Only the redeemed child of God
loves to open God's Word and marvel at His grace and wisdom
in the work He has accomplished for us. This world is not interested
at all. Even the religious world is not
interested at all. But Christ's sheep are. We are
fed by, encouraged by, strengthened by the precious truth, nuggets
from God's Word. The book of Proverbs is very
unique. It contains many brief statements,
profound statements, wherein Solomon gives forth bits and pieces of his God-given
wisdom. Our text this morning is just
one verse in this 24th chapter of Proverbs, verse 27. Proverbs 24, 27. Let's look at it together as
I read it. Prepare thy work without, and
make it fit for thyself in the field, and afterwards build thine
house." Eighteen words. Let me read it again. Prepare
thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field,
and afterwards build thine house. The picture in this verse is
that of someone intending to build a house. And the verse
easily falls into three parts. First, a preparing work. Prepare thy work without. Second, a performing work. Make it fit for thyself in the
field. And third, a perfecting work. And afterwards, build thine house. Now in this last part, the word
build you'd think is the performing work, but no, let me explain.
A clearer understanding would be this, and afterwards build
up thine house. The house referred to is a family. The Bible says of Jacob's house
or family, In the book of Ruth, like Rachel and Leah, Jacob's
wives, which two did build the house of Israel? It's not referring
to physical lumber and nails and a hammer.
Not that kind of building, but giving children, filling up the
house. Rachel and Leah, which two did build the house of Israel?
It means they bore him children. and built or built up his house. So we look at the three parts
again. First, a preparing work. Prepare thy work without. Second,
a performing work. And make it fit for thyself in
the field. And third, a perfecting work.
And afterwards, build or build up. Have a family. And afterwards,
build thine house. Now even though these words are
from the pen of Solomon, and they are an expression of
God-given wisdom to him, when we look at his family and the
building up of his house, family and heritage, certainly even
Solomon would say, I played the fool many times. It was not all
wisdom at work. And when we today as believers
and as parents, as grandparents, consider our own families, marriages, home, children, grandchildren,
regardless of how well it all turns out, surely not one among
us can look back and say of ourselves, It was our wisdom at work. No, we can remember times, things
we've said, things we've done, decisions we've made wherein
we see no wisdom at all, only folly. And yet God has intervened
and overruled in our folly many times. So where is the title
of our message to be found, Wisdom at Work? Well, it has to be found
only in the work of the all-wise triune God. And that's who I am thinking
about in this verse. I know Solomon has given it to
men by divine inspiration to you and to I. And I looked up
and found some 10 messages on this text, on Sermon Audio, and
they're all different, but this one is different yet. I see God
in this verse, Proverbs 24, 27. God the Father God the Son, God the Holy Ghost,
the eternal three-in-one, coexisting, co-equal Godhead, the Holy Trinity. Let me just put something in
right here. I do not like to hear preachers use the term,
the first person of the Godhead, referring to the Father. Or the
second person of the Godhead, referring to the Son, or the
third person of the Godhead, referring to the Spirit. I do
realize that makes it easier for us to distinguish, but it
also dangerously suggests to our minds that there are ranks
in the Godhead. If the Holy Spirit is the third
person, He's not even vice president. He's number three. If Christ
is the second person, he's just vice president. Well, none of
that is the case. There are three persons in the
Godhead, the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit. But they are
not first, second, and third persons, suggesting rank. They are the eternal, coexistent,
coequal, triune God. Neither father, son, nor spirit
has ever acted independently of the other two. Study the creation. Genesis 1-1, in the beginning,
God created the heaven and earth. We assume that's God the Father.
Come on down to the next verse, and the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters. That's the Holy Spirit. When
you come to the New Testament, the Gospel of John, chapter 1,
verse 3, speaking of Christ, we read that all things were
made by Him. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. So who's the Creator? Is it Father,
Son, or Holy Spirit? It's all three. The triune God. Paul said of Christ in Colossians
2 and 9, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. He is Emmanuel, God with us. So I wanted to say those things
about the Trinity. Now back to our text verse here,
Proverbs 24, 27. And our subject, wisdom at work. It's the wisdom of God. Now let's
look at the three parts of this verse and think about the wisdom
of our God. First, a preparing work. Prepare thy work without. No one intending to build a house
would do so without some preparing. No one would pick up the phone
and call the building supply store and say, I'm building a
house. Send me a load of material. What kind of house? What shape
of house? What size of house? All this
has to come into play. You wouldn't do anything like
that. There is much forethought and figuring and preparing and
consideration long before the first piece of lumber ever comes
on the job site. A really successful project begins
with the finished product being visible in the mind and heart
of the builder. He can stand and look at the
property. Waste high in weeds, brush, and see a beautiful green lawn. There's a few crooked, scrubby
old trees with poison ivy growing up them. And he sees a desired
number of symmetrically arranged trees
situated, some in front, some on the sides. And he sees the
beautiful house in his mind's eye. He sees the flower beds,
the sidewalk, the driveway, the porch, the windows, the roof
design, the shapes, the colors. He sees it all in his mind. And yet all he's really looking
at is a field grown up in weeds and briars. But this mind work is preparing
work. What is meant by the first part
of this verse? Prepare thy work without. What an arresting word this is,
without. Without what? Without any evidence
that it'll ever be so. Before the land is cleared. Before
a single machine rolls onto the property, before there's any
evidence, whatever, prepare thy work without. Without the first
step being taken, have the last step already fixed in mind and
heart. Before the first nail is driven,
have the last nail driven in mind and heart. Listen to this,
if you would. Acts 15, 18. A verse the Lord
put in my heart years ago, and I quote it often. Everybody ought
to have this verse. Acts 15, 18. Known unto God are
all his works from the beginning of the world. Our God is not
like the news media. He's never joined anything already
in progress. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning of the world. We're talking about one in whose
wisdom all things were determined, decreed, declared, destined before
he ever did anything. Isaiah 46.10, declaring the end
from the beginning. and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I
will do all my pleasure, declaring the end from the beginning, prepare
thy work without, or outside the realm of time, from eternity,
designing it all, decreeing it all, declaring it all and never
having to change anything. He's God. He's God. Now, at best, we say in a building
project, whether you're building a house or whatever, at best,
we say, well, I can't decide if I want this or that. I can't make up my mind. My mind
is not settled. Listen to the scripture. Speak
concerning our all wise God. Job 23, 13. But he is of one
mind. And who can turn him? And what
his soul desireth, even that he doeth. God's mind is one mind,
not two or three. There's nothing left for him
to consider. There's not a single area he
has not seen and searched from eternity. There are no questions
to be answered. The omniscient, all-wise God
has Seen it all, knows it all, long before there was anything
to see. A preparing work, a preparing
work. It bothers me to hear so-called
intelligent men speak of our God as having decisions yet to
be made. They have a little God making
His decisions on the basis of our choices. They do not believe,
Acts 15, 18, knowing unto God are all His works from the beginning
of the world. You're not going to talk Him
into anything. You're not going to talk Him out of anything.
He's God. Ephesians 1, 5, having predestinated
us. That is, having predetermined
our destination, having predestinated us under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. God said in eternity, this is
how I want it and this is how it will be. You say, well, what
if I would really like to be one of God's children and I'm
not. It's impossible for you to really
want to be one of God's children and not. Now I didn't say it's possible
for you to want to skip hell and make it to heaven. I didn't
say that. It's impossible for you to want
to be God's child and submit to Him as your Father and be subject to His correction,
His discipline, His chastisement, His process of conforming you
to the image of His Son. Do you want to be like Christ?
That's the question. It's impossible to have that
in your heart and not be God's child. Dear child of God, this morning,
if it ever dawns on you that you are God's child simply because
it's what he wanted from the beginning, from eternity, and
has never changed his mind and won't change his mind. If you
ever get that settled, you'll be hard to handle in this world,
I promise you. The devil, no, this religious
world, won't get the first base with you about who God is, about
who you are. All that's settled and settled
forever. I heard about a large orphanage that was so designed,
had lots of orphaned children, it was so designed there was
a room, a little room with a dark glass looking out over the playground. And a couple wanting to adopt
a child could come in Go into that room and look through that
glass and watch the children out on the playground playing. And the children never knew they
were being watched. There was a little room with
a dark glass looking into the classroom. You could watch the
children in school, reading, studying, and observe their behavior. whether or not they were paying
attention to the teacher. So they're observed. And then the people considering
adoption could ask questions. And they had a great deal of
knowledge about a child before they made their decision to make
that their child. based on that knowledge. Well,
our God is not looking through a dark glass. He is not choosing His children
in this world. Ephesians 1-4, according as He,
God the Father, hath chosen us sinners in Him, Christ Jesus,
when? Before. the foundation of the
world, preparing work. 2 Timothy 1.9, who had saved
us, where? On the cross, and called us,
when? In regeneration, in time, in
quickening, in being born again, within holy calling, not according
to our works. We never had an audition. before
him, before he made up his mind? No. Not according to our works,
but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us,
not paid to us or rewarded us, but given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. Did you get that verse? 2 Timothy
1.9. It was finished in God's mind
and purpose from the beginning. Before the first stake is driven,
before the first shovel pierces the ground, it's done. The building is done. Now, to relate that to today's popular
religion, people believe today God is trying to build a house. But he's begging for building
material. Can I say this morning, his children
are his building material. And he does as he wills in the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And
he causes his people to be willing to submit to his authority. No builder says to a two-by-four,
may I mark on you? No, he measures and marks. Then does he say to the two-by-four,
may I cut you on that mark? No, he picks up the saw and cuts. Then does he put it in place
and say, may I nail you here and here and here? No, he drives
the nails. He's the builder. If God needs
your permission for anything, He's not God in that thing. You
are. An orphanage does not load the
children on a bus and drive out to the home of a couple wishing
to adopt, get all the kids off the bus, Show them through the
house. Show them the bedroom. Take them
out in the backyard. Show them the swing set and everything
that is there. And then say, all right, it's
whosoever will. No, it is the parents. It is
God who says affectionately, you're mine. Come. inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of God, a preparing work. Prepare
thy work without, without any visible evidence other than the
mind and the will and the heart of an all-wise God. Without the
realm of time from eternity, our all-wise God decreed and
declared the end from the beginning, a preparing work. Prepare thy
work without. Now look at the second part of
the verse. A performing work. And make it fit for thyself in
the field. Oh, dear Lord, this is so big.
Matthew 13, 38. The field is the world. God is talking to Himself. First, prepare thy work without. This is the Holy Spirit talking
to each other. Let's settle it here in eternity. The determinant counsel, Acts
2.23, met before time. Before creation, the work was
prepared what it shall be, who our house shall be, who our children
shall be. And then we must make it, our
house, our family, our people, fit. You see that word fit? Fit for what? Fit for God. fit for all He desires us to
be. Make it fit for thyself. This is a performing word. Make it fit. Where? Where is
this work to be done? In the field. In the field. In the secret councils of eternity. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
decreed, designed, and declared This creation we're going to
create. This race of Adam we're going
to put there. Who will fall through disobedience
and be alienated. Our work, our house, our children,
our family will be fallen in and with that race of Adam. We must go into the field. The triune God talking to Himself.
We must go into the field. That's where this work must be
performed. Shall we just mysteriously appear
among them as being one of them? No. We must appear first where
they appear, unfit as they are. in the womb. They're conceived
in sin. They're shapen in iniquity. We'll
enter the world the way they all enter, through a mother's
womb. And we'll do it through a virgin.
She won't need to know a man. She won't need the sinful seed
of Adam to conceive. We'll do that miraculously. She'll
conceive of the Holy Ghost. And the Godhead said, Mary is
not creating us. She is not bringing us into existence. We're eternal. She is our instrument. She is our servant in preparing
a body of flesh for God himself to be incarnate. born into this world in order
to make it, our house, our late children, fit. And we've got
to do it in the field, in the world. What was His performing
work in the world? We all know it was to go to the
cross. It was to shed His blood, to
atone for the sins of His people. It was that He, Christ Jesus,
who knew no sin, would be made sin for us, that we, His people,
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. What an undertaking! Would He
be able? Is He up to this performing work? Can He do all that needs to be
done? in the book of First Kings in
performing the work of building the temple. Chapter 5, verse
16, 17 says, Solomon commanded and they brought great stones,
Christ is the great stone, and costly stones, Christ is the
costly stone, and huge stones, Christ is the huge stone. to
lay the foundation of the house. He's the foundation stone. And
Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did hew them and the
stone corers, so they prepared timber and stones to build the
house. Our Lord said in Luke 14, 28,
for which of you, intending to build, would not sit down first
and count the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it. The reason the Lord said these
things to men is because he said them to himself in eternity. Can I do this? Am I ready to
do this? Am I prepared to do this? Yes. Can he do this? The Lord Jesus,
while He was here, said repeatedly in John's Gospel, whether I go,
you cannot come. This is His work. Redeeming His
people is His performing work. He, the sinless one, must make
fit us, the sinless ones, for Himself. And He must do it in
the field, in the world. Can He do it? Did He do it? Let's just look to God's Word
for the answer. Revelation 1.5, unto Him that
loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, He did
it. 1 Peter 3.18, For Christ also
hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God. Did he suffer? Yes. Did he bring
us to God? Yes. Are we accepted of God? Yes. Ephesians 1.6, Accepted
in the Beloved, the Beloved Son of God. Colossians 1.22, yet
now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death
to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. Did Christ do that? Yes. Ephesians
1.4, according as He, God the Father, hath chosen us, His elect
people, in Him, Christ Jesus, before the foundation of the
world. To what end? That we should be holy. Not ought
to be holy in ourselves, but chosen in Him in order to be
counted holy, declared holy, and without blame before Him
in love. Boy, what is all this saying? Whatever you say is keeping me
from divine approval this morning must have escaped the performing
work of Christ on the cross. Because the Word of God says
He loved us, His people, and washed us, His people, from our
sin, all our sin, past, present, and future, in his own blood. He performed the work. He made
fit all for whom he died. Ephesians 5.27, that he might
present it, the church, to himself a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing. God looks this morning at all
who are in Christ and says to Himself, they're perfect. They're just perfect. I can't
look at you and say that. You can't look at me and say
that. But God looks at His children washed in the blood without spot
or wrinkle or any such thing and says, they're perfect. My church, that it should be
holy. And again, it's not ought to be holy and we certainly ought
to, but we can't. God's not looking at the best
we can do and you'd better be glad. He's looking at what Christ did.
what Christ accomplished in order that ye should be holy, counted holy in God's eyes without
blemish. God's final word, they're perfect. Revelation 3-4, thou hast a few
names even in Sardis. Even in that dead church which
claimed to be alive, There's a few, even there, which have
not defiled their garments. They're clean. Not naturally
so, but the imputed garments of Christ's righteousness. And
they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. For they
are worthy. You say, I'm so unworthy. In
yourself, you don't know the half of it, honey. You sure are
unworthy. You're downright rotten, to be
honest about it, and would be disgusting and would
be a stench in the nostrils of Almighty God if He ever looked
at you outside of His Son. But thank God in Christ, He says
to the redeemed, they're perfect. They're exactly what I had in
mind. They're exactly what I wanted from eternity. Song of Solomon
4.7, Christ says to us, Thou art all fair, my love. There
is no spot in thee. No spot. No spot of leprosy. No spot of sin. No spot of imperfection. Let me finish this hurriedly.
A preparing work. Prepare thy work without. A performing
work. And make it fit for thyself in
the field. Then a perfecting work. And afterwards,
build thine house. Build up thy house. Raise a family. Adam raised his family. Built
his house. without making it fit. Christ
did not. He made it fit and then built
it. Zechariah 6.12, Behold the man
whose name is the branch, capital B, capital R, capital A, capital
N, capital C, capital H. Behold the man whose name is
the branch. He shall grow up out of His place. This sin-cursed world wasn't
His place. He shall grow up out of His place
and He shall build the temple of the Lord. He shall bear the
glory and shall sit and rule upon His throne. That's not Solomon. You thought Solomon was a great
king. You thought Solomon was some kind of builder. Behold,
a greater than Solomon is here. This builder has said, upon this
rock, upon my father revealing to sinners
my performing work, who I am and what I've done, upon this
rock I will build my church. I will. This is God Almighty
in human flesh saying, I will. I will build my church. And the
gates of hell, though they come against my church with the winds and storms, persecution,
accusation, mockery, belittling, though the gates of hell come
against my church, yet the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. They'll come, but they cannot
conquer. Somebody says, I don't know what's
going to happen to that little church out there. Well, I don't
know what's going to happen to the building. Don't give a flip. When we're
through with it, And I don't know what's going
to happen to a lot of people playing religion with no heart for God,
but I do know what's going to happen to every one of Christ's
sheep. The wolves will continue to howl
and bring fear to our feeble hearts as time goes on. Our adversary, the devil, as
a roaring lion will continue to roar, plumb to the end. Be that as it may, the gates
of hell shall not prevail. The perfecting work, Christ is
building His church on the foundation He laid in His own blood. Rome couldn't stop it. Russia couldn't stop it. And
I think biggest of all, man-made religion can't stop it. No threat in the world today
can stop it. Why don't we just believe God?
Give Him a little credit for being able to do what He says
you'll do. Give Him credit for being on
schedule in His building program. The preparing work was done in
eternity past. The performing work was done
on the cross. The perfecting work, conforming
us to the image of His Son, is going on now. He will not abort
this mission at any point. Count on it. We're going to make it. Revelation
7, verse 13, Who are these which are arrayed in white robes? And
which came they? Where did they come from? John
said, You tell me. And He said unto me, These are
they which came out. of great, a lot of tribulation. They were plagued with doubts
and fears many years. These are they who thought that
they weren't going to make it. These are they who wept over
their sins and thought surely God would have to put them in
hell. But their robes are washed. They're
made white. in the blood of the Lamb. These
are they who thought they never believed enough. These are they who thought they'd
messed up too much for me to love them. Some of them, marriage didn't
work. Some of them, their children
didn't turn out too good. Some of them had lots and lots
of problems. Some of them had so much sickness. Some of them lived in constant
pain. Some of them lived in constant depression. Some of them lived
feeling hopeless. These are they. These are they
that the world, the devil, and their own flesh said they cannot
be God's children. But they're mine. These are they. I chose them before I created
this world. My son died for them. My spirit
called them affectionately. And here they are. These are
they. Knowing they hadn't made the
grade, but I have. They're mine. I've redeemed them. They're not here because of themselves. They're here because of me. Oh, this morning it was His preparing
work in eternity. It was His performing work on
the cross. It's His perfect work now. It's wisdom at work. The redeemed, the family of God,
the church, It's a display of wisdom and wealth and work and
willingness that only deity could ever enter
into, let alone accomplish. And he did. He considered. He chose. He came. He conquered. He convicted. He called. He changed. He's converting and conforming
all for whom he died. It's wisdom at work. God we're
talking about. He could say it to us through
Solomon because it's his own mind and heart concerning himself
from eternity. God himself would say this is
how I did it. Prepare thy work without. When there's nothing settled
in mind and heart, make it fit for thyself in the field, in
the world. Die on a cross, shed His blood, and afterwards build
thine house. I will build my church. Bless
His holy name. That's wisdom at work. Thank you for your attention.
Stand with me.