Dr Greg Bahnsen - Proverbs: Proverbs 4 (The Straight and Narrow Road of Life) (Part 13)

Turn with me in your Bibles this morning to Proverbs, the fourth chapter. I would like to read that in its entirety as our scripture reading and text for the morning exhortation. Proverbs, chapter 4. Hear now God's word. Hear, my sons, the instruction of a father. And attend to no understanding. For I give you good doctrine. Forsake ye not my law. For I was a son unto my father, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. And he taught me and said unto me, Let thy heart retain my words, keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom, get understanding. Forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she will preserve thee. Love her, and she will keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore get wisdom, yea, with all thy getting. Get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote thee. She will bring thee to honor. When thou dost embrace her, she will give to thy head a chaplet of grace. A crown of beauty will she deliver to thee. Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings. And the years of thy life shall be many. I have taught thee in the way of wisdom. I have led thee in paths of uprightness. When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened. And if thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. Take fast hold of instruction. Let her not go, keep her, for she is thy life. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and walk not in the way of evil. Men avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass on. For they sleep not except they do evil. And their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is as the dawning light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as darkness. They know not at what they stumble. My son, attend to my words. Incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes. Keep them in the midst of thy heart, for they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee a wayward mouth and perverse lips put far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Weigh carefully the path of thy feet and let all thy ways be ordered aright. Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left. Remove thy foot from evil, and thus far the reading of God's word The Greek philosopher Diogenes is one of the leading examples of a cynic. He comes from the school of cynicism, Cynicism, which taught that men should not accept the ways of civilization, the mores of tradition round about them. They should be rugged individualists. They could make their own paths straight, as it were. They could decide for themselves what was right and wrong. Well, Diogenes the cynic was known as one who walked about in society with a lantern. And every time a man would come up to him in the middle of the day, he had his lit lantern and he would hold it forth. And when he would be asked why he was doing that, he said he was seeking an honest man. He looked in the midst of the darkness round about him for one honest man. If Diogenes were to come to the 20th century, I think he would be greatly disappointed. He would light his his candle and his lantern in the middle of the day. He would seek that one honest man, even as he did of old. And I wonder if he would find it. But you see, Diogenes would not simply have the problem that he did in the ancient Greek world of not finding a man who walked in straight paths. Diogenes today would be disappointed because in addition to not finding those who walk in straight paths, he would find a society that doesn't even believe in straight paths. He would find a society that doesn't care about straight paths. He would find a society that ridicules straight paths and moral uptightness. And being absolutistic about our ways of life. Diogenes would be greatly disappointed. But Diogenes was a wicked and sinful man. He was a cynic. Diogenes had a hard heart. Diogenes was not right with God and didn't understand the things of the spirit. If Diogenes would be disappointed in our society, what do you think a man of true spiritual insight would feel as he looks about him today? How do you think God looks upon our society? Proverbs, the fourth chapter, has a very important message for us. We're going to be looking at this for two or three Lord's days. There are other particular points I want to pick up on, but. But this morning I want to focus on the overall theme of the chapter, which is, I think, the straight and narrow path of life. Proverbs 4 rehearses some themes that are well known to us who have been going through this series. In the book of Proverbs, in verses 1 to 5, the author of Proverbs says, hearken to your parents. Hear my Sons, the instruction of a father attend to no understanding. For I give you good doctrine. Forsake ye not my law. For I was a son unto my father, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. And he taught me and said unto me, let thy heart retain my words, keep my commandments and live. Get wisdom, get understanding. Forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth. Here's a father's impassioned plea. Don't fall back from what I have taught you. Don't forget the instruction and the example that I have set. It is a sign of foolishness to put your parents words aside, to not submit to them. We saw this in a sermon entitled Parental Wisdom that I preached in Proverbs 1:7969 of our chapter. The author goes on to say that wisdom will adorn you, and wisdom will guard you. Forsake her not, and she will preserve thee. Love her, and she will keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore get wisdom with all of your getting. Get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote thee. She will bring thee to honor. When thou dost embrace her, she will give to thy head a chaplet of grace, A crown of beauty will she deliver to thee. And this has been a theme that has recurred in the past in Proverbs as well. Proverbs chapter 2. The entirety of that chapter taught us that wisdom guards us in many ways and adorns our lives. Wisdom is the principal thing. Then in verses 10 to 13 of chapter 4, wisdom brings us life. We are told, hear, O my son, and receive my sayings. And the years of thy life shall be many. I have taught thee in the way of wisdom, I have led thee in paths of uprightness. When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straightened. And if thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. Take fast hold of instruction. Let her not go, keep her, for she is thy life. And back in chapter three, verses 13 to 26, we considered previously wisdom as a tree of life, wisdom as the source of life for God's people. And then finally in verses 14 to 19 of chapter four, we're told that wisdom keeps us from running with the unrighteous. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and walk not in the way of evil. Men avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass on. For they sleep not except they do evil, and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is as the Dawning light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as darkness. They know not at what they stumble. Wisdom keeps us from even standing in the path of the unrighteous. We don't walk in the ways of the wicked. We don't sit in the scorner's seat. If we are wise, we stay far from it. You may recall how I preached on foolish consent from Proverbs 1:10, 19. Now, the point I'm trying to make is that in chapter four we have a rehearsal of some key themes that we've already gone over. Hearken to your parents. Wisdom is important. It will guard you and adorn your life. Wisdom will actually be the source of your life. Wisdom will keep you from foolish consent, running with the wicked, being unrighteous as the society round about you is. What does chapter four add then to our understanding? Well, I want to suggest that chapter four is there to remind us of these crucial themes, but it adds to those themes and very pointedly shows us that there are two paths that a person will have to choose between. There are two ways of life that a person must choose between. What we have in Proverbs, Chapter four is the recurring figure of the two roads, one a road of life and the other the road to destruction. This is one of the figures of speech that's used over and over again in the Bible, the idea of a path or a way or a road of life. We see it again in Proverbs 16, 17. If you want to turn with me there. The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. He that keepeth his way, preserveth his soul. The highway of the upright, the way in which they travel the course of life that they take, is to depart from evil. And if you maintain your way, if you keep your way, you will preserve your soul. The book of Proverbs exhorts us to take a look at what we're doing, what kind of life we're living, where are we headed? It's one of the key signs of foolishness in our age today, that the people round about us rarely think about consequences, rarely think about outcomes, think about goals and aims and the direction of their life. People live pretty existentially, if you don't mind me using that term, on a day to day basis, as people who don't have some essential moral obligation, some goal for life, but day by day choose what they will do, what kind of people they will be, and what will give them happiness or pleasure or satisfaction in life. The book of Proverbs says, attend to your way. Look at the path you're on. Consider the outcome of the life that you're now living. This figure of speech, a way of life, or a road of life, is used also in the prophets who tell us of the coming salvation that will be ours. Isaiah 35, 8, 10 Isaiah 35 at the eighth verse and a highway shall be there, and a way and it shall be called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for the redeemed, the wayfaring men, yea, fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up thereon. They shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of Jehovah shall return and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads, and they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. This is a beautiful prophecy of the coming day of salvation. And the righteous and the redeemed of God will walk on the way, and they will come unto Zion, and there will be no beasts to attack them, and there will be no wicked man in that way, and all sighing will pass away, and joy will be in their hearts. Thus the salvation of our God will be evident. The Way of Life Proverbs says, pay attention to the highway of life. The prophets say, the day is coming when there will be a way of life, a highway in which the righteous shall walk. The psalmist himself, anticipating the coming Messiah, saying, out thou wilt show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of joy in thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. How important is that psalm? It's quoted on the day of Pentecost. Peter refers to this psalm, and he says, you know the Messiah had to rise from the dead. You know that God would not allow his righteous one to see corruption because the promise was made. You will show me the way of life. And so this figure of a way of life, a road, a highway that we are walking in, is very important that you might be willing to accept that. You probably knew that if you would have thought about it in advance. But I'd like to illustrate for you just how crucial that metaphor is in the Bible. In the New Testament in particular, the expression the way comes to describe and be closely affiliated with the Christian faith, probably because the Savior himself called himself the way, the truth, the life, and said, no man comes to the Father, but by this way. Only on this path will one reach the Father. John 14:6. And so the Christian lifestyle and Christian doctrine and teaching came to be called. Now listen to this. We won't have time to look up all the passages, although you may wish to write them down and check them out. It comes to be called in the New Testament the way of righteousness. 2nd Peter 2:21. It is called the way of salvation, Acts 16:17, it's called the way of God, Acts 18:26. And the way of the Lord, Acts 18:25, it's called the way of truth, 2nd Peter 2:2. The way of peace, Romans 3:17. You know you have to do this cross reference study for this to hit you. You know, in the days of the New Testament, this was technical language. This was stylized language. This was a common metaphor, the way Christians walk in the way Christians are on the road of life. And that's why the Christian church comes to be called, very simply, the Way. I want to look at these passages with you in the Book of Acts, Acts 9:2. We'll begin with Acts 9:2 says, and ask of him letters to Damascus unto the synagogues, that if he found any that were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Any of the way. We might have expected him to say any of the Christian church. Well, of course, that's what it means. But the church was called the Way. Look at Acts 19:9. But when some were hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the way before the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples. They spoke evil of the Christian church and manner of life and teaching the way. Look at verse 23 in the same chapter. And about that time there arose no small stir concerning the way, chapter 22, verse 4. And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women, he says. And then one more, chapter 24, verse 22 in the book of Acts. But Felix, having more exact knowledge concerning the Way, deferred them, saying, and I won't complete the reading. The point is that throughout the Book of Acts, in the earliest days of the Church, Christians were considered the way because they preached what the way of life and the road of life, and Jesus as the only way to God. There is also in biblical reckoning, a path that leads to destruction, a path that leads to death. And the contrast between these two ways is what we find taken up in the Book of Proverbs. And so let's look at this in Proverbs, the fourth chapter and preceding. The author of Proverbs wants us to know that there is first of all, a path of wisdom, a way of life characterized by righteousness. This is a recurring theme. Look at Proverbs 2, 7:9. First of all, he layeth up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to them that walk in integrity, that he may guard the paths of justice and preserve the way of his saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness and justice and equity. Yes, every good path. You see, wisdom makes us walk in a certain road, in a certain way down a certain road. Proverbs 2, 19, 20. Continue the theme. None that go unto her return again, neither do they attain unto the paths of life. That thou mayest walk in the way of good men and keep the paths of the righteous. Look at Proverbs 3, 6. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct thy paths. Verse 17. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. Verse 23. Then shalt thou walk in thy way securely, and thy foot shall not stumble. And then chapter four, which is our text for this morning. Verse 11 I have taught thee in the way of wisdom I have led thee in paths of uprightness. The 18th verse says, but the path of the righteous is as the dawning light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. So the author of Proverbs in each of these chapters has repeatedly come back to the idea of you're walking in a way, you're on a certain road. This is a path that is yours to stay in. On the other hand, the book of Proverbs sets out a path of foolishness and a path of wickedness that must be acknowledged. Proverbs 2, 12, 15. To deliver thee from the way of evil, from the men that speak perverse things, who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice to do evil and delight in the perverseness of evil, who are crooked in their ways and wayward in their paths. Verse 18. For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead. Then chapter 4, verses 14 and 19 pick up the same theme. The way of wickedness unto death. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and walk not in the way of evil men. Pardon me. Verse 19. The way of the wicked is as darkness. They know not at what they stumble. There are two paths. Is the thing clear enough to you? Has it gotten through your head? The Bible says, think about where you're going. You've chosen a road. A road will lead to a destination. You must be on one or the other. The fact that these two Paths, these two roads are polar opposites, could hardly be more clearly taught than in the Book of Proverbs. We are told in chapter two, what we just read, that the one way leads to death, into the realm of the dead, and the other is a road not only of life, but a road leading to life, the road of the living, who will know eternal life ahead. Another form of expression that indicates the difference between these two, the contrast between these two is in Proverbs 4, 18, 19. The path of the righteous is. Is as the dawning light. The way of the wicked is as darkness. Two roads. What do we want to say about that this morning? Well, I think perhaps the most helpful thing that I might point out to you about this contrast is that the modern world refuses to accept it. This is amazing to me. And one of the commentaries that I consult from time to time on the book of Proverbs 1 by John Collins on pages 19 and 20, I'd like you to hear what Mr. Collins has to say about the Word of God at this point. I mean, the book has just drawn the contrast so sharply, so clearly, and it's a persistent biblical theme. And yet we have someone who dares to write about God's Word and commenting upon it these words, the book of Proverbs often leaves us with the impression that humanity is divided into two cleanly distinct categories, the righteous and the wicked, with no overlap and no ambiguity. 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 of should beware of the danger of oversimplification. However, it would be a mistake to take every formulation that we find in Proverbs as absolute truth. Everything admits of some qualification. And I continue my reading. In fact, the kind of sharp contrast we find in these chapters has little value as a description of humanity. People can never be so cleanly divided between right, wrong, wrong. And then he ends his discussion of this paragraph. He says the clear cut contrast of the two ways can be useful then, but we must be quite clear on its limitations. It is a deliberately overdrawn caricature, not an accurate description of reality. Those are amazing words to find in a commentary on the Word of God, aren't they? But you know what they reflect. Of course, they aren't a comment upon the Word of God at all. They're a comment upon the mindset of the author. They tell us much more about the man writing the commentary than they do about the literature on which he's commenting. And what I want to say about this is that John Collins is just being a modern man. It really is not a surprise that when men come to comment on the word of God, that the relativism of their age, since they aren't true believers and they don't submit themselves to first and foremost to the word of God, since they don't do what Proverbs says to make the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom. It's no surprise, therefore, that he brings his own presuppositions and his own outlook to bear upon the Bible. And what is his outlook? It's the outlook of modern relativism. You see, modern men wish to cover their own impure record by making things necessarily fuzzy. Isn't that true? Think about that. You know why people want morality to be a fuzzy area that nobody can know for sure? Because if morality is fuzzy, no one is clearly wrong. No one clearly stands in the glaring light of God's righteousness condemned. And so we take note of Collins desire to complicate things. He says, don't oversimplify. And his desire to exceed to ambiguity. Everything in life is ambiguous. No one can know for sure. So the book of Proverbs may draw, you know, this story and this contrast between a way of life and a way of death, but nothing is ever that clear. We know that everything's ambiguous and everything's fuzzy. Modern men wish to cover their impure record because if things are fuzzy, no one gets exposed. Modern men do not wish to bow to the authority and the holy omniscience of God. I can't help but remember Jean Paul Sartre writing in his autobiography Words, how the day came when he got tired of God looking at him continually, or at least as he thought, the perception that God was seeing him glaring at him. And so he says, the day came when he collared the Holy Spirit and threw him out the window. Blasphemous words, daring words to say, I will not have a God who knows everything about me and sees me inside and out. Modern men don't want to bow to the authority of a holy, omniscient God. And so we note that for Collins, not everything in God's word, he says, not everything in Proverbs, can be taken as absolute truth. What we have here are these sayings that the Israelites asked back and forth, passed down from generation to generation, that kicked around. It was a matter of common sense, but it's not the absolute truth of God. And he says it can never happen that we cleanly divide between right and wrong. Never. Not even on the day of judgment. Not only the all knowing God, he can't divide between the right and the wrong. Never, he says. And since modern men wish to cover their impure record by making things fuzzy, and since modern men will not submit to the authority of a holy and omniscient God, it should be no surprise to you that they end up in utter foolishness. Utter foolishness. The vanity of this ridiculous Bible commentary is incredible. Here's a man who tells us, and I want you to hear this sentence and think about it. Everything admits of some qualifications. Everything. A man could stand a little clearer thinking, couldn't he? Maybe a course in reasoning would be helpful to this gentleman. Since he won't submit to the word of God, he thinks he knows better and he can qualify the word of God. He says something which is utter foolishness. Why is it if everything admits of some qualifications, then the statement that everything admits of some qualifications itself admits of some qualifications? If everything admits of qualifications and then we qualify that sentence, it ends up reading some things admit of no qualification. And so here you have a man who says something that implies in its very nature that what he has said is untrue. Everything admits of some qualifications. Therefore what I just said admits of some qualifications. Because there are some things that don't admit of qualification. You know, in the space of two paragraphs, that's quite an accomplishment, to display your foolishness like this. And when people defy the mind of God and will not submit to the word of God, Paul tells US In Romans 1, they follow a fool's errand and their hearts are hardened and their minds are darkened and they end up behaving like fools. Relativism, that view that says there is no absolute truth, there is no absolute moral judgment that can be made that everything is qualified by subjective factors. Relativism is the most basic moral disease of our age. What I was getting at in my opening this morning is that Diogenes found a lot of impure men in Greek society. But in our society we glorify impurity. We deny the possibility of cleanliness. We think that everyone walks in crooked paths, and that's just fine. Relativism is the moral disease of our age. Indeed, moral absoluteness is extremely unpopular. It's ridiculed on television, it's ridiculed in the other entertainment media as what? A provincial form of self righteousness? If someone were to portray the idea that there is an absolute right and wrong, a black and A white, a way of life and a way of death. You can be sure on modern TV it would be somebody who is some hick who thinks so well of himself when we can expose all of his impurities. It would be some provincial self righteous fool. That's the way our modern world looks at it. Academically, moral absolutes are rejected. In sociology where the prevailing opinion is cultural relativism, every culture has its own way of looking at right and wrong. In psychology it's rejected by behaviorism, that tells us there are no moral absolutes, that all of our thoughts are generated by stimulus response mechanisms in our own society. In philosophy it's rejected. In the emotivist school it tells us that when we speak of ethics we aren't even trying to inform people of right and wrong. We we're just venting our own emotions. And in modern theology, of course you know it's rejected because the leading candidate for the modern theologians ethical point of view is situation ethics. Relativism is engulfing us. This should horrify you. It should concern you when you watch tv. It should sicken you. I want to tell you this morning that relativism, relativism is first of all hypocritical. Relativism is hypocritical because if everything is relative, there is no room for those who would reform the status quo. It never ceased to amaze me. When I was a college student in the 60s, the same people who would tell us that you cannot condemn premarital sex or taking drugs or what have you because everything's relative to were the people who were most indignant about the war in Vietnam, most indignant about racial discrimination. These are the same people who can stand up and declare with just the fervor of utter holy absolutes, one point of view and then turn around and say, but nobody knows for sure. Everything's relative. Utter hypocrisy. That's what relativism creates. You cannot campaign against discrimination in war if you don't have a solid foundation of moral absolutes. Relativism is not only hypocritical, it is impotent. Relativism is impotent because it cannot insist on its own unchanging value. When a relativist says everything's up for grabs, no one knows for sure and therefore you shouldn't be condemning homosexuality or abortion or what have you. Then we should ask the relativist, are you absolutely sure of your own foundation? Is your relativism an unchanging value? Well, of course, a consistent relativist has to say, well, it's not an unchanging value. There are no unchanging values. So he can't even be sure of his own point of view. So impotent is his philosophy and he can't convincingly criticize values that are proposed by others. When I studied at SC under John Hospers, who is well known, perhaps the best philosophically astute libertarian available in these days, it never ceases to amaze me how libertarians should say no one condemn another man's pleasures, no one should condemn another man's lifestyle, that everyone must be content to do what he wants to do and leave his neighbor free to do what he wants to do. And then when we propose the idea, the way I get happy though is by beating up my neighbors and raping their wives, he would say no, but that's interfering with their liberty. That's interfering with their safety. Yes. So where does a libertarian, where does a libertarian get one? Forget all the others but one moral absolute. Leave your neighbor alone. I mean, if there was ever a smorgasbord approach to moral absolutes, that's it. Everyone must respect everyone else's rights. Why in a relative universe, why? Why shouldn't the stronger beat up on the weaker? Relativism, I tell you, is impotent to maintain its own position, impotent to criticize the position of others. Not only that, relativism is incoherent. It's the view that it is absolute, that there are no absolutes. I'm absolutely sure that there can be no absolutes. And relativism is legalistic self righteousness in disguise. You know, under the disguise of being casual and laid back and not criticizing anybody and letting everybody have their way. The relativist is the biggest legalist, the most self righteous person imagined a downright pharisee, in the guise of letting everybody do what they want to do. Because you see, you have to ask, how does the relativist know there are no rules? The relativist will say there are to be no rules whatsoever, thereby making his own what rule? The one rule that there are to be no rules. How does the relativist know there are no rules? What's the source of his claim? Well, it isn't God, obviously. That's what relativists are trying to get away from. And relativists have not looked at every possible situation in the world, so it can't be based on their own experience. And so when he says there's absolutely no rule, do you know what the relativist is doing? He is playing God. He will be the one who declares there are to be no rules. And lo and behold, it's not just in that general sense. You will find that relativists have their own rules, but they aren't rules based upon an analysis of scripture, a revelation from God, knowledge of all the circumstances in life or anything like that that are the relativist's own personal feelings laid down as rules. Pharisaical, self righteous, legalistic relativism. How's that for a combination? Ridiculous. And finally, relativism is degrading in its consequences. That should be obvious. We've been living in a relativistic world, academically and socially for the last 30 to 40 years. And what's the consequences? Look at the sexual perversion round about us. God afflicts us with aids. God afflicts us with all sorts of social diseases and we think this is liberation. Look at the world round about you. Where is there in any business relationship a true sense of trust that when so and so says it, he will keep his word? I don't have to worry about lawyers, I don't have to worry about contracts. A man's word's as good as his bond. That's a joke. In the business world today, no one shows integrity. Our government doesn't show integrity. People say what they need to say because the situation demands it and then they're later exposed and everyone says, oh, tsk tsk. But it happens all around us. Look at the wanton destruction of innocent lives and the abortion mills of our country. And so look at relativism. What do you think of this fine John Collins point of view? Everything is, everything is open to qualification. There are no absolutes. We couldn't possibly believe Proverbs when it sets it out this way. Look at its hypocrisy and look at its impotence and look at its incoherence and its legalistic self righteousness and look at its consequences. And there you have relativism for you. Now I much prefer the word of God. I much prefer submitting to what he has to say to us. And the word of God tells us there is a road that leads to life, and that road is strange, straight, and that road is narrow. Proverbs 4, 11. I have taught thee in the way of wisdom. I have led thee in paths of uprightness, literally in paths of straightforwardness, not meandering paths, not crisscrossing paths, not paths that double back upon themselves and go contradictory ways, but a straightforward path, one that is right, morally Right. And one that is to be preferred to be chosen. It's the right choice. Proverbs 4:12. When thou goest, thy step shall not be straightened. And if thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. But verse 19 says, the way of the wicked is as darkness. They know not at what they stumble. Not only do the wicked stumble, don't even understand their stumbling. They don't even know what they're tripping over. But if you walk in the path of life, there'll be no stumbling for you. You indeed, those who walk in the way of the wicked, are lost and confused. The Bible says they walk in the darkness. But the path of the righteous, verse 18, is as the dawning light that shineth more and more into the perfect day. Such a beautiful image. If you've ever driven across country and at daybreak you've been heading east. Well, you know what this is talking about? How you see just the faint glimmers of sun on the horizon and then the rosy fingers of dawn, and then more and more, and then finally the brightness of the sun and then the noonday. And that's the path of the righteous straight ahead. More and more light, more and more enlightenment, more and more purity. Day by day, the path of the righteous. But the wicked don't even know where they're going. Don't even know why they're stumbling and why they're so confused. Then finally, Proverbs 4:25, 27. Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. You know what we need? Very literally, I know it's a degrading image, but we need a horse's blinders. The Bible says, look straight ahead. Don't glance over to notice what the wicked are doing. Don't look to this side or to the other to be distracted. Look straight ahead. Weigh carefully the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be ordered aright. See to it that you are careful in the way that you go. This last summer, my family made a trip around the United States. We loved it. It was a great time. But, you know, it would have been utterly miserable without a map. And not just the map. We went to the automobile club and we had them put together one of these little triptychs, you know, that tells us every little path to go. Here, there, everywhere. And marked out where there is construction work and marked where there is a bad road and mark what the highway signs would tell us and what we should be looking for to make sure we didn't end up going east. Or west, north or south, out of St. Louis in the wrong direction helped us so that we knew the way we should go. We weighed carefully the path we should take. And that should be our attitude toward life. We do that when vacations come up. But about our lives, we are just carefree, you know, who knows where I'm going, what I'm doing, and what the outcome of my life's gonna be. The Bible says, weigh it carefully. Look straight ahead, check the map. Watch out for destruction. Don't go this way or that. Don't fall into the ditch. Verse 27. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left. Remove thy foot from evil. And so don't compromise and don't rationalize, don't relativize. Not a little to the left, a little little to the right. Straight and narrow. Straight ahead to life. It follows a straight and narrow way, this path of life, where there are no exceptions and no departures to be condoned. You take an off ramp from the road of life, you're dead. Our age is afflicted with the syndrome of yes, but yes, we should be righteous, but yes, we shouldn't tell lies, but yes, we should be sexually pure. But, but, but not to the right hand or to the left. Should you follow this yes, but syndrome? Well, the road of life, I've told you, is a crucial theme in the Bible, and it's one that should not be relativized. As though while everything's fuzzy and ambiguous, who could know for sure the book of Proverbs is to be taken seriously. So seriously, you this morning consider which road are you on? I don't mean what would you like to be on? I don't mean if you were to choose the outcome of your life, what would you prefer? I'm asking what choices have you made that have put you on a road that is taking you a certain place and where are you going? Our Lord Jesus Christ, I think, gives us a fitting conclusion to this line of thought. When in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew, the seventh chapter, he said, enter in by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many are they that enter in thereby. But narrow is the gate and straightened the way that leads unto life. And few are they that find it. There are a whole lot of different roads in this world today, all sorts of paths. And we have people whose philosophy of life is kind of like the Sunday driver. I'm just going to drive around, so see what I see. A little existentialism here. A little relativism there, a little humanism there, little Marxism, a little socialism, little capitalism. Just kind of. There's all sorts of roads of life today, aren't there? The Bible tells us that many of those roads, most of those roads are very wide, meandering highways just kind of go everywhere. Easy to get on them, you know, plenty of room. And they meander to a dead end. But there is a highway that is level and closely defined and straight that takes you to your destination. Which do you prefer? If you see a road map, where a road just kind of goes everywhere, no matter how broad it is, but you see a narrow road that takes you right to the place you want to be, which do you choose? Life is like that, friends. It's the message of the Book of Proverbs, and it's the message of the wisest teacher of all, our Savior, Jesus Christ, who said, you better realize that the road to life is straight and it's narrow. We'd better not stop our consideration there, though, because the fact is that if you're listening to me this morning, you know very well that you're not on that road. Because all of us, even those who profess the name of Jesus Christ, are not walking in a straight and a narrow fashion. What hope is there then for lost travelers like us? What hope is there for people who keep making the wrong turn and messing up the direction of their lives? Sound like somebody, you know, like someone sitting in your seat right now. What hope is there for you? I'm glad Jesus didn't just teach about the road, road of life being straight and narrow. I'm all the more glad that he taught that he ultimately was the way, the truth, and the life. And if any man wishes to come to the Father, though that is a straight and narrow path. If you are left to yourself and in your own merits, you will find that you are not walking it. The only way to walk the straight and narrow path, the only way, is to come by the Savior, Jesus Christ. Christ, to know that he is the way to bring us to God. That he is the One who straightens out the crookedness of our lives. That he is the One who redeems us from all of our mistakes and all of our inconsistencies. That he is the One who brings us to the very throne of grace, because he alone was the One who walks that straight and narrow path. If you're not on that path this morning, and I bid you, for God's sake and for your ultimate salvation, to come and bow before Jesus Christ and say, christ, I need you because I just can't walk this way anymore. Say to Christ that he is your only hope and that your life is given to him so that he, in the power of his spirit, might put your feet in the paths of life. Let's pray. Our Lord, we pray this morning that you would forgive us for the way in which we meander through life without concern for righteousness. Indeed we confess what your word teaches us, that when we were slaves of sin, we were carefree regarding righteousness. We cared little for it, we did not like the way it bound us in. And we broke down the hedges, we broke down all of the fences, we transgressed all the boundaries because we didn't want to stay in the way of life. And yet now we see the destructiveness of our choices. We see the utter outcome of death that will be ours. And so we do pray that you might restore us to life and put us into the path of life. That you might receive us for the sake of Jesus Christ, that we might come to you through him, through as the only true road of life. We pray that you would do this and receive our gratitude and strengthen us by your spirit to begin again to walk in a way that pleases you in the paths of righteousness. Yea, for your name's sake. For it's in Jesus name that we are praying. Amen.