And please remain standing and turn with me in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter six. As we continue to make our way through the book of wisdom. This evening we'll give our attention to verses 12 to 15. But I'd like us to begin reading in verse one. Proverbs chapter six. Beginning in verse one. My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have given your pledge for a stranger, if you are snared in the words of your mouth or caught in the words of your mouth, then do this, my son, and save yourself. For you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor. Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber. Save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter. like a bird from the hand of the fowler. Go to the aunt, O sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise without having any chief, officer, or ruler. She prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food and harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber. and want like an armed man. And now, our passage this evening, beginning in verse 12. A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech. He winks with his eyes, he signals with his feet, he points with his finger. With perverted heart, he devises evil, continually sowing discord. Therefore, calamity will come upon him suddenly. In a moment, he will be broken beyond healing. Since the reading of God's word, let us go before the Lord in prayer. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, as we come to your word, we do so earnestly seeking wisdom. We pray that you would provide us with the wisdom that your word entails. You speak clearly, and yet on account of our sin and unbelief and so many distractions that surround us, we are still in need of your Spirit's help to enable us to see clearly and to understand with perception those things that your word so clearly states. So please come to our aid, Lord Jesus. By your spirit's power we ask, in Christ's name, amen. Please be seated. There's a particular reason that I wanted us to revisit the opening verses there to verse six leading up to our sermon text this evening. I think Solomon is providing for us a rather curious feature. It might not be a taxonomy, but if it's not a taxonomy, then at least I think Solomon is providing us with a representative sampling of the various kinds of fools one might encounter or become. For instance, if we revisited the first five verses, Solomon warned us of the thoughtless man. That man who endangers his own family through foolish business practices. In verses six to 11, we are told not simply of the thoughtless man, but here of the sluggish man. A man who brings himself to sudden ruin through his own inaction. Well here in verses 12 to 15 we are confronted with yet another fool. Here we are confronted with the worthless man. A man who unlike the sluggish man labors diligently and yet he labors for the destruction of the community. Notice how each one of these types of folly brings destruction upon all. Comes in a variety of ways. the thoughtless man who endangers his family, the sluggish man who brings sudden ruin upon himself and those under his care, and now here the worthless man who brings destruction upon a whole community. It's a sober reminder that the folly of one can bring harm to all. Tonight we'll consider the character and conduct of the worthless man and the fate that befalls him. We'll do that through three considerations. First, we'll consider his worthless deeds. We'll see this in verses 12 to 13. Secondly, his perverted heart in verse 14. And then finally, the sudden calamity that befalls him in verse 15, in the folly's fate. So his worthless deeds, his perverted heart, and the folly's fate. What a curious description we have here in this particular passage that Solomon would describe a man as worthless. In our modern day and age perhaps it sounds so cruel. If after the evening service we were to talk about a particular individual and I were to say that man is such a worthless fellow, you'd probably tell me that I'm being too judgmental. That I was the one who was being too harsh perhaps not winsome enough as the modern parlance goes. And yet Solomon calls us and calls our attention to a particular man who the scriptures describe as worthless. And what we find is this is not the only time and Solomon is not the only man who warns us about the worthless man. 26 times this word is found in the Old Testament. And through a careful study, there emerges a composite portrait of who such a figure is. What do we mean? What does Scripture mean? I think it's the better question. What does Scripture mean when it speaks of a worthless fellow? The very first time we find this particular word, this denunciation upon an individual is found in Deuteronomy 13. which characterizes the man who would seek to lure Israel away to worship other gods. In Nahum chapter one, it occurs a few other times and speaks of the idolater who through his deception invites destruction on the nation. In other words, the worthless man is much like the idol that he himself worships. He is, to use another Hebrew phrase, he is hevel. He is a mere breath. We're reminded of this particular truth throughout scripture, aren't we? We become what we worship. The gods of the nations are idols. They are deaf, dumb, mute, blind, unable to hear, speak, act. They are a fleeting vanity. The worthless one is the man who embodies such principles. He's the man who recklessly pursues idols and tries to seduce the people of God into pursuing this particular path. The worthless man is the one who perverts worship. But not only does he pervert worship, we also find in other instances that he perverts justice as well. You see this in Job chapter 34 and Proverbs 19, 28. Perhaps the most striking example we have in the Old Testament is that of Eli's sons. If you remember in the opening chapters of 1 Samuel, here are priests who abused their ecclesiastical office to exploit the people for personal gain. We come to this horrendous moment, this horrendous moment in Judges 19 where the men of Gibeah act like the men of Sodom and seek to have their way with a sojourner passing through their gates. or the false witnesses hired to lie about Naboth so that he could be executed, that the queen might seize his inheritance. All of these are referred to in the Bible as worthless men. The worthless man despises authority, be it divine or earthly. In three distinct cases, here is a word that characterizes the men who reject God's chosen king. be it under Saul in 1 Samuel 10, be it under David in 2 Samuel 20, or Rehoboam in 2 Chronicles 13. To rebel against the lawful ordinance of the king renders one to be reckoned as worthless under the moral probing of Scripture. A worthless man is characterized elsewhere in Proverbs as a schemer of evil, Proverbs 16, 27. It is the word that describes the tentacles of Sheol that seek to drag the Messiah to the grave in Psalm 18. When we think of the word worth, what so often comes to mind is the weightiness of the matter. You think of days prior to paper currency, the weight of the currency tells you something of its value. If it is worthy, it is something of substance. In fact, that is the word that is intended when we speak of glory. You think of C.S. Lewis's famous essay, a wonderful essay that I think everybody should read, It speaks of the weight of glory, because that's what the Hebrew word for glory means, kavod, it's a weight. When we speak of somebody being worthy, there is something substantive about that man. By contrast, when we speak of the worthless man, it is to reckon him or her as someone light, ephemeral, fleeting, of no value whatsoever in terms of their integrity. It's exactly how Psalm 236 uses it, where the worthless objects are like dust in the wind. They are characterized as the bramble and the chaff, fit for nothing but to be cast into the fire. And in the New Testament, that Hebrew word for worthless comes to characterize Satan himself, because the Hebrew word here for worthless is belial. Might sound familiar. It should, 2 Corinthians chapter six, where Paul instructs the church not to partner with lawlessness in one's personal relationships. Why? Why one ought not be unequally yoked with an unbeliever? Because Paul says what agreement has Christ to do with Belial, Satan, the worthless one? What portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What is the temple of God to do with idols? Those things that are fleeting and ephemeral. Part of this passing age. You think of the Psalms who speak of that great day when our Lord returns. And all the suffering that Christ's church endures under this passing age. It's heavy now. It's painful now. But when Christ returns it'll be like We're described as men who dreamed. You awake from the dream, I don't know if you've ever had one of those nightmares that you wake up in a cold sweat and you turn to your spouse and you're just shaking and they ask, well, what was the dream about? And even as you're trying to articulate the intensity of the dream, it's passing away from your thought to where within five, 10 seconds you're like, I don't even remember. That's how the Lord describes the wicked. It's like dust in the wind. When the fire of God's judgment comes, the spirit of God breathes, and those foundations of wickedness that seem so indestructible in this age will pass away and be forgotten in but a moment's notice. Satan becomes the consummate picture of the fool. As wily as he is, He is the full par excellence. He's the antithesis of wisdom. And to be honest with you, he's just not an interesting figure. In fact, what we find throughout the scriptures is that the worthless man is just kind of pathetic. Everything he does is twisted by design. He has taken deviance and raised it to an art form. Worse than the bleeding heart philanthropist who gives no thought to the welfare of his own family, as we'd seen in the first five verses just a few weeks ago. Worse than the sloth whose longing for sleep brings destruction upon his own head. Here stands a fool worse than those. A man who whispers in secret, a man who seeks to manipulate the crowds. A man who pursues one thing, to sow discord in the community. But to what end? Here is the puppeteer of strife, and yet it is all done in such a cowardly way, he does it behind the backs of everyone. Here is a figure who is bereft of courage, a man lacking in integrity. A man who does no honest work. Here stands the sniveling coward full of lies and deceit. There is nothing cool about this villain. He is utterly derivative. I think it's an interesting feature, the recent fixation we have in our current era on superhero films. Villains always seem to be these outlandish figures. More often than not, it seems to be the case, unless the hero is some type of morally conflicted individual, that the villain seems to be a much more interesting figure than the hero. I think the question we have to ask is why is that? It seems that so many people know how to write good villains, so to speak, but are so inept at extolling moral virtue. that there is a worthiness and a weightiness to heroes that you just don't find. In many ways, in these movies, the villains are more interesting than the heroes. I think the great villain, Darth Helmet, sums up our culture's esteem of heroism quite aptly when he says that evil will always triumph over good because good is dumb. That is at least the modern world's perception of moral virtue. It's not worth anything of value in the eyes of society around us. And yet what do we find in the New Testament? You know, as Pastor Joel preached this morning, one of the last verses that he brought to our attention, Philippians chapter four, whatever things are true, just, good, beautiful, these are the things that we want to think upon. You know, why is it that Dante's Inferno is always much more riveting than Paradiso? Everybody seems to be kind of just drawn in to the variations of wickedness and we often don't really want to consider the weight of glory. We don't want to consider the nature of moral virtue and worth. I think that's something that is, in my estimation, beautifully drawn out in C.S. Lewis's book, That Hideous Strength. Because I think it reminds us that the reality of situations are much more drab. If you read this, it's the final volume in Lewis's so-called Ransom Trilogy. And here you find that The great arch-villains of that novel are anything but interesting. In fact, what you find is there are a bunch of nameless, faceless, middle-aged bureaucrats. You don't even know the names to most of them. I remember the first time I read it, I was actually really bored by it for that reason, because I still wanted to see some type of, you know, kind of clownish, villainish type character, and you're just not given that. And Lewis does it for a reason. Because it is not goodness that is dumb. Sorry, Rick Moranis, right? It is evil that's dumb. It is evil that is folly. It's one of the very basic principles we learn in the book of Proverbs. You know, after the Second World War, the philosopher and journalist Hannah Arendt did a study on the nature of evil under Hitler's regime, particularly during the Eichmann trials, and she found that the hideous monstrosity, she wanted to ask, what does that monstrosity look like on the ground? We think of the death camps and all these things that just kind of evoke for us the images of the worst of the worst, and rightly so. You know, what did life look like on the ground under this particular regime, under the Third Reich? And after her study, she concludes that these men looked rather boring. So I hear that phrase, the banality of evil. She said, you talk to these people, you talk to Adolf Eichmann, you talk to men who, even men during the war who had killed themselves towards the end, you talk about Joseph Goebbels and some of these guys, you hear about the life of Hitler behind the scenes and it just sounds kind of normal. in a way that it kind of just causes you to quake. I mean, for those of you who watch, who see or listen to true crime podcasts or read about the kind of various serial killers that have kind of crept its way into American history over the past 50 or 60 years, what is the story that you hear over and over again about these very, very wicked men from the neighbors who knew them, not knowing about what's going on behind the scenes? We never would have guessed it. He was just kind of a loner. He lived by himself. He's utterly normal. That's what we're seeing here. Not that normality is a bad thing, but the whole point is that true evil, I think our current culture kind of elevates and worships wickedness in so many ways that it fails to take notice of the real feature of evil. that is bland. There's nothing virtuous about it. And of course we know there's nothing virtuous, but there's nothing exemplary about it. And that's the worthless man here in Scripture. It is a man whose deeds cause so much disruption and pain like thorns on a rose. And that's where he gets his kicks. Because he has nothing else to offer. He is like the bramble and the briar to a dead tree. It's the repeated admonition and exhortation that we find both in John the Baptist's ministry as the last of the old covenant prophets, so to speak, and the same thing that Christ himself preaches and proclaims as he begins his earthly ministry, to repent for the Lord. For the kingdom of God is at hand. And every day we will have to render account for our deeds. So bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And if your life characterizes the briar and the bramble, then you are good for nothing but firewood and kindling for hell itself. You're good for nothing but destruction. This worthless man is not a model to follow, though the world puts him on a pedestal. Here the outer works of this kind of fool reveal a corrupt disposition, a perverse heart. You see that here in verse 14. There is a wholehearted heartlessness about such a man. He throws himself into the void, as it were. He exerts all of his energies into this matter. Like the men in Noah's day, the worthless man's thoughts continually spin and devise evil. Unlike the sluggard, this kind of fool actually works. Notice that, it speaks of his labors. And yet, this man's toil is utterly worthless. He labors not for a harvest of crops. He labors not to put food on the table. But he labors to disrupt and upend the peace of the community. To what end? There's no gain to be made by such strife and confusion. There's no good to be had. Again, it's just kind of pathetic. Here is a master manipulator who simply enjoys making other people his puppets. He sows strife. The whisper of doubt here about someone's character. The dropping of doubt and mistrust there about the integrity of another. He delights to see discord. Before you know it, everyone is pointing the finger. Everyone, because of his whispers and because of his lies, is left pointing the finger at one another, pointing the finger at one another, accusing one another of things that most likely they had not done. Isn't that what the Hebrew word for Satan means, that of the accuser? That's exactly what this foolish man, this is exactly what the worthless man, this is exactly what Belial is doing here. He's getting behind the ear and going, don't you know this person sitting down on the other end of the pew? Begins to whisper, and so seeds of doubt. I mentioned this yesterday in The Men's Breakfast, but there's a wonderful play that was turned into a film a number of years ago called Doubt with Philip Seymour Hoffman. It's been years since I've seen it, so I don't remember. This is not me recommending, I'm just simply describing. But it tells the story of a Catholic priest overseeing an orphanage, caring for the boys, and by all external circumstances, he looks like a man who is really one over the hearts of these young boys. He stands as a leader among them. And in the midst of this comes a new nun, played by, I believe it was Amy Adams. She comes and just doesn't really like him and begins to sow seeds of doubt as to his character. What is he doing behind closed doors? And at first you think the whispers are folly, they're foolish, but she persists to where by the end of the film you actually don't know whether or not he really is a good man or the villain that she claims him to be. You're left wondering, has she in fact told the truth or has she not? That's exactly what this kind of worthless man does. He sows such doubt in the minds of others, you don't know what to believe is real anymore. You are left unable to trust the integrity of the one around you, and as a result, chaos erupts. Instead of peace, there is strife. Instead of tranquility, there is confusion. And behind it all stands Belial. the worthless man, the man who hates God, the man who despises authority, the man who mocks justice, the man who schemes in evil. It is a folly of the basest sort. Though at times he has his way, though at times he prevails, we are reminded here that there will come a time when his day will come and he will reap what he sowed. We see that here in verse 15 as Solomon reminds his own son of the sudden calamity that befalls such a fool. The judgment is sudden and unforeseen. He sows the wind of human folly and yet reaps the whirlwind of a heavenly fury. A fury that is as unalterable and as irreversible as heaven itself because the judgment falls fast and furious. When it comes, there will be no recovery. There is no bouncing back from this destruction that befalls the worthless man. And yet all throughout this scenario, though it surprises the man, it surprises the fool, we're reminded that the wise man ought not be surprised by his end. Because the man's deeds map out his final destiny. The wise man looks at the worthless man's life and says, I know the trajectory that your life is going. And he is not surprised by what happens to the worthless man. And it's a sober reminder that present actions have everlasting consequences. To quote one of my favorite films, what we do now echoes in eternity. That's what brings us back to the thrust of the Proverbs. Which path will you choose? Will you choose the path of wisdom, which is narrow but weighty? Or will you choose the path of folly, which looks like it has so many options set before you? Yet no matter how many options you pick along that trajectory, it all leads to the same destination. Alienation from God, the judgment of hell forever. It seems like a minor passage here in the Proverbs. but in my estimation it's quite critical. Here we have set before us the worthless man, a man whose worthlessness is embodied in Satan himself. Why would you want to act like that? Why would you set such a figure up like that on a pedestal and yet don't we see that happening in the playground, the school system, the office, life? The kind of fool who seems to be the, has such charisma, has, it's kind of like the talk of the town or the community and he has this kind of draw and he does whatever he wants and people are just, they have their eyes fixed on him. Why is so much of American culture fixated on these kind of celebrity reality shows? where you watch their lives and you're just kind of disgusted by it. Why would you set that up as a model to imitate? It's worthless. There's nothing of worth to be gained by it. And yet this is the very question. This question of worth is the question of heaven itself. In Revelation chapter four and five, we have this particular vision that John the Apostle is given. As the saints and men are gathered around the throne, there is but one question that is asked. Who is worthy? Who is the man of worth? And in this scene we find John himself weeping because he realizes that in one sense we are all worthless men. Perhaps of different stripes and calibers and degrees of quality. Various patterns. But he recognizes that there is no man with the weight and the integrity needed to pass through the fires of divine judgment. Except one. It's the line of the tribe of Judah. The root of David who is conquered by his conquest at Calvary has proven his worth. He's proven his mettle so that he alone bears the gravitas and the quality of the one able to open the seals and to rule in wisdom and in power. That's why when Paul speaks of Christ being the embodiment of wisdom, this is not just some type of preacherly kind of homiletical move. He truly means this. The scriptures truly proclaim this, that Christ possesses the fullness of wisdom. He is the man of worth. He is the antithesis of the worthless man. He is the antithesis of Belial. For when he is gazed upon, we recognize the weight of glory that he possesses. And for that reason alone, he ought to be worshiped and obeyed. That he, as the God-man, models for us the virtuous life, and so calls us to walk in his steps. As he himself. truly walked all the days of his life in his earthly ministry in the fear of the Lord. The king of heaven himself and yet he didn't have a place to lay his head, grew up in a poor family. By all external circumstances the odds are stacked against him and yet he remains obedient unto death. all the way, despite the agony and the suffering that he was called to fulfill, he walks the path of wisdom, even in the face of human folly, even as Satan himself accuses and points the finger and begins to whisper seeds of doubt among the nation, as he is falsely accused and crucified as a common criminal, though he himself had done no wrong. And Peter himself when reflecting on Christ's life says Christ has died for you as your representative, as your vicarious substitute dying in your place. But then Peter adds Christ died for you leaving for you an example that you might walk in his steps. He committed no wrong, he did not retaliate, yet continued entrusting himself to his father who adjudicates wisely and responds in proper judgment. Might I suggest to you that the proper pedestal, the proper model that is set before us is the Lord Jesus himself. It's the antithesis of everything we see that characterizes the worthless man of Proverbs 6. Christ who calls us to amend our ways in our speech that we would not speak fraudulently but with integrity and grace. Who calls us to amend our ways in the things that we see with our eyes that we might behold things with purity and in sincerity. Who calls us to amend our ways in the path that we tread sowing peace and not strife, who calls us to labor diligently with our hands, who cleanses us by his grace as we've been fully consecrated to the Lord through the work that he has done as he has bore our sins on our behalf, that we might pursue the things that are good, that we might sow what is righteous, and that we might reap an abundant harvest that springs up unto eternal life. If folly reaps the worthless fruit of destruction, then wisdom brings wealth and honor and glory and blessing. If calamity befalls the belial, then may we seek to pursue wisdom and be found worthwhile on the last day. Let us pray. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we do thank you that Christ, our Savior, has become for us, not only our justification and our sanctification and our very righteousness, but that Christ has become for us our wisdom. We pray that as we consider Christ's life and teachings and all that Christ's word gives to us in the fullness of scripture, that we would be made wise, that the world might see it as folly, We confess with the rest of the Church that even the foolishness of God is of greater value than the wisest sages of this passing age. By your Spirit's power, we pray that you conform us to the image of your Son, that we might not be found worthless, but worthwhile. and weighty and substantive because of the great work of redemption that has been wrought for us through Christ and by the Spirit. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.