Episode Transcript
We're in Proverbs chapter 10 tonight and verse 23.
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And we'll try to expound upon that verse and give us a little bit to chew on for the rest of the week,
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and hopefully not forget it.
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We learned last week that the blessing of the Lord makes rich, and that it adds no sorrow.
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Nothing is exchanged so that we may have it.
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It doesn't cost us anything.
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In fact, the blessing of the Lord we learned is cumulative.
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It adds to what we already have.
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Now tonight, we'll look at another verse,
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and this verse has two opposing types of people in it.
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The fool and the man of understanding.
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Let's read verse 23 together if you're just joining us online, Proverbs chapter 10 verse 23.
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"It is as sport to a fool to do mischief, but a man of understanding hath wisdom."
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The first word we ought to deal with in this verse is the word sport,
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because it has quite a different meaning today than it does in the original language.
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Last Sunday evening, millions, maybe hundreds of millions of people watched the Super Bowl,
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and the sport involved in that event is football.
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Many young people aspire to be professional football players when they grow up.
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Some want to be basketball players or baseball players,
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and each of these activities is lumped together into one category we call sports.
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The newspapers have the headlines and the weather, the advertisements,
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the comics, the crossword puzzle, the business page, and they have the sport page,
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and that was the one I read when I was a little boy, sports page in the comics.
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Then I realized neither one of those pay the light bills,
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so I better get wise to something else in the newspaper.
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But in our text, the Hebrew word for sport means laughter,
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and it also means to scorn or laugh to scorn.
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So that's the idea that this word carries in our text,
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and that is the idea of mockery.
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In Job 12, verse 4, the Hebrew word translated sport in our text
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is translated as two different words, really three, two words,
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and one of them is in a phrase.
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And here it is, it says, "I am as one mocked of his neighbor,
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who calleth upon God, and he answereth him,
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the just upright man is laughed to scorn."
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Now that word mocked and that phrase laughed to scorn
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are the same as the word sport in our text.
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And if you know anything about the book of Job,
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you will know that Job was in a dire strait.
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He was afflicted like few men could ever claim to have been afflicted on this earth,
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having lost all 10 of his children in a storm,
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having lost all of his servants except for four,
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and his cattle, his sheep, and even his wife said,
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"Dost thou still retain not integrity, curse God and die?"
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His wife's faithfulness was even set to the side, if you will.
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So Job wasn't thinking about being a sport as a football player.
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He wasn't thinking about being a sport as in somebody who laughs, "Ha ha, funny."
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He said, "I'm this one who is mocked or made sport of by my neighbor."
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The just upright man is made sport of, he's laughed to scorn.
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And that is quite a different way than how we use the word sport today.
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Can you imagine if the Dallas Morning News sports section was called the mockery section
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or perhaps the section of scorn?
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Well, that wouldn't be worth reading, would it?
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So we want to get rid of the notion, as we often have to when we study the Bible,
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get rid of the notion that the fool in our text is just engaging in some type of horseplay
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because it is mockery to a fool to do mischief.
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Now let's look at the word fool, which we've studied before in Proverbs.
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And it means a stupid person or an arrogant person.
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And I think the word arrogant is a little easier for me to understand.
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And the arrogant person is not stupid in the way that he doesn't know anything.
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It's that he doesn't regard what he does know.
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"The fool hath said in his heart there is no God."
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Now that fool, as you and I know, could have a PhD in physics.
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Not a dull person by any means when it comes to intellectual pursuits.
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But when it comes to regarding God's Word, he is dull to it.
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And most of the uses of the word fool or fools are found in Proverbs, by the way.
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So we learn a lot about fools by reading what is said about the results of their foolishness.
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I'll give you some phrases from selected passages in the Psalms, the Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes
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that describe the fool.
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And here's some of them.
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"Their wealth is left to others.
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They hate knowledge.
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Their prosperity destroys them."
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That's why their wealth is left to others, isn't it?
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"Their hearts proclaim foolishness.
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They despise their mothers.
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Their lips enter into contention."
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They love to argue.
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"They trust their own hearts."
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What did Jeremiah say about the heart?
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Yeah.
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So when you hear someone say, "Well, I just go with my heart,"
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they just define themselves as a fool.
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Think about that.
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Jeremiah said, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it."
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Well, the fool trusts in that desperately wicked heart.
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"They walk in darkness and anger rests in their bosom."
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And there are many other verses that describe the fool.
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But these verses should help you understand that foolishness is not funny.
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It's not entertaining.
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It's arrogant.
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It's destructive.
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And the fool never adds anything good to anyone.
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So it doesn't profit you to associate with a fool.
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Now let's look at another word in our text that we freely toss about in our day.
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In fact, we often use it in a lighthearted way when we describe the naughty things that
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young people do.
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It says, "It is as sport to a fool to do mischief."
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That's the word.
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Mischief.
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We say they are up to some kind of mischief as though it's not that serious.
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And once again, because of the difference in the way we use the word mischief and the
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way the Bible uses it, then we need to let the original language instruct us in the proper
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understanding of the word mischief in our text.
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In the Old Testament, 14 times the Hebrew word is actually translated as lewdness.
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L-E-W-D-N-E-S-S.
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That doesn't sound funny at all, does it?
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That's gross.
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We think of public lewdness, somebody doing a sexual act in a public place, that's against
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the law.
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In Texas, you can go to jail for that in probably every other state.
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One time, and this ought to grab you by the collar, one time the Hebrew word we have translated
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mischief is translated as the words heinous crime.
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Now you think about that when you think about mischief here in our text.
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That what this fool does in the eyes of God is a heinous crime.
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In fact, it's in Job 31, verses 9 through 11, Job 31 verses 9 through 11, where he said,
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"If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid weight at my neighbor's
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door, then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her, for this
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is a heinous crime.
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Yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges."
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So Job describes this heinous crime, which in our text is called mischief, as an iniquity
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that's to be punished by the judges.
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So to Job, this was not some playful indiscretion, it was serious business.
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Just like the mischief the fool does, the mischief of which he makes sport.
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So we've looked at the words sport, and fool, and mischief.
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So let's put it all together.
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It is as mockery to a stupid arrogant person to commit heinous crimes.
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There you go.
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That sounds pretty serious.
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That doesn't sound light-hearted at all, does it?
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This fool not only commits heinous crimes, but it's a laughing matter to him.
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That's what the sport is.
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That's what the mockery is.
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He's mocking something when he commits this mischief.
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Now what is he mocking?
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He's mocking wisdom.
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He's mocking wisdom.
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And we'll look at the man of understanding in just a moment, but the thing that contrasts
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the fool and the man of understanding is wisdom.
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The man of understanding has it, the fool doesn't have it, and it's not because he can't get
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it.
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It's because he doesn't want it.
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He laughs at it.
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He mocks it.
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As Job says, the one who's upright is laughed to scorn.
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And you know who does the laughing?
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It's the fool.
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The fool laughs to scorn the upright man, the one who's upright in God's sight.
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Remember some of the verses I read you in describing the fool.
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The fool hates knowledge and understanding.
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In fact, he hates it so badly that he will commit mischief in order to mock wisdom.
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And in mocking wisdom, the fool mocks those who are wise.
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So when Job said the upright man is laughed to scorn, it's not as much the man as it is
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the wisdom.
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When Jesus said that we would be persecuted, he said you'll be persecuted for my name's
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sake.
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When they persecute you, they're actually persecuting me by persecuting you.
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That's what the devil does to God's people.
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One thing I noticed is that the text tells us what the fool does, but it doesn't tell
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us what he gains.
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And so I did a little reading, a lot of reading actually, on verses in the Old Testament that
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describe the fool because I wanted to see if there was anything the fool gains.
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And I saw that he never gains anything good at all.
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Everything the fool gains is bad.
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He gains much sorrow.
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He gains stripes.
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The rod is for the back of the fool, the Bible says.
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He gains destruction and poverty and shame and darkness and so on.
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And none of those are good, but the fool is so arrogant that he doesn't think any of those
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things will befall him or come his way.
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And therefore, for him to do mischief, it's a sport.
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He mocks that wisdom.
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You have your parents, you have taught your children, probably when they were young, don't
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do that, you'll be sorry.
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And what did they usually do?
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They went and did it, didn't they?
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Because they didn't believe you when you said you'll be sorry.
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In their mind, it was so much fun.
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It looks like such a blast or it can't be that bad.
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I want to just try it one time, whatever it was.
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And some lessons we don't want our children to learn the hard way.
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I don't want them to learn that a 60 mile an hour vehicle that weighs 3,000 pounds has
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more kinetic energy than their body can absorb and still live.
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I don't want them to know that the delta v of 36 miles an hour is not survivable by the
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human body.
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I don't want to know that.
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So I don't let them run in the street.
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I don't say if you run out there, you'll be sorry and then just see what they do.
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But there are other things we have to allow our children to choose to do, like to obey
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you.
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So if you don't mind me, you're going to be sorry.
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You're going to be in trouble.
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And so what do they do?
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Sometimes they mind you and sometimes they mock you.
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They mock you.
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They might do this, but they mock you in disobeying you.
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They're mocking wisdom because a loving parent tells their children things to do and not
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do because we love them.
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We use the wisdom that God's given us.
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Sometimes the wisdom we have learned the hard way ourselves.
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But the fool grows up physically, but he still stays the child by his own choosing when it
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comes to wisdom.
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He remains a child in wisdom.
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He's a fool.
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Now let's look at the other side of this coin.
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It says back in verse 23, "But a man of understanding hath wisdom."
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Now when you see the word "but" in the Bible or anywhere else, it's contrasting the idea,
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the character, the phrase, the sentence before it with the one after it.
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So we know just by looking at the grammatical construction of this verse that the fool and
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the man of understanding are not alike.
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The only thing they have in common is that they're flesh and blood.
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The word "understanding" here we've seen several times in the Proverbs and it means discretion
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and it also is translated as wisdom.
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Wisdom and understanding are very close, but wisdom is also translated as a skillful man.
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How about that?
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Bet you didn't think that was in there, a skillful man.
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So it seems that wisdom is not just some random intelligence, but intelligence that is skillfully
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used because wisdom is also a skillful man.
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The words "understanding" and "wisdom" are yoke fellows.
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They're like the words "repentance" and "faith."
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You try to parse those two out while they have slightly different meanings, they go
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right together.
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You repent toward God and have faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.
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You can't say, "Well, I'm not going to repent toward God, but I'm going to have faith toward
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the Lord Jesus Christ."
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It doesn't work.
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Or, "I'm going to repent toward God, but I'm not going to have faith."
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Well, then you haven't repented.
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So don't let that get you confused if you're on the fence.
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Well, I have faith, but have I really repented?
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You've got the wrong idea about both.
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And the same with understanding and wisdom.
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Remember, God used Solomon to write this proverb.
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And if there was anything Solomon knew about, it was wisdom and understanding.
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If there was anything Solomon valued, it was wisdom and understanding.
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He valued it so much that out of all the things for which he could have asked God, he asked
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God for wisdom.
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In 2 Chronicles chapter 1 and verse 10, 2 Chronicles 1 and verse 10, when he prayed to the Lord,
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he said, "Give me now wisdom and knowledge that I may go out and come in before this
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people, for who can judge this thy people?"
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That is so great.
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Now if you'll notice, Solomon wasn't just asking for wisdom so he could know a lot of
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stuff.
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So maybe one day he could be a contestant on Jeopardy.
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He asked for wisdom with a purpose.
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And the purpose for receiving that wisdom was that it may be skillfully applied in judging
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the children of Israel.
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That's why he wanted wisdom.
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When I was a young man, I began learning Spanish.
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And initially I took Spanish in junior high because my mother said you need to take Spanish
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in junior high.
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And I really liked my teacher.
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She was also my Texas history teacher and U.S. history teacher the next year.
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And she was a fine teacher.
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She taught for over 50 years in the Lubbock Independent School District.
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And then I continued having really good Spanish teachers.
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And I went from being in the class because my mom said I needed to go to being in there
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because I enjoyed learning Spanish, especially with my friends.
00:21:17,380 --> 00:21:23,700
And as an adult, I continued to develop my ability to speak, read, and write Spanish,
00:21:23,700 --> 00:21:32,420
not because my mom said I should go to Spanish class.
00:21:32,420 --> 00:21:36,740
Not because my friends were in there with me in college, but because I began to see
00:21:36,740 --> 00:21:41,420
a need for me to know Spanish, to help others who didn't, who were trying to speak to someone
00:21:41,420 --> 00:21:50,860
who knew only Spanish.
00:21:50,860 --> 00:21:52,780
That's called translation.
00:21:52,780 --> 00:21:54,860
So I could help people who were non-Spanish speakers, if they spoke English, communicate
00:21:54,860 --> 00:22:00,180
with Spanish speakers and vice versa.
00:22:00,180 --> 00:22:03,060
So there was a need.
00:22:03,060 --> 00:22:07,780
And I could do both.
00:22:07,780 --> 00:22:12,140
Now I'm not perfect at it.
00:22:12,140 --> 00:22:13,540
I can't even speak English perfectly.
00:22:13,540 --> 00:22:15,940
So how would I ever approach speaking Spanish perfectly?
00:22:15,940 --> 00:22:19,540
But I know enough that I can skillfully apply what I've learned and help others.
00:22:19,540 --> 00:22:28,060
That's what you do if you become a nurse.
00:22:28,060 --> 00:22:31,940
You learn your trade so that you can skillfully apply what you learn to help others.
00:22:31,940 --> 00:22:37,780
And that's the idea of the wisdom here.
00:22:37,780 --> 00:22:43,180
As Solomon wrote in our text that a man of understanding hath wisdom.
00:22:43,180 --> 00:22:49,100
Wisdom is a skillful man.
00:22:49,100 --> 00:22:52,100
But although the man of understanding hath wisdom, he does not hoard wisdom because the
00:22:52,100 --> 00:23:01,060
word wisdom implies that it is used skillfully.
00:23:01,060 --> 00:23:06,060
When God granted Solomon that wise and understanding heart, the very next thing Solomon did was
00:23:06,060 --> 00:23:15,380
have a trial, a civil trial between two harlots.
00:23:15,380 --> 00:23:21,300
One of the babies had died, had been overlaid and was suffocated and died.
00:23:21,300 --> 00:23:28,700
And the other baby was still alive and the two harlots were in disagreement over whose
00:23:28,700 --> 00:23:32,900
was who.
00:23:32,900 --> 00:23:34,340
And the mother of the dead child wanted to lie one so badly.
00:23:34,340 --> 00:23:38,520
And she lied.
00:23:38,520 --> 00:23:40,940
And so Solomon had to skillfully apply that wisdom and understanding that God just gave
00:23:40,940 --> 00:23:51,380
him.
00:23:51,380 --> 00:23:53,260
He was a man of understanding because God gave him understanding.
00:23:53,260 --> 00:23:57,420
And that's how you get it too.
00:23:57,420 --> 00:24:01,100
While we're all born with different abilities, different strengths, some pick up math quickly,
00:24:01,100 --> 00:24:08,660
others it takes a while and others pick up reading.
00:24:08,660 --> 00:24:12,540
Some are really good with their hands and learn piano earlier or woodworking.
00:24:12,540 --> 00:24:18,060
We all have different abilities.
00:24:18,060 --> 00:24:20,340
But one thing that we're not born with is the wisdom of God.
00:24:20,340 --> 00:24:24,340
We have to learn that from his word.
00:24:24,340 --> 00:24:27,580
It's not passed on to us genetically.
00:24:27,580 --> 00:24:30,980
We learn wisdom by God's word.
00:24:30,980 --> 00:24:34,260
And Solomon was a man of wisdom because God gave him wisdom.
00:24:34,260 --> 00:24:38,820
Now another thing I'd like for us to see is this.
00:24:38,820 --> 00:24:44,700
The text tells us what the fool does, but it tells us what the man of understanding has.
00:24:44,700 --> 00:24:54,540
And having read some of the verses that describe the fool, we've seen much about what he does,
00:24:54,540 --> 00:25:02,220
but we've also seen that whatever he's had he's lost and whatever he's gained is bad.
00:25:02,220 --> 00:25:09,180
And therefore, what does he have?
00:25:09,180 --> 00:25:11,980
He has nothing.
00:25:11,980 --> 00:25:15,540
He does mischief, but he has nothing.
00:25:15,540 --> 00:25:20,820
Now I know those are words, but that's just like a math equation, isn't it?
00:25:20,820 --> 00:25:26,660
He does mischief, but he has nothing.
00:25:26,660 --> 00:25:31,220
He does not have understanding, by choice, or knowledge, or hope.
00:25:31,220 --> 00:25:41,480
He has no regard for his father's instruction, the Bible tells us.
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:46,600
In fact, he doesn't even have the heart for it.
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:52,380
Proverbs 18 verse 2, and if you're writing it down, put a little a.
00:25:52,380 --> 00:25:57,820
Proverbs 18 to little a, that means it's the first part of the verse, "A fool hath no delight
00:25:57,820 --> 00:26:04,220
in understanding."
00:26:04,220 --> 00:26:06,100
So if you think, "Man, if I could just have this person for a week, just me and him, me
00:26:06,100 --> 00:26:11,880
and her, and I could expound more perfectly the truths of God's Word, they would receive
00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:19,760
it because I've taken the time to explain it to them, not if they don't have the heart
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:24,820
for it.
00:26:24,820 --> 00:26:27,180
If they don't have the heart for it, they won't receive it.
00:26:27,180 --> 00:26:30,700
There are people who've been in church, some faithfully, for decades and decades across
00:26:30,700 --> 00:26:38,500
this country and all over the world.
00:26:38,500 --> 00:26:42,140
And you would think, "Boy, now that lady or that man has a heart for understanding."
00:26:42,140 --> 00:26:48,460
And so many of them don't.
00:26:48,460 --> 00:26:50,100
They'll go to a church where God's Word's not really priest.
00:26:50,100 --> 00:26:54,740
Just talked about the Bible's swung around in the air and thumped and all sorts of things
00:26:54,740 --> 00:27:01,820
said about what the right translation is, but it's not ever taught.
00:27:01,820 --> 00:27:06,900
Or they can go under, sit under sound doctrine and just be oblivious to it.
00:27:06,900 --> 00:27:10,460
I don't know how somebody does that.
00:27:10,460 --> 00:27:13,340
But they don't have a heart.
00:27:13,340 --> 00:27:14,860
They don't have delight in understanding.
00:27:14,860 --> 00:27:18,100
And what our prayer is, is that what brings people here is God's Word, but what keeps
00:27:18,100 --> 00:27:23,780
them here is God's Word too, because you who have a delight in understanding delight to
00:27:23,780 --> 00:27:31,700
be taught wisdom.
00:27:31,700 --> 00:27:35,260
Did you know that a person who has understanding has a delight in understanding?
00:27:35,260 --> 00:27:40,340
You continue to receive instruction in understanding and you want some more and some more, you
00:27:40,340 --> 00:27:46,740
have delight in it.
00:27:46,740 --> 00:27:47,860
God's given you that.
00:27:47,860 --> 00:27:49,860
Otherwise you'd reject understanding and be as the fool who mocks people who love understanding.
00:27:49,860 --> 00:27:59,940
I can promise you I could round up enough people in the place where I live and tell
00:27:59,940 --> 00:28:05,020
them, "Do you know what I did last night?"
00:28:05,020 --> 00:28:07,620
And boy, they'd be on edge.
00:28:07,620 --> 00:28:08,820
Now the ones who know me wouldn't.
00:28:08,820 --> 00:28:10,060
They know exactly where I went.
00:28:10,060 --> 00:28:12,380
You know what I did last night?
00:28:12,380 --> 00:28:13,380
Man, I had so much fun.
00:28:13,380 --> 00:28:15,660
You got to try this sometime.
00:28:15,660 --> 00:28:17,900
I drove 65 miles one way in five o'clock traffic to a little church down in Maybank that was
00:28:17,900 --> 00:28:28,020
about 10% full when I got there.
00:28:28,020 --> 00:28:31,180
And we had some people online join us and I got to look at their names and their comments
00:28:31,180 --> 00:28:37,980
and I got to preach God's Word to them and we prayed together and we exhorted one another
00:28:37,980 --> 00:28:44,740
and then I went home.
00:28:44,740 --> 00:28:46,060
And you know what most of them would do?
00:28:46,060 --> 00:28:47,740
They'd look at me like, "Oh, I thought you were going to tell me you went to a basketball
00:28:47,740 --> 00:28:55,220
game somewhere or that you went fishing."
00:28:55,220 --> 00:28:59,700
No?
00:28:59,700 --> 00:29:02,260
Because as sad as it is, most people do not have a delight in understanding.
00:29:02,260 --> 00:29:11,700
Not only does the fool have no delight in understanding, he mocks understanding by doing mischief.
00:29:11,700 --> 00:29:17,420
And you may find yourself feeling pity for the fool thinking that if you'll just show
00:29:17,420 --> 00:29:23,860
him the right way, use the right words and phrases, you can win him over.
00:29:23,860 --> 00:29:28,900
Listen, if a fool rejects God's wisdom, he'll never accept your wisdom.
00:29:28,900 --> 00:29:34,700
He'll never accept your efforts.
00:29:34,700 --> 00:29:39,400
Would Jesus tell his disciples to do when they took that good news to someone's house
00:29:39,400 --> 00:29:44,540
and that person rejected it?
00:29:44,540 --> 00:29:46,260
That he'd say, "Now you just hang out there and try your best and bounce the ball to them
00:29:46,260 --> 00:29:51,500
and see if they'll bounce it back and if they say this, then you say that?"
00:29:51,500 --> 00:29:56,100
No, he said, "You shake the dust off your feet for a testimony against them and you
00:29:56,100 --> 00:30:00,260
go on your way."
00:30:00,260 --> 00:30:04,000
They don't have a delight for understanding.
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:08,900
If he makes sport to do mischief against God's word, you cannot hope to convince him by your
00:30:08,900 --> 00:30:15,220
own doings.
00:30:15,220 --> 00:30:17,220
You should pray for him because when you pray for the fool, you're putting the fool's condition
00:30:17,220 --> 00:30:24,220
in God's hands.
00:30:24,220 --> 00:30:25,220
You're saying, "Lord, I know I can't talk this fool into believing your truth, but your
00:30:25,220 --> 00:30:33,820
spirit can move on his heart."
00:30:33,820 --> 00:30:37,020
That's the only way he's going to believe.
00:30:37,020 --> 00:30:38,900
No man can come unto me except the Father which sent me, draw him and I will raise him
00:30:38,900 --> 00:30:42,780
up in the last day, Jesus said.
00:30:42,780 --> 00:30:47,340
But the fool's got to first seek wisdom and have a heart for it and that's the work that
00:30:47,340 --> 00:30:52,100
only God can do.
00:30:52,100 --> 00:30:54,660
Don't expect the fool to honor you if you are an understanding man or woman who has
00:30:54,660 --> 00:31:01,500
wisdom.
00:31:01,500 --> 00:31:04,120
Because you need to remember it's not so much you that he is mocking wisdom and wisdom as
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:10,520
a person.
00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:12,740
Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
00:31:12,740 --> 00:31:19,420
and redemption.
00:31:19,420 --> 00:31:22,100
To the fool will be added sorrow because he has rejected the blessing of the Lord which
00:31:22,100 --> 00:31:26,880
maketh rich, but the man of understanding hath these riches because he has wisdom.
00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:34,900
With that we'll close in prayer.
00:31:34,900 --> 00:31:39,100
Father you're the author and the giver of all wisdom and what we have we have received
00:31:39,100 --> 00:31:45,860
from you and we're so thankful for it and we're thankful that we can come together on
00:31:45,860 --> 00:31:51,940
a night like this and open the book, the true book of wisdom, not the one the Catholics
00:31:51,940 --> 00:31:58,460
use, but the true book of wisdom, the word of God and learn from it and be exhorted in
00:31:58,460 --> 00:32:06,940
the faith.
00:32:06,940 --> 00:32:07,940
And Father we pray that as we go our ways this week we'll not only not forget what we
00:32:07,940 --> 00:32:15,140
learn but that we'll remember the teaching about being a person who has an understanding
00:32:15,140 --> 00:32:24,980
heart, being men and women of understanding who love wisdom and to not worry about those
00:32:24,980 --> 00:32:33,180
around us who mock us for indeed they're not mocking us but the Lord Jesus and it's in
00:32:33,180 --> 00:32:39,420
his name we pray.
00:32:39,420 --> 00:32:41,020
Amen.
00:32:41,020 --> 00:32:41,540
