Sexual Ethics and the Gospel (Part 3)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ. Based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the apostle

Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.

My name is Mike Abendroth, and today is part three, Sexual Ethics and the Gospel, Sex and Christianity.

What do we do? How do we think about it? How do we overcome temptation, et cetera? We're looking at the

Proverbs in this series, and here is the format. I assume that you hadn't listened to the other two shows, so I need to make sure

I'm clear to figure it out. A, if you are listening with small kids, let them listen.

You need to teach your children properly and rightly, and I wouldn't say anything from the radio show that I wouldn't say from the pulpit, and so from the pulpit,

I'd never say, please dismiss your kids so I can talk about a subject. I believe all God's words should be preached.

It's all inspired in God -breathed, and it is profitable and right, and the scriptures are never inappropriate, and they never say anything rude or crude or out of school.

They speak about things properly and wonderfully, sometimes a little more directly than we might like in our sensibilities, but it's our problem, not the scripture's problem, so I'd let my kids listen to this show.

Number two, as we're talking about sexual temptation and how to avoid it, we're looking at something today that's not necessarily all -inclusive.

I'm just looking at one component or one facet of this topic. Certainly, the scriptures teach that if you're struggling with sexual immorality and you're single, you should get married.

If you are struggling as a spouse, that you should love your wife and self -sacrificially give to her and enjoy her, et cetera.

If you're struggling with sexual sin, that you need to remember and rehearse the gospel to yourself and how great your sins were, how wonderful the

Creator, Judge, and Savior is and what He's done for you on behalf of His glory, that is, redeem you, reconcile you, make propitiation for you, justify you, and eventually will glorify you in such a great, there's such a great

God as the God of the Bible and He saved you. Shouldn't your response be, I'll do whatever you want?

You bought me with a price. I wanna glorify you with my body. And there are different ways to go about sexual sanctification.

I could give you all the passages that warn about sexual sin and how they don't inherit the kingdom of God. Those who practice such things,

First Corinthians chapter six, First Thessalonians four, it is God's will for you to be sexually pure.

And the list goes on and on. But interestingly, Proverbs 2, 5, 6, and 7, that is

Proverbs 2, 5, 6, and 7, gives a direct tie -in to the word of Solomon, the father talking to the son, is going to help prevent sexual sin.

The word now of the living God because Proverbs 2, 5, 6, and 7, they're all inspired by God.

They're part of the scripture. They're part of the corpus of scripture as D .A. Carson says, the corpi.

But that's more than one corpse. So there we go. This is not a focus today.

It's not an all -orbed focus. And what we're specifically doing is we're trying to show you in Proverbs 2, 6, 5, and 7, that there's a tie -in.

Don't follow the words of the flatterer. Don't follow the words of the adulteress.

Don't follow the speech of the seductive woman. Follow the words of the father.

Follow the wisdom of Solomon. Follow the speech of God Almighty through his inspired man,

Solomon. So it's a battle of the words, and words are important. Words conform us to the image of Christ, the words of God, that is.

And so while it's not as easy as saying, if you struggle with pornography or sexual temptation, read a

Bible verse, you do see this instructive teaching found here to teach us, yes, stay close to the word.

So today in No Compromise Radio, part three, Sexual Ethics and the Gospel, and we're going to go to chapter six.

We've looked at chapter five before last time, and now we're gonna go to chapter six, and I want you to see how morality is tied to the word and immorality is tied to the abandonment of the word.

And remember, in the Proverbs, foolish thinking says, here and now, I don't care about the afterward.

I don't care about the later. I don't care about recompense. I don't care about judgment.

I don't care about accounting days. I care about now, right now. Wisdom says, do you know,

I should ponder what I'm going to do because I'm going to have to give an account.

I'm going to have to live in light of judgment day. As the old

R .G. Lee used to say, there's going to be a payday one day. There's going to be a later. And if I commit sexual sin, there's going to be later.

Now, certainly all sin, sexual sin, can be forgiven. If you are listening and you used to be a prostitute, are you a prostitute now?

Do you know you could be forgiven for every one of those sexual sins? That's a pretty amazing thing when you think about it, that God would forgive a prostitute.

And really there's no difference between fornicators and prostitutes because fornicators, they have illicit sex that's not in marriage.

And what's the difference between prostitution and fornication? I don't think 1 Corinthians 6 really gives us much of a difference.

You're still doing the wrong thing. And so if you've been a sexual sinner and you've committed adultery, fornication, homosexuality, and the list goes on, there's forgiveness found for you.

If you'll look away from your own self -righteousness, your own works righteousness, your own religiosity, and look by faith to the

Lamb who was slain on behalf of sinners just like you, this redeeming, resurrected

Lamb who is the Savior of both Jews and Gentiles, there's forgiveness found for you.

And can you imagine if you were a serial prostitute and you get saved, you could wear white on your wedding day.

And that's how God sees you, white, cleansed with Christ's righteousness, covered with Christ's righteousness, cleansed by His blood brother.

And so we're looking at Proverbs 6 today, sexual ethics and the gospel. Look at Proverbs 6, verse 20.

My son, he's gonna say there's a value of wisdom.

There's a value in wisdom for preserving yourself, staying away from sexual immorality.

My son, keep your father's commandment and forsake not your mother's teaching. Bind them on your heart always, tie them around your neck.

And he's probably getting them to think exactly of the Shema, this great, the

Lord our God is one, Deuteronomy chapter six. I want you to remember, not just the father's teaching, don't you see here, interestingly, the mother's teaching.

I want you to memorize them. I want them to be impressed upon your mind. I want you to say to yourself, these things are bound on my hand and bound on my forehead.

They're on the doorpost, teach them to your sons. This is a motivation so that you, when you're tempted, will recall what

God says in His wisdom so that you'll say no. And for us, we hide the word of God in our hearts so we don't sin against God.

And then we're about ready to turn on the pornography on the internet and Bible verses flood your mind.

That actually is a good thing when those Bible verses come to mind. And we want you to obey what they're telling you to do.

Proverbs 6 .22, when you walk, they will lead you. When you lie down, they will watch over you.

When you awake, they will talk with you. This is like a shepherd.

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. The words of my father, in this particular case, again, inspired by God.

The words of God are my shepherd. They are teaching me, they are guiding me, they are making me lie down besides smooth, clear waters.

For the commandment, Proverbs 6 says, is a lamp. All this is gonna be talking about the sexual arena. Teaching you light and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life.

To preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

Literally, we want you to be preserved from the woman of evil.

The woman of evil. She's got smooth speech, she's a smooth talker.

She's very slippery with her words. And Solomon is trying to motivate his son that you need to run from this kind of woman.

And he knows what you can feel in your heart. Verse 25, do not desire her beauty in your heart and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes.

Do not let her draw you in with her flirtatious eyes and the way she glances at you.

And in the Old Testament, they'd have all kinds of, in the New Testament as well, painted eyelids so that you could have this brightness to your eyes to be used in seduction.

It's often the woman's eyes who are the instrument of seduction. And so what does he say?

He says, I want you to be careful. Remember, sex is not no from God. Sex is yes, as much as you want, as regularly as you want in marriage alone.

What does the text say in verse 26? For the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread but a married woman hunts down a precious life.

In other words, sexual sin is going to cost a lot. It's going to cost you money.

It's going to cost your conscience. It's going to cost you sanctification. It's going to cost you your testimony.

It's going to cost you your reputation. You know, sometimes married women act like a prostitute when they commit adultery and they charge.

Some people don't even charge at all. Prostitutes charge, some married women, they don't even charge. And here could

Solomon be saying adultery costs more than harlotry? Look at the inevitability of judgment.

Can a man carry fire next to his chest in his clothes and not be burned? What do you think? Carry fire really close to your bosom?

That's what playing with sex is outside of marriage. It's all sexual sin. Or can one walk on hot coals, verse 28, and his feet not be burned?

So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife. None who touches her will go unpunished.

No one who touches her will go unpunished. No one who touches her will go unpunished.

No one who touches her will go unpunished. Why is that? Why is that?

Well, it is because the Lord, to use Paul's language in 1 Thessalonians, is the avenger in all these sexual sins.

Just as we've told you before and solemnly warned you, for God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification, sexually.

Consequently, he who rejects this, talk about sexual sin and sexual fidelity, is not rejecting man, but the

God who gives his Holy Spirit to you. Now here's a little analogy here on No Compromise Radio that while we're talking about sexual sin and how to avoid it,

Solomon says in Proverbs 6 .30, people do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he's hungry.

I mean, if somebody's starving to death and then they steal some food, it's not right, but we get it. We understand. We can empathize.

But if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold. He will give all his goods of his house. And you know, there's some leniency.

Pay back sevenfold because that should teach you that you shouldn't steal. But if you steal somebody else's wife, that's exactly what adultery is, by the way.

Stealing something that does not and will not, cannot ever belong to you.

He who commits adultery lacks sense. He who does it destroys himself. Can you imagine?

Not many people, when they commit adultery, say, oh, I'm gonna go destroy myself. They're gonna say, I'm gonna go have some fun.

My wife doesn't really love me. My wife doesn't pay attention to me. My wife doesn't do things that I want her to do.

I'm gonna go have some fun. It's about me. You know, it's about me today.

People don't understand me and can I have some fun? Well, you talk that way, you're lacking sense.

You're stupid, you're moronic, and you are destroying yourself. Who wants to go destroy themselves? See how illogical this sin is?

Turn on the pornography on the internet, on the TV. You don't have any sense and you're going to destroy yourself.

It's basically committing adultery if you're married and you're into that. It's committing adultery. It's not your wife. That lady doesn't even know you.

She doesn't even exist. She's got all kinds of makeup on and everything else. What a sad deal. Proverbs 6, he will get wounds and dishonor and his disgrace will not be wiped away.

For jealousy makes a man furious and he will not spare when he takes revenge. He will accept no compensation.

He will refuse though you multiply gifts. And now this is going to be big trouble when the husband comes to town.

This is self -destroying. This is like suicidal. I should write an article, Adultery of Suicide.

Now I'm not saying you cannot be forgiven if you've committed adultery. I am saying, Solomon is saying, this is really dumb, stupid.

It's suicidal. It's stupidity. Remember the fool in Proverbs. There's no later.

There are no consequences. Everything's going to be fine. Now let's move to Proverbs 7.

I think we have enough time in No Compromise Radio. We could turn this into a four -part series and we could not.

So let's just keep going and see what happens. Proverbs 7, here's the pattern again. The word of God helps keep you away from the word of the adulteress.

The words from Solomon keep you away from the words of the adulteress, from the foreign woman, for the slippery slope that goes down into Sheol.

And here's what happens. The dad says, I've said it once. I've said it a thousand times. Dad, you better give your kids a sex education, the kind that God comes up with, because otherwise they're going to learn from the dirty minds of their friends and the world.

We need to teach our kids that sex isn't dirty. Sex isn't wrong. Sex isn't corrupt.

Sex isn't defiling, as long as it's in marriage. And if it's out of marriage, then it is all those things and more.

Proverbs 7, my son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you. I want you to carefully guard these things like you would money.

Keep my commandments and live. Keep my teaching as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers.

Write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, you're my sister and call insight your intimate friend.

Why? Specific purpose. Why are these things in the word specifically? To keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.

Pay attention to my words so you don't pay attention to her words.

And so here's a detailed experience that Solomon had as he looked out the window and he saw someone fall prey to the words of the adulteress.

And it teaches a lot. It is certainly appropriate. It's not pornographic.

It's not even graphic, but it's pretty close to graphic. It's pretty close to, you know, you can just picture this in the mind's eye.

For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice and here comes the seduction.

Maybe he was thinking about his dad on the rooftop. I've seen among the simple,

I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense. There's an untutored man, a naive man, a foolish man.

He's inexperienced, he's untaught. And what happens? He looks out, the text says in verse eight, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house.

I don't think this person is fleeing from immorality. I don't think this person is giving temptation a wide berth.

I don't think this person is keeping far from her. Don't go near to the door of her house,

Proverbs 5 .8. Proverbs 4, do not enter the path of a wicked and do not proceed in the way of evil men.

Avoid it, do not pass by it, 4 .15. Turn away from it and pass on.

First Corinthians 6, flee immorality in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.

Four descriptions of time to let the reader know there's gonna be nobody who can find out.

Nobody's gonna know, nobody's gonna notice this. And behold, the woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.

Behold, just picture it in your mind's eye like you're there. Here she comes, this promiscuous, shameful lady.

She's crafty though, she's got a hidden heart. She's got one hand behind her back, she's not gonna show you all her cards.

She's loud, verse 11, and wayward. Her feet do not stay at home, now in the street, now in the market, at every corner she lies in wait.

She's waiting for Mr. Gullible to come by. She's waiting for some boy, a gullible, and she is ready, she's actually ready for the kill.

She seizes him and kisses him, and with a bold face she says to him.

Here she grabs him around the neck to kiss, most likely, and her hands that go around his neck before she kisses him are just like the noose that goes around the neck before you're hung.

And now, you know what? If I can talk a little religious talk, a little spiritual talk, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

I had to offer sacrifices. Today I paid my vows. I've done things in accordance to Leviticus 7, 11 to 18.

I'm biblical, I'm orthodox, I'm spiritual. What kind of tactics are those?

Those are impressive tactics. So now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly.

I have found you. I had you in mind, you, you, you, a bunch of lies.

You should have said that to anybody. I've spread my couch with coverings, colored linens from Egyptian linen.

I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. I did every bit of this for you. This is all my expense for you.

The bed's for you, the couch for you, the linen for you, the perfume's for you. Prepared for you.

And the wise man says, I gotta run. The wise man wouldn't even have been there. The naive, foolish one says, yeah, that's right for me.

Come let us take our fill of love till morning. Let us delight ourselves with love. It's not love, this basic, you know, sleaze is not anything to do with love.

It's just self, self, self, self. Let us drink our fill. Let's just go back to my room and let's be together physically.

That's the idea. My husband's not at home. He's gone on a long journey. He's gone.

He took a bag of money. At full moon, he's going to come home. That's not for a long time, it's gonna be a week.

What should the man do? Run, do not stop, do not pass, go. Run like Joseph, run like the wind.

But you know what he capitulates? With much seductive speech, he persuades him.

Fathers, teach your sons because if you don't teach the sons, somebody will. Sons, listen to your dad.

Don't listen to the seductress. With her smooth talk, she compels him.

This is called the doctrine of adultery. With her fair speech, her smooth talk.

All at once he follows her as an ox goes to slaughter or as a stag is caught fast till an arrow pierces its liver.

As a bird rushes into a snare, he does not know that it will cost him his what? Life. You know, animals, dumb animals, they don't see any correlation between a trap and getting killed.

Here, he doesn't see it either. And from one moment, he's having sexual pleasure, sexual sin, sexual fulfillment, he thinks, and it's going to be sexual death, sexual ultimate judgment, divine judgment.

And now, oh sons, I wonder if Solomon's sons were now paying attention.

I wonder if he had their eye in their ear. Listen to me and be attentive to the words of my mouth, not hers.

Let not your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her paths. For many a victim has she laid low and all of her slain are like a mighty throne.

Her house is the way of Sheol going down to the chambers of death. So I ask you, if you're listening today to No Compromise Radio, if you're in sexual sin, you need to repent right now.

If you're not married and you're having sex in any way, shape, or form, you need to run. You need to ask for forgiveness and forsake that sin and have the mercy of God, Proverbs 28.

If you're struggling with temptations, but you haven't, you know, given in,

I'm glad for that. You can praise the Lord for that. And your only hope, if you're married, your only, you know, way out, as it were, certainly through the scriptures, as we've talked about today, but you need to get married.

Now, you don't just get married to have sex. That's not my point. But you're a sexual creature and God has given you the right arena.

The wonderful, good, gracious God has said, these are the fence parameters for having sex and it's all within marriage.

And if you're a husband and you're into pornography, you ought to run from that. That's shameful.

And you ought to say, this is just like adultery and I need to run and fill my mind with scripture.

And if you are older and you are still struggling with this, I remember talking to people and they're 80 years old, and I think it was

Vance Havner that Danny Akin told me, Havner said, my prayer request when I'm older is that I don't become a dirty old man.

And so even when men are super old, they can still struggle with this. Proverbs 5 says, for why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner?

For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he watches all his paths. God is a

God of knowledges and the clouds don't protect you from God's all -seeing gaze.

So this is Mike Avinroth, No Compromise Radio. Today was part three of three for sexual ethics and the gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel that can free you and forgive you from all your sexual sin and then invite you to enjoy sexual morality with your wife.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Avinroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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.

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

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

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