WWUTT 1374 The Way of the Adulteress to Death (Proverbs 7:14-27)

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We finish up Proverbs chapter 7 today talking about that adulterous woman who means to lead the foolish young man astray.

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How can a young man keep his way pure? By following the word of Christ when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the word.

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Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our

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Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We are back in our study of Proverbs for this

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Thursday. Chapter 7 is where we were last week, and I'm going to pick up where we left off.

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But to start, I'm going to read through the entire chapter. This is Proverbs chapter 7. My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you.

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Keep my commandments and live. Keep my teaching as the apple of your eye.

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Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, you are my sister, and call insight your intimate friend, to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress, with her smooth words.

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For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice, and I have seen among the simple,

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I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.

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And behold, the woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.

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She is loud and wayward. Her feet do not stay home. Now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait.

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She seizes him and kisses him, and with bold face she says to him, I had to offer sacrifices, and today

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I have paid my vows. So now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.

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I have spread my couch with coverings, colored linens from Egyptian linen.

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I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love till morning.

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Let us delight ourselves with love. For my husband is not at home. He has gone on a long journey.

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He took a bag of money with him. At full moon he will come home. With much seductive speech she persuades him.

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With her smooth talk she compels him. All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast till an arrow pierces its liver.

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As a bird rushes into a snare, he does not know that it will cost him his life.

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And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your heart turn aside to her ways.

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Do not stray into her paths. For many a victim she has laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng.

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Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.

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We left off last week where the adulterous woman addresses the foolish young man.

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That's at verse 14. I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows.

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And I mentioned last week, this means she's telling the young man, what we're about to do here is innocent.

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I've gone to the temple. I have sacrificed for my sins. Now I am pure.

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So come and let us take our fill of love till morning. Which is verse 18. This also means that she's done this before.

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Why is it that she had to go offer sacrifices and pay her vows? Well, she's trying to atone for having done this before with another young man.

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This foolish man thinks, hey, she's only got eyes for me. How special am I that she would come after me even before her husband?

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But what he does not recognize in his foolishness is that she's done this with other men.

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And everyone who follows after her follows her to their own destruction.

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I've mentioned to you many times that whenever we have a list of sins in the Bible, often the first sin on that list of vices is sexual immorality.

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You think of Galatians chapter 5, where Paul contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the spirit.

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And he says of the works of the flesh, these things, if a person is living in them, will not inherit the kingdom of God.

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And first on that list of sins is sexual immorality. Sex outside of marriage.

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You think about Colossians chapter 3, where Paul says, if you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

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And then in light of what we have received in Christ, of being a Christian, he says, in verse 5, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you.

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And what's the first sin he mentions? Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

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All of those things can be lumped into sexual immorality. Even the desire for it is evil.

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You desire sex that God does not desire for you. He created it to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife in marriage.

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Sex outside of marriage is sexual immorality. Even desiring that which

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God does not desire for you is evil. Therefore, even the longing for it is just as bad as Jesus talked about in Matthew chapter 5.

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You have heard it said, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who is lusted after a woman has committed adultery with her in his heart.

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We need to have our minds cleansed by Christ. Philippians 2 .5, have the mind of Christ.

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It is Jesus who gives us his Holy Spirit that we would be able to seek the things that are above where Christ is.

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Set your minds on things that are above. Colossians 3 .2, not on things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

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So what we see with a person who commits adultery, a person who goes after sexual immorality, they are living out in their bodies what already exists there in their heart.

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And this is often a demonstration of the depravity that exists in a person's heart, that they are not with God, but rather still enslaved to the flesh and still after the passions of this world.

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The Bible does say that sexual sins are unique. They are different than every other sin.

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We read about that primarily in 1 Corinthians 6, 9 and 10. Paul says, well, it's 1

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Corinthians 6, but it's in verses 9 and 10 where we read, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

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Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality.

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Here we have a list of vices again, and sexual sins are at the top of that list. Going on in verse 10, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

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Verse 11, and such were some of you, but you were washed. You were sanctified.

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You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our

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God. We go on where Paul strongly encourages the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul commands that we flee from sexual immorality.

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And he says, every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

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That's 1 Corinthians 6, 18, going on to verse 19, or do you not know that your body is a temple of the

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Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God? You are not your own for you were bought with a price.

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So glorify God in your body. And as we have read, going through our study of Romans, Romans 12, 1 says, therefore, my brothers in view of God's mercies, present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto the

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Lord. And this is your spiritual act of worship. It is necessary for us even to commit our minds unto

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Christ, not after the things of our flesh, but we are fully set upon Christ.

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Those sins that we commit with our body, namely sexual immorality, we commit against the temple of the

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Holy Spirit who has been poured into our hearts in all of the children of God who are followers after Jesus Christ.

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We have the Holy Spirit in our hearts. So do not desecrate the temple of God by uniting yourself with a prostitute.

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That's something else that Paul says there in 1 Corinthians 6. God raised the Lord who will also raise us up by his power.

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Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?

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Never go and read that in 1 Corinthians 6 sometime. If we are committing our minds even to pornography, it's the same as if we have given our body over to an adulteress or a prostitute.

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We cannot even desire those things that God has desired for us. And these are very, very serious things.

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You have given yourself over to the adulterous woman, whether you go to her house and lie on her bed, as is pictured here in Proverbs 7, or you have fantasized about lying in her bed through pornography that you watch in movies or television or on your computer or on your smartphone.

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If you're not careful, if you've given your mind over to these things, you know that you've got a mobile porn shop right there on your phone.

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And this is not just men that we're talking about being susceptible to this here. There's women as well.

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I've had to counsel women who had filled their minds with pornographic images and videos.

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And there's that stuff that we sometimes call mommy porn, the smut novels, fantasizing about being with these other men and things like that.

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It can happen to women, too. This is the desire of the flesh that desecrates the body, the heart and the mind going after things that are of this world.

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And God has promised he will judge again, going back to Colossians chapter three, verse six against such things.

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The wrath of God is coming. My brothers and sisters in the Lord, you must not have anything to do with this.

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Women do not let your way become that of the adulterous woman and men do not follow in her way to your destruction.

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How can a young man keep his way pure by guarding it according to the word of God?

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This is Psalm 119, verse nine that I'm quoting to you, by the way. Verse 10, with my whole heart,

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I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I'll come back to this again at the very end.

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Let us return to our study in Proverbs chapter seven, the adulterous woman saying to the young man, I had to offer sacrifices and today

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I have paid my vows. So now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly.

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And I have found you. And by the way, totally alive. She was looking for any man that she could run off with who is not her husband.

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This young man feels special. He thinks that it's particularly for him, but it's not. She is an unfaithful, wicked woman.

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And as she would leave her own husband for this young guy, she would throw him out for somebody else as well.

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So she goes on. I have spread my couch with coverings, colored linens from Egyptian linen.

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I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon.

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That's a very romantic picture, right? But this is a marriage bed that she's describing here.

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When a husband and a wife are united and they consummate their marriage, they go to the honeymoon suite where the bed is decked out this way.

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And there's all sorts of myrrh and spices and things like that. And and it just smells great.

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The aroma just fills the senses. All of it. So incredibly wonderful. So that after the husband and wife consummate their marriage, they even give off the pleasing aroma of this consummation.

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Weddings were filled with this as well, like the groom would be covered with all sorts of wonderful, fragrant myrrh and aloes.

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And then when the bride comes to meet him, she's got perfumes that she is covered with in the and the two merged together.

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It's just an incredibly pleasing ceremony for everybody who was there taking in all the sights and sounds and even smells of this beautiful union.

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And the Bible gives us a picture of this as well between Christ and his church. Think of Psalm 45.

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This is a psalm of royalty where you have the the king who is receiving his queen.

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And it says in Psalm 45, verse six, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

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The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.

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Therefore, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.

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And we can know without a shadow of a doubt that this is talking about Christ because Hebrews one says that it's talking about Christ.

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So then we go on in Psalm 45, eight. Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia from ivory palaces, stringed instruments make you glad.

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Daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor. At your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.

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And the church is described as the bride of Christ. So as we see a wedding depicted in Psalm 45, so we know this can also be a picture of the way that Christ is wedded to his church, which is described in Ephesians chapter five, among other places as the bride of Christ.

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And when this union is consummated at the return of Christ, we have that picture of the wedding feast of the lamb given in the book of revelation.

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And then the bride coming down to meet the groom adorned in white for we have reached that perfection that Christ has given to us.

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And the full consummation is there with the church being united with Christ forever in glory.

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So that which is supposed to be a picture of the relationship that Christ has with his church, namely the gift of marriage that God has given to mankind.

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We see a perversion of that here in Proverbs seven. This is the adulterous woman taking that which

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God is so blessed us with to be wonderful and beautiful. And she is creating the fantasy of that for this young man.

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They think that they're entering into something. That's like a marriage bed, but it will be enjoyable for a time until it leads them to their own destruction.

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I perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love till morning.

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Let us delight ourselves with love. You have that same statement. Let us take our fill of love till morning in song of Solomon.

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There it's good and pure and right because it's between a husband and his wife, the shepherd and the shepherdess that are that are talked about there, the lovers in in the song of Solomon.

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But here they're taking their fill of something they're calling love, but it's not.

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It's it's just sexual immorality. It's depravity. It's adultery that this woman in this young man are indulging in for my husband is not at home.

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She says he is gone on a long journey. He took a bag of money with him at full moon.

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He will come home. Remember what we read at the end of Chapter six, we talked about adultery there as well in Chapter six verses thirty four and thirty five.

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It says jealousy makes a man furious and he will not spare when he takes revenge.

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He will accept no compensation. He will refuse though you multiply gifts. This is talking about the jealous husband.

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You find he finds out that you have slept with his wife. He's coming after you and nothing is going to stop his anger here in Chapter seven.

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The adulteress talks about her husband who's away and he can't ever find out about this.

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But what does it say at the end of Chapter seven? Her house is the way to Sheol going down to the chambers of death.

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God knows and he will give to everyone according to their works. It's in Hebrews thirteen four where we read.

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Let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

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And as I warned you last week, don't ever indulge yourself in sexual sins, thinking that no one will ever find out or I can just ask forgiveness for this later.

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And even if I get caught, I will suffer the consequences just to appease my flesh for a little while.

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I can apologize and everything. I'll work on it. I'll work it out. It'll all be

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OK. I warned you against that last week, because how do you know you will be able to come back from that?

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How do you know that when you are caught, you will actually have a heart that is guilty over your sin and will desire to repent from that?

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How do you know that God is not already handed you over to your own depravity and you will find lies and manipulations in different ways that you can excuse this sin and it's not really that bad.

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And and you will try to cover it up. And if you get away with it, or even if you don't get away with it, you'll still go back to it again because, hey,

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I did fine last time. I didn't die. And so you go back to that sin and you continue until you stand before God in judgment and he will ultimately destroy you.

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Do not think that you are stronger than this. Rely on Christ and hold fast to him.

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He will give you a new heart and a new mind that desires Christ and not these passions of your flesh.

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She goes on or sorry, Proverbs 7 goes on verse 21 with much seductive speech.

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She persuades him with her smooth talk. She compels him all at once.

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He follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter or as a stag is caught fast till an arrow pierces its liver as a bird rushes into a snare.

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He does not know that it will cost him his life. This is not just some sort of thing that you can do for a while and everything will turn out

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OK. Sexual sins, though they feel good in your flesh for a time, will be to your destruction.

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The wrath of God is coming against these things. You must hear me when I say that.

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And not my words, but Colossians 5, 6, that says so flee from sexual immorality, live lives of holiness and godliness in Christ Jesus.

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Verse 24. And now, oh, sons, listen to me and be attentive to my to the words of my mouth.

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Let not your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her paths for many a victim.

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She is laid low and all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.

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There are many who have gone after the way of adultery and many who have not returned. Most do not return.

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Do not flirt with these sins. They are serious and God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

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So let me come back to Psalm 119 again here. I think I said last week I was going to come to Psalm 51.

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I'm sorry I didn't do that. But you can do that. Go to Psalm 51 and hear the lament that David expresses in his heart when he was caught in his adultery, when

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Nathan the prophet confronted him after he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had Uriah the

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Hittite murdered. So go read Psalm 51 for yourself that you may be convicted in your sin and repent before God.

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Here's what Psalm 119 says, beginning in verse 9. How can a young man keep his way pure?

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By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you.

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Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

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You hear that? I've stored up your word in my heart, which keeps me from sin. Blessed are you,

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O Lord. Teach me your statutes. With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth.

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Remember back to what we read in Proverbs 5, 2, and 3. May your lips guard knowledge, for the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil.

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Let what comes from our lips not be the seductions of the adulterous woman, but rather that we delight in the law of the

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Lord. Going on into verse 14. In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches.

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I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes.

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I will not forget your word. And again, my friends, this is how a young man keeps his way pure, by guarding it according to the word of God.

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Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the grace and mercy that you show us continually, and may we be guarded from the passions of our own flesh.

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Yes, there's all kinds of wickedness in this world that means to entice us, but it's when we are enslaved to our flesh that we are willing to go the way of the world and not in the way of Christ.

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Change our thinking, renew our hearts and our minds, that we would love your word and desire to keep it and live according to it.

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Forgive us our sins. Lead us in paths of righteousness, for your name's sake, that we may declare the glory and the goodness of God with our whole lives.

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As David prayed in Psalm 51, Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.

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Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.

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Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you.

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Let our lives be a testament of your grace and your goodness to us in Christ Jesus our

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Lord. In his name we pray. Amen. You can find a complete list of videos, books, devotionals, and other resources online at www .tt