Prescription for Sin

All right, again, good to be with you tonight. If you have your Bibles, would you turn to the first chapter of the Book of Proverbs? As I mentioned, and as hopefully it's becoming a little more familiar, we are going to follow this format for a while, see how it progresses in that.

Brother Keith's going to continue every other week going through what he's doing now with Second John, Third John, Jude, and Philemon. And I'm going to continue with the Book of Proverbs. And again, the caution that we had was that there might be a little bit of a break in between what is said one week, and then basically you wait two weeks to hear more of what you heard two weeks previous.

But I do think that there is still always something to learn from God's Word. And I think we can accomplish it this way. So we'll see how it goes. But for tonight, I do want to ask us to turn back to where we left off in the Book of Proverbs.

And we'll open up with a word of prayer. And then we'll have some time for prayer on the end, too, for the things that we need to remember before God. But I like to read in Proverbs chapter 1, if you remember, the last time we looked at the book, we stopped at verse 7.

And I'd like to pick up tonight. And as I said to you in the beginning, in the introduction to the study of Proverbs, that there would be times when we would look specifically at one verse, and then there would be other times when we would look at sections.

And that I believe that you can look at the Book of Proverbs verse by verse if you wanted to. But you can also look at it in a number of verses together and come away with instruction. So we'll open a word of prayer.

I'm going to read from verse 8 through the end of the chapter, verse 33, and then make some comments on what we looked at last time. And hopefully, that will lead us into what we consider tonight. So let's pray.

Our Father and our God, again, we come before you in that name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners, the one who so loved us that he gave himself for us, Emmanuel, God in the flesh.

We thank you, Lord, tonight that we can come, that we can gather, that your word is always true, Lord. Your word does not change because you do not change. We pray, Lord, that tonight, Holy Spirit, that you would come, you would teach us, that we might grow in grace, we might grow in the knowledge, and our lives would be transformed more into the image of him who was harmless and holy and undefiled, the one who has risen from the grave, has ascended, is seated on high, and one day shall come again, and every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he, Jesus, is Lord.

So be with us tonight as only you can. Do great work in us as it pleases you. In Christ's name, amen. All right, Proverbs chapter 1, verse 8. And again, to remind anyone who does not know, I do read from the New King James, and if you don't, you need to.

Proverbs chapter 1, verse 8. My son, hear the instruction of your father. Do not forsake the law of your mother, for they will be graceful ornaments on your head and chains about your neck. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.

If they say, come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood. Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause. Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole like those who go down to the pit, and we shall find all kinds of precious possessions.

We shall fill our houses with spoil. Cast in your lot among us, let us all have one purse. My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your foot from their path, for their feet run to evil. They make haste to shed blood, but surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird, but they lie in wait for their own blood.

They lurk secretly for their own lives. So are the ways of everyone who is greedy of gain. It takes away the life of its owners. Wisdom calls aloud outside. She raises her voice in the open squares. She cries out in the chief concourses.

At the opening of the gates in the city, she speaks her words. How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? The scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Turn you at my reproof.

Surely I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you have refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded. Because you have disdained all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity.

I will mock when your terror comes. When your terror comes like a storm and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you, then they will call on me, but I will not answer.

They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof. Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own way and be filled to the full with their own fancies, for the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy him.

But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, will be secure without fear of evil.". And may God bless his word. So as I said, the last time we considered verse seven, and specifically dwelt on the reality of the fear of the Lord, tried to show you from the book of Proverbs that there are so many places, not only in the book of Proverbs, but in all the scripture where we have this truth of how wisdom and the fear of the Lord are vitally connected that anyone who truly has wisdom is someone who truly fears God, not in the sense of God as a tyrant, but rather just because of who God is, that he's the great other, that he's unique, as Job said, and he does not change, and that you and I need to see him for all he is, the Lord of glory, the everlasting God.

And so we considered that. So tonight, as we look at these verses, particularly from verse 15 through the remaining of the chapter, I just want to remind us of one or two things before we do that. First of all, if you remember, one of the themes that I sought to lay out before us in the introduction to the book of Proverbs is that there are, as I see it, there are two great themes, at least these two stand out in my mind, two great themes as you go through the book of Proverbs and that you and I need to constantly keep that in our minds, not only as we read the book of Proverbs, but as we read all the scripture and as we walk in this pilgrimage of life.

And the first one was this, that there are two distinct groups that are constantly brought up over and over again in the book of Proverbs. And that one group is the one who the author Solomon, as well as some others that who contribute to the book of Proverbs, that he calls one group wise.

And that the wise are those who diligently seek after God and that they attain wisdom and that they are blessed for the diligence in seeking after the wisdom of God. And you'll see that as we go through this book over and over again, that that is a distinct group that is constantly spoken to.

And then if you remember, there was also a second group and it was the great contrast. And I even mentioned to you how many times in the book of Proverbs, there was this group that's described as wise and then there's this group that's described as the fool and the fool is the one who is too lazy to be diligent in seeking after the wisdom of God.

And that they are called fools for that very reason in that they neglect what is given to us in the word of God, by God, through the Holy Spirit and that they become those who are under the judgment of God.

So there's these two groups again, and I will assure you tonight, everyone who's here and everyone who hears this and everyone, regardless of their station in life or their custom or their culture or their place in time or space, whatever it is, that every single person who's ever had breath in their lungs is in one of those two groups.

Either they are wise in that they are seeking after the wisdom of God and God blesses them for their diligence in seeking him or they fall into the camp of the fools and the fool being the one who, because of his lack of diligence and because he's hard-hearted, refuses the wisdom of God and suffers the consequences of it.

And so again, that is a theme that I will constantly be bringing up to you as we go through this book because that I believe is one of the things that glues the book together. And that's something we ought to do when we read a book in a Bible, we ought to look for what is the, if you will, what is the theme of the book?

Because that will greatly enhance how we see the truths of the Bible and how we can make applications. So I do want to remind you of that in looking at it. Okay, in verses 10 through 23, as I looked at it again in preparing for tonight, I saw two things that we considered last time and then I want to present two things that I see in the remaining verses because we really stopped, if you would, at verse 14 where it says, "'Cast in your lot among us, let us all have one purse.'".

And I'm going to give them to you and then just review a little bit of what we did last time, speak about it just for a moment and then move on. But I see four things in these verses from verse 10 through verse 33.

And the first one is this, is that there is a pressure to sin. There is a pressure to commit sin and I will explain that briefly. And then also I saw and we discussed that not only is there a pressure to sin, but there's a pleasure that comes from sin.

So there's a pressure to sin, there's a pleasure to sin and then tonight we'll look specifically at there is a prescription against sinning. And then finally, as we have time, I want to consider that there's a penalty for refusing that prescription against sin.

So there's a pressure to sin, there's a pleasure to sin, there's a prescription against sin and then there is a penalty for sin. So just to review that, we looked at this last time, but let me mention it to you again, that there is a pressure that is placed upon us from without and from within to sin.

If you look at it here in these verses, I think it becomes evident as you see it in verse 10, it says, my son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood, let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause, let us swallow them alive and hold like those that go down to the pit and we shall find all kinds of precious possessions, we shall fill our houses with spoil, cast in your lot among us, let us all have one purse.

That you and I need to realize and not just know, but realize that the cost of this world is towards sin. That if you will, the undercurrent of this world is that we would join in with them to commit sin and thereby to reject the counsel of God.

And that it sometimes comes in subtle ways. And then at other times it comes in very blatant, vivid, clear manifestations, but that you and I would realize that there is a pressure in this world and it's a constant pressure and that is that we would give in or as it says here in these verses, we would join in.

We would become part and parcel with the cost of this life and I do spend a lot of time at the beach when I can and it always intrigued me how the surfers or people, even the kids on the boogie boards, but the surfers and those on the boogie boards and I would be fishing so I'm stationary.

At least I hope I'm stationary.

And I'd watch somebody come in and they go in the water with their surfboard, they go in the water with their boogie board and there's an undercurrent. And sometimes it goes this way and sometimes it goes that way and sometimes it goes that way and that's real trouble.

But nevertheless, I always find it interesting that no matter how someone, where they enter the water, here's not where they wind up and they don't even know it. They're out there, they're having fun, they're enjoying the pleasure of the water and the pressure, the undercurrent is moving them and I've seen, and I'm sure you have, I've seen people go in the water here and they're half a mile away.

Now, if it's a little kid, of course, you usually see the parents doing something like this, right?

Come back.

But the surfers especially, they wind up here and then they gotta get out and either they paddle back or they walk all the way back. My point is that even nature itself teaches us that there's this undercurrent and that undercurrent is really the undercurrent of this world, to follow the course of this world.

And that you and I, if we are going to attain to the wisdom of God, which I truly pray and hope that that is what we desire to do in order to worship God, in order to please God, in order to magnify him, that you and I would not get caught in that.

Now, there is not one of us sitting here that could say that there have not been times when we have been carried away with the undercurrent of this world to fall into sin, right? If anyone wants to start to talk about sinless perfectionism, they need to be rejected right away, right?

So you and I, again, as I said, you're in one group or another, that doesn't mean you're not gonna drift at times, but there is this, if you will, this pressure to commit sin. And as you'll see in the prescription against sin, we need to be very careful in all lives that we don't just, if you will, cast in our lot with the rest of the world.

I mean, that's many times, that's the mob mentality kind of thing. You ever been in a situation where you know what to say or what not to say, you know what's right and you know what's wrong, and you're in a group setting, let's say, and all of a sudden, somebody says something, and then someone adds in.

And before you know it, the whole crowd is all headed in one direction, right? And there you are, and you're trying to hold steady. And sometimes we would all admit we get caught up, don't we? And then we realize, oh no, I've drifted, I gotta get back.

And so again, there's this pressure to sin, it's been with us since the fall, hasn't it? And it will continue to be with us. We shall never ever conquer the current of this world until we are no longer in this world.

Isn't that one of the great joys of heaven? That we will be there to sin no more, to serve him without any hindrance. And it's a glorious thought, my friends. To me, it's far beyond streets of gold and gates of pearls, to see Jesus for who he is, without any undercurrent of sin, without any unclean thoughts, without any pressure to drift away.

How glorious that will be. So, my point is, as we looked at this last time, and we spoke more specifically about it last time, that there is a pressure to sin, and that you and I, as the people of God, as the city on the hill, as the candle that is to be lit, we ought to be very diligent, seeking after the wisdom of God, that we might not get entrapped and carried away with the undercurrent.

And as I said, the devil is, the evil one is very good at what he does, right? He's a liar, he's a murderer, he knows no truth, and he cares not for truth, nor for any who care for truth, he does not care for, right?

That is certainly something that you and I have to be careful of. Okay, I also want to mention, as we looked at this last time, and it's specifically laid out for us, in verse 13 and 14, is that not only is there a pressure to sin, but there's a pleasure that comes from sin.

We spoke about this last time, and that the pleasure that comes, basically, is self-gratification, look at it. In verse 13 and 14, we shall find all kinds of precious possessions, we shall fill our houses with spoil.

That there is this reality, friends, and it cannot be denied. It could be rejected, but you can't deny it, that the reason why we sin is self-gratification. Now, that doesn't mean it doesn't work out in many different ways, whether it be pride, whether it be winning, whether it be overcome, whatever it is, there's gratification that's in, and you remember what we looked at this last time, that great scripture in the book of Hebrews, when the author says that concerning Moses, that he was what?

He was more willing, and this was something that he did, he was more willing to suffer afflictions with the people of God than what? Enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. So there is pleasure to sin, I think I mentioned it to you, how sometimes you gotta get the last word in, right?

And I'm guilty of this. How many times you're in that situation, and you know you oughta just walk away, and we'll get to that proverb that says, where there's no wood, the fire goes out. How many times, and I even admitted to you, there's been times in my life with my wife, when she said something, and I said something, and she said something, and then I knew, uh-oh.

I better get out of this. And sometimes I actually got out of it, only to come back two minutes later to get back into it.

Why?

Self-gratification, pleasure.

I got the last word in, I got the last shot, you lose. So there's not only this pressure to sin, friends. One of the reasons why Solomon lays this out for us is because he knows, and remember, Solomon, for all his wisdom, for all his teaching about the pressure to sin and the pleasures of sin, is one who will fall into sin.

So again, none is exempt, not even the one who authored it, and that is why, most assuredly, we need a savior, because he is the only one who denied all pressure to sin and all pleasure that would come from sin.

That's why we stand on that great truth of the impeccability of the Lord Jesus Christ, that it was impossible for him to have sinned. So that is where we were in our last time together. So tonight I want to consider the remaining two, and I see that in verse 15 through the remainder of the chapter.

So there's a pressure to sin, there's a pleasure to sin, and now let's consider the prescription, the prescription against sin and the penalty that comes from refusing that very prescription. Look at it in verse 10, and it's really so clear, and yet we can get lost with all the other truths that are surrounding it, but I want you to just focus in for a minute on a couple of words, and in verse 10 it says, my son, if sin has enticed you, do not consent.

Look at verse 13, verse 14, no, let's try verse 15. My son, do not walk in the way with them. You want to know what the prescription against sin is?

Do not do it, do not.

That's one of the things of, it's a command, my friend, it's not an option. In other words, Solomon, he did the very things he told us not to do, right?

And why did he do it?

Because he did not follow his own instruction, and the answer, the prescription against sin is simple, my friends, it's do not do it. It's our responsibility.

Listen, I'm responsible for my walk.

Now, I have obligations and responsibility towards your walk, and we've been studying that in Sunday school with the one and others and all the different things that we're talking about, but ultimately, the responsibility against sin falls on me, for me, and so you do not consent.

Actually, it's one of the themes that runs through the book of Proverbs, and so I spent a little time looking through it, and here's what I found. I like looking, I enjoy studying sometimes that way, where I'll pick up a word or a phrase, and I'll see how many times it's used in a book I'm reading, or sometimes, how many times it's used throughout the whole Bible, and it enhances and opens up many doors of understanding, so I went and I looked, and I said, okay, I wonder how many times we're told in the book of Proverbs those two words, do not, and here's what I found.

I found, at least, and it might be a couple more, a couple less, because I was counting, my eye gets cockeyed after a while, but anyway, 75 times, 75 times alone in the book of Proverbs, we receive this command, and the command is, do not.

Now, that might seem too simple, and sometimes, we miss the forest for the trees. In other words, people will come, and they'll ask for counsel, or people will say, you know, I'm in this situation, and I don't know how to get out of it, and people will write books on how to get out of this, and how to solve problems with marriages, and how to solve problems with finances, and how to solve this, that, and the other thing.

Maybe I could write a book, and have two words in the book, and it says, do not. I doubt anybody will buy it, but that's, in a great sense, that's the answer. Do not follow, even as I spoke to the kids in the beginning of their meetings, do not follow the multitudes that do evil, do not.

I'm gonna give you some examples of it in the book of Proverbs, just to support what I'm saying. If you have your Bibles open, just flip over to chapter four of the book of Proverbs, and I wanna read these verses to you.

In Proverbs chapter four, look at verse 14. Do not enter the path of the wicked. Do not walk in the way of evil.

Avoid it.

Do not travel on it. Turn away from it, and pass on.

Do not.

In chapter five, in verse seven, it says this. Therefore, hear me now, my children, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

Do not.

You don't have to turn there, but I'm just giving you a couple of examples, just to support what I'm saying. In Proverbs 23, it'll say, do not remove the landmarks which our fathers have set. And there's a whole set of instructions that come out of that.

But my point is, the answer to the allurement of sin is do not commit. You remember that Psalm one, don't you? Everybody does, just about everybody does, right? Just, if you would, just turn there for a quick second.

Psalm one.

I know Brother Keith had brought this up Sunday, and we've mentioned it very often, but it needs to be mentioned very often. Just look at, in the opening Psalm, and you'll see this counsel, if you will, do not.

Psalm one. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the godly, nor stands, there's another do not, stands in the path of the sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But where he tells us what we ought to do, he tells us what we ought not to do.

And what we ought not to do is to do what everyone else does that are in rebellion against God.

Do not.

And it's interesting to me here, and I don't know if I've mentioned this to you in the past, and maybe you know it already, or maybe you wanna consider it for the first time. If you look at this, this admonition of do not is a very slippery slope once we begin to give into it.

In other words, just think about the progression here. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the godly. Remember, when the Bible uses walk, it's talking about the cost of our life, right?

It's where we go, it's how we live, it's how we move, it's the actions we take.

But there's a progression.

So do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly.

To me, there's a progression.

First he walks, and then look what happens. Then it says, nor stand in the path of sinners. So again, if we refuse the do not, if we do not cut it off, if you will, before it ever works in us, then before you know it, not only are we walking, then we're standing.

And guess what? We got it right there.

There's a progression.

First you walk, then you stand, and before you know it, you're sitting. You see, God doesn't mince words. He doesn't say, well, you know, you could dabble with it. Which one of us would dabble and toy with a snake unless we're, you're just cray-cray?

We need to understand this. We need to understand that we are, as Paul says in Ephesians, we are not to give place to the devil. We are to resist. We are not to give it any attention. Now, you might agree with me, you might not, but I've thought about Lot.

And I thought about how Lot, in really a progression, found himself in Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember, Abraham says, you look out, and whatever way you go, I'll go the other way, after the strife of the herdsmen.

And first, he looks towards the land that seems well-watered and produced, and so he walks that way. And then, I'm sure, as he got there, he stood there and looked and considered, and before you know it, he's sitting in the midst of them.

You remember what the Scriptures say? His soul was vexed, the filthy matter of their life. Now, again, in the providence of God, I'm not dealing with that in the sense of, should he have gone to the east or the west?

That's not my point. My point is that the Scriptures warn that there is a prescription against sin, and that prescription is do not, because do not leads to doing. And you and I have to understand that.

There are so many of the Proverbs that we'll see that have that strength behind it, if you'll have that thought behind it. In Proverbs, it says, can a man take fire to his breast and not be burned? Listen, which one of us would tell a kid as he comes up to a hot stove?

Well, you know, try it if you want. What do we say?

Don't!

Which one of us would take a lit torch.

And put it to our chest?

And say, let me see if I really get burned. You'd be cray-cray. So again, my friends, the whole point is that in the prescription against sin, it's truly simple. It's do not, as Paul says in 1 Thessalonians, he says, abstain from what?

Abstain from all appearance of evil. And we need, friends, to constantly consider our path. Every one of us, each one of us, whether as a husband, as a man, as a worker, as a citizen, and as a brother in the church, as a woman, as a wife, as a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, as a child.

I don't care where it is. We need to constantly be aware that there's going to be a pressure to sin and that we might even derive some pleasure, but that ultimately the answer is do not follow it. Do not give in.

Do not give place to the devil. Run from it, abstain from it. Walk the narrow path. You know, there's that saying, some people have that saying, all roads lead to Rome and all roads lead to God. And it doesn't matter how you get to God as long as you get there.

That's a life in a pit of hell, isn't it? There are many roads that'll lead us to hell. There's just a narrow path that leads us to Christ. So again, it's, you know, people say, well, you Christians, you don't do much.

Well, if it means that I do not do much, then I will not do much. Simple. So when I weigh it out against eternity, what does it compare to this life? What did God, friends, just a thought, what did God, that you and I would consider everything and anything in light of eternity instead of in light of today?

It would radically change our worlds. In Proverbs chapter eight, it says this. He that hates me wrongs his own soul and all that hate me love death. He that hates me wrongs his own soul and all that hate me love death.

Do not, my friends, because there is, as we will see, not only is there a prescription against sin, but there's a very serious penalty for sin. Matter of fact, we all know what Paul says, right? The wages of sin is what?

Certainly not life.

Death.

Death.

And again, remember now, saved by the blood of Christ, praise the Lord, washed in the blood of the Lamb. He who began a good work in us will continue it till the day of Christ. And we love, we submit, we enjoy the doctrine of perseverance of the saints, but friends, never forget the perseverance of the saints.

Is that the saints persevere into faith, right?

A saint can't say, well, you know, I'm saved, so that doesn't mean I can go out and just do whatever I want to do. May it never be, absolutely. And what do you remember what Paul said? He said that he kept his own body under, why?

Lest he be called a reprobate, right? And that's all those examinations, examine yourself, whether you're in the faith, prove your own selves. Know you're not that Jesus Christ is in you,.

Except you what?

Be reprobate. How do we know that? Do not follow in the wide path. Follow the wisdom of God. And what is the wisdom of God? Ultimately, the wisdom of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's interesting, going back to Proverbs chapter one, it's interesting as you look at this in verse 16.

So verse 15, my son, do not walk in the way with them. Look, keep your foot from their path. Verse 16, for their feet run to evil and they make haste to shed blood. And surely the net is spread in the sight of any bird,.

But look at it.

They lie in wait for their own blood. They live secretly for their own lives. And so are the ways of everyone who is greedy of gain. It takes away the life of its owners. Can you not see it? When we do give in to sin, we lose life.

We'd never lose eternal life if we're in Christ. But we lose in so many ways, if you will. We lose, it might not, sometimes I think, we lose spiritual life force. I'm not talking about the force from the Jedis.

But remember what it says? To be sure that our sins will find us out. And even in the relationships of husbands and wives, that the husbands and wives relationship is so important that if it's not right, it could even hinder prayers.

Is that not loss? Is that God's saying through the Old Testament, many times he says that when we sin against him,.

And he shuts heaven, he says the heavens are like brass.

You ever do that?

You ever try to pray and sometimes you're praying and it feels like it goes up three feet and then all of a sudden it comes right back down.

And goes nowhere.

Why?

Maybe it's because we've been doing instead of do not. Don't quote me on do not neither. But isn't that the case, friends? And the answer is simple, do not. Because it really is a self-destructive thing.

Because here's the reality before I move on. You know, we live in a world that seeks to protect us from so many different things, right? Protect us from evil people, from evil policies, from disasters.

We spend time, energy, resources on trying to protect us from all different angles of evil. And yet the greatest evil is the evil that resides in our own hearts. And we spend so much time worrying about the things that are out there and we're not worried about do not-ing in our own heart.

And how do we know that's true? Because of what Jesus said. Because he said out of the heart, the mouth speaks. And out of the heart comes adulteries and fornications and uncleanness. And all those things proceed from the heart.

If we would, if we, could you imagine if we live in a society where people are more concerned with not offending God than offending him? All has to be related to do not so. So when Solomon says this, and remember, and I pointed this out here and I'll continue to point out, Solomon's speaking as a, my son is always reaching out in that way of endearing consideration as God is.

That you and I, if we can only see the danger that's in our hearts and how God is so willing, so willing to grant us, to give us blessing and fellowship and communion.

And so when we don't have it, it's not God's fault.

And I'll guarantee you that all of us at one point or another, and probably more than we would want to admit, we have blamed God for our situation. When the reality is, we caused it because we did not follow the wisdom of God.

We chose our own wisdom and now we're gonna suffer the consequences for it. And again, the reality is because God doesn't change. I was talking to somebody the other day and we were talking about a situation with someone and I wound up saying, you know what?

You can't schmooze. God, you know what I'm saying?

And we all try it. We all try to con God. If we don't try to con him, we try to coach him. Sometimes we even try to correct him. God needs not change, God is perfect. So when God says do not, he says it for good reason.

It's not just to be mean. It's like the parent that tells the kid, do not go there. Oh man, you never let me go anywhere. Half of us already know the reason why we're telling him do not go is because we were stupid enough and sinful enough to do it and we know what comes out of it.