Tim exhorts a youth to keep his eyes on Christ and not to pursue the vanities of this life. Are you a young guy who is being lured away by a girl?
When you come along and some pretty girl who is very worldly is trying to pull you away from the things that you’ve been instructed with from the godly people in your life; when you’re confronted by that, or the bad companions that are set to corrupt your good morals, when you’ve got guys come along and entice you to come with them, when the proverb says don’t go with them. When you’ve got the girl who comes along – the woman folly, or the loud woman, this adulterous woman, this woman that’s described in various places in the Proverbs, you look at these things and you say, yes, that is enticing. That has a promise of fun. But I want what’s best. I want what’s better. It’s better if I cut that off and I get this rather than get that, because if I get that and I forfeit this, that isn’t better. That’s worse.
Ben, like I said before, most people in this world are fools. (incomplete thought) You’re probably familiar with Pilgrim’s Progress. We have the audio version. I was just listening in the car the other day. You remember Pliable, right? Pliable. Pliable is the kind of guy that you don’t want to be. Pliable is the kind of guy that when he’s home with mom and dad and they’re Christians, well, yeah, he’s kind of partial to that. Pliable means kind of bendable. You know, then when he’s over with the guys from school who are wicked and perverse and all about all manner of wickedness, well, then, he bends and conforms to their shape. That’s pliable. And it was interesting, you know, he fell back. He went the race a little ways. You don’t want to be one of these guys that goes the race for 17 years or however so long, and then you fall out of the race. And when Christian got to the gate, the guy – what was it? Good Will? He was there and he said, “did you come alone?” He said, “Well, I actually started out with Pliable.” And he said, “What? Did he count eternal life as such a small thing?” Ben, that’s a fool that does that. Look, you’re young right now. You feel like you’re going to live forever. But you’re not going to live forever. And the day is going to come when justice and wisdom are going to catch up to you. And if you despise both those things, it doesn’t matter – they’re both realities still and they’re going to catch up to you. You have a word there. The day’s going to come, if you scoff at wisdom, there’s going to be a day coming when she’s going to scoff at you. Justice. You can sin and find there isn’t immediate justice, but that doesn’t mean that there’s never justice. They’re both dogging your tracks. And the day’s going to come where you’re going to get to a place (incomplete thought) All these fools out here in the world, they’re all going to find that they get to that day, when wisdom and justice smack them right in the face, and they’re going to realize, they did not have wisdom and they did not understand justice, and it’s going to be too late. Look, you’ve been given a lot of teaching. And I’ll tell you this – I’ll warn you this, those warnings, I know a lot of times, you get a lot of guys that like to diminish what’s said in Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10 because we believe that once somebody’s saved, they can’t lose that.
So very often when you see these warnings that come at us about people who can’t be brought again back to repentance, people who walk away, and look, their later end is worse, and it would have been better for them to have never known, and having once known, to walk away. We find that kind of thing in 2 Peter. But Ben, I just tell you, take warning. Wisdom. Ben, really think about what is for your greatest good for the longest amount of time. Think about justice. Think about these things. Let them fill your thoughts. Don’t run out of there into the world and get so caught up. It will take you away. Listen, if you’re not founded on that Rock; if you’re not founded on Christ, it will tear you up and spit you out. But take heed.
