Flee Foolishness
Lessons From Proverbs • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Over the last few weeks, we have been studying within the “Book of Wisdom” also called the “Book of Proverbs.”
The hopes is to help prepare ourselves to make better decisions or more “wise decisions.”
Last week we discussed the need to as the proverb writer stated in Proverbs 4:7, “Get Wisdom.”
Today we are going to look at the necessity there should lye within each of us to “Flee Foolishness.”
In Proverbs chapter 9 we have a back and forth if you will between wisdom and folly or foolishness.
With Wisdom We Read:
1 Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. 2 She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table. 3 She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town, 4 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says, 5 “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. 6 Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”
From this we see wisdom has built the perfect “seven pillars” home.
This home invites those that are foolish to enter and dine with her as long as they are willing to “leave their simple lives behind and walk in the way of insight i.e., wisdom.”
With Foolishness We Read:
13 The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing. 14 She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, 15 calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way, 16 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” And to him who lacks sense she says, 17 “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” 18 But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
From this we see foolishness as too built a home, but it is far from perfect.
This home invites the “simple or seductive” to come and dine with her but this time the simple or ignorant don’t have to leave their apatite for sin but rather are encouraged to revel in it.
De Foe summed up in a poem Proverbs 9’s distinction between wisdom and foolishness.
“Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The devil surely builds a chapel there.
And it is found, upon examination,
The latter has the larger congregation.”
Because foolishness is always knocking at the door of the ignorant to keep them from becoming wise it will do us good to look at Proverbs 9:13-18 and learn the lessons therein.
With this in mind let’s examine our lesson for today.
We see from Proverbs 9:13…
Foolishness Knows Nothing
Foolishness Knows Nothing
It Thinks It’s Wise But It’s Not.
It Thinks It’s Wise But It’s Not.
The reality is foolishness has always been based in a lack of understanding i.e., it has always been based in ignorance.
That doesn’t mean the foolish ones don’t think they “knows it all.”
If you don’t believe them, just ask them, however this couldn’t be further from the truth.
13 The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing.
Let’s look at some ways foolishness thinks it is wise when it isn’t.
What Ways Do The Foolish Think They Are Wise?
What Ways Do The Foolish Think They Are Wise?
The foolish think they are wise when they deny God exists.
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.
4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
The foolish think they are wise when deny God’s plan of salvation through Christ.
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
The foolish think they are wise when suggesting right is wrong and wrong is right.
17 “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
23 Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding.
20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!
Summary
Summary
The reality is the foolish will always think they are right.
15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.
Because the foolish always think they are right…
Foolishness Seeks An Audience
Foolishness Seeks An Audience
It Is Always The Loudest.
It Is Always The Loudest.
This point here has never been more visible in my lifetime than it is now.
13 The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing.
14 She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, 15 calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way,
9 If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet.
It seems more and more each day the loudest and most outspoken are the most foolish of our society.
Those who know nothing of history or economics clambering for socialism, immorality by the bucket full and any number of other foolish and sinful things.
These people are the loudest and I wish they would heed Solomon’s advice in Proverbs 30:32.
32 If you have been foolish, exalting yourself, or if you have been devising evil, put your hand on your mouth.
However, all this yelling and screaming of non-sense has its effects.
In fact…
It Preys On Those Lacking Sense.
It Preys On Those Lacking Sense.
Notice again what folly thinks of the ignorant fools.
16 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” And to him who lacks sense she says,
Folly or foolishness thinks those that would follow her are “simple” and lack sense.”
Unfortunately, there are those that foolishness preys on, so who is it that “foolishness preys on?”
Foolishness preys on the young.
7 and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense,
Foolishness preys on the sluggard.
30 I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,
11 Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.
It preys on the proud.
13 Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice.
Summary
Summary
The reality is the foolish hate knowledge and thus wisdom.
22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?
Because foolishness always thinks it’s right and seeks to spread its foolishness, we find…
Foolishness Brings Death
Foolishness Brings Death
Its Guests Are In Sheol.
Its Guests Are In Sheol.
The word “Sheol” means grave and typically represents hell in the Old Testament.
The foolish don’t realize that they are being led to “hell,” their spiritual death.
18 But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
27 Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.
18 for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed;
16 One who wanders from the way of good sense will rest in the assembly of the dead.
Summary
Summary
The eventual end for the foolish is without doubt.
It isn’t the heavenly abode wherein God the Father, Son, and Spirit live.
No, it is the opposite of such, it is as far separated from God as the east is from the west.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Unlike wisdom, foolishness thinks it knows everything while all long knows nothing.
And she spreads her ignorant foolishness as far and wide as she possibly can, bringing as many into her snare as will listen to her screaming voice.
But to those that see past her vitriol ignorance and learn from wisdom there isn’t a guarantee of death but rather life.
Those here, who have obeyed God’s gospel plan of salvation, have tasted wisdom and know her power.
Let us be the one that throws the lifeline to those drowning in their foolishness and offer a better way, “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.