Turn with me, please, in your scriptures to Proverbs chapter one. Let's stand together to hear verses 20 through 23 of Proverbs chapter one. This is God's very word, holy, infallible, inerrant in all its parts. Proverbs chapter one, verses 20 through 23. 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. Thus ends the reading of God's holy word. Let us ask God's blessing upon it. Most holy Father, we pray that as we attend diligently to your word, that we may have from it the riches of Christ Jesus for the shaping and saving of our souls. We ask these things in his holy name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Last week, we were taught about the absurdity of evil. And remember that Solomon used the hunting illustration, snaring a bird. It was pointed out that it's vain or useless for the hunter to spread the net and set the snare in full sight of the bird that is being targeted. Surely the bird will see and fly away, avoiding the snare. This is then applied to those who are so confidently pursuing evil. They are laying a snare and they think it's for others, but they're laying the snare for themselves and they should know it. So they should flee from it. But instead they continue on, they set the snare and are themselves destroyed by their evil designs. We were pointed to the heart of evil. We noted several examples of self-destructive evil as he unfolds that analogy, saying that the wicked pursue their own lives. They end up destroying themselves. We noted that there are many examples of self-destructive evil. All these wicked pursuits that we mentioned are in fact fueled by one of the ones mentioned by those pursuing evil. Remember, they were pursuing popularity, power, and wealth. Wealth was zeroed in on by Solomon saying that greed was this heart condition that so deeply ensnared, so fully destroyed Unlike Gordon Gekko, as we mentioned from the movie Wall Street, who proclaimed that greed is good, Solomon is assuring us by the inspiration of the Spirit, greed is not good. Greed is the root of all kinds of evil. We saw that Paul taught Timothy the same wisdom in 1 Timothy 6, verses nine through 10, and it was remarkable how tightly these words from the apostle to Timothy weave together with the instruction that we have from Solomon, but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare. They're setting a trap for themselves, just as Solomon said, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. They're destroying themselves. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. And we mentioned all these self-destructive kinds of evil, and they're all rooted in the greedy pursuit of wealth, the lust for money, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Words of wisdom that hark back to this portion of the Book of Proverbs, laid out, unfolded in a more didactic fashion by Paul to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6. We see here the snare, destruction and harm mentioned by Solomon, and the piercing through of oneself, indeed the self-destruction brought on by greed and the desire to be rich. The idolatry of greed and the pursuit of riches is the opposite of the fear of the Lord, and so opposite to the life of wisdom. Thus we are called to examine the heart and to flee from this evil, from greed, from money lust, from shaping our lives for the pursuit of wealth. But we also note that we are being prepared in this Because of where we are in the book of Proverbs, we're being prepared to approach the hope of prosperity that wisdom makes possible, but in a way that is godly and contented, rather than this wicked pursuit of wealth. Remember that wisdom increases the productivity and capacity of those who have pursued it in God's ordinary course. And so they may have a hope of being blessed, even with some measure of wealth. How will they have those blessings in a righteous manner? We're being prepared to learn, as we're prepared for that path of wisdom, that we pursue prosperity in a godly and contented manner as we pursue the wise path of diligent and productive labor. Well now, Solomon turns in this portion of scripture by the inspiration of the spirits to a beautiful course of poetry where wisdom is personified as one calling to the simple. As we heard it read, we should, I hope, be familiar with that method of poetry, which takes a concept and then refers to it as a person. It is a different use of language and helps us to pay attention and packs into it some things that are helpful to us to get from it in ways that we might not otherwise lay hold. So we have it here where wisdom is personified, calling out to the simple. And so we need to interrogate this passage. We need to ask questions that help us get out of this poetry, all those things that the spirit has packed into it. So let's start asking the right questions of this passage as wisdom is personified. Who is crying out? Well, we've mentioned it is wisdom, but note the word in our translation is in the singular, But in the original, it's in the plural. And Matthew Poole points out this could be that plurality of excellency. You know how the royalty in the West can refer to themselves as we, and the plural, even when that's actually a singular, you know, we are not amused, the famous saying where one royal person might be referring to a displeasure about something, but uses a plural term to refer to the singular, and that's a turn of language that's used to exhibit excellence. Matthew Poole says it may be that, that wisdom in its excellence is being referred to with a plural term in its multiplicity, but It may and may probably be more likely that wisdom here is multiple in its places of crying out, that wisdom is everywhere crying out, that it is abundantly found in many places, and that is the form of multiplicity. So while it may express excellency, it is more literally likely expressing the many ways and many places where wisdom should be seen and where wisdom belongs and where there it may cry out in its particular place regarding our need for wisdom. And so we have to ask ourselves, Wisdom found in many places, crying out with many voices, do we hear and heed the cry of wisdom? This is part of our preparation. Solomon, through this creative turn of poetry, by the inspiration of the spirit, is asking us to think about wisdom in a different way, from a different angle, with an unusual use of language, so that we'll lay hold of our preparation more firmly. Do we recognize the cry of wisdom? Are we hearing wisdom cry from many places with many voices? And if we're not tuned into that, this is a part of our preparation. We should be listening for the voice of wisdom calling. We should indeed long to hear it from every corner, from every place, all around us with many voices. So, who is calling? Wisdom is calling, and we need to ask ourselves, are we hearing it? Do we recognize that it is indeed wisdom from all these places? The next question, how is wisdom calling or crying out? The term for this crying out implies that it's a loud and intense cry. But also, this calling out is not just loud and intense, it's a shout. The term is often used for a shout of joy. Wisdom cries out, but not out of grudge or stinginess. Wisdom is crying out with great delight. at what is being offered, what is present in wisdom. Wisdom cries out, not grudgingly, but as the wholesome way of life as God intends it to be lived to His glory. So can we hear wisdom's cry, and can we hear how wisdom calls out? Are we hearing how wisdom calls out? Loudly, do we hear wisdom as inviting us to the way that glorifies God? Too often we think of wisdom as just, a grouchy schoolmarm, you know, slapping the knuckles with the ruler and saying, knock it off, shape up. That's not the nature of wisdom. Wisdom is a fulsome call of a life lived, wholesome to the glory of God, the way God intended the human life to be lived. That's a delightful thing. Wisdom is excited and loud in calling us to this wholesome, fulsome life. Do we hear how, wisdom? is calling with a shout like a shout of joy. Come here. He, where is wisdom crying out? The third question we may ask, where is wisdom crying out? Well, several terms are listed here. Note, wisdom is crying out outside in the open streets. The term means out in the common places, in the byways, out in the open streets, the open squares, the places of the open markets, the chief concourses. the busiest, noisiest, and perhaps most important streets. the opening of the gates in the city, the places of judgment and power. Now notice the coverage here of where wisdom is crying out. Do we catch what is being taught here? Wisdom is crying out publicly and openly from every possible context. Wisdom is crying out from the lowest and least significant places, the open roads, to the busiest places where the common people are shoulder to shoulder in marketplaces. but also all the way up to the most important places, even the gates of the city, where judgment takes place, where power is exercised. Wisdom cries out from every context. Understand what this means. What does Solomon want us to understand? There's no place that's so insignificant that wisdom doesn't apply and that we shouldn't note. There's a way to be wise here. Remember, as Luther applied that in a gospel context, the milkmaid is doing something that marvelously glorifies God. Wisdom sees that all by herself in the cold morning milking the cow. She's glorifying Jesus with a sacrifice of service. Wisdom can see that in that most insignificant place. Too often, we don't view wisdom in this way. We think of our pursuit of wisdom as something that only applies to those important decisions of our lives and not to every detail, to the least significant as well as the most obviously significant. We're being taught here to measure the place of wisdom and the need for wisdom on God's measure, not on ours or the world's. Too often, we hear the world's measure. Those things don't matter. They're insignificant. But from wisdom's perspective, no part of your life is insignificant. Wisdom has a place there. To live those insignificant things, in a marvelously wise and prosperous spiritually significant way. So we're being trained here to measure the way God measures. Where do we need to have wisdom? In every nook and cranny of our lives, in the smallest details and the greatest events. We need wisdom in all these places and wisdom is there crying out. Now, to whom is wisdom crying out? The fourth thing that we need to ask of this passage, and notice here again at verse 22, how long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Did you catch it? There are three subjects here. Wisdom is crying out, and there are three groups in view. The first, the simple ones, those who are ignorant. Remember, we described them before, those who need instruction, who lack the knowledge that can be used for building wisdom. And note the natural condition of the simple, and we're all born in this condition at the very least. They love simplicity. The simple are naturally inclined to remain ignorant. Indeed, it may be said by the simple that ignorance is bliss for them. They love it there. What, me worry? The life for the simple is almost easily intoxicating. Just not having to worry about anything, bumbling on and not living in a manner that really attends to our calling to live as fruitful humans as God designed us to be in his world. So the simple are naturally inclined to remain ignorant and are easily in love with that simplicity. The scorners are also in view. Did you see that? Scorners, or the term is scoffers, those who mock and deride, for whom everything is an object of ridicule and nothing is taken seriously. The word that's used here for the scorner or the scoffer is a Hebrew word that derives from making fun of trying to pronounce a foreign language. You know, we're familiar with that. Who hasn't pretended to speak Chinese, at least when he was a kid, by just adding a lot of eng ong ong stuff to it, you know? I mean, it's that notion that gives rise to this term, but it gets loaded up with the kind of making fun that could happen there, and it's used in a very serious and harsh way to say it's one who is full of ridicule. That same term gets applied. That's its etymology, but its actual usage is that it's one who takes nothing seriously. Everything is an object of ridicule. Notice that one who is a scoffer is known for his delight in his scoffing. It's his great motivation. It's what he finds most desirable. It is lovely to him. He delights in it. It's what he always wishes to do. He's always looking for the next opportunity to mock. He's always looking for the next opportunity to deride, to ridicule. It's delicious to him. It's desirable to him. It's beautiful to him. So is the scorner and the scoffer who delights in this scorning. And then the third category, the fool. Those who are, as you may recall from our previous analysis, those who are willful, in our opposition to wisdom. They're not ignorant. They're not busy about delighting themselves with ridicule. No, they hate knowledge. And as knowledge is the building block, the raw material for wisdom, they hate wisdom. The fool hates knowledge and thus hates wisdom. The problem of the fool, not ignorance or ridicule, though he may be full of both of those, the problem of the fool is his hatred of even the most basic things that can provide wisdom. Note the decline here. We went from the simple, who's ignorant, needs help, to the scoffer, whose delight drags him in the direction of ridicule and not the acquisition of knowledge for the end of wisdom. And then finally, the fool whose hatred makes him militantly opposed to wisdom. We need to ask ourselves, do we find ourselves here? We are being prepared by this beautiful form of poetry for the pursuit of wisdom. And this portion calls us to examine ourselves, to find any of that in us. Where are we simple? Where are we ignorant? Where are we inclined to ridicule rather than to learn, so that we delight in mockery? Where are we finding ourselves? Simply at war. with God's design as the fool. Remember, if we find ourselves here, we may repent, and we may be recovered by God to a remedy for that where we find ourselves. And indeed, we should be examining ourselves for these things, and we should hope that we will find places where we are ignorant and we may learn. and we may be built up in wisdom. Remember earlier in the first seven verses we found that even the wise will hear and increase in knowledge. We want to be that kind of person that says, you know what, I'm lacking here. I need to learn. I'm gonna tune in more diligently to what wisdom would have me understand. So to the next question, the fifth one, what is wisdom crying out? We see who wisdom is addressing. The simple, the scoffer, the fool. And so we should examine ourselves. What is the cry of wisdom? What words are used? And here we have it in verse 23. Turn at my rebuke. Surely I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you. Well now, wisdom sounds like God talking to us. Isn't it beautiful? Repent, and I will just fill you up with all of my riches, spiritually. Turn at my rebuke. Surely I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you. So we have here a command and an offer, or promise. Let's look at these and consider them diligently. First, the command. Turn at my rebuke. We need to understand our natural condition is not one of knowing or having wisdom. We're not naturally where we should be. So we need this call of wisdom. Turn. And the call of wisdom is a rebuke. We should want that rebuke. It's not our natural condition there either. When we hear the rebuke, when we receive a rebuke, we so often loathe it, and wish to do everything we can to deny it, to put it down. How will wisdom rebuke us? We should be attentive to it. We should respond rightly to it. What does that rebuke look like when it comes from wisdom? Well, when we're rebuked, when we're reproved by wisdom, it may be from a smarting sting, from a foolish decision. that obviously embarrass us. Wisdom is rebuking us there. Are we making good use of it? Are we turning at the rebuke? Or are we moving on and ignoring it and plunging in to make another foolish decision? Wisdom rebukes us by the smart, the sting that comes from a foolish decision. When we suffer loss from lack of wisdom, wisdom is right there crying out to us for our need, rebuking us and calling us, turn. Do you see what happened here? You need me, wisdom says. You did not have me. You did not exercise wisdom. And now look where you are. Wisdom is rebuking. Wisdom is saying, turn. Are we hearing what wisdom says? Are we turning? How will we turn? What would that look like? If we are to turn at the rebuke, what is such a turn? Well, this requires humility, right? To own up to it. Yep, I blew it. That was foolish of me. What I did there, or what I didn't do there, manifest lack of wisdom on my part. We need to be humble. We need to be thinking in a way that can hear and heed that rebuke. That'll be the first thing necessary truly to turn when we're rebuked. The scoffer and the fool will repeat those same patterns, ignoring the reproofs, the smart that comes, the sting from the foolish decision. They'll continue on and they'll do it again. It mustn't be that way. When the smart, the sting comes, when the embarrassment comes from the lack of wisdom, We're ready to turn when we embrace our failure as reproof. Then we are ready to turn. If we've sinned in these things, we repent of it. We should see how those fit together. When we see where the sin is, we don't walk away from it. We say, I did that. I sinned. I was wrong. Similarly, in the growth of our lives towards wisdom, we sting from a foolish decision. Wisdom is recruiting us. We need to own it. Yes, I messed up there. I lacked wisdom. I need to turn and heed. I need to learn. I'm lacking here. If we have been simple, we have hope. If we were ignorant of what we should have known, we learn by attending to the Lord's word and his providence. to acquire knowledge, getting ready for that. Solemn is preparing us for that. That's how we hear, that's how we turn. We start paying more careful attention to what does God's word say about this? And what has his providence taught me by the stinging, the smarting, the failure that I experienced? But we're not just given the command, turn at my rebuke. We're given great encouragement to turn, We're given this offer, a promise, the pouring out of the spirit in full abundance, knowledge of the word. Are these not the things that make one rich? And do we not see that the path of salvation should be a path in which we're growing in wisdom. Do you see how these dovetail? God himself pours out his spirit. God himself gives us knowledge of his word. And these things will make us wise as trophies of his glory in the life he has called us to live according to his wisdom, according to his purposes. And indeed, we should be reminded at this point in this free and full offer of the pouring out of the Spirit, of granting everything we need, the fullness of the Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom, the fullness of His Word and understanding the source of wisdom in its highest sense, God's Word. We should be reminded of the promise we have in James 1 that we mentioned before. But hear it in its fuller context because it teaches us too about the turning at rebuke. Verses five through eight of James 1. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But hear how we turn, hear how we receive, but let him ask. in faith, with no doubting. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. True turning, then, will have this kind of serious seeking, a seeking that is full of faith. Faith in the God of all wisdom, who is promising us to pour forth those things we desperately need for wisdom, Spirit and His Word. Let us then ask in faith when the smart comes, when the sting comes of the rebuke because we failed to act with wisdom. Where there is sin, let us repent like this. Where we see our ignorance and our need for growth and wisdom, let us cry out like this. This is what the turning looks like. When we're rebuked, when we have that reproof, it is not to reproach us. We have the assurance here. It is that with the sting, we long to have the remedy. And by faith we seek it as James guides us here. This is our source. of the fullness of the Spirit and the Word that leads us to wisdom. Let us ask of God that we may have this, for we need wisdom. Let us pray. Most Holy Father, we ask that we should learn much and cling to what the Spirit has beautifully portrayed to us as wisdom crying out. Let us examine ourselves, give us grace to do so, that we may see where we are simple, where we have been sinfully scoffing, where we have been foolish and hardened in heart. Oh, Father, you are the remedy to these things, and you show us how to turn at the rebuke. So give us grace, we pray. We are encouraged with these rich promises. We pray that being rebuked, we may with faith nothing wavering, longing for your wisdom. Ask and receive from you what is promised here, the pouring out of your spirit to fill us up, the knowledge of your word. Shape us by these things that we may be like our Savior, who is the wisdom of God. We pray these things in his holy name, amen.