If Sinners Entice Thee

Introduction to Proverbs and its Foundational Principles

0:04 in this very unique book of Holy Scripture,

0:10 one in which the very title indicates its uniqueness. For the Proverbs is a declaration of a peculiar literary form, a means of conveying truth in pithy, catchy statements of principles which apply in many areas,

0:32 a great benefit of which is that a proverb attacks the mind with unusual vigor, and then it attaches itself to the mind with unusual tenacity. And those of you who have been following the suggestion I made a few weeks ago that you read one chapter in Proverbs each day corresponding with the day of the month, I'm sure you've already begun to find that in the most unlikely situations, some of those truths have clung to your mind as much as you feel like I am sure that you have a sieve where you ought to have a mind at times. It turns all apparent knowledge into absolute folly. And then beginning with verse 8, we saw that the setting of these first nine... In our previous studies, we have looked at some very basic matters relative to this literary form, the proverbial form of communication.

1:29 The authors of this book, predominantly Solomon, but other authors as well, but of course, included in the canon upon which our Lord himself set his imprimatur, upon which the apostles set their approval. The essential author is God himself. This comes within the compass of those sacred writings which are God-breathed and therefore profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work. And then Solomon, as a good author will do in his proverbs, preface tells us what he had in mind in giving us the proverbs.

2:09 And so we studied the purpose of this book as delineated in verses 2 through 6, three purposes in general, and then purposes directed to three specific groups, to the simple, to the young, and to the wise man. And then we studied together verse 7, which is the canopy text of the entire book, wrench the rest of Proverbs loose from verse 7 and all you have, are empty moralisms. All you have is a manual on practical ethics. But because verse 7 stands where it stands and the concepts there are so sweeping, we understand that this is in the highest sense of the word, a religious book for the chief part of that knowledge which Solomon would convey to his readers. The chief part of that knowledge is the fear of the Lord. Knowledge which can only be had when the true God is known, when the true God is loved, when the true God is reverenced, when in every department of life, coming under the general sphere of knowledge, when in every department God is acknowledged, what he's revealed about that department of life, his claims over us in the relationship of that facet of life. And so verse 7 then is assumed in everything else, it follows, so that we do not understand verse 8 and 9

3:39 if we wrench those concepts loose from that which is the chief part of every other kind of knowledge that is given to us in this book. And then last week we considered then the first directive of the father to his son or of the tutor to his pupil, one in which he's admonished to heed the instruction of the father and to forsake not the law of his mother, indicating that in obedience, obedience to parental instruction, when that instruction is derived from the fear of God, is the way to true beauty, the chaplet of grace about the head, and the way to true nobility, the chains of royalty about the neck. Now tonight we come to verses 10 through 19. I shall read them, give a brief resume of the structure of this section, and then come back and focus our attention upon verse 10. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause, let us swallow them up alive as sheol and whole as they that go down into the pit, we shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil, thou shalt cast thy lot among us, we shall find all precious substance, we shall cast thy lot among us, we shall find all precious substance, we shall find all precious substance, we shall all have one purse.

Structure of Proverbs 1:10-19 and the Importance of General Principles

5:08 My son, walk not thou in the way with them, refrain thy foot from their path, for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. For in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird, and these lay wait for their own blood. They lurk privily for their own lives. So are the ways of every one that is greedy, of gain it taketh away the life of the owners thereof now it should be obvious to us that the basic structure is very very clear even at a first reading in verse 10 we have a general warning my son if sinners entice thee consent thou not it is a warning with reference to the influence of evil companions next to the fear of god and respect for god appointed instructors perhaps there is nothing more practical to the life of a young person than the kind of companions he chooses and the influence he allows those companions to have over him so having instructed us in the chief

6:27 part of knowledge the fear of god the chief means by which that knowledge comes to us godly parental instruction you , then moves into this chief area of concern for any young person the choice of and response to his companions and so the general warning is given by the father to his son by the tutor to his pupil against the evil influence of evil companions then in verses 11 through 19 we have a specific application of the general warning if they say you, then moves into this chief area of concern for any young person the choice of and response of evil companions in this verse for example find children the grown children they should freely either be stripped of their children or give you the quality of our children if they become that piece of grain the path that God for children then if they do notном waking up from this here act the first or if they would only be able to hear the audience and listen to them if theyープ or iCC is the main gift from the child is to be able to be catibered with this language to automatically accept the law and to have these family and with them knowing them So he takes the general principle and applies it in one specific application. So then our responsibility when we come to a passage like this, where you have a general principle and a specific application, is first of all to isolate the principle.

7:53 See it in its breadth and in its comprehensiveness, so that when we come to a specific application, we do not think that this is the only application. And one of the great problems with many Christians is that they have the mentality that wants a checklist which covers all contingencies and all possible circumstances. And they're at the mercy of any situation for which they cannot find some indexed chapter or verse in the Bible. Well, you see, it's because they don't pause long enough to grasp the general principles, understand the principles, then see how they work out in a given application.

8:36 Now they are furnished for the working out of that principle in many applications. And it's in this sense that the Scriptures are the sufficient rule of faith and of practice. Some Christians have wondered, well, is the Bible really sufficient to furnish a man for every good work? There are so many situations in my life to which the Bible doesn't speak directly.

9:00 No, of course not. If the Bible were to, if the Bible were to anticipate every possible situation of every believer in every age, in every culture, throughout the history of the church, why, this room couldn't hold the volumes it would take. But within the pages of this book is every principle necessary for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. And it is our responsibility then to hone up our mental faculties and to think hard and long and to seek to grapple with those general principles that we might be furnished to face the specific situations that arise in our lives.

Three Dominant Lines of Thought in Proverbs 1:10

9:43 So much then for the general structure of verses 10 to 19. Tonight we shall focus only upon verse 10, the general principle, God willing next week, the specific application of the principle, the warning against ill-gotten gain contained in verses 11 through 19. What do we have then in verse 10? Well, let me suggest there are three dominant lines of thought.

10:09 First of all, there is a relationship assumed in the text. My son, my son, a relationship assumed. Secondly, a situation contemplated. If sinners entice thee, the father or the tutor is assuming a situation which may arise in the life of his son or his pupil.

10:31 And so he contemplates. He contemplates that situation. So you not only have a relationship assumed, a situation contemplated, and then a directive given. If sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

The Assumed Relationship: Filial Affection and Fatherly Authority

10:44 Here is the positive direction. Well then, let's go back over those three divisions of thought and seek to flesh them out some for our profit. First of all, a relationship assumed. As the truth of this text comes to us, may the Lord help us, to feel the weight of it, in the framework that that son or that tutor should feel it.

11:10 As we indicated last week, the term my son can be the relationship of an earthly father to his earthly offspring. This could well be Solomon writing out a manual of the practical expressions of the fear of God for his own son. Or it could be the master speaking to his tutor, for the tutor regarded the master, as his father. But in either case, there are two elements present in this relationship which Solomon assumes to this one whom he is instructing.

11:44 He assumes there is a relationship of filial affection. My son. There is that deep bond between a father and his own son. And there is secondly, fatherly authority.

11:57 My son, I'm the father, you're the son. And these two strands, these two strands of thought meet wherever this term is used in the book of Proverbs. And it's not there just idly. It's there because Solomon and the Holy Ghost through Solomon wants every believer to consciously remember the relationship he sustains to the one who gives the instruction.

12:23 So that as this son listens to these words, he is bound in love to the one who speaks them, he is consciously and delightfully, delightfully submissive to the one who speaks them. Now we live in a day that sets filial affection and fatherly authority as enemies. Two things that cannot exist in the same place and in the same heart at the same time. Love and obedience.

12:51 Law and love. These are looked upon as enemies. But that's foreign to the biblical thought. The biblical thought fuses these things again and again, so that the biblical thought fuses these things again and again, so that the biblical thought fuses these things again and again, so that the biblical thought fuses these things again and again, so that the motivation for all obedience is love.

13:06 And the proof of all love is obedience. And you can't separate the two. Hence the scripture says, In one breath, if any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. 1 Corinthians 16.22 Then in 2 Thessalonians, Paul says, Tribulation, wrath and anger shall come upon those with fiery indignation who obey not the gospel. They obey not. They love not the Savior. They believe not.

13:36 These terms are fused together in biblical thinking. And so the tutor, the father, assumes that there is a relationship of filial affection and also of fatherly authority. The application then to us is clear. If you're a child of God, you love your heavenly father.

13:58 You love your Lord Jesus Christ. But you not only love him because he first loved you, you gladly embrace his authority over you. And there's no contradiction in your thinking between calling him your sovereign, your master, and acknowledging that he is the object of your love and your affection. The relationship then of filial affection and fatherly authority is assumed in this text and where it is.

14:33 It is not present. All a careful listening to this text can do is be an added proof of Romans 8-7. The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be.

14:48 So two things are going to happen tonight as we expound the text and apply it. Some of you in whom this relationship is a reality. There is true affection to the living God through Jesus Christ. And there is true submission.

15:03 There is true submission of heart to him. You'll find your heart running out and responding in obedience to the directive. There are others of you that as the text is opened and expounded and applied, you're going to find yourself, well you're too proper to do it externally, but you're going to have a clenched fist in your heart.

15:21 You say, I don't want to follow that directive. I don't wish to submit to that directive. And as we said last week in this regard, I'm not surprised. That's just living evidence.

15:34 Of the truth of the scripture that the carnal mind is enmity against God. And when God says, my son, you say, who is he that I should obey him? Or as Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey him? So this relationship is assumed that one has come into the circle of that gracious work of subduing grace in the heart.

The Contemplated Situation: Sinners and Enticement

15:58 Well then, moving to the situation contemplated. My son. If sinners entice thee. And there are two words which demand definition.

16:11 Sinners and entice. Who are the sinners of this text? Well, I believe the context indicates that they are men devoid of the fear of God. They have not learned the chief part of wisdom.

16:28 As you read down through the application to a specific situation, verses 11 through 19, it's obvious that the sinners contemplated in the mind of Solomon are people who govern their lives with no regard to God. They are a living embodiment of Romans 3.18. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

16:53 Dollar signs before their eyes? Yes. Things? Yes.

16:58 Ambition? Yes. But God, His law, His claims, His government, His justice, His wrath? Not there.

17:08 So sinners, in this particular text, are men and women devoid of the fear of God. Now, in a general sense, they may be very proper people, as far as social propriety is concerned. Or they may be openly profligate and immoral and rebellious to even the structures and standards of civility and decent living. But in either case, anyone devoid of the fear of God is described as a sinner.

17:44 Well then, what does it mean to entice? It's one of those words you say, well, everybody knows what it means to entice until you try to define it. I believe entice means, if we try to define it in our current English, to attempt to lead into sin by persuasion or subtlety, to attract into sin, by offering hope of reward or pleasure. And if you'll look at the next verses, you'll see, as he gives an illustration of what it means to be enticed into sin, these fellows come along and speak to the young man and say, look, follow our course and look what we can get.

18:27 Precious substance. Fill our houses with goods. We'll get gain. We'll have one purse.

18:34 We'll have the joy of sharing our spoils. They are, they are enticing him. What are they doing? They are attempting to lead him into sin by persuasion and subtlety, attempting to attract into sin by offering the hope of reward or of pleasure.

18:51 This concept of enticing is mentioned several times in the book of Proverbs. A good parallel passage is Proverbs 16.29. A man of violence enticeth his neighbor, and then in the Hebrew parallelism, where the second, phrase explains the first, and leadeth him in a way that is not good.

19:15 There's the picture of the man leading, not driving, not pushing, not forcing, but leading, baiting him, getting him to follow in a course that is not good. So then the situation contemplated is one in which men and women devoid of the fear of God attempt with subtlety to lead, the young man who's being instructed in the fear of God, into a way of sin. And from these words there emerge two very fundamental principles that I wish to underscore. Principle one is this.

Two Fundamental Principles Regarding Sinners' Enticement

19:53 While we are in the world, those of us who fear God cannot help but have dangerous contacts with sinners.

20:06 Now here's the father, contemplating the future of his sons, here is the tutor concerned about true wisdom that is permeated with the fear of God, and he wants to prepare his pupil, prepare his son to face life. Now as he does he realizes that there is evil in the world, and evil is embodied in evil men. And evil will come to his son, to his pupil, through these evil men. What's he going to do?

20:36 Well, on the one hand he could seek to insulate him from that, and, and lead into a form of life in which he would not have to give an admonition like this. He will see to it that there are no dangerous contacts with sinners.

20:51 That's a very unrealistic approach.

20:56 Unless you are prepared to give up your job, at the factory, the shop, at the school, wherever you work, and appoint yourself a 24 hour a day sidekick to your son, and if you have more than one then you're in trouble. And follow him and make sure that he never, never rubs shoulders with evil people who will in any way seek to entice him into sin, and then absolutely screen every single contact with those expressions of evil men's thoughts, and all of these seductive ways in which they seek to draw into sin. It's very unrealistic. No, he takes the more realistic approach, and he says now my son, my pupil is going to go out into a world in which he's going to have, dangerous contacts with sinners. And blessed is that mother or father who recognizing this has as one of his dominant areas of training for his children what to do when they come into those dangerous contacts.

22:07 The Apostle Paul speaks to this very point in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, and I think this is the best New Testament commentary on this principle, that while we are in the world, those of us who fear God cannot help, but have dangerous contacts with sinners. Verse 9 of 1 Corinthians 5, I wrote unto you in my epistle to have no company with fornicators, not at all meaning with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters, for then must ye needs go out of the world. He said, now when I told you not to keep contact, company with certain kind of people, I wasn't talking about people in the world. So I was talking about people who profess the name of Christ here to cut yourself off. But he says, if you interpret it to mean have no contact with that kind of people at all, he says, then you just better leave the world. You better pray for an early home going. Now there's the realism that we talked about this morning in our adult class.

23:09 The scriptures come to us in that very earthy, gutsy, realism that the world in which you live and I live, is one in which you cannot help but have dangerous contacts with sinners. You and I are called upon to be lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom we are seen to be lights in darkness. So happy is that child whose parents feel that their greatest task is to teach their children how to face sin and to deal with it scripturally. Think of all the things that the father could tell his son.

23:53 All the things he needs to know in order to make it out there in that cruel world. But the thing that is of utmost concern, the first bit of instruction he gives is he says, son, your biggest problem as you move out into that world is not how to make ends meet. Your biggest problem is not how to find a niche and how to make a go of it. Your biggest problem is there are going to be dangerous contacts with evil and evil men and I want to teach you how to face it.

24:23 Oh, let me speak to you as parents. Is that the perspective that you're giving to your children? Are they growing up believing that the greatest problem they'll face in the world is dangerous contacts with sin? Are they?

24:46 Are they learning that from you? Oh well, I remember the story and it's a true story of the girl who had been out living very loosely at the end of an evening of profligacy. A car in which she was driving with her boyfriend wrapped itself around a pole or a tree and she lay in her own blood dying in an emergency room. She looked up into the face of her mother and said, mother, you taught me how to hold a cocktail glass.

25:16 You taught me how to make love to my boyfriend. You taught me how to be fashionable. But you didn't teach me how to die. You didn't teach me how to deal with sin.

25:29 Would that be the witness of the children of some of you parents here tonight? Not this son. If he went out and became enmeshed in the enticing influence of sinners, it wouldn't be his father's fault. He told him, my son, out there in that world the greatest problem you're going to face is evil.

25:55 Evil that will find embodiment in evil men who will seek to entice you. And so the first great principle is while we are in the world and while our children go out into that world, they're going to have dangerous contacts with sinners. But the second principle is this, and it's a tragic one, but it's nonetheless true. Sinners are often aggressively subtle in their efforts to drag us into sin.

26:26 My son, if sinners entice thee, and what is enticement but aggressive subtlety. See, if it were just subtlety, it wouldn't be so bad. If it was just aggressiveness. But when you get aggression tied to subtlety, that's dangerous.

26:49 And so the text tells us that sinners are often aggressively subtle in their efforts to drag us into sin. If the devil and his servants were neutral, it would be one thing. But as Charles Bridges says in commenting on this text, as soon as the devil became an apostate, he became a tempter. And most successfully does he train his servants to do his work.

27:17 No sooner does he become an apostate than he becomes a tempter. And most successfully does he train his servants to do his work. And what makes that work so dangerous is, as I've said, that it is aggressive, aggressive subtlety. Aggressiveness cloaked in subtlety and in guile.

27:41 For the scripture says, no wonder for Satan himself is transformed into what? Into a messenger, an angel of light. The application to this should be clear to every one of us who's thinking it all as we listen tonight. Do we not see on every hand in our own time and hour the aggressive subtlety of sinners?

28:07 Not content to say, all right, you fear God, that's your own thing. You're welcome to it. No, no. But constantly taking the initiative, coming to us, seeking to entice us with this aggressive subtlety.

28:24 Behold the aggressive subtlety of those who reject Biblical authority. So-called scholars. And our seminaries are full of them. And our houses of higher learning, full of them.

28:38 Who themselves in their creature pride have rejected Biblical authority. It's humbling to them to be learners. They want to be discoverers. To take the place of a disciple bowed in reverence before the holy book of God and the God of that book.

28:55 No, no, that's not for them. Well, there's a sense in what you say, all right. If that's the path you want to take, take it. But they're not neutral in it.

29:03 What do they do? Some of you hear them in your own classrooms. Every opportunity, every opportunity they get, what are they doing? Seeking to undermine childlike faith in divine revelation.

29:13 Seeking to undercut it. To lampoon the person who's stupid enough, naive enough, simplistic enough to believe that God has spoken in His word. My son, if sinners entice thee, those contacts are dangerous because there is aggressive subtlety. And there's a little question thrown out there, dropped like a seed into the mind.

29:38 And in times of unusual spiritual pressure and darkness and sense of desertion, what happens? You have an excellent climate for that seed to begin to germinate. And that seed of doubt sown begins to germinate. Behold the rejecters of biblical morality and ethics.

29:56 What is Hugh Hefner and his whole company but an organized effort to entice a whole generation into a philosophy of hedonism that says that titillation of nerve endings is the chief end of man. Not content to commit himself to that path. Absolutely determined with aggressive subtlety to suck a whole generation into that orbit of thinking. And so they talk about the Hefner what? Empire.

30:30 And you have others who reject every biblical concept about the male, female role. Biblical concepts of the home. They're not contentious to reject it. What are they doing?

30:45 With aggressive subtlety. Propagating their own perspectives. Determined with evangelistic zeal that puts most Christians to shame to bring others to their way of thinking. And so from every angle, by every means, directly in our contacts with them, indirectly as they print their literature and as they emblazon their philosophy on the marquees of the theaters and via the television and all the mass media.

31:13 What is this but a concerted, concerted effort of aggressive subtlety to entice, to entice into sin. And so the child of God who's half awake doesn't foolishly, half drowsily stumble along thinking well I'm not beset by too many dangers. Oh yes you are. I am.

31:40 And hence we are called upon again and again in Scripture to watch as well as to pray that we enter not into temptation. We're called to wakefulness. We're called to sobriety. Why?

31:52 Because sinners are often aggressive in their efforts to bring us into sin. And in their aggressiveness there is subtlety. And so the two great principles that stand before us in this situation contemplate it. If sinners entice thee, you will have dangerous contacts with sinners.

The Given Directive: 'Consent Thou Not'

32:13 And they will often be aggressively subtled in their efforts to drag you into sin. Well having contemplated that situation, assuming the relationship, what is the directive that is given to the son? My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Well it's obvious we've got to define the word consent if we're to understand the directive.

32:40 What does the word consent mean? Well let's contrast it with the word assent. When you assent to something, what do you do? Is it not that what you do is you give your mind up to a given proposition?

32:55 Or to change the terminology, you receive into the mind a certain proposition as truth. When you assent to something, there is basically an activity of the mind and of the judgment. But when you consent to something, there is more than the activity of the judgment. There is compliance with a given request at the level of the will.

33:20 To consent to something is to commit yourself to something. You may assent to many things without it impinging upon the will. But when you consent, there is the compliance of the will. So then his directive to his son is this, when sinners entice thee, when they seek by aggressive subtlety to draw you into a course of evil, do not consent.

33:49 Do not give up the will to their enticements. Do not yield to their aggressive subtlety. And if I'd had a big magnet, I would have given an object lesson in the pulpit tonight, so I'll just have to describe it. Because as I try to think, now how can I visually conceptualize what it means to consent?

34:08 This is the illustration that came to me. If I were to take a powerful magnet right now, say about a two pound magnet, a nice heavy one, and I were to hold, a little piece of iron plate in this hand, I'd wrap my hands around that iron plate, and if I passed the magnet by that, I could feel the pull. Every time I'd pass it by that, I'd have to consciously clench this and keep it from drawing it in. There would be that very very conscious physical force drawing the iron toward the magnet.

34:43 Now here is the effect of wicked men upon the child of God. Enticing. By one means or another. Passing by us with that which strikes a response in our remaining corruption.

35:00 That's as it were, the metal that is in us, the iron that is in us, that responds to the magnetism of this aggressive subtlety of enticement. Now, the father says to his son, when the magnet passes, don't relax your fingers. Don't give up the piece of metal to the attraction of that magnet for the moment you do, the magnet and the metal become one. My son, if sinners entice thee, don't loose your fingers.

35:36 Don't commit your will to the course in which their enticement is directing you. Now if that's the meaning of the words, and I believe that it is, this sets before us two or three vital principles that we need to understand. First of all, we need to understand that temptation itself is not sin. I used to think that was too elementary a thing to assert from the pulpit.

36:04 But my pastoral counseling has forced me to assert it again and again. Because the sensitive child of God, conscious of indwelling sin and corruption which he ought to mourn over and which he ought to confess to God, feels that because he is tempted, this of itself is sin. But it is not. The fact that the magnet passes by and there is the consciousness of drawing is not sin.

36:38 That in you which can at all respond, yes, that is your remaining corruption and you ought to mourn about that before God and cry out with David, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. In my flesh dwelleth no good thing. But the temptation itself is not sin. For as the Scripture tells us, our Lord Himself was tempted in all points like as we, yet without sin.

37:08 Oh, he says, my son, there will be enticements. And this thing will be subtle because there will be aspects of it that are attractive to you. But my son, don't consent. The sin is not in being tempted.

37:21 In feeling the reality of that enticement. So the first principle that I see in this directive is temptation is not sin. Secondly, sinners can't make a sin. My son, if sinners entice thee, that's what they can do.

37:39 But you'll not sin unless you consent. Consent not. There's a subtle kind of spiritual fatalism that grips some people in which though they would deny if pressed, that they're not responsible for their sin. Yet in reality they act as though they aren't.

38:04 They feel that they're helpless victims of forces that are bigger than they are and there's a sense in which they are not responsible. This text asserts what the entire breadth of divine revelation asserts. That sinners cannot make a sin. The devil cannot make a sin.

38:21 You sin because you consent to sin. James 1 says,

38:28 John in verse 13, Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. There it is. And sin.

38:44 Lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin. Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. Sinners can't make a sin. They can't make a sin.

38:56 Does that sound shocking to some of you? They can't make you sin. You sin by consenting. To their enticements.

39:03 If sinners entice thee, they can and they will. But you need not consent. And that leads us to the third principle in this directive. Consenting to enticement is the essence of sin.

Practical Help for Resisting Enticement

39:17 Have you ever thought what would have happened after Eve had consented in her mind to the seducing work of the tempter and had already made the judgment. Yes, I will take of that fruit. It is attractive to the eyes. Looks like it will taste good.

39:35 And it is desired to make me wise. Suppose as she reached out and picked the fruit before she got it to her mouth some lion had bellowed and in fear she dropped the fruit. Would she have sinned? Yes.

39:48 The sin occurred when there was the consent of her will to take that fruit. And if divine providence had hindered her in carrying out the design he who searches the hearts would have charged her with guilt. Isn't this what our Lord does in the application of the law and its length and breadth in the Sermon on the Mount? Ye have heard that it was said thou shalt do no murder.

40:17 Thou shalt not kill. And you think all is well if you have never picked up the knife and plunged it into someone's breast and seen their life blood pour out. He says, but I say unto you when you have consented to the risings of anger and have given yourself just to derisive speech he says, you are guilty of breaking that commandment. And the man looks upon the woman with intent to lust though providence hinder the fulfillment of the lust.

40:48 He said he hath committed adultery already in his heart. That's why Paul says covetousness is idolatry. What is covetousness? It's an attitude of the heart.

41:02 It's the consent to the will to inordinate desire. And he says this is the essence of idolatry. Now I'm not saying the only kind of sin there is is that in which the will finds consent. That's the heresy of Charles Finney.

41:15 And I'm not saying that. But I'm saying in the instance that we're considering in this context of external inducements to evil through evil men. If sinners entice thee do not consent. The temptation, the enticement is not sin.

41:33 And the sinner cannot make you sin and it's your consent to their enticement that is of the essence of sin. And so the directive given is consent thou not. You say yeah that's all right and well for the old pappy to tell his kid but what does he do when he feels the magnet coming by? He feels the tug.

41:56 And the easiest thing in the world is just to relax the fingers and let it go. What is he to do then? What is to help him in that moment when he feels very strongly the enticing power of these evil men? Evil companions.

42:13 Well let me suggest several things that are in the context as he opens up the specific application in the next few verses. First thing he says to do wherever possible avoid the evil people who do entice you. Look at verse 15. My son walk not thou in the way with them.

42:33 Refrain thy foot from their path if at all possible. Get yourself away from the magnet. That doesn't sound very spiritual does it? But it's intentionally practical.

42:47 Some people tempt God. That's why God doesn't hear their prayers to be delivered from specific enticements to sin. And so the thing that will help you not to consent to evil and to evil men is where possible avoid the evil people who entice you. Where possible.

43:11 Some of us were talking yesterday in some cases this may mean if necessary geographical separation. Uprooting. If the enticements are overpowering in a given situation and circumstance geographically in terms of a job in terms of any of these factors then the way of escape may be not more days of prayer and fasting but it may be the very thing we're directed to in verse 15. And oh how blessed is that young man that young woman who when facing life and thinking of job thinking of occupation thinking of all the factors that make up the future face it with this perspective. My greatest evil out in that world is not poverty. We've been brainwashed into thinking poverty is the greatest curse that could come to a man. The Bible has a lot more to say about the curse of riches to my understanding than the curse of poverty.

44:17 No young person the greatest thing you must fear is that you unnecessarily put yourself in associations personally economically geographically in which there will be unnecessary enticements to evil. That's the thing you ought to fear more than anything else. Where possible avoid evil people who would entice you. Secondly always seek to keep the judgment clear regarding two tremendous factors the enormity of sin and the effect of sin.

44:57 Look at verse 16 for their feet run to evil. They say come run with us to gain come run with us to spoil come run with us to satisfaction and to a full and rich life. He says no their feet are running into evil. Ever keep your mind filled with the enormity of sin.

45:17 Sin as violation of the law of God an affront to his holiness an affront to his authority and looking at it through the eyes of Christians and the full revelation of God in Jesus Christ. See the enormity of sin in the wounds of your Savior. See the enormity of evil. See that to go into the path to which they entice you you must trample underfoot the Son of God and count the blood of the covenant wherewith you are sanctified an unholy thing.

45:47 Keep the evil of the enormity of sin before you. These people pose as your friends. Look at their language in verses 13 and 14. We'll find all precious substance.

45:58 We'll fill our houses. Don't they sound very, very magnanimous and large in spirit. Look we don't just want to fill my house but our houses. We'll cast thy come cast thy lot among us.

46:12 We'll all have one person. We're a generous bunch. We have your good at heart. Listen to me young person.

46:18 Any person who will willfully lead you into any course of sin is not your friend. He's your enemy. I don't care what his words may be. Smooth as butter.

46:34 Your best friend is the one who helps you out of the path of sin and into the path of righteousness and your worst enemy is the one who encourages you in the course of sin. Keep the enormity of sin before you. Then remember the effects of sin. Sin he says is self-destructive.

46:52 Listen. He says it takes away the life of the owners thereof. Verse 19 he said my son in order to help you that you will not consent to evil ever remember not only the enormity of sin but the effect of sin. It is self-destructive.

47:10 These evil companions say look we're your buddies and together we'll attain life. He says no. They are your destroyers and they will take away life. So are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain.

47:23 It taketh away the life of the owners thereof. May God help us ever to fill our minds with these principles of scripture. Ever living in the awareness of the enormity of sin. That's why the Christian is most fortified to face evil and the enticements of evil men whose mind is most filled with Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

47:54 I was meditating this week on Galatians 6.14. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. What is it?

48:14 What concept? What truth of divine revelation is most powerful to crucify the world unto a man? It's not the terrors of hell. It's not even the glories of heaven.

48:29 It's Christ crucified. The contemplation of the truth revealed in Jesus Christ crucified in the heaving, trembling, bleeding form of the Son of God. There, there we see the enormity of sin. So ugly a thing that the only way it can be dealt with is for the Father's stroke of anger to break over the breast of His own Son.

48:57 If there's anything that will break the bewitching spell of the enticements of evil men it is the doctrine of Christ. It is the doctrine of Christ crucified. It's by the cross that the world is crucified unto me. The doctrine of Christ crucified understood, received, fed upon.

49:21 It is this that keeps the world crucified to us and we unto the world. And so may we as the people of God ever keep before us that vision which alone will enable us when sinners entice us. To be non-consenting. How dare we give up our wills to that which so dearly cost our Savior.

Conclusion: Hearing God's Voice and Walking in His Light

49:49 How dare we commit ourselves to that which as it were rubs salt into those wounds. My son, if sinners entice thee consent thou not. He assumes a relationship established. Do you have that relationship tonight?

50:13 Is God your Father? Through Jesus Christ? Do you hear the voice of your own Heavenly Father speaking through the pen of Solomon? Through the opening up of the words of Solomon by his servant?

50:26 Have you seen and heard beyond the voice of the preacher and the word of Solomon and heard your God Himself saying to you, My son, my son, well if you love Him and are subject to Him then you are ready to receive His words concerning that situation into which all of us come to one degree or another. That situation contemplated in which there is enticement to evil. We will have dangerous contacts with sinners and sinners will be subtly aggressive in seeking to pull us into their pattern of life. Oh may we hear the word of the living God to our hearts.

51:10 This word of directive consent thou not. Consent thou not. Beholding the glories of Jesus Christ who loved us and gave Himself for us. Seeing the enormity of sin in the light of His own sufferings and agony.

51:30 Realizing the built-in self-destructive element of sin. Realizing the enormity of the evil of sin. Filling the mind with these judgments so that when the enticement comes in its subtlety saying look we are your friends. This is the way of self-realization self-fulfillment.

51:51 We shall be fortified to say no that is the way of self-destruction. Only a fool destroys himself willingly, knowingly. May God grant we shall hear this word in our heart of hearts and by the grace of God walk in its light. Since starting in the book of Proverbs more than once.

52:13 When I have felt the enticement of evil. This text has come back to me and I hope having preached it nobody else gets preached into a state of help that I will. My son if sinners entice thee consent thou not. Don't you blame it on the devil if you consent.

52:34 There is a sense in which you don't blame it on something called the flesh as though that were something out here unattached to you. You blame it on yourself. You consent it.

52:47 You cry out with David against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. And then remember if you do consent the text Mr. Morey opened up last week. If we sin then that sin is confessed.

53:06 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There is something better than having to use 1 John 1.9 that is walking in the light of Proverbs 1.10.

53:20 As someone said and I will never forget it was simple. He said there is only one thing better than getting right. He said that is staying right. So when we need 1 John 1.9 let's not be timid but let's boldly come into the presence of our God and the base of His promise and then having confessed our sin let's pray for grace to walk in the light of the admonition if sinners entice thee consent consent thou not.