Jonah, I can certainly identify with you. Your dad was talking about, you're excited about being able to talk about God's word and to um to be a part of sharing what you understand about God's word uh with us from the book of Timothy is what I understand and uh but also you're frightened every time I come to the pulpit I'm I'm frightened and uh but you'll overcome that and as Josh prayed you just speak from your heart and uh and you'll do fine I know so with that uh Proverbs and the passage of scripture we'll be talking about today. Proverbs 9, verses one through 18. It presents two women. And as Jerry mentioned, it's a personification of both of these women, as a matter of fact. And it's a personification of that attribute of Christ that he read about in Colossians wisdom and he personifies it and what personification really means is he humanizes it or gives it to us so we can see it in human form and make it real to us. It's a woman and we can visualize that woman who invites us to dine with her. And we can not only visualize the woman wisdom who invites us to dine with her, but we can visualize the woman folly who also invites us to dine with her. And as we were discussing just prior to the services this morning, this call and this invitation is universal by both of these women. It's a universal call to unbelievers and believers alike. And we'll see that in the verses where it talks about that those who are wise will receive rebuke and become wiser. And those who are scoffers, of course, will reject the word of God, but also Sometimes the call of folly is not only to the unbelievers that she traps and ensnares with her seductive lips, but it's also a trap that as believers we often fall into. And it's a shame because the church is a blot on Christianity. When we see the leaders that have succumbed to the adulterous, those who profess to know Christ have preached it and taught it for years, and they succumb to the adulterous. And in a moment's time, in a moment of pleasure, they destroy their entire lives and often their entire families and people around them and innocent bystanders. And and they bring reproach. Those believers who do that bring reproach on the name of our Lord and other and unbelievers use that as an excuse not to come to a saving knowledge of Christ. With that, let me read to you in chapter nine, verses one through 18, and then I'll pray, and we'll get started with our text. In chapter nine, verse one, it says, wisdom has built her house. She has hewn out her seven pillars. She has prepared her food. She has mixed her wine. She has also set her table. She has sent out her maidens. She calls from the top of the heights of the city. Whoever is naive, let him turn in here. To him who lacks understanding, she says, come eat of my food and drink of the wine I have mixed. Forsake your folly and live and proceed in the way of understanding. He who corrects a scoffer gets dishonor for himself, and he who reproves a wicked man gets insults for himself. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you. Reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instructions to a wise man, and he will still be wiser. Teach a righteous man, and he will increase in his learning. Key passage in Proverbs, and really in all of Scripture, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For by me, your ways will be multiplied, and years of life will be added to you. If you are wise, you are wise for yourself, and if you scoff, you alone will bear it. The woman of folly is bolsterous. She is naive and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house, on a seat by the high places of the city, calling to those who pass by, who are making their paths straight. Whoever is naive, let him turn in here. And to him who lacks understanding, she says, stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol. Let's pray. Father, I just pray that you would open our hearts and our minds to hear your word and allow wisdom to speak to us this morning. Just give us a clear understanding of your word and an earnest desire to apply it to our lives. May you be honored and glorified in our worship this morning. In the name of Jesus, I pray, amen. I'd like to start out by reading you a quote from John Kitchens, and it's actually at the very beginning, in the preface of his commentary on Proverbs. At the beginning of this commentary on Proverbs, John Kitchens says this, he says, Wisdom is not so much a destination as a journey. If even for a moment we think we have arrived at wisdom, we prove we have abandoned the journey. Cease listening, my son, to discipline, and you will stray from the words of knowledge. And that's in Proverbs 19, 27. Often many of us convince ourselves that we've learned all that we can learn about God's Word. And we only deceive ourselves, and our enemy Satan has won a major battle in our lives when we do that. We use all sorts of excuses not to be in God's Word. And yet, in the scriptures that you read, or was read to you in worship this morning, or called to worship this morning, it tells us in chapter 3, and I just want to go back there for a moment to take a look at it, and it says, How blessed is a man who finds wisdom, and a man who gains understanding. Her profit is better than silver and gold, and he goes on to say, any and everything in this earth. He also says it's life to our soul. That it's the tree of life and it feeds us and nourishes us. So why do we? Abandon it. So why do we? Have so much difficulty in making the scripture and God's word. a priority in our life. We have so many distractions in the world today, it's just amazing. And throughout the scriptures and throughout the book of Proverbs in particular, we're warned against following the ways of the world, yet that's exactly what we do. even as believers in Christ. Well, there's two calls here, from Lady Wisdom, is what I like to refer to her as, and Madam Folly, or the Woman Folly. These calls, as I had mentioned before, are universal to all, to everyone. Wisdom is calling out to all of us, to unbelievers, to come and feast on God's Word. Christ's parable of the man that had invited a number of people to a large supper, and they had refused it. They refused his invitation and they gave all sorts of silly and terrible excuses for not coming. One, he had just purchased some land and he needed to go take a look at it. That sounds really ridiculous when you look at it. Another had purchased some oxen and wanted to go try them out. and another had just gotten married, so he couldn't come to the supper. And Jesus told this parable in response to a Pharisee that had made a self-righteous statement to him that blessed are those who eat bread in the kingdom of God. And Christ was telling him You have received an invitation to accept the Messiah and you have rejected him. You have rejected the invitation to the meal. And these are the excuses, the lame excuses that the nation and the leaders of Israel are giving me for why you're unable to attend But not only do believers use lame excuses for not coming to the saving knowledge of Christ, but we as believers also use pretty lame excuses for not coming to God's word on a daily basis and studying it and enriching our lives and nourishing ourselves on the tree of life. We just don't have time. We have things better to do. We have activities that we need to attend. We're tired after a day of work and we need to unwind and we need to relax. We need to turn on the television set. We need to go to our computer. We need to just get out and maybe go for a ride or to a bar and unwind. Maybe read the newspaper or whatever, but we find all sorts of excuses for not going to God's word that's clearly stated here in the passage of scripture that Jerry read this morning is a nourishment to our soul. So the invitation I just wanted to point out is universal and also I wanted to give you a brief explanation as to why I've chosen this passage of scripture and why to pick up here in our study of the book of Proverbs You recall, we ended our study in Proverbs, the last time we were there, we were in chapter six, and we ended with verse 24. And Solomon's warning to his son there was, avoid the adulterous at all cost. And that was just an introductory passage to the remainder of that section in chapter six. And all of chapter seven, is about the adulterous woman and avoiding her and her tactics. Of course, we spoke to the adulterous woman in chapter five, so I don't know whether we'll come back to Proverbs ever again, if I'll ever have an opportunity to do that, but I wanted to pick up with chapter nine because it compares the two choices that we have in life. And that's what the message is really about this morning. That's the main idea in the message this morning, is that we have two choices, both as believers and unbelievers. And it's presented in Chapter 9. Now, the invitation by wisdom begins back in Chapter 8. But I thought about if I started in Chapter 8, It's a long passage of scriptures, 36 verses. And then get to these first six verses of the invitation and chapter nine, that you guys would be here for quite some time. I decided to pick up here. I do want to go back just for a moment to show you the universal call. I want to go back to chapter eight and begin reading at verse one. Says, does not wisdom call and understanding lift up her voice? On top of the heights beside the road, where the paths meet, she talks as she takes her stand. Beside the gate at the opening of the city, at the entrance of the door, she cries out, to you, old man, I call. And my voice is to the sons of men. It's universal in her call and her appeal here. But she zeroes in on, O naive ones, understand prudence. And O fools, understand wisdom. Listen, or I shall speak noble things. And then she goes on through chapter eight, and she tells about the treasures and the value, just like we read in chapter three of Proverbs. In verse 11, she says, for wisdom is better than jewels, and all desirable things cannot compare with her. It's amazing, I mean, how we devalue God's Word. God's Word puts such value on wisdom, yet we consider it of little worth. I don't know how else to say it, but in verse 21 of chapter 8, it says, to endow those who love me with wealth, that I may fill their treasures. I mean, it's a storehouse of treasures, yet we ignore it on a daily basis. I can't tell you how often that when I've not read scripture, that my thoughts of God seldom entered my mind. But when I read scriptures in the morning, even if I only read a couple of verses for that day, it starts my day and my path outright. And often I think about that and meditate on those verses of scriptures throughout the day. Yet we choose instead, using all kinds of excuses, because of the busyness of our schedules, and all the distractions around us, we choose, and it is a choice, by the way, we choose not to study God's word. Now, coming back to, and we will, I wanna probably close our discussion today with passage of scripture from the last few verses of chapter eight, but going back to our text in chapter nine, I wanna try to compare the two calls that we have. Wisdom has built her house. And if you look over at Wisdom in verse four, or at Folly in verse 14, she's just sitting at her doorway of her house. Wisdom has hewn out seven pillars and of course there's a lot of common Commentaries make a lot a big deal out of this and speculate as to what that's Symbolic of and everything but to me it just means that the wisdom has a huge house and has More than enough room for anyone who will come in and accept and receive her invitation. It's a magnificent place. It's a magnificent meal that she's prepared. She says she has prepared her food. She has mixed her wine. She has set her table. What does the woman Folly offer? Stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. See the difference in the setting here? I mean, we are satisfied with water and and bread when we could have a magnificent meal. Kevin sent out a little thing yesterday. I won't tell on you, Kevin. And we were asked if we wanted to get together with each other on Monday, Memorial Day. And our meeting place is, has always been for the last several meetings at McDonald's and Eminence. And he made a remark about Ruth Chris did not open that early. But it's kind of like comparing McDonald's to Ruth Chris, the two meals that's offered to us here. Yet we choose to go to McDonald's and I know Jackson, you probably love McDonald's, right? You don't? Well, I know Tedros does. I could tell you that for sure But that's that's the comparison yet we prefer and we choose rather To go to McDonald's for a quick snack Rather than setting down to a nice beautiful wonderful meal Go back to The wisdom invitation is to the naive. Let him turn in here to him who lacks understanding, she says. Come and eat of my food and drink of the wine I have mixed and forsake folly. And what is the benefit of it? To live. To receive life, life eternal. And in comparison, the Lady Folly calls out to those who pass by, who are making their path straight. Now that could be for an unbeliever who may be seemingly religious, or he's not really going out to seek out Lady Folly, but accidentally falls into her snare or trap. Or it could be a righteous man who accidentally passes by her house and is seduced by her. Her words and her beauty is pulled in, but he's not seeking her out at this point. There are other places in Proverbs that talk about the man who seeks out in the folly of seeking out the adulterers. But in this particular case, it's a man who's really not looking to fall into the seductress' hands. Whoever is naive in verse 16, it sounds almost identical, the call for lady wisdom. Whoever is naive, let him turn in here. And to him who lacks understanding, she says. And I don't think this is an accident that these two calls are very similar in nature. Because that's the way the world is today. We have people that speak things that are nice and sound great. And even somewhat religious. And they will tell you that that's alright for you to believe the way you do. There's more than one way to heaven and yours may be one away, but Also the way I have chosen Is the way of life as well and they only they're only deceiving themselves. They're following vain Philosophy if you would go back to Colossians that Jerry read from this morning. It says that I that it's vain philosophy that they chase after and false teaching that deceives them. It's the mystics that they in a desire or some say they have a higher knowledge or are more religious than someone else. If you follow this particular teaching, you can be more religious. or by self-denial, the ascetics say, and taking the vow of poverty or whatever, that you can become more religious and closer to God and have a closer relationship and commune with nature and all these other things. Or the monks will tell you that you can go and take a vow of silence and and get away from the world and you can find peace there. Those are the types of things that sound good to some people and sound very religious and can sound very religious or sound very close to the truth even. but be deceptive and lead you. And this is where the stolen waters and the bread eaten in secret will lead you. In verse 18, it says, but he does not know that the dead are there, that our guests are in the depths of Sheol. Throughout Proverbs, it talks about death and destruction of the one who follows after the adulterous. It compares often, all the way throughout the book, righteousness and wickedness. There's a contrast between the way of the righteous and the way and the path of the wicked. And it's always just two choices, really, is what it winds up being. ultimately is two choices. You follow this path or you follow that path. One leads to life and the other leads to death. Now I want to come back to the central part of this chapter and take a look at it because it appears that it's out of context here, that it's really somebody has just stuck a passage of scripture in between the invitations of wisdom and folly. But going back to verse 7, it says, he who corrects a scoffer gets dishonor for himself, and he who reproves a wicked man gets insults for himself. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you. Reprove a wise man, and he will give you love. Give instructions to a wise man, and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning. What that does, the two passages, these scriptures right here, these three verses of scripture, tells us what happens to the invitations, the two invitations. The scoffer rejects it, and the wise man accepts it. The scoffer here is... We're told not to even I mean in verse 80 says do not reprove a scoffer Or he will hate you You know when I I read that I thought well, man, what what are you doing? if you've got someone that Rejects the gospel the gospel message and I'm sure that Jerry can tell you because and and Kevin both they've gone out on the street corners and witness to people but It's not our responsibility to judge people. It's our responsibility to share the gospel with people. God's invitation is to everyone, it's to the scoffer. And if you go back and if you really did a close study of Proverbs, you would see that he talks about the naive, the fool, and the scoffer. And the scoffer seems to be the worst of them all. He's the not only stubborn and hard-headed, but he's the man that rejects or the one that rejects all authority. He's arrogant. And he won't listen to anything. Yet God's word is to everyone. Wisdom calls out to everyone. And the gospel message is to everyone, but the scoffer will reject it. Are we to judge him? No, we're not. And that's one of our problems a lot of times. We want to judge the unbeliever, and we want to pass judgment on them, and we want to condemn them, and we want to tell them, you know, This is wrong and you're going to die and you're going to go to hell. Well, God's word tells us that and the gospel tells us that. And that's part of the gospel message. But to rebuke a scoffer, when I see all these debates and arguments that are debates that end in arguments and in confrontation between a professing believer and an unbeliever, I think of this passage of Scripture and I say, that's not my responsibility to judge that person, but simply to present the simple truth of the gospel and let God change that person. We want to try to force our views on unbelievers, and that's not our responsibility. Paul tells us very clearly in the last verses of chapter 5, and Kevin has, if you remember his study of 1 Corinthians, He explained it a lot better than I can. But basically, in the last few verses of chapter 5, he says that it's not our responsibility to judge the unbelievers. It's our responsibility to share the gospel with them. Believers, and that's in the context of a passage of Scripture that he A man was committing incest in the church that he ostracizes from the church. But we are to judge other believers and those that profess to know Christ. who are not living out the gospel in their lives, who are basically openly sinning and practicing sin in public. We're to rebuke those and we are to judge those. Of course, Christ tells us that we have to get that to before out of our own eye before we can even approach another believer. And of course also Paul tells us that when we do approach another believer correcting them in order for them to accept it and become wiser as this passage of scripture says that we must do it gently and with a loving spirit and with a desire for restoration of that individual that has fallen into sin. So he's basically telling us that there are two answers, the wisdom and folly. The scoffer will reject it. And if you try to reprove him for it, he's gonna hate you even more. The responsibility for a believer is to present the word of God. It's as simple as that. Present the gospel. Allow God to change the hearts of these individuals. But we, as Christians, should become wiser. And if you were to, again, study Proverbs, as I have, and keep learning over, more and more and more about how to live a godly life, When we accept wisdom, and we're going to see this in a few minutes in the next verse of scripture, when we come to saving knowledge of Christ, it's a gradual process for the believer. We first accept the discipline of the Lord. We start to grow gradually in our knowledge of God. And as we learn more about God, He convicts us of our sins and we become increasingly more sanctified through the study of His Word. Until we reach a point where we start becoming wiser and wiser and wiser. and we begin to live out the gospel, and we grow in our sanctification, and then ultimately, one day, as we sing, we will be with our Lord. One day He's coming, oh glorious day, do you look forward to that day of spending all eternity with Him, is a question that you need to ask yourself. But the turning point in our life is in the next passage of Scripture. This is the key not only to the book of Proverbs. It starts, this phrase begins in the very first chapter, the fear of the Lord. And it's mentioned 14 times throughout the book of Proverbs. And this is kind of like, it's kind of like a bookend here because this is not quite midpoint. of the book of Proverbs, of course, about a third of the way through it, really. But it also ends with, blessed is the woman who fears the Lord. That's in the closing verses of this book. And it's scattered throughout the book. It's not only here in Proverbs, though, it's in Job, it's in the Psalms, it's in the Prophets, it's in the New Testament, it's throughout the Scripture, the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fool hates wisdom. The scoffer hates wisdom. We're told that in the very opening verses. The scoffer and the fool hates wisdom and they hate knowledge. And until God opens our eyes to the truth of the gospel, we will not fear Him. So the key to understanding the Word of God is to genuinely fear Him and reverence Him and respect Him and to honor Him by the study of His Word. And I don't know how much clearer I can be about that. For by me, your days will be multiplied and your years of life will be added to you, it says. The benefits of wisdom and coming to a saving knowledge of Christ, it will prolong our lives. And not necessarily in the sense that we'll have 80 or 90 or 100 years, but our lives will seem full and rich. because he has given us life eternal and we look forward to the end results of one day spending all eternity with our Creator. I began our message this morning by giving you a quote from Kitchens. And so I'd like to also end it, or as a matter of fact, become close to the end anyway. with a quote from Kitchen, who says that near the end of his commentary, he makes the following observation. He says, Proverbs repeatedly sets before us a choice of two paths. There are two calls given by two women who have two houses. Each calls us to walk one of two paths, which lead inevitably to one of two destinies. Over 70 times in Proverbs, we are brought into a fork in the road and told to choose which path we will travel. One path is variously labeled as the way of evil, wicked, anger, perverse, treacherous, sluggard, devious, and violent. Ultimately, it will end in death. The other is the way of the righteous, justice, understanding, and blamelessness. Ultimately, it will issue in life. Though they bear the same or very many names, there are only two ways. By any other name, they remain the path of wisdom and folly is the final analysis. With great urgency, the compelling call of Lady Wisdom and Madam Folly set before us life's most fundamental choice. Our choice in this matter will not only affect our quality of life now, but will reverberate throughout eternity. That's an awesome statement. When you stop and think about it, the choices we make now will not only affect us or our life here today, but it will affect us for all eternity. If we reject God's word today, if you are here and you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, it tells us that that will lead to death. In Revelations chapter 20, it says and refers to it as a second death. And that death will be to all of those who have not been written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And you'll spend all eternity in a place called the Lake of Fire. That's a horrible place. Jesus describes it in a parable as a place where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. The other option is to accept Christ, accept His finished work on the cross, to recognize that all of us have sinned and fall short of God's glory, and that sin, there has to be a penalty paid for it, and that He paid that penalty for us. And that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one else can. No other way or means that we can come to the Father except by Him. And you can receive the gift that is given to you. Not anything that we've done on our own or any merits of our own, but we can receive eternal life. And we can be assured that we will spend eternity with our Savior. For I'm convinced that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor powers, nor heights, nor depths, nor any other creation or creature can ever, ever separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I want to close by reading to you from chapter 8, as I mentioned before. Beginning with verse 32, it says, Now therefore, O sons, listen to me. For blessed are they who keep my ways. Heed instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching at my gate. waiting at my doorpost. For he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from God. But he who sins against me injures himself. And all those who hate me love death. Wisdom is an invitation to everyone, both believers and unbelievers alike. To believers, it's an invitation to grow and to be sanctified by feasting on God's word. treating His word as a treasure and appreciating its value, searching scriptures daily for knowledge and truth. But for the unbeliever, it's a message to you that today, you have a choice to receive life or death. And the plea here for you from me and to all of you is to choose life. Let's pray. Father, as a song that we have sang many times once We were your enemy, and now we're seated at your table. And I thank and praise you, Lord, that we can look forward to the day when we'll feast and sit at the table with the lamb. And a song that we're about to sing now, I truly thank you. for your redeeming grace, and that you, Lord, did invite me as a guest. And for the life of me, I can't understand why. But I thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.