You're gonna be in the book of
Proverbs if you'd like to turn there. Proverbs chapter one. I have decided to try to bring
this message from a tablet instead of paper. And so if at any time
I need to, I can throw the tablet on the ground and I have paper
underneath it. But we'll see if this will work. I've noticed
other pastors, and me and I have, I think highly of, they do the
same thing with tablets and whatnot, so we'll see. We'll just see. I'm a little old school, I guess,
in that regard, but we'll see what happens. Tonight we're in
Proverbs chapter one, and this may sound a bit familiar from
last week, because some of it I said, but the Lord, I believe,
has given me a new message on the same topic of wisdom, and
I've titled this message, Do I Know Wisdom? Do I Know Wisdom? Now let's read here, chapter
one, verse one, we'll read the first six verses. The Proverbs
of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom
and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to
receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity,
to give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and
discretion. A wise man will hear and will
increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain
unto wise counsels, to understand a proverb and the interpretation,
the words of the wise and their dark sayings. Now Solomon, like
some others, but no other place in the scripture is it more accurate
to say Solomon tells us exactly why he is writing Proverbs. And
it's amazing as we've already been in Proverbs a bit, the more
I read it, the more the Lord chooses to, I see the Lord's
face from different angles, from different, he's the same Lord,
it's the same salvation. But every time I read this, I
just kept thinking again about the wisdom of the Lord and how
that we have none, but he is all wisdom. Solomon gives us the cause and
effect here in Proverbs. Now, I'd remind us a proverb
is a parable, and it's called a dark saying. They're called
dark sayings here in verse six, but he says these words, a wise
man will hear. Now we just read in 1 Corinthians,
and I would remind us, when the world by wisdom knew not God.
That means by the fleshly wisdom that men and women acquire when
the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God through the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believed. That means
I can't attain to this wisdom. No matter how wise I am according
to the flesh, no matter how much wisdom I boast in myself, if
I have not Christ, I have nothing. If I have not Christ, I have
no wisdom. This is what he's beginning to
expound upon to some degree by saying a proverb of peace, to
know wisdom. That's what proverb of Solomon
means, a proverb of peace, a proverb of peace to the Lord's people. Here's the parable. Here's the,
without understanding, we can't know it, but here is peace to
the Lord's people. And the first thing he says is
the reason to know wisdom, to know wisdom, to know dark sayings. 1 Timothy 3 tells us, without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, and preached unto
the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into
glory. It's called the mystery of godliness.
Now, you and I, we do not know anything about godliness, save
that the Lord chooses to enlighten us to the things of godliness.
Natural man cannot receive the things of God because they're
spiritually discerned. We're carnal, we're fleshly,
we're mortal, he's immortal. We can't explain he's eternal,
yet we're subject to time and he's not. How can we wrap our
mind around that? We can't in the flesh. No, faith
just believes. Faith looks to him in all things. Not a mystery according to the
flesh, according to the flesh. It's a mystery, or it is it would
remain a mystery in the flesh. But what he is saying here is
this mystery is something that the Lord gives unto His people. It's a mystery of godliness.
Men and women, I'll try to explain this a little bit better. Men
and women, we acquire knowledge. We acquire understanding. My
children are going to school. Your children went to school.
All of us in here, for the most part, I'm sure we went to school
at some point in time. And it's to gain knowledge. It's
to gain information. And you have those that continue
studying and spend their entire life studying a specific topic. And they are wise according to
the flesh. You have men such as Aristotle,
you have men, you understand what I'm talking about, Da Vinci,
all these men that studied and men would say, these are wise
men, let's seek their counsel. This is not something that no
man can come to the knowledge of. Why is that? Christ said,
no man comes to the Father, but by me. That's why. It has to
be him that enlightens. It has to be him that enables.
It has to be him that makes us see him. Or we'll never see him. God is and always will remain
a mystery unless he reveals himself. Otherwise, we'll never know him.
We'll never know him. We'll have a form of godliness,
the scripture says, but we'll deny the power thereof. We'll
have a understanding that there's a higher power. You heard men
say that before, a higher being. We don't know who God is unless
he introduces himself. He does it one way, doesn't he?
We've already quoted it. When the world by wisdom knew
not God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching.
Preaching of his gospel, Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and the salvation
to everyone that believeth. Romans chapter 1, 16. This is
a mystery unless the Lord reveals it through and by his gospel.
The good news to his people is this literally says a proverb
of peace to those whom the Lord loves. That's the good news. This is not a parable in order
for you to try to unravel it. This is a parable that's declared
to the Lord's people, and he is the interpreter thereof. He's
the focal point. He's the message and the messenger.
He unravels the mystery of godliness by just having this simple saying,
Christ is all. That's enough for the spiritual
man, isn't it? We just rest. We just rest. Now in these first
six verses, I mentioned this last week, but I wanted to reiterate
this this week. These first six verses, we have five. Unmistakable
acts of God. Five things that the Lord must
do. Not that we can acquire, not
that we can attain to, not that we can come to a knowledge of,
but five things pertaining to God. Five merits of mercy. Not according to our merits,
but according to the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. These
are five declarations of the Lord's providence to his people.
The first one is to know. to know, and Lord willing, starting
tonight, over the next four weeks after tonight, we're gonna look
at all five of these, Lord willing. Tonight we're looking at wisdom,
to know wisdom and instruction. The second one is to perceive.
The third one is to receive. The fourth one is to give subtlety.
And the last one is to understand. These are all gifts by grace.
And I'm not gonna, it's difficult not to talk about each of them
at one time. And I felt as I was trying to comprise my notes and
seek the Lord's face on a message, that it was just too much to
try to compress. And so as I just started studying
the first one, the Lord gave me a message. And then Lord willing,
next week, we're gonna look at to perceive, and he's already
given me part of a message on that. I trust that he'll allow
us tonight to know wisdom and instruction. Again, the title
is Do I Know Wisdom? Do I Know Wisdom? You heard me
say this last week, but I got hung up on this. It didn't say
learn. It doesn't say to learn wisdom.
It says to know wisdom. To know wisdom and instruction.
To know instruction. Who did the instructing? That's
the question. If a man can teach it to you,
another man can talk you out of it. If I can convince you
as a good salesman to buy something, somebody else that's a better
salesman than me can convince you to buy something else. If
I can talk you into something, somebody else can talk you out
of it. But we're not persuaded of men, are we? No. We're persuaded
of God. How is that so? Because he does
the persuading. Not because I persuade or you
persuade, the Lord persuades. And how does he do that? He gives
life. He gives breath. He gives us
his wisdom, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. To know wisdom. That word to know means to distinguish,
to confess, to be acquainted with. Most people think that
God can be found at church. Have you spoken to somebody and
have you invited anybody to church since we, if you have since we
started meeting here together and perhaps you did before in
Bali or whatever else. I've heard this more than any
other thing that I've heard from somebody. I said, I'd like for
you to come to church. Would you like to come to church,
be with us? You're more than welcome. They say these words, you know,
I need to get back. I need to get back to church.
I need to start back. I need to, like it's, a habit
that you just quit and you start up again. But it's a good habit,
right? Because this is where God can
be found. That's the imagination of men. That's what men think.
They believe God can be found here. Some men believe he can
be found in certain ordinances. There's religions all over the
world that base everything they do off of ordinances. Catholic
Church is one of them. Everything that they do is an
ordinance. You have to do this this way. You have to do this
that way. None of it's biblical. None of it's biblical, not ordained
of God. Christ is the end of the law.
They're just doing the moral law, aren't they? No, this isn't,
that's not salvation, is it? No, it's not salvation. Men believe they can find God
by observing ordinances. Some believe God can be found.
in righteous living, how you live your life. I just mentioned
the moral law. That's how men live their life. They believe that they have attained
a knowledge of God because they examine themselves and they say,
I'm better than this person, or I'm better than that person.
None of these things are the wisdom of God. These are all
men's ideas about what they should do in order to please God. And none of it's true. None of
it's true whatsoever. First of all, God's not lost.
He can't be found because he's not lost. Christ didn't come
to give us a chance to find him. I find comfort in that, don't
you? Christ didn't come to give me an opportunity to find him,
to play hide and go seek. That's what children do. Christ
came to save. Christ came to seek and to save
that which was lost. You ever felt lost before, dead
in trespasses and in sin? Christ came to seek and save
you. If you've ever seen yourself, and I have confidence that we
have, if you found yourself as lost, if you found yourself as
a sinner, how are you going to seek God in that state? You can't. Lord, you're going to have to
find me and know me. I can't. We didn't know which
way was up. We just knew one thing, didn't
we? Whereas I was blind, now I see. Whereas I was a sinner,
now I see the Savior. This is what the Lord does. We
cry out for mercy, because we've seen our state, and we've seen
Him as, Lord, I don't know anything except you. I've got to have
you. I know that you are wisdom, and
I'm not. Oh, and the world by wisdom knew
not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that would believe. The Lord does that. The Lord
saves them. The Lord causes them to believe
that here's his glorious gospel according to his will. What do
I mean here? With the hearing of this ear?
No, not the physical. The spiritual ear. The spiritual
ear, he does that. Most believe they can make God
Lord over their life. Well, that makes us Lord over
him, doesn't it? See brethren, everything that
we believe according to the flesh is wrong pertaining to God. Everything. Everything. I can't make him
Lord. That makes me Lord. If I can let him do one thing
or prevent him from doing one thing, he's no longer God. That's
what wisdom teaches us, isn't it? He's God. He's God. Most by nature think they can
do to attain favor with God, they can do to please God, they
can do to merit salvation, they can do after salvation to add
to the jewels in their crown. Have you ever heard that before?
Remember in religion, men would say you can win seven crowns. I thought, and now that I'm a
believer, first of all, I think that's pretty limiting of the
Lord, you know, if he only gives us seven. I'm being sarcastic,
of course. We don't need a crown. Christ
is the crown, isn't he? We're not looking to recognition.
You think about the arrogance of that, saying, when you get
there and you have all seven crowns that you could have won,
I did all this. And now the idea was, is I can
lay it at his feet. That's not what you're doing
with those crowns. You're saying, look what I've done for you.
Look what I've done. That's all pride. See, that wisdom
doesn't teach that. Not God's wisdom. Man's wisdom
says, yes, we should do more. We should get more. And even
put the name of Jesus on it. What does wisdom teach? Lord,
everything you require, you're going to have to provide. Wisdom
teaches, Lord, you are the reward. You are the reward. I don't If
I'm going to receive a crown, I want it to be a crown of righteousness.
And who is our righteousness? The Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
if I'm to receive a robe, I want the robe of Jesus Christ, the
robe of righteousness, not a robe that I've earned because you
won't receive any of it. The Lord gives his people the
crown and the robe of righteousness that he crowned his people with
righteousness. This is what wisdom teaches us. What is it then to know wisdom
and instruction? Do I have wisdom? That's the wrong question. That's
the wrong question. Do I know wisdom? He's a person. He's a person. To know wisdom means you've received
instruction of the Lord. He's caused you to have life.
He's given you the grace to see that you're the sinner. He's
the savior. It's not complicated to have
an understanding that God is God, but it takes faith to believe
it. You can go, a man can believe that there's a God, even the
demons believe in Tremble, but it takes faith to believe he
was the successful redeemer of his people. It takes faith to
say, truth, Lord, I know nothing. You've got to be my wisdom. You've
got to be my wisdom. The question is, do I know wisdom?
Men will say, tell me what you know. And I'll tell you what
I know, and we'll have a battle of wits. You ever been in a situation
like that? I'm talking about spiritual things.
I'm talking about things of the Bible. They'll say, I know this. You
tell me what you know. And it's like a ping pong match
going back and forth. And to the victor gets the spoils of
pride and self-righteousness, honestly. I mean, that's just
how it is. If it's a battle of wits, I'm pretty unarmed. I'm
just going to be honest with you. Like Paul said, I say, I've
determined, I've purposed. I have one hope, to know nothing
among you, Save Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's all
I want to know. Isn't that all you want to know? I don't need
to know all the details of this or that or have arguments and
confusing. We don't have topical discussions
in order to debate the Bible. No, the gospel is declared and
the Lord does the work in his people. That's what wisdom teaches
us. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
teaches his people. If men want to talk about what
they know and what they've learned, who did they learn it from? Who
did they learn it from? Ask yourself that question. Do
I know wisdom? Where did you learn of him from? Was it from God or from man?
Turn with me in your Bibles, if you will, to John chapter
six. Who did I learn from? Men brag and say, I know this
and I know that, but who do we learn from? John 6, verse 45. John 6, 44, I'm sorry. I've already
quoted this, but let's look at this together. No man can come
to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I
will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Who did we learn from?
Did we learn from a family member? I had a lady one time speaking
to me after the Lord had showed me the truth of his, by grace
alone, it's no merit of my own or understanding of my own, the
Lord did it. By grace, when I saw the truth. Speaking to this lady
in Target, we were talking and she said, I heard you resigned
your church. I was in false religion at the
time, and I said, yeah, we're going down to this church. And
they knew what they were preaching down there. It's Gabe Stoniker,
pastor of Kingsport Sovereign Grace, it was his church, where
their church is. And this lady, I said, yeah, you're welcome
to come and hear sometime. I was excited. I wanted to come
here. And she said these words to me. She said, well, what I
believe was good enough for my mother, and it was good enough
for my husband, and it's good enough for me. She learned that
from her mama. That's what, whatever she believed.
She learned from her mom, and she learned from her husband,
and that was good enough for her. And this poor lady don't
understand. The Lord says, they that are mine are taught of God,
not men. No, we don't look at one another
and say, well, I learned this from so and so, that's how I
know it's true. No, we're not persuaded of, brethren, we're
not persuaded of angels. We're persuaded of God himself.
We're persuaded of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're persuaded by his
gospel, aren't we? All by faith. All by faith. Now he says here clearly, every
man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father
cometh to me. You remember what he told the
Pharisees. He said, you will not come to me that you may have
eternal life. You will not. It's in the book
of John. It's pretty close to where we're
at. He said, you will not come to me. Why not? They wouldn't. But number two, if you look what
he says here, verse 44, no man can come. They couldn't. They
wouldn't and they couldn't. And that's you and I in our sinful
state. This is what wisdom teaches us. Not only will we not, but
we can't. Even if we could, we wouldn't.
You understand what I'm saying? It's impossible. Aren't you glad
what things are possible with man? They're possible with God.
The disciples looked at the Lord whenever the Lord gave the parable
of the camel that goes through the eye of a needle. He said,
talking about the rich man, he said, it's easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter
into glory. And they looked and said, well,
who then can be saved? And the Lord said those words,
with man, it's impossible, but with God, all things are possible.
Men use that as a physical rule of life about all their circumstances
and things that they're facing. And I suppose, I mean, that's
true, but to the believer in our dire state of sin, We hear
that all things are possible. You mean I can be saved? All
things are possible with God. He's not limited. This is what
wisdom teaches us. Everything that we thought we
knew about God, we threw it out the window. He threw it out the
window. We didn't throw nothing. He threw it out the window. That's
called repentance. And he shuts us up to Christ, and Christ is
all our wisdom. That's what faith does. That's
what faith does. No man can come except the Father
which hath sent me draw him. No man can come, no man will
come unless God enables him, unless God gives understanding,
unless God, who is our wisdom, introduces himself as thus. If
he leaves us to ourself, we'll think we know something. You've
been around people that in business and trade and life, and many
of you are older than I am several years over, you understand, you've
met people that they really think they've arrived, they know something
that nobody else knows. And they're really puffed up
about it. They're really puffed up about
it. And religious are the worst for it. It's their righteousness. Isn't it amazing when the Lord
reveals himself, how empty you see yourself? I don't know anything
anymore. I thought, that's what Naaman
said, I thought Elijah, Elisha would come out and he would chant
and he would do this and that in his head. He thought, I'm
gonna see fireworks and everything else going on. I don't even know
if fireworks were admitted back then, but you understand what
I'm saying. He thought too highly of himself. But when God shows
you you're a sinner, Christ becomes your wisdom. God never has revealed
to a person that they are the chief sinner without giving them
Christ the Savior, the remedy for that sin. That's good news.
That's good news to me. He doesn't just give, show you
His holiness and His sovereignty and His glory and then says you're
on your own. Never, never will you hear that no repentance and
faith is simultaneous and it's the it is the cause. It's the result of life, not
the cause of the Lord says live. He gives repentance and faith
that confesses Christ is my wisdom now I don't have any. I don't
have any. Those things which were before,
I forget those. Now I press towards the mark
of the high calling of God. Matter of fact, everything that
I thought before, Paul said, I counted it as dung that I may
win Christ. Do I know wisdom? Does that mean do I have godly
understanding? Well, to know wisdom is not to
know biblical facts, It's not to know biblical history. A man
could have the entire Bible memorized and still not know wisdom. To know wisdom is not to know
details about each book. It's not even to have a moral
understanding of God's law. As a matter of fact, to know
wisdom is to confess you can't keep God's law, not one time
in any way. Not one time in any way. Guilty
of all of it. That's what wisdom teaches us. Everyone that came to Christ
bowed, begging for him, bowing and begging for grace and mercy
alone. You never came to the Lord and
said, Lord, okay, I see that I'm a sinner. Now give me a better
understanding of what I need to do to fix it. That's not what
happened, is it? No, it was, Lord, I'm the sinner.
I need the blood. I've got to have the blood. If
I don't have your blood, I'm going to perish. Lord, if I don't
have the fountain of living water, I'm going to perish. It's the
only water that's going to satisfy. If I don't have the manna from
heaven, I'm going to die of hunger. We didn't come asking how to
fix it. We knew that Christ was the only remedy. That's what
he does when he reveals wisdom to you and I, to his people.
Only God's people have been made to have one resolve. Christ is
all. To know wisdom, to know wisdom
is not asking, am I one of the elect? Think about what I'm saying. Do you ever ask that question
before? Does that trouble you? Am I one
of God? First of all, you're examining
yourself, don't do that. To know wisdom believes that
Jesus Christ is the successful redeemer of his people. To know
wisdom believes that everyone that the father gave to the son,
he died for them and secure their salvation, their eternal redemption.
To know wisdom is not to examine yourself in any way, but is to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord, how is it
I can come to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? He's got to
give faith to do so. That's what wisdom teaches us. Christ is all. We just believe
him. Well, I told you if the tablet
gave me a fit, I'd throw it on the floor. I'm going to put it
right here instead. I hit a button. I don't know
what I did. We'll figure that out some other
time. I'm not too worried about it right now. To know wisdom is not asking,
am I elect? And somebody that says, yeah, I believe I'm one
of the elect, well, they What are you basing that off of? Are
you basing that off of you, or are you basing it off of Him?
I think it's glorious that the Lord never... Think about how
we would be if we were 100% certain When we examine ourself, we know
we're His. Think about how pompous we would
be and how arrogant we would be and how self-righteous. I
mean, we would. You know we would. That's what our flesh would love
to do that. But the Lord's made it so that we're mercy beggars.
From the time that He reveals the truth to the time we draw
our last breath, we're mercy beggars. That's how He's designed
it. He's made it to where he's our only hope. His wisdom, not
ours. See, it's not what we know, it's
who we know. It's who we know, the Lord Jesus
Christ. To know wisdom is to believe the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not asking you, do you know
thoughts or facts or have an understanding? I'm asking you,
do you know wisdom himself? Paul said, I'm determined to
know nothing among you save Jesus Christ. That's wisdom. That's
wisdom, the Lord Jesus Christ is. To know wisdom is to hope
in nothing else but him, to believe on him and nothing else, trust
in him and nothing else, cry out to him and no one else for
salvation. To know wisdom is to beg Him
for salvation. If you know Him, you're gonna
beg for Him. It's not enough just to know
Him one time. We wanna know Him more and more and more, don't
we? I've already picked the song,
Closing Hymn, but there's a song more about Jesus I would know.
Is that not true? While we're here, tell me again
about our Isaac. Tell me again, what does he look
like? Tell me again how he walks. Tell me again how he talks. We
wanna know more about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, don't
we? Because he is now, he's been made our wisdom. Now very simply put, brethren,
either we are working or we are resting. Either we know him,
either we know him or we're lost, or we're lost. Now that insults
some people, they don't like that. But to the believer, it
just makes us cry out, Lord, give me Christ, lest I die. Give
me more of him. Either we've received this instruction
that's mentioned in our text of God, or we're trusting in
the lie. It's that simple. And I realize I might be able
to preach this again next week, because we only got 20 minutes
left if I hurry. But I'll tell you this, by way
of an allegory, Elijah on the Mount Carmel prophets of Baal
had come. I believe it was 400 prophets
of Baal. Elijah says these words, why
halt you between two opinions? And that's what it comes down
to. Salvation comes down to that.
Why halt you between two opinions? Either you're persuaded of God
and we believe God because he's persuaded us or we're halted
between two opinions. What does that mean? Well, that
means we can't believe God. We won't come to him. We believe
in ourself. Either we're God or he's God.
That's the two opinions, isn't it? Either I'm God or he's God. What does wisdom teach us? Christ,
Jesus is God, not me, not me. He's God. Elijah said, why halt
you between two opinions? If God be Him, serve Him. If
Baal be Lord, serve Him. So they, they, he said, let's
do this. The God that answers by fire,
Him be God. And they said, okay, well, the
prophets of Baal, you know the account. They began to call upon
their God. And the scripture says that they
cut themselves and the blood was gushing forth. Like this
was a grotesque scene. It wasn't something that was
simple and easy. They were really trying their very best, which
is a picture of the maniac of Gadara cutting himself every
day in false religion until the Lord found him. And when the
Lord found him, how did they find him after the Lord found
him? He was seated and clothed and in his right mind. Well,
these men were not in their right mind. They didn't know wisdom.
They didn't know wisdom. They thought they knew who God
was, but they didn't. They cut themselves and they
cried louder into the afternoon and their Lord didn't answer
because he wasn't God. He couldn't answer. And Elijah makes fun
of them. Says, is he on a journey? Is
he sleeping? You know, he's doing this or that. And then it was
Elijah's turn. And by God's grace, and we have
the beautiful picture of our Lord's sacrifice on Calvary's
cross. He made a 12 stone altar unto the Lord. And he wet that
stone with four buckets of water three times. I don't have to
tell you that's 12 and 12. That represents all the elect
of God. Every single person that Christ
was bearing their sin on the cross of Calvary. That's what
that represents. And when Elijah began to cry
out, fire came from heaven. And the sacrifice that was on
the altar burnt up and all the water was licked up with it.
The Lord consumed all of it. It's a picture of the Lord endearing
our due wrath upon the cross of Calvary, Him taking it in
our stead. And instead of us, the sacrifice
was not consumed and all that was in Him, perfectly safe, made
the righteousness of God in Him. That's what that's a picture
of. See, only Elijah that day knew wisdom. To know wisdom is
to see that when the Lord died, my only hope is that I died in
Him. To know wisdom is to believe that whenever He was resurrected,
my only hope is that I was resurrected in Him. To know wisdom is to
see when He sat down on the right hand of the Father, when the
Lord said, sit thou here at my right hand till I make thy enemies
thy footstool to the Son, our only hope is that we are now
seated in Him in the heavenlies. That's what it is to know wisdom.
That's what it is to know wisdom. Elijah knew wisdom. He knew the
requirement. You and I know the requirement
now, don't we? We had a thought, a form of godliness, a bit of
understanding, we thought, thought we could do good, thought we
had attained the knowledge, thought that we could live a certain
way, do this and that, but now we know the cost. What was the
cost for our salvation? Is it the sacrifice of yourself?
No. Thanks be to God. It's not us. Not unto us, O Lord. Not unto
us, but unto thy name. Why his name? Because Christ
Jesus is the sacrifice. His blood was the required payment. Not ours. Not ours. That's why Paul said that I may
know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship
of his suffering, being made conformable unto his death. Christ
Jesus, who is our wisdom, made peace. Just like he's speaking
of the parables of peace. Christ Jesus, our wisdom, is
the one that made peace. of wisdom. We would never know.
We would have been in darkness without understanding, but yet
the Lord gave instruction. The Lord gave us Christ. The
Lord showed us the truth, and now we've been brought to the
light. Who is the light? See, it all
revolves around him, doesn't it? Every bit of it's him. Every
bit of it's him. In closing, let's turn to 1 Corinthians
1. 1 Corinthians 1. Let's look at verse 27. Brethren, the Lord has made it
so. That you and I cry out for that wisdom, and you know what
the Lord says? My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. But do you know what it also
says? The Lord hears them that are His. When you cry out unto
Him as His children, He hears you when you cry. And what is
it that you ask for? Lord, give me Christ, lest I
die. Is that not our prayer? That's
what wisdom teaches. That's what wisdom teaches. We
no longer cleave unto ourself and our knowledge, but we cling
into the shepherd of our salvation. We deny what we thought we knew.
And now we say in my hands, no price I bring simply to Christ. I cling. Can you agree? You agree
that this is your confession. I have no wisdom in myself. You
agree with that. I have no wit, not spiritually.
I have no wisdom whereby I can present unto the Lord in and
of myself that would merit anything. You agree with that? Hear what
James said. If any of you He's talking to
the Lord's people. He's talking to the elect here.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to
all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given. Do
you know wisdom? Do I know wisdom? If I don't,
ask him. He said, I'll give it to you.
I'll give it to you. All you gotta do is ask. And
if you ask, he gave the want to for you to ask, didn't he?
Look in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 27. Do I know wisdom? It says,
but God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound
the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world
to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of
the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen. Yea, the things which are not
to bring to naught that the things that are, that know flesh, should
glory in his presence. But of him, of who, of God, are
you in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. To the world, the
simplicity of Christ is foolishness, but to you and I, you and I,
Christ is everlasting life. He is all to us. God has made
him unto us, all of our wisdom, all of our righteousness, all
of our sanctification, and all of our redemption. I want you
to think about this. If you know wisdom, the question
tonight is do I know wisdom? If you know wisdom, you know
redemption. If you know wisdom, you know
sanctification. You know you're not getting better.
It's God that once sanctified his people by his precious blood.
If you know wisdom, you know justification. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ that justified. That's what the Lord said. It's
God that justified. Who art thou, old man, that would
reply against him? If you know wisdom, You know
righteousness, sanctification. You know redemption. You know
justification. You know, we don't know glorification
yet, but we've been glorified. One day we're gonna be able to
experience that, aren't we? One day we're gonna be able to experience
glorification. Why? Because the Lord's made
us to know wisdom. That's why. He is our wisdom,
Christ Jesus. He is our righteousness. He is
our sanctification and redemption. Christ is all, and is made all
unto his people. Proverbs starts out and says,
parables of peace, parables of peace unto the Lord's people,
unto the Lord's people. Here's the reason that I'm writing
parables of peace unto you, that you may know wisdom. You're gonna
know who he is. If you're the Lord's people,
you're gonna know who he is. His name is Jesus Christ. And
you're gonna receive instruction from him. What is that instruction?
Christ is all. Christ is all. He that glorieth
me, glory in the Lord. That's why you wrote it. Do I
know wisdom? Do I know the Lord Jesus Christ?
In asking that question, we will say this, Lord, search me and
know me. There'll be one thing in me that I'm clinging to for
my wisdom. Cause it to be put away. Put it away, Lord. I can't
do it. Put it away. Give me Christ.
Make him my wisdom. That's our prayer, isn't it?
Let's pray. Lord, Cause us to know wisdom. Cause us to know your darling
son. If we never have, cause it to be now. Cause us to know
nothing save Christ and him crucified in glory and nothing but him.
In his name we pray, amen. Let's turn to number 334, Be
Thou