savior. Hear how
He has obtained perfect righteousness without your works. that he obtained
perfect righteousness by his own works without your help. Hear the message how he died
for sin without your help. He did it alone. He died and
atoned for sin by himself. Have you heard this? Have you
heard the only wisdom of God how it is that God can be just
and still unjustify a worthless wretch like we are? Have you
heard that wisdom? I tell you, the only wisdom is
Jesus Christ being made our substitute. And now that you've heard, have
you learned it? Have you learned it? Therefore,
if any man hath heard and hath learned, It's altogether different knowing
the doctrine of depravity and knowing the experience of depravity,
isn't it? Have you experienced your depravity? Have you experienced your need
of a complete Savior? Oh, everyone that thirsteth.
I'm not thirsty. I'm not talking to you. I'm talking someone's thirsty. Come, buy wine and milk, nourishment
and joy. Wine is joy, nourishment is milk. Come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Wherefore do you labor for that
which satisfieth not? Hearken unto me and eat. Delight thyself in fatness. Come
unto Jesus Christ and completely trust Him. Only trust Him. And friends, only trust Him now. Do you trust Him now? You know,
I really don't care if you trusted Him ten minutes ago. That's not
going to matter. Do you trust Him now? See, this
is a mark of the child of God. They trust Jesus Christ completely. And we don't lean to our own
understanding of how things work. Matter of fact, I reject my own
understanding and embrace his. I embrace his. Our faith in Jesus Christ is
not the cause of my sonship. My trust in Christ is not the
cause of my sonship. Listen, my trust in Jesus Christ
is evidence of my sonship. It's evidence because faith is
a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. We're
not able to boast in our faith, are we? Because it is a gift
of Almighty God in the regeneration of our soul to give us life and
faith. They come together. We believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood cleanses us. from all sin. You trust Him? That's a mark. Second of all,
direction. Look at this in verse 8. In all thy ways acknowledge all thy ways acknowledge him
verse 6 and he shall direct thy paths we who believe on the lord
jesus christ are the sons of god and it's evidenced not only
by our faith but in this we are led by the holy spirit we're
led by the holy spirit In Romans 8, it tells us that for as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. The Holy Spirit not only performs
the work of regeneration and quickens us to life and faith
with Christ, but He also takes up residence in this body. Listen to me. You can boast in
your faith all you want to, but if any man hath not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. You see how faith and the Spirit
go together? You can't have the faith, you
can't have true faith in Christ without the Spirit of God. The
Spirit of God comes and dwells in us. Know you not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which you have of God? And listen to me, you are not
your own. Now does that offend you? Does that
offend you when I say you're not your own? It don't offend someone who's
trusting in Christ. we are bought with a price and
I don't belong to myself I belong to him he is my God and I am his son we do not belong to ourselves
what then does the spirit inside every child of God do He leads
us to Christ. That's where he leads us. That's
where he leads us. From faith to faith. For the just shall live how? How are you to live? How are
you to live? By faith. By faith. The just shall live by faith. Now, there are some who believe
that men are saved by grace only to be led to law. No. The Scripture says that we that
are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. We have
not the spirit of bondage again to fear, but rather the spirit
of what? Adoption. Whereby we cry, Daddy,
Daddy, Father, Abba, Father. This is the Spirit. This is where
the Spirit leads us. It leads us to the grace of God
that is in Christ Jesus. It doesn't lead us back to works. Therefore, the Spirit of God
will always point us away from self-reliance and always point
us to dependence on Christ. Do you have that spirit? Do you
have that spirit that points you away from self and points
you to Christ? Good. If you do, that's a mark
that you're a child of wisdom. That you have the Spirit of God.
That He turns us away from evil. Verse 7, Be not wise in thine
own eyes, fear the Lord, and depart from evil. The Spirit
of God causes us to depart from evil. Child of God, I'll ask
you, are you tempted by sin? If you're not, something's wrong
with you. We know ourselves. If we've heard
and learned about our depravity, we know this, we are easily tempted. Easily. But when we are tempted, doth not the Spirit of God cry
in us, depart from evil? You bet it does. You bet it does. The Spirit of God causes us to
leave our own understanding and to depart from evil. Number three. A true child of
wisdom has this mark of devotion. Not only dependence, not only
direction, but devotion. Verse 9, honor the Lord with
thy substance and with the firstfruits of thine increase. All children
of God have this heart to honor God with all they have and all
they are. Is that your heart? Do you desire to honor God with
all you have? Listen to me, a religion that
costs you nothing is worth nothing. If your religion don't cost you
and don't cause you to sacrifice, for the honor of God, then your
religion is worthless. You should count the cost. What
is it going to cost for you to serve Christ? It will cost you
everything. Everything. As Luther put it, let goods and
kindred go. This mortal life also, the body
they may kill, the truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever. Is that your heart? Do you desire
to honor God with all your substance? A man can give his health and
wealth and family, and he can give his own life, but I'll tell
you this, he can never purchase salvation. We don't give things
to purchase salvation. Not a child of God. Our salvation
is already purchased, and because of the great price Because of
the great price the Son of God gave, we gladly give this world
and ourselves in service to God for the honor of God. For the
honor of God. We don't purchase it. Christ
purchased it. We gladly sacrifice all kindred. and all relationships who would
disrupt our honor of God. We gladly give up all ties to
worship God. I remember Brother Jack Shanks
and another pastor, they were friends, good friends, for many,
many years. And one day, this friend, a preacher
friend of his, They were discussing the scriptures and he said to
Brother Jack Shanks, he said, Brother Jack, there is more in
the Word of God than Jesus Christ. And that old man weeping said,
I cannot walk with you anymore. And he severed that friendship. Because to not do so would dishonor
Christ. He severed it. And it was a very
difficult thing for him to do. Even so should we. Did not Abraham
leave all and follow after God? Should you and I not follow his
example when we are called to do so? For what? So that we can be seen of men?
No! But that we should honor our God. Honor him. To honor God is a mark of a true
child of wisdom. And fourthly, discipline. Look
at verse 11 and 12. He says, My son, despise not
the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. For whom the Lord loveth, he
correcteth, even as a father to the son in whom he delighteth. Believer in Christ, let us know
that chastisement is for our good. Whom the Father loveth, he chasteneth. Consider that everything that
comes to try our souls and make us sensible of our weakness.
Everything that comes our way is to humble us before the mighty
hand of our God. Everything. Everything. Are you taken by surprise when
things happen to you? God's not. He's not surprised. He's seen it. He's seen it. For what purpose? to try you,
to prove you. This may be of difficulties,
or trials, or loss of possessions, or health, or wealth, whatever
it is, but let us know this, that all sons of God have it,
not one escaping. If you ever escape chastening,
your faith is empty, it's vain. If you've not been chastened
of the Lord, you're a bastard, not a son. Only sons of God are chastened.
Isn't that good news? It is if you've been chastened.
It sure makes the chastening sweet, doesn't it? To know that
he only does this for sons. I have a big group of kids come
over to my house. You know, I'm watching them and
I make sure they don't hurt anybody, but if they want to run around
and act like heathens, you know, that's But as for my son, as
for my daughter, I'm going to correct them. They're mine. And I tell you,
if you're God's, He will correct you. He will instruct you. Believer,
we are to know that so long as we live in this body, we are
still plagued by this old man of sin. Therefore our father
uses his chastening arm to break down this old flesh So that we don't trust in it
If you want to know why you're chasing here it is because you
trust too much in yourself That's why we need to be chastened We
must be broken God will break us. Just as he did Jacob, and
Jacob was hauled on his thigh, even so God when he chastens
us, we become less and less dependent upon this old corrupted flesh. Therefore, believer, despise
not the chastening hand of God. Don't despise it. Embrace it. It's not joyous. I'm not telling
you to put a big fake smile on your face when you're chasing.
It's grievous. It hurts. But I tell you, God
does it for your good. He does it to cause you to submit
to Him. Listen to this. Let me not preach
of the sovereignty of God and then complain of my lot in life. Let me not talk of divine purpose
and spend my days complaining of my trials and troubles. It
is inconsistent with faith in a sovereign Christ for me to
question His good providence. Despise not his chastening hand. And believer, don't faint. Don't faint. Despise not the
chastening of the hand of the Lord, neither be weary of his
correction. Faint not, believer, when the
hand of our Father is heavy. but in faith recognize that he
does this in spite of all we do to oppose ourselves he will
work it together for your good he will this again is not a maybe
he will his chastening is for your Do not be weary in well-doing. Don't be weary. But rather be subjected, submissive
to it. Now I'll ask you, are you a son
of God? Are you dependent totally on Jesus Christ? Are you led
by the Holy Spirit? Do you forsake all to follow
Christ? Are you disciplined of your father? Rejoice. If those are marks that
you have, you have every right to sing. You have every right
to rejoice, for you are a son of wisdom. May God bless this
to you.