SERMON: The Post Mortem of Sexual Sin

The Shepherd's Church

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Thank you for subscribing to the shepherds church podcast. This is our Lord's Day sermon We pray that as we declare the

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Word of God that you would be encouraged strengthened in your faith And that you would catch a greater vision of who

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Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you

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Over the last couple weeks. We have been Talking about sexual sin and how it leads to ruin

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Week one we talked about preventing sexual sin and how parents are involved in that work by teaching children in a way that will help them

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Navigate the waters of a culture that is sexually profligate to say the least In subsequent weeks.

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We talked about the price of that. You will have to pay for sexual sin What the punishment will be for that we've talked about last week how to prognose

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Sexual sin and we talked about it through the metaphor of a doctor and What we learned last week is that men and we were talking about men last week.

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We're talking about men this week We're talking about women next week What we learned is that men don't fall off of a cliff when it comes to sexual immorality

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It is kind of a death by a thousand paper cuts It's a slow descent one compromise one gaze one delay and repentance one disease at a time and Last week as we said we opened up Proverbs 7 and we use the metaphor of a doctor

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Diagnosing the symptoms that lead to sexual ruin and we looked at six soul crushing conditions last week

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We saw how scriptural malnutrition leaves a man weak we saw how boundaries collapse and sets a man up for failure how idleness and foolishness and neglect form the perfect environment for seduction to thrive

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And last week in our sermon We pointed to at the end of the sermon how in the disease of sexual sin

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There is only one hope and only one prescribed cure and that is the gospel of the

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Lord Jesus Christ Well today we continue the case because the case is still open we were in part one last week this week

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We're gonna be considering eight more examples of this and today the it goes from sitting on the crinkly paper like we talked about last week to in the

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Morgue because the passage today ends with the death of the man who lives in this sin and does not repent

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So we go from examination table to forensic pathologist Where today we will be examining the cadaver in the morgue

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Now I said today we're gonna look at eight more Sins or eight more symptoms of this sin

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And the reason that we're doing that is because the Bible doesn't gloss over it. The Bible goes and goes deeply into this

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Why so that we can have healthy strong vigorous men? Who are free from this sin who are healthy who are holy who have strong marriages and have strong children

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That's the hope that in preaching about this topic that so many churches refuse to preach about that we would actually see men grow wholly and healthy and Vibrant in their faith and as we've talked about as men become healthy women become blessed and as women become blessed children

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Flourish so that the way to bless the entire family is to actually Make the men holy because there's a domino effect that happens after that.

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So we're thankful that we are in that now Today, I want us to turn to Proverbs 7 we're gonna read the entire passage yet again

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But we're going to cover verses 11 Through 27.

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So if you will turn with me to Proverbs 7 as we cover this topic once more and Again, we will read the entire chapter so that we'll have the context.

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This is what the Word of the Lord says My son keep my words and treasure my commandments within you

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Keep my commandments and live and 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 understanding your intimate friend

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That they may keep you from an adulteress From the foreigner who flatters with her words for at the window of my house,

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I looked out through my lattice and I saw among the naive and Discerned among the youth say man a young man lacking sense passing through the street near her corner and he takes the way to her house in the twilight in the evening in the middle of the night and in the darkness and behold a

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Woman comes to meet him Dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart She is boisterous and rebellious her feet do not remain at home

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She is now in the streets Now in the squares and lurks by every corner

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So she seizes him and kisses him and with a brazen face. She says to him. I was due to offer peace offerings

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Today I have paid my vows. Therefore. I have come out to meet you to seek your presence

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Earnestly, and I have found you I have spread my couch with coverings

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With colored linens of Egypt. I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh aloes and cinnamon

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Come let us drink our fill of love until morning. Let us delight ourself with caresses For my husband is not at home.

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He has gone on a long journey He has taken a bag of money with him at the full moon.

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He will come home With her many persuasions. She entices him with her flattering lips.

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She seduces him Suddenly, he follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter or as one and fetters to the discipline of a fool

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Until an arrow pierces through his liver as a bird hastens to the snare

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So he does not know that it will cost him his life Now therefore my sons listen to me and pay attention to the words of my mouth

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Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways Do not stray into her paths

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For many are the victim. She has cast down and numerous are all her slain

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Her house is the way to shield Descending to the chambers of death.

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This is the word of the Lord Let's pray Lord we pray that today as we tackle another difficult passage a

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Passage that is very frank and very honest about the realities of sexual sin Lord Would you help us to cover it in a way that is that is good and holy and righteous?

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Would you help us be able to cover this Lord in a way that that would create a kind of healthy fear? and a

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Kind of holiness among our men Lord would you have us be ever satisfied with Christ so that the allures and temptations of of this woman and of all that she represents would not make shipwreck of our gentlemen in this room and Lord of the church in general and Lord eventually.

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Yes getologically for the earth It's in Jesus name. We pray. Amen Today we're gonna continue but we're gonna be in the autopsy room

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Because the spiritual disease has now taken this man's life as we see in Proverbs 7

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Sexual sin didn't just touch him it consumed him his heart his mind his body his soul when it was finished with them

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There was nothing left. And again, this is pathology not poetry We're not studying something that is

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Metaphorical in nature. We are studying something that is menacing and something that will actually destroy

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Us especially us as men As we stare at the corpse today.

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Our goal is to prevent another casualty so that you will not fall into the same temptations and vices and we trace every symptom of the sin every failure of this man every unchecked craving that he has so that we can avoid that and so that we can have life and so that we can have a vibrant faith in Christ and so that we can have vigor and strength because as we learned in Proverbs 6 that when

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This sin happens it withers you it drains you of your masculinity and of your strength and we want

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Instead to be vigorous strong men men who exist in weak times

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So that we can recover Christendom and build God's kingdom again

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So that's our goal and that's our point now number seven, this is the seventh symptom

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So if last week was six now, we're on number seven. I didn't skip This is number seven and and I had a lot of fun this week making up medical names as well, so Praise the

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Lord. I'm a nerd anyway You have to have a little bit of fun. This is a heavy topic number seven chaos attraction disorder

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Solomon says in verse 11 through 12. She's boisterous Rebellious her feet remain at home.

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She is now in the streets now in the squares and lurks on every corner This is a man who is seduced by a lawless woman and this is more than just lust for a body

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This is a man who is drawn to a woman who has chaos in her life woman Who is rebellious woman who leaves her home?

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Have you ever met the man who continually finds himself in catastrophic relationships? Because he has no idea what a godly woman looks like And notice here.

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We'll talk about this more next week where Solomon places The blame for the woman and where he places the blame for the man on the woman.

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He says that she left her home Which I think is fascinating Because in a culture where we have for a hundred years or more said women

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The best thing that you could possibly do is leave your home. Solomon says that that's actually the beginning of her ruin

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We'll cover more of that that next week, but for the man he is responsible for looking to Loving and being attracted by a woman who lives in rebellion

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And he is a man who does not know what womanhood is according to the scriptures

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He is a man who clings to a woman who does not cling to her purpose

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This is a man who is magnetized by a woman who is out of alignment with God's Word This is a man who is seduced by her noise anytime you see chaos noise

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Rebellion in the Bible. Obviously, it's not good. Chaos is the antithesis of God's peace and Here this man has an appetite for the unrestrained and unsubmitted woman

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He is an appetites an appetite for things that are wild for boisterous for chaotic women who do not bring peace

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But only bring ruin for every hydrogen atom of pleasure that this man pursues

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This woman brings a megaton of explosive ruin into his life

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Because she's not a godly woman. We're not talking about a godly woman here We're not talking about a woman who is loves

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Jesus and is who submitted to Jesus. We're talking about a woman who is unrestrained unsubmitted unconnected undefined by her

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God This is what I call chaos just Chaos attraction disorder a man who craves the woman who craves the flesh

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He's not looking for a wife he's looking for a good time This is a man who's not looking for the covenant joys, but for adrenaline

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He's not looking for a helper who's suitable for him, but for a tempest to ruin him

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He calls her exciting when in truth. She is a walking grenade coming at him in stilettos

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She is a claymore mind painted with ruby red lipstick he sees her volatility as vitality and He's like a man who runs around in an electrical storm with a five -iron hoping that it doesn't shock him and here's the point

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This is a man who cannot rule himself Because he is attracted to the same disorder that he is perpetuating in his own soul and in that way disorder

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Is attracted to disorder and ruin clings to ruin Proverbs 25 28 says like a city that is broken into without walls as a man who has no control over his own spirit

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This is what happens to a man who doesn't control himself and there's so much to be said about that About self -control

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Men One of the chief things that you must do is bridle yourself

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So that you can actually have the kind of woman who will bring glory to God and your family will be a glory to God because if you don't bridle yourself you will end up with Either a woman who you sin constantly against or the kind of woman

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Who in her sin brings you down to ruin? This is what Solomon is saying

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Now what's the remedy for this every every one of these we want to talk about the remedy and By the way, if you ever get a chance, this is totally off topic, but read

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Thomas Brooks Precious remedies against Satan's devices It's a great book and it's actually the motivation for where I got the structure for the sermon

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He gives a sin and then he gives a remedy. He gives a sin and then he gives a remedy. Oh So good

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What's the remedy for this sin? Men, you have to retrain your taste buds

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You have to retrain your appetites You actually have to define what a woman is by Scripture and not by what the world actually says a woman is

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You have to let Scripture be your standard for womanhood. Look at what Scripture says I'm just gonna share a couple of verses.

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It's Proverbs 31 30 a woman who fears the Lord. She shall be praised That's the kind of woman you're looking for a woman who fears

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God and if you're married That's the kind of woman you're helping her to become Because that's the woman who's worth more than rubies

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That's the woman whose children rises up and calls her blessed. That's the woman who shall be praised 1st

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Peter 3 4 says she has the imperishable quality of a gentle and a quiet spirit

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Not the wild and rebellious woman of Proverbs 7 but a gentle and a quiet and a godly woman brothers repent of your poison polluted affections

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Crucify your cravings in your impulses because if you don't you cannot shepherd a wife if you're seduced by she -wolves

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You cannot raise godly daughters if you romanticize rebellion You cannot rule your home if you crave the unruly

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Woman, so turn your heart towards holiness. That's number seven

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Number eight is what I'm calling fantasia and festia Which is sensual imagination overload

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Solomon warns his son who by this he says He's quoting her I have spread my couch with coverings with colored linen linens of Egypt I've sprinkled my bed with myrrh aloes and cinnamon

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Proverbs 7 16 through 17 This is the man who this is the woman who targets the senses of the man not the skin not the touch she is a woman who's carefully curated a

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Sensate and a sensual environment to bypass the man's brain and in order to engage with him in his senses of sight smell and touch

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And again, we'll talk more about this next week. But for his part

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Where this becomes sin? It's not wrong to have your senses To be pleased by your wife

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It is wrong to have your imaginations running unbridled For any pleasure that would gratify you and this is where We'll talk about this.

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This man is not brought to ruin yet with at least with her curves But he is he's brought to ruin by his imagination

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She invites him to visualize the pleasure before he even experiences it and then she allows him to fill in the details

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That's where his sin begins because instead of rejecting that and instead of instead of saying no to that He lives in that and he dwells in that and he fantasizes about that She invites him into a kind of mental brothel

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And in that way, she's not guilty for what the man thinks in his head

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But he certainly is guilty for living in the kind of pornographic fantasies that that run constantly in his mind and in that sense

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This is a soul -murdering disease that needs to be put to death by us men

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Fantasy is the prequel to fornication Fantasy becomes the prequel to fornication.

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It's where the theater of the mind becomes a sinful brothel It's the erotic cinema that plays endless reels of seduction behind the eyes of a man who no longer is fighting for purity

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Solomon doesn't say that she touches him at least not at first She merely paints the picture and he as a fool dwells upon it

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Like a rat under the spell of Pied Piper Matthew 5a this is why

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Jesus says everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart why

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Because the body acts out what the mind has created and the heart has beheld

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Did you hear what I just said? the body eventually will act out what the mind has dwelled upon and what the heart has loved and In that sense the mind is a battlefield brothers

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Your thought life and your mind is a place where the enemy is going to launch an offensive and an attack on you and the flesh

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Needs to be crucified in order for you to win that battle The demons don't need you to to be arranged and hooked up in a midnight tryst if they can just invade your daydreams

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That's why Paul says in Corinthians 2nd Corinthians 10 5 take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ because the war actually begins in the mind

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Paul is telling us we don't negotiate with fantasies. Have you ever heard the phrase? We don't negotiate with terrorists

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Fantasies of that kind are terrorists. We don't negotiate with them. We arrest them. We put handcuffs on them

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We seize them capture them interrogate them crucify them before they crucify you

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The imagination is not neutral The mind itself in that way is the clay the question is what is going to shape it

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Will it be Christ or will it be something else? The question is what is your mind going to become will it be a sanctuary of the

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Living God or will be a red light district devoted to every kind of perversion That's the disease.

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Let us talk about the remedy. How do we remedy this? Well, we have to actually sanctify our imaginations We have to actually confess our sins burn the brothel that is happening in your brain

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But cleanse the curtains cut the couches burn that down and how do you do that? You submit it to the

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Lord Jesus Christ you pray and you say God help me with this sin. Help me with this Take this thought from me

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What else do you do you see women rightly how do you see women rightly you look into the scriptures and you see who she

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Is she's your sister? You look at women as she is created by God to be you will never walk in sexual purity if you don't understand who women

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Who women are created to be and you will never walk in sexual purity unless you first win the battle over your imagination

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Fantasy and holiness cannot coexist You cannot flirt with fantasy and live in freedom

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You cannot mentally fornicate and expect to be holy You cannot pretend that your thoughts are harmless.

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They're not So you must as Paul says in Romans 12 to Renew your mind you must as Paul says in Romans 8 13 put to death the misdeeds of the flesh so that you will live

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And I came up with an acronym for this That thought it was actually kind of cool

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We want to have minds that are dedicated to God. We want to have sacred minds. So SACRE DMI ND sacred mind.

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How do you have a mind that's dedicated to God sing the Psalms? That's number one Your word

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I've treasured in my heart that I may not sin against God Psalm 119 11 singing Psalms hymns and spiritual songs so that the

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Word of God may dwell on you richly Colossians 316 Sing the Psalms. That's s a what is a adore

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Jesus Christ Colossians 3 to set your mind on the things above not on the things that are on earth

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That's a adore Christ C. Confess your sins to one another

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Therefore this is James 5 16 confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed

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Let's see our recite scripture 2nd Corinthians 10 5 We are destroying arguments and all arrogance raised against the knowledge of God and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ recite scripture

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II Envision the end Hebrews 9 7 it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.

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So you have to keep that in mind If there is a judgment coming What is

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D? Destroy the image Romans 8 13 for if you're living in accordance with the flesh you are going to die

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But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live Paul is telling us to take out the axe and the hatchet and to hack your thought life until it's murdered

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That's the only murder that you can do without without sinning against God murder your flesh That's sacred what is mind

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M move your body Proverbs 4 14 through 15 Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not proceed in the way of evil people avoid it

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Do not pass by it turn away from it and pass on men. There is something powerful

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About just getting up and moving if you're tempted get up go Why do we think that we can sit down in our temptation and triumph over it

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Well, I've got timelines. I've got to do this. I've got a you sit there long enough You're not strong.

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We've talked about this. If you don't flee sin sin will pursue you and take you down One of the most helpful and practical things you can do is just get up and leave the environment

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Move your body. What does I imagine her father? This is great Because every woman is a daughter of God so imagine that how you're treating her is

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Gonna be found out by her father That's really helpful Psalm 37 for delight yourself in the

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Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart Well, if your desires of your heart are delighting in the

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Lord, you will get your desire. You will get him You will get the father in name the lie

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Ephesians 511 do not participate in the useless deeds of darkness But instead even expose them

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So you have to name them for what they are. They're useless. They're foolish. They're broken and Indeed delight in the greater reward

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Psalm 16 11 you will make known to me the way of life and in your presence is fullness of joy your right hand

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There are pleasures forevermore Honestly, we get in the sermon there. That's great application

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Sacred mind do that your thought life is gonna be great But Solomon doesn't stop there.

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So we shouldn't either so let's go to number nine Number nine is what I'm calling the occultation delusia, which is delusions of hiddenness

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This is the temptation that says that my sin is hidden and no one sees it so there is no victim

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The text says this For my husband is not at home He has gone on a long journey.

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He has taken a bag of money with him and the at the full moon. He will come home Notice the woman in the passage is not saying that this is good or this is right

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She's just saying this is safe. We were going to get away with it She's telling him that no one's here.

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No one sees it. This is sort of situational ethics here Let's take advantage of the moment. No harm.

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No foul. No victim. No one heard about it No one saw it. That's what she's saying

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This is the delusion that our sin is manageable so long as it is invisible and done in secret

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And only fools think that way Because that's a lie as old as the garden of eden

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What did satan originally whisper to eve you will not surely die What's he saying?

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He's saying that god is not going to act God's not gonna know god's not gonna see and ever since then men and women have tried to cloak

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Their lust in the shadow of secrecy and believed that it was going to be safe for them ever since And solomon is saying that it's not safe That it's actually lethal because while the woman in this passage says

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That my husband has gone on a journey and he'll never find out about it. Our god has not gone anywhere and he sees everything

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The eyes of heaven are open and he sees all this is why proverbs 15 3 says the eyes of the lord are in every place

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Watching the evil and the good There is no privacy mode in heaven There is no private tab in heaven

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The immortal god sees what is done in secret the omniscient god knows what is done in darkness and there cannot be anything that is hidden from the

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Eyes in the mind of the omniscient god who sees everything all at once in all times in all places

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Every sin as ligonier ministry famously says every sin has done quorum deo, which means before the face of god

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And in that sense, there's no secret text. There's no deleted thread. There's no vpn

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The judge sees in something infinitely clearer than 8k Which means your sin is not hidden and the delusion is one that That deludes your mind clouds your judgment and eventually in this passage ends up bringing this man down to death

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What's the remedy for this well the beginning is to know that God sees all things and have a healthy fear of the lord

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That's why proverbs 1 7 says the fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge So men, we have to actually have a healthy and righteous fear of god and know that we're not hiding it

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We're not keeping anything from him It's to have a conscious awareness of god that he knows all things and we must fear him in all ways

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And that kind of watchfulness will keep you on the path of holiness brothers, let the omniscience of god be your guardrail

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Let his gaze arrest you so that your gaze is always fixed on him instead of anything else

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That's number nine. Number 10 Is the praise addiction complex?

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Verse 21 says this with her many persuasions she entices him with her flattering lips.

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She seduces him Brothers, the enemy doesn't always need a whip in order to beat you

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Sometimes all that is needed is a well -timed compliment Because there's a kind of addiction to affirmation for us men

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We want Female attention. We want female affection.

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We want a woman to be proud of us And in this man's case he was conquered by this woman's praise

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And she was Overpowering him with force. She overrided him with her approval

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Notice the language with her many persuasions and with her flattering I'm emphasizing that because it's ongoing continual flattery

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It's a barrage Of bullets of flattery that actually ended this man.

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The word there in hebrew is rabba lehatza Which means a flood of coaxing

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An onslaught of sweet -tongued speeches a perpetual addition of manipulative affirmations

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She needs or he needs that affirmation and what does she do she needs k -n -a -a -d -s

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He needs that so she needs that in him. Does that make sense? And in that sense

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They both participate in their downfall Pride is her target

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But insecurity is where is the hole in his armor where she enters he craves affection affirmation and attention

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And she gives it to him brothers This is the kind of man

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Who doesn't feel valued and has a deep -seated insecurity about him? This is the kind of man who doesn't feel honored.

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This is the kind of man who doesn't feel respected This is the kind of man who has a hole in his heart And because of that You have a insecurity and a vulnerability

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That you are now walking with that Someone can very easily slip that compliment and that flattery in and undo you

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And you may say well, you don't know what it's like being married to her. She always cuts me down. She always does no Deal with your sin

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The insecurity in your heart that you've placed on your wife. You've done that because you've made your wife an idol

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Because what you've done is you've made your wife The thing that makes you secure

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You've made her praise the thing that makes you secure. You've made her affirmation the thing that makes you secure

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And now when you're angry at her when she doesn't give that to you. You're vulnerable You're vulnerable to lust in that moment because in the moment you're saying i'm not getting this from her.

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Therefore I am entitled That's what the that's what the enemy does When yet it was never her job to make you feel secure

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Because it's only the lord. Jesus christ who can make you feel secure That's the remedy The remedy is to actually remember that That your identity your value your worth your security is entirely rooted in christ

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Because your wife is not capable of actually carrying that load Because the moment that she has a bad day or the moment that you are

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Less than deserving of her affirmation then you're going to look at her with disdain if you place that on her

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But if you place it on christ, how could you ever possibly lose value? Because he always loves you consistently and perfectly

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Listen You cannot live on the approval of a woman Whoever she is even if she's your wife you must live on the approval of god

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You must live on the security that god brings you must live on that and that must be your rock Because if you lead with your wife

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Needing to make you feel okay Then you've just put a noose around your family's neck and now the insecurities that you're leading out of is going to choke and strangle them

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So you must get your value and your worth and your identity from god and then everybody Under your care and under your leadership will now be blessed

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Because now you're not looking for them to serve you you're looking to serve You're not looking for them to puff you up in your insecurity.

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You're looking actually to build them up in blessing. Does that make sense? You must have your identity rooted in god or you have a vulnerability

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Like this disease Would say Number 11

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I'm calling this volitional collapse syndrome, which is a kind of impulse dysfunction.

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Proverbs 7 22 says suddenly he follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter as one in chains to the discipline of a fool.

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Notice that the text says suddenly. This is not a man who is struggling even though so many say oh

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I'm struggling with this sin. What are you doing about it? Nothing. This is not a man who's wringing his hands, not a man who's pacing the floor, not a man who's weighing the cost, this is a man who is pleading, not a man who's pleading with this conscience, this is a man who is waiting for the right opportunity and then he pounces.

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The text says he immediately follows her, suddenly, instantly, and automatically. And this is

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I think the problem here and why so many men keep falling and keep falling and keep falling and why so many men stay in patterns of habitual sin is because you have not prepared for the temptation before it happens.

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You've come into it in a kind of flabby way thinking that when the temptation comes then you'll be ready.

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Which Solomon says is as dumb as an ox being led to the slaughter. Because at that point you're a docile massive dim -witted object who is easily conquered.

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And here's the idea. If you do not discipline your impulses today for tomorrow's temptations you are going to fall just like this man.

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Paul says in 1st Timothy 4 7 through 8, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. For the purpose means that it's something future.

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Discipline yourself today in the present for the future. For it holds a promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

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The Greek word here for discipline is gumnatso. Gumnatso is where we get the

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English word gymnasium. And that's actually not a coincidence.

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Because at the gym is where you go and train. Because you don't build biceps lifting

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TV remotes. You don't you don't go and have the gun show by sitting at home and eating ruffles with onion dip.

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You have to actually train yourself under pressure for a long time actually before you are before you have any sort of physical visible effect of your training.

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I remember I was lifting for six months straight before I even started to really see any progress.

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Now I need to do that again. But that's my point. We have to train ourself for the future.

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Here's another example. It would be foolish if you're in the if you're in the army to think that the very first time that you're gonna touch an m16 and pull the trigger will be in the moment when you're looking down the barrel at an insurgent.

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That would be foolish. Because in that moment you're not gonna be ready. In a moment you're gonna you're gonna probably cripple under the weight of it.

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You're gonna miss because you've not been trained how to actually squeeze the trigger properly and how to breathe properly when you're like all your training is there to prepare you for the day of that you're gonna face that potential danger and you haven't had any of it.

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So how are you gonna stand in the day of danger? Well the same is true in our

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Christian life. If we wait for the temptation to come when and that's the first time that we fought it we're gonna lose.

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We need to fight for next month's temptation by fasting this month. We need to fight temptation tomorrow by getting on our knees and praying today.

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My point is is we have to rehearse righteousness now before the temptation comes so that when the temptation comes you can actually resist it so that you can actually fight it.

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And this is the this is the issue here with this man. He has not trained himself and he's flabby and when the day of temptation comes he falls instantly.

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Brothers we have to train ourselves in righteousness if we want to have victory in this area tomorrow next week next month and on.

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That's number 11. Number 12 is called terminal consequence aversion.

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This is called liver piercing amnesia in the common man term. Proverbs 7 23 talks about this.

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Until an arrow pierces through his liver as a bird hastens the snare so does so he does not know that it will cost him his life.

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This is a man who refuses to see the doom that is actually stalking him.

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It's a refusal to picture the fallout, the funeral of his soul, the headline, the ruined wife, the estranged kids, the decimated church.

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This is a man who flies into the trap that is set without thought and without preparation.

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And the gory image that Solomon drops here is until an arrow pierces through his liver which is an odd sort of metaphor because in our way of thinking we would say until an arrow pierces through his heart.

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But actually in the Hebrew way of thinking in the ancient world the liver was actually at the center of the body and it was the liver that was where the center of life comes out of.

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That's why Paul says that that you were to love God with all of your guts. You didn't know he said that did you?

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It doesn't say you're to love God with all of your cardia, that's the Greek word. It says you're to love God with all of your splagna, your guts.

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Because in the Hebrew way of thinking that's the center of the being. And when your liver is pierced what happens?

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You bleed out. The bile enters into your bloodstream and you die. This is

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Solomon talking about a man who like a child chasing a balloon into traffic does not know the danger and then experiences the pitfall.

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This is a man who like a spiritual goldfish has all appetite and no memory and then explodes.

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This is why Hebrews 12 25 through 26 talks about a better way. It talks about Moses who actually suffered with the people of God instead of living in the fleeting pleasures of Egypt because he looked for a better reward.

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In layman's terms it's saying that Moses understood and Moses ran the numbers and Moses did a kind of cost versus reward matrix.

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He did a kind of Pascal's wager and he weighted the pleasures of Egypt versus the pain and suffering that would happen in the wilderness and he realized what the better option was and it was not

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Egypt. Men, we have to learn how to count the cost.

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We have to learn how to say no to the drop of pleasure today that will cause an ocean of wrath tomorrow.

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We have to say yes to the struggle, yes to the discipline, yes to the striving, yes to the work of actually pursuing

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God because in that momentary pain there is pleasure forevermore.

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There's pleasure in discipline and yet in momentary pleasure there's destruction.

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We have to weigh everything on the scales of heaven and ask ourself is this worth it.

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That's number 12. Number 13, cardio directional drift. Proverbs 725 says it this way, do not let your heart turn aside to her ways and in this

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Solomon is saying that adultery does not begin in the bed, it begins in the heart. Solomon says don't, he doesn't say don't go to her house although that's certainly implied, he says don't let her turn your heart and this is really important because before your body falls into sin your heart will actually be polluted and there's so many men who raise their hands on Sunday and worship, who open up their

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Bibles, who sit down in pews, whose heart is totally polluted but on the outside their body hasn't yet caught up with the infection because where the heart goes the body will eventually follow.

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The body will obey the affections wherever the affection, whatever direction the affections are aimed at.

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You drift before you fall. One fantasy at a time.

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What is the remedy? We have to redefine and redirect our affections. Thomas Chalmers wrote an incredible book.

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I'd list it in my top five or top six, maybe seven but I think six is probably right.

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It's called The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. It's a great book and if you don't like reading it's like 80 pages, maybe 60.

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It's really short but the central thesis that Chalmers operates under in this book is that if you want to dislodge an aberrant affection from your heart you must have an equal but greater affection put in because what your heart is going to do, no heart

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Chalmers argues, can live without affection. That's when people kill themselves is when they have nothing at all to love.

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So when you displace one idol what you will end up doing is trading it in for another idol and this is where we've seen, let me give you an example, where someone loses a hundred pounds and then becomes addicted to their image.

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They traded one idol for another idol and this is true every time we get rid of one idol but we don't put something better in which is

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Christ. We just trade idols. Chalmers argues that the only way to stop this never -ending trade cycle of one idol to the next is to put in your heart

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Jesus Christ because that is the only thing that can displace the power of idolatrous affections.

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So brothers let your greatest desire be Jesus and I promise you if you're worshiping him you won't want, you will not want to sin.

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That's number 13. Number 14, this is the final one. Infernal minimization syndrome, which means amnesia of hell.

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Proverbs 727 says his house is the way or her house, excuse me, is the way to Sheol descending to the chambers of death.

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What Solomon is saying, and this is very serious, is that hell is paved by sins like lust.

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The path of unrepented sin leads down to Sheol, death and hell.

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He's saying that the elevator downward or the elevator of lust only has one button and it is down and because lust doesn't lead you to the light it will lead you to death.

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What is the remedy here? We have to tremble before a holy

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God and I think it's okay to allow hell and to allow what that is to be a kind of motivation for you like a spiritual defibrillator to shock you out of your sin and to thrust you back into the arms of your

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Savior Christ who wipes away every tear and comforts the afflicted. Let the threat of judgment, because Hebrews 10 says that the one who goes on sinning has no assurance whatsoever of life, let the threat of that actually scare you towards repentance.

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Let godly sorrow lead you to repentance so that your sin no longer looks safe to you but your

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Savior looks sweet. Today's passage ends in a casket.

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Proverbs 7 literally ends in a funeral but brothers that story doesn't have to be yours and that's the good news and that's the hope because as we've looked back over these 14 symptoms that lead to sexual ruin the hope actually is that Jesus Christ dies for sinners.

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That Jesus Christ out of his great love for his people took upon himself the filthiness and the disease so that if you would but trust in him he will heal you of your sins and that also applies to those who have already confessed him.

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We read earlier do not return back to the ways of darkness because you are now people of light. Brothers if you have went down the paths of darkness repent today turn to the

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Lord Jesus Christ because he loves you he cares for you and in him you'll find healing and hope.

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Amen. We don't want to go this this direction we want to go towards Christ. Let's pray.

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Lord we thank you and Lord we thank you for the language that's in this passage the very strong language.

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Lord I pray that it would motivate us to run to Jesus. They would motivate us to love him to worship him to cling to him and Lord not for our sakes only but for the sake of our wives and for the sake of our families.

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Lord would you help us to be men who love Christ and as a result of that by the power of your spirit love purity and love holiness and Lord would you cause our wives to flourish under that love and would you cause our children to flourish underneath that love and Lord would you help our families to be faithful.

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Lord help us to remember that we're slaves of Christ and that we as Spurgeon said must not trifle with the sin that killed our best friend.

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Lord help us to repent help us to love you replace our poisoned love with better loves.