Beward of the Dog - Let's Stay at Home

Please take your Bible, turn to Proverbs chapter 5. Proverbs chapter 5. I did say last week that we have a new study coming up and I did announce Sunday that we'll start a verse by verse study through the book of Acts this coming up Wednesday. But between our study with the seven churches in the book of Revelation and our new study, I thought it would be very good and very important for us to look at Proverbs chapter 5. And in last week's message, we saw that Proverbs 5 is all about adultery, sexual sin, sexual immorality.

More specifically, we saw that Proverbs 5 is all about the forbidden seductive woman of adultery and I called her the seductive dog of adultery. Now, last week I shared three reasons why I felt impressed or the need to go into Proverbs 5, but tonight I want to expound on that third reason that I gave last week. In many ways, our culture is nothing but sexually immoral. You can hardly find a part of our culture that is not affected by sexual immorality. We can see that many are even inventing new ways to become more sexually immoral and it is becoming increasingly difficult, even impossible to escape those things.

So that means that the temptations from and to sexual sins of all kinds are very, very real. Sexual sins and temptations are not isolated to places like Bourbon Street in New Orleans. These temptations and sins of the worst type are in our town, across the street, even on our doorstep and sadly even in our families. Simply, we don't live in Mayberry. We don't. You could say that we live in Sodom and we're just down the road from Gomorrah. And because of this, there are some in the life of our church who suffer the consequences from sexual immorality and adultery exactly like we see in Proverbs 5.

Some in our church have come to faith in Christ. Thankful for that. And sexual sins were part of their past life. So it is good to see what God says about our past sin or your past sin. It may be hard, but it is good to see these things so that we can be reminded of what God saves us from. We can praise God and we can worship God and we can thank God for saving from our sin and forgiving us of our sin. But we also have some in the life of the church who are not born again and they may have sexual sins in their past or they may be involved in sexual sin now.

And if that is you, you need to see what God's Word says about sexual immorality and adultery and you need to see that there is forgiveness found in Christ Jesus and that forgiveness can come into your life only if you are born again. So we need to study Proverbs 5 because of the reality of sexual sin and sinfulness that is all around us. And these things are and they have been and they will continue to be real threats to us, our families and our children. I guess God knew what He was doing when He repeated all of these warnings about the seductive dog of adultery all throughout the Proverbs. It is almost like He was writing to us in our day.

And I say that with a little sarcasm. Now in last week's message we studied verses 1 to 14 in what I call "Beware of the Dog, the Forbidden Woman." From verses 1 to 6 we saw a description of this woman, the forbidden woman. From verses 7 to 14 we saw the ruined life which comes from this woman. Now tonight we will cover the rest of the chapter in what I call "Beware of the Dog, Stay at Home." Beware of the Dog, Stay at Home. Now let's read our verses. I'll read all of the chapter. Of course we're only going to divide verses 15 to 23. But I will reference some of the others. But let's read the entire chapter.

Solomon says, "My son, be attentive to my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding that you may keep discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil. But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps follow the path of sheol. She ponders and she does not ponder the path of life, her ways wonder and she does not know it. And now, O sons, listen to me and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

Keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to others in your years to the merciless. Let strangers take their fill of your strength and your labors go to the house of a foreigner. And at the end of your life you groan when your flesh and body are consumed. And you say, how I hated discipline and my heart despised reproof. I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation. Now he pivots, this is where we'll start tonight. Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.

Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be for yourself alone and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a loving dear, a graceful dove. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight, be intoxicated always in her love. Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulterous? For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord and he ponders all his paths. The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.

He dies for lack of discipline and because of his great folly, he is led astray. Now just like with verses 1 to 14, we have two divisions, two major blocks of truth here and that's how we'll finish out the chapter, really two major observations. Number one, I want us to see the polluted life. I want us to see the polluted life out of verses 15 to 20. Now it has been obvious that this entire chapter is about adultery or sex outside of marriage. Now we need to make sure we understand that all sex outside of marriage is considered adultery. And although these verses are still about sexual immorality, there is a shift.

Solomon does two things here. First, he gets more descriptive. Second, he speaks about sex in two different circumstances. Now we will get to those two different circumstances in just a moment, but I feel we need to clear up a possible misunderstanding or two here. Some have taught that sexual relations in marriage is only for procreation, but this is not what the Bible teaches. Our verses address that error right here. Then there are some who think that any sexual relations is okay. Well, that is an error too. So we need to see that these passages that are before us deal with sexual relations within the marriage. Let me repeat that.

We need to see that the passage before us, these passages deal with sexual relations within the confines of marriage. But right here, I need to give a stern warning. I don't think we need this to be corrective, but we need to see the warning. We must have discretion in discussing these matters. We must be respectful and cautious. We must have some what I call good old-fashioned manners. Tonight we're in mixed company. So I will not go into detail in some of this teaching. If we were in a men's group, I would go into more detail. If you ladies were in a ladies' group, that teacher may go into some more detail.

This causes me to pause in progressing and say, maybe we need to discuss the meaning of these verses in our small groups on the side, not deviating from our lesson, but maybe ladies, you need to discuss these things together. Men, maybe you need to discuss these things together. And also with married couples. I think it is very important that you discuss these things, this chapter, what's taught here with your wife, with your husband. I know my wife and I have had some good conversations here. It all started last week when she said, you read those verses in church. And I'm like, yes, that's in the Bible.

It's kind of descriptive, kind of like, wow, I'm like, it's in the Bible. That led to some good discussion about what's taught here. But there are two areas that some can make here in a mixed group setting like this. First, talking too much about these things or being too descriptive. Just not having good sense. I think you know what I mean. But then there's another mistake, and that's not sharing enough or avoiding these things altogether. So notice, we don't ignore these things, but we use discretion when we talk about these things. But from these verses, there are three observations I want us to make here.

The verses before us, verse 15 to 20. First, symbolic language. We see some symbolic language, and I want us to see the meaning. There are two symbols that are used here from verses 15 to 18. First, we see water in the numerous illustrations, which point to water. If you look at verses 15 to 18, you can see them. But notice the illustrations. A cistern, a well flowing with water in verse 15. Springs and streams of water in verse 16, and a fountain in verse 18. And then second, or the second symbol, we see a doe deer.

Now right here is when some of you men pause and say, well, Pastor, is this where the Bible tells me I can go deer hunting all I want? No, that's a stretch. But jokes aside, in verse 19, we see a lovely deer, a graceful female deer. Now what's the meaning of these illustrations? First, the water. All this language speaks of satisfaction and the satisfaction of thirst. Water satisfies a legitimate and natural need, thirst. Simply the human body needs water. And in their day, good water came from a well, or it was stored in a cistern. To speak of good water from a well or good water stored in a cistern would really have gotten their attention.

And this was not a matter of taste. This was a matter of life and death, because good water, plentiful water, could be in short supply. But then second, the female deer, the doe. The female deer was often used in biblical language and in cultural poetry of their day to speak of a beautiful woman. She is seen as a graceful, a tender, beautiful woman. And this was common language in their day. So these illustrations of water and the female deer speak to the satisfaction of a legitimate need and desire and to physical beauty. I think you can see that.

Now with that understood, with that understood, we can now continue and see how and where Solomon uses these illustrations. These are teaching tools. Let's notice how he teaches. So first, we saw the symbolic language in its meaning. Second, satisfaction in the home. I call this satisfaction in the home. This comes from verse 15, 18, and 19. Here in verse 15, Solomon is saying that his son should be satisfied with water from his own cistern. He should be satisfied with water from his own well. And in verse 18, he reveals what this is all about. He says that he should be satisfied with his own wife.

The English Standard Version uses the word rejoice. He was truly saying to his son that he should rejoice in his own wife. Verse 19, he goes on to speak of his wife again. But back in verses three to four, he warns his son of the seductive woman. But here in verse 19, he calls his son to be satisfied with his own wife. So in verse 15, 18, and 19, Solomon was calling his son to be satisfied at home with his own wife and to rejoice in his own wife in his own home. And then the third observation here, scattered in the streets. Verses 16 to 17 in verse 20. Here Solomon is contrasting what he has taught in verse 15, 18, and 19.

It's kind of a back and forth. Here in verse 16, he asks a question. He is asking his son, should you give yourself away in the streets, away from your own house? This was a question to make him think about things. Simply here in verse 16, Solomon said something which would have gotten the attention of his son and the attention of those who were reading this in their day. In that day, good water was very, very valuable. They would have heard that illustration of pouring water in the streets and they would have cringed, they would have been horrified. That is because in their day, good water could be in short supply.

It could be a matter of life and death. And he goes on in verse 17 to answer the question. No, he says, no, do not give yourself away to strangers. That would be like pouring out good water in the streets. In verse 20, he adds to the teaching. This word intoxicated in the English Standard is translated as exhilarated in the New American. This, truthfully, this can mean infatuated or ravished. So right here, Solomon is saying something just like this and I'm putting it in my words. Why in the world would you be infatuated or exhilarated with a strange adultrous woman, my son? I have shown you that she will destroy you totally.

So Solomon was and is saying, don't waste your body, don't waste your life in the streets with the forbidden seductive woman of adultery. I called her the seductive dog of adultery. Now look at what we have here. This is a summary of these verses. We actually have two lessons. One on one side of the coin, one on the other side, but the lessons can't be separated. On one side of the coin, the lesson of the satisfied life at home. On the other side of the coin, the lesson of the polluted life of adultery. He is saying, be satisfied with your own wife and rejoice in your own wife, which is healthy and good and it brings life.

And then he says, do not pollute yourself, do not pollute yourself with the adulterous woman of the streets for she will destroy you. Now an application, I wanna apply this to two people, but with discretion. First for adults, we understand what this means. We understand how this applies to our marriage relationships. Men, be satisfied at home with your own wife. Wife, be satisfied at home with your own husband. That relates to us. But what about our children and teenagers? Is our children grow? Obviously what we teach a four year old is different than what we teach a 14 year old.

And if you need some help as to how to handle those things, we can help you. But we have to teach our children what these things mean. We have to teach our sons what these things mean. Our daughters what these things mean. So the polluted life. Then number two, the enslaved man. This comes out of verses 21 to 23. Starting in verse 21, we see another transition. All throughout the chapter, Solomon has been, has a pattern in his teaching. You'll see it. He goes from warnings to teaching filled with illustrations and application.

In verses one to two, he gives a warning and then from verses three to six, he teaches and illustrates and makes application. In verse seven, he gives another warning and then in verses eight to nine, he warns, teaches, illustrates and makes application. So here Solomon moves from the illustrative teaching from verses 15 to 20 to more warnings. And here there are two powerful warnings we need to see. First, the warning of watching eyes in verse 21. Here Solomon reminds his son that God is always watching and God is always seeing. And this verse is teaching that not only is God watching and seeing, but he is taking note of what he sees.

And at this point, Solomon was really trying to show his young son the fact that he could not, could not hide from God. He knows that his son may think that he can hide from God or get away with his sin, but Solomon knows better. Simply, he wants his son to feel as if God is watching over his shoulder all the time because God was. So Solomon was warning his son. Solomon was warning his son not to forget the fact that God is watching. And look, there is a gigantic lesson here. Men, God is watching you if you are looking at something questionable on the internet.

God is seeing you if you were secretly looking at the worst filth on your internet. And you may think that you're hiding it from everybody and you may be hiding it from everybody on earth, but not from God. And the same is for the ladies. Ladies, God is watching you if you're doing the same thing. No matter what you may be doing, God is watching. You might say, "Pastor, you're trying to scare us a little." Yeah, there should be a healthy fear knowing that God is watching. And then second, the warning of wicked enslavement. See this in verses 20 to 23.

Now in this warning, Solomon again uses some wording that would, excuse me, that would illustrate or picture his teaching. These are pictures, or ideas his son would have understood. Notice what he is saying here. We see the wicked trap themselves in verse 22. There is a picture here associated with this word in snare. The English standard uses the word in snare. The new American uses the word capture. The idea here in this word, in this language, is of a stupid bird that weaves a net that will later catch the very same bird.

One scholar said of this word and what's communicated here, and I'm quoting, "By threading his path to follow his door, "he is treading a noose around his own neck." So the young man that ignores God's word and goes the way of sin is setting his own trap which he will later fall into. Now there's a lesson here. When we know God's word and what God says about sexual sin, and then when we commit sexual sin, we are like the dumb bird that sets a trap and then gets caught in his own trap.

This teaching here, men, ladies, all of us, if you see, know, and understand this teaching, and then willfully commit sexual sin, then you were digging a pit and falling into your own pit. Now last week, one of the reasons I shared for going into Proverbs five was the recent scandal with a very famous Steve Lawson. In thinking about his circumstance in this teaching, I thought about the fact that he dug a real big pit. He taught on this, he taught these truths faithfully, for years. He taught this very same kind of teaching for years, and then he fell into his own pit 'cause he didn't obey what he knew he should obey.

And I say that with great sadness. And then we see the wicked tie up themselves in verse 22. Solomon is reminding his son that to fall for sin, such as sexual immorality, it is just like tying up oneself. He is telling him that it is impossible to get involved with sin without being bound up. Solomon knows that sin is like a door. When you walk up to the door of sin, the sign above the door reads freedom. But when you go through that door, you end up enslaving yourself to that sin, and on the backside of that door, it reads slavery. So Solomon was warning his young son that sin, sexual sin, would literally bind him up.

And then we see the wicked dies from his sin, verse 23. Here Solomon reminds his son to stay true to discipline. He reminds his son that if he becomes undisciplined and falls into sin, and the sin of sexual immorality, death results. Solomon knows that sin equals death. It always has, and it always does. And then we see the wicked wanders because of sin, in verse 23. Here Solomon reminds his son that great foolishness of sin will lead him astray. And this is a reminder of the two paths that we discussed last week from verses five to six. There is the road or the path of death, in verse five. There's the road or the path of life, in verse six.

So the path of disobedience, sin, and foolishness always lead to death. And here Solomon is reminding his son to stay on the path of obedience and godly living. So in summary, look at what we have here. Simply the enslaved man from adultery, the young man who ignores the warnings, and God's word sets a trap for himself. He enslaves himself. The sin that he thinks will give freedom ultimately gives bondage or slavery. So Solomon is reminding his young son that there are only two roads in life, the road of obedience and life, or the road of disobedience, death, and bondage.

Now here I want you to think of someone or some people that you've known in your life who are enslaved to sin. Maybe someone in your family, maybe an old friend, maybe a coworker. Think of a man that you may know, or a woman that you may know, they knew God's word and what the scriptures say about sexual immorality and adultery, but they committed those sins anyway. They dug a deep pit and they fell into their own pit. I think about a friend of mine that I had years ago. Haven't spoken to him in years. A leader in a church, a deacon. Very big supporter of me and my wife and the ministry that God had given me. A good friend.

As a matter of fact, he really attempted to bless me physically in some ways, and I'm thankful that I kind of steered away from them. I'll never forget, I would hear him speak often about the divorce and immorality that was in his own family, the divorce he experienced, the immorality from his parents, that kind of thing. I heard him many times talk about what the Bible said about these things, and I heard him many times say that he had a wonderful wife, wonderful family, and he would never do those things to his wife. But he did. He did every bit of it.

But for you, for me, for us, imagine a door this before us, and that door is the door of sexual sin and sexual immorality and adultery. You come to that door and above that door, it is a sign that says freedom. It says freedom. And right below it, it says this is life. But God's word says that when you turn that knob and you walk into that door of sin, on the backside of that door, there's a sign that says slavery, and right below it, it says death and destruction, and it says, yeah, I got you. And it got my friend. Destroyed his marriage. Lasting impact on his wife, tremendous impact on his children.

And I'll never forget, as I counseled with him, confronted him, counseled him, confronted him, all he would do is talk about how freedom in front of him, life in front of him. You don't understand why my marriage is so bad. You don't understand why this choice that's before me is good. But I also think about others that I have known that we've counseled through the years. I've got a list of names in front of me. Family members, famous people, people that are unknown that we've come in contact with. They fall and pray. They made these choices. And look, church, this could be you, this could be me.

We can do these things if we do not truly and seriously take this teaching into our hearts and our lives. And you know, I thought about something as I was finishing up today. We turn on the television. We turn on entertainments, and we see all these celebrities. They're immoral, they're immoral here, divorce here, shock up here, live like this here. Some of them are into homosexuality and all of that. And all they portray is this is happiness, this is life, this is freedom, this is the way you live. What are they saying? This is the high life, and if you're a Christian and you believe in Christian values here, you're living the low life.

Not what the Bible says. Those people don't have freedom. They're enslaving. They're in slavery. So the enslaved man, the enslaved woman. Now let's take a step back and notice what we've looked at tonight. And last week, hear from Proverbs five. Last week, it was all about the polluted and wasteful life from sexual immorality and adultery. Tonight is all about the clean and satisfying life from sexual faithfulness. Last week was all about beware of the dog, the forbidden woman. Tonight's message is all about beware of the dog. Stay at home. Now as I close, remember the assignment that I gave us from last week.

I challenged us to study the story of Lot and the circumstances of Lot starting in Genesis 12. I said last week that Lot is a great example and a terrible example of carelessly, willfully, stupidly going towards sin and allowing sin to destroy him, destroy his family, many others and many other things. I called us to see what he ignored and moved from and to see what he looked at and moved to and to see if he had any grace or any second chances. Now if we study the life of Lot, we see that Lot left a life of living in and around the promises of God, the people of God. And of course the central figure there was his uncle Abraham.

Simply Lot should have stayed with and around Abraham and around and in the promises of God and the work of God. But we see that Lot left those things and those people and he went towards and to the world Sodom. Sodom was a great city of sin and sinfulness. Sodom is also a picture of the world and worldly living. So Lot left or abandoned certain things and Lot went to and towards certain other things. But when we study Lot, we see a noticeable digression. We see that he moved near sin when he chose to move near Sodom.

Then in time and when God was about to destroy Sodom, then in time we see that, but then in time if we study the progression of his life, we see that Lot moved into the city. He was found living in Sodom. Then after God rescues Lot in Genesis 12, excuse me, Genesis 14, we find Lot living back in Sodom when God reveals to Abraham that he was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18 and 19. And when the angels come to rescue Lot from Sodom, from the destruction and the judgment that was to come on the city, we see Lot sitting at the city gate, which tells us that he was a person of prominence and position in the city.

And because of the path and the direction that Lot took in life, he looked towards sin in the city of sin. He moved near sin in the city of sin. He lived in the city of sin. And even after God's grace and a second chance, he moved back into the city of sin, this time to a very important place of position in prominence because he chose this path. He lost all of his possessions and his wealth. He lost his sons-in-law. He lost his wife. So he lost almost all of his immediate family right there. Then he lost his dignity. He lost his morality. He lost his family line and he lost his heritage.

Can anybody tell me how he lost his family line and family heritage? I hope you've already eaten supper. In Genesis 19 verses 30 to 38, we see that to preserve their family line, Lot's two daughters got him drunk and they slept with him so as to preserve their family line. And we see that the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. The offspring of the first born became the Moabites. The offspring of the younger became the Ammonites. And if we study on into the Old Testament, we see that the Moabites and the Ammonites ultimately became the enemies of God and later on God commanded the Israelites to destroy them.

Now brother, sister, that's losing it all. Now what is my point in referencing Lot? And what does that have to do with sexual immorality, the forbidden seductive dog of immorality and adultery? If we allow ourselves to go near the sin of sexual immorality and adultery, in any way we will lose more than we know, we will suffer more than we know, more people will suffer and die than we know, and the more people are our family. One of the lessons we learned from Lot is this. Sounds like a cliche but it's true. Sin takes you farther than you want and it costs you more than you wanna pay. Now last week I told you the story of one dog.

I'll tell you the story of another. When I was in high school I had a friend named Bradley. He lived in town, a nice house, little small picket fence around, but inside that picket fence he had a chow. And I knew that the dog could be a little cantankerous, but I remember I went into that fence one day and I thought I would play with the dog, big fluffy chow. Well I played with the dog for a little while and I knew the warnings, but eventually that dog bit me on the ankle. It bit me.

And if I remember right my friend Bradley said, "I told you, I bought you." And look church, that is exactly what we happen if we think we can play with the seductive dog of adultery and immorality. We always get bit. So let's stay at home.