Episode Transcript
If you take God's precious Word, turn the book of Proverbs chapter 10 please.
Proverbs chapter 10, God willing, we'll be expounding verse 8 and 9.
The title of the message tonight is Wise in Heart.
God willing, we'll be studying two more of those one sentence proverbs that we've been talking about, those proverbs that teach amazing truths by making opposing statements.
The first opposing statement tonight will be in verse 8 where the Spirit of God tells us, the prophet Solomon, who could be now in verse 8, the wise in heart will receive commandments.
The wise in heart will receive commandments.
Take your pen and underscore the words in heart.
In heart.
Solomon is drawing our attention to the heart of the wise person.
Not everybody is wise in heart.
In this verse Solomon is comparing the wise in heart to a parading fool, which we'll learn about here just a little bit.
A parading fool doesn't have a wise heart, but the wise in heart of course does.
So what does it take to be someone that is wise in heart?
How many of you all want to be wise in heart?
I want to follow that category.
So what does it take to be someone that's wise in heart?
What exactly makes a wise heart wise?
If you look back in verse 8, underscore the word receive.
Receive.
Wisdom is received by the heart, not generated by the heart.
This is important for us to understand.
Reception is the action the heart takes.
Wisdom is received by the heart.
It is not generated by the heart.
Wisdom therefore does not originate within us.
It does not originate within our hearts.
It's not native to the human heart.
When God created the earth, how was the earth?
It was without form, in void and dark.
Now what did God form Adam out of?
The dust of what?
The earth.
So wisdom is not native to the earth.
Do you know what is native to the earth?
Lifelessness, darkness, and chaos.
That's what's native to the earth.
Without form, void, and dark.
And then something changed that took the lifeless, chaotic, dark earth and gave it light.
And that was God.
Light did not come from within the earth.
Light came by God's words.
God said, let there be light.
And there was light.
Now if Adam was formed from the dust of the earth and light was not original to the earth, light was not native to the earth, light had to be received by the earth from its God, its creator.
And we came from that same dust.
Light and wisdom is not native to us.
Does not originate with us.
We also have to receive it third party.
We have to receive it from our creator.
We could be no greater than our source and we were made from the dust of the earth.
So God, not the earth, not the sun, and there's a reason that God did not create the sun on that same day he created light.
He did so that we would know that light came from God, not from the sun.
The sun came from the light, the light came from God.
And God did that for reasons.
But God, not the earth, not the sun, there was no sun at that time, not the angels, not man, man hadn't even been created yet.
But God alone said, let there be light.
As the dark earth received the light of God, so we must receive the light of God.
You know Jesus said, I'm the light of the world.
Whoever follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
God says to men has received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.
You receive Christ, what happens when you receive Christ, you receive the light of the world.
What happens when you receive the light of the world, you don't have a dark heart anymore, you can now see where you're going.
You're now wise in heart because Jesus is wisdom to us.
You see what you're really seeing here is the gospel again in Proverbs.
Jesus is wisdom and here we are told to receive wisdom.
So we're made from the earth, so we're born in darkness until we receive God's light.
The key to being wise is to understand that the human heart was made to be the recipient of wisdom, but it can never be the creator of wisdom.
It can never be the originator of wisdom.
You think of wisdom like water, think of your heart like a well down in the earth.
Like a well, our heart was made to receive wisdom, just like a well was dug to receive water.
God is the cloud that sends the rain down into the well of our hearts.
You know where Buddha got all of his so called wisdom and knowledge from for Buddhism to know about how we turn back from one species into another and we just get caught in this loop of recycling and all that stuff until finally the loop is broken.
You know where Buddha got all that from?
Right here in his own heart.
He imagined it.
He tried to originate, tried to be the originator of this wisdom whereby he could know something outside of himself even off into the future, even off into the past, something he had never seen and experienced.
He dug deep inside himself to try to bring it out and that's what he came up with.
It's quite amazing really when you think about it.
When meditation is like lowering your bucket into a dry well hoping it will fill itself with water that you know is not there.
I mean to start meditating to find wisdom means you don't know what you're trying to seek.
What you're trying to seek is not in you, it's not in your mind so you start searching your mind trying to find what's not there.
And so what you end up doing is imagining.
We have the ability to imagine.
Meditation is native to our creation, wisdom is not.
Wisdom must be received therefore we must gain wisdom from a source outside ourselves.
Now as water comes down in droplets to be soaked into the ground and to the well, so wisdom comes down in commandments to be soaked into our heart in us.
God's commandments are the raindrops that fall to earth and fill the wells of our hearts.
Droplets consist of H2O, the commandments consist of wisdom.
The well that's full receives the rain, the hearts that's wise receive the commandments if that makes sense to you.
You say the wise and hard, the full well.
How does a well get full that receives the rain?
How does a heart get wise that receives the commandments?
Now that is a truth and now to teach us something beyond that truth Solomon now makes an opposing statement.
The wise and hard receive commandments.
Look back in your text now but a praying fool shall fall.
So we see an opposing statement here.
The opposite of the wise and hard is a praying fool.
Praying fool doesn't get wise he falls down.
You see the difference the wise and hard receives commandments the praying fool he doesn't get wise he just falls.
Now praying means talking.
In Hebrew the word translated praying here it basically means the lips.
So we're talking about when we're talking about praying we're talking about talking.
Flapping that mouth.
A talking fool shall fall.
To be wise and hard we need to be listening not talking.
Have you ever tried to teach somebody something?
Something that you knew in something that you knew they didn't know and you're trying to teach them something and they wouldn't shut their mouths long enough to listen to you.
That is so frustrating.
I've tried to tell there's a particular person that I have the opportunity to be around frequently and I've tried to tell this particular person many many things before.
Knowing that he did not know what I was about to tell him.
I mean it would be almost impossible for him to know.
And then as soon as I start trying to tell him he starts acknowledging oh yeah oh yeah yeah yeah like that.
And I haven't even got it out yet.
And finally I said his name I said do you know what I'm telling you?
Do you already know this?
He goes oh no no no.
And I think the pride is so strong there that he doesn't want me to think that he actually learned something from me.
That there's actually knowledge.
I'm not talking about me being smart.
I'm talking about me just passing on information.
Information I just heard that I think someone else needs to know.
So you go to pass it on to him when you start oh yeah yeah yeah yeah.
Like there's no information that you could possibly know that I don't know first.
And that when you have that attitude you're a praying fool.
A know-it-all is too proud to listen to instruction.
They're praying fools.
I was invited to tour some critical infrastructure in the city of Tyler.
And when I entered that particular area I was absolutely amazed at the infrastructure, amazed at I mean I just looked at it and I thought this guy manages this infrastructure.
And I knew how important it was and I thought this man must be really really smart to be able to keep all of this going.
He's got to really know his stuff and he does.
And so when I was in there looking at this infrastructure, guess what old Richard did?
I kept my mouth shut.
There's nothing I can tell that man about what's going on with that infrastructure.
I kept my mouth shut and I kept my ears open.
Had I started speaking and trying to act like I knew quite a bit about that as much as he did, it would not impress him.
And that's what a praying fool thinks.
A praying fool thinks if I talk enough I'll impress those people and they'll think I'm smart like them.
But had I tried to speak and impress the man he might have been gracious and smiled and shook his head.
On the inside he'd been thinking this guy's a nut.
This guy doesn't know what he's talking about.
And he would have not have been impressed.
So I kept my mouth closed.
I kept my ears open except to ask questions.
And because I did, I learned a lot about that infrastructure and I was very impressed.
And after I learned what I did, my will was full about that, at least about that particular amount that I learned.
And then I was able to go share what I learned with others.
And when I was in the presence of the man who managed the infrastructure, it wasn't time for me to talk, it was time for me to listen.
And having listened to that authority on the matter, my will was full.
The problem with a praying fool is though, they don't recognize the authority of God's word.
They don't recognize the authority of God's pastors who are put in charge of communicating God's word either.
And so if you don't recognize, I mean, when I was in that room, I recognized that man's authority over that room.
I recognized he's the one that controls this and manages this.
He made it what it is today.
And because I recognize God as the creator of all things in my creator, in my designer, then I recognize he has the authority over me.
When it comes to any particular subject, you stick the Bible out in front of me, it's time for me to mouth the clothes and my ears to open.
As the apostle James says, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
Like Adam, a praying fool wants to be his own authority.
So instead of receiving wisdom, he begins spouting foolishness.
That's what a praying fool does.
Instead of receiving wisdom, instead of receiving the God's commandments, they begin spouting foolishness.
I spoke to a praying fool this week.
It was very sad, very sad.
I was speaking to him about some very important spiritual matters.
And as I was trying to be so kind and so patient, it was just the more I speak, the more that person spoke, I think they thought the more words I give, the more I'll be seen as being smarter, the louder I get, the whatever, the more brazen I get and dramatic I get, then the more right I must be.
And it was so sad, they just spouting foolishness.
Now Solomon said that the praying fool, the one who doesn't listen, but the one who speaks, the one who puts himself in the position of authority when it comes to wisdom, when they have no authority on that subject at all, they're spouting foolishness.
That person, Solomon said, will fall.
They won't be wise in heart, they're going to fall.
A praying fool will fall, why?
Because a foolish heart is a dark heart.
If the earth, if God said, let there be light, the earth says, no, we don't want that light.
If they had the ability to reject that natural light, the earth would be in darkness.
God created the sun to rule the day.
He created the moon, the lesser light to rule by night.
And to show you that light is not native to the earth, every time that sun goes down, the earth is dark again.
It can't go, and just generates some light.
It can't.
We can't either.
We're going to go right back to that dirt.
We have no ability to do that.
So if we reject the spiritual light that's meant to lighten our hearts, that's meant to lighten our eyes.
I remember, and what's popping in my mind right now is when my little brother, when his daughter had a four-wheeler accident, and it cracked her skull.
And I remember watching him and his wife, they got in the corner of the emergency room, and they began deliberating because the doctor came out and said, here's what we're going to have to do.
We're going to have surgery.
We're going to have to put a plate in her head, or here's your other option, but we suggest the plate in her head.
And they didn't know what to do.
They're not doctors.
And suddenly the decisions in their lap, so they get over there and they're talking amongst themselves and I had to sit there and watch because it's not my decision to make.
But what they were doing at that time was seeking for some type of light so they'd know what direction to walk in at that time.
Really the most critical things we need in life are not the physical light, you know, of the energy light, but the spiritual light that lightens our mind, that lightens our heart.
We need the mental light so we'll know how to navigate the earth mentally, socially, but we need the spiritual light so we'll know how to navigate the earth both here and for eternity.
And so if we reject that light of God, if we reject his word, because as rain comes down in droplets, God's light comes down to our hearts in the form of commandments.
If we reject those commandments, it's again, it's like the sun going down.
It's like the sun being put out.
There's nothing left in our heart but darkness.
Remember there's a particular verse where Jesus talks about if the eye is dark, how great is that darkness?
So if what you think is light is actually darkness and then you begin to walk in what you think is light, but it's actually darkness, but because you're a praying fool, you won't receive the commandments.
You just imagine just like old Buddha.
I guarantee you Buddha went to his deathbed thinking he was walking in this great light that he imagined inside his heart and came up with and again spouting off to other people like a praying fool.
When he drew his last breath, oh, Buddha fell hard.
It was a hard fall.
He's still fallen.
Still hadn't hit bottom yet.
So a praying fool is going to fall because there's nothing left but darkness in the heart once we reject God's commandments.
Now if you'll take your, your pens and write down in your margin, Romans chapter one, verse 21 and 22, Romans chapter one, verse 21 and 22 says, because that when they knew God, they knew the source of light.
They glorified him not as God, which means I don't recognize your authority over me.
Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations.
You see what's left once you reject the light of God's word, it leaves a dark heart.
You now have ceased receiving wisdom.
You now have to try to conjure it up.
So you dipping your bucket into a dry well, hoping to get water that you know is not there.
So they knew God, they glorified him not as God.
What's the next step?
They had to become vain in their foolish imaginations or vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was what darkened.
Man, isn't it beautiful how the scripture just go together.
So they reject God.
They reject the droplets of his wisdom from the commandments.
Now they're well, their heart is dry.
It's darkened.
So they just got to lower that bucket in there and try to think and come up with their own stuff.
And so all they're left with is imagination.
When I teach Genesis to Jesus next door, I teach that we were created to live based off the operation of inspiration.
God's word in our heart.
When they took from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it put God's word out and now they have to imagine what's good and evil on their own.
That's why when you get to Genesis chapter six, the next thing you know is God saw the weakness of man was great in the earth and that the imagination of their heart was only evil continually.
Once you reject inspiration, you have nothing left but imagination.
And that's why this world is so dark right now in we who have received the commandments, we have light and we're watching these people.
I mean, they're there with these little canes and they got their dark sunglasses on and they think they can see better than anybody.
They think we're blind and they're just walking around tapping.
I saw the other day where some court, I don't want to misquote it, but someone is forcing somebody to make sure that they don't discriminate against men having children, giving birth to children.
They will make sure they didn't discriminate against men giving birth to children.
That's blindness, that's darkness, that's imagination.
And at what happened, they became vain in their imaginations, which means empty.
The earth was without form and void or vain and dark.
Now their heart becomes like the earth once was before God said, let there be light.
So they reject the light that now become vain, not in their inspiration.
They don't have any more inspirations like they become vain, their imaginations.
And now they're foolish heart becomes dark.
They become a fool because they rejected the wisdom of God and now they have nothing but darkness left and they're walking in that darkness and a praying fool shall what they'll fall because if you walk in darkness, what's going to happen?
You're going to fall down.
You're going to stumble over truth.
You don't see truth.
You don't accept.
So you don't see it because you're in darkness and you're going to be walking your imagination thinking everything's fine.
You're going to stumble into reality and you're going to fall.
Thankfully God's commandments shine light for those who receive them and they can see where they are going without falling.
Proverbs chapter six, verse 23, Proverbs chapter six, verse 23 for the commandment is a lamp and the law is light and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.
Thank God we received the commandment.
We received God's wisdom.
We have light in our hearts.
Verse 19 now, speaking of walking without falling, he that walketh uprightly walketh surely.
Surely.
So a person who walks or lives uprightly, that it means according to God's commandments, they walk according to the light of the commandments they've received.
They walk confidently without the fear of falling.
I walk through life every day knowing I will not stumble off into eternal darkness.
I can't.
I have the light of Christ.
Someone asked me the other day, are you afraid of dying?
I said, no.
Now I don't look forward to what I have to go through.
You know, human humanly speaking, sure, I'd be afraid of having a heart attack or something like that.
But but dying itself.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
I can't die.
I just I just live more when I leave this body.
And so I can walk uprightly and walk surely confidently, which is what that word means, as well as the commandments have filled an upright man's heart.
The light of God's word shines and he can see where he's going.
It's such a blessing to be able to see where you're going and walk in confidence.
Years ago, the Texas Department of Transportation started installing cameras and highway intersections.
You remember that this, you know, just never have them.
Now they're everywhere.
I mean, there's camera at every basically every state highway intersection.
And when they first started putting them out, this was the city of Jacksonville, when they first started putting them out in Jacksonville, where I used to work, there were people in a certain part of town, which was a high crime area.
And they began starting an uproar over those cameras.
No other part of the city cared.
No one even thought about the cameras.
This particular high crime area.
It was a big deal to them.
They were afraid the government was going to be snooping on them with those cameras and see them, watch them, what they were doing.
And the people who walked up rightly in the city didn't care about being seen on the cameras that were on the highways.
The people who didn't walk up rightly did.
The people who walked up rightly, they walked surely, they walked confidently.
They weren't doing something they were afraid of getting caught doing.
Last week, my bosses surprised me by visiting the courthouse that I've been entrusted with.
And thank God when they walked in, everybody was doing everything right.
It's nice when you get caught working, isn't it?
It's nice when you get caught doing what you're supposed to be doing.
If you're walking up rightly, you don't have to worry about where the camera's pointing.
If you're walking up rightly, you don't have to worry about where the bosses are, when the bosses are coming in.
If you're walking up rightly, Adam and Eve, you don't have to hide in the bushes when you hear God's voice walking in the garden, the cool of the day.
You see, that's what it's saying here.
And I thank God.
I don't have to worry about a policeman asking me to search my vehicle.
There's nothing in there I'm worried about him finding.
I thank God I don't have to go to sleep.
And you know, some people do.
Some people do.
A lot of people do.
I don't have to go to sleep at night hoping that the law won't find out about some crime I've committed in the past and have that worrying on my mind.
I thank God I don't have to worry about dying and standing before God naked and ashamed because I walk up rightly in the righteousness of Christ.
As we finish our text now, but he that perverted his way shall be known so that the person who walks up rightly, they walk confidently.
I want to encourage you, walk uprightly.
Follow God's word in your everyday life.
Take it into your business.
Take it into your home.
Take it into the most private part of your life.
Walk uprightly there.
And when you do, you'll walk confidently.
And it'll feel good to walk confidently.
But he that perverted his ways, Solomon said, shall be known.
In other words, whoever perverts his ways, they'll be found out.
Modern English, they'll get caught.
You'll get caught.
Here's the kingdom truth.
He who does not walk in the light of God's commandments will get caught in the darkness of their sins.
I'll repeat it again.
He who does not walk in the light of God's commandments will get caught in the darkness of their sins.
He shall be known.
He shall be found out to be a trespasser of God's word.
For his way will not be sure he won't walk confidently.
Always looking over the shoulder, always wondering.
Or even if he's prideful in thinks he's safe, he's still not walking surely.
Because as another part of the Bible puts it, God sets the wicked people's feet in slippery places like walking on ice.
They feel sure for the time, but next thing you know, they fall and they least expect it.
If a person like that, they won't be able to walk in confidence because they perverted the way that God has given them to walk.
To pervert the way means to walk off the path that God's given you in his word to walk.
Adam perverted his way and he was found out by God.
Adam where are you?
Adam what happened?
Tell me what you did.
He that perverted his way shall be known as Adam's was.
There's only one way to go and that's the way God has given us.
Anything outside that way is a perversion of that way.
Brother Shepherd in Sunday School last week was talking about alternative lifestyles.
And I enjoyed your Sunday School class by the way, finished it up this evening before I came up here.
But alternative lifestyles and we all know that there is no alternative lifestyle.
There's a perversion of the lifestyle that God has told us to live, but there is no alternative.
To pervert the way is to run off the road.
Brother Shepherd works a lot of traffic wrecks and could you imagine him going up to somebody who ran off the road, ran out into a pasture, ran through a barbed wire fence, smacked into a tree, bleeding everywhere and Brother Shepherd going out there and saying, well, you know, are you okay?
Yes, yes, I just wish they would fix that.
Brother Shepherd said, what are you talking about?
Well, I wish people would just accept my driving like it is.
I have an alternative road that I travel, you know, and that's what I think when I see people I see commercials where they're trying to come out with new ways to help treat HIV.
And they'll show two homosexual men looking at each other, so gross, and talk about just take these pills right here and they want to be accepted like they are.
This is an alternative lifestyle.
It is not an alternative lifestyle.
The reason you have age is you just ran through a barbed wire fence and you smacked a tree.
They're walking in darkness and the tree was the truth they stumbled over.
Their way is known and one day it'll be made fully known by God when they stand before him.
There's nothing that can be hidden from God just like Adam couldn't be hidden from God.
Everything done in the darkness will be exposed by God's light.
A wise man will hear these words tonight that Solomon's saying they'll take heed to them.
A praying fool will reject these words and walk according to the wisdom of his own dark heart.
So to the praying fool tonight we will close with Ecclesiastes 11.
9.
To the person who just wants to walk according to the imagination of their own dark heart and forget God's word.
Solomon in Ecclesiastes 11.
9 sarcastically says this, Rejoice, O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes.
Go ahead.
Be happy that you're young.
Don't listen to the older people.
Let aside God's word.
Walk in the direction of your own eyes and your own heart.
And he says this, But know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.
You go ahead.
You live that way.
The young man I talked to this week spiritually, he said, I just want people to accept me like I am.
He hates the notion of a God.
Accept my lifestyle.
Accept me like I am.
Solomon's telling that person, you go ahead.
You rejoice because you've kicked off your instructors.
You rejoice because you put away the pastors and the teachers that you've been given.
You rejoice.
And you walk according to your own imaginations.
But you know one thing, God's going to bring you into judgment in the end.
With that, we'll go ahead and stop.
The praying fool shall fall.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
God, I love your instruction.
Lord, I pray you'll make us hungry for it.
Make our wells deep.
Our mouths dry for the thirst of that wisdom of your commandments.
Help us not pick and choose the commandments we want.
God, for everyone that we set aside, thinking we know better, we're praying in that area.
And we'll fall in that area.
I pray, Father, you'll help us to walk according to your word and to walk surely, to walk confidently.
And Father, we thank you for this wise admonition you've given us tonight through your servant Solomon.
In Jesus' precious name, amen.
