Well, if you could keep your Bible open to Proverbs
26 and let's pray, let's ask God for help as
we look at His Word now. Gracious Heavenly Father,
we thank you that you give us wisdom and we pray,
Father, that you would help us to see what true
wisdom looks like. Guard us against the distortions
that exist in this world. That we may live joyful,
godly lives, trusting you until Jesus returns.
And we ask this in his name. Amen. Well, as a
kid I grew up in Sydney and occasionally we'd
go to Luna Park. and at Luna Park you've got
the Big Dipper, or they used to back then, there
was the merry -go -round, the showbags, which
was just a genius idea to find another way to
make you part with more of your money once you'd
already paid for a ticket. But one of the fun
attractions I remember was Coney Island, a old
school fun house, and in there they had those
special mirrors. You know those ones? They don't
reflect reality. They distort it. And some were
quite good. I really like the one that made me
look taller and skinnier. But as nice as that
was, and as nice as it was to imagine, it wasn't
real. It was a distortion. Now, it's a bit of
fun going to the fun house and looking at the
mirrors, but if you used those sort of mirrors
in regular life, that could be incredibly dangerous,
couldn't it? Imagine your rear view mirror was
one of those distorted mirrors, or your reverse
camera, you know, if you're that way inclined.
It would lead to a praying, wouldn't it? Or if
you're here and you've got glasses, you know
what it's like, how much... How much better it
is living in a world with glasses on, because
your vision is naturally distorted. So having
it corrected makes life so much better and safer,
doesn't it? Seeing reality as it really is, is
important. And that's what wisdom is meant to
do. Wisdom is meant to help us see reality as
it really is. It's meant to be like a reality
mirror, but like the good kind in the bathroom
or in your walk -in wardrobe, you know, it's
there to reflect to you what is actually going
on. But there are forms of wisdom today that
are like those distorted mirrors. They don't
reflect reality, they warp it, they twist it.
They're distortions that masquerade as wisdom.
But they're actually made up of mirages and half
-truths and lies. And they cause great harm and
hurt. Are you aware of them? What distortions
would you likely be caught out by? Are there
any that have got a hold on you now? Well, Proverbs
26 makes us wiser by exposing that distorted
wisdom of the world. And there's going to be
one big thing that we see today as we look at
Proverbs 26. Don't be fooled by folly when it
masquerades as wisdom. What's Proverbs 26 saying
to you today? Don't be fooled by folly when it
masquerades as wisdom. And there's four types
of folly, four of these distortions that we're
going to look at. Do not honour the fool. Do
not envy the sluggard. Do not ignore the agitator.
And do not trust the flatterer. Do not honour
the fool. Do not envy the sluggard. Do not ignore
the agitator. And do not trust the flatterer.
So let's look at the first one. Do not honour
the fool. See, folly looks so good today. The
fool rejects God and his wisdom, he does whatever
he wants or whatever she wants. And it looks
like freedom. I get to do whatever I want, how
good's that? But it's not freedom, it's actually
a damaging distortion. And so to honour someone
who's doing that is actually a really unhelpful
thing. Have a look at these verses. Like snow
in summer, or rain in harvest, honour is not
fitting for a fool. Or like tying a stone in
a sling is the giving of honour to a fool. How
good is that imagery? Snow in summer, rain in
harvest. It's saying it's not good for the crops.
It's actually really damaging when you have things
not fitting for when they're meant to be. And
when you've got a fool... who's getting honoured,
that's not fitting. The fool should not be honoured.
They should be restrained. They should be corrected.
They should be told to quieten down. But when
you have fools honoured in a community, it's
actually really bad. It gives the impression
to people that rejecting God and his wisdom is
good. Or tying a stone to a sling. So you've
got your sling. You know, you're spinning it
around above your head, but you've tied the stone
to it. Think about, you know, the physics of
that. How's that gonna go? The sling won't work.
The sling's meant to cast the stone at someone
else. But if you've tied the stone... ..boonk!
..on your own head, it won't work and you'll
hit yourself. That's the picture. Honouring a
fool... undermines your goals, undermines what
you're trying to achieve and will likely harm
you. See, honour is meant for the honourable,
meant for the wise and the just. Because honour
shows us who to admire, who to value and who
to copy. But if fools are on it, people think
folly is not damaging and harmful. They start
to think it's actually wise. Think of Johnny
Knoxville and the Jackass franchise. Have you
ever come across that? It was a TV show in 2000
that spawned three seasons of TV shows and a
bunch of movies. I think they even made a video
game. And it's all about painful, ridiculous
stunts and pranks. They'd get people in a shopping
trolley and push it down a massive hill and see
how hurt they can get. It was all sorts of stupid
stuff like that. It's absolute folly, yet it's
on it. Watched by many, it made millions and
millions of dollars. And actually many people
were severely injured and some even died copying
some of the stuff in it. Here's something that
masquerades as wisdom. Oh, it's freeing, it's
fun, you know, you're hanging out with your mates,
having a good time doing stupid stuff, but it's
actually harmful. And it happens all the time
in our society, whether it's adultery, whether
it's violence, whether it's greed, whether it's
some other thing. All sorts of folly gets on
it in the media, on it by people. And so it's
so easy for us to go... Oh yeah, that's actually
pretty good. If I want to get ahead in life,
I've got to be like them. No. No. Folly should
not be honoured. It distorts reality. Be on guard
against it. So if we don't honour it, what do
we do instead? Well then, folly should be restrained
and corrected. Have a look at these verses. A
whip for the horse. a bridle for the donkey and
a rod for the back of fools. Do not answer a
fool according to his folly or you yourself will
be just like him. Answer a fool according to
his folly or he will be wise in his own eyes.
So it's saying fools, rather than being honoured,
they need to be restrained and managed. Give
them a short leash, not a platform. And then
you get this funny little one here where it seems
like it's contradictory, doesn't it? You know,
don't answer a fool according to his folly. Oh,
answer a fool according to his folly. It's not
contradictory, it's a contextual response. So
it's a bit like, you know, when you say, too
many cooks boil the broth. You know, in a context
having too many people trying to lead it and
control it, it just, it ruins it, doesn't it?
But then you have other proverbs like many hands
make light work. And we go, oh, that's a good
bit of wisdom. Not in the Bible, but good bit
of wisdom, isn't it? They're not contradictory,
but you've got to know when to appropriate each
one into life, don't you? Sometimes too many
cooks, come on, let's get less people on this
one. Sometimes it's like, let's get more people
on that helping out. Well, it's like that here.
The first one, do not answer a fool according
to his folly, is saying, Avoid the fool or you
yourself will be just like him. Avoid them. If
you go in and do what they're doing and engage
with them and get into, you're gonna sink to
their level. They're gonna bring you down. So
don't engage. But then the second one saying
there are times in life where the fool needs
to be corrected. Because otherwise they're going
to be wise in their own eyes. You know, not only
a fool rejecting God, but they're going to be
so stubborn and hard -hearted in it. That's what
wise in their own eyes is about. That they're
going to be so stuck. They're going to be like
a cancer to the community and dangerous to themselves.
So call it out. Sometimes the right thing to
do is to talk to them and rebuke them. Now how
does this play out in our lives? Well, I think
this is telling us we've got to be thoughtful
and careful about how we choose to respond to
folly, and it's a warning to not be foolish ourselves.
But especially how we respond to folly. We don't
want to honour fools. We want to see through
that. We want to see actually there's a different
way we approach them. So let me give you some
examples how this might play out. your spouse
might be raging at you. They're just angry and
upset and they're yelling at you and it's folly,
right? It's folly. And so the temptation is that
you want to yell back. What would that be? Be
sinking to their level, wouldn't it? It would
be being just like them. Do not answer a fool
according to his folly. So the best thing to
do is to Walk away. Say, we can talk about this
in 20 minutes, but once everyone's calmed down.
Walk away. Or maybe you're there on Bookface,
you know, on the internet. What is it? Bookface?
Something else. And someone says something rude,
and you feel your keyboard warrior -ness rising
up within you. No, don't answer a fool according
to their folly. Give a thoughtful measured response
or say nothing at all. Or maybe you see a growth
group member drifting away into the things of
this world and you give them a phone call and
you lovingly rebuke them. There's a time to call
it out, isn't there? There's a time to avoid
a time to call it out. Or maybe sometimes we
restrain. You know, maybe your kids are watching
some famous influencer on the telly or on YouTube
or something and they're pushing some selfish
ideology, you know, look out for number one and,
you know, all this sort of stuff and you sit
down with them and you question it and you go,
oh yeah, what do you think about that? And you
say, maybe we need to watch a little bit less
of them. You know, there's all sorts of things
you can do, tools that we've got to use depending
on how we're going to deal with this folly. But
we don't honour the fool. They're distorting
reality. They're trying to drag us into their
distortion. So instead, we've got to thoughtfully,
carefully think about how to restrain and correct
folly when we see it. But folly is not the only
distortion to watch out for. There's another
one that we need to address. Do not honor the
fool, but also do not envy the sluggard. The
life of a sluggard or a lazy leech can appear
really wise. I mean, think about our world. Our
world is stressful and dangerous. How good would
it be to just stay home, sleep in, binge Netflix?
Oh, so good. So it would be easy to envy the
sluggard and copy them. But the slug life isn't
as sweet as it first appears. It's a warped wisdom.
It's a distortion of reality. Have a look at
these verses. A sluggard says, there's a lion
in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets.
And as a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard
turns on his bed. A slugger buries his hand in
the dish, he's too lazy to bring it back to his
mouth. A slugger is wiser in his own eyes than
seven people who answer discreetly or sensibly
as some other translations have it. So notice
how things get worse and worse for the slugger.
Their irrational fears keep them from leaving
the house. But then they can't even leave their
bed or they get so worn out they can't even bring
food back to their mouth. The picture here is
of someone whose world becomes smaller and smaller
and smaller. They lose capacity to function.
But they think they're being wise. Because they're
going, I'm keeping myself safe. I'm nice and
comfortable. You know, nothing's going to get
me if I'm in here. Do you know, it reminds me
a bit of the dystopian humanity in that Disney
movie, WALL -E. Remember that? They're floating
around in little chairs all over the spaceship.
They won't leave their chairs. They won't look
past their screens. Lunch is given to them in
a cup because it's more convenient. So you don't
get your burger as a burger. You get your burger
in a cup. They miss and stop experiencing the
world because it's safer and comfier and easier
not to. And when you see what they've become,
it's not enviable, is it? It's actually sad.
But what's worse is I reckon this is like a bit
of a mirror to us today, isn't it? Modern technology
more and more is conditioning us to be sluggards.
I mean, it feels so convenient and helpful having
your phone there all the time, doing so much
for us, but our phones and our screens and so
many of these other things, they're changing
us. I mean, with AI, one of the things they say
about AI is that, yes, it's such a great tool,
but it's actually causing people to stop thinking
for themselves. All our tech, we've got to be
careful with it, don't we? There's a distorted
wisdom where we rely so much on it that we actually
lose who we are. Maybe for some of us this is
a little reminder, now and again it might be
good to reduce the screens or even have a screen
fast. But it's not just technology. Sometimes
it's retirement that makes sluggards of us. You
stop working, you retire, you get out of routine,
and all of a sudden your world starts to shrink
more and more and more. That can be a real problem,
can't it? Sometimes it's young folk who have
the problem. I'm trying to be fair to everyone,
you know. We've all got issues. But sometimes
they're allergic to work. They just want to party.
That's not good either. And now you can just
party from home all the time because everything's
on demand, isn't it? Now, in many situations,
a firm line or rebuke is needed. And that's what
Paul does in 2 Thessalonians 3. 2 Thessalonians
3 .10, he says if someone's not going to work,
they're not going to eat. You know? There's a
helpful rule there, going sometimes boundaries
just need to be drawn so that people learn you
can't keep living like that. But at the same
time, we need to be careful. Because we can go
too far the other way. Some people look like
sluggards, but aren't. Some people have health
conditions, you know, chronic fatigue or burnout
or something like that. My wonderful wife Laura
has struggled with chronic fatigue. And I can
tell you, after being married for 16 years, she
is the hardest worker I know. She is no sluggard.
There are people like that who struggle and they
don't need shame and pressure, they need compassion
and support. Sometimes shame and pressure actually
backfires and makes things worse. I think it's
important that we discern who's who. Sometimes
there are sluggards who don't want to work Their
world's getting smaller and smaller. They've
got irrational fears. That's a different kettle
of fish to someone who really wants to work and
their body's letting them down. We need to be
discerning. But this is also a challenge to us
to not envy. It's saying, let's wake up to the
fact that modern life is trying to make us more
and more comfy and lazy in a lot of ways. Let's
not see that as a purely good thing. Let's see
that there can be a distortion there that needs
to be dealt with and avoided. But just as there
are many mirrors in a fun house, there are many
distortions of wisdom. And so we've got another
that we need to deal with. Thirdly, do not ignore
the agitator. Do not ignore the agitator. Have
a look at these verses. Like one who grabs a
stray dog by the ears is someone who rushes into
a quarrel not their own. If you grab a dog by
his ears, how's it gonna go? You got about a
moment of safety until they turn and bite on
you, don't they? Or like a maniac shooting flaming
arrows of death is one who deceives their neighbour
and says, oh, I was only joking. See, this is...
talking to us about the agitator. Some folk insert
themselves into arguments where they're uninvited.
They think they're wise and helpful because,
hey, I'm coming along and I'm sorting everything
out. But it's a distortion. They're not sorting
anything out. They're putting themselves in the
crosshairs, aren't they? And some lie, which
is already a distortion of reality. But if caught,
They distort it further by just saying, oh, I
was only joking when they really weren't. It's
the same with gossip. Gossip seems wise. Oh,
I've got my spies, and they're going to tell
me all the juicy insider information. And you
know what? Sometimes there might be wisdom in
that. But if their words are unloving and untrue,
or even half true, that's not helpful. It's harmful.
Because often they cause more fights than they
snuff out. Have a look at these verses. Without
wood, a fire goes out. Without a gossip, a quarrel
dies down. As charcoal to embers and as wood
to fire, so is a quarrelsome person for kindling
strife. They light it up wherever they go. The
words of gossip are like choice morsels. They
go down to the inmost parts. In Broken Hill,
when we were living there, it would get really
cold in winter. And so sometimes what we'd do
is we'd have a fire pit in the backyard with
the kids. And me and the kids, we'd go and collect
wood and kindling from a nearby bush area. And
we needed it to get the fire going. And we'd
keep it going. We'd just add more wood and cook
up some of those delicious s'mores. You know,
with the digestives and the marshmallow. It's
good. But that fire pit scene sums up what gossips
and agitators are like. See, some people are
like kindling. They like fires. They just light
fires all the time. As soon as they go anywhere,
it seems like another fire is about to set off,
isn't it? Some people are like gossips. They're
like logs. They fuel fire all the time. They
fuel quarrels. And some are like my kids with
smores. Anytime there's a juicy word of gossip,
we go, yum, I can't wait to hear it. And people
who do this, no one's there thinking, well, I'm
being really foolish right now. They think, I'm
being really wise. I'm raising issues. I'm sharing
what I'm feeling. I'm, you know, I'm keeping
alert to what's going on, all of it. But actually
it fuels conflict. Now what makes this so hard
is that there is a time to intervene. There is
a time to speak up. There is even a time to pick
a fight. Think of Jesus turning the tables in
the temple. There is a time to do it. But if
that's a constant pattern, if you're always asking
to see the manager, if you're always going, I
can't wait to hear another tidbit of what's going
on, it's okay, we'll just call it prayer points.
If these are your patterns, that's not wise.
Now I see some of these patterns, occasionally
popping up in me. I don't know, do you see any
in yourself? We mustn't ignore it. If it's in
us, we've got to do that hard work and work out,
what's driving it? What's making me want to do
this? And if it's happening in others, we need
to call it out and go, hey, I don't want to be
part of that. You're there at work and someone,
you're standing at the water cooler. if you've
got a water cooler. You're standing at the water
cooler and, you know, someone comes over, oh,
did you hear what happened with Smith the other
day? Da -da -da -da -da. And what do you do?
You can go, oh, yeah, look, I don't really want
to be part of that. I'm just going to stay out
of it. And you walk away. There's so many options,
isn't there? You could say, oh, actually, I think
Smith's a pretty good guy. There's all sorts
of things you can do that stop you from engaging
in that sort of agitating behaviour. What are
you going to do when that sort of thing crops
up? But that's not all the distortions. We've
got one more. Our final one is do not trust the
flatterer. Do not trust the flatterer. See, flatterers
have a warped wisdom. They want to tear someone
down. Rather than sorting out the hate in their
hearts and what's going on within them, which
would be wise, they just want to tear people
down. And if they were open about it, at least
you could try and work out some reconciliation
or something. But they hide it under charm and
smooth talk and flattery. And it looks really
strategic. I'll hide it. I'll just say nice things
until I can get to them. It's patient and calculating.
I mean, those are the sort of things that we
think, yeah, that sounds pretty wise, but it's
not wisdom, it's a distortion. Have a look at
what Proverbs says. Like a coating of silver
dross on earthenware, a fervent or smooth lips
with an evil heart. Enemies disguise themselves
with their lips, but in their hearts they harbour
deceit. Though their speech is charming, do not
believe them. For seven, which is like complete,
you know, the full amount, seven abominations
fills their heart. Their malice may be concealed
by deception, but their wickedness will be exposed
in the assembly. Whoever digs a pit will fall
into it. If someone rolls a stone, it will roll
back on them. A lying tongue hates those it hurts,
and a flattering mouth works ruin. Now I reckon
verse 27 is pretty key there. Whoever digs a
pit will fall into it, and if someone rolls a
stone, it will roll back on them. And when I
read that, I couldn't help but think of one person.
Wally Coyote. It's saying that hateful flatterers
are like Wally Coyote. Remember how he's there,
he's always trying to catch the road runner and
he sets up these elaborate traps and, you know,
he gets it from ACME and he sets up this trap
and it always backfires on him. There's always
this poetic justice, you know, he tries to get
him off the cliff and he falls off the cliff
or whatever it might be. He's always caught in
his own traps. And Proverbs is saying, what happens
to those that hate the godly is that they fall
into their own trap. God won't always let it
stand. Whether it's now, whether it's in eternity,
he will deal with it eventually. But with that
said, in this life, the wise still need to be
on the lookout for such hate -filled flattery.
They need to be the sort of people who don't
practice it as well. But they need to be wary
of such deceit toward them. And part of being
wary is working out what's going on within me
that makes me want to believe it. That makes
me believe that someone's on my side when they're
not. I mean, I've been burned by flatterers plenty
in my life. And you'd think I would have wised
up by now, but no. I don't. I think part of it's
because I wear my heart on my sleeve and I often
assume that others do the same. So I take people
at face value, especially when they're complementary.
But as I get a little older and a little wiser,
I start to spot the vague praise. I start to
spot the strings attached. I start to spot the
words that don't match the actions. The way that
they compartmentalise what they say to me, but
then say something different to someone else.
And I go, I need to be a bit more careful. I
need to be a bit more discerning. Actually, that's
something we all need to do, isn't it? There
are plenty of people out there who will talk
nice to your face, but stab you in the back.
It's a challenge. It's a challenge to try and...
Be discerning and then do what Jesus did and
love your enemies even if they treat you like
that. So let's wrap up. We asked, what does distorted,
warped wisdom look like? And we saw today four
things. Do not honour the fool. I don't think
the fool's got it made, they don't. Do not envy
the sluggard. The sluggard's not living the good
life. They're actually getting worse and worse.
Do not ignore the agitator. We shouldn't put
up with that sort of thing, gossip and things
like that, and we don't want to be doing that
ourselves. And do not trust the flatterer. Don't
buy into people's smooth talk. I mean, hey, there's
a place for encouragement. Let's not go so far
the other way, but be wary, be discerning. See,
Proverbs is teaching us to be wary of these things
in others because folk like this who do these
things, these distorted wisdoms, will bring you
down. But it's also saying to be wary of it in
ourselves. Yet no matter how well on guard we
are, we all struggle with these things and fall
short, don't we? We all still get seduced and
hurt by these distortions of wisdom. We often
look at them and think yeah, that is wise. We
think folly is wisdom. And I could spend an eternity
trying on my own and I would still make the same
mistakes again and again and again. But that's
why Jesus came. He came to save us from our folly
From the warped and distorted wisdom on of this
world and we see this in his life and his teaching
To have a look at those four things Do not honor
the fool. Well, Jesus didn't honor the fool he
exposed the folly of the religious leaders in
his day and that was a pretty gutsy thing to
do because in his day the religious leaders were
the honoured ones weren't they but he challenged
them oh Jesus you're you're going to heal this
guy on the sabbath yep yep no i'm going to because
shouldn't we save life that that's that's what
we're here to do isn't it oh you do that with
your animals but you're not going to do that
with a person He exposed the folly of the religious
leaders. He went, I'm not going to honour that,
I'm going to expose it. He wouldn't envy the
sluggard. He actually warned about the envy of
the rich and the comfortable. He warned about
spiritual sluggishness. Do you remember in Matthew
25, you know, there's a lazy servant, Jesus,
they're saying, don't be spiritually lazy. take
seriously the things of eternity. Or he wouldn't
ignore the agitator. I mean, just think about
the number of quarrels Jesus had to sort out.
And who with? Usually his disciples. Oh, who's
greatest? Well, no, I'm great. And there he is.
And hey, guys, actually, greatness is completely
different to how you think. It's about serving
others. Oh, yeah. Jesus comes in and he sorts
it out. And sometimes, though, he'd withdraw.
When the Pharisees and the religious leaders
are trying to agitate him, he'd sometimes give
an answer, he'd sometimes withdraw into the desolate
places. He did what Proverbs was telling us to
do. He was very thoughtful about how he approached
those sort of things. And he wouldn't trust the
flatterer. There's so many times where the religious
leaders would come to Jesus and they'd say, oh,
you're such a brilliant teacher, Jesus. Oh, you're
the best teacher around. And he'd go, no, no,
no, I see through what you're doing. You're trying
to trap me. See, Jesus did these things, but
why? Because he was doing it to save us. We see
his wisdom ultimately in his death and resurrection.
Because it's there he saves us from the ruin
of our folly By experiencing God's judgment for
us poured down onto him for our sin for our folly
You know what Jesus was like at the cross? It
would be like the roadrunner Springing the trap
on himself to spare Wiley Coyote But that's what
Jesus did And he proves that fools and flatterers
won't triumph because he rises again in glorious
majesty, showing that the way of God's wisdom
truly is the right way. So what's this mean for
us? It means don't be fooled by folly when it
masquerades as wisdom. Now if you're here today
and you're not yet a Christian, Can I suggest
to you the wisest thing you can do if what I'm
saying is true is submit to the Lord Jesus? And
if you're not sure if Jesus really is Lord, can
I suggest you get curious? Read Mark's Gospel.
We've got copies up the back. Grab one of these.
Read it. Come have a chat with me. I'd love to
talk to you about it. And find out. if the wisdom
of this world truly is distorted, if it really
is folly. But if you're here today and you're
a Christian, I hope the challenge for you today
is to expose and guard yourself against the warped
wisdom of this world. We need to. Distorted wisdom
is bombarding us all the time. Whether it's...
The people we talk to and interact with, whether
it's the media, whether it's our technology,
whatever it might be, it's everywhere. All sorts
of distortions. And I'm not saying, hey, let's
become Amish. Don't mishear me. But I'm saying
there are distortions everywhere. And we're sinful.
Distortions are appealing, aren't they? And we
need to expose them. We need to see them. Make
sure you do things that will help you with that.
Get in a growth group so that if you're not already,
so that you've got that support, that encouragement,
that accountability. Or maybe try this, maybe
each Sunday, what do you do when you leave church?
When you get home, just have a little notebook
where you write down one thing that you learnt
from today's sermon that you're going to try
and do in the week. That can be really helpful,
just so it doesn't get lost into the ether of
20 ,000 sermons that you've heard, so that you
can actually put things into practice. But we
need to find ways to expose the distortions and
guard ourselves against them. How are you going
to do that? See, if we do, if we guard ourselves,
we won't fall for the world's distortions. will
actually become like a regular mirror reflecting
reality back to the world showing them how glorious
life with Jesus is. Let's pray that we do that.
Heavenly Father, please help us to see the distortions
of wisdom for what they are. Please open our
eyes, expose them, and help us to live according
to your wisdom. Help us to be discerning and
thoughtful as we try to navigate the folly of
this world. And Father, when we do fail, when
we fall into folly, help us to run back to Jesus
and find forgiveness and grace. And we ask this
in His name. Amen.