Proverbs 6:23,24,  For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life: To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

Hebrews 10:38 tells us the …the just shall live by faith:

This not only means living eternally but it means living day after day by faith.

It is a life lived according to the Word of God on a daily basis.

It is the way of life of a believer.

It is not the way of life of one who does not believe.

Our pastor, in recent weeks, has preached that faith without works is dead, being alone.

Faith is verified by action, by works.

If there is faith there will be works.

If a seed is planted grain will result, flowers will bloom, trees will grow.

If no grain shoots forth from the soil, if no flowers bloom, if no trees grow then no seed was planted.

Our God is a God of cause and effect.

Faith and works are like sowing and reaping.

One follows the other as surely as the sunset follows the sunrise.

I believe one of the greatest works of faith has to do with child rearing.

Faith is believing God’s word.

True believing brings action, true believing brings works.

Faith includes believing God’s word about rearing children.

A father and a mother who believe God’s word about child rearing will rear their children in accord with God’s word.

Do you desire to exhibit your faith before men as a testimony to God’s word?

You may say I wish to to preach the gospel as a Pastor or an evangelist, I wish to teach Sunday school, I wish to reach men and women for Christ in a far away mission field, I wish to write books to lead men to Christ.

And if you do these things your faith is the catalyst for such action.

Your faith is the mover to do those works for without faith you cannot do these and please God.

But can you say that those efforts are greater than exercising your faith in the home with regard to your children?

Does God respect faith exercised on a foreign mission field differently than he does faith exercised by a father or a mother in the rearing of children?

I think not.

How does a mother’s faith show itself in works?

It shows itself in works when a mother obeys God’s word explicitly in the rearing of her children.

It shows itself in works when she, as the lawgiver, gives laws to her children in accord with the commandments of the father.

It shows itself in works as she submits to her husband as the commandment giver in the home.

It shows itself in works when a father brings into the home commandments totally in accord and driven by the Word of God.

So many times we confine faith to what we consider religious things, to what takes place at church, to what takes place on Sunday.

But that is the devil’s deceit.

The devil does not mind you going to church, the devil does not mind you carrying a Bible around, but the devil does mind when what’s in that Bible causes you to work.

The devil does mind when what’s in that Bible directs you in the rearing of your children.

The devil does mind when your faith is put into action in the home.

God expects us to take our faith to our homes, to our work, to our recreation.

The just shall live by faith!

For without faith it is impossible to please God and whatever is not of faith is sin.

God’s intention is to take out a people for His name.

And I believe that that people will come from homes that are led by a father and a mother who have faith to believe God’s word in the rearing of their children.

This is verified as we study the book of Proverbs and see a

proverbs father in chaper six who is a man of faith and a man who intends for his son to be a man of faith.

He knows God’s intention is to take out a people for his name and this father gets on board God’s will in the rearing of his son.

By knowing God’s word in the matter he knows which way God is going and he intends to go with him.

He therefore provides his son with commandments and law that will continually be bound upon his heart and tied about his neck.

Proverbs 6:20-22,  My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

Proverbs 6:23,  For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

Proverbs 6:24,  To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

Reproofs of instruction are given to prepare the son for what will come later.

Preparing for what God says will come later is an act of faith.

For God knows the heart of this son.

And this father knows the heart of this son because this father knows God and knows God’s word.

This father knows that the evil woman, the strange woman, is just around the corner of this young man’s life.

This proverbs father is preparing his son for the inevitables of life.

If you don’t think that this event is inevitable in your son’s life just look around.

This father does not live in a dream world of hoping that his son will not fall, a dream world that does not exist, but lives in the real world where sin desires to do its job on a young man.

This father intends to arm his son with that which will defend against the lust of the flesh.

For the wise father knows that the first danger in a young man lies in the flesh.

So this father prepares his son to face the weapon of the evil woman, the strange woman, the woman who will ensnare a young man with flattery.

It is to compliment the complexion as clear when it in fact it is blemished.

Flattery takes place at the bathroom mirror in the putting on of makeup.

Flattery takes that which the heart knows is not right and spins it until it appears right.

Proverbs 6:23,24,  For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life: To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

We have said that this proverbs father intends for the lamp of his commandments and the light of this mother’s law to prepare the son for the eventualities of this life.

This father explains here that one of the purposes of commandment and law is concerning what takes place in a son’s heart as he grows to manhood.

Time marches on and time will bring manhood.

This is one of the eventualities of life that this father prepares for.

So getting a son ready to keep him from the evil woman, to keep him from the strange woman starts early in the son’s life.

This is a teaching in separation.

And this is not a wait until he is in his teens instruction.

It is not so much as even thinking about the evil woman or saying anything about the evil woman but it is about giving him the tools to keep him from anything evil, including the strange woman.

It is about equipping his son with the character it will take to keep him from anything evil.

Flattery is mentioned first for flattery is a powerful weapon amongst the evil for it caters to the deceitful heart.

The natural man desires flattery to puff him up.

To flatter another is to make smooth, to soothe, to appease, to take out the kinks, to extend, to strain, to stretch.

Flattery means to smooth out the bumps.

Flattery means to flatten that which is not flat.

It is to make something appear smooth that is not smooth.

Demagogues use flattery to gain power and favor.

The spin of the politicians is flattery to gain votes.

Giving passing grades when failing grades were earned is flattery to perhaps gain favor from parents.

Trying to raise self-esteem in another without concrete achievement is flattery.

Flattery is puffing up the more, that which a person has already puffed up in his own heart.

Flattery is fanning the flames of self love.

It is playing on the pride that a person already has so the person will have more pride and will like you for helping him have more pride.

For the prideful are proud of their pride.

Now, what will keep the son from this?

What will provide a hedge around the heart of the son to prevent flattery of the evil woman from doing its job?

The lamp of the commandments and the light of the law based upon the Word of God, that were provided though the reproofs that he was given in the home, will provide the needed hedge.

The lamp and the light will provide the son with that which will allow him to discern flattering lips for an eventuality of his life is to hear flattering lips.

Flattering lips cater to a heart that does not know it is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Flattering lips look for a heart that thinks of itself more highly than it ought to think.

For flattery fans the flame of self love.

And self love is realized in a child who does not learn the way of reproof.

Without reproof as a way of life self love is always built up.

Self love is that which is always encouraged in one who is left to himself for self study always results in a wrong view of ones self.

Only Bible study will reveal to you what you are and you are what God says you are.

Therefore in reality you are poor and you are needy.

You are poor, in need of the riches of God.

But the evil woman, the strange woman in her flattery disagrees with what God says.

So the commandments and law given in the home are to meet the eventualities of this life.

They will keep the son from the evil woman and they will provide him with a right view of himself to combat the view that the evil woman brings.