Don't be a fool

Well, good evening, good evening. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day we get together. We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2021, we'll make it through all the wisdom literature. So good to have you tonight.
Why don't we pray and we'll get into God's Word. Father, we thank you for this day and we thank you for your Word. We pray that as we spend some time with you tonight before we go to bed. Lord, we pray that you would work in our hearts, that you would teach us, that your Holy Spirit would lead and direct us in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, we've come to the point in Proverbs where it's no longer a kind of a consistent teaching through a whole chapter, but we're in the sentences. And so tonight we start that Proverbs chapter 10 verses 1 through 21. And instead of reading the whole thing, we're just going to read, talk, read, talk, read, talk, read, talk, and we'll go through it that way. So first, the Proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a grief to his mother.
Isn't that the truth? A wise son, one who fears the Lord and who walks in his way, is a joy to his parents. His father takes delight and seeing his children walk in the way of wisdom. But fools grieve the hearts of their mothers." I can't tell you how many mothers I hear when their children are wayward, walking away from the Lord, or walking in the paths of fools, that they grieve for them. Their hearts long to see them return. So what are we to do? Walk in wisdom. be a wise child.
Verses two and three, treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death. The Lord will not allow the righteous soul to famish, but he casts away the desires of the wicked. Treasures of wickedness profit nothing. If you're going to walk towards the path of wickedness, it's not going to earn you anything. It's not going to ultimately do you any good. But righteousness delivers from death. This is most true theologically, we know, in Jesus Christ, who conquered sin and death. But indeed, even righteous living Even righteous living will, by principle, deliver you from death. It's amazing.
You want to know one of the best ways to stay out of the electric chair? Don't murder people, right? Live a righteous life. Now, again, this is something we need to talk about real quick, and I'm going to say this multiple times as we work through the rest of the book of Proverbs. These sentences are principles, not promises. principles, not promises. Here's this principle.
If you live a righteous life, you will most likely prolong your life. Now, does that mean that you might not face persecution or suffering, trial or famine or tribulation or even death? Well, yeah, all those things could happen to you. You could be thrown into jail for a false accusation. But the general principle still applies here. And so as we go through this, we're gonna see this more and more.
So, the Lord will not allow the righteous soul to famish, but he casts away the desires of the wicked. The Lord satisfies those with good. And this is one of the things that, it doesn't mean that God's going to make you wealthy, right? But you will learn the secret of contentment in much and in want.
This is the beauty of resting in Jesus Christ. And I just do want to point out that what righteousness delivers from death, this indeed was true for Jesus Christ, wasn't it? In his righteousness, death had no claim on him. And he rose again from the dead. Let's keep going. Verses four and five.
He who has a slack hand becomes poor. but the hand of the diligent makes rich. He who gathers in summer is a wise son. He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame. Right, what this is about, go to work, get a job, work hard, put some sweat on your brow, put some dirt on your knees, get your hands dirty, go work, right? Put in a hard good day's labor and guess what? You most likely won't be poor. It's again not saying you're going to be rich. But work hard for the glory of God.
The love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. But the Lord made work before the fall. As theologians would talk about, the dominion mandate came before, was pre-lapsarian. The dominion mandate, God saying, cultivate, multiply, to do the earth, came before the fall. Work is good. And if you work hard, you're not going to be someone that your parents just shake your head at and like, dude, I'm not going to bail you out again. Go get a job. Verses six and seven.
Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked. The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot. Blessings are on the head of the righteous. It's amazing how many times I go to funerals and those people who have lived righteous lives, who have lived lives full of showing the love and the light of Jesus Christ, people will fill up the church to honor their memory. But how often people who are far from the Lord, the pews will be empty and the remembrance is small. But violence covers the mouth of the wicked. This is a reality. The wicked's life is often just marred by violence, by cruelty, by just hurting one another.
The wise in heart will receive commands, but a pratting fool will fall. He who walks with integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his ways will become known. The humble versus the proud. The wise in heart will receive commands. Are you willing to humble yourself and receive commands? This is the heart of the Christian, being willing to humble ourselves into the hand of the mighty God and to hear that we are sinners and we need instruction and sit as children at the feet of our Father and to be corrected by Him.
He who walks in integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his way will become known. When I was in the Navy, we were one of the core values that they would talk about in the Navy, honor, integrity, and courage. They would talk about integrity and they would say, who you are when no one else is watching. What is integrity? Integrity is who you are when no one else is watching. And what does it say here?
He who walks with integrity walks securely. You can walk with your head up. knowing if you're walking according to the commands of the Lord, but he who perverts his way will become known if you're hiding your sin, if you're thinking nobody sees it. You cannot flee from the all-seeing eyes of the Lord, and what we do in secret will be brought out into the light. God knows it. People will find out about it. So just walk above board. Be a person of integrity. Follow after the Lord. Go after His ways. Again, this isn't legalism. This is just saying the Lord blesses the righteous. Walk like Christ.
He who winks with the eye causes trouble, but a pratting fool will fall. So think about the person, you know, oh yeah, yeah, we'll do that. Yeah, we'll make sure. Don't trust that dude, right? And the person who's just babbling with their mouth, don't listen to that guy, right? He's a fool. He's gonna fall.
Verse 11, the mouth of the righteous is a well of life, but violence covers the shame of the wicked. So there's two people put side to side, right? The wise and, or the righteous and the wicked. The righteous mouth is a well of life. This reminds me of Ephesians chapter four, let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up that you might impart grace to those who hear the righteous speak of Christ, they love Christ, they extol God with their mouth, they're a well of life to people. But the fool is just going to rip people down, just tear them down with their mouth. Violence covers the mouth of the wicked. Verse 12, hatred stirs up strife. But love covers all sins. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, love covers a multitude of sins.
Verse 13, wisdom is found on the lips of him who has understanding, but a rod is for the back of him who is devoid of understanding. Wisdom is found on the lips. If you're wise and you have understanding, it's going to come out of your lips. But a fool, well, a rod is meant for his back. He's going to say silly things and he's going to get disciplined for them. Verse 14, wise people store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool is near destruction. There's a graphic picture that's helpful here.
Sometimes my mother would say, you have diarrhea of your mouth and constipation of your brain. The wise person thinks three times more than they speak, and the fool speaks three times more than they think. Let me say that again. The wise person thinks three times more than they speak, and the fool speaks three times more than they think. We don't want to have constipation of the brain and diarrhea of the mouth. The wise person thinks, stores up knowledge, but the fool just says whatever they want. Let's keep going.
Verse 15, the rich man's wealth is his strong city. The destruction of the poor is their poverty. The rich man stores up their wealth and there's a circular nature to their wealth. They build up their wealth, they build up their wealth, they build up their wealth and their wealth actually becomes a security for them. So much so that some will put their trust in their wealth and it will become a snare for them. But there's another cycle that can happen and that's also for the poor.
There's a vicious cycle that could happen for the poor. The destruction of the poor is their poverty, right? For many people who are poor, they just get more and more and more poor, and they're never able to dig themselves out of it, no matter how much they work.
There's a reality to the sinfulness of this life. The rich can get richer, and the poor can get more poor. We have to recognize that this is a reality. Verse 16, the labor of the righteous leads to life. The wages of wickedness, of wicked, to sin. We want to work unto life. Now this is not saying that we can earn eternal life, but generally if you work hard, if you're diligent about your labors, the Lord will bless that. The Lord will care for you. It's not saying you're going to see 70, 80, 90 years old. but you'll live a long life if your eyes are fixed on the Lord. Generally speaking, these things are true. Verse 17, he who keeps instruction is in the way of life, but he who refuses correction goes astray. Let me ask you, do you turn your ears to the Lord? Are you willing to hear his instruction? Do you go along his ways?
Whoever hides hatred has lying lips. and whoever spreads slander is a fool. This is what Jesus says. If you have hated someone in your heart, you've already committed murder. You can't just hide that over. And if you're a person who's prone to just tearing other people down, slandering them and just talking bad about them, you're a fool. That's what this is telling us here. verses 19 through 21. In the multitude of words, sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise. The tongue of the righteous is choice silver. The heart of the wicked is worth little. The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of wisdom.
Sometimes I think we need less talk radio. Sometimes I think we need less people who will just keep on rattling off whatever they're thinking and would just be quiet. In the multitude of words, sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise. One of the men I most admired in my young Christian life was a man who I could tell before he spoke any sentence, he would stop and he would think. and he would craft what he was going to say to make sure it was accurate and to make sure that it was said well and fitting. It was always a blessing for me to hear from him. He was a wise man, but he who restrains his lips is wise. The tongue of the righteous is choice silver.
The heart of the wicked is worth little. You know those types of people. is talking, talking, talking. They think that they're worth so much and they're not worth much. Well, I don't want to be one of those tonight. I don't want to just keep on going.
But these are the words of the Lord. Will you take them to heart? Where you've sinned, will you take them to the Lord? Confess your sin and guilt. Maybe you, maybe you need to repent of some of the things that you've said or things that you've loved.
May we walk in the Lord's wisdom. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day. We pray that you would build us up, conform us more and more to the likeness and image of Jesus Christ. Thank you for the wisdom you pour out on us. Thank you for the forgiveness we have in Jesus Christ. God, make us wise. Make us walk in your ways. In Jesus's name, amen. Well, may you walk in the wisdom of Christ. May you have a great night's sleep tonight. And may you worship wholeheartedly with God's people tomorrow. I'll see you on Monday. Bye.