Okay, go back with me now to.
Well, not back, go there. Proverbs 1. Proverbs. Chapter 1. When the Apostle Paul was saying
goodbye to the church at Ephesus, to see them again, perhaps, he
thought that he might not. He said the Holy Spirit revealed that to him. But when he was bidding them
goodbye over next chapter 20, he said to them, nothing. He
said, I showed and talked and testified, and here was a two. Chief thing, he said, repentance
toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I testified the gospel
of the grace of God, the gospel, and he defined it of the grace
of God. He said, I have not shunned to
declare unto you all the counsel of God. He went on to say, watch therefore
and remember, he said, remember that for three years I warned
everyone night and day with tears. The whole counsel of God, he
said, I have not shunned to declare the whole counsel of God. The whole counsel of God is this. Listen carefully. This is it. The whole counsel of God is the
Word of God. You can't leave any of that. You can't not believe any of
The whole counsel of God is the truth of God. There are many
truths that go together to make the truth. The whole counsel of God is,
and I say it's a word, I say it's
truth, it's Christ. Is he not called those two things?
The whole counsel of God, though, cannot be declared fully in one
message. Now, the subject can, the object,
the theme can be declared, I just did it and I can close this book
and I will have preached the gospel. I could quit, but I just told
you. The whole council of. I just told you who. Is the truth. In the. But it can be told in one message.
Paul said I spent three years doing it. He said that three years. Preaching
to the. To the Ephesians. Here in Proverbs
1, look at verse 5. This is our text, really. Verse 5, he says, A wise man
will hear and will increase learning. A man of understanding shall
attain unto wise counsels. Counsels. See, after I read that,
I thought of what Paul said there in Acts 20. The whole counsel. Well, here it says wise counsels. But all of these wise counsels
go together to make the council, you say the words of God are
many. It all makes up the word of God,
doesn't it? The truths of God are many. It
all makes comes together to be truth. Which is right. What words did Christ say that
we could just take early in it? No, no. Well, all his words are the Word, from the Word,
from Christ. It's all about him. It's all
to point to him. That's the purpose of it. The
purpose of this book, the reason it's written, is to point human
beings to the Word, to Christ, the Word. That's the purpose
of this book. He's the whole counsel of God. All God has to
say, human beings, this is my son. Right? From the beginning. But Paul
said, he said, I took three years to do this. I haven't done to
declare the whole council, but it took three years. Significantly, that's how long
he spent in Arabia. Remember? And that's significant. I thought about it. It struck
me. He said, When I heard from the Lord, when he revealed himself,
spent three years in Arabia and significantly, that's how long
the Lord spent with all of his disciples, wasn't it? God's word is so perfect, isn't
it? Proverbs 1 here speaks of wise
counsel. You know, many wise proverbs
throughout this book. Many wise proverbs. It's 870. A computer didn't look it up
for me. I counted every verse. I may be wrong. I may have, you
know, I may have got it wrong. I still add, I can't even work
a calculator too well. But I think there's 870 verses
here. That doesn't mean that there
aren't more than one proverb in one verse. But there are many
wise proverbs, aren't there? Well they all go together to
make up the whole counsel of God. You see? Don't you? You see that, don't
you? Acknowledge it. Wise counsels. The whole counsel. Verse 1, he said, look at verse
1. The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel.
Go with me to 1 Kings chapter 3. Proverbs of Solomon. the son
of David, the king of Israel. Did Solomon write these Proverbs? That's what it says, doesn't
it? That's what it says. What did
we read in 2 Timothy 3 just a little while ago? What did we read?
Verse 16. Do you remember what you read? All Scripture is given
by inspiration of God. Paul Peter said, no scriptures
of any private interpretation. Solomon just didn't sit down
one day and say, I think I'll write a book of Proverbs. I think
I'll write a poem. No. David didn't sit down one
day on a hill with his harp and say, I think I'll write a song.
Although he did, but the Lord had him do that. Didn't he? These are the proverbs, these
are the proverbs of the son of David, the king of Israel. Yes,
they are. Some of you are with me. You're
actually listening to me. Some of you know, you're reading
between the lines. These are indeed the proverbs of the son
of David, the king of Israel. Who's that? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Look at this. First
Kings three, though, but just look at it. Just purely from
literally speaking, 1 Kings 3, verse 12. You remember the story
of how Solomon, the Lord told Solomon he would give him whatever
he wished for. Remember that? Do you remember
what Solomon asked for? He said, he said, I need understanding. I need an understanding heart. Verse 9, an understanding heart
to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad,
who is able to judge this thy so great a people. So, verse
12, the Lord said, I have done according to thy words, I have
given thee a wise and understanding heart, so that there was none
like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like
unto thee. There is not going to be anybody
as wise as you, never has been, never will be. except the one he's writing about. He said, but look at it just
from this standpoint. This is the wisest man who ever
lived. People, they flock to wise men, don't they? People
love to, you know, you've seen these people
going up the Himalayans to seek out some guru sitting there cross-legged,
you know, they'd make a long pilgrimage to sit at the feet
of some idiot. Well, this is truly the wisest
man ever lived. Over chapter 4, look at this.
Chapter 4, proved by many, verses 29 through 32, that God gave
Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, largeness apart,
as the sand is on the seashore. And Solomon's wisdom excelled
the wisdom of all the children of the east country, all the
wisdom of Egypt. All the worldly modern wisdom
and thought of Egypt that prided itself at that. Solomon had more
wisdom than all of them put together. And he went on to mention names
of men that we don't know, but apparently they were very wise
men back to Ethan and so forth and so on. And verse 32 and verse
31 says his fame was in all nations. Everybody knew it. Everybody
heard about it. He's fake 3000 proverb. See, these aren't the only ones
that he wrote. Not that he wrote three thousand
proverbs and a thousand and five songs. And gave, he didn't get
a dime for doing it. It wasn't for money. He spoke of trees. He went on
and on. Verse thirty-four, and there came people, all people
to hear the wisdom of Solomon. All the kings, the kings of the
earth came to hear it. Remember the Queen of Sheba?
One of my favorite stories. from the far ends of the earth
to hear this man's wisdom. Now, I want to tell you in just
a word just how foolish human beings are today. Scripture says,
Had not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? How many of these proverbs do
you reckon the average person knows? How many proverbs do you reckon
the average human being can quote? One. Here's something thought about
that. Here's a wise man. You wrote 3870 is all we need. That's all God saw fit and all
God purpose for us. This is it. It's all here. It's
all here. What do men do? Do they consult
it? Not interested. Look at it in
Proverbs one. Now, keep first Kings three.
Keep that. Keep your place. I want to come
back in a minute. But look at Proverbs one. Look
over here. Look at verse. Twenty-five. Verse twenty-two, he said, How
long, you simple one, will you love simplicity? Or scorners,
he said, delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. There's
more people who hang on the words of Dr. Phil and Oprah than Solomon. You want to tell me something
about the wisdom of this world. You want to tell me something
about how wise human beings are. I say we're utter fool. Let me
ask you how many of these proverbs do you know. We're a pack of fools. Paul said this one time, he said,
You suffer fools gladly. Suffer fools gladly. And it pleased
God by this foolishness of preaching. Preaching what? The Word. The
Proverbs of Solomon. But more than that, these aren't
just the Proverbs of Solomon. This is God's Word. And God said
down in verse 25 here of Proverbs 1, He said, You said it not,
My counsel. You would not of my reproof.
You don't have it. Said it not. Our Lord said this
to the Pharisees one time, Mark chapter seven. He said it four
times. Four times. He said, full well, you reject
the word of God for your own tradition. Full well. He said that four times. Doesn't
matter what God's Word said. All over the land right now,
there are women standing up right here doing what I'm doing when
the Scriptures expressly say they're not supposed to do it.
Huh? Why? They could care less what God's
Word said. Could care less? Who cares? Huh? From cover to cover, this Scripture
speaks of a God who is God. Needing no one, wanting nothing. Save him not for their sakes,
but for his holy name's sake. From cover to cover. There are
preachers preaching that. No, they could care less that
he said that. Care less. Because they've got an agenda.
I want more people and more money and a name for myself. I'm not
in this for the name of God. I'm in this for my own name.
And let a man come in his own name, Christ said, and you'll
receive him. You'll fall all over and make him rich in doing
it. Plains of debt may come in their own name. Christ said,
let a man come in the name of God for the glory of God, strictly
for the glory of God. Not trying to please anybody,
not calling anybody, not pampering anybody, not trying to please
anybody, but just declare who God is. Who cried? Declare what
man is before he everlastingly goes to hell, sent by this same
God. Let a man just declare the truth
and he will become his enemy. Isn't that right? A bunch of fools. Oh God loves us all. And there's
millions dropping into hell daily. This world now. Bunch of fools. Bunch of fools. You don't have to be foolish
now. You don't have to be foolish.
This is able to make us wise. There's only one thing able to
make us wise unto salvation. The only one thing that will
keep you from following a fool and believing foolishness. It's
right here. It's right here. Oh my. Hath not God's word
made foolish the wisdom of this world? Look at verse, look at this,
verse 2. He said to know wisdom. See this,
are you with me? The man is not only a fool, he's
dead, he said. The word of life preached and
he'll fall asleep under it. That's how foolish, hanging over
eternity by a breath, and he'll fall asleep. But he said, here it is, here's
here's it here it is to know wisdom. These proverbs are to
know wisdom. Now, I've already given you the
key to that, I've already told you that, haven't I, haven't
I, haven't we? I try my best not to say I, we,
we, we. To know wisdom, what's that?
Oh, who's that? It's a who? It's a person. When
we say salvation, I mean we mean it. A hundred percent. We say it's His will, His work,
it's His choice, it's His blood, it's His righteousness, it's
Him, it's Him. It's not doctrine. It's truth.
What's this all about? To know wisdom. If God would please, Take this
word and make it live, the word which is quick, powerful, sharper
than a two-edged sword, and you'll take it that you might know Christ,
who is wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, all
in all. Operate on your mind, your heart,
your soul, so you look at this book. Wisdom, wisdom. To perceive, look at it. Two,
to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding,
to receive the instruction of wisdom, to know, perceive, receive. Scripture says a man can receive. How many preachers have read
this verse I'm about to quote that John the Baptist said in
John chapter three? How many? A man can receive nothing
except what? It's be given him from above. Faith is not of yourself. Oh, won't you please, won't you
please, preacher, won't you please, won't you please. That man is
a beggar and a liar and a hypocrite. He's not in, God didn't send
him. God doesn't beg people, won't you please, won't you please,
won't you please. Faith is not of yourself. I'm
not trying to get anybody to believe. Jesus Christ didn't
come to this earth trying to get people to believe in Him.
No, sir. He came searching for His sheep. He said, All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. And He went along. There's
one up a tree. Why? He put Him there. There's
one in a well waiting on Him. Why? Because He put her there.
Here's a couple in a boat. Why? He put them there. He said, I know my sheep. This
is the gospel of the Bible. This is the Christ of Scripture.
This is the salvation of God. Anything else is not the truth,
is not God, is not Christ, is not salvation. If it's up to
man, if it's in man, if man has any part in it, he won't be saved. This is the gospel. A man can
receive nothing except it be given him from above. Is that the truth? How plain
can God's Word get? How plain? These fellows are liars. There's a sign out on 220 right
now telling people that hate God, telling people that hate
God, that God loves you. They're going to find out just
how much God loves them, aren't they? This book is about salvation
from what? This book is about deliverance
from what? Wrath! Wrath! It's not about deliverance
from love. God's going to burn the planet
up? Why? Because he loves them? Wrath! Is there any other way to say
this in the loud? No! Maybe we ought to open these
windows and nobody else is here but us. To know wisdom, to know wisdom,
to know wisdom, and got people with Bibles by the score. Take it or leave it, pick and
choose, you know. I don't care what God says, my
preacher says. I'm just thinking about this. You know, you turn on the news
and all you see and all you hear is utter corruption, don't you? Huh? When you turn on the news,
what do you hear? You look at the newspaper, what
do they report? murder and rape and filth and, you know, homosexuality
is just rampant, just taken over, and child molestation and pornography
and just you name it. You know, this world is filthy.
People, this is just what we see. This is just what we have
reported to it. This is the tip of the iceberg.
God Almighty sees it all. It's all naked and open before
God's eye. God sees it all. He looked down
from heaven. The Word says, Psalm 14 says,
God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there
were any, any, that did seek after God. Any. He said they're all together
become unprompted. The reason he destroyed the planet
Noah's day is because he says the thoughts of man's imagination
was only evil continually. When? From his youth. Something like 30% of rapes are
done by juveniles. This is a vile place and God
who is angry with the wicked every day and hates people. Yes,
Psalm 55, hate this all working, is going to destroy it. But there's
mercy. That's what it's about. That's
what this is about, mercy with the Lord, mercy. God's willing to show mercy.
He delights to show mercy. God is gracious, God is love,
yes, but not at the expense of His justice, not at the expense
of His wrath and holiness. Oh my, there's no wisdom. God
Almighty, here's what God, how God esteems sin. God Almighty put His Son, altogether
lovely, holy Son of God. This is what it takes. God almighty put his holy spotless
son on a cross and slit his throat. He did. Slit his throat. Killed him. That's barbaric. It's the Bible. That's what it
is. It's the Bible. It's his book. There's no wisdom. Where am I? Well, there's no
wisdom. He said, went on, look at this,
verse 4, to give subtlety to the simple,
to the young man's knowledge and discretion. Subtlety to the
simple. We're all a bunch of simpletons by nature. I say we. We're all a bunch of
simpletons. Give to the young man knowledge
and discretion. A wise man, verse 5, a wise man
will hear. You see, faith cometh how? How
does it come? Hearing. Hearing what? The word of God. How much of it? All of it. All of it. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing
hearing so wise man will hear they'll hear hearing. I told you to keep first Kings
three didn't. Go back there first Kings three. This struck me. Solomon asked
for wisdom so what the Lord give him look at it first Kings three
verse. Eleven. God said. Verse nine verse nine he said
give that servant an understanding heart. Do you have a marginal
reference. What's the. Hearing. That's significant in
it. How are you going to stay here. People have ears but they don't
hear. It's an ear. It's another ear
besides these two. God has to give you another ear
beside these two. God has to give you another eye
beside these two. We have eyes when we're blind. We can't see spiritual things,
eternal things. God has to give you a single
eye, a heart to receive, hearing,
hearing. Well, I've got to hurry. Go back to Proverbs 1. The Word
speaks of Christ. Here it is in a nutshell. The
Word, this book, speaks of Christ. The whole counsel of God is Jesus
Christ. He's the one needful. He's the
one thing in needful. The essential needful means essential. You don't have him, you don't
have life. You don't understand Christ is all you don't understand. If you don't have Christ, you
don't know Christ, you don't worship Christ, you don't not
found in Christ, you're a fool. You don't have any wisdom. If
you're not in Christ, found in Christ, covered by Christ, represented
by Christ, you don't have any righteousness. You don't have
any. I don't care how good you seem to me. You don't have any.
God says it stinks to me. It's filthy. It's filthy. I don't
care if you give your body to be burned. He says it's filthy.
And you do many wonderful work, even in the name of Jesus. But
if you're not found in Christ, God says you're a worker of iniquity.
And that's what it says. in Christ and know Christ when
Christ be found in Christ Paul said I can't everything else
but cow manure. Done did it I can't he said all
my learning all my attainment all my previous religion all
my testimony testimony all that stuff all those religious things
all I ever used to know think I knew about God it's not done. I want to win Christ, be found
in Christ, know Christ. That's the present issue. What
does that mean? This book, The Word of God, tells
us to look to Christ, look to Christ, look to Christ, believe
Christ, trust Christ. Am I preaching Christ? It says
preach Christ, the salvation of your soul. This is the one
thing needful. You know, every day people walk
in the hospital, they see something that should remind them of Jesus
Christ. You know what? There's a serpent
on pole. You go in the hospital, it's
the sign for medical care, American Medical Association. There's
a serpent wrapped around a pole. What's that? Oh, that they were
wise and they would stop and think about it. What is it? As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Those who ever believe in them should not perish, but have eternal
life. There's more gospel in verse
fourteen than verse sixteen. That's substitution. That's a
sacrifice. That's all about sin. This word points us to Christ. He's the one thing they know,
believe, trust Christ. Be dressed in his righteousness. There's a dress code in heaven. It's called the marriage garment,
the wedding garment. You know what it is? You've got
to have one on. You know what it is? You don't have anything to do
with it. You don't sew one thread of it. If you'll read, let's see, I
believe it's Psalm 95, yes, no, no, 45. Psalm 45 talks about
the king's daughter is all glorious because she's wearing something
the king made for her. You know what that is? You do. You do. It's a covering. Oh, my. Be dressed in his right,
be washed in his blood. People, honestly now, if you're,
if Jesus Christ died for you, if he shed his blood for you,
your sins are gone forever. They really are. A lot of people
say that Jesus died for them, washed in his blood, that their
sins are gone. No, no, no, no. But the fact of the matter is,
The blood of Jesus Christ does clean from all unrighteousness.
Yes, it does. That's a fact. You know, if we're
going to be with God and walk with God, somebody's going to
have to take us there. We can't just go up there. One
time when Hannah was really young, Mandy brought her down to the
railroad. I told her to bring her down. To show her around
take a ride on a locomotive. And. Now what if she just showed
up one day. And just decided to come on in
and you know. Well they'd apprehended her at
the gate wasn't it you can't come in here. Who said you could
come in well I just decided to you can't come in here. But when
she was brought there. And I met her at the gate. And I picked her up in my arm.
She was real young at the time. Hey honey, who's that? Nobody
even asked me who she was. Nobody even asked me. Just let me go right on through.
And just do what I will. With whom I will. How does anybody
get to glory? They don't decide to. They don't
make their decision to go to God's house come on now what
a fool what an utter fool. Let God do what let God do what. Men are fools aren't they utter
fools. They have doctorates behind their
name masters of theology. Our Lord said to Nicodemus that
master of Israel he said you're a master and you don't know these
things. You do err not knowing the scripture
that's why you don't know the scripture or the power of God. All right. Now I had many things
to say but the time is up. Time is up. Now let me say this. Look down in Proverbs 2. I may, Lord willing, if we return,
may deal with the first three or four proverbs as a series,
because I was really blessed, struck with these, all of these
words. And look at, no, chapter one,
look at the very first. I'm going to close with it. Verse
seven is the very first proverb, OK? There are 870 of them. And it's all wise counsel. Wise counsels. Alec, anything
you need to know. You got a question? Don't turn
on Dr. Pitt. He may commit suicide. The leading
profession is psychiatry and suicide. Our people fools. Let me go,
this man is going to tell me what to do, and he's going to
shoot himself real soon. Honestly. All right, so 870 proverbs. You want to be wise unto salvation?
You want to know where it all starts. God's going to tell us
where it all starts, and it all builds on this. It all starts
right here. Here's the key to it all. Key
to it all. The whole counsel of God starts
with this right here. Verse seven, the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Do you ever even hear religion
today talk about it? Very rarely. They start with the love of God.
And they got an obscured, horrible, blasphemous conception of that.
It doesn't start there. You don't know this God starting
there. You can't explain things by that.
You can't explain why babies die by the love of God. You can't
explain why people get cancer by the love of God. People whom
God loves die of cancer. You can't explain that by the
love of God. Well, you can't, but it doesn't
start there. You can't explain hell by the
love of God. If God loves everybody, why is there hell? Why? Why?
Why? If God is primary love, why does
it take our death for us to live? Why is there death? Why is there sin? Why, why, why,
why? A lot of things you can't explain
about the love of God. Everything to give you a key.
Everything can be explained and found under this one cheap attribute
of God. Hooli. There's a hell because God is
hooli. God kills because God is hooli. Sin and death by sin is because
God is holy, holy. But the fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom. But fools, fools, fools despise
wisdom, despise it. Fear of the Lord. Fear, what
is the fear of the Lord? Fear of not knowing him. Fear
is person. You know something of his holiness
is just as you fear. There's no fear Paul said of
people today at the end and now there's no fear of God before
their eyes because preachers are stand up tell God people
how much God loves them so they don't fear him. Why should you? Fear of God is fear blaspheming
him, fear taking his name in vain, fear sinning against him,
fear the consequences of that. Fear, fear, fear, fear. It's
the beginning of wisdom. Fear of God is preachers stand
up in fear, not declaring God as he is. The fear of the Lord
is for a man to stand up in fear, giving glory to anybody but God. Fear of standing up and pointing
men to anyone but Christ. That's fear of the Lord. Fear
of the Lord is standing up, giving anybody a false refuge than Christ
himself. That's the fear of the Lord.
Fear of the Lord is singing any song or doing anything that we
do that's not absolutely, totally for the glory of God and not
the glory of the flesh. That's the fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord is to fear His
wrath. Huh? You don't fear anybody that you're,
that's not, you know, there's no consequences, nobody. Do you?
Huh? your condemnation who is the
Lord who is the Lord who is this Lord that we should be who is
the Lord that we should be Jesus. Jesus. Oh no not not General Jesus he's
outside he's knocking right now. No he's not. See men don't know it I don't
know He's seated on a throne right now, and we're in his hands.
The breath is. He's not outside my heart still.
I'd like to challenge the average person to tell me, where is that
written in Scripture? Tell me where it is, and we'll discuss
it. They can't quote me. They don't know where it is. This is Jesus. who was made
a little lower than the man, but he's not now, not now. He's
not knocking. He's not pacing. He's not walking.
He's not hoping, wishing, wanting and praying. No, sir. He's seated.
Seated. Expecting, reigning, ruling.
Everything's going exactly according to his infinite purpose. Scripture says in Isaiah 42,
he shall not fail or even be discouraged. Not discouraged. He's not weeping, no, no, no,
no. He did, he's not now. He's laughing. Read Proverbs
1. He's laughing. Read Psalm 2. He's laughing! At who? People. Isn't it? You've read it, Stan,
haven't you? A laughing Lord. That's the God
of the Bible. Now you tell me if this is different
than what you've been hearing. Would somebody tell me? Is this
what your preacher preaches? Or you preach it? And I say they're all a bunch
of liars. Just like Elijah stood up on that mouth that day and
said, call on your God. He can't save you. No way. The God who answers by how? The
God who answers by how is God. I love how John the God who answered
my how. And that fiery tongue that fell
on those preachers at Pentecost wasn't an apparition wasn't a
vision and all that it was fiery tongue preachers. It was preachers
preaching in different languages divided languages on. And they
preached a sovereign Lord sitting on a throne, and the Spirit of
God fell on those people to fear the Lord. And they all went home,
not talking about tons, not talking about miracles, not talking about
time, but talking about this Lord in whose hands they were,
whom they had rejected, whom they thought they did something
with, who they now know it's His divine prerogative to do
with them as He pleases. That's what we're going to do. That's preaching. And that's all I'm saying. And maybe my last message. Did
I give you wisdom from above? Did I point you to Christ? Did
I make foolish the wisdom of this world? Did God's Word do
it? Not me. Did God's Word do it? A wise young man will give him
subtlety, so he won't be a pawn in the game of these religious
hucksters, so he won't fall for everything everybody hears. A
young man, they're simpletons, they're impressed with piety,
they're impressed with intellect, they're impressed with many things.
It goes on to say that in Proverbs 2, it goes on to say that, to
deliver the simple fella from the one who flatters. Flatterer. That's how they do it. Flatterer.
God doesn't flatter anybody. No, no, no. God delivers people
not by flattery, but by breaking their sinful heart. Bringing
down their proud, stubborn self-will. That's how God does it. That's
how God does it. He that exalts himself shall
be abased, but he that is abased brought down in the dust as a
no-good unworthy, hell-deserving, not knowing God, sinner. Oh, you need a Savior. I sure
do. Oh, you don't have any wisdom. I don't. You don't have any goodness.
I sure don't. No righteousness to commend you
to me. I don't. Like the publican in the temple,
I'm just the sinner. That's all I am. Well, you can
just come right into my heaven and leave that other fellow out.
He's too good, he doesn't belong here. That's God. OK. Gabe, you're time.