Proverbs 2:1-22 – Wise Up

Today's reading is Proverbs chapter two, verse one to twenty-two.

My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understand.

Yes.

If you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

He stores up sound wisdom for the upright.

He is appealed to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.

Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path.

But wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul, discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, who forsake the paths of righteousness, uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil, men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways.

So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

For her house sinks down to death and her paths to the departed.

None who go to her come back, nor do they regain the path of life.

So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of righteous.

For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it, but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

This is the word of God.

Sorry, I'm Peter.

So it'll just take me a moment here.

I'll be fine.

Don't worry, Nicole, my wife is looking after me.

So open up Proverbs 2.

It's important that you are looking at the scripture, that you're uh reading it.

Um the important thing that's going to come through is hearing God's word.

Uh, but it's important that we have it open in front of us, that we're reading it uh as it's being preached, um, and hopefully um that will bring more richness out for you, that will help you to understand it more.

Uh, but also you can see that uh hopefully that I am not just I'm not just making these things up.

Uh that God's word indeed is speaking to us.

Have you ever tried to stop doing something?

Uh so for me, my example uh is just spending too much time scrolling on my phone.

It can be really hard just by willpower to do that.

Uh the first, it was kind of a new year's resolution.

I had wanted to do it, and then the new year came around and was like, let's let's just go for it.

Um, and I kept my screen time on my phone, now not my iPad or my laptop uh inclusive, but just my phone, because that's why I do most of the scrolling that's just nonsense and a waste of time, and it's just rotting my brain.

Um I tried to keep it to less than an hour, and I was doing well for the first few days.

Um, and most of that was willpower.

Uh, but like the last few days, especially with the storm and trying to keep up with RT, and it's like 715,000 homes without without power, and then I'm like, when's it gonna go up to I'm like, why am I even thinking like this?

And it gets to 725,000, and then they change it to a million, even though it's still 720.

Anyway, I'm just like scrolling and scrolling, and it's so hard, it can be it can be really hard to not do those things uh just by willpower.

And maybe you found this to be true though, and it's a good tip, and I need to take it on uh on board more.

If you're trying to avoid doing something like scrolling, you should replace it with something better.

I find it's easy to keep my phone away when I'm busy doing other things that I enjoy.

If I'm just sitting around at home and I'm doing nothing, I'm gonna find it so hard not to just pick up my phone and start scrolling.

So, in order for me to stop scrolling so much, I could do it filling my time with better things.

Chapter two of Proverbs is the second lecture or the second speech that this father gives to his son.

And this is actually the king teaching his son, the future king, how to live rightly, how to live it to the full.

And it starts by going after your relationship with God and then living rightly towards those around you.

Though this was written for the education of future rulers, this future king in God's kingdom, it's for all his people, and we would be very foolish not to listen.

There's two broad brush strokes as we move through uh chapter two.

The first is find life to the full in God, and the second is you'll be delivered from emptiness.

So they are our two main points, and there's three subpoints in each, so you know where we're going.

So, our first main point: find life to the full in God.

And what the Father here tells his son to do, and we should listen to, is to fully embrace life with God.

That's our first sub point.

Fully embrace life with God.

If you do that, if you fully embrace life with God, you'll find life to the full in him.

As we listen to the first few verses of chapter two, we hear how emphatic the father is in speaking to his son because what he's saying about life is so important.

You can hear somewhat of a shift of tone from the last lecture.

The last lecture ran from verses eight to nineteen in chapter one.

And in that first lecture, the father encourages his son to hear his instruction and not forsake his mother's teaching.

You can see that in chapter one, verse eight.

But in chapter two, things ramp up a little.

You'll hear how, as we move through those first four verses, the pace, the intensity, it builds and builds, and then it opens up from verses five to the end as we explore how God is so generous, he's full of wisdom, how we'll be filled with life, and then the empty things that we'll be delivered from as we take in these most important words.

So looking at those first four verses, and verse one, he starts off with, Receive my words.

It's not just hear my words now, it's receive, accept, take them in and act on them.

Then he says, treasure up my commandments.

These words, these things that he's saying, what they're pointing to, they're to be treasured.

As we keep going through these verses, we hear, we, we, we hear that we're to hear our to make our ear attentive, we're to pay close attention to wisdom.

It's not merely just hearing, make your ear attentive.

Pay close attention to wisdom, to the way we're supposed to live.

It's not merely, as I said, hearing those right words.

It's taking them in, trying to understand them and do what they say.

As we continue, we incline our hearts to understanding.

It's not just our ears, it's not just our intellect, though it's it's not less than those.

Our ears and our intellect are important, but it's the posture of our hearts too.

We're to long for and desire these words, embracing them and seeking after them with our hearts.

And not only that, but we ourselves call out and raise our voices for understanding.

We call out, you might notice if you remember from last week, we call out in response to Lady Wisdom.

She called out in chapter 1, verse 20.

We're not just passively taking it in as it comes to us, but we go after it.

We call out for it.

James, in the start of his letter, says, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God for it.

Last week, as I said, we we heard Lady Wisdom pursuing us.

She was coming after us, crying out.

And now we see that we should meet her cries of our own for wisdom.

So cry out to God for insight, for wisdom and understanding.

Call out to him in prayer.

Ask him to show you how to live the best life.

Embrace your relationship with him.

And we don't just call out timidly, like we're asking for something that we don't really need or want.

Do you ever ask someone for something maybe at the dinner table and they don't really hear you, so obviously they say what?

And by the time they say they've said what, you're like, uh actually, you didn't really want that.

And it's just that moment.

This is not like that at all.

This is completely the opposite.

It's seeking it like silver and searching for it as for hidden treasure.

This is not something you want to pass up on.

It's not something you want to miss just because you're comfy in your chair or in your bed.

You won't want to just watch from a distance.

You'll want to jump fully into it, like you're jumping into the deep end of a pool.

You want to get that full experience.

Like wanting to pay full price for the VIP, the VIP tickets, say at Disneyland or somewhere like that.

Though this is a million times more precious, more important, and more life-giving.

Fully embrace life with God.

Long for more of him.

Go after him with everything that you've got.

It's kind of like our experience of getting to know someone or something.

Many of you, actually, probably the majority of you, moved to Dublin.

You didn't grow up here.

If you did grow up here, think of somewhere else for this example.

Before you visited here for the first time, you could have asked someone about their experience of Dublin, what it's like, somebody who's been there, been here or lived here.

You could listen to podcasts, there's articles you can read, you can watch videos about Dublin and life here.

And doing those things will help you experience something of what Dublin is like and what it's like to live here.

You could fly here and you could stay in the airport, you could experience a bit more of Dublin, you could even get a nice coffee in Terminal One in Cloud Picker, or you might even walk around Terminal Two and see the lovely big fancy architecture they have there, the big windows, and you're going to experience a little bit of Dublin, but you're not really going to enjoy Dublin the way you should, at least the way I think you should.

If you visit here for a weekend or a week, then you'll have experience the city in a much deeper and broader way than is possible by merely hearing about it or even seeing it from the plane as you come into land.

But if you move here for a few years, if you get a job, live here, if you commute on a crowded bus every day but still say thanks to the driver, like Dubliners do, if you make friends here, if you settle down, join a sports team, a quiz team, if you just get to know the people around you, then you'll know Dublin even more.

You'll have had a fuller experience and you'll have grown a greater love for the city.

Perhaps you'll get married to someone from Dublin, if you have kids here, if you join the Parents' Association in their school, then that'll be yet another facet of your experience of Dublin.

And as one of your pastors, and I think uh the others will agree, I think you should try and enjoy this beautiful city even more than you already do.

Go get a coffee and go for a swim on Bull Island or the 40 foot when the weather gets a bit better.

Join the group from City who goes and does a park run in St.

Anne's Park or Sandy Mount once every few Saturdays.

Go to the Phoenix Park, try and find the deer.

If none of those, uh if none of those things which kind of involve a bit of exercise tickle your fancy, then go explore some museums.

Plenty of them are free.

The Chester Beatty Library is great, the National Gallery is great.

Mark will give you some food recommendations, or just ask someone who's been here a while.

You can go watch a Gaelic football or a hurling match in Croke Park, or go to see a League of Ireland match.

Just ask someone around you what's their favorite thing to do in Dublin, and then go do it.

And as you do more of these things, as you embrace life in Dublin more and more, you'll grow to love it more and you'll see how much it's worth to embrace it.

But of course, how much more is embracing life with God worth it?

Proverbs 2, and the start of it here especially, is emphatic about how much we should go after hearing God and taking what he says into us and making it everything we go after.

So, as I said, as your pastor, I'm encouraging you to enjoy this city, but I want you to chase after God with everything you have, so much more.

Search for it as for hidden treasure.

Paul in the New Testament in Colossians writes about wisdom being hidden somewhere.

At the start of Colossians 2, he tells those Christians that he's working really hard to encourage their hearts, that he wants them to be knit together in love, that they'd reach the full assurance and knowledge.

Sorry, the full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

That's at the start of Colossians 2.

All that we've looked at so far in these verses, in these first four verses, that's all pointing us to Christ.

He's the word that we're to we're hearing, he's the word made flesh.

So we need to seek after him with all we have.

That hidden treasure is found in Christ.

So pursue him, pursue Christ.

Back to Proverbs 2, it continues.

We find more of the motivation we should have for going after life with God with everything we have.

We see that it's because God is full of wisdom and He's abundantly generous with it.

God is generous and full of wisdom.

That's our second sub point.

Why should we listen carefully to what God says?

Why should we call out for insight?

Why should we seek understanding like it's more precious than silver?

Well, verse 5 tells us it's because it's to be found.

It's there.

We're not just chasing after something that may or may not be there.

We're not just following the advice of someone who said they heard someone say that they overheard someone say that there's treasure over there in that field, or maybe it's over beyond that over.

It's not like that.

Wisdom is to be found, it's there without a doubt.

If you do what verses one to four say, then according to verse five, you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

What a great motivation to search for it.

You will find it.

And what is it that you'll find?

What is it that's more precious than silver?

It's God Himself.

It's knowing God.

As you listen to the Father's words, to God's words, you get to know him.

As you treasure his commands and what he says, you treasure him more.

As you search for that hidden treasure, you find it in Christ, and you find Christ Himself.

We get to have a deeper and a sweeter relationship with God.

Look at verse 5 again.

If you do all the things in verses 1 to 4, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Remember, the fear of the Lord, we've come across it before in Proverbs.

It's right relationship with God.

It's recognizing that He is the creator, He's the sustainer of life, He's given an order to the universe, He's given it a grain, and we live in light of that.

We have a profound respect for Him and awe for Him, but we also love Him for who He is with all our hearts and we worship Him with our whole lives.

So if you do all that the Father says in verses 1 to 4, then you will understand the fear of the Lord.

You'll understand what it means to live rightly in God's world before Him.

And you'll also find the knowledge of God.

This isn't only knowing things about God, it's it's knowing Him as Father.

As friend.

Think back to the first time that you met a dear friend or maybe your spouse.

It usually starts with normal things like what's your name?

Getting to know where they're from, what they do, and so on.

And you'll keep learning things about them as you talk and talk.

You'll get to know them as you invest time in them and listen to them.

But as you listen to them more attentively, you'll pick up not only on the content of their speech, but on the tone of voice.

You'll recognize when fine means fine and when fine means it's not okay at all.

Do you know anyone like that?

And all this happens as you spend time together doing different things, as you experience life together, the good and the bad.

So it is in our relationship with God.

Remember back to chapter 1, verse 7.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Living wisely in this world begins with living with the Lord, in relationship with him, listening to him and getting to know him, talking to him and growing to love him more.

And what happens when you seek wisdom by fearing the Lord with everything?

Come to verse 5 in chapter 2 that we're looking at today.

What happens?

As you fear the Lord more, you fear the Lord more.

So the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but it's also what you get when you pursue wisdom.

Hold on, it actually does make sense.

Wise living is first having that right relationship with God.

And that includes loving him more, honoring him more, making him the ruler of your life more and more.

And as you do that, you grow to fear the Lord.

You grow in the fear of the Lord, you grow in your relationship with him.

It's this perpetual cycle of growing more and more to know and love the God who made you, who speaks to you, who watches over you and loves you, as Proverbs 2 says.

And this perpetual cycle, well, it's endless because he's full of wisdom.

As you search for his word as for hidden treasure, you will find it, but you won't get to the bottom of it.

And he's generous with it too.

Verse 6 for the Lord gives wisdom.

We search for it, but it's he who gives it because it's to be found in him.

He's the one who speaks to us.

Again, at in James chapter 1, at the start of his letter, he says, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault.

James 1 · chapter mention

He's generous with wisdom.

He's generous with giving us himself.

And he stores up sound wisdom.

That's the right way to live in this world.

He has loads of it for the upright, for those who seek it.

As you embrace your relationship with him, listen to him in his word.

Truly, truly take it in.

Let it affect the way you think, let it affect the way you act.

Then you'll be safe.

Look at the second half of verse 7.

Walking in integrity is part of living rightly before God and others.

Those paths of justice in verse 8, they describe how we will live if we fear the Lord and grow in wisdom.

The Lord in making us wise actually watches over our way.

Now I want to address one thing that we could potentially read from this.

And it's not what it's saying.

It sounds a bit like we can earn wisdom.

It sounds like if we try hard enough and work hard enough, God will reward us for our efforts.

Come back with me to experiencing Dublin for a minute.

Is knowing and loving Dublin more a reward for experiencing it more and more?

Not really.

It's not like Dublin is withholding itself until you pay your dues and spend enough time here.

No.

All these things that you'll discover and love about the city, they were there before you discovered them.

And there's plenty of things that even if someone told you about them, you'd have to grow to appreciate them by experiencing them.

And think about that dear friend.

This is probably even A bit better.

It's is that deepening and that sweetening of your friendship a reward for putting hard work into the relationship?

Not really.

Kind of, maybe.

You would describe it like that.

It's a consequence or outcome, but consequence and outcome don't really describe it properly either.

It's hard to describe the nature of a deepening friendship, but I hope you get the gist.

It's the same way with God.

As we spend more time with him, as we do, the Father says to the Son, if you do all that he says in verses 1 to 4, then you'll know God like this.

As we seek wisdom like silver, our relationship with God will deepen.

As we search for understanding as for hidden treasure, our friendship with God will grow.

It'll grow to be sweeter than any human friendship.

And again, it's because it's there.

It's not so much a reward for your hard work and diligence.

Saying it's a consequence of spending time with God doesn't quite cut it.

But sweet relationship with the Lord and life in him is to be found because it's there in him.

So go looking for it, as if it's the most precious thing.

Because it is the greatest thing.

There's no greater thing than to know Jesus.

And it's important for us to go looking in the right place.

If you're searching for something, it's helpful to know where it's found, who has it, who's giving it out.

The Father here doesn't send his son out the front door with an obscure treasure map to try to find out how to live rightly in God's world and how to get to know the Lord.

He tells him where to find it.

He shows the Son the source.

And that source is the Lord Himself, who is generous and full of wisdom.

Verses 9 to 11 continue to show the benefits of getting wisdom from our God who's full of wisdom and generous with it.

And that's that we're filled with life.

That's our third subpoint.

As you fully embrace life with God, that's our first main point, fully embrace life with God.

And as you do that, you will be filled with life.

Like verses 7 to 8, verse 11 describes how growing in wisdom is beneficial to us because it will guard us and keep us safe as we encounter both good and bad in the world.

In that way, we're filled with life.

We're kept safe.

We're going to look at how at what wisdom guards us from in the second half of the chapter in a moment.

But as we look at verses 9 and 10, we see that the way that we're filled with life is actually to have our hearts, to have our minds, to have our souls changed and transformed.

Verse 9 says that if we do what the Father says in 1 to 4, then we'll understand how to live rightly.

And not just in one way, we'll understand every good path.

This is what these three words, righteousness, justice, and equity, are what come up in chapter 1, verse 3.

That was the there was chapter 1, verse 3 was talking about those first few verses in chapter 1, we're talking about the purpose of Proverbs.

And righteousness, justice, and equity, that's how to live the right way in general.

But it's especially how we want someone to rule or govern or to use authority, isn't it?

If those over us who have authority over us who rule, if they're righteous, if they're just and equitable, wouldn't that be great?

But I don't want you to just think of someone else.

I want you to think about it for yourself and how important it is for you to understand these things.

Fathers and husbands, do you know and walk every good path as you lead your families?

Men, are those of you who would be husbands and fathers in future growing in this?

Remember, this is a father teaching his son.

I'm assuming he may not have children.

This son here, he may not have children or even be married.

There's a sense in which it's geared towards the future.

Leaders in the church, are you growing in righteousness, in justice, and equity?

All of you who are working, especially as you make decisions for a business, for those you're managing, for clients, you're making decisions to use general resources and your own resources in particular.

Is this true of you too?

As any of you look ahead to the potential of having more responsibility, are you growing in these, in righteousness, in justice, and in being equitable?

Wouldn't it be great to know what the best way to live is, to know every good path?

That would be so life-giving, not only for you, but for those around you.

Or if you're like me despairing at the state of where you're at right now, remember, how does this come?

It comes as we fear the Lord more and more, as we seek Him with all we've got, as we grow to honor God more, to love Him more, to worship Him more with our whole lives because He's so worthy, as we do that, we simultaneously grow to love others more.

We grow to put them before ourselves.

We grow in our ability to make decisions that benefit those around us.

Do you see how as we embrace the vertical, our relationship with the Lord, it has wonderful effects on the horizontal and we're filled with life.

Again, not only for ourselves, but life flows out.

And verse 10 gives us more insight into how this happens.

Wisdom comes into our hearts and knowledge becomes pleasant to our souls.

It's about desire.

Our hearts are transformed, and this is a gracious work of the Spirit.

Yes, verses 1 to 4 and how emphatic they are.

They're still true.

But it's God who does the work in us by changing us from the inside out.

It's not that we work really hard to get wisdom into our hearts, though it's good to work towards that.

That's what wisdom will actually cause you to do, to let it sink deep down into your heart, to let it do its work in you.

And knowing more about God and how to live in His world will be a delight to you.

It'll be pleasant to your soul.

That's such an attractive thing, isn't it?

It sounds like the best life.

I don't know what could be better.

Or maybe you've heard some other voices telling you about what you should do, where you should try to find life.

We'll take a look at a moment in the in the second half of the chapter at the some of these things that try to tell us where to find life.

But I want to say that if this isn't your experience, finding delight in God, desiring him, either just at the moment, right now, or ever, then you can pray to him for it.

Ask him to fill you with himself, to give you the eyes of faith to see his spirit is in you, that he's transforming you, he's transforming you more and more into the likeness of his son Jesus.

And do it in community.

Here in Proverbs, we have a father and a son.

I'm sure the son asks questions after the lecture, saying things like, I don't find this pleasant to my soul yet.

And I imagine the father encourages them more, like we've been seeing.

So seek God together with those who are around you and encourage each other to pursue Him and delight in Him.

Find life to the full in God.

Now, the way in which growing in wisdom and the fear of the Lord gives us life is also in what it keeps us from.

There's things that attract us because they seem life-giving, but in the end they lead to death.

They're empty.

And wisdom keeps us from them.

That's our second main point.

You'll be delivered from emptiness.

And this this half is, we'll go a bit quicker.

In the second half of the chapter, we're told that wisdom and the fear of the Lord will deliver us from devious men and the dangerous woman.

And rather than ending up going to the place of death with them, we'll live forever in the good land with Him.

And you'll see that the devious, or actually you'll hear that the devious men and the dangerous woman, they're rival voices to the Father.

Look at that in that both speak.

Verse 12, the men have perverted speech, and in verse 16, the woman has smooth words.

That's interesting, isn't it?

The father was so emphatic about listening to and taking in his words of wisdom, God's words.

And here we have two other voices, both of which take away life rather than giving it.

But listening to wisdom we're told and growing in our relationship with God, that'll keep us safe from these two voices.

So we'll be delivered from devious men.

Like the gang in chapter one, they try to get you to walk their way, to join them in their plans.

But these ways are empty.

They forsake the path of the upright.

That is, they abandon the way of life.

It's empty.

They walk in the ways of darkness rather than the ways of light.

Their words are perverted.

Unlike the words of God, which bring knowledge and understanding, these men speak twisted things and they rejoice in doing evil.

Maybe you're sitting there thinking, I'd be able to spot those.

It sounds like a group of tugs that you you just run run away from straight away.

But it's a bit more sinister than that.

They rejoice.

Now, of course, what they're rejoicing in isn't good, but nonetheless, they rejoice.

And the same for what they delight in.

They're delighting in evil.

It's not good, but nonetheless they delight.

And rejoicing and delighting aren't those things we do in response to good and in response to having life to the full.

So the fact that these men rejoice and delight in evil is clearly as perverse and twisted as their words, but it also speaks to how we could fall into their ways if we're not careful.

And this is how wisdom will guard and deliver us.

These evil men, they're subtle, they're devious.

How easy is it to be dishonest about something?

Maybe you're not even being malicious at all.

You have no malicious intent.

You're just trying to find a little bit of an easier path forward because life is hard at the moment.

Maybe it's in work with how you use your time when you're working from home or with your spouse about how you're spending your money.

It could be just something that you should be telling your friend, but it's easier not to say anything.

It's easier not to be honest.

As time goes on, you may end up not merely withholding the things that you should say, but you'll have to lie to cover it up.

And then you'll have to lie to cover that up, and now you're in a web of lies.

Your ways are crooked like these evil men.

You've twisted your speech.

It's not long since that you thought that you were merely not telling the whole truth, and now you're lying to keep up appearances.

It probably seemed life-giving at the time.

You'll justify that initial small thing by looking at the that saying that you were looking at the options in front of you.

They're like paths.

On one side, you can't quite see what's ahead, but it looks easy.

It looks like it might even start to go downhill, and you need that at the moment.

But on the other side is the way you hear wisdom say you should go.

It looks like it's a bit harder right now.

It doesn't necessarily look life-giving at the moment.

It's the thing that's going to make you have to face up to the consequences.

But that's a crooked way.

We saw this in community groups this past week in Proverbs 10, 9, the first proverb we looked at.

Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his way crooked will be found out.

In the Swords group, we talked about how getting yourself into a web of lies is like being crooked in your ways.

You're going to be found out, and it's not going to be good.

It's not going to give the life it promised initially.

It's like somebody walking back and forth and tripping over themselves.

But if you walk with integrity, the Lord will be your shield.

He'll guard your path.

That's verses 7 and 8 here in chapter 2.

So the good life with God, going after him, looks like being delivered from devious men.

And it's also being delivered from the dangerous woman.

Again, as we said, here someone speaking, trying to rival God's good word.

And it's also a rival to the to Lady Wisdom, who is crying out aloud to us at the end of chapter one.

But these words, these words of the forbidden woman, they lead to death.

Though, again, it doesn't sound like it would lead to death.

See, they're smooth words.

They're attractive.

They're at least equal to, if not more insidious, than the twisted words of those devious men.

These words, they're sweet like honey.

And they sound like they give us what we want.

They sound like they give life.

As you hear the father's words now, I want you to take them with you as you go about your week in your mind's eye.

Where's this dangerous woman?

What are those smooth words?

Because they're out there.

Oftentimes it's not with our eye that we're led towards her, but it's the flattery with which she speaks.

Perhaps there's people who flatter you at work.

Maybe there's a bit of seemingly innocuous flirting going on, but you need to be careful.

This is a slippery slope.

None who go back to her, none who go to her come back.

Verse 19.

Of course, these verses warn us married men from forsaking our marriage vows.

But it's true for married women too, and for those who are single.

It's true for us all.

There is a way that seems like it will be pleasing in our relationships and that we'll be satisfied in some way.

Obviously, here it's mostly pointing towards being satisfied sexually and romantically, but that way only leads to death.

But if we listen to God's words and if we look to Him to find true life, you see these verses, they're not just a don't do this fun thing.

We find true life in God.

Listening to God, that's where true life is to be found.

And now the Father is showing us what else might try to tell us this is where life is found, but it only leads to death.

So as you consider those romantic relationships, whether you're married or not, know that anything outside of what God says is good is not.

Despite how great and life-giving it sounds in the moment, it's the forbidden woman and her smooth words.

And again, don't just, it's not just don't do that.

It's rather than listening to her, find true satisfaction, find true life in Christ.

And I want to encourage you all, as you find that Christ is all you want and need, living that out, whether you're married or single, you encourage all of us, you encourage the whole church body.

Those of you who are single, and there's many of you who, as you look to Christ to find, to give that true satisfaction, rather than finding it in another human or anywhere else, you encourage each of us.

You show us, like in verses one to four, how we how much we need to run after him.

So continue longing for him.

Continue loving him and discovering him.

Husbands, as you love your wife and lay down your life for her as Christ does the church, you point each of us to him rather than finding our satisfaction in something else.

Wives, as you love and submit to your husbands in the Lord, you show us how all of us should love and submit to Christ.

So don't find your satisfaction in the wrong place because it only leads to death.

Now, this forbidden woman, it's not just about human relationships, though that's such a huge part of our lives, isn't it?

It's anything that leads you away from chasing after God because it looks like it'll satisfy you.

It might be different for you than for me, but it'll have the same characteristics.

It'll have smooth words.

It'll promise to satisfy you, but it'll only leave you empty.

Solomon is an example.

He wrote these Proverbs, but he was led astray by forbidden women.

That's at the start of 1 Kings 11.

The same word in the Hebrew is used here in Proverbs 2, in the Hebrew as in 1 Kings 11.

And the thing about those women that he went after is that they led him to worship idols, to worship other gods, to turn from the Lord, forsaking him.

And that's what will happen if you listen to these smooth words.

Whatever it is that's enticing you will lead you away from God, away from true life, and down to death where none return.

And this is where we see Christ actually.

He was sinless.

And he went to the place of death for our sake.

And though he did come back, he rose again to newness of life, so that all who are united to him by faith have life with him.

Being united to Christ delivers you from this dangerous woman.

Wisdom will deliver you from her.

Living rightly before God will deliver you from this adulterous woman, finding your satisfaction daily in Christ, growing to love him more and more, living for him, and him alone will keep you from this dangerous woman.

Finally, you love life to the full forever.

Look at those last few verses, 20 to 22.

The whole chapter has been showing us how embracing our relationship with God with all we have, listening to him and seeking him like treasure, that it means that we gain life and we're kept safe from those empty and dangerous ways that seem attractive.

Now the Father tells us that we'll have this life to the full forever.

We'll dwell in the land, he says, and will remain in it.

This is the best and most secure life, no matter what anyone else says.

This land here is the place of blessing.

And where is blessing found?

It's found in Christ.

Being united to him is to be blessed beyond measure.

Going deeper with him is to be blessed more and more.

Living life united to him is to live the best life.

Trying to live life apart from him is actually wickedness and treachery.

Doing so means you'll be cut off and rooted out of the land.

So if you are in Christ, pursue him all the more.

If you're not in Christ already, call out to God.

Seek after Christ with all that you have and put your faith in him.

He's the one who is cut off for our sake so that we might dwell with him forever.

Go after him.

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