Latest / Reformed Thinking / When “Right” Is Wrong: The Mercy of God’s Warning (Proverbs 16:25)

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When “Right” Is Wrong: The Mercy of God’s Warning (Proverbs 16:25) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. I'm your host and I'm I'm glad
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you're sitting down for this one.
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It's. Good to be here.
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Because the stack of notes I have in front of me is heavy.
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And I don't mean physically heavy, though, you know, there's
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a lot of paper here. I mean the weight of the topic
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itself. We usually try to find those
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those sort of interesting Nuggets of information that make
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you go, huh, I never knew that. Right, the historical tidbits or
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a Greek word study. Exactly.
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But today we're doing something different.
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We are looking at a text that, I mean, it acts like a massive
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flashing red warning sign and it's planted right in the center
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of a culture that is, well, it's obsessed with self validation.
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It's good to be here, and you're so right about the tone.
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We're not dealing with abstract philosophy today.
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We're dealing with a diagnostic tool.
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A diagnostic tool. I like that.
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Yeah, the premise we're looking at just cuts right through all
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the noise of modern life. I mean, we live in a time that
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just screams at you to trust yourself.
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Oh yeah, follow your heart. Speak your truth.
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I mean, those are the slogans you see on coffee mugs and
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T-shirts. Everywhere.
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But the text we have in front of us says that those instincts,
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the very ones that feel the most natural, the most authentic,
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might actually be leading you right off a Cliff.
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That brings us to what I I started calling the terror of
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sincerity in my notes. The terror of sincerity.
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And that's good. As I was reading through these
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sermons and theological essays, this one just frightening
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concept kept hitting me. I think most of us, you know, we
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grow up believing that if you're sincere, if you really, truly
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believe you're doing the right thing, then you know you're OK.
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God knows your heart. God knows my heart.
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That's the phrase, isn't it? We say that it's a comfort, but
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this material introduces a much, much scarier reality.
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And what's that? That a person can be completely
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sincere, totally confident and and morally convinced that they
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are right, yet be heading 100 miles an hour toward total
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destruction. That is the nightmare scenario.
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It really is. We tend to equate feeling right
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with being right. We do.
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But the Bible, it just doesn't make that equation.
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In fact, it it often says the very opposite.
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The question we have to grapple with today is this.
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What if your moral compass is broken?
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Not just a little off. No, not slightly off by a few
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degrees, but fundamentally demagnetized.
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What if the road that looks the safest, the most logical, the
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most authentic to you is actually a trap?
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It's like a pilot flying over the ocean.
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You know his instruments say he's heading to London, The sun
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is shining. He feels great about the flight
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path. But the gyroscope has failed.
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Because gyroscope has failed and he's actually flying toward the
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South Pole with no fuel. Your sincerity does not save you
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if your map is wrong. That's it.
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So let's look at the text that validates the sphere we are
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focusing on. Proverbs 16, verse 25.
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And it reads, there is a way that seems right to a man, but
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it's end is the way to death. OK, let's, let's unpack this.
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We have a stack of theological examinations of the single
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proverb, and we are going to be looking at this through the lens
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of Reformed theology, specifically touching on, you
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know, the doctrine of total depravity, the two framework
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that you see all through Scripture, and this big clash
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between human autonomy. Doing things our way.
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And divine sovereignty, God's way.
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That really is our mission for this deep dive.
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We want to dismantle the idol of human intuition, and I know
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that's a strong way to put it, but.
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It is, but it's what the sources demand.
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It is. We need to replace that reliance
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on gut feeling with the objective standard of God's
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Word. And we're going to be very
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specific about our theological lens here.
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We're looking at this consistent with the Westminster Confession
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of Faith. We are rejecting modern
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pragmatism and we are embracing the sovereignty of God.
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This isn't just about giving good advice.
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It's about epistemology, how we know what is true.
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I love that word epistemology. It sounds so academic, but it's
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so practical, isn't it? It really just means how do you
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know what you know? That's all it is.
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So let's jump into Section 1, the exegesis.
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We always start with the text itself.
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The notes I have here suggest A5 anchor questions approach and
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the first one is just simply what does the text say?
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And to get that, we have to look at the Hebrew to really get the
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the flavor of this. The verse starts with the Hebrew
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word yush, which simply means there exists.
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And this is so important because Solomon is not setting up a
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hypothetical scenario. Right, it's not a what if.
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No, he's not saying imagine a world where this might happen.
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He's saying this is a recurring reality in a fallen world.
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This situation exists. It's a fact of life.
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It's as real as gravity. So it's a statement of fact
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about the world we live in. It is.
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And then there's the word for way.
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It's Deraine. Correct.
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And Deray implies so much more than just a single decision.
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It's not about whether you turn left or right at a stop sign or
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you know what you chose for lunch.
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It's bigger, much bigger. It refers to a lifestyle, a
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pattern of habits, loyalties and choices.
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It is the whole direction of your life.
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So when the proverb says there is a way, it's talking about a
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whole mode of living. So your career, your marriage.
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Your careers, your marriage, your ethics, your private
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thoughts. All of it.
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Here is where I want to push on the definition of it because
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this was this was a light bulb moment for me.
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In the research the text says the way seems right.
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Now when I hear right I usually think good or maybe fun.
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I kind of assume the Sinner is choosing something that feels
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pleasurable, even if they know it's technically wrong.
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The forbidden fruit. Exactly.
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But the sources we're looking at point out a very specific Hebrew
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word choice here that totally changes how we view the Sinner.
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This is a crucial distinction. It really is.
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The author uses the word yaar. Yashar.
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Yashar. It means straight or level.
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He did not use the word tov, which is the common word for
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good. OK, so not good, but straight.
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What's the significance of that? It gives us a into the
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psychology of the unregenerate mind.
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To a person who is not saved, to a mind that is in rebellion
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against God, their path does not necessarily look evil or, you
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know, fun, but naughty. It looks logical.
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It looks logically straight. That is fascinating.
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So they are not sitting there twisting their mustache and
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laughing meant to be evil laughs.
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They think they are being reasonable.
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That is absolutely correct. To them, their path looks
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straight. It seems logical, it appears
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mathematically level. It makes sense to them.
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That's how they feel justified. Completely, They have arguments,
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reasons, and rationalizations that make their lifestyle appear
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to be the most sensible option available.
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Can you give an example? Sure.
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Think about someone justifying greed.
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They don't say I love money more than God.
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No one says that. They say I'm being prudent.
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I'm preparing for the future. This is the smart straight line
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to security. Right.
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Or someone living in sexual sin might say.
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They might say this is the straight line to happiness and
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fulfilling my needs. It makes sense for me to be
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happy. It's not seen as crooked.
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It's seen as the most direct route.
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That is terrifying because it means the Sinner is not
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reluctantly marching to hell. No, they are a confident
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architect of their own destruction.
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They feel like they are building something straight and true.
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And that leads us right to the next phrase in the Hebrew
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lipnayash, which means it translates to before the face of
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a man. So there is a way that is
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straight before the face of a man.
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So the location of the judgement matters.
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It tells us everything. This is where the judgement is
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taking place. The problem is the Court of
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Appeal. The way is right in the
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estimation of the man himself. So I am the judge, the jury, and
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the defendant all in one. And that, right there, is the
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definition of autonomy. Man has enthroned himself as the
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standard of good and evil. He is looking at his life
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through his own eyes, measuring it by his own standards, and
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concluding this is straight. And that's the opposite of.
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It's the exact opposite of the fear of the Lord, which the
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Bible says is the beginning of wisdom.
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The fear of the Lord says I am not the standard God is, but the
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person in Proverbs 16.25 has completely, totally missed that.
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OK, so we have a person living a lifestyle that looks perfectly
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logical to them, judged by their own internal standards, but they
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are completely wrong. This leads us perfectly into
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Section 2, the diagnosis. Why?
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Why is our internal GPS so broken?
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If I look at a crooked wall, I can usually tell it's crooked.
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Why can't we tell with our own lives?
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This is where we have to get into the the deep theology of
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the fall. We had to go back to Genesis 3,
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the garden. The garden.
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What was the original sin? It wasn't just, you know, eating
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a piece of fruit. It was what was behind it it.
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Was the desire to define good and evil apart from God?
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The serpent said you will be like God, knowing good and evil,
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and that word knowing there implies determining it was the
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desire for autonomy. I want to be in charge.
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And the source material connects this directly to the Westminster
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Confession of Faith Chapter 9. I have that note right here.
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It says that man by the fall has wholly lost all ability of will
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to any spiritual good. That is a hard pill to swallow
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for modern people. It really is.
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We like to think we're generally good, you know, maybe a little
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rough around the edges, but basically OK.
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It is a hard pill, but it's the biblical diagnosis.
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We call this total depravity, and we have to be careful with
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that term. Right.
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It doesn't mean we're as evil as we could possibly be.
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Exactly. Doesn't mean every person is
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acting like a monster every second.
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It means that every part of our being, our mind, our will, our
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emotions is tainted by sin. So the whole system is
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corrupted. The compass is not just shaky,
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it's demagnetized. It doesn't point N anymore.
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So if you follow your heart or you trust your gut, you are
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following a broken instrument. And the source material says.
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It says following your heart is the fastest route to the abyss
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because your heart is deceitful above all things, as Jeremiah
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tells us. And this is where we have to
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clear the decks of some some bad theology.
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The sources were very explicit about rejecting certain
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heresies. We need to talk about
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Pelagianism and Arminianism. Why do these views fail to
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address the reality of Proverbs 16.25 well?
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Pelagianism, to put it simply, teaches that man as well that we
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have the natural ability to please God without any special
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grace. That we can just choose to do
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good. Right.
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And Arminianism, speaking generally, teaches that man is
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sick, but as a free will or a kind of neutral spark that's
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fueled by something called prevenient grace that allows him
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to choose God if he wants to. But this text just blows that
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out of the water. It refutes both.
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It says the way seems right, but it ends in death.
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If the human will were neutral, or if we had this spark, we'd be
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able to see the Cliff at the end of the road.
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But we can't. Why not?
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Because our will is in bondage to sin, what seems right to a
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fallen will is always, by definition, going to be opposed
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to God. So sincerity is not enough.
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You can't just try your best and hope it all works out.
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Sincerity is not a substitute for truth.
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I mean, you can be sincerely wrong.
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You can sincerely drink poison thinking it's water.
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Your sincerity will not save you from the chemical reaction.
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OK, let's talk about the mechanics of this.
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The sources talk about the mechanisms of self deception.
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If we are totally depraved, how does that actually play out in
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our brains? Because I think most people,
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they feel like they're thinking clearly.
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And that's the scary part. It's what theologians call the
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noetic effects of sin, the corruption of the mind.
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The mind itself is affected. Yes, the mind acts as a defense
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attorney for the will, not an impartial judge.
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This is a vital concept to grasp.
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See more about that The mind as a defense attorney.
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We often think of the process like this.
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I look at the facts, I weigh them, and then I decide what to
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do. But Romans 1 suggests the
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opposite, says we suppress the truth.
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We push it down. We push it down.
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We decide what we want to do, usually based on our sinful
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desires, and then our mind rushes in to write a legal brief
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explaining why it was actually a good straight idea all along.
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We rationalize. I love that image.
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My client, the will, clearly had to yell at his spouse because he
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was tired. Or my client had to fudge the
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tax numbers because, well, the government is corrupt anyway.
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That is it exactly. The mind is working overtime to
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make the crooked look straight. And that's not the only
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mechanism. No, then there's the
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miscalibrated conscience. We think of conscience as this
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wholly infallible voice inside us, but a conscience is
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malleable. It can be trained.
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It can be trained by culture or our peers to feel peace about
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things God condemns. You can actually feel good about
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sin if your conscience has been seared or misinformed.
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If everyone around you is doing it, your conscience eventually
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stop sounding the alarm. It gets desensitized.
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That's right. And then there's the final
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stage, which is inversion. Inversion.
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Yes, the sources site Isaiah 5.2 A What are those who call evil
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good and good evil? Society eventually just flips
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the labels entirely. So we start calling sin virtue.
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And we call righteousness hate. When that happens, the way to
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death doesn't just look straight, it starts to look like
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the moral high ground. And we see this today, don't we?
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We're holding to biblical sexual ethics is seen as harm.
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While celebrating sin is seen as loving and inclusive, that is
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the aversion. The map has been flipped
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completely upside down. That brings us right up to the
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present day. Section 3 in our stack is about
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modern idols. We're talking pragmatism and
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mysticism, and the sources really went after the seeker
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sensitive movement and this cultural obsession with
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authenticity. It's the air we breathe, isn't
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it? The modern world tells you that
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your primary duty is to be authentic to yourself.
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Be your true self. Find your true self and express
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it. And in many evangelical circles,
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this has it's morphed into a theology of following your
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heart. But if Jeremiah 17.9 is true
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that the heart is deceitful above all things, then
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authenticity without God's Word is actually just a commitment to
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being true to a liar. Wow, say that again.
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You're being authentic to a broken compass.
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Yeah, you're being true to a liar.
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That is a heavy thought, being true to a liar.
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So let's break down the difference between pragmatism
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and mysticism, because the sources set these up as the two
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dishes we fall into when we ignore scripture.
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OK, pragmatism, asks the question.
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Does it work? Is it effective?
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Yes. If a path yields money or
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influence or church growth or comfort, we just assume God must
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be blessing it. We interpret the result as the
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validation. I got the job, so it must have
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been God's will. Right, even if taking that job
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means you have to compromise biblical principles or neglect
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your family. We measure truth by utility.
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If it works for me, it must be right?
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OK, so that's pragmatism. What about mysticism?
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Mysticism asks a different question.
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How do I feel if I have peace about it, it must be right.
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We treat our internal emotional state as if it's the voice of
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the Holy Spirit. I prayed about leaving my
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husband and I just felt a real peace about.
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It I have heard that exact phrase so many times I have
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peace about it. It's almost used as a trump
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card. You can't argue with someone's
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peace. But you must.
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You have to the Reformed theologian and really any
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biblical Christian encounters both of those approaches.
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We don't ask does it work and we don't ask how do I feel as the
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primary questions we ask, what has God said?
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The objective closed Canon of Scripture is the only standard.
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So what if you have peace about sin?
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Then your peace is a delusion. It's either sent by the enemy or
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it's manufactured by your own defense attorney mind.
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And if your sin works and makes you rich, your riches are a form
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of judgement, not a blessing from God.
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The sources also brought up some specific cultural examples that
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that might ruffle some feathers, but we need to report on them.
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They mentioned critical race theory and pluralism as modern
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examples of ways that seem right.
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Yes, the sources we reviewed categorized these as examples of
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human centric social engineering.
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What does that mean? The argument in the source
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material is that these frameworks attempt to define
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righteousness, justice, and equity apart from God's law.
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They create a new standard of straightness, a new morality
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that seems right to modern man. Why does it seem right?
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Because it uses borrowed capital from Christianity, it uses words
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like justice or compassion. But because the foundation is
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human autonomy rather than divine revelation, they are a
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substitute righteousness. So there are ways that seem
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right. They seem to offer a solution to
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racism or strife, but they lack the foundation of God's truth.
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And, so the argument goes, they eventually lead to more division
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and death. And on the other side of the
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coin, they mentioned the prosperity gospel.
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Correct. That is a perfect example of a
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religious right seeming way. It equates material ease with
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spiritual favor, it looks. Straight, right?
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Who doesn't want to be blessed? Of course, and it uses Bible
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verses taken out of context. But it leads to death because it
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treats God as a means to an end rather than the end himself.
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It makes an idol out of comfort and wealth.
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So we've established the trap. The road looks good, it feels
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right, it even seems to work and it feels authentic.
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But this is a big but. Here it comes.
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We have to look at the verdict. What's wah adversative I love?
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When we get technical with the grammar, tell me about the wah
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adversative. In Hebrew it's a conjunction.
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It's usually just translated as but, but in this verse it acts
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as a a divine guillotine A. Divine guillotine, I like that.
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You had this long set up. There is a way that seems right
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to a man and then GHIP its end is the way to death.
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It just severs human perception from divine reality.
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Doesn't matter how you feel, this is where the road goes.
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Period. And the focus here is on that
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word end. The Hebrew is a writ.
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Yes, wisdom literature is teleological.
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That's a fancy word, but it just means it's concerned with tios.
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The end goal, the destination. So it's about where you end up.
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Exactly. The fool looks at the immediate
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experience. Is the road paved?
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Is the scenery nice? Wisdom teaches us to look at the
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destination. A road can start with beautiful
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scenery, smooth pavement and you know, downhill coasting.
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But if it ends at a Cliff, it is a bad Rd.
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The outcome determines the value of the path.
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Not the experience of the journey.
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I like the point about the momentum of sin in the notes.
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You don't just walk on the path, the path works on you.
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That is a profound insight for the material.
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Sin is progressive. You take one step on the way
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that seems right, and it changes you.
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It hardens your conscience, it creates habits.
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It blinds you further. So by the time you realize the
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bridge is out. You've gathered so much
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momentum, moral and psychological momentum, that you
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often can't stop. You become enslaved to the path
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you chose. And the destination is death,
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Maui. Now, we're not just talking
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about, you know, kick in the bucket here.
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This is bigger. We are talking about something
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much, much deeper. First there is covenantal death,
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which means alienation from God. You're cut off from the source
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of life itself. And then then there is eternal
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death, and the sources are very clear on this.
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We are talking about the second death, eternal conscious
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punishment, the lake of fire. This is not a metaphor for
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having a bad day. It is total, absolute ruin.
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And the Hebrew is plural, isn't it?
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Ways of death. That is a chilling detail.
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The way that seems right is singular.
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My specific plan, my autonomy, my path.
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But the end is the ways of death, plural.
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It suggests that while there is only one narrow path to life,
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there are 1000 different ways to deceive yourself into hell.
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You can get there through religious pride, through secular
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Hudonism, through laziness, through political activism.
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All these different streams empty into the same ocean of
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destruction. The source also referenced the
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Westminster Confession chapter 5 on Providence.
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It said something about God allowing the wicked to follow
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their own lusts. Yes, and this is the terrifying
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aspect of divine judgement. Sometimes judgement looks like
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God's simply letting you go. He just takes his hands off the
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wheel. He removes the restraints.
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He says you want your own way, you think it's right, go ahead.
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He allows the wicked to follow their own straight path all the
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way to his logical conclusion, which is judgement.
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Romans one says God gave them up.
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And that's the worst thing. That is the worst thing God can
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do to a Sinner. Let them succeed in their sin.
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That is heavy. It really makes you pause and
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check your own heart. But we are not leaving the
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listener there in that dark place.
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We have to pivot. If the diagnosis is this bad,
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what is the cure? This is the Christological
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pivot. If the diagnosis is that man's
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best intuition, his most sincere efforts, and his clearest
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thinking all lead to death, then salvation is impossible from the
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inside. We can't fix our own compass.
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We can't. Salvation must be alien.
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It must come from outside of us. So how does Jesus fit into this
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proverb? Where is the gospel here?
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Jesus is the anti type of the straight path.
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He's the only human being in history whose way was truly
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Yahshua straight before the face of God.
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He didn't just seem right, he was right.
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He perfectly obeyed. Perfectly.
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He perfectly submitted to the Father.
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He had no autonomy in that sinful sense.
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He did nothing of his own accord.
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He said not my will, but yours be done.
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And the sources connect this to substitutionary atonement.
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Yes, this is where it gets beautiful.
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Christ took upon himself the dark you Mavic, the ways of
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death. He stepped onto the road that we
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paved with our rebellion. He walked our path.
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He walked it to the very end. He went to the destination that
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we deserved. He navigated the judgement.
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He took the end of our roads so that we can have the end of his.
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And there's that inversion again, isn't there?
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To the world, the cross looks foolish.
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First Corinthians 1.1 team. It does not seem right to human
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logic that a king would die to save rebels.
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That is absolutely correct. If you were designing a religion
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based on human intuition, you would never, ever come up with a
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cross. It's offensive, it looks weak,
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it looks like failure. But that's the point that proves
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God's wisdom is contrary to human intuition.
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The thing that seems wrong to the world that the death of the
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Son of God is actually the only way of life.
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God uses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.
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So for us, it's about union with Christ.
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Right, and here we reference Westminster Confession Chapter
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11 on justification. We are accepted as righteous
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only because the righteousness of Christ is imputed or credited
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to our account. We don't have to build a
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straight way ourselves. No, we are united to the one who
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is the way I. Really like the law gospel
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dynamic that was mentioned in the notes.
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It says Proverbs 16.25 acts as the law, yes.
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It diagnoses us. It holds up the mirror and says
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you are lost and your map is broken.
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And that drives us to. It drives us to the Gospel which
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says Christ is the way, the truth and the life.
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You can't appreciate the cure until you understand the
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disease. Without the law, we wouldn't
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know we needed the gospel, we would just keep driving happily
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off the Cliff. The law crushes our
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self-confidence so that the gospel can rebuild our
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confidence in Christ alone. So what does this look like on a
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Tuesday? I mean, we can't just talk
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ideology, we need application. Section 6 provides guardrails.
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We do, and it starts with the fear of the Lord, which we
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mentioned at the beginning. This is the alternative
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standard. So it's a different way of
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knowing things. It's an epistemological posture.
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That's a fancy way of saying it's a stance you take about how
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you know things. It's the a posture that says I
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am not competent to define right and wrong.
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I submit to God's definition. It's basically resigning from
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the job of being God. That is a great way to put it.
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You hand in your resignation. I am no longer the arbiter of
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truth in my own life. And for the believer, for the
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Christian, this brings up the third use of the law.
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Can you explain that for us? Sure.
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In Reformed theology we talk about 3 uses of God's law.
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The first use is a mirror to show us our sin.
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The second use is a curb to restrain evil in society.
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But the third use is for the Christian.
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It is the guide. It's the map for grateful
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obedience. So it's not about earning
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salvation, not. At all.
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We don't obey the law to get saved.
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We obey it because we are saved. It serves as the guardrail so we
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don't have to rely on our gut. We have the objective commands
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of Scripture to guide us. The sources gave us some really
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practical diagnostic tests for the listener to check their own
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path. I want to run through these
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because I think they are super helpful.
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The first one is the textual test.
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This is simple, but very hard to do in practice.
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It's this. Don't look for a verse to back
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up a plan you've already made. That's proof texting.
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It is. Instead, look at the whole
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counsel of God and most importantly, call sin by His
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biblical name. We love our euphemisms, don't
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we? We call gossip venting.
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We call greed ambition. We call lust appreciating
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beauty. We call outbursts of anger just
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being stressed. So the textual test says stop
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that. It says no.
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Use the Bible's words. If you call it what God calls
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it, the illusion of straightness vanishes.
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Venting feels safe and therapeutic.
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Gossip feels sinful. That is, convicting language
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really matters. If I change the label, I can
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justify the contents of the jar. That's it.
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The second one is the motive test.
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Ask yourself this question. What am I protecting?
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That is a piercing question. Usually, when we're on a way
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that seems right, we're protecting our ego, our comfort,
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or our reputation. So you dig deeper.
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You ask, if no one applauded me for this, would I still do it?
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If this cost me money instead of making me money, would I still
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do it? If the answer is no, you are
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probably acting out of pride or pragmatism, not obedience.
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Next up is the Council test. Isolation is fertile soil for
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folly. If you're making big decisions
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alone, you're in danger. We need the visible church.
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We need elders. We need discipline.
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People who will tell you the truth.
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We need people who love us enough to tell us we are wrong
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if you find yourself hiding your plans from people who might
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disagree with you. Or you're only asking the
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friends who always agree with you.
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Yes. If you're selectively polling,
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that is a huge red flag. You're just engineering your own
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affirmation. And finally, the humility test.
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This one is maybe the hardest. Can you honestly pray Lord, if
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this is sin, break my plans? That is a scary prayer.
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It is Lord ruin this if it isn't from you.
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If you can't pray that with an open hand, then you are clinging
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to your own way. You are telling God my will be
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done, not his. The sources also mentioned the
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means of grace, specifically the sacraments.
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How does Communion, the Lord's Supper help us with this?
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The Lord's Supper is what we call the visible word.
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Every time we take the bread and the cup, we are reminded that
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our right way, all our best efforts, was crucified.
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It's an admission of failure. And an admission of dependence.
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We are admitting that we live only by his body and blood.
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It's a physical act of dependency.
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You can't take communion and be autonomous at the same.
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Time you're receiving a gift. You are literally receiving food
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from another. It re centers us on Christ is
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the only source of life. It resets the compass.
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That's beautiful. It's a weekly reset of the
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compass. We're coming to the end here.
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Let's wrap this all up with a final charge to the listener.
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The warning is clear, the most dangerous Rd. you will ever walk
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is the one that looks the most virtuous to your fallen eyes.
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Don't trust your intuition. Do not trust the culture's
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definition of authenticity. Abandoned the broad Rd. of moral
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intuition and religious pragmatism.
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It's end is death. But we do not end on the
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warning. There is hope.
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No, we end on the hope. The end of man's way is death,
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but the end of God's way is resurrection.
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Christ has walked the path of death for you so that you can
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walk the path of life in Him. So the call to action is simple.
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Flee to Christ, He is the only path that does not terminate in
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the grave. That is the only place to land.
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Thank you for walking us through this.
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This has been a deep dive into Proverbs 16.25.
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Our goal, as always, is to think God's thoughts after Him.
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Until next time. Grace and peace.