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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.
Two Paths: Wisdom or Folly (Pt. 1)
Series Proverbs
In this message, taken from Proverbs 9, we examine the contrast between the path of wisdom and the path of folly. We learn that much of the Bible is "binary" in which each person is on one path or the other.
We also learn how God calls His people to wisdom through regeneration by the Spirit as He brings us to messianic salvation. We begin to develop the idea at the end of the message as to how believers must be willing to hear correction while simultaneously forgetting about past failures and sins.
| Sermon ID | 1222242243521474 |
| Duration | 1:01:07 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday School |
| Bible Text | Proverbs 9 |
| Language | English |
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