In the book of Proverbs chapter
1. I want to begin reading in verse
20. Proverbs chapter 1 and verse
20. Wisdom crieth without. She utters her voice in the streets. She cries in the chief place
of concourse, in the openings of the gates. In the city, she
utters her voice, saying, how long, you simple ones, will you
love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their
scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Turn you at my reproof. Behold,
I will pour out my spirit unto you. I will make known my words
unto you. Because I have called and ye
refused, I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded. But you have said it not on my
counsel and with none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh.
When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as
a whirlwind, when distress and anguish comes upon you, then
shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall
seek me early, but they shall not find me. For that they hated
knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would
none of my counsel, they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall
they eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their
own devices. For the turning away of the simple
shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearken unto me shall
dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil. Verse 20 here is no doubt Jesus
Christ Himself, the Son of God, speaking. Wisdom. Who is wisdom but Jesus Christ? And places in the Scripture were
told specifically that He is the wisdom of God. The Jews seek
after a sign. The Greeks seek for knowledge,
for wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified.
unto the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness.
But to you who are called, Christ is the power of God, and Christ
is the wisdom of God. Of God is Christ made unto us
wisdom. He is indeed the wisdom of God. And I guess one of the reasons
He's the wisdom of God, because He answers all questions Like
how can God be just and justify the ungodly? And you know how
that is? Jesus Christ is the answer to
that question. Christ and Him crucified. Christ
our substitute. That's the way God can save sinners
and yet be just in doing so. I want you to look in chapter
11 or chapter 8 with me You can hold a book of Proverbs.
I'll come back there in just a second. But here in the eighth
chapter of Proverbs, it's speaking of wisdom. And what you begin
to realize, it's not just wisdom as a concept that it's speaking
about, but it's speaking about a person. A person is wisdom. We get our wisdom from this person. He teaches us wisdom. He is our
wisdom. And look how the wise man says
it here concerning wisdom in verse 1 of chapter 8. Doeth not wisdom cry, and understanding
put forth her voice? She stands in the top of the
high places, by the way in the places of the paths. She cries
at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in of
the doors. Unto you, old men, I call. And my voice is to the sons of
men. O ye simple, understand wisdom,
and ye fools, be of an understanding heart. Hear, for I will speak
of excellent things, and the opening of my lips shall be right
things. For my mouth shall speak truth,
and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of
my mouth are in righteousness, There is nothing forward, crooked,
or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that
understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge. Receive
my instructions, and not silver, and knowledge rather than choice
gold. For wisdom is better than rubies,
and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared
to it. But look on down in verse 22
of that chapter. what's said about wisdom. And I thought as Brad was reading
the 17th chapter of John, Christ being with the Father before
the world was. Well, here we have the very same
teaching. Look in verse 22. The Lord possessed
me, wisdom, in the beginning of His way before His works of
old. I was set up from everlasting,
from the beginning or ever the earth was. When there were no
depths, I was brought forth. When there was no fountains abounded
with water, before the mountains were settled, before the hills
was I brought forth. While as yet He had not made
the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest parts of the dust
of the earth. When He prepared the heavens,
I was there. When He set up a compass upon
the face of the depth, When He established the clouds above,
when He strengthened the foundations of the deep, when He gave to
the sea His decree that the water should not pass His commandments,
when He appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by Him
as one brought up with Him. I was daily His delight, rejoicing
always before Him, rejoicing in the habitable parts of this
earth, and my delight was with the sons of men." And this is
Jesus Christ speaking. From everlasting He is called
the Wisdom of God. So when He says here in our text,
Wisdom crieth without, this insert in there if you would like to,
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is speaking. He's the one
that is given these instructions. And notice now with that in mind
what he says here in our text in chapter 1. Wisdom crieth without. And notice first of all what
a compassionate plea this is. He crieth without. It's not just that he's speaking,
but he's speaking with passion. It's a loud voice, but it's a
passionate voice. It's a voice that wants to be
heard, that desires to be heard with passion, seriousness. He crieth without. I remember
when Jesus Christ stood on the day of the feast, the last day
of the feast, and all of these people were going home. They
had been there at the feast day. Most of them were going home
just as empty as when they came. They got no good out of the services.
Their souls wasn't helped from those Pharisees and those rituals
and ceremonies. And they were going home as empty
and as thirsty as they were when they came. And Jesus Christ,
the Bible says, stood and cried. He lifted up his voice and cried,
If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believes
on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. That's the same one who is speaking
here. That's the same one who is crying here and given these
instructions that we'll look at in just a minute. But notice
this is not only a cry, but it's a public cry. Did you notice
the several places that he cried at? There in verse 20, Wisdom
crieth without, she uttereth her voice in the streets. What
are streets? Well, that's where people walk,
isn't it? That's where people travel. People are coming and
going through the roads and on the streets. That's where He
cries. Right where people are walking
and traveling. But not only that, look what
he says in verse 21. He crieth in the chief place
of concourse. This is gathering place where
people gather. They gather for pleasure or they
gather for work. They gather for study. And wisdom cries there. It's
there. Wisdom is crying. And then he
says in the openings of the gates. When you read about gates in
the scriptures, most of the time it talks about commerce. When
Israel opened her gates, it was to let commerce in. They traded
and swapped and bought and sold in the opening of the gates of
Jerusalem. Here is where wisdom lifts up
her voice. Where people are working. where
people are going to school, where people are studying, in their
homes, washing their dishes, trimming trees, plowing fields,
planting crops, where people gather in discourse to work and
do their jobs. And then he gives one more place,
in the city, he says, in verse 21. In the city, she uttered
through voice, And that's usually where the most people are, isn't
it? Not in the countryside, but in the city. So here is the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and He's crying to all of these
different people in these different places, to all the walks of life. It's a gospel call, isn't it? It's a gospel call. It's the
call of the Gospel and the Bible says it's gone out into the uttermost
parts of the earth. And we have Jesus Christ to thank
for it. It's Him who is crying through
His Word. Notice who wisdom here is crying
to. Notice who the message is to.
He begins with a simple. How long is simple? Will you
love simplicity? This word simply means naïve. It means people who are gullible,
gullible. It means people who have no understanding,
void of understanding, simple people. We all know them because we all
like that, aren't we? I asked my neighbor one time,
we was talking about all this radical Pentecostalism and why
people get caught up in that rolling around and tumbling and
doing all this stuff, speaking in all these different tongues,
supposedly. And he said they're simple people. They're simple
people. That's a good explanation. They're
simple people. When the Scripture talks about being simple, it
talks about people void of understanding. I beheld among the simple ones.
I discerned among the youth a man void of understanding." He's
simple. A prudent man sees the evil coming
and he hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. He's easily beguiled. He's easily
deceived. His mind is simple. He don't
think deep about anything. But here the gospel call goes
out to the simple, the simple people, the senseless Void of
understanding. And scorners. And the scorner. How long will the scorner delight
in his scorning? A scorner is somebody that mocks
at sacred things. We've seen them, haven't we?
This is somewhat of a different class of people. The simple don't
have sense enough to mock. But these fellows, they get a
little bit of puffed upness, as we said last week, they get
a little bit of arrogance about them. We've seen them, haven't
we? Anybody that's ever watched Vulgar
Bill Myer knows something about what a mocker is. They mock sacred
things. They mock God. They mock the
holiness of God. They mock the justice of God.
They mock the mercy of God. They mock the grace of God. There
are all kinds of people. I've just read in an article,
the trumpeter from one of the divisions of the Church of Christ,
and they said the sovereignty of God is the doctrine of hell. What is that but mockery? What
is that but scorning? Peter said there would come in
the last days scorners, didn't he? Mockers, walking after their
own lusts, said where is the promise of His coming? We don't
believe His promises. We don't believe Him. That's
scorners. And yet here the Gospel call
goes back to scorners. And fools, how long will fools
hate knowledge? Those that openly defy God. The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God. Well, I guess a man looks around
him, And a man looks above him, a man looks within his own conscience,
and to say then, after close examination, there's no God?
He's a fool, isn't he? He's a fool. Even the creation
declares the glory of God. The firmament shows His handiwork.
Our conscience declares it. The Word declares it. There is
a God. But the fool says, no, there's
no God. And yet the gospel call goes
out To the fools. The fools. Notice wisdom's message
in verse 23. Notice the first thing about
it. And this tells us something about man. There's something
wrong with man. There's something wrong with
him. There's something wrong with his ways. Because the message
is this. Turn you at my reproof. Turn you at My reproof. Turn. Why? Well, you're going
the wrong way. Turn. Why? Because you're wrong.
You're wrong. The first message that our Lord
Jesus Christ preached when He come to this world was repent,
wasn't it? Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven
is at hand. There's a turn in. That's the
message. Turn from what you are Turn from
what you're doing and turn to God in Jesus Christ. Turn. Let the wicked forsake
his way. Let the unrighteous man forsake
his thoughts and let him turn to the Lord. That's the message. You know there's no salvation
apart from this, isn't there? There's no salvation apart from
turning. There's no salvation apart from
repentance. When the Lord called Saul of
Tarsus to go to the Gentiles and preach the gospel, here's
what He told him to do. He said, I'm sending you to the
Gentiles, that you may turn them from darkness to light. That's what it is to repent.
Turning from Satan to God. Turning from what you are to
Him. Turning from self-trust. Turn
Him from self-love. Turn Him from self-salvation
to Him who can save. Turn you at My reproof. And ain't that a blessing? If
a man's never turned, he'll perish, will he not? I never read any
place where the Lord came to save men in their sins. He's
always come to save us from our sins. And Peter said there, In
chapter 3 of Acts, he said, God raised up His Son and sent Him
to bless you in turning every one of you from His iniquity. Turn, turn ye. But this is not a turning in
vain. Here's a promise attached to it, a promise of mercy, a
promise of grace. It's a turning from death to
life. It's a turning from guilt to
pardon and cleansing. It's turning from God's frowning
face to see his smiling face. It's turning from a sense of
God's awful judgment upon you to a knowledge of his love in
Jesus Christ. It's a turning from the fear
of hell and death to the hope and joy of heaven at last. You
say, Bruce, how did you get all that out of this? Well, look
what else he went on to say. turn you at My reproof, I will
pour out My Spirit unto you, and I will make known My words
unto you." What a gracious promise! He doesn't say turn you and then
perhaps. He don't say turn you and then
maybe. But He says, upon your turning,
this is what I promise you. I'll give you My Spirit. I'll
give Him in your heart to help you, to instruct you, to encourage
you, to strengthen you, to bear witness to you that you're My
Son. I'll give Him to encourage you
to hope in My mercy. My spirit, oh my, that's a wonderful
promise. That's what we all desire, isn't
it? His spirit, his presence. Moses said, Lord, if your presence
go not up with me, don't lead me up. I can't go without your
presence. Well, here he has the promise
of it, doesn't he? Upon your turning to me, I will
pour out my spirit upon you. I'll make known my words to you.
You know, that's the problem I had when I was lost. I couldn't
understand a lick of God's Word. I went and bought me a Bible,
tried to read it. It didn't make a bit of sense
to me. I was like that Ethiopian eunuch, you know. Who's this
man talking about? Himself or somebody else? Do
you understand what you're reading? How can I, except somebody teach
me? And you know my problem was,
I would not give myself up to the Lord. I wouldn't turn from
my sin to the Lord. But, buddy, when I did, the Word
just began to open up. It began to enlighten me. It
began to teach me. It began to encourage me and
comfort me. Ain't that your experience? And that's the promise He gives
you. I will make known my Word to you. What a promise. Now notice this
in our text. Look in verse 24. Because I have
called and you refused. I called and you refused. How in the world do we reconcile
this passage and others like this with passages like Romans
8 and 29 where it says Those He called, He justified. Everyone He called, He justified. How do we reconcile that with
this that says, I called and you refused? Well, obviously,
there are two kinds of calls in the Scriptures. There is that
call that is effectual. There's that call that comes
to absolutely convert a man. And when he says turn, you turn. And when he says believe, you
believe. But it's not so here. This is
altogether different, isn't it? There's one call that says all
the Father gives to me shall come to me. All of them. Every one of them, every one
of them. When I call, they come. My sheep, they hear my voice
and they come to me. And we know why. Because the
Father has given them to His Son for that very purpose, that
reason. They shall be all taught of God. Every man that hath heard and
learned of the Father, what does he do? He comes to me, Christ
said. But these didn't come, did they?
I called, but you refused. You refused. Is this a sincere call? Is this
an honest call on God's part? Is the problem in God? Is it
in this wisdom? Is it in Jesus Christ? It can't be, can it? He must
be as sincere and honest as He can be when He sends out this
call, Turn unto Me, and I'll pour out My Spirit unto you. That's serious, isn't it? That's
an honest and sincere call of God. And we'll look at that in
just a second, how serious it is. But how do we reconcile these
two things? Well, they're not enemies. The
effectual call and this general call aren't enemies. But if we've
only studied a system of theology, and all we know is what we read
in a system about effectual call, and when God calls men comes,
and we won't go to the Bible to establish what we believe,
then we'll be confused to death. And when we go to the Bible,
we'll say, oh my goodness, that seems to contradict my system.
You know there's some people that would get almost offended
at a passage like this. When they see that God calls
and yet men refuse Him, They scratch their head and they say,
Oh, my soul, what's wrong with God? That ain't the God that
I've been studying about. Well, get out of your system
and come to the Bible. The Bible does not contradict
Calvinism. I love the doctrines of grace
and the Bible does not contradict Calvinism. There isn't any factual
call, but when you come here, you see there's another call.
And God is sincere and honest in this calling. He's honest
in it. I was reading, I may have told
you about it before, I was reading Luke chapter 19 where the Lord
Jesus wept over Jerusalem. And I thought I'll look and see
what John Gill says about that because he comments on every
verse in the Bible. And it was where the Lord Jesus
looked at them and wept over them and said, How often I would
have taken you under my wings as a mother hen with her brood,
and you would not. Now your house is left unto you
desolate. And Gil said that there were some people that expunged
that from the Bible. I don't know if they cut it out,
marked it out or what, but he said they cut it from the Bible
because they attributed that to the weakness in Christ. That's silly, isn't it? It would be like coming here
and cutting this portion out because I've called and you refused,
and me saying, I don't understand that. When God calls, men come. The elect do. The sheep do. But there's a lot that don't.
And that's what He's telling us here in this passage. And
it's not of any fault in God. It's not a lack of sincerity
in His calling. And it's not a lack of weakness
in the Lord. This is not attributed to any
weakness in Jesus Christ. It's attributed to man's rebellion. His hatefulness to God. His dislike
of the knowledge of the Most High. And that's what this is
teaching us. Brad was talking about the sovereignty
of God. There was a tool company in Muncie. They built a new building down
on Boyd Avenue. And I passed there one day and
I was amazed at the name they put on their building. The name is Sovereignty. Sovereign
Tool is the name of their company. I thought, well, I better go
home and look this up again just to make sure I understand what
sovereign means. You know, it don't have as much
to do with power as it does freedom. When you talk about the power
of God, He calls Himself the Almighty. But when we think about
sovereign, we think of freedom. We talk about sovereign grace,
free grace. Which simply means that God can
do with His own what He will. He's got mercy and He dispenses
it as He will. That's sovereign. And there's
no contradiction in that in what we're reading right here. He's
sovereign in this too. He's sovereign in those that
refuse. But He's honest and He's sincere
in this cause. Notice what he says in the last
portion of verse 24. And I think this shows his seriousness
and sincerity in it. Because I have called and you
refused, I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded. Wayne dealt with this in the
last portion of Romans chapter 10 a month or so ago. But here's
what the Lord says. Now get this picture. He says,
I stretched out my hand. Now what happens if I come up
to you, and you and I have been having some issues, and I come
up to you like this, and I say, Brad, let's bury the hatchet. We've had these issues, and let's
be reconciled. That's the hand that God stretches
out. It's a hand of reconciliation,
a hand of friendship to these wretched, miserable people, the
simple and the scorners and the fools. That's what Paul said he preached,
wasn't it? Reconciliation, the gospel of
reconciliation. We beseech you In Christ's stead,
be ye reconciled to God. And that's what we do in our
preaching. We say, sinner, be reconciled
to God. Here he's stretching out his
hand in the Gospel. Pile up your weapons. Pile up
your arms of unbelief and enmity and rebellion and indifference.
Pile it up at his feet. and reach out to his hand of
reconciliation and say, Lord, I surrender. I surrender. That's the hand that he's stretching
out. When we think of someone stretching
out their hands, it's a happy hand. We've heard that so often. Give somebody a happy hand. You
remember when Peter was going down in the waves? And he said,
Lord, help me. Lord, save me. And the Bible
says the Lord wretched out his hand and picked him up out of
those waves. That's what this is here. I've
stretched forth my hand, my helping hand. It means to give something. If
I'm going to give you something, it's in my hand. And I come up
and I give you this blessing, this gift. In the hand of God
is repentance to give, faith to give, forgiveness to give,
life to give. I give unto them eternal life.
What a gift! And it's in His hands. When we think about someone opening
their hands, if someone comes up to you and opens their hands
like this, what do you do? Oh, you know what they want.
They want a hug. They want you to come close and
hug them. God says, I've stretched forth
My hand. Jump in his arms! Hug him! That's what he's saying here.
These passages like this tells us that when God sends out this
call, He's sincere in it! He's in earnest! You say, Bruce, but these people
ain't going to be saved. No, but where does the fault
lie? Where does it lie? In God? Who would dare say that? It lies in the center. It lies in the center. Not in
his weakness at all. He calls. I have called. You know there are so many ways
that God calls, isn't there? He calls in so many ways. He calls men by awakening their
conscience to certain things. I've heard of people who had
a parent that died or a child that died. Or sickness come upon
them. And they were laid upon the bed
and the Lord was calling them, using this to call them. I've
heard about people, and this happened to me when I was a child,
and look up in the sky, and it was red and roaring, and it scared
me, and I realized I was a sinner against God. What was that? Him
calling me. When through the woods and forest
glades I wander, and I consider God's creation, He calls me by There's people that get so convicted
when they live by a Christian family who goes to public worship. They see them leave on Sunday
morning for public worship, and boy, their hearts smitten. They
said, that's what I need to be doing. I need to go hear the
gospel. He calls by His Word, doesn't
He? If a person, if a child that could just read, open this passage
right here and begin to read that, don't you think that their
conscience would be somewhat awakened by these words? When
we read the Scriptures where we're saved or lost, there's
a call going out in the Word. The Bible itself is God calling,
hear O earth! The Lord has spoken. And somebody
says, He's not calling me. He's calling everybody, isn't
He? Here on earth, the Lord has spoken. And for a man to say
He's not calling everybody, He's calling everybody. His Word is calling everybody. And that's what I'm doing here
this morning. I'm preaching. And I'm calling. On God's behalf,
in God's stead, I'm calling. So he calls in many different
ways. The problem is not with God,
is it? Men make excuses. Men blame God. The Day of Judgment,
brothers and sisters, will clear all of this up. And no man will
stand in God's face that day and lay anything to his charge.
This will all be cleared up in that day. And men's excuses that
they've used, blaming God for not coming, they'll blame nobody
but themselves in that day. The problem is not in God. Here's the problem. I called
and you refused. Look in verses 25 again. You said it not, all my counsel,
and you would none of my reproof. And look down in verse 29. For
that they hated knowledge, and they did not choose the fear
of the Lord. They would none of my counsel,
they despised all my reproof. There's where the problem is.
What does this teach us? Well, it shows us this. It teaches
us this. Man's depravity. His utter depravity. We talked today about, well,
we're seeing a lot about man's depravity because of the rape
and the pillage and the murder. Well, it's there. But you know
nothing shows man's utter depravity. His utter hatred of God and love
of sin as passages like this, where the Lord Jesus Himself
lifts up His voice and cries sincerely, Turn, and this is
what I'll do for you. And they say, We're not turning.
We hate you. We hate the knowledge of God. To say the law is strict and
I don't want anything to do with it, that's probably understandable.
But the hate the gospel of reconciliation is inexcusable. To hate God because
He's just and holy, at least you can understand that. But
it's unreasonable to hate Him because He's merciful. It not only shows us the depravity
of man that he so hates God, but he hates his own soul. This
is speaking about the salvation of a man's soul. Turn you and
be washed. Turn you and be saved. No thank
you. Then you're going to lose your
soul. Who cares? How can a man hate his own self?
And that's what this is. He's like Esau, who so despised
his birthright, he traded it for a bowl of soup. This teaches us something else.
The utter impossibility of one man or the church convincing
a sinner to turn from his sins to Christ and be saved. You can't
do it. You cannot do it. You can't turn
yourself and you can't turn others. It's utterly impossible to believe
To turn to repent is a miracle of grace. It is a miracle of
grace to do it. It is one of the most difficult
things in the world to be done. Look at the Lord pleading here.
Look at the encouragement. Look at the promises that He
sets forth. And yet to no avail. All it did
was stir up man's enmity. There was a place in Isaiah,
I don't know exactly where it is, but the Lord Jesus said this,
I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength for
nothing. And He was talking about those
wretched Pharisees. Larry, you've been teaching us
about the miracles of Christ. And did it do them any good? Did him no good. He said, I've
labored in vain with you. I'm telling you folks, nothing
less than God's determination, His power exercised upon the
sinner's heart can turn him from sin to Christ in life. And that brings me lastly to
this. When we look at this, how grateful we should be that He
so turned to us. What would have happened to you
if He had just given you a chance to repent? What would have happened to you
if He had just given you a space and not grace? What would have
happened to you? You would have went right back
to your sins. You would have said, I don't want nothing to
do with you. Peter said the Lord has called
us out of darkness into His marvelous light for this reason, that we
should show forth His praises. And if you are here this morning
and He has called you effectually, He has turned you to Himself
and has showed you mercy and given you faith and given you
life in Christ, you should be the most grateful person in this
world because there are so many That's gone on in their sins
and perished in their sins. But it takes the power of God. It takes God getting on a man's
trail and not letting him go until he's saved. That's what
it takes. But there's the sinner's response.
God said, I called, but you refused. And now what's God's response?
Look in verses 26 through verse 28. This is God's response. Somebody says, He don't respond
to sinners. Well, He does. He does. Look in verse 26. I will laugh
when your calamity comes. I will mock when your fear comes.
When your fear comes as desolation, and your destruction comes as
the whirlwind, when distress and anguish comes upon you, then
shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer. They shall
seek Me early, but they shall not find Me. See, God is sovereign
in that, isn't He? He's sovereign in that. When your fear comes as desolation, Look at this. I'll laugh. I will laugh at you. Can you
imagine a sinner suffering in hell and God laughing at him? Can you imagine the devil tormenting
a soul and God mocking him? When the rich man cried, that he may dip his finger in
water and touch my tongue and cool it, I pour him in it. And
God said, oh, I've just got to repent. I can't take this. Let him have some water. That's
not what he said at all. He mocked his request. He gave
him nothing. I hear an atheist, maybe it was
Bill Maher, one of the big atheists, says, I hate the Christian God
because He's a monster. Bud, you ain't seen nothing yet. You think God's a monster because
He let Hitler kill six million Jews? You think He's a monster
because of all the rape and pillage and murders and thefts going
on? You ain't seen nothing. You ain't
seen nothing. Look over in the place. I want
you to look over in Psalms chapter 50 with me right quickly. Psalms
chapter 50. Look in Psalms chapter 50 and
look in verse 16. Psalms chapter 50 verse 16. But unto the wicked God said,
What is thou to do to declare My statutes, or that thou shouldest
take My covenant in your mouth? Send thou hadest instruction?
You cast My words behind your back, behind thee? When you saw
a thief, you consented with him, and hast been partakers with
adulterers. You give your mouth to evil,
and your tongue frameth deceit. You set and spake against your
brother, you slander your own mother's son. These things hast
thou done, and I kept silent. You thought that I was altogether
such a one as yourself, but I will reprove you and set them in order
before thee. Now consider this. Ye that forget
God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver
thee." Is that God? Will He tear a man to pieces? One of the things that's most
heart-wrenching about this is to remember that this is the
Son of God speaking. This is the wisdom of God speaking.
He's the one that says, you'll call and I won't hear. When your
calamity comes, I'll laugh. You take some despot, some God
that does all this thing arbitrarily without considering man in it,
and you let him laugh at a man's sufferings? You can understand
that. But here is the Lamb of God. And he's laughing, and he's mocking.
That's heart-wrenching. Mercy despised will bring wrath
that's unbearable. Offended mercy is mercy that's
indignant. The Lord Jesus on the Day of
Judgment will say this, and He said this Himself, Bring here
my enemies. and slay them right before my
feet. It is Jesus who said, bind them
in hand and foot and cast them into outer darkness. When the
Lord in Psalms chapter 2 said, I have set my King upon my holy
hill of Zion, then what did He say? Kiss the Son, lest He be
angry, and you perish from the way when He is rapt. is kenneled
but a little. We read of the wrath of the Lamb,
don't we? We read of the wrath of the Lamb, and that's heart-wrenching.
If the wrath of God is fearful, the wrath of the Lamb is heart-wrenching.
When He takes those meek and lowly hands and casts a guy into
hell, or He tears him to pieces. You know a sinner will have no
reason to complain. He'll have no right to complain.
He'll have nobody to curse him to hell but himself. He curses God here. He blames
God here. He'll blame nobody but himself
in hell. For that they hated knowledge.
They hated knowledge. Nobody blame it yourself if you
hate knowledge. If you get honest with the Lord
and seek Him in His Word, you did not choose the fear of the
Lord. You were none of my counsel. You despised all my reproof. You shall eat the fruit of your
own ways. What is hell but a man reaping
what he sows? It just concerns me to no end
that you see all of these teenagers, and man, we've got a bunch of
them in our day, throwing this in God's face. Who is He? It's
this old spirit of Pharaoh that's still in our day. Who is the
Lord? I'm going to do what I want to,
and I want Him to shut up, and I want you to shut up about Him.
Don't tell me nothing about what God said. I'm going to live my
life, do what I want to, believe what I want to. If I don't want
to believe in God, that's my business. Well, you're going
to reap the fruit of that. You're going to reap the fruit
of that. If God just leaves you alone, you're going to reap the
fruit of that. Nobody's going to get by with
that, are they? You hated knowledge. Well, nothing going to happen
much. Yes, it will, bud. Yes, it will. Every last son
of Adam who has ever lived from the fall to the last man that
will darken his mother's womb, is under the responsibility to
turn to God in repentance and believe His Son. And those who
don't will perish and blame nobody but themselves for doing so. I love the way he ends this proverb
though. But whosoever hearkeneth unto
me shall dwell safely. Oh I love the way he ends that,
don't you? I'm glad he went back to that. These are some dark
scriptures that would discourage you to death. And he shall be
quiet from fear of evil. He shall dwell safely. That's a precious promise too,
isn't it? And you here this morning who
have hearkened to his voice, you have turned to him, you've
believed him, you're relying upon him. Oh, here's a precious
promise to you. You'll dwell safely. You know
the only safe dwelling place is within Jesus, isn't it? That's
the only safe dwelling place, to be in Christ. He's the ark. If you're in Christ now, you're
in Him forever. You're safe. There was eight people that entered
the ark. And it went through this flood.
And the waters devastated and drowned the whole world of sinners.
There's eight people got in that ark and went through all of that
devastation. And how many came out of that
ark? Eight! There's eight went in
and eight came out. If you're in Christ, you'll go
through this world full of sin and devils. I'm not saying you're
going to have it easy. You may be dashed about, as those
people no doubt sometimes are dashed about in the ark. But
I'm telling you what, brothers and sisters, you'll be landed
safe home on heaven's coast. More happy, but not more secure,
glorified spirits in heaven. In Christ you're safe. And there shall no evil touch
those in Christ. No evil report. David made this statement in
Psalms chapter 23. The Lord is my shepherd. Boy, if you can say that. The
Lord is my shepherd. Then no evil is going to touch
you. You don't have to be concerned about evil touching you and hurting
you. Everything is going to work for
your good. The Lord is with you and protects you. The Lord is
my shepherd. He is my great shepherd. He is
greater than all. He is my good shepherd. Ain't
he been good to you? Sure he has. Look how he's called
you. He didn't leave you asleep in your sin. He's the shepherd
who has a whole flock of sheep. Where'd he get them? From his
father. And you're one of them. And the shepherd gave his life
for the sheep. Is he your shepherd? And what did David say about
this shepherd? Though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. I will fear no
evil, for thou art with me. You're in a safe dwelling place,
dear child of God, and you don't have to fear any evil. I used
to think, boy, this ain't good for me, this is bad for me. I
know where in the world this could be good for me. You know
something I've come to realize lately? That it's all been good
for me. Nothing's been evil for me. You
could say the same thing. You say, Bruce, how in the world?
But aren't you beginning to see? Look what some of us have gone
through. Boy, you can just sit down and write pages, can't you?
Look what I've gone through. And at the time I thought, this
is evil. But it didn't touch you. It didn't
hurt you, did it? There shall no evil touch you. God in His wisdom is always turning
it for your good and His glory. And when we get to heaven and
His presence and look back upon this life's journey, here's what
we'll say. All things worked out for good. He did all things well. Ain't that wonderful? So you
and I, we've seen this, we've seen what I've been talking about
today, and it's heart-wrenching. We've seen Agrippas that sat
under the message and said, almost you persuade me, and they went
away. We've seen the Philixes that
said he trembled when Paul reasoned with him of faith and righteousness
and judgment to come. When I have a more convenient
season. Well, we've seen it, haven't we? We've seen the disciples
go away and return to walk with the Lord no more at all. But
thank God we've seen others that He's turned. By the turn, they've
been turned. And they're still walking with
Him until this day. And I praise God for them. I praise God for
Him. For Him doing it.