All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Proverbs, chapter 27. Proverbs,
chapter 27. Oh, the miracle of God's grace
that God would move upon a man to pen words of wisdom. words that there's no possible
way we'd ever know apart from these scriptures right here.
Proverbs chapter 27 and verse 22 says this, though thou shouldest
bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will
not his foolishness depart from him. Now, according to the scriptures,
man by nature believes himself to be one that is not. That's what man believes about
himself. He's not an out and out rebel against God. Man doesn't see himself being
born in Adam, as one who is deceived according to the things of God. He does not believe himself to
be openly and gladly a sinner against God. He doesn't believe
that he mocks or snubs his nose at God's Word. Rather, man by
nature believes himself capable of pleasing God. He believes
himself to be, if he so chooses, to reconcile himself back to
God by doing some works of righteousness, self-righteousness. And he believes
he can honor God's law in himself. He believes he can walk with
consistency, all according to his free will, But listen, I'm
gonna read a few scriptures here that refuse those thoughts. And
we've gotta come to this point, let God be true and let all of
us be a liar. Let God be true and man a liar.
So here's what God has to say about a man born in Adam, just
a man born with no knowledge of God, The scripture we're talking
about, in verse 22, we're talking about a fool, a fool. Now what
is a fool? I don't wanna know what man says
a fool is, I wanna know what God says a fool is. Proverbs
1.7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but
fools despise wisdom and instruction. Now, I looked these words up,
so I wanted to know. I wanted to know what does it
mean, what is a fool? Well, that word fool comes from
a word which means perverse, perverse, okay? Well, what does perverse mean?
I've heard that word before. What does perverse mean? Here's
what it is. Those who possess a deliberate and obstinate desire
to behave in a way, this is before God now, which is unreasonable,
unacceptable, in spite of the consequences. That's what perverse
means, that's what a fool does. The scripture says if we're all
going to die, we're going to stand before God. And we're going to give an account
according to the books or being found in the book himself, the
Lord Jesus Christ. A fool is one who despises or
disrespects or treats with contempt. Wisdom and instruction. Now Christ,
according to Proverbs 8, I won't read all these scriptures. You've
seen them, you've heard them for sake of time, but Christ
is the wisdom of God. When we talk about wisdom, we're
talking about the Lord himself. He despises wisdom and instruction. It is Christ who is the wisdom
of God and the discipline and correction of his word. Here's
what Proverbs 722 says. Now this is that passage speaking
of that simple man. Again, we've read this, that
simple man void of understanding, enticed by, the scripture says,
a woman with the attire of a harlot. The unregenerate, that is a simple,
simple man. He goes after this woman who
is a picture, according to the scriptures in Revelation, False
religion. And when I say false religion,
what do I mean? I'll just sum it up very quickly.
All false religion is that teaching or that doctrine which makes
man to be the one that makes the decision, or man makes the
choice, or man calls the shots, and God wants him. He's wanting
him to do it, but he's got to wait on man to do it. That's
false religion. Salvation is of the Lord. If it's not salvation totally
by the sovereign grace and will of Almighty God, God chose, God
determined, God's will, God calls. Man is the recipient of the grace
of God. So any teaching that makes God
be wanting to do something if man will let him, if man will
choose. That's false. That's false. I
can prove this from scriptures. Salvations of the Lord. So the
scripture is talking about this fool, he goes straight away as
an ox goeth to slaughter, he says, or as a fool to the correction
of stocks. He goes after that which is contrary
to God's word, and he does it suddenly, quickly, agreeably,
longingly after. Why? Because it feeds his flesh. It makes him feel good. Listen
to Proverbs 14, 9. Fools make a mock of sin. They make a mouth at, you know. They mock it. They mock sin. Meaning, he commits rebellion
against God. Cheerfully, lightly, and makes
a joke of the rebuke of God's Word. I mean, I'll tell you this,
let me just go ahead and just say this is me by nature. It's
all of us, but this is the way we are. This is what God has
to say about a fool, a man born in Adam with no knowledge of
what God has to say. He takes pleasure in rebelling
against God. Proverbs 16, 22, understanding
is a wellspring of life. unto him that hath it, that hath
understanding, a true understanding of ourselves, of our helplessness,
our rebellion, our hopelessness, apart from the grace of God,
and a God-revealed knowledge that is had through the preaching
of the gospel. There's some things that I'm
saying right here that none of us would know. We wouldn't know
this. Everybody would have their own
opinion about it. But there's a standard. There's
a foundation. And what is it? It's this book.
It's this book right here. The Word of God. So the scripture says understanding,
understanding of who I am, understanding who God is. is a wellspring of
life unto him that hath it. How'd he get it? God had to give
it to him. Had to give it to him. He wasn't
born with it. He didn't contrive it by trying
to figure it out himself, you know. But the instruction of
fools is folly. Understanding is a wellspring
to him that's got it. But the instruction of fools,
now some think that the scripture is saying that the instruction
which a fool gives, but the instruction of fools is folly, the instruction
that a fool gives is folly, that means that they don't know. Without knowing what God's word
has to say, they don't know. what true instruction is. And
that's true. That is true. But actually the
scripture is saying more that the instruction or the chastisement
or the warning or the restraint or correction that is given to
a fool. When they hear the message of
the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. When I say sovereign
grace, what do I mean? I mean God is the boss. That's
what I'm saying. God is God. When they hear that,
that is folly to them. They hear that and they'll say,
no, that's silliness, that's foolishness. I've told you before,
I had heard, I heard the gospel of God's sovereign grace. I heard
it years and years and years ago. And my immediate reaction
in myself was, You're the most deceived person I've ever seen
in my life. God wants to save everybody. God loves everybody. But do you know when God taught
me the truth of these words, and I realized that God does
what he wants to do, then I realized that what I thought was foolishness
and silliness wasn't. It was according to these scriptures.
So knowing something about what a fool is, then the scripture,
I'm going back now to verse 22, and it says, though thou shouldest
bray, or what does that mean? Pound. Pound and grind. Though thou shouldest bray a
fool, one that despises instruction, one that makes a mock at sin,
One that does it, he will not, he will not bow to God's word
if God doesn't do something for him, a fool. Though thou shouldest
bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle. You know
what, you know. Though thou shouldest bray him
with a pestle in a mortar, yet will not his foolishness depart
from him. What does that mean? Even though
you take a man, a woman, and here it is, this is all of us
by nature, and you pound them with trials, tribulations, and
troubles, and on and on and on. Though you should, I mean, though
the chastisement, the wrath of God is what I'm saying. God's
pounding on them. You know, whenever the Lord sent
the flood, Scripture says in Genesis 6, 5, that the Lord saw,
he saw, that the foolishness of man, man was only evil continued. Every thought of man's heart
was only evil. Man by nature says, I don't think. Every thought I think is not
evil. Listen, listen. Let's hear what
God has to say. And let's believe Him. When the
Lord sent the flood, God destroyed everybody. All the speculations
on how many people were on the earth at that time. I mean, millions
and millions and millions. You know how many people He spared?
Eight souls. Eight souls. Noah, his wife,
his three sons, and their wives. all those animals that he put
in there. And God destroyed the earth. And then after he caused the
waters to go back to their place, original place, and men began
to multiply, multiply out of those eight souls that was left. Do you know what the state of
all men born in themselves, you know what their state was after
that? After God had sent and destroyed
the earth, wickedness of man was still great.
Every thought and imagination of his heart was only evil. Whenever God sent Moses to Egypt,
told him, he said, you go tell Pharaoh that I said to let my
people go. And Moses did. And Pharaoh said,
who is the Lord? Who is the Lord? That I should
obey him. And God sent plague after plague
after plague, the harshest of judgments. And do you know that all of that
judgment that was sent didn't change one thing in Pharaoh.
Pharaoh's heart was hardened against the Lord. the thought,
the belief that an unregenerate can by affliction cause, that
affliction could cause that man, that woman to change their mind
and to make that decision to follow after the Lord is false. You could take a rock, you take
the hardest rock It's known to man. You take the most powerful
machine and you pound that rock into the smallest of all pieces. Pound it until it's dust. It's just dust. Pound it. And do you know that every broken
piece of that rock is going to retain that native hardness. It's still hard. It's still rock. A center may be crushed, But
the natural crushing of trials and troubles and tribulations
will never humble a man, never, never. I have somebody that I
know very well, very well, very well, in my family. And they went to the doctor and
they were told, we suspect that you've got this disease. And if it's so, it's fatal. Very well, probably would be
fatal. Oh, I'm telling you, we got serious. It was serious,
serious. They went in, they operated,
and it was benign. It was benign. After it was over
and recuperation, I made this statement to him. I said, listen, what we thought might be the
case, I'm so thankful that it wasn't. I'm so thankful, but
listen, listen. I want you to consider, go sit
under the sound of the gospel. I said, I know a man where you
live. less than an hour from where you live. Go sit. I'm not asking you to do it.
I'm not asking you to do anything. I'm asking you to go sit. Though thou shouldst bray a fool
in a mortar, among wheat with a pestle, yet will his foolishness
not depart from him. So here's what I have to say
in closing. What then is the hope of a fool? And we're all born fools. If this is offensive, this is
God's word, but we're all born this way. What is our hope? Here's what it is. There must
be a new birth. from above. That's what the Lord
told a man named Nicodemus. Here's what the Lord told him.
In John 3, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except, there's one
exception, except, except a man be born again, born from above,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. He can't perceive it. Except
he's born again. God must do something for a fool. He must do something for all
of us by the omnipotent hand of his power and mercy and grace. Only the Lord. I cannot deliver
myself I can't deliver myself. I got a problem and my problem
is sin against God. I was born this way. I was conceived
in sin, came forth from my mother's womb speaking lies. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner by nature against
God and only God can deliver from the bondage of this foolishness,
sin. And how does he do that? He's
going to make A new man. Turn to Ephesians 2.10. Ephesians
2.10. He's going to make a new man.
That man is revealed in Ephesians 2.10, for we are his workmanship
created. Created. Created. in Christ Jesus unto good works
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. God must create something. He must create a new man in Christ
Jesus A man that is born from above. Not born in Adam, but
we're all this way. God's got to make a new man.
And that new man created in Christ Jesus is created and he's not
a fool. He's created in righteousness
and true holiness. Turn to 2 Corinthians 5.17. 2 Corinthians 5.17. Listen, therefore, if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. If any man be in Christ, not
merely joining a church or reforming his ways, but rather by a new birth that
has been wrought by the hand and power and will of Almighty
God. God makes a new man. Again, not
according to my works or my decision, he's a new man, he's a new creature,
he's a new building, is what it says, a new building. God
creates a new man with a new nature. This is what Ezekiel
36 says, 26. I'm gonna take out that heart
of stone. I'm gonna give you a new heart,
a pliable heart, a soft heart toward God. He's got a new heart,
new spirit. Old things are passed away, and
behold, all things are made new. Not that he doesn't still possess
that old man. That old man is still there.
There's still an old man inside of every believer that wars against
that new man. There's a struggle that's going
on. That old man is not changed. I've still got, and every believer
in here does too, I've still got that same hard, rebellious
nature against God, but in the new creation, Things are passed
away. That is, that old things that
loves the flesh and the things of this world, that which is
born of God sinneth not. Are you telling me that there's
a new creation that does not sin? I'm telling you that God
said that there's a new creation, doesn't He? It's the old thoughts
of legal righteousness which flatters man and makes God a
helpless beggar is not there in the new man, but rather that
new man, he acts from a heart made sensitive to the will of
God. God who's sovereign, his creation and providence and salvation. There's a new heart there that
honors that respects and praises the Lord. There's a new man there.
So, though a fool, you bray a fool, you pound him to powder. You
pound him to powder. Pound him to powder in trouble
and tribulation. Listen, his foolishness will
not depart from him. You cannot pound with trouble. A fool. You can't pound us into
submission. It won't do it. It won't depart, but when God
Almighty is pleased to come onto one of the vessels of His compassion,
mercy, when he's pleased to draw one of his own, that he's everlastingly
loved in Christ, according to Ephesians 1, 4. And he draws
them under the sound of the truth. The sound of the truth is going
to tell you about what we are and who God is. That's the truth. But whenever God's pleased to
put a sinner, a fool, under the sound of the gospel, and he blesses
that word in regenerating grace. As I said a moment ago, that
old heart's removed and a new heart of love, a new spirit.
I'll tell you something, that man's a new creature. That's
a new creature. That's something that's never
naturally born into this world. You can't pound it out of him,
but God can make him new in Christ. I pray that the Lord be pleased
to bless these words to our heart for the glory of almighty God
and for the good of God's people. Amen. All right, now we're just
gonna take a little short break and I'll come back, we'll have
our second service.