Bad Company and Bad Judgments

If you got your Bible app or your Bible, go ahead and turn to Proverbs chapter 24. I do laugh at modern technology. We all like it and we use it. There are many times I do use my Bible apps on my phones, but I do like a good old fashioned copy of God's word, but tonight we're gonna be in Proverbs chapter 24, and we're gonna look at verses one and two, and we're gonna go towards the end of the chapter, and we're gonna look at verse 23 to 25. Really, we're gonna look at the end of verse 23, and I don't even know if we'll cover verse 25, but they are grouped together.

Now, if you have paid attention to how we've been progressing, you know that we've been looking at one to two messages per chapter. Now, last week we're in chapter 22, and this week I'm not stopping in chapter 23, and I'm not skipping chapter 23, but if you have a good memory, you'll know that we were back in chapter 23 back in April, but that was during our, I call it our dreaded livestream time when we were trying to livestream, but we covered quite a few verses in chapter 23 and in chapter 19 together, and we studied the subject of drunkenness. Now, the reason I bring that up is this.

There are four messages that I taught out of chapter 19 and chapter 23 on the subject of drunkenness. They're very informative. We looked at what I call the personification of drunkenness. A personification is when the writer of Proverbs, Solomon, would take and give human attributes to certain teaching, and so we looked at what I call the personification of drunkenness, the portrait of drunkenness. That was a part one and a part two, and then we looked at a personal prescription against drunkenness.

Now, I'm bringing that up because I want you to see William Skip chapter 23, but I'm bringing it up because those are four good messages that we all need to have. There are lots of good lessons. I heard several adults, one in particular, really share how it answered a lot of questions for them, and that's some very, very good material. Now, out of chapter 24, I'm gonna address two different areas in life. Now, young people, this is really gonna speak to you, but it's gonna speak to us adults. I'm not gonna call us old people.

I'm not an old people, but no matter if we're older or younger, I promise you this will speak to you, and this is much needed. It doesn't matter the age, and this is some information that is more needed than maybe we know. I think when we get through, you might look back and say, "You know, I might have needed to hear that," and some of the people who cannot be here, they might need to hear it as well, and I trust that they'll go and that they will listen and get what we're learning together. So first, we're gonna look at our friends. Now, this isn't part of the outline, so just kinda go with me for a little while 'til we get there.

We're gonna look at our friends. Now, when we talk about friends, automatically young people, you think it maybe is geared to you, but this does pertain to us. You know, friends are good. We need friends. We're not made to live isolated. We wanna have friends. We need good friends, adults, and young people alike, and then the second thing that we're gonna look at is decisions, judgments. Judgments, decisions, right or wrong. Good decisions, bad decisions in family, at work, at school, really even in church. So tonight, we're gonna look at two subjects, friendships and judgments. Now, I'll give you the title of the message.

I kinda put this together like this on purpose. This is what I am calling bad company and bad judgments, and I think you'll see as we get going what this means. I've already told you the verses we're gonna cover. If you're a note taker, you can write that down. You see the major truths. This is what I'm calling bad company and bad judgments. Now, if we're really gonna get what we're gonna look at, we're gonna have to have spiritual understanding. We're gonna have to look deep into what's taught here, and then also look and have the ability to apply it into our life. We're gonna have to have that spiritual, oh, I get it. Oh, I get it.

We're gonna have to have that. So pray and ask that the Lord will give you that. We're also, if we're gonna receive this, we're gonna have to learn to have self-control. We'll talk a little more about that. And then if we're gonna receive this, we're gonna have to have some resolve. We're gonna have to have some backbone. Because if you're a follower, if you're a yes man or a yes woman, if you just go with the flow, you're not gonna get this. You might get it in your mind, but it's not going to affect you. Now, lots of times I will read the scripture before. Lots of times I'll read it as we go.

I'm gonna read it as we go, 'cause I don't want us to be too long. So let's look first. Number one, this is, you can call it lesson number one, 'cause these are really two lessons. Bad company out of verses one and verse two, and then I'm gonna look at verse 19 and 20 as well. Proverbs 24, "Be not envious of evil men, "nor desire to be with them, "for their hearts devise violence "and their lips talk of trouble." You can turn over to verse 19 and verse 20, fret not yourself.

You could say worry not, don't worry, because of evil doers and be not envious, we see that word, we saw that word in verse one, "Be not envious of the wicked, "for the evil man has no future, "the lamp of the wicked or the candle of the wicked "will be put out." Now, all throughout the Proverbs, if you've got a good memory and you've been with us in Proverbs, we see bad company and we see good company. It's all through the book of Proverbs. And I've taught you over and over that there are many different subjects, but there are certain subjects that run constant through the book of Proverbs.

But the largest number of teachings or sayings in Proverbs are on the righteous and their behavior and the wicked and their behavior. Now, it's been a while since I mentioned this, because it's really been a while since we've been in Proverbs together, but all through the book of Proverbs, we have the way of the righteous, the way of the wicked. I've used the word path. The path of the wicked, the path of the righteous, the road, you can use lots of different terminology. The road of the wicked, the road of the righteous. But listen, there's only two ways. There's no middle road, okay?

There's the way of those who are right with God and living righteously, and then the way of those who are not. Now stop for a minute. Let's use our imagination. This will be good for you. Think about the path or the direction or the road that many people are on. Some of you have family members, they're on the path of the wicked. Some of you, you have friends or one particular friend who is on the path of the wicked. A lot of times young people, as you grow older, you'll begin to see a friend start making those bad choices. Think about it. Some of you have friends that a couple of years ago, they weren't living in the world.

They weren't living sinfully, but now they're going down that path of the wicked. You thought at one time they were on the path of the righteous, and as you get older, you will see that. But then sometimes we know people who are on the path of the godly, and a lot of times those are few. And they're just living for God, and they're living according to what God's word says. Now think about it. Don't call anybody's name out, but think about it. Now, I want us to see the way of the wicked again. I want us to examine several things here, and again, it's gonna relate to us young and older alike.

First of all, out of verse one, I want us to see that there is a temptation here. Look back at verse one. Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them. Now, this is a two-step temptation. It's a two-step temptation towards sin. Now, remember that sin always starts with temptation. Sin always starts in the mind. Sin always starts in the heart. It starts in the mind and the heart before it ever gets to the hands. It starts in the mind and the heart before it ever gets to the mouth and gets to the feet. Before you act out sinfully, it starts in the mind and the heart, okay? So you need to remember that.

But notice the temptation to envy the sinner. Look at the verse again. Be not envious. Be not envious. Now, to envy, it means to look up to, to admire. I just looked up in my Webster's dictionary. And it's accurate. It fits with the biblical definition. But Webster says, "Painful or resentful awareness "of an advantage enjoyed by another." You have a friend that gets a new car, it's painful. You look up and you envy their new car. Your friend goes to the beach. Somebody you know has a nice vacation. We might envy that. And it might be a little bit painful. Hopefully it's not resentful. But you see what I mean.

You are aware of an advantage that somebody else is enjoying. But here there is the temptation to see the sinner in an advantaged position in life. You are tempted to see the sinner as enjoying an advantaged place. You're aware of it and you maybe are resentful. You are envious and you are seeing them at a place that maybe you wish you could be, you see? But then notice the temptation, the next step. Notice the temptation to desire to be with the sinner. Verse one again, "Be not envious of evil men nor desire." See the next step? "To be with them." This is the next step. I do not think I have to explain what desire means.

You desire their company. You desire their conversation. You desire their friendship. So just right here, notice what we see here. A warning not, a warning not to fall for a particular temptation and sin. Do not envy the sinner in their sin and in their life. Don't look up to them and wish you could be with them and be like them. Don't envy them. And do not take the next step in that temptation. If you envy them, the next step is you could really want to be with them and you could be drawn to them. Teenagers, you know this term peer pressure. You didn't know peer pressure was in the Bible. There it is.

Solomon knows he's writing to his young son and he's saying to his young son, "Look, you're gonna see sinners and you're gonna be drawn. "You're gonna be envious and you're gonna have that desire." And he's saying, "Don't do it." You know, you look at someone who is older than you or seems, you know, they're kinda with it in life. Maybe they have money or power or prestige. And see, this isn't just for teenagers. This is for us adults as well. And I kinda added to the progression. Notice Solomon says, "Don't envy and don't desire." But this is what happens. You notice the sinner, you're attracted. There's something that you're attracted to.

You envy them, you desire them. And then if you follow that progression, you're with them. You see, bad company, you get it? So there's this first, first is temptation. Now we're still with bad company. Second, notice their intention. Look at verse two. For their hearts devise violence and their lips talk of trouble. Now we see their intentions in two ways here. The temptation we talked about, it had two sides, to envy and then to desire. I added to that. Now the sinner's intentions are two sided. This will be a little quicker and easier. Notice their hearts. Their hearts devise sin. The New American uses the word minds.

Their hearts, their minds devise sin. This speaks to the meditating on sin. This speaks to planning sin. This speaks to devising sin. This is not spontaneous. This is not accidental. Examples that we can think about. See, they're meditating on plans to party. They're meditating on their plans for sexual immorality. They're devising plans for sinful activities with sinful people, you see? And then notice their speech. Look back at the verse. For their hearts devise violence and their lips talk of trouble. Their speech simply reflects what's in their hearts. I need to say it again. What they say really just reflects what's in their heart.

What is on someone's heart comes out in what they say. And you know, in a good way, we can talk after church, we can talk about work. Why? Because work is on our minds. We can talk about family, that's on our minds. We can talk about health and we talk about the coronavirus and all that, that kind of stuff is on our minds. We talk about what's on our minds. Hobbies, we talk about those things that are on our minds. Football season, are we gonna have college football or not? Those things are on our minds. But listen, here we're dealing with sin and sin is the same way. Now notice what we see here.

An explanation of how the sinful and the wicked work. This is two-sided. What is not necessarily seen is what goes on in their heart. They plan, they meditate, they scheme on sin. But the plans of the schemes come out in what they say. Couple of questions. What do you hear from the wicked when they get around their kind? They might not talk like this around their church friends. The wicked might not talk around us at work if we're Christian at work, but when they get around their kind, whether it's teenagers or adults, I've worked in that environment where men who are very sinful, they wouldn't talk like that around me.

But when they got around their kind, you see? But you know, sometimes people are really guarded with their mouth, but what do you hear when you see what they say on social media? See, what I'm trying to show you is what's in the heart comes out. So second, we see their intention. Still, we're dealing with bad company. And then third, we notice their future. We're gonna go over to verse 20 for that. We're really not gonna read or cover verse 19. It's really a repeat of what we saw. But notice verse 20. "For the evil man has no future. "The lamp of the wicked will be put out." This is simple. Their future is nothing. Two times this is stated.

They have no future. They will be put out like a candle. Now this could be applied in two ways. Many times the wicked, their life is cut short because of sin. Many times their sinfulness and their sinful lifestyle is detrimental to their health and they don't live as long. That's physically. But yet, eternally, when it comes to spiritual things, the wicked in their life, they have a negative eternity. Do they not? You see what I mean? It's not hopeful. The righteous don't suffer, no, because they love God and they trust God and they serve God, no. But the wicked, their eternity is pretty bleak.

Now I wanna summarize everything we've looked at. Look at what we've learned. Bad company. It's a term we can easily remember. Bad company. Don't envy them. Do not desire to even be with them. You see? Remember we can notice them. We can kinda look up to them. We can envy them. We can desire them. And the next thing we know, we are right there with them. But also we see the description of their hearts. They dwell on sin. They plan sin. They meditate on sin. And listen, it comes out of their mouth. And let me tell you, young person, if you know somebody that all they're doing is talking about sin, it's because that's what's in their heart.

Okay? And if it's in their heart and that's what they talk about, ultimately, that is what they're going to do. Their hearts are reflected in their words. And then look at their future. Now see, those of us who are adults, we've lived long enough to see this come true. We know people because of sinful choices have cut their lives short. We've even seen people pass away. The candle of their life has been blown out. And we're fearful of where they went spiritually. The young people, you've not lived long enough to see this. But you need to take heed to what we have seen. See, just think about it for a minute in application.

I mean, look at all of the places we can envy and look up to sinful people. You know, Hollywood and that culture famous people on TV and movies and music. If you look at how those people live, those are just ultimately sinful people. If you're not careful, you can emulate them and look up to them. There's a tremendous temptation for young people to be drawn into these types of circumstances. But think about us for adults, you know, we have people at work, people in our families, old friends. You know, we come to faith in Christ and we still have old friends in our life. See, they can be that sinful person.

There's a lot of places that we can see this temptation. Now I'm gonna move on, there's a couple of verses I'm gonna come back to in the New Testament that pertain to what we're looking at. So notice bad company. Now I wanna remind you what I said earlier. If we don't have vision, if we don't have understanding, if we're just living life by looking right in front of us, we're not gonna see it. But if we take a few steps back and really take the heart of what we have here and start examining, we'll see it. We'll see it. New teenagers are smart enough to be able to see it as well. So this is what I'm calling lesson number two.

I'm calling this bad judgment. And this is out of verse 23, really just the second part or the last part of verse 23 down to verse 25. And this is a different section in the chapter. I'm not gonna get into the divisions. This is a completely different section. But notice what verse 23 says. These also are sayings of the wise. See, there's a transition. Partiality in judging is not good. Whoever says to the wicked, you are in the right, will be cursed by peoples. In other words, they will be looked down on by nations. But those who rebuke the wicked will have the light and a good blessing will come upon them.

Now, if we think about it, now listen, we do not have to look very far to see bad decisions or bad judgments. We don't have to look very far to see people who spew lies. We don't have to look very far for people who give bad decisions and bad judgments, even in our culture. You know what's told us to us today, abortion is a good thing. They're saying that's a good thing, but yet we know it's a bad thing. You know, in our culture, homosexuality has been legalized and gay marriage has been legalized. Those are bad judgments. It's everywhere today. In politics, the laws of our land, the morality of our culture.

But a question, how do we know these things are bad judgments? How do we know these things are bad decisions? I mentioned abortion and gay marriage. How do we know? See, we have a standard of right and wrong. It's God's word. We have a standard of right and wrong. And we have taught that and you have been taught that and we are teaching you that standard. But you know, I covered this a few weeks ago on a Sunday morning. In Romans chapter two, it says that God himself wrote the law of God on his heart. And there are cultures who have never had the Bible. They still know that the certain things in society are wrong.

Murder, adultery, things like that. So even when people don't have the Bible, the law of God is written on their heart. But what I want you to see is this. The standard of what's right and wrong is the Bible, not what other people say. That's the standard. Now this will be a little quicker. Three things here out of these verses. First, favoritism is not good. Look at the end of verse 23. I read it earlier. Partiality and judging is not good. The lesson is really playing here. In the matter of judgment, partiality or favoritism is not good.

If you're in a government position in law enforcement, if you're a judge, if you're a school teacher, if you're a coach, if you're a parent, listen. And the context here is dealing with right and wrong, dealing with sin and a sinner. And so the word of God has taught us what is right and what is wrong. So what we need to see is, anytime we approach sin and the sinner, being partial or showing favoritism is not good. It's not good. We need to see right is right and wrong is wrong, and we need to see it black and white. And see, we cannot allow anything to skew that. Then the second notice, calling the wicked good is bad.

So what we see in verse 24, whoever says to the wicked, you were in the right. Whoever says to the wicked, you were in the right. This is the next level. So it starts off with partiality, and then here is the step down, a digression. Commending sinful people in their sinful behavior. Going so far to call sinful behavior good and the sinful person right. That's going on in our culture. We're being told that homosexuality and homosexuals are right, but we know what God's word says. We know, and it doesn't matter how loud the voice is or who it may be coming from, okay?

We're not gonna call bad good, and we're not gonna look at sin and the sinner and say they are right. Now look at the consequences. It's in verse 24. But those who rebuke, but those who rebuke the wicked, let me go back, excuse me, verse 24. I was reading verse 25. Whoever says to the wicked, you were in the right, here's the consequence, will be cursed by people, adored by the nations. Look at the consequences. The one who calls evil good in the sinner right will be cursed and condemned by people.

If this person is in a position of authority, government position, law enforcement, a judge, you name it, it is seen as unjust and it is despised by people. But what we're seeing today is this. The voice is so loud and so continuous of redefining what is right and good and true. That is becoming less and less prevalent in our culture. You see? It's becoming less and less prevalent. Our culture is shoved God's word out, God's standard out. It is redefining what is right and what is wrong. So we don't see people stepping up and cursing what takes place here. That is cursing when some call something that is evil when they call it good.

And then third, this is kind of a shift here, correcting the wicked is good. Verse 25, but those who rebuke the wicked will have the light and a good blessing will come upon them. Now we see the right here, the right behavior. And we're at the crossroads, we're looking at making a decision and see the light and blessing come on one who corrects the sinner and deals with sin properly. So notice what we see here. When we have a matter of judgment, when it comes to sin and sinful behavior and even the sinner favoritism, partiality is wrong. And then the next step calling sin good and the sinner right, that is a terrible evil.

And see, that's gonna be the big temptation for you young people. And then we have the opposite and that is correcting sin and identifying wicked behavior for what it is, even the sinner. I got a little story here about partiality, favoritism. I remember a young man. He's not with us anymore, he passed. Young people, when he was your age, he was always getting in trouble. And as he got older and older, he always got in trouble. But you know, because his parents were well known and because his parents had money, every time the police picked him up, they didn't put him in jail, they called his parents, they bailed him out.

They kept him out of trouble. And see, authority figures, even the police, they didn't make him be punished for his evil, sinful behavior. They showed partiality. And really what they did was they just patted him on the back and said, "You're sinful behavior." It's not that big of a deal. He ultimately died from it. I think about a situation when somebody who was very prominent, people were not really calling his sin and his sinful behavior sin. And I went to him, see, he was a leader in the church. And I confronted him about his sin. I went to him and I called his sin for what it was and I told him what he was doing.

And I called him on what God's word says. But see, because he had money and he gave money and he was a prominent person in the church, what people did was is they excused his sin, favoritism. And they really excused the sinner. See, this can go on in your family. When we live for Christ and our family, if we're not careful, we can just overstep sin and we can make excuse. This can go on in our work. This can go on with you young people in your life as well. What am I trying to show you? The temptation to show partiality and overlook what God's word says, the temptation to call what is evil good to get along.

And then we see what verse 25 says and that is kindly, kindly correcting the sinner and dealing with the sin. Now really we got two lessons here. Bad company and bad judgment. Teenagers, since I have you in here, sometimes I'll alter kind of how I'm gonna teach. Let me tell you a story. See, I'm old enough to be able to look back. I never forget a nice girl I went to high school with. I mean, she made good grades. She really had everything going for her. But you know, she was always attracted to the thug. She really was. She always wanted to date the thug. The older guy who was out in trouble all the time.

She always wanted to go out with the bomb. And guess what? She eventually caught one. Well, what did it do to her life? See, I'm old enough now to be able to look back on the consequences, the ramifications. So she didn't run from bad company. Bad company caught her. Why? She noticed it. She was envious. She was desirous. She found herself there. She married into bad company and it ruined her life. But you know, I think about another circumstance. Years ago when I worked in the real world, I'll never forget I was working doing carpenter work. I met a guy and everybody talked about him being the preacher's kid, being the preacher's kid.

And you know, they said about this guy, the preacher's kid. They said, you know, when he first started working here, he didn't cuss in any night like we do, but over time he just started acting just like we do. And he did. Bad company. See, he noticed him. He was envious. He was desirous and he went that way. Now let me show you a couple of verses here and you really need to get these. First Corinthians five, verse 33, "Do not be deceived. "Bad company ruins good morals." It's the same thing we're learning here in Proverbs. Why do you think Paul said don't be deceived? 'Cause we can be deceived. We can trick ourselves.

Oh, they're not that bad. He's not that bad. That guy at work is not that bad. I can go fishing with him and go watch a ball game with him. I mean, they're not that bad. I can't tell you how many times I have had men come to me through the years and tell me of relationships they had at work or at the fish camp or the deer camp or on the golf course and they explained just what we're talking about. And they told me they were at crossroads where they knew they needed to back away from those relationships. And I've seen some men do it. Now I'm gonna talk about how we do relate to the lost here in just a minute. But what am I trying to show you?

We have to be very, very, very careful. He says, "Don't be deceived. "Bad company ruins good morals." And we have to be careful how we connect ourselves to sinners, how we have friendships with them. We have to be careful. Now, can we be friends with the lost? Sure. Well, we gotta be on guard against our bad company because if we're not careful, their morals will corrupt our morals. And see, when we minister to people, I've got lots of people who are lost in my life who are friends and Keith knows them and he can tell you how I minister to them. But I'm very, very wise and I'm very careful how I relate to them.

And I always relate to them on my terms. I call the shots. Young people, I'll tell you how I learned this. Years ago, when I came to faith in Christ, I'll never forget one of my old friends from high school. I wanted to be a witness to him. And one night we were gonna meet together and go out to eat and go eat in Mexican. And see, I was in his car and I was with him and we're sitting at a table and he orders a beer and then another beer. And I wasn't tempted to drink. Didn't bother me a bit.

But before long, I found myself in an odd situation because he had drank a couple, we were in his car and I realized right there, I had to be careful how I minister to him, see? So what I'm trying to show you is this. We can't yoke up with lost people. We're friends with them. Yes, we wanna minister to them, but we wanna minister wisely. That goes for us adults as well. We need to be really, really careful because bad company can corrupt our good morals. This is a lengthy verse. Notice what Matthew said. Jesus said it and Matthew recorded it. Now, Jesus is dealing with the religious leaders who were dealing with what men had eaten.

But there's another lesson here. Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? See, it was dietary law issue. But verse 18, "But what comes out of the mouth "percedes from the heart," isn't that what we learned in Proverbs? Isn't it amazing how the New Testament just goes right along with old? "What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart "and this defiles the person. "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, "see the actions that comes out of the heart, "sexual immorality, theft, false witness and slander." See, there's the speech.

So we need to look around at what we're hearing from these laws, you see? And we need to be careful of their bad company. Listen, if all you do is hear immorality come out of their mouth, that's the kind of heart they have and that's where you can be tempted. Bad company. Be careful how we yoke up with the lost people. Be careful how we're friends with them. We need to minister yes and minister wisely and minister carefully, very carefully. But what about this bad judgment? What about this bad judgment? Listen, if you pay attention, our society, radically, it's happening at such a rapid pace in such a radical manner.

They are calling bad good. I mentioned homosexuality, all of the transgenderism issues, gay marriage, that's old news. If you'll watch holding God's word in your hand, they are calling what is bad good and they're calling what is good bad. And this is bad judgment. And look, what's happening is lots of churches and lots of so-called Christians, because of the pressure of culture, start showing favoritism. And then the next thing you know is they don't condemn sin. Now, are we ever ugly? No, Christians should never be ugly, but we don't show favoritism.

We don't call what is sinful good and we always call sin sin and we always hold up the sin of a sinner in their face. We always do, because listen, lost people can never come to faith in Christ until they understand they're lost. A sinner can never come to faith in Christ until they see the depth of their sin. So it's rather simple. But I think if you're honest, you'll realize how practical this is. Bad company, bad judgment. And you know, I'll close with this. If you work hard to quote unquote master these issues, you can have a lot of victory in your life. You could impact the world, impact lost people, and you could be used in a great way.

And I'll tell you, you won't become one of those bad stories years from now. You really won't. Now I will close by saying this. I say it regularly. I'm not covering all of these verses. Young people get in proverbs. Read chapter two ahead of me. Read last week's. You really need to go and read those passages on drunkenness and listen to those messages. You're facing people who getting into alcohol. Let's be good students. Let's read ahead. And you will find verses you'll think, why didn't he preach on that? Well, if it hits you like that, you need to study it. Be a good student of proverbs. It's real practical. They're all short.

If you got a short attention span, it'll fit you 'cause the subject's changed over. Get you a good Bible translation, two or three of them. And I'm telling you, it'll whet your appetite. And if you start studying the proverbs, like I've been calling you to, you will learn a lot more than what I am just teaching you. So, proverbs 24, bad company and bad judgments.