Proverbs 23:9

The Difficulty of Teaching Children When Not to Speak Truth

0:00 Chapter 23 and verse 9. Here we have to instruct our children concerning the fact that sometimes even though they have something true and good and right to say, it's wrong to say it. Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. One of the most difficult things to teach our children, I have a before experience and knowledge of the word of God and knowledge of their own hearts and men, all the things that make up that pool of accumulated wisdom that comes over time in the heart of a true child of God or even in the heart of a non-Christian who in common grace is given some insight to reality. It is so difficult for children. They have a sense of, well, surely if it's fair and right, everyone will see it. And we have to teach them that there are people whom God calls fools.

Defining the 'Fool' and God's Judgment

1:02 That is, who are so full of self-opinionated perspectives, so full of pride, that the only one who's ever going to get anything through to them is God in the day of judgment.

1:17 Nobody's going to tell them nothing till God stands them before his bar and he talks and they shut their mouths and they listen. They're fools. They've shown themselves. They've shown themselves to be fools.

Solomon's Command and Jesus' Parallel

1:31 So set upon a course of sin and evil that only God himself in the day of judgment will be able to tell them anything. Now, when you meet such a person, Solomon says, Speak not in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. The New Testament parable, Parallel, cast not thy pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot and turn again and rend you. You tell the old snorty in the barnyard, wallowing in his mud, Come here, I've got some beautiful pearls.

The 'Pearls Before Swine' Illustration Explained

2:07 And he comes waddling over and you throw the pearls down before him. He thinks you're throwing stones at him. So what's he do? He charges you and in the process tramples the pearls into the mud.

2:17 That's exactly the figure of speech Jesus is using. See, again, people don't like raw, earthy, barnyard illustrations. Well, you've got a problem with Jesus. He used them.

The Cultural Context of 'Swine'

2:29 He used them. He talked in a, in a Jewish context, the very word swine would make them get the goose bumps and want to barf.

2:37 Swine! Unclean animal! And in that context, Jesus said, Don't cast your pearls before swine. Lest they trample them underfoot and they turn again and rend you.

Children's Responsibility and Young Christian Zeal

2:50 Your children must learn that because they see a situation where moral wrong is being done or where it's obvious what one of their friends is going to do is stupid, it's unbiblical, it's unwise, it's self-destructive. They must learn that it is not their responsibility to be the Lord's chief high corrector of everybody in every set of circumstances at all times. Some of us as young Christians had to learn that. I marvel that I didn't get beat up or have my throat slit.

Personal Anecdote: Preaching in Bars

3:20 I used to go into bars as an 18-year-old kid, not to drink, but to go up to the bar stools with my Bible and tell people that their liquor would take them to hell. And I used to preach, I used to preach them into hell right into bars. Honestly, God preserves the simple.

3:38 And God took care of me because there were some pretty big dudes in those bars sometimes, but they were so shocked that this pimply-faced teenage kid would come in there and open up his Bible and preach to them. I think the Lord just stunned them into inactivity. But, you see, no one laid this text before me. Speak not in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

The Mandate to Learn and Teach This Truth

4:03 We must learn this truth and pass it on to our children.