THE ENEMIES, THE VICTIMS AND THE VICTOR

Proverbs 5:1-10 (KJV)

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.

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 twoedged sword.

Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.

Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.

Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:

Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:

Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;

The theme of chapters 5-8 is consistent – wisdom. But there are a number of personalities presented who each have a different relationship:

·   To wisdom and

·   To one another

There are six of these personalities and I am going to give them to you under the three headings:

·   The enemies

·   The victims and

·   The victor

I. THE ENEMIES

I think we could label the enemies under one name - Strangers

Proverbs 5:1 (KJV)

My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:

Proverbs 5:10 (KJV)

Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;

There are two of these enemies found in Proverbs 5-8

A. The naughty person

Proverbs 6:12-15 (KJV)

A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.

He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;

Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.

Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.

I know two things about this person:

·   He is wicked and

·   He walks with a forward mouth

1. He is wicked and lawless

He has no respect for any boundaries in his life

He will push against any sort of rule

·   Legal

·   Spiritual and

·   Moral

·   He has no respect for the law

·   He has no respect for God and

·   He has no respect for others

And he is not your friend.

2. Frowardness is in his heart

You can tell that forwardness is in his heart because it comes out his mouth.

The word forward means twisted or perverted.

It actually comes from a word that means to change oneself.

The forward person has rebelled against what is normal and moral and right and is outspoken against right.

We’ve seen a number of them in recent months

·   Gay rights

·   Abortion rights

·   Women’s rights

·   Illegal alien’s rights

They disagree with social, spiritual and political norms and have protested, sometimes in violent, perverted and disgusting ways.

3. I also know that his end is not good.

So a wise Christian avoids this sort of person.

I am not telling you to be mean to them. But I am saying that you should not let your nice nature allow them to run over you with their forward nature.

There is the naughty person and then there is,

B. The evil woman

Proverbs 6:24 (KJV)

To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

Now she keeps coming up over and over in these chapters and in each mention we learn something else about her:

1. She is strange

Proverbs 5:3-5 (KJV)

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 twoedged sword.

Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.

It means that

·   She is separated.

·   She is alienated.

It means she has no wholesome relationships in her life.

May I just say that one of the most dangerous things anyone can do, man or woman, is detach themselves from healthy relationships.

·   The family

·   The church

·   The friendships that promote goodness

Everyone needs them.

Without them we drift in our lives and usually end up shipwrecked.

2. She is whorish

Proverbs 6:26 (KJV)

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.

One of the definitions of the word is unfaithful.

·   She hasn’t kept her vows

·   She hasn’t been true to her word

If a person would break a promise to someone else, can you really expect them to keep a promise to you?

Jesus said,

Matthew 5:37 (KJV)

… let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

Be good for your word.

3. She is loud

Proverbs 7:11 (KJV)

(She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:

The word means “to murmur, growl or rage.”

The problem isn’t volume. The problem is temperament.

Some of the most mean spirited and harmful words have been spoken, not at the top of one’s lunges, but under the breath.

Let’s move now to,

II. THE VICTIMS

There are two of them that I see in chapters 5-8.

A. Goodman

Proverbs 7:18-20 (KJV)

Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.

For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.

The goodman appears to be the evil woman’s husband. He looks to be exactly what the Bible says he is, a good man:

·   He is a provider – she has a home and there is money

·   He is a worker – he looks to be away on business and

·   He is diligent – he has told her when he plans to be home and she is sure he will keep his word

But she is unfaithful to him so I will call him

1. Jilted

mistreated and abused

Consequently he is also

2. Jealous

Proverbs 6:34-35 (KJV)

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.

And he has every right to be.

The second victim is the more general one that I will call.

B. Simple fools

Proverbs 8:5 (KJV)

O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.

I spoke with a friend just this week.

He called to ask for some advice.

His daughter has made some choices that, even though they are not HORRIBLE, he knows that they open the door for some very bad things a little farther down the road of her life.

A godly parent isn’t perfect by any means.

But we raise our kids with the goal of helping them avoid the dangers that we know are out there and to give them a leg up so they can start their lives for Christ from a better place than we did.

We wanted to improve their spiritual lives, not just sustain them.

If the child foolishly chooses to ignore what we taught them and “make their own mistakes.”

It breaks our hearts!

It doesn’t have to be that way!

The simple could understand the wisdom they are given.

They could:

·   Heed our counsel

·   Avoid the dangers we warn them about and

·   Choose apply what we have taught them

I come to the final personality for this message,

III. THE VICTOR

Proverbs 8:20-21 (KJV)

I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment:

That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.

If a person:

·   Loves those that God puts in their lives to train them

·   Loves instruction in wisdom and righteousness and

·   Loves the Lord

The promise is success.

What that success is will be different for every one of us. God’s plan is not the same for us all.

·   We have different gifts

·   We have different callings and

·   We have different places of service

God divides those up “severally as he will.”[1]

I can promise you this – no one will suffer for choosing to love the Lord and receiving his treasures.

Proverbs 5:1-2 (KJV)

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.

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[1] 1 Corinthians 12:11 (KJV)

But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.