In the sermon 'The Call of Wisdom' by Peter Allison, the speaker explores the personification of wisdom as a woman calling out in public spaces, urging people to heed her words and turn from folly. Drawing from Proverbs 1, Allison explains that wisdom is not about having vast knowledge but the ability to apply knowledge rightly. He connects the Biblical personification of wisdom to Christ, who embodies wisdom and knowledge. The sermon warns of the dire consequences of ignoring wisdom's call, such as calamity and derision, much like the fate of those who ignored God's warnings in the Bible, including the people before the flood. The sermon emphasizes repentance and the importance of accepting rebuke as a path to wisdom. It contrasts the public, open call of wisdom with the secretive nature of folly and sin, highlighting the Biblical teaching that wisdom is accessible to all who seek it. Finally, the sermon concludes with a call to turn away from fear of man and to embrace the fear of the Lord, which leads to safety and security in life.

Please turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 1, beginning our reading this morning at verse 20. 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 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. 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." May the Lord be praised at the reading and the hearing of His Word, a Word that endures forever. Almighty Father in heaven, we ask that you would pour out your Spirit on us and open the eyes of our understanding that we might behold wonderful truth out of your Word. In Jesus name we pray, amen. Well, this is part of the prologue to the book of Proverbs.

The real Proverbs, as we understand that word of a Proverb, epiphys saying, haven't begun yet. They are all the way back in chapter 10. This is the prologue. And the prologue is to warm our heart to what is to come. It's to prepare us.

It's to Call us to come and to listen. We find this as we saw throughout the Bible. Even Peter, when he's writing his letter, calls his hearers to gird their minds for action to come and to listen. And this call is the same, no different. It is a call that seeks to prepare our heart and to show why.

Why we should hear. Why we need to hear. And what will be our latter end if we don't hear. Contrasted to our latter end if we do hear this call of wisdom. So the first part of the chapter was an exhortation of a father and a mother to the son.

The son, the figure of somebody who is inferior in a relationship. Somebody who is under authority in some way. Somebody who is a student, a disciple in some way. And that applies to all of us. We are all sons in that sense.

So it's a father to a son, a father and a mother to a son. Giving exhortation. But here in this section, we have a little change. And now it is wisdom that is calling. Wisdom personified.

Wisdom is seen and referred to and viewed as if she is a person who can speak, calling out in the streets? It's wisdom. What is wisdom? What is it? We might say very simply that it is the ability to rightly apply knowledge.

In other words, you don't have to be a man or woman of great learning in order to be wise. Wisdom is the ability to rightly apply the knowledge that you do have. You certainly need to have knowledge, yes, but it's not the magnitude of your knowledge that makes one wise. It is the ability to rightly apply it. That is what the Bible speaks of as wisdom.

One day I, my executive assistant, when I was running the school, was having a very rough day from all the calls to parents. Parents that were usually not happy. They're trying to get their child into a certain classroom on a certain campus, into this or out of that. It was a busy, very busy time of the year. It's when all the lists were coming out for the next year and where the classrooms, who was where and so forth.

And she was doing a really, really great job, but it was exasperating, beyond all means. And I wanted to encourage her in some way. And I thought of this little saying, to be a Christian is to be a serpent and a dove, a lamb and a lion, a reed and a cedar. But being a wise Christian is knowing when to be what. And that's what she was exercising that day.

It was a lot of wisdom to know when to stand firm and strong like a cedar or a lion, or when to yield, when to be gentle, like a reed bending before the wind, when to be as crafty as a serpent, and with whom and in what way to be gentle as a dove. That knowing when to be what is wisdom. And this wisdom is calling out here. She's calling out as a person, as a woman. And it's a feminine person.

Not because wisdom belongs more to women than men, though some believe that today, and Sometimes that's true. But it's not true, obviously, as a class. Neither is it true that men have more wisdom than women. That's not the point here. That's not why wisdom is personified as a woman.

Wisdom is feminine because the noun for wisdom in Hebrew is feminine. We don't have that in English, so that may be kind of foreign to your thinking unless you know another language. But the only masculine and feminine nouns that we have are animals or people that have a gender associated with them. But this pulpit or the ceiling, anything else that's inanimate, that's all neuter in our language. And it takes a neuter pronoun.

But in Hebrew, it's different. In other languages, it's the same. And in this case, the word for wisdom is of the feminine gender. And so it uses the feminine pronouns. And that's why it's referred to as she.

I mean, we have that a little bit in English. We talk about a ship as she, but that may be a little different to our thinking. So in personifying wisdom as a feminine, as a woman, it's simply because that's a feminine noun. So when you use a pronoun to refer to a feminine noun, you need to use a feminine pronoun. But even though this is a personification of wisdom, Wisdom is calling out.

All the things that are ascribed to wisdom here in the Old Testament, in this chapter and in the later chapters of 8 and 9, they are said in the New Testament of Christ. In Christ, Paul told the Colossians, is hid all wisdom and knowledge. And Paul told the Corinthians that Christ is the wisdom of God to us. In that first chapter of his first letter, He said, we preach Christ crucified. We preach Christ crucified to the Jews, a stumbling block, and to the Greeks, foolishness, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Christ is the wisdom of God. He says a little later, but of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us the wisdom from God in righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Christ is the wisdom of God. And so wisdom calls aloud outside. She raises her voice in the open square.

She cries out in the chief concourses. This is the cry, the call of wisdom. And wisdom calls with a public overture, a public call. Wisdom is not esoteric, meaning it's not a secret that's only available to those who have been given special privilege. It's not something that is conveyed in the dark recesses of a crypt to people taking secret societies in the black secret owes to each other in the black of night.

Those societies exist but wisdom doesn't call that way. We don't have to take secret oath to be admitted into a secret society to receive wisdom. Wisdom calls with public overtures. She calls in the streets. She calls from the tops of the walls.

She calls from the city gates. She doesn't wait for people to come to her. She has a mission. She goes out into the streets, into the city gates, into the public square, into the free speech area of colleges, where people gather, like Mars Hill, to hear and be heard on some new philosophy. She goes out to the gates of death where the innocent are perishing And she calls for the simple and the scornful to hear.

And it's not an academic discourse that wisdom gives. She doesn't intone on in a dry academic lecture, but it's rather the impassioned cry of a personal appeal. Wisdom calls out aloud. She raises her voice in the open squares. That's not so dignified as an academic discourse.

She cries out in the streets. At the openings of the city gates, she speaks her words. How long, you simple ones, were you love simplicity? You see, it's very different than the invitation of the thieves and the prostitutes that were warned about in the first section. They come in secret.

They come with a secret call. Privately. Come over here. They call us into the darkness. That's something to remember about wisdom and evil.

If what you're doing has to be done in secret, if it's something you don't want anyone else to know about, then it's probably evil. Well, certainly there are those times when secrets are appropriate, and there are certainly those things that are private, that we do in private. But very often, very often, If you're doing something that you don't want anyone to know about, that you're covering your tracks, you're probably answering the call of thieves and prostitutes, and not the call of wisdom. Truth and purity have nothing to hide. They come to the light.

Sinners on the other hand don't want to come to the light, lest their deeds be reproved. Jesus told Nicodemus, and this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that does evil hates the light neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. Wisdom calls aloud, outside publicly openly and this is something that Christ Remember in the last days of the feast in John chapter 7, Jesus stood up and cried aloud in the midst of this throng of people, that if anyone thirsts, let him come to me, and out of his heart would flow rivers of living water and then John goes on to say that he said this concerning his spirit his spirit wisdom calls publicly but wisdom also calls men to hear something outside of themselves. You see, we don't have wisdom within us.

To get wisdom, we don't look down inside ourselves. We don't look deep into the bottom of our heart and see if We can find some wisdom there. There isn't any deep in the bottom of our heart. Our hearts are wicked, desperately so. Wisdom calls to us from outside ourselves.

Anybody who's calling you to look inside yourself is not calling you to wisdom. Because we don't find any there, except what the Lord has put there. It's the Lord who gives wisdom. In fact, that's what Proverbs goes on to say in verse 6 of the next chapter. For the Lord gives wisdom from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

All wisdom in the New Testament we read is hid in Christ. And James says that If anyone lacks it, let him ask of the Lord, and the Lord is willing and gracious to give it." Wisdom calls to us to hear outside of ourselves. Wisdom calls out then to the simple, to the naive, and to the scoffer. How long will you reject wisdom? How long will you hate knowledge?

See, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. This is saying how long are you going to reject the Lord? How long are you going to reject his words? Jesus is the word that was made flesh and dwelt among us. Wisdom calls out how long are you going to reject my words, my counsel?

How long will you love your ignorance, your simplicity, your naivete? So the simple are those who are too lazy to learn. They are too lazy to learn. Proverbs describes people that are too lazy to put their hand to their mouth to eat. The simple are those who are too lazy to learn the truth, to seek the truth, to search for it.

And Proverbs talks more about that later, exhorting us to search for it. Takes work. The simple are those who are too lazy to do that work. They just don't care enough. But the scoffers are different.

The scoffers know the truth, and they've rejected it. They have heard and have scorned it, mocked it. Psalm 1 describes this progression of those who are blessed as those who do not stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of, or walk in the counsel of the Ingal, they stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of those who scorn. These are the hardened cases, the hardened, the calloused souls. Wisdom calls out to both.

You see, there is a grace that is offered to both the simple and the scornful. There is no sin that is too wicked For God to forgive except the unforgivable sin one unforgivable sin blasts me against the Holy Spirit wisdom Calls out to the simple and the scoffer and wisdom calls out for us for these to turn Turn at my rebuke Surely I will pour out my Spirit on you." And that word is repent. It's a word for repent. I could only... This word for turn is a broad word.

It means to return. It's used almost a thousand times in the Old Testament by my very rough count. So it means a lot of different things and it's used in different contexts. But in this context, it means repent. And actually the word repent when it's used in the Old Testament is, except for three times, a different word.

Most of the times, the word in your English Bible, or King James at least, that is repent, is speaking of God repenting. He's not a man that he should repent. It means more or less to regret, a regret, a wish you hadn't done something kind of idea but when the Bible is calling men to turn from their sin then it uses this word right here turn in fact and I'll give you those look I'll show you those three examples at least that I found. There might be more out there, but I saw three. And that was in 1 Kings 8.

In Solomon's prayer of dedication when they he says when they come into the land where they were carried captive and repent there's that word turn and make supplication to you in the land of those who took them captive, saying we have sinned and done wrong, we have committed wickedness, and that when they return to you with all their heart. I want to point to you that word return is also the same word, repent. So when they repent, In verse 47, and when they return, in Hebrew that's the same word, to repent. When they return to you with all their heart, with all their soul, and the land of their enemies. You see, that's telling us what the essence of repentance is.

It's a turning to the Lord. It's a heeding of His counsel and wisdom. Then Solomon asked that the Lord would forgive. We also see in Ezekiel, And I want to point these two out because of another little interest. Because of the same thing that's happening there.

Ezekiel 14, 6 says, Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, Repent, turn away from your idols. Repent, turn away. It's the exact same word in Hebrew. It's the same word twice. Repent, repent.

Repent, turn away. It's teaching us what repentance is. It's to turn away from folly and to heed the call of wisdom. Ezekiel 18.30 has the exact same construction. If I can find the verse.

Therefore, I will judge you, O house of Israel, everyone according to his ways, says the Lord God, repent and turn from all your transgressions. If we were to just translate that literally, it would be turn And turn. Repent and repent. Repent and turn from your transgressions. And that's this word here that's used in verse 23.

Turn at my rebuke. Repent. Change your course. Go the other direction. Instead of running from wisdom, listen.

Heed the call of wisdom. Wisdom. Wisdom rebukes. Turn at my rebuke. Did you know that rebukes are good for you?

They're good for us. A rebuke of the wise is something that we need. It is, as it were, a gift to us. It's a gift to us because when we heed it we are preserved from destruction whoever loves instruction loves knowledge but he who hates correction is stupid so the Bible says, he who hates correction does not have wisdom. It's stupid.

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel, the Proverb says, is wise." Or chapter 15. Says again, the ear that hears the rebukes of life will abide among the wise. But he who disdains instruction despises his own soul. He who heeds rebuke gets understanding. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom.

He who heeds rebuke gets understanding. He who heeds rebuke abides among the wise. Wisdom calls to us to turn, to repent at her rebuke. This is the distinction here between the wise and the fool. How do you receive a rebuke?

Even a fool is thought wise when he doesn't open his mouth. But how do you receive a rebuke? That is the real test. The litmus test, if you will, between those who are wise and those who are fools. You rebuke a fool and he'll hate you.

You rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Because the rebuke of wisdom is a gift Lots of ways to reject a rebuke You can you can simply ignore the rebuke pretend it never happened. Walk away from someone when they seek to come and bring a rebuke. Walk away. Just ignore it.

Think no more of it. Don't even acknowledge that they said anything to you. You can also reject a rebuke by pouting and feeling pity for yourself. Pity for yourself. Or you can reject a rebuke by rationalizing it away, providing all sorts of reasons why you are justified in whatever you are doing or why it really isn't a problem after all.

And we rationalize, we justify why we are right. Or we can outright repudiate the rebuke, reject it, tell them they don't know what they're talking about or we can point back to sin in the other person who is bringing the rebuke and say well you've got all these problems You've done all these things. Why are you telling me? You see, we reject a rebuke by repudiating it. But a wise person does not reject a rebuke because the person coming to them is a sinner.

We're all sinners. If to bring a rebuke, to bring counsel, we had to be without sin, then nobody could. It's not as if we look at the other person bringing the rebuke and they say, well, You're carrying around a load of sin as well. In fact, you've got quite a bit of it. I don't need to listen to you.

But rather, a wise person says, no, what do I have? They may have a lot of sin. A wise person doesn't look at them. He looks at the rebuke. He looks at himself.

What do I have in me? Does this fit me? And if it fits, A wise one person will receive that rebuke even though it comes from a sinner. And recognize that the time and the place to deal with The other person's sin is not when they are trying to deal with yours. There is another time and a place, but not when they are seeking to come to bring a rebuke to us.

Of course, you can also reject a rebuke by retaliating. Now that's a real phenomena, a real problem. We talk about whistleblower laws. Why do we need whistleblower laws? Because the response of the fool is to retaliate at the rebuke of the wise.

It's to say I'm going to get even. I'm going to do you in. I'm going to destroy you. I don't like you. Wisdom calls out to repent, to turn at her rebuke.

She says, and I will pour out my spirit on you. She pours out her spirit. Christ's spirit is the Spirit of Wisdom. Paul told the Ephesians, prayed that the Spirit of Wisdom and revelation they might have. And in Acts 2, in Peter's sermon, as he's preaching on the day of Pentecost to all those assembled Jews who had crucified Christ.

He quotes from the prophet Joel where God promises to pour out his Spirit on them. Wisdom is saying the same here. I will pour out my Spirit on you. I will make my words known to you. Christ is the Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.

He was the wisdom of God. I will pour out my Spirit on you. I will make my words known to you. This is the promise, the call of wisdom. Now what happens to those who reject the call of wisdom?

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. What happens? This is a terrifying thing. Wisdom says, I will laugh.

I will laugh at your calamity. I'm going to mock you. This isn't the laughter of silliness. This isn't the laughter of a good time. This is the laugh of derision.

This is the laugh of the Rishin. And this also is what God says that he will do. In Psalm 2, it's very graphically stated. Those who the nations who rage who say, let us break, they rage against the Lord and against Christ is anointed. That's the word for Christ there.

Anybody that says Christ is not in the Psalms, read Psalm 2. The word anointed, the word Christ means anointed. The word Messiah means anointed. Those are three words in three different languages that all mean the same thing. They're three equivalent words.

So we could just read this, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Christ. Christ is a Greek word, so if you're translating Hebrew into English, you translate Messiah into anointed. You could say, against the Lord and against His Messiah. Against the Lord and against Jesus, saying, let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. And what is the reply of God?

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord will hold them in derision. He shall distress them in His deep displeasure." Rejecting wisdom means that God will laugh at you. He will hold you in derision. He will mock you like Elijah mocked the prophets of Baal as they leaped and danced and cut themselves with knives.

He said, well, why don't you cry a little louder? Maybe you're God's hard of hearing. Maybe he's indisposed. He's going to the bathroom. Maybe he's busy.

Why don't you cry a little louder? He was mocking them. Those who reject the call of wisdom and do not turn at her rebuke, God will hold them to reason. God will laugh. God will mock them.

He will mock them when their terror comes on them. Now, it's a bad thing when you see somebody mocking someone else. We don't feel too bad about it if somebody is out of their arrogance, gets mocked, but if somebody is down, if somebody is being hurt, if somebody's being terrified, if somebody were to come by and mock them in their terror, we would think that's the lowest of the low. That's what God says here. I will mock you when your terror comes.

When your terror comes like a storm and your destruction comes like whirlwind. God says He's going to mock you. He's going to laugh at you. Hold you in derision. He's not going to rescue you.

He's not going to take pity on you. He's rather going to laugh at you. Notice this progression. Wisdom says, I call, you refuse to answer. You refuse to answer.

When you call, I'll refuse to answer. Then they will call on me, but I won't answer." God did not answer the people that must surely have cried out as the flood waters in the days of Noah came upon them. Can you imagine the terror as the water that they had never seen in such quantities on the dry land got up to an inch and then a foot into their house? And then they're standing on the roof and the water is coming up to their roof. And as far as they can see, in every direction, there are just people who are thrashing in the water, drowning, as destruction has come upon these people, who for a hundred years refused the call of wisdom.

Can you imagine the terrors, the screams of agony, of fright, of sheer terror as the water comes up over the top of their house and there's nowhere else to climb. The highest mountains are covered. And like so many ants, these people are drowned. And God says he's laughing, he's mocking. Because they didn't turn and heed the call of wisdom.

They will call on me and I won't answer. They will seek me diligently, diligently, but they won't find me. Judas cried. He wept, but God didn't hear him. Saul didn't listen to the call of wisdom.

When he cried out, God wouldn't hear him. God wouldn't answer him. And in his desperation, he went to a witch at Endor and had wanted her to bring up Samuel. Because God refused to answer him. God would not answer him.

I wouldn't answer his prayer. Because Saul had not heeded the call of wisdom. When Samuel came forth, he told them that he would die. There's all sorts of people that reject wisdom today. You don't have to look very far to find them.

People like Dr. Krauss, Dr. Lawrence Krauss, who in his classroom said, well, all of the atoms of which you are made came from the explosion of a star. They were created when the star exploded. And so a star has died for you.

Your stardust. The star has died so that you can live, not Jesus. That's the words of a mocker, a scorner. Or the crowd that were singing amazing grace at the vigil for an elk that some policeman in Colorado Boulder had shot and killed in the line of protection, while they ignore the hundreds of babies that are murdered in the same town. See, it's easy to see these things and think, well, praise God, I haven't rejected wisdom.

But Proverbs doesn't just speak about the atheist, the agnostic, the scoffer. It also speaks about anger, speaks about our disposition. It speaks about our words, our words, not just everybody else's words. Husbands, we can't blow up at our wives in uncontrolled anger and think that we've heard the call of wisdom. Wives, you can't turn in disrespect to your husband and think you've heeded the call of wisdom.

And children, you cannot turn away from the words of your parents and think that you've heeded the call of wisdom. You can't spend your days in idle entertainment and useless activity and think that You have heeded the call of wisdom. You can't spend your days in idle entertainment and useless activity and think that you have heeded the call of wisdom. You see, To whom much is given, much is expected. And yes, you are far better than Dr.

Krauss. And you're far better than these silly people in Colorado, in one way. But You've been given a lot. If you're sitting here today, I know you've been given a lot. And to whom much is given, much is expected.

The Lord will look on us at how well we have used what we did have. Yes, everybody is without excuse, but we have been given much. Much understanding, much wisdom, knowledge. What are you going to do with it? Those who have none of the counsel of the Lord, who don't choose the fear of the Lord, who have despised His every rebuke, verse 30 says, these people shall eat the fruit of their own way.

They'll be filled to full of their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them. The complacency of fools will destroy them. Will destroy them. People that continually give in to alcohol, one day they wake up to find they can't turn away from it, and that they are destroyed by it.

That's true of many things, bad habits. It's true of training our children as well. We persist in folly with respect to our families and our children and refuse to teach them the fear of the Lord. They're going to grow up and turn away from the Lord and there'll be very little that you can do about it. You see, it's easy to get ourselves into huge problems because we refuse to heed wisdom in the simple things, in the little things that over time grow and build and one day we will eat the fruit of our own way and we will be filled to full with our own fancies.

You may go for 10 or 20 years thinking you're getting away with it. You may go 30 or 40 years thinking you're getting away with it. That you're the exception. That you're okay. And you don't need to heed the call of wisdom in this particular area or that particular area of your life.

But just know, God says, if you don't heed His counsel, You will eat the fruit of your own way in Ways you may have never expect and don't anticipate God's Word is true. This isn't just a proverb. That's true most of the time. You're not an exception to God's Word. This is the word of God that is, Ye and Amen in Christ Jesus.

Those who despise his counsel, those who do not choose the fear of the Lord, those who despise his rebuke will eat the fruit of their own way. You'll be filled to full with your own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. And what's a fool? The one who despises wisdom and instruction.

The one who rejects the fear of the Lord. But, whoever listens, whoever hears the call of wisdom, will dwell safely, and will be secure without fear of evil. Those who listen will dwell securely and will not fear evil. That means that there is nothing that will terrify or frighten your heart. Nothing.

You will be able to have joy in adversity, tranquility, peace that passes understanding in trials. Those who heed the fear of the Lord will dwell safely. You'll be able to say that I have no fear of men. What can men do to me? They have only power over my body.

They have no power over my heart. They have no power over my soul. They have no power to take away the joy of the Holy Spirit. They have no power to take away the love of God that's been shed abroad in us. They have no power to touch even one hair of our head, of our body, apart from God's decree.

Those who listen will dwell safely forever in the arms of Jesus. Let us pray. Almighty Father in heaven, We thank you for your word. We thank you that it was made flesh, that it dwelt among us, and that we beheld that glory. We thank you for your Spirit that you have poured out upon us that gives to us wisdom and understanding and knowledge.

We thank you for your Spirit that gives to us the power by your grace to heed the call of wisdom. Father, may we be those who each day turn away from folly and heed the call of wisdom. Turn away from our fear of men and fear you, which is the beginning of knowledge. Teach us to love counsel and instruction and yes even rebuke when that is needed. That we may dwell securely without fear of evil.

Through Jesus Christ, we ask this, amen.