Let's pray together for the Lord's blessing on our time in his word now. Father, we give you thanks for your great wisdom and everything that you've shown to us in your word. We pray that the meaning of Proverbs chapter seven would sink into our hearts, and as the Proverbs there say, may we store it up within us so that we benefit from it, learn from it, and live in the light of it. And we thank you for the finished work of Jesus who has fully paid for all of our sins as we just confessed together, including sexual sin, including sexual immorality in all of its forms. We bless you and praise you for that forgiveness, but help us to learn from the wisdom of what you have revealed to us here, young and old alike, that we would learn and grow. We pray in Christ's name, amen. Please turn to Proverbs chapter seven there in your Bible, Proverbs seven. We had done some sermons on Proverbs five and then Proverbs six. And I wanted to get back to Proverbs 7 and do this great chapter. Proverbs 7, verses 1 to 27, the whole chapter. Proverbs 7, verse 1. This is God's word. My son, keep my words and treasure my commandments within you. Keep my commandments and live, and my teaching is the apple of your eye. 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, that they may keep you from an adulteress, from the foreigner who flatters with her words. For at the window of my house, I looked through my lattice, and I saw among the naive and discerned among the youths, a young man lacking sense. Passing through the street corner near her house, 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 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. She is now in the streets, now in the squares, and lurks by every corner. So she seizes him and kisses him. And with a brazen face, she says to him, I was due to offer peace offerings. Today I have paid my vows. Therefore, I have come out to meet you. to seek your presence earnestly, and I have found you. I have spread my couch with coverings and with colored linens of Egypt. I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning. Let us delight ourselves with caresses. For my husband is not at home. He has gone on a long journey. He has taken a bag of money with him. At the full moon, he will come home. With her many persuasions, she entices him. With her flattering lips, she seduces him. Suddenly, he goes to her. He follows her. As an ox goes to the slaughter, whereas one in fetters to the discipline of a fool, until an arrow pierces through his liver as a bird hastens to the snare, 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. Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her paths, for many are the victims she has cast down, and numerous are all her slain. Her house is the way to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death. May God add his blessing to the reading of his word. You know, the first four chapters of Proverbs are really, I've always thought of those first four chapters as a great divine advertisement for the benefit of wisdom and the importance of wisdom. Proverbs 1 is about the usefulness of the Proverbs and it ends with a verbal warning from wisdom itself. Wisdom itself calls out to everyone and says, how long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing and fools hate knowledge. And verse 26 even says that if you fail to listen to the wisdom of this book, wisdom itself will laugh at you when your calamity comes and will mock you when your dread comes upon you. That's just chapter one. Chapter two teaches us that the pursuit of wisdom brings security in life. If you walk in the ways of wisdom, you don't need to be afraid of anything. You can sleep well at night. Chapter three teaches the great blessedness of walking in wisdom. Length of days and long life and peace they will add to you if you treasure these things in your heart. And chapter four puts the giving of wisdom in the perspective of a father speaking to his son. Again and again, you see that, my son, my son, my son. And I believe that by application here, this would be any father, any superior, a mother, an older sibling, an older believer in the church, giving godly wisdom to any inferior, their children, their spiritual children, an older woman to a younger woman, an older man to a younger man, a father to his son, and so on. There is so much wonderful stuff in those first four chapters. So many great, so many great encouragements to learn, listen, treasure this stuff, wear it like a necklace. Only a fool would refuse to listen. Only a fool would refuse to act on the wisdom communicated by the life creator about living life in this great book of Proverbs. In the final two verses of chapter four, Proverbs 4.26, ponder the path of your feet. and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or to the left. Remove your foot from evil." All four chapters, extolling wisdom and the blessed rewards of walking in it, are there. After those four chapters, you have chapter five. All of chapter five is about the self-destructive folly of sexual sin. The whole chapter is. And then there's a little nugget in chapter six in the first five verses about getting stuck in debt for other people. Then verses six to 11 is about the sluggards that don't like to work. Verses 12 to 15 is about how to recognize and avoid worthless people. Do you know that? You're gonna meet worthless people. Here's how to recognize them and stay away from them. Verses 16 to 19 is about the seven abominations that God hates. And then verses 20 to 35, the majority of chapter six is also about sexual sin. And then all of chapter seven is also about sexual sin. I find it remarkable that you get past the long introduction of Proverbs and most of the next three chapters are focused on this one thing, sexual purity, sexual sin. Why is that? Because sexual sin takes away a person's energy, takes away their vigor, their vitality, and they end up giving the best of themselves and their best years to people that don't care about them. People that care nothing for them. Instead of giving their love, their energy, their money, their time to a family that they're loyal to and that loves them and that they love. If you do this, if you go off the tracks into sexual sin, your years, your vitality will be wasted in grief and frustration, shame, dissatisfaction. Sexual sin destroys marriages, destroys children, destroys households. It ruins reputations, honor, our future, our wealth. Proverbs 6, 32 to 33, remember this? Proverbs 6, 32. Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding. He who does so destroys his own soul. Wounds and dishonor he will get and his reproach will not be wiped away. There's so much, not just in Proverbs, but the whole Bible about sexual immorality and sin, because listen, it's not just pervasive in our society. It's been pervasive in every society that's ever existed. I've always found it amazing after Cain kills his brother Abel, in Genesis chapter five, one of the most twisted, perverted things that ever came up in history happened. Polygamy. Polygamy. Guy had, two wives, and he's bragging about killing people. Sexual sin has been everywhere from the very beginning. It's not just a problem in our society. It's always been a problem. Many a ministry has been ruined by it just in my own short lifetime. So many people whose books I've read, whose conference talks I've listened to and benefited from, whose sermons have ministered to my soul have literally disappeared from the face of the earth apparently after sexual scandal of some kind. Before we dig into Proverbs 7, I'd like to make a very brief point quickly here. Purity culture. Y'all ever heard of purity culture? Let me tell you about it. I was raised in the evangelical free church, which I've always described as broad evangelical fundamentalism. I'm very grateful for it. And that church has towed the line. It's still fundamental, still preaches the true gospel. I grew up in the 1980s and the late 1980s and early 1990s were my teenage years. I was born in 1975. So that's when I was a teenager and the youth of our church went to numerous conferences on sexual purity. They'd load us up in vans and take us to these conferences and we'd hear these speakers. We had numerous people brought into the church numerous times to talk to us about the importance of sexual purity. I, along with many other kids my age, I remember as plain as day when I was 13 years old, I signed a document and swore an oath in front of the congregation that I would save myself for marriage. Now many people who were raised in that environment, known as purity culture, have since turned on their faith and have tried to say that that sort of thing is abusive and that it's stifling and that it's this terrible thing. Something that they've needed to pay a therapist hundreds of dollars an hour to help them get over. But I want to tell you something. I have and will continue to praise God. for all those people, all those precious Christian adults who encouraged us to be sexually pure. I thank God for every one of those speakers, all those leaders, and all those conferences, all those books, all those talks. I thank God for every one of them because they cared enough about us to say something. And you know something? It actually made me think. And that's not easy to do with a teenage boy. Actually made me think after the eighth or ninth talk Man, these people really think this is important. And I remember thinking, even when I was 13, 14, you know what? They're probably right. When I was 18 years old, I heard a talk from a Campus Crusade for Christ staff person. Guy was about 30 years old. He told his story. He had been sexually promiscuous in his younger years, and he came to know Christ, put all that behind him. found a wonderful godly woman who was pure and married her only to find out later he had a latent sexually transmitted disease he didn't know about and he gave it to her and she almost died. And he told us that story with tears in his eyes and we could tell it was really hard for him to share this with us. But he, like all those wonderful people who tried so hard to communicate this to us, he was willing to tell that story so that maybe we would think, so maybe we wouldn't be that way. Thank God for purity culture. I praise God for that. It worked, it made me think. Thank God for the people who loved us enough to warn us. And for the scoffers who reject all of that and are deconstructing and embracing atheism and every form of perversion under the sun, the scriptures address them directly. Proverbs 9, verse 7, he who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself and he who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself. But you know what? That's a risk we've got to take. We've got to try to tell the truth to people. They might hate us for it. Do not correct a scoffer lest he hate you. Rebuke a wise man and he will love you. If people hate and heap shame upon you, who corrected, taught, rebuked, love them enough to try to give them true wisdom in this area, what does that say about them? It says, biblically, they're scoffers. And dear congregation, listen please. If the wisdom of God is not loved, lust will be indulged instead. If we don't love God's wisdom, we will indulge our lusts. So let's walk through Proverbs 7. Look at verse one. Verse one, my son, keep my words and treasure my commandments within you. Okay, stop there. I love these short advertisements all the way through the book of Proverbs. Oh, the decisions we make when we come to the forks in the road. You're gonna come to many forks in the road. You gotta make a choice. Which way are you gonna go? You gonna go this way or that way? Those decisions have far-reaching impact on us, on others, on generations to come. And what we're being told here is store up what you're about to hear. My son, keep my words and treasure what I'm gonna tell you here in this chapter within you. Don't store it up on your bookshelf. Don't store it up somewhere else. Don't store it up on a thumb drive that gets lost in your books or in piles of stuff in your office. Store it in your hearts. Store it here. Loving advice from your Heavenly Father be stored within you and your heart. Look at verse two. Keep my commandments and live and my teaching is the apple of your eye. Now think about that. The apple of your eye refers specifically to your pupil. In scripture, that means the pupil. That's the most sensitive part of your eyeball that you always instinctively protect. Anytime someone throws something at you, you immediately turn away because to guard your eyes. This is saying, keep these commandments right there in the center of your pupil. Keep wisdom and sexual purity as one of your most precious protected possessions. The very apple, the pupil, the center of your eye. Verse three, see it? Bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart. Stop there. Let these carefully given instructions here in Proverbs 7, let them be on your fingers, meaning let them inform what you do with your hands and let them be written on the tablet of your heart. Let them inform your affections. Let Proverbs 7 be like a shield that guards your eyes. It guards your mental energy, guards your entire body. Surround your heart with the armor of Proverbs 7, so you don't become a self-destructive fool. Look at verses four and five. Say to wisdom, you are my sister, and call understanding your intimate friend, that they may keep you from an adulteress, from the foreigner who flatters with her words. Okay, stop there. Let the wisdom of God here in Proverbs 7 be like a most trusted sibling, an intimate friend, the person that you most instinctively go to when you've got an issue, a problem, a prayer request, a burden on your heart. If you value what God says here as you would a most beloved sister or brother or your best and most intimate trusted friend, this wisdom will keep you from an adulteress. This wisdom will keep you from going off the tracks. Now, look at verse six. Or excuse me, look at verse 5 again, excuse me. That they may keep you from an adulteress, from the foreigner who flatters with her words. What does that mean? Flatter, flatters with her words. That Hebrew term for flatter, it literally means something smooth and slippery. Her words are like someone pouring oil in front of you that you don't see. And if you keep walking, you're going to slip and fall. Her words cause the guy to be flattered, to feel good about himself. And what she says is really just aimed at attracting immoral attention to herself. She's really not complimenting you. She's just saying if she can attract the male attention that she craves from you. And we're warned about this throughout scripture. Proverbs 5 verse 3, the lips of an immoral woman drip honey and her mouth is smoother than oil. Proverbs 2.16 speaks of her smooth words. 6.24, her smooth tongue. And later here in Proverbs 7.21, she persuades with her smooth talk. It's amazing how much power words have. And many people understand the power of what they say over people around them. I've even heard that you can create an AI girlfriend or boyfriend that will compliment you randomly throughout the day. That is corny. How weird is that? And you know, I've noticed too, I asked chat GPT a question. That's a very perceptive question. AI is trying to flatter me. I mean, what is this supposed to be programmed to say? That's a dumb question. All that shows is the loss of relationships and the power of words. Some people are smooth talkers. They know how to influence people with the way they talk, the way they come across. Men and women do this to the opposite sex. But if you're a man or woman of God, you need to have the discernment to see past flattery. Flattery is not a real compliment. It's not a real praise. Men and women can both be masters at this game. And you want, listen please, if you're single and you want to get married one day, you do not want game players words. You want truth tellers. What you see is what you get. It's not cat and mouse. I'm not playing a game with you. Romantic involvement can only have one purpose and that is marriage. And being flattering or flirtatious is not something we ought to do ever. So be serious about this in your life. Be serious about this in your life and it'll guard you. It'll keep you away from this sort of entanglement. Okay, verse six, here we go. So after all that advertisement, here's the guts of the passage, verse six. Throughout the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice. Okay, stop there for a minute. The lattice is a window with a crisscross frame made of strips of wood, metal, or other materials. It's kind of like a partial blind. It's not like a big open window. Looking through the lattice, verse seven, and I saw among the naive and discerned among the youths, a young man lacking sense. So he sees among the naive, who are the naive? The Hebrew term there means simpletons, inexperienced, untaught, easily influenced, gullible, easily seduced. That's pretty rich definition of a word, isn't it? How does the man know that this youth is naive and lacks sense? Look at verse eight and nine. 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." Stop there. That's how he knows. That's how he knows he has no sense. He just marches right into trouble. And when does he do it? In the evening, in the twilight, in the middle of the night, in the darkness. Why do we think that? If we're away on a business trip or somewhere else, it's dark, Nobody owes us to the area. Nobody can see us. Why do we think we can actually get away with things? Psalm 139, verse 12. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to you. In the Psalms, it's the fool, the wicked person, the rebellious person under God's judgment. They say constantly, God has forgotten. God can't see me. He has hidden his face. He'll never see it. Psalm 94, seven. The Lord does not see. The wicked unregenerate, they flatter themselves with those thoughts. But you know what? Sometimes we do too. When nobody sees me, I mean, nobody can see what I'm thinking about, right? God sees it all. He sees everything. Wide open to Him. David made every effort to conceal his adultery, his murder. Did David forget that God is all-knowing? Of course not. But he was playing the fool. He let his guard down. What does it matter if we succeed in hiding such things from men when he who is most to be feared can see it all? The young, the naive, the gullible simpletons who lack sense. He passes by her street. He walks right to her house in the darkness in the middle of the night. What does he think he's doing? Evangelism? Gonna do a Bible study? Well, no. Here she comes. And her attributes, the way they're described, are precisely the opposite of what God commends in godly women throughout his word. Look at verse 10 through 12. And behold, a woman comes to meet him, dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart. She is boisterous or loud and rebellious. Her feet do not stay at home. She is now in the streets, now in the squares and lurks by every corner. I'm gonna give you a study of contrasts here real quick. I put together a chart. I've got it here in my notes. And over the years, I've expanded it as I've seen more and more in scripture. There's what scripture calls the immoral and the strange woman, the woman who's dubious and evil. And then there's the godly woman. Listen to these contrasts. Proverbs 7, 11, she's loud and rebellious. When she sees this young guy, verse 13, she grabs him and kisses him. In Proverbs 5.4, she's as bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Contrast that to 1 Peter 3.4. The godly woman has a gentle and quiet spirit. She's not loud and rebellious. She has a gentleness and a quietness about her. Proverbs 7.10, she's got what on? The attire of a harlot, dressed as a harlot. Proverbs 31.25, the godly woman, strength and honor are her clothing. Strength and honor are her clothing, not the attire of a harlot. Proverbs 5.3. The lips of an immoral woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil. Proverbs 31.26. The godly woman, she opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness. She's not sharp as a two-edged sword. She doesn't kill people with her words. She doesn't slash and burn her husband or potential future husbands. She opens her mouth with wisdom and on her tongue is the law of kindness. While the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, her mouth is smoother than oil. The immoral woman, her feet go down to death, Proverbs 5.5. Her steps lay hold of hell, Proverbs 5.8. Remove your way far from her. Do not go near the door of her house. The godly woman, who can find a virtuous wife? Her worth is far above Ruby's, and the heart of her husband safely trusts her. She does him good and not evil all the days of his life. Verse 14.1, the second half, the ungodly woman, she pulls down her house with her hands. What does that mean? She just burns and slashes and cuts away the people in that house. Proverbs 14.1, the first part, the wise woman builds her house. She builds it. She builds the people in there, builds them up. Proverbs 11.22, the ungodly. As a ring of gold in a swine's snout, so is a lovely woman who lacks discretion. Y'all singing the Judy Rogers song in your head now? Isabel is a pig, yeah. With a ring in her snout, you can take Izzy out, but you can't do that. 1 Peter 3, 3 and 4. Don't let your adornment be merely outward. Don't have a ring of gold and a pig snout. Don't let your adornment be merely outward. Arranging the hair, wearing gold, putting on fine apparel. Rather, let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. That's what God says is beautiful. Not this other stuff. Proverbs 12.4, the second half of that verse, but she who causes shame is like rottenness in his bones. A man married to a woman like this, she just is like rottenness in his bones. But an excellent wife is the crown of her husband. Proverbs 21.9, 25 to 24, 27, 15 to 16, better to dwell in a corner of a housetop than in a house shared with a contentious woman. Proverbs 19, 14. Houses and riches aren't inheritance from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord. If you have a godly wife that really loves you, you need to get on your knees and praise God for her. Proverbs 7, 26. She has cast down many wounded, and all who were slain by her were strong men. Proverbs 31, 12, with a godly woman. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. The last thing she'd ever want to do is hurt someone. And lastly, Proverbs 7, 11 and 12, what we just read. She's boisterous, rebellious. Her feet don't stay at home. She's in the streets, in the squares, lurks by every corner. In Titus 2, the godly woman, the older woman are to admonish the younger women to love their husbands, love their children, be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. What we see here in Proverbs 7 is a portrait of ungodliness. So look at verse 13. So, She seizes him and kisses him. And with a brazen face, she says to him, and then she's gonna act pious here in a moment. But what does that mean to have a brazen face? It means defiant. Your nose up in the air, I don't care about doing evil. I'm just gonna march right in and I'm gonna defy God and defy everyone. I know what's wrong, I don't care. She is sexually aggressive. And because this naive, this foolish, this gullible young man is so completely unprepared for this, he's taken in and he's destroyed by all of it. But notice her flattering and even pious sounding words. And so before I get into the verse 14 and following, really? She'll pretend to be spiritual to get this guy? Men will at times pretend to be spiritual to get near a girl that they're attracted to? Oh yeah, they will. Pretend, lie. Proverbs 30, verse 18, listen. Proverbs 30, verse 18. There are three things which are too wonderful for me, yes, four which I do not understand, the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent on the rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a virgin. And when that passage says, these things are too wonderful for me, it's not using the word wonderful the way we use it, like, oh, that was a wonderful meal, or that was a wonderful song. The word wonderful there means too difficult, inappropriate, unusual, and unable to be understood. The way of a man with a woman he's attracted to and wants to get near is beyond finding out sometimes. Men can be so devious that it's past finding out. Too wonderful. Too inappropriate even to lay hold of. So young woman, this is why your father needs to be involved. Young men can hide a lot from you, but they can't hide it from your dad. You know why? Because he used to be a young man. We need to tell our precious daughters, yes, we trust you completely. It's everyone else we don't trust. I trust you. I love you. I know that you're smart. I know you're not a fool, but you need to listen to me because I can see right through guys and you can't yet. Just remember what we're about to read here in verse 14 and following. I think men can often do the very same thing as the immoral woman. You can really reverse roles here. Men often do the very same thing and they know how to talk. They know how to seduce. They know how to flatter. Look at verse 14. Listen to her pretensions at piety here. I was due to offer peace offerings. Maybe he is there to do Bible study, right? I was due to offer peace offerings. Today, I have paid my vows. Okay, stop there. Charles Bridges said this. Listen to this quote. She allures her victim with the garb of sanctity. She has just been engaged in special religious duties. I have fellowship offerings at home. Today, I have fulfilled my vows. Really? This woman who's wearing the attire of a harlot? This is where a wise young man would say, yeah, sure. Sure, you just offered peace offerings and fulfilled your vows, like the vows to your husband? No thanks. And then he'd run for his life and never look back. But her flattery and her smooth speech, it continues. And notice, like Adam in the Garden of Eden, he just stands there. He doesn't say anything. He just stands there and listens like a bum on a log. Young man doesn't say a word. He's passive. He's acted upon. He embodies the simpleton's foolishness. Only she talks in the passage. Dare I say it? He's a whatever guy. Look at verse 15 through 18. Here's her speech. Listen to her speech. Listen to the flattery. Therefore, I have come out to meet you. to seek your presence earnestly, and I have found you. I've spread my couch with coverings, with colored linens of Egypt. I've sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning. Let us delight ourselves with caresses." Really? With love? That's not love. It's lust. Nothing more, cheap, worthless, short-lived, and it's gonna kill them both. Look at verse 19 and 20. for my husband is not at home. He's gone on a long journey. He's taking a bag of money with him. At the full moon, he will come home. At this point, she realizes she's got him. She's got him. He's gonna do this. So she shows her cards, just tells him straight forward, my husband's not here. He's gone. He's far away. All this guy was doing was passing through the street near her corner. He's just idling away. not coming from anywhere, not going anywhere with purpose, just passing through without determination, without purpose, without his guard up and without wisdom. William Gurnall wrote this, quote, she dared not play the harlot with man until she had played the hypocrite with God and stopped the mouth of her conscience with her fellowship offerings. And verse 20 marks the end of her speech. And once again, silence from the young man. Silence, he's a clueless, passive fool, lacking wisdom. Verse 21 and 22, you see it? Verse 21, with her many persuasions, she entices him. With her flattering lips, she seduces him. Suddenly, he follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter. or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool." Okay, stop there. Notice that opening word, verse 22, suddenly, suddenly. He decides not to think anymore. He follows the sinful, wicked heart and desires, and he gives in. He follows her like an ox going to be slaughtered and eaten, like a criminal being put in fetters and ankle chains. That's what fetters means, ankle chains. Look at verse 23a. until an arrow pierces through his liver. In the ancient Near East, the liver was viewed as one of the most vital organs in your body. It was emotionally, physically vital. To be struck there was to receive a mortal wound. And the arrow there, the arrow that's fired at him signifies sudden and deadly judgment from God. That's what that means. It's still suddenly an arrow. I mean, obviously not literally an arrow struck his liver. That's talking about God's judgment falling on him. An arrow struck him in the liver. Look at the second part of verse 23. As a bird hastens to the snare, so he does not know that it will cost him his life. Okay, stop there. Impulsive instincts, impulsive instincts are usually what cost animals their lives when they're being hunted. The bird sees the bait, it wants it, it flies right into the trap without thinking, without reasoning, without thinking ahead what might happen. We, however, are not to be governed by our instincts, but by the spirit of God who dwells in us. And Potiphar's wife harassed Joseph and was every bit as brazen, as defiant as this woman in Proverbs 7, when she said to him day after day, and remember, this is not an illustration, this actually happened. Day after day, lie with me, lie with me. Joseph refused. He wasn't enticed. He wouldn't allow the flattery. He was too smart for that. He was too discerning. He had this already in his heart. Joseph wasn't like an ox to the slaughter, like a criminal to the ankle chains and fetters. He wasn't like a bird driven by pure instinct to his death. He used his mind and he remembered his heart belonged to the God that he adored. And he refused, refused to rush in. He said, how could I do this? How could I do this thing in sin against God? See how focused he is? Now, what about a sin against his own body? Would it have been a sin against Potiphar? Would it have been a sin against his wife? But in his heart, the main issue was this is a sin against God. I can't do this in sin against God. And so Joseph said again and again and again, no, I will not. He wouldn't even be near her. Tried his best to stay away from her. And you all remember the narrative. Eventually she grabs him. by the cloak and comes off and he runs outside and then she lies about him, he ends up in jail. Just remember this passage, 1 Corinthians 10, 13. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man. You hear that? You don't have any kind of special temptation that, or no one's ever experienced what I have. Yes, they have. Yes, they have. There's nothing unique about me or you. What we're tempted to do, everyone before us has been tempted to do. No temptation has seized us except what is common to the whole human race. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. But with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry, it says. That's a wonderful promise. But it's also sad, because that means when we do sin, when we do sin, we could have said no. When we do sin, we didn't take the way out. We weren't tempted beyond what we were able. We just did it because we wanted to. But dear ones, that's why we all need to be so thankful for Jesus Christ and his righteousness and his death. Here now the conclusion, look at verse 24 and 25. Now, therefore, my sons, listen to me, pay attention to the words of my mouth, Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her paths. And I would say to the young women, do not let your heart turn aside to his ways either. And don't stray into his paths either. Young guys, married men, single men, if you ever meet a girl, I don't care if she's from a Christian family or not, And she's not a devoted follower of Christ. She doesn't care much about the things of God. Doesn't care that much about her church family. She's always worldly in her dress, in her conversations. Worldly about what excites her. It's all worldly. And she's attractive to you and wants to flirt with you. I say to you, run for your life. Run for your life. Don't be a dumb ox. Don't be a criminal that says, yeah, sure, put the ankle chains on me. Don't be a bird that flies right into the trap, the fatal trap. Don't paint a target right on your liver and show the enemy where to take aim. Run, flee, fight, stand your ground. Pray every day that God will give you a burning hatred of sexual sin and rebellion, and that God will give you a heart to save your self, your body, your heart, your emotions for the one that you marry. Listen to verses 26 and 27, the last two verses. For many are the victims that she has cast down. And again, just breaking from the quotation here, many are the victims he has cast down too. And numerous are all her slain and all his slain. Her house is the way to shield, to death, to the grave, descending to the chambers of death. So don't go there. Now, what about the people that say of you, And they will. Oh, you're just so naive and innocent. You're just so naive. You're so innocent. Mocking you. Dear congregation, there's two ways that you can be wise about evil. Two ways. One, by experience, by doing it, by doing and seeing that lo and behold, if you pick up a pile of burning coals, you do get burned. You think you wouldn't need to say that, but we are that foolish, aren't we? So you can be wise about evil by actually doing it. Secondly, you can be just as wise about evil by just listening to God and obeying him, by knowing what the evil is and staying away from it. I mean, how many ways did Proverbs 7 say, listen to what I'm saying, my son, store it up within you, make it your closest sibling, make it your most intimate friend. It's like God saying, I want you to be happy. I want this area of your life to be blessed. So I wanna say to you all, when people mock you for being innocent and naive, What they're talking about is understanding wickedness by experience, by doing it the way that they know it. But you can be equally and more wise just by listening to God. He's told you, don't pick up the fire, it's gonna burn you. We as Christians can be very wise concerning evil without experiencing it ourselves. You see, I don't need to commit adultery and murder to be wise about how evil it is. So don't be fooled by that expression. You're so naive, you're so innocent. The thing is, you should praise God that you're naive and innocent in some ways. Jesus ordered us to be. I want you to be as shrewd as serpents. Don't be foolish. Be someone who's wise and discerning. Know when you're being flattered. Know when you're being tricked. I want you to be as shrewd as serpents, but as innocent as doves. You hear what he's saying? Take all the wisdom that God has about wickedness and evil and just obey it. But when it comes to the way you live your life, be innocent. Be innocent, don't dance up to the line, don't get as close as you can. Just be wise and be innocent in those things. Be as true to serpents, innocent as doves. That means know and understand sexual sin is very evil, it's very wicked, it's a trap, it's a snare, it's a life dominating sin. It's extraordinarily dangerous, but be as innocent as a dove regarding the experience of that evil. Just believe God, he does know what he's talking about. And as I said, I am very, very, very, very thankful for the adults, my parents, my dad, all those leaders, all those conference speakers who hammered and hammered and hammered it until it finally got through. Man, this must really be important. I'm telling you that it is. Another key point here, listen to me, please. Temptation to be sexually immoral, it doesn't stop when you get married. Be in control of your body and its desires. Now, if you're single. And be in control of your body and its desires if you're married, too. Marriage certainly helps, but it does not remove temptation in this area. And I want to encourage you, never think that it does. Completely, it doesn't. So in closing, I want to remind us of what we need to hear. The only sexually pure, perfectly chaste person who has ever lived is Jesus. Everyone here has violated these commandments. Everyone here has violated the seventh commandment in some way. all who trust Jesus and believe on him alone for their salvation are clothed in his perfect sexual chastity and purity. Isn't that remarkable to think? Jesus passed all the way through his childhood, his teenage years, his 20s, never had a loss of thought, never was tempted. No, actually was tempted, but never gave into that temptation, never sinned sexually at all. And that purity is accepted in the place of our sin in this area. We all know Jesus said it, where does adultery start? in the head and the heart, our imaginations and our minds. People typically don't start out with adultery. You start with small compromises in your imagination, compromises and it grows from there. And I wanna tell you all too, you know from scripture, God created us to enjoy this blessing within the context of marriage only and never outside of that. Remember, sexual activity, it's a privilege and a blessing for married people. It's not a right. Our culture almost thinks it's a right, like everyone has the right to this. No, you don't. It's a privilege and a blessing for the married, period. End of discussion, case closed. Outside of that, you're not allowed. Inside marriage, where husband and wife are committed to one another, not just physically, but in their minds and their hearts too. It's a huge blessing, it's a wonderful blessing. The bond of marriage is supposed to be wonderful and a constant source of security and joy and pleasure and friendship. So I say to you all from Proverbs 7 there in our hyper-sexualized culture, please don't learn the dangers of sexual sin by experience. Learn by heeding God's word and heeding this instruction from Proverbs 7. Know that Jesus' person and work, praise God, is more than enough to forgive us, to justify us from every sexual sin we've ever committed, ever will commit in our minds or with our bodies. Jesus, bless his name, has fully satisfied for all of our sexual sins and forgives all the sins of all of his blood purchased children by the blood of his cross. So rest in that. God is a God of new beginnings. You can put stuff like this behind you. God will wash you and set you in a whole new direction. You're not a slave of this kind of sin. And if it's a struggle for you, I say to you what scripture says. If you're a Christian, the old version of yourself died with Christ so that you would not be a slave of sin. You are not a slave of this sin. And you have the ability in Christ with the Holy Spirit to say, no, I will not. Let's pray. Father, we bless your name for the gospel. Thank you that Jesus died for the ways we fail in this area. Lord, let Proverbs 7 be a shield around our hearts about the dangers of sexual sin. Not the dangers of sex. Sex inside marriage is a huge blessing. It's a wonderful thing. But the danger of sexual sin is such a life-dominating and devastating sin. Help us to despise it, but always to rest on the finished work of Jesus. And only to rest in his righteousness, especially in this area. And we ask in his name, amen.