Last week we dealt with Proverbs 5, which gives an entire chapter to the theme we are pursuing. Today we will look at Proverbs 7, which gives another chapter to the same theme. Before we read the passage, let us seek God in prayer. Our gracious Father, we give you much thanks for your holy word. There are so many things, like in Proverbs, that are clear. unmistakable. But yet, oh Lord, we could read it, but without your grace, often we cannot even understand it or receive it. So as we study this passage, open our hearts and eyes to know and understand and receive your good truth. With all the moral decay, confusion and darkness, the deception abounding in our culture. Lord, grant us clarity, light in this matter, we pray. In Christ's name, Amen. Chapter 7 of Proverbs. Again, this is God's holy, inerrant word. Please remember that. And especially on this topic, this is what God is teaching us regarding this whole topic of sexual sin and adultery and we need to heed it rather than coming up with our own understanding of these moral matters. Chapter 7, we'll read the entire chapter. My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you. Keep my commandments and live keep my teaching as the apple of your eye, bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart, say to wisdom, you are my sister, and call inside your intimate friend to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words. For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice, and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youth, A young man, lacking sense, Passing along the street near her corner, Taking the road to her house, In the twilight, in the evening, At the time of night and darkness. And, behold, the woman meets him, Dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart. She is loud and wayward, Her feet do not stay at home, Now in the street, now in the market, In every corner she lies in wait. She seizes him and kisses him, and with bold faith she says to him, I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vow. So now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you. I've spread my couch with coverings, colored linens from Egyptian linen. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love till morning. Let us delight ourselves with love. For my husband is not at home. He is gone on a long journey. He took a bag of money with him. At full moon, he will come home. But with much seductive speech, she persuades him. With her smooth talk, she compels him All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast, till an arrow pierces its liver, as a bird rushes into a snare. He does not know that it will cost him his life. And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her path. For many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is a way to shield going down to the chambers of death. Thus, in the reading of God's word, may the Lord grant us wisdom and insight for his namesake and our spiritual benefit. In the evening, I live kind of in the countryside. When it's really dark, it's really dark. We don't have street lights or anything there. But often if the moon is out there you can see, but if you want to go and do something in the backyard or to the driveway, I turn on all these lights and then now you could see what you can do, what you need to do. But often we are faced in life with a lot of darkness like going into my backyard. What wisdom is like those floodlights, it tells you exactly how you ought to walk or where you ought to go. In this world, it's full of haze and confusion. Yesterday, we noticed there was a lot of fog. It's hard to see, hard to drive through all of that. But when there's light, when the sun comes, you can see with clarity. And that's something we face on a daily basis. Wisdom is like that light. Wisdom is that light that shines in darkness. So all of a sudden, you see clearly, I gotta avoid this. There is no way I'm gonna go there. You see clearly. And you are not only, you see it with your eyes, but you're compelled in your heart, there is no way I'm going there. And in the issue of sexual sins, we need that wisdom. We need that wisdom so badly. With all that's going on in this world, we need it so badly. I mentioned last week that it's about two and a half chapters out of nine chapters given to adultery and avoiding that. It's actually more than two and a half chapters. I failed to count certain verses up to this. Chapters five and seven are given entirely to this topic. Chapter 6, over half of it is given to that. And in chapter 2, there's like 3 or 4 verses also given to this very thing. What does that tell us? It tells us how important this topic is in our life. Out of 9 introductory chapters in Proverbs, this is something you have to avoid. You know, they say a good preacher repeats himself over and over. I know, I repeat myself. But God's word kind of repeats it over and over. I got it, I got it. No, obviously we need it, we need it, we need it. Almost three chapters. But what does wisdom do? I mentioned two verses, there are actually three verses in these sections, in these various chapters. What will wisdom do? She will protect you from this folly. So let me read to you three verses that essentially say the same thing, but this is what wisdom will do. If you embrace her, you prize her, you seek her out, and wisdom dwells in your heart, it will help you. So listen to these three verses. 2.16, so you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words. So you will be delivered, it says in 2.16. In 624, to preserve you from the evil woman from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. Same idea. So you have delivered to preserve you. In 3rd verse 7-5, the one we read in verse 5, to keep you from the forbidden woman from the adulteress with her smooth words. Three times. It's telling us God will give you wisdom if you seek her and she will keep you from falling into this. You'll see clearly. Oh how we need it. Like floodlights. Lack of wisdom is like all the light bulbs are off or they're so dim you don't have enough power you can barely see it's murky. But full wisdom is you see very clearly where you ought to go. She will deliver you. She will preserve you. She will keep you from this evil woman, from this forbidden woman, from this evil man, from this forbidden man. Last week we mentioned what does wisdom tell us to do? Stay clear. your feet or keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house." And we see that's exactly what this naive young man does. It says in verse 8, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house. Stay clear, we mentioned And 625, do not desire her beauty. Don't be drawn to her. Don't even entertain it. Do not desire her beauty in your heart and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes. That doesn't happen like this. You entertain it. And like an angler, she catches you. Like an angler, he catches you. and you bite and you're hooked. Don't desire it. And repeatedly in various passages up to this in chapters five and two and seven, there's never an upside. It always leads to one place, death, to shield. Well, I know many people who committed adultery. They're not in death. No, their life will end there. That's the inevitable outcome in pursuing a morally corrupt, compromised life. It leads to death. Her feet go down to death. Her steps follow the path to Sheol. All at once he follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast till an arrow pierces its liver. As a bird rushes into a snare, he does not know that it will cost him his life. It will ruin you. Now I won't be able to deal with it today, but you can see it in the various passages where it will ruin your life and your social standing and everything. And it will also produce regret. Oh, how I wished. So to stay clear. Don't desire it. And know that it will lead to death. So there's no upside at all. Zero. But here's a couple of questions I want to ask from these passages. What causes someone To be like this, like an adulterer or adulteress. To actually fall into it or to actually seduce others into it. What causes this to happen? And we're going to chapter 5 if you would. This is something we read last week. There's three verses, verses 21 to 23. I want to read those verses and unpack it. What causes it? For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths. The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly, he is led astray. I want to submit to you three causes for this. Notice what it says in verse 23. Because of his great folly, he is led astray. The first reason is because of foolish ignorance. And because of his great folly, he is led astray. It is this foolish ignorance that have not embraced wisdom. But if you do not embrace wisdom, remember later on, woman folly calls out to you, and you will embrace her. Nobody who is wise will fall into this. But it is the fool who has made moral compromises, who has rejected wisdom, not heeded God's warning, will embrace this folly, and that folly will affect that woman, that man. I mentioned these verses, and let me just kind of mention them again. In 5.6, about this woman who's gonna lead a man astray. She does not ponder the path of life, her ways wander, and she does not know it. 7-7 and 7-23 about this young man, a young man lacking sense. He does not know that it will cost him his life. In both situations, they have no idea. They have an empty head, as it were. That's what folly does. It's like that darkness you don't know. And folly confuses the mind of moral sensibilities and moral judgment and they just walk into it and it will lead to death. What causes someone to do this? Their foolish ignorance. They did not heed God's warning. They did not embrace wisdom. They thought in their mind, oh, I know, I know, but it's, no, no, I got a better way of looking at it. There's no way, there's simply no way of rejecting wisdom and not falling into this. Because of their foolish ignorance. Secondly, because of their bondage to sin. Look at verse 22. The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. This propension to this sin did not spontaneously pop up. His habits of sin bind him to this course, to his natural developed proclivities. The idea is, as a person makes these moral compromises, and he or she makes these decisions, it will become bondage to sin. It will serve as his character and he will inevitably fall into this. One of the interesting things you find that people are on, I looked at some of these keto diets and carnivore diets and everything. A lot of these guys that are advancing this, they're like super muscular. I'm like, wow, I guess if you eat a lot of meat you become that way. No, no, it doesn't come just from eating meat. You find out they devote hours to working out. They're huge and massive. How did they become that way? Did they just wake up one morning and they look like Hulk? No. They devoted themselves to this. And they became this way. One who makes moral judgments that are against God's Word, they are devoting themselves to that way and they will become what they pursue. Bondage to sin. They're like a magnet that will be drawn to it because they have denied the Lord, eventually they reap what they sow. But godliness, with humility, pursuing the Lord, ever doubtful of yourself, ever dependent upon the Lord, seeking wisdom. You develop a different habit, a different characteristic, a different way of looking at life. It's because of their foolish ignorance, it's because of their bondage to sin. And third thing, and this is a thing that I think often escapes us, Because as a person makes these decisions, God gets involved. Look at verse 21, where a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths. Is that just a virtue stuck in there? Well, that's a good theological truth, and we'll talk about omniscience. It has nothing to do with the context, no. God knows. An adulterous sensual life usually is done in secret. None of God sees. It has not escaped His notice. And God, the moral governor of the universe, will render His judgment. So we read a very frightening verse in Proverbs 22, 14. The mouth of forbidden women is a deep pit. He with whom the Lord is angry will fall into it. The mouth of forbidden women is a deep pit. He with whom the Lord is angry will fall into it. Do you think you can play around with God and there's not going to be a consequence? Matthew Henry talks about how God can withdraw himself and allow you to pursue your passion. that basically he gives you over, he says, that you are justly left by God to yourself to go in the way to destruction. God simply withdraws, this is what you want? You rejected me? Go. And the punishment is your sin itself. The Lord is angry, you will fall into it. This is what you want? This is his judgment. Now these are frightening words. How did a person get there? They made choices. That's why, brothers and sisters, we need to be careful. None of us are perfect. None of us are impeccable. Ever humble, repentant, dependent upon the Lord, fearful of our ways. This didn't happen overnight. Decisions were made. I've yet to meet a person who fell into this, who hasn't told me that over time they made these decisions in the secret and it developed like a snowball going down a hill became a bigger, bigger issue and it consumed them and they fell. It's because of their foolish ignorance, because of their bondage to sin, because of God's judgment. That verse 14, chapter 22, it's startling. The mouth of forbidden women is a deep pit. He with whom the Lord is angry will fall into it. The sin itself is a punishment. And God is involved in these things. He's not someone who is kind of a moral governor distant from his creation. He is actively involved rendering his holy judgment. So that's why a person is like this and that's why Solomon writes this to remind us. God inspires him to tell us this is what led to this person. Let me also now ask another question. What are some of the characteristics of of a sensual man or woman, especially in chapter seven. Now, there are two ways to look at this. Avoid someone like that. Don't be like this. Avoid someone like that, but don't be like this. Look at verse eight in chapter seven. Passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house. One of the characteristics is that the individual flirts with moral danger. Rather than staying clear, they're like a magnet going to the wrong place. They flirt with moral danger. Oh, you're so puritanical, moralistic. Ida never happened to me. And here's a young man, what do you think's gonna happen? He goes in that area, and she's there ready. And it can happen male or female. One of the characteristics is that the person flirts with moral danger. The other one is verse nine, loves the nightlife. In the twilight, in verse nine, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness, They sleep during the day, they come alive to all the night's activities. Away from home, sauntering about, drawn to the glamour of the evening, drawn to the nightlife. Now, our generation is very different and previous generations as well. We have electricity. Cities come alive at night. But what happens after midnight? What happens at midnight, 11 p.m.? ? If a person's heart is naturally, I don't want to stay home to be with my spouse or with my family or just to be home getting ready for bed so I have to work tomorrow. If the tendency is always to go out at night, it inevitably leads to sin. No one just sits home holily reading the Bible and praying and meditating, they fall into adultery. They make a decision to pursue this lifestyle. What do you think is going to happen? They flirt with moral danger. They love the nightlife. Thirdly, they're drawn away from their home, verses 8, 11, and 12. Passing along the street, do not stay at home, now in the street, now in the market, now at every corner. He or she is not a homebody. They're always away from home. Everything somewhere else is more exciting, more alluring, more engaging, carousing. Drawn away from home. We are to be devoted to our family at home as singles. There are things to do at life. Yes, have an engagement, a relationship or something, but come back home. If we're open, running about, eventually something will happen. That wandering heart will mislead and destroy us. Loves of nightlife. Drawn away from home. Flirts with danger, moral danger. Fourthly, dressed inappropriately, verse 10, dressed as a prostitute, wildly apart. This is what you avoid, this is what you do not become, but if you see it, you know there's a reason how they dress. Now, look, clothing doesn't necessarily mean something, but surely it says something. doesn't necessarily mean the person is a prostitute. I remember when I first became a Christian, I was going to a charismatic church, and this prophet that went on campuses, he would have this open air preaching, and if he saw a young girl in shorts, he would call her a whore. That was his judgment. We're not saying that's the case. But there is a way a woman or a man can dress in such a way to draw attention. They're seductive. Stay away from that person. Do not be that person. And this naive man, the naive young man without sense, as soon as he saw her, he should have known. And then verses 13 through 21, lives sensually and deceptively. Her words, she pursues this. She's rude. She goes and grabs him. She even uses religion. You know, I've made this sacrifice and I come here for you. She uses religion as a cloak. Whatever it is, she's deceptive. She's seductive. A man or a woman. And guess what? It happens in churches. I remember when we had a united presbytery, they call it multiplied, divided into three different areas. But prior to that, I remember some of the stories that were coming to our presbyteries, things that were happening in some of these churches. Young men with the single ministries, they're pursuing these women as predators in these college ministries. It can happen in the church. This is what you avoid, this is what you do not become. She's forward, brash, seductive, full of lies, uncommitted to her husband, will even use religion to legitimize wicked sensual sins. So how do we avoid this? How do we avoid this moral quandary, this problem, this pitfall. And first and foremost, it's the heed and prize, wisdom's call and warnings. And verses one to four. Remember through the mother, through the father's instruction, that's wisdom teaching us. And that's the language here. Treasure up my commandments with you. Notice the verb, treasure up. Keep my commandments and live. Keep my teachings at the apple of your eye. This is something you prize. Bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, you are my sister. Call inside your intimate friend. It is someone you love, you love to be with. Say of wisdom, it says in 2.4, if you seek it like silver and search for it, it's for hidden treasure. Some years ago, I remember a young man I knew for years, somehow we ended up, we were able to contact each other and we're catching up. And every once in a while, he would contact me. And one of the interesting hobbies or interests he had, he would share with me, his car and everything. And there was this, apparently, during a certain time of the year, these mushrooms, that they grew a lot at this time of the year. And if you got bagfuls, he made hundreds of dollars. I mean, hundreds. And he's saying, Mark, you should do it, too, because there's some in Pennsylvania. I'm like, no, that's the last thing I'm going to do. But you know what he was doing? He would go into the wooded areas. He became pretty proficient, and he hunted these mushrooms. He gathered them and sold them to these stores. I don't know what kind of mushrooms there were. I was thinking about it. I'm so terrible at these things, so I'm not even going to look. But it was something that apparently comes out at a seasonal time, and it grows in a certain way, and you can put together. And stores will pay a lot of money for that, and they'll charge it up even more. But I never even thought about, I'm going to go out in the woods and look for mushrooms and hunt them down. He did. He had bad thoughts. But did he? Did I? Do you? Seek for wisdom like that. Because if I find it, he says, I'm going to make money. And if I find wisdom, I'll be preserved. I'll be delivered, I'll be kept. This is not a once for all search like I did it once. I got it, so I'm done. Okay, my next exploit in life. This is a hunt forever until you die. You know, I thought as I got older, you know, okay, there's things I'm not gonna be worried about. I could be as foolish as ever. I need wisdom. So in order to avoid this, ask God for wisdom in this area, ask God for wisdom in every area. You must cherish her, you must want her, you must know her. But most importantly, not only the desire and the hunt, the prey, we talked about that in the sermons before, you must be convinced by her. You must not doubt her. Especially in this matter, you must receive her instruction. You say, this is true, I do not deny it. If not, when the temptation comes, you will fall. If you do not embrace wisdom's teaching regarding this, you're not convinced, you're not persuaded, it is not in the core of your being. When that temptation comes, you will fall. Remember a story of a young man who raised all kinds of questions against premarital sex? Convinced that the scripture was not clear on this matter. So I spent some time giving him passages. Very clear. It's amazing. He has the same eyes as I do, same words, and his Bible is mine. And he reads it, and he goes, well, I don't know. I'm like, what don't you know? It's right there. Well, you know what I found out? He was already committed to living in sin. That's why. You've got to be convinced before. When wisdom calls out, you embrace her, you say, this is my view, this is what I'm gonna hold to. You must be convinced. So I'm gonna make some statements about things that we have to avoid that are sin. I'm gonna just say it, okay? These are things that, good guidelines. Know that you will never be alone with the opposite sex out of the public view. You're not in her house. You're not in the car. If you meet with someone, keep that door open so others could see. You're not alone with her. You're not alone with him. You just never know. Secondly, know the Bible's teaching regarding sex. Fornication premarital sex is forbidden. Any sex outside of marriage is sin. Living together unmarried is sin. Sexual contact with anyone and in any manner and fashion except with your spouse is sin. Sex before marriage is forbidden even if the two are engaged. Sex with the same sex is sin. Imagining a life of sex with someone else, not your spouse, is sin. Pornography, voyeurism, phone sex, consorting with prostitutes, they're all sins. These are things you have to be convinced or else you will not. You will not follow. Rebuke yourself. If you for a moment think about flirting, Say, Herzl, that's stupid! Stop it! Be convinced that anything but the biblical holy way in these matters will lead to... anything else will lead to spiritual death and destruction. Meaning, if you don't follow the Bible's way, there's not an alternative, a neutral thing. Well, you know, I know the Bible says this, and some say it will lead to all this, but I think I can kind of navigate through this, and I'll be okay. That's not true. Life and death. Holiness, more corruption. Repent immediately if you entertain loss and immorality in your heart and imagination. Repent. Don't fester. Don't let it fester. Don't let it ruminate. If there's a forbidden man or a forbidden woman in your life that seems to be coming around like a hunt, run away, stay away, quit the job, whatever it is. That's what wisdom calls us to do. Seek her, be persuaded by her, make strong, clear decisions. And then the other thing that I could give a whole sermon on this, but I just want to make a few observations and found in chapter five, verses 15 through 20, not only the, how do I avoid this? Uh, uh, seek wisdom, be persuaded by it, but also be content with your spouse for those who are married. That lovely imagery here in verses 15 to 20, Drink water from your own cistern. Flowing water from your own well. It's not just talking about water. Should your springs be scattered abroad? Streams of water in the streets? No, you drink it. You keep it to yourself. Let them be for yourself alone and not for strangers with you. Well, you would say, well, why can't they come and drink water at my house? That's not what it's talking about. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth. That's where it's going. A lovely dear, a graceful doe, let her breast fill you with all times with delight, be intoxicated always in her love. Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? Namely, and I'm not gonna expand upon this more, but I just want to just, a good marriage is a good preservative. I have, and it's not like I've had a lot of experience talking with many people. Over the years, I've talked to many. But almost to every incident I could think of, when this happened, there was also a problem in the marriage. Things weren't well. The man was not satisfied with his wife. The woman was not happy with her husband. Whatever he might be, God has given you a marriage. You who are married, you must be devoted to that person. That's whom God has given you. You compromise here. And you can easily fall away. You rejoice in the wife of your youth, not a youthful wife, the one you married early. God has blessed you. And one of the remarkable things in marriage is over the years, as we get older and we don't look as attractive, guess what? You learn to love each other even that much more because you've had years. Rejoice in her and him, be satisfied. with your spouse. Let her breast fill you with all kinds of delight. Be intoxicated always in her love. Be satisfied with that person. An older couple grows together the more they should love and understand each other. You are committed to the other for the Lord's sake in obedience to him. We're called to honor the Lord in all circumstances. We're called to honor the Lord in our marriage. And one of the best preventative, best preservative from falling into sin is having a good godly marriage. Now, I want to say this. Having said that, because someone sins that doesn't justify, it's the other person's fault. They made a decision, it's against God's word. They may have a crappy marriage that doesn't legitimize or justify adultery. That's the preservative. Be satisfied with your spouse. Let me just end. God's word is so clear on this matter. You have to close your eyes and close your ears to not understand it. They didn't have pornography. They didn't have television and radio, the internet to bombard the senses like we do. But even back then, they knew it was a problem. Why? Because humanity has not changed. Brothers and sisters, we need to heed this. It's a morally corrupt generation. In the public sphere, in the media and everywhere, all this is compromised. You need to know where you stand. So I want to encourage you to do two things. One, go home. Consider your heart for the Lord. Where are you in this relationship? Where are you compromising? Be dead honest. And two, be devoted to the Lord, dependent upon Him. Cling to His grace. We could so easily fall. I've heard stories recently. When I hear stories, I always shudder. When I was young, I thought, okay, well, you know, Too bad. But when I hear stories of other ministries, other pastors, other churches, I shudder. I don't know how many years I have. I turned 60 this year. If the Lord gives me 30, Lord, keep me. Take me earlier. I'd rather die early than to fall into a scandalous sin and dishonor the Lord. So cling to him, don't trust yourself. Be honest, survey your heart, repent, but cling to the Lord, cling to his grace, resort to the means of grace that he might sustain you. And if there's something you have to repent of, repent. And in the Lord Jesus Christ, there's pardon for all your sins. He has saved multitudes with the violence of sins. But if you come humbly repenting, he will forgive and you will receive refreshing grace. And he will stir you to obedience and holy life, which he calls you to. Let's pray. Our Father, we confess we live in a world so morally bankrupt and deceptive. We've been a part of all of this. By your spirit and by your word, in your great mercy, keep us, Lord. I pray for everyone in this room. I pray for myself, our elders and deacon, all of us, Lord. Please grant us these lights to see clearly on these matters, that we might not be fools. And in your anger, you turn us away. we fall into this wicked pit. O Lord, spare us. In Christ's name, Amen. As we prepare for the Lord's Supper, please turn your hymnals to 403-403.