Proverbs 9:17 (Mini Sermon)

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1.      Pro 9:17 – “Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”

1. The foolish woman’s message started off sounding identical to wisdom’s message (Pro 9:4 c/w Pro 9:16).
   1. It quickly took a different turn though.
   2. Wisdom (Christ and his ministers) invites the simple to come into her house (Christ’s church) and eat of her bread and drink her wine (partake of the ordinances) (Pro 9:5).

• The foolish woman also has food and drink to offer, but it is the bread of deceit which tastes sweet at first, but ends with a bitter aftertaste (Pro 20:17).

1. Stolen waters are sweet,
   1. Satan’s message through his ministers is enticing (1Co 2:4; Col 2:4).
      1. Enticing adj. – That entices or instigates; insidiously attractive; alluring, beguiling, seductive.
      2. False converts are enticed into religion by false teachers appealing to their sensual lusts (Jud 1:4 c/w Jud 1:18-19).
      3. Sensual adj. – 1. a. Of or pertaining to the senses or physical sensation; sensory.
      4. Men are tempted when they are drawn away of their own lust and enticed (Jam 1:14).
      5. Foolish women can be led away by their lusts by false teachers (2Ti 3:6).
      6. False teachers allure sinners through the lusts of the flesh using their enticing words (2Pe 2:18).
   2. The foolish woman is tempting men to come into her house (Satan’s religions) with the allure of the forbidden.

• Satan uses the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life to entice men to sin (1Jo 2:16 c/w Gen 3:6).

1. She implies that she has stolen waters in her house which are sweet.
   1. Stolen – 1. Obtained by theft.
   2. Sweet adj. – 1. a. Pleasing to the sense of taste; having a pleasant taste or flavour; spec. having the characteristic flavour (ordinarily pleasant when not in excess) of sugar, honey, and many ripe fruits, which corresponds to one of the primary sensations of taste. Also said of the taste or flavour. Often opposed to bitter or sour (so also in fig. senses).
   3. There is thrill and intrigue associated with partaking of something that is stolen which would not normally be available to oneself.
   4. These “stolen waters” could represent fornication and adultery (Pro 5:15).
      • False religion has been associated with sexual rites since antiquity.
      • Satan had corrupted God’s religion in the OT by having the priests fornication with women who came to worship (1Sa 2:22).
      • Satan has even been able to corrupt Christian churches and make them into sex clubs (Rev 2:20-22).
   5. The Catholic Church claims to have holy water, which idea it stole from the holy scriptures which declare that Jesus Christ gives living water to His children (Joh 4:10, 13-14; Joh 7:37-39).
2. Whatever the stolen waters are, they represent something that is not lawful to have.
3. She intentionally doesn’t elaborate on the nature of the stolen waters so as to make it all the more enticing.
   1. Beware of false teachers and religions who will only give you limited information as a teaser to tempt you to attend or join their organization in order to find out more.
   2. The Masonic Lodge uses such tactics.
   3. I have even seen advertisements for the Masonic Lodge on billboards which say “Know the secret?”
   4. Cults like Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons are very careful to only reveal bits and pieces of what they believe so as to lure the ignorant into their assemblies where they can indoctrinate them.
   5. False religions are intentionally vague in order to avoid detection, scrutiny, and condemnation from good men.
   6. “Corruption in doctrine works best when it is unfettered by any explicit statement of that doctrine. Error loves ambiguities. It does not desire to state its position clearly, either because it has no distinct position to state, or if stated, it would stand convicted of iniquities in the eyes of all honest and God fearing men.” (Martin L. Wagner, Free Masonry, An Interpretation, p. 539)
4. and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
   1. The foolish woman continues her message of allurement.
   2. Like wisdom (Christ and His ministers), the foolish woman (Satan and his ministers) offers bread in her house (Pro 9:5 c/w Pro 9:17).
      1. Wisdom sets forth the bread of life (Joh 6:35).
      2. The foolish woman sets forth the bread of wickedness (Pro 4:17) and deceit (Pro 20:17).
      3. The foolish woman’s bread is full of the leaven of malice, wickedness (1Co 5:8), hypocrisy (Luk 12:1), and false doctrine (Mat 16:6, 12).

• The bread that the foolish woman offers is eaten in secret.
  1. Secret adj. – 1. Kept from knowledge or observation; hidden, concealed. Predicatively (esp. in to keep secret): Kept from public knowledge, or from the knowledge of persons specified; not allowed to be known, or only by selected persons.
  2. False religions are shrouded in secrecy.
     • The occult is secretive by definition.
     • Occult adj. – 1. a. Hidden (from sight); concealed (by something interposed); not exposed to view. Not disclosed or divulged, privy, secret; kept secret; communicated only to the initiated.  4. Of the nature of or pertaining to those ancient and mediæval reputed sciences (or their modern representatives) held to involve the knowledge or use of agencies of a secret and mysterious nature (as magic, alchemy, astrology, theosophy, and the like); also transf. treating of or versed in these; magical, mystical.
     • The meeting rooms in Masonic Lodges have no windows in them, and all of their rituals are kept secret from outsiders.
     • Many of the buildings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses do not have windows. What do you suppose the reason for that is?
  3. God will judge the secret, evil religions of Satan.
     1. It is a shame even to speak of those things which are done by the wicked in secret (Eph 5:12).
     2. Idolatrous, secret religion is cursed of God (Deut 27:15).
     3. God will bring every secret thing into judgment (Ecc 12:14).
     4. God will judge the secrets of men (Rom 2:16).
     5. God will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and judge them (1Co 4:5).
     6. There is nothing covered and hidden in secret which shall not be eventually revealed and exposed (Luk 12:1-3; Mat 10:26).
  4. Christ’s doctrine is not a secret (Mat 10:27; Joh 18:20; Act 26:26).
     1. God’s commandments are not hidden (Deut 30:11).
        • God does not speak His truth in secret, but rather in the open (Isa 45:19; Isa 48:16).
        • This is why I am comfortable putting my sermons on the Internet for anyone to hear.
     2. There were things which God kept secret, but eventually revealed them through the prophets, Jesus Christ, and the apostles (Amo 3:7; Mat 13:35; Rom 16:25; 1Co 2:7).
     3. The apostles kept back nothing that was profitable for the churches and taught it publicly (Act 20:20).
        • They declared all the counsel of God (Act 20:27).
        • Neither did the apostles use cryptic language when preaching to hide and obscure the truth, but rather spoke plainly (2Co 3:12).
     4. God has revealed to us the truth that He wants us to know, but there are some secret things belong unto Him alone (Deut 29:29).
     5. Beware of anyone who claims to know the secret things of God!
     6. True men of God do not dabble in hidden things of dishonesty (2Co 4:2).
  5. The foolish woman promises that her religious experience will be pleasant.
     1. Pleasant adj. – 1. Having the quality of giving pleasure; originally synonymous with pleasing, but now used more vaguely: Agreeable to the mind, feelings, or senses; such as one likes.
     2. In other words, hers is a feel-good religion which is pleasing to the feelings and senses.
     3. There is no uncomfortable message of repentance or rebuke in the foolish woman’s message.
     4. Conversely, wisdom’s message is laced with reproof and correction which does not leave her hearers comfortable in their sin and folly (Pro 9:6-8).
     5. Beware of the preacher who only preaches feel-good messages and never issues rebuke and condemnation of sin.
• Jacob’s prophecy of the latter days of Simeon and Levi is a good exhortation to us concerning the false, secret churches of the foolish woman: “O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united…” (Gen 49:6).