A Fool Defined

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Tuesday, June the eleventh, twenty twenty four. It is currently ten nineteen am Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, as many of you know, or you should know, and if you don't know, why don't you know? Well, the reason you don't know is because you haven't been listening to this podcast. But as many of you know, because you actually listen to this podcast, you know, we have been spending a lot of time talking about the Book of Proverbs. It all started. It was so simple, right, Proverbs, chapter one, verse one, the Proverbs of Solomon. So I asked just a very simple in a question, why Solomon? And then we have spent hour after hour looking at all of the complexities and contradictions in Solomon.

1:10 All of the he has wisdom, but he's he's the most extravagant fool we've ever encountered anywhere in the entire Bible. It's absolutely crazy. And we looked at some of the you know, David giving him, he kill these people, and then Solomon killing these people, and then Solomon killing his half brothren. All the things Solomon did, it's just absolutely crazy. So we did a lot of work on that, and we found ourselves with a little bit of difficulty. Right, well, wait a minute, that if Solomon is wise, and if we define wisdom as the correct application or the right application of knowledge, well Solomon did not have the right application of knowledge. He did everything opposite too, So then do we redefine wisdom? And so on Sunday we spent over an hour an hour and nine minutes possibly redefining wisdom or limiting the wisdom that Solomon received. I thought that was an interesting discussion.

2:04 We put forth a very interesting hypotheses, and then we worked to try to challenge, to try to find an answer for it. Hopefully you found that to be beneficial. I know it's not the way typically people would handle this subject, but that's been the you know, this podcast has never done things the way everyone else does them. And you know what, I don't apologize for that because you've got you've got millions of other podcasts, So why do you need all of them to sound the same and do the same. So I think our approach was somewhat interesting. So we've been working in all of that, and then yesterday I said, okay, for this entire week, what we are going to work on is really this very important phrase, the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord. And I gave you some very specific things to work on. I gave you some questions to answer, and you can go listen to that yesterday. It all starts with fear, and so we that's that's what we are supposed to be working on.

3:01 So this morning I thought, you know what, I told everyone to start looking up sermons on the fear of the Lord. Let me look up a sermon. I got one cueued up, and I'm like, okay, let's do a review. And then I realized, wait a minute, this is going to take like five hours. I don't know if I have five hours of broadcasting today that I don't know if I have five hours I can dedicate to broadcasting today. So let me get back to that. So I was just sitting here and looking at the Book of Proverbs. Okay, rights, it's all about Proverbs. It's really it's becoming the Summer of Proverbs. It's really what has kind of happened, you know, inadvertently, this is kind of where we've ended up. We've done this in the past, and now we're doing it again. Like we're going to focus on proverbs, right, So I'm just sitting here looking at Proverbs one seven. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. I'm sitting here thinking about it. I'm thinking about some of the questions I gave everyone to answer. I got a notebook out, started thinking about the connection between the fear of the Lord and knowledge, fear of the Lord and wisdom again, some of the questions I gave you yesterday to work on. And then I just looked down at the next part. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But all right, okay, And contrast to the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

4:13 And contrast to that. But fools, And I'm like, oh, okay, I know I need to be working on the fear of the Lord, but let me let me spend a little time this morning, the little time I have to broadcast. Let's do this. This is the next part of this versus. But fools, well, what is a fool? What is a ful? Let's define what it is to be a fool. Let's define that, right, because look, the goal, I mean, the idea here is we don't want to be the ful. We don't want to be and you know what it's. It's it's usually we're very good at seeing foolishness.

4:57 We're very good at identifying the full goals all around us. But when you wake up in the morning, I'm assuming at some point you look into a mirror, when you see that person in the mirror, are you good at going, that's a fool right there, right there is a fool. Are you better at identifying foolishness and everyone else? Are you better at identifying the foolishness in yourself? Now? A lot of times we can have some very some very questionable motives when we decide we're gonna we're gonna study what a fool is because we already have someone in mind, right, we already have someone in mind that we're like, oh, I'm gonna talk about what a fool is because I hope they fear. I mean, a pastor can stand behind the pulpit and he's thinking, man, there are some fools in this congregation, and so I'm going to define what a fool is, so hopefully they'll see their own foolishness and they'll be convicted by it, and then I will stop having to suffer the consequences of having a fool in this church.

6:06 Oh, I know you're gonna say pastors would never do that. Oh, yes, they do, Okay, because you sometimes realize, man, that person is such a fool. Look, sometimes people contact me and I get tired of their foolishness. So it could be easy for me to turn on this microphone and going, you know what. I hope that person hears this and they see how foolish they are. But see, if I'm doing that, then I'm doing it all for the wrong reasons. Right. What I need to be more concerned with is am I a fool? In the foolishness in me? Now? I know? See, I know the right thing, But I have a hard time. So let's what I'm gonna try to get you to do right now. Okay, now I know, I know.

6:48 Okay, where's your husband? Where's your husband? Okay, let's not worry about how foolish he is? Hey, where's your wife? No? No, no, no, no, no, no, don't worry about how foolish theyre. No no. Do you hear your kids somewhere in the background. No no, no, don't worry about how foolish they are. No no, no. Are you at work right now looking across the office and you're like, Man, that person needs to hear this, because that's the biggest fool I have ever worked with him. No no, are you driving your car right now? Seeing the car in front of you going That guy is a complete fool. I need to catch up to him and tell me to listen to this. Okay, no, stop no, stop worrying about everyone else. Okay, and I'm saying that more to me than to you. But are you ready? Let's do kind of like a morning devotional.

7:30 Well, we consider what a fool is. If we just look up a dictionary definition of what it is to be a fool, or what a fool is. A dictionary definition gives us something like this. A fool a person who acts unwisely or imprudently, A silly person. So a person who acts unwisely, a person who acts unwisely. Now, this goes back to how this all started. The proverbs of Solomon. Well, if there was ever a man who acted unwisely, it would be Solomon. Again, I continue to refer to the Book of Proverbs. The Book of Wisdom was written by a man who was the most extravagant full in the history of scripture.

8:20 I mean, it's insane how unwise he was, over and over and over and over again. Okay, so, but we've been working on that problem. But against in how I'm focusing on Solomon. Let me say this. If Solomon was the author of a book about wisdom who was the most extravagant fool, well, guess what I come along and say, Hey, Solomon, just take a break, because I'm going to try to take on the title of the most extravagant fool, and I'm going to be the reader of this book. So maybe the reason I turned to Proverbs sometimes I won't say all the time. It's not my favorite book by any means. Leviticus is my favorite book. But I returned to Proverbs because I don't like being an extra ravagant full even though I know that I am. I'm not to Solomon's level only because the only reason I'm not at Solomon's level is because I don't have the means that Solomon had. If I had the means that he had, I probably could put Solomon to shame. All right, But so a fool is a person who acts unwisely or imprudently. They're not very prudent.

9:24 They're not they don't really think it through. They they are silly, all right, that that's kind of just your normal definition. But I'm like, okay, well, we're working on the Book of Proverbs. So the Book of Proverbs provides several descriptions and characteristics of a full So I'm gonna challenge you to write some of these down, set them on the refrigerator today. Now, yeah, it's perfectly okay if everyone else sees them. But when you go to the refrigerator, because I'm sure you will open and in a number of times today, maybe you can take a second, just a second, to just look at those descriptions and characteristics of a fool that comes from the Book of Proverbs. All right, So here are some of the key aspects that define a fool according to the Book of Proverbs. Who're going to keep this self contained in the Book of Proverbs? Are you ready? Right?

10:26 The first characteristic, the first characteristic. The first really descriptor of a ful is someone who rejects wisdom. The full is characterized by rejecting wisdom and understanding. And we see this right here in Proverbs chapter one, verse seven, were where I you know, this is what led to me doing this this morning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Okay, so that's what you're supposed to be working on. But it is impossible for me not to read the next part. So the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Right, So if you fear God knowledge, okay, how are those connected? You're supposed to be working on that, but are there? We go? In contrast to that, fools despise wisdom and instruction. A fool is characterized by rejecting wisdom and understanding. They reject it.

11:30 They don't like it. They don't want wisdom, they don't want to understand. They don't truly want to understand. They may pretend they do, but they don't really want wisdom, they don't really want understanding. And I think typically not I could be wrong here, because you could ask yourself. I think we could ask ourselves a question here, Why would a fool despise wisdom and instruction? Why would a fool despise wisdom and instruction? Why would a full reject wisdom and instruction? Who would reject wisdom and instruction? Don't everyone want wisdom and instruction? What is it that makes a fool not want wisdom and instruction? What do you think the answer is? Come on?

12:13 What is it? What is the answer. There's a person and they don't want wisdom and they don't want instruction. What is the reason. I'm going to put forth hypotheses here you can test it today. I think a fool despises wisdom and instruction because the fool does not perceive they need wisdom and instruction, or we just state it this way. A fool despises wisdom and instruction because they believe they already have the right wisdom and the right knowledge. They don't need your wisdom instruction. They reject wisdom and instruction because they disagree with it. They don't like it. They don't like what is said, so they get mad at it. They reject it, they push back against it.

12:56 I think there's two possible reasons a full despises wisdom and instruction. One, they're so full of themselves, they don't perceive a need for any other wisdom or instruction because they know everything. Or number two, they just don't like what that wisdom and instruction is saying, so they reject it. So really, what it comes down to is the full is prideful and only wants things there. Well, I think maybe it's pride. Maybe we could just reduce it down to pride if we want to simplify it. But I think there's two motivations. You're not going to accept wisdom and instruction because you already think you know everything. You're full of yourself. You cannot pour water into a full glass. Try it. Take a glass full of water, right, and then try to pour water into it. It just flows over the top. You can't get any more new water in, right, because it just splashes over the side. Right. You can't do it. It's full of itself. So for a person to true to truly embrace wisdom and understanding or instruction, For a person to truly embrace wisdom and instruction, they have to be an empty glass. You have to empty that glass of yourself of what you think. This is something I constantly try to do here on this podcast. I always tell everyone that, like, one of the prerequisites of good to be a good Bible student is you have to empty yourself of everything

14:30 you've learned in the past. If you show up thinking, hey, everything I've learned in the past about this text or about this doctrine is right, well, then there's no room for any look, there's no point in getting any more instruction. So guess what people do that don't look for any instruction except the instruction that already agrees with their past understanding, and anything that goes against that past understanding they immediately reject because they're so full of themselves. They're so full of of a presupposition that's not being teachable. Every time you open the Bible, the first thing you have to do is like, hey, where you go. I'm going outside? Why? Because I gotta empty out the glass. I'm gonna I'm gonna go empty this in the yard right now.

15:18 I sometimes say I sometimes use this illustration. It's much more graphic and sometimes offends people, but I'm like, hey, all of your past learning, all of your presuppositions. That's like your favorite pet, Fluffy, and you love Fluffy, and you hold on tight to Fluffy and you pet Fluffy, oh a Fluffy, because that's your past understanding. So you think you already know everything. You're smart, you're brilliant. But you know what has to happen before we can do this Bible study. We have to take Fluffy out behind the church and we've got to put Fluffy down. Fluffy has to die. I know that sounds extreme. I'm not talking about a real animal. I'm talking a metaphorical illustration, allegorical situation. Fluffy has to go because then your past understanding is of no present value when you open the Bible today.

16:06 Your past studies are irrelevant when you study the text today. If all you do is bring the past with you, then you can't learn anything else. You're like, I already know this, I already know this. Oh wait, woa no no no, no, no, no, no no no, that's wrong. That's wrong. That's wrong. That's wrong. That's wrong. And typically when people start arguing with you, what do they do? They cut and pay something they found on the internet. They cut and pay something from a book by MacArthur or R. C. Sproull or whoever their favorite breed. They go to a commentary, they just cut and paste from their favorite pastors in the past. Rarely do they engage in meaningful let's just discuss the text. They go run to their favorite ministry or favorite theologian and then they quote that. So a lot of times what I try to say is no, no, no, no no, before we argue, Okay, here's what we have to study, here's what we have to figure out. And it may take us. It may be may feel that it's redundant, you may feel like it's ridiculous, but we may spend six months looking up everywhere in the Bible that uses this one word and see and see what conclusion we come to. We're not going to rely on what anybody else said. So I think the full rejects wisdom and instruction because they're so full of maybe themselves, or they're past understanding, or they just don't like what it says. Here's wisdom and instruction, and just look, we have to be prepared that there's going to be plenty of times that the wisdom and instruction

17:36 we encounter, the wisdom and instruction that we are presented, is going to go against what we want and what we like. How do you respond when you're confronted with wisdom and instruction that you don't like. How do you respond to that? I think, I think that's a very important question. So I think it can be you're you're full of yourself, and you just you can't hear, you can't be taught anything else because you're so full of yourself. Are you full of your past understanding? Or you just don't like what is said. Maybe there's three things. You're so full of yourself you can't listen to anybody else, You're so full of your past understanding, you can't hear anything else, or you don't like what you hear. So you're, in a sense you're so full of yourself. But the full will reject wisdom and instruction. They will reject it. That's number one. So when it comes to you, how good are you are you teachable? How teachable are you? How quick are you to push back when you don't like something?

18:52 How much do you rely on your past understanding for your present? Study Number two? So there's number one. It rejects wisdom and instruction. Number two locks discernment. A full locks discernment and the ability to make wise decision. Look at Proverbs chapter ten. Proverbs Chapter ten, Verse twenty three, Proverbs, chapter ten, verse twenty three. But to do evil is like sport to a full, but a man of understanding has wisdom. To do evil is likes a sport to a full, but a man of understanding has wisdom.

19:44 A full locks discernment and the ability to make wise decisions. A full finds pleasure and wicked schemes, but a person of understanding delights in wisdom. So a full locks discernment and the ability to make wise decisions. You just cannot, and you do not make wise decisions. So, in this particular passage, to do evil is a sport to a full. That's what they just will go. They don't think about it. It's just like a sport. It's fun. They lack any ability to discern or think about it. It's just like I'm gonna say this, I'm gonna do this. I'm not gonna really discern anything here. Now, that's translated in different ways, in different translations. In fact, if I look at Proverbs ten twenty three, let me just look it up this way, I'm gonna give you some different translations here. See how many different ways it's stated. Proverbs ten twenty three.

20:41 A full finds pleasure in wicked schemes. But a person of understanding delights and wisdom. See a person of understanding a person who's not a full, they delight in wisdom, where the full just finds pleasure in wicked schemes. They don't think about it. They just move forward. They don't discern, They don't think, what is this good or is this bad? They just all they care about it's the pleasure. They don't think. They just do whatever they feel new living translation, doing wrong is fun for a fool, but living wisely brings pleasure to the sensible the ESV. Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, But wisdom is pleasure. But rein study Bible, the full delights in shameful conduct, But a man of understanding has wisdom.

21:23 Now that one may not be as clear as the first one. But a fool just does not think. Let's think of it this way. A fool rejects wisdom and understanding for a lot of the reasons I've already given you. I'm not gonna go back and repeat all of them because it'll become repetitive. But the second thing is a fool just locks discernment. A fool is going to act not based off right wrong, this consideration, this consideration. A fool will just go with what feels good, what it's fun, what is pleasurable, what they desire. Their desire will trump any they will will trump anything else. They're not going to really get much thought to any other consideration. I think that makes I think that makes some sense. All right, So number one rejects wisdom and understanding. Number two locks discernment. Now by all means, I'm just giving you some basic scriptures. You can look up other scriptures that may better state these. All right. Remember my goal always and everything I do is not to always give you all the answers, but to get you involved, to get you to go pursue answers. Okay, So number one rejects wisdom and instruction. Number two locks discernment, time and time again. You and I act in a way that's motivated by desire, feeling, and emotion, not discernment. What motivates your actions, What motivates your words? What motivates them? What motivates your words and your actions the most? Is it discernment or is it desire? Emotion, feeling?

23:00 It is hard to go who whoa whoa whoa? Whoa? Whoa? Whoa? Whoa whoa? I want I'm going to do this, And what is motivating me is this desire, not discernment. Oh I do that all the time. Oh all the time. I act my motiva. Though, what motivates me is rarely discernment, rarely discernment. I mean, come on, we act out of feeling, out of emotion, out of whatever mood we are in, and then we'll blame it on Well, I'm tired, or I'm hungry, or I'm stressed out or I'm frustrated. Right, well, no discernment, says who whoa whoa? Whoa? Whoa whoa. Take into consideration all of those emotions. But now you need to discern what you're about to say or what you're about to do. It is very difficult to do that because we're typically just driven by our base impulses. So number one reject wisdom instruction. Number two act or basically lacks discernment, or acts without discer or. Our actions are motivated by something other than discernment. You could write that down a number of different ways. I think that captures the essence a little bit more. Proverbs ten twenty three. Is it's not Maybe it's not.

24:15 Well, I can make it work. I'm not super happy with that verse. We probably could do better. But that's good. That gives you a chance to consider it. Put it this way, there's plenty examples of people in the Bible who act well based off something of some other motivation other than discernment. And we can find millions of examples of that. So can I, so can you. And we don't even need to find people in the Bible. We can look to our own lives. Right number three speaks without thinking. Fools are hasty in their speech and do not carefully consider their words. Look at Proverbs chapter eighteen. Proverbs chapter eighteen, verse two.

25:04 A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart. A fool has no delight in understanding something. No, no, he just wants to express what he feels, what is in his own heart. This is kind of like the lack of discernment. This continues with it. If you don't like discernment, you speak without thinking, you act so a lack of discernment. You act without thinking, You act based off your feelings and emotions. And guess what then, You speak without thinking. You speak based off what you feel, what you may think. You're not really considering anything.

25:45 It's just whatever your opinion is. And guess what you know? How that shows up? You just make claims that you don't even know what you're talking. You'll tell someone you didn't feel this, you didn't feel. Who are you to tell someone what they feel or don't feel? Who are you? How can you tell someone what they fool of defail? Do you think you're God? You just speak, You don't think about you don't think about what you actually know. You just start making claims. You start making accusations, you start making You just start going after things. You and in many cases you say things that can be easily proved that you don't know what you're talking about. But that doesn't stop the full. Fools are hasty in their speech and do not carefully consider their words again Proverbs eighteen to two. Fools find no pleasure in understanding, but delight and airing their own opinions. I love that translation. Fools find no pleasure in understanding, but delight in airing their own opinions. Now we're all guilty of that, right, we're all Now everyone has an opinion, but you've got to be very careful to when you state an opinion, like my opinion is this, this is how I think. Right. It's one thing to state it as an opinion. It's another thing to state it as this is the way it is because I know.

27:17 And the most important thing is you speak without thinking when you start speaking about people and you're telling people what their motives are or what they feel, things that you cannot in any way, shape or form know unless you're inside a person. Clearly, now you're acting as a fool. Now you're clearly speaking as a fool. Or if you start speaking about something that clearly you don't have a clue what you are talking about, when someone can go you obviously don't know this subject. You obviously have no clue. You obviously have no understanding on this topic. And that can be very first, right, especially when you're dealing in theological world or world of hermoneutics or any areas of theology. Someone will start saying something. You'll be like, what are you talking about? What are you talking about? I know? You find out that person's never even been a seminary, never been to Bible college, never been anywhere. Now That doesn't mean they can't have an opinion, but that person needs to acknowledge. Well, wait a minute, I may not know about this particular subject because this is not my area of expertise, like when it comes to areas of theology and hermoneutics and church history and those areas well.

28:33 I feel like I can speak somewhat authoritative and dogmatically because I've spent my entire adult life going to school, Bible college, whatever, seminary, Bible institute, any place I could go to gain understand So I feel like I can be somewhat dogmatic about that. But there's other areas I have to be like, I don't have a I'd be fool to act like I know. We got to stop and think about what we know, what we don't know. We have to stop and think about am I am I really? Am I really thinking this through? Am I being careful with my words? A fool finds no pleasure in the understanding you know why? A full you know what I like to say, Fools, in many cases have no pleasure in actually doing the work in which to obtain said knowledge. They just delight in airing their own thoughts. I mean, if you've ever been a Bible teacher, you know, people will come up to you and argue and argue and argue and argue, and most of the cases they won't go do the work.

29:37 Like and for this podcast, I always get people these like even with proverbs, have given assignments, Go do this, go do this, work on this, work on that, figure out this, figure out that. A lot of times people will will email me and immediately want to argue. Guess what they don't guess what they don't do. They don't turn in the work. I don't get an email first going here, here's all of my work. I've answered this question, this question, here's my work, here's the sources I've used. Boom. Now, I would like to discuss that my work demonstrates to me that your hypotheses is wrong. No, they just skip the work and go, you're an idiot, you're a fool, you don't know what you're talking about. Well, wow, it must be it must be easy to just skip the work. I've seen that as a pastor, you're literally in the middle of a sermon that you've spent all week working on, and sometimes they'll start arguing with you in the middle of a sermon.

30:33 Or as soon as the sermon is over, they'll start arguing with you and you're like, okay, okay, well how about you go look this up or go do this or do this work, or do this work. And they won't come back with a notebook showing you they did all the work. No, they come back ready to tell you that you're wrong. And guess what they do. They share their own opinions, not or they show up with some things and cut and pasted from the internet or from some their favorite book. They went home and found a book that agreed with them. That's not thinking. That's going back to why you reject wisdom and understanding because you're using your past understanding in the present. Fools are hasty in their speech.

31:18 They do not consider their words. They find no pleasure in understanding. They delight in airing their own opinions. Now, as someone who sits in front of a microphone, I have to in many cases share my opinion. Now, what I have to be careful with is what I try to do. If anyone's listened to me for any length of time, I love to say, okay, were listening to this, this is their hypotheses. Now we're gonna I disagree with it, and we're gonna challenge it, and we're gonna work it out now. It doesn't always happen in the first broadcast. Sometimes in the second, third, or fourth broadcast will take this is what they claimed, and then we go work on it and work on it, and work on it and work on it. Work on it now. Yes, if it's I have strong opinions obviously with anything related to charismatic theology, because I've stated it a million times. I rejected outright, it's heretical, it's foolish. I don't even believe it should be considered biblical Christianity. I got no apology for that because I only need to have been teaching about charismatic theology my whole life. So that's the again, based off years and years of study, and just you know, I don't know reality. Okay, So so yeah, but we have to be careful, all right. So Number one a full rejects wisdom and understanding. Number two lacks discernment, speaks without thinking. Number four leads to harm. The actions and words of a fool often leads to harm, both to themselves and others. Look at Proverbs

32:50 fourteen. Proverbs fourteen, verse sixteen. Proverbs fourteen sixteen. A wise man fears and departs from evil, but a full rages and is self confident. A wise man fears and departs from evil, but a fool rages and is self confident. All right, the actions and words of a fool often leads to harm, but to themselves, not only to themselves, but to others. Proverbs fourteen sixteen. Here's another translation. The wise fear the lord and shun evil, but a fool is hot headed and yet feel secure. Read it from this translation, A ful rages and is self confident. They just rage, they're self confident, and guess what that hurts other people. Now again, you could find some verses that probably describe how fools can hurt other people. But when someone is just raging and self confident, they've rejected wisdom and understanding, they lack discernment, they speak without thinking, and that there's going to lead to harm. They're gonna hurt people, they're gonna make accusations, they're going to attack people, and they just rage, and they're gonna be self confident in it, and they don't care, they won't listen.

34:13 They're just gonna attack, attack, attack, hurt, hurt, hurt, hurt, hurt. Now, in theilological circles, that's very easy to do. That's very easy to do because when in philological circles, Look when as within Christianity, there's these things we call we call it doctrine or theology. Right, there's theological systems, there's doctrines. We believe these theologies or doctrines are right, and we believe others are wrong. Right, this is all throughout the Bible. Right, the Bible refers to some people as false teachers, that they are to be condemned, they're false doctrines, are to be condemned. If anyone preaches any other gospel than the one and that's received, they are anathema. So within theology, there is a sense where you are going to to rage and you're gonna feel somewhat self secure because you're gonna believe my theology is right and their theology is wrong, and you're literally condemned.

35:15 You're literally commanded to speak against a false doctrine and condemn it, or you're not doing your job as a good teacher. You've got to say this is false, and this is true. So but you've got to be very careful. When you're raging and you feel self secure, You've got to, first of all, go back to what I've said, you gotta leave. You got to lay aside your previous understanding whenever you study, so that you can be corrected and you can receive wisdom and instruction. You don't want to be so full of your past understanding. So we've already talked about talked about that. We've got to be very careful, right. We need discernment, We have to be able to discern. We gotta we gotta really think before we speak. But here's what we have to do. The way we can try to in a sense speak, and we got to not We got to make sure we're not raging in self confidence. We got to make sure we think this through. I think this is something important. What we have to try to do is draw a distinction between the theology and the people. Now, I say this all the time. I struggle with this sometimes, right, well, mainly with charismatics, right, because I cannot stand charismatic theology, and I believe the destruction and the pain and the suffering of its cause is flat out straight up evil, right, I can't stand it. So when I go after, you know, unless I'm gonna speak against Bethel or some of the other charismatics or you know, the New Apostolic Reformation, whatever movement I'm gonna go after, whichever part of I mean. To me, it's all charismatic theology. Some people like to make distinctions. To me, it's

36:47 just all a cancer. I got to be very careful to attack the theology and not the people. And that can be hard to do. That can be very hard to do, right like, because that's the people who teach it. But it's but it's always you're always much safer to go. Look. Look, I'm not focusing on the person. Here's the issue. Here's the doctrine. Here's the theology that is absolutely wrong. The theology needs to be wiped off the face of the earth. The theology needs to be eradicated. Now now I'm gonna I'm gonna be in a sense raging right against it, and I'm gonna be somewhat self secure. So there's gonna be a little bit of this where it can be dangerously foolish. Now, what I would have to do is, each time I study these issues, once again, set aside my past understanding to study it new again. But I have to keep it focused on the theology, and I try to do that constantly on this broadcast. You hear me do that all the time. Right, Okay, look, guys, let's forget this. Let's forget the person attached to this. I don't care if it's MacArthur or I don't care if it's someone that would be much more on my side or someone be absolutely against my side.

37:55 Okay, let's let's not make it about them. Here's their hypotheses, here their position. Now I can just with reckless upbandon attack the theology and attack because now I'm attacking a theology, a doctorate. I'm not attacking a person, and I can rip it apart. I can mock that theology. I can be sarcastic because I'm not talking about a person. Now, when it comes to the person, you have to have a different approach. In fact, I've condemned when people make it too personal. Right, I'll never forget. I think it was Rick Warren, his son committed suicide. I turned on the microphone and I said, man, this is a sad day.

38:40 Suicide is a horrible thing. I just pray for the family and I got all kinds of emails, people attacking me, like how dare you? It's Rick Warren's theology is what led to his son's death, and you're like, what in the world is this going? And people got furious at me. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I got no problem. I'm attacking maybe the theology or something Rick Warren has written, or his concepts about how to do church. I got no problem. But that's that's going after his ideology. I don't go after the person because his son committed suicide. Who does that? And there's been times where pastors who I strongly disagree with have found themselves in all kinds of problems or difficulties or scandal.

39:27 I don't go kick them when they're down. I typically I'm like, whoa, wha, whoa, Hey, let's back off here, right, let's this is not a time now. I still got no problem condemning the theology. So there's it's it's hard to find that distinction and to articulate it correctly. Even when I do sermon reviews. Usually by the time I get done with the Suermary review, if it's turned in very negative, I'm always like Okay, guys, let's remember, let's remember this is not about this church, it's not about this pastor. It's about the idea. They put forth, this idea, they put it online. Now we're taking the idea. Now, we may utterly destroy their concepts or their ideas, we may utterly annihilate the concept, but it has nothing to do with the person.

40:15 And people have a hard time drawing that distinction. So we don't we we in some ways Christianity makes us hot headed and we rage, and we're self secure because every Christian thinks they're right in their doctrine. Every Christian thinks they're right. They think they're understanding of the Gospels right, they're understanding of baptism is right. And when you think yours is right, than anyone who differs with you, you disagree with I mean, that's literally theology is based on screaming other people are wrong. The entire Protestant Reformation was all the Catholics is wrong, The entire Catholic Church is wrong. We are right, and so Catholics are going to hell because they have a false gospel. And Catholics would say, no, you're going to help because you have a false Guss.

41:00 Well, but because there can only be one understanding of the gospel, that's right. There can't be fifty right, So I mean on and on and on and on and on and on. So there's a little bit of this where where again the text And I know I almost want to use a different verse, but I think this is simple. A wise man fears and departs from evil, but a full rages and is self confident. There's going to be a little bit of that. There's a little bit of that built into Christianity. So how do we draw that distinction. Well, we don't want to harm people, but we want to harm the theology. But we don't want to be so self confident that we can't learn. So we got to always set aside our past understanding when whenever we study in the presence. So a fool is someone who rejects wisdom, who lacks discernment, who speaks without thinking, who leads to harm. And then number five, So number one rejects wisdom, number two lacks discernment, number three speaks without thinking, Number four leads to harmon number five rejects correction. Look at Proverbs twelve fifteen.

42:16 Proverbs twelve fifteen the way of the fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise. A fool always thinks they're right. They cannot be corrected, they cannot be corrected, and we're and this is difficult for all of us. Nobody likes to be corrected. Nobody likes to say I would, I was, I can't say it. Nobody likes to say that they were wrong. Fools resist correction and refuses to learn from their mistakes. The way of a fool seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice. How good are you being corrected? How good are you being corrected? It's not easy. Nobody likes it. Now there's correction, and then then there's people who just make absolutely ridiculous claims and things that are not even anywhere remotely tied to reality. And you can easily go your accusation and your correction is based off a complete mis understanding. So it doesn't mean you have to accept every correction, because not all corrections are true, right, I mean, look, if you reject Catholicism and their understanding of a justification based off an infused righteousness, and you believe that that's completely false.

43:46 Well, any correction to try to correct you to come to their understanding of justification based off and infused righteousness versus and imputed righteousness, well, you're not going to accept that correction. So it's also hard to know, especially in theology theological circles, because we always can render the Bible to somehow justify our actions. Right, everybody can render the Bible and go, well, you should do this, and you should do this, and I can go, well, I can turn three pages over and say here's a complete opposite of what you just told me to do. You can say, well, you shouldn't do this. Well, I can find you fifty examples of people who did the exact very thing you're telling me I shouldn't do. So everyone can render the Bible to find a little bit of cover. That's always the danger of theology. Everyone uses the Bible to justify their actions. The people who are very loving will use the Bible. The people who are very much more condemning and speaking out and correction, they can find the Bible to prove their point. I mean, every doctrine in theology uses the Bible. So this makes it very hard because again the text says the way of a fool seems right in his own eyes. Well, every Christian thinks are right. You don't have a Christian going man. I think those Presbyterians are right, but I'm gonna stay. A Baptist. Oh, I think those Lutherans are right, but I'm gonna stay. I'm gonna stay. You know, Assemblies of God. No, you think you're right. You think they're wrong, because if you thought that they were right, you would stop being what you are and you go join them, and then you would think you're right. Everyone

45:21 thinks they're right. That's the thing about Christianity. Not only do we think we right, we think God agrees with us. So it's very hard. So I think what we have to do is we all think we're right, but we have to at least be willing to listen and to consider. And how do we do that? Go back to number one. Don't be the fool who rejects wisdom and instruction based off your past understanding. Don't rely on past understanding and presence study. Don't reject wisdom and instruction simply because you already think you know everything. Don't reject wisdom and instruction simply because you don't like what you hear, don't don't lack discernment because you just run forth, acting upon what you feel and what you think. You've got to be a person who actually thinks. They stop speaking before you actually start thinking. Remember, sometimes our actions and our things can actually harm people, and we have to see that. And we got we cannot be the one to reject correction.

46:30 In some ways, we're gonna reject correction, right, We're going to because we think we're right. But we got to be the least willing to consider hm, could I be wrong? Now again, you can always run to the Bible to find justification for your actions, but we can't reject correction when it's needed, when it when it when it makes sense. And it can be very difficult to see that. So the Book of Proverbs betray a fool, at least in part, as someone who disregards wisdom, locks discernment, speaks without thinking, causing harm through their actions and words, and rejects correction. The contrast between the fool and the whys is a central theme throughout the book, emphasizing the importance of seeking knowledge, understanding, and following the way of wisdom. Now I've left you with some kind of okay verses with those.

47:22 What I want you to do is write these down. Rejects wisdom and understanding, lacks discernment, speaks without thinking, leads to harm, and rejects correction. I want you to then write those five down and see if you can come up with better scriptures in the Book of Proverbs that would fit those better. If you can email me newsif a Yahoo dot com, that's the newsifit Yahoo dot com, and let me know what you find. There's your very brief and quick morning devotion for this Tuesday, June the eleventh, twenty twenty four. All right, help you find something positive in this. All we can do today is every day. Look, every day we're going to be foolish in some way, shape or form. That's just the reality of it. The foolishness is be built into us because of our human depravity, so it's always going to manifest itself in some way. All we can do is try to be better at seeing the foolishness in us before we see it in anyone else, and in doing our best to try to acknowledge it and correct it. We're always going to fall short. That's why we have to rely on Christ who well, he is our wisdom. In a sense, he is wisdom for us. He is wise, and he is not foolish, and our salvation is dependent upon him and not us. But we need to try to see it. And I can think about these all day and probably find one hundred ways in which I'm guilty of all of them. So can you, though, see, so don't worry about me, and I

48:54 won't worry about you to worry about ourselves. Thanks for listening, everyone, Have a great day. God bless