The sermon, 'The Proverbs 31 Man' by Peter Allison, explores the often-overlooked aspect of Proverbs 31, which is traditionally associated with women but is actually directed at young men, specifically at King Lemuel by his mother. The sermon emphasizes the importance of maternal instruction and how it shapes a man's life and character. It warns against giving one's strength to women inappropriately, particularly through sexual immorality and abdicating responsibilities, which can lead to personal and societal destruction. The speaker highlights the need for men to maintain their responsibilities as protectors and providers, drawing parallels with biblical figures like Adam. The sermon also warns against the misuse of alcohol, emphasizing its potential to impair judgment and lead to downfall, particularly for those in leadership or positions of influence. The speaker concludes by urging listeners to rely on divine grace and wisdom to uphold these teachings.

Please turn to Proverbs 31. Our scripture reading is the first nine verses. The words of King Lemuel, the utterance which his mother taught him, what my son and what son of my womb and what son of my vows, do not give your strength to women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings. It is not for kings, O L'Emuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes intoxicating drink, lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the justice of all the afflicted, give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to those who are bitter of heart. Let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more.

Open your mouth for the speechless and the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy. May the Lord consider our affliction and deliver us as we remember His law. Heavenly Father, I ask that you would sanctify my sinful lips, that from a vessel of clay, the riches of your glorious grace might be proclaimed this morning. I ask that you would open to us your word and that we might see you, Jesus Christ, as you are revealed in the Scriptures.

In Jesus' name, Amen. We are in the last chapter of Proverbs, and it's certainly one of the most famous chapters, if not the most famous chapter in all of Proverbs. It is the proverbial Proverbs 31, woman. And like the last chapter in chapter 30, which contained a prophecy of a guru which he communicated to a few other people. This chapter, Proverbs 31, was written by Lemuel, a king.

His name simply means dedicated to God. And we don't know much more about him, except that his mother was either a prophetess to whom the Lord gave this prophecy, or she was given this prophecy which she then taught to her son. In modern language, you could title this chapter, The Things My Mother Taught Me. Ironically, most people today think of Proverbs 31 as something that is especially relevant to women and to young ladies. And it's certainly relevant to women and young ladies.

But the original recipient and The actual audience of this chapter is to men. To a young man, to Lemuel, a king. It contains the counsel of Lemuel's mother to him. It was her wisdom, it was her instruction about what he needed, about what was important and what he needed to know to be successful as a man of God, as a husband, as a father. And Lemuel is giving this advice and his audience is other young men.

And so instead of being an instruction of a king to young ladies, it's actually the opposite. Contains a prophecy which a mother taught to her son. And so I've titled this morning the Proverbs 31 man because that is the audience of this prophecy, this council. Counsel. A literal translation of verse 1 would be the words of Lemuel, eight king, A prophecy or oracle which his mother taught him.

So this is written by Lemuel, but he's communicating something, a prophecy, an utterance, just like a guru was giving a prophecy. It was a prophecy that his mother taught to him. And so this chapter is what a godly woman considered important for her son to know in order to have a fruitful life. And So right in the opening line, we see that godly mothers teach their sons. And this teaching has a profound influence on them their entire lives.

Lemuel is now a king. We don't know where he was a king, but he was a king somewhere or in line to be a king. And he is passing on this godly instruction, this prophetic instruction, which his mother gave him. You see the impact A godly mother has on her sons by her good instruction is vital. It's huge.

It's a position of influence that every mother should desire. And I would say that you as a mother will have a far greater impact on the world through your instruction of your sons and your children than any other work you could possibly do. It really is a high calling that is worthy of every gift, of every ability, of every resource that the Lord has given to you. It's a worthy outlet for all of those gifts and abilities. You don't need anything else.

You don't need any other outlet in order to be fulfilled. And I would say that with very few exceptions, you will be remembered far more for the instructions that you give your sons and your daughters than for anything else that you will do. I still see today people that are my age and older talking about the things that their mother told them. But Lemuel remembered his mother's instruction. He didn't write it off as dated or think to himself, well what could she teach me?

And this has been the instruction, and this has been the message of Proverbs throughout this book. Proverbs 1-8 begins with, My son, hear the instruction of your father and do not forsake the law of your mother. Or Proverbs 6, My son, keep your father's command and do not forsake the law of your mother. Proverbs 23, 22, Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old. Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her who bore you rejoice.

This is the message of Proverbs, that sons respect and remember the instruction of their mothers. He respected that instruction by remembering it, and he respected that instruction by passing it along. He thought it was important enough and worthy of being taught to others. So first, we see Lemuel's mother instructed him. And second we see in the second verse that she expresses deep affection for her son.

He was special to her. Now, this is not obvious from the way the New King James translates verse 2. But commentators and translators are not certain how to translate this verse. And translations are all over the map on verse 2. Now, Walkie, Bruce Walkie following the NIV, which he helped to translate, so it's probably his translation, he translates it, Listen, my son.

And his basis for that is that this word here for what this word that's used in the Hebrew for what it's translated in the new king james what it's an aramaic loan word that in aramaic means to listen and there's another aramaic loan word in that sentence as well and that is son. So there is some basis for that. But most translate verse 2 as what? And they put a negative connotation to it. You know, the King James and the New King James translated it, what my son, what the son of my womb, what the son of my vows, as if it's a rhetorical question of some sort.

What is the son of my vows doing? It almost implies he was doing something he shouldn't be doing. The common English Bible translates it, know my son, with that negative connotation to it. Others translate it as, what should I say my son? Well, that's reading a lot into the text that's not there in the Hebrew.

But while many, if not most, take this in a negative sense, there are several translators and commentators that don't. And so, although I readily grant that what or how is one way this word can be translated and one way it is commonly translated, it can also be an exclamation like our O, an exclamation of praise or so forth. And the New American Standard, which is usually a very literal, puts both of those concepts together to come up with what? Oh my son. But I think the simplest translation and the most consistent with the context is to translate it as, oh my son.

Oh son of my womb, Oh, son of my vows. She respected her son. He's her son. Going back in time, He's the Son that she conceived and carried within her for nine months and for whom she labored hard to bring into this world. And going back even farther in time, in the third clause, He's a Son for whom she prayed, who was conceived in answer to her vow, like Hannah.

She must have vowed before he was conceived to dedicate him to the Lord. In fact that's what his name means. His name means dedicated to the Lord, just like Samuel's name means asked of the Lord. And this expression here, oh my son, oh the son of my womb, oh the son of my vows, demonstrates her affection for her son and it communicates also respect to him which is something that sons need from their mothers, especially sons. The fact that she repeats this three times, I think, emphasizes her affection and her respect.

And so then in verse 3, she proceeds to give to Lemuel her counsel. The very first instruction that she gave him was not to give his strength to women. Not to give his strength to women. Now that's not an anti-woman statement because obviously this context of Proverbs 31 is decidedly not an anti-woman passage. But this is something that he is not to do.

And the next phrase confirms that. It elaborates, it expands on that. Don't give your strength to women nor your ways to that which destroys kings. So we have to understand this giving of strength to women is something which is going to destroy him as a man and especially him as a king. This is not talking about using his strength.

Men are created strong in ways that women are not and they're to use that strength to protect the women, to defend them, to provide for them. So it's not speaking about don't use your strength for the benefit of your wife and your family. It's speaking of something else. We know this because it is something that is going to destroy him. That's the parallel.

It's a way that will destroy him. I think there are two broad ways that men give their strengths to women, that's in the plural, in the wrong way. And the first is through sexual immorality, pornography, lust, promiscuity. And the second is through abdication of their responsibilities as men. But the most obvious way in which men improperly give their strength to women is sexual immorality.

This was the message of Proverbs 5 regarding strange woman. You know, and a strange woman is a woman who is not a part of the covenant. The strange woman is someone who is not in the covenant relationship. That's how Paul uses it when he speaks about to the Gentiles that they were strangers and aliens in the covenant. They weren't a part of the covenant.

So they were in that sense a foreigner. And when the Proverbs speaks of a strange woman then it's speaking of a woman who is outside of the covenant of marriage. In Proverbs 5 begins, My son, pay attention to my wisdom, lend your ear to my understanding that you may preserve discretion and your lips may keep knowledge. For the lips of a strange woman drip honey and her mouth is smoother than oil but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps lay hold of hell.

Lest you ponder her path of life, her ways are unstable. You do not know them. So therefore, hear me now, my children, and do not depart from the words of my mouth remove your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house that's saying don't dally in this kind of thing don't play around the edges with it Don't see how close you can get to immorality, but not cross the line. Don't go near the door of her house. Flee it.

And here's the reason. Lest you give your honor to others. Lest you give your honor to others. That's giving strength, giving your strengths to a woman. And your years to the cruel one.

Lest aliens be filled with your wealth." And this word for strength actually means wealth. It can mean, it's often translated, It can be translated many places, army. But it refers to strength, wealth, army, the substance of what you have. So all of this whole passage here in chapter five is really, I think, an explanation of further detail of what it means to give one's strength to women in ways that destroy a man. It says, remove your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house lest you give your wealth, your honor to others and your ears to the cruel one lest aliens that's a foreigner, that's somebody that's not your family, be filled with your wealth and your labors go to the house of a foreigner." That's what it is to give your strength to somebody.

And you mourn at last when your flesh and your body are consumed. That's your physical strength you've given away when your flesh and your body are consumed. And you say how I hated instruction and my heart despised correction. I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me. I was on the verge of total ruin in the midst of the assembly and the congregation.

On the verge of total ruin. He was in the middle of the church. This was a church-going person that's being described here. This is not some person sowing their wild oats, but this is somebody who is in the middle of the assembly and the congregation on the verge of destruction because he's given his strengths to women through sexual immorality, which includes all manner of immorality, all manner of lust and pornography, of fantasies and thoughts, being preoccupied with improper thoughts. She's saying her first message to her son that she loved, that she respected is don't give your strength to women.

It will destroy you. It will destroy you as a man and destroy you as a king. Avoid the strange woman who is outside the covenant. And all that is involved in that. Proverbs 6 goes on to talk about, For by means of a harlot, a man is reduced to a crust of bread, and adulterous will prey on his precious life.

Pornography is committing adultery in a virtual sense with an unknown woman, and it takes your life. Proverbs 7 describes, again, another foolish man who is enticed by a harlot, And after giving this process of seduction, it says, immediately he went after her as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks. Till an arrow struck his liver As a bird hastens to the snare, he didn't know it would cost him his life. Don't let your heart turn aside to her ways. Don't stray into her paths, for she has cast down many wounded.

And all who were slain by her were strong men. Strong men. Don't think that you are strong enough or stronger. This giving your strength to women destroys strong men. All, the Proverbs says, all who were slain by her were strong men.

Her house is the way to hell, descending into the chambers of death. You see, all of these things, This lack, this lost and lack of self-control doesn't just destroy a marriage. It doesn't just break a woman's heart. It destroys you, the one who practices it. It steals your strength as a man and it opens you up and you and your family to all manner of demonic oppression.

Mallory Millett is the sister to Katie Millett, who is the author of the book, the 1970s book, Sexual Politics, which preached the feminist message that marriage was slavery and wives were just, were prostitutes to one man. Well her sister Mallory wrote an article a few years ago about a planning meeting that her sister had invited her to in 1969. This is before Roe and Wade. This was back when it was still a crime in every state to kill an unborn baby. She writes, Kate invited me to join her for a gathering at the home of her friend, Lila Karp.

They called the assemblage a consciousness raising group. A typical communist exercise, something practiced in Maoist China. We gathered at a large table as the chairperson opened the meeting with a back and forth recitation, like a litany, a type of prayer done in Catholic Church but now it was Marxism the Church of the Left mimicking religious practice and that's something if you Pay attention to like Saint Ungar of the Young Turks. They do the exact same thing. There's videos around of them doing this today with people today.

And so she goes on with this, giving the words of this litany. Why are we here today? She asks. To make revolution, they answer. What kind of revolution?

She replies. The cultural revolution, they chant back. And how do we make the cultural revolution? She asks. By destroying the American family, they chant back.

How do we destroy the American family? She replies. By destroying the American patriarch, she came back. She cried exuberantly, Millery says. And how do we destroy the American Patriarch?

She replied, by taking away his power. And how do we do that? By destroying monogamy, they shouted. And How can we destroy monogamy? This is where Mallory says, their answer left me dumbstruck, breathless, disbelieving my ears.

Was I on planet earth? Who were these people? Their answer, By promoting promiscuity, eroticism, prostitution, and homosexuality. And they proceeded with a long discussion, Mallory goes on to say, on how to advance these goals by establishing the national organization of women. It was clear they desired nothing less than the utter deconstruction of Western society.

The upshot was that the only way to do this was to invade every American institution. Everyone must be permeated with the revolution, the media, the educational system, the universities, high schools, K-12 school boards, then the judiciary, the legislature, the executive branches, and even the library system. I think it's interesting that today it's come to light that many state legislatures have given libraries exceptions to the pedophilia laws, That what would be criminal for you and I to simply have in our possession, it can be in a public school library for our children. They have an exemption clause in the law for school libraries. These founders of now targeted the library system.

Mallory goes on to say, "'It fell on my ears as a ludicrous scheme, as if they were a band of highly imaginative children planning a Brinks robbery. The destruction, you see, of men is accomplished through sexual immorality. And when men fall, when patriarchy falls, culture falls. They're destroyed. Men are destroyed and the culture is destroyed with them.

Do not give your strengths to women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings. These people understood this, these founders of now. In fact, Before he died, Aaron Russo, who is a, I don't even think he was a Christian, he was a Hollywood film producer. He wrote, he produced, directed a couple of movies back in the day. And he, but before he died of lung cancer about 15 years ago or so, he put out a movie, a documentary, because he was a personal friend of the Rockefellers.

And he talked about in their feminism and the IRS tax system as the means by which America was being led. The name of that movie was From Freedom to Fascism. And he identified these as the means by which America was being led. The name of that movie was From Freedom to Fascism. He identified these as the means by which America would be taken from a free nation where men and women were able to obey the law of God to a fascist or tyrannical state where it was difficult and people were oppressed and unable to obey the law of God.

And in there, I bring that up because in there he mentioned in his private conversations with members of the Rockefeller family, she was like a personal friend of their family, being this Hollywood director, they acknowledged to him that The scheme of having American women go into the workforce was a scheme, was part of the plan to destroy the American family, to destroy monogamy. And that's the essence then of Lemuel's mother's instruction to him. Do not give your strength to women. It will destroy you as a man and destroy your family and destroy your nation. The destruction of is accomplished through sexual immorality.

But the other way that this can happen is through abdication. Through Men abdicating their role as men, as husbands, as fathers, as providers and protectors. And the classic example of this is Adam. Is Adam in Genesis chapter 3, when the serpent came to Eve and said, Has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said, well we may eat of the fruit of the trees, but of the fruit of the trees which is in the midst of the garden, God has said you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.

Then the serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely die. So first he questions what God has said. Then he contradicts it with a direct lie. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took the fruit and ate.

She also gave it to her husband with her, and he ate. And then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings." Paul said in Timothy that Eve was deceived in that. She was deceived by the serpent. But Adam was not deceived. Eve was deceived in what she was led astray.

Adam was not. That means that Adam was there And he was not deceived. He understood what was going on and did nothing about it. He did nothing to stop this situation from developing. But he took that fruit when his wife gave it to him and he ate it.

And in so doing he abdicated. His role as a defender and as a protector. He was not deceived. He knew what he was doing. He knew what the consequences are.

Eve, the Bible says, was deceived. She didn't know. And in so doing, Adam gave his strengths to women. And it did bring the destruction of him, his wife, and in his case the entire human race. There are many applications of this aspect of giving one's strength to women, of men giving their strength to women in the sense of abdicating their position, abdicating their role as a protector and a defender.

You could think on a cultural level when Women were given the vote in this country a hundred years ago. That was an abdication of responsibility. That was a sign of a culture that was dying. That was not liberating for women. The 20th century has not been kind to women.

And this message of Proverbs is radical today, but it was just as radical in the days of Proverbs. What the Bible was teaching was about women, and this chapter will go on to fill out, was very different from how the other cultures treated their women. It was just as radical then as it is today. Husbands can abdicate their role Husbands can abdicate their role as the protector and defender of their family when like Adam they do not provide a vision. They do not provide a vision for the family.

They don't provide the context for the family life as to what the purpose and direction, what the focus of that family is going to be about. Husbands and wives were created in the image of God. The woman was created after the man to be a help-mate. And that's an interesting word. It's not a help-mate.

It's a help-meet. Meet is the word that's suited or comparable. So there is an equality of personhood in the Lord. That's the comparable part. As Matthew Henry so famously stated, the woman was taken not from Adam's Foot that he would step rule over trample on her and not from his head that she would rule over him But under hit from a rib under his arm so that she would be protected, so she would be beside him to be protected and loved by him.

But a woman is comparable to a man, And so there's an equality of personhood, but there's not an equality of function. She is a helper. And so Adam has been given this task to exercise dominion over the earth. He's to subdue it. He's to have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

And God gave him that task, and he begins that task, and he doesn't find anybody who is suited to him. And so God then created Eve and brought her to him as someone who is uniquely able to enable him to fulfill this debt. He's incomplete without that. So together a husband and wife exercise this dominion. And I think husbands advocate that when they do not provide that vision for how their family will carry this out and don't provide a context for for all the things that that go on in the family life and simply allow culture or allow their wife to step in and fill that gap because they will.

This is what Isaiah chapter three talks about. And it's not a commendation. It's an example of the abdication of men. Isaiah three talks about the Lord of Hosts takes away from Jerusalem and Judah the stock and the store the whole supply of bread the whole supply of water the mighty man and the man of war the judge and the prophet the diviner and the elder the captain of fifty and the honorable man, the counselor and the skilled honor-son, and the expert enchanter, and I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them, and people will be oppressed, every one by another and every one by his neighbor, and the children will be insolent toward the elder and the base toward the honorable. Women, rulers, is the result of men abdicating.

God said in His judgment He is going to take away all of these rulers, all of these men, and what would be left, women would step in to fill the gap. When a man takes hold of his brother in the house of his father and says, You have clothing, you be our ruler. This is an example of men abdicating and being unwilling to take responsibility for ruling and for protecting and for defending. You be a ruler and let these ruins be under your power. In that day this man is going to protest and say, I can't cure your ills.

For in my house is neither food or clothing. Don't make me a ruler. He's abdicating. He Talks about that day that seven men will take hold of one man saying, We will eat our own food and wear our own apparel. Only let us be called by your name.

Take away our reproach. You see, they're not happy ruling and protecting. As for my people, Isaiah 3, 12 goes on to say, Children are their oppressors and women rule over them. Oh my people, those who lead you cause you to err and destroy the way of your paths." This is happening because the men have abdicated. They've given their strength to women.

Lemuel's mother goes on in verse 4 to speak of one other area that is destructive to kings. It is not for kings, O Lemyo, is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes intoxicating drink, lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the justice of the afflicted. Give strong drink to him who is Perishing and wine to those who are bitter of heart let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more See the influence of alcohol destroys sound judgment and this idea today of people who live for the weekend so they can enjoy their alcohol. That's their life. That's what she's talking about.

That shouldn't be our life. It's not wrong to enjoy these things that God has given. God has given wine to make us glad. Jesus made wine at the wedding in Cana. He turned the water into wine.

These aren't wrong in themselves. What's wrong is when these become our basis for living. When these become that which we look forward to doing on the weekend, that this is our goal. Alcohol destroys sound judgment. Under the influence of alcohol, People lose their inhibitions, they lose their sound judgments, and they make fools of themselves.

Most things that people do that they regret are done under the influence of alcohol. Alcohol also inhibits your physical reflexes, your physical ability, your physical responses. Leviticus 10.9 said, Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink. You and your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die, shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. That was a command given to the priests and the Levites.

They were not to drink wine or strong drink. They or their family, when they went into the tabernacle. Isaiah speaks of how Israel's men have failed in this way in Isaiah 28, but they also have erred through wine and through intoxicating drinker out of the way. The priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink. They are swallowed up by wine.

They go they go out of the way through intoxicated drink. It means they've departed from the path of truth because they're drinking. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment. And so Lemuel, his mother, is warning him that this is not appropriate for kings, for men.

Proverbs 23 elaborates on this as well, and I'd like to look at that in Proverbs 23, 26. My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways. For a harlot is a deep pit and a seductress is a narrow well. She lies in wait for a victim and increases the unfaithful among men who has woe who has sorrow so there's the there's the first part sexual immorality now she goes now Proverbs here goes on to talk about alcohol who has woe who has sorrow who has contentions who has complaints who has wounds without cause who has redness of eyes Those who linger long at the wine. Those who go in search of mixed drinks.

Those who do not look on the wine when it is red. And it describes how attractive that wine could be, swirling around smoothly. Because it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper and your Eyes will see strange things and your heart will utter perverse things." And then it gives a very, very poignant description of somebody who is under the influence of alcohol inappropriately. Your, your heart will utter perverse things. Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies at the top of a mast saying, they have struck me, but I wasn't hurt.

They have beaten me, but I didn't feel it. When shall I awake that I may seek another drink? That is not for men. That is a way of giving your strength to women. There is a place for alcohol and it describes that here.

Give it to him who is perishing. There is a place for palliative treatment and painkillers. Alcohol can do that. Give strong drink to him who is perishing. Give wine to those who are bitter of heart and let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.

But it's not for young men, it's not for rulers, it's not for kings, it wasn't for priests as they ministered in the temple. This is not something that should be characteristic of our lives. It is a way that can destroy a man, and it can destroy his family and destroy a culture. Many times when you destroy a family you destroy it for several generations. Well we will stop there and didn't quite finish this passage on her direction, positive direction on what a king ought to do.

We'll pick that up, Lord willing, next week. Let us pray. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for your Holy Spirit that teaches us. For your Holy Spirit that strengthens us.

For apart from Your grace, we cannot stand. Lord, we come to You as Your people who want to walk in obedience to Your ways, to walk in wisdom, to apply our heart to understanding. But we know that we cannot do it in our own strength and so we ask Father that you would equip us your Holy Spirit would empower us we ask Lord that where there is that old nature that is still reigning, Lord, may you conquer that in your grace. Anyone here this morning who is yet in their sins under the dominion of that nature. We ask, Lord, that you in your grace may draw them to you.

And where we desire what you have forbidden, we ask for your grace. We ask for your forgiveness. We ask for your strength to renew our minds, to restore right thinking, and to direct our steps according to your Word. In Jesus name we ask, Amen.