Posted on 08/21/2022 12:33:16 AM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“It is joy to the just to do judgment: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity. The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead” (Proverbs 21:15-16).
“It is joy to the just to do judgment,” it is just the opposite of verse 10 where it says, “The soul of the wicked desireth evil.” When a man is right with God, there is a desire to do right, and the fruit of it is “joy.” There is a joy in doing and being right. This is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22, 23).
There is no joy to the unjust for dong right, they don’t enjoy doing that at all. Why? Because it is always accompanied with the feeling, “But, is it enough.” You see, the problem with folks trying to earn their own way into heaven by trying to be good is the perpetual question of “How much is enough?” Anyway, whenever they do something right, they are soon to do something wrong which will erase the right the did, and they just never know how the balance sheet is leaning. There is just no joy for the unjust, only trepidation.
You tell the average man in America that you always pay your taxes and never try to cheat on them, and they look at you funny. The cashier at the store almost goes into shock when you hand her a dollar and say she gave you too much change. Actually, some cashiers have been known to give someone that says they are Christian too much change just to see what they will do. Yes, the lost are watching and taking notes. “It is joy to the just to do judgment.”
“. . . but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity,” they get what they sow.
“The man that wandereth out of the way,” that is the backslider. In the Old Testament, if you wandered out of the way you went to hell. That is exactly what this verse before us today is saying, they “shall remain in the congregation of the dead.” Paul tells us who this “congregation” was in Ephesians: “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Ephesians 2:2-3).
In the Old Testament, if a man got out of the way, he lost it for his standing with the covenants depended upon his obedience to the Law and to the sacrifices. Saul forsook the way and lost it, Samson went out of the way and lost it and got it back in the end, David got out of the way and almost lost it, but for repentance. The illustrations are over and over again. Thank God there is no way for the New Testament saint to get out of the way because we are “in the way.” We are “sealed by the Spirit.” We can lose blessings and rewards, but we can’t lose the gift of eternal life. It doesn’t say anything about living in eternal shame though.
In the sense that a man quits reading his Bible, quits going to church, he can get out of the way, but he can’t get out of “the way,” because Jesus Christ said that He was “the way,” and once we are “in Christ” there is no exit door.
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“once we are “in Christ” there is no exit door.”
That is Amazing Grace. Thank you Lord Jesus.
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