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The Terror of Rejected Grace (Proverbs 1:22–33) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back. You're listening to a special
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  edition of the Deep Dive, and today we are focusing on
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  reformed thinking. It's good to be back, and yeah,
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  we are definitely not sticking to the shallows today.
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  The text we're looking at is historically one of the most
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  unsettling passages in all of Scripture.
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  It really is. I spent the last few days with
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  the, you know, the commentaries and sermons you send over, and I
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  have to admit, the text we're covering, Proverbs chapter 1,
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  verses 20 through 33. It honestly kept me up at night.
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  That's the right response. It should.
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  Normally when you hear proverbs, you think, oh, OK, practical
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  tips, you know how to handle your money, don't be lazy, that
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  kind of thing. It feels, I don't know, domestic
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  safe, right? Like something you'd stick on a
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  pillow or see on a coffee mug. The fortune cookie version of
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  Proverbs. We tend to treat it like this
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  grab bag of sayings that are just supposed to make our lives
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  a bit easier. But this passage, this is not a
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  fortune cookie. This reads like a horror movie.
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  We're looking at a section that theologians have called the
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  terror of rejected grace. It's a heavy title, but it's an
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  accurate one. We often try to tame wisdom
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  literature. We want to turn it into a self
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  help manual. But what we find here in
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  Proverbs 1 is it's a confrontation.
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  It's a full blown indictment. If you can read this passage and
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  not feel a little bit of a tremor, you're probably not
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  reading it right. So let's lay out the mission for
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  this deep dive. We want to take apart that self
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  help idea and really dig into the anatomy of unbelief that
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  this text presents. We want to understand why Wisdom
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  is, well, screaming in the streets, why people are ignoring
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  her, and the terrifying, specifically reformed view of
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  what happens when God finally just says, all right, have it
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  your way. Thy will be done.
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  It might be the most terrifying sentence God can speak to a
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  Sinner. It is, but before we get to the
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  really hard parts, we need a lens to look through.
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  We have a lot of source material here, Calvin, the Westminster
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  Standards, a bunch of Reformed commentators.
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  How should we be reading this? Because it's poetry, but it
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  feels like a legal summons. It's both.
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  You could call it judicial poetry and the lens we have to
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  use. The only one that really makes
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  sense of the severity of it all is the holiness of God and the
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  total depravity of man. OK, can you define those terms
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  for us in this context? Because a word like depravity
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  gets used a lot in our circles, but for a lot of people
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  listening it can be misunderstood.
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  Sure, if you read Proverbs, One with a low view of God, if you
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  think of him as, say, a gentle grandfather in the sky or cause
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  cosmic therapist, this text is just going to sound mean.
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  It sounds like God is a bully. But if you start from the
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  position that God is holy, that he is perfectly righteous, and
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  that humanity isn't just making some bad choices but is actually
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  an active cosmic level rebellion, well then the text
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  completely changes. It stops being a threat and
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  becomes a desperate, gracious warning.
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  So for our conversation today, we're going to lean on the
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  Westminster Confession of faith a bit because it gives us some
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  guardrails. It helps us understand these
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  heavier concepts like the effectual call and judicial
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  abandonment without falling into total despair.
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  We definitely need those guardrails, so let's jump in
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  verse 20, Wisdom crieth without. She uttereth her voice in the
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  streets. And then verse 21 adds that she
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  cries in the chief place of concourse.
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  Let's just pause right there that geography is so important.
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  He jumped out at me right away. Wisdom isn't tucked away in a
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  temple. She's not in some quiet
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  monastery or hiding in a cave somewhere.
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  Exactly. In the ancient Near East, where
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  does all of life happen? It happens at the city gate.
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  The gate wasn't just a door. It was the courthouse, the stock
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  market, the City Council chambers all rolled into one.
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  That's where deals were made. That's where justice was
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  dispensed, and that is exactly where Wisdom plants herself.
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  It's aggressive. It feels like she's getting in
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  everyone's personal space. It is an invasion, and you have
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  to contrast this with how we're conditioned to think today.
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  Modern secularism has this core belief that faith is a private
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  matter. You know the line.
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  Keep your religion to yourself. You can believe whatever you
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  want in your own home, but don't you dare bring it into the
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  boardroom. Don't bring it into the
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  university classroom. The famous separation idea.
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  But it's not just about church and state anymore.
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  It's about faith and, well, all of public reality.
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  Right, the myth of the neutral public square.
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  We're told that public life is this neutral zone where we all
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  just come together and use reason.
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  But Proverbs one just blows that idea to pieces.
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  Wisdom, who is the very voice of God, is shouting over the noise
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  of the marketplace. She's demanding a verdict in the
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  very places we've been told are supposed to be secular.
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  So according to this text, there's no such thing as neutral
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  ground. Not an inch, zero.
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  The source material is so clear on this.
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  You are either operating under the Lordship of Wisdom, who we
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  understand to be Christ, or you're operating under the
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  dominion of folly. There is no DMZ.
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  When you go to work, when you cast a vote, when you raise your
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  kids, you are doing it as a servant of one or the other.
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  That leads right into a concept that kept coming up in the
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  reading, this idea of open mindedness.
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  In our culture, being open minded is like the highest
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  possible virtue. If you're open minded, you're a
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  good person. If you have strong convictions,
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  you're probably dangerous, but the Bible seems to see it very,
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  very differently. It does, and we have to be
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  really careful with our definitions here.
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  I mean, there's a good kind of open mindedness where you're
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  teachable and willing to learn, but the open mindedness that our
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  culture worships is actually a suspension of judgment.
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  It's the idea that saying I'm not sure is intellectually
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  superior to saying I believe. Agnosticism is a kind of badge
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  of honor. Exactly, I'm just asking
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  questions. I'm a seeker.
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  The Bible and Solomon right here looks at that posture and says
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  no, you don't get to stand apart from reality and judge the
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  evidence for God. To claim that you are neutral
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  and you're just weighing the options is to already assume
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  that you are the judge and God is the one in the defendant's
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  box. That's a huge paradigm shift.
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  So you're saying the moment I put God on trial in my own mind,
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  I've already made my verdict? You've already taken the seat of
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  the Scorner, which is a category we'll get to in a moment.
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  Indecision when it comes to God is not an intellectual virtue.
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  It's a moral rebellion. To refuse to choose is in itself
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  a choice. That stinks, but it does set up
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  this next section perfectly. So Wisdom is in the street.
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  She's shouting and she looks out at this crowd.
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  And she asked this really diagnostic question in verse 22.
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  How long? Just two words, but they carry
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  the weight of an eternity. How long, ye simple ones?
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  Will ye love Simplicity? That phrasing.
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  It implies a clock is ticking, doesn't it?
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  It does. It implies that God is patient,
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  but his patience has a limit. It has echoes of the days of
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  Noah. You know God waited patiently
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  while the ark was being built, but eventually the door was shut
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  and the rain began. How long tells us that our moral
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  formation is on a timeline. You're not static.
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  Every single day you wake up, you are becoming more of
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  something either more wise or more foolish.
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  And she breaks the crowd down into three specific groups.
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  I found this part fascinating because we tend to just lump all
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  centers into one big category. But Proverbs is almost clinical.
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  Here we have the simple the scorners, and the fools.
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  Let's really drill down into these because I think a lot of
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  us will recognize ourselves or people we know in these
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  descriptions. Let's do it.
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  First up, the simple. In Hebrew, this is the Peethy.
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  The definition in our notes said it literally means the open one,
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  like a door that's off its hinges.
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  That's the perfect image. Just picture a house where the
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  front door is wide open and there's no screen.
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  What's going to? Happen, well, anything and
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  everything is going to fly in dust, leaves, bugs, whatever's
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  blowing by. Precisely.
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  The Peethy is the person who is open minded in the worst
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  possible sense. They don't have a moral compass.
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  They let every new idea, every cultural fad, every wind of
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  doctrine just blow right through their mind without any filter.
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  They are so easily influenced. These are the people who say
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  things like, well, that's your truth and this is my truth, or I
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  just try to go with the flow. But here's the part of the
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  indictment that really got me. Wisdom doesn't say, oh, you poor
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  things, you just don't have enough information, she says.
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  How long will you love simplicity?
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  That's the knife twist. They have an affection for it.
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  They love it. Why on earth would anyone love
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  being ignorant? Because it's comfortable.
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  Decision requires responsibility.
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  If I admit that God's Word is true, then I am obligated to
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  obey it. But if I can stay simple, if I
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  can just live in this pleasant fog of, well, who can really
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  know for sure, then I can live any way I want.
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  Right, I don't have to change anything.
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  I don't want to change my life. The PT loves the drift because
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  the drift feels like freedom, but it's actually just spiritual
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  laziness dressed up as intellectual humility.
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  Ouch. Yeah, OK, so that's the drifter,
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  the spiritually lazy person. Then the intensity really cranks
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  up. The second group is the scorners
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  or the Lutz in Hebrew. Now the temperature definitely
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  rises. The simple person is passive,
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  they're just drifting. The scorner is active.
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  These are the mockers. The notes mentioned cultural
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  elites for this category. Yes, the Lutz is the person who
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  deals with the conviction of God's law by laughing at it, the
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  text says. They delight in their scorning.
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  You see this everywhere in our culture.
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  You see it in late night comedy and some academic circles, on
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  social media threads. As soon as biblical morality
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  gets brought up, what is the instant default reaction?
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  Sarcasm. Mockery.
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  You're called a dinosaur. You're a bigot, a hater.
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  Right. It's immediately treated as a
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  joke. But if you think about it
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  psychologically, what's really going on there?
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  Why the laughter? It feels like a defense
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  mechanism. If I can make you in your
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  beliefs look ridiculous, then I don't have to seriously engage
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  with your argument. That's it exactly.
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  Mockery is a shield. If I can convince myself and
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  everyone around me that the Bible is just a book of fairy
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  tales for simpletons, then I don't have to tremble at its
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  warnings. The scorner feels superior.
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  They look down on the simple believers with total contempt.
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  But notice the downward spiral. The simple person is just
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  drifting, but the scorner has moved to active, aggressive
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  resistance. They're hardening.
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  And then we get to the bottom of the pit, the third category, the
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  fools, the key L. Now we have to clarify this
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  because in English, when we say fool, we usually mean someone
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  who's stupid, you know, low IQ. But that's not what Proverbs
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  means at all, is it? Not in the slightest.
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  A Kiesel can have three pH DS. They can be a Nobel laureate in
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  the Bible. A fool is not someone who is
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  mentally deficient. They are morally obtuse.
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  They're spiritually blind. So what's the defining
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  characteristic of the Kiesel? It's one word, hatred.
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  Verse 22 ends by saying fools hate knowledge.
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  This takes us right to Romans chapter 1.
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  The issue isn't that they can't see the evidence for God.
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  The issue is that they actively suppress the truth in
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  unrighteousness. So it's an act of the will.
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  It's volitional. It's intensely volitional.
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  They hate knowledge because knowledge comes with an
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  obligation. Knowledge implies authority.
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  If God is real and he has spoken, then I am not the center
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  of my own universe, and the fool hates that reality.
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  So they commit themselves to a worldview that must exclude God,
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  but no matter how irrational that worldview might become.
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  So we have this clear downward path.
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  You can start as the simple, just kind of lazy drifting
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  along. Then you can become the scorner,
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  defending your lifestyle with mockery and sarcasm.
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  And finally, you can calcify into the fool actively hating
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  the light because it exposes you.
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  That's the synthesis, and Wisdom is standing there looking at
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  this whole crowd, The Drifters, the mockers and the haters.
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  And her question hangs in the air.
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  How long? It feels like a pretty hopeless
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  situation at this point. I mean, if the fool hates
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  knowledge, how are they ever going to change?
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  But then right in verse 23, the tone pivots.
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  We get what the outline calls the gracious confrontation.
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  Wisdom issues a command. Turn you at my reproof.
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  And this is that word shove. It's the classic covenantal term
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  for repentance. It doesn't mean try a little
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  harder. It implies a complete 180°
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  physical turn. You are walking full speed
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  toward a Cliff. Wisdom is shouting turn around
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  now. She calls it reproof.
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  Now, let's be honest, nobody likes to be reproved in our
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  culture. If you tell someone they're
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  wrong about something, you're judging them.
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  You're being hateful. But the source material here
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  argues that this reproof is actually the highest possible
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  form of kindness. Think about a doctor.
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  If you go in for a physical and he finds a malignant tumor, what
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  is the kindest, most loving thing that doctor can do for
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  you? Tell me the truth, even if it
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  scares me to death. Correct.
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  If he just packs you on the head and says you're perfect just the
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  way you are, he is guilty of malpractice.
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  He might even be guilty of manslaughter.
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  Reproof is wisdom acting as that good doctor saying that path
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  you're on, the one that feels so good right now it leads to
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  death. To despise that kind of reproof
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  is to despise the rescue itself. And then right after this
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  command to turn, there's a promise.
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  And this is where the reformed theology really comes into sharp
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  focus. She says, Behold, I will pour
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  out my spirit unto you. I will make known my words unto.
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  You this verse is massive and we need to be very precise about
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  what it means when we hear the phrase pour out my spirit,
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  especially in the 21st century, our minds immediately jumped to,
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  you know, charismatic events. We think of Acts 2 speaking in
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  tongues, new prophets. Right, you think of new
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  revelation. But in the context of the
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  Westminster Confession, specifically Chapter 1, Section
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  5, this is not about new information being given, this is
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  about illumination. OK.
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  Can you break down that distinction for us?
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  Revelation versus illumination? Revelation is God giving
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  humanity the Word, the Scriptures.
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  That's a closed Canon. Illumination is God the Holy
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  Spirit giving us the eyes to see and understand the Word that's
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  already been given. And notice the order in the
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  verse. I will pour out my spirit, then
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  I will make known my words. The Spirit and the Word always,
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  always work together. So the Spears doesn't whisper
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  some new secret into your ear. He's more like a floodlight that
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  you shine on the pages of the Bible so you can finally read
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  them. That's a great way to put it,
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  and this connects right back to our three categories of sinners.
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  Remember, the simple person loves their simplicity.
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  They don't want to turn left to themselves.
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  They will just drift until they die.
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  The fool hates knowledge. He's not going to wake up 1
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  morning and decide, you know what?
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  I think I'll stop hating God today.
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  You can't. His very nature is opposed to
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  it. Right, so the question is, how
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  does anyone ever get saved? The spirit has to be poured out
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  first. That is the doctrine of the
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  effectual call. It is a sovereign act of grace
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  where the Holy Spirit regenerates the dead heart,
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  removes the spiritual scales from the eyes, and makes the
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  reproof of wisdom suddenly sound like the sweetest music in the
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  world. Without that initial pouring
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  out, the command to turn just falls on deaf ears.
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  So the offer is a genuine offer. The command is a real command,
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  but the ability to obey that command comes in the promise
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  that's attached to it. Yes, Augustine said it
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  perfectly. Lord command what you will and
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  then grant what you command. That's beautiful.
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  But, and here's the hard turn of the text, not everyone turns.
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  And we move now to verses 24 and 25, which the outline calls the
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  anatomy of rejection. And this is where we see the
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  doctrine of total depravity in, well, high definition.
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  It really shifts here. It feels like we're moving into
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  a courtroom. God becomes the prosecutor
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  laying out his case and listen to how he describes his own
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  actions, he says. I called.
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  I stretched out my hand. This are very human terms,
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  anthropomorphisms. They are.
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  God is describing himself like a father desperately reaching for
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  a toddler who was running out into a busy street, or like a
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  rescuer reaching for a drowning man.
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  God is active. He is pleading.
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  He is not distant and uncaring here.
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  It was the human response to this pleading refused, regarded,
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  not set at naughty. It's just chilling.
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  That phrase set at naughty is so powerful.
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  In the original language it means they took the life giving
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  counsel of the infinite eternal creator of the universe, and
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  they valued it at zero. They treated it like it was
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  nothing. Dust.
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  Why? I mean why would a creature do
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  that to its creator? Verse County 9 gives us the
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  reason for that. They hated knowledge and did not
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  choose the fear of the Lord. There it is again.
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  The core of the rejection is moral.
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  It's not intellectual. I can't say this strongly
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  enough. People do not reject the God of
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  the Bible because the arguments for his existence aren't strong
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  enough. They reject him because they did
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  not choose the fear of the Lord. OK, now I can hear a listener
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  pushing back right here. Wait a minute, you just said
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  they did not choose. Does that mean they had free
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  will? If they were totally depraved,
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  how can they have a choice? That is the classic critical
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  question, and we have to be clear about the reformed view of
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  the will here. It's often described as free
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  agency versus libertarian free will.
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  The Sinner is absolutely free to do whatever he wants to do.
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  Nobody is holding a gun to his head forcing him to sin.
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  He's not a robot. He's doing exactly what he
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  pleases. Exactly.
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  The problem, as Romans 8.7 tells us, is that his very nature, his
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  heart, is enmity against God. He wants to sin.
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  He wants autonomy, so yes, he freely exercises his choice, but
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  he always, invariably, 100% of the time, uses that freedom to
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  reject God. So he's free to choose, but he's
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  a slave to his own broken desires.
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  That's it. It's like if you put a plate of
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  broccoli and a plate of raw steak in front of a lion.
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  The lion is technically free to choose the broccoli, but he
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  never will. His nature dictates his desire.
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  The Sinner did not choose the fear of the Lord, because the
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  fear of the Lord would require him to get off the throne of his
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  own life. And the one thing a Sinner will
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  not do by his own power is abdicate that throne.
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  The text says they would none of my reproof.
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  That phrase would none implies a total rejection.
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  They didn't want 90% of God's lordship while keeping 10% for
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  their favorite sins. They wanted 0%.
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  They despise the very medicine that was meant to save them.
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  And because they despise the medicine, the disease must now
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  run its full course. And that brings us to, well,
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  this is the part of the text that really made me lose sleep
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  versus 26 and 27, the divine response.
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  Wisdom says, I also will laugh at your calamity.
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  I will mock when your fear coming.
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  Yeah. This is the text that makes so
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  many modern evangelicals just squirm.
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  We want a God who is only soft, only gentle.
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  We want, I don't know, Mr. Rogers in the sky, but here is
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  God saying that he will laugh at calamity.
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  So how do we handle this? Because if we read this the
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  wrong way, God sounds like a cosmic bully.
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  It sounds like he's getting some kind of sadistic Glee from
• 18:17
  watching people suffer like a big ha ha, I told you so.
• 18:20
  Is that what's happening here? Absolutely not.
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  And we know from other parts of Scripture, like Ezekiel, that
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  God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
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  So we have to be very, very precise here.
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  This divine laughter is not petty cruelty.
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  It is the holy vindication of divine justice.
• 18:36
  It's the exposure of a profound irony.
• 18:39
  Irony. How so?
• 18:40
  Think about the Scorner. He has spent his entire life
• 18:43
  mocking God. He made jokes about hell.
• 18:45
  He laughed at the stupid Christians.
• 18:47
  He built his whole identity on the idea that he was smarter
• 18:50
  than God. That he who was above it all.
• 18:52
  Now the fabric of his reality has collapsed on top of him.
• 18:54
  The whirlwind has arrived and Wisdom laughs because the man
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  who thought he was a giant is suddenly revealed to be nothing
• 19:00
  but a speck of dust. So that mockery that he gave out
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  is now reflected back on him. It is lex talionis, the law of
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  retaliation. The punishment fits the crime
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  perfectly. If you spend your life laughing
• 19:13
  at the law of gravity. Well, in a sense, gravity laughs
• 19:16
  back at you when you jump off the Cliff.
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  That makes sense. You can't argue with gravity
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  when it's happening and the text uses that kind of unstoppable
• 19:23
  nature imagery. Whirlwind storm, Distress,
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  Anguish. It speaks to the suddenness and
• 19:30
  the overwhelming power of it. When judgement finally comes,
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  it's not a negotiation, it's not a debate.
• 19:36
  It's a tornado when God finally withdraws his hand of common
• 19:39
  grace. Reality itself crushes the
• 19:42
  Sinner. And that brings us to the terror
• 19:44
  of them. Right verses 28 through 31.
• 19:47
  This creates A theological category that is genuinely
• 19:49
  scary. The point of too late.
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  We really don't like to think about this in our culture.
• 19:53
  We have this idea that hey, as long as I'm breathing, I can
• 19:56
  just pray a quick prayer at the last second and everything will
• 19:58
  be fine. The deathbed get out of jail
• 20:00
  free card. Exactly.
• 20:02
  But this text strongly suggests that there is a state a person
• 20:05
  can reach where the heart becomes so hardened, so
• 20:09
  judicially abandoned by God, that true repentance becomes
• 20:13
  impossible. Then shall they call upon me?
• 20:16
  But I will not answer. It reminds me of the story of
• 20:18
  Esau in the New Testament. The book of Hebrews says he
• 20:21
  sought the blessing with tears, but he found no place for
• 20:24
  repentance. That is the perfect parallel.
• 20:27
  And look closely at why these people in Proverbs are suddenly
• 20:30
  calling out to God. Are they calling because they've
• 20:33
  had a change of heart and they suddenly love wisdom?
• 20:35
  Are they calling because they are truly sorry that they've
• 20:38
  offended a holy God? No, they're calling because the
• 20:41
  whirlwind is ripping their house apart.
• 20:43
  They are calling because it hurts.
• 20:44
  They aren't repenting of their sin.
• 20:46
  They are regretting the consequences of their sin.
• 20:48
  They want the pain to stop, they want the cancer to go away, they
• 20:52
  want the money back in their bank account.
• 20:54
  But they still don't want God Himself.
• 20:56
  And that is a false repentance. And God does not answer that
• 20:59
  kind of prayer. He does not.
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  The Westminster Confession in chapter 5, section 6 speaks
• 21:04
  about this very clearly. It says that God, as a righteous
• 21:07
  judge, can blind the minds and harden the hearts of those who
• 21:10
  are obstinate. He gives them over to their own
• 21:13
  lusts. That phrase gives them over.
• 21:15
  That sounds like the very definition of hell we find in
• 21:17
  verse 31. Therefore shall they eat of the
• 21:20
  fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
• 21:23
  CS Lewis captured this better than anyone.
• 21:25
  He said that in the end there are only two kinds of people.
• 21:29
  Those who say to God, thy will be done, and those to whom God
• 21:32
  says in the end that will be done.
• 21:33
  Wow. Hell is God finally giving the
• 21:36
  unrepentant Sinner exactly what they demanded their entire
• 21:39
  lives. You wanted a life without me.
• 21:41
  You wanted to be filled with your own schemes, your own
• 21:43
  devices, your own truth. Here it is, all of it, forever.
• 21:47
  Eat it. So it's not some arbitrary
• 21:49
  lightning built from heaven, it's the harvest of what you
• 21:52
  planted. It's the natural, inevitable
• 21:55
  ripening of the seeds they sowed, filled with their own
• 21:58
  devices. Can you imagine being locked in
• 22:00
  a room for eternity with nothing but your own selfishness, your
• 22:03
  own pride, your own bitterness, your own rage for company?
• 22:07
  That is the torment. Just add one final layer of
• 22:10
  terrible irony. Verse 32 says the prosperity of
• 22:14
  fools shall destroy them. That is such a counterintuitive
• 22:17
  truth for us. We think prosperity is always a
• 22:19
  blessing from God. You know, if I'm rich and
• 22:21
  healthy, God must be happy with me.
• 22:24
  But for a fool, for someone who hates knowledge, prosperity is
• 22:27
  an executioner. How does that work?
• 22:29
  Because if you give a rebel comfort and money and health and
• 22:33
  ease, what does it do? It just reinforces their
• 22:35
  delusion that they don't need God.
• 22:37
  It acts like a spiritual anesthetic.
• 22:39
  It keeps them comfortable while the cancer of their sin is
• 22:42
  metastasizing. It fattens the calf for the
• 22:45
  slaughter. Their ease is what destroys them
• 22:47
  because it prevents them from ever seeing the whirlwind coming
• 22:50
  until it's right on top of them. That is a heavy the heavy
• 22:54
  picture, the storm, the laughter, the silence of God.
• 22:57
  It really is a Horror Story, but, and I'm so glad there's a
• 23:01
  but, we get to verse 33. The great theological hinge of
• 23:05
  the passage. But whoso hearkeneth unto me
• 23:07
  shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
• 23:11
  The entire atmosphere changes here.
• 23:13
  We move from the terror of the whirlwind into the security of a
• 23:16
  fortress. Now we have to read this through
• 23:19
  Christological lens, right? We can't just read this as if
• 23:22
  you're a good person, you'll be safe.
• 23:24
  Who is wisdom here? In the final analysis, wisdom is
• 23:28
  personified in Jesus Christ. Paul tells us in First
• 23:30
  Corinthians that Christ is the wisdom of God.
• 23:33
  And if you think about the entire history of the world,
• 23:35
  Jesus is the only human being who has ever perfectly hearkened
• 23:38
  to the Father. He was never simple.
• 23:41
  He never scorned. He never played the fool.
• 23:43
  He obeyed perfectly at every moment.
• 23:45
  And yet the whirlwind hit him. That is the heart of the gospel
• 23:50
  on the cross, the whirlwind of God's perfect justice, the laugh
• 23:53
  of the law that should have crushed you and me, it all fell
• 23:56
  on Him. He was filled with the devices
• 23:59
  of our sin. He drank the cup of rejection
• 24:01
  down to the dregs so that we wouldn't have to.
• 24:04
  So when the text promises that we can dwell safely, it's only
• 24:07
  because he took the danger in our place.
• 24:10
  Correct. He stood in the storm so that
• 24:13
  could have the shelter. Does dwelling safely mean I
• 24:15
  won't get sick? Does it mean my business won't
• 24:17
  fail? No, and the Psalms are filled
• 24:19
  with examples of righteous people suffering terribly.
• 24:22
  This is not a promise of an easy life.
• 24:24
  Remember, earthly ease is what destroys the fool.
• 24:27
  This promise is about covenantal security.
• 24:30
  Quiet from fear of evil. Specifically, the ultimate evil,
• 24:33
  the judicial wrath of God, the condemnation of the law.
• 24:37
  For the believer who is in Christ, that ultimate fear of
• 24:39
  judgement is gone. We have peace of conscience.
• 24:43
  This connects directly to the Westminster doctrine of
• 24:45
  assurance. We aren't safe because we are so
• 24:47
  smart or so good. We are safe because we are
• 24:50
  hidden in the One who took the storm for us.
• 24:53
  So for the believer, this completely changes our
• 24:56
  motivation for obedience. We're not obeying God's law to
• 25:00
  stop the whirlwind anymore. Right for us, the whirlwind is
• 25:02
  gone. It was spent on Christ.
• 25:05
  We obey now out of love and gratitude.
• 25:08
  This is what's called the third use of the law.
• 25:10
  We hearken to wisdom not to earn our salvation, but because we
• 25:14
  are the beloved children who are already safe inside the
• 25:16
  fortress. We listen to the Father's
• 25:18
  commands because we love Him and we know they are for our good.
• 25:22
  This has been a lot to process. We've gone from a street corner
• 25:25
  in ancient Israel to the judgement seat of God to the
• 25:27
  cross. So let's try to bring it all
• 25:29
  down to the ground. How do we apply this?
• 25:31
  The source material broke it down into head, heart and hands.
• 25:36
  Let's start with the head. OK, intellectually, the
• 25:38
  application is to reject the idol of simplicity.
• 25:42
  We have to stop pretending that being neutral or undecided is a
• 25:45
  virtue. We need to engage with heavy
• 25:47
  truths. If you're listening to this,
• 25:48
  don't be a spiritual infant. Study the scriptures.
• 25:51
  Study the historic confessions. Know what you believe and why
• 25:54
  you believe it. Stop letting the culture just
• 25:56
  drift you along. And for the heart, this is about
• 25:59
  our affections, our loves. We have to do a hurt check.
• 26:02
  We have to examine what we love, Wisdom asked.
• 26:05
  How long will you love simplicity?
• 26:07
  We need to ask ourselves, do I love the ease of fitting in?
• 26:11
  Do I love the approval of the culture more than I love the
• 26:13
  approval of God? The fear of the Lord needs to
• 26:16
  reorder our affections. We need to fear God more than we
• 26:19
  fear the ridicule of the scorners on late night TV.
• 26:21
  That's the real battleground, isn't it?
• 26:23
  The fear of man versus the fear of God.
• 26:25
  It is. And finally, hands action.
• 26:28
  The command was turn, and that's a verb.
• 26:31
  It means concrete obedience. It means looking at the details
• 26:35
  of your life, your sexual ethics, your business practices,
• 26:38
  how you use your money, and asking, am I operating according
• 26:40
  to God's wisdom or am I operating according to the
• 26:43
  devices of the world? And what about for the person
• 26:46
  listening who might not be a believer?
• 26:47
  Yeah, or maybe for the person who grew up in the church but
• 26:50
  has been drifting, being simple for a decade or more.
• 26:53
  For them, the application is urgent.
• 26:55
  Now is the accepted time. The door to the fortress is open
• 26:59
  today. Wisdom is still shouting in the
• 27:01
  streets today. Do not presume that you will
• 27:04
  have tomorrow to decide. The clock is ticking.
• 27:07
  And for us as believers, there's a way we can act this out, a way
• 27:10
  we can taste this reality every single week, the Lord's Supper.
• 27:15
  It fits perfectly. The world eats the fruit of
• 27:17
  their own way, which turns to ash in their mouths.
• 27:20
  We come to the Lord's table and we eat the bread of life.
• 27:23
  We feast on Christ Himself. It's the tangible proof that we
• 27:27
  are safe from the whirlwind. We eat and drink the judgement
• 27:30
  that He took for us, and by His grace it becomes life to us.
• 27:33
  So as we wrap this up, the choice the wisdom presents is
• 27:37
  incredibly stark. There really isn't the middle
• 27:39
  ground, is there? There is no middle ground.
• 27:41
  You will either face the whirlwind of abandonment alone
• 27:43
  or you will find the quietness of covenant security in Christ.
• 27:47
  You are either His willing captive or you are a captive of
• 27:50
  your own self-destructive devices.
• 27:52
  I. Want to leave our listener with
• 27:53
  one final thought to Mull over. This week we talked about that
• 27:56
  question. Wisdom asks how long I want you
• 27:59
  to really consider this. Are you using the grace of time,
• 28:03
  The fact that you woke up this morning, that your heart is
• 28:05
  beating in your chest right now? Are you using that time to
• 28:08
  repent, or are you using it to reinforce your own complacency?
• 28:12
  Are you just assuming the clock will never run out on you?
• 28:15
  That is the question. The thought of Wisdom's laugh is
• 28:18
  terrifying, but her invitation in Christ is sure, and it is
• 28:21
  sweet. Turn up my reproof.
• 28:24
  The Spirit stands ready to be poured out.
• 28:25
  So, Harken and Dwell Safely, thank you for joining us on this
• 28:28
  deep dive into reformed thinking.
• 28:30
  We'll see you next time.