Guard Your Way

One of the places where I am reading these days is the book of Proverbs. I read just one proverb each day. I find that that works better for me than reading a whole chapter. The other day I was reading in chapter 16, and I came upon a proverb that stood out a bit.

The highway of the upright turns aside from evil; whoever guards his way preserves his life. Proverbs 16.17

As I considered this proverb, it seemed to have some things that would be good for you to know. That’s why I’m preaching on it this morning. And right at the outset I want you to know my goal. It’s simply this. I want to help you preserve your life. There are many threats against your life that you need to take seriously lest they succeed in undoing you. I’m hoping that what I have to say today will help you do that.

So, let’s start by being clear about what this ‘preserves his life’ means. This isn’t some abstract notion that we need to make clear. But still, it’s a good habit when meditating on some Scripture to make sure that you really know what all the words mean. The preserving part is about keeping something safe. That’s pretty clear. But when it comes to the word ‘life’, be careful not to understand it in a superficial way. In Proverbs, life refers to both body and soul. So, it’s important to understand ‘life’ in a very full sense.

Now that we are clear about this ‘preserves his life’, something else also becomes clear. The proverb is assuming something. It is assuming that you are confronted by things that threaten your life. If that were not the case you wouldn’t need to worry about preserving your life. As the rest of Proverbs shows, you live in a world filled with danger. Because this book of the Bible sees life in this way, this proverb offers a bit of wisdom: ‘guard your way’. It promises that, if you do that, you will be kept safe from all those dangers. You will preserve your life.

Now, this ‘guard your way’ is another phrase that we need to be clear about. What’s with this word, ‘way’? The author could have used lots of other words. What’s this word about? We can answer that by seeing how it is used elsewhere.

Listen to how God is described.

The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. Deuteronomy 32.4

According to this, God has ways of doing things. There is a way about Him.

The same sort of thing can be said of people.

…for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Psalm 1.6

Both the righteous and the wicked have a way about them. The way of the wicked will come to an end but not the way of the righteous.

Our proverb is talking about the way in which you pursue life, the manner in which you live.  Your way is what tells you how to understand what’s going on in your life. It’s about the values and attitudes that reside in your heart, the things that determine the choices that you make. The proverb is calling you to be careful about all of that, to guard your way, to protect it.

So, having taken a look at some of the key words here, let me read them again as a sentence.

whoever guards his way preserves his life.

Having established what our proverb means, what it’s calling for, the next question is obvious. How do you do that? How do you guard your way? This is where we take a look at the first part of the proverb.

The highway of the upright turns aside from evil;

The paths of life that the upright follow avoid evil. So, when the upright see evil looming before them, they turn aside from it. They avoid it. Sounds simple, no? Just turn aside. But, as I’m sure that you know, it isn’t simple.

You and I have enemies. I have found that a good way to summarize the enemies that confront me is by referring to this triad: the world, the flesh and the devil. I use that triad in my prayers.

Let’s take a moment to consider each.

The world: You and I and everyone else that we know is influenced by the society in which we live. Some of those influences are obvious. None of us men wear powdered wigs, and none of you women use bustles. But there are lots of other more subtle ways in which the society around us affects us. And most of them are so subtle that we don’t notice them. These are ways that we look at life that are just completely wrong. As a result, we make some very poor choices. That’s the effect of the influence of the world.

The flesh: This is a word that Paul uses quite a bit. It isn’t about the body. It’s about the sin that remains with you and me even though we are Christians. This includes things like our habits, wrong ways that we deal with stress, terrible attitudes about others and more. It’s all the ways that we misunderstand life, ways that are nowhere near what God describes as good and right and holy. And these different ways in which we get life wrong cause so much trouble to our lives. That’s the effect of the flesh.

The devil: What do I need to say about him? He is real. He is busy. And he hates us. It is his great desire to get as many of us to join him in that lake of fire which will be his eternal fate. And he has already been successful at this with some. Remember Judas.

So, these three - the world, the flesh and the devil - are reasons why it sounds simple just to turn aside from evil, but it really isn’t. And every day we are called to battle against them. And that explains the call of the proverb to guard our way. We need to do that because there is danger.

So, back to our question. How do you guard your way? What do you do to actually be able to turn aside from evil?

The first thing is to take the assumption of the proverb seriously. There are threats to your life, body and soul - the world, the flesh and the devil. And if you don’t respond wisely to those threats, they will overcome you. They will kill you.

Here, just think about how often the Proverbs talks about the choice between life and death. Here is just one example where wisdom speaks.

For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death. Proverbs 8.35-36

Don’t panic at this threat, but understand that it exists. You live on a battlefield. Please take that so very seriously.

Then, there’s a second thing that you need to do to be able to turn aside from evil and preserve your life. This builds on the first. It is my hope that you will take this proverb seriously enough that you will make it a habit to pray about this issue. You will not be able to turn from evil and preserve your life if you don’t call out in prayer.

But what are you to pray for? That’s an important question. What exactly do you want the Father to do? Pray that the Father will enable you to see, with increasing clarity, the danger that confronts you.

Because of the influence of the world, we have been taught to believe that we can pretty much do life on our own. Here, the world is simply the tool of the devil. And what makes it worse is the arrogance of our flesh. ‘Yes, I can do that. I can do whatever I put my mind to.’ What lies. And there are so many Christians who remain fooled by those kinds of lies. So, pray that the Father will let you see more of the reality that is your life. There is danger, real danger. Pray for a clear sense of what is going on all around you and within you and that you cannot deal with it on your own.

The way that I do this is to regularly pray about my safety. I don’t mean that in terms of my body but rather in terms of my soul. This is because I have been made to see that life is a battlefield with my enemies - the world, the flesh and the devil - arrayed against me and that, on my own, I cannot stand against them.

So, the first thing to do so that you will be able to turn away from evil is to take the assumption of the proverb seriously. There is danger. The second thing is to pray about that danger.

And that leads to the third thing to do. According to Proverbs, there are three kinds of people: the wise, the foolish and the simple. Everyone fits into one of those categories. The wise are those who hear God’s instruction and who live accordingly. The foolish are rebels against God, people who reject His instruction and live in ways that they think are fine. The simple are the naive. They are not rebellious like the foolish, but they aren’t wise either. These are youth who are basically unaware of what is going on both around them and within them. They really don’t know. They don’t understand life. But if they don’t become wise, they will inevitably become foolish.

So, the third thing that you need to do is to work at becoming very wise people. That includes coming to see where you are not wise, areas of your life that you do not understand according to the wisdom that God gives. Failure to do this will be fatal because failure to do this results in becoming increasingly foolish.

With this in mind, consider this bit of wisdom from Proverbs.

​Carefully consider the path for your feet, and all your ways will be established. Proverbs 4.26 [HCSB]

This is a call to think about where you are going and how you are getting there. Consider these things in light of the wisdom that God provides. It is as you do this that you will enjoy the promise of safety in the face of the dangers that confront you every day.

There are different ways that you can do this careful considering. Some find that writing out their reflections on what has been going on works best for them: journaling. Others find that talking things out with someone else really helps them to process the events of life. Then, there are those who do this best simply by stopping from time to time to think about what is going on in their lives. There are different ways of doing this. And none of them need to take a lot of time. But in some way or other, you need to invest some time and effort to evaluate how life is going. You need to do this to see where you are not wise so that you can work to change that.

This is the same thing that the Spirit calls for in other Scriptures. This is from Ephesians.

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise… Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Ephesians 5.15,17

So, how are you doing when it comes to your battles with the world, the flesh and the devil? Where are you winning, and where are you losing? How are you doing at turning from evil? You need to evaluate things so that you can be encouraged by progress, and to be able to identify problem areas.

In doing this, you need to be careful how you evaluate. Using the wrong standard will lead you astray. Remember,

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. Proverbs 16.25

If you evaluate yourself simply by using what seems right to you, you will fail. And instead of gaining more wisdom, there will be more foolishness. Choose the right standard. Use God’s standard of what is right, His Word. And we’re back again to meditating on the Scriptures. As I explained last week, it is as you meditate on the Scriptures that the Spirit has something to use to guide you, to give you the ability to discern things like how you actually are doing. This results in Him leading you away from evil and into more wisdom and its safety.

Now, what happens when you take the danger seriously, pray about it all and then work to become wise? First, you will see progress and that will be so very encouraging to you. The hard work that is called for here actually results in good things happening. Second, you will understand what areas of your life need work. That is, you will be able to battle wisely against the world, the flesh and the devil. And that means, third, you will be able to focus on specific idols and specific sins that have been revealed to you. And when that happens, you will be able to take all of this even more seriously, which leads to more prayer and more work at becoming wise and more progress.

Let me explain why I am concerned about all of this. As I look at the Church in America and listen to and read other pastors and Christian leaders who also look at the Church in America, I see large problems. There is widespread ignorance of many of the basics, things like that evil triad of the world, the flesh and the devil. I see that there are many who are just coasting, thinking that now that they’ve made a profession of faith it’s all good. And what is that but presumption, something that justifies all manner of laziness and sin. I see many misleading and many being misled. I realize that I can do nothing about the state of the Church in America. But I can do something to help you. I don’t want any of you to become like so many today. That’s why I preach a sermon like this one. And I hope that you will take to heart the things that I say so that you will be able to guard your way and thus preserve your life.

Now, I realize that putting into practice some of the things that I’ve mentioned will be difficult. For some of you, it just might require some very large changes. For any who would balk at that, I would say two things.

First, remember that Jesus said that following Him would be difficult.

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Matthew 16.24-25

Following Jesus is hard because, sometimes, following Jesus requires some very large changes.

I also want to remind you of a second thing. You have good reason to be very optimistic. In fact, you have three good reasons to be very optimistic.

Reason one: You have a Father who cares. He cares about you which is why He cares for you. And He doesn’t care for you merely as part of the group. He cares for you also as an individual. Though He has an uncountable number of children, He knows you by name. He knows all about you: strengths, weaknesses, desires, disappointments, struggles, victories. He knows, and He is so very for you. It’s because of Him that you can be very optimistic.

Reason two: You have a savior who is that kind and caring older brother you wish you had. He sees you fighting the world, the flesh and the devil, and He is right there with you, protecting you, fighting alongside of you, fighting through you. He is intent on conquering His and your enemies. And He will continue to fight with you and for you until your greatest enemy, death itself, is destroyed. It’s because of Him that you can be very optimistic.

Reason three: The Holy Spirit. He is what Immanuel is all about. He is God with you. And being with you, wherever you may be, He comforts you. He also encourages you. He counsels you. He strengthens you. And He guides you through this life, giving you the discernment you need to make good decisions and thus becoming wise. It’s because of Him that you can be very optimistic.

You face battles. That is an inevitable part of being a Christian. But you can be confident that, as you fight, victory is assured. Remember, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. So, in the midst of the battles, as you work to guard your way, your life will be preserved. And on the last day, when all the battles are over, you will receive the crown of righteousness which is promised to all who fight in the hope of the Gospel.