Tonight, if the Lord will be
merciful. I have a message in Proverbs chapter five. If you'd
like to turn there. Would be merciful. He may allow us to see him. And in doing so, all of our troubles
will disappear. All of our concerns will lose
their luster. All of our sorrows will fade
for a moment. That's what he does when he shows
himself to his people, he gives us a place of rest. And this
is really the only place of rest. You leave these, and it's where
the Lord's, it's not this building, it's where the Lord's people
meet. Regardless, we could meet in a house or a basement. We
met at Linda's when we first came up on Wednesday nights.
We all met in Bali for years. It doesn't matter where the Lord's
people meet. The Lord said, where two or three are gathered together
in my name, there I am in the midst. And if he's there, you
can hear the still small voice say, peace, be still. It's all
right. It's OK. Everything's all right.
He's still on the throne. He's still seated as God. Tonight, Solomon continues to
admonish as he has done for chapter four, and really most of the
whole book thus far about calling out his son, saying, my son,
hear my words. And the last part of chapter
four talks about don't veer to the left or to the right. Don't
go to the right hand or the left hand. Look right on, keep looking straight
ahead. And we've had several messages from that. It's a continuation
of that thought here in chapter five. That is our Lord admonishes. You notice that first two words
in chapter five, he says, my son, and I understand that Solomon
had a son. But all things in scripture are
given by inspiration of the spirit. And we take that unto us as the
Lord's people in hopes that he's speaking to us. And if that is
true, and it is, he's speaking to the Lord's people, then we
would be wise to heed it, wise to listen, wise to perk up the
ear, if you can put it that way, when the Lord talks. He didn't
have to talk to us, did he? You ever thought of that? He
didn't have to talk to me. He didn't have to talk to you. The reason he came to die was
to save his people, but it was by his choice to do so. And to
speak to us now is still his sovereign right and choice to
do so. We're mercy beggars from the
time that we Well, when we're illuminated, if you may put it
that way, the Lord comes to us, we're mercy beggars, and we remain
mercy beggars all throughout our life. It doesn't change.
Lord, send your spirit. If you don't, we've met in vain. Lord,
cause us to see your face. It's right here, black and white,
but I can't see it unless you give me eyes to see. Lord, I'm
hearing words, but I can't hear. I want to hear you. You didn't
come here tonight to hear me. You come to hear from the Lord.
My hope is that I get myself out of the way Every time I stand
and you hear him, I don't want to be heard as silly as that
sounds. I don't, I don't need people
to hear me. I want him to be talked about. I want him to get
all the glory in this. Now he talks about derailing off the
path of grace and the end of the last chapter. And he starts
this by talking about the strange woman. the strange woman, that's
what I've titled this message tonight, the strange woman. And
it goes hand in hand with the messages on Sunday, the two mountains,
it's hand in hand with that. It's the same as the bond woman
and the free woman, this strange woman, it's all false religion
is what it represents. So let's read our text here.
We're gonna read three verses, Proverbs chapter five, four verses,
three through six. For the lips of a strange woman
drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil, But
her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her
feet go down to hell, to death, I'm sorry. Her feet go down to
death, her steps take hold on hell, lest thou shouldest ponder
the path of life. Her ways are movable, that thou
canst not know them. This strange woman is no stranger
to the Lord's people. Strange woman's no stranger to
the Lord's people, but do you know who she is a stranger to? The self-righteous. Now they
don't know that. She's a, they don't know her
because they're with her, if I can put it that way. We're
talking metaphorically about a, He's speaking of adultery
is what he's talking about. And you can take it spiritual
viewpoint and physical viewpoint. Is it wise not to go after strange
women? Yes. That's pretty common sense. I
mean, they'd mess up marriages. You understand what I'm saying?
That's what adultery does. But he's talking about spiritual
adultery here. He's talking about going after the strange woman
that flatters with her lips that have a honeycomb. And she's smooth
as oil. She's slick. deceitful. And she is the same woman as
we see. And I know our adversary is not
necessarily a woman. So don't misunderstand what I'm
about to say, but it's the same message that the snake gave Eve
in the garden. That's the strange woman's message.
And it's always been that it's the lie that you're good enough
for God, you're where you are. And that's what he's warning
us about here. And everything written in this
book is for the benefit, our good, for the Lord's people,
our good, and his glory, to teach us, to instruct us. And he says
in 2 Timothy 3.16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction. And here, we have instruction. We have instruction, be guarded,
pay attention to If a man's preaching to you, pay attention to his
words. There was not a lot changed from
what God had said to what Satan said to Adam and Eve. He just
changed one word. He added one word. He didn't
even change it. He just added one word, which changed the whole
meaning. Think about that. That's important that we realize
whenever you're hearing a man preach. That's one reason I made
a list of the men I have confidence in that I've heard. know and
there's several out there that I don't know and I'm not discrediting
those men. I'm just simply saying we have to be careful with who
we listen to because our adversary is subtle and he tries to sneak
in. Here's the good news. We are kept by the power of God,
not the power of self. We're not kept by the power of
our own will, we're kept by the will of God, the purpose of the
Lord. Purpose of God standeth assure, having this seal, the
Lord knoweth them that are his. That's good news, isn't it? The warning here is to God's
people to not look to self. Don't look to self, the strange
woman is in a way you can look at her as the flesh to some degree.
You can see her as being our adversary, this thing that we're
carrying around. You know what I'm talking about?
Because all the whispers that you hear and the unbelief that we
have towards the Lord and the looking to self is following
after the strange woman. That's what I'm trying to say.
If you begin to examine yourself to see If you have evidence of
salvation or if you begin to examine yourself, have I done
enough to be saved? Those are the words of the strange
woman. We see that that's all false religion. That's what all
it does is it points to me. It doesn't point to the Lord.
It doesn't give peace. There is no peace with the strange
woman. It's all confusion and chaos. It's all turmoil and conflict. You remember some of you may
have been in false religion. I know some of you were, but
you worked really hard to maintain your status and to try to stay
Um, you wanted to look good among your peers and you wanted to
do the best you could in order to, um, it was exhausting. And that's the point I'm making.
You kept going and going and going. It was like it never ended.
And it's like, well, I haven't done enough now. I haven't done enough now.
Then when the Lord saved you and he says, uh, rest, and it's
just like, you take a big, deep breath and you're just, I finally get to sit down, resting
in him, resting in his truth. It's finished. That's glorious,
isn't it? Well, that's exactly the opposite
of the strange woman. The strange woman is going to
say to you, do, do, do, and the work's never going to be done.
But the good news of the gospel is it is already done. Whether
you believe it or not, or whether I believe it or not, the work
that the Lord Jesus Christ was given from his father is complete.
100%. There isn't a single thing left undone. The Lord saved His
people from their sin. And the strange woman hates that.
Strange woman wants part of the action. She wants part of the,
and our flesh wants the glory too. That's why I'm saying that
you can kind of see both ways there. Our flesh wants to be
glorified. It wants to be worshiped is really
what it comes down to. Our flesh wants to be worshiped,
get the praise of men. And what did the Lord tell them?
They believe not, why? because they love the praise of men more
than the praise of God." Well, how do you receive the praise
of God? Well, if you listen to that verse
carefully, who does the Lord praise? He praises His Son. He
doesn't praise us. He praises His Son, and we're
in Christ Jesus. Do we see that? So they love
the praise of man. more than praising the Lord Jesus
Christ. You could say it that way as
well. And the strange woman will constantly try to deflect that
and put the light on you and I, whereas the gospel comes.
And when it shines on us, we see our sin. Oh, we see we're
shameful, we're guilty. We can't do anything to get to
God. And that's the good news of the gospel is the Lord said,
I have put away thy sin. I've put away thy sin. I've done
it all. Our flesh craves a works gospel.
And that's what this is a picture of here. If there is a single
notion of do as any part of your salvation, then it is literally
the whispers of the strange woman hits the It's the false religion
that we are so full of by birth. Nobody had to teach us to be
about self, to be selfish. I did not have to teach my daughters
to be selfish. They did that by themselves because
they're my daughters. And you all know the same way.
You have kids, some of you. You know what I'm talking about. You have grandkids
now. You didn't have to teach your grandkids either. They're
the exact same as their mom and dad as you are, all the way back
to Adam. That's just how it works. We need a new nature. That's
the problem. We need a new nature. But our
selfish nature desires the praise of men and it desires, it does
desire, the flesh desires the praise of God, but not in a sense
of what he praises. It desires him to worship us.
I let God save me. That's what that is. When you
say that, it's saying literally that he is subject to me and
that That is the woman, that is the strange woman that has
that. This woman is called many things
in the scripture, Babylon in Revelation. Scripture calls,
and it's a religious term also, but she's called the great whore
in Revelation is what she's called. And the reason for that is it's
a picture of all the different religions and everything combining
together and none of them coming to Christ, all of them for self.
That's the idea. And she's a death trap. If we're left to ourselves, she'd
be a death trap to us. The Lord talks about different
places. One place in particular, he said
these words, if it were possible, the very elect would be deceived,
but it's not possible. Why is that? Well, the Lord keeps
his people. That's good news. I need to know
I'm being kept. I need to know that he saved
me. He called me. He's keeping me and he's going
to keep me. I got to know this because if it's up to me to keep
myself, I'm going to fall. I'm going to falter. I'm going
to fail. Wait, the scripture's clear. We're kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last
time. It is finished. And our flesh is constantly gonna
try to fight that and perk itself up trying to do some work or
an unbelief. Unbelief's the sin that easily
besets us. We heard that recently, didn't we? This strange woman
is the Gospel of Cain. Do you remember Cain? Of course. He knew how to do a sacrifice.
His daddy would have taught him the Lord that man's blood As
soon as Adam and Eve had sinned, they hid themselves among the
trees. They knew they were wrong. They knew they were guilty and
they hid themselves. Once they hid themselves, they began sowing
fig leaves together to put upon themselves to try to cover their
nakedness. And that's a picture of false religion. That's the
way that the strange woman operates. As we think by listening to that,
we can put on fig leaves and God will be pleased with us.
Oh, he said, no. He took a lamb, didn't he? And
he killed that lamb and he covered him with that. That's a picture
of the covering that we have to have of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the blood to cover the sin, wash it away. We can't cleanse
ourself by our works. That's, Cain knew this, and yet
he brought the works of his hands. He wanted to have the power himself
to be able to be accepted of God. Look at what I have brought
unto you. I've said this before, and I
love this analogy, but you, It kind of sounds comical. I'm not
trying to be comical. But we have a fair here in Ole and they
have a pumpkin contest every year. And I think the last one
that got first place was like, I don't want to exaggerate, but
I think it was like 2,000 pounds. Does that sound right? I mean,
I think that, yeah, Dana's telling me yes. OK, I didn't want to
exaggerate, but I was like, that's as heavy as a car. It blew a
ribbon on it. It got first place. You know
what Kane did? A 2,000 pound pumpkin, and he
brought it to the Lord and said, look what I have done. That's
what he did. His prized treasure that he had
made, and he thought God was gonna accept him. It was the
very best that he had. He didn't give him rotten fruit or vegetables.
He gave God the very, very best, my blue ribbon pumpkin. And to
Cain and to Cain's sacrifice, the Lord had no respect. No respect,
why? Because without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission of sin. There is none. Oh, it
has to be the blood of Christ that washes away sin or there
is no sin washed away. It has to be the perfect lamb
of God and his sacrifice, not our sacrifice that pleases the
Lord. It's his sacrifice. Look to the lamb. Strange woman
says, look to me, look at what I've made. Look at what I've
done. The gospel says, look to Christ, look to Christ. He's
the substitute surety of his people that successfully redeemed
them on Calvary's cross. This strange woman, she is the
heir of Balaam. Do you remember Balaam? He chose
the popularity of the king and money rather than the obedience
of the Lord. The Lord sent an angel. And if that donkey hadn't stopped
in the way, he would have killed him. He would have killed him.
But the Lord allowed the donkey to open up its mouth and say,
why are you beating me? He opened up Balaam's eyes and
he saw the angel of the Lord with a fiery sword there. And Balaam
kept going, the Lord said, here's what you're gonna do. And I love
our Lord and how he approaches us. You know, you'll never, and
I wrote an article on this for Sunday. The Lord is not a beggar. Never begged one time. Never
begged one time. He doesn't do, he doesn't beg. He has everything. He doesn't
need us. And that's where men are wrong.
He doesn't need me. If something happens to me, he'll
fill the pulpit with a gospel preacher if he wants it to be
preached. He don't need me. But the point I was making, Balaam
went all the way with the king and the king said, okay, I want
you to curse these people. I want you to curse these Jews.
And Balaam said to him, okay, I'm going to curse them. But
God said, no, you're not. You're not going to curse them.
As a matter of fact, the only thing you're going to do when
you open up your mouth is you're going to bless them. And the king got frustrated because
every time Balaam said, okay, now go ahead and curse them,
Balaam would bless them. And King was getting mad and he was
like, what are you doing? No, if you don't say, well, if you're not
going to curse them, at least don't bless them. Just don't
say anything. And Balaam had to say, I have to do what God told
me to do. He's going to kill me. He's going to kill me. Shortly thereafter,
after the Lord had allowed Balaam to do the blessing or whatever,
they departed. You find later on in the chapter, that's really
where the Samaritans came from, the half-breed Jews that happened. Balaam was the one that was part
of the teaching that king how to get the children of Israel
messed up. And how did he do that? He did
that through different worship of false gods, different worship
of false gods. Well, that's us, ain't it? We're
idol factories. We are an idol in and of herself,
but we're idol factories. And that's what happened with
the children of Israel. They departed from the Lord for
a season during that time, and that's where the Samaritans came
from. They were worshiping God, but they were worshiping God
in the form of a donkey, the form of a cat, the form of a
dog, the form of a sun, the moon. It's the error of Balaam. It's
the error of Balaam. That's what this strange woman
brings in. And it was all manner of sexual sins that they were
doing. It was just a bunch of terrible things. And that's where
all this, the Samaritans came from. It's interesting. But the
error of Balaam, I don't know how else you could say it, but
he wanted to do things his way too, just like Cain, didn't he? He
wanted to do things too. And the verse I was going to
quote, I've already passed it now, but it's, it's, uh, they've gone
the way of Cain. They've, uh, went after the error
of Balaam and went after the gainsaying of Korah. Well, Korah
was the one that resisted Moses. If you remember in the wilderness,
whenever they came to do the sacrifice, uh, Korah was not
a Levite. He was not a priest. And he,
him and a group of guys got together and said, okay, listen, if you
can offer up sacrifice, so can we, there's no difference between
you and us. We can offer it up to 200 of them. I believe is
right. And so he said, okay, well, you offer up sacrifice
and we'll offer up sacrifice. And the one that the Lord is
pleased with, the one that the Lord accepts, he'll be the priest. And that's exactly what they
did. And you know what God did? He opened up the earth and swallowed
up those 200 right then on the spot. You know why? Because we
cannot be our high priest. We cannot be our high priest
and we cannot be our sacrifice and we cannot be our intercessor. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
the Lord Jesus Christ alone. So they were taking the place
of Christ. That was the problem. That's what the strange woman
does is it says you can be God. And it takes the place of Christ
in some way, shape, or form, whether it be the high priest,
whether it be the one that's absolute in salvation, whether
it's something you have to do, it takes away his absoluteness
and his sovereignty from it. That's just discrediting the
Lord. That's what that's doing. And that's what this strange
woman is all about here. All false religion can be summed
up to these three, the offering of the work of the hands, which
is Cain, Balaam, took part with the king, a false king, and chose
popularity with man over God, over favor with God. How do you
have favor with God? Look to Christ if you want favor
with God. He's the only one that can give favor, isn't he? This woman is the lie, that you
can be your own God. Recently we had a, well, not
recently now, did you know we've been here, this is our third
January here with you? We were talking about time flies.
So this will be my third week in here, two and a half years
I've been your pastor now. And so some things have happened
and it seems like a kind of whooshed by. So I said recently, it probably
wasn't, it was probably two years ago when this happened now, but
there was some people that were coming for a while and they must've
heard something because they got me pinned up after service
one time. And he said, are you telling me I don't have a choice?
Are you telling me salvation's not a choice? And the Lord gave
me words. I didn't know exactly what to
say, but I told him, I said, yes, absolutely. Salvation is
a choice. It's just not yours or mine. And they haven't been
back since. But that was the problem with
Cain. That was the problem with Balaam. That was the problem
with Chorus. They wanted their own choice. They wanted to be
their own person. They wanted to be their own God. And they
men don't admit that, but that's exactly what they're doing. It's
exactly what they're doing. Unless God bends our will and
gives us a new one, we will always, always choose self. Always choose
self. We'll always choose the same
woman. This is the message tonight.
This is the message tonight. Stay away from the strange woman.
There is only one way to God, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the way, He is the truth, and He is the life, and no man
come to the Father but by Him, by His will, by His power, by
His choice, by His calling, by His saving, by His doing. No
man come to the Father but by Him. Strange woman isn't gonna
help us. Matter of fact, it's gonna hurt
us. It's gonna hurt us. He's the only one that's the
remedy for sin. You know this is true. There's
only one way a sinner can be made clean. There's only one
sacrifice that was ever made that cleansed a sinner. What
was that sacrifice? It was the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one that put away
sin. My hope is that he put away our
sin. Isn't it yours? That strange woman can't give
us anything other than more sin, more iniquity. Not going to do
you any good. No, we don't look to our law-keeping.
That's what that strange woman says. Run to the law. It'll fix
it. Go do this, go do that. You can
make it right. You can sear your conscience if you go to the law
and you feel better about yourself, because you've done this and
that. And that's what men do. Oh, that heart. Our heart's deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked, isn't it? We'll lie ourself
right into the pit if the Lord doesn't keep us. Somebody said,
are you saying the Lord had to Drag you kicking and screaming?
Well, he gave a new nature to begin with, so we came running
to him, actually, once you become alive. But yes, at first, I did
not like the gospel. It was very offensive to my flesh
and my self-righteousness. And then I found out I really
didn't have any righteousness, and it was the best news I ever
heard. That's what has to happen. The Lord has to take us from
where we are, thinking that we're this, or thinking that we're
that, and we're with the strange woman. That's what that's all
about. And the Lord says, no. I'm your spouse, I'm your husband,
I'm your Lord. And he takes us as his children,
and he teaches us, and he nurtures us, and he clothes us in his
own righteousness, and he washes us in his own blood. We don't
look to our works or our merits, we look to his. Strange woman says, let God have
his way. That's what she says. What does
the Lord say? I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. He owns the inhabitants of the
earth and the nations are reputed to him as nothing. He does whatsoever
he will to whomsoever he will. Nobody lets God do anything. That's the lie of the strange
woman. That's the lie. Scripture says they're a drop
in the bucket. I love that. You know what a
drop in a bucket looks like. Every one of us do. That ain't
very much, is it? What could you do with a drop of water in
a bucket? But think about the glorious
part of the gospel is that the Lord chose to save some people
out of that drop. That's amazing, isn't it? That's
mercy and grace. Strange woman says you have the
power. God's gospel says, Lord Jesus Christ was speaking, all
power is given to me both in heaven and in earth. Now if he
has all power, and the strange woman's saying you have the power,
somebody's lying. Somebody's lying, my math don't
add up. If he has all power, that means I have none. And if
God's the one that says I have all power and he can't lie, that
tells me he has all the power. So what is my hope? That he would
use that power to save a sinner like me. And that's exactly what
he did on Calvary's cross as he died for his people in their
room instead. And by his own blood, by his
own power, by his own will and purpose, he redeemed his people
back to God. Strange woman says, do good and
God will bless you. You can obligate God. You can
obligate God. Somebody said, well, I don't
really have a problem you know, thinking these things. Well,
it may be, but whether we realize it or not, our adversary is always,
he's like walking about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
Peter thought he was gonna go down on the cross with the Lord
whenever you hear him talking to him, but before he was taken
away, he says, Lord, I'll go with you all the way, even to
death, I'm ready, let's go. And the Lord rebuked him. The Lord
said, get behind me, Satan. Peter, Satan hath desired to
sift you as wheat. but I have prayed for you, Peter.
And we may have moments of strength where we feel that things don't
bother us, and then we may have moments of, and we will, not
may, we will, have moments of weakness where we have doubts
and fears and unbelief, and it's, that's why we talk about these
things. Don't listen to the strange woman at those times. Flee to
Christ. Flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. Strange woman says do, and God
will bless you. You can obligate him. Gospel says it is finished
and no one can obligate God to do anything. No one can obligate
God to do anything. The only one that technically
obligated God was the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's a, I say that
reverently, reverently and with fear. He kept his part of the
promise, and the Father said, I will resurrect you, and so
that became an obligation that the Father had to do, and you
understand what I'm saying there. You and I can't obligate God.
We can't do anything perfectly. How could we obligate him? I love the thought that our Lord,
you know how reactive we are, even when we're driving cars
or we're talking to people, we can start a conversation, be
happy by the time we get off, we can be angry. We're reactive
to all kinds of things. We're just reactive. You're walking
and you're about to trip, you react to it. God doesn't react. Think about that. Let that seek
instrument. He doesn't, something doesn't catch him off guard and
he has to react to it. That's a human thing. That's
something we do. God doesn't react. He's seated.
That's what he does. He's resting on his Sabbath.
That's what God does. He doesn't need to react. Nothing's
going to take him off guard. He already knows the beginning
from the end. He doesn't react. How are you going to obligate?
How are you going to obligate God? No, he can't obligate God. Strange woman says, look to the
law for your justification. Galatians 4 tells us, you who
desire to be under the law, have you heard the law? Have you heard what it says?
Oh no, it's that the law, do we not understand? Well, I know
we do. The law universally condemns every son and daughter of Adam. That's what it does. It condemns
us, shows us the sin. The law was given to reveal sin
that every mouth may be stopped. The whole world would be silent
before God. Lord, you're truth and we're
not, we're sinners. That's why the law was given. There's no
justification from the law as we heard Sunday. Romans three
tells us God's gospel clearly declares this, therefore by the
deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. It's the knowledge
of sin. If Christ is not all my justification,
I have no justification, for it's God that justifies. If Christ
is not all my justification, if Christ is not all my sanctification,
my wisdom, My righteousness? I don't have them then. I have
to have him as my justification and my righteousness, or I don't
have any. I don't have any. You know, that strange woman also
says, trust in yourself. You know, we live in a society
right now that's really pushed the thoughts, you have the power.
You have the power to, even we tell our children when they're
growing, you can be whatever you want to be as long as you try
and you do good. And that's true from a humanitarian
standpoint, but not when it comes to God, not when it comes to
salvation. Men believe that they are able to have, they have the power
within themselves. You just have to believe a little
bit more. You have to work a little bit harder. When it comes to
spiritual things, the flesh is enmity against God and they that
are in the flesh cannot please God. There's nothing we can do
with this body that merits something spiritually. Don't be deceived.
Nothing. Not one thing. I can't gain one
thing from God by doing something in this flesh. It's just the
flesh is enmity against God. What did the Lord say? He didn't
say, look to yourself. He said, look to Christ. This
is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Hear him, hear
him, look to him and live. Don't look to yourself, look
to him and live. Strange woman's always saying,
look at me, look at me, look at us, look at the law, look
at this, look at that. The gospel says clearly, look
to Christ. How does a believer live? Looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. Now notice the similarities here
of our Lord's words and this woman. Let's read this again,
verse three. For the lips of a strange woman
drop as in honeycomb and her mouth is smoother than oil, but
her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her
lips drop as honeycomb, but not to the spirit. Do you remember
the Lord promising the children of Israel milk and honey in the
promised land? That's what he said. I'm gonna
take you to a land flowing with milk and honey. What's that a
picture of? That's a picture of our Savior. The milk is necessary
for a baby to grow. That's the point there. The milk
and the honey is the sweetness of the gospel. The Lord's saying
you're gonna have the gospel. That's what's gonna happen. Now,
did real honey and milk flow there? I'm certain that it did,
but the picture is every time we come together, we are partaking
in the milk and the honey. Somebody said, you're preaching
the, somebody heard a message and told me, said, you just preach
the deep things, the meat of the scripture. I said, I thought
I was preaching the milk. The election of the Lord is very
simple. That's not complicated. No, we,
Christ died for his people and saved them. That's not complicated.
That's the milk. That's the milk. But it says
here, her lips drop as honeycomb. Now that can't mean, We read
earlier about our Lord in Psalm chapter 19 about Him being the
honeycomb, Him being sweet. You remember in the book of Revelation
where John was told by the Lord, eat the book. The Lord told him,
eat the book. And what was, why do that? Well,
it was a picture of digesting the gospel. It was a picture
of eating the gospel. That's what we're doing now.
We're feeding upon the gospel. But he said it was sweet to my
mouth and bitter to my belly. Why is that? Well, because while
you're sitting here and enjoying the truth of the Lord and you're
hearing about our Savior and you're able to rejoice, your
flesh is hating it. Your flesh doesn't like it. And as soon as you get done,
that bitterness of the truth, it crushes the flesh. It crushes the flesh so that
there's no flesh that glories in his presence. Her lips dropping
as honeycomb. Our flesh loves that. It's not
bitterness to us. Understand all false religion
is appealing to the flesh. It's appealing to the flesh.
Now you who have heard the truth, you reject the falseness because
the Lord's given you his spirit of discernment. You're able to
see that's not true. That's false gospel. I can't
digest that. I can't digest that. And you
run away from it. We don't go to other churches.
We don't go to other, Preach half-truths just for that very
reason. We can't digest that. No, we want the truth. The truth
is the only thing that's going to set us free. So this honeycomb
is a way of saying hers is good to the flesh. The flesh gobbles
it up. The flesh craves it. The flesh desires it. And it's
talking about, even the adultery that I mentioned, it's talking
about lust of the flesh. That's what it's all talking about here. But what
about our Lord's words? Well, isn't that what satisfies
the soul? Isn't that what, and the good news is it talks about
her words, sharp as a two-edged sword. I'm reminded the scripture
tells us clearly that our Lord's words is sharper than any two-edged
sword. And I like that it says any two-edged sword. So even
though her words may be sharp and they may get your attention,
they may, but it won't be for the healing. The Lord uses his
word for healing. It cuts away the unbelief of
the Lord's people for our good and it heals It heals the Lord's
people, not this woman. All she can do is just cut and
hurt with this sword. There's no one in the flesh that
can please the Lord but one, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was perfect. He pleased God in all things.
He's the substitute surety of the Lord's people. He satisfied
the Lord's demands and saved his people from their sin. If we've been made to know that,
we don't listen to the strange woman anymore. That won't work
anymore. It doesn't taste right. Me and
Al were talking, trying to describe it to each other, because we
were trying to say the same thing. This was a while back. I don't know
if Al remembers this or not. But he was saying, whenever you hear
music, and all the notes are being played properly. It's harmonious,
it's pretty, it's beautiful. But you get a soured note in
there and you're like, ooh, that don't sound right. That ain't
the note that needs to be played. Well, that's what it's like hearing
a false gospel. It just don't have the right sound to it. Don't
taste right. It smells funny. I'm gonna say
it like that, it does. You'd be like, no, that's not
it. No, I don't see my savior. I see you and I see your righteousness,
but I don't see him and I need to see him. That's what the strange
woman does is she wants to deflect the minds of people away from
Christ and look at anything else. And you name it, look at anything
else. Just don't look at him. I'm so glad the Lord tells his
people, seek you my face. My sheep hear my voice. I know
them and they follow me. Here we are, sheep going astray,
and the Lord said, no return, come back. And he brings us back
to the fold. He just continually does that, doesn't he? Doesn't
let us chase after the strange woman, doesn't let us chase after
the desires of the flesh, he keeps his people, he keeps his
people. Strange woman says, find your
rest in the covenant of works, and God will be pleased with
you. And the Lord said, I've disannulled that covenant. You
might have a covenant with death, and in hell you might be agreement
in, but I've disenholed that covenant. That covenant doesn't
exist. There's only one covenant whereby
God saves sinners, and it's the covenant of grace. The everlasting
covenant of grace before time ever began, never had a beginning,
never had an end, where the Lord's people were chosen in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Her two-edged sword is a lie.
That's what it represents. It's a lie, and it just says
things like, you remember the parable the Lord gave of the
rich man, he said he built him barns and he filled up the barns,
but when he got done filling up the barns, he said, okay,
well this isn't enough, and he tore the barns down and made bigger
barns and filled them up. And then after he had worked and
he harvested and got everything put together, got the barns stacked
full and ready to go, he said, okay, soul, take thine ease,
rest. Eat, drink, and be merry. It's
all good now. I've got plenty of food. Everything's
just fine. And the Lord said, thou fool, tonight your soul
is gonna be required of thee. That's what the strange woman
says. It says, just take your rest. Just take your rest. Don't worry about this or don't
worry about that pertaining to the gospel. No, don't think on
the Lord. Think on this and that. Here's
the distraction. We don't need any help in our flesh. We really
don't. But the Lord continually brings
us back to him, continually reminds us. You ever been, I don't know,
you ever been driving and you see something and the Lord brings
something to your memory about the gospel? He shows a, I was
driving and saw a sparrow, and I remember the verse that said,
the Lord, not one sparrow falls to the ground unnoticed, and
you're worth many, many sparrows to him. Little things like that,
he does to bring us back to him, doesn't he? I want to read this one more
time and then in closing I want to go to Hebrews chapter four.
For the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb and her mouth
is smoother than oil, but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp
as a two edged sword. Her feet go down to death and
her steps take hold on hill. Lest thou shouldest ponder the
path of life, her ways are movable. That's something the scripture
is very clear on. The Lord tells, what did Paul
tell Timothy? be unmovable. What does that mean? Having your
feet on the solid rock, our foundation. We're not on the sand. She's
movable. She's movable, meaning that she's like liquid. She just
flows wherever. Thou canst not know them. You
want to know, and this may be the message for next Wednesday
night, I don't know, but it says here, pondering the path of life. You know who
ponders the path of life? I know people that literally
say, what's the point of life? What's the purpose of life? Why
are we here? Everything's so bad and this
and that, and they just morbid about everything, and they have
no joy, no happiness, no peace, no rest. Why? They don't know
God. You don't have to ask me, and
I don't have to ask you what the purpose of life is, do I?
Do you know why? Because the Lord's revealed unto
us the purpose of life. The Lord created this entire
world for his glory in order to redeem his people back to
himself. That's what he did it for. The
Lord made this world to save his people from their sins. The
Lord made this world for his son to come and die in our place. The purpose of life is for us
to glorify God. That's the purpose of life, to
honor him and adore him and worship him. That's the purpose of life. You tell that to somebody that's
never heard that before, they're like, okay, and what else? You
know, anything else? No. No, that's awful depressing. Not if you've been made a sinner.
If you've been made a sinner, that's the best thing you could
do is worship God. You get to sit at his feet and see him,
knowing that your sins have been remitted, knowing that the bill
is clean, and that you've been washed whiter than snow. There
ain't no rest outside of that, is there? That's the best news.
That's the best rest for the Lord's people. Turn with me to
Hebrews 4 in closing. He's speaking of those pertaining to rest. the older
patriarchs and matriarchs and things that never really had
rest. The priest had to offer up sacrifice daily, like we saw
in Hebrews. And he's mentioning that up into
this point. Look what he says in verse eight,
for if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have
spoken of another day? He's talking about David. There
remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that
has entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own
works as God did from his. And that is so important that
we don't miss that because in order for us to be entered into
the Lord's rest, that means we've ceased from work. If we've entered
into his rest, we've ceased from work. Meaning if he's caused
us to enter into his rest, we're no longer working for our salvation.
He's made us to stop doing that. He's made us to stop. Let us
labor. And that word labor is hasten.
Hasten, it's the same word as hasten. Let us hasten, therefore,
to enter into that rest, lest any man fall into the same example
of unbelief. For the word of God is quick
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of joints
and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest
in his sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes
of him with whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have a high
priest, a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For
we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we
are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
into the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in the time of need. He said, hasten to enter
into that rest with this high priest, hasten. Unto the Lord,
flee to Christ, run to him, run to him. God's word cuts for the
benefit of the Lord's people. It cuts away the flesh. The words
of the strange woman cut unto death. It's all that she can
produce. There's no life in her words. Only by grace can that
which is unclean be made clean. Only by grace is that which is
sinful be made righteous. Only by grace is that which is
wicked be made holy, holy. And it's all by the finished
work of the Lord. Thank God he's made us need him,
need him. And we loathe, loathe the strange
woman, the false gods, the false religion. We loathe it. I can't
eat that anymore. It's poison. It's poison. We're made to need Christ, his
sacrifice, his suffering. And thank God we're made to need
him as a high priest. He's our high priest. Tell you this, and we'll close.
We don't look for the approval of man, but we desire the approval
of God. How are you gonna have the approval
of God? How are you gonna have the approval of God? Being in
Christ, that's it. You want the approval of God?
You've got to be in Christ. How do you get there? You don't. God does it. He puts you in his
son before the foundation of the world and nothing can take
you out. You didn't put yourself in, you
can't take yourself out. I love that. That means I cannot.
Well, I say it often, I can't mess it up. I can't mess it up. The strange woman has but one
purpose to try to keep your eyes off of Christ, but thanks be
to God. His salvation is so rich and full and free and good. He
saved us from Satan, he saved us from sin, he saved us from
self, and he saved us from the strange woman. Saved us from
the strange woman. Let's pray. Father calls us to
flee to you, calls us to believe, bless us to our understanding
for your glory, in Christ's name, amen.