Episode Transcript
The title of the message tonight is A Hot Pursuit.
A Hot Pursuit will be expounding Proverbs chapter 13, verse 21.
Proverbs chapter 13, verse 21.
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It helps the message go smoothly.
For those who are able to turn there and want to turn there, they can.
For those who cannot get there quite so quickly, it allows them to not miss anything in God's Word.
They can still have the scriptures right before their eyes.
Proverbs chapter 13, verse 21.
And as soon as we get that verse up there, there we go.
We start off with the word evil tonight.
That's our first word, evil.
The Hebrew root word translated evil.
Comes from a Hebrew word translative comes from a root word that literally means to break into pieces.
To break into pieces.
I sure enjoyed my study on this verse.
So when you think of the word evil, Think of breaking into pieces.
Something that breaks into pieces, or the act of breaking into pieces.
The Bible says in Genesis chapter 1, verse 31, that God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.
Say, Brother Richard and I, I thought we were talking about evil.
The only way you can learn about evil, to learn it correctly, is to learn about good.
Good came before evil.
God is good, and everything God does, therefore, is good.
And everything God makes, therefore, is good.
Somebody brought a watermelon to church Sunday.
Y'all know who that was?
Karen would know.
They brought a watermelon church.
Was that you?
Well, it was good.
That was good watermelon.
And I took a bite out of that watermelon and I looked at my family and said, that watermelon is good.
And we may not realize it, but when I said that watermelon was good, I was actually saying that watermelon tastes as God designed it to taste.
And because it tastes the way God designed man to taste it, that is very pleasing to me.
That's really what I was saying.
I can't determine if something is good or not.
And if that watermelon wasn't the way God designed, then that watermelon would have been no good.
God's design for creation was flawless.
God's purpose for mankind is one that's full of joy.
And satisfaction.
Goodness comes from God.
Goodness can't come from anyone else but God.
And God made everything good.
But evil, remember, evil means to break into pieces.
And evil takes.
The good and the perfect design that God made And then it breaks it into pieces.
It takes what God made good and it breaks it.
In giving man the choice, God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst.
Of the Garden of Eden.
And Adam, therefore, was given the opportunity to not only know God's design.
God's good design, but also to know God's good design broken into pieces.
It makes you think of it a whole lot different, doesn't it?
But that's literally what God gave.
By the way, the good in the book of Genesis and the evil in the book of Genesis are the same words we're looking at here in Proverbs.
And so the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he could have chosen the tree of life.
He would have only known things the good way God designed.
That's all he would have ever known.
God never designed death.
God designed man to live forever.
So he would have only known that which was good.
Thus, he would have never died.
Now, having chosen to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, now he'll know God's good design and God's good design broken into pieces.
Tragic.
But that is the decision that Adam made.
Most of us, again, have know what happened to Charlie Kirk today, and we've seen what happened to that beautiful young woman on the mass transit that got murdered.
And what those people did when they killed those innocent people was evil.
It was evil.
It was evil because when they either stabbed that beautiful young woman or shot that handsome young man, they were breaking to pieces God's design.
God made man in his image and they broke it to pieces.
They themselves were evil.
Not only did they break God's design to pieces, but they themselves and their hearts were evil because God designed their heart to love. their neighbor.
But instead, they broke that to pieces and they hated their neighbor.
Evil is the breaking to pieces of God's good design, and the Bible says that evil, look back in your text.
Pursueth.
We'll go back now to our text.
Evil pursueth.
It pursues.
Not only does evil break into pieces, but evil also pursues.
Sinners commit evil against God by breaking God's design to pieces, and then God renders evil to sinners by breaking them into pieces.
The Bible says it says evil pursues what?
Sinners.
It pursues them.
Now, all sinners commit evil.
That means every one of us are guilty of committing evil.
Why do we commit evil?
Because sin comes short of the good and glorious image that God created us in.
Any time we do something contrary to the good that God designed us to do, then we are committing evil because we're breaking that good design into pieces whenever we go against God's word.
And rest assured, I thank God he is not going to leave this world and the mess that it's in right now.
One day there's not going to be a hint of evil left in this world.
Can you imagine that?
There will not be a hint of evil left in this world because God is going to break Evil into pieces.
He's going to break sinners, evil people into pieces.
When God's good design is broken, evil pursues the person who broke the design.
In Deuteronomy chapter 22, verse 22.
The Bible says, if a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die.
But the man that lay with the woman and the woman, I'm sorry, both the man that lay with the woman and the woman, so shalt thou put away what?
Evil from Israel.
You see, when a man lies with a woman who's married to another man, is that God's good design?
Now, God designed one man and one woman to be in a loving union till death do they part.
So, when a third person outside that union comes in and joins that by lying with one of the spouses, they are breaking to pieces that good design that God made.
And so, what did God say?
He told Israel: because by breaking that into pieces, what are they doing?
They're committing evil.
They're breaking God's good design into pieces.
So, God said, Do what?
You take both of them.
That broke my good design into pieces, and you put them to death.
And by putting them to death, you're putting the evil away from you.
Now, you just keep that in your mind for a minute.
God said the remedy is to put them to death.
The remedy is to let evil pursue those sinners and break them into pieces.
So, the evil they committed will be put away.
By being adulterers, the unfaithful couple are breaking God's design for marriage.
So, when God breaks the broken design, God puts the evil away.
Evil is to break into pieces.
Now, here's what we have to understand.
Both sinners and God commit evil.
Both sinners and God commit evil.
When God breaks those sinners, is He not breaking them to pieces?
Yes.
Both sinners and God commit evil.
Isaiah chapter 45, verse 7.
Isaiah chapter 45, verse 7.
God said, I form the light and create darkness.
I make peace and create what?
Evil.
God creates evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things.
Now, if we did not understand our verse tonight in the book of Proverbs, And we did not understand the meaning of it, then we might read something like this verse here in Isaiah 45, verse 7, and say, oh, dear God.
You created evil.
And then we say, oh, the Calvinists are right.
God created, God made peace, and then God Creates evil.
And so God is the author of sin, the author of all that's bad.
But he's not.
That's not what God is saying at all.
God said, I make peace.
Now, when God made peace, what was he doing?
The Bible says God made peace with us through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We have peace through the blood of His cross, the Bible says.
God says, I make peace, but what else does God do?
He also creates evil.
And so the people who, through the cross of Christ, embrace God's good design, because me being a sinner I recognize that sin, that breaking God's good design, is wrong.
I realize it's going to cause me to die.
And so I embrace the cross of Jesus Christ that sin may be put away from me and that God's good may be restored to me.
And that I may ultimately no longer be like the evil I was in Adam, but like the righteous Lord Jesus Christ when He comes again.
So God makes peace for us through faith in his Son.
But God also creates evil for those who reject his Son.
Because those who reject Christ are rejecting the whole of God's creation.
The whole of God's purpose.
Those who reject Christ as their Savior are embracing the breaking of God's good design.
They're saying, I don't want to be redeemed from this broken world.
I don't want to be restored back to the good and perfect design that God had for me.
I don't want to be conformed to the image of his Son and to have God's good word residing in my heart.
I reject that, and having rejected the peace that God makes, they then receive the evil that God creates.
He'll break them into pieces.
Again, both sinners and God commit evil.
The difference is this: sinners commit evil.
By breaking a good design, God commits evil by breaking a bad design.
Make sense?
In both cases, it's breaking something into pieces.
Sinners commit evil by breaking a good design.
God commits evil by breaking a bad design.
God's good design, the sinner commits an unrighteous evil.
But by breaking the sinner's bad design, God commits a righteous evil.
How many of y'all want to see God come back and totally smash to pieces every bad thing in this world?
That's the righteous evil that God creates.
When God had his people in the Old Testament, when Brother Shepherd's been covering not too long ago, when God had them break idols into pieces.
He was breaking the sinner's bad designs.
And by doing so, he was putting away the evil, their breaking of God's good designs, out from Israel.
And when Jesus comes again, God is not going to leave any remnant of unrighteousness left in this earth.
He is going to commit the ultimate evil of breaking the bad designs.
Speaking of that day, the book of Psalms, or the second Psalm, chap uh Psalm 2, verse 9.
Psalm 2, verse 9 says this about Jesus.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron.
Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
You see how that works?
They are a marred The Bible speaks of God having vessels that are fit for destruction.
And so what happens is, these people have marred God's good design.
They then become their own unrighteous bad design, all we like sheep have gone astray.
What, from God's good and perfect design?
We've turned every man to his own way.
What is that, our own evil design?
By breaking God's good design in pieces, we've turned our own design.
And so the Bible says when the Lord Jesus comes back, He's going to break.
Those evil people with a rod of iron, just like breaking a potter's vessel into pieces.
So he that breaks the design shall be broken by the designer.
See how that works?
The man that breaks the design, that is God's design, shall ultimately be broken by the designer.
Evil pursues the sinner, the Bible says.
It may look like it's lagging behind.
It may look like it's never going to catch up to the center.
But evil always catches up to the center.
And breaks them.
Evil pursues the sinner, look back in your text now, but to the righteous.
And the righteous are those who safeguard God's design for mankind.
Those who want to see God's word and God's will unbroken.
When Jesus taught us to pray.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
That's all the same as saying, Lord, your kingdom come.
And may your good, that tob, right, in the Old Testament, that good and perfect design, be done here.
That's the righteous.
They want God's word to be done here.
And the righteous here, specifically in the Bible, are those who are righteous through faith in Christ.
And what pursues the righteous?
Not evil, but what?
Look back at your text.
Good.
You see that?
It says here, but to the righteous, good.
And good pursues the righteous.
And good is Tob.
God made everything Tob.
God saw the creation that it was Tob.
Tob is that good and blessed design of God.
And Christian, by the grace of God, Tob pursues us.
It pursues us.
Tob may look like it's lagging behind, but Tob always catches up to the righteous and blesses them.
Evil breaks God's good design, but Tob in the end is going to break the sinner's bad design.
One day, Tob is going to catch up to every believer in Jesus Christ. and break the bad design of sin, and restore to us the good and marvelous design that God has for us.
The Bible promises us that God will ensure that good, look back in your text, shall be repaid.
Now, look how clear and specific God is here.
Evil pursues and good is repaid.
It's repaid.
Think about that.
It doesn't say that evil is repaid.
Did you notice that?
It says good is repaid.
And it's repaid to whom?
To the righteous, the Bible says.
To the righteous.
And again, that means those who are righteous by faith in Jesus Christ, where the Bible says Christ is the end of the law.
For righteousness to all who believe.
So here's that word repay.
Good shall be repaid.
And that word repaid has the sense of restoration.
Restoration.
I loaned a man $20 the other day.
I was out $20.
He came back the next day and he gave me $21.
He wouldn't take the $1 back.
I tried to, he wouldn't do it.
He wanted to make sure I got everything back, plus something for giving him, loaning it to him when he needed it.
I respect a man like that.
The first time this Hebrew word translated repaid here is used, it's in Exodus chapter 21, verse 35 and 36.
We're speaking of agriculture because agriculture was the people's wealth back in those days.
And for a lot of people, it is today, too.
But in Exodus 21, verses 35 and 36, God said, And if one man's ox hurt another's, that he die, then they shall sell the live ox. and divide the money of it and the dead ox also they shall divide.
Or if it be known that the ox hath Used to push in time past.
In other words, if they knew that it was a violent ox before, kind of like we do with dogs, if your dog bites somebody, All right.
You don't get charged a crime for keeping a violent animal.
But if your dog bites Miss Ann over here real bad, And you don't do anything to put that dog down or something like that, or take that dog out in the country away from everybody, and then that dog bites.
Sister Fulton over here, then you can get charged with a crime for keeping a vicious animal, because you knew beforehand.
So God said, if if that if they the man knew that that ox Was a violent ox and would go out and kill other people's oxen before.
It says, His owner, and his owner hath not kept him in.
In other words, he didn't do due diligence to make sure that that ox did not get out and kill another ox.
He shall surely pay.
Ox for ox.
Now, that word pay is the same Hebrew word translated repay in our text here in Proverbs.
This is the first time it's used in the Bible.
He shall surely pay ox for ox.
And the dead shall be his own.
So God says, Here, you both had live oxen.
You knew that yours was dangerous.
You didn't keep him pinned in, and now he's done killed that man's ox.
I tell you what, he can get your live ox, now you get his dead one.
But he's going to pay a live ox back.
Why?
Because what did the man lose?
He lost a live ox.
What does he get repaid?
He gets repaid a live ox.
So he is now fully restored.
He's made whole.
And that's exactly what God does for us in the gospel.
God created everything good, but because of sin, we lost the good and perfect design that God gave us.
It was the greatest tragedy that ever happened on earth when we through Adam, decided to know the good design that God gave for us when we decided to know it and to experience it broken into pieces.
And boy, have we experienced it.
And the Bible assures us here tonight that Tob That everything that God saw was Tob, that Tob, that good, shall be repaid, shall be restored.
What did we lose?
We did not lose a live ox.
We lost the good and perfect design of God, and God says that good and perfect design is going to be paid back.
It's going to be repaid, restored, and man who lost My good intention for them will have it restored back.
God is going to repay His good back to the righteous.
And that's why Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes.
God makes us righteous that He might restore us His good.
How does it work?
When Jesus went to the cross, our evil All of the breaking of God's good design was charged to him.
Now, what does God do to evil?
What do we learn tonight?
Whoever breaks the good design is broken by the designer.
Remember?
God, man creates evil, an unrighteous evil, by breaking a good design.
God creates evil, a righteous evil, by breaking a bad design.
And so when Jesus went to the cross, Our bad design was put on Jesus, and God did what?
He saw the bad design.
The Bible says, he who knew no sin became sin for us.
Jesus became the bad design.
And so, what did God do with the bad design?
The designer broke him.
And that's why Jesus said on the night of that last Passover to his disciples, Take, eat, this is my body, which is what?
Broken for you.
And like with a rod of iron, God broke Jesus into pieces like a potter's vessel, that he being broken Taking the evil design could then restore to us and repay to us God's good design.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way that God's good design can be restored back to man.
Notice again that Solomon, as we begin to close here, Solomon is talking about good and evil in this verse.
And that good and evil that Solomon is talking about in this verse are the same good and evil that belong to the tree in the Garden of Eden.
The knowledge of good and evil.
And Solomon is simply addressing it here.
Solomon says, good and evil.
Is repaid to the righteous.
Good is repaid to the righteous, evil pursues the sinner.
And again, the good and evil in this verse are the same too: good and evil at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
So here's how it works.
Through the gospel of Jesus Christ, all the evil returns to the sinner.
And all the good returns to the believer.
Isn't that beautiful?
Through the gospel of Jesus, Adam decided to know both good and evil.
And through the gospel of Jesus Christ, all of the was what we call a final disposition in law, right, Brother Shepard, a final disposition.
Brother, I show someone probably does that for y'all now at the Sheriff's Department, where they look up the final disposition of the charges y'all file.
Yeah.
But with DPS, we had to look up the final dispositions.
There ultimately has to be a final disposition because mankind chose to know both good and evil.
And so man shall know both good and evil.
But the good that man knows and the evil that man knows is going to be divided up.
To where the seed of the woman gets all the good, the seed of the serpent gets all the evil.
It all gets charged back to man who ate from the tree.
But praise God, all the bad, all the evil goes to the sinner in the end, and all the good goes to the believer.
Father, we thank you so much for your good and perfect will for us.
Thank you for explaining to us, Lord, in your word.
The disposition, the final disposition of the good and the evil from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The fact that evil pursues the sinner, but by your grace, good shall be repaid to the righteous.
We look forward to that day in Jesus' wonderful name.
Amen.
