(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now, in Proverbs chapter 4, the part that I wanted to focus on is beginning there in verse number 11. And from verse 11 onward to the end of the chapter, we see very distinctly God is telling us about two very different kinds of paths. And he keeps going back and forth, talking about the path that God leads us on, the path of the just, the path of the righteous, and then he goes back to talking about the path of the wicked and the path of ungodly men. Look if you would at verse number 11, the Bible reads, I have taught thee in the way of wisdom, I have led thee in right paths. And of course, this brings to mind Psalm 23, when the Bible talks about how he leads us in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Look at verse 12, when thou goest, thy steps shall not be straightened, and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. Take fast hold of instruction, let her not go, keep her, for she is thy life. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Wait it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away, for they sleep not, except they have done mischief, and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall. Look at verse 18, but the path of the just is as the shining light, and shineth more and more unto the perfect day. And then he goes back to talking about the path of the wicked. Verse 19, the way of the wicked is as darkness. They know not at what they stumble. The Bible reads in verse number 26, ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left, remove thy foot from evil. And what I want to preach about this morning is basically how do people end up going into sin? How do people end up committing these horrible sins? And a lot of times these type of sins will be described as someone stumbling, or someone falling, often near the term, you know, falling into sin, right? So and so fell into sin, or you know, stumbling as we run through the Christian life. But you have to ask yourself, you know, how does that happen? Well, I submit to you that according to this passage, if we're on the right path, if we're walking in the paths that God has for us, we're not going to stumble. You see, when we sin, or when we fall into sin, it's not something that happens in a moment. It's something that starts long before when we start getting on a wrong path. Now I'm not saying that if you're on the right path you're going to be perfect. I'm not saying you're never going to make a small little mistake. But as far as a big sin, as far as a stumbling, think about this. If you're running and you stumble, you're probably going to get hurt pretty bad, right? I mean that's not just, that's not just a minor little error. I mean when you're running and you stumble, you know, you could sprain your ankle, you could break a bone, you could trip and fall, you could get hurt pretty bad. Maybe the faster that you're running. And so the Bible here is explaining that if we're on the right path, look at verse 11, it says, I've taught thee in the way of wisdom, I've led thee in right paths, when thou goest, thy steps shall not be straightened, and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. But then look at verse 19, the way of the wicked is as darkness, they know not at what they stumble. So God's saying when you're in the way of the wicked, you're going to stumble. You're going to fall. You're going to make a mistake. Now as we go through this, he explains to us basically three different ways that you end up getting on that wrong path and that you get in the path of the wicked. He starts out by saying, first of all, that we should not hang around with the type of people that are wicked people. Now why do we hang around with sinful and ungodly and wicked people? I'll tell you why. Because we underestimate just how bad they are, okay? Look if you would at verse number 14. It says, Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men, avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. For they sleep not, except they have done mischief, and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. So this is describing people whose whole life is wrapped up in causing other people to fall. There are people in this world, according to this passage, whose whole life, it's what they eat, it's what they drink, it's what they live, they can't even sleep unless they've done it, the Bible says. Now a lot of people are too naive to realize that and they think, well, everybody's basically good. I mean, isn't that what society tells us? Man is basically good. You know, everybody's good on the inside, even if on the outside there's some rough edge, we're all good on the inside, wrong. The Bible teaches us that there are some very wicked, ungodly people. He said don't get around these people, don't get anywhere near these people, don't get on the path with these people. He said, look, their goal is to make you fall. The Bible says the adulterous will hunt the precious life. I mean they will hunt for the innocent person that they can cause to fall. These people derive their joy and pleasure in life from causing you to sin, from causing harm and injustice, from hurting people. It's what they thrive on. It's what they delight in. They can't sleep unless they've done it. They eat it. They drink it. They love it. And these are people that surround us today. And the Bible says get away from these people. Now when we hang around with ungodly and wicked people, it's probably because we're underestimating how bad they really are, which is why God is telling us here, you know, stay away from these people and here's why. Let me tell you how bad they really are. Now today in church, unfortunately, we don't hear a lot of preaching about how bad the wicked are because we don't want to hurt people's feelings. So because we don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, we don't want to demonize the wicked. We want to act like, you know, well, we just love everybody and there's hope for everybody and everybody's got some good in them and let's focus on the good. You know what? The Bible talks about people that are reprobate. The Bible talks about people that are the sons of Belial, Belial being another name for Satan. The Bible talks about those that are vile, that are wicked, that are sinful people. Now, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah comes to mind and let's talk about how did Lot end up in Sodom? Go to 2 Peter chapter 2. How did Lot end up in a place like Sodom? Now Lot's life was ended in ignominy. I mean, Lot's life was ended as a fool. I mean, you look at him and he's a failure, right? Who here knows somebody named Lot? Anybody? People don't name their children Lot. They name their child John or Paul or, you know, or Abraham, but they don't name their child Lot because Lot is a laughing stock. He's a fool. He was a person who destroyed his life. How did he end up destroying his life? Well, I'll show you exactly where it started. First of all, Lot grew up being raised by Abraham, his uncle, so he was taught in a righteous path. He was taught in a godly way. He got to a place in his life where he was at a crossroads and Abraham gave him the choice of all the land and he said, look, we can't dwell together. Our businesses are too big. We have too many servants. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right. If you go to the right, I'll go to the left, and Abraham gives him the choice of where he wants to be and he chooses the well-watered plain toward Sodom and Gomorrah, okay? He chooses it. Why? Because basically the most important thing to him was prosperity and financial gain. Not the spiritual well-being of his family, but rather where is he going to make the most money? Where is he going to be? And he's already wealthy. He already has all this cattle. He already has this massive amount of wealth, but he wants more and so he chooses to serve mammon over God. He chooses to serve his own belly instead of, you know, doing what's right for his family because the Bible tells us in Genesis 1312, you don't have to turn there, that Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent toward Sodom. And the Bible tells us that the men of Sodom were wicked sinners before the Lord exceedingly. Now a lot of people will try to, oh, all sins equal. All sins equal. That is a false doctrine. Let me just call it what it is. That is a lie and a false doctrine. That is not biblical, that is not taught in the Bible. The Bible over and over again talks about the greater sin, the great transgression, being a sinner and being a sinner exceedingly, over and over again, the greater damnation. So it's not that all sin is equal. We see here that these men were not just sinners, they were sinners exceedingly. They were very wicked and God says in Genesis 13 that Lot was making a mistake getting anywhere near those people when he pitched his tent there. Well later on in the next chapter in Genesis 14, God gives Lot a warning, a shot across the bow when an invading army comes in and takes over and defeats Sodom and Gomorrah and takes Lot and his whole family captive, takes them as prisoners of war. You know that should have been a wake up call that he should not be associated with these people that are under the judgment of God. Abraham comes and bails him out of that situation that he's in, but then we see later on that Lot becomes even more entrenched in Sodom and Gomorrah and the Bible says in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 6, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, talking about God, making them an ensemble unto those that after should live ungodly. Now let me ask you this, is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah outdated or not applicable to us today? Is it outdated? Is it somehow irrelevant in 2013? I mean that's the Old Testament, right? Well correct me if I'm wrong, isn't the book of 2 Peter the New Testament? And isn't 2 Peter chapter 2 telling us that the events of Sodom and Gomorrah should serve as an example unto those that afterward in the latter days should choose to live ungodly? If you want to know what God thinks in the New Testament about sodomy, homosexuality, the perversion and filth that abounds in our country, go to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah because God is directing us there in the New Testament. Instead of restating the whole story, instead of retelling the whole story for us, He just basically says go back and look at the example because guess what, I haven't changed. And the same example that's there in Genesis 19 is the same example for those that after should live ungodly because if you lived ungodly several thousand years ago or if you lived ungodly today in 2013, God handles it and God feels about it the same exact way. And so He's directing us there in 2 Peter chapter 2. But look what it says in verse 7, and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked for that righteous man dwelling among them and seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. So let me ask you this, was the problem that Lot wasn't saved, was that the problem? No, it says here he was justified, he was righteous. He was saved. Was it that he was just an intrinsically bad person, he was just a bad person, he was just a wicked person from the beginning? No. He was a righteous man, he was a just man, he was a saved man, but the problem was that he pitched his tent towards Sodom. And when you pitch your tent towards Sodom, you begin to see and hear the unlawful deeds of Sodom. Go to Proverbs chapter 4 where we were. See Lot pitched his tent towards Sodom and he saw and heard their unlawful deeds, their wickedness, their ungodliness. And today we live in a society that's beginning to mirror Sodom in many ways. Because we have the same homos, the same filth, the same kind of disgusting vile affections that we found in Genesis 18 and 19 amongst Sodom, we're seeing the same thing today in the United States. But look at Proverbs chapter 4 and God's warning us about how to stay out of this bad path, this wicked path. He says in verse 23, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. So first of all he told us, don't hang around these people. Get away from their path, just stay away from them. But then he says, keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Verse 24, put away from thee a froward mouth and perverse lips put far from thee. There he's talking about listening to the perversion that comes out of the mouths of the wicked. He said don't listen to it, don't listen to their perverse lips, don't listen to what they say. And then he says, let thine eyes look right on and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet. What does ponder mean? To think about something, right? He's saying don't just go through life, just dum-da-dum-da, he's saying look, you need to stop and think about where you're going. Stop and think about the path of your feet. Don't just randomly walk through life just looking around, just, you know, you don't know where you're going. He says no, no, ponder the path of your feet, keep your eyes on your feet where you're going. And he says that you need to not listen to what the ungodly are saying and not behold what the ungodly are doing. And that's what Lot did. He saw and he heard their unlawful deeds, okay? He was filling his eyes and his ears with sin and iniquity and eventually it led him off the right path. Eventually it destroyed his life and created a horrible ending to his life. Now one thing is that sometimes when people start to get on the wrong path, they think well I can handle this path. You know, I'm an experienced hiker, I'm an experienced whatever. You know, I can handle some difficulty in the path and, you know, I can watch all these Hollywood movies and all this sin and, you know, it's not going to affect me because I'm a pretty strong Christian, you know. So I can look at a lot of ungodly stuff and listen to a lot of ungodly talk and hang around with a lot of really wicked people and it just doesn't really affect me that much. You know, I think that's probably what Lot thought because otherwise he wouldn't have gone there. I mean he didn't go there just expecting, yes, I want my life to be destroyed, I want my wife to die, I want my children to become wicked and sinful evil people. He didn't plan that but he thought, you know, I can handle it. I mean obviously he's thinking, you know, these sodomites are sinful and weird and sick but he says, you know, I can handle it though, I'm not going to be like, yeah but here's the thing, sometimes we think we can handle stuff but what about your spouse? What about your kids? And, you know, you bring sin into your home. You know, you turn on that movie, you turn on that TV, you turn on that program, you know, you bring sinful stuff into the home and you say, well I can handle it. You know, first of all, I don't think you can handle it but let's say that you can. What about what you're exposing your spouse and your children to? We need to stay far away from the path of the wicked. You get on the path of the wicked when you start looking at it, when you start listening to it and when you start hanging around it because you start thinking that it's not that bad. And that's the tragedy with preaching today is that, you know, basically the way that I preach against sodomy is rare. Let's face it, it's rare. And people think that I'm some kind of an extremist, an outlier, on the fringe, you know, or radical, but, you know, I'm really just preaching what the Bible teaches and what the Bible says and I even use the words that the Bible uses, you know, like vile and reprobate and, you know, I use these words filthy, you know, that's a Bible word. But the tragedy today is that because this kind of preaching is so rare, most Christians today have become desensitized to sin, they see and hear the unlawful deeds on the TV, they see and hear the unlawful deeds and then when they go to church, they're not getting any warnings about it. They're not getting this warning that says, look, these people don't sleep unless they've done some kind of a perversion. These people, they eat and drink and sleep and breathe, harming others, perverting others, corrupting others, destroying others, causing others to fall. It's reality, face it, these people exist, they're out there and there are a lot of them. It's not just a few people. God says stay away from them, watch your feet. You see, Lot did not destroy his life overnight. It was a slow process. First it started with selfishness. It started with putting physical prosperity over spiritual prosperity, okay? Then he was selfish. He basically, he chose the best land for himself and basically does not put Abraham first. When Abraham was really the one that had the seniority there, he should have deferred onto Abraham and neither one of them should have gone all the way south, you know, towards Sodom, of course. Then he pitches his tent towards Sodom. I mean, why not turn the tent the other way? I mean, you've got four different directions you can pitch that tent. I mean, why do you want to wake up the first thing in the morning and walk out the door of your tent and there's Sodom? You know, and you wonder, well, how did he go from dwelling in the plains to actually living in the city of Sodom? Well, because he looked at it every day. I mean, he walked out the door of his tent every day and there's Sodom. And eventually you keep looking at it, you keep looking at it, you keep looking at it, eventually you're going to go into sin. Now another guy who committed sin and got off the right path was Achan. Go to Joshua chapter 7. Joshua chapter 7, 6th book in the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua. And notice the downward spiral in Achan's life. What was it that caused Achan to get off the right path? To fall into sin, to stumble into sin, okay? It says in Joshua chapter 7 verse 20, Achan answered Joshua and said, indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and thus and thus have I done. Here's the first step. When I saw, I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment and 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold of 50 shekels weight. Now remember, they were told, you're not supposed to touch any of the spoil in this particular battle. Don't touch any of it. He saw it. And then look at the next step. Then I coveted them and took them. And behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent and the silver. So first he was looking at stuff that he shouldn't have even been worried about. He should have just been worried about fighting the battle, doing his duty, but he stops and begins to behold the spoils and look at them and gaze upon the gold. And he sees that stuff and then the next thing is that he starts coveting it. He starts wishing, man, I wish I had that stuff. I wish that stuff were mine. And then next thing you know, he's taking it. Next thing you know, he's hiding it. He's concealing it, lying about it. It just goes downward and downward. The Bible says, when lust hath conceived, and look, here's what the Bible says, let no man say when he's tempted, I'm tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and entice. Doesn't that prove what Proverbs 4 taught us, that if we're on the right path, we're not going to stumble? If we're on the right path, if we're on the path that God has laid for us, if we're walking in a righteous path, we're not going to stumble. But it's when we get drawn away of our own lust and enticed, then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin, and when sin is finished, bringeth forth death. Now look, if we're on the right path, if we're looking at the path in front of us, if we're pondering the path of our feet, if God's Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, right? Think about it. What if you're hiking or walking or running and you have a flashlight in your hand? You know, where are you going to shine that light? If you're running in the dark on a trail that could be treacherous or maybe there are multiple paths and multiple forks in the road, you're going to shine it right at your feet, right? And you're going to worry about each step falling in the right place. If there are ruts and rocks and obstacles, you know, you're going to shine the light right at your feet. You're not going to be shining it a quarter mile off in the distance, you know, into some pitfall. You're going to be shining it right at your feet, right? And that's why the Bible says, ponder the path of your feet. Worry about today. Worry about what you're doing right now. Worry about what the next, don't worry about a year from now, ten years, you need to pay attention to what you're doing right now. But see, when we start getting off course is when we basically start looking at other things besides our path that we're on, besides what we're supposed to be doing. We start looking off and looking around and seeing others and then we might see something that looks enticing and then, oh, let's head toward that. We don't see that we just got off the main path. We don't see that we're heading toward a cliff. We don't see that we're heading toward sin. You know, it's funny, when you talk to people that are making a bad decision, a lot of times they talk about the distant future. They talk about the distant future. You talk to people and basically, for example, they say, well, you know, I got divorced and I'm going to get remarried because I just can't see myself, you know, just being by myself for the next 50 years. Or I'm going to divorce my spouse because I just can't see myself living with this person for the next 30 years. I just can't handle the thought of living with my terrible husband or terrible wife for the next 30 years, you know, because I did the math and 30 times 365, I mean, I just, I can't handle it. And then I times it by the number of hours in a day and the number of minutes and it's just, I can't do it. But look, can you take one more step? Can you put one more foot in front of the other? You know, you don't know when things are going to get better. You don't know what's going to change. Look, what about today? What about this week? But see, we try to look at our whole life and say, well, I just don't know if I can just keep going soul winning every week for the next 40 years. That's just a lot to ask. Just go soul winning this week. You know, I don't know, man, just reading that much Bible. I mean, I'm not going to read the Bible 100 times, just read it one time and then again and again and again. You know, and people sometimes, they get too much looking out into the future and looking out at other things and just, you know, I just don't feel like I'm going anywhere in life. I just need something bigger. I just need something better. I just can't do this for the next 10 years or 20 years. I just can't handle it. You know, in the early days of pastoring this church, I often felt overwhelmed. I often felt like it was a losing battle, an uphill battle. I often became very discouraged and I often just thought about it and I would often just say, you know what, I'm going to do it one more Sunday. Let's do it one more time. I mean, honestly, I said that many times. I remember I used to pray and say, okay, God, I'm like Samson. Strengthen me one more time. You know what I mean? I'm going to bring down the whole house on myself, okay? But I mean, honestly, I'm saying that's how I felt sometimes, you know? Just one more time. Let's just do it one more time. Let's go to church one more time, you know? Let's preach one more time. Let's go soul winning one more time. You know, get the light on your path and put one foot in front of the other and do what you're supposed to be doing and do right. But the problem is when we start looking at things, the Bible says looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And the Bible says the Word of God is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. And you know what? Jesus is the Word of God. I mean, when he returns some day, he's going to have a name written on his thigh, the Word of God. And Jesus Christ is the Word of God and the Word of God is the light. Jesus said, I'm the light of the world. The Word of God is the light. The Word of God is the lamp to our feet. And Jesus said, take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. He said, you have enough to worry about today. Don't worry about tomorrow. Don't worry about next week. Don't worry about next month. Do the right thing today. Serve God today. And we get our eyes off of God's Word. We get our eyes off of serving God. We get our eyes off of today, preaching today, soul winning today, reading today, praying today. And we start looking at other goals and lofty goals of this world. You know, I was thinking about this as I was thinking about this sermon of the downward spiral of how people get off the right path. They start hanging around with the wrong people because they underestimate how bad they really are. And then maybe they begin to start looking at the wrong things and then start listening to the wrong things. Now, when we think about looking at the wrong things, I think this can fall under two distinct categories of looking at the wrong things. Because here in Proverbs 4, he says in verse 26, ponder the path of thy feet and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left. Remove thy foot from evil. And in verse 25 he said, let thine eyes look right on and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. I think there are two things that can distract us from looking straight ahead, from keeping our eyes on Jesus, from keeping our eyes upon the path of our feet and pondering our steps. And I think that first of all, there are things that are just sinful things that we look at. Some things we just shouldn't even be looking at just because they're sinful things, right? You know, like David said, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. That shows that there are some things that are just wicked to look at, right? He said, I'll set no wicked things before mine eyes. And you know, we could think of, you know, a dirty magazine, a dirty billboard, whatever, you know, images that we shouldn't be looking at, things that we should not be watching or seeing, you know, looking at just ungodly people, okay? But then not only that, I think there's a second category of things that we look at and basically that's when we're looking at things that don't belong to us. Not necessarily bad things, not necessarily sinful things, but when we start spending a lot of times looking at things that don't belong to us, like Achan, you know, he's looking at stuff that doesn't belong to him. And you know, I was thinking about, I remember when I was a kid, there was a thing in our church where a lot of people in our church got into Amway. Who knows what Amway is? You know, a lot of people in our church got into Amway and, you know, it was a very destructive thing in our church because this is what would happen. People would get into Amway and it became the obsession of their life, okay? And not only that, my dad was invited to an Amway meeting one time and he went to the meeting, he just wanted to check it out, and he went to this Amway meeting and he literally, I remember him coming home, I was a little kid and this made an impression on me. He came home and he told me, he said, it was like a church service unto money. That's what he said the Amway meeting was like. He said it was like we sang hymns to money, we heard preaching about money. He said it was like a church service to money. They sang songs about being wealthy and making money and succeeding in Amway. Congregational singing. I mean they had sermons, preaching, that said, you know, do you want, I mean look, you're going to lose friends, but do you want friends or do you want that Ferrari, you know, or whatever. And they literally said stuff like, would you rather have friends or would you rather have this house? Would you rather have friends or would you rather, I mean it's like, it's like you go to church and they preach like, you know, you're going to lose friends when you serve Jesus, you know, except it's serving money. And literally, they would encourage the people, and we knew a lot of people, we had close friends that got into Amway, and we knew them and they were literally encouraged at their Amway meetings to drive to fancy neighborhoods, are you listening? And to park in front of mansions and just like look at them and just think about them and just visualize, hey, this is where we're going to be. And these people would literally have photos up in their house, little pictures and clippings of really fancy houses, really fancy cars, and it was like, these are my goals. This fancy house, this fancy car, this technology, whatever, you know, that is a really bad way to live your life. The Bible says that we are supposed to be content with such things as we have, we brought nothing into this world, we can carry nothing out, and when we start looking at, I mean think about it, if we just, if we drive a beat up car, which we do, okay, you know, my car has 338,000 miles on it now, alright? So you know, I'm not, I mean what if I just sat around just looking at magazines of nice cars? Or what if I just start just every time I see a nice, just looking at, checking out. Now look, here's the thing, if I have a nice car and I have the means to buy a nice car, then there's nothing in the world wrong with looking at a magazine of cars. I mean if that's what you're into, you know, you like cars and you're looking at a magazine of cars because you have a hobby of, you know, hot rods or you drive a hot rod or whatever, no problem. You know what? When you're driving a beat up car and you're just constantly wishing, man I wish I had that nice car, man, is that the things that we should desire in this life and lust after and covet? You know, the definition of covetousness is desiring that which does not belong to us. Now there's nothing wrong with desiring something that is within our reach. For example, if I desire my wife, that is a legitimate desire, okay? But what if I begin to desire someone else? You know, that is wicked, that is lust, that is covetousness, okay? That is committing adultery in your heart. Well look, when you start to look upon other women when you're married or you're a wife and you start to look upon other men thinking that, oh that guy, I wish my husband were more like so and so. This guy, look at him, I mean look at what he does for his, look at what a great, you don't know what he's like. He goes home and he's, he goes home and he's just as big of a slob as your husband is. We all are, alright? You know? We all don't fix things around the house, you know? We all are men. We all act the same way. But anyway, you know, you start just focusing your attention on stuff that doesn't belong to you, whether it's a spouse that doesn't belong to you or you know, maybe you don't have kids and then you're just like always looking at other people's kids, just coveting, you know, wishing that you had children or maybe you're looking at their car and coveting their vehicle or coveting their job or coveting their position or coveting what they have and you start looking at stuff that doesn't belong to you and you know what? You're going to find a shortcut to get that stuff that you want and it's going to be getting off the right path because you're going to make a beeline. You know, when you're going down the path and you start, instead of looking at the path of your steps, instead of letting God's word just illuminate the next step and just illuminate where you're supposed to be going, what you're supposed to be doing, you know, when you lift up that flashlight and start shining it off in the distance and you see something that's really cool, you know, you're going to be tempted to just basically go as the crow flies, just make a beeline instead of staying on the path that God has. And you know, God's path might eventually even get you to some of those type of destinations. You know, God might bless you with things that He'll give you the desires of your heart. But you know, when you start focusing on that stuff at the expense of focusing on how you get there, okay, then that's where you get off the right path. You see, it's not about where you're going, it's about how you get there. Not this ends justifies the means mentality of just, well I'm just going to get there however. No, no, no, it's about how you get there. And you know, I thank God, you know, whatever you think about our church, whatever you think if our church is successful or not successful, whether you think it's big or small, whether you think it's a great church or a mediocre church or a lame church, let me tell you something, I'm proud of how we got here because we got here the right way. We didn't get here, whatever it is, and you know, I'm sure there are many other better churches out there, but you know, I'm just glad that however good or bad our church is, we did not get here by compromising. We didn't get here by telling people what they wanted to hear. We didn't get here by seeking and desiring money. We didn't get here by preaching a watered down message. No, that's not how we got here. Wherever we're at, I'm just glad that we went on the right path. You know, we went on a godly path. We went on a righteous path. But you see, we need to say, now let me give you another example of a guy who got off the right path. Go to 1 Chronicles chapter 3, and I want to talk about how David got off. And you say, why are you preaching on this? Well because a lot of times we have this mentality that thinks that you're living a godly life, you're living a righteous life, and then just boom, you fall into sin. And sometimes you'll hear about preachers, right? You'll hear about preachers who commit adultery. Now that's a pretty big sin, isn't it? Correct me if I'm wrong, didn't God stone people in the Old Testament for that? So that's a very major sin, right? So you'll have a Baptist preacher who commits adultery. Or even more egregious, he commits adultery with a teenager, like Dr. Jack Scott from Hammond, Indiana. You say, well why would you bring that up? Because look, Dr. Jack Scott is not saved, that's why. If he was a Christian, if he was saved, I wouldn't be rubbing his nose in his sins. But let me tell you something, Dr. Jack Scott is and always has been a false prophet. And Dr. Jack Scott is somebody that I preached at and pointed out as a false prophet over seven years ago. And he has worshippers in our town. People in our town, churches in our town that follow Dr. Jack Scott. And when he was found to be a pedophile, when he's found to be committing adultery with teenagers, you know what they say? Oh, he fell into sin. He's actually a great man. He's actually a godly man. He just fell into sin. It was an accident. We didn't pray for him enough. He's under a lot of stress. Now look, that's the right reaction right there, John. But let me tell you something, I mean, you're not just this righteous, godly man of God and then all of a sudden you're just contacting teenagers and trying to have a relationship with teenagers when you're in your 50s, okay? But let me tell you something, that man has preached lies and false doctrine. He's attacked the word of God. He's attacked the doctrines of Jesus Christ. He's preached false doctrine in regard to salvation for years and years and years and years. People, they think, oh, he's on the right path and he just stumbled. Wrong. You don't stumble when you're on the right path. Isn't that what God said? You stumble when you're on the wrong path. Now here's the thing, Dr. Scopp was never on the right path because he's not saved. Because he preaches heresy and false doctrine and lies and that's a whole other sermon to show you all the proof that he isn't saved and that he never was saved because if you're saved you're always saved. It's eternal life. But there are still people who follow his ministry and read his books and think his preaching is great. Isn't that ridiculous? Because they don't understand this concept that you don't just fall into that kind of sin. And listen, David was a man who was saved. He was a righteous man. He committed a very serious sin. He wasn't a Scopp because he wasn't with teenagers. But anyway, he basically committed adultery with another man's wife. Now that's about as bad as it gets. And then he ended up killing Uriah the Hittite, her husband, to try to cover up his sin. So look, he committed adultery and murder. Wouldn't you say those are two very serious sins? Adultery and murder. I mean if anybody in our church committed adultery and murder we'd be outraged. If anyone that we knew committed adultery and murder we'd be shocked, we'd be horrified. Major, major sin. So we have to ask ourselves, you know, how did David, who was a saved man, who was a righteous man, who was a man after God's own heart, who was hand-picked by God to lead his people, how did he commit this horrible sin with Bathsheba and killing Uriah? Now, a lot of people might look at this story and say, well, you know, David, he went up on the rooftop and he, you know, he looked out the window and he saw Bathsheba bathing, okay? And, you know, that's where it all started. No. Because look, if David would have been on the right path, if David would have been living the way that God wanted him to live, walking in a righteous path, living a godly life, if he would have been doing right and he would have gone up on the roof and looked out the window and seen that woman bathing, you know what he would have done? He would have looked away and gone back inside. Or even, now look, yeah, is anybody perfect? No. People make mistakes. You know, he might have committed the sin of taking a second look, maybe a third look, and then saying, wait a minute, you know, I shouldn't be doing this, right? And then go back in the house. And that would be sinful. That would be wrong. But, you know, if he's on the right path, you could see him spur of the moment, having a weak moment, feasting his eyes, and then say, oh, you know, I shouldn't be doing this, I'm sorry, and so on. But when you're sitting there and you're sending messengers to go call and figure out who she is, then you're bringing her over, you're committing a, I mean, that's not something that just happens. Because you're bored one night. It doesn't. And I'll prove it to you, because I'm going to prove to you that there was a lot that led up to David committing that sin. Look at 1 Chronicles chapter 3, and you say, oh, 1 Chronicles 3, I always skip that in my Bible reading. You know, 1 Chronicles 1 through 9, it's all genealogies, it's all names. Why would I read that? I've been skipping that for years, Pastor Anderson. Well, you don't want to skip anything. But look what the Bible teaches in 1 Chronicles 3, 1. It says, Now these were the sons of David which were born unto him in Hebron. Now before we go any further, let me just explain to you. When David started reigning over Israel, he reigned in Hebron, because he did not originally have power over the whole nation. The house of Benjamin still followed the house of Saul, and a lot of other of the tribes were still following Saul. Because when Saul was killed, the whole nation didn't just make David king immediately. So originally he just reigned over the tribe of Judah, kind of a foreshadowing of later when there'd be a split with Rehoboam and Jeroboam. But David is only reigning over part of the kingdom. He's only reigning over Judah in the beginning, slowly he reigns over more and more. So in the beginning, he's reigning not from Jerusalem, which had not even been established as a city of Israel yet, he's reigning in a place called Hebron, and he reigns in Hebron for the first seven and a half years of his kingdom. Then after seven and a half years, he has power over the entire nation, and he goes to a city called Jebus. Now if you remember in the book of Judges, the children of Israel, when they inhabited the promised land, they didn't kick all the heathen out like they were supposed to. You remember that? And one of the people they didn't kick out was the Jebusites. Well David threw out the Jebusites that lived in Jebus, he took over that city, and it became known as the city of David, and it became known as Jerusalem. So that's where Jerusalem first became a city of Israel. So all that to say this, David reigned for seven and a half years in Hebron, and then he reigned for 33 years in Jerusalem. So wouldn't you say that Hebron represents his early kingdom? Okay, well these are the sons that were born unto David when he was in Hebron. So these are the sons that were born unto him early in being a king, okay? And look at their names. The firstborn, Amnon of Ahenom the Jezralites, the second, Daniel of Abigail the Carmelites, the third, Absalom the son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai, king of Gishur, the fourth, Adonijah the son of Hagith, the fifth, Shepetiah of Abital, the sixth, Ithraim by Igla his wife. What do you notice about these six sons? Six different women. Do you notice that? Six sons were born to him from six different women. Now is there something wrong with that, or is it just me? Now that's why you've got to go to 1 Chronicles, you know, and people ignore this passage. But you know, you could be in 2 Samuel, you're not necessarily going to get these exact details put together in the same way. And so when you see here that he's already having children with six different wives when he's in Hebron, okay? Now doesn't that put it in a little more, oh no, this guy was on the right path. He had a great, go to 2 Samuel chapter 6. No David was on the right path, he just fell into sin, that's all. And for example people have tried to compare Dr. Scopp to David. He's like David, you know, he went into sin. Well first of all, David was in sin for a long time before he committed sin with Bathsheba, number one. But number two, David was saved and David was righteous. He didn't preach Pharisee and false doctrine where everybody could predict, you know, that David was into this kind of sin. But look if you would at 2 Samuel chapter 6, and this is later on, okay? But look at 2 Samuel chapter 6. Now just to put it in perspective for you, he's going to commit the sin with Bathsheba in chapter 11, okay? Chapter 11 is where he's going to commit the sin with Bathsheba. This is long before that. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 6 verse 20, then David returned to bless his household. And Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said, how glorious was, and by the way she's being sarcastic, how glorious was the king of Israel today who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovered themselves. So basically he walks into the house to bless his household and his wife Michal, which by the way was his original wife, his first wife, she comes and mocks him and rebukes him when he walks through the door. And he's having a great day, everything's going great. She comes in and mocks and rebukes him. And it says in verse 21, David said unto Michal, it was before the Lord which chose me before thy father, Burn, and before all his house to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore will I play before the Lord. Look at verse 22, tell me if this is the right reaction that David's having. Tell me if this is a godly thing to say. And I will be yet more vile than thus, and will be based in mine own sight. And of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honor. So here, instead of understanding that maybe he should have taken a little correction here, maybe he was wrong, he just lashes out in anger and says, you ain't seen nothing yet, you're jealous of me before those women? Well you know what, I'm going to be had in honor of those women. I'm going to be based in my own sight. And then look what it says in verse 23, therefore Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no child unto the day of her death. Not because she was barren, but because there ceased to be a relationship between David and Michal for the rest of their lives. Because of course David had at least six other wives. At least. And then not only that, but later on when Absalom takes over the kingdom, what about the ten concubines of David his father? So we're talking about a minimum of seventeen women that David has had as a wife or a concubine. I don't understand, why did you do it David? Why did such a righteous, godly man go into this adulterous sin with Bathsheba? Because it didn't just start out by committing adultery with Bathsheba, it started out by just having two wives. And then it became three. And I mean look, when you got three, four. Why not? I mean look, obviously four is worse than three. Obviously three is worse than two. You know, two is a lot worse than one because one is great. One is right. But what I'm saying is, you know, we have a tendency to think that once we do a little bit, you know the first time somebody steals something it probably really hurts their conscience. They're probably really feeling bad about it. But you know the second time it's probably a little easier. The third time it's a little easier. You know when you're marrying the seventh wife, you're not really as worried about it as when you're wondering, man should I marry the second wife? When you're marrying the seventh wife, when you're sleeping with ten women that are not your wife as concubines? You know, see how it's not as big of a leap now for you to call Bathsheba over? And this is what God was rebuking him by Nathan the prophet when he said, look, there was a man who had all these sheep and he goes and steals the neighbor's one sheep. That was the parable that he used for a reason. And so what we see, and then go to 2 Samuel chapter 11, just a few pages to write in your Bible and we'll finish up with David here, it says in 2 Samuel chapter 11 verse 1, and it came to pass after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with them and all Israel and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah, but David tarried still in Jerusalem. Now look, at the beginning of the verse it says this is when kings go to war and at the end of the verse it says he stayed home. So because he's not doing, first of all, he started out by having a bad marriage with his wife and marrying additional wives, then next thing you know, he's supposed to be going out and, I mean, what does a king even do? What's the point of even having a king? Oh, it's just somebody that we can just give a lot of food and money to and spend a lot, you know. Have you ever thought about that? What is the point of a king? Why does England have a queen and kings and what's the point? Just somebody to parade around and go like this? Somebody just to like adorn magazine covers every time they blow their nose or something because, you know, they're wearing a new dress or, you know, got married or had a fight with their spouse. What is the point of these kings? Well, if you study the Bible, the point of kings was always to fight, to lead them to battle, okay? And that's why the children of Israel even wanted a king. They said give us a king so we can be like all the nations, that he can go in and out before us and fight our battles. That's the point of a king, okay? So the king was to fight their battles. Well David, now that he's got the position and the royalty and the lavish luxury, now he's not even doing the job. He's not even fighting the battle. And he's got all these wives and it's just like, oh, somebody else is going to go fight it for me. I'm just going to stay home. So he's not doing his work. He's not doing his work that he's supposed to be doing for God and then look at verse 2. It came to pass in an evening time that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house. Now everything the Bible says, it says for a reason. Notice it doesn't just say he went walking on the roof one evening. It says he got out of bed to go walk on the roof. You say why is that significant? Why would you go to bed and then get up off the bed to go walk on the roof? Why? Because you can't sleep. And why can't you sleep? Because you're lazy. Because you haven't worked. Because the Bible says the sleep of a laboring man is sweet. Whether he's eaten little or whether he's eaten much. But the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. So the Bible teaches that when a man works hard, he's going to be able to sleep. But the one who's lazy, the one who's sitting around in bed at night, he hasn't worked by the sweat of his face, he didn't go out. I mean look, if he would have fought that battle, he wouldn't have got off that bed. I mean he would have loved the way that bed felt. After fighting a battle, he'd be like oh, even if he couldn't sleep, he'd still be tired. He'd still lay there, right? Because when you labor, you like to lay in bed. And when you don't fall asleep, when you lay there and you can't sleep, sometimes you like that even better. Because then you can savor every moment on that bed. You know, don't you hate it when you're really tired and you go to bed and then you just wake up and it's the next morning and you're like oh, I didn't even get to enjoy this pillow, you know? Man, I feel like I just got here. I don't care whether you sleep a lot or a little, whether you eat a lot or a little, you're loving that bed. But you know what, when you're just this lazy man living in luxury, servants waiting on you hand and foot, you're not serving God, you're not doing your job, you're totally bored, you just go out walking around in an idle mind as the devil's workshop. And so here he is, he's already broken the ice by being with a bunch of women that weren't his legitimate wife. He's already crossed that line, he's already crossed that battle. First he crossed the line of having multiple wives, that was bad, right? Then he has a concubine, that's even worse. He's not even married to her. And then he's just lazy, walking around, looking at whatever. I mean can you see how there's a lot of things that led up to this over a long time? So what am I trying to say, what's the moral of the story? First of all, when we see people commit a horrible sin, a horrific sin, don't ever be deceived into thinking, oh that just happened, that was just an accident. Oh, this preacher's committing adultery, that was an accident, no big deal, he's still a good guy. No, you know, he's been sinning for a long time. Because you don't just have a righteous marriage and a good relationship with your wife and you're serving God and you're on the right path and the next thing you know you're committing adultery and murder and I don't know how it happened. It doesn't happen that way, folks. And you know what, you need to make sure that you stay on the right path. Because if you get off the right path, one thing's going to lead to another. And it's not, you know, you say, what do I do Pastor Anderson, I don't want to be one of these that goes into gross sin. I don't want to go into major sin in my life. I don't want to become an ungodly person. I don't want to become an adulterer, I don't want to become a thief, I don't want to become a liar, I don't want to become just a person that has no character, that's dishonest, that's ungodly, that's looking at pornography or that's addicted to gambling or that's a drunk or that's a drug addict or whatever sin. I mean there's plenty of sins out there, right? I don't want to be out of church. I don't want to quit serving God. How do I stay on the right path? Well look, you have to keep every step in mind. Because instead of just thinking, oh that adultery, I'll never get there. I'll never end up over there as you go down that path, you know what I mean? Because you're not even paying attention to where you're staying. Every step, everybody who goes into drunkenness starts by taking only one step down that path. They just take one step. Every drunk was once a social drinker. I mean you start out, it starts with one beer, does it not? But see you're looking at the big picture. You're looking way off in the distance. I'd never be a drunk laying in the gutter. I'll never be addicted to alcohol. I'm never going to wake up and have a Bloody Mary for breakfast. I'll never get that, that'll never happen. As you take one small step toward it, and then another small step toward it, I'm never going to be addicted to pornography, I'm just looking at the swimsuit edition. I mean this isn't even pornography, right? It's a swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated. And I mean it's not like I even ordered it, I mean it just comes once a year because I was trying to read about football and baseball and it just showed up. So what? I mean just because I'm looking at a swimsuit magazine, that doesn't mean I'm going to be addicted to pornography. But you know what? You're taking a step toward that. And sometimes we need to stop looking at things off in the distance, far away, and ponder the path of our steps. And say, wait a minute, I know I'm not a drunk, but wait a minute, why am I drinking a beer? This isn't the path that God, God didn't tell me to drink this beer. The Holy Spirit's not leading me to drink this beer. You know, why am I looking at this swimsuit edition? Instead of thinking, oh well yeah this is just minor, I'm never going to go into the major. And God starts with that, and then you get there. You know, and you might say, well I'm never going to be, I'm never going to do like Grand Theft Auto. This is a pack of gum. So what? It's a pack of gum. It's 50 cents. So what? Is that even stealing? See what I mean? And then it just goes further and further and further. So look, all that to say this, Proverbs 4 has the answer. Stay away from ungodly people, don't hang around them, don't look at them, don't listen to what they say, don't listen to them on the radio, don't listen to them on TV, don't listen to their advice, don't talk to them at work if they're, and when I say ungodly, I'm not just talking about somebody who's not perfect, I mean I'm talking about these really ungodly people, whore mongers and whores and sodomites and these kind of, you know, we don't want to start walking in the path with these people. Look, bless is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law did he meditate day and night. Stay away from these type of people. Don't see and hear their unlawful deeds constantly. Don't look at stuff that doesn't belong to you. Don't look at stuff that's not yours. If you live in a crummy house, don't drive to some house in a mansion and go look at it and just say, well honey, but wouldn't it just be nice? Wouldn't it just be great though? You know, if you spend your time thinking about that, eventually lust is going to conceive and it's going to bring forth sin, sin's going to bring forth death, and ponder the path of your steps. Let God's word be a lamp under your feet and a light under your path. Don't say, I don't know if I can serve God for the next 30 years. Serve God today. I'll never end up a drunk down, nope, just don't even drink, just don't even touch. You know, oh man, I'm never going to be one of these chain smokers. I only smoke a couple times a day, or you know, I'm only smoking cigars. You know, I only smoke pot a little bit or something. No, well you know what, next thing you know, it's cocaine or something. You know what I mean? And so just don't even go down that path, ponder the path of your steps, get a short end view of today and say, did I read my Bible today? Am I praying today? Am I walking on a sinful path today? Oh I know it's not that bad, but where's it going to take me? Where's this path going? Because let me tell you something, when you're running and you stumble, you're going to get hurt bad, you're going to crash, and you need to get on that right path and let God guide your steps. You will never go into sin by accident. You will never go into sin just like that. It's because you've been taking steps all along that are leading you there. Stay a million miles from it, flee fornication, don't even get anywhere near it. Don't start playing with it, because it's a downward spiral. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word and we thank you for the warnings of your word and we thank you that your word can be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Help us to ponder every step. Not to just look at big goals and big dreams and big sins and big things to stay away from. Help us to look at every step and to not even plant one step in the wrong direction. Help us to plant every step firmly and carefully right before us and to know where we tread. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Alright let's go ahead and sing a song before we go. Anybody think of a song that ties in with the sermon? There we go, 310 Footprints of Jesus. Great song. 310 down there at the bottom of the page. And you know it's true, anybody who's been hiking before, who's done a lot of hiking before? Put up your head if you've done a lot of hiking. You know when you go hiking or especially if you go running on trails, man, you have to look at every step where your foot is, especially if you're running. And I mean you can take one wrong step and I've broken my toe hiking, you know, and you know what's happened a lot hiking is when you step down on your foot and it comes out from under you and you twist your ankle, right? And you know how many, you know, you've got to literally look at your feet when you're hiking like that. You know, you've got to look at your feet and see exactly where you're stepping. And that's what God's trying to teach us, look at what we're doing right now and not always look too far out in the future. 310 Footprints of Jesus, let's sing it out in that first verse.