030: James Robinson - Exhortation: Don’t Be A Fool

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   Welcome to the Good Christadelphian Talks podcast. I'm Levi. And I'm Chris. Thank you so much for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help each one of us get the Bible in our daily news feed. We post at the start of each week for you to listen with a short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you're about to hear.

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   And now let's hear more about this week's talk. This week's talk is actually an exhortation that was given about three weeks ago by Brother James Robinson at the San Francisco Peninsula Ecclesia. But I actually heard the exhortation at our Sunday School campout that was given the week of the 14th. I heard him give the exhortation and came up to him afterwards.

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   And because we weren't recording it, I reached out to him, seeing if he would be willing to essentially re-record the exhortation for the podcast, because I really enjoyed his exhortation. And he mentioned that it had been recorded, and I was able to get a copy of it from the San Francisco Peninsula Ecclesia.

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   The topic of his exhortation is about not being a fool. It's taken from Proverbs. And if you haven't heard James speak before, he's very energetic, and it's very enjoyable to hear him speak. He gave an entire series at our Sunday School campout on being a child of God, and this was sort of his class that he was using as an exhortation that he used as sort of the end cap for the entire weekend.

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   No matter how young or old you are, you can learn from. He had a lot of practical applications, as well as some really good nuggets taken out of Proverbs. As he mentions at the beginning of his exhortation, Proverbs is a really interesting book to look at, because you can take just one or two verses and find an entire exhortation just contained in those verses.

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   But he takes that kind of nature of the book and flips it on its head, and instead is now focusing on the overall theme and where the concepts of wisdom and foolishness are mentioned throughout Proverbs. So it was a really, really good exhortation. I enjoyed it, found a lot of really good nuggets for it, and I hope you will enjoy it as well.

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   As always, thank you for the continued support. Right now we're getting almost close to 300 people that are listening every week, which is great to see that people are still enjoying it. If you have suggestions, please send them in. And as always, if you're looking for other things to listen to, because I know we only do one talk a week, there is the Good Christadelphian Talks Extended, where we post the entire series.

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   We'll be getting some more of those posted here fairly soon. There's also the Pause to Consider podcast done by Brother Sam Taylor, and then also the Bible Study Essentials being done by Brother Tim Young. All of them are great. They all kind of take a different angle at a podcast, but they're all great listens.

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   And even if there's not something that you enjoy, make sure to share it with interested friends or other people at your ecclesia that may be interested in getting a little bit more Bible study into their week. So without further ado, I will turn it over to our brother, James Robinson, for his exhortation on not being a fool.

10. 3:32

    And good morning, brothers and sisters. Also in light of that last verse of Proverbs we were reading, I'll try not to talk for too long. But I did want to talk to you this morning about the book of Proverbs and some of the lessons we can learn from it. You see, Proverbs in some ways is a very easy book to read because just one verse of Proverbs can have a whole ton of meaning in it.

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    And sometimes it's a very hard book to read because just one verse can have a whole ton of meaning in it, and then we read 30 of them at once, and it's like, whoa, way too much. So this morning, my goal is not to explain every single proverb in the book of Proverbs to you because then I probably wouldn't still be this morning by the time I was done.

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    But fortunately also in Proverbs, we have a number of broad recurring themes. And one of those themes, of course, is the theme of the fool. So that's what we're going to be focusing on this morning because as we already saw just reading Proverbs 17 in our daily readings, the theme of the fool comes up a lot in Proverbs.

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    And so if you have this book full of wisdom and this one sort of point keeps getting hit over and over and over, it's probably a pretty important one. So we're going to delve into it, into what is a fool and how can we avoid being a fool? So it does make sense that Proverbs would talk about fools a lot because Proverbs is a book about wisdom.

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    If we start at the very beginning of Proverbs, it tells us what in the world the book of Proverbs is about. It says, Proverbs 1, verse 1, the Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, to learn wisdom and moral instruction and to discern wise counsel. So if the point of Proverbs is so that we can learn wisdom, then someone who doesn't learn wisdom isn't going to be viewed too highly in this book that's for learning wisdom.

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    And that's probably why right after we get this introduction about what Proverbs is about, in verses 1 to 6 of Proverbs 1, we then immediately get verse 7, fearing the Lord is the beginning of more knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. So the book says, this is a book to learn wisdom, but if you despise wisdom, you are a fool.

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    And there, in some ways, is an easy definition of what a fool is. A fool is somebody who doesn't have wisdom, and not only doesn't have wisdom, doesn't want wisdom. Because the thing is, the difference between a wise man and a fool is not how much wisdom they started off with. Because everybody starts off pretty stupid.

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    Babies just really aren't very smart. They don't know how to walk. They don't know how to talk. They definitely don't know how to, like, solve differential equations. So you talk to a baby, and you know it can maybe grab your finger and make some cute noises, but they're not very smart. And we all started off that way.

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    There was nobody in this room who started off being able to talk, who started off as a baby being able to walk. We all had to learn over time to become who we are. Some of us maybe even learned how to do differential equations. But it's a process of learning, and the only way we got where we are is by learning.

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    And fortunately, babies are very good at learning. So if there's anything you might want to get across, take away from the book of Proverbs, and probably, hopefully, the thing I really want you to remember from this exhortation is please keep learning. Don't stop learning. Because if you stop learning, that's when you become a fool.

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    Because everybody learns up to a point. But a fool is somebody who doesn't want to learn anymore. And why would you stop learning? Why would you decide that, oh, I don't need to learn anymore? Well, in Proverbs 12, verse 15, it tells us what makes sort of the difference between a wise man and a fool.

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    It's not where they started off. But it comes down to, well, I think what Proverbs 12, verse 15 says, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. You see, babies are actually very good at listening. It's amazing sometimes. You talk to a little child, and if you ever want to know what people say in their family, just talk to that child, and you will hear it.

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    Little kids say all sorts of interesting things, not because they invent them themselves, but because they repeat what they've heard other people say. And they're very good at listening and then repeating. And you see babies do this. They watch, and then they try to do the same thing. Not just with talking, with walking, with their actions.

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    It's really cute to watch when a baby sees, oh, look, mommy's doing that, so I'm going to try and do it. Sometimes they can't do it as well, but they keep trying, and that's how babies learn. They watch, they listen, and then they imitate.

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    And because they do all this, babies all learn how to walk. They learn how to talk. Babies learn languages better than adults can learn languages. I've been trying to learn a language recently, and it's really hard. But babies, like, they all do it. There's an old joke. Chinese, did you know Chinese children are the smartest children in the world?

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    And you know why? Because they can all speak Chinese. I can't speak Chinese, but Chinese kids, all of them, and they're just kids, and they can speak Chinese. Anyway, so kids learn really well. But then some people decide at some point in their life, they don't need to do any of this learning anymore.

26. 9:16

    And they stop. They decide they've learned everything they need to know, and my ways are the right ways, and I don't need to change them. And that's what makes somebody a fool. A fool is not just someone who is stupid. A fool is someone who is stupid and not trying to get any smarter.

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    That's why Proverbs 17, verse 10 says, a rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool. Because a man of understanding actually wants to change. So when he has somebody rebuke him, when someone tells him that he's wrong, he's like, oh, I need to do something about this and changes.

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    While a fool is someone who's not trying to change. So even if you make it really painful for him, he's like, I'm still doing the right thing, so I'm still going to keep doing it, and it doesn't make a difference. He remains a fool, despite those hundred blows. And also because of this, in Proverbs 9, it gives an interesting piece of advice about how to deal with people.

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    Proverbs chapter 9, starting at verse 7, whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you. Reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

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    In other words, if you criticize a fool, he's going to fight back. He's going to hate you. He's going to do anything he can to try and stop you from pointing out that he's not actually perfect. Why? Because he thinks his own way is right, and he doesn't want to change. And then they keep acting foolishly, so it's a waste of time.

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    You just started a fight, and they didn't even get any better. But it's saying, if you criticize a wise man, that wise man will love you for it, and take your advice, and become even wiser. Why? Because his wisdom is realizing he's not done learning. So even though he's a wise man, he's going to listen to your advice, and appreciate it, and become even wiser as a result, and appreciate the fact you gave him that advice.

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    So the advice here, straight out of Proverbs, is don't even bother criticizing a fool, because you're just going to get yourself a fight on your hands, and he's not going to get any better. But if you criticize a wise man, it's a really good thing to do. And so my advice to you, if you don't want to be a fool, lose the pride, open your ears, and listen when people criticize you, even though it hurts.

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    Because if you listen, and change what you're doing, and improve, that's what makes you a wise person. Then you will be wise. And, pro tip, if you ever are wondering if somebody is a wise person, or a foolish person, here is, in my experience, the 100% way to do it. Find something they're doing that is legitimately wrong, and tell them that.

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    I mean, obviously, do it privately, follow Matthew 18. You don't need to call them out in the middle of everybody. But, find something they're doing that's wrong, and then, clearly tell them, you're doing this, this is wrong, you need to fix it. And then just watch how they react. If they pitch a fit, and attack you, and double down on their position, and don't want to be friends with you anymore, because you're going to treat them like that, then according to the definition we have in Proverbs, they are a fool.

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    And, if they don't want to be friends with you anymore, you may want to take them up on that offer, because, as we read in Proverbs 17, verse 12, let a man meet a she-bear robs of her cubs, rather than a fool in his folly. Fools make very dangerous friends. However, if they thank you, and try to understand exactly what they're doing, and most importantly, change as a result, then they're a wise person.

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    Enjoy your now-strengthened friendship with them, because friendships with wise people make your life better, like Proverbs also says in Proverbs 13, verse 20, whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. And, if you're willing to take some unsolicited relationship advice from someone happily single, you probably want to do this before you get married to the person.

37. 13:35

    And, if you think the person that you want to marry is absolutely perfect, and there is nothing you could possibly criticize, you haven't dated long enough. Anyway, so, it's also, I think, important to get into why is it so important to be wise? Why do we have this whole book about the importance of wisdom?

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    Because sometimes, being a fool really is a lot easier. For instance, you don't have to listen when people criticize you. And, of course, you've heard the expression, like, ignorance is bliss. You can just do your thing, ignore all these, you know, haters out there, and expect the world to accommodate you. And, sure, maybe you live on this mountain called Mount St. Helens, and everyone's telling you that it's a volcano and it's going to blow up, but, you know, you just keep doing what you're doing, and you get news reporters over there who interview you, and you become famous, and you get all these letters, and then, you know, you get buried under 150 feet of volcanic landslide debris.

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    Which is what happened to a person called Harry R. Truman back in 1980. He didn't want to listen, and he died for it. And that is the reason to listen. The most primary reason to want to acquire wisdom is because if you don't, you might die for it. There's this sort of sense of fear.

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    Wisdom comes from fear of there are going to be negative consequences if you don't have wisdom. And that's what it said back in Proverbs 1, verse 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. If you don't properly have a fear of something greater than yourself, you may think that you are the most important thing in the world, and so only your needs and desires are important.

41. 15:22

    And because change is hard, why bother to change? Let the world change for you. What satisfies, and it helps satisfy your pride. You are better and smarter than everyone else, and the world needs to change, but you're doing the right thing. It makes you feel really good about yourself until you get hit by that lava flow.

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    Because, as it says in Proverbs 22, verse 3, the prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it. And so that's the thing. Wisdom can be really hard at first because you have to change, because you have to listen, because you can't just keep doing what you're doing.

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    But, even though it's hard at first because you have to swallow your pride and stop doing things, even though you really liked it that way, it tends to work out better in the long run. Because, in the long run, if you're a fool, you will be punished for it. And so having that fear of something bad is going to come if I don't change, that fear of, oh no, I need to do something because otherwise, whether it's a lava flow or whether it's cancer or whether it's the judgment of God, it's going to come and I need to be ready for it.

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    That is the thing that is the initial impetus for acquiring wisdom. If you don't listen to somebody else, if you don't listen to advice, it's going to be a problem. And interestingly, I found an example of, because sometimes people go, well, Jesus was perfect, so he never had to, you know, deal with, listen to advice or anything because he was always perfect.

45. 16:58

    And I found that's not actually true. Even if you're the son of God, sometimes you have to listen to criticism. So you probably all know this story, but you might not have considered it in this light. In Luke 2, we have a little picture. We don't get too many pictures of what Jesus was like as a child, but we have this picture of Jesus as a 12-year-old.

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    And you know what? It's kind of interesting. Parents of 12-year-olds may recall that 12-year-olds sometimes think that they're pretty smart. And Jesus certainly seems to be, have a bit of that problem going on when he was 12. So just to refresh your memory about how this story goes, I'm going to start reading at Luke 2, verse 41.

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    Now, Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem every year for the feast of the Passover. When he was 12 years old, they went up according to custom. But when the feast was over, as they were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but because they assumed that he was in their group of travelers, they went a day's journey.

48. 17:58

    Then they began to look for him among their relatives and acquaintances. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days, they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Jesus were astonished at his understanding and his answers.

49. 18:15

    When his parents saw him, they were overwhelmed. His mother said to him, Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously. But he replied, Why are you looking for me? Didn't you know that I must be in my father's house? Yet his parents did not understand the remark he made to them.

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    Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them. But his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and with man. And so, I thought this was an interesting sort of story because, sure, Jesus was the son of God.

51. 18:49

    And sure, maybe he had some good reasons for wanting to be in the temple. He understood at this point. Clearly, he was the son of God because he's saying, wouldn't you know that I'd be in my father's house? But at the same time, he disappeared on his parents and they were left worrying and looking for him for three days.

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    That's not a very kind thing to do. And so, they criticize him for it. That is what they're doing when they're saying, Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously. And it doesn't sound like Jesus had thought about this. He's going, Oh, didn't you know?

53. 19:25

    Of course I'd be in the temple. I'd be in my father's house. Did you know this? But at the same time, he hadn't quite considered that his parents might be worried about him and that this might be hurting his parents. And so, what it says that he did was, he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them.

54. 19:42

    Jesus might have preferred to stay in the temple and keep hanging out with the Pharisees and the experts in the law and listening and answering and asking them questions and all that stuff he's doing. But because he, his parents were there and they were worried and they told him this was a problem, he listened to them and was obedient to them.

55. 20:01

    I don't think it's any coincidence that that next verse, verse 52, says, and Jesus increased in wisdom because that's what wisdom is. It's listening to criticism and changing your ways as a result. Jesus was a child and he needed to be obedient to his parents and realizing that this action really hurt his parents and caused them to be worried, caused him to be like, no, I need to be obedient with them.

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    I need to stay with them. When I'm a child, this is, I should be with my parents and not making them worry. Despite the fact, I might have a very good reason to be in that temple. I still need to be aware of my parents. He listened to that criticism and increased in wisdom.

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    Even at 12 years, so here at 12 years old, this was something that the Son of God needed to be doing. And I took this as a helpful example of how even Jesus Christ, the Son of God, still needed to acquire wisdom. And that, but of course, as I'm bringing up Jesus, this doesn't mean that you always change your ways when someone criticizes you.

58. 21:04

    It was hard to find an instance where Jesus changed his ways when someone criticized him because most instances, people criticize Jesus and he doesn't listen to them. So for instance, in Matthew chapter 16, very well-known passage, this is right after Peter declares that Jesus is the Son of God. And then it says in Matthew 16, verse 21, from that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law and be killed and on the third day be raised.

59. 21:38

    So Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. God forbid, Lord, this must not happen to you. But he turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me because you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but on man's. So here we have a clear instance of where Jesus says something and Peter, you know, takes him away and he's like, you're doing something wrong, Jesus.

60. 22:01

    You shouldn't be trying to get yourself killed. And Jesus, rather than listening to that advice, goes, no, Peter, you're wrong and you need to stop tempting me. And you could say, Jesus, aren't you being a fool? Here somebody is giving you legitimate criticism and you are not listening. In fact, you're trying to make it go away.

61. 22:17

    That's what fools do. They just silence criticism rather than listening to it. But there is a key difference here. And that is that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Not the fear of man, the fear of the Lord. If Jesus was just deciding on his own account to go be crucified, Peter's advice would be very good, actually, because being crucified without a good reason would be stupid.

62. 22:46

    But that's not why Jesus was doing it. Jesus was doing this because God had commanded it, because it was part of God's plan for him and he knew that as the Son of God, this needed to happen. He needed to, as he explained, go to Jerusalem, suffer many things, and be killed and on the third day be raised.

63. 23:03

    So, because Jesus cared more about following the commands of God than the desires of human beings, even his disciples like Peter, he was going to dismiss that criticism because God was the person he was really trying to serve, not Peter. and this is an example we see many times in the Bible. Many of the prophets were told to stop preaching and they kept preaching anyway, despite that criticism.

64. 23:31

    Why? Because God had told them to preach and they weren't going to listen to other people who told them to stop preaching when God had told them to preach. We see the same thing with Jesus' disciples in Acts 5, where the chief priests, the leaders of the people, tell them to stop preaching and what do they say?

65. 23:50

    Acts 5, verse 29, but Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men. So, if God has told you to do something and man tells you not to, obey God rather than men. It's the fear of the Lord that's the beginning of wisdom, not the fear of men. There are some times when it is appropriate to ignore criticism.

66. 24:09

    But if God hasn't clearly told you to do something, you might want to listen when people are like, this is a bad idea because if you don't have clear directions from God to overrule what they're telling you, you might just be being a fool. If you think that because you're just wiser and smarter than them, you don't have to listen to their criticism, then, well, you might be worse than a fool because in Proverbs 26, verse 12, it says, do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes?

67. 24:40

    There's more hope for a fool than for him. And so, brothers and sisters, we come together this morning to remember someone who was wise, someone who grew in wisdom over time, and yet someone also who feared God more than he did man so that when he was attacked and criticized and berated, often viciously, he did something that seemed incredibly foolish from a human perspective.

68. 25:06

    He willingly laid down his life. He willingly chose to die when he didn't have to. And yet, by his actions, he saved all of us. And so, as his disciples, we need to follow in his footsteps. We don't want to be fools. When somebody criticizes us, we don't want to go, we're just smarter than you are.

69. 25:26

    We need to listen to that criticism and acquire wisdom and keep learning and changing. And we need to fear God, listen, but we need to especially fear God. And the most important criticism to listen to is God's criticism because that is the criticism that will cause us to depart from evil. And if we receive criticism from the world, but we listen to the criticism of God, if we follow God's commands, even when the world does not like that, then we will also follow in Jesus' footsteps.

70. 25:58

    Footsteps that will lead us perhaps to what this world might call foolishness, but to a much greater reward than anything that this world can offer, the reward of eternal life in God's kingdom. Thank you for listening to the Good Christ Adelphine Talks podcast. Please subscribe for new episodes and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or whichever service you are listening from to help people find the show when they search for it.

71. 26:29

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72. 26:53

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