The Portrait of a Fool | Proverbs 1:20–32

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Stinking Jason preached last week and left my uh podium up here too tall for me. So I'm gonna adjust that while you look at me for a second. But it's good to be here. Good to be with you. Thank you for coming. Guests, welcome. My name's Andrew. I'm one of the pastors here, and it's an honor to be with you and serve you today through the teaching of his word. And we're in a series through the book of Proverbs. And so I'm gonna ask you to turn in your Bible to Proverbs chapter one. We have Bibles for free out at the Connection Center. If you need one, please go grab one. We don't want you to go Bible-less. Uh, we just want you to bring it back next week when you come again, and uh we want you to be able to study it, lay eyes on God's Word. This is our final authority. That's an unapologetic stance of our church. We, I, the pastors, are not the final authority. It is God's word, so we want to study it with that kind of submission and understanding. We pray for enlightenment, we pray for his leadership in this, and uh, we want you to lay eyes on it yourself so you can get uh the full impact of what God's word is teaching and uh help us in our in our journey. And we're in this series through Proverbs, so Proverbs chapter one is what I want you to think about and read here in just a minute. Calling it walking in wisdom. What we're planning to do is not necessarily cover uh every verse in Proverbs. That that's a journey, that's uh something maybe hopefully we'll do over the course of several several years of taking some time in it. But what we're really gonna do is we're gonna we're gonna establish wisdom. We've done that a couple weeks ago, and then we're gonna apply wisdom uh or or glean wisdom from the book of Proverbs to apply to different areas of our lives. So last week I know Jason dealt with wisdom for the home, and uh certainly Proverbs has much to say about that. There's things in the book of Proverbs uh that provide us with wisdom regarding money and work and relationships and uh how to use our our voice and friendships and uh all kinds of things in here that we, over the course of the next uh probably seven or eight more weeks, are gonna look into and study together. Uh, and we want to certainly get the most out of uh this book as we can for the wisdom for our life, and so that we will walk in wisdom. That's the heart, and that's the plan. But uh before we jump to that, I want to uh just establish something this morning about foolishness. So the tension I had all week, before I read this, I'll say is there's there's uh the first nine chapters of Proverbs really kind of leans into uh this uh this two ways to walk. One way to walk is the way of wisdom, and the other way to walk is the way of fool folly or foolishness. And and really what it is is a father speaking to a son, just discipling his son to say, hey, you gotta be careful. There's two ways to walk. Make sure you're following the way of wisdom, not the way of foolishness. And uh, we have many things in the first nine chapters that just kind of establish the two ways. Before he ever gets into the nuggets and proverbs of wisdom, he establishes this. So there's what we're gonna study today, the call of wisdom. In chapter two, the heading is the value of wisdom. So he talks about how we seek for it like treasure and it's super valuable. And then there's other places like in chapter three, beginning in verse 13, there's blessed is the one who finds wisdom. And then he gets into some sayings like the father's wise instruction. Uh, there's some warnings against some adultery and just practical warnings in there, and then he jumps back into this two ways in chapter eight again, when he calls again the blessings of wisdom. And then in chapter nine, he calls it the way of wisdom and the way of folly. So, kind of all throughout chapters one through nine of Proverbs, he's just establishing there are two ways, and one is better than the other. One has better qualities, one has better conclusions, and one is just a dangerous place to live in. And so what he's doing is he's he's inspiring his son to listen, lean in. I've got some wisdom, wisdom I want to give you. And the wisdom I want to give you is God inspired, it's from the Lord, and it is wisdom that's gonna save you from a life of hurt and a life of regret and a life of pain and a life of suffering. And if you choose the other way, the way of folly, you're gonna end up, and he describes all of that throughout chapters one through nine. Now, I thought about covering all of that, but I figured you didn't want to be here for three hours. So we're gonna focus our attention in on chapter one, and I want to consider what I'm gonna call this the portrait of a fool. So we've established in chapter one that there is uh the wisdom that he's making available to us. That was verses one through seven of chapter one. Now we're gonna consider this portrait of a fool. So let me go, let me just say one thing, just uh Aaron or Jason, this AC on is up here, and I don't know if anybody else can hear it, but I can, so if you guys wouldn't mind maybe helping me out with that, that's all I hear, and I can't even hear myself right now. So thank you for forgiving. Forgive me for that, but I just wanted to share that with them. So let's begin reading in verse 20. Proverbs chapter 1, verse 20 through verse 33. Here's what he says wisdom cries aloud in the street. In the markets, she raises her voice. At the head of the noisy streets, she cries out. At the entrance of the city gates, she speaks. How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn up my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you, I will make my words known to you, because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded. Because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind. When distress and anguish come upon you, then they will call upon me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, would have none of my counsel, and despised all my reproof. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices, for the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them. But whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease without dread of disaster. These are God's words for us today. Now I don't know what you think of when you hear the word fool. Many people, though, will think of someone who lacks intelligence. They're fools, they're dumb, they're they're they're they're uh mindless, someone who makes bad decisions, maybe someone who acts recklessly, maybe someone who just doesn't know any better. The Bible defines the fool in a little bit of a different way. In Scripture, foolishness is primarily not an intellectual problem. Foolishness is a spiritual problem. The fool is not the person who cannot find the truth. The fool is the person who refuses the truth. The fool is not someone who is uninformed. The fool is someone who is unwilling. In fact, one of the most surprising truths throughout the book of Proverbs is that wisdom is never portrayed as hidden. Wisdom is not locked away in some secret library where only wise sages and psychologists or uh uh teachers or professors have access to. It's not reserved for scholars or philosophers or religious experts. Wisdom is available. That's what he's saying. It's accessible, it's calling. It's exactly how our passage began. You saw it. Solomon then what he's doing is painting a vivid picture. That wisdom is standing in the streets, she's raising her voice in the marketplace, she's calling out at the city gates, she is publicly inviting people to listen and to repent and to walk in God's way. So Solomon is personifying wisdom, and he's calling her the woman wisdom or lady wisdom. And he's saying, Lady wisdom is out there, she's available. Everywhere you go, you can glean wisdom, you can receive wisdom, it's available. But the tragedy of Proverbs 1 in this passage we just read is not that wisdom is unavailable. The tragedy is that wisdom is rejected. That's why this passage is so relevant. I think it confronts one of the greatest dangers facing every one of us. The greatest danger is not that God has failed to speak, it's not that God's ways and God's wisdom is unclear. The greatest danger is that we hear his voice and we refuse to listen. In many ways, Proverbs 1 is describing the same condition that Paul describes in Romans 1. People know God yet refuse to honor him. They hear the truth, yet they suppress the truth. They're not condemned because they lack revelation, they are condemned because they reject revelation. That's what Paul or Solomon is presenting to us. And if we're honest, if we're honest right now, even us who are here in church, Christians, growing believing, there's a little bit of that fool in every one of us. Every time we ignore God's word, every time we resist his conviction, every time we refuse his correction, every time we choose our own way over God's way, we are acting the fool. It's the foolishness that's in us, in our sinfulness, that He is exposing here. Yes, rampant and present in the life of unbelievers, but also there in the life of believers. So Solomon wants us to understand that foolishness then is refusing the wisdom that God freely offers. So what I want you to think about is this big idea that's gonna sit over the top of this today that we're gonna unpack. The fool's greatest problem is not ignorance, but his refusal of God's wisdom. Foolishness isn't ignorance, it's not, I didn't know. Foolishness is the refusal of God's wisdom that is well known, that is clear and presented. So the question that our text is answering for us, or that we should ask, that we hope to find here, is what is a person who refuses the wisdom of God, what do they look like? What are the characteristics of a person who, whether whether a believer or unbeliever, who refuses to uh receive and embrace and follow the wisdom that God provides in every place? How does that look? What does it look like? So Solomon answers that question by by showing us a few characteristics of that fool. Okay, so I want to show you these three things that I want to glean from these verses, calling it the portrait of a fool. I don't want it to sound like negative in a sense, I just want it to be what Solomon intends for it to be. And it's a warning. It's it's pastoral. That's that's what he's doing. It's it's fatherly. It's what you would do with your son when you would sit him down and say, son, listen, I just want to warn you that that's foolishness. Don't go that way, don't walk that way. Choose the better way, choose the better option. And so we would say this is a life pattern that we need to choose, but it's also uh to be applied to the different decisions that we are faced with and temptations that we are faced with as individuals uh who follow Christ. Okay, so the portrait of a fool. Let me show you what this looks like. If you if you're taking notes, let's write it down this way. Number one, the portrait of a fool is this the fool rejects God's invitation. The fool rejects God's invitation. So remember, wisdom comes from God. Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. So all wisdom is God's wisdom. This is where it comes from. Remember, he promised in James that if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally. So wisdom here, personified as this lady, we know, understand that this is wisdom that comes from God. So, in essence, this is God working and teaching and calling. And so wisdom is making this public proclamation. Verse 20, wisdom cries aloud in the street. Wisdom is in the streets, wisdom is in the markets, wisdom is by the city gates. That's verse 20 and 21. These were the busiest and the most public places in ancient society. Basically, it was saying there wisdom's everywhere. Wisdom is able to be seen and gleaned, there is something to learn and there's something to grow in this understanding of the skill of compiling a life that honors the Lord. It's everywhere. And it's calling for you. The point is unmistakable. It's available. The fool's problem, then, we know what he's gonna unpack for us, is not a lack of access. The fool's problem, according to chapter one here, is his lack of response to the available wisdom that is there. It's one of the great themes of scripture. God is not hiding. God is not hiding in his throne room, playing hide-and-seek. He's not keeping his will hidden so that you have to search harder for it. Bible speaks about this. Creation speaks, Psalm 19. Your conscience speaks, Romans 2. Scripture speaks, 2 Timothy 3. The preachers and Old Testament prophets and apostles, they they speak, the Spirit moves and convicts convicts. God has spoken again and again and again. His voice and his presence and his fingerprints and his wisdom is reverberating throughout creation. The issue isn't whether or not God has spoken, the issue is whether or not people are listening. Look at verse 23, what it promises. It says, if you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you. It's generosity from wisdom, God's generosity, wisdom's generosity. I will make my words known to you. Think about the language here. This isn't, if you work hard enough, you might earn a drop of wisdom. This is a, I got big buckets up here that I'm waiting to pour out to you if you would listen, if you would receive the proclamation of wisdom. It is abundant, it is overflowing, it is more than enough. This is the same kind of language scripture uses elsewhere for God's generosity in giving his spirit. He pours out his spirit. It isn't rationed, it's lavished. But notice who he's talking to here. Notice who wisdom is crying out to. Verse 22. He talks about the simple one. So, how long, oh simple ones? The problem with the simple one is they love ignorance. How long, oh simple ones, will you love being simple? Now the simple are morally inexperienced, that's how some would put it. They're naive and easily influenced, they're spiritually undiscerning, they have not chosen yet wisdom or folly. They're drifting. They're just drifting. They're the teenager in your home that's just kind of wandering through, figuring life out. That's kind of who we're thinking about here. The fool doesn't necessarily hate wisdom outright. He simply loves something else more. He loves his simplicity, his comfort, his current way of seeing things more than he desires what God offers. This is where refusal of God's wisdom almost always begins. Not with a dramatic act of rebellion, but with quiet preference. A love for the familiar, a love for ease over growth. The invitation is here, but the heart says, not yet, I'm comfortable where I am. I don't need to make a decision on this yet. I'm just gonna let somebody else figure that out, and I'm just gonna coast into this. This was refusal uh uh beginning in the life of an individual. Again, not with a clenched fist raised against God and against the wisdom of God, but with this quiet, comfortable preference. It's the comfort of staying as you are, the ease of not examining your life too closely, it's the pleasure of being right without having to be challenged. They love their simplicity. I don't really want to have an opinion on that. What do you think about it? I don't I don't really know. I'd rather just stay neutral. I don't want to pick a side here. Think about how this plays out practically. You know what this is. This is on display in our lives regularly. When someone reads a passage of scripture that convicts them about how they speak to their spouse, and instead of sitting with it, they immediately think of someone else who needed to hear that. Oh, good. I'm glad they said that. I don't need that, but that person sure did. Someone hears a sermon that exposes a pattern of pride in their life, and they walk out of church thinking about where we're gonna have lunch. Like the Spirit of God leans into you, and you're like, Yes, I know, I know, but hey, what about Taco Zelgordo? That sounds good, right? Let's go there. We should go there too, but we should deal with pride first. None of this necessarily looks like outright rebellion, does it? It looks like normal life, but underneath a choice is being made. And here's the choice I would rather stay as I am than turn toward what's being offered. That's what the simple is doing. They don't want to be confronted with right and wrong, they don't want to have to make a choice. They just love being simple. Ignorance is bliss, knowledge is bondage. That's third motto, right? I don't want to know, I don't want to have to decide, I just want to live in simplicity. And that inevitably leads to and produces the next level, which I think is even worse, and that's the scoffer who loves his arrogance. How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing? So this person now, the scoffer, has moved beyond ignorance. The fool now mocks truth, the fool now ridicules authority. He begins to find a pattern in his life where he's despising correction. And the problem is not confusion, the problem is pride. This is so often where the simple who love simplicity leads. They move from just being non-responsive to wisdom because it is more comfortable to being hostile towards wisdom because it's disrupting their life. And then he says the third step is how long will you fools hate knowledge? The language intensifies. It's not intellectual inability, it's moral rebellion. The fool does not merely lack truth, he now opposes truth. He doesn't want God telling him how to live. At his core, foolishness is autonomy. I want my own way. I don't want God to tell me how to live. I don't I don't think they would admit the hating of knowledge, but because fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, and they refuse to fear the Lord, they in essence are hating knowledge. Because they want to do it their own way. I don't want to do it his way, I don't want to follow the Lord. And he's saying, listen, wisdom is crying out, and that wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. But the fool is loving their simplicity, they're scoffing at knowledge and truth, and now they're hating knowledge because they're refusing to fear the Lord, which is all a declaration of autonomy. I want it my way. Notice again mercy's, uh rather wisdom's invitation. Before judgment comes, later, grace comes. Look at it again in verse 23. We already read it, but if you turn over my reproof, if you'll just listen to me, I will pour out my spirit to you. Wisdom is begging you. It's literally saying, if you just listen, I've got such a great path for you to walk. I've got a great life for you to live. I've got the flourishing that God's wisdom brings into a life. If you just fear the Lord and increase in understanding and knowledge, and this is what's going on. It it offers understanding and blessing in life. And so the tragedy is not that the invitation uh necessarily is refused. Wisdom is available and calling, but the fool walks around with their ears plugged. That's what's going on here. They're like, la la la la, I don't want to hear it, I don't want to hear it. And in essence, they are now despising it. In fact, think about it in verse 24. Look ahead. Because I have called and you refuse to listen. That's fingers in your ears, I'm not listening. I might be in church, but I'm thinking about lunch. He says, I've stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof. You see, the book of Proverbs is all about wisdom for everyday life. It's wisdom for real, raw, where the rubber meets the road, life. And he's saying here that the person who's going to struggle in these arenas and have the problems in those arenas is the person who's the fool who's refusing to listen. They're knocking away the hand of God that's stretched out for them, and they're ignoring all the counsel. Proverbs chapter 1, verse 7, we studied that a couple weeks ago, but he says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 23:9 says, Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense of your words. It's not that they don't understand good counsel or loving reproof, whether it be from a father or a mother or a pastor or a prophet or whoever. They simply reject it. And by the way, listen, this is the same way Paul describes the fool in Romans. In Romans chapter 1, verse 19. For what can be known about God is plain to them, Paul says. And now he's applying this to unbelievers, people who reject God. He's saying, What can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. Wisdom of God and the presence of God and the reality of God and the revelation of God, it's not hard to see. It's plain to them because God has shown it to them. Verse 20, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. God has revealed himself through creation. Both Proverbs and Romans declares that God has spoken and his wisdom is available. In both passages, the issue is not a lack of revelation, the issue is rejection of revelation. Again, let me say this again. I've said it already. Let me say it again. The fool's problem is not that God is silent, the fool's problem is that he would not listen. Wisdom cried aloud in the streets, creation declares the glory of God, scripture reveals the character of God, yet the fool plugs his ears and turns away. This is what unbelievers do, and this is what it looks like for the Christian to play the fool. So the fool's greatest danger is not what he does not know, it's what he refuses to hear. So I look at this and I take my body, my life, my heart, my mind, and I look at this as a mirror and I say, Andrew, where are some areas in your life that wisdom is clearly speaking? It's clearly calling for your attention, and you're just refusing to listen. I won't tell you what they are, but there's several areas that I was confronted with as I investigated my life where I'm playing the fool. What are they for you? What is it that God is saying to you? This is this is what a marriage looks like, this is what a home looks like, this is what a a single person's life looks like, this is what a student's life looks like, this is how you engage with friends, this is wisdom. And this isn't just good advice, this is wisdom from God. This is this is divine revelation directing you into a life of flourishing, and instead of hearing and responding, you're playing the fool by saying, Ah, I'd rather do it my way. I think I'm an exception to the rule. So that's what the fool does. He rejects God's invitation. God's invitation, come, I got something good for you. And he says, No. Goes another step further in point two that I need you to think about with me, and that is this the portrait of a fool. The fool not only rejects God's invitation, but we see evidence in this passage that the fool resists God's correction. In verse 24, it tells us that the fool's problem was not just that they refused to listen, but they he stretched out his hand, no one heeded. And in verse 25, you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof. It's a step further in their refusal to receive the wisdom of God. Notice the repeated descriptions, would you? I have called and you refused. I stretched out my hand, no one has heeded. You ignored, you would have none in verse 25, and in verse 30, you despised my reproof. Three times in this passage, he talks about wisdom's reproof. Reproof is the act of offering correction, rebuke, or discipline to someone at fault. I thought about asking you to have a show of hands to say who likes being corrected. But I knew if anyone raised their hand, you'd be lying, right? Because nobody loves that. Nobody's like, please correct me, make me feel dumb, I want to be better, right? We don't what nobody ever embraces that. It's always uncomfortable. And we know that foolishness is natural to our nature because anytime correction comes to us, we receive it initially. Even if we later receive it and are helped by it initially, our first response is not, I love it. It's rejection. The fool, then, is this not portrayed as uninformed. He is portrayed as resistant to the correction and reproof of God. He repeatedly rejects God's attempt to rescue him. Notice the progression. Not a single bad decision. It's a pattern. I called, you refused. I stretched out my hand, no one paid attention. I offered reproof, but you would have none of it. Wisdom doesn't give up easily, by the way. Don't you find that true? She keeps calling. The grace of God and the wisdom of God keeps calling and keeps reaching and keeps correcting. I stretched out my hand. I called and kept calling. I came to you and you did not want me again and again and again. Wisdom doesn't give up easily. She keeps calling, she keeps reaching, she keeps correcting. So what we're learning from this is that this is not just a single moment. This isn't, I was sitting in church Sunday and I heard something and I rejected it, and now everything. This is this is a pattern of life. This is a relationship. This is a sustained back and forth between God who keeps reaching and a person who keeps pulling away. God who keeps convicting and a person who keeps resisting. A God who keeps saying, I've got a better way for you, and a person who keeps saying, I'm good my way. This tells us something about the character of God that, again, we need to think about, and that is that God is patient with fools, isn't he? I am exhibit A for that. God is patient with fools. Far longer than we deserve. He doesn't call once and walk away. He calls. He stretches out his hand. He's patient with us. Judgment comes later in the passage, isn't the response to a single failure, it is the response to sustained, repeated, deliberate resistance to a God who kept showing up to rescue. Each unanswered call, though, makes the next refusal easier, doesn't it? This is how foolishness hardens hearts. Think about this correction, reproof, the wisdom of God saying, Andrew, that's wrong. You need to change that. And that correction comes through scripture or through a friend's honest word or through conviction of the Spirit in prayer or through the consequences of choices, and they become something to be managed. That feeling of frustration, that feeling of conviction, that feeling of reproof of the wisdom of God becomes something to be deflected or ignored rather than received and responded to. And the conscience that once felt the sting now feels it a little less. The conviction that once kept someone up at night now barely even registers on the Richter scale for your life. The Holy Spirit's prompting that once felt urgent now feels like background noise. Why? Because we're starting to play the fool in how we knock the hand of God away, how we did not have or would not have any of his reproof. Correction comes by God's grace in so many ways. Not that we conclude that's wrong, we just conclude it's unwelcome here. It's the friend who says, Hey, I think you're justifying something here that we maybe you should probably get right. And we stiffen our neck. Proverbs has a lot to say about that. It's the conviction that hits during a sermon, then quietly fades by Monday. It's the consequences of a choice, a relational choice or a financial strain or a health issue that could function as a wake-up call, right? Just something that happens in your life that should be a wake-up call. Hey, this isn't going well. Learn wisdom from this bad decision. And instead of getting wisdom from that decision and correcting course, we explain it away. This economy, I'll tell you what. This it's politics, right? It's that government party. It's their fault. It's it's it's the economy. We explain it away. We blame it on someone else, or we simply endure without correction and reflection. Each of these is wisdom, stretching out her hand. Each of these is, I believe, a practical way of God saying, I'm here to teach you a truth and a better way to build this life. And each time it's brushed off, the next refusal, it just becomes a little easier. And think about that phrase in verse 25. They would have none of my reproof. I'm not gonna have it. Not gonna have this around here. That's the that's the attitude of somebody, right? The authoritarian teacher. I'm not gonna have this in my classroom. The father, I'm not gonna have this in my home. This is the fool. I'm not gonna have your correction in my life. That's verse 25. Isn't someone who heard correction, considered it, and disagreed after careful thought. This is someone who simply doesn't want it, who's decided in advance that correction is unwelcome, regardless of its source or its validity. This is what makes foolishness so resistant to argument. Think about that. This is fools are hard to argue with. You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason their way into. If the fool's problem was primarily intellect, because he lacked information, then better arguments would fix that, right? If you're arguing with a person and it's just they just don't know, so if you have a better argument, you should be able to win them from their position. But the fool's problem is not intellect, it's a will problem dressed up as an intellectual one. I'm not gonna have any of this truth. I'm not gonna have any of this in my life. This is what the fool does. This is what we do, this is what we do in little practical things. This is what a boy does when he's on a team with a coach who won't listen to the correction to field the ball better or hit the ball better. This is a proverb that's true in every arena of life, whether it's whether it's just physical, practical things, or big spiritual things, that's what we're learning. So the question comes for us is where has correction become something you manage rather than receive? Think about the last time someone, maybe a spouse or a friend or a pastor, or even your own conscience, said something true that you didn't want to hear. What did you do with it? Did you sit with it? Did you learn from it? Did you apply it? Or did you find a way to set it aside, excuse it, distract your attention from it, deflect it? That's resistance to correction. And Proverbs 1 tells us that doesn't stay static, it compounds. You know, this is why the gospel is so offensive. Did you know that? If the gospel is true and Christ died, he had to die for sinners, and if he had to die for sinners, that means we are one. And that would mean that I am actually in the wrong. And so instead of admitting sin and my need for rescue and a savior, the fool has said, I'm not gonna have any of that. So there is no God. The fool's proud heart. Throughout Proverbs, the defining mark of a fool is his response to correction. A wise man receives rebuke, a fool rejects it. We could go on all throughout Proverbs. We could highlight them all, and we should maybe. This is the fool's greatest problem. Let me give you one quick thought in Romans, and that's verse 21 of Romans 1. This is how Paul connects it. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became futile or foolish in their thinking. They rejected God and then they became futile in their thinking. The darkened mind followed the rejection of God and his ways. That's the unregenerate man, and that's the Christian who plays the fool. So one of the greatest, clearest measures of spiritual maturity is teachability. And when God's word confronts you, do you humble yourself or do you defend yourself, justify yourself? The wives receive correction, the fool resists it. And that leads us to the third characteristic that's rather quick on this portrait of a fool. First, the fool, uh, the fool rejects God's invitation. The fool resists God's correction, and lastly, then we're gonna see the fool receives God's judgment. 28, they will call upon me, but I will not answer. The fool who rejected wisdom's invitation and resisted wisdom's correction, now experiences wisdom's judgment. The reversal is interesting. Earlier in the text, wisdom was calling out. Now the fool is calling. Earlier, wisdom sought him, now he seeks wisdom. But according to the text, the opportunity is past. Again, not because God was unwilling, it is because God's persistently was persistently rejected. There comes a point, whether it's in judgment or just in the circumstances of life, when the fool finally is like, okay, I need wisdom, and he calls for it and seeks it, and it isn't there, according to Solomon. Wisdom spent verses 20 through 27, calling out publicly, persistently, and generously, and is now silent, according to Solomon. We tend to think of God as patient as and infinitely patient in the sense that he's always just gonna welcome me back. And in a sense, yes. As long as there's breath, there's the possibility of turning. But this passage shows us that the pattern of refusal has consequences that outlast the moment of refusal itself. The fool doesn't get to simply switch on receptivity to wisdom whenever he finally feels like it, as if all those refused invitations left no mark. The point is this the fool reaps what he has sown. Because they hated knowledge, verse 29. Verse 30, they would have none of my counsel, verse 31, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way. That's the judgment. It's the law of sowing and reaping. It's the harvest that their choices produce. The judgment described here isn't primarily God reaching down with an external punishment unrelated to the fool's choices. It's the fruit or the harvest, the natural organic result of seeds that were planted. Refusal after refusal, correction after correction, for however long the pattern continued. This is now the result of their actions. The person who refuses correction about their finances doesn't get struck by lightning. They simply continue down a path that predictably leads to financial ruin. And when it arrives, it feels like judgment because, in a sense, it is, but it's also just what the path was always going to produce. If you reject wisdom regarding finances, then you're gonna receive the frustration and the emptiness and the brokenness that's down the path of foolishness with your finances. The person who refuses the wisdom and correction from God about their marriage or their family, they don't all of a sudden end in an unexpected divorce, like where'd that come from? Or family turmoil. They reap the harvest of the seeds that were sown by rejecting to follow the way of God and his wisdom with their family and with their home. The person who refuses correction about how to treat people doesn't get divinely slapped. They simply continue alienating people and pushing away kind friends and correcting friends until they surround themselves in isolation. Their choices were quietly building all along by rejecting the wisdom of God when it comes to relationships. We could apply this again and again and again and again. Here's the reality: God often judges people by allowing them to experience the consequences of the path they insisted upon. The fool wanted his own way. That's what they said. The fool insisted, my way. Eventually, God says, Fine, your way. See, that's what eternal judgment is. If we want to talk about hell, I think we could talk about what hell is, and we talk about that a lot, and there's some descriptors in there. But you know what hell ultimately is? It's God giving a fool ultimately what they demanded throughout their life. The fool has said, I don't want God, and so God finally says, Okay, you can spend eternity without me then. That's that's the judgment built into the decision. That's the fool spiritually, that's the fool in salvation, but that's also the fool that plays the fool. Even as a Christian, God allows us to reap the consequences of foolish decisions in the rejection of his wisdom. Fool is destroyed then by his complacency. Look at verse 32. For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them. That that's the complacency. I don't really want to do anything with this. And he says, not making a choice is a choice in itself. Connect that to Romans chapter 1, verse 24, 26, and 28. Three times Paul says of the fool that God gave them up. You want that? Okay. You've slapped my hand away, you've said no to me, you plugged your ears when I was speaking, because you said, I don't want God, I don't want God's wisdom, and he says, Okay. How about it? Self-satisfaction, assuming everything is fine. Listen, this is perhaps the most important question the passage asks. Are the areas of your life right now where you can see, if you're honest, that you are eating the fruit of your own way, that you are reaping the consequences of decisions made in rejection of the wisdom and correction of God. Many people do not reject God with open hostility, they just postpone him tomorrow, later, someday. I don't need it right now. And that ultimately leads to a difficult place. So the Solomon is just saying to his son, son, listen, I just love you too much to let you go down this road without me saying, Wisdom's calling, do not reject its invitation. And wisdom's correcting, don't resist its correction. And if you do, then then you're gonna reap the consequences of your decisions, whether eternally eternally in separation from God or just in the day-to-day practical applications of this principle. But I love how he finishes. Solomon finishes with hope. So let me finish up. I'm I'm a minute or two away from this, but just after 32 verses describing the fool, Solomon ends in hope. Look at verse 33. But whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease without dread of disaster. Respond to my wisdom, respond to my call, receive what I'm offering you. The contrast is incredible. The fool rejects, the wise listen. The fool resists, the wise receive. The fool trusts himself, the wise trust God. And after all of this, after the invitation and the resistance and the sobering judgment, Solomon doesn't end the passage in despair. He stands with us, verse 33, and he opens a door and he says, Whoever listens to me, whoever responds to me, whoever is willing to say, Yes, you're right, I'm wrong, will dwell secure and will be at ease without dread of disaster. This is this is the promise. It doesn't say whoever achieves great wisdom. It doesn't say whoever never struggles with foolishness again. No, it just simply says, Whoever listens. It doesn't mean you're never gonna do a foolish thing ever again. I hope that's true, but it's probably not. It's just whoever listens to wisdom, whoever sits himself down and listens to the wisdom of God's word and the wisdom available in the streets and the wisdom that God has built into all of creation, whoever listens to that will dwell secure. Same voice, same call, same invitation that's been ringing in the streets the whole time. The only variable is whether someone turns toward it or away from it. That's the promise today. That's the question. Are you the kind of person, am I the kind of person who will say, God's word speaks, God's wisdom speaks, and when it speaks, I'm going to listen, I'm going to receive, and if it corrects me, I'm gonna make those corrections. Or I'm good. I'll do it another day. The difference in the result is remarkable. Wisdom is still calling, by the way. Wisdom is still calling. Wisdom is calling for you to respond to it. Now let me make a direct connection here. I think what we see in Proverbs ultimately leads us to have some conclusions, not just to get smarter, but it's calling us to receive God's wisdom. And God's ultimate wisdom, according to Paul in 1 Corinthians, is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the wisdom of God, Christ crucified. So the fool described in Proverbs 1 is described in Romans 1, who is a sinner who suppresses the truth, rejects God, and chooses his own way. But the answer to that foolishness isn't necessarily self-improvement. It's Christ. And just like wisdom was crying in the streets, Christ is the one coming to call sinners to repentance, who's the one who's coming to offer mercy, the one who was rejected by fools, even so that those fools who rejected him might be saved. So the final question of Proverbs 1 isn't Am I gonna get more intelligent? The final question is I am I gonna listen to the voice of God in ultimate wisdom. Which is found in Jesus Christ. Because the promise still stands. Whoever listens to me, wisdom of Proverbs or the wisdom of Christ, whoever listens to the wisdom that is calling of Christ and the gospel will dwell secure. That is wisdom's invitation, and that is Christ's invitation, and that invitation is still being offered today. So ultimate wisdom is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ. That's the connection Paul makes back to this. So don't be a fool. Don't be a fool. The fool, he rejects, you see it? He rejects God's invitation. He resists God's correction. And ultimately he receives the judgment built into that rejection. So let me ask three quick truth-to-life questions for you. We're done. Number one. Where am I ignoring God's invitation to wisdom? God's wisdom isn't hidden, it's calling through the word, through his spirit, ultimately through Jesus Christ. And God graciously invites sinners to trust him. He invites those who are human and foolish to follow him. Is it an area of unbelief? Is it disobedience? Is it self-reliance keeping you from responding to his invitation? Listen, you know where it is. Do not grow accustomed to the call of wisdom. Respond to it. That's number one. Number two, what is my typical response to correction? The difference between the wise and the fool is often revealed in how they respond when confronted with truth. When God's word exposes sin, when a friend speaks hard things, when the Spirit brings conviction, are you the kind of person who humbles yourself, receives that correction, and makes changes, or do you resist and defend yourself? And I'd say number three, I think wisdom is not meant to just be applied to our life, but it's meant to be passed out and lived on missions. So I would ask, who in my life needs to hear the wisdom and hope found in Christ? We're surrounded by people walking the path of foolishness that Paul, that Solomon describes, rejecting God's invitation, resisting his correction, and God has probably placed you in that person's life to share the wisdom of Christ through the gospel into their life. So how can you intentionally point that person to hear and receive the wisdom that is found in Christ? The fool's greatest problem is not ignorance, it's his refusal of God's wisdom. Challenging, huh? I know. And praise God for these truths that are hard sometimes to receive, but may we be better for them. Let's pray. Father, help us, please, in this way, to see ourselves in that. I think it's easy for us to think when we read a passage like that, we could think something like, man, those fools, those people who are fools, those foolish people. But I pray that in a different way, we would look at a passage like that and we would see the potential of ourselves in there. That we all have the potential to be as foolish as anyone. That even as a follower of Christ who's been regenerated and following the ultimate pinnacle of wisdom, who is Christ, still has the ability to fall into foolish ways of thinking. And this is just general principle that Psalm has given us that warns us of that. So help us never to just throw this on to somebody else, but help us to receive the correction that the passage like this brings. And then, Father, I pray that if somebody here is still in a place where their foolishness is actually in the rejection of Christ, that they just refuse to come and respond to the invitation that Christ is giving. I pray that today they would you would break that down and that they would come in total faith and total surrender and total submission and just receive the wisdom that's calling for them. We love you. Thankful for the opportunity to study your word in this way, and we pray for your help in applying it now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.