Episode Transcript
Proverbs chapter 13, verse 16.
I kind of think if I was sitting around the house and had nothing to do, I think I'd drive down there and listen to good preaching.
Proverbs chapter 13, verse 16.
The title of the message tonight is Spreading His Folly.
Spreading His Folly.
Very short verse.
And I remember when I read it, I thought, well, I'll start meditating on it like I do every other verse.
It seems so simple.
But the more I meditated on it, the more I enjoyed it.
And I just asked the Lord to let you all enjoy this verse as much as I've gotten enjoyment out of it meditating on it this week It starts with the word every, every.
So our text tonight concerns a matter that is without exception: every.
And almost everything in life has exceptions.
Powell floors work great in the kitchen, except for having to keep the grout clean.
You may enjoy your neighbors.
They may be great neighbors, except for playing their music too loud.
You may love everything about your car.
We got two men here in the church that recently bought pickups.
They may love everything about those pickups except for the gas mileage.
But Solomon didn't say most, he said every.
So he's talking about every, look back in your text, prudent man without exception.
Now, what is a prudent man?
The Hebrew word that this word prudent is translated from literally means to be bare, B-A-R-E, to be bare.
I want you to think of Esau and Jacob.
Esau had hair all over him.
He wasn't bare-skinned, was he?
He had hair all over him.
But Jacob did not have hair all over him.
And so the Bible says he was what?
Smooth.
Smooth.
And so that's the idea behind this word prudent, smoothness.
You think, what is that talking about?
Because I don't want to just look at a word prudent and look at an English dictionary and say, okay, that's how I need to think about this.
I want to know in the mind.
I want to know the understanding of that Hebrew word.
I want to get that concept in my mind so I can meditate on it and I can apply it to my life.
But this has something to do with smoothness, and a prudent man is going to operate smoothly.
Smoothly.
We use that concept in our English language, don't we?
If someone is doing something complex, but he's making it very simple.
We would say he's a smooth operator, wouldn't we?
Smooth operator.
So, when you think of a prudent man tonight, think of someone who operates smoothly.
As a firearms instructor, if I'm teaching someone how to shoot, I'm not going to teach that person how to shoot quickly.
I'm going to teach that person how to shoot how, Brother Shepherd, smoothly.
There's an old saying in firearms: smooth is fast.
Smooth is fast.
And those two men's pickups, they don't want them idling rough, they want them idling smoothly.
No matter what you're doing in life, it's always better for things to go smoothly, isn't it?
We don't want to have a rough day.
So what's the point in all this, Brother Richard?
The point is this: when someone operates smoothly, They are operating as God designed them.
When an engine runs smoothly, it's operating the way the manufacturer designed it.
And when a person lives and operates smoothly, they're operating the way God designed it because God designed us a flawless life.
And he gave us his flawless word so that if we go by his word, then our actions will be smooth.
Doesn't mean we won't suffer persecution.
But it means one thing.
You're not going to have a bumpy ride because of your foolishness.
It's going to go smoothly.
And you know something?
You know how the cross went?
It didn't go roughly.
It went just the way God designed it to.
Jesus' betrayal was already prophesied before Jesus was ever born.
Jesus said he had to be betrayed because the scripture can't be broken.
He has to go the way the scripture said he would.
So he was betrayed, he was spat upon, he was smitten.
All that's prophesied, too.
And he was crucified and then put in a tomb.
And you know what?
Every bit of that went perfectly smooth, exactly as God designed.
And so it had the outcome that God designed.
And we want that kind of operation.
In our life, we want to operate smoothly as God designed us to operate, to operate without failure.
To operate without unnecessary disappointment, to operate without worldly sorrow, to operate at the end of our life without regret.
Because we're operating according to the blueprints that God has laid out for us in His Word.
That's a prudent man.
And every single prudent man without exception, every smooth operating man, look back at your text, dealeth with knowledge.
They deal with knowledge.
The word deal here literally means to do.
It can be used in a great many ways.
It has the idea of doing something.
And a prudent man is prudent.
When he is doing things according to the knowledge that he has received from God's Word.
You see how that works?
A man is prudent.
When he is operating according to the knowledge that God has given him in his word.
Psalms 119:66.
Psalm 119. 66 says, Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I have believed thy commandments.
How do you get taught good judgment and knowledge?
Through faith in God's Word, believing His commandments.
And as I follow His commandments, I am operating smoothly.
As the one who gave me those commandments designed my life to be.
Knowledge is gained from the Word of God Proverbs chapter 2, verse 6 says, For the Lord giveth wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
So a prudent man deals with knowledge.
That means a prudent man deals with that which comes from the mouth of God That's how he conducts his business, if you think about it that way.
That's how he conducts his business.
Here's a kingdom truth for you tonight.
Knowledge is gained by hearing God's word.
Prudence is enjoyed by obeying it.
Knowledge is gained by hearing God's word.
Prudence is enjoyed by obeying it.
Now, the reason I didn't say prudence is received by And it obeying it.
I said it's enjoyed by obeying it because prudence is smoothness.
You want to operate smoothly, you'll enjoy a smooth Quiet, soft.
Boy, there's an RV RV that parks outside our building.
They give luxury haircuts for men.
A unique Haircutting experience for men.
That's how they advertise it.
Brother Billy, you'd love it.
Brother Billy would love it, man.
Put some foo-foo juice on it.
It'd make him smell good.
And surprising, it's a woman giving the haircuts, like she would know what a man needs when he's getting his haircut.
But anyway, I tell you, the best experience for a man's haircut is to have a whole bunch of old men in a barber shop with a pot of coffee going and eating peanuts and they're throwing shells on the floor.
And then you get up there and you hear all the local gossip, get your hair cut, and you go home.
That's what most men wanted at a hair store.
But I digress.
But on the back of that RV, There's a generator that powers it RV, and it's the quietest kind of generator you can get.
It's a Honda.
You ever heard a Honda generator?
Boy, they purr like a kitten.
Quiet, smooth operating.
And so you enjoy that smoothness.
And so knowledge is gained by hearing God's word and then prudence, a prudent man, prudence is then enjoyed.
By applying, obeying that knowledge that you've received.
Every prudent man, Solomon says, conducts his business with knowledge.
What does that mean?
That means before I do something in life I need to conduct my business and make sure I'm conducting my business according to what I know God's Word has to say.
I'll give you an example tonight.
I was on my way home from work this evening.
Got my cruise control, set on the speed limit.
This car passes me up, and I hate it when they do this, but it passes me up just to turn in front of me, just to slow down.
Well, I never touched my brake, my accelerator, or anything.
I got my cruise control on, so they passed me up, they turned in front of me, and now I'm going to hit them in the rear end if I don't either slow down.
So I.
I got in the lane that they just passed me up in, and I never touched my brake or accelerator, and now I'm passing them up.
They're probably on their phone, you know, not paying attention what they're doing.
And then when I got close enough to go back into the slow lane again, you know what I started to do?
What did I start to do?
Huh?
No, no, I wasn't going to break check 'em.
I started to do them like they did me.
I started just right in front of them and just give them a little taste.
Yes, every now and then that old atom comes out in me.
And you know what happened when that thought popped in my mind a minute?
Scripture popped in my mind.
Render not evil for evil or railing for railing.
But contrary-wise, blessing for you are called inherited blessing.
Now, at that moment, I had a choice.
You know what I did?
I operated, I conducted my business according to knowledge.
And so, no, that's not how God told me to do.
I went a considerable distance ahead of them.
I slowly pulled in and I maintained my speed.
A couple minutes later, they're in front of me again.
But I did according to knowledge, according to knowledge.
You know, that's interesting.
And when you understand that every prudent man deals with knowledge, conducts his business with knowledge, that will help you.
When you get into the New Testament men and ladies, understand the scripture that says that the husbands are to dwell with their wives according to what?
According to knowledge.
They're to be prudent with their wives.
Prudent.
Man, I tell you.
The other night, I was in my gym exercising, and I heard the most Terrifying voice from my wife and I, man.
I start praying, God, please let everything be right.
Please let everything be okay.
I'm thinking there's an intruder about to break in or something like that.
And so.
I rush in the living room.
I said, What is it?
She goes, There's a bug.
Now, at that time, you know what the Bible tells me to do?
Husbands, dwell with your wives according to knowledge.
And you know what else?
That goes for ladies, too.
It goes to the men.
The commandments are almost always to the men, but they always apply to the ladies.
Because God made man, male and female.
In the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.
So whatever applies to that man Equally applies to the woman in the circumstances she's in.
And so when I go and I see the bug You know, I catch my breath, I wind myself down, I go grab that bug and I get rid of it.
Now, that's the time to dwell with your wife according to knowledge.
Because in the flesh, what could a man do?
Tell his wife how silly she is, something like that.
That's not silly.
That's the way God made a woman.
And not all women are the same.
Not all women may be scared of bugs like that, but you know what?
All women are women.
And they're going to have feminine qualities about them.
I'll give you one about me this morning.
I was getting ready for work, and my sweet wife always has everything fixed up for me for the day, the previous day.
And one of the things she fixes for me every evening so that when I get out of bed at 5-something in the morning, I can go in there and I can turn on or pull out a blender full of that she's already blended up of a drink that I drink when I'm exercising It's got fresh fruit and vegetables and oats and seeds and stuff in there.
Good for you, stuff.
And so I go in there and I pour that drink.
And I'm drinking the drink and I'm taking my vitamins, doing my little routine.
And old Richard, he's got the vitamin drawer open and I knocked that drink over in the vitamin drawer.
And y'all know how liquid is.
A little liquid goes a long way.
I got it on my shirt.
I got it on my boot.
I got it on the floor.
I got it in the vitamin drawer over the vitamins.
I got it on the counter.
It's dripping down the cabinets.
And it looked like only that much came out.
And I thought, oh, I still hadn't exercised.
I only have so many minutes to go before I have to leave work.
If I mess with all this, I don't get to exercise.
So I walk in there in the bedroom.
I said, Sweetheart, if you don't mind, I got a mess for you to clean up.
And you know what she did?
She dwelt with me according to knowledge.
She did.
Knowledge, number one, that I can make messes, because I can.
I don't try to, but I can.
Knowledge that I need a certain amount of rest and a certain amount of exercise for my day to go well.
And she wants to make sure her husband runs smoothly.
She takes good care of me, real good care of me.
Knowledge that I could run late.
Knowledge that I need mercy at that time.
Not a how could you do that?
You know, I got to wash another shirt.
Nah, I never get anything like that from her.
At that time, she dwelt with me according to knowledge.
And you know what?
Because I went in there and I picked the bug up and I got rid of the bug out of love.
And you know what I told her later?
I said, now that scares me to death.
I wish you wouldn't do that.
But I truly count it a privilege.
To be able to get bugged for you.
I really do.
That's some way I can be heroic for my wife, you know.
And do something lovely for her that can help her.
And I think, out of all the men in the world, to get a bug for her, God chose me.
That's dwelling according to knowledge.
You know what happened?
The relationship goes smoothly.
You know what happened?
I got there.
I got the bug.
I got a hug from my wife.
Smoothly.
Dwell, do your business on this earth according to your knowledge of God's word.
And it will go smoothly as God designed it to, even if it goes roughly on the outside as Jesus had to go through Man, I tell you, the death, the resurrection, the temptation of Jesus Christ, all the plans that God had for the redemption of men went off without a hitch.
Smoothly.
Every prudent man conducts his business with knowledge.
Now, this not only applies to spiritual matters, but applies to carnal matters as well.
Because a lost person can be prudent.
Sure can.
A few years ago, I don't know if Brother Shepherd heard of him, a self-professed martial arts expert from South Korea, DKU.
You ever heard of him?
You won't be able to say it after tonight.
He's kind of famous.
And he liked mimicking Bruce Lee, and he did all kinds of demonstrations, incredible demonstrations.
And he decided to step into the boxing ring with a professional boxer named Manny Pacquiao.
You ever heard of Manny Pacquiao?
Yeah, I figured you'd heard of him.
And DKU, he's had over like 655,000 followers on YouTube who followed his Powerful martial arts demonstrations, and he would do such things.
I know Brother Shepherd's seen these, where he would have these short punches Where he just a little bit of space, he'd go, and men would fall back like that.
Bruce Lee did the same thing.
I want to tell you, it's all a bunch of baloney.
It's as real as the fake wrestling.
You can't generate force like that.
I know.
Brother Shepherd knows.
And then he also had this famous backfist where he would go to hit someone with a backfist.
You can't generate force like that, it doesn't work that way.
And anyone that understands kinetic energy in a martial art, whether it's boxing or what have you.
Knows that you can't generate enough kinetic energy to hurt anyone like that.
It looks great on the videos because you have people complying.
With the demonstrations.
Well, apparently he began to believe his own demonstrations.
He ran a business called Warfare combat systems.
And now that's some serious stuff, right?
Warfare combat systems.
Man, when you know that stuff, you're pretty scary.
The only problem was DKU didn't know what he was doing.
He didn't know.
When it came to self defense, he was not a prudent man.
He was a foolish man.
And I don't care how many followers you have on YouTube.
When you step into the ring with a professional Fighter, a champion fighter.
You better know what you're doing.
And when he got into the ring, none of those things that worked in his demonstrations.
Worked on Manny Pacquiao.
It just didn't work.
In fact, I don't even remember seeing him try them.
And Manny Pacquiao was considerably smaller than him.
So he got beat.
He got beat pretty good.
Because he dealt, many Pachyal dealt with Deikiu according to knowledge.
He conducted his business in the ring with knowledge.
It was smooth for the boxer, but it was rough for the man who didn't know what he was doing.
And God's word is encouraging God's people to deal with knowledge, to conduct their busin With genuine know-how, whatever business you're conducting as a child of God, conduct it with genuine know-how.
Don't go half-cocked doing anything.
If you're going to be a preacher, you better know what you're doing.
You better be able to get up.
And conduct your business with knowledge.
You better know what you're doing.
I heard a preacher once say from the pulpit that he was just an ignorant country boy.
As if it was something for him to brag about.
And listen, an ignorant man has no business teaching anybody.
Why?
He's ignorant.
And if you're ignorant, it's time to sit down in the pew and learn, not stand up in the pulpit and share your ignorance with others.
But, Christian, whatever your business is, do it with knowledge.
Learn your job inside and out.
So you can operate smoothly the way you were designed to.
Sometimes at work, if it's slow, I'll go back to my office And I'll pull out a manual with a bunch of rules in it.
What to do in case of a tornado, what to do in case of this, what to do in case of that.
And I'll just start reading.
I've been doing this job for over 11 years now.
I just go back here and read sometimes.
I get that stuff fresh in my mind.
And then next thing you know, something will come up, and I'll just put it up, I can just quote it, tell you exactly what the rules say about that.
After I've studied it, because we need to know what we're doing, we need to be prudent people.
Don't step off into business if you don't know what you're doing.
You'll end up going to my courthouse or Plano to file bankruptcy.
It's not going to go smoothly for you.
Again, half-cauled.
Why do we say half-cauled?
It's acting before you know what you need to know.
You ever done that?
You get all emotional about something?
And then you react because you assumed something was a certain way.
And then after you react, you realize you were wrong.
Now you feel silly about it.
Well, had you acted on knowledge?
It wouldn't have ever happened.
So every prudent man he deals with knowledge.
Look back in your text, but a fool Which is being contrasted to a prudent man.
A fool clearly doesn't know what he's doing.
He doesn't deal with knowledge.
But what does he do instead of dealing with knowledge?
Look back in your text.
He lays open his folly.
Lays it open.
Now, this word here.
This word here lays it open.
It's an interesting word here.
It has the idea of spreading, spreading out.
Like the angels, when they spread their wings over the mercy seat, that's that word here, laying open.
Spreading it out for all to see.
That's what a fool does.
When that DKU stepped into that boxing ring, you know what he did?
He got out there on national television worldwide television that happened in Korea.
I got to watch parts of it in the United States.
And you know what he did?
He just spread his foolishness out there for everybody to see.
Let everybody know.
And compare that with a prudent man who does, who deals according to knowledge.
The first time we see the word translated dealeth in the Bible.
Compared to layeth open.
The first time we see the word translated in the Bible, it's when God made, it's the word made.
God made everything in the book of Genesis.
The Bible says God made or God dealeth the firmament.
For example, God made or dealeth the beast in the field.
And then it says in Genesis 1:31, and God saw everything that he had made.
And behold, it was very good.
And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
That word made again is the same word translated dealeth here.
God, what do we learn from that?
God was making his creation according to his great knowledge.
And look at this amazing creation that we have because of it.
God didn't just jump out there and start doing something without knowing what He was doing.
He knew what He was doing.
He acted on knowledge.
By wisdom were the heavens made.
Now, if a wise man doesn't know how to do something, he's not going to volunteer to demonstrate.
To others, how that's to be done.
But a foolish man, he'll step right up and claim to be the expert.
You see people do that all the time.
You see them do it in politics.
People who Who can't they can't think their way out of a paper bag?
They couldn't run a dime store.
But they'll volunteer to run a country or volunteer to run a nation or a city.
I'll be mayor.
I'll tell you, I think I would make a much better mayor than that socialist up there in New York.
But you know what?
I wouldn't even run for mayor in Athens.
Why?
I don't know anything about city politics, and I don't want to.
I got stuff to do.
But a fool doesn't care.
They'll lay open their folly for everybody to see.
They just have that.
That makeup, that's just part of who they are.
And that's what the devil's done.
Satan wants to be God, and every time I think about that, it makes me want to laugh.
But he's not laughing.
He's just like that communist mayor.
He's just like these foolish people that say, I'll do that.
It reminds me, Brother Shepherd, of the briar bush who said, Yeah, I'll rule over you.
The least qualified, a briar bush.
Not a fig tree, a briar bush, not a vine with grapes.
A briar bush, the lowliest of the lowly, good for nothing except burning up briar bush.
I'll rule.
Okay, well, here you rule over us.
Satan wants to be God, but he doesn't know what he's doing.
After all these years, he hasn't created a single planet He hasn't made a single person, hasn't created a single angel?
The Bible says, every time the sun rises upon this earth, it shows us the knowledge and wisdom of our Creator.
Day unto day uttereth speech.
But there's no creation that can attest to the knowledge of Satan because he's a fool.
And he has foolishly laid open his folly for everyone to see.
When the end of this world draws near, the man of sin and the spirit of Antichrist is going to step into the ring. with the Christ who knows what he's doing.
And all his folly will be laid open before the world.
Everyone's going to see Satan fail.
At his attempt to be the God of all creation.
Isaiah prophesied of the time when Satan's folly will be exposed.
And Isaiah chapter 14, verse 16, and we'll close with this: saying, They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee.
You know what it means to narrowly look on someone?
You ever seen someone when they're really like, are you serious?
They'll have that scowl on their face, like, are you serious?
They do like this.
That's a narrowly look on someone.
They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee.
They'll think about you, they'll look at you, they'll look at your condition.
After you have been stomped into the ground by the Lord, they're going to look at you saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms?
Well, you mean that's him?
This is the one that's been giving us all this trouble all these years?
You mean that's it?
All his folly is going to be laid before all creation.
And our prudent Lord is going to reign forever.
And so what we want to do is not act like the devil.
When you act and you don't know what you're doing and you just do it anyway.
You're acting like the devil.
You're being a fool.
But every prudent man dealeth with knowledge.
With that, we'll go ahead and close tonight.
Lord, thank you so much for your precious word.
Thank you, Father, Lord, for giving us such clear, simple, concise instructions, Lord.
I pray, Father Lord, that before we do something in life, before we make a decision, before we make a comment, before we act on something, That we take time to inventory our hearts and take time to search your word, and we make sure that we're conducting our business. according to knowledge, whether it's secular or spiritual, that we be people who are prudent, smooth operators, operating, Father, in the knowledge of God.
In Jesus' precious name we pray.
Amen.
