Proverbs 9
McGeeCHAPTER 9We have come now to the place where wisdom has opened school. The young man is matriculated into the school of wisdom, and we are thankful for that. Everything is prepared, and we are able to look into this school. The school bell is about to ring.
Proverbs 9:1
THE COLLEGE OF WISDOMWisdom has builded a house. This is the College of Wisdom. Note there are seven pillars. Those seven pillars represent to me completeness. The school offers a complete education all the way through to the graduate course and the Ph.D. degree. Let’s not minimize the importance of a good education. There are some who like to point out the Lord Jesus chose for His disciples twelve men who were not educated men. I have had many letters, one in particular from a man who took me to task for using the title of Doctor. He pointed out that none of the twelve had a doctoral degree. May I say that an earned doctoral degree represents years of hard work, and I believe that the person who has earned the degree is entitled to use the title. I will freely admit that one does wonder at some things in our educational system.
I know a young man who is working on his master’s degree in history. He is told to forget about dates and individuals, in order to get the flavor of a particular agethe life-style and the attitude of that period! Now I admit that that is a pretty slippery type of education. I believe that facts are important. And I know we still have some very fine schools which are working on that principle. As far as the education of the apostles is concerned, anyone who spent three years with the Lord Jesus Christ was not uneducated. They learned a great deal from the greatest Teacher the world has ever seen. And, of course, the apostle Paul was well educated in the schools of his day. No one could say that he was an ignorant man. Let’s remember that wisdom is the Lord Jesus Christ, and He can give you a complete education. “She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.” Now it is time to come to school and start feasting on the courses that have been prepared. “She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city.” What a picture is given here. May I remind you that we have the same invitation in this age. A wedding feast has been prepared, and the invitations go out to all the invited guests saying that all things are ready. Many of the guests decline the invitation. Then the servants go out into the highways and byways with the invitation to the wedding feast (Mat_22:1-14). It is interesting that wisdom must go out into the highways and byways to invite people to come in.
And we are to go out on the highways and byways. Our message today is: God is reconciled to you; now you be reconciled to God. “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2Co_5:20). In our day the Word is probably going out more than it ever has in the history of the world. The invitation is going out to the ends of the earth to come to the school of wisdom, that is, to come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Proverbs 9:6
There are those who will not hear. They are the scorners. There is no use wasting your time with them. In practically every church you will find a little group that will resist the Word of God. Are we to keep on giving the Word of God to them? No. The Lord Jesus said not to cast our pearls before swine. Now notice the next three verses. Some Bible expositors think they do not belong here, that they have been inserted. But, my friend, this is exactly where they do belong.
Proverbs 9:7
If you give the Word of God to some people, they will actually hate you for it. This is a pattern that has been true down through the ages. There are people who are so shallow, empty, and ignorant that they will not receive the Word of God at all. In our day we hear about the man who is liberal in his theology and how broad-minded he is. Did you know that it is the “broad-minded” liberal who has put religion out of our schools? They call the fundamental people bigots. I’d like to know who is the real bigot! Frankly, I don’t mind evolution being taught in our schools if they will permit me to teach the Bible alongside it. But the broad-minded liberals will not allow that.
Regardless of the degrees they hold, they are ignorant. They have narrow minds when they are not willing for the Word of God to be taught. The general rule is that the less a man knows, the more he thinks he knows. I have never met a liberal yet who didn’t think he was a very smart cookie. He thought that he knew and understood it all; yet he doesn’t understand. The more a man really knows, the more he will recognize his ignorance and his limitations.
One of the truly great preachers whom I have knownand I think he had one of the best minds of any man I have ever metoften said, “The more I study the Bible the more I recognize how ignorant I am of it.” My friend, you cannot study the Bible without realizing how ignorant you are of it. However, the scorner has no interest in learning the Word of God. You waste your time by giving it to him.
Proverbs 9:10
Perhaps you are saying, We’ve had this verse before. Yes, when the little fellow was in the home, the first lesson he was given was the fear of the Lord. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Pro_1:7). Now he has entered the college of life and the college of wisdom; he is in his freshman year of the university of understanding, and this is his first lesson: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” That is where we all start. If you haven’t started there, you haven’t started, my friend. A man is a fool (which is what this book will say) to live without God in this world. In our contemporary society we are so concerned with safetysafety on the highway, safety in the home, security in old age. We carry insurance for all these things, and we make sure our premiums are paid up. That is the wise thing to do. But, my brother, what about eternity? Are you making any plans; do you have insurance for that? Oh, how foolish it is to live this life without God! “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.”
Proverbs 9:11
If you want to be smart, then make preparation for your soul for eternity. If you are going to be a scorner and ridicule all of these things, well, you are coming up for judgment. This may sound crude, but somebody ought to say it: you are on your way to hell. “If thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.” If you are determined to go on in your own way, you will be the loser. The town atheist in a place where I preached said to me, “You know, preacher, I don’t buy this stuff about eternal life and trusting Jesus and all that sort of thing. It may be all right for some folk, but I don’t care for that.” I answered, “Let’s suppose you are right and there is no eternal life, then you and I will come out at exactly the same place. But suppose I am right and you are wrong. Then, my friend, you are in a pretty bad spot.” Another atheist said, “I would be content if it weren’t for the awful fact that the Bible may be true.” Yes, it may be! And if it is, it will be an awful fact for anyone who turns his back on God.
Proverbs 9:13
THE SCHOOL OF THE FOOLISH WOMANYou see, foolishness runs a school also. There are a lot of those around today.
Proverbs 9:14
She doesn’t have to go out on the highways and byways to invite folk in; they come to her. Thousands are going to schools like this!
Proverbs 9:16
Oh, how many so-called wise men have turned in there and found a tragic end! It was Lord Byron who wrote toward the end of a life of debauchery: My days are in the yellow leaf; The flowers and fruits of love are gone; The worm, the canker, and the grief Are mine alone! Byron had everything this world can offergood looks, genius, fame, wealth, and yet he said, “the worm, the canker, and the grief are mine alone!” That is what the school of the foolish woman did for him. A famous movie star here in California had been married to several of the beauties of the world during his life. The other day, as an old man, he committed suicide, leaving this note: “I am bored with life.” How tragic. May I say to you, foolishness still runs a college, and there is a long waiting list of those who clamor to enter. “But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.”