Let us turn in our Bibles this
evening to the book of Proverbs. And this time I would like for
us to turn to chapter four, Proverbs chapter four. Proverbs chapter 4, and we will
begin our reading in verse 14, reading through verse 19. Enter
not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil
men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn
from it, and pass away. For they sleep not 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. But the path of the just is as
a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect
day. The way of the wicked is as darkness. They know not at what they stumble. In these few verses that I've
just read, we see two paths. the path of the wicked in verse
14, and the path of the just in verse 19. What is a path? What is a path? Well, very simply
put, it is a way, a way. The writer here admonishes his
children not to enter into the way or the path of the wicked,
not to go. in the way of the wicked. The
Lord called it the broad way. In his sermon on the mount, the
broad way that leads to destruction and many go in there at. This man encourages his children,
avoid it. The path of the wicked, avoid
it. Pass not by it, turn from it and pass away. And he tells
us that those who are in the way of the wicked, they cannot
sleep. They cannot sleep. They cannot
rest unless they cause someone to fall. They eat and they drink
wickedness. And the way of the wicked is
darkness. Verse 19. But look at the contrast. Between the path of the wicked
and the path of the just. The way of the wicked and the
way of the just. The way of the just is as a shining
light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Three points
to the message. First, the path of the just is
a person. The way, the path of the just,
is a person. That is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, I am the way. I am the path. I am the way,
the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father
but by me. The only persons in this world
who are just, the text says the path of the just, the only persons
in this world who are just are those who are in this way, that
is, they are in Christ. And being in Christ, there is
no condemnation. Being in Christ, they are accepted. Being in Christ, they are perfect.
Being in Christ, they are justified. The path of the just, the just
are those who have the righteousness of God imputed to them. The righteousness of God, the
righteousness of the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, is perfect
obedience, is imputed unto everyone that believeth, and therefore
they are declared to be just or justified. Now this Hebrew
word which is translated just in our text, It's a word that
Abraham used when he was interceding for Sodom. Remember Abraham,
he had a nephew living in Sodom and the Lord told Abraham he
was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And Abraham pleaded
with the Lord, interceded for those in Sodom. And first he
said, will thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
That word righteous there is the same word in our text. Wilt
thou destroy the just with the wicked? And then he said peradventure
there be 50 righteous within the city. Peradventure there
be 50 just men in the city. And of course the Lord said he
would not destroy the city if there were 50 just or righteous
men in the city. And you know how Abraham kept
reducing that down, the number down. And we find out there was
not 10 righteous men in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. Is that hard to believe? Those
were large cities. But there wasn't even 10 righteous
or just men in those cities. That's what the word of God declares.
But that word, this word rather, that is translated there in Genesis,
righteous, and here in Proverbs, just, it's used more in the book
of Proverbs than any other book in the Old Testament. And it
is always, always translated by either just or righteous. It's never translated in any
other way. So that's the point I want to
make. First of all, the path of the just, the path of the
righteous, is a person. It's Christ. He is the way. He is the path. He's the only
way. Now the second point, the path
of the just, is the person of whom these things are true. The
path of the just is the person of whom these things are true. These things that I'm going to
mention when we think of the Lord Jesus Christ as the way. Number one, he's the only way.
He's the only way. He's the one and only mediator
between God and men. The scripture says, for there's
one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. If you look back to Job chapter
9, just a few pages back, Job complains, if you please, that
there was not one between him and God. In Job chapter 9, In verse 33, Job 9 in verse 33,
he said, neither is there any dazeman betwixt us. In other
words, between him and God. There's not a dazeman. And this
dazeman that Job desired, notice he's one that may lay his hand
upon us both. He may lay his hand upon God
because he is God, and he may lay his hand upon man because
he is man. There's one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He is the eternal Son of God
who was made flesh. No one else of all the billions
of people who have stood on the face of God's earth, there's
only one, only one. that is able, that is qualified
to stand between God and men. And the reason is because he
is both God and man. And when we talk about Jesus,
we like to refer to him as the Lord Jesus Christ, because that
word Lord reminds us that he's God. And the word Jesus, the
name Jesus, reminds us that he is man. He has to be fully God
and fully man to be the one mediator between God and man. And we know
that as the one mediator between God and man, he is the priest,
he's the king, and he is the prophet. He is the way, the only
way. the only priest who has atoned
and made peace with God for his people. And he did so by the
blood of his cross. That's what the Apostle Paul
writes. And he is a priest who lives forever. He's a priest
after the order of Melchizedek. He lives forever, and because
he has an everlasting priesthood, he is able to save all who come
unto God, save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him. He's the way as our King to rule
over us, give us power to overcome sin and to live in this world
for His glory and for His honor. And He is the way as our Prophet
to teach us by His Spirit and His Word how we are to walk,
how we are to conduct ourselves in this world, following his
example. So when we think of the way as
a person, first of all, he's the only way. Second, he's a
new way. He's a new way. Well, if there
is a new way, that means there had to have been an old way.
And there was. But the only person Whoever could
approach God in that old way was our father Adam, and he for
just a very, very short time. But once he disobeyed God, when
he was put out of the garden, God put the cherubs there to
keep the way to the tree of life with a flaming sword to show
that man could never, ever again approach unto God. by his own
merits or on his own merits. He had the old way, Adam had
the old way. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
the new way. He said, this is my blood of
the new covenant. The old covenant was made with
Adam. It was a covenant of works. And
it was made with us in Adam. It's an old covenant. And it
was a covenant of works, pure works. Do this, obey and live. But the new covenant, the new
way is a covenant of grace that God made with us in Christ. That
is with his people in Christ. This was demonstrated when the
Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross, when he said, it is finished. And the veil in the temple was
rent there in Jerusalem at that time. And the veil in the temple
being rent showed that the way into the most holy place was
now open. In Hebrews 10, the apostle said,
having therefore brethren boldness, boldness to enter. into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus, by new and a living way, which he hath
consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. That veil that separated the
holy place and the most holy place was a type of the flesh
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he gave himself as a
sacrifice on the cross, we know that it was his body It was his
humanity that was sacrificed. God cannot suffer. God cannot
bleed. God cannot die. But the man Christ
Jesus, he did all those things. And when he did, he opened up
that way into the most holy place. And you and I have boldness tonight
to enter into that place. I like that verse. I know you
do too. In Hebrews 4, let us therefore
come boldly to the throne of grace. Boldly. We have a right
to come and our right is Christ. Our right is through the blood
of Jesus Christ. He's a new way. He's the only
way. He's a new way. Number three,
he is the narrow way. Our Lord said, enter you in at
the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way
that leads to destruction, and many go in thereat, because straight
is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and
few there be that find it. He's a narrow way, yeah. The way is so narrow, you know,
men would like to make the way broad. Men try that, don't they? And they tell us, well, there's
many different ways, but they're all leading to the same end,
to the same God. He may be called a different
name. Some religions call him this. Some religions call him
that. But that's completely contrary to the word of God, completely
contrary to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a narrow way. Number four, he's a tried way. What do I mean by that? He's
a tried way. I mean that all who have been
saved from the foundation of the world have all been saved
in the same way, the same path, in Christ. I knew a preacher years ago,
and I mention this because when his wife was pregnant with their
first child, someone asked him, are you nervous? You nervous
about your wife giving birth to a child? He said, absolutely
not. Well, I don't know about that
to begin with. Absolutely not. He said, now,
if I'd been Adam, when Eve gave birth to her first child, I would
have been nervous. But he said, people have been
doing this, millions of people have been doing this for years
and years. No, I'm not nervous at all. Well,
the Lord Jesus Christ is a tried way. And thousands, yea, millions,
no doubt, have tried this way and found that it never fails.
He never fails. He never fails to save those
that come unto God by Him. Never. The Lord Jesus Christ is a successful
Savior, a suffering Savior, sure. but successful. You see that,
don't you, in Isaiah chapter 53. You see him as a suffering
Savior, being wounded for our transgressions, but you also
see him as a successful Savior. When he sees of the travail of
his soul, he shall be satisfied. And number five, he is a safe
way. He's the only way. He's the narrow
way. He's the tried way, and He's
the safe way. Those in Him have many enemies,
we know that. Those who go in this path, we
have many enemies. But all who go in this way are
safe in Him. We have someone greater even
than Great Heart. You know, reading in Pilgrim's
Progress, the second part. Great Heart, he was assigned
to conduct Christina and her daughters and mercy to the Celestial
City. We have someone much greater
than Great Heart to lead us. We have him who is King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. God the Holy Spirit lives in
us to guide us, to direct us, and he is like that pillar of
cloud and pillar of fire that was above Israel as they went
through the wilderness there to direct them, to guide them. So God, the Holy Spirit, is in
every believer to guide and to direct us in this safe way. Yes,
we have enemies. We have many enemies along the
way, the flesh, the world, and sin. but he's greater still than
all our enemies. And the holy angels, they too,
are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who
shall be heirs of salvation. I don't know if it's true that
everyone has a particular angel, but I do know that all the angels
are charged with keeping God's children as we go through this
world. And the Lord himself, the angel
of the Lord, who is that? That's Christ, isn't it? The
angel of the Lord, he encampeth round about them that fear him. We can't see the spirits, just
like Elisha's servant could not see the spirits, the army that
was around him to protect him, but they were there. They were
there just the same. And Elisha was able to tell his
servant, them that are for us are more than those who are for
the Syrians. The third part is the path of
the just is as a shining light. One of the several I Am passages
in the Gospel of John is, I am the light of the world. He that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life." I want you to notice what this text does not
say. It doesn't say that the just
shines more and more unto the perfect day. It's the path of
the just that shines more and more to the perfect day. Some look at this text and they
seem to see in it and they teach from it that the just shines
more and more, that he advances in holiness, that he becomes
more sanctified as he goes through this world. That's not what the
text says. It's the path that shines more
and more. And I believe every child of
God here tonight If you've been saved for any time at all, you
know exactly what I'm talking about. When you first came to
Christ, you came to him as a sinner needing a savior, but as you
have advanced, as you have walked on in your Christian experience,
Christ shines more and more to you. His loveliness, becomes more
apparent as we go day by day. And our need of Him becomes more
apparent as we walk. And notice it says that it shines,
the path of the just shines more and more unto the perfect day. Now in the perfect day, that
is in the day of resurrection, we no longer will see through
a glass darkly as we do now. The mirrors that they had at
that time were made of brass, burnished brass. They weren't
very good, not anything compared to the mirrors we have today.
And that's the reason the apostle said we see through a glass darkly. We do see Christ, but we see
through a glass darkly. But when that perfect day comes,
it will no more be seeing him through a glass, it will rather
be seeing him face to face. Now we know in part, but then
shall I know, the Apostle Paul said, then shall I know even
as I am known. The path of the just, the Lord
Jesus Christ, shines more and more unto the perfect day. I hope that I've been able to
convey what I wanted to from this text tonight. My desire
was that we might realize and know that Christ, as we go on
with Christ, that he shines more and more. I know that's true
in my life, that's my experience, and I'm sure it's true in the
experience of every child of God. We see more of Him. I see more of Him in the Word
of God. I look for Him in the Word of God, and I see more of
Him. He shines more and more unto the perfect day. I pray
that the Lord will bless this word to us here tonight.