Grace Thoughts

Guest (Male): Hello friends, welcome to Grace Thoughts, the radio ministry of Grace Connection Church with Pastor Tim Kelley. Grace Thoughts has been dedicated to preaching a clear gospel of grace for over 20 years. Here is Pastor Kelley.

Tim Kelley: Luke chapter 24. I had such a joy studying this week for this series on fools. There's a lot of original word study involved here. It's not a short series. It's not just one or two messages. The scriptures say a lot about the subject of what a fool is, the biblical doctrine of a fool. There are over 200 different usages in the scriptures. If you were to look up fool, foolishness, fools, over 200 times this title is used, using at least 10 different Greek and Hebrew words.

When I did my initial study when I just decided we wanted to do this, I counted eight, and since I've just started studying yesterday I found two more. So there's at least 10—I'm guessing 10, 12, 13 different words translated from the Greek or Hebrew into the English that describe a fool.

Webster's, the old Webster's describes it this way: one who is destitute of reason or of the common powers of understanding, an idiot. That's Webster, that wasn't me. I wasn't being mean. Some people are born fools and some are called natural fools. You could have fun with this. In common language, a person who is somewhat deficient in intellect, but not an idiot. Not an idiot, just deficient in intellect. Or a person who acts absurdly, one who does not exercise his reason, one who pursues a course contrary to the dictates of wisdom.

Interesting that last one. Another definition: in scripture, fool is often used for a wicked or depraved person, one who acts contrary to sound wisdom in his moral deportment, one who follows his own inclinations, who prefers trifling and temporary pleasures to the service of God and eternal happiness.

That's Webster's, and as you know, he was a very fervent believer who used the scriptures as his frame of reference. So here's the first usage that I'd like to look at today, and please listen to this with a humble heart. Don't apply somebody to this. I mean, you say, "Oh, I know who you're describing." Listen to it for yourself. This message is for me, not for anyone else. Let the Holy Spirit of God show you things in your own heart or areas of your life where you could be declared maybe a little foolish.

And he said to them—this is Jesus with the men on the road to Emmaus. He was walking with them. Remember, he had resurrected, they're walking back from Jerusalem, they were talking about what just happened in Jerusalem, and they're pondering back and forth. What did we just see? Why did Jesus die? And they're asking all these questions, and Jesus comes up and walks along with them. Of course, they don't know it's the resurrected Lord.

And he walks with them quite a ways. And just as he reveals himself to them, this is what he says, verses 25 and 26: "And he said to them, 'O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?'"

He called these men, "O foolish ones." That was a little harsh, it was so strong. He wasn't saying they're ignorant. Let me show you what this word means. The word foolish here is *anoētos*. This is one of many in the Greek New Testament and Hebrew Old Testament. It speaks of one who lacks an understanding, literally means not to apply the mind. Some other definitions from other places: thoughtlessness, senselessness, and not to think.

It comes from the word *nous*, N-O-U-S. Anytime in Greek you put an 'A' in front of anything, it negates it. So *nous* is to think and to comprehend, and putting the 'A' in it negates it, so it's not to think and not to comprehend. So that's the definition we're using here for fool.

In order to understand in a sense what the negation is, we've got to understand the word before it's negated. What does *nous*, that word N-O-U-S that talks about the mind, the intellect, the seat of emotions, what does that word mean? Well, it points to a man's mental and moral strengths, or in this case, weaknesses.

The man with *nous*, understanding and wisdom in the Jewish mind—and this is very important—was one who understood the scriptures. That's critical. Because we've said this many times, if you were to use the word wisdom in our English language, you would think of a man that has a certain intellect, a discerning capability, being able to maybe read between the lines and make good decisions to avoid making bad decisions and bad pitfalls and things like that.

That would be a wise person. Someone who's lived a while, and I'm not saying that isn't wise, but the Hebrew mentality on wisdom was very different than that. It had nothing to do with one's experience per se, or one's ability to discern per se. It could have, but it didn't stem from that. It had nothing to do with one's intellect, reasoning capability.

It had everything to do with one word: obedience. To the Jew, the wise man was an obedient man. And what was he obedient to? His wife? That was a joke. No, he was obedient to the word of God. Because the word of God was the word of wisdom. If I stayed under the word of God, then I would be safe from making bad decisions, I'd be safe from falling into common pitfalls in relationships, financial pitfalls, family pitfalls, marital pitfalls.

Because the word of God really gives me guidance for life and directs me in life. So the wise person wasn't necessarily that smart, even though they could have been. It wasn't somebody that was highly educated, even though they could have been. Actually didn't have anything to do with any of that. It's somebody who simply took the word of God and said, "This is what's going to guide my life."

Because this is ultimate wisdom. It was breathed on by God, inspired by God. This was ultimate wisdom. And if I obey this book, then I will act wisely. If I disobey this book, I act like a fool. Because fools will leave the umbrella of the word of God. See what I'm saying? We all can be fools in areas of our life, can't we? This is talking about lifestyle foolishness, but still, we all can come within the definition of what a fool is.

So the wise and the understanding man lives under the umbrella of the word of God. Understanding in the sense, these men, they lacked understanding. They study the scriptures first before they lean on their own understanding. This is again, the man with wisdom, the man with *nous*.

I go to the scriptures first. If I have an issue maybe in my home, I go to the scriptures first. If I don't know how to manage my money, I go to the scriptures first. If I don't know how to raise my children, I go to the scriptures first. I go there first. That's my starting point because that's where wisdom is found.

It could be found in the man of God or a woman of God, but not necessarily. You could find it maybe in a counselor, but maybe you won't. It all depends where their starting point is. If their starting point is the scriptures, then that's good. And if they are wise, that's where they'll make you start, in the scriptures.

This is where the scriptures start. This is how we have a godly home. This is how we have a godly marriage. This is how we have a godly relationship on the horizontal level. This is how we manage our money. This is how we manage our health. The scriptures will tell us that. That's the wise man. Because the scriptures are divinely inspired. All of God's wisdom, all of God's power, all of God's understanding is in the scriptures, available for any human being that wants to partake of it.

So the wise man is somebody who starts there first. Now, don't get me wrong. There's times when we can start there and still need help figuring complex situations out, and God has given different people in our lives for that. I totally get that. But we start there first. I go to the scriptures to find out what does the scripture say about this particular situation in my life, or about any situation in my life. How am I an employee? Well, how do I be a biblical employee? The scriptures will teach me that.

Fill in the blank. There isn't many subjects in life that the scriptures are not descriptive on. Jesus lovingly rebuked these men because they were trying to find out what happened to Jesus and why it happened to Jesus. And the Lord basically said, "If you study the scriptures, you wouldn't be this confused."

You're going back and forth saying, "What happened? I was following Jesus. He raised Lazarus from the dead, and everyone was cheering him on, and everyone thought this was the coolest thing ever. He was the Messiah. And then next thing you know, he's crucified. What happened? This doesn't make any sense."

And they're going back and forth. And Jesus is walking with them and says, "If you guys started in the scriptures, if you really heard what I said and not what you wanted me to say—if you really heard from my voice what my mission was, which I was very clear about, but you didn't want a Messiah to die. You wanted a Messiah to reign and rule and to usher you into a political reform. That's what you wanted. I wasn't that Messiah. The Messiah was never supposed to be that."

The scriptures never taught that. The Messiah was one who was going to come and suffer and die for the sins of the whole world. That was the purpose of the Messiah, to give the potential of reconciliation of the human race to God the Father. And if you studied the scriptures, he's saying to these men, you would know that. But you didn't. So you are fools. That's a little rough. I didn't say it, Jesus said it. He was post-resurrected.

So the scriptures become our guide for life. But few of us, if ever, use them as the starting point for thinking. When I studied the subject of finances, it was interesting. This was a year or two ago. And I started just going through the book of Proverbs. And in the book of Proverbs alone, you want sound financial personal policy, just read the book of Proverbs.

It'll tell you: do I loan money to my kids? Do I cosign a loan? How do I make these decisions? Just read Proverbs. Get a Thompson Chain Bible, get E-Sword, put money in there, and the verses will come up. It'll tell you how to think. It put my heart to ease because I made decisions in the past I second-guessed until I saw that the word of God actually told me I did exactly what the word of God told me to do without knowing I was obeying it at that time.

Good guess, I guess. But we start there first and we study and we equip ourselves with what the word of God says about life, whatever the things that we face in life. I'm all for authorship, good books, read them all. There's some really good ones out there on every subject.

I'm all for counseling. I do a lot of that, and that's what my training is in. And I'm nothing against that, and don't ever hinder picking up the phone and saying "I need to talk to you." But I'm saying on a personal level as a Christian, start here first.

Always feels funny picking up an iPad when I used to pick up a Bible. But this actually is a Bible, and there's 26 Bibles in here and a bunch of commentary. So it's actually a lot more than I used to always carry. But pick up this. I wish it would drape over my hand like a Bible did, but it's a little stiff and won't do that.

Pick up a Bible and we start there and study the scriptures. My friends, it's not that hard, especially with today's technology, today's helps that we have available to us. You can find out pretty much anything that you want to find out and you don't need to spend any money on Amazon to do it.

Again, I'm not against books. I'm not saying don't read them. I'm just saying start here first. Start here first, study the scriptures. Get wisdom from older men or women if you need it. Get wisdom from a counselor if you need it. But start there first. God, what do you want me to do?