Now the lesson starts in verse
9, Christ's wisdom personified. And of course, this is fulfilled,
this wisdom personified is fulfilled in the glorious person and finished
work of Christ. And we're going to start in verse
9 and go to the end of the chapter. Let's read verse 8 just to launch
out from this. Wisdom says in verse 8, all the
words of my mouth are in righteousness. There is nothing froward or there's
nothing false, put it that way, or perverse in them. That verse tells us that, as
we've seen, this speaks of Christ, the Lord our righteousness, the
very righteousness of God, in whom the glory of God and the
salvation of sinners by his grace is revealed. All the words of
his mouth is righteousness, that which honors God, and that righteousness
which saves the souls of his people. and all that Christ is
and all that he did to redeem us from our sins, all of it is
in strict accordance with the glory and the majesty and the
honor of God. He's both a just God and a Savior,
and that's the wisdom we're talking about. How in the world can a
holy God be just and justify sinners like us? We read that
verse in Proverbs 17 last week, or two weeks ago, about he who
justifies the wicked, he who condemns the just, is an abomination
unto God. Well, how can God do this? How
could he condemn his holy, righteous son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in our place, and still be just
in doing that, not be an abomination to himself? How can he declare
sinners like us to be righteous, truly righteous? Not in some
fake way or some legal fiction, but truly righteous in his sight
according to his law and justice. How can he do that and not be
an abomination to himself? And the Bible's clear. Now look
at verse nine. They are all plain to him that
understandeth and right to them that find knowledge. If we have
that knowledge and that understanding that only God can give, these
things are plain to us. The mystery's been revealed. The cover's been taken off. And
what does God say to us in the gospel? Therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. The just shall live by
faith. How can God condemn Christ on
the cross? and not be unjust and an abomination
to himself. He made Christ to be the surety
of his people before the foundation of the world. Christ was given
the responsibility and the sin debt of all of his people in
the everlasting covenant of grace before the world began. And that
means our sins, our sin debt, was charged to him, was imputed
to him. That's how God can condemn his
son justly. One who is just in himself, who
is righteous and holy and pure and perfect. That's how the father
could condemn him and still be just and not be an abomination
to himself. It's by the imputation of our
sins to him. And Christ willingly took that
responsibility. He said, put it on my account.
And the flip side of that is that that's how God can justly
declare sinners like us, who are unrighteous in ourselves,
He can declare us to be righteous in His sight, really righteous,
substantially righteous, because He's imputed charge, Christ's
righteousness to us. We stand in Him. He's our surety. He's our substitute. He's our
redeemer. and we're one with Him. And so
that's the grace of God. That's the wisdom of God. And
that's plain if God has revealed it to us. Isn't that right? Now it's not plain to those to
whom God has not revealed it. But it's plain to us that fine
knowledge, and how did we find knowledge? God brought us that
knowledge. God gave us that knowledge. God
taught us through His Word, in the power of the Spirit, through
the preaching of the Gospel. And that's how God does it. It
pleased the Lord through the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. The Gospel is the revelation
of it. Well, look at verse 10. 10 and
11, he says, receive my instruction, and not silver, and knowledge
rather than choice gold, for wisdom is better than rubies,
and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared
to it. Well, that's plain and simple, isn't it? People spend
their lives building up money and wealth and all kinds of things
that are precious here on earth, and those things are not necessarily
bad things, don't get me wrong. We wanna be prepared for the
future and all of that, but there's nothing that can even slightly
compare to the riches of God's grace that we have in Christ.
I mean, there's nothing. All the gold in the world, is
not to be compared with the blessings and the benefits of salvation
that we find in Christ. He is more precious. Under you
therefore which believe he is precious. And look at verse 12.
I wisdom dwell with prudence. That's sort of like saying the
knowledge and the wisdom I have to act to look and to dwell and
find out knowledge of witty inventions. What are those witty inventions?
That's what man invents. Those are false gospels and false
ways of salvation. The most wicked, witty inventions
are false gospels or false ways of salvation. Salvation conditioned
on sinners. I mentioned last week how all
false religion, they either teach salvation in some way at some
stage to some degree conditioned on man, and they measure righteousness
on a sliding scale. Those are the witty inventions
of man. But God is the source. of the
truth of the gospel. And so he says in verse 12, he
says, our wisdom dwell with prudence and find out knowledge of witty
inventions. Look at verse 13, the fear of
the Lord is to hate evil. When God brings us to fear him,
that is with that respect and that regard for the honor of
his character, his nature, That brings us to hate evil, which
denies his honor. And that's even the evil of false
religion. That's not just the evil that
men do in immorality. We should hate that too. But,
you know, think about it this way. When we hear about these
mass shootings and stuff like, don't you hate that? I do. But here's the thing, what about
the evil that lies within me in the flesh? Do I hate that? I ought to hate it, and I should
cultivate a hatred for it. That's what I ought to do, isn't
that right? But I know this, I hate it because of the consequences
of it. You know, the reason, are you
hurting this morning? Are you sick? Are you growing
old? That's the consequence. Don't
you hate that? I do. When my back hurts, I hate it.
Don't you, Audrey, when your back hurts? We all go through
that. And somebody told me one time,
said, well, I don't just hate sin. I hate the consequences
of sin. I hate sin. Well, the only reason
we hate sin is because we see it through those consequences.
We have the results of it. And so we do hate it. But here's
the thing. We hate any religion that teaches
anything contrary to the religion of grace, the righteousness of
Christ. Don't you hate that? David said
in the Psalms, I hate every false way. And the reason I hate it
is because I see people rushing headlong into darkness. Family members well, I'm going
to talk about that a little bit this morning in the message So
it says the fear of the Lord whenever God brings us to honor
him To seek his glory We hate any way that doesn't glorify
God Those ways that glorify men are things we hate he says pride
and arrogancy and the evil way and the froward mouth do I hate
and See, all false religions are religions of pride and arrogancy. Because if salvation is conditioned
on sinners rather than on Christ alone, that fosters pride and
arrogance. That puts it in our hands to
the point that we can boast that we made the difference. That's
an evil way. That's pride and arrogance. You
think about the standard that God has in order to be right
in his sight. It's the perfection of righteousness
that can only be found in Christ. And nothing in us or done by
us will meet up to that. And to think it will is pride
and arrogancy. Look at verse 13, or verse 14. counsel is mine and sound wisdom. If we're going to get right counsel
and sound wisdom, it belongs to God in Christ and he has to
give it. He says, I am understanding. I have strength. The wisdom of
God and the power of God. Where do we find that? In Christ.
Remember in first Corinthians chapter one, Christ, the wisdom
and the power of God. to them that believe. And there's
no other wisdom and there's no other power. Christ is the power
of God unto salvation. Verse 15, by me kings reign and
princes decree justice. Even in matters of civil justice,
God is in control. Christ is the one who is in control. And then those kings and those
princes who preach the gospel or believe the gospel, think
about David, think about Solomon, think about Hezekiah, they rule
by God's power and God's wisdom and God's justice. Verse 16,
by me princes rule and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.
God's in control of it all. Now we know there have been and
always will be evil kings, evil princes, evil nobles. God sometimes puts them in place
as a judgment against a nation, or against a family, or against
a country. But those who rule rightly, they're
sin of God. Romans 13 deals with that, how
we're to obey the powers that be. Now, when man enacts laws
that are ungodly, that are contrary to God's law, we're not to obey
that. But all the just were, see this
is the wisdom of God, even in providence, but especially in
salvation. And then in verse 17, he says,
I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall
find me. Now that verse is not saying
that God's love to his people is in response to their love
for him. Because we know that, first of
all, none of us love the true and living God. None of us, by
nature, love the true and living God. We love a God of our own
imagination, which is a God like ourselves,
which means we love ourselves. But there is no love from God
in us until God sheds it abroad in our hearts by the Spirit.
So God doesn't respond to us, God is the source and originator
of all things in salvation. And if we love God, it's because
he first loved us. You know what the Bible says?
We love him because he first loved us. Our love to him is
a gift that he gives us and it's in response of his love for us.
Here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us
and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And then our seeking
God. Finding God is not his response
to our seeking him. We won't seek him by nature. Romans three and verses 10 through
12, read them again. None righteous, none that doeth
good, none that seeketh after God. So if we do seek the Lord,
You know why we do it? It's because He first sought
us. He's the source and the originator
of all things. And the Bible teaches us that
God has set His love on those whom He gave to Christ before
the foundation of the world. And that never changes. Think
about that. The unchanging, all enduring
love of God to sinners like us. And it's not to everybody without
exception. but it's only to those who are
in Christ. And God loves them in Christ
and sends the Spirit to draw them with cords of love, the
gospel, showing his love in sending Christ to be the propitiation
for our sins. Look here in verse 18, we'll
read a few verses here. Riches and honor are with me,
yea, durable riches and righteousness. The only riches that endure forever
in righteousness. Don't you love to hear that? I mean, doesn't that just thrill
your soul? That we have an inheritance that's
incorruptible and that it's in righteousness, it's according
to God's justice and his mercy brought together in the personal
work of Christ Verse 19, my fruit is better than gold, yea, than
fine gold, and my revenue than choice silver. Everything. Verse 20, I lead in the way of
righteousness. I love that. That word lead could
be walk, and that's okay. Do you realize that as sinners
saved by grace, we do walk in the way of righteousness? Now
that doesn't mean we always do right. Sometimes we get selfish,
get sidetracked, and we need to be reminded, we need to be
brought to repentance there. But as long as we're in Christ,
trusting Him, resting in Him for all salvation, we're walking
in the way of righteousness. But here Christ Himself, He walks,
He leads in the way of righteousness in the midst of the path of judgment. All of that, so precious to God's
people. In verse 21, that I may cause
those that love me to inherit substances, and I will fill their
treasure. You see, this is no pipe dream.
This is no imaginary thing. Our justification before God,
our sanctification, and finally, our glorification, there's substance
to it. You know, in Hebrews 11 where
it talks about faith is the evidence of things not seen and those
things that are proven. Substance, they're substantial.
And you know where the substance is really found? It's not in
what we feel or what we see here on this earth, it's in the word
of God. That's what gives it substance.
God said it, that settles it. If God said it, it's true. That's
why I'm so adamantly against Those who say that when God declares
us righteous in His sight, that He can only do that if He makes
us righteous within ourselves. That's not true. If God declares us righteous,
if God says I'm not guilty, I'm substantially not guilty. If
he says I'm righteous in his sight, I'm substantially righteous
in his sight. You say, well, you don't look
righteous. It has nothing to do with how I look. It has nothing
to do with how I feel. It all has to do with what is
in the mind of Almighty God who never changes, who's loved us
with an everlasting love. Think about that. Now, let's
read these verses here, beginning at verse 22. And this describes
the eternality of Christ. Remember in John 1, he says,
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. This is similar to that. Listen
to this. The Lord possessed me in the
beginning of His way, Before his works of old, salvation given
to us in Christ Jesus before the world began, I was set up
from everlasting, from the beginning, wherever the earth was. When
there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was I brought forth. while as yet he had not made
the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust
of the world. He says, when he prepared the
heavens, I was there. When he set a compass upon the
face of the depth, when he established the clouds above, when he strengthened
the fountains of the deep, when he gave to the sea his decree
that the water should not pass his commandment, when he appointed
the foundations of the earth. What a beautiful description
of the eternal God and His Son. Verse 30 says, then I was by
Him as one brought up with Him, and that means He had no beginning
and no end, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before
Him, rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth, and my delights
were with the sons of men. That's His chosen. Think about that. In Christ,
before the foundation of the world, God delighted in his chosen
people. Now how can he do that? We fell
in Adam. We're sinners, we're born dead
in trespasses and sins. We come forth from the womb speaking
lies. Well, we know God doesn't delight
in all that. But he delights in his people,
how? Based upon the blood and righteousness of Christ, even
before the foundation of the world. Because it was so sure
and certain that Christ would come and give himself a ransom,
a substitute, a lamb for the sins of his people and establish
righteousness, which God has always been just to justify the
ungodly. Somebody said, well then why
did Christ have to come and die? Because if it weren't for him
coming and dying, there would be no mercy, there'd be no grace,
there'd be no judgment of us, no delight in us, no loving. See, what God determined before
the foundation of the world demanded that Christ would come in time
and redeem us from our sins, establish righteousness. So look
at verse 32. Thou therefore hearken unto me,
O ye children, for blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear
the word of God. Listen. Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and follow him. Plead his righteousness for salvation. Keep his ways. His ways are the
only right ways. Verse 33, hear instruction and
be wise and refuse it not. Listen to what God says in his
word. It's good for us. It may go against
our flesh. And it does. I said it may. No,
it does. But he's given us a spirit, a
life, a heart. to love him and to obey him.
He says in verse 34, blessed is the man that heareth me. Oh
my soul, think about it. If you can hear these things
with the hearing ear, the ear of faith, see him with the eye
of faith, how blessed we are. Blessed are your ears for they
hear. Blessed are your eyes for they see. Watching daily at my
gates, waiting at the post of my doors, waiting for his return. For whoso findeth me, findeth
life. Do you realize that? To find
Christ is to find life. Spiritual life, everlasting life,
eternal life. And shall obtain favor of the
Lord, to come before God, washed in the blood of Christ and dressed
in his righteousness imputed. That's favor of the Lord. The
verse 36 ends, but he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul.
To sin against Christ is to reject him, to not believe. And he that
believeth not shall be damned. And all they that hate me love
death. Now, they don't realize they
love death, but they do. And that has to be revealed,
and it will be revealed one day.