The Description of a Fool

Ecclesiastes chapter 10, we have a few more sermons than Ecclesiastes will be done at the end of this month That will make seven months that we've been in the book of Ecclesiastes And so we're looking at the last 10 verses in chapter 10 on the description of a fool So let's look at it together Verse number 11, if the serpent bites before being charmed, there is no profit for the charmer Words from the mouth of a wise man are gracious, but the lips of a fool consume him In the beginning of his talking is folly, and the end of it is wicked madness Yet the fool multiplies words

No man knows what will happen and who can tell him what will come after him The toil of a fool so wearies him that he does not even know how to go to a city Woe to you, O land, whose king is a lad and whose princes feast in the morning Blessed are you, O land, whose king is of nobility and whose princes eat at the appropriate time for strength and not for drunkenness Through indolence, the rafters sag, and through slackness, the house leaks Men prepare a meal for enjoyment and wine makes life merry and money is the answer to everything Furthermore, in your bedchamber, do not curse a king

In your sleeping rooms, do not curse a rich man, for a bird of the heavens will carry the sound and the winged creature will make the matter known Now you read that and you think, wow, man, what is that saying? And there are many different interpretations that people have come up with with these last 10 verses. I'm gonna try to make it simple for you this evening But we wanna describe for you a fool Solomon in the 10th chapter shows us the contrast between the wise man and the foolish man And he wants you to understand what the fool is so you better understand the wise man That's important

Because if anybody could speak with authority on foolishness, it would be Solomon. I mean, the book of Proverbs is filled with the topic of foolishness and fools and folly And so is the book of Ecclesiastes In fact, Solomon says more about foolishness than any other writer But I want you to think about that with me for a second Because in Proverbs 22, 15, he says, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child And yet the rod of correction will drive it far from him

Solomon, in all of his wisdom and through the inspiration of the spirit of God, helps us understand the discipline of our children That the foolishness that a child has is wrapped up in their heart Solomon would speak about that earlier in chapter 10 when he said that the foolish man's heart leads him toward the left, where the wise man's heart leads him towards the right So he knows about foolishness being bound up in the heart of a child And so we live in a day where parents don't like to implement that verse

They'll spend a lot more time talking to their children than disciplining their children Or they'll give their children a time out as if that's somewhere in the Bible, which it's not But we think that that's a good way to parent Again, it's not, it's a bad way to parent You wanna be able to parent the way the Bible says If foolishness is bound up in your heart of your child, the only thing that's gonna drive it from your child is the rod Not time out and not talking to them And Solomon would explain that

But you would think that if you were the son of Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, the wealthiest man who ever lived, one of the greatest men who ever walked the earth, if you were a son of Solomon, you would glean on to all that he said because he was a man of wisdom And people from all over the world would come to glean wisdom from your father, the king, Solomon And so you're thinking, man, this is my dad He's so wise And he wrote this whole book of Proverbs to help me understand wisdom and instruction and knowledge and understanding and how not to be a fool

And you would think if anybody wouldn't be a fool, it'd be the son of the wisest man who ever lived, Solomon But Rehoboam was a fool So how could that be? How is it that Solomon raised in the palace of King Solomon, Rehoboam raised in the palace of King Solomon, how was it he could now go the way of the fool? Maybe that's one of your children today You've raised them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord You try to instruct them in the ways of the scriptures And yet, as they've gotten older, they've gone the way of the fool That was Solomon's kid

The Bible says these words in the book of 1 Kings 12 Solomon dies He's been handed a united kingdom He's been handed the greatest kingdom in the world, the kingdom of Israel He's been handed the blessings of the kingdom They're his To be able to rule and reign as his father, Solomon, as his grandfather, David So Solomon dies And in 1 Kings 12, Rehoboam went to Shechem Verse one, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king So he's about to be crowned the king of Israel And it says in verse four, your father made our yoke hard Now, therefore, lighten the hard service of your father

And this heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you They said to them, depart for three days, then return to me So the people departed King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father, Solomon, while he was still alive, saying, how do you counsel me to answer the people? This is a wise choice Give me counsel Give me your wisdom as to what I should do Then they spoke to him saying, if you will be a servant to this people today and will serve them and grant them their petition and speak good words to them, then they will be your servant forever Next verse

But he forsook the counsel of the elders which they had given him And consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him That's just a foolish choice You have the elders, you have the men of wisdom You go to them, you ask them, what should I do? They give you their advice, they give you their counsel, but you've chosen to receive counsel from young men Foolish men, as if they're gonna be wiser than your elders That's what he did The Bible says over in Proverbs chapter 12, verse number 15, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel

Solomon's son, Rehoboam was wise in his own eyes. I'm gonna seek the counsel of my friends. I love people who like to seek the counsel of their friends, they're fools When the wise men, the elders gave him counsel, but he forsook their counsel And so it says that in verse number 12, then Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam On the third day, as the king had directed, saying, return to me on the third day, the king answered the people harshly The wise elders said, answer them with good words, Rehoboam Answer them with gracious words, Rehoboam He decided to answer them harshly

For he forsook the advice of the elders, which they had given him, and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, my father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions So the king did not listen to the people, for he might establish his word, which the Lord spoke through a hija, a shell of night The Bible says over in 1 Chronicles or 2 Chronicles, chapter 12, verse number 14, these words, Rehoboam did evil because he did not set his heart to seek the Lord

It goes to show you that no matter how wise you are as a father, how wealthy you are as a father, how great you are as a father, and you try to lead your children the right way Now, I guess Solomon, he had his issues He explored his falling, and maybe that was the downfall of his son Don't know But as a father, as a parent, you try to lead your children the right way And sometimes they choose the foolish way, like Rehoboam did He did not seek the Lord The kingdom was divided The kingdom was never the same again, and will not be until Messiah comes

And that's unfortunate, because Rehoboam had the opportunity that very few young men ever have He blew it, simply because he acted foolishly And if anybody could describe a fool, it would be Solomon He knew about foolishness, even in his own life In fact, he says a whole lot about foolishness Let me just read you a couple of verses You can just listen as I read them Proverbs 1, verse number seven Fools despise wisdom and instruction That was Rehoboam He asked for counsel from his elders They gave him counsel, but he despised their wisdom He despised their instruction

Verse 22 of chapter one, fools hate knowledge That's a fool He hates knowledge Verse 32, the complacency of fools, or the willful carelessness of fools will destroy them Those are some very true words right there Foolishness, the complacency of fools will destroy them Chapter three, verse number 35 says, the wise will inherit honor, but fools display dishonor The wise man loves honor, but the fool, he displays not honor, but dishonor Over in chapter 10 of Proverbs, these are just a few of them Verse number 18, he who spreads slander is a fool Verse 21, fools die for lack of understanding

Verse 23, doing wickedness is like sport to a fool Doing wickedness is like sport to a fool Chapter 11, verse number 29, the foolish will be the servant of the wise hearted Chapter 12, verse number 15, the way of the fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel Verse 16, a fool's anger is known at once And then over in chapter 13, verse number 16, it is an abomination to fools to turn away from evil For a fool, it's an abomination to turn away from evil Why? Because they're always running toward evil

Over in verse number eight of chapter 14 of Proverbs, it says, the foolishness of fools is deceit Verse nine, fools mock sin Sin, that's a fool Verse 16, a wise man is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is arrogant and careless Over in chapter 19, verse number three, the foolishness of a man ruins his way and his heart rages against the Lord The fool rages, resists everything about the Lord Chapter 18, verse number two, I like this one. A fool does not delight in understanding, but only in revealing his heart

Now that speaks volumes to us. A fool wants you to know how he feels. A fool wants to reveal to you his emotions You need to know how I feel No, I don't Yes, you do That's what the fool says He's into revealing his heart, revealing his mind He doesn't want to know truth and understanding He just wants to reveal his own mind Chapter 28 of Proverbs, verse number 26, says this Proverbs 28, verse number 26 He who trusts in his own heart is a fool. I want you to know how I feel because I'm trusting in my feelings And if you trust in your heart, if you trust in yourself, you are a fool

We need to understand what the Bible says to understand the description of a fool Solomon knows He makes it very clear And yet so easily we just pass it off as not a big deal But we learned last week that a little folly ruins an entire reputation Just a little bit of folly, a little bit of foolishness And we think that we can do a little bit of foolishness and it's okay, but it's not And that's why we learned last week that folly and foolishness ruins one's reputation It dulls the acts It impairs your ability to make any kind of significant impact in people's lives

Over in Psalm 14, you know this verse Psalm 14, verse number one The fool has said in his heart, there is no God They are corrupt They have committed abominable deeds Psalm 53 one says something very similar Psalm 10, verse number three For the wicked boast of his heart's desire And the greedy man curses and spurns the Lord The wicked in the haughtiness of his countenance does not seek him All his thoughts are there is no God In other words, the fool says no to anything about God There is no God. I want no accountability to God. I want no guilt before God

The fool decides to suppress that which he knows to be true because Romans one tells us that everyone knows there is a God, but he wants to suppress that truth and say no to God That's the ultimate foolish act No God Not only is there no God If there was a God, the answer would always be no That's the fool And so the Bible paints a fool, warts it all See the very clear picture of a fool Why? Because foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him

All this foolishness is bound up in the life of a child and God expects us to discipline our children But even in doing so, there's no guarantee like a ray of home that they're not gonna be fools when they get older and make foolish decisions So what do you do if that's the case? Stay with me At the end, I'll tell you But what we have in Ecclesiastes 10 is Solomon's continued description of a fool And there are three things that are pointed out to us that we will look at One, he is uncontrolled in his conversation Two, he is uncaring about his commitments

And three, he is unconcerned about the consequences of his thoughts, words, and deeds First of all, he is uncontrolled in his conversation Listen carefully The acid test of Christianity is your conversation The clear test of your commitment to Christ is always revealed in your speech, always The clearest indicator of the condition of your heart is seen and heard in the words that you say That's why Isaiah said, in Isaiah 6, I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell amongst a people of unclean lips

Why did he say that? Why didn't he just say, I'm a sinner, and I dwell with a whole bunch of sinners? I'm depraved, and everybody around me is depraved Why does he say it like he does? Because Isaiah knew that the clearest indicator of the heart's condition were his lips, what he says, how he speaks Paul told Timothy, you're young You're a pastor of a church You need to set yourself up as an example And the very first thing he says is not an example in your purity, or your love, or your conduct, or your faith They all follow

The very first thing he says is, you need to be an example in your speech, the words you use The conversation you have, because that will be the clearest indicator to your congregation as to where your heart is Jesus said it this way, Matthew 12, verse number 33 Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart

The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good, and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment For by your words, you will be justified, and by your words, you will be condemned How can Jesus say that? How can Jesus say that the words you use are either gonna justify you, or they're gonna condemn you? Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks The clearest indicator of your heart's condition is your conversation, the words you use

Let me hear you speak, and I'll tell you everything I need to know about your heart's condition Just listen to the conversation James says it this way, James 1, 26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, anybody here think themselves to be religious? Anybody here think themselves to be a Christian? If anybody thinks himself to be a Christian, and yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless

In other words, if you say you have religion, if you say you have a relationship with Christ, if you say you're a Christian, and yet you cannot bridle your tongue, you're not a Christian Your religion's worthless It means nothing Why? Because James knows He's got a whole section on the tongue in chapter three We'll read that in a second But everything there is about the tongue, and it's a little, little organ in our body And that little organ, designed for praise, becomes an organ declaring poison For life and death are in the power of the tongue Proverbs 18, 21 See, we forget about this

We talk as if we're, as if our words mean nothing, but they mean everything And we have forgotten that So Solomon drives us back to that Solomon knows And so he says, listen, a fool is described by the fact that he is unable to control his speech, his conversation And the very first illustration he uses is about a snake If the serpent bites before being charmed, there is no profit for the charmer In other words, if you're gonna charm the snake, you better do it quick, because if not, he's gonna bite you And if he bites you, he's poisonous, it's too late

And therefore, you need to realize that the nature of the snake is to bite The nature of the fool is to bite And yet, if you don't charm the fool, he's gonna bite you Fools wanna be charmed They wanna be soothed They wanna be affirmed They wanna be coddled They wanna be coaxed They're like those people that, maybe they're in your family, that when you walk around the house, you gotta walk on eggshells for fear of what you might say or not say might set them off, where their venom is so strong, they bite your head off

You got people in your house like that? You gotta walk on eggshells because of how they might respond if you say the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong way That person's a fool So it says the nature of the fool is to speak with venom because his words are poisonous James says it this way James chapter three And you know these verses James chapter three Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment And then he goes on to this long dissertation about the tongue, which is a very interesting way as to introduce this subject

He says, look, if you're gonna be a teacher, you gotta be very careful because there is a stricter judgment for teachers than for anybody else because you're held accountable to a standard for speaking the words of God And you gotta be ready for that And then he goes into this long dissertation about the tongue For we all stumble in many ways If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well Now, if we put the bits into horses' mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well Look at the ships also

Though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires So also the tongue is a small part of the body and it boasts of great things See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of our life and is set on fire by hell For every species of beasts and birds of reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by the human race

But no one can tame the tongue It is a restless evil and full of deadly poison With it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing My brethren, these things ought not to be this way Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh Think about it When we were growing up with our kids, we used to make a yearly trip to SeaWorld San Diego We had passes to SeaWorld

It was back in the days where SeaWorld was a lot of fun because all the trainers were in the water with all the whales and dolphins and everything They're not that way now, but they were then And they would get on top of Shamu and they would ride Shamu all around that big water park and they would do all kinds of things and they'd go down to the water and come back up out of the water and the guy would just be diving off of Shamu's nose It was a great, great show. I thought to myself, you know what? You can shame Tamu, Shamu, excuse me, but you can't, not shame, tame, sorry

You can tame Shamu, but you can't tame the tongue And Shamu's huge, but the tongue, little, small, little organ of the body And yet the tongue is the clearest indicator of your spiritual condition The question comes for the fool He has no desire to control his conversation He doesn't care It's irrelevant to him He, if he's not charmed by you, he doesn't get what he wants from you, then he will bite you Over in Psalm 58, Psalm says this, something very similar The wicked are estranged from the womb In other words, they're alienated from God from the womb

Those who speak lies go astray from birth As soon as the child is born, they go astray All we like sheep have gone astray, Isaiah 53, right? They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like a deaf cobra that stops up its ear so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or a skillful caster of spells The wicked man's a rebellious man, doesn't want to listen, wants to do his own thing And then he says this in verse 12, words from the mouth of a wise man are gracious while the lips of a fool consume him, swallow him up It's such a unique way of saying things

He says the wise man has gracious words and that's true, but the fool, his words are gonna eat him up He uses his words to tear people down, not knowing that in his voicing of his words, he ultimately is gonna bring ruin upon himself Listen to what the Bible says in Proverbs 13, verse number three The one who guards his mouth preserves his life The one who opens wise lips comes to ruin Over in chapter 12, verse number 13, an evil man is ensnared by the transgression of his lips You see, Solomon has so much to say about this Proverbs is filled with it

And then over in chapter 21 of Proverbs, the 23rd chapter, it says, chapter 21, verse number 23, he says, he who guards his mouth and his tongue guards his soul from trouble See, the wise man speaks gracious words, but the fool's words are so venomous that it's gonna eat him up and cause ruin to his own life Remember over in Ephesians chapter four, you know these verses, Ephesians four, verse number 29 Paul says, let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment so that it will give grace to those who hear

That is the quintessential marital verse Let no unwholesome word, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, none And the only words that come out of your mouth are words that are edifying They minister grace to those who hear them What's the next verse? It says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit What grieves the Spirit of God? Unwholesome words, unkind words, bitter words He goes on to say this in verse number 31 Just to follow up, he said, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice

Those are all verbal abuse kinds of words All unwholesome words, all corruptible words, not graceful words, all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, they'll all be put away from you along with malice Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you Those are the verses that should mark your home, your marriage

When your children converse with one another, is there corrupt communication that proceeds from their mouth? Are there unwholesome words that come from their mouth as they play together, as they converse together, or are there words that come from their mouth that minister grace to each other? Same as a husband and a wife, because your children are listening to all your words, right? They pick up on those words, the tone of those words They pick them up really, really easily The wise man, he speaks words full of grace, but the foolish man, not so much And he'll be consumed by his speech

You must hurry, verse number 13 In the beginning of his talking is folly, in the end of it is wicked madness. I mean, the fool begins to speak, and as he speaks, because it's already from a heart of foolishness, it ends in madness It ends in rage, because he does not care about the words he speaks But look at this, verse number 14 Yet the fool multiplies words Fools love to talk Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk Fools just love to talk They love to hear themselves talk, that's one

They love for you to hear them talk, that's two, because they really think that in their talking they have something to say, but they really have nothing to say In fact, it says this, that the fool multiplies words No man knows what will happen, and who can tell him what will come after him

Although the fool wants you to know that he's in charge, he knows what's gonna happen next, he's in control, he knows his plans, he wants you to know he's in control of his life, so he just keeps talking and talking and talking to convince you, and listen, the more he talks to try to convince you, the more you realize how foolish he is Because you see, if you're really convincing, you don't have to say that much Just gotta speak the truth, quickly and quietly But the fool has to do all he can to convince you of his foolishness And so it says, the toil of a fool so wearies him

He'll never let you see that, but it wears him out And then note this, that he does not even know how to go to a city In other words, he has no common sense He has no direction in life He talks a lot, thinks he says a lot, but he doesn't even have directions to a city He thinks he knows his future, but he doesn't even know how to get to the city, because he has no common sense He has no direction in life He has no purpose in life One man said, wise men speak because they have something to say Fools speak because they have to say something That's good

The wise man speaks because he does have something to say The fool speaks just because he has to say something So Solomon tries to help us to understand that the conversation of a fool is completely out of control It's poisonous, it's graceless, it's madness, it's directionless, but yet he has to speak But not only that, number two, he's uncaring about his commitments He has responsibilities in life And fools don't necessarily care to carry out their commitments Solomon says it in a unique way He says in verse 16, "'Woe to you, O land, whose king is Elad, whose princes feast in the morning

Blessed are you, O land, whose king is of nobility, and whose princes eat at the appropriate time for strength and not for drunkenness.'" He says, if you have a king or a ruler who's Elad, who's immature, okay, he's all about party time He's all about being drunk in the morning It's not about his decision as a king It's not about his defense of a nation as a king It's not about making wise choices It's about, you know what? Let's just party Let's just get drunk in the morning. A noble king will eat at the proper time Noble king won't live in drunkenness

But the foolish king, the foolish lad, oh no He just does what he wants He has no sense of accountability to his duty or to his responsibility He's a king He's making decisions for a multitude of people And maybe, maybe as Solomon writes this, he's hoping his son understands this, that in his youngness, he would not make foolish choices to party all day and not fulfill his responsibilities as a king and just get drunk in the morning, but eat at the proper time for proper strength in the proper way Maybe in the back of his mind, he senses what's going on in the life of Rehoboam. I don't know

But it's interesting that a fool, he doesn't care about his commitments, whether he's a king or flipping burgers at the local restaurant He's irresponsible He's immature And he wants to indulge himself It's like the father who is home and he's the ruler of his home, but he wants to sleep in and play video games all day and just kind of take it easy Now, I'm meddling a little bit here, but that's okay. I can do that And that's all he wants He's trying to lead his family and make decisions for his family and lead his family spiritually and be the right kind of father

But yet he just wants to sleep in and play video games and not go to work and not fulfill his responsibility and just kind of take it easy That's a fool That's a fool Simply because he's irresponsible In fact, read on It says this This is so interesting He says, he says in verse number 18, through indolence or laziness, the rafters sag And through slackness, the house leaks You say to your husband, honey, honey, the house is leaking That's okay That's okay, I'm playing a video game. I'll get to it next week It's okay Or you know what? I just need to sleep in some more He's irresponsible

His commitment is to take care of his family Your roof is leaking You got to fix it, right? It's sagging You got to prop it up You got to be responsible to your commitments in life as a father, as a king, as a leader, as a worker, as whatever it is you do, you got to be responsible But a fool, he doesn't care He doesn't care about his commitment to lead, his commitment to rule, his commitment to be an influence He's irresponsible He's indulgent He's immature That's the fool And Solomon knows Solomon knows this Remember, he set his heart and mind to fill his life with falling

That's in chapter two So he knows about this So he speaks from a position of experience Then lastly, note this It says, oh, verse 19 It says, men prepare a meal for enjoyment and wine makes life merry Money is the answer to everything That's the attitude of a fool He's not commending that, he's condemning that This is the position of the fool This is the position of the man who lets his roof sag, who lets the roof continue to leak without fixing it, who wants to get up early in the morning as the king and have his party and have his meal and get drunk in the morning He just doesn't care

Why? Because it's all about, hey, you know what? Money fixes everything It's okay We're gonna drink a little bit of wine We're gonna be okay Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you will die He says it from a negative perspective, not a positive perspective That's the fool And then he says that the fool was not only just uncontrolled in his conversation, uncaring about his commitments, but he is unconcerned about the consequences of his life Didn't care Verse 20, furthermore, in your bedchamber, do not curse a king In your sleeping rooms, do not curse a rich man

For a bird of the heavens will carry the sound and the weaned creature will make the matter known Ever heard that little phrase, a little bird told me? It comes from this verse in Ecclesiastes 10, verse number 20 See, the fool doesn't care about the consequences So Solomon's saying that you can say what you want in your thought life, in your bedchamber, in your room at night, and you think no one's listening, but God's listening God's listening. I love what Solomon said earlier in Proverbs

He said in Proverbs chapter 26, verse number two, he says, like a flitting sparrow, like a flying swallow, so a curse without cause shall not alight, shall not come down, shall not settle Once you curse the king and once you curse the rich man and once you use your words to put someone else down, it just stays afloat like a swallow, like a bird that flits around It doesn't ever come down But the fool, he didn't care He didn't care He doesn't care about consequences Proverbs chapter five, verse number 22 says, his own iniquities entrap the foolish man and he is caught in the cords of his sin

He shall die for lack of instruction and in the greatness of his folly, he will go astray, but he does not care Doesn't care Because he thinks that consequences don't matter He feels no guilt because he feels there's no God If there is a God, who cares? That's the fool And that's a description that Solomon paints for us in a very brief kind of way in 10 verses But what do you do if you've spent your life raising your children to drive foolishness far from them and yet they become adults and they act foolishly? And they are fools Well, my opinion doesn't matter, but God's word does

And so let me read to you what the scriptures say To help us on the route to dealing with those children of ours who although they were raised in a home that loves the Lord, as they get older, they tend to act foolishly and live the life of a fool Proverbs chapter 27, verse number 22 reads this way Though you pound a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his foolishness will not depart from him Did you hear that? You can pound on a fool all you want, but you can't change a fool Only God can do that You cannot But boy, we pound away Bam, bam, bam

Thinking that somehow my words are gonna change this fool of mine It won't Then go back to Proverbs 23, verse number nine Proverbs 23, verse number nine Do not speak in the hearing of a fool How many times do we as parents keep speaking to our adult foolish children, trying to convince them that they are wrong and going the wrong direction? Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words He doesn't care about instruction, understanding, guidance He's a fool You know, so many times as parents, we wanna just keep talking to them and talking You need to do this

You need to be here You need to go here You need to do that And Solomon says, do not speak in the hearing of a fool Chapter 17 of Proverbs, verse number 10. A rebuke goes deeper into one who has understanding than a hundred blows into a fool That's just so picturesque So the rub comes in chapter 14, and you're not gonna like it, but the Lord never asked you whether or not you liked it or not Proverbs chapter 14, verse number seven Leave the presence of a fool Leave the presence of a fool, or you will not discern words of knowledge

In other words, that fool is gonna have more effect on you and your discernment than you are on him So leave the presence of a fool He says earlier in verse number 20 of chapter 13, he who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm You have an adult child who's grown up in your home and is a fool, leave him or her alone Isolate them Have nothing to do with them See, we enable people We wanna go behind them and pay their bills and bail them out of jail and make sure that they're taken care of and make sure they don't fall They have a soft landing

That's the worst thing you could ever do for your child is to make sure they have a soft landing If they're a fool, they need to land hard and they need to land alone hard Now I know that's difficult for some of you to hear. I understand that But Solomon makes it very clear Leave the presence of a fool

We have done so much to enable the foolish child to remain in their foolish state by enabling them, by watching out for them, by giving them soft landings, by making sure their insurance is paid up or making sure their mortgage is paid up or even though they're delinquent, we don't want them to lose their house or we don't want them to lose this or lose that They need to lose all those things or they'll never learn Why? Because a hundred blows doesn't change them It doesn't You say, well, yeah, but I love my child Yeah, well, the father of the prodigal loved him too But he left the fool alone

He let him go He let him isolate himself He didn't follow behind and somehow, well, if he can't pay his bills, I'll be there to write a check for him and watch out where he was He didn't call his friends Hey, you know, how's so-and-so doing? What's going on? No, nothing Left him alone Leave the presence of a fool because the only way they're going to learn is to fall hard and have their spirit crushed and broken And if you continue to provide a soft landing, they will never be broken They just know someone's gonna come along and pay the bill, pick up the mess, clean up the mess

And the Bible says in Luke 15 that the prodigal, he came to his senses No longer was he foolish, but he realized the error of his way And when he realized the error of his way, his father did not run to him His father stayed put The son had to come to him, had to repent from his sin, had to come back home And the father lavished him with love when there was genuine repentance and rightly so But he never tried to pick up the pieces of his fallen son The son had to fall hard

And when the son realized that the servants at his father's house have it better than he has, Luke 15 tells us that he came to his senses, a full and complete realization But if his father would have gone after him, pursued him, paid his bills, picked up the pieces, it would have never happened He had to come to a place of complete and total isolation where there's no one else but God And you are not God And sometimes you just have to let God do what God's gonna do Psalm 107 is good on this The psalmist speaks to us about Israel

It says in verse number 10 that there were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in misery and chains because they had rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High Therefore, God did not go after them, did not pursue them Therefore, he humbled their heart with labor They stumbled and there was none to help them, none It says down in verse number 17, fools, because of their rebellious way and because of their iniquities were afflicted Their soul abhorred all kinds of food and they drew near to the gates of death

They had bottomed out and God waited for them to cry out to him And they did Verse 19, then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble Trouble The psalmist says in verse number 39 of Psalm 107, when they are diminished and bowed down through oppression, misery, and sorrow, he pours contempt upon princes and makes them wander in pathless waste because he wants them to come to their senses and realize the error of their way So God left them alone until they cried out to God and then he answered Sometimes you just need to leave the fool in the hands of the Lord

Let the Lord deal with them as he sees fit You've counseled, you've prayed, you've talked, you've disciplined, you've done all you can and yet your grown adult child has gone the way of a fool like Rehoboam did Solomon was not alive to see it He had died and gone home to be with the Lord And you know what? You might not ever see it in the life of your child either Might not happen until after you die But you have to leave them in the hand of the Lord You have to trust the Lord to do what the Lord's going to do

But as parents, so many times we want to play God in the lives of our children, to give them soft places to land We want to be sensitive to them We want to couch it in words of care and honor and respect And all the while it's disrespect, it's dishonor and it's uncaring For the most loving thing you can do for a fool is to leave them in isolation Let them fall where they fall and let the Lord work in their hearts. I know this is painful for some of you to hear. I understand that, I get that It's not easy for me to say it

But I do want to be true to the word of the Lord and to the words of Solomon, the wise man Because Solomon knew what to do So he gives us counsel as to what we should do Because none of us are perfect and none of us are the savior of our children We are their parents We discipline them, we instruct them, we teach them We do all we possibly can to move them in the ways of righteousness And sometimes they decide to go a different way And when they do, let them go Let them go that direction Leave them, leave the presence of the foolish one

And trust that God will do something great and unique in their lives that only God can do You see, because if there is a repentance, a genuine repentance, it's because God did the work and you didn't coerce it or manipulate it, you let God do it And that's what you want to see happen Because when the prodigal came back, right? He came back with no agenda He didn't come back and say, well, yeah, I want to be here, Dad, but you know, I need to have direct TV in my room with a big screen TV and all the video games I can play. I'll come home then Oh, no, no, no, no

When he comes back, there was no agenda in his heart None And there were no demands on his part because that's true repentance There was no agenda There were no demands He said, I'm not worthy to be even among the servants. I know I have no rights. I know I shouldn't even be here But I'm here because I was wrong And you'll know that You'll sense it You'll see it Why? Because the repentant spirit just says, whatever you desire, I'll do Whatever you want. I have no agenda. I make no demands. I have no place to demand anything. I am here simply because I sinned. I was a fool. I acted foolishly

And now I want to do the right thing and act wisely And then you rejoice over God's restoration, over God's work in their heart Because it truly was a work of the living God and not a work of man For God to turn them and bring them home once again Let me pray with you Father, we thank you, Lord, for tonight Lord, we are so grateful for your word Some of us, Lord, at times have acted foolishly Forgive us We want to be wise men, wise women, not foolish men and foolish women. A little bit of folly ruins reputation

And Lord, we realize that there are some people here tonight who have children that have walked away from the Lord, want nothing to do with the Lord, want to live their own life in their own way Or they might claim to know about Christianity, but they're living lives foolishly. I pray, Lord, for them That you turn their hearts around. I pray for their parents, their mom and dad, the ones that you gave them to raise. I pray, God, for them that you give them the grace and the strength to make hard decisions

Based on your word and based on their love for you and ultimately the love for their child, that God would do a mighty work in their hearts We do want to serve you, Lord, and honor you And the parents that are here this evening, that's their desire They want to do the right thing Help them to make wise choices, to follow through on your word and give them the strength that they need with each passing day

If they leave their child alone and they don't hear from them for months, maybe even years, may they trust you to do a work as only you can, knowing that when you do the work, it's true, it's pure, it's right, and it's long lasting As we leave tonight, go before us, give us strength In Jesus' name, amen.