Episode Transcript
Proverbs chapter 12 verse 1 tonight.
Proverbs chapter 12, beginning a brand new chapter.
We'll be expounding verse 1.
The title of the message tonight is "Fools in a Field."
Fools in a field.
If there's one thing that our society has stressed over the past two or three decades, has been the importance of having a good education.
And what's so fascinating to me is the history that we have in our nation of young college students who have no real life experience yet, protesting on the campuses they're supposed to be learning from, as if the world should be learning from them.
Knowledge is power.
I remember the first time I heard someone say that, and I wholeheartedly agree with it, if that knowledge is godly knowledge, if it's truth.
But knowledge is power.
And the gift to learn is a gift from God.
I love to learn.
You may not be able to increase the IQ that you were born with, but you can always increase the knowledge that you acquire.
And we receive our IQ by birth, that we receive our knowledge generally by working for it.
So as long as you're willing to outwork the other guy, you can outlive the other guy as far as living a life that God wants you to live.
God's given us an amazing ability to enhance our knowledge, to enhance our understanding thereby, and thus to enhance our capabilities and our enjoyment of life as God intended for us to have.
Learning is a gift from God, but in order to learn, you must be ready to be corrected.
Here's a kingdom truth for you tonight.
You must be willing to be corrected to be instructed.
You must be willing to be corrected to be instructed.
When I was a kid, I always heard that it was illegal to drive barefooted.
Has anyone heard that before?
You've heard it?
Anyone else?
I tell you what, hands going up all over the place.
I don't know if that's just in Texas or not, but I was always told that.
And then in 1998, 20 years old, I was accepted into the Texas Highway Patrol Academy, and I went there to learn how to become a state trooper.
And the people teaching me the law had spent years enforcing it and learning it, and they were well qualified to teach the law.
But before I could learn it, I had to be willing to accept correction.
I had to be willing to turn loose of what I had been taught by others about the law so I could be taught by the law itself.
And it was hard for me to accept the fact that it's perfectly legal to drive with no shoes on in the state of Texas.
I don't know who started that rumor.
That's before Facebook, brother.
Couldn't even go viral, but it did.
But it's perfectly legal to drive with no shoes on, but I chose, even though it was difficult to accept it, I chose to turn loose of my cultural understanding so I could gain a legal understanding, to turn loose of my cultural knowledge to gain a legal knowledge.
Solomon said, if you'll look in your text tonight, "Whoso loveth instruction."
That's what we're talking about tonight.
We're talking about the person who loves instruction.
And now this word "instruction" here in the Hebrew, it means not education, it means correction.
It means correction.
"Whoso loveth correction."
And generally speaking, people don't like to be corrected.
Would you all agree with that?
People don't like to be corrected.
But a child of God should love being corrected.
Now don't misunderstand what the Scripture is saying here.
If you do, you're going to get unwarranted guilt, okay?
Don't misunderstand what the Scripture is saying.
Solomon didn't say, "He that loves to be wrong."
You may think, "Pastor, I hate being wrong."
Well, let me let you in on a secret.
I hate being wrong too.
In fact, no child of God should want to be wrong.
We should all want to be right.
That's what righteous people should be, is right, right?
So we should want our doctrine to be right.
We should want our information to be right.
We should want our behavior to be right.
I hate believing wrong.
I hate doing wrong.
I hate thinking wrong.
And if we hate being wrong, that's why we should love being corrected.
If we hate being wrong, that's why we should love being corrected.
Now correction doesn't make us wrong.
Correction points out our wrong so it can make us right.
You see the motive behind correction?
Correction doesn't make us wrong.
Correction points out our wrong so it can make us right.
And that brings us to another thing that Solomon didn't say in this verse.
Solomon didn't say he that loves to have his faults pointed out in front of other people.
That's not necessarily correction.
Now you may get corrected in front of other people.
It's a little embarrassing sometimes.
But no one should love that, okay?
Nobody likes to be embarrassed.
Nobody wants to look like a dummy.
And Solomon is not encouraging that we should like it or that we should try to make anyone look like a dummy because we shouldn't.
We should not love humiliation but we should love instruction.
We should love correction.
We should love a good, godly education.
The problem is, pride in us wants us to be seen as superior in other people's eyes.
That's the problem.
We want other people to look at us and think, "Now they know the answer.
They're always right.
Brother Richard, boy, he'll know that."
And so sometimes we're willing to embarrass other people publicly so people will see that they're wrong and see that we're right.
And so we embarrass them for the sake of gratifying ourselves and exalting ourselves in other people's eyes.
And if we're really phariseical, then one may attempt to justify ourselves for embarrassing that person in other people's eyes by saying, "Well, you know, the Bible does say who so loves to be correction loves knowledge so they should have enjoyed me correcting them in front of everybody."
That's why a lot of people don't raise their hands in church when I ask a question.
They'll ask the question, "Who could tell me what this means?"
And you'll see maybe someone raise their hand and other people sitting back like this because they don't want me to say, "Well, no, no, that's not right.
What about you?"
And that's correct.
You say, "Who wants that?"
So when we're willing to embarrass someone to make ourselves look smarter, we are not correcting them.
We are humiliating them in trying to elevate ourselves.
Correction is for the purpose of educating, not humiliating.
So remember that when we correct someone, it should always be with the intent of making them right, not making them look bad.
Godly correction imparts godly knowledge, and since godly correction imparts godly knowledge, then he that loves correction look back in your text, loveth knowledge.
Godly correction imparts godly knowledge so whoever loves correction therefore loves knowledge.
There's an old saying, "Ignorance is bliss."
And whoever said that needs to be corrected because it's not so.
We should all want knowledge.
Why should a child of god love knowledge?
Well, we should love knowledge because god designed us to live by what?
Faith.
By faith.
When you can't believe what you don't know.
Romans chapter 10 verse 17 says, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
So the word of God is heard.
When it's heard, it becomes knowledge when we believe it.
Faith comes by hearing God's word.
If you don't hear the word of God, then you don't know the word of God, and thus you can't believe the word of God.
Every child of God should have a thirst for godly knowledge.
I think God you do or else you wouldn't be here tonight.
We don't come to church to socialize, we come to get edified.
Praise God.
When we receive the knowledge of God, you know what happens?
We receive correction because God's word changes how we think.
And if we don't have a mindset of being corrected, we'll never learn the Bible.
If I read something in the Bible, if I hear something taught in the Bible, and the Bible confronts my way of thinking, and it contradicts my way of thinking, then it needs to correct my way of thinking.
And if it corrects my way of thinking, then I will no longer be wrong.
I will now be right because God's word is right.
When I receive the knowledge of God, I receive correction because it changes how I think it makes me think like God thinks.
Habakkuk chapter 2, Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 4 says, "Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him."
Now what does it mean?
His soul which is lifted up is not upright in him.
So a person who has a soul that's lifted up that thinks, "I know it all.
I am the man."
That man's soul is not upright, but the just, the right man, the one who does have an upright soul, the just shall live by his faith.
That's also quoted in the New Testament, isn't it?
You heard it here first though in Habakkuk.
The just man, the just person, shall live by his faith.
And faith requires the knowledge of God so we can experience the life of God.
The just shall what?
Live by his faith.
So knowledge imparts life.
Correction imparts knowledge.
So we should love to be corrected so we can know, so we can live the way God created us to live.
The just shall live by his faith.
Praise God.
Now one of the Bible says it's quick or alive and powerful.
As Christians we should know everything God wants us to know so we can do everything God wants us to do.
Here's the living part so we can be everything God wants us to be.
So we can hate what God hates, love what God loves, and praise Him for all He is and all He does.
And every bit of that which I just said comes by the knowledge of God which dwells in our hearts by faith in His Word.
So He that loves correction loves knowledge, go back in your text, but He that hateth reproof.
Now we're looking at a different man here.
The first man is the man who loves correction.
I love how Solomon didn't say a man who loves knowledge but a man who loves correction.
That sets the tone right because correction is how you get the knowledge, knowledge is how you get the faith, faith is how you live.
But now we're talking about the opposite side and that's the person that hates reproof, it's the person that hates being corrected.
He hates it so bad he'd rather be wrong than be corrected.
There's a lot of people like that.
He that hates reproof, correction, hates knowledge.
He hates being made right because that's what correction does.
It makes you right.
And if you hate being made right then you love being wrong.
In a person who loves being wrong, look back in your text, is brutish.
Brutish.
How many of you all are old enough to remember the brute cologne?
Boy, that just drove you wild Miss Anne.
Brother January, splash that on.
Brute cologne.
So we're going to learn about brutish.
He that hates reproof is brutish.
We don't use that word a lot today, but let me tell you I love that word.
It's a marvelous word because it describes a certain element that we need to understand about the world, about those who decline the knowledge of God.
The Hebrew word if you're taking notes that's translated brutish here, it means food.
Food.
I know, brut cologne didn't smell like barbecue.
I don't understand.
But it means food.
And you would think what in the world, how can, he that hates correction is food?
Well that's literally what it's saying.
What is Solomon trying to communicate to us here?
Well take a cow for instance.
Now we had a pig for supper.
We made some of the best pork tenderloin and roast potatoes and roasted carrots.
Man they were good.
So we had a pig.
That was our food.
Talking about barbecue, that's a cow or a pig.
You know.
Unless you're from certain parts of the United States right now, it could be a dog or a cat.
But he that hates correction is food.
But take a cow for an instance.
I had some church members once who raised two cows every year.
They kept the cows in their backyard and now they lived in the country.
So it wasn't like a fenced in backyard.
They lived in the country.
But it was just right outside their back door.
And they had a little corral.
And they had these two cows inside that corral.
And they just kept shoveling hay to those cows.
And they gave their cows names.
They named them.
Every year they had two new cows.
One year they named their two cows medium well and medium rare.
They did that so they would not grow attached to them.
They didn't want them to become pets.
The next year they got creative.
They named one knife.
They named the other one fork.
You see they didn't keep those cows around the house so they could enjoy a good conversation with them.
They didn't have them in their backyards.
They could walk outside on a Friday night and enjoy a game of chess or consult them for financial advice.
You see cows don't have the mental capacity for those things.
They are brute beasts.
And that's what that is.
They are mere flesh and blood beasts that are fit for our consumption.
That's what Solomon is trying to get across to us tonight.
Those cows are so ignorant that they will eagerly let you fatten them up so you can eat them.
They don't know any difference.
They are just bodies without much thinking involved.
They don't think why do these people keep bringing this food to me and I don't have to do anything for it.
They never contemplate that.
They are just mindless or brute beasts that you feed and that you consume.
The point is God made man to be wise.
There were two trees in the Garden of Eden.
Both imparted wisdom, both imparted knowledge.
One was the tree of life that imparted the knowledge of God.
Remember what Jesus said?
Jesus said this is life eternal that they might know thee the one true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent.
So the tree of life would have imparted the knowledge of God.
The other tree imparted the knowledge of good and evil but both imparted knowledge.
God made man to have knowledge and to live by that knowledge the just shall live by faith and by knowing God through faith Adam and Eve could live forever knowing him in the salvific way as they should have known.
But God made man to be wise not to be eaten.
I know about a man right now, the dad to one of my co-workers who is having heart trouble and he's about to have a pig valve put in his heart.
Pigs and cows have hearts and lungs and eyes and other organs that are very similar to ours.
They are flesh and they are blood like we are.
But they have no capacity to receive the wisdom of God.
Knowledge is what separates us from being brute beasts.
But when we refuse to be corrected so that we can have the knowledge that God wants us to have so we can be what God created us to be.
When we refuse that knowledge of God we become like brute beasts because that's what separates us from them.
And by putting that knowledge away from us we become like brute beasts that are fit to be consumed.
What else are we good for?
People who are highly educated but not spiritually enlightened they don't have the knowledge of God.
They are nothing more than brute beasts with a high IQ.
That's all they are.
Refusing to be corrected by God's Word.
They pridefully speak about things they don't understand.
Why?
Because they refuse to be corrected therefore they can't gain knowledge therefore they can't speak what they don't know.
I thank God when we get into the pulpit and we open up God's Word we're able to speak knowledge to people.
Not our knowledge but the knowledge of God.
The knowledge that God wanted us to have.
Second Peter 2.12 says however, "But these," talking about the people with the high IQ, "but brute beasts because they refuse God's knowledge, but these as natural," notice natural, not spiritual, "just borne by nature flesh and blood, but these as natural, brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed," that means consumed, slaughtered, "speak evil of the things that they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption."
Same thing that Solomon is talking about in Proverbs 12 tonight.
The natural, brute beast.
Animals with a high IQ.
When you hear pastors speaking contrary to God's Word you're listening to brute beasts behind a pulpit.
When you're listening to people who are at the top of the educational ladder that refuse God's Word then you're listening to people at the top of the educational ladder who are at the bottom of the food chain.
That's simple.
When you hear scientists tell us that we evolved from apes we're listening to brute beasts.
I can understand in some ways how they would think we could evolve from apes because there's nothing that separates them from the ape since they've refused God's knowledge.
Once again at the top of the educational ladder but at the bottom of the food chain, natural brute beasts.
They were made for the glory of God but refusing to be corrected they become like the beasts that were created to be destroyed.
With that we'll go ahead and stop tonight and Lord willing take back up in chapter 12 verse 2 next Wednesday.
Aren't you glad you have a Bible?
Boy I'm so glad we can come here get our heads corrected like Brother Shephard says get away from the world, get her thinking back on spiritual things and get ready for another few days till we come back again Sunday.
Lord thank you so much for your precious Word.
Thank you Father God that we're not natural brute beasts but by receiving correction which is to us what you also call repentance that we our minds were changed when you corrected us with the truth Lord we realized that we're sinners and we understand through knowledge that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and in that knowledge we live by faith and I thank you Father God that we're not natural brute beasts that were made to be destroyed but we're the sons of God who were remade recreated born again Father to not perish but have everlasting life.
By your great name dear Lord this week I pray Father God that your words will settle in everyone's heart and all their eyes and attention will be on you.
We thank you so much for giving us your truth in Jesus' wonderful name.
Amen.
