"Wisdom's Divide" Proverbs 9 Sunday Evening Worship Service

I'm gonna read Proverbs 9.

Wisdom has built her house.

She has hewn her seven pillars, she has slaughtered her beasts, she has mixed her wine, she has set her table, she has set out the young women to call from the highest places in the town.

Whoever is simple, let them turn and hear.

To him who lacks sense, she says, Come eat of my bread and drink of my wine that I've mixed.

Leave your simple ways and live and walk in the ways of insight.

Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse.

He reproves a wicked man, incurs injury.

Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you.

Reprove a wise man, he will love you.

Give instruction to a wise man, he'll still be wiser.

Teach a righteous man, he'll increase in learning.

The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom, the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life.

If you are wise, you're wise for yourself, but if you scoff, you alone will bear it.

The woman folly is loud, she's seductive, she doesn't know anything.

She sits at the door of her house, and she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way.

Whoever is simple, let them turn in here.

And to him who lacks sense, she says, Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

But he doesn't know that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

I asked a law professor whose family attends Emmanuel Bible Church if there's any such thing as a famous closing argument.

And he had his top 20 closing arguments that he emailed me.

Dider forbid me from reading you all 20 of them.

But I chose four.

Four of the most famous closing arguments in American legal history.

I chose two from the prosecution and two from the defense.

Here's one from the prosecution at the Black Sox trial for the World Series that was fixed.

Shoeless Joe Jackson, the attorney said, was batting a thousand when he was getting paid five thousand bucks a bat by the gangsters.

And when he wasn't, well, there isn't a pitcher in God's green earth that could have struck him out, and yet it happened every time.

Baseball has become a swindle and a con on the American people.

Make these players make a diamond in the penitentiary.

That'll preach.

Batting a thousand when he gets five grand a pitch.

You better believe it.

For the defense, Andrew Johnson and his impeachment trial, his uh defense attorney, you could call him that, says, Yes, senators, with all his faults, the president has been more sinned against than sinning.

Fear not then to acquit him.

The Constitution of the country is as sage in his hands from violence as it was in the hands of George Washington.

But, senators, if you condemn him, if you strip him of the robes of his office, if you degrade him to the utmost stretch of your power, mark the prophecy.

The strong arms of the people will be about him.

They will raise him up from any depths to which you can cast him, and we shall live to see him redeemed and hear the majestic voice of all the American people say, Well done, my good and faithful servant.

Instead, if you vote to convict him, don't do it here in the hollowed halls of our Republic.

I'm sure he said it better than me.

Don't do it here in this building where the greatest peril, the single-handed uh attack on our enemies, have always been met by the staunch reserve of our Republic.

Not here where the president stood faithful among the faithless, not here where he fought the good fight of the Union and the Constitution, not in this chamber, whose walls echo with that clarion voice in the days of our greatest danger, whose voice carried hope and comfort to the desponding heart, with a strong of an army as banners, not here.

Instead, if you vote to convict him, drag him to the deepest, darkest, and gloomiest chamber of the subterranean recesses of this capital where the cheerful light of day never enters, and there erect the altar where you can impale your victim.

Wow.

He was found not guilty.

Alright, for the prosecution.

Charles Manson's trial.

This is my friend told me this is so well known as a closing argument because it is stolen by every TV law and order or every crime movie always steals this one and makes it sound like theirs, but it's not theirs.

They stole it from an attorney named Vincent Bugliosi from the LA County DA's office, 1971.

He said, When you apply the law and the logic and your common sense and your reasoning powers to the evidence in this case, you won't have any difficulty whatsoever coming to the conclusion that we have proved beyond the guilt, a reasonable doubt of the guilt of these defendants.

Ladies and gentlemen, the prosecution, we did our job in gathering the evidence.

The witnesses there did their job by taking the stand and testifying of the truth.

Now you are the last link in the chain of justice.

Ladies and gentlemen, and he lists all the victims.

They are not here with us in the courtroom.

Instead, it is only you.

Justice can only be served by you coming back with a verdict of guilty.

And of course, he's found guilty.

And then the most famous closing argument of all time.

You know it, don't you?

Johnny Cochrane in the OJ trial.

If it doesn't fit, you must.

You laugh at it, you roll your eyes at it, but you all know it.

And I read the whole thing, I won't drag you through his whole closing argument, but that was not a one offer frame.

It was, you know, the CNN highlight had a one-off refrain of it.

But he went through every piece of evidence at the end of every piece of evidence he said, it doesn't fit, so you must, and by the end you've got the jury shouting, a quit.

I mean, that's a powerful argument.

Proverbs 9 is not at the end of the book of Proverbs.

But I hope you see its position here.

When people think of the book of Proverbs, they think of Proverbs 10 through 31, all the random Proverbs.

And that is Proverbs chapter 10 through 31.

Proverbs 10 · chapter mention

But you understand now, hopefully after the last three months of this, that Proverbs 1 through 9 is not like that.

Proverbs 1 through 9 is a long argument to you to try to persuade you to believe in wisdom.

It's appealing for you.

It really is appealing for you, like an attorney making his closing argument.

Proverbs, the first nine chapters of Proverbs, is begging you.

It's like the voice of your dad on your shoulder.

And if you didn't have a godly dad, pretend you had a godly dad.

It would be his voice.

If you had a godly dad, this is what he would have told you.

It's his voice on your shoulder telling you, oh my kid, choose wisdom, man.

Proverbs is aimed at, like I've told you, between like a 15 and an 18-year-old in that window.

That's who this is targeted at.

In our culture, probably more towards the 18-year-old, and in Solomon's culture, probably more towards the 14-year-old.

This is the kid who's about to set out for his first time in his life.

And the dad is like telling him, come on, man.

You know, there's a certain amount of your life where your parents can direct your steps and keep you out of trouble.

You know, they drive you to soccer practice, they drive you to church, they drive you to where you need to go.

And if you don't go there, you get in trouble, right?

And then eventually you get to the point where they're not going to drive you anymore.

And then eventually you leave the house, and then it's just the voice of the parents saying, We've laid out wisdom, we've showed you how to walk.

And you know, the the kid who goes out for the first time, he doesn't know which way he's gonna step, right?

He goes, he doesn't know until he gets there.

And so he's for a while tottering.

It's like, do I go left?

Do I go right?

Do I step in wisdom?

Do I step in folly?

And there'll be a period of time where he tries to play both sides.

There'll be a period of time where he toys with both lives.

Do I go this way or that way?

Do I choose wisdom or do I choose folly?

And maybe he'll even try to pretend or extend his pretending time out where he is he's not sure which way he's going to choose.

And of course, if you've learned anything from these first eight chapters of Proverbs, it's that event if you don't make any choice, you're choosing folly.

Like entropy takes over, gravity takes over, and you choose folly.

In the first eight chapters, let's, in a closing argument style here, let's review the evidence.

The first eight chapters of Proverbs are laid out.

Proverbs 1, the foundation of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

True wisdom is built on the fear of Yahweh.

And if you get wisdom, you have found the way in Proverbs 1, verse 4, to live ethically, to live wisely, to live righteously.

Proverbs 1:4

You want to live an ethical and a wise and a righteous life, you have to find wisdom.

Wisdom is the ability to live your life in a way that corresponds to the world that God made.

God made the world with his own righteousness and his own wisdom.

So you have wisdom when you figure out how to live in God's world in the right way.

And of course, remember, a non-Christian in that sense can have wisdom.

He doesn't have the foundation of the house, of course, he doesn't fear the Lord.

So he doesn't have true wisdom, which is personified as Christ, of course, but a non-Christian can figure out how to function in society, can figure out that bribes ultimately come back against you and adultery is wrong and drunkenness is sinful.

A non-Christian can figure out those moral elements of wisdom just fine and bluff it.

But that's not who Solomon's talking about here.

Solomon's talking to a kid who is raised in the covenant family, who knows the promises of God, and is telling him, listen, you would better choose to embrace wisdom.

That's Proverbs chapter 1.

Proverbs 1 · chapter mention

The end of Proverbs 1 is the voice of folly for the first time.

Saying, hey kid, come over here.

And remember in Proverbs 1, it's not exactly subtle temptation.

Proverbs 1, the sinners in Proverbs 1 are like, you know, the dad is saying, hey, follow Jesus.

And the friends are going, hey, let's go murder people and take their stuff.

So we're not dealing with subtle temptations of like, let's watch things you shouldn't watch or kind of thing.

It's more like, let's go, let's go murder and get rich.

So you don't have to be a supermature believer to recognize, well, that's bad.

That's Proverbs 1.

Proverbs 2 comes in and says, listen, if you choose wisdom, you get rewarded with a graceful life.

The life of wisdom is graceful.

You'll work in the world gracefully, very different than the person who chooses sin.

The person who chooses sin is boisterous and bombastic.

But Proverbs 2 says, if you choose wisdom, you know, it's just it's subtle, it's like a garland of grace, and your life will be smooth, not loud.

Proverbs 3 says the smooth and wise life is a life of beauty, if you remember.

And it's a beauty that you have to woo.

Remember, Proverbs 3 was like the romance chapter, kind of like you were romancing wisdom.

You've got to woo who over there.

Put your arm around wisdom and sweet talk her and say, I'm gonna marry you and make you my own, is language in Proverbs 3.

It's sort of weird, but it's what Proverbs 3 does.

So you put your arm around wisdom and say, Let's get married.

Wisdom, you and me, we're gonna spend our life together.

You're committed to her.

And the person who marries wisdom has a long life of joy.

Proverbs 4 is more of the how to.

Like it's one thing to say, hey, marry someone godly.

Proverbs 4 is the okay, how do I do that?

It's one thing to say it, but another thing to say how, and that's Proverbs 4.

You have to prize the right things in life.

When you prize righteousness and you prize discretion, you're prizing wisdom.

Folly, on the other hand, in Proverbs 4, takes you away from wisdom.

Folly in Proverbs 4 doesn't offer anything.

It just says, hey, come this way.

Do an alternative path.

And that leads to Proverbs 5.

Speaking of alternative paths, Proverbs 5.

Adultery, sexual immorality.

That's a pretty big trap.

And remember in Proverbs 5, we talked about it's not that sex outside of marriage is wrong, although it is, it's that it's actually wisdom's enemy.

That sexual activity outside of marriage is the active enemy towards wisdom.

It's trying to tear down what wisdom is planting in your life.

So you have the voice of wisdom saying, the voice of your parents and the voice of wisdom saying, come walk in righteousness.

Then you have sexual immorality, say, forget that.

There's something way better over here for you.

It's an either-or.

You can follow wisdom or you can follow lust.

You can follow wisdom or you can pursue sexual morality.

It's one or the other, is the point of Proverbs chapter 5.

Proverbs 5 · chapter mention

Lust hates wisdom, wisdom hates lust.

Proverbs 6 then was all the warnings.

Proverbs 6 was like, if you choose wrongly, you're going down in flames.

Proverbs 6 is the passage that says six things the Lord hates, seven he detests, pride, lying eyes, the feet that go do evil things.

The murderer, the schemer, the divisive person.

And then adultery.

Proverbs 7 goes back to adultery again, back to sexual immorality, and says the only reason sexual immorality works is because it lies to you.

You wouldn't believe, you wouldn't fall into sexual immorality if it told you the truth.

If sexual immorality, if the adulterous woman came up to you and put her arm around you and said, Hey, this is going to ruin your life, nobody would fall for that.

But instead, she lies and says, You'll enjoy this.

This is great news for you.

And so Proverbs 7 says, Listen, you got to legitly decide which path are you going to walk on?

Wisdom or immorality?

Wisdom or adultery?

Wisdom or lust.

And then you get Proverbs 8, which I told you is my favorite chapter in all Proverbs.

That was last week.

I'm still sticking to that.

Proverbs 8 is wisdom as Christ.

Wisdom is the Son of God.

Wisdom is the image of God.

So you recognize this whole battle between righteousness and wisdom versus lust and sin and folly.

That whole battle is not about moralism, it's about the wisdom of God in the person of God, pointing you to the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Wisdom incarnate.

The battle over wisdom is a battle for your soul.

Remember, wisdom says, I have the power to reward you.

Those who choose me go to heaven when they die.

Those that reject me only have judgment.

It's not about what kind of life you're going to have, although it is that on the surface.

Underneath that, it's about what kind of life is next.

You only live twice, you know, and too many people make choices as if they only lived in this life.

Proverbs 8 says, You want the next life?

Wisdom is the image of God and rewards those.

Wisdom is the way, the truth, and the life.

Those who seek her find her.

Those who find her will be rewarded by her in the heaven in the next life.

That's Proverbs 8, which leads us now to Proverbs 9.

Proverbs 9 is the closing argument for this part of Proverbs.

We get to the actual Proverbs in chapter 10.

This is the Proverbs 10 through 31 is the feast of Proverbs.

Proverbs 9 is the end of this introduction.

It's the end of the art.

It's the no more two angels.

You know, no more the voice of your parents and the voice of folly, no more the voice of wisdom and the voice of lust.

Those are the two, those, those are end over at the end of chapter 9.

So Proverbs 9 is your last of the appeal.

And so this is the point in Proverbs where you need to make the decision.

Now, at a practical point, this is the part of the book where you decide, are you going to keep going or not?

Like you're going to keep reading Proverbs?

Because the fool is at this point is going to say, I'm out.

Like I've done enough.

I've had enough of the Proverbs.

I'm over.

But the wise person will receive the invitation and keep going.

So the way this closing argument is structured here in Proverbs 9, it's really kind of a fascinating structure.

It's structured as two different invitations.

In fact, I'll give you that as the outline.

Two different invitations.

That's the way this chapter is structured.

When you understand the structure, you'll always remember Proverbs 9 the rest of your life.

It's given as two different invitations.

Have you ever been invited to two parties on the same day?

We once got invited to two different Easter lunches.

We said yes to both and then tried to make it happen.

Oh man.

That was fun.

You invited two weddings at the same time.

You know, if they're next to each other, you can maybe pull it off.

You know, there's those long breaks where they're doing pictures, you can go back and forth between the wedding.

But what if one is like in you know DC and the other's in Woodbridge?

You can't pull it off.

You have to choose.

So that's the way Proverbs 9 is written.

You're getting invited to two different banquets.

There's two different banquets at the same time, but they're in different places.

And you can only choose one.

And both invitations have your name on it.

You get it in the mail, nice fancy envelopes, both of them.

You open them up, and they both are very similar.

In fact, the language of the two invitations you're gonna see as we go through this chapter, almost identical.

Let's look at the first one.

The invitation to the banquet in the heights.

The invitation to the banquet in the heights.

This this first invitation is in the nice neighborhood.

This is the banquet in McLean.

The mansions in McLean.

That's his first invitation.

Chapter 9, verse 1.

Wisdom has built her house.

She's hewn her seven pillars.

She's got a big house.

She's got a portico in the front of her house, and it's got seven big pillars on it.

So this is a big kind of mansion.

But this mansion wasn't built by slaves.

This mansion was built by wisdom.

Lady Wisdom did some work on this.

She built her whole house.

In fact, uh the word is hewn here.

It's like she did it out of stone.

Wisdom went to work and built a palace, and she's inviting you to it.

That's kind of cool.

You ever get invited to a party?

Somebody told me they did this, they get invited to a party, and they'll Google the address and see what kind of house it is before they say yes or no.

This is a person I'm not really friends with.

This is an illustration of why.

This is the house you Google it, and you're like, whoa.

I'm going to this party.

She has slaughtered her seven beasts.

I mean, she slaughtered her beast, she seven pillars, she slaughtered her beast, she's mixed her wine.

She did work on this.

She didn't just like phone out for Uber Eats to cater this thing.

She got out and she slaughtered animals and prepared the animals herself.

Wisdom has blood all over her from doing work.

She's mixing wine.

She's just not rolling it up from the cellar.

She is like going to work.

Mixing wine means she's putting honey and cloves and spices in the wine to spice this thing up.

She is making an elaborate feast.

This is what the dad does in Luke 15 when the prodigal comes home, kills the fattened calf.

The guy does work to throw a party.

That's what's happening here in Proverbs 9.

This is a feast, and the cool thing with this feast, it's got your name on it.

You're reading the menu of this and you're like, I'm in.

And it keeps going.

Wisdom has got the wine mix.

She, verse 2, set her table.

All nice and everything.

She makes the table nice.

This is something my wife does.

We're gonna have people over, she sets the table weeks in advance.

I'm joking about the weeks in advance.

Way far in advance, though.

It's it's hospitable.

She makes it nice.

It's all set out.

It looks nice for the people when they come there.

That's what wisdom did.

She set the table.

There's biblical precedent for it right here.

Wisdom sent her young people into the highest places of the town.

They're calling.

And notice what the invitation, what the call sounds like when it goes out.

Whoever's simple, come in here.

This is an open invitation.

This is why I say it's got your name on it.

No offense, but you're called simple here.

Hey, Jesse, simple person, come in here.

To him who lacks sense, ouch.

Come in here, eat of my bread, drink of the wine I've mixed, leave your simple ways, live and walk in the way of insight.

So I told you this is almost identical to the invitation we're going to see next.

But notice the final part of this.

You respond to this invitation.

And look what you're walking into.

You respond to this invitation, you get a better life in front of you.

You get joy and you get walking in wisdom and insight for life.

This invitation promises you life.

What a great blessing.

That's the first invitation.

The banquet in the heights.

Well, this leads to an interlude.

Before we look at the second invitation, you get an interlude.

You get a little few verses here to the bonehead on the fence.

I chose those words carefully.

The bonehead on the fence.

This is the person who can't make up his mind which invitation to take.

They just can't do it.

They're on the fence and like, ooh, I have.

These two wedding invitations at the same time.

Oh, I just don't know what to do.

And they hem and they haw, they don't RSVP into the last moment, slacker villains.

Like maybe something better will come on.

I just can't tell.

I can't tell.

I don't know.

So hard to choose which wedding to go to.

Verse 7.

Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse.

And he reproves a wicked man, incurs injury.

Notice this.

If you correct the person who's just scoffing and who gets this wisdom invitation, they get the invitation from wisdom.

Come to the house that wisdom built, eat the food, drink the wine, and they get this elaborate invitation.

Their calendar is free.

There's nothing on the calendar.

They can go to this invitation, they can go to the banquet and eat good food and drink good wine.

It's going to be amazing sauce.

And they're like, I actually don't know.

I don't know if it's something I'm really into.

I can't decide.

That's the analogy here for a scoffer.

They're looking for something wrong with it.

And here Solomon says, don't correct a scoffer.

The kind of person who's looking at the invitation to the King's Hall, and it's like, mmm, don't bother talking that person into it.

What are you gonna do?

You're gonna tell him no, the King's Hall's actually nice.

A banquet with a feast and wine and the slaughtered beast in a mansion hosted by Lady Wisdom is going to be amazing.

And they're like, I don't know.

Don't waste your breath on that person.

They're only gonna bite you.

I mean, what do you do?

You talk the person into going to the banquet with you, and now you get there with them, and the whole time you're trying to explain to them how cool it is, you find yourself defending it, they don't like it, it's just conflict all around.

Let them go, cut them loose.

That's what it's like correcting a scoffer.

You correct the scoffer, they bite you.

Like the cat.

You correct a scoffer, they harm you.

You correct the scoffer, you get abused.

You tell the scoffer, hey, you're scoffing, hey, you're tearing down these people, hey, you're mocking those people, hey, you're mocking this, you're mocking that, and the other thing.

You know what the scoffer does?

Mocks you, scoffs you, bites you like the cat.

And so Solomon says, cut them loose.

Whoever reproves a wicked man incurs injury.

Somebody who's wicked, somebody who's constantly divisive, and you try to correct them on their divisiveness, divides you.

Verse 8, don't reprove that kind of person.

Or he'll hate you.

Better to just be quiet.

Better to just be quiet than to correct that person.

Just let him let him go.

Give him a smile, give him a wave.

But if you reprove a wise man, what's the wise man gonna do?

Love you.

You reprove the wise man, he'll be like, oh.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for reproving me.

Thanks for correcting me.

I just need help.

That's how a wise person responds to correction.

You reprove the fool and the fool makes 20 excuses.

You reprove the fool and the fool's like, but you don't know, you didn't see, you didn't do, you don't know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, this, that, and the other thing.

And at the end of it, you're like exhausted.

You're like, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to tell you not to park on the grass anymore.

But you approve the wise person, the wise person's like, help me do it better.

That's just a basic distinguishing feature between the wise person and the fool.

And that's true in all kinds of life.

And you're wondering, what does this have to do with the invitations?

This is how Solomon's bracketing it.

He you've got the person who can't decide which to do.

He's comparing him to the scoffer.

On the other hand, look at verse 9.

You give instruction to the wise man, the dude grows in wisdom.

You teach a righteous man, he'll increase in learning.

You find a wise, righteous man, and you give him correction, he'll just grow all the more.

And that's because this is the truth.

Verse 10, the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom.

The book of Proverbs started with this, didn't it?

The fear of the Lord's beginning of wisdom, the introduction, the book of Proverbs in that sense ends with this too.

It's bracketed, these nine chapters.

The fear of the Lord's the beginning of wisdom.

Now you're at the end of it.

You think, why would a wise man need correction?

If he's wise, why does he need correction?

Because he's not Jesus, that's why.

So he's still got room to grow, and he knows that.

You go to wise men, you correct the wise man, the wise man's like, you know, I'm actually godlier than you, back off.

No, that would be a scoffer.

The wise man says, Thanks, I need to grow.

That's because the fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy one is insight.

When you know God, you grow.

For by me, wisdom says in verse 11, your days will be multiplied, your years will be added to your life.

You'll live a long life if you're teachable.

And here is one of the most interesting verses in Proverbs.

If you are wise, you're wise for yourself.

And if you scoff, you alone will bear it.

What does that mean?

Because you would think, like, if a father's wise, it's going to benefit the family.

If a mother is wise, Proverbs 31 is going to say that.

You have a wise mother or a wise wife, the whole family is blessed.

That's how the book of Proverbs ends.

You've got a wise wife, and the kids are, you know, they're wearing mittens in the winter, Proverbs 31 says.

Their ears are warm, all the other kids, the, you know, those who the fools' mom, their ears are cold.

But the wise kids, the wise mom, their kids are like drinking hot chocolate.

But here it says the person who's wise is wise for themselves.

The person who's a fool is a fool for himself.

This is getting you back to the point where you need to realize each person needs to decide for him or herself.

Are you gonna walk in wisdom or not?

This is the this is why it's so it's almost touching at the end of Proverbs 9 here.

This is where Solomon, this is his last words to his kid.

The end of the speech, before all the Proverbs.

You know what?

You're gonna have to decide.

I can only drive you to church for so long.

You're gonna have to decide.

I can only make you go to school for so long.

I can only stick my head in the bedroom and say, are you having your quiet time for so long before you're going to have to do it for yourself?

And the wise person will do it and the foolish person won't.

And if the person is like, I don't know which to choose, like I'm confused.

Do I want to be the kind of person that reads my Bible every day?

Or do I not want to be?

I can't figure it out.

And Solomon's like, that's the scoffer right there.

And the more you correct them, the more you'll get bit by them.

And they can't just be left in an inertia place.

They're gonna have to, if they don't make a choice, they'll become a fool.

And so Solomon ends this little interlude here by telling that kid, listen, you're going to have to choose for yourself.

I almost feel as like a dad, I read this verse a little bit differently than I used to many years ago.

Now I almost read it like it's a word that the dad's talking to himself.

Like there's only so much you can do.

You know, at some point, at some point, the children will make up their own decisions about if they're gonna follow the Lord or not.

You cannot make that decision for them.

You just can't.

So Solomon almost ends his talk to his kid talking to himself.

Well, this leads to the second invitation.

That's how this section ends, verses 13 through 18.

The banquet in the slums.

I thought about doing the banquet in Tyson's versus the banquet in Woodbridge, but then I thought some of you live in Woodbridge and it wouldn't work well.

So better not to say that out loud.

Scratch that.

The woman folly is loud.

She's seductive and doesn't know anything.

Do the contrast here.

Judra eyes from verse 13 to verse 1.

What was Lady Wizard doing?

She was working building an actual mansion.

What is folly doing?

Prancing around and being loud?

It's not building anything.

Lady Wisdom's building a seven-pillared mansion, and folly is seductive and doesn't know anything.

While wisdom is working, folly is seducing.

You don't get a better contrast between wisdom and folly than that.

Wisdom works, folly is lazy and lustful and seduces.

Seduction is a good word.

Seduction implies lying.

We saw images of this earlier in Proverbs.

Remember the fool, the naive, the 17-year-old, 18-year-old, the 15-year-old, whatever age he is, is walking through the streets and he's naive.

He thinks it's okay to be at a night, he's walking the street.

And remember, the seductress comes up to him and says, Oh, come, I've been looking all over for you.

She wasn't looking for him.

She's ambushing him.

She's attracted to his body.

That's what she's lusting after his body.

And the kid is flattered by.

The kid's like, Oh, she loves me.

She's paying attention to me.

No, she's in love with your body, you fool.

And she lies and she seduces him and brings him in to wreck his life.

That's what seduction is.

And here at the end of this section of Proverbs, she's doing the same thing again.

She is being loud and boisterous and seductive.

And the fool, the naive, the scoffer, naive dude, has got the invitation to her party, and he's like, Well, lady wisdom is working, but this woman here, she is seducing, and man, that's attractive to me.

The truth is, she doesn't know anything.

What a contrast with wisdom.

Wisdom knows so much, and this lady doesn't know anything.

Verse 14, she sits at the door of her house.

She's sitting down at the door of her house.

What was wisdom doing by this point in the invitation?

Slaughtering animals and mixing wine is what wisdom is doing.

And here, folly is like kicking it at the door.

She doesn't have food in her house.

She didn't slaughter any animals.

She's being lazy.

Lazy.

What an image of folly.

She takes a seat at the highest places of the town.

Well, wisdom worked.

Folly sits down, and Folly tries to make herself look good sitting down, too.

Wisdom sent messengers to invite people to the party.

Folly sits seductively at the door of her house.

Wisdom is working and inviting and appealing, and folly is slovenly sitting.

Why would anybody choose the feast of Folly?

Why would anyone choose?

You get those two invitations, they're the same date, the same time, you gotta choose one.

Why would anybody choose the invitation to Folly's house?

Why?

Wisdom has a banquet hall in a mansion.

Why would somebody choose the festival in the slums?

And the answer is because it's easy.

Because they're deceived.

Because the person writing it is seducing them, saying them, let's go have a sinful life.

Like it's not as blunt as it was in chapter one with, like, let's go murder dudes.

By the end of this, it's more seductive.

It's more like, let's, you know, I'm I'm interested in you and I like you, and it's sexually immoral, of course, and it's ungodly, of course, but it is easy and it's approachable, and she's sitting there waiting for you, and you know, it doesn't have the demands that wisdom has.

And so people get sucked in.

She's calling to those who pass by.

And here the verses in verse 15 and 16 are identical as verses four and five.

It's the same thing.

They're both calling out.

She's calling.

Wisdom sent her messengers out, but folly is saying, calling to those who pass by, and here's Folly's calling to those who are going in the straight way, and here's what she's calling.

Whoever's simple, let them turn in here.

Whoever lacks sense, come in here, which is exactly what wisdom is saying.

So this is why I want you to understand.

They're both appealing to the same people.

And in Proverbs here, it's talking to that 15 to 18-year-old person.

Both wisdom and both folly appeal to that person.

In the same way.

Come on, come in.

They both want to you to come listen to them.

But remember a wisdom's invitation said?

Eat and drink of my bread and my wine that I mixed, and you'll have a long life.

Notice what Folly says.

Stolen water is sweet.

That's speaking of adultery, by the way.

That's a euphemism for adultery.

Stolen water is sweet.

It's sex outside of marriage.

Folly says it'll taste good.

It's sweet.

It doesn't taste good compared to marriage.

Marriage is rich wine, and this is drinking water, is what this is.

But the water advertises itself like Perie or something.

It advertises itself as, oh, this is actually good, expensive water.

Doesn't matter how good the bottled water is, it's not as good as the wine.

It's not as good as wisdom.

Bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

Is it though?

I mean, there's some rush of stealing something, and you get an exhilaration out of it, and maybe you think it tastes good because of the trouble you went to get it.

But ultimately it's the same bread whether you worked for it or stole it, and it probably tastes better if you worked for it.

I think.

But it's stolen.

It's not as good as the real thing.

It lies.

And do you remember how the invitation to the party in the heights ended?

You can have life.

Remember how this one ends?

Wisdom sticks its head in the door and sees who showed up at the party, at Folly's party.

Who's actually in Folly's party?

Like who really showed up there?

Wisdom sticks its head in the door and lets you know the dead people are there.

That's a plot twist you weren't expecting.

It's filled with dead people.

Her guests are in the depths of hell.

It is a banquet for the dead.

They're not actually dead.

They go and they're like, ooh, I can't tell.

Do I want a life of wisdom or a life of folly?

Do I want a life of growing in God's word or a life of sexual immorality and living for my sinful ways?

I don't know, I don't know.

You end up chewing this way.

You're dead that way.

You're on your way to hell.

Wisdom offers life and folly offers death.

That is not on the invitation.

The invitation you get from folly doesn't say, hey, take this and die and go to hell.

It says, come and enjoy.

It says, wine that's stolen is sweet, bread eaten, secret is pleasant, but it's only water, and the people who drink it go to hell.

It's a pretty staggering choice, then, isn't it?

I can't tell.

Honestly, it's too close to call.

But people do all the time.

They look at that and they just they get confused.

And that's the mark of a fool.

You want to get drunk now, and you just have to ask yourself, what's the next stage of your life plan?

That's really what Proverbs is about.

What do you do next?

Okay, you're taking your first step away, away from your parents, out into the world.

What's next for you?

You want to have an affair now?

Okay, what tomorrow?

What happens after the affair?

You want to have sex outside of marriage now?

Okay, what happens the day after that?

Or two days after?

What's how do you picture the story going?

You want to get drunk now?

Alright, what's day two?

Day three, day four.

What's year two, year three, year four?

What's next?

You want to be lazy now?

Okay.

What do you what happens after laziness?

What happens after drunkenness?

What happens after adultery?

What's after that?

Go to the next thing.

Wisdom, remember in Proverbs 1, I don't expect you to remember this, but in Proverbs 1, I talked about how wisdom is the ability to telegraph out and know where your story ends.

It circles back there now at the end of Proverbs 9.

The wise person knows if I do this, this is the likely result, and this is how I'll respond to that.

It's just prophetic problem solving.

Well, apply that to your life.

You're lazy, you have the affair, you get drunk, you lead a sinful life.

Okay, what next?

And eventually the next leads you to hell.

Corpses and bodies and darkness.

But the person who's wise chooses life.

Builds a life, relationships, family, meaning, purpose in life.

It's a pretty stark contrast.

God, we're grateful that you have made this contrast in Proverbs 9 to give us a window into the darkness of the world in a way that invites us to the light of life.

I pray for the young people who are here tonight.

I pray that you would give them convictions about which path to choose.

I pray that you give them integrity in their choice.

I pray for people that are listening to this online.

I pray that their convictions would match that.

You would speak to their hearts, help them see the invitations, read them as if they're seeing their own destiny at stake.

I pray for people who are here tonight.

Anyone who's here tonight that doesn't know you, I pray that they'd be aware of their sin and they would see their life being drawn towards darkness.

I pray that you'd open their eyes to the truth of the gospel.

Help them see that wisdom is a person, Jesus Christ, who has better things for their life than their sin.

Amen.

And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.

For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to TMS.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.