Proverbs chapter 26. We'll again begin with the previous verse, the last verse of chapter 25, and we'll read all of chapter 26 about the seven kinds of fools. Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls. As snow in summer and rain in harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool. Like a flitting sparrow, like a flying swallow, so a curse without cause shall not alight. A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the fool's back. Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. He who sends a message by the hand of a fool cuts off his own feet and drinks violence. Like the legs of the lame that hang limp is a proverb in the mouth of fools. Like one who binds a stone in a sling is he who gives honor to a fool. Like a thorn that grows into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools. The great God who formed all things gives the fool his hire and the transgressor his wages. As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. The slothful man says, there is a lion in the road. A fierce lion is in the streets. As a door turns on its hinges, so does the slothful turn on his bed. The slothful man buries his hand in the bowl. It wearies him to bring it back to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly. He who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a dog by the ears. Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, I was only joking. Where there is no wood, the fire goes out, and where there is no tailbearer, strife ceases. As charcoal is to burning coals and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife. The words of a talebearer are like tasty trifles, and they go down into the inmost body. Fervent lips with a wicked heart are like earthenware covered with silver dross. He who hates disguises it with his lips, and lays up deceit within himself. When he speaks kindly, do not believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart. Though his hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness will be revealed before the whole congregation. Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him. A lying tongue hates those who are crushed by it, and a flattering mouth works ruin. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we beg tonight that you would keep us from each of the seven kinds of folly described in this chapter. Father, we pray that we would not be fools who fail to fear you, that we would not be sluggards who are lazy in our daily work. We would not be meddlers, jokers, gossips, haters, or liars. Lord, we know that we are naturally every one of these things. And a little consultation of our memories will prove that we have engaged in these activities. Father, we ask your forgiveness. We pray that you would teach us to be like your wise son instead, to seek his wisdom, to be someone who speaks the truth, to be people who speak the truth, not only with accuracy, but also with charity. We pray against folly and for the triumph of wisdom for your kingdom to come. We ask that it would come even through the preaching of your word tonight. Help me to speak with accuracy and charity the things that are written in this text before us. We ask it all, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, all the sorts of folly listed here warn us about our own character. and show us what Jesus is like by way of contrast. The wise son is not like any of these kinds of fools. Of course, as I said, we all know that we've done these things. We are like these kinds of fools. And that means we need to repent of this folly, turn away from it, and find forgiveness Jesus. We'll talk about that actually in a few weeks in chapter 28 about whoever confesses and forsakes his sin will find mercy. So we're getting there. The Proverbs reminding us that there is forgiveness even for repentant fools. Well last week We looked at the first section, the longest section, verses 1 to 12, about the regular fool is exhibit A in this category of people without self-control. And tonight, we'll look mostly at exhibits B through G. The seven exhibits are precisely the last six of those exhibits. And in all six, we'll see the wise son revealing his wisdom by diagnosing, exposing, and responding to half a dozen kinds of folly. Christ reveals his wisdom in diagnosing, exposing, and responding to half a dozen different kinds of folly. Just a quick review, remember we saw last week about the fool, the regular fool. He has to be answered. That's the final word in verse 5, answer a fool according to his folly. But that answer has to be directed towards preventing him from being wise in his own eyes. Don't let him go further down that path of being impressed with his own smarts. Otherwise, you're part of the problem. Your goal in interacting with the fool is to prevent him from being wise in his own eyes, and of course, to protect yourself from becoming a fool. Well, the second kind of fool, Exhibit B, the sluggard, is described in four verses here. What do we see about him? He comes up with the most fantastic and ridiculous excuses. I can't go to work because there's a lion in the streets. Wild animals don't come in the streets. We were at the park in Upton last night and there were deer browsing on the grass, but we did not see any mountain lions just kind of wandering around the park. Big predators aren't found where human beings, the biggest predator, live and work. Of course, the sluggard comes up with all kinds of excuses. The sluggard thinks, well, he sits on his bed. You would think he's hinged to it, the way he just turns back and forth there. He's too tired to even get his hand out of the carton of french fries. The old joke, that's how I get my exercise, lifting french fries to my mouth. He won't even do that. But he's wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly. What is going on with this guy? The way Solomon describes him, of course, we would almost say this fellow sounds like he's mentally ill. But of course, the description is of somebody who's as far gone as he can go. This is where laziness leads you. And if you give into it, if you say, yeah, I'll believe my own excuses. Yeah, this bed feels really good. Yeah, I'm just too tired to do that right now. Therefore, I won't do it. But the craziest thing of all about the slugger is that he is, he thinks he's really smart. He is more impressed with himself, right? He thinks it's a more impressive achievement to evade as much work as he evades than it would be to be a cabinet member. To be somebody who can answer sensibly and is known for wise advice and is hired by the state to give good advice. I don't wanna be a presidential advisor. That would be too much work. I am smarter than those people. because look at all the work I get out of. That's how the sluggard thinks. How do you tackle a lazy streak like this? Schedules, to-do lists, those things can be helpful, but again, it's a heart problem. Laziness is a result of not fearing God, not wanting to do what he designed you to do. Blessed is the man his master finds working when he comes. As with all the kinds of follies, the solution is to learn to fear God. So you have to learn what God is like, fix that in your thoughts, and say, God made me to work. Six days shall you labor and do all your work. That's a commandment. And if I'm not doing that, then I'm sinning. And of course, you won't care about that unless you care about God, unless you fear Him. So the second kind of fool, the sluggard. Don't be the fool. Don't be the sluggard. Don't encourage the sluggard to be a sluggard. Verse 17 tells us about a third kind of fool, the meddler. He who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own, is like one who takes a dog by the ears. You can almost never, in fact, we can just say you can't ever help by intervening in a quarrel between two of your equals or two of your superiors. It's not your quarrel, so don't get involved. I mentioned in Sunday school that I once had the privilege of being present in a home where the husband and wife were having a little fight. And then I piped up and suggested how they could solve their fight. And it didn't go very well. It was exactly what Solomon describes. You take the dog by the ears. Now you've got this mad dog if you hang on. You're going to be there forever. If you let go, the dog is going to jump in your face and tear your throat out. Now, we can say, I think, you know, if you want to talk about politically, this attitude of meddling in quarrels not ours has been the cornerstone of American foreign policy roughly since the turn of the last century. And the results are all around us. Politically speaking, it's disastrous and it's just as disastrous on an individual level Now I Read yesterday that Chairman Mao said you fight your war and I'll fight mine Superficially that sounds very similar to this attitude you fight your war and I'll fight mine, but it's a radically different statement Solomon is saying if you get involved in a quarrel and that's not your quarrel, you're in trouble. Mao is saying, you can't challenge the legitimacy of my quarrels. I'm fighting this war and if you try to rebuke me over it, I'm going to tell you, go mess with your own quarrels. My war is legitimate. This attitude is not saying any quarrel you want to have is acceptable. It's saying, don't go get involved in other people's quarrels. What about law enforcement officers who can feel at the end of a workday like their entire job is getting involved in other people's quarrels? I would say many times you were asked to intervene. Somebody who is a member of that quarrel said, we need some help. But the other side of it is I said at the beginning, you can't help in quarrels between your equals and your superiors. But you can oftentimes help in quarrels between two of your inferiors. And if you are a law enforcement officer, then you serve the state. And in that capacity, you are a superior to the people who are quarreling. No matter what ways they might be superior to you, In this respect, you have the authority of the state to say, stop it. You are not authorized to have this fight by these means. And the state is going to intervene and make you stop having that fight. And that goes, then, for those of us with other kinds of authority as parents, teachers, and bosses, we have the right to take those under our charge who are fighting and say, no. You're not going to do this. Stop. Of course, God often intervenes in our fights that way, by telling us no. But when you get a nation that thinks that it's the world's superior telling the rest to stop fighting, or when you get a person who thinks he's your superior telling you to stop fighting when he's not your superior, The results are just more quarrels, more problems. It sounds like Paul's description of the Corinthian church. Backbitings, jealous strivings, wrath, envy. The whole nine yards. Don't do it. Fools intervene in quarrels that don't belong to them. If it's not your fight, it's not your fight. The fourth kind of fool is the jokester. He says whatever he wants to say just to see if people will believe him. He throws out all kinds of ridiculousness. And if somebody believes him and is deceived and acts based on that faulty conception, then he disclaims all responsibility. I was just joking. Translation, you believe me, therefore you're the idiot. Therefore, what went wrong is not my fault, even though you were acting in good faith based on what I said. This is me. I can't tell you how many people have told me, I don't know when you're joking, Caleb. Well, Solomon says, I'm like this madman. That to joke at random, throwing out information that is faulty, that you intend people to take as funny instead of as truthful and reliable, is roughly comparable to running around town with a flamethrower and just triggering it off anytime you see something. Oh, look, there's a spider in the eaves. Oh, I guess I burned the house down. Oh, well, I got the spider. That's what it's like, a madman who is tossing fire everywhere. Don't be this. And of course, we don't see Jesus ever joking in the pages of the New Testament. We do see Paul making a few jokes, like, I wish the Judaizers would cut the whole thing off, or it's better to marry than to burn. These kinds of jokes. As far as we know, very few people have been fooled by those. He wasn't trying to deceive. He was just expressing his frustration with people who didn't understand Christian teaching. Have you ever thought about what dragons' two greatest powers are? Of course, we all know that they can breathe fire. But their other greatest power is their ability to speak deceptive words. Anyone who converses with the dragon pretty much guaranteed to fall under the dragon's spell and begin to believe the dragon. Might there be a connection between those two powers? Might Solomon be hinting that the power to speak deceptive words and the power to breathe fire really kind of are mirror images of one another? Yes, the wise son, Christ has the tongue that's a sword. He can cut down people with his tongue. But James tells us that the rotten tongue is a fire in a world of iniquity that sets on fire the course of nature. Don't be the jokester. Don't think that it's funny to trick people by your words. The next one, and I fear once again I fall under this condemnation, is the gossip. The gossip is like fuel added to the fire. The contentious man, the tail bearer who piles on more fuel to get people at each other's throats. Let me tell you another story about how dumb so-and-so is. You will not believe what that family has been up to. You won't believe what so-and-so did this week. How do we learn to stop enjoying gossip? The answer, once again, is that we have to enjoy Jesus more. We have to love Him before we can have that charitable attitude that loves our neighbor's good name. It's more interested in building people up than in getting a big kick out of their ludicrous folly. We learn to enjoy Christ by being with Him, by reading His Word, by worshiping Him. And it doesn't hurt to have friends who rebuke us for our gossiping. One of my college friends who's now an OPC minister and state college PA is outstanding at this. Whenever the conversation turned to gossip, which it did all the time at the table at a college of 325 students, he would stop us. Nope, we're not talking about that. Let's move on. We don't need to discuss them. That's within the power of everyone in this room. We can all shut down gossip. We don't want to have the attitude that says, I don't like to repeat gossip, so listen carefully the first time. Well finally, well almost finally, the sixth kind of fool is the hater. This malicious person he's described in verse 24 as the hater. NIV paraphrases the enemy. He who hates disguises it with his lips and he lays up deceit within himself. And his lips sound very sincere but they cover an evil heart. They're like a clay pot that's had this cheap silver substitute poured all over it. Pick it up and say, wow, this is pretty cool. This is a silver cup. Well, no, it's actually made of dirt. It's just pottery, but it's got this good-looking cheap glaze on it. Well, that's what the hater is like. And the main thing Solomon points out about the hater is that he lies about his hatred and he will suffer for it. He's a hater, he speaks kindly or his voice is gracious, but there are seven abominations in his heart. Again, the perfect number of abominations. This is a very evil person who's out to get you. Don't believe him because his wickedness will be revealed in front of the congregation. So again, as with the other fools, don't trust the hater, don't be the hater. Two things to remember. Don't trust the hater, don't be the hater. We can flip this around as well and say anyone who runs on hate has a heart loaded with seven abominations. Listen to their words and figure out if they're driven by hate. And if they are, then it doesn't matter in one sense what it is that they're hating. Maybe they hate the system. Maybe they hate political corruption. Maybe they hate you name it. But if that's the main thing, if that's what drives their project, their heart is loaded with abominations. Don't be that, don't trust that, don't honor that, donate to that, or vote for that. The hater's heart is loaded with abominations. And we can say, in terms of your personal relationships, If you hate the sin but fail to love the sinner, you have become the hater. Oh, that sin is awful. I hate that sin. Well, that's good. You should hate that sin. But if you hate the sin and the sinner, then you're the hater. The last chapter told us that we respond to evil by feeding our enemy. If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat. If he's thirsty, give him water to drink. So you will heap coals of fire on his head and the Lord will reward you. You have to hate the sin and love the sinner. And you love the sinner by giving him food, giving him water, taking care of him, offering him hospitality. That's what Jesus does with sinners. Is this easy? No. How can you be free from hate when people, when others have done terrible things to you and those you love? How can you do it? Only by knowing Jesus and trusting absolutely in his promises. That's the only thing that delivers us from hate. Remember Gandhi, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and the whole world will be toothless and blind. Jesus stops that cycle of violence by saying, no. I take the penalty on myself, or I will administer the penalty when it's appropriate. You stop taking revenge. So if you've identified somebody as a hater, don't believe him. Don't trust him, but also don't attack him. Whoever digs a pit will fall into it. He who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him. After all, as many victims, who did Hitler kill? Himself. Stalin made his doctors live in such fear of him that at the end they refused to treat him because they might do it wrong. and suffer his wrath, and so he died with no care. Whoever rolls that stone will see it come rolling back. The hater's hatred will take care of the hater. You don't have to do it. It doesn't mean that you should fail to exercise appropriate caution. Or that you should say, well, I'll just commit myself into the hands of this hater. I'll be lazy and take no steps to protect myself. No. Then you're falling into the trap of the sluggard back in verse 13. But recognize that as Jesus said, those who live by the sword die by the sword, as those who live by hate will die by their own hatred. What did we say? Truth-telling is not just about accuracy, but also about charity. The wisdom of the wise son is not just about accuracy, but also about charity. And the hater who tells lies to conceal his hatred will fall. He will be destroyed by that hate. His wickedness will be revealed before the congregation. and will become apparent to the whole church who this person really is. That doesn't necessarily mean in this life. It might be a judgment day, but it will happen, and that's why we can bank on it. Well, the final kind of fool is the liar, the liar who hates those who are crushed by his tongue, And the flip side of that, the flattering mouth that works ruin. We think of lying as negative. Oh, that liar said all kinds of untrue, horrible things about me. He told them that I secretly do all kinds of things that they disapprove of. But the lying tongue can also be something that says positive things, something that flatters you. Something that tells you you're a wonderful human being. And that you think, wow, this person just builds me up more than anybody else I talk to. I always come away feeling so good about myself after I have a conversation with so and so. Well again, don't be the flatterer, don't trust the flatterer, don't be the liar, don't trust the liar. Lying, whether it takes the form of flattery or of the traditional saying bad things about somebody, lying is just another way of expressing hatred and it's another way of wreaking destruction. A Christian can't say, tell me what I want to hear and I'll do whatever you want. The longer you run on flattery, the easier it is to keep running on flattery. it can become a veritable addiction. Nobody's in my life telling me how wonderful I am. I can't even function anymore. What do you do if you're in that situation? You have to learn to love to spend time with Jesus, who is the truth. He does rejoice over you. He does love you, but he never flatters you. never goes out of his way to tell you, well, he doesn't ever tell you something false about yourself. Something that makes you feel good, even though it's not true. What sort of flattery, what sort of lies are we most susceptible to? Well, generally speaking, the ones that say, your sin is no big deal. the status quo where you regularly indulge in your favorite evil behavior is acceptable and fine and you don't need to take any particularly drastic steps to change that status quo because whatever sins you practice they're not that bad and there would really be no point in doing anything excessive to try to target such a tiny little sin. Right? We're very susceptible to those lies. Or the lies that say, fudging God's law, that's not a problem. Well, yes, I believe that God's law says this. I believe it's wrong to do the thing I want to do. But I think I can have some version of the thing I want to do that's not quite as wrong. In fact, now that I think about it, it's not even wrong at all. In fact, it's a very good thing. God's law probably tells me I ought to be doing this. We all enjoy those lies. Well, guess what? A lying tongue hates those who are crushed by it. I told you before about the teenager who came to my mom for a little informal counseling and told her at the end of the conversation, you know, Mrs. Nelson, my problem is that I lie to myself and then I believe the lies. If you lie to yourself, who are you hating? Who are you destroying? Who are you hurting? When you believe those lies that your sin is acceptable and fine and no big deal, When you believe lies about the seven kinds of fool, right, my laziness isn't so bad. In fact, my laziness is probably a sign that I'm smart. Or my meddling is a sign that I'm more righteous than the people around me. And if they would just listen to me, all their quarrels could stop. Or my joking is a sign that I have an advanced sense of humor and I'm surrounded by a bunch of dullards. to go and do stupid things because they don't get the joke. Or my gossip is a sign that I'm superior to the idiots I tell stories about. A flattering mouth works ruin and so often the flattering mouth flatters the guy that has the mouth. I tell myself how wonderful I am often by telling stories that feature my friends and acquaintances in starring roles in which they appear to be a lot stupider than I am. Flatter yourself? That work's ruin. Tell lies? You're hating the people you're lying about, sure, but you're hating even more, perhaps, the person you're telling the lies to, and if that person is you, Heaven help you. A lying tongue hates those it hurts. A lying tongue will look at all seven kinds of folly and tell you, these are okay. These are a perfectly acceptable part of the Christian life. See, I know they are because he does it, she does it, they do it, my other friends over here do it. Well, look at that. I fit right in. Except that I'm of course superior to them and I do it even better than they do. Brothers and sisters, what's the solution to these seven kinds of folly? How do we stop being lazy, meddling, joking, gossiping, hating, and lying? The answer is to fear God to seek the Holy Spirit, to give you that self-control that will enable you to stop and to start honoring God. When you fear God, you're not a fool. You're wise. When you fear God, you're not a meddler. You're wise. When you fear God, you're not a gossip. You're wise. You care more about what God thinks Then you do about the glee and that good feeling that comes from telling yet another story about what the so-and-sos are up to. When you spend time with the wise son, you come to love truth like he does. Lies die in his presence because he is the truth. Being with him heals because he is the great physician, right? He's the opposite of the flattering liar who ruins and destroys. He's the truth teller who rebukes when it's appropriate and therefore builds up and heals. Leave flattery and go to Jesus. Listen to his rebukes. which is delivered perhaps by drawing a picture of seven kinds of fool and saying, just take a look. See if you recognize any of these people. Don't live in folly. Reject this folly. Seek the wise son. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, We pray that you would convict us, not just momentarily, but in an ongoing way. I pray, Father, especially against my own sins of gossip and joking. Lord, we pray together against all seven kinds of folly. Give us the self-control wrought by your spirit living in our hearts. to enable us to flee folly and to seek the wise Son. Father, especially don't let us lie to ourselves about the severity of our sin and about the need to attack it. Bring us into your presence that we might see your divine power and energy and learn to fear you and therefore be wise and hate sin. Deliver us from haters Deliver us from flatterers. We pray, Father, above all, that You would deliver us from the hater and the flatterer that lives in our own heart. We pray for Your Spirit to come and war with our flesh and to conquer. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.