for your presence with us. Thank you for each person who puts his heart and soul into this worship time, the musicians, Duane and composing and picking the songs that we sing, the congregation for singing and lifting your praises. Thank you, Father, that every church of Jesus Christ is a kingdom of priests, is a gathering of priest believers, all of whom are bid to come into your very presence ourselves, not through human mediators, but through Jesus Christ, our great high priest. who's opened the way into your presence by his precious blood through the veil of his flesh. He's opened the way into the holy of holies for all who draw near to you through repentant faith in him. So now, fathers, we come to this time of crisis, this critical moment as we sit before your word, as you address us through the pages of scripture. Grant that we will hear what you'd say to each of us, that we will be instructed, guided, admonished, warned, encouraged that the full range of Scripture's ministry will bear fruit in our lives to the glory of God. In Jesus' name, Amen. We continue in Proverbs 3. We're in the second of three sections. This entire chapter is characterized by the theme of life. The life of God. Getting it. Living it. What it means to live a life in the wisdom of God. The kind of life that God calls us to. fullness of life, the life that He gives, the life that marks a child of God, to which the world, to which unbelievers are strangers. Existence is not life. Life in God's presence involves knowing God, involves God's presence, involves God's blessing. So in the first of these sections, last week, verses 1 through 9, the foundation was laid for this life in godly wisdom. A rich foundation. A godly father learns God's way and teaches God's way to his son. The son must hear and heed what his father teaches him. That life that we're taught about is ours as we gain and retain, as we pay the price, as we make the investment that it takes to gain and retain God's wisdom. So with that foundation laid by the first nine verses, now in verses 10 through 19, we're ready to get going. And I mean that very literally. Get going. Because as you see in this section, the language of the way predominates over and over again. I've bolded the verbs and the nouns that have to do with the way in my translation of this section for you. That's what the bolding is. The bolding is meant to highlight all the words that relate to walking along the way. You see the word way itself three times in verses 11, 14, 19. You see the word direct in verse 11, which very literally in Hebrew is one word, which means I make you walk the way. So the word way is built into that verb. You see roads in verse 11, walk in verse 12. Look at verse 12 again. You see step and run. Three times you find the verb stumble in verses 12, 16 and 19. You see, looking at your translation, the outline I've given you, you see the word path two times in verses 14 and 18. You look at verse 14, there's the word enter, there's the word advance. Then in verse 15, you see go on, you see turn aside. And then in verse 18, very literally, this phrase, giving more and more light in Hebrew is walking and giving light. So this language of walking away is just all through this section. Obviously, that is the image that God moves Solomon to hold before our minds. We'll see two ways, in fact. Now, this section is laid out very artfully in three subsections, if you will. And you can see this very plainly. The first four verses. are about the right way to walk in life. Verses 10 through 13. Look at your outline. Listen, my son, and receive my sayings that the years of life may be many for you in the way of wisdom. I instruct you. I direct you in the roads of uprightness. When you walk, your step will not be hampered. And if you run, you will not stumble. Grasp discipline. Do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life. That's the first section. Then the second section, again, is four verses. But these are about the wrong way to live, the wrong road to walk. Look at verse 14. In the path of wicked ones, do not enter and do not advance in the way of evil ones. Ignore it and do not go on it. Turn aside from it and go on. For they do not sleep if they do not harm, and they are robbed of sleep if they do not make someone stumble. For they feed on the bread of wickedness and the wine of violent acts they drink. Now, the third section is the last two verses, which are one verse each, summarizing each way. First, summarizing the way of the righteous, the way of wisdom. Second, summarizing the way of the wicked. Verse 18. So the path of righteous ones is as the bright light giving more and more light until the full day. The way of wicked ones is like gloom. They do not know over what they stumble. So four verses on the way of wisdom, four verses on the way of wickedness, and then one verse each summarizing those two ways. So let's just dive right in and hear what Solomon says to us. The first thing we see God moving him to talk to us about is to walk the way of wisdom, verses 10 through 13. That's the word that goes in that blank there. Encourage you to fill in those blanks. Encourage you to jot down thoughts that occur that you hear as we go along. My mother-in-law says the faintest ink is better than the strongest memory. It's a good way to help take this in and keep it, like he says to. In fact, letter A is taking it in, verses 10 and 11. As we walk the way of wisdom, the first thing that we're confronted with is the need to be taking it in. Taking it in, verses 10 and 11. Listen, my son, and receive my sayings, that the years of life may be many for you. In the way of wisdom I instruct you, I direct you in the roads of uprightness." First, let's just pick out the verbs. We see two actions that I, the son, must perform. What are those verbs? Well, first I must listen. He says, listen. Now, I remind you that any time we see the word listen in the Old Testament, as a rule, it's the same word, the same Hebrew word that is translated obey. They're not two different words. The nuance is to listen, not like a superior critic, not like a detached board observer. But as a soldier might listen to his commanding officer, as a subject might listen to his king, we listen as if our lives and the course of our lives depended on it, because indeed they do. So God calls us to listen, to obey, to listen as a servant, to listen as a respectful son should listen. And what's the second verb? He says, receive. Listen, my son, and receive my saying. So he is giving, but you can give and give and give and it won't do anybody any good if the person doesn't receive what's being given. And so here I'm called to take what God gives me. to make it mine, to take possession of it. He gives it. I've got to receive it. Then notice three actions that the father performs, three actions the father must perform. The first is handed out in the word sayings. Verse 10 says, Listen, my son and receive my saying. So the first action is that the father speaks. He says things that he means to be heard. When he speaks, he speaks with the intent that he be heard. With the intent. How many parents have said, hey, I'm not just talking to hear my own voice. Well, if it's true of earthly parents, how much truer is it of our Heavenly Father? He doesn't speak to hear the sound of His own voice. He speaks to be heard. It's a good thing to teach your children when they're very, very young. There's all sorts of voices they can tune out. Well, there's all sorts of voices they should tune out. They can tune out the TV. They can tune out the radio. They can tune out their friends. But boy, if they hear Dad's voice, if they hear Mom's voice, that's the voice they had better learn to listen to. If it's true of our children, how much truer is it of us in regard to our Heavenly Father? When in His written, abiding, inerrant written Word, He speaks to us, we need to listen to His sayings. He speaks to be heard. The Bible is there for us to listen to. So He speaks. Secondly, He instructs. Verse 11 says, In the way of wisdom I instruct you. That's a very interesting verb. Yara is the is the root and it's the same root that the word Torah comes from the word for law So law is instruction, instruction is law. When it says that he instructs us, in the way of wisdom I instruct you, he's not just sharing, he's not venting, he's not just chatting and throwing a few ideas around to see what you think. He's teaching us, he's laying down the law. His instruction is authoritative instruction. It points out the way. That also is a nuance of this verb, to point out the way. And his instruction points out the way it lays down the law. There's a power and authority to what he's saying. We need to listen to it as we listen to the law of authority that we respect. He speaks, he instructs. Third, he directs. He directs. I direct you in the roads of uprightness. I direct you. As I point out in the footnote, this word, Hebrew builds a lot into individual words, often proverbs, that each verse is only six or seven words long, even though we translate it with 12, 15 English words. This is just one word, Hidratika, and what it means is, I make you walk the way. I cause you to walk the way. And the nuance there is that he doesn't just speak for us to take in ideas, but he speaks with the intent that we live it out. It's not just a matter of becoming acquainted with concepts that we never translate into actions. The intent is a practical outcome, that he shows us the way we should walk. There is no way to walk in theory. By definition, walking is practical. You can't walk in theory. You've got to get your feet moving in order to walk. And so this verb walking, I cause you to walk in the way, is the idea that we need to live out what God teaches us. There's a practical impact to what He teaches us. The son is meant to live out what his father teaches him, not just hear ideas and go on unchanged. Let's talk about what we learn when we put these ideas together. And they teach us something about pedagogy. They teach us something about the theory of teaching, the theory of education. You know, if you've ever been a teacher or studied about teaching, you know that there are many different theories of education. And certainly, if you've read books on parenting, you've seen that there are many theories about education. And what we need to understand is there is no such thing as a values-free pedagogy. Every theory of education rests on a worldview. Every theory of education rests on a way of looking at life. So, of course, if somebody's worldview is that there is no God, there are no absolutes, there are no transcendent truths outside of me, well, then what can a father do? At best, a father can share anecdotes and opinions, right? If there's no absolute truth, what does a father have? This happened to me, then this happened to me. And this is the conclusion I drew from those things that happened to me. And that's all he's got. He's got nothing that has any authority. He's got nothing transcendent. You know, everything he says, he needs to put YMMV after it. You know, your mileage may vary because it's all relative. There is no absolute. But if you believe that there is a living God and that that living God has a will as to what is right and what is wrong, that that living God speaks as to what is true and what is false. Everything changes, literally everything changes. And our theory of education has to change too, if our worldview changes. The thing is that a hostile alien pedagogy has overtaken public education and parenting as well. Right now I'm just flashing on when one of our children was in fourth grade, we saw something that this child had written and it was just, filled with misspellings. And we said something to the teacher. This child was in public school at the time, coming towards the end of our public school time for reasons like this. We mentioned our concern that there were all these uncorrected misspellings. And the teacher said, I suppose if you want, I could make her write it the way it is in the dictionary. Yeah, we kind of did. You know, we kind of did want our kids to learn how to spell words the way they actually were spelled. But that it was not her, though she was a professed Christian, that was not her theory of education. Valerie and I will never forget this, I'm sure, as long as we have a memory. I was preaching at a church 25, 26 years ago that was kind of an unusual church in many ways. And one of the ways it was unusual is the whole family was in the service and kids were crawling all around the floor. And people, because of the usual preacher's theory of preaching, most people didn't even bring their Bibles because he wasn't going to teach them out of the Bible necessarily. He felt he was guided by the Holy Spirit to say what he was going to say. You're wondering, how did I ever get asked to preach there? Well, that's another interesting story. But so I was preaching and here are these kids wandering around and here are these women knitting. You know, I was trying to preach the word of God from John, chapter eight. And in this church, they had a question answer period after the sermon. And what I said was offensive to a number of people there. I said, I said, Christians should learn the word of God. And this is offensive to some people. And one woman was particularly offended because of the implications for teaching her children. And like I said, Valerie and I will never forget this. She said she's a professing Christian, and she said that she believed that the parents role was to provide a nurturing environment and let the children find their own way. So, Valerie and I immediately thought, yeah, I know how that'll end. I know how that'll end because the book of Proverbs says how it'll end. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. The rod of discipline removes it far from him. Well, how dare you impose a rod of discipline if there's not such a thing as right and wrong and true and false? And of course, that is the foundation of the Christian worldview and of Christian pedagogy, whether it's in a classroom, whether it's in church, whether it's in the family. Some things are true. Some things are false. Some things are wrong. Some things are right. And God gives us the responsibility of knowing them and of teaching them. And that's the father's responsibility. He's got to learn God's word for himself. And then when it comes to his children, he's got to teach God's word to them. Receive my sayings, listen up. And now notice the four nouns in these two verses, verses 10 and 11. If you didn't bring a pen or a pencil, there should be one in the rack in front of you. There are four in this section. He says, listen, my son, receive my sayings. So sayings, well, you know, some philosophies deny that words have meaning. But the Bible from its first verse rests on the assumption that words have meaning. God created by words. God invented language. God made words adequate as conveyors of meaning. So they not only convey meaning, but secondly they convey life. He says, receive my sayings that the years of life may be many for you. Well, this doesn't merely mean that you may exist lots of years and then die, as we saw in Ecclesiastes in Sunday School. Wicked people can live a long life, and that's not what he's talking about. What he's saying is that the years you have will be filled with life. That the years you have will be many years filled with life, with what God calls life. Now, when we think of what real life is, we shouldn't think of a Budweiser commercial. We should think of what Scripture says. Real life is knowing God. Real life is fearing God. Real life is a relationship with God that involves learning of Him and walking His way, having His blessing, knowing His joy, knowing the hope, knowing His forgiveness. This is real life. And it's His words that bring us life. You say, can words bring life? No Christian should doubt that. What does Jesus say in John 5.24? In John 5.24, Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in him who sent me does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. by hearing the Word of Jesus and believing in the God who gives Him that Word to speak. Or Jesus says again in John 6.63, it is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh is of no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life. not merely in giving us the beginning of life, but in continuing our life. We nourish ourselves on the words of Jesus because they are spirit and they are life. A fourth noun in verse 11, in the way of wisdom I instruct you. Wisdom. What is wisdom? Wisdom is skill in living in the fear of God. Wisdom is skill in living in the fear of God. It is practical knowledge for how to live out a God-fearing heart. So that's what He teaches us. He teaches us wisdom. And finally, verse 11b, I direct you in the roads of uprightness. This word uprightness, actually, I should translate this in straight roads, because that's what upright means. It means straight. And so once again, the image is that God's will lays out a straight, moral, spiritual path for me, and I'm taught to walk that straight path. Because remember, the words crooked, the words deviant, the words perverse, that describes people who don't live in the fear of God. They deviate from His road. They swerve off it and careen across it, going their own way towards destruction. But God teaches us, and our godly fathers should teach us, how to walk roads of uprightness. Taking in life in the way of wisdom involves hearing and receiving God's word. That's what it means to take in this life. Letter B. What about living it out? Living it out. Letter B. When you walk, your step will not be hampered. And if you run, you will not stumble. So what will this provide for us as we're living it out? Two blessings. First, it provides a road I can walk. A road that's straight, smooth, unhampered. What does it say? When you walk, your step will not be hampered. Now, I hasten to clarify that when I talk about a straight, smooth road, I don't mean that a road that has no difficulties. I don't mean a road that has no challenges. That's not what scripture teaches and any seasoned saint would quickly correct me if I gave the impression that the Christian life was a smooth, easy life. No, what he means by your step will not be hampered is the sense that the way will be clear and sure and stable and safe for us if we walk it. For instance, let's think in practical terms. Let's suppose I'm a young man and I've got the desire to have money. I know that I need to have money. I want to be able to be independent. I want to be able to support myself. I need money. Well, what way do I walk to get that money? If I don't fear God, and I follow my heart, and I follow the way of the world, then I've got a number of options for how to get money. Perhaps I will rob people who have a job and I'll steal their money. Or I'll steal their property and sell it. Or perhaps I'll commit murder to take things. Or perhaps I'll live a life of deception, trying to fool people out of their money. Selling products I know don't work and making people spend more than what I'm selling is worth. Making promises that I don't deliver on. Or maybe I'll choose the path of sloth. I'll try to find a way to be dependent on other people and working people. Make them work and give me their money so that I can live a life of sloth and sluggardliness. And as to the whole idea of money, well, my idea of enough is going to be a sliding scale because money is going to be my life and enough is never going to be enough. Well, that is the way that I would work if I walked my own way out of the fear of God following my own heart. But suppose I were to take God's word to heart. Suppose I were to fear God, receive his words, and listen so as to obey. Then what will I do as a young man? As a young man, I will know that other things being equal, he wants me to learn a valuable skill that is worth something to other people. He wants me, as a young man, to get really good at this skill, with practice and devotion, thinking ahead. He wants me to work really hard at it, as my parents encouraged me and helped me to learn and take in that skill. And he wants me, when I become an adult, a young adult, he wants me to work really hard at it, earn a good reputation for being very good at it, so that what I do is worth something. The people are willing to give money, and it's fair for them to give money for this service, or this product, or this whatever it is that I can do. And then I look at my money in a godly way, and I put God first in the way that I spend it, and I put God first in the way I think about it. That's the path I'm going to walk if I walk in the fear of God. Now, is that a smooth, straight road? In the sense that it's plain, clear, and walkable? Absolutely. However, it's a very challenging road. It's a ricorous road. It's a road that demands that I think ahead, that I make plans and that I work hard. So it's not a water slide, an amusement park, but it is a straight road to walk. What about this guy's road? What about the first guy's road? He has to keep his lies straight. He constantly has to be looking over his shoulders to see if somebody he's ripped off is about to get him, to see if the hand of the law is about to clap down on him. He lives in fear and guilt, and in his heart he knows that the judgment of God is coming. He lives a haunted existence on the goods and the products of others. That's a crooked road. That's a rough road. It may be easy in the sense that he makes lazy, foolish choices, but it's got a hard, hard end and a bumpy, bumpy path. So you see the difference between the two. The way of God's wisdom, that kind of life, is a direct, walkable road where my steps will not be hampered. Secondly, we learn a preventative truth that wisdom is to be learned and lived. Because he tells us to learn and live wisdom. Now, as is often the case, there's two extremes, and they're both equally false. There's the extreme of the person who likes to learn ideas, but learns them in a detached way as an observer, never intending to do anything about them, unless maybe it's to tell other people that they ought to do them. And then there's the other person who's all about practice, who says that, I don't want to be bothered with doctrine. Doctrine divides. Don't teach me doctrine. I just want to know what to do. Well, of course, these are both errors. And you see that in the text of scripture right here, where he says what he's teaching us how to walk. Right? You see, the two things like this, wedded together. He teaches us so as to walk. We must learn the doctrine He teaches, but learn it with an ear given to connect it to our shoe leather and put it into practice. God teaches us what and how to think, and how we think determines how we live. We'll see next week, Lord willing, in verse 23. Keep watch over your heart, because from it flow the springs of life. What I value, how I think, how I make decisions determines how I live. You can't divorce the two. You need to learn God's word and God's word is meant to be put into practice. So that's what it will present for me. What will it preclude? Well, what will it prevent? Well, first of all, it will prevent a hampered walk. This is the picture of a walk that's cramped, that's impeded. It's not a broad trail. It's a narrow little trail with a steep drop off on the edge. That's a hampered walk, hard to walk. What sorts of things cramp my walk? I can think of two things that would cramp my walk, that would hamper my walk. One, frankly, perhaps we don't think enough about, is ignorance of God's will. I don't know what scripture teaches. Here's my marriage. Here's my kids. Here's my job. Here's my church. What does the Bible say I should think about those things? No idea. Never taken the time. Never made the investment. Never sat down and sweated it through out of Scripture. So I don't know. That makes a hampered walk. So if I have an opportunity to serve God, I may not even see that I have an opportunity, let alone know what to do with it. That's going to hamper my walk. I don't know what God wants. Another thing, a second thing that can hamper my walk is the consequences of sin. We can have sin forgiven and still have consequences. So here's a child who all his life has heard the word of God, taught and read to him, has been taught that he needs to learn discipline, learn to devote himself, learn a trade, like I said earlier, a useful skill. But he doesn't do that. He spends his whole childhood reading science fiction, like I did when I was a kid. That's why I pulled that one out. Before I was a Christian, that's all I did. Watch cartoons, read science fiction when I was a little kid. And he spends his time playing video games and playing with his friends and doing everything. Then suddenly he's an adult. He's got no useful skill. He's got nothing that people want to pay any money for. What are his choices? Well, you know the joke. His choices are learning to say, do you want fries with that? or making his own cardboard sign to hold up at street corners. Those are his choices. You see the consequences of his sin of wasting his childhood apart from the fear of God really hampers his walk as an adult or making a foolish ungodly marriage choice can be something that we live with and hampers our life or Drugs, drunkenness, wild living, living in gangs. These things, these are sinful ways that may make consequences that can't be just shrugged off, that hamper our life. Consequences of sin. So as I take in God's wisdom, I broaden and smooth my path and it precludes that kind of hampered walk. Or a stumbling run. Solomon also says that you will run and not stumble. The run, you know, that presents an opportunity where I really can get going. I can really come up to speed. The road opens up before me. And if I've learned to walk God's way, I can run with confidence. I can handle this. I've got God's guidance in my heart. I've got His word in my heart. I've memorized it. I've studied it. I've learned it. I've worked it out in smaller ways. Now the run opens up before me and I'm ready to run because God's trained me, because I've been discipled. But if we haven't paid those bills and the opportunity opens up, we're not ready for it. I think of young men who trick their way into a very large church and what shipwreck they can make when they haven't grown to that ministry and paid the price of discipleship. Or men and women move out of home. They've got a nice job and all sorts of money. What do they do now? Well, if they haven't learned God's word, they don't know what to do. They're not ready to make everything of those of those opportunities that have now come their way. They're not ready to run. So this is all about getting God's wisdom, living out God's wisdom. But let her see, keeping it is just as important as the first two. Verse 13, keeping it. Keeping it. Grasp the discipline, do not let go, guard her. for she is your life. Now, notice how this actually closes the stanza of verses 10 and 13. See how similar verses 10 and 13 are. Both of them have appeals to the Son to listen up and get a hold. Verse 10 says, Listen, my son, and receive my sayings. Verse 13 says, Grasp discipline, do not let go, guard her. So you see, they're both appeals to listen up and get a hold of it. And notice that they both end talking about life. Verse 10 says that the years of your life may be many for you. Verse 13 says guard her for she is your life. So this sort of brackets this section. But notice the difference between verses 10 and 13. Notice how he escalates his plea. He escalates his plea. Verse 10 has two verbs. Verse 13 has three verbs. Verse 10 says, look at it, it's down on your page there. Verse 10 says, listen and receive, but verse 13 says, grasp, do not let go, guard. So first he says to get it, and second he says, put everything you got into keeping it, into keeping a hold of it, retaining it. So this teaches us, I think, at least four truths. And he means it to be very earnest. Notice the lack of conjunctions in verse 13. It's staccato. It's like rats on a door, on a drum. He says, grasp discipline. Do not let go. Guard her. Bam, bam, bam. Very urgent plea. Communicates at least four truths. The first is, there is no scriptural doctrine of once wise, always wise. Now, hear what I'm echoing. The doctrine of once saved, always saved. Well, maybe, maybe not. But there is no scriptural doctrine of once wise, always wise. In other words, there is no biblical teaching that just because someone receives some wisdom and makes some progress, then he's all done. He's there. He's arrived. He doesn't need to put any effort into anything. No. All we need to do is look at Solomon, right? To be instructed in the fact that a wise start does not automatically mean a wise end. It takes effort, it takes retention, it takes keeping it alive. Like most skills, it takes keeping it current. So there is no once wise, always wise. It takes effort to keep it current and alive. Secondly, Continuing to enjoy the life of God requires continued learning, remembering, retaining. Now, we're not talking about getting saved or staying saved. We're talking about the quality of our life, the spiritual Godward orientation of our life and our growth and maturity. The continuing to enjoy the life, to live that life out. To prove it in my experience takes continued learning, continued retaining, continued progress. Thirdly, the responsibility is all mine. The responsibility is all mine. What do I mean? Well, plainly, the father pleads with the son to do it. He doesn't offer to do it for him. He can't do it for him. He can't receive his sayings for the Son. He can't hold on to his sayings for the Son. He already knows his sayings. It's the Son who needs to do it. And so likewise, God won't memorize his word for us. God won't review his word for us. God won't obey his word for us. He bids us to learn it and put it into practice. No friend, no child, no spouse, no pastor can do this for us. If we don't invest ourselves, then we will not progress. The life that we're given to enjoy is ours to enjoy. And so the effort to cultivate that life is also ours to do. The responsibility is all ours. However, God enables us. He does not do it for us or instead of us. Fourth, the quality of life depends on the quality of teaching and learning. Quality of life depends on the quality of teaching and learning. Just think it through. If we don't hear God's wisdom, then we won't experience the life he calls us to. But having heard it, if we don't hear it and learn it, then we won't experience the quality of life he calls us to. And if we don't hear it and learn it and retain it, we won't continue to experience the quality of life he calls us to. The quality of life depends on the quality of teaching and learning. So having laid out God's plan for enjoying a wise life, Solomon turns to plead with us to avoid the path of the wicked, verses 14 through 17. Roman numeral 2, avoid the path of the wicked. In the first two verses, verses 14 and 15, we see a plea to avoid this path. In the path of wicked ones, do not enter and do not advance in the way of evil ones. Ignore it. Do not go on it. Turn aside from it and go on. Do you see how urgent that language is? There's two verbs in v. 14. There's three verbs in v. 15. He escalates it. And notice how, again, there's no conjunction in v. 15. There's no and, and, and. He just staccato wraps out these pleas. Ignore it. Do not go on it. Turn aside from it. See? Very urgent. And notice he says first in v. 14, don't even start. Don't enter it. The simplest way to quit doing something is never to start it in the first place. Amen? Simplest way to quit smoking? Never take that first cigarette. Never take the first cigarette. Then quitting is easy because you never started. And he says that about the way of the wicked. Don't even enter. Don't even start down that path. And then he says, if you find you have started it, well, don't keep going. Verse 14b, don't advance. And then he says, don't show any curiosity about it. Don't even let it niggle at your curiosity. Verse 15, ignore it, he says. And then he says, don't traverse it. Don't go on it. In fact, instead of that, swerve aside and keep moving. Verse 15 again. The only safe way to avoid getting tangled up in something bad is not to get started in the first place. As some of you will remember, maybe from Alexander Pope's poem, he says, talking about vice, about immorality, about evil. He says, vice is a monster of so frightful mean. He means appearance looks so frightful. Vice is a monster of so frightful mean as to be hated needs but to be seen yet seen too oft familiar with her face. We first endure. then pity, then embrace. That's the buckling of moral resistance. And then maybe some of you a little bit younger but still older than many will remember the album from the Doobie Brothers whose title was What Once Were Vices Are Now Habits. What once were vices are now habits. Yes, that is the sad retrogression from resistance to curiosity, to familiarity, to tolerance, to sympathy, to embrace. And Solomon says there's a step beyond that. Beyond embrace comes addiction. We'll come to that in just a moment. But just remember, every devotee started out as a dabbler. And he says, don't dabble. Now, notice the language. The language is the language of behavior primarily. So he's saying, don't act like they act. Don't choose like they choose. Don't live like they live. Don't engage in their irreverence, their theft, their immorality. But never forget, behavior starts in the mind. Doesn't Jesus surely teach us that in the Sermon on the Mount, that adultery, that hatred, These are acts that can be committed without moving a finger. You remember hearing Jesus say that in the Sermon on the Mount? So Jesus doesn't allow us to make a great chasm between desiring a thing and doing the thing. Between playing it out in our hearts and living it out in our lives. Everyone whose feet have strayed first strayed in heart. And remember, when you hear someone say it doesn't hurt to look, yeah, maybe, but what hurts usually starts with a look. Usually starts with a look. So that means I've got to bring my heart under the lordship of God and not just my feet. Reasons for avoiding in verses 16 and 17, he says, for they do not sleep if they do not harm. And they are robbed of sleep if they do not make someone stumble. For they feed on the bread of wickedness and the wine of violent acts they drink. But two axioms seem to come into play here. The first is the familiar law of diminishing returns. Bruce Waltke, Old Testament scholar, calls these people evil holics, evil holics. Quote, they are so addicted to evil that has become their sedative by night and their food and drink by day. I remember a friend of mine who the Lord saved from a life of of drunkenness and drug use. And he said that the first time he used cocaine was like going to heaven. Every time after that was trying to have that first experience again. And it took more and more and more. That's the path of evil. It's not a path of greater and greater satisfaction. It's a it's a path where you see the law of diminishing returns. Look at what this what he likens these things to. He likens it to bread and wine. Well, in the Bible, bread and wine are good things. They symbolize life and joy. but they're using evil means to get these good things. Something we've got to understand about sin. People don't plunge into a life of sin with the hope of being doomed and miserable and guilty. They plunge into a life of sin because they think it's going to make them happy. And it doesn't matter how foolish the lifestyle you're looking at, whether it's a life of crime or of drug abuse or of immorality, of idiotic act after idiotic act, of people in mental wards, it doesn't matter. People are doing this because they think it's going to make them happy. That's the way we're wired. And it leads to an addiction. Derek Kidner, another Old Testament scholar, says, there's more than irony in this picture of upside down morality, where wickedness has become meat and drink and even duty. It is a warning against setting foot on a path which one might think adventurous and diverting, for it can lead as far as this. The Bible does not hide the fact that one can become as zealous for evil as for good. So this is why it's important for us to understand the power in the gospel in the good news about Jesus isn't just that it's true news, although it is true news. But the power of the gospel is that it's good news, that it's really good news. that by knowing Jesus, we can have our sins forgiven. We can be reconciled to God. We can have our guilt dealt with. We can have our dread of the future dealt with and replaced by joy and by hope and our darkness replaced by light. The gospel is good news. It's the real way to become happy as opposed to sins, false promises, and addictive ends. So that's one truth that we see here, the law of diminishing, one axiom, the law of diminishing returns. And the second one, I'm going to take a variance on a common phrase. We say misery loves company. I would say misery doesn't just love company, it insists on it. Where do we see that? We see that in these words, they do not sleep if they do not harm, and they're robbed of sleep if they do not make someone stumble. Sin has an uneasy guilty conscience. Evil has an uneasy, guilty conscience. We suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness, not because we don't know it, but because we don't like it, because we don't want it. And so the person who's doing this knows in his heart that he deserves the judgment of God. So how does he whistle past the graveyard? Well, he distracts himself. He fills his life with entertainment, but also he wins converts. And especially if he can win converts from among the religious. Well, all the better if he can make someone stumble. Well, witness Satan in Genesis chapter three out the first bad evangelist. bearer of bad tidings, trying to win Adam and Eve over to his way, even though he's under God's dooming judgment. But look at atheists today. What are they offering? They come to Christians who have life and purpose and moral absolutes and a future, and they come saying that it's much better to have their nothing than our something. No life, no future, no meaning, no basis to anything, just impulse. But that's better. Why, if atheism is true, why are they so eager to win converts? What difference does it make if everything is just matter in motion to try to persuade people to leave a religion? Well, it's because misery doesn't just love company. It insists on it. It finds a false validation. by making others stumble. And notice, too, that the future is not even spelled out. The rest of Proverbs makes it plain where this path leads. But here's what we see here. We see restlessness. They can't sleep unless they're doing harm. We see malice that they mean others evil. We see joylessness. They're not living a happy life. They're living a driven, miserable life. That's the life of the person who won't walk in the fear and wisdom of God. So finally, verses 18 and 19, weigh the waves. W-E-I-G-H. Weigh the ways. That's what these last two verses enable us to do. To weigh the ways. To get the weight of these two ways. First of all, just as he'd just gone first the path of the righteous and the path of the wicked. So first he talks about the paths of the righteous. He says the path of righteous ones is as the bright light giving more and more light until the full day. The first thing we see here, then, is the path of the upright progresses. That path progresses. It isn't instant. It isn't a finger snap or a nose wiggle. It's a progress. It goes on and on and increases. Conversion is instantaneous. A person passes from death to life in an instance. But spiritual growth, spiritual maturity, fruit bearing is not instantaneous. It's a path. He says it's like the bright light giving more and more light until the full day. This goes right along with what we see in the New Testament. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3.18, And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, what does he say, from one degree of glory. to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Spiritual growth is progressive. 1 Peter 2, verse 2. Peter says, like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation. Long for the milk that you may grow in respect to salvation. So I would say to any Christian brother, any Christian sister, don't be discouraged because you're not there yet. You've been a Christian for a whole year. You've been a Christian for a whole decade. You've been a Christian for a whole 40 years. And you're not there yet. Don't be discouraged. None of us is. None of us in this life is there yet or we wouldn't be here anymore if we were there. Don't be discouraged if you're not there yet. But if you're not growing, if you're not growing closer to God, growing in the depth of your grasp of God's word, then do be concerned. That is something to be concerned about. The writer of the Hebrews was so concerned about it that he wrote some of the scariest words in scripture. Y'all know Hebrews chapter six that talks about those once once enlightened can't be renewed. Read the end of chapter five. What made him think about that was people who ought to be able to teach God's word, but still needed the ABC is spelled out for them. If there's no growth, that is something to be concerned about, but not arriving. None of us has. So first, the path of the righteous progresses. Secondly, the end is gloriously bright. brighter and brighter until the full light of day." So light makes us think of God, because God is the light. In His light, we see life. God is light. There's no darkness at all. And when God manifests His glory, Old and New Testament alike, it's like brilliant light, brighter than the sun. So light makes you think about God. And as a person grows spiritually, he grows closer to God, closer to the light of God. In his way, his life is filled with more light. And then eventually there's the full light of day in the presence of God. The Christians have more fun later. That wouldn't make a bad bumper sticker. Christians have more fun later, ultimately in eternity. It may not be my best life now, but it is my best eternity starting now. more and more light until the light of God's very presence. And in fact, if I'm walking with God, the sorrows and the trials of life just add to this. They just enhance the eventual glory. Am I making that up? Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, 17 and 18, for this light, momentary affliction, Now just sometime look at Paul's life and see what he's calling light momentary affliction. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. The afflictions of life make for greater glory in eternity. That's the way of the righteous. But secondly, he ends with the way of the wicked. And so shall we. Verse 19. The way of wicked ones is like the loom. They do not know over what they stumble. Now notice that stumble, if you want a fancy word, it's an epistrophe, not apostrophe, but an epistrophe. What an epistrophe is, is it's a phrase that recurs at the end of a clause or the end of a stanza. And so does stumble here in Proverbs chapter four. Let me show you. You've got my translation there. Look at verses 12, 16 and 19 and how each verse ends. Verse 12 ends, If you run, you will not stumble. Verse 16 ends, they're robbed of sleep if they do not make someone stumble. And verse 19 says, they do not know over what they stumble. Now there's an intentional progression there. Verse 12 teaches us, heed God's wisdom and you won't stumble. But then verse 16 teaches us an evil person can't even sleep if he doesn't make someone else stumble. And then verse 19 gives us their eventual end, that they stumble and don't even know why. Don't even know why. So if light makes us think of the presence of God, of being close to God, then what should gloom make us think of? The absence of God. Not enjoying God. Not loving God. It's the absence of God's truth. It's the absence of God's wisdom. It's the drowning, muddy flood of human folly and human delusion. That's the gloom that is the way of the wicked. It's the loss of God's approval. It's the certainty of God's judgment and of eventual doom. That's what gloom is. And so the result is a life full of miseries, broken relationships, lost jobs, a criminal record, A hopeless present without a clue as to why. I bet every Christian has cared about someone like that. Every Christian, let's say over the age of 25, has cared for someone like that. Someone who keeps having miserable things happen and doesn't know why. Why does this keep happening to me? And you look and you know exactly why. It's because that person won't bow his knee to the lordship of God. Because that person won't repent and humble himself to learn and walk God's ways. He insists on walking his way. And so he knows heartache after heartache, tragedy after tragedy caused by his own folly. He doesn't even know, Solomon says, what he's stumbling over. So the whole problem is that we don't want God. So we don't look at his word. So we follow our heart. because it looks good to our eyes, but the end is the way of destruction. So in sum, we're all in motion, we're all on one path or another headed for one destination or another. But which path and which destination? We see here that Solomon does what he does throughout the book. The world, the flesh and the devil all say to us, look, Just, what do you feel like doing now? Do that. What don't you feel like doing now? Well, don't do that. Don't worry about where this is going to lead. Don't worry about where this is going to go. You know what you want to do. Just do it. That's what the world, the flesh, and the devil say. But what Solomon constantly says is, let me make you think about where this is going. That if you decide, think, live this way, here is where that road ends and what kind of road it is. Fearing God and walking with Him leads into greater and greater light and joy. Snubbing God and ignoring Him means dark gloom, stumbling, never an improvement because you don't even know why you're stumbling. So if we fear God and believe in his son, we're called to a way of wisdom, a way that's fullness of life and God's blessing. Prospects are bright. God's blessings and guidance now, God's radiant glory and presence for eternity. But if we walk our own way, follow our own heart, we chart our own course, then satisfaction and joy or illusions at best will crave distraction to drown out the constant howl of misery and of conscience. And our end will be dark and hopeless. So what is the Bible word for realizing that I am on the wrong path and crying out to God for mercy? to put me on the right path. Repent. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the clarity and power of your word, how you tell us what we wouldn't know apart from your revelation. And thank you for laying out a way of wisdom that's a way of your blessing and of your goodness, that though it lead through hardship in this life, through many tribulations, yet it does lead us to the kingdom of God. It ends up in the kingdom of the son of your love. We thank you for that encouragement. And Father, we thank you for the warning to avoid the way of the wicked. We pray that we will all take it to heart, that we as your children will take it to heart, and pray for any who's come in not knowing you, that you'll move that person, that man, that woman, that child to repent, to believe in the Lord Jesus, to start walking in the way of your blessing, of your life, and of your wisdom. And Father, how we depend on your grace and your goodness for these things. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.