Dr Greg Bahnsen - Proverbs: Proverbs 11:3-6, 17, 26 (The Destructiveness of Sin) (Part 39)

From time to time I've had people ask, well now is there a pattern to your preaching? And there is. What happens though is, you see, we get involved in some topic or some book of the Bible and we end up spending a year on it or so. I think we've been on Proverbs about that amount of time. And in the midst of that major topic, say the Book of Proverbs, we have slight interruptions. We have the holiday season and I preach Christmas messages. And of course in January I preach messages relevant to the life of the congregation, preparing for our yearly meeting. And as you know, in June we usually have an evangelistic series that's preached. And so we have these little pockets of interruption. And then every once in a while the pastor goes into the hospital for eight weeks or is recovering for eight weeks, and so you lose sight of that. But the Book of Proverbs really is what we're studying these days. It's been a little while since we've been in it. In fact, I was reviewing my file on the sermons that I preached and I notice it's before Christmas, since you've had a sermon on Proverbs and so it may be hard to find in your Bibles, but it's there about in the middle of the Old Testament. And I'd like you to turn to Proverbs, the 11th chapter this morning. And we're going to consider the self destructiveness of sin as it's presented to us in Proverbs chapter 11. We're going to be looking at verses 3, 5 and 6, 17, 27 and 29. And then there'll be a few others outside of chapter 11 that we'll get to as well. But this morning for our reading from God's holy word here now Proverbs 11, beginning at the third verse. The integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of the treacherous shall destroy them. Verse 5. The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way, but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness. The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them, but the treacherous shall be taken by their lust. And then verse 11, or excuse me, verse 17, the merciful man doeth good to his own soul, but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh. And verse 27, he that diligently seeketh good seeketh favor. But he that searcheth after evil, it shall come unto him. And then finally, verse 29, he that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind. And the foolish shall be servant to the wise of heart. And thus Far the reading of God's word Christian message is a message about sin. You know that that's commonplace. We take that for granted. Everyone understands that, don't we? Sin Christianity has to do with sin. I mean, the story of the Bible begins with man's fall into sin. The story continues with how God is going to deal with man's sin and relieve men of their sins and redeem them from the guilt of their sins. It tells the story about a man who came into this world, sent by God, the very God, man himself, Jesus Christ, who died upon the cross for sin and then sent his Spirit into the church and into our hearts to conquer the power of sin there. The Bible tells us that the day is coming where all men will stand before the Lord God Almighty and be separated sinners from saints, and the judgment of God upon sin will then ensue. And so the message of the Bible from beginning to end, cover to cover, Christianity is altogether about sin, not. And so what is sin? We want to ask that question this morning by way of introduction to the book of Proverbs as it tells us of the self destructiveness of sin. I'd like to describe some of the ways in which the Bible lays out what sin is for us. In Romans 14:23 we read that sin is in essence the distrust of God. For whatever is not of faith, Paul says, is sin. Whenever we are not living in complete, all consuming trust of God and His Word. Whenever we do things with wavering conscience because we're not sure God would approve of it, but we do it anyway. Whatever is not of faith is sin. In First John 3:4 we read that sin is lawlessness for everyone who sins breaks God's law. John tells us sin is an offense, a transgression against the holy standards, the commandments of God. But then sin is described elsewhere in the Bible and Romans 3:23 as falling short of God's glory, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Sin, you see, proceeds from a heart that doesn't trust God to transgress God's commandments and fall short of his glory as the goal of your life. But sin is more than these things. Sin is as well defilement according to the Bible. In First John, chapter one, verses seven and nine, we read that those who sin are defiled. But those who confess their sins to them, God is faithful and just to cleanse them from all unrighteousness. Defilement and cleansing, you see, are tied up with the Christian message. Sin is defilement indeed. It's inner corruption. In Matthew the 12th chapter, Jesus speaks about having to change the tree if you want to change the outward fruit. For out of the heart come forth those wicked things that men say with their mouths. Jesus says. And so here we see sin as a corruption that is within an inner corruption of soul and spirit. And one other way in which we can speak of sin this morning we can look at sin as a self oriented desire, desires or lust that are oriented toward our own gratification. Turn with me in James the first chapter for a moment to verses 14 and 15 James 1 at the 14th verse. And there we have another kind of description of sin. James says, but each man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust, desire and enticed. Then the lust when it has conceived bears sin, and the sin when it is full grown brings forth death. Turn to James 4. 1, 2, 3. Whence come wars, and whence come fightings among you? Come they not hence even of your pleasures that war in your members? Ye lust and have not Ye kill and covet and cannot obtain. Ye fight in war ye have not because ye ask not ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss. Notice this, that ye may spend it upon your pleasures. James gets into the subject of prayer, but reminds us the reason our prayers go wrong is because we pray to satisfy ourselves, to seek our own desires and pleasures. And so we have in the book of James another kind of description of sin. This is really amazing, isn't it? We read the Bible, we get sin described in so many different ways, so many facets to that ugly thing that we call sin. I'm going to add one to your vocabulary this morning. I'd like to add another way of looking at sin that we find in the Book of Proverbs and elsewhere in the Bible, and one which I think very sadly we are not prone to remember, one that may be a surprise to us. One may open up new vistas for you and help you to control sin in your life when you remember that sin is not simply distrusting God and breaking his commandments and falling short of his glory. Sin is not simply that defilement and inner corruption of character that leads to self oriented desire. Sin is also self destructiveness. Sin is also self destructiveness. And we can understand that if we look back to the very beginning of man's sin in the Garden of Eden. If we look back at Genesis, the third chapter. Keep your finger in Proverbs, but turn with me to Genesis 3. I wonder how well you have read this story we all supposedly know it from Sunday school days of how the human race comes to be in rebellion against God and to be under his wrath and curse because the first man and woman transgress God's prohibition about eating of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But I'd like you to notice more particularly how sin is portrayed as a self destructiveness in man in Genesis 3. I'll begin reading at verse 1. Now, the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden. And the woman said unto the serpent, of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden. God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die for God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat. And she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. The eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And then they heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God among the trees of the garden. And Jehovah God called unto the man and said unto him, where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden and and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said, who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And Jehovah God said unto the woman, what is this thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me, and and I did eat. And Jehovah God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat. All the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman. And between thy seed and her seed he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy pain. Conception in pain shalt thou bring forth children. And thy desire shall be to thy husband. And he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also, and thistle shall it bring forth to thee. And thou shalt eat the herb of the field. And in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground. For out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field. The serpent was wily. The serpent was insightful. The serpent knew how to manipulate and to get his way. And you notice what the serpent does when he comes to Eve. First of all, he insinuates distrust of God. Whatever is not of faith is sin. Paul will later tell us. He says, has God told you you can't eat of the trees? Look at these trees. They're wonderful. Chapter two, verse nine tells us, out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. And Satan looks at all this and he says, did God tell you you can't eat of these trees? And Eve, of course, she thinks she's being obedient and she's doing just fine. And she responds, well, no, That's a mistake, Mr. Serpent. God didn't say that. He said that we're not supposed to eat of this one tree. And then, you see, to strengthen the message of God, which needs no strengthening, she adds something to it, and we can't even touch it. Which God didn't say. He simply said, don't eat of the fruit of that tree. Eve, now, you see, is adding to the word of God immediately. The serpent responds by denying God's word, the essence of sin. He says, you won't die. What a silly hypothesis. Have you ever tested that, Eve? Have you run any scientific test? Do you have any statistics on this? Do you have any chemical analysis of the fruit? What makes you think you're going to die just because God said it? What kind of superstitious, backward person are you? You believe things just because they're in the Bible. Come on Eve, think for yourself, live for yourself. Test things and know things because you have found out for yourself that they are true. And then of course, the attack upon God's character and glory. For you see, the reason God told you that Eve, is that he's very jealous. He knows that if you go and eat of that tree, you're going to be like him. He doesn't like competition, by the way. That's very true, he doesn't. And no one can compete with him. But the serpent suggests that we could. If we would eat of the tree and disobey God, then we'd become grownups, then we'd live for ourselves and think for ourselves. So come on Eve, God's just trying to keep you from what is really best in life. You see the wiliness of the serpent, of course, who is Satan speaking through the serpent? The wiliness of Satan is that he realizes that if we are going to be tempted to sin, we need to see that sin is in our best interest. We have to believe that sin will make us happy, that sin will please us and satisfy us. And somehow God is just trying to be the big heavenly meanie who says no, I don't want you to be happy, I don't want you to be wise. I don't want you to enjoy yourself, be satisfied in this life. Now I think you know very well that though this is a historical account, and I believe with all my heart and soul this happened precisely the way we read it in the Bible, that it's a historical account, nevertheless it very well describes what happens to you and me too. Because that's what Satan loves to suggest to us, that if we sin we'll be happy. That if we'll just break God's commandments, then we'll get satisfaction, then we'll get ahead in life, then we'll be smart people and we'll enjoy the best that the world has to offer. And why does God say no to this or no to that? Well, I mean some kind of old fashioned, some kind of foggy idea that we have to have do's and don'ts in life. But these are all arbitrary, we don't really need them. Satan is very wily. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired, to make one wise. You notice how the Bible lays that in there? The grammar is exactly right. And it was when she saw it was in her best interest. She thought it'd be good food. You know, sometimes we get hungry and we tend to sin against God because of our desires. And when she saw that, it was delightful to the eyes. There's that aesthetic side to sin, too. Won't it be glorious? Won't it be good? And that it was going to actually make her wise. Then she ate. No commentary from Moses, who writes this for us, no expression of shock, just the sad, terrible fact that at that point the human race plunged itself in self interest into sin. You see, Eve saw things in a false light. She saw things in a satanic light. She had abandoned true knowledge by casting off the word of God. She began to think for herself. Of course, that's always a joke. You see that with university students, too, these sophomores who love to show their atheistic pride and their intelligence, and they're thinking for themselves. And you can trace every line of what they say to some professor somewhere, some book. Thinking for themselves, right? So Eve's thinking for herself, which is to say she's thinking like Satan. But she abandons God's word. She abandons true knowledge. She now thinks Satan's thoughts after him rather than God's thoughts after him. And in that light, she does not see the hideousness of sin. In that moment, you see, scales came down upon her eyes. And when she looked at the world, she could not see the detestable character of sin. She could not see the abominable character of sin. She looked and she said, looks good to me. Well, tastes good. It's beautiful. It'll make me wise. And she ate the tree became the tree of trees to her. An obsession. For, you see, she saw that it was good food. Genesis 2. 9 says all the trees of the garden were good food. She saw that it was a delight to the eyes. Genesis 2. 9 said all the trees were made delightful to the eyes. But this tree, because it had been put off limits by God, this tree became the tree of trees. It became something she just had to have. For, you see, she thought it would bring her up to the level of God, it would make her wise, and she would be like God. In fact, of course, it had the opposite effect, didn't it? The tree did not elevate her, making her closer to God or in the same category of God. The tree brought her very low. The tree alienated her from God. The tree put greater distance between her and God. That's the way sin is. It looks like it's going to be in our benefit. And it Always turns out to be the opposite. Eve thought that the tree would be something that would please her. It was so self oriented, good for food, delight to the eyes. It's going to make me wise. Her sin was self oriented, but only deceptively so, because then immediately God starts reeling out the consequences. Sin. First of all, at the end of verse six, you notice she gave to her husband and he ate. Why had Eve been made? What is the purpose of a woman in this world? Now, I realize this is not a good day and age and a good culture to preach this message, but the Bible tells us women are made to be helpmeets to their husbands. That's right. She was made to be a help. And immediately she became a hindrance to Adam. She went contrary to her very character and essence and purpose in life. She thought the tree was going to make her so smart and so happy and so satisfied. And immediately she stopped being what she was meant to be. And she brings her husband very low. And immediately the husband. By the way, these words at the end of verse 6 I don't think are appreciated enough by evangelicals. It says, and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. Those words with her are very indicting. The text does not suggest that Eve had to go looking for Adam in some other remote corner of the garden and say, adam, guess what I found? Here's this really good fruit. Try it. Adam was standing right with her. And while Satan is tempting his wife, Adam apparently is standing by, listening. He was made to be the head of that house. He was made to protect his wife and ultimately his family. He was supposed to lead in the ways of godliness. And now he takes a passive role, standing back, watching Eve and the serpent determine human destiny. And so sin looked like it would be so fun, so good, so satisfying. Immediately Adam and Eve have lost their God given task. They have lived contrary to what God made them to be. And verse seven says there was shame between them. The very first thing they did between one another is they realized they had to clothe themselves. You see, the end of chapter two in Genesis really describes a beautiful situation. It says, and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. They did not live with guilt between one another. Mutual accusation and distrust. They were not ashamed. And their nakedness, you see, was symbolic of the fact that they were innocent. But now that they're not innocent, now that they have not lived up to what God meant them to be, they are ashamed of their nakedness. In verse 8 we read and then fear enters the human race. Where do we read? Anywhere in the Garden of Eden of fear. But now fear, the voice of God, is heard in the garden. And Adam and Eve flee to hide behind the trees. And God, being the very delicate surgeon of the soul that he is, he doesn't come and immediately indict. He says, adam, what were you doing? He elicits from Adam the confession. Adam says, well, I was naked and I was afraid. And God says, who told you to live that way, Adam? That isn't the way I made you. Where'd you get those ideas, Adam? Have you by any chance disobeyed me? Do you see what God says? Has sin now come? And is it working out its ugly consequences in your life, Adam? Are you ashamed? Are you afraid, Adam? There was no shame and fear when I saw you last. What has come between us? And it was sin. And disharmony enters the human race. Here's this beautiful family, Adam and Eve. I mean, they had it made. God says, did you eat of that tree? And Adam immediately says, the woman you gave me, she brought it to me and I eat. Do you think Eve appreciated that indictment? Do you think that she was really pleased that Adam went and told on her like that? No, there was disharmony between Adam and Eve, as well as shame, as well as fear. And God goes on to speak of enmity when he speaks to the serpent. He says, there will be enmity between your seed and the woman's seed, referring to a division within the human race. Those who are born of the devil and those who are born born to serve God. There are God's people and then there's the world and there's enmity between them. And there are wars and there's strife and there's fighting and competition and distrust and a lack of love enmity within the human race because of this sin. And there'll be hardship, Eve, in bearing children, you will bear them in hardship. Same word, by the way, that Adam will toil in hardship upon the ground. Now the ground will not willingly give its fruits. There will be thorns and thistles and scarcity in this world. And men will have to work hard by the sweat of their brow and not enjoy it. There will be alienation in their labor, there will be dissatisfaction. There will be a lack of everything that is pleasing in life. And finally there will be death. From dust you came, Jehovah says, and to dust you shall return. And so you see the self destructiveness of sin right there in the original account of the Fall. Eve saw the fruit, it was going to be good to eat, it was going to be delightful to the eyes, it was going to make her wise. And it made everything wrong. Shame, fear, disharmony, enmity, hardship and death come into their experience because they sinned. Sin is self destructive. And so now we come to the Book of Proverbs. The Book of Proverbs has struck many people as not being particularly pious. It hasn't struck many people as being especially theological. Of course. I think these people really misunderstand the Christian worldview when they say that. But the reason they say, you see, is they read the Book of Proverbs and it seems so mundane, so down to earth, so practical. Or another way of putting it is it's so consequentialist in its perspective. Consequentialist means it looks at the consequences of what we do. It says, you fool, don't act this way. This is what's going to happen. Be wise and then these other things will happen. It is very much oriented to what I think is kind of an American mentality, a very pragmatic mentality. You know, Americans don't particularly care about the philosophical abstractions of German philosophy. They're not especially concerned even with the empirical, scientific concerns of the British world. Americans want to know what the cash value of something is. Will it work, what's it going to cost? And so the Book of Proverbs was written for Americans. I'm sure it was written for other people too, but it's especially for us Americans because we want to see consequences. We want to understand things. In the Book of Proverbs, you want to know what sin is. Sin is self destructive. And even as the serpent knew that Eve would have to see that it was in her benefit to get her to sin, the Book of Proverbs knows you need to see that it is not in your benefit to sin if you're going to turn away from it. And so we look at Proverbs the 11:3 and the author of this very consequentialist book says, the integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of the treacherous shall destroy them. Righteousness is helpful. The author says righteousness is helpful in relation to life's perplexing choices. I'm looking at people that I have counseled formally and informally. I think I know most of you here today very well. And I know that you have perplexity over what kind of choices to make in life. And the Bible says righteousness helps you make those choices. The integrity of the upright, the Integrity of the upright guides them. It's their own integrity that helps them to see the world as God would have them see it, to see what will be wise and helpful, pure and right, and do it. The integrity of the upright is a great benefit. I think we lose sight of the fact often that sin obscures our vision. Sin gets in the way of seeing things correctly. Sin is what confuses us. But when we are upright, when we have integrity, then we're able to see things more clearly. Then we're able to know what would please God and please us would give us enjoyment of God in this world. Please turn tape over at this time. It. In verse 5 the same idea is repeated. The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his ways. And so you see, integrity helps you in life's choices, but integrity also helps you in life's perils. In verse 6 we read the righteousness of of the upright shall deliver them, but the treacherous shall be taken, shall be caught, ensnared by their own lust. We need to understand there are consequences to sin and those consequences are not pleasant. If we want to enjoy good in this world, then righteousness is really the only happy path to that. The problem I have in preaching this message is it's so easy to say that and so hard to see it. So I can say it, and my guess is I can get you to say it, but can I get you to see it? Eve lost the ability to see that. She looked at the fruit and she didn't see the detestable character of sin. She didn't see that it would bring her very low and make her very much unhappy. She thought it would make her happy. And we do too. But Proverbs is given to us to help us to note the true consequences of sin, to correct our thinking. Last week in the afternoon, Easter afternoon, our family engaged in a rather interesting discussion that I want to tell you about. The names won't be mentioned, but as you know, our family is made up of believers and unbelievers. And we have one member of our family, an elderly member who has a next door neighbor, a little nine year old boy who has three times now broken into her home. The police have come. His fingerprints are everywhere. They have his sneaker prints from outside the window. No question about it that he did it. But she will not press charges because he's only nine years old. And I found it fascinating. I said something and then all of a sudden some of the unbelieving members of the family started chirping in saying the same thing. With great enthusiasm, you do this boy no favor by not turning him in. I said if his parents will not discipline him. And they said they can't. I said, what is going to become of this boy if you don't let the police try to discipline him? Now again, police can't regenerate people's hearts and they don't have a hundred percent success rate either. But if you don't try to stop this nine year old boy on his path, what's going to happen to him? And everyone started describing what happened. Eventually at 12 he'll have a gun, right? And then someone's going to shoot him to stop him. Or you see, he's going to grow up to be someone that no one can trust. He'll never be able to hold down a job, he'll never have a happy family, all these consequences. And I'm thinking to myself, that's very true. Sin is self destructive and we don't do anyone any favor by letting them live in it. We tend to be so closed mouthed and so uptight and so nervous about saying to someone, you really shouldn't do that. That's not what God has revealed as the way of life for us. Because we're afraid they're going to come back at us and say who are you to talk to me, you know, you self righteous religious hypocrite or whatever it may be. We're afraid that people are going to respond that way. But you know, there's something within men and women that tells them it's true. Sin is not the path to happiness. Proverbs 11, 5, 6 stress that that the wicked shall fall by their own wickedness, the treacherous taken by their own lust. It's been said rightfully that a society does not go on forever breaking God's law before it breaks the society. And we see that all around us. Sin is self destruct us destructive. Look at our courts. Our courts are overloaded with cases, liability and tort cases where people are accusing one another over and over again over the slightest thing. Do you think we got happy by believing that we could go around just making arbitrary accusations, holding someone else accountable for what befalls us? Is our society happier now that the courts are backlogged in this way and judges are giving out inconsistent sentences? And you even debate what state you're going to sue somebody in to decide what kind of favorable treatment you're going to get? Absolutely not. It's conducive to confusion and to animosity. It does not bring reconciliation or repair. Look at Our society's sexual revolution back in the 60s, we thought that was the greatest, that the pill came along and freed women so they could be just as lax, just as loose in their sexual mores as men were. Boy, they really got a great deal out of that, didn't they? And so now what we have is just an incredible explosion of broken homes. I teach in a Christian school and I am heartbroken over the statistics of how many of those children in a Christian school come from a one parent home or a home that has seen divorce or remarriage. It has just inundated our society. And sexual looseness has brought alienation, has brought not just broken homes, but broken hearts. You have even unbelieving women writing, not that they've got religion, they've been born again and now they want to talk about how nasty it is to engage in sexual impurity. Women who don't believe that sex outside of marriage is immoral, but they believe that sex outside of marriage has ruined their lives, has not brought them happiness and fulfillment, has brought them a great deal of sexual shame, a great deal of emotional alienation, the breakdown of their lives. And of course, in the physical realm, we see it too, the scourge of herpes everyone is afraid of now, the physical consequences of that wonderful thing, sex outside of marriage. You see, Satan is continuing to be wily. He comes and he suggests to us, it's really going to be fun. It's really going to make you happy, it's really going to be beautiful. It's going to do something great for you. And in every case it does the very opposite. Homosexuality is the same way. We're so proud of our openness about sexual perversity. And now what we have to be proud of is that we have a plague in our midst that no one knows how to control. A society doesn't break God's law. God's law breaks a society. Abortion is the same way. In the wake of abortion, what we have is a greater lack of respect for human life, a greater incidence of child abuse. After all, if you can kill a child before it's born, why not knock it around after it's born? Then that mentality overtakes us. We think we'll be so happy, we'll be so free, it'll be to our advantage to be able to engage in abortion. And instead we create a society that is just steeped in unhappiness and alienation and abuse. Proverbs 11:17. The merciful man doeth good to his own soul, but he that is cruel troubles his own flesh. Old Testament version of Galatians chapter 6, verse 7. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. And that's positive and negative. The merciful man does good to his own soul. The proverb says, the consequences of living a merciful, just life is that you will have mercy shown to you. And that's true both now and eternally. In Luke the sixth chapter, verse 38, Jesus says, With what measure? That you mete it out to others, so it shall be measured out to you as well. Remember that. And so the merciful man, when he acts mercifully to others, finds that people turn around and do him favors too, act kindly toward him, and are generous and merciful toward him. And that's true eternally. In James 2:13, we read that those who live without mercy will not be shown mercy by God. Mercy does not get shown to those who are merciless. And so Proverbs tells us, the merciful man does good to his own soul. What he sows, he reaps. But it's true on the negative side of the ledger as well. We read here that he who is cruel troubles his own flesh. And we think of cruel people being bullies to others. They're troubling the flesh of others. They're making other people unhappy or uncomfortable. They're giving pain to other people. But the Bible says cruelty brings pain upon yourself. That word in Hebrew, by the way, for troubling, is very notable because it reminds you if you knew the Hebrew, it should remind you of Joshua. The seventh chapter. The story of Achan. Remember how Israel went out to war against the city of AI? They had destroyed Jericho, figured they had it made. The Israelites went up against AI, and they lost terribly. They had to run and panic. And Joshua, now what's going on here? There's something wrong. And God reveals him to him. Yes, there is. Because the devoted thing which is language, for that which is supposed to be given up in whole sacrifice to God. All of the merchandise, all of the money, all of the cattle, the clothes, and all the goodies of the city of AI were to be given to God in devoted sacrifice. They were put under the ban. But Achan, you see, he took some to himself. He saw a few robes that he thought looked pretty nice and some money that he could make use of, and he buried it in his tent. And God brought destructiveness upon the armies of Israel for that. And when that is revealed, Achan is brought out and he is stoned and the place is burned. And it's given a new name, which in Hebrew means trouble. That's sin for you. Trouble. A man who sins against God troubles his own soul. We're beginning to get the message. Sin is self destructive. Sin does not bring happiness. The consequences finally come round and are visited upon us. Look at verse 27 of our chapter. He that diligently seeks good, seeks favor. He that searches after evil, it shall come unto him. This is kind of a variant of the Golden Rule. What it says is what you seek for others, you will get yourself. He that diligently seeks good. The man who tries to be generous to others, the man who tries to do good and be kind to others and is actually seeking favor for himself, because that's what he's going to get in return. But on the other hand, he that searches after evil, lo and behold, evil will come to be sure, but it will come upon him. Think about that. Isn't it true you could give illustrations in just about every area of life? Let me just choose one this morning. Gossip and lies. We as Christians have a tendency to talk about sin. And in very grandiose terms, we talk about adultery and sexual perversity and extortion and murder and so forth. But the Bible talks just as much about what we think are little sins. And our little sins are that we gossip about people. We tend to lie, we tell stories. We don't get it exactly right. We exaggerate this or that feature. What happens to people who gossip and lie, though? I want you to think of someone not yourself, that would really be good if you thought of yourself first. But think of someone you know that has a reputation for always telling stories about other people, gossiping about them, or someone who's been caught distorting the truth, telling lies. Now why do people gossip and tell lies? Well, they destroy the reputation of other people, right? They seek evil for others and in seeking it, they find it. But you know who the evil is upon. It's upon themselves. Because now if you'll go back to that person you thought of, my guess is you don't like being around them. And when you're around them, you guard what you say because you know that what you say will be passed on to somebody else by the gossip. You know that you might be lied about. And so what you do is you tend to avoid that person. That person doesn't have a good reputation. And so let's put the whole picture together. Every one of these things I've told you, you Understand? But do you see the package? The package is someone who desires to destroy the reputation of others ends up destroying their own reputation by bringing other people down. You bring yourself down. That's just one of those natural consequences of sin. Proverbs 11:29 says, he that troubles his own house shall inherit the wind, and the foolish shall be servant to the wise of heart. When you unsettle your own house, the Bible says you're really damaging yourself. And how sadly I see that in counseling people about their children or about marital distress. People act in self destructive ways. They act in ways which are really not God honoring, really not kind, really not giving, merciful. They act in ways which are contrary to God's word and then they are just as surprised as can be that they don't have a happy family life. The Bible tells you, you know, you trouble your own house, you're asking a whirlwind to come on through. Give you an example. Imagine a person who pouts and who is stubborn about not getting his way or about getting her way. Now you think we're talking about children, and often we are. But husbands act that way too. Wives act that way too. Now what happens when you have a basically happy house, but one person on the team, as it were, decides that when he or she doesn't get her way, everyone else is going to be miserable? You have a real happy house, huh? Is the person who pouts and who acts stubborn really happy because now everybody is joyful and we're moving along harmoniously and getting what we want out of life? No, not at all. When you unsettle your house, you damage yourself. Would that we could say that. Turn to Proverbs 19:13. We have a few more verses that stress this and we'll close this morning. In Proverbs 19:13, a foolish. That's not what I want. Proverbs 19:3. The foolishness of man subverts his way and his heart frets against Jehovah. See, our own foolishness, our own sin brings us down. The foolishness of man subverts his own way. Memorize that, repeat that every morning when you get up. The foolishness of man subverts his own way. When you don't live in a God honoring way, you're just pulling yourself down. You're just getting in your own way. But you see, the rest of the verse is very true to human nature too. And his heart frets against Jehovah. My translation has actually the thought is he then blames God, frets against Jehovah, means he holds a grudge against God, he goes out. He lives his own foolish way, lives in sin and rebellion and disobedience, and things don't go well for him. And then he blames God. He says, why are you treating me this way? Why did this have to happen to me? Just note the perverseness of the judgments made by those who live in oblivion of God or who live in rebellion against God. They bring things upon themselves and then turn around and ask, why God do that to me? And so you've lived a life of sexual promiscuity and you've gotten a social disease. And you think to yourself, but not everyone who lives a life of promiscuity has gotten this social disease. So why is God picking on me? The heart frets against God. But of course you brought it upon yourself. And that happens over and over in life. It's not just the dramatic illustrations like sexual sin, but it happens when we lose friends. It happens when other kinds of calamity come into our life and we turn and say, God, you're picking on me. And God says, you brought it on yourself. Proverbs 21:7. The violence of the wicked shall sweep them away because they refuse to do justice. Those who truck in violence become their own executioners, the Bible says, because they're devoid of justice. And what better illustration in all the Bible than that of Haman? You remember Haman, the ruler over God's people that we read of in the Book of Esther, and how Haman loved people honoring him and bowing down to him. And there was this godly Jewish Mordecai who would not do so. And so Haman plots that he's going to get Mordecai. And as the story develops, eventually we read of Haman's gallows. He built a gallows that stood higher than any other gallows of that day. And he had it all set up that he was going to go into the king and get an indictment against Mordecai, and Mordecai would be hung there. But lo and behold, in the meantime, beautiful Queen Esther, just so happens to be Mordecai's cousin, goes to the king and tells him how Mordecai and the Jews had saved him and done good to them and so forth. And the king declares favor toward them. And about that time, Haman comes in and he asks for Mordecai's life. And the king is so outraged that Haman is sent to the gallows and dies at his own gallows. Boy, the Bible's teaching us A pretty important story there. The wicked are swept away by their own wickedness. Violence, you see, is visited upon their own head. Just think of violent revolution. What does violent revolution ever accomplish? It brings in a new government, you say, but it's a new government that must always live in fear that people will violently rise up against it. Violence begets violence. Revolution begets revolution. Robespierre at the beginning of the Reign of Terror, thought the use of the guillotine was great, to put people in their place. And then he lost his head because the people turned against him. The book of Proverbs tells us this. It's ancient wisdom that's timeless in its application. Proverbs 22:5. Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse. He that keeps his soul shall be far from them. Those who walk in crooked paths, the Bible says, will step upon thorns and snares, because a hard life is what's going to come to us when we live unrighteously. Now again, I can teach you to say those things. Are you beginning to see them? Are you beginning to look at the world differently? You're beginning to look upon your lies and your gossip and your stubbornness of heart and your lack of mercy and your lack of generosity. Are you seeing the lack of the fruit of spirit in your life? And your transgression of God's commandments is something that, that is really bringing an unhappy life upon you, is bringing great distress into your experience. Thorns and thistles and snares in the path of life for you. Do you see sin as self destructive? Well, there's one more verse and then we must close. Proverbs 29:6 repeats this theme when we read there. In the transgression of an evil man, there is a snare. But the righteous does run and rejoice. You see, those who try to live their lives unrighteously, they get snared. But those who live righteously, I mean, the picture is one of someone skipping along, whistling, singing a happy song. Life is carefree, life is good. We tend to think it's the opposite. We could cheat a little bit here, if we could be unfaithful sexually there, if we could use our mouths in an undisciplined way in this fashion, if we could be violent in this case, if we could rebel against authority, then we get what we want. What you're going to get is a snare to your life. I think of a person who has become wealthy in a dishonest fashion. Does it surprise you that there is a Huge suicide rate among people who are wealthy. It shouldn't surprise you if you read the Bible and you know those who get wealthy in a dishonest way, you know how they live the rest of their lives? In fear. In fear that some other dishonest person's going to come along and take it away from them now. And so they become enslaved to their own wealth. What they thought would make them happy has become an obsession in their life and it has brought them very far down. Sin cannot, sin does not make us happy. Jeremiah 5:25, the prophet says, you, sins have withheld good things from you. Proverbs 8:36. He that sins against me wrongs his own soul. All they that hate me love death. What is sin then? The Christian message is about sin. Sin is disobedience against God. Sin is inner defilement. Sin is self oriented lust. It is all those things. But sin is also self destructiveness. And what hope is there for people who are self destructive? You see, the problem is with this message, you recognize what I'm saying is true. I don't expect you all to stand up and make a confession of these things to others. But you know in your own experience what I'm talking about. You know that it's true. So what hope is there for you? Those who are self destructive, what can they do for themselves? The Bible tells us that sinners need to be saved from opposing themselves. That's the language of Paul in second Timothy 2, verses 25 and 26, when he talks about those who need to repent because they oppose themselves. Sin has brought us into a suicidal situation where we're working against ourselves, bringing ourselves down and we can't do anything for ourselves. And so I want to close this morning with the very comforting and happy words of the good shepherd. In John the 10th chapter, where Jesus says, in the words of John, the thief comes not, but that he may steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Jesus looks at us and sees us in our self destructiveness and he says, let me destroy myself for you. I am the good shepherd and I will lay down my life for you. I will give up my life so that you, you won't have to lose yours. I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. And so you want to get those snares and those thorns and thistles out of your path. You want to have that inner perversity of heart changed so that you'll stop doing those things that are so suicidal that make you so unhappy. Then look away from your own sin to the one who said, I'll die in your place. The one who said, in answer to your self destructive traits, I will sacrifice myself. See, in the end, the Christian message very simply is that Christ came to save us from ourselves. Let's pray. Father, we do come to you and and confess with such shame and a sense of foolishness that our lives, our lives that have been so self willed and self oriented are really all messed up and broken and bruised and hurting. And we've brought it upon ourselves because we wouldn't see how good it is to serve the Lord and to obey his word. We didn't trust you. We leaned to our own understanding and we listened to that wretched voice of the tempter when he told us, it'll make you happy, it'll give you satisfaction, you'll be able to get ahead. We confess now that we were so foolish. Sin has not been good to us. Sin has been so destructive, it has brought us so much unhappiness and we know that it will bring us death if we don't turn from it. And so this morning we want to thank you that we aren't left simply as sinners, broken down by a message of guilt, but that we are saved by your grace. That you sent one into this world. Indeed you came yourself in human flesh to lay down your life for the self destructive. You sacrificed yourself and your good and your reputation and took upon yourself our sins. That we might be saved, that we might be healed, that we might be put into the path of life, that we might have the scales lifted from our eyes, that we could understand the real nature of the world and what really brings human happiness and how good and healthy, how clean and strong, how blessed are your commandments because they reflect your holy character. We ask you to save us from ourselves, to save us from our sins and turn us around, that we might begin to enjoy life, life more abundant in the Savior, Jesus Christ, because it's in his name we pray. Am.