Mighty Redeemer

Nope, we're not gonna be in the book of Psalms. Be in the book of Proverbs if you'd like to turn there. Proverbs 23. Proverbs 23. Here in our text, we have exhortations, we have encouragements, we have not chastisement, but warnings. He's given us some warnings.

And there's three different, really there's only two types of people, that's just how it is. But here, we're gonna look at the three different individuals that's mentioned here. And who makes the difference? Who makes the difference? The first man, he's called a ruler, and he's also called a fool.

He's given over to two of the three sins that's mentioned, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. We know that that's power, popularity, and pleasure. And this individual's desire is for Power and pleasure. Power and pleasure. And we are still in this life going to be contending with those three things until the day we die, because that's our flesh is prone to it. It's prone to it.

He's saying, do not succumb to him. He's a liar. It is a trick. Don't trust him. Look to Christ. Trust Christ. Let's read this together. Proverbs 23, one through 14 says, when thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee, and put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man given to appetite.

Be not desirous of his dainties, for they are deceitful meat. Labor not to be rich. Cease from thine own wisdom. Will thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings, they fly away as an eagle towards heaven. Even thou, not the bread of him that hath an evil eye. Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats.

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Eat and drink saith he to thee, but his heart is not with thee. The morsel which thou hast eaten shall thou vomit up and lose thy sweet words. Speak not in the ears of a fool for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. Remove not the old landmark and enter not into the fields of the fatherless for their redeemer is mighty.

He shall plead their cause with thee. Apply thy heart unto instruction and thy ears unto words of knowledge. Withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with a rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

I've titled this message Mighty Redeemer, Our Mighty Redeemer. The first part of this is a perfect example of what happened in the Garden of Eden whenever Eve was tricked. If you want to call it tricked, she was lied to. So I guess you can call it tricked. But you know the story very well. Serpent was more subtle than any other creature, beguiled Eve.

And he asks her, can you eat of every tree? She said, well, we can eat of every tree except the tree in the center. I can't eat of it. She said, because the day that we eat thereof, we'll surely die. And he said, God knows that in the day you eat thereof, you shall not surely die, but be as gods. Now, the translation is gods, but it's the same word as God right before that. So what he said was, he'll know that you'll be God, you'll be God.

That is the desire of every human being ever born, except Jesus Christ. He was God. That is the desire of every single human being that is born, to be God, to have all the power. to have all the popularity that they want, have all the pleasure that they want. That's what our flesh craves. It's what it desires. That's what it's after.

Here in our text, we see a deceitful man saying, yeah, you can eat this. It's gonna be, it'll be good. But at the end of it, he's going to be brash with them and say, I can't believe you ate all my morsels. I can't believe you ate all my good food. And he says, it's going to cause you to vomit up. You're not gonna be able to say sweet words. In other words, You're not going to thank him for what he just gave you. He's being deceitful. He's a liar.

That's exactly what Satan did to Eve, is it not? He acted like he was going to give her this and it was going to do something great. And he loved the fact that she took it because man failed. But our Lord had already purposed salvation before the foundation of the world.

You know, I heard somebody said something last Sunday, actually, to me. They wanted to know. And forgive me, I don't remember the terminology, the word that's used, but it was something, but this is what it meant. Are you pro or anti this, whatever the word is. And it was that God didn't purpose the fall until after Adam had fallen. Now, does that make any sense to anybody in here?

And I said, well, that's stupid. I said that to him. My wife's trying to poke me. She's like, honey, you can't say that. I'm like, I'm sorry. Well, that doesn't make sense. It's dethroning God, isn't it? Dethroning God. It's saying, no, God made a decision after Adam made his decision. See, that's man mourning to be God. That's man mourning to be God. We don't believe that.

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. That's three things. What do you think those three things are? Power, popularity, and pleasure. That's what the three are. She took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat.

This is the great fall of man. This is how it happened. And we didn't fall just a little bit. We fell all the way to the bottom. Henry Mahan, I don't know if he's originated this or not, but he would often say, if you're wrong on the fall, you're wrong on it all. That's true.

Because if we can't believe what God says about what happened in the garden, about how depraved we really are as creatures of dust, how wicked we really are, how corrupt we really are, then we haven't been given repentance. We haven't seen God high and lifted up. We haven't seen Him seated on the throne.

The first step when the Lord saves somebody, He makes you a sinner. But at the same time, he gives you faith to see Christ as your Savior. He doesn't just leave you in that sinful state and calls you to bear that sin on your own and leave you to yourself. No, he shows you your sin and shows you the Savior.

That's called life. That's what happens, repentance and faith. This fall was unto a death sentence. unto an appointment. It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

This is the trick that's going around in multiple establishments calling themselves churches. They're saying that you can take the fruit and be like God. How do they do that? Well, you have to ask Jesus into your heart. That's how they do that. You're God. You just told God what to do. You just, you just made God do something. If I can constrain him or restrain him, I'm God.

Do we see that? But our God seated on the throne in the heavenlies as the sovereign successful redeemer of his people. He didn't try to save anybody. He saved his people from their sin. That's the good news. She saw that it was good for food. That's the lust of the flesh. She saw it was pleasant to the eye, lust of the eye, and make one wise. That's power. That's power. She was saying, I'll be like God.

And once Adam ate, we're all doomed, because we're all sinners by nature now. This is the same rebellion in every human heart, and it never gets better. It never gets better. I have a firm believing that you can't preach man low enough, and you can't preach Christ high enough. And I have good news because we have, as we look again in verse 11, we have a mighty redeemer, a mighty redeemer. Look at verse three here with me again.

Be not desirous of his dainties. Dainties means savory or tasty foods. It's pleasing to the flesh. It's pleasing to the flesh. Be not desirous of his dainties, for they are deceitful meat. Labor not to be rich. Cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings, and they fly away as an eagle towards heaven. Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye? Neither desire thou his dainty meats. For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Eat and drink, saith he to thee, but his heart is not with thee.

Do you want to know how to tell if a preacher loves you or not? They tell you the truth. They tell you the truth. They don't water it down, and they don't change it. It doesn't matter if it gives them anxiety. It doesn't matter if it causes them to feel sick at their stomach because of the job at hand. They tell you the truth because they love you. This position is a position of sacrifice. This position is a position of servitude, of servitude.

And a man that tells you a lie does not care for you. He's not serving you. Just like this man here is saying, eat and drink, but his heart's not with you. His heart's not with you. Satan's heart wasn't with Eve. He wasn't trying to help her. He was trying to cause problems The sad part is is there's men there's men. Well, there's women too If you were calling preachers telling people that they can do this or they can do that and God will be pleased with them They're saying yeah eat, but I'm not they're not telling the truth. And the sad part is is they don't know it They don't know it their hearts deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

I What he's warning us is is don't desire what the flesh thinks makes it righteous. Don't desire. What the flesh believes makes it righteous. That's called self-righteousness. Don't desire to do things, keeping the law, trying to do things legalistically before God, thinking that it has anything to do with our righteousness. It doesn't.

Christ is our righteousness. The Lord hath made into him all of our wisdom, all our righteousness, all our sanctification, and all our redemption. That's the message here. That's the message here. Look to Christ, not what pleases the flesh. If you desire salvation, look to the mighty Redeemer. I'm reminded of the children of Israel. The Lord had saved them in a mighty way out of the land of Egypt. And they're in a desert, and they were not rejoicing. They were not happy. They were murmuring. You know what's amazing to me? Their shoes never even messed up. Their clothes never even messed up for 40 years. Isn't that amazing?

That's a picture of what the Lord gives us as His people. He keeps us until the day that we die. He has provided everything required for the salvation of His people. So He gives them a pillar of fire by night to follow and a cloud by day to follow and they murmur and they complain.

And the Lord sends, it rains bread. Do we understand that? I mean it's raining bread for these people. And it was just enough bread for that day. And then on Friday, they would get double, and they would put it up for the Sabbath, Saturday. It was raining bread. And what did they do? Did they say, oh, good. Now we're so thankful. We're very thankful to the Lord for hearing our prayer and answering us, because we would have starved out here. No, they murmured.

We loathe this light bread. We hate this light bread. We would rather go back to the slavery in Egypt. We'd rather go back to bondage and eat the garlics and the onions. That's what this man right here is offering. He's saying, here's the garlics and onions. Here's the bondage that's brought by self-righteousness that you don't even know about. But I don't have your heart. You don't have my heart. I'm telling you a lie. They murmured and they complained on the Lord. They even threatened to kill Moses and Aaron.

They would rather have the flavor, and I didn't mean to write this down like this because it kind of rhymes, but they would rather have the flavor. of what tastes good than the favor of God. That's just one letter difference, L, favor and flavor. They would rather have the flavor that satisfied them than to have the favor of God, which is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Only found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

They were to have his promised land. They murmured and complained. And we look and we shake our head, but you know where there's lack of. We murmur and complain. Something doesn't go our way. Something, I often use the terminology puddle. We have our little puddle and if it gets a ripple in it, we get all bent out of shape. May the Lord cause us to think on the promises that he's given us in our most desperate time. Cause us to rejoice and cry out to him as David was in the psalm that we read earlier.

I'm just as guilty of it as the rest of you. I was fussing about something today. I mean, it's just how we are. It's our nature. I'm not going to tell you what it was, but I was fussing about something. I'm not going to confess all of my sins to you. But we're just like them rejoicing in the grace of God one minute and complaining about circumstances that are beyond our control the next. And you know that when we complain about those circumstances that are beyond our control and we want the power to fix it, we wanna be God.

Do we see that? That's what we're desiring to do. I'm gonna change this. I want to have the power to do that. Aren't you glad the Lord gives us a new nature? One that looks to Him in all things by faith. One that looks to Christ alone as all of our righteousness.

He doesn't leave us to ourself. He promised us he wouldn't. He said, I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake you. He's not going to take his hand of grace from off of one of his sheep. He's the good shepherd. He's the good shepherd. No wonder Paul said, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Oh, wretched man that I am. Unless the Lord keeps us, we certainly will not be kept. Unless he does all the saving, we'll certainly remain lost. But here's the good news. He did save his people from their sin. We'd be like the fool, the fool that's found right here, which brings us to the second part. Look at verse nine.

Speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. You know who don't like the truth? Fools. Fools do not like the truth. We live in a society that really don't like the truth. They'd rather be told what they want to hear that makes them feel good than to be told the truth. Aren't you glad the Lord taught us, his people, that he is the truth and that ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free? The Lord said, you shall be hated for the truth's sake. The fool's not going to hear you. Matter of fact, they're going to hate you. They will despise the wisdom of thy word, despise.

We know why the Lord said men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. Christ was the light of the world, they hated him. So we know that they hated the truth, they hated the light, and they didn't want that way. They didn't want the way of Christ. In Adam, we didn't become a little bit depraved. We became utterly ruined. We became, well, we became just like these men that we're describing. We hated the truth. We hated wisdom. We hated God.

The flesh still does right now. Don't ever forget that. Our flesh doesn't love God anymore right now than it used to. The difference is, is we're constrained by a new man, a new man that lives, moves, and has its being in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the man on the inward parts. It has a new heart. It's no longer a stony heart, but it's a heart of flesh. That's what the Lord did when he saved his people and calls them, gives them a new heart.

We look to Christ now. We look to Christ now. We're born hating God, hating his truth. Unless he comes to us and saves us, we will remain that way all the way until we die. I'm reminded of Cain and Abel, and I use this allegory a lot, but it's really good. Cain was the fool. He knew what the truth was. Adam would have told him, if you want to worship God, you're going to have to bring blood. You're going to have to kill a lamb. You're not going to be able to bring something that you've done. You're going to have to kill a lamb. And what did Cain do? Cain did it his way. Cain said, I'm going to do it my way.

I'm going to grow these vegetables, and they're going to be the most beautiful vegetables ever, and I'm going to present them to God, and he's going to accept me because I did a good job. When people stand before the Lord on judgment day, they're gonna say unto him, he's gonna say, depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. And they'll say, but Lord, this will be their case. Lord, we've cast out demons in thy name. We've done all these wonderful works in thy name. We've done mission trips in your name. We've built, we've done all this stuff.

And the Lord's gonna say, depart from me. I never knew you. I never knew you. Cain, the Lord was, displeased with him and his offering, but with Abel, he had respect. The word was respect. He had no respect to Cain and his offering, but to Abel and Abel's offering, he had respect, because it was a lamb. It was a lamb.

He was looking to Christ. He was looking by faith. He was looking to the blood. Cain was looking by sight. Here's the two different men here that we're talking about. The fool, who looked by sight alone, and the one that has wisdom, the one that's been given Christ, that lives by faith. the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.

What Cain did is what the flesh says to do naturally. I can fix it. I can be like God. You know where that came from originally? Satan. He said, I will ascend above the heavens. I will ascend above the throne. I'll become as the most high. He said, I'm gonna be God.

And I love the fact that the Lord didn't even get off the throne. When the war happened, Noah's an archangel that threw him out. Satan's God's devil. Can't do anything unless the Lord causes it. I'm thankful for that. He restrains him and he restrains his people. I'm thankful for that.

No, we cannot fix the sin problem that we are in. We are dead in trespasses and in sin. A dead man can't fix anything. the Lord's gonna have to make us alive, alive unto Him, alive unto Christ by His grace. We have no hope in self to do a good deed. It's all sinful. We're born sinful orphans. That's what we are, fatherless, without strength, which is what brings us to our hope, our hope.

Look at verse 10, 11, and 12. Remove not the old landmark, and enter not into the fields of the fatherless, for their redeemer is mighty. He shall plead their cause with thee. Apply thine heart unto the instruction in thine ears to the words of knowledge. Withhold not correction from a child, for if thou beateth him with a rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell.

I was supposed to stop at 12. I know. I apologize. We have our hope brethren. God's elect have a mighty redeemer. I love the word mighty in that. I don't know how many times the word mighty is in scripture, but that that's a word we don't really use a whole lot as a society, but it's a good word. That's a good word.

Our God is in the heavens. He reigneth over all as the sovereign creator and sustainer of life. All things answer to him. He answers to nothing. He's God and he is a mighty redeemer. The good news is, is that he's announced and he cannot lie that salvation is of the Lord in his words. Jonah declared that, didn't he? Jonah chapter two, I believe it was. Salvation is of the Lord. That's good news.

If he's all sovereign and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? And he possesses salvation. That means he can give it to whoever he wants to, when he wants to and how he wants to. We know that he's ordained the way that he does it by the preaching of the gospel and sending his spirit and power. So we know how he does it, but he can do it when he wants to, when he wants to. Here's the glorious part. He said, I will have mercy. He does, he does show mercy. He does bestow his salvation freely by his grace.

Before time began, an everlasting covenant was made, a covenant that did not have a beginning and does not have an end. The father elected a people, the son agreed to redeem the people, the spirit agreed to regenerate those people. This was not by us. Someone asked me what I believed about election. They said, do you believe that God chose to elect the people that would choose him? I don't even know how they come up with that. God chose his people based upon his love, based upon his purpose, based upon his will, based upon his mercy and grace alone. Had nothing to do with my choice. We've already established for a good while now how bad our heart really is. How deceitful of all things and desperately wicked it really is. How we are like the fool left to ourself. How we're like this ruler who has the evil eye. That's us. And yet, God chose to set his affection upon some dead dog sinners. God chose to have mercy on whom he would have mercy. He chose to have mercy upon his people. He chose to become the mighty redeemer.

When did he do that? Before time ever began. Revelation tells us that he's seen as the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Before time ever began. It was already purposed. This is the only way. that sinners would be saved is by a mighty redeemer. Election, redemption, regeneration.

And yes, he has to keep us too, and he does all those things. He does all those things according to his will. Why did he do all this? Well, I've already answered that, but because of his love, because of his mercy, because of his grace, because of his purpose. You notice I'm not saying I a single time, it's him, it's him, it's him. He chose to do it. Who had Him obligated? Who could force the hand of God? There is not one thing that you and I can do to change His mind or to cause Him to do something. He's God. And the good news is He's our God and salvation's of the Lord. He's our God. He's given us promise after promise in His word. He said, I won't leave you to yourself. I've bought you, I've redeemed you, you're mine. You're mine.

In the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law that we were under, to redeem us, his people, from under the law. He had a singular purpose in coming. It wasn't to attempt to do anything. It was, what did he say? I come to do thy will, O Lord. What's the will of the father? That the elect would be redeemed. That he would be successful. He saved his chosen people from their sin.

Not everybody without exception. I gotta say that, because so many people believe that Christ died for everybody. That's not true. You won't find that in the scripture. He died for his people. Salvation's of the Lord. If he died for everybody, everybody's redeemed, unless he's a liar, because Matthew chapter one clearly declares, call it in the name of Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. And we know that there's people in hell, so there's no way that he could have redeemed everyone.

See the cross wasn't just a way for people to become saved. The cross was salvation. What happened on the cross is our salvation. When God poured out His eternal wrath upon His Son. When Christ shed His precious blood to wash away our sin. That is salvation. That's it. There's nothing else to add to it. God was satisfied because he made his soul an offering for sin. He made the son's soul an offering for sin. Christ suffered the full penalty due us so that we could be set free from the bonds of sin and death. That means redemption has been accomplished.

Doesn't mean that it's there for the taking. All you got to do is this. No. Redemption is accomplished. So what do we say? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, is that a work? No. Believing is passive. If God gives you faith, you're going to believe. And if he doesn't, we won't. He gets all the glory in this. Why? Because he's a mighty redeemer.

He's not a lowercase redeemer. And I know that that's lowercase. Is that lowercase there? Let's see. For their Redeemer is mighty. Yeah, it's a lowercase. We know it's, we always talk about him. He's not little baby Jesus, meek and mild. No, that he don't, that don't exist. Whatever, whoever come up with that idea.

He's a mighty Redeemer. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised is his name. He's a mighty Redeemer. The Lord punished his son until justice was satisfied, until our sin was taken away. And now the elect have been, past tense, saved. You see a lot of signs if you drive around, because people are religious, and it says, Jesus saves. And that is incorrect. That's improper grammar. It is, or improper doctrine, however you want to look at it. Jesus saved, past tense. He saved his people. In time, brethren, he regenerates his people, sending his spirit according to his power, according to his purpose. I wasn't looking for him when he found me, and nobody else in here that he found can say you were looking for him. No, we weren't. You know we weren't.

Matter of fact, the first time I heard the gospel, I got mad. And what'd the Lord do? He just, so did Paul. where he knocked him off his high horse, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" And he says, it's hard for you to kick against the pricks, isn't it? The Lord just kept pricking his heart with the words of Stephen that he'd heard, the gospel that he had heard.

Kept pricking it, kept pricking it. That's what he did to me. Oh, he got my heart, gave me a new heart before I even knew it. I didn't know it. I went to hear a gospel message. I'm like, that's the most glorious thing I've ever heard. How could I have not seen that that's what that says clearly in my Bible, rewrote itself.

He gets all the glory. He gets all the glory. sends His Spirit, regenerates us. He promises to keep us His elect until the end, all by His grace and His mercy, all because He is a mighty Redeemer. I love that He didn't just redeem us and leave us to ourself and I mean, that'd be terrible.

That'd be terrible. No, he says, if any man sin, you have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He said, I'll send the, if I go out of the way, the comforter cannot come. I'm going to send my spirit to comfort you in time of need. That's what David was pouring out his heart into the Lord. He was saying, Lord, help me, Lord, save me.

Because this enemy that's always on my back is always at warfare with me. You got to save me from myself. I know that there's other people in this world that we may have conflict with, but at the end of the day, our worst enemy is what we look at in the mirror, isn't it?

God's salvation was all because of his own will and purpose given to his people before the world began. This is why he is the mighty redeemer, the mighty redeemer of his people. He saved us from being the self-righteous ruler, He saved us from being the great fool that hates his wisdom. Now, we love the wisdom of God, because we know it's Christ. And he saved us. He's caused us to see Christ as all of our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He saved us for having the evil eye. We no longer look at God the way that we used to. We no longer look at ourselves the way we used to. This is how, it's a threefold salvation. That's why he's the mighty redeemer. That's why he's the mighty redeemer.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would take this and bless it according to your will. Thank you for saving us, Father. Lord, you said before you were before we were in the womb, you knew us by name. What a glorious thought to be known of you, to be loved of you by you. And no greater display could be shown than the cross that you love your people and truly saved them from their sin. Thank you, in Christ's name, amen.

Mighty Redeemer

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Mighty Redeemer

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