Sunday, August 31, 2025 AM

Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you today, and we thank you for your great love for us, that you have shown in Jesus Christ your Son, and that this love you have poured out in our hearts by your Holy Spirit, who is from you, and we have because of Christ.

I pray that you would lead us to communion together in Christ, and you would help us to love one another as you have loved us. I pray that you would turn our attention to the treasures of wisdom that are stored in our Savior.

I pray that you would give us a desire to turn toward you, to receive your Word, that you would, by your grace, give us a warm amen in our hearts of your will expressed from.

Heaven.

Look upon us with favor today, we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well-pleased.

Amen.

The Time for Wisdom Is Now

I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Proverbs 1, we're reading verses 20 through 33. As we think about Solomon's urgent message to his son, the time for wisdom is now. The time for wisdom is now.

Here in this introduction to the book of Proverbs, we've been thinking a great deal about wisdom. What is wisdom? Wisdom is the skillful mastery of life unto righteousness. It is the mastering of the gift of life for the glory of the life-giving Master.

Wisdom is the image of God in proper motion, the very dynamics of godliness. Now in the last two weeks, we've been introduced to some very important characters in the book of Proverbs. We've been introduced to Lady Wisdom and three different types of men, the simpleton, the scorner, and the fool.

Lady Wisdom has put her attention upon the simpleton. She calls to the simple ones. She wants them to respond before they turn into scorners and into fools. You see, Solomon is approaching his son in this way, bringing forward these literary characters because he's appealing to his son, showing him the importance of turning to wisdom early, not later.

So he shows his son the wisdom's favor when she is sought, and now he will show his son wisdom's fury when she is scorned. The time for wisdom is now. We were made to abide with our Maker, so the time for communion is now.

We must not put it off for later. I invite you to stand with me if you are able, and we're going to read Proverbs 1, beginning in verse 20. This is the word of the Lord. Wisdom calls aloud outside. She raises her voice in the open squares.

She cries out in the chief concourses at the openings of the gates in the city. She speaks her words. How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge.

Turn at my rebuke. Surely I will pour out My Spirit on you. I will make My words known to you. Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out My hand and no one regarded. Because you disdained all My counsel and would have none of My rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity.

I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm and your destruction comes like a whirlwind. When distress and anguish come upon you, then they will call on Me that I will not answer.

They will seek Me diligently, but they will not find Me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would have none of My counsel and despised My every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way and be filled to the full with their own fancies.

For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy.

Them.

But whoever listens to Me will dwell safely and will be secure without fear of evil.". This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Now, Lady Wisdom, of course, is Solomon's literary character, which points to the spiritual priority and eternal principle of wisdom.

God made all things in wisdom. He made us to live in wisdom. And Solomon sets forth Lady Wisdom as one who we see from chapters 1 and 2 and 9. Lady Wisdom who sets her table, and she calls out to the simple ones to come in and dine with her.

And so we are to be reminded in a satisfying way that in a more glorious fashion, Jesus Christ has set His table, and He calls sinners to dine with Him. There's a lot of thought given here in Proverbs 1 as to what happens if the simpleton, if the simple one who loves simplicity, the simple one who believes the first story told, the simple one who avoids responsibility, who is full of excuses, what happens if he continually avoids Lady Wisdom?

The disaster that occurs. This, of course, should lead us from the lesser to the greater. What is the concern for sinners who ignore the King of kings, who despise His righteousness? Can we really afford to remain casuals in this life?

Do we really have time to mess around and go our own way? When it comes to wisdom, the time for wisdom is now. Wisdom has made herself known. She has made herself available. Only the fools continually put her off and thereby gain her thorough contempt.

We see this in verses 20 through 23, the favor of wisdom when sought. She is no recluse, and she is not reluctant. Now, nevertheless, the simpleton may continually avoid her, ignore her, until her fury falls.

In verses 24 through 27, I think it's very clear, wisdom does not pity the fool. It's okay to laugh. Some of you have no idea what that is. Verse 24, because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded.

Because you disdained all my counsel and would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your terror comes. When your terror comes like a storm and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.

This is a pretty hard-hitting piece. Lady Wisdom drops a diss track against the simpleton who rejected her. You think I'm joking, I'm not. She opens up and then closes with four and three-line thematic stacking, and right in the middle of these two, verse 26, she brings the haymaker bar.

The first four lines are her accusations, the last three are her anticipations, but the middle two, her animosity. To say that Lady Wisdom is offended is to gravely understate the point. Notice her accusations in verses 24 and 25.

We have two couplets here that bring together the contrast between Wisdom's generous attentions and the fool's repeated rejections. Notice her generous attentions, because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, because you disdained all my counsel and would have none of my rebuke.

You hear all of her attentions to these simple ones. She has called. She has called aloud. She has raised her voice. She has cried out. She has spoke her voice in the gates, in the streets, in the markets, in the fields.

The verses 28 through 23 catalog for us. She has greatly extended herself. She has stretched out her hand. This is in parallel with her raising her voice. Both of the verbs in the Hebrew say this is a gift.

She is gifting her voice. She is gifting her hand. She is generously expressing herself. She is showing her willingness to guide and redirect these simple ones with her counsel and with her rebuke, which means that she is gesturing.

She is waving the simple ones on to life. At the same time, she's waving them away from death. These are Lady Wisdom's generous attentions. But what about the fool's repeated rejections? "'Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, because you disdained all my counsel and would have none of my rebuke.'".

So the rejection of wisdom is fourfold. The fool has declined and disregarded, disdained and dismissed the generous attentions of Lady.

Wisdom.

She says, "'You refused. You have declined. What the simpleton heard, he refused, and how many times did he decline the invitations before the invitations finally stopped? How often Lady Wisdom called out to the simple one as he passed by, and what were his responses?

"'Oh, I couldn't possibly. Maybe next time. I'd like to, but let's reschedule.'.

"'Maybe.

We'll see.'. She says, "'You refused. And you disregarded. She says, "'No one regarded.'". How often simpleton would wave this, Lady Wisdom would wave the simple ones into her hospitality and some would say, "'No, thank you.'".

And others would just completely ignore her. She would try to wave him in and wave him away from the alleyways of Miss Folly. But simpleton after simpleton never even saw her.

Why?

Because we saw that the simple one loves simplicity. He's lost in his own little world, not noticing Wisdom's urgent and frantic call. And she even says, "'You disdained. You disdained because some simpletons had first accepted Wisdom's call and regarded her direction, but then after a time they cut loose from her direction.'".

That's a good way of translating, you disdained. They cut loose from her reins and then they determined to lead themselves. They had started well, but now they wash their hands of the whole matter and they don't want to listen to Lady Wisdom's counsel anymore.

It's like they studied to get their driver's license. And they did well. They got through driving school. They passed the test. They got good grades, but now they have utterly regressed. Now they read no street signs.

They remember few traffic laws. They forget their mirrors. They never use their turn signals. They make left-hand turns from right-hand lanes, stop on the on-ramps, and go five under in the fast lane.

They're about to end up in a terrible wreck. They have dismissed. They have dismissed Lady Wisdom. They would have none of her. They're done with her. She rebukes the simpleton, trying to warn him, trying to help him, and yet he will not submit to her words in the very least.

He is done with her. He's so over her. Well, this has brought now Wisdom's animosity in verse 26. Because of how the simpleton has treated her and proven himself on the path to folly, she says in verse 26, I also will laugh at your calamity.

I will mock when your terror comes. She's been warm for so long in hospitality and helpfulness. But now Lady Wisdom goes very, very cold. She no longer cares for this simpleton-turned-fool. The bear robbed of her cubs is a better option than this fool whose folly has now come due.

She speaks of the fool's calamity. This is his day of doom, the culminating moment of disaster. She says, I'm going to laugh at that. The fool's terror is the object of doom, the person or the power that stands against the fool, the very harbinger of certain destruction.

And Lady Wisdom says, I'm going to mock you when that happens. See, Lady Wisdom is popping the popcorn. She's going to sit back and enjoy this. She laughs in satisfaction. She says, I called it. She laughs at the fool's incredulity.

How could you be surprised this is happening to you? Of course you're surprised. I told you it would happen, but you're still surprised that it's happening. She says, what perfect timing. She mocks him.

She mimics him in stuttering hyperbole. She mocks the fool caught in his own terror. She blubbers like the fool in his own despair. And then her mimicry collapses into a hearty belly laugh and a sigh of contentment.

She anticipated all of this. Verse 27, when, not if, when your terror comes like a storm and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when, not if, distress and anguish come upon you. I mean, she gave the fool the weather report.

The tornado sirens have been going off for half an hour and he's still hailgating on his front porch. It's going to happen. She knew it was going to happen. He's not listening. She mocks his distress and anguish in the Hebrew, his tzara and soka.

She mocks that. Why is the fool complaining online about all the stress in his life when he left Lady Wisdom and made trouble his concubine? So she trolls his trauma dumping. She retweets his sad fishing with laughing emojis.

Now we might recoil from Wisdom's mockery of the fool. We may instinctively associate this kind of derision with the behavior of the scoffer whom we've been warned about. It may denote to us an embittered immaturity, yet Wisdom is not a scorner.

Lady Wisdom is right in her context to laugh and mock given the facts. It is to be remembered that this young man, Solomon's son, grew up surrounded not only by the hallelujah chorus of creation declaring the righteous order and beauty of the Creator, but he also grew up in the covenant community of Israel in Jerusalem, indeed in Solomon's own royal house.

Not every young man did, but in a sense, each and every simpleton in Israel lived a more privileged life than even the sages of the other nations. And why was that? Because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and understanding. And the fear of the Lord was written upon the doorposts of the houses. The fear of the Lord met the young man when he woke up and when he laid down to sleep.

Lady Wisdom sung the morning song and the lullaby every day of his life. She was reverie and taps. The fear of the Lord was embedded in the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly patterns of the old covenant.

Lady Wisdom ran the community calendar. All of life was organized by God's Word so that the people of Israel were to think of God first and think of Him most, the fear of the Lord. They were to remind one another of this fear, this reverence at all times and in all places.

So for a simpleton to grow up in these houses, on these streets, of these cities, and decline and disregard and disdain and dismiss Lady Wisdom, well, that level of folly has paved the road for his personal destruction.

And if enough covenant community members do that, it's going to be national destruction. And there's no avoiding it. God has promised the covenant curses. He has promised the destruction of this people should they break covenant with Him.

God's curses were sure to fall if they abandoned Lady Wisdom, and Lady Wisdom is going to laugh at them all. They had every opportunity to honor her, but they have spurned her. And so the message of Solomon to his son, if only Solomon had listened to himself, the time for wisdom is now.

The time for wisdom is now, not later. Later, wisdom will be laughing at your folly, and it's not going to amuse you. She does not pity the fool. Now, when we think about the rejection of wisdom, it's an issue for us as well.

We are created in the image of God, and the rejection of wisdom is not an issue that's going to be a problem for you in your public image. That's not really the problem. The rejection of wisdom, the problem with that is not that it's going to get you on somebody's fails reel.

It's not going to get you destroyed in an argument. That's not the problem. The problem is the rejection of wisdom has eternal consequences. In Psalm 2, God laughs at the fools who conspire together against His Christ.

When we reject wisdom, we reject Christ in whom all the treasures of wisdom are hid. There is no wisdom that is wisdom that is outside opposed to Christ. It is only outside of Christ's person and work where the future is bleak.

He says, it is outer darkness filled with weeping and gnashing of teeth. Wisdom does not pity the fool, and wisdom will not bail you out, verses 28 through 32. This is Solomon's message to his son, let us take heart.

Then they will call on me, and I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would have none of my counsel and despise my every rebuke.

Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own way and be filled to the full with their own fancies, for the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.

Kenneth Aitken, in his book on Proverbs, says, lady wisdom is no gentle persuader. She shouts, she pleads, she scolds, she reasons, she threatens, warns, and even laughs, all quite unladylike and nowadays also quite unfashionable, even frowned upon, but worth paying attention to.

I remember I was for a while on the Southwest 59th and 10th. There was a woman there, very often, yelling at everybody, and it was pretty common. Sometimes she'd have a sign. Sometimes she'd have a Bible.

Sometimes she'd have an amplifier. And one day, I was stuck at the traffic light, and I said, time to tune in. Rolled down my window, and she was hollering about how there was nothing that you could do to ever please God, Christ and Christ alone.

His shed blood was the only basis for your salvation. The time of salvation was now repent and believe. I thought, well, that's a pretty good message, and it was not a pretty sight to see. But it got your attention.

Lady wisdom is hollering. She is saying these things. It is a jolt. It is not pleasant to hear lady wisdom say these things, and yet it is to gain the attention of Solomon's son. It is to gain the attention of the reader, to give consideration of what does it mean to reject wisdom.

Now, how can two walk together unless they are agreed? And how can two agree unless they walk together? When the simple one abandons wisdom for folly, what does he do but embrace the haunts of death and flee even the sounds of the river of life?

It is a fearful thing to reap what you sow, but what has he sown? When wisdom speaks, he ignores. He shuts her down. He doesn't listen at all. But now, when things start to go bad, he begins to call out to wisdom, and what does wisdom.

Do?

She's quiet. She doesn't answer. Gives no response. He is reaping what he sows. She gives him the cold shoulder. Verse 28, then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord.

They would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. When the scorner's life, when the simpleton's life, when the fool's life begins to break up into a dozen crises across a hundred dramas, when he sees his life falling apart, he begins to realize, I need a little wisdom to patch this up.

And so he says, I know wisdom is, well, she's making her voice known. She's everywhere to be found. I'll just ask for wisdom to help me.

Oh, wisdom. Oh, lady wisdom.

I know you're in the streets and in the square, in the traffic, at the gate, but I need your help right now. And all he gets is the hiss of static. He has been abandoned. There is no reinforcements. The cavalry is not coming.

And these are the just desserts. Verse 31, therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own way and be filled to the full with their own fancies. Those who sow the wind reap the whirlwind. This is the warning to Solomon's son, by extension to all the children of Israel, an amplification of what it means for us to abandon our Creator, to reject Him.

They hated knowledge. They chose against the fear of the Lord. They refused the counsel and reproof of wisdom, and now they think they can just call her up and say, yeah, I know I treated you terrible, but can you bail me out?

Fools, it is fools who think they can sow folly everywhere in their life and avoid consequences. Fools think they can sow folly in their finances, folly in their relationships, folly in their habits, folly in their thinking, and when all the consequences of folly shatter their lives, they think a wisdom band-aid is going to piece everything back together.

But the warning is in verse 32, this slippery slope, be warned, verse 32, for the turning away of the simple will slay them and the complacency of fools will destroy them. There is the warning. You see, there's great danger for the simpleton and for the fool.

This is what verse 32 is saying, there is grave danger. The simpleton may think, I have time, I have time, I can keep wisdom at bay, I can listen to her counsel and her rebukes at a later time. I know I'm not going to become a fool in the next few days.

I'm just going to love my simplicity and I'm going to enjoy it a bit longer and just continue on. But the simpleton does not know that this endangers his life. The turning away of the simple will slay them.

His constant turning away will slay him, that's the warning. His epitaph may read, he was no fool, but those at his graveside may mutter, only because he didn't have enough time. Given enough time, the complacency of fools will destroy them because fools do not have time to be bothered with facts.

They cannot be persuaded to meditate on cause and effect. They will not take notes during a safety orientation nor entertain a cautionary tale. Don't bother me. I'm living the way I want to. They seem to have a hundred ways of deferring consequences to some later time, but the end of it is destruction.

Wisdom is showing a kindness here in being so clear. Solomon is doing well for his son by giving him such a poignant warning. He's not sugarcoating the danger. He's letting him know the stakes. The time for wisdom is now.

How often did Israel think like this? And, of course, the prophets often rebuke Israel for thinking this way. Israel would often think that they could just do a few more sacrifices and turn up the heat a little on the feast days and all would be well.

Why did they think that way? Why did they think that they could just press a little harder on the accelerator when it came to religious stuff and then God would be happy with them again? Why did they think that way?

Because they had become Canaanized in their thinking. They were supposed to take over the land of Canaan, but the Canaanites had taken over them, their heart, their thinking. They conceived of God as someone they could manipulate.

Is this not the standard thinking of God today? That it's God's business to stand about at the ready, waiting for disaster to strike and then to intervene and erase all the consequences for a folly. That's God's job.

He's there to bail us out, like we're a bank and it's 2008. The whole point is that we make horrible choices and then, with a snap of our fingers, we tell God, hey, I'm ready for the rescue. That is superstitious, paganized thinking.

Notice there is a warning about turning away, verse 32, but notice the instructions, but whoever will listen to me, but whoever listens to me, verse 33, will dwell safely and will be secure without fear of evil.

So wisdom wants a long-term relationship. That word dwell, the Hebrew word means to settle down, to abide, to pitch the tent in a very permanent way. Solomon wants his son to settle down with Lady Wisdom and live a long and secure life with her by his side because there is security and peace within her company.

David would say, while I'm with the Good Shepherd, I fear no evil. The time for wisdom is now. The warning, of course, is turning away. Don't turn away. Don't turn away from wisdom. The turning away of the simple one will destroy them.

And so the idea is to turn towards, to turn towards wisdom. And where do we find wisdom? We don't find it at the peak of a high mountain. We don't find wisdom in the domain of the so-called experts. We don't find wisdom in some payment plan where we learn secrets about what life was.

All about.

No, we find wisdom in Christ. All of wisdom, we are told, is treasured up and stored up in our Savior, our Creator, Christ. And so we must turn towards Him. How do we do that? How do we do that? Well, Christ's table helps us with that.

The communion table helps us with that because turning towards wisdom is, yes, it is indeed the truth that Lady Wisdom is calling out to people who are in wretched situations. And God is the Savior of sinners, no matter the situation.

But when we turn to the Lord, it's not a situation of us saying, well, now make all my problems.

Disappear.

When we turn to the Lord, it's a matter of repentance. Repentance that is filled with godly sorrow of humbling ourselves before God, saying things the way that He says it, confession. Repentance is a turning, a turning away from and a turning towards, turning away from the self and unto the Lord, to make a pile of all of our good deeds and make a pile of all of our bad deeds and flee them both for Christ.

And to say, I trust in you and you alone to humble ourselves and say, I have made a mess.

Of things.

I have been a simpleton who has loved simplicity. I have too often delighted in scorning and I have not feared enough the danger of becoming a fool and I cast myself before you, oh God, I don't deserve anything, but I'd like to come to your table.

You may remember the story of Mephibosheth, the grandson of bad King Saul, and how Mephibosheth had been lamed and he was a pitiful figure dragging himself about on the ground. And he has no right to be at the table of the successor King David.

But David brings him to his table, gives him a seat with his sons and says, you are welcome here, you have a full portion. Are we not in that same situation? Are we not, Mephibosheth, brought to the table of the anointed one?

The table of communion is set for us by Christ's death and His resurrection. The elements tell us of the nature of His perfect death as God's lamb, as that last sacrifice, the final propitiation. We eat the bread and we drink the cup expressing our union with Christ, that His suffering was for us, that His death was for us, that by faith we are crucified with Him, that by faith we are buried with Him, by faith we are raised with Him and thus we are gathered together here with Him.

Because He is risen and ascended to the right hand, we gather here today to rejoice in a lasting atonement and a continuing intercession, and we anticipate Christ's victorious return. Dearly beloved, it is by God's grace that we have heard and responded to the gospel.

Call.

And so, 1 Corinthians 1 verses 30 through 31 says, Of God we are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that as it is written, He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.

So, let us glory together in the Lord. Let us give the amen of God's will in heaven. Let us say to our Creator, in light of all He has to say, in light of all that He has done, in all who He is, let us say of our Creator, very good, very good, let's be satisfied.

In Him.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for this day. We thank You for the reminder, even the disturbing reminder, of how vitally important it is that we not ignore wisdom, that we not ignore Your Word, that we not ignore Your Son, Jesus Christ, and all He has to say.

Thank You for creating us in Your image, and I pray that You would renew us in that image as You conform us to Your Son, Jesus Christ, and it is in His name that we pray, amen.