Proverbs 5: Guard Your Life

Okay, we're in the book of Proverbs. Guard Your Life, just a very quick review. Remember, Proverbs is wisdom literature. I keep emphasizing this because wisdom literature needs to be translated differently or interpreted differently than the rest of the literature because of how it addresses us, and you'll see that extremely clearly, I think, in the morning.

The purpose of the book is to make one wise, wisdom we described, defined as the ability to handle life with skill, and Proverbs addresses all areas of life in a very practical manner. That's one of the things that makes it so unique from the rest of Scripture.

Not that the rest of Scripture isn't practical, but just the wording that it uses, you know, it talks, and it's very straightforward, and in some cases very blunt, all right. You could say it's even politically incorrect.

The Danger of Sexual Immorality in Proverbs 5, 6, and 7

This morning, we're going to examine the topic of guarding your life. Now, remember, we've examined guarding your tongue, guarding your, what was the other one? Guarding your tongue, guarding your heart, and now we're talking about guarding your life.

And so, the beginning text this morning is Proverbs 5, the whole chapter. Proverbs 6, 24 to 35, and Proverbs 7, all right. I've done this, I've actually taken this outline from Greg Bonson when he taught through it, because these are, these all have to do with guarding your life in the term of preventing you from falling into sexual immorality.

These verses address the danger of sexual immorality, and the sheer number of verses in, just in Proverbs alone, is an indication of the seriousness of this topic, and unfortunately, in the, especially in the church today, this is being glossed over.

Sexual immorality is something that is winked at or just not talked about, and we were just talking earlier about another leader who has fallen. So, from these verses, we're going to examine three concepts, the participants, the consequences, and how to avoid the traps.

The Adulteress and the Foolish Man

First, the participants, the adulteress. Proverbs 5, 3, for the lips of an adulteress drip honey and smoother than oil is her speech. Now, notice she's called an adulteress. Sometimes, she's called a loose woman, and these are interesting.

She's called the alien, the strange woman, and the foreigner. These are all descriptions of the adulteress in the book of Proverbs, right? She may, in fact, be a streetwalker. Proverbs 7, verses 11 and 12, she is boisterous and rebellious.

Her feet do not remain at home. She is now in the streets, now in the squares, and lurks by every corner. We don't have to think too far, or for this concept, just down the block, we have a corner, and they like to come up here and attempt to use our parking lot.

So, she may live at home. She doesn't have to be a streetwalker. She sits at the doorway of her house on a seat by the high places of the city. Notice, she sits right at the door of her house. She may appear respectable on a seat by the high places of the city.

Isn't that interesting? And we know that wherever there is a seat of government, there is also a seat of the adulteress not too far away. She may be married. For the man is not at home. He has gone on a long journey.

He has taken a bag of money with him. At full moon, he will come home. And then look how the man is described. Now, this is very interesting. You see how the woman is described. Sly, cunning, etc. For at the window of my house, I looked through my lattice.

I saw among the naive. I discerned among the youth the young man lacking sense. That's the first description we get of how Proverbs views the adulterer. Suddenly, he follows her as an ox goes to slaughter, as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool.

Isn't it interesting that the, you know, in TV, the movies, the man who gets around, the womanizer, is portrayed as being suave, sophisticated. He always knows what he's doing, and he comes up on top.

And yet, look how he's described in Scripture. A fool. Naive. Even as one who goes to the slaughter. Proverbs 6, 32. The one who commits adultery with the woman is lacking sense. He would destroy himself.

Who does it? That's the end. He lacks sense. He destroys himself. Now, we look at the modus operandi of the adulteress, the MO. How does the, how do they work? Firstly, she flatters with her words. For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and smoother than oil is her speech.

What a description. Smoother than oil is her speech. Many a man has been led into temptation, led to the slaughter, because of the flattery of the woman's, the woman's lips. To keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress, that they may keep you from an adulteress, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.

My old pastor, Pastor Fridgeson, used to give an example, he says, of how this works. You know, a man helping out a woman, you know, especially a woman who doesn't have a man in her home, and you know, she's like, I need my, I have a problem with my lightbulb, and he comes over, and he says, that's easy enough, and he unscrews the lightbulb and screws the lightbulb in, and she looks at him, and she says, oh, you know, I've never seen anybody change a lightbulb like you, you know.

You're so wise in how you do it, and you're so dexterous, and all, and of course, he starts puffing his chest up and saying, yeah, I can do this better than anybody. It's just pure folly, but that's exactly how the adulteress works, flattering with her lips.

Does a man like anything more than flattery from a woman? Just think about it. With her many persuasions, she entices him. With her flattering lips, she seduces him. To deliver you from the strange woman, the adulteress who flatters, there's, I just wanted to show the strange woman again.

The adulteress, see how many different ways we see the word used, but again, flattery. Flattery is one of the biggest things. Why? Because it plays on the man's ego. Who among us doesn't have an ego? Proverbs 22 14, the mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit.

He who is cursed of the Lord will fall into it. Wow. It's getting stronger language, isn't it? He who is cursed of the Lord, the person who falls into this pit, cursed of the Lord. She entices with her beauty.

Do not desire her beauty in your heart, nor let her catch you with her eyelids. Isn't it amazing what a woman can do merely with a look with her eyes? I mean, it's become cartoonish, you know, where she flat flutters her eyelids, you know, but it's true.

That one little look and men fall like a mighty oak in the forest. She works in darkness and secrecy, in the twilight, the evening, middle of the night, and in the darkness. Now, that's the typifies, obviously, it doesn't mean that it has to be even literal nighttime, but it's always in secret.

It's not something that is done openly. She's sly and cunning as opposed to the man who is naive. Behold, the woman comes to meet him dressed as a harlot, cunning of heart. She is now in the streets, now in the squares.

She lurks by every corner. In other words, she can be anywhere. She's loud and rebellious. She's boisterous, rebellious. Her feet do not remain at home. The woman of folly is boisterous. Now, we see that she also is naive.

She thinks she knows it all. She's so smart, so cunning, and wants respect, but in the end, she knows nothing either. She's a hypocrite. This is very telling. So, she seizes him and kisses him, and with a brazen face, she says to him, I was due to offer peace offerings.

Today, I have paid my vows. This woman comes out of a church service and seduces a man. Most men, most Christian men, will not be seduced by a streetwalker. I'm not all. There are some who can be. All right, but most Christian men are not seduced by a streetwalker.

Who are they seduced by? The church secretary, the organist, the pianist, somebody, a Sunday school teacher, somebody who has at least the facade of being a Christian himself. All right, I was due to offer peace offerings today.

I have paid my vow. So, right after attending some sort of church function, you find the illicit activity taking place. Brazen face. Today, I have paid my vows. She entices by using physical senses. Proverbs 7, 15 to 17.

Therefore, I have come out to meet you, to seek your presence earnestly, and I have found you. I have spread my couch with coverings and colored linens of Egypt. I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

In other words, she uses all the physical attributes, whatever it happens to be. All the physical senses can come into play. That's why she is cunning. She's sly. She knows exactly how to do this. She knows exactly how to dress to be seductive and yet not necessarily lewd.

There's an art form to that. She entices by making appealing promises. Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning. Let us delight ourselves with caresses. The promises, promises that just never end.

She enticed by offering forbidden fruit. There's an air of there's an air of seduction in the fact that what you're doing is not proper. Stolen water is sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. Now we come to the consequences.

The Consequences of Adultery

What are the consequences of engaging in this type of activity? First is wastefulness. Proverbs 5 .9, lest you give vigor to others and your years to the cruel one. Your vigor, your stamina, you know, your motivation and your years.

Ultimately, who are you giving it to? The cruel one. It's satanic in nature. Proverbs 5 .10, lest strangers be filled with your strength and your hard-earned goods go to the house of an alien. Proverbs 5 .16, should your springs be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets.

You could spend a lot of time just looking at the symbolism of the word streams of water. Where do we hear streams of water in Scripture? What's the complete opposite of what's going on here? Streams of living water coming from the throne of God and yet here your streams of water are being dispersed abroad in a place where they were never meant to go.

Temporal misery and you and you've grown at your latter end when your flesh and your body are consumed. There are temporal consequences and I'm not going to get into you know what they are as far as STDs and things like that.

There are temporal consequences for engaging in this type of behavior. Your flesh, your body are consumed and for on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread. Again, you see some symbolism.

An adulterous hunts for the precious life. Proverbs 6 .33, wounds and disgrace he will find. Wounds and disgrace. All you got to do is pick up the newspapers. I don't even have to do an exposition of that.

Pick up the newspapers and see how many people are disgraced because of this type of behavior. Mental anguish. If only I hadn't. Proverbs 5 .12 and you say how I have hated instruction and my heart spurned reproof.

How I have hated. If only I hadn't done that and I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, no incline my ear to my instructors. It's amazing the older we get we see how much smarter our parents get.

Right? We think we know it all when we're younger and yet the older we get we realize how our parents were smarter than we thought they were. I was almost in utter ruin in the midst of the assembly and congregation.

Almost in utter ruin. Temporal misery. You'll gain an enemy. For jealousy enrages a man and he will not spare in the day of vengeance. I can't tell you how many homicides that I went to over my eight years in the squad where it was jealousy was the motivation for the homicide.

Somebody partaking of fruits that did not belong to him. For jealousy enrages a man. He will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not accept any ransom nor will he be content though you give many gifts.

Jealousy, he will not accept any ransom nor will he accept gifts. Then of course is eternal destruction. Proverbs 6 32, the one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense. He who would destroy himself does it.

Would destroy himself. This is so so mind-boggling when you think about it. The scripture is so clear. Talks about utter destruction and yet and we see it in the newspapers played out time and time again and yet how many people just continue to fall into the same trap?

We don't learn. Sure. Yeah, sure. Sure. Just I'm gonna reiterate a little bit just for the sake of the recording.

One of the things that people don't understand about forgiveness, all right, as Jerry has just said, is that there are temporal consequences that follow even though forgiveness is granted and received, there are still temporal consequences that follow.

For example, an addict who who uses, you know, heroin, say, an injection, contracts HIV from the needle comes to Christ, they're forgiven, but there's no guarantee from God that the HIV is going to go.

In fact, the opposite is normally true. Those consequences remain. All right, and so you're absolutely right. There's a wrong view of what forgiveness is and then even the fact that there are temporal consequences.

And you see, he who would destroy himself does it. Proverbs 7, 22 to 23, suddenly he follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter. I repeated this verse because it has more than one application. Or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool until an arrow pierces through his liver as a bird hastens to the snare so he does not know that it will cost him his life.

And again, when we're talking about life, there can be a twofold application. It can be physical and it can be spiritual. I think you'll see why in a few moments why I believe that it's actually talking about both.

Will cost him his life. Proverbs 7, 27, her house is the way to Sheol, descending to the chamber of death. And again, this could be either spiritual or physical. I think in this case it refers to both.

Proverbs 9, 18, does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol. Getting the point. There's consequences. Guard your life, avoiding the trap. We've seen the participants.

We've seen the consequences. So how do you avoid the trap? This is where the Bible gets very, very specific and there's no magic bullet. The things that I'm going to show you are simple and it's one of those that, you know, when you see it, you just kind of smack your head and go, I could have had a V8.

You know. First, how to avoid the trap? Follow parental wisdom. God has given us parents, you know, and especially in the context of the church, especially in the context of a Reformed Church. Proverbs 5.

Now notice, this is, these commands, my son, give attention to my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding. That is a concept that you see over and over again in the book of Proverbs. But notice, it's right at the beginning of chapter 5.

All of chapter 5, most of chapter 6, and all of chapter 7 has to do with sexual immorality. Three whole, virtually three whole chapters from the book of Proverbs are dealing with this subject. And as I mentioned in the beginning, the sheer number of verses shows just how dangerous this is, how important it is that we learn this.

And yet, it's still one of the things that is running rampant within the Church of Jesus Christ today. That you may observe discretion and your lips may reserve knowledge. That you would observe discretion.

In other words, that you would become wise. Proverbs 5 .7. Now then, my sons, listen to me and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Again, you can, as you read through the book of Proverbs, you can almost hear the anguish in the voice of Solomon and those others who have written in the book of Proverbs.

And I think especially from Solomon, who didn't heed some of his own advice. Listen to me. Proverbs 5 .12. And you say, how I have hated instruction and my heart spurned reproof. And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers nor inclined my ear to my instructors.

This is the, again, this is coming from the heart of the person who has already started to see the consequences of his actions. And he, now it's back. Oh, if I only hadn't done this, if I only hadn't done that.

Proverbs 6 .23 .24. For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light and reproofs for discipline are the way of life. There's the opposite, the way of life. To keep you, now notice the context, to keep you from the evil woman and the smooth tongue of the adulterous.

Those admonitions that are all through the book of Proverbs are used for various themes, but here very specifically to keep you from the evil woman. In other words, listen to the words of the God as given to us by our parents and they will keep you from the evil woman, if you listen, if you heed.

Proverbs 7 .1 -5. My son, keep my words, treasure my commandments within you, keep my commandments and live and my teaching 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 understanding your intimate friend, that they may keep you from an adulteress, from the foreigner who flatters with their words.

Notice again, chapter 7. It begins with the same admonition over and over again. My son, hear my commandments, listen to my words, keep them and you will live and then what's this very specific application to keep you from the adulteress.

Over and over again. Yes, Joe. No. Yeah. And you can see, I mean, Proverbs is eminently practical. It's telling you all about this and and here's the first way to avoid it is listening to the Word of God.

Remember, our parents stand in the place of God on this earth. That's, we're made in his image and that's the the image we're supposed to supposed to see and so when it's talking about parental wisdom, it's talking about the wisdom of God, that they may keep you from an adulteress, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.

This may seem like duh, but the second way to avoid is you need to be spiritually mature. The person who is immature spiritually is the one who's going to be more susceptible to flattery, to listening to to a woman.

The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense. He who would destroy himself, who does it? Proverbs 7, 67, for at the window of my house, I looked through my lattice among, I saw among the naive, I discerned a youth, a young man lacking sense.

What's the opposite of lacking sense? Gaining spiritual maturity. Avoidance. We can hearken back to President Reagan's stance on drugs. Don't do drugs. Just say no. Well, that's one of the things that we see here.

But do not let your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her path. Proverbs is saying, just say no. Don't go there. Avoid it. Don't turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her paths. Keep your way far from her.

Do not go near the door of her house. Avoid it. That's one of the biggest, one of the biggest ways to avoid temptation is don't put yourself into temptations path. Sure. Yeah. Sure. Yes, yeah. I didn't include that verse in here, but that's a, that's a good one.

That's from Job. Avoidance. Remember, remember adultery begins in the heart. Remember what Jesus said, you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his, in his heart.

Hearken back to the last message from a month ago. Guard your heart. Remember, that's where it starts. Committed adultery already in the heart. Avoidance. Don't allow it to get started. Romans 13, 14, this should be no stranger to all of you, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. How do you, how do you avoid it? Don't put yourself in that position in the first place. I say this all the time. If you have a problem with drinking, don't get a job as a bartender.

If you have a problem with stealing, don't get a job as a bank teller. You know, I mean, it's just simple. If you have a problem with lust, don't go to a strip bar. I mean, there's a lot of other reasons not to do that, but it's just, it's common sense, is it not?

There is always a way out. 1 Corinthians 10, 13. No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. And God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. But with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.

That single verse takes away the excuse, I couldn't help myself, or the devil made me do it, or somebody else did. No, yes.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. Then you have the principle of radical amputation. Figure of speech. Thank you, Anthony. If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, throw it from you, for it is better that one of your parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you, for it is better that one of your parts of your body perish, than for the whole body to go into hell. Obviously, Jesus is making a figure of speech, or showing the importance of taking radical terms.

If you have a problem in any one of these areas, you have to get radical. It's like the story of the race, the buggy driver. Getting how close to the edge can you get? And the guy who got the job, he said, I stay as far away from the edge as I can.

You stay as far away from sin as you can. You don't see how close you can get without sinning. That's thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to think. Sure. Yeah, and a lot of that comes from a misunderstanding of what freedom in Christ is, what liberty is.

Liberty or freedom in Christ is not the freedom to do what you want. It's the freedom to do what you ought. And what does scripture say? What should you ought to do? Stay as far away from sin as you can.

The Sanctity of Marriage and the Call to Self-Control

Another one is stay with your own wife. Proverbs 5, 15 to 20. Drink water from your own cistern and fresh water from your own well. Should your springs be dispersed to broad streams of the water in the streets, let them be yours alone and not for strangers with you.

Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth as a loving hind and graceful doe. Let her breast satisfy you at all times. Be exhilarated always with her love. For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner?

Again, scripture gets very, very clear as to what the relationship of a husband and wife should be. And that's a whole different topic. Unfortunately, a lot of people who have a poor view of what Christian marriage is fall into the trap because we don't understand the husband-wife relationship.

Why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner? Develop self-control. It's one of the fruit of the spirit. Galatians 5, 23. Fruit of the spirit, self-control.

And, of course, self-control, biblically, is not I have to muster up the strength of myself. Self-control is a fruit of the spirit. It is a God-given spirit. How does it come? With spiritual maturity.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. And we know that is an ongoing process, the mortification of the flesh. If we live by the spirit, let us also walk by the spirit.

Yes?

Most men are given to us by God. And it's the commandment to be fruitful and multiply. So, again, in the depravity of our own hearts, we take that desire and we funnel it in the wrong direction. Perverted.

If we were to funnel it in the right direction, think of how many descendants of generation after generation of our own children we would have and fulfill the commandment of God. So even with something like this, that's so beautiful.

Yes, it does. Let me give you an illustration. Don't sow two kinds of seed in the same field. Right? Men are the seed-bearers. We plant seeds. An agricultural example in Deuteronomy and Leviticus that says don't plant two kinds of seeds in the same field.

So over and over and over again, how we're supposed to be fruitful, multiply,.

And not be with other women, not plant in another man's field. Sure. I think a big part of that is because, number one, a lot of this has never been taught properly. Right. Number two, another vein of thought is we're just totally selfish.

We think of our own gratification. We don't think of what's going to happen. We don't think about what we're called to be. We're just self-pleasing in so many ways.

Yeah, you're both absolutely right. And Paul even expounds more on this in 1 Corinthians, talking about husband and wife and the relationship and how your body is not your own. I frequently, with my tainted sense of humor, my wife will be doing something, and she'll fall and she'll hurt herself or something like that, and I'll look at her and say, hey, you take care of my body.

That belongs to me. And again, it's a little play on words, but it's true. That's what the apostle says. We belong to each other. And again, you're absolutely right, because the Old Covenant, the Old Testament scriptures, are taught only for stories and anecdotes that can be used for sermon illustrations instead of seeing the symbolism that's involved in the planting of the fields and the gardens and what does a garden look like and what is the purpose of a garden.

You miss the whole continuity of all the scriptures. Yes. Sure it is. Sure. And if you even look at that fourfold mandate in Genesis 1, we're supposed to exercise dominion, but the precursors to that is by being fruitful and multiply and filling the earth and then subduing it.

Notice our culture decries each and every one of those points. Don't have children. It's okay to abort them. We're overpopulated. We're intruders into this plan. We're not to take dominion over. We're supposed to leave it alone.

So we see the antichrist thinking going all the way back to that dominion mandate. And one of the points I ask a lot of my dispensational brothers when I start talking about the dominion mandate, they say, oh, that's old covenant.

I say, no, that's a creation mandate that precedes the old covenant. All right. Show me where that mandate has been abrogated by scripture. And it hasn't. It has merely changed dimension. In the new covenant, it's reiterated.

It's said, make disciples of all the nations. And we're supposed to exercise dominion in that way. Develop self-control. Understand the beauty and sanctity of biblical marriage. One of the joys I have, being a pastor as long as I have, is I've performed, officiated at many marriages.

I think it's probably, if it isn't already, it's closing in on 50 marriages that I've officiated at. And in each case, I've done counseling. And I'm blessed every time we go through the book to see what God's word actually says about Christian marriage.

And that's something that we need to understand, the beauty and sanctity of biblical marriage. Just how wonderful, what a blessing it is. I look at, I mean, I've been with my wife for 56 years now. And I sit and I cross the table for him, I look at him and I say, what a blessing.

What a blessing it is that I have this companion for this many years. And, you know, right into old age. Don't take it for granted, guys. I don't care if you're newly married, or if you're middle ages of marriage.

Don't take it for granted. It is a blessing from God, the beauty and sanctity of biblical marriage. Remember that God equates adultery with idolatry. Then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes played the harlot after their idols.

And they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed for all their abominations. Just as he was pronouncing a curse upon the nation of Israel and likening harlotry as adultery.

So the analogy goes both ways. The bottom line, for do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Don't take this lightly. And such were some of you. This is one of my favorite verses, verse 11 here. Such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the spirit of our God.

There's the bottom line. There is forgiveness when there's true repentance. Questions? Roll a question down from before, I guess. Okay.