Back to Proverbs, the 23rd chapter. The title of my message today
is Get It and Don't Lose It. Get it and don't lose it. The fact is that in this world,
in this universe, there is a thing called the truth. And because it is the truth,
Everything else is measured in light of that. We know that truth
resides and it is embodied in the person and the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He said of himself, I am the
way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father
but by me. Jesus Christ is the center of
the universe. He is the center of all things.
He is the author and finisher of faith, the king of the one
true religion upon the face of the earth. And that's why every
religion that's come along since, or even preceded him in counterfeit,
has always in some way, a form or another, been a rebellion
against something that he accomplished in his life and death on this
earth. No matter what it is, you can
take it, anyone you want to. Whether it's a religion of works
or will, or religion of sacraments, they all dishonor and rebel against
a single person, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the ensign raised
up, to whom the gathering of the people shall be. And he is
the truth. One of the kings that the Lord
anointed was a man called Solomon, son of David. And when Solomon was coronated
king, he prayed not for riches or for power, but instead he
prayed that God would give him wisdom to rule the people well. And God granted his desire. He granted it to the degree that
his name, Solomon, became synonymous with the concept of wisdom. even
a proverbial, even in a preserveral sense for today you hear people
talk about the wisdom of Solomon and they use it to identify or
to exalt a person who has seemingly great wisdom saying he has the
wisdom of Solomon. So the wisdom that God gave him was to rule the people and it
has become a hallmark of what true wisdom is. Now in these
words that he spoke here in the 23rd chapter and 23rd verse of
scripture, when he said, buy the truth and sell it not, buy
also wisdom and instruction and understanding. We know that Christ,
according to the Word of God, 1 Corinthians 1.30, God has made
Him to be unto us. The first thing is wisdom. He
is the wisdom and the righteousness of God, according to 1 Corinthians
1. He is also the truth, and He
is the Word of God. And we know that all the Word
of God is given by inspiration and is profitable for doctrine,
reproof, correction, and instruction. that the man of God might be
truly furnished unto all good works. Now when Solomon wrote
these words, the words he used that are translated as by, that
means to get. That's the original meaning of
the word. And it carries with it the sense of urgent importance. Get this. Get this. Don't tarry, don't play around,
don't think about it. lay hold of this and the word
lose or the word sell means to lose in the original and it's
also attended with an urgent important don't lose this don't
let go of this buying and selling getting and losing have to do
with the assessment of comparative value of comparative value. That's throughout the scripture
you see this kind of language. Our Lord said when he went out
to find his single lost sheep and didn't stop till he found
it, he weighed that sheep against the ninety and nine which needed
no repentance. That's comparative assessment.
He said this one sheep is important to me. I've made an assessment
of value concerning Him to me and He is more important to me
than the nine and nine who stand over here needing no repentance. He was more important to Christ
because that was one of the elect sheep and the nine and nine were
the sheep of the old covenant which needed no repentance because
they believed they merited a righteousness before God. He made the comparison. It was a comparative statement.
That which is lost is precious. That which is not lost means
very little. coin that was lost was more important
to the owner of the house than the nine other coins that were
in the box not lost. That's a comparative assessment.
You see what I'm saying? And so he's saying this, buy
the truth and sell it not. Get the truth and lose it not. And both of these terms apply
to our text. These words are employed by a
man Who in his life knew what it was to get things. He knew
what it was to buy things. He knew what it was to have things.
And he knew what it was to lose things. To lose things. Look for a moment at 1st Kings
chapter 11. First Kings chapter 11 says this
of Solomon in verses 3. But King Solomon loved many strange
women. Now this is in the latter part
of his days. He got his wisdom, but he got riches. He got fame.
He got the applause and the accolades of men and it went to his head
like everything does to poor sinners saved by grace. Don't
think that you are immune to that because the wisest
man on earth couldn't handle all the stuff that happened to
him. But the King Solomon loved many strange women, together
with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites,
Edomites, Zadonites, and Hittites, said he had a thousand concubines,
of the nations concerning which the Lord said to the children,
you shall not go into them. So he's disobedient. Neither
shall they come unto you, for surely they shall turn away your
heart after their gods. Solomon claimed to these in love,
and he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives
turned away his heart. So he lost some things, didn't
he? He lost communication with God. He lost fellowship with
God. God didn't change toward him, but he changed toward God.
God said, don't you marry up with these women, and he married
up with them anyway. I'm sure he did it for political reasons.
Back then kingdoms were united and kingdoms rose and fell according
to how they married with each other. But nonetheless he knew
what it was to lose some things, he knew what it was to have some
things. He had riches and power and was the envy of many a king
and a queen. There came a time as with all
men of worldly substance that at the end of his life he looked
over it all and he placed a comparative value on it. He said this about all that he
had, it's vanity. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. Save for knowledge, wisdom, understanding,
and the truth. All is vanity. Our Lord said
in comparative language, what does it profit a man if he gained
the whole world and lose his soul? He weighed the value of
a man's soul against having the whole world. It's a comparative
value. He likewise spoke of the vanity
of tearing down barns and building big barns to store the accumulation
of goods, only to leave them to someone else when your soul
is required of you. Again, the soul is weighed comparatively
to having stuff. Our Lord also spoke in parables
of his kingdom, which is his sovereign rule, and he spoke
of them as a pearl of great price for which a man would sell all
to have. So again, a comparative value.
What am I worth? I'm not worth near what that
pearl of great price is worth. And I'll give whatever it takes
I have and even myself to have that pearl of great price. Our Lord spoke of forsaking all
that one has, even family, and taking up his cross and following
him. And all things apply to this language that is set forth
in this passage. Get the truth. And don't lose
it. Get the truth and don't lose
it. The thing to be bought and not
sold or to be gotten and never lost is the truth. The truth. The truth is presented in many
ways in scripture. It is often declared to be in
opposition to error. Opposition to the law. Opposition
to false religion and false teachers. Opposition to the lie. This is
what the truth is. The truth is said not to be in
those who will not own that they have sinned or that they have
sinned in Adam. They will not confess that. It's
because the truth is not in them, scripture says. Truth is declared
to be squarely and solely in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is referred to as the word
of truth. The gospel of truth. The gospel
of your salvation. The gospel is the truth for it
is a declaration of Christ who is the truth. It is said truth
issues from God. It is declared that men are led
to truth by the Holy Spirit who is the spirit of truth. It is
declared that men are led to truth by that spirit. And the
truth is embodied fully in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by the Lord Jesus
Christ. There is no knowledge and understanding
of truth apart from Jesus Christ, for He is the truth. That is
called the doctrine of Christ in which people are to abide.
And that doctrine is substitution, imputation, satisfaction, propitiation,
all these things. Election, predestination, all
of it resides in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Put any
of these things outside of Christ, you have nothing. You have no
meaning, you have no understanding of them. Christ is the truth. Men and women are admonished
to walk in the truth, to live in the truth, to abide in the
truth. The church is told to support and pray for those who
preach the truth and avoid those who do not preach the truth.
The truth is declared to be just one thing, while error is declared
to be legion. The truth is said to make a man
wise unto salvation while the wisdom of this world ends in
sorrow and death and destruction and hell. With natural men, truth
is subjective. You talk to people about truth,
they know what truth is because they have it. It's their truth.
They have their truth. They'll tell you what truth is.
If you disagree with them, you're a liar. But all of that falls
into this realm that there is the truth. There is the truth. But to men,
natural men, it's subjective. It's a matter of perspective,
of opinion. A thing to be accepted only if provided or proved by
scientific method of postulation and trial, resulting in empirical
evidence that they can at least debate about and question. Thus, men and women in nature
have made truth to be a matter of their own opinion. Adding to it personal, the personal
pronouns of your truth or my truth. Pilate asked this question
when the Lord spoke to him. He says, what is truth? What is truth? What is truth? It's Christ. It's the embodiment
of all that God has for humanity. Settled in that one singular
person. And let me be very clear. It is absolute. Truth is absolute. With the people of God, those
sinners saved by grace, blood-bought sinners, the truth is absolute. They can't be shaken on this.
You can shake them on a whole lot of stuff and accuse them
of a whole lot of stuff and be true. But you cannot shake them
on this. This is the truth. This is the
truth. What is the truth? How is the
truth to be reacted to? It is to be bowed to. Because
you can't change it. And no matter of your opinion,
it doesn't matter. It's to be bowed to. It's to
be believed. It's to be believed. It's to
be embraced. And it's to be loved. God's put people in hell because
they don't love the truth. That's what it says in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. Puts them in hell because they
love not the truth. Now a lot of people talk about
the truth and even say they believe the truth, but they don't love
it. And I know in this day and age, love is so fickle and so
sad and so misused and so abused and so lied about and so claimed
to be things that it is not that people don't even know what love
is. But let me tell you this, whatever you love, that's what
you'll never let go of. And if you've loved something
and let go of it, your love is human and weak, not spiritual
love. If you love something, you go
after it and go after it. You'll die for it. You'll do
whatever it is to preserve it. The redeemed know the truth because
they believe the word of God. And they believe the word of
God because they got their faith by sovereign will through the
preaching of the truth. If you believe today, you didn't
come up with it, you didn't work it up, you weren't born with
it, somewhere along the line, God, through the preaching of
the gospel, gave you faith. And when you got it, you know
what you did with it? You believed the truth. You believed the truth. Faith is a gift of God, so no
one can boast. If a person knows the truth,
he knows it by the revelation of Jesus Christ. And men have
trouble with singularity, I know that. They've grown at the thought
that there is only one way. They say so, they say that it's
really disturbed that there's only one way, but they say it
under the guise of feigned liberality, building up themselves as some
kind of generous and non-judgemental person, accepting all religions,
denominations, societies, and lifestyle without any judgment
whatsoever. They don't know the truth. They
don't know the truth. We're to be tolerant of all men.
We're to accept the fact that they are human beings and sinners
like us. But here we don't play around
in the matter of truth. Never play around. When people say they have this
liberal way of loving all people in the sense that they accept
everything they believe and they're okay and I'm okay and you're
okay. And then come up with things like values clarification, which
mean that you decide whether or not a thing is of value. And
that's where you live. Situation ethics, whatever the
situation is, that's what ethics you use to get out. All this
is going on today. It's going on today. Morality's
gone. I don't know where it's at, but
it's gone. It's gone. There is no moral compass because
everybody is their own compass. Everybody's got their own idea
and their own idea is premier. But the fact is that all your
ideas and all my ideas and all my persuasions, whether political
or otherwise, they are still subject to this. Christ is the truth. And I'm so thankful in those
few moments of my distressed brain that God actually gives
me a sight of that, a concept of that, that I can look at all
that's going on and say Christ is the truth. Christ is the truth. At the root of this non-judgmental
supposed magnanimity is the utter hatred for the fact that their
opinions are not considered and count for nothing when it comes
to the truth. Would natural me in the concept
that there is actually such a thing as the truth seems unfair to
all their grand idealistic lies. However, it is God who is truly
magnanimous to bring all things to a singular person and a singular
work. How kind God is to remove all
possibility of confusion, to strip away all subterfuge, to
disallow all that is vanity and vexation of spirit, and hang
a single righteous plummet in this world. Jesus Christ, how
does what you think measure up to that plumb line? How gracious
it is for God to make it impossible to be confounded. If you're confused,
you're not hearing God. If you're confused, you're not
listening. If you're confused, you don't
know the truth. Because the truth is just one
thing. And you can't be confused about one thing. Scripture's
plain. This is the record that God has
given us. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son hath
not life. Is that clear enough? God said,
this is the record. This is the record. So the wise
man, the wise preacher proclaims, buy the truth. Get the truth
and sell it not. Don't lose it. Solomon does not
mean that the truth can be bought and sold with common currency.
No price tag is attached to it because it cannot be bought with
money. come by without money without price without price that
which God gives is free and yet here he says get it get it and
hold it Solomon is speaking of the estimation the assessment
of worth and the value of the truth and is declaring that any
and all means are to be employed to acquire it and to hold it
this is what you must have If you don't have the truth, you're
going to perish. If you don't know the truth, you're going
to perish. If you don't bow to the truth and embrace the truth,
you're going to perish. There's a truth. The truth is
in this world. The truth sits at the right hand
of the Father having accomplished salvation for His people. He
is Lord over all. And as Lord, He commands you
and requires you to bow to Him and to proclaim His Lordship. He's the Lord. That's the truth. Men aren't dealing with Jesus
Christ on the cross. That was 2,000 years ago. That's
a finished work. It was done. If you deal with
Christ today, you deal with Him wherever He is. He's at the right
hand of the Father. He's King of kings and Lord of
lords. The only high potentate in this
whole universe and everything, everything measures and finds
its value in reference to him and nothing else. Because look
around you. Look at our dear friends and
brothers and sisters here today. I can remember when all of us
had hair of different color, but now we're all becoming the
same. All white hair, headed for the grave, one foot in, one
foot out. That's where we all are. All
of us are going to pass away. What's going to remain? The truth. The truth will remain. And men
will still rebel against it, men will still hate the truth,
but that does not change the fact that the truth is here. His name is Jesus Christ and
his spirit resides with men. He's the truth. Solomon is speaking of that estimation
over in Proverbs chapter 4. Proverbs chapter 4 and verse
5, it says, get wisdom, get it. 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. Wisdom is the principal thing.
Therefore, get wisdom. With all thy getting, get understanding.
And all that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. All that is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Solomon is speaking to those
who know the truth, who see its excellency, who understand its
utility. He is talking about knowledge
and understanding the benefit of having the truth. That which
a man values is that what he'll run after. That which a man greatly
values he will vehemently pursue. That which a man esteems as a
matter of life and death he will risk his life to possess it. That which man loves he will
give all, even his life to have. to give his life to have it.
That's what's necessary. Hereby we perceive the love of
God. How do we know God loved his
people? He laid down his life for them. He died for them. Boy,
that's an estimation of value to him, isn't it? We know that
we are in ourselves of no value whatsoever, but we were valued
by him. His elect were valued by Him
to the point where He said, I will come and die in the room instead
of them, that they might have life and have it more abundantly.
Whatever a man loves, he's willing to die for it. That's why the
Lord went on to say in 1 John chapter 3, if we have the wherewithal
to help our brother when he's in need, if we don't help him,
we don't love him. How dwelleth the love of God
in you? God has proven his love. The
religion of this day has relegated truth to the scrap heap. Their
interest is in church planning, building, and activities to meet
every situation. Ministries for this and ministries
for that, for singles, married folks, church, children's church,
ball teams, political influence, social programs, and dressing
up Adam in a sinfully sacred finery. The proof that the truth
is of so little value is in this day, is that these so-called
churches survive, flourish without anything other than a cursory
mention of truth. Much less preaching the truth. Solomon, the king, says to his
realm, get it. Buy it. Don't sell it. Don't lose it. What will it cost you to buy
the truth? What will it cost you to get
the truth? Since it does not involve money, it cannot be obtained
with filthy lucre. This passage teaches that if
a person values the truth, He will give up everything because
that is what is required to have it. That which he parts with is of no value concerning the
truth. To have the truth, simply this,
it will cost you all your former errors that you imbibed and regurgitated
in your sojourn in useless, Christless religion. It will cost you your
idolatry. It will cost you your presumed
righteousness, your presumed spirituality, your worthless
merit. It will cost you your reformations
and your rededications and your reconsecrations. It will cost
you your lofty estimation of yourself. and the lofty estimation
you've placed on dead works will cost you your profession of faith
in that false, impotent Jesus that peppers the landscape of
hell's suburbia. It will cost you your sanctimonious
experiences, especially that one held so tightly and traipsing
down an aisle to accept another Jesus by another spirit. will
cost you your reputation. Count on that. It will cost you
your family and your friends. And you'll be willing to be counted
a fool, a sectarian, a heretic, a madman, a zealot for the sake
of having the truth. You'll strive for it. Live for
it, die for it, labor for it, contend for it, stand fast in
it, cling to it, and never let it go. You will need it as lungs need
air, as flowers need the sun, as the fish needs water. You
will forsake all others and live only to it as long as you draw
breath upon this earth. The truth alone is the water
that will slake your thirst for righteousness. It is the manna
that will satisfy your hungry soul and nothing else. Religion
won't do it. Truth. The truth. The truth alone is the wine that
will quiet your troubled spirit. The feathered pillow on which
you rest your weary head The cost of buying the truth is everything
you are and every false thing you have delighted in. Get the truth. Don't listen. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross of Christ. by whom the world
is dead to me, crucified unto me, and I am dead to the world. What will truth cost you? It'll
cost you looking at this world and saying it's dead, it's dying,
it's passing away. And I'll not invest myself in
it. And it's for the world to look at you with your vital faith
in the singular Christ and say, He's dead to me. He's dead to me. This is the
meaning of buy the truth. Get the truth. and sell it not, lose it not. It is never to be so diminished
as to be sold. Its worth is never to be slighted
or neglected. It is not to be put on the auction
block of riches. It is not to be offered to gain
honor. It is not to be sold for the pleasures of this world or
for the sake of a good name among men. It is not to be exchanged
for the sake of peace or for the fear of public censure. It
is not to be sold to the world, though the world is against it.
It is not to be offered to the wise and to the learning. They
don't know what to do with it. Men may call it foolish, novel,
antique, antiquated, prosaic, irrational, antinomian, licentious
even, and sure to cost you the love of family and friends, but
still it is more to be desired than gold. Yay, much more than
fine gold, sweeter than honey in the honeycomb. Buy the truth.
Get the truth. Sell it not. Lose it not. Esteem it of gargantuan value
and worth. And give yourself from henceforth to obtain it. and hold it. When all is said and done, when
this old azure ball is dissolved into nothing, when life comes
to an end, when you would give all you possess for one more
sunrise, what will be left is the truth. And here's the joy of the child
of God. This you can take with you when you go. That's all you can take with
you. But this you can take with you when you go. Everything else
can be left behind. Everything. He that hath the
Son hath eternal life. And he that hath not the Son
hath not life at all. Buy the truth and sell it not.
Get the truth and never lose it. This is the account of the
wisest of men. Only one wiser and that was the
Lord Jesus Christ himself. But this is his account. Two
passages of scripture we can finish up. Hebrews chapter 12. Verse 27 says, and this word
yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken
as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be
shaken may remain. That's the truth. That's Christ. That's salvation. Psalm 73. You read this psalm, you'll find
that David was in a fix most of this psalm. He's complained
about everything. How come rich people have it so well? How come
wicked people don't seem to have any trouble? Seems like the child
of God is just nothing but trouble. And then the Lord shows him the
end. Shows him the end of these folks
who have it all and have no interest in Christ. And he repents of
his thinking. And he says this in verse 25. Whom have I in heaven with thee? There is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. Get the truth. Get it. Whatever it takes. Whatever you
lose, to get it. Get it. And don't lose it. Buy the truth. and we sell it not. Also, wisdom and understanding
and instruction by the truth, we sell it not. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen.