Tonight we're going to be in the book of Proverbs, the 15th chapter, if you would like to follow along. I have a question for us right off the start. What keeps every man and every woman from coming to Christ? Every man and every woman from coming to Christ?

Well, first and foremost, obviously, some were left to themselves and some were elected and predestined unto eternal life. So those are the ones that will come. But the reason that a man and a woman will not come to Christ in and of themselves is pride. It's pride. And pride is the root of most of our problems.

Men say, I know what's best. We will not have this man reign over us. We will not have this man reign over us. Can you imagine the Lord Jesus Christ being upon the earth and you meeting him? You wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between him and somebody else unless he revealed himself to you or me, either one. Isn't that amazing? How many people did he talk to? How many people did he heal? and they could not believe because they were not given faith to believe. Isn't that amazing?

And yet, men say you have a choice in salvation. You have a free will. And to that I would kindly and simply say, we can't will away a cold. The next time you get a toothache, just will that away. Just will that away. Make that choice. And yet we think that we can do something in order to obligate God, because of our will, that God would have to save us? No, that's just foolishness, isn't it? That's all pride, isn't it?

Pride is the reason we get angry over insults, isn't it? Somebody insults you driving down the road. It happens. Road rage. I mean, people are crazy. Somebody says something ugly to you, puts you down, puts your character down, don't show you appreciation for something that you did or maybe makes you feel devalued. Why do you get frustrated? Why do you get angry? Because of pride. because of pride.

Because a lot of men believe that they're entitled. I'll say this, all men are created equally. But no man is born entitled. No man is born entitled. We're born into sin, we're shaping iniquity. And we have people today, they believe that they are entitled to this, or they are entitled to that. And it's just not true. It's not true. And it's certainly not true with spiritual things in salvation. It's not true.

You ever wondered why we get mad when things don't go our way? You ever have a plan and it don't work out, but you planned that out best you could. You thought this is how it needs to be because this is how it's going to work best. And I've decided that this is it. I've got everything in place. All my ducks are in a row, so to speak. Everything's right in line. Here we go. And all of a sudden, dominoes happens and every bit of it falls apart. Why do we get so upset about that? Because of pride. because I deserved better than that. I worked really hard on that. I can give a bunch of examples, but we get the idea.

Why do we give it a temptation when we know something might be wrong, and yet we have somebody that might say, you can do it. Come on, we can do it. No, we're going to do that. Let's do it. And I was reminded today that And we're gonna look at Adam and Eve, but I'm gonna go ahead and say this about it. And the snake beguiled Eve, what he was saying was, is you can do it. You can do it, I dare you to do it. Come on, you can do it. And she did it, why? Pride. Pride is the reason. Only God's elect are enabled to repent and look to God alone, to have their pride abased. The Lord says in Luke, 14, verse 10, he that humbleth himself, no, that's verse 10, verse 11. He that humbleth himself shall be exalted, but he that exalteth himself shall be abased.

How can something that is full of pride from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet abase ourself? Well, that's the mystery of the gospel, isn't it? That's called the enabling faith of God. That's what it is. The only way that you and I will abase ourself is if the Lord causes us to be abased. The Lord causes us to be abased. Wait, so doesn't the Lord abase us? Exactly. That's exactly how it works. It's exactly how it works.

We're enabled to believe God over self. We are made to believe his ways are higher than ours. His ways are right, not ours. We stop thinking, I thought, and we start saying truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. That's what he does for his people. He gives us the ability to say truth, Lord. I don't. I'm going to put my hands over my mouth, and I'm not gonna speak anymore. I'm not gonna speak anymore.

And do you know that's the hardest place for your flesh to be, but that's the best place you could be, because you're crying out for mercy at that point. You're saying, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. You're seeking his face. Lord, save me, I'm drowning again. Drowning in my own pride, drowning in my own sin. Lord, I thought and I should not think, I'm sorry.

The Lord saves us every single time. He's faithful, isn't he? Regardless of the circumstance, regardless how bad we mess things up, he saves us. and time. Why? Scripture says His faithfulness is from everlasting and His truth endureth to all generations. His mercies faileth not. They are renewed every morning. The interesting part about that is they never change. So why did He say they renew every morning? to just reiterate the fact that they don't end, it's not gonna end, there's no ending in sight. You wake up, it's a new day, you have fresh mercy and fresh grace that he gives to his people, that he purchased by his own blood on the cross of Calvary, enabling us to have it freely by his grace.

Tonight our subject is regarding reproof, regarding the reproof of God regarding reproof is the title of the message. That's actually found in our text in verse five, but brethren, we're made to heed God's word. We're made to hear his voice. We're made to come to him. We're made to flee to him and not to another. If we could run away, we would run away. Why? Pride. If we could leave, and I've said this before, people, People say, well, you shouldn't say this, you'll scare people off. If you can leave, you're gonna leave. If I can leave, I'm gonna leave. It's just how it is. Because that's what the flesh does, it leaves. I know people, I've known for years and years and years, they were faithful attendees to the gospel. They would talk about it with you, fellowship with you, and they left the gospel. They left it.

Why? The Lord left them to themselves. Let us never take advantage, although we do, but let us never take advantage, especially intentionally, at the precious grace of our Lord, his keeping grace, his keeping grace by his power. Let's read the first 10 verses of Proverbs chapter 15. And there's a lot talking about the tongue in this and answers and words and, uh, I started to, in Lips, so we may look at that next week if the Lord gives me a message, but he didn't this time. He gave me a message from verse five. So that's what we'll look at tonight. A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but for virtuousness therein is a breach in the spirit.

A fool despises his father's instructions, but he that regardeth reproof is prudent. He that regardeth reproof is prudent. In the house of the righteous is much treasure. Now you think he's talking about physical treasure there? He's talking about spiritual treasure, isn't he? The house of the righteous? House of the righteous is much treasure, but in revenues of the wicked is trouble. The lips of the wise disperse knowledge, but the heart of the foolish doeth not so. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight. The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord, but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness. Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way. But he that hateth reproof shall, what's the next word, die. he that hateth reproof shall die.

This is why tonight's subject is so important. Go back to verse five. He says, a fool despises his father's instruction, but he that regardeth reproof is prudent. Now, regarding reproof means to keep, to observe, to give heed to correction. Prudent means it's a vital aspect. I'm just reading this verbatim from what the Hebrews dictionary said. Prudent is a vital aspect of wisdom involving the ability to use good judgment to think carefully about the consequences of one's actions and to act with discretion and foresight.

Who are we looking to? Who are we looking to? We're looking to Christ. So every time something happens and we are able to be discreet about it, looking ahead unto the Lord, it's because he has caused us to heed his reproof, heed his reproof. And we're gonna answer the question, what is his reproof in a little bit, but for right now, what he's saying is we're made to hear and discern what God says, what God says about who he is and about what God says about what we are. We're able to hear and discern that. We're able to know the difference.

Remember the scripture says, they all shall be taught of God. He teaches his people. Was salvation a one-time thing? Yes, absolutely. But the Lord saves us from ourself every single day, doesn't he? And he teaches us every single day. What does he teach us? he is high and we are sinful, that he is good and we are bad. He's the opposite of us in every way. And yet by his grace, we've been made the righteousness of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're able to hear and discern what God says and believe and give heed to it. There's so many that can read this book and they can't discern it because they have no spiritual discernment. So they can't give heed to it.

To be able to heed what the Lord says, what is the Lord's commandment? We're gonna talk about the Lord's commandment. What am I needing to heed? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's the commandment, believe. But I can neither believe or come to Christ until he enables me to do so. So if I find myself believing, if I find myself coming to Christ, it's because he is the doer of it. He has enabled me, he has enabled me to regard his reproof. So the first question I have, actually, I think it may be the only question I have tonight. I may have two in here, I'm not sure. But what we're going to do, and I'll just go ahead and tell you, we're going to be looking at some in the scripture that were given instruction, given reproof, and some heeded and some didn't. Some regarded the word of God and some didn't value the word. That's what it really comes down to. What do we value? What do we value? Do we value his reproof? Because as we already said, I'll read that to you again. Reproof is to keep, to observe, and to give heed to correction. To keep, to observe, to give heed to correction. So you're observing what the Lord's saying. You've been enabled to heed what the Lord's saying. And not everyone can do that.

So who, I didn't tell you what we were going to do first. I'm getting ahead of myself. So, oh yeah, we're gonna go and look at some who heeded and some that didn't. And I probably won't have us turn, I'll just tell us all the stories. I find that's normally more beneficial to retain. But anyways, the question I have for us is who gives heed to God's command? Who can believe? on the Lord Jesus Christ? And the answer is only those who he makes do it. Only those who he makes do it.

Every one of us in here have had children. I don't think I've ever been able to say that, because sometimes that's not the case here, but I'm able to say that tonight. So you understand, I guarantee you, I don't know how many we've all had, but so if you're like me, and the Lord's give you multiple, you might have a passive one, you might have a stubborn one, You might have a bullheaded one. They might have a bunch of different personalities. What's my point? My point is, one of them may take heed very easy. They may respond. It's not difficult. And some of them may buck you. Some of them say no. And you have to make them heed. But your children heed what you have said to them because you make them do so. If you don't, and you know this is true, what you see in society now is people are not making their children heed their instruction. I'm not being political. That's just what you see going to Walmart.

My point is that a child has to be made to heed. So what makes me think that I can heed on my own to God. What makes me think I can heed unto God whenever I see myself with all this pride that's in me? What makes me think I can heed unto His word, unto His instruction, unto His command? Oh, He has to make me. He has to make me. See, we're sinful creatures. We can't heed. We don't have the ability to heed what the Lord is saying. We don't have the ability to observe His reproof. So who does Who gives heed to God's command? Only those who he makes. What'd the Lord say? Talking about the elect, he said, John chapter 10, I quote this a lot. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them. And what do the sheep do? They follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.

Then you go on the other side of that, and the ones that don't heed his reproof, the ones that don't regard it, He said unto them, you will not come to me that you might have life. And then he told them why, he said, you're of your father the devil, that's why. He was a liar from the beginning and your lies, you'll believe him. You're gonna believe him, you're not gonna heed. You're not gonna heed.

The reason, brethren, is because regarding the reproof of God is completely by the grace of God. It's by His will. It's by His power. It's by His doing. It's not in us. Not based upon what we have done or what we do. It's all based upon God. It's like everything else pertaining to salvation. It's God that saves us. It's God that elected us. God that saves us. God that calls us. And God that keeps us.

And during the keeping process, He's constantly saying, seek ye my face. And we're seeking His face. Then we start veering off because something's shiny. Or something distracting something's got us down. We're not thinking of he says seek you my face and we seek his face again. So I David said that I wouldn't assault your face Lord unless you said seek you by face. That's what That's in Psalm. I didn't paraphrase but still

If regarding the reproof of God was by man, we would be the fool despising the father's instruction that it says right here. Look at five, a fool despises his father's instruction. And that's the difference here. You have the wise and the fool. And you see, that's been a pattern for the last five chapters, the wise and the fool.

But he that regardeth reproof is prudent because God's made him that way. God's give him the ability God's given you the ability to heed his word because you hear his voice.

Now tonight, as I mentioned, I want to examine a few who were made to regard reproof and a few that didn't. And the first is in the Garden of Eden. First of all, he commanded Adam that he should never eat of the tree, for in the day that you eat of that tree, ye shall surely die. Of all the trees of the garden, you can eat. but of the tree that's in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat it for the day that you eat thereof, ye shall surely die. You wanna talk about free will? You wanna talk about free will? If we had a shred of free will, he would have left that alone. We don't have free will, it's bound to our nature. It's bound to this prideful, sinful nature. God in that regard don't have a free will, because he's holy and he's righteous. His will, is based upon his character. He can't do something, for example, the scripture tells us clearly God cannot sin. You understand what I'm saying there.

Adam would have told Eve, so understand something, Eve hadn't been born yet, or made yet. She was created from the rib of Adam. The Lord calls the deep sleep to fall upon Eve, or Adam, and Eve came forth, and he said, it's bone of my foe, flesh of my flesh, therefore call her Eve, because she's the mother of all things.

So Eve came forth, and what do you think the first conversation was? Don't touch the tree. Don't touch the fruit. And how do we know he said don't touch it? Because whenever the serpent beguiled her and said, the day that you eat of that tree, God knows you shall not surely die, but know that you'll be God. You'll be like God. Well, that seemed very enticing to her. Why? Pride. Pride, I want to be like God. The flesh desires that more than anything to be its own God? Absolutely.

What did Eve say to him right before that? She said, no, God hath said, that don't touch it for the day we touch it will surely die. God didn't say don't touch it. God said, don't eat it. And I find it ironic that Adam told his wife, and I may have said this before, but it's like those shiny things. If you, some of you ladies like to touch things in stores, I'm not picking on anybody. I'm just saying it's fact. I like to touch things too, but maybe that's why Adam said, don't touch it. It was a, I don't know. Anyways, he said, don't touch it. Lord said, don't eat it. You can look at it. You touch it. Don't touch it, Eve. Don't don't touch that.

Anyway, what happened was she saw that it was good to eat. It was going to be pleasant to taste. Make one wise. And so it's there's three of them and it's power, power, popularity and pleasure is what the three are. That's the three things that she says in her heart. And she takes it. She eats it.

Now, the curse had not occurred yet because Adam was the one it was commanded to. He is our covenant head just as Christ is. So whenever he does something now, it's going to turn us all into sinful creatures at that point. That's exactly what he did. Once that's taken place, they became sinners. Prior to that, they weren't sinners. They were sinless. I mean, that's the best man has ever had it until after Christ came. And even then we still have sin in this world, but we'll have far better with what we have in him than what we had in Adam.

So what happened? They said, well, we don't have, we're naked. We're naked without a covering. And so they go and they sew fig leaves together and they make aprons. Now, I found it interesting because fig leaf looks like the shape of a man's hand. If you remember, I sat up, we had a fig leaf out here given to us by Pastor Greg Elmquist and we had it out there on the bulletin table or whatever. It looks just like a hand, don't it? It's very interesting.

So it's a picture of the works of man's hand. Now here's what men do whenever they find out they're sinners by nature. They say, we have to do something. This is the lie of false religion. This is the lie of the false gospel. It feeds off of the pride of man. It says, you can do it. You can do something. The same pressure that the snake was putting on to Eve, that's what we have in our pride and ourself. You can do this. and it will please God. You can do this and you can have God your way. It's not how it works, is it? It's not how it works. It's not me that chooses him, it's God that chooses. Salvation's a choice, but it's not man's choice, it's God's choice. Thank God for that. We see what man's choice got us. Lord gave us one choice, one time ever, and we blew it. We blew it. Why? Our nature. It's our nature. We would blow it again. We would blow it again.

So they sewed fig leaves together. The Lord came down in the cool of the evening walking, and he called for Adam. Where art thou, Adam? Adam called back and said, we're hiding because we're naked. And he said, who told you you're naked? Have you eaten of the tree? Now the Lord's gonna draw that confession out of them. Now, up to this point, they were unable to regard the reproof of God. They were unable to regard the proof of God. And that caused the fall of mankind. So they tried to fix it themselves. So now they're not regarding the proof of God, reproof of God.

What does the Lord do? The Lord gives them the curses that they have to endure. Even the serpent has to crawl on its belly for the rest of its days, all the snakes. And he then kills an animal and makes them, they close them. And that's where the lamb comes in. The Lord required the blood sacrifice. The Lord taught them how to worship. The Lord gave them a covering. They didn't have a covering before. That was the problem. That was a picture of man's hand saying, I can do it. I can do it. God says, no, you're not. I've got to provide the covering. I've got to provide the righteousness. Your righteousness is not enough. That's the picture. So then what did they do after that? They obeyed the command of God after that, which was what? Look to the Lamb. You're gonna die now. You're gonna die now, and there's nothing you can do about it. Look to the Lamb and live. Look to His righteousness. Look to His salvation. Don't look to yourself to fix this. You can't.

And did they regard the reproof of God after that? Yes, absolutely. How do we know? Because Cain and Abel, shortly after that, they were born. and they would have told their sons, Adam would have told his sons, this is what God requires. We are sinners, and we're going to die, and this is what God requires. He gave them a way to worship, and it was the sacrifice of a lamb, and the shed blood of that lamb. God says, I accept that, I accept that. And we know what happened as Scripture went on, it goes into Exodus, and we see that it's once a year they're doing that, but up until that point, worship, they was done family in the, in the, in the household.

So what happened? Well, Cain knew what God had said, because Adam told him and Abel knew what God had said, because Adam would have told him. And Cain said, you know, I'm going to do it my way. I'm going to have God my way. I'm going to disobey. I'm going to disregard. I'm going to not regard the reproof of God. And that's exactly what he did. He brings the works of his hands to the Lord, the fruits and the vegetables, the very best that he had. It wasn't the bad stuff. It wasn't rotten. It wasn't terrible. It was the best of the best. God says, no, to Cain, And to Cain's sacrifice, or his offering, he had no respect.

Abel brought a lamb, brought the precious blood of the lamb. Why? Because they were saved looking the same way we're saved, looking to the lamb of God alone. Looking to his blood, begging for his blood, his righteousness, his covering. Not by works of righteousness, which he had done, but according to his mercy. Mercy is what saved us, not what we do. And to Abel's sacrifice, the Lord said, I have respect unto you and your sacrifice. So we see the false religion on one hand, and we see God's religion on the other hand.

Now, the only way that we can regard the reproof of God, like Abel did, is by faith. And the only way we can have faith is if God gives it. And the only way he gives it is by grace alone. The only way he gives it is by grace alone.

Well, how did this make Cain feel? He became angry. Like we talked about before, whenever you become insulted, Cain was insulted. Well, I can't kill God, so I'm gonna kill what he accepts, my brother. my brother. And essentially, uh, he was, he was saying that he and his sacrifice, I'm doing away with that too. That's the whole idea there. And he did just that. He killed his brother.

And the most interesting part about pride comes out next because the Lord comes to him and said, where is able that brother? So he's going to draw that confession, whether you're, uh, elect or not elect, every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess Jesus Christ as Lord. That's just how it's going to work. What scripture tells us, but he drew that confession. Where is your brother? Now he smarts off to God. Am I my brother's keeper? That wasn't very smart, was it? And he says, Cain, your brother's blood cries to me from the ground. It cries for vengeance, vengeance, because he was murdered. And he cursed Cain. He said, you're going to be a vagabond. You're going to wander the world, the earth, your entire life. You're never going to have a home. You're going to be cursed. And get this. Here's what Cain says. Think about all the pride that's in this. He says, My punishment is too great. I cannot bear it. You know what he was saying? That's not fair. That's not fair. I deserve better. Is that not us by nature? We haven't changed. We haven't changed.

All that because of fear. All that because of pride. No fear of God. So you had one. You had one, I'll put it this way, either we are the elect of God and by God's grace he causes us to regard his reproof or the other, we don't regard the reproof of God. We don't regard the reproof of God, we can't. We can't, just like Cain. We disregard, we're the fool. If we disregard his reproof, we're the fool that despises the Father's instructions.

That's exactly what King Saul did. King Saul was told by Samuel, now understand something, it's very important. Back in Samuel's time, during that time, God would speak to the prophets. He wouldn't come directly to the king, he would speak to the prophet, the prophet would speak to the king. And the prophet told the king, the Lord hath spoken and said, go, and destroy the Ramalekites and all their possessions. Wipe them off of the face of the earth. That was the Lord's command. And is that what Saul did? No. He left the king alive. He got the treasure that they had and brought it back. And he got the best sacrifices that they had. And when Samuel came to him and said, what have you done? He said, I thought. I thought that we could sacrifice the best unto the Lord, and that we could put this treasure in His treasure house, and that we could make an ally instead of an enemy. I thought

And because Saul did this thing, the Lord cut him off from being king. He said, you're not king. Your son will not inherit the throne. You're stricken from being king forever. You're not the king any longer. You know what the end of Saul was because of his pride? Understand something, Saul was not one of the elect of God. It's very, very clear. He was a He was ordained of God, ordered of God to be the King for a time, but he was not one of the Lord's elect.

Cain killed himself at the very end of it all. Cain took his own life out of fear. He didn't believe God. He didn't trust God. Matter of fact, because he couldn't hear the voice of the Lord, he was panicking one time in a war. He actually goes to one where they can speak to familiar spirits, which would be like a real fortune teller. And she conjures up the soul, the spirit of Samuel. Spirit of Samuel, and the Lord was wroth with him because of that. He wasn't a believer, and he killed himself in battle because he was afraid he was gonna die. All because of pride and self-righteousness, he did not look to Christ, he did not regard the reproof of God, and he was left to himself.

Last man I want to consider tonight, and I had a bunch written down. I thought this is going to take way too long. I can't, I gotta, we gotta pick and choose here. So I think we ended up with five, four, but the last one I want you to consider. He disregards the reproof of God, but then God says, no, you're going to listen. His name is Jonah. Boy, Jonah thought he, had dodged the command of God. The Lord said, I want you to go to Nineveh, that gray city, and preach to them and tell them in 40 days, yet Nineveh shall be overthrown. Eight words. Eight words. He hated Nineveh. All the Jews hated Nineveh at the time. Actually, I don't know. 100%. I don't remember if the scripture says either a Jew or not, so I better backtrack on that. I'm not sure. I'll have to look that up. I apologize. I should know that. Either way, the Lord told him to go down to Nineveh. And it would make sense that he would, because he was a prophet. So we'll leave it at that.

But go down to Nineveh, that great city, and say, yet 40 days Nineveh shall be overthrown. And he doesn't listen, does he? Why? Because of pride. As a matter of fact, I'm going to give you the end of the book before I tell you the story of the beginning of the book. He goes up on the hillside. He's really excited. And this is kind of messed up because he says, or he's excited that Nineveh will be overthrown. He was waiting to see God destroy Nineveh. He was excited for that. And he found a gourd and he sat underneath the gourd. Well, the Lord had a prepared worm there and that worm ate that gourd. And now he's having a pity party because the sun's beaming on his head. And he says, are you angry at the gourd? You didn't plant it or cause it to grow. And he says, I do well to be angry at the gourd. That's what he said to God. He was prideful, wasn't he? He was prideful. He said, so you would have spared a gourd, but you wouldn't spare a city full of people? You wouldn't have mercy on a city full of people? That's the end of the book. Jonah doesn't get to respond. I love that. The Lord doesn't allow that. So the Lord taught him a good lesson there. Just like he teaches all of his people.

Well, Jonah did said at the beginning of the book, he's not going to go down to Nineveh, but he goes down to Tarshish on a ship going to Joppa and a great storm comes up and the men are scared. They're afraid. They're frightened. And he's asleep. He's like, I'm good now. I'm running away. I'm perfectly fine. He's asleep.

And they cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah. And they said, sir, cry unto your God. Every man cry unto their God. And they asked him, what have you done? And then he confesses, yeah, yeah, I brought this upon us. They explained it to him. They were very afraid. And they said, OK, but we can still fix this, which is a picture of false religion.

They said, we can lighten the load. See, they were under the wrath of God, or under the storm, so to speak. And how did the men fix it? Well, let's clean up our life. Let's get rid of this. Let's cut this out. Let's trim the fat from our sinful behavior. That's what they do. That's all that is. Did it fix anything? No. No, they're still going down.

Jonah says, you got to throw me in. That's the only solution. God don't want you. He wants me. And so they threw him in the water and God had prepared a well and the well swallowed him up for three days and three nights. He wished he could have went to Nineveh, didn't he? You better believe it. He literally says in chapter two, out of the belly of hell have I cried.

And he was made to give this confession at the end of that. Salvation is of the Lord. It's a verse we quote often. It's the only place in Scripture where it's written, salvation is of the Lord. That was the confession that Jonah was made to speak.

Now he's gonna regard the reproof of the Lord, the well vomits him on dry land and he goes through Nineveh and he says those four words, or eight words, yet 40 days Nineveh shall be overthrown and the city repented. God gave them, the king, everybody repentance and didn't destroy it. He does later on, it's no longer there, but the Lord spared it for a time. Lord, spare time for his purpose.

So the point is Jonah did not regard the reproof of God at the beginning, but at the end he regarded the reproof of God. Why? Because of grace. God makes his people regard his reproof. Isn't that comforting? If he requires me to regard his reproof, Lord, you're going to have to make me. Oh, he's going to make you. He's going to enable you and he's going to make you. That's for sure. He promised.

So the question I have in closing is this. What is the reproof of God? Now I picked those particular stories because they show us one message, one message, and it's a glorious message. If we start at the beginning, these stories are bound to show us that we are not God, he is. We cannot do anything about our sin, he has to. It shows us everything he demands, he has to provide it. He demands perfect blood that we don't have. He demands perfect obedience that we cannot produce. He demands everything that is righteous and holy and good. And we're none of those things in and of ourselves. Our heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

That is what we're understanding by these stories so far. We have pride. We're false and full of sin. We run from God. You remember, Did you know when all of us come, I believe, from false religion at one time, I may be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure, we were actually running from God. Did you know that? We were. Didn't even know it. We were running from God. Anytime you're running towards your own righteousness, you're running from the righteousness of God. We ran from God. We disobeyed God. We were the fool that despised the Father's instruction. That's us. That's us by nature. That's what we were. That's what we were until He shined the light of his glorious gospel into our heart.

Remember the prodigal son? I told you Jonah was the last one I'm gonna talk about, so I'm gonna just tell you what he said whenever the Lord came to him. Scripture says he came to himself. I'm eating the husk of the hogs. Doesn't my father have plenty in his house? Can I just be a servant there? And he goes back to his father. And what does his father do? He embraces him. And it's a picture of you and I when the Lord draws us back to himself and he shows us, robes us with his righteousness and puts the ring on our finger. He doesn't treat us like a servant, but he treats us like a son. That's what he causes us to do by regarding his reproof.

What is the reproof of God? Here is my beloved son. Hear ye him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't look to yourself. Don't look to your righteousness. Don't look to your goodness. Look to his life as your hope of eternal life. Look at his death as your hope of everlasting life. Look at his resurrection as proof of your justification. Look at him bearing the sin, our sin, and his body on the tree as what put away your sin. Don't try to fix your sin like Cain thought he could, like Adam and Eve thought they could. It ain't gonna work. It ain't gonna work.

I made that statement Sunday and I wanna make sure I'm as clear as I can be on this because it could be a controversial subject. But the scripture tells us plainly that God made Christ to be sin for us that knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." So to not believe Christ was not made sin is to call God a liar. If Christ wasn't made guilty, then Christ was killed unjustly. That's plain and simple. Now, on the other hand to that, the scripture says, he offered up himself to God without spot and without blemish. Somebody says, well, that doesn't make any sense. We don't understand anything we believe, brethren. We believe it by faith. God said it. And we say truth, Lord. These things are high for me. I can't attain to it.

Was the sinless Lamb of God perfect? The perfect offering? Absolutely. Was Christ made sin? Yes. And such knowledge is too wonderful for me. I don't have to have a logical conclusion, a knowledgeable intellectual discovery in order for me to be able to look to Christ. As a matter of fact, knowledge puffeth up. No, on the other hand, I pray the Lord causes us to regard his reproof hear the reproof of the Lord and just look to Christ. We don't have to figure out these things. We just believe on it because God has said it. God has said it. We didn't come up with this.

Did he bear our iniquity on the tree? Yes. Did he bear our sin in his own body? Yes. Was he offered up without spot, without blemish? Yes. That's our only hope. That's our only hope. He's telling us his reproof is Plead nothing but the blood. Plead nothing but the blood as your righteousness, as your hope of eternal life. Plead nothing but, don't come to God with anything. Bring your good works, bring your bad works, cast them at his feet, count them as dung, and say, Lord, you're gonna have to save me completely, totally, entirely. And every mercy beggar that's came to him, he is a no wise cast out. He promised he wouldn't. If you come to me, I'll a no wise cast you out. It's good news. That's good news.

God's people are enabled to regard his reproof. Oh, relinquish your pride. Lord, you're gonna have to make me. Lord, you're gonna have to cause me to. Lord, relinquish my pride. He said, I will be thou made whole. Be thou made whole. Everybody that came to him, what would you have me do? My sight. I need to be healed, I'm impotent. I need to be healed, Lord, I'm sick. I've got leprosy. I will be thou made whole. Be thou made whole.

He alone satisfied God. Regard the precious reproof of the Father. Regard the precious reproof of his word. Come to Christ and rest. Whosoever will, let him come, take the water of life freely, regard the reproof of our Lord. And he'll make us. He'll make us, people.

Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would cause us, enable us, make us to regard your reproof. Thank you for your word. Thank you for your truth. In Christ's name, amen.