Tonight we're going to be in
Proverbs chapter eight. If you'd like to turn there. Proverbs chapter eight. Last
week we heard that the Lord possessed his people before time ever began. that he established them before
time ever began, that he keeps them as his delight. In one place it says as the apple
of his eye. He keeps his people as his delight. Can you enter into the thought
that God delights in me or God delights in you? What a thought,
what a glorious, truth about this gospel, that if we are in
Christ, he says, I know the thoughts that I had for you. You know,
the thoughts he has for his people, he says, not of, not of evil,
but of good and peace and love. This is, this is why the gospel
is so glorious is because it takes us undeserving sinners.
It takes us who are dead and trespasses and in sin. It takes
us without hope, without help, couldn't help herself. And we
hear the truth and we see that God made us the very righteousness
of Christ in him. It takes us to the truth and
shows us that he delights in us. It shows that he established
us before the world began, that he said, you're my possession. I've bought you. I've redeemed
you. You're mine to be the Lord's
possession. What a glorious thought. Now in this light, he's continuing
talking. I've titled this message, The
Favor of the Lord. Favor of the Lord, because he
uses those words in our text. Let's read it together. Proverbs
8, 32 through 36 says, now therefore, now that's why we started out
with what we said. Because he says, therefore, and
we always say, what is the therefore, therefore? Well, it was there
because he says, you're my delight. I've established you. I've possessed
you before the world again. Now, therefore, hearken unto
me, O ye children, for blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear
instruction and be wise and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that
heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts
of my doors. For whoso findeth me, findeth
life and shall obtain favor. of the Lord, but he that sinneth
against me wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death. The favor of the Lord. He that findeth me findeth favor
of the Lord. Something I'll mention probably
multiple times tonight is that the word favor in the old Hebrew
And the word grace in the old Hebrew would often be translated
the same, meaning it's the same word. Sometimes they would put
favor, sometimes they would put grace. I find that very interesting,
because in the New Testament, the last time favor is mentioned
is in the book of Acts, all throughout the Gospels, it's never mentioned. The word favor is not mentioned,
it stops in Acts. What's my point? Well, my point
is, is in the Old Testament, the favor of the Lord was a result
of the grace of the Lord. They're one in the same. What
is grace? It is unmerited favor, is it not? And so when we're
talking about the favor of the Lord, I have three questions
for us tonight. The first one is, what is the
favor of the Lord? Number two, what does his favor
accomplish? And number three, how do I obtain
favor of the Lord? How do I, if I've got to have
favor with God in order for me to be saved, and I do, and you
do too, how do I obtain that favor? My hope tonight is the
Lord will cause us to see everything he requires, he provides, and
gives us a place to rest tonight knowing that we have obtained
favor of the Lord. not based upon what we have done,
but based upon our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, reconciling us
back to God, giving us a brand new history, giving us faith
that believes Him, giving us new nature, a new spirit, a new
man. The first three verses are the
answers to our question. What is favor with the Lord?
Look at the first one. For these first let's read these first
three verses here again 32 through 34 now therefore harkening to
me. Oh, you children for blessed are they that keep my ways here
instruction and be wise and refuse not. Blessed is the man that
heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the post
of my doors. Now, something very important
to mention is every time we read scripture, we always have to
ask ourself, well, what's the cause and what's the effect?
If the effect is me hearkening causes me to hear instruction,
then I'm the cause of me hearing instruction. Do we see that? The only way that I can hearken
is if he gives ears to hear. The only way I can see his face
is if he says, receive thy sight, seek ye my face. The cause and
effect right here is that the reason that you're hearkening
unto the Lord, the reason that you're believing, the reason
that you're seeking his face is because he's already made
you alive to do so, because you're blessed, because you're favored
of the Lord. That's the cause and effect.
You're favored of the Lord, therefore you hear his voice. See, if you're
not favored, you can never hear his voice. It's not that we hear
his voice and therefore we become favored. We hear his voice because
we are favored of the Lord. Favor means acceptance. or delight,
what is the favor of the Lord? It's acceptance. We are acceptable
of him, to him. He delights, we heard it already,
haven't we? We heard that already. He delights
in his people. It means that we're blessed of
the Lord. Can you imagine, first of all,
we just said this a second ago, but the Lord possessed me. Then
it said, the Lord established me. The Lord set me up from before
time. Then it says, because I was his
delight day and night. Now he's telling us he favors
us. Can you imagine being favored
of the Lord? Favored of the Lord? What glorious
thought that the Lord would favor us, that he would shed grace
upon us, that he would show mercy unto us, knowing the sin that
we are, knowing the things that we, how bad we are and the things
that we do in our. call to worship. That's where
Paul actually said a few verses before that. In Ephesians 3,
he said, I'm not worthy. I'm the least of the saints is
what he said. And it was funny because he started out by saying
that. Then later on in his ministry,
he said, I'm the least of the brethren. And then at the very
end of it all, he says, I'm the chief of sinners. He wasn't getting
worse. He was seeing himself for what
he was. How about the Lord favoring us being the same? Can you rejoice
in knowing? Well, it'd be like the disciples. The disciples couldn't cast out
a demon. They tried and they tried and they tried and they
cast out many demons before this. They came to the Lord and said,
Lord, We can't do it. What are we doing wrong? This
is the same thing we've been doing the whole time. And the
Lord said, this kind cometh not but by prayer and fasting. And
they were rejoicing in the fact that they could cast out demons.
So the Lord didn't let them to humble them a little bit. But
he said, don't rejoice over that. Rejoice that your name is written
in the Lamb's book of life. Rejoice that you're favored of
God. That's what he was telling them.
And that's what the Lord's people rejoice in is his favor. Everyone
God elected is just, is being favored, but be either
loved of, he calls us his beloved, his beloved, they're favored
of the Lord. Listen to Psalm 512, for thou
Lord will bless the righteous, with favor wilt thou compass
him as with a shield. Why are they righteous? Because
the Lord made them thus. The Lord made them thus. Therefore,
it's evident that they're favored. They're favored of the Lord.
What is the favor of the Lord? It is both the blessing of the
Lord and acceptance, acceptance of the Lord. The Lord accepts
you because you are in Christ. Your sin has been remitted. Your
sin is gone. What the Lord say, the scripture
says, it's your sin that separated you from your God. It's your
sin. But what does he say about our
sin now? He said, I've cast it as far
as the east is from the west, never to be remembered again.
I've taken that sin out of the way, nailed it to my cross, put
it away by the sacrifice of myself. There is now therefore no condemnation. There's no separation anymore.
You have been reconciled. Reconciled back to God. He gives
approval to his people. Well, what does that look like?
A lot of people ask that question sometimes. They ask, what does
a Christian life look like? And that is not the same thing
I'm doing right now. I wanna see what it means, if God favors
you, what does that look like? Let's read this again, verse
32. Now therefore hearken unto me,
O ye children, for blessed are they that keep my ways. If you're
keeping his ways, it's because you're blessed. If you're hearkening,
it's because you're blessed. Hear instruction and be wise
and refuse not. If Christ is your wisdom, you're
going to hear instruction. Do we see the cause and effect
here? Blessed is the man that heareth me watching daily at
my gates waiting at the post of my doors. The only way that
we would wait on the Lord is if he says wait and causes us
to do so. The only way that we would be. The only way that we
would be watching for him at his gates daily, he said in Psalm
100, enter into his gates with thanksgiving, to his courts with
praise, that we're at his gates right now. Do we see that? That's
where we watch and wait for him. That's where we desire to see
him. That's what he's talking to us about here. Those with
ears to hear have life has been given to them. They've seen the
light. They've seen the Lord Jesus Christ.
They have ears to hear. They have eyes to see. And so
what is it they do? They confess Christ is all. Christ
is all. That's what we confess. That's
what that looks like. You want to know what it looks
like if the Lord favors you? What is your confession? Christ
is all. I'm a sinner. He's the Savior. I have no hope of saving myself
whatsoever. I can't do a good work even if
I wanted to in and of myself. But if I'm in Christ, all I've
ever done is good works. That's my hope. Christ is all. He was the only one that was
qualified, that was able, that had the ability to satisfy God's
demands for his people. And that's exactly what he did.
Do you know why? He was favored of the Lord. And everyone that
was in him whenever he died on the cross of Calvary is favored
of the Lord because they're in him. When he sees us, his people,
he sees his people, he sees the blood and he's satisfied. He's satisfied. Well, how do
we know? How do I know if I'm the Lord's
sheep? Can you hear his voice? My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. It's simple, isn't it? Are you
listening for his voice? Are you listening for his call? Are you saying, Lord, call me.
Lord, save me. Christ is all. If you're favored
of the Lord, we cry out for mercy unto him, don't we? We just do.
That's how he's designed it. In false religion, they act like
you ask for mercy one time, and that's the end of it. We beg
for mercy daily, multiple times a day. Lord, have mercy on me,
the sinner. And it's not over something frivolous
or simple or silly most of the time. It's, Lord, I loathe myself. Have mercy on me, the sinner.
Here I am with my unbelief again. Here I am with all my sin that
I see before me again. And the Lord said, you're forgiven. You're favored of the Lord, you're
favored. Those who hear, those who watch
and wait are blessed of the Lord. That is the blessing. Do we see
that? Christ is the blessing. And when you have Christ, you
have ears to hear, you have eyes to see, and he says, wait on
the Lord. We seek his face when he tells
us to seek his face. We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. We look to him in all things. That is the blessing. People in false religion talk
about the blessings of the Lord being something physical. No,
it's not. The blessings of the Lord are
spiritual. He's blessed us with all spiritual gifts in heavenly
places. All the things that are good
and all the things that are true, all the things that are precious
to us, they have to come from Him, and that's exactly where
they come from. Therefore, you're blessed of
Him. You're blessed of Him. Because
he favors you. He favors you. I was trying to
figure out an analogy to come up with whenever I was studying
this, and the best one I could come up with is my wife. I favor
my wife, just as you favored your spouse. We favor our children,
don't we? We favor our children. Oh, but
the favor that the Lord shows to his people, he's proven that
time and time again. He's, uh, maybe at some point,
one of my daughters will be doing something. And I favor this one
more than I favor that one at that time, especially if one
of them sick, you're really showing a lot of attention to them. You
favor them more, not our God. There's never a time where he
favors you over you, over you, over me, because of our sin.
No, if he favors you right now, he's always favored you. And
it's a perfect. It's perfect favor, perfect favor. Why? You're in Christ. You're in Christ and Christ is
in God. He's satisfied with our Lord,
his finished work. He causes his elect to seek his
face, to hear his voice, to look at him by faith and he makes
us wait on him. Are you telling me everything he requires, he
makes us do, he provides for us? Yes. Why? You're favored. You're favored of the Lord. Can
you imagine being called the prized possession of God? Think
about that one. That's it. The prized possession. He had to buy the whole field,
didn't he? In order to have the treasure,
he had to buy the entire field. And that's what he did. When
he died on the cross, all things he bought with his own blood.
Why? Because his bride is favored. He calls her my treasure, my
beloved. That's what our Lord calls his
people. This is what the favor of the Lord looks like. His people
believe him alone, they're made to. You remember, angel of the
Lord appeared unto Mary, said, you're gonna have a son. Luke
chapter two, and he said, fear not, Mary, for thou hast found
favor with God. Was she looking for favor? Was
Noah looking for grace when he found grace? And by the way,
that's Old Testament, that's Hebrews, that's the same word,
grace and favor. Noah found favor in the eyes
of the Lord. That changes a little bit, doesn't
it? People in religion are like, well, he found grace because
he was doing something right. No, it wouldn't have been grace then,
would it? He found favor of the Lord because he was in Christ
before the foundation of the world. That's why he found grace.
Grace was bestowed. Same thing with Mary. Was she
something special? In regards to having the Lord
Jesus Christ as a son, I think that's very special, but as far
as being sinless, no. No, that's why we don't worship
Mary. That's why we don't, Catholics, they worship Mary. They think
Mary's the intercessor. No, it's the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. We don't worship Mary. She was
just a woman like you. That's it. But she was favored
of God. Another place that says highly
favored, highly favored of God. What does that mean? She was
in Christ, that's all that it means. She was in Christ. You're highly favored of the
Lord if you're in Christ. If she wouldn't have been in
Christ, she wouldn't have been favored. That's just how it is. What was she doing when that
angel came to her? Was she looking for favor? No. No, how did she find it? God
bestowed it. And that's what he's talking about here in verse
35. For whoso findeth me findeth life and shall obtain favor of
the Lord. That word obtain is everything right here. It says
to bring forth. You're gonna bring forth favor
to the Lord? What are you gonna bring forth? You're in Christ. You're in Christ. You're gonna
bring forth good fruit, fruit of the Spirit. You won't see
it because it's spiritual. But that's what the Lord's people
bear. That's because we're favored, because we're in his son. Which brings us to our next question.
What does his favor accomplish, or what did his favor accomplish?
Romans 1, I'm sorry, Psalm 106.4 says, remember me, O Lord, David's
praying. Remember me, O Lord, with the
favor that thou bearest unto thy people. Oh, visit me with
thy salvation. That's the favor of the Lord,
his salvation. Do we see that? If the Lord favors
you, that means you have his salvation. Now you may not know
it yet. The Lord might not have called
you, called someone yet, but that's what that means. They
that are in the Lord, they that were given to Christ, they are
favored of God, therefore they have the Lord's salvation. They're
going to be saved. The reason, David, wanted this
favor is that he may see the good of thy chosen, that he would
rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory in thine
inheritance. Lord, if you show me, if you
reveal unto me that I am favored, you give me your salvation, I'll
be able to rejoice with my brethren because we're favored of you.
How glorious is that? His inheritance, that's what
he called it. His favor is unto eternal life. His favors unto
eternal life, all that the Lord loves will come to Christ. They will come to Christ because
they're favored of the Lord. Eternal life is evidence of favor
with God. Favor with God is evidence that
we can do anything spiritual, hearing, seeing, Looking, believing,
that's all by faith, isn't it? That's all by the Lord's faith
bestowed. So if we're doing that, we're favored of the Lord. We're
favored of the Lord. That's what his favor accomplishes
all by grace. I want to read this again with
the cause and effect that I mentioned before, and understanding they
that are blessed are the ones that do this. They that have
been, Christ has been revealed to them are the ones that's doing
this. They that are of the Lord's favor are the ones that do this.
Now, therefore, verse 32, now, therefore, hearken unto me, O
ye children. For blessed are they that keep
my ways, hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed
is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at
the post of my doors. For whoso findeth me findeth
life, and shall obtain favor with God. But he that sinneth
against me wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death. Here's what God's favor accomplishes. I'm going to bless you, and you're
going to hearken. I'm going to give you ears to
hear, and you're going to hear. I'm going to give you eyes to
see, and you're going to see the light, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm going to save you, and you're going to be saved. I'm going
to raise you up, and you're going to be exalted. I am going to
defend you, and nothing will ever hurt you. I am going to
take away your sin and make you the righteousness of God in Christ
Jesus. And that's exactly what he did. He said, I'm going to become
all your wisdom, all your righteousness, all your sanctification, all
your redemption. You know what that means? You're going to be wise
because Christ is in you, your hope of glory. You're righteous
now before me. You're sanctified now because
of my work. You've been made perfect in my
eyes. You've been redeemed by his blood. Then you know what he says he's
gonna do? I'm gonna make you willing in the day of my power. I'm gonna
make you able and willing in the day of my power to come to
Christ. I'm gonna give you everything you need and you will come to
Christ. I'm gonna make you need him more than anything else. This is what the favor of God
accomplished for all, all God's elect, all God's elect. Now,
last question is this, how do I obtain this favor? How do I
obtain this favor? Well, first of all, that word
obtain is important, because it's to bring forth, or bring
forth. Where does it come from? Favor
don't come from me. The Lord don't favor me in my
sinful condition. The Lord favors the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord favors the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one that
merited that favor. Do we see that? The Lord said,
this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. See, the Lord's
love is a very particular love, very particular. And it's also
conditional. God's love is very conditional.
God's love is conditional based upon who he's loving. If it's
not Christ, he doesn't love you or I. He loves Christ. And the
only reason he loves you and I is because we're in Christ. People in religion talk about
God's love being unconditional. That's not true. There's no such
thing as unconditional love. The only reason, so the condition
for God loving Christ is Christ is his son. The condition for
Christ loving us is because we're in Christ his son. That's where
the love of God is found, is right there. There is no other
place where you'll find it. So how do I obtain this favor
of the Lord? We'll favor like every good gift
that comes down from our God. It has to come from the source. It has to come from him. It has
to be bestowed. It has to be received by faith.
It cannot be something that we earn, something that we merit,
something that we work for. Otherwise, it's no longer of
grace. What would the favor of God have to do with salvation?
If you could earn your salvation, what difference does his favor
do then? No, but because he favors his people, therefore they're
saved by him. They're saved by him. It's got
to be bestowed by grace alone. It's important to mention men
think that they can earn favor with God. They can obligate God
to do something. They can cause God to do something.
I've done this. Now, God, you gotta do your part.
That's not true. We cannot, we cannot obligate
God. But I prayed a prayer, and I
did this, and I did that, and now I'm obligating God to save
me. No, it doesn't work that way. No, man doesn't have the
power or the capacity or the ability to threaten God, to challenge
God, to obligate God. There was only one that ever
obligated the Lord, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. Whenever
he died a perfect death, his father promised him if he died,
he was gonna resurrect him. He would not let his see his
Holy One see corruption. And the son trusted his father, trusted
his father. Because he was perfect and he
was righteous and his people were justified, he was resurrected.
He was resurrected. No, God chooses to work how he
will, when he wants to, with whoever he wants to, and who
shall stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Oh, he's
God. This is why the gospel's so precious
is that the one that earned favor with the Lord is the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. The one that performed what was
necessary for the salvation of God's people caused us to be
found with favor with God. Favor with God. Christ honored the Father in
every way. He fulfilled the law's demands.
He satisfied justice. He satisfied God's wrath, his
eternal wrath on the cross. Think about that. For the short
period of time that he was on the cross, he endured the eternal
wrath of God for every single one of his elect. And in that
blackness, everything that was happening with his soul being
made an offering for sin, the Lord was satisfied with that
offering. When the Lord saw the travail of his soul, he was satisfied. And when our Lord died, he said,
it is finished. What was finished? The only way
that you could be favored with God, he had to die and it was
finished. The only way that you could be
blessed of God, the only way that you could hear his voice,
the only way that we could have eyes to see, the only way we
could be alive in him. He said, it is finished. It is
finished. Everything required at that moment.
Everything required, the father was satisfied. And he says, now,
I favor you. I favor you. It's important to mention that
it wasn't, the cross of Christ was not about the Lord making
a way of salvation. It was him meriting favor for
God's elect. That's what he was doing. He
is the way, he is the way, and he was meriting favor for God's
elect so that you and I could be found in him, in him. That's what happened on the cross.
We were in him when he died, in him when he was resurrected.
We're seated in him in the heavenlies now. We're in Christ, therefore
the Father highly favors his people. What does it say? We're justified
freely by His grace. That's favor, isn't it? That's
favor. Justified freely by His grace.
This is what the favor of God accomplished for His elect. Been
justified freely by His grace. He said, I love thee with an
everlasting love. Therefore, what's the therefore,
therefore? Well, because he loved me and he loved you, he loved
his people with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving
arms, I have, with loving kindness, I have drawn thee. Loving kindness,
I have drawn thee. Why? Because I loved you with
an everlasting love. It's cause and effect. You're
favored of the Lord. Now, in closing, I want you to
notice verse 35 again. For whoso findeth me findeth
life and shall obtain favor of the Lord. Whoso findeth me. Were
you like Mary? Were you not looking for him
when he found you? Or were you looking for him?
Interestingly enough, I heard somebody say recently, I found
Jesus. And I said, I didn't know he
was lost. He's not the one that's lost. I was the one that's lost.
He's gotta find me. He didn't say that the shepherd
stays there and the sheep comes back. He says he leaves the ninety
and nine to go find the one. Why? Because we're the wandering
sheep that wandered from the fold. He's not lost. I am. He's got to find me. Who
does he find? Those that he favors. Those that he favors. The Lord says, seek ye my face. Hear, hear our eyes and hear
our ears. Listen and see. Here is your
strength, come to me. Here is your sight, see, behold. Here is your life, live. Here's
faith, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He does all these things
to his people because he favors them. Causes us to seek him,
revealing the reason The reason we found him is because he first
found us. That's why. He found us, and
then we discovered he found us, and we said, hey, we found him.
No, he found us. We never look at our finding,
our doing anything. We look at what he did. He hadn't
revealed himself. We could have never saw him. The reason we have eternal peace
with God, eternal salvation is because he chose to favor his
people by grace alone. This, this is the favor of the
Lord. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your words. We ask that you would take them
and bless them to our understanding for your glory in Christ's name,
amen.