Episode Transcript
Proverbs chapter 13, verse 20.
Proverbs chapter 13, verse 20.
Tyler, the message tonight is No One Walks Alone.
And our text tonight addresses a journey that everybody takes.
The moment we were born into this world, we went on a walk.
Everybody did.
The Bible starts off by saying here in Proverbs 13, verse 20: He that walketh, he that walketh.
The very first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1, says, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
So the heaven and the earth had a beginning, and that means that God created the heaven and earth within time.
So we occupy heaven and earth, and we are made from the dust of the earth.
Which was created in time.
So that means that we were born into a state of time.
And when God created time, because God did create time, time is something that was created.
And when God created time, he gave it a quality that we all recognize, namely, time does not stand still.
And time doesn't move backwards.
Time continually moves forward.
And since we were born into time, we continually move forward as well.
Every grave marker records the date of our birth and the date of our death.
Moving forward in time.
I like visiting cemeteries and seeing grave markers where people have prepurchased their grave marker and they haven't died yet.
So it has their date of birth, and all they're waiting is just to fill in their date of death.
And they know it's coming, and they're going forward to that date.
You can't go sideways, can't go backwards, can't go around.
You've got to move forward to that date.
So since we are moving forward with time, rather than standing still outside of time.
Our continual motion forward is described in the Bible as our walk in the earth, our walk, because we're on a journey.
On a journey forward in time.
First Chronicles chapter 29.
Verse 15, 1 Chronicles 29, 15, King David told the Lord, for we are strangers before thee.
That's what he told God, we're strangers before you.
So when God looks at us, God sees us as strangers, not strangers in the sense that He doesn't know who we are.
King David never would have told God that.
Because God knew David and David knew the Lord.
But when God sees us here on earth, He sees us as temporary residents on the earth.
And David said, For we are strangers before thee and sojourners.
So God sees us not only as people who are Temporary residence on the earth, but as he sees us as soldiers, that is, people who are on a pilgrimage in the earth will soon be leaving the earth.
He says, as were all our fathers.
And then he concludes the verse by saying, Our days on the earth are as a shadow.
And there is none abiding.
When you look at us, you don't see anybody here with a permanent resident status.
Nobody.
We're like, you see us as strangers on the earth.
You see us as sojourners in the earth.
There is none abiding.
Nobody is going to live in this fallen world forever.
Interestingly, When I was telling my wife when I got home, I was looking on the news.
I don't know how many of y'all saw it, but President Putin And President or Prime Minister Chi, whatever he's called, from China, they were speaking with each other and they were caught on a hot mic speaking.
Did any of y'all see that?
And one of them tells the other that used to, people didn't even, hardly anyone lived to be 70 years old, but today Seventy, they say, is considered as a child.
And they began speaking about to each other harvesting organs.
And how you could have continual organ transplants, and that the older you get, the younger you would be.
And you could actually attain immortality.
Now, these are two educated men that are ruling a great part of the world.
And they're nuts.
I mean, to be talking like that, but at the same time, it reveals, and this is the sad part to me.
Why did that have their interest?
Because man does want immortality.
Man does not want to die, rightfully so.
But at the same time, this was the sad part: both of those men deny Christianity.
They deny the gospel.
And so while we have great joy and hope in the resurrection, The only hope they have is in perpetual organ transplants.
Now I've seen people go through these organ transplants.
To where you all have to, you all have seen them at least on television.
They get sick, their kidneys failing.
Their hearts failing, their lungs failing, and they get all excited.
When somebody crashes in the car and they get to take their lung out and they get a new lung, they're all excited.
Now they're thankful to the person.
And I'm sure there's a little sadness for the person who died, but that's overshadowed by them having surgery and getting along.
Now could you imagine living a perpetual life where you know you're going to constantly one day face lung failure?
Have a transplant, kidney failure, have a transplant, heart failure.
Could you imagine living through that?
I think I'd be, yeah, I'm done with all this.
I don't want to have to keep experiencing my organs going out, and that my best hope is to have perpetual mortality through these organ transplants.
He says there is none abiding.
We all have temporary resident status because we are all walking on our way out of here.
But while we're on our journey home, while we're walking, Solomon said we need to walk, look back in your text, with wise men.
With wise men.
So in this verse, Solomon is addressing the company we keep while we're on our journey, while we're walking.
So lest we misunderstand what Solomon is saying, we need to understand that he is not so much talking about the people that we're around.
That's what you would think when you read this.
We need to watch.
Who were around.
That's really not what he's talking about.
So it's not so much the people we're around, it's the people we're following.
The people we're following.
I have worked with some foolish people before.
How many of y'all have worked with foolish people?
Pretty much everybody has.
But there's a difference between working with someone and walking with someone.
There are a lot of Christians today who have foolish family members in their homes.
They're stuck living with them.
I mean, it could be their spouse You could have a a fool for a husband, a fool for a wife.
It could be foolish parents and young people are being raised by foolish parents.
And they could be stuck in that house, living in the same house, But at the same time, hate their foolish ways.
And the Christians hate their foolish ways.
So these Christians spend a lot of time with these foolish family members, but living with someone is not the same as walking with someone.
Suppose you and I both started out here in the parking lot of the church, and we were both going to begin walking at the same time.
You want to go to Dairy Queen to get a belt buster.
I want to go to Soulman's to get barbecue.
If one of us doesn't change our mind and agree with the other, then we may be walking at the same time, but we're not going to be walking together.
See?
Because there's no agreement between the two of us.
And in Amos chapter 3, verse 3, the Lord asked Israel.
Can two walk together except they be agreed?
So we learn something here.
There's got to be an agreement.
To walk with a wise man, there has to be an agreement with that wise person.
Two cannot walk together unless they are in agreement.
As we just illustrated with the belt buster and the brisket.
And I have a feeling that most people would probably follow me to the brisket.
The Bible says in Genesis 5:22, Enoch walked with God.
Now, how did Enoch walk with God?
Did Enoch go up to heaven and walk with God?
Did God come down here and they two go out walking together?
How did Enoch walk with God?
Enoch walked with God by living a life that was in agreement with God.
Enoch's life was in agreement with God's word.
Thus Enoch walked with God.
Genesis chapter 6, verse 9 says, These are the generations of Noah.
Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked.
With God.
Now, how did Noah walk with God?
Well, the same way Enoch walked with God.
In fact, the text explains how Noah walked with God.
Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
So, how did Noah walk with God?
By number one, being just and perfect.
Which is number two.
How did Noah walk with God?
By being just and perfect.
By being just, which means he was lawful.
According to God's word, by being perfect, which in the Hebrew means he was sincere.
He was no hypocrite.
He followed God's word sincerely.
Judas followed Jesus.
Insincerely.
He was a hypocrite the whole time.
Judas walked with Jesus physically.
But because he was not in agreement with Jesus, Judas did not walk with God.
Judas did not walk with Jesus, not according to this text.
So, speaking of John the Baptist's parents in the New Testament, the Bible says in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, verse 6.
Luke 1:6 says, And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless.
Now, that gives us a great description that proves beyond any shadow of a doubt what it means to walk together with God or to walk together with wise men.
It's the same thing.
Even though a wise man is not God, for a man to be wise, he has to be walking with God.
And so, how did they walk with God in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord?
They were in agreement with his word, his commandments, and his ordinances.
So a wise man walks in all the commandments of the Lord, thus, a wise man walks with God.
And they that walk with wise men, Solomon said, look back now in your text, shall be wise.
He that walks with wise men shall be wise.
And this is a marvelous principle in God's Word, which I have decided to call vicarious wisdom.
Solomon didn't say wise men walking with wise men shall be wise.
That wouldn't even be logical.
That statement would make no sense, for if a man was already wise, then it couldn't be said that he shall be wise if he walks with wise men.
For he already is wise.
So he wouldn't be saying shall be because he already is.
So Solomon is saying that if a person lacks wisdom, That's the inference here.
If a person lacks wisdom, then that person shall be wise if he does what?
If he walks with wise men.
Vicarious wisdom.
Simply put, if you want to be wise, all you have to do is walk with wise men.
That's simple.
Well, how does that work?
Well, remember what God asked Israel back in Amos 3:3?
Can two walk together except they be agreed?
So, how do we walk together?
We agree.
How do we walk with wise men?
We come into agreement with them.
Israel wasn't walking with God because they didn't agree with God.
That's why God asked them that rhetorical question.
Israel had their own view of right and wrong, and it did not agree with God's.
God wanted Israel to repent.
And we've learned over and over again in church that repent means to do what?
To change the mind.
And so to walk with wise men means to be in agreement with them as you follow their godly example.
If a person is not wise, but they get into the company of wise men, whether in their presence, Or whether reading their books, or whether reading from the apostles and the prophets, or Jesus Christ Himself, who was the wisest man of all, when you read, And then you learn, and then your mind comes into agreement with what you've learned, that wisdom.
And then, as you practice that wisdom, what are you doing?
You're doing what Enoch did, you're doing what John the Baptist's parents did, you're doing what Noah did, you're walking with God.
And you're walking with the wise men that you've learned from.
And so, all you have to do is, if you don't have wisdom, You learn wisdom vicariously.
You gain the wisdom of others simply by coming into agreement with it and then putting it into practice.
Agree and follow their godly example.
If I'm walking with you. then eventually we're going to arrive at the same destination, right?
If we're in agreement with each other and we're walking, we're going to wind up there at the barbecue place.
Or, if I come into agreement with you, we're going to wind up there at the Dairy Queen.
So, if I'm walking with you, we're going to arrive at the same destination, and spiritually speaking, if we're walking together.
If I'm wise, then you're going to be wise.
We're going to end up at the same destination.
If I'm walking with you and I come into agreement with you and I'm following your godly example, then if you're wise, then I'm going to be wise.
Because I come into agreement with that wisdom.
On the other hand, if we walk with fools, then that same principle applies.
We will also arrive at the same destination as the fool.
So, if he is foolish, then we will be foolish.
Why?
Because we've come into agreement with the foolishness.
And that means if the fool is destroyed, then we will be destroyed.
Solomon said, But a companion of fools, if you look back in your text, that is one that is in agreement with a fool and follows their godless example.
What's going to happen?
It says, shall be destroyed.
Shall be destroyed.
So there's not only the principle of vicarious wisdom, but also the principle of vicarious foolishness.
The Bible says Enoch walked with God and God took him, and he was not.
So, once again, two people walking together.
In agreement, they're going to have the same destination.
Enoch was walking with God, then he was not.
God took him.
Where was Enoch now?
He's still with God.
He walked with God on earth.
He's walking with God in heaven now.
And in the Gospel of John chapter 12, verse 26, John 12, 26, Jesus said, If any man serve me, Let him follow me.
If any man serve me, let him follow me.
In other words, let him walk with me.
If you're going to serve me, then be in agreement with me.
Judas served him, but he wasn't following him.
He wasn't in agreement with him.
So, if any man serve me, let him follow me.
And then he gives the principle, the same principle.
That if two walk together or in agreement, what happens if you walk together in agreement?
You're going to arrive at the same destination.
So Jesus said, Let him follow me, and where I am, there shall also my servant be.
If you're walking with Jesus and Jesus is wise, then that's where you're going to be.
You're going to be wise too.
If you're walking with Jesus and Jesus is presently someplace in location, that's where you're going to be too.
We'll enjoy the same destination as Jesus.
If we agree with Jesus, then we'll be walking with Jesus.
And if we walk with Jesus, then we shall be with Jesus.
Yet in the end, sharing the same destination is to be like Jesus.
And that's why the Bible says when we see Him, that we will be like Him.
We will be like him, for we shall see him as he is, and have arrived at the same destination.
But a companion of fools, the Bible says, shall be destroyed.
So, the opposite of what Jesus said when Jesus said, If any man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am, there shall also my servant be.
That same principle applies in the opposite direction.
A companion of fools shall be destroyed.
The opposite of what Jesus said in John 12:26 could be said by the devil.
The devil could say, If any man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am, there shall also my servant be.
No fool shall enter heaven because if you agree with God, then you're no longer a fool.
You can't enter heaven without agreeing with God.
That's what repentance is.
There's not going to be any opposition in the kingdom of God, thank God.
That opposition will be gone.
God said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, and one day there will be no strife at all between God and man.
So, no fool shall enter heaven because if you agree with God, you're no longer a fool.
And at the same time, no wise man is going to go to hell, because if you agree with the devil, then you are not wise.
He who walks with the devil shall arrive at the same destination.
Jesus said in Matthew 25, 41.
Jesus said, Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me.
Notice not the same destination, depart from me, ye cursed, where?
Into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
That where I am, there you may be also.
That's exactly what happens with the devil and his angels.
Those who are coming to agreement with their foolish ways, to deny God, to live for self.
To reject the Lord Jesus Christ, that's where they're going to wind up.
And this is why Satan wants so badly to win over the minds of our young people.
This is why you see them trying to reach children as young as they can to win their minds over by exposing them to the fools in media.
Social media, television, whatever it is, there's so much foolishness there.
And they want the young people to buy into it.
The devil wants them to agree with their foolish propaganda, so they'll arrive.
At their hellish destination and be destroyed.
He that walks with wise men shall be wise.
But the companion of fools shall be destroyed.
With that, we'll go ahead and close tonight.
And Lord willing, take back up Next Wednesday, with the next verse.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
Thank you, Lord, for Giving us such great examples to walk by.
And even now, as I'm thinking when I was young, I remember my grandfather walking on his farmland in that freshly plowed soil and me walking behind him and seeing his footprints and me trying to step and each of his footprints and having to reach so far with my short legs.
And oh Lord, what a wonderful example you've left us.
Jesus walked and left us some wonderful footprints to step in.
You've given us your scriptures, Lord, to show us where to step.
You've demonstrated it for us, Father, through your Son.
Through godly men and godly women, Father, of days gone by.
And you've even left us examples today as your Holy Spirit lives in us, and we watch.
Other godly people, Lord, and we look at your word, Father Lord, as our justness, dear Father, to know where to step, dear Lord God.
May we be like Noah.
And be just, lawful, and sincere, Father God, as well, dear Lord God, which is perfect.
We pray for that, dear Lord God, that we will walk with wise men.
And we ask it in Jesus' wonderful name.
We pray again, Father, for every prayer request that was mentioned tonight.
The spoken, the unspoken.
For all the broken hearts, dear Lord God, and all the needs that need to be met, we pray for your grace to meet them.
In Jesus' name, amen.
