The Fool Defined in Scripture

Psalm 53 in the first verse, and really it’s just the first sentence, the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. Now if you’ll notice, if you’ll just flip back to Psalm 14 very quickly, we will not stay there, but I just want to show in both Psalms this one little aspect. Psalm 14 and Psalm 53, you can kind of, if you can kind of get both of them in your hand, look at them kind of flip back and forth like this. Psalm 14 verse 1, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God.

You notice how at the end of verse, that sentence in verse 1, there is is in italics. Do you see that? And then you flip to Psalm 53, you also have there is is in italics. Now of course, italics are used in our Bible to denote words in English that are supplied to make sense, to make grammatical sense, because in English, English has different rules obviously than Hebrew and Greek, and so sometimes you have to put words in to complete the sentence, otherwise it wouldn’t make, it wouldn’t be proper English.

And of course, and so this is true in a lot of languages where you could just say one word, it just means one thing, and in context it makes sense, but in English you have to complete it, and so that’s why it’s here. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to read it, I’m not trying to alter the text, but I’m going to read it, I’m trying to help you see kind of what the meaning and thrust of this verse is. Notice, the fool has said in his heart, no God. There is no God or no God.

Now you can look at this verse in two different ways. The most common way that we look at it is we look at it in a, you know, as an argument or a statement about atheism, right? The fool had said in his heart there is no God, and that’s fine and proper, that’s good. In other words, we take this verse to mean the fool says in his heart that God does not exist or God is not there, and that’s again a valid way to look at this verse, but we can look at it in another way. We can look at it in another way, which is this. The fool says in his heart, this is my kind of paraphrase of it, the fool says in his heart that there will be no God to him. Whether there is a God or is not a God is irrelevant. To me, there will be no God, right? You could also see that in this verse. In other words, he rejects God as an act of his will. So the question is not, I don’t believe in God if you look at it in the second way, the question is not, I don’t believe in God. The question is really a matter of the will of the fool. He has decided there will be no God, no God.

I’m going to live my life with no God, and in this second meaning, actually my opinion is that the second meaning is probably the primary meaning. That’s what I think. If you want to disagree, then we can take it outside, and you can disagree with me. We can argue with it out there where it’s cold. That’s my opinion. Of course, I’m joking, but it’s my opinion that the Lord’s intention is that it’s a statement about the fool, because when we’re about to see this study, it overlaps with the definition and description of the fool in Scripture, especially in the book of Proverbs.

Now you’ve got to remember, what does a person say when a person says, no God? I will have no God. I will have no God. What does he say? It is a rejection of everything that God is and represents, right? It’s a rejection of God himself, but most people don’t have a big problem with God himself. What it is, is all the things that God stands for and all the things that God represents to them, like law, like truth, like morality, like holiness, and we could go on and on and on, or limitation on the indulgence of their appetites, or whatever the case might be.

So in this case, the person is saying, I will not have. God will not rule over me. God will not be God to me. In other words, I’ll be my own God. Now the truth is, these two ways to look at this verse overlap. So let’s kind of dive into it. Let’s kind of dive into it, but the first principle I want to mention to you, and we’ll come back to it at the end, which is this, because this verse, this Psalm, and Psalm 14 both say, the fool has said in his heart. So they’re emphasizing the fool in both Psalms. So the Lord wants us to take something away from this. And so when you start looking at the Proverbs, the Psalms, and the Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, Psalm, you start to see that God doesn’t give you a definition of the fool very often. It’s not really like that.

But what he does is he defines the fool by what he does. Right? The fool does this. The fool does that. The fool says this. The fool says that. And by looking at that description, we can identify and define what a fool is in Scripture. So it’s not a label. It’s a set of attributes and actions that the Lord kind of categorizes people. Now that’s going to come back to bite us in the end, just to be honest with you. He’s going to come back to bite us. But this is the way the Lord defines a fool. He defines him not with labels or with names, but he defines him by what he does.

Now all the verses we’re going to look at, start if you would, at Proverbs 1, Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs 1. Now as we go through these various Proverbs, what I would like you to do is note in your mind the contrast given between the fool and the wise. Sometimes the Lord makes a statement about the fool and he sets it opposite to the statement about the wise and it gives us greater understanding about what he’s saying about the fool. In other words, by the contrast, by the negative. So in Proverbs 1 verse 7, this is where we’ll start. So this is the first thing I want you to see. How is a fool defined in Scripture? Number one is this. A fool hates knowledge and instruction.

A fool hates knowledge and instruction. Proverbs 1 7 says this. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. They hate it. It is the object of their contempt. Now what’s interesting is in 1 verse 7, what is the source of wisdom and instruction? What is the source of knowledge? What is the beginning of knowledge? You know what it is?

It’s the Lord in verse 7. So it’s no wonder they say no God, because remember they don’t want the knowledge. They hate wisdom and instruction, so therefore they hate God. They block him out of their mind. No God. Psalm 53, Psalm 14 verse 1. No God, because God is that. God is the source of wisdom and that is the very thing they hate. Look at Proverbs 1 verse 22. It says this. How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge. Now you notice in that verse there are several terms. There’s simple, scorner, fool. You see those three terms? Now we might be tempted to think that someone who’s called simple in Proverbs is the same as a fool considering, and be careful Bible students in School of Scripture, how to study the Bible. Just because something occurs in the same verse does not necessarily mean it’s connected in the verse. Right? So we might have a tendency to look at the simple and the scorner and the fool and think that we’re talking about the same thing.

It’s synonyms, but they’re not. But in this case they overlap. So in the book of Proverbs, the simple is someone who is ignorant. Now what’s the irony is whether one is ignorant of wisdom or hates wisdom. Those are two different questions. They often end up at the same place, the same point of pain and suffering. It’s said in Proverbs of the simple, of the ignorant, as well as of the fool, the person who as an act of the will rejects knowledge. But does it really matter if you go the road that leads to pain and suffering this road or you take this road if you end up at the same place? It doesn’t really matter a whole lot.

So he says, notice it says in verse number 22 at the end, and fools hate knowledge. Proverbs 15. Look at that if you would. Proverbs 15. Verse number five. A fool despiseth his father’s instruction, but he that regardeth reproof is prudent. A fool despises his father’s instruction. So you start to see a parallel here. Not only does the fool hate instruction and wisdom itself, but he hates those who bring it, which is why he says no God. Right? The fool has said in his heart there is no God. But there’s another person, which is one’s parents, his father. You see this? So in this verse, the father is the person’s first source of instruction and correction. The parents are. And it sets the pattern for later correction. Now what’s interesting as well is you’re going to see the thing, the correction come back up in just a minute. But see the fool views the father sort of like he views God in as much as they both are sources of instruction and wisdom. He hates it. He doesn’t want that. So he rebels against it.

All right. Proverbs 17. Look at that if you would. Proverbs 17 verse 10 says this. A reproof entereth more into a wise man than a hundred and hundred stripes into a fool. Why would this fool be getting stripes? What is the intention of the stripes do you think?

Somebody help me. Discipline. Is to dissuade him from continuing on the path that he’s on. Right? It’s correction. Right? That’s the idea. You get stripes, you don’t do it again. But it says in this case, because this man is a fool, a hundred stripes do him no good. You know what that means? That means he’s not receiving the correction. Now here’s what’s interesting. Oftentimes wisdom and instruction comes to us in the form of correction.

It’s one thing to say, you know, you don’t like, you know, you don’t like wisdom or it’s one thing to put it, let me put it like this. We could say, oh yes, we love wisdom. Oh yes, we love understanding and all of us like to say that. But where the rubber meets the road is how we respond when that comes in the form of sour medicine. Correction. How do we respond to correction? Because that is wisdom and instruction. Proverbs blends them together, which is what you see here.

The fool hates correction. You could say, well of course everybody hates correction. What I want you to get you to see though is that is a characteristic of a fool. He doesn’t hate correction for the correction’s sake. He hates it because he hates wisdom. And of course he hates the way wisdom comes wrapped in correction. And so we can learn a lot from ourselves and really correction is a real test of a man or of a woman, whether he’s a fool or whether he’s not.

Because when a person receives correction, they reveal the way they respond to correction reveals whether they love wisdom and instruction or not. That’s really a good point of kind of a litmus test. Right? Proverbs 17 verse 16. Look at this. Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom seeing he hath no heart to it? You know what this is saying in other words, if you had a hundred dollar bill, if people use cash anymore, if you had a hundred dollar bill and you went to a store and you had money to spend, are you going to spend it on something you don’t want?

No. It doesn’t matter if you have money. You’re not buying it. So the fool, even if even if wisdom was available to him and he could access it, he doesn’t have a heart for it. Look at Proverbs 18. It says essentially the same thing. A fool, verse number two, a fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself, that is reveal itself. And we’re going to get to that in a minute. This kind of attitude, he has no delight in understanding. He has no heart to wisdom.

This kind of attitude is not just the ignorance of the simple. This is a person who is willfully contempt of wisdom and understanding. This is a man, this is a woman who to that person understanding is just uninteresting to him, not wanted, not desired. It’s just not on the radar at all. That’s different than simple. Proverbs 23, look at that. If you would Proverbs 23, verse number nine, speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

We ought to, listen, we ought to examine ourselves. How do we respond when people try to instruct us? You say, well, they don’t need, I don’t have no right to instruct me. I already know all that stuff. It’s part of the problem. We’ll see in a minute. But how do we respond to correction, to instruction, to wisdom when someone tries to give it to us? Well, I take my wisdom from God.

He doesn’t always give you wisdom direct. Oftentimes, he uses means to give it to us. You know why? Because we need that kind of humility, do we not? We need another human being who’s faulty to come tell us, hey, something’s messed up because it tests our humility, right? Does it not? What do we do when people correct us? You know what we do? We start desperately grasping for some, what about, what about what you do? What about what you’ve done? What about this? And what about that?

Desperately trying to find some way to void the instruction that that person has given you. But the wise man is someone who tries to take that even if they don’t like it, even if it comes from a source they don’t really care for, or they view maybe as unworthy to give it and takes it and assesses it. Because why? He loves wisdom and instruction. And he understands that sometimes the Lord sends it by means of things that are a little unsavory to us. So this is, a fool is a person who hates knowledge and instruction.

All right, the second thing is this, Proverbs chapter 12. Let’s go ahead and turn there. Proverbs 12. A fool is arrogant and headstrong in his way. So not only is he’s a man who hates knowledge and instruction, in that condition he’s also arrogant about it. He knows it all. He’s got it all figured out. And if you doubt it, just ask him. As you’re going to see in just a minute. Proverbs 12 verse 15. Look what it says. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes. But he that hearkens unto counsel is wise. Why does he need to get counsel? I already know. Hey, I’ve got this figured out. No wonder he hates instruction. He’s stuck on his own thinking. He thinks he’s got it figured out.

Proverbs 12 verse 23. A prudent man concealeth knowledge. That doesn’t mean keeps it from other people. It means he takes it and hides it within himself. Prudent man concealeth knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness. In other words, they have their opinions. They are wise in their own conceits and they’re going to let everybody else know that they that they’re wise in their own conceits as well. That’s how arrogant they are. Chapter 13. Look at that. Verse number 16.

Proverbs 13 verse 16. Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge, but a fool layeth open his folly. Why do you think he would blab it like that? Why do you think he would expose his folly to everyone? Well, it’s obvious because he thinks his folly is smart. He thinks that his knowledge that he has in himself is wiser than everybody else’s and so he lays it open. Proverbs 14. Look at that. Verse 16. A wise man feareth and departeth from evil, but the fool rageeth and is confident. The idea of he’s headstrong in it. He’s violently pressing forward in the folly.

That’s the idea of raging and is confident. So he’s wrong and he’s foolish. He doesn’t know it because he’s rejected all instruction. He hates instruction. He’s wise in his own conceits and so he lets everybody know. Proverbs chapter 20. Look at that.

Verse number three. It is an honor for a man to cease from strife, but every fool will be meddling. Meddling. Why do people meddle in other people’s affairs unsought?

You know the source of that? Pride. I know how to fix this. I got this problem of yours figured out. It’s not your problem. That doesn’t matter. I got your problem figured out.

Right? Why didn’t I ask you? Well, I’m telling you. You see how these things are kind of overlapping? The different, the arrogant, headstrong aspects of the fool. Proverbs 26. Look at that. Proverbs 26. Verse five.

Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceits. So he says something and if you stay quiet, you know the verse that this pairs with, which is the previous verse, verse four. If a fool says something foolish and you don’t say anything to combat what he says, he’s gonna think that he’s pretty smug. He’s gonna think that he was pretty smart because you didn’t say anything and you didn’t have an answer for him. Whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter because he’s arrogant. Last one. Proverbs 28. Verse number 26.

Verse number 26. 28. 26. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool, but whoso walketh wisely shall be delivered. Again, confidence, arrogance, headstrong. The last one I want to show you is this. The last of the three main ones is this. A fool reveals himself with his mouth. Let’s go to Proverbs 14. Proverbs 14. So we have this, he hates instruction, which means whatever I think, I don’t need anybody to add to it. I’m smart enough already. I’m good. I got it.

I got it figured out. And so you have the arrogance, this end point number two, and now it’s gonna start coming out his mouth, which is, this is when, what does the old proverb say? He says, the old proverb say, the English proverb. Something like, don’t open your mouth because many, and put away doubt. How’s it go? Say it louder brother.

Thank you. That’s what I was thinking of. Saniel Clemens. Mark Twain. I’ve heard that too. Proverbs 14 verse 33. Wisdom resteth in the heart of him which hath understanding, but that which is in the midst of fools is made known. Notice, what are we talking about in the midst of fools? The first part of the verse says it, in the heart of him. There it is. So what is in the heart of a fool is going to be made known. How is it going to come out from that flapping organ in his mouth? He’s going to let everybody know what’s in his heart. Proverbs 15 verse 2. Look at it right next door. The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness. Look at chapter 17 verse 7. Excellent speech becomeeth not a fool. This is not what you’re going to hear from a fool at all. 18. Look at 18 verse 6. This is related to what we said earlier about meddling.

A fool’s lips enter into contention and his mouth calleth for strokes. He’s always got a pipe in. He’s got something to say. 18 verse 7. Next verse. A fool’s mouth is his destruction. Now we’re getting close to the end now. A fool’s mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul. Look at 19 verse 1. Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity than he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool.

Last 29 chapter 29 verse number 11. So you see a fool is a person who hates knowledge and instruction. A fool is arrogant and headstrong and a fool lastly reveals himself with his mouth. But here’s the sad thing. That the end of a fool is actually sad. I’m going to read these two. You can note the reference if you like both in chapter 10 of Proverbs. Proverbs 10 verse 21 says this. The lips of the righteous feed many but fools die for want of wisdom. Why don’t fools have wisdom? Well you could say well they rejected it, right? They hate wisdom and instruction. True. But the result of that is but the result is death. The result’s the same. We can smugly say well they deserved it but that doesn’t change the final outcome of the fool. Proverbs 10 verse 8 says this.

The wise and heart will receive will receive commandments but a praying fool shall fall. You know the Bible says even our enemy we’re not supposed to rejoice when our enemy falleth. The last verse I want you to go to is in Proverbs, I’m sorry Psalm 107.

Psalm 107. Our tendency might be to look at people that in our estimation are fools and to kind of smugly maybe even glibly remark about how foolish they are and the people that say no God. I will not have God. Well you get what’s coming.

But what comes is death and falling and in the New Testament terminology it’s destruction, perishing. Perishing. But what Proverbs 107, I’m sorry Psalm 107 says in verse 17 is interesting to me because the end of the fool is indeed sad but there is and this is the last point there is hope for a fool. That’s what this Psalm says. Psalm 107 verse 17. Fools because of their transgression and because of their iniquities are afflicted. So whether you’re simple, remember what I said, whether you’re simple or whether you’re a fool you take this the simple road or the foolish road it ends up at the same destination pain and suffering, falling, sadness, death, right? You see that and that’s sad. It didn’t have to be that way but he brought it on himself because he rejected wisdom and in the form of correction he rejected it. He was arrogant and proud. He rejected God. He rejected his parents. He rejected everything because he was a fool and as a result in verse 17 he’s afflicted. Fools because of their transgression and because of their iniquities are afflicted.

Their soul. Who’s soul? The fool’s soul. The soul of the fools. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat. It’s referring to an illness and they draw near unto the gates of death. Now the fool is coming to his end. He’s getting what he deserved for his foolishness and arrogance. Then they, who’s they? The fools cry unto the Lord in their trouble and he saveth them out of their distresses and all of the sudden in verse 19 the fool is a fool no more. Just like that because the affliction that the Lord allowed to come upon him that is the we could say the natural outcome of his foolishness. The Lord just took his hands off and let the fool do his foolish things and it led to pain and suffering and finally when he’s afflicted he finally is aware and willing now especially a willing. He’s finally willing to open his mind to the fact that he needs instruction. He doesn’t have it figured out and he remember the defining characteristic of a fool is he hates instruction but by the time you get to verse 19 he no longer hates instruction therefore he’s no longer a fool. In this case a fool got converted. He’s no longer a fool so we could say a fool is not forever. There is hope for a fool but the last thing I want to show you is this.

The Lord defines a fool not with labels but by giving the characteristics of a fool and by doing this well let me let me take a poll. Raise your hand if you’re a fool.

See all of you are playing spiritual. None of you actually believe this right? None of you. You’re okay raise your hand again. Raise your hand. Those of you raise your hand one more time. So you say all the things I just read in Proverbs that’s you. I don’t believe it. Honestly I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it. The point I’m making is none of us would seriously say I am a Proverbs fool. That’s not something we’re going to say but the Lord doesn’t use it as a label like that. He defines it not with a label but he defines it with a series of characteristics so by doing that you know what we can do? We who might not be fools right? We might be people who love the Lord and love his word and all that but every once in a while we’ll find ourselves with a characteristic of a fool attaching itself to us right?

We might not be a fool in the full sense of the word but we can definitely find foolish things in us. Find ourselves really really unwilling to receive wisdom in the form of correction. Unwilling to receive instruction. Unwilling to not loving wisdom and understanding like we read in this or being arrogant about our own opinions and ideas and sticking our nose arrogantly into other people’s business trying to solve their problems we know nothing about you know that kind of thing.

All the things we read we can see it in ourselves because the Lord says he defines it in this way. We definitely don’t want to be that but we also don’t want to have the characteristics one or more of the characteristics in our life do we not? We want to be a wise man a wise woman. Let’s pray together.