Turn at Wisdom’s Warning Today

Sermon Transcript

There was a time when one of my children badly lost a game in a team sport. I’ll leave it that vague to protect the identity of the innocent. To my surprise, on the drive home my Jesus-loving, delightful child began playing the blame game. They began telling me about how the coach was playing them at the wrong position and how some of their teammates didn’t play properly. At that moment I knew that my child needed a warning. As an adult, I know where the blame game goes. I’ve seen the blame game ruin careers, athletic aspirations, and once harmonious marriages. The blame game is a small seed that flowers into whinny self-importance that makes life miserable. I love my children. They matter so much to me. I want better for them. Therefore, I urgently and, I hope, lovingly warned my child. I warned them. That’s how the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ speaks to us through our passage this morning. Because we matter to Him, he warns us. That’s different. Over the last two weeks, God, through the voice of a father speaking to his son, has invited us to learn wisdom from Him so that we can navigate the complexities of life in the real world in a way that achieves truly beautiful results. We all want that. However, because we matter so much to God, because He created us in His image to glorify Him, because our lives are so significant to him, and because learning from wisdom is urgent and isn’t something we can get to later when life slows down a bit, God’s tone in our text this morning shifts from invitation to warning. He warns us early in Proverbs to listen to wisdom because we matter to Him even more than my child matters to me and, when it comes to learning wisdom, the stakes could not be higher.

The voice speaking in our passage this morning is wisdom personified as a woman. Proverbs 1:20-23a – Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice…How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you…because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity… Wisdom lifts her voice above the noise and calls to get our attention because you don’t need to be wicked to waste your life, you just have to be complacent about the things of God. And that brings us to the big idea of our passage this morning: Turn at wisdom’s warning today. Turn at wisdom’s warning today. Our passage this morning provides three reasons to turn at wisdom’s warning today. 1. Wisdom is calling (1:20-22) 2. A storm is coming (1:24-32) 3. Whoever turns will dwell secure (1:23, 33).

WISDOM IS CALLING

The first reason to turn at wisdom’s warning is that it’s wisdom calling. There are a few things we need to notice about wisdom calling if we’re going to turn at her warning. First, notice that wisdom is a woman. Proverbs 1:20 – Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice. Why is it a woman’s voice? Why is it Lady Wisdom who is calling? Remember, Proverbs was originally written to help young men come into an intimate relationship with wisdom. And since young men care a lot about getting into a close, intimate relationship with the right kind of woman, Solomon personifies wisdom as a woman calling. The influence that a young woman can have on a young man is extraordinary. Parents of boys, when your sons who previously protested against occasional bathing begin taking showers daily, putting on deodorant, wearing cologne, and asking you where they can get a summer job to make some money, rest assured, there is a young woman in the picture. Her influence is total and amazing. I was a savage before Andrea began civilizing me. She has made me and my life better in every way. Wisdom is like that. Turn at her warning because the one who calls will influence everything in your life for the better.

Lady Wisdom is calling. Now notice where she calls. In verses 20-21 it says she cries aloud in the noisy streets, in the markets, and at the city gates. Wisdom calls to us right in the middle of where real life happens. She isn’t calling to give you abstract facts, but skill in navigating every aspect of your complicated life in the real world toward beautiful results. Lady Wisdom is calling. She wants to influence everything in your real life for the better.

Now, who is she calling to? Proverbs 1:22-23a – “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof…” She is calling to the simple. The simple are those who are half-hearted about the things of God. They’re not yet committed to wisdom. They’re complacent, but they aren’t beyond hope. All those born in our first father, Adam, start out as simple. Wisdom also cries to scoffers or fools. The fool is someone who was once simple, but has become hardened in their resistance to wisdom. However, even if you’re a follower of Jesus – not in Adam but in Christ – wisdom is crying to us as well because we all have some simple ways still at work in our flesh. Wisdom is crying to all of and her key word is “turn.” “Repent of your simple, uncommitted, resistant ways and put your full weight on me.”

Now, if you pan out from Proverbs and take in the entire scope of the Bible you realize that wisdom sounds a lot like the Lord Jesus Christ. In Proverbs 1:22 wisdom cries out and says, “turn at my reproof.” The Bible says Jesus is wisdom from God and in Mark 1:15 he said, “Repent [turn] and believe in the gospel.” In Revelation 3:20-21 Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.” Turn at wisdom’s warning because the voice of wisdom is Jesus Christ himself calling you to turn from your simple ways and turn to Him. In his commentary on Proverbs, Ray Ortlund captures the message to the simple, “You don’t need to hate Jesus to waste your life. You only need to be ok with how you are.” Turn at wisdom’s warning because it’s the Lord Jesus Christ calling. Turn from your simple ways. Turn from being uncommitted to and on the fence with Jesus Christ, turn from coasting in your relationship with Jesus Christ, turn from living with a foot in Christ and a foot in the world, and turn from being ok with how you are, turn from not really trying to kill sin and love Christ, and turn to Jesus Christ with total openness and, unmixed allegiance. As the lyrics to the old Isaac Watts hymn goes, “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.” Are you turning or are you simple? Are you being simple and trying to have Jesus as a garnish on the side of the plate of your life, or, like a glorious woman with a young man, is he influencing every part of your life ultimately for the better, even as he changes your ways? Turn at wisdom’s warning, first, because wisdom, Jesus Christ himself, is calling. Second, turn at wisdom’s warning because…

A STORM IS COMING

Proverbs 1:25-27 – Because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, 26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, 27 when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Turn at wisdom’s warning because a storm is coming for both the uncommitted and the hard-hearted, and on that day wisdom will laugh at the calamity of the simple and the scoffers. OT scholar Ray Ortlund points out that the Lord’s laughter at the calamity of those uncommitted to wisdom isn’t a glib giggle. As Ortlund says, “He does not laugh at the pain of fools, but he does rejoice at the defeat of evil.” Wise people do that too. Proverbs 10:11 says, “The whole city celebrates when the godly succeed; they shout for joy when the wicked die.” A storm is coming for the uncommitted simpleton and the hardened scoffer alike. At when it does, it will be too late to turn at wisdom’s warning. Proverbs 1:28-32 – Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but will not find me. 29 Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, 30 would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, 31 therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices. 32 For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them; Turn at wisdom’s warning today because a storm is coming and when it does, it will be too late.

What is this storm that is coming? On one level the storm is an illustration for the natural consequences of not turning at wisdom’s warning. If you don’t turn at wisdom’s warning, then you’ll do foolish things, experience terrible consequences, and when the consequences come, it will be too late to wisely avoid the foolish things you’ve done. However, that’s not the primary storm that wisdom is warning us about. The sudden, terrifying storm in our passage is what the Bible calls in other places “the day of the Lord,” or “the day of judgment.” In Matthew 7:26-27, Jesus said, “And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Turn at wisdom’s warning today, turn at Jesus’ warning because a storm to end all storms is coming, and when it does, it will be too late to turn. In Matthew 13:42 Jesus said of all sinners that don’t turn to him, “and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” To die, wake up in Hell, and know it’s too late forever because you did not turn from being simple to Jesus Christ, can you imagine the weeping and anger? That’s the storm that is coming. Turn at wisdom’s warning today, leave behind uncommitted, half-hearted, coasting Christianity because a storm is coming and when it does it will be too late to turn, forever.

When the storm comes, why will it be too late to turn to Christ? Why won’t simpletons and fools have a second chance after they die or at the judgment? Old Testament scholars Bruce Waltke and Ivan De Silva provide five reasons (one answer per slide, please):

It would make God an accomplice to their folly. The fool says, “I can spurn God now and get back to him later. He’ll bend to my will.” If there is a second chance on the day of judgment, God would be an accomplice to that folly.
It would mean that only after death would decisions really matter; everything before is merely a trial run.
If choices made now had no eternal consequences, they lose their awesome dignity and worth.
It would validate the fools’ belief that their careless treatment of this life is justified.
If pursuing a foolish life did not result in irreversible negative consequences, the wise would be the fools.

Turn at wisdom’s warning because a storm is coming and when it does, it will be too late. Turn from putting Jesus off, turn from resisting him, turn from living a double life with a foot in two worlds, and turn from coasting and being complacent about killing sin and loving Christ. How many more sermons do you need? Turn at wisdom’s warning to Jesus Christ with total openness and unmixed allegiance because love so amazing and so divine demands our souls, our lives, our all. Turn at wisdom’s warning today because a storm is coming, it may come today, and when it does, it will be too late. That brings us to the final reason why to turn at wisdom’s warning…

WHOEVER TURNS WILL DWELL SECURE

A storm is coming, but whoever turns at wisdom’s warning will enjoy a security that no storm can shake. We see the security first in Proverbs 1:23 – If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you. When we turn at Jesus’ warning, he pours out his Holy Spirit on us, giving us new hearts that believe his gospel, fresh power to live by his word, and His Spirit is a downpayment guaranteeing our future inheritance is secure. We see the security again in Proverbs 1:33 – But whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster. Since the Lord Jesus Christ is wisdom from God and always walked the way of wisdom, no storm of judgment was coming for Him. No, he died on the cross to take the storm for us, to absorb the wrath and judgment of God for us simpletons and scoffers. Therefore, if we turn at Jesus’ warning, if we will receive and rest in Him as our Lord and Savior, if we will turn with the total openness of faith, then we will dwell secure forever. As Jesus said in Matthew 7:24-25 – “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”

TIME OF RESPONSE

Since the big idea of our passage is to turn at wisdom’s warning today, I want to give everyone here a few quiet moments to consider your next step in light of our passage.

Simple – Turn from coasting or being uncommitted
Scoffers – Turn from resisting
Everyone – Turn from a specific “simple tendency.”

Lord’s Supper – We turn from simple ways because we already dwell secure.