Victory Over Sexual Sin (Part 1)

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No Compromise Radio Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author,

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Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the

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Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

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Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the Scriptures, verse by verse, with no compromise.

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If you have your Bibles, please turn them to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and 7.

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This morning one of those passages that you just think, wow, this is in the Bible, this is for public preaching, this is for my good.

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Now the people from Bethlehem Bible Church know where we are, but for the visitors, I just want to remind you that I believe all of the

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Bible should be, you should be able to preach all of the Scriptures in a public setting. True?

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I think it was five years ago I went through the Song of Solomon, how many people were here when we went through that? And if it's in the text, it's

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God breathed, he has inspired it and he wants it to be proclaimed in a public setting.

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And the way the Word of God is set up, it's done so in such a way that it's all appropriate, it's all right, it's all good.

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And I have an 18 -year -old daughter, 14 -year -old son, 12 -year -old daughter and a 10 -year -old daughter and I want them to hear the message,

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I want them to hear the message. And if you have young people here today, they need to hear this message as well because it is for the body of Christ and frankly, the world's going to educate your kids about sex.

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And so let's hear from God's Word from the pulpit in an appropriate setting. In such a way,

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I was thinking about a nature of singing, may Jesus Christ be praised. And then I thought, and now

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I want to stand up and proclaim the truth in such a way that about the topic of sex and sexual temptation, sexual purity, that God, Christ Jesus would be praised as I preach it and as you listen.

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And so while I don't make any excuses for preaching the full counsel of God, I wanted to at least give a little cushion for the visitors today who haven't been coming.

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And my philosophy is this and our philosophy at the church is this, we pick a book of the Bible and we preach through it all.

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And I'm not going to get to chapter 7, 1 to 6 and say, well, we'll read that later. It's kind of like the

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Jews when it came to the Song of Solomon, don't read that until you're 30. By the way, that's a good way to get somebody to read it a lot sooner is tell them don't read it until 30.

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That's just our sinful hearts, right? Don't do something, don't touch wet paint. And so in 1

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Corinthians, Paul has been really focused in on this topic of sex and sex sin since chapter 5 when there was incest in the church.

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And he moves through chapter 5, chapter 6, and now into chapter 7, and this whole idea that we're looking at is how to overcome sexual temptation, victory over sexual sin.

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And Paul does it exactly the way Jesus does it and Peter and John. And that's this.

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Here's biblical sanctification. You don't just say to someone, stop something.

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You tell them, stop this and then what? Do that instead. So instead of lying,

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Ephesians 4, you are to tell the truth. Instead of being lazy, Ephesians 5, you are to work.

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And it's the same thing here. Paul just does not say, as he does in chapter 6, flee sexual immorality.

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And that's true. But then he also says, enjoy sexual morality.

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That is to say, all sex and marriage. All sex outside of marriage, sexual sin, stay away from that.

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He says, remember you've been bought with the price. Remember he says in chapter 6, verse 10, matter of fact, let's look at it right here so we can catch ourselves up as we're back into the series after resurrection

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Sunday. Chapter 6, verse 11. Let's go there instead. And such were some of you.

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Remember back up in verse 9, they were sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, those who practice homosexuality.

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Such were some of you, Church of Corinth, but then look at the greatness of God, the sovereign distinguishing grace of God upon these ones in Corinth that didn't deserve it.

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But you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the

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Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. And so Paul says, remember you used to be this way, but you're not that way any longer.

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And that's actually one of the motivations we have for holy living, who we are in Christ, the power we have by the spirit in us in light of what

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God has done by his rich and sovereign lavish mercy upon us. Then I want to live a life commensurate to who

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I am, conduct befitting an officer. So Paul says in chapter 6, verses 12 through 20, run from sexual sin.

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He says in verse 18, flee from sexual immorality. You can, you can almost picture Joseph running away from Potiphar's wife, run, flee, get away fast, be a fugitive, literally.

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He says every sin a person commits chapter 6 verse 18 is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person, all sex outside of marriage sins against his own body.

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Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy spirit within you whom you have from God?

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You are not your own or you were bought with a price and we know that price is the precious blood of Christ Jesus, our savior.

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Therefore what does he say at the end of verse 20, which ties into chapter 7 verse 1. So glorify

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God in your body. That is your sexual body. That's the way God has made you. God has created men and women in a sexual way.

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So you've got a body and you're in that body and instead of running around doing what the church of Corinth used to do, are doing what you used to do.

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You glorify God with your body if single by abstaining from sexual sin.

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And if you're married, you glorify God with your body by chapter 7, 1 to 6, enjoying your spouse.

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And so let's look today at a little recap of chapter 7 verses 1 to 6.

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And then the majority of time we're going to spend this morning is in the old testament equivalent of first Corinthians chapter 7.

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By the way, I don't want to grab you that water. I'm usually, you know, I can travel the world and speak, but now somehow today

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I have cotton mouth. I wonder why the main reason is this. I'm not afraid to offend people because the gospel is offensive, but I want to make sure

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I say things today in such a way, even as I met some of the young guys here, Caleb and Joshua and Benjamin, I want to make sure

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I say things appropriately. So those who come, whether they're visitors or for those who are here regularly, that we're not offended by something that was said.

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I want this truth to sink down deep, deeply in your hearts. And if you're eight years old, you need to know this.

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Now, of course it'll be age appropriate. And for some kids, it'll just go over their heads. And kids, if you don't understand what

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I said today, you should go home and say, Daddy, what did the pastor mean? And then the daddy, I see a lot of you smiling, then the daddy with age appropriateness can talk to his own sons, his own daughters, and mom and dad can have a good conversation.

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And so this is one of those passages today that I think to myself, it's in the scriptures, we're going to preach it. And I'm going to take a big swig of water.

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So what R .C. Sproul said, I would like to make a rather bold assertion. If every single marriage that ends in disaster, in every single marriage that ends in disaster, some stupid decisions were made with respect to God's regulations.

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If God's regulations were followed scrupulously, there would not only be no divorce, there would be no unhappy marriages.

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Now, he says something very insightful. If you want a happy marriage, I think if you're married, you want that.

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The most intelligent thing you can do is to submit to God's regulations, and that makes sense.

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God, you design marriage, and we'd like to do what you say. As Sproul said, a great delusion is contained in the thought.

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If we keep his commandments, we won't be happy. When I experience a conflict of interest or conflict of desires between what

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I want and what God requires, then I know the moral crisis is sin. When I choose my own desire and insult the integrity of God's wisdom,

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I at the same time reveal myself to be a fool. Those are good words.

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So today as we look at 1 Corinthians chapter 7, verses 1 through 6, we'll see God in his good grace and generosity saying the way to avoid sexual immorality if you're married is to enjoy sexual morality.

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Now chapter 7, just a quick review, verse 1. Now concerning the matter which you wrote, the

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Corinthians have written them, and now they've got their own slogan, or they've taken what Paul has said out of context, and they say, and ESV has got it in parentheses, not in parentheses, but in quotation marks, it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.

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Now they've taken it out of context in some way, shape, or form. Now probably what happened is this.

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They live in this very libertine society, and there's sex sins everywhere. They heard

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Paul say something, and now they've taken it too far. And now they've said, you know what, abstinence is good in singleness, maybe it's good in marriage as well.

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And Paul's going to correct that. Sadly, I think in our society today, we sometimes will run into the same thing.

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The society, you watch as this church matures, the people that are young and get saved will come into the church with all kinds of baggage, including sexual sin baggage.

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And if they're not careful, they're going to recoil against what they did as they were unbelievers to say, well, you know what, that's wrong, and I'm going to go away from it too far.

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And we even have religions today, the Shakers, LNG White, some Orthodox churches, no physical relations except for procreation.

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Yet Paul is going to echo the heart of Christ Jesus and God himself, that sex is good.

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God made men and women in such a way that would be pleasurable for them in marriage and would give

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God glory. So he says to them in verse two, these, these licentious people are now becoming too fundamentalist when it comes to this husband and wife marriage bed.

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And he says in verse two, but because of the temptation of sexual immorality, God has designed men and women, unless you have the gift of celibacy, to have those desires.

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Each man should have his own wife and each woman, her own husband. Don't you like it there?

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Each and each. Something that's very shocking that we looked at two weeks ago. This shocking truth is men and women are equal in the eyes of God.

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Not shocking for us, not shocking for Paul, not shocking for God, but shocking for the culture. When you would own women like you would own slaves, practically, and here, each one loving the other.

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Verse three, the husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, likewise the wife to her husband.

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That's a neat language, to give. This is agape love, wanting the best for the other person, to give. This is not using language.

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This is not horrible domineering language. No, it's giving. Barnes said, they are bound to each other in every way.

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They are to evince kindness and to seek to promote the happiness and purity of each other. There's a great deal of delicacy used here by Paul, and his expression is removed as far as possible from the grossness of pagan writers.

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His meaning is plain, but instead of using a word to express it, which would be indelicate and offensive, he uses one which is not indelicate in the slightest degree.

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Don't you agree? He just says it in such a way, a nice euphemism, so you understand that the husband and wife should each love each other.

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The New Living Translation, not that I think it's a great translation, but I like the interpretation of the translation, the husband should fulfill his wife's sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband's needs.

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Now, marriage is a picture of Christ. Marriage is for procreation. Marriage is for pleasure. Marriage is for partnership.

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That is all true, but Paul is combating here in 1 Corinthians 7, verses 1 to 6, this group that says we've got to abstain from any kind of sex in marriage because we were pagan, filthy, vile people before, and now we've moved into marriage, and we want to stay away from that sin.

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Paul's also talking to the people who, you know, I was a pagan, married a pagan, and then

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I got saved, and then now I have to be with my spouse who's a pagan? Does that defile me in any way?

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And Paul is going to say, of course not. Verse 4, for the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does.

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Likewise, again shockingly for the culture, husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

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Don't you see that nice mutuality, that nice togetherness there?

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Nobody's a sex object. Then he says in verse 5, there might be a time where you're not together.

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Do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement, again, still talking the sexual context, by agreement, that's step one, both have to agree for a limited time, that's step two, that you may devote yourselves to prayer, but then come together again physically so that Satan may not tempt you because your lack of self -control.

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So you don't deprive one another, you don't count it as reneging on a debt if you do that.

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No, you just, we agree for a certain amount of time, we're going to pray, and then we'll come back together again.

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And then Paul says in verse 6, now as a concession, not as a command, I say this. If you don't want to have a time to pray together and abstain, it's okay.

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Now here's my question this morning. What is the Old Testament equivalent of 1 Corinthians chapter 7, verses 1 to 6?

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1 Corinthians chapter 7, verses 1 to 6 says, a way to help you overcome sexual temptation is to enjoy your spouse.

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What is similar in the Old Testament? You can't say Song of Solomon, that would be a good guess though. Proverbs chapter 5, let's turn there, the enjoyment of your spouse decreases temptations.

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Proverbs chapter 5, for those of you who think this somehow might be inappropriate language, verse 1 says what?

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My son, dads, you better be teaching your children about sex.

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All age appropriate, everything's got the right context and setting, but they need to hear from you.

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It doesn't mean that moms can't teach, but this is Solomon talking to his son. It doesn't mean that we ought not to teach our daughters, but this is father to a son, and here's the outline.

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Abstain from sexual immorality, enjoy sexual morality, God's watching everything you do.

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That's almost 1 Corinthians chapter 7. He does it with poetic language, but it's very, very impressive, and you're going to see the same paradigm of sanctification.

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Don't do this, but do that instead. So, let's see the negative side first.

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Avoid sexual immorality, that is all sex outside of marriage. My son, Proverbs 5, 1, be attentive to my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding.

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He's addressing this young man, we don't know how old, and he basically says this, you need to listen because your own strength isn't going to be enough, your own

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IQ isn't going to be enough, your own self -determination is not going to be enough. You need words from your father, the wise sage, but now we know they're also inspired by God.

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So they're not just smart words from the wisest man who was ever born, but they're inspired by God, they're breathed out by God.

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By the way, this is going to apply here for all those who are single, because you are not to enjoy sexual morality while you're single, because that's for marriage, and this will also be helpful for those who struggle with pornography.

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This same section right here, through verse 14. Verse 2, why do you have to pay attention, my son?

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That you may keep discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. Remember Solomon's going to say this, you either listen to my lips, the wise man, or you're going to be listening to the lips of the foreign woman, of the adulteress, of someone who's going to come along and say, forget this waiting till marriage.

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We need to enjoy each other now. And your lips may guard knowledge.

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See, it's all about the talk, it's not even about what this prostitute or this whore or this adulteress looks like.

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Verse 3, for the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil.

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It's not the sweetness of her kisses, it's the alluring words she gives. It's a battle of the words.

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It's a war of the words. She's going to try to find an unguarded moment, and she's going to try to paint, as one man said, the vilest sin with the most beautiful portrait.

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One of the things about wisdom is, this is what dads should teach their sons, there's going to be a later, there's going to be an after, there's going to be even a morning after you can say.

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Verse 4, but in the end, she's as bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two -edged sword.

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Thomas Watson said, either kill your sin or your sin will kill you, and so will she.

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Verse 5, her feet go down to death, her steps follow the path to Sheol.

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She does not ponder the path of life, her ways wander. She does not know it, it's roving all around, internally and externally.

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What you see is not what you get. I'm reminded of Proverbs 30, this is the way of an adulterous woman, she eats and wipes her mouth and says,

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I have done nothing wrong. Solomon says, you better be careful, there's a price for infidelity.

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Verse 7, and now, oh sons, listen to me and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

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Now, adulterous' words are my words. Keep your way far from her, give her a wide berth.

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Do not go near the door of her house. She's dangerous. Don't even go near her.

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I'd even go so far to say, and this is probably a different message, but I'll say it anyway. If you have to change your job, change your newspaper, throw your computer in the garbage, get some new friends, lose some old friends, you better avoid that adulterous woman.

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What could you lose? Verse 9, lest you give your honor to others in your years, to the merciless, maybe a blackmailer.

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You could lose money, that's for sure. Verse 10, lest strangers take their fill of your strength and your labors go to the house of a foreigner, paying the prostitute, the hotel, the expenses, paying off the husband, child support, might even cost you your health.

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This is similar to sinning against your own body in 1 Corinthians 6, Proverbs 5, 11. And at the end of your life, you groan when your flesh and body are consumed, never getting over it, maybe forgiven, but still saying,

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I wish I would have done that. I can't believe I did that. And maybe even with a venereal disease, flesh and body consumed.

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Sex sins harm your body. Verse 12, what do you say at the end of your life?

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And you say, how I hated discipline and my heart despised reproof. I listened to this adulterous woman.

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Verse 13, I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. I'm at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.

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No respect in the community. They all know what I've done. So like Paul, Solomon says, avoid sexual immorality, but then it's not just put off, it's put on.

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So now he says in verse 15 and following, enjoy sexual morality. You can protect your spouse,

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Solomon is going to say, from immorality by being with that spouse physically, sexually.

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The theme is going to be this, that if you enjoy your spouse, there'll be no reason to look any place else.

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The words of the adulterous will ring hollow in your mind. You'll say to yourself, that doesn't appeal to me because I love my wife and I find pleasure in my wife.

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And I'll say it again. Marriage is more than sex, but sex is a critical component to marriage.

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Strict fidelity to a wife, but with wonderful ecstasies.

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The answer to sexual desire is not no, it's yes in marriage.

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Let me give you six truths from God's sexual curriculum, sex curriculum from God's perspective.

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I just read the other day, it's just on Fox News, some horrible book that they're giving 10 year old kids about sex.

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Completely inappropriate. This is going to be very appropriate. It's going to be erotic, yes, but it's going to be cloaked language and it's going to be the language that fathers you need to teach your sons and I will also gladly preach.

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But this is sex education from God's perspective and he's going to say marital fidelity doesn't impoverish, it's good.

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Number one, sex with your spouse is for each other only.

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It's for you and you alone. It's for the two of you alone. I think that's a better way to say it. The exclusivity of the relationship.

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Sex with your spouse is an exclusive relationship. And look at how he says this in verse 15.

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This is fascinating language. Drink water from your own cistern. Flowing water from your own well.

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Cistern there is singular. Wife only. Have sexual relations only with your spouse.

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Flowing water from your own well. The issue here is this isn't common property, this is private property.

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Back in those days we couldn't just say I'd like to have one of these aquapods and we're ready to go. It was a commodity to get water, wasn't it?

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It was difficult. So you're just going to go down the street and just throw your water all away? Well that'd be stupid.

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This is a valuable possession, a cistern. This is life and death. And he says drink water from your own cistern.

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This is figurative language to say enjoy your spouse physically. But it's just you and her.

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Or it's just you and him if you're a lady. And you can almost, if I was a kid listening to my dad teach me this lesson.

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You know what I'd think of? I'd think oh last week the septic company came and pumped our septic system.

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So I called down Luke and a couple of the girls came down. I wasn't thinking of this illustration at the time but we dug the hole and then they put the manhole out and then they put this big kind of sucking device, this big vacuum cleaner in there and they just sucked everything out of there.

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And it was a very memorable occasion too because odors help you remember things. And the kids were like wow.

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Oh dear, this is an odor. And here's what

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I would be thinking. I can't believe I didn't say it. I was so overcome by the odor as well I couldn't think straight to teach my kids.

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It was a teachable moment. Kids, when you get married, God says just enjoy your spouse.

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Even in the bedroom. It's like pure water. It's just like clean fresh water.

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Don't settle for premarital sex. Don't settle for sexual sin because it's like going over with a little glass and dipping it in the top of that septic system and guzzling it down.

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Why would you have septic water when you could have Evian? No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.