Proverbs chapter 6. I've entitled
this message this morning, Believers are Kept by God's Word. We make much of God's Word. Everything else is going to pass
away. Not His Word. What else is more important than
God's Word? In Proverbs chapter 6, I'd like
to deal with verses 23 through 35. This is through the end of
the chapter. Last week we looked at a few
verses. We looked at verses 20 to And
the Scripture set forth and said, My son, keep thy father's commandment. What is the father's commandment?
Hear the son. Forsake not the law of thy mother.
What is the law of thy mother? It's the law of faith, not of
works, Paul said. Now, today we want to deal with
why. Now, the passage of Scripture
that we're going to deal with, when you read it, and this is
how the Word of God is, especially in this book. You can read this
passage of Scripture, and when you read it, The carnal mind can read the
passage that we'll deal with today, and actually what it's appearing to say is it talks
about the hazards of a harlot, of a whorish woman. Scripture sets forth, talks about
how she acts, As she flatters, as she steals a man's heart away,
and we'll go right on into chapter 7. It's going to continue talking
about the same thing. Now, I don't doubt for one second
if you were to begin talking about the hazards of a harlot. And anybody would have a problem
with admitting, oh, I can tell you this, that's going to lead
to trouble. That's going to definitely lead to trouble. A man get involved
with another woman and got problems. It ain't going to be good. I
can tell you that right now. It ain't going to be good. But I tell you this, there's
a greater danger than that. That's bad. That's horrible.
That's so disrespectful. But what we're going to look
at today is spiritually. Someone might say, you know,
Marvin, it just seems like to me that everything you deal with
seems like to me it has to do with false religion. Let me ask you this. Have we
not just taken a book And we just go through it. We make nothing
less, nothing more than what the Scriptures makes for us to
see. False religion. And I'm going to bring this out
in this passage of Scripture, Lord willing, but false religion
is whatever steals a man's heart. That's what it is. I looked up
the word religion this morning. It means to worship. That's what
it is. A man worships what he loves.
In whatever form it takes, that's what his religion is. That's
what his God is. Let's look this morning, beginning
in verse 23. Verse 20 said, My son, keep thy
father's commandment. Forsake not the law of thy mother.
And verse 23 says, gives a reason, for the commandment, that is
the Father's commandment, is a lamp. It's a candle. And the law is light. The commandment
of the Father to hear the Son and the law of thy mother, which
is faith in Christ, that's a lamp. And reproofs of instruction are
the way of life. The Father's commandment. Hear
the Son. That's a candle. Here is the
illumination of what we're to do. Is that as simple as I know
how to say it? Here we are. We're in this world. Everybody's got something to
say. Everybody's got an opinion. Everybody's got their own thought. about something. Here's God's
revelation. Here's God's commandment. Here's
the candle. Here it is. Hear the son. The commandment is a lamp. And
the law, the law of thy mother, the law of heavenly Jerusalem,
Jerusalem which is above, the law of thy mother." And what
did we say? Faith. It's faith in Christ. But what is the mother of us
all? It's God's everlasting covenant.
There's the source of our birth. That's all David said. We quoted
that a minute ago. That's all of my salvation. God
has made with me an everlasting covenant. That law is light. That's light. What is light? Faith in Him. Now you that believe, you understand
what I'm talking about. That's light. We just sang that song, that
last one you sang. All things work out for good.
Brother Scott just read Scripture, Romans 8, 28. And we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are they called according to His purpose. Trusting Christ, that's light. That's understanding. Why am
I going through what I'm going through? Because Almighty God
ordained that this is my lot. And it's
for my good and His glory. That's light. That's light. Why is this happening? He ordained
it. You know, because God Almighty
is going to bring honor to Himself. That is light. And reproofs of instruction are
the way of life. Reproofs of instruction. Corrections. If you be without chastisement,
if you be without correction, God's people are not wayward
people. They're not inconsistent people.
They're consistent people. They're consistent people. God
corrects them, draws them, constrains them. For you see, Inconsistency. Now, I'm not talking about what
you see in yourself. I know what we see in ourselves.
But I'm telling you, we dealt with this last week concerning
works as the evidence of faith. I'm not talking about works of
righteousness. I'm not talking about deeds that
we do in order to establish. I'm talking about a believer
acts like a believer. And you know what I'm talking
about. They act like a believer. They're consistent. Ask them
what they think of themselves and they'll tell you, oh, if
you only knew my heart. Oh, I agree with you. But I'm
telling you that a believer is consistent. They're consistent. They're consistent in the hearing
of the gospel. They're consistent in their love
Christ. They're consistent in their fellowship
with believers. They're consistent in giving.
They're consistent. They're consistent. And where
you don't find it, something's wrong. Reproofs of instruction are the
way of life. How many of you parents just
let your kids just run rampant and just don't correct them?
Something's wrong. reproof some instruction. This
is the way it is. How many of you parents have
ever told your children something? They said, why is that? Here's
the answer. Because I said so. Because I
said so. I might explain it to you or
I might not. Don't go out in the street. Why not? Because
I said don't go out in the street. I don't have to give you an answer
every time. Reproofs. of instruction are the way of
life for a believer. God's people are kept. But why? Now, here's what we're
going to deal with today. Why? Starting in verse 24. To
keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue
of a strange woman. Now, like I said, You could sit here and try to
deal with this and just talk about, I wouldn't go after a
prostitute. I wouldn't go after a deceitful,
disrespectful, irreverent woman. I wouldn't do that. And not a
person in this congregation that won't agree with me. That's not
good. That's not good. But that's not
what this is talking about. Though that is an evil thing.
It's disrespectful. It's disrespectful to everybody
involved. But that's not what it's talking about. It's talking
about false religion. And as I said a moment ago, we
make much of what God makes much of. Why has God sent His Word,
His command? Why has the Father sent the commandment,
Hear the Son? Why have we been given the law
of faith? Why has God given us faith? Believe
Christ. Trust Him. Why has God Almighty
reproved His people? Why is reproof of instruction
the way of life? Here's what it is. To keep you
from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange
woman. Oh, I'm a believer. I won't do
that. Faith cometh. by hearing and
hearing by the Word of God. It cometh every day. And let
me tell you something, don't you ever say that you won't do
anything. Don't you ever say that you would
not do it. Ask Peter. I'll never, I'll never. Ask David. King David. Don't you ever say that you wouldn't
do anything. Lord, if you don't keep me. I need for Almighty God to keep
me right now. Oh yeah, but Marvin, you're a
sovereign grace preacher. You kind of, you know, there's
only so many of those sovereign grace preachers. And you know,
you guys, you know how you guys are. Y'all never, don't you ever
say that you wouldn't do anything. You're deceiving yourself. To
keep you. from the evil woman, from the
flattery of the tongue of a strange woman, to keep me from whatever
would steal my heart." You say, well, I'd never go back into
being a free will, false, you know. That's not the only strange woman
there is. It's whatever steals your heart. whatever form it takes, whatever
you call it, whatever association it is, you call it what you want
to call it. It's a strange woman. It's false religion. And it's
got you. Hear the Son. Trust the Son. Despise not the chastenings of
the Lord. That's the way of life for a
believer. Why? To keep you. To keep you. To
keep you. Because I'm telling you, I'll
leave that quick. Revelation 18 verse 4 says, Come
out of her, that is Babylon the great, my people, that you be
not partakers of her sins and that you receive not of her plagues.
The reason that we're warned against falling victim to false
religion, false worship. I want to make this clear. I'm
going to be perfectly clear. False religion is whatever you
worship. And it doesn't matter what form
it takes. It doesn't matter. I don't care what it takes. I
don't care what the form is. It's whatever you worship and
steals you from the worship of God. The reason that we're warned
is because we have an old nature that would do the very thing
to keep you from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue
of a strange woman. The bestowing of praise and titles on that flesh, the beguile, the simple, the promise of health and happiness
and prosperity and you're somebody and you've attained and you've. Verse 25, lust not after her
beauty in thine heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids. Oh, how careful we must be. You know, there's many that wouldn't
openly give themselves to the strange woman, not openly, not all at one time. But little
by little, that's what we were talking about, Gary, little by
little, just a little bit, just a little bit, just a little bit,
just a little unfaithfulness. It's not that big a deal. Scripture says here, she'll take
you with her eyelids. You know, I tell you, you need
to be careful how you just look at somebody. Just sitting there in a room
or something like that, you know, eye contact can be just a little
bit too long. Just looking at somebody or somebody
looking back at you, you know, just be careful. Be careful. False religion, false worship,
that which steals a man's simple heart causes him to look just
a little bit too long. And before you know it, you're
thinking to yourself, you know, that's desirable. Oh, what you have. I've had people
tell me this. Can I just be real honest with
you? I'll be honest about myself. That's the easiest way for me
to be. You know, to make a point. You know, certainly you can't,
you know, you got to be careful, you know, concerning my artwork,
you know, because that's a God given talent. I've had people
tell me that's a God given talent. I don't doubt that. I don't doubt
that. but it doesn't replace the worship
of Almighty God. Oh yeah, but Marvin, you could
so-and-so and so-and-so. You could make a living. You
could do probably so. But I'm telling you, the first
time that somebody flutters their eyes, tells you, says, oh, you
know, people would understand It's deceitful. It's desperately
deceitful. Concerning the Lord Jesus Christ,
listen to what Isaiah 53, verse 2 says concerning Him. Now listen,
everything looks beautiful concerning false worship, false religion,
false whatever. Call it what you want to. It's
beautiful to the flesh. Makes me feel good. I'm somebody. I've got a title. I'm this. I'm that. I'm the other. I've
got to be here. I've got to be there. Concerning Him, He has
no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see Him, there's
no beauty that we should desire Him. What does Christ look like
concerning the evil heart? Concerning the evil heart, there's
no beauty in Him. Why would I want to do that? Oh, but the strange woman, those
fluttering eyes that pretends to love. I love you. I love you. But her true purpose is to ruin. Remember, what she desires is
whatever it takes to steal you away from the worship of Almighty
God. Verse 26, For by means of a whorish
woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.
This is what she wants. There's no poverty that compares
to spiritual poverty. Those that are poor in spirit,
now that's a blessing. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Blessed are those that realize without Him I'm nothing. But
spiritual poverty, to come to the end of a man or a woman's
life and to realize that a whorish woman has brought a man to poverty
before God. Let me ask you this. What is
it? What is it that you love more than Him? What is it? It's not a grieving thought.
It is to a believer. Whatever they've got to give
up, they'll give it up. I heard Brother Henry Mahan say
something one time. He said, how tightly you hold
on to something. If God's purpose to take you
from... He said, He just may break your
hand. Be careful how tightly you hold on. Be careful how tightly
you hold on to your kids. Be careful how tight... your
work. Whatever. Be careful. Her purpose, according to verse
26, will hunt for the precious life She's going to lie in wait. That's
what that word hunt means. Lie in wait for the precious,
the valuable or the rare life. That which is highly valued.
Now let me tell you this. There's only one precious life.
There's only one. That's my beloved Son whom I'm
well pleased. The precious one. The precious
Lord Jesus Christ. And all that be found in Him
For His sake, for His sake, for His sake are precious in the
sight of Almighty God. They are precious to the Father
because of their union with the Son. And because of that union,
because of that oneness in Christ, this is what the whorish woman,
the strange woman, That which would steal a man's heart. Let
me tell you what her purpose is. To hunt for the precious
life. That's what she's after. It doesn't
matter. It doesn't matter what it takes
to steal you away. Whatever it takes. Prestige, money, position, whatever. It doesn't matter. False religion. Sitting under a false gospel
is nothing more than a different social club. That's all it is.
It's just a social. She hunts for it. Verse 27 and 28 relates to human
response to human impossibilities, but with a spiritual significance. Listen to this. Can a man take
fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon
hot coals and his feet not be burned? Fire is often an emblem for wickedness. Listen to Isaiah 9.18, For wickedness
burneth as the fire. Fire is also an emblem of God's
wrath. You shun the thought that one
can tamper with any form of rebellion and not get harmed. Look at Isaiah
65. Isaiah 65. Verse 1, I am sought of them
that ask not for me. I am found of them that sought
me not. I said, Behold me, behold me unto a nation that was not
called by my name, I've spread out my hands all the day unto
a rebellious people which walketh in a way that was not good after
their own thoughts, a people that provoketh me to anger continually
to my face, that sacrificeth in gardens and burneth incense
upon altars of brick which remain among the graves and lodge in
the monuments which eat swine's flesh and broth of abominable
things which is in their vessels, which say, Stand by thyself,
come not near to me, for I am holier than thou. These are a
smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day." Millions today, billions maybe,
toy with a whorish woman. Whatever, whatever. I mean, I'm
not even going to put a label on it. I'm telling you. The whorish
woman is whatever steals you from the worship of God. That's
the whorish woman. And she flutters her eyes at
you, speaks to you, tells you how much she loves you. But for
the grace of God, you'll believe it. Almighty God has sent His
commandment. My commandment. Hear the sun. That's a lamp. That's light.
That's light in the midst of darkness. The law of your mother,
that's illumination. Trust the Son, reproofs, correction. God's people are corrected. God's
going to correct them. And if you be without correction,
without chastisement, you're none of His. Verse 29, He that goeth in to
his neighbor's wife, whosoever touches her shall not be innocent. He that goes in and abides, comes
to his neighbor's wife, another's wife is what it is. He that goes in to his neighbor's
wife, is not going to be innocent. There's only one honorable wife. One. And that's the wife of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only honorable wife
there is. Almighty God chose her in Christ
before the foundation of the world that she should be holy
and without blame before Him in love. That's the only honorable
wife spiritually. I said a while ago, I could sit
here and talk to you humanly speaking and tell you, you go
into a neighbor's wife and whoever touches her shall not be innocent. And I'm telling you, you know,
and I know humanly speaking, that's wrong. There's no justification
for it. None. But there's a greater danger
here. And whosoever goes in to another's
wife, any wife other than the wife of the Lord Jesus Christ,
you go into her, you touch her, you will not be innocent." To
touch her. To lay the hand upon or to draw
near. Verse 30 says, Men do not despise
a thief if he steals to satisfy his soul when he's hungry. But
if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold. He shall give all
the substance of his house. But whoso committeth adultery
with a woman, lacketh understanding. He that doeth it destroyeth his
own soul. Now those three verses right
there reveal the absolute spiritual
darkness. of a man as he's found in his
unregenerate state. You know, the scripture says,
men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his soul
when he's hungry. And you know, we do condemn him. Why didn't he just ask? Why didn't
you just ask? Did you have to steal? A thief,
isn't that? A thief. Somebody that would steal something
from somebody. Take something from whether you
know them or whether you don't. A thief. The Scripture says he can restore
sevenfold for his error. Restitution can be made for that.
That's what it's saying. But he that apostatizes spiritually
and dies in that state, he's without understanding, that
is, he's without understanding of himself, of his need and the
sufficiency in Christ. Man, he does it to the destruction
of his own soul. You know, a man wouldn't think
anything of destroying another's property. I mean, you know, a
thief. You wouldn't think anything.
You steal something from somebody and you don't think a thing in
the world about it. All you did, you just, you did
it to satisfy yourself. Stole something like that, sold
it for a little of nothing, bought something that was worth nothing
and now it's gone. And what you've got is a reputation
of thief. That's all you are. He doesn't
think a thing in the world about it, but he thinks nothing of
his own perishing soul. And his reward, verse 33, a wound
and dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped
away. A wound, a blow laid upon him
and dishonor, disgrace, that's what he's going to get. And his
reproach, his rebuke, shall not be wiped away. You know, though
carnal man winks or thinks lightly of spiritual adultery, and man
by nature does, he's blind. He's just blind. He doesn't think
a thing in the world about it. Sit under anything or believe
anything. It's anything other than... Listen
to this Scripture. If we or an angel from heaven
preach any other gospel than that which we've preached unto
you, any other gospel, any other gospel, let him be accursed. And we will sit and we will listen
Someone talk about the God that they worship and you think, this
is not the God of this Bible. And we will absolutely think
to ourselves, that is damnable heresy. And there's places all over this
country, this world. And what's going to happen to
them? Well, because we love them and we want to think the best
of them. And the Scripture says, Whoso commiteth
adultery with a woman, spiritual adultery, he lacketh understanding,
and he that doeth it destroys his own soul. I've told you before,
I've got people in my family And as the Lord is my witness,
I can ask the Lord, I do ask Him, Lord, would you have mercy? Have mercy. But I know this, if they leave
this world in the state that obviously they're in, based on this word right here,
God's going to put them in hell. sitting under false religion,
whatever you call it. God is a just God. A wound and dishonor shall he
get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. For jealousy is the rage of a
man, therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will
not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though
thou givest many gifts." Jealousy for God's honor is the rage or the anger, the
Scripture says, of a man. And I look that up. It means the valiant man, the
prevailing man. It means the Lord Jesus Christ. Jealousy is the rage of a man,
the valiant man. Hebrews 10.31 says it is a fearful
thing to fall in the hands of a living God. Psalm 2.12, kiss
the Son lest He be angry and you perish from the way when
His wrath is kindled but a little. If there is any wrath there,
you will perish. Embrace Him. Depend on Him as
your hope, your sovereign. Kiss Him as the Scripture reveals. And don't be ashamed of kissing
Him. Kiss Him and let everything else go. I know what I'm talking
about. I know what I'm talking about. To be found apart from Him in
the day of judgment, this is what the Scripture says. will
not regard any ransom." He won't regard a bribe. That's
what it means, a ransom. He won't regard a bribe. Neither will He rest content. He will not consent, though thou
givest many gifts, only by being kept by the power
of God, through the Word of God. Is any man going to endure to
the end? The believer hears the warnings
of Almighty God as they are set forth in God's Word, and they
are blessed to his new heart by the Spirit of God. Oh, how
desperately do we need His Word. God Almighty has sent His Word,
the reason We come together and we worship together and we come
and we... I had a guy tell me one time, he
said, you know Marvin, basically what you do, you preach basically
the same thing every week. Basically that's what, you know,
you're basically preaching the same thing every week. Well,
here's the commandment of God. This is my beloved Son in whom
I'm well pleased. Hear ye Him. There's the commandment
of God. Hear ye Him. Forsake not the
law of thy mother. Paul reveals the law of our mother,
spiritual Jerusalem. Jerusalem which is above, the
mother of us all, the place in which we have been birthed by
the grace of God, God's eternal covenant. What is her law? It's faith in Christ. So hear
the Son. Faith in Him. That's the reproof. That's what keeps us. Why do
we hear Him every week? Because, number one, there's
nothing else to preach. It's the gospel of God's grace.
Why do we hear it? Why do we hear it? To keep you
from the evil woman. You hear Him and Almighty God
by His grace and power keeps you from that which would steal
you away. This is the safeguard, Carl,
hearing the gospel. By the grace of God, Almighty
God will keep us for Christ's sake. Amen. Gary and Bill.