night in Proverbs chapter 13, Proverbs chapter 13. I don't know how we've been staying together in Acts and Proverbs on the same chapter but that's probably ending very soon. Proverbs 13, as you're turning there, there's 25 verses. You'll need your Bible if you want to keep up tonight because I'm going to take phrases from verses and jump around in the book and I'll keep calling those out if you want to see those in the text. But as you turn there, I remind you that tonight's message is simply titled, the wise and the foolish, the wise and the foolish. And we will finish the message with the climax of honoring the Lord in communion. In the New Testament it says this, Matthew 7, 24, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell. And the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall. It did not fall. Why? Because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine, everyone who hears the words, and does. It's not just hearing, James would tell us that, and this is in the Gospels, but it's not just those who hear. It's not that. It's those who does do them. So, he hears these words of mine and does not do them, then he's going to be like a foolish man. Hear and don't do, we're fools who built this house on the sand. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and beat against that house. It fell and great was the fall of it. What a great fall for people within the church of the living God to hear the word of God and not to obey and fall into an eternal hell. That's a great fall. Wisdom hears, wisdom does. Central idea of Proverbs 13 tonight, at least what I'm doing with the chapter. Wisdom values truth. Wisdom values truth by application. It's easy to say, I love truth. We want a preacher to preach the truth. We want somebody to preach the Bible. You can go to just about any church, not all, but there's a lot of churches you can go to. We just want the Bible to be preached. Great. Do you have any interest in doing what it says? Wisdom valued is truth applied. So I propose to you tonight simply that Christianity is far more than going through religious motions. And my purpose in preaching the message tonight is to exhort you, to exhort myself, to be molded by the word of God. God's word ought to have an effect upon us. What a shame to spend 30 years in church and die and never be different. Never look more like Christ. That's, it seems like a tragedy. So I pray tonight that you would be exhorted to say, you know what, God's word's true and I'm a liar. This is right and I'm wrong. And we would be shaped by the word. Let's read Proverbs 13. Now, oh, I'm reading Acts 13. That's not gonna come out right. Sorry. Let's go to the Old Testament here. Okay, Proverbs 13. A wise son, Hears his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. From the fruit of his mouth, a man eats what is good, but the desire of the treacherous is for violence. Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life. He who opens wide his lips comes to ruin. The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. The righteous hates falsehood, but the wicked bring shame and disgrace. Righteousness guards him whose way is blameless, but sin overthrows the wicked. One pretends to be rich, yet has nothing. Another pretends to be poor, yet he has great wealth. The ransom of a man's life is his wealth, but a poor man hears no threat. The light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked will be put out. By insolence comes nothing but strife, but with those who take advice is wisdom. Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. Whoever despises the word or whoever despises the commandment brings destruction on himself, but he who reveres the commandment will be rewarded. The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, and that one may turn away from the snares of death. Good sense wins favor, but the way of the treacherous is their ruin. Every prudent man acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly. A wicked messenger falls into trouble, but a faithful envoy brings healing. Poverty and disgrace come to him who ignores instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is honored. A desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul, but to turn away from evil is an abomination to fools. Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. Disaster or evil pursue sinners, but the righteous are rewarded with good. A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous. The fallow ground of the poor would yield much food, but it is swept away through injustice. Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. The righteous has enough to satisfy his appetite, but the belly of the wicked suffers want. In Proverbs, this is very difficult to preach. Every one of these verses can stand on their own in some sense and you may have a favorite or a favorite line. My hope is that you would just value God's word and those verses that stand out to you, you would allow them to shape and have impact upon your life. I've just tried to simplify it. I have three points, but they're very simple. Number one is the life of the fool. Hint, you don't want to be this. You don't want to be a fool. I'm just gleaning from the chapter what a fool is. Maybe some days you act like a fool. Maybe some days you look like a fool, but I pray that that would not be the customary habit of your life, that you wouldn't be a foolish person. If you find something here tonight and say, man, that's me, then repent and stop pursuing that. Don't live as a fool. Some of it applies to parents, some of it applies individually, but we'll look at it and hopefully we will avoid the life of the fool. I don't usually do this. I'm just going to give you all the sub points at once in case you want to write them down and then I'm going to come right back to them. They're really short. This is the life of the fool, there's five. He's a scoffer, that's one. He is sinful, that's two. He is selfish, that's three. He is dead spiritually, that's four. And because I can't find another word and it is in the ESV translation at different points, he is stupid, that's five. All right, so this is what a fool is. Number one, he is a scoffer. A particular dictionary, the Cambridge Dictionary, defines it this way. We can say a lot about a scoffer. That's not my point tonight. I just want to bring out that a fool is a scoffer. Quote, here's the definition. A scoffer is someone who mocks, ridicules, or scorns another person or idea, often in a way that shows they think the person or idea is silly or stupid. It's a fool who scoffs at the truth of the Word of God. Scoffs at the one who gives the Word, the one who lives the Word. It is the scoffer who mocks at God's truth. at the heart of a scoffer, and this could come out in many different areas, but that at the heart of the scoffer is pride. And what is it in this scoffing or this pride that we understand? It is the person, I hope that it is not you, but it is the person who is unwilling are unable to see or to hear or to receive truth. We all sit under the same truth in a church service or in a religious place, in a Sunday school class. We're all under the same truth. It's the scoffer who refuses to see it, refuses to hear it, and refuses to take it in. Do you find yourself in Sunday school? Do you find yourself in a morning worship service? You won't know who I'm talking about. But sitting on the third pew where Janice is sitting, it's not Janice, but the person sitting on the third pew with their notepad writing down every grammatical mistake I make when I preach. Is that you? Are you just trying to find error with everything that is preached, with everything that is taught? Always trying to find some way to criticize what's being done. You're a scoffer. You're a fool. We didn't come to church to find fault. We come to church to receive truth from God's Word. Look, I went to four churches. I went to church four times while I was gone. I could tell you a list of problems, but even in there I could find things that are true and I can receive those. I come looking for something, as Spurgeon would say. He went to this church, he said it was a complete waste of his time. And this little woman went every Sunday, he says, why do you go there? And she says, Mr. Spurgeon, have you never seen a chicken out in the farmyard scratching in the dirt? What? Well, at least by scratching the dirt, she gets warm. At least by going to church and going through the process, it warms me up. Find something good rather than spend your life finding fault. Don't be a scoffer. And, and that's all from this verse 1, the second part. A scoffer does not listen to rebuke. And then he is sinful. Look at 5b and 6b, the second half of both of those verses. The wicked bring shame and disgrace. And then in verse 6, sin overthrows the wicked. He is sinful, is ashamed and without confidence, acts disgustingly, acts shamefully. The verb here in the Hebrew actually means he calls to stink, to emit a stinking odor. In other words, it's the wicked sinful person who just makes the day smell bad. Or, verse six, his sin, no matter how it looks today, In the end, it will overthrow him. It will overthrow him, he's sinful. Sinful in heart, sinful in action. He is selfish, look at 13, verse 13, the beginning of the verse. Whoever despises the word, your footnote will say something like a word, other translations will say the commandment. Whoever despises the word brings destruction on himself. A man who despises the word, is a man who likes to gratify his own flesh, but in so doing, he ultimately destroys himself. It's the height of ignorance in a sense, this selfishness. I'm going to live to satisfy my own flesh even though I know I'm tying the noose around my own neck. I know that there's a God. I know that there's truth. I know I ought to go to church. I know I ought to read my Bible. I know those things are true. So it's like the selfishness is his God and rises to the top and he gratifies himself at his own expense. Like how many times, I go through conversation after conversation. Yeah, I know I need to go to church. I was talking to a lady this week and she says, she's been in the hospital. She has all these heart problems. You've had all these heart problems and you've got all this going on in your life. Your health's not good. You haven't taken all this medication. You've had all these tests. You think Sunday's the day you're going to come? I mean, is it time now to come? Well, but you know, see, I work a lot and I'm tired and on Sunday, you know, I rest. Are you going to rest your way to hell? Are you going to rest your way to self-condemnation? Selfishness? The only way I can put it in an image is selfishness is putting the rope around one's own neck and pulling the lever to hang oneself. Self-condemned. Selfishness, look in verse 16, the second half, a fool flaunts his folly. The weird thing about this type of selfishness by this foolish man, it's not even seen by him. We got all these little turkeys down the, not people, real turkeys, down the road from my house. I see them crossing the road all the time, 15, 20 turkeys down there. And so, it's like, the selfish person is like those turkeys when they're strutting. They put their feathers all out, and everybody can see them, but it's like they can't see their self. That's just the way selfishness is. It's like, they don't even see that they're advertising themselves. And then maybe a little bit more complicated, maybe it don't quite fit here, but I had to put it somewhere. This is a problem and maybe you need to think about this as a parent, but selfishness can cause your family a lot of problems. Verse 24, the first part, whoever spares the rod hates his son. Why do you not, this is not going to be politically correct, why do you not take your kid when they've committed a wrong and they understand it wrong, why do you not get a belt and tan their backside? Why do you not discipline your child in a sense of corrective discipline? Where did you get time out from? Where did you get stand in a corner from? Would you not use some real discipline? You say, oh, if I discipline my kid, they won't love me. You're wrong. I love my daddy, and I love my mama, and my mama, this is not exaggeration, my mama one day whipped me with a rake. And she wasn't playing. And I was biblical. I told her I wasn't transplanting that bush because God put it there. It was a bad day. And she whipped me with a rake. My dad whipped me at least twice in my life. And I remember both times. He put me over his knee. He took out his belt. He did not say, this is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you. He said, this is going to hurt you. He whipped me. He said, what did it do? It caused me to respect, honor, and love my parents. Stop coddling your children. They're not dogs, they're not cats, they're not buddies, and they're not friends. Stop being selfish and saying, well, I don't like conflict. You have conflict, and if you don't discipline, you're gonna have more conflict. You wanna know what's wrong with the school system? You know what's going on in this world? You got a bunch of Walmart children. You don't know what Walmart children is? Standing in the line when little Johnny can't get a piece of candy. We need to do it one more time. One more time. I want to slap the parent. I don't even go to Walmart and I know that. Good night. He said, well, I don't agree with you. I don't care if you agree. The Bible says if you do not use the rod, you hate your son. You have to wrestle with that with God because it's biblical to discipline. Look, don't take things out of context. I'm not saying beat your son in the head with a stick. Right discipline applied because of wrongdoing. Number four, he's dead spiritually. Look at verse 15b. But the way of the treacherous is their ruin. And if you look at the footnote, at least in the ESV, their way is an enduring rut. His life is an enduring rut. You ask the old guys what a rut is, a rut is a grave with both ends kicked out. Or if you like the King James, which I still like, I don't use it a lot but I still like it, the way of the transgressor is hard. dead spiritually. Can you imagine, you Christians in the room, can you imagine trying to live life without the Spirit of God? Can you imagine how to make decisions and navigate this world just with your own intellect and your own gumption? Can you imagine how difficult it is to live this life in the flesh? And then verse 18a, the foolish man is stupid. Poverty and disgrace come to him who ignores instruction. And 20, the second half B, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. In 18, the net worth result of the life of the fool is poverty and disgrace and shame. You know, you can take it in many contexts. I just take one that's fresh off my mind. But I go down to the little store all of the time and I drive up and people are sitting in the parking lot and they're sitting in their car. I'm like, I got two options. I get them right every time. I got a 50-50 shot. You're sitting in your car because you're playing on your phone or you're scratching your ticket. That's the only reason you're sitting there. They sit there, and they scratch away, and they scratch away, and they scratch away. Then they come in, and they've got to buy another ticket because they didn't win enough, or they won a little bit, and they take their winnings, and they come in and buy more tickets. It's like, you just keep going through this, and the net result of a life of scratching tickets and all of this that they do is poverty. You say, I don't have no money. I don't have this. I don't have that, and they're complaining, all these things. You know, if you didn't spend all your money on lotto tickets, you might have something. The net result of the life of the fool is poverty, disgrace, and shame. And in verse 20b that I have already read, the companion of fools will suffer harm. There's a guy, I don't know much about him, Guglielme, and he says, he who associates with fools will be left a fool. Choose your friends wisely, who you hang out with, who you get information from. You hang out with a fool, you will be left a fool. Those are some things of the life of the fool. Now, switching to the opposite, as Proverbs does, the life of the wise. I'll give you the five up front and we'll just briefly go through them. Here's the life of the wise. You can write these down. You can ponder these and pray these. He's pliable. He's a man of piety, that's number two. He's a man of persistence, number three. Number four, he is profitable. And number five, he is productive. The life of a man who is wise. Pliable in a good sense, not pliable in pilgrim's progress, not that type of pliable. So look at verse 1a again. Here's pliable. A wise son hears his father's instruction. Embedded in that is the clarity of application of what he hears. My father has spoken. Through his word, by his messenger, I have listened to his instruction and I am going to conform my life to what it is he has instructed me in. That's the way it works. That's what wise people do. They hear God's word and try to figure out how to conform to it. Just because it's easy and it's on my mind, it's maybe not the Bible, but as we sang, it's a biblical truth in one sense. We hear such a thing as wherever he leads, I'll go, okay? If I hear that and I receive that, then that means when there's a clarity of direction given to me, yes, Lord. If it's Barnabas and Saul, I'll go to Cyprus, I'll go to Penfilia. Whatever you want me to do, I'm going to conform to this because this is what you've said to me. He allows, this is a hard one for us, especially here in our church, but in a sense, pliable means I allow myself to be disciplined. Look, we don't have to kid ourselves. A lot of people don't come to this church because it's not exciting enough for them or it's too confrontational or it's too expository preaching or whatever it is. Look, here's what wise people do. Put me somewhere where somebody would speak truth into my life even if it hurts. Cut me deeply. I need a rebuke from God's Word. I don't want a man-be-pampered religion with some sissified preacher in skinny jeans and square glasses. Give me the truth in order that God can deal with me. Because I'm sinful, and I'm selfish, and I don't want to live like this. I need truth. Discipline me good. God, speak to me. Tell me where I'm wrong. Tell me where I'm in sin. Tell me where I'm selfish. Tell me where I'm prideful. Tell me where I'm impatient. Tell me how to manage my marriage. Tell me how to lead my children. Tell me how to be in this culture I live in. Tell me how to preach the gospel. Rebuke me for my indolence. Rebuke me for my carelessness. Rebuke me for my lack of heart, my lack of concern. I want to be somewhere where there's men and women who love the truth and would confront me if I'm not walking rightly. That's what a wise person does. I want to be somewhere where I can be held in check. The fool, he don't want no accountability. He don't want no accountability. Just let me be me before I left on my break. That's what God said. You be Randall and I'll be me. You do you. I'll do me. I don't want that. I don't want to do me. I want to be Christian and accountable before the living God. And I need people that love truth enough. So put yourself in that position. That's what the wise does. And then 18b, if you look there, whoever heeds reproof is honored. In contrast to ignoring discipline is the wisdom of heeding, or if you like a different word, regarding, or a different word, you like the idea of taking to account reproof or instruction. I didn't come here to find fault with a preacher. I didn't come here to find fault with the Bible. I came here where my faults could be exposed and I could repent and be what God called me to be because that's for my good. The wise person is pliable. Secondly, he is a man of piety. Our more contemporary word is godly, but I'm working with the letter P, so piety. 5A, the righteous, and this is important, the righteous hates falsehood. Not the consequences of falsehood, but falsehood itself. All right, and then 6a, righteousness guards him whose way is blameless. And then verse 20, first part, whoever walks with the wise becomes wise. The wise man hates not the consequence of falsehood, but the falsehood itself. The righteous, verse 6, the righteousness of a wise man is a great protection, for it keeps him on a path that is blameless. You say, this is the way David said it in the Psalms. This is Psalm 119.1. Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Psalms 18.23, like unto David, I was blameless before him, I kept myself from guilt. Work, fight, and labor to live a life of blamelessness. It doesn't come easy. Work on your language. Work on the input that comes in your mind and your ears. Work on what you see and participate in. Work on this life. Don't just get lazy and go with how the flow is going be a salmon go upstream Go the other way make the hard choices lose friends lose family But stay tied to Christ and that when you lay down into the night to sleep you can do so with a clean conscience Everybody's forsaken me, but I'm right with Christ then you have won the day. I And in contrast to hanging out with a fool, there's great wisdom with walking with those who are wise. And the verb communicates ongoing association with, not to overdo it, but that's why we're doing life together here at By the Word Baptist Church. We keep walking down this road together, because there's value and wisdom found here. Number three is a man of persistence. Persistence has to do with obedience. 13b? 13b, he who reveres the commandment will be rewarded. 16a, every prudent man acts with knowledge. 24, the last part, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. The wise, persistent man lives his life with great awe, great reverence, and great fear of the commandments of God. I want to know the memory verse. not to impress you that I can memorize a verse. I wanna know the memory verse where I know how to live. I wanna know that this suffering I'm going through is for a short time. And I wanna know that the God of all grace who's called me to his eternal glory in Christ, I wanna know that he is going to strengthen and confirm and he's gonna establish me until the day of Christ Jesus. I need to know that. I need that for my life tomorrow. And so, this is wisdom. We persist in having a great reverence for the word of God, the commands of God. The wise man knows the truth, he acts according to the truth. He knows there's pitfalls, he knows there's dangers, there's temptations ahead, so he applies what he knows from Scripture. I've seen all these preachers, they keep falling in these immoral situations and churches are falling apart, these disastrous stories are coming out, people are being hurt, churches are dividing. It's like, how did this guy fall? How did this guy fall? How did that guy fall? I know all of that's out there. That's what I'm going to do. I write up a whole dark document for our mission organization and put all these things in place. Why? I want to protect anybody that comes on a mission trip. You want to go on a mission trip as a woman? You ain't going by yourself. You want to go on a mission trip as a man? You ain't staying by yourself. If you come down here, you're going to have to come with your wife. They're going to put you in these situations. Why are we doing that? Because I know pitfalls are out there. And if you're not smart enough to watch out for your own life, I'm going to watch out for you on the mission field. These type of things, because we know they're there, we make adjustments. Do the same thing in ministry here. This could happen, that could happen. So we set up scenarios in order that someone won't self-destruct. And unlike the foolish parent, who refuses to discipline his child, the wise man sees the value of godly discipline and applies it accordingly. And if you've not been doing that, I pray that wisdom would be received and you would seek to apply discipline rightly to your children for their good and for the good of their soul. Number four, he is profitable, verse 14. The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life that one may turn away from the snares of death. The wise man has something to say and what he says prevents the hearer from being snared. The wise man in a sense says, walk this way. He's kind of like Simon Peter. Lord, where are we going to go? You have words of life, that's how the wise one speaks. Lastly, he is productive. 15a, 15a, good sense wins favor. And 21b, the righteous are rewarded with good. The wisdom of the sensible man produces favor, favor with God and favor from man. The wisdom of living a righteous life produces a good reward. I know that took some time. I'm not going to belabor you all night. Those things are true. They're there. I pray that you'd receive them. And I simply close by tying these things now to Christ as we get ready to partake of communion tonight. but the example of Christ in a very simple, straightforward fashion. His physical Christ, physical life, mirrored the Word of God. What you saw Him do, live and speak, is reflected in what you read on these pages before us. If we summed it up in a word, Jesus would say this, not my will, but your will be done. That's our example. You say, nobody does that perfectly. I get it, but at least we know what we're shooting for. Our lives are this. It's not what I want. I won't reveal, but I got a conversation just a little bit ago, and I was like, you do understand it's not your day. What? This is the Lord's day. I don't get to do what I want today. It's not my day. I get six of them, but today's not mine. This is Christ. Not my will, but your will be done. Christ was sinless, word, thought, and deed. He did and said exactly what he saw his Father do and say. John 5, 17, my Father's working, I'm working. John 14, 10, you don't believe that I'm in the Father and the Father's in me? The words that I say to you. I don't speak on my own authority. The Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or just believe the very works that I do. That's the example. Also, the example of Christ, he spoke the words of life. Peter says, Lord, where are we going to go? You possess, you have the words of life. Lastly, he won the favor of God and he obtained the reward of his suffering. Luke 2.52, and Jesus increased in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and man. And then, Mark 1.11, a voice came from heaven. This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. And he received the reward for his suffering, Isaiah 53, verses 11 and 12, out of the NASB. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, Christ, my servant, will justify the many. As he will bear their iniquities, therefore I will allot him a portion with the great and he will divide the booty with the strong because he poured out himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. I ask tonight simply this, will you be wise or will you be a fool? So we come now to remember what Christ has done and we are reminded of what? He's an awesome Savior. He is true wisdom from above. And the one in the room who can see Christ and understand Him fully, have faith in Him is the one who is wise. What a Savior. Hallelujah, what a Savior. And we remember tonight His body broken and His blood shed. At this time, we're going to pray. You can pray where you're at. You can bow up here and pray. We'll prepare our hearts, and in just a moment, we will serve the elements. But let's pray for a moment, and then we'll proceed with communion.