Beware of the Dog - Stay at Home

Take your Bible and turn back with me to Proverbs chapter 5. We started chapter 5 last week. We looked at verses 1 to 14 and then tonight we will cover verses 15 to 23. Now just to tell you how I'm thinking as I'm covering these verses and chapters, you know sometimes we're taking one chapter, sometimes we're dividing that chapter in two. I've noticed when I have a few verses, when we break it down into two messages, I can take my time. But sometimes when we do cover an entire chapter, I do feel like I have it in fast gear. So it was refreshing this week that I could take my time and not have to cover so much. But I have us on a pace.

I want us to be able to get through the book of Proverbs in an adequate amount of time. Now I'll say this every week if I don't read a verse, I'll leave that verse for you to go and study on your own. But I will read the verses as we progress. Now I said this last week, chapter 5 is all about one particular subject. It's all about one subject. It is adultery. We can call it sexual immorality. We can call it sexual sin. We're going to see here in a minute that there are several Bible translations that deal with different words. But that's the main theme within the entire chapter.

Of course, Solomon has a scriptural basis for what he's teaching. I talked about this last week. I referenced one of the commandments, which is the seventh commandment, Exodus 20, verse 14. It's real short. What does it say? "You shall not commit adultery." Now I'm going to pause and I want you to see what's going on. Solomon is just teaching the Bible. He's teaching the seventh commandment. And of course we know that God inspired him to write these Proverbs. So he is inspired of God, carried along by the Spirit of God to write what he writes. But he no doubt knew this seventh commandment.

So this is the scriptural basis for what he is teaching. Now he's just teaching and he's illustrating. He's using pictures. He's using all types of things to teach what we see here in Exodus 20, verse 14. Now the major theme I've already said of the chapter is sexual immorality. And then the major character is this seductive or adulterous woman. I will call her the forbidden woman. I might call her the seductive woman. I might call her the adulterous woman. All of those words describe the same person. The King James calls her a strange woman. The New American Standard. Some of you use that translation, calls her the adulterous woman.

Now she was introduced to us in chapter 2. I went back this week and I looked at some of the information that I gave us from chapter 2. So we had an introduction in chapter 2. And then we'll see as we continue through Proverbs that Solomon circles back around numerous times to this one particular person. That's why she's one of the main characters of all of the Proverbs. I want to make a little application before we get right into the message and the verses. We're going to look at some language that might make you look up.

We're going to look at some verses that might make you look up and say, "Brother Chris, is that really in the Bible?" You listen close because this teaching is very relevant to you. Now adults, listen. This speaks to us as well. These temptations are for all. And in all of my years of ministry, I've seen many teenagers grow up and fall into these sins. And then later as adults, I'm still ministering to them. And the ramifications are just there in their lives. So whether you're an adult or whether you're a teenager, this really does speak to you. Now we have four major divisions in the chapter. I mentioned this last week.

Four major divisions we covered two last week. First, we looked at verses 1-6. We saw the forbidden woman of adultery. It's like Solomon is pointing her out. It's like he's saying, "Son, look over here. Look at her." We saw her seductive behavior. We saw her sensual speech. And then we saw that straight and that sorrowful sad path down to death and sorrow. And we saw all of that in verses 1-6. And then second in verses 7-14, we saw the ruin life from adultery. We saw a great warning from Solomon. And then we saw the great loss of the one who falls into this trap. Again, I said this last week. I'll say it again.

This reminds me of a particular person in my family. I remember years ago, he fell into this trap. He took this path in life. And I watched it ruin his life. I watched it ruin his family. I watched it ruin his marriage. And at the end of his life, it was all regret. It was all remorse. And the time of repentance was over. So I saw this take place, the ruin of the forbidden woman in this particular person's life. Now, two truths tonight. Two major truths. And this will finish out the chapter. And like I said, I will read the passages as we go through the message.

So we're looking, first of all, we're looking at what I'm calling the polluted life. We're looking at what I'm calling the polluted life. It starts off right here in verse 15. And it goes on down to verse 20. Now, it has been obvious that the entire chapter is about this subject adultery. This is called sex outside of marriage. A pause here to say, sometimes it has to be said, all types of sexual relation outside of marriage is considered adultery. It is considered sinful. And all of these verses are still about immorality, but there is a shift. Solomon here does two things. First, he gets more descriptive.

And then second, he speaks about sexual relationships in two different circumstances. And we'll get to those circumstances in a few minutes. But I want to clear up a misunderstanding. All right, I've already spoken to one. There are many misunderstandings that have come in and out of the life of the church throughout the ages. Some have taught that sexual relations in a marriage are only for procreation, but that's not what the Bible teaches. Our verses tonight speak about that. Then there are some, they turn the grace of God into a license for sin, and then they say that any relations outside of marriage is okay. That's an error.

And these passages deal with sexual relations within a marriage. All sex outside of a marriage is wrong. It's serious, it's sinful, and it is wrong. Now, right here is where many really, I think, make a grievous mistake. Teaching in this setting, teaching this subject. I think there should be a very firm warning here. We must always use discretion. We live in a day when nobody has discretion, it seems. We must use discretion in these matters. We must be respectful in our language. We must be cautious. To me, I call it having good old-fashioned manners. You know, I was raised with some manners, if that makes sense.

And there are just certain ways you talk about things. There are certain things you say and certain things you don't say. We have mixed company tonight. So I will not go into detail about some of the teaching that's here. If we were in a men's group, I might go a little more in detail. I might be a little more descriptive. If there was a woman standing up here teaching women, well then she might do the same thing. And see, there are two errors that people make here. Some ministers will just talk too much. They'll become more descriptive.

They just like to talk about those kind of things to get people to pay attention and, you know, the shock and all. And they just lose all discretion. Well, that's wrong. But then I have known parents. I've known ministers who don't say enough. I never forget years ago, my wife was counseling a lady a completely different circumstance. And she had not been taught properly at home. She had not been taught by her parents. And it caused her some difficulty. Wow, there was the error of not discussing these things biblically, okay? So there's a warning. We must discuss what God's Word says, but we can't say too much. We must be cautious.

We must use discretion. And like I said earlier, there's really just a time and a place for everything. Now, I'm going to make three observations out of these verses. Three observations out of these verses. As always, I give you this information so you can write them down for your own study. First, we're going to notice there's symbolic language in the verses. And I'm going to give you the meaning here. Now, I'm not going to read all of the verses. I'll move through them rather quickly because of time. And again, you go back and read them on your own. Starting in verse 15, "Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.

Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?" That's a question. "Let them be for yourself alone and not for strangers." And then verse 18, "Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the life of your youth." Now, this symbolic language, we see two things. First, we see water. We see water. And I think that's obvious. There are numerous illustrations that point to water. Look back at the verses. We see the illustration of a cistern and then of a well flowing with water right out of verse 15. There are springs and streams of water out of verse 16. And then we see a fountain in verse 18.

Some of you might not know what a cistern is. A cistern is not a well. A well is a spring that's down in the ground. It's dug to. And then that well produces water. A cistern is really a storage container that's deep down in the ground. But both of them pertain to water. So the first symbolic language here is water. Second is the female deer or the doe deer. We see this in verse 19. Now, what's the purpose of this? The purpose of the deer here, the meaning of this illustration, is that the female deer was often used in poetry and Bible times to illustrate the beauty of a woman.

She's seen as graceful, as tender, as beautiful, and this was common language. So these illustrations speak of things that they would know in life. Let me go back to the water. The language of this water is used because he's teaching about satisfaction. Water satisfies a legitimate and natural need. The human body, whether we're young or old, it needs water. Now, in their day, water, good water, came from a well. It was stored in a cistern. And to speak of good water from a well or good water that was stored, it would have really gotten their attention. Because no matter the taste, really, water was a matter of life and death.

But again, the deer was a common animal in that day. The language of the deer was used to communicate a beautiful woman, a graceful woman, a tender woman. So these illustrations speak of satisfaction of a legitimate need and then to physical beauty. That's the point of this symbolic language. Let me restate that. This speaks of a physical, legitimate need and of physical beauty. Now, with that understood, we can really get into the verses. So the second thing I want you to notice, what he's teaching, he's teaching satisfaction in the home. Satisfaction in the home.

We see that starting in verse 15 and then going on down into verse 18 and verse 19. Here in verse 15, Solomon is saying, "To be satisfied with water from your own sister." Be satisfied with water from your own well. Verse 18, he reveals what this is about. He is saying to his young son, "Be satisfied with your own wife." In the English Standard Version, he uses the word rejoice. In other words, rejoice with your own wife. Verse 19, he goes back to the wife again. Back in verses 3 to 4, he warns the son of the adulterous woman.

Here he says, "To be satisfied with your own wife." So in verse 15 and verse 18 and 19, Solomon is saying, "To be satisfied with the wife that God's given you and be satisfied at home." Not that attractive adulterous woman that he had pointed out earlier. So we see the symbolic language and what it means. Then we see he moves on to the home. And then third notice, I'm calling this scattered in the streets. We see this in verse 16 and 17 and verse 20. What does he say? "Should your springs be scattered abroad? Streams of water in the streets?" Here Solomon is contrasting what he had taught earlier.

Now let me explain to you what Solomon is doing. He would go to one subject to another. He goes back and forth. It doesn't follow a logical order. And there's a purpose behind that. Here in verse 16, he asks a question. He's asking his son, "Should you give yourself away in the streets? Should you give yourself away from your own house?" This is a question to make him think. Here in verse 16, Solomon said something which would have gotten there. It would have gotten their attention. For them to pour water out in the streets, in that day, good water was very valuable. They would have heard this illustration.

It would have gotten under the skin. They would have cringed because in that day, people would literally die for the lack of good water. He goes on in verse 17 to answer that question. And the answer is no. He says, "No, do not give yourself away to strangers." That would be like pouring good water into the streets. Basically, this would have been waste. He was saying, "You wouldn't waste water, so don't waste yourself. Don't waste your life." In verse 20, he adds to the teaching. He adds to that teaching. He says, "Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman?" He uses purposeful language here.

This word "intoxicated" in the English Standard Version, it's translated as "exhilarated" in the New American Standard. This truthfully can be translated "rivished" or "infatuated." He is saying something like this, and I'm paraphrasing. Why in the world would you be infatuated with that strange woman, with that adulterous woman, with that seductive woman? He goes on to say, and I'm paraphrasing, "I have shown you that she will destroy you and destroy you totally." So Solomon is saying, "Don't waste your life. Don't waste your own body in the streets with the adulterous woman." In summary, notice what we've seen here.

Truthfully, there are two lessons, and I think about it as a coin. There are two sides of one coin, and these are inseparable. The satisfaction in life from the home, that's what he's saying. He's saying, "Son, God's given you a wife. Be home with your wife. Stay home with your wife. Be satisfied in the home." And then the contrast of the other side of the coin is the polluted life from adultery. He is saying, "Be satisfied with what God has given you." This is healthy. This brings life. This brings joy. He is saying, "Do not pollute yourself with the woman of the streets. It destroys.

She destroys." Now, I know all of this is tied with what we have looked at last week, but that's what he is saying. Now, I want to move on from these verses, and I want to make an application. I want to make an application for us in two places. First, for us adults, and then for our young people. See, us adults, most of us here, I believe, God has given us wives. God has given us husbands. If you're a lady, God has given you a husband. He has given us men wives. And so the point here is for us is for us to be satisfied with what God has given us. Anything outside is pollution. Anything outside is destruction.

Be satisfied with what God has given. And I automatically go back to one of my old friends from years gone by. I'll never forget watching him, watching him and seeing him. God had given him a wonderful wife. God had given him a wonderful family. And he began to take notice of that seductive, adulterous woman. And what did he do? He poured his life out into the streets. He poured his strength out into the streets. He did exactly what we learned last week. And what happened was destruction. What happened was pollution.

And pollution and destruction came into his life, came into his wife's life, came into his children's lives, came into their grandparents' lives because it affected them all. I'll never forget talking to one of the grandparents one time. And it was tears and it was agony. It was the destruction. It was promises broken, vows broken, children hurt. And it just illustrates what we see here. He poured out his strength. He poured out himself to the forbidden, adulterous woman. And you know for you teenagers here, this is a subject which might make you perk up. It might even embarrass you.

But what we must see is this, that God has a life, we believe God has a good life, a godly life, a biblical life marked out for you. And I want you to imagine with me if you're a teenager, imagine your future life. Imagine. Imagine what you would want your home to be like, your wife to be like, or your husband to be like. Imagine that. You don't want to ruin that future. I go back and I remember a college age girl that I had in a college age Sunday school class years ago before God called me into the ministry. I taught a college age class. I'll never forget this young girl. She was living in the world. She would come to church.

She would try to be a Christian and then she'd go back into the world. She was not born again. She needed to be saved. And I'll never forget one time she came to me, came to my wife and I. She said, "I want God to bless me with a godly guy. I want a godly marriage one day." She just began to describe godly things that she wanted. And I literally looked at her and I said, "You're wanting God to take a good godly guy and curse him by putting him with you." Her eyes got huge. I said, "It's the truth. You're not living a godly way.

And you're saying you want a godly guy and you want him to be cursed." So I call you teenagers to look to your future. Imagine what you would want a husband to be like and a wife to be like. And so what I'm showing you is this, is if you do what we see in the scriptures, you go ahead and ruin your future now. Remember my friend? God had already given him a wonderful wife and a wonderful family. Well, he just ruined it by polluting his life into the streets and with the adulterous woman. But you can do that right now ahead of time. Another word you can ruin what's for you in the future today.

But I contrast that story with the story of my friend Jared. Many of you know our friend Jared. He led worship at glory days. He's led worship here before. And we watched Jared wait. He waited. He would not just date anybody. He was praying and waiting for the woman and the wife that God had for him. And when others encouraged him to date, he would not. He waited and he prayed. He waited. See, he had his eyes fixed on the future. And he knew what he wanted. He knew how he wanted to satisfy his life. He knew there was a beautiful wife out there for him one day. And he knew that he wanted a godly home and that is what would satisfy him.

And guess what? Because he did it God's way. Ultimately, he was rewarded. Now I've taken a long time with these verses. But what have we seen? This is the polluted life. This is the polluted life. Verse 16. Should your springs be scattered abroad streams of water in the streets? He's saying don't take your life and pour it out into the streets and ruin it. And so that's what Brother Chris is saying to all of us tonight. It doesn't matter how old we are. There's those temptations. I see verses 15 to verse 20 as what I'm calling the polluted life.

And then number two, or the second truth in our outline, I see verses 21 to 23 as the enslaved man. I see these verses as the enslaved man. Now starting in verse 21, we see a transition. We've seen these transitions as we've been faithful to the Proverbs. And all throughout the chapter Solomon goes from warnings to teachings filled with illustrations and application. That's what he's doing. Warnings, teaching, illustration, and application. Let me show you what I mean. In the chapter back in verses 1 to 2, it was a warning. And then from verses 3 to 6 is teaching. And then illustration and then application. In verse 7, a warning.

And then in verses 8 to 14, he warns, he teaches, he illustrates, he applies. That tells us that Solomon was a good teacher. He was a good teacher. He taught, he illustrated, he applied. And look, in that day, the listeners would have been captivated because he used great illustrations, great teaching, and of course he was anointed of God. But we're going to see this enslaved man, and as he's illustrated here, there are more warnings. And I see this as two powerful warnings right here in the verses. So first notice the warning of watching eyes.

I've read this verse, verse 21, "For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths." Here we see that Solomon reminds his son that God is always watching. God is always seeing. God always sees, he's always watching. The verse is teaching that not only is God watching and seeing, but he is taking note of what he sees. He's taking note of what he sees. The point Solomon is really trying to make to this young son is that he cannot hide. He knows that his son may think that he can hide and get away with it, but Solomon knows better. Now I want to pause right here, and I want to ask you, young people, think about it.

You might go in your room, or you might go off with some friends, or you might be in a car, and you might think that you can hide and no one sees. You might think my mom doesn't see, or my dad doesn't see, or my neighbor doesn't see. Well, no matter who sees, God sees. The scripture says it. He sees and he knows. And Solomon knows that his son may think that he can hide, but Solomon knows better. He wants his son to feel as if God is watching over his shoulder because God is. And God is watching over our shoulders every minute of every day. So Solomon is warning his son not to forget this fact. God is watching.

They are watching eyes, the watching eyes of God. And then second, which is where we'll spend some time here, we see the warning of wicked enslavement, the warning of wicked enslavement. There's a lot here in verses 22 to 23. We see the iniquities of the wicked. They ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin, and he dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly, he is led astray. Now, with this warning, Solomon again uses some wording that would illustrate or picture his teaching. These pictures or ideas, his son would have understood these. He would have seen these. He would have known what he was saying.

So let's notice some details. Notice the wicked trap themselves. I'm calling the beginning of verse 22, the wicked, they are trapping themselves. What does he say? The iniquities, that's the sin. The sin of the wicked ensnare him. Now, there's a picture here associated with the word ensnare. The New American uses the word capture. Now, there's an idea or a picture here in the original language. The idea here is of a stupid bird that weaves a net that will later catch the same bird. That's the idea. One commentator said it like this.

"A sinner by threading his path to folly's door, he is threading a noose around his own neck." That's exactly what he's doing. That reminds me of stories that my granddad would tell. My granddad was old, and he literally remembered the legitimate, lawful public hangings of criminals. He told the story about when he was 16, his good friend in high school, his dad was a jailer, and they were able to skip school and have access to watch a public hanging. We know what a hanging is. It's a rope around the neck. Now, I'll go back to what the commentator read.

He's saying this young man who takes the way of sin, he is threading his path to folly's door. He is threading a noose around his neck. So the young man that ignores God's word, he goes the way of sin. He is setting his own trap, and he will fall into that trap, no matter how smart he may think he is. So the wicked trap themselves. And then notice the wicked tie up themselves. The wicked, they tie up themselves. The second part of verse 22. "And he is held fast in the cords of his own sin." Solomon is telling his son that to fall for sin, such as sexual immorality, is just like tying oneself up.

He is telling him that it is impossible to get involved with sin and not be bound up. I think of an illustration for me that helps me. I don't see it in the text. But it's as if Solomon knows that sin is like a door. And so it's like he knows when we walk up to the door of sin, that there's a door that says, "Yes, this is a door of sin." But above that door is in big letters, and it says, "Freedom." But yet Solomon knows when we go through that door, when we go through that door, we look back and over the back of that door, instead of saying, "Freedom," it says, "enslavement." It says, "slavery." Solomon is warning his son that if he walks through that door of sin, he thinks it's freedom, but he knows it is slavery.

And then notice the wicked, they die from sin. We see this in verse 23. He dies for the lack of discipline. Solomon reminds his son to stay disciplined. He reminds his son that if he becomes undisciplined and falls into sin, then death results. And Solomon knows that sin always equals death. And then last notice, the wicked, they wander because of sin. And because, verse 23, and because of his great folly, he is led astray. Here Solomon reminds his son that the great foolishness of sin will lead him astray. This is a reminder of the two paths that we discussed last week. Look back over to verse 5 and to verse 6.

He's talking about the seductive woman. He says, "Her feet go down to death. Her steps follow the path of Sheol. She does not ponder the path of life." That's out of verse 5 and verse 6. There is the road or the path of death. There is the road of the path of life. The path of disobedience and sin and foolishness, that's the path of death. It always leads to death. But the road of wisdom is the road of life. And I said this last week, I'll say it again. There's no middle road. There's only one road. Solomon is reminding his son to stay on that path of obedience and godly living. He's saying, "Be disciplined.

Don't wander from the path." Now with these verses, what do we see here? We have the enslaved man, the enslaved man from immorality, the enslaved man from sexual sin and adultery, the young man who ignores the warnings and God's word. He sets a trap for himself. He enslaves himself. The sin that he thinks will give him freedom ultimately turns him into a slave. He is reminding the young son that there's only two roads. The road of obedience and life, or the road of disobedience and death. Now I want to do something that I've done several times here in this study. Now I want you to pause in your mind.

I want you to be serious with me and be honest with yourself. This is within your own mind and your own imagination and within your own heart. I want us to all think of someone, think of people, think of someone in our own life. They are a slave to sin. They've gone down the path of sin. They are a slave to sin. Think about someone who's chosen the way of drugs or the way of alcohol or the way of immorality, which is the subject here. The way of stealing, the way of disobedience. I want you to think about that person. Think about maybe a family member and that can be tough.

And I want you to see that they are in the trap of sin and they have set that trap themselves. They are all bound up and tied up by sin. I've gone to see family members that are involved in grievous sin and they set the trap themselves and they've fallen into that trap and they're bound up. They're slaves to that sin and they are being destroyed because of sin. Their life is being destroyed. Some of you know people right now and you're watching their lives be destroyed by sin, by immorality, not just immorality, but by drugs and by alcohol. We know people who are like this and they're going the wrong way. The worst way every day.

The way they're going today is worse than they went yesterday because they're on that path of destruction and the trap of sin. It always leads to destruction. It always leads to death. Be honest. Think about someone that you know and you see this illustrated right here. Now I want you to imagine with me again the door. Sin comes our way, immorality comes our way, adultery comes our way. It's before us. There is a door there and listen at the top of that door. It will say freedom and look on that door. It'll say life. This will be fun. This will be good. This promises you life.

But what we see right here says we turn that knob and we open that door and we walk into that door on the backside of that door. It says slavery. It says death and it says destruction. And when you walk through that door there's a voice. It says, "Ah, ha, ha, I've got you. I've got you right where I want you." So what do we see here? We see the enslaved man. Now what have we looked at tonight? Really you can boil everything down to two statements. The polluted and wasteful life from immorality, sexual immorality and sin. And then the clean and satisfying life from sexual faithfulness. Now last week I gave us kind of a funny title.

And I stick to that funny title. I call this title "Beware of the Dog. Stay at Home." Beware of the dog. Stay at home. Years ago, young people, I was taking a group of teenagers out on a visit and I had a group of guys in my car. A teenager had visited our church and we pulled up to the home and there on the porch was a sign that said "Beware of the Dog." And there was the dog. There was the dog. And I saw the sign and I saw the dog. And listen, Brother Chris got out of that car and I walked to the porch and I got closer to the porch, closer to the porch than the car. And all of a sudden the dog that was nice turned mean.

And I had to jump on top of my car. And I should have looked at the sign "Beware of the Dog." That's exactly what he's saying here. Beware of the adulterous woman. Beware of the forbidden woman because it will destroy you. It will eat you alive. And now he's saying "Stay at home." Beware of the adulterous life. Beware of the sinful life. Stay at home. And one of you teenagers might say it like this, "Brother Chris, you just called the forbidden woman a dog." I did. Because the dog always destroys. She always destroys. She brings ruin and destruction and unhappiness and death to life.

And some of us who are older here, we've lived long enough to know these things are true. So this is beware of the dog. Stay at home. Last week we looked at "Beware of the Dog," the forbidden woman. Now as I close, teenagers, you've got your future ahead of you. Got life ahead of you. Imagine what you want your marriage, your husband, your wife to be like. Don't ruin it today. Don't ruin it today. You will if you don't stay on the wise path, God's path, and do it God's way. And adults, those temptations are always out there as well. And we have to be obedient to what God's word says.