Episode Transcript
Amen.
We'll be in Proverbs 15.
Proverbs 15 verse 12 tonight.
Title of the message is No Love Loss.
No Love Loss.
And tonight's proverb, the old familiar scorner is once again in the spotlight.
And what do you think the proverbs keep bringing up?
It's kind of like watching the old Batman shows.
Man, when I grew up, I forgot what time of day it was.
Brother Shepherd probably remembers.
But when I grew up, me and my friends, we would get bath towels, our parents would make capes out of them.
And we'd wear our capes and lay on the floor and watch Batman.
And it was the same old villains every time.
And just different scenarios they were in.
And it's the same way in Proverbs.
It's the same old villains every time.
And it's reality.
You know, why do you think the Proverbs keep bringing up these subjects again and again, like the scorner, these villains like the scorner?
I believe it's for two reasons.
I believe, number one, because there are only, like in Batman, there are only a few impediments to gaining wisdom.
Really are.
There are only a few.
But those impediments have many problems.
They cause many issues.
And those are explained in the Proverbs, which one we'll be looking at tonight.
And the other reason is, I believe, is because we are so Quick to forget those impediments in our lives that we have to be continually reminded of.
And now God's Word reminds us again of that old villain, the scorner. and explains to us yet another problem the scorner causes.
Proverbs 15 verse 12 says, A scorner And remember the Hebrew word translated scorner?
If you haven't remembered, it means to make mouths, to make mouths at someone.
Or simply put, someone who runs their mouth.
But when someone's saying something and someone else doesn't like what they're saying, and they make a light of what they're saying, Do you know what they'll do?
They'll make mouths.
They'll go, they'll do just like that.
What are they doing?
They're saying, oh, they're just running their mouth.
It doesn't mean anything to me.
Or they'll go, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And they'll do that with their mouth.
And that's a scorner.
And a scorner is someone who runs their mouth, someone who scoffs, someone who ridicules the things of God.
If you ever want a good example of a scorner, all you have to do is go to a popular Christian website, social media account.
And just find one of the posts and just go read the comments.
You'll find a scorner real quick.
Scorners love to troll.
The social media council believers, they love to make mouths at them.
I'll give you an example.
I thought I thought, well, I'll tell them, do they just go to now?
I thought, you know what?
I'm going to do that.
I am going to go to one of those accounts.
I know I'll have no trouble finding scorners.
And I'll just copy and paste and I'll read them an example.
So let's do that tonight.
I went to Ken Ham.
I love Ken Ham.
He's a former science teacher from Australia, and he's the one who built the Ark Encounter.
When you go look at the life-size model of Noah's Ark.
And I knew that if I went to his Facebook page, then I'd find plenty of scoffers making mouths at the truth he told.
And in one of his recent posts, Brother Ham made a very simple statement.
But scorners hate the truth, so they quickly scoffed at it.
And here was his statement: quote: Genesis tells us that God created everything. the earth, stars, moon, plants, animals, and the first two people.
That's the whole post.
And one of the scorners replied Star Wars tells us that the force binds the universe together.
That doesn't make it true.
And I'm sure that scorner had a really great time. saying that, and I'm sure he thought that when he said that, that all the other people would look and say, now that guy knows what he's talking about.
That's true.
The Bible says this.
Star Wars says this.
What does it matter?
You don't believe one, just someone, just because they make some kind of great claim.
But a fictional movie script Cannot be compared to God's word.
When I watched the first Star Wars as a boy, Everybody that went to Star Wars knew it was fictional.
They knew that in a galaxy far, far away, a long time ago, Nothing happened.
We all knew that.
We all knew that C3PO and R2D2 and Luke Skywalker and the gang. and Han Solo and Chewbacca, we knew they weren't real people.
It was pretend.
It was like watching cartoons.
But it was real people dressed up in costumes.
Even me in elementary school, I knew that.
So to equate one to the other, it's different.
There is nothing historical in a movie script.
But the Bible documents names, cities, genealogies.
Dates of occurrences in eyewitness testimony, and then it corroborates it by fulfilled prophecy.
So the scorner can scoff all he wants to, but he's just speaking nonsense.
If Brother Shepherd were to run in and say, hey, some kid just got run over in the street.
And then Alice came in.
Did y'all hear the tire squeaking?
Some kid just got run over in the street.
And then we heard the tire squeaking.
With all that put together, you know what we would come to a reasonable assumption?
Some kid just got run over in the street.
But if we said, ah, yeah, well, Bugs Bunny says, what's up, doc?
That doesn't make it true.
You know, that wouldn't make, that would be nonsense.
You can't compare the two.
Another scorner said, quote, Genesis has two contradictory creation accounts back to back.
And you, clowns, still insist that there are no contradictions in your book.
Now you're wrinkling your eyebrows up.
Why?
It's not true at all.
I've been teaching through the book of Genesis for a long time.
I know it quite well, especially the creation accounts.
And it simply is not true.
There are no contradictory creation accounts back to back.
There are complementary creation accounts back to back.
It is absolutely beautiful.
The first account comes in and says, Did y'all know some kid just got run over in the street?
The second account comes to the door and says, Police are outside.
Boy looks like he's about 10 years old.
Parents are out there with him.
And there's a car that it's a hit and run.
It was a blue car, four-door, da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
That's the way the creation accounts are in Scripture.
It comes in with the general, it follows up with the specific.
It's absolutely beautiful.
The scorner, in both cases, they have no idea what they're talking about.
But if they say it loudly, say it proudly, then for people who can't think, it'll stick.
Or people who don't want the truth, they'll take the lie.
Another scorner corrected Brother Ken, saying, No, Genesis does not tell us God created everything.
God did not create the names for the animals.
God created the animals, but Adam named them.
My goodness, you're kind of laughing, Jonathan.
Can you tell the foolishness of this person?
These are grown-ups writing this.
Grown-ups writing it.
And he probably thought, man, I got kin on this one.
But naming and creating are two different things.
You know, I had the pleasure of naming my children.
But no one would say that I created them.
Adam didn't create anything.
And naming is not creating.
It simply is not.
Scorners used to bother me because they would say things so authoritatively. like they know they've done the research.
But eventually, after reading their scoring, studying things out, I eventually learned that those who speak the quickest Loudest and rudest usually have no clue what they're talking about.
And the Bible says a scorner Look back in your text, loveth not.
And in the Hebrew, loveth not, literally means to have no affection for.
To have no feelings for something, no affection for something.
And what do they have no affection for?
Look back in your text.
They have no affection for one that reproveth him. or them.
The scorner has no affection or loves not one that reproves him.
Now remember, we've looked at this word reprove before.
In the Hebrew, it means to correct, and we have given you a couple of different illustrations a couple of different times.
One being corrective lenses.
That makes you see things the way they really are.
The other being corrective orthodontics, one putting your teeth in the place that God intended for them to be.
And a scorner has no affection.
For correction.
They don't want to be corrected.
And so they have no affection for the person who tries to correct them, who reproves them.
And that means a scorner will not appreciate you.
If you correct him, if you correct someone and they mouth back at you, they get angry at you for it, then that person is a scorner.
Simple.
They're a scorner.
When a scorner is wrong, they're not going to be happy with you when you tell them the truth because that truth can correct Their thinking, and they don't want their thinking to be corrected.
In fact, they're going to probably be unhappy with you because they love not the person who reproves them.
You can lovingly correct a scorner with the truth of God's word.
Your heart can be in it.
You may even shed a tear while you're telling that person.
But I'm telling you, if you lovingly correct a scorner with God's word, that scorner is going to consider you to be a bad person.
Bad.
He or she won't respect you no matter how much you care, no matter how much you're trying to help.
In fact, they may even hate you.
In fact, they may even kill you.
It's what happened to Charlie Kirk.
Charlie Kirk was a wise person trying to correct people whose thinking was twisted.
And they hated him so much, they killed him.
I'm using they, the pronoun, the plural pronoun, because when this young man killed him, Did y'all see how many people cheered his murder?
They were happy with it.
They celebrated his death.
And that's simply because a scorner loves not him that corrects.
Whether it's politics, whether it's religion, which he corrected on both, they're not going to love you.
And for that reason, it says, go look back in your text, neither will he go unto the wise.
Neither will he go unto the wise.
Now we're looking at action here.
Not only will they not have affection for the person that corrects them.
But they're not going to go to the person that corrects them.
And in this case, the person that reproves is identified as a wise person.
They will not go to the wise.
They're not going to be proactive to go to the wise to seek for counsel.
So, not only are they going to be upset when they're corrected.
But the fact that they don't want to be right means they're not going to go to the wise in the first place to get it right.
So, you've got the guy that has it wrong.
He doesn't want to be made right.
You have the guy that hasn't made a decision.
He's not going to go to the wise to get it right the first time in the first place.
They're not going to go to the wise.
A scorner won't go to the wise for wise counsel.
I was trying to help someone one day because I saw that this person was about to make a terrible mistake.
I pleaded with that person.
I told them you're wrong and asked them to listen to my advice.
They said, you're the last person I would go to for advice.
Now listen, I may not be the best person to go to for advice, but I don't think anybody who's sharing the clear teaching of God's word on the subject should be the last person. that you'll go to for advice.
But when you don't want to be corrected by God's Word, there is going to be Repudiation, you're not going to go to that person.
But if you're trying to correct a scorner.
Then you're going to not feel that love given to you in return.
You can love them, they're not going to love you back, and they're not going to go to you.
For that advice.
Now, there are a couple of important truths that we need to deduct from this part of the text.
First, The wise will correct the person they care about.
You see, if you'll notice here, In the first half of the proverb, we're looking at the action, and that's reproving, right?
In the second part of the proverb, we're looking at the identity of the actor.
Make sense?
So, in the first part, a scorner loves not him that reproves.
So we have reproof being the action.
And then down at the bottom, it identifies the actor.
Who's doing that reproving?
It's a wise person.
So Wise people reprove.
Wise people correct.
Do you know why?
Our nation is in the shape it's in right now because for years Wise people remained silent, or people that had truth remained silent, and for that they were not wise.
But those that could have been wise, they wouldn't speak up.
They were afraid of offending people.
They were afraid of being unliked, afraid of being unpopular.
And so they just went along to get along, and the church remained silent when the church should have been standing up.
For what was right in speaking out in the name of Jesus Christ.
And we did not, and now we are dealing with all kinds of errors.
I'm telling you.
Back when Madeline Murray O'Hare and all them when they when she sued to get prayer out of school That is when the churches should have stood up and said, We don't care what the Supreme Court says.
This is what we're going to do in our independent school district.
This is how we're going to run our business.
You can run your courthouse, but we're going to run the schoolhouse.
And that's what should have been done.
When the Supreme Court came out and said it's okay for a woman to murder her children in her womb.
That's when the church should have stood up and said, We're not going to allow that.
That's when the states should have stood up and said, We don't care what you say.
Back in the 2000s when the Supreme Court came out and said, told the state, told the local county clerks.
You must issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples.
Instead of backing down, instead of resigning, that's when everyone should say, not doing it.
Not doing it.
And instead of complying and bowing the knee, because you're tacitly acknowledging, and you may say openly, I disagree.
But by buying the knee, we did not correct that wrong.
And we are now paying a heavy Heavy price for it.
But the wise person will correct, and we learned that tonight.
We will reprove.
A wise person will reprove.
A wise person will never. affirm a fool in his folly.
That'd be a good kingdom truth, wouldn't it?
A wise person will never affirm a fool in his folly.
You know what?
There is a tendency For people to affirm fools in their folly.
Let me give you a good example.
Someone comes in.
This has happened to so many Christian men.
Someone comes in and There'll be a crowd of men around, and a man will come in, he'll start telling a dirty joke.
And instead of correcting the person, Or turning around and walking away and making them feel silly because you don't want to listen to it, they'll laugh.
Even if they disagree inside, you know what you do when you laugh at a joke like that?
You're affirming a fool in his folly.
You're laughing, saying, I appreciate that.
That's funny to me.
I like you telling me that.
That's affirming a foolish father.
But there's a tendency to want to agree.
So, you don't appear disagreeable.
There's a tendency that there's a lot of times people will be telling another person something, and what they're telling that person is just totally wrong.
And I've known people to do this.
You'll be telling them something, and they'll say, Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.
Then someone else will tell them something totally different, and they'll, yep, yep Yep, yep, yep, right along with him.
And they can't both be true, but they just have a tendency to agree because they want to be seen as smart.
They want to be seen as someone that, hey, I'm with you.
Because they don't want to appear to not be going along or making waves.
But a wise person will never affirm a fool in his folly.
A wise person will correct a fool in his folly, and that's why a foolish scorner won't go to the wise.
Did you know there's some parents who won't correct their children?
Because they're afraid their kids will avoid them if they do.
Why, a scorner won't go to a wise person.
School owners are going to want to hang around.
And because there's a lot of parents, they just won't correct their kids.
They won't tell them when they're wrong.
And you're not wise.
You're not a wise parent if you don't correct your kids when they're wrong.
If you don't correct them, who's going to?
If you love them, you'll correct them.
If that's the way they're going to be, if they say, well, I just won't be around them, well, then let them not be around you.
I'm serious.
If that's the way they're going to be, I had a young mother tell me once that she didn't want to discipline her child.
I watched her child once.
I was in her home with her and her husband and her kids.
They were in my church.
This girl was just acting out terribly, terribly disrespectful, terribly disobedient.
I said, you need to whoop that child.
You need to spank that child.
I told her right in front of her and that kid and everybody.
And she said, Well, I'm afraid if I do, she won't like me.
I'm afraid she won't like me.
She said, I want her to like me.
Listen, a wise mother will discipline her child.
Now, here is a kingdom truth that I forgot to give you, Brother Rick, but here is a kingdom truth.
It's better to be righteously hated than to be unrighteously loved.
It's better to be righteously hated Than to be unrighteously loved.
If you don't correct your child or your friend or whomever, and you affirm them in their sin instead.
We have gender affirming care.
Have you noticed that?
What is that?
They don't want to be corrected.
They want their wrong to be affirmed.
And so, if you affirm them in their sin, and all you're doing is helping drive nails in their spiritual coffin, that's all you're doing.
And you know what?
If that person were to ever, by the grace of God, if your child or your friend or your family member, by the grace of God, if they were to ever repent, And come to Jesus Christ as their Savior, they will remember how you did not care enough to tell them the truth.
And they will disrespect you, and they'll be right for it.
Here's the second thing that we're to deduct before we quit tonight.
The scorner will not go to the wise for correction.
They won't go to the wise.
They're not going to take action to move in the direction of wise people.
If the scorner won't go to the wise for correction, then that means the scorner will possibly avoid that wise person altogether.
Have you ever wondered why some people don't go to church?
I believe a lot of them don't go to church because they're scorners and they don't want to be corrected.
So they won't go to the wise.
If a preacher is opening up God's word, And he is teaching God's word correctly, then wisdom is being poured from those pages to the people's ears because the Bible is full of wisdom.
And when you teach the Bible correctly, then it's going to correct incorrect people.
It's going to correct incorrect thinking.
And so, scorners are not going to go and subject themselves to that.
If you ever wonder why some people won't come around you, won't call you on the phone.
Won't pay you a visit after you tell them they're wrong.
It could be because they're trying to avoid being corrected.
Could be.
It could be they simply don't want to hear it.
Or it could be that just talking to you, a godly person, that could be enough to convict their hearts.
Could be enough to convict their hearts.
I remember a former pastor of mine, he was heavy into drugs and alcohol and living a bad life.
And he said that his dad was a preacher, and he said his dad was always, always trying to.
Go see him, always trying to get them saved, always trying to reason with them with the Bible.
He said he and a bunch of friends were coming home one night.
And he lived, if I remember right, the story in like a garage apartment, you know, kind of upstairs apartment.
He had this little staircase that went up on the outside and a front door.
And he said they were pulling in from a night of parting.
As they were pulling in, he said he could see his daddy walking up those steps and knocking on his door, trying to reach him.
And so they turned around and they left.
He didn't want to have to deal with his dad, didn't want to deal with being told he was wrong, didn't want to hear any of that.
And when he said that, it just broke my heart for that daddy.
Broke my heart for him.
And it could be that if someone's avoiding you, it's because your life, your testimony for Jesus Christ, corrects them.
And they don't want it.
Now, not your nosiness.
Don't say, oh, well, I'm just being persecuted for I'm a Christian if you're being nosy.
Keep your nose in your own business.
Nosy mother-in-laws, listen, don't have like they're not they're not they don't have any use for them.
I don't want no nosy mother-in-law.
I don't want a nosy father-in-law.
And there's one thing I have not been a nosy father-in-law.
You can ask any of my girls or my son.
Once my kids got married, old Richard was out of it.
If I see them do something wrong morally, yeah, I'll correct them.
I'll correct anybody.
I'll correct my coworkers, correct myself.
But as far as meddling in their business, nope, I stay out of their business.
Unless they ask me for advice, I'd be glad to help them.
Other than that, I stay out of their business.
Why?
Because when I got married, I didn't want anyone in my business.
Because I handle my business.
And so button into someone else's business.
That's not being persecuted.
That'll drive a godly person away from you.
Okay?
But your honest correction of somebody's sinful life with God's word, that will cause a scorner to avoid you.
Maybe not altogether, but in some sense, it'll close some doors.
It'll stop some conversations.
You will know that I can talk to this person about this conversation, but I know the door is closed over here.
Because if I bring it up, they're going to, up, up, up, up, up.
They're going to do you like that.
But understand that they're not avoiding you.
They're avoiding the Lord.
That's all it is.
They don't hate you.
They hate him.
So you take that to heart, that it's better to be righteously hated than unrighteously loved.
That's what Jesus experienced, wasn't it?
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
Thank you, Father God, for describing these villains to us.
And explaining how they fit in our lives, Lord.
And Lord, as I teach this tonight, it rings so true with my experiences, and I believe with the experiences of these believers here tonight as well.
Thank you for explaining to us how things work and help us to be wise people, full of love, not full of hate.
Father, help us to not butt our nose into people's business, but help us to lovingly correct what we know is wrong and harmful to others.
We ask it in Jesus' wonderful name.
Amen.
