Alright, if you take your Bibles
and turn with me to Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 4. Proverbs
chapter 4. A text to be found in verse 18. The path of the just. path of the just. That's going to be the title
of this message. Just take it right from the verse 18. It says,
But the path of the just, the path of the just is as a shining
light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Here the writer Solomon compares
here and contrasts, rather, the path of the wicked. The path
of the wicked. He is telling His Son, instructing
His Son, He said, Enter not into the path of the wicked. Verse
14, Go not in the way of the evil man. Avoid it, pass by it,
turn from it, pass away. This is why. Four, they sleep
not. In other words, their work is
done in the night. They don't sleep. Except they
have done mischief. 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. This is the path of the natural
man. This is the path of the wicked. This was our path. By nature,
this is our path. We are the path of the wicked.
But there is another path, the path of a just man. But, in contrast,
the path of the just, the path of the justified man, the path
of the innocent man, his path is not done in the night, is
it? His path is as a shining light. And listen what happens
the further he goes down this path. He said, that shineth more
and more unto a perfect day. Now I'm going to take this text
and examine this by asking five questions. Five questions. First of all, who is the just
man? Who is the just? Who is walking the path of the
just man? And what is the path? The second
question, what's his path? Thirdly, what is the light that
is mentioned here concerning that shines on this path of the
just man? And fourthly, how does it grow
brighter and brighter? And lastly, what in the world
is this perfect day? What is the perfect day? It shines
and shines and shines brighter unto the perfect day. I want
you to know this from the start, that the Son who is spoken of
here is none other than Christ. Christ. Look at verse 3, For
I was my Father's Son, tender and only beloved in the sight
of my mother. He taught me also. and said unto
me, Let thine heart retain my words, keep my commandments,
and live." Who is this here that is Father delighted in Him? It is Christ. Christ here. And who is teaching Him? It is
God. God. The Son is the One, Jesus
Christ, and this is speaking of Him in His humility, in His
humanity. in His humanity. You see, He
being the eternal Son of God, we know this, He was made flesh. John said He was made flesh.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. And in verse 14 of John 1, and
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And the Scriptures
are clear concerning Him in His humanity, that He must learn
things. I'll tell you this, you can step
off into the abyss here. He who knew all things, created
all things, yet He in His humanity must learn things. Must learn
things. Go to Hebrews chapter Hebrews
2. And look at verse 14. Hebrews 2 and verse 14. It says, For as much then as
the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part in the same. Now why would He do that? Because
He must be our representative. He must be our High Priest, and
in order to do so, He must take part in the same. He must be
made flesh. He must be made a man. That through death, He might
destroy him that hath the power of death, that is the devil,
and deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, he took upon him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brother, that he might be merciful
and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people." Now look over in chapter 5 and
look at verse 8. He was sent to suffer. Isn't
that what that said? He was sent to be our High Priest.
He was made man so that He might die. God could not die. Therefore,
God must be made flesh so that He might make reconciliation
for us. That's why He came in the flesh.
That He should suffer. That He should die in our place. Now look at verse 8 of chapter
5. He said, "...though He were a
Son." Though He was the Son of God, yet learned He obedience, how? By the things He suffered. He must learn things. He must
learn what it is to suffer. He must learn what it is to obey. He must learn what it is to die.
And the only way is that He be made flesh, made a man. Jesus being found then as fashion,
as in the nature of man. What did He do? The Scripture
says He humbled Himself. When you read things like this
in the Old Testament about Him learning, understand this is
speaking of Him and His humanity. Christ as a Son knew all things,
yet as a man He must learn through suffering, learn obedience. Him
having a body prepared of the Holy Spirit, humbled Himself
and became what? Obedient. Him that should be
obeyed became obedient. Even unto death, and not just
any death, the death of the cross, the death of the sinner. He was
made sin for us. who knew no sin. Behold the greatness
then of that condescension." That's what we're saying in our
hymn. Almighty God sighed human breath. Is there anything greater
than that? Can you think of any two contrasting
people? God and man. God, man being ruined,
brought to the lowest. Even a jackass knows who God
is, and yet man doesn't. See how low man came. And yet
God, in order to save man, must take on his nature. Without sin,
Christ came. And so Jesus was given as a man
the Holy Spirit without measure. He was perfect in wisdom and
understanding. He was perfect in wisdom. and
understanding. He said in verse 5, get wisdom.
Guess what he got? He got wisdom. He's full of wisdom. And with all his wisdom, he got
what? Understanding. He understood what it was like
to suffer. It behooved him so that he might
be a merciful and faithful high priest to suffer the things that
we suffer. He always did, and in His suffering,
He always did those things that pleased the Father. Look at verse
10 in your text. He said, Hear, my son, and receive
my sayings. For the years of thy life shall
be many. I have taught thee in the way
of wisdom. I have led thee in the right paths. When thou goest, thy steps shall
not be straightened. When thou runnest, thou shalt
not stumble. Take fast hold of instruction. Let her not go. Keep her, for
she is thy life. Who else but Christ honored that?
Who else but Christ obeyed that? Have you stumbled? Have your
path been straightened so that you should not stumble? No. Why? We laid not hold of wisdom. We
laid not hold of understanding. It was only Christ who laid hold
of understanding. and wisdom. Why? Because he only spoke those words
that God gave him. In John chapter 8. Let me see. I'll go over there in just a
second. John chapter 8. Our Lord says this. John chapter 8, verse 26. He
said, I have many things to say and judge of you, but He that
sent Me is true. I speak to the world those things
which I have heard of him. They understood not that he spake
to them of the Father. Then said Jesus unto them, When
you have lifted up the Son of man, then you shall know that
I am. When you lifted me up, after
you've crucified me, you'll know this, I am. And that I do nothing of myself.
But as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things." You
see both there, His deity and His humanity? He said, you're
going to know who I am. I am He. I am God. But yet what? I only do those things that the
Father has taught me. Only those things. You see, He
being wisdom, exalted wisdom. He exalted the wisdom of God
by declaring the words of God. This God-man mediator, this high
priest and king, though he was worthy of exaltation, the Scripture
says he took upon him the form of a servant. He humbled himself. The God-man did not exalt himself,
he did not promote himself. Yet he trusted in God to sustain
him in every way. Verse 20 of our text, 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 thine heart,
for they are life. They are life to who? To those
that find them, and hell to all their flesh. Those words I gave
you, they're life to everyone who finds them. Not just to Christ,
but to everyone who finds Him. What do you find? When you find
Him, what do you find? When you hear His words, which
are the words of God, what do you find? You find life. You
see, He is the fountain of life. When Christ came into the world,
He came to be the fountain of life. He did this by obedience unto
God. Jesus was most definitely then
the only just man, the only holy and righteous man, the only man
that did no sin. So when it's saying the path
of the just, who else could this be but Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is the just man. He did this in obedience. Not for himself. You see, when
Christ came to be righteous in this world, He didn't do it for
Himself. He was already righteous before He came. When He was in
the world, He was naturally righteous. Those things He did, do you suppose
it was hard for Him to be righteous? You and I, it's impossible. Well, same way it's impossible
for us to be righteous, it was impossible for Him to sin. He
was righteous. Now, why was He suffering? Why
did He heed only the words of God? Why must He come and believe
God? He did this for us. He did this for all that the
Father had given to Him. Jesus said this, All things are
given to Me of My Father. He who had right to all things,
yet as a man God gave Him all things into His hands. God trusted
Him with everything. Especially His elect. Especially His elect. Matter
of fact, all things are given to Him so that He might save
who? His elect. That's what he's doing.
All things he has done, all things he did as a man, he did to save
his people. Therefore he said, all that the
Father giveth me, he said, they shall come to me. And him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. I came down from heaven
not to do mine own will. See the humility? I came not
to do mine own will. But the will of Him that sent
me, and this is the Father's will which has sent me, that
of all He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up
again at the last day." Jesus Christ, He came into the world
and He was, He humbled Himself. He was the only just man that
ever lived. He is the just man. Why would
the just man come into this world? Listen, the reason he came was
to justify others. To justify others. Isn't this
what the Scripture says? That he might be just and the
justifier. Go to Romans 3. Go to Romans
3. Read it. Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3 and verse 23.
For all have sinned. There's us. That's you and me. All have sinned. And the result,
we've come short of the glory of God. We've come short of being
a just man. How short? I can't measure how
short. We've fallen short of the glory
of God, yet being justified freely. by His grace, justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God set forth to be the propitiation through faith in His blood, to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, His righteousness. You see, that's what the just
man came to do. He came to accomplish righteousness. He came in obedience
to accomplish obedience to the law, righteousness. And I declare
what? His righteousness. When I'm saying the just man,
I want you to see him. I want you to look at him. I
want you to know he became a man so that he might accomplish righteousness
as a man. And by his blood, by his death,
The remission of sins. Now, I declare this righteousness
that he might be what? Just. And justify of them that
believe in him. We were not righteous, friends.
We by nature are not righteous. David said, I was shapen in iniquity. When were you shapen? You were shaping in your mother's
womb. We came forth speaking lies. Only reason we didn't speak
lies in the womb, I don't think we had vocal cords. We were liars
in the womb. But it manifested itself soon
as you came out. We were liars in the womb. I
was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.
We have sinned and so far from righteousness. Paul says in Romans
8, 7, we would not obey the law of God and we could not obey
the law of God. We were at enmity with God. And you know what? You couldn't
even receive the things of the Spirit of God in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2 and verse 14. It said the things of the Spirit
of God were foolishness to us. Not only could we not obey the
law and would not obey the law, we would not and could not hear
the gospel because we were spiritually discerned, judged, unjust men. So how then are sinners made
just men? I don't think there's a more
important question in all the world. A more impossible question. How can a guilty man be made
innocent? One who is actually guilty. Now
there are some people who are accused of crimes and then they
are, through a court process, they are deemed innocent. They were falsely accused. Could
we say that about ourselves? Guilty. Guilty as charged. from the sole of the foot, even
to the crown, is no soundness, but full of wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores, unbound, full of stench, guilty, guilty. How can a guilty man be made
innocent? Remember, justified means innocent
of guilt. We, in fact, were guilty. Therefore,
if any man is justified, we must, as Paul says in Romans 3, we
must understand it's got to be freely. If you're ever to be justified,
it has to be freely. There is nothing meritorious
in us that would justify us. Can you think of anything that
would justify what you've done? It must be freely. Nothing in
us is worthy of anything but hell. You got that? You take your children. They haven't lived very long.
There is nothing in them worthy of anything but God's wrath. How much more us who have lived
longer lives, what are we worthy of? By nature we are worthy of
wrath. Guilt only is owed wrath. Yet here is hope for guilty sinners. Here it is that there are some
who will be declared justified. Remember Lot? James said, just
Lot. Can you find a more worthless
man than Lot? You'd be hard pressed. That man
was given everything. He had the gospel when nobody
else did. And for a bunch of cows, he sold
it. Went into Sodom, into the most vile city and lived there. Delivered of God by Abraham. And where did he go? Went right
back. As God delivered him out of Sodom,
killing most of his family, all of his family except his two
lustful daughters, and then had incest with his daughters, you
know what God said about that man? He's justified. He's guilty. Can you say anything
about a lot that's not guilty? And what did God say about it?
God said, I've justified it. I made him innocent. There are
some who are justified. There are some who are justified.
How? By the path of the just man. By the path, this path of the
just man, by Jesus Christ. I don't care if you're justified
before men. I don't care what men say about
you. I don't care what men say about me. It only matters what
God says about us. Isn't that right? In the end,
when you die and you stand before God, are you going to be able
to say, well, look what so and so thought of me? They don't
care. We care too much about what people
think of us. What does God think? What will
God judge? I don't mind asking if you're
justified before men or even if you justified yourself. Are
you just before God? This is the only thing that matters.
What is the profit of man if he gained the whole world and
lose his own soul? What do you gain? If you gain
everything you want and lose your soul, what does it matter?
It doesn't matter at all. It only matters this, are you
holy before God? Are you just before God? For
the Lord searcheth the heart, and trieth the reins, and giveth
every man according to his work. How then may an unjust man be
made just? Here's the answer, by the path
of the just man. By the path of Jesus Christ.
When I'm thinking of the path of Christ, I can't help but think
of the Red Sea. I just can't. There was no path. God said to Israel, go forward. What? There's a sea there. What do you mean go forward?
You remember when God said go forward, what did He also do?
He made a path in the sea. This is exactly what Christ did
for you and me. He made a path for us. The sea there pictures the justice
and wrath of God. And yet Christ, by His obedience
and blood, parted the sea. Remember, the blood was shed
before the sea was parted. but the blood was shed so that
they might go forth into the sea." A path of the just. How did He
make this path? How shall we who are guilty be
justified? Only by the path of Christ. Only
by the path of the just man. First of all, the path of Christ
was by way of obedience. By way of obedience. Go to Isaiah
chapter 42. Isaiah chapter 42. And see the
path of Christ. The path He tread in this world. Isaiah chapter 42. Look at verse
18. Hear ye deaf and look ye blind
that you may see. And that's us. Deaf and blind. Is there anything
more impossible than a blind man to look or a deaf man to
hear? Yet, that's what God said. He
said, look, you blind, and here, you deaf. Now, what are we looking
at? What are we listening for? Here it is. Who is blind but
My servant and deaf as My messenger that I sent? Who is blind is
he that is perfect and blind as the Lord's servant, seeing
many things, but thou observest not, opening the ears, but he
heareth not." What does this mean? Christ to sin was as a
blind man. As a blind man can't see, neither
could Christ sin. As a deaf man could not hear,
Christ was not tempted to sin. How are you tempted to sin? Is
it not through the eyes and the ears? He had no temptation to
sin. He was the servant of God. He
was perfect in all His way. And look what He did. Verse 21, the Lord is well pleased
for His righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. When Christ was born, He was
not born of our wicked, sinful seed, but the seed of the woman.
He was a body made by the Holy Spirit, born without sin. He
said this, which of you convinces me of sin? You know, in the Passover, they
had to have a lamb without spot and blemish. And they would have
to set that lamb aside and inspect it. It's easy to miss if you just
look at it once, but they had to set that thing aside. to look
at it, to make sure that there was no... That's what Christ
was when He walked in this world. He was a lamb set aside. He was
a lamb inspected. And what did He do? He magnified
the law and made it honorable. The just man magnified the law
and made it honorable. He said, the prince of this world
hath found nothing in me. The Son of God was righteous
from eternity, equal with the Father, and yet in His humanity
we find Him having no sin. I am one with the Father. Yet He must be made obedient
and suffer as a man. And even in His suffering, He
obeyed the law of God. And He did this. to clear a path for us. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man
comes to God but by this path. He who is the just man, you listen,
he is the path. He is the only path to God. There is no other way to God
but by the right just man's path. by Christ's path. Son of God. He did this as a
mediator. There is one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Thus, as a representative man,
all that were given to Him of the Father, when He performed
the righteousness of God as the just man, we perform the righteousness
of God as just men. You who are in Christ, you are
justified. You are justified. Why? What did you do to justify yourself? Nothing. We were justified freely through the work and merit of
the just man. Our faith is in who? It's in
the just man. I'm righteous by the just man's
path, by his path, his obedience to God. Therefore, the path of
the just is by faith. We who are justified by Christ
walk by faith in Christ. Isn't that how he walked? Wasn't he the man of faith? Scripture says, "...but the righteousness
of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. How does His
people walk then? We walk the same way He walked,
by faith. He believed God. We believe in
Him. And we are justified in Him. And all who believe in Him
have the righteousness of God imputed and imparted unto us. All who believe on Christ, you
are justified not by your works, but by grace through the work
of Jesus Christ, through His righteousness. But not only was
His path a path of righteous obedience, it was a path of death. His way must lead to the cross. His way must be through suffering
and punishment. Now again, I want to visit this
idea of guilt and innocence. Consider that if you stole something
and went to jail, you would be guilty. But after you have paid
your debt to society and you've actually got out of jail, you
are now free from all punishment, aren't you? Are you free from
guilt? Could you ever undo what you've
done? No, you will always be a thief.
You can't undo guilt. You would always be guilty. And so if we have some part in
our payment for sin, none of us are justified. This is why
Christ must have suffered and died on the cross, so that He
should be our substitute and offering for sin. You see in Hebrews 10, in chapter
10, in verse 10, it says, by the which will? By the will of
God we are, listen to this word, sanctified. Made holy. Guiltless. How? Through the offering of the body
of Christ once for all. Every priest ended daily ministering,
offering the same sacrifices that can never take away sin.
But this man, after he'd offered one sacrifice for sin, sat down
on the right hand of God, henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. For by one offering... Here's
the path. That was the path. By one offering. By one offering, What did he
do? Perfected forever them that are
sanctified. This is why they had to go through,
when they went through that Red Sea, you know the ground was
solid. The ground was solid for them
to go through. Listen, as we journey through this life, you
have a solid ground to walk on here. You are no longer guilty. You who were guilty, Jesus Christ
has removed your guilt by bearing the guilt Himself. He bore our sins in His own body. Can God punish an innocent man? Is that possible? God could not
justly punish an innocent man. He bore our guilt. And because of His offering,
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And this was, friends, by the
will of God. By the which will you are what?
Sanctified. You are sanctified by the will
of God, and you are sanctified by the offering of Jesus Christ. Once for all, once forever, the
path of Jesus Christ was by way of bearing our sins, and Jesus
the sinless Son being made sin by the imputation of our sins,
He was made guilty before God and suffered the full measure
of God's wrath in our stead. Therefore, all who are justified
by faith in His blood, I want you to know this, you
also must walk a path of suffering. We walk a path of faith, that
faith obtained our righteousness, that suffering obtained our sanctification,
our justification. We also must walk a path of suffering. Go to Matthew chapter 16. Matthew
chapter 16. Look at verse 24, if I can get it right. And Jesus
said unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him
deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Jesus had just told them about
his going to die. He said in verse 21, he said,
I'm going to go and I'm going to suffer many things as a chief
priest and elders and be crucified and rise again the third day.
And Peter rebuked him. You know, Peter, he said, no,
no, no. Be that far from you. Christ
said, you get behind me, Satan, for thou savest not the things
that of God. What are the things of God? The things of God is
that he should suffer, that he should satisfy the wrath of God
instead of his people. And then what did he say about
his people? He said, if any man will come after Me, if any man
follow the path of the just, let him deny himself. What does
that mean? Deny his self-righteousness. Let him deny his sinful self. Let him deny the pleasures of
this flesh. Let him deny his religion of
works. Take up his cross. and follow me. For whosoever will save his life,
what is that? A life of sin, a life of pride,
a life of self-religion, self-righteousness. You want that? You want to save
that? You want to hold on to that?
If any man save that, he'll lose his life. But whosoever shall lose his
life, Whosoever shall fall completely
at the feet of Christ, whosoever shall follow his way of life
and faith in him, deny himself, take up his cross, he shall save
his life, he shall find it. The path to God, friends, is
very narrow. And what I mean by that is simply
this, there's only one. It's the path Christ hath trod
Himself. It is the path of His righteousness. The moment you take some of your
righteousness and mix it with His, you're on a different path. You're on a path of the just.
The path of the just is His righteousness. The path of the just is His blood,
His resurrection, His ascension, His glory. That's the path of the just.
And so we who are justified, what do we owe Him? What do you owe Him who made
the path by which we are accessible now to God, by which we who are
guilty may be just men? Isn't that what it says? Unto just
men made perfect. That's us. That's you and me.
It's by that path. The path He made. What's this
light? I'm going to go through these really quickly. The light
is Christ Himself. You'd have never known this had
Christ not shined that light on this path, would you? Would
you have ever found this path had the light of the glory of
God shined in your hearts? Isn't that what He said? For
God commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts. to give us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I never would
have followed this path because I never would have known it had
the light of heaven not shined on it. How did you know about
this though? How does the light of heaven,
how does Christ shine? Through the preaching of the
gospel, through the preaching of the path. That's what we declare. I'm just a man that points. I
didn't make the path. You know what he tells me? He
says, you dig up every obstacle. If you've got an objection to
coming this way, I'm to dig up every objection. If you go to hell, that's all
you. It's all you. Why will you not
come this way? Why will you die? Why would men die? What's stopping you from coming
this way? The only thing stopping you is your love for sin and
self. That's it. You oppose you. You know what
the scripture says that men oppose themselves? The way is open, friend. Welcome,
come. Only thing you've got to do is
come with nothing. You can't bring anything through this path.
Can't bring your righteousness through this path. Can't bring
your self-worth. You leave that and you bring
nothing. Why? All is provided. Everything's
provided. That wedding garment, boy, that's
a beautiful picture. That man came in there, he had
a wedding garment, his mommy sewed it. And so he came to the
wedding feast with that garment real proud until God came, until
the king came and said, friend, where's your wedding garment?
Did I not provide a wedding garment? You remember, anybody brings
their own wedding garment, they're cast out. Don't bring your own. Righteousness is provided. An
offering has been made and accepted. Why would you bring your own
offering? No, come on, this way, this is
the way. And the light is by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And
how does this light grow brighter and brighter? We who have begun
walking this path, this light grows brighter and brighter. This means that everyone who
walks the path by faith in Christ, who are just men, made just by
Christ, we see We see things clearer and clearer as we go
along, don't you? Can you see more clearly now
your unrighteousness? You know, when you're a young
Christian, most young Christians believe that somehow it's going
to get better. Somehow, if I'm just obedient enough, if I really
dig into the Scriptures, if I stay close to Christ, I'm going to
get better. God does the opposite. He begins to expose. I mean, if there were no light
in this place and this place was filled with trash, and you
took a candle and you started looking around, you start picking
up trash. You look around at that candle, you say, well, man,
that's pretty good. Then somebody gives you a flashlight. And you
say, whoa, that wasn't as clean as I thought it was. And then
somebody cuts on the light of the room, you say, oh, man, I
ain't done nothing. That's exactly how we grow in grace. We begin
to see our own worthlessness. And that only increases His value,
doesn't it? The preciousness of His blood.
It increases the precious value of His blood and righteousness
to us. And the things of earth, they just... Are you not weary
of the things of earth? Are you not tired? Do you not sometimes long for
glory? The more you grow, that light
of glory shines brighter and brighter. Unto what? Perfect
day. What's a perfect day? The day you leave this body in
the dirt is a perfect day. Isn't it? My brother, Lindsey, left this
mortal frame, he experienced the perfect day. A day of no sin. Can you picture it in your mind?
A day of no sin? A day where nothing intrudes
between you and God. What a day! What a day! A day of no more separation,
a day of no more sickness, a day of no more sorrow. And as we
travel the just man's path, the path of Christ, the just man,
we travel it by faith. He shines the light. He exposes
our sin. He reveals His glory. And it
shines brighter and brighter until we enter into the perfect
day. That's the path of the just,
man. It's the path of Christ. Are you in the path of Christ? You are as He is. just man, made perfect by the
just man himself. I pray God will bless this to
you. Let's be dismissed in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we bring
our praise and glory to Thee for the just man. I am so thankful that my Savior
sits in heaven reigning and ruling over all things. I'm so thankful for His mercy
to make us who are unjust justified, and doing so in a way that God
is just in doing. As we travel this path, Father, I pray that you would give us
grace and mercy, that you would forgive us our sins, Lord, that
you would give us faith, that you would give us love, that
you would keep us in this path until we are brought into the
perfect day. I pray you do this for your own
glory, in Christ's name.