Proverbs 9 (June 30, 3024)

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FBC Travelers Rest sermon from June 30, 2024 by Pastor Rhett Burns

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Bibles to Proverbs chapter 9. Proverbs chapter 9.
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As we continue our summer series through the book of Proverbs. Chapter 9 ends the first major section of the book of Proverbs.
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So you have chapters 1 through 9 which they're a call to wisdom, generally speaking.
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It's a call to wisdom, it's a contrast with folly. But then the rest of the book, beginning in chapter 10, you have these collections of Proverbs.
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And through these pithy Proverbs, often repeated throughout the rest of the book, what we have is examples of what wisdom, that we're being called to in chapters 1 through 9, what wisdom looks like out in the real world.
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In very specific ways and specific situations that we face. So next week we'll begin with chapter 10 and that kind of that turn here in the book.
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But today we're in chapter 9 and what we find here in chapter 9 is a contrast between lady wisdom and lady folly.
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The first six verses of this chapter and the and the last six verses of these of this chapter contrast lady wisdom and lady folly.
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And then there's six verses right in the middle that contrast the one who is wise and the and the scoffer.
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And so what I want us to do is I want us to look at verses 1 through 6 and then verses 6, excuse me, 13 through 18.
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Kind of the beginning and the end and then we'll draw our attention to the middle in verses 7 through 12.
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So let's begin reading Proverbs 9, 1 through 6 and the Word of God says, wisdom has built her house.
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She has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her meat. She has mixed her wine.
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She has also furnished her table. She has sent out her maidens. She cries out from the highest places of the city.
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Whoever is simple, let him turn in here. As for him who lacks understanding, she says to him, come eat of my bread and drink of the wine
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I have mixed. Forsake foolishness and live and go in the way of understanding.
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Amen. This is the Word of the Lord to us this morning. The first thing that we see in these verses is the is the dignity and the and the glory of Lady Wisdom.
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She is pictured here as a great lady. She has built her house. She has, her house has seven pillars.
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Now the significance of the seven pillars is debated, maybe not quite known for certain, but it does suggest a large house.
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Seven in the Bible is also a number often associated with completion or perfection and so I think what we can say at least from that is that her house is a great house and in her great house she has prepared a great table.
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It's full of meat and wine. Lady Wisdom is then pictured in her strength and her dignity and her glory and her prudence and her riches and her honor.
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In other words, she's presented in her greatness. Verse 3 says she sent out her maidens. These are her servants who go out as messengers proclaiming her invitation to the feast.
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She's spread her table full of meat and wine. She's going out and sending her servants out inviting all to come in.
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She cries out from the highest places in the city. This signifies a universal call to everybody who hears is welcome.
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All are invited, none are left out. Verse 4 she she calls out to the simple.
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Turn in here, come. To those who lack understanding she invites them to come and eat bread, drink wine, verses 4 and 5.
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To forsake their foolishness and live and live in the way of understanding, verse 6. The word for understanding is literally heart.
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Those who lack heart. They lack the ability to think and act rightly for all of our thinking and all of our actions flow from the heart.
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They spring forth from the heart. They lack wisdom and Lady Wisdom offers an overflowing table of good things to eat which is a delightful picture of the offer of wisdom to the foolish.
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Let's skip down now to verses 13 through 18. We see quite the contrast here but I want you to pick up on the similarities and then how they're slightly different.
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Let's read beginning in verse 13. God's Word says a foolish woman is clamorous. She is simple and knows nothing for she sits at the door of her house on a seat by the highest places of the city to call to those who pass by who go straight on their way.
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Whoever is simple, let him turn in here and ask for him who lacks understanding. She says to him, stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
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But he does not know that the dead are there. That her guests are in the depths of hell.
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Lady Folly is a counterfeit. You see the similarities right?
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You see where it talks about whoever is simple let him turn in here and calling out from by the highest places and an invitation to a meal.
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You see she's trying to imitate Lady Wisdom but she's a poor imitation. In contrast to Lady Wisdom, a great, dignified, honorable, graceful, well -to -do woman,
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Lady Folly is a foolish, clamorous woman. Verse 13 says she knows nothing. She doesn't have a great house and a great table to make an invitation to but rather she sits by her door.
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She is not crying out from the highest places of the city but by the highest places. Slight difference. Just enough difference to not be the real thing.
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Though by the fact that she is by the highest places all shows that she too is making a universal call.
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She too is calling to all who will listen to her. All who will hear the invitation. She's trying to woo the masses to her side and she tries to seduce them.
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Verses 16 and 17. Whoever is simple let him turn in here. Whoever lacks understanding.
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Stolen water is sweet. Bread eaten in secret is pleasant. So come. Stolen water here refers to anything that is forbidden.
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It probably has illicit sexual behavior in mind. Verse 17 then picks up on something kind of perverse within human nature or fallen sinful human nature
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I should say. And that is the fact that that desire is stirred up by prohibition. Desire is stirred up by prohibition.
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So my mom makes excellent chocolate chip cookies and she keeps them in the freezer. And just so you know the proper way to eat a chocolate chip cookie is frozen.
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They're so much better than a room temperature cookie. Just you need to know that. But we used to joke, she used to joke, that it was more fun to go in there and kind of sneak a cookie from the freezer rather than asking even though we knew she'd gladly say yeah go have one.
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And while it makes for good fun about cookies the problem is it's too true of sinful human nature.
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Because we do think it's more fun to have something when that thing is forbidden to us. There's something about being told no that makes us want the thing even more.
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Permission lessens the allure and prohibition heightens the desire.
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Permission lessens the allure and prohibition heightens the desire. And that perversity in human nature is what
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Lady Folly here is preying upon saying stolen water is sweet.
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Come, drink stolen water. Eat illicit bread in secret. But notice the contrast with Lady Wisdom.
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She invites all to her great house to dine at her great table full of meat and wine in the company of all who accept the invitation.
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Nothing is done in secret. She's not offering stolen water. She's not offering illicit bread.
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She's offering free bread, free wine, free meat. It's not forbidden fruit. It's gracious food freely offered to all who will come and eat.
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But Lady Folly is devious. She preys upon these sinful desires and entices the sinful into partaking of that which is forbidden.
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And the foolish do not know that the dead are there, verse 18 says. And that all of Lady Folly's guests are in the depths of hell.
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You see, when one is in the grips of his lusts and passions and illicit desires, he cannot think straight.
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Desire has been stirred up by that which is forbidden and that's all he can think about. The consequences of his actions are not thought of in his mind.
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Tomorrow's troubles never even occur to him. He's in the moment. And in the moment, stolen water seems sweet.
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Never mind that the water is poison and will send him to the depths of hell. In the moment, it seems sweet.
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I want to take just a few minutes and address someone who I have no idea if this person is in the room or not.
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And what I mean by this is that there's sometimes in a church or in a church service, there's sometimes a person who's harboring secret sin or desire.
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And the fact that it is secret is why I have no idea if this person is in this room or not. I'm not making assumptions about anybody.
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But if that person's here, they're playing with fire. We saw it a few weeks ago in Proverbs.
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Can you carry fire in the chest and not get burned? They're playing with desire. They're listening to the enticing call of Lady Folly.
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They're believing the lie that stolen water is sweet. And that person has started down a road, which if he or she continues on that, it will ruin his or her life.
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It will break relationships. It will devastate the people who love them and who presumably they love.
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Here's the thing. For a while, it goes on as normal. Relationships are intact. They continue coming to church.
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As far as anyone can tell, all is normal and well because nobody knows. But eventually, eventually the night is done.
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Morning comes and with the morning daylight and the sun shines on their wicked deeds and everything breaks and nothing is the same anymore.
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They've shipwrecked their life and everybody else who loves them is left to pick up the pieces.
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So I don't assume that of anyone in here. I hope that this part of the sermon does not apply here and that this part of the sermon just goes right over your heads and straight out the door.
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That's ideal. But here's the thing. I've seen too much. Where all of a sudden somebody goes too far.
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Somebody does something dumb. They're blinded by their sin. They're enjoying the sweetness of stolen water and they ruin their lives and the lives of those who love them.
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And everybody says, oh I didn't see that coming. And so I don't assume that of anyone here.
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I also don't want to assume that it couldn't be here. So if that's you today, if you're dining on secret bread in the house of Lady Folly, you need to hear this.
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The rent always comes due. You always reap what you sow. Morning always comes after night time and what's done in the dark will be brought to the light.
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And you might think that you'll just deal with the fallout, whatever it is, but the fallout eventually will crush you. And the road that you're walking on ends,
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Proverbs tells us, in the depths of hell. And so the call to you, if that's you today, and I hope it's not, but if that's you today, the call to you is turn.
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Repent. Stop what you're doing. Turn around before it's too late. Oftentimes in this kind of situation, somebody, they've questioned whether this is right or not.
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They've questioned whether they should continue on or not. They've questioned whether they should stop or not. They've been looking for a sign of what to do.
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And so here's your sign. Preacher today, without any knowledge whatsoever of your situation, and honestly kind of surprised when sermon prep went this direction because this wasn't part of my original outline, the preacher today is naming what's going on and calling you to stop, turn and run to Jesus.
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That's your sign. It's a word from the Lord written right here in your Bible, black ink, white paper.
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Her guests are in the depths of hell. And so God in His kindness is offering you a way out.
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And maybe you've gone further down the road than you know you should have. And you're not quite sure how to save the ship and not completely wreck it.
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I'll help you. You can come talk to me after the service. You can come by, set up a time, come by the office.
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I'll meet you. I'll come to your house. We can meet at the coffee shop. We can fix this through Jesus. It might involve some unpleasantness in the short term, but that will not compare to the unpleasantness that would befall anyone who continues down the road of unrepentant sin.
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Ignoring the problem only makes it worse. If you're thinking you'd be too embarrassed to tell me,
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I would say, look, I'm a pastor. It's my job to help people deal with their sins. You're not going to shock me.
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I heard one pastor say it like this. He said, he said, I'm a pastor. It's my job to cover up sins.
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I do it for a living. Now that doesn't mean that if I'm legally obligated to report something to authorities that I wouldn't do it.
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I would in a heartbeat, but that pain doesn't compare with the depths of hell. And it doesn't mean that if I'm morally obligated to talk to someone else, like a spouse, that I wouldn't do it.
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I would do it in a heartbeat, but the pain of that doesn't compare with the depths of hell. It does mean that we have resources in the scriptures.
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We have resources by the Holy Spirit of God that can get you out of your sin and back on the way of Christ, which is the way of life.
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But you've got to tell the truth. The truth will set you free. And so if that's you today, tell the truth and turn from your sin.
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God is offering you a way out. He's offering you an invitation to dine, to feast at Lady Wisdom's great table, to eat freely of her bread and drink freely of her wine without price, to be watched and to be welcomed in.
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Verses 7 through 12 then contrast the scoffer and the wise. Let's read those verses.
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He who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself. And he who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself.
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Do not correct a scoffer lest he hate you. Rebuke a wise man and he will love you.
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Give instruction to a wise man and he will be still wiser. Teach a just man and he will increase in learning.
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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For by me your days will be multiplied and years of your life will be added to you.
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If you are wise, you are wise for yourself. And if you scoff, you will bear it alone.
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So first of all, what is a scoffer? This isn't just talking about a kind of regular run -of -the -mill sinner.
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It's not talking about someone who just has a simple lack of judgment in any given moment. That's all of us.
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We all sin. We all have lack of judgment at various times. But a scoffer is one who makes a conscious decision for evil.
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One who knows what he is doing is wrong, is fine with it, and goes on doing it anyway.
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That's a scoffer. And so the person, hypothetical person
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I was just talking to a few moments ago, on the precipice of making a shipwreck of their lives, that person would be making choices in this moment that could redefine his or her life for good or for ill.
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And to continue going down the road of unrepentant sin puts one in danger of becoming a scoffer because at this point there would be a conscious decision, not just a lack of judgment now, a conscious decision to keep going in the way of wickedness and sin.
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A scoffer is one who has derision and scorn for God's Word. No use for God's Word.
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No respect for God's Word. No care for God's Word and His ways. Now she might not say it just like that, but by her actions and inactions she proves it to be the case.
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A scoffer, he willfully rejects God's Word and God's ways. And the instruction here in verses 7 and 8 is a little bit surprising because the instruction is, do not correct a scoffer.
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Now you'd think, of course you want to correct a scoffer. You want to correct anybody. So why?
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Why not correct a scoffer? Wouldn't it be good and right to correct someone who's violating God's Word? Well, yes, if he would receive it.
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But that's the characteristics of a scoffer. The one characteristic he has is his inability, or probably better said, his unwillingness to accept correction.
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The scoffer, when corrected or rebuked, lashes out at the one bringing God's Word to bear on his or her situation.
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When confronted, the scoffer will lie, deflect, accuse, get angry at.
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They'll do anything except listen. They'll do anything except take heed. They'll do anything except take responsibility for their actions.
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The one who rebukes such a wicked man only harms himself, verse 7 says. And that's because the scoffer fires back.
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It's not that the scoffer is beyond the hope of the Gospel. He's not. But rather here, God is encouraging wisdom in his people.
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We find this in the Gospels. So Jesus, he instructed his disciples, Matthew chapter 7, he instructed his disciples to not cast pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot and then turn to attack you.
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Same principle at play. Sometimes people are so hard -hearted that they're not in a position or of a mind to hear the good news.
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And any attempt at telling them the good news only puts the one bringing the good news in harm's way.
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And in those situations, you're not obligated to put yourself in harm's way. In fact, you're instructed not to, both
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Proverbs chapter 9, Matthew chapter 7. In those situations, our duty is to pray for that person and patiently wait for God to act.
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And when they're ready to hear God's word, we're ready to bring it to bear. Notice the difference between the wise men at the end of verse 8 and then verse 9.
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Let's read those. It says, rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be wiser still.
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Teach a just man and he will increase in learning. See, the fool shuts out all attempts at cultivating wisdom.
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He lashes out against correction and rebuke and teaching. But the wise man, as one commentator said it, is grateful for the opportunity to shut out folly.
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The wise man will love you for correcting him, verse 8 says. He knows,
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Proverbs 27, 6 says that faithful are the wounds of a friend. He's glad to have his blind spot pointed out so that he can actually see.
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He's glad to have his sin brought to the light so that he can put away the deeds of darkness.
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He's glad for the opportunity to grow in godliness. Why? Because he loves the truth. He loves
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God. He loves God's word. He loves God's ways. His desires are for godliness more than his desire for sin.
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And he knows his own frame. He knows his propensity to wander.
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He knows his propensity to drift. And yet he wants more than anything to walk upright before the
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Lord. To walk upright and walk with the Lord. That's what he wants. But he knows he's tempted.
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He knows the snares that are there for him. And so any help along the way toward his end, his desired end of walking with the
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Lord, any help is welcomed. Any course correction is welcomed.
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He doesn't see correction as a threat. He sees it as a gift. A gift to help him grow in godliness and wisdom and in pleasing the
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Lord. So question for you. How do you accept correction? Brother or sister, when
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Christ comes up and offers a word, a little bit of course correction. Not that way, but this way.
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How do you respond? Do you welcome it or do you get defensive? Do you love it or do you hate it? Do you accept it or do you turn it around on the person who is offering it?
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The Bible says, Rebuke a wise man, he will love you. I talk about it with my son
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Hudson like this and I put it in baseball terms. A good baseball player is coachable.
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A good baseball player is coachable. That is, he will be grateful when his coach comes in, when he's taking batting practice and says, no, no, no, not that way, this way.
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He corrects his poor mechanics and the player, the coachable player, willingly accepts it.
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Why? Because he wants to be the best ball player he can be and he needs help. Only a fool would keep striking out because his pride wouldn't let him hear his coach telling him that, you know, you're keeping all your weight in your back foot, you need to transfer your weight, you need to keep your hands in, all the little things that go into swinging a baseball bat, making connection, getting a base hit.
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Only a fool would keep striking out rather than listening to the coach who knows better, who can see what he's doing and refusing that correction, that help.
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But some people would rather strike out than be corrected. Bad ball players. Some people would rather lose their families than be corrected.
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They're scoffers. And so be coachable. Hear the instruction from God's Word and accept it.
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Verse 9 also touches on a principle of human nature, that is that people continue on the trajectory of their choices.
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The wise man becomes wiser with instruction. The just man increases in learning with teaching.
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And the opposite is true with the fool and the scoffer. With correction and rebuke, he just hardens his heart and becomes more foolish.
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My granddaddy Park, he's a long time member of this church, he used to say it like this, people don't change, they get more so. Now I do believe people change when
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God's Spirit gives them a new heart. They repent and believe and trust in Jesus.
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People do change. But the principle's true. People get more so.
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People continue along the trajectory of their choices. And so the call is then, choose wisdom and get more wisdom.
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Choose wisdom and increase in knowledge, learning, obedience, wisdom.
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We continue along the trajectory of our choices. We get more so. Verse 10 is a foundational verse in the
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Bible. It's repeated elsewhere in Scripture. Let's read it. It says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the
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Holy One is understanding. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
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Let's break this verse down and look at a few applications. First, fear. This is not terrifying anxiety or skittishness, but rather it is the reverent awe and the worshipful response of faith to the awesomeness of God.
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It is a holy dread in the presence of a holy God. This is the fear of the
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Lord. Lord there, this is Yahweh. This is the covenant name for God in the
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Scriptures. We'll come back to why this is important in just a moment. And then it says, the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the
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Lord is prior to wisdom. It's the beginning. Knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Therefore, the only true basis, or the only basis of true knowledge and understanding and wisdom is the fear of the
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Lord. It precedes it. And the fact that Solomon here uses Yahweh, the covenant name of God, it shows us that true knowledge is found only in covenant relationship with the
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Lord, with the one true and living God. Back in the book of Deuteronomy we find that the fear of the
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Lord is also connected in living in covenant relationship with God by living according to His rules,
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His stipulations, laws, His word, and living by obeying those things in grateful response to His redemptive grace.
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It's the message of Deuteronomy. Now it's true that non -Christians can know many things by natural revelation,
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God's common grace, but they cannot have true and ultimate knowledge apart from covenant relationship with God that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
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They cannot have true and ultimate wisdom apart from covenant relationship with God that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
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And they cannot give an honest and accurate account for how they know anything that they do know. In other words, non -believers have to borrow from Christianity and the
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Christian understanding and view of the world. For the only basis of true knowledge, understanding and wisdom is the fear of the
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Lord. It is standing before God, before a holy God, in awe, and in worship, and in gratitude, and in relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ.
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It's the awe and worshipful response of faith manifested in glad obedience to His word within relationship with Him.
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So one point of application here, and I won't go into detail for time's sake, but one point of application is that the fear of the
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Lord, the fact that it's the beginning of wisdom, is one reason why I am an advocate for Christian education.
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And so the argument briefly stated goes like this, education is primarily soul craft, not job training, but soul craft, the shaping of a human soul for the cultivation of wisdom, for living rightly in God's world according to His word.
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As such, education is, we saw this in Ephesians a while back, it is enculturation. And as Christians, we ought to be enculturating children into the culture of the kingdom of God.
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Therefore, education is not primarily about job training or skills acquisition, though that's included. Primarily, education is about cultivating virtuous and wise citizens.
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And the only basis for wisdom and true and ultimate knowledge, the only basis for virtue is the fear of the
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Lord, standing in awe and gratitude and worship for the Holy God in relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ.
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The fear of the Lord is the beginning, that is the starting point for wisdom. Therefore, any educational model that is not rooted in the fear of the
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Lord cannot produce wisdom and true and ultimate knowledge. So, that's my argument, now let me give my caveats.
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Because I know that talking about educational choice is a landmine. And so let me make my qualifications and ask you to hear these.
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I'm only making an argument for Christian education, not speaking against anything in particular at this point.
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I'm grateful for Christians teaching in the public schools. We have church members who have wonderful ministries through their teaching job, and I applaud that wholeheartedly.
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And then also, I realize and understand there are many variables at play for families when they are making educational choices.
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I know that certain social and economic conditions often limit what is feasible for any given family.
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With those qualifications stated, I would say, I'm simply stating why. When I look at the Scriptures, why
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I believe in explicitly Christian education is the best and most wise when possible. And that argument is built upon what we see here in verse 10, that the fear of the
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Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
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Let's move quickly through verses 11 and 12. Verse 11 shows us that wisdom is good for you, it brings blessings.
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Those blessings often include long life. Years of life will be added to you, it says.
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Verse 12 then talks about how wisdom will be a benefit to you. If you get wisdom, you're wise for yourself, it'll be a benefit to you.
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But if you scoff at it, it'll be to your harm. And the scoffer has nobody to blame but himself.
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He will bear it alone. He has no one to blame but himself. Every last one of us will reap what we sow.
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And so the call is to sow wisely. Now let me end by going back to the beginning.
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Wisdom calls. And wisdom's call is a shadow of the gospel call that we see explicit in the
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New Testament. Lady Wisdom sent out her maidservants to issue the invitation to the feast.
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And Jesus has sent out his people to do the same, to go to the highways and the hedges, inviting all to come and to dine with him.
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Lady Wisdom's call from the highest places in the city show a universal call to all who will hear. Likewise, we offer the gospel to anyone and everyone.
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We are to proclaim the gospel to every creature, the book of Mark tells us. Lady Wisdom's table is filled with bread and wine and we offer the body and the blood of Christ Jesus, symbolized by bread and wine at the
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Lord's Supper. We invite them to take part in Christ, to feast on Christ, to come to the wedding supper of the
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Lamb that we read about in Revelation 19, not as a servant, nor even as a guest, but as a part of the bride of Christ himself.
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And so come, Jesus says, come eat of my bread, come drink of the wine I have mixed.
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Forsake foolishness and live, for that is what Jesus offers to each of us today, life and life everlasting.
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Hear the invitation from Isaiah 55. Oh, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come buy and eat.
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Yes, come buy wine and milk without money, without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy?
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Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and let your soul delight itself in abundance.
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Incline your ear and come to me. Here in your soul shall live.
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And I will make an everlasting covenant with you the sure mercies of David.
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Amen. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven,
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I thank you for those in here who have heard wisdom's call, who have responded in faith and obedience to our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you that you make us wise. Thank you that you have given us your word.
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You've revealed to us your will. You have made it clear to us. Your spirit has testified to the truth and accuracy of your word.
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Your spirit has made applications for our specific lives of ways that we can specifically obey what you have said to us.
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Thank you for that. Thank you for wisdom that you have given to us. Help us to grow in that wisdom, to continue along the trajectory of our choices that by your gracious act you have enabled us to make.
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Let us live in response to your work, to how you have worked in our hearts, and let us grow in wisdom still.
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Father, if there's anybody in here who is harboring secret sin, I pray that they would turn from it today, that they would see the truth from your word, that the guests of Lady Folly wind up in the depths of hell.
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Lord, I pray that they would turn before they make a shipwreck of their lives. Lord, I pray that they would repent and trust in Christ Jesus.
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Lord, help us to fear you rightly, and get wisdom, and get knowledge, and then help us to live in accordance with that in a way that is pleasing to you, and help us to go win glory for the name of King Jesus, in whose name we pray.