We come to the third major time that
God speaks.
We've been looking at the need or the
occasion for why God is speaking at this
point in history.
Then the content, what does he say?
The method of revelation, how does God speak?
And the response that he requires, what does
God expect his people to do?
And now, as we look at the Davidic
covenant and the poetic books, the third major
time God has spoken, we'll look at Job
and Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.
And the question we ask first is, what
could possibly be the need at this time
for God to speak?
They have a theocracy, the grace of God,
they have the law of God, they have
the house of God.
And so what is the need?
This need came when the theocracy was at
its highest glory.
God is ruling his people in victory and
in prosperity, but the need at this time
is that these truths, that the reality of
God should come and abide in men's hearts
and lives.
The word in the heart, by word have
I hidden my heart that I might not
sin against thee.
Heart for God is the great need at
this time.
And certainly we can see the relationship between
the Davidic covenant and the poetic books.
The whole thing about being a descendant of
David according to the flesh, the Davidic covenant,
was so that Christ could sit on the
throne of David, Romans 1.3. And if
we go back again and check the genealogies
in Matthew 1 and Luke 3, and how
Christ came through Nathan and not through Jeconiah
or Jehoiachin.
So when you think about royal authority, being
able to rule on the throne, and that's
the issue of the Davidic covenant, and you
begin to look into the poetic books, the
theme in the poetic books is that the
heart be the throne and that God rule
in your heart.
And so at this time of the theocracy,
it's very possible for things to be externally
well, but internally were men's hearts ruling for
God.
How well we remember that in 1 Kings
11.4 Solomon's heart was not perfect like
David's heart.
His wives had turned his heart away from
following the Lord.
And so this is the need for the
heart to be ruled by God.
The content as we look through the poetic
books, because they're in poetic form, they are
the inner experiences of these five different men
in different areas of life.
For example, when you read Job, you see
the heart of a man named Job during
this time of suffering and questioning.
You read Psalms and you see the heart
of a man, perhaps David more than others,
but also the heart of the people of
God in various circumstances as they live and
walk before God.
The heart is revealed.
The inner experiences involved in these circumstances of
life are revealed.
In Proverbs, you see the heart of a
man of God as he wisely faces the
practical affairs of life.
In Ecclesiastes, you will see the heart of
a man of God as he seeks meaning.
And as he seeks that meaning outside of
God, he expresses his heart.
And then in the Song of Solomon, you
see the heart of a man of God
in the marriage relationship, or if you so
desire, you might say in any intimate relationship,
but specifically the marriage relationship.
So the content also has to do with
the heart.
We will come back and look at the
content in a few minutes, but we've looked
at the need and we've looked a little
at the content in general.
Now, let's think about the method through which
God is expressing himself.
In these poetic book, it's in the form
of a testimony usually.
It seems that it's not God speaking, but
rather man is speaking.
And yet it is God speaking, but he's
actually speaking in the experiences of a man
who has in his heart what God wants
to communicate.
And so the method that he chooses is
sort of the living epistle method.
And so they're just as much God speaking
as when God is speaking at Sinai.
They're just as inspired for all scripture is
inspired by God.
In Acts 116, we read, Brethren, the scripture
had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit
spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning
Judas, who was God to those who arrested
Jesus.
So these things that David expressed were prophetic
in the sense that it had to be
fulfilled and it was spoke concerning Judas.
In Acts 4.25, we'd read again, who
by the mouth of our father, David, thy
servant did say by the Holy Spirit, why
did the Gentile rage and the people imagine
vain things?
And so as David is expressing these experiences,
he has in his heart what God wants
to communicate.
In Hebrews 4.6 and 7, it says,
since therefore it remains for some to enter
and to rest and those who formerly received
the good news failed to enter because of
disobedience.
Again, he sets a certain day today saying
through David.
So long afterward in the words already quoted
today, when you hear his voice, do not
heart in your hearts.
And so David is speaking about the heart
and God is using a method so that
these experiences are experiences that all of his
children can relate to.
So when David says things like the Lord
is my shepherd, God is speaking through him
and that experience because God wants us to
trust him as our shepherd.
So this is the method that we'll see
as we go through the content of the
books, the method of living testimonies.
Now, what response does God require?
He wants us to make these our very
own words, to pray them, to sing them,
to find expression in them.
And that's why he gave us almost every
experience in life is covered here.
And we can find expression through these poetic
books in a way that we won't find
in any other type of scripture.
Let's just think about the subject of the
book of Job, the problem of human suffering,
the inequality and the injustice that we see
in life has raised this question from the
beginning.
We come into life, we have absolutely nothing
to do with bringing ourselves here.
But as we grow up and our eyes
begin to open, we look around and there's
this question mark.
What's it all about?
And the older we grow, the more we
see the inequalities, the injustices and the question
grows bigger.
And we often are thinking, you know, how
could a good God make a world like
this?
And yet, when Jesus comes, we see the
most righteous, holy and just man that's ever
been in this world.
Yet he was the greatest sufferer that's ever
been in this world.
He was a picture of God's suffering with
his creation.
And so we shouldn't have any problem believing
that there's a good purpose in suffering.
For Jesus learned obedience through the things that
he suffered.
And as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13,
12, we see through a glass darkly now,
but then we're going to see face to
face.
We only know in part now and then
we're going to know also as we are
known.
And so here is Job.
And he says he knows the way that
I take, that is, God knows the way
that I take.
And when he has tried me, I shall
come forth as gold.
There's a race set before us.
Job was a real person, obviously, because Ezekiel
14, 14 says that though these three men,
Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, they
should deliver but their own souls.
So Ezekiel refers to Job along with Noah
and Daniel.
He wasn't just a parable or a made
up person, but he was a real person.
And perhaps the oldest book that we have
in the Bible, and it deals with certainly
the oldest question that's been around.
Why do the godly people suffer?
Well, when Jesus was here, his disciples in
John 9, 2 expressed that they thought that
suffering was the result of sin.
But Job gives a completely different reason for
that.
Job was being honored by God.
It was true that God could actually trust
Job to remain faithful to him in spite
of everything.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could learn
to thank God in all the things that
happened to us?
Well, the story here of Job is pretty
much a simple one.
It opens with a scene in heaven and
then tells how Job fell from prosperity into
poverty.
He loses everything.
And then there's a discussion between him and
his four friends.
He's got Eliphaz who's kind of a religious
dogmatist or a Pharisee.
And then his friend Bildad tries to just
give him these little cliches and worn out
platitudes.
And then Zophar, his friend, comes along and
he sort of has all the right religious
answers.
And Elihu, who is just a youth, comes.
But finally, God speaks.
And Job answers at last in a very
humble spirit and the problem is solved.
That's sort of the story in a nutshell.
And we see Satan has the most shallow
view of all.
He says that the only reason people serve
God is because it pays riches and honor
to serve God.
And that Job was just serving God because
he was selfish.
And when his prosperity ended, he would no
longer be a godly man.
And so God is going to allow this
view of Satan to be tested.
Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, who pretty much had
the same view, they said that the unrighteous
suffer because of their sins and the righteous
are rewarded because of their righteous life.
And so they reasoned that Job must have
sinned.
And so the suffering was the punishment for
the sin.
In Job 4 7 they said, whoever perished
being innocent.
But Job just couldn't accept the accusation of
his friends.
He knew his heart was true and he
showed them that their confession was false and
he pointed out that there were a lot
of wicked people in the world that prosper.
And so if your premise is true, then
righteous people should be prosperous and wicked people
should be poor.
But look how many wicked people are prospering
in the world.
Well, Elihu comes along with a far more
eloquent discourse and he defends God in it
and he sees in the afflictions that come
to us in life the chastisement of a
father who cares for us and loves us.
And so suffering was God's discipline to bring
his sons back into fellowship with him.
And suffering was sent sort of to keep
us from sinning to begin with, but that
didn't explain the reason of suffering in Job.
So the Lord comes and he explains to
Job that for one thing, when we come
to the end of ourselves, then God can
lift us up.
If you read Job chapter 29, you'll find
52 different times the personal pronoun I, my,
or me.
It almost reminds you of reading Romans chapter
7.
God wants the trials of our faith to
work in and through us, to work patience.
He wants to bring out the goldest by
fire to reveal the character in our lives
so that Job is being intensely tested here.
But he says in Job 13, 15, though,
he slay me, yet will I trust him.
And you just wonder, even today, how much
hangs upon your faithfulness to God.
How much is weighted there in terms of
the future?
If you're faithful to God, the things that
he's going to do.
And so we know from the New Testament
when Jesus came and he died on the
cross, the most righteous man that's ever lived
and suffered greatly with our sin.
And so the righteous suffer with the wicked
today because sin fills the world with misery.
And it's just a natural consequence of sin.
The godly man, as well as the sinner,
is going to suffer because of the sin
that's in the world.
And so don't make the mistake of thinking
that all suffering was God's way of punishing
sin, because it wasn't.
So though sin is obviously the result of
suffering as part of a result of our
sin.
But Job was walking with God in integrity
in his heart, as was said in Job
1, 5.
His conscience was right towards God.
God trusted Job.
Therefore, he assigned this problem of suffering to
him.
And we learned that truly whom the Lord
loves, he does chasten.
And it's only the gold that's worth putting
in the fire.
James said, count all joy when you fall
into diverse temptations, knowing this at the trine
of your faithful work, patience in your life.
So God doesn't give us great gifts just
to please ourselves.
He doesn't give us great faith just to
have faith.
But the chief end of all men is
to glorify God.
And when we see Jesus Christ, we see
someone who pleased not himself, but someone who
came not to do his own will, but
he came down from heaven to do the
will of his father who had sent him
in to glorify God.
And so through this, Job was broken.
He was melted down and he was softened
to the point he could say the hand
of God has touched me.
God maketh my heart soft.
And this is the need in all the
poetic literature is we're getting to the heart
and his heart is softened.
I wonder if you ever sing the little
song, Spirit of the living God, fall fresh
on me, melt me, mold me, feel me,
use me.
Wow.
Hope you know what you mean when you're
saying that.
But Job never really saw himself until he
saw God.
It was a vision of God himself that
actually completed the work in Job and brought
him to the dust.
And then you hear God speak to Job
and Job 40 verse two says, shall he
that contended with the almighty instruct him?
How are you going to try to instruct
the God of the universe when the wisdom
of man is only foolishness with God?
And so, you know, we hear Job answering
in verse four.
Behold, I am vile.
I'm absolutely worthless.
I will lay my hand upon my mouth.
But God kept dealing with Job till he
came to the very end of himself.
And we read Job 42, three through six.
Therefore, have I uttered that I understood not
things too wonderful for me, which I knew
not.
I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear.
But now mine eye seeth thee.
Wherefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust
and ashes.
And so Job is chastened.
He's softened as the servant of God.
And, you know, yet there was hope in
his heart, so much so that Job was
able to say that I know that my
redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at
the latter day upon the earth.
And though after my skin, worms destroy this
body, yet in my flesh, I'm going to
see God.
He had a tremendous hope in what God
was going to do through Christ.
And so he answered that question.
If a man dies, shall he live again?
Well, Jesus emphatically said in John 11, 25,
He that believeth in me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live.
And so Job was a perfect and upright
man, one that feared God and eschewed evil.
That is, his moral conduct was impeccable.
He had that beginning of wisdom to fear
God.
He was straight in every way and he
was complete.
And so God was able to say of
him in chapter 1, verse 8, There's none
like him in the earth.
What an honor God gives to him.
So watching as he's stripped of his wealth,
as his children are taken away, his health
is gone, and he loses his wife and
finally even his friends.
And so let's take just a closer look
at the sections in the book of Job
here.
First, we see that Satan could do quite
a few things to a man.
For example, in Job 1, Satan was able
to bring up the host of the Sabians
and the Chaldeans and have them carry away
the oxen and the asses and all the
camels of Job.
It's pretty influential.
Satan was able to slay the sheep by
lightning falling from heaven.
He was able to cause the wind to
kill Job's children.
And he was able to even smite Job
with boils.
And as Ephesians 2, 2 describes him, he
is the prince of the power of the
air.
But thank God there are limitations.
He's mighty, but God's almighty and he can
break through only where God allows him to.
And verse 10, you know, that's made clear.
There's no suffering or thing that can come
to us from Satan except what the Father
allows.
And so Job 38, verse 8 and 11
says, he who has shut up the sea
with doors and said, hitherto shalt thou come,
but no further.
And here shall thy proud waves be stayed.
This great creator is never going to let
us be tempted above that which we're able.
He'll always make a way for us to
escape, as it says in 1 Corinthians 10,
13.
So remember that Satan can only strike where
he's given permission.
Well, he strikes and Job rinses his clothes.
He feels the grief and the sorrow and
he should.
We're told not to despise the chastening of
the Lord, but to be exercised by it.
And so even if it comes through an
evil agency, we still must submit to it
and know that somehow God's going to use
it for our good.
Jesus wept and he doesn't destroy our emotions.
Jesus told the women of Jerusalem to weep
for themselves and for their children.
Loss and sorrow are just part of life.
And all the things that we possess are
transient.
Matter of fact, we're losing something every moment
that we live.
Some of you are losing hair.
Others of you, just your cells are dying
in your body.
And this is going on.
We can't stop and weep over everything that
we're losing.
And it's a hard lesson to learn that
we live on in spite of all of
our losses and that there's really only one
thing that's necessary and that is God.
That is to know Christ.
Nothing else is necessary.
But God puts us in the fire and
yet he's the one that's going to watch
us while we're in the fire.
He's going to try us personally.
He himself.
And when the fires burn long enough, he's
going to pull you out.
And so God is the one that actually
comes in chapter 1, verse 7 and speaks
to Satan and he says, you know, where
are you coming from?
And we hear the answer from going to
and fro in the earth and from walking
up and down in it.
And, you know, you just think of the
endless restlessness of evil and we should be
sober.
We should be vigilant because we have an
adversary, the devil, and as a roaring line,
he's walking about seeking whom he may devour.
He says, well, that's where I've been, just
walking around the earth looking for prey.
Well, God says, well, have you considered my
servant, Job?
And you wonder why God brings up the
issue.
Considered, in other words, have you been trying
to find a flaw in him?
Have you been trying to find anything wrong
with him?
And Satan says, well, yeah, I guess I've
seen him.
Does Job fear God for nothing?
You know, he's trying to find out exactly
why this fellow is so perfect.
And Satan comes to the conclusion there's a
reason.
Has thou not made a hedge about him
and about all that he hath on every
side, which was true?
And have you not blessed the work of
his hands and his substance has increased in
the land?
That's true.
Satan says, well, then put forth your hand
now and touch all that he hath and
he's going to curse you face to face.
Well, you know, it's not so much Job
that's on trial here, but it's God.
Is God able to keep that which we've
committed unto him against that day?
Yes, as 2 Timothy 1 12 says, absolutely,
God is able to do it and he
can make a way even when there seems
to be no way and God will keep
us from falling and he can present us
faultless before his presence with great glory and
rejoicing.
And so God allows the test and he
says, okay, it's fine.
Just take everything away from Job and we'll
see what happens from there.
And so he did.
And now when the trials come, I'm sure
Job didn't understand the meaning of all that
was happening in his suffering.
We're not going to always understand what God
is working out in our hearts.
It's like in most battles, in most wars,
unless you're able to stand back and have
all the information, it's hard to understand what's
happening on the battlefield.
And we're definitely in a war and we're
on a battlefield and we're wrestling with this
spiritual forces and wickedness in high places.
But we can be sure of this, that
there's a reason and there's a value to
everything that God allows and that all things
are working together for good for those that
love God and to those who are called
according to his purpose.
And so in many ways, Job is a
perfect example of that commentary in Romans 8,
28, because no matter what's happening, God is
working things out.
So don't always try to find the reason
for your trials.
You won't always understand all the experiences of
life that you go through.
Man's never going to find the answer to
all of God's dealings because God's ways are
past finding out.
And so remember, you can never walk before
God and try to lead a godly life
without having Satan being your accuser, trying to
find fault with you, trying to weight you
down, trying to vex your spirit and to
hinder you in every way.
And we see here, Job is a perfect
and prosperous man.
He's a praying man.
He's popular with everyone and he's being proven
in the fire.
But once this happens, note what happens with
his friends.
It seems like everyone has a reason to
offer as an explanation for the experiences and
problems of life.
And so Job was rich in friends, no
doubt, because generally when you lose everything and
you lose your wealth and your health and
your position and your family, you don't have
many friends left.
But these were friends who came and they
stuck through the adversity with Job.
And you're impressed when you read it.
They just came and sat for seven days
and they didn't say anything.
They were just there.
And sometimes when people are suffering, that's exactly
what they need.
Just someone, not so much to come and
offer reasons for everything, but just to be
there.
And they'd probably been better off if they
would have just kept their mouth shut the
whole time and just stayed there and been
there for him and let him know they
were there.
And that's one of the values of doing
things like hospital visitation, because there are people
who benefit by you just being there.
You don't have to go answer all their
problems and explain everything about life, but just
being there with them means something to them
and ministers to them.
And at least you can say this, instead
of going and talking about Job, which is
what most people do in the churches today,
they at least came and talked with him
face to face, with the God that we
had more of that.
Well, they didn't prove to be that great
of a comfort in the long run.
Job is crying out from the ashes.
I can't understand what's going on.
It just doesn't seem right.
His wife says, well, there's something wrong.
Your religion's a failure.
Curse God and die, which literally means say
goodbye to God.
It's the voice of despair.
She just says there's no answer there.
God doesn't have the answer.
Just say goodbye to God.
Then Eli says, well, God never makes a
mistake.
What have you done to bring this on
yourself?
And then Bildad says, well, God's just, so
just confess your sin.
And Zophar says, well, God's all wise.
He knows what's in man.
There must be something there.
And Eli, who really kind of says the
wisest thing of all, he talks about how
good God is and that we should look
up and trust him because he is God
and he may be causing this thing in
order to keep you from sinning.
And so anyway, Job speaks and says in
verse 42 and verse two says, I know
that God thou canst do everything and that
no thought can be withheld from thee.
And then he makes that confession.
I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear, but now mine eye sees
thee.
Wherefore, I behold myself, count myself out, and
I repent in dust and ashes.
He comes to that point where there is
the victory of submissive faith.
And he knows that only God understands what's
going on here in his life.
And the very greatest part of the book,
chapters 38 to 42, where you have God
gloriously revealing himself.
And God says, who can do all these
things except myself?
And as so often is true, when Job
comes into the presence of God, he forgets
the little speech that he had thought up
he might make.
There's no arguing with God.
He just gets flat down on his face
and begins to repent in dust and ashes.
Because that's the only place you're going to
really learn God's lessons is on your face
with your mouth shut.
It's interesting when Daniel received that final fourth
vision in Daniel chapter 10, the same thing
happened when the angel came to him.
Daniel's on his face, on the ground, and
he says he's dumb.
He just has his mouth shut.
And then God touches, you know, allows him
to be touched.
And he's on his hands and knees.
Then he tells him to stand upright.
And he's standing there trembling.
And he gets the vision of God because
he's trembling before God, humble.
And that's the place to learn our lessons.
When Isaiah saw God, he saw himself as
he really was.
And he fell on his face undone and
cried out, I'm a man of unclean lips.
So we want to measure our life by
his life.
And if we do, if we're conscious of
God, we're going to collapse.
And we're going to be on our face
before God and feel as Job did in
our hearts.
And at that point of humility, total confession
of sin and acknowledgement of who we are,
then God's going to commission us to serve
him in a new and vigorous way.
So this book in many ways is an
illustration of Romans 8.28. When you read
of the patience of Job, you think that's
wonderful how he was able to hold on
to the testimony of God.
And you see the end of the Lord
is pitiful and merciful and how the morning
of joy follows that night of sorrow because
he trusted in God.
So Job found God in all of this
trouble.
And as God reveals himself, we discern that
our finite minds are not going to be
able to comprehend the infinite mind of God.
And so the lesson of the book seems
to be that Job, because of the patient
endurance of his sufferings, in the end, he
comes to see God and he's rewarded in
the end with greater prosperity, with greater blessedness
than he ever had at the first.
So he can say in Job 23.10,
he knows the way that I take.
When he's tried me, I shall come forth
as gold.
I wonder how many races have been won
because of the heart?
How many athletic events have been won because
of the heart?
You know, Satan's charging, well, Job's heart's not
right.
And he served God for protection and for
profit.
And his friends are saying, well, whoever perished
being innocent.
So Job maintains that his heart is right
before God.
And so it's a heart issue.
And we know God trusted Job.
He trusted him to be put into fire
so that he could have been proven.
And so God's examining him.
He says, take everything away.
And we'll see if he has a singleness
of heart.
Take everything out of his life, have him
lose everything, and we'll see how wholly he
trusts God.
If there's only one thing that's needful, if
nothing is necessary but Christ.
So we simply trust that God's ways are
past finding out.
We hold on to that testimony of God.
And so God's able to say there's nobody
like this guy.
His heart is pretty right on.
And so I'm going to allow him to
go through this test.
So it's a wonderful thing to see God
get the glory and to see him worshiping
God in the end.
And we see in Job the kind of
trust that God wants his children to have,
that kind of trusting heart in every circumstance
of life.
And so the Lord doesn't answer all the
insistent questions.
He doesn't explain, but he does give to
that suffering, anguished spirit such a sense of
his own divine greatness, that is God's greatness,
that when you see God, the questioning ceases
in the simple peace of submission to God.
A heart broken and contrite, sitting at the
feet of God, wanting nothing other than God
himself.
Oh, that our testing might bring us to
this kind of faith for God's glory.
And so if we look at the book
of Psalms, we see a similar thing in
that we see the heart of a man
of God before his God in all and
in every circumstance we can possibly think of
in life.
They are Psalms of the heart.
In fact, David, who's called the sweet psalmist
of Israel, was a man after God's own
heart.
And we need to be able to express
our consciousness of God in every circumstance of
life to give God glory, to worship God.
And so we're talking about the psalter here,
which is the solid gold of Christian experience.
Every human experience is related to God somehow.
And the Psalms give expression to these deep
experiences and all these innermost feelings.
They go from the pits of despair to
delights of the abundant life.
In Psalm 37, it's delight yourself in the
Lord, find real fulfillment, your spirits created to
enjoy and to serve God.
So set your heart to delight in him.
And this is acceptable worship before God when
it comes from your heart.
You're going to rest and be satisfied forever
because the nature of his seed is in
you and his spirit is going to lust
to the point of envy, to the point
where you delight to do God's will.
And so no man, no devil, no circumstance,
nothing can stop you from delighting in the
Lord if it's in your heart to do
it.
And in Psalm 42, you see, as the
deer panteth for the water brooks, you will
have to drink or you'll have to die.
You just instinctively, like the deer, seek the
river of water.
And the next best thing to live in,
you might say, and it's even better than
living, is his loving kindness, the light of
his presence, to know those pantings and longings,
to have the insatiable desire for God within
your heart.
That's life.
It's not just religion and formality, but a
living, moving, abiding, and close relationship with the
living God.
And so there are these special promises to
fervent, eager appetites.
David fainted for a lack of the presence
of God.
He said, a day in thy courts, it's
better than a thousand.
Like a gazelle leaping gracefully and will not
rest short of the streams.
Then, you know, not for a sip, but
for a thirst-quenching drink of that water.
Not for a sprinkle, but a submerging, a
baptism of God and of his spirit.
We would see Jesus in all of life.
And I tell you, God wants to satisfy
us with his own life.
So as we read through the Psalms, we
see the reflections of hearts there.
We see creation.
We see the imprecatory Psalms, those deep feelings
of, you know, righteous indignation there.
We see the problem of evil, the confession
of sin, prayers of men in distress, and
praise to God for his majesty and for
the reign of God.
God's word and how perfect it is for
so many things that are found in the
Psalms.
There's not an experience in life, hardly, that
can't be found there.
And so the same thing again in the
Proverbs, we see the heart of a man
as he's wisely facing practical affairs of life.
It's sort of a detailed instruction book on
how God's people ought to think and live.
And the primary teaching method is by contrast,
the word but is found over and over
again.
And there's a contrast between God and man
there in Proverbs, between time and eternity, between
truth and false, between wealth and poverty, between
purity and impurity, justice and injustice, pleasure and
misery.
And so even in social relationships, you've got
the master contrasted with the servant, the rich
with the poor, the husband with the wife,
the parents with the children.
And so there are all these contrasts that
are being made.
And it covers every topic you can think
of, from wisdom to sin, to the tongue,
to wealth, to pride, to love, to pleasure,
to success, to temperance, to morals, to youth.
Just everything's in there.
And so God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding
exceeding much and largeness of heart, even as
the sand that is on the seashore.
And that's what God gave Solomon.
So wisdom being the key, but what is
it?
You know, where is it that, you know,
the fool can say in his heart, there
is no God.
And so the purpose of the book is
that we might receive the instruction, the wisdom,
the justice of God, and to know that
it's really a matter of the heart.
So we trust in the Lord with all
of our heart.
As Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 says, we
don't lean on our own understanding.
We have a definite attitude of heart to
follow God and to trust God.
We also have a definite attitude of heart
not to lean on our own understanding.
In all our ways, we acknowledge him and
he directs our path.
And he says, keep your heart with all
diligence, put a watch over it, you know,
put a password on it, because out of
it are going to flow all the issues
of life.
Begin by fearing Adonai.
The beginning of true knowledge is to fear
the Lord, that's a heart matter to make
him Lord.
Because as Proverbs 21, 2 says, every man's
way is right in his own eyes, but
the Lord weighs the heart.
And so God's concerned about the motivation that's
within our heart.
And so we see in Proverbs the heart
of a man of God, but as it's
related to making wise decisions and dealing with
the practical affairs of life, but it's still
a heart issue.
And then in Ecclesiastes, we see the heart
of a man of God as he's seeking
meaning.
It's a real dramatic picture of the heart
of someone who is really out of fellowship
with God and everything is just vanity.
And I'm pretty sure that's why you'll find
passages in Ecclesiastes that seem a little bit
at variance with other scriptures.
When you see the futility of the earthly
goals as an end in themselves and every
pursuit that man has, it's futile if God's
excluded.
And a part of the book of Ecclesiastes
is to reveal to us and to show
us what happens in the heart of a
man when he's seeking meaning outside of God.
What happens is vanity and frustration and all
those pursuits are just futile.
And he begins finally, hopefully in the end
he realizes only God's work endures.
And only God can impart true value to
a man's life and to the service that
a man does on earth.
And so it shows the vanity of achieving
happiness by pursuing worldly values.
There's pursue worldly wisdom and that's vanity.
Pursue pleasure, that's vanity.
Labor is vanity.
Wealth is vanity.
It's like what Jesus said in John, for
you can ride over all the wells of
this world, you'll thirst again.
It's just plain vanity.
And yet when you get to the very,
very end of the book, we read, fear
God, keep his commandments for this is the
whole duty of man.
Isn't that a heart matter?
Yes, because the issue is who's going to
rule here under the sun for God?
Well, the one that's got his heart before
God and lets God be Lord, fears God,
keeps his commandments.
From his heart, as Jesus Christ from his
heart obeyed fully, this one's life is going
to be filled with purpose and meaning.
And so, you know, you get the impression
at the end of the book of Ecclesiastes
that as a Christian, in many ways, you're
just too big for this world.
Because only something, and it's that someone who
is above the sun, that someone who created
the sun, that one is the only one
that can meet your heart need.
There's nothing in this small little world that
can meet the need of your heart.
You were created too big for that.
It takes the living God himself to fill
your heart and your life with meaning.
But when you receive him, then all of
a sudden, every little thing in life can
be done with meaning.
If you're just sweeping the floor, it can
have meaning.
Just driving down the road can have meaning
because you have God.
But without God, all your pursuits are meaningless
and you know it.
Well, finally, the Song of Solomon, we see
the heart of a man of God in
the marriage relationship.
And the whole book is given in Oriental
language and imagery.
I am my beloved and my beloved is
mine.
And I like the way it ends, hurry
my beloved, because that's certainly the way our
heart feels about our relationship to Jesus Christ,
particularly living in these last days.
It's equal to what we read in the
book of the revelation of Jesus Christ, even
so come Lord Jesus, we desire to be
with him and we desire that he would
come and take us to be with him.
So, you know, we read about this desire.
So what's been the need during this time
of theocracy, this time when they had all
the promises and covenants and they had the
law and they had the temple, there was
worship going on.
It's God within us.
It's the seed of heaven in us, causing
us to really be born again, the mystery
of the inward life of Christ.
And though in many ways it was not
available yet, this intimate and personal experience and
relationship that we have with the Holy Spirit
dwelling in us, becoming a partaker as much
as our experience allows us of God and
the very nature of God, to have the
true devotion to God in everything, everywhere, and
to rightly know God, to worship and adore
him as he is all and in all,
or as Paul put it very succinctly, to
live is Christ.
Let's just meditate for a moment on some
of the scriptures that deal with our hearts.
Oh, that there was such a heart in
them that they would fear me and keep
all my commandments always, that it might be
well with them and with their children forever.
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thine heart and with all thy
soul, with all thy might.
And these words which I command thee this
day shall be in thine heart.
For the Lord seeth not as man seeth,
for man looketh on the outward appearance, but
the Lord looketh on the heart.
And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the
God of thy father and serve him with
the perfect heart, with a willing mind.
For the Lord searcheth all hearts and understands
all the imaginations of the thoughts.
If you seek him, he will be found
of you.
But if you forsake him, he will cast
you off forever.
And he did evil because he prepared not
his heart to seek the Lord.
The Lord is nigh unto them that are
of a broken heart and saves such as
be of a contrite spirit.
Created me a clean heart, O God, and
renew a right spirit within me.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
thou will not despise.
My heart is fixed, O God, my heart
is fixed.
I will sing and give praise.
Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out
of it are the issues of life.
A sound heart is the life of the
flesh.
A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance, but
by sorrow of the heart the spirit is
broken.
The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh
knowledge, but the mouth of fools feed on
foolishness.
All the days of the world are afflicted
or evil, but he that is of a
merry heart has a continual feast.
The preparations of the heart in man and
the answer of the tongue is from the
Lord.
Who can say I have made my heart
clean?
I am pure from my sin.
The sin of Judah is written with a
pen of iron and with the point of
a diamond.
It is graven upon the table of their
heart.
The heart is deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
I, the Lord, search the heart.
I try the reins, even to give every
man according to his ways and according to
the fruit of his doings.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God.
And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Wherefore think
ye evil in your hearts.
Either make the tree good, and his fruit
good, or else make the tree corrupt, and
his fruit corrupt, for the tree is known
by its fruit.
But those things which proceed out of the
man come forth from the heart, and they
defile the man.
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
These are the things which defile man.
But to eat with unwashed hands defiles not
a man.
Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is
within the cup and platter, that the outside
of them may be clean also.
Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray
God that perhaps the thought of thine heart
may be forgiven thee.
But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurous
up unto thyself wrath against the day of
wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of
God.
For when the Gentiles which have not the
law do by nature the things contained in
the law, these having not the law are
a law unto themselves, which show the work
of the law written in their hearts, their
conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts.
The meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.
In the day when God shall judge the
secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to
my gospel.
Harden not your hearts as in the provocation
in the day of temptation in the wilderness.
The Lord seeth not as man seeth, for
man looketh on the outward appearance.
But the Lord looks on the heart.
Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place
and forgive and do and give to every
man according to his ways whose heart thou
knowest.
For thou even thou only knowest the hearts
of all the children of men.
The Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth all
the imaginations of the thoughts.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
O Lord thou hast searched me and known
me.
Thou knowest my down sitting and mine uprising.
Thou understandest my thought for all.
Thou compassest my path and my lying down
and art acquainted with all my ways.
For there's not a word in my tongue,
but lo, O Lord thou knowest it all
together.
Thou hast beset me behind and before and
laid thine hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
It is high.
I cannot attain into it.
Where shall I go from thy spirit or
where shall I flee from thy presence?
If I send up into heaven, thou art
there.
If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost part of the
sea, even there shall thy hand lead me
and thy right hand shall hold me.
If I say surely the darkness shall cover
me, even the night shall be light about
me.
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but
the night shineth as the day.
The darkness and the light are both light
to thee.
For the ways of a man are before
the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth
all his goings.
All the ways of a man are clean
in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth
the spirits.
Every way of a man is right in
his own eyes, but the Lord pondereth the
hearts.
I know the things that come into your
mind, every one of them, and I will
give them one heart and I'll put a
new spirit within you and I will take
the stony heart out of their flesh and
give them a heart of flesh, that they
may walk in my statutes and keep my
ordinances and do them and they shall be
my people and I'll be their God.
But as for them whose heart walketh after
the heart of their detestable things and their
abominations, I will recompense their way upon their
own heads, says the Lord God.
You are they who justify yourselves before men,
but God knows your heart.
And God which knoweth the hearts, bear them
witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as
he did unto us.
And he that searches the hearts knows what
is the mind of the spirit, because he
makes intercession for the saints according to the
will of God.
For the word of God is quick and
powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit and of the joints and marrow
and is a discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart.
All the churches shall know that I am
he which searches the reins and hearts, and
I will give unto every one of you
according to your works.
So may God's word be in your heart.
Deuteronomy 11 18 says, Therefore shall you lay
up these words, my words, in your heart
and in your soul.
Son of man, all my words that I
shall speak unto you receive in your heart.
Thy word hath I hid in my heart,
that I might not sin against thee.
And as newborn babes, we desire the sincere
milk of the word, that we may grow
by it.
We must have the word of God, the
life of God, the life of God in
the vine if we're to grow.
And so the word of God must be
received and laid up into our hearts.
It needs to possess our minds, to fill
our minds, and to just seep down deep
into our hearts.
The heart is like the temple of God
where God is to be worshiped, and the
temple where God should fill all the rooms.
We get understanding, but understanding needs to enter
deep into our heart.
And so when we memorize something and we
reflect upon something, it begins to get closer
to our heart.
When we actually receive it by faith and
really believe it enough to begin to act
upon it, then we've received it into our
hearts.
It stays there in our hearts.
It's secure there in our hearts.
And our will is surrendered in love to
the word of God.
So the heart becomes the sanctuary of God.
And we at that point can cry out
and say, thy law is within my heart.
Now God has asked for your heart.
He wants your love.
He wants all of you.
And He'll receive you if you give Him,
as He said, my son, give thine heart.
And if you give Him your heart entirely,
He'll take your heart and He'll fill it
with Himself, and fill it with His word,
and fill it with His spirit.
And God wants His word to fill our
hearts and to rule our hearts.
So when you have the word of God,
you actually have God Himself working in you.
If God's word is in your heart, then
God is there willing.
And He's wanting you to receive His word
and to lay up His words in your
heart so that He can greatly bless you
through His word.
And that's why He says lay up these
words in your heart.
Now, the thing we need to do is
to make it a matter of resolve on
our part to begin to lay the word
of God upon our heart, to just meditate
on them, to repeat them, to think of
them.
Because the word of God is like seed,
and seed needs time.
It's got to be kept in the ground
for a while before it is heated and
comes out and the life begins to grow.
And so we too need to take the
seed of the word of God and we
need to treasure it and hide it down
into our hearts.
And after a while of treasuring the word
of God in our hearts, then we'll begin
to notice something interesting.
And that is that seed that we treasured
a while back and have kept in our
hearts begins to grow.
And there are things different about our life.
There are desires that are different that weren't
there before.
New desires begin to grow out of the
word of God that's being treasured in our
heart.
We have new power that we can't quite
understand because it's coming out of that word
of God that was treasured in our heart.
We have love.
We have joy and peace.
Blessed is the man whose delight is in
the law of the Lord and in his
law that he meditate day and night.
When your heart becomes the temple of God
and you fill your mind and heart with
his thoughts and faithfully open up your heart
to God every day to hear his voice,
to carry his word with you wherever you
go in your heart and in your mind,
then you will slowly begin to realize just
how faithful God is to his word and
how God will open up your heart and
how God will hear your prayers because you'll
be praying the word of God that's living
and abiding within you.
And so we need to practice receiving the
word for what it is, God's word, the
word of the father.
And we're God's child and we would receive
his word, ponder it, meditate on it, think
on it, then it's going to have a
tremendous effect on our hearts.
That word have I hid in my heart.
Oh how I love thy law.
It is my meditation all the day.
So even if you get to those places
in the word of God where some things
seem rather difficult to understand, just continue to
read and to reread and to put it
on your heart.
The father has given you his promise that
he's going to make it a blessing to
your heart.
But you got to first take it into
your heart.
You've got to believe that God will, if
you do your part and take it into
your heart by his Holy Spirit, he's going
to make that word living and powerful within
you.
So take that step of faith and get
the word of God in to your heart.
And our father who said, my son, give
me your heart.
Then he's the one that will give you
a new heart.
If we lay up his word and keep
his commandments in our hearts, there'll be a
complete strength to walk with God and to
do the things that God would desire.
To have the conviction and the power that
comes from the living and abiding word of
God.
Oh Lord, we just pray that you would
cause us to enter into your word and
all of these experiences of life.
That you would rule in our hearts by
your word, by your spirit.
We pray for your glory in Jesus name.
Amen.