Wisdom's Way or the Fool's Folly part 1

take your Bible, turn back with me to Proverbs chapter 10 from our scripture reading that we had earlier. You know that we're gonna look at three verses, just three. We'll look at verse 1, we're gonna look at verse 8, and then we will look at verse 14. Now you might not know this but we really find ourselves in a very big transition in the book of Proverbs. I think most of you know that there are 31 chapters within the book. We have covered nine chapters but Bible scholars tell us that chapters 1 to 9 are one section and then all of the scholars that I look at say that verses or excuse me chapters 10 to 31 are a different section.

Now I was thinking about it this afternoon, it's really not divided up evenly. Really chapters 10 to 31 are the main section. The first nine chapters are really an introduction and I'm gonna talk about that a little bit more. But what we need to see is chapters 1 to 9 are very similar. The teaching in the chapters, chapters 1 to 9, it does categorize the materials, it does categorize some of the subjects. Chapter 9 is really a good summary of the first eight chapters. You might not realize that unless you look back. So if you study chapter 9, you really get a good representation of what was taught or seen in chapters 1 to 8.

And if you've kept up really good with our study, if you've taken good notes, if you've listened, maybe gone back and looked at that material, you really will see that chapter 9 did summarize chapters 1 to 8. So chapters 1 to 9 are kind of similar in that they categorize, group the material. But the rest of the book is a lot different. Chapters 10 to 31 are full of one and two line sayings. They are not in much order. They're not in the kind of order that we saw in the first nine chapters. And most people when they think of Proverbs, they do think of short statements. They think of one or two lines that are concerning wisdom.

And so most people when they think of the book of Proverbs, they're really thinking about what we see in chapters 10 to 31. So when we're going through these chapters, this might sound a little more familiar to you, depends on your previous knowledge of the book and understanding of the book. Now I want to ask a couple of rhetorical questions. Some of you might not know what a rhetorical question is. It's a question that's not necessarily meant to be answered, but it's asked so that you will engage. I do that quite often. I know. A couple of questions. How should we read the book of Proverbs?

And then second, how should we study the book of Proverbs? Think about that. There's a difference between reading and studying. How should we read the book of Proverbs? Or really any book? And then how should we study the book of Proverbs? Now think about where we are. We've worked through chapters 1 to 9, and we have 22 chapters ahead of us. Chapters 1 to 9 are a good introduction. They really do get us ready. They get us in the right frame of mind for the meat of the study, which is chapters 10 to 31. And I want to answer those two questions, and I think these are very timely. First, how do we read the book of Proverbs?

To read certain books of the Bible, we do need some help sometimes. We do need some guidance sometimes. If you think about the book of Romans, that's a difficult book. It's a very theological book. You know, what do you do with Israel there? It deals with certain theological subjects that can be difficult, like predestination, things like that. So sometimes we need help with books like that. I'll give you another example, the book of Leviticus. You have all these sacrifices and blood and goats and animals, and you know, what do you do with all that? You need guidance sometimes to wade through certain books.

But Proverbs chapter 10 to 31 really is easy to understand. Let me give you an example. Look at verse 4. We're not going to cover this tonight, but let me show you how easy this is. Verse 4 reads, "A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich." What is he teaching? The lazy man, the one who is slack in his effort, the hand that is slack, what happens? He's going to just struggle. He's going to lead to poverty. The man who doesn't work, he just doesn't make any money. We understand that. But the hand of the diligent, the one that works hard, he asks something. Sometimes he can have a lot. So that's the easy meaning.

The easy meaning is right there on the surface. Now I want to give you a tip, and I want to give you a warning here. We're talking about reading the book, okay? I want to give you a tip, and I want to give you a warning. We need to read the book of Proverbs chapter by chapter, but we study each chapter, notice subject by subject. We read the chapter, but we look for, and we note the subjects that are within the chapter. Maybe you group the passages together. Maybe you note subjects in your Bible. Maybe you categorize each verse by subject, maybe on a separate piece of paper, on a notebook.

Maybe develop your own system whereby you note the subjects in the verses within the chapters. So we read chapter by chapter, but we study subject by subject because there's all types of subjects that are within the verses. Now this takes time. This takes some discipline. What I mean by discipline, we're learning a discipline. This takes time. This takes repetition, but let me encourage you. It's worth it. It's worth it. At times I talk to you about writing in your Bible. Sometimes you do. Sometimes you don't. So we read chapter by chapter, but we read and we notice the different subjects.

So I would encourage you to develop a system of noting the subjects as you go through. But I do want to give you a warning. Many people fall into this trap. Do not read and study with an attitude of the Pharisee. Let me show you what I mean. Do not have it in your mind that you are reading and you're obeying what you read so that God will love you or approve you. That's the wrong attitude. Don't read any book of the Bible with the attitude that you're going to gain God's love. You should read and study the book of Proverbs relationally. That word relationally is key.

As a born-again Christian, we come to the Proverbs for wisdom and we want wisdom for Christian living. We love Christ because Christ is first loved us. And not only did he first love us, he suffered and bled and died for us and he has saved us. So we have a relationship with Christ and we're not reading so that we can get favor. We're reading because we love him. All right teenagers let me ask you to help me here. If I take my wife on a date, we have a date night. Sometimes we do that. We leave the kids behind and we have a date night.

But if I have a date night with my wife because I have to, instead of out of my love for her, well how's that gonna go over? It really didn't go over. You see what I mean? So what I'm trying to show you is this. Our approach to reading needs to come out of a heart of love. Now I'm gonna pose a question for you. I felt like this was a good time to discuss this for a minute because the first nine chapters really do introduce us to the meat of the book. How good are we doing? I've been giving us tips. I've been kind of encouraging you to read certain chapters. I've been throwing those things out there.

You don't have to answer the question but how are we doing so far? So remember the tip. We're gonna read chapter by chapter. We're gonna notice the subjects. We're gonna develop a way to remember them, maybe write them out. But then we're not gonna do this to try to gain God's favor. We do this out of love. We love God and we want to love God and serve God and we do want that wisdom for Christian living. Now the second question, how do we study the book of Proverbs? Now I've answered that question some already but we do need to see that we need to really take this a little further. How do we study the book of Proverbs?

Now listen, we make time and we develop a place for the things that we love. The things that we love we make the time far and the place far in our life. Let me give you an example. Some of us guys like to deer hunt so we make the time and the place to deer hunt. Some of you ladies like to shop. You're gonna develop the time and the place to go Black Friday shopping. I went Black Friday shopping with my wife one time. That's a pretty neat story. Sports, we make the time and the place for sports. Family visits and family connections. We make the time and the place for the things that we love. We really really do.

Now I want to offer you some tips here and this is not just reading. This is for studying. We love Christ. We want this teaching to affect us and grow us because we want to be good Christians and we want wisdom for daily living. Let me show you the tips here. You need to make sure that you discipline your time and discipline a place. The place where you set aside to study your Bible to read chapter by chapter, subject by subject. The time and the place does make a difference. If you have that time and that place and it's set aside but then develop a plan.

I have made mention of a plan for you several times to read behind and then to read ahead. Maybe this week you go back and you read chapter 10 again. We're covering three verses tonight. We're gonna cover the rest of the chapter next week. Then you read ahead and so if you read behind and you read ahead you are reading the Proverbs multiple times. Another suggestion is to make some notes. Use your Bible. Use a pad. Make some notes. Another suggestion. Read over the notes that you take here on Sunday night as we're here together. Take those notes. Maybe even get mine. Sometimes people will email me for my notes.

Another thing here is be flexible and be forgiving. Don't be so rigid with your plan that you can't forgive yourself when you fail. As soon as you begin to develop a plan, you have that time, you have that place, everything will happen to knock you out of that routine. So be forgiving with yourself. Another thing that might surprise you. Use your ears and make good use of your time. Listen to the messages that you've missed. Listen to the messages that maybe have really meant something to you. Think about it. Use your time. I know people who use time like when they're traveling, they're on the road, they'll use that time.

Maybe even seek out other messages on the same passages and then find some accountability. You can be accountable with each other for several reasons. First to keep each other's feet to the fire. How are you doing? How are you doing with all this? How are you studying? And then also in the accountability to share with each other what God is teaching you. Now notice what I have brought before you. Two questions. How do you read the book of Proverbs? And then how you study the book of Proverbs? Now we're nine chapters into this thing. We've gotten our feet wet.

We've been swimming around in this these chapters and it's fixing to get even better. And I'm giving you these instructions because I want us all to get all that we can get because I want us to be the wise Christians that God wants us to be. Now let me show you why now is a good time to visit these questions of reading and studying the Proverbs. Chapters 1 to 9 are an introduction to the book. They set us up for the other chapters. They really do. They set us up for chapter 10 and on to the end of the book. And if we get a good handle on the major themes in chapters 1 to 9 then we can get more of what the Lord wants to teach us.

And again I encourage you if you've missed anything from chapters 1 to 9 go get called up. Now I want to show you something that we've learned that has a tremendous bearing on chapters 10 to 31. We have learned that there are two paths in life. We have learned all through chapters 1 to 9 there are two paths in life. The path of the wise and the path of the fool. It is described in several different ways in the chapters. The path of the righteous and the path of the unrighteous. The path of the wise, the path of the fool, the path of the one who obeys and the path of the one who disobeys.

And this is one of the major themes all throughout the first nine chapters. And this is something I really want to revisit. Teenagers listen close now. There's only two paths in life. The path of the wise and the path of the unwise, the fool, the path of the obedient and the path of the disobedient. There are all types of voices out there that'll try to tell you that there are multiple paths and they're not. I see some adults nodding their heads because of their age and experience. They know that it's true besides the fact that the word tells you. So that makes the book of Proverbs apply in one of two ways. Let me show you this.

Proverbs relates to us, all of us, in one of two ways. It is either a book of our Christian sanctification or a book of separation. The teaching in the book grows us as Christians. It corrects us. It teaches us and it molds us as Christians. That's our Christian sanctification, our growth in Christ. That's why I titled the series Wisdom for Christian Living. Or the teaching in the book separates us. We can't live this life because we do not belong to Christ. We're not a true Christian. We're not born again. We can't go the way of the wise because we do not have that new heart. We are slaves to that sin nature.

We don't have a new nature in Christ. Now I want you to listen to your pastor close here, whether you're a teenager or an adult. Alright, listen close. We can never teach. We can never educate. We can never train our children into the kingdom. Let me explain what I mean. We cannot teach our little ones and our teenagers into the kingdom. I cannot teach and preach enough to bring you into the kingdom. We can never learn and educate our way into being right with God. There's a little phrase I've used for years. Education without salvation leads to damnation. And that's why I emphasize the new birth to you. That's why separation is good.

On one hand we're sanctified. We're growing Christ, studying things like the Proverbs, but then it separates us and that's why we should highlight that. Because listen, I can teach you the Word of God all day long, but that's not going to bring you into the kingdom. But if the Word of God separates you and shows you that you're lost and without Christ and you have hope to come into the kingdom. So we need to see this sanctification and this separation, the twofold work that goes on in the book. So what am I wanting to show you?

For us who are Christians, we need to take chapters 10 to 31 as well as chapters 1 to 9 and we need to work hard in our sanctification. We need to get all that we can get and within chapters 10 to 31, listen, I'm gonna leave some of these verses for you. I will leave some. So study, get all you can get. But if you're here and you're not born again, you need to see this separating work of God. Recognize it, be honest. Don't be that babbling fool we're gonna talk about in a little while. For you who are not Christian, you need to see this separating work as we go through these scriptures, as we go through these verses and these chapters.

And I can give you examples of how God's Word has done that among us. Now right here for a minute I want to reach back into chapters 1 to 9. I want to take a little time. I want to reach back into the chapters that we've studied and I want to show you some things that we have learned. There's some major themes that we have examined in the chapters. This will lead us right up to chapter 10. There are a lot of twos that we've learned. There are a lot of pairs that we've learned and I might have left something out. I just did this by memory. Remember this, we saw two paths or two ways. I've mentioned this a lot. I've called them two roads.

This has been all through chapters 1 to 9. We saw that there are two roads in life. Simply the path of the wise and the path of the fool, the path of the obedient to God, the one who was obedient to his Word, or the path of the one who is disobedient to God's Word. Then we saw the two voices. We saw the voice of wisdom calling to the young man and then we saw the voice of folly calling to the young man as well. Solomon repeatedly showed his son the two voices that would call out in life. The voice of wisdom and the voice of folly. Remember this is what we call, scholars call a personification. Wisdom and folly is seen as a woman.

And then we saw the two choices. There's the choice of the wise and the choice of the fool. The wise chooses to obey God's Word and the fool chooses to ignore it and to disobey it. Specifically Solomon's son could make a choice. He always had two choices before him. Then we saw the two women. I called wisdom the beautiful good lady of wisdom and then we had that seductive adulterous woman. Both of these women have an effect on the life. Both of these women were seen repeatedly and both of these women were calling. The good lady of wisdom is calling and then this adulterous seductive woman is calling as well.

Again there's this personification. Then we saw the two houses. The house of the good lady of wisdom and then the house of this sultry seductive adulterous. Remember the picture that I gave you? I have this in my mind. It's as if there's one house on one side of the street and on the opposite side there's the other house and all of the young people are in the middle in the streets and there's the voice of the good lady of wisdom calling and then the voice of the adulterous woman calling and they could visit one of the two houses. Then we saw the two ends, the two results.

Wisdom brings life and blessing but choosing folly brings sorrow and destruction and death every time. You're listening to me? No one cheats the system. No one. There's not another way. If you go the way of wisdom you have blessing in life. Now we're not talking about physical blessing but if you go the way of folly it always leads to sorrow, destruction, and death. But the last pair and this is what I should have started with. I ended with this purposely. We saw the two people within chapters one to nine. The wise young man chooses the way of wisdom, God's ways, and then the foolish young man. He chooses the way of sin and folly.

That's where we'll start in chapter 10. We will start with the wise son and then we will look at the foolish son. Those two characters have been the main characters in the chapters. So what we're going to look at is these two individuals out of these three verses and we're going to look at three questions that just come out of these verses. I do encourage you to take notes maybe jot these questions down and some of the other material that I will give you. The first question is which child are you out of verse one? The third question is are you receiving or rejecting? That's out of verse eight and then the third question are you saving?

And that's out of verse 14. So let's start off with number one the first question which child are you? Verse one a wise son makes a glad father but the foolish son is a sorrow to his mother. Now we've seen both the father and the mother before have we not? Back in chapter six in verse 20 Solomon introduces us to the young son's mother. Specifically he mentions the father's teaching. To me I see Solomon instructing the young son and it's almost like in the background where the son can see there's the mother giving her nod. There's the mother looking at the son saying listen to your father son listen to what your dad is teaching you.

That's what I see Solomon instructing the son and the mother is right behind him saying that's right you better listen he's right. And then we see the young son's mother instructing the son when the father's not at home. Now for me the picture is like this the father is away he's off at work he's off doing business in in the village and then there's the mother she is instructing the son. Now there's quite a bit here I want us to see out of this one verse. First of all specifically I want us to see the family unit. I say I want us to see the family unit we see the father the mother and the son.

Now we must remember the importance of the family unit. God's design is one man one woman for life. God's design is a father and a mother. I was reading the news today and I saw a news article of two men who were supposedly joined in marriage by law not God's law and they were taking their two adoptive children to have the flu shot. That's not God's design. What you need to see is God's design is a father and a mother and then children and we must adhere to God's design not the world's design no matter how pretty the picture may seem no matter what the world may see. And notice the message of the world differs from the message of God's word.

God's word always presents the family unit as a father and a mother for life. And then I want us to see second the efforts of both parents. Go to the verse. A wise son makes a father glad but the foolish son is a sorrow to his mother. It's implied here. I do not want to simply emphasize God's physical design for the family. I want to emphasize God's design for instructing the children. It's implied here both the father and the mother are instruct the son. Both have a role. Mothers can instruct it away. It's different why? Because they are created different. There's a role for the mother and a role for the father.

And see there's some errors that take place here. There's some moms. They're the only ones that instruct the children and then in some families they're the dads. They're the only ones that instruct the children and then there are some families they just farm it out. They just drop their kids off at church and just say you know the Sunday school teacher or the preacher he'll just instruct the children or my children. But here we say we see efforts by both parents. But then third which is very obvious in the text. We have the heartache from the son's foolishness. Look at the scripture.

A wise son makes a father glad but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother. Here is the main point of the passage. Here we see the father is happy when the son makes wise godly choices. This is a Christian father. He glows when he sees his son obey God's word. But then here we see the heartache from the mother when she sees her son choose foolishness. When she sees her disobey God's word she is broken. She is in sorrow. But we need to see that both godly parents feel pain. Let me repeat that. Both godly parents feel pain when a son or a daughter chooses the way of the world.

Yes a mother feels pain in a different way because God's made women different. The mother has more a more intimate role in child rearing. We know that and that is what the proverb is pointing to. But both parents are hurt when they see the son going the way of the fool. I think about a young man that I ministered to just for a little while years ago. Years ago there was a family in our church and one son I ministered to a lot and there was an older son I didn't minister to that much. And I watched that older son go the way of alcohol and go the way of the party life. He always went to the house of the house of folly.

The house with the adulteress woman. Remember her? He always walked across the street to the wrong house and that party lifestyle and that alcohol ended up ruining his health and he almost died. And I watched his mother and his father go through nothing but sorrow. Why? They were in heartache over the foolishness and the foolish behavior of their son. So what do we see here just in verse one? We see a Christian family. This is a Christian family. We see the father and the mother who impact their son with God's Word and God's ways. We see the simple meaning taught in the proverb. When the son chooses wisdom the parents are happy.

But when the son chooses foolishness the parents are broken. The mother in a unique way because of her unique intimate role our relationship in child reary. So that's what we see. The Christian family in heartbreak when the son or the daughter goes the way of the world. Now I have several points of application that I want to make here and I think that you need to see this. First of all to parents I want to ask you a question. Do we both instruct our children from God's Word? Is it dad who does it or is it mom who does it? Is it just one? Is it both? Listen we must see our role.

We have a way as men and as fathers and dads that mom doesn't have. Mom has a way that we don't have and we all have a role and I want us to see that it takes both. It takes morning noon and night and it takes both and listen if you pay very well if you pay close attention to what we do here in the life of the church we give you plenty of material. Listen mom and dad you can take good notes on a Sunday morning and you can go home with your children and work your way through what you've been taught on a Sunday morning. You can take what we're looking at here on Wednesday night and work this back through your family life.

You can even take our Sunday night Bible study through the churches in the New Testament and sit down with your family and bring that back out in your family time not just sitting down but as you live as you go in the car at the supper table. So I want to ask you as parents how are you doing in instructing your children in the ways of God? Parents I want you to see that you need to be asked a question. What brings you the greatest joy from the lives of your kids? Is it sports? Is sports what brings you the greatest joy in the lives of your children? Is it academics? Is it social acceptance and popularity? Opportunities in life?

See as parents there are many things that can bring us joy that come out of our children. What is that that brings us the greatest joy? Should we be excited when they excel academically? Sure. Should we be happy when they have opportunities in life and do well in sports? Sure. But our greatest joy should come when we see them obeying God's Word and going the ways of God. But teenagers I'm not gonna let you off the hook. I want to ask you where do you fit in here? Where do you fit into verse 1? I'm reading the verse again. "The wise son makes a glad father but the foolish son is a sorrow to his mother." Where do you fit?

Are you the foolish one? Are you the wise one? Do you bring your parents happiness and joy? Now let me pause here and I want to give you my testimony with this. I've shared this with you many times. I did not come to faith in Christ till I was 20. I was 20 years old when God saved me. I'm not proud of how I lived before I was saved. And let me tell you the way I lived and what I did and where I went and who I was with always brought my parents great sorrow. But let me tell you God saved me on a Saturday night and the next day I went to church. Why? Because I went where God's people were. I went to Sunday school.

I took my Bible and my parents never ever ever worried about where I was going and what I was doing after that. They never gave it a second thought because I was radically changed. Listen, I wasn't the son who brought great sorrow into the hearts and the minds and the lives of my parents anymore. I fit in somewhere different and that's the great question for you. And look, let me show you this separates some of you. Just this verse separates some of you. Where are you? The wise son makes a father glad but the foolish son makes the mother sorrowful. Where are you? So that's the question. That's the main truth out of verse 1.

Which child are you? Which child are you? Let's move on. Let's look at our second question. Verse 8. Are you receiving or rejecting? Are you receiving or rejecting? So let's look at verse 8. The wise of heart will receive commandments but a babbling fool will come to ruin. Just like in verse 1 there is a lot to learn. Our attention is probably drawn to the portion that talks about the babbling fool. Some people might not even believe that that's there but the babbling fool will come to ruin. That can get our attention. Now just like in verse 1 here in verse 8 we see the wise and the foolish. Now notice what's taking place. Three observations.

First the actions of the wise. Notice the actions of the wise but when we notice the actions of the wise all we see is silence. All we hear is silence. Look at the verse. The wise of heart will receive commandments. We do not see the wise son saying a word. Isn't that what the verse says? The wise of heart will receive commandments. He's not talking because he's busy. He's busy receiving the commandments. Now what commandments? God's commandments. The commandments taught by his father. The commandments taught by his mother. The commandments that he hears from others. The commandments that he reads on his own.

No matter where he hears God's word he's busy receiving them. You see? You don't hear anything. He is too busy. Look at his actions. Now I want to contrast the silent actions of the wise young man with some rhetorical questions. Remember rhetorical questions are for you to think about. Now think about this example. Teenagers think about at school. Think about the one in your classroom who just will not take instruction from the teacher. All they're doing is talking and rattling on. They ignore the teacher. And then think about the man at work. This is for us adults. Think about the man or the woman at work.

They just won't take instruction from the boss. Some of you might have somebody that works for you like that. Oh they're always babbling on and they will not take that instruction. We have people in the life of our church who are in the military. I think this one could get your attention. Think about the soldier in battle who won't take instructions from authority. He'll lose his life and probably jeopardize the lives of others. And I want you to see the actions of the wise are much different than the unwise. The wise young man is not using his mouth because he is busy using his ears. Isn't that what we see? Go back to the verse.

But the wise of heart will receive commandments. But now notice the actions of the fool. So we see the actions of the wise. Notice the actions of the fool. But a babbling fool will come to ruin. Whereas the wise we saw him and he is silent. Here we hear a bunch of noise. A lot of noise. We see the foolish son talking and not listening. Now some of you here you really need to see this. We see the foolish son talking and not listening to instruction. He is busy running his mouth. But what is he saying? Now we really don't know. The text doesn't say. Doesn't say what he's saying. We can speculate.

Now in speculation we're just using our imagination. And this can help us understand the meaning here. Now I'm speculating. Maybe he is talking about how he knows better than his mother. Go back to the verse. The wise of heart he will receive commandments but the babbling fool will come to ruin. Maybe he's just talking about how he knows better than what his mom's been telling him. Oh maybe he's talking about how dumb his father's instructions are. Maybe he's talking about how old-fashioned his parents are. They're always teaching him the Bible and maybe he's just going on and on and on about how old-fashioned his parents are.

Maybe he's babbling on about how outdated the Bible is. Isn't that what his mother and father have been teaching him? The Word of God. Maybe he's just going on and on and on about how outdated the Bible is. Maybe he's talking about how no one lives that way anymore. Maybe he's even saying that to his mom and his dad. You know nobody lives like that anymore. Maybe he's going on and on about how he'll be made fun of if he lives that way. Mom and dad you don't know what it will be like if I live the way you're telling me how to live. Maybe he's going on and on and on and saying that he knows best.

Now we don't know what he was saying but we know one thing for sure. His words were many. His words were foolish. His words contradict God's words and his words contradict God's ways. He is not receiving God's Word but I want to add more. I want to add more. The babbling fool uses words plus. Again I'm using our curiosity and our imagination here. The babbling fool uses words but more to communicate his foolishness. The babbling fool has a bad attitude plus words. You hear me? The babbling fool has a bad attitude plus words. The babbling fool uses words and facial expressions. The babbling fool uses the silent treatment plus words. You see?

The actions of the fool are saying one thing. I know best in what they say and what they don't say and how they say it. All they're saying is I know best. They are saying that they know better than the instructions that have been giving them from God's Word. So notice what we've seen so far. The actions of the wise and then the actions of the fool. Let me read the verse again. The wise at heart they receive commandments but the babbling fool will come to ruin. And this leads me to the third observation. The end of the fool. It's right there. We have learned that the way of the fool ends up in sorrow and despair and death. It's in that order.

Sorrow, despair and death. And here we see the word ruin and that captures it all. So in summary what do we see here? The actions of the wise are contrasted with the actions of the fool. The wise one in silent while the foolish one is babbling on. He's the babbling fool. The wise one is receiving God's Word while the foolish one always knows best. The wise one ends up being blessed. He has a blessed life and the foolish one ends up in ruin. Always. Remember you can't cheat the system. Now in application I want to start off with us adults. This might surprise you. This might surprise you.

Adults are you a babbling fool therefore creating a babbling fool out of your own kids. I've known adults they were babbling fools and all they did was Bible foolishness in the life of their home and in the lives of their children and they created little babbling fools. Teenagers I want to ask you where do you fit in? Let's be honest. Teenagers how do you relate to coaches? How do you relate to teachers? How do you relate to other family? Aunts and Knuckles? How do you relate to parents? How do you relate to any authority figure in your life? So the question needs to be asked for all of us.

Are we the wise at heart keeping our mouths closed receiving the commandments or are we always babbling on saying I know what's best? Where do you fit in? Now the third question. What are you saving? Look at verse 14. What are you saving? The wise they lay up knowledge but the mouth of the fool brings ruin near. Here we have our last verse that specifically mentions the wise and the foolish. The last verse in chapter 10 that is. Now both are mentioned in the chapter more. Their behavior is seen all through the chapter but I'm focusing on the particular individuals.

I'm focusing on the passages that specifically named the wise and the foolish and it contrasts their behavior. Now this is quite a bit shorter with this question. What are you saving? First I want you to see the wise stores up God's Word. Look back at the verse. The wise lay up knowledge. Here we see silence from the wise young man again but notice there's another layer. In verse 8 the wise son receives the instruction. Now in verse 14 we see that he stores it up. See the other layer? This is the next logical step. So notice the progression. He hears the Word of God. He receives the Word of God. He keeps or he stores up the Word of God.

You see the progression? This wise young man he hears it. He receives it. He stores it up. See the progression? We see a progression but now we also see discipline there do we not? We see work. We see effort. It's not enough to hear it and it's not just enough to receive it. He works hard to store it. He works hard to remember it. You see the discipline? The work? The effort? Now remember how in our introduction I talked about a plan. I talked about reading and studying and developing the disciplines.

That's why I wanted to emphasize that at the beginning of the message because to be like this wise young man to store up God's Word you gotta have the time. You gotta have a place. You gotta have a plan. It takes discipline and work. So here's my question. Just in this do we take that first third step? Do we hear it? Do we receive it? And then the third step do we store it up? And I told you all the story about my old home church pastor. My home church pastor his name was Brother Dennis. Brother Dennis was a unique character. He's still alive. He has Alzheimer's so he can't pastor anymore. Brother Dennis grew up rough.

I mean he went to Marine Corps and he said many times he went to Marine Corps just to fight and he did. But God wonderfully saved him and when God saved me remember I told you I got saved on a Saturday night? I got a Bible out of my closet that somebody gave me in high school and I went to Sunday school the next day and I automatically fell in love with Brother Dennis. Why? Because he preached God's Word. But when Brother Dennis was preaching and I was going to church it was in the days of the cassette tapes and in the life of the church you would get cassette tapes of Brother Dennis's preaching.

Well a few years ago I ran across a bunch of old cassette tapes of Brother Dennis. Now I hadn't heard those you know since 1990 and I found a cassette player and I put them in there and I press play and I had this flood of emotions and memories of all the things that I heard but all the things I'd forgotten. That's why I harp on taking notes and studying your notes because there's so much that I should have remembered. That's why I say go back and read, go back and study, discipline your time. Why? Because we've got to be faithful to what we see here.

The wise man, the wise young man, the wise adult, hears the Word, receives the Word and stores it up. That's why I bring that illustration, that example to you. The wise one stores up God's Word and then the second observation, the fool, he stores up his own opinions. That's all he stores up. Look at verse 14. "The wise lay up knowledge but the mouth of the fool." Remember his babbling? "The mouth of the fool brings ruin and ruin near." Here we see the babbling fool. I wrote it down like this. He strikes again. In verse 8, we see his babbling and his end. Here in verse 14, we do not see a repeat of his babbling but it's here. It's obvious.

Solomon mentions his mouth in the verse. What's the meaning? He is still talking. He's still talking. He's still babbling on. Why? Because he's the babbling fool. He strikes again. But what are the results? Ruin. It always leads to sorrow and destruction and death. He never cheats the system. So in summary, what do we see here? The wise son hears instruction. He doesn't just say, "Oh brother Chris, that's a good sermon." He receives the instruction. That means he takes notes. That means he receives it on the Sunday morning and a Sunday night. Then he stores it up.

That means he goes to the time and the place and he disciplines in his life to put it in his mind and to put it in his heart. That which is the most important, which is the Word of God, he stores it up but not the fool. He is still talking and bragging. He's still bragging and talking and he is ignoring instruction. He knows best. Just ask him. He'll tell you. The babbling fool will always tell you he knows best. So on application. I'm starting with adults every time on my application. Adults, what are we storing up? When you are hearing, are you receiving? And then are you going from receiving to storing it up?

Are you storing it up as a treasure knowing that you might need it five years from now? You might need it ten years from now? You might need it at the end of your life? And again, I go back to what we do here. I'm not trying to be braggadocious but we work really, really hard. We give you the Word of God Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. Are you hearing and receiving and storing it up? We've got to do all three. But teenagers, what about you? You're not too old. It doesn't matter where you are. You should hear it, receive it, and store it up.

We work really hard to give you the Word of God because it is the Word of God only that will change your life. It's the Word of God only that will separate you. It's the Word of God only that will sanctify you. Now, I want to hurry up but I want to conclude because I know we've gone quite a bit with a lot tonight. I felt like we needed to turn the corner with some introduction to get us ready for chapter 10. Now, I want you to notice how I've gotten us started in chapter 10. This has all been real personal. We've dealt with two people, the wise young man and the foolish young man.

We've only examined two people but next week we'll move or transition from being personal to practical. We will look at some practical instruction from the chapter. So we've looked at personally the wise young man and the foolish young man and then we're going to look at some very practical teaching and we'll zoom through the chapter next week. And let me show you the title of the message as we close. Wisdom's Way or the Fool's Folly? Two people. Two people. Wisdom's Way or the Fool's Folly?