WISDOM'S VOICE

WISDOM’S VOICE

“Hear, for I will speak of excellent things.”

Proverbs 8: 6-8; Luke 7: 35; John 4: 1-15 One has observed for some time the great importance of our ears being opened to the voice of God. It is evident from the scriptures that the first move of Satan to capture man for himself was by way of his ear. Before he got his eye or his heart, he got his ear; he said in a subtle way, “Yea, hath God said?” He put a word into the ear of man, and from his ear it went into his heart. Recovery to God begins that way; the word goes out to every one, “Hear and your soul shall live.” No one lives (in his soul) except on the principle of faith — “The just shall live by faith;”

but faith comes by hearing, and as the word of God comes into our ears — one of course does not speak in a material sense — as the message from God comes into our ears and is received, light breaks in upon the soul. So that it is of great importance what we are listening to, what we are giving our ear to.

The Lord Jesus, when He was here upon earth, seemed to feel more than most conditions that He found man in, the fact that he was deaf. In His movements amongst men He came into touch with all sorts and conditions, some of them terrible. Think of the man who was full of leprosy, of another who was possessed with a legion of demons, and of others who were blind! But in only one case, except at the grave of Lazarus, did the Lord groan, and that was in the case of a deaf man. These two things seemed to come home to the spirit of the Lord as being more terrible than any other conditions that He met with. You will remember the occasion when they brought to Him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech, and the Lord Jesus, taking him aside, put his fingers into his ears, and looking up to heaven He groaned, and said “Ephphatha,” that is, Be opened. (Mark 7: 34.) I think the Lord would teach us through that, what God feels about the deafness of the ears of man. But although the Lord Jesus was there feeling the conditions so acutely, He was there to open the deaf ears, and He is here tonight in Spirit with the same intent; He is here in grace in the gospel to put His fingers into your ears, so that those ears of yours, which have been closed to His message for so long, and into which He has caused His word to come, but hitherto without effect, might be opened to hear His word.

I would entreat every one of my hearers to let the Lord Jesus do this blessed work. He is ready to do it. He sent the message to John “The deaf hear” (Matthew 11: 5) There are many in this room who have already heard, and the Lord is present in the power of the Spirit of God with the finger of God to put in your ear, so that you too might hear the word. You will need to hear dear friend, He is calling to you today. Think of God calling! What a wonderful thing! That God should command, we can understand; that He should dictate to His creature is intelligible; but God is calling. “Because I have called;” He is calling to you. If you close your ears, if you refuse to hear His word, you will call — you will indeed, dear friend — but He will not hear, “Ye refused... then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer.” (Proverbs 1: 24-28)

His word is that as the tree falls, so it lies; whether it be to the south or to the north there it shall be (Ecclesiastes 11: 3.)

I would call your attention to that, “where the tree falleth.” Who can tell when you will fall? A tree in scripture always speaks of man. I do not know, no one knows when you may fall; but where you fall, there you lie, whether toward the south, or toward the north. When men have to fall, God would have them fall toward the south; He would have them fall in His blessing, in His favour, that there they may be for ever. The thief upon the cross illustrates that. He was about to fall, he looked into death, it was at hand, but he opened his ear to the word of God; he heard and he lived. He fell toward the south, into the favour of God. But the word is, “where the tree falleth, there it shall be” so that you will need to hear the word of God.

There are many other voices today claiming men’s ears, and because God’s word is being turned away from, men have itching ears, itching to hear the next thing — words that are generally words of deceit — great swelling words of vanity, words that magnify man in his own eyes. The first statement of evil that was ever uttered in God’s universe was this, “I will ascend” (Isaiah 14: 13.) And there are many such words today everywhere, and men are bowing their itching ears to listen to them, great swelling words of vanity that honour man, that cause man to become greater and greater in his own eyes, and lead him away from God, alluring through the lusts of the flesh. Beware of giving your ear to those words!

But in the scripture we read in Proverbs 8 it says, “Hear; for I will speak of excellent things.” These are the things — or at least a few of them — that I would like to speak of at this time. Excellent things! “Excellent” is superlative; it means there are no better things to be said. You may have the good words and fair speeches in deceit all around; for from the universities, from the scientists, from all parts of the earth, the scene is flooded with these, but they come up from the pit; that is the source from which they originate. But the Lord Jesus, presented as Wisdom, says “Hear; for I will speak of excellent things.” There is only One who can speak of excellent things, and that is Christ, and He would speak into your ear tonight. That is what the gospel is for — that the Lord Jesus should speak in your ear a word of excellence.

Now I want to take up in a few words these two incidents we read in the gospels, as being two of the “excellent things” of which Wisdom speaks. There are many more; eternity will be filled in listening to the excellent things of Wisdom, but there are two in these scriptures which are excellent, which came from the lips of the Lord Jesus. One is, “Thy sins are forgiven.” To the heart of a sinner with the thought of his sins upon his conscience, no better word could be said than that. The Lord Jesus is there in Luke 7, to speak into the ear and into the heart of a poor guilty sinner these excellent words, “Thy sins are forgiven,” and to any sinner stricken with the sense of guilt before God, the Lord Jesus would convey that message to your ear and to your heart now, “Thy sins are forgiven.”

The other “excellent word” in John 4 is this — “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” Living water is an excellent thing to a thirsty soul, to a heart that is dissatisfied, to a heart that is wanting something, it knows not what. But the Lord Jesus understands — as He alone fully understands the heart of man — and says He would give “living water”. “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of. water, springing up into everlasting life.”

Now these two things are excellent. There is no possibility of anything better being said in regard to these two states — to a sinner with the sense of the guilt of his sins, and to an unsatisfied thirsty heart. To the one He says, “Thy sins are forgiven,” and to the other He gives the living water, so that he does not thirst again for ever. Can you have better words to listen to than these?

Now the Lord Jesus in Luke 7 came into the house of Simon the Pharisee. He came there as Wisdom. In the same chapter He speaks of that; He appropriates the title because it was His. “Wisdom,” He says, “is justified of all her children.” He was the wisdom of God and the power of God, and God’s Wisdom walked into the house of Simon the Pharisee. I know Simon did not know it, but that was the truth. Wisdom is resource;

it indicates that the one who has it is never at a loss. It is like money. “Wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence” (Ecclesiastes 7: 12). In connection with material things, a man with money is never at a loss; he can find a way out somehow; and wisdom is like that in connection with moral questions that arise. The Lord Jesus walked through this world as God’s wisdom; He never was at a loss. You can gather up that in the gospels in every incident that arose. If men spoke about the past, He knew what to say; if they spoke about the present, He had a word of wisdom; if they spoke about the future state, as they did in regard of the resurrection, they found they were in the presence of wisdom. Whatever conditions were created, the Lord Jesus as the occasion arose always knew what He would do, for He was wisdom. In a patronising way, this Pharisee had invited Him to come to his house. He would patronise the Lord. I wonder if there is any one here like that, feeling that they are doing something in coming to the meetings? Moving about, one hears people speaking like that, half apologising for going to church, as if God should be greatly obliged to them! That is just how this Pharisee felt, doing a great favour to have the wisdom of God and the power of God come into his house — a great favour to the Lord! Nevertheless the Lord came; He came in grace.

And the Lord Jesus took account of how He was received. There was nothing in the heart of Simon to appreciate who was there. There was no water for His feet, no common courtesies of the day for Him, no kiss, no affection in Simon’s heart for Christ, no oil for His head, no recognition of His dignity. The Lord saw all, felt all, but said nothing. Perhaps that is how some here have been treating Him; coming to the meetings, it may be, now and again, but no appreciation of Christ in your heart, no affection there for Him, no sense of His great majesty and glory. Well, the Lord observed it as I said; He sat down to meat, and we read, “Behold, a woman in the city which was a sinner... stood at his feet behind him weeping.” She had been following Him, for it says she came behind Him. She had followed those blessed footsteps that had attracted her. They were the beautiful feet of Him that publisheth glad tidings of peace. She had watched Him in His footsteps of grace through this world, and in the presence of that boundless grace that had come to her in the person of Jesus, she had discovered the wickedness of her own heart. She followed Jesus, and stood behind Him, “and began to wash his feet with tears.” Those tears, I am sure were mingled; some were tears of joy to think of the grace of heaven that had come to her in Jesus; others were tears of repentance and sorrow in connection with the wickedness of her own life and the guilt of her sins; and the two combined were poured upon the feet of that blessed Person. Then she wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed them; expressing in that way the appreciation of her heart for those feet that had come that journey of grace; then she anointed them with the ointment.

The Lord was noting all, taking full account of her every act; not a movement escaped His notice, and then He turned to the woman and spoke to Simon. Simon was saying in his heart, or as the scripture puts it “he spake within himself, saying, this man, if he were a prophet” ...Dear friend, the Lord knows what you say in your heart. Satan said in his heart — we are not told he ever actually said it with his lips — “I will ascend.” And this man was sitting there speaking within himself. When you get into the presence of God, what you say within yourself is known. You might be ever so careful what you say to others, but what you say within yourself is known, for “all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” So the Lord says to Simon, “Simon I have somewhat to say unto thee.” Wonderful grace! One sometimes feels that that is grace as great as His grace to the woman. Here is a man who despises Christ, a man who patronises Him, a man who has no appreciation of the journey He has taken, no affection in his heart, no sense of His dignity, yet the Lord says to him, “Simon I have somewhat to say unto thee.” And do you know what He says to Simon? He conveyed to him that God was prepared to forgive him.

Think of that! A heart that despised Christ, that did not beat with a throb of affection for Jesus, that had no oil for His blessed head, no water for His feet, yet the Lord says to him, the mind of God, the heart of God towards you is forgiveness.

That is really the testimony that came out at the cross. At the cross of Calvary there was no water for the feet of Jesus from the hearts of men in this world; instead of water for those blessed feet that had come the whole journey, “they pierced,” He says, “my hands and my feet” — those blessed hands that had been outstretched in divine goodness, those blessed feet that had travelled right to where man was with the goodness of God. There was no kiss of affection from the hearts of men there — they spat on His blessed face. “I hid not my face,” the Lord says, “from shame and spitting.” There was no oil for His blessed head — they crowned Him with thorns. Instead of the dignity that was proper to that blessed head, they put upon Him the expression of the curse that had come upon this scene through the wickedness of man — a crown of thorns. The Lord Jesus speaks there — on the cross — words of such excellence that they ought to ring in every heart, and ring, AND RING, AND RING, till men fall down at the feet of Jesus, “Hear, and I will speak of excellent things.” “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!” These are the words that came from the lips of Jesus on Calvary. In that blessed heart which was in exact correspondence with the heart of God, there was forgiveness for those who expressed the hatred of their hearts to Him there. “Excellent words!” Surely nothing to be compared with them has ever come from any other lips.

So the Lord Jesus turns to the woman; He had appreciated fully how she had followed Him. He knew her sins, He could count every one of them. “Five hundred pence” — He knew exactly how to weigh up her guilt. Simon said He “would have known;” but the Lord Jesus knew Simon’s guilt, and Simon’s thoughts; and He knew the woman’s guilt, and the woman’s thoughts. He spoke of her washing his feet with her tears, and then He says, “This woman since I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.” Some of us perhaps did once kiss those blessed feet, that brought to us the grace of God. Have we ceased? If we have ceased, then our affections will be bound to turn somewhere else. Many a Christian has lent his ear to some other word, has followed some other feet, but the Lord says of this woman that she “hath not ceased to kiss my feet.” And He turns to her and says those excellent words, “Thy sins are forgiven.”

Now dear friends, the Lord is prepared to say that to you. It is not recorded, and we do not know that Simon ever received the forgiveness of sins, but it was there in the heart of God, in the heart of Christ for him: The gospel is preached so that you might receive the forgiveness of sins; it is like a gift put out for you to take. The woman received it; the Lord said to her “Thy sins are forgiven, ...thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.” The Lord is prepared to say that. God has a great name; no one can tell how great His name is. “What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?” No one can tell, but part of His great name is this, that He forgives iniquity and transgression and sin. God has a name to forgive; “But there is forgiveness with thee.” (Psalm 130: 4) He has fame for forgiving. That is the idea of a name; when people have a name it means they have renown, fame; they have some distinguishing glory, whatever it may be. So God has great fame for forgiveness. You remember, when Moses said, “Shew me thy glory,” God said, “I will proclaim my name before thee;” and this was part of it, “Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” And the Lord Jesus has a name like that. “What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?” The son’s name is exactly the same. If you went through the scriptures and gathered up all the names of God, you would find they were just as true of Jesus — there is no difference. God has renown for forgiving, and the Lord Jesus has renown for forgiving; and He is prepared to forgive. Forgiveness is one of those “excellent things” that He would speak to the hearts of men.

Now I would like to pass on for a moment to speak of the woman in John 4. She is not brought in as one who was troubled about her sins — I do not mean that she should not have been — but that is not the point for which the Spirit of God draws attention to her. The point in her case was different to that of the woman in Luke 7. One observes that both these cases are women, indicating that what is brought out in them sets forth deep lessons that have to be learned; deep secret exercises of heart with God. In scripture the woman sets forth what is behind the scenes, the man what is public. This question of sins and forgiveness, is a deeply secret exercise of soul. But this other woman is one who is unsatisfied. She admits it; she says, “Give me this water that I thirst not.” She had drunk of many streams. She had drunk out of what was good so far as it went; she had sought to satisfy her heart with natural relationships, which are of God; but she found that death was upon them and that one after the other they disappeared, and instead of being satisfied, the bitterness of death came into her heart. Then when these failed, she turned to the sink of corruption into which men run. Peter speaks of them thinking it strange “that ye run not with them to the same sink of corruption.” (1 Peter 4: 4. N.T.) That is where men run to satisfy their hearts when earth fails.

Home, family, business, pleasure, they try but they are not satisfied, something else is wanted, they do not quite know what. Men, and women too, will then try the sink of corruption, to see if they can get something out of that. Of course it is not labelled that in the world; it is the Spirit of God who puts that label on it, and it is true, because all His words are in truth.

But, you say, it is only a simple novel — it might even be a religious one, but it is running to satisfy the heart — at the sink of corruption that is in this world. When God’s judgment came upon Egypt, one has observed (and I trust with solemnity) that every drop of water in Egypt, not only the river, was turned into blood. The river represents a course — the course of this world — including the racecourse, the theatres, the public houses, and so on — that great river that keeps the life of the world going. Note, in this chapter, it is not a question of what we eat, it is what we drink. Drink is not exactly to build up life, it is refreshment. Everybody would admit that the river has been turned into blood, but it says “their ponds, and all their pools” (Exodus 7: 19) — those little tiny spots with just a little drop of water in them — the Spirit of God says they were all turned into blood; and any one who drinks out of them drinks death. That explains often why even a Christian begins to die spiritually — he is drinking often out of the pond. He is not seen going to the theatre or the like, but he has got a little pond, perhaps a little book on evolution in his library which he dips into just as a matter of interest, or some little article in the line of modern thought — those great swelling words that are coming out. He does not intend to pursue it much, but he is just dipping out of the pond. This poor woman had tried many of these things, but still she says, “I thirst.”

And the Lord Jesus says to her, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life,” in other words I am prepared to satisfy your heart for ever. “Whosoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst for ever.” Now that is an “excellent word.” You could not find a better word than that for a thirsty heart, and the Lord Jesus says it to every heart here; for He is prepared to give living water, so that you shall never thirst for ever.

But the scripture we read in Proverbs 8 says, “All the words of my mouth are in righteousness.” Now come back to our scripture, in Luke 7. “Thy sins are forgiven.” You say, that is grace? It is dear friends, but the Lord assures us that every single word that He utters is in righteousness. How can God say righteously, “Thy sins are forgiven?” Do you know where her sins went — where the sins of the believer go? In the Old Testament there are two sacrifices that are used to teach us this (Leviticus 16.) One goat was slain as a sacrifice for sin, and the other goat had the sins laid upon its head by the priest, and a fit man took that goat into a land not inhabited. Now that is where the question of righteousness comes in. The Lord Jesus with those blessed feet has taken the journey, first of all into that land not inhabited. He was the “fit man,” and the only fit Man, and He was the sacrifice too. He went out, on the one hand carrying the sins of all those who put their trust in Him into a land where they will never be found; and on the other, He died for our sins. “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.” So that God says afterwards, “The iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah,

and they shall not be found” (Jeremiah 1: 20). That is God speaking — God, with eyes that run to and fro throughout the whole earth, says He cannot find the believer’s sins. They are gone into a land not inhabited, which means the land that God never goes into; it is not a question of whether men go there, but God does not go there: It is to teach us that God has put sins away where He cannot find them, and if He cannot find them, we have no need to be concerned about them. “Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7: 19). So the Lord says, “All the words of my mouth are in righteousness.” His blessed sacrifice has secured a righteous basis for Him to say, “Thy sins are forgiven.”

Now what is the effect of following those blessed feet to that goal? The effect is that you never cease to kiss them. That dear woman would come into the further light of it afterwards when the Spirit came, and she would never cease kissing the blessed feet of Jesus, that carried Him into that dark and distant land on the one hand, and down into death on the other, to put her sins away. The effect is that she loves Him. Forgiveness of sins is not merely to relieve our consciences, it is to secure our hearts for Christ. So the Lord says “Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most?” He wanted not simply that she should be happy in the sense of forgiveness, though she was blessedly happy, but He would secure the affections of men’s hearts for Himself, by the journey that He has taken in grace to put their sins away. One can understand, in the light of the sacrifice of Christ, how the apostle should speak so solemnly of those who do not love Him. “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha.”

In the other case, the Lord says, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water.” He refers to the gift of the Holy Spirit as living water, to shed abroad in the heart of the believer the love of God, so that he is never again dissatisfied and never thirsts again. And “all the words... are in righteousness.” Think of God having a righteous ground upon which to give men the Holy Spirit! Not simply doing it in grace and bounty, though He does that, but every word being in righteousness. He is righteous to give the Spirit of God, so that the love of God might be shed abroad in their hearts, that there might be a living link with heaven, a living link with Christ in their hearts, and that they might never thirst again. That takes us to the ground upon which God makes the water flow — the ground upon which He gives the Spirit which we find in type in Exodus 17. There amid the murmurings and discontent of the people — hearts like this woman — God said I will satisfy them, I will stop their murmurings. So He tells Moses to take the rod, and go to the rock, “Behold I will stand before thee there upon the rock, in Horeb and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it.” The rock, we know, was Christ, and the rod of God that fell with such power upon Egypt so that its power was broken, fell too with such power upon the waters of the Red Sea that they gave way before it — the rod of God’s holy government, of God’s judgment, fell upon the rock. The Lord Jesus was smitten by the rod of God. God says, I will be there. It was by divine appointment. It does not refer to that awful scene of Calvary as enacted by the hands of heartless men, but it refers to what the Lord Jesus suffered there at the hand of God. The rod of God fell with all its terrible power upon the only One who could bear it. If it were to fall upon you, dear hearer, it would send you into everlasting judgment, into the lake of fire for ever. When God’s judgment visits this earth, it says, “The great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?” Who could stand when the rod of God comes down upon men? Only the Rock — no other one. That blessed Rock bore the smiting of divine wrath and judgment. Matthew and Mark give us the forsaking, and the darkness, and the distance — the smiting of the Rock — but Luke shows us that when the smiting is over the Rock still stands immutable. And after the smiting is over; the words from the Rock are these, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” The Rock did not break up. Everyone else would have been scattered to eternal judgment under the rod of God, but the Rock stood; He bore the judgment, exhausted it, and came out of it unconsumed, and that provided in the sight of God a righteous ground to give men the Holy Spirit. Their state of sin and murmuring and evil has been judged. He who knew no sin was made sin. He took that state to which God could never give the Spirit, and in His death that state was judged and put away. The wrath of God came upon that condition in the sacrifice of Christ, and because of that, God can now in righteousness impart the Spirit; the Spirit can be given as living water, so that we thirst not, “neither come hither to draw.”

May the Lord help us each one to listen with the ears of our hearts to those “excellent things!” For the sinner troubled about his sins there is forgiveness, so that he might love Christ for ever; for the heart that is unsatisfied and thirsty, there is the Spirit of God, so that not only does he not thirst but he worships by the Spirit of God. One is to teach us to love Christ, and the other to teach us to worship God. “God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth.”