It is not easy to be pure in thought and in deed,
living in a culture that is as saturated with
sex as ours is. And yet, if we live according
to the wisdom of the Word of God, as found in
the book of Proverbs and many other places, we
will see that it is important for us to guard
our purity. I invite you to open your Bible to
Proverbs chapter 5 verses 1 through 8. The followers
of Jesus Christ at the close of the 20th century
face a daily bombardment of our minds and our
senses with images and ideas that are the antithesis
of biblical values. For example, talk shows whether
on television or radio, seem to have no limits
to the depths of perversion and depravity which
they will explore with their guests and usually
condone. Newspapers and other publications offer
specialized classified ads where lonely and often
desperate people advertise themselves in what
really amounts to little more than a sex market.
The entertainment industry glamorizes every form
of human wickedness while at the same time taking
aim at traditional values with mockery and disdain.
And some advertisers have decided that sex is
a good sell. And so they offer their jeans or
their underwear or perfume or soap or toothpaste
with sexual titillation. It is not easy to live
godly in this age, but it has never been easy.
Even in the first century, the apostle wrote
to Titus, for the grace of God that brings salvation
has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say
no to ungodliness and worldly passions. and to
live self -controlled, upright, and godly lives
in this present age. Sexual temptation was as
real and as prominent in the first century as
it is as we close in on the 21st century. And
it has been true throughout the ages. Even Martin
Luther commented about it, saying, we can't do
anything about birds flying over our head but
we can prevent them building a nest in our hair.
That was his way of addressing the problem in
the 16th century. Moral purity is a precious
possession which the wise person will carefully
guard. Listen to the words of the Lord. 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. 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.
Chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Proverbs address this
matter of moral purity. And as we look at the
content of the Word of God, we see in the first
place that whether in Proverbs or in other texts,
there is a warning. The warning is simply this,
sin is not what it seems to be. You see, sin
presents what seems to be an opportunity for
fun, excitement, and satisfaction of desire.
And yet its true payoff is guilt, shame, pain,
emptiness, disease, and death. Sin is not what
it seems to be. And we see that here as the writer
addresses the problem of an adulteress. And let
me make it clear that while the language of Proverbs
addresses the adulteress, the same can be true
of the adulterer. The point of Proverbs is not
the gender of the person who is in sin, it is
the sin itself. But here it addresses the adulteress
and it says that her words are sweet and smooth.
Isn't that true? Some get caught up in those
sweet and smooth words at the office, listening
to a sad tale of hurt and rejection. They begin
to feel sorry for this person and to sympathize
and to listen. And then that genuine sympathy
and care begins to take on a different form as
it continues. Fantasy begins as to how it might
be different if only the two had met earlier.
And sometimes that kind of fantasy leads to acting
out the dreams of passion. The words begin sweet
and smooth, but in the end they are like gall.
They're bitter. They're like a sword. They're
sharp and they cut. The end result is not what
was expected at the beginning. It all seemed
so easy and appropriate and right. And yet, in
the process of time, that evolved into what sin
really is and becomes. One of the children a
while back gave me a piece of candy. And it began
quite sweet, tasted good, and I thought, well,
this is not bad at all. It wasn't long before
that outward coating was gone and I got down
to what the real stuff was and I can't believe
kids like it. Sour, bitter, ugly, nasty candy.
When I was reading these words I thought of that
piece of candy. It begins in the mouth so sweet
and delicious and then becomes something that
you hadn't expected. Sin is deceitful that way.
It never reveals. its consequences. It allures
with immediate satisfaction, but inevitably it
brings its victims to terrible loss. The writer
of Hebrews warns about this character of sin
that we call deceit. See to it, brothers, that
none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that
turns away from the living God, but encourage
one another daily. as long as it's called today,
so that none of you may be hardened by sin's
deceitfulness. Sin is deceptive. Sin is a mocker.
And the warning of the Word of God over and over
again is sin is not what it seems. Following
up on that, there is a rationale that is laid
out for us, especially here in the larger context
of Proverbs 5. We might summarize it with this
sentence. The rationale for being careful of
sin is that your future, your welfare, your well
-being is at stake. Yours. There are good reasons
why moral chastity should be guarded by every
one of us. In the first place, immoral behavior
costs. It is not free. It is very expensive.
In verses 8 through 14, we understand some of
the costs of immoral behavior. In the first place,
in verse 9, one gives his prime to another. He
gives his best to another where there is no real
appreciation for it. He says, lest you give your
best strength to others and your years to one
who is cruel. You see, in a moral behavior, part
of a person is disseminated. Part of a person
is given away to another. And the warning of
Proverbs is that that inevitably is given to
someone who is cruel. It leads not to security,
but to insecurity. It leads not to acceptance,
but to rejection. And certainly it leads to loss
of self -respect. Write it down in your heart
that a transaction of This kind of a transaction
is one of lust and nothing more. And when one
is involved in immoral behavior, he gives away
himself, he gives away his prime, she gives away
her best without appreciation in return. Verse
10, we see that When one is involved in immoral
behavior, he risks his future to a stranger.
He says, less strangers feast on your wealth
and your toil enrich another man's house. One
who is involved in immorality is risking his
whole future. He risks his financial future and
security as well as his reputation and his character.
The cost of immorality can hardly be calculated
because of the possible consequences of that
kind of sin. And yet we hear people casually
in the world casually say, well I think people
need to live together. Then they can really know
if they love each other and it will lead to happier
marriages. Have you ever heard that? That's promoted
on Phil Donahue. That's the gospel of Phil. as
well as other talk show hosts. And yet a study
was done by two professors, one at the University
of Chicago and the University of Michigan was
the other. And their conclusion was that cohabiting
experiences significantly increase young people's
acceptance of divorce. They concluded that the
link between living together and divorce runs
both ways. Increased divorce rates cause more
young people to choose non -marital relationships,
while cohabitation may have a feedback effect
of increasing acceptance and likelihood of divorce.
The two professors did not compare divorce rates
in their study, but cited other studies that
found that couples who live together before marriage
have divorce rates 50 to 100 percent higher than
those who don't. The article goes on from St.
Paul Pioneer Press, September 3, 1992, entitled,
Couples Who Lived Together More Likely to Divorce.
Living together does not produce a healthy marriage.
Even studies in the world affirm that, but God's
Word has declared it for thousands of years.
Indeed, when you are involved in immoral behavior,
it risks your future. It doesn't secure it. Then
verse 11, we see that one who is immoral faces
the likelihood of disease. At the end of your
life, writes the writer, the author of this chapter,
Solomon, at the end of your life you will find,
you will groan when your flesh and body are spent.
What is he talking about? He is talking about
diseases that you pick up in immoral behavior.
Never have these diseases been more of an epidemic
than today. Never. And some of them are coming
back resistant to drugs that have been used to
cure them in the past. Then of course there is
AIDS. Now we recognize that AIDS does not only
come by immoral behavior. But we'd also understand
that the large percent of it does. And AIDS has
no cure. And we have people who are talking about
safe sex. As though outside of monogamous marriage
there was such a thing. The facts of the matter
are that safe sex outside of monogamous marriage
is a joke. It is a fantasy that is created by
a culture that rejects moral absolutes. It is
created by a culture that is determined to persist
in decadent behavior. And so it's created what
it calls safe sex. That is being taught to your
young people and mine in our public school system.
Because that's the curriculum that's been written.
Oh, abstinence is mentioned. But because it's
so unlikely, says the curriculum, therefore here's
what safe sex is. It's a lie. One who is involved
in immoral behavior faces the likelihood of disease
and ending his life early because of it. And
then we see in verses 12 to 14 that one who is
involved in immoral behavior ends his life with
ruin. and regrets. You will say, how I hate a
discipline, how my heart spurned correction.
I would not obey my teachers or listen to my
instructors. I have come to the brink of utter
ruin in the midst of the whole assembly." What
he's doing is he's quoting what one says at the
end of his immoral life. He regrets, he says,
I wouldn't listen. They tried to tell me. And
now here in public, so everybody knows, I end
my life in utter ruin. The one who lives immorally
lives a life of regret and beginning early on
and culminating with death, he says, if only,
if only. The hour of pleasure results in a lifetime
of regret. Immoral behavior costs its followers.
It costs them their prime, their future, their
health, their life's fulfillment. What a price
to pay! Poverty, disgrace, and disease followed
by death. And yet there are many who are willing
to lay down the price. The rationale for living
chastely and purely is that your welfare is at
stake, and God lays out the fact that immoral
behavior costs. Why be morally pure? Because
your future is at stake. Immoral behavior not
only costs, we see that immoral behavior captivates.
Look at verse 15. 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. A loving doe, a graceful
deer, may her breast satisfy you always. May
you ever be captivated by her love. Why be captivated,
my son, by an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom
of another man's wife? Verse 22. The evil deeds
of a wicked man ensnare him. The cords of his
sin hold him fast. He will die. for lack of discipline,
led astray by his own great folly. Immoral behavior
captivates. Now in contrast to that, the writer
points out the bliss of marital love. And he
says that in the intimacy and the privacy of
the marriage relationship, there is a wonderful
freedom. He uses several pictures to describe
that in verses 15 and following. What he says
is to find satisfaction, fulfillment and contentment
in your spouse. Be captivated by your spouse's
love. Do not allow anyone else to share what
is private. To share what is especially yours
that you give to each other. These are oriental
images and they describe for us the wholesome
alternative to immorality. They describe to us
the joys of sexuality as God has designed it.
It is wonderful. But he frankly points out as
well the guilt and the immorality, the embarrassment
that this adulterous kind of behavior brings.
He says it is a bondage. It is a prison for the
soul. It enslaves to habits of passion and lust.
And so what is the rationale he points out? Why
be morally pure? Because that alone, you see,
provides true freedom and joy which God wants
us to experience in our sexuality. Is God trying
to keep us from fun? That's been the devil's
lie since Genesis chapter 3 in the Garden of
Eden. Eve, you don't know what you're missing
out on. And that is exactly what Satan is seeking
to sell to people today in the matter of sexuality.
You see, God knows where true fulfillment and
joy can be found, and He tells us He has designed
for us to know that, to experience it, to enjoy
it to its fullest. But He warns us about going
outside the bonds of marriage to find it. Your
moral behavior costs. It captivates. And finally,
it condemns. Verse 21, For a man's ways are in
full view of the Lord, and he examines all his
paths. You see, there is nothing that happens
in secret from God. You can close the doors.
You can pull the blinds. You cannot close out
God. God sees everything and knows it. He is
never looking the other way. In Romans 2 verse
16, it says, God will judge men's secrets. There
are those today living in secret, hiding in the
closet, and thinking that no one will ever know
how wrong they are. God knows. And one day God
will call to account those who have lived immorally.
For example, we have these words in Ephesians
chapter 5. Paul writes to the believers in the
church at Ephesus and he says, but among you
there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality.
Did you hear that? He says among God's people
there should not even be a hint of sexual immorality
or of any kind of impurity or of greed because
these are improper for God's holy people. Nor
should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse
joking. Does he have to make it any more clear?
Which are out of place, for this you can be sure,
no immoral, impure, or greedy person has any
inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Let no one deceive you with empty words. For
because of such things, God's wrath comes on
those who are disobedient. Therefore, do not
be partners with them. For you were once darkness,
but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children
of light." Immoral behavior brings condemnation
from God. It causes one to come under His wrath.
Why be morally pure? Because God is the final
judge and He will not ignore the slightest infraction
of His righteous law. But someone says, I don't
respect that law. I don't believe in it. I don't
give heed to it. It makes no difference whatsoever.
God has established it and you will give account.
All of us will. It's a hard message. It is not
easy to live a pure life in a sex -saturated
society. What if someone has already fallen?
What if a man or woman has already given himself
or herself to immoral behavior? Is God's wrath
inevitable? The answer to that is, happily, no
it's not. There is forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
There is cleansing in the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. From the most gross and perverse of sexual
sins, God saved some of the Corinthians. They
were washed. They were cleansed. They were sanctified
by Jesus Christ. And He is still doing the same
for those today who come to Him in repentance,
confession, and faith. Now the fact is that the
consequences that arise from immorality may still
have to be faced. God's forgiveness does not
automatically erase the consequences that can
come because of immoral behavior. But he can
and he will forgive the guilt and the shame of
immorality If you are a Christian and you have
failed God in this area of your life God is able
to restore you to God is not more gracious to
the unsaved than he is to his own children He
will wash and cleanse and forgive you and give
you a new start. You must determine in your heart
that by the grace of God you will live virtuously
from this point on. It does no good to despair
over your past. Acknowledge it and confess it
for what it is and ask God for that new beginning
today and let Him give it to you. And live purely
from this point on. You see your welfare is at
stake. And God loves you so much that He has
commanded you to keep yourself pure from sexual
sins. Enjoy your sexuality. God has given that
to you as a gift. It is good. It is holy. It
is wonderful. Use the way that God says to use
it. He says keep yourself pure. From sin which
usurps and makes ugly what he's given for good
He says in Hebrews 13 for keep your marriage
bed pure How do you guard yourself from moral
impurity Let me suggest three things to you in
Conclusion this morning first of all be alert
In Proverbs chapter 7 verse 1, he reiterates,
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.
Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the
tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, you are
my sister. And call understanding your kinsmen.
They will keep you from the adulteress. from
the wayward wife with her seductive words. Be
alert. The point is here, don't play with sin.
Don't think that sin is a toy. It is not. Recognize
it for what it truly is. Don't redefine sin and
try to deceive yourself that it's okay in this
instance. Do not play the fool. Don't be seduced.
Remember the costs. Remember what you risk. Be
alert. Secondly, build walls. Not only be alert,
but build walls. In this sex saturated society,
walls are essential. They will keep you from
becoming prey to sexual sin. Let me suggest several
walls. First, keeping away from sin's borders.
There are some people who walk just as close
to sin as they can without actually stepping
over the border. Stay away from sin's borders.
You go too close to the bars and that animal
on the other side will grab you and bring you
through. Stay away from sin's borders. Be careful
of the kind of movies that you go to watch. And
don't lie to yourself and say, well, I didn't
really know that that was in there until I got
there and then it was too late. Have you ever
walked out of a movie? Don't be afraid to excuse
yourself and leave if you didn't know something
was in there. Stay away from pornography. Gentlemen,
this is a massive problem for us. The majority
of the men in our church, if it is like any other
church in this country, fight the battle of pornography.
Stay away from it. With pornography you are greasing
the slide into hell, the hell of sexual sin.
Stay away from places and people and situations
where you know lusts await you. Stay away from
sin's borders. Secondly, put this wall into place.
Decide before temptations come what you will
say and what you will do. Just imagine yourself
in any situation and determine ahead of time,
if this ever happens to me, this is what I'm
going to say and this is what I'm going to do.
Maybe it's in a parked car. and a request is
made of you or certain actions take place, you
know ahead of time exactly what you're going
to do and how you're going to respond to that
person who says he loves you. Put the wall in
place. I believe that Joseph had already thought
out ahead of time what he was going to do in
case Potiphar's wife went too far. And on the
day that she did, He ran just exactly like he
had planned. Flee youthful lusts, Paul writes
to Timothy. It may be in an office relationship.
And you can see right now where that conversation
that you had last week could lead you. Plan right
now what you're going to say tomorrow to bring
an end to that sympathetic relationship that
you have. begun to establish. Put up the wall.
The third wall is to hide God's Word in your
heart as a prevention. Thy word have I hid in
my heart that I might not sin against thee. Lustful
thoughts cannot take deep roots and produce fruit
in a person who is hiding God's Word on a regular
basis in his heart. Temptation can come, but
there will be no rootage because the Word of
God will keep rooting it out so it cannot take
root. Another wall, establish accountability
with a trusted friend. You find someone that
loves you and trusts you of the same sex. and
establish accountability with that person or
that group of two or three or five. That's a
wall. And learn to ask yourselves the hard questions
about what you've been reading, who you've been
talking with, where you've gone, what your private
habits are. That is a wall that will help protect
you from sexual immorality. But I've left the
one that I think is most important to the last.
And that is the wall of growing a strong marriage
with your God -given partner. Grow a strong marriage.
Almost always. I won't say always because I can't
prove that. But I think I could come up with
evidence, if pressed, to say that almost always
when there is a failure in a marriage and one
of the spouses gives in to adultery, that failure
can be traced back to the marriage and to the
fact that that marriage somewhere had lost its
zip. Let me tell you something. You keep building
your marriage. You keep it fun. You keep it exciting.
Both of you work on it together. Make it a project
so that your marriage never gets to the point
that a partner is open to temptation in an unusual
way. Satisfy one another. Learn one another.
Enjoy one another. You say, well I'm single,
I'm not married yet. It's a good reason to get
married, guys. Some of you are so afraid of marriage,
and yet you're burning with lust. Do you understand
that marriage is God's gift to you? You say,
well I haven't found the perfect person yet.
Well thank God, because if you had, she would
marry an imperfect person. There are not two
perfect people who find each other. There are
two imperfect people who fall in love and learn
to love each other deeply despite the imperfections.
Now, I recognize there's a such thing as the
gift of singleness. And some people have that.
And some people don't. You need to consider what
God's wonderful gift to you is. And develop that
married soul that 50 years into it you are happier
and more content and more satisfied with each
other than you were the day you were married.
I have to go on. The third suggestion is how
to guard your moral purity. Be alert, build walls.
Number three, bear fruit. Because you see one
aspect of the fruit of the Spirit is self -control
and it touches on this matter of your sexuality.
Bring the struggles of your flesh to the cross
and there die to that flesh and yield yourself
to the Holy Spirit and let him bring forth the
fruit of self -control in your life. I want to
close with this story written by someone who
knew the meaning of sexual sin and who out of
his own experience wrote several chapters of
the book of Proverbs. His name is Solomon. I
was looking out the window of my house one day
and saw a simple -minded lad, a young man, lacking
common sense, walking at twilight down the street
to the house of this wayward girl, a prostitute.
She approached him saucy and pert and dressed
seductively. She was the brash, coarse type,
often seen in the streets and markets, soliciting
at every corner for men to be her lovers. She
put her arms around him and kissed him, and with
a saucy look, she said, I was just coming to
look for you, and here you are. Come home with
me, and I'll fix you a wonderful dinner, and
after that, well, my bed is spread with lovely
colored sheets of finest linen imported from
Egypt, perfumed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
Come on, let's take our fill of love until the
morning, for my husband is away on a long trip.
He has taken a wallet full of money with him
and won't return for several days. So she seduced
him with her pretty speech, her coaxing and her
wheedling, until he yielded to her. He couldn't
resist her flattery. He followed her as an ox
going to the butcher, or as a stag that is trapped,
waiting to be killed with an arrow through its
heart. He was as a bird flying into a snare,
not knowing the fate awaiting it there. Listen
to me, young men, and not only listen, but obey.
Don't let your desires get out of hand. Don't
let yourself think about her. Don't go near her.
Stay away from where she walks, lest she tempt
you and seduce you. For she has been the ruin
of multitudes. A vast host of men have been her
victims. If you want to find the road to hell,
look for her house. Let's pray. This is a heavy
message. And it's one that all of us in some
way can relate to. I hope that right there where
you're seated, you'll let the Spirit of God do
what He needs to do this morning, and that you
will surrender yourself to Christ's Lordship
and ask Him to make you clean and pure and to
keep you that way. I pray that you will guard
your purity. Your own welfare is at stake. Your
life, your future, your health. Sin is never
what it seems to be if you've begun to walk down
that road toward the house that Solomon warns
about. Listen to where he says it leads and turn
around and get back where you belong and build
those walls in your life. Father, we live in
an ungodly and wicked generation, and yet it
is not terribly unlike previous generations and
particularly that one in which the church was
planted 2 ,000 years ago. It is filled with passion
and lust that is perverted, degraded, and then
approved and explained and defined a way. Father,
I pray that we who are your people will not allow
a hint of it to be in our lives. May we live
as children of the light. Wash us this morning
from our sin. Cleanse us from our iniquity. Open
our eyes to our foolishness, and may we walk
the path that is far from the borders of sexual
sin. In Jesus' name, amen.