Proverbs 17 12 when a bear robbed
of her whelps meet a man rather than a fool in his folly now
If you think about this for just a second you realize that this
is basically saying you're better off dead because if a mama bear
robbed of its babies meets you You're a goner you you've got
nowhere to No way to escape that really. But it's still better
than being subjected to the foolishness of a fool. And when I say subjected
to it, that's important here because this presupposes that
the fool is determined to destroy you or given the same advantage
as the bear. has the ability to do that the
authority or the ability and the ability to do that because
We do business with fools every day This world is full of fools,
but if it's only a passing encounter Then that's better than the bear
But given the same exposure to the fool as to the bear the same
vulnerability, a fool that has the power and the incentive to
destroy you, take the bear and be happy with the bear. If you
can think of the biggest idiot that you can this morning, and
I'm sure some of us will probably think of some of the same people,
but think of the biggest idiot in this world that you can think
of. and think about how much destruction they've caused to
the people around them, perhaps an entire nation, because I suspect
that some of you probably thought of maybe people like Adolf Hitler
or Benito Mussolini, people like that. I thought more recently that
the name Nicolas Maduro came to my mind because if you've
ever seen pictures of Venezuela just 20 years ago, 20, 30 years
ago, or less, I don't even know. And now you can see how much
destruction one man can do. Just absolute, one of the richest,
most vibrant countries in the world turned into a complete
wasteland in just a few years. So this is the type of destruction
that we're talking about. So when comparing to the bear, you
have to think of a fool that has the ability and the incentive,
some reason, and they always do, don't they? There's always
a reason to do the things that they do to destroy people. And as incredibly disastrous
as a fool like that is, there's one thing worse. There's one thing worse than
individuals destroying entire countries with their stupidity. And that's a fool in a pulpit. Now let me immediately qualify
that because anyone that stands in a pulpit is a fool. There is no question because
we're all a bunch of fools by nature. If left to himself, any man standing in a pulpit especially
is a fool. But God doesn't leave his preachers
to themselves. That's the thing about it. Evil
leaders rely upon lies in order to perpetrate the horrors that
they do. They lie to people. But the destructive power of
one very simple, believable, innocent-seeming lie from a pulpit
is of eternal consequence. It's absolutely of eternal consequence. If you stand in a pulpit, and
of course that's figurative, it doesn't have to be physically
behind a pulpit. The pulpit represents the authority
that God has given a man to speak for Him. But there are men behind
pulpits that have no authority from God, no understanding of
God or His Word, and they speak lies. But if a man stands behind
a pulpit, so to speak, In other words, he presumes to speak for
God and says God loves everybody. With that one lie, he's destroyed
the character of God and the souls of men in one fell swoop. God's character, of course, is
not actually destroyed. God is eternal and he can't be affected by the foolishness of
man, but anybody that would say such a thing in the false gospel
of that man, the character of God is dissolved. This fool in his folly that we're
talking about now that presumes again to speak for God and tells
lies about God. is the absolute worst thing in
this world that you could encounter. There's nothing worse. Nothing
worse. That's saying a lot, but it's
saying it right. It's saying the truth. So listen well. Hear well. If it's not the word of God,
remember that if they speak not according to the words of this
prophecy, It's because there's no light in them. Many of us have loved ones that
have believed their lies. You tell me what could be worse
than for someone you love to be deceived about that which
is vital, eternally so. Christ died for everybody. It sounds so good, doesn't it?
If you don't know him. Christ died for everybody. You
just took away every sinner's only sure hope. If the blood of God's son does
not absolutely, eternally, directly Effectually save the sinner for
whom it was shed That no sinner on this earth anywhere has any
hope whatsoever There's no hope for you in heaven
or on earth so today's lesson is very simple and very very
brief we'll have time left over and We live in a world full of terrors
and dangers, but without any doubt, the worst of them is a
false preacher. And you mark my words. We have
loved ones sitting and listening to them right now, and it's destroying their very
souls. It's not a question of, you know,
we know better than them, or our opinion is better than their
opinion. It's a question of the word of God. And do you believe
on the son of God? How can they believe on him of
whom they've not heard? And how can they hear without
a preacher that God sent? And believe me, I'm just as surprised
that God would send me as you are. But that's what he does. He sends
men that are such that when you hear the truth of the gospel
from their lips, You see how God uses his gospel
in this world how? How it's a light shining in darkness.
It's it's it's life to the dead You won't be given any glory
to any man But all the glory is God's False preacher, the worst thing
in this world. Now, the world is also full of
those, and we fight them here. We fight them not defensively. We don't sit here and pick apart
what they say and tell you how foolish that is. We do so in
general terms because the first two things that you'll learn
in 99.9% of the churches in this world is that God loves everybody
and that Christ died for everybody, and neither one of them's true. And they're not just a difference
of opinion. They're basic falsehood that will destroy your soul if
you believe it. So we do fight them here and
we disarm them here with the truth. It's the sword of truth. But only for those who believe.
And whether you believe or not is God's business. The business
that God has given us is a commission to preach his truth, the truth
of Christ, who died and redeemed everybody that God loves. That's
what love is, according to this book, that Christ gave himself
to be the propitiation for our sins. That's what love is. God's love is in Christ Jesus
alone. And don't let anybody tell you
any different. God loves his son and those who
are in his son, those who believe on his son. And he's loved you
long before you ever believed. But we have that commission from
him. And if he's gracious to us, it's
what we'll do until we die. Buy the truth and sell it not. Buy the truth. How much are you
willing to pay for the truth? The only right answer to that
is whatever it takes. A man will go and sell all that
he has and buy that one pearl of great price, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and sell it not. Sell it not. That simple seven-word
scripture is one that we ought to remember
every day. My advice, as you know, to you,
to every one of you, from this pulpit, and if we're standing
toe-to-toe, just talking. My advice to every one of you,
always, about everything, is you must hear from God. You need to hear from God and
you need to worship God. And I want to mention this specifically
in closing, though it's not directly expository of our text, but in
the interest of When you find somebody that by God's grace
and power is not a fool in the sense that he preaches the truth
of the gospel of Christ, hear him. Hear him wherever he is,
whoever he is. The only thing that we need and
what we desperately need is to hear from God. And let me say
this, because this is very common, when there's a crisis of some
kind in your life, when there's trouble, when somebody's sick
or whatever it is, somebody's in the hospital, whatever, it's
anything, a trial. It's the most common thing to
disappear from the worship. Very common. And I want you to
think about something with me in closing today. When you and
your family is in any type of crisis like that, going through
a trial, the one thing you need is God. and yet you discontinue the worship
of God. I understand when things are
going on like that, that there's a lot to do. But the one thing
you must do is worship God. You must worship God. You must
acknowledge him in it and bow to him in it. And by your very
presence here say, God, whatever you do is right. and we're gonna
bow to you and worship you, whatever you do. That is necessary. That is primary. And yet it's the first thing
that goes to the wayside. Don't forget me saying that today,
because it'll be you next. God will try your faith. And may he give us the grace
in that trial to come and worship him. Let's pray together.