Episode Transcript
Proverbs chapter 14 verse 16.
The title of the message tonight is The Faith of a Fool.
The faith of a fool.
And we don't often think of fools as being people of faith, but they are They are both the wise and the foolisher people of faith.
The difference is, I drop something there, the difference is their faith is in different things.
Don't forget what Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, verses 24 through 27.
He said, Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.
Now that's your wise man, that's your believer in Jesus Christ, who's founded his faith and hope upon the rock Jesus But now he's going to talk about the fool.
And he says, and everyone in verse 26, and everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man. which built his house upon the sand.
So both of them are building their house, their hope, on something.
Verse 27 says, And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.
Both the wise man and the foolish man built on something.
The difference was what they built their houses on.
Building your house on something is an illustration of our faith.
For Jesus said the building of the house was likened to the reactions of the people who Jesus said, Hear my sayings, hear my words.
The Bible says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
So if you hear the Word of God, which Jesus' words were, and you don't Yield to that word and build your house upon his sayings, then you're a foolish man But if you don't build your house on Jesus sayings, the rock, you by default build your house on something else, which is described here as sand.
Those who believe Jesus' sayings, as Jesus said, do them, and those who don't believe Jesus' sayings, do not.
To obey Jesus' sayings, to believe his sayings, but if I put what he tells me into practice, then I am not just doing his word, I'm believing his word So if I hear his sayings and I believe on him as my Savior and I wait on his return, then I have built my house upon the rock.
On the other hand, if I hear his sayings and I reject his word, then I build my house.
That is, I place my faith and my hope. on the sinking sands of this world.
So both the foolish and the wise are believers.
They just believe in different things.
And the Bible says in our text tonight, in Proverbs chapter 14, verse 16, speaking of the wise man, the Bible says, a wise man.
And we know from what we just read About Jesus speaking about the wise man and what he did with his sayings, we know what a wise man is.
A wise man is someone who builds his house, his hope, his faith. on Jesus' word.
A wise man believes the word of God.
He puts his confidence in what God tells him and not what the world tells him.
And because of this, when a wise man sees evil approaching, look in your text now, what does he do?
He fears.
See that?
He fears And this isn't to say that wise men are scaredy cats.
People like to think that Christians are a bunch of people who are afraid, and so they they have to have religion to be able to cope because they're scared.
That's not true.
Wise men have less to fear than anybody, isn't that right?
We have less to fear than anybody.
But a wise man fears the consequences of not obeying God's word.
You know what happens if a wise man doesn't fear the consequences of not obeying God's word?
Well he's no longer a wise man, he's a fool.
And so a wise man fears the consequences of not obeying God's word because he believes the consequences of not obeying God's word.
When I was in junior high, One of my teachers talked to us about doing drugs.
There was a a drug out at the time.
I believe it was PCP they were talking about, and it may have been something else they were mixing it with.
I can't remember But I remember them talking to us about one of these mind-altering drugs that could cause permanent brain damage if it was only used one time.
And because I feared what my teacher told me, I stayed away from those drugs.
Because I feared her word.
However, I did not live in fear of the consequences of disobeying her word.
One of the differences between wise men and foolish men aren't only what they believe.
But it's also what they fear and what they don't fear.
A wise man fears the word of God, look back in your text, and departeth.
So there's a connection here between fearing God and departing.
If you fear You're going to depart.
In the Hebrew word translated depart here, it literally means to break off to stop, to to turn away from something like, oh no, I don't want any part of that.
That's the idea of uh departeth here.
So the fear Of being harmed by drugs caused me to depart from them, have nothing to do with them.
A man who fears a righteous God departs from what?
Look back in your text.
He departs from evil.
It's that simple.
And the man who does not depart from evil does not fear God, because he does not believe what God told him concerning that evil.
So if he believed what God told him concerning the evil, he would depart from the evil.
So the wise man that fears God, listen to this, doesn't live his life in fear I'm going to say that again.
A wise man who fears God does not live his life in fear.
He lives it in peace and he lives it in security.
For those who fear the Word of God do not fear the consequences of disobeying God's Word Because I fear the consequences of rejecting the gospel, I don't fear the consequences of going to hell.
Because I fear the truth of God's word, I don't live in fear of the lies of this world.
Because I fear the Lord, I don't live in fear of death.
Hell and the grave, praise God.
So fearing the Lord is not a thing where we walk around living afraid of the God above us.
And we're just so scared.
No, I fear the God above me, and therefore I don't feel that fear the hell below me.
I don't fear the world around me.
Because I know in Jesus Christ I am more than a conqueror over this world.
He says, be of good cheer.
I've overcome the world.
A synonym for evil here is harm.
When we think of the word evil, a lot of times we think of, well, that's evil.
Or that's wicked.
That's evil.
But the word evil here in the Hebrew, a synonym for it is harm.
So when you think of the word evil, don't just think of sin.
And sin is evil.
Why?
Sin is harm.
Sin is damaging.
But don't just think of the word sin.
Think of the word harm.
I tell people in the Genesis to Jesus class when we get to the New Testament.
I say, when you think of the word baptize, think of the word wash.
That'll help you understand baptism.
And when you think of the word evil, think of the word harm.
Evil and harm are essentially one and the same.
And for that reason, the the Hebrew word translated here as evil is oftentimes are other times translated as harm in other passages of the Bible.
Same Hebrew word.
So those who fear the Lord don't fear the unnecessary harm that comes from the foolishness of this world.
They don't fear the eternal harm that will come on the world one day By coming to Jesus?
What does it say?
A wise man, he fears and departs And at the same time, when we come to Jesus, we are departing from the harm that accompanies those that reject Jesus.
You can't depart from one thing without going to another.
That's just how the system is built by God.
You remember what Jesus says, a man cannot serve two masters?
There's one thing Jesus never said.
He didn't say some people serve no masters.
He'd said a man cannot serve two masters, and the implication is a man will serve at least one He said he will either cleave to the one and despise the other, he'll hold to the one, reject the other, right?
He says, you cannot serve God in mammon.
And so when we depart from the evil of this world, when we depart from one we are coming to the other.
When we come to one, we are departing from the other.
By coming to Jesus, we depart from the harm that accompanies those that reject him.
I spoke to someone recently who said most of his trouble came from drinking alcohol.
And because I fear God's word, I don't fear the trouble that comes from alcohol.
I've investigated many alcohol-related deaths and injuries when I was in law enforcement.
But I've never been directly harmed. by the alcohol uh as a result of my unbelief as they have.
Why?
I feared I fear the consequence of violating God's word that says wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and they those that are deceived thereby are not wise. as one of our memory verses were recently.
And so I fear the result that can come from alcohol Because God's word says I'm not wise if I'm deceived by it.
And and uh so I believe that, so I fear that.
And the other is I fear it because I've seen the death, the damage.
The the injury that's come from that, the family problems, I've seen it Brother Shepherd used an illustration not too long ago about the best way to win a bar fight.
Y'all remember that?
The best way to win a bar fight.
He said the best way to win a bar fight is to not go to the bar People who fear God don't live in fear of getting beat up in a bar fight.
It's that simple.
People who fear God don't live in fear of getting arrested for DWI.
People who fear God don't live in fear of getting deported by the United States ice either.
They don't live in fear of that.
The Bible commands us to obey the laws of our land.
It's Brother Richard getting political.
No, I'm biblical.
You've got to take the circumstances of this world that we face every day.
Take the scriptures and then apply them to the circumstances that are before the people's eyes.
If I don't do that, I'm not pastoring.
The Bible says to obey the laws of the land.
The Bible says God is the one who creates law enforcement.
And the Bible says those who disobey the laws should fear the consequences of disobeying those laws.
That is scripture.
Speaking of law enforcement in Romans chapter 13, verse 4, the Bible says, this is being of the law enforcement officer, for he is the minister of God to thee for good.
But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid.
For he beareth not the sword in vain.
He is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
That's strong words.
And I'm glad we need words like that.
We need truth.
Why are people afraid of ice today?
It's simple.
They're not afraid of God.
That's why they're afraid of eyes.
If they feared God, they would depart from evil, meaning if they feared God.
They would say, God says I should obey the laws of the land.
I am in disobedience of those laws.
I should fear the consequences.
But because they don't fear God, they don't care if they disobey the laws of the land.
Therefore They're not concerned about the consequences until those consequences come.
And then they want to blame them on the law enforcement instead of their disobedience to the law.
I dealt with that, that spirit of rebellion for years.
Oh, Brother Shepard, you're listening to me right now, and he knows, I guarantee he's dealt with it.
You don't know how many times We have put people in jail for breaking the law that they knew was the law.
They broke it anyway.
And when they broke it and we arrested them, guess who they're mad at?
They're not mad at themselves for breaking it.
You know who they're mad at?
They're mad at us for enforcing the law that they willfully broke.
It's that simple.
They're ICE agents in the building I work in.
I know them.
I see them all the time.
They share the same parking lot.
That I park in.
And I've never seen them harm or disrespect anybody.
They're always kind to people And you know what?
When I see them, I don't go, oh my.
Oh, they're gonna get me.
I don't do that.
But you know what else I don't do?
I don't get out in the middle of the street and Put my hands in front of their car and try to keep them from going and try to keep them from enforcing the law as God ordained them to do.
It's law.
If you don't have law, you have no society On the other hand, if I were to get out in the street and I were to block them, If I were to try to protect the criminals that they're trying to catch Then you know what?
That's when I would need to fear.
Because they bear not the sword.
In vain, the Bible says.
If I impede their just and righteous cause of removing lawbreakers from our land. than to have a reason to fear them.
God says to those who break the law, be afraid, for he bears not the sword in vain.
And to put it in modern terms, he's not carrying that gun for nothing.
That's what the Bible says.
Folks, when lawbreakers get shot, don't get angry at the law.
Get angry at the lawbreakers.
Otherwise, you'll find yourself sympathizing with evil and siding against God's word.
When I go to another country, I obey the laws of that country.
I went to Mexico a while back, years back, before I came here on a mission trip.
We went down in the interior of Mexico to share the gospel with people.
You know what I did when I went?
I crossed at a designated entry point.
I then went to the uh uh to the uh place where you sign up, you tell them your name, you tell them what you're going there for.
How long you're going to be there and where you plan on going.
I filled out all the paperwork that country required me to fill out.
Why?
It was their law.
And I respected that nation's law.
Why?
God tells me to.
It's the Bible.
And you know what?
Had I not respected their law, had I broken their law, and I were to get caught and arrested, whose fault would that have been?
That have been my fault.
That have been my fault.
When you resist the law of the land, you resist the God who rules that land.
When you resist law enforcement, you resist God.
The wise man fears and departs, but the fool, look what it says in the scripture, the fool.
That's the man who doesn't fear God's word.
He rageth.
See that word rageth?
You might want to underscore that word, rageth.
And out in the margin of your Bible, write these words, cross the line.
Cross the line.
That's what that word rageth.
That word rageth literally means to cross over.
So the fool, not fearing God's word, crosses the line that God has drawn in the sand.
Sometimes our government will say, if Iran tries to build a nuclear weapon, for example, that will be a red line that we will not allow them to cross.
We've heard them speak that way.
God's word draws the lines in the sand for us.
And we're not supposed to cross those lines.
Every time we read in the Bible, thou shalt.
You know what that is?
It's a line drawn in the sand.
You shall.
Now, if there's a line drawn in the sand, then on one side of that line, it's I'm going to.
And the other side of that line is I'm not going to.
If God says thou shalt, that means I shall.
I'm going to do what God says.
I'm going to do this commandment.
Or I could cross that line to the other side and say, no, I'm not going to that commandment.
Every time God says thou shalt not.
That's another line drawn in the sand.
And you're going to be on one side of that line.
You are either shall or you shall not going to do what God said.
But the the the the fool doesn't care about God's word.
Every time God says that, we need to make sure we're on the right side of that line, on the right side of that commandment.
But the fool, he doesn't care about the consequences of crossing those lines that God has drawn in the sand.
So he rages on past them.
He transgresses the line and crosses over.
Think about that word transgression.
You got aggression and you have trans.
We know what trans means, right?
Like trans to cross.
Like a a trans uh vestite, right?
A transam.
How about that?
Is that better?
Across America, transam.
You you you you're gonna have The cross.
And so to a transgression is to a transgression, we're reading about transgression in the Bible, it just simply means to cross out.
And and in a a a godly person Isn't going to find fault with the line.
He's not going to find fault with the God that drew the line.
He's not going to step over here and then find fault with the consequences.
Of stepping across the line.
You know what a godly person is going to do?
There's only one thing.
He's going to stay on the right side of that line.
If we stay on the right side of the law.
We do so because we fear the authority that God set over us.
So we stay on the right side of the law and we don't fear the consequences of breaking it.
I cry no crocodile tears over people breaking the law when they get arrested.
None.
None.
So it says here that not only does he rage Not only does he cross over the line, but watch the attitude and the heart of the person who rages across that line.
He rages what?
And is what?
Confident.
Confident.
Confident that he can avoid the consequences of disobeying God's word.
Confident that he can disobey the conse or avoid the consequences of disobeying the law.
He's confident that there are no rules except the rules that he sets for himself.
That's the way rebellious people are.
Yes, these are the laws.
But we will decide what's right and wrong for us.
Isn't that the the heart that Adam and Eve had?
God says, you're not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And they say, well now we'll be the judge of that We know that's the rule, but we're gonna make our own rules here in this garden.
It's rebellion.
And a Christian should never empathize, never sympathize with rebellion We should always condemn it.
Can we have sympathy for the rebellious in the sense that we we want them to um to repent and come to know God and we we hate the uh the outcomes for them?
Yes, of course I don't want to see anybody go to hell.
I don't want to see anybody dead on the side of the road.
I get no satisfaction. out of watching people get hurt for their their crimes.
At the same time, there's no sympathy There's just sorrow in a righteous sense, the same way that God has sorrow.
God gets no joy.
He says, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked would turn from their way and live.
That's the only thing God gets pleasure in.
He has no pleasure in punishing wicked people any more than you or I when we had children had pleasure in whipping them or pleasure in correcting them whatever whatever you do to correct your child.
There's no pleasure in that.
So we don't have pleasure.
If someone gets shot, we don't have pleasure in that.
We shouldn't.
If we do, we're wrong.
I want people to be safe, but I'm not going to have sympathy for them in the sense that I get on their side, and I'm sure not going to condemn the person that bears the sword because they bear it not in vain.
They're confident that contrary to the warnings they received, they know what they're doing.
They're confident that there is no God to punish them or that God is much more tolerant than the God that we teach about.
No, the God they have is much more lenient, much more compassionate, much more tolerant. toward sin, the God that they have.
And so they're confident that they're just not going to get in trouble for disobeying him.
And that word confidence is the same word used to describe a believer's trust in God in other places of the Bible.
This word confidence is translated trust.
And when it talks about trusting God, it's the same Hebrew word.
So we're talking about the faith of a fool, remember The fool transgresses, crosses the line, and that fool trusts.
That fool has faith that when they cross the line, they're going to be okay.
We have our faith in God.
We put our faith on the rock.
So when the world tells us there is no God, When the world tells us one thing and we cross the world's line, we're confident that our God has told us the truth.
And that He's going to keep His promises to us.
When they cross God's line, they're confident that God is a liar, that they know better than God, that the ideas of man have more merit than uh than the scriptures and they walk in their faith.
So this is the faith of a fool.
A fool is confident.
But what makes him a fool is that he's confident in everything but God.
And because of that, he'll confidently run into trouble.
He otherwise could have easily avoided.
Most of the trouble that we see in this world Most of the trouble that we get into, but definitely the world, most of the trouble you see people get into. could have easily been avoided had they simply feared the Lord and departed from evil.
And worst of all, a fool who crosses the line of rejecting Jesus as his Savior.
He will confidently slip off into eternity one day without Christ.
And it'll be too late when he learns that his confidence was misplaced Faith doesn't save anybody.
The most confident people are often the most condemned people.
Like the Pharisees.
They were confident when they crucified Christ.
What matters is who and what we have our confidence in.
And as believers, we fear the Lord.
We depart from evil and we come to Jesus.
Father, thank you so much for your precious word.
Thank you, Father, for the straightforward proverbs that we have.
That tell us that wise men fear you.
That is, they believe your word They fear the consequences of disobeying it.
They know that your word's good.
Therefore to transgress your word can result in nothing but bad for them.
So they feared the Lord and they depart from evil.
Thank you for that, Lord.
And at the same time, Lord, thank you for enlightening our eyes.
That to see, dear Lord God, that the reason so many people who depart from you run headlong into evil, simply because they do not fear you.
They do not trust you.
And they confidently transgress your word.
And Father Lord, I pray tonight For a great revival in our land.
Lord, we read about more and more Bibles being sold.
And Father Lord, and more people seeking out answers from your word.
And I pray, dear Lord God, that all of these people, Lord, that we get angry at them, Father, when we we see the vileness of this world.
But Lord, at the same time, they're people you came to die for.
They're people, Lord God, no different. than the the the demon-possessed man who lived in the cemetery.
No different than the filthy beggar Lord that had leprosy.
No no less blind than the blind man, Father Lord, who Jesus healed.
And Father Lord, as Jesus had compassion on all of those people, we pray compassionately For the people in our nation tonight, our world tonight, but especially our land that we're close to.
We pray for them tonight, Lord, that you will open their eyes Heal their hearts.
Cast out the devils.
And Father Lord, redeem them by the blood of your Son.
In Jesus' precious name we pray.
Amen.
