The Way of the Transgresor
Is Hard
Proverbs 13:15
A Sermon by Alan Walker
Church of Christ, Springfield, OR
"...there is a media mogul whom, while I decline to mention his name, recently has pledged to give one billion dollars to the United Nations. A billion bucks is a bit more than I could write a check for today. To make it more difficult to understand, this man does not believe in God and has a real resentment toward the God he doesn’t believe in and understand, because of the death of his sister early in his life. Proverbs 13:15 says his way is hard.
We might be tempted to mumble, 'I wish my life was that hard.'"
Introduction
The Book of Proverbs is an incredible book of inspired wisdom.
The opening passages tell us....
(Read Verses 1-7)
Proverbs is a bit difficult to read because the author is always shifting gears, from one subject to another.
Proverbs is a lot like going for a drive in the country. Rarely do we maintain a steady speed and you have to occasionally stop.
As we read Proverbs its important to take our time, as we would a scenic drive in the Spring or the Fall or fall of the year.
It’s also important to understand the nature of a proverb, as compared to a promise.
A proverb is a wise saying - and if all things are equal, they are true.
A promise on the other hand is always true.
For example, one of the Proverbs says...
13:14 - 20:4
If all things were equal, such would be the case. However, in our society the "sluggard" is rewarded by our Government with assistance that a working family cannot receive.
It is very difficult, and probably not incredibly wise to fashion a doctrine based upon a Proverb. I do not believe this was the purpose of Proverbs.
The purpose is to give us practical, God-Blessed wisdom for our daily lives. And we would all agree, that living is a chaotic world, a bit of wisdom is a nice thing to have.
One of the Proverbs I want to share today, may not be the most familiar, and probably is not the most popular, yet, it may be the most necessary for each of us to hear this as we are still in the beginning of this New Year.
It’s a message you are not going to hear anywhere else. I cannot think of another institution except the Church that will share this news with you. At first the news sounds rather negative. But, that’s not the purpose of the passage at all.
The purpose is to assist us to live a life of wisdom. So, it would be improper to use this passage in a judgmental or negative way, but to investigate it with a view to wisdom.
The passage is found in Proverbs 13:15.
"The way of the transgressor is hard..." (KJV)
Let’s take a careful look at this proverb to see what wisdom it has in store for us today. We’ll ask 3 questions…
The first questions we might ask is...
1. If this is true...What or Who is a transgressor?
Maybe a quick look at some other translations will give us a clue.
NKJV & NIV - "The way of the unfaithful"
TLB - "A Treacherous man must walk a rocky road"
NAS - "The way of the treacherous is hard."
Can we draw any conclusions from these differing translations?
It would seem the transgressor is one who is not faithful to God and God’s purpose of their life. There are two ways to view this.
Those who, who have "tasted and seen the Lord is good..." but who have made a choice of their own free will to walk away from God and his purpose. For that person, described as a "transgressor", their way is hard.
But, there are also those who have not "tasted and seen that the Lord is good...", and who have never given much thought at all to God or His purpose. If you were to ask them, do you believe God has a plan for your life, they might honestly shrug their shoulders. They too are transgressors, and their way will be hard as well.
Why? Let me explain it this way.
God’s plan, has been designed as the best plan for mankind.
Some have come to conclude God is a killjoy. His rules limit our recreation. Actually, the opposite is true. God wants to have joy, and not kill ourselves.
Now, there is one more area we need to touch on before we move to the next question.
It is possible to be in a close relationship with Jesus, to enjoy His word, attend Church, be involved in a ministry, but at the same time be a transgressor.
How?
Let me ask you another question. Is there an area of your life, (be honest now), you have not surrendered to God?
If the answer is yes, then while we are children of God, on our way to heaven, the area we are not in harmony with God will cause us pain in life.
"The way of the transgressor is hard"
The wisdom from the Proverb would have us deal with that area, to no longer be a transgressor.
Our next questions this morning is...
2. If this is true...Why does it seem the way of the transgressor isn’t hard.
In other words, "Why doesn’t this ring true?".
For example, there is a media mogul who while I decline to mention his name, recently has pledged to give one billion dollars to the United Nations. A billion bucks is a bit more than I could write a check for today. To make it more difficult to understand, this man does not believe in God and has a real resentment toward the God he doesn’t believe in and understand, because of the death of his sister early in his life.
Proverbs 13:15 says his way is hard.
We might be tempted to mumble, "I wish my life was that hard." Well, you’re not married to Jane.
We don’t even have to go to this extreme. What about those who never come to Church, have no relationship with God, and either willfully disregard him with extreme prejudice, or simply have never made time for Him. Yet they pass us on 105 (a local freeway) in their Beemer, their Porsche, or their Mercedes.
Just to show them we’re not a loser, we floor our 1968 Rambler Classic and it stalls and we have to get out a push it.
Again, we sometimes wish we had it so hard.
Now, we’re not the only ones who have looked at this, did a bit of mental arithmetic, and shook our heads.
Long ago Asaph wondered the same thing, and for a time, he gave some thought to cashing in his chips and walking off, leaving God in the dust. Because, it didn’t seem so hard to him.
He tells us his story in Psalm 73
vrs 1-3 = Prosperity of the wicked. This ought to be a oxymoron
vrs 4-16 = with commentary
vrs 17 = His eyes were opened
vrs 18-ff - The way of the transgressor is hard.
Do you remember when Jesus said...."What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" Mrk 8:36
It is said that about 200 years ago, the tomb of the great conqueror Charlemagne was opened. The sight the workmen saw was startling. There was his body in a sitting position, clothed in the most elaborate of kingly garments, with a scepter in his bony hand. On his knee lay the Holy Scriptures, with a cold, lifeless finger pointing to Mark 8:36: "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and loose his own soul?"
Fortunes are made and lost every day. A good brother of mine was well on his way to making literally a fortune. He owned his lumber business as well as his own home improvement center. He even had his own fleet of Semi’s. He had it made almost. But during the Carter years, interest rates killed him. He lost it all except his home. He was out of business over night. Some bankers who believed in him put up the money to back him again. He’s on his way to making another fortune. Jim knows one thing about fortunes. You can make them and lose them, and still be okay. But, if you lose your soul, that eternal part of all of us, shaped into the very image of God, that is destined to live forever, it can never, ever, be rebuilt.
Before we move on to the next question, we need a side-bar.
I don’t want you to believe this Proverb is teaching that if we are living for the Lord, our way in life is always going to be easy-street. We tend to make contrasts, which may seem reasonable, but are not always the case. For example we might conclude erroneously that if the way of the transgressor is hard, then the way of the obedient must be easy.
Life in Christ is far from easy street. The life of Jesus Himself shows us this. He was the perfect one, yet he was misunderstood. He was abused. He was scorned. He was mocked. He was betrayed by close friends. He was murdered. He was buried in a borrowed tomb.
But there is good news...John 16:33
And in the life to come - well, it’s simply beyond description.
"The Way of the transgressor is hard..."
The wisdom of the Proverb calls us to not lose focus when others have it made, or so it appears without Jesus. Our true wealth is eternal.
Our final question gets right to where we all live...
3. If this is true...Then how should I live my life?
We could probably suffice it to say "wisely" and go home. But lets take it a bit further.
For the one who has chosen of their own free will to surrender their life to the Lordship of Jesus...we should live our lives....
· In obedience to His Word - Which means we need to know His Word
· With a fresh commitment each morning to be true to Him
· Taking inventory at times to see what stuff we’ve accumulated - 2 Cor 13:5 & 1 Thess 5:19-22
· Being Honest with our God, knowing when to repent and make the changes he calls us to make.
· Walking daily in His presence, talking to Him, enjoying Him, loving Him, knowing Him. For the longer we do this, the further the word "transgressor" is from our lives.
For those who have yet to surrender their lives to Jesus, the answer would be almost the same.
· You would want to of your own free will made a decision to cease being a "transgressor" and choose to become God’s son or daughter.
· You would want to choose with the power of God and the help of His people to begin to change the areas of your life that are not in what God says are your best interests.
· You would want to place your life before God as an open book and say Lord, turn the pages, read the paragraphs, and highlight the sentences that you want me to delete. Then, Oh, God, rewrite the text. Use your pen, your spirit, and as the tablet, let it be my heart.
"The Way of the Transgressor is hard..."
The wisdom of the Proverb would seem to be that we should live our life as children who are not transgressors. And when we do transgress, that we go to our Father who is always prepared to forgive us.
Personal Application
Listen to some who were transgressors, who whether willingly or in ignorance chose to walk around God instead of with him.
Caryl said, "Wicked men live under a hard taskmaster"
But it was Jesus who said.... Matt 11:29-30 "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (NIV)
Augustine said, "I was held before conversion not with an iron chain, but with the obstinacy of my own will."
But it was Jesus who said… John 14:6 "Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (NIV)
Voltaire said, "I began to fancy myself in a most deplorable condition, surrounded by deepest darkness on every side (Essays, i., 458)
He said, "In man is more wretchedness than in all other animals put together. Man loves live, yet he knows he must die. I wish I had never been born.
But it was Jesus who said… John 6:35 "Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." (NIV)
Coloner Gardiner said that during his wicked life he often envied the existence of a dog.
But it was Jesus who said… John 4:13-14 "Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (NIV)
"The way of the transgressor is hard..."
What does wisdom tell us?
To look for the easy way? No, for their is no "easy" way.
What then does wisdom tell us?
I believe it tells us to discover God’s way, as it relates to every path and decision of our life.
I don’t want to pry this morning. But perhaps, God’s Spirit has already been prying in your life. Maybe this sermon was just the one you needed to hear.
Maybe the Spirit of God has been putting some heavy duty conviction in your life to make a change. To no longer be a "transgressor" in all areas or any area of your life.
Let me close with this story....
Newsweek (11/19/90) ran an article titled, "Letters in the Sand," a compilation of letters written by military personnel to family and friends in the States during the Gulf War.
One was written by Marine Corporal Preston Coffer. He told a friend, "We are talking about Marines, not the Boy Scouts. We all joined the service knowing full well what might be expected of us." He signed off with the Marine Motto, Semper Fi, Latin for "always faithful".
May God give each of us a little of the Marine Corp. May this year, and the years ahead find us growing in wisdom, and Semper Fi, always faithful.
Alan Walker is editor of The Preacher's Corner and Minister of Evangelism at the Mt. Vernon Church of Christ in Springfield, OR. He may be reached at adwalker@pond.net.