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.