Warning of Wisdom

Introduction: The Contrast of Wisdom's Voice

0:02 Following some fundamental matters of introduction, such as the identification of the author, the purpose of the book of Proverbs, the main theme of that book, the first subject really dealt with in any degree of thoroughness in the first chapter of Proverbs is this warning of a father to his son regarding the terrible influence of evil companions. Verse 10, My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. And then he fleshes out that general warning in a specific illustration of an enticement to evil

0:45 that would come from a young man's companions, the evil being, to commit thievery and murder all under the general thrust of covetousness and grasping after. After ill-gotten gain. And so the general warning in that first section is a warning which could be summarized under the heading of the danger of listening to the voice of evil men. Then we have a tremendous contrast, beginning with verse 20, in which we have the voice of wisdom crying out, entreating, pleading, and then beginning with verse 24,

1:29 calling out a tremendous warning. And if you summarize this whole section, you could do so by way of contrast with the first, by saying, just as certainly as God warns us about the terrible danger of heeding the voice of evil men, He warns us of the awful danger of not heeding the voice of God. And just as much as we stand to be destroyed by listening to the voice of men, who would entice us into evil, we stand in the place of destruction if we do not heed the voice of wisdom calling us into the ways of righteousness.

2:12 And so last week we looked at verses 20 to 23, first of all seeking to identify the preacher. We saw by a number of references within the text and in other passages of the word that wisdom here is no one other, other than the Son of God himself, the eternal word speaking to men through his creation, through the voice of conscience, through the written word, through his servants whom he has commissioned to preach that word. Having then identified the preacher who in this passage is personified as wisdom, we look then at the method of the preacher

2:56 and we saw that he preaches openly, in the chief place of the concourse, at the entrance of the gates, in the city, she uttereth her words. She preaches openly, earnestly, pleading, entreating, asking questions. And then we closed our study by a consideration of the message of the preacher. It was a word of entreaty, turn at my reproof.

3:23 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? A word of command, turn at my reproof. A word of promise, I will pour out my spirit upon you. And so this section begins with this amazing display of divine condescension and patience.

3:43 Think of it. Almighty God, who owes his creatures nothing, stooping to plead with those creatures that are set upon self-destruction. He could lead them to their course of self-destruction. Not a one of them could raise a finger and say, O God, thou art unjust.

4:02 No, no. But think of the condescension that Almighty God, who owes nothing to his creatures, stoops to speak openly, to speak earnestly, to speak honestly and clearly through the voice of wisdom. The Son of God speaking through that creation, through conscience, through the word, and through his servants. Think of the kind of message that he preaches.

4:32 He entreats. He, as it were, stoops before the creature and pleads, saying, How long, ye sinful ones, will ye love simplicity? He gives this gracious command, Turn at my reproof. He seals that command with this gracious promise, I will make known my words unto you.

4:53 I will pour forth of my spirit upon you. So then I say, This first section of wisdom's message is one permeated with grace, condescension, kindness, mercy, and the overtures of pity that God gives to his rebel creatures. But now in verse 24 and through to the end of the chapter, with the exception of the last verse, there is a marked contrast, a totally different tone. The voice of grace and entreaty, suddenly becomes the voice of judgment and the voice of terror.

The Severity of God: Wisdom's Frightening Prophecy

5:33 The sweet melodic tones of grace now become the frightening cymbal clashes of judgment, retribution, and divine abandonment. Listen to the change of tone in wisdom's sermon. Because I have called and ye have refused, I have stretched out my hand and no man hath regarded. Because ye have set it not all my counsel and would none of my reproof, I also will laugh in the day of your calamity.

6:10 I will mock when your fear cometh, when your fear cometh as a storm and your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then will they call upon me, but I will not answer. Then will they seek me diligently, but they shall not find me. For that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would none of my counsel and despised all my reproof.

6:43 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices. For the backsliding of the simple shall slay them, and the careless ease of fools shall destroy them. But whosoever hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely and shall be quiet without fear of evil." As we seek to come to grips with this passage of wisdom's sermon tonight, I think I can introduce our study in no better way than to quote from Charles Bridges who says, We must not soften down God's own words

7:26 by a misplaced presumptuous tenderness. I indicated last week and I repeat again tonight that this portion which I've read in your hearing is to me one of the most terrifying portions in all the word of God. And just as it is a delight for a servant of Christ to open up the wonders of God's grace, the overtures of divine mercy, the decoration that this is still the day of salvation, that the door of mercy and acceptance stands wide open, and that door is Christ Himself, just as much as it is a delight

8:10 for the servant of God to proclaim wisdom's overtures of mercy, any true servant of God finds it painful to open up a passage like this. He finds it a grief to speak of God mocking sinners, of God regarding sinners with divine indifference, of God giving sinners over to the built-in tendency of their own sinful ways. And yet, as Bridges says, we must not soften down God's own words by a misplaced presumptuous tenderness. And from such may the Lord deliver all of us

8:53 as we seek to understand this portion of Scripture. We are told in Scripture, Behold the goodness and the severity of God if we beheld His goodness last Lord's Day evening in this tremendous message of wisdom, His message of entreaty, His command of grace, His promise of mercy. I say if we beheld the goodness of God in verses 20 to 23, now let us behold with equal reverence the severity of God in verses 24 through to verse 32. And so I want us to study the passage tonight under the general title

Reasons for Wisdom's Prophecy: Indifference, Rejection, Refusal

9:37 Wisdom's Frightening Prophecy. Wisdom's Frightening Prophecy. And to think our way through the passage, we'll consider first of all the reasons for this prophecy. Why does wisdom change her voice?

9:53 Why does the preacher turn from these gracious words of entreaty and command and promise to these words of threatening? Well, the reasons are given to us in verses 24 and 25 and verses 29 and 30. Having then considered the reasons for this prophecy, then we shall look at the substance of this prophecy. What is the essence of this prophecy?

10:17 What is the essence of this prophecy? What is the essence of this prophecy? In essence, what is the substance of this frightening prophecy? And then thirdly, we shall look at the final contrast to this frightening prophecy in that closing word of grace, if time permits, verse 33.

10:37 First of all then, the reason for wisdom's prophecy. Look carefully at verses 24, 25, 29 and 30. Because I have called and ye have refused, I have stretched out my hand and no man hath regarded, but ye have set it not all my counsel and would none of my reproof, verse 29, for that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would none of my counsel and despised all my reproof. The passage begins with the word because.

11:18 Wisdom is condescending to explain to us why she changes her voice, why she turns from the posture of entreaty to the posture of solemn prophecy, yea, frightening prophecy. And you will notice that wisdom's reasons for this prophecy are basically threefold. First of all, there was indifference to divine entreaty, verse 24. Indifference to divine entreaty, because I have called and ye refused.

11:55 I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded. I called, ye refused. Wisdom says I spoke to you in the overtures of grace. I witnessed to you by conscience.

12:12 I witnessed to you from the creation. I witnessed to you through the written word. I witnessed to you through my servants. I spoke to you openly.

12:23 I spoke to you earnestly. I spoke to you honestly. Yea, I spoke to you frequently, but you were indifferent to my entreaties. And so wisdom gives us to understand that the reason for her solemn prophecy is that there has been indifference to divine entreaty.

12:46 I called and ye have refused. And then he amplifies this indifference to divine entreaty under this most vivid figure in the last part of the verse. I stretched out my hand and no man hath regarded. What's the significance of the stretched out hand?

13:07 Well, it involves at least several things. Wisdom says, by my outstretched hand I indicated my willingness to help, to extricate you from the quicksand of your ignorance and your bondage. I stretched out my hand to lay hold of you simple ones. I said to you, how long will you love simplicity?

13:31 How long will you scoffers delight in scoffing and you fools hate knowledge? I'll take you from the state of simplicity, from the condition of a scoffer, from the posture of the fool. I stretched out my hand to help, but he says, this was regarded with indifference. No man hath regarded.

13:55 I stretched out my hand to confer blessing. I spoke to you, calling you away from your sins into the path of righteousness, into the path of the fear of God, which is the beginning and the chief part of knowledge. But you were indifferent to this. And perhaps the concept that is most prominent in this figure of the stretched out hand is that I condescended to plead for an acceptance.

14:26 It's the picture that we have in Isaiah 65, 2 where Jehovah says, all the day long have I stretched out my hands to a gainsaying and to a disobedient people. It's the picture of a person who, in the earnestness of their desire to receive a given request, finds the very hands coming into employment and the very hands taking on an eloquent cry of pleading. All of us have seen that. Whether it's been the distraught mother pleading for help for a child in some dire situation and we saw upon the lines of that woman's face the eagerness, the earnestness, and we could read it

15:10 in the very posture of the hand stretched out, pleading for help. Wisdom says, I entreated, I stretched out my hand in willingness to offer help, in conferral of blessing, in a plea for acceptance. But you've treated all this with calculated indifference. Notice the terminology, no man hath regarded.

15:40 God has spoken through creation upon which is stamped that constant reminder, showing forth His everlasting power and His divinity and the obligation of the creature to the Creator, stamped upon conscience no matter how blurred or marred, thundering against our evil and reminding us of our accountability to our God. Wisdom stretches out her hand, pleading through the word, through the servants of Christ. But wisdom says, the reason for this solemn prophecy is, my calls have been met with indifference,

Contemporary Relevance of Wisdom's Warning

16:22 indifference to divine entreaty. And then secondly, wisdom says, the reason for my solemn prophecy is that there has not only been indifference to divine entreaty, but rejection of divine counsel and reproof. Look at verse 25. But ye have said it not, all my counsel, and would none of my reproof.

16:50 Repeat it almost word for word in verse 30. They would none of my counsel, and despised all my reproof. They said it not my counsel. What is God's counsel?

17:07 Well, in this context, God's counsel is His wisdom and the directives based upon it. God's declaration that His creatures should turn from the path of sin and turn unto Him the living and the true God, that they should walk in His fear, that they should obey the voice of His Son. But what have they done with God's counsel and all the directives based upon it? They have said it not, that is, they've utterly rejected it as though it were nothing, a thing of naught.

17:41 And then he says, they would none of my reproof. And in this context, his reproofs are his calls away from sin. Those calls that come through the smarting of conscience, through the warnings of the Word. And he says you would not embrace them as of divine authority.

18:01 You would not embrace them as for your good and your well-being. And he says you've added to your indifference to divine entreaty, rejection, of divine counsel. And then thirdly he says, this solemn prophecy comes because of your refusal of true religion. Verse 29, For that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord.

18:32 And I say that this is a statement of refusal of true religion. For many places in Scripture, and we saw this when we looked at verse 7, the fear of the Lord is a description of true religion. The fear of the Lord is descriptive of the right knowledge of God and a right heart relationship to that God whom we know as revealed in Holy Scripture. And it was this that was rejected.

19:00 Wisdom was calling to true religion. But there has been a refusal. They hated knowledge. Even that knowledge of the living and the true God and a right relationship to Him.

19:15 And so the threefold reason for the solemn prophecy is indifference to divine entreaty, rejection of divine counsel and reproof, refusal of true religion. And up to this point you'll notice that I've studiously avoided any application. And would to God that we could study this passage as mere speculation is to be a spectators of a tragic occurrence in the past, but which has not been and can never be repeated. Such as we might go and see the movie Tora Tora and view the occurrence of that tragedy of Pearl Harbor,

19:58 but leave knowing that there would never again be another Pearl Harbor as such. There could not be. Warfare itself is so changed. Or in the way that we might view or read a story from an extinct to now extinct volcano and read the account of the tragedy when it erupted and towns were inundated by the molten lava, but read it in the confidence that that volcano has now been declared extinct and we know it'll never happen again.

20:29 I say would to God we could read this passage as those who are simply looking at something that happened in the past, something that happened in Solomon's day, something that happened in days past, when men were indifferent to divine entreaty, when men and women rejected divine counsel and reproof, when men and women refused true religion as these things came in the overtures of grace, eternal wisdom, the Son of God, speaking through creation, conscience, through the Word and through His servants. The tragedy is that these three factors which produced in wisdom,

21:13 this tremendously frightening prophecy, are as relevant as the clothes on your back and the hair on your head as you sit in this place tonight. For this very hour, in this very place, and this is what makes a servant of God tremble in the handling of a passage like this, there are men, there are women, there are fellows and girls who have heard the entreaties of wisdom, who have been exposed to the counsel and reproofs of wisdom, who have had the benefits and the demands and the blessings of true religion set before you, not once, not twice, not thrice,

21:55 but day after day, week after week. And what have you done with it? You've taken wisdom's entreaties and you've treated them with bland indifference. You've taken divine counsel and reproof and you've turned your back upon it.

22:17 And worst of all, you've said, I want nothing of true religion. And so that which provoked wisdom to speak these frightening words of prophecy provokes her to speak them again with a freshness, with a contemporaneity, with a present relevance. And may God help us then to hear now the substance of wisdom's prophecy, having considered the reasons for that prophecy, look now with me at the substance. And I would suggest again that the substance of wisdom's prophecy

Substance of the Prophecy: Threat of Divine Mockery

22:59 breaks down into three divisions of thought. It is first of all a threat of divine mockery, verses 26 and 27. Then it's followed with a threat of divine indifference, verse 28. And then it's followed with this threat of self-destruction, verses 31 and 32.

23:24 First of all, the substance then of wisdom's prophecy, wisdom's frightening prophecy, is a threat of divine mockery. Look at the sobering words of verses 26 and 27. Because wisdom says, I've called, I've stretched forth, and you've said it all if not, I also will laugh in the day of your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as a storm and your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.

24:05 Can this be the same voice that said, I entreat, I plead? Can this be the same voice now saying, I'll laugh and I will mock? Notice what wisdom says he will do. He will laugh and he will mock.

24:30 The laughter of derision and the mockery and scorn that he himself will mete out upon men. One of the most humiliating forms of human punishment is the laughter of derision. The laughter of derision and mockery. In men there is always an element of sin and evil, but not in God.

24:56 When God takes upon himself to laugh and to mock, it will be righteous holy mockery of infinite inflexible justice. And what God is saying is, I will deal without pity and without mercy. And to underscore that frightening fact, he uses this figure of mockery and of laughter. And it's not only used here in Proverbs, it's used in the second Psalm.

25:28 In that Psalm that speaks of the mediatorial kingship of Christ, in which we are brought into the secret council chambers of the triune God, and we hear the Father and the Son and their mutual pledges the one to the other. We have these words in the light of men's determination to cast off the restraints of divine government. He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh. He shall have them in derision.

25:58 We find it again in the 37th Psalm and in verse 13, the concept of God laughing at his enemies. Here's a threat of divine mockery. That's what he'll do. And when will he do it?

26:12 Look at the descriptive words. He says, I will laugh and I will mock in the day of your calamity, when your fear cometh, that is, when the thing you most fear comes upon you, when your fear comes upon you as a storm, that is, with suddenness and with irresistible power, and your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind, that is, with great destructive force, when distress and anguish, the results of this calamity coming upon you, when distress and anguish come upon you. Put the words, put the words together. The day of your calamity, your fear, whirlwind, distress, anguish, when,

26:57 when will there be this divine mockery? Well, there's a sense in which God gives previews of this in the lives of men. But the fulfillment of these words awaits that awful day when God summons men into his presence at the last day. That day, vividly described in Revelation 6, beginning with verse 12 and following, in which when men see the throne of God set for judgment and know that they must be summoned before him, that they cry to the rocks and the hills to fall upon them and to hide them from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne

27:39 and from the wrath of the Lamb. It's that day that every man fears in those moments when wisdom is speaking through a smiting conscience. According to Romans chapter 1, the smitings of conscience are a preview of the day of judgment. They are a little, as it were, trumpet call reminding us that God will one day summon us to give an account not just for that particular action concerning which conscience smites us in the moment.

28:14 The young man having cleverly plotted his lie to his parents, having cleverly plotted his trickery at school and his cheating, the person in the place of his business, the husband, the wife guilty of infidelity, whatever the sin be, in that moment when there is the smiting of conscience, it's as though God is giving an earnest of that day when all secrets shall be made bare and laid open, when everything that is covered shall be uncovered and nothing that is hid shall be hid any longer. And men fear that day. That's why they don't want to talk about death. They don't want to talk about death.

28:49 If you want to bring sudden silence to any kind of parlor conversation in a group of unconverted people, just start talking about death. They don't want to talk about death. The one thing in their rational faculties they know they cannot avoid and yet they want to live and act as though it's not coming. Why? It's the thing they dread.

29:09 It's the thing they fear. Look at the woman working out her wrinkles which remind her that her day is coming. Look at the more wealthy of her kind going to the plastic surgeon to have the wrinkles taken out. Look at the man trying to overcompensate for his balding head and his sagging tummy by other signs of, deceptive signs of apparent youthfulness.

29:38 In each case they may be different. That day, that day in which all of us, to which we all inevitably move, but which we want to put off far from us, that thing that we fear, that day that shall come upon us, inevitably and then summon us into the presence of our God. I say the fulfillment of this passage, whatever previews there may be in temporal judgments upon individuals, upon nations, upon society, are all but in earnest a preview of that awesome day spoken of in Revelation, Romans 2, 8 and 9, in which we read, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil.

30:23 So then, this threat of divine mockery is a threat which contemplates that day when men who laughed and mocked at God's entreaties will now be the objects of the laughter and the mockery of God. God will deal without pity and without mercy. Ah, but someone says, that's a horrible thought. You mean God will actually look upon creatures whom He's made in His image without pity and mock their terrible plight?

30:59 I say, yes. God Himself declares that He will do so. Listen to His explicit declaration in Isaiah 27 and verse 11, in which God Himself speaks of His creatures and treating them without pity. When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off, the women shall come and set them on fire, for it is a people of no understanding.

31:28 Therefore He that made them will not have compassion upon them, and He that formed them will show them no favor. My friend, don't you be more loving than God, or you're worshipping an idol of your own construction. The same God who in the person of His Son, eternal wisdom, pleads, entreats, beseeches, now turns with this frightening threat and says, I will mock,

Substance of the Prophecy: Threat of Divine Indifference

32:13 I will treat you without pity and without mercy. Then He adds to that awful threat of divine mockery a threat that is even worse. A threat of divine indifference. Notice, divine indifference moving in two directions.

32:36 First of all, divine indifference to their prayers. Then, verse 28, then will they call upon Me, but I will not answer. Indifference to their prayers. Secondly, then will they seek Me diligently, but they shall not find Me.

32:57 Divine indifference to their seeking. Let's look at those two things for a moment. One of the most astounding things in Scripture is its doctrine of prayer. The teaching of Scripture that sinful creatures may actually have access to the Holy God, Creator of heaven and earth, and may receive things from His hands in answer to prayer that otherwise they would never have received.

33:33 And one of the facets of that general doctrine of prayer is that most often the greatest of all of God's gifts, the gift of forgiveness and acceptance through grace, is conferred while men are praying. Now follow closely. I am not saying a person must pray to be saved. He must believe to be saved.

33:58 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. But there is such an inseparable relationship between faith and prayer that often you find the two things almost intertwined in scriptural thought. Listen to the words of the Apostle in Romans 10. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

34:24 For the same Lord is rich over all who call upon Him. He had just previously said in Romans 10, 9 and 10, If thou shall confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. We are saved by faith. Saved in the act of believing.

34:45 But, he goes on to say, whosoever shall call shall be saved. Because the very reflex response, the very mingled spirit of faith is the spirit of prayer. And so we read in scripture of a sinful man like Manasseh finding grace and forgiveness as he prayed. We find David, a sinning saint, finding mercy and forgiveness as he prays.

35:13 We find a publican praying, Be merciful to me, a sinner. And the first words spoken to Ananias when he was commissioned to go down and minister to Saul of Tarsus, was, Behold, he prayeth. Oh, what a precious doctrine is the biblical doctrine of prayer. And what wonderful examples we have of God conferring grace and mercy as men pray.

35:41 But now look, look what God says. He says, A time is coming when there'll be absolute indifference to the cries of men. Absolute indifference when men shall be left alone to the horror of a deaf God, the true and living God who hears prayer, becoming as deaf to the cries of his creatures as the false gods who cannot hear prayer. And why is it that God says, Though they now call, I will not answer?

36:22 It's because now their calling is actuated by nothing but purely selfish motives. Judgment is coming upon us. We want our hide to be spared, and God says, No. I appeal to your judgment.

36:38 I appeal to your conscience. I appeal to your reason. I appeal to all that you are, and you would not hear me. Now that your calamity has come upon you, your crying to me shall be met with divine indifference.

36:57 You met my pleas with creature indifference, with wicked indifference. I called. I stretched forth my hand. You would not hear.

37:11 Now you may stretch forth yours, and I will not hear. Not only does he threaten divine indifference to their prayers, but notice, secondly, divine indifference to their seeking of his face. And again, what comfort has been conveyed to many a smitten heart with those precious promises given to the seeking sinners. Ye shall seek for me and find me in the day that you shall search for me with all your heart.

37:45 Jeremiah 29.13 Those words of our Lord, quoted by Bunyan in the encouragements that would be given to awakened sinners. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find.

38:02 And yet this text says, they will seek me, how? Diligently. That's the same word used in the 63rd Psalm when David says, O God, thou art my God, diligently, early, earnestly will I seek thee. This text says, they will seek me diligently, earnestly, early, but they shall not find me.

38:28 God not only becomes an absent, an indifferent God to their prayers, a deaf God, but I say it reverently, he becomes an absent God. As far as their seeking is concerned, it's though God has vacated his universe. Seek me, you shall not find me. When I entreated you to seek me while I may be found, you were indifferent to my plea.

38:57 Now you seek me, and I won't be found. That's what God is saying. Oh, you say, Pastor Martin, you're trying to paint. No, I'm not painting any pictures.

39:08 I'm just trying to be honest with the text of Scripture. I'm not responsible for what's here. The God who said these things means business, for the Scripture says he cannot lie. Those of you who begin to regard the overtures of mercy as a right, and then you begin to regard them as a burden, and then you begin to treat them as a thing of disdain, the calls to repent and to seek the Lord while you may be found, listen, some of you who whisper in your heart, why doesn't God leave me alone?

39:43 My friend, he may do just that, and you'll have all eternity to curse the day in your heart when you said, why doesn't God leave me alone? Because I called and ye refused. I stretched forth my hand and you would not regard. Ye shall call and I will not answer.

40:07 You shall seek me and ye shall not find me.

40:14 And for some people, this state is reached before the day of judgment. And I don't understand that mysterious line that is crossed, but I see it taught in Holy Scripture. I remind you of that passage in Hebrews chapter 12, starting with verse 25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh.

40:38 For if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth, how shall ye escape him who speaketh from heaven? Turn to the passage as we read the last part of it, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 26. For if they escape not when they refused him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape who turn away from him that warneth from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth. But now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I will make to tremble

41:23 not the earth only, but also the heaven. And this word, yet once more, signifying the removal of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain. Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire.

41:52 Not our God was a consuming fire in the revelation of the Old Testament, in the revelation of the Old Economy. The whole argument of the writer to Hebrews is, if in that light, in the light of that lesser revelation, if in the light of the lesser privileges of the Old Economy, no man escaped who refused his voice, what greater judgment shall now be the portion of those who refuse the voice of greater light and of greater privilege. Grace does not dim the tones of God's fiery anger and wrath. Grace amplifies them.

Substance of the Prophecy: Threat of Personal Destruction

42:35 Our God is a consuming fire. And so the threat is a threat of divine indifference to prayer, to seeking, a threat of divine mockery. And then last of all, in verses 31 and 32, it's a threat of personal destruction. Notice.

43:02 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices, for the backsliding of the simple shall slay them, and the careless ease of fools shall destroy them. They shall eat of the fruit of their own way, the way in which this person walks, who is indifferent to the overtures of the Son of God, speaking as wisdom. That's a way of fleshly indulgence, the way of indifference to truth, the way of rebellion to divine authority. And the Scripture says that way

43:47 has a built-in tendency of self-destruction. Romans 6.23 The wages of sin is death. There's built-in payment.

43:58 Galatians chapter 6. He that sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. And what does a man need to do to be utterly destroyed by his sin? He just needs to be left to the built-in tendencies and the ultimate fruit of that sin.

44:18 And God says this is what he'll do. He'll give them up to it. Now while wisdom entreats, now while wisdom pleads, there is the restraining in God's common grace. There's no unconverted man who is not in some measure restrained by some degree of common grace.

44:41 If this were not so, you'd think things are bad now. We'd feel and know what hell was like if God were to lift back some of that restraint. Look what's happened to our society when we've lifted some of it. Now God says a time is coming when it'll all be lifted.

45:01 He'll let men experience what it is to eat the full fruitage of the way in which they've walked. And then he says be filled. And that word filled means stuffed, gorged with their own devices. Remember it's said of Israel when she kept complaining for flesh, God says alright I'll give you flesh, I'll give you flesh till it comes out your nostrils.

45:27 And then they loathed it. That's the picture here. The sinner says look God leave me alone. Oh how some of you wish you could reach into that place if it were physically located where conscience operates and you'd give your last dime to somehow have that thing taken out of your mind or spirit wherever it would be.

45:49 Wouldn't you? Wouldn't you? You'd love to be able to live and sin and carry on your life without the nagging voice of conscience. Wouldn't you?

45:58 Some of you would give your right arm if you could do it. You say oh to be able to enjoy my sin without the bitter aftertaste of conscience. Oh to be able to enjoy my sin without a mom and dad who plead with me and gather me about the table and read the scriptures and a preacher that's always looking me in the eye and I got a sneaking suspicion he's always thinking about me and I know he prays for me. Oh to be able to sin without the prayers of my pastor and the prayers of my mom and dad and the pleadings of the people of God.

46:32 Oh to be able to give myself to my sin with abandonment. God says alright the time is coming you'll be so filled with it until it comes out your lust. One of the hells of hell is going to be that men will feel the full pangs of being satiated with their own sins with no restraints of common grace. That's the threat wisdom utters.

47:05 They shall eat of the fruit of their own ways be filled stuffed till it comes out their nostrils with their own devices. For he says the backsliding or the turning away of the simple shall slay them. They're turning away from the entreaties of wisdom. They're turning away from the overtures of grace.

47:33 They're turning away from the gracious commands. They're turning away from those promises. The turning away of the simple shall slay them and the careless ease of fools shall destroy them. They say look I've made out pretty good through the years indifferent to divine entreaties indifferent to the overtures of grace and mercy.

48:02 I've not felt the fires of divine retribution licking at my feet. The path I walk is pretty easy pretty comfortable. God says the careless ease of fools shall slay them. My friend some of you think God is not in earnest simply because He's a God of great restraint and of long suffering.

48:28 Don't mistake His long suffering for insincerity with regard to His promised judgments. Many a soul in hell will grieve to all eternity that his fatal mistake was this He mistook divine patience for divine softness. The threats of God were set in His face and He said because God doesn't fulfill them now He really doesn't mean them. The careless ease of fools shall destroy them.

49:09 That's what He's saying. That's what He's saying. And I say then that this prophecy of wisdom is a frightening prophecy. For wisdom to prophesy divine mockery divine indifference and giving men up to personal destruction I say these are frightening words.

The Final Contrast: Security for Those Who Hearken

49:37 But it's as though wisdom can't end on that note and I'm so glad the chapter ends on this note. But whoso hearketh unto me shall dwell securely and shall be quiet without fear of evil. It's as though wisdom says I've held out my hands I've pleaded I've entreated now I threaten you but the door of mercy has not yet slammed shut Enter while there's hope. And oh what a blessed note to close upon tonight.

50:20 The same voice of wisdom that began this passage with his counsels with his entreaty with his pleas speaking openly speaking clearly speaking earnestly who beholds the indifference to his voice and turns and says because you have not heeded here are my threats then says but whoso hearkeneth unto me if the voice of my entreaty did not win you and lay hold of you has my voice of threatening stopped you in your tracks has my voice of threatening pierced the inner heart and seized upon the ears of the soul if it has hearken and the biblical word hearken

51:05 means more than listen hearken means give yourself up to the truth spoken abandon yourself to the voice of eternal wisdom even the Lord Jesus who calls you away from the path of self-destruction into the fear and the knowledge of the living God and hearkening unto him you shall dwell securely come under the canopy of divine forgiveness acceptance in the beloved one and then from thenceforth to be quiet without fear of evil to say with the apostle who shall separate us from the love of Christ tribulation persecution

Eternal Implications and Call to Repentance

51:50 famine plague ordinate death grief impurity and death cause your Sin but to recline from it and do not do not obey because Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna God's put us here on his earth. We're all going to spend a few fitful years and make our exodus.

52:34 Though we all view life through the very perverted view of our own imbalanced sense of self-importance, we're just one little speck that's occupied a little speck of space and God's little speck in this galaxy for a little bit of time and then we're gone. But having been here for that little bit of time and occupied that little bit of space in this little speck in this galaxy, the implications go on for eternity.

53:13 And every one of us in eternity will be a monument either of the blessedness of those who heeded the voice of wisdom or the tragedy of those who refused. What will you be?

53:31 When, if time goes on, this building lies in rubble, if there is level for some other purpose, when the only remembrance of us here will be a little plaque somewhere in a memorial park or a little hunk of stone in a cemetery, and a few relatives who remember that old gray-haired, rickety grandmother or grandfather come to pay a few respects to the dust that lies there,

53:59 where will you be?

54:03 My friends, that's coming.

54:07 It's coming.

54:10 Whoso hearkeneth unto me will be able to say, Let it come. Welcome, death. For through its portals we enter into the presence of the living God. I'll see him who is my wisdom, my righteousness, my sanctification, whose voice pierced my giddy, sin-loving heart and brought me into the path of repentance and faith to walk with him in life and step over and through that veil and to walk with him for eternity.

Pastoral Exhortation and Parental Responsibility

54:45 This is wisdom. This is his voice calling, threatening, and then concluding this address with a word of promise to all who hearken. May God grant that these sobering tones of wisdom's stretch shall ring in our ears, reverberate in our hearts, and move some of you to repent and to believe the gospel, and move those of us who by his grace have hearkened and do heart, and to sense afresh the awful, awful, sobering realities with which we trafficked

55:27 when we have our kids gathered about our tables and in the living room to teach them the word, to catechize them. Oh, Christian parents, pray that something of the weight of this passage will ever be before you. That we'll feel that we're not just dealing with religious talk and God words. We're dealing with substantial, eternal realities.