Proverbs 11:5-8 The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness. 6 The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them: but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness. 7 When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth. 8 The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead.

Let’s Start With A Gospel Review

Last Sunday as we started studying the Book of Romans, we talked about the nature of salvation. Salvation is not a “work your way to Heaven” thing. Salvation is a supernatural act of God. Prior to salvation, a person is dead in their trespasses and sins, spiritually dead. We are born into this world as sinners. The Bible says:

Isaiah 64:6 (NKJV) But we are ALL like an unclean thing, And ALL our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We ALL fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.

Babies are born into this world innocent and unknowing until they reach the age of accountability. The Jews usually considered this to be around 12-13 years old, when the child goes through a Bar or Bat Mitzvah ceremony. Dr John MacArthur writes:

“There is no “age of accountability” identified in Scripture as such. There is nothing in the Bible that says, “Here is the age and from here on you are responsible!” I think the reason for that is because children mature at different paces. That would be true from culture to culture, and from age to age in history.

So the Lord in His wisdom didn’t identify a specific moment. God knows when each soul is accountable. God knows when real rejection has taken place; when the love of sin exists in the heart. When enmity with God is conscious and willful. God alone knows when that occurs.”

Until the child is able to grasp the concept of God and His infinite holiness, along with our utter inability, the child is “innocent” and unaccountable.

A child who dies in that state goes to be with God because God does not hold the innocent unaccountable. When God caused King David’s infant to die, David said (2 Samuel 12:23, NKJV) “I shall go to him, but he will not return to me”. As a “man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22) David knew that upon death in this life, his soul would go to be with his child in the next life. But this does not mean David’s child was sinless. “we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags”. We are all born sinners. Our “hearts are deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9).

Romans 3:23 (NKJV) … ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

This is a problem, because God Himself is without sin. Because of this, “Those who are IN THE FLESH CANNOT PLEASE GOD” (Romans 8:8). Though God commands that we “be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2), before we are saved by Grace we not only don’t try to be holy, we don’t want to be holy. The lost are spiritually dead. We must be made spiritually alive. This is what Jesus called “being born again”.

Those who are unregenerate – the technical term for “dead in trespasses and sins” – measure right and wrong by themselves and by human tradition. The regenerate or those who are “born again” have believed on Jesus as Lord and Savior, measure right and wrong by God’s standard, by what God has said. The Apostle Paul talks about this in

Romans 9:30-33 (NKJV) What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. 33 As it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

The Gentiles who believed on Jesus attained righteousness because they surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ. Believing Him to be Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit came to them, and they were born again into God’s Kingdom. Once born into God’s Kingdom, the Gentiles relied on God’s Word and Christ’s teaching to define right and wrong. The Jews, however, refused Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Rather than resting on the Rock that is Christ, they rejected the Rock (like many do today) and relied on themselves. As a result God did not send His Spirit, and they were not born again.

I was talking to a man at Cabin Coffee today about Christ. He told me that “there is only one Jesus, but many paths to Him”. I told the man – his name was Bob – that there is but one path to Jesus – the Holy Scripture. The Bible takes us to Jesus, and Jesus takes us to God as Father. Bob disagreed, as all lost people do. Our Lord Jesus warned:

Matthew 7:13-14 (NKJV) Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

The “GATE” to Jesus is the Word of God, the Holy Scripture, our Bible. The “WAY” to God is Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 14:6, “I AM THE WAY, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father BUT BY ME”. The Way is difficult because, once you are “born again” into Christ’s Kingdom by the action of God (see Colossians 1:13), the world will tell you “there are many options”. In fact, the old sin nature still in you will encourage you to turn to other ways and means. But the born again follow their Heavenly Father.

The Born Again Follow Their Heavenly Father

Proverbs 11:5 The righteousness of the Perfect shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.

Word Study: What does this text mean in light of the Scripture we have discussed so far? The “righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way”. What directs the way of the Christian? Is it our righteousness, our desires, our thoughts, our choices? Is it our human traditions? No. This text is better translated “righteousness of the Complete, Whole, or Sound shall direct his way”. The Hebrew tâmîym (pronounced taw-meem’) refers to that which is without spot or blemish, what is complete or entirely in accord with truth and fact”. It is God Who is PERFECT and WHOLE within Himself. We are not perfect, but imperfect. Once we are born again, we who are Christ’s walk in His presence, following His Word, the Bible.

We can only be tâmîym when we walk in God’s presence, following God’s Word.

This is what God told Abraham, the father of Faith. He told Abraham:

Genesis 17:1 I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou PERFECT (tâmîym).

When you walk “BEFORE” God, in His Word and in His Way, doing what He clearly tells you to do in Scripture, then you are tâmîym. Before he retired, Joshua told Israel:

Joshua 24:14 (KJV) fear the LORD, and serve him in SINCERITY (tâmîym, perfection, without blemish) and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.

We “put away the gods” that we used to serve, and do as God directs – even commands. The “righteousness of the Perfect”, the righteousness that God has established in His Word, directs us. But the lost, the unregenerate follow any path but God’s path. Choosing the wrong path, they shall in time “fall by his own wickedness”.

Those who follow Christ and His Word may at times be discouraged. Those we thought would never leave us have found other paths, other ways to go. We walk against the flow of cultural corruption and social media satanism. But those who are Christ’s follow Christ. Though we battle the flesh as all do, we know that

Galatians 5:24 … (KJV) they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

We do not belong to ourselves. We belong to Jesus. We love Him, so we follow Him, and obey His Word. “Ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:23). God directs our steps, but the lost choose their own path. Though the wicked may seem successful, their days are numbered.

the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.

There is a payday coming. Dr. R.G. Lee in his sermon “Payday Someday” wrote:

“Dr. Meyer says: ‘According to God’s constitution of the world, the wrongdoer will be abundantly punished.’ The fathers sow the wind and the children reap the whirlwind. One generation labors to scatter tares, and the next generation reaps tares and retribution immeasurable. To the individual who goes not the direction God points, a terrible pay-day comes. To the nation which forgets God, payday will come in the awful realization of the truth that the ‘nations which forget God shall be turned into hell.’ When nations trample on the principles of the Almighty, the result is that the world is beaten with many stripes. We have seen nations slide into Gehenna — and the smoke of their torment has gone up before our eyes day and night. To the home that has no room for the Christ, death and grave clothes are certain. ‘Ichabod’ will be written about the church that soft-pedals on unpleasant truth or that stands not unwaveringly for ‘the faith once delivered’ — and it will acknowledge its retribution in that it will become ‘a drifting sepulcher manned by a frozen crew’ ”.

God Leads His People

Proverbs 11:6 The righteousness of the Upright shall deliver them: but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness.

What shall “DELIVER” the Christian, the Disciple of Christ? The “righteousness of the Upright”. This is not our righteousness, but what God has said is right and true.

We are saved by “imputed righteousness”, that is, because Christ is righteous, and we have believed on Christ, His righteousness is placed on our spiritual account.

But once saved we are to “walk in the Light as He is in the Light” (1 John 5:7). We walk in the Light that Christ has given us. Not our Light, but God’s Light. Not our traditions and relative goodness, but in His. The Scripture says:

1 Corinthians 1:27-31 God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are: 29 That no flesh should glory in his presence. 30 But of {God} are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

We who are saved are “DELIVERED” from wasted lives, from the evil effects of wickedness, and from eternal damnation. Yet the lost have this promise from God:

Proverbs 11:6 transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness

The word rendered “NAUGHTINESS” is the Hebrew haûâ (pronounced hav-vaw’), meaning “wickedness, perversity, iniquity, that which is contrary to God’s nature”. The thing which they do, will actually be their undoing. It is what God has set as an eternal truth:

Hosea 10:12 (KJV) Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy …

2 Corinthians 9:6 (KJV) … He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

Galatians 6:7-8 (KJV) Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. [8] For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

There are those who profess Christ as Savior, and yet live selfishly. They stay home from a local Church, and live so as to please themselves and not God. They are able to go to Church and worship with their brothers and sisters in Christ, but refuse to do so. They sow haûâ, do as THEY please, and yet expect a harvest of glory at a later date.

If You Are Not Serving The Lord, Your Final Destination
May Not Be Heaven

Proverbs 11:7-8 When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth. 8 The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead.

When a wicked person – one who has not be “born again of the Spirit” leaves this life, their “expectation shall perish”. They expect Heaven, but end up in Hell. They lived their lives selfishly, themselves as the center of attention, and expect to go to a paradise where 70 virgins wait on their every need. Sadly, this is a false expectation. I am reminded of Hugh Hefner, the founder of the porn rag Playboy® who died in 2017. Following his death newspapers carried cartoons of Hefner entering Heaven. That is the expectation of the lost, that God allows all “good” people to go to Heaven. And yet the Bible says:

Revelation 21:8 … the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Those who have no use for Christ’s Church, who think nothing of the Lord until they are in trouble, will one day hear Him say “I never knew you. Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity” (Matthew 7:23). The righteous are delivered out of trouble.

Those who are Christ’s fear the Lord, thus they need never fear damnation.

A better rendering of Proverbs 11:8 is:

(NKJV) The righteous is delivered from trouble, And it comes to the wicked instead.

God looks after His Children by faith. But to those who profess Him as Savior and lord, but do not live as if He is Savior and Lord, a payday is coming. Get ready. The Bible says:

2 Timothy 2:19 (KJV) Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

May God touch your hearts with His Word. Amen.