Dr Greg Bahnsen - Proverbs: Proverbs 11:22 (Women Without Discretion) (Part 42)

This Lord's day morning, we're continuing our exposition of the book of Proverbs. And I'd ask you to turn with me to Proverbs, the 11th chapter. We're going to take but one verse this morning and do our best to expound it and understand it and apply it. And that is Proverbs 11:22, one of my favorite proverbs in the whole Bible. It talks about beautiful women and pigs. It's one of my favorite subjects, you know, not the pigs, the beautiful women. Proverbs 11:22. Hear now, God's word. As a ring of gold and a swine snout, so is a fair woman that is without discretion. And thus far the reading of God's holy word. This morning I want to speak to you about women without discretion. Now, as it was announced in the communique, I could speak to you about women of discretion. That would be putting it in the positive light. But as the proverb presents it, it's actually women without. Without discretion. And that's our topic this morning. But before I can say anything about that, I think we need to stop and pay attention to the fact that we're going to be giving special consideration to women this morning. And that's rather offensive in our day and age. Contrary to the leveling effect of women's liberation in our day, there are in fact, distinctive traits and distinctive responsibilities which women have, even as there are distinctive traits and distinctive responsibilities which men have. But you see, women's liberation and its push to gain a form of equality for women along with men, I think, has tended to level out that fact, has tended to whittle everything down so that we don't see what is distinctive about men and distinctive about women, and especially in the eyes of God, what their distinctive responsibilities are. The abuse which has arisen from stereotyping of women in the past has been, I think, not that there was stereotyping. Because, you see, stereotyping simply recognizes that within a class of objects or people or things, whatever it may be, there are common characteristics or there are generalizations that can be made. And it would be impossible to use human language if we didn't believe that we could stereotype. We'd never speak of a tomato soup can if stereotyping was impossible, because no two tomato soup cans would be alike, in which case they would never warrant the same terminology. They would never be able to be spoken of in the same way. But the very fact that we use language indicates that there are things like a common nature that is to be found in things, and women have just that, and men have just that. So the abuse that has arisen in the past to women that has come about through stereotyping has not been because of the stereotyping, but because of the kind of stereotyping that they have had to endure. Stereotyping that has often been proud, no doubt about that, self serving on the part of men, and I think just plain erroneous. I am a lot closer to the sentiments of many women's liberation themes than I think many in this congregation realize. But that's because I think for the most part, men have done a pretty poor job in the past of protecting the rights and the dignity of women. And the way they have treated them and stereotyped them has not been true to God's word, has not seen their dignity, their worth and place. But the fact is, stereotyping is possible. The erroneous stereotypes, however, and the unbiblical stereotypes of women, I think, have not stopped at the personal level. What is really stupidity on the part of men very often. But in many cases that stereotyping is spilled over into the way women are officially treated, in some cases the way they are legally treated. And that is truly offensive. I understand why women are offended by that sort of thing, and it does call for correction. As an aside, I don't believe we correct the official mistreatment of women by artificially imposing quotas or artificially imposing legal measures, for instance, to promote less qualified females over more qualified males. See, I don't think that's the way to correct the abuses of the past. And in fact, I think it's very insulting to women. As you know, just recently we had a case before the Supreme Court that called for the court to decide whether an employer had the right to promote a female over a more qualified male in order to redress abuses of the past or a statistical imbalance that seems artificial, that it's presumed has arisen from discriminatory practices. And it's hard for me as a Christian trying to pay attention to everything God's word says to comment on that, because I know what is the motivation and the attitude behind it, and I think it's wrong. I think it's demeaning to women to say that they need that kind of protection, just as I think it's demeaning to minority races to say that they have to have quotas established, that they can be promoted. That is not the way to honor people and to show that they have dignity. It's not the way to treat them as made in the image of God. It is not the golden rule. And so the attitude behind that court decision and, and what I see in many who promoted it strikes me as not at all biblical. On the other hand, because we believe in the free market and we preach that in this church, I believe an employer has the right to do stupid things. An employer has the right to promote less qualified people over more qualified people. And he has the right to endure the market consequences of acting that way. And there will be market consequences when you promote the less qualified over the more qualified in your trade. It's just bound to happen. So anyway, enough of the aside. I don't think women are helped by that kind of thinking, and I am not promoting that this morning. But I would like to add that the fact that women have legitimate complaints against unfair treatment in the past, or maybe in the present as well, in their experience, the fact that they have these complaints against unfair treatment should not lead them to overlook their distinctiveness as a class of individuals. And the fact that they want to be more officially or legally treated as men are treated does not mean that they have to overlook all of the distinctives of the different classes, men and women. There are, as a generalization, subject to exception, to be sure, but there are, as a generalization, physical differences between men and women. There are emotional differences between men and women, and intellectual differences between men and women. But quickly I need to add, notice I said differences. I didn't say who on either side of the difference was in the superior or inferior position. In fact, I didn't even suggest, and I wouldn't suggest that in the matter of differences between men and women that we should even ask which is the superior and the inferior. It seems to me it all goes into the mosaic of human nature. And you know, and it's all very important. But clearly those who have done psychological tests and those who have been prejudiced in favor of trying to say there are no differences have been driven to the empirical fact based conclusion that there are certain, as a generalization, that there are certain kinds of intellectual procedures that men seem to be a little more adept at than women and vice versa. That doesn't make men smarter. It doesn't make women smarter because they do other sorts of things better. It just means there are differences. Let's face that fact. But more crucial than those differences that we could point to, physical, emotional, intellectual, far more crucial, there are certain distinctive expectations that God has for women, even as he does for men. Not all of God's expectations are different for women and men. For the most part, the expectations are the same, but there are some distinctive expectations. And so beyond these opening remarks, I make no apology for the fact that I'm going to talk about women today as a class of individuals. I think you will find that there is no offense intended in speaking of them this way. And it shouldn't be offensive to look at the inspired word of God and what it reveals directly as it addresses women, because in the end, it's going to tell us something about men anyway. And so let's turn to the word of God at Proverbs 11:22. And here, this proverb, commit it to memory as a ring of gold in a swine's snout. So is a fair woman or a beautiful woman that is without discretion. One of the generalizations that can be made about women. And again, it is a generalization subject to exception. But one of the generalizations is that women are concerned with beauty, not beauty in general, just like they have some aesthetic thrust within them. But women are concerned with their own beauty. And there are so many beautiful women around. And do I need to blush to say that? The fact of the matter is there are a lot of pretty women around. Just look at the magazine covers when you go to the grocery store. That's amazing, isn't it? You know, month after month, new model after new model after new model. But, you know, all of them have these wonderful characteristics, you know, beautiful skin, you know, whatever it may be. But month after month, we see this. Look at the models you see in the newspaper ads. You know, they don't promote ugly women in newspaper ads. There are a lot of beautiful ones around to be models. And look at the women that appear on television. Just consider the large number of females that show up in commercials or on regular programs. And they are all, almost all, virtually all, attractive women. Unless, of course, the role distinctively calls for someone who is unglamorous. And then it sticks out like a sore thumb. You know, it's just amazing. And that's because against the backdrop of the fact that television expects to set forth attractive women before its audience, then when that role comes along, you have a real sharp contrast. And so there are a lot of beautiful women around, There's a lot of emphasis upon beauty, and women engage in that sort of thing. You know, women's magazines publish reams of material every month on how to type articles, how to improve your appearance, how to do this, how to do your makeup, how to do your hair, how to dress, whatever it may be. And apart from maybe the question of how to dress. You find no counterpart of that in men's magazines for men. That is something that, as a generalization, is distinctively female. And just notice how many products there are on the market that are aimed precisely at helping you look your best as a woman. The whole cosmetic industry in this country is oriented toward a female market. Again, as a generalization, if men have any part of the cosmetic market, I'll bet it's not more than 10%. And so our culture is inundated with at least what's set before us publicly, with beautiful women with a stress on beauty, with women being concerned to know how to beautify themselves. We have markets that are aimed precisely at helping them do that. And I think we have to add that as a generalization, again, as a generalization, throughout history, women have been known for the importance they place upon looking good. I want to add that's not a criticism, certainly not from a male standpoint. It's not a criticism. I think the human race would be, you know, impoverished if women didn't have that general desire to look beautiful. So it's not a criticism at all, but it is an observation, and I believe it's a generally accurate observation. The English essayist Aubrey Menon once commented, and I quote her, no woman objects to being called intelligent provided she is assured that it has done no harm to her looks. And you know, we chuckle at that sort of thing because we know it's true. We know that there is a tendency in women and it need not be vanity, it need not be sinful. But as a description, it is true that women do want to be complimented for their talents, for their intelligence, but they wouldn't want anybody to say, but of course she's not very good looking. We wouldn't want to say it's been a trade off. We all know what it is, the insult that is intended when someone is going to go out on a blind date and the person who is going to be hooked up with this blind date says, well, is she good looking? And the reply is, well, she has a beautiful personality. I mean, reams are said by what is not being commented upon, right? And so women are usually not insulted by being called intelligent unless it's in the place of their good looks. The early 19th century clergyman Caleb Colton remarked, I think in even more humorous vein, I couldn't resist telling this to you. He said, and I quote, if any woman were to hang a man for stealing her picture, although it were set in the costliest gold, it would be a new case in law. But if the thief carried off the setting and left the portrait behind, I would not answer for his safety. And so women do pay attention to beauty. It's important to them. I believe it should be important to them. The Bible pays attention to physical beauty as a gift from God. And we see that whether it refers to male beauty or female beauty. Just notice how Joseph is described as a beautiful man in Genesis 39, 6. And Moses in Acts 7, verse 20 speaks of his comeliness, how he was a very attractive individual. And David in 1st Samuel 16:12. All of these, the Bible pays attention to their physical beauty, but women too. The whole book of Esther would lose its plot line if Esther was not beautiful. So beautiful that when the emperor compared women, it was Esther that he chose to be his new queen. Job's daughters are described at the end of the Book of Job as being the most beautiful women of the land. The Song of Songs emphasizes the physical beauty of the young lady that this writer is going to marry. And so the Bible does pay attention to physical beauty. But our proverb this morning indicates how utterly crucial it is that physical, physical beauty be placed in the appropriate spiritual framework. There are a number of pungent comparisons in Proverbs. Often enough, a moral lesson is communicated to us in proverbial fashion by expressing a likeness or a similarity, whether that likeness is more implicitly expressed or more explicitly expressed. And the English teachers in our crowd will be proud of me. I know the difference between a simile and a metaphor. Okay, Whether we explicitly state as such and such is so, such and such is, or whether we just leave it to be implied by the way we express ourselves. Well, we have that in Hebrew too. Let me give you a few examples. I'd like to just look at the literary style of Proverbs for a moment before we understand what has happened in the verse that's before us. Often a pungent comparison is stated very explicitly. Turn to chapter 10, verse 26, and you'll see what I'm getting at. As vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him. That's a very pungent comparison. If you've ever had smoke in your eyes, you know how irritating it is, then you get the point real quickly. So a sluggard, when you send him on a mission, is just like that irritating smoke in your eyes. But I notice from a literary standpoint how that's expressed in your Bibles. You should not have italicized words for as, as, and so is. Those actually appear, you see, in the original Hebrew. So very clearly it's as this is. So that is. Sometimes the comparison is expressed in a more abbreviated form. However. And I have a number of illustrations. Let's just take one for the sake of time this morning. Proverbs 25:13. And I hope that in the printing of your Bible you'll be able to see this as clearly as in mine. We read as the cold of snow in the time of harvest. Then you should have two italicized words. So is that's because it doesn't appear in the Hebrew. It's been put in there for English, for smoothing out the English. It actually reads in the Hebrew as the cold of snow in the time of harvest. A faithful messenger to them that sent him. And so now the comparison is drawn with an abbreviated connection. But we can go even further than that. Sometimes a comparison is drawn with just the use of a copula. Just the word is. Look at Proverbs 26:20 across the page. Well, let's take a better one than that. If we only have time for one. Look at 27:18. Proverbs 27:18. Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall. I'm sorry. Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof. And he that regard his master shall be honored. So we just have the and used so that you see the comparison drawn. Now, the reason I've pointed this out to you this morning is that sometimes in Hebrew it goes even further than that. There is no helping word whatsoever to make the comparison. When the author wants to state, in the most stark terms a word picture and to make it a comparison, then he doesn't say as such is so, such and such is. Sometimes he doesn't even say such and such and such and such. He just draws two pictures, this picture, then bluntly, this picture. And that's what we have in Proverbs 11:22. Proverbial expression. Put so pungently that no verbal expression of comparison is necessary. We only have two word pictures set side by side without any stated idea of comparison. Because the parallelism is intended to be communicated very graphically. There are other examples in Proverbs. Let's just take one. Proverbs 25:12 14. Notice the way the proverb is expressed. And I will take out the helping words in English that your translations have inserted. The Hebrew reads, an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold. A wise reprover upon an obedient ear. Verse 14. Clouds and wind without rain. He that boasteth himself of his gifts Falsely, you see, it stresses the idea of the parallel without any helping words to make it so blunt. A man who boasts and has nothing behind it, clouds without rain. And so it is in Proverbs 11, verse 22 that we have one of the most pungent ways of putting a striking parallel, a jolting portrayal. We have the blunt expression, A ring of gold in a swine snout, a beautiful woman without discretion. As one, so is the other. We move then from the consideration of beauty to consideration of beauty and the beast. A nose ring, by the way, was a female ornament in ancient Semitic culture. I've garnered three or four references to it in the Old Testament. We don't need to look at them. But as far back as the patriarchs, women were known to wear jewelry in their nose. And particularly a nose ring was known, usually attached to the right nostril was considered a thing of beauty. And I know that that is not particularly attractive in our culture. You need to kind of forget that cultural difference for the moment, but remember that women were known sometimes to wear a ring of gold in their nose. And what Proverbs is saying is, put that on a pig, however, and it's highly incongruous. It doesn't flee fit. It's not right. Such a thing of beauty and such a thing of value does not belong in a pig's nose. And though pigs are not one of my favorite subjects to discuss, I have to discuss it this morning. Because you don't live around pigs. You don't really know what pigs are like. Maybe some of you do because you're in Southern California, out of a Midwest setting, and maybe you've been around pigs, but for the most part, we don't understand pigs. You know what we see when we see pigs, we see cleaned up pigs. Because you go to the zoo and they keep the pigs clean, and they kind of. They kind of keep from our view all the habits of pigs that are so disgusting to humans. And we try to have this kind of brushed up, nice picture, you know, and we have children's tails with pigs in them. Pigs are always real nice and polite or, you know, they're just like children, you know, and they're innocent and all that. Pigs are not innocent. They are not nice, they are not clean. They are among the rudest, filthiest animals on the face of the earth. I once was making a trip in the Midwest for the seminary that I was teaching at. And I was being put up in the home of a wealthy pig farmer. And he had all the modern ways of taking care of pigs. And he commented on the fact how people really don't understand pigs. And, you know, it really doesn't have to be so bad. And I have to agree that in terms of the more normal setting in which pigs are raised, he really had it made him. He had concrete floors that he could wash down every night and stuff like that. But, you know, even with all of that, they still smelled to high heaven, even with all the modern devices and antiseptics and cleaning them up. Pigs are terrible animals. They really are. And I could go on and on. I'm just going to give you one illustration. You'll forgive me for the filthiness of it, but you really need to know this. If you have a dung hill on your farm and you let your pig out, the pig will go out and will use his nose to go through the dung to find something he hopes worthy of eating. I mean, pigs are filthy. And not only that, in Jewish culture, they were unclean, not in the way that I've been talking about, although it may be related. But they were ceremonially unclean. A Jew could not raise pigs. A Jew could not eat pig flesh because it was unclean meat. It was not kosher. We don't believe that that applies to us today. It was a ceremonial or symbolic law that pointed to God's distinction between his people and the world, between clean and unclean meats. But nevertheless, there's something to that. In the Book of Proverbs, in the Old Testament setting, to speak of a pig was not only to talk about some rude and filthy animal, it was to talk about an animal that was ceremonially unclean and unacceptable before God. And so here we have it. A golden ring in a swine's snout. A golden ring is just wasted in a swine's snout. Why would you put such a beautiful ornament on such an unworthy body? It's totally incongruous. It's totally misplaced. Far from beautifying the filthy animal, the animal would just go out and root through the dung anyway with the gold ring on its snout. You see, the picture is a disgusting picture. You don't put something beautiful in a swine's snout, if you understand the ways of the swine. And likewise, Proverbs says a woman who lacks discretion. In such a woman, beauty is wasted, beauty is incongruous, beauty is out of place. In our culture, we see outward appearance as the more impressive. So much so that sociological study after sociological study clearly shows that good looks contribute to promotion at work, to respect from your peers and so forth. And I'm not saying it should be that way, but I'm telling you it is that way. You can't overlook that our culture looks on the outward appearance. And accordingly, in our culture, if we see a good looking woman who lacks good sense, we tend to say, oh, what a disappointment, you know, another empty headed blonde or something like that, some kind of cultural stereotype. And we say, well the there you have it, isn't that too bad? But the word of God does not see her as disappointing. The word of God sees her as a monstrosity, as a beast, as a rude and filthy pig. Those are strong words and intended to be strong. The picture is a strong one. A beautiful woman who has no discretion is like a ring of gold in a swine snout. The book of Proverbs would teach us that beauty, as important as it may seem, and as good as it may be while you have it, is nevertheless a fading vanity. Proverbs 31:30 Proverbs 31:30 the account of the virtuous woman says, grace is deceitful, and beauty is vain. But a woman that fears Jehovah, she shall be praised. Beauty is a fading vanity, and if beauty is to be honorable, it must prove to be more than skin deep. Proverbs 11:16 A gracious woman obtains honor A gracious woman obtains honor. If honor is going to come to a woman, she must have something that goes beyond her good looks. She must have a sense of grace within her that is appreciated not only by God, but by God's people. For you see in the eyes of God, and thus in the eyes of his people, in the eyes of those who are godly, inner beauty of spirit is far more important than outward beauty of flesh. Turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Peter 3, 4, 5. We're looking at one Peter, chapter three, verses four and five. Actually, let me read verses three and following to give you the context. Speaking of wives who are godly, who have chaste behavior, Verse three says, whose adorning? Let it not be the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on apparel. But let it be the hidden man of the heart, and the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner aforetime, the holy women also who hoped in God adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands, etc. Peter says very clearly the inspired word of God teaches you that in the eyes of God, it's far more important that a woman has an inner apparel of a quiet, gracious, godly and wise spirit, then that she should have all of the outward deckings, all the outward trappings, all the beautiful apparel, the blanking of the hair and the putting on of the jewels that makes her look so attractive outwardly. It's far more important in the eyes of God that she's been changed within, that she has a beautiful spirit. I think I've commented on this before. If you've heard this, forgive me for repeating it, but it does bear. It just bear repeating. My wife and I both know of a woman who is perhaps one of the most godly women we have ever met. A very devoted and pious woman, a very hardworking Christian soldier of the cross. She is just. I mean, if I believed in sainthood, she'd have it. She's just fantastic godly woman. And, you know, we tend to think of her as a very attractive woman. And yet when you look at her physical appearance, she really is not attractive. If you did not know her personality, if you did not know her good works, if you did not know her godliness, my guess is, as she was walking down the street and you were, as some people have the tendency to do, commenting upon the looks of people, you would say, oh, she's really not much to look at at all. And yet, because we know her so well, we have to stop and think hard to realize that that's the case. It is possible that that inward apparel, that inward godliness of character, can so diffuse through your character that people think you're beautiful. Even apart from whether you'd be put in front of a beauty contest or not. Peter says that's far more important in the eyes of God. Turning back to Proverbs 11:22, let's notice that this beautiful woman that's being likened to the gold ring and a swine snout is said to be without discretion. You need to understand what the word discretion means here before we stop this morning. In the first place, the word is used both in its verbal and in its substantive or noun forms for tasting the flavor of food. If you want to use an English idiom, you could translate it a woman without good taste. Because, you see, the use of the word was originally tasting food with a view to whether you wanted to consume it, and then from that to the whole idea of ascertaining the worth of something by tasting. To have good taste, therefore, means to have discernment, to have a power of discrimination, to be able to evaluate and make good decisions. And so it's translated in English in many ways. A woman who lacks taste, a woman who lacks good judgment, a woman who lacks discretion or discernment. And all of them are included, really, in the use of this word. The psalmist says in Psalm 119, verse 66, that his discretion comes from God's commandments, His good taste, his good ability to make judgments, to see things. Right. In First Samuel, chapter 25, we read the story of a woman who had discretion. Do you know her name? Does she stand out in the Bible to you? We know the names of some famous women in the Bible. I find that many Christians don't know who Abigail is. She's very important in the Old Testament, Abigail was married to a man named Nabal. Of course, you have to know Hebrew to really appreciate it. Nabal means foolishness. Hebrew. She was married to a man whose very name was Fool. David and his men came onto Nabal's property one day, and they needed help and support. And so they offered to recompense Nabal if he'd help them out. Nabal was a churlish man, as the Bible says, always in a bad mood, hard to get along with. Nabal said, why should I help you? You know, kind of get out of here. For which David was going to execute him. David was going to show that you don't treat the Lord's anointed and you don't treat your king in that fashion. But Abigail interceded, according to the Bible, because she was a woman who had, and this is the very word we find in our text this morning, discretion. Abigail had good sense. Abigail knew how to evaluate a situation and respond properly. And so Abigail brings the food, Abigail brings the support, and Abigail intercedes for the life of her husband, Nabal. He says, please understand, he's a churlish man and so forth. A good wife who knows how to protect her husband, intercede and do the right thing. A woman of discretion. So you get the idea of the word discretion. It's not simply a woman who has loose morals, that is without discretion, but it's also a woman who has no good sense that is being spoken of here. A beautiful woman who lacks good taste or a woman who lacks sound judgment in moral and intellectual matters. And so how can we apply this to ourselves today? Well, I see three things I'd like to say to you who are women, and two that I'd like to conclude with for you who are men. Notice how pungently The Bible puts it that you are like a pig with a gold ring in its nose. So inappropriate, so wasted. That's what God thinks of you. If you are a woman who lacks good taste, a sense of proportion, and may I say this without being sent out of here, a sense of modesty. The Bible does not commend the garishness and the flashiness and the kind of style of our day that so often does not bespeak modesty and a sense of proportion and good taste. The Bible does not. And I'm afraid, especially among those who are in their younger years and are still trying to find out what is, you know, for them, their way of dressing and their way of appearing in this world, that a sense of proportion and modesty needs to be instilled, a sense of good taste, lest you end up being beautiful but lacking discretion. Secondly, there are women who, though they may be outwardly beautiful, lack moral judgment, who lack good moral judgment. And here, of course, we do have the loose woman. The lack of sexual purity in our day is epidemic. I know preachers are expected to preach against sex sins. I know. Well, that is sin. And though it should not be a hobby horse with a preacher, it is something that needs to be mentioned. But it needs to be mentioned, I think, all the more in our day. It needed to be mentioned when I was a teenager, to be sure. I don't think those were the good old days. They were unrighteous days, too. But you see in this day and age, what we have going along with the, if you will, run of the mill, garden variety immorality that is in our culture, we have the open promoting of that kind of thing in magazines, in ads, in TV programs, movies, novels. What have you, the statistics. I think really most of you live in a fairly sheltered environment when it comes to this. It's left to me to do the reading and the research. And the statistics are abhorrent as to the number of girls who graduate from high school are not virgins. For instance, the number of girls who graduate from high school who, though they may be virgins, wish they weren't. The lack of sexual purity in our day is epidemic. And yet we have girls who, because of modern conveniences and makeup and dress and so forth, can look so attractive. The book of Proverbs says, what have we lost here? We've gained attractive women who don't have discretion. We have pigs with gold rings in their noses. When beauty becomes subservient to sinful passions, it's no longer beautiful. And so we have the story of David and Bathsheba to warn us, among many things, against that. David is walking on the roof of his house and he sees Bathsheba and particularly notices her beauty. Bathsheba had no discretion. She should have told the king where he really belonged and where she belonged. But she didn't. And so a woman who lacks moral judgment is described here. By the way, those who lack moral judgment I would include in that category. I guess the old word is flirts. I don't know how to put that in a more contemporary setting. But women who, though they may not actually have given in to sexual temptation, are glad to keep promoting the temptation, to keep it before the minds of men and to try to promote themselves as those who would be an object of their lust. I told you early on in my message this morning that we have on our magazine stands all around us just beautiful women. I mean, both in the pages of ads and articles and movie stars and on the covers of these things, beautiful women. But I want you to stop and ask yourself, how many of these women have discretion? How many of them show forth not only the beauty of outward flesh, but the beauty of a calm, inward, godly character? And you know the answer. It's not many at all. Hardly any at all. In fact, you can hardly get into a place where you're going to be a top model or movie star unless you lack discretion. And we need to remember that as we look around us as Christians, we need to keep before our minds pigs. Pigs. Beauty wasted on pigs. When a movie star, a model or someone, be they engaged in explicit pornography or just the soft form of pornography that's allowed on TV and elsewhere, a woman who lacks moral judgment is a pig with a golden ring in its nose. And then finally, women, you need to ask yourself if this applies to you because you're a woman who outwardly looks good but inwardly lacks discernment of situations, is a shallow and a foolish woman, I a person who doesn't know what is appropriate, someone who lacks tact. And here we do have the traditional image of the dumb blonde, right? She may be good looking, but I mean, you wouldn't even ask her to go put the pots and pans away for fear she wouldn't know she was doing that's not attractive. That is not something that we should be happy about. A woman who may be boisterous or nagging or just plain impractical, not knowing how to get things done in a godly fashion. For all of your outward beauty, the Bible compares you to a swine having a golden ring in its snout. I told you this applies to men too. It really does. Because, you see, for all of this talk, women, you know, and I see you squirming in your chairs there, and this is kind of tough stuff to listen to. But men, don't you think I've been talking about you two? Well, of course I have. Because why do women beautify themselves? Why do women deck themselves out and try to gain this kind of attention? Why do women descend to lacking good taste and lacking good moral judgment? Why do they think the idea of a dumb blonde is attractive to you? I'll tell you why. It's because men have given the idea that they value such women. And so men, all along I've been talking to you too, because you have to ask yourself, do you value women regardless of their spiritual makeup, regardless of their moral character, regardless of their mental defects? Do you value women only for the fact that they are a thing of beauty to have on your arm? Our culture promotes that. Hypocritically, saying it doesn't. It promotes that. And. And as Christian men, we don't stop to think that this proverb should tell us something too. Would you go out and go to a jeweler and buy a fine golden ring and go home and put it in the swine snout? Would you? Of course you wouldn't. Well, then why do you value women that are likened to that very thing? And secondly, not only this question of valuing and looking up to and praising, there's a question of what kind of woman you seek. Now, many of you men here have already found your woman for life. And I want to remind you that in our outlook as Christians, marriage is a lifetime commitment. It should be that way. But there are some of you also who are in a situation either because you have lost your wives or because you have not yet been married or you are still teenagers. You need to be making decisions about what kind of woman you are going to seek. I want to suggest you don't want to seek pig. All the beautiful ornamentation in the snout is not going to change the pig that you've got once you've gotten her and so seek attractive women. I don't believe you should marry somebody you're repulsed by. It's all right to seek an attractive woman, but I think you are making a huge mistake. You're making a very foolish decision, and in the end you're very ungodly. If the women you're interested in are to be evaluated only on whether they are dogs or not, in terms of their outward appearance, that kind of talk is no longer funny to me. That kind of talk is not appropriate. Beauty and the Beast in the Bible. A beautiful woman can be such a. Such a trophy of God's goodness in this world, but a woman who lacks discretion and a man who seeks after such, or in the eyes of God, beast. Let's pray that God will save us from our monstrosities. Father, we pray that you would set our priorities right this morning. Because everything in our culture suggests to us the opposite of what your word has taught us. And frankly, everything in our sinful nature tends in the wrong direction too. We really don't care about the monstrosities that are created in the spiritual world. We don't care about the foolishness and the lack of discretion if there is but an outward beauty and attractiveness that we like. And so, Father, we pray that you would change our priorities and change our judgments. Indeed, that you would grant to all of us, men and women alike, true discretion, the true ability to discern things in the way that pleases you. We pray that as we look upon one another, we would not evaluate the outward appearance, but we would be concerned with the inner character and the inner person. And above all, Father, we pray that our inner persons will have been changed, that you will have regenerated us and given us life from above. Because we know that apart from your work of grace in our lives, there is no hope for any of us to escape being the monsters that sin makes for. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.