Morning, everyone. Father, we come before you this morning, hopefully with thankful hearts for your Word. the opportunity to be reconciled to you through your son Jesus Christ. And so I pray for an anticipation about what you would say to us, how you would minister to us. I do thank you for this very powerful chapter. Speaks not just to the young men about the harlots and their lives, but really with that harlot representing temptation. Speaks to all of us because all of us must resist temptation on this side of heaven. I do pray especially for the young men, as I taught last week. They're the ones in the trenches and on the front lines, I believe, fighting the most intense battle in the culture that they're forced to grow up in. And so I do pray for them, Lord, and that by your grace you'd give them victory over the harlots that they find before them and around them. But I pray also for the rest of us, Lord, that we would be able to resist temptation by the gospel's work In our hearts, I pray, Lord, for this time that you would be glorified through it. I thank you for the gospel that saves us and that gives us victory over temptation and sin, even those times that we aren't successful in resisting temptation. So we praise you for that, Lord. We praise you for your son and ask that he can be exalted through this. Bless our time that we spend in this chapter. Use it to the fullest in each of our lives, Lord, myself included, to bolster us against temptation. And we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. So, this morning's sermon is Three Ways to Resist Temptation. We'll draw these ways from Proverbs 7, 6 through 9. So, if you're new to joining us, last week we started looking at Proverbs 7, which is the chapter with the harlot who lures the foolish young man. The week before last week's sermon, I said I'd preach a sermon addressing the young men, and then the young men surprised me by sitting up front, which I hoped they'd do again this week, and it seems that they did. So, I wanted to share something with all of you that blessed me that I hope might be a blessing to you as well. I was, while preparing that sermon, considering that some people in the congregation might look forward to the time when I'm done preaching to each of you, is the way that I would say it. Or perhaps wish that this was a sermon that had been delivered maybe at a men's breakfast or a Saturday morning men's conference or something along those lines because it wouldn't have as much application to them. But I frequently, even as recently as this morning, another man came up to me, said how blessed he was to hear this sermon be delivered to all of you. And so from the conclusion of last Sunday's sermon, I have repeatedly had people coming to me telling me that they were thankful that there could be a sermon that was preached to the young men. And the reason that I wanted to pass this along to you is it made me think something that I hope you will remember, and it is that you guys are loved. You have a church family that cares about you. The reason that people expressed these sentiments over the last week is because of their hearts for you, how much they care about each of you. They understand, like I said last week, that you guys are in the trenches, you're on the front lines, you're overcoming the evil one in that language in 1 John 2. They want to see you succeed, they're burdened for you, and so just know that during the course of these sermons that you are surrounded by a church family that loves you and wants nothing more than your success. With that said, you might get a breather next week, or I'm pretty certain you will, because we'll get through verse nine this morning, but then verse 10 begins addressing the harlot, and so then guess where the majority of the application from next Sunday's sermon will go, if we're talking about the harlot. Not to the young men, but to the young ladies, so I almost thought maybe you need to free up these pews for them next Sunday. So, just as the young men can learn from what not to do from the foolish young man in Proverbs 7, the young ladies can learn what not to do from the harlot. With that, I want you to think about something. God is a visual teacher. He wants us to have pictures and images in our minds. That's one of the reasons why when I'm preaching, especially through narratives, I will invite you to consider what exactly it is that you're reading. Think of how God had prophets use what when they preached in the Old Testament. He had them use what? Object lessons, right? So people had images of the truths that were being preached. Think of the poetic language that's used throughout the Bible, just a few examples. God brings them up out of Egypt, and then in Exodus he says, I delivered you on eagles' wings. Well, he didn't literally deliver the Israelites out of Egypt on eagles' wings, but this imagery is beautiful, and it pictures God swooping in and saving them. Psalm 66, David says, every night I flood my bed with tears. I drench my couch with my weeping. And so David wasn't literally lying on this soggy bed of tears, but it does create the imagery of his sleeplessness and his sorrow. Think away that Jesus frequently taught in parables. which all conjure up different images and illustrations to us. A sower sowing seed, a friend coming in the middle of the night, a king that's throwing a wedding for his son, a greedy farmer who keeps building bigger barns for his crops. And I'm sharing this with you because God does the same thing in Proverbs 7. He personifies temptation for us. In Proverbs 7, he takes temptation and makes it into a harlot. And so this chapter gives us three things. I didn't introduce it last week, but now that we're going to be going through it for the following weeks, I think it's important for us to understand this chapter and what it does. And it gives us three things. First, the harlot gives us one of the greatest pictures of temptation in Scripture. And this is my belief about what God's doing. Because temptation can be so strong, God wants us to have an equally strong picture of how terrible it is. And the harlot pursues the young man the way temptation pursues us. Second, the foolish young man gives us one of the greatest pictures in scripture of the foolishness of giving in to temptation. The young man should have resisted the harlot like we should resist temptation. And then third, the end of the chapter gives us one of the most dramatic pictures. of the danger of giving into temptation. This harlot brings this young man home and then ends up killing him, just like when we give into temptation, it results, sin kills us as well. You might even remember from last week's Sermon James 114, each person is tempted when he is lured away and enticed by his own desire. And I told you that that phrase, when he is lured, it's one word in Greek, it's the word egzelko, which is a metaphor for the enticing or luring of a harlot. So in other words, when James wants to describe how temptation entices us, He uses the imagery of a harlot and then in Proverbs 7 we get to see what James 1 14 looks like in action. Jerry White said, What is temptation? Some synonyms for tempt are allure, attract, entice, seduce, tantalize. Each word generates an emotional picture. We are allured by the temptation. We are attracted to it, enticed by it, seduced by its seeming pleasure, tantalized by the fantasy of what it would be like. Now, if you don't know better, Jerry White is describing temptation, but you could just as easily think he's describing what? He's describing temptation enticing us, but you could think just as easily that he's describing a harlot enticing us. So it's very fitting to see temptation personified as a harlot. And then the last point before we jump into the verses. Some of you might have already suspected this. Because we're dealing with a harlot, there's much application for the young men, but because this harlot personifies temptation, and all of us experience temptation, then this is a chapter that has application for all of us. And that's why the title of the sermon is Three Ways to Resist Temptation versus Three Ways for Young Men to Resist Harlots. So following these sermons, my hope is that all of us, when tempted, myself included, would have this very strong imagery that's conjured from Proverbs 7 to help us resist that temptation. Few things would be as unattractive or as graphic for us as the idea of a harlot trying to lure a young man to his death in terms of helping us resist temptation. So with that in mind, look at verse 6 to briefly review. At the window of my house, I looked through my lattice. Verse seven, I've seen among the simple, I've perceived among the use. He says, a young man lacking sense. The young man is simple, he lacks sense, which are both ways of saying he's foolish and lacking wisdom. He shows the young man, or really all of us, what not to do. Look how his foolishness begins. Verse eight, he passes along the street near her corner. He takes the road to her house. She has a corner because she's a harlot, right? Harlots have corners. In our day, harlots occupy corners of the what? The internet, right? The house of the harlot in our day is the website that this woman would want someone to click on. Verse nine says, in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness. So the young man, he's gonna end up with this harlot. And the first thing I want you to notice, and this is important, is his sin didn't just happen. He wasn't just walking along and he trips and falls and then finds himself with a harlot. There were numerous steps that he took in that direction. And this brings us to lesson one. To resist temptation, part one, don't take the first step. To resist temptation, don't take the first step. He took numerous steps to sin. God could have simply jumped to the result and said, this young man goes to this harlot's house. Why all of the detail and discussion about what happened? To show the steps. First, he goes to her corner. Second, he takes the road to her house. Third, he does this at night when he thinks nobody's gonna see him. Warren Wiersbe wrote, During more than 40 years of ministry, I have listened to many sad stories from people who have indulged in sexual sin and suffered greatly. In almost every instance, the people deliberately put themselves into the place of temptation and danger." And what did Warren Mearsby mean by this? He meant that these people had taken steps towards sin. Before discussing the steps, I just want to take a moment to discuss, and I'll go quickly because I have talked about it before, that all sins are not the same. Here are just a few ways that sins are presented differently in Scripture. In the Old Testament, some sins are called abominations, which means they must be worse than others. Numerous Old Testament verses describe murder as a sin that pollutes the land. The victim's blood calls out for vengeance. Proverbs 6 lists seven sins that God hates. We know God hates all sins, but he must have a special disdain for these sins. Matthew 11, Luke 10, Jesus said some sins merit worse punishments than others. 1 Corinthians 6 describes sexual sin as a sin against our bodies. Romans 1 describes homosexuality as a sin that's unnatural or against nature. Hebrews 12 says bitterness is a sin that defiles many. Well, I want to show you just one other way that sins are different that I haven't mentioned before or mentioned in previous sermons. Some sins don't require steps, and some do. So just an example of sins that don't require steps. You get cut off in traffic, and you get angry, sinful anger. Someone confronts you about something, you're embarrassed, and so you lie. You see someone with something that you've wanted, and so you covet. So these are sins, but they're not sins that require steps. Only a few moments earlier in each of these situations, we had no idea that we would be tempted. What happened? Something happened, our flesh flared up, we gave in and sinned. We were living our lives, there's this unforeseen circumstance, and then that circumstance, like the idea, shows us what's in the cup, right? You see what's in the cup when it's shaken up. So that circumstance just reveals this weakness in our lives. If this has happened to you and you're anything like me, following these moments, you look back and are embarrassed and think to yourself, well, apparently I'm not as spiritually mature or as disciplined as I like to think that I am. Other sins, They require taking steps in a sinful direction. If we use biblical language, this is why there are verses about devising or scheming. Just a few verses. Proverbs 6.18 describes a heart that devises wicked plans. Psalm 21.1 describes people who plan evil, devise mischief. Micah 2.1 describes those who devise wickedness. Now you don't have to turn there, but I just want to go through one account that discusses the numerous steps that this individual took to commit sin. And that's David with Bathsheba. So I'll read the verses and provide some comments. Second Samuel 11 too, it happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful. Now, I've heard lots of people comment about whether David expected to see her, whether he had seen her before. I believe it's all just speculation. I'm gonna assume we're given the benefit of the doubt and say that he didn't know this was going to happen. that this was purely accidental. Or in other words, he was not taking a step towards sin, at least at this moment. Now listen to these two quotes. Billy Graham said, the first look is free. It's the second look that kills you. So as I told you last week, we live in this highly sexualized culture. If you want to make sure that you never see something that you shouldn't see, you're probably going to have to lock yourself in a closet, right? And I've seen young men over the years beat themselves up about temptation, which is not the same as sinning, which is to say that when people are beating themselves up over being tempted, they're typically beating themselves up over something that they don't need to beat themselves up over. I just had a conversation, one of my sons late last night, and I felt like I had to talk him back a little bit from believing that it was his fault that there was some temptation that he was experiencing. And that's Billy Graham's point when he said the first look is free. Or in other words, the first look is something that you didn't cause, but we get in trouble when we decide to look again or continue to look. We didn't try to see that scandalous billboard. We just happened, there's even something when we're driving on the way to beach camp that every year you gotta be ready to kinda rip your eyes, I think it's a strip club or something, and rip your eyes away from the scene. And that's when we're on the way to a church event. We just happened to be driving down the road, didn't desire to see that. Job 31.1, he said, I've made a covenant with my eyes. How then can I gaze? I take that to mean continue to stare at a virgin. So Job meant that he wouldn't be taking a second look. Martin Luther said, it's not wrong for a bird to fly over your head. Anyone heard this quote before? But it's wrong to let the bird do what? Build a nest in your hair. In other words, we can't help being tempted, but we can help giving into that temptation. So I'm going to say at this point, David might not have sinned. But now he takes the first step, 2 Samuel 11, 3, David sinned and he inquired about the woman. Now, if we're married, I can't think of many good reasons that we would need to inquire about someone who's not our spouse. And why would I stress this today? Why would this be a bigger problem today than it would have been just a few decades ago? Because of what? Social media. In David's day, he wants to inquire about this woman. He needs to send a servant. Today, when people want to inquire about someone that's not their spouse, they just type that person's name into Facebook. Social media has been a tool for countless people to commit adultery by looking up exes and then rekindling those old relationships. If you're married, you need to do the very best you can to not just inquire, as David did, about someone from your past, but even to remove thoughts about that individual from your mind. How did the adultery start? in these situations, they started by someone typing in their ex's name. That was the first step. Or actually, you could go back a little further and saying that person's name came into their mind, they dwelled on it too long, and then they took the second step, which they probably minimized by saying what? Well, I'm just going to see how this person is doing. It's been so long, I wonder what her life is like. Or I wonder if he's married. I hope the best for him. We justify this way. We minimize these steps we take with this sort of language. Second Samuel 11 3 the servant said to David is not this Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam the wife of Uriah the Hittite Now it wasn't right, but in the Old Testament. What did men commonly do marry multiple wives, right? Well, even if you were to give David the benefit of the doubt and say that he was just entertaining another wife which by this point he had already married numerous women and I believe was the background or lead up to this sin. I've told you before that you kind of read 2 Samuel 11 and it's like, how could one of my heroes have done this? There was no sign of it earlier. There was signs of David's sin with Bathsheba. Every single time he got accustomed to snatching up another wife. And so inevitably there would be a wife he'd want to snatch up that wasn't his. But even if you say, well, he's just accustomed to the ancient world's practice of marrying multiple women, especially kings who want to build their harems. But at this point, he learns that this woman already has a husband. So she's definitely off limits. And David even learned that she's married to one of his mighty men, Uriah. He learned that she's Eliam's daughter, one of his other mighty men, and she was Bathsheba was David's counselor Ahithophel's granddaughter because Ahithophel was the father of Eliam, who was Bathsheba's father. So in other words, it's like this man says to David, David, this is the wife of one of your mighty men, the daughter of one of your other mighty men, and the granddaughter of your great friend and counselor. Do not do this. She is off limits. And I point all this out because it reveals that David had almost an unimaginable amount to what? Lose. I mean, what was he thinking? This man comes to him, and I essentially take this to be a warning that tells him all this, and then David still goes forward with it. And why would I stress this? Because how many men or young men have had an unimaginable amount to lose but have still desired to take those other steps. I take this to be a warning. I say that loosely because the scripture doesn't say that, but the way that this man says this to David isn't this. It's almost pleading with David. Do not do this. This is the language of 1 Corinthians 10, 13. No temptation has overtaken you. That is not common to man. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. With the temptation, he will provide the way of escape. you may be able to endure it." So David is given this way of escape by this servant that warns him. But David takes the next step forward. 2 Samuel 11 4, David sent messengers, took her, she came to him, and he lay with her. And it's... What is particularly shocking about reading this? That it's not Ahab or Manasseh or even Samson. Instead it is the man after God's own heart, one of the most deeply spiritual men in Scripture, one of the men who had known God intimately since his youth. Yet he fell, which should sober all of us. We were at the ACBC training a few years ago. Rainey Patton is the former executive director, and he shared this story that has stuck with me about a prominent leader in the organization who was disqualified because of sexual failure. And Randy said that this man's sin was announced in a leadership meeting or in a meeting with numerous other leaders from ACBC. And Randy said that when this was announced, all these men just hung their heads in silence. He said it seemed like a silence that just stretched on forever until finally one of the men broke the silence with this statement. When he fell, he didn't fall far. When he fell, he didn't fall far. And what did he mean by that? He meant that this man must have already taken so many steps that that final step was short. Think of walking down a flight of stairs. I mean, it can be quite a distance, right? All the steps you take. But that very last step is what? It's just a few inches. It's one compromise after another. And the compromises look so small, they seem so harmless, that they're easy to justify. We can even convince ourselves that we're not compromising. But if you turn around, and you look up behind you, what do you see? You see how far you've fallen, right? You see how far you are from where you used to be. You see how close you are now to the bottom, from when you used to be near the top. And I want to ask you a question. When religious leaders like the man in the story or that man in ACBC commits sins that cost them their ministry, or when men commit sins that cost them their marriages, or I would say when young men commit sins that potentially cost them their future marriages, or when men are slaves to pornography, as much as that drunk is a slave to alcohol, or as much as that addict is a slave to that drug, when those individuals took that first step, Do you think that they ever imagined what it was going to cost them later? When they took that first step, do you think they ever imagined where they would end up? Probably unrecognizable to themselves. And that sin that enslaves you It destroys men. Pornography ruins men. You would not be recognizable after looking at pornography or being enslaved to it for some number of years or decades. And I want incredibly better for each of you than that. And the other question I'd ask to follow up, what do you think any of those men would be willing to give to go back and not take that first step, probably just about anything. Have you ever thought, what if I could go back and counsel myself? I bet if there's anyone who spends years or decades saying, I wish I could go back and talk to my younger self, toward the top of that list would have to be men who've looked at pornography. And what they would give to be able to go back to their younger selves, their teenage selves, and say, do not take that second look. It is not worth it. You're going to ruin your life, your marriage, because of this. So brothers, just imagine a conversation. I put this in my notes. It just occurred to me. Imagine you could have a conversation. Your future self could come back and would say, don't ever look at this. Think about the foolish young man in Proverbs 7. Did he think he was going to end up being killed? No, absolutely not, or he never would have left his home that night. More than likely, what did he think? I will just stroll by her corner. Now I'll just walk down the road toward her home. I will do this at night so that nobody sees. We haven't reached it yet, but he's going to encounter this woman. And then my suspicion is he probably just said, I'll just see what she has to say. There's nothing wrong with a conversation. We can talk to people. I'll just listen to her for a moment. The next step. in this progression toward his death. And the solution is don't take that first step. Practically, that means control your thoughts. Your thoughts become your actions, right? If you don't control your thoughts, pretty soon you act on those thoughts. Rip your eyes away when the world puts a harlot before you. Avoid places that you shouldn't go. End conversations that you shouldn't be having. And I'll briefly zoom in on pornography. We know that there are right and wrong times to use, all of us do, electronic devices. We know there are times that let's say we're safe and we know there are times that we're not safe. We know there are times when we will be tempted and we know there are times we will not be tempted. We know there are times we have accountability and there are times that we don't have accountability. And we must have the discipline to not take that first step and reach for that electronic device when we know we will be tempted or when we know we don't have the accountability. Listen to this wonderful promise for those who will not look at screens when they shouldn't. Or listen to this wonderful promise to men who will rip their eyes away or not reach for that electronic device when they will be tempted. Isaiah 33, 15, he who shuts his eyes from looking on evil, he will dwell on the heights. His place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks. His bread will be given him, his water will be sure. And brothers, this is what I want for you. I want you to dwell on heights. I want you to have your place of defense to be among the fortress of rocks. I want that for my sons, and I want it for the rest of you future leaders of the church. Now, the second way to resist temptation, part two, guard your heart. To resist temptation, part two, guard your heart. Proverbs 4.23, above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. If we guard our hearts, you cannot imagine how much sin we can avoid. Let me say this one more time. If we will, all of us, not just young men, will guard our hearts, you cannot imagine how much sin we can avoid. But let me demonstrate this from scripture. I've known a few men who committed physical adultery. What were they doing before they committed physical adultery? What sin were they committing before they committed physical adultery in every case? Huh? Spiritual adultery in their hearts, that's right, spiritual adultery. I didn't know that man on ACBC who committed that moral failure or sexual sin that led to his disqualification. And I haven't known any other prominent men, personally at least, I know of men who disqualified themselves from ministry, but I haven't known any of them personally. But I can almost guarantee you this, that before they ever committed physical adultery or outward adultery, they first committed inward adultery. Before there was physical adultery, there was heart adultery. Matthew 15, 19, out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witnesses, slander. So when I say this, and you could listen, I say, every individual who has committed physical adultery was previously looking at pornography or committing spiritual adultery. I say that, and you say, man, Paschal, that's super accusing. Listen to what Jesus said. Out of the heart comes adultery, which means what? Before it happened out there, it had to have been happening here. It couldn't have happened there if it wasn't first here. So if you wanna make sure it doesn't happen outwardly, you make sure that it's not happening inwardly. Or in other words, if you guard your heart, you cannot imagine how many sins you can be spared from committing. Don't let that sin in here and you won't see it out there. Jesus' words, Matthew 5.27, you've heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. Now when Jesus said this, he's quoting Exodus 20.14, you shall not commit adultery, is he talking physically or spiritually? Say physically, let me ask you. When Jesus says, Matthew 5.27, you've heard it said, you shall not commit adultery, is he talking physically or spiritually? He's talking about physical adultery, that's what's forbidden in the Ten Commandments. But then listen to what he says next, about spiritual adultery. I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So Jesus is doing a few things with these verses. The first and most well-known thing Jesus is doing is letting us know that you don't have to commit adultery physically to commit adultery. You can commit it spiritually in your heart. And many men, they might boast and say, I would never commit adultery. They might even look down, because we all tend towards self-righteousness. We all tend toward ways to look down on others. And the man who looks at pornography wants to feel better about himself by saying, I would never commit adultery with my wife or against my wife. But the man who looks at pornography has already decided to commit adultery. The husband who looks at pornography has committed adultery every single time he's looked at pornography. Now the main reason I read this verse is Jesus also provides this, and I just stress that because I just want you to think about this, brethren. This is beyond the young men because they're not married. If you're a married man and you ever entertain looking at pornography, you're choosing to commit adultery. You are saying, I will right now commit adultery against my wife. If you're single, then you're saying, I will commit adultery against my future wife. So don't minimize it by thinking, well, I'm not doing it physically, because based on Jesus's words, it is still adultery. The main reason I read this verse is Jesus also provides the solution to avoiding physical adultery. He says, don't commit spiritual adultery. Listen to this. Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So a man who commits physical adultery already committed spiritual adultery. So if you don't wanna commit physical adultery, don't commit spiritual adultery. You don't wanna do it externally, don't do it inwardly. We're talking about taking steps And if a godly man, now let's think of a godly man's example. If a godly man refuses to look at pornography, he's not going to commit physical adultery because it's not gonna be a step for him. That would be a leap that's almost insurmountable. The man who won't do it in his heart is not going to do it outwardly. But if a man has already chosen, perhaps habitually, to commit adultery in his heart, it's only another step. or two, to do it outwardly. And this has application for many sins. Here's what I say. If you don't wanna see the sin outwardly, don't commit the sin inwardly. If you don't wanna commit murder physically, don't hate in your heart. If you don't wanna commit theft physically, don't covet in your heart. If you don't wanna commit adultery physically, don't lust in your heart. Guard your heart. Now I wanna briefly address the parents and then the children. Parents, I'm not trying to pry into your homes too much and tell you what you have to do, but I thought I should provide some practical strategies to help you help your children guard their hearts. So I want to give you some strategies that will help you help your children guard their hearts. First, keep electronic devices, whether they're phones or screens, out of children's homes. I'm not saying that this will prevent children from looking anything they shouldn't, but most of what children look at that they shouldn't look at, they're going to look at in their rooms that seem private to them, or in the language of verse 9, in the twilight, in the evening, in the dark, where they believe it's hidden. Keep electronic devices out of rooms, and you can help your children guard their hearts. This might not be popular, which is my way of telling you parents that you need to be prepared for resistance. If this hasn't been a rule in your home, it's always hard to introduce a rule later than earlier. And if this hasn't been a home, expect your children to resist this rule. But I'll give the children some direction about that in just a moment. Second, you can install apps or software on your children's devices. We use Family Link for our Google devices, such as Chromebooks. We use Microsoft Family Safety for our Windows devices. Third, I'd highly recommend ensuring the devices turn off at appointed times at night and do not turn on until appointed times the following day. Then you can ensure that your children aren't on these devices throughout the night or in the language of verse 9, in the twilight, in the evening, when they want to hide what they're doing. The apps that I just mentioned do allow you to turn off electronic devices at certain times. Fourth, Children should know that you can and do look at their electronic devices at any time. And I'm not sure if that rule is going to change if our children reach a certain age. But so far, none of our children have reached an age where they believe I will not look at their electronic devices. And so I want my children to know that at any time I can ask to see a laptop or a phone to inspect the history. And most of that I can actually do from my own computer with those apps I recommended. Now, if you're a young man listening to this and you don't live at home any longer, which I know is the case for some of you, then I would recommend something like Covenant Eyes. or another program like it, and make sure that report goes to someone you trust. You can send it to me, you can send it to one of the other elders. We would be privileged to help you in that area. Also, we're gonna talk about young ladies more in a future sermon, but if you're a young lady and you're listening to this, and you have some of the same struggles that we're talking about the young men having, let me say, you should get covenant eyes as well. And then you should reach out to one of the elder's wives too, or another older woman that you trust to receive that report. And I wanna briefly address the children. If your parents do provide safeguards to help you guard your heart, or your parents do provide safeguards to help you stay pure, I wanna tell you what you shouldn't do and I wanna tell you what you should do. Here's what you shouldn't do. You shouldn't whine or moan or groan or complain or resist. Rules that could save your future marriage and potentially help you avoid decades of slavery and shame. Plenty of adults who have ruined their hearts, compromised or even destroyed their marriages, had parents that didn't help them. And some of those adults look back and wish that their parents had been more proactive and involved in their lives. There are grown men who wish that their dad had enacted many of these rules in their home to help prevent those sins or that slavery, which brings me to what you should do. if you have parents that enact these rules in their home. And what's that? What do you think? Thank them. Thank them. It's much easier for parents to do this. I'm tired. I'm not going to worry about it. I'm just going to turn a blind eye. I preach the gospel to my kids. It's pretty much up to them. They need to deal with it. I've done what I can do, I'm hands off now, my kids are old enough. That's very tempting for parents, because they don't want to fight that battle. So if you have parents who are willing to fight that battle for you, then your response to them should be, thank you so much for caring about me, caring about my purity, loving me enough, loving my relationship with Christ enough that you have these hard conversations or rules for me. Now look at Proverbs 7, 9 one more time. in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness. What is this verse working hard to describe? The absence of light. Four times this verse says the same thing, that it was dark, or there was no light, in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness. That's the same thing over and over and over and over. Which brings us to the third way to resist temptation. Lesson three, stay in the light. Stay in the light. So Proverbs 7, 9, it does literally mean that the young man went out at night. But we know that light and darkness are frequent metaphors for what? Huh? What's light a frequent metaphor for? Truth, righteousness, even Jesus. He is the what? I am the light of the world. And darkness is a frequent metaphor for? Sin, exactly, unrighteousness. So understand, when he went out at night, this isn't because God cares about you knowing the time. This is his way of showing that this young man was pursuing sin or unrighteousness. Proverbs 2.11, men of perverted speech forsake the path of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness. So perverted men walk in darkness. That's what it says. John 3.19, light has come into the world. People love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. The light in context of this verse or Jesus' teaching here is Jesus and his teaching. That's the light which men reject, not because they didn't believe it or because it was too difficult, but he says because they love their sin. The next verse, John 3.20, everyone who does wicked things hates the light, doesn't come to the light, lest his work should be exposed. Darkness is such a fitting metaphor for sin because it hides evil works. And if you think about the most compromising or we could even argue wicked places, they are frequently dark. And they're dark for many reasons. They want to hide what's happening, but they know that the people in there want what they're doing is to be hidden, not to be exposed, whether it's bars or whether it's clubs. Always dark so people can feel like what they're doing is not being exposed by the light. 1 John 1, 6, if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, like the young man in Proverbs 7, 9, we lie and don't practice the truth. Walking in darkness, as this young man did, revealed he had no fellowship with God. So if we see people who habitually avoid the light and pursue darkness, we are seeing people who more than likely do not have fellowship with God, based on 1 John 1.6. Wanting to hide in darkness starts at a young age. Listen to this. It's Mother's intuition. So last night, Katie lays George down, but for whatever reason, believed that he had done something naughty. Now, if you know George, as many wonderful things as there are about him, he's also very busy. I looked in our pantry the other day, and the bottom shelf for our food was sagging. And I thought, well, I don't remember it sagging, but I guess this shelf was just sagging from when we bought the house. Well, like two days later, I went into the pantry, and George is climbing the shelves in the pantry to get to the snacks or junk food that he wants. So when he stands on that bottom shelf, that's why it's starting to sag. Johnny's got this plant collection. Seems George likes to go grab the plant collection and dump it out on the floor for whatever reason. So Kate and lots of other things. We just don't have time to go over all of it. We'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he's young and he's not trying to do evil things. He's just mischievous. Anyway, Katie has this feeling that George has done something that he shouldn't, and so she goes... Now, whenever you... You never wake a sleeping George. Okay? So that's how burdened Katie was, that after she laid George down, she felt so strongly that he had done something he shouldn't, that she went into his room after laying him down and started feeling around in the crib, this is just last night, and she finds one of the boy's pocket knives with the blade sticking out that was under George's pillow. So thank you, Lord, for your providence or for stirring up Katie to go search George's crib like that. Well, then Katie wants to leave George's door open the rest of the night so that the hallway light shines in and exposes his actions. or encourage the likelihood that George will stay in his crib and not come out and grab more knives or guns around our house, right? Drills, saws. I mean, that's why I'm not into a lot of these power tools anyway. I don't want my kids to hurt themselves, right? So that's not true. I'm not into that. Never mind. Anyway, what are we talking about? So Katie leaves George's door open so that the light shines in on him, and he's more inclined to stay in his crib and not do anything wrong. But he's also learned to climb out of his crib. So every time Katie opens the door, guess what George does? He gets out of his crib and shuts the door. And this is going back and forth with Katie until finally, I don't know if she spanked him or convinced him he was going to be spanked, and he let the door stay open. But here's my point. He's two years old, and he wants to be in the darkness when he wants to do something wrong. He doesn't want the light to expose the bad things that he's doing. It starts at an incredibly young age to want to be like this young man in verse nine, and enter the dark where we can do the things that we shouldn't do, that we don't want others to see. And so brothers, this is my counsel to you. Ephesians 5.8, walk as children of light. 1 John 1.7, if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. John 8.12, Jesus said, I'm the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. So brothers, stay in the light. Keep your actions in the light, your behaviors in the light. Live so that someone could look over your shoulder at any moment and see what's on your screen, and you would not be embarrassed. Or someone could look up your search history, and you wouldn't be embarrassed or ashamed of what they would find. Now let me conclude with this. Young men, I told you at the beginning of the sermon that you are not fighting this battle by yourself. You have a church family that loves you, wants to see you succeed, that we're glad to hear sermons like this preached to you because of their care for you. And this also includes me as your pastor, your friend, your brother in Christ, father for a couple of you. And just as the father in Proverbs 7 pleads with his son, I am pleading with each of you First Peter 2.11, beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. This means flee from the harlots on the internet who would destroy your soul. Turn your eyes from them to Christ, the author and finisher of your faith. If you have any questions or I can pray for you in any way, I'll be up front after service and I consider it a privilege to speak with you. Father, I thank you for the young men you've blessed us with in this congregation, the future leaders of the church, future leaders of the families in this church. Grow these young men the same prayer that I have for my boys, for Ricky, Johnny, Noah in the future, Hudson, and George, that you raise them to be godly fathers and husbands, Lord. Help them to stay pure, to live in the light, for their actions to be in the light. They're under incredible pressure in the trenches as they fight these battles, Lord. And so I do pray for them that you would give them a gospel-infused resistance to temptation. That by the strength of Christ's victory over sin and death, they would be empowered to resist the evil one or the harlots that find themselves before them, Lord. Help them to think of those long-term consequences of times that they might set their eyes on things that they shouldn't. And help us regularly to be lifting them up in prayer, Lord, all of them. And help all of us, Lord, to apply this chapter to our lives, seeing that temptation personified as a harlot that we would resist it when we find it enticing us in any form. And we pray all this in Jesus' name, amen.