THE FATHER, THE SON AND THE SINNER

Proverbs 1:8-19 (KJV)

My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:

Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:

My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:

For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.

So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

I need to remind you once again what is happening in the book of Proverbs.

It happens through almost all of the Proverbs, but it is especially important in the first several chapters.

King Solomon is the penman of the book.

He either wrote these proverbs himself, or found and collected them into this volume.

And he did it for a reason.

He wanted to teach his son:

·   Subtlety

·   Knowledge and

·   Discretion

Put those three things together and you might have a pretty good foundation for wisdom.

Solomon had lots of children.

700 wives and 300 concubines – you know there is a passel of kids out there!

But it is very likely he has one son in particular in mind in the Proverbs – that one who will succeed him on the throne in Jerusalem

Rehoboam is never named in the Proverbs and I can’t be dogmatic about this – but this seems to fit what is the thrust of the book.

I think that we can assume then that his son is not a child – maybe a teen or a young adult.

Parents – I want you to think for a minute what happens to YOU about the time your kids get to be in the mid to upper teens.

There is an almost desperation that comes over you.

You know, and they know that they haven’t much longer under your care, worse – you know they know.

I remember when we moved into our house.

We were having some sort of disagreement with Bohannan about something in the house when suddenly Bo just stopped and matter of factly said, ‘You know what – I’m only here a year or so. I’ll make do.”

I remember when Caleb approached Anita and me and asked if he could graduate from school a year early.

He had the grades and the work ethic to get it done. But I panicked. I told him he could BUT he couldn’t move out of our house a year early.

I picture, in our passage, a father fighting for his son.

Not fighting his son – fighting for his son.

I’ve entitled the message, The Father, the Son and the Sinner but what I think we have in the passage is, The father and the sinner, fighting for the son.

I. THE FATHER IS THE VOICE

We have to be careful not to forget that.

Teenagers tend to drown out the voice of their parents.

I know for a fact that teenage boys drown out the voices of their fathers.

There were times when I took my boys to hear certain preachers just because I knew that preacher would say exactly what I said, but my boys would hear him where they wouldn’t hear me.

Listen to the father in this passage.

·   There are tears in his words

·   There is pleading in his tone

It’s not like Solomon had done everything right, is it?

I am sure, if his son was anything like everybody else’s kids, they never let him forget it either.

It’s because I made mistakes I so desperately wanted to protect my kids from making mistakes.

It’s because I’ve been in the world and was almost consumed by it that I know this world will consume a person without care if you let them.

Young people, your parents may not be perfect, and you may be very aware more aware than you want to be that they are not perfect.

That’s no reason to ignore them.

They know things they hope and pray you will never have to know.

II. THE SON IS THE VICTIM

That’s not really a great word because, if the father wins the fight, his kid is not the prize.

But it works in this case because if the father does not win, it will be at his son’s expense.

I promise you, this world – especially this current world – wants you to see yourself as a victim.

They want you to think that…

·   You need them to take care of you

·   You need them to protect you

·   You need them educate you

·   You need them to lead you

The father wants to rescue his son from this victim mentality.

He wants to teach him:

·   To work

·   To provide for his own

·   To think for himself

The father and the sinner are fighting for the son.

III. THE SINNER IS THE VILLIAN

The is doing the speaking, the son is doing the listening but the sinner is the subject of the conversation, so almost everything in the passage is about him.

Notice

A. The sinner’s character

Proverbs 1:10-12 (KJV)

My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

Notice the word “entice.”

It means to lead astray.

They want to lead you – but not for good causes – they want to lead you astray.

By the way, they don’t want to let you lead.

It’s a natural thing for a young adult to think that getting out from under mom and dad means to be free, to be in charge.

It’s not true.

Only a hand full of people ever really lead.

In some way every one of us is lead. We are like sheep – we survive in groups.

The President of the United States, the most powerful person in the world, but he can’t do everything he wants to do.

Everyone is lead. The difference is that:

·   Your parents want to lead you in a direction that is good

·   The world wants to lead you astray

Notice

B. The sinner’s coaxing

Proverbs 1:13-14 (KJV)

We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:

Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:

There’s something precious out there

·   your parents,

·   your church,

·   your Christian faith

isn’t letting you have.

Join up with us – we’ll get it together.

Only thing is, look where they are going to get it:

They are going to take it from someone else’s house

·   It’s not theirs

·   They want you to help them steal it.

And, look who else they want to rob

“…let us have one purse.”

Give us what you have and we can share it too.

Sounds to me like a socialist government

·   Take from everyone who has anything

·   Cast everything into a government fund and

·   The guys in charge will give it out as they think is right

What always happens in a plan like that is that the guy in charge of the purse gets rich and everybody else gets robbed.

Notice finally

C. The sinner’s conclusion

Proverbs 1:15-19 (KJV)

My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:

For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.

So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

·   Everyone who is greedy of gain

·   Everyone who rejects the fear of the Lord

·   Everyone who joins up with the sinners

Sooner or later the damage they do is to themselves.

Conclusion

Proverbs 1:15 (KJV)

My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:

There comes a time when a parent can’t protect their kids any more.

All we can do is plead, “My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:”

I want to ask you moms and dads, don’t quit fighting for your children.

And young people, choose right now to lean on your parent’s wisdom and not the exciting things of sin.