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respond by singing 422, verse
five. Children, are you happy to be
back at school, starting a new school season, either at home
or at school? Some of you, no doubt, are happy
to start again and are eagerly learning new things. Others of you may have wished
for a longer summer. Perhaps you enjoy setting your
own schedule and are happier doing your own things. This morning
we want to hear about people who are truly happy. God calls
them happy and they're happy in his school. They're happy
learning from him and from his word. And as we start a new Sunday
school and catechism season, we wish to look at our text verse,
which you can find in the passage read in your hearing, especially
verse 34. And I think we'll find a call
to each and every one of us. to pursue that which will truly
make us happy. Proverbs 8 verse 34, blessed
is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at
the posts of my doors. thus far our text. Our theme
with God's help is watching daily at wisdom's gate. Watching daily
at wisdom's gate. We'll see the picture, first
of all, that our text puts before us. Secondly, the doctrine that
we're confronted with here. And thirdly, the experience of
what it means to watch at the gate of wisdom. watching at wisdom's
gate, the picture, the doctrine, and the experience. Well, the
words of our text and of this whole chapter are some of the
most amazing words in all of the Bible. These are not just
the word of a man. Obviously, that's true about
the whole Bible, but in a direct way, it's wisdom speaking to
us. And we may confess on the basis
of the whole Bible that this is Jesus Christ under the name
of wisdom addressing us this morning. Look at what he says
in verse 23. I was set up from everlasting,
from the beginning, wherever the earth was. This is the son
of God and the bosom of his father, delighting in God and God in
him, the father in the son and the son in the father. And we
read those remarkable words, and my delights were with the
sons of men. He was already anticipating the
people that would be on the earth. and his heart and his delights
go out after them. That's the Son of God here, pictured
as wisdom. Don't you think this is worth
listening to this morning? And note also that he's speaking
to everybody. You'll see this in verse 4 of
our chapter. Sometimes we wonder, is scripture
at this point speaking to me? Am I addressed here? Well, you
don't need to ask that and wonder that about this whole chapter. My voice, says wisdom, is to
the sons of men. Unto you, O men, I call. McChain, in a sermon on that
passage, says, if you're a devil, you need not listen. If you're
an animal, you need not listen. If you're an angel, you can forbear
listening. But if you're a son of Adam,
a daughter of Adam, this call comes to you, each one of us
personally. Also, you children, look at verse
32. He addresses you specifically,
children, hear me and become wise. Blessed is the man that heareth
me watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my door.
You have in this one proverb in verse 34, three ideas. And think of it this way, it's
a 3D picture of what it means to hear Christ in his school. At home maybe, or you can even
just do this in your head, you see here three lines. First of
all, blessed is the man that heareth me. The second line is,
watching daily at my gates. The third line is, waiting at
the posts of my door. There are three descriptions
here that all hang together. Complete picture of thought.
This is what it looks like to be a disciple of wisdom. Now the picture here, that's
being painted is of a building with gates and doorposts. It's no doubt a large building
because it has a courtyard with gates and then it has an actual
door with posts. You probably need to think here
of a large school or maybe even a palace, more likely. A palace
where a king would live. A king such as Solomon who wrote
this book. Solomon as you know was the wisest
man that ever lived and he would teach people who came to him
You can read of this in Ecclesiastes 12 verse 9. In fact, he's called
the preacher because he would preach or teach the people there
at the gates of his palace. We read in Ecclesiastes 12 verse
9, the preacher was wise, still he taught the people knowledge. Yea, he gave good heed and sought
out and set in order many proverbs. No doubt he had many lectures
or sermons, we would say, that he preached there. And whoever
would come would take it in. But there were also individuals
who would come to Solomon for wisdom. They had problems and
difficulties, questions and riddles, things that met them in the experience
of everyday life, and they needed wisdom, they needed insight. on their issues and on their
problems. And so they would come to a wise
man, someone like Solomon. You can read of that, can't you,
of those two women that showed up in his court one day, one
with a dead son and the other with a living son. And they needed
Solomon with his wisdom to arbitrate and to perceive and discern. what all had gone on, and he
did. It's the wisdom that God had given him. And other people
came with questions and riddles, the enigmas of life, so weighed
them down. Where do I go? They went to Solomon,
the queen of Sheba. Remember, she came from far.
She put before him all her questions, all her riddles, all her problems. And Solomon was used by God to
solve every case. So much so that her breath was
taken away and she could say, happy are your servants, Solomon. Happy are your people who dwell
here at your gates. Well, what does it mean then
for these people here to be watching at the gates and there at the
posts of the door? Well, watching is something that
if you're going to be a watcher, you have to be prepared to wait
maybe hours, maybe days, maybe even weeks. to get your answer. And so there were these people
who would come from far or from near with problems, and they'd
be at the gates. And Solomon wouldn't come for
some days or weeks or maybe even months, but they were there.
They were watching day in and day out. They wanted to be there.
They so were pressed down with their questions, their needs. They had to speak to him. They
were watching. for when he would come through
that door and begin to speak, and could they get his attention,
and could they have their problem addressed that particular day?
You know, people watch for things they care deeply about. It's remarkable every year around
Thanksgiving time where people will watch through the night
at the entrance of some or other store. To get a good deal they
camp out for hours and hours braving the cold and sometimes
the snow and ice There are people who do the same thing with sports
events and and concerts there they are the first in line to
get these coveted tickets and They'll wait and they'll watch
and sometimes you Turn the dial of your radio, and hours before
some or other game, they're already analyzing the players. And I
just picture these people who are so deeply consumed with this,
they're watching and waiting. And they're there, even after
the game, for hours, analyzing what has taken place. They're watching, they're waiting,
they're so preoccupied with that. Sadly, such people have their
priorities confused, don't they? How good it would be if people
would line up, just trying to get a seat in this place. People
wanting to hear wisdom, eager to hear what God would say to
them. Happy, Christ says. Blessed,
that's what it means, happy, is the man that heareth me. Happy are the people who watch
and wait for me. It's amazing that the Lord even
has to say this. He's our creator. He made us.
He formed us. He breathed unto us breath and
he upholds our breath each and every day. And he has to tell
us, happy you are if you wait for my word. He deserves it. He made us for
that. But He has to call us. He has to invite us. He has to
warn us and threaten us. And He does so. This tells us,
doesn't it, that by our sin we've turned away from our Maker, from
our God. We're listening all right. We're
listening to the whispers of the devil. We're listening to
the language of our own heart. We're listening at the gates
of the world, at the door posts of this world. We prefer the
creature to the creator. We prefer folly to wisdom. Lady Folly can cry out and the
masses flock to her. Ever had your heart exposed as
so mysteriously preoccupied with that which the Bible calls foolishness? But over all these voices sounds
this voice of Christ. Happy are you, my friend? No
matter how old or young you are, happy. Are you, if you're watching
and waiting for what I have to say to you that how you came
this morning, the needs of your life, the enigmas that weigh
you down, the confusing, perplexing providences that come your way
and you can't find answers. Something in you says, I need
the gate of wisdom. I need to hear from God himself. I need to be watching, waiting.
No matter how long it takes, I need to hear what God the Lord
will speak. Watching through the night even. Some of us have sleepless nights.
What did you do during your last sleepless night? Sometimes I wonder, this is just
kind of an aside, but I wonder if sleeplessness is not a divine
invitation to watch and wait the gate of wisdom through the
night, if necessary, to hear what God has to say to us, to
open God's Word, and to pray, and to do what some of those
people would have done, no doubt, around the palace of Solomon.
The night watchers could have seen them. Oh, there's that widow
woman again. She's been there every day, every night so far.
She must have something really burdening her. There she is.
She's waiting for Solomon to speak to her case. Well, this
is the picture of our text, and it brings us to the doctrine
that we see running throughout the scriptures of the means of
grace and the importance of those means of grace. The means of
grace have been defined by the Reformers and by our creeds as
the reading and hearing of God's Word, The preaching of it, the
sacraments and prayer. Those are the means that God
uses to dispense and give his grace. You know, God is a gracious
God and it takes his grace and his grace alone worked in our
hearts to give us salvation. to give us everlasting life,
but the Lord usually uses means, and He calls us to those means.
He doesn't say, just wait in your corner and live in your
own place, and if I'm going to be gracious to you, I'm going
to be gracious to you. There's nothing you can do anyways.
No, He calls everyone to come under the means of God's grace,
and we're disobedient when we don't come under the means of
grace. When you read the scriptures,
So many model this for us. David says, my one request has
been, and still this prayer I make, that I might dwell in the courts
of the Lord, inside that gate of the Lord, to behold the beauty
of the Lord. Just that he would come and show
himself. That's my heart's desire. See,
he's under the means of grace with that prayer. And Asaph,
in all his doubt and temptation, he went into the sanctuary with
all his questions and enigmas. And there, God showed him what
he needed to know. Think of Josiah who called for
the role of the book and there sat trembling under the word
of God. He humbled himself. He wanted
to know each and every word that God had spoken. Or think of Mary. Well, Martha is busy doing all
sorts of things, serving. Mary, what is she doing? She
sits at the feet of Jesus. She's in the courts of the Lord,
you could say, right up against the doorpost. She wants to catch
every word of wisdom. Think of Lydia, there by the
riverside. Under the means of grace, under
the preaching of Paul, the Lord opened her heart. She attended
to the things that were spoken of by the apostle Paul. And Timothy,
children and young people, Timothy was raised under the means of
grace by his mother Lois and his grandmother Eunice. We don't
know if they had a part of the Bible or if they just, they went
to the synagogue, they heard the word of God and they came
home with it and they said, Timothy, repeat this after me. Timothy,
write this down, this is God's word. And Paul says, you were
trained in the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise
unto salvation. You cannot slight the means of
grace without doing great damage to your soul, incurring guilt
before God in the judgment day. Even if you're here today and
you know you're unconverted, to leave your pew empty, an appointed
time of worship, without a lawful reason, is to bring greater guilt
upon your soul. And it's not just filling the
pew, Because using the means of grace doesn't mean just coming
to a place, but listening carefully, disciplining your mind, preparing
beforehand, having a humble and a prayerful attitude. God, speak
to my heart and to my soul. Jonathan Edwards wrote this,
we ought to be so steady and constant as to neglect no known
duty in the proper season of it. If we neglect secret prayer,
or going to meeting, or attending ordinances in the proper season
of it. Who knows that but if we had attended upon God, He
would have met with us. bestowed His grace upon us in
that duty. How do we know that if we had
attended it, that God would have not met with us and manifested
Himself to us? And by neglecting that duty,
we have lost an opportunity worth thousands and millions of gold
and silver. We have to watch daily at His
gate. This is true not only for unconverted
people, this is true, dear believers, for you and for me. We need that
urging, don't we, again and again. We need those reminders, those
encouragements. Because we can be there at a
certain time where every day we're in the Word, we're seeking
God, we're seeking to hear His voice, and coldness comes in. and we grow lazy, and maybe the
form is still there. You still open the Bible, you
read a chapter, but your heart is so dead, it's so cold. Blessed is the man that heareth
me watching daily. Notice that, daily, every day. Not skipping a day without lawful
reasons. Daily at my gates. Christ loves
a man, a woman, a child who every day is at the gate of wisdom,
seeking a word from the Lord. The problem for me is, I'm sure
it is for most of us, is that we live such hurried lives. We have so much to do that watching
and waiting is almost a foreign language to us. But as one author has said, God
won't give his secrets to those who don't take time and sit still. He says it like this, nature
can only tell her secrets to such as will sit still in her
sacred temple till their eyes lose the glare of earthly glory
and their ears are attuned to nature's voice and shall revelation
do what nature cannot? Never. The man who will win blessedness
of hearing the Lord must watch daily at his gates and wait at
the posts of her doors. It's remarkable that it says
here, happy is the man that watches and waits. I think if you and I had to write
this, maybe we would say something like, happy is the person who,
yes, perhaps watching and waiting, but he's happy when he hears,
when he hears me, when he has insight into me and my wise ways. That's not what it says. It says,
happy is he that heareth me, yes, but happy are those people
even as they're watching, even as they're waiting. They're happy
even as they watch and wait. That doesn't mean, of course,
that we always feel so happy, but that's not the question here.
He's not saying you will feel happy when you watch and wait,
but he says, God says, wisdom says, you will be happy. You
truly are happy if you're waiting on me and watching for me. It's kind of like what the Lord
says in the Beatitudes, blessed are they that hunger and thirst. And you say, Lord, isn't it supposed
to be blessed will you be if you hunger and thirst? No. Blessed
are they that hunger and thirst. There's happiness even as you're
waiting on God. I remember hearing the story
one time of a simple farmer. He told his minister, he said,
I just can't wait to come to God's house. On Thursday, it's
almost as if I can smell the Sabbath approaching, and I can't
wait to hear what God will say to my soul. Friends, that's the
attitude and spirit that should be ours as well. David said,
I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, rather right
on the edge where I can still make out something, than to dwell
in the middle of the tents of wickedness. Blessed is the one
who watches daily at my gates. Well, friends, how does this
text reach us this morning? How far have you wandered from
the gates of wisdom? And how has it happened? Search
it out in your life. How has it been that Our vibrancy has waned. We've
become lax in God-appointed duties. Every believer here can relate
to that. But above all this, hear Christ's
voice today. He's calling you back. He's saying,
you'll be happy if you watch at my gates and wait at the doors,
the posts of my door. Children, as you begin a new
Sunday school season and catechism season, this is a good time to
think about the privilege that you have. Don't take it for granted. There are countries where if
they had Sunday school and catechism like you do, many would flock. They just want to hear something
and know something about God and the gospel. And you have
this from your earliest days. When you come to Sunday school
and catechism classes, obviously listen closely to your teacher,
but come with the attitude that looks past your teacher and that
wants to hear what God has to say through the Bible and through
what the teacher is telling you. Don't just end in your teacher.
but come there seeking to learn wisdom, seeking to learn about
Christ, about God, about your soul, and how you can have true
life through Christ. Parents, what model do we put
to our children? There's not a parent here, I'm
sure, that doesn't feel at some level very guilty. If your children
watch you through a day and through a week, do they see someone who's
watching at the gates of wisdom, hungry, eager to hear what God the Lord
will say? and older ones among us. This
is not just for children. We read in the word of God that
in Psalm 92, that those people who live in the courts of God,
they flourish even in old age. There's fruit, there's vibrancy,
and living every day, listening to what the Lord has to say to
you from his word. Coming to church isn't about
the minister up front. You come here this morning to
listen to Christ, to listen through the word to the one who ultimately
speaks to everybody in his word, to all men everywhere. I look
back on the sermons that I thought to myself, you know, I didn't
get much out of that. Looking back, I wonder if I just
wasn't close enough to the gate to hear what God had to say to
my soul. Let's press close to wisdom's
gate. Christ says this, My sheep hear
My voice, and they follow Me. How do I know, says someone,
that I'm hearing Christ? That I'm one of these people
who watches and waits. Well, listen to this verse, my
sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Just like sheep pick
out the voice of their shepherd and they follow him. Yes, they
have a wayward heart. Yes, they go their own way. Yes,
they're foolish. They're oh so foolish, but the
shepherd's voice, they do know. They pick it out and in the end,
they follow. Well, this is the doctrine that
the text holds before us this morning, and finally now the
experience. Because there's something here
in our text that I haven't really dwelt on thus far that I want
you to see. And it's in the final words of
our text. Blessed is the man that heareth
me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of the door. You know, these posts of the
door. As I said earlier, you had in the ancient palaces, you
had these gates and they would be guarded, but when they were
open, you could come through the gates and there'd be this
whole courtyard. And I'm sure there were many
people who were content simply to be in the courtyard of a palace. That was quite special itself,
wasn't it? Just to be close to the palace and admire the palace
and look around the palace. But come with me in the Spirit
and look at this palace in our text. Who do you see pressed
up against the posts of the door? That's something different, isn't
it? It's one thing to be in church here within the courts of the
Lord, you could say, but it's another thing to be pressed up
against the posts of the door, standing right there where you
could get the The freshest view, the closest view, the quickest
audience of the king, King Solomon, as you would come out through
the entrance of the house. Now in the ancient world and
even in societies today in Africa and in the Middle East and probably
in Asia as well, you know who are the people who are at the
posts of the door? If you go to some big mansion
or some wealthy estate and you could walk right in, who would
you see at the posts of the door? You would see the servants, right? They'd be right there as soon
as the king would come out. Obviously, there were servants
in the court, in the palace as well. As soon as the king would
come out, there they would be, right there. They'd get right
up. They'd respect their king and master, and whatever he needed,
whatever he wished for them to do, they were ready there to
serve him. And they'd wait there all night
long, right by the posts of the door. And in Scripture, the posts
of the door were significant for servants. If you had a good
master and you were a servant, you wanted to continue serving
that servant, even when you were able, according to the law, to
go free, you would say, I love my master. Your master would
take you to the posts of the door, and then they would pierce
through or bore through your ear. That would be a symbol of
the fact that you were their servant forever. And the doorposts
was was used there because that's exactly where the servants would
would typically stay unless they were on some or other error.
And there they would be by the doorposts as soon as the master
emerged and be ready to serve him. No matter what. Let me ask you this morning. You just hanging around the gates. Or has something driven you right
up to the posts of the door? Just think of a man who maybe
has lost all. He's going to lose his children
into slavery. He's gotten himself into debt.
He can't survive. There he goes with his burden,
with his iniquity, with his guilt. He goes all the way to Solomon's
doorposts, right up against them. At the first instance, he wants
to pour out his heart before Solomon. I'm desperate. I'm needy. There's no more hope. I can't make ends meet. My children.
And Solomon comes out and he's right there, pours out his case
before Solomon. And Solomon says, you can serve
me with your life. You can be my servant. I'll pay
all your debts. You can live in my presence.
You can live at my doorposts. You can hear my voice. Think
of someone who has used up their life in service to the world. Driven by need and attracted
by the beauty of Solomon. They've made their way with heavy
hearts, perhaps, but nevertheless drawn by love. There they go. Solomon. Glorious, wise, beautiful
Solomon. Solomon, I've wasted so many
years in the service of sin. All I want is to be a handmaiden
of yours, to do whatever it is you want me to do. Your attractiveness, your beauty,
your wisdom, your glory as such. If only I can catch a glimpse
of you here and there, just waiting at the doors, the posts of your
door. You see how these people have
been driven by need and attracted by love to that one and only
place, and there they are, right up against that door. Can I make
anything out? Is Solomon moving? Is he stepping
towards the gate? Is he going to come out? They
want to know any secrets that they might pick up on. Is there
anything that I can glean? The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. My dear friends, have you been
there like Job? and all your affliction perhaps,
all your need. Like Job says in Job 11 verse
5. Listen to Job. He says, Oh that
God would speak. He had those people around him,
those miserable comforters. They were saying all sorts of
things. And he breaks through it all. And it's as if Job there
is pressing right up against the posts of the door of God. And he says, Oh that God would
speak to me. I can't bear it anymore. I need
to hear what God the Lord will speak. Think of that Syrophoenician
woman. Even when it seemed like the
door was shut right in front of her face. It's not for you. It's not for the likes of you. She stays close. Truth, Lord, I'm a dog. Truth,
Lord, I'm not one of Israel. Truth, Lord, but is there not
a crumb for someone like me? That woman was up against the
post of that door, and she wouldn't let go until she received the Lord Himself. Happy is the one who hears me. That's what God says. These people
are the happiest people in the world. The world doesn't consider
them happy. Maybe many days they don't consider
themselves happy, but God from heaven, he looks down on them
and he writes over them. These are the happiest people. Why are they so happy? They're
happy because they're waiting on God. And God has so much to
give them. And as they watch and as they
wait, even the watching and the waiting is for Him. And as I
think about the times when the Lord has spoken most clearly
to my own soul, wasn't it true also for you that those were
the times when you were closest to when the Lord came forth? When the Lord, who was in the
bosom of His Father from all eternity, And He came to this
earth because His delights were with the children of men. His
delights were such that He went all the way to the cross. He calls unto all people everywhere. He says, hear me. Hear the voice
of one who bleeds for sinners. One who will bear your sins,
neglecting me all your life long. who bear the sins of all your
foolish choices, all those years you spent waiting at the gates
of the world. I'll come and I'll die. I'll shed my blood. I'll be cast
out the courts of my God in order that you can come in. Oh, my
friends, the Lord gives Himself to His people who wait for Him
and look for Him. As we close this morning, I just
want to encourage each and every one of us, wherever we are in
life, to take this text and to plead it before the Lord. Maybe
you're feeling in that place where you can't put yourself
there. You say, I can't seem to find those posts of the door. The Lord says, I will guide you
with my eye. Say with the bride, draw me,
Lord, and I shall run after thee. But don't be content with anything
less than the posts of the Lord's house, the posts of his door. And I just want to end this morning
where our chapter ends. Just issue a final warning to
you who have come under the means of grace today, but somehow you're
not persuaded. Become a watcher and a waiter
in the means of grace. You're not eager to learn. You
don't feel your need. The attractiveness of wisdom
hasn't mastered you. The one who shed his blood for
sinners is nothing to you. Look at the last line of our
chapter, the last verse. Think about the happiness of
all those who watch and wait for God. And then it says in
verse 36, Friend, why is it that you won't be happy? Like the
Lord calls you to be happy. You're wronging your own soul. Think of that. Let it burrow
itself into your heart and into your mind. You're wronging your
own soul. The day will come, if you don't
repent, that your own soul will say to you, in hell, why did
you wrong me like that? Why did you wrong me? Send me
to outer darkness when you are under the hearing of wisdom.
The greater than Solomon came so close, why did you wrong me? Won't that be the worst thing
about hell? To have wronged your own soul. May the Lord help all of us in
this new season to eagerly wait and watch for what he has to
say to us. May he bless his word to our
hearts. Amen.
Watching Daily at My Gates
Series Jerry Bilkes 2014
Watching Daily at My Gates
Scripture: Proverbs 8:22-36
Text: Proverbs 8:34
| Sermon ID | 92141349118 |
| Duration | 40:50 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Proverbs 8:34 |
| Language | English |
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