Proverbs 6: Free Yourself

All right, let's pray. Father, once again, as we come before you, we thank you and praise you for the blessings you've given to us and your son. We pray, Father, that you would be pleased to bless our time together, especially as we look into your book of wisdom, this book of Proverbs, that you would teach us and that we would become those who are wise.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, I got an old trivia question for you. How many people remember a Saturday morning cartoon based upon the silent movies where little Nell couldn't pay the rent and the villain came and threatened that if she didn't marry him, she either had to pay the rent or marry him.

And if she didn't, she was tied to the railroad tracks. How many people remember that? All right, now here's the question. What was the villain's name? Yes, Snidely Whiplash. And then she was always saved in the nick of time by a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer named Dudley Do-Right.

I was hoping to get the music and everything and start with that because we're talking today about in Proverbs about being a surety and what happens to you when you can't pay. All right, but I couldn't get everything together so I figured I'd just tell you a little bit of it and they turned that into a Saturday morning cartoon but it was very famous during the silent film era.

So today, okay, let me, okay, today we're continuing in our study through the book of Proverbs and just a little review. Remember, there's a couple of things that you need to keep in mind as we look at, leave it to Jerry.

All right, remember that Proverbs is wisdom literature which means that it is to be interpreted differently than the rest of scripture, all right? Because wisdom literature speaks to us in general principles and actually is kind of a commentary on the law, all right?

The purpose of the book is to make one wise and wisdom is the ability to handle life with skill. That's kind of our working definition. If you're not reading the book of Proverbs on a regular basis, if you've never studied the book of Proverbs, you're actually missing a whole dimension of how to interpret scripture.

And Proverbs addresses all areas of life in a very practical manner, okay? Now this morning, we're going to examine the topic of being a surety, all right? And so we're going to start with our beginning text.

Proverbs 6, verses one to five, and I'll read it through. My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, have given a pledge for a stranger, if you've been snared with the words of your mouth, have been caught with the words of your mouth, do this then, my son, and deliver yourself.

Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, go humble yourself and importune your neighbor. Give no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids. Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter's hand and like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Now just as a way of introduction, I've underlined a couple of words I just want to point out. Firstly, surety, this is a biblical word. It is a word that we continue to use, although not that much in our society.

Given a pledge, that helps explain a little bit more what we mean by being a surety. But here's the practical application. Proverbs says that if you've done that, if you are a surety, you have been snared.

You have been caught. And what should you do about it? Deliver yourself, all right? And then once again, deliver yourself. And that's just by way of introduction, we're going to expand on these concepts.

So you can easily see the urgency that Proverbs places on freeing yourself from being a surety. I mean, just the wording in those five verses alone, you can see the urgency that Proverbs places on it.

So based upon the text that we're looking at, I was starting with, we're going to examine three points. First, what does it mean to be a surety? Second, is it wise to become a surety? And lastly, freeing yourself from being a surety.

So starting with free yourself, what is a surety? All right, that's our first point. A surety is a pledge or a guarantee, something along the lines of a security deposit. You could consider taking a loan being a surety, but only in a general sense.

This is a little bit more specific. And in fact, later on in our study in Proverbs, we're going to come across how to handle money, not being in debt, those types of things. But this is something that's a little bit different.

All right, it's related to collateral, but it's not exactly the same thing. All right, collateral is usually like a one-to-one. In fact, you notice how a bank, if you go to take a loan from a bank, you have to prove that you don't need it in order to get one.

That's kind of what they say, you know. Yeah, do you have enough money in the bank to cover this if you default on it? Well, if I had enough money in the bank, I wouldn't need this loan, you know. So it's related to collateral, but not exactly the same thing.

Collateral is something of equal or greater value, and being a surety is not, all right. A surety is a token signifying the intention to pay, okay. For example, you don't see this too much anymore, but there used to be, if you were renting a tool or something of that nature, they wanted you to leave your driver's license.

Like I say, with the advent of the credit cards and everybody having credit cards, they don't do this as much anymore. But I can remember as a young fellow going to the tool rental place and my father giving him his driver's license, and they'd hold onto that.

The value wasn't there, but the importance of it was there, and that's what being, a surety is being more like that. Another example, Paul and Silas in Thessalonica. Remember what had happened in Thessalonica, and how did they get out of the jail, et cetera?

And when they had received a pledge from Jason and others, they released him. It's the same type of situation. They received a pledge. And again, this was a common practice in the ancient world. You know where we still see this today?

All of you who have ever been arrested, all right, if you had to post bond. Now, I'm sure nobody here has ever had to do that, but if you post bond, you're only putting up a small amount. You don't have to put up the whole amount, unless you're a real risk, then they'd want full cash bail.

But that's where they come up with the bails bondman idea. So still on the idea of being a surety. Therefore, we should not be surprised that it's mentioned in scripture, since it was a very common practice in the ancient world.

All right.

Now, God's law regulated the giving of loans and the practice of taking a surety from the poor. And a lot of people don't understand that. This is why there is so much poor teaching on this whole idea of loans and what a Christian should do or should not do, because a vast majority of the Christian church relegates anything other than the 10 commandments to the old covenant, and it's not binding on us anymore.

But God's law has a lot to say about how we treat people and it's very practical.

All right.

So in Exodus 22, verses 25 to 27, if you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor to him, you shall not charge him interest. Isn't that interesting? To the poor specifically.

Notice how God is always taking care of the poor.

Yeah.

To the poor among you, you shall not charge him any interest. If you ever take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, now here's the part that gets more specific into what it means to be a surety. If you take a cloak as a pledge, you are to return it to him before the sun sets.

Now that sounds interesting. We'll talk a little bit about that. For that is his only covering. It is his cloak for his body. What else shall he sleep in? And it shall come about that when he cries out to me, I will hear him.

Why will he hear him? For he is gracious. Now notice, you might say, well, what is the whole purpose? The idea was that if you're lending money and the idea was you could take something that was important to him, his cloak.

But notice how even the law says that you had to give it back to him at night. So if it was an ongoing debt, you could take it again in the following morning, but you had to give it back again at night.

Why?

Because it was a necessity of life for him. It was doing great harm. So you can't do something to a person, even if they owe you money, that would cause that person harm of life, et cetera. Don't you find that interesting?

And yet, yes, that falls into line with it. And I'm actually going to make a couple of statements about co-signing loans a little bit later.

All right.

But that is definitely part of what it means to be a surety. Being a surety is like being a co-maker, but it's more expansive than just that. Deuteronomy 24, verses 10 to 13. When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not enter his house to take his pledge.

You shall remain outside and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge. Interesting. Can you see, I mean, even as we're going through this, how many people can honestly say you never really were aware that these things were in the law?

It's very common because it's not something that you're dealing with all the time, you know? Well, yet look how detailed the law gets. When the sun goes down, you shall surely return the pledge to him that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you.

And it will be righteousness for you before the Lord, your God. Notice what it's saying. Look carefully at the words. It's a moral obligation. It's righteousness for you to do that, which means if you're not doing it, what is it?

Unrighteousness, sin.

Okay.

So a loan of any sort can't go into his house. And we'll talk a little bit about that later. Deuteronomy 24, six. No one shall take a hand mill or an upper millstone and pledge for he would be taking a life in the pledge.

No one shall take a hand mill or an upper millstone. Why the upper millstone? And why does the law say you can't take his upper? Would it be all right then to take the lower millstone? Go ahead, Jerry.

The lower millstone, you're not going to pick it up.

Exactly.

But the upper one has to be cut.

Exactly.

The lower millstone is a huge stone. Nobody's going to pick it up, all right? But the upper millstone is what moves the rotating. That's his livelihood. That's like sending somebody to debtor's prison.

You're going to stay in here until you can pay. But how am I going to earn money? You know, it doesn't make any sense. Notice how God's word gives very practical reasons for how we're supposed to do business.

Deuteronomy 24, 17. You shall not pervert the justice due an alien. Or an orphan. Nor take a widow's garment in pledge. Some very specific do's and don'ts if you're one who is offering a loan. Notice the principle involved.

The lender must not allow the borrower to make a foolish agreement. What happened with the last housing crisis?

All right.

The houses were inflated. Lenders, banks were giving out loans like they were peppermint candy, all right? Knowing full well the market was going to crash, people now owe more on their house than the equity that's in it.

The banks are in violation of God's law for doing that. The banks should, but of course, what's the reason that they're doing it? It's greed. But the banks have the obligation, the lenders has the obligation to tell you, no, we're not gonna give you this money because it would be foolish for you.

Is that what we find in our society? We talk about this nation being under judgment because we see the gross immorality, the abortion debacle, killing unborn babies, et cetera. But if you look, it's much more widespread than that.

We're violating even all of these principles, even the principles of economics. We're violating God's law. Yes, Jerry. Yeah, in fact, what's the New York state lottery? Hey, you never know. In other words, kind of enticing you to spend your money.

So I'm just gonna do a little brief summary of some of the law that we've found so far. What's the summary? Can't charge interest on loans to the poor. Can't keep his cloak overnight. In other words, you can't keep something that the person needs for quality of life.

And again, remember that this was the application to their society. There are many applications in our society other than taking somebody's cloak because we don't really do that too much anymore. You can't take an upper millstone, it's his livelihood.

Can't take a widow's garment at all. And you can never go into a man's home. Now, let's look at the principles of the law based upon what we've just seen. Overriding principle, you have to be gracious to the poor.

Can't take away a man's protection. Now, you can run rampant with that one. You're gonna have to pry it from my cold, dead hand. You can't take away a man's livelihood or his sustenance. And in any fashion of that.

Widows get special treatment. A man's home is his castle. So who knew that Ralph Crampton was really a theologian after all? All right, now, just a couple words here. People can become a surety as well.

People can stand in the place of another. Paul became a surety for Onesimus to Philemon. By the way, if you've never, sometimes we have little books of the Bible that are just kind of ignored. All right, Philemon is one of those books.

It's a great book. And don't ignore it. All right, even though it's only one chapter long, but it's an important book. Look at what Paul says. If he's writing to Philemon on behalf of Onesimus, who was Philemon's slave and he's sending him back.

He says, if then you regard me as a partner, accept him as you would me. But if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that to my account. Now, you're gonna see a little bit later where Proverbs warns very carefully, you better weigh the circumstances before you become a surety.

And it's almost like negative. That doesn't mean that you can't. Paul obviously here is basing his becoming a surety on what? What's the principle here? Why would Paul violate basic general wisdom and become surety for Onesimus?

Sure, John.

Yeah, okay, sure. Well, the first thing you hit the nail on the head, Onesimus is a brother. So notice the rules change for how we deal with brothers and sisters in Christ. You don't violate the basic rules, but you can extend a little bit more mercy.

You still have to go through the whole thing. In other words, just because a person's a brother in Christ does not mean you should become a surety for him. There are still criteria because let's face it, not every Christian is perfected.

In fact, how many of us are? But that's why Paul would be willing to stand but Paul is going into this with his eyes wide open. And I'll talk a little bit more about that when I talk about co-signing loans.

Did you have a?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hold that thought and bring it up again when we get to co-signing loans, okay? But you're right on target with that. Judah became a surety for Benjamin. Remember when they came in? And Joseph kept Benjamin and he told, Judah says, I will stand in his place.

Obviously, who's gonna say to Judah, did the wrong thing there, all right? But again, this is why it's so important that we understand wisdom literature. Wisdom literature is giving us the general idea and the general promises of God.

It's not commands. It's telling you how to, you know, if you're gonna do this, go into it with your eyes wide open, understand what the benefits are, understand what the cons are, and before you ever do anything like this.

And that's true with pretty much all of Proverbs. So in this sense, a surety is one who stands in the place of another, okay? Is it wise to be a surety? All right, that's the second point that we're looking at here.

Proverbs first says, it's risky business. If you wanna do this, it's risky business, all right? He who is surety for a stranger will surely suffer for it, but he who hates going surety is safe. Notice, will surely suffer for it.

In other words, there's a downside. If you're ever gonna consider it, understand. Now, again, this is talking specifically for a stranger. What's a stranger in Proverbs terms? Is that somebody that you don't know?

Anybody other than a believer, okay? Remember, if we go back, the strange woman, was the strange woman somebody you didn't know? No, I'm not even gonna go there. Talk about knowing in a biblical sense.

But, okay, moving right along. Proverbs 22, 26, do not be among those who give pledges, among those who become sureties for debts. If you have nothing with which to pay, why should he take your bed from under you?

Again, notice, this is very practical, all right? There's some things that are just, it's not profitable to do. Proverbs says if you, that's supposed to be go, not goo. It was, if you goo, sure, it says you lack sense.

Proverbs 17, 18, a man lacking in sense pledges and becomes surety in the presence of his neighbor, okay? Lacking in sense. So before, if somebody asked you to become a surety or cosign a loan, say, what did Proverbs 17, 18 say?

Proverbs says to question the motivations of one who vouches for a stranger. In other words, if somebody's coming to you, if you're in a position where somebody's coming and saying, I'm a surety for so-and-so, question his motives.

Why in the world are you doing this? It's just biblical wisdom. Take his garment when it becomes surety for a stranger and for foreigners, hold him in pledge. Now Proverbs is saying, if somebody comes to you like that, take the pledge, take his garment because chances are something's amiss here.

Because just look at what it's saying. If you're lacking sense, it's not a good idea, it's risky business, then why is this person doing this?

Okay?

I just think of bail bondsmen, you know? There's a reason why bail bondsmen are always found in the seedy part of town. You don't find bail bondsmen on Fifth Avenue in New York. Take his garment. Proverbs 27, 13, take his garment when he becomes a surety for a stranger and for an adulterous woman, hold him in pledge.

Notice, take the stranger, the adulterous woman are equated one more time. Some say to refuse to give unconditionally is unloving. In other words, they say, yeah, but you know, everything that you're saying, especially if you get into the Old Testament law, Exodus, Deuteronomy, and you start quoting the Old Testament, Christians today say, but that's unloving.

If somebody comes and asks me, I just have to give to them. Or stand and, if a brother wants me to cosign a loan, I have to cosign a loan, otherwise I'm being unloving. Sure. One of the things that you'll find that people who dismiss the Old Testament only know the Old Testament selectively.

Notice the next statement here says, look at the proximity of these two verses from Proverbs 17. This is Proverbs 17, 17, and 17, 18. A friend loves at all time and a brother is born for adversity. Is there anything more gracious, more loving, more merciful than that statement?

Anybody want to take a guess at what verse 18 says? A man lacking in sense pledges and becomes shirty in the presence of his neighbor. I mean, write the very next verse. You can't say that Solomon forgot verse 17 when he was writing verse 18.

All right, no. What is Proverbs doing? Proverbs is giving you the balanced view of life. Yes, you have to be merciful. Yes, you have to be gracious, but you have to use wisdom, even in your grace and your mercy.

Some say to refuse to give is unloving. Proverbs teaches that generosity is tempered by prudence. And this gets back to what you guys were all just saying. Just to give unconditionally is not what the Bible says.

Charity is commanded, not stupidity. It is not loving to give a person the means to sin. Brother comes up and he says, hey, can you lend me, I'm down on my luck. Things are going badly for me. Can you lend me $100?

Yeah, sure, what do you need $100 for? I got a hot tip at that Roosevelt. What's the answer to that? No, I'm not gonna give you that money. Only if you're a man lacking in sense. Some would say that the New Testament teaches unconditional giving to the poor.

Not if you've read 1 Timothy 5, verses three to 16. This is the portion, I didn't write it down here, but this is the portion of scripture where Paul talks about who goes on the widow list. She has to be a widow indeed.

And talking about that a man who is not providing for his own household is worse than an infidel. There's some very specific guidelines for how we're supposed to give. That's one of the things, that's why our deacon board administers our benevolent fund and they investigate to make sure that we're giving the Lord's money to those who truly need it.

Jerry.

Yep, yes. Yeah, yeah, sure, right. Yeah, and going even further than what it says.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, yes, Joe. In the Old Testament law, there was not prison, okay. The Old Testament law, there were ways of providing for the poor, such as gleaning and the giving of legitimate gifts to those. And I mean, Paul sums it up very well.

He says, if a man doesn't work, he shouldn't eat. You know, hunger is a big motivation. Became a slave, yeah, okay. Okay, the practical wisdom of Proverbs is never at odds with the commandments of God.

In fact, Proverbs can be viewed as a commentary on the law. If you want to understand how the law of God should be applied to a society, we're obligated in our country today to apply God's law to our society.

As Christians, that's what we should be fighting for. But how do you do it? You don't just take it in mass from, you know, talking about parapets on your roofs and oxes goring somebody. Those are principles to be applied to how our criminal justice system should work, all right?

And you will find that Proverbs will give you a lot of wisdom in how to apply God's law to our modern society, all right? Such as, you know, what about driving a motor vehicle? Well, when Moses was writing the law, they didn't have motor vehicles.

But they did have oxes. They did have, you know, other modes of transportation. Okay, does that make sense? So Proverbs is never at odds with the commandments of God. So what is the general teaching of Proverbs?

This is back, this is verses one to five. This is the text for today. I just highlighted a few different words here. If you have been snared, notice how he describes again, becoming a surety. If you've been snared, you've been caught.

If you've been snared or caught, in other words, you find yourself in a position where you're in being a surety, deliver yourself. If you have come into the hand of your neighbor, humble yourself, deliver yourself, humble yourself.

Give no, importune, I love that word. That really puts a lot of emphasis to it. Importune, plea is what importune means. Give no sleep to your eyes, don't go to sleep. Deliver yourself like a gazelle, why?

Because look at what you're in. You're in the hunter's hand. You're in the hand of a fowler. You ever see the fowler's hand? You know, the falcons? That's the general teaching. Look at that, just those five verses.

So Proverbs basically says, free yourself by all means. Plead your case, humble yourself. Do it quickly, do it vigorously. If you can't, guess what? You're obligated to pay the debt or fulfill any legal obligations.

If you foolishly get yourself into a bad situation, guess what? If you go plead, do the best you can, importune. Beg if you have to, but bottom line, you have to fulfill your legal obligations no matter how foolish it was, all right?

Proverbs 15, I'm sorry, Psalm 15. Psalm 15 is one of my favorite psalms, all right? Talks about who may aspire to the hill of the Lord, to the mountain of the Lord. It's talking about the character of the Christian.

And in verse four, there's this one little sentence. The man of God is one who swears to his own hurt and does not change. So when you give your word, you have just sworn. Remember, because that's exactly what Jesus says, let your yes be yes, your no be no.

See, there's a greater application than just being a surety. And there always is in Proverbs, all right? Promises are debts and must be fulfilled. You ever tell somebody, yes, I'll meet you there at such and such a time, and then you don't show?

That's a pet peeve of mine, all right? All right, I'm gonna get personal here for a minute. How many times have you said you're gonna be at a workday at the church and then just didn't tell anybody and just didn't show up?

All right, we'll move on.

Promises are debts and must be fulfilled.

What?

Yeah, that reminds me of the preacher who takes a little congregation down in West Virginia and he gets there and he finds out that the parishioners are stealing sheep from each other. And so he preaches on the commandment, thou shalt not steal.

And he's standing there at the end of the sermon and everybody's shaking his hand. Great sermon, great, great sermon, you know, Pastor, that you've really done a great job. And you do the same people who are stealing sheep.

So next week he preaches, thou shalt not steal sheep. Same thing, everybody's patting him on the back, great sermon, we need to hear more of this. Then he found out that what they were doing was they were stealing sheep and changing the brand on the sheep.

So the third Sunday he preaches on, thou shalt not steal and change the brand on your sheep. First person comes out, looks at him and says, Pastor, you've been preaching good. He said, but now you're messing around.

All right.

The Christian, in other words, should be known for his integrity, swears to his own hurt, does not change. So there's some implications from the text. One, don't incur a debt you can't pay. Don't make promises you can't keep.

Don't co-sign a loan you can't afford to pay yourself. Here's a principle, I've been asked this a few times, is it wrong, you know, like I've had fathers come and say, I know the general principle is don't co-sign loans.

What about for my son or my daughter? You know, what can I do that? It's not that co-signing a loan is necessarily sin. It's just that you have to understand it may not be wise. My rule of thumb is this, I would never co-sign a loan that I couldn't incur that debt without hurting my own circumstances.

If it's gonna hurt my family, because you have to take it, when you co-sign that loan, you have to understand that's my obligation now. And if he can't pay, I have to pay it. So, and if you've gone through that, you evaluated it, especially with a brother and you're good with that, and that it's not gonna affect your relationship with the brother if he can't pay.

That's a big one, all right? Okay, because there's a reason he couldn't get a loan without a co-signer. If you do get in over your head, humble yourself, work as hard as you can to fulfill your obligations as quickly as possible.

Final thoughts or questions? Absolutely not.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.