Verse by verse teaching - Proverbs 10:17 "The Way of Life"

Proverbs chapter 10 verse 17 tonight. Proverbs chapter 10 verse 17. The title of the message tonight is the way of life. The way of life. In our verse tonight Solomon is talking to us about the way of life and he compares those who travel on the roadway of life with those who stay away from it or run off of it and neglect it. Solomon says if you look in verse 10-17 with me we're going to read the whole verse first and then we'll break it down by God's grace. "He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction, but he that refuses reproof ereth. " So let's get comfortable now and settle down these nice petted pews or wherever you are in your home. And let's let God's Spirit feed us some marvelous truth. I've been excited about teaching God's word tonight. It is good. So let's look here now. He is in the way of life. If you were talking to someone that was traveling through Athens, my hometown, they would probably identify the highways by their numbers if they were traveling through. They'd say, "Well, this is Texas 19. This is Texas 31. This is US 175. " But if you were talking to a local, if you were talking to my mom or my dad, for example, then they would probably identify those highways not by their numbers but by their destinations. Older people in town and those who have been local for a long time, they may say, "Well, that's the Palestine Highway. " Well, you go out the Tyler Highway, Corsa, Canada, or Jacksonville Highway. And in tonight's verse, Solomon is identifying a roadway by its destination, like the locals in Athens. He's talking about the highway that leads to life. The way of life is not the Palestine Highway, but the life highway. It's the roadway that leads to life. Now, it will help us immensely tonight to understand, to take the mystery out of the way of life and put an aim to it. Because Jesus Christ is the way of life that Solomon is talking about. He is the only way of life. Isn't it beautiful when we can get to Proverbs and you look at something that looks so mysterious so mechanical and you put something so personal to it. Now, you've got a name to the highway. If you'll remember, Jesus said in John chapter 14 verse 6, Jesus saith unto him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. " But he says, "I am the way. " He's the highway. He's the life. He is the way of life. In our verse tonight, Solomon is describing a particular attribute of someone who is in the way of life, someone who is in Christ. He says that a person who's in the way of life is someone, look back in your text, that keepeth instruction. That keepeth instruction. Now, the Hebrew word that's translated instruction here is speaking about instruction in the sense of correcting someone, not in the sense of educating someone. Instructing them by telling them that they are wrong. That's the kind of instruction that we're talking about here tonight. Nobody likes to be told when they're wrong. But a person who's in the way of life is someone that keeps instruction. Meaning when they are told they're wrong about their sins, they take heed to that correction. They accept the fact that they're wrong and that they're being righteously corrected. He is in the way of life that takes heed to that correction, that listens and acknowledges the fact that they are sinners. They're wrong. Solomon said this is a characteristic of every person who's in the way of life. If a person, therefore, is unwilling to acknowledge the fact that they are a sinner, then simply put, they're not in the way of life. They don't know Jesus. Heaven's not their home. If a person is unwilling to acknowledge the fact that they're a sinner, they're not in the way of life. You know, there's a big debate that's been going on for years. I think it's stronger now than ever. And the debate is over whether or not repentance is necessary for salvation. Have you all ever heard of that debate? Anybody? Just me? I know Brother Shepherd's heard of it. I'm going to check the online comments in just a moment. But there's a debate, you've heard of it? All right. Over whether or not repentance is necessary for salvation. They say, "Well, you don't have to repent to be saved. We're saved by faith alone. " That's how they put it. They don't understand faith. They don't understand repentance, or it wouldn't even be a debate. True repentance is faith. True faith is repentance. It's one and the same thing. And so we're going to talk about that tonight. But he is in the way of life that keeps this instruction, that accepts this rebuke from God who tells them, "You are wrong. " God sent John the Baptist. We have several online who's saying it right now. They've heard of the debate. Thank you for that involvement. God sent John the Baptist to prepare the way for Christ. Now think about it. Jesus is the way of life. And God sent John to prepare the way for the way of life. You know when you're getting on the interstate? There's only one way to get on the interstate. Only one way. And that's an on-ramp. You don't have an on-ramp. You don't get on the interstate. So there's only one way to get on the way of life, and that's the way that John the Baptist brought us. John the Baptist's ministry was the on-ramp was the way to get on the way to life. Does that make sense? What was John the Baptist's ministry? He preached repentance. He was laying the on-ramp for us to get on the way of life. John's ministry was to prepare that way by people being told that they were sinners and that they needed a Savior. That's it. Speaking of John the Baptist's ministry, the gospel of Luke chapter 7 verse 29. Luke chapter 7 verse 29. I absolutely love this text. Thank you for having it up on the screen. Luke chapter 7 verse 29 says, "And all the people that heard him," this time about hearing John the Baptist, "all the people that heard him," John the Baptist, "and the publicans," say it with me those next two words, "justified God," being baptized with the baptism of John. Boy, it's going to get good now. Y'all ready? We hear all the time about God justifying us, don't we? That he might be just and the justerfie of him which believeth in Jesus. Now therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The Scripture is replete with the doctrine of God justifying sinners by our faith in his son. But here tonight, when we're looking at the ministry of John the Baptist, the ministry of John the Baptist was not about God justifying us. The ministry of John the Baptist was about us justifying God. Us justifying God was the on-ramp to God justifying us through Jesus. How can we justify God? I thought God just justified us. How does this work? When God justifies us, he makes us right. We are sinners. We are unholy. We are ungodly. We come short of the standard he set for us in his law and he takes the righteousness of Jesus Christ, imputes it to our account, and thereby makes us right in Christ. He takes someone that's wrong, credits them with Jesus, and now he's made them right. So when God justifies us, he makes us right. When we justify God, we admit he's right. You see the difference? Both of them are justification. And if you understand justification the way it's meant to be, you'll not only understand the ministry of John the Baptist, us justifying God, you'll understand what James was talking about when we're justified by our works. There's different types of justification. Works do not make you right. And here, this is not God making us right. This is us admitting that God is right. When John told them they were sinners and they went in that water like an unclean person, and John washed them in that Jordan River like, man, you're dirty. You need to be made clean. There's a Savior coming. He's going to wash you. He's going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit. I can only do it with water. And when they went in that water and John washed them off with that water in that Jordan River, do you know what they were doing by allowing him to do that? They were admitting we are unclean. We need someone to make us right. So they admitted God was right. They were baptized by John confessing their sins. And by confessing their sins and admitting God is right, they got themselves the position where God could then make them right, like him. We confess that God is right. And then through Jesus, God makes us just as right as he is through his son. We respond to the correction of a holy God and admit that he is right and we are wrong. And then God responds to the confession of that unholy sinner and makes us righteous to the blood of Christ. Luke said the people that heard John the Baptist justified God being baptized with the baptism of John. John told the people they were sinners in need of a Savior. Then hearing John's correction, they acknowledged that they were wrong. They were baptized with the baptism of repentance. A person in the way of life is someone who justifies God by admitting that they are a sinner and then God justifies them by imputing the righteousness of Christ to their account. He is in the way of life that keeps correction. He is in the way of life that acknowledges, "I am wrong. " If you understand this proverb tonight, then the epistle of John will make a whole lot more sense to you. Where John says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. " That's someone who will not accept the righteous rebuke of God. "No, I don't have any sin. " They're not admitting that God's right because God's testimony against us through John and through the Old Testament law from Mount Sinai, all of God's testimony against us is, "You are a sinner. " If we say, "We have no sin," what are we doing? We're not keeping that instruction. We're not accepting God's correction. If we're not accepting God's correction that we're a sinner, we're not in the way of life. You can't be in the way of life if you don't accept that correction. How can I trust a Savior who died for sins that I don't believe I'm guilty of? You see what I'm saying? You've got to, before you can accept the pardon, you have to plead guilty to the crime. For there is no pardon for a crime you refuse to admit you've committed. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That was what John was talking about. Those who refuse to accept God's rebuke and those who confess, "God, you are right. I am a sinner. " That's the highway to get onto the highway where God then justifies you through faith in Jesus. So He is in the way of life that keeps correction. Look back in your text. "But He that refuses reproof, erreth," and reproof and instruction. They're two different words but the same thing. They're talking about correction, God getting onto you until you're wrong. So a person that refuses God's reproof does not have the life of God's Son. John 7, 7. Jesus said, "The world cannot hate you, but me it hateth. " Why? "Because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil. " That is Jesus' testimony to the world. You are sinners. The world is an evil place. You need to be delivered from it. And the world hates Jesus because Jesus testifies against it. The people of God in the way of life love Jesus because He knows He's right. And we don't want to be sinners. We don't want to be unclean. We don't want to be broken in our sin. We want to be delivered from it. That's the reason they're not in the way of life because to get in the way of life you first have to accept God's testimony against your sin. It's impossible again to believe in a Savior who died for sins you're unwilling to admit you've committed. John 3, verses 19 and 20. The Gospel of John 3, verses 19 and 20. Jesus said, "And this is the condemnation. " In other words, this is why the world's being condemned. "That light is coming to the world in men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deed should be reproved. " They hate reproof. They hate being told that they're wrong. Jesus is the light of that world. But they won't come to Jesus because they don't want their sinful deeds to be corrected. They would rather keep their sins than keep God's correction of their sins. It's as simple as that. I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to the day when I don't sin anymore. I mean it. I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to the day when my sins are fully and eternally corrected, body, soul, and spirit through the Gospel. The people who write me on the internet for help about their salvation, they don't fit in this category. They have no problem being corrected with their sins. Their problem is not accepting the correction. Their problem is thinking they're so bad God doesn't want them. They're so bad they can't be saved. No, no, no. He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction. He is in the way of life that accepts that correction. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When we justify God, we have put Him in the position of justifying us through Jesus Christ. Praise God. The good news is God has already prepared the way for us to come to Jesus. When we acknowledge that we're a sinner, we justify God. And when we acknowledge that Jesus is our Savior, God justifies us. I'm going to repeat that again. When we acknowledge that we are a sinner, we justify God. When we acknowledge that Jesus is our Savior, God justifies us. Is that simple? That's just as simple as it can be. We acknowledge we're a sinner, we justify God. That's the on-ramp to the way of life. And then we acknowledge that Jesus is a Savior, God justifies us. He makes us right because we admitted He's right. He's right about our sin. He's right about His Son. That's repentance. Repentance is not getting on your knees and, "Oh God, I'm sorry for this, for that, for that," and the other had a man tell me today that he went back years and time, just the past couple of days, and went back and started forgiving everybody and trying to remember everything he needed to forgive people for and everything. And a lot of people think, "Well, I need to remember all of my sins. I need to confess them all to God. " No, no, no, no. The Bible says if you've broken one, you're guilty of the whole thing. Just acknowledge you're guilty of breaking God's law and that you need a Savior. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is repentance. Going from the position of saying, "I'm right," to saying, "No, I'm wrong, God's right, and I need Jesus. " That's repentance. People who don't want their sins corrected will never come to Christ. They won't because the purpose of the gospel is to fully and forever eradicate sin from the believer's life, to provide full correction through our death and resurrection with Jesus when He comes again. And people that don't come to Jesus, they don't want their sins corrected. They deny their need for a Savior, and so they err from the way of life. They refuse to unramp. They stay on the service road to hell. Watch the difference between those who accept God's correction and those who don't. Luke chapter seven again, please. Luke chapter seven, verse 29. Watch the difference between those who accept God's correction and those who don't. Luke seven, 29. "All the people that heard Him," talking about John the Baptist once again, "and the publicans justified God being baptized with the baptism of John. " That's those who keep instruction. Verse 30. "But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves. " God's counsel against them was, "You're a sinner. " And the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God's counsel against them. That's those who refuse reproof. Isn't that plain and clear? Verse 31. "And the Lord said, 'Where unto shall I liken the men of this generation into. . . " What are they like? "They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace and calling one to another and saying, 'We have piped unto you and ye have not danced. We have mourned to you and ye have not wept. '" What he's saying is this. We've tried everything. We've been preaching to you and you won't respond. We've tried being nice to you, we piped to you. You wouldn't dance. We've tried being harsh to you, you wouldn't cry. There's nothing we do. You have no response to the Word of God. Verse 33. "For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine and ye say he hath a devil. " John the Baptist came. He preached the need for repentance. You know what they said about John? He's possessed with a devil. We're not going to listen to him. Verse 34. "The Son of Man that is Jesus is come eating and drinking. You say, 'Behold a gluttonous man in a wine bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. '" Brother Shepherd, if he was here tonight, he would agree that that is an ad hominem attack, which means an illogical attack. An ad hominem attack is when you try to attack someone's character to argue against their message. It'd be like Abigail saying, "I saw Brother Richard take some tithe money out of the offering plate and put it in his billfold the other day. " That's a serious accusation. "And y'all were to come up to me and say, 'Brother Richard, Abigail said she saw you take money from the offering plate and put it in your wallet. Did you do that? ' And I'd say, 'Why, who would believe Abigail? She's just a kid. ' You see, I don't address the crime. I attack the person to try to invalidate the message. " That's what they did with John the Baptist. John the Baptist came saying, "Repent. He's got a devil. " Jesus came saying, "Repent and believe the gospel. " He's a friend of sinners. He hangs out with all these people. We're not going to listen to them. It didn't matter what you did. It didn't matter how you worded it, how you said it, how you presented the message. They're not going to respond. And it's not because you were too preachy. It's not because you went about the wrong way. It's because they hate the light and they don't want their deeds to be reproved. That's what Jesus said. That's simple. And so you had the publicans and the sinners justifying God and accepting the correction. You had the Pharisees and the lawyers justifying themselves and refusing the correction. Now look here if you would in verse 35. Jesus said, "These people, these lawyers and these publicans, they would not accept our message against them. " Verse 35, "But wisdom is justified of all her children. " Wisdom is justified of all her children. Now we can understand this verse better having understood Proverbs, having understood the ministry of John. Earlier in that text we just read, they justified God by being baptized by John. The other people refused John's baptism, justified themselves. And now Jesus said, "Yeah, these people rejected the counsel of God against them. But wisdom is justified of all her children. " What are we learning about in Proverbs tonight? We're learning about wisdom. Who is wisdom? It's Jesus. Who is the way of life? It's Jesus. Wisdom is justified of all her children. The wisdom of God is this. You and I are sinners. And in God's great love, He provided us a Savior if only we'll receive Him. Wisdom is justified of all her children. How do you justify God? You admit He's right. You confess you're right. King David did that whenever he, after he committed sin with Bathsheba, he confessed his sin. He said that you may be justified when you speak, God. I'm not going to admit I'm wrong. That way when you charge me with my wrong, you're justified when you speak against me. I confess you're right. We who are in the way of life are people who justify wisdom. Wisdom is justified of all her children. You want to know if you're a child of Jesus Christ? Do you acknowledge that Jesus is the way, the truth, and life for you? If you admit that Christ is the only way to God for you, you are justifying God's wisdom. Wisdom is justified of all her what? Children. The moment again, I acknowledge God is right, I justify God. I acknowledge that Jesus is the Savior. God justifies me. And when He justifies me, what happens to me? I am born again to as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God. I am now a child of God and having justified Jesus Christ, confessing He is my Savior and Lord, wisdom is now justified by her child of all her children. Does that make sense tonight? Wow, right here in Proverbs, and we can see who's on the road to life and who's not. When the children of God hear the rebuke of God, they justify God and acknowledge His wise correction. They acknowledge their sins and they accept the Savior He provided. We justify God, God justifies us, and we become the children of God, confessing the Son of God. Wisdom is justified of all her children. With that, we'll go ahead and close tonight. Praise God for a Bible in a seamless, a holy seamless between the Old and New Testament. Father, we thank You for the way of life. We thank You, Father, that we are on the way of life who justify our God. We are then thus justified by God. Tonight we confess, Father, that we are sinners and we confess that Jesus Christ is the only way to You. He is the Savior You sent. And I thank You, Father, Lord, in Romans chapter 10 about those who confess the Lord Jesus Christ. We understand the true meaning of that, Father, is not to pray a prayer, but it's the children justifying wisdom. It's the acknowledgement of the one and only way that we believe in for eternal life. In His precious name we pray. Amen.