For our time this evening, let us return to Proverbs chapter 8. We might choose verse 36 for our text. Proverbs chapter 8 and verse 36 then for our text. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death. And we would seek the Lord's blessing as we want to look at this chapter. We have chosen verse 36 as our text because that's where we want to finish off. But we shall be looking at various verses in this chapter. The title I want to give is Life or Death. Life or Death for the title for our sermon this evening. These are wonderful words that we find here and obviously they speak to us of the Son of God who became the Son of Man. We haven't obviously looked at it but we know that The early chapters of Proverbs highlight basically two voices. Two voices who are speaking and are sought to be heard. The first nine chapters present two women, wisdom and folly personified. And we have been reading here about wisdom being personified. And they seek to win the attention and the obedience of people in the city streets and squares. And that's exactly where we are in our world today. There are competing voices for our attention. What are we going to listen to? Who are we going to hear? Who are we going to embrace? Constantly, wherever we go, there are people, organisations, others who are seeking our attention, drawing us to this or that, in order that they might impress upon us their opinion, their way of life, the way that we should live our lives according to what they teach and to what they see. Well, as we've said, there are basically two women who are talking here in these opening chapters. They are personified, and the one here, Wisdom, is ultimately directing us to the Son of God, and ultimately to the Savior, to Christ Jesus, the Lord. The first thing we want to really notice in the introduction is, who is Christ addressing? Who is he addressing? Because if we go back to near the beginning of Proverbs, to Proverbs chapter 1 and verse 22, we read this in Proverbs 1, 22, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. There again, what do we have? We have basically three different kinds of sinners called and represented. Now ultimately we know that in the end there will only be believers and unbelievers. But sinners come in various shapes and sizes and forms. And that text that I've just quoted talks about simple ones, scorners and fools. And he was addressing them at the very beginning. Now here in chapter 8, as we would progress through the book in chapter 8, something has changed. We read from verse 5 for instance, Now if you're following me at all you will realize that in chapter 8 verse 5 he is simply addressing two different kinds of sinners. The first verse that we quoted, three different kinds of sinners. There were the simple. Now who are the simple? The simple are people who are naive, who believe anything but examine nothing. They'll accept whatever basically is said to them. They don't probe it. They don't consider it. They don't meditate upon it. They don't test it. They simply accept it. Are there any like that here this evening? Well, we should not be like that. We should be able to hear what someone says and test it, and we're to test it obviously by the infallible Word of God. But these simple ones are gullible and they're easily led astray. The second group that are found in that first text in Proverbs chapter 1 that I quoted are scorners, or they may be scoffers or mockers. You may call them scoffers or mockers, but they're called scorners in chapter 1. Who are they? Well, they think they know everything and laugh at the things that are really important. And how many we have today who would fit into this category. When you try to tell them simply, clearly, plainly about the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, they laugh at it and they think nothing of it. and they think that they know better than everyone else and that they don't need a saviour. And maybe even there are some scorners here this evening. While the simple one has a blank look on his face, the scorner wears a sneer. And other groups mentioned in that first verse that I quoted in chapter one, they're fools. are people who are ignorant of truth because they are dull and stubborn. Their problem is not, as one would say, it's not a low IQ or poor education. Their problem is a lack of spiritual desire. to seek and to find God's wisdom. Apathy, indifference, that's the mark of the fool. Fools enjoy their foolishness, but they don't know how foolish they are. They laugh at spiritual things. They laugh at the brevity of life. They think nothing of death. Think nothing of judgment, of standing before God. They think that God is just something like themselves. They have no real fear of the living God. And the outlook of the fools is purely materialistic and humanistic. They hate knowledge and have no interest in eternal things. Well, here in chapter 8, as I have already highlighted, verse 4, Do we realize he's not speaking to the scorners? Have we noticed he's not speaking to the scoffers and to the mockers? He was earlier on. He was speaking to them, he was opening up his arms to them, he was telling the truth to them, but they were scoffers, they were mourners, they were ones who mocked and they did not accept the truth as it is in Jesus. A very serious thing has happened here. Very serious. We've heard, as you know, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about casting your perils before the swine. Maybe this is what's happened here. The scoffers had heard, and they scoffed. And now they're not called, they're not addressed. What does Psalm 95 teach us? Psalm 95 verse 8, They hardened their hearts, or at least they were exhorted not to harden their hearts. The scoffers, their hearts were hardened. They weren't to hear. They weren't addressed. It was like casting your pearls before swine. It's a difficult thing to actually put into practice. How do you know when you should not cast the wonderful pearls of the gospel before the swine? How do you know when it's time to pull away and to say, no longer, you've heard the truth, but you've scoffed at it, you've mocked it? Well, ultimately only God knows. It's a fearful thing to realize that they were not addressed here because they were scoffers and mockers. The book of Hebrews speaks to us about this. We know that Hebrews was written to professing Christians, and we would remind ourselves that they were not nominal Christians. Far from it. They had gone through a period of intense persecution, and they were expected to go through another bout of persecution. And because this other bout of persecution was coming upon them, some of them, some of them were considering to go back into Judaism. We didn't have any persecution when we went to the temple. We didn't have any persecution or trials when we submitted ourselves to the high priest. It's only when we embrace Jesus, it's only when we turned our backs upon Judaism that we've had persecution and therefore they were inclined to go back. And there are warnings in the book of Hebrews to professing Christians. Chapter 12, verse 25 then, See that ye refuse not him that speaketh, for if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape. If we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. This is what the mockers and the scorners and the scoffers did. They turned away. and therefore they were not called, they were not addressed in chapter 8. Well we have some here instructions for us that we would do well to heed because ultimately it's calling us to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It's calling upon us to receive the wisdom of the Son of God. And there are three things that I wish to highlight from these verses for our edification. Three things that should cause us to truly run to the Lord Jesus and to fix ourselves upon him and to recognize that he is the wisdom of God for us. What are these things then? Well, first of all, You can trust the words of the Son of God. You can trust his words. We could look very briefly at verses six to nine, and what do we find there? We find five words, five adjectives are used to describe the character of the message wisdom declares. And wisdom, we do believe, is personified in the Son of God. What are these words that we'll find in these verses? Well, they are excellent. They are right things. They are truth. They are righteousness. And a negative word, not fraud or perverse. And all of these words describe the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we find the words of the Lord Jesus in the Bible. It's all His words. And His words are excellent. There's no word like the Word of God. Here we have before us what God has revealed from heaven for our instruction, for our edification, for our comfort. It's all to be found in the Word of God. Right things, straight things. This is what it means, straight things. How many words today do we hear from all different sources and we cannot trust them? They're bent, they're skewed, but not the words of Scripture. It tells us the truth as it is in Jesus. It lays open and bare our own depravity. It tells us the truth, although we might not like to heed it, but we need to heed it. It tells us that our hearts are deceitful above all things. We don't like to hear that. The world doesn't like to hear that. The religious man doesn't like to hear that. But he must hear it, because this is what we find in the Word of God. And indeed, we could say that if we don't accept these things, the Word of God does not make any sense to us at all. But the Word of God addresses the heart problem, because it is the heart of the problem. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. That's straight talking. And surely this is what we need because we have a problem. A problem that cannot be solved by cleverness or avoiding the question. We have to go right to the heart of the matter. We must see that man is rotten in his very heart. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Every imagination, your imagination, every imagination is evil all the time. What a picture! What a fact! What a reality! Does it not therefore cause us to walk humbly before God? His word is truth. Pilate says, what is truth? And that's a question that multitudes of people are asking today. What is truth? Friends, we can say with authority, we can say with conviction, that what we deal with is truth. This is what the preachers speak of. This is what we preach. It's not our own. It comes from Almighty God himself, inspired by him, and it is truth. And that's what we need, because we are surrounded by error. Righteousness, what a lovely word, is it not? Righteousness, things that are right. This is what we find here. And it's not froward or perverse. What does froward mean? Well, the Bible actually gives the interpretation when it says perverse, that's what it means. It's not perverse. You know, people might laugh at it, people might think nothing of it, but it is sincere. It's not perverse. It comes from God himself. And we know that when the Lord Jesus Christ was upon the earth, when he exercised his earthly ministry, when he was there teaching and preaching, when he went from synagogue to synagogue, when he devoted certainly the early part of his earthly ministry, devoted it to preaching. Every place he went he was preaching and teaching. And we know that when he came down from the Sermon on the Mount, the people were amazed. They heard a sermon like they never heard a sermon before. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine. Absolutely astonished. For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Why did he speak with such authority? Well, he was able to open up the Word of God, and we might say what he said on the Sermon on the Mount was basically an explanation, an expansion of the Ten Commandments. And he spoke with such power and with such authority. He was able to rightly deliver the Word of God, open it up, explain it, expand it, and apply it. And no wonder the people were transformed. No wonder they were amazed. This never happened to them before. And is this not what has happened to you, Christian, on occasions? The Word of God has cut open your heart. The Word of God has revealed a sin that may be laid latent in your life, but the Word of God has found it. For the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. And that's why we are to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, because his Word is true. There's another occasion I'm going to quote. I love it. What happened? Jesus was in the temple. He was teaching, and he was preaching, and the people were flocking to him, and his enemies who were envious of him, the scribes and the Pharisees, they sent officers to go and arrest the Lord Jesus. Well, the officers went with his commission, with his mandate, to go and take him by force if necessary. What happened to them? They went. They went to the temple. They listened. Oh, what was he talking about? Well, we'll need to look at it sometime in chapter 7. He was speaking, he was teaching, he was preaching. And they came back empty-handed. Why did they come back empty-handed? Because they said, never a man spoke like this man. They knew they were in the company of someone else. And they were not going to touch him, because his word was with power. And the scribes and the Pharisees, they had power. They were the rulers. But they were prepared to divide the rulers because someone greater than the scribes and the Pharisees were there. Never man spake like this man. And that could describe everything that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke on. Does he not speak about heaven? Does he not speak about hell? Does he not speak about judgment? Does he not speak about the new birth? Does he not speak about these things? Does he not remind us of the world that is to come? Who can speak with such authority about these things but the one who has come down from heaven? And therefore everything that he says, never a man spoke like this man. He speaks with absolute authority. He knows it like no one else. And therefore friends this is a great incentive for us to cast our lot in with the Lord Jesus Christ. Who are the great auditors of the day? Who are the great auditors of times past? None of them can compare with the Lord Jesus Christ. None whatsoever. He alone has come down with the authority from heaven, and that authority can be seen. And even today, friends, when we read and proclaim His word, it comes with power and with authority. And we are therefore to run to Him and to embrace Him and to follow Him because His words are all true. Everyone. We'll have to quote it. He says, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall never pass away. Oh ponder that on your way home. See this world here. Some think it's eternal. Well it's not eternal. It had a beginning. It will have an end. But the words of the Lord Jesus Christ will have no end. None. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall never pass away. And the scribes and the Pharisees knew something of the power of this word. There was an occasion when he spoke about the parable of the vineyard, and towards the end when he applied it, we find in the scriptures in Mark chapter 12, verse 12. And they sought, that is the religious leaders of the day, to lay hold on him, but feared the people, for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them. Jesus had spoken against them, They knew it. The word hit home. It found them out. It exposed their sin. They didn't like it and they left him and went their way. You know that behavior really reveals what many people go through. We often heed it. I'm sure you've heard it yourself if you've ever tried to witness to anyone. Very often they'll say, I don't understand the Bible, the Bible's difficult, I cannot follow it, or other such excuses. That's really not the problem at all. The problem really is that they do understand it, but they just don't like it. It is said that Mark Twain is supposed to have said this, quote, it isn't what I don't understand about the Bible that worries me, but what I do understand. How true that is. We will all hold our hands up and say there are difficult things in the Bible that we don't understand. Maybe as we will go on we'll get greater light and we will understand them, but we do acknowledge there are difficult things in the Bible that we don't understand. But the real problem is there are so many things in the Bible that we do understand and we don't like it. And maybe that's your position this evening. You don't like what the Bible reveals. You don't like the fact that you're a sinner. And because you're a sinner, you're under the just condemnation of God. And unless things change, you're heading for a lost eternity. You're heading for the bottomless pit. You're heading for hell itself. You're heading for an eternity to be separated from God forever and forever. What a thought! You're heading for the lake of fire. You don't like it. You know it. It's clear. It's not hidden from you. It's there in the Word of God. You don't like it. What must you do? Well, you must be like millions of others and you must come to Him. Come to Him. Well, if His words are true, Coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, you will receive secondly, true wealth. true wealth. You'll find this if you want to look later on in verses 12 to 21. It deals with things that are valuable, things that belong to the wealthy. It talks about silver, it talks about choice gold, it talks about rubies, and how many people in this world are running after these things, the things of this world. They want money, they want possessions, They want these expensive things. They want to have what money can buy and they run after these things and they engross themselves in these things. And they fail to realize that you can have all these things and be a pauper. You can have all these things, and when the time comes when you will shut your eyes in death, if you're going to have a deathbed experience, someone might shut your eyes, and you'll go into eternity, and you'll leave everything behind, absolutely everything. You will take nothing. You come into this world naked, you'll go out of this world naked also. everything that was dear, everything that was precious, everything that you labored for, everything that you fought for, everything that you considered precious, you will leave it all behind. But that's not the same when you come to the Lord Jesus Christ. There you will have durable riches. What do we find in verse 18 for instance? Riches and honour are with me, yea, durable riches and righteousness. Everything in this world, whatever it might be, it's not durable. Gold is precious, yes, silver is too, but it's not durable. It cuts no curry in the world that is to come. Riches and honor are with me, yea, durable riches and righteousness. This is what the Son of God gives to those who hear his voice, who come to him. Durable riches. Have you got durable riches? What are they? Well, we might say repentance. is a saving grace, it's a gift. Do we know repentance? Do we know that brokenness of heart Do we know what it is to be cut to the heart? Do we know what it is to be stripped of our own self-righteousness? Do we know what it is to be broken before God? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This is what belongs to all the children of God. Brokenness, poverty of spirit, but those who have these things have true eternal righteousness. and gifts and graces. Do you have saving faith? Do you believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ? Many people will say they believe and to some extent many people do believe. If I can give a brief testimony, I don't believe there was ever a day when from my early teens, even before when I didn't believe the Bible. I always believed the Bible. If someone said it's in the Bible, I believe it. And I'm sure there's people here who can testify to exactly the same. If it's in the Bible, I believe it. I have no problem with it. But to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is more than simply believing an historical record that we find in the Bible. Oh that's part of it certainly, but it's more than that. To believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ is to cast your lot in with Him. It's to confess Him as Lord and Saviour. It's to recognise that He is the God-appointed Saviour who has come down from this, from heaven to this earth, suffered and died in a room and place as our substitute. It's to trust upon what He has done. It is to throw our lot on the Lord Jesus and it is to follow Him. Now it took me years before I began to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And maybe that's the same for others here this evening. You've been brought up in a Christian home. You've had a somewhat a Christian education, you've grown up through the church, and what a blessing that is to have some knowledge of the Bible and to have some reverence and respect for biblical things, for the Lord's day and for the preaching of the word and for coming into the house of God. These things are somewhat special to you. But do you have saving faith? Have you come to the Lord Jesus? Have you acknowledged Him as your Lord and Saviour? Well, Christ gives repentance. Christ, the Son of God, gives saving faith. Christ gives these dutable riches. Christ gives us reconciliation. Christ gives us sanctification and that can be painful at times when our sin is revealed to us, when the Lord Jesus Christ is preparing us for glory. He works in us. We are a work in progress. Durable riches he will bring about our glorification This old body is getting done. One day, a new body, incorruptible, like the Lord Jesus' body. That's what awaits the Christian. That's durable riches. That's what he gives to everyone who follows him. Are you going to give that up for money in the bank, for gold, even even choice gold. Are you going to give it up for that? Or are you going to have dutable riches? Well thirdly, there's another reason why we should come to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's by his works. It's by his works. There's another reason we find that, if you want to look later on, In verses 22 to 31, he's talking about creation. Now this passage is not telling us that he was created. No, no, no. The Son of God is eternal. The Son of God was there at creation. The Son of God was the creator. along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. This is what is telling us. And as we look at creation, as we see the wonder and the glory and the beauty and the order and the design of creation, we are to see something of the handiwork of the Son of God. And because of his great work in creation, this again is another incentive to us that we would come to him and that we would believe upon him. We can see what he has done What a glorious universe! It has his handprint upon it. That's what these verses are teaching us. The power and splendor of God seen all around in his creation are evidence of what Christ's wisdom can do. We do know that creation doesn't tell us everything. Of course it doesn't. It doesn't reveal to us, when we look at creation, it does not reveal to us our need of the Savior. Or it does not reveal the Savior to us. but it does reveal so much of the Son of God, enough so that we can trust Him, that we can run to Him, that we would see His works, that it might cause us, therefore, to delight in Him. Well, my time's up. But fourthly, and very briefly, all of this All of these things and more that we find in here is to lead us to make a decision. Now the minister is not talking about decisional regeneration. Far from it. But we do have to make a decision. We cannot sit in the fence. We have to be decided disciples. We have to examine the evidence. and we have to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what we find. We have a choice. We're inclined to believe that the mockers, this choice wasn't presented to them on this occasion. If we like, they have sent away their opportunity with their mocking and their scorning. But he cries out to the simple, to the fools. He gives them these things and he encourages them to lay hold upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is a life and a death situation. He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul. What's he saying? To reject Christ is to embrace death. It's as clear and simple as that. It would not be wrong today to say that our culture is dominated by death. And it is dominated by death because the culture of today, particularly in the land that we live in, is rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ. We're living in a culture of death. We have it in the unborn. Multitudes are torn to pieces in abortion, death, before they're even born. There's now legislation going to be presented before our parliaments. Basically, what are they saying? Well, let's kill the elderly. Let's kill the sick. Let's kill the terminally ill. The culture of death is dominating our society. Suicide is a terrible thing. Why is it that so many are taking their lives, young people with their lives all in front of them, opportunities taking their lives? It's a complex issue. We're not going to make light of it. But it all can be traced ultimately to this culture of death that we find. when we reject the Lord Jesus Christ. Because our text tells us, all they that hate me love death. We have a choice. What's it going to be? Is it going to be life? Or is it going to be death? Is it going to be eternal life? or eternal death. Let us come therefore to Christ Jesus the Lord. Let us come to the Son of God. Let us hear His voice in amongst all the competing voices of society today. because he does say to us, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and I give unto them eternal life. How can we have it? We must go to him. We must embrace him as he is freely offered to us in the gospel. Life or death then, here's the choice before us. Amen.