MORAL AND RELIGIOUS TRUTH

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PROVERBS 7
Lesson #09
MORAL AND RELIGIOUS TRUTH

• Memory Verse: Pro 7:4
• Read Pro 7:1-27 Instruction to My Son #13 As an adult son
  • “My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.  Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.” (1-3)
    • Key words: commandments (moral commands); law (list of rules); heart (soul/innerman).
    • The commandments and law refer to the Law of Moses. In the context of the book of Proverbs it is dealing with the moral aspects of God’s commands.
    • In these verses, man is told to keep the Law and make them his focus in life keeping in the center of his eyesight, making sure they guide the works of his hands, and the depths of his heart.
      • Background:
        • During the time period in which Solomon lived (a period of Law), the covenant that God made with Moses was still in effect. In other words, man was supposed to keep the Law of Moses that contained the Ten Commandments and more.
        • The Law of Moses (from Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,. and Deuteronomy) had three sections:

=1= The Ceremonial Law of the covenant with Moses:

These laws consisted of the ritual and ceremony of Old Testament temple worship.

They also included animal sacrifice.

=2= The Moral Law of the covenant with Moses (The book of Proverbs deals with this aspect of the Law):

These points of law tell us the moral standards of God.

They include the Ten Commandments from Exo 20.

=3= The Civil Law of the covenant with Moses:

These specific laws deal with man’s relationship with man.

For example, how man should treat his neighbor and his neighbor’s property.

• • • • • As man became more and more familiar with every point of the Mosaic Law, he would discover that it is impossible to keep the Law every moment of every day for all of your life. It is a hopeless endeavor. And if you broke one point of the Law you broke all of it. (Jam 2:10)
        • Then why does God tell man to keep it? As man tried to keep the Law, realizing he could not, he would be ready for the first coming of the Messiah Jesus Christ that would fulfill the Law for him. The Law was to point man to Christ and his need of a Savior.
      • The New Testament believer:
        • In the age of grace in which we live today, man is not expected to keep the Law of Moses. The Law was given to the Jews only and for a temporary period of time until the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
        • Read Gal 3:23-24
    • Because the believer today is not expected to keep the Law of Moses, of what value today are these verses in Proverbs?
      • The new covenant under which the New Testament believer is now living has an interesting comment to which Proverbs refers.
      • “…write them upon the table of thine heart.” (3)
        • The Law of Moses was written on tablets of stone, not on the heart of man. This verse refers to the new covenant that God would write with the New Testament believers in Christ.
        • Proverbs says to write them on your heart. How does the New Testament believer write the Laws of God on his heart?

Read Heb 8:10-13

When a New Testament believer receives Jesus Christ into his heart and life, the Holy indwells the believer.

The Holy Spirit writes the laws of God on a believer’s heart and reminds you of them when you sin.

The New Testament believer is supposed to listen to the indwelling Holy Spirit, to repent of his sin, and seek God’s forgiveness.

• • “Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman: That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.” (4-5)
    • Key words: wisdom (skillful living/Jesus Christ); understanding (discernment of good from evil); strange woman/stranger (prostitute/false religion).
    • We have already discussed at length in our study of Proverbs the prostitute and sexual sins. We are not going to look at this section from the standpoint of actual sexual sin.
      • Previously I have mentioned that wisdom in this book is described as a woman and is personified in Jesus Christ.
      • Therefore the woman called Wisdom is the true religion that brings the believer to life a skillful life in Jesus Christ.
      • We have not discussed in detail the Strange Woman that is a prostitute that represents false religion that leads to death and hell.
    • All the passages in the book of Proverbs dealing with these two women, one contrasted with the other, can be interpreted as either living skillfully in Jesus Christ or as living in the lust of the flesh of false religion.
      • Wisdom: Therefore, on one level we have actual physical aspects of skillful living in a wise manner, and we have the spiritual aspects of living in Jesus Christ. They are one and the same directly related one to the other.
        • “Say unto wisdom thou art my sister…” (4)

Have a personal relationship to God through Jesus Christ, the personification of wisdom.

Invite Jesus Christ to come and live in your heart so as to become part of the family of God.

• • • • • “…call understanding thy kinswoman” (4)

The indwelling Holy Spirit will then give you a discernment of what is good and what is evil in the family of God.

As you live skillfully with this moral understanding, everyone around you will know that you belong to the family of God.

• • • • Strange Woman: In contrast we have the actual physical aspect of the sexual sin of prostitution and we have the spiritual aspects of living in false religions. They also are one and the same directly related one to the other.
        • “…that they may keep thee from the strange woman…” (5)

A personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit will keep you away from false religions and false doctrines.

One of the works of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer is to reveal truth. (Joh 15:26 Joh 16:13)

• • • • • “…the stranger which flattereth with her words” (5)

False religions promise something that seems attractive at the time.

The believer that does not know the Word of God well can be easily deceived.

This is especially true in these last days before the second coming of Christ. (1Tim 4:1)

• • “ For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,” (6-7)
    • Key words: simple ones (unwise); void (lacking); understanding (discernment of good and evil).
    • The unwise believers are baby Christians (youths) that have no discernment between good and evil because they do not know the Word of God. They permit every kind of wind of doctrine to enter into their mind and heart without any doctrinal discrimination.
    • Read Eph 4:14
  • “ Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,  In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night: And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.”(8-10)
    • Key words: subtil (extreme determination).
    • Some false religions walk the streets like a prostitute. They inhabit public places to hand out their literature with extreme and coercive determination in an effort to snag the unwise person.
    • Sin runs rampant in darkness while false religions are darkness devoid of light and truth.
  • ^“ (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:  Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.) So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,  I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.” (11-14)
    • Key words: impudent (shameless).
    • Notice the religious aspects mixed with the sexual prostitution in verse 14.
      • “peace offerings” refer to the fact that the non-believer does not have peace with God because of sin.
        • Under the Old Testament Law of Moses, the peace offering was one of the animal sacrifices described in the book of Leviticus. (Lev 3)
        • In this New Testament age of grace today, the believer in Jesus Christ obtains peace with God through the shed blood of Jesus on the cross. Jesus is our peace offering. That is the true religion.
      • False religions attempt to persuade people that they offer peace with God, but this is a shameless lie.
      • Notice she says, “…this day have I payed my vows.” (14)
        • The true believer in Jesus Christ does not have to pay anything to obtain peace with God. That peace that passes understanding comes to the believer by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
        • It is Jesus Christ that paid for our sins on the cross. Therefore, true religion in Christ can say, “The price for your sins was paid by me, Jesus Christ, on the cross. It is finished.” (Joh 19:30)
  • ^“ Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.  I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.  I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.  Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.” (15-18)
    • Key words: diligently (constant care).
    • False religions are often very wealthy as they deceive people into giving to them and hide the majority of their financial assets.
    • False religions present an attractive face and appeal to the flesh nature of man.
    • The reference to fine linen of Egypt in verse 16 is interesting.
      • Egypt is a Biblical symbol of worldliness while fine linen is a Biblical symbol of righteousness.
      • The cults of the world promise righteousness but often end up in sexual immorality.
    • Notice the plural of the word, “loves”, at the end of verse 18.
      • The allegiance in false religion is not to one lover but to many: many different gods, and/or many different leaders in the group that present themselves as messiah figures.
      • In the same way as in prostitution, there are many lovers.
      • In the one true religion, there is only one God, Jesus Christ, by which man can be saved.(1Cor 8:5-6)
  • “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.” (19-20)
    • Like the husband of the prostitute, he is not at home to keep his wife from prostitution.
    • This reminds us of the book of Hosea.
      • Read Hos 1:2
      • Hosea married a prostitute. God led him to do this to demonstrate to Israel God’s great love for his people even though the Israelites kept prostituting themselves by running after other gods (called other lovers in the book of Hosea).
      • Hosea loved his wife and kept running after her to bring her back home where she belonged with her husband and children in the family of God.
    • Like Hosea, the Holy Spirit will run after the unwise believer that has fallen into a foreign religion to bring him back to Jesus Christ.
  • “With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.  He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.” (21-23)
    • Key words: fool (no God for me); stocks (public means of punishment to dissuade others from that sin).
    • The unwise believer (the simple) and the non-believer (the fool) will yield to the attraction of false religions. Why?
      • They offer a works- based system to earn salvation.
      • It seems logical to human nature that man must earn his own way through life including spiritual salvation. However the Bible tells us that eternal salvation is a free gift received by faith in Jesus Christ.
    • The end result of false religions is not that all religions end up in heaven together, but that they all end up in hell suffering spiritual death (eternal separation from God).
      • The non-believer will discover that there is a God he should have acknowledged.
      • The unwise believer will be caught in the snare and only the Holy Spirit can persuade him and free him from the bondage of false religion.
        • “Till a dart strike through his liver…” (23)
        • This is the conviction of the Holy Spirit that attempts to convince the believer of his error.
        • “…knoweth not that it is for his life.” (23)

It is eternal life that is at stake.

For the non-believer, he will suffer the eternal second death (Rev 21:8) that is eternal separation from God in the lake of fire.

For the unwise believer, he will suffer loss of rewards in eternity for following where the Holy Spirit did not lead him. (1Cor 3:11-15)

• • “Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.” (24-25)
    • Key words: heart (the soul, the inner man); astray (the wrong way).
    • We are told in verse 24 how to avoid falling into the ways of false religions.
      • “…attend to the words of my mouth.” (24)
      • The unwise believer must read and study God’s Word and listen to the direction of the Holy Spirit in him.
      • The non-believer must obtain a relationship with Jesus Christ so as to be able to understand God’s Word.
  • “For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.  Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.”(26-27)
    • Both sexual prostitution and spiritual prostitution with false religions have many wounded souls.
    • Spiritual death for eternity is an awful price to pay for this deception.
• Summary and application:
  • God’s full intention from the beginning of time was to change man’s heart through the power of the Holy Spirit.
  • This is something that the Old Testament Law of Moses could not do.
  • This is something that false religions cannot do.
  • Only in the New Testament believer through the indwelling of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is it possible to change man’s heart so as to reveal truth to him.

Homework
Proverbs 8:1-21

• Application of Pro 7
  • How does the New Testament believer write the laws of God on his heart? (3-4)
    When the believer receives Christ in his heart, the Holy Spirit dwells inside the believer and reminds him when he violates God’s law.
  • What kind of men fall for the deceptions of the strange woman? (7, 26)
    The “simple” which means those who are unwise in the ways of God.
  • What is hanging in the balance when a person falls into the ways of the strange woman? (23, 26)
    His life, both physical and eternal.
  • Have you ever been part of false religion? How did God reveal His truth to you that brought you out of it?
  • Thank God in prayer for His Holy Spirit that revealed the truth of Jesus Christ to you to give you eternal life.
• Preparation for Pro 8:1-21
  • Read Pro 8:1-21
    • What is it that comes from the mouth of wisdom? (7-8)
    • Having a fear of the Lord means you are going to have a hate for what? (13)
    • Government leaders reign because of what? (15-16)
    • Who is it that God loves? (17)
• Memory Verse: Pro 8:17