Being Wise

Turn with me if you have your Bible to 2 Timothy chapter 3. The brethren have set a time now for a little word in the gospel, and we trust that God will use it to close the conference with great joy. One verse here, 2 Timothy chapter 3. Paul is writing to his son in the faith, Timothy. Verse 15, And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Now back to Matthew's gospel please. The words of the Lord Jesus, chapter 7. The end of the chapter. Notice with me at verse 24.

Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. The rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand.

The rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. Now two verses in my last reading come to Deuteronomy. Way back in the Old Testament, chapter 32.

The words of Moses. And look with me at verse 28. For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them.

Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end. Oh, the Lord bless the reading of these words. Give a little help as we think of the gospel.

You know, the brethren setting aside a time like this for the gospel says to my heart, they have an interest in your eternal well-being. I'd like to think a little of the thought of being wise in the spiritual sense, and thinking especially of this thought of salvation. Paul is writing his last letter before he is to depart from earth.

Timothy was a son of faith. And yet as he pens these words, I'm sure he's thinking especially of preservation of Timothy of faith on those that would carry on. But I'm lifting it in view of what is related.

That your lifetime, that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I'm recognizing that there's varied backgrounds even in our gathering here. I know not your upbringing, but this I understand, that every one of us as individuals, as we're moving through the scenes of time, that we're going to eventually be finished with earthly course.

And to leave this world, we want to be wise in respect to where we're going to go. The Bible makes clear there are two destinies. Heaven above, hell and the lake of fire beneath.

As I look into your face, you look at me. We are creatures bound through time, going to face and be in eternity. And how sad it is when, as you think of Moses so long ago, penning these words, and he was thinking of not only the nation, but when he makes this statement of verse 29 in Deuteronomy 32, oh, that they were wise, that they would understand this, that they would consider their latter end.

It's not just what I may be wanting to do in later years, but the latter end is that this little life of mine and yours will come to a close. Then the great unending eternity, ages upon ages, will find ourselves. I want you to be wise for eternity.

When Paul pens these words, he thinks of Timothy, and he relates in the first chapter of that epistle, relative to a saved mother and to a saved grandmother. No mention is made of the father or the grandfather. But Timothy had the privilege, even as a youngster, the influence of the Holy Scriptures in the home.

Those Holy Scriptures, while you and I have the Old Testament and the New, in Timothy's days, the parts of the New Testament were not all complete. But as he's thinking the apostle, here's the Holy Scriptures, and found within the Holy Scriptures are the truths that would make us wise, make you wise unto salvation. We lift it from its scene, and we want to think of this.

The Bible makes it clear that the happenings of the Garden of Eden brought upon this world the ruin of man, separated Adam from God. He died spiritually that day. He lived from that day onward in a dying body.

The great eternity before. You know, friend, hundreds and thousands of years have transpired, and here we are. I made a statement a couple of times in the 80s, we'll never see the year 2000.

You know, sometimes you have to eat your own words. Here we are, 2013, almost the end of another month. Time is fleeting.

Where are you going to be when you leave this world? Where is your soul? That's your person. That earthly house you're living in, it's only temporal. And the Lord Jesus values the soul of every person.

He has a value and an interest in your eternal well-being. And He desires, friend, that you might understand your need of being saved, to enjoy and to receive God's salvation. The fall of Adam brought depravity.

You and I had no choice in our birth. We came into the world as sinners. And very soon in life we became accountable to understand that right or wrong is sin before God.

You're here and old enough to know that you're a sinner. You're old enough to understand that those sins would bring about punishment. And the wrath of God that hates sin, He wants you to understand that in spite of the fact that you and I are sinners, the God of heaven loves us.

He wants us to be wise as to our soul. Paul makes clear that it's through the Holy Scriptures that this is presented to us. The understanding that there's a coming end.

And the Lord Jesus spoke of the wise man. He spoke of the foolish man. They both were builders.

And you're there. You're younger. Whether you're older, you've made plans.

You've probably got plans for tomorrow, Lord willing. And then there may be the weeks to follow. But friend, we're thinking of eternal issues.

And we're thinking of the fact that how sad it is as the Lord was speaking those words and Matthew records them. Here's a man. He's a builder.

And he may have put up a lovely structure. But he put that structure on nothing more than sand. So long as the rains and the storms had not appeared, there it stood.

But the Lord is telling us this. How important the foundation. Because the wise man built his house upon the sand.

Upon the rock. Sorry. The foolish man on the sand, as we said.

Friend, this afternoon, the only foundation that you can have and enjoy that will stand for eternity is the person of Christ. The work of the cross. That you might receive the word of the gospel.

What glad tidings! What precious news! That God loved the world of sinners lost. And Paul says in 1 Timothy 1, this is a faithful saying. And worthy of all acceptation.

That Christ Jesus came into the world right here on earth to save sinners. He adds this comment, of whom I am chief. Of all the billions that have lived in this world, yet this afternoon we realize as he looks down beneath what is above us here in this building.

He is looking upon your heart. And he wants you to be wise for eternity. Moses is old that they were wise.

That they understood this. That they would consider their latter end. The Savior said, what shall it profit a person if he should gain the whole world? No one will ever do it.

But he is using the greatest possibility and potential to gain the whole world and to lose his own soul. Tragic. Terrible when you think of it.

And it need not be. When you think of God looking down from heaven, and ere this world was ever brought into existence, the person of Christ, the Savior in His right hand, the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, had already determined there would be a great provision of grace. That man who would fall and become depraved through Adam's fall and disobedience.

You and I inherit that nature by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin. So death, physical, and even the death of the soul that were dead in trespasses and sins that is our position before God. That He desired and devised means whereby the banished be not expelled from His presence.

And so we have the gospel. God's good news. The glad tidings that ere we were having went astray, we took our own course, we chose our own way.

It wasn't God's way. We take that way which seems right. And I sat in conference meetings with a boy.

I remember the children's meetings, especially a man named Jameson. I forget his name, but that wasn't the full name. But they called him Buzz.

He was a man that spoke fast. I suppose that was tagged on him as a boy. But you know he would take the time.

He showed an interest in us, the boys and girls. And he showed an interest in that he desired and we understood that, what he meant. Your blessing that you might be saved.

Rescued from the doom of a sinner's hell. But more than that, saved to be in heaven and to enjoy Christ while here on earth as your own personal Savior. Wise unto salvation.

The Holy Scriptures bring us that wonderful truth. The cost was tremendous. The God of heaven gave His blessed Son.

He came from the glory into this world. Shepherds found Him as a babe lying in a manger. The angels had appeared unto you with that word.

Unto you was born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord. They found the child as a babe lying there. Wise men found Him as a young child in the house.

At the age of 12, when He stayed behind and the parents had gone back with the elders to their native place. They had been up to Jerusalem. When they returned and found the Lord Jesus, Mary said to Him, Why have you done this? The Lord's answer was this, Wished He not that I must be about my Father's business.

He had come into this world sent to the Father to make His way to Calvary. What a cost for God! He spared not His Son. What a price the Lord Jesus in love to submit Himself into the hands of men.

They hated Him without a cause. They despised and rejected Him. They made light of Him.

And all through His public ministry we have the evidences given to us in the Word. Though they tried to do away with Christ, no hand could do it. Until He knew, as He would say to His own, The hour has come.

He left that upper room, as the Word of God tells us, when He instituted the Lord's Supper, which we observed this morning, which I observed from Elad. And how precious to be able to know the Savior. He went out into that garden, falling prostrate upon the ground in agony of soul.

And after that third prayer, He rises and says to the three, Peter, James, and John, the betrayers at hand. He turned Himself over into the hands of men. They took Him to the cross.

We want you to think a moment or two about Calvary. Think of the Savior being nailed to a cruel cross. Think of the wounds that He had received at the hands of men.

When they tore His flesh. When they biffed Him. Pulled the hairs from His cheeks.

Put the crown of thorns upon His brow. And on a bleeding back, they laid that cross and took Him out to Golgotha's hill and crucified Him. Nailed upon that cruel cross and lifted up.

The love that Jesus had for me, we sing. And I'd like you to be wise to think about your soul. The price that He paid.

His suffering. The shame. And the ordeal of those six hours.

But He bore the punishment of sin as a substitute. The sacrifice that God demanded. Without shedding of blood, there is no remission.

When that work was done, it was a loud voice. It is finished. He dismissed His spirit.

This moment, friend, He's seated on the throne above that we've been reminded of today. But through the Word, the Holy Scriptures, He brings to your heart from this blessed book the truth of what it is that a person can know. K-N-O-W That you're saved.

You receive Christ. The Savior gave in John 17 a definition of eternal life. This is life eternal that they may know Thee, the God.

And His Son, the Lord Jesus, whom He has sent. He wants you, friend, to receive the Lord Jesus. What a privilege.

Timothy had a privilege to be raised where the Scriptures were read. Where they expounded to Him as to His guilt and need and sin. But to be reminded and made to understand, God gave His beloved to the cross.

The Savior gave His life, shedding His precious blood. And He finished that work to satisfy the claims of the Holy Throne. But to meet your need and mine as guilty sinners.

What about your sins? You know, in God's sight, they're vile. They're unclean. It has brought us under the condemnation of God.

But the glad tidings and the good news of the Gospel, the Holy Scriptures contain this blessed truth. The Savior's own words that John records in his third chapter of the Gospel. After speaking to Nicodemus that the Son of Man must be lifted up.

For God so loved the world. That He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish.

But have everlasting life. Could you think of anything greater to receive and be blessed? What we see the day will come and this building will be nothing. This old earth will be swamped and swept away.

All will be done. You and I will be bound in eternity. Will you be in heaven? Or will it be to perish and live in an endless torment? With a memory to remember even a Sunday afternoon.

Sitting in a commodious school with its rooms and space. They can put three of the school houses that I went to in this room and have room for more. That's the days in which we live.

Listen. Oh that you are wise. That you understood this.

To consider your latter end. The Lord Jesus having finished the work. Leads to us the message of the Gospel.

And those loving kind words of Matthew 11. Verse 28. Come unto me.

Says the Savior. All ye that labor and are heavy laden. And I will give you rest.

Salvation includes not only deliverance from the penalty of sin. From the awful consequences. It brings rest.

Into the soul. It brings peace. It brings joy.

And you know it brings assurance. Because the Holy Scriptures. Is what we rely on.

I quote the words again as I'll close in prayer. For God so loved the world. You're one of them.

That He gave. His only begotten Son. That whosoever believeth in Him.

Should not perish. But have everlasting life. Receive Christ.

Trust Him as your Savior. The word of God declares it. It's His own word.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And thou shalt be saved.