Proverbs 1 | Sacred Wisdom for a Secular Age

Sunday Morning | March 16, 2025 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY

Proverbs 1 calls us to pursue uncommon wisdom through intentional effort, contrasting sacred wisdom with the folly of a secular age. Proverbs, as described by scholars like D. Kidner, are not direct commands but thought-provoking sayings that challenge us through wit, paradox, and symbolism. The foundation of wisdom begins with "the fear of the Lord," shaping how we navigate life’s choices. The book of Proverbs unfolds in structured sections, from a father’s invitation to wisdom to collections of Solomon’s proverbs and sayings from the wise. Ultimately, Proverbs presents two paths—one leading to life through wisdom and reverence for God, and the other to destruction through folly and disregard for His ways.

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Transcript

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I love how we begin our service together. Declaring how great God is. You know, it gets our attention off ourselves, which I need. I mean, it's too easy to go inward. Even though we're proclaiming though how great he is, there's often a gap between understanding who he is and living it out. There's a gap, often between knowledge and wisdom. We see that in every layer of life, it's plagued humanity for our entire existence. For instance, our government will declare that by age 18 you have enough knowledge to be responsible of yourself. But our government also recognizes that no one should serve as president till at least 30. Right? Because there's a gap between knowledge and wisdom. Part of what we hope to do is to bridge that gap in the coming months. We are going to enter into today a study of the Book of Proverbs. Now, Proverbs is often referred to as the Book of Wisdom, full of wisdom and insight. How do we not just have knowledge of who God is? But there's there's more to that in living now. Not just understanding, but really having the wisdom to live out what it means to follow him. That's what the Book of Proverbs is about. How do we live out the day to day life, of knowing knowledge of who he is, but living it out? Now here's one reality of wisdom. And we're going to struggle with this a lot today. Wisdom is not easy to gain. In fact, you may have often heard the phrase people need some common sense, all right. But the reality is common sense is far too uncommon anymore. It's not common. And here's something we're going to hit over and over again today. The reality is, if you want wisdom or we would say uncommon wisdom, it's going to take an uncommon effort. Wisdom doesn't come easily. It doesn't come naturally. It has to be fought for. Many people want the easy way out. I just want things. Give it to me. But wisdom only comes through hard, hard fought effort often. There's no quick fix when it comes to gaining wisdom, but there is a book all about it that we're going to look at today. We're going to be in Proverbs chapter one. And if you have a church Bible, those are Bibles we have out in the Connection Corner. If you don't have a Bible we're going to read eventually most of chapter one today. So you're going to want to be able to follow along in a copy of the Bible. You can slip out any time and grab one of those because we want you turning in God's Word, looking there, reading it. As we journey on the path of trying to figure out what wisdom is, we're going to see three things today in chapter one, one key point, and one key point in that passage that is driving home to the nature of wisdom. You're also going to see two paths to wisdom, and then we're going to see three different people addressed in chapter one. One key point, two Paths to wisdom and three people addressed as we are trying to discern what is wisdom. Now let's start by just reading the first few verses of chapter one. And if you don't have a church Bible, don't know the page number. Proverbs generally lands in the middle of your Bible. Roughly there. It's next to Psalms. If you get in that area, you'll be able to find it. We're going to read from Proverbs chapter one, verse one through seven. The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, King of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction and wise dealing and righteousness, justice and equity, to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth. Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Here we have in the first seven verses of Proverbs, basically an introduction to the book of Proverbs. This sets the tone for the entire book, much like if you've read Psalms. Psalm one really launches the direction of the entire book of Psalms. Blessed are those who stand not in the counsel of wicked, or walk in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat in scoffers, but their delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law they meditate day and night. They're like a tree planted by streams of flowing water. They bear fruit in season, but the wicked are not so. They're like a chaff that the wind blows away. You see this contrast between the wicked and the righteous who root themselves in God's Word. And that theme comes up all over and over again through the book of Psalms here in Proverbs, you see right out of the gate we're going to talk about wisdom. How do you get wisdom? But we also see here the author struggling with how to define it. In fact, how do you define wisdom? And it's really challenging. There's not just one simple answer. Someone asks you what, how would you define wisdom? I mean, you you're going to mention a lot of different things. But much like Paul did with love when he was trying to define love in First Corinthians 13, he spent half the time talking about what it’s not to try to figure out what it is. You try to put a simple definition on love - it's hard because it's complex. There's a lot of layers to it. Wisdom similar. I've heard one guy. I think this is a helpful definition. I've heard one guy say godly skill for everyday living, but that still doesn't fully encompass everything about wisdom. And I tell you what's even harder. Maybe you could try to define it, but how do you get it? That's the challenge we're going to wrestle with here. Now. Why a proverb though, to convey ideas about wisdom? You see what I mean by this? Why use Proverbs? We understand what a proverb is even in English literature, and this is important to understand about the Bible. The Bible is made up of a bunch of different types of writings. Much like if you wanted to tell someone that you love them, maybe someone you favored and hadn't yet expressed that to them and were hoping they would receive it, well, you might write them a little note, fold up a tiny paper hoping they find it in their pocket later when they're far away from you, so that you're not embarrassed if they don't feel the same way. You might write them a song, sing it to the world to celebrate your love for them. You might write a poem. You might write a story telling of your future together and what it would look like. You might take a spreadsheet and outline all the ways you've budgeted money aside to love on them. I know my accountants are getting excited right now. I didn't know I could do that. Oh yeah, that speaks love for sure. You might do a research project on the history of love, and look at all the key relationships over the course of history. You might interview people who've been married over 50 years and compile in bullet points all their key sayings. You see, there's a lot of different ways that you could express your love to someone. And when it comes to Scripture, there's a lot of different ways that Scripture communicates to us. There’s stories, there's parables, there's lists. There's also poems, songs. There's proverbs. Proverbs are just witty sayings that kind of get your attention in a slightly different way. I think, Tim Keller said it well when he defined proverbs, or not defined, but gave it some description of what a proverb is just in general. He said, if Scripture is a medicine cabinet, the Psalms would be the ointment of the medicine cabinet. Those would be the one that soothe and console. But he said, the proverbs are more like the smelling salts. They're meant to shock you, to catch you off guard, to wake you up, to grab your attention. That happens in our culture. I think if you can think of people who have witty sayings that stick with you, you hear them once. Mark Twain is often known for this. When I heard him talk about the Bible and his view on... well, I didn't hear him talk about it, he’s long gone. When I read about him talking about the Bible, they asked him, what do you think of the Bible? He said, well, let me tell you, it's not the parts of the Bible I don't understand that bother me. It's the parts I do understand that bother me. Yeah. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the parts that are the challenging parts of the Bible are the parts that are really clear and hard to live out. Hearing him say that, that's a witty way of piecing that together, of the challenge we face, of following Scripture. There's other things like that we have. You'll you'll often hear people try to reduce everything down to something very contrasting, like, hey, there's two types of people. And of course, anytime you say that, you immediately go, no, there's not. There's more than two types of people. But the point is to draw out a contrast. You'll hear him say something like, there's two types of people. Those who love dogs and those who hate cats, right? That's one approach that'll come around. You'll get it here in a little bit. There's two types of people those who can count, those who can't, and those who don't care. You'll get that one later today, too. Here's another one. There's two types of people. Those who have read Lord of the Rings and those who are sinning. Or some would say those who are normal, right, whatever. Love Lord of the Rings. And then here's one I think probably a marriage counselor came up with. There are two types of people in this world, and they always marry each other. It's often true- opposites attract, though we don't hear those two types of people statements or proverbs and put them on the same level as the Constitution of the United States. You understand those are meant to achieve something, to wake you up, to get you thinking, to provide a contrast. In fact, that word proverb at its root means contrast, comparison. That's often what happens. I'll give you a good example of this from the Proverbs. Chapter 11 verse 22 says, like a gold ring in a pig's snout. I mean, there's your starting contrast, a gold ring in a pig's snout, something beautiful and valuable in the nose of a pig. You immediately go, those don't go together. Those shouldn't be near one another. Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman without discretion. Those shouldn't go together. Instead, you should have beauty and wisdom together. Although that seems increasingly uncommon in this world. But the proverbs are meant to kind of poke you a little bit to make you have to pause and think to see the comparison. Yet the proverbs, at the same time aren't absolute promises about how the world works. They're more of general principles of of how the world works in general. A good example of that. I'll give you another one here.

Proverbs 22: 12:17

6 - train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. How many people have grown up in church, raised their children in church, and their children do not follow? Some of you have had that case. Some of you have been that case and you understand it's not an absolute law. And by the way, side note, there's a lot of times we think we are raising him in the Lord just because we brought him there. But yet maybe the rest of our life isn't reflecting following the Lord. So it's a complex thing. But the proverbs aren't meant to lay down an absolute law. It's meant to force you to think, examine your own heart, to draw out your heart. Here's a quote from Derek Kidner. He's a Bible commentator. He says it this way. Here's his attempt to talk about what a proverb is. Go ahead and put that quote on screen. A proverb should provoke thought. It should get under one's skin by thrusts of wit, paradox, common sense and symbolism instead of the preacher's tactic of frontal assault. Now, he didn't have to criticize preachers, by trying to point out what a proverb is. Thank you, Mr. Kidner. Take that off the screen. But the point is, Proverbs act a little differently than a lot of Scripture to try to drive into the heart, to try to just get you thinking a little more than normal. That's part of the role of Proverbs. And Proverbs are particularly helpful when we're trying to drive towards what is wisdom. How do I get wisdom? Now, these first seven verses that we read are wrestling with this, and we're going to look at this. We're going to look at some of the key words in those first few verses. We can't look at them all, but there's probably somewhere around a dozen or more words that are all trying to describe what wisdom is, and our effort to find wisdom. We're going to look at a few of those words. And by the way, as I'm unpacking these, I'm leaning heavily on a book by Tim Keller. And I'd recommend this to everyone. The picture of this book will be on the screen. It's a daily devotion on the Proverbs he wrote with his wife, Cathy. It's a great resource, one page a day about a portion of Proverbs. Get a copy. I'll probably reference it quite a bit over the coming weeks. It's a great daily drip of proverbs in your life. I'm leaning on parts of that book as we talk about each of these opening words here. You'll see some of those descriptors in that book as well. And in the opening section in particular. But here's a few of those words. As the writer of Proverbs seeks to wrestle with, how do we define wisdom? How do we gain wisdom? What does it mean? Let's look at a few of these words and describe these. Look at verse two to know wisdom and instruction. All right. That word instruction underneath that is the idea of training with strong accountability. And now we've all been there where you decide I need to get better in an area. I need more training. I need to do more work on this. Maybe it's an instrument, maybe it's an area, a sport or fitness or a job skill. And we all have experienced this where you start out with gusto, but then the effort tapers off a little bit. But strong accountability instruction. It points to this idea of someone standing over you, keeping you moving forward when you don't want to keep going. Imagine the Olympic athlete that is never produced overnight. The day after the Olympics ends I’ve got four years till the next one, and every moment, every piece of food I eat, every workout, every minute of sleep, it all matters. It all adds up. And if you don't have a coach standing on top of you, for most of them, there's going to be moments where you just are done. This has that picture of keep going, keep pressing in when you want to give up. It's not just I heard a little bit about it and now I'm good to go. No, it's it's more of the idea of discipline, staying engaged, staying focused, continuing to drive in even when I don't feel like. And we've all all been there. That's some of it. Underneath the nature of wisdom, it's not attained easily. We got to keep pressing in. Instruction is like that. The type of instruction he's describing here. Next look in verse two. The next line to know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, words of insight. Another word we might use to describe that is discernment. And when you have discernment around something, you can see subtle shades of meaning and and differences expressed in it. If you've never had coffee before the first time you drink it, all you taste is hot bitterness and like burning in your mouth. It doesn't. You don't really understand the nuances in flavor that might occur between a cup of Kroger's finest and some you might roast yourself and grind yourself and brew at home. And those who have drank coffee for a long time can see those subtle differences at times. So you pick pick your favorite thing. You know, Tim Keller talked about how his wife adores ballet, and they go there and she sees the finest differences in movement and appreciates the subtleties. And he's just like, wow, dancing. That's great. Discernment comes over time. It comes through love. It comes through study over time. And by the way, the same is true of our lives spiritually. There's things over time that you grow more discerning in as you grow spiritually. There's things you become more aware of, of what's really going on behind the scenes. On the surface, one thing seems to appear to be happening, but you realize with spiritual discernment there's something else going on you more easily, readily see where there's evil and good and where which is at play. But this happens over time, and it's something you want to see. And someone who's becoming wise is discernment. Now look at verse four to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth. So two words here that we want to draw out that are elements. And we can even say facets of wisdom, prudence and discretion. I think words we would often use to describe both of those are tact and timing. Both of those are really important when it comes to expressing wisdom. You can know the right thing to say, but said untactfully does not land well. You could be 100% right and it be completely rejected when it's not phrased in a kind way, when it's not phrased with wisdom. Same is true of timing. You can have the exact right thing to say, and you can even say it perfectly, and you say it at the wrong time. And not only is it rejected, you're despised. I may think of someone I think it's probably a common example of this is you don't standing over the hospital bed of a loved one who is passing away in this very moment. You don't say to someone, well, God's going to work all this together for good, for his glory. Praise his name. Usually that's not the time to start quoting Romans eight to them. And by the way, Romans is absolutely true. Romans eight, that verse God works all things together for good according to his glory. Those who love him absolutely true. But the timing of that, that may not be the best timing to deliver it. You see the difference here? We got to understand the importance of prudence, of tact, of timing. Part of that comes with wisdom over time. That is a display of wisdom that comes over time. In fact, there's a great example of this in the book of Proverbs, chapter 27 verse 14. Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice rising early in the morning will be counted as cursing right? You're like, please can you keep it down? I'm still waking up. I haven't had enough Kroger special yet to get woke up. Please use some tact, some timing. All right. Prudence, discretion. Now look at verse five. Let the wise hear and increase in learning. And the one who understands obtain guidance. The word here we're focusing on is learning. And I love that. The address here is to the wise keep learning. Learning behind that word is more the idea of extensive in depth study, not just a superficial view of something. We all have base knowledge on various topics, but learning means I'm going to strive for more, deeper knowledge, not just a surface level understanding. I heard a theologian once say when asked about a topic, and he really didn't have an opinion on it, and someone said, come on, you're one of the smartest guys I know. Clearly you have an opinion, you have something to say about this. And here, here's what he said. I try not to state a strong opinion on a topic until I've read at least five really good books on the subject. Okay, well, I just watched a 30 second video on it, and I'm an expert personally, that's how most of us roll. Hey, have you heard of this? I know all about it. When you saw two videos on YouTube about it. No, learning says, I'm going to be careful. I'm going to approach this delicately. I'm not going to rush to judgment and speak with absolute defiance and defensiveness about this topic. Because of the little bit, I know I'm going to keep striving to go deeper, to learn more. I'm not going to be satisfied with just a little bit. Learning. You can see as these words pile up, my wisdom is not easily gained. It's not. There's no quick fix. There's no easy way to get wise. It doesn't just somehow happen. It's got to be hard fought for. Each of these words require sacrifices of ourselves to move towards wisdom, and that's only a portion of it. Now here's the key thing to remember. As hard as it is to struggle with each of these words, we talked about, and you can make great progress in your learning, in your tact, in your timing, in your discretion, in your discernment and still not be wise without verse seven. And verse seven is the one key point today in terms of growing in wisdom. It is the entryway into wisdom. Let's look at verse seven again. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. If you want to have true knowledge, if you want to have true wisdom, it starts with the fear of the Lord. Keller said it this way about this being the anchor point of wisdom. He said, the fear of the Lord is to wisdom, much like the alphabet is to reading. Or speaking of another famous author, the fear of the Lord is the wardrobe door into Narnia. It's the entryway into true wisdom. It's the beginning place. That's why it's here at the very beginning of the book. You can know a lot about how the world works, and you may have worldly wisdom, but if you want true wisdom, it starts with the fear of the Lord. That's the place to begin. And look, by fear. There's a lot of different ways to take that. I think many of us, if you've been around church for a while, you have some sense of we're not talking about cowering before God in fear of him striking you down in death and judgment at any moment. Of course, we should fear his power, but also there is more of a reverential awe that delights in how great he is. Not cowering in fear, worried about what he might do to me. But it's an awe. It's a joy delighting in how great he is. It's a willing submission to how amazing he is, and finding my greatest joy in life in that when I order my life under his, everything else is ordered rightly and that fear, that healthy fear, that acknowledgment, that reverence, that respect, something else that's hard to define in one phrase. We got to use a dozen different phrases to try to define what does it mean to fear the Lord? Part of what it means is saying, I'm submitting my life to you. You know what's best, I don't. I'm going to follow your path, not mine. That's where I'll find true joy in life. That is the beginning of wisdom. And when I go my own way, I'm stepping away from wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That's the first key point. That's the one key point today. If you get anything else about wisdom, is to start with the fear of the Lord. Now we're also going to look at two paths, but I'm going to first look at the three people addressed in here. We have one key point the fear of the Lord. Pursue the fear of the Lord. If you want to know wisdom, fear him, respect him, know him, know his word. But notice he addresses, when it comes to doling out wisdom in the Book of Proverbs, he addresses three audiences here. So if you look back in the first couple of verses here, he addresses first the simple in verse four, to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth. Simple and youth seem to be used interchangeably. Before we talk about the simple, though, I want to mention, you know, the book of Proverbs is often spoken of, and I've done this myself as written by Solomon. That's partly true. But also there are other authors listed in the book of Proverbs I'm going to put on the screen just a chart that shows some of this. I grabbed this out of a commentary. I don't remember which one now, but I can find it if you if you need. But this shows some of the structure of the book of Proverbs, how it's broken up. Chapter one one through seven is really an introduction, and then chapter one through the rest of chapter nine are one big section addressing sons. Then we get into chapter 20, 22, 24. But you look at the bold words on here, you'll see listed in Scripture

are some of the different authors: 27:09

Solomon, sayings of the wise, just, general wise people. And we know from First Kings that Solomon spent a lot of time collecting proverbs and songs. So he had a rich wealth of, they said, 3000 proverbs memorized that is ready. Also, Hezekiah collected some of Solomon's proverbs. There's a guy named Agur, and Lemuel. Each of these different people contributed to the Book of Proverbs. It's listed right in there. By the way, Proverbs lends its nature to that. Anytime you come across a list of sayings, it's often collected from various people leaning on the wisdom of many. And so when he comes back to addressing the audience, I'm talking to you, the simple, the youth. You need the collective wisdom of the ages. We all do, but especially the young. Another word that it could be the simple could be translated as immature. And look, that's not putting down anybody who's young. I mean, I look back on myself at various ages and I would say simple minded, naive, young, immature. That's just part of growing. That just comes with time. Again, even our government acknowledges that I can drive at 16, but they're not going to let me rent a car till I'm 25. You see, there's still this gap between knowledge, experience and and wisdom. So he's addressing the simple, the young. Of course they need wisdom, but notice who else he addresses. We've already read this verse. Verse five. Let the wise hear and increase in learning. When I read this, you know the best person to teach to is someone who's already wise and hungry for more. They're the most likely to receive it. If you think you already have everything figured out, you're you're not going to be open to learning. So he says the wise. In fact, I love this verse. I think it's a nine. Chapter nine. Yes. Chapter nine, verse nine, instruct the wise person and they will be wiser still. You've experienced this. The teachable person who's wise. They want to know more. They want to keep growing. They want to improve and increase. They don't feel like they ever have it all figured out. They're still open. That's why our theme word out in the lobby for the year is grow, grow into oaks of righteousness. We want to be a church that is growing. None of us have it all figured out. No matter how mature in the faith you are. We're still growing. We're still learning, still hungry for God's Word. One of the one of the elders this morning said to me, I have read proverbs for almost every day of my life as a Christian, and every time I open it, there's something there. I've never thought there's always a nugget, always growing, always learning, always improving. That's why we offer this Wednesday night. We're kicking off a new round of dgroups, which stands for Discipleship Groups. It's a series of classes we offer based on various topics to help people grow. We do. We have a class going on marriage this session that my parents are teaching. We have a session for women. They're going through the book of Luke looking at the book of Luke this session, we always have a worldview or an apologetics class- that one specifically talking about the gospel this session, what is a true gospel? What are many of the fake gospels that are out there? And then I'll be teaching a class on church history, on the Reformation

in particular on Wednesday nights, 6: 30:56

30. Part of why we do that is because we want to acknowledge the great people who have gone before us, the sacrifices they have made. We want to learn from their wisdom, not try to reinvent it on our own.

That'll be at 6: 31:11

30, and those classes are spread throughout the church. One thing you can do, if you want to gain wisdom before then, come at five or up till six. We have a meal on Wednesday nights and look one of the best parts of that is just sitting down with someone you don't know, who has more wisdom than you, and just talking with them and just hanging out. So much wisdom is gained in that very informal moment. That's from 5 to 6. Long as you have your food by 6, hang out and eat as long as you want.

Dgroup's are at 6: 31:44

30 and we have stuff for students and kids as well. Wednesday night's great, and if none of those dgroups seemed interesting to you, just come for the meal. Come enjoy, hang out, gain wisdom, sharpen one another in fellowship. But the point being, the wise, when instructed, will become wiser still. He talks to the simple, to the youth. He talks to the wise. But then, and this is going to carry us through chapter nine, the main audience of this front part of the book of Proverbs is right here in verse eight. He says, hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. The audience of these first nine chapters of the Book of Proverbs is a son, a child. We could even say a daughter. I mean, because look here in verse 20, wisdom is going to be called She- that doesn't mean that men don't have any wisdom. I don't think. Don't answer, don't respond to that. But you see, wisdom is spoken of as she he addresses my son. We can all gain from that. But every parent knows I want my child to grow in wisdom. I want them to grow up and live a life that honors God. I want them to know what Scripture says about how to live their lives. It takes nine chapters in particular to focus right in on that. My son, listen to me. Listen to your mother. Listen to both of us. We're going to do our best to pass on wisdom to you. Soak it up. Take it in. If you want to live a life that honors God, if you want to live a life of joy and delight and not take the hard path because you can gain a lot of wisdom through experience. One guy I heard said, I hope I don't. This quotes kind of a little awkward the way it comes out, but it goes something like this-- experience isn't the best teacher in life, but it is the only school a fool will attend. Yes, experience will teach you some things and there are some things that can only be learned. That's a little bit of a proverb that can only be learned through experience. But in general, if you only learn through experience, it's going to be a rough life. I also want to learn from others who have done it the wrong way before me, so I don't have to repeat their mistakes. My son. Listen. Soak in the wisdom of others who have gone before you. Son, please listen. Don't just blaze your own trail. Follow God's way. So he addresses these three people in the book of Proverbs, and here's what he says to his son. And here's the two paths that the book of Proverbs is going to contrast all throughout. This is the big idea that the book of Proverbs is drawing at.

We had one big point: 34:41

fear the Lord. Three people addressed. But there are two paths you can take. In fact, you'll see this in these subject headings. The rest of chapter one will give us this contrast. If you look at verse eight right above, it is from verse eight through 19 as the enticement of sinners, the way of the fool. Your book, your subject heading may say something else, like following the foolish. That's one path to follow. The way of the wicked, the way of sinners, the way of foolish. The other path starts in verse 20. You look at the title over that it might say the way of wisdom or the call of wisdom, the path of wisdom. This is the contrast that the whole book of Proverbs is drawing out all throughout. You can go the way of the sinner. You can go the way of wisdom. This is a contrast we see all throughout Scripture. Jesus. Wide is the way that many go, but narrow is the gate to follow me. Narrow is the path. There are sheep and there are goats. He calls disciples to follow him and many don't. Deny yourself. Take up your cross daily. Follow me. All throughout Scripture you see this contrast. There's an easy way to go. It's wide a lot. Do it. And then there's a hard way that follows the call of wisdom. Let's look at those two paths and some of the realities of each pathway.

Look at verse eight again: 36:11

hear, my son, your father's instruction. Forsake not your mother's teaching. They are a graceful garland for your head and a pendant for your neck. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, come with us, let us lie in wait for blood. Let us ambush the innocent without reason. Like Sheol, let us swallow them alive and whole like those who go down to the pit. We shall find all precious goods. We shall fill our house with plunder. You know the sinner, the foolish, the simple, the naive. They always want the easy way and are easily duped. That there is an easy way. Oh, you want to get rich quick? Let's just go lay by the roadside and people will just leave stuff there for us. Actually, we're going to take it from them. That's the easy way. That's what the naive, that's what the foolish, that's what the wicked want to do. And if it is hard, they don't want any part of it. I want a quick fix. I want it now or forget it. And the reality is where this often leads. Look at the next verse, verse 14, throw in your lot among us and we will all have one purse. Yeah, the naive fall for that for sure. Oh, you mean if I go with you to commit this crime, we'll all share in it equally. No, no, what we mean is we'll leave you in a place where you're the one that takes all the blame, and we get off with everything good. If you're naive, you don't understand that this is how the world works. You don't understand that every attempt on the internet to take your money is at the heart of it. This idea, a quick fix. Here, just do what we say in three easy steps. You'll lose all this weight. You'll have all this money. Life will be perfect. This is the way of the wicked. The way of the sinner. The promise of the quick fix, the short term. Now contrast that with the call of wisdom. Verse 20. Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice. At the head of the noisy streets she cries out. At the entrance of the city gates she speaks. How long Oh, simple ones will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? What I love about this picture is that wisdom, even if you're pursuing the path of the wicked, of the sinner, wisdom is there crying out. Now, my ears may be closed to it, but wisdom is there. Wisdom is there for all. All we gotta do is listen. Open our ears. Want to hear Wisdom. It's crying out. She's crying out. Saying follow me. Don't keep going down the path you're going down. And let me just plead with you here. If you're going down a path of wickedness of evil following the sinners, look, in any instant you can turn. In any moment you can stop going down that path and go towards wisdom. You don't have to keep continuing down that path. There's nothing that is forcing you to continue to go away from God. Today can be the day where you turn and make a complete 180 in your life. Instantly, and move towards Christ and move towards wisdom. Today can be the day you don't have to stay stuck in old patterns. You don't have to keep going down the route your family always did. Listen, Wisdom is calling. Listen. Let your ears be open. But many don't want to hear wisdom. In fact, wisdom says this to the foolish. How long will you continue to delight in scoffing and hate knowledge? That's one thing I've noticed about the fool. The fool can't stand the idea that someone might know more than them about anything. They have to pretend to know it all. They have to lash out against any good idea or tear it down, because they can't stand the idea that there may be knowledge out there that they hadn't already thought of. But wisdom says, come to me, follow me. In fact, the last thing to point out about the Book of Proverbs that will help us journey because Proverbs was written long ago, it’s in the Old Testament, but all of the book of Proverbs, even though Christ is not mentioned in the Book of Proverbs, it's all pointing forward to him. It's all pointing us towards who he is. And we know this because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And where do you find the fullest expression of the fear of the Lord? It's in Jesus. It's in the step he took to die on our behalf, to be raised again on our behalf. Now, here's what this book hints at. What's really interesting. He's resurrected. What does he leave behind for us? The Holy Spirit. Look here. What's mentioned, what wisdom says. And pointing forward to a day when Christ comes. Verse 23-- if you turn at my reproof, turn away from the way of the wicked, turn towards me. Here's what will happen. I will pour out my spirit to you. I will make my words known to you. If you want to walk in the way of wisdom, if you want to follow the path of wisdom, we need the Holy Spirit within us. And the promise is, if you turn to Christ, he will put His Spirit within you. And this is the promise that was given in Jeremiah. He will make your heart new. He will put his words within your heart. And there's no greater joy when it comes to walking in wisdom than to know that Jesus Christ loves me, died for me, and now the Holy Spirit guides me. You can have that today. You can have that at any moment. I'm going to be down front after we wrap up the service. After I pray. I'd love to talk with you about what it means to submit your life to Christ. You saw a picture of young Abel doing that this morning. What a beautiful picture. My prayer for any young kid who comes to know Christ is that they would walk faithfully with him for a lifetime. The path of wisdom. Thank you Jesus, for that powerful example. Let's pray. God, we thank you for the book of Proverbs. I'm looking forward to digging in to what you have to say about wisdom in the coming weeks. May you give us ears to hear. May we listen to the call of Lady Wisdom and abandon the path of the wicked. Jesus, I would pray specifically for those who have not committed their lives to following you, that you would stir right now. Right now, this would be the day where the choice is made. There are two paths. The choice is made today. I'm not going to continue down the path of the wicked. I'm going to pursue the path of righteousness, justice, equity, wisdom, and that path is in Christ. Thank you, Jesus, that we could come and hear from your word and learn about you. We love you. Amen.