We'll open up with prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do thank you for our time together. We thank you that we can gather together and learn more about your word. And we do pray, Lord, as we look at wisdom, that we would be people who forsake foolishness, the foolish things of the world, and follow you. We pray that you'd give us wisdom. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, it's good to see everybody. Hope you dug out this week. It was fun to see a little snow before Christmas, I guess, huh? Well, I wanna begin today by talking about Proverbs 9. What I'm gonna do is do Proverbs chapter 9 both this week and next, and then the next time I'm up for Sunday school, I'm gonna do, per request, I'm gonna do a message about baptism. We'll start on the different views of baptism, and then we'll get back to Proverbs again. Now, Proverbs 9, we're gonna be talking about there's only two paths, the path of the wise and the path of the fool. Hopes we don't have a problem with the sound. And what's interesting in Proverbs is it's binary. It's either or. You're either on the path of wisdom and salvation or you're on the path of foolishness and destruction. And this idea of it being binary, that is life is either on one path or the other, is something that our current postmodern generation is rejecting. They don't like anything binary. In fact, let me tell you a story. I was a flight instructor from 1993 to 1996. After that, I got hired by Masaba Airlines, which is Northwest Airlink. I flew for them until 2004. So the 2001 attacks on 9-11, that devastated our industry. And I kept getting furloughed and furloughed. Well, I had to do something for money. And I thought, well, I enjoy teaching. And I thought, well, I love the Bible. What if I could get a degree in teaching the Bible? Wouldn't that be something? I'll fly on the side. So, in 2004, I went to Bethel Seminary, and I expected Bethel Seminary, being Baptist, to be very conservative, to be very evangelical. Well, the very first night I show up for the orientation lecture, I'm all excited. I got a four-year degree in ministry from Northwestern, where we just learned doctrine and we got into the scriptures, and so I was expecting that was the way Bethel was going to be. Well, I show up on orientation night, and there's a man named Doug Padgett. Some of you know who that is. I never heard of the man in my life, but he was doing the orientation lecture. Just for you, if those who don't know who Doug Padgett is, he is one of the founding people in the emerging church movement in the 1990s into the 2000s. In fact, now he's so left wing, I think he's a commentator on MSNBC or something like that. Bob, didn't you say that it was on CNN? He was a political commentator. Doug Padgett. I don't know if I saw him on here. Okay, well I know he was hired by one of the outlets, but that's all left wing, but I had no idea. Well anyway, at orientation he says we have to stop binary reductionism now. And what he meant is you can't have either or. You can't have heaven or hell. You can't have the lost and the damned. We have to get rid of those categories. The problem with that is that the Bible has categories of either or. You either have the goats and you're part of the goats heading to a perdition or you're part of the sheep. You either have the forgiveness of sins or you have your guilt still accrued to your account. Life is either or in the Bible and that's what we see in the book of Proverbs. In the book of Proverbs, you're either on the path of the wisdom that comes from God or you're on the path of folly that ultimately comes from the evil one and the fools heading towards perdition. It's one or the other. And so I wanna begin by giving you a little bit of an outline of Proverbs 9. Proverbs 9 kind of grabs together other sections and reiterates them prior to moving on. So if you'll notice in the first nine to 10 chapters of the book of Proverbs, There's a lot of personification of wisdom who cries out to the naive, which is all of us, to garner God's wisdom and therefore be saved. So you'll see it gathering from various parts in Proverbs 9. So Proverbs 9, 1 through 12 is the woman of wisdom. She's personified. Wisdom is personified as a woman that's going to hold a banquet for people to come and feast on God's wisdom. Now, let's turn our Bibles, if you will, to Proverbs 1, 20 through 21. And the reason I want you to turn there is, again, Proverbs 9 is building off of what Proverbs have said earlier. So turn your Bibles to Proverbs 1, 20 through 21. And again, you're gonna see personification here in Proverbs 1, 20 through 21. Notice here in Proverbs 1, 20, It says, wisdom shouts in the street. Now, stop there. Of course, wisdom doesn't literally shout. That's personification. Wisdom is being personified as if it's a woman crying out. Notice it says she lifts her voice in the square. Verse 21, it says, at the head of the noisy streets, she cries out. At the entrance of the gates in the city, she utters her sayings. One of the things I pointed out back then is notice how this is all public. God's truth is always public. It's open for all who will want to hear. It's never something that's a hidden mystery. It brings to my mind, remember Romans chapter 3, where Christ was made a public propitiation. Remember that he was publicly propitiated as an atoning sacrifice for us. That's in contrast to the secret religions who they do their things and they have their initiation rites in secret. Think about the atonement that they had once a year in Israel. Remember, they could only go into the Holy of Holies, and meaning one man, the great high priest, only once a year, and he's the only one that saw the atoning sacrifice that appeased God. And so that was hidden. from the rest of the people. When Christ was crucified, he was publicly displayed. He was publicly raised from the dead, meaning he spoke to over 500 people at one time. The Apostle Paul said that these things did not happen in a corner. So our faith, wisdom that comes from God, what we have in the scriptures is open to everyone. You don't need a secret decoder ring. You don't need a secret initiation handshake. You don't need any of that. Christianity and the wisdom that comes from the scriptures is open to all. Next turn to Proverbs 8, one through six. Proverbs 8, one through six. We'll just read the first couple of verses here actually. Proverbs 8, let's read verses one through two. Notice again the call of wisdom. Proverbs 8.1, does not wisdom call and understanding lift up her voice? On top of the heights beside the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand. Notice there the language about standing beside the path and by the way. That's another image that you'll see prevalent in the book of Proverbs. There's two paths that you can be on, the path that leads to salvation, the path that leads to wisdom in God's ways, or the path that leads to folly and to foolishness, which ultimately leads to destruction. And so you'll see oftentimes wisdom is calling by a path. And again, you see the idea of personification. In fact, let me read on. Notice verse 3. Notice the call-out, verse 5. This is what I want you to see. understand prudence, and, O fools, understand wisdom. I want to just stop there. Notice the naive ones. The call out to the naive and the foolish is a call out, really, to all of humanity. All of us born in Adam are fools by nature. And you'll see this very prevalent when you get to Proverbs 22, 6. Remember, that's the famous verse which says, train up a child in the way he should go. And when he gets older, he will not depart from it. And I think a lot of evangelicals have taken from that to say, well, what I have to do is I have to find the natural bent and inclination of my child. And if I will train them up in that natural inclination, in other words, they're gifted in numbers, I'm going to make sure they become mathematicians. or they're gifted in art, I'm gonna make sure they get to go to an art school. But that's not what Proverbs 22.6 is saying. The literal Hebrew is train up a child literally in his way. and he will not depart from it when he gets older. The meaning of the text is that if you train up a child in his way, meaning he's allowed to remain in the way of the child, he'll never depart from that childishness later in life. Every single human being is born in Adam with a childlike foolish nature. And the idea then is it's only God's wisdom that takes us off that path of folly and foolishness leading to perdition. So what Proverbs 22, six is actually saying is if you don't get your child off the path of destruction, they're never gonna depart from it. And the only way out from that, of course, is the scriptures. And again, this is something only God does, because whereas we as parents may give the scriptures, only God regenerates. So we put them within the parameters to hear the word of God and to hear the wisdom of God, but again, it's God who regenerates. Again, the vast majority of people, dear ones, are gonna remain fools all the days of your life. And I know some of you know people from high school, you'll stay in contact with them, and their high school ways of life, they've never left, have they? Some people you know, they're late in their years and they've never left. their lifestyle of being a high schooler. It just follows them. And that's just the way of the fool. And what did they do to enter the way of the fool and the child? They were born in Adam. How do you enter the way of the wise in salvation? You have to be born again. Now let's put up Proverbs 9, 13 through 18. Notice the outline. The first section, verses one through 12, is on the woman of wisdom personified. Next, you have folly personified as a woman. And there, folly cries out as well. The words of the fool cry out to those who are naive to lead them to destruction. In fact, turn your Bibles to Proverbs 1, 20 through 32. And again, I'm showing you that this chapter nine of Proverbs is really a clearing house, if you will, pulling together many sections of Proverbs and summarizing them one final time. Proverbs 1, 28 through 32, it says, then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. Now stop there. Remember, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. We're gonna see that again in chapter nine. We saw it earlier in Proverbs 1, 7. What does it mean, we'll talk about this later, what does it mean to fear the Lord? It means that you do fear, literally fear, the wrath that he can bring upon you in the last judgment, but it's also tinged with the idea of reverence. that because I fear Him, I revere Him, and I know I ultimately only answer to Him. Okay, that's the idea of fear. So it's not just reverence, but it's not just fear. It's really both. Verse 29, it says, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, verse 30, they would not accept my counsel. They spurned all my reproof. so they shall eat of the fruit of their own way and be satiated with their own devices. Stop there in verse 31. Notice he says they'll eat the fruit of their own way. That's all God has to do to harden the unregenerate is leave us to our own devices. What does God have to do to regenerate and bring people on the path of salvation? He has to go with a metaphor, hands on, regenerate their hearts, enabling them to believe the gospel. But all he has to do for the unregenerate, the reprobate, is leave them to their own devices. And they will be on their own path. Notice it says they will eat of the fruit of their own way. Again, the term way there is their own road. They're on their own road. There's a road that God built, but they're on their own one. That's the way of the fool. Now, turn also your Bibles to Proverbs 7, 26 through 27. We'll read that one. This is the way of the fool. Proverbs 7, 26 through 27. So what's going to be depicted here are the victims of those who follow the path of folly and foolishness. Notice it says, for many are the victims she has cast down. Again, that's foolishness personified. And numerous are all her slain. Her house is the way to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death. Now, does everyone see the term Sheol there? That's the generic term in Hebrew for the grave. That's typically how it's rendered. Now, there is this idea in the Hebrew Bible that indeed believers end up going to be with the Lord, and they're not abandoned to Sheol. In fact, you see this idea in the famous Psalm 1610, where David says that his soul would not be abandoned to Hades or to Sheol. That ultimately is applied to the Messiah, that the Messiah had to be raised from the dead. So I just want you to think about Sheol as first and foremost death. Those who are unwise, they die here and now, but that death isn't merely separation of body and soul, but rather one day it's the ultimate death being separated from God. And the Old Testament isn't completely devoid of that idea either. After all, the resurrection is first taught in the Old Testament as well. Okay? Foolishness leads to destruction. And again, you're gonna follow one path or the other. You're either gonna listen to the woman of wisdom, again, woman being personified, or I should say wisdom being personified as a woman, or you're gonna be listening to the woman of folly or foolishness. It's one or the other. Okay, so let's begin with the first five verses here, Proverbs 9, one through five. Notice here personification. 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 tops of the heights of the city. Whoever is naive, let him turn and hear. To him who lacks understanding, she says, come, eat of my food and drink of the wine I have mixed. Now, dear ones, first of all, notice here the personification wisdom, again, is like a woman who's, what, she's built her house, it's of seven pillars, and she's prepared a feast. Now, if you and I take this personification and we make it literal, it's gonna make no sense. And I say that because you'll often see different types of literary devices being taken literally that aren't designed to, that lead people astray. I wanted to give you an example of that. How many in here have heard of an anthropomorphism? And anthropomorphism is where God is likened to man. One of the examples I thought of is, turn your Bibles to Isaiah 40, verse 12. I wanna show you an anthropomorphism and how it's been distorted and how it leads people into all sorts of troubles. Isaiah 40, verse 12. This is just one example. This is an example that I got from Ken Copeland on how to not interpret the Bible correctly. Isaiah 40, verse 12. For those of you who don't know who Ken Copeland is, many of you do, he's part of the Word of Faith movement, where faith is no longer directed towards the object of Jesus Christ, his person and work, But faith becomes a force in which you can speak your own reality by believing enough in your mind and speaking forth and creating your own universe, as it were. In fact, Ken Copeland claims to have spoken storms out of existence as he was flying. would have loved that power and authority, but I never had that, and I actually doubt that he does as well. But here's what Ken Copeland got wrong. Notice in Isaiah 40, verse 12 it says, Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? So, notice here this is an anthropomorphism of God. God is being likened to a man. Now, does God really have a hand? No, He's actually Spirit, but He's It's in this anthropomorphism we're learning something about God's power in creation. He has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens by the span and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure and weighed the mountains and a balance and the hills and a pair of scales. Dear ones, notice where he talks about he marked off the heavens by the span of his hand. Ken Copeland takes that and says, well because God can measure out the heavens with the span of his hand, then he goes into some mathematical formula and he claims that God must have a nine inch hand span and therefore he must be roughly six feet one inches tall. And then why, what's the point of all of that? Well he's trying to point out that God in Jesus is in fact one who descended to hell to finish the work of atonement and he goes on and on. So he comes up with all these doctrines by taking this anthropomorphism and taking literally the idea that God has a hand who measures out the heavens. No, this is an anthropomorphism. And if we take it literally, we're not understanding the intent of the biblical author. In the same way, if we take wisdom here, then we say, well, no, there's actually a person named Wisdom, or Wisdom is a force, or something like that, we're not getting it right. No wisdom is being personified. Now, I also want you to notice that when it says she is hewing out her seven pillars, there's a lot of discussion. What are these seven pillars? It's probably in a reference to some sort of building, perhaps a home, perhaps even a temple. The best bet, though, is it's probably in reference to the creation itself. Remember, the creation was created in seven days. And we know this from earlier in the last chapter, Proverbs 8. In fact, turn your Bibles to Proverbs 8, 22-31. that yes, indeed, wisdom was with God from the beginning, not because wisdom stands apart from God or is inherent to the creation, but because wisdom is inherent to God's character. So the idea is, remember we talked about this in our chapter eight, some scholars will say, well, wisdom stood alone with God from the beginning. Well, you can say it that way, but we have to realize that wisdom is an attribute of God. So God alone is eternal. There wasn't a part or a molecule named wisdom that was from the beginning. No, the only one who is eternal without beginning and without end is God. And the idea in scripture is not that wisdom is inherent to some part of the creation, so if you go looking for it, it was always there. It may be depicted that way in personification, but the idea is that it always belonged to God. Wisdom stems from God, and it is a communicable attribute in which you and I can share in that wisdom. So remember, when we talk about God, we can talk about his incommunicable attributes, and his communicable attributes. The incommunicable attributes of God are those things that he alone has. His aseity, his eternality, his omniscience, his omnipotence. These are things that God alone has. But then he has communicable attributes in which he shares them with us. So, for example, God is loving. Well, you and I can be loving. Now, that doesn't mean we're as perfect in love as God is, but we can certainly be loving. God is a God of wisdom. In fact, He's perfect in His wisdom, but you and I are called to have that wisdom, too, a wisdom that comes from Him. And so this is a communicable attribute that comes from God. So, turn your Bibles, I hope you did, to Proverbs 8, 22 through 31. Notice it says, the Lord, and again, the Lord all caps is Yahweh. That's his covenant name. So Yahweh possessed me at the beginning of his way, before his works of old. From everlasting, I was established from the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth. When there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no springs, abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth. While he had not yet made the earth and the fields, nor the first dust of the world, when he established the heavens, I was there. When he inscribed a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when the springs of the deep became fixed, When he set for the sea its boundary so that the water would not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him as a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the world, his earth, and having my delight in the sons of men. Again, that's wisdom personified, and again, the wisdom is not inherent to the creation, but inherent to God. So just as we see in Psalm 90 that the Lord alone is the eternal one, that's the idea that you see in Proverbs, that he alone, because he's eternal, and wisdom belongs to him, it was there before the rest of the creation. Notice on the screen, I think the idea here is with the seven pillars. It really is probably a reference to this creation on the seven days that God made using his wisdom. But notice also that it's like a banquet. She is holding a banquet in which she's prepared food and wine at her table. And then what she does is she sends out maidens. So wisdom is like a woman who's having a banquet at her home, and she sends out maidens to invite all people to come and listen to this wisdom. Now, the reason I want you to think about that for just a moment is that stands in strong contrast to the foolishness the woman of folly, who doesn't hold a banquet but an ambush. So you have the woman of wisdom, chapter 9, 1 through 12, who holds a banquet. And anyone who will come that the Lord draws will become a partaker in this wisdom. But from chapter, or excuse me, from verse 13 to the end of the chapter, chapter nine, the woman of Phalbes depicted, but she's not having a banquet, she's holding an ambush. And she's gonna try to railroad as many naive, and if she could, even the godly, into following her trap, going to perdition. So I want you to see there's a contrast. The woman of wisdom holds a banquet. We have the woman of folly holding a banquet. a grand ambush for the enemies, for her enemies. Now, notice here also that this banquet background, some scholars believe it might be the background to Jesus' allusion to the servants being sent out for the messianic banquet in Luke 14. I'm a little agnostic on that, I wouldn't pull the trigger and say definitely Jesus is alluding to this, but it's possible that he had this in his mind or he's playing off of the same idea. that one day there's gonna be a messianic banquet and the Lord sends out his servants and brings the people that he chooses in. The one thing that we can say is that God's wisdom does lead to salvation because his wisdom is ultimately, it's centered on the gospel. That's where we're gonna find ultimate wisdom is in the work of the cross of Christ. Now the one thing I wanna point out here is, I'm gonna read to you from Dwayne Garrett, Notice what he says here, he says, the feast wisdom provides is emblematic of life, health, and celebration. It contrasts with the banquet of the dead, that's the ambush that you see later, behind the woman of folly's door. So again, you and I are to see a contrast, the people who partake in God's wisdom, they get life. They're going to get a celebration. It may be more difficult now to live for God's wisdom. You may be ridiculed. You may be mocked or scorned. But at the end of the day, it's going to lead to a life and to celebration. But the world, they may be having a better time. They're on the road to folly, but that's like an ambush leading to destruction. That's how we should think of the contrast here in chapter nine. Now notice here in verse five, We have the wisdom inviting the guests to dine with her. Come, notice the invitation, come eat my food and drink of the wine I have mixed. Every single person is invited and in fact commanded to be a partaker of God's wisdom and I want you to see that God's wisdom is centered in the gospel. Turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 1, 18 through 21. Bob taught us this some months ago now in 1 Corinthians 1. Where does ultimate wisdom found? It's in the atonement, it's in the cross of Christ. Notice here, 1 Corinthians 1, 18 through 21. It says, for the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. So stop there, notice the distinct, again, it's binary. Doug Padgett and the Emerging Church may not like binary reductionism, but the Bible is binary, it's either or. Either the cross is foolishness to you because you're perishing, or it's wisdom because you're being saved. What is different between those who are saved and those who are perishing? Well, the saved have been regenerated and brought to the scriptures by saving faith. that we trust in what the scriptures say. First Corinthians 1, 19 through 21, it says, for it is written, now here's Isaiah 29, 14, the Lord says, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolishness the wisdom of the world? Stop there. Notice in verse 20, when the questions are asked, where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Those rhetorical questions demand the answer, they're nowhere. in the sense that they have nothing going for them. They have nothing to give you. Now, when they ask the question, where is the wise man? Does that imply that there is a wise man apart from those who have come to the scriptures and to believe the gospel? No. That's the point. It's an illusion. There really isn't a wise man, there really isn't a debater of this age who understands the things of God. And that's why it says, has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? The obvious answer to that rhetorical question is what? Certainly He's made the rest of the world look like a fool. The rest of the world stands before a holy and righteous God saying, you must receive my imperfections as atonement. You must take my, as it says in Isaiah 64, my literal menstrual rags, my filthy rags, and you have to receive them as an atoning sacrifice. Now, does the world actually realize that's what they're doing? No, because they're fools. But that's exactly what lost sinners are doing before a holy and righteous God. Every single person outside of those who come to faith in Jesus Christ are fools because they're looking for some form of their own works to appease a holy and righteous God. And then in verse 21, he says, for since the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. Dear ones, the way that you and I enter into the realm of the wise rather than the fool is by trusting the word of God. And again, that's only a gift given by God. Yes, Brian. Now, I'm probably wrong when I say this, but the way it's laid out... Oh, is it not on, Bob? Okay, it seems like people have a choice of what they're gonna do, so I wanna insert doctrine of election in here. To go from a fool to not being a fool, that would be God alone. So we really don't have an option. You're not taking the foolish path or the non-foolish path. But the way it's laid out in Proverbs, it kinda seems like you do, you follow my, Yeah, so that's where I want to make the connection. What I want us to see is think about Jesus begins his earthly ministry in Mark 1 15 where he commands everyone to repent and believe the gospel. Well, what I'm showing you here is the gospel is the center of God's wisdom. It's where all wisdom is found. And yet, ironically, no one can repent and believe without regeneration. So what I'm showing you is the connection between saving faith and wisdom. So just as you're regenerated by God alone to be brought to repentance and faith, the same is true of God's wisdom. But yet the command goes out. The command goes out for all to believe, yet no one will. It says in Romans 3, 10 through 11, none seek after him, no, not one. So in God's wisdom, He has to seek us. And once we are sought and He regenerates us, all of a sudden that which was foolish becomes the wisest of all things. And all of you in here know what that's like. The moment you started to realize that, you know what, I am a sinner, This Bible is the inerrant Word of God. The predictive prophecies are true. That unless I have the atonement that comes from Jesus Christ, I stand as a condemned sinner before a holy and right. When you have that realization, that's wisdom entering into your life. And we all had it at some point in our life or maybe gradually as we were converted. But at some point we realize, you know, this is true. These things historically happened. I am a sinner. And unless I have the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross, I have nothing to offer before God and I will stand condemned forever. And that's the beginning of wisdom. So that's what I want to connect us to. Now, obviously, as we look at the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, there is something called I mean, in our mind, we should have this idea of progressive revelation. We know more. by the time we get to the book of Revelation than we do in Genesis. So Proverbs does not have as developed an eschatology as we have in the New Testament, but it's there. And so you can see this idea that, hey, the wise end up getting life. and the unwise get death. As that progresses through even the wisdom literature, you'll see in Ecclesiastes references to everlasting life versus everlasting condemnation. You'll see it in Isaiah, et cetera. So as we progress through the Bible, you start to realize that the issues of wisdom versus foolishness are not simply how well life goes here and now, but they have eternal consequences as well. So progressive revelation helps us see that as well. But yeah, good question, Brian. Thank you for bringing that up. Yeah, Bob. when you were mentioning a passage in 1 Corinthians 1.24. Yes. I was just wondering, I was looking at my English over there and I pulled out the Greek here. It says, but, there's a day, but. to the called ones. Toys, clay toys. Yeah, amen. Toys, clay toys, the called ones. Not next week, but in two weeks, we'll be getting, we're gonna go through that article about redefining the church that I wrote in 2004, the year I met Eric. Right. We want to talk about the biblical definition of the church and the practical definition of the church we see in the culture. And you were mentioning Doug Padgett. I ended up debating him, which is kind of ironic. But The world in general, especially in America where you have a lot of churches, the church would be a building where people go and then maybe the organization that meets in the building and keeps everything going. So the idea would be the church and the unchurched. That terminology became very popular. The goal was to get the church or the unchurched churched. Now, I've been claiming now since way back in 2004 that those are not biblical categories. And I think if you fit that in with what you're talking about here in First Corinthians one and also in Proverbs, Wisdom doesn't come from being churched. It comes from being converted. Because if in your heart you still have folly and you still love the ways of the world, And you may have romantic feelings about church because of childhood or Christmas. It's amazing the romantic feelings that are out there. And it'll cause people to do some really strange things. Like, I was watching the news this morning, some guy has like 60 Christmas trees, 40, I don't know. So let's get the romance out there. Boy, this is awesome. This is our day. And those things will be perked up when certain things come along, certain holidays. But wisdom goes with you day by day by day. So I was looking at this, to the called ones, to the called ones, them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. And so there's a definite article. It's theologically, if you're going to allow the Bible to teach theology, it's absolutely necessary to distinguish between the universal call and the internal or particular call. Okay? And without that distinction, which American evangelicalism rejects, by and large. The Rick Warrens, I was talking about Shuler in the article, it shows how old I am. So when you get the article, we're making copies of it. The same idea just kind of carries along. They reject that, they have to reject it. Because church growth theory depends on religious consumers wanting to be in church, whether converted or not. And so having an external influence that might be, according to Common Grace, mitigating what could be even worse, and I acknowledge that in the article, is given as a substitute for the internal call that converts us radically and powerfully and eternally, and will make us love wisdom when we used to love folly. Being a religious consumer doesn't save you from the Proverbs 7 seductress. Calling out in the streets. My husband's gone, you know, read Proverbs 7. And We need God to convert us. So the call with here, toys, clay toys, we don't know who they are. just in general. Our evangelists go out, they don't know who the call might be. But you find out who they are when you preach the universal call and you preach Christ and God pierces the soul like a lightning bolt from heaven. And when that happens, you'll never be the same again. Doesn't mean you can't fail. but then you'll be very disgusted with yourself when you do fail. And you want to get back to the wisdom of God rather than the folly of the seductress that is in Proverbs 7. Amen, well said, Bob. I like your distinction between being churched and converted, and you're exactly right. In fact, I'm glad you pointed us to that verse 24, because that's exactly what the issue is in Proverbs 9. You have wisdom crying out and giving a general invitation to all to partake in it, but no one will, left to their own devices. That's like the general call. So as Bob is describing, in theology, we distinguish between the universal call and the effectual call. The universal call goes out to every single person. In fact, it's a command. When Jesus says, repent and believe the gospel, it's not an invitation, it's not a suggestion, it's not a helpful hint, it's an imperative command from the Lord of the universe. And yet, how many people partake in repenting and believing? Well, in, excuse me, First Corinthians 124, it tells us it's those who are called. It's the cult, both Jews and Gentiles, Jews and Greeks. The Greeks are synonymous here, really, with Gentiles. So think about it. In the debate between Calvinists and Arminianists, now again, what I'm talking about is not, I'm a Calvinist in the sense I believe in the doctrines of election, as he did. I'm just using that as a title. But I don't believe in all the doctrines of Calvin. So those who believe in the doctrines of grace versus those who don't believe, the Arminian type say, well, there's one call that's universal and it goes out to all people, and whether they respond or not, well, that's up to them. Well, who are the called then in 1 Corinthians 1.24? Who are they? Called by whom? It says, but to those who were called, both Jews and Greeks. Well, they're called by God. Okay, but yet there's a larger group. Every person in a sense is called. You're all called to repent and believe, but those who are called uniquely Jews and Greeks are the ones who actually see the foolishness of the cross as God's wisdom. And that called has to be a more limited group than all of those who are universally called. That is a great passage to prove the doctrine of election, and that ties in, again, to God's wisdom. If we have God's wisdom, we realize in the foolishness of man, no human being would ever come to salvation. We have to know that. That's part of God's wisdom, and it's revealed to us in the scripture. So thanks for pointing that out, Bob. Excellent. Anybody else before I move on? Yeah, Rich, go ahead. Yeah, it's so binary. Like you say, we're all fools. We're all born fools. Every one of us is a fool. And the evangelical church at large says, oh, just come to Jesus and make a commitment. So I can keep my foolishness, and I can be a fool, and I'll just accept Jesus, and I'll just keep the error of my ways. That's what the evangelical church is preaching to us and saying to us over and over again. But Jesus says, it's to your advantage I'm leaving. When I leave, I will send you the helper. When the helper comes, he'll convict you of your sin. He'll show you that you're a fool. And that you need to repent of your sins and put your faith in Jesus Christ. None of this accepting, just come as you are. No, it's understanding, by the way, the Holy Spirit, that you are a fool, a sinful, wicked fool, and you repent and put your faith in Christ. This is the great dichotomy between what you're teaching in wisdom in the book of Proverbs and what is prevailing in the evangelical church today. Yeah, well said, Rich. Yeah, the Spirit comes and convicts people of sin, righteousness, and judgment. And so the idea in John 16.8 is that the world on the path of folly, they don't have an appreciation of the predicament they're in. But when the Spirit comes upon people and convicts them of sin, All of a sudden, for the first time, you know when that happened in your life. Some of you, it happened over time, but all of us know that you start realizing, well, wait a minute, I'm in rebellion against God. And when you're convicted of that, sin, righteousness, which is the standard, I don't live up to that, and the coming judgment, that's when you become concerned enough to turn to the Savior. So that's always, and I'm not saying you have to do this, but when I give the gospel, I like to give the bad news. Because if you're not concerned about the bad news, the good news makes no sense. Right? So what am I being saved from? We were talking, I think last week, about that slogan, he gets us. The problem is it's so, He gets us in what way? He gets how sinful we are? He gets how we're on the path to destruction? I don't think that that's probably what the fellow means, but he gets us in what way? And that's one of the problems that I've had when I've been at certain funerals. You get this idea that he gets us. And it's just this universal, we're all okay, we're not all okay. When the Spirit comes upon people, they're convicted of sin, righteousness, and judgment. And when you see that problem, you realize the wisdom of God is the Savior. He's the only one who can remedy my problem. That's the wisdom of God. Well said, Rich, yeah, amen. Yes, Paul. Question that it was I usually every now and then is when a person says they're Christians Then I ask how do you become a Christian? Yeah, and they said well the best answer I ever got was that I I was made a Christian now God made me a Christian He made me a believer and I getting back to Proverbs here. So if the fool and the unbeliever are kind of synonymous Yeah, then God would make you wise Yeah, so what I'm trying to tie in is that the idea of salvation in the gospel, just as we are elect and chosen to enter that path, that is one in the same with the path of wisdom. So they're not two different paths. If you're on the path of wisdom and righteousness, you are following after the personified wisdom in Proverbs. That's wisdom that comes from God. And just as you have to be regenerated to enter into salvation, you have to be regenerated to enter into God's wisdom. So God's wisdom ultimately leads you to the gospel. That's what I want us to see. So that's, does that make sense? Yeah, amen. So regeneration onto God's path is absolutely necessary for any of us to be saved. But we shouldn't be embarrassed by that. In other words, I think some people say, well, if God had made us, then why aren't we made in such a way that we all can, on our own, find this path? Why do we need God's regeneration? How is that fair? What the Bible's teaching us is that we're so sinful, being born in Adam, that left to our own devices, we would never follow the path of wisdom. And that's why, as Rich was pointing out, John 16, eight, the spirit has to come upon us and take a lost heart that's going down the path of folly and change it, solve us in for the first time we're on the path of wisdom. I'm now concerned, once I have regeneration from the spirit, of my sin, the standard of righteousness, and the coming judgment. The spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. And as soon as that happens, now I'm ready for the gospel. The good news is the remedy to that problem, which is Jesus Christ. And that's wisdom, and that's what we're seeing here. So that's the connection I want you to seize between wisdom and the gospel. Yes, Brian. Real quick, I want to say that there's false wisdom as brought out in Romans 1, where people thought they were wise, but it was the wrong kind of wisdom, yet they were fools. And they worshiped and served the creation rather than the creator. And what's so interesting in that Romans 1 is they were exposed to general revelation. Remember in Romans 1.20, what may be known about God was evident to them, for God made it evident to them so that they are without excuse. Namely, his eternal power and his divine attributes have been clearly seen so they're all without excuse. So the idea is that the general revelation is enough to damn us. It's enough to say, on judgment day, you knew enough to respond to the creator, and yet you became an idolater instead. So in the general revelation, we know enough about God's eternal power and divine nature, according to Romans 120, that we're all culpable. And that's why the old, remember R.C. Sproul was asked the question, what about the poor, innocent aborigine that's never heard the gospel? Would God send an innocent aborigine to hell? And R.C. Sproul said, well, of course God would never send an innocent Aborigine to hell, but that begs the question, is there a category such as an innocent Aborigine? And what Romans 1.20 tells us is there's no one innocent. We've all seen enough through the created order to be culpable. So, left to our own devices, that's not sufficient. Bob has said numerous times, the general creation gives us enough evidence that we just hang ourselves. It's enough rope to hang ourselves, but it's not enough to save us. And that's why it says in Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by seeing the creation, not by the word of Christ. Okay, and so that's why you evangelists are so precious. Remember, how will they believe unless they hear? And how will they hear unless they're sent? Blessed are the feet of those who bring good tidings, you know, from Isaiah 52. So blessed are you who are bringing the word to those out there. Because faith doesn't come by seeing the created order, it comes by hearing the word of Christ. And then when the spirit regenerates us, we're brought into the fold, put on the path that leads to salvation. Let me point out a few things on this slide you might find interesting. Notice here the term naive. The term in Hebrew there in blue is petty. It's actually peti in Hebrew. And the idea of being naive is actually literally young. that you're a young one. And I want to mention that because as I've seen our culture become more foolish, isn't it interesting, you'll have a particularly, I hate to pick on those on the left, but those on the left always want the voting age, for example, to be younger and younger and younger. Well, in the Bible, the young are the fools, and the aged are the more wise. So much so that, for example, in Isaiah chapter three, part of the destruction that came upon Israel was that their leadership was no longer that of the wise and the elderly, but they were given over to the youth. So Marxism loves youth because they love foolishness, because foolishness and Marxism go hand in hand. Okay, so what we have to see is that the way out of the naive and being young is to turn here, is to turn to God's wisdom, to learn from the scriptures, that's the way. Now, notice also, it says, to him who lacks understanding. The term understanding there is actually the term for heart. And the reason I wanna labor that for just a moment, it's lave in Hebrew, so it's the heart. So literally, to him who lacks heart. So I've often said that the heart in Hebrew is the center of thought life for the Jew. Here is a perfect case where you see that. The heart, they knew, was an organ that pumped blood. They used it metaphorically for the center of the thought life, meaning the will, the intellect, and the emotions, all three. And so that's the idea is that whoever is lacking in understanding in their thought life, she says, come eat my food and drink of the wine I have mixed. So we have to think of the heart. A lot of times you'll hear evangelicals that say, well, he's got something here, but he doesn't have it in his heart. That's not the Hebrew conception. The Hebrew conception isn't a distinction between the emotions and the intellect. It's all of them together. Your thought life altogether, that's the heart. That's why Jesus says it's from the heart, it's from within the man that sin proceeds. It's not what's going in, it's from coming out of the heart. He's not talking about the difference between the head and your emotions. That's what evangelicals have often done. They'll criticize someone like Bob who is scholarly writing CIC, they'll say, well, he's got it here but he doesn't have it here. That's not a biblical conception. The thought life is your heart life in the Bible. Are you with me? So don't let anyone tell you, well, you're so scholarly or you're studying so much, you have it in your head, but you don't have it in your heart. That's not the biblical conception. The heart life is the thought life in the Bible. Again, the heart is the center of the will, the intellect, and the emotions. And so you see that, I think, very clearly in the book of Proverbs. Let me see if I can go ahead a little bit here. What I was hoping to do is get through the wisdom, and then next time we'd hit the folly. Let's look at how the wise receive correction. Notice it says in verses six through nine, it says, forsake your folly and live, and proceed in the way of understanding. Hugh cracks a scoffer, gets dishonor for himself, and he 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 instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous man, and he will increase his learning. Now, dear ones, notice here in bold, it says forsake your folly and live, and proceed in the way of understanding. The term folly there is the same term, petit, as the term naive back here in verse four. I want you to see that, it's the same term. So whoever is of folly or naive, that's the same idea here. Okay, does everyone see that? And then to have understanding, bina means you have comprehension in your heart, in your intellect. You understand the ways of God. And so you're to proceed in the way of understanding that road, that's the way of wisdom. Now notice here in verse seven through eight, He who corrects a scoffer gets dishonor for himself. And he who reproves a wicked man gets insult for himself. So notice the correction of the fool just brings hardship to you. But notice the contrast in blue. If you reprove a wise man, he will love you. Isn't it interesting to note here that the wise are those who will take correction and they'll say, yeah, I'm wrong. And sometimes the wrong isn't just moral. Sometimes it's even in the practical application of our lives, like in our jobs. You know that there are fools out there that, despite all of the evidence, they will never admit that they're wrong. But the wise man is willing to look at the facts, so this is more than just theological, it's also practical, in that the wise one will receive instruction so that they become better, not just more godly, theologically, but also more practically helpful in their daily lives. I was flying with my son on Friday. He's 15. I want to solo him when he's 16. My goal when I became a father was to teach him how to understand the Bible, fly airplanes, and shoot guns. That was my goal. So that's my role. I got those three things, right? Well, I was flying down to Faribault with him. And he was doing a pretty good job. He's finally to the point where he can land every now and then. I don't have to touch anything. And it's kind of a carrier landing. It's a little bit of a slam down sometimes. But he's doing it. He's getting it down. Well, this past Friday, we came into flying cloud at Faribault. The winds were right down the runway. We came into flying cloud. There was a crosswind. So now you have to add another element. You've got to straighten the nose with the rudder pedals. Well, he had a little bit more difficulty. And I was kind of getting after him, getting after him. And we did a carrier plant. I mean, I almost checked our ELT. We have an emergency locator transmitter that goes off if you crash. I wanted to check it because we hit so hard, right? And I'm saying this because I'm really blessed. He's doing great. I didn't expect anything more of him. But as I started to correct him, He said, well, Dad, this happened, and he's making excuses. I had to worry about the rudder now, Dad. I said, yeah, you have to worry about it all. And I said, when I correct you, if you're gonna be a good pilot, you have to be your own fiercest critic. So in wisdom, this is what I wanna share with you. What I learned in wisdom is that the godly, no matter what it is, whether it's theological or practical, you're willing to take instruction to be better in your life, I told my son, I said, if you don't become your harshest critic to get better and receive instruction from others, you'll never improve. But there's also an element in which you and I can't hold on to that which we've done wrong in the past. So in my days as a pilot, I've seen two types in check rides. One who won't receive instruction. These are the people that things don't go well for. Those who don't receive instruction, or those who when they do something wrong, they can't get over it themselves. So they're always in a check ride living for the past mistake that they made. And I think theologically, that transfers to us. in that you and I have to receive instruction in our lives, but when we gap it and we make a mistake or we sin, for example, we have to be able to turn from it. and have forgiveness as well. We can't live in it. That's why Paul, I was gonna share with you, and we'll get into this a little bit more next time, but Philippians, isn't it interesting, Paul says this, 3.13, he says, brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet. That's the eschatological prize. But one thing I do, he says, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. Having wisdom means you don't take what you've done in the past and hold on to it against yourself. You have to be able to move on, but you have to receive instruction. So wisdom, both theologically and practically, says you take instruction when you make an error. But you don't keep crucifying yourself over the air. You have to leave that in the past, otherwise you never move on. Paul didn't remain as a Pharisee of the past who persecuted Christ. He moved on. He didn't just constantly examine himself and say, well, I'm no good, I'm no good, I'm no good, I'm no good. He had to move on. He knew that he was no good. You have to move on. And so the same way I think we see these things in Proverbs. Take the instruction. and move on. That's wisdom that comes from the Lord. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do thank you that you give us wisdom for our lives and not only how to please you, but to live in this world. And we thank you for the book of Proverbs and for Solomon and the writers that were associated with him, the wisdom that you've given them. We pray that we would, over the weeks and months of studying, we would become wiser people, all for the sake of your name. I pray for Bob now as he preaches the gospel to us out of Galatians. We pray if there's anyone up there that doesn't know you, today would be their day. Today would be their day to be regenerated. We pray that you'd give him your words, Lord, and open up hearts in advance. We pray this so that some may be, that may know you that didn't know before the greatness of who you are. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.