see all of you this evening.
Apparently, Aaron and I were the only ones that knew the secret
of who Todd asked to preach tonight. I got to Holly and Doug's this
afternoon, and Holly said, Daddy, you might get to sit and listen
tonight. Bulletin says Aaron's preaching. I thought, well, that's
real good. I get to sit and listen. But either way, it's good to
see you. In our Bible lesson at home this morning, I covered
the passage of scripture where John the Baptist calls himself
a voice. And I said, this is what the point I wanted to make,
the voice is not nearly as important as the message. So whether it
was Aaron or me, it's going to be the same message. If you would
open your Bibles with me to Job chapter 28. I've titled the message
this evening, where shall wisdom be found? In Job 28, verse 12,
Job asked this question, but where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Now, the wisdom that Job is talking
about is spiritual wisdom, wisdom that knows God, wisdom that knows
who God is, that God's holy, that God is just. It's wisdom
to know that I'm a helpless sinner, and I cannot save myself. The
absolute best that I can offer to God will send me to hell.
And 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, from God's justice? How can a sinner be saved? Now,
I need that wisdom. I need it in the worst way. And
I'm very interested in finding out where can this wisdom be
found, wisdom that knows God. And the first thing Job tells
us is where wisdom is not. And I'll tell you why he tells
us where wisdom is not. So the first thing we learn is
this, we're completely dependent on God. First, Job says wisdom
can't be had in fleshly efforts and fleshly understanding. Verse
1 of Job 28. Surely there's a vein for the
silver and a place for the gold where they find it. Iron is taken
out of the earth and brass is molten out of the stone. Now
if this is what interests you, finding gold and silver and precious
gems, you know where to find those things. You know they're
in the ground. And if you're willing to work
long enough and work hard enough, you find the right place where
you find those sorts of things in the ground, you'll probably
find some. If you dig deep enough and work long enough, Because
at least you know this. At least you know where silver
and gold is typically found. But I don't care how smart you
are. By nature, you're not gonna find out the wisdom of God. I
don't care how smart you are. This congregation is full of
smart, I mean intelligent people. The things y'all do in your jobs,
the things you know, you're so intelligent. But I don't care
how smart you are. You can't sit down and figure
out how God saves sinners. Whenever we do that, whenever
the natural man with his natural understanding sits down and tries
to figure out how God saves sinners, we're always wrong. You know
where this thing of killing your babies to make God happy with
you came from? The dead mind. I mean, that's
where that kind of thing comes from. A dead spiritual mind can
never come up with the right spiritual answers. Even if you
know the Bible's the word of God, I don't care how long you
dig in it, you're not gonna find Christ. And that's God the Holy
Spirit's pleased to reveal it to you. See, left to our own
devices, we'll be just like the Pharisees who were there, our
Lord was talking to them. They thought that salvation was
in their obedience to the law and them observing all of the
ceremonies. They thought just the fact all their reading of
the scriptures, that that would save them. These men spent their lives in
the scripture. I mean, they spent their lives
in it. This is not just a Sabbath day
thing with them. This is a seven day a week thing. The word of God. And they never
knew those scriptures testified of Christ. And you know why? They're born just as spiritually
dead as we are. Just as spiritually blind. I like to say this all
the time. A blind squirrel will find an
acorn every now and then. but the blind man spiritually will
never find God, will never find the wisdom of God. Job tells
us that, look back a few pages at Job chapter 11. Job chapter 11. In verse seven, Job asked, can
thou by searching find out God? Can you 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? Man cannot find out
God by our natural minds, by human efforts, can't be done.
The second Job tells us wisdom can't be bought. It can't be
bought with earthly riches. Look back in chapter 28, beginning
in verse 13. Man knoweth not the price thereof,
neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth says,
it's not in me. The sea sayeth, 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 the precious onyx or the sapphire. The gold
and the crystal cannot equal it, and the exchange of it shall
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? 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 all these riches, all these things we're so impressed with,
gold and silver and opals and topaz and all these gems, you
know. It can't be bought with it because
of how precious this wisdom to know God is. Look at Proverbs
chapter three. In the book of Proverbs in Ecclesiastes,
Solomon talks about wisdom more than any other single writer
of Scripture. And this is what he had to say,
one of the things he has to say about wisdom in Proverbs chapter
3 verse 13. He's going to tell us why this
wisdom, wisdom to know God is so precious. He says, 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 are not to
be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right
hand, and in her left hand is riches and honor. Her ways are
ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She's a
tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is every
one that retaineth her. Now gold and silver and precious
stones, they're valuable. They have their place, so they're
valuable. But their value cannot even be compared to the preciousness
of wisdom. Wisdom to know God. I'll tell
you, true wisdom makes a person happy. I've known over the course
of my life A few wildly, I mean wildly wealthy, wildly wealthy
people. You know what they have in common?
They're miserable. They're miserable, miserable. You can't be miserable and have
wisdom. Wisdom that knows God. Oh, it's joy. The wisdom to know
God is joy that the human tongue cannot express. Wisdom gives a person eternal
life. Wisdom gives a person peace. I mean the wisdom to know God
gives a person peace, peace in the heart. You think about living the course
of your life. You start out as a child, you
become a young adult, you get married, You go about the business
of raising a family, putting a roof over your head, building
a home, building a life for yourself and your spouse. It's hard work. It's hard work. If you want a God's home, you're
going to go through a lot of deep waters. You're going to
go through a lot of storms. You're going to get to the end
of this thing, and you're going to lay on your deathbed, and
your family's going to be around you. And you're gonna look up
at him and I'm gonna tell him, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm leaving
you. I'm sorry you got to stay here,
but I'm leaving. I'm so sorry. Oh, I just don't want, I just
hate it. I hate your sorrow, I hate your
pain. But I have peace. Peace to leave this place and
go see the Savior face to face. You can't put a price on that.
You can't put a price on it. This wisdom to know God, it cannot
be bought with earthly riches, because it's so much more precious
than gold and silver and these things that perish. Just like
you can't go buy a new house for a dollar, because the house
is worth more than that. You can't buy wisdom with these
earthly riches, because wisdom is worth so much more than that. You know, gold and silver and
diamonds and jewels and pearls and all those, they impress us.
I mean, they impress us, you know. We went one time, Janet
and I went, and they had the Hope Diamond displayed somewhere. I thought, well, this is gonna
be impressive. You gotta wait in line to see this thing. And
I was very impressed. Claire, I thought it was gonna
be like the size of a basketball or something, you know what I mean? It was
smaller than what I, that impresses people. But those things don't
impress God. They don't impress God. You think
about it. All these precious metals, gold and silver and gems
and diamonds, all these things, they're just another element
to God. God created them the same way He made dirt. Those
things are just as valuable as dirt to God Almighty. John in the book of Revelation
said he saw heaven and its streets were paved with gold. That's
what gold is worth to God, what asphalt's worth. and you can't
buy wisdom with asphalt. Can't be done. Now that's where
wisdom's not found. And knowing where it's not found,
that shows you how dependent we are on God. God's got to give
it to us, because we can't find it, and we can't earn it. Now here's a good clue with where
I'm going with the rest of my time this evening. Almighty God
is only impressed with his son. There's nothing more valuable
than knowing Christ. He is the wisdom of God. Now
here's my third point. God must be pleased to reveal
wisdom to us or we'll never have it. Back in our text, Job 28, verse 23. God understandeth the
way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof. He knows because
he put it there. He knows it's in Christ. He's the one that
put it there. For he looketh to the ends of the earth and
seeth under the whole heaven, to make the way for the winds,
and he weigheth the waters by measure. When he made a decree
for the rain and a way for the lightning of thunder, this in
creation, before God created anything, then did he see it
and declare it, he prepared it, yea, and he searched it out.
God knows, God knows where wisdom is because he's the one that
put it there. He's the one that put it in Christ. Now God has
wisdom reserved for his people. How am I gonna know about it?
How am I gonna find out? I've got to know this. I mean,
I want this wisdom to know God more than anything. How am I
gonna know it? It's through the preaching of
Christ. Look over 1 Corinthians 2. We're gonna know God and know
his wisdom. He's gonna reveal it to us through
the preaching of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 6. Howbeit 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 unto our glory, which none of
the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory. Now, how do we know about
this wisdom? Somebody's got to speak it to
us. Somebody's got to preach Christ to us. Somebody's got
to tell us the answer to the mystery is Christ. He's the answer. The only way we can know the
answer to the mystery is if somebody tells us who Christ is. Somebody
says, like John the Baptist, behold, the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world, look to Him. Go to Him. He's our wisdom. Now here's the
wisdom of God. God is holy. God is just. And at the same time, God is
merciful. That's God's essential character.
He can't be anything else. He can't be anything else but
holy, just, merciful, and gracious. He can't be anything else. That's
his character. You see, God must be holy. He must be just. But God also must be merciful. He's got to be merciful to somebody. So if God's going to be merciful
to sinners, it has to be in a way that's just and right, doesn't
it? God can't show mercy at the expense of His holiness or His
justice. It's got to be all three, just,
holy, and merciful. So here's the question. How can
God be just and holy? How can He be right and still
be merciful to sinners like you and me? See, that's what the
wisdom, the human being can never figure out on our own. How can
God be just and holy and say that guilty sinners like you
and me don't have to die for our sin? How can God say that? How can God be just and holy
and say that guilty sinners like you and me are justified? And
justified is not just as if I've never sinned. Justified is I've
never sinned. I don't have any sin. Now, how
can God be right and say I'm justified? How's that possible? That's the question. How can
God say we're justified and it really be true? Not, well, you'll
be justified without sin someday in heaven. No, right now. If
you believe Christ, you're as justified as you ever will be.
You're as righteous as you ever will be. How can God say that
and that really be true? That's a question only the wisdom
of God can answer. And the answer to the mystery
is Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the wisdom of God. That's why Paul said in 1 Corinthians
1, verse 30, that Christ has made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption are not religious things. They're not religious
states of being. It's not some document that God
signed in heaven that you'll be those things right now. Wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption's a person. It's
a person. If you have him, you got it all.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God in a human body. See, the way that God can say
that sinners, like you and me, are righteous is through representation. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, came in the flesh as the second Adam, the second representative,
man. He came to represent his race,
his elect, the elect that God gave to him to save, the same
way Adam represented his race, all of mankind. Now, Adam is
our representative. In the garden, Adam was our representative,
and we all did what our representative did. When Adam disobeyed God,
so did all of us. We did what our representatives
did. It's not like Adam's guilt and sin was charged to us even
though we weren't there. No, we were there. We were in
him, doing exactly what he did. When Adam sinned and lost his
innocence, so did we. When Adam died spiritually, so
did we. See, here's the reason we come
forth from the womb speaking lies. We commit all the sin that
we commit because we became sinners the moment that Adam sinned.
That's why we commit the sin that we sinned, because when
we're born, we're already sinners. Now we're in trouble. Somebody's
got to undo that if we can ever be in God's presence. So Christ
came to be the second representative man. He came to represent God's
elect. And when the Lord Jesus obeyed
the law, so did all of his people. When the Lord Jesus established
a perfect righteousness under the law, so did his people. God's elect are righteous because
our representative made us righteous by his obedience to the law.
Now this matter of seeing all the human race in one of two
representative men, that's wisdom. That's God's wisdom and we can't
know it unless God reveals it to us, can we? The way that God
can say sinners like you and me are justified is through substitution. God is holy and just and at the
same time shows mercy to sinners through substitution. And that
substitute is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the sinner's substitute.
Now the best place I can think of for us to find out what wisdom
is and see wisdom in action is by going to Calvary. At Calvary. We see the Lord Jesus
Christ dying a cursed death on the tree. This man did no sin. He knew no sin. He wasn't even
acquainted with any sin. Why is he dying a cursed death?
Because he'd been made sin for his people. Even though he never
committed any sin, he became guilty of the sin of his people. Now that's God's wisdom, to make
His holy spotless Son to be guilty of the sin of His people. And
the Savior willingly took that sin. He willingly took the sin
away from His people and took it into His own body on the tree. And as their substitute, He paid
the penalty for that sin. He suffered and He died. to satisfy
God's justice. God's justice demands there's
death for sin. That's why the substitute died,
because he'd been made guilty of the sin of his people. And
his death satisfied his father. The death of Christ satisfied
all of God's justice against all of God's elect. Justice is
satisfied by the death of Christ. God's holy character is satisfied
by the death of Christ, and God's mercy is satisfied by the death
of Christ. Once Christ died, he put away
the sin of his people. Now the Father, he's still holy,
he's still just, but now he can show mercy to his people. You see, the Father is right
not to condemn his people, because Christ, their substitute, died
in their place. Now that's wisdom. That's wisdom. It is wisdom. The Father made
it right for him to be merciful to sinners. Now I want you to
get a hold of this now. Get a hold of this. If you trust
Christ, you get this, you take this with you. I'm telling you
it'll be encouragement to you. We think Because this is the
way we think. Well, I thought I knew wisdom. I thought I trusted Christ. But I must not have. Look at
me. How can a person who knows God
think what I think? How can a person who trusts Christ
say what I say, do what I do? God's just going to cast me off. Now hold on a minute. Not only is it right for the
father to be merciful to his people, the father must be merciful
to everyone for whom Christ died. He must. His justice demands
it. It's easy for us to see, yes,
God's justice demands he send the rebel to hell. I see that. Here's something God's gotta
show you. That same justice demands He give you eternal life if Christ
died for you. Isn't that thrilling? You know, there's something wrong
with preaching that makes us mad at other folks, makes us
mad at people that don't believe the gospel, makes us just, you
know, the gospel, the good news of Christ, It ought to put a
bounce in our step. It ought to. The Father's made
it right to forgive your sin because Christ died for you. You know why it's right for the
Father to forgive your sin? If Christ died for you, there's
no sin to charge you with. There's no reason for him to
be angry. The blood of Christ has washed you from your sin.
Now that's wisdom. And only God could do it. Only
God can provide a merciful salvation that's also just and holy. Only
God can do that. And I tell you, I love God's
salvation. I love it. I love to think about
it. I love to read about it. I love
to hear it preached. I love to preach it. I love God's
salvation. It's beautiful. It's beautiful
in its wisdom, how God can be both just and justifier. It's
beautiful. It's beautiful and it's justice.
If God's salvation is just, I don't ever have to worry about him
casting me into hell. That would be unjust. It's beautiful
and it's truth. And oh, to a sinful man, it's
beautiful and it's mercy and it's grace. It's beautiful. Now, I want to be saved that
way, don't you? I want that for you. I want you
to know that God has saved you that way. I mean, I can't even
begin to tell you how much I want us to have this wisdom. This
wisdom to know God. Here's my fourth point. Has God
given me that wisdom? That's a fair question. Has God
given me this wisdom? Or is this just something I've
heard my whole life so I just believe what my grandparents
and parents believe. I've just been here all my life, don't
know nothing different, so I just believe this. Or has God given me wisdom? That's
a fair question. Well, the answer to that question
is found back in our text, Job 28, verse 28. We've got this
question and God answered it as plainly as it could possibly
be answered. The fear of the Lord, that is
wisdom. And to depart from evil is understanding. The fear of the Lord, that's
wisdom. That's wisdom. Now, wisdom is knowing something
that's true. Understanding is the right use
of wisdom. Now, wisdom would be seeing the
walls of this building on fire. They're just engulfed in flames.
Well, I see those flames and I know this. This building's
going down. I mean, it's gonna be burnt to
ashes. Now that's true, isn't it? You
see this building engulfed in flames, it's going down. Understanding
is acting on that knowledge and running out of the burning building. Wisdom is knowing that Christ
is the wisdom of God. Wisdom is knowing. Sinners are
justified by the sacrifice of Christ. Wisdom is knowing that
sinners are saved from their sin because Christ's sacrifice
put it away. Wisdom is knowing there is no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus because he was
already condemned for them. That's a true statement, isn't
it? All those statements are true statements. Does anybody here already not
know that? You know that, you hear that preached all the time.
Understanding is acting on that knowledge. and running to Christ
for mercy and grace and salvation. Understanding is acting on that
knowledge so that I quit trusting anything I do. I can't do anything
to make God happy with me, I'm gonna quit it and I'm gonna trust
Christ to be all my salvation for God. That's understanding. And that's what Job means when
he says, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. The fear of the
Lord is the reverence of the Lord. Do you want to show reverence
to God Almighty? I'll tell you how you do it.
Trust His Son to be all your salvation. That's reverence of
God. Trust Christ to be all you need. Nothing honors God more than
faith in Christ. Faith in Christ says, I need
Christ to do all the saving for me. Because I can't do one blessed
thing to save myself. I'm gonna trust him to be my
all. And I'm gonna depart from evil.
Isn't that what Job says? And depart from evil, that's
understanding. Now let's make sure we understand what that
means. Departing from evil, that doesn't mean you're gonna start
sinning less than you used to before. That's not gonna happen. This flesh is still flesh, all
it can do is sin. Matter of fact, If God saves
you, you're gonna think you're sinning more than you ever sinned
before. Because now you got a new man that sees what sin really
is, sees the sin of the old man. So how do I depart from evil? Well, there's nothing more evil
than trusting my works to save me. Nothing more evil. Departing
from evil is look away from myself and look to Christ and to depend
on him to be my all. That's spiritual understanding.
And God's got to give that to us, doesn't he? Because we can't
make ourselves quit trusting ourselves. Oh, if I can impress that on
you and you not go through the misery, the years of misery that
I went through trying to make myself believe Christ. God's got to give it to you.
But you can't ask him to give it to you. You can't ask him
to give it to you. Look at Psalm 111. David, he
says here the same thing that Job said, and this is what we'll
close with. 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.
Now, the word beginning that David used here, the fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It means the firstfruits. The firstfruits. The firstfruit
that springs from the vine. Well, 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. And this word beginning also
means the chief thing, the most important thing. The most important
thing any of us can do is trust Christ. Trust Him to be our all. And that's exactly what we'll
do if the Lord's ever pleased to reveal Christ, the wisdom
of God to you. If the Lord ever reveals Christ
to you, you're gonna trust Him. If He reveals Christ to you,
you're gonna love Him. You will, you'll follow Him. You'll follow
Him all the days of your life. And when David here talks about
keeping God's commandment, he isn't saying we can keep the
law, making ourself righteous. If you've ever tried to keep
the law, you already know better than that. What David is talking about
is the commandment of God, the commandment. It's to trust Christ
to do all the saving for me. In the Old Testament, there are
pages and pages and pages and pages and pages of laws, aren't
there? Do you know why God gave everyone
of those laws? To show us the commandment. Every one of those
laws tells me I can't keep you, so I must trust Christ. That's
God's commandment. I can't keep the law. We have
to trust Christ, and God's gotta give us the faith to do that,
doesn't he? I wanna close with a word. Can I talk to you for a minute? Particularly those of you who
are lost and you know it. If you don't have faith in Christ,
you don't trust Christ and you know it. You'd like to, but you
don't and you know you don't. First let me tell you I'm sorry.
It's the most miserable place to be, isn't it? It's the most
miserable place to be. But if I was you, I'm lost and
I know it. I don't have faith in Christ.
I don't trust him. I know I don't. Tell you what
I'd do. I'd make it my business to be
in a place where Christ is preached. Now, I'm assuming that y'all
live in the greater Lexington area. And I know a place. in the greater Lexington area
where the gospel's preached, where Christ is preached every
time the door's open, right here. If you want God to give you faith
in Christ, I mean make it your business to be planted in that
pew and listen to the Christ preach. Because if God the Holy
Spirit's gonna be pleased to give you faith in Christ, he's
gonna use the seed of this word to plant it in your heart. And this is not just words. I
pray that they'll be pleased to do that for each of us this
evening. If he's pleased, every one of us are gonna leave here
trusting Christ. And nothing make us happier,
will it? All right, Lord bless you.