(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai - Go Unlimited to remove this message) Hello, and welcome to Keeping It Young podcast, conversations about marriage, family, and ministry life. I'm Dave. And I'm Beth Lee. And we are the Youngs. Welcome back to our series on Proverbs. Yes, we're glad you joined us again today. Hope you've been enjoying this series, and we've certainly enjoyed it. There is a ton of material in Proverbs. Yes, there is.
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Absolutely. Well, let's jump in and get started. We finished Proverbs chapter four last week. And today we want to jump into Proverbs five and six and get those two going. As you know, we were discussing from Proverbs chapter two, the issue of immorality, specifically adultery, but we broadened it out for the application part. But so we've already touched some on Proverbs five and six. So we don't want to reteach what we learned as we were emphasizing Solomon's teaching about adultery.
But there are lessons in both of these chapters that are in addition to that, that we need to learn. We were thinking we may not even revisit Proverbs chapter five because so much of it covers what we covered in the immorality series. But David has come up with some excellent notes that will really, I think, be a benefit beyond learning about how to avoid immorality or avoid adultery or what to do when you do get caught in it. So here we go. All right, let's just jump right in.
Now we have covered this in some pretty good detail, but the one thing we wanted to add in Proverbs five, Solomon discusses adultery in the entire chapter. It's the entire point of the chapter. But one of the things I realized as I was doing some research is that the truths he shares here about adultery actually apply to sin in every way. And that's why this chapter is worth our visiting again. Because although your life may never be touched by adultery, all of us struggle with the issue of sin.
So- Wait a minute, there are none of us who have reached a point of not- Well, I'm getting close, but I'm not quite there yet. Getting... That was sarcasm, people. We all know that we, as long as we are on this earth, we will struggle with a sinful nature. I thought she was going to say, we all know that you struggle with a sin nature. Oh dear, oh dear. I was like, wow. No, no, I was lumping all of us in together. Not just you, babe. You are as close to perfect as you can be.
Hey, come on, just keep talking. I'll just sit here quietly. But maybe we should delve into chapter five. All right, let's start by reading verses one and two of Proverbs chapter five, and you read those for us. And as she's reading, think about the idea that sin is always deceptive. That's the one lesson we're wanting to draw attention to today in Proverbs chapter five. Sin is always deceptive.
And so what Solomon begins with here is just showing us that we need wisdom, we need understanding, we need discretion, we need knowledge, because all of us can very easily, any of us can very easily be overtaken with sin and its deception. And so read for us the first two verses and let's get started. All right, Proverbs five, verse one. My son, attend unto my wisdom and bow thine ear to my understanding that thou mayest regard discretion and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
I love several things about that. One is he says, my son, attend to my wisdom. And moms and dads, I know so many of you that listen to us are parents or grandparents. Catch the point of that. Solomon is saying that for us to impact our children, this is indirect, of course, it's not the point. But what I heard him say there is it's my wisdom. I can't teach my children, we can't teach our children wisdom and understanding if we don't have it ourselves. Right.
And in the business of our world, in a world that is so distracted with so much, you know, they say in our culture that this is the information age. But Bethany and I are convinced that really maybe the better way of saying it is that we're living in the misinformation age or the disinformation age. There's so many things that we're being taught in our generation that are not wise, that are not right, that are not good, that are not best, that actually damage our families in the long run.
And sometimes that's so hard for us to see because in the culture we live in, we are an instantaneous culture. We text each other and get the text instantly. We can respond sometimes just with a touch of a screen or the touch of a little watch. We can send an emoji back very quickly. We can voice text back very quickly. It's so hard to understand wisdom because wisdom has a time factor. True. It's a lifelong process. Yes. And you don't learn wisdom overnight.
That's why we have to read God's word every day. That's why Bethany and I are strong advocates that you need to be in church every service. If your church has connection classes or Sunday school classes, you should be a part of them. You should have family devotions. You should be reading books. We are surrounded by, you know what is it? 2,000 years of written literature. Yes. And there's so many things available. But I thought that was very interesting. Did you catch that?
That Solomon says, my son, I'm sharing my wisdom with you. I did. And I was taking a little bit different perspective in that as a parent, even though you have lived 20, 30, maybe 40 years beyond your child, you still are learning. You still are, as we pointed out earlier, a sinful being. You still struggle with your own fleshly desires and things that you know the Lord is working with you on.
And sometimes for you to think to yourself, I have wisdom to share with my child, you're thinking, no, I really don't. I'm still a failing creature and I need so much help myself. But if you are at least striving to walk with God and you are in the word of God, there is wisdom that you can be sharing with your children. And you should be. You have lived those lives. You have been to high school. You have been to junior high. You have been to college.
You have been a young adult struggling, first married, whatever, first child. And there is wisdom that you can be sharing. So please do. Yes, absolutely. And wisdom is based on knowledge. Yes. So there are things we learn. Someone teaches it to us or we read it or we see it in God's word. So wisdom is based on knowledge, but it is also based on the experiences we have. And so sometimes we share with our children that, you know what? Here's something I learned because of a failure.
Here's something I learned because I could have done it better or I could have done it differently or I should have done it better, should have done it differently. And really what an impact that that has on our new generation, this culture, is they don't want fake. Even though they are looking at the Instagram and all of the reels and all of the things that really aren't true, what they deep down inside want is truth and they want that vulnerability.
And so as a parent to be able to sit down and say, hey, I don't want you to make the same mistake I did and just coming clean with that. We don't have to be these polished gems of parents that sin never touches. Your children know better. They live with you. And so it's better just to be open and honest and say, hey, let me share some wisdom with you because this is what I learned because I messed up. Absolutely, and I love that idea there. You just said these polished gems of parenthood.
And just keep this up today. These are quite the flowery words there. I love it, love it, love it. And so here's the point we're learning right away. Solomon is talking to his son about adultery, but what a lesson for us to think through. Sin is always deceptive. So we need wisdom. We need understanding. We need discretion. We need knowledge. We've mentioned those before in this series. Those four seem to go together in Solomon's thinking.
Well, and they're brought up again and again and again through the book of Proverbs in all different ways. And so they need to apply to every area of our life. Absolutely, so then let's jump into verse three here. And notice that right away, he draws our attention to the lies. And this is where sin is a problem in our culture because there's so many things that aren't true. And when we start believing lies, we're in trouble. So he jumps in here and begins to deal with the lies.
And read for us verse three, okay? Verse three begins talking about the strange woman and we have applied it in a different way, but we are gonna apply it here to every sin. So verse three says, for the lips of a strange woman drop as in honeycomb and her mouth is smoother than oil. And go ahead because they seem to go together. Read verses four and five as well. But her end is bitter as wormwood, as sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps take hold on hell.
Yeah, this is powerful words. Yes. Those are hugely powerful. And verse three is just reminding us here that the lies that are told by sin, the lies that are told and believed are enormous. Well, it lets us know that they are easily believed. Easily believed, yes. And just entrenched in truth, a lie can come our way and you can think, oh, well, that sounds good. Yeah. And the lies sometimes are just so simple, like, well, I can handle this. I can handle this sin. I can do this.
It's just a little thing. I can handle it. Right. And maybe that's someone saying, well, I'm gonna try alcohol. I can handle this. Right. And many times, many, many times that when a person thinks, well, I can handle it, it's that little beginning, that little beginning. And here again, in the same way that wisdom takes time, sin is very patient. And so sin always starts small. Nobody ruins their life overnight. Nobody commits adultery overnight. Nobody becomes a drunk overnight.
Nobody becomes, nobody robs banks just out of the blue. Sin always starts small in our life and we are deceived into thinking I can handle it. Nothing bad will happen to me. I will be okay. Sin and its pleasures are on my side. Beth and I always had to be careful about giving illustrations, but frequently in our ministry and even because of the podcast here, we end up having a part in dealing with situations involving adultery or some other sin.
But I'm amazed at how many times a person really does believe the lie. I can handle this. And even a mom can, a mom can get caught up in adultery and she knows it's wrong. She knows it's wrong. And the question then comes up, well, what about your children? And it's amazing the lies she can, oh, they'll be fine. They will be fine. I mean, everything's gonna just work out perfect here, but it doesn't. Sin always deceives.
And the point Solomon is making to his son here is that look, the lies that are told are enormous and they are easy to believe. And you better be on guard because when sin starts lying to you, you are very easily entrapped and you're in great danger at that moment. Yes, it can lead to bondage very quickly. And you don't even know you're in bondage. The word of God does tell us that sin is pleasurable. It is, but it's pleasurable for a season.
And when you are believing that lie, that, hey, I'm for you, this is great. Everything's gonna work out and look how much fun you're having. Look how happy you are. You weren't even happy when you were going to church all the time or you weren't even happy when you were being that godly mom and wife in your home. You weren't even happy doing that.
When you're starting to believe that lie, you are just becoming, as David said, entrenched in the lie, in the sin, and it will be so much harder to believe the truth. But the Bible does promise also that that pleasure of sin is just a season. And that season will come to an end in what tragedy awaits you and what regret and what guilt and what shame. And of course, the Bible does teach us that God gives grace and he gives forgiveness and we can come out of that.
But how much better to see the lie for what it is and just to totally bypass that. Yeah, and that spills right over into that fourth and fifth verse because the point Solomon seems to be making here is that it is always helpful to carefully consider the ending of a matter. He's gonna say that in two other Proverbs coming up here in coming weeks when he says the statement that there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
In other words, in the beginning, something can look so good, can look like, well, this is no big deal. This is gonna be okay. But the way you have to evaluate many things in life is to stop, think it through, and consider what will the end result of this be. We can give just a brief illustration here to show you how we think about that. One of the reasons we apply dating the way we do is because of that truth. The question comes up, well, when should a child date?
Should our kids date while they're in high school and junior high? And is it just a cute little boyfriend and girlfriend? And our Christian schools often everybody pairs up and, oh my goodness, and the parents, like, this is so adorable, and aren't they so cute, this young couple? We decided not to go that route because over and over and over and over, and how many times can I say that, the end result seems to be not best.
Youth groups are divided because a couple, they're all paired off and they're dating, dating, dating, dating, and the next thing you know, they are not, things aren't well, they're not happy, they end up breaking up, and now the youth group is divided because he doesn't talk to her and she doesn't talk to him and her friends don't like his friends. We just thought, this is not best.
So the end result of that said, is our goal that our teens enjoy dating and relationships at a time when their hormones are all over the place, when they lack the wisdom frequently to make wise choices in male -female relationships? Well, even wise choices about life because they're always concerned about what the other person thinks. Yeah, and so we just decided not to do that. So our children, we want them to be friends with everybody.
And here's, this is not the entire point, but I thought of that verse today because Solomon is saying right here, listen, when it comes to sin, you need wisdom, and when it comes to sin, what you need is you need to be aware that the lies are easy to believe, and when it comes to sin, it's helpful to carefully consider the ending of the matter. Where will this lead me? Like take the issue of adultery that he's discussing here.
If you're listening to us, and adultery is something that you're involved in or considering getting involved in, it would be absolutely right for you to be aware of the fact, number one, you're believing lies, and number two, the end result is gonna be far more painful than you thought it would be, and that is the whole point always with sin. We sin when we believe a lie.
I can handle this, I deserve this, I'm gonna be okay, everybody else is doing it, the culture we're in sees nothing wrong with this, the church is stupid. Think whatever lie you wanna think, but the fact of the matter is, you better think through the fact that I am believing a lie, and the danger here is, and Solomon's making this point, the end result is going to be painful, and it always is. One of the sad things is that it's always more painful than we realize.
You know, adulterous, you know, an affair, alcohol, getting involved in drugs, the end result of those things have so much pain and sorrow and agony and tragedy, of families that are damaged, relationships that are hurt, reputations that are tarnished, the list just goes on and on and on. Right, I was just thinking a more of a parenting illustration. I heard a testimony recently about a young woman who was raised in a church going home.
Both of her parents had accepted the Lord as their savior as young people, but as they went through college and they got married, they decided, you know, I don't want to raise our family quite as conservatively as we were raised. Now, David and I can totally understand this. We are not quite as conservative as our parents had raised us. At least in some applications.
In some applications, and we would say more practical ways, but as far as our doctrine, our theology, what we believe about the Bible, that is absolutely the same. So, but her parents had decided, you know, we don't need to be quite that conservative. We're going to make church not quite that priority, and we're also gonna go to a different denomination where we can just be a little more free.
But what their parents, her parents did not track to the end, and what we're trying to tell to you is whenever you consider a decision in life, it may not look that simple. These parents were considering going to church, just not the same church they had been brought up in, or the same denomination, and so it didn't look simple at all, but they didn't track it all the way to the end because this young lady and her brother were brought up in a church that did not preach the gospel.
And so it was really of the Lord and the precious Holy Spirit working in her life that as a young wife who actually, her and her husband were starting to have trouble in their marriage, she thought, oh my goodness, I need to get to church. I need to get to God. That's the only thing that's gonna save this, and she started going to a gospel-preaching church, and praise the Lord, was saved.
But her parents, in that decision of, you know what, we don't need to go to a doctrinally conservative church that preaches the word of God, that will preach the gospel to our family, and them not even sharing the gospel with their children. Who knows, who knows what could have happened had the Lord not been gracious and merciful in that young lady's life and said, you know what, I'm gonna bring you to myself anyway, even though your parents messed up in this decision.
That's quite a story, and what a lesson for us. Moms and dads, listen, listen, listen, listen. Either we train our children to know God and to have wisdom and to walk with God, either we make the hard decisions at times to say, no, this is right, and we're gonna do it. Either we do that, or sin entices our children in a direction that will damage them, hurt them, and potentially even destroy them for eternity. And so here's what Solomon's talking about. We have to consider the end of any matter.
And there's at least two other things he says, I think, in this chapter that we ought to mention here before we close today. And the first one is simply this. We should take steps to protect ourselves from the deadly effects of sin, and we just have to. Read verse eight for us. Think through, in light of what we're talking here, sin is deadly, sin damages us, we need wisdom, we've gotta stay away from the lies, we've gotta wisely consider the end of the matter.
So listen to this, how simply he applies this here in verse eight. Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house. And then read verse 15 in light of that as well. This 15 says, drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. Putting verse eight and verse 15 together, I came up with two thoughts here that can protect us from the deadly effects of sin. And the first one is this, get as far away as possible.
Stay as far away as possible from sin. Don't let it damage you, don't get close to it, don't play around with it, don't spend time seeing, if you know, can I handle this? Will this be the big deal I've heard that it is? He says right here, remove thy way far from her. And the point there is get as far away from sin as possible. And that's a good lesson for all of us. It is, it absolutely is.
Whether it be a friendship that is damaging you, maybe sometimes you're just like, oh, this young mom in the church, she seems to understand everything that I'm going through, and we can get together and share, share, share. But when you come away from having a little outing with her or spending time talking to her on the phone or even texting, you feel more maybe discouraged in your spirit than you feel encouraged because you're only sharing what's bad about your life.
And oh, isn't this just terrible being a mom of young children because it's so busy and I never get to do anything or go anywhere. If you're feeling more discouraged, maybe you need to back off from that friendship. Or maybe it's a television show that you're watching, maybe you're streaming something from Netflix or whatever, and you're just like, I love this show, I love this show, I love the show, but you're finding yourself thinking about things you should not be thinking about.
Or maybe words are popping into your head that you would never dream of saying out loud or whatever. Just remember, you need to remove yourself far from that. Absolutely, and how, I mean, so many ways that can apply. It's true that we just have to be careful about entertainment, about Hollywood, about movies. We have to be careful about friendships. I mean, the list just goes on and on.
And moms and dads, it is always a good thing for us to model this, we stay away, and we don't need to be legalistic about it. There's no reason to be legalistic. I'm not more spiritual because I don't do anything. That's not the whole point. We can enjoy life, there's a ton, but sin will always hurt us, so we need to stay away from it. Remove thy way far from her.
And then he says there, the point of that, drink waters out of thine own cistern and running waters out of thine own well, the way I took that is he's just saying to his son, continually, over again, over and over and over and over and over again, choose that which is right. Always turn to that which is right. If you're not sure that it's right, run away from it. And if you know that it's right, choose it. Just always say, this is what's right, I'm gonna do it.
I'm always so proud of our children when we've seen them make that decision. And even recently, one of our children, there was a story that came up in which they were asked about something, and the answer was, you know what, I'm not gonna do that.
And it just made me as a dad so proud that I have a child who thought something through, who could have made a small decision, just a small experience, but said, no, I've thought it through, I've considered it, I'm going to choose what I know absolutely to be best, and what I believe was not just best, but also right. And so I just love that. Moms and dads, that's the goal we have for our children, and for our own lives. That's not just for our children.
Every dad listening to me, dad, you need wisdom so that you can stay away from sin, so that you can understand this will hurt me down the road, hurt my marriage down the road, damage my family down the road, and it just matters. So Solomon, in this whole chapter is reminding us of the devastating effects of sin, and that there's a better way to live. Wisdom, understanding, knowledge, discretion, righteousness, that's a better way to live.
Yes, and I was just thinking a different perspective on verse 15, where it talks about running waters. The word of God refers to itself as living water, as the washing of the water of the word, and how that we need to get our wisdom, our truth from the word of God. So constantly running back to it so that you can spot those lies that are coming your way. And we have time just for this last thought here.
The chapter closes with what I call the God factor, and this always, always remember the God factor. Read for us verse 21. For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings. That's a little bit of a scary verse. It is, read that one more time, just think of that. But also comforting. For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings. Think about that, God knows the way. He knows the way we ought to go.
He knows the ways that are wrong. He knows the ways that are a problem. And he ponders, he's aware of everything happening in my life. And the good news there is that when the Lord sees us making wrong choices, he does come after us. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. The Lord uses his word, the Lord will use his sermon, the Lord will use the Holy Spirit, his spirit to speak to us.
Just continually, continually he's trying to get our attention, to direct our steps, to help us, to lead us, to guide us. And so the reminder here is that God knows. And the reminder is that God sees. I have as a memory verse, 2 Chronicles 16, nine. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward him. So God sees everything.
And the fact of the matter is, friends, let's not forget that God will see to it that we reap what we sow. He always does, that's his law. That for whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. That's the law of God, that's the plan of God. And life will see to it that that happens, it always does. We just always, what we plant in our life comes up. And so here's a chapter, Proverbs chapter five, reminding us that you know what? Wisdom is better than sin.
Doing right and living righteously is better than doing wrong and living unrighteously. And what great lessons for us. Anything you'd add there before we sign off today? I don't think so. I think we have gone through chapter five a couple of times and we have gleaned so much from it. So you can tell there's a lot in the book of Proverbs. Absolutely. Well, join us next week. We're looking for Proverbs chapter six. And it's gonna be a great chapter.
It's also loaded with truth about this immorality issue, but Solomon in the first part of the chapter just really jumps in and deals with a lot of matters that we can't wait to share with you. Hope you have a great week ahead. Thank you for listening here at Keeping It Young podcast. If we can help you reach out to us. In the meantime, make sure this week that you serve the Lord with gladness. The Keeping It Young podcast is a Backs 5 Media production.