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So he continues on as we continue on our study of the book of Proverbs, in verse 20.

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Proverbs 1:20-33

I don’t know if you have young children or not, but if you do or you ever have, you might appreciate this true story.

My days, as many of you with children know, do not end when I leave the office, I go home run around with my wife to try and keep up with these little blessings.

I get home and jump right into the diaper changes, the dishes, the timeouts, and the whirlwind of

toddlers.

And if you are like me, at the end of the night, my

brain is empty, to hold an adult conversation is nearly impossible, me and Jess kind of mumble and use sign language by the time they are in baths and finally in beds.

We really only have the energy to throw baseball signals to communicate.

A few months ago, at this point of just being done, Jess was upstairs I was getting Sof, my then 3-year- old ready down stairs, Jess threw down her pajamas, and they got stuck on our vaulted ceiling fans, about 10 feet up.

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Now I am 36 years old, I have many years of learning, so much more knowledge than my 3-year-old.

I should know how to get these things down off the fan.

So I sit on the couch, just completely spent, I start thinking, planning, I’ll go get my ladder, no it is dark and cold outside, I try to put a chair on top of the table, no I might fall. And I am just sitting there

thinking up all these ways I can get these stupid PJ’s down, so me and Jess can go to bed.

And my then 3-year-old, so full of understanding, and knowledge from her 3 years here on this earth.

She remembers when daddy flips that switch over there the fan spins, maybe my pajamas will come off.

So as I am sitting there in all my knowledge and

understanding my little Sof goes and gets one of her little chairs, and I am so prideful in my understanding of how life works, I think how cute she thinks she can reach them with that little chair.

She sets it up by the switch, and bam, as I am sitting there the PJ’s fall right at my feet.

You see this my friends is the difference between head knowledge and wisdom.

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Wisdom is putting into practice what knowledge sits up in your brain.

And I admit, at this moment in my life, my 3 year old had more wisdom than me.

So a silly little illustration to separate in your minds wisdom from knowledge.

So we remember this is Solomon speaking to his son, who is now a young man.

He is sending him off with what seems to be the last words, from a father letting his son go.

Now Solomon is clever to not speak to his son directly but will continue in his Hebrew Poetic approach.

He is trying to engage his young son’s imagination.

I picture a young adult, excited, full of energy, hopes and dreams.

And I see Solomon trying to grab a hold of his heart, trying to reason with a voice louder than all that the culture and deceitfulness of this world is shouting at him.

Remember the key verse to this father’s plea to his son. Prov. 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

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So he continues on as we continue on our study of the book of Proverbs, in verse 20.

Now remember Solomon is trying to speak to his son in such a way he will remember this council.

So next instead of saying son, I want to give you some wisdom, he makes wisdom a woman.

For which for any young man the imagery would grab his attention.

The Call of Wisdom

20 Wisdom calls aloud outside; She raises her voice in the open squares. 21 She cries out in the chief

concourses, At the openings of the gates in the city She speaks her words:

Now pay attention to where wisdom is found.

Is Solomon saying wisdom is found with the knowledge from a classroom?

Is Solomon saying find wisdom in a book young man?

Is Solomon saying she can be found in the latest seminar, or in a common core education?

Where is she found?

She is found in the open square, the courtyards, at the city gates!

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Solomon is telling this young man, I have educated you, you have been given head knowledge, but

wisdom is applying this knowledge in real life.

You see son out there in the open square, you will be challenged by those scoundrels of verse 10, where Solomon warned of the sinners that are waiting.

Out there son temptation is waiting, out there in the courtyards outside the protection of my household son, is where this knowledge will either be turned in folly or wisdom.

At the opening of the gate is where the temptress is my son; will you hear the voice of wisdom, and obey?

You see Solomon like a good father is warning his son to what awaits him in the real world.

There will be a chance for this young man to

remember the warnings of his father, to put into practice the knowledge he has learned, and be

counted with the wise, or remain a foolish arrogant simpleton with no depth.

He is saying go my son, but listen to the voice of

wisdom, which at it’s very basic understanding is the fear of God.

Now also notice Solomon is not saying stay here my son where it is safe, where I can protect you.

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He is releasing his son to go, and telling him this is where you will be made a man, through the trials of life.

She, wisdom where is she calling from, outside of the home!

Now I sat with a young man, who we kind of were

debating, he said God called Solomon as a young man, and Solomon asked for wisdom, and God gave it to

him.

I was challenging him to move out, to experience life, to grow as a young man, and he didn’t seem

comfortable with this advice.

So Solomon answers that argument somewhat here, he is telling us where wisdom is found.

I don’t think he was supernaturally deposited with great wisdom, but it came as he learned and walked through the open squares, the courtyards, and the city gates.

Solomon’s great wisdom came through great trials.

He is not telling us wisdom is just mysteriously put in him.

What does our Lord’s brother James say, if any of you lacks wisdom to ask of God, and he will give to you with all liberality?

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But that is in the midst of a portion of scripture that is dealing with trials.

So you see you can be like me on the couch, just thinking, pondering, not moving forward with your knowledge, or you can be like my Sof, and apply it, to step out and learn through life.

Don’t hinder your sons by keeping them in your house where it is safe; prepare them for their departure,

where they will gain their wisdom.

She is found outside Solomon says here!

Wisdom cries out to help, however most will reject her!

2 'How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity?

For scorners delight in their scorning, And fools hate knowledge. 23 Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.

Wisdom is trying to direct in the way of truth.

Through Solomon’s imagery here we see he is pleading with his son to Fear God, to remember the godly

principles that were taught to him.

Wisdom is found in obedience to God’s Word.

We see wisdom crying out to 3 sinners here.

First the simple for which Solomon describes further in

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Prov. 14:15 The simple believes every word,

The simple are the naïve people who believe every wind of new doctrine that blows through.

They test nothing, they research nowhere, and reject nobody.

They are the simpletons, and wisdom is crying out, search for me.

I will deliver you from your gullible ways… turn to me.

And when we turn to True Wisdom, found in the Word of God it says…1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe

every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

And in…1 Thess 5:21-22

Test all things; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.

We are to test what we hear, on the news, in the

media, everything our favorite sports hero says, what junk the politicians are feeding us, even our pastors, we are to test all things, this is wisdom!

So after wisdom’s plea to the simple she also calls out to the scorners.

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For which Solomon describes in… Prov. 21:24 A proud and haughty man — "Scoffer" is his name; He acts with arrogant pride.

She pleads with them to 1 Peter 5:6-7

….. humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

The scorners mock this kind of wisdom; I know a better way they declare to God’s Word.

God’s Word tells us, 1 Cor. 6:9-10 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor

drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God

The scorner says I don’t care, I will drink! I don’t care I will continue to make love to my computer screen and its images, the scorner says I will keep on stealing, I will keep on cheating people!

The scorner shakes his fist at Wisdom.

And all along she replies John 3:15-17 … that whoever believes in “Jesus” should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His

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only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him

should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the

world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Wisdom says to the scornful turn from your wicked ways! Come to Jesus, repent you drunkard, you

adulterer, come to Jesus you sodomite, come and repent, and you will be in the Kingdom.

The last person we see wisdom shouting out to is the fool!

Solomon will later say Prov. 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,

They are blind to the truth, they are dull and stubborn!

Now the fool is not just an uneducated poor man, the fool as David says in Psalms 53:1

The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God."

The fool has no desire to seek God’s council, they lack the spiritual desire to know God’s Word.

They are the ones who say oh that Old Book, I never read it, it is so boring, I am too busy, there are more important things to do in life than read some ancient writings.

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The fool disregards God’s Word, and prances around in his ignorance as though his ideas about life are greater than the Creator’s own ways.

The fool hates knowledge and totally disregards all things eternal!

And yes even to the fool wisdom cries out and says take my hand, I can deliver you from your folly!

Wisdom reminds us Ps 25:9 The humble He guides in justice, And the humble He teaches His way.

So to the fool James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Humble yourself to God’s Word and He will lift you up.

Turn from your path of folly, and Christ will give you life.

Now to these three sinners wisdom promised Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.

She offers a changed life; faith in God’s Word will change any simple, scornful, foolish man’s heart.

I was all three of these men, and I responded to Wisdom’s call, and God’s Word washed my mind, guided my steps, and renewed my spirit.

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Now will these three sinners listen, what will the

simple man do? How will the scornful answer? Will the foolish acknowledge her plea?

24 Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, 25

Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke, 26 I also will laugh at your

calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, 27 When your terror comes like a storm, And your destruction comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you.

Wisdom cried out, and the sinner refused to hear her voice.

The simple, mocking, fool stayed on his own wide path, and it will lead him to destruction.

Wisdom, God’s Word tried to illuminate the Narrow Way, but the fool disdained the Council of God.

And in this rejection, we see The Warnings of Wisdom, written in God’s Word take effect.

Calamity for rebellion, terror for the pride, distress and anguish for the simpleton.

This is what warnings we see written in God’s Word, and even the Laws of the Universe.

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Wisdom says…Gal 6:7-9 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also

reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

There is a Law of reaping and sowing, which the fool ignores.

The scornful say I am different, it will never happen to me.

In his arrogance the simple man believes he can cheat Wisdoms Grace.

For many of us in this room we fought this Law of reaping and sowing for many years, and it cost us much.

For my clan before Christ, the Desert Tweeker, the lowest of the fools and simple men, we thought meth would not destroy us.

I would look at my friends and see their teeth missing, bones protruding, skin oily and filthy, and I said I will be different in my foolishness.

I declared “I, the fool, will reap to my flesh, and I will find life, I will beat Truth, and I will stay a whole man, I am not like them, my simple mind thought, I mocked God and His Wisdom!”

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And I like many of you found no escape to Wisdom’s Warning, and I destroyed my flesh, my life, and before long I was covered in the feces of the swine pen I was sitting in.

And I found wisdom to be correct, and wisdom mocked me in my folly.

She mocked my calamity, and laughed at my terror.

In those days, every scripture my father ever warned me with, sounded like a trumpet in my head, as God’s Word rebuked my pride, my stubbornness.

It was True Wisdoms warning, and anguish and distress will come upon those who rebel against God’s Word.

Hear the Warning from her this morning as she warns faithfully, you will reap what you sow!

And as Romans 1 declares there is even a point where God says you have rejected my wisdom and her ways for too long, go your way, I am done with you….

And God will give you up to your vile passions, He will turn you over to your own choices your uncleanness.

There seems to be this point where God says enough of your folly, GO!

28 "Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;

They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.

29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose

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the fear of the Lord, 30 They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke. 31 Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies. 32 For the turning away of the simple will slay them, And the

complacency of fools will destroy them;

Wisdom says Rom 1:18-19 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

The moment you rebel against God’s Word, you begin moving towards His Wrath.

Now His Grace abounds more than our human understanding can even fathom.

However His Word, Wisdom reveals to us some hard truths we have to ponder this morning.

Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies. 32 For the turning away of the simple will slay them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them;

If you are in a state of rebellion, Wisdom declares one day you will meet the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords who it is described

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Rev 19:15 He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God

The fruit of your life, in this short pilgrimage here on earth, you spent wasting away in your complacency, delighting in your own fancies, and rejecting a Holy God, the fruit will be wrath.

And now the God’s Word is clear for every man, there is one of two choices, that is either Wrath, for which we were all destined and born to experience.

Or we can choose obedience to God’s Word, and turn from the destructive road we are on, and take by faith a free pardon for our sins.

So the choice for every man that walks this earth, for this short journey on this cursed rock, is eternal

condemnation, or eternal life, Wrath or Grace.

And I imagine even in this room, this church, there are men who are stuck in their simple ways, there are

those who scoffing at God’s Word, and there is even the foolish man who is rejecting Wisdom’s Warning.

And if you, like I was 11 years ago, are aware of whom you are, and maybe you are just done with your own way, pay attention to Wisdoms last warning this

morning as she declares…

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33 But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, And will be secure, without fear of evil."

Wisdom says listen up, Rom 5:8-9 But God

demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more

then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

God saw you in your foolishness and He still made a way for you to be saved, a way not to fear the wrath to come!

You who are bound up in pornography, in

drunkenness, you who are bound up in drug use, you might be fooling all these men in this room, But

Wisdom is crying out to you this morning, you will reap what you sow.

God’s Word has some stern warnings for the scoffer who chooses in his arrogance to stay in his sin.

This morning Wisdom is giving you a chance, and like I said at the beginning of this teaching, wisdom is

separate from head knowledge.

Wisdom is believing, and with the knowledge you have getting up, and flipping on the switch to the fan!

Do something about it.

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Don’t just sit in church week after week with head knowledge, with book smarts, some men have all the right answers but never live anything out.

Wisdom is found in the action of this knowledge.

I don’t know who if any this message spoke to, but I have been there, I am from the simple, mocking, foolish club.

There is hope, come and pray with one of us this morning and heed to the warning of Wisdom this morning.

Amen!

Workday Needs:

Swamp Cooler needs to get ready.

Toilet in Office needs repair.

Weeds in front of Property.

Shed organized

Table in Bungalow moved to old book store, set up for potluck.

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