Tonight we're looking in the
fourth chapter of the book of Proverbs, if you would like to
turn there. Proverbs chapter four. There is but one reason, and
only one reason, if someone denies themselves and believes Christ. Someone denies their power, they
realize I don't have any power. Someone denies their will, realizing
my will is subject to my nature, and therefore I would never choose
God. The only way someone would deny themselves and take sides
with God is if God is their teacher, if God indeed is their teacher.
I've titled this message, Thought of God, Thought of God. Coming to Christ, It's not a
decision that you and I make. Coming to Christ is not a decision
that you and I make. It is a privilege of salvation
by grace. And if you come to Christ, it's
because you have to come to him. It's irresistible what the Lord
shows whenever he makes you a sinner and you see him as the savior.
He's irresistible to the sinner. I've got to have him. I have
to have him. Coming to Christ is the gift
of eternal life. When we're taught of God, then
we see coming to Christ is a necessity, a necessity, because in Him is
our life, as we're gonna hear about in a little while. In Him
is life. Without Him, there is no life. Come to Christ as a necessity,
but not as a decision. We've been made to have a dire
need. It's an emergency. It's an emergency,
that's what it is. When you see yourself at the
center, and the Lord shows you that you deserve eternal torment,
separation from Him, shows that you deserve hell, dangles your
feet over it, and lets you see this is what you deserve because
of what you are, And then he shows you the precious lamb of
God who took away the sins of his people. We flee to him, don't
we? We flee to him out of necessity.
I've got to have him, got to have him. He makes the call irresistible. Now let's read our text here,
Proverbs 4, verse 10 through 13. Hear, O my son, and receive
my sayings, and the years of thy life shall be many. I have
taught thee in the way of wisdom, I have led thee in right paths.
When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straightened, and when
thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. Take fast hold of instruction,
let her not go, keep her, for she is thy life. Hear my son and receive my sayings. And then he says, I've taught
thee, I've taught thee. And I titled the message, Taught
of God. The only way we will find ourself believing that salvation
is of the Lord is if we're taught of God. If we're taught of God. If he teaches us and he enables
us, he makes us, he causes us to believe Christ. I think the
Lord said, I'm thankful that the Lord said in John chapter
six, it is written in the prophets and they shall be all taught
of me. Every man, therefore, that has
heard and hath learned of the father cometh to me. So if you're
taught of God, you come to Christ. That's what the Lord teaches.
His people. He teaches us Christ is all. Christ is all in salvation. God
was all in salvation. It's just not complicated that
way, is it? It's the Lord's salvation. Being
taught in the way of wisdom is to be taught Christ is all. Therefore,
we come to him gladly. We come to him earnestly. We
come to him right now, and right now, and right now. We always
are coming. That's what Paul said, to whom
coming. It's continual, isn't it? We
don't just come to the Lord one time. We don't say that we made
that decision. We check that box off. No, we
gotta come every day to him, don't we? We come boldly to the
throne of grace. to obtain mercy and find grace
to help in the time of need. Being taught the way of wisdom
is to be taught Christ is all, therefore we come to him gladly.
And we come to him honestly. We come to him honestly, completely
exposed, with no righteousness at all. We come naked before
God. We don't have any covering, any
hiding. We know he can see through us.
We know that he sees the thoughts and the intents of our heart.
So we come to Christ this way. Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. Lord, I don't have a covering.
I don't have an aid. I don't have a helper. None can
help, Lord. You can. You can. When we're
brought to the Lord, he says, Thou have me to do unto you."
Just like Bartimaeus. You remember blind Bartimaeus
sat by the wayside. He was a beggar. Scripture doesn't
tell us how long he'd been there. We know he was a man, but he
hears that Jesus is passing by. And that piqued his interest
because the Lord had already given him faith to believe. And
so he cries out, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.
And they said, man, would you be quiet? You're bothering him.
You need to hush. And he cried all the more louder,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. You're the only
one that can have mercy. I can't see how to get to you.
I can't heal myself. This is not a decision I'm making.
I need mercy. Have mercy on me, son of David.
And the Lord walked right up to, or the Lord said, fetch him.
That's what he said. Fetch him. Bring him to me. Isn't that what he does for all
of his people? Isn't that what the Holy Spirit does? Brings
the Lord's people to him? Just like Mephibosheth we heard
about last week? Fetch him. He got fetched, didn't
he? And the amazing part, Bartimaeus left his robe. He left his robe
there. He didn't take the robe with
him. What's that a picture of? Well, he came to the Lord naked.
He came to the Lord without a covering, a righteousness. He left that
behind us. Samaritan woman when she left her water pot. She didn't
have a righteousness anymore. Christ was her righteousness.
That's the picture. And the Lord comes, or he comes
up to the Lord, they bring him to the Lord, and he says, what
wilt thou have me do unto you? He's making that man confess
his need. Confess, Christ, you're the only
one that can help me. And that is exactly what he says
to his, every one of his elected centers. What will you have me
do for you? Lord have saved me, have mercy on me, the sinner.
And he, what he says, what we're doing is we're confessing that
he has all the power. We don't have any power. He has
all the authority. We don't have any authority. We're trusting
in his choice, not our choice. And we say the same thing as
Bartimaeus. Lord, I would like to receive my sight. I'm blind. I need my sight. Lord, I'm dead. I need life. Lord, I'm lame. I can't walk. I need strength
in my legs. Lord, I can't get to you. I can't
see you. I can't worship you. I want to
receive my sight. And he told him, go thy way,
thy faith. has made thee whole." And that's
exactly what he tells his people. Well, what is our way? Well,
we're going to hear about that here in just a minute, but it's
the path of righteousness that he leads us on for his namesake,
isn't it? That's the way of the believer. It's the life that
we live looking to Christ. That's the way. That's the way. The faith has made thee whole.
Don't you love the fact that God requires faith to please
him? Without faith, it's impossible to please God, and yet we can't
produce it, so he gives it to us by grace. Isn't that glorious? Everything he requires, he provides
for his people. He gives it. And then he looks
at the faith given. He looks at the faith given,
and then, like he said, Abraham believed God, and it was counted,
or it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. He says, that
one's righteous, because I see that faith that I gave him. He
gets all the glory in this. He gets all the glory in it. This is what it is to be told
of God, to be enabled to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. To
be able to confess from the heart by faith, Christ is all in salvation. Christ is all in his glorious
salvation for his elected sinners. Christ is all. It takes God to
teach us that in order for us to believe it. It takes God to
teach us. What does it mean to be told
of God? Well, let's read our text again here. Verse 10, here
oh my son and receive my sayings and the years of thy life shall
be many. I like I didn't write this down, but I just thought
of this, where he says, the years of thy life shall be many. We're
never gonna die. We're gonna die physically, but
we have eternal life. That's a long life, isn't it?
Eternity. That's what he's saying. If you
hear my son and receive my sayings and understand something, anytime
you see the word receive, the Lord said to that man, receive
thy side. How is he gonna receive that?
Or how is he gonna reject that? He can't. Receiving is passive. We do that passively. It's the
Lord that allows us to by grace. Verse 11, I have taught thee
in the way of wisdom. I have led thee in right paths.
When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straightened. And when
thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. Take fast hold of instruction,
let her not go. Keep her for she is thy life. The second thing we see here,
it means that we have been placed on the right path. You see that? Verse 11, I've taught thee in
the way of wisdom. I have led thee in right paths.
Right paths. That tells us that there's a
right path. That's what the Lord teaches his people. There's a
right path. The scripture says, there is
a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof is the
ways of death. No, this is the right path. This
is the path of righteousness. He said in Psalms 23, he restoreth
my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his namesake. And again, in Psalm 119, he says,
thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. He
leads his people on the path of righteousness for his name's
sake. And where does that path lead to? It leads to Christ,
doesn't it? What does it point to? It points
to Christ. Everything about God's salvation, he gets all the glory
and everything points to Christ, everything. It's called the straight
gate and the narrow path and Matthew said, Why is it that
few there be that find the straight path? Why? Because you have to be made. You have to be made to see it
first. You have to be made to have legs to walk on it first.
You have to be made to, the Lord has to make us be on the straight
path. Scripture tells us that he took
us out of the mire, that mirey clay, and put our feet upon a
rock and established our goings and put a new song in our mouth,
even praise unto God. This is him putting us on the
path, the path that leads to him. If the Lord does not, in His
glorious sovereignty and His power, cause us to be found on
the straight path, then we'll never find it. We'll never find
it. He's gotta put us there. And
He's gotta keep us there too, doesn't He? Isaiah 53, all we like sheep
have gone astray, we've turned everyone to his own way, and
the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all. We'd go our
own way if the Lord let us, wouldn't we? But if we're taught of God,
we're taught Christ is all, and that he places us on the path
that points and leads to eternal life, to eternal life. That eternal
life is only found in the person in the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Notice what he says here in verse
12 about once we're on the path. When thou goest, thy steps shall
not be straightened. Now that word straightened, it's
the same as cramps, a muscle cramp. He's saying your legs
are not gonna cramp up where you can't go anymore. And when
thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. We know what the word
stumble means, to trip or to fall. He said, I'm not gonna
let you trip, I'm not gonna let you fall. If we're on this path,
he will not let his people He will keep them uplifted by His
very righteousness. That's how He keeps us uplifted.
Let's go to that Psalm that we did for our call to worship,
Psalm 121. Let's read that again. In light of the message now,
we'll just read it again. Psalm 121. I will lift up mine
eyes unto the hills, for whence cometh my help? My help cometh
from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer
thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber
nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy
right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon
by night. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The
Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this
time forth, even forevermore. The work that the Lord Jesus
Christ completed on the cross is the Lord's people guarantee
that he is going to keep them. He is going to finish everything. It's already finished, isn't
it? But he's going to keep his people. He will not let them
stumble. He will not let them falter.
He will not let them fall. They may do things in the flesh.
You can look at David's life. He committed adultery and he
committed murder. But the Lord got the glory out of that in
the end, didn't he? He had Solomon, and Solomon was the great, great,
great, so many great grandfather of the lineage of Jesus, Joseph
and Mary. That's interesting, isn't it?
The Lord's gonna get all the glory in it. There's no doubt
about that. But he didn't allow David to stay in that fallen
state. He didn't allow David to stay in that state of of sin,
he came to him, he said, David, you are the man, you're the sinner. It made him to confess just like
he makes you and I to confess. Truth, Lord, I have sinned against
the Lord. Then we hear the sweetest words
because of our Redeemer, because of what he accomplished on the
cross, fear not, I've put away your sin, you shall not die,
you shall not die. His obedience is our substitute,
even into death. He obeyed God. He obeyed God,
and we died in Him. And in doing so, we've died to
death. We died to eternal death. That won't have to be paid ever
again. That's why the scripture says, O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? He's not gonna let his righteous
ones see corruption. He's not. He's not going to.
He keeps his people. He took our sin and nailed them
to His cross. You think all the work that He
did on the cross, all the work He did in salvation, from electing
to saving to calling, you think He's gonna lose one sheep. If
He did all that, no, He can't. He's God. Doesn't that comfort
you? He can't lose one sheep. He promised
that. He said, all that the Father
give me shall come to me and all that come to me, I'll not
lose one. Not one, no, He keeps us. He keeps us from stumbling,
keeps us from going backwards, keeps us from regressing. He
keeps us pressing toward the mark, pressing towards Christ.
He does that. That's what He teaches us. He owned our sin, put Him out
of the way by His own blood. Now by His own blood, we've been
justified. Now by His death, we have been made the very righteousness
of God in Him. This is what God teaches His
people. Christ is all. Salvation is of the Lord and
it is finished. It is finished. He will keep
His people according to His mercy and according to His grace. Look
at verse seven again. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve
thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth even
forevermore. That's a promise. That's a promise
from our Lord. That's a promise. This was given
by divine inspiration of the spirit. You can mark it down
if that's a promise from the Lord to his chosen people, I'm
going to preserve you. He told Israel, he told Jacob,
name was changed to Israel, he was really speaking to all the
Lord's people. But he said, I've bought you, I've called you by
thy name, I've redeemed you, you're mine. And if you're the
Lord's, is he gonna lose you? Where could you go that he couldn't
find you? Ain't that glorious? There's nowhere to hide. He said,
if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I ascend to
the heavens, thou art there. To the furthermost part of the
sea, behold, thou art there. You can't get away from him.
Can't get away from him. Lamentations 3.22 said, it is
of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his
compassions fail not. I delight in thinking about our
Lord's compassion. He looks upon us. We're just
worms. We're just creatures of sin. Yet he has compassion upon us.
Remember when he was on the earth, he saw the multitude and he was
moved with compassion for the multitude. Our Lord has compassion
for his people. He will not let us fall. He will
not let us falter. He will not let us go run away
from his gospel. He's going to make us believe
it. He's going to make us believe it by faith. What is it to be taught of God?
It's to be taught that Christ is all in salvation, to be taught
that Christ is the one that puts our feet upon the path and keeps
us there. He keeps us there, doesn't allow
us to leave. He puts us on his path of righteousness for his
name's sake. He keeps us on his path of righteousness
for his name's sake. If he loses, if he loses one
sheep, if he loses one sheep, then he's a failure and God cannot
fail. God cannot fail, and God cannot
lie. God cannot lie. Go back to Proverbs
chapter four with me. Verse 10. Hear, O my son, and
receive my sayings, and the years of thy life shall be many. I
have taught thee in the way of wisdom. I have led thee in right
paths. When thou goest, thy steps shall
not be straightened. And when thou runnest, thou shalt
not stumble. Take fast hold of instruction,
let her not go, let her, or keep her, for she is thy life. What is it to be taught of God? What is it to be taught of God?
It's taught that Christ is our life. Christ is our life, that's
what it is to be taught of God. That's what he teaches us, Christ
is our life. That's what he says in the last, Part of the last
verse in 13, she is thy life. We know that she is the term
used, but it's the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't separate the
church from the Lord, and that's what he's referring to there.
But John 17 says, this is life eternal, that they might know
thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast
sent to be taught, Christ is our life. is to be taught of
God. The only way we can see that
is if the Lord is our teacher. If the Lord is our teacher, if
I am taught of God, I have been made to see Christ as my life.
Galatians 2.20 says, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live,
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me. If I've been crucified with
Christ, I've been saved from the wrath because he endured
the wrath as my substitute on the cross. If I am crucified
with Christ, then I have died to sin. Sin is gone. It's no more. I have died under
the law in Christ Jesus and the demands were met in Christ. That's
what he did in the cross, but we did it in him. Isn't that
glorious? Even though we weren't there, we were there. We didn't
know about it. He just lets us know about it
in time. He took the wrath of God for his people. All the wrath do us, he took
it. Took it out of the way, nailed
it to his cross. Now there is therefore no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. And you can't help but walk after
the spirit if you're a believer. Do you know that? He causes you
to by faith. It's in him we live. It's in
him we move. It's in him we have our being.
Sure, there's times we don't think about the Lord, but that
man, that new man on the inside is always looking with both eyes
on the Lord Jesus Christ. He never takes his eyes off of
him. Sometimes the Lord will cause us to grow cold and weary
just long enough to make us say, Lord, save me again. Lord, come
to me and put me on, show me I'm on the path. Show me I'm
still on the path that I haven't wandered off, that you haven't
left me to myself. And he said, I will be thou made whole, be
thou made whole. Colossians 3.3 says, For ye are
dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. He has placed
his people securely in himself. What could touch us if we're,
he told us that He said, I and my father are
one, but he said, we're in his hand and no man can pluck you
out of my hand. He said, and you're in my father's hand, which
means the father has him in his hand. What's gonna touch the
child of God? It doesn't pass through his hand. All things are purposed. All
things are determined for our good and for his glory. He teaches
us that, doesn't he? He teaches us that. He teaches
that When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. He
teaches us that. When he appears, we're gonna appear with him because
we're already in him. He is our life. To be taught
of God and his infinite wisdom is to be made to believe Christ
is all, all in salvation. It's made to see that we're kept
by his power. We're kept on the right path
leading us to eternal life. We're kept there we have life
eternal. Jen just like When we were elected,
saved, and called, He keeps us on the path of righteousness.
He keeps us. He keeps us by His grace. This
is all freely by grace. This is the good news of the
gospel, is everything that the Lord's gonna teach us in this
life is going to cause us to cling to Him more and more and
more until we're gonna awaken His likeness one day. We won't
need faith anymore. He teaches us that if we believe
not, what a precious promise this is. He teaches us that if
we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, because he cannot deny
himself. He cannot deny himself. Lastly, he teaches us that he
is our eternal life, and that our life is hid with Christ in
God. This is what it means to be taught.
of God. This is what he's done for all
of his sheep. He teaches his sheep. And what
does he teach? Teaching us that denying self,
ungodliness, and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously,
and godly in this present evil world. How do you do that? How
do I want to live godly? How do I live godly? How does
this sinner live godly? Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of faith. That's how you live godly. Look
to Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you're his, he'll teach you. He'll teach you. Lord, I don't
know how to look to you. That's exactly the point. Lord, cause me to
look. Make me. Make me to go in thy statutes. Thank God that pertaining to
God's chosen people, this is exactly what he does for each
and every one of them. Scripture says, whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth. Though that chastening is not It's grievous for a time,
isn't it? But yet, it doesn't last forever. He's going to remove the dross
of our unbelief until a vessel of the finer comes forth. He's
going to do that for his people. And sometimes that fire is hot,
but you know, the most glorious part is it's just like those
three Hebrew men, fire couldn't touch them. Fire could not touch
those men. The smell of smoke didn't even
get on them. Isn't that amazing? The smell of smoke didn't even
get on them. That's exactly how the Lord's people, that's exactly
how you and I are gonna come through this world is because
we are kept with our Savior who endeared that fire for us so
the fire cannot touch us. This is what the Lord teaches
his people. This is what it means to be taught
of God. Let's pray. Father, we are thankful
that you teach us for we are ignorant and we would not know
anything if you don't. Thank you for your grace and
mercy in doing so. Thank you for your word tonight.
We pray that you bless according to your will and to our understanding.
In Christ's name, amen.