Proverbs 4: Turn Your Foot From Evil

Okay, we're continuing in our series on Proverbs, and just a couple very quick review statements. Remember that Proverbs is wisdom literature, which means that it is to be approached in a different sense than most of the rest of Scripture.

The purpose of the book is to make one wise. Also, let me just remind you that in Proverbs, wisdom and foolishness is not an intellectual decision or an intellectual difference, it's a moral one. Wisdom is the ability to handle life with skill, and Proverbs addresses all areas of life, but in a very practical manner.

Proverbs as Wisdom Literature and the Moral Nature of Wisdom

Alright, this morning we're going to examine the two paths of life, very typical teaching throughout Scripture, but especially in the book of Proverbs. So, we've got a whole chapter this morning that we're going to read, because it is germane.

Let me just remind you again, for those who may have forgotten or didn't know it in the first place, Proverbs is different in general in how it's presented to us in that it's a collection of pithy sayings or adages or things of that nature, and it's very difficult to outline it or even to show how in one chapter you might have several different themes.

That being said, the first couple of chapters are definitely thematic, so we're still in chapter four, and this whole chapter is one basic theme, alright? That's why we're reading through a whole chapter.

Later on, when we get like to chapter ten and all, you'll see that there might be 30, 40 verses, and each verse is different than the one before it. It's intended to be that way, but that's why we're reading through an entire chapter this morning.

Here are son's instructions of a father, and give attention that you may gain understanding. For I give you sound teaching, do not abandon my instruction. When I was a son to my father, tender and the only son on the side of my mother, then he taught me and said to me, let your heart hold fast my words, keep my commandments and live.

Acquire wisdom, acquire understanding. Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her and she will guard you. That obviously is talking about wisdom. Do not forsake her and she will guard you.

Love her and she will watch over you. The beginning of wisdom is acquire wisdom, and with all your acquiring, get understanding. Prize her and she will exalt you. She will honor you if you embrace her.

She will place on your head a garland of grace. She will present you with a crown of beauty. Hear my son and accept my sayings, and the years of your life will be many. I have directed you in the way of wisdom.

I have led you in upright paths. When you walk, your steps will not be impeded, and if you run, you will not stumble. Take hold of instruction. Do not let go. Guard her for she is your life. Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not proceed in the way of evil men.

Avoid it. Do not pass by it. Turn away from it and pass on. For they cannot sleep unless they do evil, and they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble. For they eat the bread of wickedness, drink the wine of violence, but the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.

The way of the wicked is like darkness. They do not know over what they stumble. My son, give attention to my words. Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight. Keep them in the midst of your heart, for they are life to those who find them and health to all their whole body.

Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put devious lips far from you. Let your eyes look directly ahead. Let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.

Watch the path of your feet, and all your ways will be established. Do not turn to the right nor to the left. Turn your foot from evil. Now you can see why I wanted to read the whole chapter. You can see there's that central theme of which path are you on and how to gain wisdom.

So we're going to get a little help from somebody very familiar, young Alice. You can see the Cheshire Cat up in the tree. Those of you who are Disney fans will remember the dialogue. Alice says, which road should I take?

The cat says, where are you going? Alice says, I don't know. Cat says, then it really doesn't matter which road you take, does it? The cat's right. In that one little confrontation, there's a lot of truth.

Without a destination, without purpose, what does it matter which road you take if you have no idea where you're going or why you're going in that direction? But the scriptures teach just the opposite.

They teach that there is a purpose in life and that there are two and only two paths that one is on in this life. And each one leads to a certain destination. Jesus taught this in the Sermon on the Mount.

And Proverbs 4 teaches the same principle. Again, that's why I read the whole entire fourth chapter of the book of Proverbs. First, there are two paths. First is the way of wisdom, which is the way of life.

Proverbs 4, I have directed you in the way of wisdom. I have led you in the upright path. Notice, that's the goal. That's one of the main purposes of the book of Proverbs is to teach wisdom. I have led you in the upright path.

Notice if you stop and think about it, think about how often the scripture teaches this idea of two paths. What did Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount? Which path are you on? The narrow road that leads to the pearly gates or the wide road which leads to destruction?

So this is a common theme. When you walk, your steps will not be impeded. If you run, you will not stumble. Proverbs 2 teaches the same thing. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice.

There you have it. Same principle again. He preserves the way of his godly ones. Proverbs 2 .20. So you will walk in the way of good men and keep the paths of the righteous. There we see it again. Now notice, this theme is throughout the entire book of Proverbs.

Keep the paths of the righteous. Clearly, this is the wise choice is to walk on this path. It is the path of righteousness. It is the path the Lord sets you on when you are redeemed. Psalm 16 verses 8 to 11.

I have set the Lord continually before me because he is at my right hand. I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad. My glory rejoices. My flesh also will dwell securely. For thou wilt not abandon my soul to Sheol.

Neither wilt thou allow the Holy One to undergo decay. Thou wilt make known to me the path of life. There it is again. The path of life. In thy presence is fullness of joy. In thy right hand are pleasures forever.

Amazing how many people are seeking pleasure by going on the other path and yet this is the path of true pleasure. Isaiah 35. And a highway will be there, a roadway, and it will be called a highway of holiness.

The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for him who walks that way. The fools will not wander on it. A highway will be there, a roadway. Often, in fact predominantly, you will hear this, these verses applied to, well this is, this is in heaven.

You know, this is future, but it's not because there's still unclean people. Alright, so this is talking about here and now. This is talking about the kingdom that is here and now. And this is the highway that we are called to be upon.

It will be called the highway of holiness. There you have again the two ways, the utter distinction between them. Alright. No lion will be there, nor will any vicious beast go up on it. These will not be found there, but the redeemed will walk there.

And the ransomed of the Lord will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion and everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. Isn't there, there's a nice little chorus that's sung to that, isn't there?

The highway, yeah, no, yes. Did I dream that? I'm not going to sing it. No, there is. Okay. There's a highway. The other path is the way of destruction. Proverbs 4, 14. Do not enter the path of the wicked.

There you have the other path. And do not proceed in the way of evil men. Again, the other dichotomy. Avoid it, do not pass by it, turn away from it, and pass on. Speaking for wisdom, Solomon gives a stern warning and a rebuke in chapter 2.

He says this, to deliver you from the way of evil, this is of course wisdom, this is the job of wisdom, to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things. Deliver you from the way of evil.

For those who leave the paths of righteousness to walk in the way of darkness. There you have it again. Notice, it keeps coming back. To walk in the ways of darkness. There's the absolute dichotomy again.

There's no middle ground. There's no DMZ. There's no Switzerland. Who delight in doing evil and rejoice in the perversity of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways. For her house sinks down to death and her tracks lead to the dead.

So, the job of wisdom, if you look at the title slide, wisdom keeps you on the right path. And I'm going to give you several ways in which wisdom does this. First, wisdom keeps you on the right path by teaching to obey God's appointed authorities.

This again is a constant theme of scripture. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Hear my son, your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching.

This is right in the very beginning. This is the introduction to the book of Proverbs. We went through this a number of months ago. But notice again, and we're going to see how this is a prevalent theme.

Do not forsake your mother's teaching. Let me say this again about these particular verses. When it talks about father and mother, obviously the first application is to young people growing up in a household.

That's the primary application. But there are secondary applications to all of us to obey whatever lawful authority that God sets over us. And you can make that correlation. It's not my intention this morning, but you can make that correlation real easy.

That being said, there's something that is presumptive in here. Well, we like to say presupposed in this. And that is that the teaching that we're giving to our children is in fact the way of wisdom. So that's presupposed in here from the book of Proverbs that the teaching that we're giving to our children is the wise teaching from scripture.

Indeed, they are graceful wreath to your head and ornaments about your neck. Proverbs 4, hear, O sons, the instructions of a father. Give attention that you may gain understanding for I give you sound teaching.

Do not abandon my instruction. Now, obviously Solomon is writing this. And he can say that I'm giving you sound teaching. It's something that we as dads have to understand that we have to make sure that we're giving sound teaching.

When I was a son to my father, tender and the only son in the sight of my mother, then he taught me and said, let your heart hold fast my words. Keep my commandments and live. He taught me and said to me, all right, let your heart hold fast to my words.

This is a constant theme, not just in the book of Proverbs, but throughout all of scripture about listening to our authorities. And again, the presumption is that the authorities are giving biblical admonitions.

Yes. No, the father is his father. No, no, this is Solomon talking to his sons. Solomon's writing this and he's saying, here are some of the instructions of a father. Give attention that you may gain understanding.

This is Solomon passing on the wisdom God has given to him. Remember Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived outside of our Lord and Savior. Oh, I see. Okay. Yeah, you're right. Yes. Yep. Yep. You're right.

All right. Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Second way that wisdom keeps you on the right path. It keeps you on the path by guarding you. If you were here Wednesday, we were looking at this word guarding, you know, from Philippians chapter four.

All right. And remember that when it's used in scripture, it's like a military term, garrisoning or marching around the ramparts and the towers. All right. So wisdom keeps you on the right path by guarding you.

It's like a military guard to prevent you from being attacked from the evil one. Proverbs four, again, do not forsake her and she will guard you, love her and she will watch over you. There you have it.

Do not forsake. Again, it's talking about wisdom. Remember, whenever you see that feminine pronoun, you know, a lot of people don't understand that. We will spend some time, especially when we get to chapter eight, going through why is wisdom referred to as she.

OK. Love her and she will watch over you. The beginning of wisdom is acquire wisdom. And with all your acquiring, get understanding. Prize her and she will exalt you. She will honor you if you embrace her.

Prize her, she will exalt you. All of this has to do with what is going to keep you from going down the path of destruction. Only wisdom. Why? Because the path of destruction is enticing. We'll get into this in subsequent chapters, specifically how the enticement is so strong that the naive are the ones who fall prey, the foolish ones.

And that's why we constantly see the beginning of wisdom is what? Acquire wisdom. You need wisdom. She will honor you and honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a garland of grace. She will present you with a crown of beauty.

When I taught this to the young kids, I called it the well-dressed child. You know, we spent so much time, moms and dads spent so much time making their little ones, you know, pretty or handsome and well-dressed, but sometimes they neglect wisdom, which is true beauty.

Third, wisdom keeps you on the right path by giving you life. The path is life itself. Proverbs 4, hear my son and accept my sayings and the years of your life will be many. I have directed you in the way of the upright path.

Again, notice it's a constant theme. When you walk, your steps will not be impeded. If you run, you will not stumble. Take hold of instruction. Do not let her go. Guard her for she is your life. Many people talk about, how many times have you heard this from guys that you work with or whatnot?

You know, I don't want religion. I don't want any of that. I want to have fun. I want to live, all right? You know, what foolish statements, understanding what they call living is on the path of destruction.

Fourth, wisdom keeps you on the right path by keeping you from the wicked. Still in Proverbs 4, do not enter the path of the wicked and do not proceed in the way of evil men. How does wisdom do that? Wisdom does that by letting you perceive their end.

One of my favorite Psalms of all times is Psalm 73. If you don't know the essence of Psalm 73, I would encourage you to go home today and read it. It's a Psalm of Asaph and basically he opens by, he's down in the dumps.

He says, I'm looking at the wicked and my heart has dropped. Why? Because the wicked seem to prosper. They don't have the same problems that I do, you know? In fact, I heard a pastor once say, he says, you know, the wicked have no problem because, you know, if you're going to, he gave an example of three guys going to play golf.

They say, well, let's invite Harry. And one of the guys says, no, I don't want to invite Harry. I don't like Harry, you know? Tell Harry to take a flying leap. I don't want to, you know, and then he turns, he says, when was the last time as pastors you said told somebody to take a flying leap?

You know, he says, you can't do that. He says, so it seems like the wicked are free, you know, free and easy. They can get away with all of this stuff, but it's not. And the Psalmist goes on in 73 to say, and in fact, he goes so far as to say, my foot almost slipped, almost lost his faith.

He says, but then I entered the sanctuary and I perceived their end. And that's profound. And that's what wisdom does. Wisdom keeps you off the path of wickedness because you say, wait a minute, that guy thinks he's having a good time, but he's on that slide and it's going right into damnation.

You know, yes, I have to live a little bit more of a restricted life now, but I'm on that highway of holiness. I'm on the path to life. Avoid it. Do not pass by it. Turn away from it and pass on. For they cannot sleep unless they do evil.

They are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble. Is that a great description of evil people? They can't sleep unless they're ready to do some sort of evil. And they're robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.

That's one of the other principles. For evil people, it's not enough that they're doing evil. They want you to do evil. Why? It makes them feel better. If they can point to, especially if they understand that you're a believer, they say, oh, you're a Christian and you did that?

What has that just done? I'm not as bad as you. For they eat the bread of wickedness, drink the wine of violence, but the path of righteousness is like the light of dawn. Notice the difference, the contrast here.

The path of righteousness is like the light of dawn. It's just ever brighter, you know, as you, the more wisdom you gather. Shines brighter and brighter until the full day. The way of the wicked is like darkness.

What a great comparison. Path of righteousness is like the light. The way of the wicked is like darkness. They do not know over what they stumble. The scripture is clear then there are two and only two paths.

Psalm 1, great psalm, everybody knows Psalm 1, but it just lays it out. Sometimes I think we don't use Psalm 1 often enough because it's so familiar, but we should because it specifies this in clear terms.

Look at it. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, he meditates day and night.

He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of waters, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither. And in whatever he does, he prospers. There's the blessed man. The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff, which the wind drives away.

Therefore, the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous. Oops, I thought I had that underlined. But the way of the wicked will perish.

There you have it, the last verse again. The Lord knows the way and when the scripture uses that word know, it's talking about intimacy. Our knowledge of God is not head knowledge, it's an intimate knowledge of him.

The Two Paths of Wisdom and Wickedness

Turn your foot from evil. The biggest danger to the church today, from my perspective, is relativism, which flies in the face. Because the teaching from Proverbs, because of relativism, is more necessary today than ever before.

The main theme of this chapter, chapter 4, that there are two and only two paths, is being challenged and denied, probably as never before. I mean, it's been around since, relativism has been around since the Garden of Eden, alright?

But more relativism now has become the predominant world view. And it has impacted virtually every area of society. And it has even made its way into the Christian community. Christian schools are teaching it.

Yes, I'm sorry. I'll get there, okay? It has even snuck into home school curriculum. It has infiltrated into the churches and seminaries. You will hear the appeal to natural law instead of God's law. This is where I'm going to give you a little bit of an idea of what relativism is.

Specifically to the church. You will hear about neutrality in education and knowledge. In other words, there's a whole body of knowledge that has nothing to do with God and the Bible, alright? So that's relativism.

You see it in apologetics. That is why you will hear from this pulpit and from our teaching here, we are unashamedly presuppositional in our apologetics. That means there are certain things that we presuppose to be true.

You can't prove them. They're just true. And anybody who says, well that's unscientific, well then they've never done geometry. Because in geometry there are certain facts that are presupposed that you can't prove.

But what is the point? By the way, life without geometry is pointless. Sorry. No, but it's true. If you've ever had to take a geometry course, you understand there are certain axioms or postulates that are just presumed true.

They don't even try to prove them because they can't. There are certain things that are just true. It has even made its way into so-called Christian seminaries. The following is a quotation from a commentary on the book of Proverbs being used in at least one seminary.

I don't know how many it's being used. Hold on to your seats. This is a Christian commentary on the book of Proverbs that is being taught to prospective pastors. The book of Proverbs often leaves us with the impression that humanity is divided into two plainly distinct categories, the righteous and the wicked with no overlap, no ambiguity.

Is this not a gross oversimplification of reality? Can you imagine that? We just read Proverbs chapter 4 and how many others showing clearly that there are only two paths, etc. Is this not a gross oversimplification of reality?

If we were to take these contrasts as absolute, they would indeed constitute a distortion of reality. And any preacher who uses clear-cut distinctions of this sort should be aware of the danger of oversimplification.

I've just taught you, and I'm on thin ice here according to this commentary, because I just taught you that it is two cleanly delineated paths. So I guess I'm in danger of oversimplification this morning.

However, it would be a mistake to take every formulation we find in Proverbs as absolute truth. Everything, everything admits to some qualification. There is relativism. In fact, the kind of sharp contrast we find in these chapters has little value as a description of humanity.

It's a commentary on the book of Proverbs. People can never be so cleanly divided between right and wrong. The clear-cut contrast of the two ways can be useful, but we must be quite clear on its limitations.

It is a deliberately overdrawn caricature, not an accurate description of reality. Now, we wonder why our churches are in such bad shape when this is being taught in seminaries. Greg Bonson called relativism a social disease, and he further went on to say it is hypocritical, impotent, incoherent, legalistic, and degrading in its consequences.

The rise of relativism is all the more reason to study Proverbs. Relativism isn't new. It started in the Garden of Eden when Satan uttered those words, did God really say? From that beginning, it's a slippery slope, so the Cheshire Cat was absolutely correct.

If you don't know where you're going, what difference does it make what path you take? The Book of Wisdom, however, shows just how different the two paths are. There are only two paths, one to glory, one to damnation.

And the imagery used in the Book of Proverbs is striking. Proverbs 4, but the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that shines brighter and brighter until the full day. The way of the wicked is like darkness.

They do not know over what they stumble. And again, this contrast is very revealing. Only a fool would take the path of the wicked. And one last quotation. Proverbs 4 ends with some sage advice, verses 25 to 27.

Let your eyes look directly ahead. Let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established. Do not turn to the right nor to the left. Turn your foot from evil.

Questions? Comments?

Relativism, Presuppositional Apologetics, and the New Covenant

Reminds me of a legend where there was no king in Israel and every man did what was right and did what was not. Yes. This ties in with what the enemy does. See, relativism, I really think, comes from the enemy confusing people and people distorting what the issues really are.

This is why in our courts, judges are trying to keep lawyers on track. What's the issue? What's relevant? What's palatable? That's what the enemy does. He wants you to look at everything else except the truth, right?

And see, if you do look at everything from all these different angles, all these different perspectives, oh, well, this is relevant to this, this is relevant to that. No, what's the main issue? What's at the heart of all this?

It's cut to the chase. And this is why wisdom goes hand in hand with discernment because you really do need to rightly divide between what's right and what's wrong. Or as Spurgeon said, rightly divide between what's right and what appears to be right.

But there is this sense that what is really an issue? What is the real truth? What's the real facts here? And if you look at that, no, relativism is totally false. Relativism is an outgrowth of really the enemy trying to confuse the issue and say, oh, you have to look over here, you have to look over here.

It's sort of what a magician does. Over here, meanwhile, I'm doing a trick with this hand. That's just it. You have to stay focused and ask for God to give you the wisdom to have that right discernment, you know, what's really an issue?

Because when you find out what's really an issue, there is only one right way. The main thing is to take the main thing, the main thing. Yeah. That's ultimately true. The thing with relativism, it denies absolute truth.

So there is no one truth. It's subjective and it's going to depend on what position we're looking at it from. And if there is no absolute truth, then anything else, right? It actually promotes autonomy.

Well, I see it from this angle, you see it from that angle, you're right, I'm right, we're all right. And obviously, that's an absolute truth that they're trying to impose on us. Now, the one thing from here, when it says don't turn your foot from evil, it's so beautiful because in Jeremiah 31 or 33, the essence of the New Covenant is God saying, I'm going to give you a new heart and I'm going to place the fear of me in you so that you cannot turn to the right or to the left.

It's only in the New Covenant that we're going to be able to follow Proverbs the way it's directed. Apart from that, turn to the right. So God is going to place the fear of us so that we do not turn to the right or to the left.

So again, it's by the power of the Spirit that we can read these things, hear them, and know.

Any other thoughts? You know, I had a graphic illustration of, you know, you have to be careful of what you're looking at. When I was learning how to fly, my instructor took me up. This is only a couple lessons into flying.

And he said, I want you to close your eyes. And he says, I want you to tell me, I'm going to make a few maneuvers, he says, and I want you to tell me what attitude the plane is at. You know, straight and level, banking left, banking right, you know, dive, whatever, just tell me what it's in.

So he took a couple and I said, you know, first one, I said, we're banking left. He said, open your eyes. I said, yeah, it's good. And I closed my eyes and he said, all right, where are we now? I said, we're straight and level.

And I opened my eyes and we were in a spin. We were in a spin because the forces of gravity kept me in my seat and appeared to me, you know, my other senses that we were straight and level when, in fact, we were in a dangerous spin.

If he didn't come out of it, we would have crashed. Now, we were, of course, high enough where we weren't going to do that. But but and that's what happens. You know, relativism just throws all this false information out and you think, oh, it sounds good.

But, you know, that's why you have to keep your eyes focused on what is true. Yes. Yes, Dave. The it was from a commentary on properties by a fellow by the name of John Collins.