WWUTT 1369 The Adulteress With Her Smooth Words (Proverbs 7:1-13)

My son, keep my words. Treasure up my commandments with you. Keep my commandments and live. Keep my teaching as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers when we understand the text.

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Proverbs 7 and the Warning Against Adultery

Thank you, Becky. In our study of Proverbs, we're up to Chapter 7. If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there. Now, we're still talking about the subject of adultery here, and this might take us a couple of weeks to get through this chapter.

I'm going to go ahead and read through the whole thing. Here is Proverbs, Chapter 7. My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you. Keep my commandments and live. Keep my teachings as the apple of your eye.

Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, you are my sister, and call insight your intimate friend to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress, with her smooth words.

For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice, and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.

And behold, the woman meets him dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart. She is loud and wayward. Her feet do not stay at home. Now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait.

She seizes him and kisses him, and with bold face she says to him, I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows. So now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.

I have spread my couch with coverings, colored linens from Egyptian linen. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love till morning. Let us delight ourselves with love, for my husband is not at home.

He has gone on a long journey. He took a bag of money with him. At full moon he will come home. With much seductive speech she persuades him. With her smooth talk she compels him. All at once he follows her.

As an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast, till an arrow pierces its liver, as a bird he rushes into a snare, he does not know that it will cost him his life. And now, oh sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth.

Let not your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her paths. For many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.

What a warning. My goodness. And as I have said, we've been in this subject for quite some time, Proverbs chapter 5, and had seen it in the four chapters earlier as well, but the fifth chapter is dedicated to it, half of the sixth chapter, and now all of the seventh chapter.

Consider the way that we begin here. My son, keep my words, and treasure up my commandments with you. Keep my commandments and live. Keep my teaching as the apple of your eye. Now this is somewhat of an interlude here, between what we were talking about in chapter 6, and now coming into chapter 7.

Remember that the chapter markers aren't here, as we have these Proverbs that have been written down for us, for our edification. We added the chapter and verses later. It makes it easier for us to reference, to follow the flow, things like that.

Keep track of where we are, but the chapter and verse markers were not originally there. So you consider this continuous thought that has been going on, through the last several chapters, and now we have a kind of a brief reminder, to keep these commandments.

It's the same way that we came back into this section in Proverbs 6 .20. My son, keep your father's commandments, and forsake not your mother's teaching. Bind them on your heart always. Tie them around your neck.

We have a different sort of imagery going on here, as a call to remember these instructions. Treasure up my commandments with you. Keep my commandments and live. Keep my teaching as the apple of your eye.

In other words, make it the desire of your eyes. It's right before you. It's what you want. It's what you want to reach out and grab and savor. Let that be wisdom. Because the contrast here, of course, is going to be the adulterous woman.

Don't go after her. Go after wisdom. Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart. Whatever it is that you do with your hands, whatever the desires of your heart would be, let wisdom be the thing that binds you.

Say to wisdom, you are my sister, and call insight your intimate friend. Now, again, as we talked about way back in Proverbs 1, the reason why wisdom is referred to as a feminine friend, like wisdom's not a dude, we have feminine pronouns that are used to describe wisdom.

And that's because in Hebrew, wisdom is a feminine word. Those of you who know multiple languages, you understand the difference between masculine and feminine words. So in Hebrew, wisdom is feminine.

When wisdom is personified, it just makes sense to use feminine pronouns. Now, if you know much about the book of Proverbs, then you know that when we get to chapter 8, we're going to read about wisdom personified.

We're going to read about this woman that calls you into her fellowship, and it's wisdom with a voice. Wisdom is otherwise an intangible thing, but it's going to be depicted as a woman, and this is to whom we should bind ourselves, not going after the adulteress, but going after wisdom, which is the blessing of God.

Remember the word of James 1, beginning in verse 5. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. Go after that, but do not go after the passions of the flesh.

Say to wisdom, Proverbs 7, 4, say to wisdom, you are my sister. Call insight your intimate friend to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words. So there's our interlude there, reminding the hearer once again, the father talking to his son and reminding him, cling to wisdom.

So it's not just this long string of like, do this, don't do that. You have these interludes here where the father just expresses his care and his love and affection for his son. The fact that the father is passing on wisdom to the son is an act of love.

This is a father who wants to share his heart with his son, but also that his son may prosper in his way, not go to the way of destruction, but to the way of eternal life, not walking in ungodliness, but walking in godliness.

A father can extend nothing more loving than the wisdom of God to his children. So the father continues to share with his son, warning him of the way of an adulteress. Now we have no idea how old the son is here, but any age is good.

This is wisdom that is evergreen. There is never a time when this does not apply, for I have seen it happen many times, and you surely have as well. I have seen adultery destroy people. It destroys the man who commits adultery.

It destroys the woman who commits adultery. I've seen it destroy the lives of people around them. It's destroyed their families. I have even seen this destroy churches. On more than one occasion, I've sat across from a pastor or an elder or a teacher who was guilty of adultery, who committed adultery in his ministry, while he was in ministry, and I've said to that man, do you realize that what you have done is a church killer?

And unanimously, when I've been in that situation, he has replied in the affirmative. I came to Texas from Kansas, where I lived in Kansas. There was a church about two hours away from where we lived, where there was a man who committed adultery, and he decided that he wasn't going to resign.

He committed adultery with a woman in his church. He left his wife for this woman, and the church was calling on him to resign and step down from his position, and he decided he didn't want to. He was going to fight it, and the majority of the church decided to keep him.

So that means he didn't have to go anywhere, didn't have to give up his pulpit, didn't have to give up his office, none of that. The church remained with him. He remained with the church, and they shared in his condemnation, and those who left that body were perceived as the divisive ones because they weren't going to be gracious and forgiving of this guy, right?

Because of his sin, he brought other people into it as well, and it broke up an entire church. Now, of course, as we're reading about adultery here in Proverbs 7, we're not just reading about something that happens to pastors.

More times than I've sat across from a pastor who is guilty of this, I've sat across from a member of my own congregation, and I have tried to make them aware of what it is that they've done, that they would be grieved over their sin, that they would repent, and praise the Lord, I have seen lives restored, families that were shattered by adultery given new life because of the grace of God poured out on a person's life.

He can forgive sin. Christ will heal and restore that which the devil breaks down and destroys, but you must turn from this sin, and you must turn to Christ. 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, but you must be grieved over your sin.

Do not take advantage of the grace of God as if to say, you know, it doesn't matter what it is that I do. God is going to forgive me for it anyway. Paul says in Romans 6, if that is your attitude, then you're still enslaved to your sin, and you are not a slave to righteousness, a slave in Christ Jesus to the goodness that he has shown us by his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave.

Christ can surely heal a person who is guilty of this sin, but beware that you do not enter into it and do not think that you and your flesh are powerful enough to flirt with this sin and not get burned by it.

Like, how close can I get to this as long as I don't cross this line? Well, you're already focusing on the sin instead of putting all your attention on Christ. Instead of your desire being God and his wisdom, your desire is for the sin because you're still thinking to yourself, hey, I can get this close.

As long as I don't cross this line, I don't get burned. Or you might even think, hey, what would be the big deal if I go ahead and do this? Because I'll just, I mean, yeah, there's going to be consequences for it, but I'll just face those consequences.

I'll ask God's forgiveness. Better for me to just go ahead and do this and get it over with so I don't keep having this desire in my flesh. How do you know that you will be able to repent on the other side of that?

How do you know that God will not just give you over to the lust and the passion of your flesh? See, that's the scary thing. You think too highly of yourself if you think that I can do this and I'll just, you know, I'll just get forgiveness when I'm done.

I can call on the Lord anytime. How do you know that? How do you know you will have a heart that wants to repent? How do you know that you will not have indulged in this once and then you can convince yourself, I can do it again.

I did it once before. Everything turned out okay. I can go do it again. And before you know it, you've been turned over to a depraved mind. I gave an example last week of a man who indulged in this sin and it totally changed him.

The man who used to be my friend now saw me as an enemy because of this sin, because he would rather have had the passions of his flesh than all of the good things that God had given to him in his life.

We cannot flirt with these dangers and expect we're going to come away from this without having our flesh and our hair singed because we got too close to the flames. Flee from this stuff. Stay away from it.

The wisdom of the father talking to his son here says, I was at the window of my house. I've looked through my lattice. I have seen among the simple, another way of saying among the fools, these people who are foolish people who are not seeking after wisdom.

And I have perceived a young man who is lacking sense passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness. In other words, he's deliberately going by this woman's house.

He's curious. He's got kind of that little tickle in his flesh, that little stirring of interest in his mind. This woman is pretty attractive and she seems to be making eyes at me. I wonder if I can walk by her house again and she'll make eyes at me again.

And he flirts with that danger, maybe even thinking, I won't cross that line though. I'm just curious. So I'm just going to go and I'm going to see what's going to happen here. And he gets closer and closer to that until he indulges in the sin and it leads to his own destruction as we get to the end of Proverbs 7.

And that's the way adultery goes. It's very, very rarely ever just like, boom, it just happened today. There wasn't anything I could do about it. It's step by step by step. This thing happens and then this next thing comes along.

You start sharing your heart with one another, sharing things with each other that you ordinarily wouldn't share with anyone but your spouse. And now you've created an intimacy there. The door is open.

You keep walking through it and then eventually you're in each other's beds. It's a slow fade as the term goes, but the closer and closer you creep toward it, the more it will draw you in and will consume you.

And that's what we see of this adulterous woman here in Proverbs 7. And this is a picture of any kind of sin, any kind of temptation. We're dealing with passions of the flesh here. We're talking specifically about sexual immorality, but you could attach any sin to this.

There are any number of things that seek to appeal to our flesh and want to draw us in and we'll creep closer and closer to and think I can do this and it won't be all that bad. I can just ask forgiveness for it later.

I'll turn myself around, but let me just get my jollies for a little bit here and not realize that we are turning ourselves over to something that is not of God and you are not of the strength that you think you have to be able to pull yourself back out of that again.

Don't go anywhere near this stuff. Now, it is a gracious working of God in the heart of a person that he turns someone from their sin to him. But if you have known the goodness of God, if you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, don't go after again the sins for which Christ died.

For your old self is dead. Leave him in the grave. Walk in newness of life in the righteousness of Christ. Now, I think when I come back to this again next week, I'm also going to include Psalm 51 because that's of course the psalm that David wrote unto God after he was guilty of adultery, after he committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband Uriah the Hittite murdered.

And when Nathan the prophet came to him and convicted him of his sin, Psalm 51 is the psalm of lament that is the result of that confession before God. So we'll consider that next week because Christ absolutely will rescue a person who has fallen into this sin.

But that does not mean, that is not an excuse for you to get anywhere close to it. Here we see this picture of this young man that is going by the adulterous woman's house, taking the road to her house in the evening when nobody else can see.

And notice that it's in the twilight in the evening. So there's still a little bit of light from the day. It's not totally dark yet. That's a picture of how this guy is wandering into darkness. He's not totally there yet, but he's sure curious about it.

And behold, verse 10, the woman meets him dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart. Last week we considered the difference between the prostitute and the adulterer. So what's the difference between the prostitute and the adulterer?

Having sex with a prostitute is still sexual immorality for which there is judgment. But Proverbs seems to indicate that adultery is worse because it's not just you and one other person. There are families involved in this that have now been destroyed by this act of adultery.

And so the married woman dresses as a prostitute because she's enticing the guy, just as a prostitute will dress a certain way, offering sex. That's the way the adulteress dresses as well. The way she presents herself is that I'm offering something to you.

Come to me and you can have it. She's dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart. She is loud and wayward. Her feet do not stay home. If you've got a pen, if you're underlining verses in your Bible, underline that one, Proverbs 7, 11.

She is loud and wayward. Her feet do not stay at home. And if you've got room in your margin, which you surely should, because this is written in a poetic form, right next to Romans, or sorry, Romans, yeah, we're going through Romans Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so I'm slipping of the tongue here, but Proverbs 7, 11, right next to it, feminism, because that is absolutely modern feminism.

There you have the description of it in a single verse. And in the context of the adulteress, she is loud and wayward. Her feet do not stay home. Now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner, she lies in wait.

As I said earlier on in this lesson, this stuff is everywhere. We hear of it, we see it all the time. It destroys lives. This advice that we're getting here in Proverbs 7, this is wisdom for any time, because no matter where we are or what we are doing, the temptation of adultery is there.

And in full honesty, I'm not speaking as somebody who is high on my horse. I've been tempted with this. And by the grace of God, by the fear of God that he has put in my heart, I fled from the adulterous woman, feeling intensely guilty just for wanting it, but not going after it.

I felt so convicted over that and repented before God in tears. And I am grateful for the grace of God that he has given to me, but it was a reminder to me, I am not above temptation in this either. My flesh can also be weak and not to go anywhere near these things that entice, that draw us away from God and into Satan's schemes.

It says in Proverbs 7, 13, she seizes him and kisses him and with bold face she says to him, I had to offer sacrifices and today I have paid my vows. Now we get to the words of the adulteress here, verses 14 through 20.

I'm going to hold off right here. We're going to come back to this next week. But notice what it is that she's saying. The first words that she's saying is this, I had to offer sacrifices and today I have paid my vows.

You know what she's saying to this guy? This is perfectly innocent. Don't worry about it. I've sacrificed in the temple. I've paid my vows. I'm clean. Let's do something clean together. And of course what they're going to go into is filthy before God.

You know, it's interesting to consider this, but the porn industry has embraced those words like filthy and naughty and dirty and that's the way they describe this stuff that they are selling. Not realizing, a startling lack of self-awareness, not realizing that this stuff is an abomination before God.

And he will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous, as it says in Hebrews 13, 4. Fear God, stay away from this stuff, love Christ and his righteousness. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Forgive us for our pride when we think that we can entertain thoughts about this stuff, not realizing that what we desire with our thoughts is something that you do not desire for us, so that even the desire for sin is sin.

Help us to desire Christ, give us hearts that are after you and the good things that you have given us in Christ Jesus, our Lord. It's in his name that we pray.

Amen. This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast, or just send us a comment, email, whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.

Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's Word when we understand the text.