And we we didn't get past verse
1 really last Sunday, but Wisdom has built a house And it has seven pillars that's
the structure of it the foundation the Stability of it is spoken
of there those pillars are what holds everything together and
we know that that the house that God built in his wisdom has one
foundation. Paul said, other foundation can
no man lay. Then that's already laid. Jesus
Christ. Of course, we know the Lord Jesus
said that he would build his church and that when he builds it, the
gates of hell won't prevail against it. There's seven of these pillars,
the number of perfection, completion. And so this house is established. It's immovable. And then verse two, she hath
killed her beast. Wisdom is, we talked about what
a house is. A man has the privilege of building
a house for his family. And it doesn't mean that he necessarily
swings a hammer or is involved in the actual building of it
himself. But with his work, by the sweat of his brow, he's paid
for that house. So it's his, it's his building
for his family. And that's God's order. That's
his way for the man to provide that for his family. And it's
a blessing to be able to do that. We talked about what a house
is. A house, a real house that a man builds for a family. We talked about this word house
here in the text. It means household. So it's not
just a building, it's a place where a family lives. And that's
God's house. The family of God live there.
And we talked about how the Christ himself is our home. Christ is
the wisdom of God. Christ is our home. Paul said,
I have a desire to be absent from this body is to be present
with the Lord. And that word means to be at
home. If you're with him as a believer, you're home. And also these pillars,
Christ is the foundation of his church. Nobody can lay another
foundation. Don't need one. He's the chief
cornerstone. upon which the whole household
of God is built. And so Christ is all as we see
everywhere. And then in any house, a man
builds a house and he establishes it. And then in that house, one
of the things that happens there is he provides for his family
there. Provision is made. And so we see that here in verse
two, she hath killed her beasts. She hath mingled her wine. She
has also furnished her table. And so that's true of any home. There's provision made for the
family. She has killed. This is interesting because we
have to think in very basic terms here. She has killed. Why would wisdom have to kill?
And we mentioned this briefly last time, the only reason that
anything or anybody has ever been killed is because of sin. That's just it. And we don't
really think of it that way. Every time something dies, somebody
dies. Generally speaking, it's a result
of sin. In the Garden of Eden, there
was no death. There was no killing. And this word kill here, the
word beasts is the same word as the word killed. If you look
at it in the original, she hath killed her. The word beast is
the same word. It's just the noun version of
the verb that just was said killed. Killed is the verb. Beast is
the noun, but it's the same word. So what's being said there is
this, she hath killed her kill. And the word really is slaughter.
She hath slaughtered her slaughter. And we understand that when you
go deer hunting and you shoot a deer and it's laid on the ground,
that's the kill. That's what this word is right here. She
hath killed her kill. And this is for sin. No, no,
no, there's no killing without sin. And the kill is the one
sacrifice for sin that's acceptable to God. If wisdom kills, there
can only be one kill. This can only be one thing. There's
only one slaughter. And you think about this, there's
only one slaughter, and that's the actual word there, in both
instances. She hath slaughtered her slaughter.
But there's only one that truly is what is due our sin. When
we die, that's not what's due our sin. We owe a lot more than
that. There's one slaughter that's due unto our sin. You
see what I'm saying? There's only one that can actually
be considered enough, that can be considered
sufficient to be actually what is due under our sin. If all
of us died a thousand times, that's not, that doesn't pay
for our sin. That's not what's due under sin. So sin requires
really one slaughter. The minute sin, and I know this
was eternal, Thinking in our terms that our mind can understand
in terms of time. The minute Adam sinned, right there it's necessary that
Christ must die. There's only one slaughter. God
is never going to be satisfied for sin. And you know God's going
to be satisfied. He's God. God will never be satisfied for
sin until Christ dies. You see what I mean by that?
There's just one kill. There's just one. All of the other deaths
that take place, they're not satisfactory unto God. God has
no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He's not satisfied with
it. Not all of the wicked put together, they could die a million
times over. There's only one slaughter for
sin. There's just not but one. He
was led as a sheep to the slaughter. And he must. Let's think about this. As I
said, in the Garden of Eden, no death in the beginning, but
sin was committed, and with sin came spiritual and physical death. Not physical death that day,
but spiritual death that day, that moment, and physical death
soon to follow. And also the killing began. The
killing began first by God. God killed an animal and covered
with the coats of the skin of that animal, the nakedness of
his man and woman in the garden. And then, of course, we find
soon after, or however long after, Abel offering a lamb. And how
many millions of lambs and bulls and goats down through the years
were killed under the Old Covenant. But all of these only pictured
the one killing that must take place. The moment there's sin,
there must be a satisfactory death for sin. And there's just
one. It must be, because no other
blood can take away sin. And injustice is not going to
stand now. Those who are not covered by
the blood, who are not under the blood, will pay for their
sins eternally. We know that because they can
never fully pay, they can never fully satisfy God for their sin.
But with Christ's offering for sin, once, He perfected forever
those that He sanctified with that precious blood. And our
debt is fully paid. And so we will never die. Never die. Hebrews 10, let's
look at this because this is critical to this. She's killed
her beasts. Hebrews 10. Verse four, it is not possible
that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
That's not what they were for. All of the ceremonies and things
contained in the old covenant law were our schoolmaster to
bring us to Christ. They were setting forth and glorifying
and honoring and teaching, typifying the Lord Jesus Christ. They want
to take away sin and they couldn't. There's no way they could. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith, just that, the sacrifices and offerings,
those can, under the law, thou wouldest not, that's not going
to satisfy God, but there is one offering that will, a body
that has prepared for me. That's what that bread represents
right there, the body that God the Father prepared for his son.
In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, verse six, thou hast
had no pleasure. They can't take away sin. Then
said I, when God was left unsatisfied by all of man's religion, then
Christ said, oh, lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. There was never any, it wasn't
like this is plan B. It was always, there was never
but one slaughter. There was just one from the beginning.
And all of these are just picturing that. In the volume of the book,
it's written of me. I come to do that will, to satisfy God. What is God's will with regard
to my sin? Satisfaction, justice, vengeance, punishment. And of course, obedience to his
law that never took place to begin with has to be wrought.
It has to be rendered to God. Above when he said sacrifice
and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin, thou wouldest
not neither hadst pleasure therein. You weren't pleased with it.
You weren't satisfied which are offered by the law. Then said
Christ, Lo, I come. to do what the law couldn't do,
what we couldn't do in obedience to the law. To do thy will, O God, he taketh
away the first that he may establish the second. And by the which
will, and this is what I'm saying now, what will? Well, that means
he came to obey God. Yeah, but that includes his death
too, not just his life. He was obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. The doing of his will, verse
10, sanctifies me through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ. Once, there's just one slaughter. Wisdom hath slaughtered her slaughter,
the Lamb of God that takes away sin. I hope that's clear that
we have slain throughout history our beasts, but wisdom must make
its kill. if there's going to be justification
for sin. Wisdom has to slaughter something, somebody. And with
the killing, there's wine. This is the precious blood that
washes our sins away. The love of Christ is compared
to wine in Song of Solomon 1, 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses
of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine. And what is
love? What is love? If I had to point
to one thing in order to define what love is, I'd have to point
to the precious blood of Christ. That's it. That's what love is.
How else are you going to better describe and define what love
is? God so loved that he gave here
in his love. Not that we loved God, but that
he loved us and sent his son to be the sin offering for our
sins. Wisdom hath slaughtered. And this is what wisdom furnishes
the table with. The slaughter, the wine, the
precious blood. There's only one meat indeed. And drink indeed. John 655, my flesh is meat indeed
and my blood is drink indeed. The table is set. Wisdom hath furnished her table. And what is wisdom going to furnish
her table with? Only his flesh and blood are
meat and drink indeed. There's only one way that wisdom
can furnish her table, meat and wine or for the satisfaction
of the body, physically. And Christ, by the sacrifice
of his body, the shedding of his precious blood, has made
satisfaction for the soul. Provision for the soul. The only
provision. He's not only satisfying to us
who partake of him by faith, but he made satisfaction to God
for us. By bearing our sins in his own
body, on the tree by the offering once of his sanctifying precious
sin-cleansing blood under the wrath of God for my sin. In wisdom's
house, Christ is all. I pray at my house he's all,
but I know this, at wisdom's house, Christ is all. He's the foundation, he's the
pillars, he's the soul-satisfying perfectly sufficient provision
Wisdom hath hewn her pillars for this house and wisdom hath
furnished her table and Christ is all Now I've pointed this out to
you before I Want you to look at this again. I have to mention
this in connection with this message because It's just it's
what we're doing here now at 17 Verse 1 let's look at this Acts 17, 1. Acts 17, 1. Now when they, the apostle Paul
and those who were traveling with him, had passed through
Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was
a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was,
went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them
out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must
needs have suffered and risen again from the dead and that
this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. That's his message, that's our
message. But we've seen before this word
alleged, the opening and alleging. If you look that word up in the
original Greek, it means to place beside or near or set before
i.e., food placed on a table. That's what God's preachers do
now, because they're sent not in their own wisdom, but in the
wisdom of God. And wisdom has built a house,
and she's the one that furnishes the table. And the table is set. And the preaching that Paul did
in that synagogue here is compared to placing food on a table. And
that's what we do. Christ is meat and drink indeed,
and we set him forth. We set him the table. And that's
what we're reading about in our text here. And wisdom has set
her table with what? The slaughter and the wine that
was the result of that slaughter. the person and work of Christ.
And what did Paul set on the table? It says here that he set
the table when he went in that synagogue. What did he set it
with? That Christ must needs have suffered. There's not but
one provision for wisdom's table. Not but one. That he must needs
have suffered. And that this Jesus who suffered
is God's Christ. He's God's anointed. He's God's
Savior. He's God's Messiah. He's got
son. And it says right after that
that some of them believed. Somebody was hungry when the
table got set. And when they were hungry and
Paul set the table and they ate and found that the blood of Christ
truly is drink indeed. And that his person, his true
provision, Wisdom has made provision for her family look at Luke 14
verse 12 Luke 14 verse 12 Then said he the Lord Jesus to
also to him that bade him when thou makest a dinner or a supper
Call not thy friends nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen,
nor thy rich neighbors, lest they also bid thee again, and
a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast,
call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind, and thou
shalt be blessed. For they cannot recompense thee,
for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these
things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in
the kingdom of God. And then said the Lord unto him,
A certain man made a great supper, and bade many, and sent his servant
at suppertime to say to them that were bidden, Come, for all
things are now ready. Wisdom already made provision.
You don't have to bring anything. You don't bring anything. You
probably heard the illustration before that Spurgeon was invited
by a little lady in his church to come to tea, what they call
tea, as a meal in England. It's not just drinking a cup
of tea, it's food with tea. Spurgeon, knowing that the little
lady didn't have much money, he brought some things with him
to help provide for the tea. It offended the little lady,
and Spurgeon was surprised that she was offended. He said, what's
the matter? She said, I didn't invite you
to bring tea. I invited you to come to tea. And we don't bring
tea with us to this table. The table is made ready. Everything's
made ready. We're just to partake. And that's
all we can do. What is Mephibosheth gonna bring
to the king's table? Honestly, you think about that.
What in the world is he gonna bring with him that the king
would be impressed with? No, Mephibosheth, you're lame
on both your feet. You can't work, you can't provide
for yourself, much less the king. Just come and sit at the table.
The king has already set the table. And that's what we're talking
about here. The table is already set. He's made a great supper. And he bade many, didn't he? He said, come all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Come and eat and
drink and never thirst again, never hunger again. I am that
bread, labor not for the bread which, the meat which perisheth,
but for that bread which I can give you, which if a man eat,
he'll never hunger again. Many were bidden, weren't they?
Many are called. Oh, but look what they did. All
with one consent. Verse 18, began to make excuse.
They're not interested. They've got their own food. Thank
you. I've got, they've all got a refrigerator full of food at
home. He didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners. He's
looking for beggars who don't have anything to eat. That's
who the Lord's looking for. And he's going to find every
one of them. They began to make excuse. I bought a piece of ground
and I must need to go and see it. I pray that you have me excused.
What's wrong with him? He's not hungry. If he's hungry
and somebody said, come eat, that other business could wait.
When I'm hungry, I tell you what, I like to take care of business.
But when it's lunchtime, we're going to have to set the business
aside. And then after lunch, we'll take care of some more
business. But this fellow wasn't hungry. And another said, I've
bought five yoke of oxen, verse 19, and I go to prove them. I
pray that you have me excused. And another said, I've married
a wife and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came and
showed his Lord these things. Then the master of the house,
being angry, said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets. This is an urgent matter because
this isn't just tea. This is life or death. Go quickly. into the streets and lanes of
the city and bring in hither the poor and the maimed and the
halt and the blind. Bring in the ones that can't
provide for themselves, that don't have a refrigerator full
of food at home that they can eat after they take care of their
business. Go find the hungry ones and bring them in. And the servant said, Lord, it
is done as thou hast commanded. And there's still room. Isn't
that glorious? There's still room. There was room in the ark for
everybody that wanted in there. And the Lord said unto the servant,
go out into the highways and hedges and compel them. It's
not an invitation, y'all. You know that, don't you? He sent me to compel you now.
Come now. Come now and let us reason together. That my house may be filled and
his house will be filled. He's made a great supper and
there's not going to be an empty seat. Not one. Every seat has
a name on it. of one of those that he chose
from the foundation of the world and loved with an everlasting
love. And I tell you this, he said,
none of those which were bidden and weren't interested, they're
not going to get a taste of it. They're not even going to taste
it. That's sad, isn't it? Poor and wretched and lame though
we are, like Mephibosheth, we eat continually at the king's
table. For he has compelled us to come.
And David said, go fetch him. He didn't say go invite him.
He said, go fetch him. And they brought Mephibosheth.
And I don't reckon he resented it, do you? He sat at the king's
table from then on, though he was lame on both of his feet. And we will thank the king forever
for bringing us to his table. The wine was mingled, it said
there in our verse. And this has to have some significance.
He could have said wine without using the word mingle here. And
we know this from history. Mingled wine was a mixture of
wine and water in various proportions. And this likely makes reference
to the blood and water which came out from the side of our
Savior, John 19, 34. But one of the soldiers with
a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood
and water." There was a mixture, a mingling. And under the old
covenant, the blood was for the remission of sins. Without the
shedding of blood, there's no remission. Water was always for
washing, cleansing, the washing of purification, and it signified
holiness. In the new covenant, the Lord
Jesus Christ not only atoned for sins, But he sanctified us
with his precious blood. He made us holy. He washed us
clean. That's what John said unto him that loved us and washed
us with that precious blood. It's blood and water. It's remission
of sins and purification, sanctification. We're not only without sin, that's
the negative, we're without sin, but we're positively holy. The
blood and the water. Every word in the scripture is
significant. In verse three, she has sent
forth her maidens. Now, who are these maidens? Well,
we know who they are by what they're doing. We know who they
are. Look at verse five, what are
they doing? They're saying, come and eat. That's what they're
doing. She sent them forth and she cries with their voice. Notice it says that she's crying,
wisdom is crying, but she's sending them forth and she's crying. That's what happens when God
sends out his disciples, his people, his elect, his church,
to declare the good news of the gospel, to declare the glories
of Christ. He sends them out, but it's him
doing the crying. It's him. Wisdom is the one who's
putting forth his voice. In the parable there that we
read in Luke 14, we saw this same thing. He said to his servant,
go, go and tell them. Tell them that there's a feast,
there's a great feast prepared. And all of these are God's servants
who know Him and who will say by His commission now, they say
to everybody who will listen, come and eat, come and eat. In Revelation 22, 16, I, Jesus,
have sent mine angel, and angel doesn't always mean The six winged
creatures that fly around like we saw in Isaiah 6 that covered
their face with two wings and flew with two and covered their
feet. The word angel is messenger.
I, Jesus, have sent my messenger to testify unto you these things
in the churches, the house that wisdom built. I am the root and the offspring
of David and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the
bride say, come. You see the beauty of that language.
I should have had you turn there so you could look at it. But,
but, but jot that down if you would. Revelation 22, 16 and
17. Christ says, I am. In verse 16, I am. I am the root and offspring of
David, the one that was promised from the beginning, the Messiah,
the Christ. I am. And the bright and morning star
and the light of the world. So Christ says I am and the Spirit
and the bride say come. You see the picture? I am come. Come to him. Come to I am. I am the bread. Come eat. I am the water. Come
drink. The Spirit says come. We talked
about that this morning. Don't let, I pray that I never
say anything without the power of the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit
is here, the things of Christ will be revealed. The Spirit
says, come to I am. And the bride says, come. The
Spirit and the bride say, come and let him that heareth. If
you hear this message, you gonna be saying, come. at the woman
at the well. She heard him and what did she
do? She said, come, come see a man who told me all things
ever I did. Is not this the Christ? Is not
he the root and offspring of David? Come, come, he that heareth. Say come, and let him that's
thirsty come. And take, whomsoever will, let
him take of the water of life freely. She hath sent forth her maidens
and they're crying come eat That's what he sent us to do And notice
again that she's crying. She's not whispering. She's crying
has not solomon Portrayed that throughout this book. She's crying
If you go to hell, you're gonna go there in the in the with with
the truth being screamed in your face Whosoever will come are
you thirsty? The first message I ever heard
my pastor Jack Shanks preach in New Caney, Texas was on that
text right now, right there. And the title of it was, Are
You Thirsty? And by God's grace, I was. Let him that's thirsty
come. Verse four, who so is simple
now. This is who wisdom's crying to. Solomon said that already
in another place. She's crying to the simple ones.
That word means gullible, foolish, and open-minded. I thought that
was an interesting definition of the word simple. When we say
someone is simple, we mean that they're, we use the word retarded,
slow, whatever. Open-minded. With regard to the things of
God, being open-minded is to be an idiot. Paul said, I'm not
open-minded. I'm persuaded. And I'm committed
to you. We're not open-minded about the
things of God. If God has spoken, there's nothing
to be open-minded about. We all are bigots down there.
With regard to the truth of God, people love to say, well, I value
your opinion. I don't. And you shouldn't value
mine either, with regard to the things of God. There is no opinion. There's just the truth. And this
is who wisdom is talking to now. Are you open-minded? Well, everybody
has valid points. No, they don't. Listen to what
wisdom is saying, and hearken, and take heed, and act on it.
Let him turn in hither, the table is set. And as for him that wanteth
understanding, she saith to him, Wisdom is cried out to the foolish
now. And the wise, you may consider
yourself wise. And as far as the things of this
world are concerned, you may be. But God hath made foolish
the wisdom of this world. Wisdom is cried out to fools.
And all of us are fools, whether we know it or not. The ones who
are called wise in the word of God are the ones who know that
they're fools. Listen to 1 Corinthians 3, 18.
Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth
to be wise in this world, you've deceived yourself. You've got
yourself fooled into thinking you're smart. Let him become a fool that he
may be wise. You see what he's saying there?
What does he mean by that? Let him realize that he's a fool. Let him become a fool in his
own eyes. which is just thinking right, that he may be wise. The one who's wise is the one
that knows he's not wise. For the wisdom of this world
is foolishness with God, for it is written, he taketh the
wise in their own craftiness. And again, the Lord knoweth the
thoughts of the wise, that they are vain, they're empty. Therefore let no man glory in
men. Oh, him that gloryeth, let him
glory in the Lord. A man who knows himself to be
a fool now will hearken to the voice of wisdom. When she cries,
when she sends forth her maidens, and they're saying, come and
eat, a hungry man will come every time. Wisdom has nothing for the smart
aleck. Just like our Lord, He came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. And the whole need not a physician.
And the wise, they don't need instruction. They already know,
just ask them. They already know everything.
Are there any fools here tonight? Wisdom is crying to you, to me. Come to, what's she saying? Come
to my house and eat. Come, verse 5 of our text, come
eat of my bread, wisdom's bread, and drink of
the wine which I've mingled. There are those who know all
about the food that have never eaten. They can argue about how
it was prepared, what the ingredients are, and win the argument. But they've never tasted that
the Lord is gracious. They know all about the wine,
but they've never drunk. Faith is not just a function
of the mind only. The Lord teaches us things, and
we have to understand them. That's why Paul said, we use
great plainness of speech, seeing that we have such a great hope
in him. We're very plain, because we have to understand in our
mind, faith is much more than that. And that's what our verse
is saying here. Come and eat. Don't think about
eating. Don't agree with the fact that
a person should eat. Eat. Faith is not just a function
of the mind only. Faith is a need. Faith is a hunger
of the heart, a thirst of the soul. Blessed are they which
hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they'll be filled. Wisdom
has set the table. And we know what the meat and
the wine are. To eat is to need Him as the body needs food. And
not just to need Him, but to take. Take, eat, this is my body. Because we need him, we partake
of him. It's that simple. I need food and drink because
I'm flesh. And I need Christ because I'm
sin. I partake of him as my representative,
as my sin offering, as my sovereign, my king, my lord, my god, my
life, my light, everything that I need. I need righteousness. I hunger after it. My body requires,
my soul requires it. Like my body requires food. I
need forgiveness. That's why I eat. But there's
more than just a need here. I need life. That's why I feed
my body because I want to live. My body needs that food in order
to live. But there's more than that to
it too. I like eating. And oh, isn't it enjoyable to
partake of Christ? It doesn't just meet all of our
necessities. It meets all of our desires, too. You know what
David said? It's all my salvation and all
that I desire. The Lord Jesus is all that we need and all that
we want. And we need him because we're
sinned, but we also need him just simply because of who he
is. Did Adam need him before he sinned? I believe he did. He needed Christ
then. The Lord Jesus Christ just simply
is the one thing needful. And he always has been. And wisdom says forsake the foolish
and live and go in the way of understanding. She reminds us
of the alternative here to hearkening to her, to her maidens, to her
wisdom. You're going to hearken to somebody. You're going to follow somebody.
The world says just follow your heart. I don't recommend that. No, the heart is deceitful and
desperately wicked. Who can know it? No, forsake the foolish, forsake
the foolish and hearken unto wisdom. If there's going to be
a hearkening, there's got to be a forsaking. If you're going to come to Christ,
how did he say it? Let him deny himself and take
up his cross and follow me. Forsake the foolish. That's you
and everybody else. And do what? Live. It's life and death. You will
take a path. You will deliberately go away. You will have to deliberately
forsake your way and go his now. That's gonna happen if God saves
you. And that's what wisdom's saying
here. I like what Elijah said in 1 Kings 18, and I'll close
with this final word. I just loved it. I've heard this
before and it just blessed my heart so much this time. First
Kings 1821, Elijah came unto all the people and said, how
long halt ye between two opinions? How long? If the Lord be God,
follow him. But if Baal is God, then follow
him. One way or the other, it's time
to get to stepping. Isn't it? One way or the other. Let's find out who God is and
let's follow him by his grace.