Untitled Sermon (21)

Proverbs 10:8 The wise of heart will receive commandments, but a babbling fool will come to ruin

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

Those are the words of Joseph Goebbels, the chief propagandist for the Nazi regime. He’s not exactly wrong. Studies have shown that the illusory truth effect is a real phenomenon. If something feels familiar people will tend to believe it to be true. Thus, if you tell a lie enough times, people will slowly start to embrace it as reality.

It has also been established that whenever a person publicly shares an opinion they become further entrenched in that opinion. What has become known as the backfire effect tells us that the more evidence marshalled againstan opinion actually makes that person further convinced of its truth.

Combine th

ese two things and you can see why so much false information runs rampant on social media. The more a lie is shared the more it feelstrue, and rather than being corrected by truth the lie becomes further ingrained. And if you share the lie yourself, or publicly state your affiliation with that lie, it is almost impossible to be moved away from this deep-rooted position.

In his book, Tell No Lies, John Mark Comer argues that the world, the flesh, and the devil work together to assault us in the form of lies about who we are and what we need. Then these lies connect with our disordered desire, and are further confirmed and normalized by the fallen world in which we live. This is what the proverb tells us is happening in the life of the babbling fool.

The picture in Proverbs of a babbling fool connects with all of this. What is a babbling fool? It is literally to be a fool with your lips---expressing outwardly the lies that are governing internally. A fool believes that they are an expert on a topic, that they have life all figured out, that people should listen to their opinions, but in reality, they are ignorant.

This is why the babbling fool comes to ruin. His reality isn’t grounded in truth. And any reality not grounded in truth will eventually crumble. He might get away with it for a season, maybe even for his entire life, but all foolishness will be exposed when Christ is revealed.

The answer to this is found in the first half of the verse. “The wise of heart will receive commandments…” To receive something is to acknowledge your lack. It is help from the outside. The babbling fool, it seems is generative. He tries to create his own reality. The wise person, in contrast, receivesreality from God.

Which is the bigger concern of my heart today: to speak my truth or to receive God’s truth?