Bitter Honey and Sweet Water - Proverbs 5
Notes
Transcript
Welcome
Announcements:
Hymn of Preparation:
†CALL TO WORSHIP based on Malachi 1:11
Elder Paul Mulner
Minister: Thus says the Lord of Hosts: From the rising of the sun to its setting, my name will be great among the nations.
Congregation: In every place incense will be offered to your name, and a pure offering.
Minister: For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord.
Congregation: We offer our worship to you, O Lord. Your name is great among the nations!
†PRAYER OF ADORATION AND INVOCATION
†OPENING HYMN OF PRAISE #230
“Holy! Holy! Holy!”
†CONFESSION OF SIN AND ASSURANCE OF PARDON
based on Psalm 51; Isaiah 44:21-22; Micah 6:8
Minister: Let us confess our sins before God and one another:
Congregation: Merciful God, you pardon all who truly repent and turn to you. We humbly confess our sins and ask your mercy. We have not loved you with a pure heart, nor have we loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not done justice, loved kindness, or walked humbly with you, our God.
Have mercy on us, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy, blot out our transgressions. Create in us clean hearts, O God, and renew a right spirit within us. Cast us not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from us. Restore to us the joy of your salvation, and uphold us with a willing spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Minister: Hear the merciful response of a loving God: You will not be forgotten by me. I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you. Christians, your sins are forgiven. Be at peace.
Congregation: We are forgiven. Thanks be to God!
CONTINUAL READING OF SCRIPTURE Ephesians 2:1-10
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Pastor Austin Prince
THE OFFERING OF TITHES AND OUR GIFTS
“One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.” (Proverbs 11:24–25, ESV)
PASTORAL PRAYER & THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
†PSALM OF PREPARATION #139B
“Lord You Have Searched Me (vv. 1-5)”
SERMON Proverbs 5 //
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
Blessed are you, God of all creation. You spoke in the beginning and all things came to be. You spoke, and your word came to dwell among us, full of grace and truth. Bless this place where we would hear your voice. As the word is spoken, may our ears be attuned to you. As the word is spoken, may you speak to us.
TEXT PROVERBS 5
1 My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding, 2 that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge. 3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, 4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol; 6 she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it. 7 And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. 8 Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, 9 lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless, 10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner, 11 and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, 12 and you say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! 13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. 14 I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.” 15 Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. 16 Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? 17 Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. 18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, 19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love. 20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? 21 For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths. 22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. 23 He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray.
AFTER SCRIPTURE
Teach me your way, O Lord and I will walk in your truth. Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
†HYMN OF RESPONSE #538
“Take My Life, and Let It Be”
THE MINISTRY OF THE LORD’S SUPPER
Minister: Lift up your hearts!
Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord.
Minister: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
Congregation: It is right for us to give thanks and praise!
CONFESSION OF FAITH Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A’s 32, 34
Minister: Christians, confess your faith in Christ!
Congregation: I am called Christian because by faith I am a member of Christ and so share in His anointing. I am anointed to confess His name, to present myself to Him as a living sacrifice of thanks, to strive with a good conscience against sin and the devil in this life, and afterward to reign with Christ over all creation for all eternity.
We call Him ‘our Lord’ because - not with gold or silver, but with His precious blood He has set us free from sin and from the tyranny of the devil, and has bought us, body and soul, to be His very own.
INVITATION TO THE LORD’S TABLE
Table Sermon
The call to "drink from your own cistern" echoes the deeper call to drink from the fountain of living water that Christ offers (John 4:14). Ultimate satisfaction is found not merely in faithful marriage, but in the Bridegroom who will never fail His Bride.
No one should come to this table without recognizing that it is his faithfulness, and not ours, that makes us worthy recipients. Those who may come to receive the Lord’s body and blood are those who rely entirely on God’s faithfulness for their hope and assurance.
This meal is for those who are sorry for their sin and hate it. This table welcomes all who belong to Christ through repentance, faith, baptism, and continuing union with his Church. If you do not repent of your sin, you must not come. If you do not believe you have sinned, you must not come. But if you know your sin, and confess it, he is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness and this table is for you. Come, touch, taste and see the faithfulness of God.
PRAYER
DISTRIBUTION OF THE ELEMENTS
After elements are distributed read the WOI while congregation is partaking.
WORDS OF INSTITUTION AND SHARING OF THE LORD’S SUPPER
Minister: The Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread,
and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said,
"This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me."
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying,
"This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."
†OUR RESPONSE
“Come, Thou Almighty King”
To the great one in three
eternal praises be,
hence evermore.
His sovereign majesty
may we in glory see,
and to eternity
love and adore.
†BENEDICTION: GOD’S BLESSING FOR HIS PEOPLE
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Peace be to all of you who are in Him, now and forevermore. Amen.
Grace Notes Reflection
Proverbs 5 reminds us that one of the foremost places where wisdom is needed is in the realm of sexual discretion. Foolishness here is not a minor stumble. It is the handling of an explosive. It leads to death.
The chapter draws a contrast between two women. There is the seductive woman, whose lips drip honey and whose words slide down like oil. She is sweet on the tongue—but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword. And then there is the wife of your youth, a fountain of love, a refreshing and rejuvenating well. One path leads to death. The other leads to life. Wisdom is the ability to tell the difference.
But to tell the difference, you need distance. Up close, the strange woman doesn't look strange at all. What would have seemed foreign and desperate and artificial from a distance starts to feel compelling and rational when you're standing in front of her. So Proverbs gives us two safeguards. First, listen to wise counsel (Prov. 5:1, 7). Let other voices hold the line when your own judgment wavers. Second, keep your way far from her. Don't trust your clarity at close range.
And then go home. All the mirage should vanish at the oasis of your own marriage. Here, there should be no strangeness—no performing, no hoping for acceptance, no wondering whether you are wanted. Here, there should be intoxication. That may sound like a strong word for married love, but it is the Bible's word, and it is the experience of those who have learned to see the blazing heat of grace in what God has given them. If God has given you a spouse, he has given you a good thing. Cherish it. Nurture it. Serve it. Watch it blossom into the place you most want to be.
Proverbs 5 also reminds us that all of our ways are before the Lord. He sees the covenant home where husband and wife drink deeply from their shared well. And he sees the footsteps at night that wander toward the house of lust. Nothing is hidden.
Of ourselves, we are naive—slaves to sin who mistake the road to destruction for the road to life. The fool finds a hundred paths to death, and every one of them feels like truly living until it doesn't. But wisdom finds the one path to life, and that path runs through a death: the death of Christ. In him, we go to death so that we can truly live.
So come, all who have wandered. Come, those who have been unfaithful. Come, you who are naive, you repeat offenders. Come and receive Christ.
