Sermon Tone Analysis

*Proverbs 28:1** The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.

*

The point is not that the wicked are never bold – in fact, for the sake of more wickedness there is often a foolish willingness to take crazy risks (promiscuous sex, drugs, etc.)

But what is it about the wicked that makes them so often flee, when no one is pursuing?

The answer: a bad conscience.

When you see a police car, is your response one of confidence and peace, or fear and avoidance?

Do you ever start defending yourself in a conversation before anybody even criticizes you of something?

We flee when we are not even being pursued because we have a bad conscience.

There are enough stored up bad things we have done that a voice tells us someone is after us even when they are not.

Guilt is the parent of fear.

Our conscience creates the pursuer that ought to be there even when he is not there.

Illustration: Adam and Eve in the garden (Genesis 3:8).

Never before did Adam have to flee at the arrival of God.

And now he flees when no one is pursuing.

Why?

Because his conscience condemns him and he hears this condemnation in every breeze that blows and every creak in the door.

He sees it in every shadow and flashing light.

And he feels it in the presence of God.

You and I have a conscience given by God.

It is committed to getting our accounts settled – to making things right when we’ve done wrong.

This God-given conscience is so committed to righting our wrongs that it will create pursuers out of nothing.

It turns shadows into phantoms, innocent questions into indictments, mailmen into warrant officers, teachers into wardens, parents into cross-examiners, and friends into traitors.

The wicked are people who will not make right what they have done wrong.

But woe to the wicked who cease to hear the footsteps of God in the garden.

\\ The righteous are not so.

Who are the righteous?

Psalms 32:1-2 Blessed is he *whose transgression is forgiven*, whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man to *whom the LORD does not impute iniquity*, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

Psalms 32:10-11 Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; *but he who trusts in the LORD*, mercy shall surround him.

Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you *righteous*; and shout for joy, all you *upright* in heart!

The righteous are the ones who trust in the Lord.

Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Their heart does not condemn them -

1 John 3:21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.

We are to live bold as a lion before the world -

Philippians 1:27-28 Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. NKJV