Let's start with a word of prayer and then we'll look into the word a little bit. Dear Gracious Father, we thank you so much for your son. We thank you so much for your love, your mercy, for your sovereign intervention in our life, your sovereign working in our life. And we ask that as we look into your word this morning, that you would be honored and glorified by everything that is said, everything that's thought, everything that's done. I pray that we would think of this text correctly and that we would walk away saying it was good to hear from God's word this morning. And so we just ask that as we think of this text and we think about the things that are found here, you would be honored and glorified. We just, I just thank you for all of my brothers and sisters, fellow saints, and just thank you for how you're working in each of their lives that would bring them to this moment as we get a chance to see how you are working in each person's life. We thank you and love you in your son's name, amen. So recently I was looking at a poll on Americans' perception of April Fool's Day. I don't know how many of you love April Fool's Day. If you don't, you are definitely in the majority. There are 59% of Americans do not like April Fool's Day. It's also kind of interesting that 50% of people don't like pranks being played on them. So that may add to the fact that they don't like April Fool's Day. I know I like April Fool's Day, but I've heard of a couple stories of April Fool's Day gone bad. Like for example, I heard about a group of people that wanted to play an innocent prank on their boss on April Fool's Day. And so what they did was they filled his office with balloons. Very harmless, actually, if you think about it. Well, they didn't know that the boss had a terrible allergic reaction to latex. And so when he opened the door and all these balloons came out, it sent him to the hospital. Now, we're not here talking about April Fool's Day or goofing around, and we normally think of fools as those who goof around and do actions that they don't think about what they're doing. But biblically, when we talk about a fool, we're not talking about somebody who pulls a prank on April Fool's Day or somebody that just does something without thinking, and they're just doing something innocent, but it's just not thinking, they're not thinking through. When we're talking about a fool, biblically, we're talking of one who is, views themselves as being righteous, they're self-righteous. We've seen from the book of Proverbs that a fool is someone who enjoys sinning, someone who is rebellious towards God, who displays their folly, that influences other people to be foolish. They deceive themselves, they spew out their foolishness. There's even a, remember that passage where it talks about how they're They're nourished by their folly. It seems like they need to do something sinful. They're stubborn, they're dangerous, they're pugnacious. They seek to justify their own sin instead of repentance. They're arrogant, they think sin is a laughing matter. They're disobedient to parents, they're unteachable, and they possibly can be tyrannical. And as we talked about last week, we are surrounded in a world of fools, right? There are foolish people all around us. In fact, it's even possible that there's someone that's foolish right now, but we, from the outside, may say, well, that person looks rather wise, right? It's possible for us to think of somebody being wise, but they're really foolish, because when we think of foolishness, we're thinking of this sinfulness. We're thinking of this one that's rebellious against God's word. Regardless, we live in a world full of fools. And this creates a lot of problems, a lot of problems for us. And Solomon enumerates these problems for us in Proverbs 26. Last week we saw the problem of acting like a fool, what does it do? Today we're gonna talk about the problem of correcting a fool. of how do we talk to fools, and to be honest, we don't have enough time to discuss this subject, but we're gonna look into at least what Solomon has to say in these three verses in Proverbs 26. We're gonna be in verses three through five on how do we correct fools, how do we talk to them. And one of the things that we're going to see is that there's a real problem in just communicating with these people. There's a real problem in trying to talk to these people. And really what needs to happen is we need to be walking by the power of the spirit before we even talk to a fool. We need to be biblically minded before we talk to a fool. We need to be discerning before we even enter into that situation. So that when it comes to a situation where we might discuss or talk with a fool, we already kind of are walking by the power of the Spirit. It's not one of those moments of, uh-oh, what do I do now? And we need to be careful how we address these people and careful how we talk to these people. As we're going to see in this text, there's some serious barriers and problems. There's one other thing before we get into the text. We as Christians have a very foolish notion when talking to fools. that we can convince a fool to change their heart. We cannot change hearts. A fool's heart cannot be changed by anything you say or anything you think or anything you do. A fool's heart is changed solely by a sovereign work of God. Now, he might use you in that process, but that is significantly different than the fact of me changing a fool's heart by the things that I say. A lot of people who are well-intentioned, who go out and evangelize and give advice to non-believers, feel that by the simple repetition of a certain sheet that they got at church and just going through the lines, that that will change the hearts of people. No, no. God changes the hearts of people. And so this text, I hope, causes us to think carefully and cautiously when we talk to people. When we talk to people who are acting foolish. And we get a biblical perspective. But what we're gonna see is this. We're gonna see the first problem in verse three. The first problem is the problem of reasoning with a fool. And what we're gonna see is they don't think right. They're not wired like us. Number two. The problem of responding to a fool. Do I say something? Do I not say something? And then the third problem is... revealing a fool's pride. How do you reveal somebody's pride? These are the three problems of talking to a fool that we have. So let's look at this text and let's first start in Proverbs 26, verse three, and notice what Solomon says. He says, a whip for the horse and a bridle for the donkey and a rod for the back of fools. kind of an interesting thing. Normally in our world we flip the whip and the bridle. We would say, well, a bridle for a horse and a whip for a donkey. Normally horses wear bridles. But in the ancient world this seems to be right. But it is kind of interesting. There was wild horses at that time. to capture one of them and to tame one of them took a lot of work and sometimes they used whips to break horses. And that's what would happen. These wild horses would not do what the owner wants it to do and so what do you do? You use a whip. You don't sit down with the horse in the stable at night and go, now look guy, today we had a bad day. Can we do a little bit better in the horse answers like Mr. Ed? Sure, yeah, we'll do whatever you want, Wilbur. That's not how we deal with horses in the real world, right? Maybe in Hollywood that's how you deal with horses, but not in the real world. You can't sit there and reason with them, right? That's the idea. They're beasts. They can't communicate and they can't think. And so that's how you control them. And then notice it says, in a bridle for a donkey, that's to control which way it's going. I don't know. I'm not a big horse guy. I'm not a big donkey guy. I don't ride on donkeys a lot. But I have ridden on horses, and I know that you can control them through that little bridle in their mouth. I get it. And I get that you move them the way you want them to go. Sometimes they go the way they want to go, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. And that's what the bridle's for. And that's what the donkey, right? You sit in there guiding it. You don't sit there and talk to a donkey and get off the donkey and go, now look, buddy. We're going over there. I need you to go there. And the donkey go, sure, man, we'll do that. The idea is you can't reason with them. The idea is that there needs to be brutal and swift actions and discipline to guide them and correct them. And so using that simile, then he says, or metaphor, he then says, and a rod, which speaks of a, This speaks of a spankin' stick, but something a little bit more serious than a spankin' stick. This is a big boy spankin' stick, right? This is talking about punishment, physical punishment. And a rod is for the back of fools. So just like a horse, a wild horse and a wild donkey need to be guided, need this serious correction, so too a fool. And the sense is you can't necessarily go to a fool and reason with a fool. It's no, this is the way it is. And there's a certain way that you have to act. Why? Because you can't reason with them. As we've seen through the book of Proverbs, they are literally hell-bent in being rebellious against God. You can't reason them out of it. That's what they're doing. And so for us, this is important. This is important to remember as we're talking to those who are rebellious. They are slaves to sin. They are totally depraved, meaning the entire of their person is affected by sin and there's a bent and a skew towards sin. And there's nothing you can say, there's nothing you can do that will convince them otherwise. It is required that God works in their heart. Yesterday we were talking about this in the men's Bible study in John, of this idea that Jesus is talking to these people, they're listening to Jesus, they're seeing the miracles of Jesus, and Jesus says, you are unable to hear my word and to listen. You're incapable of listening to these things. So apart from God's intervention. So then the question then is, okay, so what do we do? Because obviously the solution is not for us to carry a big stick and whenever we see somebody who's rebelling against God, pull out our stick and start beating them. I'm not sure that's what Christ would have us do. What is the thing that Christ would have us do? I think it's clear, the apostles, what did they do? They went around and they preached the gospel, praying that God would open up the heart. And every opportunity they had, they saw as an opportunity from God. And so they took that opportunity to share the gospel, to share that we're all sinners, separated from God. But Jesus Christ came down and died on the cross for our sins, was buried, and then rose again on the third day. I know that some of us might have the temptation in the midst of our reasoning with people to say, I can reason with this person and convince this person of the truth of the gospel. Maybe, maybe the Lord might use some of your reasoning and we'll talk about later about how we answer a fool. But just know this, it is also possible that just simply sharing the gospel is enough and that God will use his word in his way to do things that you are incapable of doing, right? For example, just turn with me to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter four. And just notice verse 12 of Hebrew chapter 4. And notice what the author says about the word of God. He says, for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division and the soul of the spirit of joints and marrow, to discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him. to whom we must give an account. So notice as he talks about the power of God's word, that it's living and active, meaning that it does something. It's effective, it's efficacious, right? And notice how sharp it is in the imagery that he uses. It's like a double-edged sword. It cuts deep, cuts deep, deep. Notice how deep this word goes, the very division of soul and spirit. That's deep, man, that cuts to the very center of who we are. Can you say a sentence that can penetrate the soul this deeply? Can you in your own intelligence say something so profound that would cut to this person's soul? Of course not. Can this book say things that are that profound? Of course it can. That's why we have it. That's what it does. It cuts all that way. And then notice that not only does it cut, but it also judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Can you judge the intentions of somebody else? Can you judge their heart? Do you know exactly what they're doing? You might have a good guess. You might, we might have a good guess, but can we really judge those things? Of course not. Can this book do this? Of course, because it's God's word. It comes from God. This book has that unique ability to cut to the center of who a person is and judge their intentions and their heart, and the Holy Spirit will use his word and use the things that it says about the sinfulness of man and the things about the gloriousness of Christ, and the Holy Spirit will use the word to change the hearts of people. So in a sense, we can reason. I think it is good for us to be winsome when we're talking to those about the gospel, and if they ask for why do you believe what you believe, we should have a good answer. But be cautious. Don't waste your time arguing. Give them the word. It's kind of like there once was a famous preacher who said, do I have to sit here and talk about how ferocious a tiger is, or do I just have to open up the cage? And in a sense, that's kind of the sense here. Sometimes you can't reason with a fool. They don't think spiritually. their mind is skewed by sin, and God's word can do what we cannot do. I also want to say this, even when we talk about this type of severe, swift, decisive discipline that's being talked about here, this decisive action, We also need to remember this, that any time that we are in the position of discipline or rebuking someone, that the goal of any of our actions is for someone's repentance. So I can see a situation where there's a believer who's walking by the flesh and is caught up with this foolishness, and you could sit there and reason and reason and reason and show Bible verse after Bible verse after Bible verse, and they're just captured, they're in this foolish haze. And I even know that there's times where you can get incredibly frustrated. And you act out of that frustration. And you start saying, well, I'm gonna show them next time I talk to them. We need to remember that anytime we talk to somebody, it must be the truth spoken in a loving way. And our goal must always be that they repent, that they walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. If I don't have love when I'm talking to somebody, my words are nothing. They mean nothing, they accomplish nothing. So as a believer, I must be walking by the power of the Spirit, desiring to see them grow in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now notice the second problem that's found in the next verse, verse four. It says, answer a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him. Just to show you something, then read the next verse. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. There are some who are foolish. They will look at this passage, ironically, and they will go, see, there's a contradiction in the Bible, and I don't have to listen to it. Isn't that ironic that God would take these passages and put them together, and that fools would use this to try to discredit God's word? There's a couple problems with saying that this is a contradiction. Number one, we're dealing with the book of Proverbs. These are principles Even though there is a sense of a command, it is still a principle. Which means... Sometimes in life, you operate by competing principles and you determine which principle is better to use here or here. It's not a contradiction. This is a book on principles and how to be wise and thinking through things. Then when you think about the context of verse three, about you can't reason with a fool, but you do have to answer him, and then saying, well, okay, answer a fool according to his folly, don't answer a fool according to his folly, you can easily then go, well, this is a difficult thing. So if anybody tries to bring this up and say, look, here's a contradiction, I would easily just point to the fact that this is a principle. Very clearly, too, one other thing that I hope to show you is it's not necessarily that he's giving these two competing principles, even though they may say don't answer and answer. But notice that at the end of verse four, it says, lest you be like him. So there's a time to not answer a fool unless you're like him. And then notice in verse five, answer a fool unless he is wise. He might become wise in his situation. So it also could speak in the manner in which we answer a fool, right? It's a manner, the intention. Far from a contradiction. But we see this principle played out several times in the Bible, in the Old Testament, the New Testament. For example, you don't have to turn here, but Ecclesiastes 3.7 tells us that there's a time to be silent and there's a time to speak. Okay, that's fine. We get that. And this is definitely saying that. There's a time to speak and there's a time to be silent. And for us as the reader who's contemplating how do I live a wise life in this world, it is for us to spend time in God's word, it's for us to be walking by the spirit, it's for us to be asking God for discernment, to know the difference of when I do answer and when I don't answer, right? But let's look at verse four because this is a problem responding to a fool So notice what it says, it says, do not answer a fool, and it says according to his folly. According to his folly could mean a couple things, it could mean a mixture of stuff, just I guess it depends on the situation, but when you answer a fool according to his folly, it may mean that you're agreeing with his ideas, and you're promoting his ideas and his presuppositions. And so a fool will say something and you'll go, yeah, no, that's right, even when it's against God's word. Now, this might not, You might go, well, I don't do that. The church has never done that. The church has never affirmed something that's been against God's word. Wrong. That happens all the time. In fact, I would even contest that that's happened to us this past week. That there have been times where we have agreed with a fool, not according to God's word, but according to the fool himself. This is easy to do. We all watch the news. We all hear political people talking and we go, of course. There's a lot of fools in politics. We can listen to them and we can agree with them on the basis, not of God's word, but on the basis of what they're saying. So be careful. This is easy to do. There's another way. We could talk to them in such a way that actually honors the fool. So when he says something, I speak to him in such a way that makes it sound like he's something more than what he really is. Don't do that. Or we could speak in the same way that the fool speaks. That happens all the time. Have you ever talked to a fool who was hard-headed, didn't want to listen, didn't think? was stubborn, was rebellious against God, and you sit there and you talk to him about the Lord, you talk to him about the gospel, you show them the right way, or you talk to a brother who's just really stuck in the flesh, and you try to convince them from God's word, and they respond in a way that's kind of snippy, and then your next response is then kind of snippy, kind of rude, And you go, well, it's justified. I'm trying to win him for the Lord. Be cautious. Be cautious. That's not the way we're supposed to talk to people. That's not the way we're supposed to answer people, especially a fool. And notice what he says. He says, don't answer a fool according to his folly. Why? Because it's possible that if you do this, you will act just like him. You don't point them toward the Lord. You actually just entrench other people in Him, and then you become like them, and you're acting just like them, and you are acting foolish and rebellious and stubborn. This is kind of a difficult thing, because there are several times where the Bible asks us to have a holy stubbornness. This is the truth. I'm not moving from the truth. You can't convince me to move from the truth. But this passage is how we communicate and how we answer a fool. You should have that holy stubbornness, that conviction, this is the truth and I'm not moving. But we should speak the truth in love, in a way that honors and glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ, that is winsome and thoughtful and sometimes, The best policy is to just share the gospel and get out of the way. Don't sit there and try to argue, don't sit there and try to rationalize. Sometimes that's just the best thing. Let the fool be the fool and you walk away. Now there's several times where I've seen this acted out in the scriptures and there's several cases of this, but I think the best one is, remember in John 8 where the religious leaders brought that woman who was caught in adultery And remember, they said to Jesus, what do we do in this situation? Thinking they got him, right? Do we stone the woman to uphold the Jewish law, but break the Roman law? Or do we uphold the Roman law, thus break the Jewish law? What are you gonna do, Jesus? We got you. And what did Jesus do? He started writing in the sand. I know there's a lot of debate on what he started writing in the sand. You know what I think he was doing? I think he was just drawing circles. I don't think he was really writing anything profound. I think he was just not answering a fool according to their folly. And they ended up leaving, right? And I think that's a great example of that. I'm not going to answer you according to your folly. I'm not going to substantiate your foolish misreading of the scripture and using this woman and her sin to justify your own sin. I'm not going to do that. I'm not even going to play the game. We're not even playing by the same game. I'm not going to answer. I'm not going to talk. Your folly will be fully demonstrated by all who see it. That's the right response. We also must be really careful, before we move on to the next text, to not be self-righteous, to not be selfish, to not be influenced by the flesh, to not be arrogant. When we are these things, it is very easy for us to answer a fool according to his folly. We must, we must be thinking about Christ and how he died on the cross for our sins. Our righteousness comes from him. I'm clothed in his righteousness. The righteousness that I have is not my own. Therefore, it's impossible to be self-righteous. We should always be quick to admit, I am not righteous. That's why Jesus came to die. I can't be righteous. That's why I have the indwelling Holy Spirit. and it's only through the Holy Spirit that I can do things that are righteous. Now notice the next verse in verse five. It says, answer a fool according to his folly. This could not mean answer the fool in a way that is foolish, but probably here most likely refers to pointing out the folly of the fool. Think of Paul and numerous times in the book of first and second Corinthians, He uses some of the arguments of some of his, those who are speaking against him, and he uses their argument in a way to show their foolishness. And so there's this sense of, I can take what I, maybe not answer the same way that a fool talks to me, but I can use their foolishness to demonstrate how foolish they are. And notice, that's really what he has in mind, because notice the next part of it says, lest he be wise in his own eyes. The idea is not that I'm changing a person's heart, because I can't do that, but I should answer a fool according to his folly so that he doesn't become even more self-righteous. He doesn't become even more arrogant, even more rebellious. How do I do that? How do we do that? Do we just have to bone up on our logical arguments and philosophy? Is that how we do this? Of course not. It has to go to the word. How do I answer a fool according to his folly? Take him back to the book and say, look, this is what the book says. I'm not saying this, the book says this, and the book itself will do what the book does. It will do what I'm incapable of doing. It will convict of sin, it will show folly, it will demonstrate folly. You're promoting Christ, you're promoting repentance, you're addressing their sin, you're doing all of the things that Christ would want us to do in talking to a person who's foolish, entrenched in their sin. That's what you're doing, you're taking them back to the book. And so thus the Bible then reveals the fool's pride. And the hope is that he doesn't stay arrogant. The hope is that he's convicted of his sin and he places his faith in Christ. Even a believer who's steeped in the flesh, we know plenty of them. What's the solution? The word. The Word will do what I can't do. So if I take them through the Word and show them and warn them through the Word, encourage them to stay in the Word, the Word will change their heart. And as a believer, I can attest to this, that when we walk away from the Lord, it is the word that woos us back, causes conviction of sin and repentance. What does David say? How does a young man keep his way pure? According to your word. It's the book. These are the words of God. There's a lot of great books that have been written, a lot of great documents that have been written throughout time. This one is unique because it comes from God. All those other books we can tweak, we can edit, we can say I don't have to agree with that. This book we come to and say this is the truth of God. It stands forever. And so for me to answer a fool according to his folly would mean that I'm answering with biblical principles and passages from the scriptures. So we've seen some of the problems, right, of talking to a fool. One, they're without reason, right? Two, responding to them, right? Sometimes I don't, sometimes I do. And then there's this problem then of revealing their pride. They don't want to change, they don't want to be in a situation where they're humbled. But this is what God's word does. You know, it's interesting, this past week I was talking to somebody and they were at the doctor and they said, the doctor gave me a clean bill of health. And I said, well, praise the Lord. And he said, yeah, it's even amazing that the doctor was looking at my life and looking at some of the changes that I've made. And the doctor said, wow, it's amazing that you are listening to my advice. And the implication that you would get from that is not a lot of people listen to advice, right? A lot of people are foolish because we, you know, I know better than my doctor. I know things about myself that are smarter than what the doctor does. He went to school and knows all the different parts of my body. I don't know the Latin word for my stomach. I just call it my tummy, right? But I'm smarter than he is, right? So you see how foolish that is to go to somebody, say, what's your advice, and then go, nah. I got it figured out. That's foolish, right? And I think by nature, because we're born human and because we were born sinners, even though we're redeemed by Christ and even though we have placed our faith in Christ and we're given his righteousness, we still struggle with the flesh and the flesh still wants us to be foolish. And so there's this tendency for us, how easy it is for us to be foolish. And so we can empathize with those who are acting foolish, going, I understand exactly what they're going through because I go through the same thing every day. So my advice is that we need to be careful. I think we need to be careful that when we talk to fools, we realize I don't change the fool's heart. God changes the heart. I cannot do that. That's an important thing for us to remember. Number two, I need to be careful how I respond to those who are acting foolish, to those who are acting contrary to God's word, contrary to the gospel, to not act in a way that's fleshly, right? Two fleshly deeds do not make a righteous one. We need to remember that. We need to remember, no, I still need to act like Christ even when I'm dealing with somebody who's foolish. And sometimes that means I don't say anything. I walk away. And then lastly, we need to be careful when we talk that the things that we promote, the things that we say, the people we promote, the book we promote is Jesus Christ, our Savior, because he's the only one that can change, and that we point people back to the word, because this is the book that causes change. And so when I'm talking to people and I'm talking to a fool, Am I exalting the Savior? Am I exalting the word when I'm talking to them? This is tough stuff. I wish I had an easier application of like, this is when you do answer and this is when you don't answer. But each situation's different, each conversation is different, each person is different, each opportunity is different. And so the advice would be, be careful. Walk by the power of the Spirit before you get into those situations. Promote Jesus Christ. Always promote Jesus Christ. Always promote the word. That's always the surefire answer. Always go back to the word. Always point them back that way. That is how any change will happen in anyone's life, whether they're a believer or a non-believer. So may the Lord give us both the will and ability to do all that we heard today. Let's go ahead and let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for the truth that's found in the book. We just ask that as we leave this place, that these words that are said in your word would help us, would cause us to think about how we talk, cause us to think about how we interact with others. Father, we pray for the foolishness of our community and the foolishness of people around us. Father, we ask that you would give us discernment on how to talk about and talk to those who promulgate foolishness. Give us a spirit that wants to see repentance and love. Also, Father, give us a heart for our brothers and sisters who are given over to foolishness, teach us how to talk to them, teach us the right things to say at the right time. And Father, I also pray that you would keep us in your word, keep us close to your savior, so that we ourselves would not act in foolishness. Just thank you so much for my brothers and sisters, and thank you for them and their encouragement they are to me and to my family. We thank you and love you in your son's name, amen.