THE SPORT OF FOOLS

Proverbs 10:23-26 (KJV)

It is as sport to a fool to do mischief: but a man of understanding hath wisdom.

The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted.

As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more: but the righteous is an everlasting foundation.

As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him.

Sunday nights right now I am trying to preach through the Proverbs with an eye on the different characters or personality types that are found within.

There would be two or three different ways to do this:

One would be to put together lists an contrast them

·   The Righteous vs the Wicked

·   The Wise vs the Foolish

·   Etc

Another would be to identify the various personalities:

·   The slothful

·   The simple

·   The sinner

·   Etc

And bring one message on each character, attempting to give all that is taught on each character in one message.

I believe I have been led of the Lord to preach my way through the book, stopping each time we find one of these personalities and bringing a message that fits, as close as we can, to the context in which it is found.

I envision at least two more messages from chapter 10.

Tonight’s message ties three personalities together:

·   The fool

·   The wicked and

·   The Sluggard

Notice first

I. THE SPORT OF FOOLISHNESS

Proverbs 10:23 (KJV)

It is as sport to a fool to do mischief: but a man of understanding hath wisdom.

A. I cannot help but be reminded that Psalms 14:1 (KJV) says

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. …

Notice that it is only in his heart that he says it.

His soul knows better.

You will never convince me that there is such a thing as a true atheist.

·   Even the most avid avowed atheist would never get me to admit he is truly an atheist because I think he would lie to me to keep up his appearance.

·   He might even have lied to himself and so believes he believes there is no God.

But I have a more reliable source, one that is never wrong and does not lie; my Bible.

Romans 1:18-19 (KJV)

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

Everyone knows that there is a God because He has shown it unto them.

·   If a person wants to argue that he does not believe God is good, I can accept that

·   If a person wants to argue that he does not like God’s plan of salvation, I can accept that

But I have it on the authority of the Bible that everyone knows that God is.

What kind of fool denies to be true what he knows to be true?

B. Sport in this case means enjoyment or laughter.

The fool does not like to retain God in his mind and therefore, his affections – the things he enjoys, have become twisted and corrupted.

He calls evil good and good evil.

Romans 1:28-32 (KJV)

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

They find their pleasure in those things that are sinful.

C. Their pleasure, their sport, is mischief

We tend to minimize the word mischief in our day.

We might call a boy who puts a frog in a girl’s lunchbox, mischievous.

Mischief

It’s just a harmless prank. It was meant to get a laugh, but not really to hurt anyone.

“He’s not a bad kid. He’s just mischievous.”

I personally do this. I tend to categorize bad behavior in a kid as either malicious or mischievous.

Mischievous – reprove them, but don’t make a big deal of it.

Malicious – throw the book at them with little to no mercy.

That would be a mistake in this case.

The sport of the foolish is not a naughty prank.

The word means,

·   A heinous crime,

·   A wicked device,

·   An evil plan

I am not saying we should treat childish mischief more seriously than we do.

I am saying that we should interpret this verse as more serious than we might.

People who hate God enjoy evil things.

Secondly

II. THE FEAR OF WICKEDNESS

Proverbs 10:24-25 (KJV)

The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him: but the desire of the righteous shall be granted.

As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more: but the righteous is an everlasting foundation.

Remember that even the fool knows in his soul that God is.

That means that in the deepest part of his being he knows that the thing the Bible says about hell is true.

He knows he will go there and, though he would deny it, he fears it.

·   He is afraid that death is not the end of life

·   He is afraid that after death he will face the judgment of God

·   He is afraid that hell is as terrible as he has ever dreamed it to be

The fear of the wicked is defined right in the context, “As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more…”

The fear of the wicked is a fear of eternity.

Think about living every day afraid of what happens when your life ends.

I’ve heard tough guys try to explain it away by saying that Christians are just weak people who need a crutch to face their fear of death.

What that very same guy is saying is that, he too has the fear of death, he just thinks he is tough enough to face it without help.

Truth is, nobody wants to face death alone.

Some say they can face it without Jesus, but they don’t want to be alone when it happens.

Some people deal with their fear of death with avoidance.

They just don’t want to talk about it.

They are like the guy who thinks he might be sick so he avoids going to the doctor and finding out he was right.

“Maybe if I ignore gaping would in my thigh, it will not be there!”

·   Never mind that it is three inches long

·   That it is all the way to the bone and

·   There is puss oozing out of it

I don’t want to go to the doctor because he might tell me it needs to be fixed.

I hate taking my car to the mechanic.

Do you know why?

Because if I take my car to the mechanic, for anything little thing, he might discover some bigger thing that I always suspected was wrong, but didn’t want to have to pay for.

I figure it like this, as long as I don’t KNOW for sure that it is wrong, I can legitimately keep driving the car without fixing it.

But once the mechanic TELLS me it needs to be fixed, I would be irresponsible not to fix it.

The fear of the wicked is eternal wrath.

So the last thing he wants to talk about is heaven and hell.

He thinks as long as he doesn’t think about it, he doesn’t have to do anything about it.

The final personality tonight is

III. THE BITTERNESS OF SLUGGARDNESS

Proverbs 10:26 (KJV)

As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him.

I want to take this point where I never imagined it would go.

·   I imagined this as one of King David’s messengers who delayed his work and because of it lost a battle

·   I imagined it as someone’s employee that doesn’t show up on the job

·   I imagined it like the mailman who carelessly losses a customer’s bill so the customer gets charged a late fee.

But I never imagined where God would take me in my preparations for this message.

Let me give to you a passage from the New Testament,

Romans 10:13-15 (KJV)

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

All of us agree that it is a beautiful thing that there are people who go to reach the unsaved and unchurched don’t we?

How beautiful it is that there are people like

·   Bro Renolla who will go to win others in the United Arab Emitrates and

·   Bro Tomlinson who would leave his good church to try to reach the lost in the Asian countries or

· Brother Males who will plants churches in the U.S., Scotland and Canada

My wife told me how the Mother’s Tea went the other night. 80 some ladies here! She told me how some of you had

·   Neighbors and

·   Relatives and

·   Relatives of relatives

Here that night.

It’s beautiful to see when God’s people act as the messengers and servants of God.

If we think it’s beautiful, how much more must God, who wrote this passage, think it is a beautiful thing?

But now, let’s go back to Proverbs 10:26 (KJV)

As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him.

What about the “feet of the one who God has saved and sent, but who hasn’t gone?”

It says “them that send him”

·   God the Father calls the saved to be witnesses

·   God the Son gives us our commission as witnesses and

·   God the Holy Spirit gives us the power to be witnesses

If we are negligent in our message, we are like “…vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes…” – OF GOD.