Posted on 12/15/2022 11:27:23 PM PST by Pilgrim's Progress
“The wise in heart shall be called prudent: and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning. Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly” (Proverbs 16:21).
“The wise in heart shall be called prudent,” the wise heart comes from the Scriptures, that is where you get it. Wisdom comes from the Scriptures, wisdom comes from the Holy Ghost.
“The wise in heart shall be called prudent,” the prudent are careful. The prudent are worried about consequences. They just don’t go rushing in where angels fear to tread.
“. . . and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning,” not necessarily your lips, verse 24 shows that it could be someone else, “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.” Like one man said, “Get under the spout where the glory comes out, and you’ll have to shout and never need to pout!”
This is why folks ought to come to church. They need to be encouraged. They need to be under the sweet words of the Scriptures, and hear the sweet testimonies of believers that God has blessed and how they got through problems with God’s help. We ought to hear those things.
“. . . and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning,” the Bible is likened to honey, and food, sometimes it is sweet. And sometimes it is bitter. Often the bitter comes first, because we enjoy desert after the dinner.
“Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it,” a wellspring is a deep well. Knowledge is surface, but understanding is deep. Wisdom is getting a little deeper, but understanding is the bottom of the well. That is way down there deep.
When you begin to understand God, His decrees, and the judgments of God you are deep. That is about as deep as you can get. When you understand that if you don’t raise your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord you are going to ruin your kids you have understanding. If you don’t bring yourself under subjection of the Word of God, you don’t have any understanding. “To depart from evil is understanding” (Job 28:28).
“. . . but the instruction of fools is folly,” this is deep stuff, right here. Americans don’t have any idea what you are talking about when you talk about things like this. They are not even aware that some things are evil.
They have no idea of what things will destroy them. They have very little idea of what things are good for them and what things are bad.
“Understanding is a wellspring of life,” it will help you to live physically and ensure that you live eternally. “. . . but the instruction of fools is folly,” you can spend all your life teaching fools, and it just isn’t going to profit. A fool that won’t do right, a fool that won’t apply to truth to his life, is useless. And that is what a lot of modern education is. It is just foolishness. Because you are trying to teach people that don’t care nothing about nothing. They are just fools. “A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject” (Titus 3:10). You can try, but you’ll just be wasting your time. “The instruction of fools is folly.” There are enough people out there that truly want your time, and are willing to learn.
Now, you teach somebody that wants to learn, and is interested in learning, wanting to apply wisdom to their lives—that isn’t foolishness, that is profit.
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Been there and seen all of that in the public high schools.
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