Fools for Christ: Putting Off Foolishness

Well, it’s definitely a joy for
me to be here. And I’m not sure if one of the
reasons it hasn’t taken so long is because this church is full
of Kevins already. But be that as it may, my joy
to be here with you and have us take a look at something that
I think is intensely practical and very easily to relate to
and so we’re gonna look at this today and I would invite you
to go ahead and turn to the book of Proverbs and let me go ahead
and pray for our time in God’s word. Lord, it’s amazing how
you can take sinners the likes of us entrenched in a path of
foolishness that we were even deceived in that. And yet you
supernaturally graciously intervene in our lives. And that’s our
hope even today, Lord, that there’s any in our midst that don’t know
you, that you are still in that business of opening blind eyes
and turning a sinner from his path or her path that might embrace
Christ and begin to walk and the path of wisdom. And Lord,
how you patiently, as a tender, kind-hearted Father, continue
to hold Christ up before us and point us to him that we might,
in the power that he supplies, put off foolishness in this life
and to begin to employ the, really, the vast, unfathomable riches
of your wisdom to the practical areas of our lives, that our
lives would be beautiful displays of your transforming grace. Lord,
would you give us humility even now to receive your word, to
see areas in our lives that maybe we haven’t drawn practical applications
of the gospel to, but that you would help us, and that you would
meet with us, and that your wisdom would be a million times valuable than
anything else that we could possess. That that would be what you stir
in our hearts today, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen. This
is a message that you might be surprised to know that you could
actually preach yourself. You could get up here. You’d
probably say, yeah, it’s true. You heard me correctly. We could
each one of us, if we’re honest and maybe painfully honest, we
are experts at namely the path of the fool. And that’s what
we’re going to look at. We know that that comes naturally
to us. Putting off foolishness, on the
other hand, only comes supernaturally. That’s only by the power of God
in our lives, only by Christ working in us. Going down the
path of foolishness, it just takes no effort, right? Don’t
do anything. That’s what we’re going to do.
If you think about the amount of effort it takes to get off
of that path and get on the path of wisdom, it is a supernatural
work. I mean, it takes Christ dying
on the cross, rising from the grave, and intervening in our
lives to supernaturally save us, to rescue us from that path.
That is a monumental, omnipotent work. It takes God giving his
word, revelation, him speaking to get us off that path. It takes
the Holy Spirit dwelling us and empowering us, filling us. Apart from that, we have no hope
of getting off the path of foolishness and onto the path of wisdom. And it takes even for us as if
we’re believers, it takes full effort and engagement of heart,
mind and strength to appropriate the resources that are ours in
Christ. And I just say to you at the
outset here, it is nothing short of divine intervention in our
lives to walk down the path of wisdom and escape the path of
foolishness and all its lingering remnants. in our lives. Now,
I’m going to spend the bulk of our time looking at the fool,
which is a lot of bad news and quite depressing, potentially
even demoralizing, because you might be tempted. There’s no
hope for me. This is this is horrible stuff. But I want to
set out just briefly by way of introduction for kind of important,
reassuring reminders to you to keep you from feeling totally
discouraged, OK, to I’ll pull you back from the precipice of
despair if I could just because you need to keep these in mind
because you’re going to feel we’re going to feel the conviction of the word.
We’re going to need to see some things about ourselves that will
no doubt cause us to reflect and hopefully by God’s grace,
repent of foolishness that lingers yet in our own hearts. But we
need to not process that in such a way that we have no hope. We should process it in such
a way that now there is complete hope for full and total forgiveness
in Christ. And there’s renewed hope not
only for Christ to save me if I’m in if I am a fool and have
not yet been saved or people that I know that I’m trying to
bring the gospel to that they are just blinded. They are just
going down a path and there’s no way for them to be rescued.
You need to have hope that God is still in the process of redeeming
fools and Also for us, we have renewed hope that there is transforming
power available to us through Christ and the spirit to deliver
us and help us overcome remaining foolishness and to make progress
in putting off foolishness instead of just excusing it. So let me
just give you these four kind of what I would just call foundational
reassuring promises for fools. They are ones for us. Well, there
are ones that are helpful for fools who do desire to put off
foolishness and there’s very stabilizing There are things
that I no doubt you have doing wrong. Well, if you have heard
these preached before I’m not gonna give you anything new and
I’m not gonna expound on them I’m just gonna give them to you
and maybe a key text to go with them. So here they are. So these
are these are just Things that you need you can study on your
own, but there are reassurances. Number one is this The father
chooses to save fools You need to get that I mean, 1 Corinthians
1, 26 to 31, in fact, very explicitly says that God has chosen the
foolish things of the world to what? Shame the wise. Take great comfort and great
reassurance that the Father chooses to save fools. Okay? So just remember that. Fools
are chosen by the Father. Second, if they’re chosen by
the Father, they’re also redeemed by the Son. Fools are redeemed
by the Son. They’re redeemed by Christ. That
same passage in 1 Corinthians 1, 26 to 31, you will see that. If you look at that passage,
you’ll read that we are chosen where? In Christ Jesus. There’s plenty of other passages
that you could go to, but we’re redeemed. So remember that no
matter how you may feel about the extent of your foolishness,
if God has set his affection and love on you to save you,
he has chosen you and Christ has redeemed you. Third is this,
you’re sanctified by the Spirit. I mean, here we are, we’re really
talking about the work of the Trinity, the supernatural work.
The Spirit sanctifies fools. Galatians 3 verse 3 says, having
begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected in the flesh?
The answer is, no, you’re not, but you have the Spirit of God.
So therefore, you have what? Hope. No matter how much you
might feel convicted about foolishness, or we look at the path of the
fool from Proverbs, you have the Holy Spirit who is your helper,
your guide, your counselor, who is the Spirit of truth. And then
the fourth reassuring reminder is that you have all the wisdom
you need in the Word of Christ right here in the 66 books of
the completed canon of the Bible. The word is sufficient wisdom
from God to help you overcome any and all foolishness. And
it will penetrate any and every fool. So how do you know that
you have sufficient wisdom? Because even Colossians 2, verse
3 and 4, just to give you a text that goes with it, in whom are
hidden what? All the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge, Christ himself. And I say that no one will delude
you with pervasive arguments. See to it that no one takes you
captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to
the tradition of men. So that’s Colossians 2, 3, 4,
and 8. So just remember those four reassuring
promises. I just want to set that out,
give you that good news, reassuring news, is that God loves fools,
he saves fools, he empowers, he equips, he transforms, redeemed
fools, all for the purpose of exalting the Lord Jesus Christ
in this world and forevermore. So it’s never too late for any
person who is a fool to respond to Christ’s gracious offer for
complete and total forgiveness and those to turn from self to
follow him. There is no condemnation for
them. So we don’t want to process truth
in such a way that we feel condemned. But the purpose of today then
is really is to say, well, okay, if those reassuring truths are
correct, then the question then becomes, is my claim to be in
Christ Jesus a valid claim? Is it legitimate? How does that
measure up? Do I live a skillful life? The
real theme of the book of Proverbs is fearing the Lord, right? The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, right? As if to say,
you don’t even get out of the batter’s box, right? You don’t
even get up to the plate of wisdom until you first, you’re fearing
God. And it doesn’t just mean that that’s the beginning, really
that idea in the book of Proverbs is that’s the chief end of man.
It’s the chief characteristic of life. So that life, Proverbs
lays out for us, is a skillful life, a beautiful life, an adorning
life, an aesthetically pretty life, if you could say it that
way, that is called fearing God. We could say it this way. The
path of the fool is not fearing God. It’s the opposite of that.
So when you study this out and you look at it, the question
becomes as well, does my life look like the life of the pursuit
of wisdom, valuing it more than anything and anyone else? And
if I could put the question, and maybe this is the question
you could ask yourself today. What foolishness is Christ calling
me to put off at this stage of my life today right now with
whatever I’m going through? What foolishness that makes this
message more personal than what foolishness is Christ calling
me to put off? And so we’re called to that.
Now I want you, I’ve told you to turn to the book of Proverbs.
So let’s get going here with a book of Proverbs. That’s all
introductory matters. And specifically, maybe let’s
start in Proverbs chapter 28. What I’m going to do is I, You know I’m I’m in the insurance
business. Ron didn’t say that I’ve been in the insurance business
for almost 25 years. I’m a partner in an insurance
agency so I’m in the sales process. Yes. And don’t worry I haven’t
you know figured out OK well you’re this age you smoke what
your premium is you know before you walk out of here. OK. So
none of that’s happened, right? So all I’m trying to say is that
I talk fast, okay? So you try to keep up, do the
best you can, but I’ll try to be patient and try to repeat
myself so you can get it. But I will offer this to you.
If you don’t get it, don’t panic, don’t be frustrated. Just email
me or let Ron know. I’ll happily send you the entire
manuscript and you can read it and study it on your own whenever
you want. Get what you can as we go through
it because I do need to get through seven descriptions of the fool
and the foolishness to put up. Don’t know that we’ll get through
all of them. But they’re wordy, too, a little bit. Each one.
I just want to offer that to you so you can be at ease. I
don’t want you to get writer’s cramp. I don’t want you to feel
frustrated by the speed at which we’re going. But I’m going to
try to lay these out for us, these seven descriptions of the
foolishness that Christ has called us to put off. And in doing so,
I think that what you will find is that you’ll identify with
them. These have been borne out not
so much from my study of the Book of Proverbs, but as applying
the Book of Proverbs even in my secular workforce and as a
partner in my firm. So these are very practical matters
for me and I hope they come across that way to you as well. So let’s just start here with
these and I’ll try to again repeat them. The first one of these
descriptions of the fool and therefore the foolishness that
God calls us to put off is this. The fool is self-deceived about
the state of his own soul. And he pridefully refuses to
receive instruction and corrections from those that God sends to
him to open his eyes. Now that’s a long statement.
So let me repeat it. The fool is self-deceived about
the state of his own soul. And in that, he pridefully refuses
to receive instruction and correction from the very ones that God sends
to him to open his eyes. All right? Now, Proverbs 28,
verses 25 and 26. This is where we pick this thought
up. Evil men do not understand justice,
but those who seek the Lord understand all things. Better is, I’m sorry,
that was verse five and six. I need to be at 20, 28, 25 and
26. Proverbs 28, 25 and 26, here
it is. An arrogant man stirs up strife,
but he who trusts in the Lord will prosper. He who trusts in
his own heart is what? A fool, but he who walks wisely
will be delivered. So what’s the fundamental problem
here? It’s where you place your trust. You put your trust in
your own heart or you put your trust in the Lord. The person
who trusts in his own heart is the one who is self-deceived
and won’t listen, won’t heed instruction, won’t accept it.
And anybody that God sends to him to open his eyes, he rejects
that, turns away from it, doesn’t pay heed. So he is in a hopeless
and helpless condition. Proverbs 26, verse 12. Similarly,
do you see a man wise in his own eyes? Do you see a man wise
in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool
than for him. How much hope is there for a
fool? Not much, but it says there’s more hope for a fool than for
a man who’s wise in his own eyes. He’s in a worse condition, even
if there is such a condition to be worse in. The fool is self-deceived
about the state of his soul, and he pridefully refuses to
accept instruction. I love this picture in Proverbs
27, verse 22. Look at this. Though you pound a fool in a
mortar with a pestle, along with crushed grain, yet his foolishness
will not depart from him. You get the picture? You guys
know what a pestle is? It’s one of those grinding things, like
think of a mallet or a rock, and it’s rounded at the end,
and you put the nuts or the grain inside this bowl, and you’re
grounding it to make it pound. No matter how much you do that,
and no matter how fine you get it, you’re not gonna separate
The fool from his foolishness. What a picture in terms of how
ingrained it is. in who we are as people and how
much effort it takes. It’s a supernatural effort that
it takes. Proverbs 12, verse 15, the way
of a fool is right in his own eyes, but in contrast, a wise
man is he who listens to counsel. See, the problem is compounded
because not only is the fool described this way, he will not
listen to counsel. And you see this theme throughout
the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 14, 12. There is a way which
seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. And that proverb is repeated.
So you have many times in scripture, what you see in the book of Proverbs,
how many times you see this, this author pleading with his
son over and over my son, my son, my son, and what’s he really
saying? My son, don’t go the way of the fool, go the way of
wisdom. There’s this, this imploring,
this begging. of him to get out of that. It
is this godlike father instrument in the heavenly father’s hand
appealing, but the foolish son won’t listen to that father’s
pleas. And his ability to rationalize
and excuse himself is amazing. Proverbs 16, 2 outlines that,
says this. And this first point here, just
so you know, is longer and it’s kind of the foundation upon which
the rest of them are built. But look at this. All the ways
of a man are clean in his own sight, but the Lord weighs the
motives.” In other words, the way of the fool, because he’s
so entrenched and self-deceived here and won’t listen to counsel,
he is constantly asserting, I’m clean, I’m not at fault, it wasn’t
me, I didn’t mean it, I was just joking, all kind of things like
that, that are just rationalizations and cloaks under which we can
hide. His ability to deflect personal
responsibility and class blame elsewhere is unparalleled. That
is the path of foolishness. And his resistance to rebuke
and correction is, I mean, it’s just, he’s determined, he’s settled
in. And so we could ask ourselves,
how resistant are we to rebuke and correction to someone who
brings us counsel? Proverbs 12, verse one says,
whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof
is stupid. Yes, the word stupid is in the
Bible. He who hates reproof is stupid. Proverbs 15, verse five,
a fool rejects his father’s discipline, but he who regards reproof is
sensible. And just some of the pictures
of Proverbs about this are so amazing. Proverbs 17, verse 10,
a rebrook goes deeper into one who has understanding than a
hundred blows into a fool. I mean, just think, I mean, I
don’t know if you were in a boxing ring and you got, I mean, five,
how many hits could you take? Five, 10 before you’re pummeled
and knocked out? A hundred blows and still no
good that has happened because what has he done? He has set
himself up as the ultimate authority over his own life. Instead of
trusting God with all his heart, not leaning on his understanding,
acknowledging him in all his ways, God will make us pass straight.
No, no. He trusts in his heart. He refuses. He won’t acknowledge
God in any of his ways. And he is leaning completely
on his own understanding. So. The issue here ultimately
is that he’s against the Lord, not just against the people that
God sends him. And his self is on the throne. He’s trusting in his own heart.
And God is out to humble sinners, right? Jesus did not come to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And there’s many
texts even in the New Testament where we’re called to put off
foolishness, to work out our own salvation, and that the putting
off is a lifelong process. So this first component here
that really undergirds everything else, and you just need to think
about this for yourself, The fool is self-deceived about the
state of his soul, and he pridefully refuses to receive instruction
and correction from those that God sends to him to open his
eyes. That’s the first characteristic
from which all the rest of them flow. Number two of our descriptions
of the fool and the foolishness to put off is this. This is how
I’ve worded it. The fool is careless with his
time, This is from the book of Proverbs now. This is the observation.
He’s careless with his time and his choices, squandering both,
and thus fails to control himself and live soberly. He fails to
control himself. He fails to live soberly. I have
you in the book of Proverbs. I know I’ve bounced around to
a number of texts, but if you look at Proverbs 14 verses 15
and 16, let me give that to you again, just because I know it’s
wordy. The fool is careless with his time and choices, squandering
both, and therefore he fails to control himself and live soberly. Proverbs 14 verses 15 and 16
says this. The naive believes everything,
but the sensible man considers his step. The sensible man, the
naive just believes that whatever is told, just everything, kind
of like, just embrace everything, kind of synchronistic in whatever
their thinking is. The fool, that’s the naive, the
foolish naive person. The sensible man considers his
steps. Verse 16, a wise man is cautious and turns away from
evil. but a fool is arrogant and careless. I mean, think about that. What
a picture in terms of the lack of sobriety. I mean, another
thing of Proverbs in the book of Proverbs, how humbling, right?
God tells us to go to who for instruction on work and diligence. You guys know? The ant. Have
you ever gone and just looked at an ant farm or an ant hill
and just watched out? Probably you escaped because
you don’t want to get bit by this, but just sometime, you
know, take a pen and pad with you where you know there’s some
ants and just go sit and watch them. That’s what God’s telling
us to do. We’re made in the image of God, created in the image
of God, and God has to send us to who? To an ant so therefore
we might get wisdom and escape foolishness. How humbling. The fool, though, would think,
I don’t need that instruction. I don’t need to go to the ant,
right? Because what does the fool do?
He’s careless with his time and choices, squandering both, and
therefore he fails to control himself and live soberly. There’s
not enough self-control and self-discipline to do what he should be doing.
That’s the mark of the fool. We are not to be like that. There’s
no real purpose or initiative. I mean, why would he? He’s living
for himself. Life’s all about me. But on the
other hand, if Christ has bought you and you’re therefore his
ambassador and he is your life, you’re not here for no purpose.
You’re not here just to do whatever you want. You’re not here in
this life. We are not here in this life
without initiative, without meaning. We got a job to do. We got a
mission to fulfill. I’m not my own. I could go to
the end and I can learn. And therefore, I’m not careless. What’s my point? I’m not careless
with my time and choices because what? My time’s not mine. Christ
bought it. My choices aren’t mine. I belong
to him. and therefore to fail to control
myself and live soberly and just think that Christ can sort of
just be added to my life where I can deal with him when I want
to, or partially, or maybe even compartmentally, that’s not the
life of wisdom. And there’s other passages of
scripture that call us that your life is a vapor. Gone in a minute. Next time you
have your Starbucks coffee, pull the lid off, watch that steam
go, and there goes your life. That’s what God calls us to.
That’s what God is reminding us here. And the fool just doesn’t
get it. So the path of foolishness is just one of careless indifference
to time and choices and squandering them instead of controlling ourselves
and living soberly. And that’s not a joyless existence.
Of course, God has meaning. In Psalm 90, 20, the prayer is,
Lord, teach me to number my days. Number three. The fool is clueless
about how what he is doing today will affect his life in the future.
And some of you who are older, I see a few of you nodding your
head. You’re like, yep, I’ve tried to warn people about that.
But the fool, foolishness, is clueless about how what he is
doing today will affect his life in the future. In other words,
he’s not preparing himself for the future. There’s little thought
about the biblical principle that is established through all
of the scripture. You will reap what you sow. The fool is clueless about how
what he’s doing today will affect his life in the future. He’s
not faithful to take care of others that are his responsibility
to help and provide. I mean, in the book of Proverbs,
I won’t turn there, but in Proverbs chapter one, if you reject and
you ignore Lady Wisdom’s call now or in your past as a pattern
of your life, then Lady Wisdom says, when you call to me, I’m
not going to answer. I’m going to let you reap what
you sow. And that’s this principle here at work here. She’s not
going to respond. She was going to leave you to
yourself and let you reap what you sow. She’ll abandon you to
your consequences. She says that actually in Proverbs
1 verse 31, if you needed to put a text, you think that I’m
making this up or trying to scare us. She says here, so they shall
eat of the fruit of their own way and be satiated with their
own devices. So we see this principle, but
the fool’s not clued in to this principle. In other words, we’re
gonna learn one way or the other. And some of us have lived longer
than others, and we’ve learned from pain. And that’s God’s grace
too, right? To learn from the painful mistakes
that we have made. And so here, what we have is
this idea, and I could give you a few other texts here, there’s
a number of things in Proverbs about if you’re not careful to
give to others who need it when you can, then when you’re in
want, nobody’s gonna help you either. Or the naive, the prudent
person sees evil and hides himself, but what do the naive person
do? Just proceeds and then they pay the penalty. They just arrogantly
go forward. And there’s many Proverbs, there’s
a Proverbs 14 verse seven talks about, if you’re going down the
path of fool, you’re gonna lose your friends. You’re gonna lose
friendships over that. And so, Just remember, I call
this guy in Luke chapter 12, verse 20, just a cross-reference
for you, Mr. Buford Big Barn. There’s nobody
in this church named Buford, right? Hopefully. I don’t think
so. I tried to pick a name that would be obscure, all right?
But this is the guy, the fool, right, who says, what am I gonna
do? I’m gonna tear down my barns and build bigger barns, and then
I can have rest for my soul, just eat and drink Mary. And
what happens? This very night, your soul is required of you.
You fool what you did. So again, it’s just an illustration
of my point here that the fool is clueless about how what he
is doing today will affect his life in the future. Have you
given thought to what you’re doing today and what that’s going
to reap for you in the future? That’s what God calls us to,
to think about the way, to consider our ways. and be careful and
cautious and ask him to help us sort them out. Number four
is this. The fool is opinionated, mouthy
and does not listen. All right. He is hasty in his speech. He’s
in a hopeless situation. He’s opinionated, mouthy, and
does not listen. I’m going to give you these texts.
I’m not going to actually look them up. Proverbs 18, verse 2.
I think there that it says that the fool delights only in revealing
his own mind as opposed to listening. Proverbs 10, 8. Proverbs 18,
13. A few other texts. The fool is opinionated, mouthy,
and does not listen. Number five. That was a little
shorter. Number five is this. The fool
quits when something he starts turns out to be harder than anticipated. And he has no desire, ability
or resolve to persevere. Now, some of you have seen this.
Let me give that to you again. OK, watch it. The fool quits
when something he starts to do turns out to be harder than anticipated. And he has no desire. ability
or resolve to persevere. In other words, what does he
do? Might have a good idea, might start on it, but he gives up
very quickly. He quits. He’s the lazy slugger
with a slack hand who buries it in the dish and is too lazy
to even pull it up out, right? Because it’s harder to lift up
the more food, whatever his excuse is, right? There’s all kinds
of excuses. It’s the guy who, the Proverbs
talks about the guy who should be working and instead of working,
no, there’s a lion in the street and I’m going to get eaten. No
lying in the street. It’s a figment of his imagination.
It’s just an excuse. But it is hard to get yourself
out from underneath those prison doors called sheets of your bed. Right. And you got to escape
those things and get to work. So the fool quits when he starts
something. And it turns out to be harder
than he anticipated. He has no desire, ability or
resolve to get it. And he could talk a big game.
Proverbs 14. Have you ever heard of that?
And all labor there is profit, but mere talk only leads only
to poverty. He could talk a big game, but
as for in terms of taking action, no way. And yet, we know that
we’re gonna fall, right? We’re in a fallen world. Did
you guys get that? That’s not news to you, is it,
right? We’re in a fallen world. It’s a messed up place. And we’re
in it, and we’re part of it. We contribute to it. Proverbs
24, verse 16, though, talks about the wise man in contrast to the
fool. For a righteous man, Proverbs
24, 16, a righteous man falls seven times and what? And rises
again. But the wicked stumble in time
of calamity. Implication being they stumble
and they stay down. They don’t get back up. Right? We confess
our sins. Christ is faithful and righteous
to forgive us our sins. We move forward. We keep going.
We keep persevering. continue to be faithful to what
God has called us to. The fool, on the other hand,
quits when he starts something that turns out to be harder than
anticipated, and he has no desirability or resolve to persevere. Number six is this. The fool is ignorant about the
present dangers. This is very timely. Okay. The fool is ignorant about
the present dangers of his specific stage of life. And there are
specific temptations and dangers at every stage of life. I don’t
care what state, if you’re a teenager or if you’re retired and you’re
a senior citizen, every stage of life brings with it unique
temptations, unique dangers that we all have to walk through.
The fool here is ignorant about the present dangers of the specific
stage of his life and the specific culture in which he lives. and
he is content to remain undiscerning. That’s the problem. So he’s ignorant
of those things, of his stage of life and the culture in which
he lives, and he’s content to remain undiscerning in the midst
of that. Proverbs 1.10, and I’ll give
you a few to try to illustrate this. So just go ahead and turn
to Proverbs 1. Proverbs 1.10 says, my son, if
sinners entice you, do not consent. What’s the implication? You need
wisdom to, number one, identify that they’re sinners, number
two, discern their enticement, and number three, have the fortitude
to not consent, right? Here, this father is pleading
with his son, and then he’s gonna go on, make it more specific
here, verse 15. My son, do not walk in the way
with them. Keep your feet from their path. There is ones that we are to
avoid. We don’t walk with them. Proverbs
13 verse 20 says, the companion of fools suffers harm. If I could just indelibly engrave
one proverb in the life of every teenager, it would be that. The
companion of fools suffers, God’s not gonna be mocked. Every stage
of life, there’s going to be plenty of fools that you can
be companions with. And if you do, you’re going to
suffer harm. Don’t walk with them. Don’t walk
with them. Proverbs 2 verses 11 through
16. Just listen to this. I’m just
going to read it. Discretion will guard you. Understanding
will watch over you. This is just on the heels now
talking about the wisdom, the treasures of God’s word, the
sufficiency. Remember one of my four reassurances. We have
all the treasures of wisdom in Christ. Verse 12, to deliver
you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things,
from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the
way of darkness, who delight in doing evil and rejoice in
the perversity of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are
devious in their ways, to deliver you from the strange woman and
from the adulterous, who flatters with her words. Now there’s,
he’s going to go on. He’s going to apply that to the issue of sexual purity. But the principle that undergirds
it all is that we have to be aware of the present dangers
of the specific stage of life that we’re in the specific culture
in which we live and not be content to be undiscerning about those
things. Proverbs chapter seven, verse
21, talks about the naive being like an ox, just being led away
to the slaughter. Doesn’t even realize what’s happening
and what awaits him. He falls for her enticing, persuasive,
flattering, seductive words. That’s the person who has no
discernment, is not trying to redeem his specific stage of
life, and he’s often just coasting along inattentive and just accepting
common, prevailing opinions of the day. kind of oblivious and
naive to the world view of the influencers and so on. The fool
is ignorant about present dangers of a specific stage of life and
the specific culture in which he lives and is content to remain
undiscerning. And then lastly is this number
seven is this. The fool is oblivious to an unconcerned
about oblivious to an unconcerned about the adverse effects that
his actions have on others. Why? It’s all about me. There’s
no regard, there’s no concern for self, there’s no love of
neighbor. To finish it, the statement,
he’s unconcerned, he’s oblivious to and unconcerned about the
adverse effects that his actions have on others, whether they
are loved ones or total strangers. And I say that because we have
a responsibility to both. to loved ones or to total strangers. The Bible calls them neighbors.
There’s many things about this. There’s the one whose speech
is like thrusts of a sword, just an unwieldy sword, not any concern
at all, just opinionated, saying whatever I want, not really concerned
about how it’s going to affect anybody around me. This person
is hated by others in Proverbs 14, verse 17. The parents of
the fool who goes down this path are, they face shame, they face,
they’re griefed, they’re grieved and so on. There’s proverbs about
the unfaithful messenger. What is the effect of that unfaithful
messenger? Disappointment. even devastation
on those who sent them, right? I know in my business, I have
seen companies face tremendous financial loss because of employees
that didn’t care or employees who face tremendous loss because
the owner of their company didn’t have any concern of the effects
of his actions upon others. See, we’re not called to that,
are we? We’re called to have regard for others, whether they’re
close or even just our neighbor. We’re not to be ones who don’t
pull our own weight, for example. and we’re dependent on somebody
else because we just won’t do what we should do, right? There’s
those kinds of things. We’re not to be self-absorbed
and self-preoccupied. Lots of proverbs about strife.
Let me just go to another thing. Those are the seven. So that
seventh one is, the fool is oblivious to and unconcerned about the
adverse effects his actions have upon others, whether they be
loved ones or strangers. I wanna address one thing and
then I’m gonna wrap it up and conclude. And I wanna do this
because you see this, the book of Proverbs is wisdom from a
father to a son, right? And it’s not a 10 year old, we’re
talking about probably a college age type adult son, and maybe
as young as a teenager. But what do we do? What kind
of help is there for ones who are faithful to proclaim God’s
wisdom and yet The result is the person you love still goes
the way of the fool. What do we say? How do we deal with that
particular situation? And I want to provide some help
because God’s wisdom is consciously imparted by us. We don’t do it
perfectly, right? We’re still growing. There’s
no perfect parent. There’s no perfect dad. Solomon
was certainly not a perfect dad. And Rehoboam went the way of
the fool, split the kingdom right after Solomon. We wouldn’t want
to look to Solomon in terms of really many things of his life.
And we could look at Ecclesiastes and see some of his cynicism.
But what do we talk, what kind of counsel What do we do when
somebody who’s been very deliberate, very conscientious about wanting
to please the Lord and honor the Lord, and yet that loved
one still goes the way of the fool? It’s just to remember this,
we have scriptures like the parable of the prodigal son, right? Because
what does God do? What were you and I? We were
prodigals, were we not? That God rescued. So you could
take comfort in there and we need to not lose heart and prayer
because God blesses the means that he prescribes. He is good
and he loves sinner. Is it your own testimony? A testimony
that God loves a sinner and he intervened and God has been good
to us to you. So take heart. God rescues prodigals
keep praying and you can have a clear conscience of faithfully
imparting your duty as a parent and your role and responsibility,
even though that child has gone the path of a fool. You can have
that. Doesn’t mean that you’re not
without sorrow. I mean, the Proverbs even talks about he who sires
a fool has unending sorrow. But yet there is joy knowing
that the Lord is on his throne and The eternal reward can await
you in your conscientious, faithful. albeit imperfect. And there is
no such thing as a perfect parent. There’s not a perfect parenting
process. We pray and ask the Lord to search me. We listen,
we confess, we own what we need, but we need to avoid the temptation
of withdrawal and self-pity into some sort of a morbid introspection
that is the emotional pool of false accusation and slander
that is really nothing other than a spiritual battle that
we’ve got to put the armor of God on to protect ourselves from.
That’s just my counsel on that area and most of life folks is
is not black and white command or prohibition. Most of our life
is not. adherence to a specific moral
injunction to do this or not do that. Most of our life as
believers, as followers of Christ, is in the area of skillfully
applying God’s truth as a follower of Christ so that he is glorified. In one word, it’s called wisdom,
as opposed to foolishness. And when Jesus said that he came
that we might have life and have it abundantly, that’s not to
be twisted into some name it and claim it prosperity gospel
promise for a happy, healthy and wealthy life. Because in
this world you will have. Tribulation, you will have trouble. Paul even told new believers
one of their first lessons in the book of Acts was through
many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. I mean, that’s
fine. Can we take out the word many? I’ll take a few, but that’s
not what the text actually says. We live in a fallen world with
countless problems and difficulties. Sin wreaks havoc, even in our
day, right? Like the joke, right, is how
do you know when a politician is lying? His lips are moving,
right? You know, you’ve heard that.
And we could probably amen that about ourselves, too, at points
of our lives. But Christ still could save sinners.
He can save fools and turn them into wise people who live skillfully
with a beautiful life that exalts Him. That’s the abundant life
that Jesus is talking about. living skillfully for Him. So don’t give in to cynicism.
Don’t give in to the fact that we are in an apostate culture
where very few people seem to be getting saved. There’s a narrow
road. But Christ is still in the business
of redeeming a whole host of multitude that no man can count. And we have a heavenly Father
who, for Christ’s sake, treats us as adopted sons. and daughters
and instructs us in the path of wisdom where we fear him and
the path of foolishness. Then he warns us here. He pleads
with us to turn away from those things. His call is urgent, but
yet gracious and patiently persistent, just like a human father who
over and over comes to some to impart skillful living. So may
the Lord himself grant us teachable and discerning hearts to heed
his wisdom in these many practical ways. And I’ll close with Colossians
1 verse 9 and 10 says this. For this reason, since the day
we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that
you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all, and I just
love this, in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Why? So that
you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in
all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing
in the knowledge of God. And that prayer was answered
because we have the book of Proverbs, which much practical counsel
for us. Let’s pray. Lord, thank you for
our time in your word today. Thank you for your very practical
guidance. You have not left us to ourselves. How we live makes a difference.
There’s an eternal reward stored up for us. Help us to live circumspectly. Help us to live joyfully. in
relationship with you, not forgetting those reassuring promises that
we’ve talked about, but Lord, not escaping these very detailed
warnings of where there is yet foolishness in our lives that
you call us to put off. Help us, Lord. Thank you that
you’re with us. Thank you that you instruct us
and that you are our father who will not let us out of your hand
and that you continue to very patiently lovingly, gently parent
us, or may we be ones who heed your counsel, who are attentive,
who are ready, who are not deceived or indifferent or overly confident. Lord, instruct us, we pray, and
help us in these areas for your glory and for Christ’s sake.
In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.