Proverbs 19.3, the foolishness
of man perverteth his way, and his heart fretteth against the
Lord. The foolishness of man. Now this
is why Solomon in these Proverbs, in the early chapters especially,
exhort us, exhorts sinners to get with all of our getting
wisdom. Wisdom and understanding because
it's the foolishness of our heart the foolishness of man That perverts
our way And brings us into enmity against
God That's the progression of our
text the foolishness of man the The attribute of being a fool
It's what we are. That causes us to do all that
we do. Everything we do is foolish in
the sight of God. Even our best deeds are tainted with sin, have a
false motive or no telling how much evil, if we could see it
in our very best deeds. And then, of course, you're at
odds with God when you're in that state. The state of your
nature and your character affects all that you do, and there's
conflict with God because of your sin. I thought of Cain when I thought
about this. All of Cain's problems started
with a foolish decision. Man trusts his own will. Man trusts a decision to be the
solution to his problems when our decisions are our problem. Really, that's not the root of
it. The reason we decide what we do is because of our evil
nature, but Cain was a fool. He brought a bloodless sacrifice
to God who had taught and Abel had learned to bring an innocent
victim, blood, picturing the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of
God. But Cain brought a bloodless sacrifice to God. And so his
way was perverted by his foolishness. It affected what he did. Your
way is your walk or your conduct in this life. And then what was
the progression from there? He was angry at God. That word
fretteth means to be enraged. We use that word a little bit
differently now. If we fretten over something,
we're worried about something, but this means to be enraged
against God. Was that not Cain? He was counting
his fell. And he was angry with God. So that's the progression. The
foolishness, which is a state of being of ours, affects what
we do, what we say, what we think, our conduct. And we find ourselves
at enmity with God. Now to be in conflict with God
is the very definition of being a loser. And I'm not trying to
be cute. I know how young people use that
word, loser. Think about what a loser is.
That's defined by being in conflict with God. You lose, that's how
you lose. That's why you lose. In every sense of the word, we lost pretty much everything
worth having in the Garden of Eden, and it was because of our
conflict with God. We, in our so-called free will, rose
up and rebelled against God. So that's the very definition
of it. All of us love this verse of scripture, and rightly so.
More and more, Romans 8, 28, we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. to them who are the
called according to his purpose. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. Have you ever thought
of the flip side of that? Is the flip side of that true?
Does everything work together for evil to those that hate God? I believe the Bible teaches that
pretty clearly. Consider the Word of God and
ask yourself that question is the flip side of that truth Even
the so-called good things that happen to you will work for evil
if you hate God This conflict with God this enmity against
God is the definition of being a loser And our text is really a full
circle. If you think about it, our foolishness,
our state of being as a fool, is our downfall, which results
ultimately in rage against God, which is assured self-destruction. But the cause of our foolishness
is that we hate God. So it's a full circle. The fool
hath said in his heart, no God. Corrupt are they and have done
abominable iniquity There is none that do us good you see
every element of our text in Proverbs 19 3 Is in that verse
I just quoted the fool hath said in his heart There's our foolishness
And it's it's something in here. It's not just what we do. It's
It's in it's our heart It's a heart problem And he says, no God. That's the
definition of fool. The fool is the one that says,
no God. And don't make any mistake about
it. Those two words, no God, that's deicide. That's what that
is. The cross proves that. Does it
not? The cross is proof of that. In
our way, you see our way there, there's none that doeth good.
The fool, because you say there's no God, not that you don't believe
there's a God, the words there is, it says in
the text, the fool hath said in his heart there is no God,
but there is, the two words there is are in italics, which means
They're not in the original language. It's literally says in the original
Hebrew there the fool hath said in his heart no God no God And then what follows corrupt
are they and have done Abominable iniquity see that foolishness
It starts with God Our foolishness is the fact that we are at enmity
against God, which affects our doings, our abominable iniquity
results from that, which also results in what? More enmity
against God. So it starts and ends with God,
and so does salvation. So does salvation. So what we need is to not be
fools. I need to not be a fool. That's
how we had this all off at the pass. That's how we, our behavior
changes. That's how our relationship with
God is gonna be something else is if I'm not a fool. How do
I not be a fool? Well, here's that full circle
again. Salvation is also, starts and ends with God. Proverbs 9,
10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of not being a fool. It says the beginning of wisdom.
That's not being a fool. So it starts with God, doesn't
it? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge
of the holy is understanding. That's what understanding is.
Knowing God doesn't just make you capable of learning and knowing
and understanding. Knowing God is the knowledge. That is understanding. Christ
is our wisdom. Salvation begins and ends with
God. What are we being saved from?
Ourselves, our sin, what we are. Foolishness is an attribute of
us in our sinfulness before God. Us not being a self-destructive
fool is a work of God though, not us. Turn with me to Ezekiel
chapter 36. Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel 36 verse 16 I Want to
read a passage here and see if you see the progression here
in this of our text Ezekiel 36 16 Moreover the word of the Lord
came unto me saying Son of man when the house of Israel dwelt
in their own land. They defiled it by their own
way and by their doings Their way was before me as the uncleanness
of a removed woman Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for
the blood that they had shed upon the land And for their idols
wherewith they had polluted it The word foolishness is not used
here, but worshipping an idol they literally worshipped statues
carved from stone and wood and like the golden calves or or
the statue of Dagon that had fallen and his face was broken. Things like that. I'd say that
kind of includes the word foolishness, wouldn't you? But it had affected their way.
They defiled it by their own way and by their doings. And what was the result? Enmity. enmity And I scattered them verse
19 among the heathen and they were dispersed through The countries
according to their way and according to their doings. I judged them
And when they entered unto the heathen Whether they went they
profaned my holy name when they said to them These are the people
of the lord and are gone forth out of his land But I had pity
for mine holy name which the house Israel had profaned among
the heathen whither they went Therefore say unto the house
of Israel thus saith the Lord God The Lord's fixing to have
mercy The first one was the word of
the Lord came into me say that was the Word of God to condemnation
wrath against sin But the Lord said, say this to them, say this
to my people. I do not do this for your sakes,
verse 22, middle of the verse. O house of Israel, but for mine
holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the heathen, whether
you win, and I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned
among the heathen, which you have profaned in the midst of
them, and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the
Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For
I will take you from among the heathen and gather you out of
all countries and will bring you into your own land. Then
will I, you see this, I will, I will, I am, Then will I sprinkle
clean water upon you and you shall be clean. That's how you
get clean, God does something. God cleanses you. You shall be
clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols will
I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give
you and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart
of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk. See that? I will, will I, I am, and I will cause. That's how
you not be a fool. That's how your way is not vile
and corrupt before God. I will cause you to walk in my
statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them and you
shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers and you
shall be my people and I will be your God. Notice first came
the cleansing. That's by the precious blood
of Christ. You're not gonna be clean before
God, holy, righteous, cleansed before God any other way. Without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. Your sins
can't be washed away any other way. But then, your walk is gonna
change too, because I'm gonna cause it to happen. Was it Paul
that said, the Lord worketh in you both to will and to do of
his good pleasure? I will cause, I will cause. So,
salvation's of the Lord. Jonah had it right, didn't he?
And that being the case, what's the gospel message? Well, it's
who Christ is because the preeminent aspect of our foolishness is
we don't know who God is, we don't know God. So we preach him who he is, God
Almighty, the Almighty Savior, the one who saves who he wants
to save, when he wants to save, the way he wants to save them. What's the gospel message? What
he did about the problem. What's the problem? Well, the
enmity, our enmity against God. We've got to go to hell because
we hate God and by nature, God hates us. We're the children
of his wrath by nature, what we are. So what Christ did, he suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
That's such an important verse. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered
the just for the unjust, not so you'd have a chance to come
to God. That's not why he did it. He did it to bring you to
God if you're his. What a powerful verse that is,
all of the scripture. that he might bring us to God.
And then what's the message of the
gospel, seeing what we see in our text? Come to him. Come to
him. Not get smart. Christ is wisdom. Not do better. Christ is righteousness. Not
live the Christian life. Christ is life. Christ is love. Come to Christ. Believe on him
and all these other things will be added to you. Problem again in our text is
enmity. So what's the answer? For he
is our peace. Ephesians 2.14, that word peace
there, there are different meanings in the New Testament, even for
the word peace. This one means exemption from
the rage and havoc of war. Who are we at war with? Who hath
made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, the
law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in
himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and that he
might reconcile both unto God. That's who we're at war with.
But Christ, Reconciles us unto God in one body by the cross Having slain the enmity Thereby
by the cross he made peace with the blood of his cross our foolishness
has resulted in war Christ by his precious blood
has made reconciliation for those for whom he died. Amen.