Fool of a Client: Proverbs 28:26

Proverbs 28:26 and the Folly of Self-Trust

Turn your Bibles to Proverbs. Today, we'll be looking at chapter 28, verse 26. We're just going to read the one verse. Here now, the inspired Word of God. He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks wisely will be delivered.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, at this time, I would just ask simply that you'd be pleased to bless the preaching of the Word. Lord, this is your Scriptures for your people. Lord, would you guide my mind and my tongue as I proclaim your truth.

And Father, may you comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable. Lord, may you be glorified and may we learn how we ought to live before you. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

There's a saying that a man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client. There's a variation of that. A man who represents himself has a fool for a client. There's a lot of truth in that well-known saying.

And we certainly learned just how true that was in our own recent experience going through family court over the years that ultimately led into the adoption. And fortunately for us, we did not have to learn that truth the hard way, but we were able to recognize just as we went through all the different procedures and we just observed what was going on in the courtroom, as soon as it became evident that we needed to, obvious and evident, that's the word I just put together and made a new one, evident.

Just as it became evident that we were going to need some help because now we were going to have to take a greater involvement in the case, we were fortunate to come across an attorney with the help of a brother who's joined us here from time to time, and she guided us through the process.

She represented us, and I'm so grateful because it was so clear along the way that things I thought would have been obvious, do it this way. It wasn't. Things that were often counterintuitive were the right and proper procedure.

And so if you look up, some people will say, well, I'm sure in this case or that case, but in most cases I could probably handle myself. And you go online and you look, what's the danger of representing yourself?

And they'll give you a whole bunch. Essentially, you can lose your case. You might not follow the right procedures to prove it. Your case could be dismissed or the other side could win. You could incriminate yourself.

You could say things that put you in a bad light somehow. You might lack the resources and the knowledge that other lawyers would have experience of study and experience in the courtroom to know how to handle things, to know how to go about it.

You might be in danger of making emotional arguments and having your emotions cloud your judgments. You might not have the right documentations. You aren't going to get help from the judge. You're called to just do it, and they're not there to hold your hand.

And so they say it's very dangerous to try to go in and represent yourself in the courtroom. As it so happens, there was a point in the proceedings that someone did show up to the court without an attorney thinking that they knew enough, thinking that they were positioned rightly and they had certain rights that were just obvious to them.

And when they went in there, in short order, the judge put them in their place, told them that they didn't understand the law like they thought they did. They did not have the rights they thought they did.

And she also asked them, at what point would you ever show up to court for someone else in some other circumstance and not bring an attorney with you? The individual thought they knew enough. They trusted that they were positioned rightly to walk out of that courtroom victorious in their goal.

And it wasn't the case. So our verse today speaks to that example, but it speaks to countless others. The proverb that we're going to be discussing today, that we're going to be looking at today, speaks both to things that are temporal in the here and now, in this life, in this time, in this space, and to things eternal.

What Makes a Fool

And so my first question, my first point, is what makes a fool? The first half of the proverb states that he who trusts in his own heart, and if you're reading from the ESV, it might say his own mind is a fool.

Some, in today's day and age, where we're so caught up about, well, you can't say something like that. Someone might be hurt. That sounds like mocking. Well, there are times where God does mock the wicked for their arrogance and their rebellion.

But that's not what's actually going on here. This is really just simply a statement of fact being contrasted to another statement of fact to give the reader a very important insight into the reality of life.

This is the world you live in. When the Bible speaks of a fool, it's not so much an evaluation, a judgment on their intelligence, their IQ. It's rather an assessment of their morality. And the Bible says that the fool is one who is morally corrupt.

And one of the worst examples of foolishness is found in a verse like Psalm 14 .1,.

Where it says,.

The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. And what's the result? They are corrupt. They have committed abominable deeds. That's what the fool does. There's no one to answer to. I can do what I want.

So you might ask, well, if their morality is in view and not their intelligence, then why call them a fool? Why not call them something else? Because the reality is that for the morally corrupt, no matter how intelligent they are, no matter how high your IQ might be, you're ultimately a fool.

Your end results demonstrate the foolishness of your position to be in rebellion against the living God and to His ways is to your detriment in this life and quite possibly your destruction in the next.

So what makes a fool a fool? Let's look at the phrase, he who trusts in his own heart. What does that mean? Many of you here might already know. This might seem obvious. It might be like, all right, we've been here.

You might think first and foremost of that other more famous proverb. Chapter 3, right? Verses 5 and 6. What does it say? Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight.

So trusting in your heart in chapter 3 is defined as leaning on your own understanding. In contrast, again, we always see the contrast, in contrast to trusting and acknowledging God. So the idea is fairly straightforward.

Pretty much anyone could get the gist of what is being said. Trusting in your own heart, leaning on your own understanding is doing what you think is best. It's acting in accordance with an unspoken and I would argue an unexamined presupposition.

I know what I'm doing and it is good and it is right. How often do we do this? Not just them out there. How often do you and I do that? Every day. Every day we're making decisions, we're saying things, doing things in response to life and the circumstances of life and the people in our life with little to no conscious thought process.

It's not just husbands, it's everyone. I figured I'd give you a second there. Husbands are always getting a bad rap. But we're all guilty of it. But the decisions that we make, the things that we say, the things that we do, it's automatic.

It's just reflexive. But those don't come out of nowhere, it's not coming out of a vacuum, it's not random, it's not arbitrary. They come from our heart. And from how our heart has been informed and shaped over time.

They come from who we are and what we have learned throughout the years. You know when you have children and they're learning to talk and they're learning to speak and then they start learning to share their ideas.

They're responding, it's not just daddy and mama or son, no. Now they're sharing a little more complex ideas and we find it fascinating, the things that come out of their mouth. And often humorous, the things that come out of their little mouths.

Oh, kids say the darndest things. But what's happening? They're simply articulating, first and foremost they're usually just parroting what they've already heard from us or someone else, especially the bad stuff.

They heard that from that uncle or something. Not from their parents. Or they're starting to articulate different concepts that they've learned, that they're piecing together that they're putting it all together and it's just kind of cute because they have a limited vocabulary so it's interesting how they express those things.

But really all they're doing is they're in the process of learning how to live and interact in a social environment. But the process of learning how to live and interact and function in this world doesn't end with childhood.

There's not a cutoff there and say, okay, now I'm entirely on my own. No new information needs to come in. That process continues for all of us throughout our lives. In family environments, in educational environments in work environments, in all manner of social environments in so many different circumstances so many different ways you and I are being told or shown by example what is expected of us.

What the world is saying is good and right and normal and that's why we say week after week, why do we catechize? Because the world is constantly catechizing you. Whether you recognize it or not there is an education that is happening that's both formal, informal but it's constant.

In addition to that education our hearts our center of being our mind, our will, our emotions, our intellect, all of that it's not neutral. It doesn't start off neutral. The reality is you're not born with a clean slate.

Now just try to make sure you put good input into there. That's the lie of our society that people are essentially good or at least morally neutral and if you just educate them right everything will be fine.

There will be a utopia. That's not what the Bible says. That's not what your own experience tells you since the fall. Man is born bent towards sin and you can see your sweet innocent little child and as one pastor said if they're in a toy store and they see something that they want that sweet innocent little child, if they had the ability, the strength they'd rip your arm off and beat you with it if you didn't give them what they wanted.

That's why God makes them so small. It's for your protection. That's the reality. They have to learn self-control. They have to learn all those things but until they do, they're just gut reaction and that gut is filled with sin.

We're filled with pride. We're filled with selfishness and so much of every other variation of sin flows from that. Thinking who we are and what we're entitled to is basically the foundation for every other sin.

So the reality is each of us each and every one of us has a sinful heart with sinful inclinations that is being educated every day by the catechism of a world filled with sinful people with their own sinful hearts and so what's the result?

What is mankind's situation? Each and every one of us has our very own custom made sinful heart sinful mind, sinful understanding of life and we use that sinful tainted understanding to guide us every day and the problem is most of us really don't appreciate just how sinful we are.

We don't appreciate just how contrary our own hearts are toward our creator and his ways and this is a reality even for those with a new heart there's still the flesh that we have to battle with there's still sinful inclinations that must be warred against and this proverb demonstrates that our natural understanding is not just automatically that which corresponds with what God has said is good and right it echoes this proverb what scripture has said in so many other places in so many other ways what's the prophet Jeremiah say in Jeremiah 17 the heart is what?

More deceitful than all else put that in a hallmark card about your significant other I love you with all my heart.

Asterisk.

Who can understand it. The prophet asks our Lord Jesus out of the heart of man come evil thoughts sexual morality, theft, murder adultery, coveting, wickedness deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride foolishness.

There's a reason why it says Jesus didn't trust himself to men because he knew what was in them. A lot of imperfection, a lot of sin. Our hearts are not naturally good. They have proven time and again to be inclined towards evil.

And so trusting in your own heart to navigate the trials of life is not what constitutes wisdom. Because we act as though we know what's good and right we think we can walk into the courtroom of life represent ourselves with our knowledge our intuition and just be victorious in whatever life throws our way.

But then we find ourselves standing in front of the judge. Whether that judge is wearing a robe or it's just a judge of public opinion private opinion, it's people and circumstances in our life that show us that what we were thinking what we said, what we did was not smart, was not wise was not good or kind.

And we find ourselves to be at a loss. We find out that our way of thinking thinking that we were right was dreadfully mistaken in these circumstances. And we've all been there. You might be thinking even now of a time where you did something or said something and found that you had got yourself into a big mess.

We all just do that we don't even need help. If this can cause pain and embarrassment before earthly judges and earthly circumstances. How much worse is it before the heavenly judge who stands at his perfection.

The Need to Escape the Consequences of Sin

So this brings me to my second part the need to escape. The second part of this proverb in the New American Standard says the one who walks wisely will be delivered now. When I read this verse most recently I read it in the LSB which is called the Legacy Standard Bible it's essentially an updated version of the New American Standard.

New American Standard is a good translation. You have it right here in the chairs underneath them. The LSB is basically the same work.

Updated.

One of the biggest positives about it is the word for Lord in the Old Testament where it's all capitalized. In those instances it means Yahweh and the LSB brings that out. This is the covenant keeping God of Israel that's being discussed here.

And it's also helpful when you're dealing with other people like Jehovah Witnesses and stuff like that. This verse is quoting about Jesus. But here it talks about Yahweh. They're one and the same. But that's an aside.

It's sometimes helpful to read other translations. Good translations mind you to just hear a different wording that might jar your attention a little bit more. Sometimes you just get used to reading the same thing and you miss certain things.

The LSB, the Legacy Standard Bible says he who walks wisely will escape. And for some reason the word jumped off the page at me. And that's what made me want to share this verse. The one who walks wisely will escape escape.

What? That's it, will escape next verse. And in the context of Proverbs sometimes you have to read it in the context of a passage. But Proverbs is a little bit harder because sometimes it feels like it's jumping around.

They're actually more connected than you realize. But just take half a step back. What is the book of Proverbs about? It's about communicating wisdom, handling life with skill. That's what it's there to teach you.

And it's given in the context, another step back that the people who are reading Proverbs are God's people. They've had God reveal himself to them giving them his law. And so the people of Israel are the original recipients.

They're the original audience for the book of Proverbs because they're the original audience for the codified law of God given on Mount Sinai. And in that context when the law was given to Moses the Lord God made it clear that if you obey this law there will be great blessings.

And if you're not familiar with that you should go back and read and see the wonderful, magnificent almost unbelievable promises and blessings that God promises to his people if they would just.

Obey.

If you're not familiar, go back and read it. But right after he talks about all the blessings if they obey, he gives them all the curses all the consequences if they disobey and they are severe. So Moses says choose life that you may live Proverbs.

What Proverbs is doing for us we have the law and Proverbs is giving you a practical outworking of that law. It shows how this applies to everyday life. And if you walk wisely if you walk in accordance with what the book of Proverbs says if you walk wisely in accordance with what God's law calls you to you will escape the consequences of sin the consequences of transgressing God's law.

And this goes beyond the people of Israel. Because remember, if you remember, if you've read the Old Testament if you've read through the Torah, the law when he is telling them to be holy as he is holy he's saying obey this.

Because the people of the land that I'm kicking out, spewing out judging to make room for you they broke this law. Which means God's law applies to everyone. It has relevance for everyone. Whether you claim to trust in God and believe in him or not, his law is the one that we're all going to be judged by.

Lessons from Ruth and the Cost of Disobedience

Earlier.

In the service we read from the book of Ruth we read just the one chapter the Wednesday before last I gave just a short brief survey of the book of Ruth and I was tempted to preach the whole thing in one go I was going to have the scripture reading be the first two chapters of Ruth, this time here the second two chapters, then just go I'm not going to get it all done in time out of love and concern for you I opted not to do that, but if we were in Puritan times Ruth to the evening, I tell you what and it would have been good instead we'll just have to break it up and we'll do it as a series of a study or a sermon series later on this is a great, it's a short book, but it's a great book it's so valuable it teaches so much if you just read and pay attention to the details the historical setting of Ruth, right there in the beginning it's in the time of the judges there's no king, it says everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes and it's not that they were left in the darkness to just do what was right in their own eyes and just figure it out these are the people of God who've been given the law of God who've been given a priesthood and a Levitical tribe to teach them these things they have God's standard given to them and to their detriment, to their harm, they continually broke the law.

There was no king there was no earthly king enforcing the laws being ready to bring about severe consequences from a one central location as it were. So everyone was just doing what they wanted even though they had a law that should have been guiding their conscience.

And so what was the result? If you're familiar with the book of Judges there would be these sin cycles the people would fall into rebellion go into idolatry, they would sin against God and God would raise up consequences he would bring about judgment.

Throughout the book of Judges we focus more on the fact that it was another nation that would come in and take over and oppress them and rule them and enslave them and then they would cry out to God for justice and he would have mercy on them.

They would repent and he would deliver up a judge to rescue them, to deliver them in Judges it's primarily an oppressing nation that comes against them but there was all manner of judgments that were issued to them one of them was famine.

That was one of the consequences of failing to obey God, rebelling against God committing idolatry, God would take away their source of food. The book of Ruth opens with a famine again a curse that God would bring about in response to their rebellion.

If you know the law that governed the people of God then you would know that the proper response to a famine should have been what? Guess. Repentance. They should have repented that's why God sent the famine that they would recognize their sin and repent but that was not the response of Limelech and his sons they left the land of promise, they left their inheritance and they went to the greener pastures of pagan Moab.

They sought to escape the consequences of sin by a change in venue a change in circumstances like God wouldn't get them out there. We can see in the first chapter that their hearts weren't right towards God they left their inheritance rather than repent and call upon the mercy of God and wait on Him.

Then the sons continued in the sin they remained in the land even after their father died and they married pagan wives in further rebellion to God's law. Did they escape the consequences of their sin?

Did they escape the consequences of the sin that was being visited on Israel?

No.

It says they were childless for 10 years God did not bless them with children and back then they had a much higher view of children and having children and God did not give them any children. And then 10 years later they too died in a pagan land.

The men of the family did not submit themselves to the revealed will of God but rather trusted in their own heart to provide for themselves and their family. They thought they knew the right way to handle it the right way to go about it and the results were disastrous.

And it seems Naomi the widow she wasn't much better with her attitude because even though she intended to go back to Israel back to the people because she heard the Lord had visited His people and given them food a sign that the people of Israel had repented of their sin.

She's prepared to go back but she's prepared to send her daughter-in-law back to their pagan families and their culture when she says Orpah has gone back to her people and her gods. That's what she was incurring Ruth to do.

Go back to your gods that is not a good witness but thanks be to God for blessed inconsistencies and the mercy of God that Naomi must have been loving enough in those 10 years or so loving enough to her daughters and spoken well enough of Yahweh and His goodness to be the means by which God stirred up Ruth's heart to undying loyalty to Naomi and her God she won't take no for an answer.

And she returns with Naomi to the land of Israel where Yahweh reigns over His people. It only comes about then that the end of the first chapter says they return at the beginning of the barley harvest.

And if you're not familiar with the story of Ruth you've got to go back and read those four chapters because that's when things start to turn around for them. She thinks she went out full she had a husband, she had sons but her world view is wickedly empty.

And she comes back experiencing the consequences of that wrong view of God and how we ought to respond to Him. But by coming back to the land coming back to the laws of that land that were established by God.

That's when Naomi and Ruth find provision and find great blessing. And again, knowing about the gleaning laws and understanding all this stuff was revealed by God in His word, in His law about how they should provide for those in need.

This is all stuff you need to know to understand the context of what's going on and just how good and kind God is and how He works through the difficulties of life. But the story of Ruth is a story of restoration and blessing it's a great story but there's great loss as well.

That's why we can't presume on the kindness of God. There's some times where people are frustrated and they just want to sort of clock out from being a Christian they just want to do what they want to do and figure, it'll work out, God will understand, God will have mercy.

I'm destined for heaven anyway, somehow right? But you don't know if your life is going to turn out like.

Naomi's did.

Or like Elimelech did don't presume. I mean, Elimelech was trying we can look at it charitably. He was trying to provide for his family. He was trying to care for their well-being. But he trusted in his own heart his own understanding rather than the revealed word of God.

He tried to escape hardship for himself and his family. And he died. And now he can't provide for them. And his sons are following in the sin of their father the example set by their father. There, the proverb says, the one who walks wisely will escape.

There are many who have disregarded the word of God and suffered mightily for it. There are those like Naomi and her family who have left the people of God left forsaken the assembling of the saints. And there's all different reasons why they do it.

But they do. And when trouble comes they find themselves isolated. They find themselves disconnected. They find that there's no one there to help them. No one who understands the will of God in their life and their obligation to care for them and help them to bear their burden.

They have cut themselves off. And then that burden comes. And it can come in many forms. Sometimes it's a financial burden. Sometimes it's a relational burden. It could be a need for counsel. It could be a need for accountability.

It could be a need for prayer, for intercession for help in growth, in maturity, in sanctification. That would have a real impact on how they're going about their lives for themselves or for a family member.

The Lord has provided the local body for our benefit elders to look out for our souls fellow members for accountability and encouragement to co-labor with, to be joyfully productive for the kingdom. To provide an atmosphere for our families to recognize.

This is what it looks like in kingdom living. You can't visualize a kingdom when you're by yourself. We have the body to give us many examples for the younger generation to follow. But many will trust in their own heart their own understanding that their limited interaction with the body of Christ is sufficient that it's good enough.

And they'll suffer no consequences for refusing to make gathering and fellowship a priority. If you've heard me preach more than once you've probably heard me echo something like this sentiment. They recognize it too, like yep, that's him again.

I've never played the drum but I beat this drum all the time.

Why?

Is it just an axe to grind? Do I have no creativity to talk about something else? I talk about it a lot because the scriptures talk about it.

A lot.

And we live in a society where we feel that rugged individualism is something of a virtue we don't need everyone else we can do it on our own. And that mentality has seeped into the church unexamined.

So I beat the drum because scripture talks about it time and time and time and time again. And in my four and a half plus decades of life the experience is I have seen the consequences of people thinking this way and being younger.

Sort of like Job's friends. And then a young man comes along and goes I waited to say anything, let wisdom speak what do I know? But he knew what God's word said and he knew that they were off base. But I have watched people who thought they knew what they were doing disregard clear commandments of scripture.

And I've seen over the years their families suffer for it and I know they love their families. I know they had no intention of seeing their families hurt or suffer because of their decisions but all the same they did.

And they do.

So I'm going to keep beating this drum some trust in their own hearts that their level of sanctification is fine their level of holiness.

Good enough.

They may see the word of God calling them to repent of bad attitudes towards people or circumstances and they decide, nope, they're not going to. They don't want to, they don't need to. God will understand, they have their reasons and they think that.

Somehow I am shocked at times to hear professing believers articulate their thoughts with no sense of this is a big problem and I wish I could say it's an isolated incident it's not. There are times where we're just talking amongst ourselves and we say things that are so contrary to scripture but it doesn't seem as egregious and everyone seems to feel the same way.

So we sort of minimize the culpability of that worldview, that comment, that decision making process. And then there's times where you're directly in counseling and saying this is hurting you. God's word is saying this.

What's that?

We can't say no but there we are. And so this is something that unfortunately we all suffer with and those are just the people who are saying it. The rest of us are often thinking it. The rest of us are often unconfronted and unchallenged.

That's part of the reason why we don't have the fellowship that we have because we want to avoid you stay on your side of the fence. I don't need an accountability partner, thank you very much. Our heart wants to push away that we trust in our own hearts that we are okay.

There might be a situation where God is orchestrating things right in front of us a good work for us to walk in. We're the workmanship of Christ, created for good works prepared beforehand for us to walk in.

Whether it's to witness to someone, whether it's to serve someone whether it's to extend ourselves, sacrifice our comfort and our resources to help someone and show them the love of Christ in a real intangible way.

And we say no, no, no. We trust in our own hearts that God doesn't really want us to do that. We don't need to serve in that way, it's too hard. We don't have the time, we don't have the ability, we don't have the inclination God's going to have someone else take care of that.

We have other things to attend to. Now those things might be of no relevance to the kingdom. It might just be a sinful use of our leisure time whatever, but we think it's good enough. We are convinced in our hearts that we don't have an obligation to others.

Or if we do have an obligation to others it's not that obligation. Staring me in the face. Has anyone been there? Just me? Now you might wonder, I thought the idea of trusting in our own hearts is that we were doing something that's sinful.

Let's talk about doing things, I know I'm not doing things that are sinful but acts of omission are sinful too. As I said, we have obligations to God and to one another. And our inaction can be just as sinful just as sinful as our actions.

Moses had told the tribes of Reuben and Gad when they said, hey listen, we're going to stay on this side of the Jordan, this is good. He says, alright, you've got to go and help the other tribes gain their inheritance, right?

He says, if they shirk their responsibility to help the other tribes that would be sin and their sin will find them out. Mordecai warned Esther about the judgment to come on her and her household if she remained silent when she had the opportunity to act to help her people he was asking her to put her life on the line.

He says, if you remain silent deliverance will rise up another way but you and your father's household will perish. And if you don't know those stories that's like, ok, I think I might have heard that you've got to read the Old Testament.

You need to be familiar with this, because how can you know what wisdom is and what foolishness is if God has provided all these great examples and we don't know them. James in James 4 .17 says whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him it is sin.

So, that's the sin of inaction the sin of failing to do what God has called us to do. But if you want examples of things that we can do that are trusting in our own heart, that we do what we want to do.

We enjoy our vices, we vent our feelings we live by our rules and our standards. I'll share a few with those as well. We live our lives thinking there's going to be no serious repercussions. Most of us think, I might be doing this and I might not be great.

But it's never going to really jump up and come back to bite me. And yet the news is filled with stories of sometimes wild incidents, wild encounters of ordinary people involved in life altering events because of bad decisions that led to results that they could not have imagined a grandmother stabbing her daughter and grandson on Thanksgiving in an argument while being drunk and just drinking too much not thinking of it when he took that first drink this morning how this day of thanks was going to end but drinking too much, drinking to excess losing control and now facing jail time in addition to whatever harm she did to her daughter and her grandson there's countless stories like that, you can read about that every day.

There was a story several years ago a woman in an argument with her husband in a car and in her emotional distress she leaves the car the problem, she's in a safari park where there's wild animals and no sooner did she leave that car than a tiger pounced on her mauled her, started dragging her off into the woods her husband and mom jump out to go to rescue her and they did.