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And as we've been going through the book of Proverbs, it's really been just focusing on the topic of wisdom, and you know, as we get into Proverbs a little bit further, we get into Proverbs chapter 5, the Bible's going to start getting a little bit more topical. It's going to start talking and giving us more application of how you can apply this wisdom into certain areas of your life. So let's look at the first two verses here, it says, 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. So we look at this phrase here in the first verse, it says bow thine ear to my understanding. If y'all would flip over a couple of chapters to Proverbs chapter 22, and I'm going to read for you a couple other places. We have this phrase, bow down thine ear, found in the Bible in a lot of places. In 2 Kings chapter 19 verse 16, it says, Lord, bow down thine ear, and here open thine eyes and see, and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God. And in this story we have Hezekiah, he's the great king of Judah, and he's being encamped about by the Assyrians, and Sennacherib is sent to send a message unto them saying, look, there's no way you can trust in the Lord. You need to just surrender unto the king of Assyria or you're going to perish. And we see this great prayer by Hezekiah saying, Lord, bow down thine ear. He's saying, God, please hear what I'm having to say. In Psalms chapter 31 verse 2 it says, bow down thine ear to me, deliver me speedily, be thou my strong rock for an house of defense to save me. We see in Proverbs chapter 22 and verse 17 where I return, it says bow down thine ear and hear the words of the wise and apply thine heart unto my knowledge. What is he saying when he's saying bow down my ear? He's saying listen up, open your ears, pay attention. What he's about to say to his son is so important that he's like, look, I better give you a warning. I say bow down thine ear. We see Hezekiah was in great desperation and he was saying, God, please listen to me. We're encamped by the Assyrians, we're going to be destroyed. You have to. It was a desperate call and we need to have special attention to what he's about to say. We need to have special attention to the words that are going to come from a father unto a son. It says in verse 2 that thou mayest regard discretion and that thy lips may keep knowledge. I feel like this whole chapter is focused on this thought of discretion. And what is discretion? Well in Proverbs chapter 1, if you just flip back one chapter or one page probably to the very first chapter, it says in verse 4, to give subtly to the simple, to the young man knowledge in discretion. And we're getting a description of what a proverb is. Part of what a proverb is is to give you discretion. It says in Proverbs chapter 2 in verse 11, it says discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee. In Proverbs chapter 3, we keep building on this word discretion, it says in verse 21, my son, let them not depart from thine eyes, keeps on wisdom and discretion. So he keeps emphasizing this discretion. What is discretion? It's going to keep you from things that you shouldn't go into. In Genesis chapter 41, if y'all turn to Mark chapter 12, Mark chapter 12, I'm going to read in Genesis 41 verse 33, it says, now therefore let Pharaoh look out, a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt. And a little bit further, Pharaoh said unto Joseph, for as much as God hath showed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art. And Joseph was a great man who has made second in command over all of Egypt, at a pretty young age it seems like, a person that didn't necessarily have a lot of experience of being king over an entire nation. But he's saying you're so discreet, meaning what? He had knowledge and wisdom of things that he'd never experienced. How are you going to get that from the Bible? Discretion is going to preserve you from things that you've never experienced. You know, they always say experience is the best teacher. Well, I would say if I could learn all the good and bad lessons without actually having to go through with it, that would probably be better. You know, I'd rather not get hit by a car and understand that it's good discretion not to go stand out in the street. You know, I'd rather not just sit in a toilet vomiting and learn that it's not a good idea to drink alcohol and get drunk. I would like to have the discretion that comes from this book, and we see discretion is going to preserve you from things that maybe you haven't experienced yet. Maybe things that you don't even have that much knowledge about. But discretion will give you that wisdom, that understanding to say, hey, I'm not going to partake in that event, or this is what I need to do. We see that Joseph was given great discretion to store up, you know, food in a time of famine. It says in Mark chapter 12 in verse 28, well, let me turn there real quick. We have Jesus, he's being asked by one of the Pharisees, or one of the scribes that comes up to him. I don't have this in my notes. In Mark chapter 12 verse 28 it says, and one of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, the first of all the commandments is, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment, and the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these, and the scribes said unto him, well master, thou hast said the truth, for there is one God, and there is none other but he, and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, thou are not far from the kingdom of God, and no man after that durst ask him any question. Now we know that no man has ascended up to heaven, right? But he answered him discreetly, knowing how to get to the kingdom of God, to love God and to keep his commandments. And that was, the kingdom of God wasn't far from him. He had discretion to understand what this Bible meant. Discretion is going to give you the wisdom of things that you don't even know about. In Titus chapter 2, talking about women, it says that they should be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. It's so important for women to read the Bible just as much as men, so they can have that discretion, so they can avoid certain situations, so they can teach their children so they can avoid certain situations. You say, well, not everything in Proverbs is, you know, going to directly affect me, because it's talking about young men, but every mother's going to probably raise some young men in this world, and they need to be able to teach those young men that discretion that the word of God gives them. So if we go back to Proverbs chapter 5, and as we're turning back, it says in Proverbs chapter 11, 22, it says, a jewel of gold and a swine snout, so is a fair woman, which is without discretion. So it says, look, even a woman that was just beautiful, but she had no discretion, would be like a jewel of gold and a swine's snout. You know, that's not very desirable to have a woman with no discretion. Let's read the next few verses. It says in verse 3, 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 feet go down to death, her steps take hold on hell, lest thou shouldst ponder the path of life. Her ways are movable, that thou canst not know them. So we see a description, he's saying, look, the things that you need to pay attention to, the discretion that you need to have is from this strange woman. Now it's kind of interesting, as I was preparing for this sermon, I have an app on my phone, I guess it's just kind of built in, it always pops up like a few just popular news articles, you know, just like what the world's saying or whatever, and I just happened to look down and I saw this article and it was titled, teen reportedly dies from his girlfriend's hickey. It says the suction likely created a blood clot that traveled to his brain. It says the hickey turned out to be a kiss of death for a 17-year-old boy in Mexico City. Julio Macias Gonzalez suffered a stroke that doctors reportedly think was caused by a hickey from his 24-year-old girlfriend, according to the Independent. The teen had convulsions during a family dinner and then died. I mean, I was just reading, I was like, what, you know, it talks about going down to death, the lips of a strange woman. I mean, can you think about just the lips of a strange woman literally causing you to die? I mean, that was kind of silly. But I mean, do you think this guy had any idea that that was going to kill him? Turn if you went to Acts, Acts chapter 5. You know, the thing is, is we think, well, that was just kind of a silly story. That's kind of a silly way to die. That's kind of rare. But, you know, people die of all kinds of crazy stuff every day. And, you know, people have this idea that in the Old Testament, you know, God would strike people dead and that people would just die for any kind of reason. Well, we see in Acts chapter 5 verse 1, it says, but a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira's wife sold a possession. And so we see at the very beginning of the Christian church, people were selling all that they had and giving it to the church. And so Ananias and Sapphira wanted to get on this deal. So they sold their land. But they didn't want to give all of the money. They wanted to keep back some. But to be seen of men, they wanted to come and make it seem like they gave all their money. And it says down in verse 3, it says, but Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? And verse 5, it says, Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost and great fear came on all them that heard these things. So you see, even in the New Testament, for just telling a lie, God struck him dead. And you know, even in this world, even in this day and time, a man who's just, you know, maybe flirting with the wrong girl could die from a hickey. I mean, it's just a stupid, silly story. But how many of us want to die like that? You know, discretion will keep you from the strange woman. But we say, well, what does it mean when it's saying the strange woman? I mean, who is this strange woman, right? Well, how do you turn to 1 Kings, 1 Kings chapter 11? And I'll read in Genesis chapter 15, it says in verse 13, this is the first mention of strange, says, and he said unto Abraham, or to Abram, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. So when God was talking to Abram, he was saying, look, in the future, the children of Israel are going to go into Egypt, and they're going to be into bondage, and they're going to be called strangers. Now they were in the land for four hundred years. I mean, in America, we're all strangers, according to that definition, because, you know, everybody migrated here in the last four hundred years. But it's just saying, someone who doesn't really belong, someone who's not part of that, you know, that nationality, there's some kind of distinction between the people. And in verse Kings chapter 11 verse 1, we're going to get a little bit more definition about what the strange is. It says in verse 1, but King Solomon loved many strange women. Now when it says strange there, it's not talking about they were like weird or, you know, eclectic or had something off about them. It's just talking about foreigners, because it says, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zydonians, and Hittites. So we see here, when it's talking about strange, it's talking about foreigners. It's talking about other nationalities. It's talking about other people. Says in verse 2, of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go into them, neither shall they come in unto you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon clave unto these in love. Says in verse 3, and he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods. And his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Zydonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father. Then did Solomon build a high place for Shemosh, and the abomination of Moab, and the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which built incense and sacrificed unto their gods. So he sees the hearts getting turned away by his strange wives. We see that he's not fully trusting after the Lord, he's not fully going after the Lord. And then he builds abominations unto these false gods. He says that he's building them unto Shemosh and Molech, which are gods that would sacrifice their children unto these gods. Let's keep going, in verse 9 it says, And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice. And he commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he kept not that which the Lord commanded. Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, For as much as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant, notwithstanding in thy days. I will not do it for David thy father's sake, but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son. Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom, but will give one tribe to thy son for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, which I have chosen. So we see, Solomon is going after these strange wives. And you say, well, what's wrong with the fact that he's going after these strange wives? Well, it turned him away from God and made him start serving other gods, building idols unto other gods. And then he got to the point where he's offering his children unto these false gods. He was getting into, like, abortion. I mean, is that what you want? Do you want to go that far into sin? Well, that's what the Bible's saying when it has the strange woman. And you say, well, what if this parallel, I mean, is it saying that we shouldn't marry foreigners, that we shouldn't marry someone, you know, from Europe or from Africa? Is that the parallel that God's making? No, that's not the parallel that God's making at all. It says in 2 Corinthians, chapter 6, it says, Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? We see that when God's talking about strange women, when we see the commandments of them not to marry unto these strange wives, the whole point, the whole application unto us is not to be married unto unbelievers. Not to go after these strange women. And these strange women, they're not going to follow after the commandments of God. Why would they? Because they're unbelievers. Because they have their own false gods. And they're going to lead you into false religion. They're going to lead you into greater sin. And we're going to get another example if you turn to Nehemiah, chapter 13. We're going to see that God makes this a point throughout the entire Bible about marrying a foreigner. But the whole point of this is not to be mean unto foreigners. I mean, he talks about that we should love our neighbors ourself in the Old Testament. He also says to love the stranger. We're supposed to love people of other nations. We're supposed to love all people of the whole earth. But when it comes to marriage, God makes it very clear that you're not supposed to marry an unbeliever. It doesn't matter what, you know, quote unquote race you are. It doesn't matter where you were born. It matters that you're following the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in Nehemiah chapter 13 and verse 23, In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashtad, of Ammon, and of Moab, and their children spake half in the speech of Ashtad, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people. And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves. Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these? Yet among many nations was there no king like him who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, even him did outlandish women cause the sin. Shall he then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God, in marrying strange wives? We see that when a believer, when a man of God would marry a strange woman, would he marry an unbeliever? Believer is what the Bible is likening that unto, that you're going to go into sin. You can't be married unto another person, you can't become one flesh and not be affected by the other person. Just as Adam was affected by Eve in the garden, just as Solomon was affected by these outlandish women, which is just a synonym for strange, you know, other synonyms like foreign, alien, unfamiliar, bizarre, things that are just not common. We see at the very beginning of Nehemiah, he said that these children could only speak in half the language. Do you want your kids to know half the Bible? Do you want your kids to follow half of God's laws? Do you want God to follow, do you want your children to have half of a love for Geist? That's what they're going to get when you have a believer and an unbeliever. And this applies for women and men, the same. That women should not marry unto an unbelieving man, that he would cause her to sin as well. And we see for the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil. The Bible's saying, look, you can still have pleasure in someone who's not saved if you married them. You can still have, you know, it could be sweet unto your lips at first, but it says, but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. We see with Solomon, when he first started marrying these foreign women, he was still serving God strong, but at the end of his life, that's when he completely turned away from God. And God became very angry with Solomon to the point where he gave the kingdom unto his son who took his wives as a, he's just like a public embarrassment to him. We see just in Acts chapter five, as Ananias was killed, you know, we shouldn't take it lightly that little bit of sin could cause us to go into further sin or even take our life. And it says here in verse five, her feet go down to death, her steps take hold on hell. And you know, it's so important that the word hell is there because all the modern versions, they like to take out this word hell and you say, how is the lips of a strange woman going to take me to hell? Well there's so many men out there, there's so many people out there that all they want in this life, all they're chasing is that strange woman. They say they look at all the beautiful actresses, all the beautiful musicians, all the beautiful celebrities, all the girls on the magazine and they say, man, if I could just have that, I'd be happy. You know, I don't really care what I do in this life, but if I could just have the lips of the strange woman and they just follow after that and they don't realize that there's a path to hell because broad is the way that leadeth them to destruction. Satan's not worried about, you know, every single method working. He just has a few that are going to be really effective and he's going to really focus on those. I mean, not every sin is going to cause you to just, you know, turn away from God and go straight into hell, but certain ones will distract your whole life. And having a strange woman will affect your whole life. When you get married into another person, that's your whole life. You know, and there's so many people that are completely content with just being married and just living a life and dying. You know, you ask him, hey, if you die today, you're a hundred percent sure you go to heaven. They say, I don't really care. You know, I'm living a pretty good life. You know, I got this, this, this woman that I really like, you know, our lips are pretty sweet. They're going to have that pleasure in their wife and they're not going to understand that her, her end is going to be death and hell. And it says in verse six, lest thou shouldst ponder the path of life, her ways are movable that thou canst not know them. I think the most important point to not marrying an unbeliever is the fact that an unbeliever has no root. They have nothing grounding them to the truth. And so at any moment, an unbeliever can decide, well, I'm unhappy with you. I'm just going to move on. At any moment, an unbeliever could say, hey, you know what, that child that we just had, I don't want it. I'm going to, I'm going to kill it. You know, I'm going to, I'm going to have an abortion. And if you're a man, you don't have choice in America. If you get pregnant with a, with a some lady outside of marriage, she could decide to have that abortion. You have no say. I mean, is that something that you would want? Says in the NASB, it says in verse five, going back, it says her feet go down to death. Her steps take hold of shield. It says in the NIV, her feet go down to death, her steps lead straight to the grave. In the NASB, her feet go down to death, her steps follow the path to shield. The other virgins don't take it so serious that this strange woman's going to affect your whole life, even going on to hell, even maybe committing abortion, even, you know, getting divorced. I mean, an unbeliever, when they look at a marriage, they don't say, well, this is death due its part. They might say those words, but they're like, as long as you live a good life, you know, as long as you're providing for me, as long as you're my pinch charming of this moment. It says in Proverbs 7 verse 27, her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. It's talking about the strange woman. In Psalms chapter 9 verse 17, it says the wicked shall be turned into hell and all nations that forget God. In Proverbs 9 it says, but he knoweth not that the dead are there and that her guests are the depths of hell. Proverbs 15, 24, the way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath. Proverbs chapter 27, 20, hell and destruction are never full, so the eyes of man are never satisfied. He said, well, why did you go back to hell? Well, it says that the ways of a strange woman are movable, right? You might look at this unbelieving woman and be like, well, she's a pretty nice person. You know, she lives a pretty good life. She's not doing anything that wrong. Why can't I just marry her? She seems really nice. Well, the problem is her ways are movable. What happens when she starts moving over here? What happens when she keeps going over here? Her feet are going to lead onto hell and if you follow her, you're going to go into hell right with her. That's why you should avoid the lips of the strange woman. That's why it's so important to understand that it's not just death. It's not just the grave. It's all the way to hell. And when you get that clear picture, you say, hey, I don't want to even go anywhere near her. That's why he was saying verse 7, it says, hear me now therefore, you children, and depart not from the words of my mouth, rue thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house, lest thou give thine honor unto others, and thy years unto the cruel. Let strangers be filled with thy wealth, and thy labors be in the house of a stranger, and thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, and say, how have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof, and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to them that instructed me. I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assemblies. If you all turn to Judges chapter 14, and you know, I've kind of gone through some of these stories kind of fast, I felt like the best story to illustrate what this chapter is talking about is that of Samson. And so we're going to take a little minute and we're going to really look at Samson and the decisions that he made, because I feel like Samson is a person that many men can relate unto, and they can see how he went down this path and how it's possible that a man could make some of the mistakes that Samson made. And in Judges chapter 14 and verse 2, it says that he came up and told his father and his mother and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines, now therefore get her for me to wife. Then his father and his mother said unto him, is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all thy people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, get her for me, for she pleaseth me well. So he sees Samson, he's a man of God, he's been raised in a Christian home, but he looks under the daughters of the Philistines and he sees a very attractive woman, and he says, she pleases me. And you know, that's the mistake of most men growing in this world. They think, hey, I'm going to marry the girl that I really just have the most physical attraction to. You know, the girl that just pleases me the most, I want to marry her. She's not going to consider the fact that she's not of the daughters of thy brethren, that she's not a believer, that she's not a Christian. You look at this woman and you say, oh, she's so pleasing to my eyes. She's so pleasing to my flesh. I want her to be my wife. I can fix the other things later, but if we skip down to verse 15, it says, and it came to pass on the seventh day that they said unto Samson's wife, entice thy husband that he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee in thy father's house with fire. Have you called us to take that we have? Is it not so? And Samson's wife wept before him and said, thou dost but hate me and lovest me not. Thou has put forth the riddle unto the children of my people and has not told it me. And he said unto her, behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell it thee? We see that Samson, he offered a riddle unto the Philistines and he offered this riddle saying he would give them 30 changes of clothes if they could give him the riddle. But none could give him the riddle. So they came and they threatened his wife. They threatened this Philistine woman and they said, if you don't tell us the riddle, if you don't get him to tell us the riddle, we're going to burn you in your house. Now this woman is put in a very difficult situation, right? I mean she's being threatened for her life. I mean she has to kind of choose between her brethren, the people that she lived with her whole life, and her husband. And we see what does the unbeliever do in a difficult situation? She gives up on her husband. She begs him to give him the riddle. He gives her the riddle and she tells it unto the Philistines. She just rats him out. Now how much would that break your heart to know that your wife would just rat you out for fear of death? I mean that would just crush me, that would just crush me if my wife decided, even in a very difficult situation, that she was just going to sell me out. What if the government came under your spouse and was like, hey, is he preaching the Bible? Is he going out soul winning? Because if he is, we're going to kill him. And if you lie to us, we're going to kill you and your children. There's a lot of women in that kind of situation, they would be really nervous to tell the truth, right? But I'm going to tell you the truth, an unbeliever would never tell the truth. They would always rat you out under any of those situations. And you need to have a woman of your, of that brethren, meaning us, a believer, in order to have the best kind of relationship that you could. It says in, if you live over a couple of chapters over, in Judges chapter 16, in verse 1, we get more story about Samson. It says, Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there in Harlot, and went in under her. And it came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Soreth, whose name was Delilah. So you see that Samson has a woman problem. He just keeps, he keeps looking at these strange women, he keeps desiring these strange women. He just goes into a harlot, then he finds a new woman, Delilah, and he desires her. So he's not learning the lesson, even after getting completely betrayed, even after having a woman to betray all of his trust, he's still going after these type of women. Says in verse 5, And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see where in his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him, and we will give thee, every one of us, eleven hundred pieces of silver. So pretty familiar story again, right? I mean she's being, she's being asked of them to ask, where's his strength? You know, Samson's so strong that no man can, you know, defeat him. And they're like, please tell us, what's the secret of this guy's strength? Because we've seen him, and we're like, it's gotta be a secret. I mean, this guy is so strong, he's destroying thousands of us at a time with the jawbone of an ass. And this guy's got some kind of secret, find out for us. And they said, this time they weren't threatening her with death, they were threatening her, they were like, we'll give you a bunch of money. And you know, just as much as the unbelieving woman would sell you out in the pressure of fear, she'd sell you out for money too, because her ways are movable. You know, the woman, a woman that's not a believer, what does she have to live for in this life? She's not thinking about heaven, she's not thinking about God, she's not thinking about the commandments of God. When she's offered a better deal, she's gonna take it. And that's the way a lot of people in this world think. When they look at a spouse, when they look at a girlfriend, they're just taking what they have the best right now, always looking for something better. Always looking to upgrade, always looking to get the thing that's gonna satisfy them next. But we see that a believer has a completely different mindset, a completely different philosophy. It says in verse 6, and Delilah said to Samson, tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lie, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee. Now there were men lying in wait abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto them, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson, and he break the widths, as the thread of a toe is broken when it touches the fire. So his strength was not known. So we see that she asked him, hey, how is it that you have this strength? And he said, well, if you bind me with this, this rope, this special rope that, you know, I won't have any strength. But as soon as she comes to the room, she's like, oh no, they're here, the Philistines. He wakes up and just breaks it. So she immediately is found as a fraud. I mean, if you just told your wife, look, hey, if you bind me with these special ropes, I'll lose my strength. Then you wake up in the night, and you got them bound. I mean, you pretty much know who told, right? I mean, you pretty much know what happened. But we see that Samson, because he has this desire to these strange women, he's kind of bewitched. He's kind of just entrapped in this mindset. And he can't even get out of it, even though it's so obvious in this situation. Even though you look at it and say, I would never do that. Don't think of yourself too highly. If you're married to these strange women, they're going to affect you. You're going to become bewitched under their enchantments. He's saying, verse 18, it says, and when Delilah saw that he had told her all of his heart, so she keeps going back to him, asking and asking and begging. Eventually he just coughs it up, because he's just so weary from her asking. It says, and she sent in call for the lords of the Philistines, saying, come up this once, for you have showed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up under her and brought money in their hand. How wicked is it for your wife, or the woman that you have all your love for? She can realize that you gave her all of your heart, and she still wants to betray you. That's the lips of a strange woman. That's the ways of a moveable woman. Why do you not want to go into the strange woman? Why do you not want to be joined to that kind of a woman? She could just rip your heart out, and it doesn't mean anything to her. She'll just sell you for the next guy, and the next guy. She'll never be satisfied. She's like a black widow. It says in verse 19, and she made him sleep upon her knees, and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head, and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said, the Philistines, be upon thee, Samson, and he woke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as other times before and shake myself, and he wished not that the Lord was departed from him. But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house. So you see that Samson goes through this great affliction. Apparently he's a pretty hard sleeper, that they can shave his head in the middle of the night, and he doesn't even know. I mean, I don't think I could ever have that happen to me. But I mean, look at the sin, what the sin caused him. I mean, they poked out his eyes, and he was in the prison grinding. That's why he's giving such a strong warning here in Proverbs. He's saying, remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh to the door of her house, lest thou give thy honor unto others, and thy years unto the cruel. We see that Samson gave his honor unto others, by getting his eyes poked out, by being a laughing stock, by grinding in their house. We see that, you know, it says, lest the stranger be filled with thy wealth, and thy labors be in the house of a stranger. We see that Delilah got rich, she got to have all the riches, got to have all the stuff in the house. It says, and thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, and say, how have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof, and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to them that instructed me. I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. We see that Samson was warned of his father. We saw that he had many different opportunities to, you know, get right, to not trust any strange women, but he kept going after it. He hated the instruction. He hated the reproof, and in verse 14 it says, I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. We see that this is not just a sin that affects the unbelievers, but it's a sin that can affect every man in this room. There's so many young men in this room, and you need to get the lie out of your head that you need to just like, you just need to find some wife that's pretty. That you need to just find some, you know, woman that's going to appeal to your flesh. No, you need to look for a believer. Of course you should have an attraction to your spouse, but that should not be the first thing on the list. It should not be something, this strange woman, the lips of the strange woman. We're going to see, if you'll turn to Psalms chapter 51. You know, I was thinking about this strange woman in a good illustration, and there's so many illustrations in the Bible. We have David and Bathsheba, right? David was a man of God, and you say, well, I'm not going to be attracted to, you know, these unbelievers. I've got that, okay? You know, the Bible's giving me these warnings. Well, was Bathsheba an unbeliever? No. I mean, Bathsheba was a child of the same children of Israel, right? She was a believer in that sense, but we see that you can even be attracted to other women, even as a man, even as a married man. You could be attracted to these women, and it could cause you to have great sin in your life. And in Psalms chapter 51, in verse 1, this is David praying after this sin. So you say, well, what happens if I commit this kind of a sin? Maybe I've already, you know, gone after this strange woman. Maybe I've already had some thoughts about this strange woman. Maybe, you know, as I've been dating, I've been dating this strange woman. Well, what did David do after he made this great mistake? What did David do after he went after the strange lips of a woman? Says in verse 1, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judge'st. Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold thou's desire of the truth in the inward parts, and in the inward part thou shalt make me of no wisdom. Purge me with histo, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. You know there's a lot of people in this world that maybe they got married and they weren't even saved. So they got married to an unbeliever, and then they get saved. So now they're in this situation. Well what's your response? Well why don't you be like David and just confess your sins, and ask God to give you back the joy of salvation. Maybe you were already saved and you committed one of these sins. Ask God for the joy of salvation. You know what, confess your sins and go back to God. We see that Samson didn't make that decision. He kept making the same mistake over and over and over, and it went all the way to the point of death. Now of course we know that he didn't lose his salvation. He didn't end up going all the way to hell, but for many people they do. And for many people, if we get in this sin, if we get in the sin of desiring the lips of a strange woman, maybe we actually go after her. Maybe we commit that fornication, maybe we commit that adultery. We should ask for the forgiveness of God, we should go back to him, just like David did. And in 1 Corinthians 5, we see that a man had taken his father's wife, but he got right with God, he got back in the church. We see with Zimra that he took a daughter of the Moabites, and he was killed for his sin. So we see there's different circumstances, different outcomes for every person. And we should say, you know, God's a loving God, God's a merciful God, if we've made mistakes in the past, we should go on to him and ask for that, you know, forgiveness. Says if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Says in Israel, Boden should have and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab, when he was talking about Zimra. In 2 Corinthians 6, 14, it says, Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? The reason why you shouldn't yoke up with these unbelievers, how about some statistics? In the statistics today, it says that 3% of people wait to keep themselves pure before marriage. Only 3% of people in this world actually stay pure all the way into marriage. That tells me that there's a lot of people that are going after the lips of the strange woman. You know, and vice versa, that there's a lot of women giving their lips unto strange men. It says in, but there's a little bit of hope, because I saw this is in highly religious groups that 20% of people keep themselves pure. So you say, where am I going to find this woman? Well, I would look in a Baptist church, I would look in an independent fundamental Baptist church, right? If you're going to look for a spouse, if you're going to look for a woman, why don't you look in the right place? But we see that America has been deteriorating in the 1950s, about 11% of people were keeping themselves pure. And now in the 2000s, it's 3%. The Bible says there are ways of removal, right? Things have just continued to get worse and worse and worse. And it's so important that we keep in mind what the Bible says. It says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, Flee fornication. You know, this is a sin that even if you're a man of God, even if you love the Lord, you can really get entangled with. Especially a young man, especially a man that's, you know, in his prime, he's maybe not married yet. Fornication is such a strong desire. God put a natural desire in every man and woman to have a spouse. That's a natural good desire that we should have. And we're going to see here in verse 15 where this desire should go, where this desire should point you, what desires you should have. Says in verse 15, drink waters out of thine own sister and running waters out of thine own well. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad and rivers of waters in the streets. Let them be only thine own and not strangers with thee. Let thy fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe. Let her breath satisfy thee at all times and be thou ravished always with her love. We see that marriage is a good thing. And you know, if you're a young man, the thing right behind serving God should be finding a wife. The thing that you should be pursuing with a lot of your effort is finding a young woman to be married unto. Now, of course, there's exceptions. If you say, I'm going to be appalled, you know, I want to be a missionary, then go after that. But for 99% of men, if you have this desire, if you have this desire to be with a woman, to avoid fornication, you should be married and you should strive after this woman. We already saw from the statistics 3%. I mean, it's rare out there that you're going to find the woman that you want to be with. It's rare that you're going to find a believing woman. So you might as well be looking for her with a lot of earnest expectation. You might be looking with all, with a lot of desire. I mean, you should be going soul winning and maybe even looking for a spouse, maybe bringing a woman that you could come in and get her saved. Look at Pastor Anderson. He brought in an unbeliever and got her saved and they ended up fulfilling a friendship and they even got married. Maybe that could be your success story. Because when it's becoming so hard to find a righteous woman, you need to be looking that much harder. You need to be spending a lot of time looking for that righteous woman. Says in Proverbs 7, which is kind of a parallel passage of Proverbs chapter 5, it says in verse 11, it says, She is loud and stubborn, her feet abide not in her house. Now is she without. Now on the streets and lithe and wait at every corner. You know, it says without it just meaning outside. This strange woman, this woman dressed in the tie of a harlot, this unbelieving woman is on every single corner. She's everywhere. She's a dime a dozen. And you know, she will come, she wants to give her lips unto you, but you should not desire her. You should flee from her. You know, I was trying to think of a carnal example, but what if you were going out to have dinner at Outback and you're passing by and you see a McDonald's on the corner. Are you going to want to stop and fill up on a Big Mac before you go get a big steak dinner? No. Why would you want that? Now, of course, there's a lot of people that like fast food. I mean, I'll confess, sometimes I like to eat a fast food burger, right? Sometimes it can taste pretty good, but when you compare it unto a juicy perfect steak like the Layman Yawn, I mean, there's no comparison and people have this weird idea. They say, well, I have a lot of pleasure in this, you know, unbelieving woman. I can have a lot of pleasure in the lips of this strange woman, but having your rejoicing with the wife of thy youth is so much better and you shouldn't believe the lie that you need to just lie with every woman that you can, you're going to have so much more pleasure with the wife of your youth and it says youth there. That means every young man in here, your desire should be to be married. There's this lie out there that you should just live this bachelor life, that you should go out and just have a bunch of fun before you settle down. No, the desire that you should have is to be married, is to have that spouse, is to have that relationship. It likens it unto a fountain, it likens it unto rivers of water. Why? Because they give life, they give nourishment, they give refreshment. What does a wife do? She's going to give you life, she's going to give you refreshment, she's going to give you nourishment. The Bible describes her as a helping. Having a wife is a great thing. If you want to turn to the Song of Solomon, we're going to look at what it's like to have a wife and what our desires should be. And as we're turning there, it says in 1 Corinthians 7, 2, it says, now concerning the things where have you wrote unto me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband. You know, you can desire to go out and just go to every McDonald's that you can and fill yourself up with junk, and that's what Satan wants you to do. He wants you to fill up on junk, on stuff that's going to kill you, on stuff that's going to rot you. He doesn't want you to have that good, juicy outback steak, this message was brought to you by Outback. It says in Song of Solomon in chapter 1 verse 2, it says, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine. So we see that in Proverbs chapter 5, he's talking about the lips of the strange woman and it being desired, right? But here in Song of Solomon, he's saying that it's desiring the kisses of your spouse, and it says that that love is better than wine. And wine is always a picture of prosperity. He's saying it's better than anything. He's saying the kisses of the wife, the being satisfied with the wife is so much better than having riches. And we see that there's a lie from Satan, he's saying, well, you know, you're not going to be desiring to have a wife. I mean, having a wife is okay, but you know, going out and just laying with every woman, that's where you're going to have real joy, that's where you're going to have real fulfillment. No, that's going to be, you know, a little bit of fun at first, but if you want to have full joy, if you want to have the real thing, you're going to have it with a spouse. And you say, well, how do I get this wife? You've been talking about me having a wife, there's a lot of young men in the room. So I think it's important for you to understand how to get a wife according to the Song of Solomon. If you turn to chapter four, in verse nine, I have three points here, well I guess I have four points here, that I think are good advice on how to get a wife. It says in verse nine, thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse, thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! How much better is thy love than wine, and the smell of thine ointments than all spices! Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb. Honey and the milk are under thy tongue, and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon. So again, he even says that it's like a honeycomb. He compares it in chapter five as the strange woman, that her lips drop as a honeycomb. But it's like the fake thing. It's like, you know, it's not the organic, original, good, it's just the fake, cheap substitute. It's the McDonald's burger. That thing's not hamburger meat, that thing's just a bunch of garbage. It's like soy and trash and just whatever they found just laying around that they put in there. That's what the strange woman's like. But a wife is the real thing, she's the real deal, and so you need to get your desire on a wife. If you don't have the desire for a wife, but you think you want one and someday and you're a young man, you need to decide, I want that now. I want to have a desire for her now. I don't want the desire of the strange woman. I don't want the desire of the women on the magazines, on the TV. I want the desire for the righteous woman. And when you get that desire, you're going to start heading in that direction. You're going to start heading in the right direction. So the first step in order to getting a wife is desiring a wife. I mean, if you don't desire a wife, I promise you probably won't get married. So if you turn to chapter five, just one chapter over, we're going to say the second step. It says in verse sixteen, his mouth is most sweet, yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved and this is my friend, all ye daughters of Jerusalem. So you see, the spouse is talking about him and she calls him his friend. The next step to getting a wife is become friends. You want to have a great spouse, you want to, he's talking about my sister, my spouse. I mean, they have a great relationship. Where does that start with friendship? You want to get married, you want to have a great relationship, start building a friendship with the opposite gender. Find that woman that you desire and start building a friendship. You know, I'm not a big believer in the idea of just, oh, here's a believer, let's get married. You know, I mean, she's going to the right shirts, let's just get married. No, you need to build that friendship. You need to build that relationship. If you turn back just a couple chapters, chapter two. So the first step is just desire that wife. The second step would be to make friends. You should make friends with the opposite gender if you're unmarried. If you're unmarried, then you should desire that wife, you should make friends with the opposite gender. In chapter two, verse ten, it says, my beloved spake, and said unto me, rise up my love, my fair one, and come away. So you see, he's talking to his spouse, he says, my love, my fair one, my sister, my spouse. He's talking very kindly unto her. He's speaking very lovingly to her. He's pursuing her. The next step, not just building that relationship, you need to get out of the friend zone and you start speaking lovingly unto this woman. You need to desire her, you need to make your intentions known if you want to get a spouse. So the first step is just desire. The second step is find a friendship with her. And then the third step is to start speaking lovingly unto her, to pursuing her. And lastly, if you turn to chapter seven in Song of Solomon, it says in verse eleven, it says, come my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us lodge in the villages. So we see that a great relationship involves the man taking her places, doing things for her, taking her out. If you want to get a spouse, why don't you become friends with some women? If you really want to turn that friendship into more, why don't you speak lovingly unto her? Why don't you take her out to places? Why don't you treat her nice? That's how you're going to get that wife. You're not going to get a wife by just sitting here reading the Bible. Now reading the Bible is a great thing to do. Reading the Bible is a great way to learn how to follow God's word, but you also have to go out and do it. Right? That's right. And if you desire a wife, you're going to have to take some action. You're going to have to be a man. You're going to have to show yourself a man. Why don't you go out and pursue that woman, pursue that help me, and she'll be life unto you. And if you have the right desires, you'll avoid the strange woman. Because every natural man has this tendency to desire a woman. I mean, unless you're just a eunuch like Daniel or something, I mean, you're going to desire women. Well, what's the best way to avoid fornication? By being married, right? So if you want to avoid fornication, if you want to follow the words of God, you need to desire that spouse. You need to follow after her. And this application goes to everyone. It goes to women raising young men. It goes to raising daughters even. And what kind of a man that she should be looking for. She should be looking for a guy that's following these steps, right? It should follow even married men. That you should be having these desires for your wife and not the strange women. How many married men, they just start having desires for strange women and not their spouse. And then they start thinking about it. Then they start talking to them. Then they start hanging out with them. What we see in Proverbs right here, verse 15, he said, drink waters out of thine own sister and running waters out of thine own will. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad and rivers of waters in the streets. Let them be thine own and not strangers with thee. He's saying, look, he wants you to have your fountains be blessed. All of a man's, you know, positive things that he's saying, all of his encouragements should be towards his spouse and his spouse alone. He shouldn't be in the workplace building up other women. He shouldn't be building relationships with other women. And a young man, the woman that you're desiring, you know, once you get her and you're betrothed under her, you should be blessing under her. You should be focusing on her only. Because once you start to get your eyes off on this strange woman, she's going to keep moving and moving. You're going to keep following and you're going to go off the cliff of death. You're going to go into destruction. And we see there in verse 14, I was the most evil in the midst of the congregation assembly. We see that this isn't a sin that just affects the unbelievers. I've been in so many churches where fornication is rampant, where adultery is rampant. This affects God's people. We see throughout the whole Bible, men of God are being affected by this sin. I mean, how can you say that Samson wasn't a great man of God? He slew a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass, with the Spirit of God coming upon him. But he still fell victim to this sin. And you need to think of yourself not, oh, I would never fall into that. Well, why? Are you getting your desires toward the right thing? Are you getting your desires to a righteous woman? Are you pursuing after that? Let's finish this chapter. It says in verse 20, and why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a stranger? For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings. His own iniquity shall take the wicked himself, and he shall beholden with the cords of his sins. He shall die without obstruction, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. And in 2 Chronicles chapter 16 the Bible said, For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. And Psalms chapter 34 says, The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous. In Proverbs chapter 15 it says, The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. God's paying attention to everything that's happening. We should not be deceived that even, the Bible says, the thought of foolishness is sin, right? And Jesus even took an extreme saying, Even if you looked upon a woman with lust, that would be committing adultery in your heart. Why? Because this sin is so dangerous. We ought to not think that just because I'm not partaking in it, that it's not a slippery slope. It starts with the thought, it starts with the mind. And this chapter is giving us a lot of practical advice that our desires should be towards our spouse. The Bible says, If you walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh, right? When you're focusing on your spouse, when you're focusing on your wife, you're not going to be desiring the strange woman. But when you take your eyes off of that, when you take your eyes off of that kind of relationship, you start looking under the strange woman, you start noticing the strange woman on every corner. You know, when your eyes aren't just focused on Outback, you start seeing all the big M's, you know, on every single corner, lit up, and you're like, man, that big Mac, man, that dollar menu. But who wants that cheap garbage, right? Turn to 1 Peter chapter 3, it says in Proverbs chapter 6 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. I'm telling you, men, women can have a powerful stronghold on men. We see out there the whole Bible, that a woman is able to affect men, and very powerful men, great men of God even. We need to not be deceived, a whorish woman can bring a man all the way down to a piece of bread, to where she can just do whatever she wants with them. Says in Numbers 32 to 23, But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. So I heard you turn to 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 12, it says, For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are opened unto their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm me, if ye be followers of that which is good? But if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye. And be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, and meekness of fear, having a good conscience, that, whereas they speak evil of you as evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing. Do you think Samson wanted to be in prison because of his sin? I mean, we see when Paul and Silas were in prison, they were praising unto God, because they were thrown into prison for the word of God, and they weren't able to get people saved in God. But we see Samson is in jail for what reason? He's grinding for his sin. Wouldn't it be so much better to be persecuted because you're serving God, rather than for your sins? And this is a sin that can affect every single man. And we need to, we need to pay, hearken unto the fact that we have a lot of desires. We have a natural desire to be with a spouse. So why don't you point that in the right direction, rather than in the wrong direction. In Proverbs chapter 18, I'll close here, it says, Whoso findeth a wife, findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord. It's a good thing to find a wife, and notice what it said, find. It didn't say, you know, the wife's just going to come over and just be like, hey, you know, I'm super righteous and great and I just want to marry you. And you're like, perfect. You know, there's no doubt. I mean, you got to go out and find her. It says in Proverbs chapter 31, 10, who can find a virtuous woman, for her price is far above rubies. So we see this virtuous woman, she's very hard to find. And if you're trying to look for a woman who's a believer, who loves the Lord, who's wanting to serve you, I mean, that's a very hard thing to find, but it's more precious than rubies. And that's what we should be designing. That's what we should be looking for as young men. We should understand the eyes of the Lord are going to ponder all of our goings and our niquities will take a hold of us. And we would die without that instruction and the greatness of our folly if we would go astray. We need not be led astray by this strange woman. It's a very grievous sin. Let's close our eyes and pray. Thank you Jesus for this word. Thank you for your, for giving us the desire to have a spouse and the great joy that we can have with the spouse. I pray that every man in this room that would desire to be married one day, that they would understand what your word says and that they would have those desires in the right direction. I pray that we would flee fornication and flee the lips of the strange woman and that we would avoid her house, that our feet would run far from her. And I pray that you would allow us to find spouses that would allow us to serve God and to follow after you and to suffer for your name's sake and not for our sin's sake. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.