Proverbs chapter 8. It's been
said that you can't preach God high enough and you can't preach
man low enough. And that's true in every message.
It doesn't matter the message, that's true. You can't preach
God high enough and you can't preach man low enough. If the Lord would cause his face
to shine into our hearts tonight, we have a glimpse of our Lord.
I say glimpse because we can't see it all. We look through a
glass darkly, don't we? We have a glimpse of our Lord's
sovereignty. We have a glimpse of our Lord's
power and character. We have a glimpse of his awesomeness. He's full of all, so all fold
us. Uh, we have a glimpse of that, but he has to reveal it
by his spirit this evening. I hope he reveals our exalted
savior here in our text. We have a glimpse of the wisdom
of God and the word of God. Do you know who that is? That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. the wisdom of God and the word
of God. We know who that is. He was in him from everlasting. He was with him from everlasting
because it's a part of him. It's the part of him from before
time. Let's read this together. Proverbs
chapter eight verses 20. So it'll be kind of lengthy.
We're gonna go from 22 through 31 because it's an entire thought.
22 through 31 says, the Lord The Lord possessed me in the
beginning of his way. Before his works of old, I was
set up from everlasting, from the beginning, wherever the earth
was. When there was no depths, I was
brought forth. When there was no fountains abounding
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 part of the dust
of the world, when he prepared the heavens, I was there. When
he set a compass upon the face of the depth, when he established
the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when
he gave to the sea his decree that the water should not pass
his commandment, When he appointed the foundations of the earth,
then I was by him as one brought up with him, and I was daily
his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the
habitable part of his earth, and my delights were with the
sons of men. That word set up means brought,
or the word brought, set up. He was there, established it.
It couldn't be that he means created. So this is God the Father,
obviously, and we're still talking about wisdom. So if you go back,
back to verse 12, it says, I wisdom dwell with prudence. So this
is a continuation of that, or this is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ was with the Father. So as he's saying,
as he's saying, the Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way
before his works of old, I was set up from everlasting. He was
established with the Father from everlasting. There is no separating
them, they're one. Isn't that what the Lord said?
I and my Father are one. There is no difference in our
God and his trinity, each deity. He's a one supreme being. So
our Lord is not just a higher power, he is all powerful. Our Lord is just not in control
of things, he's purposed all things. That's a lot different,
isn't it? If I try to control something, I may fail at it,
but if I have absolute, absolute power, I'm gonna purpose it,
it's going to happen. It's going to happen, I can't
fail, that's our Lord. That's our Lord, he purposed
all things. From each drop of rain to your
heart beating right now, before time, he purposed that. Every
time your heart beats, we count our heartbeats sometimes. I get
a fast heartbeat. I start worrying, oh no, what's going on? I start
checking it. But we don't pay attention to our heart unless
there might be something going on. Our heart just keeps ticking,
doesn't it? Why? God ordained it to. God
purposed it to. All that rain that just happened.
How many drops fell? I don't have a clue. I couldn't
begin to guess. Could you? God didn't have to
guess. He purposed it, the exact number.
He didn't have to count it either. He knows. He made the number
to be thus. This is our God, this is our
God we're talking about. Never had a beginning, never
had an end. He's the author and finisher
of all things. He said in Revelation 1, I'm
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord,
which was, which is, and which is to come, the Almighty. He's
holy, he's just, and he is good, he's good. Let's read this again. The Lord possessed me in the
beginning of his way before his works of old. I was set up from
everlasting, and I've titled this message From Everlasting,
From Everlasting. I was set up from everlasting
from the beginning. Wherever the earth was, when
there was no depths, I was brought forth. When there was no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was, I brought forth. While as yet he hath not made
the earth nor the fields nor the highest parts of the dust
of the world, when he prepared the heavens, I was there. When
he set a compass upon the face of the depth, when he established
the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when
he gave to the sea its decree, I love this, when he gave to
the sea its decree, what did he give? That the water should
not pass his commandment. You can't come any farther. Stop
right there. That's what he did to the waters.
When he appointed the foundations of the earth. I like that word
appointed. He created them, yes, but he appointed the foundations
of the earth. Then I was by him as one brought
up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always
before him, knowing that he was daily his delight. That has to
be the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other explanation.
Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and my delights
were with the sons of men. You notice a pattern here. If
you look, verse 27 says he prepared. Verse 28 says he established. You keep going, it said he set.
He strengthened, He gave, He appointed. By Him, all things
were made that are made, and without Him, there was not anything
made that was made. That's what John chapter one
says. And who was the one that did the making? The Lord Jesus
Christ was. The Lord Jesus Christ was. In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him, there was not anything made that was made. You mean everything? Everything? Everything says in Ezekiel, I'm
sorry, Isaiah 45, seven, I form the light. I create darkness. I make peace and I create evil. I, the Lord do all these things.
What about us? What part did we have in all
this? I like getting to that really quick because we don't
have anything to say, do we? I'm going to put my hand over
my mouth. I'm not going to talk. I wasn't there. Where were you,
Job, when I laid the foundations of the world? Where were you
when I commanded the waters to stop where they're at? Where
were you when I hung the stars in the sky? Where were you, Job,
whenever I hung the earth on nothing? Explain to me if you
can. Job said, behold, I'm vile. I'm
gonna put my hands over my mouth and not talk anymore. Isn't that
how it works when the Lord reveals himself, his power, his awesomeness? Oh, it's embarrassing is what
it is, isn't it? It's embarrassing to be what
we are. But oh, he's full of loving kindness and tender mercy.
That's the good news. What makes, if we had nothing
to do with this, what makes our pea brains think we can do anything
to please him? We can't. We can't please him. Did he confer with flesh whenever
he was building the earth? No. Nor did he whenever he was
making salvation, when he was bringing to be salvation. He
didn't confer with me and you, did he? No, certainly not. When
he says in verse, verse 30 and 31, then I was by him as one
brought up with him and I was daily his delight rejoicing always
before him rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth and my delights
were with the sons of men. God delights in one thing, his
wisdom, his word, his son. That's who he delights in. He
said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. You
remember whenever John the Baptist said, behold, the Lamb of God,
take it away, the sin of the world. And you see the spirit
of the spirit of the Lord coming down as a dove and sat upon the
lighted upon him, the scripture says, and a voice came from heaven.
This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him.
That's who he delights in. He don't delight in us, in our
Imagine our vain imaginations. He delights in his son. He delights
in his son. We are but creatures of dust,
born in sin, shapen in iniquity. We're under the curse of the
law. We're utterly sinful. We're completely leprous from
the top of our head to the bottom of our feet. We're dead and trespasses
in sin. Hell, he doesn't delight in us.
He delights in his son. We're under the penalty of death.
We're under the wrath of God. Not because of what we do, but
because of what we are. And that's what a lot of preachers
preach is that sin is what you do. It's a moral change that
needs to happen. You need to clean up your life.
You need to do this different and that different. You can, if you desired to have a truck,
you can wash a car as much as you want, but it's not gonna
turn into a truck. Ah, that's a weak analogy, but I think we
understand what I'm saying. You can polish a lot of things,
but it's still going to be whatever it is. Whatever it is, it's going
to remain the same. The Lord told the Pharisees,
he said, you're whited sepulchers. He said, but inward, you're full
of dead men's bones. Full of dead men's bones. A whited
sepulcher was a bleached sepulcher. So it was a tomb that they would
bleach and make it real pretty and white on the outside. But
what's on the inside? The Lord said, I look down at
the heart. I look at the heart. I don't look at the outward appearance.
It's not that the Lord's looking at your outward appearance and
weighing you in the balance and determining whether or not you're
good enough for him. You're not, and I'm not either. There's none
good but God. He delights in his Son. So what hope do we have in attaining
or meriting any favor with God if the stars, he says this, the
stars are not pure in his sight? What about us creatures of dust,
sinful creatures of dust? Dead dog sinners. What hope do
we have if he doesn't see the stars as pure? There's no secret hidden from
him. He knows the beginning from the end, but you know why? Because
he is the beginning and the end. He's alpha and omega, the beginning
and the end, the first and the last. He knows everything. There's
nothing we can hide from him. So what hope do we have? How
can that which is unclean be made clean? How can that which
is born of a woman be made pure? Job said, how can the corrupt
thing, that which is corrupt, be made righteous? When the Lord
says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my
ways your ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my
thoughts than your thoughts. He's holy. He's completely opposite
of what you and I are. He don't, He don't process information. Understand what I'm saying here.
We think about things because we have to calculate to come
up with a solution to a problem. He's God. He don't have problems. He don't need solutions. Christ was the solution to salvation,
period. I mean, he doesn't need any other
solution. This is our God, this is our God. Ecclesiastes 3.11
says, he hath made everything beautiful in his time. Also he
hath set the world in their heart so that no man can find out the
work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. No man can find out the work.
No man can attain or merit salvation before God. No man can come to
the Father but by the Lord Jesus Christ. And no man come to the
Father except the Father that sent him draw him. He's unapproachable, he's past
finding out. Psalm 24 says, who shall ascend
into the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place?
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted
up his soul into vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. I wanna read
that again. Who shall ascend into the heel
of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath
clean hands and a pure heart, and he that hath not lifted up
his soul to vanity. Now, is that you? Is that me? Do I have clean hands and a pure
heart? Have I ever lifted my soul up
to vanity? I think daily would be the proper word, wouldn't
it? Daily, every moment. Oh, but there's one that has
clean hands and a pure heart. There's one that we have hope
in. I had somebody send me a message today, actually, and it said
at the top, no one is completely good, so we need to be saved
because we're not entirely good. The Lord makes the rest of us
good. I was like, I have no idea who you are, first of all. But friend, that's not true. We're completely bad, aren't
we? No, everyone is completely bad. There's none good, no, not
one. There's none good but God. There's
none good but the one the Lord delights in, his wisdom, his
word, his son. That's who he delights in. That's
who he delights in. He tells us right here. I understand his ways are paths
to finding out. First Corinthians one tells us,
but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound
the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world
to confound the things which are mighty and the base things
of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen,
yea, and the things which are not to bring to naught. things
that are that no flesh should glory in his presence. No flesh should glory in his
presence. He's gonna choose the foolish things and the base things
and the weak things. And you and I would look at it
and say, why in the world would he do that? To show us that he's
God and we're not, that no flesh would glory in his presence,
that he is sovereign and he is holy, that he is just and he
is good. So what is our hope? We need a substitute. There's
our hope. We need a substitute. We must
have a surety, we must have the word of God and the wisdom of
God, the Lord Jesus Christ, or we have no hope. John 1 tells
us, the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld
his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and full of truth. When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law. We know that he
was robed in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh. This is our hope. This is our
hope. Christ is the way, the truth,
and the life. He said, I come not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. He said, I didn't come to call
the Pharisees the ones that are whited sepulchers. He said, I
come to call the ones that are sinners. The ones that the Lord's
shown that they're lepers from the top of their head to the
bottom of their feet. The ones that they can't do anything about
their sin and they know it. And why do you know it? Why do
I know it? God showed us. God made us to see it. You that would be righteous,
look to Christ. Look to Christ. He's from everlasting. You know what that word everlasting
means? Never had a beginning, never has an end. From everlasting
to everlasting. When God says, I have loved you,
he was talking to his church, the elect. He's talking to his
elect bride. He said, I have loved you with an everlasting
love. We can't fathom that word because
everything that is around us, we're dictated to by time. God
is not constrained or restrained by time in any way. When he says,
I love you with an everlasting love, I mean, he has always loved
you, always loved you. And he always will love you.
And that will never change because that love is not based upon you.
It is conditional. His love is very conditional.
It's conditioned upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Jesus Christ was 100% successful on the cross of Calvary. So what
did the scripture say about his love? Neither depth, nor height,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present
or things to come. nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature shall be able to separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus. That's good news. That's good
news. If He loves you now, He's always loved you. He's from everlasting.
That's our hope. Before time, He made a covenant
of grace. The Father, Son, and the Holy
Ghost made a covenant of grace that He would redeem His people
back to God. And the Son agreed to die for
those people. The Spirit agreed to regenerate
those people. The Father elected them. And
that's exactly what we're hearing right now, is the Son became
a man, born of a woman. I don't know how I was talking
to Bobby about this earlier. I don't know how to explain this
because it's too wonderful. It's too big for me. But to say that the wisdom of
God and the word of God, which was in him, which was with him,
understand what I'm saying now, became flesh. Now you can explain
that. I don't want to explain that,
but that's exactly what he's saying right here. I was set
up from everlasting. I was from the beginning with
him. He was, and what did the Lord say over in John, uh, John
chapter 17, I in them talking about his church and thou in
me. So now we're one with him. We're
one with him as well, but the word was made flesh. so that
you and I could be redeemed, that you and I could be purchased
by His own blood to bear our sin in His own body that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. And this is important. It's not because of what we do
or don't do or what we have done or have not done. If you or I
have any part to do with salvation, we don't have salvation. It's
that simple. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the
Lord, freely bestowed by His grace. Now in doing all that
he did to save his people. He chose to bestow His righteousness
by the death of His Son on the cross of Calvary, freely by His
grace to His people. We have imputed grace by Christ
Jesus, by the blood of Christ. We've been washed, we've been
made clean. The leprosy's gone now. We've been declared clean
by the law. We've been declared clean by
the Father. Justice has been satisfied because Christ satisfied
it on our behalf, on His people's behalf. Because of all that,
we have perfect oneness with the Lord. Perfect oneness. with
the Lord. When he sees his people, he sees
the blood. And what do you say about the
blood? When I see the blood, I'll pass by you. but it's more than that. It's so much more than so much
more wonderful than that. When he sees us, he sees his
son and he is well pleased. He is well pleased because we
are in Christ Jesus. The scripture says we're seated
in the heavenlies. He sees us in his son because
when his son died, his people died. And I wrote that verse
down. I just quoted to you, but I'll read, I'll read it again.
John 1723, I in them and thou in me that they may be perfect.
They'd be made big, perfect. I in them and thou in me that
they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that
thou has sent me and has loved them and thou has loved me. Since
when? Since from the foundation of
the earth before time ever began. Lord said, I've loved thee with
an everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. How long has he loved us? There's
never been a time and there's never been a space in eternity
that he hasn't loved his people. And there's nothing you can do
to separate yourself from it. There's nothing that Satan can
do about it. Nothing the world can do about it. Nothing, there's
not your worst enemy can't do anything about it. death or life,
anything else can't do anything about it. If the Lord loves you,
he's always love you. That means we've always been
in Christ. So everything in our text and this is where this is
all that was kind of a build up to explain this very important
point. Okay. Everything in our text
now applies to the Lord and His elect because we were in Him
then as well, not just now and not just in the future, but we
were in Christ Jesus then, back then, given to Him before the
foundation of the world. So whenever He made the world,
we're in Him then. That's the way God sees it. That's
what's described here. Now let's, I want you to look
how glorious this is. Now let's apply this, let's apply
this to the Lord, yes, but also now, I want us to see that it's
his elect as well that he's describing here. Read this again. Verse
22, the Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way. Does
that make you delighted if the Lord possessed you in the beginning
of his way? That's my hope. That's my hope. The Lord possessed
me in the beginning of his way before his works of old, I was
set up. from everlasting, from the beginning, wherever the earth
was. When there was no depths, I was brought forth. When there's
no mountain, no fountains abounding 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
part of the dust of the world, 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 fountains of the deep, when he gave to
the sea his decree that the water should not pass his commandment,
When he appointed the foundation 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 his earth.
And my delights were with the sons of men. Now, how is it that
we delight Rejoicing in the habitable parts of his earth, we look at
the splendor of what the Lord's created, don't we? We see his
creation as part of his, it's a reflection of his salvation.
Think about the caterpillar that turns into a butterfly. Is that
not representation of the new birth? Think it goes into a chrysalis
or a cocoon, it becomes a whole new creature. That's what it
represents. Everything around us, we delight
in the Lord's habitation. And with the sons of men, our
brothers and sisters in Christ, that's who we enjoy being with.
See, this is the Lord speaking about His wisdom, about the Lord,
but we were in Him before time ever began. We were in the loins
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're birthed spiritually by
His loins. Isn't that glorious? Psalm 103,
17 says, but the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
upon them that fear Him. and his righteousness unto children's
children. Oh, one of the writers said,
Oh, the depths and the rich of the riches, both the riches and
knowledge of our Lord, both the depths of the riches and knowledge
of our God. They are too high. I cannot attain to them. How
glorious it to know that from everlasting his people, no matter
how vile they may seem, no matter how sinful they have been or
sinful they are, no matter what they've done or have not done,
they've been in Christ from everlasting, from everlasting. He's loved
me from everlasting. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you for your word. We ask that you would take it
and bless it to our understanding. In Christ's name, amen.