I'm going to start this message
tonight and probably work on it some more Sunday morning because
I don't think that I can possibly go through all the 30 verses
this evening. But the title of this message
is The Children of Wisdom. The Children of Wisdom. Let's
read verse 1. It came to pass when Jesus had
made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed
thence to teach and to preach in their cities. Never, never
underestimate the power of the preaching of the word. I know
that the natural man does not like preaching, one of the common
sayings of this day is don't preach to me. Maybe your children
said that sometime, don't preach to me. People on the job, don't
preach to me. But I'll tell you this, you can't
underestimate, you shouldn't underestimate the power of preaching. You should never do that. Most
preaching I agree with them in that statement. Most preaching
on TV and radio I don't like either. There are not many true
preachers. There are a lot of false preachers
going out into the world. Not many men really preaching
the word of God. I've preached a lot. I've preached
a lot of messages. I'm still trying to learn how
to preach. the gospel. I'll be honest with
you, of all the thousands of times that I've preached, I have
never, ever come to the end of the message of what I've said
to myself, I'd like to preach that again, see if I can do better.
That's just so. We're never satisfied with our
effort to preach the word of God, because we feel our insufficiency. Paul said, who's sufficient for
these things? He wrote this preceding that
statement. He said, thanks be unto God,
who always causes us to triumph in Christ, for we are unto those
that perish the savor of death unto death, fragrance of death
unto death. add to their condemnation when
we preach the word. And with a savor the fragrance
of life unto life to them who believe. And who on earth is
sufficient for this? And the longer we preach the
more reluctant we are to assume this role. That's right. That's right. However, in every age and generation,
the Lord has had his true preachers of the word. They are those whom
God sends, the true preachers of the word. Because he said
in 1 Corinthians 1.21, it pleased God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching, what men call foolishness. Preaching is not foolish. And
we don't preach foolishness, we preach God's Word, but people
call it foolishness. That's the reason they say don't
preach to me. But God Almighty pleased him by this means. You see, Paul said to the Thessalonians,
he said, I always give thanks to God for
you, brethren. beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. And he wrote again and
said, Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
saved. But how are they going to call on him in whom they have
not believed? And how are they going to believe
in him of whom they have not heard? And how are they going to hear
without a preacher? And how are they going to preach
except they be sent? That's right. The scripture says
in 2 Peter he was the 8th person, Adam, 8th, Noah. And what was his occupation?
He was a preacher, a preacher of righteousness. Noah was a
preacher. Preached 120 years while he was
preparing the ark. Our Lord, the same spirit of
Christ Jesus is the spirit that spoke to those people through
Noah. He was a preacher of righteousness. David, in Psalm 40, he said,
I've preached. I've preached righteousness to
the great congregation. And Solomon, the king of Israel,
said, I'm a preacher first and a king second. That's right. He said this. He said, I, the
preacher, was king over Israel. The Apostle Paul says, I was
appointed a preacher. And I know men use that phrase
on the job if some fellow's nicer than anybody else, they call
him preacher. That's right. If a fellow, you know, he's kind
of religious, and it's a term of derision, that's what it is,
called preacher. What are you, a preacher? It's
all right. That's all right. I, the preacher,
was a king. Solomon thought preaching was
more important than being king. And Paul says, I was appointed
a preacher, an apostle, a teacher of the Gentiles. And his instruction
to Timothy was preach the Word. Be instant, in season, out of
season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering, but preach the Word. And here in verse 1
of our text, Chapter 11 of Matthew, it came to pass when Jesus Christ
had made an end of commanding his disciples, he departed thence
to teach and to do what? And to preach. Our Lord and Savior was a preacher.
A preacher. Well, let's listen to his preaching.
Let's hear what he had to say when he preached. As I said,
a lot of preaching I don't like. I wouldn't want to listen to
it very much, ranting and raving and screaming and browbeating
people and promoting things, but I do love the preaching of
God's Word. I do love what I'm trying to
do and what I've made an effort to do for years and what I'm
trying to improve upon, preaching the Word of God. In verse 2 it
says, Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ,
he sent two of his disciples, and he said unto him, Art thou
he that should come, or do we look for another? Now John, we
call him John the Baptist, he was John the baptizer. The Baptist
church doesn't go back to John the Baptist, he was John the
baptizer, that's what he was called. John the Baptist. And
John the Baptist was the forerunner of Christ. You have it back here
in chapter 3 of Matthew. He was the forerunner of Christ.
He came, listen to what he said. In those days, Matthew 3, verse
1, came John the baptizer, that's what he was, preaching in the
wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand. This is he that was spoken of
by the prophet Isaiah in chapter 40, saying, the voice of one
crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make
his path straight. The kingdom of heaven is at hand,
that's his message. Turn to Malachi, the book just
before Matthew, and here John the Baptist is prophesied again,
his ministry, his message. In Malachi 3 verse 1, Behold,
I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before
me, and the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple.
But this messenger is John the Baptist. This forerunner is John
the Baptist. His message is prepare you the
way of the Lord. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
But now the forerunner has done his job, and the Messiah is revealed. and no more need of a forerunner.
So he's in prison and they're going to kill him. God's going
to take John the baptizer out of here. He's sitting down in
prison waiting to be executed, waiting to be beheaded. And so
he sends his disciples to our Lord Jesus Christ and he's asking
where is the kingdom? Where is the kingdom? Where is
the restoration of Israel? Where's the messianic rule? Are
you the Messiah? Are you he that shall come? Is
John asking that for the benefit of these disciples? I really
don't know. Is he asking it for his own benefit?
I really don't know. He's pretty certain when he pointed
to Christ and said, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world. He's pretty certain when he said,
I saw the dove descend from heaven And God the Father told me upon
whom you see the dove of sin, that's the Son of God. And I
bear record, this is the Son of God. Why he's asking? Maybe
for our benefit. Because of the answer which our
Lord gave here in verse 4 and 5. Here's the answer that our
Lord gave. Talks about his kingdom. He says, you go, Jesus answered
and said to them, you go and show John again those things
which you do what you do here. You go show John those things
which you do here and see. Now my kingdom is not of this
world. My kingdom is not a Jewish kingdom. My kingdom is not a material
kingdom. My kingdom is righteousness and
joy and peace. Now you go show John what the
kingdom is. Here it is. The blind receive
their sight. Now some of the preachers of
this day are making all kind of hullabaloo over trying to
make the blind see and the lame walk and the dead hear and all
these things. And they say Jesus did that so we can do that. And
they say Jesus had that power and he's the same yesterday,
today and forever so he's doing it again today. The Lord healed
these blind people and lame people and deaf people. as a demonstration
and an example and a type of his healing, the spiritual behind,
the spiritual aim and the spiritual death, his kingdom. These people
whom he, the man he made the blind to see, well the man died,
he lost his eyesight later, the death, probably got old and lost
that later, it's just temporary. But our Lord is saying here,
you tell John what you do here and see, the blind receive their
sight, the spiritually blind. And they are able to see in me
the glory of God. They are able to see forever.
They see by faith and they never lose that sight. And the lame
walk, they are made to walk with God like Enoch of old. Enoch
didn't just walk on their legs, he walked with God, he really
walked with God, by faith. And the lepers are cleansed.
When our Lord cleansed the leper, that was a temporary thing. That
skin was bleached white, flaky, crusty, withering, dying, going
back to the death. Made him like the old nail in
the skin of a baby. But just about 40 years later,
he got in the same shape again. And his old skin is withering
and dying. What are we going to do, Lord?
Come do it again. If he ever makes the leper clean, he's clean
for good. A spiritual leper. That's his
kingdom. His kingdom is not of this world.
It's not health and wealth and prosperity and these things here. Lepers are cleansed of their
sinful corruption and the curse of the law. That's the kingdom
of God. And the deaf hear. They hear the voice of the Son
of God. They hear him who speaks from
heaven, peace and joy and forgiveness. They hear and they'll always
hear him. He unstops our deaf ears and
we'll always hear. And the dead are raised, you
who were dead in sins. trespasses in sin, hath he quickened,
made alive, will never die. He that believeth on the Son
will never die. He that is quickened by the Spirit
will never die. And the poor, the poor, I'm poor
and needy. David was the richest man of
his day. The richest man in his day was
King David and Solomon. But David kept saying, I'm poor
and needy. Lord have mercy on me, I'm poor
and needy." What David needed, money wouldn't buy. What David
was paying for, silver and gold wouldn't purchase. We're not
redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold. What
we need, we don't have the ransom to pay. So he said, everyone
that thirsteth come to the water, and he that hath no money, come
by wine to make the heart glad, and milk to give help to the
soul without any money, without any profit. The poor have the
good news of the gospel declared unto them. That's it, John. That's
it. That's it. My kingdom is not
of this world. No matter how you improve these
bodies, they're going to die. No matter how you improve this
This brain here is going to someday get to where you don't know your
name, or anybody else's probably. But you'll remember one, that's
his. That's right. But this is the kingdom of God.
And verse 6, listen. And blessed is he, blessed is
that person, man, woman, boy or girl, whosoever shall not
be offended by this gospel. Not be offended in me. Blessed is the person sitting
right here that can hear what I'm saying and see beyond this present life.
It's all right if I can't hear. That's all right. I can hear
him. And like that doctor down in
Lexington told me, I went down there to get my ears checked,
see if they had any new thing to operate or medicine or something.
Dr. Brown down Paul Wamsley recommended
him. I went down and sat in the chair
and he said, first time I ever met him, Darcy. He examined my
ears. He said, now what, tell me about
your problem. I said, well, I said, I'm just getting deaf, more deaf
all the time. And I said, with my hearing aids,
I can hear you. You've got a heavy, deep voice.
But women and children, I can't hear at all. He said, why would
you want to hear them? Well, it helps to hear a little. But you know, why would we want
to hear this music of the world? It's rotten. Why would we want
to hear the conversation of people around us? They're not saying
anything. Why would we want to hear all this dealing of lies
and deception? It's all going to perish. I want
to hear this right here, don't you? If I can hear this, I'm
in the kingdom. I'm in the kingdom, if I can
get this right. If I can see, if I can walk with God, I may
be like John Howe, some rodent amigo, but he walked with God.
One of the happiest men I knew. He walked with God. That's what
Christ did for him. Which did he rather have? Which
did you rather have? Oh, that's the kingdom of God.
The dead live, the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear,
and us poor needy creatures. We couldn't buy a place to stand
in glory with all the works all of us had performed put together.
We couldn't buy a place for one person to stand. That's right.
But it's free. And blessed is the person who
can see beyond this present life. Blessed is a person who knows
his poverty, who really knows how empty he is, how poverty-stricken
he is. I'm learning it more all the
time. I told somebody the other day, there's nothing I've ever
done in my life or said in my life I wouldn't like to do over
again or say over again except one thing, and that's my marriage.
I'm happy with who I married. I made a good choice there. That's
the only smart thing I've ever done. And some of you laugh,
but it's the most smart thing you ever did, too. That's right. We just got no smarts at all,
have we? And blessed is the man who knows
that. And blessed is the person who
understands the price of redemption and who paid it. Isn't that right? That man is blessed. Don't be
offended. Don't be offended by the cost.
Don't be ashamed of the cost. It's the only way you can live
and I can live. by the cross. Well, those folks
left, you know, verse 7, those disciples left and went back
to John, and as they departed, verse 7, the Lord Jesus began
to say to the multitude concerning John, Our Lord has been talking
about his kingdom, now he is going to talk about his servants,
his true servants. He is going to talk about John
the Baptist. That was a true servant, a true preacher. He
was sent of God, true preacher, God's preacher. So he began to
say to the multitude concerning John, I want you to watch the
questions he asks, the same thing three times with a different
ending. He began to say to the multitude
concerning his servant John, what did you go out in the wilderness
to see? You see, these people are familiar with John's ministry.
John preached out there in the country, out in the wilderness.
They all went out to hear him. A lot of people went to hear
him. Even Herod the King went out there to hear him. He did
many things. John was a messenger of God. He was a prophet, a forerunner,
a powerful minister. So our Lord said, what did you
go out there to see? Verse 7, a reed shaken with the
wind. Did you go out there to see some
kind of weakling? Some kind of compromiser? A fellow
that kind of bends and bows and goes in the direction that the
wind blows, that's the preachers of this day. Whatever people
want to hear, that's what they tell them. Whatever is popular,
that's what they preach. Whatever will get the crowd,
that's what they say. Whatever the people want, that's what
they do. Servants of men, primarily and mostly. Entertainers of men. Reeds blown with the wind. Whichever
way the wind blows, that's the way they go. no offense to their
message. That's not my message. That's
what Christ is saying. Verse 8, what did you go out
there to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that
wear fancy clothes and soft raiment and satin and silk, they're in
kings' houses. Did you go out there to see a
man that's clothed in riches and honor and praise of men,
a man given to the comforts of life, to the comforts of this
world, to materialism? Did you go out there to see a
socializer? Did you go out there to see a
man vain and shaley? That's not my message. Verse 9, well, what did you go
out there to see? A prophet? A preacher? Yeah, that's what
they went to see. Some of them thought he was that
prophet. Some of them thought he was the
prophet Moses predicted would come. They went out to see a
prophet, a preacher. And our Lord said, yeah, I'll
say unto you, you went to see a preacher, he more than a preacher. You went to see a prophet, he
more than a prophet. He more than a prophet. The woods
are full of preachers. I was preaching down over in
Oregon a year or so ago, and there was a fella in the service
there, a real nice fella. He's an intellectual kind of.
He was a teacher of some sort, I think, and a scientist. He
played the piano beautifully. He made me a tape of his piano
playing, but he's just a sweet fella. But he kind of lived up
here, you know. He never heard all these old
Eddards saying, you know, like the woods are full of preachers.
I said, the woods are full of preachers one night. He came
up to me after the sermon and said, what did you mean the woods
are full of preachers? What are they doing in the woods? Well, the woods are full of preachers.
Y'all don't live up there. You live down here. You know
what I'm talking about. But there's some God sent. He said in verse 10, this is
he, this preacher, this prophet is my prophet, of whom I've written,
I've written about him. And he said, behold, I sent him. I sent him. There was a man sent
from God, whose name was Jehovah, to go and preach. with assurance
and confidence, I'm sent of God. I'm not here on my own. He sent
me. I've got something for you, something
good, something precious. He gave me to tell you. This
is not just a preacher. I sent this man. I sent him. And watch here. I sent him before
by face, before my face." This is the Father saying about John
the Baptist, I sent him before, he was the forerunner of Christ.
You see what he's saying? This is my prophet, behold, he's
quoting Malachi, I just read that a while ago, Malachi 3.
This is the Father speaking, behold, I send my messenger before
thy face, before the face of the Messiah. And let me tell
you something, before you see the face of Christ,
you'll hear the gospel from a picture. Can I make good on that? I think
I can. Listen now. Over there in Ephesians 1, the
Apostle Paul said this in Ephesians 1, before you see his face, you're
going to hear about his grace. He says here in Ephesians 1,
verse 13, in whom you trust it. Who's in whom? in whom you trusted
after you heard. How shall they hear? How shall
they believe except they hear? You trusted after you heard the
word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also
after you believed you were sealed. The preacher came first with
the gospel. That's what that says. He said,
I'll send my messenger before my face. Before thy face I'll
send my messenger, and he'll prepare the way, and he'll come
with the gospel. Come with the gospel. Man can't
be saved unless he hears the gospel. He can't see. Christ
is revealed in the gospel. It's the gospel that reveals
the righteousness of God. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
It's the power of God unto salvation, for therein, in the gospel, is
the righteousness of God revealed. So if you want your loved ones
to come to know Christ, bring them to hear God's preacher. Or somebody come to them with
the gospel. You can take it to them. Take it to them yourself.
You can be the preacher. And God seems to witness. He
sent that deacon, Philip, to talk to the eunuch, didn't he?
The eunuch trusted Christ after he heard Philip. In fact, he
asked Philip, who is this fellow talking about here, himself or
somebody else? Philip told him who he was talking about. He
saw it. So I'll send my messenger before
my face, he'll prepare thy way before thee. And I'll tell you
this, when you hear the gospel, if God gives you ears to hear,
you'll recognize Christ when you see him in the Word. That's
him. That's him right there. Now let
me show you this in verse 11. And yet I say unto you, you say,
he's lifting that perch off high there, he's fixing to bring it
down. Look at verse 11. Verily I say unto you, among
them born of women there has not risen a greater than John
the Baptist, notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom
of God is greater than me. There are no degrees in glory.
God's children are loved alike and blessed alike and dressed
alike. They are all in the image of
Christ wearing his righteousness. That's right. There are no degrees
of glory. There are no special rewards
for one that the other won't have because we all have the
same reward. I am thy exceeding great reward. Christ is our reward. He that is greatest among you,
let him be your servant. So there's John the Baptist,
mightily used of God, but the least child in the kingdom
of God, greater than he. That's right. And you who know
this gospel know what we're talking about. It's just that the world
won't understand that now, but you do, because you have discernment. Now watch verse 12. Now here's
a word about true seekers here. And from the days of John the
Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffered violence and
the violent take it by force. What's that mean, Preacher? Well,
let me precede it with this. The kingdom of heaven is not
for the curious. The kingdom of heaven is not
for the casual. The kingdom of heaven is for
those whose chief concern is to enter that kingdom. The kingdom
of heaven is for those whose chief concern is to enter therein. Seek ye first the kingdom of
heaven, and all these things will be added to you. So the
kingdom of heaven is not for the casual, it's for the violent. It's not for the curious, it's
for those whose one determination, that I may know him and the power
of his resurrection, that I may win Christ and be found in him,
yet by any I might attain the resurrection of the dead. The
kingdom of heaven is not a religion, the kingdom of heaven is not
a hobby, the kingdom of heaven is not a fad. The kingdom of
heaven comes with power and force upon the hearts and souls of
men whom it conquers. The kingdom of heaven changes
the heart. It turns men and women from the
kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, from death to life,
from evil to good, from Satan to God. And those who enter are
dedicated, committed, and seriously desiring to enter, and who will
not be denied. And this is what he's saying.
From the days of John the Baptist. What are those days? clear back
to Genesis. The days of John the Baptist
are from Moses to John the Baptist. John the Baptist was an Old Testament
prophet. You see the next verse there,
all the prophets and the law prophesied unto John, he was
one of them. So he was the last of the Old
Testament prophets, you see that? He came as the messenger to declare
who the messenger of the covenant was who was coming. So from the
days of the prophets till now, You see what he said? That's
what he said. From the days of John the Baptist. That's not
talking about John the Baptist, just six months older than Christ.
Christ the man. He was born the same year Christ
was born. So we can't say from John the
Baptist to Christ, just six months there. We're talking about from
the days of the prophets, the first ones, till John the Baptist,
the last one. Watch it now. The kingdom of
heaven suffered violence. The kingdom of heaven has been
sought by those men as a precious prize. Suffered violence, that
is vital activity to be seized, to press into the kingdom of
God. Those men pressed into the kingdom of God. From the days
of the prophets to this day, the kingdom of heaven was taken
by men who would not be denied. who sought it as a precious prize
by men and women of zeal, intense desire to enter the kingdom of
heaven. People who were willing to give their lives for the faith
of God, who when they found the pearl of great price, sold everything. That's what that verse is saying. That's what that verse is saying.
From the days of the prophets until this day, the kingdom of
heaven suffers violence. People press
into it. Vital activity, sincerity, energetic. I will not let you go unless
you bless me, Jacob said. I will not let you go until you
bless me." And all the prophets that the
Lord prophesied to John, and if you receive it, look at verse
14, if you receive this, John is that Elijah which was to come. That's what leads me to say John
was an Old Testament prophet. Turn to Malachi again, Malachi
4. You see, Malachi is the book just 400 years before Christ
came, 400 years before Matthew. There's 400 years of silence
there between Malachi and Matthew. But here in Malachi 4, verse
5, listen. Behold, I will send you Elijah
the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day
of the Lord. And he shall turn the hearts
of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children
to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
This is the reason the Jews said to John the Baptist, Are you
Elijah? They thought Elijah, who didn't
die, Elijah was translated. God took him to heaven without
dying. And the Jews thought Elijah himself
was going to come back. They used this prophecy that
Elijah would come back to the earth before Christ came, before
the Messiah came. And Christ said to him there
in verse 14, if you'll receive it. John the Baptist is Elijah. He's
the forerunner. The prophecy is fulfilled. And this is what I'm saying. It's the same now. It's like
our Lord said over there in Matthew 13. You want to read this right
here where I am. Matthew 13, verse 45. Again, the kingdom of heaven
is likened to a merchant man seeking goodly pearls, who when
he found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had
and bought it. That's energetic. That's pressing. That's violence. That's commitment. That's dedication. That's what
he's saying. Take it. Let me give you this
word and I'll close. But where unto shall I liken
this generation? He said in verse 15, if we have
ears to hear, let us hear. But where unto shall I liken
this generation? How shall I describe them? They're
like children sitting in the markets calling unto their fellows
and saying, we've piped unto you and you haven't danced, we've
mourned unto you and you haven't lamented. I gave this illustration
to you some time ago down in Mexico. In other foreign countries,
the parents come to the marketplace and bring their goods, their
vegetables, and their arts and crafts, and their needlework,
needlepoint, and all these things, and they set up their little
booths, and they sell those things, the parents, most of the wives.
But they bring their children. Every one of them will have four
or five children. And the children over here are playing together,
or sitting, waiting on their parents to sell all the things.
Suddenly, in the evening, they go home. But somebody has to
entertain these children. And they're like children sitting
in the marketplace and these folks say, well, we piped to
you, we sang happy songs and played happy songs, but you won't
respond. You won't dance. And that didn't
work, so we mourned, we gave you some sad stories and some
sad music, but you didn't lament. You're indifferent. You're unmoved. You're unconcerned. And he said,
that's just generation. For John the baptizer, John the
Baptist, came neither eating nor drinking. He was a man with
a condemning message. Repent! Repent. Make restitution. Get ready,
the kingdom of God is coming. He was a man heavy with that
condemning message, a solemn, serious condemning message. He baptized the baptism of repentance,
and he said he has a devil. And then the Lord Jesus came,
and he came socializing with the people, eating and drinking,
visiting with publicans and sinners, going to their weddings and their
feasts, and talking to them on the street with a message of
tenderness and warmth. and grace and mercy? And what
do you say about him? You say, well, he's a friend
of publicans and sinners. Wisdom is justified over children.
And this generation's a lot like that. You know, if you preach
salvation by grace alone, you're a hardshell. If you preach godliness
and obedience, you're a holy roller. If you preach God's siphons
in election, you're a fatalist. If you preach responsibility,
you're a freewheeler. If you're friendly and socialized,
you're worldly. If you stay at home and study,
you're puritanical. It's just everybody, everybody's
got catalog folks, you know, you're this, that, or the other.
What's the problem? But I tell you this, it's not
the messenger, it's the message. It's not the messenger, it's
the message. That's what's offensive. And
all in the way of people are doing to tear down the messenger
is because they don't like the message. They condemned John
the Baptist, didn't like his message. They condemned the Lord
Jesus, their temperaments were entirely different. Their personalities
entirely different. Their approach entirely different.
Same message. And they hated both of them.
And then he said this, now I received more light on this phrase here
today than ever before, listen to it. But wisdom, true wisdom,
the wisdom of God, the wisdom of Christ, the wisdom of grace,
the true wisdom of the Word, when it's preached, it is acknowledged
and regarded as wisdom by those who are wise. and those who are children of
wisdom. Wisdom is vindicated. Wisdom is acknowledged. Wisdom
is accepted by children of wisdom. See that, Jim? By those who are
wise. The truly wise person is alert
to the truth. He recognizes the truth. He receives
the truth from whatever vessel God's pleased to send it. You
see, a man that's really hungry, he doesn't demand finest china. Maybe a paper plate, that'd be
fine. But it's the food I'm interested in. A truly thirsty man, a drink
from a tin cup. I found about five statements
by some of the old writers on this verse here. Wisdom, true
wisdom preached. read, studied, learned, is vindicated,
acknowledged, accepted by children of wisdom, people who had wisdom,
the wisdom of God. Here's the five statements and
I'll close. True wisdom has no enemies but
the ignorant. Secondly, Christ, who is the
wisdom of God, is received and loved by all who are taught of
God. Thirdly, grace is rejoiced in
by all those who partake of it. Everybody who is a child of grace
rejoices in grace. He receives it. Wisdom is justified
over children. Fourthly, wise men and women
will recognize and own the grace of God in all believers. whether
they had the beloved John's temperament, John the apostle, or whether
they had Peter's impulsiveness. Wise men will accept and honor
and recognize the grace of God no matter the temperament of
the person in whom God's put it. And that makes sense. That's
right. Some people are just more loving
than others, but God's children aren't loved more than others. They all love the same, and they're
all filled with the same grace. Some may come along and say it
a little harshly, and some may say it a little tenderly, but
whatever they say, that's what's important. The wise counsel, this is powerful
here, the wise counsel of God, God in his wisdom makes use of
several different temperaments. He has his Simon Peter, he has
his sons of thunder, James and John, he has his Paul, the apostle,
he could cut your legs out from under and you'd never know the
razor went by, you know, just until you might have tried to
turn your head. Oh, shark! But God makes use of several
different temperaments to bring his people to the gospel, that
our faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, and that no
flesh should glow in his presence. He's just not going to let us
get any of the glory. Just write it down. I know preachers
who are self-promoters, and God's not going to use that. He's not going to let us have
any of the glory, any of the praise. He's going to send his
gospel using different temperaments and personalities. Take the Bibles
written by 40 different men, and you go through and find those
those different vessels God used, that our faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God, and that nobody
should gloat.