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The Cautious Saint and the Presumptuous Fool (Proverbs 14:16) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. This is the deep dive where we
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take on some challenging theological sources and
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scriptures, break them down and try to give you a short cut to
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understanding the deep recurrence of Christian
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doctrine. And today our source material
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is, well, it's intense. We're focusing on a single short
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but absolutely devastating verse from the book of Proverbs.
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It's chapter 14, verse 16, and it reads a wise man feareth and
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departeth from evil, but the fool rageth and it's confident.
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Now when you when you just hear that verse against the backdrop
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of our culture today, it really hits you.
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It feels like a genuine cultural challenge.
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It does. I mean, our modern society,
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maybe more than any other time in history, has pretty much made
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self-confidence the highest virtue.
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We're just soaked in this liturgy of self trust, you know?
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Trust your gut. Trust your gut, believe in
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yourself. And this is the big one.
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Never ever show hesitation. Caution is just seen as being a
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coward. The world keeps preaching that
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the solution to any problem, spiritual, relational, whatever,
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it's all found inside our own resolve.
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And that modern idol of self trust is exactly what Solomon is
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trying to smash to pieces here. It's so critical to see that
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he's not just, you know, comparing 2 personality types
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all. Right.
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It's not introvert versus extrovert.
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Not at all. He's defining 2 completely
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opposite spiritual states. He's giving us a theological
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diagnosis of the soul's posture before a holy God.
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So our mission in this deep dive is to really get a handle on
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that diagnosis. We need to peel away all our
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cultural assumptions and see these two spiritual postures for
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what they are. OK, first there's the wise man.
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His life is marked by a very specific kind of fear that makes
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him back away from sin. And second, you have the fool.
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His life is defined by this deadly combination of
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recklessness. He rages and this internal
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certainty he is confident. So if we boil it all down,
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what's the core tension we're looking at?
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What's the real difference between these two paths?
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The central contrast is it's between a holy suspicion of self
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and a lethal trust in self. OK, holy suspicion of self.
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Exactly. True wisdom is demonstrated by
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that holy suspicion. It accepts the biblical idea
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that your own heart is completely deceitful, and
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because of that, it's strategically retreats from any
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situation where sin could get a foothold.
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And folly. Folly, on the other hand, is
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proven by an arrogant presumption.
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The fool trusts his own strength, his own judgment, his
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own ability to handle temptation, and because of that
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self-reliance, he just rushes head first into spiritual ruin.
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We're really looking at an X-ray of the soul here.
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To really start this diagnosis, then, we can't just treat
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Proverbs 14.16 like a standalone fortune cookie proverb, can we?
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It's not some isolated piece of advice.
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No, absolutely not. It feels like it's a pillar
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holding up a much bigger structure.
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We need to see the architectural blueprint of Proverbs 14 itself.
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That's the perfect way to put it.
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We have to step back because chapter 14 opens with a
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controlling metaphor that shapes everything that comes after it,
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especially our verse 16. And that metaphor is.
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It's all about architecture and stewardship.
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It's right there in Proverbs 14.1.
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Every wise woman buildeth her house, but the foolish plucketh
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it down with her hands. This contrast between creation
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and demolition, that's the lens we need to use.
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I mean, think about what a house represents.
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Shelter, security and inheritance, continuity.
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The wise person is a builder. They use diligence and care.
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The foolish person is a demolitionist.
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Whether they mean to be or not, they're tearing down the very
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structure that was meant to protect them.
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So the question is what are the building materials and what are
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the demolition tools? Well, based on our verse, it
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sounds like the building material is fear and the
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demolition tool is arrogance. Precisely the fear that departs
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from evil in verse 16, that's the mortar holding the House of
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Wisdom together, is what gives it structural integrity.
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And the fool's rage and confidence.
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Those are the spiritual sledgehammers.
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So they're not just harmless personality quirks.
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No, they're the active tools by which the fool destroys the
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structure of his life, his family, his future.
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And this immediately brings to mind those recurring characters
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in the book, Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly.
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It's almost like their children are showing the family
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resemblance. That's exactly.
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Right, Lady Folly. She's introduced as clamorous,
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you know, loud and boisterous back in Proverbs 9.
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So when we meet the fool in our verse who rageth, he's showing
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that same boisterous, loud, unrestrained energy.
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He's fighting against boundaries.
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And he's tearing down his own house.
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He is, and not always out of, you know, pure malice.
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Often it's just through sheer noisy arrogance and the
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assumption that his house is strong enough to handle his own
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foolish behavior. And when we talk about the
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house, we shouldn't just limit that to bricks and mortar or
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even just personal finances, should we?
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No. In the covenant community
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context of the Old Testament, the house meant so much more.
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It pointed to the household, the spiritual dynasty of the
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faithful, and in the end, the covenant community itself.
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The wise man's job is one of constant separation, departing
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from evil. This is the practical outworking
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of that biblical idea of the antithesis.
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OK, let's pause on that word for a second.
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Antithesis for anyone listening who might not be familiar with
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that kind of theological term. What does that mean here?
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It just means opposition or contradiction.
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When we talk about the theological antithesis, we're
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going all the way back to Genesis 3.15, that ongoing
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spiritual war between the seed of the woman, the faithful, and
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the seed of the serpent, the unfaithful.
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I see. The wise man gets the spiritual
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wisdom is inherently opposed to worldliness and sin.
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He knows he can't just mix the mold of evil into the walls of
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his house without inviting rot and collapse.
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So his fear becomes an act of covenantal stewardship.
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He protects the house, his soul, his family, the church by
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ruthlessly getting rid of the leaven of malice and
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worldliness. So the structural integrity of
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this house depends on not compromising with the world and
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the fool's confidence, his bow teach.
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That's what makes him compromise.
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Yes, exactly. The Fool's confidence in verse
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16 is a spiritual delusion. That's a direct threat to that
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covenant house is the sin of the presumption.
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It has that same reckless spirit of Nadab and a Baihu in
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Leviticus 10. With the strange fire.
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The strange fire. They rushed into the Tabernacle,
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confident in their own spiritual status but completely careless
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about God's holiness. And that lack of the fear of the
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Lord led to their immediate destruction.
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The fool is doing the same thing spiritually.
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He's rushing headlong into temptation because he trusts his
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own ability to manage it. This raises the stakes
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considerably. Then it's not just about
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personal ethics, it's about the holiness of the whole community.
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The fool makes a ton of noise, he rages, and he puts on the
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show of great success. He's confident, but because he
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doesn't have that holy fear, he's actively dismantling his
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own soul and threatening the spiritual safety of everyone
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connected to him. And we have to reject how the
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modern world would evaluate that.
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The world judges a life or a ministry by its size, it's
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noise, it's projected success. Scripture judges it by its
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structural integrity and it's mortar.
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Solomon is asking, are you building a structure meant to
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last for eternity, secured by holy caution, or are you a
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demolitionist, tearing it all down with the Wrecking Ball of
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arrogant presumption? That's the choice that frames
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our whole deep dive into the specific language of this verse.
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All right, let's turn our attention to the wise man in
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that first clause of Proverbs 14.1.
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SIM, a wise man feareth and departed from evil.
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This is well, it's a very loaded statement because it's a causal
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chain. The fear is the root, and
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departing from evil is the fruit.
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And we start with the subject, the chocom.
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In the wisdom literature of Scripture, this word is never
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just about being smarter. Having academic degrees.
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The Chocom is a person of moral skill.
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An artisan of godly living. That's a great way to put it.
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He structures his daily life, his choices, his decisions, all
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according to the reality of God's rule and the consequences
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of sin. He doesn't just know God's
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rules, he knows how to live them out.
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And the defining action of the skilled arzen is that he feareth
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the Hebrew word is year. Why is fear, a word that, let's
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be honest, usually has negative baggage in English, presented
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here as the source of wisdom? Had to be really precise in
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defining this year. It is definitely not servile
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terror. You know the panic of a criminal
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who's been caught, or that debilitating anxiety that just
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freezes you up. So what is it?
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It is a reverential, trembling awareness of reality.
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It's the fear of the Lord which is the very beginning of
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knowledge. As Proverbs 1.7 says, it's a
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holy apprehension of two blazing realities.
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First, the bleeding holiness of God, His absolute separation
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from all sin and His power to justly judge it.
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And 2nd, the radioactive toxicity of sin itself.
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The wise man understands that sin isn't just a mistake, it is
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a deadly poison. So it's not a psychological or
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emotional fear so much as it is a practical relational fear.
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Exactly. Think of it this way.
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The wise man fears sin in the same way a master electrician
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fears a live high voltage wire, right?
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Not because he's a coward, but because he respects the inherent
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instant destructive power of the force in front of him.
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This year is a grace implanted spiritual alarm system.
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It doesn't paralyze him, it activates him.
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It gets triggered the moment the boundaries of righteousness are
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even approached. And this internal disposition of
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year then forces the external action departeth from evil.
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The action has to follow the fear.
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The Hebrew verb there is SER, which means something like to
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turn aside, or to retreat, or even to bolt.
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The grammar here is causal, It's organic.
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Because he fears, he must depart.
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He can't fear the burning holiness of God and at the same
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time flirt with the thing that God hates.
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Right and sur implies A decisive, sometimes violent
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separation. It is not a negotiation with
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temptation, it is a rapid relocation away from it.
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Wisdom doesn't just identify evil, it runs from it.
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And the primary, most compelling illustration of this, the one
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that every wise person should have in their mind, has to be
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Joseph fleeing from Potiphar's wife in Genesis 39.
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Absolutely. Joseph did not linger in the
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room. He didn't get into a debate with
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himself about his own ability to resist temptation.
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He didn't think, oh, I can use this situation as a test of my
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spiritual strength. Scripture just records that he
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fled and got him out. He executed the command.
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He jabart immediately. And Joseph's words show us the
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source of his wisdom. How then can I do this great
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wickedness and sin against God? His holy fear of offending God,
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combined with his understanding of the wickedness of the ACT,
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that's what propelled his feet. He understood that winning
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against this temptation meant a tactical retreat before the
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battle could even really begin. This brings us to a really
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crucial modern era that we need to address head on, something we
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could call borderline Christianity.
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The defining question of the confident fool is how close can
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I get to sin without technically crossing the line?
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That question itself just reveals a total absence of year.
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It shows a heart that is testing God's boundaries and flirting
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with danger. Where is the wise man who
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understands his own inherent frailty, which is a bedrock
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premise in Reformed theology, and recognizes the deceitfulness
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of his own heart? He doesn't ask how close he can
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get to the Cliff edge. He asks how far away can I stay?
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He knows that temptation is not something you defeat by just
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standing still and testing your willpower.
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He assumes he's weak. He assumes the enemy, the world,
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the flesh. The devil is strong and cunning.
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So his strategy for Holiness is not to get into a pitched battle
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with temptation inside his own imagination, which he knows
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he'll lose. Right.
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His strategy is tactical retreat and this is not cowardice.
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It is the most sophisticated form of spiritual strategy.
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It's the practical application of the prayer.
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Lead us not into temptation. The spirit LED person is marked
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by a holy suspicion of his own capacity for sin and that leads
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him to a life of vigilant. His safety is not in his
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self-confidence, but in his distance from the thing that
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would destroy him. Yeah, so if the.
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Wise man is defined by this holy suspension of self trust and a
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decisive retreat. Now we have to pivot to this
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jarring antithesis. But the fool rageth and his
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confident. I mean, here we see a character
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defined by unchecked momentum and arrogance.
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The subject. Of this tragedy is the Kessel
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the Fool. And we have to say this again in
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Proverbs. The Kessel is not someone who
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scores poorly on an IQ test. No, it's a moral.
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Category. It's a moral and spiritual
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obstinance. He hates instruction.
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He's thick headed in a spiritual sense, and he's deaf to the
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clear warnings of God's Word. He doesn't lack information
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about right and wrong. He lacks the fundamental fear of
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the Lord. It's necessary to process that
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information correctly. And Solomon?
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Describes this fool using two really powerful and connected
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participles. The first one is MIT aber, which
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the King James translates so powerfully as rageth.
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It's such. A great translation.
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Others might say reckless or acts hotly, but it's this hit
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pale participle which describes A reflexive action.
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It essentially means he is letting himself go or arrogantly
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overstepping boundaries that. Imagery of letting himself go is
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incredibly vivid. It sounds like some kind of
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internal emotional overflow that just bursts out externally.
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It is. Precisely that, an emotional and
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spiritual overflow. The Medabra man has lost the
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ability to govern his own spirit.
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He's out of control and he's proud of it.
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Where the wise man applies the brakes through the spirit's
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self-control and holy fear, the fool slams on the accelerator of
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his own will. When the Word of God puts up a
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boundary and says stop, his pride screams go so it can be.
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A quick temper, but it's broader.
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Oh much? Prouder.
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It's a reckless disregard for any limits, moral limits,
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financial limits, even the limits of God's patience.
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He acts with this uncontrolled heat, like a river that's burst
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its banks is just destroying the land it flows through, all the
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while convinced it has the right and the power to go wherever it
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wants. But the.
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Word that really ties this all to the modern critique of self
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help culture is that second participle bow teach translated
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as confident, secure or self assured.
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And there's a deep theological irony happening here.
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There is the word batash is so often used positively in the
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Psalms, right? It's how the righteous man
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describes his trust in Yahweh and the Lord.
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I take my refuge. Something like that.
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But here Solomon flips it on its head to describe the fool's
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dangerous spiritual delusion. The Fool's.
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Confidence is fundamentally misplaced.
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His certainty is completely disconnected from objective
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reality, specifically the objective reality of God's
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holiness and His own deep seated sinfulness.
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He's. Spiritually blind, but boasts
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about his 2020 vision exactly. He's standing right on the edge
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of judgement, yet he feels entirely secure.
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He's often thinking, I shall not be moved.
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I shall never face adversity. Just like the psalmist describes
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the wicked man in Psalm 10 and this misplaced.
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Confidence is really the hallmark of the natural man's
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depravity. It is.
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It's the spiritual equivalent of a patient with a deadly illness
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who refuses treatment because they feel perfectly fine.
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They're convinced their body can just heal itself, despite all
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the evidence pointing the other way.
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He's reckless in his spending, he's reckless in his
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relationships, he's reckless in his theological choices.
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All because he trusts his own judgement over the clear
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warnings of the word. So the.
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Recklessness meant aber and the confidence vote teach are like
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twin siblings. One causes the other.
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Exactly. The fool is reckless precisely
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because he is confident. He rushes into business, deals
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with wicked people, he entertains heretical ideas, he
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exposes his family to worldly influences, all because he
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trusts his own heart more than God's warnings about the
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deceitfulness of the flesh. He.
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Lacks the holy fear that would act as a spiritual radar.
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So he just flies blind straight into the mountain.
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Yes, and. His carelessness is not just a
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passive inattentiveness. It's an active, determined
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confidence in his own control, his own judgment, his own
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invulnerability, this indictment.
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Really exposes the complete bankruptcy of that humanistic
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optimism that just flatters the human will.
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It means we have to define folly as a type of spiritual insanity,
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A lethal excess of self esteem. The fool's essential problem is
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not that he has low self esteem. It is that he trusts himself
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when, biblically speaking, he ought to suspect himself with a
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holy suspicion. The Anatomy of Folly is this
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terrifying paradox, an arrogant, raging, uncontrolled advance
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that's fueled by a hallucination of safety.
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The fool is a man running off a Cliff, convinced he can fly
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simply because he's confident in his own stride.
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We have to transition now from just, you know, observing and
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describing the wise man and the fool to delivering a theological
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indictment. If we treat Proverbs 14.16 like
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it's just a motivational poster, a simple command to be more
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careful or think twice, we completely miss its deep
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theological meaning. This proverb reveals what people
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are by nature, not just a list of behaviors they do and that
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shallow. Reading is where moralism always
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fails. Moralism suggests that the fool
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just needs better willpower or a stronger resolve.
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But Scripture teaches that the fool's rage and his deadly
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confidence are not accidental errors or momentary lapses of
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judgement. They're symptoms.
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They are the. Inevitable expressions of a
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heart that is fundamentally deceitful above all things, and
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desperately wicked, as Jeremiah 17.9 puts it.
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And this. Observation is foundational to
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reform doctrine, isn't it? Particularly the doctrine of
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total depravity. It is.
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The Westminster Confession of Faith addresses it in chapter 6.
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The fool is not neutral, sitting on a fence, able to choose
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wisdom or folly. He is by nature actively hostile
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to God and spiritually dead. His confidence, his bow teach is
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just a manifestation of the flesh which Romans 8.8 clearly
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states cannot please God. Could you?
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Unpack that connection a bit more.
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How does the fool's confidence demonstrate total depravity?
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Well, if. Depravity were only partial.
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The natural man would still have some spark of spiritual
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self-awareness, enough to know that he should tremble before
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God. But total depravity means every
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part of the human being, mind, will and affections is corrupted
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by sin and the fool. 'S confidence proves this.
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Exactly. His mind is dark, and so he sees
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no danger. His affections are warped, so he
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loves the very thing that will destroy him, and his will is
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enslaved, so he runs toward destruction.
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So to preach this text is mere moralism.
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Try harder to develop holy fear. That's like commanding a blind
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dead man to run a marathon. It's a crushing law that offers
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no power to obey it. And this.
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Leads us straight into the doctrine of the bondage of the
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will. The fool's recklessness isn't
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true freedom at all. It actually stems from his
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slavery. That's right.
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The fool rageth against God's law, against the warnings of his
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conscience, and against the counsel of others because he is
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fundamentally enslaved to sin. He chooses what he wants, yes,
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but what he wants is what God hates, and what he wants is what
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will ultimately destroy him. He loves his.
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Autonomy, his ability to be his own God more than he fears God's
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holiness. The idea that the natural man
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has some inherent ability to cooperate with grace is just
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shattered by this verse. The natural man has a lethal
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form of spiritual insanity. He stands on the edge of hell,
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or in the very mouth of temptation and feels entirely
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confident. And because.
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The Keisel the Fool hates instruction.
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No amount of human education or self help seminars or social
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reform can cure this condition. The cure has to be supernatural.
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It has to. Be.
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And this drives us to the absolute necessity of
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regeneration. If the Fool is ever going to
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become wise, if he's going to successfully trade his arrogant
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rage for holy fear, he needs more than new habits.
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He needs a new heart entirely. And this.
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Fear of the Lord is not a natural human instinct we can
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just work up on our own. Not at all.
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It is a covenantal gift God promises in the New Covenant,
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speaking to His people in Jeremiah 72.4.
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I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not
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depart from me. Wow.
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That's a perfect parallel to Proverbs 14.16.
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It is God. Implants the fear so that they
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do not turn away from him. The wise man that Solomon
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describes is therefore the regenerate man.
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He's the one in him. The Spirit of God has performed
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a miracle, replacing that heart of stone with a heart of flesh
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and implanting that life saving year.
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So we have. To stop preaching this proverb
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like it's a seven step ladder of self improvement.
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We can't just, you know, prune the branches of recklessness
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while leaving the root of spirit, spiritual pride and self
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trust untouched. That lethal confidence of the
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fool must be completely slain. This whole synthesis, it forces
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us to look away from our own resources, our own willpower,
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our own supposed innate goodness.
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We have to realize we are born fools, confident in our own
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destruction. Unless the Sovereign God grants
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us the spirit of wisdom and understanding and the fear of
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the Lord, as Isaiah 11.2 says, we will simply rage all the way
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to the grave so. Wisdom, in the end, is not an
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achievement of the will, it's a miracle of grace.
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The whole purpose of this diagnosis is to strip us of all
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self trust so that we look outside ourselves entirely for
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wisdom. And if we're?
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Honest with Scripture and with our own lives, we have to
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confess that by nature we are all the fool who rages and is
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confident. The law perfectly stated in
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Proverbs 14.1 scene is crushing. It's crushing because it demands
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A perfection, a perfect fear, and a perfect departure from
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evil that we just cannot produce.
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So the path to wisdom, then, must begin by looking away from
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ourselves to Jesus Christ. He's the greater Solomon and the
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Incarnate wisdom of God. We.
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Have to begin by gazing upon Christ's act of obedience.
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He is the true wise man. Where Adam and all of his
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descendants failed to fear God and rushed into sin with
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arrogant confidence, Jesus Christ perfectly succeeded.
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Isaiah foretold that the Spirit resting on the Messiah would be
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the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
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He alone perfectly embodied year, and this wasn't.
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Just a character trait. It was a lived reality under
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immense pressure. Oh, absolutely.
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Just consider the temptation of the wilderness when Satan
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invited him to be reckless, to throw himself down from the
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pinnacle of the temple, just presuming on God's protection.
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Jesus refused to be Minaber. He refused to engage in that
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arrogant self test. He departed.
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From evil he did. Not by physical flight in that
22:00
case, but by spiritual separation, wielding the sword
22:02
of the Spirit. It is written, Thou shalt not
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tempt the Lord thy God. He demonstrated perfect holy his
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entire. Life was really a demonstration
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of this perfect, cautious fear of his father's will.
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And the ultimate display of this fear, ironically, wasn't a
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flight from something, but a submission to something dreadful
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in Gethsemane. That's right.
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While his disciples were asleep in that careless, confident
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stupor of the flesh, Jesus was awake.
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He was trembling before the requirement to drink the cup of
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God's wrath against sin. And the writer?
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Of Hebrews records that he offered up prayers with strong
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crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death,
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and was heard in that he fear he.
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Feared the consequence of sin, separation from the Father.
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And in that ultimate holy fear He submitted perfectly.
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Not my will, but yours be done. He didn't Rage Against the
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cross. He bowed to it, perfectly
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fulfilling the demands of Proverbs 14.1's team for all of
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his people but the gospel. Is more than just Christ being a
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wise example for us to try and follow, it's that he became the
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substitute for fools. This is the reality of his
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passive obedience. Yes, on the.
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Cross A great exchange took place the man who perfectly
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feared and departed from evil was treated as if he were the
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ultimate fool who raged all of our.
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Inherited confidence. All of our.
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Arrogant pride, her spiritual recklessness, our active
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indifference to God's law, our stiff necked presumption, all of
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it was imputed to him. He bore the full measure of the
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destruction that was promised to the fool.
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Proverbs 1.32 warms that the prosperity of fools shall
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destroy them and Christ. Took that destruction upon
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himself, he did. He was forsaken so that we who
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arrogantly assumed we would never be moved, could be
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welcomed into the secure, well built House of wisdom.
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So our. Salvation and our eventual
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ability to have practical wisdom, they aren't found in
23:50
generating these virtues ourselves, but only in our union
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with Christ, as Paul makes so clear in First Corinthians 1.30.
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But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
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us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
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We don't generate wisdom. We are united to the one who is
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wisdom and that. Distinction is crucial when we
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come to Christ by faith. The Holy Spirit gives us the
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mind of Christ and that begins to reshape our natural foolish
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affections. The believer no longer has the
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self-confidence of the fool because he has died to that old
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man instead. He possesses the fear of the
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Lord as a new covenant gift. Exactly.
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And that produces the practical turn away from evil.
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We depart from evil. We execute not to earn our
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standing with God, but because we now share the very nature of
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the one who is holy. Christ is both a pattern for our
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wisdom and the spiritual power for our wisdom.
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So we look to. Him as our justification,
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knowing our original folly is forgiven, and we look.
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To Him as our sanctification, knowing His Spirit is now at
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work in US, teaching our formerly reckless hearts to
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tremble, to love God's boundaries, and to actively
24:55
depart from evil. This incredible.
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Theological truth that Christ is our wisdom is meant to
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completely restructure every part of our daily lives.
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The Holy Spirit intends for this proverb to reshape our
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intellect, recalibrate our affections, and fundamentally
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redirect our actions. So let's move to some concrete
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applications for the listener. We can start.
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With a head or our doctrine, we have to intellectually reject
25:17
the modern idol of self-confidence as a theological
25:20
error. We have to replace it with
25:22
fiduciary confidence. That is a complete trust in God
25:25
alone and. Practically, that means we have
25:27
to believe the doctrine of total depravity about ourselves.
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It does. If you believe deep down that
25:34
you are naturally good or inherently able to resist sin,
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you will live with the confidence of the fool.
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If you truly believe you are prone to wander and fall, you
25:44
will live with the vigilance of the wise.
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This also. Provides a lot of clarity for
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the doctrine of the assurance of faith.
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It does. The Westminster Confession of
25:52
Faith Chapter 8 teaches that true assurance produces a war
25:56
against sin and is often shaken by falling into some special
26:00
sin. Assurance is sustained by a holy
26:03
fear of offending God. If your professed spiritual
26:06
assurance makes you careless with holiness.
26:08
If you think I'm saved so I can flirt with this temptation, that
26:11
is not the assurance given by the spirit.
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That's the dangerous presumption of the fool.
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True assurance produces sober watchfulness, not self satisfied
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swagger. Now let's turn.
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To the heart, our affections. The text contrasts raging with
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fearing. We can use this as a really
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powerful diagnostic tool for how we handle correction or
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instruction from others. When a spouse, a trusted friend,
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or a pastor points out a flaw, A weakness, or a blind spot in
26:37
your life, what is your immediate gut reaction?
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Do you feel that heat rising, that impulse to rage MIT aber?
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Do you feel the need to defend yourself, to counter attack, to
26:47
blame the messenger? That's the key.
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Question. The fool rages and is confident
26:52
that he is right, and so he cannot bear to be wrong.
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Correction exposes his illusion of control.
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But the wise. Person the wise.
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Person cultivates a heart that is soft and malleable.
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He fears that he might be wrong or that he might have grieved
27:05
the Holy Spirit, and so he listens and trembles at God's
27:08
Word. As Isaiah 66.2 says, even when
27:11
it's delivered through an imperfect person, we have to
27:14
learn to actively love the wounds of a friend and receive
27:17
their sharp counsel as a sign of God's grace, rather than
27:20
defensively rejecting it in our foolish self-confidence.
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OK, finally. Let's look at the hands or our
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practice in specific vocations within the covenant community.
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We need to see how the wise man actively departs from evil in
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his particular role. Let's start with.
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Those called as office bearers, elders and deacons.
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The church simply cannot survive.
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Leaders who fit the description of the fool.
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If you're an elder who rages in session meetings, dominating
27:44
others with your temper, your pride or your arrogant
27:46
certainty, you are disqualified, Titus. 1.7 right the.
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Requirement for an overseer is that he be not self willed, not
27:54
soon angry. A leader who is confident in his
27:57
own opinions but lacks the fear of dividing Christ's body or
28:01
dishonouring God's name through recklessness is a serious danger
28:05
to the flock. He has to lead with a profound,
28:08
trembling sense of stewardship, knowing he will give an account
28:11
for every soul and for young. People, you are perhaps the
28:15
primary target for the subtle lies of self-confidence.
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The voice of the confident fool is the one that tells you I can
28:21
watch this entertainment, it won't affect me, or I can date
28:23
this unbeliever. I'm strong enough to handle it.
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Or I can manage this addiction. I'll just quit tomorrow.
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This is the core strategy of playing with those Gray areas.
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It is. But the wise.
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Young person departs from evil. This means establishing
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proactive preventative obedience.
28:38
It means installing digital filters before temptation
28:41
arrives. It means breaking off the
28:43
damaging relationship that drags you down before it gets to a
28:45
point of serious sin. It means not testing your
28:48
supposed strength, but actively fleeing youthful lusts.
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Like it says in Second Timothy, wisdom is shown by pre emptive
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turning away, not by last minute failed resistance and to.
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The heads of households, fathers and mothers.
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You are the watchman on the wall, Proverbs 14.1 tells us the
29:04
wise build their house. Are you building with holy fear,
29:07
or are you tearing it down with confident negligence?
29:10
That's a sharp. Question do?
29:12
You depart from evil by actively guarding the gate of your home,
29:17
the media, the curriculum, the influences you allow inside.
29:20
Or are you confident that the world's catechism, which is
29:23
pumped through social media and secular entertainment, won't
29:26
capture your children's hearts? To be a wise head of household
29:29
is to be a fearful 1 not afraid of the world itself, but afraid
29:34
of failing to shepherd the souls entrusted to you.
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Establish family worship, catechize your children using
29:40
sound doctrine and ruthlessly eliminate influences that
29:43
contradict the knowledge of God and this.
29:45
Application really culminates in worship integration, making sure
29:48
that our corporate liturgy reinforces the posture of the
29:51
wise man. This is consistent with the
29:53
regulative principle of worship from WCFXXY, which maintains
29:57
that God has prescribed how he is to be approached.
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And it requires reverence. It does.
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Our entire posture in worship has to model the wise man
30:05
reverent, cautious, trembling at the Word, rather than adopting
30:08
the casual, flippant informality of the confident fool who just
30:12
rushes into the holy presence of God without any true sense of
30:14
humility or mediation. So our.
30:16
Confection of sin must be explicitly tailored to the sins
30:19
of presumption and arrogance that are exposed in this text.
30:23
We have to confess false confidence, stating clearly in
30:26
prayer that we have been the fool who is confident in his own
30:29
strength, raging against God's Providence and flirting with
30:32
evil, all while presuming upon His grace and that.
30:36
Act of humility prepares the heart for the assurance of
30:38
pardon. It does.
30:40
Where the minister can comfort the people by reminding them
30:42
that Christ is made unto us wisdom.
30:45
And finally, we have to consider the sacrament of the Lord's
30:48
Supper. Yes.
30:49
The command to depart from evil from our verse connects directly
30:53
to the warning in First Corinthians 11.
30:54
To examine himself, the minister has to fence the table by
30:59
warning them at aber the arrogant, the unrepentant, those
31:02
currently raging against God or harboring cherished sins, that
31:05
this meal is not for them. To eat with a heart full of
31:08
unrepentant pride is to eat judgment to yourself.
31:12
But equally, the table is not a reward for the spiritually
31:15
strong, It's sustenance for the weak who know they're weak.
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That's it. We come to the table precisely
31:20
because we fear our own inability to make it through the
31:23
week without Christ's strength. Here the bread and wine
31:26
testified that our confidence is not in our flesh or our wisdom,
31:30
or our ability to depart from evil, but entirely in the broken
31:34
body and shed blood of the Savior so as we.
31:37
Conclude this deep dive. The contrast remains pretty
31:39
startling. The world's most cherished
31:41
virtue, self-confidence is often the spiritual mask of the fool.
31:46
It's an anesthetic that dulls the senses to imminent danger
31:49
and the coming judgement and holy.
31:51
Fear, conversely, is the divine grace that protects the wise
31:55
self-confidence is the essence of the fool.
31:57
A holy suspicion of self is the very beginning of true wisdom.
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So our. Final challenge to you, the
32:02
listener, is simple and it's urgent.
32:04
Repent of self trust, especially that subtle confidence that
32:07
makes you toy with temptation. Actively cultivate the fear of
32:11
the Lord that produces A practical turning away.
32:14
When that heat rises in your soul, do not follow it.
32:16
Flee when confidence swells in your heart about your own
32:19
strength, question it, humble yourself and seek God's
32:22
boundaries and. Remember the final word of
32:24
comfort and assurance, which reveals the true source of your
32:28
safety. Though we must actively depart
32:30
from evil, the promises found in Jude 24 and 25, which reminds us
32:35
that it is God who is able to keep you from falling and to
32:38
present you faultless before the presence of His glory with
32:40
exceeding joy our ability. To turn away is finite, but his
32:44
power to keep us is infinite. Live in reverent fear and
32:47
practical turning away. That concludes this deep dive.