The Proverbial Fool (part 2)

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Beyond The Basics 5 - The Need For And The Necessity Of The Work Of Christ (part 3)

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Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the freedom and the ability to look into your
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Word. We thank you for the wisdom that's contained therein. We just ask your blessing upon this time and on the service later.
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I pray that you would guard the words that come out of my mouth and may everything we do and say and discuss here be glorifying to you.
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We ask it in Christ's name, Amen. Okay, so we're looking at the characteristics of a fool from the book of Proverbs.
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This is nearly an exhaustive study, but not quite in terms of all the references to being a fool.
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And I think it's just fascinating. Sometimes, you know, we want to study that which we should become, but every now and then it's also good to study that which we should not be or become.
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So we're going to look at the proverbial fool. And this is a continuation of the
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Sunday school that we did back in August. So if you have that handout, you'll have, I think with the exception of two references, you'll have every reference to a fool in Proverbs.
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So let's jump right into it. And basically, the way that we've been working this is we look at the verse and then we kind of summarize the verse and I provide a missing word just because it helps.
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I find that filling in things helps me pay attention, so I've used it to hopefully help you pay attention as well.
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So let's look at the first one. Number one, Proverbs 1520, a wise son makes a father glad, but a foolish man despises his mother.
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So, the fool often, what, despises, yeah, despises would work, ignores, yeah, that's good.
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Any others? There's one that I was looking for specifically. The thing that struck me from this verse and also from looking at fools who despise their mothers, that a fool often resents those who have done him the most good, which really is a silly thing, isn't it?
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You think about the runaway, you know, that they hit 16 years old or 18 years old.
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In my family, I had quite a few of them actually. And they think, I'm tired of the rules here,
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I'm tired of you as my parents, I'm going to run away. And they go out and get a real education as they experience the real world.
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They think there's liberty out in the world, or they join the army, which is great to join the army, but it's like,
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I don't like your authority, so I'm going to join the military. I never understood that one.
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The Lord has a way of sanctifying you regardless of what you do. So you look at someone who has a lot of resent and bitterness towards their parents and sometimes there's a lot to resent and a lot to be bitter about our parents, but we still are to honor their position, even if the people that fill that position are not very honorable.
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All right, number two, Proverbs 16 .22, understanding is the foundation of life to one who has it, but the discipline of fools is folly.
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And actually I had the benefit of a, I had to turn to a commentary on this one just to make sure I grasped it, but the words that I kind of, that summarize this verse to me was, a fool masters and is governed by his folly like a scholar is by his books.
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Understanding is the foundation of life to the one who has it, right? So the wise are governed and they reference common sense or understanding as where the fool does nothing but folly.
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Okay, number three, Proverbs 17 .7, excellent speech is not fitting for a fool, much less are lying lips to a prince.
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And it's interesting here, in this verse, Solomon, it's almost as if, you know, a broken clock is right twice a day.
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When the fool manages to say something excellent, you just kind of shake your head and say, did that person really say that?
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You know, it's, excellent speech is not fitting for a fool. So the thing that struck me was, once known as a fool, your input will always be discounted.
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Number four, this one's, you probably wouldn't even have to read the verse to get this one, a fool never learns their lesson.
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Yeah, Proverbs 17 .10a, a rebuke goes deeper into the one who has understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.
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Makes me think about that American who was in, I believe it was Singapore, and spray painted a car in the
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Singaporean court. I think it was only 10 lashes with a bamboo rod, and the
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ACLU was up in arms, and the parents were, he's a good kid, you know, he got the blows.
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I don't think he'll be spray painting cars in Singapore anymore. Okay, number five,
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Proverbs 17 .12, let a man meet a bear robbed of her cubs, rather than a fool in his folly.
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Do we have any hunters in the room here? Yeah? Oh, Mike Huber's not here too,
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I know he's a hunter. What's the bad deal about coming across a bear with cubs?
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They'll attack you, why will she attack you? Protect the cubs, yeah. And you know what, it's okay, having come across a couple bears in the
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New Jersey woods. If you see a bear with her cubs, and you're way outside on the periphery, you're okay.
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But if you get in between her and her cubs, you're in a lot of trouble. And that is a really life -threatening, terrifying situation.
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I mean, I've come about 20 feet away from a full -grown black bear, and it's terrifying.
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It's amazing that Solomon thought a fool is more dangerous. Okay, number six,
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Proverbs 17 .16, why is there a price on the hand of a fool to buy a bear by wisdom, when he has no sense?
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Okay, even if a fool had the means to get wisdom, he wouldn't, because he fails to recognize his predicament.
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Oh, associating, I'm sorry. Little good and mostly harm will come from associating with a fool.
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Thank you, keep me on track. And number six, even if a fool has the means to get wisdom, he won't, because he fails to recognize his predicament.
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That's obviously found elsewhere in the scriptures. You know, we've talked a lot this summer, while going through Proverbs, about how the word of God is an external reference outside of us, for governing ourselves, for constraining our behavior, and discerning the will of God, and doing that which pleases
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God. And in the previous, I don't know if you remember, in the August class, one of the problems of the fool is that he has, he or she only has an internal reference.
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They lack the understanding to have a holy mistrust of themselves, and to look outside of themselves.
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And that is, that's key. And I just wrote down here, foolishness is rarely recognized without outside help.
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You know, the ability to properly assess oneself in light of the scriptures is what can remedy that situation.
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Number seven, he who sires a fool does so to his sorrow, and the father of a fool has no joy.
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So a fool's lifestyle will often, what, father and son? What was that?
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Alienate, yes, alienate. And to keep it as G -rated as possible,
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I mean, Solomon here saying, he who sires a fool does so to his sorrow.
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This sort of implies that the creation of the fool was probably the most interaction the father and the son had.
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You know, when you're utterly ashamed of someone or something as a parent, which, you know, thank
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God I'm not, but you know, you think, you know, giving birth to that kid was the stupidest thing
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I ever did, you know. You reduce it down to its foundational sense. So when Solomon says, he who sires a fool, there's just utter disdain in that word.
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And then saying, and the father of a fool has no joy. So the couplet there is the creation of the fool, and then having to raise the dumbbell.
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You know, it just doesn't bring the father any joy. So alienates is the word.
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Number eight, Proverbs 17 .24, wisdom is in the presence of the one who has understanding, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.
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That's an amazing verse. The fool is blank, focused on instant gratification, not the slow acquisition of wisdom.
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Focused or fixated, yeah, exactly. Isn't that so true?
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And we can act foolish, again, I want to reiterate back again from August. All these things speak very condemningly of a fool, but the point of this is to look for foolish behavior in us, because we can have, we may not be an utter proverbial fool in the complete and extreme sense, but we can exhibit foolish behavior.
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And these proverbs are to hem us in and to point us in the right direction. But how many, you know, you work all year to get on vacation, to get on the beach, you know, and then you're on the beach with your family and you're enjoying it and you think, what's next?
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What, you know, maybe, I don't know, should we go out to dinner? What should we do next, you know? It's like the eyes are always on the ends of the earth, or you do something, you finally acquire some goal, you know, and you don't, there's no godly contentment.
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The fool is always looking for the next thing. What's next? What's next? There's never any satisfaction. And I think that describes a lot of us in the 21st century.
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Okay, number nine, a foolish son is a grief to his father and bitterness to her who bore him.
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Want to know if you're acting foolish? Ask your parents. God designed parents for a reason.
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Every person in the world was given two fools that are one generation older than them and learned how to constrain their foolishness, right?
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We all start as fools. Our sinful nature is sort of typified by foolish behavior.
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Okay, Proverbs 17, 28, even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise.
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When he closes his lips, he is considered prudent. And Proverbs 18, 7, a fool's mouth is his ruin and his lips are the snare of his soul.
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So this one's kind of obvious. A fool's own mouth tells everybody what he is. He doesn't need to advertise.
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He's more than happy to let you know he's a fool. That's a good, that's an excellent quote there.
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And of course, it always reminds me of that great Abraham Lincoln quote, you know, better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
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Okay, number 11. And these hit a little close to home, which is good.
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That's what they were meant to do. Proverbs 18, 2, a fool does not delight in understanding but only revealing his own mind.
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A fool loves his own opinion. Anybody here a talk radio junkie like me?
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Yeah, yeah. Boy, Americans just love to give their opinion. And another way that we do this when talking with friends is we play one -upsmanship.
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You know, it's like, well, how was your week? Oh, I dislocated my thumb. Oh, yeah, well, I dislocated my shoulder.
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You know, that sort of stuff is not edifying to the hearer. Talking over people.
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When somebody has not yet finished a sentence and you begin to talk over them, that is, that's not good.
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Not yielding in an argument when the weight of evidence is against you. The, as some people call it, the yeah, but clause.
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You know, I have high def videotape of you taking it.
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Yeah, but I didn't take it. You know, I mean, people go to that length. It's unbelievable.
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So as soon as you're discussing with people and they've resulted to the yeah, but clause, you know that you've departed from logic and they're just in love with their opinion.
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These are all very relevant in the political season, aren't they? Okay, number 12.
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I have to say this is probably my favorite. Proverbs 18 .6,
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a fool's lips bring strife and his mouth calls for blows. And number 12,
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I can hear my father saying this. Well, the end of the sentence, a fool is asking for a beating.
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A fool asks for a beating by his behavior. Now, Solomon doesn't say where to grant him his wish necessarily.
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Yeah, some things don't need to be said. So I nominate Dan for the beating ministry. Yeah, okay.
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Number 13, Proverbs 19 .1. Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than he who is perverse in speech and is a fool.
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And the summation, the fool does not understand the meaning of integrity.
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That's good. The value of integrity. Yeah, both are good.
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You know, the only thing you have in this life. Here's my father again coming out of me. The only thing you have in this life is your word, right?
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And once you lose that, you're worthless. You're worthless as an employee. You're worthless as a promise keeping husband, father.
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Proverbs 19 .10, luxury is not fitting for a fool, much less for a slave to rule over princes.
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You aren't likely to see many rich or I said successful fools.
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You know, this is, if I said this anywhere else than here,
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I would probably be dragged away and beaten. But I am all, we should all be, you know,
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Christ said the poor will always be with us. We should always help the poor. There are reasons beyond people's control why people fall into destitution.
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But there are reasons why people are poor. And yes, Bruce. Yeah, you do.
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And I think the Lord uses riches as a punishment sometimes as well as a blessing.
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But yeah, I mean, the preponderance or the majority of people, there are very small slice of the public who is actually wealthy.
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I mean, deemed wealthy. The number of poor and I mean, there was a time where I was,
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I qualified as poor according to the US census. But what I'm saying is that when in this political season, we hear people talking about helping the poor and giving, you know, some people are poor because they're not industrious and they're lazy and they're fools.
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But you could never say that. Can you imagine if someone during the debate, if somebody said, well,
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I want to help those that really need it. But, you know, for the third generation of people on welfare, I don't want to help them at all.
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They can suffer. I mean, the polls will go. So the world has almost described a moral superiority to poverty.
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And the Bible doesn't speak that way. So anyway, before I get in any trouble, let's move on here.
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Oh, yeah. Just for my notes on that point, you talk about lottery winners. Something like 75 % of all lottery winners are penniless within two years of winning multi -million dollars.
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So the people who rely on gambling probably are devoid of a little bit of common sense and wisdom because they're going for the get rich.
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So they're not industrious. They're looking for the quick fix. And they're in desperation. And they go and buy their lottery ticket.
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Well, when you get $10 million, you're still that person lacking common sense and looking for the quick fix.
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And you don't know how to manage your money. And all of a sudden, they're poor again. How many professional athletes are destitute a couple years after earning three, four million dollars a year playing football or something?
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So a fool and his money are soon pardoned. Okay, number 15.
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Proverbs 19 .13. A foolish son is destruction to his father. And the contentions of a wife are a constant dripping.
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How is a child's foolishness destruction to his or her parents? Can anybody give me examples of what
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Solomon might be meaning there? And I shouldn't say Solomon every time because some of these are not Solomon's. True, yeah.
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Very true. Yeah. Exasperation. Sure. Yeah. What about real destruction?
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Right, right. Financial. Yep, absolutely. I forget. There was some movie from the 80s that I just have a dim recollection of from back then where the son had a gambling problem.
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It was the same guy that played Amadeus. He had a gambling problem. And is that what it was called?
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Parenthood. And the father offered him a job down at his plumbing warehouse thing to earn money to pay off these loan sharks who were going to kill him.
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And he said, I'll do that, dad. But I got this line on a horse. And if I could just have $5 ,000,
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I think I could earn the 40 ,000. And he went and gambled it and lost it. And the people came to get him.
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And his son ran away. And the father said, you know what? I'm done helping him. And it was very, very sad.
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Oh, and he left him with a child too. So the parents had to raise the son's children. So there is a lot of a fool's folly often spills over to his family and causes harm.
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OK, Proverbs 19 .29. I hope Pastor Mike's message is very upbeat because I'm kind of blue now.
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Proverbs 19 .29, judgments are prepared for scoffers and blows for the back of fools.
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Blows for the back of fools are prepared for them. That speaks of sovereignty and ramifications.
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So the foolishness has inescapable ramifications. And we know that to be the case.
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Proverbs 23, number 17, keeping away from strife is an honor for a man, but any fool will quarrel.
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So I thought I wrote my own couplet here, which I probably shouldn't have done. But like a moth to flame, it's easy to engage a fool in a dispute.
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Yes, right.
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That's right. Dan said that each one of these has a positive side that we can infer.
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Or sometimes the positive side is right in there. Keeping away from strife is an honor for a man. We'll actually talk about that too a little bit more.
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In terms of evangelism, or even apologetics, or even politics around the water cooler.
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And when some people just conversationally instantly put up their dukes when you're talking to them, or they don't deal in logic, you see emotional and moral walls come up and thwart the argument.
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And at that point, it's kind of casting your pearls before swine. You need to know when someone is, when the
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Lord has prepared this person to hear the presentation of the gospel, or to discuss spiritual things.
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And when you'll just be, you know, they'll just be digging in their heels. Okay. Number 18,
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Proverbs 22, 15. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will remove it far from him.
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So painful consequences remove or cure foolishness.
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Solomon did believe in corporal punishment, regardless of what the state of Massachusetts thinks. And he also said, it was
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Solomon, right? That said, spare the rod, spoil the child. So just as a teething baby bites its tongue with its new teeth, and learns not to bite itself because of pain, corporal punishment removes foolishness from a very small child.
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And it's very true. Yes, Mike. Exactly.
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There is a right way to administer corporal punishment. There's a wrong way. We have a great tape series for anyone that's interested in the library by Pastor Ted Tripp called
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Shepherding a Child's Heart. And if you want to know about the proper administering of corporal punishment, that's a wonderful tape series.
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Gospel -centered or gospel -oriented discipline, where every time you discipline the child, it's a chance to show them that they do things wrong because they have a sinful heart.
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And mommy and daddy are also sinners, and we needed a savior as well, just like you need a savior.
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And it's just wonderful the way that he goes through it. And that Psalm 23, thy rod and thy staff, the staff is inferring, guiding the sheep into the pen, and the rod is motivating them into the pen, right?
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So you need both. You need both. Or as my father said, applying the board of education to the seat of learning.
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Okay, number 19. This also speaks to what we were talking about.
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Proverbs 23, 9. Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
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Evangelizing or counseling a fool is a lesson in futility. That's why
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David talks about a contrite heart. You can't plant seed in hard -packed soil.
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The soil has to be tilled up and loosened for that seed to be fruitful. And the fool has intentionally lived a life of compacting the soil of his heart.
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And the Lord is the one who will loosen up the soil, usually through trials. Okay, number 20.
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Proverbs 24, 7. Wisdom is too exalted for a fool. He does not open his mouth in the gate.
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What does that mean, he doesn't open his mouth in the gate? Who can give me a little
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Old Testament? Yeah, Bruce. The gate of what?
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The gate of the city, usually. Yeah, right, exactly. And all the, makes me think of Fiddler on the
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Roof, you know, where he says, I'd spend eight hours discussing with the wise scribes, and they would go out to the gate and talk about doctrine and make judgments about civil things that are going on in the, and when the fool came in from harvesting and had to pass through the gate, he just kept his mouth shut and passed through the gate because he wasn't deemed to open his mouth or deemed worthy.
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So fools scoff and avoid things that are above them. Now, there's a real error many times of anti -intellectualism in this country.
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Actually, in the world, unfortunately. Again, this MTV, the sort of dumbing down of America, supplying information in bite -sized morsels that really don't tell you anything.
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I get so frustrated when I'm listening to news radio or the news, and the snippet that they've chosen to play of a 40 -minute speech is like one prepositional phrase.
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I say, what is the point of that? It was absolutely useless. But they think that people are too, and many times we are, we're going too fast and we're too simple to want to dig in deep and to learn something thoroughly.
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And that's foolish behavior. You know, if something affects us, you know, you read about the bailout plan.
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What is the bailout plan? You know, go on the internet, read the details of it, dig into it. Do you support it?
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Do you not support it? Maybe it's not important to you. You know, maybe that's, I actually heard a woman call up and she said, hi,
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I live on the Cape and I'm poor. And I love this market crash because it doesn't affect me at all.
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She said, I'm laughing at all you people. But anyways, you know, when you try to discuss something and the people just, they just shut off their mind, that anti -intellectualism, that's a very foolish behavior.
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Okay, let's move along here. Proverbs 26 .3. Solomon's getting violent again.
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A whip is for the horse, a bridle for the donkey and a rod for the back of fools.
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So how frequently do you see a bit in a horse's mouth? All the time.
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So how frequently in Solomon's day did you see rods on the back of fools all the time?
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It's a very different culture back then. So punishment and strife are commonplace for the fool.
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That's right, that's right. So the bridle, although it does initially cause a little bit of pain, it's a constraining device that directs the horse where it wants to go.
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And isn't that interesting that Solomon viewed physical punishment, the outcome of which is not pain, it's not punishment, it's directing them which way they should go, right?
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And when our kids are little, the whole goal is to associate a negative behavior with pain.
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If you do this, you'll experience pain. And then when they're 18 years old, off borrowing the family car, doing something, considering doing something stupid, they're going to have that association.
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I do something wrong, I'm going to experience pain. It may not be physical pain, although in a car it could very well be physical pain.
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But what we're doing is we're putting gravity into wrongdoing. When you do something wrong, it's serious.
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The scales are tilted and they must be corrected back again. I mean, ultimately, it's
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Christ who takes all the payment for all the wrongdoing that we do. But God has established in our society here ramifications for wrongdoing, the civil magistrate, things like that, parents who discipline us, employees who give us bad reviews,
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I mean employers. So when we don't punish in a proper way, the child begins to understand that wrongdoing there's never really a heavy payment for wrongdoing.
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And if you get a kid who leaves the house thinking that there's never payment for wrongdoing, you've done them the ultimate disservice that could actually lead to, humanly speaking, could lead to missing eternal life.
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It also cheats the savior out of the worth of what he did on the cross, right?
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One little sin was enough for someone to die. And we have years and years of sin, 75, 80 years should we live so long.
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So if hitting your sister over the head with a baseball bat maliciously earns you four minutes sitting on the bottom step in a timeout,
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I'm sorry, and I might get in trouble. But you need to, that's gonna be like,
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Dad, I'm in jail, DUI, and this is my one phone call, I need you to come bail me out.
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You go get the kid and he's like, that cop was an idiot, it's everybody's fault but mine. It's our job to teach them that it's their fault and that they will receive the payment for what they do wrong.
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The same way that a child bites its tongue when it's teething, it learns not to bite its tongue through pain.
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This isn't, it's not my opinion, that's what the scriptures say. Okay, is it 22?
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Yeah, Proverbs 26 five, answer a fool as his folly deserves that he not be wise in his own eyes.
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Now you can go a little crazy with this one. A fool deserves a rebuke, not to have his foolishness legitimized.
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Yes, right. Right, right.
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Don't descend to the level of a fool. Right. And thereby legitimize the quality. Exactly.
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But call a spade a spade. Yep, that's right.
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Dan talks about, he said how the foundation of presuppositionalism was based on these verses and basically in a nutshell, and correct me if I'm wrong, there's evidentialism, which is you, when a fool throws up a silly argument, you address his argument and deal with it and then get on in your evangelization.
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He throws up a new objection, you apologetically handle the objection and pass it by and get back to evangelism.
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What about creation? Is the Big Bang true? Yes, but let's talk about your sin. You know, do you really believe that Israel walked through the
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Red Sea? Yes, but here's why, let's deal with it. That's evidentialism. Presuppositionalism is, well, that's a good question, but let's talk about that in a second.
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Now, let's talk about the 10 commandments and the law and whether you've lived up to them and you have sinned.
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How is God gonna look upon that? Well, do you really believe in Adam and Eve? Well, I do, but we can talk about that in a second.
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If you stood before God, how would you deal with, you know, love the Lord thy God, you know, do not commit adultery, do not.
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So the fool throws up these objections and they're not really, in a spiritual sense, they're not interested in the objections.
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They just don't wanna talk about their sin at all costs. So they will throw up emotional things and put them in the guise of apologetics.
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And Christians are very apologetic savvy and we like apologetics, but apologetics are reserved for baby
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Christians, not necessarily for converting people, a presuppositionalist would say.
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So that's the difference. So you don't convince them that God exists. You assume the hearer believes in God.
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You don't convince them that the Bible is the inerrant word of God. You discuss it as if it is the inerrant word of God, right?
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So you presume all these things and you get straight to the cross and that's a whole science of evangelism.
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And I think there's a lot of merit in it. Okay, let's see.
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Proverbs 26 .6, very similarly, he cuts off his own feet and drinks violence who sends a message by the hand of a fool.
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Oh, it's a different one than I thought. But anyways, so do not what on a fool? Do not depend or rely or anything.
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Employ, no, no. So yeah, don't rely on a fool.
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There's nothing more precious than a trustworthy person who you can give a task and they go away and you know that it's gonna get done.
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That's wonderful. And very similarly, 24, Proverbs 26 .10,
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like an archer who wounds everyone. Solomon seen me shoot a bow and arrow.
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So is he who hires a fool or who hires those who pass by. So similarly, hiring a fool will do your business great harm.
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25, Proverbs 26 .11. He didn't really mince words, did he?
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Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who repeats his falling. And this one's fairly obvious.
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A fool will likely repeat the same error over and over again.
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I heard about a person on the radio who was entering marriage with a man who had been married three times before.
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And I thought, hmm, that's not a very good batting average. And all the other three were because he cheated on the current wife.
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So yeah. A fool is likely to repeat the same error over and over again.
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Okay, 26. This one we'll talk about a little bit too. Proverbs 27 .3. A stone is heavy and the sand weighty, but the provocation of a fool is heavier than both of them.
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What does that mean, do you think? And I did have to do a little research on this one myself, but.
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Scott. Yeah. Exactly, yeah.
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The, a fool reacts.
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One thing that typifies a fool is extreme behavior, right? Do not provoke a fool because he is unmeasured or extreme in his actions.
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I'll share a little anecdote like this. And if you have something similar, maybe you can embarrass yourself likewise.
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But no, we were up in Maine on vacation and we were filling up the gas tank and there was this local, we camp up just south of Bath.
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So we're kind of out in the woods of Maine by Popham State Park, if anybody knows where that is. And a beautiful area.
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But there was this 18, 19 year old local who was filling up his pickup truck in front of us.
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And he pulled up, got out and looked at us and filled up his tank and then hung it up and then went into the store to do some shopping.
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And I'm like, what is the story? Now, of course, he was doing this intentionally because he saw the Massachusetts license plate on my van.
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And a lot of tourist areas, the locals have a lot of contempt for tourists. So he came out and coming down the stairs, he stopped on the second step of the stairs of the store and he's talking with a girl and all this sort of stuff.
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And I'm like, he couldn't be this dumb. So maybe I should just, you know, give him a little wake up call.
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So I just, you know, and then he looked at me and as soon as he looked at me, I knew that he was doing it on purpose.
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So then he went back and he milled around the back of his car, you know, and I was like, what is the story?
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So I rolled down the window and said something smart to him, you know, and he went ballistic.
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He went absolutely ballistic. If he had, I wasn't sure he had, he could have had a firearm in the car.
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That would not be. And of course, I wanted to get out and absolutely strangle him.
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I was furious, but I had all my kids in the van. And yeah, so, yeah.
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And Elaine saying, just ignore him, just ignore him, just ignore him. And I had my hand on the door handle and I was like, so then he's pulling out and I'm pulling in behind him finally.
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And he stops halfway, so he's still blocking the pump and he opens the door and says something else, you know.
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And I rolled down the window because I was going to say something and Elaine was like, don't say it. So he gets out of the car and he squares up and he's like, come on.
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And I just sat there in the car because I have five kids in the car. He could, I mean, there was a guy in 495 yelled at somebody.
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The guy opened his trunk, took out a crossbow and shot him through the heart dead. So you don't know, a fool is unmeasured in his reaction.
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So I just sat there and looked at him. I did when he finally drove away and looked in his rearview mirror,
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I did blow him a kiss, but I have to admit. I know
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I can't leave well enough alone. But he could have had a tire iron, he could have had a gun.
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The goal there is you just, you have to restrain yourself. Men are made for fighting.
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I mean, I was ready to go. And Taylor said, I was right behind you, dad, if you went.
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But here's this local, you know, God's sovereign plan includes him.
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Who knows what the Lord's going to do with him? Is it worth me losing my life because he didn't pull out fast enough from a fuel pump?
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Absolutely not. It's stupid. I'll look like a coward. I'll stay quiet in my chair and let him pull away.
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Because you don't know. I mean, so many times things like that go wrong. And you just have to try to take the high road.
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Answer not a fool. That's right. Okay, number 27.
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Proverbs 27. I'm sorry. 26 was do not provoke a fool because he is unmeasured in his actions.
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27, which is 27, 22. Though you pound a fool in a mortar with a pestle, along with crushed grain, yet his foolishness will not depart from him.
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That's my new favorite verse. Foolishness is a chronic, quote, unquote, disease.
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It's not a disease. I'm just using a metaphor there.
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So yeah, unfortunately. So all you young ladies who are sizing up boys for husbands. If the kid is an idiot now, he's going to be an idiot later.
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He might moderate a little bit. Oh, we'll get married and then I'll change him. Yeah, sure.
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Ask my wife how that works. Okay.
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Number 28. Proverbs 28, 26. He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks wisely will be delivered.
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When we rely on self, we show ourselves to be a fool. That's that holy sort of, not self -beating, not this sort of, you know, you can take this the wrong way, but this is a holy self -doubt.
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Okay. We are to mistrust our initial reactions. We experience something, we react, we pause, we filter it through the
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Word of God, is our reaction right? No. We change our reaction through the Holy Spirit's power.
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We see something, we react, we run it through the Holy Spirit. Our reaction is right. We operate on it.
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We run on it. Okay. That's what living by the scriptures mean. It's actually constraining our behavior and changing the way that we think.
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We renew our mind by constantly putting that filter up in between us, ourselves and our experience.
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You will find that at least 50 % of the time, maybe more depending on some of us, we're wrong.
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Our initial reaction is wrong. If that's the one thing that we can focus on or we get out of this, that will serve us for a long time.
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Did you have a question? Did you? Okay. 29.
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Oh yeah, this is do not engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man. Sorry, I leveraged that.
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I think, was that Winston Churchill? Who said that? Anyways, Proverbs 29 .9,
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when a wise man has a controversy with a foolish man, the foolish man neither rages or laughs and there is no rest.
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That just shows the futility of trying to evangelize or to reform someone who's a fool.
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Proverbs 26 .4, likewise, do not answer a fool according to his folly or you will also be like him.
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So it's, I mean, we are never to give up on people in terms of evangelism. But there are times when the
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Lord will bring people whom he is drawing into our lives. And there will be people whom the
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Lord is not drawing into our lives. And our time is better spent on those who are beginning to think about spiritual things.
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Because remember, being Calvinistic in our, or Calvinists in our doctrine, the salvation belongs to the
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Lord. The modern church says, if you get good enough at apologetics, and you become a winsome enough person, and you can argue strategically like a surgeon with a scalpel, you can take a complete fool and evangelize him into the kingdom.
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This discounts the whole point that nobody comes unless the Father draws him.
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It's easy to tell being spiritual people and knowing the things of the
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Lord. It's easy to tell when someone's being drawn. So don't waste your time when someone has convinced you that they're a fool.
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Leave them to the Holy Spirit. Pray for them. Be a godly example to them. Be friendly.
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Show them unconditional love. But don't try to address their concerns at a logical level only.
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Because coming to Christ is not merely an act of logic, is it? It's a stony heart is taken out, and a flesh heart is put in, and the
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Father draws us. And that coupled to the sovereignty of God, and we sovereignly get into their lives.
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And God has inextricably interwoven the presentation of the gospel with the quickening of the
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Holy Spirit. And if you don't have the quickening of the Holy Spirit, and you're just casting the gospel out to a fool who continually argues with you, nothing is going to happen.
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So we evangelize everybody, and then those who are being drawn, they come.
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But it is futility to keep pounding your head against the wall. Okay, number 30.
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Wow, we made it. How about that? Proverbs 29, 11. A fool always loses his temper, but a wise man holds it back.
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So being a hot reactor is the sure sign of acting like a fool. So any questions or thoughts?
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Anything? 29 was unarmed.
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Sorry, I was a little fresh there, but... All right, just in conclusion, my little summary at the bottom here.
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Foolishness is the ultimate and most basic condition of man in his fallen state. In total,
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Solomon says that fools are self -governed, self -promoting, self -worshiping, self -important, unteachable, intractable, inappropriate, internally governed, habit -riddled, carnal, self -glorifying, unmeasured, unreliable, unemployable, tactless, knowledge -hating, ignorant, in need of rebuke, of correction, and in need of a good beating.
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It doesn't look too bright for these people. But remember this, we can all slip into foolishness when we let ourselves operate unchecked.
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The good news is that God forgives fools and grants wisdom to those who earnestly ask for it.
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Foolishness is ultimately cured by regeneration and sanctification. Any last thoughts?
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Okay, well, thank you for your attention. Let's close in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we know that each of us acts foolishly at times.
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And while it's very rare to encounter a complete fool, Lord, we all are fools in certain ways.
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But we know that you are making us more like your son as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
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Lord, help us to catch ourselves. Help us to be edifying in what we do and say.
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Help us to trust in you. Bring your scriptures to mind when we consider acting foolishly.
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Help us to have a holy and appropriate distrust of our heart and our initial reactions.
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And help us to wholly lean on your word. And we'll thank you for that. For it's you working in us.
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It's nothing that we do ourselves. And we thank you. Bless our time in the service.
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with Pastor Mike and just give us a great Lord's Day. We thank you and we pray in Christ's name. Amen.