In this sermon, David Capoccia completes his examination of Solomon’s wise teaching regarding sex and sexual sin in Proverbs 5. David Capoccia reviews the main points from the first message and then explains the second and third reasons God gives so that a person might keep his way far from sexual temptation: God’s pleasurable provision and God’s all-assessing eye. David Capoccia finishes the message by giving ten points of suggested life application:
- Apply this counsel in your thoughts
- Apply this counsel in your dating relationships
- Apply this counsel in your close friendships
- Apply this counsel in your counseling
- Apply this counsel in your traveling
- Apply this counsel in your activities
- Tolerate no-excuse for non-application
- Be careful to acknowledge differences in application
- Seek help in your application of God’s counsel
- Help others in their application of God’s counsel
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good morning I’m excited to share more of God’s great wisdom with you this morning but first let’s pray Lord Jesus you really are so lovely as we’ve sung in the last three songs just reminding ourselves and telling you about just how lovely you are indeed you are so lovely you’re so righteous you’re so good you’re so so loving to us thank you for betrothing us to yourself thank you for enabling us to be a cleansed bride thank you that you are preparing a place for us and when the time is right you will come get us and bring us to yourself thank you thank you for loving us in such an incredible way thank you also for the word that you’ve given us Lord Jesus we know that all wisdom is bound up and revealed in you and even the wisdom of this passage is really your wisdom so we thank you for this wisdom and I pray that you would help me to be able to declare it help you will explain it clearly and I pray holy spirit that you would work among your people now that you would sanctify that you would encourage that you would fill with Joy by Your Word in Jesus name I pray amen all right please open your Bibles back up to Proverbs Chapter 5 Proverbs 5 this is Page 644 in the Pew bibles if you’re using those this is the second part of the sermon that I began to preach last week we are going to reread our passage we’ll then briefly review what we discovered last week from this passage and then we’ll explore the rest of the passage and the points that we did not yet get to so Proverbs 5: 1-23 page 644 please follow along with me as we read my son give attention to my wisdom incline your ear to my understanding that you may observe discretion and your lips May Reserve knowledge for the Lips of an ad adulterous drip honey and smoother than oil is their speech but in the end she is bitter as wormwood sharp as a two-edged sword her feet go down to death her steps take hold of sheal she does not Ponder the path of Life her ways are unstable she does not know it now then my sons listen to me and do not depart from the words of my mouth keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house or you will give your Vigor to others and your years to the cruel one and strangers will be filled with your strength and your hard earned Goods will go to the house of an alien and you Gran at your final end when your flesh and your body are consumed and you say how I have hated instruction and my heart spurned reproof I have not listened to the voice of my teachers nor inclined my ear to my instruction I was almost in utter ruin in the midst of the assembly and congregation drink water from your own sistern and fresh water from your own well should your Springs be dispersed abroad streams of water in the streets let them be yours alone and not for strangers with you let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth as a loving Hind and a graceful dough let her breasts satisfy you at all times be exhilarated always with her love for why should you my son be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner for the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord and he watches all his paths his own iniquities will capture the wicked and he will be held with the cords of his sin he will die for lack of instruction and in the greatness of his father fly you will go astray this is a great word from the Lord already we’ve seen why we need to pay close attention to this teaching regarding sex and sexual sin we’ve seen that sexuality is a subject relevant to each one of us we need to know how to Steward the sexual nature is given to us by God we live in a world hopelessly enslaved to its sexual desires and we as Christ’s people are called to live sexually set apart even in this perverse World we’ve also seen that the speaker has the perfect credentials to teach us the author of our text is Solomon and he understands the subjects of sex and sexual sin perfectly well by god-given wisdom we can also trust Solomon’s care for us in this teaching because he speaks as a father does to his own Sons Solomon and by extension God whose Spirit enables Solomon to speak truly knows what he’s talking about and he’s teaching us for our own blessing and happiness we’ve also seen that the consequences of ignoring this teaching are exceedingly severe we are sure to fall into painful sin that will capture and destroy us we can’t afford to remain ignorant or to treat these subjects casually furthermore we’ve seen God’s main counsel regarding sexual sin in verse 8 keep your way far from her her being the adulterous who really represents any Temptation towards sexual sin keep your way far do not even go near the door of her house don’t mess with sexual sin Don’t Go Near it don’t chance it widen in your way however much you need to so that you and sexual Temptation remain far apart as we’ve seen this is a council that stresses a proactive approach to sexual Temptation don’t just wait for sexual temptation to show up and then try to flee you should already be analyzing and anticipating how the adulteress tries to reach you and then preemptively cut off her points of access this will cost you but it is wise and it is worth it now certainly included in this council is an encouragement to if you’re already thinking about or moving towards sexual sin to immediately divert and flee and when sexual Temptation presents itself to you in a way that you did not foresee or anticipate still resist and remove yourself immediately those are other implications of this teaching but the most crucial part of this strategy is the pre-planning make the adjustments in your thinking in your activities and in your relationships so that you and sexual Temptation meet as little as possible why do this why take such a serious stance against sexual Temptation our text here in Proverbs 5 gives us three reasons to motivate us I introduced these last week let me give you those three reasons again why I take such a serious stance reason one sexual sins deceptive destructiveness reason two God’s pleasurable provision reason three God’s all assessing eye we looked at the first reason together last week you must keep your way far from sexual sin because it is too deceptive and too destructive to Merit anything less than the most guarded stance we saw this from verses 3 to 14 the adulteress is extremely cunning and alluring not only does she look attractive but she’s able to powerfully persuade with her words her goal is to get you to forget wisdom and forget the future and she is very good at doing that you cannot afford to go near someone so skilled at enticing and capturing furthermore she’s nothing like she seems she seems Pleasant and satisfying fing but she really only brings bitterness and injury her way is actually the way toward death she doesn’t realize it but that’s where she is going and she wants to take you with her being captured by the adulteress May literally result in your own death but aside from dying the damage the adulteress inflicts to her lovers is manifold loss of time and energy loss of wealth loss of Health extreme horror and regret in the future loss of restraint towards sin and loss of reputation and position because sexual sin is so dangerous and so damaging you and I must keep our ways as far from her as possible that is simple wisdom that is the way to preserve your happiness and to gain blessing but God’s way of wisdom is not merely avoiding evil and what has the capacity to harm he also counsels us to embrace the good to hold fast to the good and to be righteously satisfied with what God provides as the great Puritan commentator Matthew Henry points out the same God who said to Adam and Eve touch not the forbidden fruit also commanded freely enjoy the fruit that I have provided Satan’s lie has always been God is holding you back from something good I want you to have it but the opposite is true God only desires to hold you back from what is evil what is injuring and what is unhelpful he abundantly provides and commends what is good his heart is by nature generous all his commands are given to us for our good that’s why David says in the Psalms I love your law it’s all God’s kind kind heart in the law God is no Miser does not hold back anything that is truly good from us instead he offers it to us freely and commands us to receive it and enjoy it totally and this is exactly where Solomon goes next in our passage so proceeding through those three points I mentioned we’re now going to look at the second reason to heed God’s instruction regarding the adulteress second reason is God’s pleasurable provision keep your way far from sexual sin that you might enjoy God’s pleasurable provision let’s read again verses 15 to 20 where we see this developed drink water from your own sistern and fresh water from your own well should your Springs be dispersed abroad streams of water in the streets let them be yours alone and not for strangers with you let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth as a loving Hind and a graceful dough let her her breasts satisfy you at all times be exhilarated always with her love for why should you my son be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner notice this section features a number of metaphors related to water and drinking verses 15- 18 they discuss drinking water and various sources of water but even in verses 19 to 20 we still see language related to drinking and vers vers 19 the Hebrew word for satisfy literally means to slake The Thirst and verses 19 to 20 the ver the word for exhilarated can be translated to go astray or to be intoxicated as with the drink however to interpret all these drinking metaphors we need to make sure we fully understand all the terms that the author is using in verses 15 to 18 Solomon mentions four different sources of drinking water these are actually the four main sources of drinking water in the ancient world let’s make sure we understand each one of them first there’s the sistern a sistern is a pit dug in the ground to collect rainwater remember there’s not much water in Palestine it’s very reliant on rain so sisters are very important nearly every house had its own sistern then there’s the well a well is a pit that connects connects to underground sour ources of water so it’s not for collecting rain water it’s for getting water that’s already in the ground Wes were less common than sisters but extremely valuable well water since it came from deep underground was usually cool clean and refreshing next there’s the spring the spring is a site where an underground source of water connects with the surface and it flows across the ground as a river or stream Springs were viable since they made drinkable water accessible right at the surface you didn’t have to draw it up with a bucket so that saved you a lot of Labor finally there’s the fountain a fountain is a man-made construction for a fountain surface water usually from a spring flows into a town or city via some kind of covered Channel and then it pours sometimes via a spout into a pool or Basin this spout and Basin is the fountain now unlike today Fountains at that time were gravity fed they relied on gravity to actually transport the water which means you cannot usually shut them off the water’s going to keep on flowing and all that extra water Beni is going to need to go somewhere therefore some fountains most fountains were designed to overflow across the streets into drains through which the water could then be channeled outside the city so you have these fountains in the city or a fountain in the city it overflows some of the water goes across the street and is drained outside the city so we have these four sources of drinking water mentioned in our passage the problem with these terms as translated is that the Hebrew words for sistern Well Spring and Fountain are somewhat interchangeable the Hebrew words can all be describing any one of those four things or at least three of them they’re very flexible therefore we should not look too much into the distinction between the words sistern well or Fountain as they’re used in verses 15 to 18 they’re all basically describing the same thing do notice though that verses 16 to 17 refer to Springs in the plural this shift from singular to plural is significant we’ll come back to this a little bit later but if God counsels you to drink water from your own system your own well or your own Fountain what is he really saying well Verse 18 makes it clear your well is your wife your sister is your spouse rejoice in the wife of your youth seek refreshment from your spouse not in harlots or adultery seek refreshment in God’s provision every house has its own sistern your spouse is your sistern your well your spring your fountain God has given you a special source of cool and pure thirst quenching therefore for enjoy your spouse Rejoice over your spouse seek satisfaction in your spouse you don’t need to go elsewhere God has already provided but someone may say my well is not like other Wells my spouse doesn’t have what others have well that’s actually true even in the ancient world the water of various Springs and Wells was unique no two Wells or Springs tasted the same but that’s okay you don’t need to drink from every well if you did you wouldn’t get to appreciate the well you’ve got your spouse is your well your spring no one else gets to enjoy your spouse’s unique blessings but you your spouse is special in a multitude of ways don’t try to compare him or her to others enjoy everything that is unique about your spouse go to your spouse for a refreshment your spouse after all is the wife or husband of your youth you may have chosen your spouse yourself you probably did if you’re listening right now or if you’re in Israel your spouse may have been chosen for you by your parents but ultimately it doesn’t matter who brought you together from a human perspective as Jesus says As He makes clear as he interprets for us correctly in the New Testament God is the one one who really brought you two together in a sense you were destined and designed for one another does God know how to provide good gifts your spouse is your good gift receive your husband or wife then as one receives a gift from God and rejoice in him or her as an act of worshipful thanks to God and as you rejoice in your spouse you actually bless your spouse just as Verse 18 says let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth you see your rejoicing and your spouse’s blessedness they go together husbands it is to your advantage to rejoice in your wife because the more you rejoice in her the more you will bless her that is the more you will make her happy and the happier she is the happier you will be because after all you are one flesh just as Genesis or just as Genesis says and wives the same is true for you regarding your husbands the more you rejoice in him the more you bless him and the more you will be blessed in return the Apostle Paul says the same thing in the New Testament he who loves his own wife loves himself bless your spouse then by rejoicing in in him or her and allow yourself to be blessed by your spouse as he or she rejoices in you marriage is all about this Mutual blessing and rejoicing in the one flesh relationship and you have no need to be timid about this God wants your enjoyment to be total and continuous look again at verse 19 as a loving Hind and a graceful dough let her breast satisfy you at all times be exhilarated always with her love the words Hind and do here both describe a beautiful and graceful female deer God says you should appreciate your spouse as a beautiful and magnificent creation of God God says let her breast satisfy you at all times that is continually perpetually all the time let the unique goodness of your spouse’s body be the constant source of your sexual refreshment don’t search for someone else’s breast and body don’t search for someone else to sexually romantically or affectionately quench your thirst you don’t need to God has already uniquely and perfectly provided for you but we’re not talking here about merely physical gratification because notice the end of verse 19 God says to be always exhilarated intoxicated LED astray by drunk with not simply her body but her what her love because isn’t that the most attractive thing in a spouse while God created your spouse’s body in a beautiful and wonderful way it is your spouse’s love that really makes him or her attractive it is your spouse’s heart it is your spouse’s righteousness it is your spouse’s Covenant devotion and sincere affection to you it is your spouse’s love that gives his or her body it’s glow it is the inside that makes the outside truly beautiful or handsome your all wise God counsels you be intoxicated with your spouse be beside yourself with your spouse’s body your spouse’s love and your spouse’s soul your spouse is your own deep and unique source of heart refreshment enjoy then your spouse’s refreshment to the full do you see why it is so senseless then to go near the adulteress not only do you have no need of outside refreshment but being entrapped by sexual sin means that you will no longer be able to enjoy this perfect and righteous vision from God you will miss out do you not see the wisdom in God’s command keep your way far from sexual sin verse 20 makes this point explicit for why should you my son be exhilarated with an adulteress and embrace the bosom of a foreigner this Behavior makes no sense considering God’s pleasurable provision now what about the other part those plural spring as I mentioned earlier verses 16 to 17 are a bit perplexing at first but these verses are not about polygamy or sharing sexual partners with strangers rather these verses are about children they are about the natural product of marriage switching the metaphor a bit Solomon pictures children as another kind of refreshment source for the married couple children are like fountains whose Waters come from their parents really your children are multiplication of the blessing and refreshment from your spouse obviously not the same kind of refreshment but an extra kind that is directly related to your spouse children belong to you and your wife you have a special bond with them that you don’t have with other people children literally reflect you and your wife you see her and them and and she sees you in them children are your little friends your little students your little workers when properly trained children canot only help their parents in their work and social obligations but they can also go out into society representing their parents well and bringing benefit to the community as a whole children get married and have their own children much to the Delight of the grandparents children carry on the family name and traditions children receive the family inheritances children provide for their parents in old age and death children can learn from their parents about God and about his wisdom and they can tell others about it in ancient Israel every couple sought to have many children children were considered a blessing and a source of joy and refreshment to be married and have no children was considered a great tragedy and many took it as a sign of God’s curse and though our society is a little different now children are still a blessing when viewed and trained rightly God’s design for marriage is not only that you enjoy the provision of your spouse but also the provision of your children together God says the husband and wife enjoy your children how senseless then would it be to have children that you could not enjoy to install The Fountains of your water in the streets of the city to have children with harlots and adulteresses you and your spouse won’t get to enjoy these children you might not even get to know these children at all like the city fountain water overflowing and running across their dirty streets children of sexual sin will be seen by many especially your spouse as dirty such children are often shamed children lost children hurt children children who don’t even know both of their parents and who get to spend little time with them and that day many illegitimate children literally became Children of the street begging scrounging stealing just trying to survive and knowing little to nothing about Yahweh according to Deuteronomy 23:2 illegitimate children by law could not enjoy the same religious or social privileges as other people in Israel God asks is that how you want your seed to end up unknown unloved untrained and un enjoyed brought up by harlots or Worse killed in the womb or shortly afterwards because they were an embarrassing inconvenience you know that exposure was common in the ancient world to get rid of unwanted children what a tragic waste such fountains could have been for the enjoyment of you and your you and your spouse you could have blessed your spouse with your seed but instead you chose to waste it with tra with strangers don’t share your children with strangers and harlots don’t scatter your seed abroad let them be yours alone yours and your spouses alone that you may be blessed you see again God’s wisdom and commanding you to stay as far away as possible from sexual sin don’t risk going near or you might miss out so much on God’s pleasurable provision now you might ask but wait I’m not married yet or I was married and my spouse left me or I am married but I don’t get along very well with my spouse or I just plan intend to stay single how then is this teaching applicable to me well a number of ways to those not yet married I would say you can prepare now to wait for and later enjoy God’s pleasurable provision stay self-controlled now so that when God brings you together with your spouse you can enjoy your spouse spouse to the full Without Regrets furthermore be blessing your spouse now with your chaste thoughts and behavior even though you may not even know who your spouse is yet you can bless that you can bless that unknown spouse now and if you do so it will later it will later result in her happiness and yours when God brings you together so those struggling in marriage I would say this right now you may not be able to enjoy God’s pleasurable provision as it was originally meant but let this be a motivation for you to deal with what needs to be dealt with in your relationship confront and confess sin turn from unprofitable habits renew your sincere and affectionate pursuit of your spouse seek help from other mature Believers healing may not happen quickly but as you and your spouse submit yourselves to God’s way once again you can recover the love and refreshment that God meant for your marriage but above all and this applies to everyone in every kind of situation single married estranged whatever we must remember that God’s pledgeable provision goes Way Beyond a human spouse God’s pledgeable provision is ultimately God himself God is your provision Christ actually is your heavenly spouse he is your true source of refreshment the true and greater source as satisfying as any human spouse can be Jesus is even more so he said as much using the same language as we see here John 4: 13- 14 Jesus is speaking to the woman at the well Jesus answered and said to her everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life whether married or unmarried happily wed or painfully estranged if you walk in sexual Holiness you will get to enjoy Jesus the Wellspring of the Soul he is the one for whom you were really designed 1 Corinthians 613b says yet the body is not for immorality but for the Lord and the Lord is for the body did you get that your body and soul need Christ more than they need sex or marital love really in life a human spouse is not necessary sex is not necessary an Earthly spouse is a kind provision and a helpful provision from God but it is not a needed one what you really need is God himself you need Christ actually as long as you idolize sex love love or marriage as long as you believe that one of those or all of those are things that are necessary for your contentment you will never be satisfied even when you fall in love get married or have sex you will not be satisfied you will not be able to enjoy God’s good provision if you don’t acknowledge God himself as the ultimately good provision if you’re not satisfied with God you cannot truly enjoy his gifts my brothers and sisters let us once and for all get rid of the false notion that sex and love are necessary for life or that sex and love are the greatest joys in life the world believes these things do they not but they’re not true and if you believe these things you will be disappointed you will be in snared and you will never be satisfied but again the counter truth Christ is necessary for Life walking with God’s son is the greatest joy in life and his Joy is available to all and it never Fades but you cannot have the adulterous in Christ too you cannot serve God and sexual sin if you want Christ’s saving and refreshing draft you must repent of all sexual sin and idolatry to summarize this point even though Solomon here speaks specifically about God’s good provision of a spouse there is a principle here that goes far beyond when you are sexually self-controlled when you keep your way far from the adulteress you get to enjoy all of God’s good provision in whatever form it may be therefore for the sake of experiencing God’s pledgeable provision the wise man will suffer no sexual stumbling blocks to remain in his path you will not chance it so we see the second motivating reason God’s pledgeable provision the last point the third of our three reasons is short and it’s based in only one verse here’s the third reason to keep yourself far from the adulterous God’s all assessing eye keep your way far from sexual sin because of God’s all assessing eye look at verse 21 for the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord and he watches all his paths now some might connect verse 21 with the next two verses 22 and 23 but I see 22 and 23 as I’ve already argued as a bookend paralleling the first two verses of this chapter I don’t believe they’re directly connected to this verse I believe the principle in verse 21 stands is all by itself so what is the principle well Solomon simply states that God sees everything wherever you go God’s eyes are watching you the word for watches here is the same word that was used earlier in verse six that time it’s translated Ponder the adulterous does not Ponder the path of life but God Ponders every step you take he’s looking at it he’s thinking about it and he he’s assessing it and it doesn’t say that he simply sees Sinners or those going after sexual sin he sees everything he sees the righteous and the wicked he sees those who take the way of the adulterous and he sees those who are careful to keep their way far from the adulteress what is the implication of this well this means that good or bad nothing is secret before God your sin is not secret your randu with the adultery is not secret your careless straying into the path of sexual sin is not secret your lustful fantasy is not secret your idolatrous and discontented heart is not secret God sees it all and he’s marking it down for what purpose to motivate his judgment and to testify against you God is opposed to evildoers of every kind as Solomon also says in the Book of Proverbs Proverbs 3:33 the curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked but He blesses the dwelling of the righteous God will curse and destroy those who practice evil but he has a particular Vengeance against those who do not turn away from sexual sin 1 Thessalonians 4:6 says that the Lord will bring Vengeance on those who participate in and Lead others towards sexual sin and Hebrews 13:4 says Mary is to be held in honor among all and the marriage bet is to be undefiled for fornicators and adulterers God will judge in other words when God’s eye sees your secret sexual sin know for sure that you are under God’s curse God may be patient with you he may hold back much of his wrath and give you time to repent but you cannot count on it and until you repent you will suffer the intrinsic consequences of your sin engaging with the sin at all brings damage to your life you will partly reap God’s judgment on sexual sin in this life but you will fully reap it in the next God made sex and God made marriage his anger is stored up for those who abuse his good gifts but it’s not just secret sin that God sees he also sees secret obedience was this not the teaching of Jesus in The Sermon on the Mount your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you the Lord sees when you turn your eyes away from a nude picture the Lord sees when you exercise sexual self-control the Lord sees when you purposefully devote all your affection and desire toward your spouse and the Lord sees when you thankfully Delight in his provision the Lord also sees when you keep your way far from the adulterous others probably don’t see it others may even think your behavior is weird but God sees it he sees it with his omniscient eye and he is marking it down why well similar to before it is to motivate his reward and to testify of Christ’s righteousness in you God’s kindness is always toward the faith filled obedient they will be blessed by by the Lord in this life and they will receive their full reward in the Life to Come therefore because of God’s allseeing all assessing eye you have set before you blessing and cursing life and death reward and judgment will you be faithful in the seemingly secret things seeing as they are all in the plain view of God or will you ignore God’s omniscience and store for yourself more and more damning testimony God will one day demand of you an explanation for your every thought your every word and your every action he will demand to know why you did not follow his Good Counsel what would you say to him in that day since God sees the secret things to judge or reward do you then see this last reason for the wisdom of God’s command to stay far away from the adulteress to keep your way far from sexual sin let God see your faith let God see your obedience let God see that you believe his counsel he will take note and you will be blessed don’t try to hide your Disobedience or your contempt for his Good Counsel because he will still see and take note and you will be cursed so we see the third reason God’s all essing eye let’s now review the argument presented by Solomon and by the spirit of God God commands and counsels you for your own sake to keep your way far from every sexual Temptation God also supplies three reasons to motivate you the deceptive destructiveness of sexual sin the pleasurable provision of God and the all assessing eye of God the question now is will you heed his counsel are you willing to follow this wise principle in your life if you do you will be blessed but if you don’t remember verses 22 and 23 his own iniquities will capture the wicked and he will be held held fast with the cords of his sin he will die for lack of instruction and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray the consequences of your not listening remember are severe you’ll be caught up in sin you will suffer harm and you will ultimately die God does not want that for you and neither do I so please listen to God’s good and loving counsel some final thoughts as we close our discussion of this passage this teaching we’ve discussed has many implications I would like to just briefly suggest 10 points of application for your lives first apply this counsel in your thoughts there are certain things that are not profitable for you to think about because they will lead you towards sin these first thoughts may not be sinful in themselves but they are not profitable just as you would avoid the street of the adulteress in real life avoid the street of the adulterous in your mind and don’t simply try to not think about certain things because that’s a good way to get you thinking about them you need to replace those unprofitable Thoughts with good thoughts thoughts that tend toward righteousness second apply this counsel in your dating relationships if you’re dating these truths have great implications about who you pursue and how you act when you pursue them avoid Danger preemptively Don’t Wait Till emotions and passions Cloud your judgment when it comes to expressing effect ction set clear boundaries that will not even bring you close to sexual passion and sin three apply this counsel in your friendships don’t pursue or maintain deep friendships with someone of the opposite gender who is not your spouse your closest friends and confidants should be your spouse and then your brethren of the same gender men with men women with women four apply this counsel in your counseling if someone of the opposite gender needs marriage counseling or Counseling in a deeply personal area do not counsel that person alone give counsel in the presence of another person preferably your own spouse or give that person counsel together with his spouse it is very easy for one forlorn in a relationship to become attached to a caring counselor and vice versa too many times this has resulted in tragedy among Believers number five apply this counsel in your traveling don’t go places where you know sexual temptation is likely to lurk whether places online or places in person or when you go make sure that you’ve set up safu so that sexual Temptation cannot reach you and when you’re walking and you see a possible temp in the distance don’t be ashamed to look away until the danger has passed number six apply this counsel in your activities don’t excuse sexual Temptation in Your Entertainment Leisure or cultural Pursuits just because it’s fun or humorous doesn’t mean it can’t be spiritually harmful just because it’s considered art or literature doesn’t mean it can’t be a stumbling block and just because everyone else even other Christians are doing it doesn’t mean it’s actually a wise or righteous thing to do men as the most basic of safeguards do not watch or play any media with sexual content or nudity in it that is like going right up to the Harlot store I would recommend much more stricter much stricter standards than that when it comes to Media but please at least that and don’t rely on a reactive Look Away strategy I’ll just look away whenever it comes up by the time you need to know you need to look away the damage is already done number seven tolerate no excuse for non-application let us not use curiosity cultural savviness or fun as excuses to tolerate the presence of sexual sin or sexual temptation there’s no potential knowledge experience or pleasure worth you crossing paths with seductive seductive and destructive sin you don’t have to fear missing out on something from the world some knowledge or some experience nothing in the world can ultimately satisfy you nothing in the world is ultimately necessary you ought to fear out missing or you want to fear missing out on God and on his satisfying way besides 1 Corinthians 14:20 says we are not to be experts when it comes to evil but infants we don’t need to know it intimately we don’t need to become all acquainted with it and Ephesians 5:12 says it’s disgraceful to even talk about what the unrighteous do in secret number eight be careful to acknowledge differences in application it’s worth noting that not all of us are tempted in the same way even when it comes to sexual Temptation men are generally tempted differently than women and what causes one person to stumble may not affect another person at all each person’s application of this counsel from God is going to look a little different but L anyone say that he’s completely unaffected by sexual Temptation oh I don’t need to apply any of this let me caution you well I suppose there are few rare cases out there of people who due to abnormal biology cannot be affected by sexual forces for the rest of us we were designed to be affected let me explain God gave you a sexual nature designed to be activated by sexual stimuli in marriage sexual sin uses those same stimuli outside of marriage to hurt and ENT trp that’s why sexual sin is so evil it twists God’s good design and awakens passions where they do not belong furthermore it is the goal of various worldly persons to gain your love attention and your money using sexual Allure they present content designed to awaken your sexuality and ultimately we know Satan himself the ruler of this world has designed various aspects of his evil World system to sexually ens snare and enslave abusing God’s design so in many senses you were designed to be affected by the world’s Temptations that’s why you must take them seriously don’t think that nothing can affect you now God has given us his spirit and his wisdom and his church to overcome these evil designs these evil intentions but we do not want to deceive ourselves about the danger number nine seek help in your application of God’s C counil as you seek to apply the Lord’s wisdom in the areas that I mention and other areas surely that I haven’t mentioned take advantage of the help God has given you in your spouse and in your church don’t pretend to your spouse that you’re totally impervious to Temptation because of your great love for her well that may seem romantic it’s not realistic tell your spouse how she can help you in this area and ask her how you can help her get help from your your brethren too through prayer counsel and encouragement though we cannot blame our sin on others we can’t say hey you didn’t help me enough each one must bear his own load as Galatians 65 says we can utilize the body of Christ and our spouses just as God meant to for our own strengthening number 10 and last help others and their application of God’s counsel let us resolve not to put any stumbling block before other people especially our spouses or our Brethren do not deprive your spouse of sexual refreshment that is what 1 Corinthians 7 says directly but along with that don’t drive your spouse away emotionally by your sinful Behavior so that it’s more difficult for your spouse to love you rather make it easier for your spouse to love you and to help you by shining forth Christ to your spouse don’t be careless in your dress or behavior as if it didn’t matter whether you’re causing another person to stumble or not into sexual sin instead watch out for your brothers and sisters and help them again each person is ultimately responsible for his own obedience or Disobedience but our duty is to help our Brothers and Sisters in Christ not hinder them Jesus says in Matthew 18:6 as you know but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble it would be better for it for him to have a heavy Millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea but Jesus also says in Matthew 10:42 but whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water the smallest kind of help to drink truly I say to you he shall not lose his reward in conclusion let us heed God’s Great counsel regarding sex and sexual sin keep your way far from sexual Temptation and why for the sake of the danger for the sake of God’s provision and for the sake of God’s assessment that will result in your punishment or reward let’s close in prayer oh Father there’s many things that we could say this is a great word and we know it has many applications for us God I pray that your people would indeed take it seriously as you have met because there is serious danger but also serious blessing at stake I pray God that you would indeed bring about the sweet bonds of love and refreshment in the marriages here at Calvary that you would draw husband and wife closer together as they listen to the wisdom of your word and as they mortify sin and the flesh for the sake of blessing for the sake of your reward for the sake of you father I pray that you would help us spirit I pray that you would Empower us to do this work because without you we cannot do it thank you for your word in Jesus name amen