Already in that prayer, we've
been led to the throne. Hope you realize that. Thank
you, Wayne. Try to open your Bibles again
with me, if you would, to Job chapter 28. The question I want
us to look at this morning is the one Job asked, where shall
wisdom be found? In verse 17, this is not the right, Verse 12, but where shall wisdom
be found? And where is the place of understanding?
Now the wisdom Job is talking about here, spiritual wisdom,
wisdom to know God. It's spiritual wisdom to know
this, that God is holy, God is just. Everything he does must
be holy and just. It's wisdom to know I'm a helpless
sinner and I can't do one blessed thing to save myself. or to make
myself more savable. It's wisdom to know how can a
sinner be saved? How can a sinner be saved from
his sin? How can a sinner be saved from God's justice against
his sin? Now, I need that wisdom. Do you need that wisdom? Job knew he needed it. The question
he's asking is where can that wisdom, wisdom to know God, wisdom
to know who I am, wisdom to know how God saves sinners, where
can that wisdom be found. Job begins by telling us where
wisdom is not. And he shows us where wisdom
is not so that we learn this lesson. We're completely dependent
on God to save us. I know this, number one, wisdom
cannot be had by fleshly efforts or fleshly understanding. In
verse one, Job 28, Job says, surely there's a vein for the
silver and a place for gold where they find it. Iron is taken out
of the earth and brass is molten out of stone. And later on through
there he talks about sapphires and gems and all these things
being found in the dust of the mountains, the rocks of the earth. Now if you want, this is what
Job was saying, if you want silver, gold and these precious gems
and stuff, well you know where to find those, don't you? They're
in the ground. They're in the ground somewhere.
And if you're willing to work hard enough, you're willing to
work long enough and look long enough, You'll probably find
some, probably, you know, because you know where silver and gold
is found. But I don't care how smart you
are. You don't know where the wisdom of God is. You don't know
what it is. I mean, this congregation is
full of smart, smart, highly intelligent people. But you're
not here this morning trusting Christ and believing the gospel
because you figured this out by your natural wisdom, natural
smarts. You know, whenever we try to
figure out what God is like and what God is doing and why He's
doing it, whenever we try to figure God out with our natural
minds, we're always wrong. 100% of the time, we're wrong. A dead spiritual mind can never
come up with the right spiritual answers. Can't do it. I don't
care how much you dig, even in the Word of God, you won't find
Christ there. unless the Holy Spirit is pleased
to reveal it to you. If you just left your own natural understanding,
you'll think, well, the scripture is full of good ideas and good
ways to live and you know, all those things, but you'll not
find Christ. It was your natural mind. Left our own devices, you
know, we'll be like, we'll be like Pharisees. They thought
Their salvation was in their obedience, or it was their obedience
to the law, their obedience to the ceremonies. They believed
in election. Pharisees, oh absolutely they
believed in election. They believed it was a fleshly
thing, the Jews. The Jews are the elect and nobody
else. They thought they were saved because they were Jew,
who their daddy was, who their grandfather was, you know. Now they read
the scriptures. The Lord told them, you do search
the scriptures. And you think and you're searching, and just
because you read the scriptures so much, you think that's what
saves you. These men spent their lives in the scriptures. I mean,
this was not just a Sabbath day thing. They spent their lives
in the scriptures. And they never knew those scriptures
testified of Christ. Because they're spiritually blind,
just like we are. I like the saying, I use a lot
of blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then. I guess that's
true. But spiritually blind men will never find one. I don't
care how smart they are, they won't find it by their own imaginations. Look back a page or two at Job
chapter 11. Job 11. In verse seven. Canst thou by searching find
out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty
unto perfection? It's as high as heaven. What
canst thou do? It's deeper than hell, what canst
thou know? The measure thereof is longer
than the earth and broader than the sea. If he cut off and shut
up or gathered together, then who can hinder him? No man can
find out God with our own natural mind. It's a mind that's dead
and darkened by sin. All right, number two, here's
where wisdom is not. Wisdom cannot be bought with
earthly riches. Let's begin verse 13 in our text,
Job 28. Man knoweth not the price thereof,
neither is it found in the land of the living. The depths saith
it's not in me, the sea saith it's not with me. It cannot be
gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price
thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with
precious onyx or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot
equal it, and the exchange of it should not be for jewels of
fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral
or of pearls, for the price of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz
of Ethiopia shall not equal it. Neither shall it be valued with
pure gold. Whence then cometh wisdom? And where is the place
of understanding, seeing its head from the eyes of all living,
and kept close from the fowls of the air? Wisdom can't be bought
with earthly riches. I mean, you gather up all the
gold and silver and diamonds and All these precious gems,
it cannot equal the value, the preciousness of wisdom that knows
God. Look over at Proverbs chapter
three. Proverbs, in the book of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes,
Solomon talks a lot about wisdom. He talks about wisdom more than
any other of the writers of scripture. Solomon knew the value of wisdom. Proverbs 3, verse 13. Happy is the man that findeth
wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise
of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof
than fine gold. She's more precious than rubies,
and all the things thou canst desire, you put them all together,
all the things you, they cannot be compared unto her. Length
of days is in her right hand, and her left hand riches and
honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is wisdom. She's the tree
of life to them that lay hold upon her. And happy is everyone
that retaineth her. Your gold and silver and precious
stones, now they're valuable. No question about it. They have
a value to us, don't they? But their value can't even be
compared to the value of wisdom. True wisdom makes a person happy. I tell you, some of the most
miserable people I know are rich people. I mean, very, very rich
people. They're miserable. All their
riches came by happiness. But the wisdom of no God would.
Wisdom gives you so much more joy. Wisdom gives a person eternal
life. Wisdom gives a person peace with
God, gives them peace in their heart. How would you like to
go through your life, the trials and the turmoils, the good days,
the bad days, the sunny days, the cloudy days, go through all
those days with peace in your heart. And when you get to the
end of the journey, lay on your deathbed in peace. You can't put a price on that. Rubies, gold and silver, could
never buy that. Just like you can't buy a house
for a dollar because the house is worth more than a dollar.
The same thing is true of spiritual wisdom. It can't be bought with
silver and gold because it's so much more precious than silver
and gold. You know, those things impress
us, gold and silver and diamonds and rubies and pearls, you know.
I've never seen it in person, but I've seen pictures of the
Hope Diamond. People just line up to see that thing. I mean,
they're just, everybody's so impressed with that. But you
know what? That's just another element to
God. God created dirt and diamonds at the same time. They're just
alike to Him. Gold and silver. It's worth just
as much as dirt is to God. The Apostle John said in heaven,
the streets are paved with gold. It's just worth as much as asphalt. If you have wisdom, if you know
Christ, now that's where wisdom is not found. I'm going to give
you a good clue where I'm going with the rest of my time. God,
he's only impressed with his son. There's nothing more valuable
than knowing Christ. He's the wisdom of God. Wisdom
is not thing. Wisdom is a person. There's nothing
more valuable than knowing Christ, who is the wisdom of God. So
here's my third point. God must be pleased to reveal
wisdom to us, or we'll never have it. Verse 23, back in our
text. God understandeth the way. Man
can't find the way of wisdom, But God understands the way thereof.
He knoweth the place thereof, because he's the one that put
it there. He's the one that ordained it. For God looketh to the ends
of the earth and seeth under the whole heaven to make the
weight for the winds. He weighth the waters by measure.
When he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning
of the thunder in creation, when there was only God, then did
he see it. Then God saw wisdom. You know
why? Because he decreed it. He prepared
it. Yay. He searched it out. See,
God is the one who searched out wisdom because God is the one
who declares wisdom. He's the one that declares it.
Look at first Corinthians chapter two. Now, wisdom can only be
found in God. It can only be seen in God. Well, I can't see God. I can't
know God. How am I ever going to know this
wisdom? How can I ever find out wisdom If I don't have the sense
to look for it, to know where it's at, it's through preaching. God is pleased to reveal this
wisdom through the preaching of his son. Look at 1 Corinthians
2 verse 6. How be it we speak wisdom among
them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor
the princes of this world that come to naught, but we speak
the wisdom of God in a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom which
God ordained before the world He ordained this before creation
under our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew,
for had they known it, they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory. Now the answer to the mystery,
the answer to the mystery of wisdom, the answer to the mystery
of the gospel, the answer to the mystery of all the spiritual
truths that we would like to know, is all found in Christ. It all
is Christ. It's all revealed to us through
the preaching of the gospel. The answer to the mystery is
Christ. But the only way we can know the answer to the mystery,
the only way we can see it, is if the Lord sends us a man who
preaches Christ. Somebody's got to preach Christ
to us. Now here's the wisdom of God. This is the wisdom of
God. God is holy and just. And at
the same time, God is merciful. God must be holy. and he must
be merciful. Both at the same time. He must
be gracious and he must be just. He must. That is God's essential
character. He can't do anything else. He
must be holy. He must be merciful. So if God's
going to show mercy to sinners, it's got to be in a way that's
holy and just. Isn't that right? If God's going
to be merciful to sinners, it's got to be right for him to do
it because he can't violate his character. He can't violate his
law. So here's the question. I mean, this is the question
of questions. How can God be just and holy and still be merciful
to a sinner like me? That's the question. That's the
question of questions. How can God be holy? How can
God be just? How can God be right and say
that guilty sinners like you and me do not have to die for
our sins? How? How can God be just and
holy? How can God tell the truth and
say that sinners like you and me are justified? Justified doesn't
mean just as if I'd never sinned. Justified means I have no sin.
Now how can God say that we're justified? Sinners like you and
me are justified and it'd be true. That's the question that
only wisdom can understand. And the answer is so simple. The answer is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ is the wisdom of God.
That's why in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30, Paul said, Christ is
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. Christ
is the wisdom of God. He's the wisdom of God in a body,
personified. You see, the way that God saves
sinners like you and me, the way that he makes us righteous,
is through representation. Through the Lord Jesus Christ,
the second Adam. Christ is the second representative
man. He came to represent his race. The same way that Adam
represented all of his race, all of mankind, Christ came to
represent his race, the elect that God gave him to save. Now,
Adam was our representative. In the garden, Adam was a representative
of every human being, and we all did what our representative
did. Adam disobeyed God, so did we. When Adam sinned and lost
his innocence, so did we. When Adam sinned and lost that
fellowship and union with God, so did we. When Adam died spiritually,
so did we. You know, scripture says we come
forth from the womb speaking lies. I mean, we're conceived
that way. We come forth from the womb speaking lies. We don't
come forth from the womb innocent and make ourselves guilty. We're
guilty in the womb. We're guilty. We come forth speaking
lies because we became sinners the moment Adam sinned. So we
can't do anything else but sin. The reason that, you know, we
come forth from the womb speaking lies and it just never gets any
better, does it? I mean, man becomes worse and
worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. You know why? We became sinners the moment
Adam sinned. And we're just searching out new ways to sin until God
stops us from doing it. That's what happened because
of the first representative man. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
second representative man, the second Adam. And he came to represent
God's elect. And all of God's elect did what
our representative did. When the Lord Jesus obeyed the
law, so did all of his people. When the Lord Jesus Christ established
perfect righteousness under the law, so did all of his people. God's elect are righteous because
our representative made us righteous by his obedience. Now that's
wisdom, isn't it? to have a second representative
man come and make us righteous. That's wisdom. Man wouldn't have
dreamed that up in 10 billion years. This is God's wisdom. And the way that God can say
sinners like you and me are justified. So say that we have no sin and
not lie in saying it. It's through substitution. See,
the way God can be just and holy, yet still show mercy to sinners
is through substitution. Through Christ, the sinner substitute. I tell you, if you want to see
wisdom, I mean God's wisdom, God's wisdom. Oh, I'd like to
see that. I'd like to get a taste of that.
Just give me a glimpse of God's wisdom. Wouldn't you love that
Aaron? A glimpse of God's wisdom. Oh, you want to see it? You can
see it. Go to Calvary. Go to Calvary. At Calvary, The Lord Jesus Christ
is dying a cursed death on the tree. Now why? I mean, pretty much everybody
knows Christ died on a cross, right? If you want to see wisdom,
you have to find out why is he dying that cursed death? Why?
The man never sinned, he never did any wrong. He wasn't even
acquainted with sin. Why is he dying? Because he had been made
sin for his people. The Father made him sin for his
people. even though he never committed
a sin. God, in his wisdom, made the Lord Jesus Christ to be guilty. He took the sin of his people,
he took it off of them, and he put it on our substitute. And
when he did that, even though he never committed a sin, Christ
was made guilty. He was made guilty of that sin,
and he paid the penalty for that sin. In his suffering, in his
death, he satisfied God's trust. There must be death for sin.
That's what the law says. Christ died to satisfy the law.
The death of Christ pleased his father. It pleased him. It pleased his justice. It pleased
him in every way. I tell you, not only did it please
God's justice, not only did it please God's holiness, it pleased
God's mercy. Now God can be merciful to sinners
because the substitute died. Isn't that wonderful? The death
of Christ satisfied God's justice against all of God's elect. God's
anger, God's hatred of sin has been satisfied. He poured out
all that anger and all that hatred upon his son, upon the tree.
So there's no fury left in him. And now that Christ has died,
the substitute died. He actually died for that. It
became his and he put it away by his precious blood. Now the
father is still holy. Still just, still true when he
shows mercy to his people. The father is just. He's upright
to not condemn his people because Christ the substitute already
died in our place. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus because Christ already suffered
it for us. Now that's wisdom. That's wisdom. That put a little
bounce in your step? God's wisdom makes a man, makes
a woman, makes a boy, makes a girl glad. Oh, what wisdom. In his wisdom, the father made
it right, made it right for him to be merciful to sinners. And
listen to this, you talk about being glad, listen to this. Not
only is it right for the father to be merciful, anyone for whom
Christ died. It's right. But the Father must
be merciful to you. He must be merciful to you if
Christ died for you. He must. The condition is all
been met by Christ. All the conditions are found
in Christ and none of them on you. So when one day you think, How can I know the Lord? I mean,
how can I think what I think? How can I do what I do? How can
I want to do? How can I be like I am? The Lord's
just going to cast me off. That's what I deserve. Quit thinking
that way. It's not what you've done. It's
not who you are. It's who Christ is. It's what
Christ have done. And if you're in him, God's justice
demands he be merciful to you. and His justice demands He never
cast you off. Now that's wisdom. I mean the
very character of God demands it. If Christ died for you, I'm
telling you that's wisdom. Only God could devise a way to
save a sinner, to make them actually righteous in holiness and truth. Only God could do that. Now I
love God's salvation. I love it. I love God's salvation. I love the opportunity to talk
about it. I love the opportunity to tell folks about it. I love
the opportunity to talk about God's salvation and tell you,
now come to Him. Oh, go to Christ. Quit looking at yourself. Quit
looking at somebody else. I love that. Go to Christ. I
mean, what better way can a man spend his life by telling sinners
the good news of Christ than to go to Him? I love it. God's
salvation is beautiful in its wisdom. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. I tell you, these
fellas that preach and maybe they say some true things, I
don't know, but I mean, they make people feel bad while they're
preaching. I can't even explain it. I mean,
you know it when you hear it. That's not God's wisdom. God's
wisdom is beautiful. His salvation is beautiful in
its wisdom. It's beautiful in its justice. I know sinners don't
want God's justice. I mean, the number one thing
a guilty man does not want is justice. But God's salvation
is beautiful in its justice. Christ satisfied it for me. That's
beautiful. I mean, that takes all the worry
out. God's salvation is beautiful in its truth. God takes His people
and He doesn't make you like you're righteous, He makes you
righteous. He doesn't make you like you're sinless. He makes
you sinless. He causes a sinless nature to be born in you. God's
salvation is beautiful. It's mercy and it's grace. I
mean, you just give me one thing to do. One thing to do in this
matter of salvation, I'll fail. I'm a goner. It's like I said
in a lesson this morning. We've got to make the way straight.
We've got to make it plain. Take the curves out. Take the
mountains out. Fill up the valleys. Make it straight. God's salvation
is beautiful. is mercy and it's grace. God
saves sinners. Now that's beautiful if you know
you're a sinner. You can't do anything to please
God. Salvation is beautiful. I sure would like to be saved
that way. Wouldn't you? I want to be saved that way.
I mean, I can't even begin to tell you how much I want that
wisdom. I want to know that wisdom. I
want God to give me that wisdom. I can't tell you how much I want
it. I hope you do too. Here's the fourth point. Has
God given me wisdom? I want you to ask that yourself,
that question. Has God given you wisdom? The answer to that question is
mighty important to our souls, isn't it? Has God given you wisdom? Well, you can walk out of here
this morning knowing it. You can know it. The answer to
the question is found in verse 28, back in our text. Job 28. Job 28, verse 28. Behold unto
man, he said, this is what God said. God said, behold, sit up
and pay attention. The fear of the Lord, that is
wisdom. And to depart from evil is understanding.
Now wisdom is knowing what is true. Understanding is the right
use of wisdom. And I'll illustrate that with
this little example. Wisdom. We'd be seeing the walls
of this building on fire. And you know, that fire's gonna
destroy this place. It's gonna burn this place just
down to the ground. Now that's true, isn't it? That's what fire
would do. If all these walls were on fire, engulfed in flames,
that's what's gonna happen. This building's gonna burn down.
understanding is acting on that knowledge and running out of
the burning building. See that? Wisdom is knowing that Christ
is the wisdom of God. Wisdom is knowing this. I know
how sinners are justified. They're justified by the sacrifice
of Christ. That's how, that's how their sins put away. Wisdom
is knowing that sinners are saved from their sin. because Christ
put that sin away with his precious blood. His blood made that sin
to not even exist anymore. Wisdom is knowing there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus because he
was already condemned for them. Wisdom knows that. Now all those
things are true statements. Can anybody argue with any of
those statements? You can't. Understanding is acting on that
knowledge. and running out of the burning
building of your flesh. Quit trusting that burning building,
that already dead flesh, and running to Christ. That's wisdom. Running to Christ and begging
Him for mercy. Begging Him to forgive you. That's
understanding. Job here talks about departing
from evil. Now that doesn't mean you quit
sinning. That doesn't mean you sin less than you ever used to.
Matter of fact, if the Lord ever calls you to be born again, you'll
think you're sinning more than you ever used to. It's not stopping
sinning. I mean, as much as we want to,
that's my goal. I mean, I've miserably failed
at that already today, but that's my goal. Departing from evil. I mean, evil. You know what that
is? It's departing from trusting
in your own words. Wisdom, understanding is acting
on that knowledge. so that I quit trusting myself
and start trusting Christ to be my all in salvation. That's
understanding. And that's what Job means when
he said, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. The fear of the
Lord is to reverence the Lord. That's one of the meanings of
the word is to reverence the Lord. And I tell you, we don't
reverence the Lord. We don't glorify the Lord more
in any way than by doing this, coming to Christ and begging
him to save us. That reverence is God more than anything else
we can do. Begging him by trusting him to be all I need. There's
nothing that honors God more than faith in Christ. Faith in
Christ says, I need Christ to do all of the saving for me,
because I can't do any of it. And departing from evil is to
quit trust in my works and trust Christ to be my righteousness.
That's spiritual understanding. Faith in Christ says, I trust
Christ to do it all. I trust Christ to be my all.
Trusting Christ is wisdom in action. It's wisdom in action. Now in closing, look over at
Psalm 111. David has something very similar
to what Job said about this matter of wisdom. Psalm 111, verse 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. A good understanding have all
they that do his commandments. His praise endureth forever. That word beginning has several
meanings too. The first thing it means is the
firstfruits. The firstfruits. If the Holy Spirit is ever pleased
to give us faith in Christ, the very first thing we'll do is
trust Christ to be our all. It's the firstfruits. And that
word beginning also means the chief thing, the most important
thing. The most important thing any
of us could do is trust Christ to do all of the saving for us. Now I know, like I said earlier,
don't make a work out of faith. Now I know we can't, scripture
says we must trust Christ to be saved. We must, but don't
make that a work. Don't put that burden on somebody
else because you can't Make yourself believe Christ. The only way
I'll ever believe Him is if God gives me faith to believe Him.
That's the only way I can. We're totally dependent on God
from Alpha to Omega, from beginning to end, and everything about
this matter of salvation and everything else too, we're totally
dependent on God. The most important thing we can
do is trust Christ. That's the most important thing
we can do. I just, I can't stress that enough. Well, that's exactly
what we will do if Lord is ever pleased to reveal Christ to us.
if he's ever pleased to reveal the wisdom of God to us. When David talks about keeping
God's commandment, he's not saying that we can keep the whole law
of God and make ourselves righteous. David already knew better than
that. I mean, David gone that up as bad as anybody, didn't
he? Here's what David is talking about. He's talking about the
commandment of God, the commandment of God. The commandment of God
is to trust Christ, to do all the same for me. You know, there's
pages and pages and pages and pages and pages and pages of
the law in the Old Testament, Old Testament law. You know the
purpose of every last one of those commandments? The purpose
is the commandment. Every commandment of the law
is given to show us I can't do it. I must trust Christ to do
it for me. That's the commandment of the
law. You can't trust your works to make you righteous. You have
to trust Christ. Trust Christ to be all of your
salvation. And you will, you will, if God's given you faith
in Christ. If he's revealed his wisdom to
you, that's what you'll do. Now let me give you, in closing,
a word, especially to those here that that don't know Christ.
You don't believe Him. You don't trust Him. And you
know you don't. I'm sorry. That's a miserable
place to be. I know it. I know it by experience. Would you listen to me for a
minute? If you want God to reveal wisdom
to you, to reveal this wisdom, to know how it is God can save
sinners and still be just, tell you what to do. Be where wisdom
is preached. Just like if you're hungry, you
don't go to the hardware store, do you? You go to the grocery store.
If you want to know the wisdom of God, be where the wisdom is
preached. If you want to trust Christ,
and you're figuring this out finally, I can't. I mean, I've
been trying for, I don't know how long to make myself believe
Christ, and I can't make myself do it. If you want God to give
you faith in Christ, when we tell you what to do, Be where
Christ is preached. Be where Christ, make it your
business to be where Christ is preached. And he'll reveal himself
to you. If he's gonna do it, that's where
he's gonna do it, where Christ is preached. And I pray that
the Lord be pleased to do that for all of us this morning. Let's
bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for your wisdom your wisdom, how you save sinners in a holy,
right, and just way through the obedience and through the sacrifice
of Christ our Savior. And oh, Father, how we thank
you that you've been pleased to reveal your wisdom to your
people, to so many people here. You've revealed your wisdom so
that we trust Christ, so that we rest in him, so we look to
him. And Father, I beg of you that for those here this morning,
that you haven't been pleased to reveal your wisdom to. You
haven't been pleased to give them faith in Christ yet, that
you give it to them this morning. That you give them this joy,
rest, and peace, and comfort of heart, and trust in Christ
to be our all. Father, we admit, we ask this
for our good, for our gain, for, oh, that you might be pleased
to be gracious to us. But Father, we also ask for your
glory. Oh, would you get glory to your name in saving us poor
sinners here this morning. Father, it's in Christ's name.
For his sake and his glory, we pray. Amen. All right. Shawn, come lead us into hymn
if you would.