Episode Transcript
Proverbs chapter 15 verse 21 The title and message tonight is A Fool's Joy. A Fool's Joy Because of the wonderful promises of God that we have through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we as Christians often say that circumstances may take our happiness, but nothing can take our joy. Even on our worst day, the believer in Jesus knows that everlasting life, victory, peace ultimately awaits us because of our faith in Him. But our proverb tonight tells us about the joy of the unbeliever. We don't think much about that, do we? It's an odd topic, but that's exactly what Solomon is talking about tonight. Yes, unbelievers have joy too. Though it's not for the same reasons that we have it. But it is the same type of joy.
Not for the same reasons, but it's the same type of joy. And by God's grace, this is what we're going to learn about tonight. Solomon begins this proverb by talking about If you look in your text, folly. Folly. And the Hebrew word translated folly means lacking good sense. That's what it means in the Hebrew. We've heard people say, son, act like you have some good sense. You know, I heard that growing up, some old timers say, hey, he didn't have any good sense. Well, folly Is an act that is based on a lack of good sense.
It's an act that is based on a lack of understanding on the weakness of someone's intellect. And that's why we sometimes see this this combination in scripture. We'll see a fool and his folly. We'll see that in Scripture. Because the fool is the one that doesn't have the good sense. And the folly is the actions that he takes, the decisions that he or she makes on account of them not having that good sense. A fool and his folly. Proverbs chapter 13, verse 16.
says, every prudent man dealeth with knowledge, but a fool layeth open his folly. But here's the the height of the fool's madness tonight. Not only that a fool has folly. That's bad enough. But Solomon says, folly, look back in your text, is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom. Folly is joy, the acts of madness, the acts that are based on his lack of good sense. What he does that's based on his lack of understanding is actually joy to him. To a person who doesn't have good sense, the senseless acts that he does gives him great joy. And this word joy, is a strong word.
It's so strong that when you look it up in the Hebrew and you look it up how it's used elsewhere in Scripture. It can mean both joy that comes from festivities, like this is a joyful occasion, as well as joy that is experienced in a religious spiritual sense. That kind of joy. That strong kind of joy. Fascinatingly, this is the same word That the Spirit of God used when speaking of Jesus future joy that he would have when he would be raised from the dead and brought into the presence of God the Father. Jesus said through the Holy Spirit, writing through the psalmist in Psalm 16, verses 10 through 11. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life. That's Jesus speaking of his future resurrection.
In thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. And that's the same Hebrew word joy that's used in our proverb tonight for the fool that has that joy on account of his folly. Great pleasure and joy and satisfaction the fool gets from his folly. So understand then that folly can give great joy, even like a religious experience to a fool. It's that strong. Just think of all the liberal churches that we've seen over the years and what they do. Their ministers have clothing.
With with rainbows on them. We've all seen that. Their church is decorated somewhere with a rainbow. We've heard their ministers praise women. who have abortions and celebrate people who exercise sexual perversion and take stands against the people of Israel. Never, however, do we hear them talk about the urgency to spread the gospel. You'll never hear them talk about that. Never have we ever heard them preach the gospel. Never have I ever or we ever heard them give glory to the word of God being the inspired inerrant word or to the redeemer of mankind The things that give us great joy, such as those things, make us shout, Amen.
I tell you what, I love Sister Huffacre over here. Sometimes she'll just get so excited I'll hear her say Amen or Praise the Lord or something like that over there. And it's just such an encouragement to me. But we shout Amen. And but those things that make us shout Amen or that make us praise God in our heart and that give us great joy, I was preaching uh Sunday morning and uh about the millennial reign of Christ and as I was looking at the people over there my eyes crossed past Abigail and I could see her just beaming from ear to ear with a big old smile, shaking her head. And uh and after church she came up to me, she said, I've been waiting my whole life to hear that message.
You filled in some questions for me that I had and it made me so happy because she had that great joy that we get as we gather together each Sunday on a joyful religious experience on the account of the truth of God, but these same fools will gather together on Sundays and have also a joyful religious experience, not on account of God's truth, but on the account of the devil's lies. That same joy. The things that a fool does that make no sense at all. can bring great joy to him. And that's one reason fools continue in their folly. That's one reason fools believe in their folly, because of the the gratification it gives them. Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom, Solomon says.
So folly is joy to him that is destitute, means lacking wisdom. You may be thinking all right, Brother Richard, you're going to be so proud of me. I remember what that word wisdom, that Hebrew word wisdom means in the Hebrew is talking about being able to understand how God designed the earth and have the ability for us to to understand and operate within that design wrong Hebrew word here This is a different Hebrew word that's also translated wisdom, and it's marvelous to me. This word literally means the heart. The center of anything. That's what it means. The center of anything. Folly is joy to him that is destitute of heart, that is destitute of Of having something in the center of his soul.
That's what folly is. Destitute of heart
When we talk about someone who's foolish, without even understanding this word wisdom, in knowing its definition just by nature, by our natural understanding of the human design that God has given us. We sometimes, by default, call them a very shallow person, don't we? Shallow. It means there's nothing down deep in the center. You tap into it and it's void. All they live is for the outside. For their flesh on the outside, not their soul and spirit on the inside. It's like they don't have something deep within them to guide them. You see, when Israel left Egypt.
I remember when I was studying, when I was studying Israel's departure from Egypt, and I remember God's specific instructions on where each camp had to be. And I started plotting it out on a piece of paper one day And God's specific instructions on when where the Ark of the Covenant had to be, which was God's presence. And when I got through plotting it out, I realized God is right in the center of that whole camp. God in the center. The center. That's what this word wisdom means, remember? The center of anything Remember, the Bible says it is God that works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
God that works in you. In the center part of you. And when God was there in the middle of that of those Israelites, that was a picture of how we are to walk through this world. When they left Egypt That was a picture of us being redeemed from our bondage to sin. And here they were marching their way to the promised land. That's what we're doing today. If we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we've escaped Egypt, and here we are, marching on our way to the promise. of everlasting life that in the new heaven and the new earth, and that all tears will be wiped away from our eyes one day And it's a dry desert land sometimes, and there's fights and struggles we have to go through, just like Israel did when they left Egypt.
All that was a picture of our life. So we could watch them and how God interacted with them and received those instructions. And the the the wonderful thing about their march into the promised land was that God was in the center of their camp and all they had to do. was follow his word. That's it. Just keep God at the center of every step. And if they kept God at the center of every step, They find their way to the promised land and every step could be done with joy. And the reason it wasn't done with joy is because it didn't keep God at the center. It's because they departed from his word and they in their heart they wanted to go back into Egypt.
God's design for us from the very beginning was for us to be inhabited by His Holy Spirit. So that we could experience the joy of God while walking in the Spirit of God. Colossians chapter 3, verse 16. Colossians chapter 3, verse 16 says, let the word of Christ Dwell in you richly in all wisdom When the word of Christ, in the word of Christ doesn't mean just the things that Jesus said in the Gospels. It's talking about the entirety of God's word because Jesus Christ is the central subject of the entire Bible. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, abundantly, in all wisdom. When God's word dwells in our hearts, that's wisdom in the center of who we are. And it says teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart.
hearts, the center to the Lord. A fool doesn't have the word of Christ in his heart. So a fool lives by the joy of their flesh, and the joy of your flesh will ultimately perish, just like your flesh. It'll turn to sorrow in the end. A fool's joy is temporary. You ever heard of fool's gold? Fool's gold gives the fool great joy because it's shiny. But when they go to cash that in, they find out it was fake. It's not gold after all. A fool doesn't have the word of God in their heart.
And this root word that is translated joy here. It comes from the same word that we looked at last week. Remember what we learned last week in Proverbs 15. 20? If you look back there, it says, a wise son maketh a glad father. Remember when we looked over that? Well, this that word glad in the Hebrew, that is the root word. For this word joy here. So you see how the two proverbs kind of go back to back. A wise son has good sense.
And so he acts according to the good sense he has. He has the word of Christ dwelling in his heart. He acts accordingly, and then that brings joy to the Father's heart. when he sees his son walking according to the truth of God's word. In third John, the third epistle of John, chapter 1, verse 4, the Apostle John said, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. So God's word is good sense And when we as Christians walk according to it, it makes us glad. It gives us joy. It makes our Heavenly Father glad.
It gives us him joy. It makes the saints around us glad. It gives them joy and it encourages them, walking according to the truth. Brings wise people much joy, and that joy can be cashed in. It's joy that will never go away. Solomon said, folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom. Look back in your text, but a man of understanding walketh uprightly. So a man who understands that we were designed to have God in the center of our lives, his word at the center of our hearts, and that if we do have his word in the center of our hearts, then we're going to experience the joy of our of the marvelous grace uh of uh uh of his word and his kindness toward us and we're also going to avoid the unnecessary sorrows of this world, the person who understands that, that person is going to walk uprightly.
Which literally means he's going to walk straight. So he's not going to depart in either direction from God's word, not to the left of it, not to the right of it But having God in the center of their heart, they will walk in the center of God's will. See?
He won't depart from God's Word. He won't go to the left and deny God's word. He's not going to go to the right and add to God's word. He's going to walk straight down it just like it's written. and be so much happier and joyful of a man because of it. Did you know that transgender people
I say that because it's so much pushed down our throat today. Because that is the most natural our our our our our uh gender God made them male and female. That is the most natural assignment of the will of God that we have. It is the most evident assignment. If uh If I were to beam beamed down here by a spaceship, just beamed down here, and uh I were to, you didn't know who I was. And I were to have uh uh uh a uh pair of boxing gloves on, boxing shorts, and uh you would think, well, obviously this man's a boxer. If I were to be beamed down here and I had on a NASCAR helmet and a race suit, and I had a car that, you know, a a race car, you'd think, well, this man's a race car driver. It's just natural.
It's the same way here when we come out of the womb, the doctor, the mother, the midwife, the father, the whoever can look at that child and say, this is a boy. This is a girl. And by knowing that it's male or female, they can know If it's a race car driver, what does a race car driver do? They drive a race car. They go around a track.
If it's a girl, what does she do? She does what God created her to do, what it says in the book of Genesis. She is a help for her husband. If it's a male, what was he created to do? He was created to dress and to keep the garden. He was created to accomplish the will of God, to be a nurturer, to be a protector, and to guide his home and the word of God and to defend. and protect against any intrusions into his family, which is what Adam should have done with that serpent, and he failed to do it.
And Eve, instead of trying to lead her husband, should have been led by her husband, and she failed to do it. And that is why the the the family, the husband, the wife, and then the children underneath them, and the husband and wife yielding to God and then teaching those children to do the same and then the children honoring the parents and then just just continuing to duplicate that and duplicate that and proliferate that godly design throughout the world. Satan wants to destroy that.
And so he attacks God's design. And God's design was created by his word. Let us make man in our image. And so God made man in his image, and the image of God created them, he created he him, male and female created he them. That's what it says in Genesis. And so they say, I'm going to deny that design. And by doing so, I deny my role. I deny his purpose for me. I deny the the family that he created. I deny to spread the word that he gave me to spread to my children.
I deny that. I deny the the the the the his desire to have children. I'll kill my children. I'll abort my children. I'm going to do all of this. And did you know that transgender Gender people celebrate their perversity. They have pride festivals They have sermons about it. They get out and celebrate it in the streets, but did you know that that's fool's gold?
Transgender people have dramatically elevated rates of suicidal thoughts. Did you know that? Transgender people have dramatically elevated rates of trying to kill themselves. Now, if you hate your life so much that you want to end it, that's not joy. That's deception. The schools promise them joy if they'll if they'll escape the body that they've been trapped into by nature. They promise them liberty and freedom if they'll escape it. But compared to the rates of people who embrace the gender that God has given them, They have very high rates. Among transgender adults in the United States, 42%, that's almost half of the transgender people admit.
to having attempted suicide at some point in their life. Now we don't know about the other people who don't admit it, who may be embarrassed to admit it. 42% acknowledge they have tried to kill themselves at some point in time. 81% Said they thought about killing themselves. 81%. Those numbers came from the Williams Institute uh a study at the UCLA University of California in Los Angeles School of Law You'd think it'd be biology, wouldn't you? You'd think it'd be psychology.
No, it was the school of law. And what do those lawyers blame their suicidal thoughts on? Us. If only we would accept that they are really a man or a woman or whatever they're pretending to be, then they wouldn't be trying to kill themselves. It's our fault. You think about it. Folly is joy to him that is destitute of heart, destitute of God's word at the center of their lives. And the folly that first brought them much celebrated joy. Coming out and celebrating. There's a man that I work with.
Not in my particular office or not in my particular floor, but that I've shared the courtroom with. He's an attorney And they say that he has a son at a particular town who decided he was going to be a woman
And that they he and his wife traveled to that town, a liberal town here in Texas where they had a funeral for their son, pretending that the son that was born to them had died. So they could celebrate the birth of their new daughter, their adult daughter.
I don't know what's in that young man's head right now or the parents' head. I know I would not be going and participating in that foolishness.
But 81% think about committing suicide, at least the ones that admit to it. The folly that first brought them great joy ultimately makes them so miserable they want to die. That is the real problem. With not having God at the center of the human heart. With that, we'll stop tonight. I thank God I have his word in my heart. Thank God. Father, we thank you so much for your precious word. We thank you, Lord, we don't need a study at a university.
We don't need Father, some teacher or professor to tell us how we can have joy. Their joy never lasts. Your joy never ends. Thank you for your truth. Thank you, Father, that we are not hollow. We are not shallow. But Father God, we have the Word of Christ in our hearts. We have the truth to stand on. We have the light to walk in. And we have the joy of God every step of the way.
Thank you in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen.
