Sexual Sin, Part 1
Transcribed Sermon
Year 2003
This transcription has been edited to a reader friendly format. Every effort has been made to be true to the speaker’s original message. Any mistranslations are unintentional.
There is something more serious about committing a sexual sin than any other sin. You can think of any sin that you want to, whether it be murder, theft, lying, stealing or any others, but scripture declares that sexual sin is against your own body. All other sin is outside of man’s body. He doesn’t say that murder is a sin against your own body, against your own self. He says it is in sexual sin that we sin against our very self. Somehow we do damage to our own bodies and souls in the process.
1 Corinthians 6:9- Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?
You might claim to be a Christian and say you belong to Jesus Christ, but if you are not pure, not clean and not becoming holy, then you will not inherit the kingdom of God. I had a discussion with a man on the bulletin board, where I quoted to him that no one who is impure or unclean would inherit the kingdom of God. He says we’re all unclean and impure except by the imparted grace of Jesus Christ (which is a slight twist of scripture). I wrote him back and said, “Then you better find some grace that can change you.” God’s blood is able to purify, and to make us holy. Otherwise, we make a mockery of the very grace we say we lay hold of. “Do not be deceived,” it says. It’s easy to be taken in by people’s words that say, “It is a natural thing to deal with sexual things.” How many times have we heard it said to us, “God gave us those feelings and those emotions,” and, “What are we supposed to do with them?” I have had people give counsel saying, “What are you going to do when you’re seventy years old, your wife is dead, you can’t have sexual relationships and you’ll need to masturbate because it will cause prostate troubles?” The world has its wisdom down.
1 Corinthians 6:9- Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
I have always loved the way scripture has to list everything. If you give this list to someone else, and they don’t see their thing just spelled out, then they somehow think it doesn’t apply to them. Yet, we know the kingdom of God is a matter of purity, and holiness and a self-disciplined life, and that ought to take care of anything that we know is out there that is not on the list.
Now, verse 11 says, “And that is what some of you were.” Not “what some of you ARE,” but “what some of you WERE.” Some of you were sexually immoral; some of you were homosexual offenders. The grace of God is able to change us; he is able to give us the power to make us clean. I can testify to that. When I first became a Christian, I was consumed with lust. It was one of the major pressures in my life with which I had to deal. It didn’t disappear over night, but it is disappearing and dying. Those things that put that pressure in my life no longer control me. I can testify to you that there is power and that there is grace to overcome. I can remember when I began preaching, I heard story after story after story about how the pastor ran away with someone from the congregation. I would go back to God, because I know my own vulnerability at that time, and I would pray, and say, “God, because of your grace and holiness and where I’m at, make me an example of a man who can be holy, who can say no to those things for your glory.” There is no excuse for any man to fall into those sins and we’ll see why they do fall into those sins later on. The point here is that God is able to deliver us from those things, if we give ourselves to him. I’m a living example of that, and if he can do it to me, he can do it for any of you. I can testify that God has certainly placed us in situations time after time in our home, where there would have been ample opportunity for sexual immorality to be there and even the world thinks that that it is there, but it is not and never has been.
1 Corinthians 6:11-13- And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. “Everything is permissible for me”but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”but I will not be mastered by anything. “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food”
We’ll see that very often gluttony is tied with sexual immorality. When someone lives for their belly, when they feed just their flesh, it comes out also in the sexual because it has to do totally with the body and the flesh. Gluttony and sexual immorality just go together.
1 Corinthians 6:13- but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
There is a subtle teaching that says that we’re sanctified, we’re made pure on the inside but you can’t really tell on the outside. As if somehow the deeds of the body can drag behind the purity in the heart. In other words, you can be clean and pure and yet outwardly still not be quite in line with that. Yet, Jesus has or should have control over as much of our heart as he does our body, the two are reflected. Jesus says that a good man brings up good things that are stored in his heart. What we do with our body is a reflection of how pure we are on the inside. The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. The only way you are going to overcome lust is to be totally devoted to the Lord.
1 Corinthians 6:14- By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.
He is saying, “Look, the body is not meant for sexual immorality, and there is power and grace, just as much as Jesus was raised from the dead.” You were sanctified, made pure, made clean, made holy, and justified, and that by the power of God by the fact that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.
1 Corinthians 6:15- Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
Now don’t think for a moment that you just have to go down and see a prostitute. People use each other all the time. All prostitution is a giving of your body in exchange for something. It can be to be held for the night, it can be to be told nice things and lies. It can be to have companionship. Prostitution does not necessarily have to be for cash flow.
1 Corinthians 6:15- Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
Let’s realize who we are in Jesus Christ and what our bodies are supposed to be and then maybe we will become indignant with our bodies.
1 Corinthians 6:17-18- But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
He is not just saying that you are sinning just against your own body; you’re also sinning against Jesus who lives in you. We are literally taking Jesus Christ to bed with somebody or we are lusting with the body of Jesus Christ when we do things with our body that we shouldn’t do.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20- Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
It is not a matter of just saying we are pure on the inside or that Jesus understands and accepts those things and we are all human flesh and blood. We are called to demonstrate with our actions that we are holy with our bodies and our hearts.
One of the things that the church is supposed to do is to make sure that the church is clean of sexual immorality. Don’t think it strange that your leaders and your elders and your teachers are concerned with what you do with your body.
Hebrews 12:14- Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy;
Nobody argues with that, and nobody debates with that. In fact, if you begin to talk doctrine and to debate with people, and they become upset, you are causing division. They will rebuke you on that, they will see to it according to their logic that you live in peace with all men, right? There is an effort in churches to keep that false unity in place. They at least live this out, albeit in a false way. The word says that without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Now look at verse 15.
Hebrews 12:15-16- See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral,
Do not think it strange that the leaders and elders watch over the flock to make sure everything is holy and clean and pure as they should be. That is what the whole church is supposed to do, not just your leaders, but also everyone that claims to be a Christian. See to it that no one is sexually immoral. In other words, if somebody is going to commit sexual sin in the body, they are going to have to get through me first to get to the other person. We are going to do everything in our power to make sure that the church stays clean, that things are in the light, that sin is dealt with. There was a time in the body in Springfield, when I taught a small sermon on sexual immorality and people were confessing sexual sin left and right. It had gone undetected, and that should not be. What happened is one person kept it quiet and in the dark and so they dared not challenge anyone else. It was to the point that it was all through the camp.
Ephesians 5:1-2 really sums up the Christian life. If we did not have any other passage, we could spend our lifetime learning to live this one verse.
Ephesians 5:1-2- Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Now look at verse three.
Ephesians 5:3- But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.
There must not even be a hint, not a suggestion, not a small thing that would barely suggest that there is any sexual immorality within the church. We’re talking dress, lifestyle, and the way we conduct ourselves. Everything about what we do should not suggest that there is a hint of sexual immorality or any kind of impurity or greed in the body, for these are improper for God’s holy people. Yet there is a great deal of toleration within the body of Jesus Christ concerning what is worn, how people conduct themselves, and the atmosphere they are under. When Jesus comes back, there is going to be a lot revealed. There is a lot more sexual immorality going on behind the scenes than we realize. Because sexual immorality is tied in with gluttony, how many churches are into feasting and eating, so how much sexual sin takes place behind the scenes? We all know the pressure for sexual sin, we know the temptation that seizes us, don’t we? We wrestle that by the power of the Holy Spirit. How are those who are giving way to their greed and gluttony possibly going to say “no” to those things? There is no way.
Ephesians 5:4-5- Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy personsuch a man is an idolaterhas any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
They have not the smallest portion, not the least inch of heaven, not somehow just barely getting in – those people do not have any inheritance in the kingdom of God.
Ephesians 5:6- Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.
There are words telling you that you can be impure, unclean, you don’t have to bring your body under discipline, we don’t really have to wrestle with lust, and somehow still claim that we belong to Jesus Christ. Let no one deceive you with those kinds of empty words. They do not belong to Jesus Christ. They will not be in the kingdom of heaven.
Eph 5:6-7- Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
So when a man tells me that we’re all impure, we’re all unclean, what’s that tell me about his grace? He doesn’t have any. He doesn’t have any life. Jesus can both purify and make us holy, or we are liars. If that were the case, why do we even preach the gospel? If it is somehow just an imputed righteousness, then I remain trapped in my sins. I would not want that kind of message in the first place. Suppose that were true. Suppose God said it is just imputed. “You can’t really change in this world, nothing can become any different.” It is out there in a vague theological discussion, so you just stay trapped in your sin. Forget it! I want a grace that changes me, delivers me and lifts me out of the mud and the mire, and gives me life, peace, and the rest that is in Jesus Christ. The people who are saying it is imputed and it doesn’t cause any changes, are the ones who want to stay in their sin. Therefore do not be partnered with them, do not fellowship with them, rebuke them, don’t be around them.
1 Timothy 5:1 Paul is writing to Timothy and telling Timothy what to do, how to conduct himself, and how to be sure that the church is doing the things it needs to do. These are the things Timothy is to teach, the things Timothy is to be sure is in every person’s life.
1 Timothy 5:1-2- Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.
That’s what Timothy is to teach in the body. No impure motives are to be allowed when somebody greets somebody with a holy kiss. When I was a kid, I heard a story about the Catholic Church, that they had to quit having a time of greeting one another with a holy kiss. All the military men would come in and stand next to the women who were pretty so they could be kissed. It was a joke, and so they had to go to a handshake. “Be sure you treat sisters with absolute purity.” We’re talking about something that all of us are going to have to deal with and be sure that the body stays clean in. Now, if Timothy stands up and preaches, “Now look, when you view a sister and think about a sister, it must be with absolute purity.” That must mean there is some grace somewhere, there is some power to purify. For who of us have ever tried to lie in bed at night and not lust? We know the power that lust has over us and how difficult it is to conquer. There must be some power out there to deliver us or Paul would not tell Timothy to preach it. He demands it; he says this is what needs to be there. This is the kind of purity required, this absolutely pure viewing of sisters, with no thoughts of “can I marry this sister,” or “she’s cute over here,” or any of that kind of nonsense, as if she were your physical sister. No thoughts of any sexual connotations at all. What does that say about the so-called ‘dating’ that goes on within the church?
1 Timothy 5:2- older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.
This is a real blessing when this is lived out in the body, because nobody has to worry about what is going on. No sister has to worry about what a brother is thinking or doing. Every brother keeps check on himself because he knows that somebody is going to be standing in front of that sister, protecting her and keeping her purity clean. That’s why I said if somebody is going to lust and I know about it, they would have to go through me to get to that sister. That’s love and grace and concern for the body of Jesus Christ. This shouldn’t force anybody to hide in the darkness and deny the fact that they are dealing with it. Confess it and get it out in the light, it will be dealt with and you’ll gain the victory. Absolute purity is the standard.
In Revelation 21:6, it tells us what God will do with those who are sexually immoral. Now let’s understand that the definition is kind of broad, isn’t it? It doesn’t say the adulterer, it just says sexually immoral, whatever that means specifically, in all its connotations.
Revelation 21:6-7- He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes…”
Overcomes what? Overcomes sexual immorality, overcomes lust, he who is gaining the victory, he who is wrestling with it and overcoming…
Rev 21:7-8- He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liarstheir place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
Murders, then the sexually immoral, and then the magic arts…he doesn’t list it last; it is not a minor thing. All other sins are outside a man’s body. We are going to look at how to deal with it in the next sermon. Right now, we are just looking at the seriousness of what we’re dealing with and the importance of what we are dealing with, and the importance of finally coming to grasp and saying, “This has to be conquered. It has to be overcome, and we will do it by the grace of God.”
Matthew 5:27- You have heard that it was said, “Do not commit adultery.”
The law said that you weren’t to physically commit adultery and if you did, the man and the woman were both supposed to be stoned. Jesus goes one step further than that, because a lot of people could pride themselves on never physically committing adultery. Jesus wants to purify the heart, and Jesus is going to lay down a command that is burdensome, impossible to live out. We may have to wrestle with it, and suffer in our body, but we can get through with it. He’s going to go further than saying just don’t commit the physical act of adultery, he says not to even lust.
Matthew 5:28- But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
I tell you, grace tells you, life tells you, the Holy Spirit tells you, that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So what is your attitude? “Well, this is impossible to live, it’s too difficult?” No, Jesus goes on to say in verse 29, if you eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away! We are talking about dealing with something very powerfully. He could have used any other sin, but he didn’t, he talked about lust.
Matthew 5:29-30- If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
We’re not talking about dealing with some ‘back burner’ issue. And as sexual immorality increases out there, I don’t think Jesus is literally meaning that we go gouge our eyes out, but that something has to change. There are blind people that lust. The heart has to change. Who of us can even walk out there in the world without being tempted? It says because of the increase of wickedness the love of most will grow cold. We either prepare ourselves now to be pure and clean or when all sin breaks loose, those who haven’t dealt with it will give in to it. In verses 31 and 32, he then talks about divorce and remarriage and we’ve already seen that is adultery, that’s sexual immorality. Gouge it out, throw it away, or go to hell.
In Proverbs 22:14, it tells us why ministers, brothers, and sisters fall into sexual sin. There is a reason. I remember telling a Kansas City lawyer, who is a friend of mine, about these national ministers being in sexual sin, and at that time, none had been caught in adultery. He wrote to me a few months ago saying, ‘you know, you were really right about those guys.’ There wasn’t much question in my mind, it was obvious to see, but with him being in the world, he couldn’t see it. There is a lot of sexual immorality and adultery being committed, and God allows it to be committed for a reason.
Proverbs 22:14- The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the Lord’s wrath will fall into it.
God permits men to commit the sin against their own body, because they are already under the Lord’s wrath. It doesn’t mean they can’t repent, because they certainly can. David did. But there is a great deal of unrepentance concerning adultery, divorce and remarriage, sexual sin, and to those who under the Lord’s wrath, it is not a matter of their will power or how well they can sustain themselves, or how good their marriage is or anything else, they will fall into that trap.
Proverbs 22:14- The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the Lord’s wrath will fall into it.
And so how is it that we keep from falling into that deep pit? By the grace of God. There has to be that humbling before God. There has to be brokenness, there has to be pleading, and begging that says, “God do not let me be led into temptation.” We have to plea for the grace of God like we have never pleaded before to overcome this sin. He can deliver and he will deliver. I am a living testimony of that fact.
In Romans 8:14, it says that God ‘gives some people over’ to commit homosexual acts. He gives them over to do it. It is God’s grace that holds any of us back to keep us from committing sins. How is it that Janie and Shelby can be pure and clean while going to school? Do you think that somehow the school up there is noble and holy and pure and talking about abstaining and being clean and seeking God? Many lockers have posters of temptation. Dating is the thing that you do when you go to school. Who is going with whom at the moment? How can you be pure? How can you be clean, except by the grace of God?
Romans 1:18-20 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualitieshis eternal power and divine naturehave been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Every man who says he is an atheist is a liar. Because the trees, the stars and the mooneverything that we can seedemonstrate that there is a God who exists. You have to constantly work at to convince yourself that there is no God. Why do you think they are so obstinate about what they believe? They think if they argue with themselves enough it will be true.
Romans 1:21-24- For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over …
It is the grace of God that keeps us back from sin. I can remember when I was searching after God, after being married for a while, there was that lust and that searching, and at the same time, there was a battle going on, because I was praying, “God don’t let me succeed.” There was that raging battle that took place.
God gave them over and allowed them to do what should not be done.
Romans 1:24-26- Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creatorwho is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.
God is able to purify, to make our hearts clean, and to make us pure so that the sinful desires are not there. In fact, it is God who gives us over to allow us to complete the lust that we want to do! Do you not see that? He is already working to hold man back, to keep him from doing those things, but finally, when a man is so stubborn, wants his sin, and wants to please his own wishes, there comes a time when God says, “OK, fine, go and do it.” He is already seeking to hold us back, how much more now then is Jesus going to seek to purify and to cool those passions that are there?
Romans 1:26- Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
There is a sister in this body who’s been delivered from that. She went to a church for years, and she and another sister committed this sexual sin while they taught Bible class. They had plans to be “married.” Somehow they were comparing themselves to Jonathan and David. You see, their hearts had been given over to darkness and futile thinking, while they claimed to be wise and have some understanding. But God delivered her, and we can all be delivered.
Romans 1:27-28- In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
Do we see it over and over again: God giving men over to do what they want?
Romans 1:29-31- They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
I don’t even have time to go into everybody’s life and examine them, but these sins are there if you look. The deceit might cover it up, but it’s there.
Romans 1:32- Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
There is a whole church devoted to preaching that it is okay to commit homosexual acts. They approve of those who do them. And before we ever say, well, I’m not a homosexual, and I’m not a lesbian, let’s examine our own hearts, because if God did not restrain us and hold us back, we would commit those very sins. You can almost go in to any denominational church and get everybody indignant about the homosexuals, (well, in some of them you can’t any more, but you used to be able to anyway), because you can get anybody grossed out about those things. However, if we look at our own hearts and we understand that if God would allow us to have the lust that we desire, we would eventually be committing the sexual sins too, not to mention the fact that some of us have already committed sexual sin in our past.
Look at Proverbs 6:20. Do you hear parents say they want their children to grow up to be able to make a choice? “I don’t really teach them about the grace of God,” or “I don’t really teach them about what is right and proper to do.”
Proverbs 6:20- My son, keep your father’s commands and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
Woe unto those parents who do not teach their children to be pure and to be clean, and who do not teach them that there are power and grace available. Indeed, there are many children holding on to their mother’s teaching, or holding on to their father’s teaching, which is to please the sinful nature, to fulfill the lust, to see who they can date and who they can get to bed. Instead those of us who are in Christ Jesus impress upon our children that there is grace, there is power, and that God indeed will keep us holy and clean.
Proverbs 6:21- Bind them upon your heart forever; fasten them around your neck.
What is the issue he is going to deal with here in a moment? We will see.
Proverbs 6:22- When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you;
Oh, that my parents would have taught me to be clean and pure, that they wouldn’t have been liberals saying that yeah, it’s fine to get into sexual things once you reach a certain age. Then I could sleep and my thoughts would be clean, wouldn’t they? Isn’t that what Proverbs says? That if you hold those teachings and you bind them upon you heart you’ll lay down and sleep peacefully at night, and guess what your thoughts will be upon? Your thoughts will be on the holiness and the majesty and the things of God. But that’s not what I was taught, and not what was in my mind. I still continue to put that to death to this day. And I can go in and I can watch my children, and I see them fall asleep very quickly and very easily. Why? Because their mind is not cluttered up with filth. They probably can’t even imagine some of the things I have had to deal with and to wrestle with. And if they did, and they knew, they would wonder why.
Proverbs 6:21-22- Bind them upon your heart forever; fasten them around your neck. When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you.
I want to wake up in the morning and be pure. But how many people confess to me, “I woke up in the morning lusting.” Why? Because our parents didn’t teach us. What we did bind in our hearts were things that were not holy, and things that were not clean. You can’t blame them. As parents, let us see what we need to do, how we need to live, what we need to show our children, what we need to impress upon them. It is not some mean thing to say you cannot date like the world. It’s life. It’s nothing strange.
Proverbs 6:23- For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life,
Those of you who have daughters, pray by all the strength you have to raise pure children.
Proverbs 6:24- keeping you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife.
The writer of Proverbs could talk about anything else, couldn’t he? He could talk and discuss any other sin, but he doesn’t. He talks about the smoothness of sexual sin, the subtle justifications, the one little allowance, the one little hiding in darkness, the one area we hold onto and don’t confess to God. “The smoothness of it.” There are people in the body who haven’t confessed their sins for fear they would be in trouble if they did, but continued in the sin. It is a smooth deception.
Proverbs 6:25-26- Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life.
I don’t fully understand what takes place here, and we’re not getting into some metaphysical thing, but there is a spiritual unity that takes place and if you take the body of Jesus Christ and unite it with a prostitute, somehow you become one with demons or one with the sin, and it destroys the very life of a man. It robs you of whatever spiritual strength was there, you become a loaf of bread, but there is no substance to it, no strength.
Proverbs 6:27-7:2- Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished. Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving. 1 Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold, though it costs him all the wealth of his house. But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself. Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away. My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you. Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.
Watch out for deceitful words.
Proverbs 7:3-5- Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call understanding your kinsman; they will keep you from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words.
Let us look and see clearly: what are the consequences of sexual sin? What do they do in my life? What do they do to other people? What is the destruction that will come? Wisdom will teach us why it is proper and holy to stay away from sexual sin.
Proverbs 7:6-8- At the window of my house I looked out through the lattice. I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men, a youth who lacked judgment. He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house
The first thing Proverbs says is, “don’t even go near the house.” Don’t even venture in that direction. Don’t even start off that way, don’t flirt with it. You know what I am talking about. There are things that you know cause you to lust and sin, and you don’t run to those, you just move in that direction a little bit at a time, until you are there. Even children growing up and teenagers, don’t just immediately start off in sexual sin, there is a small step, a looking, an examining, a talking, slumber parties and things.
Proverbs 7:8-10- He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house at twilight, as the day was fading, as the dark of night set in. Then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent.
Again, she is not just an actual prostitute but dressed like one. If we had the eyes of Jesus Christ, we could walk into many churches and say, “Those women are dressed like prostitutes.” Why do women dress this way? To show off their bodies. That is why it says women are to dress with purity, propriety, and with what is holy. It is not a fashion show or an attempt to attract anybody.
Proverbs 7:10- Then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent.
How many singles gatherings in some churches really have a crafty intent or purpose? They are not there to praise God! They’re there to find a mate.
Proverbs 7:11-14- She is loud and defiant, her feet never stay at home; now in the street, now in the squares, at every corner she lurks. She took hold of him and kissed him and with a brazen face she said: “I have fellowship offerings at home; today I fulfilled my vows.”
Gives it kind of a religious connotation, doesn’t it? I’ve fulfilled my vows. Somehow she came across as being godly. Somehow she is fulfilling her duty over here. You just get the sense that somehow she is saying, “Look everything is fine, I have taken care of everything spiritually, physically, and whatever else is needed.”
Proverbs 7:15- So I came out to meet you; I looked for you and have found you!
Oh, the puffing up and the pride! “I want to be with you! I looked for you, and only you!” Yet, she is lurking on any corner. I am amazed at some people, at who they lust for. They are really not as picky as they think! Because that passion is there, and all they are doing is using the other person, and the other person is using them, and it is a lie when they turn to each other and say, “Yeah I really want you.”
Proverbs 7:15-22- So I came out to meet you; I looked for you and have found you! I have covered my bed with colored linens from Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let’s drink deep of love till morning; let’s enjoy ourselves with love! My husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey. He took his purse filled with money and will not be home till full moon.” With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk. All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose
You understand, it is a small slow step to get there, but when you finally do take that step, you take a giant leap. It’s subtle, the words are smooth, and you know exactly what you are walking into, you know with what you are playing. You know what you are getting close to, and all of a sudden, you just take the step.
Proverbs 7:22- All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter,
What, no guilt? Don’t think it strange that some people in the church do not have guilt about sexual sin. It isn’t there. The words are too smooth, and the feelings are too justified. You have to convict, you have to speak, and you have to pray that God will do his work. How many times have you heard people say they had been in churches where they slept with the minister and somehow that was supposed to bring them closer to God? You know you have heard that, and you say, “That’s garbage, who could believe that?” The people who are in the sin believe that. There is no sense of guilt, or shame. ‘With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk.’
Proverbs 7:22-23- All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life.
That night in bed costs you your life.
Proverbs 7:24-25- Now then, my sons, listen to me; pay attention to what I say. Do not let your heart turn to her ways or stray into her paths.
Stay away from her.
Proverbs 7:26-27- Many are the victims she has brought down; her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is a highway to the grave,
There is a narrow way that Christians walk, and then there is the highway that leads to hell. The highway to hell is an easy road to walk, it’s a quick one, it’s smooth, and all the obstacles are out of the way. Every word is in its proper place; every appearance is as it should be. There was a woman back in Springfield that was convinced that she was supposed to be married to this man, somehow they are soul mates or something, I think that is the term she used. She has had a child by this man. The wife knows about his other child. In fact, when his wife was having her baby, the woman was in the delivery woman with the wife. This is just complete deception. Now that is a far out example, but look at your own heart and you can see where it gets started.
Proverbs 7:27- Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death.
Now think about it for a moment. Some of you women who have committed sexual sin, that’s who you were. It is who you were. But now you are sanctified; now you are made holy. You led men down the highway of death, to the chambers of death, because of your own passion, your own sin, and your own words. Think about it. Growing up, what were you taught but how to attract a man? You were taught to get the words right, to get the dress right, to get the whole thing exactly right.
Proverbs 30:20 tells us again, there is no sense of guilt associated with this. It is about time we felt guilty! It is about time we get convicted and tell other people they need to be convicted, too.
Proverbs 30:20- This is the way of an adulteress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, “I’ve done nothing wrong.”
It is time, out of love, that we not only live a holy life but we speak to other people about living a holy life. How many other people can we spare who are going down that highway to hell, if we just speak, if we just say, “It’s sin, it’s wrong. Don’t you understand?” They are going to do their activity, they are going to eat, they are going to wipe their mouth and say, “Look, I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Proverbs 5:1- My son, pay attention to my wisdom.
Again and again it says this. Why does Proverbs repeat over and over and over again about sexual sin and to pay attention and to wake up? Because it is so deceptive. It is so easy to say, “But I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Proverbs 5:1-3- My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen well to my words of insight, that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge. For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil;
Her speech is sweet; it’s what you want to hear. It is right, it is proper, and it looks correct. Her words come out easily. I’ve fulfilled my vow; I’ve done my religious thing. Why do you think adultery in marriage is not considered adultery any more? The words are so smooth. There is no sense of guilt or shame.
Proverbs 5:4-9- but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave. She gives no thought to the way of life; her paths are crooked, but she knows it not. Now then, my sons, listen to me; do not turn aside from what I say. Keep to a path far from her, do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your best strength to others and your years to one who is cruel,
Think back to the relationships you have had. Everybody’s just using everybody, that’s all that it amounts to. And all sexual sin has caused is destruction, pain and turmoil. There has been no life in it. Sister, do you really think that man cares for you? Do you really think so? What is he seeking to please? What do men sit around and talk about? Do they talk about how much they love the woman they went to bed with last night? No, it is a conquest, a game. Why do we choose to believe a lie, anyway? At least stand up and speak the truth if you don’t want to live a holy life. But don’t believe the lie that a man would tell you or a woman would tell you.
Proverbs 5:11-13- At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are spent. You will say, “How I hated discipline! How my heart spurned correction! I would not obey my teachers or listen to my instructors.”
Again, what is the church’s responsibility? It is not to make sure that everybody treats everybody with absolute purity? But how many of you say, “I don’t want that correction and I don’t want that teaching.”
Proverbs 5:14- I have come to the brink of utter ruin …
Where, in what context? It is not just the fact that they come to ruin, look at what it says:
Proverbs 5:14- I have come to the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.
In the church! These things will be revealed. If you don’t confess in the light now, you’ll come to shame in the light that will reveal all sin someday.
Proverbs 5:15-18- Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
How many wives wish they were pure and clean and holy, and that they had started their marriage that way? And the truth is, how many men wish that they had been clean and pure? How many marriages are suffering because of all the sexual activity that took place before they got married. Could all the harried thoughts, the hurt feelings, could all those things have been avoided, that took place because two people were using each other?
Proverbs 5:18-19- May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deermay her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love.
I want you to notice something there: may a man be captivated by the fact that his wife loves him so much. I don’t have time to go into the wife of noble character, but man, appreciate what the Lord has given you! Understand that lust is over in a moment and there is no life in it.
Proverbs 5:21-22- For a man’s ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths. The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast.
You know that sexual sin; you know how it holds on to you. It does not let go easily. But it can let go. There is victory. Triumph over sin is what the cross is all about.
Proverbs 5:23- He will die for lack of discipline,
Don’t hate it when God corrects, reproves, and don’t blame him and say, “God, I can’t stand it!” Accept the discipline and correction.
Proverbs 5:23- He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
You can’t blame God. And you can’t say, “Why did God make me this way? Well, why did God allow this situation to happen?” We will see in coming sermons that God will give you grace to stand up under it. You know, it seems as if there has always been a group of people who are proud of their sexual sin, their toleration, and what they would call their love, especially within the church. In the book of 1 Corinthians, you had a man living with his father’s wife, and they were proud of that fact. Somehow, someway, they justified the sin, saying, “This is somehow the grace of God.” I don’t know how they do it, but it can be done. Paul had to write to them and say, “Deal with these people!” And so there have always been those groups who tolerate sexual sin. Smooth words, deceptive words, and easy words, words dripping with honey.
Numbers 25:1- While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women,
Many men have gone to their downfall, many churches destroyed, due to sexual immorality, and by the grace of God it is not going to happen here.
Numbers 25:2-3- who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. So Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them.
They really wanted sex. It really had nothing to do with idolatry, that was the byproduct of the whole business. You use people to get what you want. If you’ve got to be this way, if you’ve got to bow down to this idol to get what you want, fine, you’ll do it. Everybody just prostituting with everybody else. For one thing, you can’t love anyone else without God, because only God is love, so anything that you may have shown to that person wasn’t love. Absolutely not love. It was totally unclean and impure. There could not have been an ounce of purity there or true love, because only God is love and if he wasn’t there, there is no love.
Numbers 25:3-4 So Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them. The LORD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the Lord’s fierce anger may turn away from Israel.”
You have got to get sexual sin out into the light to get it dealt with completely. And who is to do this? The men, the leaders, are to kill whom? The people. ‘See to it that no one is sexually immoral. Timothy, you make sure that the brothers treat those sisters with absolute purity. You make sure that place is clean!’ If you don’t want that kind of leadership, go somewhere else, and take your sexual sin with you. If you are all indignant and upset with someone telling you, “That is not proper to wear,” then go somewhere else. You can look around here and tell nobody is wearing just black dresses and all that nonsense. If you can’t learn to dress holy and pure and have somebody come talk to you without becoming indignant, then go somewhere else.
Numbers 25:5-6- So Moses said to Israel’s judges, “Each of you must put to death those of your men who have joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor.” Then an Israelite man brought to his family a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Don’t think for a moment that just talking about purity and weeping before God to make us clean does anything to make us clean. I get so tired of people praying and asking for holiness and righteousness and nobody gets up to do anything about it. Well, it’s God’s job to convict. Two years ago, I heard a man boast that there was a man committing adultery and sexual sins and allowing that in the church, because where else can he hear the gospel? This is Moses before the Tent of Meeting, and they are weeping before God, and the man walks in with his wife, with his sexual partner. Don’t think for a moment that we can just talk about this, and pray about it. ‘See to it that no one is sexually immoral.’
Numbers 25:7-8- When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear through both of themthrough the Israelite and into the woman’s body. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped;
The plague was stopped, but not before twenty-four thousand people died. Now I don’t know if all those twenty-four thousand people committed sexual sin, but I don’t think so. I think they might have known about it, I think the camp knew what was going on, and nobody bothered to pick up a spear to put it to an end. God is trying to show us that when we finally pick up the spear and when we finally pick up the swordthe Word of Godand say, “This is where it stops!” his anger stops. When we finally come before God, and say, “God these are my passions, this is what I deal with, this is what I am wrestling with,” and we pick up the spear to put it to death, his anger stops, always. It is not the fact that you have the lust that is the problem, or the sexual sin, God knew that a long time ago. That is why he died. What God is dealing with is the fact that we permit it to go on, both in our own lives and also in the lives of other people that we know. Let’s at least be holy enough to go and get the spear to stop the anger of the Lord. All those twenty-four thousand people didn’t commit the sexual sin. I don’t know if that twenty-four thousand included children or not. But I do know that sins in the body affect not just one person, but everyone in the body, whether children or adults. We are dealing with a sin that has to be dealt with and can be dealt with. And what a glorious place it will be to have a body where you can deal with it. People can live together in the house and there is no problem. The world might think there is sexual sin going on there, but there isn’t. And “though they accuse you of doing wrong,” Peter says, “they’ll have to glorify Jesus Christ when he returns.” You’ll be able to shout from the rooftops, you’ll be able to stand in glory and say, “Nothing went on, except purity.” What a testimony and a glory that is to God, to say, “The grace of God is able to do it.” Let’s pray for that grace, not just for our own selves, not just so we can have some peace, although peace certainly is a part of it. Let’s pray for that grace so God’s name can be glorified.
Let’s pray.
Father, it is not even a question of asking you to give us the grace; we know that it is already there, wanting to be poured out. Give us that righteousness, Father, that is able to pick up the spear to put to death the passions in our own life, to have the love, to do whatever is necessary that your anger might stop against people’s lives. And we pray, Father, that our children might grow up to be pure and clean, that as parents we can have so wrestled our passion and our lust before your throne that we can impress upon our children that there is rest and life and peace. Father, our children do not have to grow up having falling into sexual sin, having burned with passion, being caught up in the things that the world does. Father, may there be some very, very holy children in this church, may none of them have to wrestle with what we’ve wrestled with, or commit the folly and the stupid things that we have done. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
This transcription has been edited to a reader friendly format. Every effort has been made to be true to the speaker’s original message. Any mistranslations are unintentional.
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