WWUTT 1429 The Mouths of the Wise and Foolish (Proverbs 10:13-21)

You let a fool talk long enough and eventually it's going to be revealed that this guy is foolish.

But a wise man has a heart that has been transformed by Christ and when he speaks, his words bless others when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, teaching through a New Testament book on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, an

Old Testament book on Thursday, and a Q &A on Friday. With our Old Testament study today, here's

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We're back to our study in Proverbs on this Thursday and hoping to make it a little further than we did last week.

I only covered one verse, Proverbs 10 -12. That's not going to get us through Proverbs very quickly.

Well, what am I saying? We're only going through 1 Corinthians a verse at a time as well. I think

I said in the very beginning of this study of Proverbs, you could take each verse on its own and make it its own little devotional thought, but we'll get through a few more today.

Proverbs 10, starting in verse 13, and I'll read through verse 22.

Once again, I'm reading from the Legacy Standard Bible. On the lips of the one who has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks a heart of wisdom.

Wise men store up knowledge, but the mouth of the ignorant fool draws ruin near.

The rich man's wealth is his strong city. The ruin of the poor is their poverty.

The wages of the righteous is life, the income of the wicked punishment.

He is on the path of life who keeps discipline, but he who forsakes reproof makes himself wander about.

He who covers up hatred has lying lips, and he who spreads a bad report is a fool.

When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who holds back his lips has insight.

A tongue of the righteous is as choice silver. The heart of the wicked is worth little.

The lips of the righteous feed many, but the ignorant fool dies for lack of a heart of wisdom.

It is the blessing of Yahweh that makes rich, and he adds no pain with it.

We'll stop there for now. You might notice a recurring theme in the Proverbs that we're looking at today is that truth is on the lips of a person who has a heart of wisdom, but you get lies from the mouth of a person who is a fool.

We go back to verse 13 here, on the lips of the one who has understanding, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks a heart of wisdom.

So what we see here is that wisdom comes from within. It's not just something that somebody shows on the outside.

It must come from a heart of wisdom. I remember a friend of mine when I was younger wanted to be seen as a deep person.

He wanted to have that kind of reputation that people thought of him as deep. So he would read certain things that he could then quote later and make it sound like he was deep and thought provoking.

Sometimes it was musical lyrics. He would listen to those artists that actually had talent in their writing instead of the shallow stuff that was in pop music, you know, and he would sing these kinds of songs and he would quote these kinds of quotes and he would even call himself pensive.

So it's a deep sounding word, right? Without calling yourself deep, you're using another word to describe yourself.

And the girls would just swoon over it. They thought he was this thought provoking, insightful, sensitive guy.

But all the rest of us who knew what he was doing, we were not impressed. We knew that he was only doing this to pick up girls.

And it was totally shallow. When you take stuff that's supposed to be deep and you put it on the surface because you want everybody to see it and be impressed by it, well, then it's no longer deep.

It's shallow. So using the shallow methods actually attracted shallow girls.

And yeah, anyway, so that's the that's the story. True wisdom comes from within.

It's not this this facade that we put on that we have on the surface because we want everybody to think that we are wise.

If it's only skin deep, if it's a very thin layer on the surface, eventually it's going to be found out.

People are going to recognize and see that you're not all that wise. You can fool them for a while, but you can't keep it up.

Jesus says in Matthew 12, 34, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

So you will see on the outside who a person truly is on the inside, transformed by God to have a heart of wisdom.

Remember what the Lord says in Ezekiel 36, 26, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit.

I will put within you. And so that's the kind of person that we have described here in Proverbs 10, 13, on the lips of the one who has understanding.

Wisdom is found and the word heart is used in that next part. But a rod is for the back of him who lacks a heart of wisdom.

So the wise man has a heart of wisdom. The fool does not. And it says the punishment for the person who does not have wisdom is a rod.

A rod is, you might also read this as a rod is for the backside of him who lacks a heart of wisdom.

So what are we talking about here? We're actually talking about corporal punishment so that someone would be trained for wisdom, that they would realize there's consequences to foolishness and they would not go in the foolish way, but they would seek the wise way through pain.

They would be trained toward a heart of wisdom. You set before them truth and they reject the truth and go after the lie.

And when they go after the lie, then you punish them and you set before them truth again, so that they would continue to be trained in the truth and not give in to the deceptions of their own heart, because that's what the heart is after.

The heart lies. We lie to ourselves. We go after lies. We rebel against God because that's who we are by our nature.

So it's through discipline. It's through training that we're going to recognize this is a lie and go after the truth.

This is the first mention that we have in Proverbs about corporal punishment. And this is going to come up again. So we'll talk about it more later.

Let's continue on. Verse 14. Wise men store up knowledge, but the mouth of the ignorant fool draws ruin near.

Very similar to what we just read in verse 13. Men store up knowledge. So again, the wisdom of God that comes from within.

A wise man learns. He doesn't just learn things that he can throw on the surface and impress people with.

He reads to gain understanding. He listens. He is teachable so that he may have insight.

He may possess knowledge and then know how to apply that. But the ignorant fool draws ruin near.

Consider the picture that we have here. So the wise man stores up, the ignorant fool ruins.

Where else have we read that it is wise to store up, but the fool doesn't store up?

Go back to Proverbs chapter 6. Go to the aunt, O sluggard, consider her ways and be wise.

Without having any chief officer or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.

How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man.

So the wise stores up and prepares, whereas the fool does nothing and brings about ruin.

Ruins himself and ruins others. So we have that same application here in verse 14.

The wise man stores up and he may not have an exact reason why he's storing up knowledge like I'm preparing knowledge for this task.

It may not be that that's the reason why he's learning. But then a day comes when that kind of knowledge is needed and he already has it because he's been constantly learning, constantly storing up, practicing by applying.

And so in that day when the knowledge is needed, he's there to help to guide others in ways of truth, in the ways of God.

But the fool neither helps himself nor others. He draws ruin near.

So we need to continue to read the word of God and store it up. It is good for us to do that any day, and it always has application for us today.

But there are things about the word of God. You will find more application for in a day of need and in a day of want.

Then you will surely be thankful to the Lord that you would invest yourself in knowing his word when those days of trouble come.

I have shared with youth before when I've spoken to like middle school groups and high school groups and I've said to them, one of the things that I wish

I had done more of when I was your age, I wish I had read my Bible more and I wish that I had prayed.

Now, I already read my Bible more than most of my classmates. Most of my peers, when

I was in high school and in college, I read the Bible more than they did. But I don't when

I look back on those years, it wasn't enough. It was just kind of like I did a bare minimum based on the things that my parents taught me.

But I really didn't have a heart that was yearning for and going after God the way that I wish I had.

So if I could go back and do those years again, that's what I would have done more of, especially when you consider how formative those teenage years can be.

So I share that with teenagers all the time at your age. If I could go back and do your age again,

I wish that I had studied God's word more and I had more of it stored up in my heart.

For it is by this word that we live, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our sins are forgiven and we have everlasting life with God. There's even immediate application in the day to day.

So store up this knowledge. The fool is the one who doesn't consider the word of God and comes to ruin.

So we consider we continue on in verse 15 and we're still continuing the same theme here.

The rich man's wealth is his strong city. The ruin of the poor is their poverty.

Now, you'd almost read this and you might think to yourself, well, this proverb is saying it's good to be rich.

And if you're not rich, well, then that's, that's going to be your ruin. So I need to go make money and I need to be rich because Proverbs says

Proverbs 10, 15, the rich man's wealth is his strong city. Sounds like it's, it's very praising there of the rich man's wealth.

But remember, once again, this is a proverb, so it probably has a different application than just simply saying a rich man is safe and a poor man is not.

The rich man's wealth is his strong city. So if you possess wealth, you're able to be protected.

You can protect yourself, you can protect your home, you can protect your family, right? But apply this in spiritual ways.

How might we be strong against the attacks of the enemy?

The attacks of a spiritual enemy, of course, we'll be talking about Satan. How can we defend ourselves against the devil's schemes?

By being rich in the knowledge of God, by reading his word and studying it and storing it up.

So you see the theme that's continuing in all these Proverbs here. So a rich man who is rich in spiritual things and in Christ, we find all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,

Colossians chapter two. So if we are rich in Christ, that's our strong city.

We have the greatest defense that we could ever have against the ways of this world, the ways of the enemy, the devil's schemes, the clamoring of wicked man.

We are strongly protected against these things. When we invest ourselves in the word of God, we memorize this, we store it up.

Our hearts and our minds are changed by it. But as it goes on to say, the ruin of the poor is their poverty.

If we're poor in spiritual things, if we don't have the word of God, then we are impoverished and we come to ruin.

That would be the application there, Proverbs 10, 15. Now we know by what Jesus says in the

Beatitudes that we are to be poor in spirit. But to be poor in spirit doesn't mean that you continue in poverty in spiritual things like, well,

I don't want to learn the Bible too much because Jesus said to be poor in spirit and that's not the application there.

It's to understand that we have nothing without God so that we might come as poor beggars to God and ask that we would be filled up.

And then we get what Jesus says will be given to those who are poor in spirit, the kingdom of God.

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied.

So there is something that we receive when we come as spiritually poor, when we recognize that we have nothing without God, he will give to us and give in abundance.

John 10, 10, Jesus said, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

But I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.

We go on to verse 16. The wages of the righteous is life. The income of the wicked punishment.

Heard something similar to this before, haven't we? The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our

Lord. Right? That's Romans 6, 23. The wages of sin is death. So consider this

Proverbs 10, 16, the wages of the righteous is life. If we go after righteousness, which we have in Christ, then what do we get?

We get life. But the income of the wicked, you also read that as the wages of the wicked is going to be punishment.

And what is the punishment for our sin? It is death, eternal death, even if we do not repent and turn to Jesus Christ for salvation.

So here we find Romans 6, 23 in Proverbs 10, 16, the wages of the righteous is life.

The income of the wicked punishment. And there is none more righteous than Christ. Seek the

Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and you will have everlasting life.

Verse 17, he is on the path of life who keeps discipline, but he who forsakes reproof makes himself wander about.

As we're eventually going to read in Proverbs 12, 1, whoever loves discipline, loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is senseless.

I like the ESV version, the English Standard Version version. The ESV says in Proverbs 12, 1 that he who hates reproof is stupid.

You continue to be a fool if you hate the knowledge and wisdom of God that comes according to his word.

So he who is on the path of life keeps discipline. He loves to be disciplined so that he might grow wiser still and be shaped in the image of Christ.

But he who hates discipline, who forsakes reproof, makes himself wander about.

He continues aimlessly to nowhere. Remember I mentioned to you yesterday,

Jesus' words from Matthew chapter 7, broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many find it because that's the easy way, but narrow is the gate that leads to life, and it's hard.

It's the difficult way. Jesus is the way to life. It's going to be difficult, but it is a narrow path, straight and sure to eternal life.

Broad is the way that leads to destruction, and that guy wanders about on it because he forsakes reproof, and he makes himself wander.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

As we read also in Psalm 119, your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

Verse 18, he who covers up hatred has lying lips, and he who spreads a bad report is a fool.

Here we don't have any resolve to the wise man, we're just talking about the fool here. He who covers up hatred has lying lips.

Whether it is the hatred in his heart, or it is hatred that he has seen in the world, but he doesn't warn somebody about the fact that this isn't love, it's hatred, and instead he tries to cover it up.

It's a person with lying lips. People who are out there pushing critical race theory, intersectionality, social justice, wokeness, they may do these things with a mouth that says, well,

I'm for racial harmony. I just want people to love each other. I'm just after unity. They're covering up hatred.

Because really the heart of these worldly philosophies is wicked. It is not good.

It does not lead to unity. Critical race theory and intersectionality will not eradicate racism.

It actually causes racism. So when a person unites themselves with these worldly philosophies, they cover up hatred.

They have lying lips. They might promise love, but what actually results from it is division.

And he who spreads a bad report is a fool. Now I've heard this taken out of context before.

I've heard just that part of the proverb snatched out of context. Proverbs 10, 18, someone has just said, he who spreads a bad report is a fool.

As if to say anybody who says anything negative is foolish, and they're actually causing bad things to happen because they say bad things.

That's not what's being talked about here. We're talking about a liar, a person who says lying things, who speaks falsehood rather than speaking truth.

Truth is good. Even if you're exposing a false teacher who spreads lies.

If you're speaking truth, you're warning about that false teacher, then you lead people in rightness in the path of life.

You're not giving a bad report. You're actually doing something that is good.

But the person who will speak flattering words or only things that are nice, they could be complete lies.

But as long as they do it in the right tone, see that person has lying lips.

Doesn't matter how great their tone is or how wonderful and nice their delivery. If it's not true, it's a lie.

And he who spreads this bad report, no matter how nicely it's delivered. That person is a fool.

We go on to verse 19, when there are many words, transgression is unavoidable. But he who holds back his lips has insight where there are many words.

Foolishness abounds. Boy, that can apply to just so many things, can't it? Popular music, politics, morning talk shows, just where that where there's a multitude of words and they just can't seem to stop talking.

Well, there's going to be a lot of foolishness that's going to come from such a person. But instead, we heed the words of James 119.

Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak and therefore slow to anger.

Let's see if I can get one more in here. Let me do two more. Verse 20, the tongue of the righteous is as choice silver.

The heart of the wicked is worth little. Again, it's of great value to seek after wisdom and speak wisdom, but the wicked man doesn't have anything of value.

The lips of the righteous feed many. Once again, we go back to the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter five.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Even the lips of the righteous feed many all kinds of people benefit from a person who desires the righteousness of God and it can be found on his lips.

His heart has been transformed to desire what God has said is right.

And so what comes from his mouth is a reflection or or shows what is in his heart.

And many people will benefit from that from the man who speaks righteousness. But ignorant fools die for lack of a heart of wisdom.

Seek the wisdom of God according to his word. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for teaching us in these ways and help us to love reproof and be trained in discipline and listen to conviction when the

Holy Spirit convicts our hearts that we may turn from sinful and wicked ways and desire.

The truth of God is found according to your word. Help us to be a blessing to others in this in a world that is full of lies and all kinds of noise and an abundance of foolishness.

We desire the wisdom of God. We speak righteousness so that others may be blessed by these words as we have been and so turn from their wicked ways to Jesus Christ and be saved.

It's in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. This has been when we understand the text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes for all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books and more.

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