Let's turn to Proverbs chapter 1 this morning, beginning in verse 8. Proverbs chapter 1, we'll be looking at verses 8 to 19. Last week we finished 2 Corinthians and we've been going through Proverbs during the Sunday school time for the last few weeks. Uh, we wanted to have some of these sermons on the beginning of Proverbs at least as it's mainly addressed to young people and to children. And so, uh, we want, uh, all the children, young people here for the, for listening to the sermon. Uh, and we're going to be looking at some of these parts of Proverbs. So today, as we've been going through Proverbs, we're now at this passage and verses eight to 19. Let's hear the word of God, beginning in verse eight. Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, come with us, let us lie and wait for blood. Let us ambush the innocent without reason. Like Sheol, let us swallow them alive and whole like those who go down to the pit. We shall find all precious goods. We shall fill our houses with plunder. Throw in your lot among us. We will all have one purse. My son, do not walk in the way with them. Hold back your feet from their paths, for their feet run to evil and they make haste to shed blood. For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird, but these men lie in wait for their own blood. They set an ambush for their own lives. Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain. It takes away the life of its possessors. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Lord, we come to you recognizing that all flesh is grass. We are grass and the grass withers and the flower falls. But it is your word that stands forever. Help us to listen to your word. Help us to pay attention to its warnings so that we might not be like the psalm says, like that chaff that is driven away. Lord, we pray that you would keep us here, here who are sitting here today and who are listening to your word. Keep us from walking down the path that will lead to us not standing in your judgment. a path that will lead to our own destruction. Help us to stand upon this word that abides forever, and give us understanding by your Holy Spirit. And we ask this for your glory, for the sake of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen. Some teens are in trouble in upstate New York for eating a much-beloved swan. That was the headline that I saw a month ago in, of all places, World News. I wasn't expecting a headline of upstate New York in World News, and so it got my attention. So I had to read more. So here's the news story from June 1st of this year. Faye, A locally famous swan in Manlius, New York, was reported missing after a Memorial Day parade on Saturday, along with four of her cygnets. Police found two cygnets. Those are baby swans, by the way. Police found two of them at a store where one of the suspects worked. The suspect confessed that Faye, the swan, had been cooked and eaten, police said. The suspect also told police the location of the other two cygnets. Swan hunting is illegal in New York. All three teens were charged with grand larceny, criminal mischief, conspiracy, and criminal trespass. Two of them were juveniles. They were released to their parents. They were under 18. The third suspect, who is 18 years old, awaited arraignment. So there you go, three teenagers on Memorial Day going to a parade, wanting to have some fun, and then becoming criminals. You might think, what would possess three young men to look at a swan, decide they want to kill it, and eat it? Well, on the surface, it really doesn't make much sense. It's really a foolish and silly thing to even think about. But most of us have been teenagers. We know exactly how that went. You can just picture the scene of how it went down. Three guys, three teenage guys walking down the street. One of them says, hey, look at that swan. And then another one says, hey, man, wouldn't it be cool if we cooked that swan and eaten it? Have you ever eaten one of those? And the third one says, oh, yeah, that would be cool. And then the first guy says, no, no, no, man, we can't do that. They have four babies. And the other guy says, no, don't worry about it. I'll take care of the babies. Maybe we can even grow them and harvest them later. Don't worry about it. And then the third guy says, oh yeah, yeah, let's do it. That sounds like a great idea. And so the first teenager sighs. All right, all right, all right, let's do it. And then they go and they capture the swan and they cook it. And now they're criminals. That's how it works. That's how it works when you are a young person. maybe especially for young people, but not even limited to young people, but this is often how it works. When we have peer pressure, and we have influences from those around us, people who are friends, and we want to fit in with them, and we want to be cool, we want to do what they think is a good idea, and we're afraid to stand our ground, and so we give in. We go along with the crowd. And here we have one more instance of many instances throughout history of a young man who gives in to the negative influences of his friends. I don't know that that's really exactly what happened, but I imagine that's something of what it went like. Well, here in this passage, verses eight to 19, we have the father warning his son not to give in to the influences and the temptations of the other young men around him. It's especially written to a son, a young man, but it applies to any young person. We face the temptation to be cool, to want to be like everyone else, to be accepted and to fit in. And really it's the temptation for anybody, even for adults. And so this warning is given to resist those temptations. The main idea here is pretty simple. Listen to your parents, don't listen to your ungodly peers. Listen to your parents, don't listen to your ungodly peers. Let's start with the first part in verses eight and nine. It's not the focus of the sermon, but it does set up the rest of this lecture that the father here is giving to his son. The first thing he says here in verses eight and nine is, hear my son, your father's instruction. Forsake not your mother's teaching. Listen to your parents. Why? He says, because they will be a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. So the garland here is the sign of success. The garland in Things like ancient Greece, when they would have the Olympics, the garland would be what the victor would receive on his head. He would receive a wreath of leaves around his head. So that's the garland. It's the sign for the one who is victorious, who has success. And so the very first thing the father wants to say to his son, to say to those who are younger, he says, look, as you have your goals in life, as you're seeking in life to be successful, here is what you need for success in life. Here is what you need to pursue. Here should be your goal in life. Your main goal in life should not be to make it to the Olympics and get the gold medal. It should not be to make it to the pros of the MLB. It should not be to get that big scholarship. It should not be to be the piano virtuoso. Your main goal as a young person to grow up and to be successful is to be a person who walks in the ways of the Lord, a person who honors the Lord. And how are you going to achieve that? By listening to your father's instruction and your mother's teaching. by listening to your parents as they seek to teach you the Torah, the Word of God, as they seek to instruct you on what it means to fear the Lord, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The knowledge that you need is not from Harvard or Stanford. The main knowledge that you need is the wisdom of God and how to fear the Lord and to walk in his ways. And you're going to get that by listening to your parents. So listen to your parents. If you want to be successful in life, it'll be a garland for your head. Then he says, it'll be like a pendant for your neck. It's like a necklace that hangs around your neck. So the necklace could also be a sign of success and victory, like a gold medal hanging around your neck. It could also be more like what we would call a locket. A locket is usually some sort of necklace that inside might have a note from a spouse or a parent. It might have a picture of a spouse or a parent. And you wear that locket to remember that person. So that every time you walk around, every time you're going outside, it's as if we say, oh, this person is with me. This person is in my thoughts. You are honoring and remembering this person. What does the father want his son to remember? As the son walks around, as the son is going to walk down the road and have his friends entice him, he wants his son to remember, what did I teach you? What were my instructions? What would your father say about this right now? When you're the 17 or 18 year old walking down the main street for the Memorial Day parade and you see that swan, remember your father's instructions as a pendant around your neck. That necklace, that teaching continues to go with you. So listen to your parents. As Paul says in Ephesians 6.1, children, obey your parents in the Lord. Of course, you don't sin when your parents, if your parents command you to sin, you don't sin, but you obey your parents in the Lord. You obey your parents because this is how you obey the Lord. They have been given by God to be the authority in your life. So his point here is obey your parents not your friends. Listen to your parents more than you listen to your ungodly friends. Well, that's the main point of this passage that he gets to now from verses 10 to 19. Don't listen to your ungodly peers. Now, before we get into this verse by verse, look at the structure for a second. You see that you're gonna see that there's a main summary teaching in verse 10. Then at the end, verse 19, there's the summary conclusion. And then in between, we have two main points of four verses each. And so the Father's teaching comes in pairs. So verse 11 and 12 is the first pair. Here's what the sinners are gonna say that you should do. And then the next two verses, the next pair, 13 and 14, here's what the sinners say will be your reward. But then in contrast, verses 15 and 16, here's a pair of verses what you should do. Don't do what they say. And then verses 17 and 18, here is their real reward. So we have pairs of verses, each of them with the father trying to tell his son what's coming. So first, here's the summary, the main instruction in verse 10. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. So the first thing he does is he calls them sinners. Who are these people that we're talking about? When he says sinners here, he doesn't mean this in the literal theological sense. We're all sinners. The Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, so don't listen to anybody. No, that's not what he's saying. No, a sinner here in this context is a person whose life is characterized by sin. a person who is ungodly, a person who is not following the Lord. And so that's why when I'm summarizing this point, I would say it's don't listen to your ungodly peers. And I think that's important to keep in mind and to understand, because especially if you're a young person or maybe a teenager, you will have friends around you, you will have peers that probably will profess to be Christians. You will have people that you know from church. You will have people that you know from your fellow school or your school group, and you might go to a Christian group or a Christian school. You might have family members who claim to be Christians. You might have a cousin who says that he or she is a Christian. You might know someone and you might be attracted to them and you might want to date them and you say they profess, they claim to be Christians. But that's not what this father is saying. He's not saying it's okay to just always be around and always hang out with and always listen to anyone as long as they claim to be a Christian. No, he says, make sure you know if they are sinners, ungodly. Are they seeking obedience? Are they seeking to walk in the ways of the Lord or not? They might come from a Christian home, but that doesn't mean they're not one of these sinners. They could be these sinners. So don't listen to those sinners. Don't listen to those ungodly friends or peers in your life. The next word he uses is he talks about them enticing you. If sinners entice you, don't consent. Now that word entice means that there's something that is attractive about what they are offering you, what they're proposing to you. It's enticing to you. It's the bait that is on the hook and you just want to bite the hook. You want the bait. So you're going to be around people. You're going to be around friends who are going to say things that are going to appeal to your sinful desires. There's going to be a part of you that thinks, oh man, I wonder what would happen if we caught that swan. I know I shouldn't do it, but what if I did? There's something appealing to you. You are a sinner yourself in the theological sense. You have a sinful nature. Without Christ in the spirit, you are dead in your sins. You are following the prince of the power of the air. And so you are already naturally desiring sin. And so when a friend comes along and proposes that to you, you're going to want to give in. It's enticing to you. This particular temptation that we're going to look at is for the young man to make a quick buck. What young man doesn't want more money? What young man doesn't just want easy money? I can get a bunch of money without any work. Great. Sounds good to me. That's enticing. Any young man wants more money. And here comes some friends. Here's the way. And you can make a quick and easy buck. So he says, if sinners entice you, do not consent. That word consent has to do with giving in. And so we see also by using that word, consent, that there is also something inside of you that doesn't want to give in. You're being enticed, but you should not give in. And that's because you have a conscience. God has given every one of us a conscience that in general we can know the difference between right and wrong. The more that we sin against our conscience, the more we harden our conscience, the less effective that warning light is inside of us. But we have a conscience. And children, young people, you have the conscience so that when you are being enticed, there is something inside of you that says, I should not give in to this. I want to give in to this, but I shouldn't. Because you have a conscience and you have parents. You have parents who have taught you If your parents have taught you the truth, you know you should not consent to what these friends are tempting you with. So why is this such a powerful temptation? Why are we so enticed by sinners, our friends, our peers? Well, it's because we all have this desire to want to go with the crowd. There are some people they claim to be rebels, they pretend to be rebels, but really they're just going with the crowd too. Just a different crowd. Everybody wants to fit in. Everybody wants to be praised. Nobody wants to be the outcast. Nobody wants to be the loser. And so there's this temptation, even if I don't really care that much about the swan, or I don't really care that much about making this quick buck, What I really care about is that these friends would think that I'm a loser. So I better go along with what they say. C.S. Lewis wrote a great essay called The Inner Ring and he writes about this and how it's powerful even for adults. and adults sacrifice convictions, and we sacrifice our values and beliefs and our behaviors, and it's not like one day you just wake up and say, you know what, I'm gonna just forget all my convictions and I'm gonna go do something immoral. That's not how it works, he says. No, you want to be recognized. You want, maybe at work, you want to be among the powerful decision makers, or you want to be recognized for the work that you do. You want this award. You want this promotion. And so without even thinking about it, you just change the way you are. You just change the way you act. You start to act or talk a certain way because you feel the pressure to conform. to the people who are saying, this is what you need to be if you want to make it, if you want to advance. So we all feel this pressure to be part of the cool crowd, the inner ring, those who are praised. When you're young, especially, you want to fit in. What you need to realize is that all of us are part of the world around us. All of us are part of a world that is trying to conform us to be like them. All of us are part of what we could call the spirit of the age. There's a good German word for that, the zeitgeist. And the zeitgeist just means the spirit of the age. And we're all living according to the spirit of the age and there are things that are cool and trendy, there are fads, but you have to realize these things are only cool because a bunch of people are saying that it's cool. It's not actually cool. In the sixties it was being a hippie and all the people wanted to be hippies and they wanted to be rebels Well, why don't you see a bunch of people wearing tie-dye today and men with long hair and tie-dye shirts? Why don't you see that walking around? Because it's not cool anymore. It's not cool anymore to be a hippie. So imagine, maybe some of you were like this, imagine you were a teenager in the 60s and you had a mom that said, no, you can't dress like that. No, you can't go do that. You can't go out with those people. And you are so angry. Why can't I be cool like all those other people, all those hippies? You were so angry. And now look, nobody wants to be like that. So here's my point for those of you who are young now, for those of you who are kids. You see all these people doing this, I'll call it dumb stuff on TikTok. And you say, why can't I go do that? Why can't I do what I see other people doing on YouTube? Why can't I dress the way all the rest of the world dresses? Why can't I have the things that all the rest of the world has? Why would that bother you so much? What is it about that that bothers you? Why do you want to get a million views on TikTok? I mean, that's the dumbest desire in the world. And yet it is so powerful. It is so powerful that these teenagers will go and do all these foolish things to get a million views. You have to just realize this isn't logical. This doesn't actually make sense. It's just because I'm part of the spirit of the age that is trying to conform me to be like the world and you're being influenced by that. Why would you listen to that? instead of your parents. Why would that make you angry at your parents who are seeking to help you follow the word of God? It's silly. So, let's look at how the friends powerfully tempt this young man. First, let's look at what they tempt him with, verses 11 and 12. If they say, come with us, as the friends speaking, the young men, come with us. Let us lie in wait for blood. Let us ambush the innocent without reason. Like Sheol, let us swallow them alive and whole, like those who go down to the pit. The temptation here is murder. Cold-blooded murder. They're just going to wait around by the side of the road and they're going to wait for somebody to pass by and they're going to jump him and attack him and murder him. There's no reason that they would pick this guy. They have no vendetta against this guy. Um, there's no reason that this particular man would be the one except just that he's the guy that happens to be walking down the street at that time. You see how evil this is. You see how cold blooded this is. If you're that guy, if you're that guy, do you just want to be randomly murdered? And this kind of thing that happens today, some gang member just has to do something to get into his gang. And so he just decides to drive by and to shoot at your house. your family member, or you are the one that gets shot. Why? Just because you happen to be the house that they shot into. There's no reason for this. They say that we are going to swallow him alive like Sheol. Sheol, they talked about in the Old Testament as being like this kind of blanket or a ghost, a shadow is what they called it. This dark shadow that just comes and swallows people up. God says in Isaiah 25 that he would swallow up death forever. It's using this image, swallowing up the thing that swallows everybody else up. And by talking about how they're gonna swallow them alive, that just means they're gonna kill him quickly. Just gonna jump him and he's gonna die. They're not gonna drag it all out for days. They're just gonna kill him like a snake jumps on a rat and swallows it up. Now, what's the point of that? What's tempting about that? Well, we'll see. They're promising a reward. But why would the father, of all the things that you could come up with in the world, why would the father decide that this was his first lecture for his son? My son, as you go out into the world, make sure you don't murder people in cold blood. That's not really the first thing we would think of. Well, remember what Jesus says in John 8, 44. Talking to the Pharisees, he says, you are of your father, the devil. And he was a murderer from the beginning. Remember that the first son in history, his name was Cain. Cain was Adam's first son. And the first sin that is written of, that we know of, probably wasn't the first, but in the Bible, The first son's sin that is written of is murder. And it was a lot like this. Cain says, Abel, let's go talk in the field. Let's go walk in the field. Abel is innocent. Without reason, he just walks through the field with his brother Cain and Cain jumps on him and quickly murders him because Cain's angry and jealous of Abel. Why is that the first sin that is recorded of the first son? To show us, partly to show us that the devil was a murderer from the beginning. And Cain's father spiritually was the devil. And every son and every child born into this world has a spiritual father, the devil. The devil is a murderer from the beginning. You might not be tempted then to go murder people in cold blood, but you, as a child, as a young man, as a young person, you will be following in the footsteps of the devil, unless you listen to your parents' instructions. Unless you fear the Lord and learn his wisdom. So it seemed that that's why he mentions this sin first to say to his son, look. You've got to choose when you become a young man whose father you're going to listen to. Which father? Will you listen to your spiritual father, the devil, or will you listen to your human father who seeks to guide you into the ways of the Lord? So the temptation is that The son will get part of the reward, part of the money, verses 13 and 14. Let's kill this man, let's rob him, let's plunder his house, and then life will be good. You can just sit around relaxing, enjoying all that free money. will all split the profits. You won't be able to kill that guy yourself, but if we all get together and kill him, we can split the profits and so you will get more money. That's the temptation. That's why they are, that's what they're promising him if he will follow in their steps. But now let's look at how the father responds. What is his warning? He says in verse 15, So, They propose a deed. The father says, here's the right thing to do. Do not walk in the way with them. Now that phrase doesn't just mean in those two verses, 15 and 16, that just doesn't, doesn't just mean don't do that deed. Don't commit the murder that they're trying to tempt you to commit. He says, don't walk in the way with them. Don't hang out with them. If you're walking down the street for a Memorial Day parade with the kind of guys who attempt you to kill and cook a swan, you're hanging out with the wrong guys. It's not just that you should say, no guys, let's not do that. No, you shouldn't be with them. You should not walk down the path with them. So it's more than just not doing the deed, but he's saying avoid friendships, avoid associations, avoid close ties with ungodly people. Avoid being close friends with ungodly people. Avoid dating ungodly people. And especially, avoid marriage with an ungodly person. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, 33, bad company corrupts good character. Everybody always thinks that they're the one super strong Christian that's gonna evangelize all of their ungodly friends. You're the super strong Christian that's gonna evangelize, evangel-dating of your spouse or your girlfriend or boyfriend who is not a believer. It doesn't work that way. It's always the bad that corrupts the good. Why? Because you already have a sinful nature yourself. And sinful people are going to pull you down because you will be enticed by those proposals to sin. You're not going to be the one person strong enough to pull everybody else up. So, do not even walk in the way with them. Don't have close, intimate friendships with unbelievers. And then he says in verses 17 and 18, here is their real reward. He talks about a bird. A bird is smart enough. And birds aren't very smart. Some of them, at least. But birds aren't as smart as humans. And birds are smart enough. to see a trap and avoid the trap. In vain is the net spread for a bird. You're not going to catch the bird with a trap. But these men, they set traps for themselves. As they are lying in wait, as they are lying in ambush, they are setting an ambush, setting a trap for their own lives. In the literal sense, of course, that's because murderers pretty much never really get away with murder. Very, very few will actually get away with murder. So if you're a murderer, it's not gonna go well for you. This temptation, oh, you're just gonna sit back at your house and enjoy all the riches of the guy who you murdered, that's not gonna happen. But especially, there is the spiritual sense that you will not escape the judgment of God. You think that other people aren't seeing what you're doing, but when you sin, God sees your sin. You can try to hide it from your parents. You can try to lie to your parents, but you will not out lie God. You will not outrun God. God will see what you do. God will judge. And so the moral of the story is in verse 19, such are the ways of everyone who is greeting for unjust gain. It takes away the life of its possessors. To get unjust gain is to gain in an ungodly way, as Paul says in Ephesians 4, let the thief no longer steal, but let him work with his own hands. So unjust gain means don't steal, work with your own hands. That's just gain. If you are greedy for unjust gain, it will suck the life out of you. That's what he says in verse 19. As you are sucking the money out of other people's bank accounts, you're sucking the life out of yourself. So, How do we apply all this? Well, again, kids and young people, here's the lesson. Listen to your parents, not your ungodly friends. Now, we're looking at this verse about murder and thievery, stealing. I don't think that kids here in our church, you're not tempted to become pirates. You're not tempted to go to Somalia and jump on a ship and then start capturing a bunch of ships and stealing their things. You're not tempted, I don't think, to become terrorists and go to the Middle East and join a terrorist cell. But your temptation will be to fit in with your friends, to do what they put in front of you, as a good idea, something that'll be fun. And you need to understand that the path of these sinners is the path to destruction and to hell. And you also need to understand that you won't think that when the time comes. You will think it'll be okay. you will think it'll be fun. But you don't realize it. When your friend shows you a picture on the phone and says, you'll like this, and you're enticed, you need to understand that that picture will set you on a path to destruction. and it is headed for hell. When your friends tell you to just maybe drink a little more or to smoke this thing, it'll be fun. They're not telling you that you're going down a path to hell. And even in some maybe less serious ways, you might grow up and you might look at other people and your friends might say, Yeah, you know what? You grew up in a church where, I don't know if you've heard this term, there was purity culture. And they were just trying to oppress you and oppress women. And you think, oh yeah, you know what? That does sound pretty oppressive. And they say, you know what? It doesn't really matter how you dress. You can dress however you want. All those things that your parents taught you about how to dress, it's really just because men like to just objectify women and all that stuff. And you just need to say no to that. And you just dress however you want. And you will hear a hundred things about how your parents were so oppressive and how your church is so fuddy-duddy and old-fashioned. They just don't know what they're talking about. And you will be enticed. You will think, that sounds kind of good. You don't understand the path that all of those things will set you down. So, instead, listen to your father's instructions. May it be that necklace that you carry around when you're 18, and you go off on your own, and your life is filled with all kinds of situations. Listen to your father's instructions. But also remember, Remember the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. Remember that the son, after making a bunch of foolish decisions, was miserable, and he said, I have sinned against heaven and my father. Let me return to my father. Now that father is representing God, but It's also talking about his human father. Remember, if you do something foolish, if you are enticed by the sinners, remember, you can always return. Always repent. Don't hide. Don't make excuses. Always return. Always repent. And there will be a godly father ready to hug you. And there will be a heavenly father always ready to receive you, always ready to forgive you. And so if you make one bad decision, Don't keep going down the path. Don't keep going towards destruction. When you do one thing, turn around right then. Return to your human father. Return to your heavenly father. Find his grace. Let's pray. Our God, we do thank you for your grace and for your love. We pray that you would forgive us for every way that we have walked down the path of the sinners and consented and listened to our father, the devil. But we thank you also that in Christ we have your forgiveness, and that you are Heavenly Father. May we repent and go to you. May each one of us turn to you this day, receive again your love. We pray also that we would never use your love and abuse it and use it as an excuse to walk in the path of sin. We pray that you would keep us from sin. Keep us from the pressures of the world seeking to conform us. Help us to seek after you. And we pray that you would give us godly men and women in our lives who would not pull us down, but who would pull us up. Help us, and may we help one another in following you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.