Weekly Sermons from Spruce Creek Presbyterian Church - Port Orange, FL

This morning closes our series on the book of Proverbs. From Proverbs 1:1-9:18 we have an exposition, a description of two paths, the path of wisdom which leads to human flourishing and the path of folly which leads to self-destruction. This chapter closes this section with a call to commitment. A call to commitment is not a call to perfection, but it is a call to choosing who you will love and who you will serve. The sage, the counselor, the father-figure is challenging his sons, what is it going to be? Who are you going to serve? What are you going to live for? You must decide. You cannot stay on the fence. Everything he has been counseling has been leading up to this. You must make a commitment. Is it going to be wisdom or folly? Wisdom or foolishness? And in order to make this challenge to commitment we learn that there are four things you must consider. The first is to consider the completeness of wisdom. Verses 1-6 present wisdom in all its majesty and completion. Second, vv.7-12 challenge us to consider the contempt of the scoffer. To see the danger of the scoffer both to yourself and to the community. Third, vv.13-18 call us to consider the cunning of folly. And finally, what is the solution?

This morning we are finishing Proverbs 8 looking at Lady Wisdom’s call for us to listen to her and embrace her. In order to do this wisdom will cry out, describing and extolling her virtues, and we will see this in the text from two perspectives. First is wisdom and creation. These verses show the relationship between God and wisdom and how the reality of wisdom goes all the way back to creation. This passage teaches us God’s love for His world and His wholehearted commitment to His world. The second point is wisdom and redemption. In vv.32-36 wisdom calls out for us to listen to her and respond. Verse 35 says, “For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord.” This reminds us of what John says in his first letter, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life (1 John 5:12). The narrative of Proverbs is moving towards its crescendo of calling us to commitment. Will we embrace wisdom? Will we seek and follow hard after wisdom? From our perspective we embrace and follow wisdom by embracing and following Christ. For Christ is the incarnation and embodiment of wisdom. When Proverbs says that wisdom is crying out and calling, it is Jesus Christ who is offering Himself to us. We read in Colossians 1:19-20, “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross.”

For the next two Sundays we will be exploring Proverbs 8. This morning we will look at Proverbs 8:1-21 and next Sunday we will explore Proverbs 8:22-36. In Proverbs 7 the sage warned us about the dangers and temptations surrounding the adulteress. Now, in Proverbs 8 the wise counselor will extol for us the wonders of wisdom. Throughout Proverbs 8-9 the sage will personify wisdom as Lady Wisdom, calling out for us to embrace her and prize her. Will we embrace her call? In Proverbs 8:1-21 the call of wisdom is extolled by first showing us the beauty of wisdom and second the supremacy of wisdom. In the first eleven verses wisdom calls and we are exhorted to both hear what she speaks (v.6) and to take her instruction (v.10). Then, in vv.12-21 the supremacy of wisdom is given. Of course, the supremacy of wisdom is most clearly seen in that the embodiment of wisdom is Jesus Christ Himself. He Himself is our wisdom (1 Cor. 1:30). Verse 13 says the fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. From the beginning of our study of the Proverbs we have seen that the key to growing the fear of the Lord is the gospel. This verse shows us God’s heart toward evil and His commitment to deal with evil. The grace and the glory of the gospel is that on the cross the evil of our hearts and lives fell on Jesus instead of falling upon us. We will grow in wisdom to the degree that the gospel of Jesus melts our hearts and we learn to make Jesus our chief love and desire.