I can't tell you how good it
is to be back. Wow. Even though I've got to
be on a plane to Mississippi tomorrow, but I'm coming back
Thursday. So it's not one of these grueling weeks upon weeks
thing. And praise the Lord for the opportunity
to work and make an income. But it is good to be here this
morning. Open your Bibles with me to the
fourth chapter of the book of Proverbs as a pretext. And it's always dangerous, isn't
it, whenever I go to a pretext? I want us to just read this fourth
chapter. And may the Holy Spirit communicate
to our hearts, set up our hearts, if you will, prepare our hearts
for the things that He has been revealing to me in what will
be presented this morning. Let's indulge me, if you will,
just for a moment. Father, I pray that you forgive
me for all my sins. I know that you do. Your Word
says that. Your Word declares descriptively
that if among the world of fallen sinners, We confess our sins. You are faithful and just to
forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And,
O Father, all my fallenness, I despise it, Lord. I pray You
intercede on behalf of Your great name and Your grace and Your
great plan, Your eternal purpose. in spite of me, and use this
time to bring us all before you and to open our hearts and speak
to us and teach us by your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your Word,
your precious Word, and thank you for the truth of it. Thank
you for the truth that it gets a hold of us and changes us,
that you haven't left it up to us fallen depraved sinners to
get a hold of it, that would never happen. But Father, thank
you that you have saved us, even from ourselves, especially from
ourselves. Bless this time now with your
presence and with your power and with a demonstration of both
to each one that's here this morning. Lord Jesus, by virtue
of your merits, your righteousness, apart from the law, lived and
wrought and worked out and imputed upon us, for us, for your glory. I pray in your name. Amen. The fourth chapter of Proverbs.
Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know
understanding. I pray that you're attentive
to the wording of the Scriptures here and what importance it places
in these terms of attending, hearing, and knowing, understanding. For I give you good doctrine.
Forsake ye not my law. Tender and only be loved. Forsake ye not my law, for I
was my father's son. Tender and only be loved in the
sight of my mother. He taught me also and said unto
me, Let thine heart retain my words." Notice God's the one
that says, let thine heart retain my words. There's like a creative
power in that statement. It's not only a commanding statement,
but it's a statement of fact as well. A statement of transformation,
of creation. Keep my commandments and live. Get wisdom. Get understanding. Forget it not. Neither decline
from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall
preserve thee. Love her, and she shall keep
thee. Wisdom is the principal thing.
Therefore, get wisdom. And with all thy getting, Get
understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote
thee. Exalt her, exalt understanding,
and she shall promote thee. She shall bring thee to honor.
When thou dost embrace her, she shall give to thine head an ornament
of grace. A crown of glory shall she deliver
to thee. Hear, O my son, and receive my
sayings, and the years of thy life shall be many. I have taught
thee in the way of wisdom. I have led thee in right paths. When thou goest, thy steps shall
not be straightened. And when thou runnest, thou shalt
not stumble. Take fast hold. of instruction. Let her not go. Keep her, for
she is thy life. Enter not into the path of the
wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not
by it, turn from it, and pass away. For they sleep not except
they have done mischief, and their sleep is taken away unless
they cause some to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the just is as
a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect
day. The way of the wicked is as darkness. They know not what they stumble.
My son, attend to my words. Incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine
eyes. Keep them in the midst of thine
heart. For they are life unto those
that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart
with all diligence. for out of it are the issues
of life. Put away from thee a froward
mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Let thine eyes
look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before
thee. Ponder the path of thy feet,
and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand, nor
to the left. Remove thy foot from evil." Now,
I've got a two-page handout there in front of you, and the stress
of things that have been on my heart and the days that I've
been away from you and have been alone and with the Lord and before
Him. many different throes of emotion
and feelings, being from home, from family and friends, being
away from you, the importance of purity has become the focal
point. And I didn't realize exactly
what it was the importance of. The treatise that I'm going to
hopefully present this morning, or the first part of the treatise
that I will, centers around the word of the cross. That great
phrase of Scripture in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 18, for the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto
us who are saved it is the power of God. And it is the word of
the cross that has been the center and focal point of thoughts and
Scripture searchings. But it dawned on me even last
night As I went to bed, my mind and thoughts wrapped up and the
things that the Lord had been showing me that I hopefully will
present some of that to you this morning about the word of the
cross, that it's the purity of this that really is the central
issue. The cross is a symbol of the
atonement. And the atonement is central. and should hold a central place
within the understanding of the true believer. And I want to
say right at the very outset that I have no personal agenda
or presumption about any of you at all about these things. It
is not my intention to be to say anything that you might regard
as offensive. I'm not making any personal thrust
to any of you. I hold you all highly in honor
and regard. And I believe every one of you
to be a true child of God, one of His chosen from before the
foundation of the world in Christ. And it is that assurance that
I seek for, that I crave, that I love, that I long for when
I search the Scripture, when I pray before my heavenly Father
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I plead with the
Father to fill me with His Spirit. It is to assure me of my standing,
that my name has been written in the book of life of the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world, as I'm sure you do
too. This is just an approach to this
truth, hopefully within the context of the purity of truth. And whenever
purity is focused upon, Whatever is impure cannot go unnoticed. And I hope you understand that
and understand that I am not focusing on any kind of impurity
that I presuppose. I have more. I have my own strivings
about that in my own personal life and experience. With that
being said. In Genesis 6, verse 14, we have
God's instructions to Noah in regards to the construction of
the ark that would be Noah's refuge from the deluge and the
salvation of him and his family. The Lord commanded him, saying,
Make thee an ark of gopher wood, rooms shalt thou make in the
ark. Literally, the Hebrew word is
ness, so God was instructing him even where the animals were
concerned. And then the Lord God commanded
Noah, and shall pitch it within and without with pitch. I don't know if you knew this
about the Hebrew word for pitch, but the Hebrew word for pitch
is a word that is used 102 times in the Old Testament, most of
which, 73 of those times, It is translated into our English
as the word atonement. Isn't that interesting? The very
first occurrence of the word atonement in the Bible is the
word pitch that God commands Noah to use to seal the ark inside
and out. The Lord reminded me of this
early this morning. That's why when I got up, I went
straight to the computer and started to throw down these thoughts.
Because like Noah's ark was to Noah and his family, our salvation,
the ark of our salvation in Christ is inside and out, sealed and
made eternally secure from the unrestrained wrath of God against
sin with the atonement performed and finished through the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that a great thought? You're
in the ark. And He has sealed us in with
the atonement accomplished by Jesus Christ. It is this same
word that is translated into our English as the word purged
from Isaiah 6, 6 and 7, which says, "...then flew one of the
seraphims unto me." Isaiah is relating his experience there
in the temple when he saw the Lord in the year the king Uzziah
died. When he had that great revelation.
And he says, "...then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having
a live coal in his hand, which he had taken from the tongs from
off the altar." Altar? Altar of what? Sacrifice? Sacrifice
that symbolizes what? Christ on the cross, the Word
of the cross. Verse 7, And he laid this live
coal from off that altar of sacrifice upon my mouth, and said, Lo,
this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity, the perversions
of the truth, the misunderstandings, the corrupt compromises with
the truth of who the Son of God is, who the King of kings is,
which was all done away when he saw the Lord seated on the
throne, The first thing he recognized after he saw the sovereignty
of the Christ of God, the Son of Man, was, woe is me. I am
undone. I'm headed for hell. I'm a man
of unclean lips. I haven't said it right. I thought
I knew what the Savior was like. Now I really know, and woe is
me. His impurity became focused upon,
and the angel takes this coal from off the altar of sacrifice,
touches his lips, and he says, thine iniquity is taken away
and thy sin purged. That's the word for atonement.
That's the same word that's used first as pitch in Genesis. The prayer of the purified hearts
of all of God's elect unto salvation becomes that which has been inspiringly
written to us from Psalm 79 and verse 9. Help us, O God of our
salvation, for the glory of Thy name, for the glory of Thy name,
and deliver us and purge away our sins. For Thy name's sake. It's all of God, the whole thrust. This becomes the heart's prayer
of all of God's elect unto eternal salvation. Also, from out of
book 3 of the Psalms, which is where that psalm comes from,
we have the 78th psalm that reiterates how much and how often the grace
of God did endure and prevail over the perpetual rebellion
of Israel. You read the 78th Psalm, it's
a long psalm, and you enter into how tedious it is, the very emotion
of how tedious it is to deal constantly with these failing,
faltering, unbelieving, rebellious people whom God does so much
to rescue them, to show Himself to be their Savior. And they
continue to murmur and complain and transgress, rebel against
Him. It just becomes so obvious. And
at the 37th and 38th verse of this psalm, we have a description
that gives us a very good summary. It summarizes quite well not
only the foreboding and perpetual disobedience of Israel, but also,
beloved, of every one of us. These verses read, For their
heart, their heart was not right with God, with Him. Neither were
they steadfast in His covenant. Verse 38, But He, being full
of compassion, Forgave, there's our word, for pitch, for purge,
for purged, the word for atonement. Forgave their iniquity and destroyed
them not. Yea, many a time turned he his
anger away and did not stir up all his wrath. Praise God, that's
the way He deals with us. We learn from this use that God's
forgiveness of our sins is directly founded upon the finished atonement
that our Savior Christ has accomplished from all eternity. Then there
is that great phrase of Daniel 9.24 that has been bantered about
so much within all the hubbub of eschatological opinions in
our day and time. Seventy weeks are determined
upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression,
to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity,
and to bring in everlasting or eternal righteousness, and to
seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy,
literally, to anoint the Holy of Holies. which, beloved, becomes
Christ Himself. That's what the Holy of Holies
was a symbol of. And when you've been placed in
the Holy of Holies from before the foundation of the world,
you were chosen unto salvation in the Holy of Holies. That's
why the Scripture teaches us in the New Testament when the
Holy Spirit reveals His presence within you, His abiding and dwelling
presence within you, That revelatory experience that regenerates you,
transforms you. Now suddenly, the Holy of Holies
is in you. You're in it, and it's in you. And it's all Christ. Of Him,
through Him, and to Him are all things. It's the word reconciliation
that is our word for atonement. Reconciliation. When were you
and I reconciled with God? Sinners that we are. Sinners
that we have been born to be. Transgressors from the womb,
Isaiah 48, 8. Conceived in iniquity. Psalm 51. When were we reconciled? When were things made right between
us, enemies of God and His holiness? They were made right in the Son
of God in eternity. before we ever showed up to prove
ourselves to be the enemies that we were born to be. Reconciliation is founded upon
the atonement, the atoning blood of the life of the Lamb that
was slain from before the foundation of the world. Our much-needed
eternal reconciliation with Holy God is also founded solely upon
the atonement that the Son of God is eternally secured for
us, sealing it with His shed blood as the eternal Lamb of
God. The purity of this doctrine is
proclaimed and insisted upon to be adhered to throughout the
entire Word of God. From God's precise instructions
to Moses regarding the ritual of the sacrifice, he said, Thou
shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven." Exodus
34, 25. Leaven being a Semitic symbol
of iniquity. This statement of God makes it
indelibly clear that God does not tolerate a corrupting compromise
with the purity of His provision of atonement made by His Son.
Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to no
understanding, for I give you good doctrine." Attend to no
understanding. Psalm 1826 makes this descriptive
declaration. With the pure, thou wilt show
thyself pure. And with the froward, or the
false, thou wilt show thyself That should be froward, not forward.
But in the Hebrew, it's a different word than the first froward in
the verse. God does not ever treat us in a false way. That
second word for froward actually is a Hebrew word that means tortuous. There is a foreboding reality
of hell that is very much a part of the destiny of the froward
character. The froward mind. The froward
mouth. This is what troubled Isaiah. He realized what he had been
speaking about the Son of God, the Christ of God, was actually
froward. It was false. Woe is me! I am undone! I am a man of unclean
lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. No one has seen
the purity of who the Christ of God is. There He is. That revelation revealed not
only the sovereignty of Christ, but the depravity of Him. And it revealed, didn't it, the
mercy, the grace, the prevailing atonement. Hence, the vision
of the 8th Seraphim going to the altar and with the tongues
taking a live coal of the burnt offering that's wholly burnt
Holy given unto God. That's our Savior in His sacrifice
for our sins. Comes down and touches His lips. Says your iniquity and the perversions,
your compromises, your corruptions, everything that you said was
false has been purged. Atoned for. Proverbs 30 verse 12 declares
that there is a generation, there's a whole generation who are pure
in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness."
Does this send a spearhead of fear through your heart? Am I
a part of that? That's natural if it does. Because
all this does is the Bible here just makes a declaration. There's
a generation who are pure in their own eyes. Who of us could
not say, and asks rightly the question, is that me? Like the disciples around the
table when Jesus made the announcement and says, oh, it grieves me to
tell you, one of you is going to betray me. And each one of
them, is it I? There's a reality that you can't
escape. It could be you. No one is immune
to this worry. The last phrase, "...and yet
is not washed from their filthiness." In that phrase is the gospel.
The only hope of not being one who is just pure in their own
eyes is you are a recipient. You are focused upon a purpose
for Christ having died for sin. Having lived the way we could
never live, having died the death we could never survive, and be
eternally the Savior, our representative. That's being washed from your
filthiness. Whereas Psalm 119, 140 descriptively
declares, Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth
it. Do you love the word because of its purity? Remember to the
Thessalonians how the Apostle Paul was instructed and inspired
by the Holy Spirit to describe the end of this age, the glory
and the brightness of the coming of the Savior back into this
foreboding evil realm of sin and death. And his showing up
is the destruction, the end of it all. And that's the end of
the devil. He will be consumed with the
brightness of his coming. There's not going to be a battle. Satan is not powerful enough
to go against the Savior in all of His glory? That's a devil's
lie. That's just his ego trying to
make stupid people believe there's going to be some kind of struggle
between the devil and the Lord. The devil's a defeated foe. Praise God. And his defeat is
made apparent right here in this event in history. But he's been
defeated from way back here. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
is the eternal Son of God, who is the eternal Lamb of God, in
whose book of life there is written all of the lept and blessed of
God. Our names are written in the
book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
What glory! And when Paul wrote the Thessalonians,
he described all those that did not receive the love of the truth
so as to be saved. Not so as to get saved. It's
a descriptive, a statement of being. They are not among those
that are the saved. And one of the things that makes
it apparent is they did not receive the love of the truth. They may
have heard the truth. Like Edwards in his sermon on
the glory of God, you might see the glory, but it's only by grace
that you love what you see. And I fear there are many today
that see the truth, but they don't love. Thy word is very
pure. You love the purity of it. Proverbs
15, 26 relates to us that the thoughts of the wicked are an
abomination to the Lord, but the words of the pure are pleasant
words. And I had to study this word
for pleasant. They're pleasant words. I want
my words to be pleasant words. Lord, I want the words to come
out of my mouth when I preach to be pure. I want them to be
pleasant. And these are pleasant to God
because it's the thoughts of the wicked that are an abomination
to the Lord. And it's the words of the pure
that to the Lord, these are pleasant words. This word means delightful
words, agreeable words, suitable words, even words of the splendor
of grace. Grace is very much a part of
the definitive substance of meaning of the word pleasant in that
verse.