Proverbs 5 1:6

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 148:1-6
• Prayer of Invocation
• Congregational Prayer Requests
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Proverbs 5:1-6
• Sermon
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: The Speech and Path of the Forbidden Woman

Scripture: Proverbs 5:1-6

I. Introduction: Solomon, the Heart, and the Forbidden Woman

A. Solomon, the author of Proverbs, is himself the greatest example of the devastation caused by foreign women — 1 Kings 11:9 states his heart turned away from the Lord

B. The end of Proverbs 4 (especially v. 23) establishes the theme: guard your heart above all else, because it affects the tongue, eyes, and feet

C. The forbidden woman in Proverbs 5:1-6 is the direct contrast and antithesis to the life and path of wisdom

D. She takes more than physical purity — she takes the man's heart and steers him down a destructive path

E. Matthew 5:27-30 — Jesus confirms adultery begins in the heart; the warning about cutting off eye and hand is given specifically in the context of lustful looking

II. The Speech of the Forbidden Woman — Proverbs 5:1-4

A. Adultery is closely linked to speech — affairs begin not in the bedroom but in conversation

1. Words and conversations between men and women create pathways, whether or not we are aware of it
2. Conversations that are not guarded can lead to very destructive places

B. The seductive words of the forbidden woman (v. 3)

1. Her lips drip with honey — possibly a double entendre (speech and physical lips), but speech is clearly in view
2. Her speech is smoother than oil — olive oil, a metaphor for gladness (Isaiah 61:3) and prosperity
3. She presents herself as one who will make you glad, prosperous, and filled with joy

C. The application extends beyond one particular woman to entertainment, advertisement, and media

1. The mediatized forbidden woman is presented daily — attractive, fun, and progressive while the faithful woman is caricatured as joyless and restrictive
2. Entertainment never shows the destructive end that Solomon reveals

D. But in the end she is bitter as wormwood and sharp as a two-edged sword (v. 4)

1. Rather than sweet like honey, she is bitter like wormwood
2. Rather than smooth like oil, she is sharp like a two-edged sword
3. She promises life but delivers the opposite — death and destruction
4. The excitement of the affair is fleeting; misery and ruin follow
5. Men who have had affairs and repented testify: the excitement ends quickly and the life is left in ruins

III. The Path of the Forbidden Woman — Proverbs 5:5-6

A. Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol (v. 5)

1. Sheol here means the grave and abode of the dead, following directly from "her feet go down to death"
2. Proverbs does not treat death merely as an expiration date at the end of life — death is something we are either walking toward or walking away from
3. The forbidden woman is the walking dead — she may have a heartbeat and speak words, but she walks the path of death
4. Application: pornography is presented as normal in 21st-century culture, but it is the path of the forbidden woman and the path of death; one cannot proclaim Christ while walking that path

B. She does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander and she does not know it (v. 6)

1. The word ponder is the same word used in Proverbs 4:26 — the son is to ponder the path of his feet; the forbidden woman does not
2. Because she does not think through her path, she wanders aimlessly
3. The entire structure of Proverbs 1–9 — a wise father instructing a son — stands against the cultural trend of championing young, idealistic voices over older, wiser counsel
4. The ideal woman presented by culture is always young and attractive; Proverbs directs the son to heed his older, wiser father, not the wandering forbidden woman
5. Job 12:12 — wisdom is with the aged and understanding in length of days
6. Young people can give good counsel when they humbly sit under the instruction of older, wiser men and women — the goal is to be wise now by heeding that counsel