Season 3 Premier! | Liberty at Home

We are back. Season 3 starts now on Liberty

at Home. Welcome friends.

We're back from our summer hiatus to begin Season 3 of

Liberty at Home. I'm your host, Adam Rivera,

pastor the Liberty Baptist Church that meets on Route 138

here in town. Today, as always, we're

broadcasting from the cutting edge ECAT studios here in

Easton, a town whose Five Corners has undergone a

construction boom over the last three months.

We've been gone now since we've been away for a while.

For those of you that aren't familiar with our program,

Liberty at Home is a weekly program produced by our church

and broadcast by ECAP. Each week we take around 5

minutes or so to explore biblical truth and engaging,

encouraging, and sometimes eccentric way.

Last season we spent many of our episodes exploring the Proverbs,

which means that today we'll resume that study in Proverbs

Proverbs 26 · chapter mention

chapter 26. So read along with me Proverbs

26, beginning in verse one which says as snow in summer and as

rain and harvest. So honor is not seemly for a

fool. As the bird by wandering, as the

swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.

A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a Ron for the

fool's back. Answer not a fool according to

his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.

Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his

own conceit. Now I want to see if you were

really listening to what I just read.

Did it sound like a couple of verses maybe didn't make sense?

Like they didn't go together? Did you catch it?

OK, then let me read verses four and five again and see what you

think. Verse 4 says, Answer not a fool

according to his folly, lest thou be like also unto him.

Verse 5 says, Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he

be wise in his own conceit. Now you're definitely caught at

that time. At first glance, there's no way

these verses should go together. They're like oil and water,

ketchup and ice cream, pineapple and pizza, socks and sandals,

clowns and, well, everything. You get my point.

How can these verses go together?

One says to answer a fool according to their foolishness,

and the other says don't answer a fool according to his

foolishness. So which is right?

Listen, let's start with this thought.

There is neither a mistake nor contradiction in the Word of

God. The Bible is a holy book

inspired by the Holy Spirit and preserved through the ages.

So we can immediately discard any line of thinking that

suggests the Bible's mistaken Psalm.

Psalms 12 · chapter mention

Chapter 12. Verses 6 and seven say the words

of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in the furnace of

earth, purified 7 times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord,

Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.

So if these verses are correct, and they are, then what does it

all mean? Well, in my humble opinion,

these two verses linked together in Proverbs 26 teach one

unmistakable truth. When you argue with a fool,

you'll never win. Think about it.

I mean, hasn't that been your experience in life?

When someone is acting the fool and you're forced to see them in

the next room, the next cubicle, the next locker, or maybe even

in the next Pew, you're quite unlikely to convince them to

stop their foolishness. In fact, in the next chapter,

first number 22 says, though thou should US Bray a fool in a

mortar amongst wheat with a pestle, yet will not as

foolishness depart from him. Now Solomon says in that verse

that if you were to grind down a fool to a powder with a mortar

and a pestle to teach them a lesson, they still wouldn't give

up their foolishness. So what's a person to do when

they deal with a fool? Well, the answer is that your

first and foremost appeal should be to the Father, not to the

fool. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5

Matthew 5:44

verse 44 But I say unto you, love your enemies, and pray for

them, which despitefully use you, and persecute you.

James echoes the sentiment when he says in chapter 5 verse 16 of

his epistle, Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for

another, that he may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of

a righteous man availeth much. Make your first and most fervent

appeal to the Father, not the fool.

Trying on your own to get a fool to recognize their folly is as

much of A lost cause as trying to make a clown, well, less

creepy. I have to admit, it has been so

good to be back in the studio to record another episode of

Liberty at home. But it would be even better to

see you in church this Sunday. And not just any church,

preferably at Liberty Baptist Church.

We meet every Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night

on Route 138 right here in Easton.

You can find us on all the Socials podcast platforms as

well as at mylibertybaptist.org. Well, this Pastor Adam Rivero

signing off for this week's episode of Liberty at Home,

reminding you that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is

liberty. See you soon for our next

episode of Liberty at Home.