Warnings And Wonder - [Proverbs 5]

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One of the things you can do, dear Christian, is to think about the Lord Jesus' view of the Old Testament. When Jesus became incarnate and He started
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His public ministry, it would have been very easy for Him to say, if Jonah had inaccuracies, or Jonah was supposed to be just a myth, for Him to say, your literal view of Jonah is wrong.
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It would have been very easy for Jesus to say there are some books that are supposed to be in the canon, but are not, you should add them.
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It would be easy for our Lord Jesus, and we would expect Him to say, by the way, there are some books in the canon, the
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Old Testament, that shouldn't be there, you should take them out. But of course, the Lord Jesus came, and what did
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He do? He affirmed everything in the Old Testament. And one of the best ways you can look at the Old Testament, and maybe you want to study archaeology and carbon dating and other things, at the top of the list, when you think about the purity of the
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Old Testament, you should think, the Lord Jesus, my Savior, endorsed the Old Testament, and therefore,
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I'd like to have the same view of all the Bible that He did in the fact of the Old Testament. Is that true? So true.
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Additionally, when we look at the Old Testament, sometimes there are things that are in there that you might say, could they actually talk about that in public?
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Should that be preached? What about Song of Solomon and its language that it has?
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We're going to look at a passage today that's very similar to the Song of Solomon. And that is Proverbs chapter 5.
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But before you turn there, I'd like you to have your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter 5 to set everything in context.
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We're in the book of Hebrews in this church, verse by verse through Hebrews. We'll get back to 9, 15 in a couple of weeks.
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But since it's still the end of summer, and since everyone either struggles with sexual temptation or knows someone who does, this is a good word of warning and a good word from the
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Lord to teach us rightly to think about sexual temptation and sexual pleasure.
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The world is going to sell its wares. The siren song of the world, she's speaking.
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And the Bible teaches us the right way to think about it. The Bible is not going to say, no, the
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Christian sexual ethic is not don't. It's don't outside of marriage, but enjoy yourself in marriage.
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And so too, when it comes to Proverbs chapter 5, it's a good reminder for all of us. If you're like me,
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I regularly, since today's the 25th, I might read Proverbs, what? 25, because they're just about 30 days in a month and 31
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Proverbs. And so when you come to Proverbs 5, you're reminded again, that's right. The world wants me to think in a sleazy way, in a slutty way, in an impure way, in a defiled way.
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But is there a right way to think about this subject still cloaked within the language of propriety and proper etiquette?
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But when you go to Proverbs and you go to Proverbs chapter 5, I don't want you to just think about it like you would some other moral story.
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Some, maybe Jewish people, I'm sure they say to their sons, be pure. I'm sure Jewish mothers say to their daughters, be pure.
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I'm sure Hindus say it. I'm sure many people say, be careful when it comes to this subject.
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But how can we think of Proverbs 5, knowing that there are 66 books in the canon, and we look back at it now as Christians and Ephesians 5 helps us.
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So Hebrews is not going to try to come out of my mouth anymore, but it's just embedded into my mind.
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Ephesians 5, 1 to 6 will help you read all kinds of Proverbs and any other kind of law you'll see in the
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Bible. Law is due, gospel is done, they're different. Both are important.
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Ephesians 5, 1, Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. What do you mean, how are we supposed to imitate
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God? You mean His immutability? No, no, His love, do you see? And walk in love.
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It's called a lifestyle. He's not talking about walking versus running. Lifestyle, your lifestyle is to be one done in love.
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And now we get a particular kind of love. As Christ loved us and gave
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Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
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Would it be fair to say when God loves, He is sacrificial in His love? Would it be fair to say that when
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God loves, it costs Him something? When God loves, He wants the best for the object of His love?
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And the answer is yes, yes, and yes. So when God loves, He gives. Now there's a turn in the next verse and you're going to see sexual immorality takes.
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It's not a love that gives, it's a love that takes. That's why we need to avoid it among other things.
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Verse 3, but there's a tie in. Sexual immorality and all impurity, our covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among the saints.
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This is all self -gratification. This is all give. This is all me. This isn't agape love.
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Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking which are out of place. And instead, let there be thanksgiving.
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For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater.
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These are lifestyle practices, has no inheritance of the kingdom of God and of Christ.
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And it's easy to be deceived because we have friends and relatives and people seem nice who do this. Verse 6, let no one deceive you with empty words.
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For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
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So my point is simple. That is when you think about sex, you ought to think about it in the context of how does
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God love people? How must I? Back to verse 2, your love needs to be
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Christ -like. That is the supreme example of all of love in all the universe. Christ also loved you.
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And he gave himself. 1 John 3 .16, we know love by this, that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
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Galatians 2 .20, who love me, talking about Jesus, and gave himself for me. John 15, greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
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And so what Paul is doing is he's saying, when it comes to love, when it comes to this area, it is
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Jesus' example of all give and it's sexual immorality of all take. So we embrace the one and we want to imitate that.
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That's chapter 5, verse 1. Imitate God by giving, by self -sacrificially loving.
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And don't you love the language there? An offering and sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
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Isn't that good? You're probably thinking about the sacrifices in the Old Testament, that the picture of speech would be that God could smell these sacrifices.
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Just that fragrant aroma. There's something about smell. My friend Lucio was a pastor in Rome and I saw him at the
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Shepherd's Conference this year. And here's what I do. When I try to find Lucio among 4 ,000 men, I look for the most handsome, well -dressed man.
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And I saw him and I went over and I hugged Lucio for a good long time. And I said, and by the way, you're not only look handsome and dress well, but you smell great.
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Kind of nice to be able to say to people that you know. And I said, what are you wearing?
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That smells great. And he kind of looked at me sheepishly and he said, there's just something about the odor and the smell.
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And you can think to yourself, there's a good odor and associations with good odor. And then there's things that smell really bad.
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And the giving, self -sacrificial, following the example of Christ, view of love and giving, even when it comes to sex, that is in marriage, is good and right and holy.
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And actually God made it. He made a body of a woman and a body of man to be enjoyed, not just for procreation, but for pleasure.
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But like our hearts often do, we take alcohol and turn it into something awful.
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We take guns and turn them into something awful. We take food and turns it into something awful with gluttony and killing and drunkenness.
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Sex isn't the problem, it's our hearts. And so now, if you'll take your Bibles and turn to Proverbs 5, you can hear the father
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Solomon talking to his son, not just with his words, but inspired words by the spirit of God to teach him about this subject.
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But you dear Christian, I just don't want you to run to Proverbs and say, here's a bunch of law without seeing it within the context of gospel.
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That is, it tells me what to do, but in light of who I am in Christ Jesus. And now as Christians, we read
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Proverbs 5 and say, I'm actually able to do this because the spirit of God dwells in me. I'm actually able to do this because I have the spirit of God to illumine my mind and I have the power of Christ.
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And I can say no to sin because Jesus died to sin and I died with Him, union with Christ, Romans 6.
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Proverbs 5 is in the context of a Christian book and we need to make sure we read it that way.
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And that's what Paul does with Ephesians 5 and that's what we'll do now in Proverbs 5. Super simple outline.
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The first half of the book is avoid sexual immorality. The second half of the book is enjoy sexual morality.
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Very simple. P .S. Yahweh is watching. So we as Christians come to this book and we're gonna need to hear this language.
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We're gonna need to hear warnings of be careful. Don't fall into the trap of thinking like the world and the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life.
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Think about it in a Christian way. And the Christian sexual ethic is not, you'll see in this passage, don't.
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If you teach your children about sex, great. And this should be a platform, a model for you, dear fathers especially, to teach your children about this subject.
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I know so many dads that'll say, you know what, I don't wanna teach my son because I might be embarrassed. Well, buckle up dad, it is embarrassing.
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But it's a sweet embarrassment because it's you and your wife and the children and you're talking about these things and better you to be embarrassed than your children down the street learning from Billy or Jill or anybody else.
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Here's a dad talking about things with appropriate biblical language. There's nothing gonna be here illicit or trying to drive you to sin.
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If your view of this is, this should never be preached and Song of Solomon should never be read, it's not
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Song of Solomon's problem, it's not Proverbs 5 problem, it's your problem. All of the scriptures should be proclaimed loudly and clearly and we need to be reminded when it comes to sexual sin, run.
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When it comes to pornography, run. When it comes to immorality, flee.
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And on the positive side, enjoy your wife, enjoy your spouse. Well, let's start off with the warning found in verses one and following, avoid sexual immorality.
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All sex outside of a marriage between a woman and a man. Chapter five, verse one.
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My son, be attentive to my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding. How old
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Solomon is, I don't know. How old is his son, I don't know. He's a younger man and here's what he's essentially saying.
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Listen up, pay attention. When I used to play football, the coach would call us over, huddle up.
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This is important little announcement, same thing here. Solomon saying to his son, you need to know this because verse two, that you may keep discretion and your lips may guard knowledge.
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There's nothing you can do of your own power, your own strength, your own wisdom, your own knowledge, your own ability to say no to temptation.
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You're gonna need God's word to help you navigate the minefield of sexual temptation, especially when people have the internet in their pockets.
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For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil.
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Now, of course, should we be aware that there are men who pray sexually on ladies or other men?
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Yes, but this is a father to a son. So of course, it's just switched around if you have a daughter, you wanna have her protected as well and teach her.
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But here's a father to a son and notice what he says here. You get a little, an idea of what's happening. He's not talking about her figure.
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He's not talking about her smile. He's not talking about how she looks. He's talking about what? What she says.
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We're talking about how she talks and here's the battle. Do you listen to my words, son?
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Or do you listen to the world's words? It's a battle of the words.
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You're gonna see it in this entire proverb. By the way, do you think
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Solomon's son was paying attention right about now? I can just see my kids paying attention when we sit down and not only have the talk, but lots of talks about this.
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It's a battle of the words. It's not going to be the sweetness of her kisses.
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It's gonna be the sweetness of her words. But in the end, she's as bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two -edged sword.
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Here's biblical wisdom, son. You'll see it throughout the Proverbs. You'll see it throughout Job. You'll see it throughout
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Ecclesiastes. Here's biblical wisdom. There's a later. There's an after.
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There's the morning after. There's a cause and an effect. It's not just pleasure now.
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It's just not fun now. It's not, you know what? It doesn't matter what's gonna happen in the future. Wise people say, later.
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There's a tomorrow, something might happen. And fools say, I want it now. Wise people say, you know what?
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There's an example of self -sacrificial love that's to be found in the example of Jesus and therefore in marriage only.
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But the fool said, do you know what? I'm just looking for swipe right. I'm just looking for an agreement. I'm just looking for anything.
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I'm just looking for those pixels on the computer when my wife goes to sleep and the answer is, you better run.
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Watson said, kill your sinner. It's gonna kill you. Starve your sins. There's an after.
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Her feet go down to death. Her steps follow the path to Sheol. You can just tell.
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This is going too fast, even the language. It's just taking you down with it. She's taking you down with her.
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She does not pander the path of life. Her ways wander and she does not know it. Roving around and morphing around and changing around.
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Yes, we ought to look at people who are in sexual sin. We ought to have mercy on them.
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We ought to have compassion for them because we realize what kind of sinful people we are.
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But this particular lady, the way Solomon is doing this, he's not giving her any sense of pity. He's saying, you better give a wide berth.
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You better run. You better get far away. There's a cost. Verse 7,
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And now, O sons, listen to Me. Do not depart from the words of My mouth. You're gonna listen to her? Or you're gonna listen to somebody else?
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She might say, well, what two consenting adults do in the privacy of their own bedroom doesn't matter.
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Son, listen to Me. We're in love. Son, listen to Me.
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Keep your ways far from her. Do not go near the door of her house. Don't go there because something about sexual sin, it's going to just catapult you into doing things you didn't start off to try to do.
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He doesn't say, I want you to be brave. I want you to be so heroic, you try to go right up to the edge of that cliff without falling off.
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He says, you know what you need to do, son? Run! Remember Joseph? That coward
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Joseph? No, that godly man Joseph. It came about as she spoke to Joseph, day after day, that he did not listen to her to lie beside her or to be with her.
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Now, it happened one day that he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the household were there inside. And she caught him by his garment saying, lie with me.
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And he left his garment in her hand and fled and went outside. And when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, she saw that and he had fled outside.
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Run! I talk to people now, they're like, well, I can't really change my job because you don't understand.
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You know, I know I flirt around with this girl at work and this, that and the other, but you don't get it. No, you don't get it. Solomon gets it.
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I want you to get it. I want you to say, you know what, in light of who I am in Christ, I have great guilt, Jesus has great grace, and I want to respond with gratitude and I ought to flee immorality, 1
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Corinthians 6. Look at what you could lose, verse 9. Lest you give your honor to others in your years to the merciless.
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I mean, it could be a blackmailer. We don't know exactly what Solomon is saying to his son. It could cost you money.
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Lest strangers take their fill of your strength and your labors go to the house of a foreigner. I mean, child support and paying off the husband and hotels and the money to the prostitute.
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I don't know, it's just going to cost you and your health, verse 11. At the end of your life, you groan when your flesh and body are consumed.
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Venereal disease, sex sins harm your body. Every other sin, 1
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Corinthians 6 .18, that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man or woman sins against their own body.
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You can just tell. The father loves the son. You can just tell he wants to direct the son.
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You can tell that he wants to give him instructions that will make his son think, I am paying attention, I understand.
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Verse 12, sometimes it's too late for discipline.
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Of course, later in the message, we'll talk about how all sexual sin can be forgiven. But here, temporally, there's a too late, how
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I hated discipline. I should have listened. My heart despised reproof. I should have listened. My dad was right.
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My mother was right. I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. I wasn't thinking my actions lead somewhere.
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My dad was trying to teach me. My mom was trying to teach me. The church was trying to teach me, but I did what I wanted, but that's what a fool does.
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There's a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way, death. Verse 14, there are consequences.
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I'm at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation, the respect that's lost. He says the same kind of thing, does he not?
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In chapter six, flip over to chapter six. There's a theme in chapter six that's similar to chapter five.
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What's that theme? Listen to the words of the Bible. Don't listen to the words of the woman or the world or the man.
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My son, 620, keep your father's commandment and forsake not your mother's teaching. I mean, by the way, as parents, aren't we wanting the best for our children?
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I have four children. I want them to have a better life than I've had. And I don't mean travel more and have more money or this, that or the other.
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I want them to have just a rich life. A shalom life, a well -rounded life, a life of peace before God, before men.
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And I just want them to enjoy life. I'm not trying to tell
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Luke, when it comes to sex, you're gonna have to go to a monastery. I don't tell my girls,
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Maddy, Gracie, and can't mention your name because I'll have to owe you a dollar. I don't say to them, convents for you.
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No, no, I want what's best. And I want them to enjoy life. And I know the pleasures of marriage and watching the kids grow and everything else that goes along with it.
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I want that for them. And so parents need to teach. I think it's fair to say that some of you dads, especially today, need to have a good old fashioned, let's sit down and let's talk about this.
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Daddy's waited too long. By the way, a side note, here's the way you introduce your children to things about sex, even though you've got different ages children.
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You read the Bible to them at night at dinnertime. Say, well, tonight we're gonna read Genesis chapter one.
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And here's what I want you to think about kids. Who God is, who man is, does man fall short?
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And then why do we need a savior? Then the next night, maybe you do it four nights a week. The next night, what did we learn from Genesis one?
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Now let's look at Genesis chapter two. And before you know it, you come to Genesis nine and somebody's naked, right?
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And the kids ask the question and I just keep reading. I get to Genesis 38,
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I'm not looking up. I'm getting one of the other elders to read that in 20 some weeks.
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You know how sometimes kids, they get tired of holding their hands up and they like prop it up. They do that. Like I am not answering that question.
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But then eventually you do. And then I have to say it in such a way where the three -year -old and the eight -year -old and the 14 -year -old can all kind of grasp it.
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This is a dad teaching the children. This is what we ought to be doing. It's holy, it's good, it's right.
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This is where God wants us to have that in marriage. You've got to listen to me, son.
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Verse 21 of Proverbs six, "'Bind them on your heart always, "'tie them around your neck.'" This is language of memorize, learn, know ahead of time.
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Why? Because when you walk, they'll lead you. When you lie down, they'll watch over you. When you're awake, they'll talk with you.
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This is language directly out of Psalm 23, "'The Lord is my shepherd.' As the Lord shepherds
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His people, as Jesus is a good shepherd, as a great shepherd, these words shepherd you. They guide you because you're going to do something dumb and those verses pop into your mind," type of thing.
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They're like a lamp, verse 23. Why? To preserve you, verse 24, from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
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And of course, he's talking to his son. And it goes true for girls as well. To watch out for that evil man.
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Be careful, son. Do not desire her beauty in your heart. It might be fine to look at a girl.
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It's that second look. It's that lingering look. It's that lustful look. Do not let her capture you with her eyelashes.
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Where does coveting take place? In the heart. Be careful, son. Why? For the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life.
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Immorality is costly. Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned?
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No. Can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? No. So is the one who goes into his neighbor's wife.
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None who touches her will go unpunished. I mean, it's one thing to be lenient and have pity on somebody who steals when they're hungry.
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But somebody who steals a body that's not theirs in marriage, there's not much pity. That's verses 30 and 31.
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32, he who commits adultery lacks sense. He who does it destroys himself. And that's true for adultery, fornication, homosexuality, pornography, et al.
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Sexual sins like suicide. Chapter seven, he says the same thing.
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So far, we're still dealing with run away from it. And this writer in the wisdom literature that we now look at through Christian eyes is trying to tell his son, this is the law.
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Be careful. Watch out. And he does it with language so that the son's locked in. He's paying attention.
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My son, keep my words, verse one, and treasure up my commandments with you. It's a battle of the words.
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No wonder we try to get our children to memorize Bible verses, because I've hidden God's word in my heart that I might not what?
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Sin against you. Keep my commandments and live. Keep my teaching as the apple of your eye.
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I mean, that apple of your eye, that pupil, that center of a thing that you guard. Watch it, bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart.
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Own it with language of a wedding ceremony and wedding vows of I do.
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He says in verse four, say to wisdom, you're my sister, and call insight your intimate friends.
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Wisdom, I agree to marry you. I do. That's the language there. Why? Verse five, to keep you from the foreign woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.
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It's about words. And now he gives this devilish drama that this kid will never forget.
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It is not pornographic, but it's graphic. And it is not explicit, but you get the idea. Here's his illustration.
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At the window of my house, I've looked out through my lattice, Proverbs 7 .6. And I've seen among the simple,
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I perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense. I don't know if he's thinking about his father,
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David, or not. And what's gonna unfold is this kid who's just not paying attention to the words of his father.
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And he's just living life, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house. He should be fleeing.
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He should be running. There should be a wide berth. Four descriptions of time in verse nine, because people love the darkness and they love to sin at night, especially sexually.
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In the twilight, description of time. In the evening, description of time. At the time of night and in darkness, no one is going to notice.
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And behold, the change in Hebrew is sudden. It's supposed to be, the woman meets him dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.
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And he's just dumb. He's foolish. She's dressed to kill. She's loud.
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She's wayward. I mean, if Potiphar's wife can make Joseph look dumb, this man has no chance.
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Her feet don't stay at home. Now in the street, now in the market. At every corner, she lies in wait.
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She seizes him. She kisses him. And now she says with a bold face, it's a battle of the words.
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It's all about the words. And with her words, she's going to put the noose around his neck.
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And now she's going to tighten it with every verse. I had to offer sacrifices.
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And today I've paid my vows. You don't have to worry, son. I'm not a pagan.
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I've got to go to midnight mass. It's Christmas Eve. I've got to make sacrifices. I'm religious.
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It's not like I'm some Satan worshiper. I worship God. God's a loving God. God wouldn't have given us these pleasures and said no to them.
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You know what? I'm religious. Don't worry. I'm not a pagan.
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I believe in Jesus too. I paid my vows.
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And now she gets very particular, although it's all a lie. So now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly.
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I found you. I just had the Lord's Supper and now
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I've tried to find somebody and I've been looking for you all day long. It's you. I found you.
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Do you see? It's a battle of the words. She's enticing him. The noose gets tighter.
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I've spread my couch with coverings, colored linens from Egyptian linen.
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I perfume my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. I did this for you. I did this on behalf of you, every expense for you.
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Myrrh, aloes, cinnamon, perfume. Come, let us take our fill of love.
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That's sexual love. Let us take our fill of love. Reminds me of Ephesians chapter five.
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Till morning, let us delight ourselves with love. Now we don't have a septic at our, sorry, we don't have a public sewer at our house.
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So we have septic. And I still remember the times where we have to call the people to suck out the sludge that's in our septic tank.
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You ever have to do that? It's called septic sludge. It's called fecal sludge.
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And here's what's happening. I remember saying to Luke, because you can smell what's going on when they're evacuating that thing.
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And I'm thinking, you know what? Sexual sin, Solomon is trying to say this.
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If I were Solomon, I'd say this. This is the Abendrothian interpretive message.
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The message. Don't read this. Son, sex outside of marriage, including pornography, and sex with yourself, and all this kind of stuff, it's like going over and getting a huge 44 ounce big gulp cup from 7 -Eleven or Cumberland Farms.
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And make sure you get some ice in there first. And then just skim off the top of the fecal sludge and just guzzle it down.
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That's exactly what I told him. Verses we're gonna see in just a moment. In marriage, it's like Evian water.
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It's clear, it's pure, it's good. It quenches your thirst. It's meant to, it's designed by God.
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By the way, nobody's sleeping here today. Everybody's awake. Somebody just said, what's
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Evian water? My husband's not home. He's gone on a long journey.
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We've got all day, all night, repeat. He's got a lot of money. He's got to spend. He'll come home with full moon.
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Come on. And it's a battle of the words, is it not? Verse 21, with much seductive speech, she persuades him and her smooth talk, she has compelled him.
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All at once, whenever you see that little phrase in the Old Testament, 25 times, suddenly all at once, it always is connected with disaster.
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As an ox goes to the slaughter, our stag is caught fast. Pierced liver.
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Snared bird. It's going to cost life. An animal is dumb and foolish and doesn't see that trap is going to cost him his life.
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Son, don't be that. Listen, verse 24, to me and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
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Be careful. But that's not where it ends. That's not where our education to our children, our society of the church should end.
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Just don't. Let's turn back to Proverbs 5 and now see the positive side. If that's the warning, now this is the wonder.
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The Lord Jesus, I think of Romans 8, verse 32, was delivered up for our sakes.
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He's not going to withhold anything else that's good. From taste buds to sexual pleasure, it's all a gift of God because God loves to give.
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When my children were little, I remember giving them each for the first time, ice cream.
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Remember the first time? My wife probably said, don't give them ice cream quite yet, but that made me want to do it all the more.
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And the first time that kid tastes ice cream, they didn't know such a thing existed.
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How could you explain what ice cream tastes like? I mean, it's just good and you think, that's a goodness of God.
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Sunsets in the ocean and fellowship and fun and food and sex in marriage.
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Listen up, son. Listen up, son. But I want you to enjoy yourself.
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Proverbs 5, 15 and following is, enjoy sexual morality. Of course, when parents tell everybody, no, no, no, no, no, and it's awful and doesn't feel good and it's going to do this and that and the other, of course their kids, that's a distorted view.
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I couldn't say this probably 22 years ago, but I'll say it now because I have tenure. Luke came to me once and he said, dad,
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I don't have the gift of singleness. We were downstairs lifting weights, listening to Bob Marley, spiritual stuff, you know,
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CCM. And he said, dad, I don't have the gift of singleness. I said, son, thanks for telling me.
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I appreciate it. Well, I'll help you. And I said, I have a lot of goals for you, son, including salvation and including just a great life, but I want you to really have a lot of intimacy with your wife in marriage.
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I want that for you. He looked at me like I got the best dad.
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Yes. Son, I want you to enjoy yourself. I'm all for you. I'm there.
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I want to say, yes, that's right, because that's exactly what Proverbs says in marriage. God made our bodies.
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God made pleasure. He gives a helper suitable for Adam. By the way, this is an advancement of the
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Reformation. Five solas of the Reformation. Sola Scriptura, the Bible alone.
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Three foundations, Christ alone, faith alone, grace alone. Overarching to God alone be the glory.
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True, the Reformation recovered those things, but it also recovered assurance of salvation and pleasure in marriage, not just for procreation.
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Sola spousa, maybe we call that. I'm getting you to laugh a little bit because there's some tension here.
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I feel it. I never thought I'd have to talk about this subject ever, let alone from the pulpit, but it's in the
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Bible and we all struggle with it. Or you know somebody that does. The marriage bed,
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Hebrews 13, is held in honor among all and let the marriage bed, that's the act in Greek, be undefiled.
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For fornicators and adulterers, God will judge. No matter how smutty
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Corinth was, no matter how smutty our past lives were, in marriage, in the marriage bed, holy, sanctified,
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Song of Solomon chapter five, enjoy yourselves. And Solomon says here in verse 15, drink water and see how appropriate this is.
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This is not like some anatomy deal, but you get the point. This is proper and right for public preaching and private instruction.
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It's a battle of the words. Drink water from your own cistern, son.
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These are commands, by the way. This is law. Flowing water from your own well. I'm not trying to be funny.
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It may strike you as funny, but cistern there is singular. Well there is singular.
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Son, Luke, I want you to have relationships, sexual relationships with your wife and with your wife only.
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Drink water, that's the idea. Instead of the sludge, Evian. You're hungry, you go get something to eat.
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You have a thirst or a hunger for sexual activity because of testosterone and everything else that God has given you and the desires that you have for your wife because she's lovely and pretty on the inside and out, then quench your thirst.
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That's what he's saying. With her and with her alone. It's innocent, it's chaste, it's holy, it's righteous.
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In the old days, if you had a cistern, you guarded it. It was an important piece of private property. Your wife is like pure water from your cistern.
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Slack your thirst with your wife. And of course, if this was a mom teaching the daughter, the same thing.
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Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? It would be really dumb to have water that you've had to collect from rain and put it in the cistern and guard it and make sure it's been pure and clean and no bugs or anything else.
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And then all of a sudden, just get the pot out and just start flinging it into the road. That's dumb.
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So the idea is you don't do that with your sexual energy either. Spend that at home. Private property versus common property.
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No wonder 1 Thessalonians 4 says that when you're sleeping with somebody who isn't your spouse, you're robbing them, you're defrauding them.
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Let them be yours alone, verse 17, not for strangers with you. See, the sexual ethic for the Christian is not no.
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It's enjoy yourself in marriage. And by the way, if you can't talk to your 13 -year -old this way,
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I think you should try. I think you should ask God for wisdom. By the way, we have to keep talking to the kids younger and younger and younger and younger.
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Why? Because the world just keeps selling earlier and earlier and earlier and earlier.
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In the old days, maybe you could wait till they got a little bit older. Now you have to talk younger. You say, what age is that?
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That would make it all too easy, wouldn't it? That's on you. You're the parents. Let your fountain be blessed.
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It's all in the realm of the sexual bedroom for the couple in marriage. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
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Enjoy, son. Enjoy, daughter. And he uses language of just...
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You can study this on your own. It's pretty erotic. It's in the Bible and it's here in the context of sexual delight.
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A lovely dear, a graceful doe. There's beauty. There's gracefulness.
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There's an attraction. Verse 19, let her breast fill you at all times with delight.
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Be intoxicated always in her love. Son, everybody else,
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I don't want you to look at, stare at, gaze at, gawk at, think about, commit adultery in your heart like Jesus said.
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You keep your eyes on her eyes. If you say she's pretty, think about something else after that and move on, right men?
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But with your wife, enjoy her. In a world where people are displaying everything they have, both male and female, you keep your eyes here on your wife.
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Then he also says something that's kind of interesting. Be intoxicated always in her love.
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Be ravished with her. Be exhilarated with her. Be fully satisfied by her.
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Hallet, the lexicon for Hebrew says, lose one's ability to walk straight only with her.
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Son, enjoy your wife. That's the only safe sex around. And then he gives a warning.
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Here's the warning. And if you're watching pornography, I hope you can't forget these two verses the next time you try to turn on that screen.
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Why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
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For all the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord. And he watches all his paths.
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His own iniquities will capture the wicked and he will be held with the cords of his sin. Brick by brick.
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He'll die for lack of instruction. It's a battle of the words. And in the greatness of his folly, he'll go astray.
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Pastor, what's your point? The point is the world is selling, selling, selling, selling. And the
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Bible has given clear instruction to us about this topic. And I think we're afraid. We're afraid because several big
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Christian celebrities have run their mouths in inappropriate ways from the pulpit and elsewhere, where we just kind of cringe and we think that's an inappropriate talk.
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That would only be between a father and a son in a garage kind of talk. Something that's very appropriate for public preaching, they're not doing.
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So we're running away from it. We're also afraid to talk about it because there's some embarrassment there. Afraid to talk to our children.
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But what a great opportunity. I've said this before, I actually mean it. I kind of wish I had five kids for lots of reasons.
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One is because I don't have any more kids to sit down and have the talk with. It was one of the most sweetest, holy, precious times to sit down and talk this way,
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Proverbs 5, with the kid. I know what you're thinking. Pastor, what if I've committed sexual sin?
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Turn to 1 Corinthians 6 and we're gonna end here. 1 Corinthians 6. Let's say with your mind or your body, you haven't avoided sexual immorality.
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Let's say with your mind and your body, you haven't been enjoying sexual morality and maybe you're demanding things from your spouse sinfully or you're withholding things from your spouse as a punishment or reward for both married people and single people.
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They've committed all kinds of sins. I've committed all kinds of sins. We've committed all kinds of sins. Since sexual sin is so sleazy, smutty, awful, so taking, so opposite of Christ's love, so opposite of imitating
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God, so opposite of a fragrant aroma, do you think God could ever forgive me for sexual sin if it's that awful?
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And of course, since Jesus is grace incarnate, there's hope for every one of us.
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Take a look at it. Verse nine of chapter six. Boy, there's good news coming here.
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The good news that you can be washed, sanctified and justified. How about this? Verse nine, do you not know?
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Remember, the Corinthians thought they knew everything. We know, we know, we know, we know. Sounds like kids. Do you not know that the unrighteous as a lifestyle, as a category, will not inherit the kingdom of God?
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I mean, because you need perfect righteousness. You need complete righteousness. You need to have always obeyed the law of God. When you obey the law of God, you're doing the right thing and you need to perfectly obey, perfectly love
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God, perfectly love your neighbor. And anything short is unrighteousness. And those people can't inherit the righteous kingdom of God and dwell with the righteous
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God. Don't be deceived. Why? Because people are gonna tell you, you know, I did more good than bad, et cetera.
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Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers, sadly,
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ESV only has one word here, practice homosexuality. There's two words in the original for the aggressor and the non -aggressor in a homosexual relationship.
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But nonetheless, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
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I mean, that bar is up there, right? Perfect obedience, personal obedience, entire obedience, always obey, obey, obey.
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How many times do you have to look at a woman with lust before you're damned? The answer is one. As an unbeliever, there's enough evidence against you.
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Verse 11, and such were some of you. And by the way, could there be better language for this first one, for this first description, this first divine passive for those who have committed sexual sin?
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But you were what? That's what Jesus does.
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His death is so sufficient, you can be washed from sexual sin, cleansed, pure.
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God sees you now not as ever committed those things in your past, but He sees you as perfectly obeying because He sees you in Jesus.
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You say, I have skeletons in my closet. That's true, but Jesus blocks those skeletons, as it were, from the sight of God because God sees you in the light of Christ.
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Washed, how'd you like to be, for those of you who are in sexual relationships now that ought not to be, how'd you like to be washed?
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How'd you like to have no record of your guilt in the annals of heaven? How'd you like to be pure?
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How'd you like to be clean? He goes on to say sanctified, set apart, holy, and justified.
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For the unbeliever, you can be forgiven of all your sins, including sexual sins, by trusting in the
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Lord Jesus, the risen Savior. For the believer who struggles with sexual sins, since God's love is so great for you, you ought to imitate that love and run from all this others.
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May this be the last day today that you demand things from your wife, that you hold out from your husband, or that you watch pornography.
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Why? Because those things earn God favor? No, Christian, because God has favored you. And you can't do this on your own.
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Do you see the text? In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. Dear friends, how does a person who has any sin, let alone sexual sin, how is he seen by God?
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If you're not a believer, he sees those sins and will judge you. The wages of sin is death.
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But if you're a Christian, he sees those sins through the blood of Jesus. And friends, no matter what you've done, you're washed, hallelujah.
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You're sanctified, hallelujah. And you're justified. Aren't you glad? You can wear white at your wedding even though you haven't earned it.
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You get my point? Because the way God sees you, dear Christian, is through the righteous robes of the pure, white, cleansed person and work of the
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Lord Jesus. Amazing. That is simply amazing.
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Forgiving people based on the work of another. And since that's true, let's imitate God with our bodies.
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Bow with me, please. Father in heaven, thank you for your word. I pray that you would take your word and drive it into the hearts of people, including me.
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And Father, we know you can restore relationships. You can grant repentance. And I pray when it comes to sexual sin, and relations,
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I pray that there would be repentance. I pray for marriages, that there be restoration if there's needed to be.
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And we're just thankful people. We're thankful that the Lord Jesus was tempted in all kinds of ways.
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And he never fell into a temptation of covetousness, or idolatry, or of not loving you, or not loving his neighbor.
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He was always holy, and pure, and clean. And in him, we have a great high priest. I pray that you would help us to be a pure congregation, a holy congregation, since we are pure and holy in your standing.