The Advent of Fear
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Proverbs 9:1-18
Proverbs 9:1-18
Pray
This time of the year is referred to as the season of advent.
The term advent means appearing, arrival or incarnation.
This time of the year we remember the first appearing/advent of Jesus.
We remember His birth during His first advent.
We are looking forward to the second advent, or appearing.
This year, as we go through the advent season, we are going to focus on aspects of the ministry of Jesus.
Each week will focus on a different topic relating to the first advent of our Lord.
This week the advent of Fear.
We will start in the book of Proverbs 9
The inspiration is taken from verse ten.
Chapter 9 in the book of Proverbs.
This chapter is broken into 3 parts.
In verses 1 through 6 we have wisdom.
Verses 7-12, we somewhat of a bridge.
Verses 13-18, we have folly.
Both wisdom and folly are described as women in this metaphor.
On one hand, wisdom leads to understanding and life.
On the other and folly leads to death and hell.
Wisdom has built her house; she has set up its seven pillars. She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city, “Let all who are simple come to my house!” To those who have no sense she says, “Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of insight.”
Click #1 and #2 and #3
1. Wisdom is calling out to those who lack understanding.
Wisdom says come to my house and partake of this blessing that has been prepared.
Leave your simple ways.
The NIV uses the word simple here.
Simple does not imply simple living.
Trying to lead a simple, plain lifestyle.
A better translation is the term folly.
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2. Leave your folly.
Turn from your lack of understanding.
Turn to wisdom and live.
Embrace wisdom and gain insight.
Jump down to the end of the chapter
Folly is an unruly woman; she is simple and knows nothing. She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city, calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way, “Let all who are simple come to my house!” To those who have no sense she says, “Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!” But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead.
Folly is unruly.
Folly is simple.
Not speaking of a lifestyle, it is referring to understanding.
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3. Folly lacks wisdom.
Folly has no understanding or discernment.
Folly calls from her house in an attempt to entice those who are trying to walk a straight path.
Folly is calling out to those who are searching for the house of wisdom.
Folly tries to lure them away from the straight paths.
She cries out to those she is trying to deceive, “Stolen water is sweet.”
Taking things that we have not earned can be sweet.
Food that we eat in secret is delicious.
This is speaking of sin.
Those sins that we attempt to hide away form others.
Those sins that we choose to embrace done in secret are delicious to those who seek folly.
Our sin nature entices us to partake of sin.
Click #4 and #5
4. The flesh wants to be satisfied in its lusts.
Sin wants to be done in secret because if done in the secret, we think this will allow us to avoid accountability.
5. We falsely think we do not need to be accountable if we try to keep our sins in the dark.
This is folly.
What does this behavior lead?
It leads to folly.
And Folly leads to death.
The guests of folly are death.
They reside in the deep realm of the dead.
It is folly to take our eyes off of the path leading to Wisdom.
If we take our eyes off of this path, we are led only to folly and the depths of hell.
In the middle of the Proverb there is a bridge:
Whoever corrects a mocker invites insults; whoever rebukes the wicked incurs abuse. Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you. Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For through wisdom your days will be many, and years will be added to your life. If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you; if you are a mocker, you alone will suffer.
Lets address verses 7 - 9
This really is no the intent of the sermon, but since the verses are here, we will talk about them.
I do not want to spend much time.
Verse 7-8 speak of discernment.
The Lord, through Solomon, is giving instruction on how we are to interact with those who have chosen to harden their heart to His truth.
These verses are not speaking about someone who is searching.
Or someone who is hurting or going through a trial and they need encouragement.
These verses address a mocker.
Sometimes the Bible refers to them as scoffers.
What is a scoffer?
An impudent, disrespectful person who despises mockingly the most sacred precepts of religion and morality.
This word is not addressing someone who does not know truth.
This word is addressing someone who purposefully turns from truth and derides the truth.
Makes a joke out of God’s Word.
What God is telling us in these verses is not to get into arguments with such people, because the argument is exactly what they want.
They want us to engage in an argument in an effort to bring same to us and the Holy Word of God.
In situations such as this, we need to hold our ground. Not compromise the truth of God, but at the same time avoid meaningless arguments.
These meaningless arguments will be used aganist us.
It is this type of person that we need to pray for and give to God. Iti s only the work of the Holy Spirit that can soften thier heart.
On the other hand, The text does tell us to reprove the wise.
In other words, seek correction of the Lord.
A wise person will receive correction.
Click #6
6. A wise person will seek to apply the Word of God to their lives.
Put this on a shelf for now.
If we get too far into these verses, we will loose focus for the sermon this morning.
Verses 10
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning.
In order to find wisdom, the first step is to have a healthy fear of the Lord.
What type of fear is Solomon talking about.
Fear of an enemy?
Fear of a opponent?
Click Add to slide and handout And #7
The word fear in the Hebrew is the word יִרְאָה (H3374- yir·ʾā- reverence, a state of piety and respect toward a superior, the act of showing profound reverence).
7. The beginning of wisdom is reverence for God.
The beginning of wisdom is respect for His Word.
The beginning of wisdom is profound respect for a superior God.
A God who is unfathomable.
A God who has the authority to speak reality itself into existence.
A God is upholds the entirety of the universe.
A God who loves us so much that He left His heavenly throne to descend to us.
He loves us so much that He humbled Himself to be like us.
He did this to Redeem us.
This is the beginning of wisdom.
When we truly understand the weight of who God is and the extent to which He went to Redeem us, this is the beginning of wisdom.
The reason I wanted to talk about these verse this morning is because so often we forget reverence.
Click #8
8. Our culture is forgetting reverence.
We have this strange concept of a hippie Jesus.
A guy who walked around in sandals.
He went around pontificating and hanging out at a lake.
He just wants everyone to love each other.
There are no expectations, just love and some sort of peace.
This is often how we misinterpret Jesus.
In our lack of wisdom.
In our irreverence, Jesus can become this in our minds.
We often see Jesus as simply a friend.
A helpful friend when we need something.
I am not saying that Jesus is not our friend.
Or that we should not call Him friend.
He is a friend to us.
By His mercy we can call Him friend, woe to those who call Him enemy.
There is nothing wrong with seeing one aspect of Jesus as a friend.
But we cannot limit the advent of Jesus to simply this.
I think of John.
He walked with Jesus.
He talked with Him.
He shared meals with Jesus.
At the last supper, it was John who fell back laying his head on the chest of Jesus.
John heard the human heartbeat of God Himself.
Think about that.
If anyone could call Jesus friend, it was John.
Yet what does John tell us in the book of Revelation.
Turn to Revelation 1
I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.” I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.
When the Lord appeared to John in all of His glory, John fell as a dead man.
He did not greet Jesus with a pat on the back saying, how have you been.
John, the one who walked with Jesus, fell on his face as a dead man.
This is reverence for a Holy God.
This is reverence for Jesus.
In the first advent of Jesus, He did come to us to pour out His mercy, grace and love upon us.
But He also came to be the express image of God incarnate, walking with His children.
By His mercy Jesus is a friend.
He is a friend in the sense that He extends His Almighty hand to us in an effort to lift us out of the pit of sin and death.
But even in this loving act, we need to walk in reverence for who He truly is.
A Holy, Majestic, All-powerful God.
With reverence toward Jesus comes the beginning.
Fear of the Lord.
Reverence to Jesus is the beginning.
This is the beginning.
It is the beginning of willingness to walk with Him.
The beginning of our choice to allow the power of God to work in our lives.
Click #9 and #10
9. The advent of fear is the beginning of wisdom.
10. Jesus came to restore reverence.
When we Recognize who we are in our desperate state of need for a Savior who loves us is the beginning the blessed walk with our Lord.
Benediction: Isaiah 11:1-4
Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear; But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.