Tonight we're gonna be in the
book of Proverbs, if you would like to turn there. We finished up
Proverbs chapter three last week, and I feel like the Lord's given
us a message for tonight from Proverbs chapter four. Proverbs chapter four, and I
had started by just reading the first two verses, but I changed
my mind. We're gonna read the first six verses, but before
we do, and tell us it's something that's important. There's a pattern
to our Lord's gospel. It's the same. It's the same. I was speaking to one of the
men that preached the conference in Lexington, or one of the pastors
that were there. I can't remember if he preached
or not, but it was a conversation we had. I said, well, how did
it go? He said, well, I looked at one of them and said, He said,
we just sound like a broken record. We're saying the same thing over
and over and over. But you know, that's what the Lord's people
needed to hear is the same thing over and over and over. Do you
know why? Well, it's for one, it's amazing that it never grows
old. It never grows old or tiring. Have you ever tried to eat the
same food three meals a day for multiple days in a row? Now,
some people might do that. And if they can, that's good
for them, not this guy. I can't do that. No, I like different
foods. But when it comes to the gospel,
the Lord's people only want that one food, that one manna. The children of Israel, they
got tired of that manna, didn't they? They grew weary of it.
And that's a picture of Christ, and the flesh gets tired of the
same old thing. But if I don't sound like a broken
record when I stand up here, then I'm not doing something
right. The Lord's gospel has a pattern to it. It's repetitious
on purpose to cement itself as the Lord would be pleased to
cement itself in our heart so that we would not forget the
simplicity of Christ. That's what Paul told the Galatians.
He said, he was amazed that you've been so far removed from the
simplicity of the gospel. They went back to circumcision,
didn't they? Yeah, Christ is all, but now you gotta be circumcised
too. No, it's Christ is all, that's it. That's it. God's gospel is just to be repeated,
declared. Just declared. It confirms the
severity of it. And the Lord does reveal it.
It does get sweeter, doesn't it? It does get sweeter. Can
you explain telling the same thing and it gets sweeter? I
don't know how, but I can tell you that's exactly what happens.
The more you hear it, the more you need it. And the more you
need it, the sweeter it gets. And only the Lord can do that. Only the Lord can do that. This is a matter of life and
death, the Lord's gospel. Every time we stand, it's a matter
of life and death. If we're declaring, a lot of
churches are declaring something that can never save the soul. This is the place where the Lord
promised to meet with his people. This is the place where he promised,
if his gospel's being preached, he said, it'd be there in the
midst where two or three are gathered, I'll be there. This
is life and death. That's how serious it is when
we walk through these doors. We come to hear the truth about
who God is, about who we are. And our hope is the Lord would
ground our feet once again, ground our feet once again on the rock. This is what's being declared
here in our text, come to Christ and live or believe in yourself
and die forever. Either trust the Father and believe
or you trust yourself and you'll be in unbelief and you'll die.
Only those born of the Lord's spirit need His Spirit. Isn't that true? You didn't need
the Lord's Spirit before He gave it to you. I didn't need the
Lord's Spirit before He gave it to me. Once He did, I needed
His Spirit. We sing that song, come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
with all your quickening power. We realize He's the only one
that can quicken. He's the only one that can make it live. Only those
who have tasted of the bread of life, only have been able
to eat the bread of life, need the bread of life. Nobody's out
there in the world longing for the bread of life that has no
idea who God is. No, the Lord, he causes that
need, doesn't he? He causes that need, and then
he fills that need with Christ. And now you need him. Nobody,
you never needed the fountain of living water until the Lord
said, drink. He said, live, and then he said, drink. And you
drank, and I've gotta have it now. I need to drink another
drink from the fountain. I need to be washed again. I
need to be cleansed again. It's amazing that we just desire
one more crumb, don't we? We're like, we're the dogs, the
Lord's dogs just coming. I love the thought that the Lord
says, you're not dogs. You're my sheep. You're my people.
You're my children. We're going to hear about that
tonight. You're my children. I'm a child of God. You're a child
of, if you're in Christ, you're a child of God. It's amazing that those crumbs
from the master's table never get old. We eat pretty good,
as it goes. We have plenty of food. Most
of us, I have freezers and we can stuff. We don't go hungry.
The Lord's been so gracious in that. So can you imagine eating
crumbs? Well, if you're a believer, you
can relate to it. Because we come begging, Lord, I just want
another crumb. I just need another. Another crumb. And he says, no,
here's the whole table. Here's the whole table. It's
all there. It's all my son. You can have it. It's all been
bought by the blood of Christ. And we never get tired of it.
We can't. We need it. Only those that's
been made thirsty drink. Only those that's been made hungry
eat. And boy, we certainly do, don't we? And it's all by His
own purpose and grace. None of us woke up one day and
said, today I think I'm going to be hungry for grace. Today
I'm going to be hungry for Christ. I'm going to be thirsty for righteousness.
No. No, you're actually blessed if you do. And it's not that
you're blessed because you do. It's evident that you've been
blessed of God by grace if you do hunger and thirst after righteousness.
That's what the Lord was talking about in Matthew. Blessed are
those who are poor in spirit. The blessing is that He's made
you poor in spirit. Blessed are those that thirst,
that hunger and thirst after righteousness. They will be filled.
The blessing is that you hunger and thirst after righteousness.
And what is He going to fill you with? The Lord Jesus Christ.
That's where religion gets it all wrong. It's all by his purpose
and grace, only unto his people on behalf of Christ. These are
all the same patterns, brethren, that we go through and we see
constantly throughout scripture. And this is the same pattern
right here. I hope the Lord will show to us in Proverbs chapter
four, let's read our text. The first six verses say, hear
you children. the instruction of a father,
and attend to no understanding, for I give you good doctrine.
Forsake you not my law, for I was my father's son, tender and only
beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also and said unto
me, let thine heart retain my words, keep my commandments and
live. Get wisdom, get understanding,
forget it not, neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake
her not, And she shall preserve thee, love her, and she shall
keep thee. First pattern, we'll title this
message, The Father's Instruction. The Father's Instruction. We
have a pattern here of the things that the Lord always does. always
does. Now Solomon, yes, he's speaking
to his physical son. There can be no doubt about that.
But he's also speaking to his followers. He is the king. But
if you look up that word father, the first definition is of a
man being a father to a son. But the second one is the Father,
capital F, the Lord, being a father to his chosen people. That's
literally the definition of that. So this is spiritually, this
is the Lord talking to his church, his people. Who is he talking
to? He's talking to his children. That's the first thing he says,
hear little children, or ye children, hear ye children. He's speaking
to his children. He's specifically writing to
his people. Something important is that there
is no one that will ever be in hell that was ever a child of
God. Nor did they have an opportunity
to become a child of God. Everyone that becomes a child
of, well, everyone that's a child of God has always been in Christ. He just lets us know about his
finished work when he calls us. He tells us by birthing us into
his family. What did the Lord tell Nicodemus?
You must be born again, you have to be alive by the Spirit. And
that's what he does in time. He births us, makes us alive.
So if we are his children, if we are his people and the sheep
of his pasture, we've always been his children, his people
and the sheep of his pasture. And those that are not, they
never were or could have been. I say that because we live in
a time where people talk constantly about having a chance to do this
or having a chance to do, opportunity to do this. But that's contrary
because Only those that can do that very first word that he
says. You see that first word? Hear. Hear. He tells us in Revelation,
there's about five or six times, maybe even seven times over there,
it says, he that hath ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit
says into the churches. Who's he speaking to there? The
churches. And who has ear to hear? The church. That's the
point. It's so important that we understand that the Lord is
speaking to his children. Now the good, the glorious part
of that is, is he's really speaking to his children. He really speaks
to his children. He chose to do that. He chose
to do that. He wasn't obligated by you and
me doing something or not doing something. He wasn't obligated
because we decided one day to do something or make a choice.
He wasn't obligated to speak to us. Yet here he is saying,
hear, ye children, hear. Everyone that's the Lord's child
is all by his own purpose and grace. Revelation 13, nine says,
if any man have an ear, let him hear. I probably told you this
maybe too many times, I'm gonna tell you again. When I was pastoring
foster religion, I had a woman come up to me after service when
I preached something similar to this. I was trying to preach
the truth to them as best I could. And I mentioned who has an ear,
let him hear. And I said, not everybody has
ears to hear. And she came up to me after service and that's
all she heard apparently, because she put her finger in my face
and said, number one, I chose Jesus and I made a good decision.
Number two, my ears work just fine. I heard every word you
said. And I said, no, you didn't. You didn't hear a word I said.
Gospel will anger the flesh, but he's not talking about hearing
physically speaking. Now, yes, there's things that
we should incline ourself to physically. I mean, it's good
to exercise wisdom. It's not good to act like a fool. You don't need me to tell you
that. And we know that. No, what we need to know is what
is he talking about when he's, when he's referring to this wisdom?
What is it we're supposed to hear? And it's all pointing to
Christ. That's who the father points to. Here's my beloved
son with whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. You know, if you
have ears to hear, you will hear. That's the point, isn't it? That's
the gift of grace, his ears. That's the gift of grace, his
life. And grace is not something merited or it would be no longer
grace. It would be a work. It's all
of grace, it's a gift. Who is he speaking to? He's speaking
to his children, his elect. His elected sons and daughters,
elected before time and purchased by the blood of Christ, regenerated
by his spirit. Second thing, what is he saying?
He's speaking, he's saying here, so it means he's gonna say something.
What is he saying? First of all, he says here, that
means take heed. Then he says, attend, he says,
hear the instruction of the father and attend to no understanding.
That word attend to no understanding means incline. And I liked this. I liked what this meant. Do not
discredit or devalue it. Do not discredit or devalue it. That's what that means. So we
are to incline our ear as far as the instruction goes, but
we know we cannot do that unless the Lord gives the grace to do
that. But he's saying, don't discredit the blood of Christ. Don't discredit the finished
work of Christ. Well, how do I discredit it? By adding something
to it. by doing a work that would add
to the finished work of Christ, or taking away from it, saying,
well, it wasn't sufficient until I do this. Or, yeah, it was sufficient,
but I'll also have to do this. That is discrediting. That's
what it's doing. And the Father's saying, don't
do that. Don't do that, incline. Attend to no understanding. Either we are hearing and valuing
the Father's instruction, or we're ignoring it, aren't we?
It's very simple when it comes to the Lord and his gospel. I'm
a pretty simple guy, and I like the one plus one equal twos kind
of preaching. I can't wrap my mind around some
of the intellectual things that some men say. But either we're
heeding, because the Lord's enabled us to, or hearing, and we value
the blood of Christ more than anything. We value that manna
that we were talking about just a minute ago. We are needing
the living water, or We're devaluing it, we're discrediting it. We're
trusting in self. There's no other alternative,
is there? Somebody say, well, maybe what
about people that's never heard of this before? Well, the scripture
says they're without excuse. Nature itself teaches you there's
a God. So they're trusting in themselves still. There's no
middle ground here. Either we're trusting completely
in Christ by faith because of grace, or we're not. So he's saying, value my words. And the next thing is that we
say, well, what is his instruction? He's gonna give instruction.
So what is his instruction? Look in verse five, get wisdom,
get understanding. Forget it not, neither decline
from the words of my mouth. Get wisdom, get understanding. Now here is something that begs
the question, how? How do I get wisdom? And it's
so amazing, our flesh would naturally say, well, how do I get it? Well,
let me start thinking about things I can do. Is that not what the
flesh does by nature? What do I do to get wisdom? Well,
you need to, I remember in religion, they would say, if you wanna
be more wise, you have to apply yourself to the scripture more.
You have to do this, and you have to do this. And they had
a long list of things you did. And I never got wise, I just got
smarter, as far as the Bible. For the worst wasn't for the
better. memorizing verses and all those things, getting intellectual
knowledge and know how to argue with somebody over something
that didn't even matter. That's not wisdom. That's not
wisdom. Now, how do we get wisdom? Well,
where does it come from? Comes from God. Was the Pharisee
the wise one? Because he said, I tithe, I fast,
I pray, I do this and I do this. I'm thankful I'm not like all
these other people. Was he the wise man? No. Who was the wise man?
Well, the ones that are called the wise men in the scripture,
they came to Christ to worship him, didn't they? That's a wise
man. The one that was wise in the temple that day was the publican.
The publican was the wise man. Have mercy on me, the sinner.
That's a wise man. Why? Christ made him so because
Christ is his wisdom. Do you see that? Christ is his
wisdom. Wisdom comes from God. Wisdom
comes from God. We can't, it's not something
we get for doing. Like all good things, it's a
gift of grace. It's a gift of grace. You know why? Because
Christ has been made wisdom unto God's people. He is wisdom. He
is wisdom. God must bestow it. God must
reveal it. I heard somebody say one time,
I was having a conversation, well, if the Lord must reveal
it and there's nothing I can do about it, what do I need to
do then? I don't even have to ask or anything, right? Well,
that doesn't excuse us. What does he command us to do?
Ask and you shall receive. Does that mean you have to ask
to receive it or do you ask because you received it? Think about
that. If I'm asking and that's what makes me receive it, I've
merited that. But at the same token, if I never
ask, I will not receive, or there'll be no evidence that I've received.
Does that make sense? If I don't ask, I don't have
a need. Only those that have a need will ask. That's the point,
and the Lord made that need. Nothing about this salvation
is dependent upon you and I, but if you have a need, ask,
and it shall be given unto you. That's what he says. Everyone
that asketh receiveth, he that seeketh findeth, and him that
knocketh, it shall be opened. We come knocking, Lord, open
the door, let us in. Don't leave us to ourself, don't
we? He's made that need. And that's not the cause of our
salvation, that's evidence of the salvation that he gave us. We ask because we've already
received life and grace and faith. Lord, give us your grace. Have
we not already received grace? Lord, give us your faith. Are
we believing? Lord, you've already given us, we need it. Wisdom is not just a thing that
can be found. I've already said this, but I
want to quote the whole verse wisdom. This is what wisdom is.
But of him, of God, are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made
unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Jesus Christ is the wisdom of
his people. And is he not who you cry out
for? Why would you cry out for him? Because he gave you a need.
He made you hungry. He made you thirsty. They say
you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink,
but you can give him a salt block and he'll get really thirsty
and you'll want to drink. Well, that's what the Lord does is
he gives us the salt of the washing of water by the word. He cleanses
us and makes us desirous to be cleansed again. I didn't realize
I was dirty until I got clean. I didn't realize I was dead until
I was made alive. I didn't realize I was lame until I started walking.
I didn't know I was blind until I could see. Isn't that the truth? Paul said, I, you know, Lord,
I see much better since you've struck me blind. Cause I see
Christ. Now I see the Lord. I don't see
my, my, myself anymore. I don't see my goodness. I see
his goodness. And that's how it is. We're blind to the flesh
now, aren't we? We're blind to the flesh. No one will ever need grace until
they are made guilty. If you're made guilty of sin,
you'll need grace. You'll cry out for grace. You'll
cry out for mercy. If you're made guilty, and what
I mean by that is, is I don't mean that you go to the law and
that you see, okay, I've committed a trespass against God. I'm talking
about if God has made you a sinner, you will need grace and you will
need mercy and you will cry out for it. The whole reason that
you see the guilt, you see the sin, is because you've been made
alive to it. You've been made alive to it.
You've been called. And then you cry out, Lord, have
mercy on me, the sinner. Peter would have never said,
Lord, save me, unless he was sinking. This is what he's saying here.
If you can hear, you're gonna hear. And when you hear, he's
saying here, Get wisdom. Seek after Christ. Seek after
Christ. Get understanding. He'll give
you the understanding that he's God, salvation's of the Lord,
and it is finished. That's what he'll teach us. God did not choose to elect his
people. None could be saved. If Christ
had not died, and took our sin unto himself, none could be saved.
If the spirit does not regenerate, then none can be saved. Salvation
is all of the Lord. That's what wisdom teaches us.
That's what knowledge, that's the good doctrine he's talking
about, which is probably what we're gonna look at next Wednesday.
The word good doctrine in the second verse. That word law in
the second verse actually means instruction. Instruction, forsake
not my instruction. This is an instruction from the
Lord to his people. We're being pointed, who does
he always point us to? Is this just a, do we need a
moral reformation here to figure out how to live better? Is that
gonna help us? No, he's pointing to his son. He's pointing to
wisdom, the Lord Jesus Christ. That word get means to value,
value wisdom, value understanding. It's priceless, it's priceless. If his blood hadn't been sufficient
to put away our sin, none would have ever been saved. But because
he did all the choosing, according to His purpose and grace before
time ever began, because He did all the saving in time, because
He did all the regenerating by His Spirit, everyone that He
purposed to save, they're born again in time according to His
will. We can rest. We can rest in that
wisdom. You and I could never have come
up with a a designed salvation like he designed it, like he
purposed it. I kind of get hung up on it sometimes,
because it's always right now. If you're a son and daughter
of God, right now you are, and right now you are, and right
now you are, and right now you are, and it's never going to
not be now. I love that. Well, let's read our text again. Verse 1, hear ye children the
instruction of a father, and attend to no understanding. For I give you good doctrine,
forsake ye not my law. For I was my father's son, tender
and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also
and said unto me, let thine heart retain my words, keep my commandments
and live. Get wisdom, get understanding,
forget it not. Neither decline from the words
of my mouth. Forsake her not and she shall
preserve thee. Love her and she shall keep thee.
Don't you love the fact that if the Lord preserves us, we
can't forsake him, and that if he keeps us, we're always gonna
love him. If we find ourself loving God,
what does the scripture say? We love him because he first
loved us. And in religion, they have it
backwards where they take this just at face value and say, okay,
well, if I don't forsake her, then he'll preserve me. No, you
don't forsake him because he preserves you. That's exactly
right, isn't it? Well, if you love God, then If you love God,
then He'll keep you. No, no, no. He keeps you, therefore
you love Him. He first loved you. And if He
loved you now, He's always gonna love you, and He's never gonna
stop loving you. This is what He's teaching us here. What a
glorious picture of our Lord showing us that it's all of grace,
every bit of it. There's nothing about this salvation
that is dependent upon you and I. We can't, well, we can't mess
it up. I say that all the time, but
I find great comfort in that. I can't mess it up. Last thing I want to look at
is why, why is he saying this? We've seen who's speaking, who's
he, who is he speaking to? What is he saying? Why is he
saying this? Now I've kind of told us a little
bit of the why, but I believe the Lord showed me something.
I hope, I hope this is encouraging. I hope he allows me to say this
the way that he revealed it to me. Sometimes I have trouble
getting out of my own way, I suppose. He's saying all this to reveal
to us what 1 John 5, 12 says, he that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Now you can't get the Son of
God, and I can't get the Son of God by doing something. He
must reveal himself, he's God. And so many religions have that
all messed up. But if he doesn't come to where
we are by his spirit and arrest us and make us alive, make us
sinners, make us need grace, make us need mercy, and cry out
for it, if he doesn't make us do those things, we'll remain
dead in trespasses and sins. We just will. He that hath the
son hath life. He that hath wisdom, Christ is
that wisdom, hath life. He that has understanding, the
Lord by his grace gives understanding that Christ is God and that he
accomplished the work on Calvary. If I don't have God, if I don't
have the Lord Jesus Christ as my portion, I am devoid of life,
I'm destitute of all spiritual things, I'm dead in trespasses
and in sin without any hope, without any hope. But if God
has made the Lord Jesus Christ, all my wisdom, all my righteousness,
all my sanctification and all my redemption. I have everything. I have everything and lack nothing. We can say with David, the Lord
is my shepherd. I shall be in want of nothing.
Be in want of nothing. Why? Because he makes me lie
down. He leads me. He keeps me. He prepares for
me. He leads me in the paths of righteousness
for his name's sake. He restores my soul. He does
everything for me. Even when I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, he'll be with me. Why? He already conquered
death. And his rod and staff keeps bringing
us back to him. Aren't you glad he don't leave
you to yourself? His staff will reach out and just pull you back
when you try to stray, brings you right back. That's why he said, surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And where
do you want to dwell at? In the house of the Lord forever.
David said, I have one desire that I might be in his holy temple
and inquire, inquire at his holy temple to see his face, to see
his face. This is the father's instruction.
This is what wisdom teaches us. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. Brethren, the strongest man is
utterly the strongest man that's ever lived or ever will live
on this earth. Samson, maybe it was Samson,
I don't know. He was utterly powerless if Christ was not his
strength, if Christ was not his strength. The wisest man that
ever lived is a complete fool if Christ was not his wisdom. The most noble man, the most
noble man that ever lived is less than the least of the peasants
if Christ is not his King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The
richest man is less than the poorest beggar if Christ is not
his treasure. Christ is all in all, isn't he? Christ is all in all. Though
I have everything, and I have not Christ, I'm just a hell-deserving
sinner. Doesn't matter if I have all
the might, all the power, have all the fame, all the fortune.
If I owned the world and I owned heaven and everything that's
in it, what good would it do to gain all that if you lost
your soul? You've got to have Christ. We've got to have him.
That is the instruction of the Father. If I don't have Christ
as my shepherd, my savior, my substitute and surety, I have
nothing. I have nothing. But oh, you can say with confidence,
if you have him, if you have him as your savior, your surety,
your shepherd, your substitute, you have everything. Everything. What do you mean by everything?
Everything. All good things come down from the father of lights.
He said, you being evil know how to give good gifts unto your
children. How much more shall your heavenly father give unto
him that asks him? What do we ask for? We ask for
his spirit. We ask for peace. We ask for Christ. We ask for
grace. Why? Because we're taught of our father. We're taught of our father. Our
father keeps his sheep and he already supplied everything that
we will ever need. Look at the cross. You wanna see, you think
he's gonna supply everything in salvation and leave us alone
on this earth alone? No, he's gonna keep us all the
way. He's gonna keep us all, he's not gonna leave us to ourself.
for all time and eternity. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as all your righteousness
before the throne of God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the instruction of the Father. Believe on him for all
time and eternity. This is the instruction of the
Father. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for instructing your children. For Lord, we were not only ignorant,
we were dead. and we were made alive, we only
knew one thing, you're God and we're the sinner, and we needed
a savior, then you revealed your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, calls
us to cling to him. Bless this message to our understanding
for your glory, in Christ's name, amen.