May 4, 2025 | When Evil Looks Like Love | Proverbs Part 10

When Evil Looks Like Love | Proverbs Part 10

Proverbs 7

My son, keep my words
    and treasure up my commandments with you;
keep my commandments and live;
    keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;
bind them on your fingers;
    write them on the tablet of your heart.
Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
    and call insight your intimate friend,
to keep you from the forbidden woman,
    from the adulteress with her smooth words.


For at the window of my house
    I have looked out through my lattice,
and I have seen among the simple,
    I have perceived among the youths,
    a young man lacking sense,
passing along the street near her corner,
    taking the road to her house
in the twilight, in the evening,
    at the time of night and darkness.


And behold, the woman meets him,
    dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.
She is loud and wayward;
    her feet do not stay at home;
now in the street, now in the market,
    and at every corner she lies in wait.
She seizes him and kisses him,
    and with bold face she says to him,
“I had to offer sacrifices,
    and today I have paid my vows;
so now I have come out to meet you,
    to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.
I have spread my couch with coverings,
    colored linens from Egyptian linen;
I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,
    aloes, and cinnamon.
Come, let us take our fill of love till morning;
    let us delight ourselves with love.
For my husband is not at home;
    he has gone on a long journey;
he took a bag of money with him;
    at full moon he will come home.”


With much seductive speech she persuades him;
    with her smooth talk she compels him.
All at once he follows her,
    as an ox goes to the slaughter,
or as a stag is caught fast
    till an arrow pierces its liver;
as a bird rushes into a snare;
    he does not know that it will cost him his life.


And now, O sons, listen to me,
    and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
Let not your heart turn aside to her ways;
    do not stray into her paths,
for many a victim has she laid low,
    and all her slain are a mighty throng.
Her house is the way to Sheol,
    going down to the chambers of death. (ESV)

In this message from Proverbs 7, Jed Gillis unpacks why turning from foolishness can be so difficult, even when its consequences are clear. The text warns that evil often doesn’t come looking like a threat; it looks like love. It flatters, appeals, and seduces by targeting our deepest desires, especially the longing to be loved and valued.

The passage uses the image of a cunning adulteress to show how sin disguises itself as something beautiful, but leads to death. Gillis draws out how this kind of “tactical flattery” works: it’s calculated, it plays on our insecurities, and it persuades us to act on impulse while dismissing the consequences. At the heart of the problem is the uncommitted person (the “simple” one) who flirts with temptation rather than being anchored in God’s truth.

The remedy is clear: treasure God’s commands, engrave them on your heart, and marry wisdom like a lifelong partner. Wisdom, not flattery, offers real intimacy rooted in God’s goodness and protection. Believers are urged to quit flirting with God, avoid the paths where temptation prowls, and keep their eyes fixed on the tragic end of foolishness.

Transcript of When Evil Looks Like Love | Proverbs Part 10

We are going to continue in Proverbs chapter seven today as we do children. If you're headed out the door to Children's Church, you can do that. We're also glad to have you in here with us if you want to stay.

Why Is It Hard to Turn From Foolishness?

As we continue in Proverbs seven, we're really gonna continue with some of the same questions that we've been asking as we go through the book. If you read the first four chapters of Proverbs. You see over and over that foolishness leads to destruction and ruin and addiction and terror. And you see wisdom leads to honor, protection, guidance, and peace.

And so it's good for us to ask the question, well, why is it hard? If all of these good things are the result of wisdom, why is it hard for us to turn from foolishness and to turn toward wisdom? And we've seen a few answers. One of them we've seen because evil doesn't always look ugly or evil sometimes looks good.

Second thing we saw from chapter six, evil can seem understandable to us. It can make sense. We can look at something we would call evil in anyone else, we would call foolish in anyone else, but we have our millions of reasons why it's actually okay for me. There was a, a bluegrass song about 30 years ago that said, uh, others have excuses, I have my reasons why. It's how we work.

Another Reason: Evil is Tactically Flattering

In chapter seven, we get another answer to this question. Why is it so hard to follow the wise path and turn from the foolish path?

And this answer is because evil is tactically flattering. Evil is tactically flattering. Or we could say this way, sometimes evil or foolishness looks like love.

Before we dive into the text, I wanna give a little example of what I mean by tactically flattering. Maybe that makes sense to you right away. Maybe it doesn't. As we've gone through Proverbs, you've noticed it's instruction to princes and a lot of it seems to put the young man on the path. Usually has in these chapters a adulterous, a temptress who's trying to draw 'em away.

So I wanna flip that for just a minute to illustrate what I mean by tactical flattery. I mean the kind of situation when you have, say, a young woman who really just wants to feel loved and for whatever reason, she may not feel very loved. By her parents or friends or a church family. And along comes the smooth talking, flattering, maybe a little bit older man. And we call it things like grooming behaviors.

And what's happens, he comes along and he talks in a way that she says, oh, he'll love me. All these feelings that I want to be loved, that I don't feel like are being met. Listen to this silver tongue devil. She doesn't say it that way. What's he doing tactically flattering.

It's flattery, but some people flatter just out of like habit, just because that's just the way they talk. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about you want something and you are tactically using flattery to try and get at it.

As we look at evil or foolishness in Proverbs chapter seven, that's one of the things that is communicated about the way sin tempts you. Foolishness will flatter you. It will flatter me. And it doesn't flatter us just harmlessly. It flatters with a purpose.

And it's hard for us to follow the wise path instead of the foolish path because just like in that illustration, there are things we desire. We want to be loved. Oh look, this evil will make me feel more loved. That's why it's hard.

Reading Proverbs 7

So let's read the beginning of the chapter. My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you. Keep my commandments and live. Keep my teaching as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, you are my sister. And call Insight your intimate friend, to keep you from the forbidden woman from the adulterous with their smooth words.

Adultery as a Picture of Temptation

Now remember upfront as he uses this picture of adultery or immorality, he's not only talking about. Adultery. He's talking about all of the temptations to evil or foolishness, which can draw you aside where evil seems appealing. So you don't only put immorality or adultery in this category, but this is what Satan wants to do with every evil temptation. So speaking to his son in this teaching. He calls him to wisdom.

Write God's Commands on the Tablet of Your Heart

And I wanna look at the parallelism the way he talks about this. First, by looking at his verbs, what does he say you should do?

Well, he says, keep treasure. Verse three, bind these commandments on your fingers. Tie them to you. Verse three also uses the word write, which probably gets the wrong picture for us, because if I go write something with a pencil and erase it, that's easy. Even if I write something with a pen in our world and you go throw away the paper and write a new paper, that's not that hard.

Notice, write them on the tablet of your heart. We could say, instead of write, engrave. When you engrave something that's not just an easy, oh, I'll throw it away. So he uses these words to say, you keep God's commands, you treasure God's commands, you bind them to you. You engrave them on your heart.

In other words, you need discipline. You need to value God's commands and there's effort involved. He's not telling the son in this picture, listen to God's commands and just coast through life and hope it works out for you. Now he's saying, take these commands, keep them. Now the objects I've used commands, but that's what he talks about, words, commandments, and teaching.

He says, take the the truth, the propositions, the statements of God's word, and bind them to yourself. Engrave them on the way you think. Treasure them. Take these truths and make them part of both your heart and your habits.

Notice verse three, bind them on your fingers. Your fingers are what you do things with. They represent habits and actions. Write them on the tablet of your heart. So at the beginning of this chapter, he's calling to the one who should be learning wisdom and saying, take these things. Keep these commandments what God has told you. Keep them, bind them on you so that they impact your heart and your habits.

It's fascinating because it's the same language God uses for one of the blessings of the new covenant. God will take his commands, his law and write it on your heart. It's striking then that when you get here, he says, write God's commands on the tablet of your heart.

And you might think, wait, how does that, I mean, theologically, how does that work? Does God do it? Do I do it? How does that work? Well, yes, God is going to write his laws on the hearts of his people, but how is he going to do it? It is God going to just, you know, zap you without any effort on your part, and you just all of a sudden love all the right things. No, that's not the way he portrays it.

He says, I'm gonna write my law on your heart. And what you do is as you see, yes, this is good, you respond to it. I want to keep that. I wanna treasure that. The spirit puts that in your heart by God's power through faith in what we celebrated just a minute ago, the life and death and burial and resurrection of Jesus.

But when you have that moment and you think, I really do wanna follow God, oh, but there's this temptation, this temptation, this temptation. He tells you, engrave it on your heart. Keep it there, treasure it.

Don't Just Treasure God's Promises. Treasure His Commands.

I think it's interesting that he specifically talks about commands. See, I'll treasure fairly easily. A promise like God is going to complete the work He began. God is my refuge and my fortress a very present help and time of trouble. I'll treasure promises. He says treasure commands.

If you think about treasuring, keeping the command that says, thou shalt not murder. No, I just obey it. Well, he says, treasure it. God gave you that for a reason to shape the way you think, to shape your mind, to shape what you love and what you hate. When he says, love the Lord of your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, that's a command. That's not just something to obey, it's something to keep treasure and write on your heart and put into all of your habits. Take these truths and keep them within you.

Make Wisdom Your Intimate Friend

He goes on in verse four says, say to wisdom, you are my sister, and call insight your intimate friend. Alright, we need to understand an ancient, an ancient cultural thing that's very different from our world.

If I call my wife my sister, everybody thinks that's weird. All right, but in ancient times, they actually viewed, there's, there's fascinating stories. They viewed the brother sister relationship at times as closer than a marriage relationship. So there's stories of like a political marriage where this woman's brother was gonna come fight against her husband's kingdom, and it's recorded where the woman says, yeah, I'm going to be with my brother.

Everybody thought that was normal. They would've thought it was weird if she didn't actually, because in ancient times they viewed it differently. That's not saying that brother and sister relationship should be closer than marriage. It's just saying when in ancient times they looked at their bride and called her my sister, they were saying, you're even closer than the marriage relationship. It's an endearing term.

If you were to go to Song of Solomon chapter four, you'll see it used very clearly where he says, how beautiful is your love? My sister, my bride? Now we don't talk like that, but we need to understand what he's saying here. When he says, say to wisdom, you are my sister. Have the closest possible relationship, and in fact, call insight your intimate friend, he's saying essentially marry wisdom.

He's saying look at wisdom and say, I want you more than any woman or man or anything else for that matter. Let wisdom be the closest thing to you because verse five, wisdom is gonna keep you from literally the forbidden woman and the adulterous, but also figuratively the temptations of appealing evil. The text says like marry Wisdom, and find protection from all of these appealing foolishness that are around you.

The Power of Imagination for Our Fight Against Sin

So then he's gonna go on and he's gonna paint a picture, a portrait of temptation. And before we look at it specifically, I want you as we read it, to notice the power of imagination for our fight against sin. See, he doesn't look at the person he's teaching and say, here's a category of wrong behaviors, and here's a category of right behaviors. Do these, don't do these because it will be bad for you if you do the wrong things, and he doesn't do it that way.

Instead, notice the way he paints this picture for the person he's teaching. Verse six. At the window of my house, I have looked out through my lattice and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking since passing along the street, near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.

Before we keep going, notice he's already foreshadowing, right? Her corner, who's her? What's that? He's foreshadowing just like you would tell a story using imagination to engage you in the fight against sin.

He continues. Verse 10, and behold, the woman meets him dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart. She is loud and wayward. Her feet do not stay at home. Now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait. She seizes him and kisses him. And with bold face, she says to him, I had to offer sacrifices. And today I have paid my vows. So now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.

I've spread my couch with coverings colored linens from Egyptian linen. I have perfumed my bed with Myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come let us take our fill of love till morning, let us delight ourselves with the love for My husband is not at home. He has gone on a long journey. He took a bag of money with him. At Full Moon he will come home. With much seductive speech, she persuades him. With her smooth talk, she compels him. All at once, he follows her as an ox, goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast till an arrow pierces its liver. As a bird rushes into a snare, he does not know that it will cost him his life.

Now maybe there's phrases there that you say, I'm not sure what that one means. Sure. But before we dive into that, just look at the fact that imagination is used to paint the battle against sin.

I think so many times I try to fight sin just on a flow chart kind of basis. Is this against the Bible? Yes. Okay. I shouldn't do it. Is this for the Bible? No. Okay. Well, what about this? Is this good? Is it a wise use of time? We do this like very disconnected, impersonal flow chart. But that's not the way it's portrayed here. It's like the teacher is telling you, think about the temptations you face and realize it's a cunning abuser who wants to harm you. And here's the tactics and here's the strategy, and here's what you look like when you're walking right into it, and here's why you need wisdom.

Imagination is used to fight against sin. So let's look more closely at the way it's used.

The Victim: A Foolish Simpleton

First, we see the victim, which is the way this is described, by the way, not an innocent bystander. It's, it's the victim, the one who's going to be harmed. This person's described as the simple in verse seven. Interestingly, as we've gone through Proverbs, we talked about the simple all the way back in chapter one.

It hasn't been mentioned since. All the way from about chapter one, verse 22 or so till now. He's talked about a lot of different things. He's talked about fools. He's talked about, uh, people who bring discord and division. He's talked about all kinds of different people, scoffers wise people. But he hasn't gone back to the simple until this chapter and he says, I look out and I see this person who is naive, but maybe not naive in the way we normally think.

This could be the kind of person who is just uncommitted, like they don't know for sure they're gonna choose the wise path. They're like, I'll decide tomorrow when the path comes. I'll decide if I'm gonna take the wise path or the foolish path. I might follow God, I might not, but I'm gonna leave my options open.

That's a simple person. They're naive because they think I'm going to impulsively make a good decision. How's your batting average on impulsive decisions? Not so good. Right? They're naive. I'll just decide in the moment, whatever I feel like's the right path. That's what I'll go with.

Or maybe they're naive because they think even if I choose the foolish path, it won't be that bad for me. Or maybe they're naive because they say, I know a lot of people who have failed in this area of life, but I won't. I'm safe. That's the picture of the victim of the simple person. The only thing they are committed to is self definition. I can decide my path at any point I want to, and I can choose wisdom or foolishness at any point I want to.

This is rampant in our world because we live in a world where like the number one most important thing in our society to people is that I can decide and define myself. That's the simple person. You naively think you'll define yourself well.

This person is clueless to dangers that are close by interesting phrase in verse eight. It doesn't really come out in English here. Passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house, literally. Um, it's a Hebrew idiom that says taking steps to her house. And the picture implied is kind of strutting.

You know, when somebody takes steps and they're like, I'm fine. I'm good. He's just walking out, going, look at my newfound freedom. I can walk in the dark areas near this danger. I'll be just fine. He's pompously, striding through life without commitment to wisdom, assuming I'll define myself and I'll pursue wisdom when I want to, foolishness when I want to, and it'll be just fine. That's the picture of the simple person. Of the victim.

And if we're honest, we can all see echoes of us in certain ways, some kinds of situations where we go, Hmm, I've done that before.

The Predator: A Cunning, Guarded Prostitute

So where does he take your imagination next? Beginning in verse 10. To the predator. He describes this woman coming dressed as a prostitute, but wily in heart, the word wily.

She is cunning, she's wily in the sense we normally think, but it's, it's often translated, uh, keep or guarded. In other words, you could say unguarded in dress, but guarded in heart.

This predator is really coming out in a, a role play, an acting job. As you read through it, do you really think this woman desperately loves this simple person? No. In fact, she knows what the teacher in Proverbs said the previous chapter, that if someone's caught in adultery, the husband will relentlessly take vengeance according to the law.

So when she comes and tempts this simple person walking by, she's not saying, really, I love you and I want what's best for you. She's like, I want what I want. And if you get in trouble at the end of the day, fine with me.

She's cunning. She's role-playing something through flattery, but she's guarded because as we saw in chapter five, God intends for human sexuality to be a physical representation of sharing who you are on a much deeper level within a covenant commitment of marriage. So when you take it out of marriage, you get this picture where you have a predator who can only act like it's a real relationship. There's no real sharing because there's not the covenant commitment that makes it safe to share.

And our world may say that's enough. You don't need the covenant commitment and all of this sharing. For this to be wonderful, but I would argue if we look deep inside ourselves, we know we want something more than just a superficial sharing with someone else.

And by the way, it's possible to do this in a marriage too. I won't go down this road too far, but it's possible to role play a relationship fully guarded in heart. Keep the business of the house running, but not really experience genuine relational sharing within a covenant commitment. We can be just as guarded in heart, even if it's not adultery.

This one commentator Kidner said, I. This picture of the predator outwardly, she keeps nothing back. Inwardly. She gives nothing away. That's the predator coming to this victim.

Continues to describe her. She's loud and wayward. We all know some people are louder and some people are softer. He is not just talking about volume. That's not his point. The point is she is not at peace. She is restless. She's bucking against or rebelling against appropriate behavior.

Thought in our world, in our entertainment world, how many times do people try to draw attention simply by being intentionally inappropriate? That's what it means by loud and wayward. Intentionally inappropriate over and over.

Her feet do not stay at home. She's always prowling now in the street, now in the market, now at the corner, lying in wait. Yes, we can draw a straight line from that to our world today and say, immorality and temptation is all around you. Billboards, internet, people walking down the street. Take your pick. We can draw a straight line and see temptation Prowls.

But remember, he's not just talking about immorality. So uses examples from chapter six. He starts with irresponsibility or unhealthy risk. Guess what? That's prowling too. The image of laziness. That temptation is always prowling around you.

As he continued in chapter six, pride. Again, use your imagination. Engage your imagination to help you fight against sin. Pride is like this predator prowling at every corner waiting for you to give in. Divisiveness, violence, greed, dishonesty. Take your pick any temptation you want to find. They fit this picture.

It's like it's a predator waiting prowling at every corner, not sitting in one place so that you can say, oh, I took care of pride. It's over in the corner. I never have to worry about that again. Have you ever had a temptation like pride and you, you try to really fight that by God's grace and you say, okay, I think I made it. You come around the corner. Oh, I'm pretty proud of the fact that I beat pride. 'cause it's prowling always just like this picture.

The Tactic: Targeted Flattery

So then you have the predator. You have the victim. You have the predator. Now you have, you get to tactical flattery. What happens in verse 13? She grabs him and kisses him. It's like, whoa, where did that come from? I mean, even in a modern context, that would be pretty shockingly inappropriate and probably worse in an ancient context.

But this is Satan's tempting strategy often. Hit fast. Overwhelm your senses and bypass your discernment.

It's exactly what Satan does. Satan does not give you a four day warning, complete with brief of everything that's gonna happen. Here's your temptation. Get ready for it. He doesn't do that. No. Instead he waits until you're just walking along. I'm feeling pretty good and he hits you.

All of a sudden you go, wait, I haven't fought that sin in five years. What's happening? And you're overwhelmed, and he wants to bypass your discernment.

How many times in our world are you hit with a shockingly inappropriate temptation and you have to deal with it while you're still disoriented and trying to figure out what happened?

You go have a conversation with someone and they say something hurtful to you and you didn't expect it. You didn't know it was coming. You didn't know it was gonna be a hard conversation at all. Now, all of a sudden, it's like you're hit by it. You're overwhelmed. Are you gonna speak with kindness or are you gonna speak with hatred? Are you gonna tell the truth or are you gonna lie?

Satan doesn't give you five days to figure it out, just like this picture. That is like the adulterous grabbing this victim and kissing him and saying, Hey, right now, here's the opportunity. And while he, he's still reeling. She's piling on reason after reason, after reason after reason.

That's how temptation works.

And I said, Satan wants to bypass discernment because you can't conclude that an open door always leads to blessing, right? We see this in this picture, just 'cause you could do something and it seems easy. That doesn't mean it's right.

That's why we need to be committed. Remember, the, the simple person is uncommitted. That's why we need to be committed to God's wisdom and God's commands. Bind them on your fingers, write them, engrave them on the tablet of your hearts so that when you're disoriented, when the shock comes, you say, wait, wait. Have no other gods before me. I know that one.

That's how Jesus fought temptation too, right? God's word was written on him and he said, no, no, I don't worship you 'cause I worship only God. Don't make our own version of God to worship or have no idols, no graven images.

Even if we just said the 10 Commandments themselves. We need to be committed to those things ahead of time. Build regular patterns in your life of rest and worship. So when you're tempted with, oh, I just, I gotta keep going. I gotta do more and more and more and more, and you say no. 'cause God says, I need to have patterns of rest and trust and worship in him.

Honor your parents. Don't wait until they do something shocking. I'm a parent, I'm gonna do something shocking Sometimes. Don't wait until the end to decide do I honor them or not. Be committed to God's truth. Speak truth. Don't wait until the shock comes. I need to speak truth no matter what. Don't covet, don't murder or hate, and those are the obvious ones. We could go to God's commands in the New Testament. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

You say, well, life's just been so busy. It's shocking that all these temptations, I'm just overwhelmed. Maybe I don't really need the word of God today or tomorrow, or for the next week or the next month. But, no, bind these commands, be committed to the path of wisdom before the shocking temptation comes.

Don't lean on your own understanding. Don't neglect gathering with God's people. Bear one another's burdens. Do everything without complaining. Welcome one another. These are all commands that we need to treasure up because if you wait until the moment of temptation and impulse, you will definitely not bat a thousand on that.

The Rationalization: Piling On Reasons

So she continues while he is disoriented, while he's in shock. Verse 14, I had to offer sacrifices and today I have paid my vows. Now that probably makes almost no sense to our context. She's basically saying, look, I'm a good person. Don't think of me as an abuser or a predator. I'm a good person. I just did these religious things.

And they used to do things they would call, uh, ancient fellowship sacrifices where you perform certain rituals, you offered a sacrifice to, to the God you were worshiping. And then part of the whole process was you ate that sacrifice with someone else. So in other words, I'm a good person, I've been doing some religious things and I really need you to help me.

You know, sometimes we're tempted that way against God when something comes along shocks us and says, oh, but, but I really need you. And of course what he should do is say, no, you don't need me to be against God. I'm not being part of that. But he's a simple person who's naive, who's not committed to the wise path.

So she continues. With her tactical flattery in verse 15. So now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you. She goes on to describe the luxurious perfect place. In other words, she says with this all this description that may go over our heads, a little colored linens from Egyptian linen, Myrrh, Aloe, Cinnamon.

She's saying, I have the perfect place for us to go commit sin. And it's all prepared for you. It's targeted right at you, all the luxuries you could want. By the way, I'm rich. You probably won't enjoy these things ever if you don't come. Enjoy them with me.

You know, Satan tempts us like that too. If you want cut corners and practice bad business ethics, you'll never have success. If you won't come have pleasure outside of the way, God says to have pleasure, you'll never really experience it. Satan tempts us like this over and over again, so she flats him, comes out. You are the special one.

Now we know this is a lie. Why? Because earlier in the chapter, she's always prowling. She's not just prowling looking for him. She's always prowling. She comes out and she flatters.

I think one of the challenges we face with this kind of flattery that's worse today than maybe it was 50 years ago, is we have devices full of targeted marketing. And you know, when you go on YouTube or Facebook or wherever else, you go online and you see the ads that actually are tempting to you. In some ways, she's trying to do like a really early ancient version of targeted marketing for this guy. Hey, I know what you really want, and she's not dumb. She's not tempting him with something else. She knows what would tempt him.

And this kind of tactical flattery looks like love. See if you put yourself in this simple person's mind. That's what he's thinking. Whoa. She thinks I'm special. She loves me. Foolishness comes, and we'll see this in this chapter, but we'll see it in the next chapter as well. Foolishness comes and says, you are loved and you are great.

You are loved because you're just so special wisdom. When we get to chapter eight and chapter nine, when it's contrasted, wisdom comes and says, yes, you are loved, but wisdom is what's great. Yes, you are loved, but God is great. Foolishness is always gonna come tell you you're loved because you're so great.

That's called flattery.

Didn't spend a lot of time on this, but out of interest, I Googled a hundred quotes everybody should know. It's fascinating. A lot of good quotes actually. But what I did is I just scanned through and said, all right, how many of these are essentially flattery?

Believe you can, and you're halfway there. Aren't you so wonderful?

It always seems impossible until it's done. Now you can hear that two ways. You can say it seems impossible because I can't do it in my strength, and God's the one who empowers me. Sure, or you can hear it seems impossible until you and your wonderful greatness accomplish it.

I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. I can define myself to accomplish what I define as success.

The best way to predict the future is to create it. Wow. I have power to create the future.

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.

It's easy to read past these things and see 'em in a list of things and not even think about it, but it's just flattery. Now, there's some true things. You can make good decisions in life. You don't have to feel bound and caught. Of course, all of those things are good. It, but the temptation can easily be exactly what's before us here. You are the special one. Come enjoy this thing that's against God's commands and against God's directions because you're so wonderful.

The moment you start to wonder if you deserve better, you do. Wow. You're such a great person.

Now we could go down all these, all these questions. Well, sometimes I do feel like people treat me the way I shouldn't be treated and my, I'm not recognized as worthy in any way. Sure, we could have the conversations about that, but understand that in all of those quotes, there is at least a hint, if not far more, and I have about 15 more I won't read, at least a hint that says, define yourself, and exalt yourself, and those things can be driven to tempt you to do all kinds of bad stuff and foolish stuff.

Tactical flattery. So use your imagination and say, where is Satan using temptation like that for me? So she says, then in verse 18 through 20, act on impulse without consequences. She doesn't convince him it's right. She doesn't say, this is okay, it's good to do. She says, look, my husband's not around. Nobody's gonna know. That's part of what makes it appealing for the simple person. They're uncommitted because they wanna be impulsive and just do whatever comes across their mind. So when she comes and says. You can. You can be as impulsive as you want to and nobody will ever know.

You realize nobody will ever know is just a hidden way of saying God doesn't exist, because God does know. And it's all over our world. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Come be as an impulsive as you want to be and nobody will know or care.

The Fall: The Simple Gives In

She persuades, convinces, compels, seduces and flatters. And then you get to the statements in verse 22 and 23, and there's the impulsive fall of the simple person.

He's been uncommitted, he's been proud. So when he's faced with this kind of tactical flattery, he's overwhelmed, he discernment, he's struggling. When he is faced with all of this, he may walk with indecision. Oh no, I shouldn't do that. I don't know. I'm not sure where I should go, but he's already in trouble 'cause he hasn't committed to walking the wise path to start with.

And so then it says all at once, verse 22, all at once, he follows her. If he ever fought sin in some area and you fight and you fight and you fight and then you give in all the way at one time. I'm not quite sure. Do I follow wisdom? Do I follow sin? I don't know which way I wanna go. Do I really wanna be this godly? Maybe not. All this question goes on and then all of a sudden, forget it. That's the picture.

All at once, he follows her, like a powerful ox, a huge animal. But what they would do is they would pin them in and then they would slice the jugular and it would bleed out in a matter of minutes.

Like a deer caught in a trap. Just waiting for the shot that will kill it. Like a bird that sees the bait, kind of wanders around, flits around, and finally goes for the bait and then realizes it's a trap.

That's the kind of imagination he's using to say, this is what sin and foolishness does for you.

The Remedy: Pursue God's Good

So what's the remedy? Verse 24, down through 27, if selfishness. Flattery is the problem. We might assume the best thing is to not care about ourselves at all, but not only is that impossible, it misses the whole framework.

He doesn't say, don't care for yourself. Don't act in your self-interest. He says, now, O Sons, listen to me. Be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her paths. For many a victim has she laid low and all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to sheol going down to the chambers of death.

Throughout Proverbs, the message is absolutely act in your self-interest. Absolutely. He never tells you, pursue what's terrible for you. He over and over tells you this is what is truly best for you. But what he does say. Is you can't have self definition. You don't get to establish who you are and what's good. God established good, and he says so you pursue it because that is best for you.

He does say you can't have self exaltation. I am really the, the king of my life. I am really the best thing. He doesn't guide you to that in Proverbs. Wisdom is not about doing what's not good for you. Wisdom is about not defining yourself, not exalting yourself and living according to a godly self-interest.

He told you what's good for you. So pursue that with all your heart. So be committed to it.

Three Steps to Fighting Temptation

If I were to summarize three things from this end, what do you do? This temptation comes and I would encourage you throughout the week, by the way, use your imagination. Think about the sins that you are tempted by.

Then read through this and say, maybe it's not an adulterous woman on a dark street corner, but where are these temptations? Like that for me, and how Then we get to three things to respond.

One: Quit Flirting with God. Marry Him.

First one, quit flirting with God. Marry him.

Don't be uncommitted. Don't say, maybe I'll do the wise thing. Maybe I won't quit flirting with God. That's really what he says when he says, bind your thoughts to wisdom. Bind these truths on your fingers. Engrave them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, you're my sister. You're my intimate friend. Marry it. Be committed to it.

I wanna be clear, there's two ways to be separated from God. You can be separated from God like the prodigal son who says, I'm just gonna chase foolishness everywhere. You can be separated from God, like the older brother who says, I'm gonna be committed to looking right on the outside. I'm not saying be committed to looking right on the outside.

I am saying be wholeheartedly committed to your Father, your King. Who loves you.

I speak to a room full of people who I know would say I am committed to him. Good. Praise God. Continue in that and know that that is part of what guards you. Don't flirt with God. Be committed. Be married to him.

Two: Don't Stray into the Path of Temptation

Second. Don't stray into these paths. Notice verse 25. Let not your heart turn aside to her ways, do not stray into her paths.

That can be immorality and temptation like he's describing directly, but it can be every other temptation toward foolishness. Maybe you object, everywhere I go in this world there's temptation. Like have you been in public recently? So I understand that. But there's a difference between existing in the same world that temptation exists and walking in the paths where temptation prowls. Yes, temptation exists in our world, but do your habits, your patterns of thought lead you where the temptations to, it could be immorality, it could be pride, it could be laziness, it could be any number of temptations. Do your habits lead you where those tempts, predators, prowl? If so, say, I don't want to go down that path.

Three: Keep Your Eyes on the End

And the last thing, keep your eyes on the end. Many victim, she has laid low. Use the power of your imagination to recognize that the predators that tempt you have killed many. Let your imagination remind you, that's the end. I don't want to go to that end. Commentator said this, evil looks like love when it flatters, when it promises intimacy without cost or commitment.

But wisdom offers the real thing, a life of peace, protection, and God's presence. So quit flirting with God, don't go down those paths, and keep your eyes on the end. I Invite you take a moment and respond in prayer to God. Whatever temptations God may have put in your mind, whatever commands he may have reminded you of. Ask him to protect you. Ask him to help you to commit to the path of wisdom.