WE have in this chapter Wisdom personified speaking to the children of men. We are told in the New Testament, in the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, that Christ is the Wisdom of God, and it is the voice of Christ then that is here speaking to men in the world. He tells several things concerning Himself, and first of all He shows that the Wisdom of God is not speaking in secret, that He is not muttering like the gods of the heathen, but crying from the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths, at the gates, at the entry of the city and at the coming in at the doors, in places where all can hear, and where most people are to be found. The Wisdom of God or Christ is crying in these places both in Providence and in His Word.
He then goes on to show the extraordinary excellence of Wisdom. Nothing can be compared with Christ. “All things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.” Everything is as vanity and less than vanity in comparison with Christ. And Wisdom calls upon men to hear Him and that they will have greater riches than either this world has or can give. He further shows that it is through this Wisdom that men rule in the world—”By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.” It is God alone who gives men the wisdom they have for the duties of office. We have then in verses 22 and 23 the eternity of Wisdom, Wisdom was with God from all eternity—”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.”
But without taking up more time in that direction, we shall notice from our text three things:—
I. The time that the Wisdom of God or Christ sets before us here.
The time is that men should seek Him early—not late. God’s Word always advises men to make sure of Christ to-day, not to-morrow, for we have no promise that we shall see to-morrow.
II. We shall consider a few things concerning the promise to such as seek Him early.
“Those that seek me early shall find me.” If there was that promise alone in God’s Word, one would expect that it would be enough to encourage men to seek Christ.
III. The benefits that those who seek Christ find.
And at this point the first part of our text comes in—”I love them that love me.” This does not mean that they loved Him first. No, He loved them first. We hear plenty at the present day of the love man has in his heart to God. But what does God say about the matter?—”The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.”
Under the first head let us notice first of all the Person who is giving this advice. Some give advice and you would not be guilty in refusing it. But it is not a creature we have here at all. This is the Eternal Son of God, the Saviour of lost men, having the salvation of guilty sinners nearer to His heart than ever we can think of. He gives this advice to the sons of men or to the sons of Adam, as the word might equally well be translated. The Scripture flouts the doctrine of Evolution, and there is no gospel for those who hold it. He says to the sons of Adam that they are to seek Him early. This means that children as soon as reason appears in them or, to put it in common language, as soon as they know their right hand from their left are to seek him.
In connection with this I desire to notice two things. (1) If it were not true that children come into this world in a guilty and ruined condition—and if they continue to the end in such a state they will be lost—there would be no need for this advice. If they are born with wisdom, is there any sense in giving them this advice? But they have no wisdom coming into this world. They must learn everything, even the simplest things. We have no wisdom and if we learn a little of the wisdom of this world we are puffed up, but this knowledge or wisdom cannot be learned from man. It comes only from God the Father and that through His own Word. It is true that we have lost God. You have it beautifully but solemnly stated in the Shorter Catechism—”All mankind by the fall, lost communion with God, are under His wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself and to the pains of hell for ever.” And this is true of the young child. He is exposed, on account of the fact that man lost communion with God, to all the miseries of this life and to the pains of hell for ever. There is a great deal of senseless talk about our condition, but God in His Word makes it quite clear what our condition really is, and at the same time His remedy to meet our terrible condition.
(2) As man is without God in the world, it is to be noticed that while the voice of Wisdom or of Christ is speaking in the Word, there is hope that the sinner will be quickened and made willing to obey His voice. There is no such thing in a lost eternity as one call from the Word of God to any sinner to turn to Christ. The sinner is gone for ever. All his opportunities of accepting the free offer of Christ in the gospel are eternally past. He rejected Christ and His gospel in time, and it is only in time, in this hand-breadth of time, that Christ may be found. You do not know how short your time may be. No one here can say that he or she will see next Sabbath. We know not how long God will be calling to us. And in connection with this let us notice that God’s voice is to little children. We have instances in history and even in the history of the Church of Scotland of children who were known to go to their knees at the age of two years. This was true of James Renwick, that great witness for Christ in Scotland who is honoured and will be honoured by all God-fearing people, and by Christ Himself at the Great Day. We have met one or two cases ourselves. One was that of a boy of only four years of age, and it was quite evident that he was a praying boy. He was one of the wisest we have met. God, friends, can make children wise, even wiser than their fathers.
Further, let us notice that those who were pre-eminently blessed in the conversion of sinners, like President Edwards of America and Thomas Boston of Ettrick, have left on record that the majority of those converted under them were between the ages of fifteen and thirty, or in other words that those who were made wise for eternity and heard the voice of the Wisdom of God were between fifteen and thirty years of age. To this we must add that godly sorrow comes to sinners older than that. God in His mercy converts sinners at every age. But don’t conclude that you can carry on in sin because you hear of others being converted in old age. We saw some who were truly converted at the age of eighty. So no man nor woman should give up hope, for God has enough merit in the blood of Christ to wash them from all their sins, whatever those sins may be.
Let us now see where they are to seek Him. You know that if you were to seek for a thing where it could not be found, you would never find it. You would be considered deranged if you should be found seeking a thing in a place where there was not the least likelihood of its being there. Consider first of all where others found Him. Where did Abel find Him and all since his day? Is it at the concert, the theatre or the dance Christ is found? No, you will not find Christ there, but you will find God’s curse, for those that attend such things are heaping up wrath against the day of wrath. You may rest assured that no man ever found Christ at these vanities. Secondly, men never found Christ in the wisdom of philosophy. Much as philosophy and scientific research are lauded in our day, no man ever found Christ in them. But we know where poor sinners find Christ. All who found Him, found Him in His own Word. It was in the first promise that Abel found Christ, and also the wisdom to worship God aright. It was not according to his own wisdom that he worshipped God. You have that in the case of Cain who followed his own wisdom and refused to follow God’s Word which demanded that sacrifice should contain blood, for the blood typified the precious blood of Christ. It is in the Scriptures that Christ is to be found, and is He so small and valueless in your eyes that you will not spend a few minutes, or even a week, in order that you may find Him? If you were to lose even half a sovereign you would spend half a day in search of it. Christ is not of more value to many than He was to Judas who sold Him for thirty pieces of silver. But those who found Him in His Word value Him. The Holy Ghost opened their eyes, and they saw Christ in His Word. It is by the Holy Spirit through the Word that He convinces the sinner of sin, of righteousness and of judgment, and it is by the same Word the sinner sees Christ held forth crucified and is enabled by faith to look to Him for salvation. In Christ alone in His Word they find what pacifies their guilty consciences. If the Word has been made precious to you in public, it is true of you that you will be found searching it in private. Dr. Kennedy of Dingwall relates an incident in his book—”The Days of the Fathers in Ross-shire” of a young man and woman who were awakened under a sermon shortly after their marriage. He tells that the young man would sit at one side of the fire and the young woman at the other searching God’s Word, and so diligent would be their search that their hearthstone was regarded the coldest in the place through their forgetting often to keep a fire on. Would to God that such a day would come upon the youth of our country. They would then forsake their vanities and would seek Christ, and would certainly find Him.
“Those that seek me early shall find me.” Notice further that this means that men are not only to begin early in life, even as soon as reason appears, to pray that God will have mercy on them (God is angry with such as keep little children from Him), but also that they are to begin early in the day. The first thing in the morning is the time to go to your knees. You who have not found Him, and you who are not seeking to find Him, plead with God to send His Spirit to awaken you. Plead with Him, friend, for God is the hearer of prayer. Notice one other thing I have mentioned, thousands of times I believe in this place, viz., that it is by the advice of God, or in other words by His call, that all God’s elect are saved. Although they are elect they are not saved until they are called. It is when the sinner begins to seek Christ, and to show that he has had enough of the ways of the world, that we know that the sinner was elected by God from all eternity. “For whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. Moreover, whom He did predestinate them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” Those whom He foreknew He calls in the world and justifies them in the world. This infallibly takes place in the case of every saved sinner. It is like a golden chain, and no efforts of men can ever break any of its links. But before passing to the next head I would point out that all you need for time and for eternity will be found in Christ. The day that the poor sinner finds Christ, in that day He is made unto him wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Christ is to him all in all. David could say on his deathbed: “He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure; for this is all my salvation, and all my desire.”
On the second head we desire to say a few words on the promise that is given here—”those that seek me early shall find me.” And in finding Christ they find life, for He says: “Whoso findeth me findeth life.” Haven’t men got life already? Yes, life like that of the beasts. Men by nature have no word about their souls. Their delight is to eat, drink and to find the wherewithal to put on, and with that they are satisfied. God says that they are dead in trespasses and sins, but in Christ they can find life. We all must meet death—a physical separation of soul and body—but although this takes place the soul continues to live eternally. But that is not the death in which God says we are by nature; it is spiritual death, but those who seek Christ find eternal life. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” It does not say that he will have everlasting life but that he has it now. And if you believe in Christ now, were these heavens to pass away with a great noise before morning all would be well with you. You have a life that is everlasting and that cannot be taken away. Not only would you find life, but you would also find the favour of God. You would become His sons, His adopted sons and daughters; you would have His favour which is better than life.
This promise is to God’s people who are seeking Him and feeling their need of Him. The people of God through the ages have been complaining of themselves, of the corruption of their nature and of their wicked hearts. But the promise is also to poor sinners who are seeking Him early or late, and He promises that He will in no wise cast them out. It is true of God that He will not cast any away that seek Him. Charles Calder, of Ferintosh was once preaching in Helmsdale, and in the course of his sermon he said: “In the day that I was enabled to behold Christ in the gospel, who is able to save to the uttermost, supposing I had one thousand souls as guilty as the one I have I could commit them all to Him.” There is boundless, infinite merit and grace and mercy in Christ for perishing sinners. The promise is also to those who are on the way coming to Christ, and these He will in no wise cast out. Although your sins should be cutting the throat of your hope and saying that God will not forgive them, and although Satan and unbelief should be keeping you back, remember friend, what God is saying here. He will in no wise cast you out, either in this life or in the next.
Further there is implied in the promise to those who come to Him that they will find rest. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” And in connection with this rest which the sinner finds in Christ I should like to notice that once you have rest in Christ you have no need to lay a foundation for your soul for eternity. The foundation has been laid by God in Zion. You need not say I must do this or that to find rest. God says that He saves those who can do nothing. You have only, friend, to trust in the merit of the blood of Christ. Consider the case of the publican who had nothing but the cry: “God be merciful to me a sinner,” and we are told that he went down to his house justified. All those that are saved find this rest. They find the grace of faith here and the grace of glory hereafter.
There is also implied in the promise the glorious invitation that we have in the Gospel according to John when Christ the Wisdom of God cries out: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” Instead of the rivers of sin and corruption that used to flow from the sinner, or in other words the evil influences he had on his fellows, there now flow out rivers of living water. An unsaved sinner cannot be in the world without being a curse to the world, but the world is better for those who have this living water. One godly young man in a township has an effect on the conduct of all the other young men, and if there is more than one the more noticeable will their influence be on the others. They are as water to thirsty land, making it green and fruitful, and where they are not the world becomes barren as far as godliness is concerned.
But now in the third place let us consider the benefits that follow the coming to Christ. And, O dear young friends, if you would only realise what benefits would be yours in coming to Christ early. It is here in time that Christ saves, and He saves young people; and our prayer to God is that He would grant you this wisdom so that you will not go to your grave with a bowed head over your sins and over how you spent your time in the world. It will be a benefit to yourself and to others that you eschew evil and seek holiness. It will be a benefit to yourself, young boy or girl, not only in time but also in eternity. Only those who have been in the world for twenty-five years without God and without hope know how much pain they have in looking back over these years which they wish could be blotted out altogether. It is true also that the sooner you turn away from the way of death, that broad way which leads to hell, the better for yourself and others. No man can live a godless life without being a curse to himself and to his fellows. It is true concerning the conversation of those who were turned from sin to God that they ceased from the vanity and the senselessness with which they used to talk to their fellow-men. A man is not wise till he sets a watch on his tongue, and this Wisdom can make a fool wise. Again, you will not only be careful in what you say and do, but you will realise your responsibility to your fellows. The world, my friends, takes an opportunity to go on in sin from the example of those who make a public profession of Christianity and at the same time go to the vain song and the dance. A man’s example goes a long way in the world, both what he says and what he does. But what we have been noticing follows in the case of everyone of those who find the Wisdom of God.
They are called the Light of the World. They are the Salt of the Earth. Without salt a thing would become putrid, and that is what is wrong with the godliness of the present day, it is without salt. But all those who are called and truly saved, they are salt in the world.
May God add His blessing to anything said in accordance with His mind.