In our text of Scripture tonight, you'll find in the latter half of verse number 15 of Proverbs chapter 13, it simply says, But the way of transgressors is hard. But the way of transgressors is hard. Now, God's Word is absolute truth. In other words, God's Word is a Word that demands man's deepest attention. his deepest consideration, his full respect, and indeed his full obedience, because God's Word is truth. Whenever it comes to man and man's thinking by nature, man's thinking by and large is contrary to God and contrary to the Word of God. You see, the thinking of man and indeed the principles of men, they focus only upon time and upon sense and upon what can be seen, as it were, with the human eye. Whereas whenever we come to God's Word, God's Word not only focuses upon time, it does do that, but much more than that. God's Word focuses upon eternity. God's Word, if you like, opens up the window and gives you and I, as it were, a view not only of time, but of the great issues of eternity that are to come after this world and after this scene of time. And here tonight in Proverbs chapter 13 and the verse number 15, if you look at that verse, you'll see how God's Word, it tells of two kinds of people in particular. The first group are those who are described as having a good understanding. It says, good understanding giveth favor. And that speaks to you and I of those who are wise unto salvation, those who have repented of their sin before God, those who have humbled their heart in the presence of God, those who have heeded the gospel message and have sought Christ. and have trusted Christ by faith and embraced him and have sacrificed and have shed blood as the only remedy for their sin and for their sin-sick soul. Indeed, that is how it was with Timothy of old. You remember how the apostle Paul spoke to him, and he said to Timothy that from a child, Thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which have made thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." And Timothy was one who had good understanding, and as a result of that, he was made wise unto salvation. He knew the favor of God and the favor of God's salvation in his soul. And again, it was so tonight, we can say also with the psalmist David. Remember David's testimony in Psalm 71, speaking to the Lord in verse 5 of that psalm. He says, for thou art my hope, O Lord God. Thou art my trust from my youth. And likewise, too, David was one who was wise even in his youth, who trusted the Lord, who sought the Lord for salvation. Yes, he was a young man with good understanding, as it is talked about here in our text this evening. Yes, that is the first group of people that is mentioned here in our text. But if you look again at the verse, and especially the words of our text tonight, you'll see that there's a second group of people that is also mentioned here. It says, but the way of transgressors is hard. And their mention is made of the transgressor before God. Who is the transgressor? The transgressor is the unrepentant sinner, the person who lives only for self and for sin, the person who lives in opposition to the Word of God and to the law of God, a person who in their life has no real concern about Christ and the commandments of God and the ways of God. When we think of that tonight, we can say, that Pharaoh of old was one such character in the day of Moses. Remember what he said in Exodus chapter 5? He says, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? He was a man who had no time for God, for the things of God or the things of Christ and the gospel. And that's the thinking of many tonight in our world. That's the mindset of multitudes in our society. Here, yes, and in a skill and county for men, and further afield. Yes, such things that this really is the life. Yes, such think that there's wonderful pleasure in sin, in iniquity, in ungodliness, and in rebellion to God. My, the desire of multitudes tonight is to go in a way that is completely contrary to God's Word, God's truth, God's gospel, and the commands of God. And my, such have no thought whatsoever of Christ. of the gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and such think this is the life, that this is really life, this is living life to the full. That's the mindset of many. Well, the Bible warns us and tells us that the pleasures of sin are but for a season, and such thinking is tragically wrong and is tragically mistaken. For notice what our text says. Notice what the Word of God says. It says, but the way of transgressors is hard. What a warning. That speaks to us that the way of sin is the way of tragedy. That's the reality here. It's a way of sorrow. It's a way of heartbreak. It's a way of tears. It's a way of shame. It's a way of destruction. It's a way of trouble. That's the true picture that has been painted here by God in our text when He says, the way of transgressors is hard. You look at how this chapter before us really opens that truth up many, many occasions throughout the chapter. You look there at verse number 5. Look at the latter part of verse 5 of the chapter. It says, A wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame. There you see how sin leads to shame. Again, look at verse number 6, the latter part of the verse. It says, But wickedness overthroweth the sinner. There's an overthrowing of the sinner's plans and schemes through their wickedness. The end of verse 9 says, the lamp of the wicked shall be put out. In other words, there's no light, there's darkness for the unconverted, for the sinner. Verse 13, it says, whose despise of the Word shall be destroyed. There's no hope for those that turn their back upon the Word of God. Verse 18, poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction. He that turns away from the instruction of God's Word, there's spiritual poverty and shame for them. Look at verse 21, it says, evil pursueth the sinners. There's no happiness and blessing in sin, no. Then right down in the very last verse at the end of verse 25, says, but the belly of the wicked shall want." In other words, sin leads to being robbed of blessing. In other words, sin leads to an emptiness, a barrenness in the heart and the life of the transgressor. And that's the outworking of sin. That's what God means when He says in our text, the way of the transgressor is hard. Perhaps there's one in our meeting tonight, and maybe your desire is only for self or sin or that which is contrary to God's Word. And maybe you think, well, this is the life, this is living life to the full, this is through happiness, this is through enjoyment. Friend, tonight be warned, the Bible says the pleasures of sin are only for a season. You're gravely mistaken. God is a solemn warning for you, should that be your thinking, your mindset tonight in our text, because he says the way of transgressors is hard. Yes, the way of the transgressor is not what it seems. You see, the devil's a great window dresser. He dresses up sin. He makes it look lovely in its appearance, puts on a veneer upon it, and says, Do this and do that. Do what I want you to do, and all will be well. This will be true happiness and true fulfillment of life. But that's not the reality. That's not what God says in His Word. He says, the way of the transgressor is hard. In other words, the way of sin, it leads to great tragedy. It leads to great trouble. It leads to great sorrow, yes, not only in this life, but in the next life. For that reason in particular, I want us then to look at this text tonight, where it speaks to you and I about the way of the transgressor. And there's three things in particular I want you to see from God's Word tonight as to why the way of the transgressor is hard. We can say first of all tonight that the way of the transgressor is hard because it is a way of bondage. You see, the transgressor is a person who is in bondage to his own sin. The Bible speaks of such in Romans chapter 6 verse 17, and it says, he is the servant of sin. In other words, he's under the bondage, the control, the dominion of sin. Speaking of man and his sin in the book of Proverbs chapter 5 verse 22, it says, his own iniquity shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin. In other words, the sinner, the transgressor is one who is trapped by his own sin. just like a fly that is caught in a spider's web that it cannot escape. And by the way of the transgressor, yes, it's hard because it's a way of bondage to sin. We can say further that the way of the transgressor not only is a way of bondage to sin, but it's also a way that is in bondage to Satan himself. Remember what Paul says regarding the unsaved in the book of 2 Timothy, he says, such are in the snare of the devil and taken captive by him at his will. They're in the devil's grasp, just like a rabbit that is caught in a gamekeeper's snare. They cannot escape. He cannot break free from the devil's grasp and hold upon his life. Dear friend, in our meeting tonight, let me say this, that if you are still unsaved, this is how it is with you before God this evening. Yes, sin and Satan are the masters of your life. That is how it is with all mankind who are unsaved. Turning your Bible over to Ephesians chapter 2, and you'll see this from what Paul says here, one of the great fundamental statements in the New Testament about man and his sin. Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 1, 2, and 3, he says, And you have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Rime time passed, he walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. That's another title for the devil. the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." That is man in a sinful state before God. He is dead in trespasses and in sins. He is under the control of the Prince of the power of the air. He is walking, as it were, according to the course of this world, a way of sin, a way that is contrary to God. Friend on sea, if that is how it is with you tonight in this Gospel meeting, you're dead in trespasses and sins. You're under the dominion of the Prince of the power of the air. You're walking and living according to the course of this ungodly word. And my, there's nothing of self, there is nothing of man that can break, as it were, the noose of sin that is about your life and the noose of Satan's control about your life. You cannot break free yourself. You see, that's man and his sin. That's why the way of the transgressor is hard. He's under the dominion of sin and Satan, and he cannot break free himself. And what a contrast then there is between the transgressor and the child of God, the believer in Christ, the person who has repented of their sin, the person who has trusted the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. The Bible shows you and I that the life of the Christian is one of liberty. Indeed, it is one of freedom. You see, the fetters of sin are broken in the life of the child of God. Remember what Paul says to the Christian in the book of Romans. He says, sin shall not have dominion over you. And the Christian is set free also from Satan's kingdom of darkness, and he has been delivered from that kingdom. He has been brought into the kingdom of God's marvelous light. You remember the words of Peter writing to God's people. He says that you should show forth the praises of him who have called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And this is the standing of every child of God. It is one of liberty brought out of the shackles of sin and brought out of the darkness of the kingdom of Satan and the great liberator for the Christian, and all of this is Christ. the crucified Christ, the risen Christ of God. He is the one that sets the captive free. You remember what the Lord Jesus Christ said about his own ministry while he was here on earth, speaking of his heavenly Father? He says, He hath sent me, he says, to preach deliverance to the captives. And my, by His death upon the cross of Calvary as a substitute for sinners when He suffered and bled and died, and by His glorious resurrection the third day from the grave, Christ is the one who sets the prisoner free, the captive free from sin and nature's night and the darkness of the kingdom of Satan. He is the great victor. He is the great liberator. Turning your Bible over to Hebrews chapter 2. And the verses 14 and 15, and you'll see this for yourself, Hebrews chapter 2 and verses 14 and 15. Here Paul is speaking to us about Christ, and he says, For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him," that's the devil, that have the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them, notice it, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. He has come to deliver, to emancipate the soul that is bound and dead and sinned in nature's night. by coming to this earth, by going to the cross, bearing upon himself the wrath of God, dying as our substitute, shedding his blood, and rising again the third day. My speaking of Christ, the Hymn writer says, Thou hast snapped my fetters. Thou hast made me free. Liberty and gladness I have found in thee. Liberty from bondage from my weary Lord, Satan's slave no longer. now a child of God." That's what they were rejoicing in because of Christ. Am I speaking to one in the meeting tonight, and you're tired with your sin? Am I your longing to break free from the servitude of sin and Satan in your life? Then, dear friend, in this desire, look by faith to Christ. Look by faith to the Son of God who died on the cross, who rose again. The Bible says, if the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. The Bible says the truth shall set you free, and Christ is but the embodiment of truth. He was God manifest in the flesh. He and He alone is the one who can set you free from the bondage and the tyranny of Satan and sin. It is Christ and Christ alone who is the great liberator. Yes, the way of the transgressor is hard because it's a way of bondage, bondage to sin, bondage to Satan. But we can say in the third place tonight in connection with our text that the way of the transgressor is hard because it is the way of unrest. It's the way of unrest. Turn with me in your Bible over to Isaiah chapter 57. Isaiah chapter 57, go right down to the last two verses of that chapter and you'll see what I mean when I say that the way of the transgressor is the way of unrest. Isaiah chapter 57 verse 20 and verse 21, it says, but the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace. saith my God to the wicked. You go down to the coast, be it down to Rosh Nilah, Bandor, or up to the north coast, whatever time of the year you go, the sea is never at rest. The tide is always ebbing and flowing. That's the picture here when Isaiah says, The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God to the wicked. Oh, the devil says there's peace, there's joy, there's happiness, there's pleasure, but not so, says God. God says there's no rest, there's no peace. There's unrest, there's trouble for the transgressor. We can say tonight, yes, that the transgressor of God's Word has no peace with God. That's what you see here. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. In other words, his life is at war with God. That's man on the sin, living in war with God. The Bible says the carnal mind is enmity against God. His life is one that displeases God, no matter who he is, no matter who she is. sinner's life, their sin, it grieves God. The Bible says God is angry with the wicked every day, and his sin or her sin, whoever their sin is, it separates them from God because God is holy. Prophet Habakkuk speaking to the Lord says, Thou canst not look in iniquity. Isaiah says, that your sins have hid His face from you. Sin separates man from God. It's a barrier between Him and God. The transgressor also of God's Word, not only does he live in a state of no peace with God, but he's no peace with himself. Irrespective of who he is or who she is, irrespective of their wealth, their education, their standing, their position, their religion, they have no peace with themselves. Their conscience, their heart, their mind is troubled underneath the veneer of the so-called pleasure of sin. You think tonight of King Belshazzar that you read about in Daniel chapter 5, one of the most powerful figures in Old Testament history. Yet he was a man given over to self and to sin, to drunkenness, desecration of the things of God, idolatry, and pride." And what does the Bible say about King Belshazzar? It says, his thoughts troubled him. You see, man has a conscience, a monitor that God has put in him, even from creation. And when he goes against God, he goes against the grain, so to speak. And his thoughts, his mind, his conscience troubles him. That's how it was with King Belshazzar. His thoughts troubled him, as sin troubled his mind. You remember also Lot the backslider. The Bible tells us he made a wrong choice in his life, and we're told that he pitched his tent towards Sodom. And what does the Bible tell you and I about Lot? It says, he vexed his righteous soul from day to day. His soul, his mind was vexed. It had no peace. It was overcome by unrest. Why? because he chose the way of the world, the way of sin, the way that was contrary to God. It was Bishop Ryle who said, of all trades, sin is the most unprofitable of trades in the world. He who swims in sin will sink in sorrow. Dear, unseen friend, realize tonight that there's no peace in sin. There is no peace with God living a life contrary to God. Dear backslider tonight, realize this. There's no peace, there's no happiness, there's no joy in walking contrary to God and His Word and His will for your life. That is why the way of the transgressor is hard, because there's no peace in it. There's no happiness there. It's full of unrest. What a difference then from the way of the true child of God. the person who is saved, the person who has their sins forgiven by faith in Christ's atoning blood, such, we're told, has peace with God. The Bible says, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Such, yes, have the friendship of God. They're reconciled with God. My, they know the peace of God passing all understanding, ruling, and reigning in their hearts. Paul, speaking of the believer, the child of God, he says, but now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. What an awful difference there is between the way of the transgressor and the way of the saved, and the way of the believer, and the way of the unbeliever. Are you turning your Bible back to Psalm 119? Psalm 119, and I want you to turn, please, to the verse 165, and look at what you read there in Psalm 119, verse 165. The first time this verse was ever drawn to my attention was many years ago. It was at the Kilodice Convention here in Enniskillen. Remember, too, missionaries speaking from Lebanon during the awful civil war, they were laboring there for God in the land of Lebanon. But remember well on that occasion, them speaking upon this verse, and this was their hope, their rock, their anchor, when there was trouble and death and destruction all around them as they sought to live for the Lord and serve the Lord. And the verse says, "'Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.'" That's the portion of the believer. I'm not saying tonight that the believer doesn't have trials. That's not the case. I'm not saying tonight that the believer doesn't have sorrows and heartaches. That is certainly not the case. But what the Bible says and what God says, there is peace for the believer, the child of God and knowing God because of the friendship of God and of the joy and the knowledge of sins forgiven. The Hamletter says, peace like a river is flooding my soul. Friend tonight, are you tired with sin? Maybe I'm speaking to a backslider tonight, and there's unrest in your heart and in your soul. Where do you find rest? In God, in the ways of God for your life, living for the Lord, seeking first the kingdom of God. The Lord says, come unto me, all ye that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. As the Hemrider says, there's rest where he won in the bosom of God. Step out of the promise, get under the blood. There's no rest, I tell you, in sin, in walking contrary to God and the ways of God and the Word of God. Notice one final thought tonight in connection with our text. We can say also that the way of the transgressor is the way of danger. You turn again over to Proverbs chapter 27. Proverbs chapter 27 and the verse number 1. Look at what that verse says, Proverbs 27 verse 1, it says, "'Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day can bring forth.'" And that verse reminds you and I that death can strike at any moment without warning. Therefore, for this reason, the transgressor The unsaved is in extreme danger, for if death strikes, he dies in a sin, and his soul will perish in hell forever. He'll be under the sentence of God's eternal wrath forever and ever, and hell and the lake of fire, where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched, where there is eternal weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Oh, the unconverted man, woman, young person, they're in a place of extreme danger. What an awful way it would be to leave this world unsaved and to be ushered out into God's eternity. In Revelation chapter 21 and the verse number 8, we read there of the end of the unsaved and eternity. It says, But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. This is the second death. Pray and not see if tonight heed the warning voice. If you die in your sin, and you could die at any moment without a moment's notice, then your soul will be forever lost and doomed and damned and separated from God forever and ever. But what a difference, I say, from the way of the Christian. My, the Bible says, the narrow way is the way which leadeth unto life. Yes, death can come for the Christian, for the child of God. But when death comes for the Christian, what happens to the believer? The Bible says, for the soul of the believer, it is absent from the body, present with the Lord. Paul spoke of his desire to depart this life to be with Christ, which is far better. The Bible says, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. They shall rest for their labors. There's eternal rest for the believer in heaven. You turn back there just a little bit to the book of the Psalms, to Psalm number 71 and the verse number 15. Look at what David says here about his hope. He says, to the Lord, as for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. There he was speaking of heaven. the glory of heaven, that eternal rest that awaited him. He says, I shall be satisfied and I shall awake with thy likeness. I will be like Christ, he says, in heaven, perfect in soul, indeed perfect in body. Yes, when the believer dies, their soul goes immediately to heaven. Their body is laid in the grave until the day of the great resurrection morning when Christ returns. And when Christ returns, the dead in Christ, the Bible says, shall rise first, and the body of the Christian will be made perfect like Christ, and their body and soul will be reunited in heaven and glory forever and ever, forevermore. The Bible says this mortality will put on immortality. This incorruptible will put on incorruptible. Jesus says, for God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." If you think about that, then think about the end of the unsaved, the end of the transgressor. Indeed, it was because of that view of the end of the unsaved that Paul said, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, it constrained him as a Christian to serve the Lord, to witness for Christ, to speak to others of the Lord Jesus Christ, mighty to save. Oh, that our hearts as believers would be stirred up when we think of the end of the transgressor, the end of the unsaved, to do what we can while we have health and strength to point them to Christ.